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Harassment and intimidation of journalists by the ruling party activists while performing professional duties have increased considerably across the country in past nine months.
   Journalists of print and electronic media are incurring the wrath of the ruling party activists apparently for reporting incidents of tender manipulation, extortion, land grabbing and other irregularities. Many journalists in different areas of the country have gone into hiding for fear of life.
   Media have reported numerous incidents of physical attack on newsmen, filing of cases against them, threat and harassment in different other forms by the ruling party activists. Some incidents of attack on the houses and business establishments of district correspondents of different newspapers have also taken place over the period.
   The home affairs minister, Sahara Khatun, on Saturday told New Age that the government was committed to providing security for all citizens.
   ‘The government is aware of its responsibility to ensure security of the journalists when they perform their professional duties,’ she said. ‘None would go unpunished if found involved in harassing journalists and issuing threats to them. The government would go tough on the offenders and stop repression on journalists with an iron hand.’
   At the regular question-answer session in the parliament on Thursday, information minister Abul Kalam Azad admitted that the government had failed to bring the killers of the journalists to justice. But the government is trying to bring them to book, he added.
   ‘We have also asked the local administrations to take appropriate measures to stop recurrence of unfortunate incidents like killing of journalists and attacks on them in any part of the country,’ the minister said.
   Incidents of repression on journalists, however, go on unabated and in some cases the police have reportedly refused to record cases in incidents in which the ruling party men were involved.
   According to rights watchdog Odikhar, two journalists were killed, 48 injured, 22 assaulted, 14 came under attack, three were abducted, 13 sued, 48 threatened with death and 14 were harassed by influential individuals or groups, including ruling party men, between January 6, when the Awami League-led government assumed office, and September 30.
   Rights organisation Ain o Salish Kendra reported killing of three journalists and 172 incidents of intimidation and harassment during the period.
   Of the victims, 23 were injured, 14 assaulted, 12 came under attack, 7 were threatened with death, 11 sued and 10 more were harassed by the ruling party activists between January 6 and September 30. They also attacked at least four houses and business establishments of journalists and two press clubs.
   In the latest such incident, Awami League lawmaker ABM Abul Kashem Master’s sons SM Al Mamun and SM Al Noman and their cousin Mahmudul Hasan Manna on Wednesday assaulted Prothom Alo reporter Pranab Bol, photo journalist Rashed Mahmud, Sitakunda correspondent of Samakal M Sekandar and Sitakunda press club president Forkan Abu when they were gathering news of the grabbing of the land of four shipyards at Kumira by the AL men.
   Awami League-backed journalists forced their way into the Nandigram press club and took control of it on January 6. Local journalists and people in general resented the incident.
   Chhatra League activists pounced on News Today’s Rajshahi University correspondent Akanda Mahammad Zahid and injured him on January 15 when he was gathering information of a violent incident in which BCL activists were involved. They also assaulted three other journalists who tried to save Zahid.
   On January 15, BCL activists forced Sher-e-Bangla Krishi University correspondents of Ittefaq, Amader Samay, Naya Diganta, Amar Desh, Dinkal and Inqilab to leave the dormitories for reporting incidents of violence and other ‘misdeeds’ of the activists of the ruling party’s student wing.
   Sangbad’s Kushtia correspondent Mamun Reza was hospitalised after being beaten by Awami League activists on February 4.
   Azad Bhuiyan, Amar Desh correspondent at Begumganj in Noakhali, received death threat from ruling party men on February 10 for reporting one such incident.
   Md Mohsin, Jagannath University correspondent of a Dhaka daily, was injured by BCL activists on the university campus on March 8 when he was gathering information about snatching of a mobile phone from a student.
   Awami League lawmaker Sarah Begum Kabari slapped local daily Shitalakkhya’s photojournalist Sheikh Shahidul Islam Sentu at Narayanganj town on March 15.
   On April 2, Ittefaq staff reporter and Destiny correspondent were attacked and correspondents of Inqilab and Bhorer Dak were assaulted by ruling party activists in Khulna for reporting an incident of grabbing of a shrimp enclosure by local AL leaders and activists.
   Jahangirnagar University correspondent of Dinkal was beaten by BCL activists on April 6 on the campus. BCL activists also assaulted the university correspondent of Amader Samay and Amar Desh on the campus on April 26.
   Awami League lawmaker Gias Uddin’s henchmen attacked and injured Samakal correspondent Abdullah Al-Amin Biplab at Gafargaon in Mymensingh on April 11. A person named Rajon was arrested in connection with the incident but no steps were taken against Gias Uddin, the principal accused in the case.
   On May 14, Nayadiganta and Desh Bangla correspondents were injured by AL activists on the campus of Patuakhali University of Science and Technology.
   BCL activists assaulted Amar Desh correspondent at Chittagong University on May 15.
   Two local photojournalists were injured by the AL activists in Barisal on May 16, when they were taking snaps of a fighting between two local factions of the party.
   A team of private television channel Banglavision came under attack from AL activists in Munshiganj on June 7, when they went there to report political killings.
   On June 23, BCL activists injured Inqilab correspondent in Khagrachari for reporting incidents of illegal toll collection.
   A local photojournalist was assaulted by BCL activists in Satkhira on June 24 when he was taking snaps of a clash.
   Shahjalal University of Science and Technology press club president Syed Abdullah Jhishu was assaulted by BCL activists on June 29 for reporting an incident in which they injured two Chhatra Dal activists. They also threatened to demolish the press club.
   On July 11, correspondents of private television channels Ntv and Channel-1 were attacked at Sripur in Gazipur, while they were taking footages of AL activists vandalising local shops.
   AL activists injured the Ittefaq correspondent at Lama in Bandarban on July 13 for publishing a report on their ‘illegal activities’.
   AL activists attacked the house of Samakal correspondent at Ishwardi in Pabna on July 27 for publishing a report which angered them.
   At Amtali in Barguna, AL activists injured Inqilab correspondent on July 14 and assaulted Amtali press club general secretary on July 29.
   On August 17, the local correspondent of News Network of Bangladesh was assaulted by Abdul Maleque, general secretary of the Puthiya municipality unit of AL. Maleque is an associate of the local lawmaker Abdul Wadud Dara.
   On September 4, Chhatra League and Juba League activists in Chuadanga attacked the business enterprise and house of Prothom Alo correspondent Shah Alam in reaction to a report. Shah Alam and his family have reportedly taken shelter in Dhaka as the ruling party men forced them to leave the area.
   The ruling party men also filed defamation cases against special correspondent Kamrul Hasan and Shah Alam of the daily on September 4 and 6 respectively.
   On September 1, Chhatra League and Juba League activists set a shop in Chuadanga, owned by Amar Desh correspondent Ariful Islam Dalim, on fire and also burned copies of the daily for carrying a report that angered Awami League lawmaker Solaiman Huq Joarder. They also attacked Ariful’s house and assaulted his wife and children and looted valuables.
   On the same day, they also attacked business enterprises of Janakantha correspondent Rajib Ahmed Kochi and Prothom Alo correspondent Shah Alam in Chuadanga for publishing similar reports.
   They also sued Ariful and Shah Alam, along with some BNP activists, after a clash between the AL and BNP activists.
   On September 11, the ruling party activists attacked Amar Desh correspondent Faisal Manik and nine other local journalists and kept them confined in Chuadanga press club for two hours for publishing a report.
   Banglavision, RTV and Diganta TV correspondents were assaulted by AL activists on September 9, when they were going to Galachipa to collect information about two reporters of Prothom Alo and Amar Desh being sued on ‘false’ charges. They were forced to go back to Patuakhali. On the same day, the AL activists assaulted Nayadiganta correspondent at Galachipa. They also chased Prothom Alo, Channel-i and Manavjamin correspondents. As the correspondents took shelter in a police camp, they confined the journalists there.
   At Sharsha upazila in Jessore, Jai Jai Din correspondent Shahin was attacked and left critically injured by the ruling party activists while carrying out his duty on September 13. The Sharsha police refused to register any case against the attackers.
   On September 17, angered by a report published in Samakal, two sons of Awami league lawmaker Sultana Tarun filed a defamation case against its correspondent Sajjad Rana in Kushtia. They allegedly issued death threat to Sajjad.
   In Jhenaidah, local goons backed allegedly by the ruling party, issued death threat and filed a murder case against Amar Desh correspondent Sheikh Ruhul Amin on September 22 for filing a report on crimes committed by Chhatra League activists.
   On September 23, Borhan Uddin Rabbani, Jugantor correspondent in Shariatpur, was sued on extortion charges after a report was published in the daily about district AL organising secretary Delwar Hossain.
   On the same day, the Gafargaon correspondent of Banglabazar came under attack by goons having links to the local leaders of the ruling party.

