Sohel Taj will be resigned May 31

Insists Sohel Taj from US, tells The Daily Star he opted for 'dignity, principles'

Hasan Jahid Tusher

Awami League lawmaker Tanjim Ahmad Sohel Taj yesterday said he stood down as the state minister for home affairs on May 31 so that his dignity and principles could survive intact.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Adviser HT Imam said the prime minister did not accept the resignation. Instead, she asked him to go on leave for as long as it should take to resolve whatever problems he had.

Told that Sohel Taj had confirmed his resignation, the adviser said he would communicate the information to the prime minister.

Earlier, talking to The Daily Star by phone from his Maryland residence in the United States at 11:30am, Sohel said, "I submitted my resignation to the prime minister on May 31 for forwarding it to the president.

“Article 58 (1) of the constitution says a minister or a state minister's resignation takes effect immediately.”

Asked why he chose to resign, he said, “I can't tell you why. All I can say is things did not work out the way I wanted. Now I don't want to embarrass anyone. I would rather wish everyone best of luck.

"I tried to work sincerely to implement our charter for change even though it required me to stay away from my family in the US. But I couldn't continue as I didn't want to compromise my principles, dignity and family values."

Meanwhile, sources in the administration said Sohel got frustrated after some government high-ups blasted him for some of actions.

He was also under pressure from influential party leaders to serve their interests. His nerves began to fray with lobbying for posts, promotions and undue privileges for police officials getting intense.

Then there was the decision to stop Iqbal Hassan Mahmood Tuku, former BNP state minister for power, leaving the country. It upset his superiors in the government, the sources added.

Besides, misunderstandings arose with Home Minister Sahara Khatun over decision-making on issues like reshuffle in the police.

Sohel told The Daily Star that he is sorry if anyone is hurt by his decisions or behaviour. "I want my government and the party to succeed in efforts to change the fate of the people.”

He said he never had lust for power. Rather he always strove to work for people.

He said he worked seriously at his ministry till he called it a day and did not receive any salary or privileges after resignation.

Queried why he had attended office even after that, he said as a state minister he had some work to complete.

Son of the country's first prime minister Tajuddin Ahmad, Sohel Taj took oath as a member of the council of ministers on January 6.

AL insiders said Hasina wanted him to take leave of absence as she sought to avoid a controversy like the one during the rule of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Tajuddin was dropped from Mujib's cabinet, causing uproar.

Afsar Uddin Ahmad Khan, Tajuddin's younger brother who was state minister for housing and public works in the previous AL government, too left his position after a short stint.

After Sohel's resignation, LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Syed Ashraful Islam and AL leaders from Kapasia, Sohel's constituency, tried hard to make him change his mind.

Terming media reports on him and his family incorrect, Sohel yesterday said he does not have any problems in the family.

"I'm spending time with my wife, daughters and mother-in-law. There's no question of problem here. It's unfortunate that some newspapers have been running fabricated stories."

Citing the constitution, he said no responsibility with regard to home ministry lies with him since the day he tendered resignation.

The two-time lawmaker said he would get back home at his convenience.

He said he hopes the government would ensure the trial of the war criminals and carry out reforms in the police as part of measures to bring about the changes AL pledged before the December 29 election.

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Honduras settlement talks to continue Sunday

AFP, San Jose

The rival parties in the Hond
uran political conflict have agreed to continue searching for a negotiated solution Sunday, after Costa Rican President Oscar Arias proposed a detailed plan for settling the three-week-old crisis.
Arias, who is mediating the Honduras crisis talks, proposed Saturday that ousted Honduran leader Manuel Zelaya return to the country under the terms of a national reconciliation plan, but delay the move at least until next Friday.
Zelaya has accepted the delay, according to his spokeswoman.
Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, made the suggestion to representatives of the deposed leader and de facto Honduran president Roberto Micheletti at talks underway here.
He said the two side would meet again Sunday after attending mass. "We have agreed to continue deliberations tomorrow," the Costa Rican leader told reporters. "We will meet again at 11:00 am (1700 GMT)."
The seven-point proposal envisions Zelaya's return to power at the head of a government of "national reconciliation," and the declaration of a general amnesty absolving those who participated in and opposed his June 28 ouster.
Arias' proposal would also see presidential elections moved up to November, with control of the army transferred to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal a month before so military forces could "guarantee a transparent and smooth voting process."
But Micheletti has repeatedly expressed his strong opposition to Zelaya's return or the possibility of the deposed leader serving out the remainder of his term until January 27, 2010.
Arias' proposal would also require Zelaya to "expressly renounce" plans to hold consultative votes seeking to gain support for constitutional changes to terms limits.

