The New Nation - Internet Edition

Agencies, Karachi

At least 138 people were killed and more than 500 injured in two powerful suicide blasts in a bid to assassinate former prime minister Benazir Bhutto during her homecoming procession after eight years in self-imposed exile late Thursday night but the Pakistan People's Party chief escaped unhurt.

Two explosions went off a minute apart shortly after midnight near Karsaz close to the vehicle Benazir was travelling in, at the head of a procession of hundreds of thousands of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) supporters who had flooded the streets of the city to welcome the return of their leader.

Benazir refused to use a bulletproof glass cubicle that had been built atop the truck taking her to the tomb of Pakistan's founding father, Muhammed Ali Jinnah, to address a rally.

At the time of the blasts she had gone inside the truck to take rest. However, several senior PPP leaders suffered splinter injuries.

She was immediately taken to her ancestral Bilawal House, Interior Ministry spokesman Brig (retd) Javed Iqbal Cheema said.

Police Surgeon Karachi, Dr. Bashir Ahmed Shaikh confirmed 126 deaths.

Benezir Bhutto blamed militants Friday for trying to kill her and said she would not "surrender our great nation" to them.

Benazir said there were two attackers in the deadly bombing, and that her security guards found a third man armed with a pistol and another with a suicide vest. Ahead of her arrival, she said, she was warned suicide squads were dispatched to kill her.

"There was one suicide squad from the Taliban elements, one suicide squad from al-Qaida, one suicide squad from Pakistani Taliban and a fourth - a group - I believe from Karachi," she said.

Former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto condemned bomb attacks on her homecoming parade in Karachi that killed 138 people, saying the victims made the "ultimate sacrifice" for democracy. Speaking at a press conference yesterday, she also promised to remain in Pakistan.

Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf has also condemned the attack, describing it as a conspiracy against democracy. His government says Islamic militants are responsible. Al-Qaeda and the Taliban have both issued threats against Benazir's life. But in an interview on the website of Paris-Match, Benazir herself blamed supporters of the late General Zia.

Unrest has broken out on the streets of Karachi, where large numbers of Benazir's supporters have clashed with police during protests against the attack.

The suicide attack that killed up to 138 people and shattered former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's joyous return from exile bore the hallmarks of a warlord tied to al-Qaida and the Taliban, authorities said Friday. Forensic experts studied a severed head to determine the bomber's identity.

Baitullah Mehsud - a top militant leader on the unstable Afghan border - threatened this month to meet Bhutto's return to Pakistan with suicide attacks, according to local media reports. An associate of Mehsud, however, denied Taliban involvement.

The top security official in the province where the attack took place suggested that Bhutto's camp had not seriously considered the need for security for her return after eight years in exile.

"They got carried away by political exigencies instead of taking our concern seriously," said the official, Ghulam Muhammad Mohtarem.

Bhutto's procession crept toward the center of Karachi for 10 hours with supporters thronging her armored truck when a small explosion erupted near the front of the vehicle. That was quickly followed by a larger blast, destroying two police vans escorting the procession. Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said the vehicles on the left side of Bhutto's truck suffered the brunt of the blast, one of the deadliest in Pakistan's history.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which drew international condemnation.

Manzur Mughal, the Karachi police officer in charge of the investigation, said detectives had established that a young man who threw a grenade blew himself up 22 seconds later next to the truck.

The attacker's head was found nearby and taken to a forensic lab to try to identify him, Mughal told The Associated Press.

Bhutto survived unscathed, but the explosions that went off near the bulletproof truck she was riding in turned her jubilant homecoming parade into a scene of carnage, ripping victims apart and hurling a fireball into the sky. The attack shattered the windows of her truck. She appeared dazed afterward and was escorted to her Karachi home.

