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Indian commandos fought to end a multiple hostage crisis Thursday in Mumbai, battling Islamist gunmen holding foreign guests in two luxury hotels after attacks across the city left over 125 dead.
   The Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, said the militants had come from ‘outside the country,’ while the military official leading the operation to flush them out insisted they were from arch-rival Pakistan.
   Major General RK Hooda told reporters they had ‘pretended’ to be Indian.
   Pakistan’s defence minister denied any involvement.
   The police officials said troops were conducting floor- by-floor sweeps of the Taj Mahal and the Oberoi/Trident hotels, nearly 24 hours after gunmen armed with assault rifles and grenades stormed the buildings. Gunfire and blasts continued to be heard from both hotels, where scores of guests remained trapped in their rooms - too terrified to move.
   According to hospital sources quoted by the Press Trust of India, nine foreign nationals were among the dead - including a Japanese businessman, an Australian, a Briton, a German and an Italian.
   Americans, French, Israelis and Canadians were said to be among those held or trapped.
   There was a separate hostage situation at an office-residential complex, housing a Jewish centre where a rabbi and his family were being held by gunmen.
   Guests who escaped the hotels recounted how the gunmen had specifically tried to round up US and British citizens.
   The police said the Taj had been cleared of hostages and that more than 40 hostages had been rescued from the Oberoi where a large fire had broken out on the upper floors.
   At least five gunmen had been shot dead and one captured, the police said. Around a dozen security personnel were also killed, including the head of Mumbai’s anti-terror squad.
   In an audacious operation apparently tailored to gain maximum international attention, the militants had used small groups to attack at least eight other targets in India’s financial hub, including the main railway station, a hospital and a restaurant popular with tourists.
   An unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahedeen claimed responsibility, with one gunman telling an Indian TV channel by phone that the outfit was of Indian origin and motivated by the treatment of Indian Muslims.
   Some Indian officials pointed a finger at the Pakistan-backed Lashkar-e-Taiba - best known for an assault on the Indian parliament in 2001. A Lashkar spokesman denied any role.
   The Mumbai police chief, Hassan Gafoor, said more than 125 people had died. ‘The situation is very fluid and the toll could rise further,’ he said.
   Nearly 300 people were reported wounded.
   The main Bombay Stock Exchange was closed until further notice, as were shops, schools and businesses.
   A number of airlines cancelled flights to Mumbai Thursday after the attacks, operators said.
   Italy’s flag-carrier Alitalia, which is in severe financial straits, cancelled all its flights to Bombay until further notice, a spokeswoman said.
   German airline Lufthansa said it had scrapped two flights to Mumbai due to leave Frankfurt and Munich on Thursday.
   Most of the 600 passengers in Mumbai affected by the cancellations however have been able to leave India via other airports, he added.
   Air France cancelled a flight from Mumbai to Paris, the company said.
   US Delta airlines also cancelled one flight from Mumbai to Seattle via Amsterdam.
   England’s cricketers abandoned their ongoing one-day series against India.
   Witnesses said the gunmen had been very particular in their choice of hotel hostages.
   ‘They were very young, like boys really, wearing jeans and T-shirts,’ said one British guest at the Taj, Rakesh Patel, who was among a dozen people herded together by two heavily armed men and taken to the hotel’s upper floors.
   ‘They said they wanted anyone with British and American passports and then they took us up the stairs. I think they wanted to take us to the roof,’ he said, adding that he and another hostage managed to escape on the 18th floor.
   The United States and Britain led global condemnation, with Washington describing the attacks as ‘horrific,’ and US president-elect Barack Obama pledging to work with India to ‘root out and destroy terrorist networks.’
   India has witnessed a wave of coordinated attacks in recent months.
   Another little-known Islamic group, the Islamic Security Force-Indian Mujahedeen, claimed responsibility for serial blasts last month in India’s northeast state of Assam that claimed nearly 80 lives.
   Six weeks earlier, the capital New Delhi had been hit by a series of bombs in crowded markets that left more than 20 dead. Those blasts were claimed by a group calling itself the Indian Mujahedeen.

Bangladesh on Thursday condemned the terrorist attacks on India’s commercial capital of Mumbai and tightened security, putting law enforcement agencies and the Bangladesh on high alert across the country.
   A series of blasts in Mumbai on Wednesday killed at least 101 people till Thursday.
   The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, the Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, and other socio-political organisations condemned the attack and expressed their shock at the incident.
   The law enforcement agencies and the Bangladesh Rifles have, meanwhile, been put on high alert across the country. Security has also been tightened in diplomatic enclave, key-point installations, hotels and other important places.
   The law enforcement agencies have also been asked to set up checkpoints at different strategic points, he said.
   Iajuddin in a message to his Indian counterpart Pratibha Devisingh Patil expressed his deep shock at the loss of lives in the incident.
   Iajuddin in his statement noted that Bangladesh firmly stood by India at this hour of grief.
   Fakhruddin in a message to India’s prime minister Manmohan Singh expressed sympathy with the members of the families of the people killed in the terror attack. He also prayed for early recovery of the injured.
   The foreign affairs adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, also condemned the attack on Mumbai. ‘I condemn it as a mindless act of terror.’ He said terrorism served no purpose.
   ‘Our hearts are with those so many innocent people, Indians and foreigners, who have been affected by these cowardly bombings’, said Iftekhar, who also addressed a letter to his Indian counterpart, Pranab Mukharjee.
   Sheikh Hasina, also a former prime minister, in a condolence message to India’s prime minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday termed the attacks on civilians ‘cowardly’ terrorist attacks.
   Khaleda Zia, also a former prime minister, condemned the Mumbai attacks. In a statement, she expressed her shock and concerns saying Bangladesh is against terrorism of any kinds. ‘Those who launched the heinous attacks are enemies to humanity.’
   The home secretary, Abdul Karim, meanwhile, told New Age, ‘We have asked all the law enforcement agencies to be on high alert across the country to ward off any untoward incidents after the series of blasts in Mumbai.’
   ‘Bangladesh Rifles personnel have also been asked to remain alert in border areas to check the entrance of any unwanted people into the Bangladesh territory,’ he said.
   Asked about any possibility of bomb attacks in Bangladesh, he said, ‘We are not apprehending bombings of such kind here.’
   ‘Our security men are already put on alert for the forthcoming general elections, Eid-ul-Azha and Victory Day. They have already been instructed to arrest criminals and recover illegal arms,’ he said.
   A meeting on law and order was earlier held in the home ministry at the secretariat on Thursday. The home affairs adviser, MA Matin, presided over the meeting.
   The chiefs of different law enforcement agencies and other senior officials attended the meeting held in the afternoon.
   Coming out of a programme at the Rajarbagh police lines, the inspector general of police, Nur Mohammad, told newsmen they had asked law enforcers to remain alert across the country to fend off any untoward incidents.
   Intelligence agency people have also been asked to keep strong vigilance so that no unwanted incident could take place, he said.
   In reply to a query, he ruled out any possibility of bomb attack in the country.
   Security has also been heightened in diplomatic enclaves, key-point installations, hotels and other important places and the law enforcers have been asked to set up checkpoints at strategic points, he said.
   In Chittagong, special police teams started patrolling and set up check points on various locations.
   ‘We are on high alert by the order of higher authorities after the Mumbai attacks. We launched search and set up check points in the city,’ said a senior official of the Chittagong Metropolitan Police.

