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A shopkeeper was killed and a number of vehicles were damaged as Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal activists rampaged through the Dhaka University campus and surrounding areas after the news that BNP leader Tarique Rahman sustained injuries in prison cell.
   Jahangir Alam, 42, was hit by splinters of a gas cylinder that exploded after demonstrators set fire to a microbus in front of the Dhaka College at about 1:30 pm.
   Bystander Jahangir was rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where he died.
   Witnesses said the JCD activists and supporters turned violent hearing that Tarique, eldest son of detained BNP chief Khaleda Zia, was not allowed to go out of the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University for a CT scan after he sustained head injuries by falling down in washroom of the hospital’s prison cell.
   The activists, who were holding a rally at the foot of Aparajeyo Bangla demanding release of Khaleda Zia, stopped their programme and marched towards the BSMMU Hospital chanting anti-government slogans.
   As the police stopped them in front of Institute of Fine Arts near Shahbagh, the demonstrators started pelting stones at the police and vandalised at least 10 vehicles while moving back to the campus.
   They then spread to different entries to the campus and damaged more vehicles. They set fire to a black cab in front of the Roquiah Hall, witnesses said.
   The police later restricted vehicles from entering the campus area.
   The violence also spilled over to nearby Dhaka College and the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.
   The campus was deserted in minutes and the students ran for shelter as the JCD activists fought pitched battles with the police.
   Situation calmed in the evening with deployment of extra contingents of police at different points on the campus.
   Meanwhile, the JCD activists at Jahangirnagar University blocked the Dhaka-Aricha highway for two hours from 5:00 pm disrupting communication between the capital and most of the south-western and northern districts.
   They also set ablaze an effigy of chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed.
   Leaders of the BNP’s student wing said it was a ‘spontaneous reaction from the students to the government’s negligence towards Tarique Rahman’.
   The organisation’s senior vice-president, Sultan Salahuddin Tuku said it was not just a reaction of the Chhatra Dal activists, rather an outburst of anger of the general students.
   Anwarul Karim Milon, general secretary of Dhaka College unit of the Chhatra Dal, said that the students of the college had demonstrated inside the college compound but they did not damage any vehicle. ‘It was the act of some opportunists,’ he said.
   Reports from Bogra said the activists of Azizul Huq College unit of the Chhatra Dal blocked the Station Road and rail-track in front of the college for three hours and went on rampage in and around the campus from 3:00pm.
   The JCD activists also set ablaze the engine of Shantahar-bound train form Lalmanirhat at Gabtali of the district at 8:30pm.
   The activists also blocked the Bogra-Dhunat road and damaged at least seven vehicles in the town. They demonstrated chanting slogans and burning tyres.

Tarique Rahman, the ailing son of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, on Monday sustained injuries in the head and other parts of the body as he fell on a bathroom floor in the prison cell at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital.
   ‘Tarique Rahman fell in a bathroom and has abrasion to his head’, BSMMU vice-chancellor Professor Mohammad Tahir said. ‘The hospital authorities have taken steps to give him the best available treatment.’
   Dr Kazi Mazharul Islam Dolon, a BSMMU associate professor who attended Tarique immediately after the incident, said ‘Tarique Rahman went to the bathroom at about 12:15pm. He lost his balance when he was coming out and fell on the bathroom floor. He suddenly lost sensation in the right leg which caused the fall.’
   ‘When we first saw him [Tarique] after the incident, he was shivering and groaning with pain’, he said.
   ‘He sustained a cut on the right side of his forehead but did not need a stitch’, the physician said. ‘Tarique also complained that he received injuries in his back, right knee and ankle.’
   ‘We prescribed him injections Ketorolae, Phenobarbitone, Renisone and Bardinal’, said Dr Dolon, a member of the medical team formed by the university authorities for Tarique.
   ‘Tarique will be under observation for 48 hours. We have suggested an X-ray and a CT scan for him. If necessary, we will suggest an MRI’, he said adding, ‘After that we will be able to assess if his health condition has worsened after the fall.’
   BSMMU physicians MA Awal and Dr Khaled were present when Dr Dolon was briefing reporters.
   The BSMMU vice-chancellor said Tarique would need to go out for a CT scan as the CT scan machine at the hospital had been out of order for two days.
   Several hundred leaders of the BNP, including secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain and joint secretaries general Selima Rahman, Nazrul Islam Khan and Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, and its front organisations rushed to the hospital to see Tarique, also senior joint secretary general of the party. But the prisons authorities did not allow them to visit him. In protest, a section of leaders and activists chanted slogan on the hospital premises.
   Khandaker Delwar criticised the government for not permitting him to visit Tarique. ‘It is inhuman’, he said.
   ‘The four-party alliance is not being allowed to hold political protests while another party [Awami League] is facing no problems in holding similar programmes’, he said.
   Delwar demanded release of Khaleda Zia, now detained in a high security special jail on the parliament complex, and treatment of Tarique Rahman abroad. Otherwise, he said, the party would build up a tough movement.
   The prison authorities, however, allowed Advocate Ahmed Azam Khan, a lawyer of Tarique, to visit his client. ‘I was at his bedside for some time. He looked pale lying on the bed.’
   Tarique’s wife Dr Zubaida Rahman and her elder sister also went to the hospital hearing the news. The authorities allowed only Zubaida to visit her husband.
   Dr Zubaida declined to make any statement on Tarique’s health condition despite repeated requests from reporters.
   When asked why they did not allow the BNP secretary general to visit Tarique, DIG (prisons) Major Shamsul Haider Siddiqui said, ‘We follow the jail code and according to that only close relatives and lawyers are allowed to visit a detainee.’
   The issue of sending Tarique Rahman abroad for medical treatment is a matter to be decided by the government, not the prisons authorities, he said.
   Tarique and Khaleda were arrested on March 8 and September 3 respectively at their Dhaka Cantonment residence and implicated in cases of extortion and corruption.

