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Ninety-seven people have so far been killed in ‘crossfire’ or ‘encounter’ by law enforcers since January 6, when the Awami League-led government assumed office, as such extrajudicial killing goes unabated with the government’s deviation from its pledges to stop such practice.
   One thousand, one hundred and forty-two people have so far been killed in extrajudicial incidents since June 24, 2004, when the Rapid Action Battalion began its journey with killing people in the name of ‘crossfire.’
   The police and other forces followed suit in extrajudicial killing after the Rapid Action Battalion.
   Of the 1,142 victims of extrajudicial killing, 149 were killed in 2004, 340 in 2005, 290 in 2006, 130 in 2007, 136 in 2008 and 97 in 2009. During immediate-past emergency regime which continued for about two years, 322 people were killed in such incidents.
   All the successive governments have argued such extrajudicial killing is inevitable to improve law and order.
   With such arguments put forth by successive governments, law enforcers have continued feeding into the media the similar story saying when the lawmen raid a place to arrest ‘terrorists’ or go to recover illegal arms along with the ‘terrorist’ detained, the terrorists’ associates attack them, leading to an encounter after which the lawmen find the ‘terrorist’ dead.
   Different national and international quarters, including rights groups, have from the time when extrajudicial killing started taking place continued criticising such killing and demanding an end to such practice.
   Against such backdrop, the Awami League-led government assumed office on January 6 after a landslide victory in the December 2008 general elections on the wings of a number of pre-election pledges, which include an end to extrajudicial killing.
   The extrajudicial killing, however, still goes unabated with the government’s gradual shift in position — from condemnation to justification — with regard to such killing.
   Inside a month of the assumption of office by the government, the foreign minister, Dipu Moni, told a review meeting of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on February 4 the AL-led administration would pursue a ‘zero tolerance’ policy in respect of extrajudicial killing.
   The LGRD and cooperatives minister, Syed Ashraful Islam, also the Awami League’s general secretary, on May 6 affirmed that ‘extrajudicial killing will no longer be allowed as a tool of the law enforcement agencies.’
   At around the same time, the then state minister for home affairs, Tanjim Ahmed Sohel Taj, however, first came up in defence of the law enforcers, saying they ‘have the right to self-defence as per the constitution.’
   The home minister, Sahara Khatun, on May 16, endorsed her deputy’s take on extrajudicial killing.
   The law minister, Shafique Ahmed, who earlier appeared to be against such killing, joined the group of apologists soon. On September 6, he said he ‘was not witness to any such incidents [killing in crossfire]’ nor was he ‘aware of such [extrajudicial] killing’.
   The government’s shift from condemnation to justification of extrajudicial killing marked a full circle when the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, told a news conference in New York on September 27 that she was not for extrajudicial killing, but if a criminal would open fire, law enforcers could not sit idle.
   Her comments came at a time when the number of extrajudicial killing by law enforcers topped 30 in September alone.
   Exposing the government’s unwillingness to end extrajudicial killing, the shipping minister, Shahjahan Khan, on Saturday said the government would need to continue with extrajudicial killing until terrorist activities and extortion was uprooted.
   ‘We need to understand the reality… There are incidents trial of which is not possible under laws of the land,’ he said at the BBC’s Bangladesh Sanglap at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre, adding the government has no other option.
   Such arguments, put forward by all the successive governments in justifying extrajudicial killing, have always been criticised by different national and international quarters, including rights groups.
   According to them, it is the duty of the government and the law enforcers to protect the life of the citizens and to ensure their access to justice.
   If law and order deteriorates and the judicial system cannot ensure justice, it is a complete failure of the government in ensuring the establishment of the rule of law, they have argued.
   The government is trying to justify extrajudicial killing while it has not so far taken any initiative for the hearing and disposal of three rules issued by the High Court — two in 2006 and another in June — asking for the constitutionality of such killing.
   The government is yet to reply to a High Court ruling, issued on June 29 which asked it to explain why extrajudicial killing by law enforcers in the name of ‘crossfire’ or ‘encounter’ would not be declared illegal.
   The court issued the rule after hearing a public interest litigation writ petition filed by three rights organisations — Ain o Salish Kendra, Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust and Karmajibi Nari — challenging the legality of the extrajudicial killing.
   The High Court first came up with a ruling on extrajudicial killing on May 25, 2006.
   In the ruling, the High Court bench of Justice M Awlad Ali and Justice Zinat Ara asked the government to explain why the reported killing of Tunda Ismail, who was in fetters in police custody, should not be properly investigated and why the perpetrators should not be brought to justice.
   Tunda Ismail, shown arrested in an arms case and remanded in police custody for interrogation, was killed in ‘crossfire,’ as claimed by the police, at Lalbagh on May 22, 2006.
   The High Court bench of Justice Syed Muhammad Dastagir Husain and Justice Mamnoon Rahman on August 6, 2006 issued a rule asking the government and the Rapid Action Battalion to explain why they should not be directed to ensure the security of the people detained in their custody.
   The court issued the order after hearing a public interest litigation writ petition filed by rights organisation Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh, which sought the court’s directive on the government and the battalion to save anyone detained from being killed in ‘crossfire’ or ‘encounter.’
   Although the government had already replied to the August 6, 2006 rule, the case is yet to be disposed of, said the rights group’s counsel Manzill Murshid.