The arrested 31 civilians including former BNP lawmaker Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu, BNP ward commissioner Suraiya Begum and ward-level Awami League leader Torab Ali will be charge-sheeted in connection with the February 25-26 BDR rebellion case, investigators said.
   All of them have been charged with helping the disgruntled border guards flee the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters during and after the soldiers’ rebellion, in which a total of 75 people including 57 army officers were killed, some of the investigators said requesting anonymity.
   Law enforcement agencies have so far arrested a total of 2,014 border guards and 31 civilians since the case was filed with Lalbagh police station, which was letter transferred to the New Market police, said Criminal Investigation Department assistant superintendent Abdul Kahhar Akand, who heads the investigation team.
   Over 1,000 BDR men including deputy assistant director Touhidul Alam were sued in the case filed on March 1.
   ‘Among the arrested BDR personnel, over 1,700 were remanded into custody, and of them a total of 416 jawans made confessional statements before the courts, admitting their involvement in the violent mayhem,’ Kahhar Akand told New Age.
   They recorded statements of 6,250 people including 125 family members of the army officers, 430 neighbouring people of the Peelkhana, 310 BDR staff members, 25 firemen and 700 law enforcers including police, army and others, who worked inside the Peelkhana.
   The CID, which is probing the BDR carnage, claimed that the arrested 31 civilians helped the mutineers flee Peelkhana.
   They confirmed it after verifying confessional statements made by the BDR members, examining evidences and statements made by the arrested border guards and cross-examining information extracted during the interrogation.
   Over 200 CID personnel from sub-inspectors to assistant superintendents of police (ASPs) are now engaged in investigating the Peelkhana carnage. At least 25 ASPs were entrusted with the task of investigation into the case, sources said.
   Six BDR men, including its DAD Touhidul Alam, were named in the case that implicated over 1,000 people in the massacre, looting, firing gunshots, exploding grenades, hiding bodies, illegal capture of the army officials, rioting, illegal gathering, causing huge loss to the property and committing other criminal activities, and setting fire to houses in the BDR headquarters at Peelkhana.
   Officer-in-charge (OC) of Lalbagh police station Nabojyoti Khisha filed the case with Lalbagh police station.
   The five other BDR members, whose names were mentioned in the case, are DAD Nasiruddin Khan, Mirza Habibur Rahman and Jalil as well as jawans Abdur Rahim and Selim.
   DAD Touhidul Alam met prime minister Sheikh Hasina at her Jamuna residence for negotiation to resolve the crisis peacefully through surrender of the firearms on the last day of the bloody mutiny on February 26. He was then the acting commandant of the BDR, sources said.

