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The cross-section of people have continued their protests against the government’s plan to upgrade Bhairab upazila into a new administrative district, severing five upazilas from Kishoreganj district.
   Some of the protesters, including local leaders of ruling Awami League, find no point in dividing Kishoreganj district just to implement a public pledge of the topmost person of the state since there is no administrative or other problem.
   Ali Asgar, chairman of Katiadi upazila and upazila unit president of Awami League said, ‘Bhairab has only one point to qualify as a new district. It is the place from where president Zillur Rahman was elected, nothing else.’
   He said people of his area have very close links with Kishoreganj; they have businesses there, send their children there for better education and feel comfortable to communicate with the district headquarter.
   ‘Moreover, people of Bhairab look very harsh towards people of other upazilas,’ Asgar said.
   The cabinet at a meeting on October 12 formed a committee to examine how Bhairab can be made a separate district with five upazilas – Bajitpur, Bhairab, Katiadi, Kuliarchar and Nikli – out of 13 upazilas of Kishoreganj district. The committee was given a month’s time.
   Protesters from three out of the five upazilas said they have no problem if Bhairab becomes a district or even a division, but they are not ready to be a part of it. They feel more attached to Kishoreganj district headquarters for business, education and healthcare because of better connectivity and infrastructures.
   Public disapproval has been reflected in a series of protests planned to prevent the government from dividing Kishoreganj and creating a new district since there is no such emergency.
   Protest programmes like hartal and blockades, already observed or planned, are being organised under different banners to save Kishoreganj or create Bajitpur district, but not to be a part of the proposed Local Awami League leaders and upazila chairmen are behind most of the organised protests with popular supports from people of all walks — from farmers to schoolteachers, lawyers to businesspeople, civic leaders to politicians.
   The situation is almost the same in Bajitpur, Katiadi and Nikli — three of the five upazilas planned to be components of new Bhairab district. Bhairab and Kuliarchar upazilas are the exception, where people organised rallies celebrating the government’s plan.
    At least one of the six lawmakers of Kishoreganj, home constituency of president of the republic, speaker of parliament and ruling Awami League general secretary who is also the local government minister, even expressed reservations about Bhairab becoming a district.
   Many local people said the government’s move to include Bajitpur, Katiadi and Nikli upazilas in the proposed Bhairab district was initiated without considering difficulties of the people’s connectivity as well as issues like geographical location, compactness and existing infrastructures.
   ‘Making Bhairab a district is nothing but show of power of president of the country Zillur Rahman as he is from that upazila. People of the other upazilas named to be a part of the proposed district will have to suffer a lot,’ Mobarak Hossain, a schoolteacher of Dighirpar in Bajitpur upazila told New Age.
   Upgrading Bhairab, an upazila on the edge of Kishoreganj district and sandwiched between the rivers Meghna and Brahmaputra, into a district was an election pledge of president Zillur Rahman, who was elected a member of parliament from Bhairab with Awami League ticket, according to locals.
   Nazmul Hasan Papon won the by-polls as the seat had fallen vacant after his father Zillur Rahman took over as president of the republic.
   Protests continued in Bajitpur, Katiadi and Nikli upazilas registering people’s disapproval of the Bhairab district plan and dividing Kishoreganj district.
   Protest committees have been formed in each of three upazilas comprising leaders of all political parties, professional bodies and civic groups. They have already observed programmes like hartal and transport blockades, and threatened to launch a tougher agitation programme if the government goes ahead with the plan.
   Awami League lawmaker from Kishoreganj-2 constituency comprising Pakundia-Katiadi upazilas, Professor MA Mannan told New Age on Friday he told the prime minister that nobody of his constituency will accept Bhairab as their district headquarter. He said that five lawmakers of Kishoreganj planned to call on prime minister Sheikh Hasina to express their reservations about the proposed Bhairab district.
   ‘Awami League leaders of the district and upazila units and lawmakers of the areas held a meeting at the chamber of speaker Abdul Hamid Thursday and urged AL general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam to seek an appointment from the prime minister,’ he added.
    Lawmaker from Nazmul Hasan Papon was, however, not with them.
   ‘We have no problem if the government announces Bhairab a district or a division. But we will not go there due to two reasons—firstly geographical location and secondly, unfriendly treatment of Bhairab people,’ Shahjahan, a resident of Nikli upazila said.
   Milon Hossain, a farmer of Bongram in Kotiadi said he and other people of his village were not willing to accept Bhairab as a new district as Kishoreganj is nearer to them.
   ‘It takes 20 to 25 minutes to reach Kishoreganj while going to Bhairab takes about one hour,’ he said.
   Shanuar Ali Shah Selim, president of Bajitpur Chamber of Commerce and Industry, questioned how an upazila at the fag end of the district and surrounded by three other districts, could become a district itself, while other upazilas with better connectivity remained neglected.
   ‘I think Zillur Rahman has forgotten that he is the president of the country not for Bhairab alone,’ Selim, also president of Awami League of Bajitpur municipal unit, said.
   Anwarul Huq, a lawyer and member secretary of the Bajitpur Zila Bastabayan Committee, said they have been boycotting the civil courts for a week in protest against inclusion of Bajitpur in the proposed Bhairab district. He said they will not bow to the wish of the president.
   Mia Mohammad Ferdous, president of Kishoreganj District Bar Association, criticised the move, saying ‘There is no need to divide an old district to create a new entity since there is no administrative or law and order problem. We do not understand the benefit if Bhairab becomes a district.’
   Ferdous, also president of Kishoreganj Zila Rakkha Committee and local Awami League leader, said the people of all walks of life including students and farmers took to the street protesting against the move of dividing the district.
   The Kishoreganj Zila Rakkha Committee has called dawn-to-dusk hartal in the district for Monday.
   People of Bhairab upazila and a section of people of Kuliarchar upazila, however, have been holding rallies welcoming the government’s plan to make Bhairab a district.
   Kishoreganj district under Dhaka division is located to the northeast of the country and is made of 13 upazilas- Astagram, Bajitpur, Bhairab, Hossainpur, Itna, Karimganj, Katiadi, Kishoreganj Sadar, Kuliarchar, Mithamain, Nikli, Pakundia and Tarail.
   President Zillur Rahman on July 13 said he would continue his all out efforts to upgrade Bhairab into a district to fulfil the long-cherished demand of the local people.
   ‘I promise you, I will carry on my best efforts to upgrade Bhairab into a district,’ he told a civic reception accorded to him on the premises of Bhairab Haji Asmat College.
   Accordingly, a letter, signed by Seema Nahar, a senior assistant secretary of the president’s office, was sent to cabinet secretary asking for necessary steps to develop Bhairab as a new district, including Bhairab, Kuliarchar, Bajitpur and Nikli upazilas. Later prime minister Sheikh Hasina gave her consent to add Katiadi upazila to the proposed new district.

