The New Nation - Internet Edition

UN appeal to parties: Demonstrate responsibility, honour people’s will

Head of visiting UN High Level Panel Francese
Vendrell speaking at a press conference on the parliamentary
elections at Sonargaon Hotel in the city on Saturday.
FocusBangla

UNB, Dhaka

UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon appealed to political parties in Bangladesh to demonstrate responsibility, participate fully in December 29 election and honour people's will, as the stage is now set for the polls amid an air of doubts and dithering still persisting.

He also encouraged the caretaker government and the election commission to continue their efforts to ensure that the elections are conducted in a free and fair atmosphere.

"The Secretary General wishes to stress that a stable post-election climate will be vital for the effectiveness and sustainability of the nation's democracy," Ban said in a statement read out by Francesc Vendrell, Head of UN High-Level Panel, at a press briefing at Sonargaon Hotel.

Vendrel, former UN Assistant Secretary General, said Ban also urged all political parties, irrespective of their performance in the elections, to work together in a spirit of dialogue and compromise to address the challenges facing the nation.

"Such cooperation should include an enhanced role for the opposition in parliament," noted the chief executive of the United Nations, apparently in view of the past problems that led to the stalling of the democratic process in January last year following a military-backed changeover.

The 3-member High-Level Panel was dispatched by the UN secretary general to assess the ground situation during and after the elections. Two other members are Bhojraj Pokharel, Chief Election Commissioner of Nepal, and Ms. Aracelly Santana, Former Deputy Director of the UN Electoral Assistance Division.

The High-Level Panel will report to the Secretary-General on the conduct of the electoral process and developments in the immediate post-election period.

Asked why the Secretary General considers the December 29 elections as "highly significant", Vendrel said it's because the parliament elections are being held after seven years and secondly the country has been under unelected government for the last two years.

In reply to another question, he said he has no reason to fear that there will be violence during and after the elections.

People of Bangladesh, the UN emissary noted, have been waiting for a democratically elected government and all parties should honour the people's will.

Sri Lanka take upperhand

Shakib Al Hasan (extreme right) reacts after
dismissal of a Sri Lankan batsman during the second day's
play of the first Test between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka at
the Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Saturday.
Banglar Chokh

Sports Reporter

The visiting Sri Lanka took the upper hand on the second day of the first Test of the Grameenphone Test Series when they piled up a satisfactory 293 in the first innings against Bangladesh

at the Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Saturday.

In reply, Bangladesh are tottering at 177 for the loss of nine wickets before the bails were drawn for the second day.

Bangladesh lost their wickets in regular intervals as Muttiah Muralitharan, the wizard spinner played the key role to cut short the Bangladesh innings.

Muralitharan bowled a devastating spell and completed as 21-8-48-5.

Imrul Kayes, Zunaed Siddique, Mehrab Hossain (Junior) and Shakib Al Hasan were the notable batsmen for Bangladesh who were able to make modest scores against the tight bowling of Sri Lanka.

Imrul Kayes, the opening batsmen top-scored with 33 facing 53 balls. He sent the ball six times across the ropes in his 79-minute innings before he was caught behind by Prasanna Jayawardene off Chaminda Vaas, the medium pacer.

Earlier, Muralitharan gave his team early breakthrough as he removed opener Tamim Iqbal for 17 runs.

Then, Chaminda Vaas again got success when he removed Mohammad Ashraful, the skipper of Bangladesh.

Ashraful was caught at the cover by TM Dilshan scoring only 12.

Muralitharan cleanly bowled Zunaed Siddique for 29.

Dhamikka Prasad, the other medium pacer then bowled Raqibul Hasan for 11 when the team's total was 117 for the loss of five wickets.

Fourth-down Mehrab Hossain and Number seven tried to resist Lankan bowling attack as they contributed 41 runs in the sixth wicket stand.

It is record-breaking sixth wicket partnership for Bangladesh in their Test campaign so far.

Spinner Rangana Herath dismissed Mehrab for 29 as Mehrab was caught at the first slip by Mahela Jayawardene when the board was showing a reading of 158 for the loss of six wickets.

After that Muralitharan removed Shakib for 26. Shakib Al Hasan, the day's most successful bowler got two wickets on the second day and finished a superb spell as 28.4-4-70-5.

Muralitharan trapped lbw Mashrafe Bin Mortaza for a duck. Shahadat Hossain was his last victim for the second day as Shahadat was stumped by Prasanna Jayawardene for just five.

Earlier, Sri Lanka resumed their first innings with the overnight score of 172 for the loss of six wickets and then the touring side adding more 121 runs on the second day's play.

Thilan Samaraweera salvaged his team making a splendid 90 off 141 balls. His 240-minute innings was studded with 13 strokes through the fence.