The latest terror attack in the Indian financial capital reflected how a policy of ‘war on terror’ contributed to a growth of terrorism among marginalised groups, suspected to be linked with international outfits, security and foreign policy analysts say.
   They also felt the recent attack that killed more than 100 people, including foreign nationals, exposed that the terrorists’ plans were orchestrated enough to dodge the strong Indian intelligent agencies.
   Such incidents reveal that the time has come for the Indian regime to forge real cooperation with neighbours to address
   terrorism, shunning blame games. New Delhi must forget its obsession about the neighbouring countries.
   ‘Indian government should realise that we have to contain and counter terrorism all together. If we turn on accusing each other, it would spoil the spirit of cooperation,’ said former adviser to the interim government Shafi Sami, also a former foreign secretary.
   He said at the end of the day terrorists do not have any friends left, as they change their targets overnight.
   The former Bangladesh high commissioner in New Delhi hoped that this time India would not involve itself in a blame game and go deep into the incident to find out the real causes of the incident.
   Shafi said the attack demonstrated a well-orchestrated manner and it was also a failure on the part of the intelligence network of India.
   Referring to the deaths of foreign nationals by terrorists in the Mumbai attack, he said that was an indication of President Bush’s ‘failed policy against the region’ in the name of war on terror. ‘The latest attack has reflected how the flawed policy contributed to the growth of terrorism.’
   Imtiaz Ahmed, a professor of International Relations at Dhaka University, felt that inefficiency of Indian intelligence agencies was responsible for such attacks.
   Criticising India for playing blame games with Pakistan and Bangladesh, Imtiaz said time and again New Delhi pointed the finger at these two countries immediately after any such terror incident occurred.
   ‘This is a serious failure of the Indian intelligent network. They fail to trace their home-grown terrorist outfits as they focus more on blaming others,’ he added.
   The international affairs analyst also felt that to dig out the causes of the attack the Manmohon Singh’s government must focus on all aspects, including how people consider its relation with the United States and Israel as well as the Kashmir issue. ‘India should have an open mind and go for all the options.’
   Maj Gen (retired) Abdul Hafiz, a former director general of the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies, said the latest attack was related to the ongoing state elections as well as the national election scheduled for early next year.
   The former army general said Indian right wing political camps, including the BJP and the RSS, had always won elections by Muslim bashing. ‘These right wing parties always try to establish how vulnerable the Hindus are to the Muslims or Islamic terrorists,’ he added.
   Referring to the September blast at Malegaon town in Maharashtra, he said the investigations revealed how right wing Hindu activists were involved in the terrorist activities.
   Dwelling on the implications of Mumbai attack on Bangladesh, Imtiaz Ahmed said one should not be complacent while dealing with people of rigid schools. ‘We do not have that much intellectual dialogues with those rigid people to pacify them; rather, we give more focus on policing. So, we should not put the responsibility only on the government. Rather, political parties and civil society actors must adopt comprehensive strategies to address the issue.’

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party is set to formally announce today its list of candidates for 263 constituencies in the ninth parliamentary polls scheduled for December 29.
   The party’s parliamentary board interviewed the nomination seekers on Thursday and finalised the 263 candidates. The rest 37 constituencies have been set aside for distribution among candidates from Jamaat-e-Islami, the second largest component of the BNP-led alliance.
   The BNP also started distributing party nominations to selected candidates Thursday evening, according to party insiders.
   BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia chaired the meeting of the parliamentary board. All members of the party’s standing committee who comprise the board were present in the interviews which began at 11:00am amidst strict security and a festive atmosphere.
   Khaleda told the aspirants that the party would nominate candidates following the rules in its constitution and no convicts or loan-defaulters would be nominated, according to the aspirants who faced the board.
   She also asked the aspirants not to hide any information and work in unison for the parson the party would nominate and ensure the party’s victory, the interviewees said.
   Khaleda also assured those who would not get the party tickets that their contributions to the party would be recognised. ‘I think all of you are eligible for party nomination but we can nominate a single person for a constituency. Be careful while filling up the 14-page nomination form and if needed consult lawyers’, advocate Asaduzzman, an aspirant from Jhenidah, quoted Khaleda to have said.
   ‘The board is expected to announce the final list of candidates late Thursday night or tomorrow [Friday] morning’, said the party office secretary Rizvi Ahmed. ‘Over 2,000 aspirants from the party submitted applications for nomination and a few applications were cancelled.’
   The aspirants from Brahmanbaria district were the first batch to face the interview. After interviews of 321 aspirants from Chittagong division, party ticket seekers from Sylhet division met the parliamentary board in separate batches from each district. Then aspirants from Barisal division were called to interview and they were followed by nomination seekers from Khulna and Rajshahi divisions. Aspirants from Dhaka were the last batch interviewed.
   The nomination seekers assembling for interview sat under a canopy put up on Justice Shahabuddin Ahmad Park. Over 300 volunteers have been engaged for smooth management of the interviews.
   The road 86 of Gulshan was made off-limits to traffic and pedestrians durn the interviews triggering gridlock in the contiguous roads and lanes.
   Journalists were asked to stay off excepting the time for briefings. The special security force and the president’s guard regiment cordoned off the area. The party’s own team of volunteers was also on guard.
   Despite the security measures, the so-called reformists came under attack from the activists. They assaulted former lawmaker Ali Newaz Mahmud Khayam of Rajbari, chased former lawmakers Nasirul Haq Sabu of Rajbari and Mosharraf Hossain Mongu of Barisal, and hurled abuses at Abdul Alim of Jaipurhat and shouted slogans against them.
   After the incident, the party’s vice-chairman, M Hafizuddin Ahmed, was taken home under security escort after his interview was over.
   Police charged baton to disperse the angry activists several times. No body was injured.
   After interview, Hafiz said he hoped the party would recognise his contribution. ‘Nobody from the party could save their security deposits in my constituency before I joined the party’, he said. Hafiz said he did not think that his role in reform activities would be a bar to nomination.
   Masud Arun, a ‘reformist’ seeking nomination for a Meherpur constituency, also faced the parliamentary board. ‘I will accept anybody madam nominates for Meherpur’, he said.

The interim government and the Election Commission on Thursday made contradictory statements over withdrawal of the state of emergency while major political parties and different national and international quarters were pressing for complete lifting of the emergency well ahead of the December 29 polls.
   The government said that the Election Commission had not yet made any ‘formal request’ for withdrawal of the emergency. But according to the commission, it has asked the government on several occasions to lift the emergency in order to create an atmosphere conducive to free, fair polls.
   ‘We have not received any request from the Election Commission so far for withdrawal of the emergency’, LGRD and cooperatives adviser Anwarul Iqbal told reporters at his office after a meeting with the visiting election assessment team from the United Nations.
   He said the situation would dictate when to lift the emergency. ‘Any party can avoid taking part in the elections and threaten law and order…We will announce at an appropriate time when we will lift the emergency.’
   About the meeting with the three-member UN team led by Francesc Vendrell, the adviser, also member of the panel of advisers engaged in political negotiations for transition to democracy, said it was just a courtesy call.
   Earlier on the day, election commissioner Muhammed Sohul Hussain held a meeting with law adviser AF Hassan Ariff at the ministry.
   Asked whether the commission would ask the government for withdrawal of the emergency in deference with the demand of the political parties for a free and fair election, Sohul said the Election Commission was persistently urging the government to create a proper environment for the elections.
   He said the commission had on many occasions asked the government to lift the emergency.
    The election commissioner asserted that the commission would not cancel Article 91E of the Representation of People Order, which gives the EC power to cancel candidature, despite demand from the BNP-led alliance.
   Sohul reiterated that the people convicted under the Emergency Powers Rules would not be able to contest the polls. ‘Those who have been convicted under the EPR would not be allowed to contest the elections. But a person convicted under the Code of Criminal Procedure will not be barred from the election if the judgement is stayed by the High Court.’
   The LGRD adviser said that the government wanted to see the people convicted under the EPR outside the elections.
   He said that the upazila polls, scheduled for January 22, would obviously be held under the elected government to be sworn in within three days after the official announcement of the election results.

