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Residents living on Sher Shah Shuri Road in Mohammadpur on Friday demanded the judicial inquiry into the killing of Iqbal Hossain Masum, a student of Jagannath University, who was killed in ‘crossfire’ on July 9.
   They arranged milad mahfils at most of the local mosques after juma and asr prayers, and demanded the judicial inquiry into the killing of Masum.
   Renu Ara Begum, mother of the victim, requested the prime minister to form a judicial inquiry committee, headed by a High Court judge, to unearth the reasons behind the death of her son.
   ‘The police did not only kill my innocent son, but also termed him criminal which extremely shocked us.’
   The plainclothes police picked up Masum from a family programme on July 8 and his relatives found the body at Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue the following day.
   The police ultimately said Masum died in ‘crossfire’ with the crime-bursting force Cheetah, a special wing of Detective Branch of police, at Rayer Bazar on July 9.
   Referring to the statement of Alamgir Mallik, arrested in connection with the double murder on the Dhaka University campus in 2003, the police said six people, including Mallik and Masum, were involved in four murders.
   But his statement raised doubts as he could not even mention the full name of Masum.
   Before the departure for Kuwait on Friday morning, Neela Khandakar, elder sister of Masum, demanded the punishment for her brother’s killers.
   The members of the departmental inquiry committee are yet to visit Masum’s residence or talk with his family members till Friday night.

Work on the Tk 500 crore ADB-funded development project begins this month with a view to improving the socio-economic condition of the rural hilly people of Chittagong.
   The Regional Coordination Committee at a meeting on Wednesday in Rangamati approved the project implementation guideline paving the way for launching uplift scheme under the Chittagong Rural Development Project
   The CHT regional council chairman and RCC president, Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma alias Santu Larma, presided over the meeting attended by high officials of the the Asian Development Bank.
   The Rangamati Chakma Circle chief, Raja Barrister Debashish Chakma, Bandarban district council member, Lusai Mong, Rangamati district council member, Japan Chakma and executive engineer of Khagrachhari district council, Ashish Kumar Biswas were present at the meeting.
   The meeting brought a change in the proposed implementation guidelines to ensure that 10 per cent money of the project would go to the local people who will get it through their labour.
   In 2002, the ADB announced the Tk 500-crore project for the CHT. After a long delay, the project implementation guideline has received the nod from the local level.

The Director General of Rapid Action Battalion, MA Aziz Sarkar, on Friday visited Kushtia and instructed its members to eliminate the extremists and other criminals at any cost from the extremism-prone south western districts.
   He was speaking at a meeting of the high officials of RAB and police.

Abdul Jalil, the Awami League general secretary, on Friday underscored the need of proper homework for political parties, willing to come to power, to be able to fulfil their commitments.
   Addressing a roundtable on Problems and Needs of Vocational Education at the National Press Club, organised by the Awami League, he said political parties fail to fulfil their commitments because of their sheer dependency on bureaucrats. ‘Thus we often get derailed from our ideologies and people misunderstand us.’
   In his inaugural speech, Jalil stressed on his party’s decision to formulate working papers on major issues through roundtables and seminars so that, ‘If we come to power we could direct the bureaucrats on the basis of these papers.’
   He said vocational training is not only necessary for domestic market but also important for migrants.
   ‘Lack of vocational training has caused most of our youths to work as labourers in foreign countries. This is wastage of our wealth,’ said Jalil.
   The paper of the roundtable, presented by a former director general of vocational education directorate, Saiful Haq, said although 50 per cent of the working population are engaged in vocational and technical sectors in the developed countries, the sectors do not even employ three per cent of the working population in Bangladesh.
   ‘About 90-95 per cent of the workforce in developing countries comes from secondary, higher secondary, diploma or undergraduate levels and that is why they give utmost importance on technical training at those levels.’
   Most discussants pointed their fingers to ‘the image problem’ of vocational education and emphasised on the need to change people’s attitude towards vocational and technical training.
   ‘We need to change this social attitude that higher education means solely university education,’ said a former vice-chancellor of Jahangirnagar University, Abul Bayes.
   The president of the Dhaka University teachers’ association, ASM Areefin Siddique, said vocational training is neglected because of a ‘constricted view’. ‘Everybody wants to be doctors and engineers. Nobody wants to be a goldsmith.’
   He suggested introduction of vocationally linked education so that students of vocational institutes would be taught all general subjects.
   Awami League lawmaker Abdur Razzaq expressed his concern about the quality of vocational training and urged to improve it.
   Criticising the government decision to send one lakh women workers to Saudi Arabia, Ahmed al Kabir said this is happening at a time when within the next five years we would need five thousand foreign nurses.
   Professor Hamida Banu said unless vocational training status is upgraded nobody would be interested to enrol in the training institutes.
   She demanded more budget allocation for education rather than in the defence.
   Former vice chancellor of Dhaka University, AK Azad Chowdhury, presided over while the Awami League’s education and human resource secretary, Nurul Islam Nahid, moderated.

Central leaders representing a college teachers’ association and principals’ council in a statement on Friday demanded immediate end to ‘businesses’ in the name of education expansion.
   They also demanded that the government approve establishment of new educational institutions in a planned manner after assessing the need across the country.
   ‘Vested quarters are engaged in setting up colleges in an unplanned way and are recruiting teachers in exchange of bribes,’ reads the statement signed by the leaders of the Bangladesh College Teachers Association and the Bangladesh Principals’ Council.
   The association representing non-government colleges, offering courses for secondary to bachelor’s level, reiterated their earlier demands for medical and festival allowance, increments and house rent similar to their government counterparts.

