October 29, 2013

TMAG

The sum of all our fears

Kartik 14, 1420 Zilhajj 23, 1434 Regd. No. DA 6238 Vol 1 No 215

5

Long Form

International

8

Beyond the politics of climate change

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2013 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

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Hasina to go her way if BNP stays out PM, however, expresses 'strong confidence' that BNP will eventually join polls n Partha Pratim Bhattacharjee Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has signalled her intention to follow through with her polls-time government plan if the opposition does not respond to her calls.

According to sources, Hasina told the cabinet at its regular meeting at the secretariat yesterday that if the BNP does not respond to her offer for an all-party poll-time government, the government will form an all-party government excluding it and their associates, Jamaat-e-Islami.

The polls-time all-party government would be formed immediately after the Election Commission declares its schedule, sources confirmed.

Sources also said that while discussing the polls-time government with her colleagues, the prime minister said she had already started talking to political parties to get their opinion on the issue.

“I will sit with Communist Party of Bangladesh, Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal, Gana Forum, Bikolpodhara and other political parties. I have called BNP to talks. If BNP does not respond, the polls-time government will be

formed with other political parties,” a senior minister quoted Hasina as saying.

The minister also said Hasina had categorically said at yesterday’s meeting she would try her best to bring all political parties, including BNP, to the upcoming election. But if BNP does not wish to participate in the election, she reportedly said, the government would have no alternative but to hold it without them, as per the constitutional obligation of the government.

“There is no scope to go beyond the constitution,” the prime minister was

quoted by the senior minister as saying. Sheikh Hasina, however, did express her strong confidence that eventually BNP would join the polls.

Ganabhaban sources said the prime minister would sit with CPB and BSD at her official residence this evening.

Earlier she held meetings with Grand Alliance partner Jatiya Party and all the partners of the 14-party alliance.

The Awami League’s parliamentary board at a meeting at Ganabhaban on Sunday night took the decision to finalise AL candidates for the next general election in the first week of No-

vember, and begin distributing nomination papers among aspirants from November 10.

On Friday the prime minister phoned BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and urged her to visit Ganabhaban for talks about polls-time government.

However, Khaleda initially rejected the offer and sources later quoted Hasina as saying Khaleda was “very aggressive” during the phone conversation.

Concerning a media report on the conversation, Hasina alleged that BNP had only disclosed the part of the  PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

House of witness against Sayedee vandalised n Our Correspondent, Barisal Police yesterday arrested three people as after hartal supporters attacked the house of Mahbubul Alam Hawlader, a complainant and prosecution witness against convicted war criminal and Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee, in Zianagar of Pirojpur.

Locals said more than 200 pro-hartal activists attacked the house at Tengrakhali with sharp and lethal weapons while they were picketing at Umedpur of Parerhaat Road in Zianagar in the morning.

Mahbub and some other locals alleged that attackers were activists of Jamaat-Shibir. They vandalised the house. He, however, managed to escape the attack.

Mahbub testified at the International Crimes Tribunal 1 against Sayedee, who was involved in crimes against humanity particularly killing of Hindus and looting their property along with handing over women to the Pakistan occupation armies.

The tribunal unanimously held Sayedee guilty in eight of the 20 charges and awarded him death penalty on February 28.

“I was hiding inside a wooden panel on the roof while my wife and two daughters hid under the bed,” Mahbub told journalists.

Dr Abdur Rahim, deputy inspector general of police of Barisal range, visited the spot and assured that a police camp would be opened soon to ensure safety and security of the complainant and witnesses of the case against Sayedee.

Nasiruddin Mallick, officer-incharge of Zianagar police station, said they arrested three people in this connection.

Picketers of Jamaat-Shibir also blocked the Parerhaat-Sanyasi Road disrupting communication and ransacked the Awami League office at Taagra Ferry Ghat of Zianagar upazila.

Locals also alleged that Awami League activists had damaged five shops owned by the Jamaat-BNP supporters at Kalibari Bazaar of the upazila. l

INSIDE News

3 The ongoing political violence takes its toll on foreign investment as a major UAE-based investor called off its scheduled visit to Dhaka yesterday, the second day of 60-hour hartal called by the opposition parties.

Op-Ed

11 Ikhtisad Ahmed: Much has been said, and continues to be said, about the US shutdown. The one thing Bangladeshis have undoubtedly been thinking but have not voiced as yet is that it is a source of pride for us.

Sport

13 The momentum from the drawn Test series and the 4-0 series win over the Kiwis three years back in addition to the home condition will boost Bangladesh’s morale as they prepare to lock horns with New Zealand for the first of the three-match ODI series at the Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National stadium today.

Pickets uproot rail lines on Lalmonirhat-Burimara route at Hatibandha in Lalmonirhat to disrupt train communications on the second day of hartal

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Hartal death toll rises to 11 in two days n Kailash Sarker The death toll from widespread violence rose to 11 on the second day of the 60-hour countrywide shutdown enforced by the opposition parties.

Among the six killed yesterday were a teenager and a trucker.

More than 200 people also suffered injuries when pickets, police and ruling Awami League men locked into clashes at different places in the capital and elsewhere in the country.

Several hundred crude bomb were exploded and vehicles set ablaze and vandalised.

In Chandpur, a 15-year old boy named Md Arju was shot dead and more than 50 others injured in a gunfight between 18-party activists and Awami League men in Puran Bazar area

in the district town in the afternoon.

District unit Jubo Dal claimed Arju was their activist.

Chanpur police super Amir Jafar said a chase and counter-chase took place between the ruling party and opposition men in the area in the morning during the hartal hours. At one stage, a gunfight broke out around 12:30pm, leaving 22 people, including Arju and Hakim Ali, 25, injured. Arju was later declared dead when taken to hospital.

Meanwhile, district administration imposed section 144 in Chandpur town from 2pm yesterday till 6pm today.

In Jamalpur, Awami League supporter Shahjada, 40, was killed in a clash with pickets at Rambhadra Bazar in Islampur upazila in the morning.

OC of Islampur police station Kazi Saidur Rahman said the clash between

pickets and anti-hartal activists broke out when the ruling AL supporters tried to obstruct the hartal supporters from vandalising vehicles in the area around 8:30am. The two groups swooped on each other with local weapons, leaving Shahjada dead on the spot.

P3 CHITTAGONG HARTAL In Chittagong, truck driver Mohammad Wasim, 30, was killed as his vehicle plunged into a roadside ditch after being chased by pickets in Satkania upazila early yesterday.

OC of Satkania police station Abdul Latif said pickets chased the Cox’s Bazar-bound truck on the Chittagong-Cox’s Bazar Highway around 12:45am.

Elsewhere in the port city, at least

3-year bar on getting nomination removed from RPO n Kamran Reza Chowdhury Contenders for the next parliamentary polls are now free to join a political party any time for nomination as parliament yesterday amended the electoral law, dropping a section that forced aspirants to wait for three years before getting party ticket.

The House enacted the Representation of the People Order (amendment) Bill 2013 by voice vote after the law minister had proposed its passage in the absence of the main opposition BNP. According to section 12(j) of the RPO 1972, a political leader or businessman must spend three years at least as a member of the party concerned before vying for elections.

The military-led interim govern-

ment in 2008 inserted the provision in consultation with the political parties ahead of the ninth parliamentary elections, mainly to stop intrusion of non-political and financially powerful people to buy party tickets.

The government tabled the amendment bill on September 30 to disqualify convicted war criminals from contesting the polls and change 17 other sections of the original RPO. The bill had not originally proposed changing section 12(j), but the parliamentary standing committee on law ministry proposed cancelling the bar while scrutinising the bill on October 24.

Fazle Rabbi Miah, chairman of the committee, said the law had discriminated against a party candidate – who had to wait for three years – while an

independent candidate did not face any such bar.

Fazle Rabbi tabled the standing committee recommendations in parliament on Sunday.

The committee, however, did not recommend dropping section 12(f), which makes it mandatory for a retired public servant to serve as a member of a political party for three years after their retirement.

At a dialogue with the Election Commission, Jatiya Party chief HM Ershad in 2011 demanded dropping of section 12(j) of the RPO. Jatiya Party lawmaker Mujibul Haque tabled a private member bill, asking for lifting the ban.

Many political observers said at that time that the Jatiya Party made the proposal with the hope of bringing a  PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

3-4 crude bombs were hurled at a BNP procession led by BNP Vice-President Abdullah Al Noman at Halisahar Nayabazar around 1:50pm. No one, however, was hurt in the blasts.

In Jhenaidah, unidentified criminals killed BNP leader Abul Hossain, president of Harinakunda upazila unit BNP, at Dakhalpur Bazar in the upazila around midday yesterday.

OC of Harinakunda police station Muibul Islam said a group of up to eight terrorists hurled several crude bombs at Abul Hossain, also chairman of Daulatpur Union Parishod, while he was on his way home from his office around 12:30pm.

When he fell on the ground being struck by splinters, the criminals chopped Abul Hossain with sharp  PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

Cabinet drops Qawmi madrasa draft law n Mohosinul Karim and Mushfique Wadud

The education ministry yesterday dropped a draft law on Qawmi madrasas from its agenda at yesterday’s cabinet meeting amid division in the madrasa community over the government’s supervision.

The draft act, dubbed Qawmi Madrasa Education Authority Bill, 2013, was held back a day after radical Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam threatened to wage civil war if the government tried to establish its control on the Qawmi madrasas, which have so far remained out of any sort of official monitoring and recognition.

A group of qawmi madrasa teachers, however, had welcomed the draft law, saying it did not contain anything that might harm the qawmi education system.

“The education ministry withdrew the bill for further scrutiny, correction and extension,” Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told reporters after the meeting.

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid also said the ministry had plans to scrutinise the proposed law further before seeking cabinet approval.

However, sources at the education ministry said the act might be withdrawn altogether to “avoid anarchy.”

Hefazat chief Shah Ahmed Shafi, at a press conference in Chittagong on Sunday, warned the country would face a civil war if such a law was passed.

He announced a demonstration programme for Friday to protest the proposed legislation.

Last year, the government formed a commission to reform Qawmi madrasas by modernising and improving their education standards so that students could have the skills to compete in the current job market. Initially, the Hefazat chief was in the committee, but he later quit.

A report submitted by the commission in April this year recommended establishing an independent university and an authority to recognise the students.  PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

Inu for making Hasina-Khaleda conversation public n Mohosinul Karim The recent telephone conversation between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia should be made public, Information Minister HasanulHaq has said.

He made the remark at a press conference held at his ministry office yesterday afternoon.

The minister said: “Some parts of the conversation have already come in media, and we will try to collect the whole conversation and make it public.”

The country was waiting in eager anticipation for the phone conversation between the two leaders that took place on Saturday, hoping that it would  PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

Use of black money in polls will increase: Analysts n Mohammad Zakaria Use of black money will increase through “nomination business” during the next parliamentary elections as the three-year mandatory party membership for an aspirant has been dropped from the electoral law, say election analysts.

They fear politics will be now dominated by businessmen and rich people as the amendment will encourage them and government officials to participate in the next parliamentary elections which, they say, is a threat to the democratic system.

While talking to the Dhaka Tribune yesterday, a number of election analysts and experts criticised the decision of dropping the provision from the Representation of the People Order (RPO).

Only barrister Rafiq-Ul Huq supported the amendment, saying the previous provision of the RPO was against the fundamental rights of people.

“Why should anyone wait for three years to participate in the parliamentary elections? All citizens have the right to participate in the elections!” he said.

Parliament yesterday amended the RPO, dropping article 12(j) that forced aspirants to spend three years in a registered political party before getting nomination from that party. The previous Election Commission had included the article in the RPO in 2008.

Former adviser to a caretaker government Akbar Ali Khan said dropping the article from the RPO would increase participation of businessmen and government officials and employees in the next parliamentary elections.  PAGE 2 COLUMN 3

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Crisis prompts business leaders to talk in one voice They will meet today to work out plan to face deadlock n Tribune Desk

A number of Haji pilgrims were stuck at Dhaka airport after returning from Saudi Arabia as they could not find vehicles to go home due to 60-hour hartal SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Top business leaders, led by President of Bangladesh Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed, sat together yesterday and decided to talk in one voice under a common platform for the sake of the economy and political consensus.

“Basically, we have agreed to move ahead under a common platform. We will seek a political consensus among top political parties and we will go together where we should go,” President of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry M Sabur Khan told UNB after the meeting.

He said all the business leaders agreed that there is no alternative to a political compromise and consensus.

“Hartals are being enforced hurting the economy only for lack of a consensus.”

EC to request reinforcements at election offices n Mohammad Zakaria

Fakhrul expects fresh invitation for Khaleda

Khaleda’s 'dead' red phone 'active' n Muhammad Zahidul Islam

n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

The election commission is going to seek additional security at all its field offices across the country amid growing security fears and heightened political tensions.

“The commission is going to send a letter to the home ministry within a day or two, seeking additional forces to guard its election offices,” said an official at the commission.

A copy of the letter will also be sent to the police headquarters and related departments, he added.

Earlier, the commission sent another letter to the home ministry requesting it to dispatch security reinforcements at the commission’s secretariat area and the residences of all election commissioners.

Sources at the commission said the need for enhanced security was necessitated by the deteriorating law and order situation in the past few days.

Bombs were exploded near different important institutions and residences of VIPs. On Saturday night, unidentified criminals exploded bombs near the Baridhara residence of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad and two more crude bombs were exploded in front of the main gate of the commission secretariat.

On Thursday, bombs were exploded near the residence of Election Commissioner Md Shah Newaz.

“Bombs were exploded in front of the CEC residence and an election commissioner. The same thing happened at the entrance of the planning commission where the commission secretariat is located. The situation calls for improved security,” EC Secretary Muhammed Sadique said.

As part of security measures, the commission had earlier decided to install close circuit cameras (CCTV) at the residences of all commissioners, but the task had been put on hold because of shortage of necessary funds, officials said.

In 2006, incidents of bomb blast and shooting occurred in front of the residences of all election commissioners of the then MA Aziz commission. l

The main opposition BNP said the government’s sincerity will be questioned if it does not take the initiative for a dialogue to end the political deadlock.

“Why should we make a telephone call? The government has to take the initiative,” Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, party’s acting secretary general, said yesterday.

A section of the media reported that BNP chief Khaleda Zia was willing to have a dialogue with Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina and if necessary, she (Khaleda) will make a phone call.

Awami League presidium member Mohammad Nasim yesterday commented that it was now BNP’s turn to initiate a dialogue.

Responding to the comment, Mirza Fakhrul said, “I have already sent letter to the Awami League general secretary to initiate dialogue over polls-time interim government. If the government does not take initiative it will be clear that they do not have good intention.”

The spokesperson of the party came up with the remarks at a press briefing on the second day hartal situation at party’s Nayapaltan headquarters in the capital.

Fakhrul urged the government to take effective initiative for dialogue

The official red telephone at BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan 2 residence was activated yesterday, after she had complained about it to the prime minister during their phone conversation on Saturday.

Officials of Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) attended the phone in the afternoon and fixed it when they changed the phone set and dropware of the connection, a high official of the state-owned company confirmed to the Dhaka Tribune.

“Our staff entered the residence around 2pm today [yesterday] and now the phone is active,” Mohammad Morshed, an official spokesperson of the BTCL, told the Dhaka Tribune.

Earlier on Saturday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called Khaleda on the red phone several times, but the BNP said it had been dead for a long time, and so she could not receive the call.

The BTCL spokesperson, however, said there had been no complaint about the phone at Khaleda’s residence before October 26, and they also found no problem in the connection and the exchanges at the ends of the prime minister and the opposition leader.

He said they had also checked the telephone in red exchange and the cabinet in front of Khaleda’s residence but found no problem.

The government established the digital red telephone exchange at the PMO in 2009, having 3,000 connections. l

4 Bangladeshis killed in Kuwait road crash n Tribune Desk Four Bangladeshi nationals were killed and nine others injured, five critically, in a road accident at Amgara in Jahara, Kuwait on Saturday, foreign ministry officials here said yesterday.

The deceased were Israfil, son of Haji Shamsuddin of Faridpur, Shawkat Sheikh, son of Jobbar Sheikh of Madaripur, Nasir Uddin, son of Lihas Uddin of Manikganj and Nazir Ahmed, son of Nur Ahmed, also of Manikganj, reports UNB. Five of the seriously injured were kept in the ICU, said a foreign ministry official. They are Anwarul Sheikh of Faridpur, Abdur Rab Khan of Manikganj, Babul, Salam and Dewan Ali. The other injured are Siraj of Faridpur, Belal of Comilla, Abdur Rahman of Manikganj and Hannan of Madaripur.

The accident took place at about 5:45am as the Bangladeshi nationals were on their way to workplaces. It is still not clear how the accident took place. l

immediately to resolve the prevailing political crisis.

“We have said earlier that when the prime minister invited the opposition leader then there was no scope to accept it. So if we get invitation at any time after tomorrow’s hartal programme, we will respond,” he said.

When asked about if the opposition leader will return a call to the prime minister for dialogue, Fakhrul said, “Why opposition leader will make a call? Crisis will not be resolved only by a phone call. Rather it needs effective initiatives and dialogue atmosphere, which will not be created by arresting the opposition men.”

The BNP leader said the prime minister, after calling the leader of the opposition over phone, started dialogue with different political parties to discuss her formula of all-party polls-time government.

“But our demand is an election under a non-partisan government. We want dialogue or talks simply on this issue,” he said.

Fakhrul alleged that three were killed and 2,500 injured across the country in attacks by police and Awami League cadres attack between Sunday and Monday.

Police arrested more than 700 opposition men and filed cases against more than 17000 leaders and activists and the mobile court sent 12 opposition men to jail, he said. l

Former FBCCI presidents Salman F Rahman, Abdul Awal Mintoo, Mir Nasir Hossain, Annisul Huq, BGMEA president M Atiqul Islam, BKMEA president AKM Selim Osman, MCCI president Rokia Afzal Rahman, FBCCI vice president M Helal Uddin were, among others, present in the meeting held at city’s Hotel Westin.

The business leaders also worked out their plan to face the fastdeteriorating political situation in the country and will share their views with the media on Tuesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, FBCCI Director Mostafa Azad Chowdhury Babu said the board of directors of the FBCCI will sit in a meeting today at about 12:30pm before the press conference.

The FBCCI will meet the press on Tuesday at 2pm to share their stance on the current political situation. “We’ll

talk about our overall situation. We don’t have any programme right now,” the FBCCI leader said.

Business bodies have long been urging political parties to avert confrontation and find a solution through a peaceful dialogue.

On Saturday, the FBCCI renewed its demand and urged the opposition parties to call off their 60-hour hartal for the sake of the economy and keeping the investment unhurt.

“FBCCI will welcome any initiative refraining from negative politics to reach a consensus between the ruling and opposition parties. We earnestly request the opposition to withdraw their proposed three-day hartal,” the trade body said in a statement.

It said investment will be impeded while economic growth to be hindered if a favourable political environment does not prevail in the country which is in no way desirable. l

Hasina to go  PAGE 1 COLUMN 5

conversation which went in favour of its interests. She asked that the conversation be made public.

Later in the day Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu, at a press conference from his office, announced that the conversation between the two would be made public.

Previously, Hasina in an address to the nation on October 18 proposed the formation of an all-party government to hold the polls and appealed to the opposition to give names from their lawmakers for the interim cabinet.

According to the constitution, the next elections must be held within 90

days before the ninth parliament’s tenure ends on January 24. A former election commissioner has told the Dhaka Tribune that the commission would usually announce the polls schedule keeping at least 60 days in hand.

At yesterday’s cabinet meeting Sheikh Hasina expressed her concern about the countrywide vandalism during the hartal, and asked the law enforcing agencies to resist such activities. Hasina, also the ruling Awami League president, asked her party’s leaders and activists across the country to counter vandalism and repression by the opposition and to stand beside the victims of the hartal. l

Family members of Arju who was killed during hartal clashes in Chandpur wailing DHAKA TRIBUNE

3-year bar on

Use of black money

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 PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

few BNP leaders into its fold in case of the BNP’s boycott of the next polls.

The MPs belonging to the BNP submitted notices to elicit public opinions and sent it to the select committee before passage of the law, but the proposals were not tabled as they were absent.

Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Anee, Nilufar Chowdhury Moni, Md Harunur Rashid, Rehana Akter Ranu, Shammi Akter, Mosharraf Hossain, Rasheda Begum Hira, Joynal Abdin, AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon, Fazlul Azim, Jafrul Islam Chowdhury, Nazim Uddin Ahmed, Syeda Asifa Ashrafi Papia, Lutfor Rahman, ZIM Mostofa Ali, Md Amzad Hossain and Abul Khayer Bhuiyan submitted the notices. l

It would also increase the use of black money during the election.

Transparency International Bangladesh Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman said in deleting the article the government stance was totally contradictory because the Election Commission had formulated the law in consultation with all political parties.

“Businessmen and government officials will enter in politics without any political experience. It will give them scopes of huge monetary investment in politics and increase the use of black money,” he added.

Former election commissioner M Sakhawat Hussain said nomination

business and use of black money would increase in the next parliamentary elections because of the RPO amendment.

He pointed out that this parliament had approved the law in 2009.

“I do not know why the government dropped it from the RPO, but anarchy will come back in political parties centring nomination of candidates. We included the article after discussing with all political parties,” he said.

The amendment proposal sent by the Election Commission had not contained this particular change. When contacted, Election Commissioner Md Shah Newaz said parliament had the authority to bring changes to any provision of the RPO. l

Cabinet drops Qawmi madrasa draft law  PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

The recommendations included a six-tier education system for the Qawmi madrasas - primary, junior secondary, secondary, higher secondary, undergraduate and graduate.

The committee also recommended inclusion of Bangla, English, mathematics and social science, at least up to the higher secondary level, in the syllabus that the Qawmi madrasas follow.

The committee also endorsed a provision for women’s education in the Qawmi madrasa system.

A minister who attended the cabinet meeting yesterday said Hefazat and leaders of Qawmi madrasas had not been involved in the opposition’s recent movement and agitation regarding the polls-time government.

“The leaders of Hefazat and Qawmi madrasas are silent over the current issues. The government is not intending to give the Islamist leaders an issue to hold demonstrations or any

movement now. So, the government has decided to put the proposed law on hold for some time,” the minister said.

Meanwhile, another group of Qawmi madrasa teachers and students welcomed the government move to recognise and supervise the Qawmi madrasa education.

Under the banner Qawmi Madrasa Student-Teacher Welfare Council, the organisation at a press conference yesterday said some vested groups were opposing the government move for their own political interest.

Reading out a written statement, its Secretary General Maulana Anisul Islam Mian said: “During the British era, it was necessary for Qawmi madrasas to be out of the government control.

But as now Bangladesh is an independent and sovereign country, Qawmi madrasa students and teachers should participate in all the government activities.”

Chairman of the platform Maulana Abdul Latif Chowdhury said they

had reviewed the Bangladesh Qawmi Madrasa Education Authority Act 2013 and found no such clause that could harm the education system.

“The law will not harm the uniqueness of the Qawmi madrasa education,” he said.

The government does not recognise the certificates that the Qawmi madrasas award the students. As a result, the graduates cannot get mainstream jobs in the country. They mainly work as imams at mosques. Mufti, a Qur’an expert, is the Qawmi equivalent of a mainstream graduate.

The textbooks at Qawmi madrasas are mostly written in Urdu and mainly teach religious conducts, rules, regulations and laws. The students are given elementary lessons on English, Bangla and mathematics.

Although there is no provision for girls to pursue higher studies in the Qawmi system, in some places, girls are allowed to attend the primary classes. l

Hartal death toll rises to 11 in two-days  PAGE 1 COLUMN 5

weapons, leaving him dead on the spot.

In Tangail, Jubo Dal leader Abdul Alim, 30, was killed in a clash between two factions of BNP at Hatubhanga in Mirzapur upazila yesterday afternoon.

Police and witnesses said a clash broke out between the supporters of BNP leader Abul Kalam Azad Siddique and his rival Firoz Haider in Gorai area in the morning leaving 15 people injured. Alim, who was injured in the clash, later died at the Mirzapur Kumudini Hospital.

In Kishoreganj, BNP activist Hossain Ali, 35, was killed in a clash between police and hartal supporters at Batpara in Kuliarchar upazila.

Witnesses said a clash broke out between law enforcers and hartal supporters in the area in the morning that left Hossain seriously injured.

Hossain succumbed to his injuries at the Bhagalpur Jahurul Haq Hospital around 6pm.

Elsewhere, over 100 people were

injured in clashes between opposition activists and police at Bajitpur bazaar, Sarar char, Halimpur and Pirijpur in Bajitpur uapzila in the district. Following the clashes, administration imposed section 144 in Bajitpur upazila from 6am Tuesday until further notice.

In the capital, crude bombs went off and several vehicles were vandalised at different parts of the city.

Rashed Nizam, a reporter of Channel 24, sustained injures in a crude bomb blast at Mouchak intersection around 2:30pm. He was admitted to the United Hospital in the city.

Pickets also set an office of the ruling party on fire in the capital’s Dania early yeserday.

A mini truck at the capital’s Satrasta, a covered van in Mirpur Section 11, a truck in Savar EPZ, and another truck at on the Dhaka-Aricha Highway were vandalised.

Police foiled a procession of hartal supporters by charging batons and firing several rounds of rubber bullets near the Hossain Market in Badda area around 7:20am. l

Hasina-Khaleda conversation public  PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

open doors to a consensus regarding the polls-time government debate.

However, when the prime minister called up the opposition leader to invite her for dinner at Ganabhabanand to initiate a dialogue over the pollstime government, the latter said she could not accept the invitation because of the hartal.

Khaleda said she could make it only after the 60-hour countrywide hartal ending Tuesday if she got a fresh invitation.

The information minister yesterday said he thought the conversation should be made public because it would be good if people came to know

the full conversation.

“We did not record the conversation. We will collect it from those who has recorded it,” he added.

Accusing the opposition leader of breaching trust, Inu said: “The prime minister invited her for dialogue well within the time frame given by Khaleda Zia at SuhrawardyUdyan on Friday. But they [the opposition] have breached their promise.

“If Khaleda Zia wants to sit for a dialogue, she would not have given any condition. Both prime minister and the opposition leader have placed their own formulas for a election-time government. We can discuss both the proposals.” l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

3

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Major UAE investor cancels Dhaka trip due to unrest n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman The ongoing political violence continues to take its toll on foreign investment as a major UAE-based investor called off its scheduled visit to Dhaka yesterday, the second day of 60-hour hartal called by the opposition parties.

The high-level delegation from UAEbased DP World, which has offered to invest in four multi-billion dollar projects in Bangladesh’s shipping sector, has postponed its scheduled visit to Dhaka apparently due to the ongoing political unrest.

“The DP World team is supposed to make a presentation on deep sea port tomorrow [Tuesday] at the PMO but today it postponed the trip,” said an official of the foreign ministry Monday.

They said “due to unavoidable circumstances” the trip was being postponed. Five people were killed and over 100 injured on Sunday, the first day of 60-hour hartal called by the opposition parties.

“What is happening in the country is known to the outside world and nobody would undertake any trip unless it was an emergency,” the official said.

DP World, one of the biggest global companies in the shipping sector, showed interest in investing in the New Mooring

Container Terminal at Chittagong Port, the Chittagong Container Terminal, the Inland Container Depot with rail connectivity to Dhaka and Mongla port in addition to the deep sea port project.

The government formed a high-powered committee headed by Principal Secretary Sheikh Wahiduzzaman and comprising several secretaries including those of the foreign, commerce and shipping ministries to scrutinise the proposals related to the deep sea port.

China and the Netherlands are also interested about the deep sea port project.

UAE Minister of International Cooperation and Development Sheikha Lubna bint Khalid Al Qasimi sent a letter to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina lobbying for DP World.

Lubna along with DP World Chairman Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem visited Dhaka on January 29 and met prime minister and senior ministers including the finance minister.

Bangladesh, an emerging economy with an annual trade of $60bn, conducted a feasibility study to construct the deep sea port at Sonadia to develop the country as a regional trade hub.

Over 90% of Bangladesh’s trade is dependent on the Chittagong Port, which handles over 1.1 million containers equivalent to 20ft equivalents last year. l

Painter Abdur Rahman loses one of his eyes after pickets threw a handmade bomb at him at Rayshaheb Bazaar in old Dhaka on the second day of hartal

Tribunal warns defence Chittagong hotbed of hartal violence n for ‘non-cooperation’ Tarek Mahmud and FM Mizanur Rahaman, Chittagong

n Udisa Islam The International Crimes Tribunal 1 issue another caution yesterday to the counsels for war crimes suspect Motiur Rahman Nizami for their repeated absence and non-cooperative behaviour.

Before allowing the defence an adjournment for the day, the tribunal said they would close the defence case and begin closing arguments today if the senior defence counsels did not appear.

Yesterday was fixed for further deposition of fourth and last defence witness Nazibur Rahman, the son of the accused.

But both the witness and senior lawyer Abdur Razzaq, also a Jamaat leader, did not appear before the tribunal citing security concerns during the hartal.

Earlier on Sunday, the tribunal said it would give its counsels protection if they pleaded beforehand.

But yesterday, only defence lawyer Asad Uddin, while admitting his failure to present the witness, submitted an adjournment petition seeking two more days. The tribunal said it had information his seniors were present at the High Court on Sunday even though the defence lawyers told the tribunal that they could not come to the court for lack of security and some personal difficulties.

Mentioning about committing to

provide the defence lawyer security, the tribunal headed by Justice ATM Fazle Kabir said: “I have doubts about your cooperation. I told you earlier, if the counsels want, we will give them police escort and they are on standby here to provide you security on the streets. They are just waiting for the order as we are for your plea. Why are not you taking this facility?”

At one point, the tribunal chairman said: “I think the defence intentionally does not cooperate with the tribunal.”

The junior counsel then claimed that both the prosecution and the defence had been cooperating with the tribunal. This is why the case was at the final stage. The tribunal said even though there was no provision in the tribunal law to allow adjournment after framing of the charges, “We have been doing so from the very beginning but you people do not cooperate with us.”

Meanwhile, the same tribunal yesterday set November 12 to deliver the indictment order in the war crimes case against Jamaat leader ATM Azharul Islam as the order was not yet prepared.

The tribunal 2 yesterday deferred the placing of opening statements in the case against senior Jamaat leader Mir Kashem Ali until November 7 as the defence counsels were not ready. l

At least one person was killed and 40 others injured in separate incidents in Chittagong on the second day of the 60-hour hartal enforced by BNP-led 18-party alliance yesterday.

Police, BNP and Awami League men clashed in the city’s Boropul, Saltgola, City Gate, Dewanhat and Halishahar areas and the district’s Sitakunda, Hathazari, Patiya and Boalkhali upazilas, eye-witnesses and police sources said.

Police said hartal activists yesterday attempted to hold rallies in support of hartal at several places where usually anti-hartal activists hold their rallies.

Clashes took place between the two parties over the occupation of venues.

Pro-hartal activists torched at least two vehicles, blasted at least 60 crude bombs and vandalised at least 45 vehicles in the port city and the district’s 14 upazilas, police said.

Police recovered two high-power hand-grenades from the port city’s Boropul area while a total of 30 people were nabbed from different areas in the city and the district for their alleged connection with hartal violence.

Sontosh Kumar Chakma, a sub-inspector at the Bomb Disposal Unit of Chittagong Metropolitan Police, said the recovered grenades were similar to those recovered from a Hefazat madra-

sa at Lalkhan Bazar recently.

In Satkania upazila, a truck driver, Md Wasim, 32, was killed when pickets hurled brickbats towards his truck at Sadha area around 2am, leaving him critically injured. He succumbed to his injuries at the local upazila health complex in the morning, said Nazmul Hossain, additional superintendent of police of the Chittagong range south zone.

Police recovered two highpower hand-grenades from the port city’s Boropul area while a total of 30 people were nabbed from different areas in the city and the district for their alleged connection with hartal violence A case was lodged with Satkania police station in this regard. However, no one was arrested in connection with the incident, said Abdul Latif, officer-incharge of the station.

In Sitakunda upazila, police, AL and BNP men clashed in Amirabad, Dakkhin Bypass and Fowzderhat areas around 9am, leaving 20 people, including seven policemen and two women, injured, said OC SM Badiujjaman of Sitakunda police station.

Syed Iqbal Ali, assistant superintendent of police of Sitakunda circle, was among the seven police men injured by

Election laws apply BNP to hold protest rally on Thursday only after schedule today after the alliance’s hartal ends at tend the dinner and discuss the pollsn Mohammad Al-Masum Molla time government.

6pm. is announced: EC BNP acting secretary general Mirza Party insiders said the BNP did not The BNP-led 18-party alliance will hold rallies across the country on Thursday, want to go for hard programmes this Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Monday Mohammad Zakaria n protesting the deaths of opposition ac- week as a dialogue between Prime asked the government to take effective The Election Commission hopes to finalise the electoral code of conduct this week and put it into effect once the schedules for 10th parliamentary election are announced, a commissioner said yesterday.

Although 90-day countdown for election already started, electoral laws will be applicable only after schedules are announced, Election Commissioner Md Shah Newaz yesterday said.

Moreover, the commission is working to change the electoral code, specifying the timeframe before the election when the election laws will apply to candidates and all others involved in the process, he said.

About signing international agreements and inaugurating development projects by the government during the 90-day period before the elections, he said the EC cannot step in before announcing the poll schedules.

“This is not the time for applying the electoral code of conduct. After the announcement of the poll schedules, the commission will apply all electoral laws,” he added.

Asked about transferring deputy commissioners and superintendents of police, as routinely takes place ahead of each general election, Shah Newaz said such transfers are not mandatory.

“If needed, the commission will take initiative as per the laws,” he told a questioner. l

tivists during the countrywide 60-hour hartal and offer “gayebana namaz-ejanaza” on Friday for the deceased activists.

The decisions were made at a meeting of a few senior leaders of the BNP, including Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain, Moudud Ahmed, Abdul Moyeen Khan and ASM Hannan Shah, at the BNP chairperson’s residence last night.

The programmes will be announced

Minister Sheikh Hasina and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia was highly likely to take place.

The opposition alliance might go for blockade programmes next week but the decision depends on Khaleda’s meeting with senior party leaders today and also the dialogue’s future.

It was learnt from a reliable source that responding to Hasina’s invitation, Khaleda will go to Ganabhaban to at-

initiatives for a dialogue.

The party could not accept the PM’s invitation because of the hartal if the party got another invitation any time after the hartal programme, it would respond, he said.

A close aide to Awami League General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam told the Dhaka Tribune that Mirza Fakhrul had called Ashraf but he had not received it. Fakhrul, however, ruled it out as a rumour. l

14-party alliance to hold countrywide rallies November 1 n Partha Pratim Bhattacharjee

The ruling Awami League-led 14-party alliance will hold rallies across the country on November 1 protesting violence carried out by activists of BNP-led 18-party alliance during its strike.

The ruling party alliance also hailed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for her initiative for talks with the opposition leader, saying as BNP did not respond to PM’s call, now BNP would have to take the initiative for dialogue.

The decision came from a meeting of the 14-party alliance at AL President

Sheikh Hasina’s Dhanmondi office with Samyabadi Dal General Secretary Dilip Barua in the chair.

Briefing the reporters, AL Presidium member Mohammad Nasim, also spokesperson of the 14-party alliance, said they would hold rallies and processions across the country including in the capital on November 1 in protest against anarchy by the opposition activists.

Nasim called upon people from all strata to put up resistance in their localities against subversive activities of the evil forces.

Responding to a query about dia-

logue, Workers Party President Rashed Khan Menon said the premier had taken initiative for talks through making phone call to Khaleda Zia. “As BNP did not respond to it positively, now they [BNP] would have to talk to the prime minister,” he said, adding that they wanted a peaceful solution to the crisis.

The meeting was, among others, attended by 14-party leaders Sharif Nurul Ambia, Fazley Hossain Badsha, Mahabub-Ul-Alam Hanif, Jahangir Kabir Nanak, Khalid Mahamud Chowdhury, Asim Kumar Ukil and Asit Baron Roy. l

pickets, he said.