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Five dead in 'horrific' Australian mass murder

AFP, Melbourne

Five people, including two children, were found bludgeoned to death in a Sydney home in a "horrific" mass murder with no apparent motive, Australian police said Sunday.
Police said the victims, discovered Saturday in the Sydney suburb of North Epping, were believed to be four family members and a female relative.
"The injuries of all five people are quite definitely horrific," Superintendent Geoff Beresford told Sky News.
"They're all blunt trauma injuries to the upper body and to the heads of all the victims, which regrettably makes visual identification very difficult.
"It was an extremely violent attack carried out, I guess, with some precision."
Police said the bodies were believed to be a 45-year-old man and his wife, 43, their sons, aged 12 and nine, and the woman's 39-year-old sister.
They refused to identify the dead but media reports said two of the victims were Chinese-born Min Lin, his wife Yun Li Lin.
The deaths were initially thought to be murder-suicide, possibly linked to a domestic dispute, but Beresford on Sunday ruled out that possibility and admitted police were struggling to find a motive for the killings.

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Palestinian Authority in first talks with Iran FM

Afp, Ramallah

Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat met Iran's foreign minister in Egypt in the first such talks since the 1993 Oslo accords, a senior Palestinian official told AFP on Sunday.
"Saeb Erakat met with Manouchehr Mottaki in Sharm el-Sheikh three days ago" on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement's (NAM) summit in the Egyptian resort, the official said on condition of anonymity.
It marked the first such meeting since the Palestinian Authority was established in 1994, he added. "They discussed the internal Palestinian situation and the need for successful negotiations between Hamas and Fatah," he said, referring to the two main Palestinian factions. The two men also discussed "the need for a balance between Fatah and Hamas, the need for support of dialogue.

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US marks 40 years since man first walked on the moon

AFP, Washington

The United States Monday proudly marks the 40th anniversary of its conquest of the moon, a triumph of scientific endeavor now remembered at a time when US dominance in space is increasingly uncertain.
President Barack Obama kicks off a week of events when he meets Monday at the White House with the crew of the Apollo 11 mission, who became the first to accomplish the dream of ages and walk on the surface of the moon.
"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," said astronaut Neil Armstrong as he stepped down from the lunar lander on July 20, 1969, as an estimated 500 million people on Earth crowded round televisions and radios.
Four decades ago, at the height of the Cold War, the US achievement was a huge morale booster to a country mired in the bloody Vietnam war, ushering in a new sense of confidence and challenging concepts of science and religion.
"Armstrong is on the moon-Neil Armstrong, 38-year-old American, standing on the surface of the moon, on this July 20, 19 hundred and 69," intoned US newscaster Walter Cronkite.
"Whew, boy," exclaimed Cronkite, who died this week aged 92. "There he is, there's a foot coming down the steps. So there's a foot on the moon."
But dreams that one day we might all be able to travel to the stars have been rudely brought down to earth.
Only 12 men, all Americans, have ever walked on the moon, and the last to set foot there were in 1972, at the end of the Apollo missions.
Now ambitious plans to put US astronauts back on the moon by 2020 to establish manned lunar bases for further space exploration to Mars under the Constellation project are increasingly in doubt. And other nations such as Russia, China and even India and Japan are increasingly honing and expanding their own space programs.
"I think we are at an extremely critical juncture as we celebrate this anniversary because, we at least in the US are in the process of deciding ... what is the future of humans in space," said John Logsdon, an expert in aerospace history at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington.

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Land rights battle rages on Kenyan river

AFP, Tana River Delta, Kenya

On the fertile lands around Kenya's longest river, a battle is raging-between farmers, conservationists and investors keen to turn the rich soil into swathes of commercial farmland. The 800-kilometre (500-mile) Tana river sustains a rich biodiversity and thousands of residents who rely on it for fish and on its sedimentary deposits for farming and pasture.
In December the residents won a court injunction temporarily halting the country's biggest sugar company, Mumias, from growing cane there for biofuel, but the case has since stumbled on legal technicalities.
With the case still unresolved, Kenya announced in December it was planning to lease 40,000 hectares (100,000 acres) of land near Tana to the Gulf state of Qatar to grow fruit and vegetables in exchange for the construction of a port, road and railway.
Despite the potential revenue that the projects can generate, residents here reject the sugar firm's plan since it will displace 22,000 people and dry up the soil.

