Main Page «
Metro «
Business «
International «
Sports «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

At least 100 people were injured, and five factories and 20 vehicles damaged as thousands of garment workers fought with the law enforcers and the people of the factory owners at Uttara in Dhaka on Saturday.
   The employees of a factory have continued their agitation to demand disbursement of their increased salaries, overtime bills and other payments in arrears.
   The workers of a factory with the help of the workers of other factories blocked up the Dhaka–Mymensingh Highway, suspending traffic for about four hours, and damaged shopping malls, vehicles and factories.
   Witnesses said the garment of the Syntex Knitwear Limited, housed on the fourth and fifth floors of the seven-storey Kushal Centre at Uttara, gathered in front of the factory at about 7:30am to join work.
   The workers came to know the authorities had closed the factory for an indefinite period. They also found one of their fellows, Abu Bakar, bloodstained from torture by goons hired by the owners.
   The injured Abu Bakar said some armed, hired goons loyal to the management dragged him inside the factory and beat him up when he went there to join work in the morning.
   The workers said the hired goons beat up another worker, Abdur Rahim, on Thursday and he is now being treated in Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
   Enraged at this, hundreds of workers took to the streets
   and went on the rampage, by pelting stones at the factory building.
   ‘The authorities of the factory without any notice fired four of our colleagues on September
   4 as we went out on demons- trations under their leader- ship to demand disbursement of our increased salaries, overtime bills and other payments in arrears,’ Khaleq, a knitting
   operator of the factory, told New Age.
   ‘As we began work abstention and went out on demonstrations demanding reinstatement of the four sacked workers on September 7, the authorities called in the police and threatened us,’ he said.
   Kalpana Akhter, another worker, said ‘The authorities, instead of fulfilling our demands, planned to repress us with the help of hired goons, who critically injured one of our fellows, Ripon, on Thursday.’
   As the goons continuously assaulted some workers of the factory, violence was triggered off in the lining area of the Kushal Shopping Mall at around 8:00am.
   The workers began damaging and vandalising shops, offices, and others garment factories housed in the building.
   The Uttara and Airport police immediately went to the spot, but failed to tackle the situation. The police barricade the stretch from the airport crossing to the Abdullahpur crossing, leaving vehicles stranded on a stretch of about four kilometres on both ends of the road for more than four hours.
   The situation worsened when workers from different factories in the lining area joined hands with the agitators at around 10:15am.
   The workers began vandalising Laxma Knitwear, Pallab Garments, Boutique Design, SKS Industry, NAZ Fashion and others establishments in the area.
   Riot police, led by the Uttara zone deputy commissioner Monir Hossain, went to the spot and charged at the workers with truncheons to tackle the situation, in which about 60 workers were injured.
   The workers, enraged at police action, began pelting stones at the law men and damaging vehicles stranded on the road, said a resident, adding the police fired 35 rounds of rubber bullet and lobbed 45 rounds of teargas canisters to disperse the workers.
   Witnesses said the workers chased the policemen and damaged more than 20 vehicles, including two police vans parked in front of the Uttara police station.
   At one stage, the police, along with the hired goons with sticks, clashed with the workers on the alleys in the area, in which 40, including five policemen, were injured.
   The injured five policemen were admitted to Rajarbagh Police Hospital; the remained were treated in local clinics.
   The Rapid Action Battalion members went to the spot at around 11:45am and tackled the situation.
   Monir Hossain told New Age, ‘The incident took place over the termination of the job of four workers. The situation is now under control.’
   He said he would not make any comments on the alleged manhandling of the workers by the police with the help of the hired goons without any investigation.
   Tension kept mounting in the factory. Three platoons of law enforcers, along with the battalion personnel, were deployed in and around the factory to avert further trouble.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party has decided to consult its allies in the ruling coalition, apparently in a bid to appease an annoyed Jamaat-e-Islami, before sitting with the main opposition Awami League for the much-talked-about dialogue to resolve differences over electoral reforms before the present government serves out its term in late October.
   The BNP and the AL on Saturday announced that they had agreed to sit for the dialogue.
   ‘I need to hold consultations within the party [BNP] forum and the alliance partners for fixing the agenda before sitting for the dialogue,’ the BNP secretary general, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, said at a press briefing at his Bailey Road official residence on Saturday.
   Bhuiyan, also the LGRD and cooperatives minister, said that his counterpart in the AL had phoned him on Saturday morning to convey that the opposition was ready to sit for the dialogue.
   The AL general secretary, Abdul Jalil, called back the BNP leader at about 12:20pm to reply to the latter’s Friday’s offer for an unconditional dialogue on electoral reforms.
   The two leaders, during telephonic conversation, expressed their readiness for the talks though the venue and time were yet to be finalised.
   The stalwarts of the two major parties agreed that they would be able to sit for the talks shortly.
   In a press briefing at 1:30pm, Abdul Jalil said, ‘I made a phone call to the BNP secretary general to inform him that the AL presidium and the 14-party leaders accepted his proposal cordially and assigned me to hold talks on the reform issue.’
   ‘Both the parties are now flexible enough to hold a dialogue any time; but the BNP secretary general told me that he needs to do some groundwork before sitting…,’ Jalil said at the briefing held at Mercantile Bank office at Motijheel in the city.
   ‘By this time, I will also hold consultations with my colleagues in the AL and the opposition alliance,’ Jalil said.
   Replying to a query, Jalil said, ‘there is no question of compromise or rigidity. Both the parties will place some points for holding the election peacefully and we will finalise the necessary points through fruitful negotiation.’
   He said that they [Bhuiyan and Jalil] were yet to fix up the time and venue for the two-party talks. ‘We hope to fix it up one over telephone shortly,’ Jalil added.
   Asked about Jamaat’s disappointment, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan said, ‘in fact they did not express disappointment… I will take their opinion…prior to and after the sitting.’
   The minister told New Age Saturday evening that he will hold consultation regarding proposed reform talks with some key BNP leaders on Sunday evening and leaders of the alliance partners on Monday afternoon.
   Earlier, the BNP secretary general called the AL general secretary on Friday morning and formally offered to hold a dialogue on the proposed electoral reforms. Jalil accepted the offer.
   Business community and diplomatic missions made hectic efforts over the last few weeks to persuade the two parties to hold dialogue.
   On February 12, the leader of the opposition and Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, placed a 21-point proposal in the Jatiya Sangsad for reforms in the constitutional provisions guiding the interim non-party caretaker government and electoral system.
   On February 28, the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, in her valedictory speech to the winter session of the parliament, proposed formation of a committee to hold discussion with the opposition over the latter’s reform proposals.
   On September 13, Khaleda proposed at a party rally in Brahmanbaria to hold secretary general-level talks between the two sides.
   On September 29, the Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid, demanded that opinions of the parties having representatives in the parliament should be incorporated in the reform talks.