Police on Friday collected forensic evidence including pieces of flesh and shoes from the site of the bombing. Bhutto's armored truck, which carried signs that read "Long Live Bhutto," was hoisted away using a crane. One side bearing a big portrait of the former premier was spattered with blood and riddled with shrapnel holes.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf phoned Bhutto Friday to express his shock and profound grief over the bombing and prayed for the former premier's safety and security, his spokesman said.

"The president expressed his strong resolve that a thorough investigation would be carried out in order to bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice," spokesman Rashid Qureshi said.

Musharraf said earlier that he was "deeply shocked" by the attack and condemned it in the strongest possible terms as part of a "conspiracy against democracy," the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan said.

Mohtarem said nuts, bolts and steel balls packed around the explosives had made the bombing so deadly. He said it was impossible to prevent more such attacks.

Mehsud's spokesman could not be reached for comment, but an alleged associate of the militant commander, Isa Khan, denied Taliban involvement.

"The government's secret agencies are involved in it. Taliban have no part in it," Khan told an AP reporter by phone from the volatile northwestern tribal town of Bannu, where he is believed to command pro-Taliban militants loyal to Mehsud.

"This was an effort to provoke common people and create hatred against the Taliban. We do not do anything that harm common people," he said.

Bhutto has made enemies of Islamic militants by taking a pro-American line and negotiating a possible moderate, U.S.-friendly alliance with Musharraf, a longtime political rival despite their shared liberal values. The attack cast a pall over Bhutto's talks with Musharraf and possible plans for such an alliance. Leaders of her party were meeting at her Karachi residence and Bhutto was expected to hold a news conference afterward.

It remained unclear whether the attack would stiffen the two leaders' resolve to fight militancy together or strain already bad relations between Bhutto and the ruling party.

Musharraf won re-election to the presidency in a vote this month by lawmakers that is being challenged in the Supreme Court. If he is confirmed for a new five-year presidential term, Musharraf has promised to quit the military and restore civilian rule.

Bhutto plans to contest parliamentary elections due in January, and has ambitions to win a third term as prime minister.

Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said that he has asked the government to make the election campaign short after consultation with political parties, amid concern that large gatherings could be vulnerable to attacks. Police put Thursday's crowd at 150,000.

Officials at six hospitals in Karachi reported 136 dead and around 250 wounded.

Karachi police chief Azhar Farooqi said that 113 people died, including 20 policemen, and that 300 people were wounded. It was not immediately possible to reconcile the differing death tolls.

Sherpao asserted that authorities had done everything possible to protect the huge gathering of Bhutto supporters marking her return, but noted that electronic jammers fitted to the police escort vehicles were ineffective against a manually detonated bomb.

On the eve of Bhutto's arrival, a provincial government official cited intelligence reports that three suicide bombers linked to Mehsud were in Karachi. The local government had also warned Bhutto could be targeted by Taliban or al-Qaida.

Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, said on Dawn News television that he suspected that "elements sitting within the government" who would lose out if Bhutto returned to power were involved in the attack.

He did not elaborate, though Bhutto has accused conservatives in the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q party and the security services of secretly supporting religious extremists.

But Musharraf's camp sounded conciliatory.

Presidential spokesman Rashid Qureshi said he doubted the attack would deflect Bhutto from her course.

"If someone thinks that by spreading this kind of terror they will stop the political process in Pakistan, I don't think that's correct, I don't think that will happen," Qureshi told the reporters.

Musharraf believes that "all political forces need to combine to face this threat which is basically the major, major issue that faces Pakistan," he said.

In Karachi, which lies in the far south of Pakistan and has been buffeted by militant attacks, schools were closed on Friday and traffic was thin.

Unrest broke out in two districts but did not appear serious. Hundreds of Bhutto supporters hurled stones at vehicles and shops during a funeral procession for two victims, forcing police to cordon off the area. Elsewhere, Bhutto supporters ordered shops to close and burned tires in the road.

Bhutto paved her route back to Pakistan through negotiations with Musharraf that yielded an amnesty covering the corruption charges that made Bhutto leave Pakistan.

