No trade thru' Benapole till tomorrow

Indo-Bangladesh trade trough Benapole land port will remain suspended for three days till Saturday as Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Benarjee and Indian Central Home Minister P. Chidambaram will visit the Petrapole land port.

Transaction of goods and commodities was suspended on the Indian side yesterday which took extra security measures for the visit of the Indian ministers, said customs officials.

Sources said, the Indian ministers will meet port and customs officials and local commanders of BSF and discuss expansion of facilities and security measures for transporting cargoes to northeastern states of India through the land corridor of Bangladesh in near future.

Source : The Daily Star

Bail prayer of teacher held on rape charge turned down

Headmaster of a non-government school, held on charge of kidnapping and raping a college girl, was sent to jail on Tuesday.

Earlier AKM Shamiul Islam Lovlu, 48, headmaster of Uttar Khamar Mohona United Registered School at Khamar Mohona Alam Biditor village in Gangachhara upazila was produced in court in the morning.

The chief judicial magistrate sent him to jail hajat rejecting the bail prayer.

According to the case, Lovlu came in contact with a girl student of Jaldhaka Degree College, over cell phone.

After a few days, Lovlu, married and father of a child, went to Jaldhaka and tactfully kidnapped the girl and took her to an unknown destination where he allegedly raped her on August 18.

Victim's father immediately filed a case failing to find out his daughter.

After the case, police in a drive arrested Lovlu and rescued the girl from a house at Nekbakta village in Jaldhaka upazila on Monday.

Before going to jail hajat, the teacher repented for his deeds and said he actually wanted to marry the girl. He claimed that he also took permission from his first wife to marry the girl.

Police said the victim's father filed a kidnap and rape case in this connection.

Source : The Daily Star

Missing college student found murdered

A college student, missing since Tuesday afternoon, was found dead at Boktarpur village in Ishwardi upazila of the district yesterday.

The victim, Abdul Malek, was a second year honours student of Islamic history department at Rajshahi College.

Police quoted family members as saying that Malek went out of their house at Baghali village in the upazila riding his motorbike at around 4:00pm and remained missing since then.

Locals found the body of Malek, son of Gias Uddin, at Boktarpur village under Solimpur union in the morning and informed the police who recovered the body and sent it to Pabna Medical College and Hospital morgue for autopsy.

Kazi Haniful Islam, officer-in-charge of Iswardi Police Station, said Malek's body bore marks of stab injuries. Criminals killed him and took away his motorbike, the OC added.

Victim's father Giash Uddin filed a murder case with Ishwardi Police Station yesterday morning. Police arrested a man named Mohammad Sohan at Baghali village in connection with the killing.

The officer-in-charge said they are investigating the matter and trying to arrest the culprits involved in the killing of the college student.

Source : The Daily Star

Barapukuria miners reject offer of salary hike, continue strike

Barapukuria miners rejected a move by the authorities to increase their salaries and benefits and continued their indefinite strike on the third day yesterday.

The agitating workers of Barapukuria Coal Mine Company Ltd (BCMCL) turned down the offer as their main demand was regularisation of job union leaders said.

Meanwhile, the unit of labour directorate in Rajshahi on Wednesday issued a notice to the trade union leaders terming their indefinite strike illegal.

The notice also asked the TU to explain within seven days why its affiliation would not be cancelled for starting an agitation without serving any prior notice.

But the miners ignored the notice and strengthened their agitation yesterday with 1500 of them and their family members taking position outside BCMCL compound round the clock.

Sources said at a meeting on Wednesday afternoon the labour contract company XMC and BCMCL accepted the miners' demand to increase their salaries and other facilities.

At the meeting it was observed that the authorities would need more time as it was not possible for them to regularise the jobs overnight.

Sources said, the miners went out for discussing the matter with their adviser Md. Mohsin and later 'mysteriously' declined to accept the offer and join their work.

Talking to this correspondent, Rabiul Islam, president of BCMCL workers and miners union, said they had demanded their salary raise under a pay scale. But the BCMCL turned down our proposal, he said.

Source : The Daily Star

HC seeks footage on 2 BNP leaders' remarks

The High Court Thursday asked for compact disks (CDs) from nine private television channels on the statements of BNP leaders Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Moudud Ahmed about this court.

BNP Acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Wednesday at a meeting at Jatiya Press Club in the city said, "Now the court is governing the country as it is giving decisions on everything including the club, field and river."

Moudud Ahmed was present at the meeting and made a statement about the judiciary.

An HC bench in a suo moto move ordered the authorities concerned of the television channels to submit the video footage on the statements of Fakhrul and Moudud.

The bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik and Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore passed the order as Attorney General Mahbubey Alam brought the statements before it.

The television channels are ATN News, ATN Bangla, Channel i, Mohona TV, Diganta TV, NTV, Desh TV, My TV and Independent TV, which covered the meeting.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told The Daily Star that the court asked for CDs from the television channels to examine the statements of two BNP leaders about the court.

Source : The Daily Star

Appeal for help

Rafa Ferdous, a student of class four at Glory School and College, is suffering from blood cancer and needs chemotherapy urgently.

Rafa is undergoing treatment at Christian Medical College Hospital in India and needs around Tk 15 lakh for the treatment.

Her family is unable to bear this cost and requests the affluent and generous people of society to come forward with financial assistance.

Contributions can be sent to Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, Savings Account Number 6461, Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited, Mirpur-10 Branch. Her family can be contacted over cellphone number 01911336073 or 01670207719.

Source : The Daily Star

Outlaw arrested, bomb recovered

Police arrested an outlawed party cadre and recovered two bombs from his possession at Bamundi village of Gngni in Meherpur yesterday.

The arrestee is Azmot Ali, of the same village, a cadre of outlawed Janajuddho, one of the factions of Purbo Banglar Communist Party.

Police said a team of police led by Sub-inspector Osman Ghani raided the house of Azmot at about 3:00pm and arrested him with the bombs.

Azmot is a bomb maker of the outfit group, police said

Source : The Daily Star

Phulbari tragedy victims remembered

The people of Phulbari upazila observed the Phulbari Day yesterday, in honour of the protestors who were killed during firing by law enforcers in 2006.

Commemorating the deceased, Phulbari people built an altar on the riverbank of Chhoto Jamuna and started laying flowers at the altar since the morning. They also organised discussion and mourning procession.

At least three persons were killed and 70 others injured as police and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) opened fire on people protesting the Phulbari coalmine project on August 26, 2006. The National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power, and Port organised the protest rally.

Speakers told a discussion at Nimtolamore yesterday that a deep conspiracy has been hatched in the country to sell the national resources for personal gains. People have to be alerted to protect the resources especially the coal, they said.

Prof Anu Muhammad, general secretary of the national committee, and Sheikh Muhammad Shahidullah, the president, spoke at the discussion presided over by the committee's local convener, Saiful Islam Jewel.

Shiekh Shahidullah along with Prof Anu also led a grand mourning procession from Dhaka More (intersection) to Phulbari upazila headquarters.

Black flags were hoisted at the top of a number of buildings of the upazila.

Source : The Daily Star

Elderly woman dies in road crash

An elderly woman was killed after a pickup van hit her at Banani in the city yesterday afternoon.

The deceased was identified as Halima Begum, 60, of Pachkani at Savar. She came to pay a visit to her relative's house at Banani.

Kamrul Hasan, an assistant sub-inspector of Gulshan Police Station, said a speedy pickup van hit her from behind while Halima was walking on the road near Chairman Bari, leaving her dead on the spot.

The body was sent to Dhaka Medical College morgue for autopsy.

Source : The Daily Star 

Phulbari Day Observed: Implement deal

Speakers at a rally yesterday urged the government to fully implement the Phulbari contract, driving out Asia Energy to protect the country's mineral resources including coal.

They also demanded prohibition on open-pit coal mining and enactment of a law restricting export of mineral resources.

The rally was organised by the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power, and Port at the Central Shaheed Minar in the city, says a press release.

Earlier, the committee and different political parties and social organisations laid wreaths at the memorial in observance of the Phulbari Day yesterday.

On August 26, 2006, at least three persons were killed and 70 others injured as police and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) opened fire on people protesting the open-pit mining of Phulbari coal.

The political parties, most of them leftist, expressed solidarity with the demands of the national committee.

Prof MM Akash of Dhaka University, Bimal Biswas of Workers Party of Bangladesh, Ruhin Hossen Prince of Communist Party of Bangladesh, and Saiful Haque of Biplobi Workers Party, among others, spoke at the rally.

Source : The Daily Star

TANGENTS By Ihtisham Kabir: Motor Man

During a respite from the non-stop rain, I have wandered out. Camera in hand, I explore the narrow streets behind the Court-kachari. Following a winding alley, I approach a street-side kitchen market. As I walk past a tiny corner shop, I see a man inside working with single minded concentration on a small mechanical part.

A minute later, something tugs at me about this man. He and his shop stood out among all the other grocery and variety stores that lined the alley. What was he doing? I make a U-turn back to his shop.

I watch for a minute as he meticulously winds a thin copper thread into the arm of a circular contraption. Finally he looks up and smiles: a kind face, glasses, very Bengali. I ask if I can take a picture, and, finding him friendly, sit down for a chat.

"I am rebuilding a motor for a table fan," he says. "The motor core's wiring was burned."

Now I understand. Motors convert electrical energy into mechanical energy by sending a current through a coil which is made of a thin, wound up copper wire.

But it looks like he has to make an awfully large number of windings. "How many turns of the coil do you need?" I ask.