Eminent citizens on Sunday termed outrageous shipping minister Shahjahan Khan’s statement that extrajudicial killings would continue until terrorist activities and extortion were uprooted.
   Some of them also demanded immediate removal of Shahjahan from the cabinet.
   Answering a question at the BBC’s Bangladesh Sanglap at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre on Saturday, Shahjahan said, ‘No government wants to continue with extrajudicial killings. But we need to understand the reality. There are incidents trials of which are not possible under the laws of the land.’
   Former editor of the Bangladesh Today, M Asafuddowlah, also a former secretary to the government, termed the statement of the minister a farce.
   ‘Such farce can only come out of the mind of a barbarian…These are [reflections of] a pervasive psyche and totally insensitive to the rights and dignity of human beings,’ Asafuddowlah told New Age on Sunday.
   ‘How can a government take away a citizen’s fundamental right – his right to live – which is guaranteed by the constitution of the state,’ he wondered.
   No one can delete these rights…It is sheer perversity of mind, he said adding ‘the givers of such statements should be excoriated in public.’
   Former adviser to the caretaker government ASM Shahjahan, also former inspector general of police, said, ‘Any killing in ‘crossfire’, ‘encounter’ or in custody amounts to murder absolutely.’
   It is the duty of the law enforcers to protect human rights and life of every citizen in general and any person in custody in particular, he said.
   ‘If any person is killed in custody, the law enforcers, under whose custody the person was, have to shoulder the responsibility. No right thing can be done in a wrong way,’ he added.
   He also observed, ‘Under no circumstances, an extrajudicial act can help establishment of rule of law. According to the constitution and international treaties and protocols signed and ratified by Bangladesh, no person can be deprived of life save in accordance with law.’
   Former adviser to the caretaker government, Sultana Kamal, also executive director of rights organisation Ain o Salish Kendra, demanded a clarification from the government on whether Shahjahan’s views reflected its stand on the issue.
   ‘It must be taken seriously because a responsible minister made the comments. If the government, which promised zero tolerance to extrajudicial killings, does not come up with a clarification, we have to consider that it is the stand of the government itself,’ she said.
   Rights activist Shahdeen Malik, also a Supreme Court lawyer, demanded immediate removal of Shahjahan from the cabinet.
   ‘Such remarks by a responsible minister will encourage law enforcers to kill people in the name of crossfire and that cannot help improve law and order, as we have already seen…,’ he said.
   Dhaka University professor Asif Nazrul also demanded removal of Shahjahan from the cabinet.
   ‘Every human rights organisation should demand removal of Shahjahan for making such irresponsible statement, he said adding ‘The statement is nothing but a complete betrayal of the election manifesto of his party, in which the party categorically promised to stop extrajudicial killings.
   ‘The statement proves that the government does not have even the slightest respect for democratic values, rule of law and human rights. It is an irony that people like Shahjahan are elected as public representatives,’ he added.
   Rights organisation Odhikar’s general secretary Adilur Rahman Khan, also a Supreme Court lawyer, said Shahjahan’s remarks proved that extrajudicial killings were going on unabated with the government’s sanction.
   ‘Continuous impunity, justification of such killings by responsible government functionaries and the government’s use of the word ‘crossfire’ to defend the perpetrators are encouraging law enforcers to continue with extrajudicial killings,’ he observed.
   Extrajudicial killings must be stopped as such crimes cannot be allowed in a civilised and democratic society, he said adding, ‘The continuation of extrajudicial killings, in which already 1,142 people have been killed since June 2004, proves that such killings can neither improve law and order nor uproot terrorist activities and extortion.’

