13 nov, 2014 copy

B1 | BusinessCommerce Minister Tofail Ahmed crit-icised US Ambassador in Dhaka Dan W Mozena for saying Bangladesh pays zero tari� for RMG export to the US market.

3 | NewsJatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad yester-day said BNP founder Ziaur Rahman was a freedom � ghter but he destroyed the spir-it of the Liberation War. He said the BNP founder’s wife Khaleda Zia had handed the national � ag over to anti-liberation forces.

6 | NationAbout 5 lakh residents of Phulchhari and Saghata upazilas have been su� ering as the Bonarpara-Saghata road became al-most unusable because of not having any repair works of it for long.

4 | NewsA speedy trial tribunal will now deal with the case � led over the murder of Special Branch inspector Mahfuzur Rahman and his wife Swapna Rahman in the capitallast year.

15 | EntertainmentThe 66th birth anniversary of famous Bangladeshi director, author, dramatist, screenwriter, playwright and � lmmaker Humayun Ahmed is being observed today.

8 | WorldThe US and China announced a largely sym-bolic plan Wednesday to implement new limits on carbon emissions, the highlight of a summit between Barack Obama and Xi Jinping in which both leaders played down suggestions of di� erences and rivalry.

WHO OWNS DHAKA UNIVERSITY?

11 | OP-ED

THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM FROM EXTREME POVERTY

7 | LONG FORM

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

Kartik 29, 1421Muharram 19, 1436Regd No DA 6238Vol 2, No 219

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RONALDO:MESSI NICKNAME CLAIMS ‘FALSE’

14 | SPORT

With the drive against un� t vehicles under way for the past few days, the number of public transports have fallen drastically in the capital. As a result, Dhaka residents are being forced to choose risky alternatives. A man, pictured wearing a striped shirt, was sitting on the back of a pickup van near Karwan Bazar yesterday and when suddenly the tailgate of the vehicle popped open the man falls with his face down on the road. Luckily, he avoided any serious injury as there was no other vehicle behind the van MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Khaleda asks party men to resist oppression with swords and shieldsn Mohammad Al-Masum Molla and

Tafsilul Aziz from Kishoreganj

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia yester-day asked leaders and activists of herparty to face the government’s repres-sive acts with swords and shields if needed.

“Kishorganj is the home of the brave hero Isa Khan. You surely have not for-gotten Isa Khan’s sword. So, if the gov-ernment intensi� es its repression, you

will have to counteract with swords and shields,” she said.

She was addressing a massive rally at the Gurudayal College playground in the Kishorganj district town yesterday organised to drum up public support in favour of the demand for election un-der a non-partisan government.

Shariful Alam, acting president of the Kishorganj district chapter of BNP chaired the programme.

Branding the police as a corrupt

force on which people have lost faith, Khaleda called upon the foreign coun-tries and organisations to stop extend-ing support to police and RAB.

“I call upon foreign countries to not sell arms, ammunition, tear gas and provide other logistic support to police and RAB because they are being used to kill and abduct opposition men, com-mon people and students...The arms and ammunitions are not being used

PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

HT Imam: Pass BCS writtentest, I willsee the restn DU Correspondent

HT Imam, political adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, yesterday told Awami League-backed student wing Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) ac-tivists to simply pass the BCS written test and he would see the rest.

He also advised them to engross themselves in studies.

“You need to prepare yourself properly for the written part in the BCS examination and I will see the rest,” Imam said speaking at a seminar at the Teacher-Student Centre of Dhaka University.

The Bangladesh Chhatra League or-ganised the seminar marking the Jail Killing Day.

“Whenever we approach the prime minister with a request for a job she asks if the man requiring a job has a BCL background and then she tells us to manage it by all means,” Imam said.

Chhatra League contributed to all the epoch-making movements of the country. “You need to prepare your-self as e� cient men so that you can contribute mostly to the developing sectors.

Chaired by BCL President HM Bo-duzzaman Sohag, the event was also addressed, among others, by former liberation war a� airs minister AB Tajul Islam, prominent columnist professor Momtaz Uddin Ahmed and BCL Gener-al Secretary Siddique Nazmul Alam. l

Owners create arti� cial transport crisisBus drivers say crisis will weaken drive against un� t vehicles; BRTA says strategy won’t workn Abu Hayat Mahmud

Public transport owners have created an arti� cial crisis by limiting the num-ber of vehicles on roads as well as trips with the aim of compelling the BRTA (Bangladesh Road Transport Authority) to make the ongoing drive against un� t vehicles lax, alleged some drivers.

The drivers, who were sitting in a tea stall at Gabtoli bus terminal yesterday, told the Dhaka Tribune they would not return to work until the BRTA drive stopped.

They also challenged that the BRTA would take no action against transport owners as most of them belong to the ruling party leaders.

Ashraful, driver of a bus company o� ering services from Azimpur to Gazi-pur, said the bus owners not allowing their vehicles on roads now would change decision once the ongoing drive stopped.

Khandaker Enayet Ullah, president of Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Malik Samity and secretary general of Dhaka Sarak Paribahan Malik Samity, denied the allegation, saying there was no reason to support drives against un� t vehicles.

Enayet is the owner of Ena Pariba-han, a city bus service running between Mirpur and Motijheel. A few un� t bus-es of his company were also seen on the roads yesterday.

Interference from interest groups, PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

Tamim, Imrul stamp their authorityn Mazhar Uddin from Chittagong

Centuries from openers Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes propelled Bangladesh to a commanding position by the close of the opening day’s play of the third and � nal Test against Zimbabwe in Chittagong.

The hosts piled up 303 runs for the loss of two wickets in their � rst innings at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadi-um yesterday with in-form batsmen Mominul Haque unbeaten on 46 and Mahmudullah undefeated on � ve.

That the home side are heading to-wards a big � rst innings total is down to the opening pair of Tamim and Imrul,

not only Bangladesh’s most successful opening pair but the most prosperous Tigers duo in Test match cricket. The left-handers shared 224 runs for the opening wicket and created numerous records, maintaining the trend of the ongoing three-match Test series that has already given birth to countless feats.

It will not take a rocket scientist to assert that the day totally belonged to Tamim and Imrul. Tamim struck 109 from 171 balls with the help of 14 boundaries and a six while Imrul hit 130 from 257 deliveries featuring a doz-en fours and two sixes.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

Verdict in Khokon’s war crimes case todayn Ahmed Zayeef

A war crimes tribunal has � xed today for delivering the verdict in the war crimes case against fugitive BNP leader MA Zahid Hossain Khokon Alias Khokon Razakar for the alleged crimes he has committed against humanity in 1971.

The � rst International Crimes Tri-bunal (ICT), led by Justice M Enayetur Rahim, � xed the date yesterday.

According to the prosecution, Khokon led the razakar bahini, an aux-iliary force of the Pakistan army, in the Faridpur district in 1971.

The 70-year-old faces 11 charges, in-cluding genocide, torture, abduction, rape and con� nement. He was also in-volved in forced conversion of Hindus, torching houses and temples and de-porting seven people.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

Tamim IqbalImrul Kayes

News2 DHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, November 13, 2014

Afsana Begum, pictured with tubes in her nose, and her relatives were waiting for an ambulance near the Dhaka Medical College Hospital yesterday as she needed to be moved to a di� erent medical facility. With tra� c jam causing the ambulance to be late, they were forced to ignore the risks to her health and take a rickshaw instead MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Owners create arti� cial crisis PAGE 1 COLUMN 1politically connected stakeholders and corrupt o� cials has thwarted e� orts by successive governments to get un� t ve-hicles brought up to standard or banned from the roads but the government ap-pears to be much stricter this time.

The latest drive which began on Monday continued yesterday as three mobile courts operated in three sepa-rate zones in Dhaka and adjacent areas.

BRTA Director (enforcement) Bijoy Bhushan said two mobile teams worked at Kalabagan and Banglamotor while and another at Chowrasta in Gazipur.

“A large number of vehicles in the cap-ital are un� t. The BRTA warned about the drive around six months ago, and sug-gested transport owners to recondition the un� t vehicles and collect � tness cer-ti� cate. But they did not do it,” he said.

“The owners are now trying to cre-ate arti� cial crisis on the roads to gar-ner public support against the drive but it would prove futile,” he added.

Tra� c police sources yesterday said vehicles that looked � t on the outside but either lacked � tness certi� cates or actually were not up to the mark in terms of condition had returned to roads.

Passengers, however, still com-plained about the availability of buses on the third day of the drive but many said they were content with the action.

Abdul Alim, who works at a private bank, said the transport shortage was temporary and hoped the problem would be solved soon.

He also thanked the government for taking such an initiative, saying: “The transport owners must � x their vehi-cles and do everything else necessary if they want to be in the business.”

“Passengers face numerous troubles especially during the rainy season as a large number of buses have no glasses in windows beside passenger seats. Cracks are also seen in the bus roofs,” Alim added.

BRTA data shows some 313,000 motor vehicles without � tness certi� cates are operating across the country. Besides, some 93,600 out of around 800,000 mo-tor vehicles carrying passengers in Dha-ka do not have � tness certi� cates.

In the last three days, around 3,000 cases were � led, � nes amounting to Tk3,000,000 were imposed and around 50 people were sent to prison across the country, said BRTA o� cials. l

Verdict in Khokon’s war crimes PAGE 1 COLUMN 1As vice-president of the Nagarkanda unit of BNP, Khokon won the munici-pality election in 2011 to become may-or. He went into hiding after taking oath, and the investigation agency as-sumes that he is now in Sweden with his son and daughter.

On July 18 last year, the ICT-1 ac-cepted the 11 charges and issued an arrest warrant against him. Khokon was indicted in absentia on October9 last year.

During the proceedings, the pros-ecution called 24 witnesses against Khokon, while none were produced for the fugitive accused.

On April 17 this year, after both prosecution and defence � nished placing their arguments, the tribunal kept the case as Curia Advisari Vult (CAV), meaning “verdict would bedelivered later.”

According to the investigation agen-cy, Khokon was a close associate of death row fugitive war criminal Abul Kalam Azad and took part in election-eering on behalf of a Jamaat-e-Islami candidate in 1970. He was involved with the Jamaat and later joinedthe BNP.

ChargesThe charges include con� nement, tor-ture, looting and arson in the village Banagram under the Nagarkanda po-

lice station in Faridpur on April 27, 1971. The second charge involves looting,

arson and realising money in Nagar-kanda on a day between April 28 and May 6.

The third charge states forced con-version and deportation of Hindu com-munity people in village Jangurdi-Ba-gutia in between May 16 and May 28.

The fourth charge accuses Khokon of looting, arson, destruction of tem-ples and houses and rape in the village Chandghat on May 27 while the � fth charge is about genocide, looting and arson in village Shahidnagar-Kodalia on May 30.

According to the sixth charge, Khokon is accused of murder, geno-cide, seriously injuring and arson in village Ishwardi on May 30.

The seventh charge is for murder, genocide and looting in three villages Shahidnagar-Kodalia, Banagram and Meherdia on May 31.

The eighth charge is for murder, looting and arson in village Goaldi on May 31 while the ninth involves mur-der, genocide, looting and arson in vil-lage Purapara the same day.

The 10th charge states murder, genocide, looting and arson in vil-lage Bagat-Churiarchar on June 1 and the 11th and the last charge is for seriously injuring one by shooting with the intention of killing in villageJangurdi-Bagutia. l

Tamim, Imrul stamp their authority PAGE 1 COLUMN 3Their 224-run association broke Bang-ladesh’s previous record for the open-ing wicket, 185, which was put up by the same pair against England at Lord’s in 2010.

Tamim and Imrul’s 224-run stand was also the fourth time a Bangladesh duo added 200 runs for any wicket and features in third place in the list of highest partnerships for Bangladesh for any wicket.

The two southpaws’ record-break-ing feat is now the highest partnership for any wicket between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, breaking the previous record of 150 set by Brendan Taylor and Tatenda Taibu in January 2005.

It was a good toss to win for Bangla-desh’s Test skipper Mush� qur Rahim who immediately opted to bat on a pitch which has always proven itself to be a batting paradise. Imrul, coming back to the Test side after two months in place

of the outgoing Shamsur Rahman, and Tamim provided their side a dream start.

Tamim started from where he had left o� against Zimbabwe in the sec-ond Test in Khulna while Imrul played sensibly at the other end. Imrul exud-ed sheer con� dence from the very be-ginning as he smashed the very � rst delivery that he faced to the boundary fence. Tamim on the other hand was compact and a model of patience.

Imrul though had the rub o� the green when he was 19. The left-hand-er tried to blast a full toss bowled by Natsai M’shangwe only to present it to the hands of Brian Chari who missed a simple chance at the deep square-leg boundary.

However, since then both the Bang-ladeshi openers dominated the Zim-babwean bowling attack and reached their half centuries just after lunch. Both Tamim and Imrul remained calm and resolute and played the ball ac-

cording to its merit.Tamim soon reached his sixth Test

century, his � rst at his hometown. Tamim has now equaled Mohammad Ashraful’s tally of six Test centuries, the highest by a Bangladesh batsman. Tamim’s 252-min-ute vigil at the crease ended when Sikan-dar Raza dismissed him.

Imrul at the other end remained fo-cus and smote his second Test century before the tea interval with both of his tons coming at this ground. The lad from Meherpur, Kushtia gave a timely reminder of his talents to the selectors as another opener, Anamul Haque, was also in contention for an opening berth prior to the start of this Test. Hamilton Masakadza might have dismissed him for 130 but by then the opening duo had already done their job and how. Tamim and Imrul have now added 1453 runs as an opening pair in 33 Test innings at an average of 44, easily Bangladesh’s best opening pair in Test matches. l

Khaleda asks party men to resist oppression PAGE 1 COLUMN 6to � ght militancy and crime,” she said.

Khaleda urged the United Nations to not recruit RAB personnel to its peace-keeping missions and international or-ganisations to not provide training to police members.

She a� rmed that her party would o� cially send documents and reports to international rights watchdogs, as proof of the repressive acts of the two law enforcement agencies.

Alleging that the Detective Branch (DB) of police had been turned into “contract killers,” she said getting good posting and promotions now depended on their successes in contract killing as-signments.

Terming the Awami League govern-ment as the “new Mir Zafar” (who be-trayed Nawab Sirajuddowla in the 18th century and is synonymous to traitor), the former premier said traitors have never won.

Talking on the judiciary, she said the people of the country would take good care injustices done by judges no mat-ter how powerful a judge might be.

She then quoted a couple of lines from the famous Liberation War-era song “Bicharpati tomar bichar korbe jara, aaj jegeche shei janata” which rough-ly translates as “people, who will bring judges to justice, have woken up today.”

Assuring that the BNP would always be by their side, she also asked the judges to not fear anyone in performing their duties towards justice.

Labelling the Awami League and its associate bodies Chhatra League, Jubo League and Swechchasebak League as the most powerful entities in the coun-try, the BNP chief said the ruling party would have to face worse consequenc-es than what autocrat HM Ershad had faced after stepping down.

She also bashed the government for what she said was foiling her party’s

scheduled November 8 rally in the cap-ital.

A man riding an elephant, reminisc-ing Isa Khan with his kingly attire and a wooden sword, welcomed the former premier upon her arrival at the Kishor-ganj Circuit House around 3pm.

This was Khaleda’s 8th visit outside the capital since the January 5 election that her party and alliances had boy-cotted.

On the occasion of Khaleda’s visit, the Kishorganj town was redecorated to give it a festive look, with central points covered with colourful banners, posters, festoons and placards.

Several hundred archways were erected on the road from the Bhair-ab-Megna bridge to the rally venue.

The BNP chief last visited Kishor-ganj in 2006 when she was in the of-� ce. While campaigning for the 2008 election, she visited Bhairab, an upazi-la under Kishorganj. l

Ismail abduction: Three sacked Rab o� cials,Nur Hossain sued in Narayanganjn UNB

A case was � led with a local court yes-terday against 16 people, including Nur Hossain and three sacked RAB o� cials, all accused in the sensational sev-en-murder case, on charge of abduct-ing an Awami League leader.

Abdul Mannan, brother of victim Is-mail Hossain, lodged the case with the Senior Judicial Magistrate’s Court.

Taking cognisance of the complaint, Senior Judicial Magistrate KM Mahi-uddin ordered the Detective Branch to submit a report along with that of the sensational seven-murder case.

The former RAB o� cials accused in the case are Lt Col Tareque Sayeed Mohammad, Major Arif Hossain and Lt Commander MM Rana.

The plainti� alleged that Nur Hos-sain, the prime accused in the sev-

en-murder case, and the three RAB o� cers were involved in the abduction of his brother.

According to a case � led with Sonar-gaon police station after the alleged abduction, unidenti� ed miscreants ab-ducted Ismail, a contractor by profes-sion and a resident of Kutubpur area of Sonargaon upazila, on his way to Dhaka in a microbus on February 7 this year.

Family members alleged that the

three RAB o� cials sacked for their al-leged link to the seven murders had also kidnapped Ismail Hossain to real-ise Tk2 crore as ransom.

After the abduction, the family members said, then RAB 11 Commanding O� cer Lt Col Tareque sent a letter written by Ismail to them by two members of the elite force demanding Tk2 crore in ransom for his release. l

Comilla medical students boycott classes protesting corporal punishment n Our Correspondent, Comilla

Students of Comilla Medical College boy-cotted classes and examinations yester-day protesting corporal punishment.

The students lay siege to academic building where they staged demonstra-tion demanding removal of Principal Dr Mosleuddin Ahmed.

A � fth year student who preferred to be unnamed said the principal often beat students with broom, threw dust-er towards them and slap them.

“Yesterday (Tuesday), he also as-saulted a student of � rst year over a trivial matter,” he said.

The protesting students threatened that they would continue their protest until college authority remove the prin-cipal.

Dr AKM Abdul Mannan told the Dha-ka Tribune that the students who had waged a movement against the prin-cipal had helped admission seekers to adopt unfair means and college princi-pal rebuked them for their misdeeds.

He said they were looking into the matter and hoped that the students would go back to classes soon.

Dr Mosleuddin Ahmed who was in Dhaka for o� cial purpose told the Dha-ka Tribune over phone that students tried to ruin congenial atmosphere of the campus and he was compelled to take some steps which went against them. l

Joint secy sent on forced retirement over FF certi� cate scandaln UNB

The government sent Joint Secretary (OSD) Abul Kasem Talukder, who had obtained fake freedom � ghter certi� -cate, on forced retirement.

The Public Administration Ministry issued a noti� cation in this regard on Sunday. However, the order was made public yesterday.

The order said as o� cer on special duty Abul Kasem Talukder completed 25 years in service and as the govern-ment thinks he should be sent on re-tirement in the public interest, the gov-ernment sent him to retirement.

It, however, said he will enjoy all post-retirement privileges as per the law. l

Two muggers put on remandn Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court yesterday placed two muggers on a 4-day remand in a case � led in connection with a mugging in-cident that left Ayesha Akhtar Ripa, a housewife, dead in the capital’s Sob-hanbagh.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Mag-istrate Alamgir Kabir Raj passed the order after O� cer-In-Charge Md Helal Uddin of Dhanmondi police station pro-

duced Hemayet Hossain Himu and Abul Kalam Azad before the court, seeking ten days remand for interrogation.

Earlier, police arrested the duo from the capital’s Mirpur area on Tuesday in connection with the mugging incident and the killing of Ayesha.

Ayesha was killed around two weeks ago when muggers in a microbus snatched her handbag and dragged her along the Mirpur road near Sobhan-bagh mosque.

According to the case statement, on October 28, Ayesha, 27, wife of Shimul Ahmed and a resident of Lalmatia, sustained severe injuries after she fell from a rickshaw during the mugging and was dragged on the road.

Later, she succumbed to her injuries in Bangladesh Medical College Hospital.

After the incident, Ayesha’s broth-er Rafsanzada Robi � led a case with Dhanmondi police station onOctober 29. l

JS body: Make BADC more functionalIt suggests arranging more compensation for recent � ood-a� ected farmers

n Abu Bakar Siddique

The Parliamentary Standing on Agri-culture Ministry yesterday suggested that the government make Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) more functional by enabling it with proper plan to extend proper ser-vices to the farmers.

The BADC usually provides essential agricultural inputs like seed, fertiliser and irrigation to farmers though di� er-ent channels.

“We suggested that the government make the autonomous body more functional and modern so that farmers can receive the services,” Md Mokbul Hossain, chairman of the committee, later told reporters.

Citing an example, he said farmers are yet to receive rice varieties toler-ant to extreme climate such as salini-ty, drought and submergence properly although Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) has developed and re-leased these varieties a few years ago.

The BADC is supposed to produce and distribute the varieties on time to introduce the new technology to the farmers.

The suggestion came at the fourth meeting of the parliamentary watch-dog with Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury, and lawmakers Md Abdur Razzaque, Abdul Mannan, Md Nurul Islam Omar and Umme Kulsum Smriti present.

The committee suggested appoint-ing adequate and quali� ed manpower in the corporation that directly gives support to the farmers to boost farm production.

The parliamentary watchdog rec-ommended building new warehouses to store the produced seeds and im-ported fertiliser in di� erent regions of the country to enhance the capacity of the corporation.

In addition, it suggested that the government take steps to recover ware-houses that had been occupied by dif-ferent government agencies such as the Food Ministry for their use. The BADC had no use of these warehouses, so they were given to the government agencies.

On fertiliser import, the committee suggested that the government im-port the essential agricultural input by properly evaluating their e� ectiveness on the country’s soil so that farmers can get the best output.

In addition, it suggested importing di� erent types of fertilisers from dif-ferent countries considering the vary-ing nature of soil in di� erent regions of Bangladesh.

Currently, the country imports urea and non-urea fertiliser such as the TSP and MoP from di� erent countries, in-cluding Tunisia and Egypt.

Earlier on October 12 this year, the Ministry of Agriculture declared an incentive package worth around Tk24 crore for farmers who had lost their crops during the late monsoon � oods.

The parliamentary committee sug-gested that the government should ar-range more compensation, if needed.

According to the Ministry of Agri-culture, the country has a total of 8.52 million hectares of arable land and its annual crop production stands at 37.26 million tonnes. l

3NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, November 13, 2014

Huji leader Bakar placed on remandn Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court yesterday placed Maulana Abu Bakar Siddique, a death-row convict in Ramna Batamul carnage case, on a 5-day remand in a case � led under the explosive substance act.

Metropolitan Magistrate Muhammad Erfanullah passed the order when CID inspector Ashraf Ali produced him before the court seeking a 10-day remand for interrogation.

According to the case statement, Sub-inspector Abdur Razzak � led the

case with Chakbazar police station on August 22, 2004 in connection with the recovery of an unexploded cocktail from near the Dhaka central jail.

Earlier on November 6, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested the fugitive death-row convict in Ramna Batamul killing case, about 13 years after the incident which claimed 10 lives.

Abu Bakar was arrested from Keraniganj area. He is a top leader of the banned Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) and also an accused in the

August 21 grenade attack case.Abu Bakar was a close associate of

HuJI Chief Mufti Hannan. He had been hiding in di� erent parts of the country for the last 13 years.

On June 23, this year, Dhaka Second Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge Ruhul Amin gave death sentence to eight persons, including Abu Bakar and life imprisonment to six others for killing 10 celebrants of Pahela Baishakh at a Chhayanaut event at the foot of a banyan tree in Ramna Park on April 14, 2001. l

Nine Islami Bank o� cials quizzed over loan scamn Adil Sakhawat

The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday interrogated nine top Isla-mi Bank o� cials in connection with Ananda Shipyard’s alleged loan scam of nearly Tk1,300 crore.

They are Senior Vice-President Nurul Islam, Vice-Presidents Kazi Moinuddin Khadem and Mizanur Rah-man Bhuiyan, Assistant Vice-Presi-dents Musleh Uddin, Alimur Rahman, Abul Kalam Azad and Monir Hossain, o� cer AKM Borhan Uddin of Karwan Bazar branch and Deputy General Man-ager Abul Kashem.

ACC Senior Deputy Director Mir Jainul Abedin Shibly quizzed the bank ers at the commission headquarters.

In a notice issued on November 6, the anti-graft body summoned 26 Is-lami Bank o� cials for interrogation, on suspicion that they were involved in issuing Ananda Shipyard loans of Tk456.34 crore without any security.

Ananda, in the name of exporting ships, allegedly borrowed Tk1,300 crore from 14 banks and � nancial insti-tutions without adequate security de-posits. The company reportedly did not have experiences in exporting ships.

The irregularities were unearthed by a Bangladesh Bank investigation. ACC initiated inquiry in April.

In response, the bank authorities sent a reply claiming that the loan was pro-vided in compliance with rules and upon submission of required security deposit.

The ACC will interrogate 17 more o� cials of the bank today and on No-vember 16. l

National Memorial architect buriedn Mohammad Abu Bakar Siddique

Syed Moinul Hossain, architect of the Na-tional Memorial at Savar, was laid to rest at the Mirpur Intellectuals’ Graveyard in the capital yesterday.

His daughters, close relatives and former relatives were present at the burial service of Moinul, who had led a mysteriously soli-tary life before his death. Moinul was buried around 2:40pm after a namaz-e-janaza at Dhaka University’s central mosque.

Earlier in the day, Sammilito Sangskritik Jote kept his body at the Central Shaheed Minar at 11:30pm for people to pay their last respect to the architect. People from all walks of life – renowned citizens, scholars, cultural activists, family members – paid tribute to Moinul.

After paying his tribute, Culture Minis-ter Asaduzzaman Noor said: “Honoring him [Moinul] has been insu� cient because he had secluded himself from society...It was di� cult to reach him.”

Actor Pijush Bandyopadhyay said pay-ing respect at the altar of the National Me-morial would be also a tribute to Moinul.

Artist Mustafa Monowar said: “Applying all my aesthetic knowledge, I am sure that there can be no better memorial than ours – the one Syed Moinul Hossain designed.”

The famed architect died at 2:35pm on Monday at the National Institute of Cardio-vascular Diseases, where he had been ad-mitted the day before.

Born on March 17, 1952 in Dampara vil-

lage, Munshiganj, Moinul was the eldest among three children of Syed Mujibul Hos-sain and Syeda Rashida Haque. His father was a professor of history at Rajendra Col-lege in Faridpur. Poet Golam Mostafa, Syed Emdad Ali were his grandfathers.

Moinul graduated from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) in architecture in 1976.

In 1978, his design won a competition for the National Martyrs’ Memorial’s de-sign, beating 56 other design proposals.

Moinul designed around 38 large estab-lishments between 1976 and 1998.

In 1987, he was awarded the Ekushey Padak, one of the highest civilian awards in Bangladesh, for his outstanding contribu-tion to the country.

According to architect and poet Rabiul Hussain, after passing out from the univer-sity, Moinul had started working with ar-chitecture � rm Shahidullah and Associates Limited.