The Kishoreganj Zila Rakkha Committee has called dawn-to-dusk hartal in the district for Monday against the division of the district while people of Bajitpur upazila announced hartal separately on the same day, demanding upgrade of their upazila to district.
   People of three upazilas — Bajitpur, Katiadi and Nikli — continued their agitation for the second week, protesting at the inclusion of upazilas within the proposed Bhairab district, severing them from the Kishoreganj district.
   They demanded that either the upazilas should be kept under the administrative jurisdiction of Kishoreganj or made into a new district comprising their upazilas.
   The government’s move to make Bhairab a separate district with five upazilas — Bajitpur, Bhairab, Katiadi, Kuliarchar and Nikli — out of 13 upazilas of the Kishoreganj district, sparked off the protest.
   Convener of the Kishoreganj Zila Rakkha Committee Mia Mohammad Ferdous, also president of Kishoreganj district BAR Association, on Friday urged the people to make the hartal a success.
   The Bajitpur Zila Bastabayan Committee on Friday at a meeting with its convener Sheikh Nurun Nabi Badal, also chairman of Bajitpur upazila, called the hartal to implement their demand of upgrading their upazila to a district.
   The meeting also decided to launch a tough agitation programme if the government plans to include Bajitpur in the proposed Bhairab district severing it from Kishoreganj.

The Criminal Investigation Department on Friday started interrogating the former state minister for home affairs, BNP’s Lutfozzaman Babar, after taking him on a five-day remand in the case connected with the 21 August, 2004 grenade attack on an Awami League rally.
   The investigation officer and additional special superintendent of the CID, Abdul Qahhar Akhand, told New Age, ‘We brought him to our headquarters from Kashimpur Jail at around 12:30pm for interrogation after the court granted a five-day remand.’
   ‘We have started primary interrogation and he has already provided us with some significant information which we should not divulge now for the sake of the investigation,’ he added.
   A high official of the investigating team on condition told New Age, ‘We wanted to know what role he had played before and after the blast as a state minister for home affairs.’
   ‘We also asked some selected questions, such as why the BNP-Jamaat government had refused to allot the Muktangan as the meeting’s venue on the day of the rally, what kind of instructions Babar had given the police’s high-ups, had he obeyed any order of Hawa Bhaban after the incident, why had he called some CID officials to his office and who were they, did he maintain any communications with any militant organisation, did he maintain any relation with former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu, and who directed him to derail the investigation,’ he added.
   A Dhaka court on Thursday allowed the investigation officer of the grenade attack case to take Lutfozzaman Babar on a five-day remand.
   The first additional chief metropolitan magistrate, Ehsanul Haque, passed the order, vacating his earlier stay order on remand, when he was produced in the court at around 12.30pm on Thursday.
   The Supreme Court on Thursday imposed a seven-day halt on the High Court’s stay order on taking Babar into remand.
   The Appellate Division’s chamber judge, Justice Mohammed Mozammel Hossain, halted the stay order for seven days on Thursday, removing the obstacle that had stopped the police from taking Babar in remand for questioning.
   Babar was remanded on Wednesday, only to be reprieved hours later as his lawyers succeeded in securing a stay order until 1 November from the High Court.
   Gazi Quamrul Islam, Babar’s lawyer, immediately filed a petition with the High Court to seek an order for his client to be questioned in the jail’s premises.
   The High Court bench of Justice Syed Mohammed Dastagir Hossain and Justice Mohammed Roisuddin ordered the police to question him in the jail’s premises.
   The High Court’s order was then submitted to metropolitan magistrate Haque’s court by another lawyer, Khandakar Mahbub Hossain.
   Haque set November 1 as the date for another hearing and stayed the earlier remand order until then.
   Babar, who was again put behind bars in March this year and is serving 17 years after being convicted in an arms case, was shown arrested in the grenade attack case on Monday.
   The grenade attack on an Awami League rally on 21 August, 2004 killed at least 24 persons, including AL leader Ivy Rahman, and left 200 injured and maimed for life.
   Some 22 persons have been charged in the case, including former BNP state minister Abdus Salam Pintu, his brother Tajuddin, who was the alleged supplier of Arges grenades, and Mufti Hannan, leader of banned Islamist outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami.
   Of the accused persons 13, including Pintu and Hannan, are now behind bars while the remaining are on the run.
   The Criminal Investigation Department pressed charges in two cases, a murder case and an explosives case, on June 11 last year. Some 61 among 412 witnesses have so far testified.
   The witnesses include President Zillur Rahman, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, home affairs minister Sahara Khatun and AL’s former general secretary Abdul Jalil.