Earlier pickets also torched two vehicles and vandalised 10 others in Amirabad area and set fire to several shops in the area, owned by Awami League activists.

In Patiya upazila, eight people including three policemen were injured in a clash between police and hartal supporters at Shantirh around 11:30am, said Additional SP Hossain.

Out of the eight injured, two policemen and a 14-year-old boy received bullet injuries; however, they were out of risk, said Dr Simple Dey, the medical officer of Patiya Upazila Health Complex.

In Hathazari upazila, pickets clashed with police at College Road and Bus Stand areas around 3:30pm, leaving three activists of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal injured, said OC Liakat Ali of Hathazari upazila.

The clashes took place in several phases and were going on at the time of filing this report.

In Boalkhali upazila, police, Awami League and hartal activists a clash at Fultola area around 11:45pm, said OC Jahirul Haq Sabuj of Boalkhali police station.

Hartal supporters also vandalised at least 10 vehicles in the areas during the violence, police said.

In the port city, pickets blasted at least 50 crude bombs at Nayaba-

MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

zar, Halishahar, Boropul, Dewanhat, Chowmuhani, Kazir Dewri, City Gate, Alangker, Saltgola, Bakalia, Eidgah, Teribazar, Wasa and Bahaddarhat areas in the port city.

Pickets also vandalised at least 15 vehicles at several points of the port city, said police.

BNP-led alliance men locked into a chase-counter chase with Awami League men in the city’s Boropul and Halishahar area in several phases from 10am to 3pm, said OC Shahjahan Kabir of Halishahar police station.

Police fired 75 rounds of gunshots and gas-gun bullets to disperse the pickets, OC Shahjahan said. BNP claimed four of their activists were injured in the clash while police said no casualty was reported.

Awami League and BNP men locked into a clash at Saltgola area in the port city around 11:30am, leaving four including an Awami League activist injured, said OC Jahedul Islam of Bandar police station.

In the port city, presence of vehicles on the roads was thin.

Train services were undisrupted; however, no buses plied on the inter-district routes.

Additional police force, Rapid Action Battalion and Border Guard Bangladesh personnel were deployed at the city’s important points to evade any untoward situation. l

4

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Pickets hurl a sack filled with glass bottles at police in the capital’s Chankharpul area yesterday on the second day of 60-hour general strick imposed by 18-party allaince

Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee demands security for all ICT members

n Tribune Report Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee yesterday demanded overall security for those involved with the International Crimes Tribunal and trial of alleged war criminals.

The anti-war crimes platform also urged the government to deal with “the terrorists and anti-state activities heavy-handedly.”

The committee made the demand in a press release, which denounced the bomb attack at the residence of ICT Prosecutor Barrister Tureen Afroz.

Tureen, also legal affairs secretary to Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee, narrowly escaped death as Jamaat-Shibir cadres hurled a bomb at the door of her residence soon after her return home, said the release.

The statement, undersigned by the Committee’s Executive President Shahriar Kabir and General Secretary Kazi Mukul, said “evil-doers” carried out bomb attacks on the house of chief justice, judge and law minister.

“We see with displeasure that amid the ongoing political turmoil, Hefazate-Islam Chief Moulana Ahmed Shafi threatened to start civil war in the country and kill millions of people.” l

WEATHER

Little change in temperature likely n UNB Rain or thundershowers accompanied by temporary gusty wind is likely at one or two places over Rangpur, Sylhet and Chittagong divisions in 24 hours till 6pm today.

Weather may remain mainly dry with temporary partly cloudy sky elsewhere over the country, Met Office said.

Day temperature may rise slightly and night temperature may remain nearly unchanged over the country.

The sun sets in the capital today at 5:22pm and rises tomorrow at 6:03am.

Country’s highest temperature 32.2 degree Celsius was recorded yesterday at Jessore and lowest 20.0 degrees at Sayedpur.

Highest and lowest temperature and humidity recorded in some major cities and towns yesterday were: City

High

Low

Dhaka Chittagong Rajshahi Rangpur Khulna Barisal Sylhet Cox’s Bazar

30.6 28.8 30.7 29.6 29.6 32.0 30.4 30.5

23.2 22.8 21.4 21.4 21.5 22.5 22.2 23.4

PRAYER TIMES Fajar Sunrise Zohr Asr Magrib Esha

4:46am 6:01am 11:43pm 2:58pm 5:23pm 6:39pm

Source: IslamicFinder.org

CHT board act approved n Mohosinul Karim The cabinet has approved the draft of Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Board Act with the vetting of the law ministry and the National Strategy for the Development of Statistics.

The Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Board Act has been enacted to give legality entity for the Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Board Ordinance, which was issued under military rule.

The approval was given at a regular cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The ordinance became ineffective due to a High Court order which declared the two past military regimes illegal.

Most of the provisions of the CHT Development Board Ordinance re-

mained unchanged in the new law.

“The cabinet has taken the decision to raise the unique project approval authority of the board from Tk5m to Tk20m. The decision has been taken to empower the people of those districts,” Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told reporters after the meeting.

He also said the government had prepared the National Strategy for the Development of Statistics, which was given approval of the cabinet to improve the quality of collecting statistics and the informatics systems to international standards.

“It is necessary to have statistics for preparing and implementing plans and policies. The government has reorganised and renamed the statistics and informatics division in this regard. A law

has also been enacted earlier,” the secretary said.

Under the law, a strategy has been prepared to operate quarterly surveys of labour, the registration of businesses, a survey on child labour, health statistics, a survey on nutrition of mother and children, the monitoring of MDG achievements, the registration of population, statistics on agriculture production and consumption, and a survey on industrial development.

A national data resource centre will be established under the law. An academy for training concerned officials will also be established. Statistical information will be delivered by internet from upazilas to divisions.

The subject of statistics and informatics will be included into the higher and secondary level syllabus, he said. l

MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Bt brinjal still undecided n Abu Bakar Siddique

The Bio-safety Core Committee stopped short of announcing a decision on the introduction of Bt brinjal, a genetically modified variety of eggplant, after its meeting yesterday.

“The formal decision is likely to be disclosed after a consultation between the ministers of environment and agriculture which will take place within the next few days,” said Rafiqul Islam Mondol, director general of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI), while talking to the Dhaka Tribune.

The committee, led by the secretary of the ministry of environment and forest, also comprises relevant officials from the ministries of agriculture and health.

The government is set to release four varieties of genetically modified brinjal in the country amid severe concern from environmental activists home and abroad about biological- and

health-related implications.

So far, BARI has developed Bt Uttara, Bt Kajla, Bt Noyontara and Bt Isd 006 from local varieties by inserting Bt gene, an anti-insect organism to counter its major insecticides – fruit and shoot borer – that is liable for 50% to 70% damage to the vegetable. BARI claims it would reduce the use of pesticide remarkably.

Earlier in July, BARI sent its application to the National Technical Committee for Crop Biotechnology to assess the effectiveness of the Bt brinjal varieties.

Following the assessment, the committee sent the application to the Biosafety Core Committee on October 21 for “Final Approval.”

BARI developed the Bt brinjal varieties after a seven-year experiment which began in 2006 with the technical support of the Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company (Mahyco), in which the American seed giant Monsanto holds 26% stake. l

Bapex gets own headquarters

Finance ministry concerned over visit of Financial Action Task Force

n Aminur Rahman Rasel

n Asif Showkat Kallol

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is set to inaugurate the head office of Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited, Bapex Bhaban, at Kawranbazar in the capital today.

“Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has given her consent to inaugurate the Bhaban on October 29,” Managing Director of Bapex MA Baki told the Dhaka Tribune Sunday.

Bapex, which operates as a company under Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla) of the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, has been running its head office from a rented building in the city’s Malibagh area.

Bapex’s self-financed “Construction of Bapex Bhaban Project” was approved by the Energy and Mineral Resources Division on September 9, 2008.

The cost of the construction of the

13-storied building was Tk710m.

According to Bapex, the project implementation period was July 2008 to June 2012 – later extended to June 2013. But the work was completed this month.

Construction work on the building started on March 8, 2009. The foundation and the RCC structure, internal and external brickwork, plaster work, tiles work, and plumbing and sanitary works have already been completed.

The building has four passenger lifts, one 1250KVA sub-station and two 325KVA gas generators with BBT System and a 20KW solar power system.

Bapex, before emerging as a Company in June, 1989, was an integral part of Petrobangla as the Exploration Directorate.

Bapex is now producing and supplying 115 million cubic feet gas to the national grid every day from its six gas fields in Saldanadi, Fenchuganj, Shahbazpur, Semutung, Sundalpur and Srikail. l

An on-site inspection team from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental body that checks money laundering and terrorist financing, will visit Bangladesh in the last week of November.

The team aims to inspect the extent to which Bangladesh has been able to execute policies compliant to FATF’s rigid set of 40 new rules.

Sources in the finance ministry said the visit had created concerns within the ministry. A senior official of the bank and financial institutions division told the Dhaka Tribune that near the end of the government’s tenure, risks were high that moneylaundering incidents would become more frequent, and in fact, this has been the trend before most general elections.

“The team will review the government’s process of implementation of FATF action plans and its effectiveness

in stopping money laundering and terrorist financing,” the official said.

The FATF on-site team will visit Dhaka on November 23-24 to meet senior government officials including the prime minister, officials of finance and law ministries and the governor of Bangladesh Bank.

The team will also meet senior officials at the attorney general’s office, Anticorruption Commission, police, customs, SEC and the Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority.

Bangladesh has been trying to get out of the FATF’s “Grey List,” which lists high-risk countries in global money laundering and terrorist financing issues.

As per a government working paper, Bangladesh’s status will be reviewed by the International Co-operation Review Group (ICRG) process, at the FATF Plenary in Paris in February next year.

If a good impression is made upon the visiting team, Bangladesh may be removed from the list.

Coming out of the list will have significant benefits for Bangladesh, including reduced foreign trade transaction costs. The government will receive loans, grants and foreign assistance more easily from foreign countries, according to the working paper.

FATF’s rigid set of 40 new rules are devoted to financing of weapons of mass destruction, tax crimes as predicate offenses to money laundering and smuggling, improved transparency to make it harder for criminals and terrorists to conceal their identities, official corruption and the treatment of what is called “politically exposed persons” including politicians both elected and unelected, better exchange of information between international and local authorities, joint investigations to trace, freeze and seize illegal assets, confiscation of proceeds from criminal activities and the role of law-enforcement and, financial intelligence units in prosecuting money laundering. l

their children severely. Swapan’s only “crime” was that some activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League, the students’ wing of the Awami League, used to hang out at his shop and chat with him.

On Sunday, they also cut the tendon of Chhatra League leader Bappy Mollah when a group of BCL activists tried to resist Shibir activists from vandalising a dozen shops and houses of Awami League supporters at Baliapara in Pirojpur. They also swooped on four members of a family of a Chhatra League leader.

Jamaat-Shibir also exhibited signs of brutality in Jessore that day by hacking to death a municipality Jubo League leader of Noapara after dragging him out of a police camp. Typically, the Shibir men cut his tendon.

The Shibir activists hacked two

Chhatra League men in Chapainawabganj and cut their tendons at Shibganj upazila after stopping their bicycle.

In Chittagong, the Shibir men brutally hacked three Chhatra League activists.

Besides these, Jamaat-Shibir activists allegedly attacked the house of Mahbubul Alam Hawlader, a complainant and prosecution witness in the case against Jamaat leader and convicted war criminal Delawar Hossain Sayedee at Zianagar upazila of Pirojpur.

“Remembering” the October 28, the Shibir activists yesterday claimed to have brought out processions at 331 places outside the capital and 38 in the city. According to police and our correspondents, they hurled cocktails and resorted to vandalism at most of the processions. l

Relief as ‘October 28’ passes off n Ashif Islam Shaon Fears of a revisit of the violence of October 28, 2006 went unrealised yesterday as no significant incidents were reported during the second day of opposition’s 60-hour shutdown.

Concerns were raised after the two leading political parties and their alliance members intensified their campaigns over the polls-time government in days leading up to the anniversary of the day in 2006 when at least 12 were killed in clashes between activists of then opposition Awami League and Jamaat.

Opposition ally Jamaat-e-Islami and its students’ wing Islami Chhatra Shibir had targeted this day to take advantage of the countrywide hartal.

They have been campaigning on their

websites and social networking sites, mainly Facebook, saying they would “take revenge” for the “killing” of their “brothers.”

On this day seven years ago, Dhaka turned into a fierce battlefield with thousands of Awami League activists and its alliance supporters clashing with Jamaat-Shibir activists in Paltan area, leaving six dead and scores injured.

During the last few rallies of the opposition combined, especially those held on October 25 at Suhrawardy Udyan of Dhaka and elsewhere, JamaatShibir supporters staged huge showdowns apparently sideling the main opposition BNP and spreading panic among commoners.

No significant violence was seen in the capital yesterday, though Jamaat-

Shibir activists were found at the forefront of a number of violent incidents during and prior to the hartal hours elsewhere in the country, which has seen at least 15 killed since Friday.

Characteristically, Jamaat-Shibir supporters showed anger towards the ruling Awami League men by hacking and slitting tendons in a number of incidents.

Yesterday, masked Shibir activists hacked a union parishad member, also a local AL leader Habibur Rahman of Lohagora upazila in Chittagong, after hitting him on his head as he was returning home.

On the first day of the hartal, the Shibir men, backed by local BNP activists, hacked to death Swapan Shil, 35, a barber in Pirojpur. They stormed his home and also hacked his wife and beat up

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Long Form

5

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Beyond the politics of climate change The potential adverse effects of global warming and climate change put Bangladesh in the most vulnerable position. This is part 1 of the article detailing the current scenario. Part 2 will be published tomorrow

Bangladesh’s vulnerability

Bangladesh is most vulnerable to tropical cyclones. The picture was taken after the Cyclone SIDR

N

n Farhad Mahmud ow is probably a watershed moment for the climate change debate.

A concise summary of a section of IPCC’s long awaited 5th Assessment Report came out end of last month, asserting that scientists are 95% convinced humans are the “dominant cause” of global warming since the 1950s.

The report makes that claim despite observing an inexplicable “pause” in warming since 1998, which it conspicuously downplays. This has brought the pitched battle between the climate skeptics and the climate evangelists to a new crescendo.

To put more fuel to the fire, there has been a sharper polarisation of a new North/South divide on another popular debate; i.e. why should the most vulnerable countries in the South suffer because of the major polluters in the North. To make things even more interesting, everyone is watching China; the wild card that’s sure to tip the equilibrium in this geo-political posturing.

Amidst all this, the largest fully functioning Emission Trading Scheme in the world, the EU-ETS in Europe, has nearly collapsed with faint hope of

TRACKS OF CYCLONES OVER LAST 50 YEARS

any resurrection. This means the role of market mechanism in addressing carbon mitigation is again brought under scrutiny.

The EU-ETS market was fraught with problems from the very inception because of its initial policy of “grandfathering” the allocation of permits. Under that policy, major polluters in Europe were allocated free of cost (instead of through an auction) a certain number of permits to emit a specified number of tons of CO2 per year based on their past emission

strategy with a high cost burden on the country, both in real terms and in terms of restraining development, when its contribution to global carbon emission is so little?

Although adaptation to the inevitable effects of climate change is of more immediate concern to policy-makers in our country, Bangladesh’s strategic role in global mitigation efforts has equally, if not more, serious longer term significance for the future.

The severe impact of climate change on Bangladesh because of its

There is no specific regional scenario for net sea level rise in Bangladesh, in part because the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta is still active and the morphology highly dynamic It is projected that there will be an increase in 10 to 20% in tropical cyclone intensities in Bangladesh for a rise in sea surface temperature of two to four degrees Celsius. In UNDP’s global ranking, Bangladesh comes out at the very top in terms of the country’s vulnerability to this particular climate risk.

There is no specific regional scenario for net sea level rise in Bangladesh, in part because the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta is still active and the morphology highly dynamic. Higher mean sea levels are likely to compound the enhanced storm surges expected to result from cyclones with higher intensity due to increased precipitation. Given that over two-thirds of the

PERCENTAGE OF CDM PROJECTS BY COUNTRY

Although adaptation to the inevitable effects of climate change is of more immediate concern to policy-makers in our country, Bangladesh’s strategic role in global mitigation efforts has equally, if not more, serious longer term significance for the future

record. To emit more, they needed to buy “credits” which mostly came from polluters emitting less than their allocated caps/permits. Thus a carbon trading market based on “cap-andtrade” principle was created, known as EU-ETS. To take advantage of this market, international financing organisations encouraged setting up of CDM (clean development mechanism) projects in developing countries, whereby ventures that had the potential of “saving” future emission of carbon dioxide were also issued certificates (CERs) that could be traded in this market.

Ideally meant for fund-strapped developing countries like Bangladesh, the two countries China and India between them came to dominate this innovative financing scheme, accounting for more than 70% of all CDM projects to date.

The backdrop

CEGIS, DHAKA

SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Bangladesh’s topography, situated at the interface of two very different environmental conditions of the Bay of Bengal to the south and the Himalayas to the north, gives rise to not only life-saving monsoons but also catastrophic ravages of natural disasters. The potential adverse effects of climate change, particularly a rise in the sea levels, render the country especially vulnerable in this context.

Once every four to five years there is a severe flooding that may cover over 60% of the country. Due to the unusual topography, it is expected that both inland flooding (from river/rain water) and coastal flooding (from sea and river water) will continue to rise throughout the next decade. This places Bangladesh as the sixth most vulnerable country to floods (see table).

Higher temperature will also result in more glacial melt, increasing runoff from the neighbouring Himalayas into the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers.

Given the altitude of the mountains and the enormous size of the glaciers, this problem will most likely continue over the century.

The problem is of greater concern because evidence shows that temperatures in the northern latitudes, where the Himalayas are located, are rising at higher rates, thereby contributing to enhanced snow melt.

tively. The storm surges are higher in Bangladesh than in neighbouring countries because the Bay of Bengal narrows towards the north, where Bangladesh is located (see map).

Storm surges also contribute to flooding and loss of life and livelihoods far beyond the coast.

What does this all mean for a low-income highly populous country like Bangladesh with development priorities at the very top of its policy agenda? A fundamental transformation of the economy from an agricultural base to a more industrialised economy would naturally push the country towards high carbon propensity industrial activities. Carbon mitigating strategies are therefore rarely comfortable for policy-makers because of the implication of high costs in terms of restraining development.

Ironic though it may seem, while Bangladesh is one of the countries most at risk from the adverse effects of climate change, its total contribution to global emission of anthropogenic carbon dioxide is all but negligible at less than 0.2 %, and the per capita carbon emission at 0.4 Mtons is in fact one of the lowest in the world.

The question often posed in development circles among policy pundits is what global impact can Bangladesh have from a serious carbon mitigating

peculiar physiographic location on the globe is now an undeniable fact. This unfortunate and unenviable centre stage for the country in the unfolding climate change drama compels it to take a strategic role in global carbon mitigation efforts.

To play this role effectively, both in terms of negotiating global limits on carbon emissions and for financing carbon neutral development initiatives, Bangladesh needs its own coherent mitigation strategy, however nominal its effect on a global template may be.

For this reason alone, commitment to a well-articulated carbon mitigation policy must form an integral part of the country’s overall development strategy. Take for example the case of electricity production for which there is a growing shortage in the country, considered by many economists as one of the foremost impediments to rapid industrial development.

Because of the country’s large reserve of natural gas, an obvious compulsion would be to go for gas-based electricity generation. Strategic foresight must be there to weigh out the options in such a way that economic justifications favour a more carbon-neutral alternative (e.g. nuclear or renewable).

The two large rivers of Bangladesh combined have a peak discharge in the flood season of 180,000 cubic metres per second, which is the second highest in the world after the Amazon.

This, compounded by the fact that Bangladesh is a large low-lying delta, can cause small changes in run-off to substantially increase flooding, as has been noticeable in the severity and frequency of floods in the last two decades. The 1998 flood alone caused 1,100 deaths, inundated nearly 100,000 sq km, rendered 30 million people homeless, damaged 500,000 homes, and caused heavy loss to infrastructure.

On an average at least one severe cyclone hits Bangladesh every three years. The tropical cyclones in 1970 and 1991 are estimated to have killed 500,000 and 140,000 people, respec-

TABLE: BANGLADESH – ONE OF THE MOST CLIMATE VULNERABLE COUNTRIES UNDP has identified Bangladesh to be the most vulnerable country in the world to tropical cyclones and the sixth most vulnerable country to floods* Most vulnerable countries to floods or cyclones (Deaths/100,000 people exposed to floods or cyclones) Floods

Tropical cyclones

1

Venezuela

4.9

1

Bangladesh

32.1

2

Afghanistan

3

Pakistan

4.3

2

India

20.2

2.2

3

Philippines

8.3

4

China

1.4

4

Honduras

7.3

5

India

1.2

5

Vietnam

5.5

6

Bangladesh

1.1

6

China

2.8

* Of major flood-affected countries reporting an average of over 200 deaths/year Source: UNDP (2004), A Global Report: Reducing Disaster Risk: A challenge for development

country is less than 5m above sea-level and densely populated, storm surges also contribute to flooding and loss of life and livelihoods far beyond the coast. Even in non-cyclonic situations, higher mean sea levels are going to increase problems of coastal inundation and salinisation in the low-lying deltaic coast. All this is expected to happen with the globally agreed temperature rise of only two degrees.

With a population of nearly 155 million people in a relatively small area, Bangladesh has one of the highest population densities in the world at 1,126 persons per sq km. Higher population density by itself increases the vulnerability to climate change, with 75% of the population living in the rural areas with limited opportunities for migration within the country.

Moreover, the very low per capita income of roughly $1,000 leaves the predominantly poor communities with limited adaptive capacities and more dependent on climate-sensitive resources such as local water and food supplies. Much of this population live in remote or ecologically fragile parts of the country, such as river islands (chars) and cyclone-prone coastal belts, which are especially vulnerable to natural disasters. About one-quarter of the country’s GDP coming from agriculture also makes the country’s economy relatively sensitive to climate variability and change. l Part 2 will be published tomorrow Farhad Mahmud is an entrepreneur working in the carbon consulting industry.

6

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

From left: A huge rush of train passengers is seen due to a lack of other modes of public transport. The photo was taken in Kamlapur station. No long-distance buses ran on roads on the second day of the 60-hour nationwide general strike. The photo was taken from the Mohakhali Bus Terminal DHAKA TRIBUNE

Hundreds injured on second day of 60-hour hartal

Hartal supporters uproot and torch rail lines, and vandalise vehicles, shops, Awami League party offices and homes in a wave of destruction

n Tribune Report At least 326 people were injured including pedestrians and political activists in different districts of the country on the second day of the 60-hour hartal enforced by BNP-led 18 party alliance.

Hartal supporters uprooted and torched rail lines, and vandalised vehicles, shops, Awami League party offices and homes in a wave of destruction yesterday. At least 50 crude bombs exploded across the country. Police filed six cases against BNP activists for hartal-related violence.

In Lalmonirhat, at least 50 train passengers including engine driver Manik Miah were injured as pro-hartal activists uprooted a railway line, derailing a Lalmonirhat-bound passenger train near Mohendranagar station in Lalmonirhat sadar upazila. Manik Miah said a gang uprooted six to seven feet of the line and covered the place with garbage.

“The train was moving slowly so no passenger was killed,” he said.

BNP men uprooted another railway line on the Lalmonirhat- Burimari land port route in Bengal Company Gudam area, which is between Hatibandha and Paruliya station of Hatibandha upazila.

A Jamaat-e-Islami leader had his right hand hacked off from the wrist by unidentified miscreants at Courttoli area of Patgram upazila at around 10pm on Sunday night. Local police

said 10-12 unidentified persons attacked Yunus Alim as he was returning home on Sunday night, chopping his hand off and fleeing.

The 48-year-old Jamaat leader, of Courttoli area in Patgram town, is the superintendent of Burimari Dakhil Madrasa and the joint secretary of Patgram upazila Jamaat.

Also, Jamaat and BNP men vandalised at least 12 shops of the Hindu community and looted goods worth Tk2m at Shafinagar Bazar in the upazila on Sunday night.

Locals said there were at least 50 shops in the area but the miscreants only vandalised and looted those belonging to the Hindu community.

In Noakhali, picketers vandalised vehicles carrying newspapers on the Maijdee –Chowmohani Highway in front of Globe Factory around 6am.

In Datterhat they blasted seven crude bombs.

At least seven Shibir men were injured by bullets and 15 others injured in a clash between police and BNP-Jamaat activists around 9pm in Chatkhil.

In Senbagh, BNP-Jamaat workers blocked a road around 11am and blasted 30 crude bombs.

BNP held a press conference urging the local administration to withdraw all false cases against its 300 leaders and activists.

In Satkhira, the hartal was observed

Tourism at standstill in Bandarban n Our Correspondent, Bandarban The tourism industry in Bandarban is facing a crisis due to the ongoing political unrest in the country and the ongoing 60-hour hartal enforced by the BNP-led 18-party alliance.

Tourist numbers are down in spots including Meghla, Sarnamondir, and Nilachol, and many of those already there are leaving the resort district, fearing further violence.

Owners of hotels, guesthouses and restaurants said they were incurring huge losses with a total of 45 hotels and motels which were booked earlier now facing cancellations.

Asish Dhar, manager of city’s Green Hill hotel, told the Dhaka Tribune: “We are passing a very tough time. We are not getting tourists even after offering discounts.”

Only 50 tickets are being sold now daily at Meghna Tourist Spot, down

from 2,000-2,500 only a few days ago.

The same tourist spots were bustling with tourists during Eid, Puja and Adivasi Probarona.

Vehicles usually reserved for tourists are now sitting idle. Jeep driver Ratan Mallik said his daily income was decreasing day-by-day: “I do not know when the country’s situation will be stable and the flow of tourists will increase.”

Rabiul Islam, a tourist, expressed his astonishment at the current political condition. He opined that the political parties should keep the tourist spots of the country outside the purview of hartal, keeping in mind the economic development of the country.

Office-in-charge of Bandarban sadar police station Imtiaj Ahmed said: “We always try to ensure safety for the tourists.”

Earlier, the district was facing a dearth of tourists due to the unrest between indigenous people and Banglee settlers. l

Freedom fighter killed n Our Correspondent, Noakhali

A 60-year-old freedom fighter was beaten to death in a scuffle over a paltry sum of Tk60 at Begumganj upazila of Noakhali yesterday.

According to witnesses, the victim, Babul Chandra Das, had parked his bus in front of a house at Kuripara.

When Babul returned after an hour,

a local youth named Soliman allegedly demanded Tk60 from him for keeping an eye on the vehicle.

But when Babul refused to pay, Soliman reportedly beat him up severely.

Some passersby rescued Babul in a critical condition and took him to Noakhali General Hospital, where he died of his injuries. l

Uplift swallowing open space in Narayanganj n Tribune Report

stronger housing plan for better utilisation of the land area,” said Islam.

The report, which is an analysis of the efficiency of governance in the city, labels the function of the city corporation as “not up to the mark.” It also concludes that the role of the current government in Narayanganj has “various shortcomings.”

A further assessment reveals the root cause of the city corporation’s poor performance is a lack of funding, as the corporation has been unsuccessful in generating revenues. Although many citizens who had approached the NCC for assistance had been satisfied, a general impression held that the NCC’s assistance was provided only to a specified higher echelon of the society.

Urbanisation around the capital in recent years marked significant changes including the emergence of new city corporations in Dhaka, and promulgation of city corporation laws and amendments, says the report.

“We chose Narayanganj for the research for various reasons. It has an interesting political context as it is governed under a female mayor. Also it accommodates an industrial area,” Syeda Salina Aziz, senior research associate of the institute, told the Dhaka Tribune over phone.

The report is the second edition of an analysis on urban governance in Dhaka, published in 2011. l

without any major incident. JamaatShibir men blocked a road at Kodomtoli market area by torching tyres on the street.

In Kurigram, Jamaat activists vandalised shops and the Awami League party office in Datvanga union of Rowmari upazila. Police fired 10-12 rounds of shotgun bullets.

In Tangail, 15 people were injured in a clash between two groups of BNP activists in Mirzapur Upazila.

In Netrakona, anti-hartal activists vandalised at least 20 houses and 50 shops on Sunday night.

Anti-hartal activists attacked the houses of Abu Taher Talukder, the general secretary of Netrakona district BNP, at Satpai area in Netrakona town. They also damaged the homes of former Netrakona municipality ward commissioners Abul Kalam Khokon, Delwar Hossen and JCD activist Rubel.

Miscreants also vandalised the home of Shafiqul Kader Suja, the organising secretary of Netrakona district BNP at Kurpar and house of Mujibar Rahman, the president of Netrakona Sadar upazila unit BNP. Police threw five tear gas shells to disperse a hartal procession of BNP. At least 10 BNP leaders and workers were injured. Some picketers hurled two bombs at the Deputy Commissioner’s office but no one was injured. At the same time some 19-20 crude bombs

were hurled in different parts of Narsingdi town.

In Barisal, police disbursed a blockade of JCD in BM College area early in the morning. Picketers hurled three crude bombs and police fired 11 shots and arrested four from the spot.

Pro-hartal activists torched two buses belonging to Fortune Shoe Manufacturing Company on Barisal-Lakutia road near a BSCIC estate, and four auto-rickshaws at BM College, Hospital Road, Katpatty and Band Road areas of the city.

They vandalised at least four other vehicles in the city and tried to block various roads with brick-stacks and wood logs in the morning.

In Kishoreganj, at least 150 people were injured including policemen as BNP-Jamaat activists clashed with Awami League men in Bhairab, Bazitpur and Kuliarchar upazilas in the morning.

Police foiled processions of hartal supporters by charging batons and firing several rounds of rubber bullets in Bhairab, Bazitpur and Kuliarchar.

In Khulna, a police vehicle was torched and at least 15 crude bombs exploded in front of Khulna Medical College Hospital.

In Khagrachhari, Manikchhari Upazila Nirbahi Officer Sanjida Shormin imposed section 144 from 6pm Sunday to 6pm Tuesday following clashes between Awami League and BNP men that left 10 injured on Sunday evening. l

Mob beat suspected robber to death in Gazipur

Cabinet gives in-principle nod to Khulna Agriculture University

n Our Correspondent, Gazipur

n Mohosinul Karim

A suspected robber was killed yesterday after a mob swooped on a group that had allegedly raided a house in Rajabari village in Konabari, Gazipur, and beat up four members of the same family.

Abdul Malek, 42-year-old son of Abdul Jalil from Mauchak area under Kaliakoir upazila of the district, was allegedly among a group of up to 13 robbers carrying lethal weapons that attacked the home of Tofazzal Hossain, a cement trader, in the Rajabari area of Konabari in Gazipur at around 2am on Monday.

Tofazzal, his wife Parvin Begum, and their two sons Parvez and Palash, were attacked by the robbers, who fled with Tk250,000 in cash and almost 82g in gold ornaments. Sub-inspector Md Rabiul Islam of Konabari police outpost said the group entered the house of Tofazzal via the rooftop.

“They beat up the house owner, his wife and their two sons before robbing the cash and gold,” he said.

However, as the group was running away, people from the locality gave chase and managed to catch one of the members, who was beaten and later handed over to the police.

Meanwhile, officer-in-charge at Joydebpur police station SM Kamruzzaman claimed the incident was theft not robbery.

The injured family members were given treatment at nearby clinic. l

The cabinet yesterday agreed in-principle to establish an agriculture university in Khulna, in line with a 2011 pledge

by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The approval of the “Khulna Agriculture University Act, 2013” came at a regular meeting of the cabinet chaired by the PM at the Secretariat.

“The new law proposes preparing the syllabus of the university in

Research associates of Brac University have described Narayanganj as “unliveable” and recommended a stronger housing plan for the City Corporation, to more evenly distribute land and better arrange space for social interaction.

A study released yesterday by the Institute of Governance Studies at the university titled “State of Cities: Rethinking Urban Governance: An Overview of Narayanganj,” says land encroachment by both public and private institutions had hardly left any open space in the city.

Sirajul Islam, research associate of the institute, said: “Currently, there are many industries and markets [in Narayanganj] and hardly any open space for social interaction, like a lane for walking or a park.

Though Narayanganj has been an industrial area through time, there needs to be some space for social interaction.”

The report blames the high demand for economic activities in the city for the current situation, and says the growing knitwear industry drags a significant number of workers to the area.

As a result, the demand for residential buildings for the migrating workers increases, but because of a lack of space, the workers take shelter in slums which encroach on lands.

“We have thus recommended the government to have a better and

line with reality,” Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told reporters afterwards, “And it includes a provision for a six-month internship at DAE after graduation so that students can have hands-on training and improve their efficiency.”

He also said there would be two agriculture entrepreneurs as syndicate members of the proposed university, nominated by the government.

At the same meeting, the cabinet

also approved draft amendments to the University of Comilla and the University of Barisal acts, keeping provisions for appointing a pro-vice chancellor at the two institutions respectively.

“The posts of treasurerat the universities will be full-time, as per the amendments,” Mosharraf added.

The two amendment proposals had been approved in-principle at a cabinet meeting on September 2. l

Over 3,000 export containers stuck at Chittagong port n Tushar Hayat, Chittagong A total of 3,224 (Twenty Equivalent Unit) of containers laden with export goods have been held up at 18 private Inland Container Depots (ICD) in Chittagong, creating uncertainty for exporters due to the 60-hour shutdown which ends today.

The containers have been unable to reach port for shipment for the past two days, said sources at the Chittagong Port and the private ICDs, who added that three vessels which were scheduled to leave the port today have been sat idle due to the strike.

As per procedure, export goods have

to be brought to the ICDs from factories, from where they are sent to port after being packed into containers.

Sources at the shipping agencies said the vessels were likely to leave the port if the exporters failed to bring the containers on time, as the vessels would have to load the containers on large-vessels waiting in Malaysia.

Abdul Wahab, acting first vice president of Bangladesh Garments’ Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said they had tried to bring the containers to the port under police protection, only the police were not cooperating with them.

“Apart from the ICDs, a huge con-

signment of export goods are laying in the factories at Dhaka and Chittagong,” he said, adding that the garment sectors would face a critical consequence if political instability continued.

Ruhul Alim, secretary to the Bangladesh Inland Container Depot Association, said they had earlier carried containers at night during day-long strikes, however, this time they were unable to do so due to the unbroken 60-hour shutdown.

Meanwhile, only 212 TEUs of containers were released from the port in past 24 hours against the usual volume of nearly 2,000 TEUs, according to the sources at the Chittagong Port Authority. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Nation

7

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

BNP factional clash in Bogra, section 144 enforced n Our Correspondent, Bogra

Jamtoil-Bogra railway project to start soon

The local administration of Bogra’s Nandigram upazila was compelled to enforce section 144 after two rival factions of BNP were locked in a clash over establishing dominance in the area yesterday.

The ban on gatherings was announced at 2pm yesterday with immediate effect.

Nandigram Upazila Nirbahi Officer Abhijeet Roy said the restriction would remain in effect until 10pm today at the upazila municipality to avert further violence.

According to police sources, the clash broke out after two rival BNP groups – one in support of local BNP religious affairs secretary, Fazle Rabbi Toha, and the other of lawmaker Mostafa Mukul – engaged in an altercation yesterday morning.

At one stage, the BNP activists blasted several crude bombs, forcing law enforcers to lob 21 rounds of tear gas shells and fire 45 rounds of rubber bullets, Shahjahan Ali, officer-in-charge of Nandigram police station, said.

The local BNP office was vandalised during the clash and festoons and banners carrying portraits of opposition chairperson, Khaleda Zia, were also torn down. l

The government is planning to breathe new life into a long-held project to build a connecting rail track between Bogra and Jamtoil of Sirajganj, officials said.

“The government is going to start the project soon with a view to easing communication between Dhaka and the eastern districts and making it faster,” said Md Shafiqur Reza Biswas, deputy commissioner of Bogra.