Seventy girls’ secondary schools across the country have been running without any female teacher for decades although successive governments have talked much gender parity in teaching positions.
   Education ministry officials said they had conducted a survey recently and found all the 70 girls’ government and non-government secondary schools have no female teachers although there was demand for recruitment of female teachers in such schools.
   Madrassahs were outside the purview of the survey.
   According to government statistics, the number of schools offering education from Class VI to Class X is 18,500 and 20.04 per cent, or 3,708, of them are girls-only schools.
   ‘There has been pressure from international lending and donor agencies to recruit female teachers in such schools by September 15, but we failed to do so,’ a ministry official said.
   Referring to government commitment to bring about gender parity in the education sector, the official said the Awami League government in late 1999 made it mandatory the recruitment women to fill in 30 per cent of the teaching positions in non-government secondary schools, colleges and madrassahs.
   ‘The BNP government [2001 to 2006] continued with the decision and took measures for implementation,’ he said. ‘Hussain Muhammad Ershad, when he was the president, in 1987 increased the female quota in teaching in government primary schools to 60 per cent from 30 per cent.’
   Of the total 70 girls’ schools, four each are in Thakurgaon, Sirajganj, Patuakhali and Nilphamari, three each in Sunamganj, Bogra and Naogaon, two each in Rangpur, Mymenshingh, Magura, Kurigram, Bagerhat, Bhola, Chandpur, Comilla, Gaibandha, Jessore and Khulna, and one each in Bandarban, Barguna, Brahmanbaria, Chapainawabganj, Chittagong, Dhaka, Dinajpur, Gazipur, Habigonj, Jamlapur, Jhenaidah, Joypurhat, Kushtia, Lalmonirhat, Madaripur, Narail, Natore, Pabna, Rajshahi, Satkhira, Sherpur, Sylhet and Tangail.
   The education minister, Nurul Islam Nahid, in the past week said the government would take immediate steps to recruit female teachers in such schools.

One hundred and four teachers of government primary schools at Tejgaon in Dhaka are yet to get their salary for September because of ‘callousness’ of the thana education officer, sufferers said.
   ‘All of my colleagues across the country received their salary for September before Eid-ul-Fitr. The government has asked the authorities concerned to disburse the salary of all teachers by September 17, but the thana education officer in charge of this area did not paid any attention to the directive,’ a teacher, who is yet to receive the salary, told New Age Saturday.
   ‘As far as I know all the 104 teachers of 10 government primary schools located in the Tajgaon area will not get their salary for September this month. Our thana education officer is also the disbursing officer of this area, but she is so callous about the matter,’ said a headmaster of one of the schools.
   Sayeda Iranee, thana education officer of Tejgaon on Saturday, brushed aside the allegation of ‘callousness’ and said she had sent the cheque to the bank concerned on October 5. ‘They will get their salary very soon,’ she said.
   ‘It is unfortunate that because of the callousness of the education officer, more than a 100 teachers have suffered. We demand necessary action against the officer and immediate disbursement of the salary,’ said MA Awal Talukder, the president of a faction of the teachers’ association.
   There are 37,672 government primary schools across the country employing above 2 lakh teachers.

Schools lack facilities and trained teachers to give specialised education to autistic children although one child in 250 has symptoms like autism, an ailment so far missed out on the government’s education policy too, child specialists and educationists say.
   The ‘inclusive education’ scheme of the government which trains up teachers to care for children with disabilities does not cover autistic children, they point out.
   Autism is life-long neuro-development disorder and it should not be generalised with other physical or mental handicaps, they say, suggesting special attention to enable autistic babies to enter the mainstream of student life.
   Autistic babies develop social abilities and communication skills slower by years than their peers, but intensive behavioural intervention can have significant, positive and lasting impact on them and help them keep in with their classmates.
   ‘Many autistic children can lead a normal life and successfully complete their education up to Master’s level if they get proper and special care in their schools, colleges and families,’ said Naila Zaman Khan, professor of Child Neurology and Development at Bangladesh Institute of Child Health at Dhaka Shishu Hospital.
   She said that the government should appoint especially trained teachers or train the existing schoolteachers so that they can learn how to handle the autistic children.
   Dr. Naila Khan said that the existing training of the teachers was not enough to provide special education to the autistic children. ‘This initiative should come from the education ministry, with intersectoral programmes involving the health and social welfare ministries,’ she said.
   Autism usually appears in a child by the age of three and some features may be noticed even on the first birthday, child specialists said. Autistic children may be accompanied by intellectual disabilities to various ranges.
   At least one autistic child is found in every 250 people in the country and the number keeps on rising, said the officials of Child Development Centre of Dhaka Shishu Hospital.
   Of the six children with neuro-development disorders referred to the centre, four are confirmed as autistic cases, they said, concluding that autism is more prevalent in boys than girls.
   The specialised hospital has a multi-disciplinary team including child health physicians, development therapists and child physiologists that examines and analyses the history, behaviour, communication and socialization of suspected cases.
   ‘We usually separate autistic babies in four categories after the assessment,’ said Mahmuda Khatun, child health physician at the Child Development Centre.
   Children having no response, no eye contact and no speech are kept in the first category.
   The second category children also have no speech, but can do some non-verbal communication. In the third stage they can speak single word and can share a little bit with others.
   Children in the forth stage can answer questions of each other and also recite rhymes within the peer relationship.
   Parents should take more care and give attention to their autistic children, said Dilara Begum, development therapist of the centre.
   ‘Sometimes parents become angry with their child when the autistic baby cannot do some easy work. But their care is very essential for proper socialization of the child. They should encourage their child,’ she stressed.
   Most of the time parents leave their autistic children in front of television set which is very much harmful to their proper development, specialists pointed out.
   Mahmuda said autistic children need human to human interaction. ‘We restrict viewing television, using mobile, computer and other electronic devices,’ she said.
   Avoiding junk food and leading a routine life are also advised for children with autism.
   Shiddiqur Rahman, acting director of Institute of Education and Research at University of Dhaka who also works for Teachers Quality Improvement programme of the government, said, ‘We have less than four teachers for five classes on an average in primary schools. So we prefer training regular teachers for children with special needs.’
   ‘The government has provided the facility of inclusive education in all the schools. Teachers are given training on how to find out children who need special care, how to handle them and how to meet their needs. Autistics children are also included in the children with special needs,’ he added.
   But such trainings proved half-hearted and not focussed on autism.
   A teacher of a Dhaka school told New Age that she had taken only one and half days training on the inclusive education, but there was no mention about autistic children. ‘We basically took common training on children with mental and physical disabilities,’ she said.
   Sharmin Haq, professor of the department of Special Education of the IER, however, said, ‘Inclusive education only covers mild cases. We suggest that severe cases should also go to special schools.’
   Education secretary Sayed Ataur Rahman told New Age Friday that the government had a policy to include mild cases of autistic children in the inclusive education.
   He said mild autistic children should be sent to normal schools. ‘If any child has severe autistic symptom, he or she should be sent to special schools,’ he said.
   Child specialists differ with the idea, saying if severe autistic children are sent to special schools they will rather be isolated and their condition might deteriorate as they would not get in touch with normal children. For their sustained development, autistic children need frequent communication and interaction with normal children, they stressed.