"This core, which had been burnt, needs 450 turns for each arm." I count twelve arms. That is 5400 windings of the copper wire, each winding spun by hand.

How many can he do every day? "On a good day I can fix four, maybe five cores," he says.

I ask him about other, more challenging work. Difficult tasks involve motors that run at a high speed, he says. For example, a kitchen blender or a drill can be finicky and requires more expensive, fatter copper wires.

His name is Jagannath Mondol. I ask him if he had learned this work as a hobby. But the truth is more down to earth. He started working as an apprentice after finishing class eight.

"I needed to bring in income to the household as our family was not well-off," he says. After several years working for others, he opened his own store about fifteen years ago.

Still, tinkering with electrical devices is not for everyone, and I cannot shake off the notion of a hobby. "Do you make anything for yourself? As a hobby?" I ask. "I do it simply to make my living, not a hobby" he says smiling.

As I take my leave, I look for the store's name but can find none. "That's right, my store has no name. But everyone in the neighbourhood knows me. They just ask for Jagannath when something breaks," he says.

Jagannath has a son and a daughter, both attending school. "Will they work here?" I ask. "No, no, this kind of work is fading away today, I hope they do something else," he says before returning to winding his coil.

Source : The Daily Star

Suicide bomb rocks Nigeria UN building: At least 18 killed

A suicide bomb blast rocked the UN compound in the Nigerian capital Abuja yesterday, killing at least 18 people, leaving others trapped and blowing out large areas of the building, officials said.

Witnesses reported that the bomb went off after a suspect rammed a car through the front gate. Parts of the first two floors of the building were blown out and rescue workers scrambled to rescue those left inside.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but an Islamist sect known as Boko Haram has been blamed for scores of bombings in recent months.

"So far, we have 18 dead and eight injured," Mike Zuokumor, police commissioner for the Federal Capital Territory, which includes Abuja, told journalists.

"It was a Honda Accord car. The suicide bomber died immediately as the bomb cut him into three. I cannot say how many people are still in the building. The rescue operation is still on."

A member of security personnel speaking on condition of anonymity spoke of "many dead."

"A guy drove a Honda car, forced his way through the gate and rammed into the building, and then the bomb exploded," the security source said at the scene.

AFP correspondents saw wounded people being taken from the building, including those with bloodied heads. Some appeared lifeless but it was unclear whether they were dead.

One UN staff member said people were still trapped in the building that sustained heavy damage.

"I don't know what is going on. Many people are still trapped upstairs and we need a crane to bring people down," said the UN staffer who did not want to give her name.

Two cranes were later brought to the scene and rescue workers were trying to free those trapped on the upper floors.

"We spoke to our colleagues in Lagos, who confirmed that the explosion was caused by a bomb. But we have no further information for now," a UN spokeswoman in Geneva told AFP.

A spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs meanwhile told AFP that a colleague on site had sent an SMS message to say that the explosion "appears to have come from the gate entrance to the building."

The UN building is located in Abuja's diplomatic zone, not far from the US Embassy, and houses a number of United Nations agencies.

Security is usually extremely tight, with non-UN vehicles typically not allowed to approach the gate leading to the compound, and the building is set back from the street.

A bomb blast that rocked a car park at national police headquarters in Abuja in June and killed at least two people was claimed by Boko Haram. Police first said it was the result of a suicide blast before later retracting their statement, saying they could not be sure.

Most of the attacks blamed on the sect have occurred in the country's northeast, but a number have been carried out elsewhere, including the previous explosion in Abuja as well as several in Suleija near the capital.

There have been growing concerns that the sect has formed links with extremist groups outside of Nigeria, including al-Qaeda's north African branch.

Source : The Daily Star

Footpath Shops: Extortion on rise as Eid nears

Local hoodlums and a section of law enforcers are allegedly extorting money from the hawkers and vendors on footpaths as the Eid shopping peaks in the capital.

Many hawkers in the city's Karwanbazar, Farmgate, Paltan, Gulistan, New Market and Gulshan areas said they have been forced to pay the extortion money to the policemen and 'linemen' appointed by local criminals.

"Usually I pay Tk 600 per week to the members of Tejgaon Police Station, Tk 20 to 30 to the patrol policemen and Tk 100 to the lineman daily," said a tea-seller at Karwanbazar.

But during Ramadan, the amount has increased to Tk 700, Tk30 to 40 and Tk 120 to 130 respectively, he added.

A garment hawker in front of the Bangabandhu National Stadium said he has paid Tk 700 per week to the members of Paltan Police Station, Tk 40 to 60 to the patrol policemen and Tk 150 to the lineman daily since the beginning of the fasting month.

Extortion by both policemen and linemen is an old practice and it is quite impossible to run a business without paying them the money, mentioned traders.

A lineman collects the extortion money from the vendors in a specific area.

Contacted, Deputy Commissioner (Tejgaon division) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Imam Hossain rejected the allegation of extorting the traders. He also claimed there is no existence of any lineman.

"If they [vendors] are forced to pay the money, why don't they come to me with complaints? If anybody finds a lineman, I would like to see how influential he is," noted the official.

Source : The Daily Star

Man crushed between 2 buses

A man was killed when a ferry hit a hidden shoal in Magurkhanda channel in the river Padma causing two busses to sandwich the victim on Thursday night.

Md Montu Mia, 25, of Isma village of Narail district, was passing through the buses on the ferry Kaberi around 11:30pm when the accident occurred, said witnesses.

Meanwhile, two other ferries Jamuna and Ranikhet got stuck in hidden chars in the same channel around 11:30pm Thursday.

A tug boat of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) rescued the ferries around 5:00am Friday after an agonising wait for six hours.

All the three ferries were heading towards Mawa from Kawrakandi.

The ferries stuck in mid-way caused tailbacks for miles at the terminals adding to the suffering of passengers.

Contacted, SM Ashiquzzaman, BIWTC AGM of Mawa zone, said poor navigability coupled with strong current has put the ferry service in a vulnerable condition.

Meanwhile, Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan inaugurated two ferries, Bir Sreshtha Ruhul Amin and Kaberi (that hit a shoal Thursday night), yesterday morning.

Source : The Daily Star

British planes bomb Gaddafi hometown: UN to probe summery killings in Libya

British warplanes bombed a bunker in Muammar Gaddafi's birthplace of Sirte as rebel fighters prepared yesterday to launch an offensive on the town, one of the last major regime holdouts east of Tripoli.

Meanwhile, the UN said it will investigate reports of summary killings and torture through its existing commission of inquiry on Libya.

Also, the UN human rights chief warned against bounty hunters who may be seeking to kill Gaddafi, saying that all assassinations are "not within the rule of law."

"The rule of law is essential. That applies to Gaddafi as well as everybody else," said Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a response to a question on the $1.67 million reward put on Gaddafi head, dead or alive.

While Britain's defence minister said Nato was providing intelligence assets to help the rebels find Gaddafi, the US State Department said neither Nato nor Washington was involved in the manhunt, Reuters reports.

"At around midnight, a formation of Tornado GR4s... fired a salvo of Storm Shadow precision-guided missiles against a large headquarters bunker in Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte," the defence ministry said in London.

The bunker housed a command and control centre. There is no indication that Col Gaddafi was in Sirte, which is 250 miles east of Tripoli, or in the bunker itself at the time of the attack.

Speculation that Gaddafi might have found refuge in the town has not been confirmed.

"It's not a question of finding Gaddafi, it's ensuring the regime does not have the capability to continue waging war against its own people," UK Defence Secretary Liam Fox told the BBC.

"The attack that we launched on the bunker in Sirte last night was to make sure that there was no alternative command and control should the regime try to leave Tripoli."

Nato warplanes also targeted 29 vehicles mounted with weapons near Sirte and bombed surface-to-air missile facilities near Tripoli, the alliance said at a daily briefing in Brussels.

A Nato official in Brussels told AFP on condition of anonymity that the vehicles were part of a convoy advancing toward the rebel-held port of Misrata, about 140 kilometres away.

Meanwhile, the rebels are building up their forces around the oil port town of Ras Lanuf, preparing for an assault on Sirte.

They had to withdraw from positions nearer Sirte to put themselves out of the range of Grad rockets being fired by Gaddafi loyalists.

The BBC's Paul Wood, who is with the rebels, says their mood is still buoyant, despite running into unexpectedly stiff resistance.

Rebel commanders think the fighting on the road to Sirte could last another three or four days, our correspondent says.

Regime forces in Sirte have been regularly targeted since the start of the campaign, the Nato official said, but it is in sharp focus now because "it's one of the last places he (Gaddafi) has control of."

"It has always been a stronghold of the regime and now the remnants of the regime are using it to launch attacks," the official said.

"Misrata is one of those cities we have to protect. ... This regime, no matter what state it's in, is still capable of killing civilians."

Diehards of Gaddafi, whose son Seif al-Islam vowed from the start that loyalists would fight "to the last bullet", are still trying to reconstitute Nato-decimated weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, the official said.

"This large convoy is a very threatening move, as threatening as launching a missile."

"This is an extremely desperate and dangerous remnant of a former regime and they are obviously desperately trying to disrupt the fact that the Libyan people have started to take responsibility for their own country."

Rumours of Gaddafi or his sons being cornered or sighted, swirled among excitable rebel fighters engaged in heavy machinegun and rocket exchanges. But even after his compound was overrun on Tuesday, hopes of a swift end to the war were still being frustrated by fierce rearguard actions.

The rebels' Colonel Hisham Buhagiar said they were targeting several areas to find Gaddafi: "We are sending special forces every day to hunt down Gaddafi. We have one unit that does intelligence and other units that hunt him down."