A feasibility report on the 72km rail track had been prepared in 2008 on the basis of studied data on FulchariBahadurabad Ghat, ShariakandiMadarganj and Bogra-Jamtoil interconnections. It is proposed that Tk7bn would be needed to set up the track.

Md Benjurul Islam, master of Bogra Railway Station, said the project would significantly reduce travel time on the Dhaka-Bogra route. “Commuters will have to travel 277km less than they have to now, if the project is implemented.”

Sources said the project was originally planned about 42 years ago, just after the war of liberation, with an aim to ease communication and reduce transportation cost on the route. l

n Tribune Report

Clockwise: Although ambulances are out of the hartal’s purview, 18-party alliance supporters vandalise one in Bogra yesterday; A hartal supporter vandalises a CNG-run auto rickshaw after setting fire to it in Barisal; The BNP and Awami league supporters are involved in clash in Chandpur. A BNP activist was killed and 30 others were injured in the clash DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sand lifting continues unabated from Bongshai River in Tangail

Teesta erosion wreaking havoc in Gaibandha

Satkhira fire burns six shops

n Our correspondent, Tangail

Chhaygharia village going to disappeared by the upazila administration n Our Correspondent, Gaibandha hurriedly because it was only a few yards from

A fire burnt six shops to the ground at Sohrab Market in Satkhira yesterday.

Of the burnt shops, four were textile and dress shops, one was garment tailoring shop and another was a mobile servicing centre.

Owners estimated that the losses causes by the fire were about Tk3m.

Anamul Haque, officer-in-charge of Satkhira police station, said the fire originated from an electric short circuit in the morning at a shop and soon the fire engulfed the adjoining shops.

The burnt shops were Shatarupa Garments, Shat Rong Bosraloy, Fashion Sharee House, Shomahar Bosraloy, Kolyani Mobile Servicing Centre and a tailoring shop.

A fire-fighting unit form sadar upazila rushed to the spot and doused the flames after frantic efforts. However, no casualty was reported. l

Sand lifting continues unabated from the Bongshai River under Basail upazila in the district, posing a direct threat to educational institutes, mosques, the market area and the river’s embankment.

A section of influential people in league with corrupt administrative officials are illegal lifting sand from the river with locally made dredger, alleged locals.

A recent visit to the area revealed that some dredgers owned by Kumur Uddin and Mithu Miah – residents of the area – were engaged in sand lifting.

The sand extraction poses a serious threat to a high school, a primary school, a madrasa, a mosque, a LGED warehouse and the local market Sunna bazzar – all situated beside the river bank.

Md Nazrul Islam, head teacher of Sunna Abbasia High School, said, “We have requested them several times not to lift sand from near our school, but they did not pay heed to our plea.”

The school’s playground, measuring around 30-40 feet has already been devoured by river erosion caused by the illegal sand lifting.

The schoolteacher Abul Kashem said it was high time the authorities concerned took necessary steps to stop illegal sand lifting, or else it would cause severe damage to the three educational institutes of the area.

School students Emon, Mukta, Nipa and others expressed their concern that their school building might develop cracks because of the continuous sand lifting.

Locals said they made several com-

plaints to the Upazila Nirbahi Officer Saheen Ara Begum, but to no avail.

The UNO sent an official, Abu Taleb, Nayeb of Kaouljani union land office, to visit the area and submit a report on the illegal sand lifting after investigation, but the official only seized the handles of the dredgers from the spot.

However, he returned the handles to their owners after being bribed, alleged locals. Abu Taleb denied the allegation against him.

He, on the other hand, said that he lodged several cases with Basail police station against Kumur Uddin and Mithu Miag who had long been extracting sand from the river illegally.

Asked about it, UNO Saheen Ara Begum said, “I am going to take steps to rein in the illegal sand lifters from the area permanently.” l

A locally made dredger has been set up to lift sand from Bongshai River

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Chhayagaharia village and its adjoining areas under Sundaraganj upazila in the district are on the verge of disappearing soon due to massive erosion by the Teesta River.

Most of the village has already been devoured by the river over the last few days and hundreds of dwellings, including houses, East Uzan Teora Government Primary School, Chhaygharia High School, mosques, business establishments and flood control embankment could be eaten up by the river if immediate steps are not taken to check the erosion.

According to sources, in the wake of the receding water level in the river, erosion has recently taken a serious turn at Chhaygharia village and its adjoining areas, rendering hundreds of people homeless.

Erosion-affected people have taken shelter on the flood control embankment and other safe places while many of them live under the open sky.

The erosion victims are suffering from a lack of food and safe drinking water, said Abul Hossain, an inhabitant of the village.

Shamsunnahar Begum, another resident, said the unabated erosion had caused a sub-human life for them as they had been living under the open sky since their dwellings were eroded by the river.

The two-storied academic building of East Uzan Teora Government Primary School was sold in auction

Social movement a must to rein in early marriage, dowry

Extensive plan to cultivate winter vegetables in Gaibandha

n Tribune Desk

n Tribune Desk

Speakers at an orientation workshop in Rajshahi yesterday said forging social movement against early marriage and dowry had become indispensable for ensuring fundamental rights for women through eliminating all sorts of violence against them.

They said the marriage registrars should be brought under advocacy and awareness programmes so that they could be prevented from child marriage registration.

The District Information Office under its Child and Women Development Communication Programme organised the day-long workshop at Mohanpur Upazila Parishad complex auditorium in the district yesterday.

Upazila Chairman Shamimul Islam addressed the workshop as the chief guest with Upazila Nirbahi Officer Shamim Ahmed in the chair.

Among others, Upazila Health and Family Officer Dr JamalUddin Sheikh, Officer-in-Charge of Mohanpur Police Station Jakirul Islam and Assistant

Professor of Mohanpur Degree College Mofiz Uddin Kabiraj also spoke, reports BSS. The speakers said the government has been working relentlessly to tackle the curse of early marriage and dowry, and has adopted multifarious steps to this end.

Alongside the government efforts, the non-government organisations and other stakeholders should come forward. They underscored the need for more people’s participation to minimise the problem.

They added that both Muslim and Hindu marriage registrars should have to check birth registration certificates when registering any marriage. Besides, they should create public awareness especially among the schoolgirls in thisregard.

Proper implementation of the existing marriage registration law can supplement the effort.

The discussants said if they had been able to prevent child marriage to an expected level, violence against women could be contained substantially. l

An extensive plan has been taken up by the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) to cultivate winter vegetables in all seven upazilas in Gaibandha during the current season.

Official sources said at least 6,391 hectares of land of the district would be brought under the cultivation programme this year, with a production target of 12,730 metric tons of vegetables including eggplant, radish, tomato, cauliflower, cabbage, bean, carrot, balsam apple, cucumber, ladies finger, turnip, spinach and different types of green vegetables.

The farmers are showing their interest in farming vegetables this year after receiving economic benefit in previous years, reports BSS. In some places, the farmers have already started to cultivate vegetables on their land with the hopes of reaping high profits.

M Amir Ali, a farmer at Putimari village under Muktinagar union of Saghata upazila, said he has started the vege-

table farming on his land this season to earn money side by side with meeting his family demand.

To raise vegetables production and to make the cultivation a success, the DAE officials are also conducting field level training with the farmers and providing them with the latest agro technologies.

The farmers are showing their interest in farming vegetables this year after receiving economic benefit in previous years Meanwhile, early varieties of vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower, bean, and radish have started to reach market and customers are reportedly buying those with much enthusiasm, despite high prices.

Deputy Director of DAE Mir Abdur Razzak said the field level agriculture officers were instructed to motivate the farmers to grow vegetables to earn bigger profits. l

the river, said an official of the upazila primary education office.

Abul Khayer M Hafizar Rahman, chairman of Kanchibari UP, said he had informed the upazila nirbahi officer about the matter and was pushing him to take pragmatic measures in order to protect vulnerable areas.

Shamsunnahar Begum, another resident, said the unabated erosion had caused a sub-human life for them as they had been living under the open sky since their dwellings were eroded by the river UNO Ahsan Habib said he was aware of the matter and that he had informed the concerned authorities, including officials of the Bangladesh Water Development Board, to take urgent steps to start development work there.

The matter was discussed elaborately in the monthly meeting of district development coordination committee on October 20 in presence of all district level officials in a bid to increase emphasis on the issue, he added.

Executive Engineer of BWDB Rezaul Mostafa Asafuddowla said they could not start the riverbank protection work there due to financial constraints. l

n Tribune Report

Satkhira town councilor dies n Tribune Report Satkhira municipality’s ward No.8 councilor died yesterday after suffering a heart attack.

Mohammad Ali, also the president of Satkhira Krishak Dal, a wing of BNP that works among farmers, died in the morning.

Anamul Haque, officer-in-charge of Satkhira police station, said the councilor felt sick after finishing his morning walk.

His family members took him to the Salkhira Sadar Hospital, where duty doctors pronounced him dead. l

NEWS IN BRIEF Eight rescued in Benapole while being trafficked to India Members of Border Guard Bangladesh rescued eight people, including a woman, from Putkhali border area in Benapole town while they were being trafficked to India on Sunday night. Lieutenant Colonel Taef Ul Haque, director of BGB battalion 23, said being tipped off, they conducted a drive in the area around 8pm and rescued the eight people. However, human traffickers fled the scene after sensing the presence of BGB team. The rescued, hailing from different areas of Khulna, Narail and Bagerhat districts, were handed over to Benapole port police station. A case was filed in this connection. UNB

Jubo Dal man hacked to death in Lakshmipur A Jubo Dal activist was hacked to death by miscreants at Digholy in Sadar upazila of the district on Sunday night. The deceased was identified as Mizan Hossain, son of Hafiz Ullah of South Mandari village of the upazila.Police and locals said a group of miscreants attacked Mizan Hossain, son of Hafiz Ullah of South Mandari village of the upazila, in the afternoon and chopped him indiscriminately with sharp weapons, leaving him critically injured. Mizan was rushed to Sadar hospital where he succumbed to his injuries around 8pm. Local BNP leader

Mahmudul Karim Dipu identified Mizan as a Jubo Dal activist. The reason behind the killing could not be known immediately.

– UNB

Seven crude bombs recovered in Bagha Police recovered seven crude bombs from nearv Shahi shrine in Bagha upazila headquarters of the district early this morning, police said. Abul Khayer, Officer-in-Charge of Bagha police station, said some local people found the bombs first and informed police around 7:45 am.

He said police recovered the explosives and detonated those instantly. The crude bombs were supposed to be used in anarchic activities during the on- going hartal, the OC added. – BSS

Illegal timber seized in Rangamati Members of Border Guard Bangladesh in a drive recovered 105 cubic-feet timber from Narayan Giri Khal under Kaptai upazila of the district early yesterday. Acting on a tip-off, a BGB team led by Subadar Abdul Karim raided at the Khal area and recovered 105 cubic-feet illegal segun and gamari timber, BGB sources said Sensing the presence of the BGB team the smugglers, however managed to escape. BSS

8

DHAKA TRIBUNE

International

United States denies Obama aware of Merkel spying as scandal spreads n

US monitored 60 million calls in Spain n AP, Madrid

AFP, Berlin

Transatlantic tensions reached boiling point Monday as Washington sharply denied reports President Barack Obama knew US spies were tapping German Chancellor Angela Merkel, but fresh allegations emerged of mass snooping in Spain.

As outrage over secret US surveillance of leaders and average citizens mounted with a tide of new reports, a delegation from the European Parliament was due in Washington to demand answers on the extent of the operations.

The trip coincided with a Spanish newspaper report citing a leaked document indicating US security services tracked 60.5 million telephone calls in Spain in a single month.

And it came on the heels of a Wall Street Journal article that Obama learned of the electronic surveillance of Merkel and other world leaders in an internal mid-year review.

The White House then ordered an end to the programmes, according to the Journal. German media had reported at the weekend that eavesdropping on Merkel’s phone may have started in 2002, when she was Germany’s main opposition leader and three years before she became chancellor.

And the daily Bild am Sonntag quoted US intelligence sources as saying that Obama himself had been informed of the phone tap against Merkel by NSA chief General Keith Alexander in 2010 but allowed it to continue.

Gaza rockets spark Israel raid on eve of prisoner deal

n AFP, Gaza City

Israeli warplanes raided the northern Gaza Strip on Monday after militants fired rockets over the border, as Israel readied to free a new batch of Palestinian prisoners. It was the first air strike on Gaza in more than two months and came shortly after two rockets were fired towards southern Israel.

Despite the flare-up along the Gaza border, which has been quiet for months, Israeli officials said it was unlikely to affect the prisoner release which is due to take place on Tuesday night as part of the ongoing direct peace talks with the Palestinians.

Witnesses said the air strike targeted a training ground west of Beit Lahiya which was used by militants from the armed wing of Gaza’s ruling Hamas movement. Neither the air strike nor the earlier rocket attacks on southern Israel caused any damage or casualties.

The Israeli military confirmed the strike, saying the air force had struck “two concealed rocket launchers” in northern Gaza following an earlier cross-border attack. “This targeted strike ... is an immediate response to the terrorist aggression and its infrastructure in Gaza. Hamas must take responsibility for these actions or pay the price for inaction,” said a statement issued by Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, a military spokesman. l

US President Barack Obama, right, listens to German Chancellor Angela Merkel during his visit to Berlin NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines however denied the allegation. Alexander “did not discuss with President Obama in 2010 an alleged foreign intelligence operation involving German Chancellor Merkel, nor has he ever discussed alleged operations involving Chancellor Merkel,” Vines said Sunday. “News reports claiming otherwise are not true.”

According to the Journal, Obama was “briefed on and approved of broader intelligence-collection ‘priorities,’“ but deputies decided on specific targets because it would have been impractical to brief the president on all of eavesdropping operations.

“These decisions are made at NSA,” the unnamed official told the Journal.

Egypt: Gunmen kill three policemen n AP, Cairo Gunmen attacked a security checkpoint in a city north of Cairo on Monday and killed three policemen, the Interior Ministry said, the latest sign that Islamic militants who are waging an insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula may be spreading their campaign to mainland Egypt.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack in the city of Mansoura, but such attacks are typical for the militants opposed to Egypt’s military-backed government.

The Egyptian military and police have been battling a full-fledged insurgency by the militants — including

several al-Qaeda-linked groups — in the volatile northern part of Sinai since shortly after the July ouster of Mohammed Morsi, an Islamist who became Egypt’s first freely elected president in June last year. The militants’ campaign has been mostly confined to the troubled peninsula, which is separated from the mainland by the Suez Canal, but attacks outside Sinai have grown in frequency in recent weeks.

The attacks have included an assassination attempt on the interior minister last month, the car bombing of the military intelligence building in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia earlier this month l

Tunisia arrests eight over deaths of policemen n AFP, Tunis Eight members of an armed group have been arrested in connection with the deaths of six Tunisian policemen in a clash last week, the interior ministry announced.

It said in a statement late Sunday that anti-terrorism units of the national guard arrested “eight terrorist ele-

ments implicated in the recent events” in the Sidi Bouzid region of central Tunisia.

Explosives and arms were seized, it said, without giving other details of the operation.

It said a gunman killed in the clash which left six policemen dead last Wednesday was an Algerian national. l

AP

“The president doesn’t sign off on this stuff.”

Some programmes have been scheduled to end but have not yet been terminated due to the complicated nature of surveillance: a leader such as Merkel may be communicating with someone else whom Washington is monitoring, officials told the newspaper. l

A major storm with hurricane-force gusts is lashing southern Britain, parts of France and Netherlands, causing flooding and travel delays, including

the cancellation of roughly 130 flights at London’s Heathrow Airport.

Express train services between central London and Gatwick and Stansted airports were suspended because of the storm, and the major English port

of Dover was closed, leading to a cutoff in ferry service to France.

Thousands of homes in northwestern France lost electricity, while in the Netherlands several rail lines were closed, airport delays were reported,

Waves crash against a lighthouse during storms that battered Britain and where a 14-year-old boy was swept away to sea at Newhaven in South East England REUTERS

A Spanish newspaper published a document Monday that it said shows the US National Security Agency spied on more than 60 million phone calls in Spain in one month alone — the latest revelation about alleged massive US spying on allies.

The El Mundo newspaper report comes a week after the French paper Le Monde reported similar allegations of US spying in France and German magazine Der Spiegel reported that Washington tapped Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone. The leaders of Brazil and Mexico are also reported to have been spied on.

A European summit last week was dominated by anger over the reported extent of US spying on allies and Germany was sending its spy chiefs to Washington to demand answers.

El Mundo said the bar graph document titled “Spain – Last 30 days” showed daily call traffic volume between Dec 10, 2012, and Jan 8, 2013. It says the NSA monitored the numbers and duration of the calls, but not their content. The document does not show the numbers.

El Mundo said the Metadata system used by the NSA could also monitor emails and phone texts, although these were not shown on the graph.

The newspaper said the document was one those leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who is wanted by the United States but has been granted asylum in Russia.

Just as with the report in Le Monde,

the El Mundo story was co-written

by Glenn Greenwald, who originally revealed the NSA surveillance program based on leaks from Snowden.

El Mundo said it had reached a deal with Greenwald to have the exclusive on the Snowden documents relating to Spain.

There was no immediate reaction to the report from either the Spanish government or the US embassy in Madrid.

However, US Ambassador James Costos had already been summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Monday to discuss reports that indicated Spain was a US spying target.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy ordered the summoning last Friday but insisted his government was unaware of any cases of US spying on Spain. He spoke after Spain’s leading newspaper El Pais on Friday cited unidentified sources that saw documents obtained by Snowden as saying they showed that the NSA had tracked phone calls, text messages and emails of millions of Spaniards and spied on members of the Spanish government and other politicians.

At a European Union summit on Friday, Merkel and French President Francois Hollande said they would press the Obama administration to agree by year’s end to limits that could put an end to the alleged American eavesdropping on foreign leaders, businesses and innocent citizens.

Nine European Parliament deputies were visiting Washington beginning Monday to get more information on the US mass surveillance by the NSA.l

Homemade bomb targets police patrol in Bahrain n AP, Manama

South Africa to sentence Mandela-hating extremists

Police in Bahrain say a homemade bomb targeting a police patrol has wounded an unspecified number of policemen, the latest in escalating violence in the tense Gulf nation.

Anti-government factions have stepped up the intensity and frequency of bombings as part of a more than 32-month uprising by Bahrain’s Shiite majority against the ruling Sunni dynasty, which retains support from the West.

Monday’s police statement says the blast wounded a “number” of policemen, including two seriously. l

A South African court began sentencing Monday 20 right-wing extremists convicted of high treason for a plot to kill Nelson Mandela and drive blacks out of the country.

The “Boeremag” organisation had planned a right-wing coup in 2002 to overthrow the post-apartheid government.

The trial lasted almost a decade until the organisation’s members were convicted in August last year – the first guilty verdicts for treason since the end of apartheid in 1994.

“The accused had aimed to over-

n AFP, Pretoria

throw the government through unconstitutional methods that included violence,” said High Court judge Eben Jordaan as he began the two-day sentencing hearing.

“They planned a violent attack against people of colour that would certainly be followed by retaliation attacks against whites as a result,” Jordaan said at the hearing taking place in the same Pretoria courtroom where Mandela was convicted of treason in 1964.

One woman died and dozens of people were injured in blasts that shook the Johannesburg township of Soweto in October 2002. l

Million demand justice over ‘grass cutting’ rapists n AFP, Nairobi Over a million furious campaigners have signed a petition demanding justice after three men accused of brutally gang raping a Kenyan schoolgirl were ordered to cut grass as punishment.

The ferocious attack on the girl and lack of action towards those who carried it out has sparked outrage in the country.

The 16-year old girl was reportedly attacked, beaten and then raped by six

Hurricane-force gusts batter Britain, France n AP, London

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

and citizens were warned against riding their bicycles — a favoured form of transport — because of high winds.

Amsterdam’s Central railway station was shut by storm damage.

Sweden’s Meteorological Institute upgraded its advisory Monday, warning that a “class 3” storm that could pose “great danger to the public” was expected to hit western and southern Sweden on Monday evening.

Some English rail lines shut down Monday morning, and some roads were closed due to fallen trees and power lines. There were severe delays on many parts of the London Underground network and the opening of the Overground network was delayed several hours.

Air travellers and commuters were advised to check conditions before starting any journeys. Widespread delays were expected as major London train lines delayed their opening because of the winds and tree hazards.

In Kent, police said a 17-year-old girl died after a tree fell onto the caravan home she was sleeping in. Hertfordshire police said a man in his 50s was killed when a tree fell on a car in Watford.

But damage was less than feared in the 48 hours leading up to the storm, when the British press raised alarm bells about a possibly catastrophic storm. l

men as she returned from her grandfather’s funeral in western Kenya in June, before the gang dumped her, bleeding and unconscious, in a deep sewage ditch.

On Monday, the number of those who signed an online petitions started by a Kenyan woman, Nebila Abdulmelik, and publicised by the campaign group Avaaz topped a million, and was continuing to grow.

“Letting rapists walk free after making them cut grass has to be the world’s

worst punishment for rape,” Abdulmelik said. “It’s an absolute failure of the entire system and an absolutely shameful response by Kenya’s police.”

The victim knew some of the attackers, and three of them were taken by villagers to the local police station, the girl’s mother earlier told Kenyan media.

“The three... were only ordered to cut grass around the police camp and set free shortly after,” the girl’s mother told the paper. l

WORLD WATCH Mother, four children killed with meat cleaver in New York

A New York woman and her four young children were hacked to death with a meat cleaver in their Brooklyn home, and the father’s cousin was charged with their murders on Sunday, the New York Police Department said. Responding to an emergency call on Saturday night, police found two boys, two girls and their mother with multiple wounds at their home in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighbourhood. Ming Dong Chen, the 25-year-old cousin of the children’s father, was at the home and was taken into custody. He was charged with five counts of murder, criminal possession of a weapon and assaulting a police officer, a police spokesman said. Three of the children were found dead at the scene.

The woman and one of the children were later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

LaserDisc with never-beforeseen ‘Star Wars’ footage found A Facebook group has found an old LaserDisc containing 50 raw, unedited takes of scenes on Dagobah from “Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi” featuring Luke and Yoda. They found the disc on eBay for $699 and have since posted three of these clips to Facebook. The disc has, until now, apparently been in limbo for the past 30 years.

Kuwait upholds sentence for Twitter ‘insults’

A rights activist in Kuwait says an appeals court has upheld a 10-year prison sentence against a social media commentator for posts considered offensive to Islam and the rulers of fellow Gulf states Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Monday’s ruling highlights the escalating crackdowns in the Gulf on perceived online dissent and the deepening cooperation among Gulf nations, fearing political challenges inspired by the Arab Spring. Activist Nawaf al-Handel says the appeals court refused to lower the June 2012 sentence against Hamad al-Naqi. Al-Naqi, a Shiite, claims his Twitter account was hacked.

Prosecutors say Al-Naqi insulted Islam’s Prophet Muhammad (SM) and the leaders of the two Gulf states.

Turkish police fire water cannon to break up protest

Turkish police fired water cannon and teargas on Monday to break up a protest by around 2,000 people outside an Ankara court over the handling of the trial of a policeman accused of killing a demonstrator earlier this year. A Reuters witness said police clashed with the crowd as it descended on the court entrance following a ruling that the accused officer could take part in court hearings via video link. Local media said several people were wounded but there was no immediate confirmation of this.

DHAKA TRIBUNE

International

9

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Five killed as car ploughs into crowd in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square n Reuters, Beijing Five people were killed and dozens injured on Monday, the government said, when a car ploughed into pedestrians and caught fire in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, the site of 1989 pro-democracy protests bloodily suppressed by the military.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, asked whether the government believed the incident was a terror attack, said she did not know the specifics of the case and declined further comment.

Police said on their official microblog that the car veered off the road at the north of the square, a major tourist attraction, crossed the barriers and caught fire. The three people in the car died, they said.

The Beijing city government said on one of its official news websites that a female tourist from the Philippines and a male tourist from southern Guangdong province had also died.

Of the 38 injured, three were tourists from the Philippines and one from Japan, it added.

The central and Beijing governments held a meeting after the incident to speedily investigate what happened and “ensure the security and stability of the capital,” it said.

The car crashed almost directly in front of the main entrance of the Forbidden City, where there hangs a huge portrait of the founder of Communist China, Mao Zedong.

Tiananmen Square is always under heavy security due to its proximity to the Zhongnanhai compound of the central

leadership and due to the Great Hall of the People which overlooks the square.

It is also the site of Mao’s mausoleum.

But the square is still a magnet for protesters, especially around the June 4 anniversary of the crushing of the student-led demonstrations in 1989, though they are normally swiftly bundled away by police.

A Reuters witness said he saw fire engines, an ambulance and numerous police cars heading in the direction of the fire, which sent a plume of black smoke into the sky.

The main road through the square was briefly closed. Police also evacuated the main part of the square.

A foreign tourist who was on the square and asked not to be identified said she heard an explosion followed by a fire. l

India says officer killed in fresh firing on Kashmir border n AFP, Srinagar

Narendra Modi, the prime ministerial candidate for India’s main opposition (BJP) REUTERS

India opposition urges tighter safety for Modi after blasts n Reuters, New Delhi India’s main opposition party demanded on Monday protection for its candidate for prime minister, Narendra Modi, after a series of small blasts killed six people shortly before he addressed a weekend rally.

While Modi was not in the immediate vicinity of any of the blasts in the state of Bihar on Sunday, they were a reminder of India’s bloody political history, that includes the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi at an election rally in 1991.

The Hindu nationalist Modi is seen as a target of Islamist militants who hold him responsible for riots in 2002, during his first term as chief minister of Gujarat state, in which at least 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed.

Modi denies any role in the 2002 riots or bias against India’s minority Muslims. He used the rally on Sunday

to call for unity between all poor people.

His Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) criticised the Bihar government for not securing the ground where tens of thousands of supporters gathered, and demanded that authorities overseeing preparations for a general election next year do more to stop attacks.

“The kind of explosion that took place yesterday at Narendra Modi’s rally reveals a devilish conspiracy mentality,” BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said after meeting the top electoral agency. “It is important for the election commission to prevent such incidents,” he said.

Another party leader, Subramanian Swamy, said he wrote to the prime minister demanding candidates such as Modi be given secret service-style security, currently reserved for serving and former prime ministers and close relatives. l

Bihar blasts toll rises to six n AFP, Patna

Police cars block off the roads leading into Tiananmen Square as smoke rises into the air after a vehicle crashed in front of Tiananmen Gate in Beijing AFP

Bomb squad officers killed in Thailand n AP, Hat Yai, Thailand Three bomb squad officers were killed on Monday while inspecting a suspicious item beside a road in Thailand’s insurgency-plagued south, police said.

Suspected insurgents detonated an improvised bomb in a box when the squad arrived to check out a location where tires had been burned in Bacho district in Narathiwat province, police Colonel Pakdee Preechachon said on Monday. A common militant tactic is to initiate a false attack then strike the security officers who respond to it.

A second bomb was defused at the scene. More than 5,000 people have been killed since an Islamic insurgency erupted in 2004 in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces, which are predominantly Muslim while the rest of the country is Buddhist dominated.

The regular attacks in the south, with security officers as one of the main targets, are seen as a hindrance to the Thai government’s attempt to revive peace talks with the Muslim militants after both sides signed a breakthrough deal in February to hold discussions to ease nearly a decade of violence. l

Thai Explosive Ordnance Disposal officers inspect the site where their colleagues were killed by a bomb detonated by suspected muslim insurgents in southern Thailand AP

Iran pledges ‘new approach’ with UN nuke agency n AP, Vienna A senior Iranian nuclear negotiator says his country is taking a “new approach” with the UN’s nuclear agency, which is concerned about allegations that Tehran secretly worked on atomic arms.

Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi offered no details ahead of a meeting Monday with Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. But his remarks suggested that Iran was coming to deadlocked talks between the agency and Iranian diplomats with fresh proposals.

Those talks resume later Monday. l

The death toll from a series of crude bombs targeting supporters of Indian opposition leader Narendra Modi rose to six on Monday, a doctor said.

Seven small bombs planted by six suspects and linked to timers exploded Sunday near the venue of a rally by Modi in the eastern city of

Patna where tens of thousands had gathered to hear him, according to police.

“Late last night a body was found near the venue, which took the death toll to six. He was then brought to the hospital... it seems he died of a heart attack,” Amarkanth Jha, medical superintendent of Patna Medical College and Hospital, told AFP. l

Japan nuclear watchdog urges ‘bold’ Fukushima action n AFP, Tokyo Japan’s nuclear watchdog on Monday urged “bold and drastic” action to fix problems with radioactive water at Fukushima, as it warned of the growing risks over coming months.

Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, told the president of operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) that no expense should be spared in getting to grips with the water leaks that have beset the plant over the last half-a-year.

He also told Naomi Hirose that the removal of spent nuclear fuel rods from a cooling pool, which is due to begin next month, would be a difficult and complicated task.

Tanaka urged Hirose to “carry out bold and drastic reforms and make a long-term plan that can reduce uneasiness”, according to Katsuhiko Ikeda, secretary-general of the authority, who also attended the meeting.

In particular Tanaka asked the company to send more engineers to the plant and update facilities there “without sparing money”, Ikeda told reporters.

TEPCO is battling to clean up the mess caused when reactors went into meltdown after the March 2011 tsu-

nami struck and knocked out cooling systems.

Thousands of tonnes of water, used since then to cool reactors or polluted after picking up radioactive material, is being stored in huge storage tanks at the site on Japan’s northeast coast.

A series of setbacks including water leaks that have carried radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean have rocked confidence that Asia’s largest utility can tame the world’s worst atomic disaster since Chernobyl.

The company has been lambasted as hapless in its efforts, with one government minister saying its efforts are akin to someone playing “whack-a-mole”.

Tanaka said TEPCO must make greater efforts to reduce radiation levels at the plant so workers would be able to operate more freely, unencumbered by heavy protection equipment.

“The priority is knowing whether the firm can actually do it or not,” Ikeda quoted him as saying. “I would like them to show results.”

In reply, Hirose vowed to secure the necessary personnel at the plant and improve the working environment by further decontaminating the site.

Tanaka also urged TEPCO to exercise the utmost caution when it starts

Students paraded ‘half-naked’ in India n Agencies

taking used nuclear fuel rods from a cooling pool at Reactor No 4.

In what is widely acknowledged to be the trickiest operation since the overheating reactor cores were stabilised in December 2011, TEPCO plans to take more than 1,000 fuel assemblies (bundles of rods) from the pool using a crane.

The assemblies must be moved one at a time and have to be kept in water to prevent them from spontaneously heating up.

“Once a problem occurs, the risks will grow,” Tanaka told the TEPCO chief, according to Ikeda. “I would like you to do it very carefully.”

Hirose said he was fully aware of the possible dangers surrounding the operation, saying the firm would closely work with expert companies on site.

The full decommissioning of Fukushima is likely to take decades and include tasks that have never been attempted anywhere in the world, such as the removal of reactor cores that have probably melted beyond recognition.

Meanwhile, villages and towns nearby remain largely empty, their residents unable or unwilling to return to live in the shadow of the leaking plant because of the fear of radiation.l

World’s tallest man gets married n AFP, Ankara Turkey’s Sultan Kosen, at 2.51 metres (eight foot three) the world’s tallest man, has wed a Syrian woman he called the “love of my life”, though he towers over his 1.75-metre bride.

“I cannot describe my feelings in words,” the 31-year-old groom said during the wedding celebration in his hometown in the southeastern province of Mardin on Sunday.

“I am the happiest man in the world,” he was quoted as saying on the website of the state-run Anatolia news agency.

His 20-year-old bride Mervi Dibo, who hails from the Syrian town of Hasaka, added: “I hope this happiness will be long-lasting.”

The groom’s black suit was custom

made, requiring six metres of fabric, Anatolia reported.

Born into a farming family in southeastern Turkey, Kosen won global fame in September 2009 when Guinness World Records declared him the tallest man in the world. He was then 2.47 metres tall.

His growth has resulted from a tumour affecting his pituitary gland.

US doctors treated Kosen’s tumor in August 2010 in the state of Virgina with a precisely targeted shot of extremely high frequency gamma rays, using a non-invasive radiosurgical device known as a Gamma Knife.

Last year, doctors said Kosen has overcome acromegaly, a rare hormonal disorder that caused him to keep growing well into adulthood. Kosen is forced to use crutches in order to walk.l

India said one of its soldiers was killed when Pakistan troops fired early Monday across the border in Kashmir, the latest in a series of deadly flareups in the disputed Himalayan region.

The soldier was killed just after midnight at an army post along the northern part of the heavily militarised border that divides the two countries in Kashmir, an Indian army spokesman said.

India did not fire back and instead lodged a protest with the Pakistani army over a hotline, said the army’s spokesman in Srinagar, Naresh Vig. “It is a ceasefire violation. A junior commissioned officer was killed as Pakistani soldiers fired at an Indian army post in Uri sector at 12:15am,” Vig told AFP. The incident came hours after senior officials of the two armies held scheduled phone talks on Sunday aimed at easing tensions in the region, that has recently seen some of the worst firing since a ceasefire agreement a decade ago.

Both sides have accused each other of violating the truce agreed in 2003.

India’s Border Security Force said last week that 50 frontier posts had been targeted in an escalation of small arms firing and shelling over the last month – despite public pledges to reduce tensions there.

Pakistan, in turn, accused India of killing a Rangers soldier and two civilians last Wednesday during firing and injuring 26 civilians.

There has been sporadic shooting since 2003 along the border called the Line of Control that separates Kashmir into Indian and Pakistani sectors.

But the recent rise in incidents has caused alarm. The subject was raised up by Indian Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif at the United Nations in New York last month, when they pledged to improve conditions to build trust.

The Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir is divided and administered separately by India and Pakistan but claimed in full by both.

It has triggered two of their three wars since independence from Britain in 1947. l

Parents of six minor students of the Dalit community have taken their children out of a nearby school after some of their wards were allegedly made to strip and parade “as punishment” on Thursday.

Despite police claims that no formal complaints have been made, the disgruntled parents have decided to protest against police inaction.

Kamlesh, mother to one of the victims, said her daughter had been made to stand in the sun after having been stripped. “She developed fever on Thursday evening,” she said, “We have not sent her to school since then.”

Satish, a relative of another one of the victims, reported six students aged between eight to 10 were forced by their teacher to parade stripped down at a private school in the Shora Kothi area. Allegedly, they were asked to round the campus in a half-naked condition as punishment for indiscipline.

“We went to the school and later to the nearest police station to lodge a complaint. But we were turned away by a head constable who also threatened us,” he added.

Relatives of the victims said they were planning to meet wtih the local MLA and other senior officials as “police were trying to hush up the issue.” l

Afghan bomber stoned to death

n AFP, Ghazni

The world’s tallest man Sultan Kosen (L) and his wife

AFP

Angry villagers in Afghanistan have stoned a man to death and riddled his body with bullets, believing he set off a bomb on a bus that killed 18 civilians, officials said Monday. The roadside blast ripped through a minibus carrying wedding guests in the central province of Ghazni on Sunday, killing 18 people, the majority of them women. Villagers hunted down a local man who was found hiding in a chicken coop next to his home, with the bomb’s remote control apparently found nearby, Ghazni deputy provincial governor Mohammad Ali Ahmadi told AFP. A crowd of more than 100 people dragged the man out, beat him with sticks and shovels and then stoned him with rocks until he was dead. l

10

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Editorial

Letters to

www.dhakatribune.com

Keep our schools open

the Editor

LETTER OF THE DAY

B

NP leader Khaleda Zia has announced that vehicles carrying O and A level examinees will remain outside of the purview of the hartal. While we condemn hartal violence of any sort, it is particularly deplorable that such events could put our school-going children in the line of danger.

Normally, fear and uncertainty has forced schools to stay closed in times of hartals, leaving our children stuck at home without any way of productively passing the time.

