November 05, 2013

Long Form

5

12

Is no one responsible?

Kartik 21, 1420 Zilhajj 30, 1434 Regd. No. DA 6238 Vol 1 No 222

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2013 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

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File resignation: PM to ministers BNP will not be part of PM hints at stepping down if opposition accepts all-party government; Tofail, Amu, Menon may feature interim cabinet, says a senior minister n Mohosinul Karim Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has asked her cabinet colleagues to submit their resignation as soon as possible so that the process of forming the pollstime government can be accelerated.

A senior minister, who is a lawmaker from the greater Mymensingh area, told the Dhaka Tribune after cabinet meeting yesterday.

“We have been asked to submit resignation as soon as possible so that she [the prime minister] can start selecting new members of the cabinet and complete forming the polls-time

government in 15 days. The ministers and state ministers may submit resignation in a day or two,” he said.

Meeting sources said the prime minister would accept the resignations of only those cabinet members whom she intended to leave out from the interim government.

Another senior minister, an MP from the Chittagong area, told the Dhaka Tribune that the premier had hinted that she was ready to step down as the head of government if the opposition came to a dialogue to discuss all-party government and the two parties reached a consensus on the

issue of the polls-time government.

The prime minister has repeatedly said in the past that she and her party were ready to make the “highest sacrifice” for upholding the country’s constitution and the democratic process.

P2 KHALEDA-LED JS BODY In a televised nation address last month, she proposed the formula for an all-party government – comprising elected parliament members – to oversee the national elections and requested the opposition to send names of their lawmakers for the interim cabinet.

Snubbing out the PM’s proposal soon after, opposition leader Khaleda Zia proposed her own formula for a non-partisan polls-time government, comprising past advisers from what she said were two “successful” former caretaker governments of 1996 and 2001.

A junior minister, also a lawmaker from Rangpur, who attended yesterday’s cabinet meeting, said the prime minister would complete the process of forming the polls-time all-party government in 15 days, even if main opposition BNP did not come to a dialogue or decided to join the ad hoc administration.  PAGE 2 COLUMN 6

all-party government n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla Rejecting the prime minister’s proposal for submitting names for an all-party polls-time government, the main opposition BNP yesterday once again alleged that the government was moving towards holding a unilateral election.

“The BNP will not participate in the all-party polls-time government. We will not even participate in an election held under the government’s arrangement,” acting secretary general Mirza Fahkrul Islam Alamgir said.

The BNP spokesperson alleged that the government was pushing the country towards an uncertainty just because of its “egoism.”

One killed, five including two minors fighting for life at hospitals n Mohammad Jamil Khan People above suspicion of political inclination, mostly day labourers and children, are facing the heat of hartal violence as they are losing lives or limbs in almost every shutdown day.

Like the previous ones, the 60-hour hartal enforced by the BNP-led 18-party alliance from yesterday claimed the life of a private firm official while two children, one woman and two others suffered burn injuries.

The ground floor of the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital was full of relatives of Mostafizur Rahman Mukul, 38, a purchase officer of Biswas Group. He died from 60% burn injuries yesterday morning.

Mukul along with his colleague Hasu Mia, 34 was returning to Nabinagar of Savar on Sunday night on a CNG auto-rickshaw, which came under bomb  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

4 killed, 150 hurt on first day n Kailash Sarkar

try although it is spending much less than other operators.

Ollo, a brand of Bangladesh Internet Exchange Limited (BIEL), will have to pay only Tk2.46bn for the licence and will not have to pay any extra fees for the highly expensive 20MHz spectrum in 2600 band, the current value of which is more than Tk34.29bn according to the price fixed at the last auction on 2100 bands held for 3G mobile services on September 8.

Legal and telecom experts termed Ollo’s getting the licence the biggest spectrum scam in the country adding the government would have to face legal fight challenging the decision.

Telecom Minister Shahara Khatun declined to make any comment on the matter.

At least for people died and more than 150 others, including 10 policemen, injured in violence on the first day of the opposition’s 60-hour shutdown.

Clashes took place in the capital and different districts, while pickets hurled bombs. Many vehicles were set on fire while a number of others vandalised. Train communication was also snapped in different districts.

Police fired around 200 rounds of rubber bullets and teargas canisters during the clashes and arrested around 100 pro-hartal activists.

Among the deceased, an activist of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, students’ wing of the BNP, was shot dead in a three-way clash in Lalmonirhat; a day labourer was killed in Natore after he was hit by a brick thrown by the pickets; a garment factory official in Chittagong was killed as an auto-rickshaw carrying him overturned after being chased by the pickets; and in Ashulia, another auto-rickshaw passenger was killed after hartal supporters threw a crude bomb on the vehicle.

The BNP-led 18-party opposition combine enforced the general strike demanding non-party caretaker government to oversee the upcoming general elections.

In the previous 60-hour hartal during October 27-29, at least 15 people were killed and several hundred others injured in violence.

According to reports from our correspondents of different districts, despite the deployment of around 30,000 additional forces from police and Rab in addition to the personnel of the Border Guard Bangladesh, the capital remained almost isolated from the districts due to the absence of public transports on the roads and other ways.

Most educational institutions and business establishments remained closed.

In Lalmonirhat, where Chhatra Dal activist Md Nasir Uddin died, around 30 others including 10 policemen were also injured during the clashes when

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Ramjan Ali stands saddened and worried beside a bed at the DMCH Burn Unit as his son Monir Hossain, 12, lies in agony with 95% burns injuries yesterday

MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

For Ollo, Tk34.29bn WiMax Tk5,300 proposed, owners unhappy licence sells at Tk2.46bn

Worker’s proposal

Board’s decision AH Mamun/DT Infographic

Basic: Food: Transport: Medical: House Rent:

Tk2,500 Tk300 Tk200 Tk250 Tk1,000

Total:

Tk4,250

B Basic: Medical: M House Rent: H

Tk5,934 Tk400 Tk1,780

Total: T

Tk8,114

B Basic: Food: F Transport: T Medical: M H House Rent:

Tk3,200 Tk300 Tk200 Tk320 Tk1,280

Total: T

Tk5,300

BDR carnage verdict today n Ashif Islam Shaon The long-awaited verdict in the BDR carnage case is expected to be delivered today, 56 months after the bloody mutiny in the country’s border security force.

Some 850 people were accused over the murder and arson at the force’s Pilkhana headquarters on February 2526, 2009.

Four of the accused have died in jail during the trial while 20 more accused are still on the run and 13 have been freed on bail. The remaining 813 accused are now in jail.

The 33-hour mutiny that broke out around 9am on February 25 left 74 people including the then director general of the paramilitary force killed. The victims include 57 top- and mid-ranking army officers who were posted to  PAGE 2 COLUMN 6

 PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

60-HOUR HARTAL

MINIMUM WAGE FOR GARMENT WORKERS

BGMEA’s proposal

Fakhrul claimed that two BNP activists had been killed and around 1,800 injured during the first day of 60-hour hartal.

He was speaking at a press briefing held at the party’s Nayapaltan headquarters to inform the media of the hartal scenario.

Talking to reporters earlier in the morning, Fakhrul had accused Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of “closing the door of compromise,” and said the BNP was ready for holding a dialogue “unconditionally” if the government fixed a specific time for the talks on non-partisan interim government.

“The leader of the opposition has

n Ibrahim Hossain Ovi Garment owners have rejected the monthly minimum wage of Tk5,300 finalised by the designated board yesterday while labour leaders gave mixed reactions.

The minimum wage board set the amount for entry-level workers, a 76.6% rise over the existing consolidated wage of Tk3,000, through voting as both the owners and labour leaders had failed to reach a consensus. The workers have been demanding Tk8,114.

The board proposed Tk3,200 as basic, while Tk1,280 for house rent, Tk320 as medical allowance, Tk200 transport allowance and Tk300 as food allowance.

Now, the draft proposal will be submitted to the government. The labour

ministry will upload the draft on its website seeking opinions of stakeholders and after 14 days, they will publish a gazette notification.

The owners earlier agreed to implement the new wage structure from November 1.

Earlier the BGMEA had proposed an increase of Tk600 - or 20% - from the existing minimum wage.

The government formed the wage board in June this year to revise the existing minimum wage following an outcry from the RMG workers, leaders and different rights bodies in the past few months, especially after the deadly incident of Rana Plaza in April.

The previous hike was made in August 2010 and it came into effect from November when Tk3,000 was set as  PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

n Muhammad Zahidul Islam The government has decided to award a WiMax licence with LTE and wrongly calculated spectrum to the controversial Ollo brand without any auction, which industry insiders say will cause a loss of at least Tk32bn public money.

Telecommunication Minister Shahara Khatun approved the licence yesterday evening. The approval is likely to be sent to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) by today, a ministry official confirmed the Dhaka Tribune.

The LTE (long-term evolution, a fourth generation telephone and mobile broadband communication standard) will enable Ollo to handle both voice and data services, making it the most influential operator in the coun-

INSIDE Business

B1 More than half of the listed financial institutions have bagged net profits in the third quarter of this year, posting higher than the corresponding period of previous year.

News

3 The two state defence counsels, who have been conducting war crimes cases for the accused fugitives, said ensuring justice for their clients had not been easy, as the accused did not cooperate.

Nation

7 Roadside shop owners, transport workers, hawkers, day labourers and street vendors who live on daily earnings in the industrial city of Khulna are the worst sufferers of shutdowns.

International

8 The White House and the leaders of the intelligence committees in Congress are rejecting National Security Agency-contractor Edward Snowden’s plea for clemency.

AH Mamun/DT Infographic

2

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

PM to visit Sri Lanka, Suranjit proposes JS body headed by Khaleda for talks on transitional admin Saudi Arabia this month n Kamran Reza Chowdhury Minister without portfolio Suranjit Sengupta yesterday proposed forming an all-party parliamentary committee headed by opposition leader Khaleda Zia to hammer out a formula on an interim or caretaker government to hold the next parliamentary polls.

Suranjit while speaking in an unscheduled discussion in the parliament yesterday, made the proposal. “Please, come to parliament. Let us form a special parliamentary committee, headed by you, to find out ways of forming a caretaker or government,” Suranjit told

the House referring to the leader of the opposition.

The minister said the people heaved a sigh of relief as the BNP came to parliament to place its formula on the non-party caretaker government to hold the next general elections.

P4 EC DIVIDED ON ARMY “When we suggested them to discuss the formula in parliament in line with the Rules of Procedure, they stayed away from the House,” he said.

The minister said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called Khaleda Zia to settle the differences of opinion on the

transitional government for holding the next polls.

“Khaleda Zia’s response to Sheikh Hasina demonstrated that Bangladesh’s politics had got devoid of decency and norms,” he said.

Suranjit also blamed the BNP-Jamaat alliance for attacks on Hindu communities in Sathia, Pabna.

Tofail Ahmed, Mayeen Uddin Khan Badal and Abdul Matin Khasru also took part in the unscheduled discussion initiated by Fazle Rabbi Miah, who demanded extradition of Chowdhury Mueen Uddin and Ashraf Uddin Khan to face execution for the killings of the martyred intellectuals.

Tofail criticised the BNP-Jamaat for destroying the academic activities by calling hartals.

Former law minister Abdul Matin Khasru in his speech said the opposition leader must bear the responsibility for the loss of 18 lives during the shutdown. He also asked whether the government could file cases against Khaleda Zia for the deaths.

Mayeen Uddin Khan Badal said the BNP-Jamaat leaders misinterpreted Islam for political gains.

“Inshallah, I can guarantee that you [the BNP-Jamaat] will go to hell [on the Judgement day] before me, not after,” Badalsaid. l

n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to visit Sri Lanka and Saudi Arabia this month.

She will visit Sri Lanka on November 14- 15 to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meeting and from November 21 to 24 she will be in Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah hajj, said diplomatic sources.

“She will visit Mecca and Madina along with her family members to perform Umrah,” said the sources seeking anonymity.

Family members of prime minister, Foreign Minister Dipu Moni and few members of parliament will be includ-

One killed, five including two minors

4 killed, 150 hurt on first day

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attack on the hartal eve on Sunday near the Abdur Rab Gate of Savar Cantonment.

The auto-rickshaw caught fire eventually and two passengers and the driver, Asadul Gazi, received burn injuries. Locals rescued them and sent to Savar Gono Swasthya complex around 10:45 pm. Later, they were transferred to DMCH. Bina Sultana, wife of Mukul, does not know how to live with their two children – Mahi, 7, and Mousumi, 3.

She said: “They [hartal supporters] killed my husband for nothing and when he was only two minutes away from our residence. Who will take care about us?”

Rahima Begum, 45, and her granddaughter Sumi Akter, 9, faced burn injuries from attack of the hartal supporters on Sunday night as they were coming to Uttara in Dhaka from Durgapur in Netrokona. Their bus was stopped near Gazipur intersection by some hartal supporters, who poured petrol and set it ablaze before all the passengers could get off.

With 15% burn injuries, Rahima and Sumi are now undergoing treatment at the DMCH. Monir Hossain, 12-year-old class IV student of Borokanchanpur Primary School of Gazipur was admitted to DMCH with 95% of his body burnt.

He was going back to their home from Dhaka yesterday morning.

The boy was sleeping on the driving seat of a covered van parked on the wayside when a group of hartal pickets approached and set it on fire. His father Ramzan Ali, driver of the van was away for a while.

Before Ramzan came near the van and saved his son, the fire caught his

Sumi, who is yet to know the ways of the world, lies on a bed at DMCH burn unit with her mother caress her hoping her quick recovery MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU son and razed the covered van including his earning of Tk18,000. An ASI of Joydevpur police station took the boy to the DMCH. Ramzan told the Dhaka Tribune that

his son just wanted to visit Dhaka. “He had no faults and did not understand anything about politics,” said the distraught father, with tears in eyes and an appeal to save his son. l

the activists of Awami League, and BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami clashed in Sohagpur area of Patgram upazila around 10am. Of the injured, six sustained bullet injury.

Condition of sub-inspectors Ramjan Ali and Anwar Hossain were critical, said police.

Witnesses said police intervened with teargas shells when the hartal supporters had hurled handmade bombs at them. At least 20 bombs were thrown towards the lawmen.

In Chittagong, Jakir Hossain, 30, commercial manager of C&A Group, was killed after an auto-rickshaw carrying him overturned being attacked by the pickets near Maulabhi Pukurpar of Bahaddarhat around 10:45am.

Abdur Rouf, OC of Chandgaon police station, told the Dhaka Tribune that Jakir died at Chittagong Medical College Hospital around 1:30pm.

Mahtab Uddin, colleague of the victim who was also on the vehicle, said the pickets had hurled bricks on the auto-rickshaw breaking its windshield.

“As the driver was trying to escape the attack, he had lost his control at one stage.”

Anti-hartal supporters were also seen in different points of the port city.

Day labourer Ishaq Ali, 40, died when pickets hurled bricks targeting a truck carrying around 50 farmers at Gurudaspur of Natore yesterday morning.

In Ashulia on the Dhaka’s outskirts, Mostafizur Rahman Mukul, an official of private firm Bishwas Group, succumbed to his burn injuries he had sustained on Sunday night. He

BNP will not be part

For Ollo, Tk34.29bn WiMax licence sells at Tk2.46bn

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agreed with the business leaders’ proposal for a secretary-level talks, but the prime minister’s speech at Suhrawardy Udyan has closed the path of any compromise,” he said.

Leaders of the country’s apex business body - Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry - had held a meeting with BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia on Saturday to convince her for a compromise.

Accusing the government of not being cordial enough about the dialogue and trying to create confusion among the people in the name of dialogue, Fakhrul said they did not want to set any condition for the dialogue.

“Fixing a date, if the government takes initiatives for a dialogue on a non-partisan interim government, we are ready to sit in the dialogue right now,” he said.

Responding to a query, Fakhrul said: “We do not want to hold a dialogue on an all-party polls-time government.”

Asked about Awami League General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam’s comment that the dialogue would take place only after the BNP withdrew hartal, Fakhrul said: “A dialogue cannot be held on any condition. I sent him a letter to take initiatives to resolve the crisis but we are yet to get any response.”

BNP to hold rally

The BNP yesterday announced a rally at the capital’s Suhrawardy Udyan for November 7 to mark the “Revolution and Solidarity Day.” The announcement was made in a press release signed by the party’s Joint Secretary Ruhul Kabir Rizvi yesterday morning.

The national flag and party flag would be at the half-mast at all BNP offices, the press release said. Khaleda Zia will place a wreath at the grave of party founder Ziaur Rahman at 10pm on the day.

On November 7, 1975, Ziaur Rahman came out of house arrest and took over as the new military chief and the first military ruler of Bangladesh after a period of political turmoil following the August 15 assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. l

She, however, told the Dhaka Tribune: “Journalists need not know what we are going to do. The government will decide what is best for the people.”

The Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (Amtob) disagrees with the licence awarding process and has requested the government to assign spectrum through “proper valuation.”

The information and communication technology professionals claimed that 2,100 and 2,600 bands technically held the same power, both being a natural extension of the 3G spectrum and widely auctioned for 4G LTE. At the 3G auction the BTRC sold 1MHz spectrum for $21m with 5% VAT; considering the dollar’s exchange rate on September 8, the price of 20MHz spectrum crossed Tk34.29bn.

In 2008, the BTRC held an auction

for WiMax licences and the price for each licence was fixed at Tk2.15bn with 35MHz spectrum.

Industry insiders said by these five years the telecom industry became more mature and spectrum became much more expensive.

The BIEL participated in the 2008 auction vying for three WiMax licences and placed sixth. Mobile operator Banglalion, which ranked top with a bidding of Tk2.15bn, and Augere Bangladesh, which placed third, got two licences. Brac also won in the bidding but later withdrew from the race.

The BTRC then offered the companies securing fourth, fifth and sixth positions to take the licences for Tk2.15bn each, but they all refused. The BIEL even withdrew its earnest money deposited for the auction.

Abu Saeed Khan, a senior policy fellow of the Colombo-based regulatory

was returning to Nabinagar by an auto-rickshaw from Dholaikhal of the capital.

His colleague Nasir Uddin Mridha said: ”Soon after the vehicle reached Savar Cantonment Public School around 10pm, four to five unidentified criminals hurled a crude bomb. It fell inside the vehicle. Both Mukul and driver Md Hasu sustained burn injuries.”

Ashulia OC Sheikh Badrul Alam said both Hasu and Mukul had been admitted to Gono Swasthya Hospital first and later shifted to Burn and Plastic Surgery unit at DMCH. At least 20 others sustained severe burn injuries in Dhaka, Ashulia, Gazipur, Chittagong, Jessore and several other places while rail tracks were set on fire in the capital’s Banani, Brahmanbaria, Chandpur and Jhenidah districts.

Masudur Rahman, deputy commissioner of Media Centre at Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said a total of 21 people were arrested in the capital during the hartal. Ten of them were sentenced to different jail terms by mobile courts.

Mid-night violence

Three more vehicles were set on fire last night and several crude bombs were exploded near Dhaka Central Jail and Kamrangirchar leaving two more youths injured.

The victims – Saddam, 20, and Rimon, 18 – were admitted to DMCH. Moreover, at least five people including two teenagers were arrested for blasting hand bombs and vandalising buses in Mohakhali, Gabtoli and Gendaria areas. l

minimum wage. The rise was 67% to 81% depending on job category as the previous wage was Tk1662.50 per month, set in 2006. The first minimum wage board, constituted in 1994, had fixed Tk940.

“At the meeting, the BGMEA [association of garment owners] proposed Tk4,250 which the workers’ leaders rejected and proposed that the wage be set at Tk6,000. The owners disagreed with the amount. Then the labour leaders went further down to Tk5,500, which was also refused by the owners,” said AK Roy, chairman of the wage board, at a press briefing after the meeting at its office on Topkhana Road.

At one stage of the discussion, the matter went through voting as the two parties had failed to reach to a consensus.

Four out of six members of the board including an independent member cast their votes for Tk5,300 as minimum wage while the two owners’ representatives abstained from voting as they were opposed to the proposal. The owners walked out of the meeting at that time.

Roy said the grades will remain unchanged but the workers of all the

seven grades will enjoy the new wage stricture since their wages will increase proportionately.

The lone representative of the workers to the board, Sirajul Islam Rony, said: “We proposed the amount considering the overall situation of the garment sector. We hope that the owners will accept it.”

Rony, who is also the president of Bangladesh National Garments Workers Employee League, urged the owners to implement the new wage soon after gazette notification.

Arshad Jamal Dipu, who represents owners to the wage board, termed the proposed wage “unrealistic.” He said: “We will place a proposal to the government in black and white to set a realistic wage considering the capacity of the industry.”

Dipu claimed that it will not be possible to implement as the owners had been spending a lot of money to make their factories compliant.

Mushrefa Mishu, president of Garment Sramik Oikya Forum, turned down the proposal of the wage board.

“We demand reconsideration of the proposal and that the government will set the amount at Tk8000.”

BDR carnage  PAGE 1 COLUMN 1

the force on deputation, and a number of civilians.

After completion of the trial, Judge Dr Mohammad Akhtaruzzaman of the Third Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court of Dhaka fixed October 30 for verdict. But it was deferred.

The trial of the carnage case began in August 2011. Considering the number of accused and security, the government built a makeshift court at Bakshi Bazar near the Dhaka Central Jail.

After the mutiny, the paramilitary force was renamed as Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) from Bangladesh Rifles (BDR).

A criminal case was filed with Lalbagh police station which was later transferred to New Market police. After more than one year’s investigation, the CID in 2010 pressed charges against 824 persons. Among them, 801 were BDR soldiers and 23 civilians including former BNP lawmaker Nasir Uddin Ahmed Pintu and Awami League ward-level leader Torab Ali. The CID later submitted a supplementary charge sheet to include 26 more accused in the carnage case.

Twenty-five of them were former BDR soldiers. With this, the total number of accused reached to 850.

Moreover, 57 mutiny cases were also filed with different police stations against 6,046 BDR mutineers across the country.

On October 20 last year, 11 special courts sentenced 5,926 rebels to various jail terms and acquitted 115. Five others were dropped from the mutiny charges. l

File resignation  PAGE 1 COLUMN 4

thinktank LIRNEasia and a former secretary of Amtob, has termed the 2008 auction “dead.”

“Once an auction is closed, it gets closed forever and under no circumstances any licence can be issued referring to that auction,” he told the Dhaka Tribune. “It is completely illegal.”

Legal professionals said the same thing had happened in India in 2008 when the Indian telecommunication ministry had caused the exchequer losses of nearly $40bn by selling licences at a seven-year-old price.

Barrister Tanjib-ul Alam said: “The BIEL is not eligible for the licence unless a new auction is held.”

Amtob sent a letter to the telecom secretary and the BTRC chairman on Sunday, saying: “Globally, the spectrum values for 2600MHz and 700MHz have been very encouraging for governments. If these bands are allocated

without proper valuation and auction, it would result in significant value loss for the government which otherwise would have been possible [to prevent] through setting up a realistic base price and allowing mobile operators to participate.”

The letter signed by Chairman Michael Kuehner and Secretary General TIM Nurul Kabir said the government decision might disrupt the level-playing field in the industry.

An official of the BTRC said the regulator had sent a letter signed by its Senior Assistant Director Shazeda Parvin to the BIEL on September 15, informing it about the licence awarding.

Ollo, a joint venture of the BIEL and the New Generation Graphics Limited (NGGL) – both now owned by the Russian company Multinet, had applied for the WiMax licence in April this year.

The NGGL had already got 20MHz spectrum free of cost on 800 band in 2011. l

She reasoned that the amount was not enough to live a standard life. “If the wage board does not reset the proposal, we will go for tough movement,” Mishu said.

“We do not accept the proposal and I think it should be more,” said Montu Ghosh, president of Garment Workers’ Trade Union Centre. Food allowance should be kept out of the wage, he said.

Another workers’ leader Bahrain Sultan Bahar, however, was happy with the proposal. “I welcome the proposal but the owners should keep food and transport out of the wage structure,” said Bahar who is the president of Jago Bangladesh Garments Sramik Federation.

He suggested that the owners should come up with the mindset for immediate implementation of the new wage to avert labour unrest.

Protesting the proposed wage and demanding Tk8,000, workers under several organisations brought out a procession on Topkhana Road soon after the meeting.

“Though the proposal is lower than what the workers demanded, it is not a bad one considering inflation and oth-

ers factors,” said Mustafizur Rahman, executive director of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).

He said it was obviously lower compared to the workers’ living standard.

“I see it as a good sign but we have to concentrate on the workers’ productivity. The government has to assist the factory owners to adjust the new wage by ensuring gas and electricity supply,” he added.

Transparency International Bangladesh Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman thinks it still remains much below the expectation of the workers – not only from the point of view of “minimum” wage but also what can be considered as a “living” wage consistent with rising living costs.

“It remains far below wage levels of other garments exporting countries.

More importantly, it is still lower than workers in many other similar sectors within Bangladesh,” he added.

M Hafizuddin Khan, former adviser to a caretaker government, said: “To some extent, the proposal is acceptable but the amount should be more. It is positive that the wage has jumped to Tk5,300 from Tk3000. But it is difficult for the owners.” l

Tk5,300 proposed, owners unhappy  PAGE 1 COLUMN 3

ed in the team, he added.

She would attend the Commonwealth meeting for one day as Sri Lanka has asked her to join the event several times, a foreign ministry official said.

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni and Secretary Md Shahidul Haque will also attend the event.

Every two years Commonwealth leaders meet to discuss global and Commonwealth issues.

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, as chair of Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, is playing a crucial role in these issues. l

“All the cabinet members must submit resignation letters. Only the letters from those will be accepted whom the premier does not want to keep in the interim cabinet. Other senior ministers will continue with the polls-time cabinet as per the PM’s desire,” he added.

He also informed that the new members of the interim government would be picked from those political parties that had representation in the current parliament. Jamaat-e-Islami would not qualify because, what he said, it had been accused of committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 War of Independence.

The government will wait until the polls-time government is formed, for BNP to either join the government or a dialogue.

Expressing willingness to submit resignation in a day or two, the senior minister from Chittagong said: “As far as we know, Matia Chowdhury, Syed Ashraful Islam, AMA Muhith, Hasanul Haq Inu and Suranjit Sengupta may continue with the polls-time government. New faces like Tofail Ahmed, Amir Hossain Amu and Rashed Khan Menon may join the new cabinet to make it heavyweight.

“Opposition lawmakers will also be included in the new cabinet if they desire to be part of the polls-time government. But, the number of members in the new cabinet will not exceed 20.

The new cabinet may take charge before the announcement of the election schedules,” he added.

Meanwhile, after a meeting of the cabinet committee on public procurement, Muhith told reporters that the all-party government would be formed after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina returned from Sri Lanka on November 17. l

Correction

Educationist Shyamoli Nasrin Chowdhury was mistakenly mentioned as the wife of martyred intellectual ANM Golam Mostafa in a report titled “Death for absconding al-Badr operatives” published in yesterday’s issue of the Dhaka Tribune. Shyamoli is actually wife of martyred Dr Alim Chowdhury.

Also, Prof Anirban Mostafa was mentioned in the same paragraph as Shyamoli Nasrin’s son. Anirban is son of martyred ANM Golam Mostafa. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

A thorny journey to defend the fugitives n Udisa Islam The two state defence counsels, Salma Hye and Abdus Shukur, who have been conducting war crimes cases for accused fugitives, said the journey to ensure justice for their clients has not been easy, as the accused did not cooperate.

After the appointment, they had been thrilled to become part of the International Crimes Tribunal, said the counsels who represented Chowdhury Mueen Uddin and Ashrafuzzaman Khan at the tribunal. However, they were wrong since the fugitives had never revealed themselves.

Salma and Shukur have dealt cases against five accused war criminals.

They worked together in the case against Abul Kalam Azad alias Bachchu Razakar, Salma individually was appointed for Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Chowdhury Mueen, while Shukur for Ashrafuzzaman and Zahidul Hossain Khokon.

Mueen and Ashraf were among the “most wanted” after the Liberation War for abducting and killing intellectuals.

Their pictures were published in news-

papers with a call for their capture.

On May 27, the war crimes tribunal ordered to begin trial against the duo in absentia, as they had not appeared before it despite being called through advertisements in newspapers. After the framing of charges, the tribunal asked the state-appointed defence counsels to submit a list of witnesses, if they had any.

The hurdles began on how to obey the order when they have no clue about the accused, their addresses or contact numbers. Then they started with documents given by the prosecution and sent some people to the village home of the accused.

Shukur said the journey was not fearless and smooth. “We did not have any contact number of the accused; we also do not have relatives who could send us any information from the USA and London.”

Asked how they managed, Shukur said: “After the indictment order, I personally urged relatives and family members of the accused through the media to come up with documents and information so that I could defend the client properly.”

Salma, the counsel for Mueen, also did the same thing. However, they claimed that nobody had contacted them.

As state defence counsels, they also faced criticisms for their appointment.

The accused did not cooperate with them. However, at the same time, nobody from the prosecution tried to influence them.

Furthermore, the tribunal always told us to work professionally and not to be biased. “Those who criticise us have to realise that we are not appointed by the government, but the state,” said Salma.

The counsel said since the accused or their families had not helped them, she had to rely on documents. “Whenever we went to face the tribunal, we kept in mind that we have to win and our clients are our first priority.”

According to the investigation agency, Farida Banu, sister of martyred Prof Giasuddin, filed a criminal case with Ramna police in 1997 against Mueen and Ashraf for the killing of her brother and seven others at the DU campus on December 13, 1971.

Salma collected all those papers.

She said, “I tried to collect those papers that can prove innocence of my client.

But sometimes I got upset too.”

She said, “As I was born after the liberation, I was not aware of many things. Both of us got upset during different steps of the trials.” For example, when relatives of the martyred including wives and children came and cried out in the witness’ dock at the time of deposition, “we felt sorry, and sometimes I questioned myself whether I was doing the right thing or the accused was actually involved.

But the next minute, I reversed myself and was determined to rescue my client.”

Shukur said, whenever he entered the tribunal room he did not think of anything else. “Like other criminal cases, I came here to fight on behalf of my client.”

Salma said she read books on Liberation War including the writings of Prof Anisuzzaman, Jahanara Imam and so on and tried to find her client’s involvement. “But nowhere had I found the name on Chowdhury Mueen Uddin as a planner of the killing of the intellectuals.”

Both of them said they would do better with the case had the accused cooperated with them.

Mentioning the interview of Mueen that was aired on Al Jazeera after his indictment in July, she said: “I think he said many things that helped me; indirectly, he gave me information.”

Citing the case against Bachchu Razakar, the counsels said they could get a son of the convict to communicate but he had refused to assist them, as the family was not sure about their role at the tribunal. They only said Bachchu had been out of the country and that Jamaat denied to help them as he was expelled from party.

The state defence counsels now hope that in the case against fugitive Khokon Razakar, the sitting mayor of Nagarkanda municipality of Faridpur, they will able to involve the family to prove his alibi.

In addition, vice-chairman of Nagarkanda upazila unit BNP, Khokan Razakar was indicted on October 9 on 11 charges of crimes against humanity including genocide, murder of Hindus and conversion of religion during the 1971 Liberation War. l

Nizami masterminded intellectual killings: Prosecution n Udisa Islam The prosecution in the war crimes case against Motiur Rahman Nizami yesterday said the Jamaat chief had masterminded the killing of intellectuals in 1971 in his role as the chief of al-Badr forces.

On the second day of placing closing arguments in the case, conducting prosecutor Mohammad Ali argued the whole day on the role of al-Badr and the charges. He also referenced documents that he said proved Nizami was the chief of al-Badr. The prosecutor said there was no scope to deny that Nizami had control over al-Badr.

The incumbent chief of Jamaat-e-Islami was indicted on May 28 last year on 16 counts of crimes against humanity including murder, rape, arson and inciting violence during the Liberation War in Pabna and Dhaka.

The prosecution will continue the arguments today.

3

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Mueen’s remark to Al Jazeera was audacious: Tribunal n Udisa Islam The International Crimes Tribunal censured war criminal Chowdhury Mueen Uddin in its verdict delivered on Sunday for the comments he made about the tribunal after his indictment in a July 20 interview with Al Jazeera.

The tribunal said the remarks were “audacious” and “disparaging,” and that his activities proved that he had a “guilty mind.”

In its observation, the tribunal said: “Chowdhury Mueen Uddin in a recent interview with Al Jazeera made extremely audacious and disparaging remarks in respect of our war of liberation and the freedom fighters...usually an offender never admits his guilt. [But] fleeing instantly after the independence is a fair indication of their guilty mind.”

According to investigations of the War Crimes Files – a British Channel 4 documentary on the intellectuals’ killers now living in the UK - during the war Mueen had been the leading commander of alBadr, which organised the systematic slaughter of Dhaka’s intelligentsia.

In the interview, Mueen termed the ongoing trial a “sham” and a “joke,” and labelled the tribunal as a “kangaroo court.” He said he would never appear before it.

His comments came only four days after the tribunal 2 had begun hearings in the case against him. l

‘Chief executor’ Ashraf remains little known n Muktasree Chakma Sathi

Citing from the book “Ekattorer Dosh Mash” by Rabindranath Trivedi, Mohammad Ali told the tribunal about the role of al-Badr and how it was formed with the students’ wing of Jamaat, which was earlier known as Islami Chhatra Sangha. Nizami was the chief of Chhatra Sangha during the war.

After his submission, the tribunal asked the prosecutor about the writer’s profile and requested that he to tell the tribunal about the writers in future if referring to any book.

The prosecution suggested that the killing of intellectuals had begun on November 15, 1971. They referred to the book “Bangladesh: Moulobaad o Samprodayikota” where the abductions and killing of Dr Humayun Kabir and Dr Azharul Huq is referenced.

As the 23rd witness, Syed Salma Mahmud alias Salma Huq, widow of Martyr Dr Azharul Huq, in his deposition mentioned about the same book. l

Death-row convict Ashrafuzzaman Khan was seen in most of the places accompanying Chowdhury Mueen Uddin, according to investigations on some events of the intellectuals killing committed in Dhaka particularly between December 10 and 15, 1971.

Born on February 28, 1948, Ashraf is the son of late Md Ajahar Ali Khan and late Roimunnesa. He hails from Chotobhatara, Chiler par of Gopalganj. He was a central committee member of Islami Chhatra Sangha, then student wing of Jamaat-eIslami. Later he was given the responsibility of al-Badr as its “chief executor.”

On several occasions, Ashraf had moved side by side the “operation-in-charge” of al–Badr, Mueen, when the intellectuals had been abducted from their residences on gun point, according to the witnesses’ deposition.

Media recognised this traitor much earlier Much before Sunday’s verdict, it was well-documented in local and foreign newspapers how convict Chowdhury Mueen Uddin as an alBadr operative played a leading role in exterminating the country’s best minds, for supporting the birth of Bangladesh, only days ahead of the victory on December 16, 1971 kar Ali Manik and Muktasree n Julfi Chakma Sathi

Mueen Uddin in the eyes of NYT

Seventeen days after the country’s independence, The New York Times ran a report on January 3, 1972 where Mueen Uddin’s involvement in the killing of intellectuals was clearly exposed with evidence.

The report said, “To his fellow reporters on the Bengali-language paper [Bangla national daily Purbadesh] where he worked [as staff reporter], Chowdhury Mueen Uddin was a pleasant, well-mannered and intelligent young man. He had an open, handsome face, with a neatly trimmed beard, and there was nothing exceptional about

him except perhaps that he often received telephone calls from the leader of a right-wing Moslem political party.”

However, investigations in the couple of weeks after the victory revealed that “those calls were significant,” said the report. “For Mueen Uddin has been identified as the head of a secret, commando-like organisation of fanatic Moslems that murdered prominent Bangalee professors, doctors, lawyers and journalists in a Dacca [now Dhaka] brickyard.

“Dressed in black sweaters and khaki pants, members of the group, known as al-Badr, rounded up their victims on the last three nights of the war.”

“Their goal, captured members have since said, was to wipe out Bangalee intellectuals who advocated independence from Pakistan and the creation of a secular, non-Moslem state,” reads the report.

Citing some examples based on eye witnesses, the report narrated how the martyred intellectuals had been abducted, confined, brutally tortured and killed by armed al-Badr men.

