BANGLADESH

Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee was in forefront of the local collaborators who helped the Pakistani army in looting and killing hundreds of people at Parer Hat in Pirojpur district in March 1971, a witness told the International Crimes Tribunal on Wednesday.

Sultan Ahmed Hawlader, the fourth witness to be presented before the three-judge tribunal headed by Nizamul Haque, said he had seen the Pakistani army personnel coming at Parer Hat in Pirojpur sometime in early March during the 1971 Liberation War. A number of locals had assisted the Pakistanis in the loot and arson that followed, he added.

"Delwar Hossain Shikder, who is now known as Delwar Hossain Sayedee, had led the heinous crimes," Hawlader said.

The tribunal has asked the prosecution to produce Sayedee, the first to face prosecution for his alleged war crimes such as murder, rape, arson and loot, before the court on Thursday. Sayedee was indicted on Oct 30, 2011 on 20 counts of "crimes against humanity".

Sayedee was present in the court on Wednesday when his counsel finished the cross-examination of the third witness, Mizanur Rahman Talukder. However, after Hawlader's deposition, the defence counsels told the court that they were not prepared to cross-examine the fourth witness.

Sayedee's lawyer Tazul Islam told the court that his client was ill and needed physiotherapy. "It's difficult for him to stay in the courtroom for a long time."

The court allowed Sayedee to get some physiotherapy on Thursday morning and ordered the defence to present him during the cross-examination of Hawlader.

On Mar 25, 2010, the government had constituted the high-powered three-member tribunal along with a special investigation agency and a prosecution cell. This was in line with the election pledges of the ruling Awami League to bring war criminals to justice.

Five of the seven high-profile war crime suspects so far to face trial belong to Jamaat while two are from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

The other Jamaat leaders to face trial are party chief Matiur Rahman Nizami, secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and assistant secretaries general Muhammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Molla.

The two BNP leaders are Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury MP and former minister Abdul Alim. The tribunal had granted conditional bail to Abdul Alim on Mar 31.

If convicted, the accused face a maximum of death penalty or a minimum of 10 years of imprisonment for crimes like mass killings, murders, arsons and rapes under the International Crimes Tribunal Act.

Fog has continued to disrupt ferry services on Daulatdia-Paturia route.

Like previous nights, ferry services were hampered for nearly 11 hours until Wednesday morning.

Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) Daulatdia pier assistant general manager Zillur Rahman told  that ferry services resumed around 9:30am on Wednesday.

Ferries Shah Paran, Amanat Shah, Shah Jalal and Matiur Rahman got stranded in Daulatdia pier while Khan Jahan, Keramat Ali, Hamidur Shah Ali and Kumari in Paturia pier, leaving hundreds of passengers into severe trouble.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina will visit India's Northeast early next year, according to a senior local official.

She will visit Tripura on Jan 12 next year to participate in a convocation programme of Tripura University, vice chancellor Prof Arunoday Saha said on Wednesday. "The university will confer upon her honorary doctorate degree - Doctor of Literature - during her visit."

This will be her maiden to the region.

"Prime minister Sheikh Hasina has given her consent to attend the 9th convocation of the Tripura University scheduled for Jan 12," Prof Saha said

The vice president of India, Hamid Ansari, is likely to handover the degree to Sheikh Hasina at the programme.

Earlier, governor of Tripura D Y Patil and chief minister Manik Sarkar during their visit to Dhaka had extended separate invitations to the prime minister and Awami League president to visit the state.

Tripura shares a long 857-km border and has a close cultural affinity with Bangladesh.

Sarkar, along with Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi, Mizoram chief minister Lal Thanhawla and Mukul Sangma of Meghalaya accompanied Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh on his two-day Bangladesh tour on Sep 6-7.

After his return from Dhaka, he told reporters "The Bangladesh prime minister is keen to visit Tripura, and the Tripura University in consultation with the Indian and Bangladeshi authorities is giving final shape to her visit."

Sarkar added, "Hasina will be the first Bangladeshi prime minister to visit the Northeast. It will further enhance the bilateral relation between the two nations, and boost trade and business relations between the northeast region of India and its closest neighbour Bangladesh."

The Tripura government is preparing for a grand reception to the Bangladesh premier and the Indian vice president.

Hasina is expected to hold a high level meeting with the Tripura chief minister and other top Indian officials in Agartala to finalise more strategies to boost trade and business between Bangladesh and India's northeastern states.

She will stay here on Jan 12 and leave for Dhaka the next day.

Hasina may also visit one or two locations of the erstwhile base and training camps of Bangladeshi "Mukti Bahini" (Bangladeshi freedom fighters) in Tripura, which had over 16 such camps in various parts of the state where the freedom fighters took arms training to fight out Pakistani occupation forces.

Moreover, during the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971, over 1,600,000 Bangladeshi nationals had taken shelter in Tripura. Their number exceeded the then population of the state.

Another round of power tariff hike is set to be announced on Thursday.

Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) member Selim Mahmud told  on Wednesday the announcement will be made at a news conference at the BERC office in Karwan Bazar in Dhaka.

"The cost of electricity at consumer level (retail) is increasing. The process (of rate fixing) is already complete," Mahmud added.

The BERC member, however, would not reveal the extent of hike now.

BERC had raised bulk price of electricity for the third time this year by 31.16 percent on Nov 24. The increase took effect in two phases: from Dec 1 and subsequently from Feb 1.

The government on Feb 8 raised the average retail power tariffs by five percent to Tk 4.20 from Tk 4 from Feb 1.

The consumer-level tariffs were, however, not applicable for using up to 100 units in houses, irrigation and non-residential religious, social and educational institutions.

Mass hearings on the hike of retail power price were held in the power distributing companies from April to November.

Rural Electricity Board (REB) proposed to raise retail power price by 12. 97 percent, West Zone Power Distribution Company Limited (WZOPDCO) 18.99 percent, Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited (DESCO) 21.94 percent, Dhaka Power Distribution Company Limited (DPDC) 11.93 percent and Power Development Board (PDB) proposed to raise the tariff by 21 percent.

Selim said the tariff rates would be same for all companies except REB.

The president will hold dialogues on forming the new Election Commission with parties represented in parliament from Thursday.

His press secretary A K M Nesar Uddin Bhuiyan told  on Dec 18 that Jatiya Party (H M Ershad) and Jatiya Shamajtantrik Dal (JSD Inu) had been invited to the first day's dialogue.

Each party will be asked to bring 10 delegates, he said.

In reply to a question, he said among the parties who were not in parliament, 'important' ones would also be asked to join the dialogue.

There are 38 political parties registered with the Election Commission, of which only eight are represented in parliament.

They are: ruling Awami League, opposition BNP, Jatiya Party, Jatiya Shamajtantrik Dal, Bangladesh Workers' Party, Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, Bangladesh Jatiya Party and Liberal Democratic Party.

The Awami League-led ruling alliance has 239 seats, the BNP-led opposition alliance 32, Jatiya Party 25, Jamaat-e-Islami two and LDP one.

The present Election Commission, led by chief election commissioner A T M Shamsul Huda, commissioners Sohul Hossain and M Shakhawat Hossain, started off on Feb 5, 2007 during the caretaker government regime.

The commission gave the caretaker government a draft law that they believe will help the EC stay credible. During the present government's term, it discussed the proposal with registered political parties.

The EC is supposed to submit the draft to government this month.

There have been 19 election commissioners and 10 chief election commissioners in Bangladesh since independence.

The 15th amendment to the constitution limits the number of election commissioners to five.