Heavily armed militants tried to storm Pakistan’s army headquarters Saturday, with six soldiers and four rebels killed in the audacious attack near the capital Islamabad, officials said.
   Six insurgents armed with automatic weapons and grenades drove up to the compound and shot their way through one checkpost in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, before being stopped by security forces at a second post.
   Two militants managed to flee during the fierce firefight, and were still on the run despite helicopter gunships circling overhead and commandos manning a security perimeter around the military headquarters, army officials said.
   The attack comes amid a surge in insurgent strikes, as analysts say the Islamist Taliban militia try to deter an army offencive into their tribal stronghold along the mountainous border with Afghanistan.
   Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said the militants were dressed in army uniform and ‘were armed with sophisticated weapons and grenades.’
   ‘They came in a van and tried to enter from gate one to gate two in the sensitive area. They were stopped and now the situation is under our control,’ he said in an interview on private TV channel Geo.
   His deputy Colonel Attique ur Rehman said: ‘Six soldiers were martyred in the attack.’ The dead are reported to include a senior army officer.
   The firefight came a day after a devastating suicide car bomb killed 52 civilians at a busy market in the northwest city of Peshawar.
   Government ministers blamed the Taliban, who have also vowed to avenge the death of their leader Baitullah Mehsud in a US drone missile attack in August.
   Another military official in Islamabad said there were at least six attackers in the assault on the heavily fortified army command centre.
   ‘Four were killed. Two are still missing. The hunt is going on,’ said the official with Pakistan army’s media wing.
   He blamed the attack on Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, the umbrella militant movement based in the semi-autonomous tribal belt and blamed for most the attacks which have killed more than 2,200 people here in two years.
   An AFP journalist at the scene of Saturday’s gunbattle reported that the firefight began just before midday and lasted about an hour and a half, with helicopters ferrying the dead militants away after the battle ended.
   Witnesses said that the militants hurled hand grenades, with one man saying five explosions rang out amid the gunfire.
   ‘A car was signalled to stop outside army headquarters,’ local police officer on the scene Amjad Ali said. ‘The occupants opened fire and threw grenades at security guards who retaliated.’
   The prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, strongly condemned the attack, a brief statement issued by his office in Islamabad said, and met the army chief and president to discuss the security situation.
   The police officials said that security had been beefed up in the capital Islamabad, amid fears of more insurgent strikes.
   The military is wrapping up a fierce offencive against Taliban rebels in the northwestern Swat valley launched in April, with the army now poised to begin a similar assault in the lawless tribal belt.
   Taliban and al-Qaeda rebels who fled Afghanistan after the 2001 US-led invasion have carved out boltholes and training camps in the remote Pakistani mountains, with the TTP leadership also holed up in the rugged terrain.
   Several bomb blasts in Pakistan in the past two and a half weeks have killed dozens, with the Taliban threatening to unleash bigger assaults.
   The interior minister, Rehman Malik, said after Friday’s Peshawar bombing that the attack could force the military to bring forward a planned operation to wipe out Islamist militant strongholds in the tribal region.

The leader of Norway’s main opposition called Saturday for the resignation of the Nobel Committee’s chairman, one day after the US president, Barack Obama, was awarded the peace prize, a newspaper reported.
   Siv Jensen, head of the far-right Progress Party, said committee head Thorbjoern Jagland should step down because his new job as secretary general of the Council of Europe compromised his independence.
   ‘It would be politically intelligent for Jagland, after having studied the situation, to announce his resignation to avoid’ trying to do two jobs at once, Jensen told daily paper Bergens Tidende.
   Erna Solberg, leader of Conservative party Hoejre, also criticised Jagland’s attempt to do two jobs and questioned his decision to hand Obama the peace prize.
   Jagland, who has headed a Labour government in Norway and also served as foreign minister, was elected secretary general of the Council of Europe at the end of September.
   This came several months after he became chairman of the Nobel Committee.
   Friday’s decision to hand Obama the Nobel Peace Prize came as a shock and has divided world opinion, with some calling the move a victory for ideals while others condemned it as deeply politicised.

Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro on Saturday called US president Barack Obama’s Nobel Prize a ‘positive measure.’
   In an article, Castro said the Nobel committee decision was designed to criticise ‘the politics of genocide’ pursued by Obama’s predecessors.
   ‘I don’t always agree with decisions by this institution,’ Castro wrote. ‘But this time, I recognise that it was a positive step.’
   He added that many around the world thought the prize had been premature.
   ‘But we want to see in this decision more than just an award to a US president,’ Castro continued. ‘We see in it criticism of the politics of genocide pursued by a number of past US presidents.’

