Two more mass graves of massacred army officers were unearthed on Saturday as the government announced the formation of a tribunal for speedy trial of rebel Bangladesh Rifles jawans involved in the pogrom against their officers.

The army, meanwhile, reaffirmed their support to the government. Emotions ran high at army headquarters with many officers mourning deaths of their fellow servicemen. “Let me tell you all again that the Bangladesh army is subservient to the government,” army chief General Moeen U Ahmed told reporters after meeting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina late Friday.

“We are a people’s army serving the nation and upholding democracy. Please stay calm. We are trying to address the situation and resolve (disputes) with the help of everyone.”

While Lieutenant General MA Mubin gave a nationally televised address under instructions from the PM, saying the government will hunt down and try the rebels responsible for the killings.

“The BDR (Bangladesh Rifles) troops who took part in these barbaric and grisly acts cannot be pardoned and will not be pardoned,” said Mubin. “They will be given exemplary and quick punishment by a special tribunal. The martyrs will be buried with state honours,” he said. The two unearthed graves on Saturday revealed 10 more dead bodies, including the mutilated dead body of the wife the slain BDR director general. The latest find takes the death toll to 76. Firefighters told reporters they expected to find more bodies in the ongoing search at the mutiny site at BDR headquarters in Dhaka’s Pilkhana area. 

The five major coalition partners in the government agreed to set up the high-level committee to probe the massacre at the royal palace.A meeting of the political mechanism formed by the five parties for assisting the government consented to investigate the royal massacre in which 10 royals were killed on June 1, 2001.

They agreed to form a separate suggestion committee to assist the massacre probe committee, Unified CPN- Maoist leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha was quoted as saying by the Kantipur online today. A probe panel set up by the then government of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala had blamed the then crown prince Dipendra for the killings. — PTI

Kathmandu, February 28
Even as Charles Gurmukh Sobhraj has lined up a battery of lawyers to argue his case, the celebrity criminal received a fresh setback in his attempt to get an early release from Kathmandu's Central Jail, where he is serving life term for a three-decade old murder case.

Nicknamed the "Bikini killer" and "Serpent", 64-year-old Sobhraj has been accused of luring young women and killing many of them.

Fresh prosecution in Sobhraj's trial was postponed for the second time at the Patan Appellate Court yesterday, causing further delay in the final verdict in the murder case of a US backpacker Conie Joe Bronzich in 1975.

The prosecution was postponed as a senior lawyer was preoccupied with another case, according to court sources.

Sobhraj, who was earlier held in New Delhi's Tihar prison, was deported to France in 1997. Sobhraj was arrested in 2003 by the police from a Kathmandu casino on fake passport case. Sobhraj was later convicted by the Kathmandu district court in 2004 for the murder of an American tourist. Sobhraj applied in the Patan Appellate Court but it endorsed the district court's verdict and has been serving 20-year prison term in the Central jail.

Sobhrajs lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court as the last resort to free him. The Supreme Court had earlier ruled that the appeal of the French national would be dealt with after the District Court decided on a fake passport case.— PTI 

New York, February 28
The intensifying battle between Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif could result in tilting of political balance towards fundamentalists and even serve to make the military restive for “power again,” according to a media report.

If the situation continues to worsen, there will be new opportunities for the religions right that would be inimical to Washington, ‘The New York Times’ reported quoting Pakistani politicians and analysts.

The paper quoted officials as saying that though Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has vowed to keep the army out of politics, and is serious about his pledge, there could come a time when political instability becomes so great and the Army would feel compelled to step in. The domestic struggle is shaping up as a potential crisis for the Obama administration as it tries to focus the government on fighting the Al-Qaida and Taliban insurgency, the Times said.

For Pakistan, where the military has ruled for more than half of the 61 years since independence and civilian governments have rarely completed a full term, combat between senior politicians is quite familiar, the Times noted. The fresh political crisis was set off by a Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday that bars Sharif, and his brother, Shahbaz, from holding any elected office. — PTI

The Pakistan Muslim League (N) has decided to call a nationwide strike on March 6 to protest against imposition of governor’s rule in Punjab.

The decision for the countrywide shut down was taken at a meeting of the PML-N parliamentarians chaired by party chief Nawaz Sharif in Lahore on Saturday. It was also decided that the party would organise a big march on the city’s main boulevard, The Mall, on March 6, which would culminate in front of the Punjab Assembly.

Meanwhile, sporadic protest demonstrations continued in some cities of Punjab on the third day.

PML-N leader Javed Hashmi led a party procession to Liaquat Bagh, the site of assassination of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto, and denounced Thursday’s incident in which some persons had damaged her memorial and burned PPP flags.

Hashmi said the PML-N considered Bhutto a great national leader who had signed Charter of democracy with Nawaz Sharif to restore genuine democracy in the country for which both leaders had made sacrifices. He said people who had vandalised her memorial were not workers of the PML-N. In capital Islamabad, the National Assembly began a special session called by the Cabinet to discuss the situation in Punjab. PML-N members entered the assembly hall wearing black bands and shouted slogans against President Zardari. Opening the debate, PML-N’s Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who is also leader of the Opposition, termed the presidential decree on Punjab as illegal and unconstitutional.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) 31st Council of Ministers meeting, which concluded in Colombo on Saturday, has agreed to establish a high-level group of eminent experts to review and make proposals to further strengthen SAARC anti-terrorism mechanisms.

In the ministerial declaration in cooperation in combating terrorism, the ministers reiterated their commitment to implement measures against terrorist activities and undertook to take appropriate practical measures, administrative and legal, to ensure that the respective territories of each country is not used for terrorist installations or training camps, or for the preparation or the organisation of terrorist acts intended to be committed against other states or their citizens. The declaration also said the countries are committed to ensure the apprehension and prosecution or extradition of persons connected, directly or indirectly, with the commission of terrorist acts, subject to the provisions of national laws.

The Council of Ministers also supported the development of an integrated border management mechanism and to urgently ratify and effectively implement the SAARC convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, signed at the 15th SAARC summit in Colombo.