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Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson, Khaleda Zia’s eldest son Tarique Rahman and his close aide, businessman Giasuddin Al Mamun were on Monday sued on charges of money laundering.
   The Anti-Corruption Commission’s assistant director, Mohammad Ibrahim filed the case with the Cantonment police station accusing the two of siphoning off Tk 204 million to Singapore violating the Money Laundering Prevention Act 2009.
   The commission will investigate the case, cantonment police chief Hosne Ara said.
   In his complaint, Ibrahim stated that Tarique and Mamun smuggled the money to Singapore.
   Mamun received the money between 2003 and 2007 from Khadiza Islam, owner of Nirman International, for awarding a work contract for a proposed 80 megawatts power plant at Tongi, the complaint said.
   The amount was deposited to the Dhaka cantonment branch of Sonali Bank and later transferred to a bank account with Citi N.A. in Singapore.
   Mamun also received some money from Khadiza in Singapore, the complaint stated.
   The commission also found a bank account in the name of Khadiza Islam with the CBC bank in Singapore, it said.
   ‘Tarique is also an accused as he was also a beneficiary of the money and as Mamun had used him in awarding the work,’ Ibrahim told New Age after filing the case.
   Mamun was questioned by a special taskforce about the money laundering during the regime of the military-controlled interim government.
   Later, the amount, transacted in Bangladeshi currency, was recovered by the government and deposited with the Sonali Bank, Ibrahim said.
   Tarique and Mamun were sued under Section 4(2) of the act. The offence is punishable with imprisonment for seven years.
   This is the first case filed against Tarique since the Awami League-led alliance assumed power on January 6.
   He, along with his mother, however, is facing charges pressed by the commission in a case after the government’s assumption of power.
   The commission on August 5 pressed charges against Khaleda Zia, also former prime minister, Tarique and four others for embezzling Tk 2.1 crore of the Zia Orphanage Trust fund between June 1991 and February 2007.
   Tarique was arrested by the army-led joint forces on March 7, 2007 and sued in at least 12 cases, including the Zia Orphanage Trust case, during the emergency.
   The High Court, however, on October 16 issued a rule asking the government and the commission to explain why the Zia Orphanage Trust case against Tarique should not be quashed.
   Tarique was released from prison cell at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital on September 3, 2008 on bail granted by the High Court in all the 12 cases and then went to London for medical treatment. He is still undergoing treatment in London.
   Mamun is currently behind bars also facing a raft of corruption cases.
   The present government has so far recommended withdrawal of 875 cases filed in the past with political motives. The 875 cases include one against Tarique Rahman and one against former law minister Moudud Ahmed.
   No other cases against any opposition politicians have, however, been recommended for withdrawal.
   ‘BNP’s senior joint secretary general Tarique Rahman was not an accused in the extortion case filed against Giasuddin Al Mamun with the Gulshan police. But Tarique was interrogated several times on remand and was sent to jail as Mamun in a confessional statement named the BNP leader in connection with the extortion,’ state minister for law Quamrul Islam, also the head of the review committee, told reporters after its 8th meeting at the secretariat on October 13. The meeting recommended withdrawal of the extortion case against Tarique.

