November 01, 2013

Weekend Tribune A generation in the shadows

Kartik 17, 1420 Zilhajj 26, 1434 Regd. No. DA 6238 Vol 1 No 218

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EC mulls polls on January 9 Schedule likely on November 25 after meeting the president n Mohammad Zakaria The Election Commission has planned to announce the polls schedule of the next parliamentary elections on November 25 and hold the elections on January 9.

The chief election commissioner and the four election commissioners are considering to meet the president between November 17 and 24 to fix the date for announcing the polls schedule, an EC official said.

Election Commissioner Mohammad Abu Hafiz yesterday told the Dhaka Tribune that the commission had completed all preparations for the election process to hold the polls before the constitution-stipulated deadline ends on January 24.

The next parliamentary elections would be held by January 14, he said.

“The commission will complete the whole election process keeping 10-12 days’ time in hand,” Commissioner Hafiz told the Dhaka Tribune.

The EC kept the extra time to deal with postponed elections, if any, he said.

Hafiz, however, said the EC would fix the date of the next parliamentary elections at a meeting of the full commission considering all factors and situations and announce the polls schedule keeping 55 days in hand before the constitutional deadline.

According to the plans, the last date for filing nomination papers is set on December 10; nominations will be scrutinised on December 11-12. The last date for withdrawing nomination is December 18, an EC official said.

Seeking anonymity, a senior official

of the EC told the Dhaka Tribune that the commission had already sent letters to the ministries of education, and primary and mass education, requesting them to complete all examinations by the first week of December.

The commission had also sent letters to all district and upazila election officers to complete all voters’ list related works, including changing of voters’ areas, by November 5, the official said.

The commission will complete the whole election process keeping 10-12 days’ time in hand A number of EC officials told the Dhaka Tribune that the commission had prepared the area-based voter list and completed other necessary procedures and the draft electoral code of conduct in line with the amended Representation of the People Order. The commission has also prepared a draft list of 40,000 probable polling centres for the Jatiya Sangsad polls.

The two major political parties – the ruling Awami League and the main opposition BNP – have, meanwhile, been at opposing ends over the issue of pollstime government. The Awami League wants to hold the next parliamentary elections under an all-party interim administration and is considering a 20-member cabinet for the task. The BNP, on the other hand, has been reiterating its demand for a non-party caretaker administration to hold the polls.

The Awami League has already declared to start selling nomination papers from November 10. l

Abdur Razzak celebrates with teammates as he sends back Kiwi batsman Grant Elliott to the pavilion in their second ODI at the SBNS in Mirpur yesterday

Tigers feast on Kiwis to seal ODI series n Raihan Mahmood Bangladesh’s dominance over New Zealand in One Day International cricket continued as the hosts snatched a 40-run win in the second ODI, taking an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three match series at the Sher-eBangla National Stadium yesterday.

Batting first, Bangladesh were bowled out for 247 in 49 overs, but the bowlers put in a superb performance to restrict the visitors to 207 in 46.4 overs.

Back in October 2010, Bangladesh had whitewashed the Kiwis 4-0, and now they have the chance to claim another clean sweep on Sunday at Fatullah.

The win marked Bangladesh’s 15th ODI series win, with most of them coming against Zimbabwe.

Bangladesh have so far claimed seven series wins against Zimbabwe, twice against New Zealand, and the West Indies and once each against Scotland, Ireland and Kenya to go along with triangular series triumphs over Kenya and Zimbabwe.

Mashrafe Moratza spearheaded the Bangladesh bowling attack, taking

three wickets for 43 runs and had done the early damage maintaining good line and length.

Bangladeshi spinners on the other hand, shook off the fears of a dew-laden ball as off-spinner Sohag Gazi, who took up the new ball at the opposite end of Mashrafe, took three for 34 while part-timer Mominul Haque chipped in with 2/13.

Earlier, Bangladesh had won the toss and chose to bat first. The Tigers were off steadily with Tamim Iqbal and debutant Shurawardy Shuvo scoring 63 in the first wicket. Tamim added 58 at the top while Shuvo laboured to 25 off 68.

Intellectuals killing case verdict Sunday Politically connected IGWs n vanish into thin air Muktasree Chakma Sathi

The International Crimes Tribunal is set to deliver verdicts on Sunday in cases against fugitive war crimes accused Chowdhury Mueen Uddin and Ashrafuzzaman Khan for their alleged involvement in crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War. ICT 2 yesterday fixed the date after it had completed the trials in absentia on September 30.

The tribunal of Justice ObaidulHasan, Justice Mozibur Rahman Miah and Justice Shahinur Islam had earlier sentenced former Jamaat-e-Islami leader AbulKalam Azad alias BachchuRazakar to death after trying him in absentia.

Al-Badr leaders Chowdhury Mueen Uddin and Ashrafuzzaman Khan are accused of involvement with the occupation Pakistan army’s plan to pick up and kill leading Bangalee in-

INSIDE News

3 Law enforcers are occupied with the activities of political parties and are paying less attention to other crimes.

Nation

7 Eight killings in just one week in Cox’s Bazar is indicative of the drastically deteriorating law and order situation in the area.

International

8 An official at global chemical weapons watchdog said Thursday Syria completed destruction of critical equipment for producing chemical weapons and filling munitions with poison gas.

Sport

13 Mashrafe, who returned to the national side after almost a year in the ongoing ODI series against New Zealand, has so far been impressive and his presence has given the Bangladesh bowling the edge it has so often lacked with new ball and in pace department.

Ashrafuzzaman

Mueen Uddin

tellectuals with an aim of crippling the nation at birth.

Mueen from Chanpur village under Daganbhuian of Feni and Ashraf from Chhotabhatara under Moksudpur of Gopalganj were active leaders of IslamiChhatraSangha, the then student wing of Jamaat, and students of Dhaka University. Mueen was also a staff reporter of Bangla daily Purbadesh.

In 1971, Mueenwas in charge of al-Badr’soperations and Ashraf the chief executor of the plan to eliminate intel-

lectuals, according to the prosecution.

Mueen and Ashraf, now believed to be in London and New York, were indicted for 11 charges,such as abduction and killing of 18 intellectuals, including Shahidullah Kaiser and Selina Parvin, between December 11 and 15, 1971.

The prosecution’s probe report says among the 18 intellectuals, nine were Dhaka University teachers, six journalists and three physicians.

The prosecution formally submitted 16 charges against themon April 25under section 3(2) of the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973 for crimes against humanity and peace, genocide, killing members of a group, and rape.

On May 11, the tribunal ordered a public announcement in newspapers, asking the two to appear before it within 10 days of the publication. The two, however, did not comply with the tribunal orders published in dailies the next day.  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

n Muhammad Zahidul Islam At least two international gateway operators, backed or owned by influential political leaders, have allegedly vanished into thin air without paying billions of takas that they owed the country’s telecom regulator.

Another operator has been reportedly trying to change its name because it leads to a minister of the current government.

Sources said these IGW operators with close links with ruling party leaders, had been trying to move to safety at the eleventh hour of the government’s tenure because they felt their businesses might face retaliation if a new party took over.

Sources also said some of these firms owed more than Tk9.11bn to the

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BRTC), the mobile operators and the Interconnection Exchanges (ICXs).

An IGW is a telephone gateway through which calls are routed to get cheaper rates on international long distance charges or to make calls through international networks.

An IGW earns $0.03 per minute of an incoming international call. According to existing regulations, it must share 51.75% of that amount to the BTRC, 20% with the mobile operators whose services are being used for completing that call, and 15% with the ICXs. The residual 13.25% goes to the IGW. However, there are allegations that some of the IGWs have not paid single dime to either BTRC, or the mobile  PAGE 2 COLUMN 3

Students innocent victims of mindless politics n Mushfique Wadud

Frequent and long political shutdowns are putting a great pressure on all students, making it hard for them to continue their education.

Students are by far the worst sufferers of the politics of hartals. Hartals and violent politics have been affecting students since the beginning of academic year 2013. The first victims were this year’s Secondary School Certificate examinees.

At least five SSC exams between February and March were postponed as the opposition called countrywide hartals. There were regionals hartals in some parts of the country as well.

Hartals also affected this year’s Higher Secondary Examinations. At least 32 papers of the HSC examinations were rescheduled for nine countrywide hartals. Besides, there were half-day hartals in some parts of the country during almost every exam.

In Chittagong board, the schedule of

COST OF HARTAL 32 papers in HSC rescheduled for nine countrywide hartals At least 5 SSC exam schedules rearranged JSC, JDC exams uncertain O, A level examinations rescheduled: students take exams at midnight Several hundred contact hours in schools, colleges and universities lost Schools taking two semester exams instead of three English second paper test was changed four times.

This year, the pass rates and GPA 5 in HSC dropped significantly, apparently due to violent political conditions.

O level and A level examinees also suffered a lot due to hartals. Several of their examinations were rescheduled and students had to take some of their exams at midnight for hartals.

Several hundred contact hours were lost in schools, colleges and universities. In the beginning of the year,

the government decided that there would be two semester examinations in schools instead of three. But thanks to hartals, even the syllabus for the two examinations could not be completed.

Schools could not make up the losses even by doing make up classes in weekends. Many teachers reported that students might take their annual examinations without completing the syllabus.

Many private universities had to curtail their semesters as classes could not be held. Classes in colleges and

public universities were also affected due to hartals and violent politics.

The two million Junior School Certificate and Junior Dakhil Certificate examinees and three million Primary Terminal examinees do not know if they would be able take their examinations in November.

The JSC exams are scheduled to begin from November 4 and the PTEs from November 20.

The opposition alliance has already hinted that it would call hartals from November 4 to 6.

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid on several occasions urged political parties not to call any programmes that affect students.

While speaking at a programme in Sylhet, Nahid urged the opposition to withdraw hartals for November 4 to 6 in the interest of JSC and JDC students and annual examinations in schools.

Campaign for Popular Education Executive Director Raheda K Choudhury  PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

MUMIT M

They were followed by two identical 31-run innings by Mominul Haque and Mushfiqur Rahim and some timely hitting by Mahmudullah and Sohag Gazi lower down the order, allowed Bangladesh to reach 247.

James Neesham and Corey Anderson took four wickets each for the visitors.

In reply, the Black Caps lost wickets at regular intervals and the efforts of Ross Taylor (45), Corey Anderson (37), James Neesham (25) and Nathan McCullum (27) were not enough to prevent the series defeat.

Sohag Gazi was adjudged man-ofthe-match. l

Ban Ki-moon concerned over violence

n Tribune Report UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed his concern about the latest wave of deadly violence in Bangladesh ahead of parliamentary elections due

by January.

“He calls on all concerned to respect the rule of law, exercise restraint and to express their views peacefully,” Ban’s spokesperson said in a statement issued yesterday.

Ban was hopeful that the recent steps to initiate dialogue continued and urged all parties to ensure an environment conducive to credible and peaceful elections, the spokesperson added.

Earlier this year, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Oscar Fernández-Taranco said the South Asian country was witnessing “a significant increase” in the number of violent incidents and that more than 30 people had died and 60 others injured in clashes between police and protesters in the capital.

At the time, he had called on all stakeholders to work together to create a conducive environment that would allow free, fair, credible, inclusive and non-violent elections to take place. l

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Friday, November 1, 2013

'Level playing field difficult under party govt' n Mohammad Zakaria The Election Commission would face difficulties in ensuring level playing field for all candidates during the next parliamentary elections, if the polls took place under a partisan government, election analysts and observers told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

They said the proposed draft of electoral code of conduct was good, but its proper implementation would be difficult if the elections took place under a partisan government.

The EC has prepared the draft electoral code of conduct, restricting the prime minister, the leader of the opposition, the speaker, ministers, lawmakers, city corporation mayors and beneficiaries of the government from holding political programmes using government facilities during the elections.

The draft also mentioned that the “pre-election period” would start from the announcement of the polls schedule.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad on Wednesday said the polls-time government would only conduct routine works.

The election-time government will not take any policymaking or long-term decision after the announcement of the polls schedule until the publishing of the results through gazette notification, he added.

The CEC also said government beneficiaries would not receive facilities after the polls schedule was announced.

Former election commissioner M Sakhawat Hussain said it would be difficult for the EC to properly implement the code of conduct and ensure level playing field during the election, if the elections took place under a partisan

government.

“There is no mention about the type of polls-time government in the constitution,” he added.

The former commissioner said the EC had prepared the draft of electoral code of conduct in line with India, which had specific laws along with its electoral code – for holding elections under a partisan government There was a need for specific laws regarding the electoral code of conduct, for its proper implementation, he added.

Former adviser to the caretaker government M Hafizuddin Khan raised doubts on the commission’s ability to ensure level playing field for all parties under a partisan government during the elections.

“The government is still using government facilities to hold political programmes,” he claimed.

Transparency International Bangladesh Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman said ensuring level playing field for all political parties depended on the commission’s ability to enforce the electoral code of conduct.

“It would also depend on the pollstime government. Those who will be in the polls-time government, will get more advantages than the other candidates,” he claimed.

Saying the matter also depended on reaching a political consensus, Iftekharuzzaman said the draft electoral code of conduct was good if everyone followed it properly.

Chairman of Jatiya Nirbachan Parjabekkhan Parishad Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah also echoed the others in saying it would be difficult for the EC to ensure level playing field, adding that the commission was walking on a tight rope.l

VIPs to be given special security: Zabed Ali n Mohammad Zakaria Very important persons would be entitled to special security to run their election campaigns, Election Commissioner Zabed Ali said yesterday.

The commissioner came up with the speech while talking to reporters at the EC secretariat.

If ministers and lawmakers seek security the EC will take initiative in this regard, he said. “The electoral code of conducts are more applicable than the rule of business to those who will be in the government during the election time.”

As per the rules of business, prime minister and ministers will be provided with special security while no such mention is there in the draft of the elec-

toral code of conduct.

According to the draft electoral code of conduct prime minister, leader of the opposition, speaker, ministers, deputy speaker, state ministers, chief whip, whip, lawmakers and mayors of city corporation are the very important person.

They, however, are not entitled to any kind of government facilities during the election campaigns and political meetings, it also states.

The election commissioner also said if a minister contests the election he will not get government facilities during electioneering at their respective constituencies. The ministers have to inform the EC about their visit to parliamentary constituencies for any kind of government and election related works. l

PM to visit Rajbari tomorrow n Our Correspondent, Rajbari Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will visit Rajbari tomorrow to address a rally and is expected to inaugurate andlay foundationstones for several development projects.

The prime ministerwill address the rally at PangshaUniversity College groundsin Pangshaupazila of the district in the afternoon. She is to inaugurate 16 projects with a combined cost of Tk4.95bn and will lay foundation stones for five projects.

Some of the projects which will be inaugurated tomorrowarethe BhatiyaparaRail Project, ChandanaBrashiyaRiver Excavation Project, Pangsha River project, Flood Protection Project , Pangsha sub-registry office, Goalondothana building, RajbariPress Club building, PangshaUpazila Livestock office, KalukhaliUpazila Health Complex, Rajbari Government College examination hall, Technical Training Centre, Youth Complex Building and a hostel for blind students. l

Leaders of Bangladesh Mohila Parishad accompanied by Dr Anisuzzaman inaugurate the women's rights body's 12th National Conference at the Institution on Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB) premises yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Hasina urges Khaleda not to spoil students’ lives n Tribune Desk Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has urged the opposition leader Khaleda Zia not to enforce any agitation programme that harms the academic life of students.

“I’ll request her not to enforce such agitation programmes that harm the academic life of innocent students,” she said referring to the opposition’s next possible hartal that might begin on Monday.

Sheikh Hasina said the junior school certificate examination will start on Monday when the opposition is going to enforce their further agitation programme.

The Prime Minister was addressing a mammoth rally organised yesterday

by Gazipur Awami League at Bhawal Badre Alam University College with its president AKM Mozammel Haque, MP in the chair.

About the last 60-hour hartal, Sheikh Hasina said, “Had she (Khaleda) responded to my request and sat with me then these 20 people wouldn’t have lost their lives. So, she’s responsible for these killings.”

Hasina, also the President of the ruling Awami League, said the opposition leader has got crazy to save her ‘intimate companions’ war criminals who had killed innocent unarmed people, raped women, made arson attacks and collaborated with the Pakistan occupation forces during the Liberation War. Lambasting Khaleda Zia for fre-

quently enforcing hartals, the Prime Minister said the opposition leader is shattering the economy with her destructive agitation programmes.

“She (Khaleda) had looted the country when she was in power and is now destroying the country by enforcing hartals and affecting the academic life of students,” she told the rally.

Terming the young students the future leaders of the country, Hasina said this is simply a mindless act to ruin their future through imposing destructive political programmes like hartal.

“I don’t know whether the BNP leader will entertain my request or not as she always says no, but I’ll request her to refrain from giving any sort of destructive programmes during their examinations,” she said.

In this connection, the AL chief said the opposition leader hardly wants to allow the people of the country to get educated as she is an ‘under metric’ person.

She said that the opposition leader once sat for SSC examinations (then called metric). But she got pass mark in only three subjects -- Bengali, math and Urdu.

Giving a short description of various elections that held under the present government, Hasina said all the polls were free, fair and peaceful, and no one could raise any question about any election.

Hasina categorically said that the next general election will be held as per the Constitution. “Inshallah, the Election Commission will be able to hold

the election in free, neutral and fair manner,” she said.

About Khaleda Zia’s demand for the restoration of the caretaker government, the premier said the High Court gave its verdict scrapping the system.

“She is demanding for the caretaker government, but the High Court in its verdict scrapped the system. The MPs in Parliament accepted the verdict. The government amended the Constitution to establish the parliamentary democracy in the country,” she said.

The Awami League President said the people of the country will cast their votes freely as there is a voter list with photos and also there are transparent ballot boxes.

She urged people to cast their votes in favour of Awami League in the next election to continue the ongoing development programmes of the country.

AL Advisory Council members Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed, Agriculture Minister Begum Matia Chowdhury, Communications Minister Obaidul Quader, State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Meher Afroz Chumki, Gazipur District Council Administrator Akhtaruzzaman, former state minister Alhaj Rahmat Ali, MP, Jubo League chairman Omar Faruk Chowdhury, general secretary Harunur Rashid, Swechchasebak League general secretary Pankaj Devnath, Enamul Haque Shamim, organising secretary Ahmad Hossain, Jahanara Begum, MP, Zahid Ahsan Russell, MP and Simin Hossain Rimi, MP also spoke at the rally. l

n Our Correspondent, Kishoreganj

A court in the district sentenced three people to death and one to lifetime rigorous imprisonment in two separate murder cases yesterday. Those sentenced to death are Rafiqul Islam alias Rubel, Al-Mamun alias Mamun and

Al-Mumen alias Robin of Husendi Purba Para village in Pakundia upazila.

According to the prosecution, three convicted murderers Rubel, Mamun and Robin raped and killed madrasa girl Nadira Akter of Husendi Purbapara village in Pakundia on March 28, 2012.

The following day relatives of the vic-

tim filed a murder case with Pakundia Police Station against the three in this connection. AM Md Sayeed, Kishoreganj district and session judge, sentenced the three to death and fined Tk10, 000 each yesterday in a crowded courtroom.

In another verdict the same judge sentenced Abdul Kuddus to lifetime im-

Politically connected IGWs vanish into thin air

 PAGE 1 COLUMN 5

 PAGE 1 COLUMN 5

and Primary Terminal examinees mean 10 million voters,” she said.

Siddiqur Rahman, former director of the Institute of Education Research at University of Dhaka said hartals and violent politics put huge psychological pressure on students.

“When students are uncertain whether examinations will be held or not, it puts a lot of psychological pressure on students. Most importantly, as the classes are not taking place, students are not learning and this will affect them permanently.” he said. l

Intellectuals killing case verdict  PAGE 1 COLUMN 3

On June 24, the tribunal indicted the fugitive duofor 11 charges and began the trial in absentiaon July 15.

Twenty-five witnesses have testified against the Ashraf and Mueen. The tribunal also allowed submissions offour deceased witnesses.

The state appointed defence lawyers who said despite their repeated attempts to contact the two, they had failed, thus having also failed to get any witness in favour of their clients.

Defence counsel Salma Hye Tuni and Abdus Shukur Khan place their

A Dhaka court yesterday denied the bail and remand petitions for former president of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal Sultan Salahuddin Tuku in three cases filed with Paltan and Motijheel police stations over Hefazat-e-Islam violence on May 5 in the capital.

The court, however, allowed the police to interrogate Tuku, if necessary, at the jail gate. Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Erfan Ullah passed the order when investigation officers produced Tuku before the court seeking a 30-day remand petition in three cases.

Earlier on October 22, another Dhaka court placed Tuku on a six-day remand in a case filed for allegedly launching an attack on a police official and preventing law enforcers from discharging their duties in front of BNP central office on October 21. l

UK minister Warsi's visit postponed n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman Senior British Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister Baroness Sayeeda Warsi’s planned visit to Bangladesh has been postponed.

Warsi was scheduled to visit Bangladesh on November 3-4.

“The British informed us that she would not be coming to Dhaka on November 3 and she would visit later in future,” said an official of the Foreign Ministry.

“It was an unsolicited visit as we did not invite her.” l

Three to die, one gets life for murder, rape

Students innocent victims said the political parties should reconsider hartals and similar kinds of political programmes in the interest of students.

“Other programmes can continue but I think the political parties could rethink hartals and similar kind of political programmes considering the interest of students,” she said. She said if the new generation was affected, nothing would benefit the country.

“Political parties should consider that the parents of five million JSC, JDC

Tuku denied bail n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

operators or the ICXs. Instead they have virtually disappeared from the scene with all the money that they had earned from the international calls.

The telecom regulator has failed to trace the people associated with the defaulting.

BTRC Chairman Sunil Kanti Bose told the Dhaka Tribune: “Some IGW operators are not maintainingany contact with us and so we cannot trace them. We have started taking actions against those operators to cancel their licenses.”

Sources said the BTRC has already sought the government’s permission to cancel the licenses of Vision Tel Limited, Ratul Telecom Ltd and Telex Limited – the three biggest defaulters.

The regulator is also reportedly planning to file money recovery cases against these IGW operators under the Public Demand Recovery Act 1913 after getting approval from the government.

According the minutes of an October

1 meeting of BTRC presided over by its chairman, 12 IGWs out of a total of 29 have disappeared.

Vision Tel Limited which reportedly fled without paying Tk1.31bn in dues, was once owned by Iffat Hossain, daughter of former communications minister Syed Abul Hossain. Iffat sold her stake in the company last December.

Ratul Telecom Limited, owned by Syeda Amrin Rakhi, daughter of State Minister for LGRD Jahangir Kabir Nanak, and her mother Syeda Arzuman Banu, owes BTRC Tk890m.

The telecom regulator blocked Vision Tel and Ratul Telecom on September 26.

IGW operator Telex Limited has Tk624.7m outstanding. BTRC blocked its call termination on August28.

BTRC Chairman said: “Ratul Telecom has been keeping contact with us but the other two operators have vanished. We have served legal notices to all of them but only a few have responded.”

On October 28, the telecom watchdog blocked two other IGW operators Bestec Telecom Limited andKay Telecommunications Limited who owe the BTRC Tk1.15bn and Tk890m respectively.

Kay Telecommunications Limited is fully owned by ruling party leader Shamim Osman from Narayanganj. A few days ago he reportedly managed to transfer his share to another person.

In mid-September, BTRC raided Kay Telecommunications’ office in Water Works Road in Narayanganj and found nobody there.

Bestec Telecom’s 40% stake is owned by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s former special assistantMahbubul Alam Hanif.

BTRC high officials also informed thatMoazzem Hossain Ratan, a member of the parliamentary standing committee on the post and telecommunications ministry, recently sold his stake at the Bangla Tel Ltd to his partner Nur Ali, a renowned businessman.

prisonment and Hira Mia to seven years in jail for killing farmer Samsul Huq in Austagram. They both come from Bagdair village in Austagram upazila.

According to prosecution, Abdul Kuddus and Hira Mia allegedly hacked Samsul Huq to death. The victim comes from Bagdair village. l

Grameenphone, Robi and Banglalink – the three top mobile operators of the country – have claimed that the IGWs owe them more than a billion. GP claimed Tk710m, Robi 274m and Banglalink Tk140m.

Although the mobile operators look up to the regulator for a solution to the problem, BTRC has said that they have bilateral agreements with the IGWs and hence it has nothing to do here.

Sengupta Telecom changes name ICX operator Sengupta Telecom, owned Soumen Sengupta, son of minister without portfolio Suranjit Sengupta, has recently changed its name to become Cross World Telecom Ltd. Soumen Sengupta has admitted that the nametag “Sengupta” may create problem in future. “We want to do business safely. That is why we changed the name.”

According to the documents that the Dhaka Tribune has accessed, Suranjit Sengupta was a director of the company. But he later resigned before becoming a minister. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Police busy stopping political violence Around 700 convicted criminals bailed in six months n Mohammad Jamil Khan Law enforcers are occupied with the activities of political parties and are paying less attention to other crimes.

This has created an opportunity for criminals to engage in crimes like murder, robbery, snatching and mugging.

Even the most secure areas like the MPs’ hostels opposite the parliament have been robbed. Specialists are concerned that if such activities continue than the city dwellers would face security problems and the investigation of ongoing criminal cases will lose their credibility.

Contacted, Dr S Ahsan Habib, a professor of sociology department in Dhaka University and a criminal specialist, told the Dhaka Tribune that such problems have happened under every government. If the government cannot take necessary steps it would create a serious problem, he added.

Quoting a Transparency International, Bangladesh (TIB) report, the professor said usually only 18.4% of police work hours are spent after criminal investigation, while 40.6% are used to cover political rallies

and programmes and 32.7% for VIP security.

Inspector general of Police Hassan Mahmood Khandker said the statistic was wrong and police did their activities keeping all aspects in their schedule.

“There is no need to become anxious about this. Police’s main duty is to ensure the security of citizens,” he assured.

On the other hand, a statistics of police intelligence says around 700 different terms-based convicted criminals got bail from jail in the last six months.

Police intelligence is preparing a list of such criminals. Most of them are not attending court for their scheduled hearings and most have changed their addresses and houses.

A source from the law enforcement said with the national polls closing in, the movement of criminals has increased. Local criminals are setting up their dens again and getting in touch with their favourite political leaders to set up the plan for upcoming polls.

Intelligence officials are investigating at the field level to find

out how these criminals are getting bail from court and to identify the political leaders behind them.

In this list, the intelligence officials have so far identified several lawyers.

They also said criminals were getting bail due to poor forwarding report from investigating officials.

Shamsul Haque Tuku, the state minister for home and affairs, told the Dhaka Tribune that law enforcers were alert to check for any kind of criminal activities ahead of the national polls.

“We have some information that some noted criminals got bail from jail but there is nothing to worry about as instructions have been given to make a list of such criminals and arrest them again,” he said.

Asked about involvement of ruling party leaders, he said that instruction had been given to law enforcers to take action against any such leader who tried to create any irregularities.

A source at the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court told the Dhaka Tribune notorious criminal Pichhi Helal was on his way to get bail and he could be released any day. A high profile political leader is allegedly involved in the case but the source

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Friday, November 1, 2013

Closing arguments in Nizami case start from Sunday n Nazmus Sakib

would not disclose the name of the leader.

Besides, “drug queen” Morjina Begum, Dilbahar, Ramjan Ali, Chemin, Bilkish, Honufa, Fensi Shammi, Faruk, Mamun, Kanti Ray, Dalim, Akter Mia, Ramjan, Javed, Jombu Selim, Taz Uddin, Sobahan, Mukul, Muktar, Rasel, Boma Rahim, Afzal and many others were in the pipeline to get bail from jail. They would get bail soon, the source said.

A senior police officer, requesting anonymity, said the police spent most of its time looking out for JamaatShibir’s terrorist activities. They had to take special security measurements to foil their violence, the officer said.

The officer further said the home ministry had issued an order to remain alert across the country and install check posts and the police were working on it.

Lt Col Ziaul Ahsan, director of the intelligence wing of Rapid Action Battalion, told the Dhaka Tribune: “We are on alert to ensure the safety of citizens, but we need their cooperation as well. They also need to be responsible and inform us if they spot any unusual activities.” l

The war crimes tribunal has fixed Sunday for starting the closing arguments of the prosecution against Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami.

International Crimes Tribunal 1, led

by Justice ATM Fazle Kabir, passed the order yesterday after the cross-examination of the fourth and final defence witness was completed. It set November 3, 4 and 5 for the prosecution to place its closing arguments and November 6, 7, 10 and 11 for the defence to refute the prosecution.

Nizami’s son Nazib Momen, 32, who was cross-examined by prosecutor Mohammad Ali, denied allegations that his father had ordered local al-Badr and razakar forces to commit killing, genocide etc in Pabna during the Liberation War. Three prosecution witnesses had earlier said Nizami had gone to Pabna to support the Pakistani occupation forces and carried out anti-liberation activities from there.

Momen also denied allegations which suggested that Nizami along with Pakistani occupation forces had formed a plan at the Mohammadpur Physical Training Institute in Dhaka, to kill the intellectuals of the nation.

Print media to be declared an industry: Inu n Tribune Report The print media will soon be declared an industry, said Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu yesterday.

The decision will be finalised by next week, he said.

The minister made the remark at a review meeting on the execution of the 8th wage board with the United Council of Journalists, Employees and Labourers at the information ministry’s conference room.

Co-Chairmen of the council, BFUJ presidents Monjurul Ahsan Bulbul and Ruhul Amin Gazi, DUJ President Omar Faruq and general secretaries of DUJ Saban Mahmud and Jahangir Alam Prodhan, and Principle Information Officer Aminul Islam attended the meeting, among others.

“The government has already decided to reduce the duty on newsprints for

newspapers to 5% from that of 10%. An official order will be issued in this regard as per the approval of the finance ministry. The government advertisements rates have already been increased,” he said.

Inu also said the government was trying to reinstate the Newspaper Employees Services and Conditions Act1974 to separate the wage board from the Labour Law. The last BNP government included it in a law,suspending the act.

“The government is going to enact a new law to form a Journalists Assistance Trust Fund dissolving the existing Journalists Assistance Policy to help the poor and insolvent journalists. The government has a fund of Tk10m now which will be increased. The draft of the law may be placed before the cabinet at Monday’s meeting.”

If the cabinet approves the draft, he said, it would be sent to the parliament for passage. l

Sajeeb Wazed Joy will start his election campaign in the southern part of the country today.

During his campaign for the forthcoming parliamentary polls, Joy will visit Munshiganaj, Gopalganj, Bagerhat, Khulna and Jessore districts. He will also join public rallies in various areas of the districts.

Joy, will also pay tribute to his grandfather at the graveyard in Bangabandhu, Tungipara.

He will spend tonight at his family home and tomorrow will start for Bagerhat, Khulna and Jessore. l

with the government if their demand for an election under a non-partisan interim government is met.

They also asked the Election Commission (EC) to refrain from arranging partial elections.

Meanwhile, the opposition parties said they will stage nationwide demonstrations protesting the arrest of their leaders and activists and demanding their immediate release.

“Almost 90% of the people in the country demand elections under a non-partisan caretaker government. So, the dialogue should be based on this is-

Billal, 25, a tannery worker at the capital’s Hazaribagh, sprays paint on the head-skins of cattle, preparing them for export soon yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

sue,” Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, acting secretary general of BNP, said while addressing a demonstration organised by 18-party alliance at Suhrawardy Udyan yesterday.

Urging the EC, Fakhrul said: “Please do not mislead people by amending the RPO and electoral code of conduct.

Please keep these issues pending till a decision on the polls-time government is reached.” Issuing a note of warning, Fakhrul said: “If you arrange a unilateral election people will not forgive you, and will blacklist you forever.”

The spokesperson of the party said although the government is talking about dialogue verbally, they actually do not want dialogue.

“They offered dialogue in the face

n Asif Showkat Kallol

Grameen Bank workers stage a demonstration in front of the bank yesterday, protesting the government interference in the organisation’s activities DHAKA TRIBUNE mittee on the finance ministry on Wednesday recommended passage of the law without any major change.

Subsequently the Grameen Bank Bill 2013 is likely to be passed within the next week at parliament.

Tahsina Khatun had given a similar statement at the National Press Club three months ago, saying the women members of the bank would be called for a grand rally in Dhaka if the govern-

The same tribunal deferred till November 5, the hearing of the petition of Jamaat leader Abdus Subhan seeking discharge from allegations of war crimes.

The order was passed following a time plea by the defence, placed after their main counsel Abdur Razzaque was unable to come to tribunal for personal difficulties. Tajul Islam, a defence counsel, made the time plea.

Prosecutor Sultan Mahmud Simon said they had concluded their part of framing charges against Subhan for his alleged war crimes.

AKM Yusuf case

International Crimes Tribunal 2 has set November 6 for deposition of the third prosecution witness against Jamaat leader Abul Kalam Mohammad Yusuf.

Cross-examination of the second prosecution witness was completed yesterday in the tribunal headed by Justice Obaidul Hassan.

Nasir Uddin Ahmed Mollik, the second witness, was cross-examined by defence counsel Syed Mizanur Rahman. l

n Mohosinul Karim

of public pressure and are now staging a drama.” Regarding the recent phone conversation between Khaleda and Hasina, the BNP leader said: “During the conversation, the opposition leader clearly said they would withdraw the hartal if the government accepted the demand of elections under a non-partisan government, but the Prime Minister did not respond.”

Fakhrul alleged that the government has committed an offence by leaking the telephone conversation illegally.

Lambasting the Information Minister Hasanul Haque Inu, Fakhrul said: “You (Inu) fought against the Awami League in 1975. Thousands of young Turks were killed just for you. People do not forget it. So, before making any comment on

Women directors vow to stop GB law A female board member of Grameen Bank once again warned that the bank’s borrowers, the 8.4 million poor women, would “show their power” and arrange a grand rally in Dhaka if the government enacted the new Grameen Bank law.

The bank’s staff also expressed their fear that after enacting the new law, politics would enter the bank management, and that depositors and borrowers were panicked.

They announced protest programmes on November 3 at all offices of the Grameen Bank across the country against the new law.

The warning fear came at two press conferences at the Grameen Bank headquarters in the capital yesterday by Grameen Bank’s elected Board Member Tahsina Khatun, acting managing director M Shajahan. Khatun and the bank’s Karmachari Samiti (workers’ association) President M Samsul Alam read out statements at the press conference.

The two conferences were organised by the Grameen Bank Karmachari Samiti and the nine elected directors of the bank.

The parliamentary standing com-

Abdus Subhan case

Home ministry forms cell to observe political scene

BNP to discuss non-partisan government only

Joy to start election campaign in Munshiganj today n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla The BNP-led 18-party alliance yesterday n Partha Pratim Bhattacharjee said they would only sit for dialogue

Jamaat chief Nizami was charged on 16 counts of crimes against humanity committed in Dhaka and Pabna during the war.

ment passed the Grameen Bank law in parliament.

She also said the government wanted to carry out its agenda by calling a board meeting of the bank during the national election after dismissing the nine elected board members.

The government would appoint a new board of directors every three years according to the new draft law, and the existing board of directors

would hold their posts until the new board is appointed, she said.

Tahsina Khatun said the finance division had prepared the new election process to make it “politics-oriented” and to ruin the Grameen Bank management. The directors of the bank would be selected by the government in the new law and deprive the 8.4 women borrowers of their election rights, she also said.

“The director of Grameen Bank would be accused for wrongdoing in the new law instead of indemnity of matter in the existing ordinance,” she said.

The bank’s acting managing director M Shajahan said, “We fear that there will be panic among borrowers and depositors if the government enacts the new law.”

“Depositors have a total of Tk140bn in Grameen Bank while borrowers owe Tk88bn,” he said.

In a written statement M Samsul Alam said the government wanted to grab the Grameen Bank by “flexing its muscles.”

“We do not give consent to that because we know what has happened with the biggest state-owned bank Sonali Bank and the Hall-mark scam and other state owned commercial banks,” he said. l

Deshnetri (Khaleda), seek pardon from the nation.”

Earlier, at a discussion meeting, standing committee member Moudud Ahmed alleged the RPO was amended just to destroy the democracy of the country as the politics will not be controlled by the politicians anymore.

“Those who will join the parties with huge money will get party nomination.

Dropping the previous provision will destroy the politics as the politics will be dominated by the non-political people,” he said at the meeting.