“When he submitted works for the com-petition, we were colleagues. He shared with me many things about how he was planning to implement the work. Moinul had a deep commitment to the collective, which was completely re� ected in the de-sign and work of the National Memorial,” Rabiul said.

“He had a calm and quiet kind of a per-sonality, but the emotion surrounding the historic event had stirred him deeply which could be sensed,” Rabiul said.

Badrul Haider, a lifelong friend of

Moinul, said their fathers had also been friends and he and Moinul had been room-mates at a Buet hall.

“After seeing his design, I decided to drop the idea of submitting my work,” he said.

Badrul said Moinul was introvert but would always think of big things. “For in-stance, he would ask about the e� ects of foreign aid on the post-Liberation War economy.”

Friendship with Badrul lasted even during Moinul’s phase of self-enforced mysterious solitude. “Moinul was sad after his divorce. So he secluded himself.”

Art critic Moinuddin Khaled said the design of the National Memorial was a sig-ni� cant work and “Architects of Moinul’s quality do not come very often. The media should have highlighted him more along with all his his contributions.”

Teacher and architect Ashik Bhaskor said: “If you look at the National Memo-rial, you would discover seven structures emerging out of a tremendous pressure but maintaining an incredible harmony. He wanted to keep these seven structures that symbolise seven important steps and movements in the history of Bangladesh’s struggle for liberation, at the centre of ev-erything.

“He was deeply saddened and frustrat-ed after some incidents. He was threatened for his work. He was not even invited to the opening of the memorial in 1982. These may have led towards the seclusion.” l

Ershad: Zia destroyed Liberation War spiritKhaleda Zia handed the national � ag over to anti-liberation forces, he saysn Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Jatiya Party (JaPa) Chairman HM Ershad yesterday said BNP founder Ziaur Rah-man was a freedom � ghter but he de-stroyed the spirit of the Liberation War.

He said the BNP founder’s wife Khaleda Zia had handed the national � ag over to anti-liberation forces.

“Misrule, terrorism, anarchism and vindictive politics destroy peace,” he said, adding that JaPa wants anoth-er chance to make a new Bangladesh by forming government after the next election with the support of people.

Ershad was addressing a rally at Laldighi ground in Chittagong city around 4pm. JaPa Chittagong city unit President Mahzabin Morshed presided over the rally while hundreds of activ-ists and supporters gathered joined it.

The JaPa chief said he had begun a new campaign for the next election from the port city and his party would contest the election from 300 constit-uencies.

“The JaPa does not follow terror-ism-based politics. It believes in peace-

ful politics. It is the one and only na-tionalist party which believes in the Liberation War and sovereignty of the country,” he said.

“We will give people back the golden past which they experienced during my regime. At the time, people were pro-vided with all kinds of citizen rights,” he also said.

Ershad said he had spearhead-ed many developments for the port city, including the second Karnaphuli bridge, Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Lim-ited and Karnaphuli Fertiliser Compa-ny Limited, and would turn it into the business capital if his party could as-sume power for one more time.

The former president claimed the country had been experiencing the worst period since his tenure ended.

JaPa lawmaker Anisul Islam Mah-mud said the party would form govern-ment after the next election as only it could change the country.

The party’s Secretary General Zi-auddin Bablu, also a lawmaker, said the JaPa is the party that works for the common people. l

Ekram murder: Arrest warrant issued against 27 fugitivesn Our Correspondent, Feni

A local court yesterday, on receiving the charge sheet, issued arrest warrants against 27 accused, still on the run, in the murder case of the Fulgazi upazila chairman Ekramul Haque Ekram.

Judicial Magistrate Alamgir Moham-mad Faruqui passed the order after receiving the charge sheet where 56 people were indicted. The court � xed November 26 for the next hearing of the case.

Feni model police station OC and also the case investigation o� cer Abul

Kalam Azad said: “29 accused, who were already behind bars, have been sent to jail when they were earlier pro-duced in the court.”

On May 20, Ekram, also former pres-ident of the Fulgazi upazila unit Awami League, was shot dead and his body was set on � re in his car in broad day-light in the district town.

Police have arrested 29 people, in-cluding Jihad Chowdhury, an alleged mastermind and joint secretary of Ful-gazi upazila unit AL, along with BNP leader Mahtab Uddin Chowdhury Mi-nar, the alleged � nancier. l

Parliament to begin fourth session todayn Muhammad Zahidul Islam

The fourth session of the current parliament is scheduled to start today, with ten bills including a four-year extension for the Speedy Supply of Power and Energy Bill expected to be tabled during the session.

Before the parliament starts its session at 5pm, the Business Advisory Committee will hold a meeting at 3pm – chaired by Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury and attended by both Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and opposition leader Raushan Ershad – to decide the duration of the new session.

Sources, however, told the Dhaka Tribune that the upcoming session may be a short one.

Questions for the session have

already been collected for eleven working days up to November 27, parliament sources said. They added that the session was only being arranged because of a constitutional requirement.

According to the constitution, the president must convene a session within 60 days of the last day of the latest session. The legislative support wing of the parliament said they have so far received ten bills to be placed, including four fresh bill and six existing bills that may see amendments.

Since its � rst sitting on January 29, three sessions have so far taken place. The second session started on June 3 and ended on July 3; the third session started on September 12 and ended on September 18. l

Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) conducts an eviction drive with excavators near the city embankment in the capital’s Mohammadpur yesterday to free part of the Buriganga River from encroachment SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Two more currency counterfeiters arrested in capitaln Tribune Report

Detective Branch of Police, as a part of their ongoing drive against note forg-ers, arrested two more people from the capital’s Bashabo and Narayanganj’s Paidani area early yesterday.

The arrestees were Md Alauddin, 44, and Md Mamun, 42.

At the time of arrest, fake notes of Tk22.7 lakh, one laptop, three colour printers, 10 printer-ink cartridges, three frames, two steel covers, two chemical bottles, 20 security ropes, 14 colour bot-tles, two packets of utility knives (an-ti-cutters) and one old iron were seized from their possession, said Monirul Is-lam, joint commissioner of DB police.

Monirul said based on information, detectives conducted a drive in the capital’s Bashabo area and arrested Mamun. The DB team later arrested Alauddin after receiving information of his whereabouts from Mamun, he said.

“In interrogation, both Alauddin and Mamun confessed that earlier they used to buy and sell fake notes but re-cently they have started making fake notes themselves. Alauddin and Ma-mun are already accused in two sepa-rate cases � led with Mirpur and Kala-bagan police station but after getting bail from court, they once again started

the same business,” Monirul said while addressing a brie� ng at Dhaka Metro-politan Police media centre.

In reply to a question, the DB o� -cial said members of note forger gangs have changed their tactics of trade. He said: “Earlier, they used to target and take advantage of festival rush for the forgery but now they make fake notes round the year and spread it in little

amounts.” In the latest drive against note coun-

terfeit gangs, the detectives have so far arrested a total of 31 people involved with the crime since last Eid.

“The arrestees have given informa-tion on some more members of the gangs and we are analysing them to � nd out the criminals, the joint com-missioner added. l

Detective police yesterday presents two counterfeiters before media after recovering Tk23 lakh fake notes and fake note-making equipment MEHEDI HASAN

BNP chief Khaleda Zia addresses a rally at Kishoreganj’s Gurudayal College ground yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

News4 DHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, November 13, 2014

Smuggler killed in reported Satkhira shootout n Our Correspondent, Satkhira

Police claimed that a smuggler was gunned down in an alleged shootout between his accomplices and law-en-forcers at Gozaria Shikari village in Sa-dar upazila on Tuesday night.

The victim is Manirul Islam, 27, son of Md Rajab Ali, a resident of Kaliani vil-lage of the upazila, had been involved in smuggling for long, says police.

Sadar police station OC (investigation) Nasir Uddin con� rmed the incident, saying a team of DB police, on a tip-o� , intercepted a microbus carrying some

smugglers along with phensidyles to the district town around 10:30pm from the Indo-Bangla frontier Boikari area.

At one stage, the smugglers swooped on the law enforcers triggering a � erce clash that left ASI Aminul Islam and constable Abdur Rahim critically in-jured and then the former was admit-ted to the district hospital.

In retaliation, the plainclothes police � red � ve shots at the smugglers to bring the situation under control and moved away from the spot with the injured.

Afterwards, a police team led by SP Chowdhury Manjurul Kabir started a drive in search of the smugglers and found Monirul laying on the scene holding a � rearms and whisked o� him to Satkhira Sadar Hospital where duty doctors declared him dead.

During the clash, the ASI sustained severe stab injuries while a hand of the constable was broken. l

Four get life imprisonmentn Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court yesterday sentenced four people to life imprisonment for killing Sumanta Mandal, 18, a gold-smith of Nababgonj Thana in Dhaka.

Dhaka Additional District and Ses-sions Judge-8 Md Ahasan Tarique pro-nounced the verdict yesterday after-noon.

Those who got life imprisonment are Sanjit, Ranjit, Sankar Hawlader, and Sunil Hawlader of Gollah Gobindapur

village in Nababgonj upazila of Dhaka district.

Of them, two accused Ranjit and Sanjit have been on the run since the case was � led. Sangkar has been ab-sconding after he secured bail.

After the judgment the court sent Sunil Hawlader to jail.

The court also � ned them Tk10 thousand each and in default they have to su� er six months more in jail.

On December 13, 2005 Sumanta Mandal went back to his home at Golla-

bazar for lunch. As soon as he reached home the accused swooped on him and chopped him with locally-made sharp weapon.

Monindra Mandal, father of Sumanta, lodged a case with Nababgonj police sta-tion in this connection the following day.

Investigation O� cer and also Sub-Inspector of DB police Kanchan Kumer Roy submitted a charge sheet against the accused on August 27, 2006.

The court framed charges against the accused on January 15, 2009. l

Oishee’s trial shifted to speedy trial tribunal n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A speedy trial tribunal will now deal with the case � led over the murder of Special Branch inspector Mahfuzur Rahman and his wife Swapna Rahman in the capital last year.

The much-talked-about murder case was sent to Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal 3 from the Metropolitan Ses-sions Judge’s Court yesterday as per a decision of the Home Ministry.

Additional Public Prosecutor Shah Alam Talukder of the Dhaka Metropol-itan Sessions Judge’s Court acknowl-edged the transfer, saying they had re-ceived the gazette in this regard.

Defence counsel Mahabub Hasan Rana said: “On October 21, the Home Ministry issued the gazette noti� cation for the quick disposal of the case.”

The murdered couple’s only daugh-ter Oishee Rahman and her two friends – Asaduzzman Jony and Mizanur Rah-man Rony have been in police custody

for their complicity in the killing. On May 6, Dhaka Metropolitan Ses-

sions Judge Md Jahrul Haque framed charges against Oishee, Jony and Rony in the case. The court has so far record-ed depositions of 19 of the 57 prosecu-tion witnesses since the trial began on July 8.

DB Inspector Abul Khair Matubbar – who is investigating the case – pressed two separate charge sheets with the court on March 9, accusing Oishee alone. Jony instigated the incident and Rony gave her shelter after the murder.

On August 16 last year, the bodies of SB inspector Mahfuzur Rahman and his wife Swapna Rahman were recovered from their Malibagh residence. Lat-er police arrested Oishee, her friends Rony, Jony and housemaid Khadiza Khatun Sumi.

Oishee, Jony and Rony are now in jail while Sumi was freed on bail. A Dhaka juvenile court is conducting Su-mi’s trial as she is under 18 years. l

Rana Plaza victim dies after 19 months n Our Correspondent,

Savar

A Rana Plaza victim named Kuhinur Islam Kajol, 45, died of his injuries on Tues-day night after � ghting the life for about 19 months.

Kajol’s wife Saleha Begum claimed that her husband, a resident of Shari� ag area in Dhamrai, cardiac complications had developed after being in-jured in the collapse that took place on April 24 last year and he � nally died at National Institute of Car-diovascular Diseases and Hospital in the capital.

Earlier, Kajol rescued on the second day of the col-

lapse had been hospitalised at a stretch at Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Par-alysed, Savar and later re-ferred to the capital when his condition deteriorated more.

The victim’s wife also stated that Kajol used to work as operator at a gar-ment factory on the third � oor of the building and he sustained severe pressure on the whole body, particularly on the chest, in the disaster.

On the other hand, Sale-ha alleged that she just re-ceived Tk10,000 from the government and Tk50,000 from di� erent charity or-ganisations to bear the treat-ment cost of her husband. l

Tk1crore Indian clothes seized n Our Correspondent,

Jessore

Members of Border Guard Bangladesh seized smug-gled Indian clothes worth about Tk one crore from Rajganj area in Manirampur upazila of Jessore district on Tuesday night.

Lieutenant Colonel Jah-angir Hossain, commanding o� cer of BGB Battalion-26, said on a tip-o� , the law en-forcers launched a drive in the area.

Sensing the presence of the border force, the smug-glers � ed the scene leaving behind a truck.

Later, BGB members re-covered huge Indian sarees and three-pieces worth Tk one crore from the truck.

A case was � led in this connection. l

Students stage a demonstration on Dhaka University campus demanding candidates be given a second chance to take intake tests at public universities yesterday. Story on Page 5 MEHEDI HASAN

Amu warns of punitive measures against tannery owners n Tribune Desk

Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu again yesterday yesterday warned of punitive measures against the owners who would fail to move their tannery to Savar within the stipulated time.

“All the tanneries in city’s Hazaribag would be shut down alongside cancel-lation of the allotted plots in Savar if the owners fail to relocate their tanneries on

time,” he told leaders of di� erent associa-tions related to leather industries during a meeting at his o� ce in the capital.

Leaders of the associations feared if all the tanneries and allied industries along with skilled workers and technol-ogists are not moved, countries leather export would be dropped by 40%.

They requested the minister to al-locate su� cient space for all the in-dustries related to leather sector. The

industries minister said he will direct BSCIC to initiate necessary measures for land allocation.

Barrister Fazle Nur Tapash, MP, joint-chief of the ministry M Lutfar Rahman Tarafder, convener of the co-ordination committee of leather indus-tries related associations Abul Kalam Azad and member secretary M Sujaul Karim, among others, were present at the meeting. l

Steel mill � ned Tk15 lakh n Our Correspondent, Gazipur

The Department of Environment (DoE) has � ned Tk 15 lakh to a steel mill for operating the factory without licence.

The DoE charged the � ne after a hearing at its headquaters in the capital yesterday.

According to the Department of En-vironment, a team of the department led by Director (monitoring and en-forcement) Mohammed Alamgir had visited the SS Steel Private Ltd locat-ed in Machhimpur area under Gazipur City Corporation recently and found that the factory authority was operat-ing it without taking lisence.

For polluting environment, the au-thority called its owner and stakhold-ers to its Dhaka o� ce where a hearing was conducted. During the hearing, the DoE has taken decesion that the facto-ry would have to give Tk15 lakh.

Owner of the factory was present in the hearing and admitted his guilty. l

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurates construction of a � yover named after late Awami League leader Akhteruzzaman Chowdhury Babu in Chittagong yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

A team of DB police, on a tip-o� , intercepted a microbus carrying some smugglers along with phensidyles

WEATHER

DRY WEATHER

LIKELY

PRAYER TIMES Fajr 4:54am Sunrise 6:10am Zohr 11:43am Asr 3:38pm Magrib 5:14pm Esha 6:32 pm

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 5:14PM SUN RISES 6:13AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW33.3ºC 17.2ºC

Cox’s Bazar Chuadanga

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13

SourceL IslamicFinder.org

F O R E C A S T F O R T O D A YDhaka 31 18Chittagong 31 21Rajshahi 30 15Rangpur 30 16Khulna 31 17Barisal 31 19Sylhet 31 17Cox’s Bazar 31 23

5NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, November 13, 2014

Clockwise: Two elderly people are compelled to walk as they did not get any vehicle. The women wait for bus in Farmgate area. Two workers paint the un� t vehicle in the face of the BRTA drive to show it � t so that punishment could be shunned. The photo was snapped from Bhadra area in Rajshahi yesterday. Transport owners park buses at Rajshahi Shiroil bus stand to evade punishment. Commuters struggle to get on a bus as there was a scarcity of public transport in the capital SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN / AZAHAR UDDIN

Blackout in some areas as Ashuganj power plant catches � ren Aminur Rahman Rasel

Four out of the seven units of the Ashu-ganj Power Plant caught � re yesterday because of a fault in the grid auxiliary transformer, plunging a number of ar-eas under the plant into several hours of darkness.

It took two hours of frantic e� ort for � re� ghters to tame the blaze that had reportedly caused losses worth hun-dreds of thousands of taka.

The � re incident comes in just over two weeks after the countrywide blackout, whose reasons, the govern-ment say, are still not clear.

“Around 3am yesterday, four out of the seven units were shut down af-ter the lightning arrester of the 132/33 KV grid auxiliary transformer at the power station caught � re. It took our engineers 12 hours to repair the trans-former and restore power generation,” Md Nurul Alam, managing director of the Ashuganj Power Station Company Limited (APSCL), told the Dhaka Trib-une yesterday.

The lightning arrester is a protective device for electrical equipment that re-

duces excessive voltage resulting from lightning to a safe level by grounding the discharge.

Nurul said the � re had spread quick-ly because of the oil spill from the ex-ploding transformer.

“Now there is no problem with the power supply from the station because the faults had been � xed. The four af-fected units started regular generation around 3pm,” he said.

“The units are capable of produc-ing 260MW of electricity. Unit 2 with 50MW capacity, GT 2 with 40MW, Unit 3 with 130MW and the 40MW gas en-gine unit were shut down immediate-ly,” he added.

He informed that a fault � nding committee, headed by AMM Sazzadur Rahman, executive director of APSCL, had been formed.

“Repairing work of two other units at the power station have been going on for two years. We have already re-paired 80% of those units,” he said.

The station at Ashuganj is the sec-ond biggest power station in Bangla-desh. The current generation capacity of its seven units is 671MW. l

DU admission seekers start hunger strike on Shaheed Minar premisesn DU Correspondent

Dhaka University admission aspir-ants, who had been on protest for one month seeking reinstatement of the second time admission test facility, commenced hunger strike at Central Shaheed Minar as per their pre-sched-uled programme.

Earlier, the protesters � ocked in front of Raju Monument around 10:30am on the campus to submit a memorandum in this regard to Presi-dent Abdul Hamid.

During their move, police halted them at Doel Chattar and � nally al-lowed only � ve protesters to enter Bangabhaban, who handed over the memorandum Md Sentu Rahman, on-duty security o� cial of the Presi-dent’s o� cial residence.

At last the protesters gathered on Central Shaheed Minar premises and started hunger strike around 12:45pm, who warned of keeping it continued until the university authorities retreat from the decision.

Meanwhile, left leaning student or-

ganisations Bangladesh Chhatra Union, Samajtantrik Chhatra Front and Bang-ladesh Chhatra Federation expressed solidarity with the demand of the stu-dents.

When contacted, DU Proctor Amzad Ali said the students have no legal rights for the programme and he would meet them to stop it.

On October 14, the university au-thorities decided not to allow any ad-mission seeker to appear in its admis-sion tests for � rst year honours courses more than once. l

Wagon derailment halts Chittagong rail services for four hours n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Rail communication of Chittagong with other parts of the country was suspended for four hours following the derailment of three compartments of a wagon at Fouzdarhat Railway Station in Chittagong yesterday morning.

The train services resumed around 2pm after a salvage train removed the three bogies from the tracks, said Bang-ladesh Railway (East) Divisional Tra� c

O� ce (DTO) Firoz Iftekhar.Chittagong Railway Station Manager

Abul Kalam Azad told the Dhaka Trib-une that the compartment of the wag-on, coming from Dhaka for Chittagong Port, had derailed around 10am near the station.

On receiving information, a rescue team with a salvage train from Chit-tagong city’s Pahartoli area rushed to the spot and brought the three bogies to the track, he said.

Due to the derailment, Meghna Ex-press had to stop at Kumira Railway Sta-tion and Karnaphuli Express at Paharto-li Railway Station till the resumption of the rail communication, he added.

Several hundred commuters had to wait for four hours in the stations which delayed their journey for their respective destinations, said the sta-tions sources, he said. The reason behind the derailment could not be known immediately, he added. l

6 NationDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, November 13, 2014

Boat capsizes in Sunamganj

A boat with 150 passengers, including some students, capsized in Surma river in Sadar upazila on Wednesday morning. Sources said, the accident occurred around 9:15am while the people were going to Sunamganj town from Haluaghat by boat. At least ten were injured critically during the incident while maximum people could reach the bank by swimming. The injured were sent to Sadar hospital. Deputy Commissioner Sheikh Ra� qul Islam visited the area. – Our Correspondent, Sunamganj

One held with � rearmA man was held with a pistol, two magazines and three bullets yesterday in Kironganj frontier area under Shibganj upazila of Chap-ainawabganj district. BGB Commander Cornel Abuzafor Sheikh said on a tip-o� , the law enforcers raided a mango orchard in the area recovered the � rearm and ammo while the miscreants managed to � ee the scene. – Our Correspondent, Chapainawabganj

Two fake manpower traders held Rapid Action Battalion arrested two fake manpow-er businessmen with 43 passports and American

dollar from Bheramara upazila of the district yesterday. The arrested were identi� ed as Anwarul Islam of Rathpara area and Azirul Pramanik of Arkandi village in the upazila. RAB-12 commander Major Haider Zaman said the law enforcers ar-rested the two as they were cheating with people in the name of giving job in Malaysia and another countries. – Our Correspondent, Kushtia

Five women held for theft Police arrested � ve women on charge of theft in Jamalpur Railway Station yesterday. SI Jaha-rul Haque said police arrested Nasima, Rahela, Azufa, Arufa and Rashida from the station as they had been involved with snatching of passengers’ goods for long time. – Our Corre-spondent, Jamalpur

Youth held with pistol Police arrested a youth with a pistol from his residence in Ratnai Maradhar village under Bali-adanga upazila in Thakurgaon district yesterday. The arrested was identi� ed as Abdur Rahim, 23, son of Abdur Mannan of the village.Acting on a tip o� , the police raided the house and detained him with the pistol.Baliadanga police station Sub-Inspector Joglol Ahmed said: “A case has been � led against Rahim with the police station.” – Our Correspondent, Thakurgoan

NEWS IN BRIEF

Run-down Saghata road brings misery for commutersAccidents often take place on the roadn Our Correspondent, Gaibanda

About 5 lakh residents of Phulchhari and Saghata upazilas have been su� er-ing as the Bonarpara-Saghata road be-came almost unusable because of not having any repair works of it for long.

Consequently, accidents repeated-ly were taking place in the potholes of the road and wasting valuable time to cross it.

It was learnt that the 30km road stretches to the district town via Phul-chhari upazila and there is no alterna-tive road except it to reach the town. In 1992, the road had been paved with as-phalt and since then it remained with-out any renovation task.

Sources at Roads and Highways De-partment (RHD) said 25km of the road is very poor and it takes 1-1.5 hours to cross in lieu of the required time of 45 minutes.

A local cultural activist, namely Ja-kirul Islam, said the road has turned into an electoral issue during elections while all candidates seek votes from the residents on promise of renovating the road assuming power and � nally it

remains as their lip service.A college student named Ziaul Ho-

que echoed the voice of Jakirul.In this regard, Lal Miah, a local rick-

shaw-puller, said he has to spend Tk30 from his income of Tk100 to repair his vehicle because of the unbearable jerks in the potholes of the road.

The upazila’s Jumarbari UP Chair-man Mahfuzar Rahman said the au-thorities concerned have not paid any heed to their repeated applications for repairing the road.

Acknowledging the road’s sorry state, Gaibanda RHD Executive Engi-neer Mahbub Alam Khan said: “The road has remained without any ren-ovation due to budget crunch. Tk10 crore is needed for the road while there is an allotment of Tk3 crore only for the whole district at present and that is why a tender of Tk80 lakh has been primarily � oated just for the spots that have already went into very poor con-dition.”

While the renovation works of the rest spots of the road would depend on further budget allocation from the state authorities, the engineer continued. l

Three held while entering into country illegallyn Our Correspondent, Satkhira

Police arrested three Bangladeshi stu-dents, who are studying in India, from Laxmidari border point in Sadar upazi-la on Tuesday night while they were re-turning home from India illegally.

The arrested are identi� ed as Ab-dur Rahim,27, son of Abdul Motaleb, Mahmud Hossain, 21, son of Abdul Momin, and Yeasin Ali, 22, son of Zaker Hossain of Fatika village in Hathazari upazila of Chittagong district.

Of them, two studied at Shahram-pur Madrasah in Uttar Pradesh of India while another at a local college in the area.

SI Abdul Momin of Sadar police sta-tion said on a tip-o� , a team of police ar-rested the three while they were entering Bangladesh from India through the bor-der point around 9pm without passport.

Police also said, the students went to study in India without passport and were returning home after long days.

Inspector (Investigation) Sheikh Na-siruddin said police were investigating the matter whether the arrested were involved in any militant activities. l

Accident can happen at any time as Bonarpara-Saghata road has become almost un� t for vehicular movement for lack of repair work DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Colin Risner

It seems strange that so much time and intellectual e� ort is spent debating the nature of poverty. Surely poverty is very simple and stark, it simply

means people who lack the basic necessities for life. If this is the case then the solution is as simple, to � ll this economic de� cit either through earned income as a result of employ-ment or self employment or, where people have insu� cient earning capacity, through some form of direct income support.

In essence this is indeed the ap-proach taken by both the government and non-government poverty reduc-tion schemes. Hence there are many projects that help poor households to establish micro enterprises to initiate or increase the recipients’ own income

earning potential. These projects typ-ically involve asset or cash transfers providing the minimal capital needed to set up a productive enterprise. For example, the shiree programme encompasses a diverse range of over 250 such income generating activities (IGA), from rickshaw pulling to crab fattening.

This “hard” transfer of cash or assets is often combined with “soft” interventions such as training, counselling and the mobilisation of mutual support groups, all intended to increase the likelihood of a success-ful and sustainable micro business venture. Other projects aim at helping members of poor families transition

into formal employment through, for example, vocational training, provi-sion of tools and linking with private sector employers. Variations include cash for work where transfers are asso-ciated with, usually limited duration, public employment schemes.

Direct income enhancing transfers take various forms and have been given several names including social protection, safety nets, social security and humanitarian relief. All essentially involve a transfer from one section of the population (usually taxpayers) to another (the recipients). Long term social protection bene� ts such as old age pensions or disability bene� ts are usually state � nanced and this will in-creasingly be the case for Bangladesh as economic development generates expanding tax revenue and further re-duces dependency on donor funding.

Transfers may be one-o� (eg � ood relief) or recurring (eg widow’s allow-ance). Whether a cash transfer is used for consumption purposes or to invest in a productive enterprise is the choice of the recipient. In any case it is not always easy to distinguish consump-tion from investment, for example spending on improving basic diet, rebuilding a shelter or meeting health related outlays, while perhaps de� ned as consumption, may also be essential to the future productive capacity of the household.

