4 april 2014

Chaitra 21, 1420 Jamadius Sani 3, 1435 Regd. No. DA 6238 Vol 2, No 6

FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

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24 pages plus 32-page weekend supplement | Price: Tk10

9 | FAITH IN GANDHI DYNASTY WAVERS

12 | SHAKIB AND MIM PAIR UP FOR A TVC

14 | REAL TAKE REVENGE, PSG STUN CHELSEA

India allowed power corridor Delhi will need to pay wheeling charges for using Bangladeshi territory A sub-station would be built on each n Aminur Rahman Rasel route, the report said, while the techDhaka has decided to allow New Delhi to transmit power through Bangladeshi soil in exchange for providing 500-1000MW of power to Bangladesh every day.

According to the plan, India will set up power lines for transmitting electricity from Assam to India’s northwestern regions, using three routes including Dinajpur’s Barapukuria and Jamalpur.

The 6,000MW capacity transmission lines on Bangladeshi area might stretch 100km if it was set up in Barapukuria and 200km if in Jamalpur, according to a report submitted by the joint technical team formed to construct a grid inter-transmission line between the countries.

A joint steering committee of the countries approved the report yesterday in its seventh meeting of Bangladesh-India power sector cooperation at the capital’s Ruposhi Bangla Hotel.

Several members of the joint technical committee confirmed the news to the Dhaka Tribune.

nical committee also recommended forming a committee for a feasibility study to construct the transmission line from Rangia Raota of Assam through Barapukuria, or Jamalpur to India’s northwestern regions, where an 800kV DC transmission line would be set up.

Two other possible routes of the transmission line are from Assam’s Bongaon through Barapukuria or Jamalpur to Bihar’s Punia where a 765kV AC transmission line would be set up, and from Assam’s Shilchar via Meghna Ghat-Bheramara to West Bengal where a 400kV AC transmission line would be set up.

According to the report, India would also have to pay wheeling charges for using the Bangladeshi power corridor.

At the meeting, India also agreed to provide an additional 130MW of electricity to Bangladesh, of which 100MW would be commercially imported from Tripura and the rest through the Bheramara sub-station.

Human hauliers gather on the road in front of the Police Headquarters in the capital’s Gulistan yesterday, protesting a restriction on them over using the thoroughfare. More on Page 3

 PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Study: 41 children killed in political violence last year n Ahmed Zayeef

Money brings luxury for top criminals behind bars

Suspected pirate leader killed in RAB ‘gunfight’

n Mohammad Jamil Khan

n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

As many as 41 children were killed in political violence alone last year, according to a report published yesterday by human rights organisation Manusher Jonno Foundation.

The report says 156 children fell victim to political unrest in 2013.

Of them, 41 were killed and 107 critically injured.

The report titled “Bangladesh Child Rights Situation 2013” was based on news reports published by six newspapers in the country.

Abdulla Al Mamun, programme coordinator of Manusher Jonno Foundation, presented the report at a programme held at the VIP lounge of the National Press Club yesterday.

The report states that a total of 5,305,886 children were affected by various accidents, including road crash, sexual harassment, torture etc in 2013.

Among them, 1,702 died while 1,100 were injured.

Of those who died, 1,104 children were killed in various incidents: 502 were drowned, 266 were killed in road accidents and 48 were electrocuted.  PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

For some top listed outlaws of the country, life inside jail has been one of ultimate luxury and pleasure, thanks to some unscrupulous prison staff.

It is more like having Aladdin’s “Genie” at one’s expense. The only difference is that Genie would only serve three desires, while some of these prison staffs, on payment of bribes, would serve virtually every demand placed by some of these outlaws.

Jail sources said many top terrors do not eat the simple food provided by the authorities. For some of them, three meals a day come from the outside – sometimes from their houses and sometimes from expensive restaurants. The associates of some of these criminals bribe a group prison staffs to get the food in.

On days that food cannot be brought from the outside, many criminals have rice cookers and pressure cookers in their cells with which their cellmates, acting much like their servants, cook their food. Once again, the staff supply them the meat, vegetables and grocery.

They have blender machines too with

which they make fruit juice for having in breakfast. They also get tea and coffee to drink whenever they want.

A couple of years ago, the Manikganj jail authority recovered a laptop from top listed criminal inmate Arman’s possession. Sources said the laptops are used for recreational purposes such

In a recent drive at the Kashimpur jail, authorities recovered 10 pen drives, full of movies and songs as watching movies and pornography, listening to music, and so on.

In a recent drive at the Kashimpur High Security Central Jail in Gazipur last Monday, authorities recovered 10 pen drives from various cells. The drives were all full of movies and songs.

Police said some criminals watched and listened to them on laptops while many others possessed latest and expensive smartphones.

The Dhaka Tribune recently talked to one Mohammad Foysal, who has

been an inmate at the Dhaka Central Jail since February 10 after being accused in a woman repression case.

He said much like a five-star hotel, all kinds of facilities of a cozy modern life are available on payment inside the jail.

Mohammad Uzzal, an inmate of the Kashimpur jail, told the Dhaka Tribune at the judge’s court premises in the capital that: “Everything is possible inside the jail. Those who have money can get anything they want – comfortable bed, table, chair, imported cigarette, better diet, cell phones, and so on.”

Another inmate of the Dhaka jail said a single bed inside would cost Tk3,500-Tk10,000 per week. The jail staff would share the money among them. For a host of other amenities such as chair-table and additional space, the inmates have to pay Tk12,000-Tk15,000 per week.

For those who cannot afford cell phones of their own, the jail staff offer their own phones at excruciatingly high charges ranging from Tk20-Tk30 per minute for talking to their relatives.

Inspector General (Prisons) Brig Gen Syed Iftekhar Uddin told the Dhaka  PAGE 2 COLUMN 6

An alleged ringleader of sea robbers’ gang was shot dead in a “gunfight” with the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) at Urir Char in Sandwip upazila of Chittagong yesterday morning.

The deceased was identified as Shahadat Hossain alias Jasu, 30.

Meanwhile, police found three bodies in the Bay of Bengal off the coast of Sandwip, but they could not confirm their identity, said Mohammad Shahidullah, additional superintendent of police of Chittagong (north zone).

Local sources claimed that the bodies were of three other robbers killed during the “gunfight.”

Major Md Shahed Hasan Rajib, commanding officer of RAB11 Comilla Camp, told the Dhaka Tribune that a gang of sea robberswere locked in the gunfight with the elite force when its ringleader, Jasu, was shot dead around 10:30am.

“We had conducteddrives at Urir Char since March 30 night to catch Jasu and his cohorts as we had information that theyhad taken position there ahead of March 31 upazila polls at Sandwip,” he said.

Mathews, rain halt West Indies march n Minhaz Uddin Khan Heavy rain, wind and hailstorm washed off West Indies’ march towards defending the ICC World Twenty20 title after Sri Lanka emerged victorious by 27 runs (D/L method) in the first semifinalat the Shere-Bangla National Stadium yesterday.

Cricketers and umpires leave the field after a hailstorm caused an early end to the first semifinal of the T20 World Cup at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday MUMIT M

The storm which was on forecast from Wednesday interrupted the game at 13.5 overs with West Indies reeling at 80 for four chasing 161. The game was the second in the tournament to get hit by rain and decided by the D/L method.

The previous occasion was the Group 1 game between England and New Zealand in Chittagong.

With the win Sri Lanka stepped into the final for the third time in the tournament’s history, second consecutive, and set yet another chance of lifting the title. They will now play either South Africa or India in the final of the tourna-

“The RAB personnel cordoned off the entire island to capture the pirates,” he said, adding that the gang of robbers had also tried to flee the island.

When they tried to capture the robbersabout at 5amthe gang members opened fire on the lawmen, forcing them to retaliate, he claimed. The robberswere compelled to take shelter in a nearby forest off the shore.

While the robbers were trying to leave the island by boats and trawlers, they again fought with the law enforcers at 10:30am. An unidentified robber died on the spot during the gunfight.

The RAB official said the cohorts of the deceased managed to flee the scene and the law enforcers identified the body of the deceased as Shahadat Hossain Jasu with the help of locals.

RAB recovered a revolver, two single-barrel guns and huge ammunition from the spot.

Local sources claimed that RAB men picked up Jasu along with three of his cohorts from the island on March 31 night.

Four robbers were killed during the gunfight with RAB men at Urir Char on Wednesday and three bodies recovered

INSIDE News

ment at the same venue on April 6.

In bid to reach their second successive World Twenty20 final, defending champions West Indies looked to put up a fight when they were sent to field first by their opponents. Sri Lanka’s opening pair of Kusal Perera and Tillakaratne Dilshan gave them a flying start fetching 41 runs inside four overs before Krishmar Santokie dismissed the dangerous looking Perera for 26 off 12 balls. This was Jayawardene’s second diamond duck in T20Is and is the only batsman with two diamond ducks What could have possibly been their last T20I had Sri Lanka lost, Mahela Jayawardene returned for a diamond duck from a bizarre run out followed by Kumar Sangakkara for one which saw the Lankans slip to 49 for 3.

Dilshan and Lahiru Thirimanne reconstructed the innings by adding 42 runs for the 4th wicket before the senior off the two, Dilshan, also fell victim to the extraordinary fielding from the Caribbeans getting run out on 39.

However, it brought Angelo Mathews in the middle who went onto build two partnerships – 30 runs with Thirimanne and 39 with Seekkuge Prasanna – to carry  PAGE 2 COLUMN 6

4 The Health Ministry has decided to set up ICUs and CCUs at every public medical college hospital.

5 The LGD and Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club are allegedly constructing concrete structures occupying one-third of the field.

 PAGE 2 COLUMN 6

2

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Friday, April 4, 2014

Rajuk suspends acquiring Zinda Park upon protest n Our Correspondent, Narayanganj Rajuk authorities yesterday suspended the process of acquiring Zinda Park in Narayanganj’s Rupganj in face of protest by locals and activists of Poribesh Bachao Andolon (Poba).

The issue was solved mutually following day-long arguments from both sides. According to the decision, a signboard saying: “This property is acquired by Rajuk. Managing body: Agra Pathik Samabay Samiti” will be hung in front of the park.

The authorities concerned along with 600 police personnel, led by Narayanganj Police Super Syed Nurul Islam and Additional Police Super Shahidul Islam, gathered in front of the park to acquire it around 10am yesterday.

On the other hand, thousands of people – members of the Samabay Samiti, their family members, locals – led by Poba Chairman Abu Naser Bhuiyan and Joint Secretary Pankaj Bhattacharjee stood against the law enforcers.

Many of the protesters brought

petrol with them and warned the law enforcers that they would burn themselves if they tried to acquire the park.

Founder of the park Tobarok Hossain Kushum said the park was established in 1979 on 100 bigha land and was registered in 1981. Saying that around 5,000 people worked in the park at present, Tobarok asserted that if the park was acquired by Rajuk, these people would lose their jobs.

Though a case was going on in the High Court in this regard, Rajuk authorities came to forcibly acquire the park illegally, Tobarok added.

Police Super Syed Nurul said there was an oral mutual understanding between the two authorities, adding that high-ups of Rajuk would made a final decision in this regard later.