Branding the EC as an agent of the government, Moudud said the EC is now formulating the electoral code of conduct which will be valueless to the people. l

The home ministry formed a coordination cell yesterday to observe the political situation of the country over the weekend due to the conflicting positions of the ruling and opposition parties.

Kamal Uddin Ahmed, an additional secretary of the political wing of the ministry, will supervise the activities of the cell and give immediate instructions to concerned officials, if needed.

Md. Mojakker Ali, a joint secretary of the ministry, will coordinate the cell.

A total of 12 deputy secretaries, senior assistant secretaries and assistant secretaries and other relevant officials will work for the cell shift by shift.

An order of the ministry signed

by Deputy Secretary Suraiya Parveen Shely said the cell had been formed to monitor the law and order situation of the country including Dhaka city from 8am Friday to 8pm Saturday. l

BNP leader arrested for attacks on minority people

n Our Correspondent, Jhenaidah A BNP leader was arrested in Jhenaidah yesterday for his involvement in vandalism and torching properties of Hindu community of Harinakundu.

Harinakundu police station Officer-inCharge Mahibul Islam said President of Harinakundu ward 8 BNP Foujur Rahman was arrested for his direct involvement in vandalism, looting and setting ablaze the properties of the Hindu community people that he carried out on Monday.

On that day, BNP Harianaakundu upazila President Abul Hossain was killed by unknown miscreants in upazila’s Dakhalpur Bazar, he added. l

18-party leaders warn of tougher movement n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong BNP-led 18-party alliance leaders yesterday said they would push for tougher movements if Sheikh Hasina’s government does not accept BNP chief Khaleda Zia’s proposal.

The statement from the leaders came at a protest rally held at the port city’s Kazir Dewri intersection around 3:30pm as a part of their country-wide programme.

Speakers at the rally also demanded prompt implementation of their demand for the formation of a non-parti-

san neutral government for next parliamentary polls.

Several leaders and activists from different areas of the port city attended the rally and chanted slogans, carrying banners, festoons and placards. The rally blocked the intersection for about an hour, hampering vehicular movements in the area.

Mir Mohammad Nasir Uddin, advisor to the BNP chairperson, Dr Shahadat Hossain, general secretary of city unit of BNP, and Shahjahan Chowdhury, a local leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, among others, spoke at the rally. l

4

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Friday, November 1, 2013

Gold smuggling rampant at Shahjalal Airport n Mohammad Jamil Khan Gold smuggling goes unabated at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport allegedly in connivance with some dishonest officials.

Everyday shipments of big chunks of illegal gold enter the country through the airport but few of them come into the notice of law enforcers, said a source at the airport.

And that too come to light only when the secret deal between the smugglers and those alleged airport officials falls through.

Gold are being recovered from every nook and cranny of the airport even from washrooms and toilets.

The customs and intelligence officials in their latest moves seized 24 gold bars and arrested a man in this connection on Tuesday night.

A week earlier, customs officials seized 200gm gold from the battery slot of a laptop on Wednesday noon.

Not only Shahjalal Airport gold are now also smuggled through Sylhet Osmani International Airport and Chittagong Shah Amanat International Airport.

In most cases ring leaders of the smuggling racket remain behind the scenes.

Members of police, intelligence and customs department say it has crossed all previous records. Almost every day gold are smuggled into Bangladesh from Dubai and Singapore through the airports.

Ganajagaran Mancha condemns Jamaat-Shibir acts

n DU Correspondent

Organisers of Ganajagaran Mancha yesterday condemned the countrywide rampage and terrorist activities carried out by Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir in recent days, especially during the 18-party alliance’s 60-hour hartal.

In a press conference, Imran H Sarkar, spokesman of the Mancha, also announced a series of programs to protest the Jamaat-Shibir attacks that “aimed to foil the trial of war criminals.”

Ganajagaran Mancha announced of holding a rally on November 2 in front of the National Museum, protesting the crude bomb attacks on the residences of a Supreme Court appellate division judge, prosecutors of international crimes tribunal, witnesses of the ongoing war crimes trials, and also on the media.

It was also announced that activists would gather at the Shahbagh intersection on November 3, as the tribunal had scheduled the date for delivering the verdict in the case against alleged alBadr leaders Ashrafuzzaman Khan and Chowdhury Mueen Uddin. l

A section of influential businessmen, law enforcers, officials of civil aviation department, security department and customs department are involved in gold smuggling, said a number of sources.

Members of intelligence department say around 15 organised syndicates having links to the smuggling rackets are active at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.

Several gold traders from Shakharibazar area in the capital are allegedly operating those rackets. The largest haul of smuggled gold entered the country this year. The customs department recovered 33Kg of gold on Tuesday. An official of 583 No flight of Dubai Airways informed the law enforcers about a haul of smuggled gold after some bomb-like objects in the flight washroom grew suspicion in them.

Later, the customs department recovered the gold worth around Tk11.12bn.

Ornaments worth around Tk1m were recovered on October 10 and

11Kg of gold on September 24 from the Shahjalal Airport.

Members of the customs department of the airport told the Dhaka Tribune that they had seized around 230Kg of gold from the airport since August 30 this year. Besides several shipments of illegal gold have been seized from Sylhet and Chittagong airports.

The biggest smuggled gold shipment was seized by customs department on July 24 at the Shahjalal International Airport. They recovered 124Kg of gold from the panel box of DC-10 of Bangladesh Biman that came from Dubai.

Three months have gone by but the masterminds behind the illegal shipments are yet to come to light even after the formation of the investigation committee.

What is more mysterious is the customs department has not yet filed any case in connection with the smuggling.

When contacted Mahfuzul Islam, Additional deputy commissioner of Detective Branch of Police, told the Dhaka Tribune that they could do nothing as no case had been filed in this regard.

However, a team led by director general of customs and intelligence department of the airport Mainul Khan was due to fly to Dubai to investigate the incident.

According to the airport authorities, more than 3,600 people have been arrested in recent years for their involvement in smuggling. l

BNP chief to join dialogue if PM fixes date: Moudud n Tribune Desk

Students of the city’s Ideal College hold up a placard during a human chain programme for public awareness yesterday, demanding safe roads DHAKA TRIBUNE

Age-old Dipali festival gets off in Barisal

PM lays foundation stone of BRT, metro rail in Gazipur

n Our Correspondent, Barisal

n Tribune Desk

The Hindu community across the district will observe Shamshan Dipali Utsav at Maha Shamshanghat tonight, plus Dipabali and Diwali Utsav in their houses.

The special religious festival of Barisal Hindu community has a history of traditional worship of more than 160 years dating back in 1850.

The religious fervour takes place at the night before Kali Puja for blessings of the departed souls of near and dear ones.

Narayan Chandra Dey Naru, secretary, Barisal Maha Shamshan Rakkha Committee, said the Hindu community had been observing Maha Shamshan Dipali festival since 1850 only in Aadi Shamshan Ghat of Natun Bazaar and Maha Shamshan Ghat of Kawnia, two crematoriums in Barisal city.

Thousands of people from across the district attend the festival every year.

From Thursday, devotees started offering flowers and foods through rituals (Puja) and special prayers at the Shamshan Ghat for eternal blessings of the departed souls of their dear and near ones.

The organisers of the festival said several “Fanus” – colourful gas-filled Balloons, would be released in the sky at the night of Maha Shamsan Dewali at the Shamshan Ghats.

The religious festivity will also be marked by an arrangement of fair in the area accommodating stalls for sweetmeats and traditional toys.

The Maha Shamshan Ghats at Kawnia Marokkhola and Aadi Shamshan Ghat of the Natun Bazar areas in the city will see thousands of members of Hindu community pour in from across the district.

The houses of the Hindus would be decorated with lighting on this occasion.

The act of worship of Maha Shamshan Kali would start from early Saturday and the entire crematorium would be decorated. Security has been intensified by the law enforcers.

The lawmen were patrolling the city roads leading down to the Shamshan Ghats for ensuring safety and security of the devotees and maintaining peaceful interreligious harmony and coexistence, said Md Shamsuddin, Barisal Metropolitan Police Commissioner. l

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday laid the foundation stone of bus rapid transit (BRT) and metro rail here aiming to ease the sufferings of commuters.

The foundation laying ceremony took place at Bhawal Badre Alam University College in Gazipur where the premier addressed a public rally.

The 20-km BRT, stretching from Shahjalal International Airport to Gazipur, will cost Tk 20.39 billion. Its construction work will begin next year.

Of the amount, development partners are providing Tk 16.5 billion while the rest will come from the government fund.

As per a feasibility study, 30,000 passengers will be transported per hour on the BRT route.

The construction work on the 20.1-km metro rail will begin in 2016 and complete in 2021 involving Tk 220 billion.

The project will start from Uttara Third Phase and end at city’s Motijheel.

Japan is providing around Tk 165 billion, while the government will bear the rest.

Bangladesh and Japan have already

signed a deal to construct the metro rail, which will help transport 60,000 passengers an hour.

The Prime Minister also opened the newly constructed 20-km four-lane Nabinagar-DEPZ-Chandra road, which has been spending Tk 1.3 billion.

Hasina also inaugurated the construction work on the 70-km GazipurChandra-Elenga four-lane project involving Tk 27.88 billion.

Of the money, Tk 18.43 billion is expected from global lenders while the remaining amount will come from the

national exchequer. Five flyovers, 27 bridges and 60 culverts will also be constructed under the four-lane project for smooth traffic flow on the busy road.

Its construction will begin in May next year.

The Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone of three new four-lane bridges along the existing Kanchpur, Meghna and Meghna-Gumti bridges on Dhaka-Chittagong highway at an estimated cost of Tk 84.87 billion. Of this, Japan will provide Tk 64.29 billion as soft loan.

A deal has already been signed with Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) to prepare the designs and carry out the supervision works on the new bridges.

An international consultant will be appointed next month to prepare the designs for the new bridges, construction of which will begin at the end of next year.

Hasina also inaugurated Sheikh Mujib Safari Park, a fire service and civil defence station at Mawna Chourasta, a upazila complex building in Sreepur, a 52-megawatt dual fuel power plant in sadar upazila, Shaheed Ahsanullah Master Stadium at Tongi and a 250-bed hospital. l

10-TRUCK ARMS HAUL CASE

WEATHER

Two accused claim they were forced to give false statements

Dry weather likely n UNB Rain or thundershowers accompanied by temporary wind is likely to occur at one or two places over Rangpur division until 6pm today.

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

Light fog may occur at places over Rangpur, Rajshahi, Dhaka and Sylhet divisions during late night till morning.

Day and night temperature may remain nearly unchanged over the country. The sun sets in the capital at 5:19pm today and rises at 6:05am tomorrow.

Country’s highest temperature 32.2 degree Celsius was recorded at Jessore and lowest 17.3 degrees at Srimangal yesterday.

Highest and lowest temperatures recorded in some major cities yesterday were: City

High

Low

Dhaka Chittagong Rajshahi Rangpur Khulna Barisal Sylhet Cox’s Bazar

31.5 29.3 31.4 27.2 32.0 31.2 30.0 32.0

20.1 22.2 18.6 20.6 21.0 20.2 19.0 22.5

PRAYER TIMES Fajar Sunrise Jumma Asr Magrib Esha

BNP standing committee member Barrister Moudud Ahmed has said the party chief and leader of the opposition Khaleda Zia did not reject the Prime Minister’s offer for talks made in a telephone conversation.

If the prime minister and her party fix schedule for the dialogue the BNP chief will join it, he told a discussion yesterday organised to commemorate late journalist Gias Kamal Chowdhury at the National Press Club. The senior journalist died on October 26.

Moudud said it is a good news that Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader talked to each other over phone. ‘But the Prime Minister’s call was merely eyewash.”

“The Prime Minister didn’t phone with an intention for dialogue or compromise…She tried to give people an impression that she wanted dialogue but she did not phone to sit in talks,” the BNP leader claimed. The former law minister alleged that the Representation of the People Order (RPO) has been amended with an ill motive to spoil politics.

“The aim of the RPO amendment is to destroy politics. Politics won’t remain in the hands of politicians as the amendment will create the prospect for opportunists and nonpolitical persons to pursue politics depriving the dedicated politicians,” he said.

Moudud also alleged that the ruling party has amended the RPO mainly to make its narrow political gains. l

4:48am 6:04am 11:42am 3:43pm 5:19pm 6:36pm

Source: IslamicFinder.org

n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Speakers at a round table discussion on the role of media towards creating a better environment for sex workers and their children organised by Sex Workers Network, Red Umbrella Fund and Dhaka Tribune yesterday RAJIB DHAR

Media fails to portray sex workers’ woe n Muktasree Chakma Sathi

The media in Bangladesh often fail to portray realistically the lives of sex workers, mostly due to social and political pressure and the stigma attached to the nature of their work, participants at a roundtable claimed yesterday.

Journalists, lawyers, rights activists and sex workers participated in the round table on “Role of media towards creating a better environment for sex workers and their children,” organised by the Sex Workers Network (SWN) at the Dhaka Tribune office yesterday.

The speakers also pointed out that editors and producers often categorise news about sex workers as “low priority,” compared to coverage of other issues.

Hena Akhter, general secretary of SWN, said media reports on sex workers and their children need to be “journalistic,” meaning unbiased and considerate.

Thanking a few media houses that stand up for sex workers’ rights, Hena said: “There are some media houses that are concerned about portraying us in a right way since they explore every possible angle of our lives. But unfortunately, most media reports convey a negative attitude against us to the readers. They (journalists) need to understand that we are already vulnerable. We hardly get any benefit from any institutions.”

Ruhi, a lawyer from Faridpur, said most journalists who report on sex workers’ rights do so as they have empathy towards them.

“I know there are many reporters who are not writing on sex workers’ rights, despite having information, since ethically they are against the profession.”

Dipti Baul of Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association said: “The journalists need to be truthful, irrespective of their ethical standards,

particularly when writing a report.”

Journalist Shepon Habib said media houses tend not to publish news on sex workers’ rights as they think of the profession as “illegal.”

The speakers also suggested that alternative popular media, such as blogs and social networks like Facebook and Twitter, could be used to publicise the plight of sex workers and about their rights.

Lipy Lilian Rozario of Naripokhkho, Shihab Ahmed Shirazee of BLAST, Safia Ritchil of SWN and Md Shamsad Kabir of Community Health Care Project also addressed the programme.

According to legal experts, prostitution is neither legal nor illegal in Bangladesh. Although the country’s constitution stipulates that “the state shall endeavour to prevent prostitution”, any woman above the age of 18 may work as a sex worker with an affidavit. l

Two of the accused in the sensational 10-truck arms haul cases told a Chittagong court yesterday that they were forced to give false confessional statements after being tortured during interrogation.

Former director general of the National Security Intelligence (NSI) Brig Gen (retired) Abdur Rahim and former deputy director Maj (retired) Liakat Hossain made the claim before Judge of Special Tribunal 1 SM Mujibur Rahman while they were making their depositions before the court under section 342 of the penal code.

After the defendants’ depositions, the court adjourned proceedings till November 7.

Abdur Rahim complained that he was tortured several times during his remand and threatened with murder when he was in the custody of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID).

“During remand, they tortured me in different ways and threatened that they would implicate me in the August 21 bomb attack case if I did not give a confessional statement under section 164 according to their instruction,” he said.

He said: “I did not know what section 164 was. I signed a paper according to the instructions of police. However, they also charged me for the August 21 case.

“I was charged in the cases intentionally,” he claimed.

Liakat complained to the court that he was threatened with death if he did

not give a confessional statement under section 164.

He claimed he was tortured in a Taskforce for Interrogation cell in the name of interrogation.

“I was also taken to the Rab headquarters where the investigation officer attempted to record a 164 forcibly.

At one stage, some Rab officials made death threats,” he said.

“I was asked to give a statement against Rezzakul and Rahim according to the instruction of the CID. They implicated me in the cases because I refused their request,” Liakat said before the court.

During the hearing, 10 of the accused, including former home minister Lutfuzzaman Babar, were produced before the court.

Former industries minister Matiur Rahman Nizami was not produced before the court as he is in Dhaka under trial at the International Crimes Tribunal.

A total of 37 of the accused have thus far claimed that they were forced to give false statements.

On April 2, 2004, around 1,500 wooden boxes containing submachine guns, AK-47 assault rifles, sub-machine carbines, Chinese pistols, rocket shells and launchers, hand grenades and bullets were seized from two vessels at the CUFL jetty in Chittagong.

Two cases were filed the next day with Karnaphuli police station under the Special Powers Act and Arms Act for the smuggling and seizure of arms.

The trial for the cases got underway on November 29, 2011. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Long Form

Friday, November 1, 2013

5

History repeats itself

The Syria situation is overwhelmingly similar to that prior to the Iraq invasion, and it would be a repetition of a mistake the world can do without

H

n Tasnim Mustaque istory repeats itself – a cliché if there ever was one. Funky scriptures, heavy tomes, and dusty documents, these are the inhabitants of historical archives.

Rarely do they ever have visitors other than the keenest of aficionados – the only people who deliberately stay connected with our past. What if that changed? What if, suddenly, everybody paid attention? What if our present forced us to look back into our past? Now that’s all well and good if we are reliving glories, but seldom do we have that luxury.

March 20, 2003. Does that date mean anything to you? No? Well it does to more than 20,000 Iraqi families who lost members to a senseless farce. This was the day on which the Iraq war began. Only a decade has passed since then, even though it seems like eons. These perceived eons have eroded the war’s significance to us – the non-victims, at least.

I just switched off my television with an overwhelming sense of deja-vu; everything was the same back then. Closed-door meetings, staunch positions, suspect assertions, and disregarded anti-war protests. The world’s recollection may be sketchy, but it has been here before.

Let us juxtapose the past and the present, shall we? Prior to the Iraq war, claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) became overwhelming. This translated to a security threat for regional/ coalition allies and Iraq itself. In 2002, United Nations Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) requested Iraqi cooperation on a probe conducted by UN inspectors.

Preceding the war, no evidence of WMD was found and investigators continuously stressed that their work was still unfinished – they needed months of further verification. Sadly, they were never given these months.

Fast forward a decade and we can’t help but gawk at the similarity of the situation in Syria, which mimics what we thought was buried and beyond exhumation.

AP

If anything, circumstances are worse this time around – the Syrian civil-war is sanguinary enough as it is. Governed by an internationally denounced regime and infested with insurgents, Syria is a murky diplomatic chessboard of black, white and fifty shades of grey. Contradictory reports, disagreeing super powers, an absence of details, and obscurity in their presence make Syria even more

action against Syria is already in the double digits. War is impending; we must hurry.

In a recent interview, Bashar Al-Asaad was straight forward. He warned the United States to expect “every action” in response to a strike on Syria – fighting words indeed. If this is anything to go by, then the Syrian people haven’t seen the worst of their woes yet. From the other side,

Governed by an internationally denounced regime and infested with insurgents, Syria is a murky diplomatic chessboard of black, white and fifty shades of grey

convoluted than Iraq was.

As I write this, UN investigators are examining whether chemical weapons were used in Syria. Pardon me if I offend you, but this strikes me as a pathetic waste of time. It is evident that chemical weapons were used in Syria and the only real question is by whom? The authorities have stated that the ongoing investigation will not assign blame to anyone; it will only – pointlessly – re-evaluate whether chemical weapons were used.

Back in 2003, UN investigators were cautioned to leave Iraq, a mere four days before the military invasion began. The investigators’ work, which represented further months of waiting, was unceremoniously truncated.

We have been told that the Syrian situation is imminent, just like the Iraqi situation was imminent. If that is true, then the Syrian investigation may not be waited upon. Although, it is highly unlikely that such a narrow investigation will accomplish anything, even if it is waited for.

The world is looking for a quick answer. The question is “Who did it?”

Every moment lost in a futile investigation which simply will not answer this question is a moment closer to war. The number of countries which have volunteered to support military

A civil-war is domestic by definition and external interference should be condemned unless it is absolutely necessary. Is it necessary now? Was it necessary in Iraq?

we have received repeated reassurances of a “limited, narrow,” “unbelievably small,” attack. These comforts have been skeptically received, to say the least.

What makes this attack so necessary? The math is more complicated than high school calculus. A simplified version of the argument is anchored on neutralising a “potential” weapons threat on the region, on Europe, and on the United States. Eerily redolent of Iraq, isn’t it? It evokes rightful fears.

Syria could become the “new” Iraq.

Chemical weapons have been used – lifeless bodies and post-mortem reports prove this – but by whom? How big is the stockpile of these weapons?

Was August 21, 2013 an isolated event?

Or will we have to watch hundreds being silenced by sarin, once again?

And most importantly who was responsible?

I realise quite indifferently that I have been repetitive in my use of “who,” but this is a question that must be answered. Without this obligatory answer, war would be sheer insanity.

This however, is not to say that decisive, transparent, and incriminating proof would justify a war of any sort.

War without proof will be irrational and with it, immoral. War isn’t an option in a civilised world. It never can be. What does that tell you about the world we live in?

The Obama administration and its allies have pointed to Syria and reiterated rightfully the need to follow international regulations and norms.

However, where does their credibility go when they themselves make the world expect a war instead of a diplomatic solution? That too, a war that allegedly doesn’t need to be sanctioned by the UN Security Council.

A civil-war is domestic by definition and external interference should be condemned unless it is absolutely

necessary. Is it necessary now? Is it really? Was it necessary in Iraq? WMD were never found in Iraq and that is a disgrace that mustn’t be repeated.

The Iraq war was a waste of money, energy, and lives. If the war on Syria commences, no matter how “small” the attack, it will be evident that Iraq has taught us nothing.

Reports and pictures released to the public prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that something is wrong.

Graphic videos of people foaming at the mouth, gasping for their last breaths, tell us that chemical weapons were definitely used in Syria. By whom and to what objective might never be discovered. Under these circumstances, the notions of a security threat are highly credible. However, this assertion, credible as it may be, true or false, will never justify war.

There is a faction of anti-war conspiracy theorists out there and I am not one of them. I am not interested in the diplomatic chess game that is unfolding behind the scenes, nor do I care for the ulterior motivations behind an attack or even a non-attack.

The only thing that concerns me is the fate of the fellow human beings whose lives will be uprooted, should a war begin. Refugee camp populations will explode and a split country will be shattered.

Syria’s situation now and Iraq’s back then are so similar that it is hard not to think of Iraq as a crystal ball revealing Syria’s future. The Iraq war lasted eight years, eight months, three weeks and four days. It killed more than a hundred thousand people and injured almost thrice as many. It paralysed a country and left it worse than it was a decade ago. War was not a solution in Iraq and it certainly is not in Syria.

The Syrian political system is supremely volatile and any direct external action would push it past a fatal tipping point. The world witnessed, in horror, the brutality with which Syrian rebels executed seven Assad loyalists.

The balance is delicate. Bombing Syrian chemical weapons depots will contaminate the surroundings and put these weapons in the hands of rogue militia, who will use them even more unpredictably.

A power struggle as dramatic as Syria’s needs no additional condiments. Diplomacy is the only option.

Recent conversation table breakthroughs offer a glimmer of hope – we may yet tread down a pacifistic path.

Leaders of religious minority communities in Syria are begging the United States to avoid a strike at any cost.

They are afraid, and their fears are vindicated by the religious violence Iraq experienced post-invasion. Even Pope Francis has tried to weigh in on the G20 leaders, calling a military solution “futile.” Military action has a history of failure in situations which

would have been better handled diplomatically.

Failure in Syria would mean a perpetual insurgency and a proliferation of the terrorist element in this bedlam, neither of which are goals for the international community. Regarding the Iraq war, the former director of United States central intelligence, George J Tenet, stated that Bush administration pushed the country to war in Iraq without ever conducting a “serious debate” about whether Saddam Hussein was an imminent threat to the United States.

A similar dilemma faces world leaders today. We must act by what Iraq has taught us. This is not a time for haste; it is a time for open-minded negotiation. History doesn’t repeat itself; it’s we who repeat it, by repeating mistakes.

As I draw to a close, I should address the futility of this article. What do I hope to achieve by it? Frankly, nothing. Spectators like me must wait and watch. A friend once told me that we must walk with our heads held high, as if the earth is ours; as if an ancestor of enormous wealth died and bequeathed the whole world to us.

The world is mine as much as it is yours and I find something fundamentally wrong with a world where blood is spilled and lives jeopardised needlessly

The world is mine as much as it is yours and I find something fundamentally wrong with a world where blood is spilled and lives jeopardised needlessly and at the hands of something avoidable. The best we can do is watch. As global citizens, we must.

Diplomats shall dance and we shall scrutinise. Who’s missing steps? Who stomped on whose toes? The corresponding answers will not solve this crisis, but at least they will illuminate the heroes and the villains of this drama. We must watch, knowing that it will not make a difference. We must condemn this violence for the sake of it. Beyond that, all we can do is hope.

War never dies. The freedom fighters of ’71 are testament. The scars, physical and mental, live on. Nevertheless, for every war that begins, there comes a day when it officially ends. For Iraq that day was December 15, 2011. For Syria, I hope the war never ends, because a war that never starts, never can. l Tasnim Mustaque is a freelance contributor.

6

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Friday, November 1, 2013

Journey on Jatrabari-Gulistan road still awful Construction of Mayor Hanif Flyover leaves havoc on the road in Phulbaria and Bangabazar areas n Abu Hayat Mahmud Watery and muddy narrowed roads full of potholes are creating a public nuisance in the adjoining areas of the recently-inaugurated Mayor Mohammad Hanif Flyover.

The much-awaited 11.8km long flyover was opened to the public on October 11, but its construction has left havoc on roads in Golapshah MazarPhulbaria bus terminal and bus terminal Bangabazar areas that are yet to be repaired, alleged a number of locals and pedestrians.

They said the flyover has not played much role until now to curb traffic congestion in the area.

However, some of the busiest roads of the capital have been greatly damaged by its construction, including link roads between the capital and districts of the southern-eastern zone. Passengers suffer most while entering and leaving Dhaka.

Vehicles remain stranded for hours in tailbacks on the Gulistan-Jatrabari Road everyday as they have been narrowed because of the construction of the flyover in an unplanned way, claimed the commuters.

The road is lying full of potholes due to the lack of maintenance by the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC), they added. Water logging, filth and mud have added to the suffering of the commuters.

Shamim Khan, a resident of Jatrabari who has to use the Jatrabari-Gulistan Road every day to go to his shop in Bangabazar, said: “Most of the time vehicles move at a snail’s pace in the area because of the traffic. The main reason behind this terrible traffic is the narrowed roads which are full of thousands of holes.”

ACC frames two charges against a post master n Tribune Report The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday approved filing two charge sheets against a post master on charge of his involvement with embezzlement of public money, an ACC official said.

The accused M Nurul Islam Hira, post master of Manikdi Post Office under the Dhaka Cantonment police station, had allegedly embezzled around Tk1.26m during 2006-2008, the official told reporters.

The accused had not placed depositors’ money in respective postal books, rather had swindled the money in two separate periods, he added.

The ACC filed two cases with the Cantonment police station against the post man in 2008, and the commission’s Deputy Director Salina Akter is conducting investigation into the cases. l

Aiub Ali, a bus driver, said: “City Corporation excavated the roads to build the flyover, though years have passed, the authority is not taking any prompt steps to repair the roads to normalise people’s lives in the area.”

When visiting the area this reporter found most parts of the JatrabariSayedabad Road blocked by the machineries, tools and construction materials stationed there by the authority.

Buses were being compelled to use the Jatrabari-Doyaganj-Tikatuli route due to the situation.

Footpaths were also found to be littered with piles of rubbles and rubbish and illegal business establishments. As a result, pedestrians were left with no option but to take the muddy and overcrowded roads.

Project Director and Superintendent Engineer of DSCC M Ashiqur Rahman told the Dhaka tribune: “The DSCC has already started repairing the broken roads. After completing the construction work of the flyover, all the machines and construction materials will be removed.”

“If we can run the construction work at a stretch without any impediment, the flyover will be completed within the next three months,” he added.

Admitting the situation, earlier DSCC Chief Engineer Md Zahangir Alam said repair work would start soon after the rainy weather had passed.

Terrible traffic congestion is a common scenario on Jatrabari, Sayedabad, Golapshah Mazar to Phulbaria, bus terminal to Bangabazaar, and Gulistan to Sadarghat as the roads have been narrowed due to unplanned digging.

Failing to meet more than half a dozen deadlines, part of the much-awaited Jatrabari-Gulistan Flyover was inaugurated by the Prime Minister Sheikh

Numerous potholes have devolved on Jatrabari-Gulisitan road, causing suffering to commuters. The photo was taken in Syedabad area Hasina on October 11 to reduce traffic congestion and facilitate the smoother movement of vehicles.

Masudul Alam, the owner of a book-

store at Jatrabari intersection said: “Few highway buses are using the flyover while most of the city buses are still taking the roads underneath the flyover.”

8-month ban on catching hilsa begins n Our Correspondent, Barisal

An eight-month countrywide ban restricting the netting, transportation and selling of jatka and hilsa fry comes into effect today.

This year, the restriction period was extended by one month, while the specified size of hilsa fry was also increased by one inch from last year’s size specifications.

However, there are concerns that fishermen might be forced to defy the ban because the fisheries department’s rehabilitation package for affected fishermen was yet to be finalised.

Aminul Islam, deputy director and divisional fishery officer, said: “East Bengal Protection and Conservation of Fish Act was passed in 1950 and revised as the Fish Protection and Conservation Act (amended) in 1985.

Under the revised act of 1985, jatka netting was restricted for six months

from November 1 to April 30.”

The act was revised again in the same year, extending the restriction period to seven months, while the size and definition of Jatka or hilsa fry was increased to 9 inches in length.

On April 13 of this year, the act was revised yet again, extending the ban to eight months and the specified size of hilsa fry was increased to 10 inches, Aminul added.

Bimal Chandra Das, fishery officer (hilsa) of Barisal district fishery office, said around 15 million hilsa fish naturally laid 46,800kg of eggs annually. Around 299.3m hilsa renu (pollen) develop if half of the eggs became embryos, he said, adding that if 10% of the pollen survived, 29.3 million hilsa fry could be produced.

Hilsa fry grow at a monthly rate of 2-2.5cm, and start to move towards the sea after reaching 15-17cm in length. The fish return to rivers again to lay eggs after the fry have grown to 25-28cm in length

and a weight of around 300-450g, the fishery officer said.

If only 10-20% of the hilsa fry reach maturity, then around 200,000 tonnes of hilsa worth hundreds of millions of taka could be produced every year, said Bankim Chandra Mandal, assistant director at Barisal divisional fishery office.

“We already planned to form mobile vigilance teams to monitor the restriction and will also operate mobile courts to prevent Jatka fishing and trading,” he said.

Around 147,000 tonnes of hilsa were caught in 1983, while the figure exceeded 350,000 tonnes in 2012, said district Fishery Officer Wahiduzzaman.

Meanwhile, sources at the divisional fishery office admitted that the list and the plan for the rehabilitation package for more than 300,000 ultrapoor hilsa fishermen were yet to be finalised. l

“No changes have been made in the area’s traffic scenario,” he said.

The Tk23bn flyover project is country’s first Public Private Partnership

Mufti Harun placed on 15-day remand n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu A Dhaka court yesterday placed Mufti Harun Izharul Islam, son of Hefazat-e Islam nayeb-e-ameer Mufti Izharul Islam Chowdhury, on a 15-day remand in three cases filed against him in connection with Hefazat’s May 5 mayhem in the capital.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Erfan Ullah passed the order after investigation officers of the cases sought 40-day remand for Harun, who is also a Hefazat leader.

The magistrate also rejected a bail prayer placed by defense counsel Md Jaynul Abedin Mejbah at the time.

The magistrate however did not grant police remand in a case filed with the Motijheel police station, as the defendant’s name was not included in the first information report.

RU teachers call for non-party government n RU Correspondent BNP backed teachers and employees of Rajshahi University (RU) yesterday brought out a silent procession in area around the campus, demanding that a non-party government hold the tenth national election.

Witnesses said over a hundred teachers, officers and employees brought out the procession from in front of the senate building of the university around

10.15am. Addressing the gathering, speakers alleged that the present government was liable for the present political instability centering on the upcoming national election in the country.

They condemned the recent publication of the conversation between the prime minister and the opposition leader noting that the prime minister had intentionally provoked the opposition leader in the conversation.

They also demanded punishment

the certain individuals, including the Information Minister Hasanul Haque Inu for allegedly disclosing the audio of conversation. The speakers urged the government to arrange talks immediately to determine the structure of the polls-time government.

Speakers included President of RU Teachers Association Prof Shamsul Alom Sarkar and President of the Nationalist Teachers Forum Prof Fazlul Haque, among others. l

The investigation officers of the cases mentioned in their remand prayer that Harun needed to be interrogated to find out clues behind acts of vandalism on May 5.

Of the four cases, two each were filed with Motijheel police station and Paltan police station – on charges of torching and vandalising vehicles, attacking police and preventing law enforcers from discharging duties.

Earlier on October 9, Chittagong police arrested Harun from Ichapur village of Hathazari in connection with the October 7 explosion at Lalkhanbazar madrasa in the port city.

Later, police produced Harun before the Chittagong Metropolitan Magistrate Court with a prayer for seven days’ remand in each case, but the court granted five-day remands for each case. l

BSF picks up two Bangladeshis n Our Correspondent, Kurigram

n Tribune Report

The Indian Border Security Force has picked up a woman and a youth from the Phulbari frontier in Kurigram district in separate incidents.

BGB sources said hawker Dulal Mia, who was selling goods in Khalishakotal border area Wednesday night, was picked by BSF men after he came too close to the barbed-wire fences.

In another incident, BSF men of 181 camp detained a women, Rojina, 29, who was an inhabitant of Kolomdartari village of the upazila. In this regard, company commander of 45-BGB Balarhat BOP camp, Jakir Hossain, said: “BSF has not yet replied to our queries about the detainees.” l

12:30pm, leaving her critically injured.

She was admitted to the casualty ward of the Chittagong Medical College Hospital. After hearing about the incident, hundreds of agitated students took to the highway, said SM Bodiujjaman, officer-in-charge (OC) of Sitakunda police station.

The blockade programme continued from 12:45pm to 1:45pm, said the OC, adding that the students removed the blockade after being assured by the administration that immediate steps would be taken in regards to the accident.

The pick-up van in question is currently in police custody while its driver and his assistant are on the run, he said. l

Total solar eclipse Sunday NASHIRUL ISLAM

(PPP) project under the theme “build, own, operate and transfer.” Orion Group was assigned to the project in 2005. l

Students in Chittagong block road after one hurt Students of a private college blocked the Dhaka-Chittagong highway in the Choto Kumira area of Sitakunda upazila in Chittagong yesterday, enraged by an incident in which a fellow student was seriously injured after being run over.

The one-hour blockade programme resulted tailbacks on both sides of the highway, leaving commuters to suffer, locals said.

Earlier in the day, a speeding Chittagong-bound pick-up van rolled over Farzana Islam Shila, 18, a first year student of Latifa Siddiqui Degree College while she was crossing the road around

Wastage of Shyambazar kitchen market is dumped on the road, hampering vehicular movement and also polluting adjoining areas

SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

n UNB

Total eclipse of the sun will occur on Sunday. It will start at 16 hours 04 minutes 24 seconds Bangladesh time and end at 21 hours 28 minutes 30 seconds.

Central eclipse will start at 17 hours 05 minutes 18 seconds local time and end at 20 hours 27 minutes 42 seconds, said an ISPR release yesterday.

The greatest eclipse will occur at 18 hours 46 minutes 30 seconds Bangladesh time. The magnitude of the greatest eclipse will be 1.017 and duration of total eclipse will be 1 minute 45 seconds.

This eclipse will not be visible in Bangladesh.

The eclipse will start at 06 hours 11 minutes 45 seconds LMT on Sunday at

the northeast of Antigua and Barbuda in Caribbean Sea. It will end at 14 hours 51 minutes 42 seconds LMT on Sunday at northeast of Mecharia town of Algeria. l The central eclipse will start at 06 hours 20 minutes 16 seconds LMT on Sunday at the southwest of Barmuda Island in the Caribbean Sea. It will be end at 17 hours 36 minutes 24 seconds LMT on Sunday at the southwest of Galcao town of Somalia.

The greatest eclipse will occur at 11 hour 59 minutes 43 seconds LMT on Sunday at the southwest of Greenvill town of Liberia in the North Atlantic Ocean.