“The bodies of 150 people, many with their fingers chopped off or fingernails pulled out, were found in the brickyard.

Hundreds more are believed to have been buried in 20 mass graves in nearby fields. “’There is nothing in the world that has not been done to us,’ remarked Ehtesham Chowdhury, the editor of the paper where Mueen Uddin worked.” Ehtesh-

am’s brother had also been kidnapped and presumably killed by al-Badar. He himself escaped capture only because he had stayed late in his office on the night the al-Badr members came to his house.

The report also said there was growing evidence that al-Badr was equipped and directed by a special group of Pakistani Army officers. Among papers found on the desk of Maj Gen Rao Firman Ali, then military adviser to the governor of erstwhile East Pakistan, were a series of cryptic references to al-Badar.

According to a captured al-Badr member, who was in Dhaka Central Jail at the end of December 1971, The Times report said Mueen Uddin had been mastermind of the organisation.

“A diary belonging to Mueen Uddin’s roommate has been found. It listed the names of al-Badar members and how much money they contributed to the group,” said the report. “The two men lived next door to the Dacca headquarters of Jamaat-e-Islami, a right-wing Moslem political party,” said the report.

“Al-Badar is believed to have been the action section of Jamaat-e-Islami, carefully organised after the Pakistani crackdown last March.

“Mueen Uddin was last seen on December 13 after having had an argument with a fellow reporter at their paper, Purbadesh. That reporter was kidnapped from his house by al-Badr

[members] a few hours later.”

The report also stated that Atiqur Rahman, another reporter of Purbadesh, had started searching for Mueen Uddin.

“We will find him,” he said. “We will find him or there can be no rest for any of us.”

Local dailies revealed his crimes back in’71

A number of newspapers in the newly-born Bangladesh published reports on convicted war criminal Chowdhury Mueen Uddin and titled him as the “operation-in-charge” of al-Badr and mastermind behind the killing of intellectuals in late 1971.

The country which won its independence after nine months of war could not celebrate for long as they had come to know about the loss of intellectuals at the dawn of independence, and this became a sore and long-lasting wound.

The war crimes tribunal yesterday convicted Mueen and handed him the death penalty for his involvement in the killing of 18 intellectuals between December 10 and 15.

But long before the trial had taken place, the national dailies in 1971 were revealing the involvement of Mueen with the killings and calling upon the people to arrest the perpetrators.

Ironically, the daily Purbadesh where Mueen used to work as a staff reporter was one of the newspapers which made the first call for confining the abscond-

Tribunal irked over counsels of HRW n Udisa Islam

At the hearing on the contempt petition filed against New York-based Human Rights Watch yesterday, the war crimes tribunal was disappointed as the defence claimed that the rights body worked for peace.

The tribunal asked the defence whether they had known the HRW was facing several cases for making “false statements.”

Led by Justice ATM Fazle Kabir, the tribunal 1 said this when counsel for the HRW Asaduzzaman said: “This organisation was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. We want to know whether we should bring a Nobel laureate to our country as accused.”

He also claimed that whenever human rights faced threat at any part of the world, “the HRW raises its voice first.”

The tribunal said: “We have to judge both sides of their work that may be re-

lated to peace or conflict.”

The tribunal in its rule on September 2 had asked the HRW to reply within three weeks as to why a contempt allegation should not be brought against it.

The date was extended twice. The notice was issued as the rights body had commented on the trial and verdict of Jamaat guru Ghulam Azam in an article.

The respondents are the HRW, its San Francisco-based Executive Director of Asia Division Brad Adams and Wash-

ington-based Associate of Asia Division Storm Tiv, who is also the writer of the report published on August 16.

Yesterday, the same tribunal deferred until December 8 the date for pronouncing the order on the contempt notice issued against two journalists of the London-based weekly The Economist.

Mustafizur Rahman Khan, counsel for Rob Gifford and Adam Roberts, chief editor and the South Asia bureau chief of the weekly, was present at the tribunal.l

ing Mueen. In December 1971, just after independence, the paper published an article titled “Operation-in-charge Mueen Uddin: Have to find this man killer” (ei noro-ghatok ke khunje ber kortei hobe) and called upon the people to inform the whereabouts of Mueen.

Journalist Atiqur Rahman, who wrote the report, later told the War Crimes Files team that he had gathered information about Mueen from one confined al-Badr member, Khaleque Mazumder, and his personal experiences with the al-Badr leader.

A report published in Ittefaq in 1971 completely substantiated Atiqur’s claim. The report quoted Khaleque Mazumder, who during interrogation had mentioned Mueen’s name as the operation-in-charge of the al-Badr force.

The Observer on December 23, 1971 said: “Chowdhury Mainuddin, a member of the banned fanatical Jamaat Islam Party has been described as the operation in charge of the killing of intellectuals in Dacca, by Abdul Khaleque, a captured ring leader of the al-Badr and office–bearer of Jamaat-e- Islam.”

Another Observer story of December 29 had the title “Absconding alBadr gangster” to refer to Mueen.

The Morning News in 1971 also published a story titled “Al-Badr still holding many hostages” with a photo of the absconding leader of the paramilitary force. l

Presently, he is believed to be living in New York and serving as a member of Islamic Circle of North America.

According to the published reports in Bangladeshi media just after the independence, Ashraf had been the owner of a diary widely known as “Jollader Diary” (diary of a butcher). It was used to list down the names of prominent intellectuals who were being considered as threat to the “sovereignty of Pakistan and the rule of Islam.”

A prosecution witness Ali Sazzad while testifying against Ashraf told the war crimes tribunal that the diary had been found from their house where Ashraf’s elder brother Rowshan Ali Khan used to live as a tenant. Ashraf had stayed in that house during the last few months of the Liberation War. The tribunal, however, in its verdict yesterday said: “The reports published in newspapers are not well authoritative and sourced. The prosecution failed to prove that the alleged diary was written by Ashrafuzzaman, and thus, he cannot be connected with it.” l

4

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Brick kiln owners given more time to clean up their act n Abu Bakar Siddique The government has decided to extend the deadline for converting the country’s traditional brickfields to cleaner and more environmentally-friendly designs to June 30 next year.

The Department of Environment (DoE) issued a letter in this regard on October 13, signed by its Senior Assistant Secretary Habibur Rahman.

The letter stated that the traditional brickfield owners would have to convert their factories by next year’s deadline along with a payment of Tk200,000 as compensation for polluting the environment.

In September, Asadur Rahman, vicepresident of Bangladesh Brick MakersOwners Association, had requested the government to extend the timeframe, saying most of the brickfields were yet to convert due to a shortage of funds as the improved technologies required huge investment.

A lack of skilled manpower was one of the major obstacles in using new

technologies, and the brick makers would need at least two more years to train adequate manpower for the improved technology, said Asadur Rahman while talking to the Dhaka Tribune in September.

The government in September 2010 gave the brick makers two years to adopt energy-efficient and relatively cleaner technologies like Zigzag, Hybrid Hoffman Kiln (HHK) and Vertical Shaft Brick Kiln (VSBK).

Later, the deadline was extended by six months until March this year, and again by another three months till June, 2014.

Meanwhile, Deputy Director of the DoE, Solaiman Haider, said: “Considering the brick makers’ request, the government has reached the decision so that they can train adequate manpower during this time and make the transition towards cleaner technologies.”

Apart from occupying agricultural land, conventional brickfields in the country are blamed for contributing to deforestation and belching out black

fumes into the atmosphere. The government alongside a number of global and local agencies have been trying to convince the owners to adopt modern technologies to save both environment and farmland.

During this time, the DoE had directed that no new kilns using conventional Fixed Chimney Kilns (FCK) technology would be approved or renewed.

About 90% of the existing brick kilns in Bangladesh use the 150-year-old technology, which is highly energy intensive and emits huge levels of carbon dioxide with a knock-on serious impact on the atmosphere, human health and croplands.

As of June, a total of 6,356 authorised brick kilns were operating in the country, according to the DoE. Of them, only 1,101 plants have been converted into Zigzag, HHK and VSBK. The brick making industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in Bangladesh with an estimated annual production of around Tk8.66bn. It is, however, one of the largest sources of

greenhouse gas emissions, in the country, estimated to be 6m tonnes of CO2 annually.

According to some estimates, about 33% of the fuel used in brick kilns comes from wood, which is strictly prohibited by law. Moreover, some are using low-quality coal imported from India.

In comparison, HHK, one of the suggested technologies, is more energy-efficient and clean. It can produce seven times more bricks than conventional fields while requiring 40% less fuel.

However, the improved kilns demand a huge investment, which is about Tk100 million while the traditional ones need only Tk5 million.

Bangladesh Bank has already introduced two separate funds to finance in environmentally-friendly ventures including the brick manufacturing sector.

Under the scheme, the central bank has allocated Tk4bn, which comes from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to finance the brick makers, who want to convert their conventional kilns. l

Government withdraws two bills on financial institutions n Tribune Report One bill was passed, two bills were withdrawn while two others were placed for consideration in parliament yesterday.

Bank Company (amendment) Bill 2010 and Financial Institution (amendment) Bill 2010 were withdrawn The house passed Neuro-developmental Disable Protection Trust Bill 2013 to ensure the rights of people with autism in the country.

The bill, introduced by Social Welfare Minister Enamul Hoque Mostofa Shahid, was passed by a voice vote.

As per the new law, a 27-member trustee board and a 15-member advisory committee will be formed to provide support to autistic people. The government will appoint an expert on neuro-development disability as the board’s chairperson.

The government, meanwhile, yes-

Ruling party men attack journalists n Tribune Report

BISHWAJIT KILLING CASE

Defence time petition to submit HC order rejected n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu A Dhaka court yesterday rejected the defence lawyer’s plea for an extension to submit the High Court order on the petition for revision of charges pressed against five accused in the Bishwajit Das killing case.

Acting Judge Md Nuruzzman of the Speedy Trial Tribunal 4 rejected the petition after hearing.

The court also fixed November 11 for examining the accused.

Earlier on October 22, Defence Lawyer Shah Alam petitioned for section 304 instead of 302 of penal code under which to frame charges, but the court rejected the plea.

Later, the defence lodged the petition with the High Court for revision of charges against the five.

Bishwajit Das, proprietor of Amantron Tailors at Shakhari Bazar in the capital, was hacked to death allegedly

by Bangladesh Chhatra League activists of Jagannath University unit during the opposition’s countrywide road blockade programme on December 9 last year.

On October 24, the tribunal completed cross-examination of witnesses in Biswajit killing case.

A total of 32 of 60 prosecution witnesses testified at the court. l

WEATHER

Thundershowers or rain likely n UNB Rain or thundershower is likely to occur over Rajshahi, Dhaka and Sylhet divisions and the region of Comilla until 6pm today.

Weather may remain mainly dry with temporary partly cloudy sky elsewhere over the country, Met Office said. Light to moderate fog may occur at places over Rajshahi, Rangpur, 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 5:17pm today and rises at 6:08am tomorrow.

Country’s highest temperature 32.2 degree Celsius was recorded yesterday at Jessore and lowest 17.4 degrees at Srimangal.

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

High

Low

Dhaka Chittagong Rajshahi Rangpur Khulna Barisal Sylhet Cox’s Bazar

30.2 30.0 29.6 28.2 32.0 30.7 29.6 31.0

22.3 22.2 21.6 19.3 21.5 20.8 19.5 22.5

PRAYER TIMES Fajar Sunrise Zohr Asr Magrib Esha

4:50am 6:06am 11:42am 3:41pm 5:17pm 6:34pm

Source: IslamicFinder.org

terday withdrew two proposed bills from parliament – the first such instance in the ninth Jatiya Sangsad.

According to parliament’s rules of procedure, Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith asked to retract the proposed bills – Bank Company (amendment) Bill 2010 and Financial Institution (amendment) Bill 2010.

The house approved the bills’ withdrawal through a voice vote.

The minister tabled the two bills on July 20, 2010. The proposed laws were then sent to the parliamentary standing committee on finance ministry for scrutiny. But the laws could not be enacted as the standing committee failed to finalise its recommendations.

Two other bills, Election Commission Secretariat (Amendment) Bill 2013, which would allow the secretariat to recruit its officers and staff, and Bangladesh Travel Agencies (Registration and Control) Bill 2013, providing six months’ imprisonment and Tk50,000 for frauds, were placed in the house. l

Frightened passengers jump out of a human-hauler and run to safety as hartal pickets throw bricks at the vehicle yesterday at Shuarighat in Old Dhaka

Two election commissioners contradict on army deployment n Mohammad Zakaria The Election Commission will request the president for deploying the armed forces alongside regular law enforcement agencies during the 10th parliamentary elections, an EC commissioner said, while another denied reaching a formal decision in this regard.

“If needed, we will request the president for army deployment to hold the next parliamentary election in a free and fair manner,” Election Commissioner Md Shah Newaz told reporters at his office yesterday.

Election Commissioner Mohammad Abu Hafiz, however, told the Dhaka Tribune that the commission had not made such decision yet.

“The full commission is yet to reach any decision over army deployment during the polls and requesting the president in this regard,” Hafiz added.

Meanwhile, the chief election commissioner and the four election commissioners were considering meeting the president between November 17 and 24 to fix the date for announcing the polls’ schedule, EC officials said.

“As per the Representation of the People Order (RPO), the commission will utilise anyone who it deems necessary. The president will also provide the EC with everything needed to hold the elections in a free and fair manner,” Shah Newaz said.

He said it will be tough for the regular law enforcement agencies to maintain the law and order situation at all polling centres during the next general elections. And army was deployed in the last couple of parliamentary elections.

So, the EC may request the president for its possible deployment, he said.

Asked if there will be any complexity in the deployment of the army, as it was

not included as a law enforcement force in the RPO, the election commissioner said the EC will use the army “specially.”

Hoping the next parliamentary elections will be inclusive, free and fair, Newaz said the parties will hopefully reach a political consensus. The EC will hold the next parliamentary polls in line with constitution as there is no scope to move away from it.

The commissioner said the EC will announce the schedule for the next parliamentary polls after giving every party an equal amount of time to prepare. It might reach a decision in this regard at one of its full commission meeting soon, Shah Newaz said.

There was no provision of army deployment in the RPO prior to 2001.

Though a provision was included in 2001, it was then excluded in 2009. The EC’s request for army was not entertained during Narayanganj City polls in 2011. l

have requested the prime minister not to form an all-party interim government represented by only members of the parliament.”

“She has told us that handing over of the power as well as the next parliamentary polls would be held as per the constitutions,” he said.

Nazibul Bashar said: “The PM has said Qawmi education system would be modernised. She asked for constructive suggestions from the Ulama Mashayek for the development of the Qawmi Madrasa and certification of its students.

She also talked about a separate policy for Qawmi Madrasas,” he said.

The meeting was held as per the PM’s plan to form an all-party government, sources said. Qawmi Madrasa Commission’s co-chair, Maulana Farid Uddin Masud was also present.

At the meeting, Nazibul Bashar and Farid Uddin Masud, in presence of the prime minister debated on the proposed Qawmi Madrasa laws and Hefazat-e-Islam, confirmed meeting sources.

While Nazibul Bashar Maizbhandhri was of the opinion that the Qawmi madrasa should run as per the laws regarding Alia madrasas in the country, Farid Uddin Masud thought there was room for discussion on the issue. l

MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

At least six journalists and camera persons were assaulted and injured allegedly by activists of two front organisations of ruling Awami League in the capital’s Fulbaria area yesterday.

The print and electronic media journalists were there to cover an anti-hartal rally of the ruling party’s associated bodies-- Sramik League and Swechchhasebok League— at the Bangabandhu Avenue.

Injured journalists are Arifur Rahman, a senior reporter of ntv, its camera person Ainal Ahmmed, Kabirul Islam, a senior camera person of ATN, Jibon Ghosh, a photojournalist of Bengali daily Janakantha, Monir Hossain of channel 71, and its camera person Shibli.

The ruling party cadres also damaged their cameras. Witnesses and injured journalists said several crude bombs were exploded near the venue allegedly by the pickets of the opposition parties during hartal hours.

Soon after the explosions, the journalists rushed to the spot to cover the incident, but they unexpectedly came under attack from the ruling party men, who were preparing for an antihartal procession.

The injured said there were a number of policemen present, but none took any move.

Abul Hossain, officer-in-charge (OCInvestigation) of Bangshal Police Station, however, claimed that police rescued the journalists. l

Bangladesh-US defence dialogue begins tomorrow n Tribune Report The three-day second bilateral talks on defence and military planning between Bangladesh and US will begin tomorrow in Dhaka.

The event will take place at the invitation of the government of Bangladesh, said a press release from the American Embassy in Dhaka.

The first defence dialogue was held in the US last year.

The purpose of the US-Bangladesh defence dialogue is to broaden and strengthen bilateral cooperation in the field of a wide range of military issues, enhancing partnership in peacekeeping efforts and joint military exercises along with an exchange on counterterrorism and security cooperation.

The positive and substantial ex-

changes of the dialogue reflect the depth and strength of the growing bilateral defence relationship between Bangladesh and the US as well as our shared commitment to peace and prosperity in the region.

At the talks, the Bangladeshi side will be led by the Armed Forces Division comprised of representatives from the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Disaster Management, Army, Navy, Air Force, Bangladesh Coast Guard and Border Guard Bangladesh.

The US side will be led by US Pacific Command with representatives from US Army Pacific; US Pacific Fleet; US Pacific Air Forces; US Marine Corp Forces, Pacific and Special Operations Command Pacific, among other representatives. l

IAB: Government joking Islamist leaders favour all-party government over Qawmi madrasa n Manik Miazee Leaders of several Islamist parties have requested Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to take initiatives for holding the upcoming elections under an all-party interim government, which would include members from all political parties registered with the Election commission.

The proposal came as more than hundred leaders and Islamist scholars of the country met the prime minister at Ganabhaban yesterday.

Following the meeting, Tarikat Federation Chairman Nazibul Bashar Maizbhandhri told the Dhaka Tribune: “We

n Manik Miazee At the last moment of the tenure, the government is making jokes with the certification of Qawmi madrasa education, the Charmonai Pir said yesterday.

Also president of Islami Andolon Bangladesh (IAB), Syed Mohammad Rezaul Karim alleged that the four-party alliance government in 2001-06 had done the same thing.

The government is playing double-standard by initiating the Qawmi certification system in one hand and “harassing the teachers and students of Qawmi madrasas by filing fake

cases on the other,” he said in a press statement.

“If the government wants to do something good for Qawmi education, there should not be any conspiracy against the system,” he said demanding withdrawal of all the “false” cases and asking the government to meet the requirements given by Alems over Qawmi education reformation.

The education ministry on October 28 dropped a draft law on reforms of Qawmi madrasas from its agenda at the cabinet meeting because of division in the madrasa community over the government’s supervision. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Long Form

5

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Is no one responsible?

D

n Zia Hassan o you know how it feels if you don’t have a job but you have a two-year-old daughter for whom you need to buy milk, but you do not have enough money to buy that? Have you ever felt what it is like to stand in a small shop in the evening and think if the sale is low you will have to terminate your staff as you can’t pay their salary any more?

Do you know how does it feel to be locked in a CNG three wheeler with your wife and kid when a passing procession starts attacking your vehicle with stones and makes attempt to arson your vehicle and you don’t have any way out as it is locked from the drivers end?

Do you know how it feels when your father calls you to say he has invested all his savings in your MBA and you are now required to find a job but all the offers that you are getting are some marketing jobs where maximum salary is 10k, which is not enough to pay the monthly food bill of your family?

Do you know how it feels to realise that even though you are getting older than 35, you can’t get married as your current job offers you 12k and there is no hope of significant increase in the near or distant future.

Even if you have not felt these, you would observe in all the situations cited, one thing is common. That is every person has to take responsibility.

Responsibility of family, organisation, community and oneself. Fear and shame fills your heart when you find yourself in a situation where you will fail to deliver what you are responsible for.

The fate of 16 crore people is at the mercy of two feuding ladies who have no awareness, consciousness and sensitivity to the sufferings of people

This responsibility defines a person. A person’s life is measured by the scale of how successfully he manages to bear the responsibility that is entrusted on him.

Our existence as mortal human being is all about taking responsibility.

By the same token, political leadership is about taking responsibility of the people, the country that one is entrusted to govern when he or she is in power or fight for their rights when he or she is in the opposition.

The phone conversation (between two leaders) leaked to the media clearly demonstrates, our politicians are ignorant of this responsibility towards

the people. They are oblivious of the consequence of their decisions on peoples lives. That is the most dangerous conclusion that can be drawn from the conversation that is making rounds in the airwaves across the nation.

You must have heard about butterfly effect. The butterfly effect states that, even a wing movement of a butterfly in the forest of Sumatra have

after the strike is over.”

If BNP had accepted the dialogue, then what are these three days’ suffering for?

Khaleda Zia even said, “I can’t go to your house since there is a strike.”

Madam, will you please tell us how our sons and daughters will go to school ? How a pregnant lady who is in labour will go to hospital? How

Our two leaders are sitting in the most responsible position of the country and their decisions affect every single person of this country – all 16 crore of them

consequence in a tsunami in Japan.

This is one of the key part of the chaos theory. If you take it other way round, you can see that the bigger the responsibility the bigger is the consequence of the decision.

Our two leaders seemed completely unaware that they are sitting in the most responsible position of the country and their decisions affect every single person of this country – all 16 crore of them.

For them it is about personal vendetta, personal suffering, and past grievances – they are not remotely concerned about the impact of their decisions on people’s lives.

They say when Rome was burning Nero was playing flute. Can we really forgive our leaders who arson the country consciously and play tunes.

BNP and AL supporters might get offended but the actions of BNP leader Begum Khaleda Zia and AL leader Sheikh Hasina must be scanned under microscope.

As a leader of opposition, Begum Khaleda Zia has to take every opportunity which would allow her to evade the 3-day strike that was called. That is part of the responsibility that we entrusted her as opposition leader.

Strike is a valid political tool in our country – no question about that. Silly strikes were called before. And, the current situation, when Awami League is trying to manipulate peoples’ will by cancelling caretaker government through phony logic, does call for action from opposition, and strike is one of the valid tool in that action.

But, if a strike has been called for a certain demand and if that demand has been met even at the last second – that strike must be withdrawn.

A strike is a strike is a strike – it brings suffering to people. It is utterly deplorable that BNP called strike in demand of dialogue and when dialogue was offered, they said “OK, lets continue the strike and we will speak

the farmer who has some perishable vegetables, his investment of a whole year, rotting in his store will take them to the market? All for a strike for which demand has been met and also accepted.

Ma’am. If you are a leader, you have to take responsibility of your actions.

She said she does not have time to speak with other leaders of the alliance. She may or may not have time but the key question remains the same. How little responsibility do they feel they have for the nation and how remotely unconcerned are they for the people?

BNP supporters cannot see the absurdity of the arguments placed by Begum Khaleda Zia. They are happy to see that she had a go at Sheikh Hasina.

They can’t see that she missed every opportunity to cancel a strike, which eventually resulted in 16 lives lost.

They consider this as collateral damage. They can’t see, the most valuable thing in this world is a person’s life. A person has a family, a father, a mother, a daughter or a son to whom his value can not be exchanged for a billion dollars or for all the GDP of the world.

For saving a single life, wars have been fought. But, in the most densely populated country of the world, life of a person is possibly the cheapest commodity for the leaders.

So, the more lives are lost there will be more intensity in the movement to bring down Sheikh Hasina government. A movement needs dead bodies – allegedly said by a leader in previous movements. BNP is possibly thinking they will tread down the well-worn path to resistance: movement and anarchy across the country which will force the government out from power.

For Bangladesh politics that is legitimate course of action. But, that option should only be resorted to when all other options have been exhausted, when the dialogues have failed.

On the other hand, Sheikh Hasina’s government is one of the most repressive government in the history of Bangladesh. The number of people killed during protests in this year is more than any in recent memory.

The way they have tried to exploit political leverage by publishing the conversation of the top two leaders goes beyond any norm of decency.

For Awami league it is about gaining advantage. Through this action they have burnt all the bridges of trust of opposition, whom they have called for dialogue.

Awami League has proven they don’t have any desire for dialogue.

They only need a dialogue to give legitimacy to the election that they will conduct by hook and crook without caretaker government – which is supported unequivocally by the majority of the population.

What AL does not realise is, the most precious commodity for a leader and a party is trust. By publishing the dialogue, which is confidential and is a matter of an ongoing process, AL has proven that they cannot be trusted.

People have learnt that this party can not be trusted. On top of this, a lot of people suspect Sheikh Hasina was aware that this conversation would be published later and she was unusually polite in her conversation, which was uncharacteristic of her.

I want to give the benefit of doubt to her. But, allowing to publish a

People who are supporters of BNP are happy that their leader has shown great leadership by thumping on the mouth of Sheikh Hasina and they are harping that Sheikh Hasina could not articulate herself upon the onslaught of Khaleda Zia. On the other hand, AL supporters are saying how much mature Sheikh Hasina sounded and what an ill-tempered lady Khaleda Zia is.

Judging from these responses, you can figure out this country is so polarised that there is no absolute truth any more. Truth is about relativity. You also realise a big part of the population has lost objectivity by subscribing to the dogma their leaders preached.

They are unable to question their leadership anymore and are happy to stand by the bad motives of their leaders.

In the end, this dialogue has reinforced what people already knew – that the fate of 16 crore people is at the mercy of two feuding ladies who have no awareness, consciousness and sensitivity to the sufferings of people.

They have no concern about their responsibility to people and how their actions impact the people; they can’t be trusted.

In their first opportunity to have conversation, instead of talking to each other they only talked about each other. l Zia Hassan is a blogger. This article was originally published in AlalODulal.org.

For saving a single life, wars have been fought. But, in the most densely populated country of the world, life of a person is possibly the cheapest commodity for the leaders

conversation that she had with her counterpart to get political advantage leave little room for doubt for most people. This will hurt AL in the long run. People will know that this party can not be trusted.

If AL had any sincerity in their motivation they would not have published this conversation in a million years.

The conversation of top two leaders is a state secret. It is indecent, it is dishonest, it is devoid of any sense of shame to publish this without the consent of each other; specially when a negotiation is going on, the outcome of which impacts life of all the people of the country.

AL might think they have gained some leverage by exposing the rants of Khaleda Zia but if you observe the actions of people, you will see nothing has changed. Not an iota of public opinion has moved in anyone’s favour.

6

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

18 people sued over cop killing in Chittagong n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong A total of 18 individuals were sued in a case filed in connection with the killing of a police constable in Chittagong on Sunday night.

Assistant Sub-Inspector Asaduzzaman, guard-in-charge of deputy inspector general’s bungalow, lodged the case at night accusing 11 named and seven unnamed individuals, said Mainul Islam Bhuiyan, officer-in-charge of Khulshi police station.

The named accused were Suman, Rasel, Mintu alias Milton, Bablu alias Babul, Hasan, Nizam, Sohel, Tapan Chandra Nath, Nurul Alam, Harunur Rashid and Jahed, according to police sources.

Police, however, could not arrest any of the accused until filing of this report.

They released four persons, who were detained from the Batali hill area after the incident, when police uncovered that they were not involved in the killing.

Police Constable Md Abdul Kaiyum, who was deployed as a security guard at the bungalow of Chittagong range’s deputy inspector general, was hacked to death by miscreants in the city’s Batali Hill on Sunday allegedly centring around the distribution of gambling money.

The miscreants also stabbed three other police constables: Md Salauddin, 28, Ariful Islam, 25, and Md Shahabuddin, 28.

Police sources said the constables were attacked by muggers. However, local sources claimed that the police constables were involved in gambling and they were attacked by other gamblers when the constables got engaged in a feud centring around the distribution of gambling money. l

DU Gha unit result condemned n DU Correspondent Around 100 Dhaka University applicants staged a demonstration yesterday protesting the admission test results published on Sunday.

The agitated students besieged the social science faculty as the authorities cancelled the answer scripts of some 15,000 admission seekers because of wrong information and mistakes in filling up the OMR sheets.

A total of 8,096 (11.4%) applicants out of 71,013 came out successful in the Gha unit admission test which took place on November 1 for the bachelor courses in the university’s 2013-14 academic sessions.

Farid Uddin Ahmed, dean of the social science faculty, said the admission seekers could check their mistakes through application by November 20. l

MoU signed between DU and Hiroshima University n DU Correspondent

A group of children play on their school’s field in the capital’s Uttara yesterday. The field, which was used for cattle market during Eid-ul-Azha, is yet to be cleaned properly though many days have passed since the government school has opened after Eid holidays NASHIRUL ISLAM

Uttara’s Azampur School playground in dilapidated condition Cattle market, poor maintenance of DNCC blamed waste fully. The children play there as tion reveals the allegations to be true, n Abu Hayat Mahmud then we will compensate them for they have no other option”.

Lack of measures from the Dhaka North City Corporation has left Azampur Government Primary School’s around one acre playground of the capital’s Uttara sector 6 in a ramshackle state.

Every year on the eve of Eid-ulAzha, cattle markets are set up on the Azampur school playground and adjoining areas of Uttara Residential Model Town in sector 6.

However, teachers of the school alleged that the city corporation set up the market in the playground violating a High Court order and without taking prior permission from school authorities.

Nargis Sultana, head teacher of the school, said: “We tried to prevent them from establishing the cattle market here. Now the field is full of deep pits.

It has become muddy and filthy as the authority has yet to clean the animal

“A pillar of our Shaheed Minar was broken while setting up the market and the drains by the side of the field have been blocked,” she said.

Nargis added, “We have submitted an application on Thursday with a 15-point demand to the concerned authority requesting them to grant compensation for damages caused to the playground.

“The city corporation assured us that they would inspect the playground first and take steps following the inspection.”

DNCC Chief Estate Officer Md Fasiullah told the Dhaka Tribune: “We received an application from the Azampur School authority.

“The school committee claimed that the playground was damaged because of the cattle market. If our investiga-

JU teachers confine VC again n JU Correspondent

The vice-chancellor of Jahangirnagar University was forced into house arrest yesterday on the third day of the oustVC movement launched by the university’s teachers’ platforms.

It was the second time in three months that Prof Anwar Hossain was confined by his agitated colleagues, the last being for 80 consecutive hours in August inside the administrative office.

Teachers under the banners of JU Teachers’ Association (JUTA) and General Teachers’ Forum enforced the confinement around 12pm yesterday, with their dual demands for his resignation and withdrawal of a “warning notice” earlier served by him to JUTA President Prof Ajit Kumar Majumdar.

Sources said the teachers launched an indefinite strike on Saturday to remove the vice-chancellor from his position, boycotting all academic and administrative activities and suspending the university’s transportation system.

The following day, a warning notice

undersigned by the VC was sent to the JUTA president, accusing him of obstructing staff entrance to the administrative building and halting transportation in what was said to be a “violation” of the existing university rules and employment protocol.

The teachers approached the VC around 10pm urging him to clear his stance on the matter but he refused to comment, provoking angry criticism and expletives from the former.

They lambasted him for not cancelling dismissal orders against two provosts despite his public avowal at a press conference, as well as for not permitting a cancer-affected teacher to use a university microbus allegedly because of his association with the movement.

“The VC sent a warning notice to the JUTA president, which is unprecedented. He cannot do it. Only the syndicate (of the university) can warn a staff member if found in breach of any law,” JUTA General Secretary Prof Sharif Uddin said, reiterating the association’s demand for his resignation.”

At a press conference in front of VC’s residence yesterday, Prof Kamrul Ahsan, the secretary of General Teachers’ Forum, said, “Teachers will not leave the place until their demand is met.”

The agitating teachers have taken position in front of the entrance of the residence.

Anwar Hossain refused to withdraw the notice and said he would quit by no sooner than January 24, after holding elections to the JU Central Students’ Union (JUCSU), the senate and the VC panel.

“Teachers have confined me here and I cannot go out as they are guarding the entrance.”

He further said a five-member election committee headed by Prof AKM Shahnewaz had been formed to hold the JUCSU polls on December 5. JU Proctor Prof Md Muzibur Rahman is the secretary member of the committee while Prof Abul Khayer, Prof Md Aminul Islam and Dr Sohel Ahmed are general members. l

sure,” he said.

Earlier, in reply to a query as to why the cattle market was being set up on the Azampur primary school premises, Fasiullah said, “We will pay money to the school committee if they want.”

“If the school authority has any objection, they can write to us, we will shift the market elsewhere from next year,” he added. in addition, Azampur Primary School, students and teachers of other educational institutions along with residents of Uttara sector 6 are annoyed with the poor maintenance of DNCC. There are 15 educational institutions in the sector.

Teachers, students and residents of the area asked the DNCC authority to remove the cattle market from Sector 6 from next year.

Stickle M, manager, administration of Delhi public school (DPS), told the Dhaka Tribune, “Students and guardians feel annoyed to enter the school because of the malodour coming from the cattle market nearby. Sometimes we have to suspend classes from a week in advance to avoid encountering the market.”

“This year, we cleaned the adjoining areas of our school with our own initiatives,” he added.

“Earlier we requested the city corporation and Azampur police station officials to shift the cattle markets elsewhere from this year, but they did not take our plea into consideration,” he added.

Md Fasiullah said, “The Azampur Government Primary School premises isn’t the only one, we are also concerned about the Agargaon and Taltola cattle markets. We are planning to shift the markets to other spots from next Eid.” l

ACC to sue three including two ex EC officials n Tribune Report The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) will pursue legal action against three individuals including two former officials of the election commission, on charges of embezzlement of over Tk4.52m.

A regular meeting of ACC approved the decision yesterday in light of the evidence pointing to their involvement.

“The case will likely be filed by ACC deputy assistant director M Monirul Islam with the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station on Tuesday,” said Pranab Kumer Bhattacharya, public relations officer of ACC. The accused are M Shahjahan, former national director of Strengthening Election Management in Bangladesh (SMEB) project; Nurul Alam, a financial expert involved with the pro-

ject; and SM Shahiduzzaman, proprietor of supplying company Zaman and Brothers.

As part of the project, Zaman and Brothers was instructed to supply 72,000 bags to the election commission, but it provided only 8,380 bags and prepared a bill of over Tk4.52m.

The two involved officials were informed of the “low quality” of supplied bags, but they placed an unchanged bill nonetheless, ACC sources said.

Later, the election commission found evidence of the bags being substandard and filed a complaint to ACC against the individuals.

ACC assistant director Gulshan Anwar Pradhan and deputy assistant director M Monirul Islam conducted an investigation into the scam and, following gathering convincing evidence supporting their involvement in the fraud, applied for a lawsuit. l

Sandwip imposes ban on rallies n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Agitated teachers confine vice-chancellor of Jahangir University his office yesterday

FOCUS BANGLA

Local administration officials yesterday ordered an indefinite ban on public meetings at Sandwip upazila of Chittagong to avert any untoward incident as both the ruling and main opposition parties had scheduled separate rallies for today in the same locality.

Nur-e-Khawaja Alamin, upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) of Sandwip, said the ban, imposed under Section 144, would go into effect at upazila headquarters from 2pm today and continue until further notice.

“Awami League had planned a rally at the Upazila Complex this afternoon, while BNP wanted to hold its rally at the nearby Bashiria Madrasa

premises at the same time,” Alamin said.

Ahead of their planned rallies, rival party supporters had locked into clashes at the upazila headquarters on Sunday, leaving eight people, including a police officer, injured.

Meanwhile, both parties decried the ban and blamed each other for arranging rallies at the same time.

Nurul Afsar Chowdhury, senior joint secretary of Sandwip thana BNP, said they had announced their rally on October 27, and two days later, AL called for a similar programme to thwart theirs.

Md Jafor Ullah Titu, Sandwip pourashava mayor and a local AL leader, said BNP wanted to create anarchy through its rally. l

A Memorandum of Understanding to promote an independent approach towards educational development was signed between Dhaka University and the Hiroshima University of Japan yesterday.

Prof Md Kamal Uddin, treasurer of DU signed the MoU on behalf of DU while Kazuhiro Yoshida, director of Centre for the Study of International Cooperation in Education (CICE) of Hiroshima University, Japan signed on behalf of his institution.

The MoU was signed around 3pm through a simple ceremony at the vice chancellor’s office at DU. The purpose of the MoU was to promote a self-reliant approach to educational development by organising opportunities for research, faculty and students-exchanges and other activities through dialogue and collaboration amongst African and Asian universities, research centres and other relevant institutions.