The chief justice on Sunday formed a five-member Appellate Division bench to hear the appeals against the High Court verdict that had upheld the death sentence of 12 former army men for killing the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with all but two of his family on August 15, 1975.
   The Appellate Division on August 24 scheduled for today the hearing in the appeals of five condemned convicts against the High Court verdict that had upheld the death sentence of them and seven others.
   The Appellate Division chamber judge, Justice M Muzammel Hossain, set the date after hearing a petition filed by Anisul Huq, the chief prosecutor of the case, seeking a short date for the final hearing in the case.
   The chief justice, MM Ruhul Amin, on Sunday constituted the special bench, headed by Justice M Tafazzal Islam, to resume the hearing.
   Other bench members are Justice Md Abdul Aziz, Justice BK Das, Justice Muzammel Hossain and Justice SK Sinha.
   The hearing will resume at 9:30am in Court 3 of the Appellate Division.
   ‘We are anxious about the commencement of the hearing as a vested quarter had hatched a conspiracy to delay the proceedings,’ Anisul Huq told reporters. ‘Now there is no uncertainty over the holding of the hearing.’
   Accusing the government of delaying the hearing in the appeals by about two years, defence lawyer Khan Saifur Rahman said, ‘We submitted the summary of the arguments in October 2007, but the government submitted the summary of its arguments on August 23, which delayed the hearing.’
   The Appellate Division bench of Justice Tafazzul Islam, Justice Joynul Abedin and Justice M Hassan Ameen on 23 September 2007 allowed the five convicts in the death row to appeal against the High Court verdict, delivered in 2001, on five grounds.
   The order means the Appellate Division further hears the appeals of the five condemned prisoners on five points — whether the August 15, 1975 killing was a mutiny in the army, whether a civilian court could try army men, whether the delay of about 21 years in filing the first information report of the case was justified under law, whether the charge of conspiracy was established by proper investigation and evidence and whether the case suffered disjointed deposition of witnesses.
   The Dhaka district and sessions judge, Quazi Golam Rasul, on November 8, 1998 sentenced 15 of the 20 accused to death for killing Sheikh Mujib on August 15, 1975. All but two of Mujib’s family were killed.
   Mujib’s personal assistant Muhitul Islam filed a murder case with the Dhanmondi police on October 2, 1996, about 21 years after the killing.
   The High Court on December 14, 2000 delivered a split verdict in the case. Justice M Ruhul Amin, senior judge of the High Court bench, upheld the death sentences of 10 convicts while the other judge, ABM Khairul Haque, retained the death sentences of all the 15.
   On April 30, 2001, Justice Mohammad Fazlul Karim, in the final High Court verdict in the case, upheld the death sentences of 12 and acquitted three others.
   Syed Faruque Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Muhiuddin Ahmed and Bazlul Huda, who were in jail at the time, filed petitions with the Appellate Division seeking permission to appeal against the verdict.
   AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed filed a similar petition after the US government deported him to Bangladesh from Los Angeles on June 17, 2007.

Children have continued to be deprived of their rights and security as successive governments remained indifferent to their election pledges to allow children to grow as worthy citizens, child rights activists said.
   Many children, especially the girls, fall prey to frequent physical and mental tortures, abuses, trafficking and exploitations as the government and the society fail to protect them from violations, they pointed out.
   As World Children’s Day is being observed in Bangladesh today as elsewhere in the world, they stressed the need to forge an all-out social movement against violation of child rights across the country.
   ‘Most of the governments forgot their pledges to ensure rights of and protection for children after the elections,’ Wahida Banu, president of Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum, told New Age Sunday.
   ‘In fact, political parties mention the rights and protection of children in their election manifestos only to attract the voters,’ she said.
   She stressed that lawmakers and local government bodies must take responsibilities for the wellbeing of children in their respective constituencies. ‘MPs as well as chairmen of upazila and union parishads must be made accountable for their responsibilities in their areas.’
   They BSAF officials said at a press conference Sunday that torture and abuse of children by their families, relatives and employers are increasing day by day.
   About 15,000 children, most of them under 18, are engaged in prostitution across the country. In Dhaka, 77 per cent of viewers of pornography are children.
   The number of children living on the streets are about 0.65 million. Most of the 0.4 million house helps— 78 per cent of them are 6 to 17 years old girl children— have become victims of frequent physical and sexual abuses. Children are engaged in 430 types of hazardous works while use of children in begging is increasing day by day.
   There is hardly any playground in most of the areas.
   The BSAF announced a week-long programme to observe the World Children’s Day beginning from today.
   On the first Monday of October each year, the United Nations and its member states observe World Children’s Day to create awareness about children’s rights and make societies more responsible to their development. A children’s week is also observed each year starting September 29.
   Bangladesh is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), which is a binding treaty that defines unequivocally the responsibilities of governments to ensure the best for the children within their jurisdiction.
   The constitution, the Child Act 1974 and National Children Policy 1974 also describe the rights of children.
   BSAF director M Kafil Uddin said only 265, out of nearly 62,000 registered NGOs, work for children subject to availability of funds.
   Professor Ishrat Shamim of Dhaka University said the government must take the responsibility to protect the rights and ensure security of children.
   She suggested that a separate ministry or department should be formed to ensure rights of children.
   ‘In most cases, the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs gives emphasis on (adult) women issues as they can raise voice. Hardly anybody understands the tears and pains of children.’
   Bangladesh Nationalist Party joint secretary general Selima Rahman said, ‘The governments could not uphold the electoral pledges for ensuring the rights of children as immediate issues like soaring prices of essentials and natural calamities including cyclone and flood override the children’s issues.’
   State minister for women and children affairs Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury admitted that many children were deprived of basic rights. ‘It is a huge challenge for us to remove the obstacles to ensure the rights and security for children,’ she said.
   She said the government will take realistic measures including updating the national children policy and the national action plan for children at the earliest.