Alliance partners have expressed their grievances over the ruling Awami League’s not convening even a single meeting with its allies in ten months since it assumed office on January 6.
   Some of its left allies have even questioned the very existence of the alliance and squarely blamed the ruling AL for giving the allies thumbs down.
   A senior leader of a key component told New Age that AL in fact was not willing to hold a meeting with is left partners apparently because it did not want to annoy the United States as most of the left parties openly opposed Washington’s ‘imperialist’ policies.
   A gap has also been created between the AL and some of its allies over the government’s decision to award three gas blocks to international oil companies allowing gas export. The components also supported the hartal enforced on September 14, by the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports to press the government to scrap the decision.
   They also protested at the police attack on the national committee member-secretary, Anu Muhammad on September 2, which drew the ruling party’s anger.
   The AL-led alliance was launched in 2004 and it drew up a 31-point programme for electoral and caretaker government reforms on 15 July, 2005 and on 22 November, 2005 spelled out a 23-point common minimum national programme with a promise to run the state in line with the common programme.
   Workers Party general secretary Bimal Biswas expressed disappointment over the Awami League’s unwillingness to sit with its allies saying that a meeting could not be held as the AL did not think it was necessary.
   He blamed the government for failing to fulfill its commitment to the people especially trial of the war criminals, price of daily essentials and maintaining law and order. ‘If Awami League fails to fulfill its election pledges, the people would reject it in the next general election,’ he said alleging that it seemed the Al had made the promises in its manifesto only to lure the voters.
   Biswas said the government should not go by the prescription of foreign quarters, and urged it to move forward in consultation with its allies.
   Awami League presidium member Obaidul Kader said it was unfortunate that no meeting of the alliance had been convened yet which, he confided, had frustrated the allies and created a gap between Awami League and them. ‘It is for the Awami League’s interest that it should call a meeting [of the alliance] to reduce the gap.’
   ‘Prime minister Sheikh Hasina is facing many challenges both nationally and internationally. No sensible persons in Awami League should oppose the idea of holding regular meetings with its components,’ the AL leader said adding that initiatives should be taken in this regard for the interest of the ruling party.
   Gana Azadi League president Abdus Samad, also coordinator of the left-democratic 11-party alliance, said that the government’s handling of law and order and prices of essentials was not quite satisfactory and said the people would evaluate its performance.
    About AL’s failure in convening a meeting of the alliance, he told New Age that the AL was unwilling to hold a meeting because it ignored its smaller partners. ‘The present government is an alliance government in name, but in practice it is the government of Awami League,’ Samad said.
   ‘The Awami League government could perform better if it took its allies in full confidence and made decisions in consultation with its allies,’ the left leader said.
   National Awami Party (NAP) general secretary, Enamul Huq, expressed doubt over the existence of the 14-party alliance. ‘It is told that the present government is an alliance government but there is no reflection of this in practice,’ he said adding that the Awami League, being the largest party, should let the smaller partners know about its stand.
   ‘We cannot put pressure on it [AL] for holding a meeting,’ the NAP leader said.
   ‘In the present situation, when the government is facing many national and international conspiracies, it would be prudent on its part to take decisions in consultation with its allies…,’ Enamul said.
   Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal executive president Moinuddin Khan Badal told New Age that at least a single meeting of the alliance should have taken place after the Awami League-led alliance’s assumption of office.
   ‘Only the alliance leader Sheikh Hasina knows why a meeting could not be held,’ he said adding that the alliance should remain united to face any crisis.
   Ruhul Amin Hawlader, secretary general of Jatiya Party, a major ally of the ruling AL, however, was hopeful that a meeting of alliance would be convened shortly. ‘The government has some limitations but I think the alliance leader, Sheikh Hasina, would sit the partners soon,’ he added.
   Samyabadi Dal leader Harun Chowdhury, whose party chief Dilip Barua is industries minister in Sheikh Hasina’s cabinet, said a formal meeting of the AL-led alliance should take place. ‘The government is under pressure, which, I think is the reason that a meeting has not been convened,’ he said adding: ‘of course a meeting would be held soon.’

One more person was killed in ‘crossfire’ between his associates and the lawmen in Kushtia early Saturday.
   Saturday’s incident took to 111 the total death figure from extrajudicial killing such as ‘crossfire’ or ‘encounter’ by the Rapid Action Battalion and the police since January 6 when the Awami League-led government assumed office.
   The deceased was Manju Mandal Abdullah, 45, a resident of Char Mandalpara of Mirpur in Kushtia and regional leader of the ultra-left outfit Biplabi Communist Party.
   The police said a Mirpur police team raided a graveyard of Barbaria about 4:30am when the operatives were holding a meeting there.
   As the team cordoned off the area, the outfit operatives fired into the lawmen, who fired back, the police said.
   At one point during the gunfight, Mandal died after being caught in the firing, the police said. His associates managed to get away.
   The police seized a light gun and four bullets from the spot.
   The police said he was wanted in six cases, including two for murder, filed with the Mirpur police.
   The body was sent to the Kushtia General Hospital morgue for a post-mortem examination.