Social protection transfers are not intended exclusively for the extreme poor, but it is di� cult to deny that if anyone is receiving these bene� ts, it should � rst and foremost be the poorest and most needy members of society. Hence targeting of such bene-� ts should start with the poorest and the greatest and most direct impact can be their contribution to extreme poverty reduction.

The experience of shiree is that a mixed mode of intervention may provide the best option for a sustained route out of extreme poverty at the household level. Hence a mix of micro enterprise establishment through asset transfer, along with accessing social protection transfers where eligible and ideally eventual transition into formal employment for at least one household member is a winning combination. The good news is that this combination is eminently feasible for most extreme poor households.

The amount of resources needed to solve the problem is a moot point. There are several brilliant and experienced economists and policy planners in Bangladesh, some of whom have already endorsed the Manifesto for the Extreme Poor, who are capable of doing the necessary sums and providing robust cost estimates.

This article does not try to provide a detailed cost analysis. An estimate of $3bn is based on establishing six million micro productive enterprises at household level at $500 per household (including project implementation costs). This does not however include the cost of ensuring that all the extreme poor have access to public services, such as, education and health, or that of additional (in

coverage and value) social protection transfers. However, I doubt if any economist, donor or policy maker can make the case that, assuming continuing rapid economic growth, expanding tax revenues and ongoing donor commitment to poverty reduction, a policy objective of rapidly eradicating extreme poverty is ruled out on cost grounds alone.

In other words, while total cost estimates may vary considerably depending on what is included in the equation and the underlying assumptions made, the range of possible outcomes are all eminently a� ordable through a combination of government, donor and private sector funding.

Given a strong policy commitment backed up by the application of

su� cient resources and a planning and implementation regime that draws on and scales up already successful approaches, it will be possible to achieve the rapid eradication of extreme poverty from Bangladesh. Despite the severity of the multiple challenges facing the extreme poor described in part one, the outlook is essentially optimistic.

However, even if the policy commitment is genuine and the means to achieve the objective are known, available and a� ordable, the optimistic scenario is by no means inevitable. l

The author has 25 years of experience working in the development sector and he has spent nine years in Bangladesh. He was former CEO of shiree. [email protected].

7Long Form Thursday, November 13, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

The � ght for freedom from extreme poverty

A ‘hard’ transfer of cash or assets is often combined with ‘soft’ interventions all intended to increase the likelihood of a successful and sustainable micro business venture

The amount of resources needed to solve the problem of extreme poverty is a moot point

Criteria Actionable

1 Multiple income sources

Project interventions show proven success in helping the extreme poor to establish multiple income generating activities in both rural and urban contexts. These programmes are currently mainly donor funded and NGO implemented but could be scaled up with increased government participation

2 Social protection bene� t

A social protection reform strategy is in preparation and there is a commitment to both increase the value of bene� ts and to improve targeting.

3 Individual and/or group savings

Banking sector reforms and technological advances (eg mobile banking) are making savings instruments available to all. The Bangladesh Bank has taken a lead, working in partnership with � nancial institutions to increase access to � nance for the poor- including currently “unbanked” groups such as street children. There are also many examples of successful group savings schemes.

4 Formal employment Growing industries, including RMG and footwear, are hungry for labour. Vocational training schemes have successfully overcome barriers for the extreme poor to access these opportunities and could be scaled up. A critical issue is the need to provide secure accommodation close to workplaces.

5 Health, education and other basic services

Each public sector service provider should audit their services to identify if they are reaching the poorest and take corrective action. Achieving universal access to quality basic services is the most challenging and resource intensive element of the agenda for change, and the most dependent on an expanding tax revenue.

6 An upward economic and social trajectory with the self con� dence to succeed

Kick-starting economic empowerment builds con� dence. The ongoing advice and problem solving support of � eld sta� and of the community helps to sustain this trajectory.

7 A respected place in the community

People who become economic actors become visible and earn respect but may also become vulnerable to new forms of exploitation.

PART TWO – THE BATTLE PLAN

Poverty simply means people who lack the basic necessities of life. The solution is to � ll this economic de� cit either through earned income or through some form of direct income support. This is the second part of a four part series

1 Multiple income sources

2 A social protection bene� t providing a regular and dependable, even if small, cash transfer

3 A resilience fund of gradually increasing individual and/or group savings

4 A household member already in or progressing towards formal employment

5 Access to Health, Education and other basic services

6 An upward economic and social trajectory

7 The self con� dence to succeed

8 A respected place in the community

PROFILE OF A TYPICAL SUCCESSFUL HOUSEHOLD

All of the above characteristics are amenable to project and public service interventions – if the desire is there and

the resources are made available.

The above table does not encompass all that is needed to overcome extreme poverty but it should be apparent that extreme poverty is a solvable problem.

Social protection transfers are not intended exclusively for the extreme poor, but it is di� cult to deny that if anyone is receiving these bene� ts it should � rst be the poorest and most needy members of society SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Thursday, November 13, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World8

At least 33 dead in Yemeni clashes, drone kills seven militantsn Reuters, Sanaa

At least 33 people have been killed in central Yemen in � ghting in the past two days between Shi’ite Mus-lim Houthi � ghters trying to ex-pand their control and Sunni tribes allied with al Qaeda, residents said on Wednesday.

Separately, a US drone killed seven suspected al Qaeda militants in south-ern Yemen while they were on their way to carry out an attack, Yemeni mil-itary sources said.

The expansion of the Houthis, who hail mainly from northern Yemen, has unsettled Sunni tribes in central al-Bayda province, threatening to pro-voke sectarian con� ict.

Residents reported intense � ght-ing in the Qifa area, home to power-ful al-Bayda Sunni tribes who joined hands with the local al Qaeda wing, Ansar al-Sharia, to halt the Houthi ad-vance.

In the city of Radda in the same province, which fell to the Houthis ear-lier this month, a car bomb apparent-ly targeting a local tribal leader allied with the Houthis was blown up safely before it reached its intended destina-tion, residents said.

They said the vehicle was halted by a security barrier erected some distance from the home of Sheikh Mohammed Muqbel al-Aywei and his followers blew it up without ca-sualties.

Yemen, a US ally which shares a long border with the world’s top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, has been en-gulfed in political turmoil since mass protests ousted its veteran president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, in 2011.

The Houthis, who captured the Yemeni capital Sanaa almost without a � ght in September and forced the government to resign, are continuing to expand across the country despite the formation of a new government

bringing in supporters of the group and representatives of southern Yeme-ni separatists.

The Houthis have objected to some members of Prime Minister Khaled Bahah’s new team, saying they do not meet criteria agreed in a September power-sharing deal.

On Monday, two people were killed in a clash between Houthi � ghters and security guards at Sanaa airport over who has the right to control security at the terminal.

In the southern Shabwa province, Yemeni military sources said a US drone destroyed a Hilux truck carrying at least seven militants on their way to an attack in the city of Azzan.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula often attacks government troops in southern Yemen, which sometimes draws drone strikes. Washington ac-knowledges using drones in Yemen but does not comment publicly on the practice. l

Kerry to visit Jordan for talks on Jerusalemn Reuters, Dubai

US Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Jordan on Wednesday for discussions with King Abdullah about tensions in Jerusalem and the � ght against the Islamic State militant group in the region, the State Depart-ment said.

Kerry will go on to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Friday to partici-pate in the Sir Bani Yas Forum, an an-nual private gathering of world leaders focused on international security, a de-partment statement said.

Kerry returns to the Middle East af-ter he attended an Asia-Paci� c summit in Beijing on Tuesday. He was in Oman

earlier this week for two days of talks on the Iranian nuclear dispute with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and European Union envoy Catherine Ashton.

Jordan recalled its ambassador from Israel on Nov. 5, the � rst time it has tak-en such action since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1994, denouncing what Amman called “violations” at the al-Aqsa mosque.

Tensions over the compound, the third holiest site in Islam and the ho-liest place in Judaism, have fuelled repeated clashes between Israeli po-lice and Palestinians in recent weeks, culminating in a one-day closure of the mosque last month. l

Russia sees chance of deal at nuclear talks with Irann Reuters, Moscow

A senior Russian diplomat expressed optimism on Wednesday that a deal could be reached this month between world powers and Tehran on curb-ing Iran’s nuclear programme despite “deep gaps” on some issues.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ry-abkov said Russia, which agreed on Tuesday to build up to eight new nu-clear reactor units in Iran, was doing all it could to help secure the agrement which would provide assurances to the West that Tehran’s programme was not intended to build weapons.

The six powers - the � ve permanent members of the United Nations Secu-rity Council plus Germany - and Iran face a Nov. 24 deadline for agreement that could also allow an easing of West-ern economic sanctions on Iran.

“We aren’t looking at the possibili-ty of not reaching a deal by Nov. 24,” Ryabkov, who was present at the latest talks in Muscat this week, was quoted

as saying by the Russian news agency Interfax. “We are focused completely on the task before us, in so far as we have a chance, and it’s not small. We can’t miss (the opportunity).”

Russia has traditionally warmer re-lations than other powers leading the talks with Tehran, which says its nu-clear work is for peaceful purposes. It is closely involved in developing Iran’s nuclear energy programme, having al-ready opened one generator in Bushehr.

One of the chief Western concerns is Tehran’s capacity to re� ne uranium quickly that could open the way to arms production.

Iran con� rmed it had tested a new centrifuge that could speed urani-um enrichment, but dismissed sug-gestions this may have breached last year’s interim deal with world powers.

That deal said Tehran could contin-ue its “current enrichment R&D (re-search and development) practices,” language that implies it should not ex-pand them. l

US nurses to protest, strike over Ebola measuresn Reuters, San Francisco

Nurses across the Un ited States will stage protest rallies and strikes on Wednesday over what they say is insuf-� cient protection for health workers dealing with patients possibly stricken with the deadly Ebola virus.

The California-based nurses’ union, National Nurses United, says hospitals still lack enough hazardous materials suits which leave no skin exposed and su� cient powered air-purifying respi-rators to properly protect nurses from exposure.

“Inadequate preparedness for Ebola symbolizes the erosion of patient care standards generally,” National Nurs-es United spokesman Charles Idelson

said on Tuesday.The US Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention says it has ordered $2.7 million worth of personal protective equipment to help hospitals care for Ebola patients.

National Nurses United expects some 100,000 nurses in more than a dozen US states, in Washington DC and also in several other countries in-cluding Australia and the Philippines to take part in the day of action on Wednesday.

Most nurses in the campaign will not walk o� the job but will hold rallies and demonstrations to bring the issue of in-adequate Ebola protection to public at-tention, Idelson said. Some nurses will hold a vigil outside the White House.

The Ebola-related protests kicked o� in the United States on Tuesday, when National Nurses United said nearly 20,000 nurses began a two-day strike in California. Their local union is also locked in acrimonious contract talks.

The Californian action targeted nearly 90 hospitals and clinics, most-ly operated by Kaiser Permanente, the union said.

A Kaiser Permanente representative could not be reached for comment on Tuesday, but the organization has pre-viously accused the union of using Eb-ola as a pretext to justify labor action.

The last US patient being treated for Ebola recovered from the disease on Tuesday. l

US-led strikes have killed 865 in Syrian Reuters, Beirut

Air strikes by US-led forces in Syria have killed 865 people, including 50 ci-vilians, since the start of the campaign in late September against Islamic State militants, a group monitoring the war said on Wednesday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observa-tory for Human Rights said the ma-jority of the deaths, 746, were Islamic State � ghters and that the actual � gure could be much higher.

Islamic State has seized tracts of territory in Syria and neigh-boring Iraq, where it has also been targeted by US-led forces since July.

Eight of the civilians killed were children, the Observatory said. It said 68 members of al Qaeda-a� li-ated Nusra Front were also killed in the air strikes, which started early on Sept 23.

Coalition strikes have hit the Syr-ian provinces of Aleppo, Deir al-Zor, Hasaka, Raqqa and Idlib, the Observa-tory said.

The United States has said it takes reports of civilian casualties seriously and says it has a process to investigate each allegation.

Washington justi� ed its action in Syria under Article 51 of the UN Char-ter, which covers an individual or col-lective right to self-defense against armed attack.

Around 200,000 people have been killed in Syria’s con� ict, which is now in its fourth year, according to the United Nations. l

West Bank mosque torched in suspected revenge attackn AFP, Jerusalem

Israeli settlers torched a West Bank mosque in an apparent revenge attack on Wednesday, Palestinian o� cials said, as the US top diplomat headed to Jordan to discuss the spiralling vio-lence.

Months of unrest have escalated in recent days, spreading from annexed east Jerusalem to the occupied West Bank and Arab communities across Israel, and raising fears of a new Pales-tinian uprising.

In a televised address late on Tues-day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin

Netanyahu said he had ordered a raft of additional security measures na-tionwide to tackle escalating Arab pro-tests.

The pre-dawn arson attack on a mosque near the Jewish settlement of Shilo came after separate Palestinian knife attacks on Monday killed a settler in the southern Western Bank and an Israeli soldier in Tel Aviv.

“The settlers set � re to the whole of the � rst � oor of the mosque” in Al-Mughayir village near the West Bank city of Ramallah, a security o� -cial said. Police con� rmed the incident and opened an investigation. l

Ukraine crisis: Russian troops crossed border, says Naton Agencies

Nato has seen columns of Russian mil-itary equipment and Russian combat troops entering Ukraine this week, its top commander said.

“Russian tanks, Russian artillery, Russian air defence systems and Rus-sian combat troops” were sighted, US Gen Philip Breedlove said in Bulgaria.

Russia has consistently denied send-ing troops into eastern Ukraine to bol-ster pro-Russian separatist rebels there.

However, the rebels have admitted being helped by “volunteers” from Russia. Heavy artillery � re rocked the east Ukrainian city of Donetsk, the in-dustrial hub held by pro-Russian sep-aratist rebels, on Wednesday morning.

It was unclear whether the � re came from besieging government forces or the rebels themselves, or both.

There were also reports of � ghting near the rebel-held city of Luhansk. One Ukrainian soldier was killed and another injured north of Luhansk, when rebels � red on government po-sitions near the village of Schastya, Ukrainian security forces said.

Unmarked convoysThe Organization for Security and

Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has re-ported seeing unmarked convoys in

the region in recent days.Asked about the purpose of the al-

leged Russian troop deployment, Gen Breedlove replied: “As to their intent, I’m not sure. My strategic team be-lieves that there is a possibility that, as you know, this pocket of separatist Russian-backed forces and Russian forces in the east of Ukraine - it’s not a very contiguous pocket. There are lines of communications that are inter-rupted. There are airports that are not held by the Russian-backed forces etc.

“And so it is our � rst guess that these forces will go in to make this a more contiguous, more whole and ca-pable pocket of land in order to then hold on to it long term.”

More than 4,000 people have died since government forces moved in April to put down an armed insurrec-tion by the rebels in the two regions, which border Russia.

A fragile cease� re was agreed in Minsk on 5 September, although hundreds of people have been killed since then.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday her government was “not satis� ed” with the progress in im-plementing the Minsk agreement, but added that there were no plans at present for further economic sanctions against Russia over its involvement in Ukraine. l

Bomb attacks kill 23 in Iraqn Reuters, Baghdad

Suicide bombings and car bombs, in-cluding an attack on federal police headquarters, killed 23 people in Iraq on Wednesday, police, military and medical sources said.

A car bomb, followed shortly after-wards by a suicide bombing, killed 11 people at the police building in al-Ni-sour Square in Baghdad, including six policemen. Twenty-one people were wounded.

In Diyala province north of Bagh-dad, Army Colonel Faisal al-Zuhairi was killed when a suicide bomber in a Humvee attacked his convoy. Five of his men also died.

A suicide bomber in a car packed with explosives attacked an army checkpoint in the town of Yusi� ya, 15 km (9 miles) south of Baghdad. Six people were killed and 20 wounded, police said.

Islamic State militants swept through northern Iraq in June and took control of large areas of the Sunni Mus-lim west of the country, seizing Hum-vees, tanks and armored vehicles from defeated Iraqi government troops.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Tuesday he intended to remove concrete security barriers from Bagh-dad and give a greater role to police in protecting the capital, despite little respite from the car bombs the barriers were designed to thwart. l

A column of tanks drive from a rebel-territory to Donetsk near the town of Shakhtarsk, eastern Ukraine. New unidenti� ed armoured columns rumbled toward the pro-Moscow rebel stronghold in eastern Ukraine on Monday as fears grew of a return to all-out � ghting in the war-torn region AFP

Students demonstrate against the deployment, at Sanaa University campus, of armed Yemani militia from the Shi’ite Huthi movement in the capital Sanaa yesterday AFP

Thursday, November 13, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World 9

ASEAN to pressure China to stick to diplomacy on maritime disputesn Reuters, Myanmar

Southeast Asian leaders will welcome China’s Prime Minister Le Keqiang with fanfare on Wednesday but be-hind closed doors will push their gi-ant neighbour to take a less bellicose approach to overlapping claims in the South China Sea.

Myanmar hosts summits of the As-sociation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) followed by the East Asia Forum, which US President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will attend.

China, Taiwan and four ASEAN na-tions have competing claims in the sea where concern is growing about an es-calation in disputes even as the claim-ants work to establish a code of con-duct to resolve them, Le Luong Minh, ASEAN secretary-general, told Reuters in Myanmar’s capital.

“We are seeing a widening gap be-tween the political commitments and the actual actions, the real situation at sea,” he said.

In May, China sent an oil drilling rig to waters claimed by Vietnam leading to weeks of cat-and-mouse manoeu-vres by both sides. Vietnam and the Philippines have sought closer US ties to counter what they see as China’s ag-gression.

Philippines President Benigno Aquino has said he would address what was a pressing security issue in Myanmar, but indicated some prog-ress on Tuesday during a “meeting of minds” with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at an Asia-Paci� c summit in Beijing.

The 10 ASEAN members held a ple-nary session on Wednesday but o� -cials declined to comment afterwards.

China should focus on resolving dis-putes through international law and dialogue, US deputy national security advisor for strategic communications Ben Rhodes said on Tuesday.

“There cannot be a situation where a bigger nation is simply allowed to bully smaller nations,” he told report-ers in Beijing, where Obama attended the summit.

Singapore sees the maritime dis-putes as one of the region’s biggest threats to security, Foreign A� airs Min-ister K Shanmugam told reporters.

Singapore will push for progress on a code of conduct that will reduce the potential for disruption to trade, he said.

Obama will use talks with Myan-mar President Thein Sein to push for changes to the apartheid-like living conditions of Myanmar’s ethnic Ro-hingya minority, as well as democratic reform.

Myanmar’s military-drafted con-stitution bars opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from becoming president. Obama will meet Suu Kyi in the city of Yangon on Friday.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet Suu Kyi in Naypyitaw on Wednesday, a member of the Indian delegation told Reuters.l

Hong Kong protesters plan to occupy British consulaten AFP, Hong Kong

Hong Kong students plan to occupy roads surrounding the city’s British consulate in anger at a lack of support from London for their pro-democra-cy movement, as authorities ramp up pressure on protesters to go home.

The city’s government has urged protesters to leave the main rally sites after more than six weeks of demon-strations that have brought parts of Hong Kong to a standstill.

Police were authorised Monday to

back up baili� s charged with clearing barricades.

They are expected to start the op-eration in the next few days, with thousands of o� cers put on stand-by over the weekend according to local media.

But seemingly undaunted, activists have put up large posters around the protest areas announcing the consul-ate occupation on November 21 and a Facebook page for the event has more than 700 likes.

Organisers say they want to show

their anger at Britain for not standing up to China over “breaches” of the agreement the two countries made before Hong Kong was handed back to China by Britain in 1997, designed to protect Hong Kong’s social systems and way of life.

“We are angry at the way that the British government has for many years denied that China has actually breached the declaration by interfering with Hong Kong politics,” Anna-Kate Choi, the coordinator for the Occupy British Consulate group told AFP. l

Instruments ‘rusty’ at Indian sterilization camp where 13 died

n Reuters, India

Nem Bai was told getting a tubectomy would be an easy process -that she’d be home by sunset, a few hundred rupees richer and back to work in the � elds within two days.

Instead, the 35-year-old mother-of-� ve was incapacitated within hours of having the surgery at a mass steriliza-tion camp in the Indian state of Chhat-tisgarh on Saturday, her widower told Reuters. She was one of 13 women who have died since.

“The entire night she was in tremen-dous pain,” said Ramavtar Suryavan-

shi, while waiting in his village for his wife’s body to be delivered from the hospital.

By early morning, when Suryavan-shi rushed Bai to a private hospital nearby, his wife was unable to speak. Within 20 minutes of being admitted to intensive care, she was dead.

Dozens more women remain in hospital and 20 are critically ill after the operations performed by a doctor accused of using rusty equipment in a dirty operating room, highlighting the dangers of the world’s largest surgical contraception program.

“They are in a state of shock,” said

K.N. Choudhary, a doctor at Chhat-tisgarh Institute of Medical Science (CIMS), where several women were being treated.

R.K. Gupta, an experienced doctor, carried out more than 80 surgeries that day at a village family planning camp in Bilaspur district, police say. Such camps are held regularly as part of a long-running e� ort to control India’s booming population.

The cause of the deaths was not im-mediately clear, but o� cials said the vic-tims showed signs of toxic shock, possi-bly because of dirty surgical equipment or contaminated medicines. l

US, China sign symbolic emissions plann Reuters, Beijing

The United States and China announced a largely symbolic plan on Wednesday to implement new limits on carbon emissions, the highlight of a summit between Barack Obama and Xi Jinping in which both leaders played down sug-gestions of di� erences and rivalry.

US o� cials said the commitments by the world’s two biggest carbon pol-luters came after months of backroom negotiations and would set the tone for a global climate control pact, but experts said the limits did not break signi� cant new ground.

The two largest economies in the world have strong commercial ties but have been at odds over every-thing from China’s pursuit of territorial claims in East and Southeast Asia to cyberspying, trade and human rights.

Obama, meeting Xi in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People for their � rst formal talks in more than a year after a dinner the previous night that went two hours longer than scheduled, said he welcomes a China that is peaceful, prosperous and stable.

“In other words, a strong, cooper-ative relationship with China is at the heart of our pivot to Asia,” Obama said, shrugging o� criticism that the United States sought to counter China’s rise in the region.

“If the United States is going to continue to lead the world in address-ing global challenges, then we have to have the second largest economy and the most populous nation on Earth as our partner,” Obama said, adding that he was encouraged by Xi’s “willing-ness to engage constructively.”

Xi called for expanding cooperation despite di� erences.

“The Paci� c Ocean is broad enough to accommodate the development of both China and the United States and our two countries should work together to contribute to security in Asia,” he said.

“The two sides should respect the other’s core interests and major con-cerns, and persist in managing di� er-ences in a constructive fashion.”

Despite US o� cials projecting low expectations for any major outcomes in the run-up to the trip, the two sides managed to roll out a series of modest to fairly signi� cant achievements over the course of the visit, on visas, trade, climate and military-to-military ties.

The outcomes of the visit were “more than expected,” with Xi keen to use the opportunity to show he wants improved ties despite Obama being on his way out in two years, said Sun Zhe, head of the Center for US-China Relations at Beijing’s elite Tsinghua University.

“The bilateral relationship is ma-ture enough that we understand even if we don’t have political trust for an-other � ve to 10 years, we need to live and work together. That’s a new way of thinking by Chinese leaders,” Sun said.

In another centerpiece of the vis-it, the White House announced on Tuesday that the two countries made a breakthrough on eliminating duties on information technology products, a move cheered by US software and technology trade groups that could pave the way for a major deal at the World Trade Organization.

Xi downplayed controversy over competing visions for free trade in the Asia-Paci� c which had been an under-current at the Asia Paci� c Economic

Cooperation (APEC) forum earlier in the week.

Washington is working on a 12-country Trans-Paci� c Partnership (TPP) deal which excludes China and is widely seen as the economic backbone of Obama’s pivot.

But Beijing had used APEC to push forward a study on the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Paci� c (FTAAP), a frame-work which some had seen as a count-er to the TPP.

“I don’t see any of the regional free trade agreements as targeting China. China is committed to open regional-ism and we believe the various region-al cooperation initiatives should posi-tively interact with each other. That is currently the case,” Xi said. l

BJP shakes up election race in disputed Kashmirn Reuters, Srinagar

Accompanied by half a dozen guards, Hina Bhat knocks on doors in Srinagar, the heart of a revolt against Indian rule, to persuade Kashmiris to vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party in this month’s state election.

After winning the biggest national mandate in 30 years, Prime Minister Na-rendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist BJP has launched its most audacious election

project yet - to win power in Muslim-ma-jority Jammu and Kashmir and integrate the disputed region fully into India.

It is Modi’s toughest test - his party has no base in the Kashmir Valley where it is seen as anti-Muslim. Even more of a red rag is the BJP’s long-held demand to abrogate the Himalayan region’s special status in the constitution.

Its aggressive posture toward Paki-stan which also claims Kashmir is just as menacing to the people sandwiched

between the two countries.And yet, within weeks, Modi has

shaken up an election race dominated by two regional groups and the Con-gress party. A former separatist leader, Sajjad Lone, met Modi this week and said the BJP leader could change Kash-mir’s fortunes.

A poll on Tuesday said the BJP would win the most seats ever in Jammu and Kashmir but fall short of its goal of 44 in the 87-seat state assembly. l

Myanmar ‘backsliding’ on reforms, says Obaman Reuters, Yangon

Myanmar’s transition from military rule has not been as fast as hoped and the government is “backslid-ing” on some reforms, US President Barack Obama said in an interview pub-lished on Wednesday, hours before he was due to visit the country.

Obama cited the per-secution of members of the ethnic Rohingya Muslim minority, a crack-down on journalists and reports of abuses in eth-nic minority areas where autonomy-seeking insur-gents have operated for decades.

“Even as there has been some progress on the polit-ical and economic fronts, in other areas there has been a slowdown and back-sliding in reforms,” Obama told the Irrawaddy, a web-site and magazine that was published in neighboring Thailand while the gener-als ran Myanmar, which is also know as Burma.

“In addition to restric-tions on freedom of the press, we continue to see violations of basic human rights and abuses in the country’s ethnic areas, including reports of ex-trajudicial killings, rape and forced labor. These kinds of abuses represent the painful history that so many people in Burma want to move beyond.” l

There cannot be a situation where a bigger nation is simply allowed to bully smaller nations

US President Barack Obama (L) shakes hands with China’s President Xi Jinping in front of US and Chinese national � ags during a joint news conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing yesterday REUTERS

Women who underwent botched sterilization surgeries at a government mass sterilization “camp” receive treatment at a district hospital in Bilaspur, in the eastern Indian state of Chhattisgarh REUTERS

An inspiration for allWe congratulate mountaineer Was� a Nazreen on being

selected as one of the ten National Geographic adventurers of the year.