Housing for all in Dhaka remains a far cry as about 37 per cent of Dhaka’s estimated 13 million people still live in slums while some 50,000 others do not even have a shelter, says a study.
   The study carried out by the Centre for Urban Studies for the government in 2008 also revealed that another 10 to 15 per cent population, who migrated to Dhaka seeking fortune, were living in a critical condition.
   World Habitat Day will, meanwhile, be observed in the country as elsewhere in the world today, with the theme ‘planning our urban future.’
   ‘The population of Dhaka city with an area of around 307 sq km now stands at 13 million with more than 300,000 buildings having around 1.6 million housing units,’ Professor Nazrul Islam, honorary adviser to CUS, told New Age Sunday.
   At least 4.45 million more housing units would be needed by 2025 to ensure housing for all in the capital city, he added.
   According to the CUS study, some 50,000 people, who migrated to Dhaka for a living, are staying on city’s pavements and other places.
   About 37 per cent of the total population of Dhaka metropolitan area are stuffed into 4960 slums, whose population density ranges between 1,000 and 2,000 persons per acre.
   The study shows that 75 per cent of Dhaka slums are located on private land.
   Another study, Urban Health Survey, conducted by the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, suggests that more than 70 per cent people in Dhaka live in rented houses.
   Population of Dhaka city in 1974 was 1.77 million with an annual growth of 10.4 per cent while the city ranked 11th in an index of mega-cities of the world in 2000.
   There is no confirmed official data on Dhaka’s latest population, leaving scopes for various researchers to come up with various figures.
   Executive director of Coalition for Urban Poor Mostafa Quaium Khan believes that the population of Dhaka city has already touched the 15 million mark.
   Professor Nazrul, also the chairman of University Grants Commission, said, ‘It is an election pledge of the ruling Awami League that it will ensure habitation for all. So the government must initiate move right at this moment to provide all with housing facilities.’
   The urban expert suggested that the government should take a strategic plan to ensure housing for all giving special emphasis on low-income people as the rich and medium-income people can arrange homes on their own.
   The public sector’s contribution to the housing in urban Bangladesh is only around 5 per cent while that of the formal private sector is less than 3 per cent. However, the contribution of public sector to housing is now declining while that of formal private sector is on the rise, Professor Nazrul said.
   The formal private sector currently plays absolutely no role in building homes for the poor while the public sector’s response to the housing need of low-income people remains insignificant, he pointed out.

The education ministry is set to introduce online application system for school admission to reduce harassment of admission-seekers and their guardians, ministry officials said.
   Thousands of children of school-going age and their guardians need to face harassment during collection and submission of admission forms every year.
   There are 18,500 secondary schools in Bangladesh, but none of the government or non-governmental agencies have any estimate of the number of students who seek admission a year.
   ‘Admission forms for the academic session 2010 will be made available online to reduce harassment of guardians. Anyone can download the form and send it to the schools by e-mail or post,’ said an official.
   ‘Keeping in the mind the large number of guardians who cannot afford internet facilities, we will keep a provision for the distribution of printed admission forms from schools,’ the official said.
   ‘After a meeting with the ministry officials, we will make a formal announcement of the online admission form distribution process. We have no account on how many schools in the country have internet connections,’ said an official of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education.
   ‘Admission process in secondary schools will begin a bit earlier than it did in the past year as the ministry a few days ago asked all the schools to complete admission process by December and begin classes as the academic session begins on January 1,’ the said.
   In August, the ministry also asked authorities of all the 317 government secondary schools to set up internet connection by September 15.
   The headmaster of a government secondary school in Dhaka welcomed the plan and said it would be of great help for guardians.
   ‘The vision of the present government is to build up a digital Bangladesh. Introduction of online distribution and submission of forms for the admission to schools, colleges and universities is part of the plan,’ the headmaster said.
   The ministry in September asked all the 31 autonomous and public universities to initiate a move to introduce online admission process.

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has said Bangladesh wants to include Nepal and Bhutan in establishing the transit with India.
   Bangladesh always requests India to include Nepal and Bhutan in this important issue keeping in mind that this will bring benefit to all sides, the prime minister said this when visiting the economic affairs minister of Bhutan, Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk, paid a call on her at the Prime Minister’s Office in the capital Sunday morning.
   Hasina informed the Bhutanese minister that Bangladesh raised the issue for inclusion of Nepal and Bhutan in the transit during the talks with India on different occasions in the past.
   During the meeting, they discussed issues on bilateral interests, including further expansion of trade and business, facing global warming and climate change, and expansion of people-to-people contact between the two countries, said the press secretary to the prime minister, Abul Kalam Azad, after the meeting.
   Hasina said Bangladesh attached importance to its relationship with Bhutan saying this South Asian neighbour was the first country to recognise Bangladesh after its independence in 1971 under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
   Referring to her meeting with the US president, Barack Obama, on the sidelines of the UNGA in New York, Hasina informed the Bhutanese minister that she had brought the issue of climate change to the meet for which the developing countries are not responsible.
   ‘I told the US president that developed countries were mainly responsible for the current global warming. So, they have to take major responsibilities to tackle the situation,’ the press secretary quoted the prime minister as saying.
   Mentioning the scenic beauty of Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh, Hasina said the three countries could launch a package programme to attract tourists in those countries as Bhutan and Nepal had hills while Bangladesh had the world’s longest sea beach.
   Laying emphasis on expanding the people-to-people contact between the two countries, she observed that both the countries would be benefited with exchange of visits.
   The prime minister expressed the hope that the two countries are pledged-bound to extend cooperation in establishing world peace.
   The Bhutanese minister congratulated Hasina for her assumption of office as the prime minister after her party’s overwhelming victory in the last general election. The victory will give democracy a firm footing in Bangladesh, he added.
   The Bhutanese minister widely acclaimed Hasina for her address on climate change issue in the 64th session of the UN General Assembly in New York saying this will help tackle challenges of global warming for which least developed countries are the worst victims.
   In this context, he said Bhutan was facing natural disasters due to global climate change and sought Bangladesh’s cooperation in the disaster management process.
   About the prime minister’s upcoming visit to Bhutan, he said the people of the country were eagerly waiting for warmly welcoming the Bangladesh premier in their country on November 6.
   The Bhutanese minister informed the prime minister that Bhutan was going to set up a medical college where Bangladeshi doctors would be recruited.
   Bhutanese ambassador to Bangladesh Dasho Bap Kesang, principal secretary to the prime minister MA Karim, secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office Mollah Waheeduzzaman and press secretary to the prime minister Abul Kalam Azad were present on the occasion.