The envoys of the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union in Dhaka on Saturday welcomed the move to initiate a dialogue between the ruling BNP and the main opposition party Awami League.
   They hoped that the dialogue process would lead to the holding of a free, fair and neutral election in Bangladesh and ensure stability.
   The US ambassador to Bangladesh, Patricia A Butenis, telephoned the BNP secretary general, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan on Saturday.
   Quoting the telephonic conversation on the planned dialogue, a source close to Bhuiyan said the US ambassador was hopeful of a positive outcome from the dialogue.
   The British high commissioner, Anwar Choudhury, told reporters, ‘We are very hopeful now that the first major step towards a dialogue has been started between the parties’.
   He felt the contact between the secretary general of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, and the Awami League general secretary, Abdul Jalil, would pave the way for resolution of differences. ‘This will continue and will be sustained.’
   He said Bangladesh needed political stability to pursue all its development goals.
   In this regard, he hoped all the political parties would work to make the next elections safe and secure in the interests of stability and economic development.
   BDNews adds: the German ambassador to Bangladesh, Frank Meyke, told the news agency that the European Union very much welcomed the news of the dialogue.
   ‘The two major democratic political parties of the country thus take up joint responsibility for preparing the way for free and fair elections opening up the perspective for the people of Bangladesh for stabilising and strengthening of democracy and human rights,’ Meyke said.
   Germany now holds the designate-presidency of the European Union in Bangladesh in the absence of a Finnish embassy. Finland now holds the presidency of the EU.

People continued on Saturday their agitation in many places of the country demanding smooth power supply and at least 15 people were injured during a clash as they clashed with the police in Comilla at night on Friday.
   The situation in Dhaka was comparatively calm with people no more agitating after a series of such incidents from Wednesday night to Friday.
   The Power Development Board officials said although 60MW was added to the national grid on Saturday, they failed to generate 130MW of power at the Kaptai and Bheramara plants for want of water and because of a technical glitch.
   They said the generation at the Kaptai Hydro Electric Plant on Saturday was 110MW less than its capacity 230MW. A unit of 20MW of the 60MW Bheramara Plant also tripped on Saturday.
   The power board officials said the 40MW CCCP GT-1 of Unit 6 of the Ghorashal plant and 20MW CCCP steam of the same unit of the plant came into operation on Saturday.
   Sources in the power board said the total generation was 3,200MW during peak hours against the countrywide demand for 4,500MW.
   Dhaka received a supply of about 1,350MW in peak hours against the demand for about 1,500MW, resulting fewer power outages.
   The power officials said the total supply had hovered around 1,100MW over few days against the demand for 1800 in the city.
   The demand scaled down on Saturday as it did Friday as most offices and factories under the Dhaka Electric Supply Authority and the Dhaka Electric Supply Company remained closed because of the weekly holiday.
   A relatively cold weather also helped the power officials to cause fewer outages in Dhaka.
   Reports reaching from different places said people continued protest in different places in the country.
   The New Age correspondent in Comilla said at least 15 persons were injured in a clash between the police and the residents at Daudkandi upazila headquarters Friday night when the mob attacked the local rural electrification office.
   Witnesses said several hundred people, enraged at the erratic power supply and outages for two days, attacked the electrification office at about 9:00pm.
   The clash took place when the police charged at the demonstrators with truncheons to tackle the situation. The people at one stage vandalised the power office.
   The Chittagong correspondent said security measures were beefed up at all the power board installations in Chittagong on Saturday fearing attacks.
   Sources said the squads of law enforcers were deployed at the power substations, regional offices and complaint centres in upazilas, as two of them were attacked by the people at Sitakunda and Chandnaish on Friday.
   The Barisal correspondent said severe power outages had plagued the entire south-western zone, including Barisal. Only one-fourth of the required power is supplied fro the national grid, said the people.
   A letter signed by Md Abdullah, director technical of the West Zone Power Distribution Company responsible for power supply to the 21 south-western districts, asked the distribution centres to take action against use of excess power.
   People vandalised eight power offices and complaint centres in Barisal, Pirojpur, Jhalakati and Bhola.
   The Khulna correspondent said non-governmental organisations and political parties formed human chains and brought out procession in the city in the morning demanding smooth power supply and protesting at the price increase of essential commodities in Ramadan.
   The Khulna branch of Jana Udyog formed a human chain in the Picture Palace Crossing in the city at 11:00am.
   The Khulna city and district units of the Awami League students front Chhatra League and the of the Workers Party student front Chhatra Moitri brought out processions to push for the same demands.