She has already achieved much in her relatively short career. After becoming the second Bangladeshi woman to scale Everest,

she became the � rst Bangladeshi to scale Mount Denali (aka McKinley), the highest peak in North America, as part of her goal of climbing the seven highest peaks of the world’s seven continents.

The challenge, which she started to celebrate 40 years of independence in Bangladesh, has been a tremendous success, with only one summit left for her to reach.

It is encouraging to see a Bangladeshi citizen earn recognition at a global level for their work and accomplishments. This is particularly so because Was� a has always been associated with using her fame to promote women’s empowerment.

Her achievements in promoting developmental work, especially in helping to � ght violence against women and sex workers, makes it particularly welcome that she is representing Bangladesh in this world-renowned publication.

No doubt, many people will hope that she earns enough votes to be selected and honoured further under National Geographic’s People’s Choice Award.

This would be a highly deserving honour given her dedication to empowering women through her work.

She is an inspiration for all Bangladeshis. Her e� orts show that ambition and dedication can help anyone reaching for peaks. We hope people of all ages will emulate her example by setting new and bolder challenges for themselves.

Silk Road fund a step forward for tradeChina’s announcement, that it will contribute $40 billion to set up

a Silk Road infrastructure fund to boost connectivity across Asia, is of major potential importance to Bangladesh.

The fund for investing in infrastructure, resources, and industrial and � nancial cooperation is squarely targeted towards countries in Central and South Asia.

While it is to be hoped that the promise of a road map towards world free trade by the 21 large economies’ meeting in China at the APEC summit this week will help Bangladesh by facilitating world economic growth and lowering trade barriers, the Silk Road fund is potentially of more immediate bene� t.

Its vision of reviving the historical Silk Road between China and the Mediterranean, in which Bangladesh is located at a key position close to major population centres, makes it of both practical as well as symbolic signi� cance.

The fund, which will be open to other countries’ investors, is intended to help China’s Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiatives.

These aim to build roads, railways, ports, and airports across Central Asia and South Asia. Talks were held last weekend between China and leaders from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan, and Tajikistan on how these moves can help “break the connectivity bottleneck” in Asia.

Bangladesh’s participation is of utmost importance. Our economy needs a new deep sea port to serve our growing economy and to optimise use of our geographical location at the crossroads between South and South East Asia. We need to seek the opportunities heralded by this major new fund.

3 cattle traders killed in Habiganj border October 29

PB #Border #killings are too frequent, so much so that I wonder whether #India #Bangladesh will be � ghting for years!

Progress on deep sea port essentialOctober 29

Petros Mendes “DP World’s interest is welcome as a new deep sea port is a national priority.”

DP World may prove to be the best option for deep-sea ports in Bangladesh.

Jamaat’s hartal on Thursday, Sunday, MondayOctober 29

Humaira ChowdhuryThey need to be straightened out. We don’t approve of hartals.

Blind to justiceNovember 1

roseThe heroes of the war and the women who were raped or tortured during the war time should have been taken into consideration years back.

Editorial10 DHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, November 13, 2014

CODE-CRACKER

ACROSS1 Book of the Bible (4)5 Thunder god (4)10 Welsh national emblem (4)11 Wrath (3)12 Representative (5)13 Eye protector (3)14 Hackneyed (5)16 Conditional release (6)18 Expels by legal process (6)21 Worship (5)23 Top card (3)24 Send money (5)26 Regret (3)27 Quote (4)28 Catch sight of (4)29 Consumes (4)

DOWN2 Unclouded (5)3 Perfect score (3)4 Colonist (7)6 Sword handle (4)7 Far East (6)8 Colour (3)9 Stringedinstrument (4)15 Daydream (7)17 Counting frame (6)19 Heavenly body (5)20 Satisfy fully (4)22 Far down (4)23 Part of the verb “to be” (3)25 Greek letter (3)

CROSSWORD

How to solve: Fill in the blank spaces with the numbers 1 – 9. Every row, column and 3 x 3 box must contain all nine digits with no number repeating.

SUDOKU

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a di� erent letter of the alphabet. For example, today 3 represents L so � ll L every time the � gure 3 appears.You have two letters in the control grid to start you o� . Enter them in the appro-priate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.As you get the letters, � ll in the other squares with the same number in the main grid, and the control grid. Check o� the list of alphabetical letters as you identify them.

CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

Be heardWrite to Dhaka Tribune

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How much longer do we wait?October 30

RSWomen in this society must come forward and declare that we have our own rights, and injustice and torture upon women should be stopped from taking place. I strongly feel that we women really need to endeavour again and again in order to achieve our rights in this society. We need to struggle a lot.

sm RS: It is not just women who need to pursue this

endeavour. Women and men, together, need to work to change the social and political norms to achieve this.

RSObviously, men can support us or work together along with us, but � rst I feel women need to understand that we have our own rights and we need to work hard in order to achieve this goal. I basically don’t � nd that all women are aware of their rights.

China’s support in improving connectivity in Asia o� ers major practical bene� ts

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZWas� a Nazreen’s achievements and dedication are an example to emulate

Farewell Ghulam Azam?November 1

RZThe ICT should be sped up before more such convicts pass away without facing trial.

maqsud Jamil RZ: Yes, shame on us! The author is right! He and many others are in shame, for they could not do anything to these war villains. Rather, these villains lived and ruled over people.

Make Bangladesh better for businessNovember 1

Osmania World Bank indicators can be ideologically driven, but there’s no getting away from these rankings. In the bottom 20, when we are meant to be in the top 50. And it hurts Bangladeshi businesses the most, as foreign investors can usually � nd an advocate.

MausThe government needs to work harder in order for foreign investment to take place.

NusratGovernment should develop its infrastructure and institution to attract the foreign investors.

Bangladesh world’s 2nd most pro-free market countryNovember 2

riazoEven though many Bangladeshis may not be aware of this, the con� uence of Asia’s three greatest rivers in Bangladesh means that our region thrived on global trade from a very early time. And that in essence contributed to our cultural and linguistic heritage. It also contributed to an amount of wealth considerably greater than the rest of the world at that time. Of course, we gradually lost all that wealth but hey, we are now on track to become a middle income country by 2021. :o)

Chirkutt to perform in the 8th South Asian Bands Festival 2014

November 6SM

Hats o� to this band for this amazing opportunity! Would like to see other local bands step up their

game and get recognised for their e� orts.

Gridlock in a hartalNovember 6

Sheikh Jinat Mahmid “Dhaka streets continue to experience their

usual gridlocked state despite the fresh round of hartals called by Jamaat-e-Islami protesting the

upholding of the death penalty against its leader, Kamaruzzaman. The photos were taken at the

capital’s Karwan Bazar and Farmgate intersections.”Exactly. This is a hartal photo, believe it or not!

Complaint against RAB-9 commanding o� cer

November 6PB

“According to the complaint statement, a RAB team led by Srimongol Camp Commanding O� cer

Mosabbir Hossain detained Din Islam, nephew of the plainti� , without any charge on November 4.”

It’s the killer group, #RAB. Don’t mess with them!

Gender equality: Bangladesh ranks 8th in Asia-Paci� c

October 31ER

I believe Bangladesh can move forward in maintaining gender equality, in attaining

education, and so on.

RMG should learn from GermanyOctober 31

ESYes, Germany is a developed country and the

business sector can learn from it, as learning never stops.

11Op-Ed Thursday, November 13, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Matthew Islam

William Shakespeare once most wonder-fully put it: “Lawless are they that make their wills their law.”

It’s no secret today who the lawless are in the context of Dhaka University.

The powers of the few immoral, criminal, and moronically pretentious vigilantes amongst thousands of sin-cere seekers of knowledge within the largest bastion of traditional Bangla-deshi education remain completely unchecked, and the impunity with which they commit various crimes, staggering.

The ideological identities of these evil, misled, and deeply dishonourable bunch of criminals within DU is forev-er shifting. These destructive elements that police the corridors of our largest educational institute have alliances with everyone.

Their nexus and changing loyal-ties are always with those who deal with politics, in� uence, money, and violence. They recruit passionate innocents to boast larger numbers in movements, who invariably fall for their luring stories of heroism and who � nd actionable purpose in protecting our culture, heritage, and whatever the prevailing dominant political structure is.

Unlike student politics way before I was born, student politics today, practiced by reckless, overweight old

men and women, is devoid of hon-our, purpose, a moral compass, and students.

The leadership of the new recruits within any particular political umbrel-la have admitted to a lack of control on extremists within their groups and ranks, yet they do nothing to expel them. I leave it to your imagination as to why that is so.

The single largest dormant tumor-ous cancer waiting to activate in our nation today is student politics. It’s the premiere breeding ground for crimes, negative politics, and viral cynicism that a� ects the very foundation of Bangladesh’s future.

This tumour, regardless of nostalgia for a golden era, must be removed. In Bangladesh’s present circumstances, there is no place for student politics. It does tremendous harm to the student class and to the quality of politics in general.

Our honourable prime minister has to take a positive step to reign in and bring to book these criminals, and ban student politics from Bangladesh on a priority basis.

What happened to Imtiaz Alam Beg, Saba Ahmed, and Rubaiya Ahmed at DU is not tremendously surprising to people like me, who have been spot-ting events like this at the university premises for over a decade now.

There has been an uptick of res-idence hall-based raids by student political activists, interrogation of fellow students, corporal punishment, violent ragging, assault on women, and policing of conduct within DU.

I was once interviewing an artist for a project at Charukola in March 2010, when a group of six guys approached us at the gates, told us to keep it down and show IDs. I explained our purpose and after a brief lecture on correct conduct within DU premises, we were told to scoot o� .

Similar events have happened to friends of mine and there are countless stories like this that you may � nd from your own friends a� liated in some way with DU now. It’s all over the place. What happened recently isn’t an isolated event, as many will have you

think. So to that extent, it’s clear who owns DU. The question that remains unanswered now is: Should they be allowed to?

It is Beg, Saba, and Rubaiya today who faced violent assault within DU, tomorrow invariably others will. Today the attackers committed the crimes within DU and tomorrow they will do so outside the boundaries of DU.

As long as politics is allowed within universities, events like this will con-tinue to happen, and the responsibility for all that results from it lies with all of us and the government overseeing this trend.

Like most tragic events that � nd so-cial resonance and viral participation, this will surely also be forgotten, left to the urban archival memory banks

as yet another sign of the deterioration of Bangladesh’s social power balance. The violent minority prevailing over the silent majority yet again.

It is therefore, tremendously brave of Beg, Saba, and Rubaiya to seek jus-tice against the attack and encroach-ment of their beloved university by crass criminals and further politicisa-tion; that stands, if successful, to ben-e� t everyone who loves DU, knowing full well that the end result might not change anything at all.

Very rarely have people ventured to � ght against such incidents at DU, or for that matter any national university in Bangladesh. For the three on the receiving end of this assault, I am sure they are standing up with hope that someday the social power balance will

change for the better because of these small ripples created by people just like them, in the hope for a tsunami in the future.

It was downright heroic of Beg, Saba, Rubaiya, friends, and well wishers this past Monday (November 10, 2014) to stand their ground in protesting for terrorism of this nature to no longer exist at DU; in the face of tremendous intimidation, threats of violence, and verbal abuse from a counter-protest that had no permission or business being at the Shaheed Minar, at the same time having been organised by a student political body.

The counter group with sandals raised towards the Brotee protestors (a civil rights group supporting Beg,

Saba, and Rubaiya’s stand) and the Shaheed Minar (in a exhibition of their true nationalist standing) kept chanting the most crude words at Saba and Rubaiya, who simply countered back along with friends with traditional Bengali songs – the stark contrast of their approaches in protest making it abundantly clear whose culture needed reprimanding and whose was truly representative of Bangladesh and it’s indomitable spirit of never giving up in the face of bullying, adversity, and cruelty. l

Matthew Islam is the Founder of UV Happnotic Retail, a textile businessman, a Barrister-at-Law, and a columnist at the Dhaka Tribune. He can be contacted on twitter via @matthewislam.

T H E O T H E R S I D E

Who owns Dhaka University?

n Mahmudul Islam

The incident of Panir, a sev-enth-grader at Jurain Hazera High School, who was hospital-

ised after the head teacher punished him by making him do 500 squats, is utterly deplorable.

But what is really obnoxious is the comment made by the head teacher, one Alfaj Hussain, who told Panir’s father that he should come to him for an explanation to his actions only if his son died from the punishment he had received. A teacher expecting a guardian to approach him in the event of a student’s death stemming from corporal punishment can by no means be considered rational.

Panir said he, along with some of his friends, had ridiculed their class-mate Shahin. Shahin complained to his uncle. When Shahin’s uncle com-plained against Panir and his friends Nahid and Arif, the next day, Alfaj punished them with his bare hands, after which he asked the three to do 500 squats.

Alfaj, on the other hand, gave a di� erent account, saying the boys had teased a female student of the school and her brother, along with some friends, who came to beat them up in retaliation. He said he had to punish the boys to dissuade the girl’s brother and his friends from beating them up.

The statements are contradictory. There has been no investigation into who’s telling the truth and who’s lying. Nevertheless, there are several factors here that need to be mulled over.

To begin with, the head teacher should have been far more sensitive while handling the a� air. If we consider Panir’s statement to be true, then a student ridiculing his peer is certainly not a serious o� ence. Shahin, the student who was ridiculed, acted quite maturely by complaining about Panir to his uncle. He could have gotten into a quarrel or even a scu� e with Panir at school, and things could have gotten much worse, but he sought the intervention of a guardian instead.

Not all seventh-graders will be o� ended by what Panir did in the classroom. On the other hand, Shahin cannot be blamed for taking his

friends’ remarks seriously either, seeing as how one handles mockery from peers varies considerably from individual to individual. Clearly, the incident involved more psychological and social issues than academic ones, and hence should have been dealt with accordingly. There is no doubt that Alfaj failed to do so.

Another interesting aspect here is Alfaj’s account of the incident: He also said he had punished Panir and his friends after he saw the girl’s brother and two of his friends looking for the seventh-graders to beat them up.

Even if it is true, one needs to ask how humorous can the head teacher of a school get. What convinced him to think that he could save three students of his school from getting beaten up by hitting them himself and making them do 500 squats afterwards? Which o� cial rule or law did he follow while taking action to “save” Panir and his friends?

Alfaj said the girl’s brother, whom he identi� ed as Bashar (Panir said Bashar was Shahin’s uncle), and his friends could not be stopped from entering the school when they came to beat the three seventh-graders because they were former students of the institution. If this is something that the head teacher thinks is justi� ed, then it needs to be seriously looked into if such an act is permitted by our country’s legal system.

Then comes the issue of the prevalence and the severity of cor-poral punishment in schools. If not all, the majority of our educational institutions, especially primary and

secondary schools, dole out corporal punishment.

According to a judgement made on January 13, 2011, the High Court Divisional bench, comprising Justice Md Imman Ali and Justice Md Sheikh Hasan Arif, said corporal punishment constituted a clear violation of chil-dren’s fundamental rights to life, liber-ty, and freedom from cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.

In the wake of the judgement, the Education Ministry directed dis-trict education o� cers and upazila education o� cers to stop corporal punishment involving in� iction of physical pain. It also ordered that e� ective measures be taken against this practice.

However, the subsequent incidents of corporal punishment, including the case of Panir and his friends, lucidly il-lustrate how schools have measurably failed to comply with the court order. Teachers have also shown � agrant disregard for a legal ruling by acting against what the court said.

Although the court issued a directive to inspect educational institutions for complaints of corporal punishment, and to take action following investigations, o� cial proceedings are hardly carried out, as most of the cases are settled through arbitration. And even if a case is dealt with o� cially, the usual outcome remains limited to just warning the accused teacher.

Finally, what made Alfaj think that a student could die after receiving corporal punishment from him, and that it would be the appropriate time for the student’s guardian to seek an explanation from him? Is there any rule or law that permits a teacher to explain his actions to the parents of a student who died after being punished by him?

Not only were Alfaj’s actions yet another example of the High Court's orders on corporal punishment being violated, but they have also raised questions that demand o� cial pro-ceedings, provided the authorities concerned are eager to learn what actually happened rather than ruling it out as an “isolated” incident. l

Mahmudul Islam is a journalist.

Punished unto death?

Alfaj told Panir’s father that he should come to him for an explanation only if his son died from the punishment

n Shabnam Nadiya

There’s a photo making rounds on Facebook, of a sign posted by Mohakhali DOHS author-

ities, stating the rules for entering and enjoying a park located in the DOHS premises. Rule no 4 is this: House-servants and buas are prohibit-ed from walking on the park walk-ways. This rule follows rule no 3: No dogs are allowed in the park.

Facebookers have been comment-ing in droves on this image. People are sharing it widely, and it was good to see most of the comments being condemnatory. A few (fortunately, from what I’ve seen, a minority) have argued that the DOHS authorities have the right to put up whatever rule they feel is right for that area, that the park isn’t a public place to begin with, and that the very � rst rule (ie the park is only for the use of DOHS residents) makes that clear.

Of course, this raises the question of why household help who live in their workplaces are not to be consid-ered residents. Or, will the authorities ban or penalise residents, who, say, bring non-resident guests (as long as they are not buas) along for a quick walk. 

The online blog Women Chapter (http://womenchapter.com/) quotes a DOHS o� cial (who preferred to remain anonymous) as saying that the reason for the prohibition is because “the families of army o� cers usually walk in that park. The rule was put into place to safeguard their children from eve-teasing and other incidents.” So according to the DOHS authorities, street harassment perpetrators are only those belonging to a certain class?

Brig Gen (Retd) Mosharef Hossain is quoted as saying: “Since the children of o� cers usually walk in the park, the servants or buas do not have permission to enter.” For many of us, the � rst part of this statement does not necessarily lead to the second, (ie why the presence of the o� spring of army o� cers must preclude the presence of domestic help) which leads us to wonder what happens in the DOHS households where both o� cer-o� spring and household help live: Whether they are allowed

to be in the same room at the same time, what happens if the twain do happen to occupy the same ground simultaneously, etc.

There are more questions. But we’ll leave those aside for the moment. We can leave aside trying to parse the log-ic or suss out how exactly these rules would play out because we all know where these “rules” really come from. The class privilege inherent in such a sign is mind-boggling.

I’ve been sitting at my desk trying to imagine being at a committee meeting, no doubt where all members were educated, moneyed, and bhodrolok or bhodromohila. Where these people drew up these rules, wrote them down, and assigned someone to actually make a sign that proudly proclaims: We are superior, and the people who work for us do not deserve the same rights and privileges that are inherently ours; they are no better than dogs. Because that is, essentially, what the sign is saying. 

It isn’t that surprising. This attitude is not uncommon among us privileged Bangladeshis, and I’ve lived in or seen several apartment buildings with signs banning house-help from using lifts. A similar sign, brie� y, was displayed in the Dhanmondi building where I lived for several years. I won’t go into the re-ally horrible and irrational arguments other residents put to me when I tried to bring up why this was wrong. Or, how what I said made no di� erence because I was merely a tenant and not an owner.

The sign also proudly proclaims: “Courtesy of Banglalink.” My ques-tion is this: Why is a corporate entity proudly sponsoring such discrimina-

tory behaviour? Cellphone technology has been a great leveler in Bangla-desh. The cheap and reliable services provided by the phone companies have revolutionised communication and access to information like nothing before. A bua or a grihobhrityo or a rickshaw-driver is just as likely to be carrying a cellphone, as is a homeown-er in a posh part of the city.

But shouldn’t these telecom pro-viders, an industry which prides itself on customer service, accord the same respect to all customers? Or, are buas and grihobhrityos worth less respect and rights?

It’s quite likely that Banglalink is unaware of the content of the DOHS signboard they’ve sponsored. Such signboards, proudly displaying various corporate sponsorships, are to be found all over the city. While it seems counterintuitive for companies not to scrutinise exactly what they’re sponsoring, it’s understandable as these signboards are not part of any “o� cial” advertising campaign.

A quick perusal of Banglalink’s website details projects they’ve un-dertaken to serve the underprivileged, such as providing aid at orphanages, setting up computer labs in under-privileged schools. Would a company like Banglalink, which self-describes as “a responsible corporate citizen,” whose Customer Service page proudly states: “Apnar jonnoi amra!” (We are for you!), knowingly endorse such an elitist standpoint evident in the DOHS signboard and follow-up response?

The DOHS authorities or board is a di� erent creature. Banglalink, however, as a responsible corporate citizen is accountable to its customers, to its community. A customer base of us, the aamjanata, comprises of impecunious writers, salaried workers, homemakers, rickshaw wallahs, factory laborers, factory owners – all sorts.

How about it, Banglalink? Here is the moment you can make real your slogan: Apnar jonnoi amra. Here is the moment when you can show your customers that you are for them, for all of them, not just the privileged ones. l

Shabnam Nadiya is a writer and translator.

Do not enter

This attitude is not uncommon among us privileged Bangladeshis

It’s clear who owns DU. The question that remains unanswered now is: Should they be allowed to?

Heroically standing their ground SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

12 DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sometimes it is frustrating not to have an established place in the side and I had to perform exceptionally well to catch the eyes of the selectors. But these things never bothered

me and I said to myself that

whenever I get the

opportunity I have to score big

I want to thank Mush-� q from the bottom of my heart. He backed me in my tough period and so did our coach. Hathurus-ingha backed me, told me some very good things. Sometimes words are more e� ec-tive than action when you are go-ing through a lean patch

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Sport1413 Messi nickname claims ‘absolutely false’: Ronaldo

Abahani cruise past Mohammedan

14 Federer eyes 1,000 win landmark

Did you know?

Bangladesh’s Mominul Haque is just 4 runs shy

of his 11th � fty in 12 Tests

Bangladesh 1st innings Tamim c H. Masakadza b Raza 109Imrul c sub (Sibanda) b Masakadza 130Mominul not out 46Mahmudullah not out 5Extras (b2, lb5, w6) 13Total (for two wickets; 90 overs) 303

Fall of wickets1-224 (Tamim), 2-272 (Imrul)BowlingPanyangara 14-1-46-0, Chigumbura 10-3-29-0 (w4) S. Masakadza 15-3-50-0(w2), M’shangwe 25-3-85-0, Raza 21-0-74-1, Chari 2-0-9-0, H. Masakadza 3-1-3-1

3RD TEST, DAY 1

109TAMIM IQBAL

PARTNERSHIP 2 2 4

130IMRUL KAYES

Highest ever partnership between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe for any wicket after Brendan Taylor and Tatenda Taibu scored 150 for the � fth wicket in January, 2005.

Breaks their own highest opening partnership record after the pair added 185 runs against England at Lords, 2010.

First ever Bangladeshi opening pair to score centuries in an innings in Test cricket.

80th opening pair in Test history to score over 200 runs in the opening wicket. Highest ever opening part-nership record is South Africa’s Neil McKenzie and Graem Smith adding 415 runs against Bangladesh in Chit-tagong back in February 2008.

Eighth hundred runs partnership by a Bangladeshi pair against Zimbabwe

TAMIM-IMRUL 224-RUN STAND AND SOME RECORDS

(Tamim involved in the previous three highest opening partnerships)

Tamim Iqbal – Imrul Kayes, against Zimbabwe at ZACS in 2014

Tamim Iqbal – Imrul Kayes, against England at Lords in 2010

Tamim Iqbal – Junaid Siddique, against New Zealand at Dunedin in 2008

Javed Omar – Nafees Iqbal (Tamim’s elder brother) against Zimbabwe at Dhaka in 2005

Tamim Iqbal – Imrul Kayes, against England at Manchester in 2010

HIGHEST OPENING STANDS FOR BANGLADESH IN TESTS

185

224

126

161

133

Mohammad Ashraful-Mush� qur Rahim (5th) against Sri Lanka at Galle, 2013

Imrul Kayes-Shamsur Rahman (2nd) against Sri Lanka at Chittagong, 2014

Tamim Iqbal-Imrul Kayes (1st) against Zimbabwe at Chittagong, 2014

Tamim Iqbal-Junaid Siddique (2nd) against India at Dhaka, 2010

DOUBLE CENTURY STANDS FOR BANGLADESH IN TESTS

232

267

224

200

Imrul utilises opportunity as promised beforen Mazhar Uddin from Chittagong

The � ghting spirit and the eagerness of utilising the opportunity of playing a Test saw Imrul Kayes register his ca-reer’s second century on the opening day of the third match against Zimba-bwe yesterday.

The call-up in place of Shamsur Rah-man in the squad was unexpected for Imrul who otherwise had a decent out-ing in 2014. After scoring his maiden hundred against Sri Lanka in February, Imrul lost his place from the national fold in the series against the West In-dies two months back. He made nine and 25 in the last Test that he played in the Caribbean island before a poor ODI series was followed by skin disease which saw him � y back to Bangladesh.

Getting the call, Imrul had been say-ing of making use of this opportunity to seal a place in the line-up and the rest, as they say, is history as the left-hander struck 130.

“I was watching Bangladesh play quite well in this series. I did not ex-pect to play in this series. I knew that next time I get a chance I cannot be sta-ble without scoring a hundred. I have

to score runs. There is no alternative to scoring runs. You have to perform,” said a con� dent looking Imrul at the post-day conference.

“Sometimes it is frustrating not to have an established place in the side and I had to perform exceptionally well to catch the eyes of the selectors. But these things never bothered me and I said to myself that whenever I get the opportunity I have to score big,” he added.

The 27-year-old partnered Tamim Iqbal to register the highest ever part-nership by a Bangladeshi opening pair in Tests, breaking their own record of 185 against England at Lord’s in 2010.

“We talk a lot when we bat together. When he (Tamim) is facing a problem, I talk to him and he does the same. He was telling me how (Elton) Chigumbu-ra would bowl as we were walking in to bat. It does make batting easier with better communication,” said Imrul.

Imrul is considered as an opening batsman but also o� ers the option of batting at No 3. The left-handed, how-ever, said, “It is slightly tricky to bat at No 3, you have to wait wearing your pads, which makes you uneasy.” l

Tamim Iqbal back where he belongsn Mazhar Uddin from Chittagong

The ongoing three-match Test series between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe have been a memorable one to say the least for opening batsman Tamim Iqbal. Not only did the left-hander reg-ister his � fth and sixth Test century, the southpaw has also posted back-to-back hundreds for the second time in his career. The last time he achieved the feat was against England at Lord’s and Old Tra� ord in 2010.

Tamim’s twin hundreds against the English bowling attack, comprising Jimmy Anderson, Steven Finn, Tim Bresnan and Graeme Swann enabled the cricketer from Chittagong to be named as one of the � ve Wisden Test cricketers of the year in 2010.

Renowned cricket writer Scyld Ber-ry justi� ed the swashbuckling open-er’s selection by saying, “There was no question about Tamim Iqbal, the � rst Bangladeshi to be a Wisden Cricketer of the Year. Not once in Australia were England’s Test bowlers crashed and trashed as they were by Tamim in his two hundreds at Lord’s and Old Traf-ford.” Berry was referring to England’s Ashes tour of Australia that preceded Bangladesh’s tour of England.

