Regional Convention on Criminal Matters will be Delayed
Complicity in war crimes in that conflict are taking on a new life in Bangladesh as Khaleda Zia has won a reprieve
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashbiswaskl@gmail.com">palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
Bangladesh committed to holding free, fair polls: President
Thursday October 25 2007 08:30:11 AM BDT
President Iajuddin Ahmed on Wednesday said Bangladesh is committed to holding the upcoming general ejection in a free, fair and credible manner within the time frame set by the Election Commission.(Bangladesh Today)
He made this remark when the ambassador of the European Commission and Delegation Head Stefan Frowein made a courtesy call on him at Bangabhaban yesterday, said a Bangabhaban press release.
He also invited European Observers to observe the election.
The EC envoy told the President that he is very happy to see the progress of ongoing voter ID card activities and hoped the next general election would be held according the road map announced by the Election Commission.
Welcoming the Ambassador of the European Commission at Bangabhaban, the President thanked him for his sincere cooperation in strengthening relations between Bangladesh and the European countries. Bangladesh attaches great importance to its bilateral relations with the countries of European Union.
He hoped the existing relations would be further strengthened and deepened in the days to come.
The President said the European countries are the important development partners of Bangladesh.
Expressing satisfaction, the President hoped European Commission would play its due role in fostering Bangladeshi's export market to the European Union.
The Ambassador of European Commission officially handed over an invitation letter to the President of Bangladesh to attend the second edition of the European Development Days to be held in Lisbon, the capital city of Portugal, on 7-9 November 2007.
The Ambassador of the European Commission said the issue of Global warming would be discussed in the European Development Days meet.
He requested the President to kindly attend the function saying many world leaders including Heads of State and Government would attend the conference.
Military secretary to the President Major General Mohd Aminul Karim, Secretary Md, Sirajul Islam, Press Secretary Abdul Awal Howlader and concerned officials were present on the occasion.
India says a regional convention on criminal matters will be delayed as Pakistan and Bangladesh have sought more time to study the issue.
"SAARC convention on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters is likely to be further delayed, with Pakistan and Bangladesh seeking more time to study the draft before ratifying it," said Madhukar Gupta, India's interior secretary, at the end of a three-day conference of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.Gupta said the endorsement of the convention may have paved the way for extradition of wanted militant leaders, besides interrogation of criminals in member countries. He said the convention would facilitate the deportation of several hundred criminals who fled across the border to safe sanctuaries in neighboring countries.An Interior Ministry official confirmed that the signing of the convention would have led India to seek the extradition of top officials from the outlawed separatist United Liberation Front of Assam from Bangladesh.
Decades-old allegations of support for Pakistan in its 1971 battle to maintain control of Bangladesh and complicity in war crimes in that conflict are taking on a new life ahead of elections planned for next year.In line with the "roadmap" of the country's army-backed interim government for the polls expected around the end of 2008, the Election Commission has been talking with major political parties on reform plans that include registration of parties.Meanwhile,Bangladesh's fallen prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia has won a reprieve in her battle to clear her name after the country's powerful Anti-Corruption Commission said it had found no evidence to prove at least two allegations against her.Khaleda, in jail facing possible trial for alleged extortion and abuse of power, was investigated by the commission for alleged wrongdoing connected to compensation for fires at a gas field operated by U.S. firm Occidental in 1997 and also for awarding a mining concession without following due procedure.Analysts said the decision would help Khaleda's image, but the commission is still investigating allegations against Khaleda and her rival Sheikh Hasina, another former premier, on other allegations.Khaleda, and her younger son Arafat Rahman, were arrested in September after the commission accused them of illegally influencing the selection of an operator for two state-run container depots in 2003.Khaleda's elder son and apparent political heir, Tareque Rahman, has in jail since March on corruption charges.More than 170 key politicians have been detained in the anti-corruption drive, including dozens of former ministers.
Meanwhile,Bangladesh and India Thursday agreed to exchange information about terrorists as border guard chiefs of the two neighboring countries began talks to discuss host of outstanding issues concerning the common border. Bangladesh and India have 4,200 kms porous border and cross- border crimes, smuggling, killing of civilians and undemarcated boundary frequently trigger unrest between Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) and Indian Border Security Force (BSF).