Shahadat Hossain and Mashrafe Bin Mortaza scalped two each giving away 55 and 67 runs respectively.

Israel planes pound Gaza, 140 reported killed

Reuters, Gaza

Israeli war planes and combat helicopters pounded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip yesterday, killing at least 140 people and prompting rocket fire from Palestinian militants that killed an Israeli, medics said.

The dead and wounded lay scattered on the ground following the Israeli attacks, which destroyed several Hamas police compounds in the bloodiest day for Palestinians in more than 20 years. Distraught rescuers cried out as they tried to find those still alive and black smoke billowed over Gaza city. The Israeli military said it had targeted "terrorist infrastructure" and pledged more strikes if necessary, possibly targeting leaders of the Hamas Islamist militant group.

Hamas threatened to unleash "hell" to avenge the dead, including possible suicide bombings, and militants fired rockets into southern Israel soon after the Israeli strikes. Medics said one Israeli was killed and two were moderately wounded.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned as "criminal" the Israeli air campaign and called for the international community to intervene.

Hospital officials in Gaza City said more than 120 people had been killed there, including 40 at a police headquarters where Hamas was hosting a graduation ceremony for new recruits. Among those killed was police chief Tawfiq Jabber.

Another 23 Palestinians were killed in air strikes in Khan Younis and Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, medical officials said. At one site, there was a huge crater in the ground.

Uniformed bodies lay in a pile and the wounded writhed in pain, Reuters television pictures showed. Rescuers carried those showing signs of life to cars and ambulances, while others tried to revive the unconscious.

An Israeli army spokesman said the air force had conducted "a massive operation" against "terrorist infrastructure" following the collapse of a six-month-old, Egyptian-brokered ceasefire just over a week ago.

Gaza militants have fired dozens of makeshift rockets at southern Israel in recent days. The rockets cause damage but few injuries.

Hamas armed wing spokesman Abu Ubaida threatened to unleash "hell" on Israel, saying the Islamist group would "teach the enemy a lesson they will never forget." Hamas said it was considering a new suicide bombing campaign.

An aide to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel was prepared to step up its assault "as required." Several of the rescuers beat their heads and shouted: "Allahu akbar (God is greatest)." One badly wounded prostrate man was quietly reciting verses from the Koran.

A five-day Israeli offensive in March killed more than 120 people, but Saturday's death toll would be the highest for Palestinians since their 1980s uprising.

Witnesses said the attacks were carried out by warplanes and combat helicopters.

Witnesses also reported seeing Israeli planes bombing sites along Gaza's border with Egypt. Palestinians use hundreds of tunnels under the border to bring in everything from goods to weapons, making them prime Israeli targets.

The air strikes followed a decision by Israeli Prime Minister Edud Olmert's security cabinet to widen reprisals for cross-border Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel. Olmert had warned Hamas, which seized control of the coastal enclave in June 2007, to stop firing rockets or pay a heavy price.

"I will not hesitate to use Israel's might to strike Hamas and (Islamic) Jihad," he told Al Arabiya television, an Arab broadcaster widely watched in Gaza.

Drugs export decline blamed on lack of support

Staff Reporter

Earnings from pharmaceuticals export have reduced drastically in the recent months, as the sector is not getting necessary assistance from the government, stakeholders say.

During the July-October period of the present fiscal year 2008-09, earnings from the sector declined by 3.74 per cent compared to the same period of the previous year. The earning was 23.27 per cent less then the strategic export target. Pharmaceuticals worth US$13.12 million were exported during the period.

Sources said at present Bangladesh export drugs to 68 different countries. Before announcing the drug policy in 1992 the Bangladesh drug market size was Tk 173 crore. Foreign companies were supplying as much as 75 per cent drug that time while the local companies supplied the rest 25 per cent.

The announcement of drug policy has helped the local companies to capture the major part of Bangladesh market. Some high tech drugs are being imported to meet the local demand.

Adviser of Bangladesh Aushad Shilpa Samity Dr Momenul Haq yesterday told The New Nation that he noticed the export fall during the last six months. "During first six months of the calendar year export volume was at satisfactory level but after that it started to decline."

Sector leaders said the decision of acquiring 300 acres of land near Meghna Bridge for establishing effluent treatment plant and dumping yard for pharmaceuticals sector is yet to get shape.

Besides, Bangladesh couldn't utilise the opportunity given by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) regarding production of patented drugs due to the bureaucratic red tape. In the mean-time nearly 3 years have passed but Bangladesh couldn't utilise the opportunity of rising export by three folds.

President of Bangladesh Aushad Shilpa Samity SM Shafiuzzaman earlier said bureaucratic red tape has held the establishment of API industrial park that was aimed at producting raw materials of pharmaceutical industry. This also made establishment of a quality control laboratory for the sector uncertain, he said.