The legality of the Truth and Accountability Commission, formed on July 30 to let people voluntarily admit to their corruption and get mercy depositing ill-gotten wealth to the state exchequer, was challenged in the High Court on Monday.
   Supreme Court lawyer Adilur Rahman Khan, women’s organisation Nari Grantha Probartana executive director Farida Akhter, physician-turned-politician Dipu Moni and rights organisation Odhikar’s acting director ASM Nasiruddin Elan filed a writ petition challenging the constitutionality of the Voluntary Disclosure Ordinance 2008, under which the commission was set up.
   The petitioners sought a stay order on the functioning of the commission as an interim measure and finally cancellation of the ordinance and termination of the commission.
   The High Court bench of Justice Khademul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Mashuque Hossain Ahmed posted the hearing of the petition, moved by the petitioners’ counsel Taufique Newaz and Asaduzzaman, for today.
   The preamble and some other clauses of the ordinance said the government had promulgated the ordinance [on June 5] to ‘remove corruption’ by means other than criminal trial and to reduce the burden of trials upon the state.
   The writ petition said that the objective of the ordinance was contrary to the constitutional provisions.
   According to the constitution, an alleged offender can be handed punishment after a fair trial by a competent court or tribunal and there can be no alternative to the courts or tribunals for holding trial of a criminal offence, the petition said.
   The commission set up under the ordinance is neither a court nor a tribunal established by any law, the petition stated adding, ‘Even the Supreme Court has ceased to have its supervisory authority, granted by the constitution, over the decision of the commission.’
   The petition said that the ordinance was made in violation of the constitutional provision of ‘equality before law’, as the ordinance empowered the commission to pick and choose the graft suspects for awarding its mercy.
   Discrimination against individuals is contrary to the article 27 of the constitution that guarantees equal rights before law, the petition pointed out.
   The ordinance empowers the commission to order confiscation of money commensurate to the amount earned illegally and such confiscation results in barring the person concerned from contesting election to a public office or companies, the petition said adding, ‘This is, for all purposes, a conviction and sentence and such authority to punish a person by the commission is inconsistent with constitutional provisions for trying an offender by a court of law.’
   Section 29 of the ordinance says that the commission can seek assistance of the judiciary in consultation with the Supreme Court and the judiciary is under legal obligations to assist the commission.
   Referring to the section, the petition said that it was against the basic structure of our constitution as an independent judiciary was to ensure a fair trial and not to follow the instruction of or to assist any statutory body.
   According to the constitution, an ordinance requires to be placed in the immediate next session of parliament, while the Voluntary Disclosure Ordinance has been made and the commission launched for a five-month period and that will expire before the next general elections.
   The ordinance and the commission are ‘illegal’, as the ordinance cannot be placed before parliament for ratification, the petition said.
   The petition also challenged the authority of the interim government to promulgate such an ordinance, as it had provisions relating to policy decisions of the government beyond the jurisdiction of a caretaker government and the ordinance was neither related to holding of elections nor to the regular functioning of the government.