In comparison, Tamim’s hundreds

against Zimbabwe were workmanlike. The 25-year-old grafted hard but got his due rewards as he equaled Mohammad Ashraful for the highest number of Test centuries by a Bangladeshi batsman.

However, despite all the records, one feat that had eluded Tamim prior to the start of the third and � nal Test in Chit-tagong was a hundred at his hometown. Having scored his � rst century in the port-city, a responsible 171-ball 109 yesterday, Tamim was expectedly over the moon.

“I have been repeatedly telling the coaches about scoring a hundred at this ground, which is a dream for every play-er. I have come close a few times in ODIs and Tests. To be able to do it � nally, is a great feeling. If I get another chance, I will de� nitely try to score another cen-tury. I celebrated more because it is my home ground. I do not think my family came to the ground but I am sure they prayed for me,” Tamim told the media in the post-day conference.

When asked to describe his feelings upon scoring back-to-back centuries, Tamim said it was anything but easy.

“Khulna (second Test) was a lot of hard work. The wicket looked � at there but it was not easy to bat. Both are di� er-ent. I got a lot more boundaries here than in Khulna. I never thought I would score only 75 runs batting the entire day (� rst

day, second Test). I should have made at least a hundred. It was a very tough in-nings but both are special to me,” he said.

The left-hander also thanked his skip-per and head coach Chandika Hathurus-ingha and said, “I want to thank Mush-� q from the bottom of my heart. He backed me in my tough period. I would also [like to thank] the coach. When he started working here, I was not batting well. But he backed me, told me some very good things. Sometimes words are more e� ective than action when you are going through a lean patch,” con-cluded Tamim. l

n Raihan Mahmood

Bangladesh and Afghanistan will face each other in the opening match of the 3rd Sa� Women’s Championship at Jin-nah Stadium in Islamabad at 3:30pm today. It is also the � rst time Bangla-desh will be meeting the war-torn country in the premier women’s foot-ball tournament of the region.

All the eight countries from SAARC are taking part in the championship with two-time champions India, Afghanistan, Mal-dives and Bangladesh in Group A. Group B comprises two-time runners-up side Ne-pal, Pakistan, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. Ban-gladesh will be taking on defending cham-pions India this Saturday and will wrap up their group commitments this Monday against Maldives. The top two sides from each group will progress to the semi� nals. The � nal is slated for November 21.

In the previous two editions, Ban-gladesh reached the semi� nals and were eliminated in the group stages in 2010 at home and 2012 in Sri Lanka re-spectively. l

The dominating southpawsImrul Kayes and Tamim Iqbal elevated Bangladesh and themselves to a new high in the Test series against Zimbabwe. On the � rst day of the third Test, their

individual centuries and record opening stand dominated a beautiful day in Chit-tagong where the only disappointment for them was a very small crowd wit-nessing these milestones, one of which belonged to one of their own men.

Tamim’s sixth Test hundred, equal with Mohammad Ashraful for most hun-dreds by a Bangladeshi, was his � rst in-ternational hundred in his hometown.

He spent slightly over four hours at the crease for a second consecutive hundred in this series, after his 109 in Khulna. The last time Tamim had scored con-secutive hundreds was in 2010 in Lord’s and Manchester, but he spent more than four years without his next hundred.

Kayes was a reminder of how he had been part of Bangladesh’s most con-sistent opening stand between 2008 and 2011 before he was dropped. He started o� with more boundaries than Tamim but held on through lean phases throughout the day. He reached his � fty o� 123 balls before reaching his second hundred in three Tests. l

Bangladesh face Afghans in Sa� opener

Bangladesh team practise ahead of their 3rd Sa� Women’s Championship opener in Pakistan yesterday COURTESY

Sk Jamal, Abahani � y o� to Thailandn Shishir Hoque

With an aim to achieve the title, Bangla-desh Premier Football League champi-ons Sheikh Jamal and Abahani Limited will leave here for Bhutan today to take part in the King’s Cup which is sched-uled to kick o� at Changlimithang Sta-dium in Thimphu this Saturday.

Sheikh Jamal will leave the country in the morning and will � rst go to Kolk-ata before � ying to Bhutan while four-time professional league champions Abahani will � y directly to Thimphu in the afternoon.

Both the Dhanmondi-based clubs have set their main target to return home as champions. Sheikh Jamal be-gan their preparation camp a month ago while Abahani started their camp three weeks ago. The traditional Sky Blues, who are treating this tourna-ment as preparation for the new sea-son, have been boosted by the arrival of Ghanaian defender Samad Yusuf.

“As the Federation Cup will get underway on December 19, we are

going to play in this tournament as preparation period for the upcoming season. We did practise for three weeks which is not enough but the condition and � tness of the players are not bad. If they remain � t and adapt to the new conditions quickly and utilise their chances, I expect us to do well,” said Abahani manager Satyajit Das Rupu yesterday.

Abahani have been pitted in Group B alongside India’s Assam Electricity, Nepal’s A-Division league champions Manang Marshyangdi Club, Osots-pa FC from Thailand and Bhutanese club Ugyen Academy. Rupu said their toughest opponents are expected to be the Thai club that had defeated the Bangladesh football team in a practice match last year.

The new shape of Abahani team is a mixture of youth and experience. Their latest signing Victory Anthony and Guinean striker Ismael Bangoura, along with national striker Wahed Ahmed, will lead the forward line while Obam Henry, Samad Yousuf, Arif and Nahid

are likely to shore up the defence.Sheikh Jamal on the other hand

have been placed in Group A with In-dian league side Mohun Bagan, Druk United from Bhutan and Nakhon Rat-chasing Mazda from Thailand. Sheikh Jamal are targeting nothing but a title win with a star-studded squad at their disposal.

“The team are in very good shape. We have been training for a month and the players are doing great. Our main target is to come out as champions. If we give our best on the pitch and play as a unit we will make it,” said Sheikh Jamal coach Maruful Haque yesterday.

Sheikh Jamal, however, defeated Mohun Bagan in the IFA Shield earlier this year but this time their last-sea-son’s best player Haitian forward Sony Norde will be playing for the Indian side.

Sheikh Jamal have some good news at last as previous season’s top scorer Emeka Darlington arrived in Dhaka and joined the club last Monday although he is yet to regain his match � tness. l

Tamim Iqbal (L) and Imrul Kayes in the post-day conference at ZACS yesterday COURTESY

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE 13Thursday, November 13, 2014

BTV, Gazi TV9:30AMBangladesh v Zimbabwe3rd Test, Day 2Ten Cricket12:00PMPakistan v New Zealand1st Test, Day 5Ten Sports 7:30PM Barclays ATP � nals Men’s Round Robin, Day 5 Star Sports 12:00PMIndia v Sri Lanka 4th ODIStar Sports 27:30PMIndian Super LeagueDelhi v GoaSony Six5:30PMWorld Kabaddi League Ludhiana: 38

DAY’S WATCH

ICC to trial broadcast of umpire communicationsCricket fans will soon be able to expe-rience what their rugby counterparts enjoy after the game’s governing body decided to trial the broadcast of conversations between match o� cials for important decisions. Viewers and spectators will be able to hear the consultations between the on-� eld and television umpires during the upcoming one-day international series between Australia and South Africa, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said on Wednesday. The umpire communications during referrals, consultations and player reviews might be extended to some matches during next year’s World Cup if the trial was successful. “For years, viewers have enjoyed seeing the same pictures as the TV umpire and making their own decisions during a referral or review,” Geo� Allardice, ICC general manager cricket, said in a statement. “Now they will be even closer to the game, hear-ing what the umpire is saying when making those decisions.” Australia and New Zealand will co-host the 50-over World Cup from Feb. 14-Mar. 29.

–Reuters

Scott has ‘score to settle’ with McIlroyAdam Scott says he has a “score to settle” with Rory McIlroy when they clash at the Australian Open in Sydney in two weeks. Scott missed a chance for a perfect ending to 2013 when he bogeyed the � nal hole of last year’s Open at Royal Sydney to allow McIlroy to capture the historic Stonehaven Cup when the Northern Irishman holed a 16-foot birdie putt at the same hole. They will return for a rematch from Nov. 27-30 most likely as the two top-ranked players in the world, though the venue will change to another course in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, The Australian Golf Club where Jack Nicklaus won the 1978 Open. After making history in 2013 when he become the � rst Australian to win the Masters at Augusta National, Scott al-most claimed Australia’s “triple crown” that year when he won the country’s other two big tournaments prior to the Open. “It’s great for me that Rory’s going back,” he told reporters at the WGC-HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai last weekend.

–Reuters

Podolski to seek talks with ArsenalGermany star Lukas Podolski will seek talks with Premier League side Arsenal about his future as Gunners’ boss Arsene Wenger continues to leave him on the bench, he said Tuesday. “I have to worry about what will happen in the winter and will look for talks with the club,” he said in a Berlin press conference ahead of Germany’s Euro 2016 quali� er against Gi-braltar on Friday in Nuremberg. “I’m not happy with my position at the moment and it would also be rubbish for that to continue. “I am still having fun with football, but when you take away the competition (of regular matches) from me, which I � nd so awesome, then I am not happy. “But if nothing happens in the winter, then I’ll stay. It’s not as though I am completely unsatis� ed.” Podolski was again left out of Arsenal’s side for the 2-1 league defeat at Swansea on Sunday and has been used just a handful of times o� the bench by Wenger this season. “I don’t know why, for that you’ll have to ask the coach in England,” said Podolski. “You can’t even say I am in a crisis, be-cause I don’t have the possibility to show what I can do.

–AFP

QUICK BYTES

Pakistan 1st innings566-3 declared (Ahmed Shehzad 176, Misbah-ul Haq 102 not out, Younis Khan 100 not out; C. Anderson 2-68)New Zealand Ist innings262 (R. Latham 103; Rahat Ali 4-22, Zul� qar Babar 3-79)Pakistan 2nd innings(overnight 15-0)Mohammad Hafeez not out 101Azhar Ali lbw b Sodhi 23Younis Khan lbw b Sodhi 28Sarfraz Ahmed not out 13Extras: (b6, lb2, w2) 10Total: (for 2 wkts; 39.2 overs dec) 175

BowlingBoult 7-2-25-0, Southee 9-0-33-0, Sodhi 13-1-66-2, Anderson 5-1-11-0, Craig 5-0-29-0, McCullum 0.2-0-3-0New Zealand 2nd inningsT. Latham c Shah b Babar 20B. McCullum b Shah 39K. Williamson st Sarfraz b Hafeez 23R. Taylor lbw b Shah 8C. Anderson lbw b Khan 23J. Neesham c Sarfraz b Rahat 0BJ Watling b Rahat 0M. Craig not out 27T. Southee b Babar 5I. Sodhi not out 27Extras: (lb2) 2Total: (for eight wkts; 54 overs) 174

BowlingRahat 9-1-38-2, Khan 7-0-34-1, Babar 18-6-30-2, Shah 13-1-49-2, Hafeez 7-0-21-1

SCORECARD, DAY 4

Abahani cruise past MohammedanKapugedera powers Victoria past Prime Bank, Kalabagan CA collapse against Brothers n Minhaz Uddin Khan

The start to the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League could not have been better for Abahani Limited as they comprehensively beat archrivals Mo-hammedan Sporting Club Limited by � ve wickets yesterday.

Sri Lankan Chamara Kapugedera smashed his List A career best 161 not out before registering his best bowling � gures (4-41) to power Victoria Sport-ing Club to a 66-run win over Prime Bank Cricket Club.

Meanwhile in a low scoring a� air, Brothers Union handed Kalabagan Cricket Academy an eight-run defeat.

Abahani v Mohammedan, SBNSMohammedan were in all sorts of trou-ble right from the moment they were

put in to bat � rst as they lost the open-ing pair with just three runs on the scorecard.

The Abahani pacers – Shuvashish Roy and Al Amin Hossain – maintained the pressure by picking up wick-ets at regular intervals leaving MSC reeling at 46 for six before Mashrafe bin Mortaza (61) showed his class with the bat.

The Bangladesh ODI skipper added 71 runs with Naeem Islam (45) for the seventh wicket to help the Motijhe-el-based club reach 168 for nine in 50 overs.

The run chase was made easier for the Sky Blues after wicketkeeper-bats-man Liton Kumar struck seven fours and a six to score 55. Rakibul Hasan contributed 41 runs as Abahani reached their target in the 38th over.

Prime Bank v Victoria, FatullahKapugedera dominated the opposition bowling in the morning before rattling Prime Bank’s batting like-up with his quickies to single handedly land an easy win for Victoria.

Victoria rode on his 136-ball hurri-cane that included 13 fours and seven huge sixes to post 301 for four.

The right-hander was also involved in a massive 173-run stand with skipper Nadif Chowdhury (70) for the fourth wicket.

Prime Bank in reply never looked comfortable chasing the mammoth to-tal and were reduced from 59 for four before Soumya Sarker (43) and Taibur Parvez (77) came to their rescue. Left-hander Taibur was the last wicket to fall as Prime Bank were all out for 235 in the last ball of their innings. National

discard Sohrawardi Shuvo also bagged three wickets for Victoria.

Kalabagan CA v Brothers, BKSP 3Milinda Siriwardana’s 57 o� 59 balls en-abled Brothers to post a respectable 153 on the scorecard, a score that proved enough in the end.

Kalabagan in pursuit of the small tar-get lost their openers early but cruised to 99 runs with Mahmudul Hasan (55) and Sabbir Rahman (36) adding 76 runs. However, Sabbir’s dismissal in the 28th over triggered a major collapse which saw them getting bundled out for 145 runs.

Left-arm spinner Asif Hasan was the architect behind the destruction as his three-wicket haul, all grabbed in the 32nd over of the innings, made all the di� erence. l

Athletes depart for Beach Gamesn Raihan Mahmood

A 33-member Bangladesh contingent � ew to Thailand yesterday to partic-ipate in the 4th Asian Beach Games scheduled for November 14-23 in the coastal city of Phuket, Thailand.

Bangladesh will participate in athlet-ics, basketball, handball, swimming, ka-baddi, volleyball and wrestling. Among the disciplines it is only in women’s kabbadi that the Bangladesh athletes harbour any hopes of winning a med-al. Cager Mithun Biswas will be the � ag-bearer in the opening ceremony.

Athletics will be held on the beach but the two participants – the fastest male and female sprinter of the country, Mez-bah and Shirin – are hardly aware of the craft. “Running on sand is a little tricky. We have practised on makeshift sand pitches at Army Stadium,” said Shirin.

The Games in Phuket has drawn a re-cord 2,583 athletes from 43 countries par-ticipating across 26 di� erent disciplines. With a team of 343 members, Thailand have the largest number of competitors.l

BRIEF SCORESPrime Bank CC v Victoria SCVictoria: 301/4 in 50 overs(Kapugedara 161*, Nadif 70, Taposh 2/43)Prime Bank: 235/10 in 50 overs(Taiabur 77, Saumya 43, Kapugedara 4/41)

Victoria won by 66 runsAbahani v MohammedanMohammedan: 168/9 in 50 overs(Mashrafe 61, Naeem 45, Shuvashish 3/18)Abahani: 169/5 in 37.5 overs(Liton 55, Rakibul 41, Alauddin 2/26)

Abahani won by 5 wicketsKalabagan CA v Brothers UnionBrothers: 153/10 in 48/1 overs(Milinda 57, Nabil 2/12, Jeevan 2/30)Kalabagan: 145/10 in 47.1 overs(Mahmudul 55, Sabbir 36, Asif 4/28)

Brothers won by 8 runs

MSC start with win in premier chessn Tribune Desk

Mohammedan Sporting Club Limited began their Premier Division Chess League campaign with a 3.5-.5 point victory over Leonine Chess Club in the 1st round at the media centre of Bangla-desh Olympic Association yesterday.

GM Ziaur Rahman was the only one from Mohammedan who was unable to win as he was held by CM Monir Hossain while Georgian GM Mekheil Mchedlish-vili, IM Abu Su� an Shakil defeated FM Mehdi Hasan and CM Sohel Chowdhury Uten of Leonine respectively. Spanish GM Anton Guijarro David did not take part in the opening round.

In the other matches, last year’s run-ners-up Bangladesh Navy outplayed Fire Service & Civil Defence Sports Club 4-0, Titas Club defeated Sultana Kamal Sm-riti Pathagar 3-1 and Pritam-Prism Chess Club beat Bangladesh Navy (Junior) 3-1.l

Abahani’s Liton Kumar bats while Mohammedan skipper Mashrafe bin Mortaza (L) looks on during their DPL match at SBNS yesterday

France name Davis Cup � nal team to face Switzerlandn Reuters, Paris

France will send Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gael Mon� ls, Richard Gasquet and Ju-lien Benneteau to take on Switzerland in the Davis Cup � nal this month as Les Bleus seek their � rst triumph in the competition since 2001.

The Nov. 21-23 event, in which Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka are likely to team up for the Swiss, will be played on clay in Lille under the closed stadium roof of the Ligue 1 club’s Pierre Mauroy stadium. Gilles Simon was named as the replacement player.

“For the moment, I had to make a choice,” captain Arnaud Clement told reporters in a telephone conference call. “Gilles had really good results this last week, but ... ultimately you have to make a choice and this is it.”

France beat holders the Czech Re-public 4-1 in the semi-� nals, while 17-times grand slam champion Federer led Switzerland to only their second � -nal by knocking out Italy.

None of the French players quali-� ed for the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London this week which Federer and Australian Open champion Wawrinka are both competing in.

France do, however, boast impres-sive strength in depth with six players ranked in the world’s top 30. l

‘No hate but plenty of � re in Proteas rivalry’n Reuters, Sydney

Australia paceman Mitchell Johnson is expecting a � ery encounter with South Africa in the upcoming one-day series but thinks to say the teams “hate” each other would be to overstate the case.

The bad blood between the sides goes back to Australia’s test triumph in South Africa at the start of the year and Johnson conceded that it could spill over into the � ve-match series which starts at the WACA in Perth on Friday.

“There’s always tension between the two sides,” Johnson told reporters in Perth on Wednesday.

“But in the end we’re going to play them on skill. That’s what we’re about. We want to beat them with bat and ball.

“It’s probably going to be � ery again but we want to play the best cricket we can. Both teams don’t like to lose and

that’s where you see the � re in the game (but) I think hate’s a pretty strong word.”

Johnson has not been as devastat-ing in one-day internationals at his home ground as he has in test matches, where he has taken 42 wickets at 20.19 in six matches.

That compares to 11 at 32.54 in nine international matches with the white ball but Johnson is con� dent that his contribution to the team goes beyond knocking down wickets.

“I always enjoy playing at the WACA and if I play my role in being aggressive and don’t get any wickets, I’m happy and hopefully the team will be happy too,” he said.

The 33-year-old said he would be bowling “pain free” despite a bandage on one of his � ngers, damaged when he caught a ball awkwardly in the United Arab Emirates.l

Pakistan on brink of mammoth victory against New Zealandn Reuters

Pakistan are two wickets away from a comprehensive victory over New Zea-land in the � rst Test after the tourists slumped to 174-8 in their second in-nings at stumps on the fourth day in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

After their � rst-innings run feast of 566-3, Pakistan declared their second innings at 175-2 to set New Zealand a nominal 480-run victory target in the � rst match of the three-Test series.

Openers Brendon McCullum (39) and Tom Latham (20) made a bright start before Pakistani spinners Yasir Shah (2-49) and Zul� qar Babar (2-30) wrecked their top order.

The only possible consolation for New Zealand is that they were not beat-en inside four days.

The conTest could have been over on Wednesday but Mark Craig and Ish Sodhi, both unbeaten on 27, showed the kind of � ghting spirit that was lack-ing in some of their team mates.

They will return at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium on Thursday hoping to delay an imminent defeat.

Earlier, Pakistan declared their sec-ond stint in the middle as soon as open-er Mohammad Hafeez (101 not out) brought up his sixth Test century.

This was the � fth successive oc-casion when Pakistan declared their innings, underlining their new-found batting depth on the slow, turning pitches in the United Arab Emirates.

Hafeez, who fell four runs short of his hundred in the � rst innings, made amends in the second and celebrated the landmark by kissing the turf.

His unbeaten 130-ball knock includ-ed 12 fours and two sixes in it.

Younus Khan (28), who has record-ed three centuries and a double ton in his last � ve innings, was trapped leg before by leg-spinner Sodhi, who had earlier dismissed Azhar Ali (23) in sim-ilar fashion.

McCullum and Latham, who scored his maiden Test century in the � rst in-nings, added 57 runs for the opening stand before Pakistan’s slow bowlers took over.l

Zimbabwe players boycott domestic competitionn Reuters, Harare

Zimbabwe’s four-day domestic season did not get under way as planned on Tuesday when players from four teams refused to take the � eld.

The boycott was con� rmed by Zim-babwe Cricket (ZC), who received com-munication from the Professional Crick-eters Association (ZPCA) suggesting the players were unhappy at “contractual issues and the memorandum of under-standing between ZC and the ZPCA”.

“It came as a surprise to ZC that when umpires went on to the � eld for the � rst day of Logan Cup matches at the two venues, the players refused to come out,” ZC said in a statement on Tuesday.

“The boycott by the players has left ZC with no option but to suspend do-mestic matches until the players make themselves available.” l

Pakistan opener Mohammad Hafeez celebrates his century during the fourth day of their � rst Test against New Zealand in Abu Dhabi yesterday AFP

Canadian tennis player Eugenie Bouchard attends the game between Orlando Magic and Toronto Raptors on Tuesday at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario AFP

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE14 Thursday, November 13, 2014

Murray keeps semi bid aliven AFP, London

Andy Murray kept alive his bid to reach the semi-� nals of the ATP Tour Finals with a crucial 6-3, 7-5 victory in his shoot-out with Milos Raonic on Tuesday.

Murray knew he would have been eliminated from the prestigious sea-son-ending event at London’s O2 Arena if he lost to Canada’s Raonic, but the world number six produced a strong performance to secure his � rst Group B win and remain in the hunt for a last four berth.

The former Wimbledon champion now has to beat six-time winner Rog-er Federer in his � nal group match on Thursday to qualify, while Raonic, hav-ing lost both matches, is almost certain to be knocked out.

Murray’s victory also meant Federer is

not 100 percent certain to make the semis despite winning both his group matches, including a 6-3, 6-2 stroll against Japan’s Kei Nishikori earlier on Tuesday.

After playing for six consecutive weeks in a successful bid to qualify for the Finals after brie� y falling out of the top 10, Murray chalked up titles in Shenzhen, Vienna and Valencia to sal-vage his ranking.

Yet he looked totally devoid of inspi-ration and energy in his lacklustre loss against Nishikori on Sunday.

Murray knew he had to improve dra-matically against Raonic, who had won three of their four previous meetings.

Raonic had hit 1,103 aces this year and he tried to send a statement of in-tent with a venomous 138mph ace in his � rst service game.

Murray wasn’t intimidated by the

early barrage and carried the � ght back to the world number eight, earning two break points in the fourth game.

Although Raonic got out of trouble on that occasion, he wasn’t landing enough � rst serves in to keep Murray on the back foot and the Scot, taking advantage of a series of forehand errors from his opponent, eventually broke for a 4-2 lead. That proved decisive as Murray closed out the � rst set and he kept up the pressure in the second.

At 33, Federer is the oldest player to qualify for the Tour Finals in his 13th consecutive appearance, but he has been in age-defying form over the last three days.

The 17-time Grand Slam champi-on has defeated Raonic and US Open � nalist Nishikori without dropping a set and will guarantee top spot in the

group, which would bring the added bonus of likely avoiding a semi-� nal showdown with Novak Djokovic, if he beats Murray.

Federer, who last won the Tour Fi-nals in 2011, didn’t need to be at his very best against Nishikori, who made 30 un-forced errors in a sloppy e� ort that left him with one win from two matches.

“I’ve know Kei since he was 17 years old and always thought he was a great talent. He’s going to have a great fu-ture so I’m very pleased with the way I played,” Federer said.

Nishikori needed treatment on his right wrist during the match, but he hopes to be � t to face Raonic.

“It was just a little bit of soreness. I have one more day o� , so I will try to recover well and hopefully I can win the next one,” he said. l

n AFP, London

Roger Federer has set his sights on another memorable milestone as the 17-time Grand Slam champion eyes the 1,000th win of his illustri-ous career.

Federer’s 6-3, 6-2 victory over Ja-pan’s Kei Nishikori at the ATP Tour Finals on Tuesday took him to 70 match wins for the season -- the sixth time he has hit that mark -- and up to 993 career victories from his 1,219 matches.

The 33-year-old can add three more wins at the Tour Finals if he goes all the way to take the title for the seventh time.

That would leave him needing only four more victories to join Jim-my Connors, who had 1,253, and Ivan Lendl, with 1,071, as the only men to have broken the 1,000 barrier.

With seven Wimbledon titles, � ve US Open crowns, four Austra-lian Opens and one French Open on his glittering CV, Federer has already experienced almost every high the sport can o� er.

But he believes making to 1,000 wins would be an especially signi� cant moment because it is a tribute to a player’s longevity at the very top. l

Switzerland’s Rodger Federer returns to Japan’s Kei Nishikori during their Group B singles match on day three of the ATP World Tour Finals tennis tournament in London on Tuesday AFP

Federer eyes 1,000 win landmark

Al Shamrani gets AFC award nod despite spit spatn AFP, Kuala Lumpur

Al Hilal’s Nassir Al Shamrani has been shortlisted for Asian player of the year despite causing controversy when he angrily spat at an opponent and sparked a melee at the AFC Champions League � nal.

The striker’s goal-laden tournament ended on a sour note when he spat at Western Sydney Wanderers’ Matthew Spiranovic on the � nal whistle of their 1-0 aggregate win, prompting a shoving match.

There was no room on the short-list for any Wanderers players, despite their achievement in becoming Austra-lia’s � rst Asian champions and on their tournament debut.

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said the “� ery” Al Shamrani got the nod after scoring 10 goals for Al Hi-lal in Asia’s club showpiece.

Joining Shamrani on the shortlist are Al Ain defender Ismail Ahmed and Qatar’s Khalfan Ibrahim, the 2006 AFC player of the year who turns out for Al Sadd.

The Wanderers’ overlooked stand-outs include goalkeeper Ante Covic, who was named the AFC Champions League’s most valuable player and pulled o� a string of saves in the � nal.

However, Covic was also involved in one of Al Hilal’s vociferous penalty ap-peals when he brought down Salman Al

Faraj during the second leg in Riyadh.The Saudi giants later called the � -

nal a “black spot in the history of Asian football” and cast aspersions over its “integrity and fairness”, claiming six disallowed penalties over the two legs.

The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in Manila on No-vember 30. l

Fabregas out of Euro quali� er, Germany clashn AFP, Madrid

Spain su� ered a blow on Tuesday when Cesc Fabregas had to pull out of their Euro 2016 quali� er with Belarus and the friendly against Germany with a hamstring injury.