DU VC Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique, while addressing the ceremony, thanked the foreign institution and said the students, teachers and researchers of DU would be highly benefited through the MoU. l

Preparation for polls begins in Khulna n Tribune Desk Khulna District Election Office has begun preparations for the upcoming 10th parliamentary election.

According to official sources, a total of 739 polling centres and 3,571 polling booths were finalised in all the six constituencies in Khulna, where the number of voters has increased by 159,000 since the last election to 1.6m.

The voter list will be sent to the election commission secretariat within three days and amended until the declaration of the schedule. Thereafter, the list will be finalised.

A Khulna District Election Office source said the order for making the voter list was given on September 10.

After getting a letter from Dhaka, Khulna Election Office sent letters to all upazila election offices for updating the voter list, polling centres and booths. A final decision will be taken after scrutinising the voters’ list.

As per updated enumeration, there are a total of 98 polling centres and 501 polling booths in the constituency of Khulna-1, 157 polling centres and 681 booths in Khulna-2, 105 polling centres and 417 booths in Khulna-3, 134 polling centres and 676 booths in Khulna-4, 118 polling centres and 649 booths in Khulna-5, and 127 polling centres and 647 booths in the constituency of Khulna-6.

Khulna Regional Election Officer Muzibur Rahman said: “Our main aim was to prepare a list of polling centres and booths and this has been completed.”

Preparations for the election are going ahead according to the directives of the secretariat, he added. l

1 held with 5,000yabatablets in Cox’s Bazar n Our Correspondent, Cox’s Bazar Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) personnel arrested a man carrying 5,000 of yaba tablets at the Link road area in Cox’s Bazar on Sunday morning.

The arrestee was identified as Nagu Mia, 27, son of late Ikhlas Mia of Sandelipara in Hnila union under the district’s Teknaf upazila.

Major Sarwar-e-Alam said acting on a tip-off they conducted a drive and arrested Nagu with the yaba from the Link road area around 11:30am.

Rab also seized the CNG-run auto rickshaw, which was carrying Nagu.

A case was filed with Cox’s Bazar Model police station. l

Correction The Institute of Governance Studies, BRAC University has sent a rejoinder regarding the report published in the Dhaka Tribune on October 29, 2013 titled “Uplift swallowing open space in Narayanganj” where Narayanganj was described as “unliveable” with reference to an overview of the report “Rethinking urban governance: an overview of Narayanganj” by IGS. The rejoinder states Narayanganj is not “unliveable,” but the problems with land use dimension, among other issues, could lead to an unliveable state in the city. We stand corrected. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Nation

7

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Low income groups in Khulna suffer most in hartal n Tribune Desk Low-income people such as roadside shop owners, transport workers, hawkers, day labourers and street vendors who live on daily earnings in the industrial city of Khulna are the worst sufferers of shutdowns.

Razzak Mia, who sells fruit, said he incurred huge losses during hartals for a lack of supply and demand.

Haider Ali, who runs a small roadside fruit shop at Shantidham intersection in the city, said he was struggling to earn his livelihood as his sales had declined significantly due to the on-going hartal enforced by the opposition BNP-led 18-party alliance.

Haider said he earned about Tk360 till 2pm yesterday, while his usual earnings by that time range from Tk1,000 to Tk1,200.

Haider, whose eight-member family depends on him, said with tearful eyes that he had no alternative means of earning.

Zasim Uddin, 60, a CNG run auto rickshaw driver of city’s Dawkbangla intersection, said he usually earned

Tk350 to Tk400 per day, but during hartals he has to struggle a lot to earn Tk50.

“It is very difficult to provide for my family as continuous shutdowns keep adding to my suffering immeasurably.”

Sadhan Kumar, a grocery shop owner near Khulna Press Club, said, “Sometimes I feel like committing suicide as hartals after hartals are preventing me from earning and pushing me to the jaws of death.”

He requested the opposition political party leaders not to call further hartals to save the poor from misery.

Haider, Zasim and Sadhan and thousands of others, who live on their daily incomes, suffer the worst during shutdowns.

According to leaders of the Khulna transport workers union, hawkers association, fruit vendor samity, grocery shoppers association and metropolitan stationery traders association, there were over 100,000 people who live on their daily earnings in the city.

Shutdowns immensely intensify their suffering as their incomes decline significantly. l

Pickets vandalise Ajmol Plaza in Khulna city during yesterday’s hartal

FOCUS BANGLA

Piracy in Brahmaputra leaves locals in the lurch

Public road cut down for brick kilns in Panchhari

n Our Correspondent, Gaibandha

n Our Correspondent, Khagrachhari

The pirates beat them indiscriminately and looted their cash, mobile phones and other goods, including ornaments, worth over Tk1m at gunpoint, he added.

At least 10 passengers were injured and were later admitted to different hospitals and clinics of the district.

Joynul Abedin, chairman of Fazlupur union parishad, said passengers and cattle traders could not move through the river due to piracy. Two other robberies were also committed on the river.

Mahbubur Rahman, contractor of Bharatkhali Cattle Haat Committee, alleged that despite continuing robberies on the river, authorities do not take any measures.

Officer-in-Charge of Fulchhari police station M Mashiur Rahman said they were trying to apprehend the dacoits and end such incidents. l

People of Fulchhari upazila in Gaibandha and Dewanganj upazila in Jamalpur are going through troublesome times due to rampant piracy at the Brahmaputra River. The people have no choice but to depend on water vessels for transport.

People living in Mollarchar, Fazlupur, Erendabari, Gozaria and Fulchhari unions of the district come to the Fulchhari upazila headquarters and Gaibandha district town every day for necessary errands and work, locals said.

In addition, a number of traders from Islampur, Menlandaha and Kulkandi areas in Jamalpur also come to Bharatkhali Haat under Saghata upazila in the district twice a week to purchase commodities and cattle.

Moreover, many people of Gaibandha go to Dewanganj upazila and its neighbouring areas in Jamalpur for

various purposes via boats that travel through the Balashighat-Bahadurabadghat river route.

When an engine-driven boat carrying passengers and cattle reached the middle of the river, gangs of pirates surprise them and rob their belongings at gunpoint.

On Wednesday, a daring robbery was committed on a passenger boat in the middle of the river, where dacoits looted cash and valuables worth over Tk1m from passengers.

A victim said the boat had started from Bahadurabadghat for Balashighat of the district in the afternoon with over 80 passengers of the Teesta Express train.

“As soon as the boat reached the middle of the river at Khatiamarichar under Fulchhari upazila, a gang of 15/16 masked pirates came in on a speedboat,” he said.

20 injured over land dispute n Our Correspondent, Kishoreganj

AL clash over dominion hurts 40 in Bagerhat

At least 20 people were injured in a clash over a land dispute at Mithamoin upazila of Kishoreganj yesterday.

Police and local sources said two rival groups, led by Ashraf Uddin, UP member of the Gubdigi union in Mithamoin and former UP member of the same union, engaged in a clash at Kuribaria haor over a long standing dispute over a piece of land at the haor, leaving 20 injured.

Of the injured, Abdul Alim, 55, Rafiq Mia, 35, Saidur Rahman, 32, Shanu Mia, 60, and Dudu Mia, 45, of the area were rushed to Mithamoin Upazila Health Complex in critical condition while others were given first aid.

Nurul Huq Bachhu, UP chairman of Gubdighi union admitted the incident and said police brought the situation under control and additional police were deployed to avert further untoward incidents. l

n Tribune Desk At least 40 people were injured in a clash between two rival groups of the ruling party Awami League (AL) at Charchingguria village in Chitalmari upazila on Sunday.

Of the injured, 24 were admitted to different hospitals of the district and Gopalganj in critical condition.

Police conducted a drive at the village and arrested six people along with machetes and sticks in connection with the incident M Maniruzzaman Mollah, officer-in-charge (OC) of Chitalmari police station, said two rival groups, led by local AL leaders Badsha and Ekhlas, also

Kolatala union parishad member, had long been at loggerheads over establishing supremacy at the village.

As a sequel to it, a brawl ensued between the supporters of both the groups in the morning, who later, equipped with lethal weapons, attacked each other, leaving 40 people from both sides injured, the OC added, reports UNB. On receiving information, police rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control.

Later, police conducted a drive at the village and arrested six people along with machetes and sticks in connection with the incident.

Both leaders blamed each other for the clash.

The OC also said additional police forces were deployed in the area for a tense situation prevailing there since after the incident. l

Influential people cut down a government road and lifted the soil for using it in a brickfield that was set up without permission at the Nalkata area under Panchhari upazila of the Khagrachhari district.

As a result, the only road between the Khagrachhari district headquarters and Panchhari has become vulnerable and might result in a mudslide at any time crippling communications.

However, mysteriously the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) remains silent instead of taking actions against the culprits.

Local sources said they are the owner of the road and 30 feet of adjacent areas on both sides. Last whole week four influential individuals including, Monir Ahmed, Saddam Hossain, Anil Chakma and Samor Bikash Chakma

15 sentenced to life for murder in Netrakona

n Our Correspondent, Netrokona At least 15 people were sentenced to life in a murder case that was filed in Netrakona.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Mohammad Abdul Hamid handed down the verdict, plus a fine of Tk20,000 for each person, or a default of two years added imprisonment.

The convicts are - Md Abdul Haque, Mohammad Abdur Rahaman, Mohammad Sattar, Mohammad Mostafa, Mohammad Safiqul Islam, Mohammad Abu Jahed, Mohammad Abu Sayem, and Mohammad Nandu Mia of Alampur village, Abdul Kaddus, Mohammad Jahed Mia, Mohammad Choab Mia, Mohammad Abdul Hi, Mohammad Toufil Mia and Mohammad Shahid Mia of Nagergati village and Fazal Mia of Bilaspur village under Kendua upazila of the district.

As per the case, on November 12, 2001, the guilty parties killed Abdus Salam of Nagergati village using sharp weapons due to a prior feud.

Ramjan Ali, uncle of the deceased, Abdus Salam, filed a murder case with Durgapur police station in this connection.

Police after investigation submitted charge sheet to the court against those guilty of committing the crime. After examining witnesses and evidence, the judge found them guilty and handed down the verdict. l

One held with cumin in Jamalpur

n BSS

Supporting hartal Jatiyatabadi Mohila Dal brings out a stick procession in Bogra town yesterday

FOCUS BANGLA

Police arrested a man with 20kg of Indian cumin in Bakshiganj upazila on Sunday afternoon.

The arrested was identified as Habibur Rahman, 48, son of late Eyad Ali in Rajibpur upazila under Kurigram district.

Police said acting on a tip-off, a team of Bakshiganj police raided the ‘Tinani Mor’ area of the upazila and arrested him with the smuggled cumin.

A case was registered with Bakshiganj police station. l

cut down government roads ignoring laws. Neither the RHD nor the district administration has taken any actions against them, they added.

Mysteriously the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) remains silent instead of taking actions against the culprits “They collected and stalked soil, by cutting down the road which may result in a mudslide at any time and cripple communication, they added”.

The brickfield’s owner Monir Ahmed, Saddam Hossain, Anil Chakma and Samor Bikash Chakma admitted that they did stalk the soil just adjacent to the government road.

“Labours, who we hired for collecting the soil that they stalked last year have mistakenly cut down the govern-

ment street,” they said, and added that they would fill the place up and repair it as early as possible.

Deputy Commissioner, Md Masud Karim admitted the incident and told the Dhaka Tribune that he had sent a mobile court led by executive magistrate Mohammad Asaduzzaman on Sunday afternoon, but the culprits ran away sensing the presence of the law.

The same magistrate also went to their brickfield but found that shut down, DC said.

“I asked RHD authority to take stern actions against the road plunders, he added”.

Executive Engineer of Khagrachhari district’s RHD Mohammad Ismail Hossain said he would take action against the culprits after consulting with the deputy commissioner but refused to disclose how much time he needs in this regard. l

NEWS IN BRIEF Miscreants set railway track on fire

Police arrested an employee of a sugar mill for his alleged involvement in setting the railway track on fire at Mobarakganj in Kaliganj upazila on Monday morning. The arrested man was identified as Manwar Hossain, an employee of the Mobarakganj Sugar Mills Limited. Kaliganj police sources said Manwar and some of his associates burned two tyres on the railway track at Mobarakganj on Monday morning.

They also exploded two crackers. Police detained Manwar Hossain, but when the Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal held a rally his associates managed to flee. The first day of the 60-hour nationwide hartal called by the opposition is underway in the district.

– Our Correspondent

Three jailed for 10 years in robbery case A Sylhet court on Sunday convicted three people and sentenced them to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment each for committing a robbery in the city in 1997. The court also fined them Tk10,000 each, in default, to suffer one year more RI. The convicts were identified as Babul Ahmed alias Babul Dakat, son of late Aslam Ali of Silam Sarkarchak village of South Surma upazila of the district, Nazmul alias Nazmul Dakat of Kanishail village of Magura district, and Khalilur Rahman alias Kutumona, son of late Abdul Goni of Koslom Nonodpur village of Magura. According to the prosecution, a gang of robbers looted huge gold ornaments, cash Tk61,000 and other valuables storming a house at Sagardighipar in the city on October 3, 1997. Later, the house owner filed a case against some unidentified people with Kotwali police station. Police submitted a charge sheet to the court accusing Babul, Nazmul, Kutumona and Kinu Lal on May 5, 1998. – UNB

Drug peddler held with hemp in Jessore Members of Border Guard Bangladesh arrested an alleged drug peddler along with 1kg of hemp in Mankia Bazar area near Raghunathpur border in Sharsha upazila on Sunday night. BGB also recovered an

Indian-made motorcycle from his possession. The arrestee was identified as Ismail, 27, son of Abdur Razzak of Raghunathpur village. Habildar Abdur Rahim of Jessore BGB-26 battalion of said being tipped off a team of Raghunathpur camp BGB conducted a drive in the area and arrested Ismail along with the narcotic item. Later, he was handed over to Benapole port police. A case was filed under the Narcotics Control Act. – UNB

Electrician electrocuted in Jamalpur An electrician was electrocuted at Uttar Bazar under Bakshiganj upazila of the district Sunday night. The victim was identified as Moniruzzaman Monir, 20, son of Hossain Ali of Kusumhati village in Sherpur district. Police and local sources said Monir died on the spot as he came in contact with a live electric wire while he was giving a new electric connection to a private Bank at the Bazar. – BSS

Firearms recovered in Jessore Members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB6) in a drive recovered one foreign made pistol, two shutter guns, 11 round bullets and 1kg gunpowder from Barandipara area of the district town yesterday morning.

Acting on a tip-off, a team of the elite force conducted a drive in the area and recovered the firearms, RAB sources said. A case was filed with Jessore Kotwali police station in this connection. – BSS

Two cousins drown in Kushtia Two minor cousins drowned in a pond at Naodakhadimpur village in Mirpur upazila yesterday. The deceased were identified as Nazmul Islam, 7, son of Majibar Rahman Sardar, and his cousin Jisan, 7, son of Ekramul Haque Sardar of the village. Locals said Nazmul and Jisan went to the pond near their house at noon to take bath.

However, they slipped into deep water and drowned as they did not know how to swim. A pall of gloom descended on the area following the incident. – UNB

8

DHAKA TRIBUNE

International

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

No clemency for Snowden: White House n AP, Washington

An unidentified woman walks under an anti-US graffiti painted on the walls of the former US Embassy in Tehran

AP

Protesters swarm former US Embassy in Tehran n AP, Tehran Tens of thousands of demonstrators packed the streets Monday outside the former US Embassy in Tehran in the biggest anti-American rally in years, a show of support for hard-line opponents of President Hassan Rouhani’s historic outreach to Washington.

Such protests occur every year outside the former embassy compound to mark the anniversary of the 1979 takeover following the Islamic Revolution.

But the latest demonstration is the largest in years after calls by groups such as

the powerful Revolutionary Guard for a major showing, including chants of “death to America” that some of Rouhani’s backers have urged halted.

The crowds also send a message to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who cautiously has backed Rouhani’s overtures to the US and efforts to end the impasse with the West over Tehran’s nuclear program.

Opponents of thawing relations with the US say they will not back down, opening the prospect of deeper internal rifts and tensions that could put pressure on Khamenei to recon-

sider his backing of Rouhani’s groundbreaking exchanges with the US. In September, Rouhani accepted from a call from US President Barack Obama following the annual UN General Assembly in New York, where US Secretary of State John Kerry held talks with Iran’s foreign minister. Ties between the two countries were severed after the embassy siege, which began a hostage crisis with 52 people held for 444 days.

Critics of the dialogue made their views immediately known, hurling insults and eggs at Rouhani’s entourage upon their return from New York. Late

Militants attack Nigeria wedding convoy, kill 30 n Reuters, Abuja

Egypt: Morsi’s trial adjourned until Jan 8

Suspected Islamist militants fired on a convoy of people returning from a wedding party in northeastern Nigeria, killing 30 of them, including the groom, local government authorities said on Monday.

But the military in charge of the area denied the report, saying only five people had been killed in the attack late on Saturday.

Adamawa state spokesman Ahmad Sajo said the attack happened along the Bama-Gwoza road just in neighbouring Borno state, as some of the wedding party were leaving.

The forested area has become a favoured hideout for fighters of Islamist sect Boko Haram, which wants to carve an Islamic state out of religiously-mixed Nigeria, since a military offensive in May scattered their insurgency.

Sajo said he had received a report of the 30 deaths from the military in Adamawa division, who had in turn received it from the Borno state military. l

Egyptian security officials say ousted President Mohammed Morsi has told the court trying him for inciting violence and murder that he remains the “legitimate president” of the country.

The officials say Morsi also said he rejects the proceedings against him.

The defiant remarks came shortly after Morsi’s trial began in Cairo on Monday.

n AP, Cairo

The officials, who are inside the courtroom, spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to discuss the proceedings.

The officials say Morsi’s comments came in response to a judge calling his name out after identifying him as a “defendant.”

Morsi replied: “I am Dr Mohammed Morsi, the president of the republic. I am Egypt’s legitimate president.” l

Kenya charges four with aiding mall attackers n Reuters, Nairobi A Kenyan court charged four Somali men on Monday with terrorist offences for helping al Qaeda-linked militants carry out an attack on a shopping mall in Nairobi that killed 67 people.

Few details have emerged so far about the how the September attack

was masterminded or how gunmen held off Kenyan security forces for four days in the Westgate mall. The assault was claimed by the Somali Islamist group al Shabaab.

US, British, Israeli and other experts joined Kenyan investigators at the site of the attack, which struck at the heart of east Africa’s biggest economy. l

last month, huge banners appeared around Tehran depicting the US as a sinister and deceitful adversary that seeks to weaken Iran. Tehran officials ordered the signs removed, but they appeared in poster form at the demonstration Monday outside the former embassy compound.

Protesters also stomped on images of Obama and the US flag. Others carried well-known banners reading “We trample America under our feet” and “The US is the Great Satan.” One image showed Obama in a wrestling uniform with Star of David earrings, symbolising Israel. l

Kerry urges US-Saudi ties to stay on track n AFP, Riyadh Secretary of State John Kerry called Monday for US-Saudi ties to stay “on track” ahead of talks with King Abdullah, after Saudi anger over US policy in the region flared into the open.

The top US diplomat was hastily dispatched to Riyadh to patch things up after rare complaints from the top Saudi leadership emerged in recent weeks.

“Right now we have some very important things to talk about to make certain the Saudi-US relationship is on track, moving forward and doing the things that we need to accomplish,” he told US embassy staff in Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia, locked in a decades-long rivalry with Iran, is concerned that proposed Syrian peace talks could leave a Tehran-backed regime in place in Damascus and that a breakthrough in nuclear negotiations could also lead to a US rapprochement with its arch foe.

Kerry paid tribute to the conservative oil-rich kingdom’s traditional role in the region, praising the Saudis as “really the senior player in the Arab world.”

Washington and Riyadh shared many current concerns, he said, high-

Jailed Pussy Riot activist missing

Mali arrests suspects in journalists’ murder n AFP, Moscow Jailed Pussy Riot punk Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has not been heard AFP, Bamako n from for nearly two weeks since she Around a dozen suspects have been arrested over the killing of two French journalists in Mali, a police source in the north of the country told AFP on Monday.

Radio France Internationale (RFI) reporter Ghislaine Dupont, 57, and sound technician Claude Verlon, 55, were kidnapped and killed by what Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said were “terrorist groups” in the flashpoint northeastern town of Kidal on Saturday.

“A dozen suspects have been arrested since the murder of two Radio France Internationale (RFI) journalists,” said the source in Gao, the main city in northern Mali.

Their murder has shaken France, which just days ago was celebrating the return of four hostages who had been held for three years after being abducted in Mali’s neighbour Niger.

Fabius told RTL radio on Monday “operations” were under way in Mali in a bid to “identify a certain number of people in camps.” l

left her Russian prison colony following demands to be transferred to another, her husband said on Saturday.

In September, Tolokonnikova went on hunger strike in protest at what she called murder threats and “slave labour conditions” in the penal colony in Mordovia.

Tolokonnikova’s husband Pyotr Verzilov said his wife had been incommunicado since she left the camp, some 400km from Moscow, on October 22.

“We have not heard from Nadezhda for 13 days now,” Verzilov, leader of the art group Voina (War), told AFP. “We believe that the prison service has chosen this peculiar method to punish her.”

He added that according to sources Tolokonnikova was known to be passing through the city of Chelyabinsk in the Urals last month.

Supporters on Saturday picketed the headquarters of the prison service in Moscow.

The Federal Service for the Execu-

tion of Punishment has confirmed that Tolokonnikova was being transferred to another colony but refused to give details.

Voina said on Twitter that the prison service said Tolokonnikova’s whereabouts would be revealed “later.”

Tolokonnikova and her bandmate

The White House and the leaders of the intelligence committees in Congress are rejecting National Security Agency-contractor Edward Snowden’s plea for clemency.

“Mr Snowden violated US law,” White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer said Sunday about the former systems-analyst-turned-fugitive who has temporary asylum in Russia.

“He should return to the US and face justice,” Pfeiffer said, adding when pressed that no offers for clemency were being discussed.

Snowden made the plea in a letter given to a German politician and released Friday. In his one-page typed letter, he asks for clemency for charges over allegedly leaking classified information about the NSA to the news media. “‘’Speaking the truth is not a crime,” Snowden wrote.

Snowden’s revelations, including allegations that the US has eavesdropped on allies including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, have led to calls by allies to cease such spying, and moves by Congress to overhaul US surveillance laws and curb the agency’s powers.

But the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee said if Snowden had been a true whistle-blower, he could have reported it to her committee privately.

“That didn’t happen, and now he’s done this enormous disservice to our country,” said Democratic Sen Dianne Feinstein. “I think the answer is no clemency.”

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep Mike Rogers, called clemency for Snowden a “terrible idea.”

“He needs to come back and own up,” said Rogers, a Republican. “If he believes there’s vulnerabilities in the

systems he’d like to disclose, you don’t do it by committing a crime that actually puts soldiers’ lives at risk in places like Afghanistan.”

Rogers contended that Snowden’s revelations had caused three terrorist organisations to change how they communicate.

Both lawmakers addressed word that President Barack Obama did not realise Merkel’s personal phone was being tapped.

Rogers implied that he didn’t believe the president, or European leaders who claimed they were shocked by Snowden’s allegations.

“I think there’s going to be some best actor awards coming out of the White House this year and best supporting actor awards coming out of the European Union,” he said “Some notion that ... some people just didn’t have an understanding about how we collect information to protect the United States to me is wrong.”

Feinstein said she didn’t know what the president knew, but said she intended to conduct a review of all intelligence programs to see if they were going too far.

“Where allies are close, tapping private phones of theirs ... has much more political liability than probably intelligence viability,” she said.

Feinstein and Rogers have taken grief for defending the NSA. Feinstein’s committee produced a bill last week that she says increases congressional oversight and limits some NSA powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Privacy advocates say the measure codifies the agency’s rights to scoop up millions of Americans’ telephone records. Former NSA and CIA director Mike Hayden said it was possible Obama did not know about the alleged Merkel phone tapping.l

Maria Alyokhina are serving a two-year sentence for their punk group’s performance in a Moscow church criticising President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church’s close links to the Kremlin.

Both have small children and are scheduled for release in March. l

John Kerry is escorted by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal lighting the difficult transition in Egypt, the war in Syria and Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

“I particularly wanted to have the opportunity to visit with his majesty the king, “ Kerry told staff of the American mission in Riyadh’s diplomatic quarter.

He repeated US assurances that Iran “will not get a nuclear weapon” after

New Zealand police on Monday said they were investigating a gang of young males who boasted online about stupefying underage girls with alcohol then having group sex with them. In a case that has raised concerns about how to police online bullying, Prime Minister John Key said the claims made by the Auckland-based group were “abhorrent” but were difficult to prosecute without hard evidence. The group, calling themselves “Roast Busters” and mostly reportedly aged in their late teens, bragged about using social media to meet girls as young as 13 then have sex with them after plying them with drinks.

Alligator found under escalator at Chicago airport

A member of the female punk rocker band Pussy Riot stands in a defendants cage prior to a court hearing in Moscow AP

stressing a day earlier, in a veiled warning to Tehran, that Washington would stand by its friends.

“We will be there for Saudi Arabia, for the Emirates, for Qataris, for the Jordanians, for the Egyptians and others. We will not allow those countries to be attacked from outside. We will stand with them,” Kerry told reporters Sunday during a brief visit to Cairo. l

WORLD WATCH New Zealand police probe claims of online ‘rape club’

A small alligator found under an escalator at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport has left authorities puzzled. A maintenance worker discovered the alligator, which is about a foot long, on Friday in Terminal 3, Chicago Police spokesman Jose Estrada said Sunday. An officer captured the reptile by putting a trash can over it. It is now being cared for by the Chicago Herpetological Society.

AP

Six ‘gangsters’ killed in South Africa vigilante attack

Six people were killed Sunday when residents of a township on the outskirts of Johannesburg attacked a group of suspected gang members, South African police said. Some of the victims were burned alive and two were stoned to death by groups of vigilantes who struck after 400 men living in the township met to discuss the problems caused by local gangs. Residents of South Africa’s townships frequently take justice into their own hands, frustrated by what they see as the failure of the country’s police and justice system to tackle crime.

Eight dead in crash of small Bolivian airliner

Bolivian authorities say a small airliner crashed while trying to land at an airport in northern Bolivia and eight people died. A hospital official in the city of Riberalta says two of the 10 people who survived Sunday’s crash suffered serious injuries. Hospital director Jose Luis Pereira told the ABI state news agency those two were one of the plane’s two pilots and a woman passenger. The Aerocon plane reportedly landed in heavy rain and wind in Riberalta, north of La Paz. .

DHAKA TRIBUNE

International

9

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

No peace through ‘senseless Pakistan government to meet to review US ties force’: Pakistan PM n

hardline 1996-2001 Taliban regime in Kabul and is believed to shelter some of the movement’s top leaders.

Sharif came to power in May partly on a pledge to hold talks to try to end the TTP’s bloody insurgency that has fuelled instability in the nuclear-armed nation.

Relations had appeared to be warming after lurching from crisis to crisis in 2011 and 2012.

Opposition parties led by Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf party have demanded the government close Pakistan’s roads to convoys supplying Nato forces in Afghanistan.

The party has said it will block Nato convoys in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where it is in power, which would cut off one of the main crossing points into Afghanistan.

Pakistan blocked Nato convoys for seven months in 2012 after a botched US air raid killed 24 troops.

With Nato withdrawing 87,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of next year after 12 years of war, the ground supply lines through Pakistan are of vital importance. l

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday warned peace could not be achieved “by unleashing senseless force,” in his first public speech since a US drone strike killed Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud.

The killing of Mehsud on Friday as government representatives prepared to meet his Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) faction triggered an angry response from Islamabad while Afghan president Hamid Karzai said the strike “took place at an unsuitable time.”

Pakistan’s interior minister Chaudhry Nisar on Saturday accused Washington of sabotaging peace efforts with the drone strike.

Though Sharif did not mention the drone strike directly, he stressed his desire to “give peace a chance.”

“My government is firmly resolved to bringing the cycle of bloodshed and violence to an end.

“But it cannot be done overnight, nor can it be done by unleashing senseless force against our citizens, without first making every effort to bring the

misguided and confused elements of society, back to the mainstream,” he said in a speech after army exercises near Bahawalpur in Punjab province.

Sharif is to hold a meeting of his cabinet security committee on Monday evening after a furious Nisar said “every aspect” of Islamabad’s ties with Washington would be reviewed.

Afghan leader Karzai meanwhile told a US Congress delegation visiting Kabul he hoped the peace process, still at an embryonic stage, did not suffer as a result, according to a statement released by his office late Sunday.

The TTP operate separately from the Afghan Taliban but notionally pledge allegiance to the same leader, Mullah Omar. Karzai has been seeking to open peace talks with the Afghan Taliban to end 12 years of war, but the Islamist militants have refused to negotiate with his appointees, dismissing him as a puppet of Washington.

Karzai, who recently held talks with Sharif in London, said fraught relations between Kabul and Islamabad had improved.

Pakistan was a key backer of the

Pakistan’s Musharraf granted bail in last legal case against him

Suspected militants kill seven villagers in India attack

AFP, Islamabad

n AFP, Islamabad

A Pakistan court on Monday granted bail to former military ruler Pervez Musharraf over a deadly raid on a radical mosque, bringing closer his possible release after more than six months of house arrest.

The ruling by an Islamabad district court means the ex-general is on bail in all the cases brought against him since his return to Pakistan from self-imposed exile, including one relating to the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

But the 70-year-old is likely to remain under heavy guard at his villa on the edge of Islamabad, where he has been under house arrest since April, because of serious threats to his life.

Judge Wajid Ali approved bail on condition Musharraf pays bonds totalling 200,000 rupees ($2,000). The trial is due to start on November 11. l

n AFP, Guwahati Suspected militants, heavily armed and dressed in army fatigues, opened fire on villagers in restive northeast India, killing at least seven and wounding nine others, police officers said on Monday.

The rebels attacked the villagers late Sunday in Golapara district of Assam state, while they were playing cards during festivities to celebrate the Hindu holiday of Diwali, two senior officers said.

The militants, belonging to the outlawed separatist group the Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA), fired on the villagers, killing seven, state Inspector General SN Singh said.

“A group of about six to seven GNLA militants armed with AK-47 assault rifles opened fire randomly on a group of

villagers,” Singh told AFP. “Witnesses said the militants were dressed in camouflage fatigues,” Singh said, adding that seven of the nine wounded villagers were in a serious condition.

Soldiers were deployed following the attack in Agia village of the district, about 230 kilometres west of Assam’s largest city Guwahati, where deadly violence between rival ethnic tribal groups has long taken place.

“Being a Diwali day, these people were playing cards in front of two tea shops and at that time militants in army fatigues came and fired indiscriminately at them,” senior police officer AP Raut told NDTV news.

The GNLA from neighbouring Meghalaya state has been demanding a separate homeland for the Garo tribe. l

Pressure mounts on Indian PM to boycott Commonwealth meet n AFP, New Delhi

thousands of mainly ethnic minority Tamils were killed in the final months of Sri Lanka’s separatist war.

Leaders on both sides of Indian politics are wary of upsetting an important constituency in Tamil Nadu months before the country holds national elections.

India’s foreign ministry spokesman said last week no final decision has been taken on whether Singh will attend the November 15-17 meet.

The pressure on Singh comes after Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper urged his counterparts in April to follow him in boycotting the meeting of the 53-nation bloc. l

n AFP, Islamabad

Pakistan’s prime minister is to chair a meeting of his top security advisors Monday evening to review relations with the US following the drone strike that killed Taliban leader Hakmullah Mehsud.

The killing of the feared chief of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which is blamed for killing thousands in a six-year battle against the state, in a drone attack on Friday sparked a furious response from Islamabad.

The government was taking the first steps towards initiating talks with the militants when Mehsud was killed, prompting Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar to accuse Washington of “scuttling” peace efforts.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai added his voice to criticism of the US, saying the killing of Mehsud came at “an unsuitable time” and hoping the peace process did not suffer as a result.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif came to power in May partly on a pledge to hold talks to try to end the TTP’s bloody insurgency that has fuelled instability in the nuclear-armed nation.

On Saturday a furious Nisar said “every aspect” of Islamabad’s ties with Washington would be reviewed by the cabinet security council, at a time when they appeared to be warming after lurching from crisis to crisis in 2011 and 2012.

Opposition parties led by Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party have demanded the government close Pakistan’s roads to convoys supplying Nato forces in Afghanistan.

PTI has said it will block Nato convoys in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where it is in power, which would cut off one of the main crossing points into Afghanistan.

Pakistan blocked Nato convoys for seven months in 2012 after a botched US air raid killed 24 troops.

With Nato withdrawing 87,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of next year after 12 years of war, the ground supply lines through Pakistan are of vital importance.

Anti-American sentiment runs deep in Pakistan and drone strikes are hugely unpopular, with many criticising them both for civilian deaths and as a violation of sovereignty. l

The Afghan president has criticised the timing of a US drone strike that killed the Pakistani Taliban leader, after an angry Islamabad expressed fears the death would undermine planned peace talks.

The killing Friday of Hakimullah Mehsud, the feared chief of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) which has killed thousands in a six-year insurgency, sparked a furious response from the Pakistan government.

Islamabad was taking the first steps towards initiating talks with the militants when Mehsud was killed, prompting Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar to accuse Washington of “scuttling” peace efforts.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai added his voice to the criticism, telling a US Congress delegation visiting Kabul that the drone strike “took place at an unsuitable time,” his office said in a statement released late Sunday.

The statement said Karzai hoped the peace process, still at an embryonic stage, did not suffer as a result.l

No sign of more survivors in Myanmar boat sinking n AP, Yangon

Chairman of the Indian Space and Research Organization (ISRO) K. Radhakrishnan speaks during an interview at his office AP

India vies for elite role in space with Mars trip n AP, New Delhi India is aiming to join the world’s deepspace pioneers with a journey to Mars that it hopes will showcase its technological ability to explore the solar system while seeking solutions for everyday problems on Earth.

With a Tuesday launch planned for Mangalyaan, which means “Mars craft” in Hindi, India will attempt to become only the fourth country or group of countries to reach the Red Planet, after the Soviet Union, United States and Europe.

“We have a lot to understand about the universe, the solar system where we live in, and it has been humankind’s quest from the beginning,” said K Radhakrishnan, chairman of the Indian Space and Research Organisation.

India sees its Martian mission primarily as a “technology demonstration,” Radhakrishnan said. “We want to

use the first opportunity to put a spacecraft and orbit it around Mars and, once it is there safely, then conduct a few meaningful experiments and energize the scientific community.”

Radhakrishnan admits the aim is high. This is India’s first Mars mission, and no country has been fully successful on its first try. More than half the world’s attempts to reach Mars — 23 out of 40 missions — have failed, including missions by Japan in 1999 and China in 2011.

If India can pull it off, it will demonstrate a highly capable space program that belongs within an elite club of governments exploring the universe.

Mangalyaan is scheduled to blast off Tuesday from the Indian space centre on the southeastern island of Shriharikota, the start of a 300-day, 780 million-kilometre journey to orbit Mars and survey its geology and atmosphere. l

A senior Indian minister Monday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to boycott a Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka over human rights abuses, joining opposition in government ranks to the trip.

Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan said she wanted Singh to consider the “strong sentiments” of ethnic Tamils and stay away from the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo next week.

“I will write to the PM asking him to skip the CHOGM meet,” Natarajan

told reporters in Tamil, comments that were translated into English by national television networks.

“I have requested a meeting with the PM. I want to convey the strong sentiments of people of Tamil Nadu on his Sri Lanka visit,” she said.

The minister, a member of the ruling Congress party, was speaking in Chennai, the capital of southern Tamil Nadu state, whose population shares close cultural and religious ties with Sri Lanka’s ethnic Tamils. Shipping Minister G K Vasan, who like Natarajan represents Tamil Nadu in the national parliament, has also urged a boycott over claims

Terror at sea as Thai tourist ferry sinks

Thai protesters march against amnesty

Thai rescuers Monday recounted frantic efforts to pluck terrified survivors from the sea after a crowded tourist ferry sank, leaving six dead including three foreigners, as police searched for the captain who fled.