The trial of the soldiers accused of being involved in the BDR headquarters mutiny in February 25–26 will begin in the first week of November in six special courts led by the BDR director general under the Bangladesh Rifles Order 1972.
   The law minister, Shafique Ahmed, said this after an inter-ministerial meeting at his house on Friday.
   He also said any future mutiny in any disciplined force would be tried under the Army Act 1952 and a proposal for issuing a gazette notification making such a provision would be placed in the cabinet for its approval on Monday.
   BDR personnel and civilians against whom charges of other criminal offences such as killing and looting have been levelled will, however, be tried in a speedy trial tribunal under the Penal Code. Their trial in the tribunal will, however, begin after charges are pressed in the case.
   The meeting also decided to begin the trial in the tribunal after the completion of the trial of BDR soldiers on mutiny charges by special BDR courts, sources attending the meeting said.
   ‘Charges of other criminal offences such as killing and looting may also be pressed against some of the accused BDR mutineers and they will be produced in the tribunal for trial after the completion of their trial on mutiny charges,’ Shafique told reporters.
   The meeting was also attended by the home minister, Sahara Khatun, state minister for law Quamrul Islam, attorney general Mahbubey Alam, home secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikder, law secretary Kazi Habibul Awal, deputy director general of the BDR and a representative of the judge advocate general of the army.
   According to meeting insiders, a gazette notification will be issued soon to set up two special courts in Dhaka and four others in four divisional headquarters for the mutiny trials.
   The BDR director general will head each of the six special courts.
   Article 2(1)(j) of the Bangladesh Rifles Order says, ‘Special court means a court of not less than two officers, not below the rank of superior officer, constituted and presided over by the director general and assisted by the attorney general or his representative.’
   Asked about the trial process, the law minister told New Age neither the filing of any case nor the submission of any charge sheet would be needed for the mutiny trials.
   Article 10A(2) stipulates, ‘The special court may take cognizance of any offence punishable under this article either of its own motion or on a complaint by any officer and shall follow such procedures as may be prescribed.’
   The special court will notify the BDR soldiers, against whom charges will be pressed, detailing the charges against them and asking them to explain their positions in a stipulated timeframe, the minister explained.
   According to Rule 3(V) of the Bangladesh Rifles Rules 1971, anyone accused needs to be given not less than 27 days to be produced in the special court for self defence after the framing of charges.
   Shafique said the BDR personnel would be allowed to appoint lawyers, but the lawyers would not be allowed to present arguments in the special court.
   The accused may argue in their own defence in the courts, he said, adding that the lawyers will only provide the accused mutineers with suggestions in defending themselves.
   Rights groups Odhikar and Ain o Salish Kendra, however, said the accused BDR rebels would be denied justice unless they were allowed to defend themselves by lawyers of their choice.
   Article 10(A)(3) of the order says, ‘A subordinate officer or a rifleman or signalman, accused of an offence under this order, shall have the right to conduct his own defence or to have the assistance of any officer of the force or of any legal practitioner of his own choice.’
   The rights watchdogs, in separate statements on October 22, viewed that lawyers were not debarred by the article from placing arguments in the special court in defence of their clients.
   Taking assistance of a legal practitioner means the lawyer appointed by anyone accused will argue in defence of the accused, they explained.