The Election Commission on Monday set October 15 as the deadline for registration of political parties, a time period the parties have rejected as too short to complete all related tasks and meet the criteria for contesting the general elections planned for December.
   ‘The process of registration of the political parties with the Election Commission will begin with publication of an advertisement on August 27 inviting the parties to apply for registration’, chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda told a press briefing after a meeting of the commission.
   Talking to New Age on Monday evening, leaders of major political parties rejected the Aug 27-Oct 15 schedule for registration as absurd because of time constraints and the state of emergency.
   But the CEC insisted that registration would be completed within the time period ‘if the political parties give a little extra efforts’. He assured the political parties that the commission would provide necessary cooperation in this regards.
   Replying to a question about the apprehension that Bangladesh Nationalist Party might not contest the next general elections, the CEC said without participation of all major political parties, the polls would not be credible.
   ‘If all the major political parties do not participate in the polls, it would not be acceptable to us alone, but also to others’, he added.
   Major political parties, with their chiefs and key leaders in jail, find it an uphill task to fulfil the registration criteria which include forming elected committees from the centre down to union parishad level, regularising national council sessions and amending party constitutions.
   Asked about the problems the political parties feared they would face in holding council sessions under the state of emergency, the CEC said, ‘An atmosphere conducive to holding meetings and council sessions should be ensured. If necessary, we will strongly urge the government to relax emergency.’
   He described the political parties’ criticism of the amended Representation of People Order 1972, which set the criteria for registration, as ‘undesirable’.
   Huda said that the EC was ready to hold talks with any political parties willing to be registered and hear their problems in meeting the registration conditions.
   Asked whether the commission, which had held a meeting with the splinter group of the BNP in April, would now hold a dialogue with the mainstream of the party, the CEC said the circumstances had changed and everyone was observing it. ‘There is a political dynamic’, he said about its previous dialogue on electoral reforms with the government-backed faction of BNP and its latest stand favouring dialogues with the mainstream of the party.
   The CEC conceded that the process of registration of political parties should have started four or five month back.
   The EC missed its June deadline for the registration of political parties for delay in finalising reforms of the electoral law setting the conditions for registration.
   According to the electoral roadmap, all electoral reforms, including finalisation of the conditions for registration of political parties, should have been completed by February 27. The roadmap also gave the political parties three months, April-June, to get registered.
   According to the EC’s timeline for registration, the parties will get just one and a half months to amend their constitutions and have new committees by holding council sessions to meet the proposed criteria for registration. The amendment to the RPO 1972 was promulgated on August 19 and made public on August 21 setting the criteria for party registration.
   Article 90B(1)(b)(ii) of the amended order stipulates that for registration with the EC, every political party will have to incorporate a provision in its constitution to get elected members on their committees at all levels, including the central committee.
   According to Article 90B(1)(a)(iv), to qualify for contesting national polls and to get registered, parties need to get nominations for national polls forwarded by local level committees in every constituency and finally get those approved by the central parliamentary boards.

The interim government has directed the newly-posted deputy commissioners to get ready for the twin challenges ahead — holding of elections and implementation of poverty reduction programmes — as well as making the public administration truly welfare-oriented.
   The directives came on Monday when cabinet secretary Ali Imam Majumder briefed the district administrators on the government’s priorities and the role of DCs with general elections only four months’ away as per the official blueprint.
   Home secretary Abdul Karim, establishment secretary Abdus Salam Khan, chief adviser’s secretary Kazi Aminul Islam, land secretary Mosleh Uddin and food secretary Molla Waheeduzzaman were present, among others, at the meeting at the Cabinet Division.
   In a major reshuffle in the field administration, the government on Thursday withdrew 35 DCs and gave fresh postings to those positions asking them to join on or before August 31, 2008.
   The reshuffle was much anticipated as the government was to make local level administration attuned to upazila polls planned in October ahead of the ninth parliament polls pledged in December.
   ‘The new DCs have been informed of the government’s agenda and priorities. They are also briefed on their duties and responsibilities,’ the cabinet secretary told newsmen after the meeting.
   Asked about the government’s priorities as of now, Ali Imam said the DCs were asked to successfully implement the social safety net programmes like employment guarantee scheme for the poor and vulnerable group feeding, and assist the Election Commission in holding all elections ahead in a free and fair manner.
   The cabinet secretary hoped that the latest administrative shake-up would help conduct a free and fair election. ‘Questions may rise in a few cases. But obviously, the administration will work neutrally in conducting free and fair polls and maintaining law and order.’
   Replying to a question whether the field administration could function neutrally if the officials in key positions were not changed, he said the government was to look into the matter.
   The cabinet secretary asked the DCs to cautiously operate the local resources fund.
   ‘We have received a letter from the Anti-Corruption Commission on operation of the LR fund, but no decision has been made as yet in this regard,’ Ali Imam replied a questioner.
   The establishment secretary said the changes in field administration were made on the basis of neutrality. ‘I believe that the DCs would discharge their responsibilities neutrally.’
   After the meeting, Viqarunnesa, new DC of Magura, told New Age that the DCs were asked to work impartially so that no one could question the neutrality of the government. ‘The government has directed us to follow rules and its circulars without any fear.’
   Ahsan Habib Talukder, DC of Naogaon, said that the new district administrators were ready to assist the Election Commission in conducting the polls. ‘The time gap between the two elections will not be a problem. We are ready to carry out any decision in this regard.’
   Six DCs spoke at the meeting, assuring the government of functioning neutrally and discharging their duties with devotion, meeting sources said.
   The district administrators asked for immediate appointments to the vacant posts in the DC offices for smooth delivery of services.

Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif pulled his party out of the ruling coalition on Monday, deepening a political crisis that has diverted government attention from pressing security and economic problems.
   The move came just a week after the coalition parties had celebrated the resignation of president Pervez Musharraf in the face of the coalition’s threat to impeach him.
   Sharif said the party of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, which leads the coalition, had repeatedly broken promises on resolving a judicial dispute and on who should be the next president.
   ‘We therefore feel that these repeated defaults and violations have forced us to withdraw our support from the ruling coalition and sit on the opposition benches,’ Sharif told a news conference.
   The departure of his party is not expected to force a general election as Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party should be able to gather enough support to govern, analysts say.
   The coalition, formed after Musharraf’s allies lost a February general election, had looked increasingly precarious since Musharraf resigned a week ago.
   The PPP and Sharif’s party were bitter rivals during the 1980s and 90s, when Benazir and Sharif were both chosen twice as prime minister, but they found common ground more recently in their opposition to Musharraf.
   But his departure undermined the logic of their alliance, analysts said.
   Sharif had pulled his ministers out of the cabinet after an earlier deadline passed to restore judges Musharraf purged last year. He had repeatedly threatened to withdraw from the coalition and last week set Monday as his latest deadline.
   The PPP is reluctant to restore the judges partly because of concern the deposed chief justice might take up challenges to an amnesty granted to Zardari and other party leaders from graft charges last year, analysts say.
   Before Musharraf sacked them, the judges — the former chief justice in particular
   — were quite willing to challenge his government on the legality of various decisions, a tendency the PPP may not view with enthusiasm now that it governs.
   Another divisive issue is who should be the nuclear-armed country’s next president.
   The PPP announced on Saturday that Benazir’s widower and political successor, Asif Ali Zardari, would be its candidate.
   Sharif said that violated an earlier agreement with the PPP for a non-partisan candidate if the presidency retained certain powers, including to dismiss parliament.
   Sharif wants the post of president stripped of powers, but a senior official from Benazir’s party said at the weekend the question of powers would only be dealt with after the presidential election.
   Sharif named his party’s candidate for president, a former chief justice, Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui.
   Members of the four provincial assemblies and two houses of the national parliament will elect a new president on September 6.
   Sharif said he would not try to destabilise the government. ‘We’ll play the role of a constructive opposition.’
   A spokesman for Zardari welcomed Sharif’s pledge not to destabilise the government.
   ‘In a way, the coalition will remain intact,’ said the spokesman, Farhatullah Babar. ‘We still hope Sharif will rejoin the coalition.’
   As the politicians bicker, militant violence has surged in Pakistan, which allies such as the United States consider to be on the front lines in the war against terrorism.
   Pakistani Taliban gunmen attacked a district government official’s home in the
   Swat Valley, northwest of Islamabad, on Monday, killing three family members and seven guards.
   Signalling what could be a new Taliban tactic to undermine foreign forces in Afghanistan, gunmen in the port city of Karachi set fire on Sunday night to two armoured vehicles bound for US forces in Afghanistan.
   The violence and political uncertainty, on top of weak economic data, have undermined investor confidence and sent the country’s financial markets sharply lower.
   The Pakistani rupee closed at a record low of around 76.60/70 to the dollar on Monday. Shares were nearly 2 per cent lower.
   Pakistan’s stock market, which rose for six consecutive years to 2007 and was one of the best-performing markets in Asia in that period, has fallen about 30 per cent this year.

Over one thousand workers of Chittagong City Corporation stopped work and staged demonstrations on Monday, to press for a number of demands including job security and pay rises.
   The workers observed a token hunger strike and held a rally at the city corporation grounds from 9:00am.
   Temporary workers of CCC were demonstrating for job permanence and wage hikes, while permanent workers joined them with demands for job promotions.
   Workers’ representatives and top CCC officials sat in a meeting around 12.30pm.
   Garbage truck driver Abdul Munaf told the news agency that he had been serving the corporation on a temporary basis for over 14 years for a daily wage of just Tk 150.
   ‘The pay is too low to maintain a family with prices mounting,’ he said.
   ‘We want the authorities to make our jobs permanent and give bonuses or we will continue our protest,’ Munaf added.
   Assistants to the garbage truck driers and street cleaners are demanding their pay be raised to Tk 150 a day from Tk 120.
   The temporary workers were also demanding their salaries on the first day of the month instead of the tenth.
   CCC Sramik Karmachari Unnayan Parishad president Kazi Abu Tayab said a committee had been formed to make the workers’ jobs permanent, but the authorities were not implementing the measure.
   ‘Whenever we take to the streets the mayor and commissioners hold meetings and pledge to meet our demands. But they stop there,’ Tayab said.
   ‘This time we will continue our movement until all our demands are met,’ he said.
   Tayab later relented, however, and said the workers would halt their move if the mayor assured them that their demands would be met.
   Acting Chittagong mayor M Manjur Alam said the workers’ demands would be fulfilled through legal processes.
   Kotwali police chief Shah Alam said the workers were holding their procession peacefully; sufficient police were being deployed at the corporation grounds.
   Actions would be taken if the protesters took their protest out of the corporation grounds, he said.