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Iran hardliners oppose Ahmadinejad's choice of first Vice President

AFP, Tehran

A group of Iranian hardliners raised objections on Sunday to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's decision to appoint close aide Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie as the country's new first vice president.
"It is imperative to terminate the appointment of Mashaie as first vice president in order to respect the wishes of the majority of the people," said Hossein Shriatmadari, managing director of the hardline Kayhan newspaper who was appointed to his post by the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "When people found out about the appointment, they viewed this move as one taken not just in bad taste... but as one which shows indifference (towards them)," he wrote in an editorial in the newspaper.
The appointment of Mashaie, a close confidant of Ahmadinejad, had been expected to ruffle feathers among the country's hardliners and clerical groups who heavily influence politics in the Islamic republic.
Mashaie, whose daughter is married to Ahmadinejad's son, is a controversial figure who last year was rapped by hardliners and Khamenei for saying Iran is a "friend of the Israeli people."
The Islamic republic has repeatedly vowed never to recognise Israel, which was an ally of pro-US shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, ousted by the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Mashaie also provoked the ire of MPs for allegedly watching a Turkish woman dance while at a tourism congress in Turkey in 2007.

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UK students in Chinese swine flu quarantine

AFP, Beijing

Members of a British student group quarantined by Chinese authorities over swine flu were "shocked" by their detention but were being treated well, a teacher said on Sunday.
The group of 52 students and teachers were quarantined after four students tested positive for the A(H1N1) virus after arriving in Beijing for a study tour, the British Council said earlier. "It was a bit of surprise to be detained at the airport.
We have been in a state of shock," Ian Tyrell, one of the teachers leading the tour, told AFP by telephone from the hotel where the group was quarantined.
Tyrell said there were some Americans and other nationalities under quarantine at the hotel, some of them students, but he could not provide a specific number. "They are having a good experience.

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US must show progress in Afghan war by next summer: Gates

AFP, Los Angeles

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, in a newspaper interview published Sunday, that US-led forces in Afghanistan must show progress by next summer to avoid the public perception that the conflict has become unwinnable.
Gates told The Los Angeles Times that victory in that country was a "long-term prospect" under any scenario and that the United States would not win the war in one year.
However, US forces must begin to turn the situation around in a year, he said, or face the likely loss of public support, The Times
reported.
"After the Iraq experience, nobody is prepared to have a long slog where it is not apparent we are making headway," Gates is quoted as saying in the interview. "The troops are tired; the American people are pretty tired."
Gates gave the interview aboard his plane as he returned to Washington after visiting sailors Friday at the Great Lakes Naval Station in Illinois, the paper said.
Gates has spoken in the past about the need for progress in Afghanistan and the public's fatigue of war, The Times said.
But in the interview, he went further by offering a more specific time frame for needed progress as well as the consequences of failing to meet it, the report said.

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Uighurs in France demand world pressure on China

AFP, Paris

Several dozen Uighurs and their supporters in France took to the streets of Paris on Saturday to urge the world to put pressure on China to end what they called "genocide" in Xinjiang.
Some of the protesters were seen holding up banners that read "Stop killing Uighurs" and "Uighurs want justice," as well as images of the Uighur dissident leader in exile, Rebiya Kadeer.
"The international community must intervene to put pressure on China and stop the Chinese authorities' policy of repression," said Yusufu Akbar, president of the Uighur association in France, through a translator.
"This is not new. Since 1949, China has undertaken a policy of genocide against Uighurs. This massacre has to stop."
Xinjiang, the remote northwest corner of China and homeland of the Muslim and Turkic-speaking Uighurs, burst into global prominence when riots in its capital Urumqi on July 5 left 197 dead, according to an official toll. Meanwhile, Chinese police shot dead 12 people during unrest in the western Xinjiang region, the government said Sunday, in a rare admission security forces opened fire in the worst ethnic violence in decades.
Police shot and killed 12 "mobsters" during disturbances in the regional capital Urumqi on July 5, Xinhua news agency said in a report issued early Sunday that quoted the head of the Xinjiang regional government, Nur Bekri.
Some of Xinjiang's Uighur minority, a mainly Muslim, central Asian people, went on the rampage on July 5, assaulting members of China's dominant Han ethnic group in attacks that left at least 192 dead.
Uighurs say police sparked the rioting by shooting peaceful protesters who were demanding an investigation into a recent factory brawl in southern China that left at least two Uighur migrant workers dead.
However, Nur Bekri said police opened fire to prevent further bloodshed, according to Xinhua. "The police showed as much restraint as possible during the unrest," he said, adding they had initially fired shots into the air but that had failed to disperse "extremely vicious" thugs. Three of those shot died on the spot, with nine others dying after medical treatment failed, he said.
The report gave no details of the ethnicity of the deceased or those involved in the unrest, but authorities have already pinned the blame for the unrest on Uighurs, many of whom complain of decades of Chinese repression. Thousands of Han Chinese armed themselves with clubs and other weapons and marched through Urumqi seeking vengeance on Uighurs in the days after the riots, but were mostly thwarted by a huge security force.

