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Political and human rights campaigners, who fought for years together for realising the demand for holding war crimes trial, have been frustrated by the ‘go-slow’ policy of the Awami League-led alliance government despite its electoral pledge to put war criminals in the dock.
   With the September 30 ‘deadline’ set for the government to announce a roadmap for the trial already over, the campaigners said the Awami League government, which had pledged to hold the war crimes trial, had been pursuing a ‘wrong policy’ by delaying arrangements for holding the trial. They termed it the government’s ‘failure’ but did not think it was insincere about the matter.
   However, one of the campaigners gave the government a fresh December 16 deadline for appointing an investigation agency to begin the process of trial. ‘Otherwise, we along with like-minded organisations will take to the streets,’ said Nasiruddin Yusuf Bachchu, Shammilita Sangskritik Jote president and a freedom fighter.
   Sultana Kamal, a former adviser and human rights activist, expressed concern over the delay in arranging the trial of the war criminals of 1971 and hoped that the process for meeting the people’s demand would be expedited.
   ‘As an elected government, the Awami League administration should inform the people about the progress of the trial process and give a specific timeline for starting the prosecution,’ she said.
   The Sector Commanders Forum, a key pressure group comprising freedom fighters that mobilised public opinion for the trial, also accused the government of delaying the beginning of the trial.
   ‘The government will have to put the war criminals on trial as it is committed to doing so. I think it is already too late although I recognise that the government may have other bindings,’ said Harunur Rashid, coordinator of the forum and also a former army chief.
   In line with the AL’s polls pledges, the Jatiya Sangsad, in its first session in January, unanimously adopted a resolution to try wartime offences, but the AL government was yet to appoint an investigation agency under the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act. An amount of Tk 10 crore has also been earmarked in the current budget for the purpose.
   Ekatturer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee, spearheading the campaign, gave the AL government a September 30 ultimatum to announce the roadmap for trial of the war criminals.
   But the government did not pay heed to the demand. Curiously, the Nirmul Committee has not yet come up with a fresh ultimatum or strong warning even after the failure of the government to comply with its electoral pledge.
   When asked about the issue, the law minister, Shafique Ahmed, said the government needed time to create the platform for holding the trial. ‘We want to make the trial transparent and credible to the whole world; so we need a little more time,’ he told New Age, adding, ‘This does not mean that the government is insincere.’
   The law minister reiterated that the Awami League government would complete the prosecution of the war criminals and also execute the verdicts before it serves out its term.
   He said the government was moving carefully because it wanted to maintain international standard so that none could raise questions about the process of the trial.
   The LGRD and cooperatives minister and AL general secretary, Syed Ashraful Islam, earlier said there was pressure on the government from abroad not to hold the trial of war criminals. The foreign minister, Dipu Moni, denied the government was under such pressure.
   Meanwhile, the liberation war museum on October 20 made an appeal to world communities to support the AL government’s move to put the war criminals on trial. Copies of a document titled ‘The Testimony of Sixty’ published by Oxfam UK with an appeal to the world leaders on October 21, 1971, has been handed over to the embassies and high commissions of the US, EU, Russia, France and India.

Security was tightened across the country on Friday, especially at the key-point installations and sensitive establishments, after the government banned operation of Islamist outfit Hizb ut-Tahrir Bangladesh on Thursday.
   The government on Thursday banned all activities of Hizb ut-Tahrir Bangladesh in the interests of public security.
   Additional measures have been taken in and around the capital to prevent any subversive activities and to ensure security while the administration in some districts has asked the law enforcement agencies to be alert to thwart any attempts at subversion by the operatives of the banned organisation.
   The Dhaka Metropolitan Police at a special meeting on Friday decided to heighten security for important people and installations, police said.
   The meeting, chaired by the acting DMP chief Abul Kashem, was also attended by high officials of intelligence agencies and chiefs of the 40 police stations, additional deputy commissioner Walid Hossain said.
   The DMP chief advised the people to remain alert and help the law enforcement agencies nab suspicious persons or objects.
   The meeting discussed the law and order and decided to strictly handle attempts to create troubles or panic and thwart possible subversion by the banned outfits, the DMP spokesman said.
   Supreme Court and lower courts, bus, rail and launch terminals, shopping complexes, commercial buildings, banks, foreign missions as well as all key-point installations and sensitive places in Dhaka have been placed under special surveillance by the law-enforcers.
   Officers-in-charge of the police stations were ordered to strictly follow the instructions.
   Meanwhile, police foiled a press briefing called by the chief coordinator of the Hizb ut-Tahrir Bangladesh a day after the government banned all kinds of activities of the outfit.
   Mohiuddin Ahmed, chief coordinator of Hizb ut-Tahrir, also a teacher of the Institute of Business Administration at Dhaka University, called a press briefing at his IBA quarter residence at Green Road at about 11:00am after the ban was slapped on his outfit.
   Law enforcers entered the house of Mohiuddin a few minutes after he started reading out a written speech before journalists and stopped him from holding the briefing.
   Police said the action was taken because the government had banned all kinds of activities of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Bangladesh.
   Hizb ut-Tahrir is an international Islamist political party founded in Jerusalem in 1953.
   The party started its activities in Bangladesh in 2000. According to Hizb ut-Tahrir’s website (www.khilafat.org), Mohiuddin Ahmed is the chief coordinator and spokesperson of the party and its central office is located at HM Siddique Mansion, 55/A Purana Paltan, 4th floor, Dhaka.
   The previous BNP-Jamaat government had banned four organisations – Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh and Shahadat-e-al-Hikma – for their links to militancy.