According to him almost the entire raw materials for the sector comes from abroad. Those come from USA, Canada, Italy, China, Japan and neighbouring India. Twenty to thirty per cent raw materials are locally produced.

Pakistan ready to repel aggression

Reuters, Islamabad

Pakistan will not act first in any face-off with India but is prepared to defend itself from aggression, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said yesterday.

Relations between the nuclear-armed rivals have deteriorated sharply after India blamed Islamist militants based in Pakistan for the last month's attacks on Mumbai that killed 179 people.

In a sign of mounting tension, Pakistan has canceled army leave and shifted some troops from its western border with Afghanistan to the eastern border with India.

That is likely to cause alarm in the United States which does not want to see Pakistan distracted from the battle against al Qaeda and Taliban militants on the Afghan border.

The United States has urged both sides not to further raise tension. China and Iran have also tried to calm things down.

Gilani said Pakistan did not want war but was ready for one.

"Our friends are trying their best to persuade India so as to avoid aggression t to avoid any sort of misadventure," he told Muslim diplomats at a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the murder of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

"But at the same time, our armed forces are highly professional. They are fully prepared but at the same time I assure you, once again, that we will not act. We will only react," Gilani said.

India, the United States and Britain have blamed the Mumbai attack on Pakistan-based Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, set up to fight Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir region.

India's junior foreign minister Anand Sharma said Pakistan should take stern action against those responsible.

"The war-mongering by Pakistan is unwarranted and irresponsible," Sharma told reporters.

Pakistan has condemned the attacks and has denied any state role, blaming "non-state actors." It has offered to cooperate with India but denies Indian claims that it has been handed firm evidence of links to militants in Pakistan.

The foreign ministry in New Delhi warned Indian citizens it would be unsafe to travel to, or be in, Pakistan.

A bus service between the Indian capital and the Pakistani city of Lahore was still running on Saturday despite the warning.

The South Asian neighbors both tested nuclear weapons in 1998. They have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947 and came to the brink of a fourth after gunmen attacked the Indian parliament in December 2001.

Although many analysts say war is very unlikely, international unease is growing.

"I think it's more brittle perhaps but I don't know that it's actually going to translate into a war," said Indian strategic security analyst C. Uday Bhaskar.

"The point that India is trying to make is that we do not in any way threaten the territorial integrity of Pakistan," he said.

He said India's travel warning should be seen in a limited context and there had been no confirmed troop movements in India.

Pakistan media reported that several Indian nationals had been held in the last two days after a bombing in the Pakistani city of Lahore.

Earlier, Indian police said they had arrested three militants, including a Pakistani soldier, for allegedly plotting a suicide attack in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Pakistan denied that the arrested man was a serving soldier.

On Friday, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh discussed the tension with Pakistan during a scheduled meeting with chiefs of the army, navy and air force, his office said.

Indian media continued its blanket coverage of the crisis, with the Hindustan Times newspaper running a front-page headline: "Pak army on the march."

"Whipping up war hysteria is Pakistan's way of deflecting attention from its responsibility to act against the perpetrators of 26/11 or to address informed concerns that there may have been institutional support for the terrorists," The Indian Express said in an editorial, referring to the Mumbai attacks.

Curtain drawn on poll campaign a Barisal division

Barisal Correspondent

Curtain has been drawn on hustings at all places in Barisal Division as other parts of the country at midnight yesterday in connection with the much awaited Monday's parliamentary elections.

Showdown of the Awami League led grand alliance and BNP led four-party alliance in Barisal city at different times marked the end of the month-long hectic election campaign across the division.

The election campaign by all political parties and independents was remarkably peaceful everywhere in the division this time. No major untoward incident was reported from any place of this region.

Female and young voters who constitute more than 60 percent of the voters in the division are likely to be dominant factor in the victory of the candidates representing the two major alliances, according to observers.

The nominees of the four-party alliance bagged 19 seats out of total 23 in the

2001 election.

This year the number of seats has been reduced to 21 due to delimitation of constituencies.

Many of the observers are of the view that the results of the polls may be somewhat different this time. The candidates of the grand alliance are seemingly ahead in ten constituencies while the four-party nominees appear to be in a comfortable position in six constituencies. Neck to neck fight is likely in five other constituencies, they say.

The verdict of the people will be finally known on the election day.People are awaiting the results anxiously with their fingers crossed.

Meanwhile, the local administration has completed all preparations for the peaceful holding of the election.

A three-tier security measures have been taken for this purpose,said Khan Sayeed Hassan,Deputy Inspector General of Police, Barisal range.

Some 28,392 members of the law enforcing agencies will be deployed at the polling centres and other places across the division to maintain law and order.