The former state minister for power, M Anwarul Kabir Talukder, who was dismissed on Friday night immediately after his announcement of resignation, said that he will not need to submit any resignation letter since the government has already dismissed him.
   Just after the media report that Talukder was going to submit his resignation within 24 hours due to ‘his failure in the power sector’, the government on Friday announced that it had removed Anwarul Kabir Talukder from the post of state minister for power on Friday, thus creating controversy over the issue.
   Talukder, talking to newsmen at his residence on Saturday, admitted that he had talked to the prime minister on Friday evening.
   ‘It was an exclusive talk between the prime minister and me,’ said Takuder but declined to give any details to reporters.
   He refused to make any comment on whether his announcement of resignation was followed by the government’s order to dismiss him, or vice versa.
   Earlier, on Friday evening, he told reporters that he would tender resignation to the proper authorities in 24 hours on the grounds of his failure to overcome the power crisis four months after he had assumed the office.
   No one has so far been given the charge of the power ministry, which has been under the Prime Minister’s Office, in his place. Even the official order of the dismissal of the state minister was not issued till Saturday, said a source.
   The PMO made the decision after a private TV channel broadcast Talukder’s decision to resign, according to informed sources.
   Moreover, there was a clash between the state minister and power secretary ANH Akhter Hossain which, according to a high official of the ministry, may have led to Talukder’s resignation or dismissal.
   Due to the widespread public protest against the countrywide power crisis, the government replaced former state minister Iqbal Hasan Mahmood on May 21 this year.

Awami League president Sheikh Hasina on Saturday accused the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, of persistently failing to ensure power supply to the people.
   ‘The state minister resigned admitting his failure, but what about the prime minister, who is responsible for the power ministry?’ Hasina queried and said the entire nation was facing frequent power outages due to corruption of the government in this sector.
   Hasina, also leader of the opposition in parliament, was speaking at a meeting held at the Dhanmondi party office in the afternoon on the occasion of some Jatiya Party leaders and former bureaucrats joining the Awami League. She urged the prime minister to accept and implement the reforms to the caretaker government system and the Election Commission proposed by the AL-led opposition alliance to fortify people’s franchise.
   ‘Leave the tendency to rig the polls and accept the reform proposals to establish people’s voting rights, as the Awami League wants to see the reform chapter closed,’ Hasina said. She also alleged that the 4-party alliance government was not accepting the reform proposals, because it was conspiring to rig the ballot as per a planned evil design.
   Maidul Islam, a former lawmaker from Mehendiganj of Barisal, Azharul Islam, a former secretary to the government, Chowdhury Khalequzzaman, a former tax commissioner, and Mustafizur Rahman, president of the Feni District Welfare Association in Dhaka, formally joined the main opposition party at the meeting.

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, on Saturday blamed the opposition for resorting to anarchic activities like arson attack and vandalism, making electricity an issue, as they have no issue of movement on hand to push the country backward.
   She once again said her party wanted discussion and that discussion would take place if the opposition came up. She warned, in this context, that if polls not held in time, there would be a constitutional vacuum. She said the next general elections would be held in
   time according to the constitution, so that no such crisis was created.
   The prime minister made a fresh pledge that if the BNP and alliance formed the next government, their first task would be to resolve electricity crisis and remove corruption from the country.
   Addressing a big public meeting at Dewanganj Government High School ground, the
   prime minister said the Awami League did nothing to improve power situation during their rule.
   However, the present government, during the last five years, has given huge connections and expanded electricity supply by giving connection to new establishments, big shopping malls, mills and factories as well as rural areas.
   She admitted that there remained some problems and the way connection and use of electricity had been increased generation of electricity was not increased at that rate.
   ‘But common people accepted the situation,’ she told the gathering.
   She said the opposition took the destructive and violent course to push the country backward. They frequently enforce hartal, siege and blockade to halt the roadmap of development and weaken the economy.
   The prime minister alleged that the opposition wanted to foil election in the name of ‘so-called reform’.
   Because, she said, they had understood that people would not vote for them because of their ‘misdeeds and misrule’ in their two regimes. ‘They also know that people are behind the BNP and alliance getting taste of development.’
   The prime minister blamed her opponents for trying to create a constitutional vacuum by letting loose anarchy. But, she said any patriotic person did not want that rather people wanted continuity of the constitutional process.
   She said BNP wanted free, fair and neutral election and they would hand over power to a caretaker government for holding the polls.
   The prime minister said as much as free, fair and neutral election would be held so much the BNP would get public mandate and win in the election.
   She again said any party had right not to take part in election but no right to snatch democratic and voting rights of the people.
   Khaleda hopes people would again vote the BNP and its allies to power to keep up development, democracy and peace in the country.
   Earlier, the prime minister inaugurated the newly constructed Pollakandi Bridge over the old Brahmaputra River in Dewanganj.

Bureaucratic tangle is causing delay in implementation of a plan to divide the Chittagong Customs House into two separate import and export wings, sources said.
   The delay is hampering customs operations including smooth handling of import and export cargoes, the sources added.
   The plan for bifurcation of the Chittagong Customs House was taken by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) in line with the budget proposal made two years ago, customs sources said.
   They said that increase in traffic through Chittagong port and delay in completing customs formalities both for import and export cargoes, prompted the government to undertake the plan for bifurcation of the Chittagong Custom House which handles over 70 per cent of the country’s import and export trade.
   Earlier, traders on various occasions raised demand for simplifying customs formalities to ensure smooth handling of import and export cargoes at Chittagong port.
   Two commissioners of customs were supposed to be appointed to run the import and export wings separately, but the process to this effect was moving at a snail’s pace, the sources said.
   Even the work to procure required logistics and manpower is yet to be completed, they said.
   Commissioner of the Chittagong Customs House, Farid Uddin, told New Age that preparations were underway
   to set up two separate wings here for handling of import
   and export cargoes separately
   in a bid to gear up customs operations.
   Recently, a proposal for allocation of a fund of Taka 80 lakh was sent to the higher authorities to complete the relevant work for setting up the two separate wings, he said adding: ‘after receiving the fund we will start renovation work at the adjacent building to accommodate the export wing as the existing  office will be used as import wing.’
   The main objective for bifurcation of the Chittagong Customs House is to raise the port’s efficiency and effectiveness in handling import and export goods,’ he said adding: ‘it will also help check smuggling, tax evasion and delay in assessment process.’
   However, the existing manpower at the Chittagong Customs House will be used in both import and export wings.