Nayeem Ahmed, a Rajuk official, said they came to establish the authority of Rajuk over the park, not to acquire it. When asked, the official said the law enforcers were brought to ensure security. l

Abdullah-Al-Mamun of Manusher Jonno Foundation presents his findings on violence against children in the country in 2013. The event took place at the National Press Club in the capital yesterday RAJIB DHAR

Gonojagoron Moncho activists ‘attacked’

Three businessmen held for selling fake n Tribune Report question paper Ruling party-backed Bangladesh Chhatra League and Jubo League allegedly n Our correspondent, Sherpur attacked activists of Gonojagoron MonPolice arrested three businessmen and detained a photocopier machine on April 2 in Sherpur town allegedly for selling fake questions of Bangla 1st paper.

The arrestees were Anisur Rahman, 30, owner of World IT Photostat, Asaduzzaman Bipul, 20, owner of Shapla Library, and Kalyan Kumar Roy, 21.

Being tipped off, police arrested them around 11pm in College More area, DC Gate and New Bus Terminal area.

Assistant Police Super of Sadar circle Md Shahjahan told the Dhaka Tribune that they recovered eight copies of fake questions tagged as “Ka-set” of Bangla 1st paper along with written answers to those questions. The accused had been selling this fake question paper at Tk800 to Tk900 as a leaked paper of ensuing HSC examinations. Police filed a case against the detainees under Public Examination Act, 1980. l

cho in the capital’s Shahbagh last night.

One activist sustained serious injury while several others were reportedly beaten up when the incident took place around 8pm.

The central and campus units of Bangladesh Chhatra League, the students’ wing of Awami League, denied involvement in the matter. However, one organisation, Muktijoddha Sangsad Sontan Command, said to have been affiliated with the Moncho, gave a different version.

Police termed it an internal clash of the platform activists.

Imran blames BCL, Jubo League

Activists of the youth-led platform Hannan, Tanvir and Sanaton engaged in an altercation with its former supporters Abir Ghosh and Shihir, who are involved with Chhatra League, over

seating arrangement at a meeting in Shahbagh around 4pm, spokesperson Imran H Sarker said.

“At one point, Abir and Shishir spilled hot water on the Moncho activists. When the three Moncho activists informed me about the matter, I told them to talk to Shahbagh police.”

Later, the Chhatra League cadres assaulted the three with canes inside Shahbagh police station in front of the OC around 8pm, Imran claimed. BCL central unit Deputy Cultural Secretary Sheikh Afnan and Jubo League central leader Nasim Rupok were present at the scene.

“Aranya Shakil sustained serious injuries to his head. Nabendra Saha Joy and Shakil were critically injured. They have been taken to BSMMU.” Other injured activists are Ashikur Rahman Anu, Sagar, Adnan, Akash, Himel and Emon.

“Shahbagh police detained Abir Ghosh. But, the police are refusing to lodge a case fearing the activists of Chhatra League and Jubo League.”

According to Imran, the attack was made after the Moncho activists refused to pay the Chhatra League activists some money as demanded on the night of March 25 over a stage construction, and for criticising the government as it had taken money from Islami Bank for its national anthem event.

Different views

Muktijoddha Sangsad Sontan Command Council President Mehedi Hasan claimed that his organisation had been involved with the movement for long.

“As Imran H Sarker has been creating problems with the expenditure of previous programmes, we had a meeting in this regard in the afternoon.

“Imran arrived at the meeting with around 100 of his followers and swooped on Abir Ghosh and others,” he said adding that he had witnessed the incident.

Mehedi was preparing to lodge a case against Gonojagoron Moncho on behalf of Abir.

Chhatra League President Badiuz-

zaman Sohagh told the Dhaka Tribune that he was not aware of this incident while Afnan denied his and his group’s involvement in the matter.

Jubo League leader Nasim Al Mamun alias Rupak outright rejected the allegation of leading the attack. “I was not involved in any attack. I was just passing through the area during the incident.” He termed the incident a feud among the Moncho activists.

Shahbagh police station Sub-Inspector Ferdous Alam told the Dhaka Tribune that one person was detained. “The two groups are trying to reach a solution in presence of senior officials.”

OC Serajul Islam said this was an internal clash of the Moncho. “Abir is an activist of the Moncho. It was a misunderstanding among them.” He also refuted the allegation that police were not taking case.

Ramna police Deputy Commissioner Maruf Hossain denied to comment on the matter but said steps would be taken if anyone filed a complaint. l

India allowed power corridor  PAGE 1 COLUMN 2

Power Secretary Monowar Islam made the disclosure in a briefing after the joint steering committee’s meeting.

Monwar and his Indian counterpart Prodeep Kumar Sinha led the respective sides at the meeting.

Work is going on to launch a 660MW unit of the Rampal power plant within 2018, Monowar said, adding: “Positive discussions have been made in the meeting to import a further 500MW of electricity.”

Indian Power Secretary Pradeep said: “We have taken some decisions to explore the possibility of interconnection between India and Bangladesh.”

On the prospects of importing electricity from Nepal and Bhutan, a

meeting among the countries was also planned for next May in India, to make a final decision in this regard.

Dhaka is keen to import electricity from India in order to reduce dependence on more expensive power from quick rental plants, of which production cost is average Tk17 per unit; each unit of electricity from India costs an average of Tk6. At present, Dhaka imports 500MW of electricity from India, 50% from the public sector and the rest from the private sector.

Meanwhile, the Bangladesh India Friendship Power Company Limited also held a separate meeting yesterday to review its progress in establishing the 1,320MW Rampal power plant at Bagerhat. l

Study: 41 children killed  PAGE 1 COLUMN 1

Singapore's non-resident High Commissioner Chan Heng Wing calls on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the PMO yesterday

PID

Girl killed in Hatirjheel, 5 others across country

ACC grills three Titas Gas officials

n Tribune Report

The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday interrogated three officials of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited, a sister concern of Petrobangla, in connection with a corruption allegation.

ACC Deputy Director Ahsan Ali questioned them from 10am to 3pm at the its head office, Public Relations Officer Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya said. The officials who were questioned are General Manager Shahinur Alam and deputy general mangers Hedayet Ullah and M Abdul Awal Shah.

Titas Gas Managing Director Abdul Aziz, former director (operation) Khalid Hasan and general managers Engr Mujibul Haque and Engr Fuad-ul-Islam were interrogated on Wednesday.

The ACC launched the probe upon allegations against Petrobangla Chairman Prof M Hossain Monsur and 13 managing directors of its subsidies. l

A 12-year-old girl was crushed under the wheels of a speeding car last night on a road at Begunbari, on the bank of Hatirjheel Lake in the capital.

The victim was Sitha Akhter, a class V student of a school in Netrokona. She came to Dhaka four days back to see her elder sister at Begunbari.

Md Nayan, an elder brother of the victim, said the car hit Sitha from behind and sped away immediately.

“Sitha was roaming around there like every day,” he said.

She was taken to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital by the pedestrians and the police where the doctors declared her dead.

Two other people were killed in separate accidents in the capital’s Mirpur and Pallabi. Of them, Mahbub-ur-Rah-

man, 30, was found dead on the road at Section 10 of Mirpur around 5am. The body of another person named Anwar Hossain was found in front of a Chinese restaurant in Pallabi in the morning.

A person was killed and four others injured when a motorcycle and a CNG auto-rickshaw collided head-on in Nabinagar area in Sherpur town. In Habiganj, a truck ran over two pedestrians leaving them dead on the spot.

In Sherpur, the victim was identified as Milon Mia, 30. The incident took place around 9:30am. The injured were taken to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital. One of the injured was in a critical condition.

Our Habiganj correspondent reported that identities of the victims killed near Madhabpur Bazar on Dhaka-Sylhet highway around 6pm. They could not be identified immediately. l

n UNB

A total of 267 children were raped in 2013 and of them 12 were killed and 239 sustained serious injuries.

Quoting newspaper sources, the report states that the number of child abduction increased last year, with 90 having been abducted. Two of them were killed.

Shaheen Anam, executive director of Manusher Jonno Foundation, said: “A good number of government and non-government organisations are working together to rein in violence against children.

“The scenario was more shocking than what we read in news reports published about the torture of children…All such news did not get media coverage.

“With the help of 15 organisations, we are trying to pull at least 45,000 children out of hazardous jobs within the next three years.”

Among others, Parveen Mahmud, managing director of Grameen Telecom Trust, Shahnaz Huda, chairman of the Dhaka University law department, and Shahana Huda, coordinator of the Media and Communications at Manusher Jonno Foundation, attended the programme. l

Mirza Fakhrul secures bail in murder case n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu A Dhaka court yesterday granted bail to detained BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in a murder case filed with Shahbagh police station last year.

Dhaka Metropolitan Session’s Judge Md Jahurul Haque passed the order upon a bail petition filed by Fakhrul.

However, the same court denied bail plea of him in another such type of case filed with Ramna police station the same year.

On March 27, a CMM court sent Fakhrul to jail in the aforesaid cases as he surrendered before it after ending the eight-week High Court bail.

November 28 last year, three passengers of a bus succumbed to their injuries as pickets threw petrol bombs at it near Shishu Park. A case was filed with Shahbagh police station, accusing Fakhrul in the case. l

Mathews, rain halt West Indies march  PAGE 1 COLUMN 4

Sri Lanka to safer shore.

Mathews was flamboyant with the bat hitting a 23-ball 40 with three fours and two sixes. Thirimanne played 35 balls to add 44 to the scorecard with three fours and two sixes.

Chasing the target, West Indies got off to a flashy start with Dwayne Smith hammering Nuwan Kulasekara for 17 runs in the first over. However things slowed down as soon as Lasith Malinga cleaned up both Gayle, on the first delivery, and Smith, on the fifth ball, of the fifth over. They made only 17 off the next six overs and before the rain interrupted, the side lost two more wickets – Lendl Simmons (4) and Dwayne Bravo (30 off 19) – which was enough to hand the D/L advantage to Sri Lanka. l

Suspected pirate leader killed in RAB ‘gunfight’  PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

from the Bay were of the robbers, they alleged.

Lt Col Tareq Sayeed, commanding officer of RAB 11, refuted the allegations. Jasu was involved in robbery at sea, killing, abduction and other crimes at Urir Char, Hatiya and Sandwip in Noakhali and Chittagong, police sources said. l

Money brings luxury for top criminals behind bars  PAGE 1 COLUMN 4

Tribune: “Whenever we learn about such irregularities inside the jails, we conduct raids. And such raids would continue from now on. The Detective Branch is currently investigating how these things get inside the jail and whether any jail staff is involved with it or not. We are giving DB all kinds of cooperation.” l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

267 MPs to get Tk314 crore under food for work scheme n Mohosinul Karim The government has decide to allocate around TK314 crore to public representatives under the Food for Work programme for implementing development works in their respective areas.

The members of parliament will get around Tk214 crore of the allocation and the upazila parishad chairmen Tk100 crore from the budgetary allocation of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief.

Sources said the ministry has already sent a letter to the Department of Disaster Management (DDM) granting the allocation.

The DDM in its turn has already issued an order informing a total of 267 MPs about the allocation.

Sources said the money for the allocation would be released only after

the deputy commissioners (DCs) of the various districts approved the small development projects for which the allocation would be spent.

As part of the allocation, the public representatives would be given cash and rice Another 32 MPs, mostly from the metropolitan areas, have been dropped from the allocation list because their areas generally do not see such “small projects.”

The projects include repairing or construction of small bridges and culverts; digging canals and ponds;construction and repairing of roads; repairing dams; filling grounds for social

welfare organisations, and educational and religious institutions, DDM Director Nepursaid.