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Israel told by US to stop East Jerusalem project

AFP, Jerusalem

The United States has told Israel to stop a building project in annexed east Jerusalem, in the latest dispute between the two allies over settlements, a senior Israeli official told AFP on Sunday.
Israel's ambassador in Washington Michael Oren was summoned to the State Department at the end of last week over the project, which aims to build housing units in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, the official said on condition of anonymity, confirming earlier media reports. There was no immediate US comment on the reports.
Jerusalem city authorities have approved the construction plans for the project, which aims to build the units on the site of the Shepherd hotel in the neighbourhood. The works are financed by American millionaire Irving Moskowitz, who has previously contributed to ultra-nationalist Jewish groups. The international community considers Jewish neighbourhoods in mostly Arab east Jerusalem to be Israeli settlements and the issue is one of the main obstacles in the hobbled Middle East peace process.
Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed that part of the city in a move not recognised by the international community. It sees all of Jerusalem its "eternal, undivided" capital and does not consider construction in east Jerusalem to be settlements.
The Palestinians want to make east Jerusalem the capital of their promised state. Under new US President Barack Obama, Washington has repeatedly pressed Israel to stop all settlement activity, something that hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far refused to do. There are currently some 200,000 Jewish Israelis living in east Jerusalem, home to some 268,000 Palestinians. Meanwhile, Israel on Sunday rejected out of hand a United States demand to stop a building project in annexed east Jerusalem, in the allies' latest dispute over settlements. Hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the government was not going to place restrictions on Jewish residents in a city that the state .considers its capital.

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Indonesia terror strategy questioned as bombers re-emerge

Afp, Jakarta

Twin bomb attacks that hit luxury hotels in Indonesia's capital last week have shattered years of calm won through an innovative carrot-and-stick approach to fighting terror.
The suicide bombings at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta, which police said Sunday were the work of Southeast Asian militant network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), are the first of their kind since 2005. Analysts say Indonesia has made valuable headway with a divide-and-rule strategy that has hobbled JI and sown division in its ranks, but that creeping complacency has allowed a radical fringe to fester.
"I think worldwide counter-terrorism has been looking at Indonesia as a successful model until now," Indonesia-based analyst Noor Huda Ismail told AFP.
"I think in terms of understanding the network we've been doing great. Look at Guantanamo, it was a disaster," he said of the confrontational "War on Terror" approach taken by the United States.
JI's ultimate goal is to unite Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and the southern Philippines into a fundamentalist Islamic state, using terrorist attacks to destabilise governments across Southeast Asia.

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Monsoon rain kills 16 in southern Pakistan

AFP, Karachi

At least 16 people, including four children, were killed and 27 others were injured after the first torrential rains of the monsoon lashed Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi, officials said Sunday.
The heavy monsoon rain, which started early Saturday, brought much of the city to a standstill as power and communication systems were badly affected and hundreds of people were forced from their homes.
Metrological officials said more rain was due in the next 24 hours in southern Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital.
"Sixteen people were killed and 27 injured as rain lashed the city. We fear a rise in the death toll as rain is still continuing," police chief Haneef Mohammad Javed told AFP.
The dead included five women and four children, Javed said, adding that a seven-month-old infant was among those who perished.
"Four people were electrocuted, two drowned and the rest died as the roofs of their houses caved in," he said, adding: "We have moved several people to safer places."
The city's mayor Mustafa Kamal told AFP he had received reports that a number of people had died and dozens been hurt but did not give exact figures.
"I am visiting the affected areas. Several people have been killed so far. We are trying to control the situation," he said.
A senior metrological official in Islamabad said that the overall monsoon rain would be low.

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Myanmar detains Suu Kyi party members

Afp, Yangon

Myanmar authorities detained around 20 members of imprisoned Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party Sunday as they headed back from events to mark her father's death, an official said.
Around 300 members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) had gathered amid tight security, witnesses said, to pay tribute to the country's independence champion General Aung San, who was assassinated on July 19, 1947.
The authorities allowed around 50 party members to march peacefully to Martyr's Mausoleum in Yangon to pay tribute, but a number were detained on their return, an official told AFP.
"About 20 NLD members were detained for cautioning on their way back. They will be released after cautioning," he said.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who was aged two when her father died, marked the day at Insein prison, where she is on trial on charges of violating her house arrest rules after an American man swam uninvited to her home in May.
"We sent food for 330 people at the prison hospital on behalf of Daw Suu to mark Martyr's Day today," said Nyan Win, her lawyer and spokesman for the NLD.
The opposition party used the occasion to reiterate calls for the release of all political prisoners including the Nobel Laureate whose trial, which resumes on Friday, has provoked international outrage.
Officials of the military-ruled nation also marked the day with a small ceremony at the mausoleum in memory of the general.

