DHAKA, 30 November 2007 — A senior Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader was arrested for his suspected role in the grenade attack on an Awami League rally in Dhaka in 2004 that left 24 people dead, police said yesterday.

Shahadat Ullah Jewel was the first political leader arrested for his involvement in the attack that targeted Awami League chief and former Premier Hasina Wajed and resulted in the death of senior party leader Ivy Rahman. Jewel was arrested from his residence in Narayanganj town in Dhaka by the Rapid Action Battalion following a statement by Harkatul Jihad Al Islami leader Mufti Hannan that Jewel was involved in the Aug. 21 grenade attack.

Cyclone Death Toll May Cross 4,000

The final toll from cyclone Sidr is likely to be more than 4,000 as hundreds of fishermen are still missing in Bangladesh, the army said yesterday.

Armed forces spokesman Lt. Col. Faruque Hussain, giving updated figures, said 3,256 bodies had been found and that 880 people were missing and feared dead.

Officials had earlier confirmed over 3,400 deaths with 1,700 missing.

“Most of the missing persons are fishermen. We fear that most of them are dead as we did not receive any information of them taking shelter,” he said.

Sidr struck on Nov. 15, smashing into the coast before cutting a swathe through the southern and central districts.

An estimated 360,000 people have been left homeless with around 4.7 million people affected. The government is working with agencies and donor countries to deliver relief to thousands of survivors and has received pledges of more than $470 million in aid.

The storm was the second most powerful cyclone to hit the disaster-prone country since records began.

Half a million people died in a 1970 cyclone, while a cyclonic tidal wave in 1991 killed around 138,000.

An early-warning system and a network of cyclone shelters introduced after the 1970 disaster is credited with saving many lives both this time and in 1991.

Minister Sentenced to Jail

A Bangladesh court convicted a fugitive former government minister of tax evasion and sentenced him to eight years in prison, a lawyer for the prosecution said.

The anti-corruption court also ordered that assets belonging to Ziaul Huq Zia, former state minister for local government and rural development, be seized.

Zia, who served in the government of most recent Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, has been on the run since January when an army-backed interim administration took over and launched a crackdown on corruption.

“The jail sentence will come into force on his arrest or surrender to the court,” said the prosecution lawyer.

The anti-graft court also sentenced another leader of Khaleda’s party and film star Monwar Hossain Dipjol in absentia for eight years on charges of tax evasion.

More than 170 political figures, including Khaleda and her rival Hasina, have been detained to face charges of graft and abuse of power since the interim authority launched the campaign.