The magnitude of the total eclipse will be 1.017 and duration of the total eclipse will be 1 minute 45 seconds at this place. l

‘Listed’ criminal stabbed to death n Tribune Report Unidentified assailants killed a man at Shakhapara in Khulna on Wednesday night.

Masud Rana, 35, who hailed from the Nirala residential area, was stabbed indiscriminately around 11pm.

Locals went to severely injured Rana’s aid and sent him to hospital.

Later, he was transferred to Khulna Medical College Hospital where doctors declared him dead immediately after he reached the hospital.

Police said Rana was a listed criminal at Khulna police station.

There were six cases against Rana, including one for the murder of Jubo League leader Shahis Iqbal Bither. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Nation

7

Friday, November 1, 2013

Ghorashal pourashava councillor arrested for attempted rape n Our Correspondent, Narsingdi

Two gets jail-term for forgery n Our Correspondent, Gaibandha

Members of Polash police station arrested the Ghorashal pourashava councillor on charges of attempting to rape a divorced house wife in the Hari Hawla area of Polash, Narsingdi on Wednesday night.

Witnesses said Councillor Zahirul Haque Molla asked the woman from his neighbourhood to meet him at his residence in the Dari Hawla area.

When she entered the councillor’s house, he shut the door of the room and tried to rape her, locals said, adding that they rescued the woman after hearing her screams.

A case was filed with the Polash police station under the Women and Child Repression Prevention Act. Ghorashal Poura Mayor Shariful Haque said the councillor was a characterless person who had been accused of a number of rape and corruption cases.

Police also said Zohirul was accused of more than 5 five cases, including rape, extortion and corruption.

After a hearing, the senior judicial magistrate of Narsingdi rejected the councillor’s bail plea and sent him to jail. l

SHAHJAHAN MURDER

70 BNP, Jubo Dal men sued in Bogra

n Our Correspondent, Bogra A case has been filed against 70 leaders and activists of BNP and its major front organisation Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Jubo Dal in Gabtoli upazila of Bogra district, for allegedly killing BNP activist Shahjahan Ali Fakir on Sunday.

Shahjahan’s wife, Tuli Bewa, filed a murder case with Gabtoli police station, accusing Morshed Milton, the upazila BNP general secretary and mayor of Gabtoli municipality.

Ali Ahmed Hashmi, officer-in-charge of Gabtoli police station, said the case had been filed accusing 19 named and 50 unnamed BNP and Jubo Dal men.

Shahjahan Ali was killed in a clash between two local units of BNP on Sunday, the first day of the 60-hour countrywide shutdown called by the BNPled 18-party alliance.

The clash occurred between two groups from the local BNP unit, one led

by Gabtoli Upazila Parishad Chairman and Joint Secretary of BNP District Unit Zaidur Rahman Helal, and the other by Gabtoli Municipality Mayor and Upazila BNP General Secretary Morshed Milton.

The clash erupted due to an argument over who would be the first to bring out a procession against those protesting the hartal. l

Railway employees fix rail track after a train derailed in Akhaura in Brahmanbari yesterday

FOCUS BANGLA

Eight killed in eight days in Cox’s Bazar On October 25, two people were killed and over 100 injured in Chakaria upazila when activists of the 18-party alliance clashed with members of Border Guard Bangladesh and police.

Upazila unit BNP claimed the deceased, Mizan, 25, and Belal Uddin Badsha, 24, were Chhatra Dal activists.

Locals said when law enforcers barred BNP activists from bringing out a procession, the activists hurled crude bombs at law enforcers.

A chase and counter chase also took place during the clash and at one stage law enforcers opened fire on opposition activists, leaving two people dead on the spot.

On October 29, three people were killed and 25 others, including law enforcers, injured in Kutubdia upazila during clashes between police and BNP-Jamaat supporters.

The deceased were identified as

Following the clash, a large number of law enforcers were deployed in the area to avoid further clashes.

Locals said after the hartal, the BNP and Jamaat-Shibir men were holding a rally at Dakkhin Dhurum Bazar around 6pm. The clash ensued as police intervened.

The clash lasted for around two hours, during which at least 25 people, including 10 police officers, were injured. Police claimed that the hartal supporters also opened fire on them.

On the same day, a youth was beaten to death by a mob in the town. The deceased was identified as Md Abdullah.

When asked about the law and order situation, Additional Superintendent of Police Tofayel Ahmed said law enforcers were always keeping an eye on the situation to ensure that law order are maintained. l

Noakhali Chharta Dal man killed n Mamun Chowdhury, Noakhali

Bhandaria upazila unit BNP as a part of its central committee programme brings out a procession in the district town yesterday, demanding polls-time non-party government FOCUS BANGLA

Four killed in accidents in Narail, Tangail n Tribune Report Four people were killed, including two students, in separate accidents in Narai and Tangail.

In Narail, two students were killed in a road accident in front of Bordia Munshi Manik Miah College on Bordia-Kalia road in Kalia upazila yesterday morning.

The deceased are Sakib Mollah, 15, of Dumuria village and Mahedi Hasan, 15.

Both were class eight students of Bordia High School under Kalia upazila.

Eyewitnesses said when the duo were going to school on a motorcycle.

They lost control and hit a roadside tree, leaving them both dead on the spot

‘Construction of Teesta bridge to begin by the end of December’

Townsfolk worried over deterioration of law and order n Our Correspondent, Gaibandha desire to establish supremacy in Abu Ahmed, 50, Ismail Parvez, 25, and n Our Correspondent, Cox’s Bazar groups Azizur Rahman, 23.

Teknaf upazila.

The much-demanded Teesta Bridge of Eight killings in just one week in Cox’s Bazar is indicative of the drastically deteriorating law and order situation in the area.

Local people are concerned about the deterioration of law and order in the area and are worried that if the district administration does not take stern initiatives to improve the situation, many killings could take place in the lead up to the next general elections.

Of the deceased, five people were killed during political programmes called by the BNP, two were killed in clashes between drug peddlers and one was beaten to death by a mob.

The killings took place in Teknaf, Chakaria, Kutubdia and sadar upazilas.

On October 24, two people were killed and 15 others injured in a clash between police and two groups of yaba sellers. The clash erupted over the both

dead. After being informed of the accident, police recovered the bodies and sent them to a local hospital for autopsy.

Two people were killed in separate accidents in Tangail on Wednesday.

A man was killed in a train accident in the Rasulpur upazila of the district around 5pm. The deceased, Abdus Sattar, 45, was walking on the rail tracks when he was hit by a Rajshahi bound mail train before he saw the train approaching, witnesses said. The deceased hailed from South Chamuria village of Kalihati upazila, they added.

He was rushed to Tangail General Hospital, where doctors on duty declared him dead.

Meanwhile, a driver of a contract-

ing firm working on the Bangabandhu Bridge was killed in a road accident on the bridge on Wednesday at noon.

The deceased, Alamgir Hossain, hailed from Baghbari village in Bhuapur upazila. He was the driver of Engineer Mozammel Haque of the MCCSUL-UDC contracting firm.

Bangabandhu Bridge East police station Officer-in-Charge Md Hares Ali Mia said officials concerned went to inspect the repair work being carried out on the Bangabandhu bridge, adding that Alamgir drove the officials to the spot.

Alamgir was checking the tires of his car after parking it near pillar 14 of the bridge when a bus hit him from behind, killing him instantly, the police official said.l

A group of Awami League activists allegedly killed a local Chhatra Dal man and hurt seven persons after making an attack on them yesterday at Sonaimuri in Noakhali.

The deceased Pervez, 19, hailed from Amishapara union, was an SSC candidate from a local Madrasa.

Witnesses said Awami League activists Homyan, Sumon, Shawan, Fayz made the attack on Parvez and shot at him when he was returning to his home from madrasa.

Raju, 19, and Rashed, 20, including five others fellow activists of BNP, were also chopped indiscriminately. l

17 BNP men sued for attacking journalist

n Our Correspondent, Bogra

Seventeen leaders and activists of Jubo Dal and Chhatra Dal from Nodigram upazila in Bogra have been accused of allegedly injuring a local journalist with a lethal weapon.

Local journalist Abu Musa filed the case against the 17, including Jubo Dal President Alexander, Chhatra Dal Secretery General Shofiul Alam Sumon and local BNP leader Siddiqur Rahman.

Abu Musa was injured during a clash between two groups of opposition supporters on the second day of BNP-led 18 –party alliance’s 60-hour nationwide shutdown.

Shahjahan Ali, officer-in-charge of Nondigram police station, said: “We will take action according to the written complaint of Abu Musa.” l

A Mobile court on Wednesday convicted two frauds and sentenced them to six months imprisonment each for collecting money from the poor, promising to include their names in a 40-day employment generation programme.

The convicted were Wahedul Islam, 30, and Khorshed Alam, 27.

Hafizur Rahman, assistant commissioner (land) and executive magistrate, handed down the verdict after examining the witnesses.

Officer-in-Charge Gopal Chandra Chakrabartee of sadar police station said the convicts had been sent to jail following the verdict.

According to sources, the duo were apprehended by the locals while they attempted to collect money from 15 poor locals at the house of Jamal Uddin at Dharmapur village under the union.

The locals handed-over the two to the police who went to the scene on information. The two frauds were later produced before the court in the afternoon.

Locals said each of the 15 job aspirants had agreed to give the frauds Tk2,500 as bribe for the work.

Sources said the government had taken a decision to launch a 40-day job generation programme in the rural areas of the district to generate working opportunities for the poor and help them pass lean time without financial crisis.

Accordingly, a process to select 191 beneficiary workers for the programme was underway at Malibari union of the district’s sadar upazila at the initiative of the local government. l

the country’s northern region, especially the districts of Gaibandha and Kurigram, is expected to begin by the end of December this year.

Executive Engineer of Local Government Engineering Department M Belal Hossain disclosed this information to the Dhaka Tribune yesterday at his office.

He said a 1.49km bridge over the Teesta River at Horipur-Chilmari Kheya Ghat point under the direct supervision of the LGED at an estimated cost of Tk3.5bn would be constructed, which would be the largest bridge in the country constructed by the LGED. The bridge would lessen the distance between Gaibandha and Kurigram by at least 65km along with the transport cost as well, he added.

In addition, a road from the bridge would also be linked to the Rangpur-Bogra highway at Dhaperhat under Sadullapur upazila to avoid severe traf-

fic jams in the Gaibandha town, he said.

Tender would be floated after the Development Project Profile (DPP) got approval for the project from the Ministry of Planning, which was expected to be made at the meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council soon, the executive engineer informed.

Earlier, the feasibility studies to construct the bridge were conducted successfully by experts from the Water and Flood Management Institute of Buet in 2010 and 2011, he added.

M Shariatullah, a retired headmaster of a high school and the convener of Teesta Bridge Implementation Parishad, had been staging demonstrations for a very long time, demanding that the bridge be built, said they were very happy to about the decision regarding its construction. He also urged the authorities concerned to start the construction work of the bridge as soon as possible to materialize their dreams and to make their movement a grand success. l

NEWS IN BRIEF Section 144 imposed in Jhenaidah

The district administration in Jhenaidah imposed section 144 for an indefinite period in the town and its surrounding areas from 6am yesterday, after opposition BNP and ruling Awami League and their front organisations announced rallies at the same time and venue yesterday.

Jhenaidah Deputy Commissioner Safiqul Islam said the BNP called a rally as part of its countrywide programmes, while the Awami League and its fronts also called a separate rally at the same time and venue yesterday. Local administration imposed section 144 to ensure law and order in the town. Abdul Malek, district unit secretary of the BNP, alleged that the local administration imposed section 144 to spoil the opposition’s scheduled countrywide programmes. Shahidul Karim Mintu, joint general secretary of the district Awami League and also the mayor of Jhenaidah municipality, said the local unit of the ruling party agreed with the administration’s decision because the restrictions were imposed to maintain peace in the area. – Our Correspondent

UNO foils child marriage The Kaliganj upazila administration on Wednesday saved an underage girl from early marriage in Jhenaidah. Eradul Haque, upazila nirbahi officer of Kaliganj, said Sahela Khatun Lima, a class eight student of Chaprail High School, was due to be married off in the village of Chaprail. However, staff from the Sonar Bangla Foundation, a non-government organization, informed the local administration about the planned marriage and asked them to intervene. The local administration foiled the programme.

Lima, in a statement to the upazila administration, expressed her wish to continue her studies. – Our Correspondent

BGB hold four Bangladeshis Border Guard Bangladesh forces detained four Bangladeshi nationals as they were entering crossing the border from India without any legal papers at the Moheshpur frontier in Jhenaidah on Wednesday. They were entering the country through the Samanta border crossing around 9pm. Samanta Border Guard Bangladesh Camp’s Havilder Mahbub Hossain said the four, including 3 men and a woman, went to India without visas or passports and were caught when they were returning to the Bangladesh.

A case was lodged against them. – Our Correspondent

Two sentenced life term in Noakhali A Noakhali court on Wednesday sentenced two people life term imprisonment and fined them Tk11,000, on default more one year imprisonment, in a child murder case. Additional District Judge Mohammad Kuddus passed the verdict against Akkas Ali, 24, of Companiganj upazila’s South Gangchil village and Belal Uddin, 28, of the same village.Court officials said the convicts strangled Faruk, 12, of the same village, who worked at a hotel, on March 18, 2009. The body was recovered from a toilet three days later, they added. Following the incident, deceased’s father Siddik Ullah then filed a case with the Companiganj police station in this regard. – Our Correspondent

8

DHAKA TRIBUNE

International

Friday, November 1, 2013

Syria destroys chemical arms equipment: Official n AP, The Hague, Netherlands An official at the global chemical weapons watchdog said Thursday Syria has completed destruction of critical equipment for producing chemical weapons and filling munitions with poison gas.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons had not yet made the announcement public.

The announcement comes one day ahead of the Nov. 1 deadline set by the Hague-based organisation for Damas-

cus to destroy or “render inoperable” all chemical weapon production facilities and machinery for mixing chemicals into poison gas and filling munitions.

Destruction of the equipment means that Syria can no longer produce new chemical weapons. However Damascus still has to start destroying existing weapons and stockpiles. The country is believed to have around 1,000 metric tons of chemicals and weapons including mustard gas and the nerve agent sarin.

Completion of the initial stage of destruction, overseen by a joint United Nations-OPCW team in Syria, is a signif-

icant milestone in an ambitious timeline that aims to destroy all of Damascus’ chemical weapons by mid-2014.

Inspectors said earlier this week they had completed their first round of verification work, visiting 21 of 23 sites declared by Damascus. Inspectors were unable to visit two sites because of security concerns, underscoring the risky nature of a mission to destroy Syria’s chemical arsenal in the midst of an ongoing civil war.

Syria has submitted a plan for the total destruction of its chemical weapons that has to be approved next month by the OPCW’s executive committee.l

Syria war stirs decades-old tensions in Tripoli n AFP, Tripoli In the impoverished Bab al-Tebbaneh and Jabal Mohsen neighbourhoods of Lebanon’s second city Tripoli, the war in neighbouring Syria has aggravated decades-old sectarian and political tensions.

Regional and local powers have taken advantage of the situation, arming poor fighters in the neighbourhoods to fight a proxy war over Syria.

Jabal Mohsen, where most of the population belongs to President Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect, has long backed the Damascus regime.

Majority-Sunni Bab el-Tebbaneh, however, supports the rebels who have been fighting to overthrow Assad for the past 31 months.

But sectarian fighting in the two districts started long before: since 2008,

there have been 18 rounds of fighting, killing more than 200 and wounding 3,000 others.

The most recent clashes between the two, fought across the aptly-named Syria Street that divides them, started on October 21, killing 14 people.

After each round of violence, Lebanese troops deploy to the area, bringing a temporary calm to the streets of the city of 500,000 people, of whom 80% are Sunni and just 11% Alawite.

“We are suffering the consequences of the Syrian conflict,” said Nabil Rahim, a Sunni cleric in the city who has long worked to soothe tensions between the two communities.

But Rahim sees three main factors fuelling violence in the city: the conflict in Syria, political tensions in Lebanon, and the country’s own bitter sec-

tarian problems that caused a civil war from 1975-1990.

“In Jabal Mohsen, we know that (powerful Lebanese Shiite movement) Hezbollah, Iran and the Syrian regime are providing weapons and funds,” he says.

“It is more complicated in Bab al-Tebbaneh,” he adds.

“Those doing the shooting are residents, Islamists and supporters of the March 14 coalition,” one of Lebanon’s main political groupings that has long opposed Assad.

“But many are fighting just for the money,” he added.

Syria militarily and politically dominated its tiny neighbour for more than 30 years after Assad’s father Hafez al-Assad intervened in Lebanon’s civil war in 1976. l

Israel eyes another 3,360 settler homes: Report n AFP, Jerusalem

Palestinian sister of Ahmed Tazazah, 21, who was killed during clashes in Qabatiya northern West Bank, weeps as she holds him AP

Israeli troops kill Palestinian in north West Bank raid n AFP, Qabatya Israeli troops shot dead a 22-year-old Palestinian early on Thursday during a raid near the northern West Bank city of Jenin, Palestinian medics and security officials said. Ahmad Tazazaa was shot dead in Qabatya after Israeli soldiers entered the town to carry out an arrest operation, Palestinian officials said.

Local residents threw stones at them, prompting the soldiers to open fire, hitting Tazazaa in the chest, medical sources said. Another four people were arrested. The Israeli military confirmed four arrests in the town but said they were looking into reports someone had been killed.

“During an operation overnight to

Six killed in Iraq violence

Report: Snowden gets tech support job in Russia n AP, Moscow

n AFP, Baghdad Attacks in and north of Baghdad killed six people on Thursday, including three women gunned down in the capital, officials said, the latest in a months-long nationwide spike in unrest.

The attacks come as Iraq witnesses its worst violence since 2008, a surge in bloodshed that has killed more than 5,400 people this year despite authorities having carried out a swathe of op-

Anatoly Kucherena, a lawyer for former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden, says his client has found a technical support job at a Russian website.

Kucherena told the RIA Novosti news agency Thursday that Snowden starts his new job on Friday. Kucherena declined to name the company that has hired Snowden but says it’s a major Russian website.

Snowden was granted asylum in Russia in August after being stuck at a Moscow airport for more than a month after flying there from Hong Kong. His whereabouts in Russia remain secret.

The 30-year-old faces espionage charges in the U.S for uncovering a mass surveillance scheme at the National Security Agency. l

Bodies of 87 migrants found in Niger desert n AFP, Niamey

arrest four Palestinian suspects, some 50 Palestinians threw stones at Israeli soldiers, who responded using anti-riot methods,” an army spokeswoman told AFP. “We are looking into reports that a Palestinian was hit during the operation.” Meanwhile, hundreds of people were gathering in Jenin to accompany the body from the morgue back to Qabatya for his funeral later in the morning, an AFP correspondent said. Locals said the Tazazaa was a member of the radical Islamic Jihad movement, but there was no immediate official confirmation.

On September 17, Israeli troops shot dead an Islamic Jihad member in Jenin refugee camp, about a month after killing another suspected member of the group in the city. l

Israel is planning to move ahead with another 3,360 new settler homes in the West Bank, Haaretz newspaper reported on Thursday, quoting an MP from the ruling rightwing Likud party.

Prime Minister Benjamin “Netanyahu’s government will begin advancing a series of construction plans in east Jerusalem and the West Bank to the tune of some 5,000 new housing units, in an effort to ‘offset’ the release of Palestinian prisoners earlier this week,” the paper said.

The figure includes the construction of 1,500 new homes in east Jerusalem which was announced early on Wednesday immediately after Israel freed 26 long-serving prisoners in line with its commitments to US-backed peace talks. But the report also detailed plans for another 3,360 homes which are to be pushed through various stages of the planning process.

Some are to be built in large settlement blocs Israel hopes to retain in any final peace deal, while others are slated for construction in isolated settlements deep in the West Bank.

The information was revealed by Ofir Akunis, an MP from Netanyahu’s ruling Likud, the paper said.

Akunis could not immediately be reached to confirm the details.

The report said the government would market land “for the immediate construction of 860 housing units in settlements in the major blocs” naming Ariel, Maaleh Adumim, Givat Zeev, Beitar Ilit, Kareni Shomron and Elkana.

Plans for another 1,400 new homes will also be submitted to the planning division of the Civil Administration. l

erations and implemented tightened security measures.

In northeast Baghdad, police found the bodies of three blindfolded women bearing multiple gunshot wounds to the head, execution-style, at an empty plot in a Shiite-majority neighbourhood.

A police officer and a medical official said initial investigations showed the women were shot earlier on Thursday. l

Four arrested in UK terror probe n AP, London

Afghan refugee children play with a balloon in an alley of a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan. Pakistan hosts over 1.6 million registered Afghans, the largest and most protracted refugee population in the world, according to the UN refugee agency, thousands of them still live without electricity, running water and other basic services AP

Turkish MPs to attend parliament in head scarves

Rescuers have found the decomposed bodies of 87 migrants in the harsh Niger desert, some of them eaten by jackals, local officials said, the country’s worst such tragedy in a decade.

The victims, nearly all of them women and children, had been trying to reach neighbouring Algeria but are believed to have died of thirst when their truck broke down, according to a senior security source in Niger.

Almoustapha Alhacen, from local aid organisation Aghir In’man, gave a graphic account of the grim discovery on Wednesday about a dozen kilometres (miles) from the Algerian border.

“The corpses were decomposed; it was horrible,” he said. l

n Reuters, Ankara

Libya coastguard rescues 84 migrants at sea

NSA broke into Yahoo, Google data: Report

n AFP, Tripoli

n AP, Washington

Libya’s coastguard has rescued 84 illegal immigrants from Africa in the sea off Tripoli, Lana news agency quoted a maritime official as saying on Thursday.

“The Libyan coastguard supported by special forces of the Navy rescued 84 illegal migrants of various African nationalities whose boat had broken down in the sea north of Tripoli” late on Wednesday, the official said. “All of the migrants are healthy and have been transferred to the (western) port of Zawiya where they were handed over to agencies that fight illegal immigration.” On Tuesday nearly 100 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa escaped from a detention centre at Gharyan in southwestern Libya. Seventy-five of them were subsequently arrested. l

The National Security Agency has secretly broken into the main communications links that connect Yahoo and Google data centres around the world, a newspaper reported, citing documents obtained from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

A secret accounting dated Jan 9, 2013, indicates that NSA sends millions of records every day from Yahoo and Google internal networks to data warehouses at the agency’s Fort Meade, Maryland, headquarters, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.

In the last 30 days, field collectors had processed and sent back more than 180 million new records — ranging from “metadata,” which would indi-

Four female lawmakers from Turkey’s Islamist-rooted ruling party plan to wear their Islamic head scarves in parliament on Thursday in a challenge to the country’s secular tradition.

The last time a lawmaker attempted to wear the head scarf in parliament in 1999 she was expelled from the assembly.

“We do not know how they will react but we are going to enter parliament with our head scarves and continue our work,” Nurcan Dalbudak, one of the four Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmakers, told Reuters.

“We are going to witness the start of an important era and we will play the leading role, we will be the standard-bearers, this is very important,” she said.

The head scarf is an emotive symbol in Turkey, viewed by secularists as the emblem of political Islam and its appearance in public life as an affront to the Turkish Republic’s secular foundations set up by founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

While there are no specific restrictions on wearing the head scarf in parliament, opposition from secularists as well as a ban in other state institutions, which was lifted this month, have pre-

cate who sent or received emails and when, to content such as text, audio and video, the Post reported Wednesday on its website.

The latest revelations were met with outrage from Google, and triggered legal questions, including whether the NSA may be violating federal wiretap laws.

“Although there’s a diminished standard of legal protection for interception that occurs overseas, the fact that it was directed apparently to Google’s cloud and Yahoo’s cloud, and that there was no legal order as best we can tell to permit the interception, there is a good argument to make that the NSA has engaged in unlawful surveillance,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of Electronic Privacy Information Centre.

viously deterred women from wearing them.

Dalbudak and fellow AKP lawmakers Sevde Beyazit Kacar, Gulay Samanci and Gonul Bekin Sahkulubey were expected to attend the general assembly later on Thursday wearing their head scarves.

Turkey’s main opposition and secularist Republican People’s Party (CHP) has said it will contest the move.

“All our members are in agreement, that is, we think the AKP is exploiting religion. We will never remain silent towards actions aimed at eliminating the principle of secularism,” CHP lawmaker Dilek Akagun Yilmaz told Reuters. l

The reference to ‘clouds’ refers to sites where the companies collect data.

The new details about the NSA’s access to Yahoo and Google data centres around the world come at a time when Congress is reconsidering the government’s collection practices and authority, and as European governments are responding angrily to revelations that the NSA collected data on millions of communications in their countries.

Details about the government’s programs have been trickling out since Snowden shared documents with the Post and Guardian newspaper in June.

The NSA’s principal tool to exploit the Google and Yahoo data links is a project called MUSCULAR, operated jointly with the agency’s British counterpart, GCHQ. l

British police have arrested four people in an investigation of UK citizens suspected of attending terrorism training camps in Syria. Metropolitan Police say two men and a woman were arrested Thursday morning in East London.

Another man was arrested in Lancashire in northwest England, and all four — who are between the ages of 21

and 31 — are being questioned by police.

Police said the four were arrested on suspicion of “failing to disclose information which might be of assistance in securing the apprehension, prosecution or conviction of a person involved in an act of terrorism.”

The arrests come after police charged two brothers last month with attending a terror training camp in Syria and firearms offenses. l

WORLD WATCH Chinese boy, 10, jumps to death ‘on teacher’s order’

A 10-year-old Chinese boy jumped 30 floors to his death after failing to write a self-criticism letter demanded by his teacher, state media reported Thursday.

The fifth-grade primary school student had been ordered to write a 1,000-character apology by his teacher for talking in class. The educator allegedly told him to jump out of a building after he failed to complete the task. “Teacher, I can’t do it,” was found written in one of his textbooks, CNR said. “I flinched several times when I tried to jump from the building.” The child smashed into a parked car beneath the flat where his family live. “The police investigation is still under way,” an official of Jinjiang district, where the incident happened, told AFP, declining to comment further.

UK trial shows phone hacking techniques

A jury has been given an insight into the inner workings of tabloid phone hacking at the trial of two former editors of Rupert Murdoch’s defunct News of the World.

Former editors Rebekah Brooks and Andrew Coulson are on trial, along with six others, on a range of charges related to hacking and bribery. Prosecutors on Thursday played a recording of private investigator Glenn Mulcaire “blagging” — seeking information about a mobile phone passcode from a service provider using a false name.

Prosecution lawyer Andrew Edis said Mulcaire made the recording himself. The jury was also shown emails from Mulcaire to then-News of the World news editor Ian Edmondson containing mobile phone numbers and details of voicemail inboxes for politician and royals.

California town sues hot sauce company over chili odors

A small Southern California city has sued the makers of the popular Sriracha-brand hot pepper sauce, saying tear-inducing odours emanating from its chili processing plant in town are creating a public nuisance. Irwindale officials said they plan to ask a Los Angeles County judge on Thursday for a court order forcing Huy Fong Foods to immediately halt production of Sriracha. The lawsuit, filed on Monday, says the company has denied a problem exists and refused to take action to abate fumes powerful enough to prompt some residents to “vacate their residences temporarily to seek relief.”

Irwindale has received numerous reports from residents complaining of “strong, offensive chili odours” that cause eye and throat irritation and headaches, the suit says. City officials said they have met twice with company executives and cited the firm for violating public nuisance ordinances, all to no avail.

Kenyans protest ‘grass cutting’ rapists

Several hundred Kenyan protestors marched on police headquarters Thursday to deliver a petition of over a million names demanding justice after men accused of brutally gang raping a schoolgirl cut grass as punishment. The ferocious attack on the teenage girl and lack of action against those who carried it out has sparked outrage in the country. The 16-year-old, known by the pseudonym Liz, was reportedly attacked, beaten and then raped by six 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.

DHAKA TRIBUNE

International

9

Friday, November 1, 2013

China, other Asian countries angry over embassy spy reports n AP, Sydney China and Southeast Asian governments demanded an explanation from the US and its allies on Thursday following media reports that American and Australian embassies in the region were being used as hubs for Washington’s secret electronic data collection program.

The reports come amid an international outcry over allegations the US has spied on the telephone communications of as many as 35 foreign leaders.

A document from National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, published this week by German magazine Der Spiegel, describes a signals intelligence program called “Stateroom” in which US, British, Australian and Canadian embassies secretly house surveillance equipment to collect electronic communications. Those countries, along with New Zealand, have an intelligence-sharing agreement known as “Five Eyes.”

“China is severely concerned about the reports, and demands a clarification and explanation,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.

Australia’s Fairfax media reported

China’s last county finally linked by road n AFP, Beijing

The last county in China to be accessible by modern land transport was finally linked up to the rest of the country Thursday with a new road that has taken decades to build, state media said.

The 19,000 people of deeply isolated Medog in southeastern Tibet, where the mighty Brahmaputra river – known as the Yarlung Zangbo in China – winds its way between towering Himalayan peaks, have until now had to depend on horses for land travel and trade.

The 117km road took so long to build because of the precipitous topography, China National Radio reported on its website.

Avalanches and landslides also delayed the project, which includes a 3.3km tunnel that turns a four-hour trek over a snow-capped mountain into a less than four minute drive, it added.

The road is initially expected to be operational for eight months a year, state broadcaster CCTV said.

The area is hit by more than 400 earthquakes annually so alternatives to the road will still be needed to ensure access, the China National Radio report said.

“We will surely have to construct more roads to Medog as it is an earthquake-prone area,” it quoted Tu Yunliang, one of the route’s designers, as saying.

Critics of Beijing’s rule in Tibet say new infrastructure such as railways and airports enable immigration by China’s Han ethnic majority, exploitation of its resources and consolidation of political control.

But Beijing insists that such projects raise living standards in the remote region. l

Strong earthquake hits Taiwan, shakes buildings in capital n AFP, Taipei A strong earthquake struck eastern Taiwan Thursday, shaking buildings in the capital and causing tremors across the island.

The 6.3 magnitude at 8:02 pm (1202 GMT) had its epicentre 53km southwest of Hualien city at a depth of 19.5 kilometres, according to the country’s Seismology Centre.

The US Geological Survey gave a slightly higher magnitude of 6.6 and a shallower depth of 9 km.

There was no immediate information on any damage or casualties. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said there was no immediate threat of a tsunami.

Residents in Taipei took to social media to describe their alarm after the quake hit.

“Yikes. Now the sirens are going.

Definitely the worst earthquake I’ve felt here,” wrote Lola Dodge on Twitter, describing herself as an expat living in Taipei.

Elga Reyes tweeted: “Ohmygod.

That was the scariest moment ever!

Earthquake in Taipei. I could hear the walls creaking. And felt like I was swaying on a ride.” l

Thursday that the Australian embassies involved are in Jakarta, Bangkok, Hanoi, Beijing and Dili in East Timor; and High Commissions in Kuala Lumpur and Port Moresby, Papua NewGuinea. The Fairfax report, based on the Der Spiegel document and an interview with an anonymous former intelligence officer, said those embassies are being used to intercept phone calls and internet data across Asia.

In a statement, Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said his government “cannot accept and strongly protests the news of the existence of wiretapping facilities at the US Embassy in Jakarta.”

“It should be emphasized that if confirmed, such action is not only a breach of security, but also a serious breach of diplomatic norms and ethics, and certainly not in tune with the spirit of friendly relations between nations,” he said.

The Snowden document said the surveillance equipment is concealed, including antennas that are “sometimes hidden in false architectural features or roof maintenance sheds.”

Des Ball, a top Australian intelligence expert, told The Associated Press he had personally seen covert an-

tennas in five of the embassies named in the Fairfax report.

He declined to go into further detail or specify which embassies those were.

But Ball said what Der Spiegel has revealed is hardly surprising or uncommon. Many countries have routinely used embassies as bases to covertly listen in on phone calls, and reports of such surveillance have been public for decades, he said.

“We use embassies to pick up stuff that we can’t pick up from ground stations here in Australia — and lots of countries do that,” said Ball, a professor with the Australian National University’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre.

According to the Snowden document, the spying sites are small in size and staff. “They are covert, and their true mission is not known by the majority of the diplomatic staff at the facility where they are assigned,” it said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade declined to comment on the reports. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said only that the government had not broken any laws.

“Every Australian governmental agency, every Australian official, at home and abroad, operates in accor-

dance with the law,” Abbott told reporters. “And that’s the assurance that I can give people.”

Still, there was predictable outrage in the countries named in the document.

Malaysian Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said his government viewed the allegations as a serious matter and would investigate whether the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur was being used for spying. The country’s opposition party issued a statement Thursday urging the Malaysian government to lodge a protest with both the US and Australian embassies.

Thailand’s National Security Council Secretary-General, Lt. Gen. Paradorn Pattanathabutr, said the government told the US that spying was a crime under Thai laws, and that Thailand would not cooperate if asked to help eavesdrop.

Asked about the Australian embassy allegations, he said Australians are not capable of doing such sophisticated surveillance work.

“When it comes to technology and mechanics, the US is more resourceful and more advanced than Australia,” he said. “So I can say that it is not true that the Australian embassy will be used as a communications hub for spying.” l

Fresh violence at India riots site kills four n AFP, New Delhi India stepped up security Thursday after a fresh outbreak of violence killed four people in the same region hit by deadly communal clashes last month, a police officer said.

The villagers were killed overnight close to Muzaffarnagar, 105 kilometres (65 miles) northeast of capital New Delhi, where mobs last month burnt houses during Muslim-Hindu riots that left 50 people dead and forced hundreds to flee.

The Uttar Pradesh state government deployed around 500 paramilitary troops to Muzaffarnagar early Thursday as a precaution, while eight people were arrested in the overnight violence, the officer said.

“Last night, four people died in nearby villages, including a woman.

They were separate incidents,” the senior district police official told AFP on the condition of anonymity.

“It seems like it is more of a domestic dispute. We are probing the matter.”

It is unclear whether the latest violence is liked to communal tensions in and around Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh state, which has a history of religious and caste-based clashes.

According to police, the first incident involved clashes between two groups of people from neighbouring villages over a land dispute, while a woman was killed by a different group of villagers in a separate incident.

Muzaffarnagar district remains

tense, with many who fled last month’s violence still living in camps. Those clashes erupted when Hindus allegedly killed a Muslim man supposedly for sexually harassing a woman, triggering a deadly retaliation that quickly spiralled into three days of riots.

The violence triggered speculation that parties were seeking to polarise the politically pivotal state along religious lines ahead of general elections due next year.

Uttar Pradesh, with its population of 200 million, witnessed riots in 1992 following the razing of a mosque by a Hindu mob. More than 2,000 people – mostly Muslims – were killed after the 16th-century structure in Ayodhya was demolished. l

A still image from video shows an artist’s rendering of a statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, to be constructed in the western Indian state of Gujarat REUTERS

Modi aims to make history with world’s tallest statue n Reuters New Delhi Indian opposition leader Narendra Modi launched the construction of the world’s tallest statue on Thursday, a $338m project in honour of one of the country’s founding fathers, that he is using to undermine the ruling Nehru-Gandhi political family.

The statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who was first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s deputy and his interior minister, but often at odds with him, is to be built on a river island in Gujarat, the home state of both Patel and Modi.

It will be built in four years and will be twice the height of the Statue of Liberty.

“The world will be forced to look at India when this statue stands tall,” said Modi, who rules Gujarat as chief minister and is the leading opposition candidate for prime minister in general elections due by next May. His main rival in the election is the ruling Congress party’s Rahul Gandhi, Nehru’s great-grandson.

Thursday marked the 138th birth anniversary of Patel, and Modi said earlier this week: “Every Indian regrets Sardar Patel did not become the first prime minister. Had he been the first prime minister, the country’s fate and

face would have been completely different.”

The comments, and the project, are seen as a not-so-subtle bid by Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to appropriate an independence-era hero associated with Congress, a party largely run by the Nehru-Gandhi family. Members of the family have ruled India for more than half the 66 years since it became an independent nation.

Nehru, his daughter, Indira Gandhi, and grandson, Rajiv Gandhi, were all prime ministers. Rajiv’s widow, Sonia Gandhi, is the current leader of the Congress and Rahul, her son, is leading the party’s campaign to take on Modi at the elections.

Opinion polls say Modi is more popular than the Gandhi scion, and he is favoured by India’s business titans for pro-investment policies and fast economic growth in Gujarat.