The Canadian High Commission, a member of the Tuesday Group, that plays a watchdog role in Bangladesh’s elections, suggested that parliament is the appropriate forum to discuss issues of national importance like reforms in the caretaker government system to work out a consensus.
   ‘The matter of reforms is an issue for the opposition and the government. Like other issues, controversial political issues should be worked out satisfactorily through dialogue and consensus’, said the Canadian High Commissioner, David Sproule, while talking to the UNB, in the wake of a face-off between the rival camps of politicians in Bangladesh.
   Without commenting on the merit of the opposition’s demand for reforms in the caretaker government system, he said that if it is agreed that reforms are necessary, the government and the opposition should discuss it together and find a solution.
   ‘I see the prime minister has suggested to the opposition that it discuss the issue in parliament…parliament is a good forum to discuss issues of governance, the constitution and the budget. It is appropriate that elected representatives discuss such issues in that forum’, he said.
   In an interview at his office on Wednesday, Sproule said Canada is prepared to help with election monitoring and to provide technical support to the Election Commission for conducting elections to ensure that it is recognized by the Bangladeshis and the international community as free and fair.
   He said the Canadian International Development Agency in collaboration with Asia Foundation is contributing $ 4.5 million for a project ‘Fair Elections and Institutional Reforms in Bangladesh’ that is focused primarily on a network of civil society bodies working on election related matters. It is also aimed at building capacity of the EC.
   The envoy however rejected the idea of Canadian mediation between major political parties, saying that it is not the role of the Canadian High Commission to mediate the differences between the political parties in this country.
   He said the Tuesday Group would organize an ‘election conference’ in the Fall or early January here to help ensure that Bangladesh’s next elections meet the international election standards.
   He said over 400 guests, both domestic and international, representing parliament, government, political parties, civil society, NGOs, business community and media people would be invited to the 2-day conference. Technical experts from home and abroad will participate in the panel discussions at the planned conference that would come up with recommendations, which would help the EC to hold free and fair elections.
   ‘Now we are in the process of identifying the participants and experts as well as the dates for the conference’, he said.
   The envoy said the Canadian Justice Department is working with the Bangladesh law ministry to develop an independent prosecutor service to help improve legislation drafting capacity and to share experiences on alternative dispute resolution mechanisms to resolve small local disputes legally without further pressure on the court system.
   On extra-judicial killing by RAB, he said, ‘Our position is that everyone is entitled to a fair trial’ and that all governments should respect international conventions that stipulate everyone has a right to a fair trial.
   He said Canada wants Bangladesh to guarantee full protection to all the minorities, including the Ahmadiyas, so that no group can take away their rights.
   About recent grenade attacks and killing of opposition politicians, including SAMS Kibria, he said like other diplomatic missions here Canada has urged the government to bring the perpetrators to justice as soon as possible.

Three persons including a woman were killed and 150 were injured as a passenger train and a bus collided at Mahendra Nagar Mandalerhat level crossing in Lalmonirhat district headquarters Thursday morning.
   Identities of the deceased could not be ascertained immediately. Forty of the injured were sent to Rangpur Medical College Hospital in critical condition, and the rest were sent to Lalmonirhat Sadar Hospital.
   Witnesses and hospital sources said a Parvatipur bound local train collided with a Lalmonirhat bound bus from Narayanganj. One was killed on the spot and the other two died on the way to hospital.
   Local residents said the level crossing is known to be a death trap where accidents frequently happen. They said the railway authorities should install a gate there and should appoint a gateman to avoid any more accidents.

Citibank NA Bangladesh and The Prothom Alo have jointly initiated a six-month fund raising campaign for a special book-reading programme of the Liberation War Museum, a bank press release said.
   Through the programme to be launched today, the Museum will give some selected books to 102 schools in 6 districts.

The Jatiya Party chairman, HM Ershad on Friday said the country was now passing through ‘a silent famine’ as life of people has become unbearable due to continued rise in the prices of essentials.
   He was addressing a wayside gathering at Shahbazpur on Dhaka-Sylhet Highway on way to Sylhet in the morning..
   Ershad said the people are also frustrated with the ‘extreme deterioration of law and order’.
   ‘People now want change in power regime and the Jatiya Party is the only hope for the countrymen,’ he added.
   The JP presidium member, Kazi Zafar Ahmed, the secretary general, ABM Ruhul Amin Hawlader, Ziaul Haque Mridha, Shafiqur Rahman Shahid and Wahedul Haque, among others, were present.
   

Twenty persons were injured when the police charged batons on groups involved in a clash over a football match on the Tungipara helipad Friday morning.
   The police said two football teams from the villages Panchkahania, and Tungipara had been playing a match when another group of young people from Tungipara came there and disrupted the match sparking a clash between the two groups. The clash spread out and at a stage several hundred residents from the two villages joined in the clash.
   Being informed Md Yusuf Ali Khan, officerin-charge of the Tungipara police station, went to the spot with a contingent and brought the situation under control by charging batons on the crowd.
   Extra police have been deployed in the area.