The new office timing is yet to have a significant impact on the traffic situation in the capital as many business concerns and non-government organisations are flouting the government’s order by following the old timetable.
   But banks and other financial organisations operating under the Bangladesh Bank have implemented the new 10:00am-6:00pm office timing which came into effect on 18 October.
   The traffic situation will improve if everyone concerned complies with the new office hours, said some commuters.
   Many private offices were found open between 9:00am and 10:00am during spot visits to Motijheel Commercial Area on Wednesday and Thursday.
   Abul Hashem of the Global Travel Network, located near the Dainik Bangla intersection, admitted that their offices open at 9:30am.
   ‘In fact, our employees are used to the old timing and they reach office between 9:00am and 10:00am,’ said Hashem whose company provides travel services.
   A security guard at the Amin Court in Motijeel told New Age that he has seen employees of many private organisations, housed in the building, follow the old timetable.
   ‘I have heard that the timing for private offices has been changed but in fact most employees in many offices here arrive by 9:30am,’ said the security guard.
   The president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Fazlul Hoque, said that the new office timing could not be applicable to the factories running on shifts, each shift of eight hours’ duration. ‘But we are considering the rescheduling of working hours for factories in the winter as the Daylight Saving Time will be continued,’ he added.
   The president of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Zafar Osman, said the traffic situation was improving and employees were now coming to office on time. ‘We must ensure that the system functions properly…Traffic rules should be strictly maintained to avoid congestion,’ he added.
   The additional deputy commissioner of the police, Walid Hossain, also said that the traffic situation in the city had improved after the new office timing came into effect.
   An official of the Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that most business concerns, except the commercial banks, compel their employees to work extra hours.
   ‘In many offices here the management want employees to reach office as early as possible and leave as late as possible,’ he pointed out.
   He, however, said that many business concerns were revising their office timing, though belatedly.
   ‘Many business concerns are gradually responding to the government’s directive to reschedule the working hours in order to ease the traffic situation,’ he said.
   Officials of a number of non-government organisations confirmed that the new office timing was being maintained only in their head offices, but not in the local offices for fear that their regular work might be hampered.
   Employees working in the field say they face problems.
   ‘If we do not visit stakeholders’ houses in time, we cannot collect the money…We are told they are out at work,’ said an NGO employee who works at the field-level.
   The government on October 15 announced the new timetable for non-government offices, banks and other financial institutions in Dhaka city.
   Establishment secretary Iqbal Mahmood, when asked, said that the government would not monitor implementation of the new timetable since it was the responsibility of all concerned to obey the order.
   All government and private schools in the city have been asked to enforce the new timing from 1 November this year in a circular issued by the establishment ministry.
   In keeping with the new timing, all non-government offices, banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions will work between 10:00am and 6:00pm, while government primary schools and kindergartens will start at 9:30am and close at 4:15pm. Secondary, higher secondary and English-medium schools and madrassahs will start between 7:30am and 8:30am. But hours for schools with single-shifts will not be less than six hours and for double-shifs not less than five hours, according to the official order.
   The offices of government, semi-government, autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies are functioning in accordance with the old schedule — between 9:00am and 5:00pm.

Militants blew up a high school and a clinic in restive northwest Pakistan on Friday in the latest spike of violence that has left more than 300 people dead this month, officials said.
   A 12-room state-run high school for boys and a clinic in Shahukhel village were turned to rubble by explosives planted by militants, chief of Hangu district administration, Gul Wali Khan, told AFP.
   There were no casualties because the buildings were empty, he said. Up to 80 kilograms of explosives were used, he added.
   Militants have destroyed hundreds of schools, mostly for girls, in the North West Frontier Province over the past few years.
   Nearly 200 schools were destroyed in the Swat valley alone during a two-year violent campaign by radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah to enforce shariah law.
   Following up a similar offensive in Swat this summer, Pakistan is pressing a major ground and air operation designed to crush Taliban sanctuaries in the lawless South Waziristan region, which borders Afghanistan.
   Authorities last week shut schools across Pakistan following a suicide attack on a university campus in Islamabad. Although most schools reopened on Monday, several private schools have remained closed this week.

The government has started taking back all the books on the late president Ziaur Rahman and former prime minister Khaleda Zia, supplied in 2002–2006, from school and college libraries, National Curriculum and Textbook Board officials said.
   All such extra-curricular books were bought between 2002 and 2006 (tenure of the immediate-past BNP-led government) and sent to the school and college libraries under an education ministry project.
   A number of headmasters and principals of educational institutions located in various parts of the country in the past week told New Age a few weeks ago, they received an official order issued by the National Curriculum and Textbook Board which asked them to send back all such books to the board at the earliest.
   ‘At least 40 books on the lives and works of the late president Ziaur Rahman, former prime minister Khaleda Zia, November 7 and war of independence were sent back to the textbook board in the past week. Some of the books were written by former Dhaka University vice-chancellor Professor Emajuddin Ahmed,’ said a source in the Government Sailakupa College.
   ‘At least 30 per cent of such books have so far been taken back. All such books taken back have been sent to our Tejgaon warehouse,’ said a board official.
   The education minister, Nurul Islam Nahid, in the middle of May in a verbal order asked the board to form a committee to identify the books bought between the 2002 and 2006 financial years that contained text going against the spirit of the independence war.
   The board formed a three-member committee to look into the matter as directed by the education minister.
   Committee member Professor Haspia Bashirullah said they did not know how much money was spent on buying such books. ‘An estimated 55,405 copies of 255 titles have so far been found. All such books were bought with the government money.’
   ‘In the name of extracurricular books, such books should not be distributed among the libraries of schools and colleges as the students will get misinformation and disinformation and will be deprived of the chance of knowing the history of the motherland,’ said a ministry official.
   ‘There was uproar and newspapers carried reports on corruption in the selection of such books as they were bought for high prices during the BNP’s tenure. An additional secretary of the education ministry, who headed the book selection committee, is now working as a consultant of a the World Bank-funded project on higher education,’ he said.