However, the 20.63 billion rupee ($338 million) 182-metre iron and bronze statue has been widely criticised as being unnecessary in a nation where one-third of the 1.2 billion people live in poverty. It is to be financed by the Gujarat government and public donations. l

China accuses Japan of Thai amnesty bill sparks interfering in naval drills street protests n AP, Beijing China on Thursday accused Japan of interfering in its recent naval exercises and said it may take unspecified further action if the meddling doesn’t stop.

The tough talk comes amid a bitter dispute over competing claims to an uninhabited island group in the East China Sea. Defence Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun told reporters that a Japanese navy ship entered the exercise zone on Oct. 25 and stayed for three days, despite a Chinese notice to ships that its navy would be conducting drills in the area.

Yang said Japanese ships and aircraft also lingered close by for days conducting “high intensity” tracking and surveillance.

“Not only do those actions consti-

tute interference in our normal training activities, they also threaten the safety of our ships and planes and could lead to accidents or miscalculations,” Yang said.

Japan must cease such “provocations” or “bear responsibility for the consequences,” he said. “China reserves the right to take further measures.”

The 13-month island feud has raised tensions between the rivals — who are also important economic partners — to new heights.

Coast guard vessels regularly confront each other in waters around the disputed islands and government-to-government exchanges have been frozen.

The dispute sharpened in September 2012 when the Japanese government nationalised them against China’s objections. l

n AFP, Bangkok Anti-government protesters returned to the streets of Bangkok Thursday as parliament debated a political amnesty which opponents fear will “whitewash” past abuses and allow ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra to return.

Critics of the controversial legislation say it could unleash a fresh bout of political turmoil in a country rocked by a series of rival demonstrations since royalist generals toppled Thaksin in 2006.

The opposition Democrat Party called for a mass rally against the planned amnesty outside a railway station in Bangkok on Thursday evening, predicting that thousands would attend.

By late afternoon hundreds of people had already gathered at the site, some wearing bandanas reading “Fight” and waving clappers with the slogan “Stop the amnesty for corrupt people.”

The ruling Puea Thai Party of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra – Thaksin’s sister – has ordered all its lawmakers to support the bill, which would cover crimes related to political unrest since 2004. A vote is expected in the coming days.

Supporters of the amnesty say it will draw a line under years of turmoil culminating in mass pro-Thaksin “Red Shirt” protests in 2010 that left dozens of civilians dead in a military crackdown.

New York-based Human Rights Watch has said a blanket amnesty would “allow officials and protest leaders who have blood on their hands to go unpunished.”

“By whitewashing past abuses, the government denies justice to victims and tells future abusers they have little to fear,” said HRW Asia director Brad Adams. l

Indonesia hit with mass strike over wage hike demands n AFP, Jakarta Tens of thousands of workers went on strike across Indonesia Thursday, in the latest industrial action to hit Southeast Asia’s top economy as its citizens seek a greater share of the spoils from stellar growth.

Unions are calling for hefty pay rises as the cost of living skyrockets due to surging inflation, which has been driven up in recent months by an unpopular fuel price hike.

Factories producing everything from clothes to electronics, often for international companies, stopped operations as workers across the country downed tools on day one of a two-day strike. Union leaders said that two million took part in the action across the archipelago.

Their figures are usually higher than those given by the police, who said around 60,000 had walked out in the capital and surrounding districts and there were also small strikes and demonstrations in other parts of the country.

Security was tight with more than 17,000 police mobilised in Jakarta and

Indonesian workers shout slogans during a rally against low wages in Jakarta surrounding areas.

Thousands of workers in uniform marched past deserted factories in Pulogadung industrial estate in East Jakarta, led by a truck with people shouting from loudspeakers.

Hundreds of strikers rode motorcycles, waved banners and shouted: “Long

AP

live the workers” and “Raise our pay.”

“I am not asking to live in a castle or sleep on a bed of gold, just for what we deserve from working so hard to contribute to the economy,” said Achmad, 46, a welder who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

The protests were largely peaceful

although police said that some windows were smashed and motorbikes pushed over in the industrial hub of Bekasi, just outside Jakarta.

Elsewhere, police said around 5,000 took part in the strike in Surabaya in East Java province, and 1,000 downed tools in Makassar on the central island of Sulawesi.

TV pictures also showed crowds striking in the industrial hub of Batam Island, near Singapore, although police did not have an estimate of the numbers involved.

“All factories in Java’s industrial hubs have stopped,” said Said Iqbal, chairman of the Confederation of Indonesian Workers Union, adding that the strike would affect 20 of the nation’s 34 provinces.

With inflation hitting 8.4% year-onyear in September, Iqbal said ordinary people were deeply concerned over the rising cost of living.

“Many workers who could not afford their rents have had to move out of their homes and live under bridges and in sewers. They are eating instant noodles instead of rice.” l

Nuon Chea

AP

Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge defendants deny charges n AP, Phnom Penh, Cambodia The last two surviving leaders of Cambodia’s radical Khmer Rouge regime still on trial for genocide and other war crimes issued their final defense Thursday, distancing themselves from the deaths of more than 1.7 million people who died during their rule.

Former head of state Khieu Samphan, 87, and 82-year-old Nuon Chea, the Khmer Rouge’s chief ideologist and No. 2 leader, both made lengthy closing statements at the UN-backed tribunal in the capital, Phnom Penh.

A verdict is not expected in the case until the first half of next year, more than two years after the trial began.

Shortly after seizing Phnom Penh in April 1975, the Khmer Rouge forced an estimated 1 million people — even hospital patients — out of the capital, herding them en masse into the countryside in an effort to create a communist agrarian utopia. By the time the bizarre experiment ended in 1979 with a Vietnamese invasion, close to 2 million people were dead, most from starvation, medical neglect, slave-like working conditions and execution. Their bodies were dumped in shallow mass graves that still dot the country today.

“It is easy to say that I should have known everything, I should have understood everything, and thus I could have intervened or rectified the situation at the time,” Khieu Samphan defiantly told the court. “Do you really think that that was what I wanted to happen to my people?” “The reality was that I did not have any power,” he said. Nuon Chea also defended his actions, saying he never ordered Khmer Rouge cadres “to mistreat or kill people to deprive them of food or commit any genocide.” l

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

Editorial

Letters to

www.dhakatribune.com

Improve our business environment, not destroy it

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ccording to the latest Doing Business Index published by the World Bank, the ranking of Bangladesh as a place to do business has improved compared to last year. While this is certainly good news, a closer look at the data reveals that Bangladesh still has a long way to go towards creating a truly hospitable business environment.

The Doing Business Index Improving the provides an aggregate rankinvestment climate ing based on how friendly and promoting the local regulations are for entrepreneurship small to medium size busiis essential for the nesses in conducting activieconomic growth of ties such as getting permits, registration of property, Bangladesh and this getting credit, protection is an issue that needs of investors, ease of paying urgent attention taxes, etc.

According to the 2014 Index, Bangladesh ranks 130th among 189 countries around the world, an improvement over the 2013 ranking of 132.

The ease of starting a new business here has also improved markedly – a ranking of 74 in comparison to 83 in 2013.

However, in spite of the progress, Bangladesh is still below par in South Asia, where the regional average ranking is 121 and Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka all rank above us. Moreover, while our score has improved in the ease of starting a new business, it has declined in important areas such as ease of paying taxes, getting credit and trading across borders.

Improving the investment climate and promoting entrepreneurship is essential for the economic growth of Bangladesh and this is an issue that needs urgent attention.

Unfortunately, it seems that our leaders are much more concerned with worsening the business environment for petty political interests rather than helping to improve it.

Waiving interest is not the way

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t is outrageous that state banks have waived nearly Tk87bn interest against loans in the past 10 years. This is equivalent to nothing more than taking money out of depositors’ pockets, and a considerable amount at that.

Bear in mind that the state banks have not specified any criteria, on which the board of directors of those banks have based their decisions to approve the waivers.

Bear in mind that the Such actions by the state banks have not state banks raise questions specified any criteria, about whether these waivon which the board ers were done because of political influence, and the of directors of those extent of such influence. banks have based their Their actions also raise decisions to approve the the question of whether waivers these state banks serve the purpose for which they were established, if they are so easily influenced.

In recent months, there have been allegations of pressure being put on state banks, through the use of political influence, to waive loans in order to expedite loan recovery.

While one can understand if banks waive interest for someone who is genuinely affected and unable to pay, to make exemptions for those who may or may not be as affected, but use their political connections to have their own way, is a dangerous practice that the banks must stop following.

Exempting interest is a short-term solution that may do more harm to the banking sector in the long run, and must be discouraged.

the Editor

LETTER OF THE DAY

Reverting to the same old path of confrontational politics October 28

In her address to the nation on October 18, PM Sheikh Hasina put forward a proposal for the formation of an all-party polls-time government to oversee the forthcoming JS election.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, in response to that proposal, came up with a counter-proposal of forming a non-party election-time government. It opened, as we thought then, a new window of opportunity for engagement in political dialogue to find a possible way out of the imbroglio. But considering the present scenario, it seems to us that both the ruling AL and opposition BNP are reverting to their old path of confrontational politics, making any immediate solution to this deadly political gridlock highly improbable. Why should we – the masses – suffer for our political leaders’ unacceptably adamant attitude to one another?

Asaduzzaman (Jewel) University of Rajshahi

‘Don’t Bangladeshis speak Urdu?’

Mahbubul Alam Hanif ‘sacked’ October 27 I dislike him a lot.

Siddikur Rahman

Why was this done??

This was the right thing to do.

Moudud Hasan

Saddif Ovee

The honourable prime minister is doing all the right things recently Zaker Chowdhury

October 25

Tahsin M You should have simply asked him whether people from West Bengal speak in “Urdu.” You should have also added that it says “Bangla” in the name of the country, so use your common sense and figure out which language we speak.

It is funny, how educated people sometimes seem to flush their brain down the toilet.

Reader It happens. There are Hindus and Jains in India, who don’t give Hindus house on rent because they only know one thing about “Bangalis” that they eat “fish that smells foul.” Now what would you say? For North Indians, every South Indian is still a Madrasi or one who speaks Tamil or Malayalam, not realising that he could be a Tulu, a Telugu or a Kannada speaker.

For many, all Punjabis are Sikhs and don’t even think that Punjabis are a group of people who are Hindus, Christians, also Muslims. This happens within India and even within states, district to district. Opinions are formed on the basis of media reports that rarely focus on culture or language other than that of national capital or in states, the state capitals.

Hasina, Khaleda ‘to talk’ shortly October 27

There is nothing to be impatient about! If history is any reference, political “talks” have produced nothing encouraging ever in this country!

WaliulHaqueKhondker

akram Urdu/Hindi is the main unifying language of the subcontinent. The people of West Bengal also speak Urdu.

When Bengali was made the second national language of Pakistan, East Pakistan was separated from the mainstream of not only of Pakistan, but the whole region, including Afghanistan and Iran.

That is why Jinnah advised Bengalese to accept Urdu; otherwise he knew that Bengalese would not be able to play their role in the region.

A-Level, O-Level exams out of hartal purview

Naheed In the comment by Akram, we have the prejudices and ignorant generalisations the author hoped to bring to our attention.

Akram: Bengalese? Really? Did you step out of a time machine?

Wonderful article Ekram Kabir, but perhaps we are too harsh on ourselves. Since the declaration of International Mother Language Day on February 21, the information is out there, and those who want to know can do so. We can’t go around teaching everyone, but when an opportunity such as yours comes along, the civil thing to do, would be as you did. Kudos and thank you for sharing.

Asif Hasan How? Are the examinees supposed to attach their statement of entries on the front of their vehicles??

Be Heard

Write to us at: Dhaka Tribune FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath Sukrabad, Dhaka-1207 Email us at: letters@dhakatribune.com Send us your Op-Ed articles: opinion@dhakatribune.com Visit our website: www.dhakatribune.com Come join our Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/DhakaTribune

October 27

Tanvir Ahmed Shuvo Vehicles carrying students? Will they be out of purview of the hartal too??

Icarus Ninad Shuvo: I have the exact same question.

Nahian Pratic How would someone know that a car is carrying an O Levels candidate?

Parveen Ahmed Shame they didn’t make the same concession for the HSC students back in April.

A man must believe in something October 27

A beautifully written article to inspire us. I hoped you would have based your writing more on evidence than assumptions to make it a true representation of our past history. Thanks

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU ACROSS 1 Edge (3) 3 Reduces gradually (6) 8 Astonished (4) 9 Decay (3) 10 Hot stuff (6) 11 Gloomy (6) 14 Vestibule (5) 17 Sacrificial table (5) 20 Fruit (6) 24 Bring into accord (6) 26 Filled pastry (3) 27 Openings (4) 28 State of mind (6) 29 Prosecute (3)

Friday, November 1, 2013

DOWN 1 S African monetary unit (4) 2 Planet (4) 3 Roman garment (4) 4 Nimble (5) 5 Disease of rye (5) 6 Fish eggs (3) 7 Wander off (5) 12 Sick (3) 13 Extinct bird (3) 15 Pinch (3) 16 Cereal (3) 17 Make suitable (5) 18 Tribal symbol (5) 19 Scope (5) 21 Fruit (4) 22 Fewer (4) 23 Weak glue (4) 25 Neckwear (3)

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS Crossword

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

Code-Cracker

M Leaquat Ali

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Op-Ed

11

Friday, November 1, 2013

Beyond dates and olives n Prince Hassan bin Talal

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The violence goes on in broad daylight

MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Rising death toll, fading hopes

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n Mohammad Ali Sattar

o far, 259 people have lost their lives in political violence in 2013. We have two more months to go in this year, thus cannot close the account right now lest we miss out in adding some more in our death chronicle for this year.

Until last Tuesday five were reported killed in hartal related violence.

What does death mean to the people who have been affected by it? It means the darkening of someone’s world.

Deaths due to illness or sudden biological disorders are, by some means, acceptable. No matter the time or age.

What about the deaths we witness out in the streets in broad daylight? Or in dark shadows of evenings? These deaths go unsung and unlamented.

Souls that fall motionless at the altar of iniquity are sacrifices meant to meet selfish designs.

Leaders, for whom he is disappearing early in the day, wouldn’t care to learn about his family or the tragedy that befall his nearest kinfolk.

We have been supporting and promoting these senseless deaths for years. Sadly, we fail to realise that we are engaged in a disparaging battle of self-destruction. Mind you, they know for whom they fight, but don’t know for what.

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Before all this could start from Sunday, there came the most awaited phone call from the prime minister to the BNP chairperson. What do we make of the talk?

The 37-minute discourse was a shocker. In the first place, one should not lose sight of the essence of the call.

the people. Even the most desolate soul in the pavement has expressed his frustration over the less-than-ordinary discourse between our popular leaders.

The whole episode exposed the thought, attitude and terminology of our leaders.

We have been supporting and promoting these senseless deaths for years. Sadly, we fail to realise that we are engaged in a disparaging battle of self-destruction

It was meant to call upon the opposition leader to sit for talks and call off the strike program.

It should have been strictly on extending invitation for talks and tea.

The talk lost its essence as it went on for a long and arduous 37 minutes.

37 minutes of positive deliberation between top leaders of any opposing party of any country (or two different states) can easily transform the landscape of any planet. Alas it could not do so in Bangladesh.

First, the talk that came after a long wait has miserably failed to impress

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It is depressing that they harbour such animosity for each other. The common feeling is the prime minister shouldn’t have taken up the August 15 birthday celebration, the August 21 grenade attack and Sheikh Russel issues, and the BNP chairperson could have shown more civility in her reactions.

The 37-minute contest was of venting anger and frustration and spilled out the loathing that they harbour in their minds. The standard anticipation was of a decent diplomatic exchange between them and a beginning of the talk process. That did not happen.

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The ruling party members have come down heavily on the opposition and put the blame on the BNP leader for not withdrawing the strike program as requested by the PM. Some quarters straight off bin the possibility of a dialogue. Sajib Wazed Joy remarked that that there was no possibility of a dialogue because of the opposition stance.

BNP keeps the door open saying that talks can take place any time after the 60-hour strike is over and that the next call should also come from the PM. AL says otherwise. A layman would say it’s now Khaleda Zia’s turn to call the PM. If we watch closely, we will find that under the garb of “sincerity” there is the pretence of talks. Conflicting parties are dragging things at their will. They have forsaken those lines that help foster a friendly atmosphere for a dialogue.

They are mired in controversial acts and deeds. They insist on unconditional talks putting up a thousand conditions.

The talks for now failed. The opposition plans for more agitation. Maybe more deaths are in the offing! Alas, nobody’s listening. l Mohammad Ali Sattar is chair, Peace Bangladesh Foundation, and a political analyst.

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A

ith the recent focus on chemical weapons in Syria, the Western-brokered peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine have flown mostly under the radar. But the World Bank has brought the economic costs of occupation to the fore, arguing that Israeli restrictions on Palestinian mobility and land and water use subtracted an estimated $3.4bn from the Palestinian Authority’s GDP in 2011.

A major factor in this economic suppression was access to natural resources. The report points out that Israeli settlements, with better access to water sources, can produce thirsty crops like dates and pomegranates, while Palestinians mainly cultivate drought-resistant olives.

In response to the report’s findings, Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Paul Hirschson said that they would be discussed in the negotiations to resume next July. But addressing questions of dates and olives – economic questions – only perpetuates the system of blind, short-term solutions for which these negotiations are notorious. How can questions of trade be resolved before a peaceful relationship has been established?

The methods of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority only reflect the broader failing of our West Asia–North Africa region.

Cooperation at the regional level on almost all important issues is sadly absent; even in the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, their Arab neighbours are excluded from participation.

Addressing questions of dates and olives – economic questions – only perpetuates the system of blind, shortterm solutions for which these negotiations are notorious

Instead, every chance for truly constructive dialogue devolves into trivial minutiae – essentially, into discussions about dates and olives.

The Syrian crisis in international parlance has also been reduced to the one-dimensional story of chemical weapons, while the broader political and humanitarian crisis is being swept under the rug, something that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia protested this month by both refusing to speak at the United Nations and rejecting his country’s appointment to the Security Council.

Indeed, in our region, grander visions of cooperative, intra-independent coexistence are nowhere to be found.

Why should this be? After all, nations in other regions of the world interact with each other positively.

A recent article by Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov highlighted the myriad Asia Pacific organisations

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in which Russia participates. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) annually discusses issues of regional interest such as water and food security, health care, energy, and sustainable economic growth – all issues of importance to our region, as well. Lavrov even reports that work is under way to create a Eurasian Economic Union by January 1, 2015 to encourage inter-regional economic cooperation. Russia’s admirable goal, he says, is “equal cooperation of all countries, with no exception.”

As the crisis in Syria daily worsens, speculation grows that West Asia as we know it may soon disintegrate into smaller, sectarian states

While the Asia Pacific region works toward equitable and respectful coordination on issues of general interest, West Asia–North Africa – except for the commendable contribution of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) – lacks regionally-focused institutions. Instead of promoting economic, environmental, humanitarian, and developmental cooperation, we squabble over access to shared resources, greedily claiming whatever we can for our own.

To move forward, we must instead focus on developing a socially cohesive vision for our region’s future.

Some argue that most of our region is already thematically united by either nationalist aspirations or Islam. The unfortunate fact is, however, that nationalism and religion are both essentially exclusivist pursuits that will only yield further discord.

A nation can be defined as, to use an oft-quoted phrase, “a group of people united by a mistaken view about the past and a hatred of their neighbours.” Although fifty years ago, broader Arab nationalism seemed to many to be the region’s salvation, time has proven otherwise.

The amorphous character of the romantic urge of nationalism makes it difficult to deal with administrative questions on broad lines, and it is these very questions that must be addressed if we as a region are to move forward.

Now, as the crisis in Syria daily worsens, speculation grows that West Asia as we know it may soon disintegrate into smaller, sectarian states in a worrying process of Balkanisation that would appeal to nationalist ambitions by exacerbating our current disparity.

If we are truly to pursue regional cooperation, we must set aside small-minded ambitions and move toward overarching, mutual cooperation based on pluralism, sustainability, and rule of law. l Prince Hassan bin Talal is chairman of the West Asia-North Africa Forum.

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Season of our discontent n Ekram Kabir

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rime Minister Sheikh Hasina made the much-awaited phone call for holding a dialogue. We heaved a sigh of relief, thinking that this could be the moment for alleviating the country from the grip political gridlock.

However, to our dismay and disquiet, that didn’t happen. Someone had leaked their conversation and the media went gaga about it. It seemed someone supplied the conversation to the media.

Having said that, we have to say that the people were let down by the conversation.

Now we feel it would be better if there wasn’t any phone call. The conversation evidently reflected animosity, and unfriendly and uncompromising attitudes towards each other.

The element of giving in for solving a national crisis was clearly absent.

They were firm in their respective stances about holding the next general election.

Consequently, the BNP-led opposition didn’t agree to withdraw the coun-

We feel it would be better if there wasn’t any phone call. The conversation evidently reflected animosity, and unfriendly and uncompromising attitudes towards each other

The leak seems to have actually puffed the flame of hope that had just begun.

The information minister, although he had earlier said the conversation would be made public, said the government didn’t do it. Well, whoever had done it seems to have banged on the last nail on the coffin.

try-wide strike; they have now announced a three-day blockade (which might finally turn out to be a general strike) from Monday.

At least 13 persons were killed in the latest spate of general strikes; property loss wasn’t calculated, but surely it would be colossal. We wouldn’t be

surprised if another 13 died during the upcoming blockade.

The educational institutions would remain closed, the shipments of goods would come to a standstill, the export sector would also be hampered as the manufacturers who export Bangladeshi goods would face order cancellations, children would be wounded in bomb explosions on the streets, and above all else, the country would face another setback from which it would take years to recover.

This happens absolutely due to I’lltake-it-all attitudes from both of our main political parties. When one comes to power, one always seems too scared of leaving the power to another even if the other may seem better capable.

It’s been like this since we brought back democracy more than two decades ago.

Winning the democracy from a dictator had also cost a lot. Lives were lost, a generation of students lost about four years from their educational lives, finally democracy had come through a consensus of creating a non-party caretaker government to hold the national elections.

Then on, both the alliances had played with that system just to set the sail in their favour. While in that position, they both tried all possible means to pave the way to return to power

next time. However, it wasn’t meant to be like this.

We the common people never expected that the party in power would keep on devising mechanisms to remain in power and the party in opposition would keep on trying to pull down the party in power immediately after taking the charge.

We simply wanted to live our lives peacefully, we wanted our poor to overcome their scarcities, and we wanted our nation to be one of the best in the world.

Now here we are again at the end of the tenure of the ninth parliament, wrestling to find out a way how to have the tenth parliament. The alliance (still) in power has already proposed for forming an all-party government to hold the election.

Earlier, the opposition alliance had also proposed a formula to form the interim administration. But no one is accepting anyone’s proposal. And then again, no one is coming up with any alternative proposal; they’re not even giving an ear to prominent citizens’ proposals that are being transmitted through the media.

They seem to be sitting on their own ideas without any hope to accept any other suggestion. It looks like this has come to an ego-mongering rather than a political game.

However, the Awami League’s Syed Ashraful Islam has said the opposition is now wanting another phone call.

He added now they (Awami League) were waiting for the opposition’s phone call, stressing that the next phone call would have to be from Khaleda Zia.

No one is accepting anyone’s proposal. And then again, no one is coming up with any alternative proposal; they’re not even giving an ear to prominent citizens’ proposals that are being transmitted through the media

Analysts are saying that the possibility of making a phone call and a subsequent dialogue is still possible. They have also suggested that anyone from the opposition can make the call.

On the other hand, we the bystanders are watching this ego war failing to play any possible role in order to untie this knot; we are coming to terms with the fact this is our fate and this season of our discontent will cast its shadow every five years. We aren’t happy about it. l Ekram Kabir is executive editor of Natunbarta.com.

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

Entertainment

Friday, November 1, 2013

Somoyer Swapno Osomoyer Golpo airs tonight n Entertainment Desk Single-episode play “Somoyer Swapno Osomoyer Golpo,” a love triangle drama, will air tonight at 7:45pm on Maasranga TV. The play features Apurbo, Asha and Priya Bipasha in the lead roles.

The story starts when the married couple Rakib and Ripa head for a trip to Cox’s Bazaar to have refreshment after an accident that leaves Ripa barren. Even in the trip, the couple goes through a troublesome period since they struggle a lot to get over from the trauma. The tale takes a twist when Rimi, who had a big crush on Rakib in the past, comes to visit the same tourist spot and surprisingly come face to face with the couple.

This time, Rimi doesn’t miss the opportunity to express her love to Rakib and becomes desperate when she finds him very loyal to Ripa. l

Riddick comes to Dhaka n Entertainment Desk Star Cineplex of Bashundhara City brings British-American science fiction film “Riddick” within a month of its release.

The film was released on September 4, 2013, in the UK and Ireland, and September 6, 2013, in the United States.

It is the third installment of the “The Chronicles of Riddick” film series. Produced by and starring Vin Diesel as the title character, “Riddick” is written and directed by David Twohy, who previously wrote and directed the first two installments, Pitch Black (2000) and The Chronicles of Riddick (2004).

Diesel reprises his role as the antihero Riddick, a dangerous, escaped con-

vict wanted by every bounty hunter in the known galaxy.

Left for dead on a sun-scorched planet, Riddick finds himself up against an alien race of predators more lethal than any human he’s encountered. The only way off is for Riddick to activate an emergency beacon and alert mercenaries who rapidly descend to the planet in search of their bounty. The first ship to arrive carries a new breed of mercenary, more lethal and violent, while the second is captained by a man whose pursuit of Riddick is more personal.

Riddick strikes a deal with Commander Vaako; the location of Furya and a ship to take him there, in exchange for Vaako becoming the next Lord Marshall.

Led by Vaako’s aide, Krone, Riddick and

a group of Necromongers arrive on a desolate planet. Recognizing it is not Furya, Riddick kills most of his escort when they attempt to assassinate him.

In the chaos, Krone causes a landslide and buries Riddick alive.

Emerging from the rubble, Riddick hides himself within some abandoned ruins. Riddick later sees a vast savanna beyond some rocky cliffs, but the only passage through is guarded by poisonous, scorpion-like creatures called “Mud Demons” which inhabit several muddy pools.

After defeating the demon, he again finds time running out and a storm on the horizon that no one could survive, his hunters won’t leave the planet without Riddick’s head as their trophy. l

FLP final episode airs tonight n Entertainment Desk The final episode of “The Future Leaders Programme (FLP) in Business 201213,” the first ever educational reality show in Bangladesh, will be aired on Channel i today at 9:30pm.

The organisers of the show, Impress Telefilm Ltd (Channel i) and The Future Leaders Limited (FLL) UK, presented the details and the aim of the show in a press conference yesterday at the channel’s office in Tejgaon.

Winner of the competition is Moniruzzaman from North South University who won a full scholarship for MBA at the University of Essex in UK. Tahsin

Jannat, Ishrat Ithar and Samir Hossain won the second, third and fourth position with full scholarship at Business School of Altis of Catholic University.

Other three finalists got scholarships for short diploma courses at the same university.

The prize giving ceremony took place at the business capital of Italy, Milan.

Faridur Reza Sagar, Managing Director of Channel i, Abdul Muktadir, Managing Director of Incepta Pharmaceuticals and Taslim Ahmed, Head of Corporate Affairs and Public Relations at Pacific Telecomm was present at the ceremony.

44 graduates from the business and management faculties of public and

private universities nationwide took part in the educational reality show.

In May 2013, The FLL team reached out to these students from 7 divisions, aiming to develop business leadership and promote entrepreneurship among the youth of the country. The show started telecasting in Channel i from June.

Abdul Muktadir, Managing Director of Incepta Pharmaceuticals is leading the judging panel. He is accompanied by Taslim Ahmed, Head of Head of Corporate Affairs and Public Relations at Pacific Telecom.

In addition to these judges, the panel is completed by a guest judge in every new episode. 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) Bullet to the Head Udhao Purno dhorgho prem kahini Monsters University in 3D Nishwartha Bhalobasa

The Wolverine in 3D Planes in 3D Riddick Level 8, Bashundhara City Panthapath

Festival

Urban Youth Festival II Time: 11am – 8pm Goethe Institut Bangladesh Road 9 (new), House 10, Dhanmondi R/A

Winners of the The Future Leaders Programme (FLP) in Business 2012-13

How I Met Your Mother in for spin-off

Anup Barua’s tribute to Manna Dey

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Entertainment Desk

TV bosses behind “How I Met Your Mother” are planning a spin-off, according to US reports.

The hit sitcom, which stars Neil Patrick Harris, Jason Segel and Alyson Hannigan, is in the midst of its ninth and final season, but creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas may continue their reign on television with a new show.

Bays and Thomas, along with former “Saturday Night Live” writer Emily Spivey, have pitched an all-female comedy called “How I Met Your Father,” according to Entertainment Weekly.

Like its predecessor, the spin-off would tell the tale of a group of friends living in New York and follow the main character’s journey to meeting her future husband. If the project is greenlighted, the new cast of characters would likely be introduced in the series finale next spring.

“How I Met Your Mother” has been one of America’s top-rated shows for the past eight years.

The story is about Ted Mosby, in the year 2030, he is relaying the story of how he met his wife to his daughter and son.

It starts in the year 2005, when then twenty-seven year old architect Ted was spurred on to want to get married after his best friends from his college days at Wesleyan, lawyer Marshall Eriksen, who was his roommate at the time and kindergarten teacher Lily Aldrin, got engaged after nine years of dating each other.

How I Met Your Mother has been one of America’s top-rated shows for the past eight years Ted’s new quest in life was much to the dismay of his womanizing friend, Barney Stinson. But soon after Marshall and Lily’s engagement, Ted believed that his life mate was going to be news reporter and aspiring news anchor Robin Scherbatsky, who, despite having had a romantic relationship with her after this time, ended up being who the kids know as their “Aunt” Robin.

As Ted relays the story to his kids, the constants are that their Uncle Marshall, Aunt Lily, Uncle Barney and Aunt Robin are always in the picture and thus have something to do with how he got together with their mother. l

Lead characters of the hit sitcom How I Met Your Mother

Anup Barua

Entertainment Desk

Anup Barua, one of the finest vocalists in Bangladesh today, pays his tribute to the music maestro Manna Dey through his in-house concert at the Indira Gandhi Cultural Centre at 6:30 PM on November 1.

IGCC has organised this event in association with Asian Paints, IRCON and Marico Bangladesh. The show is open for all and requires no pass.

Anup Barua was born at Chittagong in Bangladesh. With his classical virtuosity and passion for music, he has developed a distinct style that reflects a unique blend of depth and resonance.

India wins again at Miss Asia Pacific World pageant n Entertainment Desk India’s Srishti Rana has been crowned Miss Asia Pacific World 2013 by last year’s winner Himangini Singh Yadu at a glittering ceremony.

This is India’s second win in a row at the Miss Asia Pacific World pageant.

The 21-year-old from Faridabad saw off competition from 49 contestants from different countries, which includes first runner up from Egypt – Meriam George and Kazakhstan’s Evgenia Klishina, who was the second runner up.

Srishti’s peacock-inspired gown also won her the Best National costume award, for depicting the national bird of India.

Yesteryear actress Zeenat Aman was the first Indian to win the title of Miss Asia Pacific back in 1970, while model Tara Anne Fonseca was crowned winner in 1973.

Bollywood actress-producer Dia Mirza won the title in 2000. Actress Namrata Shirodkar was named the first runner-up of the 1993 edition of the competition. l

His velvety voice effortlessly flows between highs and lows of the octave creating a mahol (ambience) that is used to describe sub-continental music. Barua’s renditions of Nazrul Geeti, folk, modern Bangla songs, ghazals, and thumris are highly appreciated by music lovers across the world.

This year, under the banner of Laser Vision, Anup Barua’s musical album “Hridoy Nodi,” comprising of modern Bangla songs, was released. His other album, “Nazrulgeeti – Jago Kholo Go Ankhi” under Amit Bandopadhyay’s music direction is considered to be one of the most impressive audio productions in recent times. l

ON TV MOVIES 9:30pmHBO

National Treasure

11:20pm Fox Movies Premium The Cabin In The Woods

DRAMA 4:00pm Colors Sanskaar

8:30p Zee Tv Jodha Akbar

COMEDY 2:30pm Comedy Central Anger Management

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Priyanka’s item song nears three million hits n Entertainment Desk The “Krrish 3” actor’s latest item number from “Ram-Leela” gets a tremendous response. Finally there is a special song-n-dance number for Priyanka Chopra which is suiting the kind of stature that the lady enjoys. Her decision to perform in “Ram Chahe Leela” in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s epical saga “Ram Leela” has been paying dividends as within hours of its arrival, the song is fetching some good accolades for itself.

Most importantly, it has reaffirmed faith in B-Town that if an A-list celebrity is adequately utilized, she can add great value to a film with her sheer presence.

“The song was fantastic to begin with and now the way Priyanka has performed to it is truly unique,” a filmmaker comments.

“Ram Chahe Leela” is near to three million hits in a week. She says she is overwhelmed by the love and loyalty which her fans have bestowed upon her.

Priyanka took to Twitter to thank them for liking her new dance number in the Sanjay Leela Bhansali-directorial as well as her international single “Exotic,” that has over 17.5 million hits on Youtube.

A scene from Ram-Leela’s item song She is also happy with the viewership of the trailer of her next film “Krrish 3” which releases November 1.

Talking about how different “Ram chahe leela” is, she said that she did a mujra in the song, but in a contemporary format.

Priyanka Chopra has achieved a feat no Indian actress has done in the past.

The 30-year-old model-turned-actress has been signed by international fashion brand “Guess.” l

Did you know?

Tottenham Hotspur have ended a run of seven successive penalty shootout defeats in their Capital One Cup match against Hull City on Wednesday, winning their first shootout since 1994

Sport

Friday, November 1, 2013

14 Bale, Ronaldo star as Real Madrid hammer Sevilla

n Mazhar Uddin

Mahmood and n Raihan Minhaz Uddin Khan

Mashrafe bin Mortaza celebrates with teammates after taking a wicket in the second ODI against New Zealand at the SBNS yesterday MUMIT M

Sohag aims to carry on in same vein, Mills seeks consolation n

Minhaz Uddin Khan

Man-of-the-match in the second ODI between Bangladesh and New Zealand Sohag Gazi spoke brightly about Bangladesh’s progress and prospects after the Tigers snatched their sixth successive win and second consecutive series win over the Kiwis yesterday at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday.

“If you look into board, I am sure you will see that there are many performers in the team now. The key to our success is that everyone is playing their role brilliantly and hence, it an all-round team effort. For instance, if you see Rubel’s performance in the first ODI, he was the one who got us the win because he did his job well. So it is the team effort and of course the confidence of good results in recent times keeps us motivated in the game,” So-

hag declared at the post-match media conference.

2-0 up with one game to play not only give Bangladesh the series but gives them the chance of duplicating the whitewash victory they achieved over the same opposition three years ago. Sohag however, claimed the team was focusing on moment-to-moment cricket rather than a final result.

“We had planned to take the series game by game so that we don’t come under pressure. We would love to whitewash them (New Zealand) but don’t want to get carried away with that aim. Our aim is to play like we did in the first two games,” said the offspinner.

Commenting on the absence of star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan – who was ruled out of the ODI series due to dengue fever – Sohag said, “Not having him (Shakib) was a huge loss for the team

but we never took pressure for that.

We didn’t allow his absence to haunt us, rather we tried to do what he might have done as a spinner or as a batsman.”

While Bangladesh’s players were happy, New Zealand’s stars tried to reconcile losing to what is considered a weaker team.

“Lack of partnerships cost us the game,” said New Zealand seamer Kyle Mills after the game. “Corey (Anderson) and Ross (Taylor) did reconcile us of losing early wicket in the game but I believe Bangladesh getting the breakthrough of that partnership put them ahead of us.”

Looking ahead to the last ODI, Mills said, “The challenge will be tough given that we are down by two games.

However, it will be a new ground and a new game – a big game to be particular.

Hopfully the team will be able to regroup and get a win.” l

Bangladesh defeated New Zealand by 40 runs in the second ODI at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three match series. The win was Bangladesh’s sixth in a row against the Kiwis and ensured a second successive victory against them.

Winning the toss, captain Mushfiqur Rahim elected to bat and Bangladesh got off to a solid start as openers Tamim Iqbal and debutant Shamsur Rahman Shuvo saw of a tight new ball spell from Kyle Mills and Tim Southee.