He expressed hopes that the money might be released within a week or two so that the projects could be implemented as soon as possible to reduce public sufferings in the rural areas.

Each of the projects would have separate chairmen who would look after the implementation under the monitoring of upazila project implementation officers (PIOs) and the upazila nirbahi officers (UNOs). The PIOs and the UNOs would report directly to the DCs. The local lawmakers and upazila parishad chairmen would recommend projects.

As part of the allocation, the public representatives would be given cash and rice. MPs from the seats reserved

3

Friday, April 4, 2014

for women would also get allocation to do development work in their areas.

MurshidulHaque, deputy secretary of the disaster management ministry, said the chairmen of all the upazilas would not get the same allocation – it would depend on the size and population of their respective areas.

The lawmakers from the previous parliament were also allocated money for the same purpose. The progress reports of the projects being implemented with that money are due in June.

When asked why the government was allocating more money without knowing the progress of the previous projects, Nepur Ahmed said: “Although all the MPs [from 9th parliament] are not in the present parliament, we have enough time for getting the final report on the previous allocation.” l

Speedy trial act to stay n Kamran Reza Chowdhury The speedy trial act got a new lease of life for five more years as the 10th parliament passed its first bill yesterday without any opposition.

The House took around five minutes to enact the “Law and Order Disruption Offences (speedy trial) (amendment) Bill 2014”.

Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury chaired the session. State Minister for Home Affairs Asaduzzaman Khan then proposed enacting the law.

Leader of the Opposition Raushan Ershad and two other ministers – Water Resources Minister Anisul Islam Mahmud and State Minister for Labour and Employment – remained absent from the House.

On March 30, industries minister Amir Hossain Amu tabled the “Law and Order Disruption Offences (speedy trial) (amendment) Bill-2014” to stretch the validity of the law originally passed by the BNP government in April 2002

amid strong opposition from the Awami League.

Earlier, the parliamentary standing committee on home affairs scrutinised the bill and recommended its enactment.

The BNP government in 2002 passed the law to “stop extortion, disrupting of vehicular movement, damaging vehicles and public wealth, mugging, dacoity, robbery, tender document snatching, intimidation and other grievous crimes”. The Awami League opposed the law.

The BNP-Jamaat government passed the law for two years and stretched its effect in its tenure. The military-led caretaker government did the same and extended its life for two years.

After coming to power in January 2009, the Awami League did not scrap the law, rather extended its tenure after every two years.

In line with the proposal in the draft law, the speedy trial act was set to expire on April 8, 2014. l

Hassan Ali faces arrest warrant for 1971 crimes n Udisa Islam The International Crimes Tribunal yesterday issued arrest warrant against alleged razakar commander from Tarail of Kishoreganj Syed Mohammad Hachhen alias Hassan Ali accepting a plea of the prosecution.

The three-member tribunal 1 headed by Justice M Enayetur Rahim issued the order and asked the prosecution to submit a progress report of investigation by May 15.

Prosecutor Abul Kalam Azad filed the petition with the tribunal registrar on Tuesday.

Yesterday, prosecutors Mokhlesur Rahman Badal and Azad took part in the hearing in support of their plea, and said the investigation agency came to know about some incidents during the 1971 Liberation War in which the suspect was involved.

“The suspect is now staying at Machhihata village in Brahmanbaria, just beside the Indian border. He can leave the country anytime. So for the sake of justice, it is needed to arrest him,” Mokhlesur said.

Hari Devnath of the tribunal’s investigation agency started probe against Hassan Ali on June 6 last year under the supervision of prosecutor Azad and found allegations of mass killings, killings, torture, rape, arson and looting against him.

Azad said many victims and their families gave statements to the inves-

tigation officer while many others were willing to do so. “But the suspect is trying to motivate them by issuing death threats.”

Mosleh Uddin, father of the suspect was vice-president of the Pakistan Democratic Party. He was also the chairman of Peace Committee in Kishoreganj. Hassan’s brother had been a member of the razakar force and the whole family committed atrocities in 1971, according to the prosecution.

Meanwhile, the tribunal yesterday deferred until April 7 the proceedings in the case against Jamaat-e-Islami leader ATM Azharul Islam as the prosecution has failed to place witness.

In the case against war crimes accused Mobarak Hossain, a razakar commander of Brahmanbaria, the prosecution ended grilling the second defence witness. Mohammad Asad Uddin, son of the detained accused, in his deposition on Wednesday claimed that his father was innocent.

The witness also claimed that his father was 13-year-old during the war. So there was no possibility for an adolescent to become a razakar member.

Prosecutor Shahedur Rahman yesterday said Mobarak was not born in 1956 as claimed by the defence. As his national ID states that he was born in 1950, so he was 21 years old during the Liberation War. After the cross-examination tribunal set April 8 for placing the third and last defence witness in the case. l

Police charge truncheons on human haulier drivers yesterday when they demonstrated against a restriction on using the road in front of Police Headquarters at the capital’s Gulistan DHAKA TRIBUNE

Witness: ‘Qaisar Bahini’ killed my father HC seeks info on raped child, her family n Udisa Islam A freedom fighter in the case against war crimes accused Syed Mohammad Qaisar yesterday said “Qaisar Bahini” killed his father.

The witness had fought the 1971 Liberation War under S-Force led by Maj (retd) Shafiullah.

In his deposition the witness identified the accused as the chief of “Qaisar Bahini” which committed atrocities in Habiganj area collaborating with the Pakistani occupation forces. Moham-

mad Ali Pathan, 64, was the fourth prosecution witness against Qaisar, the former state minister for agriculture in HM Ershad’s regime.

He described at the tribunal 2 the incidents of attack and casualties in Madhabpur and Krishnanagar areas in Habiganj perpetrated by the “Qaisar Bahini” and the Pakistani troops.

The witness said: “On April 28, 1971, I heard from some villagers that my father was killed by the Pakistani Army under the directives of the Qaisar Bahini. I went to my house and saw

the dead bodies of my father and three other villagers on the southern part of our house. I wrapped him up with my rain coat and buried him on the spot without performing any rituals. He was killed on April 27.”

The three-member tribunal 2 headed by Justice Obaidul Hassan recorded his deposition while defence counsel Abdus Sobhan Tarafder started grilling the witness. After three questions, the tribunal adjourned the trial until Sunday accepting an adjournment plea of the defence. l

n Tribune Report The High Court yesterday ordered the government to inform it within April 20 on what steps had been taken following the rape of a six-year-old girl in Bogra and persecution of her family through a so-called arbitration.

The bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice ABM Altaf Hossain passed the order on its own motion.

The court also issued a rule asking as to why the incident of rape and holding the village arbitration to settle the is-

sue should not be declared illegal. The bench also wanted to know as to why proper legal action should not be taken against the perpetrators.

The home secretary, inspector general of police, deputy commissioner and superintendent of police of Bogra and OC of Nandigram police station were asked to give reply, Deputy Attorney General Biswojit Roy told the Dhaka Tribune.

The girl child was raped twice by Ahmad Ali, 62, at Derahar village in Nandigram upazila of Bogra. Later the family was forced to leave the village

quietly after village arbitration.

The arbitrators in February asked Ahmad Ali to pay the family Tk30,000 as compensation and suggested that the girl should not be allowed to stay at her home since she had been violated.

Local influential Mamun Master, Abdul Gafur and Ansar Ali were among the arbitrators. They have good relations with Ahmad.

Later the girl had to move to her aunt’s house at Telihara village of Sadar upazila and was given Tk5,000 as compensation by the accused. l

7 days given to 14-party partners unhappy publish post-2001 They said the Awami League’s failure to give single candidate gave wrong poll violence report n Emran Hossain Shaikh Members of 14-party alliance yesterday message to the pro-liberation forces.

The alliance leaders also urged the expressed resentment at the Awami n Tribune Report League for not participating in upazila government to take legal steps against

An exhibition at the Bangladesh Film Development Corporation displays the camera that recorded the historic March 7 speech of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on the occasion of National Film Day yesterday SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

The High Court yesterday granted the government seven more days to publish through gazette notification the judicial inquiry report on the attacks on Hindus and then opposition members following October 1, 2001 election.

The bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice ABM Altaf Hossain passed the order after Deputy Attorney General Biswojit Roy told the court that the report was at the Bangladesh Government press and they needed seven more days to publish the probe report.

On March 10, the bench ordered the home secretary to publish the report within seven days. On January 22, the same bench ordered the home secretary to submit the report to the bench

by February 2. The government followed the order.

The report prepared by a three-member commission led by former district judge Md Shahabuddin found involvement of several minsters of the BNP-Jamaat government among 26,352 people in more than 18,000 violent incidents. l

polls jointly.

They said Jamaat did well as it contested jointly with its main ally BNP. At a meeting, the allies urged the AL to give more importance to the member organisations. Awami League leader Mohammad Nasim chaired the discussion held at the party chief’s Dhanmondi office.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and her son Tarique Rahman for claiming Ziaur Rahman as the country’s first president.

Nasim, also the health minister, said the 14-party alliance would launch campaign and hold rallies on April 2830 to thwart the conspiracies of the BNP-Jamaat. l

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News

Friday, April 4, 2014

ICUs, CCUs planned for all public medical college hospitals n Moniruzzaman Uzzal In a bid to ensure proper healthcare to patients in critical condition, the health ministry has decided to set up intensive care units (ICU) and coronary care units (CCU) at every public medical college hospital.

Hospital authorities have already been given two weeks to submit a list of equipment, manpower and budget required to set up ICUs and CCUs containing at least 10 beds with high-tech facilities.

Last year, at least 50 ICU beds and 55 CCU beds were distributed through the Central Medicine Store Depot The decision was made at a recent meeting of top hospital officials, chaired by Health Secretary MM Niazuddin.

Among the 23 public medical colleges in the country, only five provided ICU services, offering a total of 60 ICU beds. The Dhaka Medical College Hospital had 20 ICU beds, while medical colleges of Mitford, Chittagong, Mymensingh and Rangpur had 10 ICU beds each.

Because of the scarcity of specialised services of the ICU, hundreds of dying and critical patients were being denied of the necessary care.

Professor Dr Abdur Rahman, head of anaesthesia department of the DMCH, told the Dhaka Tribune that although the lives of patients in

critical conditions depended on the specialised services of the ICU, the unit lacked any proper organogram of manpower and had been running with manpower from the anaesthesia department.

Because of the shortage of trained workforce, doctors posted in upazila health complexes are reportedly brought in to provide service at the ICUs of different medical colleges.

Abdur Rahman demanded a separate organogram for the ICUs, adding that the introduction of permanent posts would produce trained manpower for the ICUs. On the other hand, although most of the public medical colleges had CCUs to treat heart disease patients, there was also an acute shortage of trained manpower to run the units.

Last year, at least 50 ICU beds (26 in 13 general hospitals and 24 in six medical colleges) and 55 CCU beds (at eight medical college hospitals) were distributed through the Central Medicine Store Depot. However, the beds were yet to be set up, as the hospitals reportedly lacked both the necessary space and trained manpower.

Brigadier General Mustafizur Rahman, director of the DMCH, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday that the decision to establish ICUs and CCUs at all public hospitals would create opportunities for dying patients to receive better healthcare.