The detained former state minister for home, Lutfozzaman Babar, also a BNP leader, was on Monday shown arrested in the cases filed in connection with the 21 August, 2004 grenade attacks on an Awami League rally in Dhaka that had left 24 people killed and over 200 injured and maimed.
   Dhaka additional chief metropolitan magistrate Ehsanul Huq issued the order showing Babar arrested in the cases and set Wednesday for hearing in a petition filed by the criminal investigation department seeking Babar to be remanded in its custody for 10 days for interrogation.
   The investigation officer in the case, Abdul Kahhar Akand, submitted two petitions for showing Babar arrested in the cases and for his remand in custody for questioning.
   The court also ordered the jail authorities to produce Babar in the court during hearing in the petition.
   In the petition, Kahhar said, ‘Babar should be arrested in the case as his links to the grenade attacks have been primarily proved from the depositions of the prosecution witnesses in the case.’
   Earlier on 3 August, the Dhaka speedy trial tribunal ordered further investigation into the cases following a petition filed by the prosecution.
   The same court on 29 October, 2008, indicted 22 people, including BNP’s former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu and Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami operative Mufti Abdul Hannan in the cases, and a total of 61 out of 412 witnesses in the cases had so far testified in the court.
   The CID assistant superintendent Fazlul Kabir, also the investigation officer in the cases, on 11 June, 2008, pressed charges in the two cases against 22 persons.
   Four hundred and twelve people, including president Zillur Rahman, prime minister Sheikh Hasina, home minister Sahara Khatun and AL’s former general secretary Abdul Jalil, were named prosecution witnesses in both the cases.
   The past investigators several times tried to put the case on the wrong track and arrested 20 innocent persons, including George Miah. George gave a statement in court claiming that top criminals Subrata Bain and Joy had carried out the attack, but none of the persons accused at that time was named in the charge sheets.
   George, who had reportedly been made a scapegoat, was released from jail after being cleared of all the charges in the case.
   After the submission of the charge sheets, the CID chief, Mohammad Javed Patwari, in a briefing on 11 June, 2007 said, ‘We have submitted the charge sheets, but the investigation continues. If we find more people involved, a supplementary charge sheet will be filed.’
   He had, however, added that so far they had found no people, as named by Awami League leaders, involved in the attacks.
   Javed had said the CID’s earlier investigation had taken a wrong turn, but it had been brought back to the right track and the 20 persons earlier arrested had been freed and dropped from the charge sheets.
   Javed also said that they could not identify the source of the grenades.
   Of the 23 indicted in the case, Pintu and Hannan and 12 others are now in jail, while the rest eight are on the run.
   On 5 March, a metropolitan magistrate’s court in Dhaka sent Babar to jail after he surrendered seeking bail in an arms case in which he was earlier jailed for 17 years.
   That was the second time Babar landed in jail. He was, earlier, arrested on charge of corruption on 28 May, 2007 and later released on bail granted by the High Court.
   On 30 October, 2007, Babar was sentenced by Dhaka special tribunal judge Zahed Mansur to rigorous imprisonment for 17 years on charge of keeping illegal arms in his Gulshan house.
   The High Court on 16 October, 2008, granted Babar bail for six months in the case on health grounds. His appeal against the conviction in the case is pending with the High Court.
   The Appellate Division, however, on 23 October, revised the High Court order and granted him bail for three months and directed him to surrender in the trial court within the period.
   After his arrest by the joint forces on 28 May, 2007, at his house, Babar was shown arrested under the Emergency Powers Rules 2007 and placed on a four-day remand for interrogation.
   The Anti-Corruption Commission filed a graft case against Babar with Ramna police station on 4 October, 2007 for taking Tk 21 crore in bribes to save Basundhara Group chairman’s son from murder charges.
   He was also accused of amassing huge wealth by illegal means and hiding assets in his wealth statement submitted to the commission.

The attorney general, Mahbubey Alam, on Monday received a death threat from unknown persons.
   He received a letter, sent to his office by post, threatening to kill him and his family members if the condemned prisoners in the Bangabandhu murder case were not freed in 15 days.
   The letter carried no identity of its sender.
   The letter posted on October 10 reads: ‘Attorney general Mahbubey Alam. The convicts of Mujib murder case are being put behind bars unjustly. You along with your family will be killed if the jailed convicts are not released within 15 days.’
   After receiving the letter, Mahbubey Alam told reporters that those, who had carried out bomb attack on Fazle Noor Taposh, must be linked to the threat.
   He said he had discussed the matter with the home minister.
   ‘The letter is aimed to frighten me. We are not afraid of threats but we have to be cautious about the activities of the killers of Bangabandhu,’ the AG said. ‘The convicts will try to reverse their convictions by any means possible.’
   He said that the people should guard against plots of the quarters who were doing such things.
   State minister for home affairs Shamsul Haque Tuku on Monday expressed concern over the death threat issued to the attorney general and his family.
   Meanwhile, the Indian high commissioner in Dhaka, Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty reportedly informed the home ministry of an email threat of terrorist attack on the high commission and sought protection.
   ‘We are concerned about the matters…Law enforcing agencies have been asked to do the needful,’ the state minister told reporters at the secretariat when his attention was drawn to the issues.
   He said that the anti-liberation forces who wanted to restore Pakistani ethos here might have a hand in such things.