Leading entrepreneurs of the country see the overall business environment as ‘unsatisfactory in the global context’ and blame corruption, inferior infrastructure and malfunctioning of public institutions for its slide in the global competitiveness ranking for 2006-07.
   About 95 per cent of the respondent entrepreneurs to the Executive Opinion Survey for the Global Competitiveness Report 2006-2007 of the World Economic Forum released Tuesday believe that the power situation here is worse than in most other countries, while 85 per cent expressed concern about the deteriorating port facilities.
   They expressed almost zero trust in financial honesty of politicians, as illegal donations to political parties are very frequent, and questioned the effectiveness of the parliament as a legislative and oversight institution.
   The observations of the local entrepreneurs were reflected in the slide of Bangladesh’s rank in the GCI from 99th among 125 countries in 2006 from 98th among 117 in 2005.
   The details of the report related to Bangladesh were formally revealed on Saturday by the Centre for Policy Dialogue, a partner institute of the WEF, at a press briefing in the dialogue room at its office in the city.
   Presenting the findings of the report, CPD executive director Debapriya Bhattacharya said Bangladesh’s performance was unsatisfactory in the areas of institutions, infrastructure, innovation, and technological readiness.
   ‘Despite having perceptible improvement on scoring in macroeconomic management and modest increase in primary education and health factors, deterioration in other seven factors pulled down the country’s position,’ he explained.
   This year the GCI has been prepared based on nine major factors. To identify Bangladesh’s position, an executive opinion survey was conducted in 118 companies, each having at least Tk 10 crore in total assets, during February-April this year. The survey findings were provided as input for the GCI as well as to determine the business competitiveness environment 2006.
   In the survey, the entrepreneurs observed that the above-mentioned factors coupled with political unrest and threats of terrorism have further eroded the domestic business environment, adding the country’s growth prospect therefore was gloomy in the near future.
   Quoting the survey findings, Debapriya said in the entrepreneurs’ views the judiciary was not free of political influence, particularly of the members of the government, and there had been no improvement in the corruption scenario.
   ‘In fact, corruption tops the major factors affecting the business environment, followed by inadequate infrastructure, inefficient bureaucracy, and policy instability,’ he added.
   Most of the entrepreneurs interviewed in the survey observed that public spending was wasteful to a large extent and subsidies and tax breaks mostly catered to some vested interest groups.
   ‘Majority of the entrepreneurs believe that unrecorded economic activities have increased, possibly because of increasing flow of black money in the economy,’ Debapriya added.
   The survey report also shows that the existing educational system does not meet the competitiveness demand of the economy, as maths and science education is still lagging behind that in most countries, while management and business studies schools are of poor quality.
   ‘Lack of institutional facilities and continuation of brain-drain impeded the human resources development,’ the CPD executive director quoted the survey respondents as saying.
   According to the report, although the government policies are well in favour of foreign direct investment, there are increasing allegations against foreign companies of bribery or making undocumented payments.
   ‘Entrepreneurs specifically alleged that investors from China, Hong Kong, India, Korea, Russia and Taiwan are paying bribes and thus distorting the competition in the market,’ he said quoting the survey report.
   Among others, CPD research director Mustafizur Rahman, researchers Fahmida Akter Khatun and Khondaker Golam Moazzem, and dialogue-communications head Anisatul Fatema Yousuf were also present at the briefing.

About all of the thousand shanties were burnt in a fire at a slum at Mohammadpur in Dhaka on Saturday evening, in which about 5,000 people became homeless.
   No major casualties, however, were reported in the fire in the Kaderabad Housing area. The fire began when all of the grownups were out to say their prayers and the women and children were home.
   The fire, which originated from a burner at a shanty in the middle of the slum at about 6:30pm, burnt the adjacent shanties made of fence and polythene sheet on a one bigha of land, the dwellers said.
   The fire burnt all the belongings of the dwellers. It also burnt all the valuables of the ground-floor houses of a neighbouring six-storey building of the Kaderabad Housing.
   Fire-fighters reached the place late, the slum dwellers said. They reached the place an hour later when all the valuables were burnt, said Habib, a driver of a CNG-run auto rickshaw.
   About 1,000 families, mostly of rickshaw pullers, garment workers, day labourers and domestic helps, are now staying under the open sky.
   Hundreds of men and women frantically searched through the ashes to see if any of their valuables survived. ‘I could not save my belongings,’ sobbing Hajera, a domestic help.
   A wailing Momin, a Class X student of the Bengal Garden High School, who take the SSC examinations next year, said, ‘The fire burnt down all my books and notes which I prepared in two years.’
   ‘Now I do not even have a glass to drink water to break my fast,’ Mariam said. ‘Neither do I have any foods to feed my
   three little children.’ Most
   slum dwellers suffered the same fate.
   The fire service officials estimated the loss of property to be worth more than Tk 30 lakh.
   Witnesses said the fire destroyed the entire slum because of a sudden strong wind that blew over the shanties.
   ‘Bamboo and wooden houses are highly flammable. And everything had burned down before we could reach the place,’ said a fire-fighter.
   The fire service officials said two fire engines from the Mirpur station, one from Pallabi, two from Mohammadpur, five from the headquarters and another from Plassey went to the place and extinguished the fire at around 9:30pm. The officials said the cause of fire was yet to be established.
   A local BNP leader said the victims will be provided with shelter, food and medicines until the government comes up with relief materials. But none was found at the place till 10:30pm.