The Awami League president Sheikh Hasina on Thursday censured the interim administration and the Election Commission for making frequent changes to the election schedule accusing the government of making room for conspiracy against the parliamentary polls by a particular political party.
   She said despite conspiracies, the Awami League hoped the elections would be held in a free, fair and credible manner in which the people would be able to cast their votes without fear and get their desired results.
   Exchanging views with the leaders of the Sammilita Sangskritik Jote at her political office at Dhanmondi, the AL leader said her party had found itself in a difficult situation for the changes to the election schedule after it completed nominations.
   ‘The party for whose interest the election has been deferred repeatedly, has not given nominations as yet. It seems the Election Commission is giving it chances to hatch conspiracy against the national polls’, Hasina said.
   She told the cultural team that the country’s art, culture and literature could not flourish in the absence of democracy and urged the people to protect their fundamental and constitutional right to vote at any cost.
   ‘We will continue our movement to restore the people’s rights until victory is achieved’, she said.
   The AL chief said that if her party was voted to power, her prime task would be to ensure food for the people by building a food security network and bringing down the prices of essential commodities at the quickest possible time.
   She said it was the nation’s misfortune that a vested quarter acting against the people’s rights always hatched conspiracies against those who wanted people’s welfare.
   Hasina wondered how some people had dared to dismantle the baul sculpture in a top secured zone like the airport. ‘I have visited many countries of the world, including a number of Muslim states like Algeria, Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia where I have seen sculptures’, she said.
   She assured the cultural activists that if voted to power her party would build a cultural square across Dhaka University, Shilpakala Academy and Bangla Academy areas.
   The meeting was also addressed by Sangskritik Jote leaders Nasiruddin Yusuf Bachchu, Ramendu Mazumder, Golam Quddus, Mamunur Rashid, Aly Zaker, Jhuna Chowdhury, Tanara Halim, Afroza Banu, Kazi Arif and Liaquat Ali Lucky.

Thailand’s embattled premier Thursday declared a state of emergency at Bangkok’s main airports, seeking to clear them of protesters as the country’s political crisis set off rumours of a coup.
   The prime minister, Somchai Wongsawat, issued the order after an urgent cabinet meeting to discuss how to tackle anti-government demonstrators who have cut the city off from the world and left thousands of tourists stranded.
   The military denied speculation it was about to oust Somchai, who has rejected a call by the powerful army chief to hold fresh elections, but the government still urged soldiers to remain in their barracks.
   ‘It is wrong for protesters to take the entire Thai nation hostage,’ Somchai said in a televised address to the nation.
   ‘The government is not intending to hurt anybody but is just facilitating official works, and the emergency will be temporary,’ he added.
   Somchai called on the army to back up police in enforcing the state of emergency at Suvarnabhumi international airport and the old Don Mueang airport, which handles some domestic flights.
   There was no immediate sign of any police operation at either airport.
   Demonstrators brandishing golf clubs and sticks manned checkpoints on the road to Suvarnabhumi and set up coils of barbed wire, AFP photographers said.
   The police said around 10,000 protesters, all wearing yellow clothes which are supposed to be symbolic of their devotion to Thailand’s revered king, had set up camp inside the terminal.
   The People’s Alliance for Democracy protest movement, which seized control of Suvarnabhumi on Tuesday night and blockaded Don Mueang earlier Thursday, swiftly vowed to defy the state of emergency.
   ‘We are in the very, very final moment of our fight for democracy with the king at the head of state so I ask all the protesters not to panic,’ Chamlong Srimuang, a key PAD leader, told protesters at government offices in central Bangkok which the movement has occupied since August.
   A coalition backed by elements of the palace, the army and Thailand’s Bangkok-based elite, the PAD accuses the government elected last December of being a corrupt puppet for ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
   The military ousted Thaksin in a coup in 2006 after similar PAD protests, and as tensions rose Thursday the government insisted Somchai was not about to sack army commander General Anupong Paojinda.
   ‘I would like to inform all military personnel to carry out your duty as usual. Do not make any movement or be on stand-by. This is to stop the coup rumours,’ government spokesman Nattawut Saikaur said on national radio.
   The army urged political reconciliation, saying it neither wanted to move against protesters at the two airports nor risk a confrontation with government supporters if it staged a coup.
   ‘The military have moved tanks for strategic purposes but I can confirm that there is no coup and the military has not been ordered to be on stand-by,’ Colonel Sunsern Kaewkumnerd said.
   He said that the tanks had moved through an area of the capital near parliament as part of a display for army cadets.
   PAD supporters effectively cut off Bangkok from the rest of the world when they blockaded Don Mueang airport.
   Thai aviation authorities on Thursday gave airlines approval to use the U-Tapao naval base instead, saying several flights had already landed there including a Thai Airways flight from Los Angeles.
   But Somchai said the losses from the closure of Suvarnabhumi alone would top 100 billion baht (2.83 billion dollars) a day. Airport authorities said it would remain closed until Saturday evening at the earliest.
   As both sides refuse to back down, concerns deepened for the kingdom’s economy, tourism industry and diplomatic ties. Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, meanwhile, questioned whether Thailand could still hold the regional ASEAN summit in December.
   Most of the 3,000 stranded passengers at Suvarnabhumi were bussed to hotels on Wednesday, and thousands of tourists are now trying to escape Thailand.

The garment exporters on Thursday blasted the World Bank which, they observed, had floated, on Wednesday, an unsubstantiated prediction about possible declines in the economic growth especially from export earnings.
   Addressing an emergency press conference held at its headquarters, the president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association said such a prediction was unfounded.
   ‘We reject the WB prediction that Bangladesh’s export and GDP will fall drastically because of the ongoing global recession,’ said association president, Anwar Ul Alam Chowdhury Parvez.
   He cited 45 per cent, year on year, growth from export earnings in the first quarter of the current fiscal and said that orders, to be matured in shipments by February 2009, showed growth in the near future.
   ‘We see encouraging growths in the coming months. So the WB prediction of decline in exports in three months is contradictory,’ Parvez said, ‘Such a prediction will make Bangladesh’s industries and importers nervous.’
   Parvez told journalists that only the sweater manufacturing sector had earned $741 million in July-September surpassing the six months’ target of the sector for the current fiscal.
   Citing the BGMEA records, he claimed volumes of export orders, the goods for which are to be shipped by February 2009, showed growths up to 19 per cent year-on-year.
   ‘More and more importers suffering recessions in their own markets and affected by their increased import costs from China are coming to Bangladesh,’ He said, adding, ‘So we wonder how the WB made such a prediction.’
   He apprehended floating of such a prediction might have been intended to hold the next government hostage to foreign prescriptions and funds.
   Citing the WB suggestions, the industry leader said the WB and IMF had always tried to misguide the government with wrong policy suggestions. He also asked the government to formulate tougher monetary polices.
   He warned, ‘Any contradictory policy will be suicidal for Bangladesh’s economy.
   The economy of Bangladesh can ensure growth even after combating continual floods and cyclones as the local exporters have strength to overcome the effects of recessions in their market abroad, he said.
   Parvez said Bangladesh along with Vietnam and Indonesia continued to increase shipments to the USA while the recession-hit US markets made growths negative for China and other major players.
   ‘Production in the agricultural sector is encouraging while Bangladeshi exporters, who are capable of supplying low-cost products, are also receiving orders from global importers,’ Parvez said.
   The BGMEA president said the WB and IMF always made prescriptions for the power and infrastructure sectors but growth in those sectors remained poor. ‘The government should not depend on their prescriptions and funds.’
   Parvez said the strong Bangladeshi currency was now a major problem for the exporters. ‘With the exchange value of Euro and pound sterling, the European importers are pressurising the local suppliers into cutting prices further and further.’
   He argued that with the global commodity prices falling drastically, five or seven per cent devaluation of taka would not make any pressure on inflation rates.

