UNB, Dhaka

The BNP secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, on Friday alleged that former prime minister Khaleda Zia, also party chairperson and her two sons have been kept detained illegally.

‘This is a conspiracy to destroy the BNP,’ Delwar said when a delegation of Meherpur district BNP led by Advocate Shahbuddin met him at his NAM apartment.

Describing Barapukuria coalmine case as false, Delwar said such false cases are being filed one after another to keep Khaleda in prison. He demanded immediate release of the BNP chairperson and urged the party workers to remain united and further strengthen the organisation.

The BNP chairperson was arrested on September 3 last year in connection with the GATCO scam case. Former BNP lawmaker Principal Sohrabuddin and the party’s acting office secretary Rizvi Ahmed were present. Meanwhile, BNP chairperson’s adviser ASM Hannan Shah left for Kuala Lumpur Thursday night on a ‘business trip’, his son Shah Rezaul Hannan told the news agency.

Hannan Shah is expected to return home on March 3. India hikes defence budget to $26.40b(SC) Agence France-Presse . New Delhi India on Friday jacked up defence spending by 10 per cent to 26.4 billion dollars, the steepest hike since independence to fund a mammoth modernisation programme.

The finance minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, boosted expenditure for the fiscal year ending March 2009 from the previous allocation of 24 billion dollars saying security was of paramount importance. India plans to spend at least 30 billion dollars until 2012 to modernise the military with an immediate purchase of 126 war jets costing 12 billion dollars followed by ships, submarines, artillery and other hardware in coming years.

Chidambaram set aside 12 billion dollars for arms purchases during the current fiscal year after New Delhi promised the armed forces will not face funds shortages in the drive to upgrade materiel.

The 1.23-million-strong army, the world’s fourth largest, received nine billion dollars to help modernise mechanised divisions, artillery and air defence units. However, senior commanders privately said the funds may not suffice to meet the army’s long-term modernisation programme.

‘The 10 per cent increase will barely offset our nearly five percent inflation rate and 40 per cent funds will go for the upkeep of assets and our existing manpower,’ a senior infantry commander said.

Chidambaram also set aside millions of dollars in addition to the annual defence outlay to set up institutions and schools for families of servicemen and women.

He committed 1.85 billion dollars to the navy which is shopping for six submarines in addition to the six it bought last year from Armaris and European defence firm MBDA for three billion dollars.

The 137-ship navy is also in advanced negotiations to buy eight long-range reconnaissance planes from either US-based Boeing or the European consortium EADS for two billion dollars, besides building a nuclear-powered submarine. Chidambaram allotted 2.71 billion dollars for the air force which is still flying ageing Russian MiG jets.

The remaining funds were marked for research development and ordnance factories which are in the process of deploying India’s guided and ballistic missiles that can carry nuclear warheads.

The increase was likely to be closely monitored in Pakistan which has accused nuclear rival India of sparking an arms race by spending almost three percent of GDP on its million-plus military forces.

For the current fiscal year which ends March 31, India increased defence spending by 7.8 per cent. Also, India for the first time set aside 125 million dollars to be spent on the ‘urgent needs of development of border areas’ such as the north-eastern Arunachal Pradesh state, which is claimed in full by China.

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