Bhutto had brushed off militant threats, dismissing authorities' appeals for her to use a helicopter to travel into Karachi to reduce the risk.

"I am not scared. I am thinking of my mission," she had told reporters on the plane from Dubai.

Ahmed Rashid

The bloody carnage in Karachi has once again plunged Pakistan into a political crisis, raised serious doubts as to whether parliamentary elections can be held in January and deepened the longstanding mistrust between President Pervez Musharraf and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

Within hours of the bomb attack there were a string of accusations and innuendos by members of Ms Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leaders that the government security and intelligence services failed to prevent the blasts.

In response Gen Musharraf condemned the bombing as an attack on democracy.

However, Ms Bhutto had plenty of known enemies which included the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, al-Qa'eda and the coalition provincial government that rules her home province of Sind.

The Pakistani Taliban had directly called for suicide bombers to attack Ms Bhutto on her return.

She has also accused pro-jihadi retired and serving military officers in Gen Musharraf's multiple intelligence agencies of plotting against her.

She had also said that the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) party, which has been the handmaiden of the military regime since 1999, was against her return.

The claims and counter-claims will continue but the bombing may give Gen Musharraf and the ruling PML the excuse to postpone general elections that could bring Ms Bhutto to power.

According to the Constitution, Gen Musharraf has the powers to postpone the elections for up to 12 months.

The PML has long been urging Gen Musharraf to delay the elections so that Ms Bhutto's popular support is whittled down.

Even if elections are held in January as expected, public participation will be minimal in the wake of midnight bomb attack.

Political rallies and demonstrations, public meetings and door to door campaigning by candidates is likely to be heavily curtailed.

Under such circumstances the elections can only be a half-hearted affair and the potential for the military to rig the elections as it did in 2002 will be significant.

Government spokesmen say Ms Bhutto acted recklessly and took unnecessary risks by insisting on leading a 20 mile-long slow-moving convoy from the airport to the centre of Karachi, especially after Gen Musharraf had asked her to postpone her return.

She had also declined a government offer to fly her in a helicopter from the airport to the spot where she was due to hold a political rally.

Ms Bhutto clearly took a calculated risk that cost the lives of 140 people, but she had also put her own life on the line.

After nine years in exile Ms Bhutto felt the need to make her political mark and show the army, the public and the international community that she still has a massive following.

Moreover, she wanted to make her return very different from the abortive return of another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, who was put on a plane and sent off to Saudi Arabia when he landed in Lahore in September.

Police prevented his supporters from rallying at the airport to receive him.

For the US and Britain, which have led efforts to forge a power-sharing deal between Gen Musharraf and Ms Bhutto and to hold free and fair elections, the bombing comes as a severe blow.

Unlike Gen Musharraf and the army who have prevacated on the need to crack down hard on extremism, Ms Bhutto has been clear about the issue from the start.

Her party faithful have backed her on the need to politically isolate the Islamic fundamentalist parties, deal harshly with Islamic extremism, make up with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and settle another insurgency that is taking place in Balochistan by the Baloch tribes who are seeking separation from Pakistan.

Gen Musharraf has refused to seek a national reconciliation between the army, the PML and the myriad opposition parties.

Instead he has successfully divided the opposition, played hard and soft with the extremists and still wants to keep Islamic fundamentalist parties on board with him in any future electoral alliance.

It was hoped that Ms Bhutto's safe arrival, her show of strength and her subsequent dialogue with the military would increase pressure on Gen Musharraf to do the right thing.

Now that looks increasingly unlikely, as Ms Bhutto is forced to cordon herself off under tight security, reduce contact with her supporters and refrain from touring the country as she had planned to do.

The Karachi bombing will also have the indirect result of preventing right-wing politicians from deserting the ruling PML and joining her party as some had planned to do.

Whoever the bombers are, they have sent a clear signal that they will continue to target Ms Bhutto and anyone who is associated with her.