India’s prime minister said Thursday that those behind coordinated attacks against Mumbai were based ‘outside the country’ and warned ‘neighbours’ who provide a haven to anti-India militants.
   In a televised address to the nation, Manmohan Singh also appealed to the country to ‘maintain peace and harmony’ in the wake of the attacks that left at least 100 dead and up to 300 more wounded.
   ‘The well-planned and well-orchestrated attacks, probably with external linkages, were intended to create a sense of panic, by choosing high profile targets and indiscriminately killing foreigners,’ Singh said.
   ‘It is evident that the group which carried out these attacks, based outside the country, had come with single-minded determination to create havoc in the commercial capital of the country.
   ‘We will take up strongly with our neighbours that the use of their territory for launching attacks on us will not be tolerated, and that there would be a cost if suitable measures are not taken by them,’ he added.
   India has in the past frequently accused arch-rival Pakistan of backing Islamic militants active in India, although the prime minister did not identify any country by name.
   ‘In this hour of tragedy, I appeal to the people to maintain peace and harmony so that the enemies of our country do not succeed in their nefarious designs,’ he said.
   ‘All concerned authorities are on alert and will deal sternly with any attempts to disturb public order. I am confident that the people of India will rise unitedly to face this grave challenge to the nation’s security and integrity,’ he added.
   He also vowed to take ‘the strongest possible measures to ensure that there is no repetition of such terrorist acts.’
   ‘Existing laws will be tightened to ensure that there are no loopholes available to terrorists to escape the clutches of the law,’ he said.

Pakistan’s foreign minister on Thursday asked India to wait for proof from an investigation before blaming anyone for involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks that have killed over 100 people.
   The statement was a response to a televised speech by the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, in which he said that those behind coordinated attacks against Mumbai were based ‘outside the country’ and warned ‘neighbours’ who provide a haven to anti-India militants.
   Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, in New Delhi for peace talks, told the private Dawn television station that nobody should be blamed until investigations were complete.
   ‘Our experience in the past tells us that we should not jump to conclusions,’ Qureshi said.
   Qureshi said that Singh had constituted a federal investigation team to look into the attacks on luxury hotels, restaurants and the main train station in India’s commercial heart, which have killed at least 100 people and injured about 300.
   ‘We should not go for a knee-jerk reaction,’ Qureshi said, adding he would meet Singh on Friday and express condolences, solidarity and support to him and the people of India.
   ‘We need to be calm, we need to be composed and we need to be supportive of each other.’
   Qureshi said Pakistan and India needed to fight terrorism together, saying ‘this is a global menace... we have to join hands to deal with this menace collectively.’
   India has in the past frequently accused arch-rival Pakistan of backing Islamic militants active in India, although the prime minister did not identify any country by name during his speech.
   Militant Pakistani group Lashkar-i-Tayyiba, which
   is fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, on Thursday denied any involvement in the Mumbai attacks.

The young gunmen roaming the corridors of two luxury hotels in Mumbai were shooting wildly, but they knew exactly what sort of guests they intended to take hostage.
   ‘They told everybody to stop and put their hands up and asked if there were any British or Americans,’ Alex Chamberlain, a British guest at the Oberoi Trident hotel, said after fleeing his captors via a fire escape.
   ‘My friend said to me, ‘don’t be a hero, don’t say you are British.’
   On Thursday morning at least two gunmen were believed to be holding around half-a-dozen hostages inside the Oberoi, while more hostages were also being held in the city’s Taj Mahal hotel.
   Chamberlain told Indian television that he and other guests had been herded together by the gunmen and taken up to the upper floors of the hotel.
   Rakesh Patel, a guest at the Taj, said that ‘they were after foreigners, because they were asking for British or American passports.’
   ‘They came from the restaurant and took us up the stairs,’ Patel, a British citizen based in Hong Kong, told the NDTV news channel, his face blackened by smoke.
   ‘They were very young, like boys really, wearing jeans and T-shirts,’ he said, adding that he and another hostage managed to escape on the 18th floor.
   One woman staying at the Taj hotel told how she lay on the floor of one room with 25 other petrified guests as gunmen fought special commandos.
   ‘That was, without doubt, the worst experience of my entire life,’ she told reporters. ‘It was a very, very painful six hours.
   ‘We could hear the army coming through the hotel. We heard the firing and the blasts. In the end the firemen broke the windows of the room and we climbed down the ladder.’
   Military units stormed the Taj hotel in the early hours of Thursday morning to confront a handful of gunmen armed with assault rifles and grenades.
   In the encounter a huge fire broke out at the top of the hotel, trapping some guests.
   One woman contacted during the night by a television channel said she and around 35 other guests were boarded up inside.
   ‘We were shot at and we have one man who has a bullet wound in his stomach,’ she whispered down her phone. ‘He’s bleeding badly and he needs to go to hospital.’
   Australian television actress Brooke Satchwell hid inside a small cupboard when the violence erupted at the Taj.
   ‘As I stepped inside the lobby gunshots started to go off,’ she said. ‘It was really terrifying. There was people getting shot in the corridor. There was someone dead outside the bathroom.’
   The head of the Madrid government and a British member of the European Parliament were inside the Taj when the gunmen attacked but escaped unhurt.
   ‘I saw was one man on foot carrying a machine gun-type of weapon — which I then saw him firing from and I saw people hitting the floor, people right next to me,’ MEP Sajjad Karim was quoted as saying by the BBC.
   An Australian student said his girlfriend was shot and wounded when other gunmen stormed the Cafe Leopold restaurant in Mumbai and opened fire.
   David Coker, 23, and his partner Katie Anstee, 24, had just arrived for a holiday to celebrate their graduation from university.
   ‘We had literally just ordered and then it seemed like firecrackers — people were screaming,’ he told The Courier-Mail newspaper.
   Anstee was shot in the leg, with the bullet breaking her femur and exiting through the front of her thigh, while Coker was grazed by a bullet.
   ‘I turned around and she was crawling out the door because she couldn’t walk,’ he said.