Coach Vicente del Bosque has called up Villarreal’s Bruno Soriano to � ll the Chelsea mid� elder’s place. The Span-ish Football Federation con� rmed Fab-regas’s absence for Saturday’s Group C date with Belarus in Huelva and the prestige friendly against world cham-pions Germany in Vigo next Tuesday.l

Ozil settles with father out of courtn AFP, Berlin

Arsenal’s Germany international Mesut Ozil has reached an out-of-court settle-ment worth an undisclosed sum in a civil case with his father, Duesseldorf’s district court con� rmed Tuesday.

Ozil sacked his father Mustafa as managing director of his marketing company last year only for Mustafa Ozil to � le a complaint for loss of earnings totalling 630,000 euros (US$782,724).

The current stakeholders of the World Cup-winner’s � rm, Ozil Market-ing GmbH, had made a counter claim, demanding repayment of a loan worth one million euros from Ozil senior.l

Red card for Nations Cup hosts Moroccon AFP, Cairo

Morocco has been stripped of hosting the Africa Cup of Nations and � ung out of the competition after saying they wanted to postpone the tournament due to fears over the Ebola epidem-ic, the African Football Confederation (CAF) announced on Tuesday.

The decision was taken during a six-hour meeting of the CAF executive committee at its Cairo headquarters.

Morocco has said since early Octo-ber that its call for a postponement was “dictated by health reasons of the most

dangerous kind, linked to the serious risk of the spread of the deadly Ebola pandemic”.

CAF called on the Moroccans to change their minds, but decided at Tuesday’s meeting that the response they had been given “clearly indicates that the Royal Moroccan Football Fed-eration reiterated its refusal to hold the competition on the dates indicated.

The CAF statement also said that other countries had indicated a willingness to host the tournament and that a decision on that would “shortly” be taken.l

Russian FA says they can’t a� ord to pay coach Capellon Reuters, Moscow

Russia’s FA does not have enough mon-ey to pay national team manager Fabio Capello, according to Sergey Stepash-in who is a member of the governing body’s executive committee.

“I can say for a fact that the Russian Football Union simply does not have enough money to pay Capello’s salary,” the news agency Interfax on Wednes-day quoted Stepashin as saying.

“It is not something to be proud of when we can’t pay Russia’s head coach what he is owed. However, when we signed a contract with him, we should have thought about which � nancial sources would pay his wages. Today we need to � nd these � nancial benefactors.”

Former England manager Capello has not been paid for the last � ve months according to Russian media reports.

The experienced Italian, who has also coached Real Madrid, Juventus, AC Milan and AS Roma, took over as Russia manager in 2012 and steered the country to their � rst World Cup in 12 years when they quali� ed for the 2014 � nals.l

England proud of � ve clean sheets in a row, says Cahilln Reuters, London

England’s shaky defence can be proud of tightening up after a dismal World Cup campaign, defender Gary Cahill said on Tuesday.

England � nished bottom of their group after taking just one point and conceding four goals in three games at the tournament in Brazil in June, � n-ishing with a disappointing 0-0 draw against Costa Rica.

Roy Hodgson’s men have since en-joyed four successive victories and have not conceded a goal. Three of those wins have come in Euro 2016 quali� ers, propelling them to the top of their group.

“Five clean sheets now, it’s some-thing that we’re really proud of,” Cahill told Sky Sports. “From the third game in the World Cup onwards, (it is) some-thing we’re pleased with.

“As a group we felt that we needed to tighten up after the summer. Lead-ing up to the World Cup we did well but the crunch games were obviously in the summer (at the tournament).l

Messi nickname claims ‘absolutely false’: Ronaldon BBC

Cristiano Ronaldo has denied claims that he has an obscene nickname for Lionel Messi.

In a new book about the Barcelona forward, it is suggested that the Real Madrid player routinely refers to the Argentine with an o� ensive expression.

Tensions between Ronaldo, 29, and Messi, 27, have long been rumoured.

“This is absolutely false and I have assured my lawyer takes action to sue those responsible,” the Portuguese wrote on Facebook.

“I have the utmost respect for all my professional colleagues, and Messi is obviously no exception.”

Ronaldo ended Messi’s run of three consecutive Ballon d’Or victories

last year.Furthermore, the pair are split by

just one goal in their bids to become the Champions League’s all-time re-cord goalscorer. The Barcelona man last week moved level with former Real Madrid striker Raul on 71 goals.

Messi needs just two more goals to be-come La Liga’s all-time top scorer, having netted 250 times in 285 games and is one behind Telmo Zarra’s record for Athletic Bilbao in the 1940s and 1950s. l

French mid� elder Morgan Schneiderlin (R) vies with teammate Paul Pogba during a training session on Tuesday ahead of their friendly match against Albania AFP

Spain goalkeeper David De Gea takes part in a training session on Tuesday at the Sport City ground in Las Rozas ahead of their Euro 2016 qualifying match against Belarus AFP

DHAKA TRIBUNE Entertainment Thursday, November 13, 2014 15

The Bling RingHBO De� ned, 9:00pm

Inspired by actual events, a group of fame-obsessed teenagers use the internet to track celebrities’ where-abouts in order to rob their homes.

ParanoiaMovies Now, 11:58pm

An entry-level employee at a corpo-ration � nds himself occupying a cor-ner o� ce, he must spy on his boss’s old mentor to secure his place.

Goal!Star Movies, 11:58pm

Santiago Munez, a simple ki, dreams of becoming a football professional. Living in the Los Angeles, he be-lieves it for what it is just a dream.

Super 8Zee Studio, 9:30pm

In the summer of 1979, Ohio town, six friends spend their time making a zombie movie with an 8mm camera.

30 Days of NightHBO, 11:46pm

The usual custom that is followed in Barrow, is for 70% of the popula-tion to go away on the last sunset.

ExhibitionSolo Art ExhibitionBy Syed Hasan MahmudBengal Galllery of Fine Arts

Re� ection of SpiritBy Syed Khwaja Mukaddas Shadi Ahmed Time: 3pm – 8pm, Dhaka Art Center

TheatreDrishtipaat Theatre Festival Time:6:30pm – 8:30pmShilpakala Academy, Shegunbagicha

Film Pipra BiddaHow to Train Your Dragon 2 Guardians of the Galaxy Million Dollar Arm, Tarzan Star Cineplex, Bashundhara City

n Shadma Malik

The 66th birth anniversary of famous Bangladeshi director, author, dra-matist, screenwriter, playwright and � lmmaker Humayun Ahmed is being observed today. Many actors are re-membering their beloved � lmmaker who changed their life with his ma-jestic touch and charismatic person-ality. Dhaka Tribune caught up with the celebrities:

Mahfuz AhmedM a h f u z A h m e d , whose career was inspired by Humayun Ahmed, re-called one of the incidents, saying Huma-yun dedicat-

ed the book ‘Ei Megh Rodro Chhaya’ to him. “There he wrote: Mahfuz Ahmed comes to my o� ce everyday for luncheon but he does not come to eat. He comes to see me and talk to me. He is a big star now and does not

come anymore but I still wait for him with food on my table,” said Mahfuz. “A play was later adapted from the book. The central character of the book has the name Mahfuz. I still regret I could not play the character. Legends never die, he is still around me,” he added.

RiazRiaz, who received Nuhash Cholochi-tro Best Actor award, from Humayun

Ahmed said: “Appreciation is a great way to motivate people, and sir had the heart to ac-k n o w l e d g e art and artist. The award

which I received from sir, still works as an inspiration. I was con� ned to mainstream � lms, but after working in “Dui Duari” with Humayun sir, my notion changed completely. I believe an artistic movie has its own value. I remember an incident when I started late and reached Nuhash Palli at 3 in

the morning. I saw sir standing there and he looked tense. He told me to go inside and take rest. The feeling and care I received was priceless,”he added.

Jayanto Chattopadhyay Jayanto Chat-t o p a d h y a y -said his re-lation with Humayun was not only lim-ited to their identities as the director and the actor.

“I never had this feeling of being pro-fessional. I always shared a friendly relation with him. We had great times hanging out at Nuhash Palli, which is an idyllic place. We learned and shared. In a humorous way, Humayun Ahmed gave me a book saying that I would never buy any of his book to read. I laughed and told him that in such a case, he should present me with his whole stock. I was touched when he dedicated the book “Misir Ali Omni-bus 2” to me and wrote the words “Fa-vourite person and a great actor.”

Tariq Anam KhanIn the early 80s, I worked with Huma-yun Ahmed and then in 2010-2011, I was shooting for “Ghetuputra Kamo-la”. Initially I was not that close to Humayun Ahmed but I observed him talking about life, philosophy, love, science and many more. I always

asked myself how a person can become so curious about such small facts. I love the way when he could portray a serious is-

sue in a humorous way, which points out the social awareness. While shooting for “Ghetuputra Kamola”, I was sitting alone and having my food. He sat beside me and said no one would like to sit next to me as I had a negative role in the movie. Then he left and left a mark in my life.

Bidya Sinha MimI heard while shooting for “Amar Ache Jol” that when Shaon and Huma-yun Ahmed watched me in the top ten of Lux Chan-

nel i campaign, he said I was going to be the one. I was only 15 when I worked with him. Whenever I made a mistake, he overlooked it and asked me to do in a di� erent way. He be-lieved in speaking in a soft tone rath-er than being rude. He never forced an artist to do something. He actually leads an artist where the person does it in his own way. l

Celebrities walk down the memory lane on HUMAYUN AHMED’s birthday

Humayun Mela and Humayun Ahmed Utsob in the capitaln Entertainment Desk

Humayun Mela 2014 will begin today at the Channel i premises to mark the 66th birth anniversary of legendary littérateur and � lm-maker Humayun Ahmed.

Organised by Channel i, the festi-

val will be aired live on the channel starting from 11:05am to 2pm. Chan-nel i also declared Ahmed’s birthday as “Himu Day.”

Amirul Islam and Shahidul Alam Sachchu is con� rmed to direct the festival and to commemorate the lit-térateur and cultural icon of the coun-

try, numerous artworks, books will be exhibited at the event along with traditional Bangladeshi handy-crafts. Apart of these, sessions of songs, dances, discussions and recitations will be an exclusive part at the festival.

Youth-oriented television channel Agami has arranged a three-day-long

Humayun Ahmed Utsob 2014 from today with the participation of chil-dren and youngsters at the Central Library premises. The festival covers short � lm, photography, story-writ-ing and art competitions which will be participated by the country’s youths of di� erent ages. l

Shaon hosts O Amar Ural Ponkhi Ren Entertainment Desk

Anchored by Humayun Ahmed’s wid-ow Meher Afroz Shaon, a musical pro-gramme titled “O Amar Ural Ponkhi Re” will be aired today on Maasranga TV at 5:02pm.

In the programme, Subir Nandi and SI Tutul will perform the songs writ-ten by Humayun Ahmed. Besides, the singers will also be sharing the stories behind the songs. l

Sandra Bullock to star in � lm on Bolivian electionn Entertainment Desk

Sandra Bullock is � lming a movie about Bolivian elections of 2002, a local media reported.

The � lm titled “Our Brand Is Crisis” will be shot after Rachel Boyton’s documentary � lm. George Clooney is the producer of this � lm.

The � lm is not shot in Bolivia. The shooting began in the end of September in New Orleans (Louisiana), and the next week it will continue in Puerto Rico.

The � lm is based upon a story about a group of American political strategists who came to Bolivia to improve President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada’s image ahead of the 2002 presidential elections.

He was in the end re-elected to the second term in 2002. A year later, the president was forced to resign and � ed the country to settle in the

USA. Bolivia has sought extradition of the former presi-dent for several years. He is accused of ordering to disperse mass protests in Oc-tober 2003 that killed 67 people and injured 400. l

Gordon-Levitt to play Edward Snowden n Entertainment Desk

Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt will play Edward Snowden in a movie directed by Oliver Stone about the former National

Security Agency contractor who blew the whistle on the U.S gov-

ernment’s mass surveillance programs, the � lm’s backers said on Monday.

Stone, who won best direc-tor Oscars for “Platoon” and “Born on the Fourth of July,” has written the screenplay based on two books - “The

Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World’s Most Wanted Man” by Luke Harding and “Time of the Octopus” by Anatoly Kucherena.

The still untitled � lm goes into pro-duction in Munich in January, said independent studio Open Road Films and production and � nancing company Endgame Entertainment.

Producer Moritz Borman said in a state-ment that he and Stone chose Open Road and Endgame because “this � lm needs an independent in the true sense, where po-litical pressures will not come into play.”

Snowden leaked tens of thousands of

classi� ed intelligence documents to the media in 2013 and sparked a � restorm over the NSA’s gathering of data from the Internet activities and phones of millions of ordinary Americans and doz-ens of world leaders.

The recently released documentary “Citizenfour” by Laura Poitras chron-icles how the former NSA contractor decided to leak the documents and the global repercussions of that act.

Gordon-Levitt, 33, most recently di-rected and starred in “Don Jon” and has acted in high-pro� le � lms “Lincoln,” “The Dark Knight Rises” and “Inception.” l

Shah Rukh Khan wins hearts with Bangla speech at Kolkata Film Festivaln Entertainment Desk

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan on Monday urged Austra-lian � lmmaker Paul Cox and other international dignitaries to relish the experiences that Kolkata has to o� er, including the variety of sweets.

Addressing a star-studded au-dience at the Netaji Indoor Stadi-um, Shah Rukh spoke in a decent smattering of Bangla, in keeping with his promise last year.

“I had promised last year that I would speak in Bengali this time,  ami Bangla e kotha bole khub anondito  (I am very happy to speak in Bengali). Jodi kono bhool hoye thaake amake khoma korben  (forgive me if I make any mistakes),” he said to thunderous applause and series of spirited whistling at the inauguration. lMONROE’s lost love

letters up for auctionn Entertainment Desk

Hollywood femme fatale Marilyn Monroe’s lost love letters are going to be auctioned o� .

The auction for 300 letters belonging to the iconic actress would take place on December 5-6 in Beverly Hills. An auction for the memorabilia in “Marilyn Monroe’s Lost Archives,” held by Julian’s Auctions, compris-es of some heartfelt letters from the actress’ former husband Joe DiMag-gio. The letters were sent amid their separation in 1954. “I love you and want to be with you. There is nothing I would like better than to restore your con� dence in me,” he told her in one letter.

The baseball player also expressed his feelings when Monroe an-nounced their split on TV. “My heart split even wider seeing you cry in front of all these people,” he said.

Monroe talked about her insecurities in a letter addressed to her hus-band, playwright Arthur Miller. Letters from Clark Gable, Cary Grant and Jane Russell are also included in the collection. In her will, Monroe gave the collection to her acting mentor Lee Strasberg. l

16 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, November 13, 2014

Google Bus launched for studentsn Muhammad Zahidul Islam

In an e� ort to extend the bene� ts of internet to college and university students in Bangladesh, Google has launched “Google Bus” - an education-al outreach programme targeting to reach around � ve lakh students across the country.

During the yearlong initiative, the Google Bus will travel to 480 colleg-es and universities at 35 locations and host workshops for students register-ing to participate.

The programme was launched at a ceremony at the Bangabandhu Inter-national Conference Centre yesterday, where State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak said the initiative is a joint collaboration of Google and the Infor-mation Communication and Technolo-gy Division, while there are four more joint programmes in the pipeline.

The “Google Street View” - anoth-er popular feature of Google that pro-

vides panoramic views of city streets – would also be launched in Dhaka and Chittagong within the next two months, Palak added.

However, the state minister ex-pressed disappointment at the low number of educational institutions willing to participate. Palak claimed that he himself wrote letters to 1,500 institutions urging them to participate in the programme; but only 480 col-leges and universities expressed their willingness to join.

“People still consider internet as a negative thing, so the response was so little. The project will open the win-dows of the internet to the people,” he said.

The Google Bus has been retro� tted with stowaway seats, 3G internet con-nectivity and an array of monitors and sound system where audio-video train-ing material can be displayed.

The Google Bus workshops will allow students to connect with their peers on-

line and teach them about internet utili-ties and the tools o� ered by Google.

Speaking at the programme, James McClure, head of emerging markets at Google southeast Asia, said: “Equipped with the right training, we think this young, energetic and highly motivated section of society would be able to max-imise the endless possibilities of the in-ternet and create a connected, digital Bangladesh for the global village.”

Over the next few months, the bus will make its way to academic institu-tions in and around Chittagong, Khul-na, Sylhet, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Barisal and other major cities, he added.

An instructor will lead the training session and peer collaboration to famil-iarise students with the many di� erent Google tools including Google Search, Chrome, Docs, Maps, YouTube, Goog-le+ and others. Each student will also have the opportunity to practice what they have learnt on an internet-ena-bled Android devices. l

Buriganga land � nally given to RABThe government cancelled the allocation in May ‘to save environment and river’n Adil Sakhawat

The government has at last allocated a piece of land in the capital’s Kamrangir-char – that was a channel of the Burig-anga River – to RAB 10 six months after the allotment was cancelled to save the environment and the channel itself.

Besides the 2.83 hectares (7 acres) of land given to RAB 10 for its headquar-ters, the River Police also got 1.21 hec-tares (3 acres) of land nearby.

Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan, who was part of the six-strong minis-terial team tasked with recovering the landlocked channel, yesterday told reporters: “I told the deputy commis-sioner of Dhaka and chairman of Bang-ladesh Inland Water Transport Author-ity [BIWTA] to � x the land in the former channel of the Buriganga. I told them to � x 7 acres for RAB and 3 acres for the River Police.”

The minister had just � nished a meeting with the River Protection Taskforce.

RAB 10 had applied in 2004 for land

to establish its headquarters. The Land Ministry approved their proposal in 2005 during the tenure of the BNP-Ja-maat government. In 2007, the gov-ernment handed over the landlocked channel to RAB 10.

On May 26 this year, the government cancelled the allocation.

At that time the shipping minister had said: “We will allot non-govern-ment land through acquisition if need-ed. But we will not give them land de-molishing the environment and this is the instruction of the prime minister. Our government is committed to sav-ing environment and recovering the Buriganga channel.”

Asked why he deviated from his ear-lier decision, Shajahan Khan yesterday said: “We cancelled the land allotted by the Dhaka district administration. Now we allocated them the land as per a di-rective of the High Court.”

The minister said: “We have decided to allocate the land, which was a channel of the Buriganga, because the land was gobbled up by illegal encroachers.” l

Muhith annoyed at tra� c jamn Jebun Nesa Alo

After a long tailback caused AMA Mu-hith to arrive an hour late to a pro-gramme yesterday, the � nance minister slammed the capital’s tra� c manage-ment system and called for a reform to the city’s tra� c signal system.

“Tailbacks could be easily avoided by bringing discipline in tra� c,” the minister told the inaugural ceremony of SME Financing Fair 2014 at the Hotel Sonargaon.

Arriving at the event an hour late, Muhith – the chief guest at the pro-gramme – apologised for his delay that caused the start of the fair to be pushed back.

The minister said although the gov-ernment had spent large amounts of

money to set up tra� c lights, nobody cared about the signals. The tra� c sig-nal system should not stop, but it need-ed to be reformed, Muhith observed.

He also claimed that time was being wasted because of the lack of tra� c management, which also needed to be improved.

Claiming that the roads in the city were not bad, the minister also criti-cised the people’s tendency of not fol-lowing tra� c signals.

Although being stuck in tra� c jams for hours has become a part of the daily life for Dhaka residents, di� erent me-dia reports have often shown vehicles carrying cabinet members, lawmakers or other top government o� cials trav-elling on the wrong side of the road in order to escape tailbacks. l

Professor Zillur Rahman Siddiqui dies n Mohammad Abu Bakar Siddique

Eminent academic and author Zillur Rahman Siddiqui died early Tuesday at the age of 86.

As the former adviser to a caretak-er government fell sick at his Banani residence around 11:45pm on Tuesday he was immediately taken to Samorita Hospital where on-duty doctors de-clared him dead.

Doctors at Samorita Hospital quot-ing family members said Zillur Rahman Siddiqui complained of severe chest pain on Tuesday night.

His body will be kept at Jahagirna-gar University for an hour from 8:00am today, said his family members today. Then the body will be kept on the premises of Central Shaheed Minar from 11:00am to 1:00pm.

He will be buried after his second namaz-e-janaza at Dhaka University mosque after Zohr prayer.

The educationist honoured with Bangla Academy Award and Swadhi-nata Padak left behind his wife, three sons and a daughter.

President Abdul Hamid, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Speaker Shi-rin Sharmin Choudhury and Deputy Speaker M Fazle Rabbi Mia condoled the death of country’s noted education-ist Professor Zillur Rahman Siddiqui.

General Secretary of Bangladesh Adibasi Forum Sanjib Drong also in a message expressed his shock at the demise of Professor Zillur Rahman Sid-diqui.

Dhaka University Professor Syed Manzoorul Islam told the Dhaka Trib-une: “There were four prominent aspects in the life of Zillur Rahman. Firstly he was an outstanding teacher, secondly he was a great educationist who wrote wonderful books on the country’s higher education, thirdly he was a poet, comtemporary to Sham-sur Rahman, which he later couldn’t continue, and forthly he was a � nest editor.

When he was at the Rajshahi Uni-versity he edited a little mag called Purbamegh and later he did anoth-er – Dipankar – after coming to Dhaka through which he created many young

poets and writers. “As a cultural activists, he had a � rm

belief in 1971 Liberation War. He has a signi� cant countribution to indoctri-nating people with the values of Liber-ation War,” he said.

“He was a man of very strong per-sonality who had never compromised with anyone in the question of coun-try’s liberation, said Manzoorul Islam.

Poet Mohammad Ra� q said: “His death is a great loss for the nation as he was a pillar of our conscience.”

“He was a prominent educationist and a great writer.”

Professor Dr Farzana Islam, the vice-chancellor of Jahangirnagar Uni-versity, where he worked twice as VC, said the nation had lost a guardian.

Born at Durgapur in Jhenaidah in 1928, he matriculated from Jessore Zil-la School in 1945 with distinction. After that he studied at Presidency College in Kolkata.

He took his BA in 1950 and MA in 1951 in English Literature with � rst class both from University of Dhaka.

He studied English Literature at

Worcester College of Oxford University during 1952-54.

He taught at Dhaka College and then at the University of Rajshahi from 1988 to mid-1973.

Thereafter, he taught at Jahangirna-gar University and acted as vice-chan-cellor of the University for two consec-utive terms from 1976 to 1984.

Professor Zillur Rahman Siddiqui served as an adviser to the caretaker government under justice Shabuddin Ahmed in 1990-91, being in charge of Ministry of Education.

He was honored with Alaol Shahit-ya Purashkar in 1977, Bangla Academy Award in 1979, Alokto Shahitya Purash-kar in 1998 and Swadhinata Purashkar in 2010.

As an author Professor Siddiqui has over 30 books to his credit. He is a poet, a critic, a translator (Shakespeare and Milton in particular) an editor of, among other books, Bangla Academy English-Bengali Dictionary.

Special mention can be made of his excellent autobiography Amar Chawlar Pathey. l

Justice for Jannati demandedn Tribune Report

A group of prominent citizens has urged the government to ensure imme-diate bail for 23-year-old entrepreneur Jannati Hossain, who has been “unjust-ly” kept behind bars for four months in connection with the death of her busi-ness partner in a car crash.

Thirty-one teachers, professionals and rights activists issued a press state-ment on Tuesday, condemning Jan-nati’s “unlawful detention” and calling for the withdrawal of “false accusa-tions” of murder against her.

On June 11, Jannati was detained by the police after the car she was driving reportedly su� ered a brake failure and crashed into a police van, killing her business partner Mostamsir Ashraf – who was on the passenger seat beside Jannati. Jannati su� ered injuries as well, along with three law enforcers who were inside the van.

Initially, only an an accident case

was � led against Jannati for reckless driving – an o� ence which is bailable. But 11 days after the incident, Mostam-sir’s uncle � led a murder case against Jannati, her husband, and her brothers with a Dhaka court, reportedly after having failed to convince local police to accept a murder case.

The court later ordered investigators to merge the two cases against her, and since then Jannati has been denied bail and taken on remand for a total of 15 days.

There are allegations that Mostam-sir’s father – a former district court judge and the incumbent inspector general of registration (IGR) – has been using his political in� uence to steer the case against Jannati.

“With evidence and testimonies that point toward nothing but acci-dent, and without establishing intent, Jannati’s inde� nite imprisonment is unconstitutional. And the court refus-ing to give any explanation for rejecting

bail is complicit in the abuse of power by Mostansir’s [sic] family,” the citi-zens’ statement read.

“We, the undersigned, are shocked by and vehemently protest Jannati Hossain’s unlawful detention. We de-mand that she be immediately released on bail and that the murder charge against her be withdrawn,” it added.

An online petition is also being cir-culated on social media on this regard.

The statement was signed by not-ed activists and professionals includ-ing former adviser to the caretakergovernment Rokia Afzal Rahman; rights activist Khushi Kabir; DhakaUniversity teachers Prof Sadeka Hal-im, Dr Geetiara Nasreen, Dr Kaberi Gayen, Dr Samina Lutfa; Jahangirna-gar University teacher Nasrin Khan-dokar; Jagannath University teach-ers Shyamoli Shill, Rajib Mir; singer Quazi Krishnakali Islam and other entrepreneurs, journalists and rightsactivists. l

Space history made as probe lands on cometn Reuters

The European Space Agency (ESA) landed a probe on a comet yesterday, a � rst in space exploration and the cli-max of a decade-long mission to get samples from what are the remnants of the birth of Earth’s solar system.

The box-shaped 100kg lander, named Philae, touched down on schedule at about 1600 GMT after a seven-hour de-scent from spacecraft Rosetta around half a billion kilometers from Earth.

Scientists hope that samples from the surface of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasi-menko will help show how planets and life are created as the rock and ice that make up the comet preserve organic molecules like a time-capsule.

Comets come from the formation of Earth’s 4.6-billion-year-old solar system.

Scientists believe they may have brought much of the water in Earth’s oceans.

“We are ready to make science � ction a science fact,” ESA director of human space� ight and operations, Thomas Reit-er, said at the European Space Operations Centre in Germany before the landing.

Rosetta reached the comet, a rough-ly 3-by-5 km rock discovered in 1969, in August after a journey of 6.4 billion km that took 10 years, � ve months and four days – a mission that cost close to $1.8bn.

Rosetta is the � rst spacecraft to orbit a comet rather than just � ying past to take pictures.

Yesterday’s launch went ahead de-spite a problem with the thruster that meant the probe had to rely mainly on its harpoons to stop it bouncing back from the comet’s surface. l

‘Twisted light’ beamed across Viennan BBC

Physicists have sent a beam of twisted light 3km through the air above Vienna, the � rst time that information has been transmitted outdoors using the “twist” of a visible light beam.

This twisting property could allow very fast communication because light with di� erent amounts of twist, encod-ing separate channels of information, could be sent simultaneously.