The tragedy raised new questions about safety standards in the kingdom, which drew a record 22 million tourists last year but is struggling to shake off a reputation for lax regulation.

Three Thais, one person from Hong Kong and two other unidentified foreigners were among the dead, according to officials in the tourist resort of Pattaya, around 150km southeast of Bangkok.

The double-decker ferry sank on Sunday afternoon near Koh Larn, a small island popular with day-trippers from Pattaya, a popular beach resort renowned for its racy nightlife.

“The boat went down in minutes. I saw people – some with life jackets, some without – in the water. One man was holding on to a gas cylinder. There was a body face down in the water. They were all panicking, shouting for help,” said a local dive guide who was one of the first on the scene. “We pulled 60 people from the water, including a Russian boy. We gave him CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) but he was in a very bad way,” she said, asking not to be named. l

Thousands of protesters marched through Bangkok on Monday, seeking to raise pressure on the Thai government over its controversial political amnesty bill.

The opposition, which organised the demonstration, fears that the legislation could allow fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to return.

More than 10,000 protesters joined the march to the Grand Palace from a railway station in the city where they had held several days of rallies since Thursday, according to police.

“Today is a significant day when we will march,” said opposition MP and former deputy premier Suthep Thaugsuban.

“It is time to unite to fight and ask people who love the country to protect our nation,” he told a cheering crowd.

More than 1,000 people, including office workers on their lunch break, joined a second demonstration against the amnesty in the Silom financial and shopping district.

Small protests were also reported in several provincial towns in northeastern Thailand – usually the pro-Thaksin heartland. The former telecoms tycoon, who was toppled in a military coup in 2006, remains a hugely divisive figure in Thailand. l

n AFP, Pattaya

Karzai criticises timing of killing of Pakistan Taliban chief n AFP, Islamabad

Malaysia warns on dengue as deaths spike n AFP, Kuala Lampur

n AFP, Bangkok

Anti-government demonstrators fill up a street during a march rally in front Democracy Monument in Bangkok

Family members were scouring the coastline off western Myanmar on Monday, a day after a boat carrying at least 70 Muslim Rohingya capsized, but there were no new signs of survivors, a community leader said.

Only eight people have been plucked from the waters alive.

The overloaded boat was in the Bay of Bengal and headed for Bangladesh when it sank early Sunday, just four hours after leaving shore, said Aung Win, a Rohingya Muslim community leader.

He was speaking fron Sittwe, the Rakhine state capital.

“There were many, many women and children on board,” Aung Win said, as he prepared to go to the beach to check on efforts by loved ones to search for bodies.

“Some were hoping to continue on to Malaysia, Indonesia or other third countries.”

Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist nation, has been gripped by sectarian violence in the last year.

Many of the 240 people killed and 240,000 others forced to flee their homes have been Rohingya, described by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted religious minorities in the world.

Dan McNorton, a spokesman for the UN High Commission for Refugees, warned that this year’s exodus of desperate people from Rakhine could be one of the biggest ever.

Around 1,500 people are believed to have fled, just in the last week, he said.

The agency had received several reports of drownings and was seeking details from authorities. l

AP

A Malaysian health official on Monday warned citizens to take steps to eliminate mosquito breeding spots as dengue fever cases have spiked.

The number of reported cases of the infection, which causes severe fever, headaches and joint pain and can trigger fatal haemorrhaging and death, has soared compared to last year, and deaths have doubled.

Between January and late October, 28,200 cases and 60 deaths were recorded, according to government statistics.

There were 17,800 cases and 29 deaths during the same period last year.

Officials have said a key factor has been frequent heavy downpours in recent weeks.

The disease is spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito which, like other mosquitoes, breeds in stagnant water and other damp spots.

Lokman Hakim Sulaiman, who heads the health ministry’s public health division, said the ministry was calling on all Malaysians to “destroy all the breeding places,” such as illegal dump sites.l

10

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Editorial

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Letters to

www.dhakatribune.com

the Editor

LETTER OF THE DAY

A welcome addition to public space

I

t was recently announced that the Dhaka Central Jail, which is being converted into a museum and park, would be opened to the public in the first week of December.

We wholeheartedly welcome this news since this can add a lot of value to the lives of Dhaka residents where public space and educational/entertainment venues are few and far between.

The central jail facilities will be moved outside of Dhaka to Keraniganj, leaving behind the already existing Bangabandhu Memorial Public spaces are vital Museum and the National Four for the health of the Leaders Memorial Museum, national psyche – they which was installed inside the jail connect us to our past, compound.

It is expected that the museum help us appreciate the collection will be expanded to incultural and natural clude objects used by prominent wealth of our country, historical figures such as Masterand inspire us to forge a da Shurjo Sen and Bangabandhu narrative for the future Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

In addition to the museum, the remaining area of the jail will be turned into a public park, a much needed relief in the congested old Dhaka area.

Such a facility can add enormous value to public life in our country by helping to educate our population, and in particular future generations, about our history.

As the central jail facilities are situated in a former Mughal fort, the move to convert it into a museum would also serve to preserve a historical heritage that extends beyond the conception of Bangladesh.

Public spaces such as museums, art galleries and parks are vital for the health of the national psyche – they connect us to our past, help us appreciate the cultural and natural wealth of our country, and inspire us to forge a narrative for the future.

We hope to see more of such initiatives to build and enrich the public space in Bangladesh.

Producing artificial blood November 3

This remarkable and extraordinary medical discovery, reported in the back page of a local English daily on November 2 by scientists of an unknown university in Rumania could well be the most salutary event of this decade, or maybe even this century! I am sure, few people if any in Bangladesh, have heard of the Babes-Bolyal University at Cluj-Napoca in Rumania.

This event is bound to bring fame to the university and Rumania!

In the days to come, blood may be available over-the-counter, like any other medicine, at any pharmacy. And this discovery will ease the matter of blood transfusions that now require matching of the blood type and grouping. This will be a great boon, as blood is needed in case of accidents, injuries and during surgery, or other medical situations. There will no longer be any need for matching human donors, which quite often aren’t even readily available even in the hospital’s blood bank.

This breakthrough will lead to more studies, related to short and long-term effects on normal blood in the human body, for those who are normally healthy as well as sick. I am sure, these discoverers will be duly recognised for this greatly important breakthrough in medical research.

Engr SA Mansoor

In the public interest October 30

Taking no lesson from the past November 1

The present political standoff is a sharp reminder of the incidents that took place back in 1996 owing to the then opposition parties’ firm demand for installation of the provisions of non-party caretaker election-time government in the Constitution to oversee parliamentary polls and the then ruling BNP’s persistent refusal to pay heed to that demand.

Now we are haplessly witnessing the same old drama of confrontational politics being played, with the slight modification that this time around the incumbent AL-government has taken the role of the then ruling BNP and present opposition BNP of the then opposition AL. This demonstrates our chronic unwillingness, if not inability, as a nation, to learn from the past.

This vicious circle will, no doubt, continue to haunt us until and unless political leaders of our country give up the culture of taking no lesson from the mistakes committed in the past.

W

Asaduzzaman (Jewel)

I suppose it was inevitable that once they started to kill each other, the political groups would then turn on innocent bystanders struggling to make a living.

Tim Steel What on earth are they trying to prove?

Sallyann Hall

AL not behind conversation release: Inu

It was not a wire-tapping of a private conversation by any chance. It was a national conversation between the prime minister and the leader of the opposition. Citizens have a right to listen to that.

Waliul Haque Khondker

Joy: Khaleda lies directly on August 21

Babul Sarwar Look at what these clowns are talking about!

We don’t care about that. We need peace.

We do not want thievery and bad politics at all.

Changing the existing rotten constitution is the demand of the day.

P Sarker Before holding the polls, enacting another law or amending the constitution will not change the country. The two top political leaders need to change their thoughts and acts first, while Ershad should be boycotted and tried for past misdeeds, and Jamaat-Shibir and other radical groups banned.

October 31

Perhaps he has forgotten that his mother was the only political leader who not only welcomed Moyeen-Fakhruudin’d interim government , but also attended Fakhruddin’s inaugual ceremony. And why does the US citizen find it necessary to comment on our political situation every time he visits his ma? rutland waters

Be Heard Write to us at: Dhaka Tribune FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath Sukrabad, Dhaka-1207 Email us at: letters@dhakatribune.com

The five-year myth

Send us your Op-Ed articles:

October 30

opinion@dhakatribune.com

Well written article. Finally an article on a Bangladeshi news website that can be read without much problems!

Samkqboro

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CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU ACROSS 1 Foundation (5) 6 Anger (3) 7 Precise (5) 10 Intelligent (5) 12 Put away (4) 13 Satisfies fully (5) 15 Night birds (4) 16 Petrol (US) (3) 18 Large cask (3) 20 Fencing weapon (4) 22 Sing softly (5) 23 Table-shaped hill (4) 25 Onward to (5) 27 Scolds (5) 28 Fate (3) 29 Makes level (5)

October 29

October 30

Bangladesh needs extradition treaties ar criminal Chowdhury Mueen Uddin will not be extradited by the UK as the British government does not believe in the death penalty. Hence, it cannot extradite someone who “could be, will be or has been” facing a death sentence.

In the meantime, convicted war criminal and al-Badr leader Ashrafuzzaman Khan is evading justice by living in the United States. Unlike the UK or Canada, however, the US has no official position against the extradition of those facing the gallows.

The death penalty is legal in the US, and is currently practiced in 32 states. The US has no philosophical or moral objecFugitives should not be tions to the death penalty. able to cross the border While the process of signing into India, or any other a treaty is not so simple, there country for that matter, is no reason an extradition and evade the law so agreement cannot be ultimately conveniently reached with them. The US has formal extradition arrangements with many nations, including India and Pakistan.

Bangladesh and India signed an extradition treaty last month.

That was a good step.

Fugitives should not be able to cross the border into India, or any other country for that matter, and evade the law so conveniently.

Bangladesh should take prompt steps to sign extradition treaties with countries where our convicted criminals are currently taking shelter. While we currently face many legal complexities in doing so, sustained and focused diplomatic efforts to forge more of these treaties are necessary to bring our convicted war criminals to justice.

Picketers kill truckdriver in Satkhania

DOWN 1 Divide into two (6) 2 Limb (3) 3 Time of the year (6) 4 Colonist (7) 5 Perform (3) 8 Donkey (3) 9 Roman garment (4) 11 Uncooked (3) 14 Embrace, as a cause (7) 16 Mild and kindly (6) 17 Tall supports (6) 19 Consumer (4) 21 Vast age (3) 22 Feline (3) 24 Droop (3) 26 Charged particle (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

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Op-Ed

Pay for progress

US and China getting along n Paul Eckert

W

Will their demands be met?

A

n Muhammad Eusha bout three years ago, long before the present nascent revolution in the garment industry started to develop, I wrote a series of articles for a national daily on the true reason behind the sporadic violent protests by the workers.

What we tend to forget is that even before the arguably greatest industrial accident ever took place, leaving over a thousand dead in a building collapse, garment industry workers had been intermittently out on the street giving vent to their frustration. I made some cogent observations before pronouncing a warning that no nation can achieve development while there is a constant refusal to pay labourers and workers justly.

Thinking about ‘digital’ Bangladesh before people even have enough to eat twice a day is like dreaming of running before one can walk I also pointed out that the problem of an oppressively low wage was not confined to the realm of the readymade garment industry only but is a pervasive and omnipresent phenomenon in the industrial sector.

In fact, as I reiterated similar statements in different articles time and again, the issue of an insufferably low wage is actually present in the agricultural, transportation and other small sectors the politicians have been too busy fighting one another to notice.

I shall endeavour to exemplify some of these cases, sector by sector, before restating a very important corollary – the absence of universal wage controlling regulations is contributing immensely in ensuring that there remains a gulf of difference between the standards of lives led by different groups of people so that mass poverty

11

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

NASHIRUL ISLAM

is sustained while a handful of people enjoy extraordinary affluence.

The goal of this piece is to awaken our policy makers to the essential fact that either there is a deplorable lack of ability and insight in those who have been entrusted with relevant responsibilities and authority, or they are deliberately and artfully choosing to ignore the inconvenient truth that the enjoyment of abundance by a few continues at the expense of suffering of millions.

Unjust wages and payments are forms of economic oppression and deliberately allowing them to persist in the society through discriminatory policies or through an inadvertent lack of awareness can in no way be tolerated under any condition.

Before I go further, it is necessary to point out that the term minimums and living wage are not very easy to define.

However, it would be completely justified to assume that it is an amount that is not demoralisingly low and is adequate for a family of a reasonable size to lead a life in which the idea of entering the posh sweetmeat shops of the capital is not considered absolutely preposterous.

Let us look at a representative list of the types of workers and laborers who are systematically deprived of a just reward for their toil. Domestic servants serving in the rich and the middle-class households in our country are nonchalantly denied a reasonable remuneration. Most of them serve day in and day out without any holidays and leisure residing at the masters’ house.

A very large fraction is not even granted a salary; they are given just food and shelter and are forced to toil like donkeys. This is nothing but a very mortifying example of modern day slavery. The second instance is that of the CNG three-wheeler drivers.

They endure the heat and the pollution of an almost unlivable city staying on the road and yet the mammoth share of what they amass by the end of the

day is taken away by the vehicle owners.

Rickshaw-pullers go through even worse ordeals, exposed as they are to the inclement atmosphere of the metropolis. Another extremely important example is the alarming oppression of the farmers in the agricultural sector.

If you are buying some grain in the city bazaars for Tk50 per kilogram, the greater share of that money is being siphoned off by middlemen leaving a dishearteningly low share for those who actually toiled under the merciless sun so that many people who have been cultivating for generations now are floating to the cities to accept slavery as a domestic servant, a CNG three-wheeler driver or a rickshaw-puller.

The middle class and the rich, of course, love to take advantage of the helplessness of these impecunious individuals and can exploit their miserable situation by asking them to agree to accept terribly unfair conditions of employment.

Not a single government of any party has shown any sustained interest in alleviating the misery of the poor by enacting regulations which would protect the rights of the deprived.

Not even once have we witnessed a political party making the pledge that it would stand by the poor if elected.

Instead we hear about “digital” Bangladesh and so called “progresses” which seem to do our poor no good.

The truth is, before “analog” Bangladesh becomes “digital”, there are problems which must be given more priority and the oppression of the poor is one such issue.

Thinking about “digital” Bangladesh before people even have enough to eat twice a day is like dreaming of running before one can walk. A lot more must be said on the topic of low wages and I intend to write another piece to expatiate on it further. l

fixing of workers’ wages at reasonably higher levels (somewhere between workers’ expectations and the owners’ capacity to pay) through mutual understanding on an agreed minimum wage demanded by the workers (Tk8,000 per month) and offered by the BGMEA authorities (Tk4,500 per month).

It is agreed by all that the current basic wages of the workers in Bangladesh (ie roughly $58 per month) is the lowest in the world and hence needs to be raised to ensure a decent level of living for the workers and their families.

Hard negotiations are going on among the relevant stakeholders to fix a basic minimum wage for the RMG workers, but possibilities of reaching a consensus seem to be moving away further. The BGMEA leader’s argument for not raising the wages as per worker’s demand is that the demand of the workers is untenable for at least two reasons.

First, it is unaffordable by them as being too high to raise cost of production and erode industry’s international competitiveness. Second, the workers’ productivity being low, compared to that in the neighbouring Asian countries, the workers’ demand for Tk8,000 per month is significantly above the “efficiency wage”.

Both the arguments are credible theoretically, but the ground reality dictates that considerations of more

pragmatic issues may sufficiently counter the owner’s arguments.

As far as international competitiveness of the RMG industry is concerned, the industry is currently enjoying large market shares primarily due to comparative cost advantages arising from unlimited supply of cheap labour.

Entrepreneurial management competence, market shares and technological innovations leading to higher productivity and overall enterprise level efficiency are now more important determinants of cost-effectiveness and market competitiveness. Indeed, superior product quality, design innovations, robust delivery performance, and excellent customer services are some of the distinctive manufacturing characteristics which are required to achieve world class excellence and strong competitive edge over the leading exporting nations involved in RMG businesses and exports.

Turning to the labour productivity issue in the export-oriented RMG industry, the BGMEA leaders have a significant stake to be mindful about arrangements for skill training for the production workers and supervisors and middle rank managers.

The ongoing efforts have to be intensified as part of their human resource development strategy. Thus, modern management efficiency, technology innovation and adaptation, human resource development,

Muhammad Eusha is an HVAC specialist and a DT columnist.

ith ties between Washington and many close allies strained because of eavesdropping revelations and differences over US policies in the Middle East, the Obama administration can take some comfort from an improvement in ties with China.

A year after China’s President Xi Jinping took over the helm of the country’s ruling Communist Party, senior US officials say they see increased cooperation on a range of issues from climate change to North Korea’s nuclear weapons ambitions.

They also regard greater bilateral military contacts as an important safety valve if there are any potential flare-ups.

On the economic front, Washington is focused on China’s November 9-12 Communist Party conclave where Xi’s blueprint for making the world’s second-largest economy more open is expected to be unveiled.

Xi’s administration already has spawned optimism with an agreement to reopen bilateral investment treaty talks and a pilot free trade zone in Shanghai that augurs well for deeper reforms to address Chinese investment and trade barriers.

Both could help dent the $300 billion annual US trade deficit with China.

Not all is rosy. Serious fault lines remain over issues that have long vexed the Sino-US relationship, such as human rights. Western experts and Chinese activists are concerned that China’s record on human rights may be worsening under Xi, who became China’s president in March, given there have been crackdowns on lawyers, activists and Internet opinion leaders.

Potential discord also lurks in China’s recent increasing recourse to what its critics call gunboat diplomacy in maritime territorial disputes with Asian neighbours, including US allies such as Japan and the Philippines.

But officials from both countries say they are committed to what China calls a “new model of major country relations” - a Xi mantra that aims to minimise Sino-US rivalry as China’s global power grows.

To Washington, the concept means “there is room on planet Earth for a rising, strong, stable, prosperous China and a United States that continues to serve as the champion of a liberal, democratic, free-market and rulesbased system,” said Daniel Russel, the State Department’s top Asia diplomat.

Washington and Beijing intend to “avoid a mechanistic dynamic in which a rising power and an enduring power were inevitably destined for conflict,” he added.

The most common concrete example US officials give of a better working relationship is North Korea, whose nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs are seen as one of Asia’s most serious security threats.

Washington has long sought to convince Beijing to do more to rein in Pyongyang, a Chinese ally since the

Korean War. North Korea’s nuclear test in early 2013, the latest of three since 2006, was accompanied by threats of nuclear attack on the United States and South Korea.

“We’ve seen (China) be more forward-leaning in applying pressure on the North Koreans,” said Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser for strategic communications.

“That’s in part because the cycle of provocation that was taking place in the spring was concerning to them because it was destabilising the region ... and ultimately it was not consistent with their own interest,” he told Reuters.

China, often criticised by the United States and its allies for weak enforcement of UN Security Council sanctions on the North, last month published a detailed list of technologies and goods banned from export to North Korea because of their potential use in weapons of mass destruction.

Priority issues

The narrowing of differences on North Korea was a key outcome from Xi’s informal summit with President Barack Obama last June in Rancho Mirage, California - a desert retreat that allowed the two leaders to meet for eight hours over two days.

A year after China’s President Xi Jinping took over the helm of the country’s ruling Communist Party, senior US officials say they see increased cooperation on a range of issues

That informal summit, mainly designed as a trust-building exercise, also produced an agreement to reduce the use of greenhouse gases and to launch a bilateral working group to hold regular discussions on cyber-security.

“The US and China are cooperating not on boutique projects, not on off-Broadway, where it doesn›t really matter, but on priority, critical issues that genuinely matter to both of our people and genuinely matter to the region and the world,” said Russel, who attended the summit, in an interview.

In early 2012, when Xi was China’s vice president, he toured the United States as a guest of US counterpart Joe Biden, visiting a small town in Iowa where he did a brief home stay in 1987, as well as Los Angeles and Washington.

The Washington trip included a visit to the Pentagon, which helped set up a packed 2013-14 calendar of exchanges between the two countries’ militaries. Military-to-military ties have long been the weakest link between the two powers. l This article has been syndicated from Reuters.

Share it with the workers n Momtaz Uddin Ahmed

T

he iconic status held by the RMG industry in Bangladesh’s national economy is acclaimed by all concerned nationally and globally. The industry’s current earning is over US $21bn in export receipts, contributes to nearly 80% of the country’s total export earnings and roughly 13-14% of the gross domestic product (GDP).

Nearly 5,000 RMG units constituting the industry provide employment opportunities to roughly 4 million men and women, which is close to two thirds of the work force employed in the manufacturing sector of Bangladesh.

Thus in every conceivable way, the RMG industry is the key driver of the growth of the national economy of Bangladesh and will play a crucial role towards sustained growth and expansion of the country’s industrial economy in the coming years.

Against this backdrop, the RMG industry is now under constant scrutiny by the international buyers because of severe turmoil besetting the industry.

The workers’ unrest for raising their abysmally low wages, fight against problems of irregular payments, poor working conditions poor safety standards, and consequent accidents and deaths, and especially the colossal loss of human lives and opportunities for livelihoods for the workers and their

families which are leading to constant loss of work and productivity in the RMG sector.

Because of frequent occurrences of such catastrophic incidents such as building collapse and devastating fire incidents and continued workers unrests, the industry is now facing a serious image problem globally.

Against this backdrop, the RMG industry is now under constant scrutiny by the international buyers because of severe turmoil besetting the industry

The RMG exporters of Bangladesh have already lost GSP facilities in the US market and similar impending threats are looming large in the European Union markets. These are glaring examples of several internal and external issues currently confronting the industry which need to be resolved for enabling the export-oriented industry to emerge as the world’s number one RMG exporting “powerhouse” surpassing China.

The most important contentious issue requiring a quick solution is a

enterprise level efficiency, effective labour-management co-operation, and greater customer orientation must be combined to ensure a greater competitive edge in the global market instead of depending on cheap labour.

The message being delivered is that instead of cutting corners on workers’ wages and ultimately their safety, prosperity must be shared with the workers as a humanitarian gesture

The message being delivered is that instead of cutting corners on workers’ wages and ultimately their safety, prosperity must be shared with the workers as a humanitarian gesture.

It has to be noted that besides the economic cost, the unmet demand of the workers for reasonable minimum wages (ie living wage) has social and humanitarian costs.

Industry leaders, foreign buyers, the government, and the workers representatives must amicably settle the wage and compliance issues and restore peaceful industrial relations to help maintain Bangladesh’s position in the global market. l Momtaz Uddin Ahmed is honorary professor of economics, University of Dhaka.

12

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Entertainment

Rhythm of Xylography on at Gallery Cosmos n Shadma Malik

African Couple by Emdadul Hoque Topu

Artwork of Quazi Iffat Newaz

Jol Kumari by Lamia Azad

A handful of young artists are displaying their talent on xylography in an ongoing art exhibition Rhythm of Xylography at the Gallery Cosmos 2 and it will continue till 7pm today.

The exhibition is the outcome of a seven-day workshop on printmaking, organised by the Cosmos Atelier 71 Printmaking Studio, which was held in June and was conducted by Md Amirul Momanin Chowdhury. Besides prints, the exhibition also features a number of soothing watercolour works. The workshop was a unique experience for the artist, as most of the artists were from different sectors of arts.

The title of the exhibition Rhythm of Xylography has been given by Dr Amirul Momanin Chowdhury. As he mentions: “The word ‘Xylography’ is the art of creating engraving on wood specifically by printing.”

Wood engraving is a technology based process, where an artist has to work with various chemicals. It is a photographic transformation of a sketch. The process of print making is often considered as an unpredictable artwork, since an artist is in the dark about the final output of the prints.

During the process of printing, the artist’s creativity works as an illusion. The medium offers an artist to work with sharper and neater lines.

Arrays of artworks by seventeen participants are on display at the gallery. Emdadul Hoque Topu’s artwork African Couple is an emblematic image, where the artist has worked with vibrant colours that reflect the essence of the African society.

Mehedi Hasan’s woodcut piece titled Couple portrays image of two horses and the artwork emanates a sensual quality that is quite noticeable.

Waiting by Lutfur Nahar Liza depicts the rural scenario, where a woman can be seen waiting for the return of someone. The woman in the image has been depicted with different contours and monochromic colours.

Afrozaa Jamil Konka’s Polluted Society highlights the drawback of a community. The artwork showcases the reality and dire situation of our society due to pollution. l

Waiting by Lutfun Nahar Liza

Rhythm of Xylography Group Art Exhibition Time: 11am – 7pm Gallery Cosmos-2 New DOHS, Mohakhali Exotic Jute II Time: 3pm – 8pm Alliance Francaise de Dhaka, Dhanmondi Nishobdo Solo Exhibition

By Shabekun Nahar

Time: 3pm - 9pm Alliance Francaise de Dhaka Dhanmondi When Silence Eats Sound Group Exhibition Time: 12pm – 8pm Bengal Art Lounge 60 Gulshan Avenue

Film

Planes in 3D Riddick Purno dhorgho prem kahini

n Afrose Jahan Chaity Popular anchor of different TV shows, Misti, is going to debut on the silver screen with her upcoming film “Patri Chai” directed by Wazed Ali Sumon.

She recently signed for the film, where she will be seen against Bappy Chowdhury.

The newcomer starlet had been approached by several directors and producers earlier, but she refused and took a back seat from the “glamour world,” as she is a medical student. She is well-liked in advertisements and finally decided to appear on the silver-screen.

Her decision was influenced by the fact that she wanted to debut with a role of her liking.

Recently she shared her vision in an interview with the Dhaka Tribune:

How are you planning on developing your acting career?

ON TV DRAMA 8:30pm Zee Tv Jodha Akbar

10:00pm Star Plus

Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hain

MOVIE 7:00pmFox Movies Premium

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9:30pm Star Movies Minority Report

COMEDY 12:00pm Big CBS Love Rules Of Engagement Couple by Mehedi Hasan

I am a novice in the acting arena, my cousin Sajal Ahmed is a director and he is also involved with theatre and gives me helpful acting tips. I got my basics straight from him. Acting teaches you something new everyday and my inexperience in the field prompts me to follow senior actors and learn from their performances.

I also watch movies and try to analyze and learn from observing styles of legendary actors.

Where do you see yourself ten years from now?

As I am a medical student, I see myself as a doctor first and hope that I will be a renowned caregiver in ten years time.

On the other hand, I also see myself as an established actor of Bangladesh.

I don’t want to be a heroine, I want to be an actor. I am hoping to develop my career as a successful actor and really looking forward to seeing myself as one of the best in Bangladesh after ten years.

Which actor is your idol?

My idol is Suchitra Sen. Her style, look and way of talking, everything is so mesmerising, in a short I follow her as much as I can. l

Shongshar Shimante airs on ETV n Entertainment Desk The new drama series “Shongshar Shimante” will be aired today at 9:30pm on ETV. Written by A Alam and directed

by Kazi Amirul Islam Shobhai, the drama features seasoned actor Abul Hayat, Azizul Hakim, Mir Sabbir, Nadia, Alvi, Avid Rehan, Putul, Shamim Jahan, Shirin Alam, and many more.

It is a family drama that will air every Tuesday and Wednesday of the week. The story revolves around a family and its everyday life.

Amin has two sons, Rashed and Akash and twin daughters Rita and Rina. Rashed is the eldest son who is married to a beautiful woman named

9:00pm Z Cafe

Monsters University in 3D Titanic (3D) Bullet to the Head Udhao Level 8, Bashundhara City Panthapath

NEWS 7:00pm Ekushey Tv Ekushey Shongbad

9:00pm Desh Tv News

Festival

Urban Youth Festival II Time: 11am – 8pm Goethe Institut Bangladesh Road 9 (new) House 10 Dhanmondi R/A

MISC 3:00pm FTV

Fashion Week

8:30pm AXN

So You Think You Can Dance

Ranveer : Anushka and Eminem receives Artist of Year Deepika are special to me YouTube Music Award n Entertainment Desk Actor Ranveer Singh couldn’t but help reminisce about his days spent in Lucknow while shooting for his film Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl, when he visited the city to promote his latest Ram Leela.

“Man, was it hot! I remember the temperature would be nearly 45 degrees and at times it was impossible to shoot. I suffered a heat stroke and rashes while shooting, but it was one memorable shoot. There would be huge crowds of nearly two thousand

people every day and sometimes it would be difficult to shoot with all of them screaming my name. But it was a real morale booster to see all that love coming my way. Especially, since I was fairly new at that time. It would be distracting, but pleasantly distracting.

I would talk with them, joke around, sign autographs, and best was clicking pictures with people. They were so endearing,” said Ranveer.

Shooting for his next flick, Kill Bill, Ranveer said he was looking forward to his next trip to Lucknow. “I will definitely come back to Lucknow again, soon. If possible I’ll be coming with my friends Priyanka Chopra, Arjun Kapoor, Parineeti and Ali Zafar. Also Irrfan, how can I forget him. I’ll try my best to make them visit Lucknow and gorge on the delicious kababs that are made here,” said Ranveer.

Reacting to the comment on him being linked to all his heroines, saving Sonakshi Sinha, Ranveer said, “Yes, I don’t know why Sonakshi was not very interested to have an affair with me? But as far as Anushka Sharma and Deepika are concerned, yes I love them. I love Sonakshi also. I love everyone. But these two are special people.”

Talking about his latest film, Ranveer said, “For Ram-Leela, I’m sure I will get both critics’ and audiences’ appreciation. I couldn’t have asked for a better director than Sanjay Leela Bhansali and a better co-actor than Deepika.” l

Anima. The couple is childless and although Anima is aware that the members of her family are somewhat disheartened with the outcome, she loves them nonetheless.

Anima takes care of the family as if each and every member are her children. She is well loved and respected by all because of her caring and loving nature.

Anima’s husband Rashed is drawn to business and has suffered losses many times over, but his father keeps on giving him more money in the hope that Rashed would eventually wise up and be successful in his ventures. The drama shows that happiness and sorrow are two sides of the same coin. l

Mike And Molly

TODAY IN DHAKA Exhibition

Misti set to debut on the silver screen

How did start working in the media?

I started my career in the entertainment industry as a model in an advertisement.

Then I was offered to work as an anchor for TV shows, which I accepted happily.

My first acting experience was in Sajal Ahmed’s Din Ratrir Manush and I must say that I enjoyed the experience immensely.

Fishing by Md Musfique Akhtar

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

n Entertainment Desk The first-ever YouTube Music Awards on November 4 saw awards going to rapper Eminem and hip-hop duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.

The webcast was kicked off by indie rockers Arcade Fire performing their new song “Afterlife” in a live video performance featuring a chorus of young girl singers in Pier 36, a sprawling indoor events space in New York.

Up next was a crying Lady Gaga, minus her trademark peroxide blonde hair and make-up, dressed in a tomboyish baseball cap marked “Dope,” for a first performance of an eponymous song that she delivered in a haunting, melancholic tone while playing the pi-

ano.

Eminem won the Artist of the Year award. Video of the Year was awarded to Girls’ Generation, who are megastars in South Korea but are still making inroads into the US music scene.

Breakthrough of the Year went to hip-hop duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, whose songs include the gay rights anthem, Same Love.

Walk off the Earth, along with KRNFX, took the Phenomenon Award for their version of Taylor Swift’s I Knew You Were Trouble, while the Innovation Prize went to DeStorm, who won for See Me Standing.

And in an acknowledgement of the hefty amount of user-generated content that goes on YouTube - everything

from yawning kittens to cellphone video of major world news - YouTube gave out something called Response of the Year.

That prize went to Lindsey Stirling and Pentatonix, for their cover of Imagine Dragons’ Radioactive. Stirling is a star among violinists - but not have the star power of Katy Perry, another of the night’s nominees.

Hosted by actor Jason Schwartzman and musician-comedian Reggie Watts, the show’s creative director Spike Jonze said before the event that he wanted to stay true to the video-sharing website’s experimental origins.

The 90-minute affair may have split the Internet audience down the middle, judging by comments posted on Twitter, in which some people complained of censorship, when the show’s live stream stopped several times.

YouTube featured big stars such as Lady Gaga to attract attention, while keeping enough of an outsider perspective to differentiate itself from MTV, the Grammys and other music powerhouses.

Although the Google-owned site has for years been a go-to place for music fans around the world, the site is now expected to introduce a paid music service by year-end.

“There was nothing scripted tonight,” said actor Jason Schwartzman, who, along with performance artist Reggie Watts, hosted the show, which was directed by Spike Jonze. l

Kristen Stewart to appear in Anesthesia

n Entertainment Desk Kristen Stewart is added to the cast ensemble of Anesthesia. The Snow White and the Huntsman actor has reportedly been spotted filming her scene for the Tim Blake Nelson-directed indie at the Columbia University in New York.

She is expected to share screen with Boardwalk Empire star Gretchen Mol. The film will follow “a group of New Yorkers dealing with various stages of life and its attendant joys and tribulations are all touched in some way by beloved philosophy professor Walter Zarrow.”

Stewart was last seen in On the Road with Garrett Hedlund and Sam Riley since the Twilight Saga movie series ended. The 23-year-old starlet will next star in Camp X-Ray and Sils Maria. l

Did you know?

Roma concede a goal in Serie A after 743 minutes as Torino’s Alessio Cerci finds net on Sunday

Sport

n Mazhar Uddin

n Minhaz Uddin Khan

Shakib discharged from hospital n Minhaz Uddin Khan Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib al Hasan showed signs of improvement from the dengue fever as he returned home after being discharged from the hospital on Sunday night.

The south-paw’s contribution was one of the chief reasons in Tigers’ 4-0 victory against the Kiwis three-years ago. But this time, Shakib missed all the celebration and enthusiasm of his team bagging the second consecutive series win against the same opponents.

Blood test on Sunday revealed Shakib’s condition was improving after which the hospital discharged him.

However, he has been advised bed rest for another three days and was asked to stay away from cricket for at least another week.

“I think this was the first time I got so ill. I still feel weak. Hope I will recover soon following doctor’s advice. I think I will take at least a week to gain the strength,” said Shakib to the media.

He also informed that there is no chance of him playing in the lone Twenty20 game against New Zealand on November 6.

After getting discharged the allrounder directly went to the team hotel and joined the Tigers who were celebrating the 3-0 series win before he returned home at around 10pm. l

14 Villa, Costa on 14 Real Madrid, target for buoyant Bayern, United edge Atletico close to CL last 16

DHAKA TRIBUNE

13

15 Djokovic wins Paris Masters, 40th career title

Unnoticed in the crowd

Jurgensen looks to end season on winning note Bangladesh coach Shane Jurgensen wants to end the year on a winning note when the home side faces New Zealand in the lone Twenty20 of the ongoing tour on November 6. Bangladesh have played six Tests, nine ODIs and three T20s in this year and the next against the Kiwis will be the last international action for the term.

“I think we performed reasonably well this season so looking forward to a win in Twenty20 game against New Zealand which will not be too much to ask to end the season on a winning note,” said Jurgensen to the media at the team hotel yesterday.

The Australian thinks not enough matches are a reason behind Bangladesh’s lack of growth in the international arena and said, “We don’t play enough matches for which there is hardly any change in the rankings. We need to play more if we want to do better. As I said before, I think it’s time for the responsible ones to take initiative and arrange more games for the team (Bangladesh).”

The Tigers went through a demoralising time in Zimbabwe in April as they had to fight hard to draw the two-match Test series while they went down in the ODIs. The frustration resulted to Mushfiqur Rahim take an emotional decision and step down from captaincy mid-way of the African nation tour. However, things calmed down slowly and Jurgensen mentioned that the whitewash against New Zealand is the outcome of the effort and determination his boys made in the last four months. l

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Soumya Sarker, the new inclusion in the Bangladesh T20 squad comes out of the SBNS after the practice session yesterday COURTESY

A young man walked around TSC in Dhaka University unrecognized yesterday. This would not be unusual if not for the fact that the same man had struck a magnificent, match-winning 96 to guide Bangladesh to a whitewash series win over New Zealand the previous day.

Thirteen years ago, the same person – than just a boy who used to play in the streets of Jessore - was inspired by his cousin to join BKSP and fulfill his dreams of playing for the Bangladesh national cricket team.