The wreckage of missing Brazilian GOL airline Boeing 737 was spotted Saturday in a remote area of northern Brazil but there was no immediate word about the 155 passengers and crew, Globo News television reported.
   Helicopters and military troops were deployed to try to make their way to the jungle region of Mato Grosso state where the plane was spotted by airborne search crews, armed forces spokesman major Adolfo Aleixo told the network.
   Officials said there was no immediate word on the fate of the 149 passengers and six crew aboard.
   The passenger plane was reported missing during Flight 1907 from the Amazon city of Manaus to Brasilia. It was then scheduled to fly on to Rio do Janeiro.
   Authorities were trying to establish whether the airliner had collided with a Legacy executive jet whose pilot made an emergency landing Friday in Cachimbo, near the area of northern Brazil where the Boeing last made contact.
   ‘At this moment, we don’t have any information that would indicate that the plane has either crashed or made an emergency landing,’ Jose Gomes Ferreira, a spokesman for Brazil’s Aeronautical Command told Globo television on Friday night.
   Earlier, the defence minister, Waldir Pires, said the Legacy was seriously damaged in what appeared to be a collision. ‘The collision was, presumably, with the GOL Boeing,’ he told Bandeirantes television.
   But the National Civil Aviation Agency said there was no evidence to support that ‘hypothesis.’
   ‘It is not possible to state that there is a link between the incident that forced the crew (of the Legacy) to make an emergency landing at the Cachimbo airport and the disappearance of the GOL aircraft,’ ANAC said.
   Dozens of anxious relatives and friends of those missing gathered at the airports of Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and Manaus airports seeking information about their loved ones.
   The Boeing had last made contact as it flew over a densely forested area 200 kilometres south of Cochimbo, where the damaged Legacy made an emergency landing.
   Two Radiobras journalists, three aviation officials and several staffers of the Aeronautics Ministry were among the passengers, according to ANAC.

The United States and its allies will fail in the so-called ‘war on terror’ without the support of Pakistan and its intelligence service, Pakistan’s president Pervez Musharraf said Saturday.
   In an interview with BBC radio, Musharraf was asked for his response to the view that Pakistan was not a good ally in the fight against global extremism because of the links between terrorism and his country.
   ‘You will be brought down to your knees if Pakistan doesn’t co-operate with you. That is all that I would like to say. Pakistan is the main ally. If we were not with you, you would not manage anything. Let that be clear,’ he said.
   ‘And if the Inter Services Intelligence is not with you, you will fail. Let that be very clear also. Remember my words: if the ISI is not with you and Pakistan is not with you will lose in Afghanistan.’
   Musharraf recorded the interview after talks with the British prime minister, Tony Blair, in London on Thursday.
   The meeting came following a leaked British defence ministry think-tank report that claimed the ISI was indirectly supporting extremism in Afghanistan, Iraq and Britain by backing the MNA coalition of Pakistani religious parties.
   Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999, again strongly denied the claims, which were written by a senior military official linked to Britain’s foreign intelligence service, MI6, after a fact-finding mission there in June.
   The president accepted Blair’s assurances that the document was not a reflection of the British government position.
   Musharraf pointed to ISI and Pakistan Army successes in the US-led ‘war on terror’, in
   particular the capture of hundreds of suspected al-Qaeda militants.
   They included the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, he said, while they played a key role in foiling an alleged terror plot to blow up US-bound passenger jets on August 10 this year.
   The Pakistan premier called for more understanding of his country’s predicament as it struggled with the continuing fall-out from the Cold War played out by proxy in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan in the 1980s.
   ‘From 1979 to 1989 we fought the Soviet Union for you. We won the Cold War for you,’ he said, explaining that the Pakistan army and ISI played a part in training the tens of thousands of mujahideen fighters to resist the Soviets.
   But after the Soviet withdrawal, the West left Pakistan ‘high and dry’, he said, leading to the creation of the radicalised Taliban and al-Qaeda from the remnants of the mujahideen resistance.
   ‘The world must understand our problem. It is for you that we did it and we are suffering,’ Musharraf told the broadcaster. ‘Our national fabric has been torn.
   ‘Now, without understanding, everyone blames us for what is happening in Pakistan. It is something that is happening, understand it and help us.’

The National Board of Revenue on Saturday extended the deadline for submitting tax returns till October 19, which was scheduled to expire on September 30, official sources said.
   The deadline has been extended to enable individual taxpayers to submit their returns considering the problems faced by taxpayers due to the recent natural calamities and also because of Ramadan, NBR high officials said.
   ‘We have extended the deadline for submitting tax returns up to October 19 taking into account the plight of individual taxpayers hit by natural calamity and also considering that they were busy during the month of Ramadan,’ A S Zahir Muhammed, member (tax policy) of the NBR, told journalists at his office.
   Earlier, the NBR decided to keep all its offices open on Friday and Saturday to receive tax returns.
   It is learnt that taxpayers rushed to tax offices across the country on Saturday to avail of the chance.
   The tax administration expects that about 10 lakh tax returns will be submitted this time, up by one lakh from the previous fiscal year.
   ‘We are hoping to receive at least 10 lakh tax returns by October 19,’ said Zahir.
   He said the tax department would be able to achieve its target of Tk 8,500 crore in tax income in the current 2006-2007 fiscal year.
   The tax income generated in the previous fiscal year was Tk 7,142 crore, which was Tk 200 crore more than the target, officials said.