Mentioning that he receives requests every day from people from all walks of life for a place on an ICU bed, Mustafiz added that it was not possible to keep most requests as there was only a limited number of ICU beds at the DMCH. l

Members of different law enforcement agencies take part in a security drill using the newly procured RAB helicopter at the capital’s Old Airport yesterday

‘NTPC harming Bangladesh’s Sundarbans’ n Tribune Report Although the Indian state agency NTPC has been barred from constructing power projects to protect small forests and arable land in its country, it is implementing a huge power plant at Bagerhat’s Rampal which would harm the Bangladesh part of the Sundarbans, a Unesco World Heritage Site, conservationists said yesterday.

“An Indian delegation visited the project area on April 2 and has again been trying to justify the project by providing false information,” a press

statement issued by the National Committee for Protection of Oil-Gas and Mineral Resource, Electricity Sector and Ports said.

Committee Convener Sheikh Muhammad Shahidullah and Member Secretary Anu Muhammad in the joint statement said: “We know that the Indian National Green Tribunal on March 13 suspended the environmental clearance for the NTPC’s power plant project in Karnataka. The court said the NTPC gave false and ambiguous information about the project land, pollution, secured clearance before formulating guidelines on compensation and reha-

bilitation and also ignored the locals’ opinions.”

The committee said irregularities centring the Rampal plant were more severe when the NTPC (National Thermal Power Corporation) also concealed information.

Criticising the Bangladesh government for implementing the 1320MW coal-based power project hurriedly, the committee leaders urged the Unesco to take effective measures against the scheme.

The Sundarbans mangrove forest acts as a shield for the millions of coastal people during cyclones, they said

Supreme Court disposes Meghna encroachment issue

Court rejects Tazreen chairman’s bail petition

n Tribune Report

A Dhaka court yesterday ordered to send Tazreen Fashions Chairman Mahmuda Akhter Mita to jail rejecting her bail petition in a case filed over the factory fire that killed more than 112 workers.

Senior Judicial Magistrate Kazi Shahidul Islam passed the order when she sought bail after surrendering before the court.

Defence counsel Md Golam Gaus filed the fresh bail petition for Mahmuda. On April 2, the High Court rejected the bail pleas of Mahmuda and her husband, Tazreen Fashions Managing Director Delwar Hossain.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court yesterday disposed of the matter of earth-filling and construction of jetties on the Meghna River at Ashuganj after the government gave undertaking that they would protect the river from encroachment.

The five-member bench headed by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain passed the order on appeals of the government and Ashuganj Power Station Company Limited.

On March 13, the apex court in an

order suspended the earth-filling and setting up of the jetties.

On February 13, the High Court bench led by Justice Salma Masud Chowdhury directed the authorities concerned to remove the construction materials stored at the site within seven days and take measures to prevent anyone from encroaching the river. The court gave the government four weeks to submit a compliance report before it. It also ordered the law enforcers to take proper legal action against the encroachers.

Later, the order was stayed by the

Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division in response to a plea of Ashuganj Power Station Company Limited.

After a petition of the Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh, the full bench of the apex court gave a status quo order on March 13. After the government’s undertaking, the matter was disposed of yesterday.

Lawyer Manzill Murshid for the petitioner claimed that local leaders from both the Awami League and the BNP had reportedly been occupying the land along Meghna River and trying to construct jetties. l

n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

On March 20, the Dhaka’s District and Sessions Judge’s Court cancelled the bail granted to Mahmuda and ordered her to appear before the lower court within 15 days which ends today.

Mahmuda was granted conditional bail by Dhaka’s Chief Judicial Magistrate Md Ismail Hossain on February 10. The court then rejected the bail appeal of Delwar.

Police submitted charge sheet on December 22 last year against 13 people, including Delwar and Mahmuda, for the deaths of workers due to their negligence. Over 200 workers were also injured in the incident that took place on November 24, 2012. l

‘Coordination among Saarc police needed’ n Kailash Sarkar Inspector General of Police (IGP) Hassan Mahmood Khandker yesterday stressed the need for a strong coordination among police forces of Saarc member countries to fight against transnational crimes.

He said this while addressing the concluding session of a training course, titled – “Transnational Crime: Saarc Perspective” at the Police Staff College in the capital’s Mirpur as

Students and teachers of BAU lay siege in front of the administrative building yesterday, demanding the arrest and punishment of the killers of Shad Ibn Momtaj DHAKA TRIBUNE

Protest against BAU student murder n Our Correspondent, Mymensingh The Bangladesh Agriculture University Teachers’ Association yesterday called for a boycott of all classes and examinations, expressing solidarity with the students demanding arrest of the killers of the university’s second year student Shad Ibn Momtaj.

The teachers also issued an ultimatum to the authorities concerned to identify and arrest the killers by Monday next and bring them to justice.

The BAU Teachers’ Association President Prof Dr Lutful Hasan said: “We express our solidarity with the general students and demand justice over Shad’s killing.”

The protesting students had been demanding exemplary punishment of the killers and their expulsion from the university, security of all students and resignation of the administrative bodies who failed to contain the violence on the university campus.

They made the demand at a sit-in staged in front of the university’s administrative building from 9am to 12 o’clock.

The students also laid siege to the vice-chancellor’s house following the sit-in.

Meanwhile, BAU students’ adviser Prof Dr Mohammad Moniruzzaman told reporters that he tendered his resignation from the advisory role. l

BANGLAR CHOKH

chief guest.

“The failure of nations to harmonise legislations and coordinate responses is somewhat responsible for the sustainability of international terrorism,” he added.

Mahmood also noted that for geographical reasons, police forces of Saarc member countries should work together and coordinate activities to fight terrorism, cyber crimes, money laundering, human and drugs trafficking in the region.

A total of 18 police officials from Bangladesh, India, Maldives and Bhutan took part in the three-week long training course.

At the end of the training course, the IGP also distributed certificates among the participants.

Chaired by Police Staff College Rector Manzmul Huq, Special Branch Chief Zaved Patwary, Additional IGPs Amir Uddin, Hemayet Hossain and Aminur Rahman, among others, were also present at the event. l

while urging the government to shelve the project as it would be devastating for the forest.

The platform said an anti-India sentiment was already strong in Bangladesh because of the neighbour’s unilateral decisions on the Farakka Barrage, sharing of Teesta water and overall environmental degradation.

It urged the Indian government to cancel the project immediately “if you do not want the sentiment to become worse.”

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated construction of the plant in October last year. l

Indian delegation due tomorrow to discuss visa issue n Rabiul Islam An Indian joint secretary level four-member delegation is scheduled to arrive in Dhaka tomorrow to discuss issues regarding Indian visa applications from Bangladesh.

The delegation is likely to hold talks with home ministry officials on Tuesday.

Home ministry officials said the discussion would focus on addressing the woes of visa seekers and to stop fraudulent activities of a vested quarter regarding the visas, at the said.

“We would request the Indian delegation to raise the existing slot [for Bangladeshi applicants] as a huge number of our people want to apply for visas,” Home Ministry Additional Secretary Md Shafiqul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

Shafiqul Islam is also expected to lead the Bangladesh delegation at the meeting.

Officials at the home ministry said India currently allows 1,200 Bangladeshis to appear for visa interview per day. “India officials would look into what steps have been taken to bring to an end the harassment of visa applicants,” they added.

They also said a section of unscrupulous people had been cheating visa aspirants with promise to provide Indian visas. l

Campus Career Festival at IUB n Tribune Report A two-day job fair titled “Campus Career Festival” was held at the permanent campus of Independent University, Bangladesh at Bashundhara in the capital.

The event, which took place on April 2 and 3, was jointly organised by the IUB and “bdjobs.com,” the largest job site in Bangladesh and in association with the office of Career Guidance and Placement (CGP) of the IUB. A total of 19 renowned companies, including the GPIT, Airtel, City cell, Aarong, Nitol Niloy Group, Abdul Monem Ltd, Rangs group and Kazi IT participated in the fair.

Around 2,250 applicants applied for jobs at the festival and 475 candidates were short listed for recruitment in the festival. IUB Vice-Chancellor Prof M Omar Rahman inaugurated the festival as the chief guest. l

Vice Chancellor of IUB Professor M Omar Rahman inaugurates Campus Career Festival at IUB yesterday

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

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Friday, April 4, 2014

Structures to occupy a third of Dhanmondi playground n Abu Hayat Mahmud Local Government Division (LGD) and Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club, a private sporting club, are allegedly constructing concrete structures that will occupy a third of the two-acre Dhanmondi playground.

The public playground has become virtually off-limits to children and youngsters due to lack of proper monitoring by the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC), in charge of maintaining the spot.

Back in September 2010, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina directed authorities concerned to take immediate steps to recover all the children parks and playgrounds in the capital from illegal occupants.

Acting on the directive, the then Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) conducted a survey in different areas of the capital and identified playgrounds or open spaces that were occupied illegally or were being used for other purposes. Sources say the situation prevails in those places.

The city corporation, however, failed to free up the Dhanmondi playground as Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club authorities had taken control of it despite repeated directives from the High Court to keep it as a public place.

Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club, named after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s younger brother and registered as a private company, has deployed security personnel to prevent people other than members of the club from entering the playground.

On March 28, activists of over 50

Picture taken yesterday shows foundations for concrete pillars being built on a portion of Dhanmondi playground in the capital DHAKA TRIBUNE

environment and social organisations demanded the structures built on the playground be removed immediately.

They also demanded punishment of those who had built structures on oth-

Security to be beefed up ahead of Pahela Baishakh n Rabiul Islam State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan said adequate security measures would be taken for the celebration of Pahela Baishakh, the first day of Bangla calendar, on April 14 and people from all walks of life would be able to take part in the festivities peacefully.

The state minister addressed reporters after a meeting with high law enforcement officials at the Home Ministry yesterday, where he told them about the decision.

CQK Mustaq Ahmed, senior secretary at the Home Ministry, AKM Shahidul Hoque, additional IGP, and Major General Aziz Ahmed, director-general of Border Guard Bangladesh, were present, among others.

The state minister said: “I hope people will enjoy Pahela Baishakh like every year, and the intelligence agencies

WEATHER

PARTLY CLOUDY FRIDAY, APRIL 4 DHAKA TODAY TOMORROW SUN SETS 6:15PM SUN RISES 5:47AM FORECAST FOR TODAY Dhaka

34

22

Chittagong

32

23

Rajshahi

36

22

Rangpur

35

20

Khulna

37

22

Barisal

35

24

Sylhet

33

20

33

24

Cox’s Bazar

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW

39.1ºC Jessore

17.4ºC Rangpur

Source: Accuweather/UNB

will stay alert to foil violent incidents.”

Restriction on vehicular movement would be imposed on a number of roads in the capital on the day, and check posts would be set up in strategic points to search bags and suspicious people as preventive measures, the state minister added.

When asked about the progress in the investigation of the 2001 Ramna Batamul bomb blast, the state minister said, “We are trying to make progress.”

An official attending the meeting said Hatirjheel would come under security as people would go there on the day.

Like the capital, security measures will be taken across the country as well.

Intelligence agencies across the country have been instructed to keep vigilance. l

Fajar Sunrise Jumma Asr Magrib Esha

4:32am 5:49am 12:02am 4:30pm 6:15pm 7:32pm Source: IslamicFinder.org

struction materials inside in order to erect structures.

During a recent visit, this correspondent found that construction of concrete structures was underway. A

Four members of a family burnt to death in Chittagong n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong Four members of a family were burnt alive in a fire at their thatched house in Adhunagar area under Lohagara upazila of Chittagong district early yesterday.