On the other hand,Biggest ever Yaaba haul: Taka 50 lakh in cash, Tk 5 crore VoIP equipment, Tk 15 crore Yaaba tablets recovered from Gulshan
1,30,000 pieces of contraband Yaaba tablets were recovered, The price of each tablet varies between Tk 250 and 450.
Friday October 26 2007 04:42:16 AM BDT
In the country's biggest-ever haul of drugs, 1,30,000 pieces of contraband Yaaba tablets worth about Tk 15 crore, were recovered in the city and two persons, including the nephew of business magnet Aziz Mohammad Bhai, were arrested yesterday.(New NationBD)
In the 24-hour drive, elite Rapid Action Battalion (RA
members also seized Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) equipment worth about Tk 5 crore, foreign currencies worth about Tk 50 lakhs and a huge quantity of foreign liquor and contraband phensidyl.
According to RAB sources, various kinds of stimulating Yaaba tablets were smuggled into the country for about five years. The price of each tablet varies between Tk 250 and 450.
Children of rich families, businessmen are the main buyers of the tablets.
RAB said, in their continuous drive for eight days, they succeeded in recovering such a huge quantity of the Yaaba tablets, along with Yaaba tablet making equipment, from two city houses in the posh residential area of Gulshan. This was beyond their imagination.
One of the arrested persons was identified as Amin Huda, 36. Huda is also the owner of MB Multicare Technology. Another arrested person was identified as Mohammad Ahsanul Huq Hasan, 34. Both Huda and Hasan are business partners.
The drugs recovered by RAB also included 5,000 Ice pills, alternative to Yaaba tablets, 1 Viagra tablet, 139 bottles of foreign liquor, 132 bottles of phensidyl and 150 Yaaba packets.
RAB said they also recovered Bangladeshi taka 46,01,422, US dollars 1,900, Euro 450, Thai baths 2,500, Hong Kong dollars 100, Saudi Riyals 3, Indian Rupees 125 and two passports.
The seized VoIP equipment, included 818 SIM cards of different mobile operator companies, 3 IPSs, 159 Telulars, 6 CPUs, 15 mobile phones, 1 laptop, 3 monitors, 1 Internet switch, 2 Channel Boxes and various others machineries.
Lt Col Mohammad Yusuf of the RAB Headquarters said they conducted the drives from Wednesday night to Thursday noon. Their operation was followed by the confessional statements of six other persons arrested from Gulshan and Baridhara areas with more than 450 Yaaba tablets in their possession.
He told journalists at the RAB Headquarters, "It was beyond our imagination that miscreants have been doing such big business in this kind of drugs."
Hasan Mahmud Khandakar, Director General (DG) of RAB, termed it as an ominous signal to the young generation and said, "Earlier, Yaaba tablets were smuggled into the country. We are investigating whether it is being made within the country."
The RAB-DG urged the Civil Society and the media to come forward in the fight against Yaaba and save the young generation.
A section of unscrupulous people used to exploit teenagers for making vulgar and pornographic films, he added.
At least nine persons, including three women, were arrested for possessing Yaaba tablets and a large number of pornographic CDs.
Indian BSF Director General A.K. Mitra and BDR Director General Shakil Ahmed are leading their respective sides at the five-day talks that will end up on Oct. 29.
"The talks were held in a cordial atmosphere and agreement and progress were made in a number of subjects," a brief release of the BDR said.
Indian BSF chief Mitra told reporters that some 10 Bangladesh terrorists who are facing trials in Indian state of Kolkata will be deported soon.
Earlier in the day, the two sides discussed a host of outstanding issues, including cross-border smuggling, trespassing, insurgents, demarcation of common borders, installing border pillars and killing of innocent civilians along the border.
The Awami League -- one of Bangladesh's main parties which led the then East Pakistan to independence through the nine-month 1971 war -- has asked the commission not to register any party that sided with or supported the Pakistani army against Bengali nationalists.Many Bangladeshis charge Jamaat-e-Islami, the country's biggest religion-based political party, with opposing independence from Pakistan in 1971 and complicity with the Pakistani army in killings, rape and other alleged atrocities.However, since independence Jamaat has steadily rebuilt itself into a strong political force, and was often courted by other parties for support in elections.
Jamaat always denied war crime charges, and on Thursday Jamaat secretary-general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid said: "Bangladesh has never had any anti-independence elements nor any war criminals."