The High Court on Monday granted interim bail for six months to Tarique Rahman in the first case filed by a construction firm owner Amin Ahmed for extorting Tk 1 crore from him.
   The High Court bench of Justice Tariq ul Hakim and Sheikh Abdul Awal passed the order after hearing the bail petition filed by Tarique, the eldest son of former prime minister Khaleda Zia, and also senior joint secretary general of BNP.
   The High Court bench of Justice Sharif Uddin Chaklader and Justice Emdadul Haque Azad is likely today to hear seven other petitions filed by Tarique seeking bails. He was earlier granted bail in six other extortion cases.
   The court is also scheduled today to hear the petition filed by Khaleda, also the BNP chairperson, seeking bail in the latest case. The Anti-Corruption Commission on July 3 filed the case against Khaleda and her son Tarique for embezzling Tk 2.1 crore of Zia Orphanage Trust fund.
   Earlier on August 18, M Azizul Haque, judge of the metropolitan sessions judge’s court, rejected her bail petition in the case.
   The same court on Monday also rejected the petition filed by Khaleda, seeking bail in the second graft case filed against her by the commission on February 16 in connection with the Barapukuria coalmine scam.
   Khaleda is now detained in the special jail on the Jatiya Sangsad Complex since her arrest on September 3, 2007. She was arrested in connection with the case filed by the commission on the day before her arrest for alleged corruption in awarding contract to a firm Global Agro-trade Company Ltd.
   She faces four graft cases. Two of them were under trial by special judge’s court now stalled following the High Court order.
   The army-led joint forces arrested Tarique at the house of Khaleda in the Dhaka cantonment on March 8, 2007 under Emergency Powers Rules.
   The High Court bench of Justice Abdul Wahhab Mian and Justice M Emdadul Haque on April 17 stayed for six months the proceedings of the Tk 1 crore extortion case. The court issued a rule on the government to explain in four weeks why the case would not be quashed.
   He now faces at least 13 cases. One of them, filed in connection with the Bashundhara murder bribery charges, is now under trial at a special judge’s court set up on the Jatiya Sangsad complex but the proceedings of most cases were stayed by the High Court.

UK-based Asia Energy has been behind the organised campaign of a group of civil society fronts in favour of swift coal extraction in northern Bangladesh, reveals a New Age investigation.
   These fronts, platforms and associations, were initiated and supported by the subsidiary of Global Coal Management Resources to demonstrate public support for its proposal for an open pit coal mine stretching 65 square kilometres at Phulbari of Dinajpur, countering strong national and local opposition.
   Two years ago on August 26, several thousand people took to the streets protesting against the proposed open pit mining, which was feared to displace over one lakh people and affect the life and livelihood of another two lakh people.
   Three people were killed and dozens others injured as law enforcers opened fire on the protesters on the day in 2006.
   According to Asia Energy, Phulbari coal mine would produce some 520 million tonnes of coal over 35 years and displace 50,000 people.
   The associations or platforms, particularly active in the northern districts in advocating swift coal extraction include the Greater Rangpur-Dinajpur Business Development Forum, comprising different business bodies and businessmen, the Greater Dinajpur District NGO Alliance for Sustainable Use of Natural Resources, evidently an association of 30 local non-governmental organisations and North Bengal Mineral Resources Reporters’ Forum, an association of journalists.
   Office bearers of these forums deny their links with Asia Energy and claim to be promoting mineral extraction for the benefit of the northern region that has remained neglected for long, and reduction of disparity compared to the rest of the country.
   The business development forum was founded by Nazrul Islam, a former executive chairman of Bangladesh’s Board of Investment, and a retired additional secretary of the government. Nazrul continues to serve as the forum’s chairman. But he is also the executive director for Asia Energy Bangladesh.
   Nazrul insisted that there was no conflict of interest in the two offices he holds. ‘I have been involved in such forums and associations for a long time,’ he said mentioning a number of high offices he held in the past on district committees in northern Bangladesh.
   Rafiqul Islam, president of Dinajpur Chamber of Commerce, also a member of the business development forum said it was entirely driven by Nazrul, who previously served Asia Energy in the capacity of a consultant.
   Rafiqul had refused to read out a pre-drafted speech handed to him at a public meeting of the forum on May 2 this year in Dinajpur. ‘I found it was contrary to our national interests.’ He told the meeting that an open pit coal mine was not acceptable considering the situation of Bangladesh. ‘We must not compromise fertile, arable land for coal extraction.’
   The alliance of non-governmental organisations apparently comprising of 36 organisations, maintains a Dhaka office with the same address as that of Asia Energy.
   The web pages—www.gddna.com and www.rangpur-dinajpur-forum.com—have identical IP addresses and other web hosting details, suggesting that the two are run and operated from a single source.
   Hamidul Haque, chairman of the alliance, also chief executive of the Palli Gano Sanghati Parishad, said the association’s contact person in Dhaka is one Ahsan Habib, who happens to be Asia Energy’s manager for equipment, mobilisation and support. Hamid said Ahsan provided the alliance with all the necessary support for maintaining and uploading their NGO alliance website.
   He said the platform, similar to the other platforms, was not in any way suggesting that Asia Energy be given the contract for Phulbari. ‘If they do get involved however, we will become involved in handling the environmental projects to mitigate the adverse impacts on environment and agriculture.’ But he denied that the association had any links with Asia Energy.
   Hamid claimed the association ‘intends to accelerate the utilisation of natural resources including minerals as available in the Dinajpur region for the holistic and sustainable development involving the community’.
   But an email sent by alliance to the Asian Development Bank gives a proof of its bias towards Asia Energy. It requested the lending agency to ‘reconsider its decision regarding financing the Phulbari Coal Project’ after it was reported in the media that the lending agency’s private sector division had decided to pull out of the project, thus withdrawing a $100 million political risk guarantee.
   The email, dated April 10 this year, to relevant high officials of the lending agency including the ADB president and the country head, reads, ‘We are very much disappointed with this news. To us, this decision will not help the people of the country rather lead the energy security of the country in a vulnerable position. Because Phulbari Coal Project would be a major development [work] in the north-west Bangladesh.’
   Denying all allegations of driving the platforms, Nazrul said, ‘Asia Energy is absolutely transparent. We have no involvement with these groups.’ Regarding an Asia Energy staff providing technical support, he said, ‘I am not aware of such a thing. I do not think it is indeed the case.’