Courtesy: The Telegraph

Staff Reporter

Army Chief General Moeen U Ahmed has said the Army is not playing a policy making role in Bangladesh instead it is helping the Caretaker government to maintain law and order and prepare electoral roll with a view to holding free, fair and credible election.

"We the Army are not governing the country. Like other government bodies, we are just part of the government," he said while exchanging views with journalists at the Bangladesh Consulate office in New York.

Gen Moeen said it is painful that the Bangladesh Army was often equated with the Pakistan Army. He said, "Our Army has been born out of the Liberation War."

Bangladesh Permanent Representative to the UN Ismat Jahan, Consul General M Shamsul Haque, Defence Adviser to the Bangladesh Embassy Brig Gen Nuruzzaman and Defence Adviser of the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the UN Brig Gen Ilyas Iftekhar Rasul were present at the meeting.

Replying to a question, the Army Chief said the government has respect for both Sheikh Hasina, daughter of Bangabandhu and Begum Khaleda Zia, wife of President Zia, who are now in jail on charges of corruption.

"We have no malice against them. They are detained on charges of corruption. It's a matter of law. If they are proved innocent - welcome," he said.

Gen Moeen said the prime goal of the present government is to quickly make the country free from corruption for establishing democracy in the country.

The Army Chief urged all to work for the country from their respective positions. "We must find out good people to lead our nation. We must remove corrupt people from politics, business and from all walks of life for a bright future," he added.

Gen Moeen said establishment of an active and neutral Election Commission and an independent and effective Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) are the major successes of the Caretaker government. Now the government is actively considering the proposal for setting up a truth commission, he added. He said the present government is respectful to public opinion. "It takes into cognisance any mistakes when pointed out. Human rights situation has improved significantly in recent times."

"After completion of my service in the Army, I want to go on retirement peacefully. But I shall continue my efforts for the welfare of the people," Gen Moeen said replying to another question.

He said, "Some people want martial law and even insisting for martial law despite I repeatedly made clear the position of the Army, which, as part of the government, is playing a very important role supplementing the government's efforts for conducting a free, fair and neutral election."

The Election Commission is preparing the voter list speedily with the help of the Army, he said.

"We did not impose martial law, and also not part of the power. We are just doing our duty by helping the government to face natural disasters and eliminate corruption," Gen Moeen said adding that corruption should end for forever as in the past it had destroyed democracy.

Staff Reporter

The Election Commission is yet to decide which faction of the BNP it is going to invite to the dialogue on electoral reforms.

Chief Election Commissioner Dr ATM Shamsul Huda Friday denied some newspaper reports that the Commission has decided to invite BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain for the dialogue.

"I flatly deny the reports… We've not taken any decision whatsoever regarding the invitation to BNP for the dialogue," he told a news agency over telephone.

Replying to a question, the CEC said he did not make any such comments to reporters. The decision regarding BNP would be taken at the full-fledged Commission's meeting after scrutinising the BNP's constitution, he added.

The CEC said the Commission's meeting might take place end of this month or first week of next month, as there is enough time ahead of sitting down with BNP.

"We can't invite both the groups. After scrutinising the BNP constitution concerning expulsion, we will invite one group," he said.

Replying to another question, Dr Huda said the Commission would send invitation letter and working papers 15 days ahead of the BNP's meeting schedule.

Meanwhile, BNP chairperson's adviser Brig Gen (Retd) ASM Hannan Shah Friday hastily welcomed the Chief Election Commissioner's reported decision to invite BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain to the dialogue.

The Election Commission's dialogue with BNP is set for November 22. Confusion was raised over the EC's invitation for dialogue as both Delwar and expelled BNP secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan claimed to be representing mainstream BNP.

CEC Dr ATM Shamsul Huda reportedly stated that the Election Commission examined the BNP constitution and found Khandaker Delwar Hossain as BNP secretary general.