The government has initiated a move to prepare a fresh list of refugees displaced during the two decades of insurgency in Chittagong Hill Tracts for rehabilitating on their own homesteads.
   ‘We have taken a move to prepare the list of refugees and internally displaced persons to bring them back to their homes,’ the head of the taskforce on rehabilitation of repatriated tribals and internal refugees, Jyotindra Lal Tripura, said.
   He told reporters after the second meeting of the CHT treaty implementation committee in Dhaka on Monday that the move came nearly 12 years after signing of a peace deal between the government and the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti, a political platform of ethnic minorities in the south-eastern hills, in 1997.
   The taskforce, which was formed immediately after signing of the treaty, had initially prepared a list of some 12,222 families, both ethnic minorities repatriated from India and plain-land Bengalis who had been settled in the hilly region.
   But the tribal leaders of CHT opposed inclusion of the Bengali settlers in the list, saying they were intruders and they grabbed the hill people’s land.
   The internally displaced people, many of whom have still been living in squalid huts in deep forest areas, were never taken care of by the taskforce, they said, adding that more that 500,000 indigenous people had been driven away from their homes during the conflict.
    The previous chairman of the taskforce, Samiran Dewan, had earlier admitted that not all the displaced people were accommodated in the list.
    A series of dialogue over the issue in the past years failed to yield any result and kept the rehabilitation process almost stalled.
   According to available statistics, the government had spent over Tk 1,100 crores for relief and rehabilitation of the refuges since the process started.
   Of the displaced, some 5,100 people from 1,000 families were repatriated while the internally displaced people could not return to their original villages, the government statistics said.
   Monday’s meeting, presided over by the convenor of the CHT treaty implement committee, Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, reviewed the overall situation in the hills.
   Replying to a question, Sajeda, also the deputy leader of the House, said that the government might review the CHT peace treaty if needed.
   She said that the government was very sincere to see full implementation of the deal to develop the backward region, which accounts for one-tenth of the country’s total land area, and improve the lives of the ethnic minorities.
   The chairman of the CHT regional commission, Jyotindra Bodhiprio Larma, popularly known as Santu Larma, told New Age that he raised the hill people’s demand for amendments to the CHT Land Commission law to address land disputes. ‘The amendment proposals would be sent to the law ministry through land ministry. They will finally be placed before parliament for its approval,’ he said.
    In reply to a question, Sajeda said that she could say how many temporary camps were still there in the once-insurgency battered hilly region.
   ‘There are temporary camps and they will be closed in phases in line with the treaty,’ she said without giving any specific timeline for withdrawal of the temporary camps.
   She said only six cantonments would be there to safeguard the sovereignty of the country.
   The meeting was also attended by the state minister for CHT affairs, Diapnker Talukder, the chairman of the CHT land commission Khadimul Islam Chowdhury and senior officials of the ministry.

The Cabinet Division on Monday conveyed the government’s strong message to local administration through divisional commissioners about its policy of zero tolerance against law breakers, organised criminals and militants.
   The field administrators have also been asked to ensure better coordination with the central administration for smooth implementation of the development programmes throughout the country, officials concerned said.
   The directives came at a regular meeting chaired by cabinet secretary M Abdul Aziz.
   ‘We have been asked to check any deterioration in law and order,’ said a divisional commissioner after the meeting.
   The divisional commissioners from the six divisions attended the meeting that followed up on the prime minister’s directives given to key officials of the bureaucracy at a recent conference.
   Overall law and order issues and militancy came up for discussions with divisional commissioners stating the situation of their respective areas.
   ‘The cabinet secretary has asked us to establish a better coordination between the field and the central administrations so that the government decisions are implemented on time,’ said an official who attended the meeting.
   The divisional commissioners were asked to hold law and order coordination meetings at the division level at regular intervals to prevent the situation from sliding.
   The cabinet secretary at the monthly meeting also asked the divisional administrative chiefs to make sure that the field officers cooperate with the local representatives in development activities.
   They were asked to continue operation of mobile courts against criminal activities that include illegal occupation of lands and water bodies and adulteration in food items.
   They were also told to gear up for video-conferencing with the prime minister as part of the government’s efforts to establish e-governance for smooth service delivery to the public.
   At a meeting on October 18, prime minister Sheikh Hasina expressed her dissatisfaction at the performance of the government machinery, including intelligence agencies.
   She asked the top bureaucrats to create a conducive environment for field level administrative officials to discharge their duties properly as she said the government’s image is linked to the performance of local level administration. ‘If they fail to discharge their duties, you will have to take immediate action against them,’ she said at the meeting.
   Hasina pressed civil bureaucrats for speedy implementation of the government’s decision.