“I use to play in the streets of Jessore but one day my cousin insisted my parents admit me to BKSP as I always used to play cricket in the neighborhood and they thought BKSP would be the best place for me,” said Shamsur Rahman Shuvo.

He realized those dreams just recently, making his ODI debut in the series against New Zealand and proving himself with a match-winning 96 in the final match of the series.

Shamsur, who was born in the Chandpur district admitted was admitted into class seven in BKSP and began fine tuning his game to get further in cricket.

“I was admitted in class seven.

Mushfiq (Rahim) was my class mate and we use to practice under Moti sir,” said Shamsur.

But it was not a smooth ride for the 25 year old as he had to work hard and at the same time he had to go through ups and downs in his career which is looking smooth at the moment after he smashed a brilliant match winning

Nasir enjoys batting under pressure Uncapped Soumya included in T20 squad n Minhaz Uddin Khan Nasir Hossain’s unbeaten 44 in the third and final ODI against New Zealand aided the home side cruise to 308 runs and register yet another whitewash against the Kiwis.

After scores of one and three in the first two games Nasir faced criticism even from his family and friends which frustrated him said the middleorder batsman, but all of it vanished right after the match winning knock on Sunday.

“I was not panicked, but was hurt from the comments made by the people around me. Family, friends and few others told me that I was not scoring, but I never felt it was anything big as it was only two innings that I didn’t score,” said Nasir to the media yesterday.

Nasir walked to the middle when Bangladesh needed another 80 odd runs to win. Loss of few wickets in succession and a huge target on the scoreboard created doubts of a win for many, but not for Nasir.

“The target was 300, but we needed another 80 runs or so in 12-13 overs when I went to bat. So I never actually thought the 300, but of the 80. To be honest I enjoy batting under such circumstances,” said Nasir.

The call came in as a surprise to me. I was informed all of a sudden that I need to join the squad and board the team hotel The young cricketer further informed that he had faced such situations in age-level games for which it has become easy for him to cope with pressure. This was the fourth time that he was unbeaten in a Bangladesh chase in his short career, as he tackled the final bend with a calm head. He now averages a staggering 117 in successful chases, at a more than healthy strike rate of 88.30.

“I don’t think other batsmen will be comfortable to bat under such pressure. I am able to do it because I have been through such situations many

times. But now if you tell me to open I won’t be able to do because I have never done that,” said Nasir.

Bangladesh now looks forward to end the series on a winning note by securing the lone Twenty20 game against the Kiwis tomorrow at Sher-eBangla National Stadium. The home side made only one change from the ODI series bringing in uncapped opening batsman Soumya Sarker who replaced left-arm spinner Elias Sunny.

“The call came in as a surprise to me. I was informed all of a sudden that I need to join the squad and board the team hotel,” said Soumya.

Though the chance is very slim for the 20-year-old to get a spot in the playing eleven, Soumya is confident and determined to perform if given an opportunity.

“It is really tough to just come in and get a spot in the playing eleven. This is my first call from the national team and I look forward to bag experience being among the players whom I have seen while growing up,” he said. l

Shamsur Rahman Shuvo 96 runs in his second ODI to start his international career with a bang.

“In the earlier days I used to bat in the middle order and I was first selected in the national under-17 side in 2004 to play the Asia cup which in India and later I played in the Under-19 World Cup in 2006 in Sri Lanka. After that I was never called to any camp and after 2007 I started concentrating on domestic cricket.

“I always give a lot of importance

to domestic cricket because I know I can prove my quality there to get into the national side and at the same time, club cricket is one of my major sources of income.”

He was selected for national team that toured England in 2010 but did not play a game in the Tests or the T20 World Cup that followed. After that, he was dropped.

“I wasn’t disappointed,” he recalled.

“I remained focus and waited for my time to come and kept preparing.”

After striking six fifties in the second Bangladesh Premier League, Shuvo was recalled for the T20 leg of the Sri Lankan tour earlier this year. On his international debut against the hosts, he made a duck. “I was very disappointed about the LBW against me but that’s part of cricket,” he said.

After making a fifty against Zimbabwe and a good domestic season, Shuvo earned another recall against the visiting New Zealand. He made his ODI debut in the second match and scored a patient 22, before his heroics in the third international.

“I was disappointed to miss a hundred but when we won, I felt good because that’s what’s important and I was happy to contribute,” he said.

Shamsur credited Moti and Nazmul Abedin Fahim for their help. “Moti sir and later Fahim sir helped me develop my game and my mental approach. I want to thank them – and Richard McInnes, too”.

If he continues to play as he has – and shown himself capable of doing – Shuvo’s days of walking inconspicuously through a crowd will soon be a thing of the past. l

Four hockey players suspended n Raihan Mahmood Bangladesh Hockey Federation suspended four players from all hockey activities, including national team duties yesterday for varying periods over their disruptive roles they played during Bangladesh’s Asia Cup Hockey campaign.

Bangladesh Hockey Federation served show-cause notices to four senior players - Russell Mahmud Jimmy, Zahid Hossain, Qumruzzaman Rana, Imran Hasan Pintu - along with coach Mahbub Harun and umpire Selim Lucky last month over alleged misconduct during the Asia Cup held in Malaysia last August.

The players and officials submitted their answers to the showcause notices last week and the governing body of the hockey federation came to its decision after much discussion.

As per the decisions, Jimmy, Zahid and Pintu were suspended from the national team for three years and banned from hockey activities for two seasons. Rana was suspended for two years from the national team and one season from the local arena.

Coach Mahbub Harun was

suspended as the coach of the national team while umpire Selim Lucky was acquitted from any complaints.

Khawja Rahmatullah said it was unanimous decision. “All the members of the governing body extended full support to the decisions. The decisions were taken after discussing all the aspects and to bring discipline back to the national team and it was taken in the national team’s interest,” he said.

Rahmatullah also said the president of the hockey federation Air Marshal Enamul Bari has ruled appealing against the decisions.

Zahid Hossain, the long serving goalkeeper of the national team was shocked by the news. “I feel that I’ve been slaughtered. It was not justified, hockey is a team game and we were not the only persons for the failure.

We will appeal against the verdict and hope the federation reconsiders it,” said Zahid.

Jimmy was thinking of something different. “We all are the victims of hockey federations hostility, we will take steps against the decisions through demonstrations with other players” said Jimmy. l

School hockey program announced n Raihan Mahmood The Bangladesh Hockey Federation revealed its plans for a countrywide school hockey at the Falcon Hall of Bangladesh Air Force yesterday.

The First Security Islami Bank Ltd (FSIBL) agreed to sponsor the program in July with a purse of Tk20m and half the amount has already been given to the federation. The amount is to date the largest sponsorship deal the hockey federation has been involved, surpassing the Tk9m deal with Janata Bank Ltd for recruiting a national coach.

At the unveiling, the official logo of the First Security Islami Bank Ltd (FSIBL) National School Hockey was unveiled. The logo looks like the Bangladesh flag with hockey players moving forward. A theme song titled “Shoishab Durnoto, Hockeyte Ananda” sung by S. I. Tutul and three

youngsters - Nabil, Nobel and Omi – was also released.

Khwaja Rahmatullah, the general secretary of the hockey federation, set the goal of Bangladesh making it into the Hockey World Cup of 2022.

“We have to set a target. In 2018, the number of teams in the World Cup will be 18 and four years later it will be 24. Currently we are ranked 31 so we believe if we take certain steps, we can reach the top level.

The school hockey program is the starting point of realizing our dream,” he said.

The president of the hockey federation and the Air Force chief Air Marshal Enamul Bari was also excited about the development. “Earlier, the national school hockey was played with 25/30 districts but this time we will involve all 64 districts and at least one school from each district in the meet - a total of 1,600 players from 102 schools

across the country are all set to play in the meet. We will be extending all possible support to the budding players and I believe it’s a new beginning for Bangladesh hockey” said Bari, adding that the president of International Hockey Federation Leandre Negre has accepted an invitation to be present at the inauguration ceremony of the meet.

Managing director of FSIBL, AAM Zakaria hoped the tournament could help Bangladesh reach new highs in the sport. “We believe Bangladesh has the potential of reaching higher level in the international arena and national school hockey will set the platform to reach the expected height” said Zakaria.

Chairman of the tournament committee Dr. Mahfuzur Rahman also spoke on the occasion and said he would support the players in their higher education efforts. l

Dignitaries cheer the opening moments of the First Security Islami Bank Ltd National School logo unveiling ceremony at the Falcon Hall yesterday RAJIB DHAR

14

Sport

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Caulker settles landmark Welsh derby for Cardiff n ADP, Cardiff

Steven Caulker returned to haunt Swansea City by scoring the only goal of the Premier League’s first all-Welsh fixture on Sunday to give Cardiff City a famous 1-0 victory.

The 21-year-old centre-back, who spent the 2011-12 season on loan at Swansea, struck from a 62nd-minute corner to settle the game on a rainsoaked day at the Cardiff City Stadium.

Result

1-0

Cardiff City Caulker 62

Manchester City players take part in a training session in Carrington, north-west England yesterday ahead of their Uefa Champions League match against CSKA Moscow in Manchester today

AFP

Real, Bayern, United edge close to last 16 n AFP, Paris Defending champions Bayern Munich as well as former winners Real Madrid and Manchester United are on the verge of making the Champions League last 16 on Tuesday.

United can virtually ensure their last 16 place with victory in Spain after a 1-0 home win over Sociedad, playing in the tournament for the first time in 10 years, in Manchester moved them onto seven points from three games.

But David Moyes’s side have doubts over the fitness of Jonny Evans, Rafael da Silva and Tom Cleverley, who were all replaced at half-time in Saturday’s 3-1 win at Fulham.

Sociedad have scored just once in

three Champions League games so far and are without a point but warnmed up for Tuesday with a confidence-boosting 5-0 home win over Osasuna.

Real Madrid have nine points from three games after a Cristiano Ronaldo double ensured a 2-1 win over Juventus last time out and they need just a point in Turin to make sure of a last-16 place.

Nine-time winners Madrid have scored in all their last 19 Champions League away fixtures, losing only four but Juventus have won the last five meetings between the sides in Turin.

Juventus are in third place and with that position in mind coach Antonio Conte rested Andrea Pirlo in Saturday’s 1-0 win at Parma before the veteran midfielder replaced Claudio Marchisio.

Ronaldo has scored seven times for Real Madrid in the Champions League

Fixtures Shakhtar Sociedad Juventus Copenhagen PSG Olympiakos Man City Plzen

v v v v v v v v

Leverkusen Man United Real Madrid Galatasaray Anderlecht Benfica CSKA Moscow Bayern Munich

this season just one off the record held jointly by Ruud van Nistelrooy, Filippo Inzaghi and Hernan Crespo.

Galatasaray won the first match 3-1 in Istanbul to put themselves in second spot in the table, five points behind Real but two ahead of Juve and three up on Copenhagen.

Copenhagen’s home record in the

tournament gives some cause for optimism -- in eight matches, they have lost only to Chelsea and have beaten Manchester United and drawn with Barcelona in previous years.

PSG can qualify for the knockout stages for the second successive year with victory over an Anderlecht team they walloped 5-0 in their previous encounter a fortnight ago to make it three impressive wins from three games in an admittedly easy group.

The only good news for Anderlecht is that there are doubts over whether Swedish star Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who scored four in the first match, will be fit as he was rested for the 4-0 Ligue 1 win over Lorient last Friday -- extending PSG’s unbeaten Ligue 1 run to 23 -- with an inflamed knee.

City made heavy weather of beating

the Russian outfit a fortnight ago in a match overshadowed by a racism controversy but look in sharper form after a 7-0 demolition of Norwich on Saturday, their biggest win in the top flight since 1968.

Victory over the Russians would all but assure them of reaching the knockout stages for the first time after two flops under Roberto Mancini.

Bayern Munich are proving as unbeatable as PSG are, their 2-1 win over Hoffenheim on Saturday equalling the Bundesliga record for the longest unbeaten run, levelling the 36 matches unbeaten Hamburg achieved between January 1982 and January 1983.

Bayern, though, are closing in on their record of successive away wins in the competition, six on their way to winning the 1996 title, as victory on Tuesday would be their fifth in a row. l

Swansea City

Swansea threatened to snatch a late equaliser, but they lost their momentum in injury time when goalkeeper Michel Vorm was sent off for a last-man foul on Cardiff substitute Fraizer Campbell.

It was the first time two Welsh sides had faced off in the 125-year history of the English top flight and Cardiff ’s win sent them above their fierce local rivals to 12th place in the table.

Cardiff looked to be building momentum as the rain intensified in the game’s latter stages, with Marshall forced to save from Jonathan De Guzman and substitute Alex Pozuelo.

However, Vorm was sent off after racing from his area and felling Campbell in injury time, forcing Rangel to go between the posts because Swansea had used up all their substitutes. l

Werder end win-less run with late victory

n Reuters, Berlin

Argentine Santiago Garcia grabbed a late winner to help Werder Bremen edge past Hanover 96 3-2 and end a four-game winless run on Sunday.

Results Augsburg

2-1

Werder Bremen

3-2

Hahn 26, 49

Mainz

Choupo-Moting 59-pen

Hunt 25-pen, Makiadi 38, García 86

Hanover

Huszti 20-pen, Sakai 42

Werder Bremen were desperate to turn things around after just one victory in their last eight games before Sunday, but fell behind when Szabolcs Huszti put the visitors ahead on 20 minutes.

Hanover slipped to 11th on 13 following their third straight loss and their fifth league game without a win. l

Villa, Costa on target for buoyant Atletico n AFP, Madrid Atletico Madrid moved back to within a point of Barcelona at the top of La Liga with a comfortable 2-0 win at home to Athletic Bilbao on Sunday.

David Villa and Diego Costa were again the men who inflicted the damage on the Basques as the former opened the scoring with a volley from Juanfran’s cross on 32 minutes.

Costa then cored his 13th goal in 12 league games this season with a brilliant individual effort eight minutes later.

And Atletico boss Diego Simeone was full of praise for the Brazilian-born striker who moved level again with Cristiano Ronaldo at the top of the La Liga scoring charts.

An 11th victory in 12 league games also means Atletico maintain their five point advantage over city rivals Real Madrid in third.

Capello keen to stay on as Russia coach n AFP, Moscow Russia manager Fabio Capello has said he will discuss the details of a new contract on Tuesday with Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko.

“I was flattered by the fans’ desire to see me at the helm until the 2018 World Cup. But I think we shouldn’t make plans too early because it’s a very long term,” Capello told the daily Sport Express. “Currently I want to focus on my team’s immediate problems. There are plenty of points that we shall discuss because it’s a long-term contract. I’d like to stay in Russia if we manage to work out a joint point of view.”

Capello, who guided Russia into the 2014 World Cup finals, 12 years after their last appearance, said that the qualification would act as a great stimulus for the development of Russian football. l

However, despite such an incredible start to the campaign, Simeone insisted he is not annoyed to still find his side behind Barca at the top of the table.

Results Getafe

0-1

Valencia

Atletico Madrid

2-0

Athletic Bilbao

Levante

0-1

Granada

Malaga

3-2

Real Betis

Villa 32, Diego Costa 40

Santa Cruz 13,Eliseu 61, Samuel 90+3

Pabon 41

Piti 90+1

Verdu 33, Figueras 63

Villa was first to threaten as his powerful free-kick was well-held by Gorka Iraizoz before Costa broke clear and pulled his shot just beyond the far post.

Iraizoz then made an incredible save to prevent Villa’s volley from close range as the ball ricocheted around the

Athletic box.

However, six minutes later the keeper was beaten from a similar move as Juanfran got the by-line and his cross fell for Villa whose shot deflected off Mikel San Jose on its way into the net.

Costa then got his customary goal to make the game safe as he powered down the left, cut inside Erik Moran and slotted cooley past Iraizoz into the far corner.

Villa should have added a third 12 minutes after the restart when he headed Adrian Lopez’s excellent cross straight at Iraizoz.

Earlier, Valencia eased the pressure on their coach Miroslav Djukic with a badly needed 1-0 win away to highflying Getafe.

Dorlan Pabon’s wonderful longrange effort was enough to secure Los Che’s first win in four league games and move them into the top-half of the table, three points behind Getafe who remain sixth. l

Atletico Madrid's David Villa (C) celebrates scoring against Athletic Bilbao during their Spanish La Liga First Division match at Vicente Calderon stadium in Madrid on Sunday REUTERS

Roux double sends Monaco Torino end Roma’s winning run to first defeat of season n Results AFP, Milan

n Reuters, Paris

Results

Lille striker Nolan Roux scored twice to inflict bigspending Monaco’s first Ligue 1 defeat of the season with a 2-0 win that lifted the hosts into second place in the standings on Sunday.

Roux put Lille ahead after 27 minutes when he tapped the ball in from close range following a Marko Basa header from a corner.

The forward made it 2-0 midway through the second half after Salomon Kalou had initiated a quick counterattack.

They moved up to second on 26 points, two behind leaders Paris St Germain who thrashed Lorient 4-0 on Friday thanks to an Edinson Cavani double and goals from Brazilian Lucas and

Nice

Cvitanich 77-pen

Montpellier (Bakar 90)

Lille

Roux 27, 71

1-2

Bordeaux

Sertic 31, Obraniak 59

1-1 2-0

Nantes

(Djordjevic 22)

Monaco

Frenchman Jeremy Menez. Monaco are third on 25.

The principality club created few chances throughout the game despite the efforts of striker Radamel Falcao who managed just two shots on target as his team mates failed to supply him.

The Colombian created Monaco’s only clear-cut scoring opportunity with a neat deep pass for Riviere in the 67th minute but the latter was superbly denied by Lille and Nigeria goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama. l

Tenacious Torino held Roma to a 1-1 draw at home to stop the leaders’ all-time record of consecutive wins at the start of a Serie A season to 10 on Sunday.

Roma travelled to the Olympic Stadium with hopes of restoring their fivepoint lead over title rivals Napoli and Juventus, who closed the gap to two points with wins over Parma and Catania respectively on Saturday.

However, Alessio Cerci’s second half toe-poke was enough to secure a share of the spoils, and bring Torino some welcome headlines, when it levelled Kevin Strootman’s first-half opener for the visitors.

Roma, still unbeaten and having conceded only their second goal in 11 games, remain top on 31 points with a three-point lead on both Napoli and

champions Juventus with Inter and Verona a further six points off the pace.

Earlier Sunday Lazio’s recent revival came to a grinding halt with a 2-0 defeat

by Genoa at the Olympic Stadium, while Inter Milan put three unanswered goals past Udinese on a rain-hit trip north.

However the Biancocelesti paid the price for missing several chances in the first half when Juraj Kucka broke the deadlock on the hour and Alberto Gilardino doubled the visitors’ lead 12 minutes later from the spot.

Inter, meanwhile, handed Udinese their second consecutive defeat at their notoriously difficult Friuli Stadium, which recently witnessed a 1-0 defeat

by Roma.

Inter opened the scoring through Rodrigo Palacio in the 25th minute when the Argentine flashed a header past goalkeeper Zeljko Brkic from close range following Saphir Taider’s precision free kick.

Livorno

1-0

Verona

2-1

Lazio

0-2

Sampdoria

3-4

Udinese

0-3

Paulinho 11 Toni 8, Jankovic 57

Pozzi 19, Eder 65, De Silvestri 81

Torino

Cerci 63

Atalanta Cagliari

Conti 90

Genoa

Kucka 60, Gilardino 72-P

Sassuolo

Berardi 49, 52-P, 88-P, Floro Flores 63

Inter 3

Palacio 25, Ranocchia 29, Alvarez 90+1

1-1

Roma

Strootman 28

Four minutes later Brkic dashed out of his goal in wild fashion to intercept a corner kick that was out of his reach and Inter defender Andrea Ranocchia volleyed the ball through traffic and into a virtually empty net. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

Watson plays down Ashes injury fears n AFP, Sydney

Quick Bytes

Mohammedan take lead in chess Dhaka Mohammedan Sporting Club Limited outplayed Sreejan Chess Club 4-0 yesterday to take the sole lead at the top of the Premier Division Chess League points table. The reigning champions now have six points at the end of the 3rd round. Mohammedan players Tajikistanis GM Amonatov Farukh, Russian GM Volkov Sergey, Bangladesh GM Niaz Murshed and IM Minhazuddin Ahmed Sagar registered victories over Sreejan Chess’ Aminul Islam, Din Mohammad, Mohammad Ibrahim Hossain and Shamiha Sharmin Shimmi respectively. Four teams - Leonine Chess Club (2 games), Bangladesh Navy Chess Team, Titas Club and Gopalganj Chess Club – are in second place with with 4 points each.

In the days other matches, GM Reefat Bin Sattar, GM Abdulla Al-Rakib and FM Sk. Nasir Ahmed won their respective matches as Navy Chess Team beat Titas Club 3-1, while Gopalganj Chess Club beat Pritam-Prism Chess Club, Narayanganj 3-1 and Access Group Chess Club beat Faith Chess Club 3.5-0.5.

– SH

DPL matches deferred The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) released the new schedule for the Walton Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League, which has been deferred for two days due to the 60-hour nationwide strike. The match Gazi Tank Cricketers and Kalabagan Cricket Academy, which were previously scheduled to be played today at the Shaheed Chandu Stadium in Bogra, will be held on Thursday at the Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium in Fatullah instead, while Prime Bank Cricket Club take on Victoria Sporting Club on the same day at the BKSP-3 ground. In other matches, Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club will square off with Khelaghar at BKSP-2 and Abahani Ltd will play Brothers Union at BKSP-3. Gazi Tank, Prime Doleshwar and Mohammedan share the lead at the top of the table with 12 points while Brothers, Victoria and Kalabagan CA are in second place with nine point.

– SH

BFF arranges Fifa referees course

Fifa MA Elite Referees Course 2013, organised by Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF), will get underway at the BFF House today. A total of 40 referees are taking part in the course which will be conducted be Fifa referees’ instructors Farkhad Abdullaev, Ganesh Maniam and Md M Muhiseen Arif. BFF vice president and referees’ committee chairman Badal Roy will inaugurate the event as chief guest today.

– SH

Kimi reported to have done deal with Lotus Ferrari-bound Finn Kimi Raikkonen departed early, with his immediate future reportedly settled, following a first lap crash which summed up his nightmare weekend at Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Raikkonen arrived late on Friday morning to drive for Lotus and was the first man to leave the Yas Marina track, climbing into his road car in the paddock as race victor and champion Sebastian Vettel made his first pit stop. By then, according to paddock sources, he had agreed a provisional deal to continue racing for the Lotus team in the final events of the year in the United States and Brazil. On Friday, he had made clear that he was contemplating boycotting the last two races because Lotus had not paid him any of his salary this year.

On Saturday, he was excluded from qualifying for a technical infringement and thus had to start Sunday’s race from the back of the grid. At Turn One, his race ended. “I went to the inside and then somehow managed to touch with a Caterham... We didn’t touch hard, but I think the angle was very unlucky and it broke the steering.” Raikkonen said little about reports that he had agreed with Lotus to continue racing to the end of the year despite claims that he has not been paid any of his 15million Euros(£12.7m, $20.3m) salary. Following a weekend of intense negotiations between Raikkonen’s agent and Lotus owner Gerard Lopez, it was reported as having reached an agreement.

– AFP

Day’s Watch ESPN 7:00PM Fifa Events Fifa U-17 World Cup UAE 2013 Ten sports 1:45AM Uefa Champions League 2013/14 Real Sociedad v Man United Ten Action 1:45AM Uefa Champions League 2013/14 Juventus v Real Madrid

15

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Novak Djokovic of Serbia holds the trophy after winning the final match against David Ferrer of Spain at the Paris Masters men's singles tournament at the Palais Omnisports of Bercy in Paris on Sunday REUTERS

Djokovic wins Paris Masters n AFP, Paris Novak Djokovic defeated defending champion David Ferrer 7-5, 7-5 on Sunday to win the Paris Masters and claim his 40th career title after a thrilling final at the Bercy arena.

Ferrer fell short of becoming the first player to successfully defend the Paris title while six-time major winner Djokovic took another step towards regaining the number one spot from Rafael Nadal at next week’s World Tour Finals in London.

Victory also meant that Djokovic became just the 15th player to reach the milestone of 40 titles.

“I’m full of joy right now and this is one of the biggest weeks of the tennis season so I’m really happy and just want to continue like this,” said the 26-year-old Serbian.

The Australian Open champion also paid tribute to Ferrer for his attitude on and off the court.

“He is the defending champion, and obviously he enjoys playing on this surface in these conditions. I knew that

coming into the match I’m going to have to work for my points.

“He is not going to give me too many free points. He’s going to run every ball. He’s a great competitor, one of the most respected guys on tour because he works hard and he’s very humble and he’s a very nice person,” added Djokovic, who picked up his third straight tournament triumph.

“The opening four or five games went really the distance, and he was a better player. He was taking the ball and running me around the court.

“Second set, when he was serving for the set, I was fortunate to come back in the match. He gave me the game with a few unforced errors. Then, when the chances were presented for me, set points, match points, I managed to use them.

“This win has given me a lot of confidence and we’ll see now what happens in London.”

Ferrer was dignified in defeat after failing to win what would have been a second Masters title following his French capital breakthrough last year.

Bailey ready for Ashes n AFP, Sydney

One-day specialist George Bailey said Monday he feels ready to step up and play a part in the Test side as Australia attempt to wrest back the Ashes from England.

Australia’s one-day captain plans to make another pitch for the Test number six batting spot in Tasmania’s Sheffield Shield game with Queensland in Brisbane starting on Wednesday.

Bailey, 31, has received strong support to win a place in the middle order for the series opener at the Gabba starting on November 21 and has been earmarked by chief selector John Inverarity as an Ashes contender.

Asked if he felt ready to play Test cricket, Bailey, who has just returned from a prolific one-day series in India,

said: “I feel like I am. I feel I am playing as good cricket as I ever have and I am still continuing to try and get better.

“I am at an age where you know you are only going to get one crack at it. So you do it exactly the way you want to do it and I think there are some positives in that too.”

Bailey has at times struggled to fulfil his undoubted potential -- he averaged just over 18 in 14 Shield innings last season -- but said he has learned to block out the knockers.

Former Australia captain Ian Chappell said in a weekend newspaper column that Bailey’s batting technique was not worthy of a Test spot despite his glut of ODI runs.

“When you get to my age it’s making small changes just to make sure you are as sharp as you can be, more mentally than anything else,” Bailey said. l

“The key, well, with 5-5 in the second, I didn’t serve so good. With Nole, if I don’t take the chances, it’s impossible to beat him.”

“With Nole (Djokovic) or Rafa (Nadal) or Roger (Federer) or Andy Murray, I don’t have these breaks, not in important moments.”

Ferrer grabbed the first break after a punishing rally at 30-40 was finally won by the Spaniard to go 2-1 up with a perfect drop shot that left Djokovic stranded at the back of the court.

Djokovic carved out his first break point of the match in the following game, but Ferrer held firm and built his resilience on his excellent first serve which was reaping him a winning percentage of 80 per cent.

With the Spaniard serving for the set at 5-4, Djokovic launched his assault and this time on break point he fired a forehand winner that grazed the line and pulled him back on level terms.

After serving out to love to go 6-5 up, the world number two seized his first set point when Ferrer hit long as the set swung surprisingly into Djokov-

Shane Warne has blasted Alastair Cook’s captaincy as boring and negative, warning that Australia will regain the Ashes if the England skipper does not show more imagination.

The Australian Test great also said England would be better served by having Michael Carberry opening their innings rather than Joe Root.

In an interview with the British press and widely reported in Australia on Monday, Warne had harsh words about Cook’s captaincy as England bid for their fourth straight Ashes series triumph in the series starting this month.

“Cook can be negative, boring, not very imaginative -- and still win and be pretty happy,” Warne said.

“But I think he needs to be more imaginative. If Australia play well and he continues to captain the way he does, I think England are going to lose the series.

“He lets the game drift. He waits for the game to come to him. I don’t think he can captain the side like that.

“For me, (Australia’s) Michael Clarke is the best captain in the world at the moment. He just has a lot of imagination. Cook would never have a leg slip, bat-pad and leg gully, like Clarke did for Jonathan Trott in the (English) summer.”

Warne also had a frank assessment of Root, claiming the young Yorkshireman will be “crucified” by Australia’s bowlers if he opens the batting again in the series that starts in Brisbane on November 21.

“I don’t think Root’s an opener because of his technique. Australia found him out in England and in Australian conditions they’ll find him out more,” he said.

“You can’t get stuck on the crease in Australia because of the pace of the wickets. It could be crucifying him if he’s got to face Ryan Harris, Peter Sid-

Siddikur takes nine for U-16 side n Minhaz Uddin Khan

Siddikur Rahman took 9/84 for the Bangladesh Under-16 the first innings of the second three-day match match against the visiting Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA) U-16 at the outer ground of Cox’s Bazar Sheikh Kamal International Cricket Stadium yesterday.

The left-arm spinner sent down 41.1 overs in the innings - 13 of which were maidens – in achieving the feat. Siddikur was also involved in the other dismissal in the innings, the run out of opener Rishabh Choubey. l

Halep fights back to clinch Sofia glory n Reuters, Sofia Romanian Simona Halep battled back from a set down to beat former U.S. Open champion Samantha Stosur 2-6 6-2 6-2 in a thrilling Tournament of Champions final on Sunday to capture her sixth title of the year.

Winning the season-ending WTA event at the Armeets Arena in Sofia earned the 22-year-old Romanian a cheque for $270,000 and helped her rise three places in the world rankings to a career-high 11th.

Stosur began her 19th WTA final confidently and took the opening set with ease, surrendering just five points in the first four games with Halep struggling with a very low first-serve percentage.

But Halep, an aggressive baseliner, stepped up her game and broke three

Warne lets fly at Cook, Root n AFP, Sydney

ic’s hands.

Ferrer shook off the disappointment of letting that first set slip from his grasp and broke to open the second set before a tough service hold gave him a 2-0 lead.

Ferrer had a glorious chance to grab a second break and go 4-2 up but failed to put away a net cord that floated up and was waiting to be buried only for a soft volley to be punished by Djokovic who went on to hold serve.

The set then went to serve before the defending champion again had a chance to close out at 5-4 only for Djokovic to break at the crucial moment to once again level the set.

In an exact repeat of the opening set, Ferrer cracked at the worst possible moment as Djokovic pounced on his opponent to tie the set before serving out for the title.

Nadal would have been guaranteed to finish the year at number one had Djokovic lost but now the Spaniard must win at least two matches in London to assure his rival cannot catch him. l

Injury-prone Australian batsman Shane Watson said Monday he is confident he will be fit for this month’s opening Ashes Test against England despite suffering from a hamstring problem.

The powerful all-rounder will have scans later in the day on what he believes may be a fascial tear, before discussing the results with Cricket Australia’s medical staff and working out how best to prepare for the Brisbane Test, which starts on November 21.

“It’s not too bad,” Watson told reporters at Sydney airport.

“I’ve had a few niggles like this even over the last eight or nine months, so hopefully it won’t be too bad at all or put me out for too long.

“My body’s really adjusting to bowling, it’s just an unfortunate little hiccup.

“Being here, it’ll give me a week or two to be able to hopefully freshen up and (be) ready to go for the first Test.”

Asked if he had any doubts about whether he would be involved in the series opener, Watson said: “I’d never say ‘no doubt’ but I’ve been able to get on top of this sort of thing over the last eight or nine months with a few niggles that I had even throughout the (July-August) Ashes as well. “So I’m very confident that things should work out OK over the next couple of days and the results will be what I think they are and there shouldn’t be any problems at all.” l

dle and Mitchell Johnson on some fast, bouncy pitches.

“I think he’s (Root) just going to nick off a lot. Besides Lord’s, where he got 180, Australia really did have his number.” Former Test leg-spinner Warne said England would be better served by demoting Root to number six and bringing in Carberry to open with Cook.

Warne also took aim at former Australia Test captain Ricky Ponting, saying criticisms he made of Michael Clarke in his recently released autobiography could be a result of “jealousy”.

“To bring up the stuff about Pup (Clarke) -- maybe there was a bit of jealousy, because Pup was batting so well and Ricky was not making any runs,” Warne said.

“To me, Michael’s very well respected. The best captains keep stuff in the dressing room. No one ever finds out about it. That’s what good leaders are about. So to hear all this in a book is pretty ordinary.’” l

times in a row to win the second set with hard-hitting Stosur, the oldest player in the tournament, losing her rhythm.

Stosur, who had looked in blistering form in the semi-finals where she humbled Russia’s Anastasia Pavly-

uchenkova, continued to rely on powerful kick serves in the third set but Halep broke decisively in the 21st game and got the upper hand, winning the next three games.

Halep, who also beat Stosur in the Kremlin Cup final last month, wore down the 29-year-old Australian with some booming forehands into an open court after pushing her out wide with a number of clever shots.

After a mediocre start to the year, Halep caught fire in June, winning the titles at Nurnberg, Den Bosch and Budapest, then adding crowns at New Haven and Moscow.

Halep’s triumph was cheered by hundreds of Romanian fans, including Ilie Nastase and the Balkan country’s sports minister Nicolae Banicioiu, who made the 370-km trip to the Bulgarian capital. l

Mutai, Jeptoo win New York Marathon n AFP, New York City Kenyans Geoffrey Mutai and Priscah Jeptoo won New York City Marathon titles Sunday as elite runners returned to the Big Apple a year after Hurricane Sandy forced the cancellation of the race and seven months after the Boston Marathon bombings.

Mutai, who also won the 2011 New York crown, won the men’s race in an official time of 2hrs 8mins, 24secs, 52 seconds ahead of runner-up Tsegaye Kebede of Ethiopia but well off the course record of 2:05:05 he set two years ago.

“I feel good for this win,” Mutai said. “It was a very tough race. To win a race for the first time is easy. To defend your title is not easy. It was a tough win out there.”

Jeptoo, the reigning London Mara-

thon women’s champion who finished second at last year’s London Olympics, came from behind to win in 2:25.07.

The 43rd edition of the 26.2-mile (42.2km) showdown included more than 48,000 runners from 115 nations competing in cool and windy conditions for a $100,000 top prize with a backdrop of tightened security in the wake of twin tragedies.

Three people were killed by bombs planted near the finish line of the Boston Marathon last April, making “Boston Strong” a catchphrase to inspire comebacks, including a World Series baseball crown for a Boston Red Sox club that was last in its division in 2012.

“What occurred in Boston has made this race even more important to participants,” said retired tennis star John McEnroe, who lives near the finish line. l

16

DHAKA TRIBUNE

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Tuesday, November 5, 2013

RANA PLAZA COLLAPSE

Wait now is for inheritance check After DNA tests, families need to have their identities confirmed by DC offices, PMO

n Moniruzzaman Uzzal Although DNA tests have confirmed the identities of 157 dead victims of the Rana Plaza disaster, the wait of the relatives for financial assistance gets longer as their inheritance also must be proved first.

The relatives of the collapse victims, whose identities could not immediately confirmed, have been waiting for seven months for monetary assistance.

Sources said the offices of deputy commissioners (DCs) of the respective districts would confirm the identities recovered from the DNA tests by visiting the addresses given against their names and finalise a list of lawful heirs.

The list would then be sent to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), who would then decide on the amount the families would get from its relief fund.

Sources also said the families would get compensation in the range Tk200,000-Tk500,000 and the process of finalising heirs would take at least two more months.

The PMO and the BGMEA, association of readymade garment exporters, have so far donated Tk320m to the victims of the biggest industrial disaster in history.

The PMO has donated more than Tk188.56m from the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund to 777 dead victims and 31 of those who had either lost or amputated limbs.

The BGMEA has so far donated more than Tk125.5m to a total of 2,785

victims. However, the labour ministry could not immediately confirm how much of the money was given to the families of the victims and how much to the injured.

Disclosing the DNA results yesterday, Labour Secretary Mikail Shiper said out of the 157 victims whose identities have been pulled out through the DNA tests, 41 were men and 116 women.

The National DNA Profiling Laboratory of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital conducted the test using the Combined DNA Indexing System software, donated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the USA. He said the identities of the remaining 165 unidentified victims would be disclosed in phases.

The labour secretary informed that the laboratory had also recovered the identities of 43 dead victims of the November 2012 Tazreen factory fire.