The UN General Assembly on Wednesday called overwhelmingly on US president Barack Obama’s administration to end Washington’s Cold War-era trade embargo against Cuba.
   This was the 18th year running that the UN General Assembly condemned US trade restrictions on the communist-ruled island.
   The non-binding vote was backed by 187 countries, ranging from Latin American neighbours of Cuba to members of the European Union and other close US allies.
   Only Israel and tiny Palau supported the United States, while Micronesia and the Marshall Islands abstained.
   The margin of opposition to the US embargo has grown steadily since 1992, when 59 countries voted in favour of the resolution. The figure was 179 in 2004, 182 in 2005, 184 in 2007, and 185 last year.
   The embargo was imposed nearly five decades ago at the height of the Cold War when Cuba was a Soviet client state.
   Cuba’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, called the embargo ‘an absurd policy that causes scarcities and sufferings. It is a crass, flagrant and systematic violation of human rights.’
   He told the General Assembly that despite signs of a US-Cuban thaw since Obama’s election last year ‘there has not been any change in the implementation of the economic, commercial and financial blockade.’
   Voting for the UN resolution would be ‘an act against aggression and the use of force. It would be an act in favour of peace,’ he said.
   However, the US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, dismissed the ‘painfully familiar rhetoric.’
   ‘The hostile language we have just heard from the foreign minister of Cuba seems straight out of the Cold War era and is not conducive to constructive progress,’ she said.
   Rice said Washington was offering Havana ‘a new chapter’ in their relations but had as yet received no answer.
   She rejected assertions that the US embargo was responsible for Cuba’s crushing poverty, blaming the near permanent economic crisis in the country on government control over the economy and society.
   ‘There are many things the government of Cuba could do,’ she said. ‘Positive measures could include liberating the hundreds of prisoners of conscience in Cuban jails (and)... demonstrating greater respect for freedom of speech.’
   State department spokesman Ian Kelly reinforced Rice’s statement saying the US would consider lifting the embargo ‘when the government of Cuba starts to make some positive steps toward — toward loosening up its repression of its own people.’
   Kelly said in Washington that the yearly UN vote ‘obscures the facts that the United States is a leading source of food and humanitarian relief to Cuba’ that last year totalled 717 million dollars.
   The US economic, trade and financial sanctions were imposed 47 years ago following the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of the Caribbean island nation by US-backed Cuban exiles.
   Since taking office in January, Obama has moved to ease tensions with small steps such as relaxing rules on visits and money transfers to the island.
   But so far, the US administration has not taken major strides in its approach to the Americas’ last remaining communist regime.
   In July, the two countries officially restarted a dialogue on migration issues which had been suspended since 2003, and talks are also under way aimed at restarting bilateral mail service which was cut off in 1963.
   China has welcomed the US lifting of travel and remittance restrictions on Cuban Americans and voiced its hope to see continued US efforts to improve its relations with Cuba, reports Xinhua.
   The statement came as Zhang Yesui, the Chinese permanent representative to the United Nations, was taking the floor at the General Assembly.
   ‘We have noted that, in April this year, the US government lifted travel and remittance restrictions on Cuban Americans,’ Zhang said. ‘We welcome this move and hope that the United States will continue to improve its relations with Cuba, and promote normal exchanges between peoples of the two countries.’
   ‘The Chinese government always maintains that countries should develop their relations in compliance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations. It is always our hope that there will be dialogue rather than confrontation, and engagement and exchanges rather than embargo and sanctions in state-to-state relations,’ he said.
   ‘In this connection, the Chinese government hopes that the country concerned will lift its economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba at an early date. China supports the draft resolution submitted by Cuba under the current agenda item.’
   ‘China pursues an independent foreign policy of peace, and is committed to developing friendly relations with all countries on the basis of the five principles of peaceful coexistence,’ he said.
   ‘We are of the view that every sovereign state is entitled to independently choose a suitable social system and path of development for itself.’
   ‘No country has the right to unilaterally impose military, political, economic or other forms of sanctions on other countries,’ he said. ‘Experience shows that sanctions usually fail to achieve their expected results, and on the contrary, they may end up bringing damage to civilians, especially the most vulnerable groups such as women and children.’

The BNP secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, on Friday accused the ruling Awami League of making Jatiya Sangsad dysfunctional and turning it into a place for character assassination and smear campaign against their political opponents.
   He also said the government was conspiring to destroy the BNP. ‘The statements made by Awami League lawmakers in the house in recent times reveal the gravity of the conspiracy. People understand it well and they cannot be confused,’ he said.
   ‘The government has made the parliament dysfunctional. They have made the house a place for character assassination, smear campaign and making abusive remarks against the opposition. They are cooking up stories and spreading canards against Ziaur Rahman, Khaleda Zia and her family…,’ he told reporters at his Armanitola house in the Old Town of Dhaka.
   ‘The government’s main target is Ziaur Rahman and for that reason they are on a relentless campaign against Khaleda Zia and her sons,’ he said.
   Referring to the statements of Awami League lawmaker Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, the BNP chairperson was involved in the bomb attack on Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, the BNP leader said, ‘Such false allegations proves that they are hatching deep conspiracies against the BNP. People cannot be confused by spreading falsehood…,’ he said.
   Sheikh Selim said in the parliament on Thursday that Khaleda Zia’s silence over the attack on Taposh, AL lawmaker and a prosecution lawyer in the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman murder case, proved that she was involved in the plot.
   ‘It has become clear to the people why the BNP is abstaining from attending the parliament sessions. They [AL] have made the house their party office to cook up stories there,’ he said.
   ‘They never believed in democracy. They had snatched away the people’s right to speak by introducing BKSAL. They always supported autocracy – be it a military rule or BKSAL system. When Ershad had imposed martial law, Sheikh Hasina said “I am not unhappy”.’
   Delwar said, ‘The government has failed in every sector and they have resorted to evil propaganda against the opposition in a bid to divert public attention from their failure.’
   He asked the ruling party to stop ‘repression’ and instead concentrate on implementing its election pledges. ‘The BNP cannot be silenced.’
   Delwar told a questioner that ‘Even amid such repression and harassment, we still want to cooperate with the government for the sake of the people. We do politics for the welfare of the people.’