The depression crossed the Orissa coast near Paradip Friday midnight and lies over Orissa and its adjoining area as a land depression Saturday morning.
   ‘It is likely to move northwestwards further and weaken gradually’, said a Met office special bulletin.
   Its associates steep pressure gradient persists over north Bay. Sea will remain moderately rough.
   Maritime ports of Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar and Mongla have been advised to keep hoisted local cautionary signal 3. All fishing boats and trawlers over north Bay have been advised to remain close to the coast till further notice.

Lebanon said Saturday that it had been informed by UN peacekeepers that Israel was finally poised to complete its promised pullout from the south, weeks after a UN Security Council truce resolution came into force on August 14.
   A government spokesman said the French commander of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, general Alain Pellegrini, had told the Lebanese prime minister, Fuad Siniora, that Israel would pull out the last of its troops on Sunday.
   ‘General Pellegrini contacted prime minister Fuad Siniora to inform him that the Israeli army has undertaken to complete its withdrawal from south Lebanon on Sunday,’ the spokesman said.
   UNIFIL spokesman Alexander Ivanko declined to confirm or deny the Israeli deadline.
   But he had said Thursday that he was hoping for Israel to complete its withdrawal by Sunday. ‘We are expecting the Israelis to withdraw at the end of the month,’ Ivanko said then.
   In Tel Aviv, an Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed that the army planned to withdraw from more positions in south Lebanon on Sunday but declined to say whether that would mark the completion of its pullout.
   ‘We are going to hand over control of several sectors to UNFIL,’ the spokeswoman said.
   But challenged whether the army planned to hand over control of all the sectors it still controls, she said: ‘We can’t give out those sorts of operational details for security reasons.’
   Israel’s privately owned Channel Two television had reported Friday that the army would complete its pullout by Sunday afternoon at the latest–before the Yom Kippur Jewish holiday. The television said that army chiefs no longer saw any reason to keep the few hundred Israeli troops still deployed in Lebanon in place.
   The Lebanese premier also spoke with the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, by telephone during the night to seek her assistance in getting Israel to pull out its remaining troops, the spokesman added.
   Siniora asked Rice, who begins a Middle East tour Monday, to ‘put pressure on Israel to withdraw from south Lebanon in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1701,’ the spokesman said.
   Lebanon has stepped up its protests about the slow pace of Israel’s withdrawal in recent days, warning that it is considering a formal protest to the Security Council.

Congress approved a major ports security bill early Saturday, providing new steps to prevent terrorists from slipping a nuclear, chemical or biological device into one of the 11 million shipping containers entering the nation every year.
   Passage of the bill was the last act of the House as lawmakers left for a five-week election campaign during which candidates will be trying to prove to voters their commitment to keeping America safe in the war on terrorism. The Senate passed it by a voice vote, sending it to the president for his signature.
   Containers, now largely uninspected, ‘have the potential to be the Trojan Horse of the 21st century,’ said Senator Susan Collins, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. She said the legislation would be a ‘major leap ahead’ in strengthening national security.
   Democrats favoured the bill, but said it failed to address rail and mass transit, other areas considered highly vulnerable to terrorist attack.
   ‘The terrorist attacks on rail and transit systems in Spain, London and Mumbai (Bombay) should be enough evidence to convince the Republican-led Congress that US rails are dangerously vulnerable,’ said Senator Joe Lieberman.
   The bill approves $400 million a year over five years for risk-based grants for training and exercises at ports. It requires the nation’s 22 largest ports, which handle 98 per cent of all cargo entering the country, to install radiation detectors by the end of next year.
   Pilot programmes would be established at three foreign ports to test technology for nonintrusive cargo inspections. Currently only one foreign port, Hong Kong, scans all US-bound cargo for nuclear materials.
   Background checks and credentials will be required for workers at the nation’s 361 ports, and the homeland security department would set up protocols for resuming operations after an attack or incident. It is feared that a terrorist attack, such as a nuclear device set off by remote control, could cripple the entire economy as well as cause massive casualties.

The Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) has finalised an action plan to increase the yield of twelve crops by 6 to 25 per cent in the next three years to give a special thrust to the agricultural sector, in which import is increasing day by day.
   While discussing the plan, a BARC official said that already they have prepared the action plan in coordination with the government and recently a two-day workshop held in the city discussed how to implement the plan.
   According to the action plan, the yield of some sixty-one varieties of crops in the categories of 12 main crops — paddy, wheat, maize, potato, lentils, oil seeds, spices, fruits, sugarcane, vegetables, jute and cotton — will be increased.
   The main objective of the programme is to coordinate research and development and to increase production through innovative technology, and to hand over the latest technology and inputs to the farmers for eradicating poverty by earning more.
   Dr MA Razzaque, member director of BARC, told New Age that ten agriculture-related organisations will jointly implement the programme, and that all types of facilities like high quality seeds including the production of breeder seeds, training of the farmers and latest technologies will be provided under the project. The total cost of the programme is estimated to be about Tk 257 crore.
   When asked when the programme would begin, he said it depends on the resources of the government, and ultimately it will need Tk 75 crore annually to implement the programme, and after the release of the fund the programme will start.
   If the action plan is implemented, rice production will increase to 335.10 lakh tonnes in 2008-09 from the present 268.70 lakh tonnes.
   Wheat production will increase by 17 per cent or 11.04 lakh tonnes from 9.45 lakh tonnes, against the total demand of 35.20 lakh tonnes.
   After the next three years, the production of maize and potato will increase to 5.99 lakh tonnes and 74.40 lakh tonnes from 4.80 and 59.50 lakh tonnes respectively.
   The production of dal (lentil) and oil seeds will increase by fourteen per cent to 6.04 and 6.43 lakh tonnes respectively from of 5.30 and 5.66 lakh tonnes, while the demand will be 23.90 and 29.43 lakh tonnes by that time.
   The production of spices and fruits will increase by 12 per cent to 15.64 lakh and 19.92 lakh tonnes respectively from 14.03 lakh and 17.76 lakh tonnes, and the demand will be 26.78 lakh and 45.10 lakh tonnes by that time.
   Production of vegetables will increase by 15 per cent to 21.25 lakh tonnes from 18.48 lakh tonnes, against the demand of 106.9 lakh tonnes by that time. Sugarcane will increase by 6 per cent, and jute and cotton will increase by 20 and 23 per cent respectively to 50 lakh and 1.01 lakh bales from 41.50 lakh and 0.82 lakh bales.