That devastating factory fire left 111 people dead, of whom the identities of 53 could not be confirmed.

On April 24 this year, the nine-storey Rana Plaza in Savar near Dhaka, that housed five garment factories, came down in which a total of 1,134 were killed.

At least 234 of the unidentified victims were buried at the Jurain graveyard in the capital.

Although the official count of the unidentified victims was 332, the authorities received more than 500 DNA samples from relatives who claimed that their loved ones had been missing since the disaster. l

Hindu community under attack again n Our Correspondent, Lalmonirhat Members of Hindu community in Lalmonirhat yesterday came under targeted attack again, for the third time in a week of escalating sectarian tension and violence in the region.

At least 15 Hindus – including nine male and six female – were injured, 40 houses raided, four of them damaged, and valuables worth an as-yet unknown amount were looted during the attack. Many frightened families fled to neighbouring villages after the attack.

The incident occurred around 12:30pm at the Satpatki Majhipara village of Mohendranagar union in Lalmonirhat Sadar Upazila.

The injured were admitted to the Lalmonirhat general hospital, but despite deployment of additional security personnel, the atmosphere in the village remains electric with the villagers anticipating a repeat attack.

Jamir Uddin, officer in charge of Lalmonirhat Sadar police station, confirmed the report of attack and said many men, women and children of the village had taken shelter in neighbouring Muslim households and hadn’t returned home since.

According to several victims, pro-hartal activists of BNP, led by local Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal cadre Shawn Islam, launched the attack in retaliation for refusal of some Hindu fish trad-

ers to pay tolls earlier this week.

They said a group of 15-18 opposition activists, armed with locally made sharp weapons, attacked the village and forcibly entered at least 40 houses, assaulted 15 individuals and looted valuables.

Narayan Chandra Das, an affected villager, said, “Shawn and his cohorts demanded a toll of Tk5,000 from each of 15 local fish traders on Sunday night, in the name of bearing hartal’s expenses. But they were denied.

“The traders apprised local BNP leader Abdul Mazid Mandol of the matter, which infuriated Shawn. He took revenge on them by launching the attack on the village.”

Assaulted Sumitra Rani Roy, 65, said her son, Nikhil Chandra Roy, was beaten right before her eyes and her cries to spare him went unheeded. “Nikhil was beaten mercilessly by the hartal supporters in my very presence, in my own home. I cried and cried but they wouldn’t stop at anything.”

However, Abdul Mazid Mandol, general secretary of BNP-Mohendranagar unit, denied involvement of BNP activists in the attack and said he had cautioned party activists against doing any such thing.

No arrests were made till yesterday evening, but police claimed success in fending off the attackers in time before more damage could be made. No case in this connection was filed yet. l

Prior to the government’s declaration of minimum wage yesterday, garment workers rights activists stage a demonstration in front of the Wage Board office at Topkhana in the capital to press for their demand for Tk8,000 as minimum monthly wage. Story on page 1 SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Pilkhana: Fateful February 2009 n Julfikar Ali Manik It was a usual busy morning in Dhaka on February 25, 2009, when suddenly panic got the better of the people living in the south-western party of the city as sounds of gunshots started coming out of the Pilkhana headquarters of the erstwhile Bangladesh Rifles (BDR).

Even the journalists had very little clue as to what was up with the gunshots that eventually led to one of the most tragic mutinies in the nearly 200-years history of the border security force.

As the news started spreading over the mobile phones, curious people, mostly journalists, started thronging the BDR headquarters. But they could not go near the place for having a closer look. Members of the other law enforcement agencies created a cordon around the various entry points to the Pilkhana compound so that people could not go too close and get hurt in the random and reckless firing.

For hours after the mutiny broke out around 9am, people were completely in dark about was happening inside Pilkhana which was preparing to hold the Director General’s annual Darbar [grand conference] at the Darbar Hall inside the compound. That was where the bloody mutiny was ignited.

Rumours soon started spreading that brutal killings were taking place inside the headquarters. It was virtually impossible to get any information about what was going on inside. Even the army had little clue.

Army troops and military choppers tried to get access in vain into Pilkhana in the face of the bullet storm.

Rumours were spreading that many army officers, who were there on deputation, were brutally killed and others, including families, were held hostage at gunpoint. News also spread that some civilians sustained bullet wounds outside Pilkhana and many of them died.

Around midday, TV reporters man-

aged to interview some of the mutineers at one of the entrances of the compound. The TV channels broadcasted the interviews – first information to come out of the warzone in hours. That was the first glimpse into what was actually going on inside and why the rebellion took place at all.

In the TV interviews, the jawans claimed that they had revolted because they had been treated badly in the force, deprived in many ways and they put forward their 51-point demands. There was no scope of checking the rebels’ claim, although they kept on avoiding questions about killing the army officers.

Rumours soon started spreading that brutal killings were taking place inside the headquarters A number of ruling party lawmakers went to Pilkhana with white flags to talk to the mutineers but in vain. Soon after, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina offered general amnesty for the mutineers and urged them to surrender.

Heeding her call, a delegation of the mutineers, headed by the force’s deputy assistant director, went to negotiate with the prime minister the next day.

In the meantime, at 10pm on February 25, a team of government negotiators led by the then home minister Sahara Khatun and comprising local MP Fazle Noor Taposh, held a meeting with some of the mutineers at the Amabala Inn restaurant right next to the Rifles Square shopping mall.

Hours after that meeting, the home minister and the rest of the government delegation, entered the BDR headquarters. When the government delegation was inside the headquarters in the early hours of February 26, gunshots could still be heard.

The mutineers kept threatening that they would not surrender until the

Raise voice to save Aduris: DMP commissioner DMP presents five rickshaws, Tk76,000 to Aduri’s family ed of Police Fahima Akter. n Mohammad Jamil Khan Speaking at the occasion, Benazir “Many children like Aduri are mistreated by a section of people in our society. But, if we all come forward and raise our voices against such maltreatment, it can be possible to put an end to their sorrows and suffering,” said Benazir Ahmed, commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police yesterday.

He was addressing a press briefing at the media and community centre of the DMP, as they handed over five rickshaws to the 11-year old, Aduri, who was rescued by an assistant sub-inspector from a dustbin in the city this September.

Aduri, after being treated at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) for almost two months, was released Saturday.

Mean while, at the programme, DMP commissioner also handed over a cheque for Tk76,000, which was given by Jahangir Hossain, brother of Additional Superintend-

Ahmed said they would help Aduri’s family to take the five rickshaws back to their hometown in Patuakhali, so they can live their lives by renting them out.

On the other hand, the presented money would be deposited in a bank, so that it can be used later for her education.

Steps have already been taken to get her admitted in a school.

“Many people from home and abroad have contacted us to help Aduri. We will coordinate with them so that they can stand beside Aduri in future. We will also take necessary steps to prevent the recurrence of such cases,” he said.

Maruf Hossain, additional commissioner, Jahangir Hossain Matubbor, deputy commissioner of DB west, Masudur Rahman, deputy commissioner of DMP were present at the occasion among others. l

DMP Commissioner Benazir Ahmed hands over a cheque to Aduri and her mother yesterday at the DMP Media Centre in the capital MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

army was withdrawn and if their demands were not met, they would blow up the entire BDR headquarters.

At one point the news came that some rebel jawans had started surrendering arms in front of the home minister, who was inside the compound. But later she came out of Pilkhana and the mutineers continued firing and kept control over the headquarters.

No step from the government proved to be effective to convince the rebel jawans that mutiny entered day two.

Despite several meetings with the mutineers, no confirmed information came from any source about the fate of the officers who were held hostage by the rebels.

Only the bodies of two army officers – Col Mujibul Huq and Lt Col Enayetul Haq – were recovered from a sewage system leading out of the BDR headquarters on the night of February 26.

Finally, around 6pm that day, the bloody 33-hour mutiny by disgruntled border guards ended. Many mutineers surrendered at the BDR headquarters after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina warned of tough actions to take them off through a “suicidal route.” Many others fled Pilkhana, most of whom later had surrendered or had been arrested.

Earlier in the afternoon, army commandos rolled into the residential neighbourhood of Dhanmondi with tanks and armoured personnel carriers (APCs) to build up pressure on the mutineers to surrender.

The following day, massive searches conducted by armymen and law enforcers unearthed several mass graves inside Pilkhana where the rebels buried the bodies of army officers, who they had killed. A total 57 army officers and 17 civilians were killed.

Records showed that the mutineers not only killed the unarmed officers, they looted their houses and set fire to vehicles. Before killing, they abused and bayoneted them. Even the family members of the officers were gruesomely tortured. l

Formalin Control Act 2013 approved n Mohosinul Karim The cabinet has approved in principle the draft Formalin Control Act 2013 with provisions for a maximum 10 years and minimum two years of imprisonment for violation of the proposed law.

The decision was taken at a regular cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday.

In addition, the proposed law advocates a Tk500,000 fine for defaulters.

The Ministry of Commerce has been asked to revise the draft again, considering whether it was conflicting with the existing Pure Food Act, before placing it to the cabinet meeting for final approval, said Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan to reporters after the meeting.

The cabinet secretary said: “The draft has been prepared in order to control the misuse of formalin, a chemical harmful to health. Though crucial for industrial purposes, misuse of formalin had been widespread lately. For that, the government wants to control its usage in spite of having the Pure Food Act.” After getting the final approval of the cabinet, the amended bill will be sent to parliament for passage.

Illegal possession of formalin would be considered as an offence for which maximum 10 years and minimum three years of imprisonment and Tk500,000 would be charged as penalty, the cabinet secretary further added.

He said the owners of warehouses would also be penalised for possessing formalin without the approval of the concerned authority. The penalty can extend from two years to a maximum seven years of imprisonment.

When asked if the draft had any provision for penalising the act of injecting formalin in food items, Bhuiyan said the Pure Food Act enclosed such provision. l

Jica offers $400m for metro rail n Asif Showkat Kallol Construction work of the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT)-6, known as metro rail, will start one year ahead of the previous schedule as the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) wants to disburse Tk130 billion ($400m) next year for the project, Finance minister AMA Muhith has said.

“Since we are getting the Jica fund, we’ll be able to start metro rail project in 2014 instead of 2015,” he said after the meeting of cabinet committee on public purchase yesterday.

The committee approved the communication ministry’s proposal for appointment of a consultant for the Tk220 billion project.

A consortium of six local and international firms, led by Nippon Koei Construc-

tion Company of Japan, gets the Tk9.5 billion consultancy work. It comprises Nippon Koei India, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation India , Mott MacDonald UK and Mott MacDonald India and Bangladesh company Development Design Consultant.

Sources in the ministry said the Jica offered to divert the amount it had pledged for the Padma bridge project to the metro jail scheme.

“The MRT-6 will be completed within four years,” the finance minister said.

The cabinet committee also approved the Election Commission’s proposal for appointment of a strategic firm for the Tk143.7m smart card project.

Bangladesh Center for Communication Programs (BCCP), a local non-government organisation, has been chosen as the strategic communications approach firm, with consent from the World Bank. l

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B2 Active SIMs rise sharply B3 NBR members to get secretary status

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2013

Business www.dhakatribune.com/business

Most NBFIs see Q3 profit growth ‘Quarterly profits depend on amount of provisioning against bad loans’ n Kayes Sohel More than half of the listed financial institutions have bagged net profits in the third quarter of this year, posting higher than corresponding period of previous year.

Twenty companies out of the 22 listed NBFIs have so far published their unaudited financial statements. Of them, 12 reported net profits while profit of six companies fell and two incurred losses.

International Leasing Finance and Services Ltd (ILFSL), BD Finance, First Lease International, National Housing Finance and Investment Ltd, Bangladesh Investment Finance Corporation, Prime Finance and Investment and Bay Leasing emerged as top seven performers, which saw hefty profits in the third quarter

Industry insiders said the institutions, those recovered previous bad loan, concentrated less in non-performing loan (NPL) or kept aside lesser amount of provision against bad loans, registered higher profits.

Profits of some NBFIs might not reflect the real picture as margin loan that has become overdue because of down-swing of stock market might be included in the prof-

itability.

The NPL is a loan on which the borrower is not making interest payments or repaying any principal. Financial institutions normally set aside money to cover potential losses on loans and write off bad debt in their profit and loss accounts.

International Leasing Finance and Services Ltd (ILFSL), BD Finance, First Lease International, National Housing Finance and Investment Ltd, Bangladesh Investment Finance Corporation, Prime Finance and Investment and Bay Leasing emerged as top seven performers, which saw hefty profits in the third quarter.

ILFSL’s profits were up 1,430% to Tk104m, holding the top position among its peers. BD Finance came second as it recorded a profit of Tk51m. The firm’s profits were just Tk3m in July-August period of the last year.

Profit of other companies including IDLC Finance, Lanka Bangla Finance, Peoples Leasing and Financial Services Ltd, United Leasing, Union Capital, United Leasing, Uttara Finance dropped. Premier Leasing and Fareast Finance incurred net losses.

The third quarter profits of the three NBFIs – ICB, DBH and Midas Finance – were not available.

“Quarterly profits depend on amount of provisioning against bad loans,” said Asad Khan, president of Bangladesh Leasing and Finance Association and Managing Director of Prime Finance and Investment Ltd. As compared to the banks, financial institutions are in good position in earnings because of their long term financing and no

NBFI BAYLEASING BDFINANCE FAREASTFIN FASFIN FLEASEINT GSPFINANCE IDLC ILFSL IPDC ISLAMICFIN LANKABAFIN NHFIL PHOENIXFIN PLFSL PREMIERLEA PRIMEFIN ULC UNIONCAP UTTARAFIN BIFC

Q3 2012 Q3 2013 Change 7 17 ⇑ 4 51 ⇑ 4 -111 ⇓ 12 2 ⇓ 6 75 ⇑ 16 20 ⇑ 171 161 ⇓ 7 104 ⇑ 39 18 ⇓ 12 13 ⇑ 133 236 ⇑ -5 43 ⇑ 104 53 ⇓ 52 59 ⇑ -28 -31 ⇓ -46 76 ⇑ 54 72 ⇑ 46 16 ⇓ 266 247 ⇓ 15 69 ⇑

Jan-Sept 12 137 37 24 -17 89 52 561 44 15 66 379 -2 248 279 5 60 142 53 692 -88

Jan-Sept 13 Change 133 ⇓ 20 ⇓ -96 ⇓ 3 ⇑ 156 ⇑ 67 ⇑ 362 ⇓ -28 ⇓ 71 ⇑ 73 ⇑ 429 ⇑ 111 ⇑ 236 ⇓ 207 ⇓ 3 ⇓ 152 ⇑ 193 ⇑ 23 ⇓ 705 ⇑ 6 ⇓ Figures in millions Taka

window dressing opportunity, he said. But current political uncertainty would not bode well for the institutions as it might increase non-performing loans, he said.

The operations of non-bank financial firms range from credit disbursement and property investments to money trading and portfolio management.

Selim RF Hussain, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at IDLC Finance, said provisioning for the subsidiary company

IDLC Investment that incurred losses because of sluggish stock market hits profitability of the group as a whole.

“But the parent company are doing very well as its loan-deposit business performed well,” he added.

Twenty nine NBFIs are operating in Bangladesh, of which 22 are listed with the Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges. The listed NBFIs make up around 13% of the total market capitalisation. l

POLITICAL CRISIS

Government to take stock on economic situation next week n Asif Showkat Kallol Finance Minister AMA Muhith has convened an economic policy meeting next week amid concerns over the current economic situation already battered by the ongoing political crisis in the run up to the national election.

The bad investment situation and instability in the banking sector have adversely affected the local business, intensifying the concerns, officials at the finance ministry said.

The meeting of money and exchange rate and fiscal coordination council and the resource committee is scheduled to be held on November 12.

The officials said the minister and the government high ups expressed concern

over the economic situation and apprehended the situation might turn to its worst had there been no development in the political situation soon.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also asked her cabinet members, high officials and different agencies of the government to take cautionary measures in the wake of the political crisis that might affect the country’s economic growth.

Officials at the finance division said implementation of the budget has been hampered due to deterioration in the political situation – only 11% of the Annual Development Programme has been released in the first quarter (July to September) this fiscal year as compared to a general phenomenon

of disbursing 20% to 25%.

Import of capital machinery witnessed sharp fall due to the sorry-state of investment situation as reflected by the foreign exchange reserve, according to an official source. “Export growth will decline if the present political situation prevails.”

The World Bank, IMF and Asian Development Bank have already expressed apprehension that the impending street agitation in the run-up to the national election would take a heavy toll on the economy and its growth.

They estimated the country’s GDP growth to remain below 6% in the current fiscal year although the finance ministry estimated the GDP (gross domestic product) to grow by

6.6% as compared to 6.3% in the previous fiscal year.

The government has a budgetary target of achieving 7.2% GDP growth in the current fiscal year.

The development partners also feared the labour unrest and suspension of GSP facilities might also affect the RMG exports, taking toll on the economic growth.

Adviser to the past caretaker government Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam told Dhaka Tribune that the street agitation and hartal programmes have hindered the economic activities. “The country’s macroeconomic situation will fall in deep crisis if the political satiation does not improve shortly,” said the noted economist. l

2

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2013

Active SIMs rise sharply

‘Freelancers to Entrepreneurs Programme’ launched n Muhammad Zahidul Islam The mobile phone operators witnessed a new n Tribune Business Desk addition of 5.62m active SIM cards during the The government yesterday launched a “Freelancers to Entrepreneurs Programme” – the first ever of its kind – to develop freelancers engaged in outsourcing job as entrepreneurs.

Initially 15,000 freelancers, who were developed under the Learning and Earning Programme of the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), would be developed as entrepreneurs, ICT Secretary Nazrul Islam Khan told a workshop organised to launch the programme in Dhaka.

About 70 freelancers of various districts are taking part in the 4-day workshop.

“We are going to launch 2nd phase of Learning and Earning Programme for creating another 15,000 freelancers and they will also be developed as entrepreneurs,” NI Khan said.

The government will provide logistic support to the entrepreneurs so that they can form a group and create more freelance outsourcers across the country.

The secretary said in this way the government would create huge number of employment, who would actually contribute to enhance foreign currency earning.

“Our ultimate target is to flourish business process outsourcing industry across the country and high-tech parks are being established in the districts keeping this target in mind.” l

July-September period, posting 33.29% rise from the same period a year earlier.

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) presented the growth in a report released yesterday.

According to its figure, Bangladesh’s six mobile operators have now a total of 110.68m active subscribers, up from 105m in the second quarter.

In first quarter, new active SIMs were 5.16m while in the second quarter it was 2.69m.

As the operators faced a direction of compulsory registration of SIM, the industry experienced negative growth in customers in

the last quarter of 2012.

The fall broke a five-year upward trend in penetrating customers by the operators.

According to the statistics, the market leader Grameenphone now has 46.04m active subscribers adding 2m during the July-September 2013.

Banglalink added 1.02m and Robi got 1.93m during the period.

The state-owned Teletalk added 432,000 subscribers while Airtel saw 212,000 in July-September.

But the country’s oldest operator Citycell lost 53,000 subscribers during the third quarter, the BTRC report stated.

It also said the number of internet subscribers till September crossed 36.24m. Out of total users, 34.71m customers were using mobile internet. l

New active SIMs 5.16m

5.62m

3.75m 2.69m -1.29m

Q3'12

Q4 '12

Q1 '13

Q2 '13

Q3 '13

Biman to launch Dhaka-Yangon direct flight Saturday n Tribune Business Desk Citycell, BICL ink infrastructure-sharing deal n Tribune Report Mobile operator Citycell and Bangladesh Infrastructure Company Limited (BICL) signed an agreement to share infrastructures.

Mehboob Chowdhury, CEO of Citycell, and Andy Rolt, Managing Director of BICL, signed the deal on behalf of their respective organisations on Sunday, said a press release.

The signing ceremony was held at Citycell head office in Dhaka.

The companies said the agreement is expected to facilitate the two organisations to maximise the use of network facilities and enhance the network coverage without duplication of investment for it.

High officials of the companies were also present at the signing ceremony. l

Biman Bangladesh Airlines will launch direct flight to Myanmar capital Yangon from Dhaka on Saturday by its own Boeing 737-800.

“It will operate two flights a week,” CEO and Managing Director Kevin Steel told a press conference at Biman’s headquarters Balaka in Dhaka yesterday.

The flights will be operated following the air service agreement between the Civil Aviation Authorities of Bangladesh and Myanmar, reports BSS. Kevin said Biman will resume its domestic flights by end December or early January after procuring two turboprops. As per the earlier commitment, Biman is supposed to resume domestic flights by this month.

“Unfortunately, we have still not procured the two turboprop aircrafts despite issuance of three RFPs (Request for Proposal). The last RFP did show three responsive bidders,” he said. “So, we’re now hopeful that this can be finally resolved and we can launch domestic flights by early January.”

Kevin said the airlines would deploy these small aircrafts on Dhaka-Yangon route to make air fare cheaper.

He said the unaudited results indicated Biman’s losses fell to US$25m in 2012-13 fis-

cal year from around $75m in the previous fiscal year.

“The trend shows that we will be able to make Biman profitable in 2014-15 fiscal as per our promise made to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina,” he said.

Kevin said the national flag carrier has made a profit of around Tk40om in September due to Hajj flights.

From next year, he said, Biman would not lease any aircraft for operating the hajj flights. “Before April, we will receive two more brand new wide-body Boeings and with those, we will be able to operate entire hajj flights,” he said.

Kevin said Biman is consulting with the University Grants Commission (UGC) to upgrade its training institute to university level. After upgrading the institute, “we can offer BSc degrees on different aviation related subjects and be able to make a pool of human resources locally.”

He said Biman is going to introduce its brand new and world class “Frequent Flyer Programme” from today. “We’re extremely confident that our Frequent Flyer Programme will match or exceed any other programmes in the world both in terms of technical specifications and generosity of mileage accruals,” Kevin added. l

PM to open Pangaon container terminal Thursday n Tribune Business Desk Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to inaugurate the much-awaited Pangaon Inland Container Terminal (ICT) on the bank of the River Buriganga at Pangaon in South Keraniganj.

She will inaugurate the terminal at 2 pm and address a public rally there, said a handout yesterday.

Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) and Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) jointly built the terminal at a cost of Tk1.7bn, reports BSS. Three vessels have already been procured at a cost of Tk500m to operate the terminal. Each of the vessels can carry 128 containers.

Of the three vessels, Pangoan Express and Pangaon Success have already arrived at Pangaon and the third one – Pangaon vision – is on the way, it said.

Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan said the terminal will reduce carrying cost of goods from Chittagong and Mongla. The terminal will also help reduce traffic pressure on the highways of Dhaka-Chittagong and Dhaka-Khulna, he added.

The government has given approval to build 30 vessels to carry goods to and from the terminal. l

BCB holds workshop on loan processing n Tribune Business Desk Bangladesh Commerce Bank Training Institute recently organised a training workshop on processing, sanction, documentation and disbursement of loans and advances.

CEO and Managing Director of Bangladesh Commerce Bank Abu Sadek Md Sohel inaugurated the course as chief guest, said a press release.

The bank’s DMD Dr Muhammad Asaduzzaman and Principal of the institute M Abu Hena, among others, were also present on the occasion. l

Correction

"Airtel takes part in UCASH service" published in Business Page 3 yesterday stated Ranjish Kaul as the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of Airtel which will be Rajnish Kaul, Chief Operating Officer, Airtel Bangladesh Limited. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2013

NBR members to get secretary status n Asif Showkat Kallol The government is going to raise the status of six NBR members to secretary level from the current additional secretary.

Official sources said the public administration ministry will soon issue an official order in this regard.

Earlier, BCS Taxation Association, BCS Vat Implementation and Income Tax Association and a NBR member made a proposal to elevate the revenue board members’ status to secretary level.

The proposal got finance ministry approval and was sent to the public administration ministry for taking steps.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith said he

talked about the issue to the PM Adviser on Public Administration HT Imam. Prime Minister was present during the talk, he added.

The proposal also included raising the status of tax commissioners.

The proposal argued: “The growth in revenue earning on average was 14% over the past five years until last fiscal when the growth increased to 20%.”

“Besides, tax-GDP ratio now stands at 10.7% as a result of the increased revenue earning,” it added.

It said works of NBR officials have also increased with the rise in money laundering cases.

According to the sources, the present rules are depriving the senior tax officials

who are involved in the collection of 85% of the country’s total revenue.

Such deprivation is causing resentment to the tax cadre officials at three wings of NBR, the sources added.

The tax officials argued that their posts were not upgraded to grade-1 while the government elevated the status of 25 posts of other departments recently.

Senior tax officials continue to remain in grade 2 status.

The post of NBR members is equivalent to additional secretary although the member post is the highest in rank in the country’s revenue authority.

The NBR has 868 income tax and 587 customs and VAT cadre officials. l

Oil prices mixed in Remittance up in October Asian trade n Jebun Nesa Alo

n AFP, Singapore Oil prices were mixed in Asia yesterday as dealers await US economic data this week that could provide an indication of when the Federal Reserve will start winding down its stimulus programme.

New York’s main contract West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for December delivery eased six cents to $94.55 a barrel in afternoon trade, while Brent North Sea crude for December climbed 29 cents to $106.20.

“Investors will be looking at US economic data this week, especially the jobs data, for an indication of whether tapering will be brought forward to December,” Desmond Chua, market analyst at CMC Markets in Singapore, told AFP. A better-than-expected summary of the US economy by the Federal Reserve last week has fuelled speculation that it will soon begin reeling in its bond-buying by the end of the year.

Investors will next focus on US third-quarter gross domestic product advanced estimates to be released Thursday, as well as official October payrolls data out on Friday.

The oil market has been closely following the Fed’s debate on when to scale back its $85bn a-month stimulus.

The onset of tapering will boost the greenback, making dollar-priced oil more expensive for countries using other currencies.

Investors are also eyeing Libyan oil production, after an announcement by its National Oil Corp. that the Al-Harriga terminal will resume operations on Monday at the latest.

The terminal, which has a capacity of 110,000 barrels a day, has been closed along with several other terminals by protesters demanding jobs and a more equitable distribution of oil revenues.

Libyan crude production has been disrupted for several months by the labour unrest, and output slashed to as little as 300,000 barrels per day from 1.5 million-1.6 million before the showdown began. l

Remittance from wage earners in abroad rose more than 20% in October from the previous month thanks to Eid-ul-Azha.

Bangladesh Bank data showed the country received $1.23bn from the expatriates during the month while it was $1.02bn in September.

In July, the remittance inflow totalled $1.24bn as the Muslims’ festival Eid-ul-Fitr was celebrated.

The following month August witnessed a fall with the amount down to $1bn.

Bangladesh’s foreign currency reserves recently exceeded $16bn.

Of the remittance received during the month of October, state-owned commercial banks channelled $382m, specialised banks $12.55m, private commercial banks $825m and foreign commercial banks $15m.

Issues like political turmoil and weak dollar are discouraging expatriates to send money home now

According to the central bank data, the remittance inflows during the past four months have been slow as compared with same period last fiscal.

In four months of the present fiscal year, the accumulated remittance fell to $4.50bn from $5bn one year ago.

The central bank sources linked the fall with the worsening political turmoil and falling dollar prices against taka.

“Issues like political turmoil and weak

dollar are discouraging expatriates to send money home now,” viewed a high official of Bangladesh Bank.

REMITTANCE INFLOW 2013 July

$1.24bn

August

$1.01bn

September

$1.02bn

October

$1.23bn

A World Bank report described Bangladesh as the 7th most remittance earning country in 2012.

Remittance has been growing at double digits since 1980s and currently accounts for nearly 11% of GDP. As policy steps to smooth remittance inflow, separate savings instruments have been created for non-resident Bangladeshis.

The instruments were such as a non-resident foreign currency deposit, USD premium bond and wage-earners’ development bond, said Bangladesh Bank sources.

Smart cards or mobile phone banking services have been introduced to facilitate remittance channelling.

As many as 37 banks also set up 1,084 drawing arrangements with 288 exchange houses all over the world to bring down remittance cost.

According to Bangladesh Bank data, in the FY2008-09, the remittance was received $9.7bn from 650,059 migrant workers.

In the FY2012-13, the figure rose to $14.5bn despite the fact that the number of migrant workers dropped to 441,301. l

3

DSEX crosses 4,000-mark after five weeks n Tribune Report Stocks continued to gain for the third consecutive session yesterday with the benchmark index crossing 4000-mark for the first time in five weeks.

Investors’ presence on the trading floor was very thin as the 60-hour countrywide shutdown enforced by opposition parties began on the day.

The market witnessed strong buying pressure from the very beginning, mostly from institutions, helping indices close higher.

The benchmark index – DSEX – ended at 4,085 points, gaining 92 points or 2%. The DS30 Index comprising blue chips rose 13 points or 1% to 1,447.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange Selective Category Index, CSCX, gained 195 points to 7,995.

The total turnover hit 6-week high to more than Tk4bn, which was 30% higher over the previous session’s value.

“In spite of gloomy political state of affairs and nationwide shutdown being on progress, the bourse marched on. News of increased net foreign investment despite political plight exerted a bullish vibe from the very beginning of the day’s session,” said IDLC Investments in its market analysis.

It said the robustness tempted inactive fund from the sideline, which ultimately found its way in significantly undervalued scrips. As a result, participation observed a spike.

Gainers outpaced losers as out of 284 issues traded, 232 gained, 40 declined and 12 remained unchanged in the prime bourse.

Banks outshined the major sectors with all its 30 issues closing higher and gained almost 5%. Five of them also featured in the top ten gainers chart.

NBFIs and pharmaceuticals advanced nearly 3% and 1% respectively. Telecommunications and fuel and power also saw marginal gains with 0.7% and 0.4% rise.

United Commercial Bank Ltd was the top turnover leader with shares worth Tk201m changing hands. The bank also featured fifth in the top ten gainers. It was followed by Generation Next Fashion, Padma Oil, Envoy Textile and Meghna Petroleum. l

Suvastu wins brand excellence award n Tribune Business Desk

Suvastu Development Limited (SDL) recently won award for global brand excellence in construction and real estate sector at the World Brand Congress 2013.

Managing Director of Suvastu, Nazmul Haque Khan received the award at an event held at Taj Lands End Hotel in Mumbai, said a press release.

It said: “Suvastu’s excellence in sustaining quality service and brand equity over the years has earned it this international recognition.” l

4

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2013

CHINA REFORM CHECKLIST

How to tell that this time it’s for real? n Reuters, Tokyo The message from Beijing could not be clearer: China needs to shift to a more balanced economy that is socially and environmentally sustainable.

That was the conclusion of a key Communist Party meeting a decade ago, yet what followed was more of the same: rapid investment-led expansion, which turned China into the world’s number 2 economy, but left it laden with debt, environmental damage and excess capacity.

Fast forward to 2013 and China’s new leadership is again promising more harmonious development and the question is how to tell whether, this time, it is for real.

One encouraging sign suggesting that President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and their team mean business is their greater tolerance for slower economic growth while they carry out reforms. After three decades of double-digit rises in GDP each year, the leaders have pencilled in 7.5% for 2013 - the weakest pace since the late 1990s.

“Since the reforms of the late 1970s, leaders have always without exception said that the growth rate is the first priority,” said Zhao Xijun, deputy head of the Finance and Securities Institute at Renmin University in Beijing.

“The new leaders don’t say they don’t pay attention to growth, but the new priority is the stability of growth rather than a high growth rate.”

The new approach was evident earlier this year when investors fretted the econo-

my may be slowing down too much. Rather than adopting the sort of massive economic stimulus of the past, Beijing announced small-scale and targeted measures to support economic activity.

Chinese leaders have repeatedly said China needs to wean itself off a reliance on investment and exports, which in parts of the country have led to industrial overcapacity and pollution, and rely more on services and consumption, more akin to the developed economies of the West.

To do that means encouraging tens of millions of Chinese to move to cities to live while creating a social safety net and laws, particularly on land ownership, that will give them the confidence to do so.

The ultimate test of the new team’s appetite for reform will be its actions, but the four-day third plenary session of the Communist Party’s leadership starting on Saturday will offer some early clues.

Such meetings have served in the past as launch pads for major economic reforms like those unveiled in 1994 that paved the way for China’s World Trade Organization membership, though some, such as the one a decade ago, failed to deliver.

By nature, the pronouncements are broad and often deliberately cryptic, but China watchers believe the tone and level of detail can reveal where the policy focus will be.

“For example, the state owned enterprises’ reform will be touched on, but it will probably be in very general language and similar to one used before,” said Haibin Zhu, chief China economist with JPMorgan in

Smoke rises from chimneys and facilities of steel plants on a hazy day in Benxi, Liaoning province

Hong Kong.

“But in some key areas, like fiscal or land reform they will be using more detailed language.”

In the end, what will matter more is what the authorities do in the next six to 12 months. General expectations are that the follow-up will not be as dramatic as in 1994, but also that it will not be a non-event like a decade ago.

The consensus view in Beijing is that the authorities are not ready to take on stateowned giants that dominate sectors such as finance or energy or to let the struggling ones fail.

The focus therefore will be on the rest of the agenda: financial, fiscal, land and government administration reforms, pricing of resources, changes to social security and opening protected sectors to private and foreign competition.

All are seen contributing in one form or another to China’s push towards more private investment, consumption, services and high-value manufacturing, so any progress there would be welcome by investors and economists.

“Many of these things hang together and you can’t really go the full length on one without another, so any significant step on any of these will be welcome,” Markus Rodlauer, deputy head of the International Monetary Fund’s Asia Pacific Division in Washington, told Reuters.

What few seem to be advocating is for Beijing to break with its gradual, cautious approach.

REUTERS

“In a way, a gradual move on all of those (reforms) is what will in the end deliver,” Rodlauer, who heads the Fund’s China mission, said. “China has been well served by its strategy of gradual, careful reforms and does not need nor should it venture suddenly to implement Big Bang reforms.”

Of all reforms, a financial overhaul is considered low hanging fruit. Markets and the currency are closely controlled and capital movements in and out of the country are restricted.

Driven by the central bank’s governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, the gradual move towards market-driven interest and exchange rates and capital flows liberalisation is already under way and there is a clear roadmap.

In the least, investors expect to see a further broadening of the yuan’s trading band next year and the establishment of a deposit insurance scheme - a prelude to a gradual freeing up of deposit rates and full liberalisation of interest rates.

“If we don’t see anything on financial reform in 2014, that will be a very big disappointment,” said JPMorgan’s Zhu. On the fiscal front, economists and investors will look for steps to share more evenly revenues and expenditure between central and local governments and the expansion of the use of value added tax in the services sector. Local governments now get about half of tax and other revenues, but are responsible for more than 80% of public spending.

Economists and observers will also look for progress towards a bilateral investment treaty with Washington and a similar pact with the European Union as proof of Beijing’s intention to further open up its economy.

Some also expect to see land and residence registration reforms tested in some areas, translated into a nationwide policy that would support China’s stated goal to boost its urban population.

By contrast, a proliferation of pilot schemes, such as the Shanghai Free Trade Zone trumpeted as a laboratory for sweeping financial market reforms, could signal a lack of political consensus to roll out the changes on a national scale.

Economists say some caution is understandable given many of the reforms mean handing over controls to market forces and coming months will show how quickly the authorities want to go.

But given no one knows how much time China has before its debt pile up, industrial overcapacity, environmental degradation and social tensions prove hard to control, erring too much on the safe side may be risky too.

“We don’t know how much time Beijing has and we don’t know whether the incremental approach they’ve used in the past is still possible,” says Gudrun Wacker, a China policy specialist at German Institute for International and Security Affairs, a Berlin-based think tank.

“I believe they will spend the next five years trying to manage the problems and not do anything drastic, but it’s like reading from tea leaves.” l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2013

5

Won for the money

North Korea experiments with exchange rates n Reuters, Seoul In a dimly-lit Pyongyang toyshop packed with Mickey Mouse picture frames and plastic handguns, a basketball sells for 46,000 Korean People’s Won - close to $500 at North Korea’s centrally planned exchange rate.

Luckily, for young North Koreans looking to shoot hoops with Dennis Rodman, the new friend of leader Kim Jong Un, the Chinese-made ball actually costs a little less than $6 based on black market rates.

Once reserved for official exchange only in zones aimed at attracting foreign investment, and in illegal underground market deals elsewhere, black market rates are being used more frequently and openly in North Korean cities.

