Saturday • December 23, 2006

N A T I O N A L  N E W S

AL discusses election and movement issues with alliance partners

H M Ershad meets Sheikh Hasina

Awami League has started holding discussion with Jatiya Party, LDP-led Jatiya Oikya Front and components of 14-party including Gono Forum and Workers Party since Thursday night on sharing of parliamentary seats among the parties of the grand alliance and a formal announcement about its decision to boycott or contest the upcoming general election is likely to be made in a day.

As part of the discussion on sharing of seats, Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad held a meeting with Awami League President Sheikh Hasina at her Sudhasadan residence on Friday morning.

Awami League (AL) also held a meeting with Jatiya Oikya Front comprising Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Tarikat Federation and Jatiyo Oikya Manch at the Gulshan residence of party General Secretary Abdul Jalil yesterday.

Gono Forum and Workers Party of Bangladesh also held meetings separately with Awami League leaders on Thursday night.

After invitation for a cup of tea by Sheikh Hasina, the former President Ershad came to Sheikh Hasina's Sudhasadan residence at about 8.45 am and held a two-hour long parley on election preparation, seat sharing and the ongoing movement.

As soon as the meeting was over, HM Ershad along with his party presidium member Barrister Anisul Islam Mahmud left the place at about 11 am.

Talking to the newsmen at Sudhasadan, Abdul Jalil said issues relating to the sharing of parliamentary seats among the parties to the grand alliance, the current political situation, the ongoing movement of the 14-party combine and its allies were discussed.

On Friday afternoon, a delegation of Jatiya Oikya Front led by LDP leader Major (Rtd) Abdul Mannan held a meeting and discussed various important issues including seat sharing and election with Awami League at Jalil's Gulshan residence.

Emerging from the meeting, Awami League leader Qazi Zafrullah told the waiting journalists that the overall political situation, seat sharing and election issues were discussed.

Fresh Program today

14-party alliance to continue movement

The 14-party alliance on Friday night declared they would continue their movement until their demands are met and finalize their next course of agitation program (Saturday).

"We'll announce the final agitation program today after talks in the Awami League Presidium, 14-party alliance meeting and with other partners in the grand alliance," Awami League General Secretary Abdul Jalil told reporters after a meeting of the 14-party alliance at his Gulshan residence.

"There'll be no election in the country without a flawless voter list... our movement will continue," he said, adding that President and Chief Advisor Prof. Iajuddin Ahmed will be responsible if the country heads towards any unavoidable conflicts and destruction.

"Please, implement the package proposal... don't push the country towards any unavoidable destruction," he urged the President.

He demanded full cancellation of the election schedule, preparation of a flawless voter list and then announcement of a fresh poll schedule.

Shootout at Abbas' House

Police probe starts after 5 days as Khokon files GD

After five days of inactivity, police yesterday started investigation into the mysterious shootout at Mirza Abbas' residence in which Abbas' sister-in-law Masuda Akram was shot.

Both Abbas' family and the police made all out efforts to hide the incident that took place on December18.

Masuda's husband Mirza Khokon, also the younger brother of former housing and public works minister Mirza Abbas, filed a general diary (GD) with Motijheel Police Station yesterday.

Some neighbours of Mirza Abbas alleged that police and the family took five days to set a plot to hide the fact.

Now police will stage the drama only, said a neighbour seeking anonymity.

In the GD, Khokon mentioned that his wife suffered bullet wound as his pistol misfired when he was checking the lock, which got stuck.

Admitting Khokon's filing a GD yesterday, Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Motijheel Police Station Ainul Haq said he filed a GD in this connection on the day of the incident, but he did not disclose it.

The OC said he quizzed Mirza Khokon earlier on Thursday night and seized one licensed pistol, 49 bullets and one bullet shell from Khokon's Shahjahanpur residence.

He said Khokon's statement to them was similar to that he mentioned in the GD.

Asked why he did not arrest Khokon, the OC said no one filed a complaint with the police and the police high-ups did not direct him to arrest Khokon.

The OC said he went to Apollo Hospital yesterday to talk to Masuda, but he could not.

The Daily Star, December 23, 2006

Human rights body paints grim picture of Asia

As Asia enters 2007, its people are distressed and angry over growing human rights abuses in the region where anybody could be arrested anytime without any valid reason.

"This is the grim picture of Asia as it approaches 2007," says a report titled "The State of Human Rights in Eleven Asian Nations" released by the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) on Thursday.

It says people are distressed over extra-judicial killings, disappearances and torture; angry at the misuse of anti-terrorism laws; frustrated over rampant corruption; restless over curbs on their freedom of expression and feel let down by the ineffectiveness of parliaments, judiciary and the police.

The report chronicles the human rights situation in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand in 2006.