Reported in the New Journal of Phys-ics, the technique was tested by send-ing black-and-white portraits of three famous Austrians: physicists Ludwig Boltzmann and Erwin Schroedinger, and composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Above the rooftops of Mozart’s own city, his portrait was broken down into pixels and travelled through the night inside a green laser beam. l

Relatives of Syed Moinul Hossain, the architect of the National Memorial who died on Monday, break down in tears after his body was brought to the Central Shaheed Minar for the people to pay their � nal tributes. Story on Page 3 MEHEDI HASAN

Editor: Zafar Sobhan, Published and Printed by Kazi Anis Ahmed on behalf of 2A Media Limited at Dainik Shakaler Khabar Publications Limited, 153/7, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka-1208. Editorial, News & Commercial O� ce: FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka 1207. Phone: 9132093-94, Advertising: 9132155, Circulation: 9132282, Fax: News-9132192, e-mail: [email protected], [email protected], Website: www.dhakatribune.com

www.dhakatribune.com/business THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014

B3 Economic headwinds threaten G20 growth pledge

B4 India waits for Modi to dig economy out of investment hole

Ruposhi Bangla renovation faces stalemate n Muhammad Zahidul Islam

The state-owned � ve star hotel Ruposhi Bangla, previously well-known as Hotel Sheraton, could not yet start renovation works even after two and a half month of its closure.

The authorities concerned have also failed to award any of the jobs to any contractor for the massive renovation work, which is supposed to be accomplished in four phases.

The hotel authorities missed the � rst deadline set for November, as it could not � nish the tendering process, said the high o� cials.

According to sources, though the total renovation work was � xed at Tk365 crore or US$43m, it might be increased up to Tk450 crore with the extended time frame for the reopening of the hotel under a new brand name.

As per the work schedule, a to-

tal of 16 months were allocated to accomplish the entire renovation work as the Ruposhi Bangla Hotel is set to begin its new journey un-der a new brand Hotel Interconti-nental from January 2016.

But the o� cials concerned hint-ed that the reopening of the hotel might also be delayed by couple of months as the management missed the deadline for asset dis-posal by October, this year.

“It is true that we couldn’t main-tain the work schedule, but we think we can rightly follow a fresh schedule. And again, if we fail to manage the renovation work as per our new plan, we can launch the hotel partially,” SahidusSadiq, manager (marketing and commu-nication) told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

The hotel was closed on Sep-tember 1 to implement a16-month renovation project.

The renovation is going to take place as part of a 30-year man-agement deal between its owner, state-run Bangladesh Services Limited and Intercontinental Ho-tels Group signed in February 2012.

“The � rst phase of the physical renovation work was scheduled in November but the management is yet to complete the tender process for the work,” a senior Ruposhi Bangla o� cial told the Dhaka Trib-une yesterday on condition of an-onymity.

SahidusSadiq, however, said the physical renovation work would begin as soon as the process for asset disposal and o� ce reloca-tion was accomplished, which will take six more weeks.

During a sudden visit to the ho-tel site, the Dhaka Tribune found that no process was initiated for physical renovation work.

Delayed process for the renova-

tion work might lead to a resched-uling the January 2016 deadline, said another o� cial.

The Intercontinental Hotel Group had earlier run the historical hotel from 1966 to 1983.

In late 1983, Sheraton, owned by Starwood, took over its operations and management for the next 25 years. The agreement with Shera-ton was extended to April 30, 2011 until Starwood and BSL disagreed over renovation issues.

After that the BSL took over the operations and named the hotel af-ter Ruposhi Bangla.

“We are yet to � nalise the ten-dering of the strip-out phases. The contract awarding and completing the asset disposal might take few more months. As a result, the reo-pening deadline might also be de-layed,” said a senior o� cial.

He also said the hotel also missed the October deadline set for

� nishing the asset disposal work. But SahidusSadiq clari� ed, “We

have completed necessary paper work for asset disposal and phys-ical execution of the work is also completed partially. I hope that the rest of it will be completed soon.”

He said that a large number of assets were distributed to an or-phanage as charity and some went to Bangladesh ParjatanCorporation.

Sahidus, however, could not give any time frame for beginning of the physical renovation work.

“After completing the tender formalities, we will soon begin the physical renovation work,” he added.

After the renovation work, Intercontinental Dhaka will have 231 guestrooms instead of the existing 272, and the room size will also be expanded from 26 to 40 square metres, said am o� cial of the hotel. l

Government body for cut in savings rates n Asif Showkat Kallol

The government is determined to achieve 7.3% GDP growth this � scal year taking “coordinated e� orts,” said o� cials quoting � nance minister.

The decision came up after discuss-ing major economic indicators in the � scal coordination council meeting yesterday.

According to meeting sources, Finance Minister AMA Muhith told the o� cials to take necessary steps to achieve the targeted economic growth.

The meeting also recommended reducing the pro� t rate of savings instruments with a cap on the bank’s lending rate, apparently in a strategy to stimulate the country’s private investment.

At present, pro� t rate of savings in-struments is around 11-12% in di� erent savings schemes.

“In response to declines in export, remittance and revenue, we should take a challenge to see the economy grow at above 7% in the 2014-15 � scal,” the o� cials quoted � nance minister.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith pre-sided over the two important meetings.

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, � nance, commerce and Economic Re-lations Division secretaries, NBR chair-man and Bangladesh Bank governor also attended the meetings.

The sources said the meeting asked the central bank governor to reduce the spread between lending and deposit rate.

But the governor said he cannot do that in a free-market economy, accord-ing to sources.

At present, the bank lending and de-

posit rate spread is more than 10% as commercial banks are taking deposits at 6-8% rate, but lending at 16%.

During � rst quarter of the � scal, the total revenue earning of the govern-ment was Tk34,785 crore, of which, NBR collected Tk27,151 crore.

The growth was 15.87% compared to 17% during the same period last � scal.

In the meeting, � nance minister asked the NBR chairman to take nec-essary steps to increase the non-NBR revenue, the sources said.

The overall export earnings growth in � rst quarter declined to 0.88% from 21.24% one year ago.

The budget was implemented at 6.85% rate in the period while the gov-ernment’s bank borrowing amounted to Tk9,203 crore.

The government took loans of Tk6,821 crore from the saving instru-ments in the period despite it bor-rowed a huge amount from the bank-ing sector.

ADP implementation rate was also slow - only 9% compared to 11% in the same quarter last year.

However, according to an o� cial who was also present at the meeting said the government’s bank borrowing would decline if the revenue earning increased in the next quarters.

Another o� cial said Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed told the meet-ing that the “low import tax” was re-sponsible for gold smuggling in the country.

He said the government of India has imposed a tax of Tk6,000 on import of 100 grams of gold.

But Bangladesh has currently put a tax of Tk3000 on import of 100 grams gold, he cited in the meeting. l

Documentation, high risk main bar to SME � nancing n Jebun Nesa Alo

New entrepreneurs and banks � nd it hard to cope with each other in dealing with small and medium enterprises.

Small entrepreneurs see it di� cult to submit papers for their loan back-up to start their SME business while banks are reluctant to provide them with monetary support, apprehending higher risk.

The two issues draw back both the bank and the clients to involve with small and medium enterprises, said the authorities concerned. A new entre-preneur Abul Kalam Azad, who started handicraft business two years back tak-ing SME loan from Trust Bank, shared his experience at the fair.

He said new entrepreneurs hardly have any access to the banks as they have no � nancial back up.

Kalam added that despite having potential of an entrepreneur to do good business, he fails to do that due to lack of caution money, while banks seem to be reluctant to provide loan, taking risk.

Installment payment from the be-ginning of the is another burden for new entrepreneurs as banks start to cal-culate installment from the � rst month.

The handicraft businessman termed the monthly installment formalities dif-� cult for the new businessmen who have just found themselves into business.

He advocated for a grace period for payment to the bank as the installment

eats up the entrepreneurs’ returns which they receive after a certain period.

Therefore, encouraged by the SME fair, if an entrepreneur starts business, he cannot do much.

Kalam pointed out that high interest rate is also the biggest barrier to the SMEs who � nd limitations to submit all docu-ments that banks require to issue loan.

A seasoned SME entrepreneur, Mah-fuj, said banks never give any new en-trepreneur any loan without su� cient papers. Mahfuj, a new client of South Bangla Agriculture and Commerce

Bank, has been conducting handicraft business over the last 10 years.

He said he attended the fair to draw the attention of customers through his display of some new jute products.

Echoing Kalam, Mahfuj vented the same frustration over the banks’ reluc-tance to issue SME loans to new entre-preneurs.

Asked about banks’ disinterest in giving SME loans, NCC Bank Managing Director Golam Ha� z Ahmed said banks hardly have enough time to groom the new entrepreneurs for business.

He said banks run high risk as new entrepreneurs are not experienced with business culture, and so, they charge high interest from high risk business.

The banker also admitted that the � -nancial institutions should come of the traditional method of sanctioning loan in case of SME.

In his address at the inaugural of fair at Sonargaon Hotel, Industry Ministry Secretary Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said new entrepreneurs face problem to access loan facilities for not having prop-er documents and caution money. l

Visitors look at the products displayed at the SME fair being held at Sonargaon Hotel in the city MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Tofail lashes out at MozenaCommerce minister says US ambassador’s zero tari� claim is ‘false’ n Abid Azad

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed crit-icised US Ambassador in Dhaka Dan W Mozena for saying Bangladesh pays zero tari� for RMG export to the US market.

“The envoy made a completely false statement,” he said while speaking as chief guest at a function yesterday.

Bangladesh Indenting Agents’ As-sociation (BIAA) organised the pro-gramme in the capital’s CIRDAP audi-torium to celebrate its winning of ISO certi� cate.

The day before, Dan Mozena said: “Bangladesh pays zero … zero … zero … zero tari� . The people of America and buyers pay the tari� .”

Tofail responded in the same man-ner: “Mozena is false...false....false...false. We paid $3.41bn to the US as duty in last � ve years and pay $828m every year now. The Bangladeshi suppliers are giving the duty at 16.8% to the US buyers.”

He said Canada, EU and Australia can claim they are providing Bangladesh duty-free facility to their markets, and

Japan also makes everything but arms duty-free, while India is giving the facility to all products except to-bacco and alcohol. “But this is not true in case of the US.”

BGMEA vice president Shahidullah Azim also told the Dhaka Tribune on Tuesday that Bangladesh pays 16.5% tari� for apparel exports to America.

“We export garment products worth $5bn to America paying $850m every year,” he added.

Tofail Ahmed said Dhaka has been urging Washington for long to make

Bangladeshi products free of duty. “But the US didn’t do it, rather sus-pended the GSP facility.”

He claimed that despite Bangladesh had ful� lled all 16 action plans of the US to get back GSP, the US didn’t pro-ceed on and “put us on new require-ments.”

“In fact, we can never meet the US demands as they will keep issuing more and more such matters to be ful� lled.”

Tofail said the government is now searching new markets to bring about diversity. He said Chile had already agreed to provide us with duty-free market access from January 2015. “We are looking for more countries with such facility.”

BIAA President KMH Shahidul Haque said the country’s about 40% import comes from China while BIAA signed an agreement with Legal A� airs Department in Beijing.

He said this will help Bangladesh’s

importers and exporters get any dis-pute solved during the trade.

Shahidul Haque urged the govern-ment to include BIAA’s service in the Export Policy 2012-2015 as “Service Export.”

BIAA was awarded ISO certi� cate on May 30 this year by SAI Global Australia.

The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry President Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed, Bangladesh Insurance Association President Sheikh Kabir Hossain and Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and In-dustry President Mohammad Shahja-han Khan were also present. l

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed speaks at a function of Bangladesh Inventing Agents’ Association in Dhaka yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Muhith: No violence can deter investment n Tribune Report

Finance Minister AMA Muhith yester-day said there is no power that can im-pede investment in the country.

Businessmen have now begun to ex-pand their business after a long break of 8-9 months and nobody has power to deter them, he said, addressing the inaugural ceremony of SME Financing Fair 2014 held at a city hotel.

The two-day fair was arranged joint-ly by Bangladesh Bank and SME Foun-dation yesterday.

Muhith said: “There is a tendency to thwart every good initiative through waging violence, but no more violence will be able to stop existing invest-ment movement.” Private sector credit growth rose to 12%, which is a very good sign for overall economy, he added.

The � nance minister described Small and Medium Entrepreneurs as lifeline of the country’s economy for their more than 70% contribution to overall economy. He called for innova-tive enterprises in the SME sector.

At the inaugural function, � ve banks and three non-bank � nancial institu-tions were awarded in 10 categories as part of recognition of their contribu-tions to the SME sector.

IDLC Finance won two awards in two categories, women entrepreneurs

friendly of the year and SME of the year. Union Capital was awarded for

being small entrepreneurs friendly while Islamic Finance for manufactur-ing friendly of the year. Of the banks, award for women entrepreneur cate-gory went to Mutual Trust Bank, while Bangladesh Krishi Bank (BKB) bagged the rural entrepreneur-friendly award.

Dhaka Bank was awarded in manu-facturing friendly category and Islami Bank Bangladesh in small entrepre-neur-friendly category.

Mutual Trust Bank won as SME bank of the year while Eastern Bank was awarded in the category of structured SME bank of the year. Muhith handed over the awards to the MDs and CEOs of respective institutions. Bangladesh Bank and SME Foundation jointly ar-ranged the SME award for the � rst time.

Around 15 lakh employments have been created in the SME sector be-tween 2009 and 2014, said Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman.

Attending the programme as spe-cial guest, he said a loan of Tk2,62,340 crore had been disbursed among 18.35 lakh SME entrepreneurs over the last four years from 2010 to 2013.

Bangladesh Bank also formed a fund of Tk100 crore along with DCCI through which new entrepreneurs will get loan for the � rst time, he said. l

We can never meet the US demands as they will keep issuing more and more such matters to be ful� lled

B2 Stock Thursday, November 13, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

News, analysis and recent disclosersUnaudited Financials:SAMORITA: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 8.56 million with basic EPS of Tk. 0.63 ( restated 0.58) as against Tk. 7.58 million and Tk. 0.56 (0.51) respectively.USMANIAGL: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 1.56 million with basic EPS of Tk. 0.14 (restated 0.13) as against Tk. 15.39 million and Tk. 1.42 respectively.MALEKSPIN: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 88.62 million with consolidated EPS of Tk. 0.46 as against Tk. 125.87 million and Tk. 0.65 respectively.RAHIMTEXT: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 9.52 million with basic EPS of Tk. 3.46 (restated 2.75) as against Tk. 1.05 million and Tk. 0.38 (0.30) respectively.EASTRNLUB: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 0.51 million with EPS of Tk. 0.52 as against Tk. 1.30 million and Tk. 1.30 respectively.PADMAOIL: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 461.87 million with EPS of Tk. 4.70 as against Tk. 669.69 million and Tk. 6.82 respectively.RSRMSTEEL: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 72.60 million with basic EPS of Tk. 1.70 (restated 1.36) as against Tk. 35.84 million and Tk. 1.21 (0.88) respectively.AMCL(PRAN): (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 11.38 mil-lion with EPS of Tk. 1.42 as against Tk. 10.18 million and Tk. 1.27 respectively.EASTLAND: Credit Rating Information and

Services Limited (CRISL) has announced the CPA (Claim Paying Ability) Rating of the Company as "AA" along with a stable outlook in consideration of � nancials of the Company up to December 31, 2013 (au-dited), unaudited � nancials up to June'14 and other relevant quantitative as well as qualitative information up to the date of rating declaration.Auditor Notes: NORTHERN’s auditor Malek Siddiqui Wali has given 'Emphasis of Matter' and MONNOCERA’s auditor Wahab & Company has given quali� ed opinion. Detail of these are available at their respective audit reports and website of the Stock Exchanges.SOUTHEASTB: The Company has informed that BSEC vide its letter dated November 11, 2014 has given consent to Southeast Bank Limited to raise capital amounting to Tk. 300.00 crore only through issuance of 7-year Floating Rate Non-Convertible Subordinated Bond through private place-ment as per provisions of the Securities and Exchange Commission (Private Placement of Debt Securities) Rules, 2012. The purpose of issuance of the Bond is to increase the Tier-II Capital of the Bank and its Issue Price will be 100% at par.ICBISLAMIC: ICB Asset Management Company Limited has informed that since

ICB AMCL Islamic Mutual Fund (closed-end) managed by ICB Asset Management Company Limited will complete its 10 (ten) years tenure on December 28, 2014 and as per Rules, this closed-end fund will be de-listed from December 29, 2014, the concerned unit holders of the fund are requested to collect their unrealised dividend and refund money within Decem-ber 24, 2014 from the o� ce of ICB Asset Management Company Limited.MHSML: The Company will be placed in "A" category from existing "N" category with e� ect from November 13, 2014 as the Company reported disbursement of 25% stock dividend for the year ended on June 30, 2014.MHSML: The Company has informed that it has credited the bonus shares for the year ended on June 30, 2014 to the respective shareholders' BO Account on November 09, 2014.DESHBANDHU: The Company has informed that it has credited the bonus shares for the year ended on June 30, 2014 to the respective shareholders' BO Ac-count. The amount from sales proceeds of fractional bonus shares have been credited to the bank accounts of respective share-holders' BO accounts through Bangladesh Electronic Fund Transfer Network (BEFTN).

Stocks post strong rally n Tribune Report

Stocks posted strong rally yesterday, with the benchmark index crossing 5000-mark after a week.

The market opened on happy note in the morning and the mo-mentum continued as investors availed lower prices that hit rock bottom due to week-long losses.

The DSEX closed at 5005, soaring over 70 points or 1.5% --its steepest rise in less than a month.

The Shariah index DSES gained 23 points or 2% to 1,180. The com-

prising blue chips DS30 rose 48 points or 2.7% to 1,870.

Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, closed at 9,414, rising 127 points.

Trading at DSE also remained vi-brant with total turnover accumu-lating over Tk850 crore, an increase of 26.5% over the previous session.

The heavyweight banking issues failed to sustain its previous ses-sion’s marginal rise as it saw a cor-rection of 0.6%.

However, the other large-cap sectors gained with power registering the highest rally of 3.6%, followed by non-banking � nancial institutions 1.6%, food and allied 1.3% and pharmaceuticals 1.4%. Telecommunication advanced by almost 1%.

LankaBangla Securities said the market continued to trade at green zone throughout the day and closed above the psychological level of 5000-mark with strong footing.

It said some encouraging quar-terly declaration came on the day, which supported the market and re-stored con� dence of investors after a week-long correction.

Zenith Investments said as stocks advanced from last trading day, investors were reasonably asking whether the bull market had begun to run its course.

Much of the price gains were driven by stock prices that hit rock bottom for the past couple of weeks, it said.

The market breadth also re-mained robust as out of 308 issues traded, 171 closed green, 108 red and 29 remained unchanged.

Dhaka Electric Supply Compa-ny was the most traded issue with shares worth more than Tk34 crore just a day ahead of its record date for distributing dividends.

The newly listed Western Marine Shipyard came second after remain-ing top position in turnover chart for the seven consecutive sessions.

The two was followed by Jamuna Oil, RSRM Steel, Keya Cosmetics, Olympic Industries, Mobil Jamuna Bangladesh Ltd and Barakatullah Electro Dynamics Ltd. l

CSE LOSER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Midas Financing-Z -9.80 -9.80 13.80 13.80 13.80 13.80 0.007 -6.16 -veKhulna Printing-N -7.25 -5.13 32.73 32.00 33.70 31.80 24.023 2.13 15.4Phoenix Insur -A -6.84 -6.76 35.43 35.40 35.50 35.40 0.021 3.88 9.1Hakkani P& Paper -B -6.62 -3.68 28.04 28.20 29.20 27.20 0.182 0.64 43.8ACI ZERO Bond-A -6.14 -3.50 1,032.50 1,032.50 1,032.50 1,032.50 0.001 0.00 -Shurwid Ind. -N -5.82 -0.34 52.29 50.20 55.60 48.50 10.405 1.64 31.9Tallu Spinning -Z -5.45 -7.23 15.66 15.60 16.30 15.00 1.106 1.51 10.4Dutch Ban. Bnk- A -5.37 -5.32 88.10 88.10 88.10 88.10 0.044 9.69 9.1Janata Insur -A -5.00 -5.00 17.10 17.10 17.50 17.00 0.017 0.37 46.2Keya Cosmetics -A -4.56 -0.07 30.57 29.30 31.90 28.40 12.710 1.93 15.8

DSE LOSER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

EXIM Bank 1 MF-A -8.82 -8.82 6.20 6.20 6.20 6.20 0.043 0.64 9.7Khulna Printing-N -7.02 -5.11 32.67 31.80 34.20 31.30 193.636 2.13 15.3Shurwid Ind. -N -6.21 0.08 52.23 49.80 56.00 48.20 96.415 1.64 31.8Keya Cosmetics -A -6.17 -0.75 30.28 28.90 32.00 27.80 268.250 1.93 15.7Tallu Spinning -Z -6.13 -7.04 15.58 15.30 16.40 15.20 8.752 1.51 10.3Meghna PET Ind. -Z -5.36 -5.61 5.38 5.30 5.70 5.20 0.086 -0.44 -veDulamia CottonZ -5.19 -8.23 7.14 7.30 7.50 7.20 0.015 -3.84 -veEBL NRB M.F.-A -5.00 -4.45 5.80 5.70 5.90 5.70 0.058 0.64 9.1Samata LeatheR -Z -4.98 -5.11 21.00 21.00 21.30 20.00 0.105 0.05 420.0The Peninsula CTG.-N -4.76 2.20 35.34 34.00 36.70 33.90 131.857 1.52 23.3

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume-Shares

Value in Million

% of Total-Turnover ClosingP Change % ClosingY DHIGH DLOW AvgPrice

WesternMarine -N 779,600 61.81 10.45 76.90 -0.65 77.40 82.70 76.10 79.28BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 883,113 34.37 5.81 40.30 9.81 36.70 40.30 37.00 38.92Khulna Printing-N 734,000 24.02 4.06 32.00 -7.25 34.50 33.70 31.80 32.73MJL BD Ltd.-A 135,854 18.83 3.18 139.80 3.86 134.60 140.20 134.00 138.61The Peninsula CTG.-N 490,600 17.32 2.93 34.00 -4.76 35.70 36.10 33.90 35.31Ratanpur Steel -N 237,000 17.29 2.92 74.40 9.90 67.70 74.40 69.00 72.95Keya Cosmetics -A 415,831 12.71 2.15 29.30 -4.56 30.70 31.90 28.40 30.57Padma Oil Co. -A 42,400 12.51 2.12 292.00 -1.55 296.60 301.00 290.00 295.06Orion Infusions -A 167,000 11.77 1.99 69.60 -3.87 72.40 75.00 67.00 70.46LafargeS Cement-Z 93,000 11.55 1.95 124.70 6.49 117.10 126.00 120.00 124.24Appollo Ispat CL -N 446,600 10.87 1.84 24.10 -1.63 24.50 24.90 23.90 24.34Shurwid Ind. -N 199,000 10.41 1.76 50.20 -5.82 53.30 55.60 48.50 52.29SAIF Powertec-N 103,600 9.41 1.59 91.60 9.96 83.30 91.60 86.50 90.85Beacon Pharma Ltd.-Z 561,575 9.19 1.55 15.90 -3.64 16.50 16.80 15.70 16.36UNITED AIR-A 926,288 9.07 1.53 9.90 3.13 9.60 9.90 10.00 9.79

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume-Shares

Value in Million

% of Total-Turnover ClosingP Change

% ClosingY DHIGH DLOW Avg-Price

DESCO Ltd. -A 4,433,122 344.30 4.07 78.40 5.52 74.30 79.10 67.00 77.67WesternMarine -N 4,166,500 331.00 3.91 76.70 -0.52 77.10 83.00 76.20 79.44Jamuna Oil -A 1,183,564 295.96 3.50 252.90 8.22 233.70 253.90 214.00 250.06Ratanpur Steel -N 4,092,000 295.76 3.49 74.00 9.96 67.30 74.00 69.00 72.28Keya Cosmetics -A 8,857,607 268.25 3.17 28.90 -6.17 30.80 32.00 27.80 30.28Olympic Ind. -A 943,368 264.63 3.13 282.80 8.60 260.40 283.10 238.00 280.52MJL BD Ltd.-A 1,715,690 237.76 2.81 139.70 4.88 133.20 140.40 120.00 138.58Barakatullah E. D.-A 5,738,731 220.92 2.61 37.80 -3.08 39.00 39.80 35.10 38.50BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 5,358,390 208.42 2.46 40.30 9.81 36.70 40.30 33.10 38.90BD Building Systems -A 3,572,050 195.20 2.31 54.40 -3.20 56.20 56.00 52.00 54.65Khulna Printing-N 5,926,500 193.64 2.29 31.80 -7.02 34.20 34.20 31.30 32.67Beximco Pharma -A 2,917,886 180.83 2.14 63.90 9.98 58.10 63.90 52.30 61.97Grameenphone-A 476,600 168.71 1.99 354.20 0.80 351.40 355.00 351.00 353.98Square Pharma -A 504,380 132.12 1.56 263.00 2.65 256.20 267.50 234.00 261.95

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

Sector DSE CSE TotalMillion Taka % change Million Taka % change Million Taka % change

Bank 315.16 3.72 23.73 3.33 338.89 3.69NBFI 309.13 3.65 21.02 2.95 330.15 3.60Investment 56.26 0.66 5.53 0.78 61.79 0.67Engineering 1654.52 19.55 144.59 20.30 1799.11 19.61Food & Allied 552.49 6.53 34.41 4.83 586.90 6.40Fuel & Power 1845.06 21.80 98.23 13.79 1943.29 21.18Jute 7.34 0.09 0.00 7.34 0.08Textile 529.68 6.26 55.90 7.85 585.58 6.38Pharma & Chemical 1397.07 16.51 78.38 11.01 1475.45 16.08Paper & Packaging 194.86 51.81 7.27 246.66 2.69Service 282.52 3.34 18.44 2.59 300.96 3.28Leather 43.81 0.52 31.14 4.37 74.95 0.82Ceramic 80.70 0.95 8.63 1.21 89.32 0.97Cement 263.57 3.11 20.15 2.83 283.72 3.09Information Technology 52.43 0.62 26.96 3.79 79.39 0.87General Insurance 47.97 0.57 1.11 0.16 49.08 0.53Life Insurance 112.35 1.33 5.96 0.84 118.31 1.29Telecom 218.81 2.59 15.98 2.24 234.78 2.56Travel & Leisure 187.42 2.21 26.63 3.74 214.05 2.33Miscellaneous 312.01 3.69 43.56 6.12 355.57 3.88Debenture 0.06 0.00 0.01 0.00 0.06 0.00