SUMMARY EXECUTIONS

"We urge all those in positions of authority in Libya, including field commanders, to take active steps to ensure that no crimes, or acts of revenge, are committed," UN spokesman Rupert Colville told Reuters.

The UN has previously said some military action in Libya could amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity.

The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes visited a hospital in the Mitiga district of Tripoli which had received the bodies of 17 rebel fighters.

Doctors said the group had been prisoners of Gaddafi troops in Tripoli and were tortured and killed as the rebels seized the capital earlier this week.

Hoez Zaitan, a British medic working at the hospital, said about half the bodies had bullet wounds to the back of the head while others had disfiguring injuries to their limbs and hands.

He said the bodies had been examined for possible evidence to be used at a war crimes tribunal.

Source : The Daily Star

Diamond planet spotted

Astronomers have spotted an exotic planet that seems to be made of diamond racing around a tiny star in our galactic backyard.

The new planet is far denser than any other known so far and consists largely of carbon. Because it is so dense, scientists calculate the carbon must be crystalline, so a large part of this strange world will effectively be diamond.

"The evolutionary history and amazing density of the planet all suggest it is comprised of carbon -- ie a massive diamond orbiting a neutron star every two hours in an orbit so tight it would fit inside our own Sun," said Matthew Bailes of Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne.

Lying 4,000 light years away, or around an eighth of the way toward the centre of the Milky Way from the Earth, the planet is probably the remnant of a once-massive star that has lost its outer layers to the so-called pulsar star it orbits.

Pulsars are tiny, dead neutron stars that are only around 20 kilometres (12.4 miles) in diameter and spin hundreds of times a second, emitting beams of radiation.

In the case of pulsar J1719-1438, the beams regularly sweep the Earth and have been monitored by telescopes in Australia, Britain and Hawaii, allowing astronomers to detect modulations due to the gravitational pull of its unseen companion planet.

The measurements suggest the planet, which orbits its star every two hours and 10 minutes, has slightly more mass than Jupiter but is 20 times as dense, Bailes and colleagues reported in the journal Science on Thursday.

In addition to carbon, the new planet is also likely to contain oxygen, which may be more prevalent at the surface and is probably increasingly rare toward the carbon-rich center.

Its high density suggests the lighter elements of hydrogen and helium, which are the main constituents of gas giants like Jupiter, are not present.

Just what this weird diamond world is actually like close up, however, is a mystery.

"In terms of what it would look like, I don't know I could even speculate," said Ben Stappers of the University of Manchester. "I don't imagine that a picture of a very shiny object is what we're looking at here.

Source : The Daily Star

AL men attack human chain for road repair: 50 BNP activists, journos hurt

At least 50 BNP activists and journalists were injured yesterday when Jubo League men attacked a human chain formed demanding urgent repairs to the Sakhipur-Taktarchala road in the district.

The attack was made around 11:00am when Sakhipur unit of BNP was holding a human chain at the upazila headquarters at Taltala, locals said.

Jubo League men also beat up journalists including Nasir Uddin, Tangail correspondent of private TV channel ATN Bangla; Channel I correspondent Muslim Uddin Ahmed and Anwar Kabir, Sakhipur correspondent of daily Amardesh, when they were taking pictures of the attack.

Some BNP leaders and workers were attacked for the second and third time when they took shelter at the party office and local hospitals, said local BNP leader Ahmed Azam Khan.

He also said the ruling party cadres foiled their peaceful human chain without any instigation and police remained inactive at that time.

Saiful Islam Shamim, president of the upazila unit Jubo League, however, blamed another faction of BNP for the attack.

The injured BNP workers were admitted to different private hospitals and clinics, party sources said.

Mozammel Haque Mamun, officer-in-charge of Sakhipur Police Station, said he talked to leaders of both the parties before the programme and also deployed 30 policemen to prevent any untoward incident.

But the attack was so sudden that police could not take any immediate action. The police, however, rescued the BNP activists and took them to local hospitals, said the OC.

Meanwhile, a meeting was held at Tangail Press Club in the afternoon protesting the attack on journalists and demanding immediate steps against the culprits.

Source : The Daily Star

Eid shopping at peak: Malls in city abuzz with shoppers

People of the capital spent most of the time yesterday shopping for their loved ones as it was the last weekend before the Eid-ul-Fitr.

Salespersons of the city's shopping malls--top and bottom ends--had a tough time coping with the rush of customers.

"Shoppers are arriving in large numbers at a time," said Rubel Ahmed, a salesperson at Fashion Club of Dhaka's popular shopping spot New Market.

"The time for Eid shopping is running out fast and with it more and more people are thronging the malls," he said.

Markets for clothes, footwear, cosmetics, jewelry and electronic gadgets witnessed a good sale yesterday.

"I am almost done shopping. Today I have bought clothes for my relatives in the village," said Rezaul Haque, a government official who with his son came to shop at New Market from Mirpur-1.

The malls generally see a rush in the weekends. Quiet Fridays hence become the busiest days during the Ramadan both for shoppers and salespersons.

"I have come to Bashundhara City to buy panjabis, lungis and saris for my parents because today is the last Friday before Eid, said Ziaur Rahman, a management trainee at Prime Bank.

Ziaur was looking forward to finishing his shopping by yesterday since he would not get time later. He plans to spend his holidays with his parents in Satkhira and spend all his Eid bonus on shopping for family.

Shoppers also crowded footwear markets in thousands to buy trendy shoes to brighten up the Eid celebration even more. They were not disappointed as the footwear houses came up with new collections of local shoes for fashion conscious buyers.

"We have brought around 300 new designs for this Eid, so that customers can choose from a wide range of collection," said a salesperson of Bata at Elephant Road.

Traders said local shoes are gaining popularity, as they are good in quality and come at reasonable prices.

Female shoppers also thronged the cosmetic and imitated jewelry shops.

"I came to market to buy a pair of earrings to match my Eid dress," said college student Shaharin Sultana. She said she bought a pair of earring for Tk 300 from New Market.

The city's electronic gadget market, especially of cellphones, also witnessed a huge number of customers.

Salesperson Jamal Hossain of MM Telecom at Motalib Plaza said, "There is a huge demand for low-priced mobile phone sets. Most customers are buying China-made sets because they come at comparatively reasonable prices.

However, most sellers said the appearance of customers this Friday was thin compared to that of the last because many people have already left Dhaka for celebrating Eid in villages.

Source : The Daily Star 

Accused in Case Over Chaos at HC: SC lawyer Ahmed dies

MU Ahmed, a pro-BNP lawyer at the Supreme Court, died in a city hospital yesterday, sixteen days after he suffered a heart attack in police custody.

His wife Selina Ahmed alleged that her husband died because of police torture.

Meanwhile, a controversy arose whether Ahmed, former assistant attorney general, was in police custody when he died.

Selina said that her husband died in police custody but police say that they released Ahmed against a bond on August 16 at the request of Selina.

She lodged a complaint in this regard with Ramna Police Station accusing the home minister, the home secretary, the attorney general and three police officials.

Police arrested Ahmed at his Segunbagicha residence on August 11 on charges of assaulting police and obstructing them from discharging duties on the SC premises on August 2 and 4.

A source in the court concerned said police never informed the court about his arrest and hospitalisation until August 17. They are legally bound to inform the court about arrests within a day.

However, Monirul Islam, deputy commissioner of Detective Branch of police, claimed that they informed the court about the arrest of MU Ahmed and that he is in hospital on August 11.

Sources at Square Hospitals Ltd said police always stood guard over him at the hospital. But police claimed that he was not in custody and the policemen deployed there were on regular duty.

TORTURE ALLEGED
Selina yesterday said an unconscious Ahmed was admitted to the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) after suffering a heart attack five hours after his arrest.

Ahmed regained consciousness two days later. He was in a state of panic and scared of policemen.

"Police dragged him into their vehicle after arresting him. They slapped and assaulted him inside the vehicle," Selina said referring to the account her husband gave lying on a hospital bed.

Ahmed was taken to a dark room where he was beaten up by police officials, said Selina.

They also made abusive comments to him. At one stage, Ahmed felt suffocated and requested them to take him to a place where he could breathe freely, she alleged.

In reply, police threatened Ahmed to tie him up with a rope. Later, they gave an electric shock in his left hand, leaving him unconscious, Selina claimed.

She said he was shifted to Square Hospitals Ltd on August 16 for better treatment.

"This is certainly a murder. There is no doubt that the heart attack resulted from the torture," said Selina.

She requested political parties not to "do politics with her husband's body".

Selina, a mother of two, demanded punishment of her husband's "killers" and compensation from the government.

POLICE SAY
Monirul Islam, deputy commissioner of Detective Branch of police, last night denied allegations of torturing Ahmed or giving him electric shocks. He said Ahmed was at the DB office no more than 40 minutes.

He said following the arrest, Ahmed was taken to the DB office where he told them about pain in his chest. He claimed that Ahmed was immediately taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where doctors said Ahmed suffered a heart attack and recommended he be moved to NICVD at once.

Monirul said, "At our request, a nine-member medical board led by the NICVD director treated him there."

Asked why they did not produce him before a court, he claimed that they informed the court on August 11 about his arrest and that he was hospitalised.

Ahmed's wife got her husband released from the NICVD on August 16 after signing a bond and got him admitted to Square Hospitals the same day, he said.

PROTEST
Pro-BNP lawyers from HC and lower courts demonstrated in front of Square Hospitals to protest the death in the afternoon.

A group of pro-BNP lawyers also made indecent comments and chanted slogans against Attorney General Mahbubey Alam when he went to the hospital to express his sympathy towards Ahmed's family members.