Former deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Kohinoor Miah has been suspended on charges of professional misconduct, a home ministry circular said.
   Additional deputy inspector general of police Mazharul Haque also faced the same disciplinary action on similar charges, said another home ministry circular on Saturday.
   Kohinoor is now attached to the Rajshahi Police Range as superintendent of police and Mazharul to the Bangladesh Police Academy at Sarda as vice-principal.
   The circulars said the decisions had been made to file departmental cases against the two officers.
   The step was taken under the Government Service Rule (Discipline and Appeal) 3/B of 1985, according to the circulars.
   Both the officials were accused in a case filed by a woman, Shahina Sultana Shanta, regarding torture on her in 2006.
   According to the case, Shanta was beaten up by the police in front of the Rapa Plaza at Dhanmondi on March 12, 2006 by the order of the then deputy commissioner (west) Kohinoor.
   The police also kicked in the abdomen that had subsequently caused the woman to suffer a miscarriage.
   She was returning home with her son from school when the alleged incident took place.
   Shanta filed the torture case with the Dhaka chief metropolitan magistrate’s court on March 14, two days after the incident, against Kohinoor, then deputy commissioner of Dhaka (south) Majharul Haque and constable Ruhul Amin.
   The police submitted a report saying there was no proof of the incident.
   Shafique Anwar, then Dhaka metropolitan magistrate, after carrying out a departmental investigation submitted another report claiming the incident was not true.
   A Dhaka court on Tuesday ordered the Dhanmondi police to consider the torture case that was quashed as the statement against three, including Kohinoor.
   Kohinoor Miah on Sunday filed a petition with the High Court seeking an anticipatory bail in the case. The petition was not heard on Sunday.

Estimates sent by the state governments have given an official number to what has been known informally for a very long time that illegal migrants from Bangladesh now comprise at least two per cent of India’s population.
   According to ‘very conservative estimates’ of the state governments, the total number of Bangladeshi citizens residing in India without proper documents or permits would be in excess of two crore, government sources have told The Sunday Express.
   The state governments had been asked to send estimates of the number of Bangladeshi migrants living in their states and also the number of such people who had been deported back to their country.
   Most states have now responded. According to these figures, not more than 600 Bangladesh migrants had been deported to their country in the last one year and the possibility of many of them finding their way back is not being ruled out.
   Migrants from Bangladesh now live in every part of the country. Besides, West Bengal, Bihar, Assam and other North- Eastern states — the known places where these illegal migrants have been able to settle down — Maharashtra, Delhi, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka are new regions having large concentrations of Bangladeshi citizens.
   Sources said these were also witnessing rapid urbanisation and development, and therefore, offering job opportunities to these migrants. Though it had asked for the data from the states, the centre was still undecided on what use to put this data to.
   ‘This was mostly an academic exercise, not aimed at any particular objective. The figures have come out are only estimates, but they are reliable estimates,’ a senior government official said.
   He said as of now there was no clarity on how to deal with this migrant population.
   ‘That is something that the political leadership will have to take a call on, probably after obtaining a consensus on the issue. Migration from Bangladesh has huge social and economic aspects apart from having security implications. There is no easy way to tackle this issue,’ he said.