Before being arrested on September 3, BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia in a written order dated September 2 expelled Bhuiyan from the post of secretary general and also primary membership of BNP.

Talking to reporters at his New DOHS house, Hannan Shah said the CEC's decision would discourage those who tried to create confusion among the leaders and workers of BNP.

"We hope, those people will no longer try to stage a makeshift drama against BNP and will refrain from making a duplicate BNP," he said, adding that if any expelled BNP member takes any decision in the name of BNP that would be illegal.

Hannan said certain quarters wanted to mislead BNP to fulfil its own interest. "But people don't go for shopping with obsolete currency."

Referring to Khaleda Zia's pre-arrest remarks and announcement made by the new secretary general, he said BNP's doors are open. If anyone confesses one's fault, one can return to mainstream of BNP.

He said the CEC's remarks proved who are the main BNP.

On dialogue with the Election Commission, Hannan Shah said: "We must know the agenda of the discussion and then we will take decision in consultation at the party forum."

Tania Tun Nur

Domestic violence is still considered a "personal matter" and ignored by the community. Besides, the country does not have an effective domestic violence protection act. As a result Bangladesh ranks 4th highest in violence against women.

Not all violence occurring in the family are reported. For this reason we cannot get the actual figure of the occurrence. But we can assume the prevalence of this syndrome. According to statistics about 61.5 per cent men worldwide consider violence against wives as justifiable. Which shows the mind set about women's position in family.

According to UNFPA, only in Dhaka city 40 per cent women fall victim to domestic violence.

UN Declaration on elimination of violence against women define violence as an act of gender based violence that results likely in physical, sexual or psychological harms or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary depriving of liberty, whether occurring in public place or private life.

Murder by family members, physical assault, dowry violence, acid throwing, battering, deprivation of food and other resources, sexual abuse, rape, emotional abuse and forced marriage are domestic violence, which happened in family every time. These are so normal matters that they are not identified as violence.

Families of victims usually conceal the facts of violence against women due to social taboo against violated women.

The scenario of domestic violence worldwide is 1 in 3 women have been coerced to have sex or have been abused one way or another. Most often the abuser is the family member or known to the women.

In the perspective of Bangladesh this scenario is really horrible. For dowry about 135 women were murdered between January and August 2007. In the year 2006 the total death figure was 259. The occurrences of violence were 334 only for dowry.

The reported violence related incidents in 2006 was 301 but only 106 cases were filed. The data shows that about 201 women were murdered by their husbands and 35 were murdered by the husband's family members.

Murder is an extreme act of violence. In 2005 the rate of women murdered by husband was 71.92 per cent. In 2000 it was 66.09. In 2006 the rate was 70.43 per cent, according to Ain O Salish Kendra.

Sheikh Arif Bulbon

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector in the country is not growing up to the mark, said experts.

According to finding in a survey conducted by Jobs IRIS Bangladesh, the ICT sector has grown approximately 22 per cent in the past two years, while the mobile phone sector alone has witnessed 180 per cent growth for the last one year.

The poor growth in ICT re-emphasises the continued necessity of a highly skilled human resource pool in the ICT sector in the country. Skilled human resources are currently in high demand and short supply. ICT graduates are not gaining the skills required by the private sector. Due to rapid growth and changing nature of the sector, this disparity will increase in the future.

AKM Azad, an ICT expert and Managing Director of Bhuiyan Institute of Technology (BIT), said, "There is a great gap between academic and professional sector. The ICT topics taught widely do not always align with the needs and priorities of private sector. Students learn the requisite theoretical and technical skills but not how and where to apply them.

Career counselling and formal contact with the private sector is either non-existent or too general to be of any benefit to ICT students.

Education in the ICT field is seen as formal and theoretical and as a result it does not convey the private sector."

ICT business in the country is also suffering in the export market as it lacks sufficient human resources.

