Three months after the initiation of the so-called “minus two” plan of the army-backed interim government of Bangladesh to remove former prime ministers Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia from politics, the authorities finally moved decisively against one of them, arresting Hasina in early hours this morning.

Hasina was picked up from her Dhaka residence around 7:30 am following a massive and meticulously planned and executed pre-dawn raid that involved over 1,000 joint forces personnel in over 60 vehicles.

Hasina was taken to appear before a Dhaka magistrate’s court, where she was denied bail by the judge and taken into custody pursuant to a Taka 3 crore extortion case filed against her on June 13.

Hasina is currently being housed in a special “sub-jail” that has been set up for her in the parliamentary complex.

In addition to four extortion cases filed against Hasina over the past three months, an arrest warrant was also issued for her on April 22 pursuant to a murder case filed against her.

She was blamed for the deaths of four Jamaat-e-Islami party cadres at the hands of Hasina’s Awami League party cadres during the course of October street battle between the two parties.

Her current incarceration is pursuant only to the June 13 extortion case. However, she may be brought to court to face the remaining charges that have been filed against her at any time.

The next hearing with respect to the June 13 extortion case has been scheduled for August 15.

In her statement before the magistrate, Hasina categorically rejected the charges against her and stated that her arrest was politically motivated.

“I am not guilty of these charges. The cases have been fabricated against me only as a way to sideline me from politics,” she told the court while entering a plea of “not guilty”.

Speaking on the phone from the USA to reporters in Bangladesh, Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy suggested that the arrest of his mother was part of a conspiracy to exclude her from politics.

He affirmed that AL activists would initiate “worldwide demonstrations” to protest what he termed as Hasina’s “politically motivated” arrest.

“It’s not an attack on my mother, it’s an attack on Bangladesh’s independence,” he was also quoted as saying.

During the proceedings at the magistrate’s court, hundreds of AL activists chanted slogans of support for Hasina outside the court premises.

And at one point the situation got so out of hand that the police was forced to baton charge and fire rubber bullets into the crowd to restore order.

Since taking office on January 11, the interim government has instituted sweeping anti-crime and anti-corruption measures that have resulted in over 200,000 being put behind bars, including dozens of senior leaders of the two main political parties, AL and BNP, and thousands of lower-level party workers and activists.

The government’s next steps, including whether it will now move quickly to also bring Khaleda into custody, will depend on public reaction to Hasina’s arrest.

Dhaka, July 16
Former prime minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Khaleda Zia has been ordered to appear before a court here to face tax evasion charges as part of the interim government’s crackdown on corruption.

The Dhaka chief metropolitan magistrate court ordered Zia to appear before it on August 26, extending an earlier deadline after her lawyers argued they did not get a copy of the summons on time.

The former premier was supposed to appear before metropolitan magistrate Abdullahel Baqi today to face a tax evasion case involving the daily Dinkal newspaper, the mouthpiece of her party.

The office of the registrar of joint stock companies and firms had filed a case against Zia and 12 others, accusing them of violating the Company Act by not submitting the return of the annual financial transactions of the publication from 2000 to 2007.

Other accused in the case included BNP senior joint secretary-general and Zia’s elder son Tarique Rahman, who is in jail facing several criminal charges. — PTI

London, July 16
Over two million people across the globe have pre-ordered the seventh and last book in the Harry Potter series to ensure they are among the first to discover the boy wizard’s fate.

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” will be released next Saturday, marking the final chapter in an extraordinary publishing phenomenon.

Since the first book in the series was published in 1997, the magic of the wizarding world, Hogwarts School and Harry’s battle against dark wizard Lord Voldemort have proved massively popular with children and adults.

Such is the anticipation around the final book that worldwide advance sales have topped two million, according to Amazon. This is well above the previous record of 1.5 million for the sixth instalment, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”.

Britain’s Royal Mail has spent six months planning, how to deliver 600,000 editions of the blockbuster on Saturday. The operation will see 180 extra trucks and an additional train service used to distribute the books from retailers’ warehouses to 1,400 delivery offices across the country on Friday evening and the early hours of Saturday.