This severely disrupts their education process and fosters an overall lax attitude towards the discipline needed to one day enter If we cannot find a way the workforce. to keep our schools Furthermore, in the case open in these unstable of very young children, taktimes, our children will ing care of them on what be spending a major would normally be a school portion of their school day can be very difficult days missing out on on the parents. Working their education parents may not have alternative arrangements for keeping their children supervised at home on such days.

Children should not have to pay the price for political violence. Our politicians must make it clear that school-goers should be able to go to school unmolested and without fear on hartal days. Harassment of vehicles carrying children is absolutely unacceptable.

We must come up with a workable exception for the treatment of vehicles with children in them, so that schools can operate as usual.

If we cannot find a way to keep our schools open in these unstable times, our children will be spending a major portion of their school days missing out on their education. The cost to our future could be enormous.

Violent attacks on journalists threaten everyone’s freedom

T

he bomb attacks against two TV stations this weekend are an affront to civilised values. They are another example of how law and order is undermined by violent political activists.

Zakaria Biplob and Alamgir Hossain were injured in an attack at Ekattor TV’s office in Baridhara on Saturday evening. At the same time, two bombs were exploded outside the offices of Desh Television, which is also home to the daily Bhorer Kagoj.

All citizens should be Incidents of violence able to go about their against journalists and lives without fear of the media are especially violence. Incidents of disturbing as they violence against journalappear deliberately ists and the media are intended to undermine especially disturbing as freedom of speech they appear deliberately intended to undermine freedom of speech.

According to the News Network NGO and Reporters Without Borders, 19 Bangladeshi journalists died in violence between 1992 and 2012. Of these, the best known perhaps are the journalist couple Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi who were stabbed to death in their apartment in February last year.

It is a matter of concern that in the past 15 years, only three out of 27 cases filed in connection with murders of journalists have been completed to date, with only one conviction.

This is clearly an unacceptable situation. Furthermore this year, public safety has been further undermined by calls for violence against bloggers.

All political parties must make clear to their supporters that violence against the media is unacceptable - whether during hartals or otherwise - and should support law enforcement authorities in pursuing the perpetrators of these heinous crimes.

CROSSWORD

Harsh domestic service?

NID required for Facebook?

A slave is defined as a “person legally owned by someone else, and who has to work for them.” Given this definition, I wonder if we have slavery here, as shown in the list of countries on the index published in your write-up on October 24.

Today, we have full-time “domestic servants” doing all the odd jobs, daily household work, shopping, going to the post-office, and other such work. They live in the house, and receive a monthly pay (plus three meals with the same food that we take, and tea twice a day). There is also a full-time cook, to take care of all the cooking, but at a higher pay. Both the servants and the cook get soap for bathing and washing their clothes, plus agreed-on yearly vacations, and yearly increments in wages. They also get the needed medical help and medicines at our cost. During Eid, they get new clothes, plus cash tips. When their clothes need to be replaced, that too is provided. The only restriction is that they are not allowed to smoke inside the house, as we are a non-smoking family. In my opinion, they are better off, and much better fed, than many unskilled workers who work elsewhere.

Head of household

Daz Kazam The government should invest in acquiring better cyber intelligence rather than attaching NIDs with social media websites. The Dhaka City Corporation website was hacked by a group of hackers from Myanmar during Eid-ulAdha. May be better cyber security should be prioritised before this.

October 25

DOWN 1 Pulpit discourse (6) 2 Indicate assent (3) 3 Gem (4) 4 Dreadful (4) 5 Metal (5) 6 Breakfast food (6) 7 Court (3) 13 Accomplish (2) 14 Constraint (6) 16 Myself (2) 17 Employers (6) 19 Musical sounds (5) 20 Accordingly (2) 23 Numeral (4) 24 Obscure (3) 26 Land measure (3) 27 Observe (3)

October 24

Clean Clothes launches better wage campaign October 23

Vig LaCera Don’t buy clothes from companies who refuse to pay their workers a living wage. I will never shop at The Gap again after my job necessitated that I spend $90+ for a cotton dress shirt (made in Vietnam by someone who probably earned $.03 on the garment).

Get your clothes made by a tailor, especially if you live in South/South-East Asia. You’ll get a better product and you’ll be supporting small business.

The only thing companies such as The Gap, Wal*Mart, etc, understand is the balance sheet, profit and loss. If you’ve got disposable income, you can speak with your wallets.

Naheed Vig LaCera: That could end up with the workers losing more than you bargain for, especially as companies can choose to subcontract endlessly, and

US boy says he came face to face with shooter October 24

These personal weapons don’t protect but kill lives. The American people must seriously act on gun control measures, for their own and their children’s lives. Enough innocent blood has already been shed to benefit the gun business. It ought to stop now.

WaliulHaqueKhondker

also if push comes to shove, walk away, leaving the workers without any recourse, because the factory owners don’t care anyway. So they’ll shut shop, fire workers and continue to exploit using the loss of business as another excuse for further exploitation!

There must be a way to change this vicious cycle.

Nazmul Khair There are many chances my NID could be used by others to hack into my Facebook. Will the government be able to prevent this and give me security?

Zayed Mahmud This is simply a rubbish idea.

Chowdhury Mohammad Jarifullah Such a peculiar proposal!

sirnayem Vig LaCera: I completely agree with you! We might choose local tailors over GAP, Wal*Mart and other brands who don’t care about the workers minimum standard of living. This action will help local small businesses to grow and people can have a minimum standard of life. But I don’t think we should leave all the brands behind and go for tailors for all our needs, because most of the brands do care about the workers and this RMG industry is providing bread to 40 lakh people.

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Streets go under after heavy downpour October 23

Pathetic drainage system. Dhaka City Corporation should fix this problem immediately.

Faisal Shourov

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

CODE-CRACKER ACROSS 1 Church council (5) 5 Large, flat-bottomed vessel (4) 8 Narcotic (6) 9 Tracking system (5) 10 Therefore (4) 11 Riverside embankment (5) 12 Strange (3) 15 Young farm animal (4) 18 Naming words (5) 21 Zodiac sign (3) 22 House covering (4) 24 Song for two (4) 25 Fertile spot (5) 28 Affording safety (6) 29 Church service (4) 30 Emits fumes (5)

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS Crossword

Sudoku

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Op-Ed

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

11

The greater fool The World Islamic Economic Forum in the UK n Baroness Warsi

T Our political lobbying exists in a grey area

M

n Ikhtisad Ahmed

uch has been said, and continues to be said, about the US shutdown. The one thing Bangladeshis have undoubtedly been thinking but have not voiced as yet is that it is a source of pride for us.

Not for the first time, the self-anointed leader of the free world followed, taking its lead from the small third world nation in which more than 160 million people reside with the perennial threat of real shutdowns looming large on a daily basis.

Bangladesh’s modesty has come at the cost of questions not being asked about who finances this situation, described as “absurd” by most during the US crisis, that is the reality of its citizen’s lives.

In the midst of politicians deferring to the better judgment of Limp Bizkit’s “My Way” for a lesson in philosophy, and the endless repetitive coverage that has received, their sponsors for the display of such wisdom have been allowed to remain in the shadows.

Since “All the President’s Men” popularised the phrase “follow the money”, characters in detective shows have repeated it when they are at a loss. Lamentably, few, if any, who acknowledge this cliché of fiction apply it to reality. Thus, the greater fools have continued to operate and benefit without being accountable.

Their patronage feeds the overriding belief in Bangladeshi politics that if

one is given an inch, one will take the entire land.

Lobbying, for better or for worse, is part of the democratic process according to its leading proponents, the US and the UK. A House of Commons committee acknowledged the broader aspects it entailed – including donations and campaign contributions – in 2009, conclusively signalling the end of the days when it happened only via petitioning monarchs and parliament, and when lobbying was done by MPs within parliament.

SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

provides interest groups and activists with a platform, creating means for them to become self-sufficient while stating their case and being heard.

Despite being an imperfect system, its existence means that the foundations are there for it to be used as a tool to keep people honest.

There is no such luck in Bangladesh.

Lobbying, contributions and donations exist in the legal grey area. There are no definitive laws for or against them, creating an unregulated, opaque world that affects everyone but is controlled by the self-centred select few.

Repeated calls for transparency has forced lobbying to be regulated.

More can be done to this end, but at least it has been brought within the legal framework. Furthermore, it provides interest groups and activists with a platform, creating means for them to become selfsufficient while stating their case and being heard

The US has gone a step further, turning it into the most complex and lucrative system in the world, defended by the “freedom of speech and expression” argument. It encompasses corporation-based, issue-based, pro bono and union lobbying, and includes activism within its accepted definition.

However, repeated calls for transparency has forced lobbying to be regulated. More can be done to this end, but at least it has been brought within the legal framework. Furthermore, it

Whether it is getting elected, holding a press conference or a rally, or presiding over a hartal or the country, nothing comes to fruition without money.

A government salary, regardless of the country, is not nearly enough to bring any of it about. Goodwill is also a finite resource, requiring financial incentive to make it sustainable. Private funds, therefore, is undoubtedly responsible for running a hugely expensive political system that is getting more costly by the day.

This display of affluence makes a mockery of the measly standard of living of the average Bangladeshi, and feeds the current dystopia subverting the utopian ideals of the same.

That could be why, contrary to the principles of democracy, politicians do not live to serve their constituents, since they are not really representing them.

The establishment has muscle – of the law enforcement, student-wing and miscellaneous varieties – and the law on its side. It would appear as though politicians have endless reserves of capital backing them as well.

Given such circumstances, it is beyond the ability of mere mortals to succumb to the ideological demands of armchair generals who want good governance from upstanding leaders.

The monopoly on money of the few, prevents the many from finding a desirable permanent solution because the will of the latter is no match for the wealth of the former.

One wonders why those who propagated the myth of democracy at the tail end of the ’80s and dawn of the ’90s allowed such a system to come into being. Perhaps they and the greater fools are one and the same?

That would explain why their spirit has waned and their actions have ceased. They can all rest easy, safe in the knowledge that this particular, impervious corporate veil will never be pierced. l Ikhtisad Ahmed is a writer and an erstwhile lawyer.

oday, the UK will host the World Islamic Economic Forum. Delegations from more than 115 countries, including Bangladesh, will attend the 9th World Islamic Economic Forum – the first time it has been held outside the Muslim world.

I am delighted that President Abdul Hamid is leading the Bangladesh delegation on his first official overseas visit as President of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. This is befitting of our close partnership which is centred on a shared vision in global affairs and a common prosperity powered by burgeoning business ties.

For me, WIEF London encapsulates the emergence of new economic ties between nations, religions and cultures. Some want investments that are managed in accordance with their faith. Others are, in the wake of the financial crisis, drawn by principles of balance, shared risk, fairness and transparency.

While others still are attracted by the sheer potential of an industry worth around $1.85 trillion globally

Contrary to the principles of democracy, politicians do not live to serve their constituents, since they are not really representing them

with growth rates of up to 15% per year. Whatever the draw, the buzz around Islamic and ethical finance continues to grow louder and stronger.

Not 1996 or 2006, it’s 1970 n Shafiqur Rahman

A

s the end of October draws closer, political discussions, opinion, advice and analysis are getting interesting. Fortunately, unlike the first half of the year, the political confrontations have been confined to oral contests as opposed to street violence. Yet, the fear is that soon this oral confrontation will turn to street conflicts as the politics pivot.

In order to imagine what may be coming, analysts are considering the pre-election situations of the recent past. This is normal, as to understand the present one needs to study the past. The analysts, in particular, are comparing the present situation, as it stands in late 2013, with the pre-election situations of 1996 and 2006.

While the current deadlock represents similarities with the two past stalemates, in one respect it is entirely distinct from them.

Even though to many it may seem inappropriate there is reasonable logic in stating that the current situation actually has a lot of uncanny similarities with the post general election events of 1970, held in the then East-Pakistan.

But first let’s consider the comparison with 1996 and 2006. It is obvious to those “static” analysts that in both cases the incumbent BNP tried, as much as it could, to influence the outcomes of the impending elections to get re-elected.

As now, in 1996 the (BNP) government used to give the excuse of the

constitution – that it did not have the numbers in the parliament to bring about the necessary amendments by it alone – to dismiss demands of the allied opposition parties that the election be held under a caretaker government.

Although the BNP leaders back then used to call on opposition to end boycotting the parliament, they were not clear whether the (BNP) government was accepting the opposition’s

made the caretaker system and the election commission controversial, again in order to get a favourable election outcome.

Amid fierce opposition from the opposition parties, the Army intervened on 1/11 which majority of the citizen welcomed. These incidents proves the clear similarities with 2013; but then why would we find any similarities with 1970′s stalemate?

An attempt to hijack people’s clear choice can be compared with the post election shenanigans of 1970. The government is trying its best to quell people’s wish, just as in 1970. There isn’t a danger of a war of 1971 as a result of this effort, however it is hard to imagine a rosy prospect, if this continues

demand for the care taker government if they return to the parliament.

Exactly like now different government leaders used to make contradictory statements against one another, due to which the general public was convinced and came to the conclusion that the (BNP) government did not wanted a free and fair election.

On the other hand, in 2006 BNP

There has been a number of opinion polls conducted this year. And they all show huge support for the opposition party.

If it were only one or two surveys, we could have ignore them as anomalies but not a number of them repeatedly showing clear majority for the opposition – indicating strongly, a certain victory for them by a large

margin in a free fair election.

The AL government itself has conducted two major surveys through the election commission in June and July, as if to persuade those who are still considers the opinion polls as dubious.

As the findings of the opinion polls were truly reflected in the outcomes of the four city corporations elections and Gazipur election.

There is no logical reason to doubt who the public opinion favours at this point of time in 2013. Especially the unexpected result of the Gazipur election made the forthcoming change crystal clear not only to the opposition but to any intelligent citizen.

The clear and strong public opinion makes 2013 different from 1996 and 2006.

In 1996, the government knew that there was a preference for the caretaker arrangement but it did not know and certainly the general public was not aware of the majority’s opinion.

While BNP lost the election its total vote rose by 3% to 34% and it secured 116 seats in the parliament to emerge as the largest opposition in the history.

Following the mishaps of 2006, no opinion polls were conducted in two years.

Just as in 2008 there remains no doubts in anyone’s mind what would be the outcome of a fair election, and this is particularly well known to AL. All their strategies are being devised in light of this information.

Some of the ideas floating in mainstream media are – by hook or crook hold the election under the gov-

ernment, keep the opposition from participating, in emergency leave the administration under the President to postpone the election by another year, in a final attempt handover power to the army to postpone the election.

All political observers would agree that the government is determined to stop the public opinion to establish through the election. And this is the sameness with the post election events in East-Pakistan in 1970. In that election with 75% of the votes AL secured 160 seats to claim the power to govern.

But the military government and West-Pakistani politicians hid behind numerous pretexts not to transfer power to AL and eventually the dreadful night of March 25.

A nation’s aspiration to be free, its looming violent freedom fight, it struggles birth of a new independent nation is far too high a dimension to be compared with the situation of 2013. They simply cannot be compared.

But an attempt to hijack people’s clear choice can be compared with the post election shenanigans of 1970.

The government is trying its best to quell people’s wish, just as in 1970.

There isn’t a danger of a war of 1971 as a result of this effort, however it is hard to imagine a rosy prospect, if this continues. l Shafiqur Rahman is currently pursuing a PhD at a US university. A version of this article was originally published at AlalODulal.org.

The UK, already home to the world’s financial and legal capital, is an increasingly important global player in Islamic Finance and its status, reach and competitive market makes the service it is able to offer truly unique.

Delegates will see this week, the UK is open for business and has the experience, the skills, the innovation, and the connections to overcome the challenges of the global market

Our expertise in Islamic finance, where we have a growing number of banks, law firms and other service providers with a wealth of experience, is highly developed, and supported by an internationally renowned legal system and regulatory framework. It is a time-zone that is advantageous to doing businesses in the East and in the West; and thriving and cutting edge sectors as diverse as healthcare, education and smart cities.

As delegates will see this week, the UK is open for business and has the experience, the skills, the innovation, and the connections to overcome the challenges of the global, 24 hour market and make the most of every economic opportunity.

It’s why we are rightly seen as a partner of choice and why this week’s WIEF will cement Britain’s position as the leading Western country for Islamic finance. l Baroness Warsi is senior minister of state at UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

12

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Entertainment

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Manna Dey’s last compositions to be released soon n Entertainment Desk Manna Dey is no more but his last compositions – dedicated to the memory of his wife Sulochana – will be released soon. The priceless music tracks composed by the singer, who passed away on October 24 in Bangalore, will be come to the market under the banner of Asha Audio.

breath. He was very keen to resume singing after a long hiatus despite his ill health. It was his last wish to record a song for his wife,” his close associate Suparna Kanti Ghosh said.

Before he could dub the songs in his own voice, Dey became seriously ill, said Mahua Lahiri, Director, Asha Audio Company. “Only the dubbing part was left the tracks were done.

He wanted to sing till his last breath. He was very keen to resume singing after a long hiatus despite his ill health. It was his last wish to record a song for his wife

Dey wished the songs to be his ode to Sulochana who died in 2012 after a long battle with cancer. The two were married in 1953 and time and again Dey described her as the inspiration for his life.

“He wanted to sing till his last

Two of the songs were Rabindra Sangeets, while the others were his own creations. We will release the album as soon as we can find a suitable voice for the dubbing…we have to do justice to his compositions,” said Lahiri.

Music arranger Santanu Basu had travelled to Bangalore in April to bring the compositions from Dey. Later, the tracks were recorded at a studio in the city.

The two Rabindra Sangeet tracks are “Tomra Ja Bolo Tai Bolo” and “Ananda Tumi Swami.” The two Tagore songs were also meant to be homage to the maestro’s uncle and legendary singer-composer Krishna Chandra Dey. l

Vibrant and bold artworks of Shabekun Nahar Noushin on display at Alliance Française de Dhaka

Noushin breaks silence on canvas n Shadma Malik The first solo painting exhibition of the courageous and talented artist Shabekun Nahar Noushin is going on at Alliance Française de Dhaka’s Galerie Zoom. The exhibition is open for all and visiting hours: are Mondays to Thursdays from 3:00pm to 9:00pm, Fridays and Saturdays (9:00am to12:00pm and 5:00pm to 8:00pm). The exhibition will remain close on Sundays.

The gifted 22 year old has named her display “The Silent Word,” so that people could relate her work to her real situation.

Noushin can neither speak nor hear any-

New drama series Pinjor airs on Maasranga n Entertainment Desk New drama series “Pinjor” airs today at 11pm on Maasranga. It will be telecast every Monday and Tuesday of the week. The drama is written by and directed by Badrul Anam Saud.

Popular soap actors Raisul Islam Asad, Wahida Mallick Joli, Saberi Alam, Chitralekha Guho, Khairul Alam Sobuj, Sham Sumon, Bonnya Mirza, Shamima Naznin, Intekhab Dinar, Jitu Ahsan, Saju Khadem, Pran Roy, Depa Khandaker, Nadia, Runa Khan, Mousumi Nag, Alvy, Orsha and many more stars can be seen in the drama.

The story steps out of the usual stereotypical plots and revolves around a man named Manik Mia who returns home after approximately 14 years.

They day he returns home on the day his eldest daughter was getting married.

No one takes his return easily and finally a village court is held where it is decided by all present that Manik will have to leave the village.

His estranged wife Ranu and younger daughter Parul accompanies him on his move to Ranu’s village in her family home. They start a new life from scratch but in the midst of the chaos of settling in a new life, an affair blooms between Manik and Ranu’s brother’s widow Tori without anyone taking notice of the proceedings.

Finally, the relationship is exposed and becomes unacceptable to everyone concerned. Again, a village court is assembled and Manik is once again asked to leave. But, instead, Ranu leaves her own home and Manik marries Tori. His daughter Parul commits suicide the very night of her father’s remarriage but, she is seen by the villagers in her mother’s company often, even after her death. It is then talked around that Parul’s spirit has taken refuge with her mother.

The villagers start to believe that Ranu has supernatural powers and with respect and awe, they elevate her into a position authority in the village. l

MOVIES Limitless

11:30pm Star Movies Ghost Rider

DRAMA 8:00pm Colors

Sasural Simar Ki

8:30pm Star Plus Meri Bhabi

COMEDY 1:30pm Big CBS Love

Rules Of Engagement

10:30pm Star World

How I Met Your Mother

n Entertainment Desk

10:00pm Maasranga

Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra is to star in Guess’ latest campaign, but she never knew what was waiting for her. Music legend Bryan Adams, who lensed three previous Guess campaigns, was the choice of photographer for Priyanka and it came out to be one of the most pleasant surprises for the Bollywood diva.

After getting over her initial shock the pair got on famously and produced a sizzling set of photos.

MISC 2:30pm Travel XP Hills And Valleys

7:30pm Fox Traveller Sound Trek

Shraddha Kapoor seems to be Bollywood’s new favourite Kapoor. The “Aashiqui 2” actress has replaced Kareena Kapoor Khan in not one but two projects with two top heroes: Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgn.

While there were reports that Kareena was signed by her friend Shabina Khan’s production “Gabbar,” it is now clear that she will only be part of a special song, while Shraddha is playing the main lead opposite Akshay.

And again Kareena is no longer part of Rohit Shetty’s “Singham 2.”

Bryan Adams lenses Priyanka Chopra’s photo shoot

7:00pm Channel i

Primetime news

Bebo was keen to do this film and had even refused Zoya Akhtar’s film to accommodate it. She kept her dates free for the “Singham” sequel.

Rumours suggest even Rohit wanted her, but Ajay wanted a fresh face.

Bebo’s last film “Satyagraha” with Ajay didn’t work at the box-office which is also why he wants to romance a new heroine now. Apart from that, Kareena is also part of Rohit and Ajay’s “Golmaal” franchise, which will roll in 2015. Devgn felt he suddenly had too many films with Kareena. So Shraddha was approached. l

er. It was her mother’s dream to exhibit her artworks, so she encouraged Noushin to begin the artistic journey.

The exhibition was inaugurated

by Olivier Litvine, director, Alliance Française de Dhaka and Nasreen Begum, Department of Oriental Art, Faculty of Fine Art, University of Dhaka.

In the inaugural ceremony, Olivier Litvine described Noushin as a naturally gifted artist and expressed his optimism that the success of this exhibition will inspire her to continue her artistic enterprise.

The exhibition will continue till November 7. l

7:24pm HBO

Shondhar Shongbad

n Entertainment Desk

to express her innermost strength and emotions through a wonderful array of vibrant colours on canvas.

According to Noushin’s sister Nowrin, many of her works are inspired by the art maestro Pablo Picasso’s early works.

Her sister further states that Noushin follows Picasso’s cubism style that can be seen in many of her artworks.

Noushin started her artistic endeavors at the age of 18 and has completed four years certificate course in Arts and Crafts from Bulbul Academy of Fine Arts in 2011.

She was inspired to take up art by her grandfather who was an art teach-

ON TV

NEWS

Shraddha Kapoor replaces Kareena Kapoor in Singham 2

thing around her, but her love and devotion for life lead her to capture the beauty around her. She endeavours to break her silence by expressing strong emotions through bold colours on canvas.

The 15 watercolour paintings on display are very contemporary in nature and are influenced by mythology, nature and beauty in general. Some of her works knit the urban and rural life by using similar colours to portray both the scenarios on the same piece of artwork. Her works emanate a unique quality that sets it apart from other contemporary artworks.

The absence of the little things we take for granted in life has enabled her

“I never even knew Bryan was a photographer. I just knew of him as an incredible musician, and he’s super famous in India.

“But when we met, we were just like a house on fire. The vibe was like a young Sophia Loren. I wanted to play characters, and I wanted to be in the mood. I wanted every picture to speak of a story,” she said.

The new campaign launches in the December issues of Harper’s Bazaar, Nylon, Paper, Marie Claire, Elle and WSJ magazines.

“I’m their first brown model. For a global fashion brand, for them to move their campaign into a global space, for me it’s an honour.

“Guess pictures are so iconic.

They show women as beautiful, feminine, powerful and yet candid,” she said.

The beautiful new face of the label is relatively unknown to the Western world, but has garnered great success as a Bollywood actress in her native India as well as being crowned Miss World in 2000. l

Lou Reed dies at 71 n Entertainment Desk

Lou Reed, who fronted influential rock band The Velvet Underground and won mainstream acclaim with solo songs “Walk on the Wild Side” and “Perfect Day,” died on October 27 aged 71.

Reed, whose band fused music and art in collaboration with its early benefactor, pop artist Andy Warhol, died following complications from a liver transplant earlier this year, his

literary agent Andrew Wylie said.

Formed by Reed and classically trained Welsh-born musician John Cale in the mid-1960s as an experiment in avant-garde rock, The Velvet Underground gained Warhol’s notice soon after hitting the New York club scene.

The band revolutionised rock in the 1960s and ‘70s with a mixture of thrashing guitar licks and smooth melodies sung by Reed or the German model Nico.

The Velvet Underground has long been recognised as a major musical inspiration for punk art and rock, as reflected in a quote often attributed to musician Brian Eno: “The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band.”

Neil Portnow, president the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which bestows the Grammys, credited Reed with “introducing avant-garde rock to the mainstream.” l

TODAY IN DHAKA Exhibition

Rhythm of Xylography Group Art Exhibition Time: 11am – 7pm Gallery Cosmos-2 New DOHS, Mohakhali Nishobdo Solo Exhibition

By Shabekun Nahar Time: 3pm - 9pm Alliance Francaise de Dhaka, Dhanmondi

Film

Titanic (3D) Monsters University in 3D Udhao

Purno Doirgho Prem Kahini Level 8, Bashundhara City

Festival

Urban Youth Festival II Time: 11am – 8pm Goethe Institut Bangladesh Road 9(new) House 10, Dhanmondi R/A

Did you know?

Alan Shearer has missed the most penalties (11) in the English Premier League history

Sport

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

14 Torres late show sees Chelsea beat City, go second

14 Atletico Madrid thrash Real Betis

DHAKA TRIBUNE

13

15 Serena downs brave Li to defend WTA Championships title

Mushfiq expects tough time n Minhaz Uddin Khan The historic 4-0 series win in 2010 against New Zealand will keep Bangladesh ahead when they face the same opponents in the first ODI of the three-match series at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium (SBNS) today.

The series was the last the two sides faced each other and albeit been three years, Bangladesh skipper Mushfiqur Rahim believes the achievement will boost the Tigers and put pressure on the visitors.

“That series will definitely have an influence, who ever we play with for instance, let it be even South Africa, they are such a big team, but they still choke.

Ultimately we are playing against them (New Zealand) after three years, but the 4-0 win will be there at the back of their minds. They lost to us by quite a long margin, so from that side we are confident,” said Mushfiqur to the media at SBNS yesterday.

Besides the confidence Bangladesh is also aware of the changes that came in the last three years which will have its effect on the outcome of the game.

“To be honest, a lot have changed in three years, their combination has changed, and there are a number of young players. We also have many young players, over all at the end of the day, the one who plays well on the particular day will win and there is no point at looking at the Tests either, it all depends on the series,” said Mushfiqur.

The ODI will be the first for the Tigers in last six months. With not much competitive cricket in between Mushfiqur informed of not thinking of the series already, but take it game by game.

“We will want to win every game and will be very happy if we can win 3-0, but the start is very important. If we can win tomorrow’s game we will shift the gear and go for the series. But honestly our main concern is that we are playing ODIs after a long time. The task will be very challenging tomorrow (today),” said Mushfiqur.

Bangladesh have four changes from the squad that lost 1-2 to Zimbabwe in May, the biggest of which is the inclusion of experienced paceman Mashrafe bin Mortaza, whose last ODI appearance came last year against the West Indies.

Mortaza has been recovering from a heel injury he sustained in the last Bangladesh Premier League and has played little competitive cricket in recent times.

“Mashrafe bhai is an asset for any team. It is good for us that he is completely fit and hopefully he will be completely fine to play tomorrow (today),” said the 25-year-old.

Dhaka is currently experiencing the early of the winter for which due has become a factor for both the sides in the game, especially when it is a day-night game. Bangladesh relies on its spinners and it was the spin attack led by all-rounder Shakib al Hasan along with the home advantage which allowed the Tigers to register the series win in 2010.

When queried of the line up for the first ODI, Mushfiqur said, “Mahmudullah, Naeem (Islam) and (Sohag) Gazi is there along with Shakib as spinners. We will see the wicket and there is also the dew factor. If we play with six or seven spinners and we lose the toss and field later then it might become an issue, so we will have to come with a balance side. We have enough options in the side and the team will be decided tomorrow (today).” l

Russell, MSC want quick PSC verdict n

Bangladesh cricket captain Mushfiqur Rahim (C) inspects the pitch during a training session at the Sher-e Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka yesterday, in preparation for the first One Day International (ODI) cricket match against New Zealand today AFP

Memories of ‘Banglawash’ return n Mazhar Uddin

setback in today’s outing would be the unavailability of Shakib al Hasan, who single handedly achieved the milestone for the hosts. The Tigers will try to find inspiration from the individual heroics

by Mominul Haque, Sohag Gazi and Tamim Iqbal shown in the Tests.

Shakib missed the practice session yesterday due to fever and took rest in his room, but situation deteriorated and he had to be admitted to hospital at night. Meanwhile, Mushfiq and Monimul are also suffering from a similar virus, but are expected to be fit for the game.

Shakib’s absence will likely open the door for middle-order cum off-spinner Naeem Islam as the right-hander who has been sitting out lately will get an opportunity to show his caliber.

With some experience players on the side New Zealand will be a tough opposition in the ODI series comparing to their Test side. With the experience of pacer Kyle Mills and Tim Southee

back, the Kiwis will definitely look for revenge.

Going into the series, Bangladesh might have a slight edge over the visitors given their form with the star of the Test series Mominul, who scored 376 runs and will be looking to prove his ability in the limited over game. Shafiul Islam was ruled out of the series with an ankle injury just two days back, but it will be the return of Mashrafe bin Mortaza that will have a great impact in the Bangladesh side, but, however, Mushfiq hinted that he will depend on the spinners.

Meanwhile the number three batting position is still up for grab and the team management will take decision on the field regarding the situation. At the opening position Anamul Haque might get the opportunity ahead of Shamsur Rahman to open the innings with Tamim Iqbal.

As the game will be a day-nighter the due factor is in the back of Mushfiq’s mind and the skipper informed that the

toss will be a big factor in of the match.

On the other hand, New Zealand side will be relying on the fast bowling all-rounders as they have four of them in the side. They will also look to two inexperienced cricketers Hamish Rutherford and Anton Devcich, who will make his debut and will open the innings for the Kiwi side along with the experience of skipper Brendon McCullum and Ross Taylor, who will play a vital role in the middle.

Bangladesh probable XI: Tamim Iqbal, Anamul Haque, Mominul Haque, Naeem Islam, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah, Nasir Hossain, Sohag Gazi, Abdur Razzaq, Mashrafe bin Mortaza, Rubel Hossain/ Ziaur Rahman New Zealand probable XI: Anton Devcich, Hamish Rutherford, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Brendon McCullum (capt & wk), Corey Anderson, Grant Elliott/James Neesham, Nathan McCullum, Tim Southee, Kyle Mills, Mitchell McClenaghan.

Reigning Bangladesh Premier League champions Sheikh Russell and traditional powerhouse Dhaka Mohammedan said yesterday they wanted a quick resolution from the BFF’s Players Status Committee regarding the dispute over four players.

However the Players Status Committee said they are still in the dark about the player’s status and may not be able to present a verdict before the players’ registration’s deadline of October 31.

Sheikh Russell and Mohammedan are engaged in a tug of war over Zahid Hossain, Mamun Miah, Shariful Islam and Nahidul Islam, as the players reportedly took money in advance from Mohammedan but later decided to sign with Sheikh Russell.

Nurul Alam Chowdhury, the president of Sheikh Russell, said it is the duty of the Players Status Committee to

resolve the dispute. “They should provide a verdict as they have collected the necessary information and should clear the players and the clubs. It their duty to resolve the dispute,” he said.

Lokman Hossain Bhuiyan, the director in charge of Dhaka Mohammedan, said the clubs future plans include the four players. “We have formed our team with the four players who are under scrutiny. We will be in great trouble if we don’t have the players, I have asked the BFF to provide the verdict before the deadline of the players’ registration,” he said.

However Abdur Rahim, a member of the Players Status Committee said they are still not in a position to present a verdict. “Mohammedan has provided some vouchers and Sheikh Russell had not provided any relevant papers. How can we provide the verdict? I urge the concerned clubs to cooperate with us to reach a solution.” l

Two more Nigerians at Abahani

McCullum puts faith in youngsters

Much expected from Mashrafe

n Minhaz Uddin Khan

Mashrafe bin Mortaza is set to make his return to the Bangladesh national team in the first ODI against New Zealand today at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium and the captain Mushfiqur Rahim was excited at the prospect.

“Mashrafe bhai, definitely he is an asset for any team, and he is completely fit and he will Inshaallah be completely fine to play tomorrow,” said Mushfiq.

The Narail Express, who has been recovering from an ankle injury, played his last ODI against the West Indies last

Raihan Mahmood

n Shishir Hoque

Abahani Limited flew in two Nigerian attacking midfielders Ekinawa Kingsley and Steve Ovi to bolster their squad for the upcoming season. The midfield duo arrived in the city on Sunday and joined the club for a trial yesterday.

After a trophy-less last season, the sky blues have brought some changes in their coaching staff too with the signing of Australian Nathan Hall as the head coach, putting an end to an Iranian era that saw Ali Akbar Parmoslemi and Ardeshir Pournemat serve the club in two different spells.

The Dhanmondi based club has been relying heavily on their Ghanaian trio Awudu Ibrahim, Samad Yusuf and Twum Frank in the last few seasons which is also seemingly reaching to the edge with the arrival of the Nigerian duo. Abahani manager Satyajit Das Rupu said there will also be two more Nigerians to visit the club for trials within few days.

“We are trying to form a team with the mixture of old foreign players and the new ones. Ekinawa and Steve arrived yesterday (Sunday) and two more Nigerians will arrive soon,” said Rupu yesterday. l

New Zealand came to Bangladesh with the aim of winning all three series’ – Test, ODI and T20. With the Test series finishing 0-0, the Kiwis are now looking to take the ODIs, which begin today at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. At the back of their minds will also be the memory of what happened last time they clashed with Bangladesh in this format. In 2010, New Zealand succumbed to a 0-4 loss to their hosts.

“The situation is a lot different from how it was back then (in 2010).

We have evolved a lot as a team, and we certainly haven’t forgotten it.

The 4-0 was a very one sided contest which Bangladesh deserved to win.

We played some bad shots and weren’t prepared for that series,” said New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum at the pre-match media conference yesterday.

“Taking mistakes from that series into account, we have tried to plan, have our guys prepare a lot better.

From our point of view, we want to carve out our own performances, and it would be great for us to turn the tables from what happened the last

The momentum from the drawn Test series and the 4-0 series win over the Kiwis three years back in addition to the home condition will boost Bangladesh’s morale as they prepare to lock horns with New Zealand for the first of the three-match ODI series at the Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National stadium today.

Having reversed the misfortunes of not winning a Test match where the hosts played much better cricket throughout the series Bangladesh are a confident side in the shorter format of the game.

Three years back the visitors had a horrific five-match ODI series, where the second ODI was abandoned, but lost the other games that allowed the Tigers create history. However, a major

time,” he added.

McCullum said that his team did not want to play with bitter memories fueling them but rather, look to put things right this time around.

“We have got more experience in the one-day side than the Test team.

We are developing, still developing as a Test team and to be honest, we are nowhere near the finished product.

Don’t get me wrong, but we are starting to get an understanding of the style of play. I think the one-day team is pretty set in how we play. We have

had more success in the one-day game of late and we probably feel a lot more confident in this format at this point of time,” said the 32-year old.

The Kiwis have made eight changes from the team that contested the Test matches. Asked if including newcomers who are not acclimatized to the conditions, the captain replied, “That is going to be one of the challenges and also with the nature of how quick those games are. One day and in between - that could be quite tough as well, so we need to be certain of what the best make-up is, and also some guys are making their sort of first trip to the subcontinent as well in terms of playing.”