Police, however, protected Mahbubey from the pro-BNP lawyers' wrath and took him to a safe place.

National Democratic Party, 13 lawyers at the SC, rights organisation Odhikar and 250 teachers at Dhaka University, in separate statements protested the death.

Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum, a platform for pro-BNP lawyers, will hold protest rallies across the country on Monday demanding resignation of the home minister, the attorney general and the inspector general of police.

THE CASES
Ahmed was one of the pro-BNP lawyers accused of assaulting police and obstructing them from discharging duties on the SC premises on August 2 and 4.

Police filed two cases after the opposition-backed lawyers scuffled with pro-ruling party lawyers over an HC bench's observation that BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's comment on constitution was tantamount to sedition.

Ahmed and 10 other lawyers sought anticipatory bail from the High Court which was rejected. Later, 13 pro-BNP lawyers except MU Ahmed sought bail from a lower court and were granted bail.

"Had the lawyer been granted anticipatory bail, he would not have died," said SC Bar Council President Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, a pro-BNP lawyer.

"I assisted pro-BNP lawyer so that they could get bail. MU Ahmed could not apply for bail again as he was sick. It could have been a political trick," said Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, who visited the hospital in the afternoon.

SHAHARA ACCUSED
Selina last night lodged complaint with Ramna Police Station against six people including Home Minister Shahara Khatun accusing them of torturing Ahmed in police custody, which led to his death.

Police did not record the complaint as a case.

The other accused are: Attorney General Mahbubey Alam and Home Secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikder, Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Benazir Ahmed, Deputy Commissioner of Detective Branch concerned and Officer-in-Charge of Shahbagh Police Station Rezaul Karim.

Ramna OC Rafiqul Islam told The Daily Star that they received the complaint and they will decide whether to record it as a case after investigation.

Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, president of Supreme Court Bar Association, filed the complaint on behalf of Selina. He said, "We'll continue the legal fight. If police do not record the case, we will decide our next course of action then."

He said Ahmed did not have any heart disease before rather he was suffering form asthma.

JANAZA TODAY
Ahmed's first Namaj-e-Janaza will be held on the HC premises at 11:00am. He will be buried after the second Janaza in front of the BNP central office.

Source : The Daily Star 

Homebound trips turn nightmare: Eid holidaymakers suffer in tailbacks on battered highways

Bus journey to most places outside the capital now takes double the usual time for battered highways, tailbacks and delayed ferries, adding to woes of the people going home to celebrate Eid.

Those who had come out smiling from the struggle to get bus tickets soon found themselves in for an agonising ride.

Tasmia Osman Raka, a college student, started for Feni from Sayedabad around 10:40am yesterday. Her bus did not even get past Comilla cantonment after seven hours, which is less than 100 km from Dhaka.

"Usually, it takes me three hours to reach home. Now seven hours have gone, but I'm still stuck near Comilla," she said talking on her mobile phone around 5:30pm.

For the southbound buses, the problems are aggravated at ferry terminals where they have to queue for several hours to cross the rivers.

Thousands of people remain stuck on Dhaka-Aricha highway for hours either for traffic congestion or unavailability of ferries at Paturia.

Zakir Hossain, a fourth-year student of a private university, said he had to spend around two hours at Paturia ferry ghat on his way to Satkhira, yet he considers himself lucky.

"We heard that the buses that left Dhaka later than ours were in line for over four hours at Paturia," Zakir told The Daily Star around 5:00pm from Jhikargachha of Jessore, around 40km from his house. His bus started from Dhaka around 7:45am.

At Mawa ferry terminal, several hundred vehicles wait long hours to cross the Padma every day.

Ferries have difficulty navigating on the narrow and shallow channels of the Padma. The longer they take to cross the river, the longer the queues of vehicles get, said AS Ashiquzzaman, assistant general manager of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation. A total of 16 ferries are now in operation, he added.

For many, the sufferings grind on as rundown vehicles, which have been patched up to cash in on the rush home, break down on the road.

Even engines of relatively better-kept buses often cut out because of cratered roads. Whenever a vehicle breaks down, it makes the traffic in its wake slow to a crawl.

The passengers have to sit for hours with no room to stretch legs and almost no access to foods and toilet.

Lutfor Rahman, a businessman, said he with his wife and two children left for Kurigram around 11:30pm on Thursday. "We were stuck for hours in a 20km tailback on the highway. There were no water and foods for thousands of people desperate to have something for sehri. Women and children were the worst sufferers with no toilets. It was like a never-ending nightmare."

Travelling to the northeast is not easy either. A four to four-and-a-half-hour journey to Sylhet has now doubled. "We faced a huge tailback near Kanchpur Bridge in Narayanganj and Bhairab," said Anwar Hossain, a businessman, who left the capital at 6:30am and reached Sylhet around 2:30pm.

The condition of Dhaka-Mymensingh and Dhaka-Tangail highways has not improved much in the last few days. Transport owners had earlier suspended bus service on these roads for several days.

Shamsuddin Miah, 45, of Kalihati upazila in Tangail, said he started from Mohakhali around 11:00am and reached home six hours later due to tailbacks and poor condition of the highway. Usually, it is a three-hour journey.

Things are not that different on Dhaka-Chittagong highway. Mohammad Tawhid, a sales manager of Saudia Paribahan (bus service provider) said it now takes four hours more to reach the port city due to gridlocks and dilapidated condition of the highway.

Romesh Chandra Ghosh, managing director of Shyamoli Paribahan, one of the largest bus service providers in the country with 400 buses in its fleet, said all his buses are taking around double the usual time to reach their destinations. "On average, it now takes about eight to nine hours to cover 300km," he said.

"On Dhaka-Chittagong highway, traffic jams start from Daudkandi and stretch up to Sitakunda. Buses going to the northern districts face up to 20km-long queues from Chandra in Gazipur," he added.

"With the slightest rainfall in the coming days, the situation will deteriorate meaning more time loss on the roads and more misery," said Ghosh, also vice-president of the Bangladesh Bus Truck Owners Association.

Kazi Mizanur Rahman, a manager of Hanif Paribahan, another large bus service provider, said many of its buses leaving Dhaka for outside districts are being late for their return trip as they reach their destinations late. This has left their schedules in disarray.

After visiting Konabari, Chandra, Savar, Nabinagar and Bipile yesterday, Asfiquzzaman Akhter, senior superintendent of highway police (Gazipur Range), said traffic was very slow due to bad roads.

Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain, however, claimed that the slow traffic is usual during Eid. "There is no problem in traffic movement as we have already repaired 90 percent of the damaged roads and highways," he told The Daily Star yesterday.

Our correspondents from Tangail, Mymensingh, Munshiganj, Sylhet, Chittagong, Dinajpur and Manikganj contributed to this report.

Source : The Daily Star

Micromax launches two new mobile handsets

Micromax Informatics Limited, an Indian mobile handsets maker, on Friday launched two new multimedia handsets — Van Gogh X-450 and Android Home X-60— in the Bangladesh market.

The company launched the products at a function held in a city hotel.

Micromax Informatics Bangladesh country manager Owhab Khan and Reach Distributions chief executive officer Naimul Islam Kollol spoke at the function.

Van Gogh X-450 which integrates a bluetooth hands-free headset in its sleek design will cost Tk 5,499 and Android X-60 Tk 10,450, said Owhab Khan.

Both the sets allow users to access internet, social sites including facebook, yahoo, msn, e-buddy and others.

Source : New Age

China yuan must rise, says Australia bank chief

Reserve Bank of Australia chief Glenn Stevens on Friday joined calls for China to strengthen the yuan, saying it would be beneficial to the global economy if there was more flexibility.

The central bank governor said the matter had been raised in private discussions with Chinese officials.

'In my opinion, in any objective gauge, the Chinese currency should be higher than it is today,' he told a House of Representatives economics committee.

'There is no shortage of people telling the Chinese authorities that.'

In recent days treasurer Wayne Swan repeated warnings on the yuan, urging 'large developing economies to put in place policies to boost home-grown demand and move towards more market-based exchange rates'.

Swan departs for talks on a range of issues in China on Monday.

Officials argue that the undervalued renminbi gives China an unfair trade advantage, with a weaker yuan making China's imports more expensive while its exports are cheaper for foreign buyers.

Beijing has recently shown signs it is willing to guide the currency higher, with the yuan rising steadily against the US dollar since mid-2010 when Beijing relaxed a de-facto peg to the US currency.

This had been imposed in 2008 to protect its exporters during the global financial crisis.

'They are still doing quite a bit of intervention,' Stevens said.

'It is coming up some, but I think it would be beneficial to the global economy, and beneficial to the Chinese people, if there was more flexibility in that price.'

Stevens was critical of the political noise that surrounds the issue in Washington, which he warned would not help achieve a resolution on the low renminbi.

'Unfortunately it also gets surrounded by the whole US-China relationship issue. The megaphones come out. There's a bit of shouting to and fro and actually that's not all that productive,' he said.

China is key market for Australia's resource driven economy and Stevens said Canberra was well placed to weather any further global financial uncertainty, with growth prospects in key Asian markets remaining strong.

Source : New Age

China plans fresh move on bank liquidity

China has ordered banks to include their margin deposits in required reserves to mop up excessive liquidity, banking sources said, the latest move in Beijing's campaign to rein in inflation.

Commercial banks will have to include margin deposits paid by their clients to secure the issuance of banker's acceptance, letters of guarantee and letters of credit in their required reserves.

Such deposits amounted to 4.4 trillion yuan ($688.6 billion) at the end of July, according to central bank data.