Nirapada Bairagi, gazetted as a freedom fighter, killed in ‘crossfire’ of his associates with the lawmen in Khulna on Friday, was cremated with state honours in the Dumuria cremation ground early Saturday.
   The Dumuria upazila nirbahi officer, Mohammad Shakhawat Hossain, told New Age Nirapada had been cremated with state honours as he was gazetted as a freedom fighter and enjoyed government allowances entitled to freedom fighters.
   The Khulna deputy commissioner, NM Zeaul Alam, said Nirapada was given state honours before his funeral although other formalities, including the sounding of the bugle, could not be done as the funeral was held early in the day.
   The Dumuria police officer-in-charge, Faujul Kabir, told New Age Nirapada, an operative of the ultra-left outfit New Biplabi Communist Party, was killed in a ‘gunfight’ between the his associates and the lawmen early Friday when the police raided Palpara at Ranai on information that the operatives were meeting there.
   He said a police team was present during the funeral early Saturday for the state honours by the order of the upazila nirbahi officer.
   Fifty-seven-year-old Nirapada, a resident of Sajiara and tailor by profession, was a brave freedom fighter, said the Dumuria unit Awami League president, who fought with him in 1971.
   The Khulna police, however, said Nirapada was wanted by the police as an extremist and he was an operative of the New Biplobi Communist Party.
   The police on Friday also said Bairagi was accused in eight cases related to murder, abduction, robbery and others.
   The owner of the Star Tailors at Chalna Bazar of Dacope where Nirapada had worked on Friday said local police had taken
   him away Thursday evening, but his family failed to see him at the police station.
   The Dacope police, however, said they had neither arrested nor picked up anyone named Nirapada on Thursday.
   Star Tailors owner Peter Biswas could not be reached for comments despite several attempts on Saturday.
   Nirapada’s son Amit Kumar Bairagi said his father was innocent and was accused only in a case of abduction and had obtained bail.
   ‘How could a man who had never been in hiding be an extremist at the age of 57?’ Amid said. ‘The police report was concocted.’

Ruling Awami League lawmaker ABM Abul Kashem pledged to return the ship-breaking yards encroached on by his sons to the owners and offered an apology to journalists for Wednesday’s assault on them. The member of parliament elected from Sitakunda constituency in Chittagong reached an understanding with the owners of four ship-breaking yards on condition that his sons would leave the yards by Saturday night.
   ‘The MP sat in a meeting with us and pledged to return the yards,’ said Mohammed Sirajuddoula, owner of the Pakija Enterprise, on Saturday.
   Kashem also visited the Chittagong office of the Bangla daily Prothom Alo in the afternoon Saturday.
   ‘I am extremely sorry for the incident and making a full apology to you,’ he said.
   He hugged the assaulted journalists and pledged to hand Mahmudul Hasan Manna, his nephew and the prime accused in the journalists’ assault case, over to the police by the night.
   Residential editor of the daily Abul Momen, associate editor Biswajit Chowdhury, departmental head (reporting) Mamun Abdullah and Chittagong Press Club president Abu Sufian were present during the visit of the lawmaker.
   The two sons of the MP, Al Mamun and Al Noman, accompanied by more than 200 people, encroached on four ship-breaking yards, Pakija Enterprise, Prime Steel, Moslema Steel and Asadia Ship Cutting, at Zoraamtol of Kumira area under the upazila on Wednesday.
   They assaulted four journalists, Pranab Baul, staff reporter of Bangla daily Prothom Alo, Rashed Mahmud, staff photographer of the same daily, Forkan Abu, correspondent of Bangla daily Janakantha and Sikandar Hossain, correspondent of daily Samakal, who went to the spot to cover the incident.

The foreign minister, Dipu Moni, has said settling the maritime boundary disputes with India and Myanmar is critical for Bangladesh’s progress.
   She told reporters in Chandpur on Saturday, ‘Progress according to our development plans and ensuring best use of our limited resources requires retrieval of mineral resources from the sea.’
   ‘It is critical that we settle sea boundary disputes with India and Myanmar.’
   Dipu Moni was speaking just days after announcing that Bangladesh will refer the disputes for compulsory arbitration before a UN tribunal as Myanmar and India have ‘unfairly’ cut off Bangladesh’s sea blocks.
   ‘We have already given official notifications to the ambassadors [of India and Myanmar] on starting the arbitration process,’ she said.
   The foreign minister had told a press briefing last Thursday that the government had opted for compulsory arbitration as Bangladesh had failed to resolve the disputes with the two neighbouring countries in the past 35 years.
   She said, as per UN practice, a decision, which would be final under international law, was likely to come in four to five years from initiating the arbitration process.
   The demarcation would establish Dhaka’s right to extract oil and gas from the Bay of Bengal.
   Dipu Moni, however, added that Dhaka would continue talks with the two neighbours in addition to arbitration.
   The foreign minister disclosed the arbitration decision a day after the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, told parliament that her government would extract oil and gas from the Bay of Bengal.
   The government has recently awarded the three offshore blocks to two foreign companies for oil and gas exploration, with a provision that no exploration can take place in any disputed waters of the blocks.
   The government endorsed proposals in August on leasing out blocks 5, 10 and 11 to US-based ConocoPhillips and Irish company Tullow.
   But India has since raised questions over deep sea blocks 5 and 10 and Myanmar has disputed shallow sea block 11 on the grounds of their sea boundary being breached.
   Dipu Moni distributed cheques amongst Shechhashebi Mahila Samiti members under a programme organised by the Women Affairs Directorate.
   Cheques worth Tk 734,780 were handed out to 41 voluntary organisations.
   The secretary general of the Women Affairs Directorate, Roushan Ara Begum, spoke as special guest at the programme, chaired by district administrator Bishwas Muhammed Azim Uddin.