The acute scarcity and excessive prices of potato seeds now pose a big problem for potato farmers in various districts of the country, just ahead of the season of potato cultivation which traditionally begins in mid-November.
   A number of potato farmers in Munshiganj, Jaipurhat, Rangpur and Dinajpur observed that the huge demand for potato seeds because of the rising of price of potatoes, and market manipulation by a trade syndicate which is allegedly in full control of the potato seeds supplied by the BADC and importers, were the main reasons behind the abnormal price-hike of seeds.
   ‘The price of potatoes this year went up abnormally so more farmers are eager to cultivate it on a larger scale, which has given rise to the huge demand for seeds. On the other hand, the farmers who preserved potato seeds have already sold them due to the high price,’ Shariful Islam, a seed trader in Munshiganj, told New Age.
   According to the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation, the demand for potato seeds in the country for this season is estimated to be 6,00,000 tonnes, and is mainly being met from the stocks preserved by farmers.
   The BADC supplies only 18,000 tonnes of quality seeds, which meets only 5 per cent of the demand. A percentage of potato seeds is imported through the private sector every year, and the rest of the seeds are produced by farmers in the traditional manner.
   The BADC this year fixed the price of seeds at Tk 30-38 per kg, which was at Tk 23-28 last year. The locally produced seeds are being sold for prices ranging from Tk 40 to Tk 60, depending on the quality.
   A syndicate of seed importers, cashing in on the seed crisis, charged Tk 7,000 for a 50 kg sack of seeds in various districts. The price of imported seeds was exactly half, Tk 3,500 a sack, in the corresponding period last year.
   The Bangladesh Cold Storage Association has complained that an importer authorised by government is apparently hoarding a substantial quantity of imported potato seeds to make windfall profits.
   ‘In 2008, AR Malik created an artificial crisis of seeds by importing an inadequate quantity and more than doubled the price by selling a 50-kg bag of seeds for Tk 12,000,’ said a press statement signed by the association’s president, Mohammed Jasim Uddin.
   He demanded urgent monitoring of prices and distribution of seeds imported by AR Malik. The statement suggested that seed distribution should be controlled by the Ministry of Agriculture.
   But AR Malik and Company said that the above allegation had been motivated by the ‘personal jealousy’ of the association’s president, and claimed that price of their seeds had remained at a reasonable level and they had warned distributors not to ask more than the maximum retail price set by the company.
   Sheikh Yakub Ali, the senior manager of AR Malik, said a box of potato seeds is being retailed for prices between Tk 6,000 and Tk 6,200 now, which is even less then the maximum retail price of Tk 6,500.
   A businessman in Rajshahi said that the stock of seeds in the cold storages could meet only one-fourth of the demand in the district. ‘As the price of potatoes was high in the market in the current season, farmers planned to bring more land under potato cultivation, but now they are facing problems due to the shortage of seeds.
   Our New Age correspondent in Rangpur reported that the farmers and traders in the north were frustrated by the severe shortage of seeds, the exorbitant prices being asked for them and the sub-standard adulterated pesticides in the market.
   According to the Department of Agricultural Extension in Rangpur, the government has set the production target of potatoes at 24,85,366 tonnes in some 1,50,639 hectares in eight districts of the greater Rangpur-Dinajpur region.
   Faruq Zahidul Haq, deputy director [seed marketing] of the BADC in Rangpur, said that they can supply only 3 per cent of the total demand for potato seeds. He claimed that the BADC has procured quality seeds of different grades and allotted some 2,000 tonnes for the farmers in eight districts this year.
   Afzal Miah, a farmer at Emadpur village under Mitha Pukur upazila, said that the prices of seeds in the local market this year were much higher than those of last year. ‘I bought an 80-kg sack of seeds, the price of which was Tk 1,400 last year, at Tk 3,200 from the local market.’
   New Age’s correspondent in Jaipurhat said that potato growers in the district are facing severe seed crisis in the potato cultivation season.
   Sources also said that this year at least 46,100 tonnes of seed are needed to hit the target, but the BADC could supply only 200 tonnes.
   Abdul Momin, a farmer of Battara village under Khetlal Upazila, said that this year he would not able to cultivate potatoes because of the seed crisis.

Police are hunting more than a dozen people on suspicion that they are linked with the bomb attack on an Awami League lawmaker, Fazle Noor Taposh, in Motijheel commercial area on Wednesday night.
   But none of them could be traced till Monday evening.
   Officials close to the investigation said that the suspects were listed after verifying the call lists of the four people already in the custody of the Detective Branch of police.
   According to the officials, the concerned authority has formed seven teams to interrogate the suspects — Kamrul Haque Swapan Bir Bikram, Abdur Rahim, Mehnaz Rashid Khandakar and Sheikh Shafiullah Sofu — now on police remand in the custody of the DB. The investigators continued interrogating them separately, since they were placed on police remand, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
   ‘If needed, the suspects will be grilled together to cross-check their information,’ said the investigation officer of the case, assistant commissioner Akbar Hossain.
   Akbar declined to comment on the outcome of interrogation and said that the statements extracted from the suspects were being serialised.
   Akbar also did not comment on the nature of the bomb hurled on the AL lawmaker and also declined to reveal whether it was thrown or planted beside the car.
   ‘We have collected bits of evidence such as splinters, pieces of glass and steel from the spot. We’re now sending them to the Armed Forces Division for testing,’ he said, and added that the Criminal Investigation Department’s laboratory has no legal authority to comment on the test report.
   Mehnaz reportedly told the police that she had maintained contact with her father, Lt Col (retd) Khandakar Abdur Rashid, who was convicted in the Bangabandhu murder case and sentenced to death, and who is now living in Pakistan, said a senior DB official.
   The detectives are verifying the call list of Mehnaz’s cellular phone.
   Another high-ranking official of the interrogation team told New Age, ‘Mehnaz was introduced to the then director of DGFI, Brigadier General Fazlul Bari, in a bid to revive the nearly defunct Freedom Party, founded by her father and maternal Uncle Syed Faruqur Rahman, (another convict in the Bangabandhu murder case) after the January 11/1 change-over in 2007. Later, she was married to Bari on August 12, 2007, and went to Bangkok for the honeymoon, but divorced him in December 2008.’
   Brigadier Bari, a powerful military officer during the interim government of Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed, is now in the USA.
   ‘Bari was Mehnaz’s second husband and their conjugal life came to end when Bari’s job was at stake after his first wife threatened to complain to the authority,’ he added.
   Mehnaz is now married to a businessman of Keraniganj and gave birth to a girl only four months ago.
   Taposh, a nephew of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, is also involved with the legal team assisting the state counsels in the appeals proceedings. His parents, Sheikh Fazlul Haque Moni and Arzoo Moni, were brutally murdered on August 15, 1975.
   Taposh alleged on Thursday that the bomb attack on him was intended to derail the appeals process in the Supreme Court.
   He filed a case with Motijheel Police Station, mentioning no names but alleging that the relatives and associates of those convicted of the August 15 killings were involved in the attack.
   According to the case report they carried out the attack in a premeditated manner to kill him in order to disrupt the final outcome of the trial of the killers of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
   Sub-inspector Arzu Mia, of the Motijheel police station, has been made the investigation officer of the case.