He added that some of the newcomers have had preparation for the conditions on the New Zealand “A” team’s tour of India.

“But to come over here and jump straight into the series is totally a different scene. We have got to be aware of that and make sure that we don’t expose all the guys that are here in the subcontinent for the first time.

We will make couple of them play may be and surround them with some experience,” he concluded. l

n Mazhar Uddin

December in Mirpur. Since then, he has played in the Dhaka league for Mohammedan this year.

Mashrafe has taken 162 wickets in 128 matches and is one of Bangladesh’s most experienced ODI players. Former chief selector and a director of the Bangladesh Cricket Board Akram Khan expressed his confidence in the veteran pace bowler. “He is one of the icon players of Bangladesh and having him back will definitely boost the side. If he remains fit, we are definitely hoping for some good performances from him,” said Akram. l

Feverish Tigers to miss Shakib today n Minhaz Uddin Khan

Bangladesh were struck by a major blow ahead of their ODI series against New Zealand starting today as ace all-rounder Shakib al Hasan has been ruled out from the first game due to viral fever. He has been suffering from fever since yesterday afternoon.

Though both the national and the Bangladesh Cricket Board physiotherapists thought of improvement, Shakib’s health condition worsened in the evening and he was taken to the

hospital at 10pm.

“He was getting better and we even thought he will be available for the game tomorrow (today), but conditions deteriorated and he was sent to the hospital,” informed a reliable BCB source. It was further learnt that the left-arm all-rounder will have to spend the night at the hospital.

Two other crucial players team captain Mushfiqur Rahim and Mominul Haque – are also suffering from a viral fever,but are expected to be fit for selection today. l

14

Sport

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Wenger to tinker again for Chelsea’s Cup visit n Reuters, London

Chelsea's Fernando Torres celebrates scoring a goal against Manchester City during their English Premier League match at Stamford Bridge in London on Sunday

Pellegrini declines Mourinho handshake after late drama n Reuters, London Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini walked straight down the players’ tunnel without shaking hands with counterpart Jose Mourinho after Chelsea snatched a 90th-minute winner on Sunday.

Mourinho celebrated wildly by jumping into the crowd and embracing fans after a defensive mix-up allowed Fernando Torres to secure a 2-1 victory in the Premier League.

“I didn’t shake hands. I didn’t want to,” Pellegrini told reporters at Stamford Bridge after his side suffered their third away league defeat of the season.

Mourinho apologised for his loss of decorum and said he was trying to find his son when he leapt into the crowd.

“If they feel I did something wrong I apologise,” said the Portuguese. “This is the drama of the last minute. l

REUTERS

Torres late show sees Chelsea beat City, go second Results

n AFP, London Fernando Torres’s perseverance was rewarded when his last-minute goal saw Chelsea to a 2-1 win at home to title rivals Manchester City on Sunday that catapulted the London club into second place in the Premier League table.

The match was heading for a draw when, after Willian had helped the ball forward, a mix-up saw City defender Matija Nastasic head the ball past his own keeper, Joe Hart, with the onrushing Torres turning the ball into an empty net.

Torres’s winner left Chelsea just two points behind leaders Arsenal and atoned for his dramatic 29th minute miss when, with the match still goal-

Chelsea

2-1

Sunderland

2 -1

Swansea

0-0

West Ham

Tottenham

1-0

Hull

Schurrle 33, Torres 90 Fletcher 5, Borini 84

Soldado 80-P

Man City

Aguero 49

Newcastle

Debuchy 57

less, he somehow shot over the bar from 10 yards out.

The Spain striker turned provider for Chelsea’s 33rd minute opener when his run and cross from the right set up Andre Schurrle, who from a mere four yards out, eased the ball in for his first Chelsea goal.

Chelsea’s failure to make the most of their early dominance was punished four minutes after half-time when Ser-

gio Aguero let fly with a swerving leftfoot shot that beat a static Petr Cech at his near post.

Across London, Tottenham Hotspur moved up into fourth place with a 1-0 victory against Hull at White Hart Lane.

Roberto Soldado scored the only goal of the game, 10 minutes from time, when he converted a penalty awarded after Jan Vertonghen’s cross hit the arms of Ahmed Elmohamady.

At the other end of the table, Sunderland climbed off the bottom with a 2-1 home win over arch-rivals Newcastle.

Fabio Borini’s blistering 18-yard shot six minutes from time saw the Black Cats to a first league win of the season, following seven defeats and a draw. l

Fixtures

Arsenal, who suffered a humiliating Capital One (League) Cup quarter-final defeat by fourth tier Bradford City last season, will again rotate their squad when Chelsea visit the Emirates in the last-16 today.

Manager Arsene Wenger has used the competition in recent years to blood youngsters and field fringe players and did so when a second-string side edged out West Bromwich Albion in a penalty shootout in the third round.

Arsenal have not won the trophy since 1993 when they beat Sheffield Wednesday. They lost to Chelsea in the 2007 final and to Birmingham City at the same stage four years later.

Arsenal host third-placed Liverpool in the Premier League on Saturday and then, after travelling to Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League, they take on Manchester United at Old Trafford.

There are four other all-Premier League clashes.

Manchester United, who came back from 2-1 down to beat Stoke City 3-2 on

Arsenal Birmingham Burnley Leicester Man United

v v v v v

Chelsea Stoke West Ham Fulham Norwich

Saturday, should prove too strong for struggling Norwich City at Old Trafford on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Newcastle United entertain Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur host Hull City again, three days after a 1-0 league victory for the Londoners at White Hart Lane.

Southampton also travel to Sunderland on Nov. 6.

Championship leaders Burnley will fancy their chances of causing an upset when they host West Ham United on Tuesday.

Two other second-tier sides welcome Premier League opposition.

Surprise 2011 winners Birmingham, who stunned Arsenal at Wembley with a late Obafemi Martins winner, entertain Stoke while Leicester City, who won the trophy in 1997 and 2000, take on Fulham. l

Late goal helps PSG make it 30 games without defeat n Reuters, Paris

Results

A last-gasp goal by Blaise Matuidi salvaged a 2-2 draw for leaders Paris St Germain at 10-man St Etienne as the Ligue 1 champions took their unbeaten run to 30 games in all competitions on Sunday.

It was heartbreak for the home team, who were 2-0 up after 51 minutes, as midfielder Matuidi’s cross bounced past keeper Ruffier three minutes into stoppage time.St Etienne, who had Fabien Lemoine sent off for a second caution in the 59th minute, pounced on two blunders from centre half Marquinhos to take command before Cavani pulled a goal back for the visitors in the 68th minute.

PSG have 25 points from 11 games and lead Monaco, who beat Olympique Lyon 2-1 earlier on Sunday with Radamel Falcao ending a three-match scoreless streak, on goal difference. Lille are two points adrift in third place after they beat

Bordeaux

2-0

Monaco

2-1

Saint-Etienne

2-2

Diabaté 75, Obraniak 90+1 Obbadi 28, Falcao 36 Corgnet 18, Hamouna 51

Montpellier Lyon

B. Gomis 62

PSG

Cavani 68, Matuidi 90+3

Nantes 1-0 on Friday. St Etienne went in front when an awful Marquinhos clearance was intercepted by Romain Hamouma and his centre was expertly volleyed in by Benjamin Corgnet after 18 minutes.

The home team doubled their lead six minutes after the break when another attempted clearance by Marquinhos bounced off the back of a team mate and fell kindly to goal-scorer Hamouma.

Lemoine was dismissed for a foul on Ezequiel Lavezzi and PSG started their fightback when Cavani netted his seventh league goal of the season by tapping in a cross from Maxwell. l

Record-setting Roma edge Udinese n AFP, Milan

Results

League leaders Roma beat Udinese 1-0 away on Sunday to set a new all-time record of nine consecutive wins at the start of a Serie A season and restore their five-point cushion.

Roma, who have conceded just one goal in their nine wins under French coach Rudi Garcia, were reduced to 10 men in the second half after Brazilian Maicon saw red for a second bookable offence.

Udinese were unlucky to see one goalbound shot cleared off the line in the first half and coach Francesco Guidolin said: “Roma are a great side, they showed that when they were reduced to 10 men, but in the first half they rode their luck a little.”

Defending champions Juventus had set a record of nine successive wins at the start of the 2005-2006 campaign, although that feat no longer stands after the Turin giants were stripped

Napoli

2-0

Torino

Bologna

1-0

Livorno

Catania Chievo

0-0 1-2

Fiorentina

Juventus

2-0

Genoa

Parma

3-2

AC Milan

Udinese

0-1

Lazio

2-0

Higuain 14-pen, 32-p Crespo 3

Cesar 13 Vidal 23-P, Tevez 36 Parolo 11, 90+4, Cassano 45+1

Klose 52, Candreva 55-P

Sassuolo Cuadrado 45, 64

Matri 61, Silvestre 63

Roma

Bradley 82

Cagliari

of that season’s crown, as well as the previous year’s, due to their role in the ‘Calciopoli’ match-fixing scandal.

Title challengers Napoli had piled the pressure on Garcia’s side before what was always going to be a tough

away trip to Udinese by dominating Torino 2-0 at the San Paolo.

Roma, to their credit, kept their calm and Dutch midfielder Kevin Strootman held up play at the edge of the area before squaring for Bradley to beat Kevala with a coolly-taken first-timer.

Roma now lead Napoli by five points with Juventus remaining in third, also five points adrift, after a 2-0 home win over Genoa.

Days after an impressive performance which earned a 1-1 draw at home to Champions League group opponents Barcelona, AC Milan dropped precious points in a 3-2 defeat at Parma.

In Sunday’s late match Miroslav Klose scored with a header shortly after the restart and Antonio Candreva added a second from the spot for Lazio two minutes later to seal a 2-0 win at home to Cagliari.

It ended a sorry run of results for Vladimir Petkovic’s side, whose fourth win moved then up to seventh albeit 13 points adrift of city rivals Roma. l

Atletico thrash Real Betis

Barca carry Clasico momentum into Celta clash

Hamburg down Freiburg n Reuters, Berlin

n AFP, Madrid

Hamburg SV cruised to a 3-0 victory at Freiburg on Sunday to continue their climb up the Bundesliga table under Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk.

In the other Sunday game Borussia Moenchengladbach bounced back from last week’s defeat to Hertha Berlin and crushed Eintracht Frankfurt 4-1 to move fourth with their fifth win in five home games this season.

Visitors Hamburg, who have now drawn two and won two matches to move up to 12th.

Barcelona can build on their win over Real Madrid in El Clasico on Saturday by moving nine points clear of Los Blancos when they travel to Celta Vigo on Tuesday.

The Catalans’ 2-1 win gave them a healthy six point cushion over Madrid with Atletico Madrid just a point behind in second.

However, despite dropping just two points in their first 10 La Liga games, Barca coach Gerardo Martino refused to concede that his side are already well on their way to retaining their title.

“There is still 60 percent of the league to go and Madrid and Atletico are close. They can still cut the gap.

“Right now it counts for our confidence more than mathematically.”

Neymar was the star of the show for Martino’s men at the weekend as he

Fixtures Espanyol v Malaga Celta Vigo v Barcelona scored the opening goal and then teed up Alexis Sanchez to seal the points with delightful chip over Diego Lopez 12 minutes from time.

Lionel Messi’s impact on the game though was somewhat restricted by his positioning on the right side of the Barca attack.

The World Player of the Year is expected to return to his normal role as a false nine at Balaidos with Cesc Fabregas dropping back into midfield.

Sanchez is also expected to start after his positive impression as a substitute and with the Catalan derby against Espanyol just three days away, Martino is likely to rotate his side heavily with Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Gerard Pique likely to be handed a rest. l

Results M'gladbach

4-1

Eintracht

Freiburg

0-3

Hamburg

Arango 11, Wendt 18, Herrmann 60, Rafael 66

Atletico Madrid's Diego Costa shoots to score during their La Liga match against Betis at Vicente Calderon stadiumv on Sunday

Aigner 15

Beister 37, Lasogga 47, van der Vaart 63

n Reuters, Madrid

Results

Teenager Oliver Torres scored one of the fastest La Liga goals and David Villa struck twice as Atletico Madrid stayed hard of the heels of leaders Barcelona with a 5-0 drubbing of struggling Real Betis on Sunday.

Atletico’s thumping victory, their ninth in 10 outings this term, trimmed the gap to Barca back to one point after the champions had pulled four clear thanks to a 2-1 win at home to Real Madrid in Saturday’s ‘Clasico’.

It also stretched their lead over thirdplaced Real to five points and was the latest evidence Diego Simeone’s side may be genuine contenders for the title alongside vastly wealthier rivals Barca and Real come the end of the season.

Joseba Llorente set the record for the quickest La Liga goal in January 2008 when he scored for Real Valladolid after seven seconds and many of the specta-

Sevilla

2-1

Villarreal

4-1

Valencia

Real Sociedad

3-0

Almeria

Atletico Madrid

5-0

Real Betis

Rakitic 55, Jairo 75 Uche 17, Perez 22, Dos Santos 50, 84

(Griezmann 13, 50, Angel 55 Torres 1, Villa 53, 57, Diego Costa 65, Gabi 90

Osasuna

Oriol Riera 87 Costa 63

tors at the Calderon had yet to take their seats when Torres struck.

Playmaker Koke broke clear on the left of the penalty area and his low cross found its way to the 18-year-old midfielder, who calmly stroked the ball into the net with a mere 14 seconds on the clock.

Betis regrouped but struggled to create any chances for an equaliser before Villa, who joined Atletico from Barca in the close season, made it 2-0 with a

REUTERS

superb glancing header eight minutes after halftime.

The Spain forward then set up La Liga top scorer Diego Costa to score his 11th of the campaign in the 65th minute.

Atletico captain Gabi capped a near-perfect night for the home side and brought another beaming smile to Simeone’s face when he drove home a loose ball in the second minute of added time to complete the rout.

The 31-year-old, Spain’s all-time record scorer, had warm words of praise for Torres, a Spain Under-21 international who was included in the Atletico starting lineup for the first time in his fledgling career.

Fourth-placed Villarreal continued their impressive form since winning promotion back to the top flight and closed to within two points of Real when they thrashed regional rivals Valencia 4-1 at their Madrigal stadium.

Sevilla won 2-1 at home to 10-man Osasuna and are 10th. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Quick Bytes

Uefa chief Platini calls for 40 team World Cup Uefa chief Michel Platini wants the World Cup finals expanded to 40 teams from 2018 to allow more African and Asian countries into the tournament without reducing the number of European nations represented. Europe currently provides 13 of the 32 teams at the finals, compared with five from Africa and four or five, depending on the winners of a playoff against a South American team, for the most populous continent Asia. Fifa President Sepp Blatter wrote last week that Africa and Asia deserved more representation at soccer’s showpiece event because they had more member associations than Europe and South America.

– Reuters

Toure meets Fifa official over racism claim Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure met a top official with soccer’s governing body on Sunday to discuss allegations that he was the victim of racial abuse from fans during a match in Russia in midweek. The Ivory Coast international held talks with Fifa vice-president Jeffrey Webb at Stamford Bridge on the day his City team were beaten 2-1 by Premier League title rivals Chelsea. A City spokesman confirmed the meeting took place but would not comment on the discussions. Webb is also president of CONCACAF and the head of an antiracism task force at FIFA. Toure said he suffered racist abuse during Wednesday’s 2-1 Champions League victory at CSKA Moscow, a claim that prompted European soccer’s ruling body UEFA to open disciplinary proceedings against the Russian club. The Ivorian also said black players could boycott the 2018 World Cup in Russia if the country did not tackle racist behaviour by fans.

– Reuters

Ryder celebrates comeback with a ton Troubled New Zealand cricketer Jesse Ryder on Monday completed a remarkable comeback from a serious assault by posting a century in his first game for more than seven months. He scored 117 off 164 balls playing for Otago away to his former side Wellington in a provincial championship match. It was Ryder’s first appearance with the bat since being seriously assaulted outside a bar in the South Island city of Christchurch last March. He was later suspended for six months after testing positive to a banned substance contained in weight loss pills. The 29-year-old, who has been in a self-imposed exile from international cricket since early 2012 when he said he needed to sort out personal issues, has announced he now wants to reclaim his place in the New Zealand team.

– AFP

Sport

Serena downs brave Li to defend WTA title n AFP, Istanbul Serena Williams successfully defended her WTA Championships title on Sunday, beating Li Na, 2-6, 6-3, 6-0, to finish 2013 with a 78th victory and 11th title of the year.

The 32-year-old world number one from the US had admitted to feeling physically exhausted before, during and after a fraught semi-final with Jelena Jankovic on Saturday and at 3-3 in the second set on Sunday, she looked in danger of a surprise defeat.

“But I had to keep going, I hung in there, and it’s amazing to win this,” said Williams.

Williams finished the year with prize money of $12,385,572, shattering the all-time women’s record set last year by Victoria Azarenka, who won $7,923,920.

It’s also the third-highest single season prize money total in tennis history, men’s and women’s -- only Novak Djokovic’s 2011 and 2012 totals are higher.

“I’ve just had a really long year, and I’m just really excited, honestly. I really didn’t expect to get through this match today.

“I can’t believe I won. I was so tired.

Honestly, did I really win? Because she played so well.”

There were plenty of other impressive numbers for Williams.

She is the fourth player ever to win four or more titles at the event and the oldest champion.

Williams is also the first player to

win 11 WTA titles in a season since 1997 when Martina Hingis won 12.

She has now also won 32 of her last 34 matches against top five players.

“I’m just overjoyed, to be honest,” Williams told www.wtatour.com.

“It’s really awesome. It’s such a special moment. To finish the year No.1 in the world and win this title after 40 years of the WTA, it means even more.”

Li, the first Chinese player to make the final of the end of season showpiece and about to become the highestranked Asian woman at number three in the world, made one break of serve for 2-1 in the first set with a wrong-footing backhand drive, and another for 4-1 by punishing a moderate Williams serve.

The world number one looked subdued and shackled. The emotional eruptions of her semi-final with Jankovic were nowhere to be seen or heard and her movement was leaden.

Sometimes she was forced to contain or defend, and in the first set she managed a mere five winners -- a paltry total for her. Li managed twice as many. Expectations were turned on their head.

Williams held on to her serve in the seventh game but the set was effectively gone.

The second set started with a mighty battle, which resulted in Williams hanging on to her serve after almost 12 minutes of effort and eight deuces. It was a big moment.

Next game she broke Li’s serve, extracting a volleying error on break

Dhaka Gladiators take to legal arena n Minhaz Uddin Khan Two time Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) Champions Dhaka Gladiators have sued both the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and the International Cricket Council (ICC) over match-fixing allegations from the second edition of the tournament.

The franchise’s owner Salim Chowdhury confirmed the matter to the Dhaka Tribune yesterday, saying that a case had been filed at the Chief Metropolitan Magistracy (CMM) Court yesterday. Salim claimed that the BCB and ICC reports were unfair and legally questionable.

BCB director Jalal Younus said, “Everyone has the right to go legal as a citizen of the country but I don’t think there

were any unfair or illegal points in the report. We will also see the matter in court if they (Dhaka Gladiators) are taking the issue there. The report and action was taken following the by-law of the ICC so there is minimal chance for anything wrong happening.”

The director however, did not confirm if the BCB had received the legal notice sent by Salim Chowdhury.

Nine individuals – both players and officials – from the Dhaka Gladiators were accused of being involved in fixing activity in this year’s BPL by the ICC. After receiving the final report on the matter from the ICC, the BCB formed a three-member tribunal, headed by former chief justice Abdur Rashid, to look follow-up on the charges. l

point, and advanced to 3-1, and the mood of the match began to shift.

Although Li got back to 3-3 with some impressively positive driving, her serve was becoming more variable, and a double fault contributed to a lost service game which put her at 3-5.

By now Williams’ survival instincts were engaged intently.

She closed out the set after another service game of several deuces, and when Li delivered her eighth double fault to lose the opening game of the final set the tide completely turned.

Li double faulted again to go 0-3 down and an encouraged Williams, with the finishing line closer, was hitting the ball better.

After the last shot she placed her forehead on the court as if in thanksgiving for redemption.

The triumph may persuade Williams that adding to her 17 Grand Slam titles during 2014 is certainly possible, and that winning another five, to overhaul Steffi Graf, might eventually come within reach too.

But her weariness might suggest another message. Eighty matches may in future be an ambition too far. Li said she took positives from her loss.

“I was feeling maybe the start of the match was too exciting. So after one and a half sets I was feeling I had no more energy left,” said the 31-year-old.

“I have a little bit of a bad taste because of it (the final set was love), but I still feel positive about the whole thing.” l

n AFP, Paris Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic take their battle to end 2013 as world number one to the Paris Masters next week while the desperate stampede to reach the World Tour Finals wraps up.

Nadal, the comeback king of the year having romped to the French and US Opens, as well as deposing Djokovic as world number one, is seeking another landmark in the French capital.

The Spaniard is bidding to become the first player to win six Masters titles in the same season.

But he has been showing signs of wear and tear in recent weeks as his efforts in clinching 10 trophies since his return from a seven-month injury layoff in February begin to take their traditional late-season toll.

Despite losing his top ranking, Aus-

n AFP, Haikou

‘Phantom goal’ game will not be replayed, says German court

Gazi TV 1:00 PM Bangladesh v New Zealand 1st ODI

tralian Open champion Djokovic has still been the form player of recent weeks, winning titles in Beijing and Shanghai.

Ahead of the Paris Masters, five of the eight places at the season-ending World Tour Finals had already been claimed with Nadal, Djokovic, David Ferrer, Juan Martin del Potro and Tomas Berdych all assured of being in London.

Roger Federer had hoped to join them on Sunday but his 7-6 (7/3), 2-6, 6-4 defeat to Del Potro in the Swiss Indoors final kept him waiting.

He can now assure himself a place in the tournament by winning his opening second-round match in Paris where he faces the winner from Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny, the Valencia champion on Sunday, and South African Kevin Anderson. If he wins he will be into the London year-ender for a 12th straight edition where he would be bidding for a sixth

title. Federer’s Swiss compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka and French duo, Richard Gasquet and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga are expected to scrap for the last two entries.

Gasquet, who was holding down the final qualification spot at ninth position in the race to London, was just 65 points ahead of his compatriot, 10th-placed Tsonga at the start of last week. Wawrinka is bidding to clinch a berth at the season-ending showpiece for the first time. Gasquet qualified in 2007, when the event was held in Shanghai, while Tsonga is aiming for his fourth qualification.

The Paris Masters also sees the return to action of Marin Cilic, the Croatian player who had a nine-month doping ban cut to four months last week.

The 25-year-old, now ranked 47 in the world, faces qualifier Igor Sijsling in the first round with a potential second round meeting against Del Potro. l

Finally, a win as McIlroy roars against Tiger

Thousands of people began to party in Formula One great Sebastian Vettel’s hometown of Heppenheim after the German was crowned world chamnpion for a fourth successive year following his victory in Sunday’s Indian Grand Prix.

Around 3,500 people had watched the race early on Sunday on a giant screen in the town nicknamed ‘Vettelheim’ and the champion encouraged them to celebrate as he took to the microphone of RTL after the race. “People now have a reason to drink,” he yelled as he celebrated his 10th win of the campaign.

People had already started well before he gave them his blessing.

– AFP

Day’s Watch

Serena Williams of the US raises her trophy after winning the WTA Championships final match against China's Li Na on Sunday AFP

Paris holds key to London, world top spot

‘Vettelheim’ parties after hometown hero is crowned again

Bayer Leverkusen’s 2-1 Bundesliga win over Hoffenheim last week helped by a phantom goal will not be replayed despite the ball going in through a hole in the netting, Germany’s sports court said on Monday. Leverkusen striker Stefan Kiessling’s 70th-minute header flew just wide of the post and hit the side netting but went through a hole and ended up in the goal. Referee Felix Brych awarded a goal after consulting his assistant, putting Leverkusen 2-0 ahead at the time. Hoffenheim appealed against the result and the incident re-ignited the debate over the possible use of goalline technology in Germany.

– Reuters

15

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

The Under-14 cricket team of Pledge Harbor School and Sports Academy met newly elected president of Bangladesh Cricket Board Nazmul Hasan at SBNS and handed over a crest, congratulating for being first elected president of the board. During this visit chairman of the school ATM Saidul Aalm, cricket coach Imtiaz and Nahid were also present COURTESY

Rory McIlroy finally tasted success for the first time this year when he beat an ailing Tiger Woods by one shot in a megabucks exhibition in China on Monday.

In the ‘Match at Mission Hills’, at a sprawling golf complex on Hainan Island, the Northern Irish world number six shot six-under-par 66 to Woods’ 67 in the one-round face-off.

McIlroy, who has dropped off the top of the rankings and has not won a tournament all year, also beat Woods by one shot in a similar Chinese event last year.

Monday’s victory, at the same venue where he won the World Cup with Graeme McDowell in 2011, will give him a boost ahead of this week’s WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai. “I would like to play all my tournaments in China where I can beat Tiger,” said the 24-year-old.

“It’s been great to come back to this wonderful golf course where I still have such great memories from playing here two years ago in the World Cup.” Last year’s ‘Duel at Jinsha Lake’ was

notable for its unruly fans, and marshalls and officials – and Woods’s manager – again struggled to control the crowd at times on Monday.

Woods, who touched down after a 22-hour journey late on Sunday, was also battling a virus caught from his daughter, with his voice reduced to a whisper by the end of the round.

McIlroy got off to a great start when he birdied the first two holes before Woods, competing in his first event since the Presidents Cup, responded with birdies at three and four.

McIlroy shot a double-bogey on the fifth and he trailed Woods by a stroke coming into the par-five 12th, where both players raised a cheer by firing eagles.

The Ulsterman drew level with a birdie at 14 and it was Woods who blinked first when he three-putted for bogey on 17. Both players finished with a birdie on the last hole. It was an encouraging outing for McIlroy, who finished tied second at the Kolon Korea Open before fading from a promising position at last week’s BMW Masters in Shanghai. l

Kirsten makes surprise Hughes criticises Australia Ashes build-up return to South Africa cricket n AFP, Sydney

n Reuters

Former South Africa coach Gary Kirsten is to make a surprise return to the national team just months after he resigned by rejoining as a “batting mentor,” Cricket South Africa said on Sunday.

Kirsten will work with the squad for five days between the second and third one-day internationals against Pakistan in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

“Gary is a World Cup winning coach and it would be naïve for us not to tap into his wisdom,” said team manager

Mohammed Moosajee.

South Africa meet Pakistan in five one-day internationals starting on Wednesday.

Fast bowler Dale Steyn is being rested for the first two matches and will return to South Africa before joining the squad for the remainder of the series as well as the Twenty20 series.

Colin Ingram has been placed on stand-by for Hashim Amla, who is still in South Africa awaiting the birth of his second child. Ingram will join the squad on Monday. l

Former Test paceman Merv Hughes says he is dumbfounded by Australia’s Ashes build-up and has given his countrymen little hope of beating England in the series starting next month.

Hughes, a one-time selector, said he was incredulous that Australia were playing in a one-day series in India while England were in Perth preparing for the Tests.

The 17-man England squad arrived in the early hours of Friday and trained on Saturday ahead of their tour opener against Western Australia starting on Thursday.

The former Test firebrand tipped Australia to lose an historic fourth straight Ashes series and declared that any success against the experienced England outfit was at least two years away.

“I think they are really well placed,” Hughes said on Fairfax radio Sunday when asked about England, who won the Ashes 3-0 on home soil in July and August.

“I mean, they could be in India doing seven one-day games preparing for the Ashes like the Australians are -- what a great preparation that is.

“I am just dumbfounded with England being in town and preparing for an Ashes that starts in about a month’s time

and Australia has got a team playing in India, playing in subcontinent conditions preparing for the Ashes.

“So who’s going to be better prepared come the first Test match? England appears to be doing everything right at the moment.”

Hughes said he was not optimistic about Australia’s chances in the five-Test series, which starts at Brisbane’s Gabba ground on November 21..

“Our best chance of winning the Ashes is in England in two years’ time,” he said.

“I think we’re going to struggle because England have a well-settled side.

They’ve got an experienced side. l

16

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Back Page

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Two held for attempted rape on running bus

China concerned over violence n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

n Mohammad Jamil Khan

The driver and helper of a passenger bus were arrested yesterday for their alleged attempt to rape a readymade garment worker in a running bus at Savar on the outskirts of the capital.

The arrestees were Shahin Hossain, 23, and his helper Mohammad Hanif, 30. They worked for the Ananda Super Paribahan (Dhaka Metro-Cha-8806).

Rasel Sheikh, assistant superintended of Police of Savar circle, told the Dhaka Tribune the victim RMG worker was waiting at Savar bus stand to go to her workplace at DEPZ around 6am in the morning. The bus came to the stand and after taking her alone as a passenger locked the gate and started moving, he said.

Later, the bus helper held the RMG worker at knife-point and tried to assault her. At that time, a patrol team of Savar police station noticed the bus and started following it, after finding its condition a bit mysterious, ASP Rasel said.

The perpetrators, however, after seeing the chasing police van, threw the girl in front of BPATC in Savar and tried to escape, he said.

He further added that the patrol team chased the bus and arrested the driver and helper from CNB area of Savar.

A case was filed with the police station in this regard, he said. l

Chinese Ambassador in Dhaka Li Jun expressed deep concerns over recent violence in the country.

In a statement issued yesterday, he said: “I am deeply worried about the increasing violence arising from the political impasse in Bangladesh.”

He, however, welcomed the recent positive developments, including the telephone conversation between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia to find a way out of the current political stalemate.

“As a friend of Bangladesh, China encourages the major political parties to make all possible efforts to maintain such positive momentum and to use their wisdom rather than violence to find an agreeable solution for a free, fair and peaceful parliamentary election in the near future,” he said.

Dipu Moni to brief envoys

A hawker, who displays products on a roadside shop at Motijheel, is sleeping as streets and footpaths are almost empty on the second day of hartal yesterday and there is no customer to ask him prices for purchasing products SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni will tomorrow brief foreign diplomats about the current political situation and other issues.

“It is part of the foreign ministry’s regular briefing for the diplomats,” said an official at the foreign ministry.

The briefing, however, is being considered very crucial in the backdrop of the ongoing political conflict that killed five and injured hundreds Sunday, the first-day of 60-hour long shutdown called by the opposition parties. l

Poor selling organs to repay microloan Hindu community shops n Tribune Desk Entangled in a circle of microloans, several individuals from different rural areas in the country sold their organs to pay back the credit, reported BBC yesterday.

Mohammad Akhtar Alam, 33, one such individual from Kalai in Joypurhat, bore a 15-inch scar on his stomach where he had a kidney removed.

Despite organ removal being illegal in Bangladesh (unless the organ is being given to a spouse or family member), the inadequate post-operative care left Akhter partially paralysed, with only one eye working and unable to do any heavy lifting.

Alam’s income was not enough to make the weekly loan repayments he was required to make from up to eight different non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which lend microcredit.

“One day [a man] rode in my van and asked me why I was doing this,” he said.

“I told him that I was very poor and that I had loans from seven or eight NGOs. I owed about Tk100,000 and I could not return the money to the NGOs. I used to try and sell furniture and things for cooking to try to repay the money.”

His passenger worked as a middleman between organ seller and recipient and persuaded him to sell a kidney, promising Tk400,000. Seventeen days later, he underwent the surgery at a private hospital in Dhaka, barely alive and carrying only a fraction of the money he was promised.

“I agreed to sell my kidney because I couldn’t return the money to the NGOs. As we are poor and helpless, that is why we are bound to do this. I regret it,” he said.

Another victim, Mohammad Moqarram Hossen, who is also from Kalai, said: “I took the decision to return the money I borrowed from NGOs,” he says as he reveals the scar he has been left following an operation in India to re-

move his kidney. “The doctor told me there was no risk but now I can’t do any heavy work. I can’t work.”

Prof Monir Moniruzzaman from the Department of Anthropology at Michigan State University has been researching the organ trade in Bangladesh for 12 years and says some people feel they are left with no choice but to sell a body part.

“A lot of people’s debt from NGOs has spiralled out of control. Because they cannot repay the loans, there is only one way for people to get out and that is to sell their kidney,” he said.

His research into Bangladesh’s organ trade reveals that of the 33 kidney sellers he interviewed, some had sold their organs due to feeling under pressure to repay loans. He alleges that NGO officials, from organisations such as Grameen Bank and BRAC, among others, pressure people into repaying loans by sitting all day long at the defaulter’s house, verbal harassment and threatening to file a police case.

BISMILLAH GROUP LOAN SCAM

ACC inquiry drops names of two AL MP’s sons n Syed Samiul Basher Anik The Anti-Corruption Commission probe team on Sunday submitted its inquiry report on Tk11bn embezzlement

by Bismillah Group to the ACC Director General Ziauddin Ahmed, dropping the names of the company’s two directors.

The two were Jamil Hossain Durjoy, son of lawmaker Rahmat Ali of Gazipur 3 constituency, and Mohammad Ali, son of lawmaker Mohammad Shubid Ali Bhuiyan of Comilla 1 constituency, allegedly involved in the scam.

As regards exclusion of the names from the list of the accused, the probe team cited lack of evidence against the two directors.

The investigation team recommended that at least 12 cases be filed against over 40 people belonging to the financial institutions and Bismillah Group.

It was alleged that Durjoy and Ali – directors of Bismillah Group –had their hands in the scam and helped the company’s high-ups flee the country.

Bismillah Group and its sister concerns – Shaharish Composite Factory Ltd, Shaharish KT Ltd, Alppa Composite Towel Ltd, Hindu Wali Ltd, and Bismillah Towel Ltd embezzled over Tk11bn.

But the probe team yesterday submitted its report on the embezzlement of Tk9bn funded as loan by the banks.

The inquiry into the non-funded amount of Tk2bn is scheduled to begin after filing cases in connection with the funded part.

The Dhaka Tribune obtained and reviewed some of the documents showing that both Durjoy and Ali served as directors of Bismillah Group.

In 2001 election of the Bangladesh Terry Towels, Linen Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BTTLMEA), Mohammad Ali represented the Alppa Composite Towels Limited, a concern of Bismillah group as a director.

As per the 2012 annual report of BT-

TLMEA, Mohammad Ali represented Shaharish KT Ltd as director while Jamil Hossain Durjoy led Shahrish Composite Towels Ltd holding the same post.

Both Durjoy and Ali attended the Alppa Composite Towels Limited Board of Directors meeting held on June 12, 2012 and 68,825 shares were allotted for each of the two.

The letter dated June 30, 2011 written to BTTLMEA said Mohammad Ali would communicate with the BTTLMEA as representative of Alppa Composite Towels Ltd. Another letter issued on August 05, 2012 to Prime Bank Limited, Motijheel Branch, addressed the bank manager that both directors would enjoy takehome pay for the month of July 2012.

Under the take-home benefit, each of the two directors was given Tk2,08,987 deposited to their respective bank accounts.

ACC Deputy Director Syed Iqbal Hossain, also head of the probe body, told the Dhaka Tribune the team recommended filing cases against those found involved in the scam during inquiry.

“We have included the name of everyone who was found guilty of the scam. There is no way of dropping anyone’s name under any consideration,” he claimed.

He also denied commenting on any further questions saying the commission would now decide what to do.

The Dhaka Tribune tried to contact both of the Bismillah Group directors for comment, but the phone calls remained unanswered.

Bismillah Group had allegedly embezzled around Tk3.92bn from the state-owned Janata Bank, Tk3.06bn from Prime Bank, Tk1.64bn from Jamuna Bank, Tk1.49bn from Shahjalal Islami Bank and Tk629.7m from Premier Bank.

The probe report on the scam is likely to be placed before the commission

today for approval. As soon as the committee gets approval, the graft-busting agency will file cases against at least 40 people belonging the banks and Bismillah Group under the Money Laundering Prevention Act. Before preparing the probe report, the inquiry committee reviewed documents of all five banks and quizzed around 70 of their officials.