Two members of the Rapid Action Battalion and a terminated policeman were arrested from Dhaka and Chittagong on Saturday night in connection with snatching gold and cash from a businessman in the capital a month ago.
   The two RAB members, sub-inspector Azizul Haque and havilder Rafiqul Islam, were arrested from the RAB-3 office at Tikatuli in the city and they were produced before the chief metropolitan magistrate’s court on Sunday, seeking a seven-day remand. The court allowed remand for three days.
   Abdul Halim, who was terminated from police service, was arrested in Chittagong on Saturday night, in connection with the same case filed with Motijheel police station in Dhaka on September 6, said the investigation officer of the case, SI Kabir Hossain Howlader.
   The arrested RAB members admitted their involvement in the snatching incident on September 6, said Kabir Hossain.
   He said the two RAB personnel were also involved in another snatching incident on September 13 and the complainant of the second case identified the accused.
   On September 6, the two RAB members, along with Halim and three others, intercepted businessman Milon Chowdhury of Hathazari while he was waiting for a vehicle at Kamalapur bus stand.
   They introduced themselves as members of detective police and took Milon Chowdhury into their microbus alleging that he was a hundi (illegal money transfer) trader.
   The law enforcers then took away gold weighing about 45 tolas, Tk 16,000 in cash, and a mobile telephone set from him and left him near Nikunja residential area.
   After Milon filed a case with Motijheel police station, police detected the two RAB members upon statements from two other suspects arrested from Jamalpur a few days ago and also through tracking their mobile telephone calls.
   It revealed that the same RAB members had also snatched about Tk 13 lakh from a money exchange trader, Azim Uddin, using the same technique on September 13 and the complainant identified the two men on Sunday, the IO said.
   Earlier, three other members of RAB-3, ASP Shoeb Ahmed, sainik Shahidul Islam and sainik Sagar, were arrested on charge of snatching Tk 11 lakh from a private firm official, Tajul Islam Hiron, on July 22.
   Commanding Officer of RAB-3, Lt Col Mamun Mahmud Firoz Chowdhury said that none would be spared if found involved in any wrongdoings.

The Nobel prize season opens today (Monday) with the announcement of the Medicine Prize and but the field is still wide open for the prestigious Peace Prize.
   The award committees remain tight-lipped about the nominees ahead of the announcements, and, as usual, speculation has reached fever pitch about possible laureates.
   The Nobel Peace Prize committee said last week it had still not made its choice among the record 205 candidates this year. The winner is to be revealed in Oslo on October 9.
   The committee will meet twice before Friday. ‘There are a lot of good candidates,’ the influential committee secretary, Geir Lundestad, said.
   The absence of a clear favourite has made the guessing game more complex than usual, but experts seem to be in agreement that the committee will probably select a ‘traditional’ winner.
   In recent years, the committee has occasionally stretched the scope of the prize to include unconventional areas like environmentalism and the fight against climate change.
   ‘The Nobel committee is under a certain amount of pressure to return to a classical interpretation of peace,’ the head of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, Jan Egeland, said.
   Last year, the award went to Martti Ahtisaari, the former president of Finland and conflict troubleshooter.
   The names of US and French presidents Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy are known to be on the list this year, as is French-Colombian ex-hostage Ingrid Betancourt, but that is no indication they are well-placed to win.
   Another person known to be on the list is Denis Mukwege, founder of the Panzi hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo which helps hundreds of thousands of women victims of sexual violence.
   Efforts to wipe out cluster bombs, which cause particular damage to civilians, could also be honoured, with possible laureates seen as the Cluster Munitions Coalition
   or the humanitarian organisation Handicap International.
   The Literature Prize will be announced by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm on October 8 and literary circles have suggested it could go to a poet for the first time since 1996.
   Sweden’s Tomas Transtroemer and Syria’s Adonis have thus been mentioned as possible winners, as has South Korea’s Ko Un.
   Last year, the prize went to French author Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio.
   Some have speculated it could be time for a Spanish-language author to win, which has not happened since Octavio Paz won in 1990, so it could be time for Peru’s Mario Vargas Llosa, often mentioned as a possible Nobel winner, to finally clinch the prestigious distinction.
   ‘A lot of people are saying it’s time for a poet,’ Stefan Eklund, culture editor at Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet, said.
   Online betting site Ladbrokes meanwhile has Israeli author Amos Oz as the most likely winner with 4-to-1 odds.
   Other writers who regularly pop up in the Nobel speculation are Canadian author Margaret Atwood, US novelists Philip
   Roth and Joyce Carol Oates, and Algerian French-language writer Assia Djebar.
   For the science prizes — medicine, physics, chemistry and economics, to be announced October 5, 6, 7 and 12 respectively — American researchers
   have dominated the list of winners in the post-war period.
   The Nobel Prizes, founded by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, were first awarded in
   1901.
   Debate has roiled in scientific circles in recent years about whether the science prizes are outdated, limited by the definition of science at the time of their creation.
   Fields such as life sciences and environment are thus excluded, even though they are crucial aspects of our lives today.
   Ten scientists and engineers recently wrote an open letter to the Nobel Foundation asking for the creation of new prizes to include these fields — though it has in the past rejected such appeals.
   Laureates receive 10 million Swedish kronor (1.42 million dollars, 980,000 euros) which can be split between up to three winners per prize.