It was not immediately clear by how much additional money banks would have to set aside as reserves, but the actual amount would vary from bank to bank.

China's central bank has raised bank reserve requirement ratios nine times since November, taking the ratio to a record 21.5 per cent for the country's biggest banks.

Some banks have received the order notice from the People's Bank of China, which requires them to pay deposits to the central bank in batches, starting from early next month, the sources said.

The central bank was not immediately available for comment.

Source : New Age

$54.27m foreign aid received in July

Bangladesh received $54.27 million as foreign aid during the first month (July) of the current fiscal year (2011-12) against $35.65 million during the corresponding period last year.

The commitment for the month of July was much higher as it was $213 million compared to $200 million during the same period last year, said an official at the Economic Relations Division.

Bangladesh made a repayment of $81.05 million, including $64.35 million in principal amount and $16.70 million as interest in July.

Of the disbursed amount, the ERD official said, Bangladesh received $53.70 million in loan. The IDA of the World Bank disbursed $0.57 million as grant.

Of the loan amount, the Asian Development Bank provided the highest $38.01 million followed by $10.04 million by the IDA, $4.01 million by Japan and $1.62 million by the IFAD.

During the last fiscal, the foreign aid disbursement to Bangladesh witnessed a sharp fall compared to the previous year (2009-10) with the donors not disbursing as per their commitment.

The total foreign aid disbursement during the last fiscal totalled $1777.33 million, less $450.44 million than $2227.77 million recorded during fiscal 2009-10.

The aid commitment for the last fiscal, both in loan and grant, was $5929.27 million. Of the amount, the loan was $5335.08 million, mostly because of the donors' commitments for the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project.

The grant commitments from the donors during the last fiscal were US$594.19 million.

However, the total aid disbursement for the last fiscal was $1777.33 million, including $726.62 million as grants and $1050.71 million as credit.

Source : New Age

‘Safe haven’ assets start to look risky

This year's heady bout of risk aversion on financial markets has ratcheted up demand for gold, US Treasuries and the Swiss franc to levels that suggest they may no longer be the 'safe havens' they are billed as.

Some investors see all three as vulnerable to a sharp sell-off should the global economic environment improve over the coming months, or simply because prices are too high in the absence of outright financial catastrophe.

'A safe asset is something that is going to be safe across economic environments,' said William De Vijlder, chief investment officer at BNP Paribas Investment Partners. 'It means you'd better make sure your forecast is right.'

There are already signs the demand froth is coming off, at least in gold and the Swiss franc.

All three safe havens highlighted have distinct features, so losses from renewed demand for riskier assets would not hit each equally. Gold, for one, might fare better given that underlying demand for the metal is not all based on risk

aversion.

But none are 'safe' in all circumstances, and their remarkable rises this year may now pose some risk for those holding them.

Ten-year US Treasuries recently traded with yields below 2 per cent — their lowest in generations — and, according to Merrill Lynch data, have returned some 11 per cent over the summer.

The Swiss franc has risen by 15.3 per cent and 8.5 per cent, respectively, to record highs against the dollar and euro, prompting moves from the Swiss National Bank to rein its currency in.

Perhaps most spectacularly, gold has risen as much as 33 per cent, taking it to just below $2,000 an ounce — a startling performance on top of a decade-long rally that has seen the metal's price rise more than 600 per cent.

In the last few days, however, there has been a sharp sell-off — nothing really to dent the asset's major gains, but a reminder of how quickly heady gains can run out of steam.

'It is not difficult to believe that gold could correct a reasonably good amount,' said Ashok Shah, chief investment officer at London & Capital, adding that this would not necessarily undermine its long-term bullish trend.

Of the three assets benefiting richly from the slowing global economy, lower interest rates and debt crises in the euro zone and elsewhere, gold is arguably the least vulnerable to a huge reversal.

It offers no yield or dividend and can rise and fall rapidly based on investor fear alone.

But the drivers behind its rise are diverse and it may hold up better than others when economic conditions change.

Demand has been bolstered by central banks buying the metal as part of their diversification of foreign reserves. Even more significant may be the buying of bars and coins by newly wealthy Asian consumers, notably those in China.

The World Gold Council estimates there was a roughly 25 per cent rise in demand for gold from Chinese consumers between the second quarters of 2010 and 2011,

Gold is also not particularly subject to what BNP Paribas' De Vijlder calls the 'feedback loop,' which occurs when a significant price rise begins to affect economies and prompts policy changes by governments.

The same cannot be said for the Swiss franc, which has also wobbled recently courtesy of the SNB's moves to cap its gains.

The SNB has cut official rates to near zero and pumped out more money to lower the franc's value. It has also sold francs in the forwards market to drive rates lower and make it expensive to hold the currency.

This is only a part of what it could do, meaning investors will have to battle to protect gains — something that detracts strongly from the concept of a 'safe haven.'

Charlie Morris, head of absolute returns at HSBC Global Asset Management, believes investors have been treating the Swiss franc as something that it is not.

'It is easy to forget that the Swissie is a relatively minor currency and not the global liquidity pool that it is cracked up to be,' he said.

US Treasuries, meanwhile, are at the point where investing in them is only slightly more lucrative than putting money under the mattress.

They are supported, like gold, by outside-the-market factors such as Federal Reserve buying and huge inflows from China. Some of that will change as the US economy improves or as Beijing diversifies.

Mainly, though, yields of around 0.2 per cent for short paper and only 2 per cent for long, offer little. It would not take much of an inflationary spike or economic rebound to prompt a rush to the exit.

'Treasuries are either pointless at the short end or dangerous at the long end,' Morris said. 'Either we have deflation and bonds deliver paltry yields ... or, more likely, inflation resurges and investors in bonds lose their shirts.'

Source : New Age

50pc of microcredit goes to well-off, reveals study

Around 50 per cent of microcredit goes to the well-off although the microfinance concept was developed to assist marginal people to address poverty, according to a study.

'A lot of microcredit is wasted on the well-off; there is also the opposite problem that many of the poorer households do not benefit from it,' said Professor SR Osmani, teacher of Development Economics at the University of Ulster, UK and a visiting fellow of Institute of Microfinance in Dhaka.

Referring to the findings of a recent study, he said there was probably a scope for enhancing the contribution of microcredit by bringing about some design changes.

Professor Osmani conducted the first phase study of the long-term panel surveys titled 'Asset Accumulation and Poverty Dynamics in Rural Bangladesh: The Role of Microcredit' covering 6,500 rural households

in 63 districts. It examined various factors

including the role of microfinance that have a casual influence on this dynamics.

The study reveals that a good deal of microcredit appears to be wasted while only about half of the borrowers belong to the categories of poor and marginal poor, and the other half are well-off; and the microcredit does very little good to the well-off.

It shows that almost half of marginal and poor households are left out. Many of them will perhaps never take microcredit and probably should not earlier, because like any other intervention microcredit is not suitable for everybody.

The study found that access to microcredit enhances the probability of moving up the asset ladders and reduce the probability of falling.  While this is true for both poor and non-poor households, the effect is much stronger for the poor.

For the poor borrowers, the microcredit reduces the probability of falling through the asset ladder by seven per cent and increase the probability

of moving up by 4.5

per cent.

The study showed that the contribution of microcredit to asset accumulation has translated itself into contribution to poverty reduction. Access to microcredit reduces probability of being poor by 2.5 per cent.

The households perceive interest rate to be serious impediment to borrowing. This is evident from the fact that among those who stopped borrowing, only two per cent cited high interest rate as the main reason. For nearly 80 per cent borrowers the self-estimated breakeven interest rate is above 20 per cent, which is comfortable above the rate charged by the microfinance institutions, it says.

About overall contribution of microfinance to poverty reduction, the study interestingly found that microcredit contributes little — 4 per cent — to reduce poverty while foreign remittance contributes to reduce poverty by 5 per cent, employment opportunity by 16.2 per cent and education of households head by 20.3 per cent.

Highlighting his study findings, Professor Osmani said: 'Our estimate of microcredit's contribution towards poverty reduction in rural Bangladesh is about 4 per cent, but its benefits for the poor

could be judged by the impact on poverty rate alone, because it captures only those who ceased to be poor.

'Poverty reduction is much more comprehensive contribution. One must count also the improved consumption levels of those who remain poor,' he added.

Professor Osmani stressed enhancing the effectiveness of microfinance by targeting it much more sharply on the poor and especially the extreme poor, with the well-off being served by a different kind of financial services.

Source : New Age

Missing college student found dead

The hacked body of a missing college student was found at Iswardi in Pabna on Thursday.

The deceased, Abdul Malek, son of Gias Uddin of village Baghail Hazipara under Paksi union of Iswardi, was a second year student of Rajshahi College.

Family members of the deceased said that his motorbike had also gone missing.

Iswardi police officer-in-charge, Kazi Haniful Islam, said that local people found the body in the morning at village Boktarpur Kadirpara at Chhalimpur union.

Victim's family said that Abdul Malek on Tuesday afternoon left home with his new motorcycle and did not return.

The police, recovering the body, sent it to Pabna Medical College Hospital morgue for post-mortem examination.

Victim's father filed a murder case with the Iswardi police.

The police arrested one Mohammad Sohan on charge of the killing.

Source : New Age

25 hurt in AL infighting

At least 25 were wounded as two Awami League factions clashed at Mohammadpur in Magura Thursday afternoon.

Supporters of AL leaders Ali Mia and Obaidur attacked each other over an altercation during a meeting in a mosque.

The police later brought the situation under control.

Seven were admitted to hospital.