Police on Friday took Khandaker Mehnaz Rashid, the elder daughter of Khandaker Abdur Rashid, a fugitive condemned convict in the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman murder case, into custody for four days on a court order in connection with the October 21 bomb attack on Awami League’s lawmaker Fazle Noor Taposh.
   On completion of her first phase five-day remand, the detective branch police produced Mehnaz in the court of metropolitan magistrate at around midday seeking a fresh 10-day remand for her for further questioning. Metropolitan magistrate AKM Emdadul Haque granted four days after hearing.
   The investigation officer of the case, assistant commissioner Akbar Ali, in his remand petition said police were convinced after primary interrogation of Mehnaz that she was linked to the bomb attack on Taposh and so the police wanted her in its custody for 10 more days for getting more information about the incident.
   DB police arrested Mehnaz at her Gulshan house on October 24 in connection with the bomb and on the same day she was remanded in police custody for five days.
   Meanwhile, families of the persons arrested in connection with the bomb attack on Taposh, also a prosecution lawyer in the Mujib murder case, alleged that the police did not allow them to meet the suspects. ‘Even the police did not allow me to give medicine to my husband,’ said Salma Haque Rosy, wife of Kamrul Haque Swapan, younger brother of fugitive condemned convict Shariful Haque Dalim.
   They also alleged police were trying to forcibly extract confessions from the arrested about the bomb attack.
   Taposh, a nephew of prime minister Sheikh Hasina, came under a bomb attack as he was leaving his Motijheel office by a car on the night of October 21. He escaped the attack unhurt but 12 others were injured by the blast.
   Taposh is also involved with the legal team assisting the state counsels in the appeals proceedings in the Mujib murder case. His parents Sheikh Fazlul Haque Moni and Arzoo Moni were murdered on August 15, 1975.
   Taposh said that the attack was premeditated and aimed at disrupting the appeals proceedings in the Mujib murder case.
   He filed a case with Motijheel police station naming no one as suspect but alleging that the relatives and associates of the convicts of the August 15 carnage were involved in the attack.
   The detective branch police received the case docket and documents and assistant commissioner Akbar Ali was made the investigation officer of the case.
   A total of six people were arrested so far for their suspected links to the bomb attack.
   They are – Nazmul Hassan Sohel and Mahbubul Hassan Imran, sons of death row convict Mohiuddin Ahmed, Khandaker Mehnaz Rashid, Kamrul Haque Swapan and Freedom Party leader Abdur Rahim.

A mild intensity earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale shook different parts in north and north-eastern regions, including Sylhet, Moulavibazar and Mymensingh, of the country Thursday midnight.
   ‘The earthquake hit Bangladesh at 12:00:28am Thursday midnight,’ Bazlur Rashid, an assistant meteorologist of the Dhaka Met Office, told New Age, adding, the epicentre of the tremor was in eastern Bhutan, approximately 458 kilometres off Dhaka.
   There were no immediate reports of casualties and damage across the country till Friday morning. Report received in Dhaka from different districts, however, said panic-stricken people came out of their houses.
   Director of the earthquake observatory at Dhaka University’s geology department Syed Humayun Akhtar said the quake originated from a main boundary fault of the border of Tibbet and Indian tectonic plates.
   ‘There was no large scale quake along the border of the tectonic plates. Thursday’s tremor indicates that there may be a large scale earthquake,’ Humayun Akhtar said.
   He observed that most of the high-rise buildings in Dhaka city would be damaged if there was any earthquake measuring over 7.0 on Richter scale along the Tibbet and Indian plate boundary.

EU leaders have set a baseline goal for an upcoming world climate summit of 100 billion euros a year by 2020 to help developing countries fight global warming, a draft text said Friday.
   ‘The EU is ready to take its fair share of the global effort by setting an ambitious mitigation target, allowing for offsets and providing its fair share of public support,’ said the text, drafted for a summit in Brussels.
   ‘The European Council endorses the (EU) commission estimate that the total net incremental costs of mitigation and adaptation in developing countries could amount to around 100 billion euros annually by 2020,’ the draft said.
   EU leaders broke off their talks overnight unable to agree on exactly how to share out the burden of helping poorer states reduce carbon dioxide emissions, just weeks ahead of the Copenhagen climate summit starting December 7.
   But according to the draft, which could yet change, they agreed the baseline figure should ‘be met through a combination of (developing nations’) own efforts, the international carbon market and international public finance.
   The commission, the EU’s executive arm, and Britain had previously recommended the 100 billion euro figure but it was unclear whether the leaders would take such a stand.
   The 27-nation bloc prides itself in leading the fight against climate change, and has already agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020, but many fear its leadership role could be compromised without a deal.
   It is keen to enter international climate talks in Copenhagen speaking with a unified voice to encourage others, particularly the United States and China, to commit to swingeing emissions cuts.
   But EU nations are split on how to fund their common ambitions.
   Central and eastern European nations are reluctant to give aid to other countries, such as Brazil and China, which they deem to be no poorer than the poorest in Europe.
   Others, like Germany, feel it premature to go into too much detail before Europe knows what the rest of the world proposes at the international climate talks.