The International Monetary Fund has inquired about the government’s plan to increase the prices of energy and fertilisers, which, it feels, is needed to help debt-ridden state agencies break even in the current fiscal year.
   It has asked about the debt situations of four large state-owned enterprises — Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation, Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation, Power Development Board and Biman Bangladesh Airlines.
   It has wanted to know about the total cost of the social safety-net programmes including cash-for-work schemes in the last fiscal year and total budget for these schemes for the fiscal year 2009-10, finance ministry officials said.
   The lending agency in a letter to the finance ministry has said it requires the data by October 15 before it sits with the government later this month to take stock of the country’s macroeconomic situation and decide next lending schemes.
   Finance officials said they were preparing the replies as the government would need to convince the global lender to continue its lending scheme for Bangladesh.
   The IMF will also look into the recent trends in demand for Bangladeshi workers in the recession-hit overseas job markets.
   It has inquired about the government’s plans for disinvestment of four state-owned commercial banks, prediction for public pay and employment in the 2009-10 fiscal year, and updated wage policy for public servants as the government has pledged to implement the 2009 wage commission recommendations for pay hikes.
   An IMF team led by its Asia Pacific adviser Masato Miyazaki will arrive in Dhaka on October 19 on a fact finding mission and will stay here until November 2 to attend meetings for negotiating new loan programme.
   The new loan programme created in last July consists of Extended Credit Facility, Standby Credit Facility and Rapid Credit Facility and the IMF is expected to provide loans up to $4 billion each year to low income countries.
   In its letter to the finance ministry, the lending agency wants the government to explain to it the reasons behind increase in overdraft to settle budget mismatch during the 2008-09 fiscal year. The government took Tk 248 billion from the central bank till June 2009 to meet budget deficit.
   The IMF has wanted to know about repayment of the overdraft in the last fiscal year.
   The IMF’s 36 queries include situations of the balance of payments, foreign exchange reserves, consumer price index, electricity production, foreign exchange rate, aid disbursement, non-performing loans, private sector credit, deposit and lending rates and capital adequacy of the banks.
   It also sought information about the latest quarterly review of SCBs under the revised memorandums of understanding.
   It wanted to know why private sector credit growth slowed since October 2008.

Petrobangla and the US company ConocoPhillips will hold talks today on signing a production sharing contract for two offshore blocks.
   A delegation of ConocoP and Petrobangla officials, led by its chairman Muqtadir Ali, are likely to discuss issues like ConocoP’s position on the government’s directive for excluding disputed areas from the PSC and when the agreement should be initialed, sources in Petrobangla said.
   Petrobangla last month informed ConocoP that the government had decided to award the company deep sea blocks 10 and 11 and invited it to start process for signing a PSC for the blocks.
   The government had earlier approved awarding of two blocks, out of eight for which the company was selected through bidding, to ConocoP and one shallow block to Irish Tullow Oil, on condition that no exploration work should be conducted in the Bangladesh areas which were being claimed by India and Myanmar.
   ‘When Petrobangla invited tender for 23 blocks in 2008, it mentioned certain areas for each block, from around 3,000 square kilometers to 7,000 kilometres, and the companies submitted their tenders based on that particular areas. But after the bidding, India and Myanmar raised objections claiming that some of the Bangladesh areas in a number of blocks, including the three blocks to be awarded to ConocoP and Tullow, had overlapped their territories,’ said a Petrobangla official.
   He said although there were no major disputes over the areas in the three blocks, ConocoP and Tullow would have to agree that they would not go for exploration in the disputed areas before signing the PSCs.
   Officials said a date for initialing the PSC would be set after ConocoP agrees to go by the government directive. ‘Besides, Petrobangla will also discuss the bid bond and when the company could start exploration in the blocks after signing the PSC,’ said another official.
   Petrobangla is likely to hold talks with Tullow
   on signing of a PSC in
   the second week of this month.
   Petrobangla is going for talks with the companies at a time when some rights groups, academics and left leaning political parties are protesting at the government’s decision to award the blocks to foreign companies, keeping a provision for gas export in PSCs.
   The National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports, which is spearheading the protests, enforced a half-day hartal on September 14 in Dhaka, to press for cancellation of the decision.
   The committee also said that it would go for a tough movement after October 16 if the government did not withdraw its decision by that time.
   The government, however, said that although the PSCs had provision for gas export, the companies would ultimately not be able to export gas, saying that Petrobangla had the first right to purchase the gas.
   Some academics, including professor Serajul Islam Chowdhury and
   professor Muzaffar Ahmed, have urged the govern-ment to hold an open debate to end the controversy over the gas export provision.

The developing world will suffer about 80 per cent of the damage from climate change despite accounting for only around a third of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the World Bank said on Sunday.
   ‘The damage of climate change, about 75 to 80 per cent, will be suffered by developing countries although they only contribute about one third of greenhouse gases,’ World Bank chief economist Justin Lin told reporters.
   Lin spoke in Istanbul, host city of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings this year, at the presentation of the World Bank’s new development report for 2010 entitled ‘Development and Climate Change.’
   ‘Climate change is an urgent issue and the needs are enormous and we are waiting and hoping to see an international agreement in Copenhagen,’ Lin said, referring to UN-sponsored talks in December aimed at curbing global warming.
   Marianne Fay, the World Bank’s chief economist for sustainable development, said the costs of mitigating and adapting to climate change would add up to around 300 billion dollars (206 billion euros) a year from 2030.
   Following the release of the World Bank report, Caroline Pearce, policy advisor to international aid agency Oxfam, said that developed countries ‘are leading the world into a disastrous future.’
   ‘They can sit back and watch poverty and global temperatures spiral out of control or they can reduce their emissions and can hand over significant new money to help poor people adapt to climate change,’ she said.
   Meanwhile, poor countries face ‘explosive outbreaks’ of the global swine flu pandemic and need speedy financial assistance to access vaccines, UN officials also warned.
   ‘What we see now is that the A(H1N1) virus is beginning to penetrate into some of the poorest communities in the world,’ said Julie Hall, an expert from the UN’s World Health Organisation.
   ‘We are anticipating that we may well see a different pattern of impact once this virus starts to take off and those explosive outbreaks occur in poorer communities,’ she told a news conference
   David Nabarro, UN senior influenza coordinator, said both manufacturers and rich countries were ready to make vaccines available for developing nations, but warned that the supply would still be inadequate.
   ‘We are aware that there will only be enough for a small percentage of the population of developing countries,’ he said.
   ‘The challenge during the next few weeks is... to ensure that adequate vaccines reach health workers and essential personnel in developing countries in time to help them as the next waves of the pandemic reach them,’ he added.
   Last week, the WHO said pharmaceutical firms can produce only three billion doses of swine flu vaccines a year, covering less than half of the global population.
   Nabarro also called for cash donations to help low-income countries prepare for the pandemic by raising awareness and improving their health services infrastructure.
   At least 3,917 people have died from the A(H1N1) virus since it was uncovered in April, with most of the fatalities in the Anericas region, according to the WHO.