Power Division on Monday approved the technical offer of the lone bidder for installation of 450MW Bibiyana independent power plant after the consortium withdrew its condition that the government would have to give $15 million guarantee for cancellation of the agreement.
   Following the division’s approval, Power Cell decided that it would open the financial offer – power price and other financial issues — of the consortium of Powertek Berhad of Malaysia, Siemens Project Ventures of Germany and Korea Electric Power Company on Thursday, sources in the division and cell said.
   The consortium in a letter informed Power Cell on Monday that it had withdrawn from its technical bid the proposal that there should be a provision in the agreement for installation of Bibiyana IPP for paying it up to $15 million if its contract was scrapped, they said.
   The consortium’s move came on the same day the law and finance ministries gave their opinions to the power division against such compensation guarantee, the sources said.
   The law ministry in its opinion said it would not be legal if the consortium’s demand was met while the finance ministry recommended that it could go to the cabinet purchase committee again to seek approval.
   ‘The tender evaluation committee has found the consortium technically qualified based on its technical offer. The only contentious issue was its demand for a guarantee clause in the agreement which contradicted the tender documents. As it withdrew the condition, the division approved the technical offer paving the way for Power Cell to open the financial offer,’ a division source said.
   When asked whether it was legal to allow the consortium to alter its technical bid, a source in the cell claimed that there were scopes for clarifications and changes in the offer if the government allowed.
   Officials said the consortium’s offer for power price for the Power Development Board could be known after opening of the financial offer.
   ‘Whether the government will select the consortium for installation or not will now largely depend on the power price the consortium has quoted. If its power price is reasonable considering the present market price, the government may select it. But if its power tariff is found high, it might be rejected,’ said a division official.
   The Powertek-Siemens–KEPCO consortium is the only company that submitted the technical and financial bids for Bibiyana plant on July 24, when bidding was closed. Two other companies were also pre-qualified by Power Cell but they didn’t participate in the final bidding.
   The Bibiyana bidding process was marred by controversies following the exclusion of a consortium, led by local Summit Industrial and Mercantile Company, from the bidding process.
   The company repeatedly claimed that it fulfilled financial criteria for pre-qualification. But Power Cell and its adviser, International Finance Corporation claimed that Summit didn’t fulfil such criteria.