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US offensive reflects uneasy run-up to Afghan vote

AFP, Helmand Province

A month before polls in Afghanistan, campaigning has been scarce in the southern Helmand river valley where US Marines are fighting insurgents for control of the key region.
Landmines have closed main roads while frightened villagers have abandoned their homes despite a major US military offensive designed to ensure safe conditions for presidential and provincial council elections on August 20.
The vote comes after the hardline Taliban movement -- driven from power by the US-led invasion eight years ago -- has re-emerged since as a potent insurgency force that increasingly threatens security.
Multi-national efforts to foster stability have struggled to make progress, with the top US military commander Admiral Michael Mullen admitting last week that security had deteriorated progressively over the last three years.
In southern Helmand province, where most of the opium that funds the insurgency is grown, villagers told AFP that they broadly supported the foreign troops' attempts to defeat the Taliban. "The Taliban just walk into our homes and demand food and money," said one village elder speaking through an interpreter employed by the US military.
"They close schools and we can't disobey them as they will torture and kill us. We support what the US troops are doing but they point their guns at our children, who cannot go outside to play." The man said he wanted to vote in the elections but that registration cards had not arrived at his mud-walled village in the Garmsir district of Helmand.
He spoke during a week in which a Marines' unit was hit by a series of deadly IED (improvised explosive devices) planted on the dirt road immediately outside the village. "They are not local people," he said of those behind the bombings, without giving further details.
All residents living close to where the US Marines stopped for the night fled their houses, fearful that the troops' presence would attract violence -- rather than provide security.

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Afghan commando raids kill 35 militants

Afp, Kabul

Afghan commandos backed by international troops and air power killed 35 militants in raids on Taliban hideouts in Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar, the defence ministry said Sunday.
Several other insurgents were wounded in the raids Saturday in Shah Wali Kot district in the restive province, the ministry said in a statement.
"The National Army commandos having the support of the international forces and air force killed 35 enemies who had massed there to interrupt the people's lives," the statement said.
Thousands of newly-deployed US Marines, British forces and Afghan security troops have launched a series of major assaults on Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan. The operations were unleashed at the beginning of this month in a bid to drive out Taliban insurgents to allow Afghans to vote in the nation's presidential elections set for August 20. The Taliban are the main militant group behind an increasingly deadly insurgency which they launched shortly after their government was toppled in a US-led invasion in 2001.

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Myanmar under pressure at Asia security forum

AFP, Phuket

Military-ruled Myanmar is set to face renewed pressure over its trial of Aung San Suu Kyi when foreign ministers and diplomats from Asia, Washington and Europe meet this week, analysts say.
The Nobel Peace Prize-winning democracy leader faces up to five years in jail on charges of breaching her house arrest after a bizarre incident in which an American man swam to her lakeside residence in May.
The ruling junta has defied international outrage about her trial and dealt a humiliating snub to UN chief Ban Ki-moon by refusing to allow him to visit the opposition figurehead when he visited the country earlier this month.
The issue is set to be a major topic on the agenda of the 27-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum, the region's biggest security dialogue, and associated meetings starting Sunday.
The presence of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will also add to the pressure on Myanmar's ruling generals, while China, the junta's key backer, will also be at the forum.
But historically there has been little that anyone can do to force the regime's hand, said Bridget Welsh, an associate professor of political science at the Singapore Management University. "Most certainly Clinton's presence will build pressure, but pressure alone has proven not to be effective. The aim should be to broaden the dialogue with the region to allow for more points of discussion," Welsh told AFP.
The 10-member ASEAN spoke out strongly against the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi but has faced international criticism in the past for failing to take on Myanmar, the most troublesome member of the bloc. Welsh recommended that ASEAN take a carrot-and-stick approach. "ASEAN has little traction on this issue. It needs to continue to illustrate its concerns for the issue of the trial and political pressure, while simultaneously engaging in the area of humanitarian relief," she said.
"ASEAN needs to maintain communication with the region through the network it has deepened over the last few years", including its assistance following deadly Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar in May 2008. The international community has however struggled to find any leverage with Myanmar's military, which has ruled the country since 1962 and kept Aung San Suu Kyi in detention for most of the last two decades.
Her party won the country's last elections in 1990 but was never allowed to take office. Critics say her trial is a way for the junta to keep her locked up for elections promised by the junta in 2010. The elections will be held under a widely criticised constitution voted in just days after Nargis, which provides a major role for the military in any government and bars Aung San Suu Kyi from standing.