In October 2002, the Government issued its national ICT policy, which affirmed the importance of the sector and referred to the Prime Minister's designation of ICT as a thrust sector.

"If Bangladesh is to join the ICT revolution, a highly skilled and internationally recognised workforce is the first requirement. Without this, no amount of investment in economic growth activities will have a substantive impact in this country with a population of 150 million where more than half of which is under the age of thirty and a population density of 900 people per square kilometre," said AKM Azad.

ICT directors in all sectors believe that there is a shortage of ICT skills. They stressed on given the local obstacle to the traditional industrial development at a level capable of sustaining such a large population, a focus on the development of a skilled, ICT workforce would allow Bangladesh, both at home and abroad, to literally store on one of its most under utilised resources for its huge population.

Therefore, there are much more benefits of ICT in the country. The use of ICT can enhance production through the easy transfer of new technologies and techniques. It can also help to expand markets by facilitating more targeted end-user research and product development. E-governance can reduce the costs of doing business for private sector actors and enhance confidence among global clients. These are just a few examples of how an enhanced ICT sectors in the country can contribute towards growth in all sectors and positively affect income at all levels.

ICT experts opined that when export firms receive increased and more consistent orders through the benefits of ICT, village worker's income also becomes more secure.

IT education in the country appears to be flourishing, yet the private sector still reports difficulty in identifying qualified employees and lack of ICT personnel hinders the overall progress of e-Governance initiatives. At the same time ICT students are graduating and unable to find employment.

At present, there are over 40 universities and 60 colleges offering ICT courses at the Bachelors and Masters levels in the country. Ten of the 40 universities were surveyed, comprising 25 per cent of the total university population. Sixty percent of the respondents were located in the Dhaka Metropolitan Area, reflecting the fact that the majority of higher educational institutions are situated there.

Staff Reporter

Economists, educationists and representatives from the civil society in the city said any discussion or agreement between the government and international financial institutions must be transparent and accountable to public. Information of the agreement must be available to public through print and electronic media.

Prior to receiving any aid loan, public opinion should be taken into account. Besides, modalities as to how aid money will benefit communities at large should be clearly defined. Prioritised development sectors including the effectiveness of aid should be articulated well and ensured in this regard, the also said.

Aid with conditions by World Bank or IMF should not be accepted anyway. Policies should be formulated on the basis of the advice from the national experts like economists, academia, media and others capitalising on the needs, demands and priorities of primary stakeholders of the concerned communities, they added.

Mindset of 'dependency' should be changed towards a self-reliant country and alternatives should be explored and made operational in this regard. These alternatives include domestic resource mobilisation, internal loan management, combating corruption and prevention of misuse of own resources, speakers said at a civil society dialogue held at National Press Club yesterday.

They said this at the dialogue on 'How Bank and Fund Stand against People - Breaking the cycle of Neo-liberal Hegemony' organised by Voice, working on research campaign and empowerment, on the eve of WB-IMF annual general meeting 2007.

Prof Anu Muhammad, economist, Dr Jafrullah Chowdhury, Chairman of Gonoshasthya Kendra, Dr Piash Karim of Department of Economics and Social Sciences of BRAC University, Dr Melissa Hussain of Department of English of North South University, Zakir Hossain, Coordinator of Nagorik Uddog, among others, spoke at the dialogue, while Ahmed Swapan Mahmud, Executive Director of Voice, presented key-note paper.

Speakers underscored the need for an alternative financial mechanism, South Asian Bank comprising the South Asian governments should be built up based on equal share and under stable partnership. The bank as such could be named as Equity and Development Bank (EDB).

They urged the government to develop independent national economic policy and finally say no to international financial institutions like World Bank, IMF.

A legal framework with the expatriate Bangladeshis should be formulated so that they can provide money to the government as loan, which could be invested for development purposes, they said.

Compensation against the damage caused by projects initiated by international financial institutions should be made to the affected community, they added.