Various national and international organisations on Friday strongly decried inhuman torture by the Rapid Action Battalion on New Age staff correspondent FM Masum.
   The RAB 10 team on Thursday had tortured severely Masum in his rented house and in detention in the unit’s headquarters for about 10 hours and a half.
   All the journalists, employees and officials of New Age and members of the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists, Dhaka Reporters’ Unity, Bangladesh Nationalist Party, rights organisation Odhikar and Asian Human Rights Commission separately also demanded a judicial inquiry of the incident to bring to justice the perpetrators.
   New Age journalists, staff and officials at a joint meeting demanded a judicial inquiry of the torture and exemplary punishment of the battalion personnel involved in the torture.
   The meeting, chaired by the newspaper’s deputy editor Mir Ashfaquzzaman, resolved that the dastardly torture on Masum, even after coming to know of his identity, was virtually an attack on the media and New Age in particular.
   Such a contention gets ground as a battalion official during the torture said, ‘We are taking our anger at Nurul Kabir [New Age editor] out on you.’
   If the government fails to initiate a judicial inquiry, the people would think the government had a tacit support for the torture on Masum and illegal activities, including extrajudicial killing and torture by the battalion, highly criticised at home and abroad, the meeting resolved.
   The meeting also said Masum about 10:30 on Thursday was getting out of his flat on the second floor of the six-storey building at 167, Dakkhin Jatrabari in Dhaka.
   When he walked out, he saw some people were torturing the wife of the owner of the house, where he lives as a tenant, in front of the gate.
   The people in plain clothes asked him to open the collapsible gate and he refused to do so.
   The plainclothes men then said they were RAB personnel and Masum immediately opened the gate. The RAB personnel instantly started beating him for being late in opening the gate.
   The battalion personnel, led by Fight Lieutenant Anis, took him on the floor where the house owner lives and started beating him with iron rods and with the back of machetes.
   They also snatched away the keys to his flat and took him inside his flat after torturing him for an hour.
   They kept six bottles of Phensidyl (codeine) syrup in his bed and videoed the arranged sequences.
   The meeting also said after torturing him for half an hour more in his flat, the battalion took him to the RAB 10 headquarters at Dhalpur handcuffed.
   The RAB personnel tortured him in the unit headquarters and threatened to have him killed in ‘crossfire.’
   He was videoed in the unit headquarters with a piece of paper reading ‘Drug peddler’ pinned on his T-shirt, he said after his release late into Thursday night.
   The meeting also said being informed of the matter, New Age contacted the battalion’s director general, home secretary and the home minister.
   They all told New Age in the afternoon that Masum had been arrested because of misunderstanding. They also told New Age Masum would be released immediately.
   Different battalion officers were coming up with different stories as reason for his detention. Some claimed Masum had been found in possession of Pethedine, some said with Phensidyl syrup while some others said they found him with prostitutes.
   Despite assurance of his release by high officials, including the battalion’s director general, home secretary and home minister by the evening, Masum was handed over to senior New Age journalists about 10:30pm.
   New Age journalists had to sign an undertaking in which it was written that he had been picked up and was being handed over to his colleagues ‘in good health.’
   After being admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, physicians advised CT scan and X-ray for him. The tests were run on him early Friday.
   Masum was discharged from the hospital about 2:30pm and he had to get admitted to a private hospital, where he is being treated. He complained of not hearing in the left ear.
   The Dhaka Reporters’ Unity decried the inhuman torture on Masum. In a statement on Friday, the organisation’s president Shamim Ahmad and general secretary Pathik Saha said the audacious behaviour of the battalion personnel with Masum even after he had disclosed his identity, was unwarranted.
   Terming the repression human rights violation, they said the battalion had not only tortured him physically, but also tried to assassinate his character.
   The organisation leaders urged the government to take punitive action against the people involved in the torture within 24 hours and to investigate it properly.
   The BNP’s secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain also condemned the torture on Masum and demanded legal action against the personnel involved in the incident.
   The Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists secretary general, Altaf Mahmud, condemned the torture.
   Odhikar in a statement demanded judicial inquiry of the inhuman torture on Masum. It said the incident was an instance of attack by the state machinery on the media.
   The Asian Human Rights Commission in a statement condemned the lawless brutal action of the members of the battalion.
   Competent authorities should immediately investigate the allegations of torture, detention and the making of a fabricated video. Such an investigation should be
   undertaken without involving the battalion or police officers as they lack
   credibility in Bangladesh.
   The commission urged the Bangladesh government and its parliamentarians to criminalise torture.