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Pakistan faces dilemma over nemesis

AFP, Islamabad

Pakistan has undergone a dramatic policy shift to recognise Taliban rebels as a major threat, but is more ambivalent on liquidating Islamists trained to fight the ultimate nemesis: India.
Almost from inception, Pakistani spies and soldiers have actively armed, sponsored, encouraged or turned a blind eye as Islamist-inspired militant outfits turned their guns on India to the east and Afghanistan to the west.
But the civilian government this summer ordered the military to crush Taliban militants in the northwest after the rebels made further territorial gains in April, accusing them of holding the entire country hostage.
"It is absolute reality that the terrorists of today were the friends of yesterday. The immediate threat is the insurgents challenging the writ of the state," said retired army general Talat Masood.
The Taliban may be the largest Islamist group in Pakistan, but the ability and willingness of the civilian, military and intelligence authorities to crack down on other groups, particularly those targeting India, is unclear.
"They want these militant organisations to remain under their control but many have become somewhat autonomous. They are in dilemma how to control them. I am not sure they are willing to eliminate them," said Masood.
"India asks that these groups be dismantled. While the government would like that to happen, they don't have the ability or resolve to liquidate them. The military does not want to take them on when engaged on the western front."
The most prominent example is Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which India and the United States accused of killing 166 people in Mumbai last November.
Pakistan went further than ever before to arrest LeT members, close the charity considered its front and arrest suspects, but it has yet to put them on trial and the charity has reportedly resurfaced under a new guise.
As far as India is concerned, Pakistan has not gone far enough, but many in Pakistan want India to ease nerves over its superior size, wealth and military might so Islamabad can focus on the militant threat in the west.
"Indian army troops are camped on the Pakistan border. The defence increase in this year's budget was more than Pakistan's total budget," Pakistani security analyst Ikram Saigol told AFP.
"If India was not such a threat to Pakistan, why should it keep troops along the Pakistan border in such big number? It is a four-to-one ratio," he said.
India and Pakistan have gone to war three times since 1948 -- twice over the disputed territory Kashmir. Pakistan lost each time, culminating with the loss of a sixth of its land as East Pakistan became Bangladesh.
In 2002, India and Pakistan went to the brink of nuclear war as hundreds of thousands of soldiers were mobilised. It took direct intervention of then-US secretary of state Colin Powell to avert conflict.
Critics of the Pakistani military say their refusal to divert the bulk of the 700,000-strong army from east to northwest is proof that commanders are not fully committed to crushing the Taliban, and are merely window-dressing.

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All set for 17th nat’l council of AL

BSS, Dhaka

Preparations are now complete for holding the national council of Bangladesh Awami League (AL), country's oldest political party having historical track records since its inception in 1949.
Party Chief and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the council at the Bangabandhu Convention Centre (Bangladesh- China Friendship Conference Centre) at 11 am on the day.
A total of 5,253 leaders of 73 organizational districts including 1,552 from Dhaka division, 1,211 from Rajshahi division, 1,076 from Chittagong division, 587 from Khulna division, 325 from Barisal division and 319 from Sylhet division will join the council.
AL spokesperson and LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Syed Ashraful Islam said foreign dignitaries would not be invited to the July 24 council due to time constraint. But foreign diplomats in Bangladesh would be invited.
All political parties, excluding those believing in communalism and fundamentalism, will get invitation to join the AL council, he added.
Sayed Ashraful said that the forthcoming AL council is to ratify provisional changes made in its constitution before the December 29 general election for registration with the Election Commission.
Meanwhile, a three-member election commission headed by AL senior leader MA Mannan has been formed. Other two members are Advocate Rahmat Ali MP and Advocate Amjad Hossain.
Syed Ashraful said nine sub-committees formed to make the council a success also held several meetings as spirit of the overall preparation for the grand event.

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BD wants $1149 m from donors for disaster management