The Hindu community observed ‘Kumari Puja’ across the country on Saturday – the third day of the five-day long Durga Puja festival.
   Thousands of Hindu devotees from different areas of the city thronged the Ram Krishna Mission temple to take part in Kumari Puja.
   The devotees worshiped an eight-year-old girl, who symbolises Kumari (virgin) form of Durga, at Ramakrishna Mission — the most popular place in the capital city for Kumari Puja.
   A girl aged between six to 12 years was worshipped in different parts of the country on Mahastami in front of the Goddess of Durga as a living replica of her.
   Kumari Puja is held commemorating the killing of Kolasur by goddess Mohakali, according to Hindu scriptures. Kolasur had occupied the heavens and the earth.
   As the helpless deities went to Mohakali for help, she was born again in the form of a maiden named Durga and killed Kolasur.

At least 20 persons were injured, three of them critically, when two factions of the Awami League Chittagong south district unit clashed while its triennial conference was proceeding on Saturday morning .
   Amidst the clash outside, the inaugural session of the conference was kicked off at city’s Engineers Institution in a tense situation with one-hour delay.
   While the leaders and activists of the incumbent president of the unit Akhteruzzaman Chowdhury (Babu) took control of the conference hall, the other faction led by Jafar Ahmed Chowdhury, who were barred from entering the conference hall, were milling outside.
   The clash ensued when Babu group obstructed and chased the followers of Jafar out of the conference hall at 11:20am.
   Both the groups were locked in a series of clashes by chasing and counter-chasing each other with hockey sticks, bamboos and hurling stones. At least 20 activists, mostly supporters of Jafar, were injured, eyewitness and the police said.
   The law enforcers drove back the supporters of Jafar when they made repeated efforts to proceed towards the conference hall again at 1:00pm through Chittagong MA Aziz Stadium gate.
   A councilor of the conference and a member of the Central Muktijoddha Command Council Abdul Matin Chowdhury, who belongs to Jafar group, told the reporters that 15 leaders and workers of their faction including himself were injured when the supporters of Babu attacked and chased them out of the conference hall.
   Abu Taher, Nazimuddin Jashim-uddin, Murshed Chowdhury, Ramiz Ahmed Yusuf were among the injured of Jafar group.
   Three of the injured were admitted to a city clinic.
   AL presidium members Matia Chowdhury and Begum Sajeda Chowdhury inaugurated the conference being held after eight years.

Bangladesh will receive a significant portion of a $15-billion package assistance the United Kingdom will provide for the poorer countries over the next decade, the visiting chief secretary to the British treasury said in Dhaka on Saturday.
   Stephen Timms, the second senior-most minister in Tony Blair’s cabinet, told gatherings at the two schools that the British government would support Bangladesh to achieve universal primary education, giving funds for meals for children during school hours.
   ‘Britain is committed to providing some of the amount to Bangladesh,’ he said, adding the assistance will be in line with Bangladesh’s target under the UN Millennium Development Goals to achieve 100 per cent completion of primary education by 2015.
   ‘We will be discussing [with the Bangladesh government] a 10-year plan for funding education programmes. I hope all Bangladeshi children will be able complete primary education,’ Timms, who arrived in Dhaka on Saturday on a four-day visit, told the journalists who covered his visits to an NGO-run primary school and a high school at Mirpur.
   In this context, the British high commissioner, Anwar Choudhury, said, ‘Meals will be provided for the children so that none is deprived of basic primary education because of the curse of poverty.’ Assistance on education is said to be one of the focal points when he meets the prime minister, Khaleda Zia.
   Also present during the school visit, the education minister, M Osman Farruk, hoped the two governments would soon be able to reach a memorandum of understanding on financial supports to improve quality of education and to minimise dropout.
   The United Kingdom is set to enter 10-year agreements with developing countries to contribute to their education plans after the British chancellor of exchequer Gordon Brown and the secretary of state for international development Hillary Benn announced in April that the United Kingdom would spend at last $15 billion on aid for education worldwide over 10 years.
   The Bangladesh education minister criticised developed countries for not fulfilling their commitment they made under the millennium goals to support education programmes of poorer nations of Asia and Africa with adequate funds, but appreciated Britain’s giving adequate support on bilateral basis.
   Terming the UK-Bangladesh relations close, Stephen Timms proposed exchange programmes for schoolchildren of the United Kingdom and Bangladesh to share ideas and methods of learning to further deepen the relations. Osman Farruk appreciated it.
   The two ministers, accompanied by high officials of both the sides, saw a female teacher taking class at Mukulfauz BRAC school, a non-formal education centre run by the non-government leading organisations, in a poorly furnished house. The UK Department for International Development provided BRAC an amount of Tk 397 crore for basic education programmes.
   The British minister, however, expressed satisfaction with the enthusiasm shown by the students. He was impressed to see the Mirpur Bangla High School, one of the better schools in the city, where they were accorded a reception. He stressed the need for an increased number of teachers.
   Osman Farruk at the reception said the government wanted to establish modern schools such as the Bangla School everywhere. ‘The BRAC school is not our model,’ he said, referring to its infrastructure and sitting arrangement.
   The UK chief secretary said Bangladesh had been facing significant challenges in terms of primary dropout at a rate of 35 per cent, in improving the quality of education and in arranging schooling for children with disabilities and the poorest segment of the population.
   There are about 38 lakh children out of schooling in Bangladesh, he said.