One hundred police officials, including four Deputy Inspectors General, have been given transfers and postings in a major shake-up in the police department as the caretaker government reshuffles the administration ahead of the polls.
   Police headquarters sources said 69 officers-in-charge under five ranges are among the cops to pack their bags. They have been given new postings within their respective range.
   An official in the Police Headquarters said Monday 17 OCs from Dhaka Range were given new postings to different police stations within the range, while 20 OCs of Chittagong Range, 19 of Rajshahi Range, six of Sylhet Range and seven OCs of Khulna Range given new postings within their respective ranges.
   Meanwhile, the home ministry in a notification Monday transferred 31 senior police officials, including four DIGs.
   According to the notification, DIG of APBn Md Nazmul Haq has been transferred to Police Headquarters. He was replaced by DIG (highway police) Dr Mohammad Sadikur Rahman.
   DIG (Police Headquarters) Md Moniruzzaman Miah has been given posting as commissioner of Chittagong Metropolitan Police. Acting CMP commissioner has been transferred as commissioner (current charge) of Barisal Metropolitan Police.
   Assistant Inspector General of Police Md Abdul Jalil Mandal was posted as Additional Commissioner (current charge) of CMP.
   SS of CID Md Nowser Ali has been posted as joint commissioner (current charge) of DMP.
   Superintendent of Police of Chuadanga district Mofiz Uddin Ahmed, SP of Brahmanbaria Md Ataul Kibria and SP of Satkhira Mirza Abdullah Hel Baki have been posted to DMP as deputy commissioners.
   SP of Gopalganj Mahmudur Rahman and SP of Bagerhat AKM Shahidur Rahman have been posted to CMP as DCs.
   SP of Chandpur Obaidur Rahman Khan has been posted as special super of CID, Dhaka, SP of Dinajpur Md Mustafa Kamal as DC of KMP, SP of Rangpur Hasib Aziz as AIG (Police Headquarters), DC of DMP Abdullah Al Mahmud as DC of RMP, DC of CMP Mustafa Kamal as commanding officer of 9th APBn, Dhaka.
   SP of Kishoreganj Md Mizanur Rahman has been posted as SS of CID, Dhaka, SS of SB, Dhaka, Md Nazrul Islam as AIG (Police Headquarters), SP of Patuakhali Md Abul Kalam Siddique as SP of Dinajpur, SP of Police Staff College Mosharraf Hossain as SSD of SB, Dhaka, and SP of Moulvibazar Faruk Ahmed as SP of Kishoreganj.
   DC of RMP Mahbubur Rahman has been posted as SP Kurigram, DC of KMP Lutfar Rahman Mandol as SP Brahmanbaria, DC of DMP Morshed Alam as SP Chuadanga, DC of DMP Abu Sufian as SP of Satkhira, and DC of DMP Awlad Ali Fakir as SP Bagerhat.
   DC of DMP Morshedul Anwar has been posted as SP of Netrakona, SS of CID (Rajshahi) Krisnapada Roy as SP Chandpur, SP (Highway-West) Mahfuzul Islam as SP of Rangpur, SS of SB Dhaka Monirul Islam as SP of Nilphamari and SP of Nilphamari Abdul Kuddus Amin has been given posting as SP of Gopalganj.

The United States and India began reworking a draft agreement to win approval from a global nuclear trade bloc that has been skeptical of the two nations’ proposed civilian nuclear deal, officials said on Monday.
   A 45-nation meeting on whether to lift a ban on nuclear trade with India ended inconclusively last week after many members wanted to attach conditions, like trying to ban further nuclear tests by the Asian power.
   The deal would allow India access to nuclear technology and fuel, overturning a three-decade ban on trade after India tested nuclear weapons in 1974.
   The countries in the Nuclear Suppliers Group will meet again on September 4-5, when the United States is expected to rework the draft for a waiver breaking the nuclear trade embargo.
   ‘The ball has been set rolling,’ an Indian foreign ministry official said when asked if the two countries had begun reworking the draft. ‘Our foreign secretary is in the US and the two delegations have been meeting.’
   The US assistant secretary of state, Richard Boucher, met Indian officials on Monday but refused to answer questions on what changes were likely in the US draft.
   He hinted last week that the two sides were open to accommodating some changes in the draft so long as they did not impede the bilateral pact.
   Washington says it was committed to getting the draft past the NSG as soon as possible.
   ‘The United States and India will continue our vigorous joint advocacy for the initiative at the highest levels of NSG government,’ David C Mulford, US ambassador to India, said.
   Diplomats say conditions tabled at the NSG included intrusive UN inspections of Indian civilian nuclear sites; cancellation of any waiver if India tests bombs again; and periodic reviews of Indian compliance with the exemption.
   India says it will not agree to any conditions to get an NSG approval.
   Sensitive to leftist charges that closer ties with the United States will undo its strategic autonomy, New Delhi has insisted on a ‘clean and unconditional’ waiver from the NSG.
   ‘We will continue to work with our Indian partners to persuade the Nuclear Suppliers Group countries that such an exemption is in the international community’s best interest,’ Mulford said.
   The bilateral deal has disturbed pro-disarmament nations and campaigners since India is outside the global Non-Proliferation Treaty and developed nuclear bombs in the 1970s with Western technology imported ostensibly for peaceful ends.
   Time is running out on the bilateral deal which still has to reach the US Congress for ratification by early September at the latest before the house breaks for the November US presidential election.