The Kiwi paceman generated decent pace and got good bounce to keep the Tigers openers on the back foot, but Tamim and Shuvo saw the period through patiently as they put on 63 patient runs.

Tamim was the more aggressive while Shuvo was understandably cautious on his debut. Gradually, debutant gained in confidence and unleashed two fierce pull shots, both of which went for six in the 15th over from Nathan McCullum. The opening stand came to an end when Shuvo jumped out to drive only to miss the ball and be stumped for 25 from 54 balls.

New man Mominul Haque batted fluently for his 31 as he added 47 with Tamim for the second wicket. After striking five sweetly timed boundaries, Mominul’s 34-ball knock came to an end when he miscued a pull shot off Corey Anderson to be caught at deep point by Nathan McCullum.

Mominul’s aggressive approach seemed to have rubbed off on his part-

Black market sellers arrested n Minhaz Uddin Khan At least 15 individuals were arrested at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium (SBNS) for selling overpriced tickets on the black market yesterday and sources confirmed that some of them were fourth-class employees of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB).

Tickets for the second ODI between Bangladesh and New Zealand were sold out the day before the game and exploiting the excess demand, certain BCB employees were caught selling tickets at double the market price.

Kamrul Hasan, superintendent at the Mirpur Police Station, told the media of the arrests and added that the criminals were caught red-handed while selling tickets for the game outside the SBNS. Sources from the BCB claimed that the police’s actions was a reaction to

the board refusing to provide the law enforcers the number of tickets they had demanded. The BCB’s employees who were arrested were later released on the board’s request and the board claimed they had only been trying to give tickets to their friends and relatives.

“This kind of behavior is really shocking. The board has always been on good terms with the police and armed forces, but this kind of behavior towards the Board is agonizing,” a BCB director told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

Meanwhile, director Jalal Younus said the situation had been dealt with.

“The board has taken the initiative to avoid any such occurrence in future,” he said.

The day before yesterday, fans who were unable to secure a ticket for yesterday’s game turned violent and damaged property at the bank that was selling tickets before police were called in to control the situation. l

BJMC completes registration n Shishir Hoque Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) completed the process of registering its local players at the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) House yesterday, just a day after the inter-club players’ transfer window was extended by 15 days.

A total of 29 local players have registered for the club, including 12 new members. Notable inclusions include Masud Rana from Sheikh Jamal, Khan Md Tara from Brothers and Lutfur Rahman Nayan

Squad Arifuzzaman Himel, Ariful Islam Karim, Mohammad Naeem, Shuvro, SM Razib, Rony, Shakil, Murad, Omor Faruk, Faysal, Ziku, Mokhlesur, Kanon, Saiful, Topu, Parvez, Tara, Rakin, Shoaib, Mahmudul, Sabbir, Nayan, Masud Rana, Thui Ching Marma, Swapan, Mamun, Sajib, Arif

13

15 South Africa snatch dramatic one-run win over Pakistan

Bangladesh take series

Mash impresses on return Mashrafe bin Mortaza, who returned to the national side after almost a year in the ongoing ODI series against New Zealand, has so far been impressive and his presence has given the Bangladesh bowling the edge it has so often lacked with the new ball and in the pace department.

The 30-year old, who has 162 wickets in 129 ODI matches, has been beleaguered with injuries and undergone no less than 11 surgical operations on his legs. Most recently, an ankle injury kept him out of the national side but his much awaited return in Tuesday’s match against the Kiwis was greeted with a roar of support from the crowd at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.

It was Mash who took the first wicket for Bangladesh in yesterday’s second ODI as he bowled Hamish Rutherford in the third over of the match and he came back later to get a crucial breakthrough in the 27th over by removing the dangerous Corey Anderson for 37 and breaking a promising 61 run stand. He came back later at the death to take another wicket and eventually had figures of 3/43.

Earlier Mashrafe had scored 14 quick runs at the tail end of the Bangladesh innings from just eight balls, with two fours and six. He opened Bangladesh’s attack afterwards and started with an immaculate maiden to get the Tigers defence off to a good start.

Though Rubel Hossain stole the limelight on Tuesday with a six wicket haul, Mashrafe played his part too. Displaying pinpoint accuracy, the veteran paceman conceded just 3.33 runs an over as he kept the Kiwi batsman in check.

Furthermore, Mashrafe demonstrated his commitment in the field as he threw himself all over the park to save crucial runs and took a brilliant catch to dismiss Grant Elliot and give Rubel his sixth wicket, which ironically, resulted in Rubel matching Mashrafe’s record best figures for Bangladesh of 6/26. l

14 Man City edge Newcastle, Spurs win shootout

DHAKA TRIBUNE

from Feni Soccer Club, while the only national players in the squad are Omor Faruk Babu and Aminur Rahman Sajib.

BJMC manager and BFF vice-president Arif Khan Joy was happy with the team and said that his side has the ability to beat any side in the league, “It doesn’t matter if BJMC are title contenders or not, we have the talent to beat the champions. We will play to win the championship but our main target will be to stay in the top four.”

He added that BJMC would bring in a foreign coach within a week to replace “C” license holder Nasir, who is the interim coach. BJMC reached the final of the Federation Cup in the 2011-12 season, 29 years after returning to top flight football.

Though they were unable to reach even the semi-final of any tournament last season, captain Amit Khan Shuvro was hopeful that his team could reach at least one final in the upcoming season. l

ner who began to play with greater belligerence after the middle order batsman’s departure. Tamim brought up his 25th fifty from 76 balls but was out soon afterwards, dragging Anderson back onto the stumps after making 58 from 85 balls. Meanwhile, Mushfiq continued from where he had left of in the first match and played a hurricane innings of 31 off 28 balls with one four and two sixes. He lost his wicket edging a James Neesham ball he had gone down the wicket to after having hit the previous ball for six.

The Bangladesh lower order added useful runs with Mahmudullah and Sohag Gazi scoring 21 and 26 respectively to take the Tigers to a reasonable total of 247 all out. For New Zealand, James Neesham took 4/53 and Corey Anderson 4/40.

New Zealand struggled throughout in their reply in dewy conditions and a low pitch that made stroke play difficult. A combination of pace and spin cast an unyielding web around the Kiwi batsman as they succumbed to 207 all out in 46.4 overs to give Bangladesh its 15 bi-lateral series win.

Opener Hamish Rutherford was dismissed in the fifth over and the Kiwis could not put together a partnership to stabilize the innings. They continued to lose wickets at regular intervals and while Ross Taylor’s 45 from 82 balls and Corey Anderson’s 40-ball 35 offered some resistance, the visitors could not keep up with the required run-rate. At the death, James Neesham and Nathan McCullum made quick runs but by then, it was too late.

For Bangladesh, Mashrafe bin Moratza maintained a good line and length to return figures of 3/43, Sohag Gazi took 3/34 and part-time bowler Mominul Haque chipped in with 2/13.l

Score Card

Bangladesh Tamim Iqbal b Anderson 58 Shamsur st Latham b N. McCullum 25 Mominul c N. McCullum b Anderson 31 Mushfiqur Rahim c Latham b Neesham 31 Naeem Islam c Latham b Mills 16 Nasir Hossain c B. McCullum b Neesham 3 Mahmudullah c&b Anderson 21 Sohag Gazi c Devcich b Anderson 26 Mashrafe Mortaza b Neesham 14 Abdur Razzak not out 4 Rubel Hossain b Neesham 2 Extras (b5,lb5, wb4, nb2) 16 Total ( all out, 49 overs)

247

Bowling Southee 10-2-45-0, Mills 10-1-47-1, N. McCullum 8-0-42-1, Neesham 10-0-53-4, Anderson 9-1-40-4, Eliot 2-0-10-0 New Zealand A. Devcich c & b Sohag H. Rutherford b Mashrafe G. Elliot lbw b Razzak R. Taylor c Mahmudullah b Sohag C. Anderson c Mushfiqur b Mashrafe B. McCullum lbw b Mominul T. Latham run out J. Neesham c Naeem b Sohag McCullum c Mahmudullah b Mominul K. Mills not out T. Southee b Mashrafe Extras (b1 lb 10, wb6) Total ( all out, 46.4 overs)

19 1 14 45 37 14 0 8 25 27 0 17 207

Bowling Mashrafe 8.4-0-43-3, Sohag 10-0-34-3, Rubel 9-1-47-0, Razzak 9-0-35-1, Mahmudullah 6-0-24-0, Mominul 4-0-13-2 Result: Bangladesh win by 40 runs Series: Bangladesh 2 -0 Man of the match: Sohag Gazi

Archer Murang finishes fourth n Shishir Hoque

Bangladesh all-rounder Sohag Gazi cuts a ball during their 2nd ODI against New Zealand at the SBNS yesterday

MUMIT M

Bangladesh archer Prenonoy Murang finished fourth in the continental qualifying test of the Youth Olympic Games 2014 yesterday at the Songshan District, Taipei City in Chinese Taipei.

Murang defeated John Phillip of Philippines 6 sets to 4 and Japan’s Muto Hirki in the quarter-final before being beaten by top ranked Philippines archer Louise Gabriel 2-6. Murang went on to lose to Kazakhstan’s Yagudier Ansar in the third-place match, while Gabrile went on to win the tournament.

Another Bangladeshi archer Hira Moni crashed out after a losing a hard fought encounter with Iranian Farahmand in a tie-break. l

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

Friday, November 1, 2013

Ancelotti hails Bale impact

Brazilian Costa defends Spain choice

n AFP, Madrid Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti lauded Gareth Bale’s contribution after the Welshman scored twice and made two more goals as Real thrashed Sevilla 7-3 on Wednesday.

Bale was making his first start at the Santiago Bernabeu and soon had his first home goal when he thumped in the opener on 13 minutes. He then had a slice of luck as his free-kick deflected in off Alberto Moreno for the second.

Cristiano Ronaldo then went onto score a hat-trick and Karim Benzema twice, with Bale setting one goal for each of his strike partners as Madrid completed by far their most devastating offensive performance since Ancelotti took charge.

“Tonight everyone saw the real Gareth,” Ancelotti said.

“He played really well, showing fantastic skills. It takes time but it was a necessity, now he doesn’t have problems physically and he is improving his confidence so he will be very important for us in the future.”

“It was a bit of a crazy game, we started very well and were 3-0 up. We then lost a bit of concentration and balance and the game was alive again.

“Offensively we played very well, we scored a lot of goals. We had a lot of good individual performances, especially up front. Obviously we need more balance to avoid problems going forward, but up front all three players were very dangerous.”

Spanish international Xabi Alonso also made his first appearance of the season as a second-half substitute to round off a fine evening for the hosts. l

n AFP, Madrid

Real Madrid's Gareth Bale (L) celebrates scoring against Sevilla with teammates Cristiano Ronaldo and Isco (R) during their Spanish first division match at Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid on Wednesday REUTERS

Atletico Madrid striker Diego Costa defended his decision to represent Spain rather than his homeland Brazil, claiming it was the right thing to do.

The 25-year-old’s choice to play for the world champions was confirmed on Tuesday and Costa is now expected to be named in Vicente del Bosque’s squad for two friendly fixtures in November next week.

“It was quite a difficult decision to choose between the country where you were born and the country that has given you everything, which is Spain,” he said on Atletico’s website.

“I looked at it, weighed it up and the correct thing is to play for Spain because here I have done everything, all that I have in my life and that I have been given has been in this country.

“I feel a special love for this country, here I feel very valued for what I do every day and I feel the love of the people.”

However, Scolari confirmed on Tuesday that Costa was no longer part of his plans and slammed the player’s decision to “turn his back on the dream of millions.”

Costa struck up a fine partnership with Radamel Falcao and was the top scorer in the Copa del Rey as Atletico won the competition for the first time in 17 years.

This season, with Falcao having left to join Monaco, he has become Atletico’s focal point and leads the league with 11 goals in 10 games, three more than Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.l

Bale, Ronaldo hammer Sevilla Fabregas enjoying senior n AFP, Madrid Gareth Bale scored twice and Cristiano Ronaldo notched a hat-trick as Real Madrid thrashed Sevilla 7-3 on Wednesday in their league clash.

Bale was making his first start at the Santiago Bernabeu and made an immediate impact as he put the hosts 2-0 up within half an hour.

Ronaldo then added a third, but Sevilla fought back through an Ivan Rakitic penalty and Carlos Bacca.

Bale then set up Karim Benzema and Ronaldo to put Real 5-2 ahead before Rakitic replied once more with a stunning strike for Sevilla, although he was to blot his copybook by missing a penalty later. Ronaldo went on to complete his hat-trick and Benzema rounded off the scoring after Sevilla had been reduced to 10 men when Stephane Mbia was sent-off with 14 minutes remaining.

Results Cagliari

0-3

Fiorentina

1-2

Rossi 28-pen

Bologna

Garics 26, Kone 58, Pazienza 60

Napoli

Callejon 12, Mertens 36

Genoa

1-0

Parma

Verona

2-0

Sampdoria

Juventus

4-0

Catania

Livorno

3-3

AC Milan

1-1

Sassuolo

1-2

Gilardino 57 Gomez 51, Toni 78 Vidal 26, Pirlo 34, Tevez 66, Bonucci 71 Paulinho 25, Greco 33, Emerson 62 Kaka 54 Zaza 25

Torino

Immobile 4, Glik 7, Cerci 87-pen

Lazio

Ciani 72

Udinese

Di Natale 18-pen, Muriel 56

Real boss Carlo Ancelotti had made four changes to the side that lost 2-1 to Barcelona at the weekend with Ben-

Results Valladolid

2-2

Valencia

1-2

Real Madrid

7-3

Osasuna

3-1

Larsson 76, Javi Guerra 79 Jonas 33-pen

Bale 13, 27, Ronaldo 32-pen, 60, 71, Benzema 53, 79 Oier 1, Riera 13, Torres 58

Real Sociedad

Griezmann 16, 53

Almeria

Torsiglieri 62, Vidal 70

Sevilla

Rakitic 38-pen, 63, Bacca 40

Rayo Vallecano

Galvez 71

zema restored to the number nine role between Ronaldo and Bale in attack.

And the Frenchman proved his worth in the move for the opener as he raced onto Isco’s pass before cutting the ball back for Bale to fire high into the net on

n

Monaco’s unbeaten start to the season in France came to an end on Wednesday as they were knocked out of the League Cup, going down 1-0 at Reims.

A first-half goal by midfielder Antoine Devaux saw the principality club lose for the first time in any game since early May as they exited the League Cup at the first hurdle.

However, Monaco coach Claudio Ranieri had made as many as nine changes to the team that beat Lyon in Ligue 1 on Sunday, with the suspended Radamel Falcao among those missing.

This weekend, Monaco travel to face Lille in Ligue 1 in a meeting of the two sides immediately behind Paris SaintGermain at the top of the table.

Lille have not lost or conceded a goal in their last six league games, al-

Even at 5-2 the action was far from over as Bale was lucky to escape a booking when he threw himself to the ground looking for a penalty moments later.

And with the Real crowd still infuriated by the referee’s decision not to award a penalty for that incident, Rakitic curled in a wonderful effort from outside the box to make it 5-3.

Ronaldo made the game safe when he sealed his hat-trick with a deflected effort from the edge of the area.

Rakitic, though, should have completed hat-trick of his own when Ronaldo was penalised for a foul on Figueiras just inside the area, but the Croat ballooned his second spot-kick well over the bar.

The visitors were reduced to 10 men shortly after when Mbia was shown a second yellow card after clashing with Luka Modric.

And Benzema rounded off a wild night when he headed home Marcelo’s cross 11 minutes from time.l

role as derby looms n AFP, Madrid

Cesc Fabregas has said he is enjoying his more significant role in the Barcelona side as they look to continue their storming start to the campaign with a win over Espanyol in the Catalan derby on Friday.

Fabregas was involved in all three of Barca’s goals as they moved four points clear of Atletico Madrid in second place with a convincing 3-0 win over Celta Vigo on Tuesday.

Barca boss Gerardo Martino had taken the opportunity to rest a number of his stars for the game in Galicia as the likes of Neymar, Andres Iniesta and Xavi all started on the bench.

However, Fabregas was retained from the side that beat Real Madrid 2-1 on Saturday and registered his second

goal of the season with Barca’s third nine minutes into the second-half.

“Right now I am playing a lot of games, I feel important and the only thing that I have to do is play well for the team,” he told the club’s website.

“These rotations give life to a lot of players and they are making us all feel important.”

Martino has been keen to ensure his players don’t suffer from burnout in the way they did towards the end of the last campaign when they were hammered 7-0 on aggregate by Bayern Munich in the Champions League semi-finals.

And with Barca in the midst of seven games in 22 days, the Argentine will rotate once more for the visit of Epsanyol.

However, despite the game being sandwiched by a series of other important matches for the hosts, Fabregas doesn’t belive the derby will lose any of its importance. l

Juve, Napoli close gap on Roma

Big guns kept apart in League Cup draw n AFP, LONDON

n AFP, Milan

Premier League powerhouses Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur managed to avoid each other in the draw for the League Cup quarter-finals on Wednesday.

United were handed a trip to Stoke City, who they beat 3-2 in the league last Saturday, while City must visit second-tier Leicester City, conquerors of top-flight Fulham in round four.l

Juventus outclassed Catania 4-0 and Napoli battled to a 2-1 win away to Fiorentina to move to within two points of Serie A leaders Roma on Wednesday.

Roma, who set an all-time league record last Sunday by winning all nine of their opening games, will aim to make it 10 in a row on Thursday when they host bottom side Chievo at the Olympic Stadium.

Juventus and Napoli, however, avoided any slip-ups to keep pace with Rudi Garcia’s record-setting side.

Away to Fiorentina, who stunned

Monaco knocked out AFP, Paris

his favoured left foot.

Bale was credited with his second of the evening on 27 minutes when his free-kick took a huge deflection off the arm of Alberto Moreno and looped into the net past the helpless Beto.

Five minutes later it was 3-0 when Isco was unnecessarily dragged down inside the area by Fernando Navarro.

Ronaldo stepped up to fire home and celebrated with a military salute in a mocking response to Sepp Blatter’s description of him as a “commander” last week.

Sevilla could even have been level just after the break when Jairo was denied by Diego Lopez when clean through on goal.

However, seconds later a trademark Madrid break saw Ronaldo feed Bale and his cut-back was calmly slotted home by Benzema for his first goal in eight games.

Bale then provided his second assist of the evening seven minutes later as his low cross was swept home by Ronaldo.

though they were also knocked out of the League Cup this midweek, losing 1-0 at home after extra-time to secondtier Auxerre on Tuesday.

Results Guingamp

1-2

Sochaux

3-2

Reims

1-0

Yatabare 25

Prcic 38, Corchia 115, Contout 119 Devaux 34

Evian

Sougou 56, Cambon 68

Montpellier

Martin pen-48, Stambouli 120

Monaco

Other top-flight sides to progress this midweek were Evian, Sochaux, Bastia, Toulouse, Nantes and Rennes.

The 10 winners from this round will join France’s six European representatives in the draw for the last 16. l

Juve with a come-from-behind 4-2 win two weeks ago, Napoli were expected to work hard for the points.

However, Rafael Benitez’s men were never under pressure, typified by a 12th minute opener after Gonazalo Higuain crossed to the right for Spaniard Jose Callejon to beat goalkeeper Neto with a sweetly-struck first-time strike.

With coach Massimiliano Allegri under increasing pressure, AC Milan were desperate for all three points at home to Lazio and were sent on their way when Kaka scored a sublime individual goal just after the restart.

The hosts, however, were stunned when French defender Michael Ciani fired home the equaliser on 72 minutes.l

Klopp commits to Dortmund n Reuters, Berlin

Coach Juergen Klopp has committed himself to Borussia Dortmund until at least 2018 after signing a two-year contract extension on Wednesday with last season’s Champions League runners-up.

Among the most sought-after coaches in Europe, Klopp, who joined Dortmund in 2008, led them to the Bundesliga title in 2011 and the domestic league and Cup double in 2012 before losing to German rivals Bayern Munich in this year’s Champions League final.

Ushering in an era of exciting, attack-minded football that has won over scores of fans worldwide, Klopp’s arrival marked a turning-point for the 1997 Champions League winners who were on the brink of bankruptcy less than 10 years ago. l

Draw Manchester City's striker Edin Dzeko (R) celebrates scoring their second goal in extra time with midfielder Jesus Navas during their English League Cup fourth round match against Newcastle United at St James' Park in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on Wednesday AFP

Leicester City v Man City Stoke City v Man United Sunderland/ Southampton v Chelsea Tottenham v West Ham

City edge Newcastle, Spurs win shootout n Reuters, London Manchester City reached the quarter-finals of the League Cup after they finally broke down a resilient Newcastle United to win 2-0 after extra time on Wednesday, while Tottenham Hotspur needed penalties to get past Hull City.

City, who made 10 changes from the team that played Chelsea in the league on Sunday, were far from fluent but came through a testing encounter with goals from substitute Alvaro Negredo and Edin Dzeko in the first period of extra time.

Tottenham earned a late reprieve when Harry Kane made it 2-2 in extra time and then booked a place in the last eight when Hull’s Ahmed Elmohamady missed his penalty to hand Spurs an 8-7 win.

It was Tottenham’s first penalty

shootout victory in eight attempts since they beat Peterborough in the FA Cup in 1994. Gylfi Sigurdsson had put them ahead after 16 minutes with a rocket

Results Newcastle

0-2

Tottenham

2-2

Man City

Negredo 99, Dzeko 105

Hull City

Sigurdsson 16, Friedel 53-og, Kane 108 McShane 99 Tottenham win 8-7 on penalties

finish before a Brad Friedel own goal ensured the tie went to extra time.

Paul McShane put Hull, who lost 1-0 to Tottenham in the Premier League on Sunday, in the box seat nine minutes into the additional period, but Kane levelled with a precise finish.

Manchester City dug deep into their

near endless squad of reserves but still fielded a full side of internationals.

Goalkeeper Joe Hart was one of those relegated to the bench after his error of judgement on Sunday allowed Chelsea to win at Stamford Bridge, but the wholesale changes produced a stilted first-half display.

At any other club, goalscoring strikers might expect to retain their places but Dzeko was quick to point to the embarrassment of riches at City manager Manuel Pellegrini’s disposal.

“We are good together, but we have Sergio Aguero and Stevan Jovetic too and any of the four of us can play,” he told the BBC. “It’s still three more games to the final but we want to get there, that’s definitely the aim.”

Tottenham manager Villas-Boas had pleaded with fans to turn up the volume after Sunday’s league fixture against Hull and he was granted his wish. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Quick Bytes

Bailey blast builds case for Test berth

Sport

15

Friday, November 1, 2013

I N FA M O U S H E A D B U T T G L O R I F I E D

George Bailey has “all but blasted” his way into Australia’s Test side for the Ashes opener against England on his recent scintillating form, reports said Thursday.

The 31-year-old right-hander, already earmarked by chief selector John Inverarity as an Ashes contender, boosted his case with a spectacular 156 off 114 balls against India on Wednesday. It was the ninth-biggest one-day international score by an Australian and followed recent knocks of 85, 92 not out and 98, making him favourite for the number six slot ahead of the first Test, starting in Brisbane on November 21. “Bailey’s stunning innings should go far to ensuring his Test debut against England at the Gabba,” the Sydney Daily Telegraph said. “At a time when Australia’s Test middle order requires stability, Bailey looks ready to answer the call ... he has all but blasted himself into the Test XI.” Inverarity has been greatly impressed by the Tasmanian’s form.

– AFP

Russia shamed by new hooliganism scandal The battered image of football in 2018 World Cup hosts Russia was further tarnished Thursday after the latest shocking outbreak of hooliganism which saw a cup match suspended when Spartak Moscow fans let off flares, clashed with police and hurled seats. The disgrace at Spartak’s away Russian Cup match at second tier outfit Shinnik Yaroslavl on Wednesday came almost at the same moment as UEFA punished its Moscow rivals CSKA for the racist abuse by fans of Manchester City star Yaya Toure. “Everyone know understands: if this mayhem created by the fans is not ended then it is going to be the end of football in our country,” Sport Express said in an article headlined “Either them (the hooligans) or football.” This incident has highlighted the extent of the hooliganism problem that Russia must solve ahead of its hosting of the World Cup in 2018, with hard core fan groups showing more interest in causing trouble then football.

– AFP

Hull manager Bruce, Norwich and Cardiff face FA charges Norwich City and Cardiff City have been charged by the FA following a melee involving several players during last weekend’s 0-0 Premier League draw.

The FA have also charged Hull City manager Steve Bruce with misconduct for his post-match comments regarding Tottenham Hotspur’s controversial 80th-minute penalty in Sunday’s 1-0 defeat. “It was a joke decision. I shouldn’t say this and I might get fined, but would we have got it? I am not so sure,” Bruce said at the time of the decision to award the spot kick.” Leroy Fer’s disallowed goal for Norwich City in stoppage time sparked the scuffle at Carrow Road.

The clubs are being charged “for failing to ensure their players conducted themselves in an orderly fashion. It follows an incident which occurred in or around the 94th minute of their fixture on Saturday,” the FA said in a statement on Thursday.

– Reuters

The bronze sculpture titled 'Coup de Tete' by Algerian-born French artist Adel Abdessemed is loaded on a lorry after it was from the Corniche in Doha on Monday. The sculpture, which was bought by the Qatar Museums Authority, was removed on October 28 after generating criticism from religious conservatives, according to local media. The art work portrays French footballer Zinedine Zidane headbutting Italian player Marco Materazzi during the 2006 World Cup. Picture taken on Monday REUTERS

Taylor hits 46-ball hundred England quicks struggle n Shishir Hoque

Brief Scores

Abahani Limited ended a run of seven successive defeats in the Walton Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League by beating Victoria Sporting Club by four wickets at BKSP, Prime Bank CC rode on Brendon Taylor’s stunning 46-ball century to thrash Kalabagan Cricket Academy by 166 runs in Rajshahi and centuries from Usman Tariq and Imrul Kayes led Gazi Tank Cricketers to a crushing nine wicket win over Sheikh Jamal DC in Bogra, which moved Gazi to the top of the table in yesterday’s DPL matches.

At Bogra

Victoria SC v Abahani Ltd

Luke Wright was the hero for Abahani as the traditional giants snapped a seven match losing streak. Winning the toss, Abahani chose to field first and restricted Victoria to 234/8. After a prom-

Sheikh Jamal: 225 all out in 47.1 overs Jahurul 89, Junaid 60; Noor 2/11 Gazi Tank: 227/1 in 36.1 overs Usman Tariq 105*, Imrul Kayes 104* Result: Gazi Tank won by 9 wickets MOM: Imrul Kayes (Gazi Tank) At Rajshahi Prime Bank: 353/3 in 50 overs Saikat Ali 103, Taylor 100*, Bopara 79 Kalabagan CA: 187 all out in 44.4 overs Sharifullah 60, Mahmudul Hasan 3/6 Result: Prime Bank won by 166 runs MOM: Brendan Taylor (Prime Bank) At BKSP Victoria SC: 234/8 in 50 overs Soumya 68, Rasel 76; Wright 3/33 Abahani Ltd: 235/6 in 47.4 overs Luke Wright 66, Shaker 2/36 Result: Abahani won by 4 wickets MOM: Luke Wright (Abahani)

ising 152-run opening stand between Soumya Sarkar (68) and Rasel Al Ma-

Day’s Watch ESPN 1:45AM La Liga 2013/14 Barcelona v Espanyol Ten Sports 6:30PM BNP Paribas Masters, Paris Quarter Finals

Prime Bank v KalabaganCA

Prime Bank posted a huge 354 as Brendon Taylor’s 46-ball hundred (14 fours, 3 sixes) was ably supported by Saikat Ali’s 103 and Ravi Bopara’s 79.

In reply, Kalabagan CA bowled were bowled out for 187 in 44.4 overs with Sharif Ullah top scoring with 69.

Sheikh Jamal v Gazi Tank

Despite the absence of skipper Mushfiqur Rahim, Gazi Tank strolled to an easy win over Sheikh Jamal to move to the top of the table with 12 points.

Chasing 226, Gazi lost the wicket of Aftab Ahmed but centuries from Imrul and Usman saw them home with 14 overs to spare. l

in Ashes tour opener n AFP, Perth England’s bowlers struggled in an underwhelming start to their Ashes tour in the opening match against a Western Australia Chairman’s XI in Perth on Thursday.

The home side, effectively a secondstring outfit comprising fringe firstclass players with the main state team involved in a domestic Sheffield Shield game, won the toss and chose to bat in the three-day match, reaching 369 for four off 90 overs at the close against a tepid English pace attack.

While England paceman Chris Tremlett, who went wicketless, conceded it was a disappointing day with the ball on an unresponsive pitch, he said there was no cause for concern in the English camp.

“There is no need for panic,” Tremlett said. “It is the first day, which is the

hardest, and it was a massive jump in workload for all of us.

“The most we have bowled in a day is four or five overs for the last week.

Brief Score Western Australia Chairman’s X1 369 for 4 (Lynn 104, Towers 77, Harris 69) v England X1 “I think we can take something out of today, we all had some good spells at times. “The main thing is getting the miles in the legs, it is a positive with the guys getting through 17 or 18 overs each.”

The tour opener was slated as a bowloff for England’s pacemen, with tall quicks Tremlett, Boyd Rankin and Steven Finn all hoping to push their case for a spot in the first Test team against Australia, starting at the Gabba in Brisbane on November 21. l

South Africa snatch dramatic one-run win over Pakistan n AFP, Sharjah

Lazio captain appeals match-fixing ban again Lazio captain Stefano Mauri has lodged an appeal with Italy’s top sports arbitration court in a bid to reduce a nine month ban handed down for his role in a match-fixing affair. Mauri was initially banned for six months on August 16 after failing to report match-fixing related activities linked to the Lazio v Genoa and Lecce v Lazio games on May 14 and 22, 2011 respectively. On appeal to the Italian football federation’s (FIGC) disciplinary body — during which the prosecutor upgraded his crime to one of sporting fraud and called for a ban of four years and six months -- at the start of October three months were added to Mauri’s ban.

Mauri, who lodged his appeal Thursday with the National Tribunal of Arbitration for Sport (TNAS), which is attached to CONI, spent several days in prison after being initially arrested in May 2012. He was one of eight players initially implicated in an affair in which wiretaps were used by the authorities to glean evidence.

It was alleged the players involved agreed to try and help fix matches, thus allowing illegal betting rings to flourish.

– AFP

mun (76), Victoria’s middle order were unable to push on. Abahani had to fight hard in their chase, but contributions from Wright and Mosaddek (38) were backed up by an unbeaten 46-run sixth wicket Al Amin and Alauddin was enough to give them the win.

South African cricketers celebrate after winning the first one-day match against Pakistan in Sharjah Cricket Stadium in Sharjah on Wednesday AFP

Stars light up Paris Masters as contenders advance n AFP, Paris World number one Rafael Nadal and Swiss star Roger Federer led a host of leading fancies into the third round of the Paris Masters on Wednesday.

Federer’s 6-4, 6-4 victory over South African Kevin Anderson was enough to secure his spot at the World Tour Finals in London, his 12th straight appearance at the season’s glamour finale.

“It’s magnificent to come back to Paris which is close to my heart especially after 2009 (his only French Open triumph) and 2011,” when he won the Paris Masters,” said Federer.

“I’m just happy right now to have

made it again, you know. It’s definitely somewhat of a highlight of the season for me after having a tough few months to still make it to the World Tour Finals.

“It’s a good moment right now sitting here knowing it’s secure.” added the Swiss former world number one.

At a packed Bercy arena, Nadal turned in a trademark swashbuckling display to defeat Spanish compatriot Marcel Granollers 7-5, 7-5.

Nadal, 27, hasn’t played at the Paris tournament since 2009 and is attempting to become the first player since Andre Agassi in 1999 to win both the French Open and Paris Masters in the same year.l

South Africa staged a remarkable comeback to turn what seemed certain defeat into a one-run win over Pakistan in the first day-night international in Sharjah on Wednesday.

Pakistan, chasing a modest 184 to win, were cruising along nicely at 165-4 but lost their last six wickets for just 17 runs off 39 balls to be bowled out for 182 in 46.3 overs.

It looked all over with Umar Amin (20) and Umar Akmal (18) at the crease but leg-spinner Imran Tahir (3-45) dismissed Umar, Shahid Afridi (nine) and Wahab Riaz (zero) in succsessive overs to leave Pakistan struggling for the last seven runs.

Last man Mohammad Irfan and Saeed Ajmal added five runs before Morne Morkel (2-23) bowled Irfan to send his team into an unexpected but frenzied celebration, much to the dismay of the

15,000 crowd who came to see Pakistan win. It was man-of-the-match Wayne Parnell who starred with both bat and ball, hitting a career best 56 before taking 3-41 in his eight overs.

South African captain AB de Villiers said his team had the belief of turning the tables.

It was Shehzad who set the tone for a successful chase, hitting five boundaries in his 92-ball innings.

But once Shehzad and Misbah fell, South Africa sensed an unexpected victory as batsmen fell one after the other.

When South Africa batted after winning the toss, they could never recover from the early loss of opener Colin Ingram, caught off Irfan’s second ball of the innings for nought.

Ajmal then rocked the South African batting, dimissing Graeme Smith (20), Faf du Plessis (12) and De Villiers (four) in his first spell of six overs.

Afridi then jolted South Africa further

by taking Ryan McLaren (eight), David Miller (37) and Morkel (four) in his nine overs.

Parnell, who hit a century in South Africa’s domestic one-day competition earlier this month, hit six boundaries and a six off 70 balls and added an invaluable 52 for the ninth wicket with Lonwabo Tsotsobe (16 not out) to avoid a complete disaster.

Parnell holed out in the 49th over, caught off Ajmal before Sohail Tanvir dismissed Imran Tahir in the final over.

Parnell’s wicket was Ajmal’s 150th in his 93rd one-day match, becoming Pakistan’s 11th bowler to reach the milestone.

Tsotsobe hit a four and a six off Ajmal in the 45th over, crossing the double-figure mark for the first time in 52 matches.

Miller hit two boundaries and a six off 51 balls before falling to Afridi, leaving Parnell to repair the damage to some extent.

Parnell’s previous best of 49 was against India at Jaipur three years ago.l

Ponting says England ‘past their peak’

Botham up for challenge of 160km charity walk n Reuters, Colombo n AFP, Sydney Allan Border, Steve Waugh, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Muttiah Muralitharan are among the cricketers who will accompany Ian Botham at various points of his latest charity walk in Sri Lanka.

Former England great Botham starts his expedition on Friday in Kilinochchi in the north of the country and will cover 160km in eight days before finishing at the Seenigama cricket ground in the south.

‘Beefy’s Big Sri Lanka Walk 2013’ will raise funds for those affected by the 30year war in the country. l

Former Test captain Ricky Ponting believes England’s ageing team are already past their best as they prepare for the Ashes opener against Australia just months after winning the urn on home soil.

Ponting, who has made headlines with his critical views on current Australian skipper Michael Clarke, admits the home side are underdogs but says an upset in the opening Test in Brisbane, starting on November 21, could give Australia momentum.

While promoting his autobiography in Perth on Wednesday, Ponting was

asked if Clarke’s team could emulate the feats of 2006-07, when Australia thumped England 5-0 at home after seeing their long Ashes dominance ended in England in 2005.

“We’ve got a great record at the Gabba, we don’t lose at the Gabba, “ Ponting said.

“If we happen to win the first Test then I think that’s possible.

“I believe right now the England team might be slightly past their absolute peak and the Australian team are only going to go up and improve.

“I know this group of players are going to have to play unbelievably well to win the Ashes, but I think they can.” l

16

DHAKA TRIBUNE

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Friday, November 1, 2013

Power Division to seek five-year extension for rental plants Proposals to be placed at purchase committee meeting n Aminur Rahman Rasel The Power Division will place a proposal to extend the tenures of three rental power plants for five years at the next meeting of the cabinet committee on purchase.

Besides, proposal for another independent power producer (IPP) may be placed at the meeting.

“We had several meetings with some entrepreneurs to extend the tenure and fix tariff rates of the existing rental, quick rental and independent power plants,” Power Secretary Monowar Islam told the Dhaka Tribune.

The three power plants are the 55MW Ashuganj gas-fired plant of Precession Energy Limited, the 55MW Shikalbaha HFO-fired plant of Energies Power Company and the 100MW

Siddhirganj diesel-fired plant of Desh Energy.