The son of the inspector general (prisons), Brigadier Genera Ashraful Islam Khan, was admitted to the psychiatry unit of the Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka on Sunday after he had hacked his father, mother and sisters in their residence on Nazimuddin Road in the city Saturday afternoon.
   The jail superintendent of the Dhaka Central Jail, Md Touhidul Islam, said Shafiqul Islam Khan, the son of the IG (prisons), was admitted to the CMH psychiatry unit
   Quoting physicians, the jail superintendent said the IG (prisons) and his injured family members were out of danger.
   The health condition of the inspector general (prisons), his wife and daughters, who were shifted to the Combined Military Hospital from Dhaka Medical College Hospital, is improving, hospital sources said.
   Shafiqul, reported to be ‘mentally ill’, woke up from sleep at around 5:30pm on Saturday and started hacking his elder sister Afrin and then his younger sister Asifa. Both the girls sustained critical injuries in the back and the waist.
   Hearing his daughters screaming, the inspector general (prisons) and his wife went in their daughter’s room and tried to calm their son. But Shafiqul also hacked his father in the abdomen. Mrs Ashraf also sustained injuries in the hand as she tried to stop Shafiqul.

Parliament passed the Mobile Court Bill 2009 on Sunday, to enact an earlier ordinance allowing metropolitan and district magistrates to resume operations of mobile courts.

Bangladesh Rifles personnel will get camouflage uniforms of black, brown, khaki and ash colours as part of the BDR reforms process, said a BDR statement on Sunday.
   The statement said the uniforms were being supplied to all the units, including the headquarters. The old uniforms will also be used alongside the new uniforms until the old stock is used up, said the statement signed by Major Mizanur Rahman on Sunday.
   The Bangladesh Rifles director general, Major General Mainul Islam, faced criticism when he was seen wearing the new uniform in public in September without government approval.
   The home secretary, Abdus Sohban Sikder, told newsmen on Sunday the government had approved the BDR reforms proposal.
   The government decided to reform the border guards after the February 25–26 rebellion in the
   BDR headquarters in Dhaka in which 75 people, including 57 officers, were killed.
   The changes as part of the reforms process include a new name, a monogram and new uniforms along with organisational reforms.

Onion prices increased by at least Tk 8 a kilogram, or about 30 per cent, in three to four days in city markets.
   Market people attributed the increase in onion prices on the retail market to short supply by importers in the week.
   Imported Indian onions that dominate the market sold for prices between Tk 30 and Tk 34 a kilogram on Sunday against the prices between Tk 24 and Tk 26 in the mid-week.
   Prices of the local variety onions increased by Tk 4 a kilogram to be retailed between Tk 42 and Tk 44 a kilogram on Sunday.
   Traders at Shyambazar said short supply by importers had increased the prices.
   Import from India meets more than two-thirds of the onion consumption during off-harvest period in Bangladesh.
   Onion importer Sharifuzzaman told New Age heavy rain and flash flood in mid-September damaged onion stocks in Tamil Nadu in India and it had its belated impact on the Bangladesh market.
   At this time of the year, Bangladeshi traders import onions from trading stations in Vellore in Tamil Nadu.

Activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, associate student body of ruling Awami League, were locked in a clash at the Dhaka Polytechnic Institution at Tejgaon in the city on Sunday.
   The police detained three youths from the institute dormitory after the incident.
   According to campus sources, two BCL groups, led by Zakir and Abul, had a conflict for long, and at one stage, the Zakir group ousted the activists of Abul group from the campus.
   On Sunday, Abul and his loyalists started chaos in the class while and ousted the Zakir group activists.
   Immediately, the Zakir group took position with sticks while Abul group also positioned inside the college campus. Both the groups chased each other and pelted brickbats.
   Informed by the college authorities, the police conducted a search in Latif Hostel at about 5:00pm and detained three outsiders, Shamsuddin Khan, 19, Reazuddin, 21, and Harun-or Rashid, 20, from the dormitory.