The deceased were identified as Abdur Rahim, 40, his wife Nasima, 33, their daughters Lucky, 12, and Reshmi, 8.

Mohammad Shahjahan, officer-in-charge (OC) of Lohagara police station, told the Dhaka Tribune that the fire might have broken out from the butt of a burning cigarette around 3:30am.

“Rahim got up to smoke while the other family members were asleep.

He mistakenly left the butt of the burning cigarette near the house that led to the fire.”

The house was fully burnt in the fire, he said, adding that on information,

they recovered the bodies.

Jasim Uddin, deputy director of Chittagong Fire Service and Civil Defence, said he was not informed of the

Police said two other members of the family luckily escaped death as they were out of their residence during the fire incident incident as there is no fire service station in Lohagara upazila.

AKM Imran Bhuiyan, assistant superintendent of police at Satkania circle, said the fire rapidly spread to the whole house as there were a lot of combustible materials.

Police said two other members of the family luckily escaped death as they were out of their residence during the fire incident.

Emran, 14, elder son of Rahim and class seven student at Adhunagar High School, was at his grandparents’ residence while younger son Arman, 10, was at his madrasa during the incident, said local sources.

Emran said he along with others rushed to the spot to save his parents and sisters, but failed.

“I could not save them. Now how I and my brother can live,” he said in a choked-voice.

Sirajul Islam, chairman of Adhunagar union parishad, told the Dhaka Tribune that Rahim converted to Islam from Buddhism at least 20 years ago and started living in the area after he had married Nasima. l

Four workers killed in Gazipur bridge collapse n Our Correspondent, Gazipur At least four construction workers were killed and three others injured as an old bridge during its demolition collapsed on them at Barun village in Kapasia upazila yesterday morning.

The workers were identified as Huru Mia, Abu Bakkar, Asgar Ali and Shahjahan.

Kapasia Upazila Nirbahi Officer Alauddin Ali said a part of the dilapidated bridge had fell on a group of construction labourersaround 8:30 am while they were demolishing it, leaving four of them dead on the spot and injured three others.

The critically injured were rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. l

Locals gather near a collapsed bridge, which killed four people, at Barun village in Kapasia upazila yesterday

Three killed in separate incidents n Our Correspondent, Savar

PRAYER TIMES

er playgrounds in the city in violation of the High Court directives.

In July last year, the club authorities knocked down a portion of the newly-built boundary wall to take con-

notice hung near the main entrance asked people not to enter the place because of city corporation’s construction work.

Md Marafat Ali, admin officer of Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club, told the Dhaka Tribune: “The DSCC and LGD are in charge of the construction work.”

“LGD authorities are basically supervising the construction. Two tennis courts, two badminton courts and a basketball court are being built and those will occupy one-third of the playground,” he said.

Marafat said the LGD was bearing the total cost of construction and the club was just collaborating.

DSCC chief executive officer Ansar Ali Khan said the LGD was handling the construction. “The city corporation is not doing it.”

Ashok Madhab Roy, additional secretary of LGD, and other city corporation officials concerned could not be reached for comment despite several attempts.

The DSCC has 10 public playgrounds under its authority while Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) has only one.

This correspondent has found other playgrounds in the city in a sorry state. There was no grass there and the fields contained only sand. Locals said the places get muddy during the rainy season, thus becoming off-limits to children.

Makeshift shops run by small traders were also seen in the playgrounds. They indiscriminately dump waste in those places, thus making them untidy. l

At least three people were killed in three separate incidents in Savar, the outskirt of the capital, yesterday.

Four youths beat a tea stall owner to death in Taltola area of Savar’s Ashuliya.

Police said Al Amin, Swapan, Moktar and Rasel went to Ozid’s tea stall for taking tea on Tuesday afternoon. After taking tea, the youths scolded Ozid saying the tea did not taste good. At one stage the four youths started beat-

ing Ozid as he protested their abusive behaviour.

Later, locals sent Ozid to Dhaka Medical College Hospital in a critical condition, where he succumbed to his injuries yesterday, police said, adding that the deceased hailed from Bogra.

At another incident, one Al Amin strangled his wife Nupur Akter Mishu, 20.

Police recovered the body from the rented house of one Kamal in Ashuliya’s Boshundhora area. They said the accused was on the run following the incident.

On the other hand, an unidentified elderly woman died as a bus ran over her while she was crossing the Dhaka-Aricha highway in Noyarhat area of Ashuliya on Wednesday.

Locals rushed her to a local hospital in a critical condition, where she succumbed to her injuries yesterday.

Officer-in-Charge of Ashuliya police station Sheikh Badrul Alam said police were conducting drives to arrest the accused, adding that three separate cases were filed in these connections. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Chawkbazar fire victim dies n Kailash Sarkar One of the victims of Wednesday night’s warehouse fire at Chowkbazar succumbed to his injuries yesterday morning at the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital.

Kabir Hossain, 30, who sustained burns over 85percent of his body, died around 7:30am at the burn and plastic surgery unit of the state-run hospital.

Meanwhile, the conditions of two other victims of the blaze, Mafizur Rahman, 42, and Abdul Aziz, 30, were also stated to be critical.

Doctors at the specialised unit said half of Aziz’s body was burnt, while Mafizur suffered burns over 30 percent of his body.

All three victims were employees of a perfume factory warehouse, located on the third floor of a six-storey building at Chawkbazar’s Hekim Habibur Rahman Road in the old part of the city.

Fire service officials suspect the blaze originated from a carelessly discarded cigarette.

The fire spread quickly and engulfed the entire floor because of the highly flammable chemicals stored at the warehouse, they said. l

Laila Sharmeen participates in Artexpo New York n Tribune Report Bangladeshi artist Laila Sharmeen will showcase her recent artworks at the three-day Artexpo New York 2014 opening today.

The artist, who has 11 solo and over 50 international exhibitions to her credit, is being represented at the exhibit by María Elena Beneito, Argentine art dealer and editor of Argentina Art Yearbook. Her artworks at Artexpo are in watercolour and print media.

Dubbed as “the world’s largest fine art trade show” on its website, Artexpo has been a platform to bring renowned publishers, galleries and collectors face-to-face with hundreds of established and emerging artists for 35 years.

This year, the event is featuring more than 400 artists, galleries and publishers from across the globe, showcasing original artworks, prints, paintings, drawings, sculpture, photography, ceramics, lithographs, glass works and more.

There will be three shows under one roof at Artexpo: Artexpo New York, SOLO – juried exhibition of emerging artists, and DECOR Expo Showcase - a trade-only show featuring the latest art and framing industry trends. l

One held as miscreants stab youth n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong A youth was stabbed early yesterday by a group of miscreants in Chittagong city’s Toktarpul area.

The youth succumbed to his injuries at Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) in the morning.

Officer-in-Charge Mohammad Mohsin of Bakalia police station said they had arrested Saleh Ahmed, 27, from the area, suspecting his involvement with the incident. He said Alauddin, 18, who worked at a local community centre – Silver Palace – was stabbed around 4am following an altercation with the attackers.

Sub-Inspector Jahirul Alam, incharge of CMCH police outpost, said locals had brought him to the hospital soon after the incident but Alauddin died around 8:30am.

The OC said: “The arrestee has revealed two names and drives to arrest them is being organised.” When asked about the names, the OC refused to disclose the names for the sake of the investigation.

The arrestee was being interrogated till filing this report. A case was lodged with the Bakalia police station in this regard. l

SATKANIA CLASH

One dies at CMCH n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong A young man who was critically injured in a clash between two groups of villagers in Satkania upazila on Tuesday died at Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) yesterday afternoon.

The deceased was identified as Bodi Alam, 35.

Sub-Inspector (SI) Jahirul Islam, in-

charge of police camp at CMCH, said the on-duty doctor pronounced him dead around 3:00pm.

Nine people, including Bodi, received bullet injuries when two groups of villagers – one led by Khorshed and another by Jamal – clashed in front of Nur Market at Khagoria of the upazila over establishing supremacy in the area. l

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Illegal construction on RDH land goes unabated n Our Correspondent, Dinajpur A vested interest group is constructing a warehouse after illegally occupying land of Dinajpur Road and Highway Department (RHD) in Sahebganj area under Sadar municipality in Dinajpur under the very nose of the district administration.

Earlier in 2001, a baily bridge was built over Kartoa river of Ghoraghat upazila of the district.

Then authorities of Gaibandha the RHD constructed a road at the eastern side of the bridge for creating direct road communication with Ghoraghat and Hili land port with Gaibandha.

Besides, authorities of Gaibandha RHD acquired 26 decimals of land from a total of 33 decimals from the both sides of the road owned by Nur Hossain Master, a resident of Ghoraghatupazila.

But the influential quarters have been erecting a big go-down on a total of 33 decimals of land belonging to Nur Hossain Master.

Nur Hossain said he had been trying

to create attention of the district administration, but the authority is yet to take any action against the encroachment.

Authorities of Dinajpur RHD have built a culvert for drainage. But the southern part of the culvert is blocked for the construction of the warehouse, local sources said.

Locals said, the building is being constructed without the permission of the municipality authorities.

Local people are apprehending that they would have to face waterlogging in the rainy season.

Convener of Ghoraghat Awami League Abdur Rahim lodged a complaint with the municipality seeking measure against the illegal occupation.

Later, he along with Ghoraghat Upazila unit Awami League President and Bulakipur Union Parishad Chairman sent a letter to the upazila nirbahi officer to look into the matter.

On Wednesday, authorities of RHD visited the spot. They said they would take legal actions through upazila land office. l

After harvesting growers take away onion to home at Boalmari upazila in Faridpur yesterday

Baisabi festivities light up CHT

Husband strangles wife in Gazipur n Our correspondent, Khagrachari n Our Correspondent, Gazipur A festive mood is prevalent in the CHT A husband allegedly strangled his wife in Gazipur’s Kaliyakoir on Wednesday.

Locals said one Shorbesh Ali killed his wife Shahida, 35, over family feud and fled the scene around 9pm on Wednesday. Both the husband and wife were garment workers and had been living in a rented house in Mouchak Nurbag area.

Sub-Inspector Syed Azharul Islam of Mouchak police outpost said they were suspecting murder, and added that the body was sent to Gazipur Sadar Hospital morgue for autopsy. l

Corruption of settlement office protested n Our Correspondent, Sunamganj Land owners of Jamalganj upazila in Sunamganj formed a human chain and rally to protest against the irregularities and corruption of local settlement office yesterday.

The human chain was held around 12pm at the Shahid Minar ground in front of the upazila sub-registrar’s office yesterday.

Around 50 land owners of Lomba Bak, Kalipur, Noahalot, Golamipur, Seromvopu, Chanpur, Telia, Noagaon, Lakhsmipur, Lalpur and other villages participated in the programme.

They thoroughly protested the irregularities and corruption that occur inside the settlement office and demanded immediate punishment of the culprits.

They also urged the authority to implement section 30 and open appellate and objection sections in the office as early as possible. l

districts as the indigenous people there are preparing to celebrate their biggest social festival “Baisabi”.

Although the main festivities will begin on April 14, people belonging to the Chakma, Marma and Tripura communities in Rangamati, Bandarban and Khagrachari are now on a shopping spree. They are preparing to serve guests and are arranging special sporting events ahead of the festival.

Besides, many social organisations, including clubs and associations in every indigenous village have also taken massive preparations for celebrating the festival.