The government has also decided to extend the tenure of the 110MW barge-mounted plant of Summit Group’s Khulna Power Company Ltd after the expiry of a 15 years’ old contract on October 12, 2013.

This is the country’s first independent power producer that commenced its operation in October 1998.

The Power Division has also discussed revision of tariff rates with the entrepreneurs of 50MW Thakurgaon diesel-fired power of RZ Power Limited, 55 MW Khulna diesel-based plant of Aggrekko and 100MW Bheramara diesel-fired plant of Quantum Power.

“They repeatedly pressed us to continue purchasing the power at the existing rate for the extended period but

we asked them to revise it downward,” a Power Division official said.

The government earlier scrapped deal with the 55MW Sikalbaha rental power plant in Chittagong for discharging ash that causes damage to the PDB power plant near the site.

But the Power Development Board has continued to purchase electricity from RZ Power and Precision Energy Ltd, although their terms expired on August 2 and April 7 respectively.

The three-year contract with Desh Energy will expire on February 18, 2014 and Quantum Power on December 31, 2013.

The expensive rental and quick rental plants were set up during the regimes of 2007-08 caretaker government and present government on emergency basis to overcome the nagging outages.

These were said to be a stopgap ar-

rangement to face the growing demand until the government takes up longterm projects including renovation of age-old plants in the state sector. But no visible steps have taken place in this regard requiring the government to seek continuation of rental plants for some more years.

Experts have always been against the arrangement, which they billed as a drain on national exchequer. But businesspeople said the plants, though expensive, have helped them overcome power crisis to some extent.

Professor Shamsul Alam, energy adviser of Consumers Association of Bangladesh, told the Dhaka Tribune that the production cost of oil-based power plants was very high and extension of rental power plants would be suicidal.

On an average, PDB purchased

around 1500MW of electricity every day from 32 rental and quick rental power plants during the last fiscal year.

The amount is one fourth of the total generation, PDB officials said.

The country currently faces a deficit of 1,000MW electricity while demand hovers around 6,500MW. The government provides a subsidy of Tk 90 to 100 bn annually to buy electricity from all power plants including the rental ones.

The Power Division earlier formed a committee, which in April this year recommended that contacts for rental plants should be extended in phases.

“As the tenures of the contacts have almost come to an end, an influential section among the sponsors of the plants have started lobbying hard to get their contracts renewed for a longer period,” said Prof Alam. l

PM may attend Commonwealth summit n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina may attend the Commonwealth Head of Governments Meeting in Sri Lanka from November 15 to 17.

“The prime minister is very likely to attend the Commonwealth summit for one day as Sri Lanka requested her to join the event several times,” a foreign ministry official said.

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni and Secretary Md Shahidul Haque will attend the event.

Bangladesh will push for its priority issues in the meeting, the foreign secretary told the Dhaka Tribune.

“Climate change, regional issues, health, human mobility are among the priority areas for Bangladesh and we will push for inclusion of those issues in the CHOGM agenda,” he said.

The focus of the upcoming Commonwealth meeting is ‘growth with equity,’ which Bangladesh supports, he said.

Every two years Commonwealth leaders meet at the summit of Commonwealth to discuss global and Commonwealth issues, and to agree on collective policies and initiatives.

Human rights situation in Sri Lanka and polls in the Maldives are the major issues that are expected to be discussed prominently in the meeting. Bangladesh, being the chair of Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, is playing a crucial role on these issues. l

Three men working on electrical wires of the power grid without any personal protective equipment near Lalbagh area in the capital yesterday

Saudi Arabia to begin raids to track overstaying foreign workers

Youth entrepreneurs await recognition n Rabiul Islam

n Tribune Report Sabira Sultana, a successful entrepreneur from Narayanganj, has been selected for the National Youth Award this year in the “women” category for establishing a garments factory and creating employment for 130 young women.

Sabira will receive the award from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today at a ceremony marking National Youth Day 2013, State Minister for Youth and Sports Ahad Ali Sarkar told reporters yesterday.

The PM will also present awards to 15 other self-employed entrepreneurs from across the country at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the capital.

The Department of Youth Development (DYD) under the Ministry of the Youth and Sports will also organise a discussion meeting on the occasion.

Sabira, who could not get a job even after searching for five years, took a sewing course under the DYD. She then set up a garments factory with a loan from the department. Now, she is a successful entrepreneur of, employing 130 young women at her factory in Narayanganj. She also exports her products, and her annual net profit comes to around Tk929,500.

Some of the other awardees are Mizanul Haq Sarkar, a successful information technology (IT) entrepreneur from Mollikpur in Sunamganj district, who has been selected in the merit category.

Nurul Arefin Linkon, owner of a poultry farm at Mahinando in Kishoreganj, and Naznin Parvin of RK Mission Road in the capital will also get awards in the merit category.

Masing Nyu Marma of Chemi Dolupara in Bandarban district will get an award under the tribal quota. l

Foreign migrant workers who have no documents and no evidence to support they entered Saudi Arabia legally would be deported home by the Saudi authorities, said officials at the Bangladesh embassy there.

Embassy officials said under the general amnesty, workers who have no “Iqama” (visa) and no passport has not been benefited.

It has not been decided whether the Saudi government or the sponsors would provide airfare.

“The Saudi authorities have requested us to assign representatives from the embassy so that they can help deport Bangladeshi migrants,” Bangla-

desh ambassador to Saudi Arabia Md. Shahidul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune over phone yesterday.

He also said, “We requested the Saudi government to deport the migrants without any punishment.”

Earlier, the embassy announced that 750,000 Bangladeshi migrants had been benefited from the amnesty extended by the Saudi government, which will on Nov 3.

More than 1,200 men and women inspectors will start raiding companies, markets and public places across the Kingdom on Monday to check for illegal workers and Saudis harbouring them, Arab News reported yesterday.

The inspectors would check the va-

lidity of workers’ residency cards and their professions. Violators face fines of up to SR100,000, two years in prison, or both for repeat offenders.

In addition, foreign workers found working on their own, with the approval and authorisation of their sponsors, would be regarded as violators. Their sponsors would also be fined.

Foreign workers with driver’s licenses can drive cars regardless of their original profession.

The government would also fine workers if their “iqamas” were expired, if they did not carry their iqamas or ran away from inspectors. There would also be penalties for people sheltering pilgrims who overstayed their Haj and Umrah visas. l

BCL men attack SM Hall students suspecting to be Shibir activists n Arif Ahmed At least seven students of Salimullah Muslim Hall of Dhaka University sustained serious injuries as a group of Bangladesh Chhatra League, student front of the ruling Awami League reportedly beat them up, hacked and pushed off from the second floor of the hall.

The Chhatra league men suspected them to be activists of Jamaat-Shibir and carriers of the recent subversive activities on campus.

Witnesses said around 12pm, a crude bomb blasted in front of the room of BCL unit president Mehadi Hasan in the SM hall.

Following the incident, a group of BCL men led by Mehedi Hasan and BCL SM Hall Secretary Didarul Islam forcefully dragged them out of their rooms and thrashed around 2pm.

The injured are Obaidur Rahman, Shamim, Rubel Hossain, Mamun, Kobir, Sazzad and Basar.

Of them, Shamim was hacked, Obaidul, Rubel and Mamun were pushed-off from the second floor while Kobir, Sazzad and Basar were beaten up severely.

Obaidul was admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital with severe spinal injuries while others were admitted to the DU Medical Centre and other private clinics.

BCL SM Hall Secretary Didarul Islam said: “We did not beat them up. They are Shibir members and were trying to conduct subversive activities inside the hall, so the general students resisted them.”

SM hall President Mehadi Hasan said the injured had jumped off from the second floor while escaping after hurlin the bomb.

On the other hand, Chhatra Dal Central Committee Secretary Nazmul Hasan claimed that the injured were all activists of Chhatra Dal. When contacted, DU Proctor Amzad Ali said: “We have heard about the incident. We will investigate into the matter and take steps accordingly.” l

MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Nisha Desai expected in Dhaka this month n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman US Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Nisha Desai Biswal is expected to come to Dhaka on an orientation trip this month.

“She will be in the region in the middle of this month and we are trying to find a way to accommodate Dhaka in her trip,” director general of the America Wing Mahfuzur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune.

Biswal was sworn in as the assistant secretary on October 21 replacing Robert O Blake.

Both Dhaka and Washington are trying to work out a possible schedule for her, said another foreign ministry official.

The foreign ministry officials are to find a convenient schedule for the US assistant secretary’s meetings with Bangladesh officials, who will be busy with the high profile visit of Malaysian Prime Minister Nazib Rezak to Dhaka and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to Colombo in the middle of November.

Bangladesh ambassador to US Akramul Qader was schedule to meet Biswal Thursday afternoon Washington time.

“We have been known for a long time but this will be my first meeting with her as the capacity of assistant secretary,” Qader said.

Biswal worked as assistant administrator for Asia at the USAID. Her possible visit coincides with the recent activities of US ambassador in Dhaka Dan Mozena who in the recent weeks passed busy times meeting political leaders including Khaleda Zia, HM Ershad, Mirza Fakhrul Islam and Syed Ashraful Islam, among others.

Meanwhile, US Ambassador Mozena is leaving Dhaka for Washington today to meet his family.

“While he is in the United States, he will also have consultations in Washington, D.C. and then visit Michigan to continue his outreach to the Bangladeshi-American Diaspora, civil society, and business leaders where he will discuss all aspects of our broad bilateral partnership with Bangladesh,” said a US embassy statement. l

Police raid angers singer Nancy n Tribune Report Popular singer Nazmun Munira Nancy has strongly criticised a police raid, which was carried out at her Netrokona house on Tuesday night.

The incident took place only a few days after the National Film Award winning singer posted a Facebook status expressing support for opposition leader Khaleda Zia’s polls-time formula and criticising Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, according to media reports.

Speaking at a press conference at the National Press Club yesterday, Nancy said: “I had just expressed my opinion as I think I have the right to say what my likes and dislikes are. I am just a singer, but after updating my facebook status I became someone who harboured Jamaat-Shibir leaders!”

Saying she was feeling insecure after receiving abusive comments on different social networking sites, Nancy also claimed she received threatening mobile phone messages from many people.

The singer said she was traumatised about the situation and was afraid that her reputation would be damaged.

Clarifying her political stand, she said: “I have never been active in politics. But I give my full support for the nationalistic ideology in our politics.”

Earlier on October 21, Nancy posted a Facebook status welcoming Khaleda Zia’s polls-time formula and appreciating the BNP chairperson’s lenient behaviour. In the same status, the singer criticised the PM for exploiting her powers and claimed that Bangladeshi citizens wanted to be free from the lies of AL. l

Singer Nancy addresses reporters at the National Press Club yesterday

NASHIRUL ISLAM

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B2 GP workers

demonstrate

B3 Board members far from consensus

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Business www.dhakatribune.com/business

Corruption, greed doom RMG industry As 10% MPs are involved with the apparel businesses, they influence formulating any policy

n Tribune Report Corruption and greed of public and private organisations, and buyers have doomed the RMG industry, the country’s mainstay of the economy, said a new report of Transparency International of Bangladesh (TIB).

The report revealed that irregularities are rampant in 17 public organisations as an owner has to pay additional from Tk700,000 to Tk2m at different stages of the organisations for setting up a new factory.

Factory owners make windfall profit by abusing political power and overlooking workers rights, which play a catalyst for occurring industrial tragedies like Rana Plaza collapse that killed more than 1,100 people in April this year, it said.

Buyers could not also avoid their responsibilities for disasters in the apparel industry as they knowingly keep their eyes shut for financial gains, said the report.

The report on “RMG sector: problems of good governance and way forward” was prepared by taking interviews of stakeholders, experts and workers, and based on published reports in different print and electronic media.

Information and statistics were collected between the period of June and October this year.

“Corruption, greed and irregularities ruin the RMG industry,” said TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman, releasing the report in Dhaka yesterday.

To prevent recurrence of such incidents like Rana Plaza and Tazreen Fashion fire, people those involved in corruption in the RMG industry should be brought to justice, he said.

TIB Chairman Sultana Kamal said those tragedies are not the accident as it continues to occur in the country and lack of accountability, sensitivity and poor governance are the result of disasters.

“Nobody, whoever he or she is, should be spared,” she said, adding that all have been trying to blame each other to avoid their re-

CORRUPT PUBLIC ORGANISATIONS RAJUK Labour Department Department of Inspection of Factories and Establishment City Corporation Pourashava Union Fire Service and Civil Defence Office of the Chief Inspector of Boiler Department of Environment

Executive Director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), Dr Iftekharuzzaman speaks at a press conference in Dhaka yesterday NASHIRUL ISLAM spective responsibilities.

According to the report, factory owner is involved with technical and social compliance issues, including construction of building without code of conduct, inadequate safety measures, not allowing receipt of wages, forcing workers to sign in sacked letter in a preplanned way and dismissing pregnant workers.

Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) plays role as a regulator but its main role is to protect the interest of factory owners and workers.

Absence of transparency in audit report of the association, giving complaint certificate to a non-complaint factory, misuse of buyer’s compensation fund, bribing labour leaders to suppress workers’ demands are the salient features of corruption.

As 10% parliamentary members are involved with the apparel businesses, they influence on formulating any policy. “So, any policy related to the RMG is made for protecting the interest of owners, not for workers,” said Sultana Kamal.

The TIB report says introduction of Ap-

parel Board and Apparel Bill are yet to see the light and tax at source is reduced to 0.8% from 1.2% because of political clout.

Buyers have the vital role to ensure safe working place and workers’ rights, which is mandatory in the international level. But here in many cases, factory owners in league with buyers’ representative arrange complaint environment to satisfy complaint auditor and buyers delays payment showing excuses and even do not pay, according to the report.

In the amended labour law, it spotted many flaws, including absence of adequate punishment, insufficient compensation for victims and difficult condition for trade union formation.

Factory and establishment department are beset with corruption, irregularities and many more malpractices as it has inadequate administrative infrastructure as only 56 out of approved 103 inspectors are active, hampering to oversee such an important industry.

The report also mentioned that officials have allegedly given registration, renewal and floor set up certificates in exchange of

Office of the Chief Controller of Imports and Exports EPB BoI NBR Customs and Excise RJSCF DESA DESCO Titas Gas Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Wasa money without visiting the spot. In many cases, no legal action is taken because of social, political and economic power of the factory owners, it said.

It said a factory owner has to bribe on an average minimum Tk124,354 in eight stages to the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha ( RAJUK) officials to get land use approval.

About trade union, it said, leaders are not elected democratically as number of leadership position is limited to 40-50 people.

Trade union was formed under political consideration. l

Taxpayers get one more month to submit returns n Syed Samiul Basher Anik The deadline for submission of income tax returns has been extended by one more month to December 1 as the National Board of Revenue announced yesterday.

Following requests from different trade bodies, including the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) and Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the revenue authorities took the decision.

“Due to Hajj and holidays of Eid-Ul-Azha

and Durga Puza, many of the businesses remained close for a long period of time. Due to the long holidays, many taxpayers and businesses have failed to collect necessary documents, and thus requested us to extend the deadline,” said a senior official.

The finance minister approved the proposal yesterday, facilitating NBR to take the decision. The official said many taxpayers are facing difficulties due to the newly introduced eTIN system, also prompting the NBR to extend the deadline.

Among the 1.7m TIN holders, over half of

them are yet to submit their returns and “We are expecting to have them within the extended timeframe,” he added. For submission of returns, the taxpayers have to acquire eTIN – the newly launched system of NBR. The NBR will review taxpayers provided information with the Election Commission database and will provide 12-digit TINs by replacing old 10-digit TINs. Earlier on September 30, the NBR extended the deadline for submission of income tax returns till October 31.

According to the income tax ordinance, the NBR can fine Tk1,000 at a time and Tk50

for each day if any TIN holder fails to submit tax returns within the deadline.

However, the ordinance allows taxpayers for seeking extension of their time and to maintain the system, any taxpayer can apply to their respective Deputy Commissioner of Taxes if they fail to submit returns within the deadline for any valid reason. Following the taxpayer’s requests and considering the reasons, the DCT can allow maximum three months time to the respective taxpayers.

Last year, the board extended the time twice until November 15. l

2

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Unilever tops in FMCG sector

n Tribune Business Desk

Readymade garment workers demonstrate as the meeting of the Minimum Wage Board is going in Dhaka yesterday. They are demanding a minimum wage of Tk8,114. Story on B3 SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Unilever has been ranked as number 1 employer of choice in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector in an independent survey conducted by LinkedIn. The survey showed the company emerged third after tech giants Google and Apple by beating last year’s favourites Facebook and Microsoft.

“Unilever is a world leading talent powerhouse,” said Mononita Syed-Haq, Director in Human Resources of Unilever Bangladesh Limited.

“We take our talent development agenda very seriously and have developed leaders over the years,” the official added. l

GP workers demonstrate

Realtors, lawyers come under money laundering scrutiny They demand making 472 jobs permanent n Tribune Report

n Muhammad Zahidul Islam

The transactions of real-estate developers, lawyers and precious metal traders have been brought under the money laundering guideline to prevent money laundering and combat financing terrorists.

Bangladesh Bank (BB) in a circular issued yesterday said the account information of real-estate developers, dealer of precious metals or stones, trust and company service providers, lawyers, notary public and other legal professionals would be reportable about their clients under the “Guidelines on prevention of money laundering and combating financing of terrorism for designated non-financial businesses and professions (DNFBPs).

The guideline is designed to enable DNFBPs to undertake its function in consistence with the anti-money laundering laws and regulations.

An overriding aim of this guideline is to ensure that appropriate identification information is obtained in relation to their clients

by DNFBPs. “An 11-member focus group on preventing money laundering recommended bringing non-financial businesses and professionals under the money laundering guideline after reviewing the nature of their businesses,” the central bank said.

It further said that the focus group also considered the international practice of monitoring the accounts of such businesses and professionals before making their recommendations. l

Hundreds of Grameenphone workers staged a demonstration in front of the city’s GP House yesterday.

‘Our jobs in GP have not made permanent yet, nor being given benefits that we are entitled to have we are 472 workers who went to the court and won the case to have our jobs permanent. Now we want implementation of the order’

They were demanding implementation of the court order to make permanent the jobs of 472 workers and provide them with all benefits as per rules.

But a Grameenphone spokesperson a stay order from the High Court on the lower court’s ruling is in place.

“Such demonstration to implement lower court ruling is worthless as there is a stay order from the High Court.”

Grameenphone Ltd Laborers-Officials Union Bangladesh organised the one-hour demonstration.

“Our jobs in GP have not made permanent yet, nor being given benefits that we are entitled to have,” Md Kamrul Hasan, General Secretary of the Laborers-Workers Union, told the Dhaka Tribune.

“We are 472 workers who went to the court and won the case to have our jobs permanent. Now we want implementation of the order,” he said.

The court issued the ruling on September 9, 2013 while the full order was available after one month.

“But the GP authority is yet implement the order,” said Kamrul Hasan.

He threatened to go for tougher movement if they are listened to.

“Our demonstration is peaceful. If our voice remains unheard, we will be forced to become tougher.” l

NRB Bank, LankaBangla ink term loan deal

n Tribune Business Desk NRB Commercial Bank and LankaBangla Finance Limited recently signed a term loan agreement.

The bank’s MD and CEO Dewan Mujibur Rahman and the LankaBangla MD Mohammed Nasir Uddin Chowdhury signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations, said a press release. l

Turkey tourists deal signed

n Tribune Business Desk

Go BD Go Limited and Turkiye Seyahat Acentalari Birligi (TURSAB) signed an agreement for promoting Turkish tourism in Bangladesh market.

The agreement aims to offer cost effective but quality vacations for Bangladeshi market, said a press release.

Go BD Go Ltd Director Shamnoon Muheb Chowdhury and TURSAB Executive Board Member Ekram Usta signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

RMG MINIMUM WAGE

Board members far from consensus n Tribune Report Setting minimum wage for the RMG workers is being delayed again as the stakeholders could not reach a consensus on the minimum wage structure for a month.

“The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has proposed a minimum monthly wage of Tk4,250, including food allowance, as per their earlier pledge,” said AK Roy, president of the wager board.

“We could not reach a consensus despite having wide range of discussion,” he told a meeting of the board at its office in Dhaka yesterday. BGMEA submitted their proposal at the meeting.

Meanwhile, the independent member, Dr Kamal Uddin proposed the minimum monthly wage should be Tk5,000, excluding food allowance, as the leaders of workers did not agree the proposal of BGMEA. Both the BGMEA and the workers’ leaders sought two to four days as could not come to a consensus over the minimum wage pro-

posal of independent director. “That’s why the board decided to hold next meeting on November 4,” said Roy. “We hope BGMEA and workers’ leaders would come up with an acceptable proposal,” he added. “We would be able to make a draft proposal on the day based on their fresh proposal.”

Meanwhile, RMG workers under different organisations staged demonstration in front of the wage board office, demanding Tk8,000 as minimum wage per month.

“We have made a revised proposal of Tk4,250, including food allowance, but our maximum level is Tk4,500, which I mentioned at a stage in the discussion,” said Arshad Jamal Dipu, who represents owners to the wage board. “I have made the proposal considering the industry’s capacity.”

The BGMEA has rearranged grade-to-grade ratio for the skilled workers, which would bring benefits to the skilled workers, he said.

Replying to question, he told the reporters that “we have not capacity to pay over Tk4,500 and we have no intention to delay

the process.” The BGMEA president gave consent to make minimum wage effective from November, whenever it may be declared, he added. Dipu expressed confusion over the outcome of next meeting as the labour leaders were shifting from their stance on including the food allowance in the minimum wage. He said most debate took place on the food allowance.

Responding to another question, Dipu said: “I cannot say what could be the minimum level, but hope the board would be able to set acceptable minimum wage considering the industry capacity through discussion in next meeting,” said Sirajul Islam Rony, workers’ representative to the wage board. As food allowance is not included in other sectors, he said the discussion could not reach a point.

Earlier, BGMEA proposed an increase of Tk600 or 20% from the existing minimum wage of Tk3,000 per month. The workers rejected the offer, and many took to the streets demanding a higher minimum wage.

Leaders of RMG workers, however, proposed Tk8,114 as minimum wage. l

Proposed minimum wage for RMG workers BGMEA’s proposal

Independent member’s proposal

Total Tk4,250

Total Tk5,000

House

House

DSE EGM tomorrow n Tribune Report The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) will hold its postponed extraordinary general meeting (EMG) tomorrow as the legal bar has been withdrawn.

The agenda of the EMG and proposed decisions would remain unchanged, said a statement yesterday. On October 30, after a day of filing a writ petition, Ahmed Iqbal Hasan withdrawn his plea seeking a stay order on holding the EGM. Earlier, on October 29, the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) has stayed its extraordinary general meeting (EGM) following an injunc-

tion by the High Court.

The court issued a rule after former DSE President Ahmed Iqbal Hasan filing the writ petition claiming the demutualisation procedure adopted by the DSE was contradictory to the demutualisation Act. The EGM is meant for adopting some regulations, including approval of a 24-member “interim board” of the prime bourse in line with the demutualisation process.

Recently, Bangladesh Securities Exchange Commission (BSEC) allowed existing DSE board of directors to continue until the DSE’s annual general meeting.

In the EGM, the bourse is supposed to adopt

new memorandum of association and articles of association in line with the demutualisation scheme, replacing the existing ones.

Adoption of the new memorandum of association means disallowing any shareholder of the bourse to enter into the DSE office without getting permission from the proper authorities, according to a DSE circular.

The demutualisation is a way of separating the bourses’ management from ownership and to bring transparency and accountability into the market. It is going to transform the two bourses from their current non-profit, co-operative state into profit-oriented entities. l

3

Stocks edge higher amid volatility n Tribune Report Stocks edged higher amid volatility yesterday, a day after falling on profit taking.

The benchmark DSEX index rose 22 points or 0.6% to close at 3,967. The blue chip index DS30 gained 5 points or 0.5% to 1,408.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, closed at 7,762 with a rise of 22 points.

The turnover adjusted downward from previous session with investors’ shaky sentiment, as they remained cautious and ‘watchful’ over the dynamic turnaround situations, according to stock dealers.

The DSE total turnover stood at Tk3.6bn, which was more than 8% lower than the previous session.

“Keeping alignment with investors’ psychology throughout the session, the bourses ended marginally higher,” said IDLC Investments in its market analysis.

Focusing on quarterly earnings and ongoing political dynamism, investors’ highlighted mixed scenario of profit booking and re-balancing, it said.

In scrip-wise swings prevailed with 53 out of 284 traded scrips changing more than 4% of their respective prices.

Investors were getting out of bank scrips as some of those showed negative earnings in the latest quarter and were re-positioning in fundamentally strong other large cap scrips, said IDLC. Market performance for this week was quite good, contrary to previous couple of weeks.

“The investors are cautious about political agenda but at the same time it seems that they are also exhausted of the continuing ‘wait-and-see’ strategy, for which they have slowly started indulging themselves into the market increasing active participation in the bourse,” said Zenith Investments.

Given the optimism of general investors, the positivity of the market is expected to stretch further, said the Zenith Investments.

Gainers took a modest lead over the losers as out of 284 issues traded, 172 advanced, 88 declined and 24 remained unchanged in the prime bourse.

Among the major sectors, telecommunications saw the highest gain of 3%, followed by financial institutions that rose 3%.

Other sectors – fuel and power, banks and pharmaceuticals – closed marginally higher.

Among all sectors, life Insurance showed the best performance with a rise of 4%, featuring three issues in top ten gainers chart.

Beximco Limited was most traded stocks with shares worth Tk158m changing hands followed by Generation Next Fashion, National Bank Ltd, United Commercial Bank Ltd and Malek Spinning. l

4

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Japan electronics firms struggle n AFP, Tokyo Japan’s top electronics firms yesterday reported mixed earnings, with Sony slashing its full-year profit outlook while hard-hit Panasonic turned in strong earnings and boosted its annual forecast.

The firms have undergone painful restructuring to stem years of losses as they struggle to keep up in the low-margin television business, while rivals including Apple and South Korea’s Samsung surge ahead in the lucrative smartphone sector.

Once world-beating Sony booked a net loss of 15.8bn yen ($160m) in April-September and cut its forecast for the whole year to March by 40%, blaming dwindling sales of digital cameras, personal computers and televisions.

However, that was still an improvement on the 40.1bn yen loss in the same period last year.

The country’s digital camera makers have suffered as consumers increasingly turn to smartphones to snap pictures, while Sony also said its film business turned in a weaker-than-expected performance.

Company chief Kazuo Hirai has shrugged off pleas to abandon the television unit altogether, while the firm has also turned down a call by a US hedge fund boss to spin off 20% of its entertainment arm to boost profits.

In an interview with foreign media this month, Hirai reaffirmed his plan to keep the entertainment business within the vast conglomerate, calling it “a very vital and important part of Sony Group’s overall strategy”.

“It is one of the key pillars of our future growth,” he added.

The company is banking on strong holiday sales of its PlayStation 4 games console as rivals Nintendo and Microsoft also jockey for control of a sector worth $44bn annually.

Panasonic, however, said dramatic corporate overhauls and a sharply weaker yen which makes exporters’ goods cheaper overseas - were key factors in helping it crawl back from the abyss after several quarters of

n AFP, Washington

A customer stands next to a display of Japanese electronics giant Sony's digital audio player Walkman (centre) at an electrics shop in Tokyo AFP swingeing losses.

The firm said it had swung back to profit for the six months to September and doubled its full-year forecast - after combined losses topping $15bn in the past two fiscal years.

The company said it earned a 169.3bn yen ($1.7bn) net profit in April-September, reversing a net loss of 685.2bn yen a year earlier. It also said it was on track to earn a 100bn yen net profit in the year to March.

However, Koki Shiraishi, analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities in Tokyo, warned: “The impact of a weak yen will start disappearing in the second half of the fiscal year, which will cut their profit.”

He added: “There are still tough times ahead for Japanese electronics makers.”

Panasonic has also said it would abandon the consumer smartphone market as it struggles with the tough competition. Its announcement came a day after rival NEC said Wednesday it had slipped into a loss tied to

its own exit from the business.

In a separate statement yesterday, Panasonic confirmed it would stop production of plasma television screens over the next few months, in line with a broader industry shift away from plasma units. Hitachi and Pioneer also exited the market in recent years.

It also said it was buying a 90% stake in Turkish electrical firm Viko Elektrik for about $460m.

Sharp, meanwhile, said yestersday its first-half net loss shrank dramatically to $44m, crediting the improvement to strong demand for its liquid crystal display panels used in smartphones and tablet computers as well as solar panels.

It also said it had benefited from cutting labour and other fixed costs while reining in capital spending.

Last year the maker of Aquos-brand electronics warned it may go out of business as it scrambled to secure bank loans while offering its Osaka headquarters as collateral. l

China revives WTO nuts and bolts dispute with EU n AFP, Geneva China on Wednesday revived a WTO dispute with the EU over import duties on nuts and bolts, claiming Brussels failed to respect a 2011 ruling, the global body said.

The World Trade Organization said that Beijing had made a formal request for consultations with the European Union on the latter’s compliance with an order it to fall into line.

Under the rules of the 159-nation WTO, requesting consultations is the first step towards seeking the creation of an independent panel of trade experts to rule on a complaint.

The issue at stake is the EU’s anti-dumping duties on iron and steel fasteners - a category of products epitomised by nuts and bolts.

Such duties can be imposed when WTO

US 2013 deficit falls to half of 2009 peak

members believe that their domestic industries are being harmed by dumping, which is the sale of cut-price products in order to grab market share.

Arguing that dumping was taking place, the EU had in January 2009 levied tariffs ranging from 26.5% to 85% on Chinese fasteners.

In 2010, however, a WTO panel created at China’s behest ruled that Brussels acted inconsistently in its anti-dumping calculations. That decision was upheld on appeal in 2011.

In the wake of such WTO rulings, member states found at fault are allowed time to bring their rules into line, in agreement with the plaintiff.

In January 2012, China and the EU agreed that Brussels would put its house in order by October that year - when the EU announced it had respected the ruling, a stance that Chi-

na rejects.

Brussels has 15 days to respond to Beijing’s request for consultations, after which China can request the establishment of a panel to assess the EU’s compliance.

China is the world’s biggest producer of screws, nuts, bolts and washers, while the European Union is its biggest market.

EU-China trade has exploded in recent years, making the EU the top destination for Chinese exports while China is Europe’s biggest trade partner after the United States.

Beijing and Brussels have locked horns over a string of trade issues at the WTO, which seeks to set a level playing field for commerce between its members.

In the event that the WTO’s disputes settlement body finds in favour of a plaintiff, it can authorise retaliatory trade measures against a country until its falls into line. l

The US budget deficit plunged 37.5% in fiscal 2013 to less than half its level four years ago on sharp spending cuts and surging revenues, the Treasury said Wednesday.

The shortfall for the year ended September 30 was $680bn, down from $1.1tn last year and from more than $1.4tn in 2009, when the government spent heavily to battle recession.

Receipts rose 13.3%, to $2.77tn, helped more by personal income taxes while the corporate tax take lagged forecasts, the Treasury said.

Meanwhile, spending fell 2.4% to $3.45tn.

The $84 billion decrease was close to the amount required by the tough sequester spending cuts implemented in March.

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew used the final data to call on Congress to restrain the next sequester cuts and allow a more expansive budget for the current year, to enhance economic growth, which remains sluggish.

Under President (Barack) Obama, the nation’s deficit has fallen for the past four years, the fastest pace of decline over a sustained period since World War II “Under President (Barack) Obama, the nation’s deficit has fallen for the past four years, the fastest pace of decline over a sustained period since World War II,” Lew said in a statement.

“Congress must build on this progress by crafting a pro-jobs and pro-growth budget agreement that strengthens the economy while maintaining fiscal discipline.”

The US piled up huge deficits during and after the crisis, pumping money into teetering financial firms and US auto makers to keep a deep recession from becoming worse.

The figures “show that we are continuing to make significant progress in reducing the deficit,” said the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

“As a percent of gross domestic product (GDP), the deficit fell to 4.1%, representing a reduction of more than half from the deficit that the administration inherited when the president took office in 2009.”

The figures came out as Democrats and Republicans in Congress began talks on the next stage of funding the government for the current fiscal 2014, after a three-month stopgap budget was passed earlier this month.

Republicans are seeking more spending cuts, without added tax income, while the White House argues that the sequester, slated to expand in the coming year, is too harsh and damages growth.

“Building on the $2.5tn in deficit reduction already locked in, the president’s plan would replace the economically damaging sequester while achieving additional deficit reduction to put federal debt on a downward path as a share of the economy,” the OMB said. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Pakistan to issue $750m eurobond n AFP, Karachi Pakistan is planning its first eurobond issue for six years and aims to raise $750m to boost dwindling foreign exchange reserves and shore up the rupee, officials said.

The finance ministry has approached several international banks seeking advice and with a view to appointing one as lead adviser for the launch, a ministry official told AFP. The move comes with an International Monetary Fund (IMF) team in Pakistan to check progress on reforms tied to a $6.7bn loan package.

Islamabad has approached Citibank, HSBC and International China Banking Corporation for advice on the bond issue, the ministry official said.

“The banks have been contacted and the final decision will be taken after they come

out with their take on the launch,” the official said.

“They would advise Islamabad when to launch the bonds, what should be the selling price and volume to the offered.”

Another ministry official confirmed the details. Both spoke on condition of anonymity.

Pakistan raised $750m and $500m in its last bond issues in 2007, which were offered with a 7.75% markup and a 10-year term.

The IMF paid the $540m first instalment of the three-year loan deal in September, but future payments depend on the completion of tough economic reforms measured at quarterly reviews.

Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves have fallen alarmingly this year to just $4.2bn $300m below the target set by the IMF for the end of September.

To add to the economic woes, the rupee

The headquarters of Deutsche Bank are pictured in Frankfurt

has also shed 6.2% of its value against the dollar since January.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan, battling a homegrown Islamist insurgency, has bumped along at three percent GDP growth in recent years, less than half the figure experts say is needed to absorb the growing young population into the workforce.

Nevertheless, in August ratings agency Standard and Poor’s gave Pakistan B- status with a stable outlook.

Mohammad Sohail, chief executive officer of Topline Securities, said it was a good time for a bond issue, with the IMF deal bedding in, and Pakistan’s other options for raising capital were limited.

“IMF has already granted a loan to Pakistan that also supports the credibility of the country among the world capital markets,” he told AFP. l

REUTERS

Sins of past, present and future haunt banks n Reuters, London The cost to banks of cleaning up past misdeeds has soared over $100bn and is leaving lenders running scared from areas that put them in potential danger of upsetting regulators.

This week alone, Deutsche Bank, UBS and Lloyds revealed mounting legal bills and Dutch agricultural specialist Rabobank became the latest lender to be fined in a global scandal over interest rate rigging with a $1.1bn penalty.

Bankers fear that paying for the sins of the past and preventing future misdemeanors could be the biggest headache yet for an industry still trying to bulk up on capital and liquidity reserves in the wake of the 2007-09 financial crisis.

“This is a new world of regulation that has emerged post the financial crisis and I think the whole industry is struggling to catch up with it,” Mike Rees, head of wholesale banking at Standard Chartered told Reuters.

“Everyone has focused on the liquidity

standards and the capital standards, but I think the bigger cost for the industry will be about meeting the standards being required of us in terms of the code of conduct.”

JPMorgan - which had emerged from the financial crisis as the poster child for good risk management - is close to a record $13bn settlement with US authorities over the mis-selling of mortgage-backed bonds.

That could take the cost of credit crisis and mortgage-related settlements by US banks to almost $85bn in the last four years, according to SNL Financial. European firms, mostly in Britain, have paid or set aside more than $40bn to compensate customers or pay various fines. Further penalties are expected to hurt profits for years to come and are encouraging banks to quit business lines and less-regulated countries to shield themselves from future risk.

“Banks have to stand back and say what’s strategically important, where’s the risk, what’s the strategic value? And they have to make some choices,” said a senior bank exec-

utive. In many cases, businesses are not worth the cost of policing their potential risks.

HSBC has pulled out of a number of business areas and countries, including Panama and other Latin American countries, since being fined a record $1.9bn by US authorities last year over lax money laundering controls.

The British-headquartered bank, which is spending about $800m more each year on compliance costs across its operations in 80 countries, retrenched from banking embassies and consulates this year, sending diplomats into a panic.