The finance ministry has released fund worth more than Tk 50 crore on condition that the foreign ministry would conduct a seismic survey by next March in the Bay of Bengal to get authentic data to substantiate Bangladesh’s maritime claims to the United Nations.
   There were surveys in the Bay in the past, but those were done on piecemeal basis mostly by foreign companies and focussed on oil and gas explorations, ministry officials said.
   An independent survey is imperative to establish the country’s legitimate claims in extended continental shelf of the hydrocarbon-rich Bay in accordance with the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Seas, they added.
   The fund was released about a month before Dhaka decided to seek UN tribunal for a peaceful settlement of maritime boundary disputes with India and Myanmar.
   ‘We have decided to go for arbitration as the issue was not resolved through bilateral discussions with the two neighbouring countries in the last 35 years,’ foreign minister Dipu Moni said last week.
   Bangladesh is committed to submit its claims to UNCLOS over its maritime boundary by July 2011. India and Myanmar have already submitted their claims.
   The country ratified the multinational convention on 27 July, 2001 as 138th member state and the foreign ministry was assigned to complete the UNCLOS programme aimed at submitting formal claims to the global body.
   The programme under UNCLOS was conceived in 2002, but the foreign ministry started real implementation process in 2007.
   The finance ministry officials observed that the survey in the disputed sea water should be done by next March if the country was to submit its claims over Bay territories by the deadline of July 2011.
   Foreign ministry officials told New Age that they were confident about completing the documentation process much before the deadline.
   They believed that the survey was the most crucial part of the UNCLOS programme.
   A number of foreign companies and agencies in association with BAPEX had conducted surveys in the Bay in the past in connection with oil and gas exploration. Chevron has been doing a 2D seismic survey which would cover 20 km within the Bay.
   The foreign ministry’s survey would aim at getting authentic data to substantiate the country’s legitimate claims in Bay, they pointed out.
   More than half of the fund will be needed to hire the survey ship. The finance ministry also assured the foreign ministry of relaxing the public procurement rules for tender procedures so that the survey could be completed in time.

At least seven people, including four women, were killed and 52 others injured in separate road accidents in Rajshahi, Sylhet and in Dhaka on Saturday.
   Our Rajshahi correspondent reports: five people were killed and 30 others were injured in a road accident in the city in the afternoon when they were returning from a Hindu religious programme.
   The deceased were identified as Momita, 60, Doli Rani, 40, Josna, 60, Bhabesh, 30, and Santosh, 40, of Fulpur village under Bagmara upazila in Rajshahi.
   The police said the accident took place at Kashidanga at about 5:30pm when the bus, returning from Khetur Dham, fell into a nearby ditch. Momita and Doli Rani died on the spot.
   Fire fighters and police, in collaboration with locals, rescued the people from bus and sent them to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital.
   Three others died later after admission in Rajshahi Medical College Hospital.
   The injured were admitted to the hospital.
   In Sylhet, a man was killed and 20 other were injured in a road accident on Dhaka-Sylhet highway.
   The victim was identified as Ali Akbar, 25.
   The police said the accident took place at about 3:45pm when a Habiganj-bound bus hit a Dhaka-bound Mitali Paribahan bus at Rashidpur on the Dhaka-Sylhet highway, leaving Ali Akbar dead on the spot and 20 others seriously injured.
   The police seized the buses from the spot, but the drivers managed to flee, the police said.
   At Savar in Dhaka, a garment worker died after being run over by a bus at Baipile stand in the morning. Two other workers were injured.
   The police identified the victim as Sathi Aktar, 26, of Akkelpur upazila in Jaipurhat, who was working as an operator in a garment factory of N & N Industries at Baipile.
   The injured were Asma Aktar and Amena Begum — both of the same factory.
   Sub-inspector Billal Hossain of Ashulia Police Station said the three started for their workplace at around 7:45am in a rickshaw-van.
   A bus, hit it from behind in front of Aziz Filling Station at the Baipile stand on the Dhaka-Tangail highway and killed Sathi on the spot.
   The injured were taken to Savar Ganaswasthya Nagar Kendra.
   The police detained the bus and its driver Titu Mia with the help of local people.

The BNP secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, on Saturday said the disputes with India and Myanmar over maritime boundary should have been taken to the United Nations much earlier and called for appointing experts to win the arbitration.
   ‘It should have been done much earlier. There is no way but going to the United Nations. We have to assert our claims providing data and documents,’ he told reporters at the party’s central office.
   ‘We should try every way to win the arbitration and that’s why we should appoint experts. The government needs to act in this regard. We have to safeguard our interest. The “friendly states” will protect their own interests, not ours,’ he said.
   Delwar said his party certainly wanted friendly relations with the neighbour protecting interests of both. ‘But what we see in reality. They are protecting their own interests. Dakshin Talpatti belongs to us as per international laws but they have set up a naval base there,’ he said.
   He called for sending a team of technical experts without any political bias to the Tipaimukh project site for field studies to assess its possible impacts on Bangladesh.
   Delwar made the remarks in response to a call of Abdur Razzak, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on water resources, on BNP for joining the hosue to discuss the Tipaimukh issue.
   ‘We are demanding that a neutral team of experts be sent there but they are paying no heed… The government had sent a “partisan” team to Tipaimukh which returned without visiting the site. The visit rather gave legitimacy to construction of the dam at Tipaimukh by India,’ he said.
   ‘The government on the one hand is asking us to join the house for discussing Tipaimukh and on the other hand arresting our leaders without reason and filing cases against them. How can we return to the house in such a situation?’ he asked. ‘We will join the house if they create the environment.’
   Asked about BNP’s recent silence over Tipaimukh project, Delwar said, ‘We want to give the government some time. A government coming to power by rigging vote is much better than an undemocratic government.’
   ‘We do not act in an undemocratic way…We are creating awareness among the people about Tipaimukh’s possible impacts. Any conspiracy will be thwarted by mobilising the people,’ he said.
   Delwar also blasted the move to make the women lawmakers for reserved seats as coordinators of development activities in the constituencies branding it another instance of politicisation.