ACC sources said Bismillah Group Managing Director Khaza Solaiman Anwar Chowdhury was the mastermind behind the misappropriation of money and was assisted by some high-ups of the five banks.

A commission official said when the swindling took place, many of the bank officials, who are now in the five banks, were working with the Prime Bank.

In primary investigation, the ACC found that Khaza Solaiman Anwar Chowdhury, his wife and Group Chairman Nowrin Hasib, his father and Group Director Shafiqul Anwar Chowdhury and his mother Sarwar Jahan are currently living in Dubai. Senior Manager Abul Hossain Chowdhury and another top official Riaz Uddin are in Malaysia and London respectively.

A Bangladesh Bank inspection last year spotted Bismillah Towels Ltd, Hindul Wali Textile Ltd, and Alppa Composite Towels Ltd, all concerns of the Bismillah Group, defrauding the banks of the sum of about Tk11bn from 2010 to 2012.

The irregularities included securing cash incentives against fake export documents, taking advantage of inland bills purchases and overpricing non-existing export items.

On February 26, the ACC formed a five-member strong probe body headed by its Deputy Director Syed Iqbal Hossain. The other members of the probe team are Assistant directors Toufiqul Islam and M Gulshan Anwar, and deputy assistant directors Sarder Manzur Ahmed and M Al Amin. l

“The social and economic pressures from NGOs was unbearable so he decided to sell his kidney to pay off his loan.”

However, the allegations were denied by both Grameen Bank, and BRAC. Mohammad Mehedi Hasan, 24, from Molamgari village also in Joypurhat, had a portion of his liver removed in an underground clinic in Dhaka and was assured of Tk700,000.

“I thought that I would be OK after I had part of my liver removed but sometimes I have pain in my chest and I have to urinate more than 50 or 60 times a day.”

He only received Tk150,000 and said he was forced to sell his family home.

According to Microcredit Summit Campaign, as of December 2011, more than 34 million Bangladeshis had accessed microcredit since 1997. Of those 34 million, more than 26 million still live under the poverty line. There are currently 20.65 million borrowers in Bangladesh and it is estimated the sector constitutes around 3% of GDP. l

ACC law shelved n Kamran Reza Chowdhury The government yesterday backtracked on enacting the much-talked-about Anti-Corruption Commission (amendment) Bill 2013, adjourning parliament sittings until November 4.

Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury had tabled the bill on February 28, 2011, proposing that the ACC must seek permission from the government before prosecuting judges and public servants.

The House was set to pass the bill excluding the controversial section which, if passed, would have weakened the autonomous body and tightened the government’s grip on it.

In its scrutiny report, the parliamentary standing committee on law ministry had proposed dropping the provision.

The amendment proposal had sparked criticism among different sections. l

targeted in Lalmonirhat n Tribune Report Masked criminals attacked nearly two dozen shops of the Hindu community at a remote village in Lalmonirhat on Sunday night, fuelling concerns over a fresh spell of attacks on the members of the community.

At least 18 shops at a local bazar of Shafinagar village of Bawra union, in Patgram upazila, were vandalised and looted, causing an estimated Tk3m in damage. The attack was allegedly launched by activists of BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami.

The victims said the attackers had threatened them with “fatal consequences” if they reported the incident or disclosed their identities to the police or the press.

There are about 52 Hindu families living in the village and nearly half of the 50 shops situated in the bazar are either owned or rented by the Hindu villagers, who had been known for living peacefully side by side with their Muslim neighbours.

On that night, however, only the shops owned by the Hindus were targeted, and three shops operated by them were spared because those belonged to the Muslim community.

A victim, wishing anonymity, held the BNP and Jamaat-Shibir activists responsible for the attack and said he and his family still felt “insecure” as the attackers maintained “a heavy presence” in the area even after the incident.

Another victim, also refusing to be named, said the opposition activists first entered the bazar shouting slogans in support of the hartal, but all hell broke loose when some of them, wearing masks, suddenly walked out of the procession and started vandalising shops.

“Hartal supporters launched a premeditated attack on those shops and looted valuables worth millions. They even tried to attack local Hindu villagers but were fended off by the latter,” Sanjoy Dutta, general secretary of Awa-

mi League-Bawra unit said.

However, President of BNP-Bawra unit Shamsul Alam denied allegations of BNP involvement in the incident but refused to comment on Jamaat involvement.

The incident was confirmed by Bawra UP Chairman Habibur Rahman Bosuniya, also a local Jatiya Party leader, who accused police of “negligence” for their failure to reach the spot until yesterday afternoon.

In this regard, Sohrab Hossain, officer in charge of Patgram police station, said he had received reports on the incident in time but could not send police teams at the spot because of “manpower shortage.”

Backlash in Jhenaidah

Several business establishments of Hindu community and local Awami League supporters came under attack at the Hariankundu upazila town in Jhenaidah yesterday afternoon after the murder of a local BNP leader earlier in the day.

Sources said a group of unknown criminals killed BNP leader and Daulatpur UP Chairman Abul Hossain at a local marketplace in Hariankundu, provoking a violent backlash from the opposition activists who went on to damage several shops, set fire to another one, and loot valuables.

Most of the shops were closed due to the opposition’s nationwide hartal.

Sukesh Chandra Karmnaker, a jewellery businessman, said about 20 youths launched the attack soon after the murder, and his was one of stores damaged during that time.

He also said the attackers had targeted only shops owned by Awami League supports and members of the Hindu community.

Fearing further violence, local administration in the evening imposed section-144 in the town for an indefinite period. l

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Business

B2 Essentials get dearer due to hartal

B3 Banks pull stocks up

www.dhakatribune.com/business

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2013

STAKE IN GRAMEEN BANK

State control requires more fund Non-payment of paid up capital gradually erodes state stake to only 3%

n Jebun Nesa Alo The government will have to pay an additional amount of Tk32.5m to take control over Grameen Bank.

The investment would contribute 4.45% stake to make up a total of 25% ownership in the bank needed in accordance with the Grameen Bank Ordinance 1983.

As per the ordinance, a 25% of the initial share capital shall be paid by the government or by any orgainsation or body set up, managed or controlled by the government and 75% by borrowers of the bank.

Following a recent inspection, Bangladesh Bank found the need for injecting the additional fund to fulfill the government stake.

Presently, the government has a stake of 20.55% or Tk150m in the bank measured on the basis of paid up capital, according to an inspection report obtained by Dhaka Tribune. Recently, the government paid Tk132m to raise the paid up capital to Tk150m, apparently to tighten its grip over the micro-lender.

“We conducted an inspection on Grameen Bank over its structure in 2012 and forwarded it to the finance ministry on October 10,” Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor Abu Hena Mohd. Razee Hassan told Dhaka Tribune yesterday. “Now the government will take decision about its increasing the paid up capital. We’ve nothing to say about it.”

The government will continue with 25% ownership with the remaining 75% under the possession of shareholders, in accordance with the GB amended act 2013.

Government and Garmeen Bank members’ stake was respectively 25% and 75% in 1986. But the government’s stake gradually decreased to as low as 3.01% as it did not pay the share capital. The share of GB members went up, as a result.

Grameen Bank ownership Government

GB Members

40% 75%

84.07%

92.07%

94.97%

96.99%

25%

15.93%

7.93%

5.03%

3.01%

1986

1991

1995

2008

2012

60%

1983

According to the amended act, the authorised capital of the micro-credit institution has been increased from Tk3.5bn to Tk10bn while the paid up capital increased to Tk3bn from the previous Tk500m with 25% government ownership.

As per the existing structure, the state holds 120,000 shares worth Tk12m, Sonali Bank 30,000 shares worth Tk3m, Bangladesh Krishi Bank 30,000 shares worth Tk3m, and Grameen Bank members hold 5,799,910 shares worth Tk580m, said the report.

The paid up capital of the Grameen Bank was Tk30m while authorised capital was Tk100m in November 1983. Of the paid up capital, the government stake was worth of Tk18m, which was 60% of the capital, and the GB members’ stake was worth of Tk12m, which was 40%.

In 1986, Grameen Bank’s paid up capital increased to Tk72m as the members increased their capital to Tk54m or 75% while government capital remained unchanged. As a result, the government stake decreased to

25% from earlier 60%.

Then the paid up capital increased to Tk114.4m with increasing the members’ stake to 84.27% or Tk96.4m in 1991 while authorised capital of the bank stood at Tk250m.

The government portion of the paid up capital came down to 15.73%.

According to the Bangladesh Bank inspection report, the paid up capital of the bank reached to Tk227m with increasing the members’ portion to 92.07% or Tk209m in 1995.

The government stake dropped to 7.93% while authorised capital rose to Tk500m.

Then the paid up capital of the bank further increased to Tk358m with increasing the members’ portion to 94.97% or Tk340m with decreasing government portion to 5.03% in 2008 when authorised capital of the bank was Tk3.50bn.

At last in 2012, the paid up capital of the bank stood at Tk598m with increasing the members’ stake to 96.99% or Tk580m. The government’s stake stood at 3.01%. l

RJSC to monitor MLM firms in 2 weeks n Tribune Report The Registrar of the Joint Stock Companies and Firms (RJSC) will start monitoring the country’s multi-level marketing (MLM) companies within two weeks, said officials.

A set of draft rules have been prepared in accordance with MLM Control Law 2013 for the country’s MLM companies.

Commerce Ministry held a meeting yesterday at the secretariat to finalise the MLM rules. Commerce Secretary Mahbub Ahmed presided over the meeting attended by the

persons concerned.

As per the rules, RJSC will appoint administrators for the MLM firms if found doing any irregularity.

The MLM companies will start their operation within 30 days of getting licence.

“We are now examining the MLM rules before sending it to the law ministry for vetting,” said commerce secretary Mahbub Ahmed. He added the scrutiny of the rules would take two days.

The meeting finalised licence fees, duration, cancellation, and renewal of licence and appointment of administrators. A MLM

company will have to give 25% of licence fee before the end the validity of licence.

The firm will also pay 50% of licence renewal fee during the procedure. Under the rules, the licence will become invalid automatically after the one-year period.

The MLM firms will have to deposit 1% of the paid-up capital to the government exchequer through treasury receipt. The deposit will be nonrefundable.

On September 5, the government issued a gazette notification about MLM Control Ordinance. l

Bangladesh’s credit ratings to be delayed n Asif ShowkatKallol The global rating agencies Standard & Poor’s and Moody are likely to delay the evaluation of credit worthiness of Bangladesh due to political unrest, said an official.

Besides, the government will not issue sovereign bonds till the holding of general election.

“We will delay the credit rating of Bangladesh by 3-4 months as the country is now politically unstable,” said Catherine Bouvier d’ Yvorie, consultant for Bangladeshon sovereign bonds and Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s ratings.

She was talking to the Dhaka Tribune after a meeting with Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman and Economic Relations Division Secretary Abul Kalam Azad in Washington DC recently.

Catherine however said Bangladesh’s growth and macro-economic picture have been stable for past couple of years despite global recession and natural disasters in the country.

We will delay the credit rating of Bangladesh by 3-4 months as the country is now politically unstable

“Bangladesh economy stands up in the face all odds.”

She said: “Whoever be in power, growth needs to be continued and jobs must be ensured for the youths.”

Bangladesh Bank governor Dr Atiur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune that a technical committee is now working on issuing sovereign bonds.

“But the issuing (of sovereign bonds) will be delayed as election is ahead. New government will consider the issuing of the bonds,” he said.

Besides, in this time of political unrest, the sovereign bonds might be unable to draw the appropriate amount.

The central bank governor pointed out that if the government has to leave the money unspent during last days of tenure, interest against bonds will have to be paid without using the money.

“If we get $500m from the bonds and are unable to use that money, there will be an increase in cost of investment.”

Besides, DrAtiur Rahman saw Bangladesh would do well in credit rating despite political unrest.

“We told the Moody that Bangladesh will perform well even the political instability is continuing.”

Last year, Standard & Poor’s rated Bangladesh BB- and stated a good outlook. l

2

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2013

Essentials get dearer due to hartal n Ibrahim Hossain Ovi The prices of some essential commodities, including Green Chilli, shot up yesterday as supply chain disrupted due to the 60-hour countrywide shut down enforced by the BNP-lead 18-party alliance.

During visit to different kitchen markets in Dhaka, it was found that the prices of vegetables increased by Tk10 to Tk15 per kg as compared to the prices before hartal.

Presence of buyers at Karwan Bazaar, the city’s biggest wholesale market for the kitchen items, was thin and the sellers were sitting idle with goods included vegetables.

The retail prices of green chillis saw an abnormal hike to Tk120 per kg yesterday, which was Tk50 per kg on Friday.

Onion price remained high at Tk100 to Tk110 per kg while brinjal sold at Tk50 to Tk60 per kg, followed by beans Tk60 to Tk70, potatoes Tk16, ladies fingers Tk60 to Tk70, tomatoes Tk120 and cauliflower Tk45 to Tk50 per piece.

The wholesalers claimed they have been forced to increase the prices of essentials as supply chain disrupted due to countrywide shutdown.

Transporters raised fares of trucks to double and most of them were not willing to run trucks during hartal hours as they felt insecure, said Helal Uddin, a vegetable agent at Karwan Bazzar.

Our cost of transportation increased and that’s why prices of commodities have increased in the retail and wholesale market, he added.

“Every day, I sell vegetables worth Tk2,000 to Tk2,500 in the normal situation, but it came down to Tk1,200 to Tk1,000 as the number of customers and supply of goods declined due to hartal,” said Amir

A wholesaler seen waiting for customers in the city’s Karwan Bazar during hartal yesterday while a labourer falls asleep on an empty basket DHAKA TRIBUNE Hossain, vegetable seller at the Karwan Bazaar.

Prices of vegetables increased by Tk10 to Tk15 per kg while the turnout of buyers went down drastically, he added.

“We, the low-income group, are the victims of dirty politics,” said Sohel Sheikh, an office attendant of Trading Corporation of

Bangladesh (TCB), who bought 250 grams of green chilli at Tk30, which was sold at Tk15 on Friday.

“Generally, I receive vegetable from five to trucks every night and distribute it among the whole sellers,” said Akmol, a whole seller at Karwan Bazaar. “But last night, I received one truck of vegetables.” l

Multi-donor fund to mitigate climate change impact n Tribune Report The government has set up a multi-donor trust fund to reduce adverse impact of climate change in the country.

The fund titled “Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund (BCCRF)” will act as a mechanism for large-scale climate change financing in Bangladesh, says the World Bank in a statement yesterday.

One of the two windows of BCCRF, the Community Climate Change Project (CCCP) is allocating funds on a competitive basis to non-government organisations (NGOs) to implement community-driven interventions that build resilience to climate change impacts.

The Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) is the designated umbrella agency responsible for oversight.

Till now, CCCP has funded $3.99m to eleven NGO projects. The NGOs are: RDRS Bangladesh, Satkhira Unnayan Sangstha (SUS), Wave Foundation, SKS Foundation, Gana Unnayan Kendra (GUK), Nazrul Smriti Sangsad (NSS), Ashrai, National Development Programme (NDP), Dak Diye Jai, Jhanjira Samaj Kallyan Sangstha (JSKS) and Jagrata Juba Shangha (JJS).

The NGOs will implement these sub-projects in selected unions of Kurigram, Nilphamari, Satkhira, Chuadanga, Barguna, Rajshahi, Naogaon, Natore, Bagerhat and Khulna districts.

Some of the major activities that will be undertaken by these sub-projects are: homestead plinth raising, repairing of road and embankment with tree plantation, promotion of renewable energy such as installation of solar panels, establishment of community grain banks for food availability during lean periods, installation of tube-wells for safe drinking water, installation of sanitary latrines for safe hygiene practice, promotion of environment-friendly cooking stoves, slatted housing for goat keeping, promotion

of saline and flood tolerant crops, introduction of improved local variety of Black Bengal goats and support to hen rearing support to drought-resilient fodder cultivation.

PKSF had maintained clarity and transparency in communicating with NGOs. Official letters with clear indications on selection criteria had been sent to these NGOs. The project has also developed its own website (www.pksf-cccp-bd.org) with the aim to share relevant information about the activities under the project.

The project is moving ahead to increase the resilience and adaptation capacity of local communities to combat the climate change induced vulnerability. l

Draft PPP law approved n Mohosinul Karim The cabinet yesterday approved in principle the draft of Public Private Partnership Act 2013, a law made to bring the PPP policies and strategies of the government under a legal framework.

The government has been given the highest authority to cancel any treaty under the proposed PPP act, while private partners will only have the authority if there is any such condition in the treaty.

The approval was given at a regular cabinet meeting chaired at the secretariat by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and attended her advisors and ministers.

Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told reporters after the meeting that the prime minister’s office had prepared the draft PPP Act to give the PPP policies and strategies of the government a legal entity.

“It will be sent to the law ministry for vetting and after getting their opinion, it will be placed before the cabinet again for final approval. The government will also prepare rules before the law will be effective,” he added.

The cabinet secretary said a total of seven paragraphs and 68 sections have been included in the proposed law, which has been prepared following the best global practices.

The cabinet secretary said the provisions of the act have been described elaborately in the draft, including the selection of private partners and signing of contracts with them, the validity of contracts and provisions for extending contract validity, and the process of disposal of disputes and arbitrations, and execution of the law process.

An office which has already opened in the prime minister’s office will be established to implement the law.

“The PPP policy has been introduced to implement those important projects which are non-viable for the government or private investors.

Private investors will be invited for the projects and the government will provide land and technical support. The government will also assist the private partners, if there is any viability gap,” he said.

The government would allow unsolicited offers from the interested private partners considering the priority of the projects.

Projects will need the prior approval of the cabinet committee on economic affairs. But considering the priority of the project, the government may override the committee.

According to the draft of the PPP Act 2013, private equity providers will have maximum 25% voting rights in the partnership. Parties interested in PPP would have to form a consortium with one member holding 26% shares in the PPP project company, which will be formed under the law.

The member cannot leave the company within three years of the partnership and will serve as the single largest shareholder of the company.

The PPP office will collect the technical assistance fund and maintain and oversee the implementation of the projects, the draft act said. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

3

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2013

Banks pull stocks up

BTRC revenue declines in FY13

Positive political outlook, surprising earnings results contribute to price gains n Muhammad Zahidul Islam

n Tribune Report

DSEX Index

4020 4000

Index Value

3980 3960 3940 3920 3900

09:30 10:35 10:45 10:50 10:55 11:00 11:05 10:10 11:15 11:20 11:25 11:30 11:35 11:40 11:45 11:50 11:55 12:00 12:05 12:10 12:15 12:20 12:25 12:30 12:35 12:40 12:45 12:50 12:55 13:00 13:05 13:10 13:15 13:20 13:25 13:30 13:35 13:40 13:45 13:50 13:55 14:00 14:05 14:10 14:15 14:20 14:25 14:30 14:35

Stocks rallied for the second consecutive session yesterday amid hope for settlement of the political unrest created over the national election due early next year coupled with positive earnings results.

The rally was led by heavy weight banks that shot up by 2.7% with five banks featuring among the top ten gainers.

The banking stocks those remained under pressure for long attracted investors with surprise because of their third quarter corporate results.

The market began with a flying start in the morning as benchmark index DSEX crossed 4000-mark just before the mid-session. But it lost half of its early gain on some quick profit taking. At the end of the day, the DSEX gained 42 points or 1% to 3,951, after the steepest single-day gain in three months in the previous session.

The blue chip index DS30 was slightly up by 4 points or 0.4% to 1,390. The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, rose 73 points to 7,750.

The “positive sign” of development in the political front has continued to send the market to the positive territory, said a stock dealer. But, he said, the risk-averse investors have went for booking profit.

The total turnover at DSE crossed Tk3bn-mark after one month and stood at Tk3.7bn, an increase of over 47% from the previous session.

“The rally can be attributed to continuing buy pressure as hope popped in traders’ mind over holding dialogue between the two major political parties for the formation of an election-time government,” said

‘Buying spree backed by expectation on quarterly earnings disclosure assisted the bourse maintaining green zone for second sessions’ Lanka Bangla Securities in its market analysis.

It said rising from the oversold situation five days back, stocks are responding positively, shooting up the benchmark index to psychological level of 4000-mark during the intra-day trading and closing to a new high.

“Buying spree backed by expectation on quarterly earnings disclosure assisted the bourse maintaining green zone for second sessions,” said IDLC Investment in its daily market analysis.

It said investors’ consistent focus on heavy weight scrips specially, banks in recent days, highlighted another demand push scenario throughout the session. Posi-

tive earnings surprise along with lower price advantage in the banking sector attracted investors, it said.

As a result, participation increased by 61% in the banking sector from previous session and it contributed around 20% of the total turnover.

However, textile continued to maintain top position in turnover list and made up almost 28% of the total turnover due to positive news of increased RMG export to USA. Non-banking financial institutions, pharmaceuticals and telecommunications posted marginal gains. Gainers and losers remained same as out of 288 issues traded, 132 gained, 132 declined and 24 remained unchanged.

Envoy Textile was most traded stock worth Tk323m changing hands, followed by Generation Next, United Commercial Bank, Argon Denim, Delta Life Insurance, National Bank Ltd, Active Fine Chemicals and RN Spinning. l

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission witnessed a 22.32% decline in its revenue during the last fiscal year compared to the previous year.

The official data showed the telecom regulator earned Tk54.04bn in 2012-13 compared to Tk69.57bn in 2011-12. For the last fiscal, the government expectation was Tk85bn from the sector. BTRC is the highest non-tax revenue earning body for the government.

However, the regulating body hopes the revenue will rise in next couple of years.

“The decline in revenue is not going to persist. The telecom market will continue to expand in the years, which will eventually increases earning for the government,” a senior BTRC official at the Accounting Department told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

He also informed that BTRC has already received most of the 3G spectrum fees and hopes the remaining amount is coming by the end of the current fiscal year. The revenue is projected to reach Tk100bn after the fiscal.

The authorities projected BTRC income to stand at Tk85bn in last fiscal but revised the figure to Tk55.59bn following first three quarters.

After the three quarters, the revenue stood at Tk41.23bn including Tk20.62bn deposited by the three mobile phone operators as second instalment of their 2G licence renewal fees.

The BBTRC revenue was Tk30.51bn after the first two quarter, data showed. Official sources said the telecom regulator was finalising the report on income and expenditure during the 2012-13 and preparing an annual report.

BTRC’s major sources of income includes licence fees, its renewal fees, revenue sharing and frequency charges from the operators.

The regulator earned Tk30.47bn in 201011, Tk30.47bn in 2010-11, Tk23.70bn in 200910 and Tk31.95bn in 2008-09. l

RMG exports to Chile may boost Export to Chile

$2.11m

2010-11

2011-12

Source: BGMEA

$16.93m

$18.57m

$12.93m

$8.96m

2009-10

2012-13

SSM/GT/DT/Infograph

2008-09

$8.1m

$0.86m

$1.72m

$14.53m

$1.6m

$30.37m

$1.64m

$28.26m

RMG export

$6.41m

Bangladesh sees a great potential to export RMG products to Chile as the Latin American country has recently provided some least developed countries including Bangladesh with duty- and quota-free access to their market.

In the fiscal 2012-2013, Bangladesh exported to the country goods worth US$30.37m, 93% or $28.26m of which accounted for the apparel items, Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data shows.

Other items exported to Chile are jute yarn, jute fabrics, foot wears, caps and pharmaceuticals products.

“It [DFQF] will definitely help increase our exports as there is huge demand for Bangladeshi products, especially RMG, pharmaceuticals, ceramics and jute,” EPB Vice Chairman Shubhashish Bose told Dhaka Tribune yesterday. “We went there with a mission when some of our pharmaceutical companies have got registered with Chile. Bangladesh would be able to export a large volume of medicine after the process is completed.”

On September 16, the finance ministry of

Chile issued a circular saying customs duty had been fixed at zero on the imported products originated from the least developed countries.

“The government of Chile has allowed duty-free and quota-free access of the products from the least developed countries, including Bangladesh,” said Commerce Secretary Mahbub Ahmed. “Our embassy in Geneva has informed us about the matter today (Saturday).”

“It is a good sign we are getting new destination for our products,” said a high official of EPB. “It’s a good initiative for Bangladesh and it would expand market accessibility,” said Mustafizur Rahman, executive director of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD). “If we can enter the market of Chile using the zero tariff opportunity, it would help familiarise our products to their neighboring countries too.”

To enhance competiveness, he said: “We have to reduce transport cost as the country import products from the neighbouring country.”

The zero tariff access to Chile is a great opportunity for Bangladesh RMG sector as it would help expand our dependency on certain market, said Abdus Salam Murshedy, President of Exporters Association of Bangladesh (EAB). l

$8.13m

n Ibrahim Hossain Ovi

4

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2013

New Pak PM faces first IMF test

Sri Lanka opens $292m Chinesefunded airport highway

n Reuters, Islamabad Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif faces the first formal test of his economic policies this week during a visit by the International Monetary Fund. It won’t be easy.

Sharif swept to a landslide victory in May after promising to fix a sluggish economy whose growth has averaged 3% over the last five years. Voters are hungry for jobs. Power cuts and minimal social services trigger frequent violent protests.

Last month the IMF saved Pakistan from a possible default by agreeing to loan it $6.7 billion over three years, but its condition of quarterly reviews means the cash is not guaranteed. A team led by the IMF’s regional adviser, Jeffrey Franks, is visiting this week to see if Pakistan is trying to meet conditions intended to promote reforms.

The government has begun to tackle Pakistan’s fiscal problems, but true success will come only when tax evaders are punished, said one Western diplomat.

“Their willingness to do the painful but necessary things up front suggests they’re more willing to tackle this problem than their predecessors,” said the diplomat, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the topic.

Eleven out of 12 IMF programs since 1998 have been scrapped or abandoned because Pakistan failed to institute reforms.

“Governments have tried to “game” the IMF, and achieved partial success each time,” two former Fund officials concluded in a recent paper. This time round, Sharif has promised the IMF to privatise loss-making state industries, reform a faltering energy sector, expand Pakistan’s tiny tax base and cut government borrowing.

Just 0.57% of Pakistani citizens paid income tax last year, contributing to one of the lowest tax-to-GDP ratios in the world, which leaves public services woefully underfunded.

Sharif also plans to privatise 32 state-run companies, including two huge gas companies, the state oil company, several banks, the national airline and power distribution

n Reuters, Colombo Sri Lanka opened a $292m Chinese-funded airport highway on Sunday, amid Indian concern about Chinese influence as the island nation rebuilds after a nearly three-decade war.

Sri Lanka has invested heavily in infrastructure since the war ended in 2009 with defeat for separatist Tamil Tiger rebels.

The new 25.6 km (16 mile) airport highway was built with a loan of $248.2m from Exim Bank of China, with China Metallurgical Group Corporation as the contractor.

A view of the city skyline at dusk in Karachi companies. During Sharif’s previous term as prime minister - ended by a coup in 1999 - he helped successfully privatise several banks, said Muhammad Jameel, executive vice president at United Bank.

“Now we have a good banking sector that is about 85% private,” he said. “The global financial crisis hardly touched us.” Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves have dwindled to about $4bn, or the equivalent of four week’s worth of imports, and several large repayments fall due in the next six months.

Many economists argued that the IMF loan package had aimed to save Pakistan from the consequences of its financial recklessness because the nuclear-armed nation of 180 million was considered too important to fail.

But considerations over Afghanistan also matter. Western allies want to use Pakistan as a route to withdraw equipment from Afghanistan during the NATO drawdown in 2014, and are keen to ensure political stability.

REUTERS

Blackouts and power problems

Daily blackouts have crippled the economy, knocking two percentage points off annual GDP last year.

Sharif has started to tackle the problem by paying off government debts to energy companies and slashing populist subsidies for power.

But the debts are already piling back up. Potential investors worry that the country’s gas and electricity regulators move at a glacial pace.

Some also fear the government may hold a fire sale, with state-owned assets stripped of liabilities and sold cheaply to cronies.

Industrial power customers now pay higher rates but hikes for domestic consumers are being held up by an activist Supreme Court. Rival political parties have denounced the increases.

“The previous government took little action over the last five years, but this one seems to be trying to come to grips with the problem,” said Jamil Masud, director of energy consultancy Hagler Bailly Pakistan. “It’s unclear yet if they will or not.” l

Sri Lanka has planned over $6bn worth of projects, including airports and sea ports, highways, coal and hydro power plants and railways, mainly to be funded by Chinese loans China provided weapons to Sri Lanka in the final phase of the civil war and President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government has awarded more than $4bn worth of infrastructure projects to China, mainly with Chinese loans.

India, Sri Lanka’s giant neighbour, shared intelligence with Colombo late in the war, but has also asked Rajapaksa to seek a political solution to the conflict’s root causes.

Rajapaksa’s government has come under heavy pressure from the West and human rights groups for alleged war crimes.

The Sri Lankan president, responding to Indian concerns over Chinese commercial deals, has said the relationship with China is more commercial than political in nature.

Sri Lanka has planned over $6bn worth of projects, including airports and sea ports, highways, coal and hydro power plants and railways, mainly to be funded by Chinese loans. l

Oil service firms rush to Saudi for busy drilling year ahead n Reuters, San Francisco Global energy service giants are banking on a boom in Saudi oil and gas drilling over the next few years to revive profits that are being squeezed by overcapacity in the North American market.

Schlumberger, Halliburton and Baker Hughes have all singled out Saudi Arabia as a major growth market for next year as they search the globe for better returns than the saturated US and Canadian markets offer.

Dozens of offshore and onshore rigs are being lined up for drilling in Saudi Arabia in 2014, and service companies are expanding their Saudi operations to meet buoyant demand.

“We have a very close relationship with Saudi Aramco, and the plans that we see for

next year are talking about 200 rigs,” Gabriel Podskuba, area manager for the eastern hemisphere at steel pipe maker Tenaris SA, told analysts earlier this month.

Industry sources in the Gulf said at least 160 rigs are currently deployed in Saudi territory and that the world’s top oil exporter plans to raise its rig count to 210 by the end of 2014. Aramco declined to comment.

Sources said earlier this year that Aramco was planning a sharp rise in rig use to look for unconventional gas, while increasing oil drilling to help keep its spare production capacity at comfortable levels.

The rigs will be used for exploration, development and maintenance work across the kingdom, the sources said. Aramco is also ramping up drilling in offshore oilfields such as Safaniyah, along with the Arabiyah

and Hasbah offshore gas fields.

It is not clear where all the rigs will be deployed because Aramco has yet to issue the tenders.

Aramco is still appraising unconventional gas prospects in the southeast of the kingdom but has already announced plans for a shale-gas-fired power plant in the north.

To rebalance its crude supply mix and extend the lifespan of mature fields, Aramco also plans to increase light sour crude output from two fields - Shaybah and Khurais - by 550,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2016-2017.

The world’s largest oil exporter has been pumping over 9 million bpd since early 2011 to make up for supply disruptions in other countries, and production has exceeded 10 million bpd since July, according to official

government figures.

Under pressure to make up for supply losses from Libya, Iran, Nigeria and Yemen over the past few years and to meet growing domestic demand, Aramco is investing heavily to preserve the world’s largest spare oil production capacity cushion at more than 2 million bpd.

Saudi Arabia is the only country able to produce much more oil than it needs to. The size of that capacity cushion, which helps dampen price volatility, is a frequent subject of speculation in the global oil market.

“In the past two years alone, we have swung our production by more than 1.5 million bpd in order to address market supply imbalances,” Saudi Aramco Chief Executive Khalid al-Falih told the World Energy Congress in South Korea in mid-October. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2013

No Halloween horrors in store from the Fed n Reuters, London Back in May and June, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke played a trick on markets by sketching out a timetable for reducing the central bank’s $85 billion-amonth bond buying. Investors recoiled in horror and bond yields surged.

This week, though, they are in for a treat.

The Fed’s policy-making committee ends a two-day meeting on Wednesday and the chances are vanishingly small that it will start to dial down the monetary stimulus right away.

The recent government shutdown in Washington and last-gasp deal to raise the federal debt ceiling have simply created too much economic uncertainty.

As a result, the usefulness of September figures on industrial output, retail sales and consumer prices as well as the Institute of Supply Management’s October manufacturing survey will be limited.

Apart from a dearth of ‘clean’ data for the Fed to analyze, the labor market’s lackluster performance has convinced many economists that the Fed will delay ‘tapering’ until 2014. What more could liquidity-driven markets ask for?

Jamie Dannhauser of Lombard Street Research, a London consultancy, expects the Fed to start curtailing its bond buying in the first quarter of next year, by which time Bernanke will have been succeeded by his dovish deputy, Janet Yellen, and to end asset purchases by the end of 2014.

Dannhauser is bullish on the US economy, not least because stiff fiscal headwinds will ease next year.

But he said the Fed was likely to maintain very significant monetary stimulus until growth gets closer to pre-crisis trends. Thus a rise in short-term interest rates was unlikely until well into 2015.

“Tapering and even an end to asset purchases are very different from a withdrawal of stimulus,” Dannhauser said.

“The US economy still has a very big hole that needs to be filled, and people like Bernanke and Yellen are very acutely aware of this point.”

Risks of staying too loose

Many economists, while agreeing that an

Oil prices were mixed in Asia yesterday as a bulge in US stockpiles indicated weak demand in the world’s biggest economy, while there are growing concerns about supplies from the Middle East.

New York’s main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in December, was down 24 cents at $97.61 in afternoon trade, while Brent North Sea crude for December rose 20 cents to $107.13.

US prices were weighed down by a surge in stockpiles at the Cushing, Oklahoma, de-

Dollar edges up in Asia ahead of Fed meeting n AFP, Tokyo The dollar edged up yesterday in Asia as a weak batch of data ahead of a Federal Reserve policy meeting raised expectations the bank will keep its stimulus programme in place until next year.

In Tokyo afternoon trade the greenback bought 97.60 yen, up from 97.43 yen in New York Friday afternoon, while the euro bought $1.3802 from $1.3805. The European single currency firmed to 134.74 yen from 134.50 yen.

Rising risk sentiment and a Japanese stock market rally spurred the dollar’s rise, but the unit’s upside was capped by speculation over prolonged Fed easing.

The Fed’s two-day monetary policy meeting opens Tuesday, and investors will pore over its decision for an idea of when it will start cutting back its $8bn a-month bond-buying scheme.

There had been widespread belief it would begin tapering by December at the latest, but analysts say weak jobs data and this month’s government shutdown has made that unlikely.

A view shows the Federal Reserve building on the day it is scheduled to release minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee REUTERS emergency policy response was needed in 2008, worry that since the 1987 stock market crash central bankers and governments have been too quick to ease in downturns and too slow to tighten in recoveries. Treats are nice, but too much chocolate can make you ill.

When he was chief economist at the Bank for International Settlements, Bill White issued a series of prescient pre-crisis warnings of bubbles and imbalances that were building up in the global economy. He was politely ignored.

White worries that policy makers are not learning the lessons. It will be harder to return to strong, sustainable growth because fiscal and monetary stimulus is storing up

medium-term difficulties, he told a London audience last week.

“Not least of them is that the very easy monetary conditions that we’ve seen since the crisis have basically impeded the process of deleveraging,” White said.

In the Group of 20 leading economies, government, household and corporate debt is now 30% greater than it was before the crisis, he said, citing BIS figures.

“We haven’t actually dealt yet with the problems of the advanced market economies and in addition, with the crisis having spread to the emerging market economies, we now have a problem that is bigger than before,” White said. l

Oil prices mixed in Asian trade n AFP, Singapore

5

livery point for WTI futures, said Tan Chee Tat, investment analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore.

The weekly report from the US Department of Energy on Wednesday showed reserves had soared 5.2 million barrels in the week ending October 18.

That came days after a report for the prior week, delayed by the partial government shutdown, that showed another big rise in inventories.

“We are likely to see some relief in stockpiles with the seasonal maintenance in US refineries coming to an end after October,”

Tan told AFP. Investors are keeping an eye on crude producer Libya after its National Oil Corp last week said output had stabilised at around 600,000 barrels even as authorities struggle to end armed protests that cut shipments for months.

Libyan oil exports had plunged by more than 70% after protesters, including policemen and border guards, forced the terminals to shut over demands for back pay.