Source : New Age

57 BGB men freed in Rajshahi

Fifty-seven Border Guard of Bangladesh personnel were freed from the Rajshahi central jail on Friday.

Jailer Faruk Hossain said that an order from the home ministry regarding the release of the BGB men had reached the jail in the morning and they were freed at noon.

On 17 May, 2009, the then officer-in-charge of Boalia police Ramjan Ali had filed a case, accusing 93 BGB men on charge of favouring February 25 mutiny in the then Bangladesh Rifles.

Sixty-four of them got bail on Wednesday and 57 were freed on Friday.

Source : New Age

4 firearms, ammo seized in Chittagong

The Rapid Action Battalion on Thursday night recovered four firearms and ammunition from Oxygen area in the city.

RAB sources said a team of RAB-7 raided the area in front of KDS Garments under Biyazid thana at 10:30pm  and recovered four single barrel guns and five cartridges in abandoned state.

Sensing the presence of the elite force, the miscreants left the place leaving firearms, the source added.

Source : New Age

20 hurt in factory fire

At least 20 people were injured in a devastating fire that burnt a factory at Tora in Ghior upazila of Manikganj Friday night.

Fire service sources said the fire originated from a boiler in the dryer section of Akij Particle Hard Board factory and soon engulfed the entire factory. At least 20 workers were injured in the fire.

On information, fire fighting teams of Manikganj sadar and Ghior fire service rushed to the spot and tried to control the blaze with the help of locals.

The injured were taken to Manikganj sadar hospital from where three of the workers were shifted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital in critical

condition.

Source : New Age

Train derails in Chandpur

A compartment of a passenger train derailed near Shologhar outskirt of the town Thursday night.

As a result, train communications between Chandpur and Laksham remained suspended from 8:25pm.

Railway sources said a goods-laden compartment of a train derailed in the area at about 8:25pm when it was going to Laksham from Chandpur.

An Antonagar Mehgna Express train got stuck at Hagiganj station following the derailment, station sources said.

Station master Umor Faquk said a relief train from Chandpur reached the spot and tried to salvage the derailed compartment.

Source : New Age

DWASA plans to lift 30cr more litres of groundwater a day

The Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority has planned to pump out another 30 crore litres of groundwater every day by 2014 to meet the growing demand for safe water in this sprawling city of 1.30 crore people.

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council on Tuesday approved a project, titled 'Emergency Rehabilitation and Expansion of Water Supply System Project-2' in this regard, involving Tk 224 crore.

Dhaka WASA will implement the project from July 2011 to June 2014 under the Local Government Division of the LGRD ministry.

Of the total project cost of Tk 224 crore, Tk 213 crore will come from the government exchequer, while Tk 11 crore from WASA's own fund.

Of the government fund, Tk 49 crore has been earmarked for the current fiscal year (2011-12), while Tk 138 crore for the next fiscal year (2012-13) and Tk 26 crore for the fiscal year 2013-14.

According to sources at the planning ministry, the daily demand for water in the capital is 220 crore litres, but WASA could supply 200 crore litres or 91 per cent of the demand. The demand, however, rises to 225 crore litres a day in summer.

WASA sources said the demand for water will increase significantly by 2025 when the population of the capital is expected to hit 2.40 crore from the present 1.30 crore.

To meet the growing demand, WASA is undertaking different small and big projects, according to the officials.

Dhaka WASA now could supply water to 75 per cent areas of the capital of which 87 per cent is from groundwater, while 13 per cent is surface water that comes from treatment plants.

Talking to the news agency over phone, Dhaka WASA managing director Taqsem A Khan said the project had been undertaken to meet the increasing demand of the city dwellers. Once the project is implemented, Dhaka WASA would be able to supply additional 300 million litres of water a day, he added.

Under the project, the Dhaka WASA managing director said, additional water supply would be ensured through deep tube-wells. Currently, Dhaka WASA is operating 591 deep tube-wells.

Engineer Taqsem also said such projects were undertaken in the past and more would come in the future in line with the growing demand.

Under the project, there will be 60 new deep tube-wells alongside replacing 165, 5 deep aquifers, 20 deep aquifer replacement, 20 regeneration deep tube-wells, installing a 100-km new waterline and replacement of 50-km one, 17,000 cubic meter land development, construction of 5750 square meter land protection embankment.

The project follows the 'Emergency Rehabilitation and Expansion of Water Supply System Project-1' which completed in June this year.

Source : New Age

Phulbari Day observed

The national committee campaigning for protection of natural resources on Friday called on the Awami League-led government to fulfil the Phulbari agreement immediately or face 'consequences'.

Addressing a discussion marking a popular protest at Phulbari after the police firing on a rally on August 26, 2006, the member-secretary of the national committee to protect oil, gas, mineral resources, power and ports, Anu Muhammad issued the warning and said the people of Phulbari had made history this day five years ago in their struggle to protect the country's natural resources.

The movement compelled the then Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led government was compelled to sign the seven-point Phulbari agreement with the national committee, he said.

The Phulbari unit of the national committee organised different programmes to mark the 5th anniversary of the protest.

In Dhaka activists of the committee placed wreath

at the Central Shaheed Minar.

In Phulbri the committee placed wreath in the

morning at the monument built at the pace where three people were killed in police firing, and held a discussion.

Convener of the national committee Sheikh Muhammad Shaheedullah, its leaders Tipu Biswas, Shubrangshu Chakrabarty, Ragib Ahsan Munna, Zonayed Saki, Moshraf Hossain Nannu, Sohan Sobhan, Aminul Islam Bablu and Rabindra Soren also spoke at the discussion chaired by its local unit convener Saiful Islam Jewel.

A separate programme was organised by professional organisations led by Murtuza Sarker Manik.

Leaders of the national committee, Communist Party of Bangladesh, Workers Party, Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal, Revolutionary Workers Party, Ganasanghati Andolan, National Awami Party faction, Bangladesher Communist League, Democratic Revolutionary Party, BSD faction and Democratic Left Alliance placed wreaths at the Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka on the day.

Source : New Age

Striking miners lay siege to Barapukuria coal mine

Local miners at Barapukuria on Friday observed strike and laid siege to the coal mine compound for fourth consecutive day demanding regularisation of their jobs.

The local miners on Tuesday went for an indefinite strike after a series of meetings this month between the authorities and the miners' and workers' union leaders ended inconclusively.

Mohammad Quamruzzaman, managing director of the BCMCL, said that the protesters did not allow the officials and workers to come out of the coal mine compound.

He said that the mine authorities urged the miners to join a meeting in presence of Upazila Nirbahi Officer at 3 pm on Friday but the miners did not respond.

The local miners had been deprived of some minimum rights like reasonable wages, job security, weekly and emergency holidays and insurance facility through their employment by a third party instead of the BCMCL, the owner of the company, said a miner early this month.

For last three years, the miners and workers union has been staging protests demanding the appointment of the local miners by Barapukuria Coal Mine Company in stead of contract-based employment by Xuzhou Coal Mining Corporation (XMC), the third party contractors of the project.

However, at a meeting between the BCMCL authorities and the union leaders held on August 15, both the parties agreed on the employment of the miners on the basis of pay scale.

At a meeting between BCMCL, XMC and union leaders on August 18, XMC officials offered to increase the wage by 18 per cent. The Chinese company also offered bonus if the miners would extract 70,000 tonnes of coal a month, a BCMCL official said.

But the miners did not accept the proposal and went for an indefinite strike, he said.

Source : New Age

Anti-graft drive threatens India’s ‘life force’: Rahul Gandhi

Rahul Gandhi, widely seen as India's prime minister-in-waiting, warned Friday that a fasting activist's popular anti-corruption campaign posed a threat to India's democratic 'life force'.

Breaking his silence on a high-stakes standoff between activist Anna Hazare and the government, Congress party leader Gandhi praised Hazare's campaign, but challenged efforts to force his version of a new anti-graft law on parliament.

'Individuals have brought our country great gains. They have galvanised people in the cause for freedom... however we must not weaken the democratic process,' Gandhi said.

'A process divorced from the machinery of an elected government, that seeks to undo checks and balances created to protect the supremacy of parliament, sets a dangerous precedent for our democracy.'

It was Gandhi's first public statement on an issue that has snowballed into a full-blown crisis for the government, with huge protests across India in support of Hazare's campaign.

The 74-year-old Hazare has said he will fast until parliament adopts and passes his version of a new anti-corruption bill that would create the post of a national ombudsman to monitor senior politicians and bureaucrats.

The giant groundswell of public support for Hazare shook the government which was already on the defensive over a series of multi-billion-dollar scandals that have implicated top officials.

In his speech, Gandhi, 41, argued that allowing any campaign — no matter how popular its target — to dictate legislation to parliament would set the country on a slippery path.

'Tomorrow the target may be something less universally heralded. It may attack the plurality of our society and democracy,' he said.

'India's biggest achievement is our democratic system. It is the life force of our nation,' he added.

The timing and tone of Gandhi's intervention was significant.

In recent days, Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh, who sat beside Gandhi as he spoke, has sought to reach out to Hazare with a series of conciliatory gestures aimed at bringing the hunger strike to an end.

Source : New Age

Businessman mugged, stabbed in city

Muggers snatched Tk 1 lakh after stabbing a businessman at Malibagh in Dhaka early Friday.

The victim was Alauddin Khan alias Arif, 35, a resident of Chowdhury Para.

Alauddin, now being treated in Dhaka Medical College Hospital, said that four muggers had stopped him near the Malibagh level crossing about 4:30am.