The BNP’s secretary-general, Khandakar Delwar Hossain, on Monday asked the government to withdraw the cases filed against the party’s leaders, including its chairperson Khaleda Zia and her son Tarique Rahman, by the interim administration, and immediately release the detained party leaders.
   ‘There cannot be dual application of the same law. You [government] are withdrawing all the cases filed against your party’s leaders and continuing those filed against ours,’ he said, accusing the government of obstructing justice by intervening in the work of the judicial courts.
   ‘Do not think that you will be spared after doing whatever you like. People understand everything. Meet our demands immediately and do not force us to compel a government to bow to the people’s demands,’ he said at a rally organised by Jatiyatabadi Swechchhasebak Dal in front of BNP’s central office in Naya Paltan.
   ‘People will not sit idle if you continuously violate their rights after being put in office by the great powers. This government has failed in every sector. After making the government and the parliament dysfunctional, the Awami League is now aiming to make Bangladesh a failed state,’ he said, vowing to ‘resist such conspiracies along with the people’.
   Delwar said that the BNP’s chairperson had been tolerant enough and given this government 10 months’ breathing space. ‘They seem to paying no heed to the gesture. Now people are taking to the streets,’ he said.
   BNP’s joint secretary-general Gayeshwar Roy asked the government to ascertain the sentiment of the people and act accordingly.
   One of the BNP’s organising secretaries, Amanullah Aman, said the government was unnecessarily taking BNP leaders into remand and torturing them in custody. ‘These are complete violations of human rights.’
   Presided over by Swechchhasebak Dal’s president Habibunnabi Khan Sohel, the rally was also addressed by BNP’s joint secretary-general Abdullah Al Noman, opposition chief whip Zainul Abedin Farroque, BNP student affairs secretary Fazlul Huq Milan, Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal’s president Barkatullah Bulu and general secretary Moazzem Hossain Alal.

Two helicopter crashes killed 14 American troops and narcotics agents in Afghanistan on Monday in one of the blackest days for the United States since its 2001 invasion, officials said.
   As anti-US protests erupted in Kabul over the alleged burning of a Qu’ran, the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, also questioned Washington’s commitment to the war-torn nation ahead of a run-off election in less than a fortnight.
   Following a first round riddled with fraud, Karzai’s presidential rival Abdullah Abdullah called for the head of the country’s election commission to be sacked and three cabinet ministers to be suspended.
   The deadlier of the two crashes was in western Badghis province where seven troops and three civilians were killed. The NATO-led force in Afghanistan said enemy fire was not believed to be the cause.
   The Taliban said it was behind the downing of the helicopter and claimed 14 Afghan civilians were killed in a subsequent air strike by the foreign force.
   The Islamist militia also claimed to have caused a mid-air collision in the south of the country which NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said killed four American soldiers.
   The helicopters apparently collided in mid-air and the cause was being investigated but no hostile fire was involved, ISAF added.
   The crash in Badghis occurred during a joint search operation by Afghan and Western forces of ‘a suspected compound believed to harbour insurgents conducting activities related to narcotics trafficking,’ ISAF said.
   In a statement, the US embassy said the dead civilians were all members of its staff while a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the three dead civilians were part of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
   Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP the Islamists had ‘shot down’ the helicopter in Badghis, and that 24 foreign soldiers were killed.
   The single deadliest incident involving US troops in Afghanistan was in June 2005 when 16 troops were killed on a special forces helicopter shot down by insurgents.
   The mood was further darkened by news that a homemade bomb killed a US soldier in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday and another had died of wounds sustained in an insurgent attack.
   ISAF and the defence ministry also said two dozen people, including two Afghan soldiers and 22 insurgents, were killed in the south and southeast.
   According to an AFP tally based on that kept by independent website icasualties.org, 437 foreign troops have died in Afghanistan in 2009, including 269 Americans.
   The toll has increased pressure on the US president, Barack Obama, as he mulls a request by his top commander on the ground to deploy up to 40,000 more troops.