“Uncertainties remain as the protests have not been completely resolved. Possible tightening in Libya ... is likely to keep Brent crude prices supported,” Tan said. l

The Fed’s two-day monetary policy meeting opens Tuesday, and investors will pore over its decision for an idea of when it will start cutting back its $8bn a-month bond-buying scheme

On Friday, official figures showed a 3.7% jump in US durable goods orders. However, excluding transportation equipment, orders fell 0.1%, while core capital goods orders, a sign of future business investment, fell 1.1%.

The central bank has said any tapering hinges on a firm recovery in the world’s biggest economy.

“The US dollar remains on the back foot, finding little help from data releases, especially last week’s September employment report,” Credit Agricole said.

“Friday’s release of September durable goods orders similarly disappointed, with core orders coming in weaker than anticipated.”

The dollar was mixed against other Asia-Pacific currencies.

It slipped to 43.04 Philippine pesos from 43.07 pesos on Friday, to Sg$1.2363 from Sg$1.2368, to 31.07 Thai baht from 31.13 baht, and to 1,061.05 South Korean won from 1,062.30 won.

The dollar also weakened to 61.51 Indian rupees from 61.66 rupees, while it was almost flat at Tw$29.40 against Tw$29.39.

The greenback rose to 11,023 Indonesian rupiah from 10,948 rupiah.

The Australian dollar edged down to 96.03 US cents from 96.15 cents, while the Chinese yuan rose to 16.02 yen from 15.93 yen. l

6

Share

DHAKA TRIBUNE

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2013

DSE Broad Index: 3951.51 ⇑ 1.08%, Turnover: 3686.17 M.Tk ⇑ 47.51%, PE: 12.38 Turnover 4,104.04 MTk . ⇑ 50.21% October 28, 2013 MarketCap. 1,901.89 BTk. ⇑ 0.84% CSE All Share Index: 12228 ⇑ 0.92%, Turnover: 417.88 M Tk. ⇑ 79.20%, PE: 12.17 Combined Turnover Leader

Vol.

Envoy Textiles Ltd-N

TO M. Tk.

% of TTL

Avg. P

5283180

330.72

8.06

62.60

10256780

268.25

6.54

26.15

UCBL - A

8871380

182.83

Argon Denims Limited-A

2041900

Active Fine Chem.-A

1201922

G Next Fashions-A

CompanyCode | EPS | BV | Volume Traded (Share) DSE/CSE: ClosePrice ⇓/⇑ Chn % | Avg.Price | Hi / Lo

BANK ABBANK | 2.95 | 32.60 | Vol. 656900 D: 26.40 ⇑ 6.02% | 26.07 | 26.70 / 23.00 C: 26.00 ⇑ 3.59% | 25.84 | 26.40 / 24.70 CITYBANK | 1.15 | 25.97 | Vol. 2764875 D: 18.60 ⇑ 4.49% | 18.33 | 19.50 / 17.50 C: 18.80 ⇑ 6.82% | 18.40 | 19.30 / 17.40 IFIC | 1.10 | 18.34 | Vol. 2669661 D: 25.10 ⇑ 7.73% | 25.32 | 25.60 / 21.00 C: 25.20 ⇑ 7.23% | 25.49 | 25.80 / 24.20 ISLAMIBANK | 3.78 | 27.16 | Vol. 516866 D: 36.60 ⇑ 2.23% | 36.49 | 36.80 / 33.80 C: 36.90 ⇑ 1.65% | 36.41 | 37.10 / 35.90 NBL | 1.05 | 15.76 | Vol. 8672539 D: 12.30 ⇑ 8.85% | 12.28 | 12.40 / 11.00 C: 12.50 ⇑ 9.65% | 12.38 | 12.50 / 11.60 PUBALIBANK | 1.92 | 21.18 | Vol. 102228 D: 31.40 ⇑ 0.96% | 31.53 | 32.00 / 28.80 C: 31.50 ⇑ 0.32% | 31.62 | 32.30 / 31.30 RUPALIBANK | 6.70 | 64.27 | Vol. 10500 D: 61.30 ⇓ 3.46% | 62.67 | 64.00 / 60.80 UCBL | 1.90 | 21.72 | Vol. 8871380 D: 20.80 ⇑ 4.52% | 20.62 | 21.30 / 18.50 C: 20.80 ⇑ 4.52% | 20.51 | 21.00 / 19.70 UTTARABANK | 3.42 | 26.97 | Vol. 415021 D: 27.20 ⇑ 0.74% | 27.74 | 28.20 / 25.00 C: 27.40 ⇑ 0.74% | 27.54 | 28.10 / 26.90 ICBIBANK | -1.60 | -13.03 | Vol. 219000 D: 5.70 ⇓ 1.72% | 5.89 | 6.10 / 5.70 EBL | 3.91 | 28.22 | Vol. 209073 D: 26.90 ⇑ 0.00% | 27.10 | 29.50 / 24.50 C: 26.80 ⇓ 0.74% | 26.89 | 27.40 / 26.60 ALARABANK | 2.03 | 14.91 | Vol. 1722052 D: 16.30 ⇑ 3.16% | 16.48 | 17.10 / 15.00 C: 16.30 ⇑ 3.16% | 16.55 | 17.00 / 16.00 PRIMEBANK | 2.89 | 22.40 | Vol. 529326 D: 23.00 ⇑ 4.55% | 23.26 | 24.10 / 20.50 C: 22.50 ⇑ 2.27% | 22.92 | 23.60 / 22.40 SOUTHEASTB | 1.89 | 22.66 | Vol. 3756248 D: 17.00 ⇑ 1.19% | 17.10 | 17.50 / 15.50 C: 16.90 ⇓ 0.59% | 17.01 | 17.40 / 16.70 DHAKABANK | 1.46 | 18.08 | Vol. 353096 D: 20.10 ⇑ 2.55% | 20.21 | 20.50 / 19.00 C: 19.90 ⇑ 2.58% | 20.01 | 20.50 / 19.80 NCCBANK | 1.90 | 15.88 | Vol. 1276073 D: 12.30 ⇑ 2.50% | 12.41 | 13.20 / 10.80 C: 12.40 ⇑ 3.33% | 12.50 | 13.00 / 12.00 SIBL | 2.05 | 14.47 | Vol. 1383167 D: 12.00 ⇑ 2.56% | 12.25 | 12.60 / 11.00 C: 12.10 ⇑ 2.54% | 12.28 | 12.60 / 11.90 DUTCHBANGL | 11.57 | 54.27 | Vol. 18160 D: 95.50 ⇑ 1.60% | 95.60 | 96.00 / 88.00 MTBL | 1.17 | 17.27 | Vol. 129387 D: 16.30 ⇑ 2.52% | 16.29 | 17.00 / 14.40 C: 16.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 16.00 | 16.00 / 16.00 STANDBANKL | 2.33 | 14.41 | Vol. 1534717 D: 14.20 ⇓ 0.70% | 14.41 | 14.80 / 13.20 C: 14.10 ⇓ 1.40% | 14.29 | 14.80 / 13.80 ONEBANKLTD | 2.35 | 15.34 | Vol. 3606557 D: 15.70 ⇑ 0.64% | 16.12 | 16.70 / 14.10 C: 16.10 ⇑ 3.21% | 16.22 | 16.70 / 15.50 BANKASIA | 1.35 | 20.80 | Vol. 664128 D: 20.00 ⇑ 6.95% | 19.64 | 20.50 / 16.90 C: 20.20 ⇑ 6.88% | 19.70 | 20.70 / 19.00 MERCANBANK | 2.07 | 16.59 | Vol. 1097324 D: 13.10 ⇑ 2.34% | 13.23 | 13.70 / 12.00 C: 13.30 ⇑ 3.91% | 13.31 | 13.60 / 12.90 EXIMBANK | 1.80 | 14.31 | Vol. 2826557 D: 12.20 ⇑ 4.27% | 12.34 | 12.80 / 11.00 C: 12.30 ⇑ 4.24% | 12.39 | 12.80 / 12.00 JAMUNABANK | 2.47 | 18.56 | Vol. 169944 D: 14.50 ⇑ 4.32% | 14.52 | 14.90 / 12.90 C: 14.30 ⇑ 4.38% | 14.53 | 15.00 / 14.30 BRACBANK | 1.51 | 24.87 | Vol. 359235 D: 30.10 ⇑ 1.35% | 30.47 | 30.80 / 27.50 C: 30.10 ⇑ 2.03% | 30.13 | 30.80 / 29.60 SHAHJABANK | 2.61 | 14.47 | Vol. 817885 D: 15.40 ⇓ 0.65% | 15.81 | 16.20 / 14.00 C: 15.80 ⇑ 1.28% | 15.91 | 16.10 / 15.50 PREMIERBAN | 1.18 | 13.95 | Vol. 3019197 D: 10.50 ⇑ 8.25% | 10.48 | 10.60 / 8.90 C: 10.70 ⇑ 9.18% | 10.53 | 10.70 / 10.00

140.92 111.77

4.45

20.61

3.43

69.01

2.72

TRUSTBANK | 0.50 | 18.00 | Vol. 329891 D: 19.10 ⇓ 1.55% | 19.23 | 20.00 / 17.80 C: 18.60 ⇓ 4.12% | 18.82 | 19.00 / 18.50 FIRSTSBANK | 1.85 | 13.89 | Vol. 1028411 D: 12.30 ⇑ 1.65% | 12.76 | 13.30 / 11.90 C: 12.40 ⇑ 1.64% | 12.66 | 13.10 / 12.00 NON BANKING F I IDLC | 4.43 | 29.18 | Vol. 140992 D: 57.30 ⇑ 3.43% | 57.42 | 58.50 / 52.00 C: 57.30 ⇑ 2.69% | 57.29 | 58.00 / 56.10 ULC | 1.80 | 14.90 | Vol. 201245 D: 27.00 ⇑ 0.75% | 27.38 | 28.00 / 26.00 UTTARAFIN | 7.16 | 41.54 | Vol. 86475 D: 74.10 ⇑ 2.21% | 74.20 | 75.00 / 71.00 C: 72.60 ⇓ 1.22% | 74.33 | 76.00 / 71.40 MIDASFIN | 0.16 | 10.21 | Vol. 1737 D: 31.50 ⇓ 2.78% | 31.15 | 31.60 / 30.00 FLEASEINT | 2.34 | 13.93 | Vol. 490653 D: 24.70 ⇑ 6.01% | 24.73 | 25.20 / 23.00 C: 24.50 ⇑ 2.51% | 24.53 | 24.90 / 24.10 PLFSL | 1.37 | 17.48 | Vol. 784255 D: 21.70 ⇑ 3.83% | 22.08 | 22.80 / 20.00 C: 21.70 ⇑ 3.33% | 22.07 | 22.70 / 21.40 PRIMEFIN | 0.87 | 17.88 | Vol. 404924 D: 22.30 ⇑ 3.72% | 22.60 | 23.30 / 20.00 C: 22.60 ⇑ 5.12% | 22.60 | 23.20 / 21.90 PREMIERLEA | 0.10 | 11.37 | Vol. 161000 D: 10.40 ⇑ 1.96% | 10.61 | 10.80 / 10.30 C: 10.50 ⇑ 0.96% | 10.51 | 10.70 / 10.40 ISLAMICFIN | 1.03 | 15.48 | Vol. 682859 D: 15.50 ⇑ 0.65% | 15.82 | 16.30 / 14.80 C: 15.50 ⇑ 1.31% | 15.73 | 16.00 / 15.40 LANKABAFIN | 1.61 | 31.07 | Vol. 344831 D: 54.20 ⇑ 5.86% | 54.05 | 55.10 / 47.00 C: 53.90 ⇑ 3.65% | 54.18 | 54.90 / 53.00 BIFC | 0.15 | 18.58 | Vol. 116857 D: 15.20 ⇑ 0.00% | 15.48 | 16.00 / 14.60 C: 15.10 ⇑ 0.67% | 15.27 | 15.80 / 15.00 IPDC | 1.23 | 19.43 | Vol. 171500 D: 17.80 ⇑ 0.00% | 18.05 | 18.50 / 17.40 C: 17.50 ⇑ 0.00% | 17.15 | 17.70 / 17.00 UNIONCAP | 0.54 | 17.85 | Vol. 10609 D: 28.40 ⇑ 1.43% | 28.14 | 28.80 / 26.00 C: 26.90 ⇓ 1.47% | 26.86 | 27.70 / 26.40 BDFINANCE | 0.57 | 14.77 | Vol. 440439 D: 19.90 ⇑ 1.02% | 20.12 | 20.60 / 19.00 C: 19.60 ⇓ 0.51% | 19.87 | 20.50 / 18.00 ILFSL | 0.35 | 12.19 | Vol. 413560 D: 13.80 ⇓ 1.43% | 14.26 | 14.70 / 13.50 C: 13.80 ⇑ 0.73% | 14.16 | 14.50 / 13.70 PHOENIXFIN | 2.46 | 19.39 | Vol. 166375 D: 29.60 ⇑ 0.34% | 30.07 | 30.90 / 29.00 C: 29.50 ⇑ 1.72% | 30.02 | 30.50 / 29.50 FASFIN | 0.19 | 13.56 | Vol. 610053 D: 14.00 ⇑ 1.45% | 14.22 | 14.70 / 13.00 C: 14.00 ⇑ 1.45% | 14.11 | 14.50 / 13.90 DBH | 4.47 | 21.27 | Vol. 44250 D: 53.00 ⇓ 0.56% | 53.32 | 54.60 / 50.90 C: 52.20 ⇑ 0.00% | 52.20 | 52.20 / 52.20 NHFIL | 0.57 | 12.70 | Vol. 179364 D: 28.60 ⇑ 1.06% | 28.91 | 29.50 / 26.80 C: 28.50 ⇑ 1.42% | 28.43 | 29.00 / 28.20 BAYLEASING | 0.72 | 25.55 | Vol. 356424 D: 28.90 ⇑ 1.40% | 29.60 | 30.20 / 26.00 C: 28.90 ⇑ 1.76% | 29.68 | 30.40 / 28.80 ICB | 89.23 | 607.74 | Vol. 10150 D: 1381 ⇓ 2.20% | 1401 | 1439 / 1376 C: 1384 ⇓ 1.82% | 1393 | 1400 / 1376 GSPFINANCE | 1.63 | 22.23 | Vol. 83971 D: 24.30 ⇑ 1.67% | 24.51 | 25.00 / 21.60 C: 24.70 ⇑ 8.33% | 24.72 | 24.90 / 24.50 FAREASTFIN | 0.68 | 13.64 | Vol. 1080500 D: 15.20 ⇑ 0.66% | 15.56 | 16.10 / 15.10 C: 15.20 ⇑ 0.00% | 15.56 | 16.10 / 15.20 INVESTMENT 1STICB | 75.63 | 942.30 | Vol. 36150 D: 943.3 ⇑ 2.22% | 946.67 | 950.0 / 940.0 C: 930.0 ⇑ 0.00% | 955.00 | 930.0 / 930.0 2NDICB | 44.10 | 253.11 | Vol. 600 D: 225.0 ⇑ 0.72% | 225.00 | 225.0 / 225.0 3RDICB | 26.16 | 235.16 | Vol. 400 D: 176.0 ⇓ 1.84% | 175.00 | 176.2 / 175.3

DSE Gainer

92.99

C%

A%

CP

Desh Garments-B

-9.87

-9.58

53.90

Legacy Footwear -A

-8.22

-4.95

33.50

Eastern Lubricants-A

-7.95

-7.95

311.30

28.90

Fine Foods-A

-7.87

-5.27

16.40

25.10

Anwar Galvanizing-B

-7.32

-3.28

22.80

C%

A%

CP

9.17

8.64

47.60

National Bank - B

8.85

10.04

12.30

Premier Bank-A

8.25

9.17

10.50

BEXIMCO Ltd.-A

7.84

7.48

IFIC Bank-A

7.73

9.04

Bengal Windsor-N

4THICB | 29.24 | 229.24 | Vol. 3500 D: 170.0 ⇑ 0.00% | 170.00 | 170.0 / 170.0 6THICB | 10.99 | 60.14 | Vol. 5200 D: 45.00 ⇑ 0.90% | 45.00 | 45.40 / 44.80 7THICB | 13.53 | 98.60 | Vol. 7500 D: 72.90 ⇑ 1.39% | 72.93 | 79.00 / 72.00 8THICB | 12.47 | 70.07 | Vol. 10000 D: 48.90 ⇑ 0.41% | 49.00 | 49.50 / 48.80 AIMS1STMF | 3.02 | 15.70 | Vol. 231500 D: 36.50 ⇑ 0.27% | 36.50 | 37.80 / 35.60 C: 35.80 ⇓ 2.72% | 36.42 | 37.20 / 35.80 ICBISLAMIC | 2.21 | 26.81 | Vol. 45500 D: 16.10 ⇓ 1.83% | 16.22 | 16.80 / 16.00 GRAMEEN1 | 6.26 | 33.23 | Vol. 225500 D: 41.30 ⇑ 0.24% | 42.17 | 43.00 / 41.10 C: 42.00 ⇑ 0.72% | 41.75 | 42.00 / 41.50 ICB1STNRB | 4.06 | 35.31 | Vol. 6500 D: 22.10 ⇑ 1.84% | 22.15 | 22.50 / 22.00 ICB2NDNRB | 2.49 | 16.24 | Vol. 112500 D: 8.80 ⇑ 1.15% | 8.93 | 9.00 / 8.80 C: 8.90 ⇑ 1.14% | 8.88 | 9.00 / 8.80 GRAMEENS2 | 2.17 | 16.41 | Vol. 539000 D: 15.00 ⇓ 0.66% | 15.27 | 15.70 / 15.00 C: 15.10 ⇓ 1.31% | 15.20 | 15.60 / 15.10 1STPRIMFMF | 0.64 | 11.63 | Vol. 862000 D: 18.90 ⇓ 3.57% | 19.45 | 20.40 / 18.80 C: 19.00 ⇓ 3.55% | 19.05 | 19.80 / 19.00 EBL1STMF | 0.55 | 12.62 | Vol. 472460 D: 6.60 ⇑ 1.54% | 6.71 | 6.80 / 6.30 C: 6.70 ⇑ 1.52% | 6.63 | 6.70 / 6.60 ICBAMCL2ND | 0.60 | 12.12 | Vol. 86000 D: 5.60 ⇓ 1.75% | 5.66 | 5.80 / 5.60 ICBEPMF1S1 | 0.52 | 11.32 | Vol. 145000 D: 6.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 6.10 | 6.30 / 6.00 C: 6.00 ⇑ 3.45% | 6.00 | 6.00 / 6.00 TRUSTB1MF | 0.75 | 11.65 | Vol. 560396 D: 7.10 ⇓ 1.39% | 7.25 | 7.80 / 7.00 C: 7.30 ⇑ 2.82% | 7.26 | 7.30 / 7.20 PRIME1ICBA | 0.42 | 11.18 | Vol. 107000 D: 5.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.13 | 5.30 / 5.00 C: 5.10 ⇓ 1.92% | 5.10 | 5.10 / 5.10 DBH1STMF | -1.12 | 10.15 | Vol. 199500 D: 5.30 ⇑ 1.92% | 5.40 | 5.50 / 5.30 C: 5.40 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.32 | 5.40 / 5.30 IFIC1STMF | 0.83 | 11.88 | Vol. 542130 D: 6.30 ⇑ 0.00% | 6.40 | 6.50 / 5.70 C: 6.40 ⇑ 3.23% | 6.37 | 6.40 / 6.30 PF1STMF | 0.51 | 11.11 | Vol. 139500 D: 5.20 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.23 | 5.30 / 5.20 C: 5.20 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.13 | 5.20 / 5.10 ICB3RDNRB | 0.00 | 10.60 | Vol. 220500 D: 4.90 ⇑ 0.00% | 4.99 | 5.00 / 4.90 C: 5.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.04 | 5.10 / 4.90 1JANATAMF | 0.78 | 10.68 | Vol. 252500 D: 5.60 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.69 | 5.80 / 5.60 C: 5.80 ⇑ 5.45% | 5.74 | 5.80 / 5.50 GREENDELMF | -0.82 | 9.72 | Vol. 142000 D: 5.10 ⇑ 2.00% | 5.17 | 5.20 / 5.10 C: 5.00 ⇓ 1.96% | 5.04 | 5.10 / 5.00 POPULAR1MF | 0.77 | 11.38 | Vol. 799361 D: 5.50 ⇓ 1.79% | 5.63 | 6.00 / 5.20 C: 5.70 ⇑ 1.79% | 5.79 | 5.80 / 5.70 IFILISLMF1 | 0.00 | 10.45 | Vol. 332000 D: 5.10 ⇑ 2.00% | 5.18 | 5.30 / 5.10 C: 5.00 ⇓ 3.85% | 5.08 | 5.30 / 5.00 PHPMF1 | 0.63 | 10.92 | Vol. 650000 D: 5.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.22 | 5.30 / 5.10 C: 5.20 ⇑ 1.96% | 5.19 | 5.30 / 5.10 AIBL1STIMF | -0.07 | 9.25 | Vol. 78000 D: 6.60 ⇑ 3.13% | 6.64 | 6.90 / 6.50 C: 6.50 ⇑ 4.84% | 6.46 | 6.50 / 6.30 MBL1STMF | -0.16 | 9.08 | Vol. 162500 D: 6.20 ⇑ 5.08% | 6.25 | 6.40 / 6.10 C: 6.30 ⇑ 3.28% | 6.33 | 6.50 / 6.20 SEBL1STMF | 0.94 | 11.85 | Vol. 296400 D: 7.70 ⇑ 1.32% | 7.87 | 8.00 / 7.70 C: 7.60 ⇑ 1.33% | 7.60 | 7.70 / 7.50 EBLNRBMF | 1.07 | 10.88 | Vol. 2509 D: 7.40 ⇑ 1.37% | 7.40 | 7.40 / 7.20 RELIANCE1 | 0.95 | 10.33 | Vol. 864050 D: 7.90 ⇑ 1.28% | 8.00 | 8.20 / 7.90 C: 7.90 ⇑ 1.28% | 7.90 | 8.00 / 7.80 LRGLOBMF1 | 0.50 | 10.82 | Vol. 55500 D: 7.50 ⇓ 2.60% | 7.66 | 7.80 / 7.50

DSE Loser

ABB1STMF | 0.92 | 10.63 | Vol. 159500 D: 6.60 ⇑ 0.00% | 6.78 | 6.90 / 6.60 NLI1STMF | 1.17 | 12.22 | Vol. 834700 D: 8.50 ⇓ 1.16% | 8.70 | 8.90 / 8.00 C: 8.70 ⇑ 2.35% | 8.60 | 8.80 / 8.50 NCCBLMF1 | 1.16 | 10.48 | Vol. 20000 D: 8.40 ⇑ 0.00% | 8.45 | 8.60 / 8.40 ICBSONALI1 | 0.00 | 10.39 | Vol. 408500 D: 6.40 ⇑ 0.00% | 6.52 | 6.70 / 6.40 C: 6.60 ⇑ 3.13% | 6.55 | 6.60 / 6.50 EXIM1STMF | 0.00 | 10.91 | Vol. 500 D: 7.40 ⇑ 1.37% | 7.40 | 7.40 / 7.40 ENGINEERING AFTABAUTO | 4.29 | 52.65 | Vol. 277099 D: 98.20 ⇓ 0.51% | 99.64 | 102.0 / 89.00 C: 99.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 99.76 | 99.60 / 100.0 AZIZPIPES | 0.39 | -42.04 | Vol. 10800 D: 17.60 ⇓ 1.12% | 17.95 | 18.30 / 17.50 C: 17.70 ⇑ 1.14% | 17.80 | 19.20 / 17.70 OLYMPIC | 5.94 | 14.91 | Vol. 197500 D: 187.8 ⇓ 2.39% | 188.85 | 197.0 / 181.0 C: 185.0 ⇓ 2.63% | 186.15 | 190.1 / 182.0 BDLAMPS | -5.31 | 37.07 | Vol. 18520 D: 129.6 ⇓ 3.07% | 130.97 | 135.4 / 129.0 C: 130.0 ⇓ 0.15% | 130.67 | 131.0 / 130.0 ECABLES | 2.04 | 18.87 | Vol. 13800 D: 79.10 ⇑ 7.04% | 78.77 | 79.70 / 74.00 MONNOSTAF | 5.31 | 44.78 | Vol. 1250 D: 286.2 ⇓ 4.73% | 286.40 | 300.0 / 280.0 SINGERBD | 9.99 | 45.74 | Vol. 49600 D: 185.8 ⇓ 1.80% | 187.50 | 191.3 / 185.5 C: 185.2 ⇓ 2.11% | 186.27 | 194.0 / 185.0 ATLASBANG | 11.98 | 207.70 | Vol. 13150 D: 158.8 ⇑ 0.06% | 160.15 | 163.7 / 158.0 BDAUTOCA | 0.25 | 6.23 | Vol. 19152 D: 35.90 ⇓ 4.77% | 36.61 | 39.00 / 34.00 QSMDRYCELL | 1.06 | 52.31 | Vol. 148600 D: 29.30 ⇑ 1.38% | 30.04 | 30.60 / 27.00 C: 29.90 ⇑ 4.55% | 29.87 | 30.50 / 29.10 RENWICKJA | 5.62 | -90.00 | Vol. 700 D: 124.4 ⇓ 2.35% | 124.29 | 130.0 / 123.0 NTLTUBES | -2.52 | 312.10 | Vol. 46500 D: 64.60 ⇓ 1.07% | 64.82 | 66.80 / 64.20 BDTHAI | 0.43 | 39.35 | Vol. 308750 D: 25.90 ⇓ 3.36% | 26.45 | 27.70 / 25.80 C: 26.10 ⇓ 0.38% | 26.75 | 27.80 / 25.80 ANWARGALV | 0.51 | 8.08 | Vol. 104000 D: 22.80 ⇓ 7.32% | 23.56 | 24.50 / 22.60 C: 22.90 ⇓ 4.58% | 23.28 | 24.10 / 22.80 KAY&QUE | -3.89 | 6.03 | Vol. 6000 D: 14.50 ⇓ 0.68% | 14.50 | 15.00 / 14.50 C: 15.50 ⇑ 0.65% | 15.50 | 15.50 / 15.50 RANFOUNDRY | 2.84 | 18.62 | Vol. 53000 D: 85.50 ⇓ 2.95% | 86.02 | 87.20 / 85.10 C: 88.60 ⇓ 1.88% | 88.60 | 88.60 / 88.60 SALAMCRST | 3.31 | 20.00 | Vol. 166210 D: 38.20 ⇑ 0.53% | 38.55 | 39.30 / 35.00 C: 38.10 ⇓ 0.78% | 38.37 | 38.50 / 38.00 GOLDENSON | 3.70 | 28.70 | Vol. 1175854 D: 44.50 ⇑ 1.37% | 44.55 | 45.30 / 40.00 C: 44.40 ⇑ 1.14% | 44.50 | 45.20 / 44.00 BSRMSTEEL | 3.06 | 19.53 | Vol. 150690 D: 62.00 ⇓ 1.59% | 63.06 | 64.20 / 56.70 C: 62.40 ⇓ 0.16% | 62.45 | 63.20 / 62.30 NAVANACNG | 4.09 | 27.04 | Vol. 77220 D: 60.50 ⇓ 0.82% | 61.20 | 65.00 / 56.00 C: 60.90 ⇑ 0.16% | 60.78 | 62.00 / 60.30 DESHBANDHU | 0.26 | 10.67 | Vol. 507328 D: 16.40 ⇓ 0.61% | 16.66 | 17.00 / 15.00 C: 16.20 ⇓ 2.41% | 16.36 | 16.80 / 16.00 GPHISPAT | 2.11 | 15.27 | Vol. 46400 D: 40.80 ⇑ 0.49% | 40.99 | 41.90 / 39.00 C: 40.50 ⇑ 3.32% | 40.47 | 41.00 / 40.00 BENGALWTL | 4.16 | 26.24 | Vol. 1195600 D: 47.60 ⇑ 9.17% | 47.40 | 48.40 / 45.20 C: 47.70 ⇑ 9.40% | 47.29 | 48.50 / 45.00 BDBUILDING | 1.53 | 14.60 | Vol. 1022000 D: 37.00 ⇑ 0.27% | 37.95 | 39.30 / 36.80 C: 36.90 ⇓ 1.34% | 37.80 | 39.00 / 36.70 NPOLYMAR | 2.73 | 37.82 | Vol. 83735 D: 48.40 ⇓ 3.20% | 49.87 | 52.00 / 48.00 C: 49.40 ⇓ 3.14% | 49.86 | 50.00 / 48.70

FOOD & ALLIED APEXFOODS | 2.54 | 90.81 | Vol. 20550 D: 89.40 ⇓ 1.00% | 89.87 | 92.80 / 89.20 C: 88.00 ⇓ 4.35% | 88.51 | 98.00 / 87.00 BANGAS | 7.20 | 50.27 | Vol. 24849 D: 378.3 ⇓ 3.07% | 384.62 | 397.5 / 375.1 C: 378.4 ⇓ 4.28% | 380.02 | 386.5 / 378.0 BATBC | 65.69 | 117.22 | Vol. 26150 D: 1560 ⇑ 4.70% | 1558 | 1583 / 1512 C: 1530 ⇑ 3.38% | 1495 | 1530 / 1495 GEMINISEA | 10.88 | 9.69 | Vol. 500 D: 184.1 ⇓ 0.91% | 184.00 | 188.2 / 180.0 NTC | 29.88 | 110.05 | Vol. 900 D: 802.5 ⇑ 2.07% | 802.22 | 810.0 / 795.0 ZEALBANGLA | -28.94 | -221.34 | Vol. 200 D: 8.30 ⇓ 1.19% | 8.30 | 8.30 / 8.30 AMCL(PRAN) | 6.53 | 53.37 | Vol. 73400 D: 211.6 ⇓ 3.56% | 216.11 | 227.0 / 210.0 C: 207.7 ⇓ 7.28% | 210.04 | 224.0 / 204.5 FUWANGFOOD | 1.26 | 12.37 | Vol. 165632 D: 22.30 ⇓ 2.62% | 22.66 | 24.00 / 22.00 C: 22.40 ⇓ 0.44% | 22.56 | 23.30 / 22.30 MEGHNAPET | -0.50 | -1.52 | Vol. 10500 D: 6.30 ⇓ 1.56% | 6.38 | 6.60 / 6.20 MEGCONMILK | -7.48 | -23.70 | Vol. 40000 D: 6.80 ⇑ 0.00% | 6.88 | 7.10 / 6.80 BEACHHATCH | 1.01 | 12.48 | Vol. 648112 D: 20.70 ⇓ 3.72% | 21.12 | 22.10 / 20.00 C: 20.60 ⇓ 4.63% | 20.88 | 22.00 / 20.60 FINEFOODS | 0.05 | 10.63 | Vol. 382500 D: 16.40 ⇓ 7.87% | 17.07 | 18.00 / 16.30 C: 16.90 ⇓ 3.43% | 17.03 | 17.70 / 16.60 RDFOOD | 0.91 | 16.84 | Vol. 675062 D: 20.90 ⇓ 0.48% | 21.13 | 21.70 / 20.00 C: 21.00 ⇓ 0.47% | 21.09 | 21.60 / 20.60 GHAIL | 1.01 | 22.08 | Vol. 866760 D: 42.10 ⇓ 0.24% | 42.56 | 43.80 / 39.00 C: 42.40 ⇑ 0.24% | 43.10 | 44.50 / 42.20 FUEL & POWER LINDEBD | 31.71 | 144.00 | Vol. 4800 D: 614.6 ⇑ 0.08% | 617.92 | 632.0 / 612.5 PADMAOIL | 16.38 | 43.67 | Vol. 118702 D: 280.4 ⇓ 4.20% | 286.98 | 296.9 / 279.0 C: 282.6 ⇓ 3.48% | 287.57 | 295.6 / 281.2 EASTRNLUB | 6.32 | 68.68 | Vol. 1150 D: 311.3 ⇓ 7.95% | 311.30 | 318.1 / 310.2 BDWELDING | 0.33 | 16.82 | Vol. 300550 D: 20.40 ⇓ 2.39% | 20.92 | 21.40 / 20.00 C: 20.10 ⇓ 3.37% | 20.61 | 21.20 / 20.10 SUMITPOWER | 3.17 | 19.26 | Vol. 240427 D: 31.20 ⇑ 0.65% | 31.58 | 32.00 / 28.00 C: 31.10 ⇑ 1.30% | 31.38 | 31.90 / 30.80 DESCO | 2.69 | 35.96 | Vol. 114575 D: 70.70 ⇑ 0.28% | 71.54 | 72.90 / 70.60 C: 70.20 ⇑ 0.72% | 70.21 | 72.90 / 69.80 POWERGRID | 2.56 | 48.08 | Vol. 28550 D: 51.00 ⇓ 0.39% | 51.16 | 51.80 / 51.00 JAMUNAOIL | 22.78 | 50.24 | Vol. 118350 D: 220.8 ⇓ 1.56% | 222.39 | 230.0 / 218.0 C: 220.2 ⇓ 2.00% | 223.00 | 228.6 / 220.2 MPETROLEUM | 16.98 | 40.41 | Vol. 123660 D: 252.1 ⇓ 1.52% | 254.45 | 258.6 / 234.0 C: 252.0 ⇓ 0.63% | 253.00 | 254.0 / 252.0 TITASGAS | 9.20 | 46.26 | Vol. 367507 D: 77.30 ⇓ 0.39% | 77.90 | 78.80 / 70.00 C: 77.60 ⇓ 1.02% | 78.00 | 78.90 / 77.00 KPCL | 4.73 | 15.86 | Vol. 127403 D: 45.80 ⇑ 0.66% | 45.94 | 46.20 / 41.00 C: 45.80 ⇓ 0.43% | 46.15 | 46.30 / 45.60 BEDL | 1.48 | 19.43 | Vol. 719030 D: 25.10 ⇓ 3.46% | 25.81 | 26.50 / 23.50 C: 25.10 ⇓ 2.33% | 25.58 | 26.50 / 25.00 MJLBD | 2.73 | 30.24 | Vol. 47980 D: 69.80 ⇑ 0.29% | 70.18 | 70.90 / 64.00 C: 69.40 ⇓ 0.86% | 69.22 | 74.10 / 68.70 GBBPOWER | 1.86 | 22.63 | Vol. 374978 D: 24.90 ⇓ 0.40% | 25.15 | 26.00 / 22.50 C: 25.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 25.15 | 25.50 / 25.00 SPPCL | 3.81 | 23.34 | Vol. 740260 D: 48.70 ⇑ 1.67% | 48.80 | 49.70 / 43.20 C: 48.80 ⇑ 1.67% | 48.83 | 49.60 / 48.20 JUTE JUTESPINN | 2.06 | 17.42 | Vol. 10900 D: 97.70 ⇓ 4.87% | 100.46 | 110.0 / 97.40

DHAKA TRIBUNE

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2013

7

October 28, 2013 Sectotal Index: BANK: 35,203.55 ⇑ 2.68% NBFI: 19,255.37 ⇑ 1.94% INVS: 4,575.58 ⇑ 0.57% ENGG: 5,471.53 ⇓ 0.52% FOOD: 9,535.40 ⇓ 0.94% F&P: 9,646.24 ⇓ 0.87% TEXT: 3,139.75 ⇓ 0.32% PHAR: 16,772.51 ⇑ 0.34% PAPR: 950.30 ⇓ 4.17% SERV: 2,749.32 ⇓ 0.58% LEAT: 4,811.64 ⇓ 0.46% CERA: 480.83 ⇓ 0.58% CMNT: 4,170.86 ⇓ 0.65% INFO: 6,795.66 ⇑ 0.14% GINS: 8,986.03 ⇓ 0.61% LINS: 103,140.38 ⇑ 1.87% TELC: 1,293.04 ⇓ 0.69% MISC: 5,860.41 ⇑ 3.77% AGNISYSL | 1.07 | 25.52 | Vol. 285488 D: 21.10 ⇓ 0.94% | 21.28 | 21.80 / 19.90 C: 21.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 21.25 | 22.00 / 21.00 DAFODILCOM | 1.12 | 11.14 | Vol. 290124 D: 16.90 ⇑ 0.00% | 16.96 | 17.10 / 16.00 C: 16.90 ⇓ 0.59% | 16.99 | 17.20 / 16.80 AAMRATECH | 1.46 | 21.90 | Vol. 442250 D: 30.80 ⇑ 0.98% | 31.35 | 31.90 / 27.50 C: 30.90 ⇑ 1.64% | 31.24 | 31.80 / 30.80