UNB, Dhaka

Bangladesh Sunday sought US$ 1149 million in assistance from international donors for a long-term solution to natural disaster as recurrent cyclones accompanied with tidal surge of brackish water from the bay exposed the country's vulnerability to perilous climate change.
The call for help came as millions of people of the coastal areas affected by the latest cyclone codenamed 'Aila' in May this year still remained in plight, losing their homes, crops and cattle, fish farms and other means of livelihood.
Food and Disaster Management Minister Dr Abdur Razzak said the request for the amount of the funds was placed at a meeting between the government and the representatives of foreign missions in Dhaka and international donor agencies at his ministry office in the secretariat.
Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni was also present at the meeting, convened after the government framed a five-year plan for providing durable remedies against the perennial natural disaster.
Dr Razzak told reporters that the donor agencies and the countries assured of their all-out cooperation in mobilizing this monetary assistance, albeit making some observations about lapses in aid utilization in the past.
"They will decide after consulting the respective countries on the assistance needed under the long-term plan by the government," he said.
The minister quoted the donors as saying that Bangladesh needs much more inter-ministerial coordination to properly utilize the assistance. They also emphasized regional cooperation in addressing the problems being caused by natural calamity, as the country is facing storms, surges, salinity, floods and droughts-all mainly blamed on climate change due to global warming.
Dr Razzaque said the donors also brought allegation that the assistance provided by them was not properly utilized after the super-cyclone 'Sidr' ravaged the coastal areas of Bangladesh, including the mangrove forests of Sunderbans.
He, however, assured the donors of properly utilizing the funds this time around as the new government seeks lasting solutions, including shielding the coast with permanent dams.
Under the five-year-long scheme, the government sought US $ 12 million for funding support for the people displaced by the Aila, which is expected to be implemented within six months.
Besides, US $ 535 million is estimated for building cluster houses for landless people, US $ 381 million for reconstruction of houses, US $ 62 million for rebuilding embankments, US $ 56 million for restoration of livelihoods, US $ 200 million for construction of cyclone shelters (2,000 centers in coastal areas), and US $ 3 million for restoration of the battered water-supply system.
Apart from this, the government has had a midterm plan, but government itself will bear the cost estimated around US $ 12.03 million, the minister informed.
Talking to the reporters, Dr Dipu Moni said, "The donors emphasized the need of our internal coordination. They said there should be inter-ministerial coordination among us so that the assistance could be properly utilized."
The Foreign Minister, quoting the donors, said as Bangladesh has been one of the vastly affected countries due to climate change, so the country has the moral rights to seek assistance for disaster management.

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BNP seeks time till Jan 31 to submit party constitution

UNB, Dhaka

Opposition BNP on Sunday formally sought time till January 31 next from the Election Commission to submit its final constitution complying with the amended Representation of People's Ordinance (RPO).
BNP office secretary Ruhul Kabir Rizvi submitted an application, signed by BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain, to the Chief Election Commissioner at about 3pm seeking the time.
The application noted that the party would require time to complete its councils from all levels-ward to district-across the country and the process for holding the council has already started.
The party committees at all these levels will be constituted through elections as per provision of the RPO, the BNP application said.
Earlier, on July 16, a 3-member delegation of BNP met with the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) to discuss the possible extension of the time for six months to allow them to submit the party's final constitution as approved by the national council.
During the meeting, CEC Dr Shamsul Huda had advised the BNP delegation to seek in writing the extension of time.
The Election Commission earlier set July 25 for the registered political parties to submit their final constitutions complying with the RPO.

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Six pc GDP growth possible if ADP implemented properly: BB Governor

BSS, Dhaka

The country would experience 6 percent GDP growth, outperforming from 5.5 to 6.0 percent projected in the budget for FY10, provided that global economic recession recovers faster and initiatives proposed in the budget are implemented right earnestly.
Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman said this while announcing the Monetary Policy Statement, the regular half yearly release, outlining the stance for FY10 particularly in the first half (H1) for July to December 2009.
To help the real economy sustain growth momentum in the recessionary global environment, BB shall continue maintain easy credit condition in FY10, with special attention to the credit needs of sectors hurt by the slowdown and of sectors like agriculture and SME thus far inadequately served by market, he said.
The monetary programme for FY10 is designed to accommodate 6.0 percent real GDP growth, with inflation projected at 6.5 percent by June 2010. Besides accommodating public sector borrowing needs estimated in FY10 budget geared towards meeting the challenges from the ongoing global recession, Dr Atiur Rahman said adding "BB's monetary programme will amply accommodate the credit needs of the private sector for attaining the targeted level of real GDP growth."
BB is strengthening oversight on liquidity, capital adequacy and risk management in banks and financial institutions to protect the domestic financial sector from instabilities of the kind now afflicting markets in advanced economies.
BB will continually monitor the unfolding domestic and external developments, and will stand ready to intervene appropriately to meet challenges for macro financial stability and for the growth and poverty reduction aspirations of the government and the population at large.
The agriculture growth of the country will depend, besides favorable weather and reasonable market prices, on adequate and timely availability of irrigation, fertilizer and other inputs to the growers.
The strong leadership in the agriculture ministry and BB's recently announced agriculture credit programmes will hopefully maintain a supportive side siuation in the agriculture sector, he said adding infrastructure inadequacies, particularly of power and gas remain a severe constraints for rapid growth in all economic sectors.
BB will modify monetary stance appropriately towards more active demand management if slow output responses in the prevailing easy monetary conditions tend to escalate domestic inflation, Dr Atiur Rahman said.
Dr Atiur said, unlike most of other economies in the region and elsewhere, output growth in Bangladesh has far been mildly impacted by the ongoing global economic recession; with estimated 5.9 percent real GDP growth in FY09 following 6.2 percent of FY08.