Mujahid, a minister in the government of former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia, also told reporters after a meeting with the election commissioners that the "demand for not registering any party on religious grounds is illegal and unacceptable".
The Awami League -- the political vehicle of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina -- and its allies want a ban on parties like Jamaat from the coming election.
Allegations of supporting Pakistani forces during Bangladesh's liberation war in 1971 have taken a new turn in the country with many political leaders asking the Election Commission not to register any party that sided with the occupational forces.
Bangladesh's Election Commission initiated crucial talks with political parties for electoral reforms that include registration of parties ahead of the general elections planned for late 2008.
Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), which is castigated for siding with pakistani occupation forces during Bangladesh's liberation war, has denied its role against the independence movement.
"In fact anti-liberation forces never even existed," JI Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid told reporters after talks with Election Commission on electoral reforms here on Thursday.
His comments came amid demands for banning fundamentalist parties from contesting the upcoming polls. Mujahid termed the allegations against JI as "false and ill-motivated" adding the post-independence governments had identified 195 people as war criminals and "all of them were members of the Pakistan army".
According to the 1971 newspaper reports, Mujahid was a leader of JI's student front in the then east Pakistan and Chief of the infamous al Badr Bahini, an auxiliary force of the Pakistani troops, during the liberation war.
The current JI Chief Motiur Rahman Nizami was the Chief of al-Badr, the elite assassination unit comprising JI activists, which is believed to have killed a number of leading academicians, doctors, engineers, journalists and other eminent personalities in December 1971 with a view to leave the nation intellectually crippled.
Since the independence Jamaat had been constitutionally banned in Bangladesh till 1976. Asked about the growing demand for declaring the anti-liberation forces and war criminals disqualified from contesting the elections, the JI Secretary General said, "there is no war criminal in the country now."
"The constitution does not support the demand since Islam is the state religion and 90 per cent of the population are Muslims," he said.
Asked what role his party played during the war, he evaded a direct answer and instead asked the journalists to find it out.
"No-one should give a distorted picture of the past," observed Mujahid, who was minister of former prime minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led four party coalition government.
Chief Election Commissioner Atm Shamsul Huda last month said though the war criminals should have been tried immediately after independence, successive governments did not move to bring them to trial.
Bangladesh's founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had announced a general amnesty to those who opposed the independence movement.
According to available records, the then Pakistani authorities constituted three major para militia forces and special units called Razakar, al-Badr and al-Shams with Bengali-speaking collaborators and Urdu-peaking Biharis who migrated to east Pakistan after the 1947 partition of the Indian sub-continent.
Bangladesh: 25,000 textile workers protest against poor wages
Fri, 26 Oct 2007.
Textile workers are on the move again
Rukhsana Manzoor, Socialist Movement of Pakistan (CWI), Lahore
More than 25,000 textile workers defied a ban on protests in emergency-ruled Bangladesh to demand back pay and bonuses in one of the country’s biggest industrial zones. The workers walked off the job in Tejgoan industrial area in the capital Dhaka and held protests in the streets, forcing the shutdown of most factories in the area. Police used batons to break up the protests and arrested dozens of workers. 50 workers got injuries from police beatings. The authorities also used the notorious Rapid Action Battalion and army personnel to crush the demonstration. After the police action, angry workers smashed the windows and gates of nearly 16 garment factories in the area. The workers then went on to a one-day strike but later put it off after negotiations with authorities.
Slave wages and conditions
Anger is mounting again amongst the textile workers; they receive very low wages and suffer horrific working conditions. While garment exporters are earning billions of dollars every year, workers are getting slave wages. Bangladesh earned $9 billion last year from garment exports, which is 75% of the country’s total exports. Garment exports are booming and big business is making fortunes out of that, but the majority of textile and garment workers are living below the poverty line. Some are even living in absolute poverty without having the basic necessities of life.
The average wage of these workers is around 1500 tikkas ($16) per month. They work 12 to 14 hours a day but still they cannot meet their everyday needs. There are no proper housing, health and education facilities in the industrial areas. More than half of garment workers are women and there is a famous saying among these female workers: “If you are lucky, you will be a prostitute, but if you are unlucky, you will be a textile worker!”. Women workers not only face super-exploitation, horrific conditions, poverty and low wages but also suffer from sexual harassment.