The acronym “Baisabi” stands for

Baisu-Sangrai-Biju. These are three different names of the same festival given by three separate indigenous communities. The Tripuras call it Baisu while it is known as Sangrai and Biju among the Marmas and the Chakmas respectively.

The main festival will coincide with Pahela Baishakh, a key festival celebrated by the Bangladeshis on occasion of the beginning of a new Bangla year.

Speaking to the Dhaka Tribune, Khagrachari District Police Super Sheikh Md Mizanur Rahman said like previous years, they had heightened security measures so that the indigenous people could celebrate the festival joyfully.

During Sangrai, the Marma people, apart from other activities, engage themselves in Jolkeli, a traditional event where males and females sprin-

Ashwini Mela starts in Barisal n Our Correspondent, Barisal Ashwini Mela, a three-day long fair named after Mahatma Aswani Kumar Dutta, the renowned political leader of the undivided subcontinent, started at his native village Batajor on the Ashwini Dutta School ground under Gournadi upazila of Barisal from yesterday.

Gournadi Municipal Mayor Harisur Rahman Haris inaugurated the fair in the evening as chief guest. Poritosh Kumar Nandi, member of the school managing committee and fair organising committee, presided over the inauguration.

Discussion meetings on the life and achievements of Ashwini Dutta, dramas, folk-based cultural functions and competitions, distribution of scholarships among the meritorious students,

17 forfeit security deposit n Our Correspondent, Gaibandha Out of 21, at least 17 candidates have forfeited their security deposits, who had contested the 5th phase polls in Sundarganj upazila under the district.

They are Aktaruzzaman Sarker, Advocate Zahangir Alam Zinnah, Mozaharul Islam, Oaheduzzaman Badshah, Abdur Rashid Reza Sarker,Ahsan Habib Masud, Shariful Islam in chairman posts and Dipak Kumer Sarker, Asaduzzaman Moni, Saiful Islam,Mhahmudul Islam Pramanik, Ferdousi Begum, Hasna Begum and Peara Begum in vicechairman posts. The deposits had been forfeited as they could not get 8% vote, said EC office sources. l

50 hurt in Habiganj clash n Tribune Report At least 50 people, including women, were injured in a clash between two groups of residents of Korab village in Lakhai upazila here yesterday.

Of them, 20 were admitted to Habiganj sadar hospital in a critical condition.

Lakhai police station OC Nazim Uddin said Shawkat Ali, a resident of the village, and another Rangu Miah, have been at loggerheads over establishing supremacy there.

As sequel to the matter, their supporters equipped with indigenous weapons swopped on one another around 11am, leaving 50 from both sides injured.

On information, police rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control, the OC added.

However, Dr Rangu’s brother, Abdul Hamid, an UP member, claimed that the clash that lasted for about two hours ensued centring stalking his niece by Shawkat’s son, Sadek Miah, who has been harassing her for long on her way to school. l

fair of traditional food and handicrafts was arranged at the fair which has been taking place since 1997 with a break from 2004-2008.

Local government representatives, journalists, elites, businessmen, participated in the inaugural ceremony of the fair. Asaduzzaman Ripon, president Gournadi Press Club, Monir Hossain Mia, chairman Bangladesh Rural Development Board Gournadi unit amd Abu Sayed Nantu, president Gournadi Girls School and College governing body addressed the inaugural session, among others.

Ashwini Dutta was a pioneer in patronising the cottage and handicraft industry, practice of rural and folk cultural activities and also spreading modern education and thoughts for socioreligious reformation in the region. l

kle each other with water. They also arrange boat race, better known as naukabaich, wrestling and many other events.

The Chakmas have a reputation for involving themselves in fun and that is also reflected in their activities during Biju. They prepare different palatable foods and light candles in the names of gods and goddesses. They also observe religious rituals and pray for peace, happiness and prosperity.

As for Baisu, it is more of a social festival to the people of the Tripura community. They decorate their houses with flowers, put on new clothes, and free domestic animals like cows, goats and buffaloes in the early hours of the day. They serve guests with homemade cakes and liquor. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Jhum cultivation in full swing n Our Correspondent, Khagrachari Jhum cultivation, a traditional method of farming, developed by the ethnic people in Chittagong Hill Tracts, is going on in full swing due to favourable weather conditions this season.

According to Khagrachari Hill Agriculture Research Centre sources, about 5000 hectares of land have been set for cultivation this year in Khagrachari district.

The farmers said that they would get bumper production of the crop due to favourable weather conditions.

In a recent visit, it was found that the farmers were busy with the cultivation in several areas.

This year, 36 types of jhum varieties including rice, arum, banana, pump-

kin, eggplants, okra, bean, ginger, bitter gourd, turmeric were selected to grow in the fields.

Jhum cultivation is getting popularity because of population pressure and livelihood strategies.

Realizing the facts, Khagrachari Hill District Council with the help of UNDP, has taken steps to cultivate the crops with scientific method.

Farmer Khulram Karberi said: “This year I expect good harvest of the crops.”

“If the government helps us to cultivate the crops, we will be more benefited,” he said.

Khagrachari Hill Agriculture Research Centre scientist Md Mohbatulla said: “A high-yielding variety of paddy has been developed for jhum cultivation.” l

Clinic vandalised following death of patient n Our Correspondent, Sunamganj Incensed at the death of a patient for alleged wrong treatment, his relatives vandalised a private clinic in Sunamganj town yesterday.

Family members said Monojit Das, a resident of Jamura village under Islampur union, was admitted to Java Medical Centre on Thursday. He was a student at Jamura Government Primary School.

Soon after his admission to the clinic doctors conducted a surgery. After the surgery his condition started deteriorating.

Then, authorities of the clinic referred him to Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital where on duty doctors declared him dead yesterday morning.

Relatives of the patient

alleged that he had died because of mishandling of physicians concerned.

The doctor, who performed the operation and the clinic manager later went into hiding, sensing danger.

On receiving information, police rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control.

Police were compelled to charge batons on the agitators to bring the situa-

tion under control.

Officer-in-Charge of Chhatak police station Shah Jalal Munshi law enforcers brought the situation under control.

The OC said the body had been sent to morgue for post-mortem examination.

He said they would be able to know reason behind the death after getting forensic report. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Heritage coast

Heritage

Friday, April 4, 2014

7

Enhancing the totality of the potentially enormous tourist attraction of Bangladesh

PHOTOS: SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

A

n Tim Steel bout a third of the coast of England, with its cliffs, beaches, marshes, swamps and estuarine waters is preserved as “Heritage Coast,” and is valued as one of the gems of England’s flourishing £9bn tourism industry, which employs more than two million people.

And it is not merely the natural beauty and environment that attracts both internal and inbound tourists.

The towns and villages abound on the coast, just as in Bangladesh, with a primary tradition of fishing and

The few hundred metres or so that most tourists know in Cox’s Bazar represents a mere fraction of the whole of a coast upon which the sun both rises and sets every day, as it has for millions of years

maritime activities, are rich in cultural heritage, and an inheritance of architecture.

Castles, forts, merchant mansions, even palaces and civic buildings offer a tradition of architectural achievement that reaches back over millennia.

Bangladesh may not be as rich in historic fortifications, although not a few Mughal period fortifications against pirates represent an interesting appeal to the reasonably savvy visitor, but the ancient architectural treasures, disappearing with ever-increasing rapidity from coastal towns and communities from Teknaf in the south east, to the shores of the Sunda-

rban in the south west, still represent a potential to attract heritage tourists from across the world.

Indeed, the initiative of Guide Tours, with their somewhat basic vessels, and Tiger Tours with their rather more sophisticated “floating hotel,” have the potential to widen the appeal of coastal attractions of the country, both natural and manmade, to a much wider international audience.

Teknaf may well “open the bidding,” with its caves, the tragic “Madam Butterfly” well, access to ancient Buddhist temples, manmade developments that enhance the appeal of wildlife from corals and dolphins to elephants, monkeys, and an enormous diversity of ornithological attractions.

Why, there is even a Pirate lair, and an indefinable, “King of England’s Hole” to appeal to the curious.

And, from there to the Indian borderlands, rich in temples, mosques and mansions, as well as the odd fortification and the red brick heritage of Raj, these coastal lands may well have, over the ages, overwhelmed much of the architectural heritage, but there is no shortage to attract and offer opportunities for exploration.

Not, of course, to forget the upwards of 140 types of river craft with an identifiable heritage from China, Europe, and Arabia, amongst, no doubt, home grown types.

Bangladesh seems reticent about its rich heritage, and it is difficult to understand the source of the reticence. Remembering that these lands are those of one of the earliest centres of international trade in the world, it is, perhaps, unsurprising that, despite the difficulties of coping with annual flooding, and regular cyclonic surges, there remains many such manmade heritage to enhance the visitor experience.

And then, of course, there is an enormous diversity of apparent genetic, human heritage. I suppose my favourite are those, what local people

call, “Portuguese Eyes,” the blue and green eyes that abound amongst the inhabitants of the coastal areas of Cox’s Bazar District, especially.

Somehow, to this observer at least, the unexpected beauty of such eyes considerably enhances the physical attraction of men and women, girls and boys, with their native skins of different tans, clearly revealing the fascinating human cultural history of these coastal lands.

The coastal lands of Bangladesh’s “Heritage Coast” are also rich in the traces of a wide diversity of people who have settled in them over centuries, and even millennia.

Quite apart from the truly indigenous, if there are, indeed, as in other nations bordering the Bay of Bengal such as Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, remnants of the original, “Out of Africa” migrants from 80 or 100,000 years ago, there are the migrants both from the Tibetan/ Himalayan region, and perhaps even further into Central Asia, and from neighbouring nations.

The coastal regions from Chittagong southward only became incorporated into the lands that are now Bangladesh following the 18th century conquest of Arakan by Burma, following with the Burmese kingdom eventually abandoned the lands north of the Naf river, and these “no man’s lands” were ceded by the Mughal Governor of Bengal to the East India Company as the first territory that the Company wholly controlled anywhere in the sub continent.

Ramu, in that area, appears on a Greek map of the second century, and there is no doubting the great age of Chittagong. Ancient cities on the distributaries of the great rivers, such as that at Wari Bateshwar in Narshingdhi, Sonargaon and Vikrampur, are clear ancient vestiges of the heritage of these coastal lands, as are such as Barisal, with a history that is probably far more ancient than any we could

even begin to speculate on, and a few remaining mansions to prove it. And, of course, the normally well-informed Forbes magazine describes Bagerhat as one of the ten most famous lost cities in the world.

Well re-emerging as a great historic city, Bagerhat certainly is, with, probably, much yet to disclose, but, in fact, this heritage coast that is now the coast of Bangladesh certainly has, yet, much more to reveal of its history and cultural traditions that we know, for sure, reach back at least three millennia, but almost certainly far, far, further. Not least because we can be reasonably sure that it lay on the migration route, out of Africa, of early man.

In fact, few nations outside Europe are likely to be able to boast such diversity of heritage and cultural tradition. However, the countries around Bangladesh, in South Asia, have a far higher level of achievement of marketing such heritage, and garnered to themselves annual billions of dollars to enrich their national exchequers, as well as the bank accounts of countless entrepreneurs, and created, around the coasts, millions of skilled and semi-skilled jobs.

If this piece appears a little dismissive of the natural beauty that is the foundation of the Heritage Coast, it is, simply the result of an attempt to enhance the totality of this potentially enormous tourist attraction.