The US Congress early Saturday gave its final approval to a new set of sanctions targeting foreign countries that continue nuclear cooperation with Iran and sell it advanced weaponry.
   But mindful of the situation in Iraq, lawmakers warned that nothing in this document should be ‘construed as authorising the use of force against Iran.’
   Although it does not name any countries by name, the measure is seen as a clear warning to Russia and China, two key members of the UN Security Council that have been resisting calls for new international sanctions against Tehran in response to its refusal to halt uranium enrichment.
   Russia has been involved in a 800-million-dollar project to help Iran build a nuclear power plant in Bushehr and has been selling it modern weaponry, while China has been accused of supplying the Islamic republic with advanced missile technology.
   The bill that passed by the Senate in pre-dawn hours by voice vote and cleared the House of Representatives a day earlier came as Iran and the European Union are engaged in delicate negotiations designed to persuade Iran to halt its enrichment work and avoid a major international showdown.
   The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, was expected to confer with the EU foreign policy coordinator, Javier Solana, and her counterparts from Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia over the weekend to take stock of progress reached in these talks.
   Following the carrot-and-stick approach adopted by Washington, the Iran Freedom Support Act states that it should be the policy of the United States ‘not to bring into force an agreement for cooperation with the government of any country that is assisting the nuclear programme of Iran or transferring advanced conventional weapons or missiles.’
   Meanwhile, the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Saturday rejected a key Western demand over Iran’s nuclear programme, vowing that the Islamic republic would not halt enriching uranium even for a short period.

A Hyderabad court sentenced former Bollywood actor Monica Bedi to five years in jail on Friday for passport forgery and cheating in a high-profile case involving an underworld leader.
   Bedi was extradited from Portugal along with Mumbai underworld figure Abu Salem in November last year.
   Salem is accused of involvement in the Mumbai bomb blasts in 1993 where 257 people were killed and is currently in a high-security jail in Mumbai facing trial over the attacks.
   Bedi, who is in her early 30s, faced lesser charges of fraud and criminal conspiracy and was brought to Hyderabad where she was charged of using a fictitious name and address to get a passport.
   The couple fled the country soon after the blasts, the police say.
   Bedi, dressed in a red and green salwar kameez, left the court with a grim face under the guard of policewomen.
   The court sentenced three others, including a police inspector and a postman, to five years imprisonment for helping Bedi get a passport based on false information.
   Salem is believed to be a close aide of Dawood Ibrahim, a Muslim underworld don accused of masterminding the Mumbai blasts 13 years ago.

A drug addict person named Al Amin has allegedly sold his newborn baby to a neighbour at Bismillah neighbourhood of the city.
   Al Amin’s wife Rina Begum, 25, said she gave birth to a male baby on Monday and his drug addict husband took the baby away at night and sold him to a woman of the locality.
   ‘I tried to prevent my husband but failed,’ a tearful Rina said. Al-Amin is a drug addict and beats her up quite often if she fails to give him money to buy drugs, she said.
   Rina and locals said Al Amin sold the baby to one Farida Begum of the neighbourhood for only Tk 2300 and went into hiding.
   She expressed her fear that her two other children—Rahul and Ratri—were not safe as their father might sell them too to collect money for buying drugs.

A businessman was shot dead by snatchers near Fajilatunnisa Women’s College in Daulatpur upazila Friday night.
   The victim was identified as Shahidul Islam, 40, of village Chua Mallikpara village.
   Witnesses said the snatchers intercepted Shahidul’s rickshaw in front of the college gate at about 9:00pm and snatched his gold chain, mobile phone, wristwatch and cash at gunpoint. .
   Before fleeing, the gang fired shots at Shahidul leaving him critically injured. He died at Kushtia General Hospital at about 10:00pm.

At least 50 people were injured and 40 motorcycles damaged during a fierce clash between two rival groups of the ruling BNP at Dhamrai in Dhaka Saturday noon.
   Witnesses said supporters of Ziaur Rahman, MP, and former home secretary and BNP nomination seeker Omar Faruq clashed with each other at Dhuli Vita bus stand in Dhamrai upazila.
   Police and local sources said leaders and activists of the BNP and its front organisations of Dhamrai upazila, believed to be supporters of Omar Faruq, brought out a motorcade procession as part of a scheduled programme in the morning.
   When the motorcade procession reached Dhuli Vita bus stand at about 1:00pm, supporters of Zia allegedly attacked the motorbike processionists.
   Both the groups entered the mosque market and ransacked 10-15 shops and also damaged 20-25 motorcycles parked there.
   The police opened fire to control the situation. Both the groups blamed each other for the violence.

A central leader of the Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal, who was arrested on charge of firing shots on a hotel employee on Friday, was sent to the district jail on Saturday.
   RAB personnel arrested Alauddin along with a licensed pistol from Dharmapur in the town on Friday night as he shot and injured hotel employee Ashik earlier in the morning.