The government will move the High Court to get revoked its order that had halted the process of signing production sharing contracts for awarding international oil companies onshore areas, but energy experts observe local companies and experts should be promoted to explore gas in land areas.
   Energy officials said they had requested the attorney general's office to move the High Court for vacating an injunction over signing the PSC for onshore gas blocks.
   The High Court in 1998 issued a rule imposing a ban on signing the PSC after the Bangladesh Environment Lawyers' Association had filed a writ petition after the blow-out at Magurchhara in the Moulvibazar gas field. The High Court, however, withdrew the ban on signing the PSC for offshore blocks in 2007 after the government had filed an appeal.
   'We are in holding talks with the attorney general for taking steps to vacate the High Court rule regarding onshore blocks. The attorney general told us he would move court after the hearing in Bangabandhu murder case would end,' the energy secretary, Mohammad Mohsin told reporters at a media workshop at the Power Development Board on October 13.
   He, however, said they hoped no controversy would arise regarding their move for vacating the High Court order and inviting international oil companies for onshore block award.
   Energy experts, on the other hand, said although there had been the need for allowing international oil companies in offshore blocks, there was no need for signing the new PSC to award more onshore areas and buy gas for a higher price.
   They said the government should promote state-run companies and local experts in gas exploration.
   'I think we have enough expertise and financial strength to explore onshore areas with our local experts and companies. International oil companies should be awarded no more onshore areas,' said energy expert Professor Nurul Islam of BUET.
   He said Petrobangla was supposed to take up gas exploration and development projects with around Tk 700 crore it would get every year because of the recent increase in gas prices.
    'Coupled with the annual development programme, the gas sector should get more than Tk 1500 crore a year. If Petrobangla spends the amount prudently, its subsidiaries should be in the forefront in exploring new gas and gas field development,' he said.
   He said the government had taken a 'fast-track programme' for drilling five wells to increase gas production and carrying out 2D seismic survey on 3,100 kilometres of area by appointing contractors.
   'The government should first see the result of the fast-track programme and if needed, it can appoint more contractors to explore gas, without signing any PSCs. The government can also appoint former Petrobangla officials and non-resident Bangladeshis for the job,' he observed.
   On his opposition against the signing of PSCs for onshore blocks, Nazrul said Petrobangla bought gas from IOCs for more than Tk 200 a unit while it bought gas from its companies for only Tk 7 a unit. 'If the gas price for state-run companies can be increased to Tk 50, there will be no need for the appointment of foreign companies for exploration in onshore blocks,' he observed.
   Former Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company managing director Jamal Uddin recently told New Age the government should appoint contractors to explore gas in onshore areas without going for PSCs.
   The newly appointed Petrobangla chairman Hossain Mansur told New Age on Monday they had not yet made any decision on signing new PSCs for onshore blocks. 'There is a need of vacating the High Court order on signing PSCs as we are facing some difficulties in carrying out activities under the existing PSCs,' he said.
   Hossain Mansur, a professor of geology in Dhaka University, had for a few years been vocal against giving any more onshore areas to foreign companies.
   'We have taken up some fast track programmes to find new gas in onshore areas. I do not think we will need to go for new PSCs for onshore blocks,' he said on Monday.
   Bangladesh faces gas shortage of around 250 million cubic feet a day as Petrobangla supplies around 1950-2000mmcfd of gas.
   The country has now only 7.2 trillion cubic feet of proven gas and 5.5tcf probable gas.

The passport of a suspected member of the terror cell that planned the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US has been recovered in Pakistan, the country's army said Thursday.
   Said Bahaji's passport was found in South Waziristan, a tribal area bordering Afghanistan. A passport belonging to Raquel Gacia Burgos, the Spanish wife of a senior al-Qaeda operative, was also found, the army said.
   The army said the passports, which had been seen by an AFP journalist, were recovered during an offensive that it began against Islamist militants in the province, on October 17.
   They were shown to journalists at a briefing in Sherwangi, along with weapons, equipment and supplies that the army said it had captured in the militants' stronghold.
   The documents' authenticity could not be immediately verified.
   Bahaji is a suspected member of a cell based in Hamburg, northern Germany, that was centred around Mohammed Atta, leader of the group that carried out the September 11 attacks on New York's World Trade Centre, among other targets.
   Bahaji is alleged by the FBI to have shared an apartment in Hamburg with Atta, and disappeared shortly before the attacks were carried out.
   Burgos, who Spanish media report has not been seen by her family in Madrid since 2001, is the wife of Amer Azizi, a Moroccan sought for his suspected role in the March 2004 attacks on commuter trains in Madrid.
   Azizi has been linked by Spanish investigators to members of the group that carried out the Madrid attacks and is considered to be one of al-Qaeda's leaders in Europe.
   'Sherwangi is an important centre for the foreign terrorists, in particular the Uzbeks. There are also Chechens and Arabs,' said General Khalid Rabbani, commander of 9th infantry division, which is operating in South Waziristan.