From the towering cliffs of the south east mentioned by Roman writing in the 3rd century, fronted by the almost endless silver sands of the wonderful beach that, although broken after a 120 km run from the Naf estuary, which continues, almost endlessly, around the entire 700, or so, kilometre coastline of Bangladesh,

to the glowering of the “completely secluded from the world in a wilderness of wood and water” Sundarban, so vividly described by the late 18th century traveller, Robert Lindsey, the entire coastline is a natural paradise.

That Lindsey went on to describe his “two hundred mile,” journey through the coastal mangrove forest of Sundarban as being, “through thick forests, inhabited only by tigers, and wild animals peculiar to a tropical climate; the human population ... scanty, the country being overflowed every spring tide by salt water ... a dreary waste of some extent, but beautiful in the extreme, the lofty trees growing down to the water’s edge,” tells even today’s prospective visitor that it is not only the human heritage that is ancient, and much unchanged over centuries.

Beaches, mud flats, mangroves, islands and islets, forests and fields, all negotiable by land and water, offer the prospect of endless natural pleasures as the backdrop to the extraordinary wonder of it all.

The few hundred metres or so that most tourists know in Cox’s Bazar represents a mere fraction of the whole of a coast upon which the sun both rises and sets every day, as it has for millions of years.

What wouldn’t the English Tourist Board, and Natural England, do to work with such a considerable Heritage Coast? And what wouldn’t they achieve in terms of both conservation of natural and human heritage, as well as putting it to work, successfully, for the people and environment of Bangladesh, creating jobs, and generating foreign exchange income? l Tim Steel is a communications, marketing and tourism consultant.

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

World

Friday, April 4, 2014

US secretly built ‘Cuban Twitter’ to stir unrest n Agencies

General Mark Milley, III Corps and Fort Hood Commanding General, speaks to media during a press conference about a shooting that occurred yesterday at Fort Hood

Soldier kills 3, injures 16, shoots himself at Texas Army base n Reuters, Fort Hood, Texas

A US soldier with mental health issues shot dead three people and injured at least 16 on Wednesday before shooting himself at an army base in Fort Hood, Texas, the site of another deadly rampage in 2009, US military officials said.

The soldier, who was being treated for depression and anxiety, went to two buildings on the base and opened fire before he was confronted by military police, Fort Hood commanding officer Lieutenant General Mark Milley said.

The gunman, whose motive remains unknown, then shot himself in the head with a .45-caliber pistol, he said.

“At this time there is no indication that this incident is related to terror-

Lebanon marks millionth Syria refugee n Reuters, Tripoli, Lebanon The number of Syrian refugees who have fled to Lebanon officially topped 1 million yesterday, highlighting the growing humanitarian catastrophe caused by Syria’s civil war and the huge burden placed on its poorly prepared neighbours.

The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR marked what it called a devastating milestone by formally registering a 18-year-old student from the city of Homs as the millionth refugee at a ceremony in Lebanon’s Mediterranean city of Tripoli.

After three years of conflict sparked by protests against President Bashar al-Assad’s autocratic rule, Syria’s war has caused one of the greatest upheavals seen in the Middle East - and one which shows no sign of abating. l

ism,” Milley told a news conference.

The rampage is the third shooting at a military base in the United States in about six months that, along with a series of shootings in public places, such as schools and malls, has sparked a national debate over gun control regulations.

Security officials said preliminary information identified the gunman as Ivan Lopez but Milley declined to identify the shooter, who is married, until his family was notified.

The suspect’s wife was cooperating with law enforcement officers, a Federal Bureau of Investigation official said, according to CNN. The shooter had served for four months in Iraq in 2011, Milley said, and was undergoing evaluation for

post-traumatic stress disorder. He arrived in Fort Hood, one of the largest US Army bases, in February from another military installation.

The Scott & White Hospital in Temple, Texas, where some of the wounded were taken, said nine patients were in intensive care, three in critical condition and six in stable condition. Other victims were taken to Fort Hood’s Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center, near where the shooting took place.

US President Barack Obama said he was “heartbroken” that another shooting had occurred at the Fort Hood Army base.

“We are going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened,” Obama said.

“We’re heartbroken that something like this might have happened again.”

Kazakhstan: Russia led trade bloc treaty to be signed next month n Reuters, Moscow A treaty on creating a Russian-led trade bloc may be signed next month, Kazakhstan’s foreign minister said yesterday, advancing President Vladimir Putin’s plan to create a regional counterweight to the EU. Kazakh Foreign Minister Erlan Idrisov said the pact to shape an existing customs union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan into the Eurasian Economic Union could be formalised in May. Events since protests drove Russian-backed president Viktor Yanukovich from power in Ukraine in February, after he rejected closer ties with the EU, have put an end to Putin’s ambition to

bring the rest of Ukraine into the new regional bloc.

Putin hopes the bloc will coordinate “economic and currency policy” among its members along the lines of the European Union.

“We are actively getting ready for this,” Idrisov told reporters after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.

“At the end of this month there will be an important meeting of our leaders in Minsk that we expect will open the way for a key meeting in Astana at the end of May, when the agreement on the Eurasian Economic Union will be signed and formalised.” he added. l

The US government masterminded the creation of a “Cuban Twitter”, a communications network designed to undermine the communist government in Cuba, built with secret shell companies and financed through foreign banks, The Associated Press has learned.

The project, which lasted more than two years and drew tens of thousands of subscribers, sought to evade Cuba’s stranglehold on the Internet with a primitive social media platform.

First, the network would build a Cuban audience, mostly young people; then, the plan was to push them toward dissent.

Yet its users were neither aware it was created by a US agency with ties to the State Department, nor that American contractors were gathering personal data about them, in the hope that the information might be used someday for political purposes.

It is unclear whether the scheme was legal under US law, which requires written authorisation of covert action by the president and congressional notification.

Officials at USAID would not say who had approved the program or whether the White House was aware of it.

AFP

The latest shooting at Fort Hood is throwing a spotlight on the US military’s so-far frustrated efforts to secure its bases from potential shooters, who increasingly appear to see the facilities as attractive targets.

The shooting started at about 4 pm local time (2100 GMT) and put Fort Hood on immediate lockdown.

Milley said the shooter walked into one of the unit buildings, opened fire, then got into a vehicle and fired from there. He then went into another building and opened fire again, until he was engaged by Fort Hood law enforcement officers.

When confronted by a female military police officer, he shot himself with his semi-automatic weapon in the parking lot. l

Kerry: Israeli-Palestinian talks at ‘critical’ stage n Reuters, Algiers Talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are at a critical moment although progress was made in overnight discussions, US Secretary of State John Kerry said yesterday.

“The dialogue remains open. There was progress made in narrowing some of questions that have arisen as a result of the last few days but there is still a gap and that gap will have to be closed and closed fairly soon,” Kerry told a news conference.

He made his remarks during a visit to Algeria after US-backed direct peace negotiations appeared near to collapse, with the Israelis and Palestinians accusing each other of failing to honour prior commitments.

Ground sensors and satellites will be deployed in a new bid to keep the ancient Roman city of Pompeii from crumbling following a series of recent collapses at the sprawling and long-neglected site near Naples.

Italian aerospace and defence giant Finmeccanica yesterday said it was donating the technology to the culture ministry in a 1.7 million euro ($2.3 million) project entitled “Pompeii: Give it a Future.”

The main aims are to assess “risks of hydrogeological instability” at the sprawling site, boost security and test the solidity of structures, as well as set up an early warning system to flag up possible collapses.

Finmeccanica said the project would last three years and that the results of satellite monitoring of a network of wireless sensors installed around the Roman ruins would be made available

via the Internet.

Security guards will be supplied with special radio equipment as well as smartphone apps to improve communication that can pinpoint their position and the type of intervention required, Finmeccanica said.

Much of the technology is being provided by Finmeccanica subsidiary Selex ES, which also supplies electronic warfare equipment and drones to the military.

“We are offering our technology for the service of the country and its heritage,” Finmeccanica’s chief executive Alessandro Pansa told reporters in Rome.

Pompeii is the second most visited archaeological site in Italy after the Colosseum and the Roman Forum in Rome, with around 2.5 million visitors every year.

Conservation workers last year began a 105-million-euro makeover of the Unesco World Heritage landmark. l

“We are urging them to find compromise that is critical for them to move forward,” Kerry said.

The talks ran into trouble at the weekend when Israel refused to release a group of Palestinian prisoners under the terms of a previous accord unless it received assurances that the Palestinian leadership would continue with negotiations beyond an initial end-April deadline.

Aimed at creating a Palestinian state and ending a decades-long conflict, the talks have also stalled over Palestinian opposition to Israel’s demand that it be recognised as a Jewish state, and the issue of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Kerry flew to Jerusalem on Monday and was trying to put the talks back on track. l

Russia says wants answers on Nato troops in eastern Europe n Reuters, Moscow Russia said yesterday it wanted answers from Nato on its activities in eastern Europe after the Western military alliance promised to beef up defences for its eastern members.

Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region last month has caused the deepest crisis in East-West relations since the Cold War, leading the West to impose sanctions and sparking fear President Vladimir Putin has territorial designs beyond the Black Sea peninsula with its Russian-majority population.

Nato has ordered military planners to draft measures to reassure nervous Eastern European countries - which were under Moscow’s domination until the 1989 end of the Cold War - but

stopped short of calls by Poland to base more forces there.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said any increase in Nato’s permanent presence in eastern Europe would violate a 1997 treaty on Nato-Russian cooperation.

“We have addressed questions to the north Atlantic military alliance. We are not only expecting answers, but answers that will be based fully on respect for the rules we agreed on,” Lavrov told reporters at a briefing with his Kazakh counterpart.

Foreign ministers from the 28-nation, US-led Nato met this week to discuss responses to Russia’s Crimea takeover, including sending Nato soldiers and equipment to allies in eastern Europe, holding more exercises, ensuring Nato’s rapid-reaction force could

Sensors and satellites deployed to save Pompeii n AFP, Rome

The Cuban government declined a request for comment.

At minimum, details uncovered by the AP appear to muddy the US Agency for International Development’s longstanding claims that it does not conduct covert actions, and could undermine the agency’s mission to deliver aid to the world’s poor and vulnerable, an effort that requires the trust and cooperation of foreign governments.

USAID and its contractors went to extensive lengths to conceal Washington’s ties to the project, according to interviews and documents obtained by the AP. They set up front companies in Spain and the Cayman Islands to hide the money trail, and recruited CEOs without telling them they would be working on a US taxpayer-funded project.

“There will be absolutely no mention of United States government involvement,” according to a 2010 memo from Mobile Accord Inc., one of the project’s creators. “This is absolutely crucial for the long-term success of the service and to ensure the success of the Mission.”

The project, dubbed “ZunZuneo,” slang for a Cuban hummingbird’s tweet, was publicly launched shortly after the 2009 arrest in Cuba of American contractor Alan Gross. l

deploy more quickly, and reviewing Nato’s military plans.

Military planners will come back with detailed proposals within weeks, a Nato official said.

Nato military chiefs are concerned that an estimated 40,000 Russian forces near the Ukrainian border may signal plans by Putin to move beyond Crimea into eastern and southern Ukraine, which also have significant Russian-speaking populations.