Publicly advertised prices at rates close to the market rate - around 8,000 won to the dollar versus the official rate of 96 - could signal Pyongyang is trying to marketise its centrally planned economy and allow a burgeoning “grey market” to thrive. This could boost growth and capture more of the dollars and Chinese yuan circulating widely so that North Korea can pay for imports of oil and food.

Unofficial market rates could become more widespread following an announcement last month of 14 new special economic zones (SEZs) aimed at kickstarting a moribund economy where output is just one fortieth of wealthier South Korea’s. A spokesperson for the Korea Economic Development Association, a local organisation tasked with communicating policy in the new SEZs, told Reuters that exchange rates in the new zones are to be “fixed according to (local) market rates.”

“The official rate for the won is like a placeholder,” said Matthew Reichel, director of the Pyongyang Project, a Canadian NGO that organises academic exchanges with North Korea. “We all know that the value of the won is not this.”

Under strain

An estimated 90% of economic transactions along North Korea’s border with China are in yuan, an embarrassment for a country whose policy stresses economic independence, and something that reduces the grip that authorities attempt to exercise over its people and economy.

Pyongyang does not publish economic data, but is believed to have run a sizeable current account deficit for years, straining its ability to pay for imports in hard currency.

An attempt in 2009 to revalue the won and confiscate private foreign currency savings prompted protests from market traders and forced a rare policy reversal and public apology from state officials.

“Due to its lack of foreign currency, the North Korean government will have to tolerate black market rates, even if it has difficulty in officially recognising them,” said Cho Bong-hyun, a North Korea economics expert at the IBK Economic Research Institute in Seoul.

Others have gone down this route before.

North Korean leader Kim Il-sung is seen on this 5000 North Korea won banknote in this photo illustration taken in Shanghai “This is comparable to Cuba, which implements a dual currency system between convertible pesos and national pesos, and Myanmar, which for years refused to recognize the black market value of the kyat until it became completely uncontrollable,” said Reichel at the Pyongyang Project.

Going Underground

Not only does North Korea not provide official data on its economy, but when things are actually paid for using the official rate, the maths don’t add up.

Pyongyang’s two-line metro system, which only accepts won, is one of the world’s cheapest at just 5 won a ticket. However, the equivalent grey market value is so small that no single coin in any currency is small enough to cover it.

State salaries are also paid according to official rates, meaning the 6,000 won a month paid to a civil servant only just covers the cost of a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.

The difference in official salaries and unofficial prices is made up from an economy that, despite government restrictions, has become increasingly marketised.

Even workers with stable jobs in Pyongyang are tasked with extra money-making activities. Women in particular, less bound by obligations to work state-controlled jobs, dominate North Korea’s countless urban and

rural marketplaces.

While low-end goods and services are increasingly expressed according to grey market rates, transactions at more expensive shops are usually priced using the official rate, but conducted in dollars or yuan.

The Chongjon Sunrise Supermarket in central Pyongyang sells Hershey’s chocolate bars at 150 won and, for the ambassadors in town, boxes of Ferrero Rocher at 1,850 won the low prices indicate the vendor expects to be paid in foreign currency, not won.

Reichel said that when he once teasingly tried to pay for his midnight snacks with a couple of crumpled North Korean won banknotes, the shop assistant smiled patiently, and politely asked for dollars.

At grey market rates, the assistant would have had to accept an armful of 5,000 won notes, the largest denomination, for the 160,000 won the chocolates cost.

“Black market rates are set by larger scale currency traders working in major urban areas,” said Christopher Green of the Daily NK, a website that tracks black market rates in North Korea.

Tough Choices

Kim Jong Un, the third of his line to rule impoverished North Korea, has repeatedly pledged that austerity is over.

The North experienced a famine in the

REUTERS

mid-1990s and its economy was hurt by the collapse of the Soviet Union that propped it up in a Cold War battle for supremacy in Asia.

Trading partners such as China and Russia now insist on being paid in hard currency, draining reserves.

Stacked up against South Korea, whose economy it once outmuscled, and China, which has gone from failed collectivisation to the world’s second-largest economy, Pyongyang faces some tough choices.

Economic reform and freer markets could accelerate the growth of a middle class that is not beholden to Kim and the dynastic rule of his father and grandfather.

One step would be to broaden out the number of institutions like the Golden Triangle Bank in the Rason Special Economic Zone which regularly advertises rates for the euro, dollar, yuan, yen and rouble that no longer reflect the official policy rate.

“There are people who are trying to push for some sort of policy implementation,” said Reichel. “But we won’t start to see sustainable economic development until the government accepts their currency system does not work in the long term, and continuing with this idea of a state-provided salary is futile.”

“At this stage, it’s still like cowboys and capitalism.” l

6

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2013

DSE Broad Index: 4085.21 ⇑ 2.30%, Turnover: 4120.55 M.Tk ⇑ 30.72%, PE: 12.67 Turnover 4,478.24 MTk . ⇑ 30.34% November 4, 2013 MarketCap. 1,976.76 BTk. ⇑ 1.78% CSE All Share Index: 12605 ⇑ 02.44%, Turnover: 357.69 M Tk. ⇑ 26.05%, PE: 12.47 Combined Turnover Leader

BANK ABBANK | 2.95 | 32.60 | Vol. 302265 D: 25.10 ⇓ 5.28% | 25.37 | 26.80 / 23.70 C: 25.20 ⇓ 3.45% | 25.27 | 25.90 / 24.80 CITYBANK | 1.15 | 25.97 | Vol. 2356407 D: 18.40 ⇓ 1.08% | 19.18 | 20.30 / 17.50 C: 18.30 ⇓ 2.66% | 19.00 | 20.00 / 18.10 IFIC | 1.10 | 18.34 | Vol. 1477193 D: 26.00 ⇓ 3.70% | 26.02 | 27.50 / 24.50 C: 25.60 ⇓ 4.48% | 25.85 | 27.00 / 25.30 ISLAMIBANK | 3.78 | 27.16 | Vol. 564288 D: 36.40 ⇓ 0.82% | 36.75 | 37.50 / 34.00 C: 36.10 ⇓ 0.55% | 36.20 | 37.10 / 36.00 NBL | 1.05 | 15.76 | Vol. 5584089 D: 12.10 ⇓ 7.63% | 12.49 | 14.00 / 12.00 C: 12.30 ⇓ 7.52% | 12.59 | 13.40 / 12.00 PUBALIBANK | 1.92 | 21.18 | Vol. 114129 D: 31.10 ⇓ 0.96% | 31.29 | 32.30 / 28.00 C: 31.20 ⇓ 2.19% | 31.10 | 31.80 / 30.00 RUPALIBANK | 6.70 | 64.27 | Vol. 32400 D: 61.00 ⇓ 1.61% | 63.73 | 68.00 / 60.50 C: 63.80 ⇑ 4.59% | 63.82 | 64.90 / 63.40 UCBL | 1.90 | 21.72 | Vol. 6636965 D: 21.60 ⇓ 3.57% | 22.01 | 23.60 / 20.20 C: 21.50 ⇓ 2.27% | 21.81 | 23.00 / 21.20 UTTARABANK | 3.42 | 26.97 | Vol. 221461 D: 26.90 ⇓ 3.58% | 27.22 | 28.50 / 26.30 C: 27.00 ⇓ 1.46% | 26.97 | 27.50 / 25.00 ICBIBANK | -1.60 | -13.03 | Vol. 117500 D: 5.90 ⇑ 1.72% | 5.88 | 6.00 / 5.80 EBL | 3.91 | 28.22 | Vol. 284000 D: 26.40 ⇓ 2.94% | 26.54 | 27.00 / 26.30 C: 25.90 ⇓ 4.07% | 26.00 | 26.40 / 25.60 ALARABANK | 2.03 | 14.91 | Vol. 549305 D: 15.50 ⇓ 5.49% | 15.72 | 17.00 / 15.40 C: 15.40 ⇓ 3.75% | 15.72 | 16.20 / 15.40 PRIMEBANK | 2.89 | 22.40 | Vol. 604686 D: 22.70 ⇓ 3.81% | 22.96 | 23.70 / 21.10 SOUTHEASTB | 1.89 | 22.66 | Vol. 967590 D: 16.50 ⇓ 4.07% | 16.60 | 17.40 / 15.50 C: 16.50 ⇓ 5.17% | 16.60 | 16.90 / 16.40 DHAKABANK | 1.46 | 18.08 | Vol. 113609 D: 18.70 ⇓ 7.43% | 19.14 | 21.00 / 18.60 C: 19.20 ⇓ 4.95% | 19.23 | 20.80 / 18.60 NCCBANK | 1.90 | 15.88 | Vol. 557102 D: 12.00 ⇓ 5.51% | 12.22 | 13.50 / 11.50 C: 12.20 ⇓ 4.69% | 12.26 | 13.20 / 12.10 SIBL | 2.05 | 14.47 | Vol. 590417 D: 11.70 ⇓ 4.88% | 11.82 | 13.00 / 11.00 C: 11.90 ⇓ 3.25% | 11.91 | 12.30 / 11.70 DUTCHBANGL | 11.57 | 54.27 | Vol. 15660 D: 94.80 ⇓ 0.32% | 94.82 | 96.00 / 87.00 MTBL | 1.17 | 17.27 | Vol. 61510 D: 15.80 ⇓ 4.82% | 15.88 | 16.00 / 15.60 C: 15.30 ⇓ 4.38% | 15.30 | 15.30 / 15.30 STANDBANKL | 2.33 | 14.41 | Vol. 879000 D: 13.00 ⇓ 4.41% | 13.23 | 13.90 / 13.00 C: 13.00 ⇓ 6.47% | 13.37 | 14.00 / 12.90 ONEBANKLTD | 2.35 | 15.34 | Vol. 3916781 D: 14.50 ⇓ 9.94% | 14.88 | 17.00 / 14.50 C: 14.80 ⇓ 9.76% | 15.16 | 16.20 / 14.80 BANKASIA | 1.35 | 20.80 | Vol. 141020 D: 18.70 ⇓ 6.03% | 19.09 | 19.60 / 18.70 MERCANBANK | 2.07 | 16.59 | Vol. 1342446 D: 12.90 ⇓ 6.52% | 13.18 | 13.90 / 12.90 C: 12.90 ⇓ 3.73% | 13.18 | 13.70 / 12.90 EXIMBANK | 1.80 | 14.31 | Vol. 2782947 D: 11.40 ⇓ 10.24% | 11.62 | 12.70 / 11.40 C: 11.50 ⇓ 8.73% | 11.66 | 13.00 / 11.40 JAMUNABANK | 2.47 | 18.56 | Vol. 222093 D: 15.40 ⇓ 3.14% | 15.47 | 16.40 / 14.40 C: 15.40 ⇓ 1.91% | 15.35 | 15.50 / 15.10 BRACBANK | 1.51 | 24.87 | Vol. 315212 D: 29.70 ⇓ 3.26% | 29.75 | 30.40 / 27.60 C: 29.40 ⇓ 2.97% | 29.40 | 29.50 / 29.20 SHAHJABANK | 2.61 | 14.47 | Vol. 937509 D: 15.30 ⇓ 2.55% | 16.15 | 16.80 / 14.50 C: 15.30 ⇓ 2.55% | 15.81 | 16.60 / 15.10 PREMIERBAN | 1.18 | 13.95 | Vol. 1126433 D: 10.50 ⇓ 7.89% | 10.73 | 12.20 / 10.20 C: 10.50 ⇓ 7.89% | 10.74 | 11.20 / 10.40

TO M. Tk.

% of TTL

Avg. P

227.91

5.09

23.02

UCBL - A

9900119

Square Pharma -A

1127135

202.95

4.53

Generation Next Fashions-A

6858420

181.26

4.05

26.43

Padma Oil Co. -A

457855

148.53

3.32

324.40

Envoy Textiles Ltd-N

CompanyCode | EPS | BV | Volume Traded (Share) DSE/CSE: ClosePrice ⇓/⇑ Chn % | Avg.Price | Hi / Lo

Vol.

2189370

135.46

3.02

TRUSTBANK | 0.50 | 18.00 | Vol. 265798 D: 17.70 ⇓ 6.35% | 18.05 | 19.30 / 17.00 C: 17.90 ⇓ 5.29% | 17.85 | 18.00 / 17.80 FIRSTSBANK | 1.85 | 13.89 | Vol. 446026 D: 12.30 ⇓ 3.91% | 12.40 | 13.20 / 11.50 C: 12.40 ⇓ 2.36% | 12.35 | 12.70 / 12.10 NON BANKING F I IDLC | 4.43 | 29.18 | Vol. 249203 D: 57.90 ⇓ 0.17% | 58.07 | 58.90 / 57.00 C: 57.60 ⇓ 0.52% | 57.62 | 59.00 / 57.50 ULC | 1.80 | 14.90 | Vol. 61594 D: 26.80 ⇓ 1.11% | 26.84 | 27.10 / 25.50 UTTARAFIN | 7.16 | 41.54 | Vol. 52469 D: 74.00 ⇓ 0.80% | 74.22 | 75.50 / 73.00 C: 73.70 ⇑ 0.27% | 73.77 | 76.00 / 72.10 MIDASFIN | 0.16 | 10.21 | Vol. 300 D: 31.50 ⇑ 0.00% | 29.00 | 29.00 / 29.00 FLEASEINT | 2.34 | 13.93 | Vol. 276350 D: 25.30 ⇓ 2.69% | 25.42 | 26.10 / 24.00 C: 25.60 ⇓ 3.40% | 25.55 | 27.30 / 25.00 PLFSL | 1.37 | 17.48 | Vol. 441485 D: 21.40 ⇓ 2.73% | 21.77 | 22.50 / 20.00 C: 21.70 ⇓ 0.91% | 21.94 | 22.30 / 21.60 PRIMEFIN | 0.87 | 17.88 | Vol. 480098 D: 23.20 ⇑ 3.11% | 23.21 | 23.90 / 21.80 C: 23.20 ⇑ 2.65% | 23.04 | 23.90 / 22.40 PREMIERLEA | 0.10 | 11.37 | Vol. 247753 D: 9.90 ⇑ 0.00% | 9.98 | 10.20 / 9.00 C: 10.00 ⇓ 2.91% | 10.08 | 10.20 / 10.00 ISLAMICFIN | 1.03 | 15.48 | Vol. 234766 D: 15.40 ⇓ 0.65% | 15.53 | 16.00 / 13.90 C: 15.20 ⇓ 3.18% | 15.24 | 15.50 / 15.10 LANKABAFIN | 1.61 | 31.07 | Vol. 296895 D: 53.00 ⇓ 1.49% | 53.39 | 54.10 / 48.50 C: 53.20 ⇓ 1.66% | 53.06 | 53.60 / 50.40 BIFC | 0.15 | 18.58 | Vol. 91778 D: 14.90 ⇓ 0.67% | 15.00 | 15.20 / 14.00 C: 14.80 ⇓ 0.67% | 14.80 | 16.30 / 14.70 IPDC | 1.23 | 19.43 | Vol. 104500 D: 16.90 ⇓ 3.98% | 17.15 | 17.60 / 16.90 C: 17.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 17.06 | 17.30 / 17.00 UNIONCAP | 0.54 | 17.85 | Vol. 17275 D: 27.10 ⇓ 0.37% | 27.12 | 27.40 / 25.50 C: 27.00 ⇑ 0.37% | 27.00 | 27.00 / 27.00 ILFSL | 0.35 | 12.19 | Vol. 399500 D: 13.60 ⇓ 2.16% | 13.90 | 14.20 / 13.60 C: 13.60 ⇓ 1.45% | 13.76 | 14.10 / 13.60 PHOENIXFIN | 2.46 | 19.39 | Vol. 140740 D: 29.40 ⇑ 0.68% | 29.45 | 30.00 / 28.20 C: 29.10 ⇓ 1.02% | 29.07 | 29.30 / 29.00 FASFIN | 0.19 | 13.56 | Vol. 424000 D: 13.30 ⇓ 2.92% | 13.33 | 13.60 / 13.20 C: 13.30 ⇓ 2.21% | 13.39 | 13.80 / 13.30 DBH | 4.47 | 21.27 | Vol. 23716 D: 52.60 ⇓ 0.57% | 52.64 | 53.00 / 50.00 C: 51.70 ⇑ 0.98% | 51.70 | 51.70 / 51.70 NHFIL | 0.57 | 12.70 | Vol. 360500 D: 28.80 ⇓ 1.71% | 29.78 | 31.40 / 28.40 C: 28.70 ⇑ 0.35% | 29.18 | 29.50 / 28.70 BAYLEASING | 0.72 | 25.55 | Vol. 225348 D: 27.30 ⇓ 2.50% | 27.58 | 29.00 / 25.50 C: 27.30 ⇓ 3.19% | 27.40 | 27.70 / 27.20 ICB | 89.23 | 607.74 | Vol. 4450 D: 1402 ⇑ 0.16% | 1403 | 1415 / 1393 C: 1400 ⇑ 0.72% | 1400 | 1400 / 1400 GSPFINANCE | 1.63 | 22.23 | Vol. 87575 D: 24.50 ⇑ 1.24% | 24.65 | 25.00 / 23.00 FAREASTFIN | 0.68 | 13.64 | Vol. 3221500 D: 13.90 ⇓ 9.15% | 14.34 | 15.50 / 13.90 C: 14.00 ⇓ 8.50% | 14.50 | 15.50 / 13.80 FAREASTFIN | 0.68 | 13.64 | Vol. 958500 C: 14.00 ⇓ 8.50% | 14.50 | 15.50 / 13.80 INVESTMENT 2NDICB | 44.10 | 253.11 | Vol. 2350 D: 213.1 ⇑ 0.42% | 213.19 | 215.0 / 210.0 3RDICB | 26.16 | 235.16 | Vol. 2000 D: 175.3 ⇓ 0.34% | 175.50 | 176.0 / 172.2 6THICB | 10.99 | 60.14 | Vol. 5600 D: 45.80 ⇑ 1.78% | 45.74 | 46.70 / 45.00 C: 45.70 ⇑ 4.10% | 45.65 | 45.80 / 45.50 8THICB | 12.47 | 70.07 | Vol. 7030 D: 49.30 ⇓ 0.80% | 49.43 | 49.50 / 49.00

180.06

61.87

C%

A%

CP

C%

A%

CP

Desh Garments-B

10.00

10.41

57.20

Legacy Footwear -A

-4.64

1.57

32.90

Usmania Glass-A

9.98

8.88

136.70

ApexAdelchi Ftr-A

-3.94

-1.63

382.50

Northern Jute-Z

9.75

9.05

25.90

-3.51

-3.51

22.00

IFIC Bank-A

9.70

7.01

29.40

ICB AMCL 1st NRB-A BD Fixed Income MF-A

-3.30

-3.30

8.80

UCBL-A

9.35

6.96

23.40

Prime Insur-A

-2.77

-2.85

31.60

DSE Gainer

AIMS1STMF | 3.02 | 15.70 | Vol. 276325 D: 36.90 ⇓ 0.54% | 37.42 | 38.00 / 35.00 C: 37.10 ⇓ 0.54% | 37.20 | 37.60 / 36.90 ICBISLAMIC | 2.21 | 26.81 | Vol. 28000 D: 16.30 ⇑ 0.62% | 16.32 | 16.40 / 16.30 GRAMEEN1 | 6.26 | 33.23 | Vol. 281500 D: 42.90 ⇓ 2.28% | 43.40 | 44.40 / 42.60 C: 43.10 ⇑ 0.94% | 43.05 | 43.20 / 43.00 ICB1STNRB | 4.06 | 35.31 | Vol. 5500 D: 22.90 ⇓ 2.14% | 22.89 | 23.00 / 22.50 C: 24.30 ⇓ 7.25% | 24.30 | 25.00 / 23.60 ICB2NDNRB | 2.49 | 16.24 | Vol. 345500 D: 9.30 ⇑ 4.49% | 9.29 | 9.50 / 9.10 C: 9.00 ⇑ 1.12% | 9.00 | 9.20 / 9.00 GRAMEENS2 | 2.17 | 16.41 | Vol. 1004500 D: 15.70 ⇑ 1.29% | 15.88 | 16.20 / 15.60 C: 15.70 ⇑ 1.29% | 15.71 | 16.00 / 15.40 1STPRIMFMF | 0.64 | 11.63 | Vol. 702000 D: 19.90 ⇓ 3.86% | 20.14 | 20.80 / 19.70 C: 20.20 ⇑ 0.00% | 20.12 | 20.60 / 19.70 EBL1STMF | 0.55 | 12.62 | Vol. 202786 D: 6.60 ⇓ 2.94% | 6.73 | 7.10 / 6.30 C: 6.70 ⇓ 1.47% | 6.70 | 7.00 / 6.60 ICBAMCL2ND | 0.60 | 12.12 | Vol. 22500 D: 5.60 ⇓ 3.45% | 5.64 | 5.80 / 5.60 ICBEPMF1S1 | 0.52 | 11.32 | Vol. 34000 D: 6.00 ⇓ 1.64% | 6.09 | 6.10 / 6.00 C: 6.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 6.00 | 6.00 / 6.00 TRUSTB1MF | 0.75 | 11.65 | Vol. 653326 D: 7.40 ⇑ 0.00% | 7.45 | 7.50 / 6.70 C: 7.20 ⇓ 1.37% | 7.34 | 7.50 / 7.20 PRIME1ICBA | 0.42 | 11.18 | Vol. 31000 D: 5.10 ⇓ 1.92% | 5.11 | 5.20 / 5.10 C: 5.10 ⇓ 1.92% | 5.10 | 5.10 / 5.10 DBH1STMF | -1.12 | 10.15 | Vol. 173500 D: 5.40 ⇓ 1.82% | 5.43 | 5.50 / 5.30 C: 5.50 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.52 | 5.60 / 5.40 IFIC1STMF | 0.83 | 11.88 | Vol. 185606 D: 6.40 ⇓ 1.54% | 6.48 | 6.70 / 5.80 C: 6.30 ⇓ 4.55% | 6.34 | 6.40 / 6.30 PF1STMF | 0.51 | 11.11 | Vol. 172000 D: 5.20 ⇓ 3.70% | 5.26 | 5.40 / 5.20 C: 5.30 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.30 | 5.30 / 5.30 ICB3RDNRB | 0.00 | 10.60 | Vol. 148000 D: 4.90 ⇓ 2.00% | 5.00 | 5.10 / 4.90 C: 5.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.00 | 5.00 / 5.00 1JANATAMF | 0.78 | 10.68 | Vol. 77000 D: 5.70 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.72 | 5.80 / 5.70 C: 5.70 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.72 | 5.80 / 5.70 GREENDELMF | -0.82 | 9.72 | Vol. 186000 D: 5.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.17 | 5.30 / 5.10 C: 5.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.14 | 5.20 / 5.10 POPULAR1MF | 0.77 | 11.38 | Vol. 572047 D: 5.70 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.78 | 5.90 / 5.70 C: 5.80 ⇑ 3.57% | 5.79 | 5.80 / 5.70 IFILISLMF1 | 0.00 | 10.45 | Vol. 85000 D: 5.20 ⇓ 1.89% | 5.22 | 5.30 / 5.20 C: 5.30 ⇑ 1.92% | 5.18 | 5.30 / 5.10 PHPMF1 | 0.63 | 10.92 | Vol. 866500 D: 5.20 ⇓ 1.89% | 5.30 | 5.40 / 5.20 C: 5.30 ⇑ 1.92% | 5.25 | 5.40 / 5.20 AIBL1STIMF | -0.07 | 9.25 | Vol. 16000 D: 6.40 ⇓ 3.03% | 6.44 | 6.50 / 6.40 MBL1STMF | -0.16 | 9.08 | Vol. 59000 D: 6.20 ⇓ 1.59% | 6.28 | 6.40 / 6.10 C: 6.40 ⇑ 3.23% | 6.38 | 6.40 / 6.30 SEBL1STMF | 0.94 | 11.85 | Vol. 405600 D: 7.90 ⇓ 2.47% | 7.98 | 8.10 / 7.90 C: 8.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 8.01 | 8.10 / 7.80 EBLNRBMF | 1.07 | 10.88 | Vol. 8000 D: 7.50 ⇑ 0.00% | 7.50 | 7.50 / 7.50 RELIANCE1 | 0.95 | 10.33 | Vol. 405900 D: 8.10 ⇓ 1.22% | 8.27 | 8.50 / 7.50 C: 8.00 ⇓ 2.44% | 8.00 | 8.00 / 8.00 LRGLOBMF1 | 0.50 | 10.82 | Vol. 222000 D: 7.30 ⇓ 5.19% | 7.35 | 7.70 / 7.20 C: 7.40 ⇓ 5.13% | 7.40 | 7.40 / 7.40 ABB1STMF | 0.92 | 10.63 | Vol. 91000 D: 6.70 ⇓ 1.47% | 6.71 | 6.90 / 6.70 NLI1STMF | 1.17 | 12.22 | Vol. 946650 D: 8.90 ⇓ 4.30% | 9.18 | 9.50 / 8.60 C: 9.00 ⇓ 2.17% | 8.99 | 9.00 / 8.90 NCCBLMF1 | 1.16 | 10.48 | Vol. 6500 D: 8.30 ⇓ 3.49% | 8.31 | 8.50 / 8.20

DSE Loser

ICBSONALI1 | 0.00 | 10.39 | Vol. 333500 D: 6.60 ⇓ 1.49% | 6.71 | 6.90 / 6.60 C: 6.50 ⇓ 1.52% | 6.53 | 6.70 / 6.50 ENGINEERING AFTABAUTO | 4.29 | 52.65 | Vol. 154167 D: 97.70 ⇑ 0.72% | 98.09 | 99.90 / 95.00 C: 98.10 ⇑ 0.72% | 98.54 | 99.90 / 97.70 AZIZPIPES | 0.39 | -42.04 | Vol. 14000 D: 17.00 ⇓ 5.03% | 17.24 | 17.40 / 17.00 C: 17.00 ⇓ 3.95% | 17.00 | 17.00 / 17.00 OLYMPIC | 7.85 | 22.10 | Vol. 345942 D: 208.8 ⇑ 4.82% | 207.31 | 211.9 / 200.0 C: 211.3 ⇑ 4.50% | 209.71 | 217.0 / 205.0 BDLAMPS | -5.31 | 37.07 | Vol. 12109 D: 123.3 ⇓ 0.80% | 124.09 | 127.5 / 123.1 C: 123.1 ⇓ 0.32% | 122.68 | 123.1 / 122.0 ECABLES | 2.04 | 18.87 | Vol. 9900 D: 80.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 80.10 | 80.50 / 78.00 C: 73.60 ⇓ 6.72% | 74.15 | 74.70 / 73.60 MONNOSTAF | 5.31 | 44.78 | Vol. 1800 D: 264.5 ⇓ 0.64% | 266.11 | 280.0 / 251.0 SINGERBD | 9.99 | 45.74 | Vol. 52661 D: 187.5 ⇑ 0.81% | 187.05 | 189.0 / 175.0 C: 186.4 ⇓ 0.96% | 187.67 | 191.5 / 186.1 ATLASBANG | 11.98 | 207.70 | Vol. 4800 D: 156.5 ⇓ 0.95% | 157.08 | 158.5 / 156.1 BDAUTOCA | 0.25 | 6.23 | Vol. 36650 D: 33.20 ⇑ 0.61% | 33.10 | 34.80 / 30.20 QSMDRYCELL | 1.06 | 52.31 | Vol. 228220 D: 31.40 ⇑ 3.97% | 31.41 | 31.70 / 28.00 C: 31.40 ⇑ 4.32% | 31.34 | 31.50 / 31.00 RENWICKJA | 5.77 | -31.13 | Vol. 21550 D: 139.9 ⇑ 9.98% | 136.19 | 140.0 / 127.0 NTLTUBES | -2.52 | 312.10 | Vol. 34300 D: 63.70 ⇓ 0.31% | 63.50 | 64.30 / 62.60 BDTHAI | 0.43 | 39.35 | Vol. 187895 D: 25.50 ⇓ 0.39% | 25.77 | 27.00 / 25.20 C: 25.50 ⇓ 2.30% | 25.55 | 25.90 / 25.40 ANWARGALV | 0.51 | 8.08 | Vol. 79500 D: 22.50 ⇑ 4.65% | 22.22 | 23.00 / 20.90 C: 22.40 ⇑ 1.82% | 21.83 | 23.00 / 21.00 KAY&QUE | -3.89 | 6.03 | Vol. 7000 D: 14.40 ⇓ 4.00% | 14.43 | 14.50 / 14.40 RANFOUNDRY | 2.84 | 18.62 | Vol. 36500 D: 80.20 ⇓ 1.60% | 80.53 | 81.80 / 78.70 C: 80.00 ⇓ 9.71% | 80.00 | 80.00 / 80.00 SALAMCRST | 3.31 | 20.00 | Vol. 376100 D: 40.00 ⇑ 2.83% | 39.55 | 40.50 / 37.50 C: 40.20 ⇑ 2.81% | 40.04 | 41.20 / 38.90 GOLDENSON | 3.70 | 28.70 | Vol. 1133066 D: 45.90 ⇓ 2.13% | 46.32 | 47.00 / 42.50 C: 46.00 ⇓ 2.13% | 46.09 | 47.00 / 42.30 BSRMSTEEL | 3.06 | 19.53 | Vol. 330584 D: 67.50 ⇑ 3.21% | 66.07 | 67.90 / 59.30 C: 67.30 ⇑ 2.28% | 66.32 | 67.50 / 64.30 NAVANACNG | 4.09 | 27.04 | Vol. 99141 D: 62.10 ⇑ 1.80% | 62.09 | 63.30 / 56.00 C: 61.40 ⇑ 0.82% | 61.15 | 62.00 / 61.00 DESHBANDHU | 0.26 | 10.67 | Vol. 526153 D: 15.70 ⇓ 4.27% | 15.81 | 16.10 / 15.30 C: 15.80 ⇓ 2.47% | 15.82 | 16.00 / 15.50 GPHISPAT | 2.11 | 15.27 | Vol. 125500 D: 40.50 ⇓ 1.22% | 40.43 | 41.00 / 40.00 C: 40.20 ⇑ 0.50% | 40.21 | 41.00 / 40.10 BENGALWTL | 4.16 | 26.24 | Vol. 288400 D: 47.20 ⇓ 1.46% | 47.33 | 48.40 / 46.60 C: 47.70 ⇓ 0.21% | 47.39 | 48.00 / 46.30 BDBUILDING | 1.53 | 14.60 | Vol. 1310000 D: 39.80 ⇑ 9.64% | 38.26 | 39.90 / 36.00 C: 39.10 ⇑ 8.31% | 38.18 | 39.70 / 36.00 NPOLYMAR | 2.73 | 37.82 | Vol. 73800 D: 47.60 ⇑ 0.21% | 47.69 | 48.90 / 46.00 C: 47.10 ⇓ 1.26% | 46.63 | 48.00 / 45.40 FOOD & ALLIED APEXFOODS | 2.54 | 90.81 | Vol. 27000 D: 88.20 ⇑ 0.68% | 88.03 | 91.00 / 86.00 C: 85.00 ⇓ 1.39% | 83.50 | 85.00 / 83.20 BANGAS | 7.20 | 50.27 | Vol. 38120 D: 360.7 ⇓ 2.57% | 363.87 | 376.9 / 359.0 C: 358.6 ⇓ 3.21% | 359.98 | 368.0 / 357.5

BATBC | 65.69 | 117.22 | Vol. 800 D: 1537 ⇓ 2.06% | 1537 | 1550 / 1531 C: 1500 ⇓ 1.96% | 1500 | 1500 / 1500 NTC | 29.88 | 110.05 | Vol. 450 D: 791.9 ⇓ 1.32% | 791.11 | 802.9 / 790.0 ZEALBANGLA | -28.94 | -221.34 | Vol. 400 D: 8.00 ⇓ 3.61% | 8.00 | 8.00 / 8.00 AMCL(PRAN) | 6.85 | 57.14 | Vol. 71610 D: 180.7 ⇓ 2.85% | 176.94 | 186.9 / 172.0 C: 180.9 ⇓ 0.77% | 180.17 | 189.0 / 175.0 FUWANGFOOD | 1.03 | 13.51 | Vol. 266950 D: 22.00 ⇓ 0.90% | 22.06 | 22.40 / 21.90 C: 22.00 ⇓ 0.45% | 21.95 | 22.10 / 21.70 MEGHNAPET | -0.50 | -1.52 | Vol. 16000 D: 5.60 ⇓ 3.45% | 5.63 | 5.80 / 5.50 MEGCONMILK | -7.48 | -23.70 | Vol. 3000 D: 7.00 ⇓ 2.78% | 7.00 | 7.00 / 7.00 BEACHHATCH | 1.01 | 12.48 | Vol. 481266 D: 20.80 ⇑ 0.97% | 20.86 | 21.30 / 19.00 C: 20.80 ⇑ 0.48% | 20.84 | 21.40 / 20.60 FINEFOODS | 0.05 | 10.63 | Vol. 298875 D: 17.10 ⇑ 8.92% | 16.21 | 17.20 / 15.00 C: 17.00 ⇑ 9.68% | 16.36 | 17.00 / 15.40 RDFOOD | 0.91 | 16.84 | Vol. 539844 D: 20.90 ⇑ 0.48% | 21.02 | 21.50 / 19.00 C: 21.00 ⇑ 0.48% | 21.07 | 21.70 / 20.70 GHAIL | 2.43 | 25.58 | Vol. 547400 D: 37.40 ⇓ 0.53% | 37.93 | 39.00 / 33.90 C: 37.80 ⇑ 0.53% | 37.93 | 38.70 / 37.60 FUEL & POWER LINDEBD | 31.71 | 144.00 | Vol. 17450 D: 625.4 ⇓ 1.03% | 621.38 | 630.0 / 616.0 PADMAOIL | 16.38 | 43.67 | Vol. 118307 D: 271.4 ⇓ 1.92% | 273.40 | 280.1 / 265.0 C: 272.3 ⇓ 2.26% | 273.21 | 278.0 / 271.0 EASTRNLUB | 6.32 | 68.68 | Vol. 350 D: 300.4 ⇓ 3.50% | 300.00 | 301.0 / 300.1 BDWELDING | 0.33 | 16.82 | Vol. 326602 D: 20.20 ⇑ 0.00% | 20.26 | 22.00 / 18.50 C: 20.20 ⇑ 1.00% | 20.20 | 20.50 / 20.00 SUMITPOWER | 3.17 | 19.26 | Vol. 574310 D: 33.00 ⇓ 0.30% | 33.02 | 33.90 / 30.00 C: 32.90 ⇓ 0.60% | 32.81 | 33.60 / 32.20 DESCO | 2.69 | 35.96 | Vol. 158743 D: 70.00 ⇓ 0.71% | 70.54 | 71.00 / 65.00 C: 69.40 ⇓ 0.57% | 71.12 | 72.40 / 69.20 POWERGRID | 2.56 | 48.08 | Vol. 44742 D: 52.70 ⇑ 1.93% | 53.08 | 53.80 / 50.00 JAMUNAOIL | 22.78 | 50.24 | Vol. 80950 D: 217.3 ⇓ 1.67% | 218.15 | 223.0 / 215.0 C: 216.1 ⇓ 1.50% | 216.81 | 220.0 / 215.0 MPETROLEUM | 16.98 | 40.41 | Vol. 139400 D: 248.5 ⇑ 0.16% | 248.78 | 252.0 / 228.0 C: 247.7 ⇓ 0.32% | 246.80 | 249.7 / 245.1 TITASGAS | 9.20 | 46.26 | Vol. 437964 D: 77.20 ⇓ 0.39% | 77.36 | 78.70 / 70.00 C: 77.60 ⇓ 0.39% | 77.60 | 77.90 / 77.40 KPCL | 4.73 | 15.86 | Vol. 180931 D: 47.40 ⇓ 0.84% | 47.95 | 48.60 / 44.00 C: 47.30 ⇓ 0.84% | 47.22 | 48.00 / 47.00 BEDL | 1.48 | 19.43 | Vol. 1326054 D: 27.70 ⇑ 0.36% | 28.27 | 29.20 / 26.10 C: 27.80 ⇑ 1.09% | 28.31 | 29.00 / 27.00 MJLBD | 2.73 | 30.24 | Vol. 27959 D: 69.90 ⇓ 0.14% | 69.57 | 72.00 / 63.00 C: 69.10 ⇓ 0.29% | 69.47 | 71.00 / 69.00 GBBPOWER | 1.86 | 22.63 | Vol. 975291 D: 26.60 ⇑ 1.53% | 26.72 | 27.40 / 23.50 C: 26.80 ⇑ 1.52% | 26.58 | 27.80 / 26.00 SPPCL | 3.81 | 23.34 | Vol. 2406620 D: 58.50 ⇑ 9.35% | 58.20 | 58.80 / 48.20 C: 58.60 ⇑ 9.33% | 57.97 | 58.90 / 56.00 JUTE JUTESPINN | 2.06 | 17.42 | Vol. 6600 D: 74.10 ⇑ 1.65% | 73.18 | 75.00 / 64.30 SONALIANSH | 5.54 | 218.80 | Vol. 10950 D: 124.5 ⇓ 1.19% | 125.02 | 127.9 / 123.2 TEXTILE AL-HAJTEX | 2.22 | 16.53 | Vol. 111950 D: 86.00 ⇓ 4.44% | 86.82 | 91.00 / 84.70