NORTHERN | -13.80 | -6.19 | Vol. 800 D: 25.50 ⇓ 2.67% | 25.00 | 26.00 / 24.00 SONALIANSH | 5.54 | 218.80 | Vol. 8150 D: 128.4 ⇓ 1.15% | 131.04 | 134.5 / 128.0 TEXTILE AL-HAJTEX | 1.35 | 15.64 | Vol. 22375 D: 83.40 ⇓ 2.34% | 85.01 | 87.00 / 82.80 RAHIMTEXT | 5.81 | 70.85 | Vol. 1352 D: 268.3 ⇑ 0.00% | 268.15 | 270.0 / 266.0 SAIHAMTEX | 2.75 | 29.50 | Vol. 987100 D: 29.30 ⇓ 3.62% | 29.86 | 30.90 / 29.10 C: 29.30 ⇓ 2.98% | 30.03 | 30.90 / 29.20 MODERNDYE | 0.91 | 10.37 | Vol. 1950 D: 82.70 ⇑ 0.12% | 83.08 | 88.00 / 82.50 DSHGARME | 0.72 | 12.00 | Vol. 63800 D: 53.90 ⇓ 9.87% | 54.66 | 62.10 / 53.90 DULAMIACOT | -1.90 | -29.70 | Vol. 27900 D: 7.50 ⇓ 6.25% | 7.74 | 8.30 / 7.50 TALLUSPIN | 2.01 | 18.59 | Vol. 924310 D: 36.50 ⇓ 3.44% | 36.98 | 38.40 / 36.40 C: 36.30 ⇓ 4.72% | 36.55 | 38.00 / 36.00 APEXSPINN | 2.01 | 49.32 | Vol. 5000 D: 64.60 ⇑ 0.00% | 64.74 | 65.00 / 64.00 C: 66.00 ⇓ 26.67% | 66.00 | 66.00 / 66.00 MITHUNKNIT | 3.33 | 23.82 | Vol. 108800 D: 75.50 ⇓ 2.20% | 77.17 | 80.50 / 75.10 C: 75.70 ⇓ 2.07% | 77.26 | 79.80 / 74.00 DELTASPINN | 3.06 | 18.12 | Vol. 214400 D: 30.20 ⇓ 2.27% | 30.81 | 31.70 / 30.10 C: 30.50 ⇓ 0.65% | 30.77 | 31.40 / 30.40 SONARGAON | 0.27 | 34.50 | Vol. 201525 D: 16.90 ⇓ 3.98% | 17.31 | 18.20 / 16.80 C: 16.90 ⇓ 4.52% | 17.50 | 17.80 / 16.80 PRIMETEX | 1.01 | 63.54 | Vol. 272500 D: 25.30 ⇓ 3.80% | 26.05 | 27.00 / 25.20 C: 25.30 ⇓ 1.94% | 25.74 | 26.70 / 25.00 ALLTEX | -1.26 | 8.10 | Vol. 137000 D: 7.20 ⇑ 0.00% | 7.31 | 7.40 / 7.20 C: 7.30 ⇑ 0.00% | 7.38 | 7.60 / 7.20 ANLIMAYARN | 1.19 | 11.01 | Vol. 243000 D: 35.10 ⇑ 0.29% | 35.12 | 35.90 / 34.50 C: 34.20 ⇓ 7.07% | 34.20 | 34.20 / 34.20 HRTEX | 2.08 | 14.92 | Vol. 151050 D: 36.80 ⇓ 1.60% | 37.02 | 38.50 / 36.20 C: 37.00 ⇓ 2.63% | 37.00 | 37.00 / 37.00 CMCKAMAL | 1.37 | 19.31 | Vol. 1016711 D: 30.10 ⇓ 4.44% | 31.14 | 32.70 / 28.50 SAFKOSPINN | 0.95 | 21.78 | Vol. 230700 D: 23.10 ⇓ 2.12% | 23.79 | 24.70 / 22.00 C: 23.10 ⇓ 2.94% | 23.42 | 24.20 / 22.90 SQUARETEXT | 4.32 | 31.82 | Vol. 69286 D: 90.10 ⇓ 0.22% | 89.93 | 91.40 / 85.10 C: 90.00 ⇑ 1.24% | 89.08 | 91.00 / 88.40 METROSPIN | -1.00 | 19.59 | Vol. 367397 D: 16.30 ⇓ 2.40% | 16.47 | 17.10 / 16.00 C: 16.10 ⇓ 3.59% | 16.23 | 17.00 / 15.70 MAKSONSPIN | 0.16 | 20.55 | Vol. 1232853 D: 15.40 ⇓ 2.53% | 15.79 | 16.20 / 14.50 C: 15.50 ⇓ 1.90% | 15.74 | 16.20 / 15.40 DACCADYE | 1.21 | 31.13 | Vol. 428370 D: 27.60 ⇓ 0.36% | 27.91 | 28.60 / 26.00 C: 27.10 ⇓ 1.45% | 27.46 | 27.80 / 27.00 RNSPIN | 2.80 | 16.58 | Vol. 2715903 D: 29.00 ⇑ 0.35% | 29.54 | 30.20 / 27.00 C: 29.10 ⇑ 1.04% | 29.30 | 30.10 / 28.80 BXSYNTH | 0.93 | 25.42 | Vol. 500415 D: 15.70 ⇑ 3.97% | 15.94 | 16.40 / 13.90 C: 15.60 ⇑ 1.96% | 15.88 | 16.40 / 15.40 MALEKSPIN | 2.81 | 43.48 | Vol. 1571515 D: 26.80 ⇓ 2.55% | 27.47 | 28.20 / 25.00 C: 26.80 ⇓ 0.74% | 27.24 | 28.00 / 26.00 ZAHINTEX | 1.91 | 35.25 | Vol. 289100 D: 28.70 ⇓ 4.97% | 29.40 | 30.40 / 28.50 C: 29.50 ⇑ 0.34% | 29.49 | 30.50 / 29.00 SAIHAMCOT | 1.92 | 23.62 | Vol. 567500 D: 23.40 ⇓ 3.31% | 23.69 | 24.40 / 23.30 C: 23.30 ⇓ 3.72% | 23.79 | 24.50 / 23.30 GENNEXT | 1.68 | 15.15 | Vol. 10256780 D: 25.80 ⇑ 0.78% | 26.15 | 26.80 / 23.10 C: 25.90 ⇑ 1.17% | 26.25 | 26.80 / 25.70 ENVOYTEX | 3.26 | 39.26 | Vol. 5283180 D: 63.00 ⇑ 3.28% | 62.60 | 63.60 / 55.00 C: 62.80 ⇑ 3.12% | 62.43 | 63.40 / 60.00 ARGONDENIM | 1.89 | 38.86 | Vol. 2041900 D: 69.50 ⇑ 4.83% | 69.08 | 70.00 / 59.80 C: 67.90 ⇑ 3.98% | 67.86 | 69.00 / 64.90

FAMILYTEX | 3.72 | 14.68 | Vol. 292000 D: 39.00 ⇑ 0.52% | 39.06 | 39.30 / 38.80 C: 39.00 ⇓ 0.26% | 39.03 | 40.00 / 38.50 PHARMACEUTICAL & CHEMICAL AMBEEPHA | 3.94 | 26.15 | Vol. 7252 D: 246.2 ⇓ 1.01% | 247.94 | 255.7 / 245.2 C: 246.0 ⇓ 1.60% | 247.90 | 250.0 / 246.0 BXPHARMA | 3.77 | 52.55 | Vol. 319184 D: 42.10 ⇑ 2.93% | 42.19 | 42.80 / 37.00 C: 42.10 ⇑ 2.43% | 42.22 | 43.00 / 41.60 GLAXOSMITH | 20.25 | 123.32 | Vol. 3250 D: 922.7 ⇑ 4.18% | 920.00 | 925.0 / 900.0 ACI | -5.82 | 126.42 | Vol. 23304 D: 158.3 ⇑ 0.57% | 158.08 | 159.6 / 157.7 C: 157.1 ⇑ 1.35% | 158.37 | 162.0 / 157.0 RENATA | 33.57 | 138.83 | Vol. 4750 D: 695.1 ⇓ 0.49% | 701.68 | 711.4 / 690.1 RECKITTBEN | 27.16 | 78.89 | Vol. 100 D: 831.9 ⇑ 1.84% | 830.00 | 848.9 / 815.0 PHARMAID | 5.06 | 26.30 | Vol. 14550 D: 162.6 ⇓ 1.81% | 164.95 | 170.0 / 162.0 KOHINOOR | 9.52 | 10.49 | Vol. 500 D: 402.5 ⇓ 4.17% | 402.50 | 402.5 / 402.5 IBNSINA | 3.44 | 34.02 | Vol. 77160 D: 96.90 ⇓ 1.02% | 98.24 | 102.0 / 90.00 C: 96.20 ⇓ 1.94% | 97.00 | 99.00 / 100.0 LIBRAINFU | 4.64 | 1565.37 | Vol. 4000 D: 385.1 ⇓ 6.10% | 385.00 | 400.0 / 380.0 ORIONINFU | 8.72 | 1.73 | Vol. 131200 D: 40.20 ⇓ 2.43% | 40.75 | 42.00 / 39.90 C: 41.00 ⇓ 0.49% | 40.78 | 41.00 / 40.50 SQURPHARMA | 6.93 | 37.18 | Vol. 296048 D: 178.2 ⇑ 0.17% | 178.46 | 180.0 / 170.0 C: 178.1 ⇑ 0.34% | 178.02 | 179.6 / 176.0 IMAMBUTTON | -1.68 | 5.67 | Vol. 49000 D: 8.00 ⇓ 1.23% | 8.05 | 8.30 / 7.80 C: 8.00 ⇓ 3.61% | 8.25 | 9.00 / 7.50 KEYACOSMET | 1.55 | 21.54 | Vol. 1485429 D: 24.00 ⇑ 3.90% | 23.93 | 24.40 / 20.80 C: 24.10 ⇑ 4.33% | 24.08 | 24.40 / 23.50 BERGERPBL | 32.46 | 100.20 | Vol. 450 D: 822.5 ⇑ 2.14% | 822.22 | 846.0 / 800.0 ACIFORMULA | 3.33 | 38.08 | Vol. 30500 D: 73.50 ⇓ 2.00% | 74.29 | 76.00 / 73.20 C: 76.90 ⇑ 0.79% | 74.94 | 76.90 / 74.20 MARICO | 27.53 | 62.47 | Vol. 38500 D: 797.2 ⇑ 2.27% | 781.02 | 800.0 / 765.0 C: 796.0 ⇓ 6.35% | 796.00 | 800.0 / 792.0 BEACONPHAR | 0.04 | 12.01 | Vol. 1108925 D: 11.30 ⇓ 2.59% | 11.35 | 11.70 / 10.50 C: 11.30 ⇓ 3.42% | 11.31 | 11.70 / 11.00 ACTIVEFINE | 3.23 | 13.89 | Vol. 1201922 D: 91.70 ⇓ 1.71% | 93.02 | 94.70 / 85.00 C: 91.60 ⇓ 2.14% | 92.60 | 93.60 / 91.40 SALVOCHEM | 0.68 | 10.57 | Vol. 304282 D: 19.50 ⇑ 0.00% | 19.83 | 20.20 / 17.60 C: 19.50 ⇓ 0.51% | 19.76 | 20.10 / 19.40 GHCL | 2.14 | 57.31 | Vol. 287500 D: 47.80 ⇓ 3.24% | 48.86 | 50.60 / 47.70 C: 48.30 ⇓ 3.01% | 49.18 | 50.00 / 47.90 ORIONPHARM | 5.02 | 68.68 | Vol. 435340 D: 53.60 ⇑ 0.00% | 54.34 | 55.50 / 49.00 C: 53.60 ⇑ 0.37% | 54.20 | 55.20 / 53.30 JMISMDL | 1.12 | 12.83 | Vol. 225500 D: 200.3 ⇓ 5.83% | 208.13 | 222.0 / 198.1 C: 197.5 ⇓ 7.28% | 204.23 | 219.9 / 196.0 PAPER & PACKAGING HAKKANIPUL | 0.64 | 11.02 | Vol. 21000 D: 27.50 ⇓ 6.78% | 27.78 | 30.00 / 27.40 C: 28.20 ⇓ 4.41% | 28.24 | 28.40 / 27.60

SERVICE SAMORITA | 2.31 | 17.25 | Vol. 16000 D: 90.70 ⇓ 2.58% | 91.81 | 95.00 / 90.00 SAPORTL | 1.23 | 38.39 | Vol. 334001 D: 26.50 ⇓ 3.28% | 27.17 | 28.10 / 26.40 C: 26.50 ⇓ 2.21% | 26.87 | 27.70 / 26.40 EHL | 2.87 | 18.48 | Vol. 255981 D: 50.10 ⇓ 2.34% | 51.10 | 52.60 / 49.90 C: 50.40 ⇓ 2.51% | 50.72 | 51.50 / 50.00 LEATHER APEXTANRY | 6.57 | 69.38 | Vol. 54800 D: 108.7 ⇓ 1.36% | 109.56 | 113.0 / 108.6 C: 108.6 ⇓ 1.27% | 109.44 | 110.2 / 108.0 BATASHOE | 49.12 | 135.53 | Vol. 8600 D: 669.5 ⇑ 0.48% | 667.09 | 673.3 / 660.0 APEXADELFT | 23.01 | 203.26 | Vol. 24800 D: 360.3 ⇑ 0.06% | 363.02 | 368.0 / 358.0 SAMATALETH | -0.07 | 12.08 | Vol. 1000 D: 12.90 ⇑ 3.20% | 12.90 | 12.90 / 12.90 LEGACYFOOT | 0.63 | 17.19 | Vol. 371807 D: 33.50 ⇓ 8.22% | 35.16 | 37.80 / 32.90 C: 33.20 ⇓ 8.79% | 34.42 | 38.00 / 32.90 CERAMIC MONNOCERA | 0.71 | 96.33 | Vol. 74350 D: 33.20 ⇓ 0.30% | 33.92 | 36.60 / 33.00 C: 33.80 ⇓ 5.06% | 33.93 | 35.10 / 32.80 STANCERAM | 1.07 | 15.97 | Vol. 9500 D: 38.50 ⇑ 2.67% | 38.56 | 39.20 / 38.20 C: 38.00 ⇓ 14.61% | 38.00 | 38.00 / 38.00 FUWANGCER | 0.72 | 13.97 | Vol. 376160 D: 18.10 ⇓ 4.23% | 18.53 | 19.00 / 18.00 C: 18.30 ⇓ 1.61% | 18.73 | 19.40 / 18.20 SPCERAMICS | 0.62 | 30.92 | Vol. 439798 D: 15.90 ⇑ 1.92% | 16.19 | 16.70 / 15.00 C: 15.90 ⇑ 0.63% | 16.40 | 16.90 / 15.30 RAKCERAMIC | 1.98 | 16.76 | Vol. 175511 D: 49.50 ⇓ 0.20% | 49.88 | 50.60 / 45.00 C: 49.60 ⇓ 0.60% | 49.64 | 50.00 / 49.50 CEMENT HEIDELBCEM | 22.85 | 111.50 | Vol. 54970 D: 350.5 ⇓ 1.16% | 355.30 | 361.6 / 348.0 C: 347.9 ⇓ 3.36% | 349.06 | 355.0 / 346.0 CONFIDCEM | 6.23 | 90.76 | Vol. 156208 D: 119.8 ⇑ 1.87% | 121.40 | 123.6 / 110.0 C: 119.5 ⇑ 1.96% | 120.76 | 122.5 / 118.5 MEGHNACEM | 6.28 | 33.81 | Vol. 114100 D: 119.9 ⇓ 2.52% | 122.15 | 124.7 / 119.5 C: 119.5 ⇑ 1.88% | 120.05 | 122.0 / 119.5 ARAMITCEM | 3.03 | 14.65 | Vol. 40500 D: 66.80 ⇑ 0.45% | 67.22 | 68.40 / 66.50 C: 67.50 ⇓ 2.17% | 68.99 | 70.00 / 67.00 LAFSURCEML | 1.60 | 7.22 | Vol. 711500 D: 31.50 ⇓ 0.32% | 31.40 | 32.00 / 31.10 C: 31.60 ⇓ 1.25% | 31.43 | 31.70 / 31.20 MICEMENT | 4.48 | 37.67 | Vol. 218188 D: 90.40 ⇑ 0.44% | 91.73 | 93.50 / 84.00 C: 90.90 ⇑ 1.45% | 91.34 | 93.00 / 90.70 PREMIERCEM | 3.59 | 22.92 | Vol. 279600 D: 106.4 ⇑ 3.80% | 106.42 | 107.9 / 104.3 C: 106.5 ⇑ 4.41% | 106.30 | 108.0 / 104.5 IT IINDUSTRIES ISNLTD | 0.28 | 17.31 | Vol. 133365 D: 17.50 ⇓ 6.42% | 17.85 | 18.80 / 17.00 C: 17.40 ⇓ 7.94% | 17.77 | 18.40 / 17.10 BDCOM | 1.00 | 14.91 | Vol. 419805 D: 25.20 ⇑ 4.56% | 25.48 | 26.30 / 21.70 C: 25.00 ⇑ 2.46% | 24.23 | 26.00 / 22.50 INTECH | 0.94 | 10.08 | Vol. 369952 D: 15.40 ⇓ 1.91% | 15.70 | 16.10 / 15.00 C: 15.20 ⇓ 2.56% | 15.35 | 16.30 / 15.00

GENERAL INSURANCE BGIC | 1.65 | 20.33 | Vol. 98538 D: 29.40 ⇑ 2.80% | 29.69 | 30.00 / 26.00 C: 28.80 ⇑ 0.00% | 28.89 | 29.40 / 28.50 GREENDELT | 4.05 | 64.44 | Vol. 33805 D: 91.30 ⇓ 1.51% | 93.24 | 95.60 / 90.00 C: 90.10 ⇓ 1.10% | 90.05 | 90.10 / 90.00 UNITEDINS | 2.47 | 21.04 | Vol. 11500 D: 43.00 ⇑ 1.90% | 43.13 | 43.90 / 42.60 PEOPLESINS | 2.05 | 20.72 | Vol. 409915 D: 33.20 ⇑ 1.53% | 33.68 | 35.00 / 32.20 C: 32.70 ⇑ 1.24% | 33.31 | 34.90 / 32.60 EASTERNINS | 2.22 | 35.88 | Vol. 24319 D: 38.70 ⇓ 2.76% | 39.47 | 40.70 / 36.20 C: 35.70 ⇓ 8.46% | 35.78 | 38.00 / 35.10 JANATAINS | 7.84 | 170.69 | Vol. 4935 D: 243.3 ⇓ 2.89% | 249.21 | 256.0 / 242.8 C: 252.0 ⇓ 0.20% | 251.35 | 254.5 / 250.0 PHENIXINS | 2.70 | 20.96 | Vol. 27065 D: 40.60 ⇑ 0.50% | 40.81 | 41.10 / 37.90 EASTLAND | 4.06 | 23.29 | Vol. 56800 D: 45.80 ⇓ 2.35% | 46.65 | 49.00 / 45.60 C: 46.30 ⇓ 2.32% | 46.25 | 46.30 / 46.20 CENTRALINS | 1.54 | 19.04 | Vol. 42980 D: 27.80 ⇓ 1.77% | 28.08 | 29.50 / 27.10 KARNAPHULI | 1.56 | 19.42 | Vol. 57720 D: 22.90 ⇑ 1.78% | 23.02 | 23.40 / 22.00 RUPALIINS | 2.76 | 23.38 | Vol. 63560 D: 31.30 ⇓ 0.95% | 31.70 | 32.30 / 30.00 C: 31.00 ⇓ 0.64% | 31.41 | 32.00 / 31.00 FEDERALINS | 1.10 | 10.98 | Vol. 171443 D: 23.20 ⇑ 1.75% | 23.06 | 23.50 / 22.00 C: 23.00 ⇑ 0.44% | 22.95 | 23.20 / 22.00 RELIANCINS | 3.93 | 61.52 | Vol. 4940 D: 69.50 ⇑ 0.14% | 69.51 | 70.50 / 69.00 PURABIGEN | 1.05 | 18.71 | Vol. 123100 D: 21.60 ⇑ 0.47% | 21.93 | 22.40 / 20.00 PRAGATIINS | 2.01 | 50.30 | Vol. 41900 D: 55.10 ⇑ 1.66% | 55.32 | 55.90 / 54.90 PRIMEINSUR | 2.14 | 14.14 | Vol. 16825 D: 31.90 ⇑ 1.27% | 32.06 | 32.50 / 30.60 C: 31.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 31.00 | 31.00 / 31.00 PIONEERINS | 3.11 | 23.84 | Vol. 20000 D: 66.50 ⇑ 0.91% | 66.60 | 67.00 / 65.70 MERCINS | 1.53 | 14.50 | Vol. 95172 D: 28.50 ⇑ 1.79% | 28.65 | 29.10 / 27.00 C: 28.00 ⇓ 3.45% | 28.00 | 28.00 / 28.00 AGRANINS | 1.73 | 14.39 | Vol. 38730 D: 27.40 ⇓ 1.44% | 27.63 | 28.60 / 26.50 GLOBALINS | 1.09 | 11.78 | Vol. 48310 D: 28.70 ⇓ 0.35% | 29.00 | 30.20 / 27.00 NITOLINS | 2.59 | 15.41 | Vol. 29258 D: 35.20 ⇓ 1.68% | 35.22 | 35.80 / 33.00 ASIAPACINS | 1.84 | 13.76 | Vol. 5000 D: 28.70 ⇑ 2.14% | 28.75 | 28.90 / 28.50 C: 29.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 29.00 | 29.00 / 29.00 SONARBAINS | 1.68 | 13.38 | Vol. 81941 D: 24.20 ⇓ 0.82% | 24.53 | 25.10 / 23.20 C: 24.80 ⇓ 0.80% | 24.80 | 25.00 / 24.60 PARAMOUNT | 1.26 | 13.19 | Vol. 59539 D: 23.60 ⇓ 1.26% | 24.02 | 24.80 / 23.50 CITYGENINS | 1.65 | 14.26 | Vol. 35800 D: 27.90 ⇑ 1.45% | 27.99 | 28.50 / 27.50 C: 27.80 ⇓ 0.36% | 27.65 | 27.80 / 27.50 CONTININS | 1.41 | 15.68 | Vol. 476500 D: 29.20 ⇓ 4.89% | 29.99 | 30.70 / 29.00 C: 29.80 ⇓ 2.30% | 29.91 | 30.50 / 29.20 TAKAFULINS | 2.19 | 15.17 | Vol. 131806 D: 50.90 ⇓ 1.36% | 52.17 | 55.00 / 46.50 C: 49.50 ⇑ 0.00% | 49.00 | 49.50 / 49.50 STANDARINS | 2.58 | 13.99 | Vol. 36679 D: 40.90 ⇑ 4.34% | 40.80 | 42.80 / 38.00 C: 41.90 ⇑ 4.75% | 41.90 | 41.90 / 41.90 NORTHRNINS | 1.77 | 11.15 | Vol. 31669 D: 43.10 ⇑ 1.65% | 43.33 | 44.80 / 38.20 C: 42.00 ⇓ 0.94% | 42.02 | 42.10 / 42.00 REPUBLIC | 2.14 | 12.42 | Vol. 762061 D: 39.40 ⇑ 1.03% | 40.18 | 41.50 / 37.00 C: 40.20 ⇑ 2.03% | 40.30 | 40.60 / 40.20

ASIAINS | 1.56 | 17.34 | Vol. 70586 D: 26.70 ⇓ 0.37% | 26.86 | 27.30 / 26.00 C: 26.60 ⇓ 1.48% | 26.83 | 27.00 / 26.60 ISLAMIINS | 1.29 | 11.96 | Vol. 3500 D: 34.00 ⇑ 2.72% | 34.00 | 34.40 / 33.00 PROVATIINS | 1.90 | 14.30 | Vol. 34986 D: 28.50 ⇓ 4.04% | 28.94 | 29.90 / 27.50 C: 28.20 ⇓ 2.76% | 27.99 | 28.20 / 26.10 DHAKAINS | 2.84 | 18.02 | Vol. 83500 D: 38.60 ⇓ 0.26% | 39.14 | 40.00 / 38.30 C: 38.70 ⇑ 1.84% | 38.70 | 38.70 / 38.70 LIFE INSURANCE NATLIFEINS | 12.34 | 80.99 | Vol. 8428 D: 242.4 ⇑ 1.81% | 241.96 | 244.9 / 220.0 C: 248.0 ⇑ 3.77% | 248.00 | 248.0 / 248.0 DELTALIFE | 38.53 | 189.40 | Vol. 23359 D: 4748 ⇑ 3.88% | 4741 | 4758 / 4410 C: 4807 ⇑ 3.94% | 4794 | 4812 / 4700 SANDHANINS | 2.39 | 28.22 | Vol. 22570 D: 66.00 ⇑ 0.46% | 66.46 | 68.60 / 65.60 C: 68.00 ⇑ 4.29% | 68.03 | 68.30 / 67.50 POPULARLIF | 3.70 | 715.41 | Vol. 7630 D: 168.0 ⇑ 3.00% | 167.82 | 170.0 / 150.0 FAREASTLIF | 9.21 | 60.79 | Vol. 217955 D: 87.00 ⇓ 0.68% | 87.83 | 90.00 / 85.00 C: 87.50 ⇓ 0.68% | 87.91 | 89.90 / 87.10 MEGHNALIFE | 10.82 | 48.87 | Vol. 10650 D: 95.60 ⇑ 0.95% | 95.90 | 97.00 / 92.40 C: 95.00 ⇓ 0.11% | 95.04 | 95.10 / 95.00 PROGRESLIF | 2.30 | 31.45 | Vol. 6500 D: 95.30 ⇓ 3.05% | 95.38 | 96.40 / 94.70 PRAGATILIF | 0.60 | 30.15 | Vol. 27500 D: 105.8 ⇑ 0.00% | 106.98 | 108.1 / 105.1 PRIMELIFE | 5.51 | 27.10 | Vol. 26200 D: 91.50 ⇑ 1.67% | 90.19 | 91.80 / 81.00 C: 87.60 ⇑ 0.57% | 87.60 | 87.60 / 87.60 RUPALILIFE | 3.75 | 31.25 | Vol. 29500 D: 91.10 ⇑ 0.66% | 91.19 | 92.00 / 87.50 PADMALIFE | 1.63 | 25.76 | Vol. 63200 D: 55.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 55.43 | 57.30 / 52.00 C: 55.00 ⇑ 0.55% | 55.23 | 56.00 / 54.60 SUNLIFEINS | 0.00 | 0.00 | Vol. 94275 D: 53.30 ⇓ 0.56% | 53.78 | 55.40 / 48.30 C: 53.50 ⇑ 1.71% | 53.30 | 53.50 / 53.20 TELECOM GP | 12.96 | 26.26 | Vol. 347400 D: 189.3 ⇑ 0.21% | 190.91 | 193.9 / 188.4 C: 188.7 ⇓ 0.74% | 190.92 | 193.6 / 188.1 BSCCL | 5.82 | 26.38 | Vol. 251110 D: 183.5 ⇓ 1.08% | 187.24 | 191.5 / 170.0 C: 184.1 ⇓ 0.54% | 186.92 | 194.0 / 183.1 TRAVEL & LEISURE UNITEDAIR | 1.10 | 12.87 | Vol. 3201262 D: 15.20 ⇑ 0.66% | 15.38 | 15.60 / 14.00 C: 15.30 ⇑ 0.00% | 15.40 | 15.70 / 15.20 UNIQUEHRL | 4.02 | 86.29 | Vol. 247985 D: 77.70 ⇓ 0.51% | 78.64 | 80.50 / 72.00 C: 77.90 ⇓ 0.38% | 78.81 | 80.30 / 77.70 MISCELLANEOUS ARAMIT | 16.07 | 99.93 | Vol. 17100 D: 265.1 ⇓ 1.08% | 271.75 | 280.0 / 263.0 BSC | 1.77 | 565.82 | Vol. 72495 D: 423.3 ⇓ 0.59% | 429.11 | 436.0 / 422.5 C: 424.8 ⇓ 0.63% | 426.98 | 436.0 / 423.0 GQBALLPEN | 6.55 | 250.45 | Vol. 22226 D: 141.9 ⇓ 0.77% | 142.45 | 144.7 / 135.0 C: 142.3 ⇓ 2.13% | 142.48 | 144.9 / 142.0 USMANIAGL | 3.80 | 29.92 | Vol. 50900 D: 117.5 ⇓ 1.84% | 120.64 | 126.0 / 116.6 C: 117.6 ⇓ 1.51% | 118.89 | 122.8 / 117.1 BEXIMCO | 3.24 | 86.74 | Vol. 2807203 D: 28.90 ⇑ 7.84% | 28.60 | 29.30 / 24.20 C: 29.00 ⇑ 7.41% | 28.58 | 29.50 / 27.20 SINOBANGLA | 1.75 | 21.01 | Vol. 158000 D: 20.30 ⇓ 1.93% | 20.86 | 21.60 / 20.10 C: 20.10 ⇓ 3.37% | 20.43 | 22.00 / 20.00 MIRACLEIND | 0.14 | 14.90 | Vol. 278000 D: 14.00 ⇓ 6.04% | 14.21 | 15.20 / 13.90 C: 14.00 ⇓ 5.41% | 14.13 | 14.80 / 13.60 BOND IBBLPBOND | 0.00 | 1000.00 | Vol. 10 D: 955.3 ⇓ 2.72% | 955.25 | 955.3 / 955.3 ACIZCBOND | 0.00 | 1000.00 | Vol. 80 D: 880.5 ⇑ 0.00% | 880.50 | 880.5 / 880.5 C: 876.5 ⇑ 0.40% | 876.67 | 880.0 / 875.0

8

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2013

Japan’s bank executives knew about gangster loans n AFP, Tokyo Mizuho Financial Group executives knew the firm was doing business with gangsters but failed to stop it, a panel said yesterday, as Japan’s finance minister slammed the banking giant over the affair.

One of Japan’s biggest banks, Mizuho has been under fire since it emerged last month that it processed hundreds of loans worth about $2m for the country’s notorious yakuza crime syndicates.

The scandal has made headlines for weeks in Japanese media, and reportedly sparked a police investigation.

On Monday, a panel of lawyers hired by Mizuho to probe the transactions said that “many officials and board members were aware of, or were in a position to be aware of, the issue”.

“However they failed to recognise it as a problem, believing that the compliance division ... was taking care of it,” said the panel’s 100-page report.

The company also submitted its own report to regulators Monday, and said 54 former and current executives would be punished, including Mizuho Bank chairman Takashi Tsukamoto. He would step down from his post but stay on as head of the parent company.

Mizuho Financial Group chief executive Yasuhiro Sato - who has acknowledged he knew about the loans but has refused to quit - would work without pay for six months, while other managers would also take wage cuts.

Finance Minister Taro Aso yesterday slammed the transactions as a “huge problem”, and said Mizuho’s initial claims to regulators that executives knew nothing about the shady loans was “the worst thing a bank can do”.

The bank later admitted top executives were “in a position to know” about the mob business.

“We have caused a lot of trouble for many people, including shareholders and other stakeholders,” Sato told reporters in Tokyo

GSMA elects Telenor President and CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas as chairman

n GSMA, London

The GSMA yesterday elected Jon Fredrik Baksaas, President and CEO of Telenor Group, to serve as GSMA Chairman for the remainder of the current Board term through December 2014.

In this role, Baksaas will oversee the strategic direction of the organisation, which represents nearly 800 of the world’s mobile operators, as well as 250 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem. Baksaas had served as Deputy Chairman since January 2011. He has worked in the telecom industry for 25 years and has been the CEO of Telenor since 2002.

Mizuho Financial Group's Mizuho Bank headquarters is pictured in Tokyo as he bowed deeply, in a typical gesture by Japanese executives dealing with a crisis.

“Again, I apologise sincerely ... The problem was that we weren’t aware or sensitive enough to loans that were being done by an affiliate company,” he added.

The panel’s report yesterday called on Mizuho to overhaul its compliance department, noting that the transactions were made via a complicated scheme involving the affiliate firm.

“In a nutshell, they failed to recognise the loans as Mizuho’s own and relied on the

REUTERS

other company for dealing with the issue,” panel head Hideki Nakagome told reporters.

Like the Italian mafia or Chinese triads, the yakuza engage in activities ranging from gambling, drugs, and prostitution to loan sharking, protection rackets, white-collar crime and business conducted through front companies.

The gangs, which themselves are not illegal, have historically been tolerated by the authorities, although there are periodic clampdowns on some of their less savoury activities. l

Greeks can give no more, president tells creditors n AFP, Athens Austerity-hit Greeks have nothing left to give, Greek President Karolos Papoulias told the country’s EU-IMF creditors yesterday ahead of a fiscal audit tied to fresh loans. “(Greeks) today have given what they can to overcome the crisis, and this must be respected by Europe,” 84-year-old Papoulias said at the close of a military parade in Thessaloniki honouring Greece’s resistance to fascism.

“The Greek people can give no more ... this is our message. And they should not think that we will succumb to blackmail.

(We) never have,” said Papoulias, who often admonishes the country’s EU-IMF creditors

in his speeches.

A team of auditors from Greece’s socalled creditor troika - the European Union, International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank - are to resume an inspection of the country’s bailout reforms early in November.

Their report will determine the release of a 1bn euro ($1.38bn) loan instalment from Greece’s outstanding rescue package.

According to the troika’s estimates, Greece is facing a financial shortfall of 10.9bn euros by 2015, including 4.4bn euros in 2014.

They are expected to push for more cuts, but the fragile coalition government of Antonis Samaras has warned that the recession-hit country cannot afford to lower wag-

es and pensions any further.

Greece plunged into recession in 2008, when the global economic crisis hit, and rising borrowing costs on its massive debt forced the country to seek financial aid in 2010.

So far, the EU and International Monetary Fund have committed a total of 240 billion euros in two bailout deals to Greece. Banks have taken losses on debt owed.

In order to tap the bailout loans, the Greek government had to raise taxes while cutting benefits, wages, and jobs over the past three years.

Since 2008, the unemployment rate has tripled to 27.6% while the economy has contracted by 22%. l

‘I am looking forward to working with Jon Fredrik and the entire GSMA Board to develop global and regional programmes that will drive future growth and investment in mobile services, and deliver the social and economic benefits that mobile can provide to men and women around the world’

“I am honoured to have been elected as Chairman of the GSMA,” commented Baksaas. “I look forward to working closely with the rest of the Board, the GSMA team and our entire membership to advance important industry issues. It is truly inspiring to work in an industry that has such a profound and increasing impact on the people and societies we serve.”

“Connecting even more of the world’s population to the mobile Internet is a top priority, and to address this, the GSMA will continue to focus on the future evolution of our networks, the adoption of secure and interoperable new services and advocate for the needs of our industry to governments and regulators,” said Baksaas.

“We are at a critical juncture in the development of the mobile communications industry, as we see an ever-increasing number of people, devices and things becoming connected by mobile,” said Anne Bouverot, Director General, GSMA. “I am looking forward to working with Jon Fredrik and the entire GSMA Board to develop global and regional programmes that will drive future growth and investment in mobile services, and deliver the social and economic benefits that mobile can provide to men and women around the world.” l