International lenders have termed the present government's projections on increasing infrastructural investment and the literacy rate, by implementing the second Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, 'quite overambitious'.
   They expressed the above view in a meeting held late last month between them and the government's representatives to discuss the draft of the PRSPII, titled 'National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction II'.
   The NSAPR II includes five strategies - macro-economic management, enhancement of investment, infrastructural development for economic growth, social security and human resources development - for poverty reduction.
   The lenders, led by head of the UK-based DFID Chris Austin, observed that the revised plan on poverty reduction strategy was particularly ambitious in term of delivery, according to the meeting's minutes.
   Some of the infrastructure and development targets that included attaining 100 per cent literacy rate were quite overambitious, they added.
   Such views will not be welcomed by the present government which was reluctant to carry forward the three-year-long NSAPR II, which was formulated by the interim administration.
   However, the government changed its stance and decided to implement it after revising it by including the proposed five-year plan, introduction of district-level budgeting, the much talked about private-public partnership and programmes related with the 'digital dream' that this government wants to materialize by 2021.
   The finance and planning ministries opined that such observations by the lenders were clear hints for the government to make realistic projections, which would delay the beginning of the implementation of the NSAPR II.
   The government is expecting to receive almost 30 per cent of the projected public expenditure for the NSAPR II from the lenders.
   It has been calculated that a total of Tk 3,750.86 billion would have to be invested in the country, with Tk 2,590.40 billion mobilized from local sources and Tk 1,160.46 billion or $16.58 billion from external sources.
   Officials of the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Denmark, Canada, UNRC, US, EU, Japan, UNDP and IMF, who took part in the meeting, observed that mobilizing resources from private investors and non-traditional lenders would be a key challenge.
   They suggested the inclusion of a new chapter, Aid Effectiveness, in the revised NSARP II.
   Finance and planning ministers AMA Muhith and AK Khandakar attended the meeting as honorary guests.
   The finance minister told the meeting that some of the macro-economic figures were not up-to-date. He assured that them that they would be updated in order to make the projections more realistic.
   The first PRSP, titled 'Unlocking the Potential: National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction', was implemented in the 2005-07 period under the last BNP government. It was extended up to June 2008.

Diarrhoea kills at least three times more people than previously thought, the World Health Organisation said Friday, citing latest data showing that 1.1 million people die yearly from the ailment.
   'The burden of disease from diarrhoea ... is significantly higher than was previously considered,' said Jorgen Schlundt, who is director of food safety department at the WHO.
   Some 1.1 million people who are older than five in Africa and Asia die from the ailment every year, according to new figures from a six-year-long study to be concluded in 2012 on food-borne diseases.
   Previous research, which commenced in 2002 and which had been regularly updated, had estimated only 300,000 deaths annually among those older than five worldwide.
   Schlundt said the current study showed a sharp difference compared to earlier research as it looks deeper into the problem.
   He hoped that the latest data would bring greater awareness to the ailment that is both preventable and treatable.
   'There are still some countries that believe that food safety is not very important and that not many people die in relation to food safety and food-borne diseases but we have data to show that it is a significant problem and it's something that could be dealt with,' said Schlundt.

Facebook outlined changes to its privacy policy on Thursday and asked for feedback from the social network's more than 300 million users.
   Vice-president of communications and public policy Elliot Schrage, in a post on the Facebook blog, said members would have until November 5 to send in their comments about the proposed changes.
   'This is the next step in our ongoing effort to run Facebook in an open and transparent way,' he said. 'After the comment period is over, we'll review your feedback and update you on our next steps.'
   Some of the changes to Facebook's privacy policy are the result of pressure from Canada, whose privacy czar conducted an investigation into its handling of personal information.
   'In this revision,' Schrage said, 'we're fulfilling our commitment to the privacy commissioner of Canada to update our privacy policy to better describe a number of practices.
   'Specifically, we've included sections that further explain the privacy setting you can choose to make your content viewable by everyone,' he said.
   Schrage said the changes also clarify the difference between deactivating and deleting an account and 'the process of memorialising an account once we've received a report that the account holder is deceased.'
   Facebook said it would save profile information such as friend lists and photos from a deactivated account in case a member decides to reactivate it later but the material will not be viewable by other users.
   It said a deleted account is 'permanently deleted.'
   Facebook said information from a deleted account might still be viewable on the pages of other users if it was shared or copied and stored by them.
   'However, your name will no longer be associated with that information on Facebook,' it said, and will be attributed to an 'anonymous Facebook user.'
   Facebook also stressed that personal data is not provided to advertisers. 'The information we provide to advertisers is 'anonymised,' meaning that it can't be traced back to you as an individual in any way,' Schrage said.

Indian defence companies will gain access to a potential $100 billion market over the next 10 years, following a new policy that allows domestic firms to bid for large defence contracts, officials said Friday.
   India, one of the world's biggest arms importers, wants to increase the role of its private sector, which holds around 20 per cent of the defence industry market but has the potential to grow significantly. Under the new policy, the government will allow domestic companies to bid for key projects on their own.
   Indian companies until the policy change were not invited by the government to bid for big government defence projects and were left to supplying locally made non-combative equipment for the defence forces.
   With foreign countries reluctant to share advanced technology with India, the government wants to encourage private defence companies to enter the arms market, officials say.
   'The field is now open for them to come and bid for any project along with the world's best. The government is giving them an opportunity to expand their capabilities,' Sitanshu Kar, the defence ministry spokesman said.