These conditions and low wages forced the workers to come onto the streets last year. Thousands of workers were involved in strikes and violent protests in which eight workers were killed. The angry and desperate workers torched 16 factories and vandalised hundreds more throughout the country. These demonstrations and strikes were called off when government and employers announced a minimum monthly wage of $25.
Promise not kept
Workers waited almost one year for the implementation of the agreement between the government, employers and unions but the employers were not interested in implementing it. The trade unions issued several warnings to the government and employers to implement the agreement but the union leadership was reluctant to call protest action and strikes because the military-backed government has banned all kinds of protests and rallies under the emergency laws. The government said to the unions that it would not tolerate any unrest in the garment sector. But workers lost patience and decided to show their anger at the employers and government.
According to the Garment Workers’ Unity Forum: “We have conducted surveys in the country’s main industrial zones and found that only 20% of the country’s some 4,000 factories have implemented the minimum wage.” The unions say that the situation is very tense and is deteriorating every day. The recent increases in food and commodity prices have even made the minimum wage meaningless.
One leader, Mishu, who led last year’s protests and strikes, said: “We can no longer keep the workers calm. The factory owners are inviting trouble which will hurt them badly. The government is not taking the situation seriously. The anger is like a volcano which can erupt any time.”
This was the biggest protest since the imposition of emergency rule. According to the Dhaka police commissioner, “The matter is not over yet, tension is mounting and we expect more protests and violence in the coming days if the demands of the workers are not met. I have told the authorities that repression will not stop the demonstrations once they have started to take place. This demonstration was a warning and a serious one; this movement is building again. Employers should accept and implement the demands if they want to avoid an unwanted situation.”
Textile workers are on the move again and they are the most militant and important section of the working class. Their radicalisation and successful actions will encourage other sections to start a struggle. They have shown again and again in the last few years that they want to fight against the horrific conditions and want to improve their living conditions.
However, some trade union leaders are not willing to conduct a struggle. They have betrayed many courageous struggles of the workers before. Bangladeshi textile workers need a fighting leadership and democratic unions. The unions and leadership should be independent and free from the influence of any capitalist or pro-capitalist party. Trade unions must organise a general strike to force the government and employers to implement the agreement, which should involve all sections of the working class.
Monks Transferred to Bangladesh Authorities
10/26/2007
Burmese border security forces in western Burma transferred twelve young Bangladeshi monks on Wednesday to Bangladesh Rifles personnel, soon after the monks had arrived in Burma's border town of Maungdaw from Rangoon, reported a Nasaka official from the town.
The monks left for Bangladesh for Rangoon last week as many monasteries had refused to accept them after military authorities pressured many monasteries in the former Burmese capital to not allow any monk students to study in residence.
An abbot from Maungdaw said, "This time Nasaka authorities sent back twelve monks to Bangladesh from the border transportation gate legally, and Nasaka authorities also wrote an official letter to Bangladesh for the monks' safety and security."
A witness said twelve monks arrived at Teknaf jetty opposite Maungdaw at noon on Wednesday.
In the last couple weeks, Nasaka has not assisted monks returning to Bangladesh, but has instead forced monks to travel to Bangladesh illegally via row-boat across the Naff River.
Because the Burmese authorities sent the monks back to Bangladesh via legal means, the monks did not face any problems in returning to their homes in Bangladesh, the abbot said.
According to a local Bangladesh source, all the monks have arrived safely at their homes in the Chittagong Hill Tract area.
About 2,000 Bangladeshi monks, mostly from the Chittagong Hill Tracts, had been studying in monasteries across Burma. The monks from Bangladesh now must return to their home country after they have been refused to study in Burma's monasteries.
U.S.-Bangladesh Joint Air Exercise Begins In Dhaka
'Exercise SUMO TIGER-2007', a week long combined Air Exercise between Bangladesh Air Force (BAF) and the U.S. Marine Forces started at the BAF Base at Kurmitola in the capital, Dhaka on Wednesday.
The aim of the exercise is to develop interoperability between BAF and USMC as well as the BAF capability, local media reported quoting a Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR) press statement on Thursday.
Besides, BAF personnel and 100 U.S. Marine Force personnel are taking part in the exercise being held in Dhaka. Six F-18 one C- 130 aircraft from US and F-7 BG and F-7 MB aircraft from the BAF are being employed in the exercise.
The exercise is designed to develop interoperability between BAF and US Marine Corps, improve cross training and update the air combat procedure of BAF, force mix missions and procedure of BAF and the crash facility rescue procedure of BAF.