The Rapid Action Battalion in a statement on Friday regretted the ‘unwarranted incident’ that had taken place with New Age staff correspondent FM Masum on Thursday when the battalion was conducting a raid to arrest some drug peddling suspect.
   The RAB 10 team on Thursday had tortured severely Masum keeping him in detention in the RAB 10 headquarters at Dhalpur for about 10 hours and a half. The battalion men picked him up from the house, tortured him severely and rubbed salt in the wounds in public. He had to be rushed in to Dhaka Medical College Hospital when he was released about 10:30pm Thursday.
   The battalion statement, signed by the battalion’s legal and media wing director, said, ‘We sincerely express our regret for the unwarranted incident that has taken place between RAB personnel and journalist FM Masum of the largely-circulated daily New Age.
   ‘RAB is looking into the matter with importance. The RAB headquarters has formed an inquiry team and the matter is being investigated. Punitive action will be taken against anyone of RAB found guilty.’
   The ‘unwarranted incident’ took place between Masum and a RAB 10 team when it was carrying out a raid on a house at 167, Dakkhin Jatrabari about 12:30pm to arrest a female drug peddling suspect, according to the statement,.
   Masum lives on the second floor of the house as a tenant.
   According to spot account, the battalion personnel started beating him as soon as he opened the door for being late in opening the door. He was also tortured inside his flat and then in the RAB 10 headquarters after taking him in detention.
   Masum was released about 10:30pm Thursday reportedly after repeated interventions of the home minister and the home secretary.
   Masum needed to be rushed in to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital for treatment.
   Soon after Masum’s detention, different battalion officers came up with different stories as reason for the detention — some claimed Masum was found in possession of Pethedine, some said with Phensidyl (codeine) syrup while some others said they had found him with prostitutes.
   The battalion, when it released Masum, said they had picked him up for not cooperating with the law enforcement agency.
   He had marks of injury all over the body and his feet were swollen when he was released. CT scan and X-Ray were run on him. He is being treated in hospital.

The National Curriculum and Textbook Board, which on Sunday claimed most of the textbooks had been printed by the time, on earlier October 5 formed a three-member committee to assess the quantity of papers that would be needed to print the textbooks for the 2010 academic year.
   A fire that broke out in the textbook board warehouse at Tejgaon early Sunday and continued burning till Wednesday afternoon has damaged a huge quantity of papers and a huge number of textbooks.
   When asked about any possible delay in reaching textbooks to the students, the board’s chairman Professor M Mostafa Kamaluddin told newsmen that timely distribution of books would not be hampered because of the damage caused by the fire as most of the textbooks had been printed and sent to the districts by then.
   A member of the three-man committee told New Age in the past week after 90 per cent of the books had been printed, the authorities asked them to make a list of the ‘actual’ number of textbooks that would be required for free distribution among the students in 2010.
   The committee, headed by the board’s accountant M Abdul Hamid, includes deputy controller (store in-charge) M Abdur Rashid Miyah and Sheikh M Nurul Haque.
   The committee has been asked to estimate the quantity of papers that would be required to print the ‘actual number’ of textbooks for free distribution among secondary students in the 2010 academic session.
   The committee has also been asked to estimate the quantity of papers that would need to be given to private printing houses by the textbook board warehouses and to collect information on the quantity of papers collected from various sources.
   ‘I have done my job. I have figured out the “actual” number of textbooks printed for the secondary students for the academic session. The other members who are working in the warehouse will give an estimation of the quantity of papers that have been supplied,’ a committee member told New Age on Wednesday.
   Asked about the number he figured out, the member said, ‘I will not disclose the figure.’
   The education minister, Nurul Islam Nahid, on October 4 told the parliament 7,47,07,222 copies of books would be printed for secondary students.
   ‘Papers collected from the Karnafuli Paper Mills and two private paper producers have been used in printing secondary textbooks. I will not name the two private paper suppliers as higher authorities have asked us not to talk with the media about the suppliers,’ he said.
   The textbook board is supposed to print and distribute nearly 19 crore copies of textbooks for students for the academic session 2010.
   The board, an organisation under the education ministry, is mainly responsible for renewal, modification and development of curriculum, production and distribution of textbooks at primary, secondary and higher secondary levels.