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Kalam stresses efficient water management on regional basis

BSS, Dhaka

Former Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam on Sunday said the co-riparian countries in the region should develop an efficient water management for their mutual benefit.
"Better management of water can ensure regional benefit of this resource," Kalam said during talks with Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus at the Grameen Bank headquarters after his arrival here on a three-day tour.
Kalam's brief comment came as Yunus sought his suggestions about the exploitation of natural resources like water through regional cooperation as the cross-border Tipaimukh issue currently dominates the center stage of Bangladesh-India relations.
Bangladesh is criss-crossed by nearly 230 rivers with 54 being trans-boundary ones and mostly originating from India.
The former Indian president suggested the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to develop itself following the model of the European Union (EU).
During the 45-minute talks, the Grameen Bank chief, whose experiment of poor men's banking earned Bangladesh the repute of being the home of microcredit, suggested introduction of SAARC passport and visa systems.
Known as an advocate of an action plan to develop India into a knowledge-based superpower and a developed nation by the year 2020, Kalam said he was keenly interested about the Grameen Bank modus operandi for development.
Yunus briefed him about the Grameen Bank activities and reviewed the cross-sectoral development in different fields when Kalam said Bangladesh should lay more emphasis on women education as he observes "32 percent women education rate (in Bangladesh) is low".
"We cannot ensure social development without providing education particularly to the women," Kalam said.
The former Indian president presented two books he authored with one being his own biography and the other 'India 2020.' He also gave him a copy of the Hindi version of one of Yunus's books on microcredit.
An Indian private Jet Airlines aircraft carried him to Dhaka's Zia International Airport where Prime Minister's advisers Dr Syed Modasser Ali and Dr Gowher Rizvi, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Hasan Mahmud and Prime Minister's Principal Secretary Abdul Karim received the high-profile dignitary.
After a brief stay in the Dhaka Sheraton Hotel on his arrival, Kalam went straight to the headquarters of Grameen Bank to meet Yunus and then joined a dinner hosted by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her official Jamuna residence.

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CNG Filling Station Owners to enforce non-stop strike from August 1

UNB, Dhaka

Bangladesh CNG Filling Station and Conversion Workshop Owners Association is "determined" on their stand to enforce countrywide nonstop strike from August 1 if their 6-point demands were not met by the government by July 31 deadline.
If the strike is enforced, people of all sections will have to suffer limitless sufferings for shutdown of the gas-filling stations as most vehicles nowadays are fuelled with Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).
The steering committee of the association held an emergency meeting on Saturday at a city hotel with the association president, Shafiul Islam Kamal, presiding to reaffirm their action plan. The meeting called upon the government to meet their demands otherwise they would enforce their pre-announced strike.
Presidents and general secretaries of 14 zonal committees of the association allover the country and central leaders attended the steering-committee meeting conducted by the association's secretary general, Zakir Hossain Nayon.
The CNG Filling Station Owners Association on July 11 took the decision in a general meeting to go for strike if their demands are not met.
Earlier, a few days back, the association leaders had a meeting over their demands with the government "but the meeting was not fruitful", according to the association leaders.
The government side told them to withdraw their condition of enforcing strike before the government could consider their matters, the association leaders said.
Talking to UNB on Sunday over phone the secretary general, Nayon, said they have been pressing their demands for last one year, but to no avail.
The six-point demands include to reduce the fed gas price that is purchased by the filling stations from the government gas companies from the present Tk 9.97 per cubic metre to Tk 5.23 and to reduce the CNG tariff (that is consumers have to pay during buying) from Tk 17.75 per cubic metre to Tk 13.26.
The association secretary general mentioned that the immediate-past caretaker government's Chief Adviser's Assistant on Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry Prof M Tamim had increased the prices by issuing a government notification on April 25, 2008. Earlier, the CNG tariff was Tk 8.50 while fed gas price was Tk 2.47 per cubic metre.
The association also demands installation of Electronic Volume Correction (EVC) metre at the filling stations replacing the present ordinary metre so that they can give gas bill as per pressure reading of gas.
It also demands cancellation of the provision for providing mandatory minimum bill of 30 percent gas use of total loaded gas in a filling station per month.

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