The events of the exercise include practice diversion, air interception, force package mission and dissimilar air combat training, the statement said, adding that the two friendly countries have been conducting similar training exercises since 1995.
The 'Exercise SUMO TIGER-2007' is scheduled to conclude on November 1, 2007.
Court issues arrest warrant for Bangladesh former prime minister's sister on extortion charges
A Bangladeshi court Wednesday issued an arrest warrant for former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's sister on extortion charges, a defense lawyer said.
A.B.M. Abdul Fattah, a Metropolitan Magistrate in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, ruled that Sheikh Rehana, Hasina's younger sister, should be arrested on charges of extorting US$441,000 (€309,909) from a businessman during Hasina's 1996-2001 tenure, defense lawyer Kamrul Islam said.
The magistrate also asked the authorities to confiscate Rehana's moveable property, Islam said.
Bangladesh's military-backed interim government has launched a massive crackdown on corruption ahead of elections expected to be held next year.
Rehana lives in London while Hasina has been held since July 16 in a special jail pending trial on charges in the same case.
Rehana was never actively involved in politics but reportedly made her fortune by negotiating government contracts during her sister's term in office.
Businessman Azam J. Chowdhury, Managing Director of Eastcoast Trading Ltd., filed the case against Hasina, Rehana and one of their cousins on June 13, accusing them of taking money in return for giving him permission to set up a power plant. The cousin, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, was a Cabinet minister during Hasina's five-year term. He is also in jail on the same charge, pending trial.
According to the charges, the accused threatened Chowdhury with canceling the project unless he paid them.
Rehana and Hasina have denied the charges, saying they were aimed at tarnishing their image. Selim has also said he was not part of any such deal.
The two sisters are the daughters of independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was killed along with most of his family in a 1975 military coup. The sisters survived because they were abroad that time. They are the last surviving direct members of Rahman's family.
Rehana was declared a "fugitive" in Wednesday's court order, but it was not clear whether the government would seek her extradition from Britain.
Bangladesh, a parliamentary democracy since 1991, is currently ruled by an interim government backed by its influential army.
Since its inception in mid-January, the makeshift government has been carrying out a massive crackdown on corruption and has arrested two former prime ministers along with many other politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen. It came to power through a declaration of a state of emergency after weeks of violent street protests over electoral reforms that left at least 30 people dead and scores injured.
Hasina's archrival, two-time Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, was arrested in September on corruption charges. She has been in jail since Sept. 3 pending trial.
The government has pledged new elections some time between October and December next year.
Bangladesh, an impoverished nation of 144 million people, has been ranked by the Berlin-based corruption watchdog Transparency International as one of the world's most corrupt nations.
Sufferings of people intensify as prices of essentials rise further
Staff Correspondent
The sufferings of the people continue to intensify as the prices of essentials are skyrocketing in the kitchen markets everyday frustrating all the government efforts to contain it.
People belonging to the fixed and low income groups are the worst victims of the price spiral as they are unable to cope with the rising cost of living caused mainly by soaring prices of essentials.
The retailers are selling items at a higher rate defying the chart fixed by the task force and the monitoring by the task force remains inactive.
The prices of onion, rice, atta, vegetables, edible oil have marked a sharp rise in the city's kitchen markets while the price of hilsha has come down sharply.
In most of the cases the retailers were selling their items at excessive prices yesterday defying the directions given by the joint forces at different city markets.
Yesterday, per kg onion was selling at Tk 64 in the city's kitchen markets setting a new record, up by taka 10 per kg just in a span of week.
Price of per kg atta was selling at Tk 38 taka which set up a new record, up by Tk 3 per kg, just in a span of week.
Besides, the price of green chili also went up by Tk 40 per kg, as it was selling at 120 taka per Kg.
When this correspondent visited different kitchen markets, Iqbal Hossain, a consumer said, "The government should take stern action against the businessmen as their business syndicates are mainly responsible for the price hike of daily necessities".
Meanwhile, some retailers said in the coming days the prices of onion, rice and edible oil would rise further as prices of these items in the international markets has gone up and besides our neighboring country India is not exporting these items to Bangladesh at present.
The prices of pulse, broiler chicken, beefs remained stable while prices of fishes like hilsha, ruhi marked a sharp fall. Yesterday hilsha was selling at Tk 200 per kg.