China’s premier is confident Myanmar will safeguard peace on its border, Chinese state media said on Sunday after violence erupted on the Myanmar side in August that pushed thousands of refugees into China.
   Chinese premier Wen Jiabao also pledged more financial aid to the reclusive military-ruled country during a meeting with his Myanmar counterpart, Thein Sein, in the Thai town of Hua Hin, according to the state media report of the closed-door meeting.
   China’s Xinhua state news agency said Wen believed Myanmar ‘could properly handle problems and safeguard peace and stability in the China-Myanmar border region’ after the two met on the sidelines of a summit of 16 Asia-Pacific leaders.
   In August, Myanmar’s army overran Kokang, a territory that lies along the border with the south-western Chinese province of Yunnan and was controlled for years by an ethnic Chinese militia that paid little heed to the central government.
   Many of the refugees were ethnic Chinese, some of them Chinese citizens, who complained their houses and businesses had been sacked and looted during the violence.
   Last month, China rapped the former Burma over the violence, demanding the government protect Chinese citizens and make sure such incidents did not happen again.
   But relations appear to be improving again.
   ‘To develop good neighbourly China-Myanmar relations with mutually beneficial cooperation conforms with the fundamental interests of the two countries and will be conducive to regional peace and stability,’ Wen told Thein Sein, Xinhua said.
   China hopes Myanmar would realise stability, reconciliation and development, Wen added, pledging to offer assistance to Myanmar.
   Chinese officials have not held briefings with international media during the meeting in Hua Hin, or publicly discussed the substance of their bilateral talks.
   Myanmar’s prime minister last month visited the UN General Assembly for the first time in 16 years to promote next year’s elections — the first in nearly two decades — part of a rare charm offensive by country’s military rulers.

Death Row convict Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, who had earlier been sacked, was posted for duty at the radio station on 15 August, 1975, as he was reinstated in his job by Khaled Mosharraf, the then General Officer Commanding of Dhaka Cantonment.
   Shahriar’s counsel Abdur Razzaque Khan said this in his argument before the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court during the 16th day of hearing in the appeals filed by the five condemned convicts against the High Court’s verdict that had upheld their death sentences in the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman murder case.
   Earlier on the day, the court heard Khan Saifur Rahman, the counsel for condemned convicts Syed Faruque Rahman and Mohiuddin Ahmed of the Artillery.
   The court will resume hearing today and Razzaque will show Shahriar’s service documents.
   ‘Shahriar was reinstated in service as per order of the then GOC Khaled Mosharraf who asked Shahriar to guard the radio station at Shahbagh at 6:00am on 15 August, 1975,’ said Razzaque.
   He claimed that Shahriar was deployed at the radio station in the morning and at the Bangabhaban at noon as security officer. ‘Shahriar cannot be convicted of the killings in Sheikh Mujib’s house because of his presence in the two places.’
   When asked by the court to explain why Shahriar was reinstated in his job at 6:00am on August 15, 1975, Razzaque replied, ‘Shahriar’s reinstatement may be an offence but he cannot be tried for the carnage at Mujib’s house that took place at about 5:00am.’
   Shahriar was convicted by third High Court judge, Mohammad Fazlul Karim, who resolved the split verdict of two High Court judges by upholding the death sentence of 12 former army men in the case, based on the testimony of two witnesses.
   One witness, Dafadar Shafiuddin Sardar of the First Field Artillery, said in his deposition that he had seen Shahriar at the Balurghat parade ground in Dhaka Cantonment at night on 14 August, 1975. Another witness, Havildar Aminur Rahman who was on duty at the radio station, said in his deposition that he had seen Shahriar in the radio station.
   Questioning the validity of Shafiuddin’s deposition, Razzaque argued, ‘Shafiuddin admitted, during the cross-examination in the trial court, that he had never worked under Shahriar, who was terminated as a lieutenant colonel. So how could he identify Shahriar on the dock at the trial court, 21 years after he had allegedly seen him at night on the parade ground on 14 August, 1975?’