Protests and clashes took place in at least five higher educational institutions on Thursday, marking an increase in recent unrest on campuses while the Chittagong Medical College was on November 14 closed for an indefinite period.
   Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Patuakhali University of Science and Technology, Barisal BM College, Rajshahi Medical College and Khulna Polytechnic Institute also witnesses protests by students and employees on Thursday.
   The Chittagong Medical College was closed for an indefinite period over a clash between the activists of the Bangladesh
   Nationalist Party-backed Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal and Jamaat-e-Islami-backed Islami Chhatra Shibir on November 24 in which more than 30 were injured.
   Students of mathematics in Dhaka University on Thursday clashed in front of the Quazi Motahar Hossain Building over an altercation centring on playing on the building lawn. A teacher and scores of students were injured.
   Witness said a number of students of mathematics were playing on the lawn at about 11:00am and two second-year law students, Kamal and Samrat, went there and entered into an altercation with them and beat up a third-year mathematics student, Ashiqur Rahman Shubhro.
   Students of mathematics within minutes reached the place and attacked the law students.
   The law dean, Borhan Uddin Khan, said the students were agitated. ‘In such a situation, we are forced to lock up our students in the department.’
   Arif Jamil, a lecturer of law, said although they had locked up their students, the students of mathematics were free and pelted law teachers and students with stones. A law department lecturer was injured.
   ‘The police came almost an hour and a half later and controlled the situation,’ Arif said.
   A four-member inquiry committee was formed to investigate the incident. The law dean, Borhan Uddin Khan, science dean Tazmeri SA Islam and assistant proctor Muhammad Shafiullah comprised the committee.
   The New Age correspondent in Sylhet said officers and employees at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology continued with their siege of the vice-chancellor’s office beginning at 1:00pm to push for their four-point demands.
   They also severed power, gas and water connections to the entire campus in the afternoon as the deadline to meet their demands expired, forcing the students, especially the boarders of female halls, into an insecure atmosphere amid the campus blackout, sources said.
   The university officials and employees on Wednesday submitted a memorandum to the vice-chancellor, giving him 24 hours to meet the demands, including involvement of officials and employees in admission-related jobs and reasonable remuneration in this regard.
   Jaynal Abedin, the convener of the forum of officials and employees, said they would not call off their programme and would not restore the utility connections until their demands were met.
   The vice-chancellor, Aminul Islam, could not be reached for comments despie repeated attempts.
   ‘We are in an insecure environment as any untoward incident may take place on the campus any moment,’ said the proctor, GA Haydar Chowdhury.
   The correspondent in Barisal said unrest of the employees and students in Patuakhali University of Science and Technology continued.
   Teachers and deans were locked up inside the administrative section till 8:00pm and the acting vice-chancellor was stopped from entering the office by the protesters.
   The students also submitted a memorandum to the authorities threatening a fast unto death and suicide en masse if the demands were not met.
   The employees laid siege to the administrative section and staged a sit-in between 8:00am and 2:00pm and severed water and power connections and stopped university transports.
   Law enforcers have been deployed on and around the campus to control the situation and the authorities was thinking about announcing Eid holidays, sources said.
   The Dumki police officer-in-charge, Md Faruk, said the situation was under control and the police were ready to tackle any situation as requested by the authorities.
   The employees had abstained from work, staged sit-in, brought out processions, held gatherings, and laid siege to the administration blocks for 10 days.
   The situation worsened after the business administration students had waged movement on Monday.
   The correspondent in Khulna said students of Khulna Polytechnic Institute went out on demonstrations on the campus under the banner of All-Party Students Unity for the second day. They did not take their mid-term exams in protest at the arrest of three fellows.
   The police arrested three fourth-year students — Birinchi Choudhury, Maruf Hossain and Md Jenarul Islam — early Tuesday in connection with the killing of a sweetmeat vendor, Akhter Hossain Mona, Monday night.
   Akhter died in Khulna Medical Colleged Hospital from his injuries he had sustained after he had jumped off the roof, the students said, after stealing a mobile.
   The victim’s mother Sahera Begum alleged the students’ claim was false. She said her son was beaten up by the students, who were arrested, and their associates in a hostel room as the Akhter had asked for payment for sweetmeats he had sold on credit.
   The students brought out processions and formed a human chain on the campus demanding immediate release of the arrested and threatened tougher agitation if the demands were not immediately met.
   Police deployment on the campus was reinforced to fend off any untoward incidens, the Khalishpur police said.
   The institution’s principal in-charge Kumaresh Chandra Paul told New Age they had a meeting with the students and local elite on Thursday and the students agreed to attend their examinations.
   The correspondent in Barisal said Barisal Brajamohan College students had blocked the campus road over the death of a fellow in a road accident.
   Campus sources said Albert Sikdar Tota, 22, a cyclist and first-year student of mathematics, was injured after he had been knocked by a Sakura Paribahan bus near his home at Rahamatpur Wednesday evening. He died in Sher-e-Bangal Medical College Hospital early Thursday.
   The correspondent in Rajshahi said the Rajshahi Medical College unit of the Bangladesh Chhatra League on Thursday submitted a memorandum to the principal demanding an immediate withdrawal of the expulsion order for the unit’s organising secretary Shah Alam Siddiki Lalon.
   On September 11, the academic council expelled Lalon from the college over a clash between the Chhatra League and Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal activists on the campus on October 23.
   Chhatra League activists said they had submitted memorandums on several occasions and met the college principal, but the demand was yet to be met.
   They gave the authorities 48 hours to meet the demand and threatened movement, otherwise.

The foreign affairs adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, on Thursday said the government might soon set a date for the withdrawal of the state of emergency.
   He said this after he had a meeting with the chief of the EU election observation mission, Alexander Graf Lamsdroff, in the foreign ministry.
   ‘The emergency will be withdrawn well before the December 29 general elections and the announcement will be made soon,’ Iftekhar said.
   The adviser welcomed the EU election observation mission, saying Bangladesh would return to its political tradition characterised by democracy, pluralism and liberalism.
   As for withdrawal of the emergency rules, Iftekhar said the matter was discussed with Lamsdroff. ‘It will be withdrawn well before the elections… a precise date for the withdrawal [of the emergency] will be announced soon.’
   He compared the caretaker government with a river and said as a river flows into an ocean, the caretaker government was taking all towards the ocean of elections.
   Lamsdroff said they had discussed the forthcoming elections and challenges that go along with it.
   He said all were waiting for the elections, which would be administered in a very peaceful manner. He thanked the caretaker government for the preparations made so far.
   As for challenges concerning the elections, Lamsdroff said he was still forming an opinion about what were the challenges and was talking with the leaders of political parties and the government.
   As for the state of emergency, he said generally it is desirable that it should be withdrawn before the elections.