'The muggers stopped their car in front of the CNG I was in, dragged me out at gunpoint, stabbed me and took the money,' he said.

He said the muggers also took away two mobiles worth Tk 20,000 and a gold ring.

Source : New Age

As Libya rebels march, covert role of NATO states emerges

The role some NATO states are playing to help Libyan rebels bring down Muammar Gaddafi puts the alliance in an awkward position after repeated denials that it works hand-in-hand with the rebellion.

British defence secretary Liam Fox slightly lifted the veil of secretive operations when he said Thursday that NATO was providing 'intelligence and reconnaissance assets' to help rebels hunt down the elusive Libyan leader.

The British defence ministry then announced Friday that it had bombed a 'large headquarters bunker' in Gaddafi's home town of Sirte, an operation that came as rebels geared up to launch an offensive there after their Tripoli triumph.

NATO has consistently rejected claims that it is coordinating operations with the rebels, commanding special forces on the ground, or trying to kill Gaddafi since the bombing campaign began in March.

'No specific individual is a target as an individual, whether it's Gaddafi or anybody else,' NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said Thursday after Fox's remarks.

Lungescu insisted that NATO was sticking to its United Nations mandate, limited to protecting civilians from any attacks. 'There is no military coordination with the rebels,' she said.

The NATO denials are 'absolute rubbish,' said Shashank Joshi, a Libyan war expert at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

'It's a necessary fiction to stay within the bounds of UN Resolution 1973 and to avoid legal and political difficulties,' Joshi said.

Russia and China withheld their vetos at the UN Security Council to allow the resolution's adoption in March, but they have since accused NATO of going beyond the scope of its mandate.

'There's overwhelming evidence that NATO was not only helping the rebels but that it was a decisive and critical partner to the rebels,' Joshi said.

'It was really engaged in a close and intimate level of coordination and support, without which the rebels could not have won this conflict, so I don't believe a single word NATO is saying,' he added.

An AFP correspondent found on Thursday French and British operatives based at rebel eastern front command facility in Zuwaytina, about 150 kilometres southwest of the opposition capital Benghazi.

France and Britain have spearheaded the NATO air war, launching the first salvos along with the United States on March 19. The three nations later sent military advisers to Benghazi.

British newspapers revealed this week the role played by Britain's Special Air Service forces.

The Daily Telegraph, quoting defence sources, said SAS members were sent to Libya several weeks ago and played a key role in coordinating the battle for Tripoli, and are now focusing on tracking down Gaddafi.

The Times newspaper reported that the SAS had been working with Qatari special forces. While the Qataris were operating along the front lines with rebel fighters, the SAS had performed a more discreet role further back coordinating with NATO pilots, the paper said, quoting ministry of defence sources.

A Western official stressed that there was a distinction between forces led by national governments and the air campaign directed by NATO's command structure.

'I think that's the unfortunate sort of nuance that was missing,' the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said regarding Fox's statement that NATO was helping in the search for Gaddafi.

'The fact that some NATO nations have some individuals on the ground, it should be made clear they are not under NATO command,' the official said. 'Unfortunately people have a habit of calling everything down there NATO.'

Source : New Age

AI demands probe into custodial death

Amnesty International on Friday urged the government to ensure investigation into the death of former deputy attorney general Momtazuddin Ahmed in police custody.

Abbas Faiz, South Asia researcher of the international rights watchdog, said in an e-mailed statement, 'It is the responsibility of the government to reveal the truth about this incident.'

'The government must take all the necessary steps to ensure that the death of Momtazuddin Ahmed is investigated and those found responsible are brought to justice,' the statement said.

It said, 'We know that many lawyers in Bangladesh are in a state of shock about the death. There are serious allegations that he was tortured in the custody of the Detective Branch of police.'

There should be thorough and rigorous investigation into all instances of human rights violation in Bangladesh but, in the case of the death of Momtazzuddin Ahmed, a supporter of the opposition, the need for this investigation to be independent and impartial is even more important, the Amnesty International said.

It also said, 'There have been repeated reports of death in custody in Bangladesh as a result of torture. The continued occurrences of such deaths point out the failure of the authorities concerned to address the issue. This trend must stop, and the time to stop it is now.'

Source : New Age

Homebound people suffer for congestion

With six days still left for Eid-ul-Fitr, a large number of people on Friday started leaving the capital for their village home by road, train and launch, but dilapidated highways, traffic congestions and delayed trains extended their journey time.

Passengers leaving Kamalapur Railway Station had to wait for up to four hours to start their journey on the first day of the five-day special service introduced by Bangladesh Railways, witnesses said.

Communication minister Syed Abul Hossain, who visited Kamalapur on Friday morning, said only some trains left the station late and the maximum delay was up to three hours.

He said lack of adequate number of locomotives was a major reason for the delay in train schedule.

The railway authorities added 14 extra trains on different routes across the country on the occasion of Eid.

On the Dhaka-Chittagong highway, vehicles moved bumper to bumper between Daudkandi and Comilla Cantonment, passengers complained. Our Correspondent in Comilla quoting highway police said damaged roads and the pressure of vehicles just before Eid and erratic driving slowed down the traffic movement.

People traveling to Mymensing and other northeastern districts by road took more time than required due to the rundown highways at several places and huge congestion near Joydevpur crossing.

The journey to the northern districts was also extensive and ardous due to bad condition of the road and congestions due to accidents, passengers said.

Our Tangail correspondent quoting police said a minor accident created severe traffic congestions from Kaliakoir to Gorai early Friday morning.

Highway police inspector Sanwar Hossain said the accident involving a Dhaka-bound bus of Dholeswary Paribahan and Tangail-bound truck at Board Ghor created congestion on nearly 4 kilometer stretch on the highway.

The jam was, however, cleared after about two hours, the traffic officer said.

Another accident that left an old woman killed by a speeding bus at Baoi Khola under Delduar upazila on the highway caused a traffic jam stretching about 10 kilometres

Police said angry local people put up barricade on the road bringing the traffic to a total halt for about one-and-a-half hour from 4:00pm.

Homebound passengers on the Dhaka-Aricha highway also suffered due to long queues at Paturia Ghat and breaking down of vehicles at some places.

Our correspondent in Manikganj said thousands of people including women and children faced serious problem as there is no public toilet at Paturia ferry terminal where they had to wait for hours to board the ferries.

Mohammad Shafiullah, an employee of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority at Aricha, said they would build six to seven temporary toilets within next two days.

BIWTC commercial manager Asharaf Ullah Khan said nearly 100 buses, 50 private cars and about 200 trucks kept waiting at Parturia to take ferries at any point of time during the day before Eid.

Out of order vehicles were seen at many places of the highway on Friday with the authorities showing no concern about removing them.

Police said it was the responsibility of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority to look into the issue of unfit vehicles plying on the highway.

Meanwhile, a large number of passengers with advance tickets were seen waiting for long at Gabtali inter-district bus terminal on Friday morning.

Transport service staff members said their vehicles were taking more time on the road due to congestion for which the schedules were being delayed.

Meanwhile, passengers continued complaining about fare hike by the bus services.

At Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority's Sadarghat launch terminal, passengers leaving the capital for southern districts were seen arriving hours before the departure time just to have a good place on the deck.

Despite restrictions, the passengers took small boats to the launches anchored away from the pontoons, witnesses said.

The BITWA officials were seen monitoring whether the launch operators were carrying passengers beyond their capacity.

Although the BIWTA officials cleared the upper decks, the passengers were seen returning to the decks as soon as the vessels left the terminal.

Sources at Dhaka airport said local airlines have planned additional flights on all the domestic routes to carry homebound passengers during the Eid.

Source : New Age

AG faces wrath of lawyers, BNP activists at Square Hospital

The attorney general, Mahbubey Alam, on Friday faced the wrath of lawyers and activists of opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party as he went to Square Hospital to see the body of late Momtaj Uddin Ahmed.

Seeing him at the hospital lounge, the lawyers and activists got angry and began shouting and hurling abusive comments, branding him a killer.

They also chased him towards the elevator and went up to the third floor of the hospital chanting slogans.

Immediately after his arrival, a contingent of riot police was deployed inside the hospital. They cordoned off the room where the body of Momtaj was kept while inquest examination was on.

The attorney general remained present till the examination completed. No newsman was allowed to go there.

The agitated lawyers, meantime, gathered at the exits of the hospital to keep the attorney general confined.

After two hours, Mahbubey Alam left the hospital avoiding the demonstrators through the basement of the hospital riding a police car. Meantime, the Supreme Court Bar Association president, Khandakar Mahbub Hossain, accused Mahbubey Alam for attempting to doctor the inquest report.

The AG had stayed there when the examination was done and none others was allowed, not even the family members of Momtaj.

'We suspect he had dictated the report and there might be no mention of the marks of electric shock on MU Ahmed's body,' Khandakar Mahbub Hossain added.

Source : New Age

MU Ahmed dies in custody

Former deputy attorney general Momtaj Uddin Ahmed, who was allegedly tortured after being arrested on August 11, died at Square Hospital in police custody Friday afternoon.

His widow, Selina Ahmed, sued home minister Sahara Khatun, attorney general Mahbubey Alam, home secretary, Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner, detective branch deputy commissioner and Shahbagh police officer-in-charge on charge of killing the Supreme Court lawyer.

A group of lawyers, led by Supreme Court Bar Association president Khandker Mahbub Hossain, submitted the first information report, signed by Selina, to the Ramna police at about 10:30pm.

Ramna police sub-inspector Altaf Hossain, also the duty officer, told New Age, 'We have received the complaint, but a decision has not yet been made whether it would be recorded as a regular case or a general diary, as the officer-in-charge is out of the office.'