On Friday, coarse rice was selling at Tk 23-24 per kg, fine quality najirshail at Tk 30-34, miniket at Tk 32, imported onion at Tk 56, local lentil at Tk 80, imported lentil at Tk 76, flour at Tk 38 per kg and soybean oil at Tk 85 per litre.
Prices of most of the items of vegetables marked a sharp rise. Potato was selling at Tk 22, patal at Tk 30, cucumber at Tk 30 and tomato at Tk 70, kakrol at Tk 24 .
It is surprising that the prices of vegetables are rising abnormally at a time when winter vegetables have started arriving in the markets.
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Political leaders demand trial of war criminals, ban on Jamaat politics
Staff Correspondent
Leaders of different political parties sharply reacted to the Jamaat secretary general's claim that there is no war criminal in the country and termed it false. They also demanded trial and punishment of war criminals and ban on political activities of Jamaat.
While talking to newsmen after a dialogue with the Election Commission on the electoral reforms, Jamaat Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid on Thursday claimed that there was and there is no war criminal or anti-liberation force in the country.
Discarding the claim, the leaders of different political parties including Awami League, said there were war criminals who worked against the Liberation War in 1971.
In an instant reaction, AL acting president Zillur Rahman on Thursday said, "It's is a history that war criminals killed 30 lakh people during the liberation war in 1971".
Communist Party of Bangladesh (CP General Secretary Mujahidul Islam Salim told The Bangladesh Today on Friday that the Jamaat leaders, who were the collaborators of Pakistani forces, are the war criminals.
Still they are committing crimes against the people as well as the country, the CPB general secretary alleged.
Talking to this correspondent, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) president Hasanul Haq Inu termed the Jamaat leader's claim false and said Jamaat leaders have told an utter lie in public, which is a denial of the history of Liberation War.
During the war in 1971 War, Golam Azam, Motiur Rahman Nizami, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and many others supported Pakistan forces and worked against the liberation of the country, he mentioned.
They were also involved in serious crimes like mass killing, torturing and raping the women, the JSD president alleged.
After Bangladesh came into being, the governments pardoned collaborators but not the war criminals, Inu added.
BNP's expelled secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan in his reaction said there were war criminals, rajakars, al badar and al Shams during the liberation war.
The governments that came to power after the liberation war did not identify the war criminals and bring them to justice, Bhuiyan said adding all the governments forgave the war criminals.
Asked whether an electoral alliance can be formed with Jamaat, the expelled secretary general said an alliance for election purpose can be formed with any political party.
Ekattorer Ghatok Dalal Nirmul Committee and South Asian People's Union against Fundamentalism and Communalism in a press release condemned the claim of Mujahid.
Pakistani evil forces in collaboration with Jammati-e-Islami, Muslim League and Nejami Islam killed around 30 lakh unarmed people and brutally tortured around two lakh women, the press release says.
UNB adds: Dhaka City Awami League on Friday strongly protested Thursday's remarks by Jamaat secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid that they did not work against the liberation war in 1971.
Mujahid also claimed that there is no war criminal in the country.
In a statement, AL Dhaka City unit AL acting general secretary Advocate Kamrul Islam said Jamaat was directly involved in all the massacres, women repression and looting in 1971.
"Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid himself is a war criminal. No mercy for the war criminals," Kamrul said vowing to continue their fight against the war criminals until they are tried.
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Prices of fuel oil, power, gas not to be raised right now: BB governor
Staff Correspondent
The government is not thinking of raising prices of petroleum products and power right now considering the current economic condition.
"The donor agencies were told categorically that the government doest not contemplate to adjust gas, fuel oil and power prices taking into account plight of general consumers," Bangladesh Bank (B governor Saleh Uddin Ahmed told reporters at the Zia international airport after returning from Washington on Friday.
He attended there the three-day annual meeting of World Bank and International Monetary Fund that began on October 20 on present global economic scenario and soaring oil price hike in the international market.
"The time is not ripe for raising the price. The government will adjust the prices when favourable time will prevail," he said. "This time they did not insist on raising the prices of fuel oil and power, he added.
BB governor noted that the fast and foremost task of Bangladesh at this moment is to increase agro-production and to create employment opportunities in a bid to accelerate growth as part of post-flood rehabilitation programme. He underlined the need for ensuring supply side by increased import for containing the price hike of essentials.