The coordinated attacks against luxury hotels and other targets in Mumbai which killed at least 125 people, were the latest in a string of attacks to hit India in recent years.
   The chronology of attacks against major Indian cities or sensitive locations since 2003:
   Eleven were people killed in a bomb attack aboard a commuter train in Mumbai in March 13, 2003.
   Six people were killed in two car bomb blasts in Mumbai in August, 2004.
   Three powerful bombs exploded in busy New Delhi markets a day before an annual Hindu festival, killing 62 shoppers and leaving hundreds injured in October, 2005.
   In 2006, March blasts in a train station and a temple in Varanasi, Hinduism’s holiest city, leave 20 people dead, mostly devotees in March.
   In July, a series of seven high-powered blasts on suburban trains in India’s business capital Mumbai kill 187 commuters and leave 800 injured. The attacks prompt India to freeze peace talks with Pakistan.
   In September, thirty-eight people were killed and more than 100 injured in three nearly simultaneous blasts, including one in a mosque, in the town of Malegaon in Maharashtra state.
   Attackers fire-bomb the Pakistan-bound Friendship Express passenger train, killing 66 passengers, mostly Pakistanis in February, 2007.
   In May, eleven killed, 15 injured in blast at 17th century Mecca mosque in Hyderabad. Five more die when police fire at Muslim protesters.
   In August, at least 40 people were killed and more than 50 others injured as two bombs rock a crowded outdoor auditorium and a popular eatery in the southern city of Hyderabad.
   In October, two die in a low-intensity explosion in the Ajmer Sharif shrine during Ramadan in the northern town of Ajmer. The Islamic shrine is equally popular among Hindus and Muslims of India and Pakistan.
   In November, at least 13 people die in bombings outside court buildings in three cities in the north state of Uttar Pradesh.
   Eight serial blasts tear through the northern Indian tourist city of Jaipur, killing 65 and injuring 150. A group calling itself the ‘Indian Mujahideen’ claims responsibility In May, 2008.
   In July 26, eight bombs go off in the high-tech southern Indian city of Bangalore, leaving one dead and seven wounded. Indian Mujahideen claims to have struck again.
   In July 26, a string of 16 or more bombs hit the communally-tense western city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat state, killing 49 and injuring over 160. Indian Mujahideen sent a claim of responsibility before the blasts.
   In September 13, a series of bomb blasts rock New Delhi, killing 22 and injuring almost a hundred in busy, upmarket shopping areas of the Indian capital. Indian Mujahideen again claims responsibility.
   In September 30, an explosion kills seven and injures 82 at a market in Malegaon, the capital of the state of Maharashtra, 280 kilometres to the north of Mumbai.
   In October 22, 17 people were killed and 30 injured in a powerful bomb blast near a police barracks in the northeast Indian city of Imphal, on the border with Myanmar.
   In October 30, 12 serial attacks in the north eastern Assam state leave 76 dead. The attacks are claimed by an unknown Indian Islamist group the ‘Islamic Security Force-Indian Mujahedeen’.
   In November 26, Islamist gunmen launch coordinated attacks against luxury hotels and other targets in Mumbai, killing at least 125 people.

Acting mayor of Chittagong City Corporation Manzurul Alam joined Bangladesh Nationalist Party and appeared for interview at the party chairperson’s Gulshan office in Dhaka on Thursday seeking nomination to contest the December 29 parliamentary elections for Chittagong-9 (Doublemooring) constituency, party sources and his aides said.
   Manzurul, on Wednesday collected nomination form from the BNP and submitted it the same day in Dhaka, they added.
   But he could not be contacted for comments after his interview.
   Manzurul’s joining the BNP ended speculations about his political future after he was denied nomination by the Awami League for contesting the polls because of his strained relations with mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury.
   When contacted, mayor Mohiuddin, also president of the Chittagong chapter of Awami League, in his reaction said that Manzurul’s departure would not affect the politics of AL in Chittagong in any way.
   ‘Manzurul Alam is not an important figure in Awami League’s politics in Chittagong. He can join whichever party he likes… It does not matter’, Mohiuddin added.
   ‘Actually it was me who plucked him from obscurity and gave him a chance to grow into a local leader. But he could not…’, Mohiuddin said.
   Relationship between Mohiuddin and Manzurul soured after the former was arrested by the army-led joint forces during the interim administration’s anti-graft drive. Mohiuddin, who hand-picked Manzurul for the acting mayor’s job, suspected that the latter was running a parallel administration in the city corporation.
   After Awami League refused to give him nomination, Manzurul started negotiations with local stalwarts of BNP for ticket to contest the polls.
   M Shamsul Alam, a businessman of Chittagong and city Awami League leader, also joined BNP presenting the party chairperson Khaleda Zia with a bouquet to Thursday.
   Liberal Democratic Party presidium member Abdul Karim Abbasi, also a former BNP lawmaker, on Thursday returned to BNP and met Khaleda Zia.
   Alam is seeking nomination for a Chittagong constituency, while Abbasi for a Netrakona constituency, BNP sources said.

The High Court on Thursday declared illegal the detention orders for former public works minister Mirza Abbas and former state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar.
   The High Court bench of Justice Tariq ul Hakim and Justice Farah Mahbub also asked the prison authorities to release the two Bangladesh Nationalist Party leaders from jail if they were not wanted in any other case.
   The court gave the judgment after hearing the rules issued on November 12 asking the government to explain why the detention orders for Abbas and Babar would not be declared illegal.
   The government on October 30 held back Abbas in prison in detention for a month just before his release from jail on bail in all the cases.
   In the detention order for Abbas, the government said people were panicked about his release and the witnesses in the case would not appear in trial court for deposition against Abbas if he was released.
   Abbas’s release will also hamper peaceful atmosphere of the forthcoming parliamentary polls, said the detention order. It also said such activities would be a clear violation of the Emergency Powers Rules.
   A similar detention order was passed for Babar on October 26.
   Abbas’s sister Israt Mirza and Babar’s wife Tahmina Zaman filed separate habeas corps writ petitions challenging the detention orders.
   Their counsel, Ahsanul Karim, told reporters the prosecution had failed to make any argument to defend the government’s statement in the detention orders.
   Abbas was arrested on February 25, 2007 when he went to the Anti-Corruption Commission at Segun Baghicha to submit his wealth statement after the January 11, 2007 changeover while Babar was arrested at his house at Gulshan on May 28, 2007.
   Abbas, also a joint secretary general of the BNP, was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment for tax evasion while Babar was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment in an arms case.
   Ahsanul said, ‘Although the leaders were facing at least four cases, they had recently obtained bail from the High Court in all the cases and the detention orders was passed after the bail orders.’