Most of the cooperatives have become non-functional for want of policy supports although hundreds of crores of taka are allocated every year in the budget to promote collective ownership for sustainable development and poverty alleviation.
   Successive governments rather allowed individuals to grab public property in the name of cooperatives instead of supporting ‘people’s collective efforts’ to acquire assets for community or group use.
   Though the portfolio of the local government, rural development and cooperatives always goes to the second most influential leader of the party in power, cooperatives have been put on the back burner by almost all the political governments.
   Bureaucratic tangle, absence of true democratic spirit and greed of individuals for leadership and wealth also held back the prospect of the cooperative sector that is considered as a major instrument for social change and better living standard of the people.
   ‘The cooperative movement has always been downgraded by the whimsical decisions of successive governments, which implemented development projects with a top-down and bureaucratic approach,’ Asha Lata Baidya, chairman of Bangladesh Jatiya Palli Unnayan Samabay Federation, told New Age.
   She said traditionally cooperatives are supposed to work in a bottom-up approach creating fund from subscriptions and savings of the members of respective organisations.
   The government is expected to provide policy support so that the cooperatives can function properly and people are not cheated, she said.
   ‘But the governments tend to ignore organised co-operatives and implement projects backed by foreign lending agencies by forming informal groups of individuals,’ said Asha, an award winning co-operative activist. ‘It is unfortunate.’
   Since 1904, cooperatives are officially recognised as a series of organised activities with a common goal and referred to economic enterprises for the benefit of their members and service users.
   But only about 12,000, out of about 162,000 registered cooperatives are active now, according to the documents of the Department of the Cooperatives.
   Several thousand new cooperatives are being registered every year while hundreds of ‘non-functional’ cooperatives are getting out of list.
   The Comilla approach— a concept of two-tier cooperatives— once generated huge enthusiasm in rural areas about formation of Krishak Samabay Samity and boosted agriculture production to a great extent.
   Article 13 of the Constitution deals with the principle of ownership of property, stipulating three types of ownership: ownership by the state through the creation of public sector, ownership by cooperatives on behalf of their members, and ownership by individuals within limits prescribed by law.
   At least 8.3 million people, including 1.3 million women, are now members of both active and inactive cooperatives working in the fields of agriculture, fisheries, livestock, housing, micro-credit operation, milk production, employees saving societies, credit societies, freedom fighter, poor and land less, youth and market based cooperatives, etc.
   Up to July 2008, the capital of the functional and non-functional cooperatives stood at Tk 39.9 billion, value of shares at Tk 4.8 billion and savings Tk 10.9 billion.
   Leaders of cooperative societies, experts and bureaucrats observed that misconception about cooperative efforts, bad reputation of a section of cooperative organisation, greed for leadership and assets, lack of incentive, and, in some cases, politicisation affected prospect of cooperatives, which have the potentials to mobilise savings, finance commercial activities to generate income and employments, stabilising market prices and supply chain of essential commodities.
   Professor Tofail Ahmed, a teacher of public administration at Chittagong University, said in a paper that the legal framework and bureaucratic control over cooperatives had been tough while non-governmental organisations and the private sector were getting the upper hand.
   Currently, NGO activities have become the part of the country’s development programmes, and efforts are quite visible to establish such activities as alternatives to cooperatives, he pointed out.
   M Imdadul Haq, a cooperatives organiser, said the cooperatives are supposed to be run by democratically elected bodies accountable to respective general assembly. ‘But in many cases, the general assembly is comprised of family members and relatives of a group of influential individuals and governing bodies are formed through controlled elections,’ he said.
   The 1991-96 government made the cooperative farmers upset by refusing them to give benefit from waiver of agricultural loans and interests.
   ‘All farmers excepting those who were grouped in cooperative societies were offered the waiver,’ he said.
   Many farmers’ cooperatives turned bankrupt overnight as the government had adjusted their deposits to loans, Imdadul pointed out.
   M Fazlul Haq, chairman of Bhurungamari Upazila Central Cooperative Association in Kurigram, said the local Sonali Bank froze about Tk 7.5 million, which was kept as security deposit against loans distributed to cooperative farmers.
   A senior official of the Bangladesh Rural Development Board observed, ‘A section of government officials who oversee the activities of the cooperatives often give objection to audit and accounts of the organisations. But they get everything fine if they are provided with bribe.’
   Cooperatives of hoarders of Moulvibazar in Dhaka and those of rural farmers get the same treatments from some BRDB officials, he alleged.
   According to a provision of the Cooperative Societies Act of 2001, the government can induct or nominate members in the governing body of the cooperative societies.
   This provision has opened the opportunities for the party in power to include the people of their choice in the management, some co-operative organisers said.
   Many cooperatives are formed only to grab public property, they alleged.
   Asked about the allegations, Samar Chandra Paul, secretary to the Rural Development and Cooperatives Division of the government, said the incumbent government has taken initiatives to remove hindrances to development of cooperatives by involving genuine organisers and members, updating the rules and regulations and allowing the organisations to exercise more freedom with maximum accountability to general members.