“It was almost a nightmare for us. If we hadn’t found an alternative we were thinking about closing down our embassy,” said John Belavu, deputy high commissioner for Papua New Guinea in London.

“We had been banking with them for the last 25 years ... it was a big shock for us. We were given six months to find alternative banking arrangements.” HSBC said the retrenchment was a commercial decision based on its review of all businesses since May 2011. l

5

Results of state-run banks fuel sector recovery hopes

n Reuters, Mumbai

India’s second-biggest state lender Bank of Baroda Ltd posted a quarterly profit that topped analysts’ expectations, sending its shares higher and stoking speculation that the bad loans weighing on big government banks may be easing.

Fourth-ranked Bank of India Ltd, while reporting earnings that missed estimates slightly, said its non-performing assets fell at the end of the September quarter from a year earlier. Its shares rose the most in six years.

State banks, with their high exposure to the power and infrastructure sectors, have been particularly hit by the country’s economic slowdown. They are also typically more willing to ease repayment terms for struggling debtors.

Analysts say the better-than-expected earnings suggest that debt restructuring is bearing fruit and the banks’ recovery efforts are gaining traction.

“The worst is behind us,” Bank of Baroda Chairman S S Mundra told reporters after the results yesterday. “The September quarter was the last of this bad cycle.”

Bank of Baroda posted a 10.2% fall in July-September net profit to 11.68bn rupees.

Analysts, on average, had expected profit of 9.5bn rupees, according to Starmine data.

The bank’s non-performing assets rose to 1.86% of its total assets at the end of September from 0.82% a year earlier. But Mundra said growth in non-performing loans will slow in the second half, helping to send the bank’s shares up by more than 10%, their biggest gain in more than three years.

Over $20bn of bad loans were weighing on the country’s top 10 state banks as of March 31, according to Reuters calculations based on data from individual banks.

“Asset quality pressures will not increase.

We will be able to maintain these levels or reduce,” said Vijaylakshmi Iyer, chairwoman of Bank of India.

Bank of India said its September-quarter net profit more than doubled to 6.22bn rupees. That compares with analyst expectations of 6.76bn rupees.

Its non-performing assets fell to 1.85% of its total assets at the end of September from 2.04% a year earlier.

Shares in Bank of India rose more than 20%, their largest one-day gain since October 2007. At 0908 GMT, the benchmark index was down 0.1%.

The largest state lender, State Bank of India (SBI), which accounts for about a quarter of all loans and deposits, will report earnings on November 13. Punjab National Bank, the third-biggest, reports on November 8.

Mid-sized state lenders are not faring as well as their bigger cousins. Non-performing loans as a percentage of total loans reached the highest in more than five years in June, at 4.3%. This has forced banks to set aside more money to cover them, reducing profits.

“The bigger banks are showing lower deterioration compared to mid-sized PSU banks,” said Manish Ostwal, sector analyst at KR Choksey Shares & Securities. “They operate on stronger margins and can absorb the pressure in the short term. They also have a better ability to raise money in overseas markets.” l

6

Share

DHAKA TRIBUNE

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

DSE Broad Index: 3967.73 ⇑ 0.55%, Turnover: 3518.35 M.Tk ⇓ 8.46%, PE: 12.42 Turnover 3,825.09 MTk . ⇓ 8.98% October 31, 2013 MarketCap. 1,921.78 BTk. ⇑ 1.40% CSE All Share Index: 12245 ⇑ 0.33%, Turnover: 306.74 M Tk. ⇓ 14.26%, PE: 12.16 Combined Turnover Leader

TO M. Tk.

% of TTL

Avg. P

252250

447.35

11.70

1,773.45

BEXIMCO Ltd. -A

6310606

193.98

5.07

30.74

137.67

3.60

11.88

3.13

25.84

BATBCL -A

CompanyCode | EPS | BV | Volume Traded (Share) DSE/CSE: ClosePrice ⇓/⇑ Chn % | Avg.Price | Hi / Lo

BANK ABBANK | 2.95 | 32.60 | Vol. 247352 D: 25.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 25.14 | 27.00 / 23.00 C: 25.30 ⇑ 0.40% | 25.26 | 25.90 / 24.50 CITYBANK | 1.15 | 25.97 | Vol. 2013888 D: 18.60 ⇑ 1.09% | 18.81 | 20.00 / 17.10 C: 18.50 ⇑ 1.09% | 18.80 | 20.00 / 16.50 IFIC | 1.10 | 18.34 | Vol. 1751405 D: 26.50 ⇑ 1.92% | 26.77 | 27.90 / 23.40 C: 26.40 ⇑ 3.13% | 26.67 | 27.90 / 24.60 ISLAMIBANK | 3.78 | 27.16 | Vol. 513699 D: 36.90 ⇑ 1.37% | 36.88 | 37.20 / 32.80 C: 36.60 ⇑ 1.39% | 36.67 | 36.90 / 36.00 NBL | 1.05 | 15.76 | Vol. 11589838 D: 11.20 ⇓ 7.44% | 11.84 | 12.90 / 10.90 C: 11.50 ⇓ 6.50% | 12.01 | 12.80 / 11.20 PUBALIBANK | 1.92 | 21.18 | Vol. 241535 D: 31.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 31.35 | 31.60 / 28.00 C: 30.90 ⇓ 0.96% | 31.03 | 32.00 / 28.20 RUPALIBANK | 6.70 | 64.27 | Vol. 50000 D: 64.40 ⇑ 5.57% | 64.47 | 65.90 / 62.20 C: 60.30 ⇓ 5.49% | 62.10 | 63.90 / 60.30 UCBL | 1.90 | 21.72 | Vol. 5384944 D: 21.90 ⇑ 1.39% | 21.82 | 22.20 / 19.50 C: 21.90 ⇑ 1.86% | 21.77 | 22.20 / 20.80 UTTARABANK | 3.42 | 26.97 | Vol. 919524 D: 28.00 ⇑ 4.09% | 28.30 | 29.00 / 24.50 C: 27.90 ⇑ 3.33% | 28.11 | 28.90 / 26.50 ICBIBANK | -1.60 | -13.03 | Vol. 52000 D: 5.90 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.90 | 6.00 / 5.80 EBL | 3.91 | 28.22 | Vol. 181887 D: 26.40 ⇑ 0.00% | 26.82 | 27.30 / 24.00 C: 26.30 ⇑ 1.54% | 26.32 | 26.70 / 23.40 ALARABANK | 2.03 | 14.91 | Vol. 1011687 D: 15.40 ⇓ 0.65% | 15.53 | 16.00 / 14.80 C: 15.60 ⇑ 1.30% | 15.57 | 16.10 / 13.90 PRIMEBANK | 2.89 | 22.40 | Vol. 279602 D: 23.10 ⇑ 1.76% | 23.08 | 23.40 / 20.50 C: 23.00 ⇓ 0.86% | 22.83 | 23.50 / 22.00 SOUTHEASTB | 1.89 | 22.66 | Vol. 1062949 D: 16.90 ⇑ 2.42% | 16.83 | 17.50 / 15.00 C: 16.80 ⇑ 1.82% | 16.74 | 17.20 / 15.00 DHAKABANK | 1.46 | 18.08 | Vol. 132471 D: 18.80 ⇑ 0.53% | 18.83 | 19.30 / 17.00 C: 18.70 ⇓ 2.60% | 18.69 | 19.00 / 18.00 NCCBANK | 1.90 | 15.88 | Vol. 836753 D: 12.20 ⇑ 1.67% | 12.29 | 13.00 / 10.80 C: 12.20 ⇑ 0.00% | 12.29 | 12.50 / 11.00 SIBL | 2.05 | 14.47 | Vol. 793772 D: 11.70 ⇑ 0.00% | 11.79 | 12.10 / 11.00 C: 11.80 ⇓ 0.84% | 11.89 | 12.10 / 11.20 DUTCHBANGL | 11.57 | 54.27 | Vol. 9500 D: 93.90 ⇓ 0.95% | 93.89 | 94.20 / 93.60 MTBL | 1.17 | 17.27 | Vol. 167010 D: 15.70 ⇓ 0.63% | 15.92 | 16.00 / 14.50 C: 15.30 ⇑ 0.00% | 15.32 | 15.50 / 15.30 STANDBANKL | 2.33 | 14.41 | Vol. 655740 D: 12.90 ⇓ 0.77% | 13.10 | 13.60 / 12.00 C: 13.10 ⇑ 0.77% | 13.20 | 14.00 / 12.90 ONEBANKLTD | 2.35 | 15.34 | Vol. 2041879 D: 14.20 ⇓ 2.07% | 14.42 | 14.90 / 14.00 C: 14.50 ⇓ 2.03% | 14.51 | 15.00 / 13.40 BANKASIA | 1.35 | 20.80 | Vol. 162802 D: 18.60 ⇓ 0.53% | 18.79 | 19.40 / 17.00 C: 18.90 ⇓ 5.97% | 18.94 | 19.60 / 18.70 MERCANBANK | 2.07 | 16.59 | Vol. 1748731 D: 13.50 ⇑ 4.65% | 13.51 | 14.10 / 12.00 C: 13.40 ⇑ 3.88% | 13.42 | 13.80 / 12.00 EXIMBANK | 1.80 | 14.31 | Vol. 1266460 D: 11.40 ⇑ 0.00% | 11.40 | 12.50 / 10.50 C: 11.60 ⇑ 0.87% | 11.54 | 12.00 / 11.00 JAMUNABANK | 2.47 | 18.56 | Vol. 178047 D: 15.20 ⇓ 1.30% | 15.33 | 16.50 / 14.00 C: 15.30 ⇓ 0.65% | 15.14 | 15.70 / 14.00 BRACBANK | 1.51 | 24.87 | Vol. 268273 D: 29.90 ⇑ 0.67% | 29.88 | 30.50 / 26.90 C: 29.50 ⇑ 0.34% | 29.74 | 30.40 / 28.00 SHAHJABANK | 2.61 | 14.47 | Vol. 486027 D: 15.50 ⇑ 1.31% | 15.65 | 16.40 / 14.50 C: 15.60 ⇑ 1.96% | 15.79 | 16.20 / 15.20 PREMIERBAN | 1.18 | 13.95 | Vol. 5133946 D: 11.50 ⇑ 9.52% | 11.41 | 11.50 / 10.00 C: 11.50 ⇑ 9.52% | 11.42 | 11.50 / 10.20

Vol.

National Bank - B

11589838

G Next Fashions-A

4630980

119.69

UCBL - A

5384944

117.45

3.07

TRUSTBANK | 0.50 | 18.00 | Vol. 191493 D: 17.50 ⇓ 1.13% | 17.54 | 18.00 / 16.00 C: 17.70 ⇓ 1.12% | 17.61 | 17.80 / 17.00 FIRSTSBANK | 1.85 | 13.89 | Vol. 450210 D: 12.40 ⇑ 0.81% | 12.50 | 13.00 / 11.50 C: 12.40 ⇑ 0.00% | 12.44 | 12.90 / 11.60 NON BANKING F I IDLC | 4.43 | 29.18 | Vol. 81570 D: 56.60 ⇓ 2.25% | 57.01 | 57.50 / 53.00 C: 57.00 ⇓ 1.04% | 57.01 | 57.10 / 57.00 ULC | 1.80 | 14.90 | Vol. 77541 D: 26.90 ⇑ 0.37% | 26.88 | 27.10 / 24.80 UTTARAFIN | 7.16 | 41.54 | Vol. 52405 D: 73.80 ⇓ 0.27% | 73.94 | 74.50 / 70.00 C: 72.60 ⇓ 1.49% | 72.62 | 73.10 / 72.50 MIDASFIN | 0.16 | 10.21 | Vol. 1000 D: 30.10 ⇓ 4.44% | 30.10 | 30.10 / 30.10 FLEASEINT | 2.34 | 13.93 | Vol. 371364 D: 25.50 ⇑ 0.79% | 25.32 | 25.80 / 23.00 C: 24.80 ⇓ 3.13% | 24.80 | 24.80 / 24.80 PLFSL | 1.37 | 17.48 | Vol. 284176 D: 21.50 ⇑ 0.47% | 21.50 | 22.00 / 20.00 C: 21.50 ⇓ 0.92% | 21.63 | 22.20 / 19.60 PRIMEFIN | 0.87 | 17.88 | Vol. 302556 D: 23.10 ⇓ 0.43% | 23.13 | 24.00 / 22.00 C: 23.00 ⇓ 0.86% | 23.00 | 23.20 / 22.00 PREMIERLEA | 0.10 | 11.37 | Vol. 109929 D: 10.00 ⇑ 1.01% | 10.03 | 10.10 / 9.50 C: 10.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 10.00 | 10.10 / 9.00 ISLAMICFIN | 1.03 | 15.48 | Vol. 275700 D: 15.50 ⇑ 0.65% | 15.63 | 15.80 / 15.20 C: 15.50 ⇑ 1.97% | 15.43 | 15.60 / 15.00 LANKABAFIN | 1.61 | 31.07 | Vol. 737688 D: 54.30 ⇑ 2.45% | 54.22 | 55.50 / 52.90 C: 54.70 ⇑ 2.82% | 54.56 | 55.20 / 52.00 BIFC | 0.15 | 18.58 | Vol. 166874 D: 16.30 ⇑ 9.40% | 16.03 | 16.30 / 13.50 C: 16.20 ⇑ 9.46% | 16.13 | 16.20 / 13.40 IPDC | 1.23 | 19.43 | Vol. 77500 D: 17.10 ⇑ 1.18% | 17.13 | 17.30 / 16.90 C: 17.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 17.03 | 17.10 / 17.00 UNIONCAP | 0.54 | 17.85 | Vol. 22695 D: 27.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 27.18 | 27.50 / 25.00 C: 27.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 27.00 | 27.00 / 27.00 BDFINANCE | 0.57 | 14.77 | Vol. 121222 D: 17.90 ⇓ 11.39% | 17.90 | 17.90 / 16.30 C: 17.90 ⇓ 10.50% | 17.90 | 17.90 / 17.00 ILFSL | 0.35 | 12.19 | Vol. 1552360 D: 14.60 ⇑ 7.35% | 14.72 | 14.90 / 13.00 C: 14.80 ⇑ 8.82% | 14.66 | 14.90 / 14.30 PHOENIXFIN | 2.46 | 19.39 | Vol. 175355 D: 28.00 ⇓ 4.76% | 28.32 | 28.80 / 26.50 C: 27.90 ⇓ 4.12% | 27.97 | 28.50 / 27.80 FASFIN | 0.19 | 13.56 | Vol. 334000 D: 13.50 ⇑ 1.50% | 13.59 | 13.80 / 13.40 C: 13.60 ⇑ 2.26% | 13.61 | 13.80 / 13.50 DBH | 4.47 | 21.27 | Vol. 33051 D: 53.00 ⇑ 0.76% | 53.07 | 53.90 / 51.00 C: 51.10 ⇓ 1.16% | 51.80 | 52.10 / 51.00 NHFIL | 0.57 | 12.70 | Vol. 255620 D: 29.60 ⇑ 2.78% | 29.50 | 30.00 / 28.00 C: 29.60 ⇑ 3.14% | 29.50 | 30.00 / 28.80 BAYLEASING | 0.72 | 25.55 | Vol. 89080 D: 27.40 ⇑ 0.37% | 27.36 | 27.80 / 26.00 C: 27.20 ⇓ 0.37% | 27.15 | 27.70 / 27.00 ICB | 89.23 | 607.74 | Vol. 12961 D: 1486 ⇑ 5.99% | 1459 | 1490 / 1400 C: 1487 ⇑ 6.18% | 1474 | 1487 / 1440 GSPFINANCE | 1.63 | 22.23 | Vol. 84417 D: 24.10 ⇓ 1.63% | 24.14 | 24.60 / 22.20 C: 24.00 ⇓ 0.83% | 23.89 | 24.00 / 22.00 FAREASTFIN | 0.68 | 13.64 | Vol. 1015000 D: 13.60 ⇓ 2.16% | 13.60 | 13.90 / 13.30 C: 13.80 ⇓ 1.43% | 13.71 | 14.00 / 13.30 INVESTMENT 2NDICB | 44.10 | 253.11 | Vol. 300 D: 215.0 ⇑ 0.89% | 215.00 | 215.0 / 215.0 6THICB | 10.99 | 60.14 | Vol. 5000 D: 45.50 ⇓ 0.66% | 45.60 | 45.80 / 45.30 8THICB | 12.47 | 70.07 | Vol. 500 D: 50.20 ⇑ 1.83% | 50.20 | 50.20 / 50.20

21.81

C%

A%

CP

C%

A%

CP

Republic Insu.-A

9.80

4.71

43.70

Delta Life Insu.-Z

-95.05

-95.10

225.80

Premier Bank-A

9.52

6.34

11.50

Savar Refractories-Z

-11.64

-11.06

50.10

B I F C-A

9.40

6.87

16.30

BD Finance-A

-11.39

-10.41

17.90

PragatiLife Insu.-A

9.32

5.68

114.90

Northern Jute-Z

-9.23

-8.65

23.60

Progressive Life-A

8.55

7.53

102.80

BEXIMCO Ltd.-A

-8.49

-7.15

29.10

DSE Gainer

AIMS1STMF | 3.02 | 15.70 | Vol. 225000 D: 37.50 ⇑ 1.63% | 37.35 | 37.80 / 36.80 C: 37.30 ⇑ 0.54% | 37.18 | 37.60 / 36.80 ICBISLAMIC | 2.21 | 26.81 | Vol. 7000 D: 16.30 ⇑ 0.00% | 16.30 | 16.30 / 16.30 GRAMEEN1 | 6.26 | 33.23 | Vol. 208500 D: 43.00 ⇑ 0.23% | 43.51 | 44.00 / 42.90 C: 43.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 44.91 | 46.90 / 43.00 ICB1STNRB | 4.06 | 35.31 | Vol. 1000 D: 22.40 ⇓ 2.18% | 22.00 | 22.50 / 22.30 ICB2NDNRB | 2.49 | 16.24 | Vol. 336000 D: 9.00 ⇓ 3.23% | 9.07 | 9.50 / 9.00 C: 9.20 ⇑ 2.22% | 9.20 | 9.20 / 9.20 GRAMEENS2 | 2.17 | 16.41 | Vol. 657550 D: 15.90 ⇑ 1.27% | 15.98 | 16.20 / 14.90 C: 15.90 ⇑ 1.27% | 15.81 | 16.10 / 15.00 1STPRIMFMF | 0.64 | 11.63 | Vol. 1774000 D: 21.20 ⇑ 6.53% | 21.05 | 21.50 / 20.20 C: 21.30 ⇑ 5.45% | 20.86 | 21.50 / 20.40 EBL1STMF | 0.55 | 12.62 | Vol. 204550 D: 6.60 ⇑ 0.00% | 6.66 | 7.00 / 6.00 C: 6.80 ⇑ 1.49% | 6.73 | 6.80 / 6.20 ICBAMCL2ND | 0.60 | 12.12 | Vol. 23500 D: 5.60 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.70 | 5.70 / 5.60 ICBEPMF1S1 | 0.52 | 11.32 | Vol. 131500 D: 6.10 ⇑ 1.67% | 6.17 | 6.30 / 6.10 C: 6.10 ⇑ 1.67% | 6.08 | 6.10 / 6.00 TRUSTB1MF | 0.75 | 11.65 | Vol. 395273 D: 7.40 ⇑ 0.00% | 7.40 | 7.50 / 7.00 C: 7.50 ⇑ 4.17% | 7.34 | 7.50 / 7.00 PRIME1ICBA | 0.42 | 11.18 | Vol. 105500 D: 5.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.10 | 5.10 / 5.10 C: 5.20 ⇑ 1.96% | 5.20 | 5.20 / 5.20 DBH1STMF | -1.12 | 10.15 | Vol. 288000 D: 5.50 ⇑ 1.85% | 5.48 | 5.60 / 5.40 C: 5.50 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.44 | 5.50 / 5.40 IFIC1STMF | 0.83 | 11.88 | Vol. 359811 D: 6.40 ⇑ 0.00% | 6.47 | 6.60 / 6.40 C: 6.30 ⇑ 0.00% | 6.24 | 6.30 / 6.00 PF1STMF | 0.51 | 11.11 | Vol. 133500 D: 5.30 ⇑ 1.92% | 5.30 | 5.40 / 5.20 C: 5.30 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.23 | 5.30 / 5.20 ICB3RDNRB | 0.00 | 10.60 | Vol. 102500 D: 5.00 ⇑ 2.04% | 5.01 | 5.10 / 5.00 C: 4.90 ⇓ 2.00% | 4.96 | 5.00 / 4.90 1JANATAMF | 0.78 | 10.68 | Vol. 217500 D: 5.70 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.73 | 5.80 / 5.70 C: 5.90 ⇑ 3.51% | 5.83 | 5.90 / 5.70 GREENDELMF | -0.82 | 9.72 | Vol. 295500 D: 5.20 ⇑ 1.96% | 5.19 | 5.30 / 5.10 C: 5.20 ⇑ 1.96% | 5.18 | 5.20 / 5.10 POPULAR1MF | 0.77 | 11.38 | Vol. 375232 D: 5.70 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.78 | 5.80 / 5.50 C: 5.80 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.80 | 5.80 / 5.80 IFILISLMF1 | 0.00 | 10.45 | Vol. 523500 D: 5.20 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.24 | 5.30 / 5.10 C: 5.10 ⇓ 3.77% | 5.16 | 5.20 / 5.10 PHPMF1 | 0.63 | 10.92 | Vol. 1113000 D: 5.20 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.26 | 5.40 / 5.20 C: 5.30 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.30 | 5.40 / 5.20 AIBL1STIMF | -0.07 | 9.25 | Vol. 2000 D: 6.40 ⇑ 0.00% | 6.40 | 6.40 / 6.40 MBL1STMF | -0.16 | 9.08 | Vol. 25500 D: 6.20 ⇑ 0.00% | 6.27 | 6.30 / 6.20 C: 6.40 ⇑ 0.00% | 6.43 | 6.50 / 6.40 SEBL1STMF | 0.94 | 11.85 | Vol. 288600 D: 8.00 ⇑ 1.27% | 8.04 | 8.10 / 7.90 C: 7.90 ⇓ 1.25% | 7.90 | 7.90 / 7.90 RELIANCE1 | 0.95 | 10.33 | Vol. 850800 D: 8.40 ⇑ 3.70% | 8.36 | 8.90 / 8.20 C: 8.30 ⇑ 3.75% | 8.29 | 8.30 / 8.00 LRGLOBMF1 | 0.50 | 10.82 | Vol. 108500 D: 7.60 ⇑ 4.11% | 7.64 | 7.80 / 7.40 ABB1STMF | 0.92 | 10.63 | Vol. 20000 D: 6.70 ⇑ 0.00% | 6.75 | 6.80 / 6.70 NLI1STMF | 1.17 | 12.22 | Vol. 855400 D: 9.10 ⇑ 2.25% | 9.20 | 9.40 / 8.50 C: 9.30 ⇑ 3.33% | 9.12 | 9.30 / 9.00 NCCBLMF1 | 1.16 | 10.48 | Vol. 31500 D: 8.20 ⇓ 1.20% | 8.25 | 8.60 / 8.10 ICBSONALI1 | 0.00 | 10.39 | Vol. 190500 D: 6.60 ⇑ 0.00% | 6.68 | 6.90 / 6.60 C: 6.60 ⇑ 1.54% | 6.64 | 6.80 / 6.40 EXIM1STMF | 0.00 | 10.91 | Vol. 3000 D: 7.30 ⇓ 2.67% | 7.33 | 7.40 / 7.30

DSE Loser

ENGINEERING AFTABAUTO | 4.29 | 52.65 | Vol. 173861 D: 97.50 ⇓ 0.20% | 97.64 | 100.0 / 88.00 C: 97.70 ⇓ 0.41% | 97.82 | 98.80 / 97.10 AZIZPIPES | 0.39 | -42.04 | Vol. 12600 D: 17.40 ⇑ 2.35% | 17.30 | 17.90 / 16.90 OLYMPIC | 7.85 | 22.10 | Vol. 127475 D: 205.7 ⇓ 1.48% | 205.40 | 209.0 / 193.0 C: 206.5 ⇓ 2.27% | 207.82 | 214.0 / 202.0 BDLAMPS | -5.31 | 37.07 | Vol. 10100 D: 123.1 ⇓ 0.16% | 123.84 | 127.0 / 122.5 C: 124.0 ⇑ 0.73% | 124.00 | 124.0 / 124.0 MONNOSTAF | 5.31 | 44.78 | Vol. 1150 D: 271.8 ⇑ 2.76% | 272.17 | 287.4 / 255.7 SINGERBD | 9.99 | 45.74 | Vol. 24675 D: 187.0 ⇓ 0.27% | 187.56 | 190.0 / 186.0 C: 189.0 ⇑ 1.39% | 187.76 | 190.0 / 185.0 ATLASBANG | 11.98 | 207.70 | Vol. 4400 D: 158.9 ⇑ 1.53% | 158.64 | 159.7 / 157.0 BDAUTOCA | 0.25 | 6.23 | Vol. 55250 D: 30.60 ⇓ 7.83% | 30.88 | 32.80 / 30.10 QSMDRYCELL | 1.06 | 52.31 | Vol. 244990 D: 32.00 ⇑ 1.91% | 32.25 | 32.80 / 30.00 C: 32.00 ⇑ 1.91% | 32.08 | 32.60 / 31.50 RENWICKJA | 5.77 | -31.13 | Vol. 5450 D: 135.9 ⇓ 2.86% | 140.73 | 145.0 / 135.0 NTLTUBES | -2.52 | 312.10 | Vol. 19500 D: 64.00 ⇑ 0.47% | 64.26 | 66.70 / 63.90 BDTHAI | 0.43 | 39.35 | Vol. 385508 D: 24.40 ⇓ 4.31% | 24.46 | 25.10 / 23.00 C: 24.20 ⇓ 5.10% | 24.44 | 25.00 / 24.10 ANWARGALV | 0.52 | 8.10 | Vol. 88000 D: 22.50 ⇑ 0.00% | 22.65 | 23.20 / 22.00 C: 22.30 ⇓ 0.45% | 22.67 | 23.40 / 21.00 KAY&QUE | -3.89 | 6.03 | Vol. 8000 D: 14.60 ⇑ 1.39% | 14.67 | 14.80 / 14.60 C: 15.20 ⇓ 2.56% | 15.30 | 15.40 / 15.20 RANFOUNDRY | 2.84 | 18.62 | Vol. 16000 D: 80.90 ⇑ 0.87% | 80.88 | 81.70 / 80.30 SALAMCRST | 3.31 | 20.00 | Vol. 230000 D: 39.00 ⇓ 2.50% | 39.37 | 40.60 / 38.70 C: 39.80 ⇓ 1.00% | 39.87 | 41.90 / 39.10 GOLDENSON | 3.70 | 28.70 | Vol. 1353974 D: 44.00 ⇓ 4.14% | 44.25 | 45.20 / 41.40 C: 43.90 ⇓ 4.57% | 44.39 | 48.10 / 43.60 BSRMSTEEL | 3.06 | 19.53 | Vol. 80735 D: 65.70 ⇓ 2.67% | 65.98 | 68.00 / 61.00 C: 65.80 ⇓ 2.23% | 65.53 | 67.00 / 64.10 NAVANACNG | 4.09 | 27.04 | Vol. 99356 D: 62.50 ⇑ 0.64% | 62.44 | 63.20 / 57.00 C: 62.10 ⇑ 1.14% | 61.82 | 63.00 / 60.00 DESHBANDHU | 0.26 | 10.67 | Vol. 302157 D: 16.00 ⇑ 1.91% | 16.00 | 16.20 / 15.50 C: 16.00 ⇑ 1.27% | 15.91 | 16.30 / 15.80 GPHISPAT | 2.11 | 15.27 | Vol. 22500 D: 40.60 ⇑ 0.25% | 40.61 | 41.10 / 40.00 C: 40.40 ⇑ 0.50% | 40.36 | 40.80 / 40.00 BENGALWTL | 4.16 | 26.24 | Vol. 254200 D: 46.50 ⇓ 1.48% | 46.66 | 47.70 / 46.00 C: 45.90 ⇓ 3.77% | 46.07 | 46.80 / 45.40 BDBUILDING | 1.53 | 14.60 | Vol. 1429500 D: 40.60 ⇑ 2.01% | 40.90 | 41.90 / 39.50 C: 40.30 ⇑ 3.07% | 40.63 | 41.70 / 39.50 NPOLYMAR | 2.73 | 37.82 | Vol. 77930 D: 49.00 ⇑ 2.94% | 48.56 | 49.50 / 44.00 C: 47.00 ⇓ 0.21% | 47.23 | 48.90 / 47.00 FOOD & ALLIED APEXFOODS | 2.54 | 90.81 | Vol. 20200 D: 88.40 ⇑ 0.23% | 89.31 | 91.00 / 88.00 BANGAS | 7.20 | 50.27 | Vol. 19820 D: 367.7 ⇑ 1.94% | 365.63 | 380.0 / 355.0 C: 367.8 ⇑ 2.57% | 367.83 | 370.0 / 365.6 BATBC | 65.69 | 117.22 | Vol. 252250 D: 1573 ⇑ 2.36% | 1774 | 1800 / 1550 C: 1572 ⇑ 4.78% | 1572 | 1610 / 1510 GEMINISEA | 10.88 | 9.69 | Vol. 600 D: 172.8 ⇑ 0.76% | 173.33 | 185.0 / 169.6 NTC | 29.88 | 110.05 | Vol. 500 D: 782.0 ⇓ 1.25% | 782.00 | 799.9 / 750.0 ZEALBANGLA | -28.94 | -221.34 | Vol. 700 D: 8.50 ⇑ 6.25% | 8.57 | 8.70 / 8.20

AMCL(PRAN) | 6.85 | 57.14 | Vol. 20300 D: 184.5 ⇑ 2.10% | 183.49 | 188.8 / 175.2 C: 181.2 ⇑ 0.17% | 178.59 | 182.0 / 178.0 FUWANGFOOD | 1.03 | 13.51 | Vol. 253714 D: 21.90 ⇓ 0.45% | 22.01 | 22.20 / 21.00 C: 22.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 21.97 | 22.10 / 21.90 MEGHNAPET | -0.50 | -1.52 | Vol. 4500 D: 5.80 ⇑ 3.57% | 5.78 | 5.90 / 5.70 MEGCONMILK | -7.48 | -23.70 | Vol. 3000 D: 7.20 ⇑ 2.86% | 7.33 | 7.40 / 7.10 BEACHHATCH | 1.01 | 12.48 | Vol. 429955 D: 20.60 ⇓ 0.96% | 20.81 | 21.80 / 18.80 C: 20.60 ⇓ 0.96% | 20.74 | 21.20 / 20.00 FINEFOODS | 0.05 | 10.63 | Vol. 276000 D: 16.20 ⇓ 5.26% | 16.24 | 17.00 / 15.90 C: 16.40 ⇓ 3.53% | 16.28 | 16.90 / 16.00 RDFOOD | 0.91 | 16.84 | Vol. 865754 D: 21.40 ⇑ 2.39% | 21.34 | 21.80 / 19.00 C: 21.40 ⇑ 1.90% | 21.39 | 21.60 / 21.10 GHAIL | 2.43 | 25.58 | Vol. 456960 D: 36.80 ⇓ 1.60% | 36.90 | 38.20 / 33.70 C: 37.00 ⇓ 2.12% | 36.79 | 38.00 / 34.10 FUEL & POWER LINDEBD | 31.71 | 144.00 | Vol. 11250 D: 625.4 ⇑ 0.00% | 628.62 | 640.0 / 615.5 PADMAOIL | 16.38 | 43.67 | Vol. 101924 D: 280.5 ⇑ 3.35% | 277.35 | 282.9 / 268.0 C: 280.5 ⇑ 3.01% | 277.50 | 282.9 / 249.0 EASTRNLUB | 6.32 | 68.68 | Vol. 450 D: 319.5 ⇑ 6.36% | 320.00 | 324.9 / 316.9 BDWELDING | 0.33 | 16.82 | Vol. 465291 D: 19.70 ⇓ 2.48% | 19.82 | 20.60 / 19.10 C: 19.50 ⇓ 3.47% | 19.61 | 20.00 / 19.20 SUMITPOWER | 3.17 | 19.26 | Vol. 400976 D: 32.60 ⇓ 1.21% | 32.68 | 33.00 / 31.90 C: 32.60 ⇓ 0.91% | 32.64 | 33.00 / 32.30 DESCO | 2.69 | 35.96 | Vol. 57461 D: 70.30 ⇑ 0.43% | 70.70 | 71.80 / 66.60 C: 70.50 ⇑ 1.59% | 70.50 | 71.00 / 70.00 POWERGRID | 2.56 | 48.08 | Vol. 30665 D: 52.30 ⇓ 0.76% | 52.36 | 52.90 / 49.00 C: 51.30 ⇑ 0.59% | 51.21 | 51.50 / 51.10 JAMUNAOIL | 22.78 | 50.24 | Vol. 115152 D: 220.5 ⇑ 1.47% | 219.67 | 221.7 / 199.0 C: 221.9 ⇑ 2.68% | 221.13 | 222.9 / 218.3 MPETROLEUM | 16.98 | 40.41 | Vol. 131158 D: 252.3 ⇑ 1.53% | 251.14 | 253.9 / 227.0 C: 253.2 ⇑ 2.22% | 251.63 | 254.9 / 247.0 TITASGAS | 9.20 | 46.26 | Vol. 455103 D: 78.60 ⇑ 1.81% | 77.75 | 79.80 / 70.00 C: 78.50 ⇑ 1.16% | 78.23 | 79.00 / 77.20 KPCL | 4.73 | 15.86 | Vol. 171148 D: 47.00 ⇓ 0.84% | 47.13 | 48.10 / 44.00 C: 46.50 ⇓ 1.69% | 46.75 | 47.40 / 44.00 BEDL | 1.48 | 19.43 | Vol. 671444 D: 27.60 ⇓ 0.36% | 27.53 | 27.90 / 25.00 C: 27.60 ⇓ 0.72% | 27.46 | 28.50 / 27.00 MJLBD | 2.73 | 30.24 | Vol. 32662 D: 69.80 ⇓ 0.14% | 69.64 | 70.00 / 64.00 C: 69.20 ⇑ 0.14% | 69.40 | 73.20 / 63.00 GBBPOWER | 1.86 | 22.63 | Vol. 363943 D: 25.80 ⇓ 3.01% | 26.08 | 26.80 / 24.00 C: 25.80 ⇓ 3.73% | 26.08 | 26.50 / 25.00 SPPCL | 3.81 | 23.34 | Vol. 673560 D: 56.10 ⇓ 4.10% | 56.61 | 58.60 / 53.00 C: 56.10 ⇓ 4.27% | 56.30 | 58.50 / 52.80 JUTE JUTESPINN | 2.06 | 17.42 | Vol. 8750 D: 71.30 ⇓ 3.78% | 71.89 | 77.90 / 71.00 NORTHERN | -13.80 | -6.19 | Vol. 800 D: 23.60 ⇓ 9.23% | 23.75 | 24.00 / 23.50 SONALIANSH | 5.54 | 218.80 | Vol. 11300 D: 124.5 ⇑ 0.00% | 124.34 | 126.7 / 123.7 TEXTILE AL-HAJTEX | 2.22 | 16.53 | Vol. 68954 D: 86.60 ⇑ 0.70% | 85.94 | 90.00 / 78.00 STYLECRAFT | 20.00 | 287.30 | Vol. 300 D: 1234 ⇓ 0.68% | 1234 | 1234 / 1234

DHAKA TRIBUNE

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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