At least 200 education officials from across the country, including education minister Nurul Islam Nahid, are set to go Barisal to participate in the inaugural ceremony of the inter-education board sports competition, though the journey will cost the public exchequer a huge amount of money.
   On Monday afternoon piles of files were found at the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education as most of the officials, including its director-general, had left office for Barisal as an advance team for the education minister’s entourage, education officials told New Age on Monday.
   ‘We arranged the journey by launch as a large launch is available in Dhaka-Barisal route. The minister is scheduled to go to Barisal by Suravi 7, a passenger ship,’ said an official close to the minister. ‘At least 100 double-cabins of the Suravi 7, Parabat 2, Kirtonkhola launches have been reserved for the journey. The launches will leave Sadarghat tomorrow [Tuesday evening].’ Authorities concerned have confirmed that the above launches have been reserved for the journey.
   Authorities of all the 10 education boards will provide funds for the four-day inter-education board summer’s sports to be held at the Shahid Abdur Rab Serniabat Stadium in Barisal. The education minister is the chief guest of the inaugural ceremony while the education directorate’s DG, Professor Noman Ur Rashid, is schedule to chair it.
   Nearly 1,000 students from many educational institutions across the country will participate in the sports competition.
   When asked, the education minister told New Age of his journey by launch and inauguration of the sports meet on October 28. He will also stay at Barisal till Thursday.
   The assistant director [administration] of the DSHE, M Kawsar Ali, said the funds which are being used for the sport-related tasks are collected from the students who register for appearing in the SSC, HSC and equivalent exams under the 10 education boards. Nearly 10 lakh students appear for the exams every year, and everyone of them needs to pay minimum Tk 15 as sports fee.
   ‘I will leave for Barisal to participate in the inaugural function tomorrow [Tuesday],’ said the official on Monday.
   Bimal Krishna Majumdar, chairman of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education in Barisal, told New Age on Monday that nearly Tk 4 lakh has been estimated as expenses for the inaugural function.
   ‘The officials of the education ministry, DSHE, education boards and regional education offices will be given travel allowances. We have reserved some of the cabins of the biggest launch for the education minister and his associates,’ said the chairman.
   Some officials of education boards have told New Age that the minimum expenditure for the sports competition will be Tk 1 crore.
   Referring to previous experience, a board official said, ‘This is the first time that a minister is going to be the chief guest at the inauguration ceremony of such an annual sports competition. In the past such functions were attended by the education secretary and local lawmakers.

The US oil company, ConocoPhillips, wanted all eight offshore blocks, instead of the two offered, for which they had submitted bids, but the government is unlikely to award them the whole lot, sources in Petrobangla and energy ministry said.
   The company in a letter sent last week to the energy ministry proposed that it should be awarded all the eight blocks.
   This latest proposal came after the ConocoP officials held negotiations with Petrobangla early this month over signing production sharing contract for the two blocks they have been offered.
   The tender evaluation committee in 2008 had recommended for awarding ConocoP all the eight deep sea blocks for which it had submitted tenders.
   But in August this year, the government decided to award it two blocks, No 10 and No 11, as it wanted to avoid further complications over disputed areas with India and Myanmar.
   Besides, the government felt it would be strategically risky to award all the off-shore blocks to a single company.
   ‘The company sent a letter last week saying that they wanted all the eight blocks instead of the two offered and that they are prepared to keep away from the disputed maritime areas from their exploration activities,’ said a source in the energy ministry.
   He, however, said that the government did not take any decision yet, but it is unlikely that the US company would be given all eight blocks.
   When asked about ConocoP's latest proposal, Prime minister's adviser, Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury declined to give his comment over the letter.
   ‘But I can only say that the government has already taken its decision to award two blocks to ConocoP and this decision has not been changed,’ he told New Age on Monday.
   Replying to a query whether ConocoP would sign PSC for the two blocks, a high official of the ministry said that they were expecting that the company would sign the PSCs.
   Petrobangla and ConocoPhillips on October 6-8 held negotiations over signing PSCs for the two blocks and agreed in principle to include a provision in the model PSC that no exploration works would be carried out in areas that overlapped zones claimed by India and Myanmar.
   During the negotiations, ConocoP officials informed Petrobangla of a letter sent by Myanmar cautioning the company not to undertake exploration in the offshore block 11, insisting that some parts of it overlapped Myanmar's maritime boundary.
   Besides, India recently claimed that some of the areas of block 10 and shallow sea block 5 overlapped India's maritime territory. But both India and Myanmar have already intruded into Bangladesh's maritime boundary for oil and gas exploration.
   Petrobangla also held primary negotiations with Irish company Tullow for signing a PSC for shallow sea block No 5.
   The government move to award three blocks to international oil companies, however, is being opposed by some rights groups, academics and left-leaning political parties. They have demanded scrapping of the PSCs as they contain a provision for gas export.