Khandker Mahbub, however, said, 'Selina Ahmed filed a case on murder charge...We have submitted the FIR and the police have given us a copy after receiving it.'

Selina filed the FIR accusing the home minister, attorney general and four others of killing her husband in a planned way, Mahbub said adding, 'Now she wants justice.'

As the news spread, several hundred lawyers and activists of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party went out on demonstrations in front of Square Hospital and on the Supreme Court premises describing his death in custody as a 'planned murder.'  

The leader of the opposition, Khaleda Zia, also BNP chairperson, senior party leaders and senior Supreme Court lawyers condemned MU Ahmed's death in custody and called it a 'premeditated murder'.

The angry protesters also chased attorney general Mahbubey Alam when he went to the hospital after hearing the news. They jeered at him shouting 'killer'. Large contingents of police in riot gear were deployed inside the hospital after he went in.  

The BNP has announced countrywide demonstrations wearing black badges for today.

MU Ahmed, who was admitted to the hospital on August 16, breathed his last at around 1:10pm on Friday. Before being admitted to Square Hospital, he underwent treatment at National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases in custody.

Within hours after his arrest on August 11, MU Ahmed fell sick at the office of the detective branch police and taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital but physicians there referred him to NICVD.

The chief security officer of Square Hospital, Golam Mawla said MU Ahmed was admitted to the hospital at around 11:00pm on August 16 under police custody. He was under supervision of medicine specialist Abdullah Al Jamil.

Talking to newsmen at Square Hospital, Ahmed's widow, Selina Ahmed, said whenever she had wanted to know about the reported torture in custody, he asked her not to speak about it fearing that they would torture him again. 'At NICVD he often got frightened at the sight of policemen,' she said. 

Ahmed's nephew Iliyas Ahmed said the lawyer's hands and legs were tied up before being taken to Square Hospital. His brother Mainul Ahmed said he was not even slightly ill before being arrested.  

Senior jurist Rafique-ul Huq demanded a judicial inquiry into the death of the former deputy attorney general. 'It is a death in police custody. It should be probed by a judicial inquiry led by a retired Supreme Court judge,' he said.

'The death might be a part of the ongoing extrajudicial killings and other unnatural deaths. It has to be investigated properly,' he said.  

BNP standing committee member Moudud Ahmed termed it a 'planned killing'.

The Supreme Court Bar Association president, Khandakar Mahbub Hossain, said the killing was a part of the government's 'attempt' to 'silence' any voice of protest. 'The government, home minister, state minister for law, attorney general, police inspector general and DMP commissioner  have to take the responsibility for the death,' he said.

'The Supreme Court failed to carry out its constitutional obligation at the death. His family and lawyers will sue the persons responsible for his death,' he said.

Mahbub accused the attorney general of attempting to doctor the inquest report. 'The court had instructed him to take measures for proper treatment of MU Ahmed but he did nothing. Today he came to see the body and sat by it for two hours and dictated the magistrate to prepare an inquest report. None of us was allowed there. We suspect the inquest report would not mention the marks of electric shock that his body bore,' he said.      

The detective branch police in a hurriedly arranged briefing claimed that MU Ahmed was not in custody and had been on bail since August 16. 'He was in our custody for only 30 minutes on August 11. We did not torture him rather took him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital after he complained of chest pain,' said Monirul Islam, deputy commissioner of DB police.     

'His wife had appealed to us for leaving him in her custody and we granted him bail on August 16 and informed the court about the matter. Since then he was under treatment at Square Hospital in her wife's custody. We have all the documents…,' he said.   

'Before arresting him, we did not know he was suffering from cardiac disorder,' he said.

Ahmed's body was handed over to the family at around 7:00pm and it was taken to BIRDEM mortuary. His first namaj-e-janaza will be held at the High Court ground at 11:00am today and then the body will be taken to the BNP's central office at Naya Paltan.

He will be buried at his family graveyard at village Baliyakandi of Sherpur in Bogra, said his widow.

Ahmed is survived by his widow and two sons – SM Shubho, 11, and SA Babu, 9.

Meanwhile, 250 teachers of Dhaka University in a statement condemned the death of MU Ahmed in custody and demanded exemplary punishment for the persons responsible.

Sadrul Amin, Aminur Rahman Majumder, M Sirajul Islam, Tazmeri SA Islam, Akhtar Hossain Khan, Shahida Rafique and Dil Rawshan Zinnat Ara Naznin were among the signatories.

Source : New Age

Festival turned misery haunts the poor

High prices, unabated inflation, and the recent flooding in some northern districts have kept most of the poor and day-labourers of the country from required Eid shopping.

With Ramadan nearing its end, Eid shopping is gaining momentum across the country. But, while shopping malls and markets are being thronged by the well-off, a large section of the poor in rural areas appear to be inclined towards buying cheap, low-quality goods or refraining from shopping at all this time due to the exorbitant prices, report New Age district correspondents.

A number of shoppers said high prices had pushed a great many items beyond their purchasing capacity and they were compelled to confine themselves to just window shopping.

According to shop owners, unlike the Eid business seasons in the past, most people this time just walk in, look around, ask about the prices, and then depart in silence.

'The prices of most clothes and footwear have almost doubled over the past two years, putting those beyond the reach of the prospective buyers among the poor people,' said Monirul Islam, a shop

owner of Chapainawabganj.

Shirts that were sold at Tk 120 last year, now cost Tk 200 apiece, said Jamil Hossain, selling shirts at a makeshift shop on Ganakpara footpath at Shaheb Bazar in downtown Rajshahi.

The prices of basic food items have shot up so high that the poor are left with no choice but to dropping several items from their shopping list for Eid.

Inflation, which had been double-digit for five months since March, hit a three-year high of 10.96 per cent in July, far above the government's target of 7.5 per cent, according to the data released on August 18 by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.

Thousands of people in Satkhira and Lalmonirhat, devastated by flood and river erosion, are not even able to buy vermicelli and sugar to prepare a dish of shemai, let alone new dresses.

The people of the flood- and erosion-hit Teesta and Dharla river basin areas, who have lost their shelters, crops, and domestic animals, cannot afford to buy any thing beyond the bare essentials under their present circumstances, they told New Age.

New Age correspondent in Rajshahi reports that the low-income, poor, and ultra-poor people in Rajshahi city are passing a hard time, with their sense of misery heightened by the inability to procure new clothes and good food for the Eid. 

Shariful Islam, a rickshaw-puller from Natore who lives in Asam Colony, told New Age, 'I feel awful as I cannot buy new clothes for my three kids even on the occasion of the Eid.'

New Age correspondent in Lalmonirhat writes: About two lakh people, affected by flood and river erosion in Sadar, Aditmari, Kaliganj, and Hatibandha upazilas, are unable to buy even vermicelli and sugar to prepare shemai, the traditional Eid dish.

A good number of them have been hoping for some support from the government and non-governmental organisations so that they could buy some vermicelli, powdered milk, and sugar for observing the Eid.

'We have to fight on a daily basis to have something to eat. We have no money to spare for Eid celebrations,' said Sajedur Rahman, 55, a farmer of the flood-hit Sindurna village under Hatibandha upazila.

Afzal Hossain, 68, a Teesta river erosion-hit farmer of Balapara village of Mohishkhocha union under Aditmari upazila, said, 'I have lost every thing to the Teesta river erosion. Now I have no place to live with my family. The Eid does not bring us any joy.'

A flood-affected Hasina Banu, 38, of Dawabari village under Hatibandha upazila said his husband, Mazibor Rahman, is a farmer who cannot find any alternative job in the village. They cultivated aman in eight bighas of land but all the aman fields have been damaged in the recent flood, making them bereft of livelihood. 'So, Eid celebrations are not meant for us,' she said.

Hamidur Rahman, 47, another farmer of the village, said, 'I have two sons and two daughters but we have not been able to buy any dress for them till now. We also have not purchased any vermicelli and sugar for the Eid as we are totally bankrupt. We, the flood-affected people of this village, are waiting for some government help.'

New Age correspondent in Jhenaidah reports that the Eid failed to bring happiness for the poor and the people of low-income group of the district.

Tipu Sultan of Mollakua village under Kaliganj upazila said he used to earn Tk 250 to 280 a day by working as a farm labourer. But, he has not found any job in the past few days. He will buy a shirt for his son-in-law and a sari for his daughter and that is all. His will not buy any clothe for his school-going son due to financial constraints.

Amjad Hossain, a rickshaw-van-puller, said he would purchase a shirt for the younger of his two kids, a four-year-old son, and a sari for his mother but nothing for his wife, his other child, and himself.

New Age correspondent in Moulvibazar writes: The low-income people like day-labourers, marginal farmers, and hawkers are becoming more and more worried as the Eid is nearing.

Noor Ali, a day-labourer of Barhat area in Moulvibazar town, said due to the price spiral of essential commodities and his poor income, it had become really hard for him even to arrange the bare minimum food for his family. He cannot even think of buying new clothes for his family members on the occasion of the Eid, Noor added.

New Age correspondent in Patuakhali reports that Sufia Begum, a widow of 60, who runs a family of seven by selling chatpati in Patuakhali town, said, 'I am yet to find the money for buying some gifts for my grandchildren while the Eid is knocking at the door.'

Jamal Sarder, a hawker, who lives in Kalatala Slum and runs his 6-member family by selling toys, said, 'I make a net profit of Tk 200 to 250 a day on average, which is not enough as my two children go to school. How can I think of buying new clothes for my family members at such high prices?'

Source : New Age