The head of India’s West Bengal state invited opposition leaders on Monday for talks in a fresh bid to end protests against a plant building the world’s cheapest car.
   The West Bengal chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, issued the invitation in a letter to opposition Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee who launched an ‘indefinite’ protest Sunday at the Tata Motors plant.
   ‘I’ve sent a letter to Mamata Banerjee asking her to end the protests and I hope we will be able to resolve the issue through talks,’ Bhattacharjee, whose Marxist government wooed the project, told reporters in the state capital.
   The call for talks came after Ratan Tata, chairman of the conglomerate which owns the plant, warned he would move it out of the state if protests continued, even though his company has invested 350 million dollars in the project.
   Demonstrators blocked roads near the factory at Singur, 35 kilometres northwest of Kolkata for a second day as the riot police protected the factory premises.
   The police estimated the number of protesters at 2,000, far below the 40,000 who turned out Sunday when the Trinamool Congress launched its demonstration against the factory constructing the 2,500-dollar Nano car.
   Activists at Singur said they would only call off the protests if the government returned 400 acres taken from farmers who have not accepted any compensation.
   ‘Our door is open for discussion but the government must return the land,’ said Partha Chatterjee, a senior Trinamool Congress leader.
   The party had received Bhattacharjee’s letter ‘and we’re considering matters,’ he added.
   The government acquired 997 acres of land for the project but activists insist the project needs only about 600 acres.
   The gates of the factory have been heavily fortified, with an October deadline for the first Nano car to roll off the assembly line appearing under grave threat.
   KN Kammkar, a police inspector on duty, said, ‘We are spending sleepless nights to guard the plant.’
   The Trinamool chief has proposed that low-lying land near the plant could be given to Tata for ancillary production units rather than the fields that the farmers want back.

The Awami League has received a reply from the Election Commission to its letter seeking a schedule for another round of talks to resolve a number of issues mainly relating to polls.
   The Awami League last Tuesday sent separate letters to the Chief Adviser’s Office and the Election Commission for further consultations.
   On Wednesday Mostafa Faruq, PS to the chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, phoned Awami League’s assistant office secretary ABM Mozammel Huq who requested the former to set a date in the first week of September for the talks.
   When approached, acting AL secretary Syed Ashraful Islam told New Age he had received the EC reply but did not give its contents. ‘I have not yet gone through the letter.’

Two rival groups of Jatiyatbadi Chhatra Dal clashed at Jashimuddin Hall of Dhaka University Monday evening over establishing supremacy in the hall.
   Hall sources said the activists of the hall unit of Chhatra Dal, loyal to Chhatra Dal vice-president Sultan Salahuddin Tuku, clashed with the supporters of the university unit general secretary Saiful Islam Firoz and ransacked rooms No 331 and 332 of the hall.

The cabinet of advisers of the military-controlled interim government will meet in Khulna city today for discussing various problems faced by the division.
   The meeting will start at 11:00am at the Khulna circuit house, and after the meeting, the chief adviser will address a press briefing there at 3:00pm, said sources in the Khulna divisional administration.
   More than three thousand law enforcers have been deployed in the Khulna Metropolitan Police area, said KMP sources.
   Extra police forces were deployed at all key points, check posts were stationed at all points of entry to the city and coast guards were on patrol in the Rupsha and Bhairab rivers, said KMP sources.
   The administration sources said the meeting will focus on gas supply to the southwest region through pipeline, Padma bridge at Mawa point, reopening of closed newsprint mills, Mongla port development, completion of Khanjahan Ali Airport, payment of dues to workers of jute mills and Bhabadaha waterlogging.

Iceland president Olafur Ragnar Grimsson will not come to Dhaka on Tuesday night.
   President Olafur Ragnar was scheduled to arrive in Dhaka on
   Tuesday night from China, but he returned home from Beijing cancelling his 5-day trip to Bangladesh, according to his tour programme.
   A new schedule of his visit to Bangladesh was not yet known.

The police on Monday arrested Masiur Rahman, president of Gazipur sadar unit of Sramik Kalyan Federation, labourer unit of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, at Chandana under Gazipur sadar for allegedly instigating labour unrest in the area.
   Another Ramzan Ali, who was with Masiur, was also caught for questioning.
   The police said worker of Nightingale Fashion Garments of Konabari under sadar upazila ransacked the factory, demanding 20 per cent hike in their salary on Sunday.
   Police said Masiur, along with others, instigated the labour unrest.
   Humayan Kabir, manager of the factory, filed a case against 41 persons, including Masiur, accusing them of damaging assets worth Tk 50 lakh. The police on Sunday arrested 16 persons in connection with the case.