Myanmar is disappointed as Bangladesh decided to take the maritime boundary delimitation issue to arbitration at the United Nations instead of finding a negotiated settlement, but ruled out any military move over the dispute.
   As India and Myanmar have started developing their offshore resources, the Bangladesh government opted for arbitration, Myanmar ambassador in Dhaka Phae Thann OO told UNB in an exclusive interview at a time when reports are rife about tension on the Bangladesh-Myanmar frontier.
   ‘So, when Bangladesh has decided to take the issue of delimitation of our maritime boundary to arbitration at the UN, we were a little (bit) disappointed. Why? The talks are progressing. Why do you have to go to the UN? That is our point. So leave alone this talk of military buildup,’ he said.
   ‘But, what I mean to say, we have an open, ongoing bilateral process on the issue of delimitation—and it is progressing. We should continue it. Only when the process has been exhausted without providing a solution, should we go for arbitration. That is again my personal opinion,’ said the diplomat.
   He noted with happiness that the two sides are still going to have the next round of technical-level meeting, in Dhaka, in November. ‘No country has abandoned the process,’ he said.
   At the next talks, they plan to raise the point of their disappointments over Bangladesh’s decision to go for arbitration while the bilateral talks are on, and ‘progressing’.
   ‘We don’t think it is necessary to go for arbitration. But whether Bangladesh goes ahead with it or not will be up to them. They are within their rights to do so, and we respect that,’ Phae Thann OO said.
   Amid the blowing wind of pessimism surrounding the rivalries over the share of the disputed part of the Bay of Bengal, the envoy of the military-ruled neighbouring country struck a high note of optimism about an amicable solution. ‘…one day, we’ll have a mutually agreed settlement,’ he said.
   About press reports that Myanmar mobilised troops along the border as a showdown in the wake of Bangladesh’s efforts to explore gas in the bay, he said, ‘We deny this; this is not true in the context it has been reported.’
   He informed that the military government in Myanmar is faced with many problems as it is preparing for the elections next year. ‘To hold proper elections, you need the prevalence of law and order, you need peace and tranquility. Sometimes, we need to move the troops around from this area to that.’
   Thann OO further pointed out that Myanmar has insurgents all along its border, with almost every neighbouring country—on the Thai border, the Indian border. ‘And on the Bangladesh border, too, and one of them is among those who call themselves this RSO or whatsoever.’
   Again clarifying their position on the row over military movements, he referred to Bangladesh’s national elections last year when the caretaker government had to prepare the voters’ list and it had to maintain law and order. ‘Our military government is doing the same thing. The military presence is needed, for these tasks. Civilians cannot do it alone.’

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has urged the Swedish government to import leather and ceramic products, pharmaceuticals and ships from Bangladesh.
   The prime minister made the request when the Swedish minister for trade, Ewa Bjorling, paid a call on her at her suite at the Grand Hotel in the Swedish capital Friday afternoon.
   Hasina also laid emphasis on introducing direct air link between Dhaka and Stockholm, said prime minister’s press secretary Abul Kalam Azad.
   She said her government was thinking about launching direct flights between Sweden and Bangladesh. Hasina sought Swedish government’s cooperation in this regard.
   Hasina told the Swedish trade minister that Bangladesh had already started exporting ships to Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands, while Bangladeshi ceramic and leather products and pharmaceuticals are of high quality.
   The premier thanked the Swedish government for its continuous assistance to the development sectors of the country since it attained independence in 1971 under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
   Hasina said her government had chalked out ‘Vision 2021’ to create social safety net in the country and turn into a modern one. ‘But, climate change threats seem to make it difficult to achieve the targets,’ she said.
   She sought support of the international community, including Sweden, in facing the challenges of global warming. Empowerment of women, forestation and various other development issues were also discussed at the meeting.
   Hasina said her government had worked out a plan for social afforestation on some 7,500 acres of land to restore balance in the environment.
   In reply, the Swedish trade minister assured the prime minister of their continuous supports for attaining the development targets of Bangladesh.
   Later, Hasina met European parliament president Jerzy Buzek at the VIP Lounge of Stockholmsmassan, the conference centre of the EU Development Days’ 2009.
   During the meeting, the European parliament president expressed his happiness as democracy restored in Bangladesh under the leadership of Hasina through the last December 29 parliamentary polls.
   Hasina, in her reply, thanked the European nations for their strong role in restoring democracy in Bangladesh.
   She sought continuous support from the European countries to keep up the march forward of democracy in Bangladesh.
   Hasina observed that Bangladesh could not attain desired progress, as military rulers had repeatedly grabbed power harming democracy.
   State minister for forest and environment Hasan Mahmud, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on forest and environment ministry BNP MP Abdul Momin Talukder and ambassador Ziauddin were present at the meetings.