Weekly capital market highlightsDSE Broad Index : 5005.65601 (+) 1.44% ▲

DSE - 30 Index : 1870.94051 (+) 2.64% ▲

CSE All Share Index: 15461.84580 (+) 1.59% ▲

CSE - 30 Index : 12569.11350 (+) 2.51% ▲

CSE Selected Index : 9414.70780 (+) 1.37% ▲

DSE key features November 12, 2014Turnover (Million Taka)

8,463.21

Turnover (Volume)

180,671,617

Number of Contract 159,221

Traded Issues 308

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

178

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

123

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

7

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,675.49

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

32.43

CSE key features November 12, 2014Turnover (Million Taka) 605.33

Turnover (Volume) 15,351,881

Number of Contract 21,028

Traded Issues 223

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

121

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

99

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

3

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,571.77

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

31.17

Prepared exclusively for Dhaka Tribune by Business Information Automation Service Line (BIASL), on the basis of information collected from daily stock quotations and audited reports of the listed companies. High level of caution has been taken to collect and present the above information and data. The publisher will not take any responsibility if any body uses this information and data for his/her investment decision. For any query please email to [email protected] or call 01552153562 or go to www.biasl.net

As stocks advanced from last trading day, investors were reasonably asking whether the bull market had begun to run its course

CSE GAINER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

SAIF Powertec-N 9.96 12.29 90.85 91.60 91.60 86.50 9.412 2.00 45.4Beximco Pharma -A 9.95 6.82 62.50 64.10 64.10 58.90 7.256 4.19 14.9Ratanpur Steel -N 9.90 6.84 72.95 74.40 74.40 69.00 17.289 5.44 13.4BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 9.81 5.02 38.92 40.30 40.30 37.00 34.374 1.01 38.5Sa� o Spinning-A 8.81 9.05 28.44 28.40 28.70 28.00 0.313 1.24 22.9Nitol Insurance -A 8.45 8.30 30.80 30.80 30.80 30.80 0.015 2.79 11.0Shahjibazar Power-N 8.41 7.44 568.57 239.80 240.50 236.00 2.843 3.71 153.3LR Global BD MF1-A 7.02 6.84 6.09 6.10 6.10 6.00 0.034 0.64 9.5National Polymer -A 6.96 7.24 76.76 76.80 78.90 74.00 2.429 3.09 24.8Jamuna Oil -A 6.95 4.07 247.21 251.00 253.80 235.00 9.025 16.65 14.8

DSE GAINER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Beximco Pharma -A 9.98 5.50 61.97 63.90 63.90 52.30 180.827 4.19 14.8Ratanpur Steel -N 9.96 6.06 72.28 74.00 74.00 69.00 295.758 5.44 13.3Sonali Ansh -A 9.95 10.35 145.69 145.80 145.80 144.00 7.299 0.76 191.7BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 9.81 4.91 38.90 40.30 40.30 33.10 208.423 1.01 38.5SAIF Powertec-N 9.81 12.46 91.13 91.80 91.90 86.00 131.896 2.00 45.6National Polymer -A 9.74 8.75 78.28 80.00 80.10 67.00 72.810 3.09 25.3Northern Jute -Z 9.61 9.52 198.50 198.50 198.50 198.50 0.040 1.69 117.5Al-Haj Textile -A 9.56 5.97 103.89 106.60 107.00 97.50 20.550 1.68 61.8Premier Cement-A 9.22 6.88 90.11 92.40 93.00 83.50 51.001 4.78 18.9Shahjibazar Power-N 8.75 6.89 241.20 242.40 242.40 230.00 123.012 3.71 65.0

ANALYST

The market continued to trade at green zone throughout the day and closed above the psychological level of 5000-mark with strong footing

B3BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, November 13, 2014

Rajshahi Zone of Jamuna Bank Limited has recently held its regional business conference at a hotel in Rajshahi. The bank’s chairperson, Shaheen Mahmud inaugurated the conference as chief guest

RFL has recently announced � lm actor, Ferdous as its brand ambassador. Md Rashedur Rahman, CEO of Rangpur Metal Industries Ltd (RMIL), a sister concern of PRAN-RFL Group and � lm actor Ferdous Ahmed have signed an agreement in this regard

Newly elected committee of Bangladesh Jeweler’s Samitee (BJS) recently held an annual general meeting in Dhaka. Commerce Minister Tofaiel Ahmed MP was the chief guest at the programme

Denim Mahmud Group has recently attended the Denim Expo Fair in Dhaka. The company’s MD, AKM Aminul islam was present at the fair

Toshiba Singapore Pte Ltd in alliance with its Bangladesh partner, International O� ce Machines (IOM) has unveiled its new range of products at a ceremony held at a hotel in Dhaka. The country manager of Toshiba Singapore, Philip Wu has attended the ceremony

The 'Banks and Financial Institutions' of Finance Ministry has recently appointed Shaikh Aminuddin Ahmed as the chairperson of Bangladesh House Building Finance Corporation (BHBFC). Ahmed has rendered his services for 43 years in banking sector

Economic headwinds threaten G20 growth pledge n AFP, Brisbane

G20 leaders will this weekend pledge to rev up combined growth by two tril-lion dollars but analysts are sceptical of success with key pistons of the global economic engine such as Germany and China starting to mis� re, and Japan again at risk of going into reverse.

With Barack Obama, China’s Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin of Russia among the leaders coming to the Bris-bane summit, geopolitical issues will not be far from the surface given the con� icts in Syria and Ukraine, the rise of the Islamic State group and the dev-astating impact of Ebola.

But host Australia has worked hard to narrow the agenda and concentrate on economic issues at a time when the United States appears � nally to be kick-ing into gear just as challenges emerge elsewhere to the growth outlook.

“It won’t be a talkfest,” Prime Minis-ter Tony Abbott said this week, vowing robust discussions not just on growth but on G20 priorities such as going af-ter companies and investors that pro� t from the di� erences between tax re-gimes around the world.

G20 members make up 85% of the world economy, so have the clout to ef-fect far-reaching change.

Australia has focussed its presiden-cy on a commitment by members to raise the level of their combined eco-nomic output by at least two percent above the currently projected level in the next � ve years, via domestic policy reforms, and so generate millions of new jobs.

But analysts are not convinced the rhetoric will be matched by results when several major economies are fac-ing new headwinds, despite US growth perking up enough to allow the Federal

Reserve to row back from its ultra-easy monetary policy.

‘Not that scary’ Growth remains disappointing in Eu-rope with Germany no longer immune to the pressures that have long been bu� eting some of its leading trading partners. Japan is once again throwing out huge amounts of money to prop up

growth after two decades of stagnation. Even China, the world’s economic

locomotive, is starting to falter -- al-though Xi said at a separate summit of Asia-Paci� c leaders in Beijing this week that his country’s outlook was “not that scary” as it downshifts to a more sustainable rate of growth.

G20 nations say some 900 measures on how to meet their goal have been

agreed so far, including accelerating infrastructure investment, � nancial reform and encouraging free trade. But observers say the details are still missing.

Mark Melatos, senior lecturer at the School of Economics at the Univer-sity of Sydney, said it was important the G20 produce tangible progress in Brisbane or risk becoming a forum for

empty political statements. “This seems to be the case with the

current ‘growth and resilience’ agenda including the two percent target,” he said.

“The G20 agenda is short on policy speci� cs to achieve this target. It is also short on genuinely new ideas to achieve this target.

“So it’s unclear how the G20 expects

to achieve the higher growth target given slower growth in Germany and China and the end of easy money in the US and UK.”

Too many vested interests? The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) wants the world’s leading countries to step up measures to support � agging global growth, in particular urging the European Central Bank to overcome its reluctance against Fed-style “quantita-tive easing”.

But Nicholas Reece, from the Mel-bourne School of Government and School of Social and Political Sciences, says the G20 is hobbled by its sheer size and diversity, with members at di� er-ent stages of economic development.

“Put simply, there are too many di-verse competing interests at the table making it very di� cult to get agree-ment on real reform,” he said.

The Brisbane summit will also fo-cus on reforms to the world’s � nancial system, such as capital rules for banks to contain the risk of systemic failures, and ways to close tax loopholes that are used by many multinational com-panies.

The � ght against � scal cheats took on added signi� cance last week with revelations that Luxembourg had given huge tax breaks to hundreds of global � rms.

That cast a new spotlight on the European Union heading into the G20, with OECD chief economist Catherine Mann warning that “overall, the euro area is grinding to a standstill and pos-es a major risk to world growth”.

But if the G20 can deliver on its pledges, she said: “The potential pay-o� from the structural reform agenda under consideration is tremendous.” l

File photo of US President Barack Obama and Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott AFP

Japan’s current account surplus up 61.9% in September n AFP, Tokyo

Japan posted a current account surplus for the third consecutive month in Sep-tember as a weaker yen helped boost repatriated returns on foreign invest-ment, o� cial data showed yesterday.

Japan logged a surplus of 963bn yen ($8.4bn) in the current account, up 61.9% from a year earlier, the � nance ministry said.

It was much bigger than a market median forecast of 532bn yen.

The current account is the broadest measure of the country’s trade with the rest of the world, measuring not only trade in goods but also services, tour-ism and returns on foreign investment.

Japan’s de� cit in merchandise trade expanded due to higher imports of lique� ed natural gas, cellphones and other telecommunications equipment.

But overall income improved with higher gains from equity and other direct investment, as well as from investment in � nancial items, data showed.

The rise was in� ated with a weaker yen, the consequence of Prime Minis-ter Shinzo Abe’s pro-spending policy and the Bank of Japan’s massive mon-etary easing. l

OPEC Secretary-General: Don’t panic, situation will � x itself n Reuters, Abu Dhabi

Markets should not panic over the re-cent plunge of oil prices because the situation will resolve itself, OPEC Sec-retary-General Abdullah al-Badri said on Monday.

“Please do not panic, things will � x itself,” Badri said during a panel discussion at a major energy industry conference in Abu Dhabi. United Arab Emirates energy minister Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui, also on the panel, delivered a similar opinion: “We

are not seeing the price issue as a major issue that we need to panic about.”

Badri indicated that both producers and consumers would be happy with oil prices in a broad range around $100 per barrel. “In the last � ve to six years we don’t see any nagging by consumers or producers ... $100, $110, $95, they are happy with these prices.”

He also said, “A high price is not pref-erable by OPEC, a low price is not prefer-able by OPEC” because high prices would mean less demand while low prices would reduce investment in oil supply. l

Oil prices down in Asian trade n AFP, Singapore

Oil prices fell in subdued Asian trade yesterday following sustained specu-lation about the dim prospects for an OPEC oil production cut in the face of abundant global supplies.

US benchmark West Texas Inter-mediate for December delivery fell 52 cents to $77.42 while Brent crude for December was down 51 cents to $81.16 in afternoon trade.

“Oil prices continue to tumble on con-cerns over modest demand and no signs of clipping supply at OPEC,” said Des-mond Chua, market analyst at CMC Mar-kets in Singapore. Trading volumes were thin in Asian trade with few fresh leads for dealers to track following the Veterans Day public holiday in the United States.

Investors are keeping a close eye on comments by OPEC members ahead of the cartel’s next meeting in Vienna on November 27, with dissent evident in the 12-nation group on the need for a production cutback.

“I hope that (oil) prices will not reach a level where they harm (the) national economy,” Kuwaiti Oil Minis-ter Ali al-Omair told the o� cial KUNA news agency on Tuesday. Oil income makes up around 94% of the country’s public revenues.

Omair attributed the slide in oil prices to oversupply and a weak global economy. l

Yen struggles in Asia after drop on Japan tax talk n AFP, Tokyo

The yen struggled in Asian trading yes-terday after tumbling to a seven-year low against the dollar on speculation that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will delay a planned sales tax hike.

In Tokyo, the greenback fetched 115.83 yen in afternoon trade, after top-ping 116 yen for the � rst time since Oc-tober 2007 in New York.

The euro bought 144.30 yen, against 144.38 yen in US trade, while it bought $1.2458 compared with $1.2474.

The dollar may stabilise around current high levels against the yen for now, with investors sitting on sidelines ahead of Abe’s � nal decision on next year’s tax hike, said Marito Ueda, direc-tor at FX Prime by GMO Corp.

The yen has tumbled since the Bank of Japan widened its monetary base last month, e� ectively printing cash, and it fell further Tuesday on speculation Abe may put o� the sales tax increase.

The rumours come after an April hike hit a tentative recovery by slam-ming the brakes on consumer spending and now threatens to send the econo-my into recession.

“Both stocks and the US dollar are unlikely to jump straight to another high from here, but investors can’t sell at this point,” Ueda told Dow Jones

Newswires. Major Japanese newspa-pers also reported Wednesday that Abe may call a snap election next month if he decides to put o� the sales tax hike.

Abe has said he will decide by the end of the year whether to go ahead with plans to raise the tax to 10% in Oc-tober 2015.

Top government spokesman Yoshi-hide Suga said the premier would make up his mind after seeing preliminary July-September growth data Monday and revised � gures on December 8.

Holding o� the second tax hike could delay Japan’s � scal reform and weaken the yen further.

Abe’s ruling coalition would be like-ly to win the election, which would be greeted positively by the stock market and trigger fresh yen-selling, analysts said.

The dollar was mixed against other Asia-Paci� c currencies.

It � rmed to Sg$1.2928 from Sg$1.2923 on Tuesday, to 1,099.54 South Korean won from 1,091.00 won and to 32.86 Thai baht from 32.84 baht.

It also climbed to 12,193.00 Indone-sian rupiah from 12,149.00 rupiah and to Tw$30.64 from Tw$30.54.

The dollar was at 61.54 Indian ru-pees against 61.55 rupees while it weakened to 44.94 Philippine pesos from 44.99 pesos. l

Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Secretary-General Abdullah al-Badri addresses the media during the presentation of OPEC's World Oil Outlook in Vienna REUTERS

B4 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, November 13, 2014

DILBERT

India waits for Modi to dig economy out of investment holen Reuters, New Delhi

For all the bullishness gripping Indian markets since the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi six months ago, the prospect of better times ahead has not yet persuaded � rms to invest, judging by the slack demand for earth moving equipment.

Busy construction sites would be a sure sign of a revival in capital invest-ment, needed for India to make a full � edged recovery from its longest eco-nomic slowdown in decades.

“You have to go out there and see backhoe loaders and earth moving equipment moving earth,” said Anand Mahindra, one of India’s leading indus-trialists.

“When you see that happening, when there is a real revival on the ground, that’s when people will start to get con� dence that things are going to turn around,” the managing director of Mahindra Group told a World Eco-nomic Forum meeting in New Delhi last week.

It doesn’t appear to be happening yet, even though India’s stock market has been Asia’s best performer this year thanks to belief that the strong parliamentary majority held by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will make it easy to pass far-reaching reforms.

Sales of equipment to the construc-tion industry, which fell 15% in 2013, are stuck in the rut they have been in for the last two years.

During the past six months, Mahin-dra, a conglomerate whose revenues totalled nearly $17bn in the last � scal year, has seen little improvement in sales of its backhoe loaders and con-struction kit products.

Sure, the economy picked up in the June quarter, when growth hit a 2-1/2 year high of 5.7%, but, with factories running nearly 30% below capacity,

industry’s utilisation rates are at their lowest for at least seven years.

Long fuse for big bang Unsurprisingly, � rms are not rushing to invest in new plants and machinery, particularly with high interest rates, needed to reduce in� ation, dampening consumer spending.

“I’d rather wait a couple of months than suddenly come up with a new fac-tory only for demand to come down again,” said Sunil Mathur, who heads Siemens’ Indian arm. “I won’t set up a new factory based on a few large orders.”

Capital investment, which accounts for around 35% of the economy, has barely grown since 2012/13. It posted an

annual jump of 7% in the June quarter, but was down 7.4% quarter-on-quarter.

Output data and corporate earn-ings suggest there was little change in investment activity in the quarter that ended in September. Industrial output data for September is due on Wednes-day, and September quarter GDP data is due out on Nov 28.

The better showing in the June quar-ter had led some economists to forecast growth of 6% in the � scal year to March 2015, higher than 5.5% that the Reserve Bank of India projected. But lacklustre industrial production has forced a few of them to revise forecasts down again.

The median revenue growth of In-dian corporates, which have reported

their September quarter earnings so far, is the lowest in nearly � ve years and is expected to worsen this quarter, accord-ing to Thomson Reuters StarMine data.

Yet, portfolio in� ows have gushed into India’s stock and bond markets on hopes that Modi’s reform agenda will unleash a new era of growth. Steps taken so far, however, have been con-spicuously modest.

Gita Gopinath, an economics profes-sor at Harvard University, says Modi will have to urgently overhaul laws related to land acquisition, labour and tax to galvanise capital investment.

“There are no ifs and buts,” She said. “The government can’t escape the ‘big bang’ reforms for long.” l

A truck carrying construction material drives at a road construction site on the outskirts of Jammu REUTERS

Gold up 2% as dollar drops, physical demand rises n AFP, London

Gold rose around 2% on Tuesday as the dollar fell and the previous session’s two-percent slide triggered physical buying interest among Asian investors, though prices remain under pressure from all-time highs in the US equity markets.

Physical buying gathered pace in Europe and China on Tuesday, trad-ers said, supporting prices after dollar strength had knocked them lower.

In addition, sales of gold and silver investment coins and bars have also surged after bullion slid to a 4-1/2-year low at $1,131.85 an ounce last week. The yellow metal is currently down about 3% this year.

“Retail demand is very strong since prices came o� ,” Heraeus trader Alex-ander Zumpfe said. “Overall, physical demand is lending some support - Asia is also showing steady buying interest.”

Spot gold was up 1.7% at $1,169.95 an ounce by 2:41 pm EST (1941 GMT).

US COMEX gold futures for Decem-ber delivery settled up $3.20 an ounce at $1,163, with trading volume about 20% above its 30-day average, prelimi-nary Reuters data shows.

A 0.4% drop in the dollar index helped underpin gold. The greenback retreated after rallying to a 7-year peak earlier.

Analysts said gold’s safe-haven ap-peal could decline after the Dow and S&P 500 on Monday extended their streak of record closes to a fourth day.

US stocks hit an intraday record high at the open on Tuesday. They later eased 0.1%.

Meanwhile, gold could fall towards $800-$900 an ounce, a level not seen since the 2008/2009 � nancial crisis, as it is no longer regarded as a decent portfolio diversi� er, hedge fund Red Kite said on Monday.

Holdings of the largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, on Monday fell 1.8 tonnes to a six-year low. The fund has seen out-� ows of 15.8 tonnes so far this month.

In spot market news, The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) will stop producing its gold lending rates data from Jan. 30 as banks shy away from the risks of providing � nancial benchmarks, a source close to the situ-ation said.

Among other metals, silver climbed 1.6% to $15.82 an ounce. Platinum was up 1% at $1,203.75 an ounce, while palladium gained 1.5% to $769.72 an ounce. l

Japanese stocks soar to seven-year peak on tax-hike delay talk n Reuters, Tokyo

Japanese stocks scaled seven-year highs yesterday, putting the rest of Asia in the shade, buoyed by expectations Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will post-pone a planned sales tax hike to avoid damaging a fragile economic recovery.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pa-ci� c shares outside Japan was down 0.3%, after US indexes ended a holiday-thinned session � at.

The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.3% as investors locked in gains after their surge on the announcement of a tie-up that will give global investors easier access to China’s $3.9tn stock market beginning next week.

Japan’s Nikkei stole the limelight, jumping 1.6% to a fresh seven-year high after local media said that Abe will postpone a planned tax increase and call a general election for December in an e� ort to lock in his grip on power be-fore his voter ratings su� er a slide.

Abe has said he will make up his mind on the tax increase after assess-ing the July-September GDP data due next Monday, widely expected to high-light the fragility of the rebound fol-lowing a sharp contraction in the sec-ond quarter.

The � rst increase in the two-stage sale tax hike in April knocked the Japa-nese economy hard, and markets view a delay in the second-phase of the tax hike as positive for growth.

A snap election could cement Abe’s grip on power because opposition par-ties are too fragmented to win, despite a decline in the prime minister’s ap-proval ratings.

“Short-term players are jumping onto this, although in the long run, this just means a delay in � scal reform and not necessarily positive,” said Ayako Sera, senior market economist at Sumi-

tomo Mitsui Trust Bank. The yen, which has remained under

pressure for nearly two years due to the BOJ’s aggressive stimulus, was steady against the greenback, which traded at 115.77 yen , after marking a seven-year high of 116.11 yen on Tuesday.

Some suggested the yen could come under pressure if Abe were to call a snap election and emerge victorious.

“Deteriorating � scal discipline is of course a concern, but it is a mid- to long-term matter. Expectations to-wards further equity market gains is a key factor weighing on the yen at the moment,” said Masashi Murata, a senior currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman in Tokyo.

The euro traded at $1.2462, down about 0.1 percent on the day but keep-ing some distance from a two-year low of $1.2358 hit on Friday. l

Microsoft unveils � rst Lumia smartphone without Nokia namen Reuters

Microsoft Corp said it would roll out its Lumia 535 smartphone this month with an a� ordable price tag in its key markets, dropping the Nokia name just months after buying the Finnish com-pany’s handset business.

Loaded with its latest Windows Phone 8.1 operating system, the Lu-mia 535 and Lumia 535 dual SIM will be priced at around 110 euros (about $137) before taxes and subsidies, Microsoft said in a statement. The phone will feature a wide-angle 5 megapixel front-facing camera and a 5-inch qHD display screen, the company said.

Smartphones run on Microsofts’

Windows software, mostly Lumias, captured only 2.7% of the global smart-phone market in the second quarter, down from 3.8% the year before, accord-ing to research � rm Strategy Analytics.

Microsoft completed its $7.2bn deal to buy Nokia’s handset business in April. Nokia continues as a networks, mapping and technology licensing company. It owns and manages the Nokia brand and only licenses it to Mi-crosoft.

Microsoft had said in the past it planned to license the Nokia brand for its lower-end mobile phones for 10 years and to use the name on its smart-phones only for a “limited” time, with-out saying how long that might be. l

Rising stars make Adidas more American, less soccer-mad n Reuters, Herzogenaurach

A new generation of more international Adidas executives is trying to loosen a hierarchical structure that has held back creativity at the venerable Ger-man sports brand as it tries to retaliate against Nike.

But that is a tall order for a com-pany of 52,500 employees still based in the small Bavarian town where it was founded in 1949, now struggling to keep pace with the fast-changing whims of the urban teens who are its target clientele

“The whole organization is run so Germanically and is not fast and agile where everybody is empowered,” said Erich Joachimsthaler, head of strategy consultants Vivendi Partners.

As disappointing performance, par-ticularly in the US market, has ham-mered the share price of late, long-serv-ing Chief Executive Herbert Hainer, 60, has promoted a raft of younger manag-ers ahead of his own expected retire-ment in 2017.

Leading the new guard are 47-year-old American Eric Liedtke, global brand chief since March, and Roland Auschel, the 51-year-old German named as sales chief a year ago.

Forced to ditch ambitious targets set for 2015, Liedtke and Auschel are

working with Hainer on a new � ve-year strategy to be presented in March, but they are taking action already.

Adidas and smaller sportswear rival Puma are still based in sleepy Herzo-genaurach, Germany, where they were founded by two brothers who fell out with each other after World War Two.

Liedtke has moved several execu-tives to the � rm’s US base in trendy Portland, home to Nike, as he seeks to reverse the brand’s decline in the world’s top sportswear market, impor-tant not only for sales but also for de-� ning global cool.

Tapping into u.S. Buzz Despite buying US brand Reebok in 2006, the German � rm that is stron-gest in soccer has struggled to break into sports like basketball and Ameri-can football, recently slipping into third place in the United States behind Nike and fast-growing Under Armour, founded only in 1996.

Its distance from the US market and top-down structure have contributed to missing trends pioneered by Nike like its “FuelBand” � tness device and “Free” barefoot-feel running shoes, as well as being slow to catch on to the “Athleisure” trend that has seen sports leggings becoming the new denim.

Liedtke, a former American football

player who joined Adidas in 1994, has therefore revived the role of global cre-ative director, and appointed Paul Gau-dio to the post in Portland. Gaudio also plans a creative studio in Brooklyn to be led by three former Nike designers.

America has long been an obsession for the Herzogenaurach sportswear � rms. “The American market is about cool things that work. It’s a blend of sports and lifestyle, sports products that also have a street appeal and that is what we also see developing into Europe,” said Bjorn Gulden, a former Adidas exec-utive now trying to revive Puma as CEO.

Liedtke and Auschel have named 12 new direct reports in recent months, including Mark King as new North America head - the � rst American in the job for a decade. American, British and French executives now far out-number Germans in their teams.

More products for the U.S. market will be developed in Portland in the future, while Adidas has signed top basketball players and celebrities like Kanye West and Pharrell Williams.

Even when Adidas is ahead with an innovation like the “Boost” cushioned shoes that Liedtke helped develop in his previous role, it has not done enough to follow through with Nike-beating marketing, a failing it is now addressing. l

StanChart to axe 80-100 branches under revival plan n Reuters, London

Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered plans to cut up to 100 retail branches in 2015, or 8% of its network, to help save $400m a year to improve pro� tability.

The bank is under pressure to im-prove performance after three pro� t warnings this year and a 30% plunge in its shares, and is holding three days of meetings with investors in Hong Kong to spell out its plans.

“We recognize our recent perfor-mance has been disappointing and are determined to get back on to a trajec-tory of sustainable, pro� table growth, delivering returns above our cost of capital,” Finance Director Andy Halford said in slides accompanying his presen-tation to investors.

Ten years of record earnings for Standard Chartered came to an abrupt halt in summer 2012 when it had to pay $667m for violating US sanctions on Iran. It has since been hit by a surging bad debts in key markets such as China and India.

Standard Chartered said in its slides

that returns at its retail bank were be-ing held back by high costs and that it aimed to cut 80-100 branches, out of 1,248 it had at the end of June.

Halford said the bank was aware of investor concerns, including whether its cost cutting plans went far enough and whether its capital was high enough. He also acknowledged their concerns over a rise in bad debts and non-performing loans and whether management was doing enough to tackle problems.

“We understand and are responding to the challenges we are facing. You will see further progress in 2015,” he said.

The slides said the bank aimed to in-crease assets under management in its wealth management and private bank-ing businesses by 10% or more next year, from $66bn and $56bn, respec-tively, at the end of June.

It is also aiming to get more out of its corporate � nance bankers. It wants that business to show a 10% or more in-crease in deals and a similar rise in rev-enues from its eight priority markets and in revenues per banker. l

The instrument panel of a new 2015 Ford F-150 truck is shown at the Ford Dearborn Truck Plant November 11 in Dearborn, Michigan. The new 2015 F-150 is the � rst mass-produced truck in its class featuring a high-strength, military-grade, aluminum-alloy body and bed AFP

Japan’s Nikkei stole the limelight, jumping 1.6% to a fresh seven-year high after local media said that Abe will postpone a planned tax increase and call a general election for December in an e� ort to lock in his grip on power before his voter ratings su� er a slide