The exorbitant price of non-urea fertiliser and its insufficient stock will likely jeopardise yield of the upcoming boro season, said the officials and experts.
   Higher price of non-urea fertilisers like triple super phosphate and muriate of potash even when imported by the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation has made the situation worse.
   The country’s demand of phosphate for November, December and January is approximately 1,91,253 tonnes, 1,58,278 tonnes for potash and 61,664 tonnes for di-amonium phosphate.
   While the agricultural development corporation has some 56,000 tonnes of TSP and 50,000 tonnes potash, the private sector has so far no officially declared amount of fertiliser, said a high official of the agriculture ministry.
   The private sector importers are also reluctant to import fertiliser under the situation as their fertilisers remain unsold as farmers procure cheaper fertiliser from the market.
   ‘The government will have to reduce prices of non-urea fertiliser, or the farmers would not buy them, whether sold by the government or private dealers,’ said president of Bangladesh Fertiliser Association, Kafiluddin Ahmed.
   Price hike of non-urea fertilisers would result in over usage of urea which would further threatened yield as excessive urea increases chances diseases in paddy, said agricultural officials.
   On the other hand, the huge price gap between the private and public sector imported non-urea fertilisers has also given rise to frustration among the farmers.
   In Lalmonirhat, the district agriculture committee fixed the price TSP prices for 50kg bags at Tk 3500 and MoP at Tk 2600 while the TSP and MoP imported by the BADC has been fixed at Tk 4400 and Tk 3300 respectively which is beyond the capacity of farmers, said a district official of the Department of Agricultural Extension.
   In Natore, the price per kilogram of TSP and MoP imported by the private sector has been fixed at Tk 72 and Tk 52 while prices of government imported TSP and MoP are Tk 83 and Tk 66 respectively.
   In Sirajgonj, the price per kilogram of private sector imported TSP and MoP are Tk 70 and Tk 55. In case of BADC imported TSP, it is Tk 82.30 and Tk 66.50 for MoP.
   The farmers are usually reluctant to use non-urea fertilisers because they are costlier than urea. The price of TSP in Lalmonihat was Tk 18 and MoP Tk 14 last year. ‘They have abruptly increased to Tk 88 and Tk 66 respectively,’ said the deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension of Lalmonirhat district M Aftab Hossain Khan.
   The dealers under the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation are usually reluctant to sell non-urea fertilisers as those coming from other sources, presumably smuggled from India, are comparatively cheaper than the fertilisers supplied by the public and private sector, said a deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension of Natore district AKM Shakhwat Hossain.
   Another DAE official of Chapainawabgonj district Asim Kumar Malakar told New Age that high prices of non-urea fertilisers and inadequate supply could hamper the upcoming boro production.
   The higher price of fertilisers and lower price of paddy has made the farmers worried. They also find it difficult to maintain a balanced usage of fertilisers, he pointed out.
   ‘We completely failed to sell fertilisers imported by the BADC due to its excessive price. The government will have to increase the subsidy for public sector fertilisers,’ said member director of fertiliser management of BADC Dil Afroz Haque.
   He, however, said that the government would also have to involve some 2203 dealers of the corporation instead of BCIC dealers in the fertiliser sales programme to make it faster.
   Regarding the high prices, the secretary of the agriculture ministry M Abdul Aziz told New Age, ‘The price of public sector imported fertiliser is not important but the availability of fertilisers is more important.’
   The demand of fertilisers for 2008-09 fiscal is nearly 40 lakh tonnes—28.50 lakh tonnes of urea, 5 lakh tonnes of TSP, 4 lakh tonnes of MoP and 2 lakh tonnes of DAP.

Two unbeaten centuries by Ashwell Prince and Mark Boucher bailed South Africa out of a potential danger and guide them to a commendable 357-5 in the first innings of the second Test against Bangladesh at Centurion on Thursday.
   Left-arm spinner Sakib al Hassan took three quick wickets to give Bangladesh an unlikely hope for a first innings lead before the duo helped South Africa regain their control and amble past the tourists’ first innings total of 250.
   At the close of the second day, Prince was unbeaten on 115 off 160 balls, his 10th Test century and the first against Bangladesh. Boucher remained unbeaten on 102 off 162 balls having completed his fifth Test century.
   Thanks to Prince and Boucher the last session of the day entirely belonged to South Africa as they added 165 runs after resuming at 192-5 after the tea break. Their unbeaten 223-run partnership is the new sixth-wicket record for South Africa bettering Graeme Pollock and HR Lance’s 200 against Australia at Durban in 1969-70.
   Bangladesh had began the day brightly with pacer Mahbubul Alam removing Graeme Smith, the perennial headache, who added just 12 runs to his overnight 15 before being trapped lbw off a sharp in-swinger.
   Hashim Amla looked in ominous touch and went for lunch unbeaten on 48 with South Africa on 97-2, but Sakib changed the scenario when he uprooted the stumps of struggling Jacques Kallis (24) after the break.
   Amla soon gave a catch at silly-point to end his innings on 77 and two balls later AB de Villiers was stumped to leave South Africa stuttering at 134-5. Mushfiqur Rahim did a fine job to accomplish the stumping, which was his first such dismissal in Test.
   However, at the end of the day it was South Africa who had the smile on their faces. Sakib finished the day with 3-77.

A suicide car bomb claimed by Taliban insurgents blew up near the US embassy in Kabul Thursday and killed four Afghan civilians while another bomb in the south killed an Australian soldier, officials said.
   The suicide blast, about 100 metres from the heavily secured entrance to the embassy, damaged several vehicles in morning rush-hour traffic. Blood smeared the road and tree branches were set alight.
   ‘The information we have so far is that four people have been killed and three wounded. It was a suicide attack,’ said a city police chief, General Alishah Paktiawal.
   Eighteen people were treated in hospital, health ministry spokesman Abdullah Fahim said.
   Remains of the suicide attacker lay on the ground near the burning remnants of the car used to carry the bomb.
   The heavily barricaded US embassy, which sits on a road entirely closed to traffic, was shut Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday.
   ‘All embassy staff are accounted for,’ US embassy spokesman Mark Stroh said.
   The Taliban, an extremist Islamic group that ran the government in Kabul from 1996 to 2001, said through a spokesman it had carried out the attack and claimed it was aimed at international soldiers passing by.
   However the US military and the separate NATO-led force said they were not aware of their troops having been in the area.
   A shopkeeper also said he had seen no foreigners at the time of the blast, adding the attacker appeared to have accidentally struck a civilian car, causing the explosion.
   ‘He was driving very fast somewhere when he had the accident,’ 20-year-old Arif Hussain said.
   The Afghan capital has suffered a rash of attacks this year, fuelling fears that a Taliban-led insurgency which has mostly affected the south and east of the country is encroaching on the capital.
   The biggest suicide attack in the capital was in July outside the Indian embassy. It killed about 60 people.

US authorities have warned of a possible al-Qaeda threat to transit systems in and around New York City, a Homeland Security official said on Wednesday.
   The New York police said they were increasing security in response to the warning but said this was ‘in an abundance of caution.’ The warning comes at the start of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, one of the busiest US travel periods of the year.
   ‘The New York City Police Department is aware of an unsubstantiated report indicating that al-Qaeda terrorists discussed targeting mass transit in New York City and the vicinity,’ the Deputy Police Commissioner, Paul Browne, said.
   The Homeland Security Department spokesman, Russ Knocke, said the warning was issued on the basis of ‘plausible but uncorroborated information’ and that al-Qaeda may have discussed such attacks in late September.
   Knocke said Homeland Security and the FBI had passed on the warning to state and local officials on Tuesday but there was no specific information to confirm that the plot had developed ‘beyond aspirational planning.’
   The warning was issued as a routine matter and no adjustments were being made to the nation’s threat level.
   New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority said it was aware of ‘threats against transit properties during the holiday season’ and was working closely with officials to increase police presence throughout the sprawling bus and rail system.
   Browne said: ‘In an abundance of caution the NYPD has deployed additional resources in the mass transit system.’
   New York has remained on an orange alert — the second highest level, below red — since the September 11, 2001, attacks that destroyed the World Trade Centre. The rest of the United States is on yellow alert, one level below orange.