Alex Batchelor, Royal Mail’s marketing director told The Daily Telegraph: “We have been working closely with retailers for more than six months to plan our Harry Potter delivery operation with military precision. Postmen and women across the UK will be putting in a magical effort to ensure the delivery of these books is as successful as our performance for the previous two editions of Harry Potter.” — PTI

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Mohammad Farooq Qazi today adjourned till July 25 the hearing in the reference filed against cricketing legend Imran Khan seeking his disqualification as an MP on allegations of moral turpitude.

The respondent was not present in the court. Imran Khan’s counsel advocate Ahmed Owais appeared and requested adjournment on plea that his client is currently in London. He said he had been unable to discuss the reference against Imran and take necessary instructions.

The reference has been filed by the Muttida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in retaliation to Imran’s ongoing campaign against its chief Altaf Hussain to get British authorities proceed against Altaf on charges of sponsoring terrorism in Karachi and money laundering.

Federal minister Sher Afgan has also filed an identical reference against Imran, who has vowed to challenge Afgan in the upcoming elections from home district Mianwali.

Imran Khan went to London attend the all parties’ conference called by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. The references were filed under Articles 63 and 62 of the Constitution and allege that Imran Khan does not fulfill the criteria of eligibility as a member of parliament.

President General Pervez Musharraf has a ‘Messiah complex’, namely the belief that he alone is the saviour of the country he rules, according to CNN’s terrorism expert Peter Bergen, writing in the current issue of the New Republic.

Because of this, he writes, the Pakistani military leader will be “loath to relinquish any of his power”.

Elaborating his point, he adds, “Readers of his 2006 autobiography, ‘In the Line of Fire’, were treated to an ode to the author’s sagacity and leadership ability that was striking even by the self-serving conventions of political memoir.

Perhaps it is not surprising that a dictator would convince himself that only he could save his country.

What is surprising is that Musharraf has managed to convince others as well. And no one has fallen for this hoax harder than President Bush.

It is a central plank of the administration’s foreign policy that democratisation is the best way to counter militant Islamists.

Yet Bush has been strikingly silent on the need for Musharraf to loosen his grip on Pakistan, the world’s second-largest Muslim country.”

Bergen believes that the much talked about ‘deal’ between Benazir Bhutto and General Musharraf now appears to be in jeopardy after the May 12 riots in Karachi.

While Musharraf has also recently reiterated that Bhutto is banned from Pakistan, “that won’t necessarily stop Bhutto from returning to her homeland, since she probably wins no matter what Musharraf does.”

If he jails her, he turns her into a martyr and summons potent memories of Gen Ziaul Haq’s imprisonment and execution of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

If he does nothing when she returns, she will be greeted as a heroine by the millions who will attend her political rallies.

“And so the coming months will likely present Musharraf with a choice. He can assert his authority as a rigid autocrat.

Or he can agree to some sort of power-sharing arrangement with Bhutto and her allies — a deal that would cement an alliance between the secular political parties and the military based on a liberal, moderate vision of Pakistan’s future, but one that would effectively end his one-man rule.”

Bergen wonders at the same time what form the change that everyone anticipates will take.

“Are these the last days of a dying regime? Or the prelude to a crackdown that could snuff out the hopes of Pakistani democrats for years to come?” he asks.

A top-level meeting under President General Musharraf today discussed the fresh wave of reprisal violence in the aftermath of Lal Masjid operation.

It decided to tighten security measures and reinforce personnel in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) currently focus of deadly suicide attacks.

The meeting also took notice of provincial chief minister Akram Durrani’s objection to the army movement in troubled areas without permission of the civil administration and decided to coordinate security initiatives with provincial government.

It was further agreed that 15,000 more policemen be recruited and trained for deployment in these areas.

Islamabad, July 16
Pakistan today said it has not scuttled a peace deal with pro-Taliban militants and was negotiating with tribal elders to save it, amid fears of a fresh round of violence in the country hit by a spate of suicide attacks.

“Deal with the tribal elders in North Waziristan, as far as government of Pakistan is concerned has not been scuttled by the government. The government remains in dialogue with tribal elders,” Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam told media briefing here.

Asked whether it meant the government was still hopeful of making the deal work, Aslam said, “The government has not scuttled the deal and the negotiations with the tribal elders are continuing.”

Pakistani Taliban yesterday ended a peace accord with government of Pakistan, accusing it of violating the accord signed in September last year. — PTI