An earth-laden trawler sank in the River Padma at Shaitankhali of Faridpur early Friday, leaving at least six dead and 15 missing.
   The incident happened when the stationary trawler was hit by another trawler.
   Six bodies have been recovered until 9:30pm. All of them were day labourers from Patiata village of Pabna’s Chatmohor.
   The deceased are—Doulat, 22, Liton, 22, Dudu Miah, 45, Siraj, 25, Wasim, 23 and an unidentified man in his late 20s.
   Deputy commissioner Helaluddin told bdnews24.com over phone at 9:45pm, ‘A five-member diver team is conducting rescue work from 5:30pm. Strong water flow is hampering the rescue operation.’
   He said, ‘Six bodies were recovered from the sunken trawler. But the rescue work was postponed for the night and will start in the morning.’
   Abdul Alim, a survivor of the incident, said: ‘The trawler carrying 42 labourers came to Shaitankhali on Thursday evening’.
   ‘The trawler was supposed to leave for Fatullah on Friday after collecting earth all night. But heavy fog caused it to anchor and wait.’
   He said, ‘Labourers sleeping on the deck and roof of the trawler were able to swim to safety.’

A Dhaka court Friday remanded Kamrul Haque Swapan and Abdur Rahim into police custody for eight days in connection with the bomb attack on Awami League lawmaker Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh.
   Swapan, brother of Shariful Haque Dalim, a convict on death row in Sheikh Mujib murder case and Freedom Party leader Abdur Rahim were arrested Thursday in connection with the bomb attack that damaged the car of Taposh Wednesday evening and left 12 injured Wednesday night at Motijheel.
   Sub-inspector Arju Mia, the investigation officer of the case, produced the arrested before the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court Friday seeking a 10-day remand.
   Magistrate AGM Al Masud granted eight days.
   Taposh, a barrister by profession is a member of the legal team assisting the state counsels in the appeal proceedings of Sheikh Mujib murder case. His parents — Juba League founding chairman Sheikh Fazlul Haque Moni and Arzoo Moni — were also murdered on August 15 in 1975, hours before army mutineers assassinated the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with most members of his family.
   Taposh, who narrowly escaped the bomb attack that damaged the rear windshield of the car carrying him, suspected that the attack was aimed at derailing the appeal process now in progress at the Supreme Court.
   He filed a case with Motijheel Police Station Thursday mentioning no name, but alleging that the relatives and associates of the convicts on death row might have a hand in the attack.

A suicide bomber killed seven people near a major air force complex in northwest Pakistan on Friday, while an explosion killed 17 on a bus heading to wedding elsewhere in the region, the latest in a surge of militant attacks this month.
   The bloodshed has coincided with the run-up and first week of a major army offensive in a Taliban and al-Qaeda stronghold along the Afghan border. About 200 people have died as the insurgents have shown they can strike in a variety of ways and places in the nuclear-armed, US-allied nation.
   The Pakistan Aeronautical Complex at Kamra is the country’s major air force maintenance and research hub.
   Some foreign military experts have mentioned it as a possible place to keep planes that can carry nuclear warheads, but the army, which does not reveal where its nuclear-related facilities are, strongly denies that the facility is tied to the programme in any way.
   A lone suicide bomber on a bicycle blew himself up at a checkpoint on a road leading to the complex, about 30 miles from the capital, Islamabad. Police officer Akbar Abbas blamed the Taliban for the attack.
   The seven dead included two troops. Some 13 people were wounded.
   Hours later, a blast struck the bus, which was travelling in the Mohmand tribal region. Four women and three children were among the 17 killed, said Zabit Khan, a local government official, who said the exact cause of the blast was still not certain.
   ‘It appears to be a remote-controlled bomb, and militants might have hit the bus mistakenly,’ Khan told The Associated Press.
   Mohmand, like other parts of Pakistan’s tribal belt, has been a magnet for Taliban militants. The military has carried out operations there in the past aimed at clearing out insurgents but trouble still flares.
   Also Friday, a car bomb exploded in the parking lot of a recreational facility in Peshawar, the main city in the northwest. Fifteen people were wounded. The facility includes a restaurant, a swimming pool, a health club and a marriage hall.
   ‘It is part of the violence we are seeing across Pakistan these days,’ said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the region’s information minister.
   There have been at least nine major militant attacks this month, most against police or army targets.