The Liberal Democratic Party is unlikely to enter the Awami League-led ‘grand’ electoral alliance as the two parties Thursday failed to reach an agreement on seat sharing for contesting the upcoming parliamentary polls.
   The LDP demanded some 20 seats but the AL offered it no more than five seats, according to AL sources.
   Asked about sharing seats with the Awami League-led alliance, LDP president Oli Ahmed said, ‘We are still in negotiation…The nominations of the alliance for 300 constituencies will be announced together.’
   Awami League plans to give some 50 parliamentary constituencies to its allies, said the party sources.
   The party has, however, made it clear that it had no reservations about making Jatiya Party chairman HM Ershad the president of the republic for the first six months, if the alliance was voted to power, according to two senior AL leaders.
   A senior AL leader and also member of the party’s parliamentary board member told New Age that there was an agreement between Sheikh Hasina and Ershad that the latter would be the president of the country for the first six months, if the alliance won the polls.
   JP presidium member Kazi Zafar Ahmed on Tuesday said they had a gentleman’s agreement with the AL president that Ershad would be made the president if the alliance was voted to power.
   The AL, however, will finalise the seat sharing with the components of the alliance by today but will not formally announce the lists of nominations as the party still sees uncertainty over holding elections on time.

Former prime minister VP Singh, who dethroned late Rajiv Gandhi to form the first non-Congress coalition government in New Delhi in 1989 and later did some social engineering through reservations that changed India’s political course irreversibly, died here Thursday.
   The 77-year-old leader, who has been battling blood cancer for over 17 years and renal failure, breathed his last in Apollo Hospital where he was admitted some six months ago.
   The end came at 1445 hours, a hospital spokesperson said. He is survived by wife Sita Singh and two sons, Ajeya and Abhay.
   Singh was the finance minister and later defence minister during Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure and parted ways with Congress over the Bofors pay-offs issue, whose ghost haunted the Congress for many years.
   After the 1989 elections, the Janata Dal led by VP Singh came to power with outside support from BJP on one side and that of the left parties on the other, but his National Front government did not last more than 11 months.
   It fell after the BJP withdrew support following the arrest of LK Advani during his Somnath to Ayodhya Rath Yatra in 1991. The BJP leader was arrested by the JD government in Bihar, then led by Lalu Prasad.
   Singh’s tenure as prime minister would be best known for the social engineering as his government accepted the Mandal Commission report on job reservations for Other Backward Classes, which virtually ‘mandalised’ the politics in many of the states.

Agriculture secretary Md Abdul Aziz has been made the cabinet secretary as the tenure of the contractual appointment of Ali Imam Majumder in the highest position in civil bureaucracy expires today.
   Aziz took the charge Thursday afternoon after the establishment ministry issued an official notification to this effect. Previously, he also served as secretary to the ministries of education and water resources and as a member of the Planning Commission.
   ‘To ensure administrative order will be one of the main challenges for me….At the moment, our major responsibility is to extend support to the Election Commission for holding a free and fair election’, the new cabinet secretary told reporters at the cabinet division.
   He said that reforming administration was a continuous process and he would do his best to implement the reform initiatives for bureaucracy.
   Earlier on the day, secretaries to different ministries, officials and employees of the cabinet division separately bade farewell to Ali Imam Majumder, who had joined as cabinet secretary on December 6, 2006.
   The outgoing cabinet secretary, who was also the principal secretary to the chief adviser, said that it had been a great opportunity for him to serve the government during a transitional period in the country’s history.
   The immediate past caretaker government led by president Iajuddin Ahmed appointed Ali Imam Majumder as cabinet secretary on December 6, 2006.
   He was supposed go on leave preparatory to retirement on November 29, 2007.
   Aziz, who stood first in BCS cadre (administration) in 1979, was promoted to the rank of secretary in 2005.He is due to go on leave preparatory to retirement on September 30, 2009. Graduated in chemistry from Dhaka University, Aziz joined the same university as a lecturer in 1977 and continued until he was recruited in the civil service in 1979.

Former state minister Amanullah Aman, also a BNP leader, was released on bail Thursday evening.
   Amanullah, who was sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment in a corruption case, came out of the prison cell in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University hospital at about 7:30pm, said deputy inspector general (prisons) Shamsul Haider Siddiqui.
   Amanullah had been treated in the hospital since July 27.
   The army-led joint forces arrested Amanullah, also a former president of the BNP’s student front Jatiayatabadi Chhatra Dal, on February 3, 2007.
   A number of cases were filed against Amanullah on corruption and extortion charges.
   A High Court bench of Justice M Arayesuddin and Justice M Abu Tariq on Wednesday granted bail to Amanullah in the extortion case in which he was jailed for seven years on May 8.
   On September 17, the High Court vacation bench of Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Mamnoon Rahman stayed for three months the lower court judgement in the extortion case.
   He also obtained bail in other cases from the High Court.

The police foiled a human chain of grass roots level activists of Awami League in front of local press club in the town Thursday morning.
   The AL activists started hunger strike and formed a human chain at about 11:00am demanding fresh nominations of candidates as per their choice for the upcoming general elections cancelling all the six nominations in the district given earlier. But the police obstructed the activists and foiled their attempt to form the human chain by charging baton.

The National Moon-sighting Committee will sit for a meeting at the Islamic Foundation today evening to set the date for Eid-ul-Azha by reviewing moon-sighting news of Zilhajj month.
   Religious affairs adviser and president of the committee AF Hassan Ariff will chair the meeting.
   Anyone sighting the moon of Zilhajj 1429 Hijri in the sky of the country has been asked to inform about it over telephone numbers:
   9559493, 9559643, 9556407, 9558337, 9555951 and 9555947.

A man was burnt alive and assets worth an estimated Tk 40,000 were damaged in a fire that broke out in a garment factory at Pahartali in Chittagong on Thursday.
   The fire service and civil defence officials said an electric short-circuit had caused the fire in a warehouse of the Azam Knitting at Azam Nagar at about 8:45am. The fire soon spread to the three-storey building.
   The officials said the second floor of the building was rented out for residential use. One of the residents on the floor, Arab Ali Khan, a resident of Sandwip, sustained burn injuries.
   Chittagong fire service deputy director Ruhul Amin said the local people had taken him to Chittagong Medical College Hospital where he was declared. ‘The garment factory was set up in the residential building illegally,’ he said.
   The building owner, Mohammed Mizan, said they had rented the building out to the garment factory and the factory management had rented out the second floor for residential use without the owner’s permission.

The Border Security Force of India Thursday issued red alert on their side along Benapole border following late Wednesday night’s terrible terrorist attacks in India’s business capital of Mumbai that killed over a hundred people.
   BSF authorities also ordered their troops to shoot-at-sight any civilian in the area after evening. The authorities also imposed ban on movement of civilians along the frontier.
   Following the border alert BDR beefed up vigilance on the frontier, reinforcing its troops to patrol the area so that no Bangladeshis can illegally cross the border.
   The border guards were also kept on alert to tackle any unwanted incident. However, export and import activities between the two countries through the land port remained normal.
   Teams of heavily armed gunmen stormed luxury hotels, a popular tourist attraction and a crowded train station in at least seven attacks in Mumbai, killing at least 101 people and wounding at least 300 on Wednesday night.

Shachetan Shilpi Samaj, a platform of cultural activists and painters, on Thursday, handed over a memorandum to the Dhaka mayor, demanding naming of the Zia International Airport crossing as Lalan square.
   The activists also submitted the signatures, collected in a mass signature campaign, in support of their demand.
   They brought out a procession carrying banners, festoons and posters, and singing patriotic songs on the Dhaka University campus in protest against the dismantling of the sculptures from the airport crossing.
   The police intercepted the procession in front of the Public Library when the marchers were on their way to Nagar Bhaban.
   A group of representatives from the procession took the memorandum and handed it to the Dhaka mayor, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, at Nagar Bhaban.
   They brought out the procession as part of their programmes demanding a free environment for arts and culture.