In Bangladesh, arbitrary arrests -- anyone, anywhere, anytime, any excuse -- is among the most common features of policing in the country.

"It is routinely accompanied by assault and extortion, and also leads to torture, killing and other grave abuses of the arrested person and others," the report said.

Citing special security laws, the report said a hapless ordinary pedestrian may end up in jail for months simply for crossing the road at the wrong time and in the wrong place: namely, where police were present.

Basil Fernando, executive director of AHRC, said extra-judicial killings, often called encounter killings where police shoot down alleged criminals, has been one of the biggest sources of human rights abuses in these countries.

"The right to life in terms of respect for due processes have given way to a very direct form of eliminating people without the normal processes of going through courts," Fernando told Reuters by telephone from his office in Hong Kong.

The Daily Star, December 23, 2006

No allegation of sedition as IO finds no evidence

Charges pressed against top lawyers for SC vandalism

Investigators of the November 30 vandalism on the Supreme Court (SC) premises yesterday pressed charges against 13 people including eminent jurists Dr Kamal Hossain, Barrister Rokanuddin Mahmud and Barrister Amir-Ul-Islam.

Though the complainant of the case accused them of sedition, no such charge was brought in the charge sheet as the investigation officer (IO) found no evidence of sedition.

The other accused in the charge sheet are former Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) secretary Advocate Enayetur Rahim, former SCBA vice president Advocate Subrata Chowdhury, Barrister Tania Amir and advocates Sheikh Awsafur Rahman, Subrata Saha, Khairuzzaman Tipu, hasruzzaman, Mamun Mahbub and Suhrawardy and Habibur Rahman, an outsider.

Inspector Naimur Rahman of Detective Branch (DB), also IO of the case, submitted the charge sheet to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's (CMM) Court, Dhaka, showing 30 people as prosecution witnesses.

The charges were brought under sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 447 (criminal trespass), 448 (house-trespass), 427 (mischief), 435 (mischief by fire), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 114 (abetment) of the Bangladesh Penal Code.

Barrister Omar Sadat, son-in-law of BNP leader and former minister Shahjahan Siraj, filed the criminal case with the CMM's Court on December 4 naming four lawyers and against 50 to 60 other unidentified lawyers and others for vandalising the offices of the chief justice and attorney general, and also for disturbing court proceedings on November 30.

Those named in the complaint are Rokanuddin Mahmud, Enayetur Rahim, Subrata Chowdhury and Sheikh Awsafur Rahman.

The SCBA also investigated the incident but did not find involvement of any lawyers. An eight-member SCBA probe body in its report on December 18 said they talked to 120 SC staff, lawyers and witnesses. But none of them said any lawyer was involved in the vandalism, the report added.

In his complaint, Omar Sadat said Rokan asked the accused lawyers and outsiders to vandalize the chief justice's chamber, courtrooms and other public property, and also to threaten the attorney general.

Metropolitan Magistrate ABM Abdul Fattah later recorded statement of the complainant and directed Shahbagh police to investigate the allegations and register an FIR if those are found true.

On investigation as per the court directive, Shahbagh police registered the complaint as an FIR on December 5.

The vandalism on the SC premises took place after chief justice stayed the proceedings of three writ petitions minutes before a High Court bench was about to issue a rule on a writ challenging the legality of the president's takeover as chief adviser to the caretaker government.

Leaders of the 14-party alliance and other political parties filed the writ petitions which also challenged the chief adviser's activities, and announcement of the schedule for the next general election.

The IO said prosecution witnesses saw outsider Habibur Rahman torching the vehicle of the former state minister for law parked on the SC premises.

Sources said a former state minister, complainant of the case Sadat and another BNP leader monitored the whole process of preparing and submitting the charges. And they dictated the police involved in the investigation about who are to be charge-sheeted.

The three BNP leaders on Thursday went to Hawa Bhaban, BNP's Banani office, with a draft copy of the charge sheet, the sources said, seeking anonymity.

Reaction

Eminent lawyer Barrister Rafiq-ul-Haq told The Daily Star last night that filing of the case and submission of charge sheet are politically motivated and have malafide intention behind.

None of the accused lawyers were present on the spot when the incidents took place, he said.

Dr M Zahir, another renowned lawyer, said, " The case has caused a great setback to the unity we had in the SC Bar... I do not believe that such prominent lawyers committed such offence."

President of the SCBA and an accused in the case Amir-Ul-Islam said it is definitely a politically motivated case, and an attack on freedom of the Bar. "I think a vested quarter is persistently trying to destroy the independence of the judiciary," he said.

Replying to a question, he said he was briefing journalists at his SCBA office room at the time of the incident.

The Daily Star, December 23, 2006

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