The intensive care unit of the National Institute of Disease of Chest and Hospital could not start functioning for want of uninterrupted power supply to the ventilators, forcing critical patients to suffer or seek treatment in some other places.
   The public hospital authorities said they are yet to get gas connection to its standby power generator to run the ICU ventilators during outage.
   Most of the 14 ventilators installed in the ICU have been left unused for long while serious patients with respiratory problems are being referred to other hospitals to bet put on ventilators.
   'We have 14 ventilators in the hospital, but most of the ventilators could not start working due to power shortage,' Mustafizur Rahman, director of NIDCH told New Age.
   Only two ventilators, used in the operation theatre, are connected to backup power line from diesel generator, sources said.
   Biswas Akhter Hossain, medical superintendent of the hospital said, 'An uninterrupted power supply is a must for the ICU. Otherwise, risks to life of patients will be always there and we cannot afford such a situation.'
   Since ICU services cannot run on unreliable power supply, overall services of the specialised hospital are being hampered and sufferings of the patients continue, said doctors.
   The hospital has a 10-bed respiratory care unit, which has no answer to a critical patient needing immediate ventilation support.
   Akhter Hossain said two ventilators are installed in the post-operative section and two others in the swine flu unit now.
   Two ventilators were dedicated to palliative unit around one month ago, two others given to the hospital during the period of interim government remained unused.
   Six more ventilators also are not in use due to absence of standby power supply arrangement.
   Two of the ventilators remained out of order for a long time. Technicians said effectiveness of medical equipment diminishes gradually if they are left unused for long.
   The hospital authority, however, claimed that they regularly switched on and recharged the ICU equipment to keep them functional.
   Hospital sources said the government earlier decided not to give any new connection amid severe gas crisis, but official permission was granted in September for the hospital to have gas connection on an emergency basis to run its ICU smoothly.
   Public Works Department invited tender for installing gas connection line last week and it would take at least three more weeks to get the connection, Mustafizur Rahman said.
   The hospital will initiate ICU service on a limited scale from next week for in-house patients, ensuring standby power for four ventilators from diesel generators, the director said.
   Full-fledged ICU would become functional only after getting gas connection, he said.
   But that is not the end of the problem as the hospital is not equipped with skilled manpower to make the ICU fully serviceable even if the gas connection is available for power generator.
   'No nurse was recruited in the hospital in past six years,' said the director, adding that manpower crisis would be more palpable once the ICU starts functioning in full swing.

The national committee to protect oil, gas, mineral resources, power and ports holds national convention today at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh, in protest against the government move to award international oil companies offshore block exploration allowing gas export.
   The convention will also push for a ban on export of gas and coal and establishment of people's rights to national wealth.
   The day-long convention will be open at 10:00am. District representatives of the national committee will attend.
   Representatives of various professional bodies will take part in the convention, the organisers said.
   Central leaders of the committee, energy experts, academics, district representatives and the representatives of various professional bodies will address the opening session at 11:00am.
   The national committee held five divisional conventions in Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi, Sylhet and Barisal and also held exchanges of views with professional bodies in Dhaka before holding the national convention.
   The committee's convener Sheikh Muhammad Shaheedullah and member secretary Anu Muhammad in a statement on Friday called on the people to make the convention successful.
   The national committee will continue with its movement against the Awami League-led government's plan for giving three offshore gas blocks to two international oil companies.
   The next movement programmes of the committee will be announced at the convention, the organisers said.
   The programmes may include huge mass contacts, countrywide mass signature campaign and demonstrations, programme of taking vow to save national wealth on Victory Day on December 16, road marches from Dhaka to other districts or road marches from four corners of the country towards Dhaka and a rally in Dhaka.
   The committee will announce agitation programmes such as general strike for an indefinite period, programme of siege and sit-in in Dhaka if the government would take any initiative to sign deals with the IOCs on gas block award.

Two Northwest Airlines pilots who overshot their destination by 150 miles before turning back should have had numerous warnings as they approached and passed Minneapolis: cockpit displays, controllers trying repeatedly to reach, the city lights twinkling below.
   Yet the pilots didn't discover their mistake until a flight attendant in the cabin contacted them by intercom, said a source close to the investigation. By that time, the plane was over Eau Claire, Wis., and the pilots had been out of communication with air traffic controllers for over an hour.
   The crew told authorities they were distracted during a heated discussion over airline policy, the Federal Aviation Administration said. But federal officials are investigating whether pilot fatigue might be to blame.
   NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said Thursday investigators hadn't yet questioned the pilots and didn't know whether it was possible they had fallen asleep. The pilots have been suspended from flying by their airline while it, too, investigates.
   The plane, en route from San Diego with 144 passengers and a crew of five, passed over its destination of Minneapolis at 37,000 feet just before 9:00pm EDT Wednesday. Contact with controllers wasn't established until 14 minutes later, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the incident.
   As of Thursday, NTSB investigators had not yet examined the plane's cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, which were being sent to Washington for analysis.
   'It just doesn't make any sense,' said Bill Voss, president of the Flight Safety Foundation in Alexandria, Va. 'The pilots are saying they were involved in a heated conversation. Well, that was a very long conversation.'
   Ben Berman, an airline pilot and former chief of major accident investigations at the NTSB, said it becomes second nature for pilots to know when they need to begin landing preparations.
   Those preparation should have begun when the flight was still 100 miles or more away from Minneapolis, he said. It would require a fairly dramatic event to lose track of that kind of awareness, he said.
   Shop talk 'pretty clearly wasn't all that was going on,' Berman said.
   The bright lights of Minneapolis should have alerted the pilots that they were over their destination, just as the dimmer lights of Eau Claire should have warned them they were in the wrong place, experts said.