A virus linked to prostate cancer also appears to play a role in chronic fatigue syndrome, according to research that could lead to the first drug treatments for a mysterious disorder that affects 17 million people worldwide.
   Researchers found the virus, known as XMRV, in the blood of 68 out of 101 chronic fatigue syndrome patients. The same virus showed up in only 8 of 218 healthy people, they reported Thursday in the journal Science.
   Judy Mikovits of the Whittemore Peterson Institute in Nevada and colleagues at the National Cancer Institute and the Cleveland Clinic emphasised that the finding only shows a link between the virus and chronic fatigue syndrome, or CFS, and does not prove that the pathogen causes the disorder.
   Much more study would be necessary to show a direct link, but Mikovits said the study offers hope that CFS sufferers might gain relief from a cocktail of drugs designed to fight AIDS, cancer and inflammation.
   ‘You can imagine a number of combination therapies that could be quite effective and could at least be used in clinical trials right away,’ Mikovits said in a telephone interview.
   She said AIDS drugs such as reverse transcriptase inhibitors and integrase inhibitors as well as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and cancer-fighting proteasome inhibitors could be tested as potential treatments for CFS.
   Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd makes a cancer drug called Velcade that is a proteasome inhibitor, although there are no reports that it has been tested against XMRV.
   Biochemist Stuart Le Grice of the National Cancer Institute, who also worked on the study, said some AIDS drugs may be ineffective against XMRV because many are tailor-made for HIV.
   ‘But we’ve learned a lot from HIV, and if XMRV does become a serious issue, we can bring that to bear very quickly,’ La Grice said.
   CFS impairs the immune system and causes incapacitating fatigue, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Authorities ordered Section 144 on public gatherings at Kapasia in Gazipur on Saturday as the opposition BNP and Bangladesh Chhatra League, AL associate organisation, called meetings at the same spot on the day.
   Section 144 was imposed at 10:00am as tension mounted among local BNP and BCL leaders over the two meetings, Kapasia police chief Khandaker Mizanur Rahman said.
   All meetings, rallies and processions were forbidden in the crossing near Targaon Hospital from 2:00pm to 7:00pm, once the Section 144 was imposed, he said.
   Newly-formed BNP Kapasia upazila unit called a meeting at the crossing for 4:00pm on Saturday.
   ASM Hannan Shah, adviser to the BNP chairperson and Gazipur district BNP convener, was supposed to attend as chief guest.
   BCL called a meeting at the same place for 3:00pm, to protest at the killing of BCL leader Mozammel Haque. Upazila chairman Motahar Hossain Mollah was supposed to attend there.
   Upazila nirbahi officer Gazi Saifuzzaman said the BNP had given notice of their meeting on October 7.
   Te said the BCL had not been given notice earlier.

The Dhaka city unit of the Workers Party of Bangladesh will hold its council session in November 5-6.
   The council session will begin on November 5 in Muktangan at noon, the city unit secretary, Quamrul Ahsan, said at a briefing on Asad Avenue on Saturday.
   The party’s city unit will hold the council session before the party’s 8th congress which will be inaugurated in Paltan Maidan on November 14, he said.

The arrested seven Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh leaders, including chief of the Rajshahi division, were remanded in custody for seven days on Saturday.
   The Boalia police in Rajshahi produced the seven in the Metropolitan Magistrate Court and sought them to be remanded for 10 days.
   Jasim Uddin, officer-in-charge of Boalia model police station, told New Age that they would send the JMB leaders to joint interrogation cell in Dhaka for interrogation.
   But he did not confirm when they would shift the JMB leaders to Dhaka.
   ‘We will send the JMB leaders for interrogation at JIC in Dhaka’, he said.
   Earlier, the Special Branch police in separate drives in Rajshahi, Natore and Naogaon the seven Jamaatul Mujahdeen Bangladesh leaders, including chief of the Rajshahi division, on Wednesday and Thursday.
   The arrested JMB leaders are Ashraf Hossain, alias Haider alias Razzak, 32, chief of Rajshahi division, also a chief of invitation branch of JMB, Shahab Uddin, 35, acting commander of Natore district, Abdur Rahim, alias Ismail, 30, acting commander of Naogaon district, also an Ehsar member, Rahidul, 35, an Ehsar member, Asadul Islam, 30, a Ehsar member, Isarul, 22, a Ehsar member, and Ehsar member Mamtaz, 20.

Rallies called by factions of Mohammadpur upazila unit of the BNP in Magura over formation of committees at eight union units were foiled by the police on Saturday.
   The faction, led by thana unit convener Alimuzzman, called the rally in front of women’s college and the other faction, led by joint convener Aktaruzzman, arranged its rally in front of the district sports office.
   The police dispersed both the rallies as tension mounted among supporters of the feuding factions.
   Later, the Aktaruzzman-led faction called a rally at Mohammadpur Chowrasta and Alimuzzman-led faction held the rally at Dhoail marketplace.
   The Aktaruzzman-led faction at a briefing at the party’s office demanded resignation of the district unit BNP convener Kabir Murad for his nepotism in forming the committee.

The United People’s Democratic Front called an indefinite general strike from Saturday morning at Lakshmichari in Khag-rachari.
   A UPDF release on Friday also demanded removal and punishment of army officer Lt Col Sharif Ahmed and Lakshmichari police chief Farid Ahmed after they had stopped the front from carrying out organisational work.
   UPDF leader Ujjal Smriti Chakma said they also demanded action against the Chittagong Hill Tracts National Forum.
   The front claims the forum is an army-backed organisation which attacked UPDF on Friday.
   The UPDF alleged a local group, Mukhosh Bahini, with links to the CHTNF, was responsible for the killing of UPDF leader Ruikhoi Marma on October 2.
   On Saturday, UPDF picketers dismantled the wooden base of Bilachari bridge in the afternoon.
   Under the programmes school and college students will wear black badges from October 11 to 13, a protest on October 12 will be staged in every thana and, roads will be blocked in every upazila of Khagrachari on October 14.