Movement of all mechanized road and water transports will be restricted on the local routes on the election day, officials said.

Mahmudur Rahman accused of making bid to rig votes: 4-party using militants in electioneering: AL

UNB, Dhaka

Awami League yesterday alleged that Amar Desh Publications Chairman and former Energy Adviser Mahmudur Rahman in connivance with a deputy secretary of BG Press have trained up some 100 people on making fake ballot papers to use those in Monday's polls.

Awami League further alleged that members of some banned militant outfits, including JMB, Harkatul Jihad and Hijbut Tahrir, are now conducting election campaign for the BNP-Jamaat candidates. "We've come to know that Mahmudur Rahman and a deputy secretary of BG (Bangladesh Government) Press who also acted as the personal secretary to Jamaat secretary Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and two former IGPs have trained up some 100 workers of BNP-Jamaat on making fake ballot papers and techniques of vote rigging," AL Election Steering Committee cochairman HT Imam said.

Addressing a press conference at the AL Media Centre in the afternoon, HT Imam said the Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) of Lalmonirhat Sadar has already been withdrawn for his alleged involvement in the process of vote rigging.

Awami League president Sheikh Hasina's press secretary Abul Kalam Azad were, among others, present at the press conference.

He said the "vested quarter" has collected samples of ballot papers from the government-controlled press to make the election engineering.

HT Imam also alleged that efforts are on to hide the news and information about making fake ballot papers. "We're urging the Election Commission to take immediate actions against those involved in the election engineering," he said.

HT Imam, however, could not say the name of the deputy secretary, former IGPs and the place and time of giving the training for making false ballot papers.

About the involvement of militants in the electioneering for the 4-party alliance, he said the outlaws are mainly working in the constituencies where Jamaat candidates are contesting in the polls.

"You (journalists) know that former Ameer of Habiganj district Jamaat Maulana Saidur Rahman has become the new boss of Jam'atul Mujaheedin Bangladesh (JMB). He is operating the JMB men from a secret place to intimidate the religious and ethnic minorities ahead of the polls," he said.

The eight militants arrested in Gaibandha have already confessed that they were working to influence the polls in favor of the 4-Party alliance, HT Imam said.

He reiterated their allegation that a group of former bureaucrats is on the fields and they are putting pressure on the returning officers, assistant returning officers and police officers and alluring them to work for the 4-party coalition.

Imam again asked the Election Commission to exclude Democracy Watch, Adhiker and Khan Foundation from the list of election observes for their biased records.

He requested the foreign election observers to keep sharp eyes especially on the country's remote and impoverished areas, and the areas where ethnic and religious minorities are living in good number.

Imam informed the journalists that minorities in Khulna, Narail, Bagerhat and Bhola districts are being intimidated not to vote for 'Boat', the election symbol of Awami League.

He also alleged that the 4-party alliance candidates in Chittagong-8, Sylhet-5, Patuakhali-2, Sherpur-2, Satkhira-1 and Satkhira-2 are using arms and money to influence the voters.

Imam said the Election Commission has been informed about all the incidents of the code of conduct violation and the EC is taking necessary steps following the allegations.

Hossain Zillur foresees impartial polls on Dec 29

Staff Reporter

Education and Commerce Adviser Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman yesterday said the government now stands on the threshold line of election super highway dispelling all sorts of doubt.

He was talking to reporters on the sideline of two -daylong biennial meeting of the 4th BSME-ASME International Conference on Thermal Engineering at LGED auditorium. The Bangladesh Society of Mechanical Engineers (BSME) organised the conference.

He congratulated the diplomats, political leaders and voters to support the government activities to bring the election process to its present logical conclusion.

He expressed the hope that the election will be held freely, fairly and credibly on December 29.

"Bangladesh will be a model of 'developing democracy' after the election, he noted.

He pointed out that Election Commission and the law-enforcing agencies are now on full alert to foil any attempt to disrupt the election process.

Asked when the government will sit with the Awami League President Shiekh Hasian and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, Education Adviser said it is just a matter of time. Media will be informed ahead of the dialogue with the two leaders, he formed.

Dr Zillur laid emphasis on the higher education and research as a tool of economic growth. With this end in view the caretaker government allocated adequate fund to these two sectors, he added.

He called upon the members of professional bodies to strive for achieving excellence in their respective fields for building up a knowledge-based future of Bangladesh.

Researchers from 11 countries including USA, Japan, Australia, Iran, India are participating in the conference.

BSME Secretary General Prof M Imtiaz Hossain, Prof AKM Sadrul Islam, representative of American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), former vice-president of ASME addressed the inaugural session of the biannual election while BSME President Prof MH Khan chaired on the occasion.