Children of abused mothers may be smaller at birth and show stunted early growth, according to research from Bangladesh.
   Prior studies have shown that physical and sexual violence against women is associated with low birth weight of the offspring, as well as with an increased risk of early infant death.
   To investigate further, Kajsa Asling-Monemi, at Uppsala University in Sweden, and colleagues determined the birth weight of 3,164 children and followed their early growth patterns until they were 2 years old.
   Their mothers - 4,436 altogether - were mostly married and not employed. They were 26 years old on average at the start of the study.
   Half of the mothers reported being a victim of some sort of family violence during their lives.
   Fourteen per cent experienced physical violence that involved slapping or shoving and 8 per cent suffered more severe violence such as hitting, kicking, dragging, or choking. Eight per cent of the women experienced severe violence while pregnant.
   Additionally, 24 per cent of the women reported some sort of sexual abuse, and another 28 per cent said they had been insulted, humiliated, intimidated, or experienced other emotional abuse.
   At birth, the children in the study weighed 2,701 grams (about 6 pounds), on average. Overall, 33 per cent were considered low birth weight, weighing less than 2500 grams (5.5 pounds) at birth. Children born to mothers reporting any type of violence tended to be in this low birth weight group.
   Among children born to mothers reporting any violence, nearly 42 per cent were underweight, about 13 per cent were undernourished, and more than 55 per cent had an impaired growth pattern known as stunting by the age of 2 years.
   By contrast, among children of non-abused mothers, 37 per cent were underweight, about 11 per cent were undernourished, and almost 50 per cent were stunted.
   The association between mothers' abuse and impaired growth of their children remained strong after the investigators allowed for mother's education, number of previous births, and religion (Hindu mothers tended to have children who weighed less and were of shorter length than Muslim mothers).
   Though most of the size differences between children born to abused, versus non-abused, mothers is present at birth, these findings show 'violence-related growth retardation became more pronounced during the 2 years of follow up,' Asling-Monemi and co-investigators point out in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
   This study, they conclude, adds to the 'multitude of confirmed and plausible health consequences' caused by violence against women.

The BNP chairperson and leader of the opposition in parliament, Khaleda Zia, has denounced the torture on New Age staff correspondent FM Masum by members of the Rapid Action Battalion.
   'The country's situation has deteriorated to such a level that journalists are also being tortured by law-enforcers,' she said in a statement on Friday.
   Terming the torture 'hyenas' incident', the former prime minister said the inhuman torture on a journalist by law-enforcers reminded them the dictatorial regime of BAKSAL.
   Expressing her deep concern at the attack, Khaleda said the government did not believe in the freedom of press as incidents of torture on journalists has increased since it had come to power.
   The BNP chairperson demanded that the government should take punitive actions against those involved in the incident.
   Meanwhile, the BNP secretary general, Khandakar Delwar Hossain, expressed grave concern at the inhuman torture on Masum by RAB members.

At least 14 people were injured in a clash between two groups of people at Tabalpur village in Bishwanath upazila of Sylhet on Friday.
   Locals said the clash between the supporters of Moyna Miah and Khaled Miah broke out over the account of the local mosque after jum'a prayers.

Bangladeshi expatriates from across Europe gathered at the Swedish capital to attend community reception to visiting prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, Friday. Sweden Awami League in collaboration with the All European Awami League arranged the community reception at Halunda Folkethus in the Swedish capital at local time 6:00pm.
   Bangladeshi expatriates, mostly Awami League followers, came from host Sweden, France, Austria, Germany and Italy to accord the reception. Sweden Awami League president Kazi Golam Ambia Jhantu presided over the reception function.
   Meanwhile, Hasina had bilateral talks with Swedish minister for trade Ewa Bjorling at her hotel suite and president of the European parliament Jerzy Buzek at the VIP lounge of Stockholms-massan, the conference centre where a three-day European Development Days' 2009 ceremony is taking place.

Arrested self-confessed serial killer Rasu Khan reportedly tried to commit suicide in police custody at Sadar model police station Thursday night.
   Sub-inspector Abdur Rahim of the police station said Rasu attempted to hang himself with a 'gamchha' (towel) in a bathroom at about 8:10pm.
   Hearing his groaning,
   the police rescued him and took him to the Sadar Hospital.
   Rasu Khan killed at least 11 women as he vowed to kill 101 women after being tortured by the hired goons of the family members of a girl who rejected his marriage proposal 15 years back.
   All of Rasu's misdeeds started unfolding after he was arrested on October 7 from Nirashpara in Tongi of Gazipur in connection with stealing 12 fans from a mosque.