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2013

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November 04, 2013 Sectotal Index: BANK: 35,782.74 ⇑ 5.21% NBFI: 20,320.11 ⇑ 5.39% INVS: 4,665.91 ⇑ 0.90% ENGG: 5,891.06 ⇑ 2.53% FOOD: 9,509.28 ⇑ 1.24% F&P: 10,234.87 ⇑ 0.70% TEXT: 3,252.87 ⇓ 0.10% PHAR: 17,068.56 ⇑ 0.95% PAPR: 955.48 ⇑ 1.25% SERV: 2,810.30 ⇑ 1.00% LEAT: 5,112.12 ⇑ 1.41% CERA: 491.00 ⇑ 1.81% CMNT: 4,377.68 ⇓ 0.17% INFO: 6,931.77 ⇑ 3.07% GINS: 9,073.56 ⇑ 1.10% LINS: 106,274.25 ⇑ 2.09% TELC: 1,322.19 ⇓ 0.18% MISC: 5,982.18 ⇑ 0.82% STYLECRAFT | 20.00 | 287.30 | Vol. 200 D: 1242 ⇑ 4.40% | 1240 | 1250 / 1235 RAHIMTEXT | 5.81 | 70.85 | Vol. 6150 D: 310.9 ⇑ 6.84% | 305.20 | 311.0 / 288.0 SAIHAMTEX | 2.75 | 29.50 | Vol. 665700 D: 28.60 ⇑ 1.78% | 28.65 | 29.50 / 27.60 C: 28.90 ⇑ 3.21% | 28.84 | 29.20 / 27.90 MODERNDYE | 0.91 | 10.37 | Vol. 2300 D: 72.40 ⇓ 3.85% | 72.61 | 73.40 / 71.00 DSHGARME | 0.88 | 12.12 | Vol. 38300 D: 49.00 ⇓ 7.55% | 49.56 | 53.50 / 48.40 DULAMIACOT | -1.90 | -29.70 | Vol. 3200 D: 7.60 ⇑ 1.33% | 7.50 | 7.70 / 7.60 TALLUSPIN | 2.01 | 18.59 | Vol. 802352 D: 35.60 ⇑ 0.28% | 35.65 | 36.50 / 34.00 C: 35.60 ⇑ 0.85% | 35.50 | 36.40 / 35.00 APEXSPINN | 2.01 | 49.32 | Vol. 6000 D: 64.70 ⇑ 3.69% | 64.67 | 65.00 / 64.00 MITHUNKNIT | 3.33 | 23.82 | Vol. 88800 D: 73.80 ⇑ 0.41% | 74.12 | 75.20 / 73.00 C: 74.70 ⇑ 0.67% | 74.38 | 76.90 / 72.60 DELTASPINN | 3.06 | 18.12 | Vol. 346000 D: 30.70 ⇑ 1.66% | 30.86 | 31.80 / 30.00 C: 31.10 ⇑ 4.01% | 31.06 | 31.50 / 30.40 SONARGAON | 0.27 | 34.50 | Vol. 170582 D: 16.90 ⇑ 1.81% | 17.06 | 17.50 / 15.10 C: 16.80 ⇑ 1.82% | 16.94 | 17.50 / 16.60 PRIMETEX | 1.01 | 63.54 | Vol. 301000 D: 26.40 ⇑ 9.54% | 26.05 | 26.50 / 24.30 C: 26.50 ⇑ 9.96% | 26.26 | 26.50 / 24.50 ALLTEX | -1.26 | 8.10 | Vol. 140500 D: 7.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 7.13 | 7.30 / 7.10 C: 7.20 ⇑ 0.00% | 7.23 | 7.50 / 7.20 ANLIMAYARN | 1.36 | 11.99 | Vol. 81500 D: 29.90 ⇓ 4.47% | 30.16 | 32.90 / 29.70 HRTEX | 2.08 | 14.92 | Vol. 147150 D: 35.70 ⇓ 0.28% | 36.26 | 37.10 / 35.00 CMCKAMAL | 1.37 | 19.31 | Vol. 1437170 D: 30.00 ⇑ 1.01% | 30.58 | 31.70 / 28.00 SAFKOSPINN | 0.95 | 21.78 | Vol. 185620 D: 22.90 ⇑ 1.33% | 23.31 | 24.20 / 22.00 C: 23.20 ⇑ 2.65% | 23.31 | 24.00 / 22.50 SQUARETEXT | 4.32 | 31.82 | Vol. 59214 D: 89.70 ⇓ 0.11% | 89.62 | 91.00 / 88.00 C: 89.40 ⇓ 0.67% | 88.87 | 89.50 / 88.50 METROSPIN | 0.62 | 19.48 | Vol. 1306801 D: 19.30 ⇑ 7.82% | 18.87 | 19.40 / 17.00 C: 19.40 ⇑ 8.99% | 18.79 | 19.50 / 17.50 MAKSONSPIN | 0.16 | 20.55 | Vol. 4663706 D: 16.60 ⇑ 5.73% | 16.41 | 16.90 / 14.00 C: 16.60 ⇑ 6.41% | 16.39 | 17.10 / 15.50 DACCADYE | 1.21 | 31.13 | Vol. 329284 D: 27.20 ⇓ 1.45% | 27.30 | 28.00 / 25.00 C: 27.40 ⇓ 0.72% | 27.26 | 27.60 / 27.00 RNSPIN | 2.80 | 16.58 | Vol. 2437184 D: 29.50 ⇑ 0.00% | 29.79 | 30.20 / 27.00 C: 29.40 ⇑ 0.68% | 29.72 | 30.20 / 29.30 BXSYNTH | 0.93 | 25.42 | Vol. 711920 D: 16.40 ⇓ 2.96% | 17.12 | 18.00 / 15.50 C: 16.50 ⇓ 0.60% | 17.06 | 17.80 / 16.40 MALEKSPIN | 2.81 | 43.48 | Vol. 4594027 D: 29.00 ⇑ 5.07% | 29.03 | 29.70 / 25.00 C: 28.90 ⇑ 5.86% | 28.90 | 29.60 / 27.90 ZAHINTEX | 1.38 | 35.73 | Vol. 423100 D: 28.70 ⇑ 0.00% | 28.85 | 29.60 / 28.00 C: 29.10 ⇑ 0.69% | 29.24 | 29.80 / 28.90 SAIHAMCOT | 1.92 | 23.62 | Vol. 1160000 D: 24.70 ⇑ 6.47% | 24.33 | 25.10 / 23.10 C: 24.80 ⇑ 7.36% | 24.34 | 25.00 / 23.40 GENNEXT | 1.68 | 15.15 | Vol. 11695540 D: 26.00 ⇑ 3.17% | 26.37 | 27.30 / 22.80 C: 26.20 ⇑ 3.15% | 26.37 | 27.30 / 25.50 ENVOYTEX | 3.26 | 39.26 | Vol. 1996100 D: 58.50 ⇓ 5.49% | 60.37 | 63.00 / 55.70 C: 58.50 ⇓ 5.34% | 62.08 | 62.50 / 58.10 ARGONDENIM | 1.89 | 38.86 | Vol. 2822960 D: 69.50 ⇓ 0.29% | 69.16 | 71.50 / 62.60 C: 69.70 ⇑ 0.72% | 69.30 | 70.60 / 67.00 FAMILYTEX | 3.72 | 14.68 | Vol. 465500 D: 41.40 ⇓ 3.50% | 43.71 | 45.00 / 40.90 C: 41.20 ⇓ 3.51% | 42.87 | 44.90 / 40.50 PHARMACEUTICAL & CHEMICAL AMBEEPHA | 3.94 | 26.15 | Vol. 6258 D: 244.5 ⇓ 0.85% | 243.74 | 246.0 / 241.0 C: 243.1 ⇑ 0.91% | 242.45 | 243.1 / 230.0

DAFODILCOM | 1.12 | 11.14 | Vol. 361000 D: 16.50 ⇓ 2.37% | 16.71 | 17.20 / 16.20 C: 16.60 ⇑ 0.00% | 16.81 | 17.30 / 16.50 AAMRATECH | 1.46 | 21.90 | Vol. 453375 D: 31.40 ⇑ 2.95% | 31.29 | 32.00 / 28.00 C: 31.20 ⇑ 2.63% | 31.05 | 31.80 / 30.10

BXPHARMA | 3.77 | 52.55 | Vol. 254373 D: 43.20 ⇓ 1.14% | 43.79 | 45.00 / 39.60 C: 43.00 ⇓ 1.83% | 43.69 | 45.30 / 43.00 GLAXOSMITH | 20.25 | 123.32 | Vol. 300 D: 930.6 ⇑ 3.40% | 930.00 | 949.0 / 920.0 ACI | -5.82 | 126.42 | Vol. 15942 D: 159.0 ⇑ 1.60% | 160.47 | 164.0 / 145.0 C: 158.8 ⇑ 1.15% | 160.23 | 163.0 / 158.7 RENATA | 33.57 | 138.83 | Vol. 6410 D: 715.0 ⇑ 0.42% | 713.88 | 725.0 / 700.0 PHARMAID | 5.06 | 26.30 | Vol. 26800 D: 157.4 ⇓ 2.60% | 158.84 | 164.0 / 156.0 IBNSINA | 3.44 | 34.02 | Vol. 33800 D: 94.30 ⇓ 0.21% | 94.69 | 96.20 / 94.00 C: 94.10 ⇓ 0.95% | 94.33 | 95.00 / 94.10 LIBRAINFU | 4.21 | 1567.59 | Vol. 200 D: 410.0 ⇑ 1.23% | 410.00 | 410.0 / 410.0 ORIONINFU | 8.72 | 1.73 | Vol. 162000 D: 42.70 ⇑ 3.14% | 42.22 | 43.40 / 41.80 C: 42.90 ⇑ 3.37% | 42.70 | 43.00 / 41.90 SQURPHARMA | 6.93 | 37.18 | Vol. 250788 D: 177.1 ⇓ 0.78% | 176.71 | 190.0 / 162.0 C: 176.1 ⇓ 0.79% | 176.18 | 178.0 / 175.5 IMAMBUTTON | -1.51 | 4.16 | Vol. 23500 D: 7.50 ⇓ 1.32% | 7.57 | 7.80 / 7.40 C: 7.20 ⇓ 8.86% | 7.20 | 7.20 / 7.20 KEYACOSMET | 1.55 | 21.54 | Vol. 1154324 D: 24.50 ⇑ 1.66% | 24.69 | 25.00 / 21.60 C: 24.70 ⇑ 2.07% | 24.74 | 25.00 / 24.40 BERGERPBL | 32.46 | 100.20 | Vol. 650 D: 796.0 ⇑ 0.37% | 796.67 | 821.9 / 791.0 C: 770.1 ⇓ 7.02% | 770.10 | 770.1 / 770.1 ACIFORMULA | 3.33 | 38.08 | Vol. 21750 D: 71.80 ⇓ 0.14% | 72.27 | 74.00 / 70.00 C: 70.00 ⇓ 3.05% | 70.93 | 72.30 / 69.00 MARICO | 27.53 | 62.47 | Vol. 5900 D: 812.3 ⇓ 1.78% | 816.21 | 845.0 / 810.0 C: 806.0 ⇓ 0.80% | 808.00 | 810.0 / 806.0 BEACONPHAR | 0.04 | 12.01 | Vol. 541000 D: 11.40 ⇓ 0.87% | 11.45 | 11.60 / 11.30 C: 11.40 ⇑ 0.00% | 11.42 | 11.70 / 11.30 ACTIVEFINE | 3.23 | 13.89 | Vol. 853997 D: 93.00 ⇑ 0.54% | 92.90 | 93.50 / 85.00 C: 92.80 ⇑ 0.54% | 92.59 | 93.00 / 92.00 SALVOCHEM | 0.68 | 10.57 | Vol. 348158 D: 19.20 ⇓ 1.03% | 19.30 | 19.70 / 18.00 C: 19.40 ⇓ 1.52% | 19.45 | 19.50 / 19.30 GHCL | 2.14 | 57.31 | Vol. 267250 D: 48.80 ⇑ 0.21% | 49.67 | 51.60 / 48.40 C: 48.90 ⇑ 0.20% | 49.58 | 51.00 / 48.50 ORIONPHARM | 5.02 | 68.68 | Vol. 637360 D: 57.40 ⇑ 0.88% | 57.62 | 60.00 / 52.00 C: 57.30 ⇑ 1.24% | 57.57 | 58.90 / 56.50 JMISMDL | 1.12 | 12.83 | Vol. 149500 D: 179.1 ⇓ 2.13% | 178.92 | 189.9 / 172.1 C: 181.7 ⇓ 1.52% | 181.92 | 190.0 / 174.5 CENTRALPHL | 1.62 | 12.24 | Vol. 636000 D: 28.60 ⇑ 6.32% | 27.75 | 28.90 / 26.90 C: 28.90 ⇑ 5.47% | 28.11 | 29.30 / 26.80 PAPER & PACKAGING HAKKANIPUL | 0.64 | 11.02 | Vol. 34500 D: 25.20 ⇓ 1.95% | 25.26 | 26.00 / 24.50 C: 25.50 ⇓ 4.85% | 26.01 | 27.70 / 24.60 SERVICE SAMORITA | 2.31 | 17.25 | Vol. 45594 D: 85.30 ⇑ 1.55% | 85.58 | 87.50 / 84.40 C: 94.70 ⇑ 0.00% | 90.00 | 94.70 / 94.70 SAPORTL | 1.23 | 38.39 | Vol. 175967 D: 26.60 ⇓ 1.12% | 27.08 | 28.00 / 25.00 C: 26.60 ⇓ 0.37% | 26.87 | 27.70 / 26.50

EHL | 2.87 | 18.48 | Vol. 291200 D: 49.80 ⇓ 3.11% | 50.12 | 51.70 / 49.50 C: 50.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 50.63 | 51.80 / 49.50 LEATHER APEXTANRY | 6.57 | 69.38 | Vol. 80000 D: 104.6 ⇓ 1.78% | 105.48 | 108.0 / 103.5 C: 104.2 ⇓ 2.62% | 104.20 | 105.9 / 104.0 BATASHOE | 49.12 | 135.53 | Vol. 8300 D: 695.9 ⇓ 1.15% | 700.96 | 715.0 / 690.1 APEXADELFT | 23.01 | 203.26 | Vol. 147200 D: 380.3 ⇑ 4.19% | 375.71 | 384.9 / 367.1 SAMATALETH | -0.07 | 12.08 | Vol. 3000 D: 12.90 ⇓ 0.77% | 13.00 | 13.00 / 12.90 LEGACYFOOT | 0.63 | 17.19 | Vol. 482000 D: 32.60 ⇑ 6.89% | 31.50 | 33.30 / 28.20 C: 31.80 ⇑ 4.61% | 31.48 | 33.40 / 28.70 CERAMIC MONNOCERA | 0.71 | 96.33 | Vol. 49912 D: 32.80 ⇑ 0.00% | 33.00 | 34.80 / 30.00 C: 32.80 ⇓ 2.96% | 33.67 | 34.00 / 32.80 STANCERAM | 1.07 | 15.97 | Vol. 1000 D: 36.50 ⇓ 1.08% | 37.00 | 36.90 / 36.10 FUWANGCER | 0.72 | 13.97 | Vol. 383500 D: 18.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 18.22 | 18.60 / 18.10 C: 18.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 18.13 | 18.40 / 18.00 SPCERAMICS | 0.62 | 30.92 | Vol. 374228 D: 16.70 ⇓ 0.60% | 17.17 | 17.80 / 16.00 C: 16.70 ⇓ 2.34% | 17.21 | 18.20 / 16.70 RAKCERAMIC | 1.98 | 16.76 | Vol. 133692 D: 50.60 ⇓ 2.13% | 50.82 | 52.00 / 46.00 C: 51.00 ⇑ 0.59% | 50.58 | 51.00 / 47.00 CEMENT HEIDELBCEM | 22.85 | 111.50 | Vol. 76100 D: 352.5 ⇑ 0.71% | 349.82 | 357.9 / 344.1 C: 343.5 ⇑ 0.15% | 359.08 | 359.9 / 343.5 CONFIDCEM | 6.23 | 90.76 | Vol. 293411 D: 124.2 ⇑ 3.76% | 123.37 | 125.5 / 117.0 C: 123.7 ⇑ 3.69% | 122.58 | 125.0 / 120.0 MEGHNACEM | 6.28 | 33.81 | Vol. 92000 D: 121.3 ⇑ 2.36% | 120.38 | 123.6 / 116.1 C: 121.2 ⇑ 4.12% | 121.21 | 123.0 / 117.6 ARAMITCEM | 3.03 | 14.65 | Vol. 54500 D: 66.20 ⇓ 0.45% | 65.60 | 67.70 / 65.10 LAFSURCEML | 1.60 | 7.22 | Vol. 710000 D: 31.10 ⇓ 0.64% | 31.30 | 31.60 / 31.10 C: 31.10 ⇓ 1.27% | 31.28 | 31.60 / 31.00 MICEMENT | 4.48 | 37.67 | Vol. 172797 D: 90.30 ⇑ 0.67% | 89.71 | 91.00 / 82.00 C: 90.20 ⇑ 0.22% | 89.70 | 92.00 / 88.60 PREMIERCEM | 5.00 | 32.60 | Vol. 141000 D: 101.8 ⇑ 3.35% | 100.47 | 106.9 / 97.10 C: 102.2 ⇑ 4.18% | 101.54 | 99.00 / 100.0 IT IINDUSTRIES ISNLTD | 0.28 | 17.31 | Vol. 137533 D: 17.20 ⇑ 1.18% | 17.23 | 18.00 / 16.80 C: 17.30 ⇑ 3.59% | 17.11 | 17.50 / 16.70 BDCOM | 1.54 | 15.85 | Vol. 163100 D: 23.80 ⇓ 2.46% | 24.01 | 24.60 / 23.50 C: 23.50 ⇓ 4.86% | 24.83 | 25.60 / 23.50 INTECH | 0.94 | 10.08 | Vol. 164030 D: 15.20 ⇑ 0.66% | 15.27 | 15.60 / 15.10 C: 15.20 ⇑ 2.01% | 15.20 | 15.50 / 15.10 AGNISYSL | 1.07 | 25.52 | Vol. 198788 D: 21.00 ⇑ 0.96% | 21.02 | 21.30 / 20.90 C: 21.10 ⇑ 0.48% | 21.34 | 21.60 / 21.00

GENERAL INSURANCE BGIC | 1.65 | 20.33 | Vol. 27500 D: 29.30 ⇓ 2.33% | 29.43 | 30.30 / 28.00 C: 29.00 ⇓ 1.69% | 29.00 | 29.50 / 29.00 GREENDELT | 4.05 | 64.44 | Vol. 65145 D: 76.70 ⇓ 6.69% | 78.19 | 82.50 / 75.90 UNITEDINS | 2.47 | 21.04 | Vol. 500 D: 43.80 ⇑ 2.58% | 44.00 | 43.90 / 43.80 PEOPLESINS | 2.05 | 20.72 | Vol. 274169 D: 33.60 ⇓ 1.18% | 33.68 | 34.90 / 30.50 C: 34.00 ⇑ 3.03% | 33.95 | 34.20 / 33.10 EASTERNINS | 2.22 | 35.88 | Vol. 30610 D: 37.70 ⇓ 2.58% | 37.74 | 38.50 / 37.00 JANATAINS | 7.84 | 170.69 | Vol. 13121 D: 241.8 ⇓ 1.73% | 242.46 | 245.3 / 241.0 C: 244.0 ⇑ 1.54% | 241.71 | 245.0 / 240.0 PHENIXINS | 2.70 | 20.96 | Vol. 15000 D: 40.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 40.13 | 40.70 / 40.00 EASTLAND | 4.06 | 23.29 | Vol. 135226 D: 47.50 ⇑ 2.59% | 47.00 | 48.50 / 45.00 C: 46.00 ⇓ 1.08% | 46.74 | 47.00 / 46.00 CENTRALINS | 1.54 | 19.04 | Vol. 12224 D: 28.90 ⇑ 0.00% | 28.93 | 29.50 / 28.10 KARNAPHULI | 1.56 | 19.42 | Vol. 43636 D: 23.10 ⇓ 1.28% | 23.28 | 24.00 / 21.00 RUPALIINS | 2.76 | 23.38 | Vol. 138924 D: 31.80 ⇑ 0.95% | 31.57 | 32.30 / 30.00 C: 31.50 ⇑ 0.32% | 31.50 | 31.50 / 31.50 FEDERALINS | 1.10 | 10.98 | Vol. 248354 D: 23.30 ⇓ 1.69% | 23.57 | 24.10 / 22.00 C: 23.40 ⇓ 1.27% | 23.81 | 25.20 / 23.20 RELIANCINS | 3.93 | 61.52 | Vol. 1000 D: 68.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 68.00 | 68.00 / 68.00 PURABIGEN | 1.05 | 18.71 | Vol. 95084 D: 21.40 ⇓ 1.38% | 21.70 | 22.30 / 20.50 PRAGATIINS | 2.01 | 50.30 | Vol. 4306 D: 54.50 ⇓ 1.62% | 54.76 | 55.10 / 51.00 C: 56.00 ⇑ 1.82% | 56.00 | 56.00 / 56.00 PRIMEINSUR | 2.14 | 14.14 | Vol. 9425 D: 32.10 ⇓ 1.23% | 32.15 | 33.00 / 30.00 PIONEERINS | 3.11 | 23.84 | Vol. 28000 D: 67.30 ⇑ 1.20% | 67.64 | 69.10 / 66.70 MERCINS | 1.53 | 14.50 | Vol. 81007 D: 27.30 ⇓ 3.19% | 27.73 | 28.00 / 25.20 AGRANINS | 1.73 | 14.39 | Vol. 29500 D: 27.30 ⇓ 1.09% | 27.39 | 28.50 / 27.00 GLOBALINS | 1.09 | 11.78 | Vol. 23977 D: 28.60 ⇓ 1.04% | 28.44 | 29.00 / 27.50 NITOLINS | 2.59 | 15.41 | Vol. 2130 D: 35.00 ⇓ 2.23% | 34.74 | 35.00 / 33.00 ASIAPACINS | 1.84 | 13.76 | Vol. 36000 D: 28.40 ⇓ 0.35% | 28.51 | 29.00 / 28.30 C: 27.50 ⇓ 5.17% | 27.50 | 27.50 / 27.50 SONARBAINS | 1.68 | 13.38 | Vol. 50000 D: 24.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 24.29 | 25.00 / 24.10 C: 24.00 ⇓ 3.23% | 23.33 | 24.00 / 23.00 PARAMOUNT | 1.26 | 13.19 | Vol. 44162 D: 23.40 ⇓ 0.85% | 23.59 | 24.40 / 22.00 CITYGENINS | 1.65 | 14.26 | Vol. 74071 D: 28.90 ⇑ 0.70% | 28.92 | 29.20 / 26.70 C: 29.10 ⇑ 2.11% | 29.08 | 29.20 / 28.90 CONTININS | 1.41 | 15.68 | Vol. 241627 D: 29.30 ⇑ 0.34% | 29.12 | 29.60 / 28.80 C: 29.50 ⇑ 1.72% | 30.26 | 30.40 / 29.00 TAKAFULINS | 2.19 | 15.17 | Vol. 2135533 D: 41.70 ⇓ 20.87% | 42.91 | 50.80 / 41.60 C: 44.00 ⇓ 8.33% | 44.42 | 48.00 / 43.30 STANDARINS | 2.58 | 13.99 | Vol. 3689 D: 40.70 ⇑ 1.75% | 40.67 | 41.60 / 39.00 C: 39.10 ⇓ 6.90% | 39.10 | 39.10 / 39.10 NORTHRNINS | 1.77 | 11.15 | Vol. 121180 D: 41.90 ⇓ 2.56% | 41.95 | 42.40 / 41.50 C: 41.70 ⇓ 1.18% | 42.89 | 45.90 / 41.00 REPUBLIC | 2.14 | 12.42 | Vol. 394324 D: 39.80 ⇓ 1.49% | 40.34 | 41.40 / 39.50 C: 40.50 ⇓ 1.70% | 40.51 | 41.90 / 40.00 ASIAINS | 1.56 | 17.34 | Vol. 54550 D: 27.30 ⇓ 0.36% | 27.07 | 28.20 / 24.90 C: 27.00 ⇓ 2.53% | 26.94 | 27.00 / 26.80

ISLAMIINS | 1.29 | 11.96 | Vol. 98 D: 33.20 ⇑ 6.41% | 30.61 | 35.00 / 30.00 PROVATIINS | 1.90 | 14.30 | Vol. 39307 D: 28.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 28.14 | 29.00 / 26.00 C: 27.80 ⇑ 1.09% | 27.80 | 27.80 / 27.80 DHAKAINS | 2.84 | 18.02 | Vol. 62375 D: 38.60 ⇓ 0.26% | 38.69 | 39.80 / 35.00 C: 38.50 ⇓ 0.52% | 38.50 | 38.50 / 38.50 LIFE INSURANCE NATLIFEINS | 12.34 | 80.99 | Vol. 2250 D: 239.3 ⇓ 2.33% | 239.56 | 240.9 / 238.0 SANDHANINS | 2.39 | 28.22 | Vol. 22935 D: 66.40 ⇓ 0.45% | 66.61 | 67.40 / 65.00 C: 65.00 ⇓ 3.99% | 66.45 | 67.90 / 65.00 POPULARLIF | 3.70 | 715.41 | Vol. 3000 D: 166.4 ⇓ 0.95% | 166.33 | 168.0 / 165.0 FAREASTLIF | 9.21 | 60.79 | Vol. 47462 D: 87.90 ⇓ 0.68% | 87.87 | 88.90 / 80.00 C: 89.70 ⇑ 2.51% | 88.89 | 89.90 / 86.40 MEGHNALIFE | 10.82 | 48.87 | Vol. 18180 D: 98.10 ⇓ 3.35% | 99.01 | 101.0 / 97.90 PROGRESLIF | 2.30 | 31.45 | Vol. 3000 D: 94.70 ⇓ 2.67% | 94.67 | 95.20 / 94.50 PRAGATILIF | 0.60 | 30.15 | Vol. 31725 D: 105.1 ⇓ 2.60% | 105.78 | 110.0 / 102.0 PRIMELIFE | 5.51 | 27.10 | Vol. 39385 D: 90.50 ⇓ 1.09% | 90.24 | 92.00 / 90.00 RUPALILIFE | 3.75 | 31.25 | Vol. 45500 D: 93.50 ⇑ 0.32% | 93.21 | 95.70 / 92.00 PADMALIFE | 1.63 | 25.76 | Vol. 91740 D: 56.70 ⇑ 2.53% | 56.47 | 58.00 / 51.00 C: 55.70 ⇑ 1.27% | 56.55 | 57.50 / 55.60 SUNLIFEINS | 0.00 | 0.00 | Vol. 137350 D: 52.40 ⇓ 1.87% | 52.67 | 54.00 / 50.00 C: 52.70 ⇓ 1.86% | 53.22 | 55.00 / 52.50 TELECOM GP | 12.96 | 26.26 | Vol. 307600 D: 185.9 ⇓ 1.01% | 186.42 | 189.9 / 185.1 C: 185.6 ⇓ 0.91% | 185.78 | 188.0 / 184.7 BSCCL | 5.82 | 26.38 | Vol. 1272795 D: 164.9 ⇓ 7.98% | 170.51 | 178.0 / 162.2 C: 165.8 ⇓ 7.79% | 169.58 | 177.5 / 162.3 TRAVEL & LEISURE UNITEDAIR | 1.10 | 12.87 | Vol. 9003819 D: 16.30 ⇑ 5.84% | 16.11 | 16.50 / 14.80 C: 16.30 ⇑ 5.84% | 16.11 | 16.60 / 15.40 UNIQUEHRL | 4.02 | 86.29 | Vol. 361215 D: 80.60 ⇑ 0.62% | 81.38 | 83.20 / 72.00 C: 80.50 ⇑ 0.63% | 81.23 | 84.00 / 80.00 MISCELLANEOUS ARAMIT | 16.07 | 99.93 | Vol. 24000 D: 253.0 ⇓ 0.39% | 249.67 | 259.0 / 243.0 BSC | 1.77 | 565.82 | Vol. 70295 D: 409.8 ⇓ 1.32% | 413.47 | 423.0 / 409.0 C: 409.0 ⇓ 1.87% | 413.03 | 422.5 / 407.5 GQBALLPEN | 6.55 | 250.45 | Vol. 22900 D: 142.4 ⇑ 1.28% | 142.18 | 143.0 / 141.2 C: 141.3 ⇑ 0.21% | 141.29 | 142.0 / 141.0 USMANIAGL | 3.80 | 29.92 | Vol. 29900 D: 115.0 ⇓ 0.86% | 115.00 | 117.0 / 113.5 C: 114.9 ⇓ 0.09% | 114.52 | 117.5 / 112.3 SAVAREFR | 0.23 | 12.32 | Vol. 50 D: 56.70 ⇓ 5.66% | 56.70 | 56.70 / 56.70 BEXIMCO | 3.24 | 86.74 | Vol. 3961343 D: 31.80 ⇑ 0.32% | 33.16 | 34.70 / 28.50 C: 31.80 ⇑ 0.00% | 33.13 | 34.60 / 31.70 SINOBANGLA | 1.75 | 21.01 | Vol. 91500 D: 20.20 ⇓ 2.42% | 20.39 | 20.80 / 20.00 C: 20.20 ⇑ 0.00% | 20.21 | 20.30 / 20.10 MIRACLEIND | 0.10 | 15.13 | Vol. 137614 D: 14.30 ⇑ 3.62% | 14.18 | 14.50 / 13.00 C: 14.30 ⇑ 3.62% | 14.12 | 14.30 / 14.00 BOND IBBLPBOND | 0.00 | 1000.00 | Vol. 45 D: 958.0 ⇑ 0.31% | 955.56 | 960.0 / 956.0 ACIZCBOND | 0.00 | 1000.00 | Vol. 12 D: 881.5 ⇑ 0.11% | 916.67 | 900.0 / 876.0 BRACSCBOND | 0.00 | 0.00 | Vol. 75 D: 1030 ⇑ 0.00% | 1030 | 1030 / 1030 C: 1050 ⇑ 0.00% | 1050 | 1050 / 1050

8

Business

DHAKA TRIBUNE

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2013

A look at recent tech sector IPOs n AFP, New York There are six notable tech companies that have conducted (IPO) initial public offerings over the past two years ahead of Twitter’s IPO.

Facebook

The social network started by Mark Zuckerberg, which now has more than 1.1 billion users around the globe, had a rocky debut after it went public at $38 a share in May 2012, raising $16bn in the biggest tech IPO on record.

sluggish growth. The market capitalization is some $6.6bn.

Internet tech IPOs

Main US technology companies that have conducted initial public offerings over the past two years

Share price, Nov 1 $

Yelp

219.90 67.15 25.99

49.75

9.93 3.58

Pandora

Linkedin

The social network for professionals and job-hunters, LinkedIn has been one of the biggest stars of the technology sector since turning to Wall Street in May 2011.

LinkedIn raised $353m in its IPO, and has seen a spectacular gain in its share price, from $45 on the first day of trading to $219.90 on Friday. The market value is around $24.6bn.

Groupon

Online daily deals sensation Groupon went public in November 2011, raising $700m in what at the time was the biggest initial public offering by an Internet company since Google.

But the Chicago-based company, which was listed on the Nasdaq at $20, has strug-

Shares of restaurant and business review website Yelp have soared since the San Francisco-based company went public in March 2012 with a $15 initial public offering price, raising $115m.

Yelp shares closed at $67.15 on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, representing a market capitalization of $4.38bn.

Opening offer price

45 LinkedIn

Company went public

16 20 10 Pandora Groupon Zynga

May June 2011

Nov Dec

gled since then and its share price closed at $9.93 on Friday.

15 Yelp

38 Facebook

Mar May 2012

Founder Andrew Mason was fired as chief executive of the company in February amid

Internet radio giant Pandora Media made its Wall Street debut in June 2011, raising $235m with stock priced at $16 a share.

Pandora, which creates personalized radio stations for users based upon their favorite artists or songs, traded below its offer price until recently but has regained ground to $25.99 on Friday, equating to a market value of $4.59bn.

Zynga

Online gamemaker Zynga was valued at $7bn when it made its play on the stock market in December 2011, raising $1 billion from investors.

But the company behind Facebook games such as FarmVille and Mafia Wars has been on a losing streak since then. Zynga shares, which were offered at $10, closed at $3.58 on Friday. Its market value is $2.88bn. l

China’s gold consumption to cool n Reuters, Tianjin China’s gold consumption is expected to climb to more than 1,000 tonnes this year, though the trend is not sustainable and could drop below this level from 2014, the country’s biggest gold producer said on Monday.

Meanwhile, gold output this year from China, the world’s top producer, is set to climb about 7% to another record high of 430 tonnes, Du Haiqing, vice general manager at China Gold Group Corp, said at an industry conference held in the northern city of Tianjin.

Gold demand from China has surged by more than half in the first six months of the year as sliding prices of the precious metal lured buyers, reinforcing expectations that China will overtake India as the top consumer this year.

Gold consumption in 2012 was 832.18 tonnes, according to data from the China Gold Association.

Demand growth has dramatically outpaced production, causing imports from Hong Kong to surge and hover at more than 100 tonnes for five straight months up to September.

But this year’s consumption was “abnormal”, as a sharp drop in prices in April has sparked a buying frenzy, said Du. “Consumption will gradually cool down. The current consumption level of over 1,000 tonnes will not be sustained and will fall to normal levels as consumers become more rational.”

Du forecast China’s gold production would hit 430 tonnes this year, compared with 403 tonnes in 2012.

China’s net gold imports from Hong Kong have totalled about 855 tonnes for the first nine months. The high import figure, which is well ahead of a supply deficit of at least 570 tonnes, could be due to purchases by the central bank, analysts said.

China does not publish gold trade data and the numbers from Hong Kong, a main conduit for gold into China, give the best picture of the country’s trade of the precious metal.

China’s central bank is planning to increase the number of firms allowed to import and export gold and also ease restrictions on individual buyers of the precious metal, according to a draft policy document.

High production cost

Du also called on Beijing to review its gold mine licensing system, where lax rules have allowed prospectors to buy and speculate on tenements without developing the resources.

This has driven up costs for producers as they are forced to purchase mining rights from private investors at an inflated price.

“China’s threshold for mining rights is too low. Any company, regardless of whether it has exploration ability, can have mining rights,” Du said, adding that around 70% of gold tenements were in the hands of private investors.

After a decade of heavy spending on exploration and new projects, gold miners

An employee arranges gold jewellery in the counter of a gold shop in Wuhan around the world are seeking ways to cut costs after a sharp fall in the price of the precious metal has put the industry under intense profit pressure.

The average cash production cost for Chi-

REUTERS

na Gold’s listed unit, China Gold International Resources stood at $912 per ounce in the first six months of the year, up from $907 from year ago, according to the firm’s firsthalf financial results. l