A Dhaka court on Monday asked the Awami League's former general secretary Abdul Jalil to appear in the court on November 17 in a tax evasion case.
   Dhaka metropolitan senior special judge ANM Bashir Ullah passed the order after Jalil's counsel submitted an application seeking time for hearing in the case saying that Jalil had obtained anticipatory bail from the High Court on October 18 and could not appear in the court on Monday due to illness.
   The same court ordered Jalil's arrest two hours after the National Board of Revenue had filed the case on October 15 accusing him of evading Tk 4.07 lakh in income tax and hiding an income of Tk 54.60 lakh.
   The court also ordered the police to report to the court by October 26 on the warrant execution.
   Jalil, also a lawmaker and member on the advisory council of the ruling Awami League, whose diatribe against his party caused a storm in the political arena, was removed as the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the commerce ministry on October 6.
   Jalil's removal coincided with his return home on the day from London, where in a media interview on September 22 he had said the Awami League had reached an understanding with the immediate-past military-controlled government before the December 29 elections. He also said he had made a mistake by not opposing Sheikh Hasina, now the prime minister, when she returned home in 2007.
   Jalil later retracted the comments he made in London and said 'sorry.' He also said he had suffered a trauma because of torture in custody of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence during the emergency.
   His removal from the parliamentary panel came three days after and the lawsuit and arrest warrant 12 days after Hasina, the Awami League president, had told a meeting of the party's central working committee on October 3 that action would be taken against Jalil at 'an appropriate time' for his comments.
   During a debate on January 29 on the thanksgiving motion for the president's inaugural speech in the parliament, Jalil levelled an allegation of inhuman torture on him by the military intelligence after the January 11, 2007 changeover.
   He demanded that a parliamentary committee should investigate the torture on him by the personnel of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence.
   The parliament should also take initiatives to limit the operation of the DGFI, he said, suggesting that DGFI operations should be confined to the armed forces so that 'general people, businessmen and politicians are not subjected to 'inhuman torture'.

At least 10 people were injured in clashes between rival groups of people over the control of a market at Nilkhet in the city on Monday morning.
   Shopkeepers at Islamia market, adjacent to Nilkhet market, alleged that one Khairul Hassan Khokan of Tejgaon went to the market along with some hired goons at around 7:00am and tried to forcibly occupy the shops.
   Hearing the news, several hundred local traders and shopkeepers rushed to the scene in a bid to protect the land.
   The clashes broke out as soon as the local traders arrived at the scene. The two groups brandishing iron rods and hockey sticks swooped on each other. The sporadic clashes, continued for about an hour, left at least 10 people injured. They dispersed after the New Market police arrived at the scene at around 8:30am.
   President of Islamia market traders' association, Mohammad Mokbul Hossain told New Age that Khokan had tried to occupy the market claiming he owned the land though he could not produce any legal documents.
   'Islamia and Babupura markets together have a land measuring 62 decimal… We took possession of the land from the government for Tk 9 lakh in 1998 and the allotment process it is still under way,' he said adding that he had been running business there since 1982 with a government registration.
   Babupura small traders' association president, Belayet Hossain claimed that Khokan and his men had brandished firearms while attacking the shopkeepers and injured the market's security guard, Nurunnabi.
   Enayet Karim, former president of Islamia traders' association, said they would keep their shops shut until the government assured them of security.
   Kamrul Islam, officer-in-charge of New Market police station, told New Age, 'The court will decide who really owns the land.'

Ain O Salish Kendra in a statement on Monday expressed concern over the police's refusal to record the case of New Age's staff correspondent FM Masum who was tortured by some personnel of the Rapid Action Battalion.
   'We thank the home minister for expressing regret for the incident. But only expressing regret is not enough; it needs investigation and those involved in the incident should be punished,' said an ASK statement.
   The statement said whenever any incident took place, the home minister assured all of not sparing anybody responsible for illegal activities, but it was not clear whether any action was taken or not.
   'Withdrawing the officers involve the torture immediately might be an instant steps. But it is necessary to ensure punishment of the perpetrators after an investigation,' the statement said.
   The ASK urged the government to keep vigil on the activities of RAB.
   Home affairs minister Sahara Khatun on Sunday expressed regret that New Age's staff correspondent FM Masum had been tortured by some personnel of the Rapid Action Battalion.

Robbers shot to death a man and injured three others during a robbery at Chandpur of Fatikchhari early Monday.
   The deceased was shop owner Badiul Alam, 40, of the village.
   The police said a gang of masked robbers, numbering 30-35, swooped into the house of Ahmed Sofa breaking open the door at about 3:00am and looted valuables, including cash money, gold ornaments, mobile phone sets, worth over Tk 1 lakh taking the hostage the inmates at gunpoint.
   Hearing the hue and cry of the inmates when local people went to the spot, the robbers sprayed bullets on them leaving Badiul killed and three others injured.

Over 50 people were injured in a series of clashes between the supporters of an incumbent UP chairman and a former one at Kurighar bazar in Nabinagar on Monday.
   The police said the clash ensued between the supporters of incumbent Natghar UP chairman Humayun Kabir and former chairman Zillur Rahman at about 10:00am over establishing supremacy on the area.
   Both the fighting groups used lethal weapons during the three-hour clashes, leaving over 50 people from both sides injured.
   They also ransacked and looted at least four shops at the bazaar.
   On information, the police went and fired five blank shots to bring the situation under control.
   Eighteen of the injured were admitted to Sadar and other hospitals.
   Later, two of them were taken to Dhaka as their condition deteriorated.