7

October 31, 2013 Sectotal Index: BANK: 34,617.44 ⇑ 0.11% NBFI: 19,216.53 ⇑ 0.42% INVS: 4,639.55 ⇑ 0.76% ENGG: 5,675.37 ⇓ 1.45% FOOD: 9,303.83 ⇓ 0.05% F&P: 9,812.30 ⇑ 0.89% TEXT: 3,180.49 ⇓ 0.74% PHAR: 16,912.53 ⇑ 0.69% PAPR: 921.95 ⇓ 1.33% SERV: 2,809.18 ⇓ 2.05% LEAT: 4,848.27 ⇑ 0.11% CERA: 481.23 ⇓ 2.22% CMNT: 4,222.24 ⇑ 1.89% INFO: 6,739.72 ⇑ 0.33% GINS: 8,923.70 ⇑ 0.21% LINS: 104,824.07 ⇑ 2.25% TELC: 1,283.23 ⇑ 3.03% MISC: 5,921.77 ⇓ 1.05% RAHIMTEXT | 5.81 | 70.85 | Vol. 2115 D: 320.5 ⇑ 3.09% | 321.75 | 330.0 / 300.0 SAIHAMTEX | 2.75 | 29.50 | Vol. 413100 D: 28.50 ⇓ 0.35% | 28.69 | 28.90 / 28.50 C: 28.60 ⇓ 1.04% | 28.70 | 29.00 / 28.60 MODERNDYE | 0.91 | 10.37 | Vol. 3300 D: 74.50 ⇑ 2.90% | 73.94 | 79.60 / 70.00 DSHGARME | 0.88 | 12.12 | Vol. 25300 D: 47.40 ⇓ 3.27% | 46.80 | 53.40 / 46.00 DULAMIACOT | -1.90 | -29.70 | Vol. 23600 D: 7.60 ⇑ 0.00% | 7.63 | 7.90 / 7.60 TALLUSPIN | 2.01 | 18.59 | Vol. 445800 D: 37.10 ⇑ 4.21% | 36.68 | 38.00 / 33.00 C: 36.90 ⇑ 3.65% | 36.34 | 38.00 / 35.90 APEXSPINN | 2.01 | 49.32 | Vol. 1200 D: 64.50 ⇓ 0.31% | 64.17 | 65.60 / 64.10 MITHUNKNIT | 3.33 | 23.82 | Vol. 36200 D: 74.10 ⇑ 0.41% | 74.16 | 75.70 / 73.20 C: 72.50 ⇓ 2.95% | 73.18 | 73.50 / 72.50 DELTASPINN | 3.06 | 18.12 | Vol. 172100 D: 30.50 ⇓ 0.65% | 30.78 | 31.30 / 30.40 C: 30.70 ⇓ 1.29% | 30.69 | 30.90 / 30.60 SONARGAON | 0.27 | 34.50 | Vol. 91185 D: 16.90 ⇑ 0.00% | 16.80 | 17.10 / 16.50 C: 16.80 ⇑ 0.00% | 16.60 | 16.80 / 16.00 PRIMETEX | 1.01 | 63.54 | Vol. 152000 D: 26.10 ⇓ 1.14% | 25.75 | 26.70 / 24.80 C: 25.60 ⇓ 3.40% | 25.41 | 26.20 / 25.00 ALLTEX | -1.26 | 8.10 | Vol. 117000 D: 7.30 ⇑ 2.82% | 7.29 | 7.40 / 7.10 C: 7.20 ⇑ 0.00% | 7.21 | 7.40 / 7.10 ANLIMAYARN | 1.36 | 11.99 | Vol. 51500 D: 30.40 ⇑ 1.67% | 29.92 | 32.00 / 28.00 HRTEX | 2.08 | 14.92 | Vol. 151500 D: 35.00 ⇓ 1.96% | 35.32 | 36.00 / 34.70 CMCKAMAL | 1.37 | 19.31 | Vol. 603045 D: 30.40 ⇑ 1.33% | 30.32 | 31.50 / 28.00 SAFKOSPINN | 0.95 | 21.78 | Vol. 98487 D: 22.90 ⇑ 0.00% | 22.86 | 23.10 / 20.70 C: 22.90 ⇓ 1.29% | 22.89 | 23.00 / 22.60 SQUARETEXT | 4.32 | 31.82 | Vol. 99617 D: 89.20 ⇓ 0.56% | 89.46 | 91.00 / 83.00 C: 88.90 ⇓ 0.56% | 89.03 | 90.00 / 88.70 METROSPIN | 0.62 | 19.48 | Vol. 475976 D: 18.80 ⇓ 2.59% | 18.81 | 19.20 / 18.40 C: 18.50 ⇓ 4.64% | 18.64 | 19.00 / 18.00 MAKSONSPIN | 0.16 | 20.55 | Vol. 1102619 D: 16.10 ⇓ 3.01% | 16.30 | 17.60 / 15.00 C: 16.10 ⇓ 3.01% | 16.33 | 17.00 / 15.90 DACCADYE | 1.21 | 31.13 | Vol. 415951 D: 28.00 ⇑ 2.94% | 27.72 | 28.50 / 24.90 C: 28.00 ⇑ 2.19% | 27.69 | 28.10 / 27.10 RNSPIN | 2.80 | 16.58 | Vol. 1033182 D: 29.30 ⇓ 0.68% | 29.61 | 30.10 / 27.00 C: 29.40 ⇑ 0.00% | 29.53 | 31.00 / 29.10 BXSYNTH | 0.93 | 25.42 | Vol. 1086389 D: 15.10 ⇓ 7.93% | 15.50 | 16.90 / 15.00 C: 15.30 ⇓ 7.27% | 15.48 | 16.60 / 14.90 MALEKSPIN | 2.81 | 43.48 | Vol. 3457565 D: 29.50 ⇑ 1.72% | 29.58 | 30.40 / 26.50 C: 29.60 ⇑ 2.42% | 29.39 | 30.00 / 28.80 ZAHINTEX | 1.38 | 35.73 | Vol. 372050 D: 28.30 ⇓ 1.39% | 28.39 | 29.50 / 26.00 C: 28.70 ⇓ 1.37% | 28.75 | 29.20 / 28.50 SAIHAMCOT | 1.92 | 23.62 | Vol. 290750 D: 24.00 ⇓ 2.83% | 24.19 | 24.70 / 23.90 C: 24.20 ⇓ 2.42% | 24.22 | 24.60 / 24.00 GENNEXT | 1.68 | 15.15 | Vol. 4630980 D: 25.50 ⇓ 1.92% | 25.84 | 26.50 / 23.40 C: 25.60 ⇓ 2.29% | 25.87 | 26.40 / 25.50 ENVOYTEX | 3.26 | 39.26 | Vol. 1684150 D: 58.80 ⇑ 0.51% | 58.98 | 60.00 / 53.00 C: 58.80 ⇑ 0.51% | 58.96 | 60.00 / 52.70 ARGONDENIM | 1.89 | 38.86 | Vol. 1470660 D: 69.20 ⇓ 0.43% | 68.31 | 70.10 / 62.60 C: 68.40 ⇓ 1.87% | 67.74 | 69.00 / 62.80 FAMILYTEX | 3.72 | 14.68 | Vol. 289000 D: 41.30 ⇓ 0.24% | 41.25 | 42.40 / 40.20 C: 40.40 ⇓ 1.94% | 40.72 | 41.90 / 40.00 PHARMACEUTICAL & CHEMICAL AMBEEPHA | 3.94 | 26.15 | Vol. 4600 D: 249.4 ⇑ 2.00% | 246.75 | 250.7 / 244.6 C: 247.0 ⇑ 1.60% | 247.78 | 253.9 / 245.1 BXPHARMA | 3.77 | 52.55 | Vol. 313364 D: 43.50 ⇑ 0.69% | 42.90 | 43.90 / 39.00 C: 43.30 ⇑ 0.70% | 43.25 | 44.00 / 42.50

AAMRATECH | 1.46 | 21.90 | Vol. 390770 D: 31.70 ⇑ 0.96% | 32.03 | 32.60 / 30.00 C: 31.80 ⇑ 1.92% | 31.80 | 32.50 / 29.00

GLAXOSMITH | 20.25 | 123.32 | Vol. 2500 D: 954.7 ⇑ 2.59% | 968.80 | 980.0 / 930.0 ACI | -5.82 | 126.42 | Vol. 6066 D: 158.4 ⇓ 0.38% | 158.28 | 159.5 / 144.0 C: 155.3 ⇓ 2.20% | 155.28 | 155.8 / 155.0 RENATA | 33.57 | 138.83 | Vol. 1550 D: 713.5 ⇓ 0.21% | 712.90 | 719.7 / 710.0 RECKITTBEN | 27.16 | 78.89 | Vol. 450 D: 797.8 ⇓ 3.88% | 797.78 | 805.0 / 780.0 PHARMAID | 5.06 | 26.30 | Vol. 17250 D: 156.7 ⇓ 0.44% | 156.99 | 160.4 / 155.0 KOHINOOR | 9.52 | 10.49 | Vol. 3000 D: 374.2 ⇓ 1.78% | 374.33 | 380.0 / 368.0 IBNSINA | 3.44 | 34.02 | Vol. 30340 D: 95.20 ⇑ 0.95% | 94.95 | 96.90 / 88.00 C: 94.50 ⇑ 0.43% | 94.19 | 96.00 / 92.30 LIBRAINFU | 4.21 | 1567.59 | Vol. 200 D: 414.0 ⇑ 0.98% | 414.00 | 414.0 / 414.0 ORIONINFU | 8.72 | 1.73 | Vol. 157200 D: 41.70 ⇓ 2.34% | 42.34 | 43.80 / 41.70 C: 42.50 ⇓ 0.93% | 42.50 | 43.10 / 42.10 SQURPHARMA | 6.93 | 37.18 | Vol. 520539 D: 179.9 ⇑ 1.58% | 179.30 | 193.0 / 166.0 C: 179.1 ⇑ 1.70% | 178.58 | 180.0 / 160.0 IMAMBUTTON | -1.51 | 4.16 | Vol. 48500 D: 7.30 ⇓ 2.67% | 7.40 | 7.60 / 7.20 KEYACOSMET | 1.55 | 21.54 | Vol. 779750 D: 24.30 ⇓ 0.82% | 24.35 | 24.70 / 22.10 C: 24.30 ⇓ 1.62% | 24.32 | 24.50 / 24.20 BERGERPBL | 32.46 | 100.20 | Vol. 3100 D: 792.7 ⇓ 0.41% | 794.19 | 835.0 / 787.0 ACIFORMULA | 3.33 | 38.08 | Vol. 18800 D: 72.00 ⇑ 0.28% | 72.11 | 74.00 / 71.00 C: 71.20 ⇑ 1.71% | 71.30 | 71.50 / 71.20 MARICO | 27.53 | 62.47 | Vol. 8800 D: 791.3 ⇓ 2.59% | 805.93 | 828.0 / 790.0 C: 793.0 ⇓ 1.61% | 802.99 | 828.0 / 791.5 BEACONPHAR | 0.04 | 12.01 | Vol. 520750 D: 11.20 ⇓ 1.75% | 11.34 | 11.60 / 11.00 C: 11.30 ⇓ 0.88% | 11.33 | 11.50 / 11.10 ACTIVEFINE | 3.23 | 13.89 | Vol. 670221 D: 93.40 ⇑ 0.43% | 93.21 | 95.00 / 85.00 C: 93.20 ⇑ 0.43% | 93.49 | 97.00 / 93.00 SALVOCHEM | 0.68 | 10.57 | Vol. 418071 D: 19.00 ⇓ 1.04% | 19.24 | 19.60 / 17.30 C: 19.10 ⇓ 1.55% | 19.25 | 19.50 / 19.10 GHCL | 2.14 | 57.31 | Vol. 201750 D: 47.60 ⇓ 2.46% | 47.98 | 49.50 / 47.30 C: 48.00 ⇓ 1.84% | 48.47 | 49.70 / 47.80 ORIONPHARM | 5.02 | 68.68 | Vol. 439100 D: 56.10 ⇓ 2.26% | 56.64 | 59.00 / 52.00 C: 56.30 ⇓ 1.75% | 56.72 | 57.50 / 52.10 JMISMDL | 1.12 | 12.83 | Vol. 107000 D: 179.7 ⇑ 0.34% | 181.15 | 187.0 / 176.7 C: 179.9 ⇓ 0.99% | 182.05 | 185.0 / 175.3 CENTRALPHL | 1.62 | 12.24 | Vol. 247500 D: 28.10 ⇓ 1.75% | 28.22 | 28.70 / 27.80 C: 28.00 ⇓ 3.11% | 28.12 | 28.50 / 27.60 PAPER & PACKAGING HAKKANIPUL | 0.64 | 11.02 | Vol. 2500 D: 25.00 ⇓ 0.79% | 25.00 | 25.50 / 24.50 C: 25.00 ⇓ 1.96% | 25.00 | 25.00 / 25.00 SERVICE SAMORITA | 2.31 | 17.25 | Vol. 6000 D: 86.50 ⇑ 1.41% | 86.50 | 88.40 / 85.90 SAPORTL | 1.23 | 38.39 | Vol. 319101 D: 26.00 ⇓ 2.26% | 26.14 | 27.00 / 25.10 C: 26.20 ⇓ 1.50% | 26.27 | 27.00 / 26.00

EHL | 2.87 | 18.48 | Vol. 90067 D: 49.80 ⇑ 0.00% | 49.94 | 50.80 / 45.00 C: 49.90 ⇓ 0.40% | 49.96 | 50.10 / 49.80 LEATHER APEXTANRY | 6.57 | 69.38 | Vol. 36200 D: 107.8 ⇑ 3.06% | 107.83 | 111.9 / 103.2 C: 106.0 ⇑ 1.73% | 108.55 | 109.3 / 103.5 BATASHOE | 49.12 | 135.53 | Vol. 6595 D: 702.0 ⇑ 0.88% | 710.99 | 729.0 / 680.0 APEXADELFT | 23.01 | 203.26 | Vol. 226600 D: 383.8 ⇑ 0.92% | 389.43 | 397.0 / 382.5 LEGACYFOOT | 0.63 | 17.19 | Vol. 184252 D: 31.50 ⇓ 3.37% | 31.11 | 32.90 / 29.50 C: 31.70 ⇓ 0.31% | 31.27 | 32.50 / 30.00 SAMATALETH | -0.07 | 12.08 | Vol. 500 C: 12.20 ⇓ 8.96% | 12.20 | 12.20 / 12.20 CERAMIC MONNOCERA | 0.71 | 96.33 | Vol. 30250 D: 32.80 ⇑ 0.00% | 32.79 | 33.10 / 32.50 C: 32.30 ⇓ 1.52% | 32.42 | 32.80 / 32.30 STANCERAM | 1.07 | 15.97 | Vol. 2000 D: 36.90 ⇑ 1.10% | 37.00 | 37.00 / 36.80 FUWANGCER | 0.72 | 13.97 | Vol. 229245 D: 17.90 ⇓ 1.10% | 18.01 | 19.50 / 17.50 C: 18.30 ⇑ 1.10% | 17.95 | 18.30 / 17.80 SPCERAMICS | 0.62 | 30.92 | Vol. 865160 D: 15.60 ⇓ 6.59% | 15.82 | 16.80 / 15.40 C: 15.70 ⇓ 5.99% | 15.76 | 16.80 / 15.40 RAKCERAMIC | 1.98 | 16.76 | Vol. 116412 D: 49.70 ⇓ 1.78% | 49.88 | 51.00 / 46.00 C: 50.00 ⇓ 1.96% | 49.50 | 50.00 / 46.00 CEMENT HEIDELBCEM | 22.85 | 111.50 | Vol. 160110 D: 369.3 ⇑ 4.77% | 369.75 | 376.0 / 352.5 C: 368.0 ⇑ 7.13% | 370.64 | 373.5 / 365.0 CONFIDCEM | 6.23 | 90.76 | Vol. 101186 D: 125.1 ⇑ 0.72% | 125.85 | 128.0 / 122.0 C: 125.1 ⇑ 1.13% | 125.49 | 128.0 / 122.0 MEGHNACEM | 6.28 | 33.81 | Vol. 29800 D: 121.6 ⇑ 0.25% | 123.34 | 125.7 / 120.0 C: 127.2 ⇑ 4.95% | 127.20 | 128.0 / 124.0 ARAMITCEM | 3.03 | 14.65 | Vol. 20000 D: 66.30 ⇑ 0.15% | 66.60 | 68.40 / 65.30 LAFSURCEML | 1.60 | 7.22 | Vol. 583000 D: 30.90 ⇓ 0.64% | 31.06 | 31.30 / 30.80 C: 31.00 ⇓ 0.32% | 31.19 | 31.50 / 31.00 MICEMENT | 4.48 | 37.67 | Vol. 214526 D: 89.70 ⇓ 0.66% | 89.79 | 95.00 / 83.00 C: 90.20 ⇑ 0.00% | 91.15 | 92.90 / 82.00 PREMIERCEM | 5.00 | 32.60 | Vol. 98200 D: 103.0 ⇑ 1.18% | 103.71 | 107.2 / 102.1 C: 101.1 ⇓ 1.08% | 101.66 | 103.8 / 101.0 IT IINDUSTRIES ISNLTD | 0.28 | 17.31 | Vol. 187955 D: 15.80 ⇓ 8.14% | 15.66 | 16.10 / 15.50 C: 15.90 ⇓ 8.09% | 15.74 | 16.30 / 15.60 BDCOM | 1.54 | 15.85 | Vol. 190750 D: 23.70 ⇓ 0.42% | 23.81 | 24.40 / 21.50 C: 23.30 ⇓ 0.85% | 23.30 | 23.30 / 23.30 INTECH | 0.94 | 10.08 | Vol. 422990 D: 14.70 ⇓ 3.29% | 14.67 | 15.20 / 14.20 C: 14.90 ⇓ 1.97% | 14.71 | 15.20 / 14.50 AGNISYSL | 1.06 | 16.39 | Vol. 176828 D: 21.20 ⇑ 0.95% | 21.19 | 21.40 / 19.50 C: 21.50 ⇑ 1.90% | 21.17 | 21.60 / 21.00 DAFODILCOM | 1.12 | 11.14 | Vol. 227000 D: 16.50 ⇑ 0.00% | 16.61 | 16.90 / 16.40 C: 16.60 ⇑ 0.00% | 16.58 | 16.70 / 16.50

GENERAL INSURANCE BGIC | 1.65 | 20.33 | Vol. 25535 D: 29.40 ⇑ 0.34% | 29.35 | 29.50 / 28.50 C: 29.40 ⇑ 1.38% | 29.40 | 29.40 / 29.40 GREENDELT | 4.05 | 64.44 | Vol. 38440 D: 77.60 ⇑ 1.17% | 78.71 | 80.90 / 75.50 C: 76.70 ⇓ 7.59% | 76.68 | 77.60 / 76.50 UNITEDINS | 2.47 | 21.04 | Vol. 3600 D: 43.30 ⇓ 1.14% | 43.33 | 43.90 / 43.00 PEOPLESINS | 2.05 | 20.72 | Vol. 110425 D: 33.40 ⇓ 0.60% | 33.34 | 33.80 / 32.80 C: 33.40 ⇓ 1.76% | 33.75 | 33.80 / 30.60 EASTERNINS | 2.22 | 35.88 | Vol. 27441 D: 39.10 ⇑ 3.71% | 37.95 | 40.20 / 35.00 C: 40.10 ⇑ 5.53% | 40.13 | 41.80 / 38.00 JANATAINS | 7.84 | 170.69 | Vol. 7003 D: 244.3 ⇑ 1.03% | 245.70 | 252.8 / 232.0 C: 243.8 ⇓ 0.10% | 243.69 | 244.0 / 243.5 PHENIXINS | 2.70 | 20.96 | Vol. 41963 D: 40.50 ⇑ 1.00% | 40.73 | 42.00 / 39.00 C: 41.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 41.00 | 41.00 / 41.00 EASTLAND | 4.06 | 23.29 | Vol. 111000 D: 48.20 ⇑ 1.47% | 47.60 | 48.50 / 47.00 C: 48.30 ⇑ 5.00% | 47.87 | 48.30 / 47.00 CENTRALINS | 1.54 | 19.04 | Vol. 42560 D: 28.80 ⇓ 0.35% | 29.52 | 30.50 / 26.50 KARNAPHULI | 1.56 | 19.42 | Vol. 88500 D: 23.50 ⇑ 1.73% | 23.45 | 23.80 / 23.00 RUPALIINS | 2.76 | 23.38 | Vol. 98248 D: 32.70 ⇑ 2.83% | 32.47 | 32.90 / 30.00 C: 32.20 ⇑ 2.22% | 32.20 | 32.20 / 32.20 FEDERALINS | 1.10 | 10.98 | Vol. 287446 D: 23.80 ⇑ 2.15% | 23.84 | 24.00 / 21.00 C: 24.00 ⇑ 2.56% | 23.83 | 24.00 / 23.00 RELIANCINS | 3.93 | 61.52 | Vol. 3101 D: 69.90 ⇑ 2.79% | 69.90 | 71.00 / 67.00 PURABIGEN | 1.05 | 18.71 | Vol. 130465 D: 21.90 ⇑ 2.34% | 21.71 | 22.60 / 20.00 PRAGATIINS | 2.01 | 50.30 | Vol. 313043 D: 58.50 ⇑ 7.34% | 52.60 | 59.00 / 49.70 C: 55.30 ⇓ 1.25% | 55.33 | 56.00 / 55.00 PRIMEINSUR | 2.14 | 14.14 | Vol. 46750 D: 32.50 ⇑ 1.25% | 32.32 | 32.90 / 31.00 PIONEERINS | 3.11 | 23.84 | Vol. 3000 D: 68.10 ⇑ 1.19% | 68.33 | 68.70 / 67.90 MERCINS | 1.53 | 14.50 | Vol. 81600 D: 27.90 ⇑ 2.20% | 27.61 | 28.40 / 26.00 AGRANINS | 1.73 | 14.39 | Vol. 141132 D: 26.50 ⇓ 2.93% | 26.68 | 27.30 / 26.00 GLOBALINS | 1.09 | 11.78 | Vol. 150500 D: 28.10 ⇓ 1.75% | 28.17 | 28.90 / 27.90 NITOLINS | 2.59 | 15.41 | Vol. 500 D: 35.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 35.00 | 35.00 / 35.00 ASIAPACINS | 1.84 | 13.76 | Vol. 9200 D: 28.70 ⇑ 1.06% | 28.78 | 29.20 / 28.00 C: 29.70 ⇑ 8.00% | 29.67 | 30.00 / 29.00 SONARBAINS | 1.68 | 13.38 | Vol. 50500 D: 23.90 ⇓ 0.83% | 23.94 | 24.20 / 23.70 PARAMOUNT | 1.26 | 13.19 | Vol. 52834 D: 23.60 ⇑ 0.85% | 23.76 | 24.20 / 22.00 C: 24.10 ⇑ 1.69% | 24.10 | 24.40 / 24.00 CITYGENINS | 1.65 | 14.26 | Vol. 92374 D: 29.00 ⇑ 0.35% | 28.98 | 29.20 / 26.90 C: 29.00 ⇓ 0.34% | 28.65 | 29.00 / 28.00 CONTININS | 1.41 | 15.68 | Vol. 158566 D: 29.90 ⇑ 2.05% | 29.61 | 30.20 / 28.00 C: 30.10 ⇑ 2.03% | 29.59 | 30.60 / 27.00 TAKAFULINS | 2.19 | 15.17 | Vol. 270103 D: 44.70 ⇑ 7.19% | 43.29 | 45.80 / 40.00 C: 42.60 ⇓ 3.18% | 42.60 | 42.60 / 42.60 STANDARINS | 2.58 | 13.99 | Vol. 11700 D: 39.30 ⇓ 3.44% | 39.35 | 40.00 / 38.60 C: 39.00 ⇓ 0.26% | 39.00 | 39.00 / 39.00 NORTHRNINS | 1.77 | 11.15 | Vol. 102197 D: 43.40 ⇑ 3.58% | 42.37 | 45.00 / 38.00 C: 42.50 ⇑ 1.92% | 42.50 | 42.50 / 42.50 REPUBLIC | 2.14 | 12.42 | Vol. 1351160 D: 43.70 ⇑ 9.80% | 42.24 | 43.70 / 37.00 C: 43.70 ⇑ 7.90% | 43.72 | 44.50 / 40.50 ASIAINS | 1.56 | 17.34 | Vol. 30288 D: 27.30 ⇑ 0.00% | 27.12 | 27.80 / 25.00 C: 27.20 ⇑ 0.74% | 27.11 | 27.70 / 27.00

ISLAMIINS | 1.29 | 11.96 | Vol. 16500 D: 32.30 ⇓ 2.71% | 32.36 | 32.40 / 32.30 PROVATIINS | 1.90 | 14.30 | Vol. 19205 D: 28.30 ⇑ 0.71% | 28.33 | 28.90 / 26.00 DHAKAINS | 2.84 | 18.02 | Vol. 97625 D: 39.10 ⇑ 1.30% | 39.29 | 40.00 / 35.00 LIFE INSURANCE NATLIFEINS | 12.34 | 80.99 | Vol. 6462 D: 240.7 ⇑ 0.59% | 240.98 | 243.5 / 235.0 C: 240.0 ⇓ 3.23% | 240.00 | 240.0 / 240.0 DELTALIFE | 38.53 | 189.40 | Vol. 1550 D: 225.8 ⇓ 95.05% | 225.80 | 225.8 / 225.8 C: 228.3 ⇓ 95.06% | 228.30 | 228.3 / 228.3 SANDHANINS | 2.39 | 28.22 | Vol. 36110 D: 68.20 ⇑ 2.71% | 67.27 | 68.80 / 65.00 C: 66.10 ⇑ 1.69% | 66.54 | 67.80 / 65.00 POPULARLIF | 3.70 | 715.41 | Vol. 15800 D: 168.6 ⇑ 1.32% | 168.54 | 169.8 / 152.0 FAREASTLIF | 9.21 | 60.79 | Vol. 103505 D: 92.30 ⇑ 5.01% | 90.23 | 93.00 / 82.00 C: 91.50 ⇑ 2.01% | 89.93 | 92.00 / 89.00 MEGHNALIFE | 10.82 | 48.87 | Vol. 31900 D: 101.0 ⇑ 2.96% | 100.13 | 102.0 / 90.00 PROGRESLIF | 2.30 | 31.45 | Vol. 15000 D: 102.8 ⇑ 8.55% | 101.80 | 104.1 / 90.30 PRAGATILIF | 0.60 | 30.15 | Vol. 80546 D: 114.9 ⇑ 9.32% | 111.79 | 115.0 / 104.0 PRIMELIFE | 5.51 | 27.10 | Vol. 9041 D: 92.40 ⇑ 2.10% | 91.84 | 93.20 / 85.00 C: 93.00 ⇑ 6.16% | 93.00 | 93.00 / 93.00 RUPALILIFE | 3.75 | 31.25 | Vol. 45456 D: 97.70 ⇑ 4.49% | 95.10 | 99.70 / 92.50 PADMALIFE | 1.63 | 25.76 | Vol. 72340 D: 58.40 ⇑ 3.00% | 57.57 | 59.10 / 51.50 C: 58.00 ⇑ 4.13% | 57.93 | 60.00 / 51.20 SUNLIFEINS | 0.00 | 0.00 | Vol. 227275 D: 55.80 ⇑ 6.49% | 55.13 | 56.50 / 48.50 C: 55.30 ⇑ 4.93% | 54.91 | 56.00 / 51.00 TELECOM GP | 12.96 | 26.26 | Vol. 529120 D: 192.0 ⇑ 3.28% | 190.10 | 192.9 / 185.5 C: 191.5 ⇑ 3.18% | 190.23 | 192.8 / 187.0 BSCCL | 5.82 | 26.38 | Vol. 300220 D: 170.6 ⇑ 3.46% | 167.87 | 173.7 / 164.3 C: 170.0 ⇑ 2.53% | 168.28 | 173.0 / 164.9 TRAVEL & LEISURE UNITEDAIR | 1.10 | 12.87 | Vol. 4687215 D: 16.00 ⇓ 1.84% | 16.26 | 16.60 / 15.00 C: 16.10 ⇓ 1.23% | 16.18 | 16.70 / 15.50 UNIQUEHRL | 4.02 | 86.29 | Vol. 566020 D: 76.30 ⇓ 5.33% | 76.65 | 80.40 / 72.60 C: 76.90 ⇓ 4.47% | 77.19 | 80.40 / 76.20 MISCELLANEOUS ARAMIT | 16.07 | 99.93 | Vol. 8850 D: 264.2 ⇑ 4.43% | 264.52 | 267.9 / 260.0 BSC | 1.77 | 565.82 | Vol. 49020 D: 410.8 ⇑ 0.24% | 410.15 | 416.8 / 406.0 C: 412.3 ⇑ 0.79% | 411.95 | 417.5 / 405.0 GQBALLPEN | 6.55 | 250.45 | Vol. 65280 D: 137.1 ⇓ 3.72% | 136.18 | 142.4 / 130.1 C: 136.3 ⇓ 3.54% | 136.76 | 140.0 / 135.4 USMANIAGL | 3.80 | 29.92 | Vol. 33313 D: 118.2 ⇑ 2.78% | 117.17 | 120.0 / 115.2 C: 119.2 ⇑ 3.74% | 118.73 | 119.6 / 115.0 SAVAREFR | 0.14 | 10.57 | Vol. 1150 D: 50.10 ⇓ 11.64% | 50.43 | 50.60 / 48.40 BEXIMCO | 3.24 | 86.74 | Vol. 6310606 D: 29.10 ⇓ 8.49% | 30.79 | 33.50 / 28.70 C: 29.40 ⇓ 7.55% | 30.53 | 32.90 / 29.00 SINOBANGLA | 1.75 | 21.01 | Vol. 66500 D: 20.20 ⇑ 0.00% | 20.31 | 20.50 / 20.20 C: 20.00 ⇓ 0.99% | 20.03 | 20.20 / 19.90 MIRACLEIND | 0.10 | 15.13 | Vol. 127500 D: 14.10 ⇓ 1.40% | 14.38 | 14.80 / 14.00 C: 14.10 ⇓ 1.40% | 14.19 | 14.50 / 14.00 BOND IBBLPBOND | 0.00 | 1000.00 | Vol. 305 D: 960.5 ⇑ 0.26% | 960.66 | 961.0 / 955.3 ACIZCBOND | 0.00 | 1000.00 | Vol. 6 D: 881.5 ⇑ 0.00% | 881.50 | 881.5 / 881.5

8

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

China expands securitization plan n Reuters, Hong Kong Chinese regulators have expanded a pilot plan allowing banks to package loans into tradable securities to include foreign banks, sources said.

Chinese policymakers see securitization as a tool to shift risk away from the banking system to reduce the chances of a financial crisis as economic growth slows and bad loans rise.

Securitization would also help satisfy voracious investor demand for alternatives to the chronically weak stock market and frothy property sector.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told a cabinet meeting in late August that China would aggressively expand the securitization of credit assets.

The central bank launched a pilot program in 2005 to allow banks to package loans into bond-like securities known as collateralized loan obligations (CLO), but growth has been slow.

The expansion will be limited to smallscale deals, two sources with direct knowledge of the plan said. Recent deals by domestic banks have ranged from 1-to-10bn yuan ($164m to $1.64bn).

The expanded program is open to all of the 42 foreign banks with locally incorporated branches in China, a grouping that includes HSBC Holdings PLC, Standard Chartered PLC and Citibank.

“Our company is preparing a plan for (securitizing) financial leasing (assets),” an executive at a foreign bank said. The sources declined to be identified because the expansion of the pilot program has not been officially announced.

Securitization is unlikely to significantly boost foreign bank profits in the near term, but their participation could held China’s broader securitization drive.

“If Standard Chartered or HSBC issued a CLO product, its underlying credit assets

n AFP, Washington

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang speaks during a joint news conference with India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing REUTERS would probably come mainly from foreign firms, so the asset pool would be more transparent,” said a foreign bank executive who previously participated in early CLO deals at a Chinese bank.

Such products would likely be attractive to investors and would therefore serve as a model for domestic lenders to follow, the executive said.

However, foreign banks controlled 1.9% of total Chinese banking assets at the end of 2011, according to accounting firm PwC, indicating they have only a limited pool of loans available to create CLOs. Market participants have previously said lack of transparency of underlying assets is a key barrier to faster growth of securitization in China. Investors are wary of buying assets if they lack the information necessary to assess risks.

That is critical given concerns that the banking system is struggling with an overhang of bad debt from the state-backed lending binge unleashed to help China weather the global financial crisis.

Market participants widely suspect the true scale of the bad debt problem is far larger than the official, system-wide non-performing loan ratio of under 1%.

Slow Progress About 90bn yuan ($14.8bn) of CLO products have been issued in China’s interbank market since 2005, according to Reuters calculations based on central bank statements.

That is a tiny fraction of the 70tn yuan in local currency loans outstanding at the end of September.

Securitization deals were halted during the financial crisis. The pilot resumed in 2011. l

US taps links to Google, Yahoo data centres n AFP, Washington The US National Security Agency has tapped into key communications links from Yahoo and Google data centres around the world, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The Post, citing documents obtained from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and interviews with officials, said the program can collect data at will from hundreds of millions of user accounts, including from Americans.

The report said the program dubbed MUSCULAR, operated jointly with NSA’s British counterpart GCHQ, indicated that the agencies can intercept data flows from the fiber-optic cables used by the US Internet giants.

The Post report suggests this is a secret program that is unlike PRISM, which relies on court orders to obtain data from technology firms.

According to a top secret document cited by the newspaper dated January 9, 2013,

US says Chinese yuan still undervalued despite rise

some 181 million records were collected in the prior 30 days, ranging from metadata on emails to content such as text, audio and video.

A graphic in the document suggested that the interception at Google came at a point between the public Internet and Google “cloud” servers. The hand-drawn graphic depicted an image of the two Google servers and a smiley face with a note saying, “SSL added and removed here.” SSL refers to secure sockets layer, a cryptographic protocol.

Acting outside US territory would give the NSA more latitude than within the United States, where it would require court orders, the Post noted.

NSA chief General Keith Alexander, asked about the allegations during a Washington conference, said he was unaware of the report but argued that the allegations appeared to be inaccurate.

“That (activity) to my knowledge, this never happened,” he said at the conference sponsored by Bloomberg Television.

“In fact there was this allegation in June that the NSA was tapping into the servers of Yahoo or Google, that is factually incorrect.”

Google chief legal officer David Drummond said the Internet giant was not involved in any such activity.

“We have long been concerned about the possibility of this kind of snooping, which is why we have continued to extend encryption across more and more Google services and links, especially the links in the slide,” Drummond said in a statement.

Yahoo said in a statement to AFP that “we have strict controls in place to protect the security of our data centres, and we have not given access to our data centres to the NSA or to any other government agency.”

The report comes amid a storm of protest about NSA surveillance both at home and overseas of phone and Internet communications.

On Tuesday, US officials said reports that American spy agencies snooped on millions of Europeans were false. l

The US Treasury said Wednesday that the Chinese yuan remains undervalued despite its significant appreciation this year and called on Beijing to disclose more about its market intervention.

In a semi-annual report to Congress, the Treasury stopped short of officially labeling China a currency manipulator, a designation that could spark US trade sanctions.

The yuan, or renminbi (RMB), “is appreciating, but not as fast or by as much as is needed,” the Treasury said.

“In line with the practice of most other G20 nations, China should disclose foreign exchange market intervention regularly to increase the credibility of its monetary framework and to promote exchange rate and financial market transparency,” it said.

The Treasury also singled out Japan and South Korea for undervalued currencies.

But it acknowledged that Tokyo has not intervened in foreign exchange markets for almost two years, and that the yen’s fall came from the government’s stimulus.

As for the Korean won, it said market participants estimate Seoul had intervened in early 2013 to hold down the currency as the yen weakened, and continued to intervene through the middle of the year.

The yuan rose 6.3% on a trade-weighted basis in the first nine months of this year, more than the other currencies covered in the Treasury report.

But the Treasury tied that to the fall of the Japanese yen against most major currencies.

Meanwhile, against the US dollar, the yuan only rose 2.2%.

It cited data from the International Monetary Fund in July saying the yuan was undervalued by 5-10% against a broad basket of currencies.

It said China’s large-scale purchases of foreign exchange this year, driving its reserves to $3.6tn, “is suggestive of actions that are impeding market determination and a currency that is significantly undervalued.”

As regards Japan and South Korea, the Treasury report was more measured than the previous one in April, when both were warned against weakening their currencies to gain trade advantage.

The Treasury said it will “continue to closely monitor Japan’s policies and the extent to which they support the growth of domestic demand.”

The Treasury said that the Korean won remained undervalued by 2-8%, according to IMF data, and noted that Seoul had amassed $326bn in foreign exchange reserves, more than it needs.

“We will continue to encourage Korean authorities to limit foreign exchange intervention to the exceptional circumstances of disorderly market conditions,” it said.

In addition, in line with the practice of most other G-20 countries, Korea should disclose foreign exchange market intervention shortly after it takes place.” l