PRIME Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday urged Leader of the Opposition Khaleda Zia, through Jatiya Sangsad Speaker Abdul Hamid, to return to parliament with her party. We wish, and so does the country, that Khaleda Zia had reassured the nation through an emphatic yes. But that was too much to expect from a single gesture of goodwill; yet, the big question is: why should the Bangladesh Nationalist Party have boycotted the JS for such an inordinately long time, doing neither any good to the party nor to the country?

WE do not want to quote figures - even one death is one too many if that occurs due to abridgment of the due process of law. But so called crossfire has put a blot in the country's image, not to speak of the fact that public confidence, in the government and in those that people seek protection of, has been eroded badly and the credibility of some ministers severely dented.

NOTWITHSTANDING his controversial experimentation with one-party Baksal rule it was Bangabandhu who gambled with his life to bring us independence and metamorphosed the course of the history of the people of Bangladesh in a fundamental way. In the process, he couldn't but clash with the vested interests, who were dislodged from their entrenched position of privilege. In the invisible war between the two in post-liberation Bangladesh the ire of the defeated elements of 1971 fell squarely on Bangabandhu and AL. The first full blast of that ire and the opening shots of the salvo aimed at the AL could be heard in the wee hours of August 15, 1975, when Bangabandhu, the nation's founding father, fell to the self-proclaimed assassins' bullets. With near precision the marauders mowed down the slain hero's entire family, missing his two daughters.

LUBNA Hussein is a 34-year-old Sudanese journalist, who is now famous for wearing pants. She was arrested last July along with 12 other women from a Khartoum café, charged with violation of Sudan's decency law. All of these ladies were found guilty of wearing pants.

NOVEMBER 21, 1971, a glorious day of our national history: On this day combined forces of Bangladesh army, navy and air force launched a concerted effort to put down the occupation army of Pakistan on the wake of unprecedented genocide conducted by them. On this very day armed forces of Bangladesh took a ceremonious birth. Although November 21, 1971 is marked to be the raising day of the Bangladesh armed forces, the Bengali members of army, navy and air force conducted operations in their respective domains against the occupation forces from March 26, 1971. These organs of the armed forces had been carrying out massive destruction of the occupation forces during the liberation war without any pragmatic national directives and military planning. As a matter of fact in the tense situation of our national life in those days when occupation forces were committing inhuman atrocities all over East Pakistan, the armed forces of Bangladesh came into being to confront the occupation forces.