Russian forces seized Crimea after mass protests toppled Ukraine’s pro-Russian president. Moscow denounced this as a coup driven by rightwing extremists and said it reserved the right to protect Russian speakers in Ukraine, but denied having any intention to move into other areas of the ex-Soviet republic. l

Twitter still blocked in Turkey despite court order n AFP, Ankara

The remains of Pomeii. Visuvious sleeps in the backdrop

WIKI

Turkey’s government faced growing pressure Thursday to quickly implement a top court order to unblock Twitter, which it had banned after damaging leaks had spread on the social media site.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered the block on March 20 in the lead-up to last Sunday’s key local elections, in which his party won sweeping wins despite online allegations of corruption.

On Wednesday Turkey’s Constitutional Court unanimously ruled that the Twitter ban was a breach of free speech, and ordered the communications ministry and telecommunications authority TIB to reverse it “with immediate effect.” The US-based micro-blogging service reacted quickly after the court ruling, tweeting: “We welcome this Constitutional Court ruling and hope to have Twitter access restored in Turkey soon.” l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

World

Friday, April 4, 2014

9

Malaysia PM ‘will not rest’ until MH370 answers found n AFP, Perth Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak vowed Thursday “we will not rest” until the fate of flight MH370 is known, as Australia called it “the most difficult search in human history.”

Najib toured the military base in Perth being used as a staging post in the hunt for the Malaysia Airlines plane carrying 239 people that is believed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean.

“We want to find answers. We want to provide comfort to the families and we will not rest until answers are indeed found,” Najib said, as he thanked those involved in the eight-nation search.

Despite extensive scouring of the remote southern Indian Ocean, no debris that would indicate a crash site has been found, with time running out to locate the plane’s “black box” which only emits a signal for around 30 days.

Najib admitted the exhaustive hunt for the Boeing 777 that vanished on March 8 was a “gargantuan task,” but said he was confident that “in due time we will provide a closure to this event, on this tragedy.”

Kuala Lumpur’s response has been widely criticised, especially by distraught relatives of the 153 Chinese nationals aboard.

Najib left without taking questions, as a reporter called out a query about Malaysia’s handling of the crisis.

Adding to the frustration for families affected, Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said Wednesday a criminal investigation into what caused the flight to veer from its intended route between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing had so far been inconclusive.

In contrast, Australia’s mobilisation since it was handed increased responsibility in the search effort

has been praised.

Australia has far more experience than Malaysia of rescue operations, routinely monitoring huge tracts of ocean, but Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the current search was the toughest ever.

“Every day, working on the basis of just small pieces of information, we are putting the jigsaw together. And every day we have a higher degree of confidence that we know more about what happened to this ill-fated flight,” he said.

Malaysian police chief Khalid on Wednesday said all 227 passengers had been “cleared” of suspicion, as authorities probe a possible hijack or sabotage plot.

Police are still investigating the backgrounds of the plane’s 12 crew, as well as ground staff and flight engineers.

On Wednesday, Malaysian officials sought to explain to sceptical relatives their conclusion – based on complex satellite data – that the plane went down in the Indian Ocean.

That determination has outraged some families who say wreckage must first be recovered.

“I know that until we find the plane, many families cannot start to grieve,” Najib said.

“I cannot imagine what they must be going through. But I can promise them that we will not give up.”

Ties between Beijing and Kuala Lumpur suffered a further blow Thursday after a Chinese tourist was kidnapped from a Malaysian diving resort by gunmen.

China’s foreign ministry pressed Malaysia to make an “all-out effort” to rescue the woman – a Filipina resort worker also was abducted – and to take steps to ensure the safety of Chinese tourists. l

Musharraf’s convoy escapes blast n

Agencies

A powerful explosion on Thursday hit Faizabad bridge just after the convoy of the former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf passed by it, Dawn News reported.

Musharraf was being shifted late night from the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology (AFIC) to his farmhouse when the huge blast occurred just after the convoy crossed the bridge.

According to sources, almost four to six kilogram of explosive material was planted in a pipeline of a nearby footpath.

The intensity of the blast caused about a foot deep hole in the ground at the site of the incident.

Moreover, the police claimed that the attack was aimed to target the former president.

However, no casualties were reported in the incident.

Musharraf’s spokeswoman, Aasia

Iraq forces kill dozens of militants near Baghdad n Agencies Iraqi security forces killed more than 40 militants yesterday in clashes in a town southwest of Baghdad, the interior ministry said in a statement.

The firefight in the town of Yusifiyah also left one army officer dead, the statement said, adding that two heavy machineguns, 15 rifles and five grenade launchers were seized, along with other equipment.

“Iraqi security forces confronted a failed attempt by Daash gang members to break into a military camp,” the statement said, referring to the Arabic abbreviation for the powerful Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant jihadist group.

“The security forces ... killed more than 40 terrorist attackers, and the attack resulted in the death of one of our officers when he was confronting these criminal gangs.”

The clashes in Yusifiyah come after days of fighting in the Zoba and Zaidan areas west of Baghdad, spurring concerns that militants who have for months controlled the town of Fallujah could be looking to open a new front to encroach on the capital.l

Ishaq, said the retired general was fine and reached his home safely but that it was up to the authorities to make sure nothing happens to him.

“All extremist and terrorist forces want to kill Musharraf,” said the spokeswoman. “If anything happens to Musharraf, the government will be responsible.”

The police had registered a case in Islamabad’s Secretariat police station against the incident.

The former military dictator was admitted to the AFIC on Jan 3 when he was on his way to a special court set up for his high treason trial for abrogating the constitution and detaining judges in 2007.

However, the general’s convoy took a detour to the hospital in Rawalpindi when he suddenly started suffering from chest pain.

Musharraf had been receiving several threats to his life since the time his trial began. l

A vendor wears a mask of Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi, prime ministerial candidate for main opposition BJP

Faith in Gandhi dynasty wavers in family fiefdom n AFP, Amethi

School teacher Arun Singh says he’ll vote once again for Rahul Gandhi as his member of parliament in India’s election, but more out of loyalty than conviction.

“The roads are bad, water is scarce and power fluctuates – not much has changed in the last 10 years,” Singh says.

“Despite that everybody, including myself, will vote for the Gandhi family, not particularly because of Rahul.”

For more than 30 years, the people of Amethi, a poor wheat-growing region dotted with hamlets, have turned out to elect different members of India’s most famous clan.

Would-be prime minister Rahul Gandhi followed in his uncle, mother and father’s footsteps in becoming the area’s member of parliament, winning thumping victories there

in 2004 and 2009.

But even here, in the most partisan of spots in Uttar Pradesh state 600 kilometres (370 miles) east of Delhi, echoes of the doubts raised in the capital about the 43-year-old’s leadership can be heard.

Many say the mild-mannered bachelor is inaccessible and a rare visitor.

Others wonder what he has achieved over 10 years of representing his 1.2 million constituents.

With some surveys predicting the worst-ever result for the ruling Congress party in elections which begin on Monday, its vice-president and unofficial prime ministerial candidate faces unprecedented pressure.

Few would predict the demise of a family that has rebounded from defeats before, yet there are warning signs for a bloodline that has run India for most of its 67 years since independence.

In Uttar Pradesh state elections in

2012, Congress lost three out of five assembly seats in Amethi, and all five in neighbouring Rae Bareli, represented

by Rahul’s mother Sonia, president of the party since 1998.

- ‘I am against dynasty rule’ A recent poll found only 50 percent had a favourable view of Rahul compared with 78 percent for election frontrunner Narendra Modi, a hardline Hindu nationalist from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

And as he seeks a third term in parliament, Rahul faces a challenge from a new anti-corruption party whose candidate has been touring Amethi with a yellow truck fitted with loud-speakers.

“I am against the dynasty rule,” Aam Aadmi (Common Man) Party candidate Kumar Vishwas, a well-known poet, told AFP. “I am against the imposition of that man who has done nothing for his constituency as well as for the country.”

Pakistan to tighten border ahead of Afghanistan elections n Agencies Pakistan will increase security along its border with Afghanistan, the foreign ministry announced Thursday, as its neighbour heads into presidential elections this weekend that Taliban militants have vowed to disrupt.

Deadly violence has surged in Afghanistan in the run-up to the election, the first round of which begins Saturday. Afghan officials have hinted at Pakistani involvement in recent attacks, a suggestion vehemently denied by Islamabad.

“Pakistan will beef up security along the border during the elections,” Tasnim Aslam, spokeswoman of Pakistan’s foreign ministry, told reporters Thursday.

“Beefing up security means there will be more vigilance. At this stage I can’t say what measures would be taken, but we would like to make sure that there are no unautho-

rised crossings.”The vote will be Afghanistan’s first-ever democratic transfer of power, as Hamid Karzai steps down after serving the maximum two terms in office.

It comes after a US-led military campaign which has radically changed the country, but failed to defeat the Taliban.

Militant attacks and electoral fraud are the main threats to the vote.

A repeat of the violence and massive cheating allegations that marred Karzai’s re-election in 2009 would undermine claims that a decade of coalition fighting and billions of dollars of aid have helped establish a functioning state.

Karzai has sustained complex relations with Islamabad, often accusing it of failing to play a role in bringing peace in Afghanistan.

Pakistan is seen as crucial to securing peace in the country as it was a key backer of the hardline 19962001 Taliban regime in Kabul, and is

believed still to shelter some of the movement’s leaders.

The first round of the election comes as the final 53,000 Nato combat troops head home this year, leaving Afghan forces to fight the fierce insurgency that erupted after the Taliban regime was ousted in 2001.

Aslam said Pakistan was looking forward to a stronger Afghanistan after the elections.

“We congratulate the people and government of Afghanistan on this milestone,” she said.

“This is an historic moment for the people of Afghanistan in their democratic journey. We hope the Afghan nation will emerge stronger and more unified as a result of the forthcoming elections.”She said she hoped Afghans would be able to overcome security challenges to vote.

“We also hope that despite the threats by extremists groups, voters will cast their votes in record numbers,” she said. l

Google launches digital tour of Angkor Wat n AFP, Angkor Wat, Cambodia Cambodia’s Angkor Wat has been digitally mapped for the first time, allowing people to visit the World Heritage Site from the comfort of their armchair using Google Street View.

The project is part of a growing trend aimed at Internet users who might otherwise never have the chance to visit the cultural and architectural wonders of the world.

Google took more than a million photos of Angkor – the result is 90,000 360-degree views of more than 100 temples.

Street View allows web users to zoom in on an area, and then explore.

“Recently we’ve done the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon, Mount Fuji,” said Manik Gupta, project manager at Google Maps.

“But the scale of Angkor Wat is what makes this unprecedented,” he told AFP at the project’s launch yesterday.

“It is such an iconic place, people say it is the eighth wonder of the world, and it gives you this incredible sense – look at every single small nook and cranny, you’ll find art work.”

The Angkor Archaeological Park contains the remains of the different capitals of the Khmer Empire, dating from the 9th to the 15th century. l

REUTERS

The BJP has named its candidate in Amethi as Smriti Irani, a popular former TV personality who made her name playing a righteous housewife in an award-winning soap opera.

Despite the competition, Rahul’s campaign manager is confident of victory.

“The Gandhi family has a relationship with this constituency for 40 years,” said Chandrakant Dubey. “They have a very close bond and the people of Amethi understand this.”

From Bollywood to business and politics, families dominate India’s public and private spheres and Rahul has put himself in the awkward position of being both a critic and beneficiary of this system.

He told an interviewer in January he was “absolutely against the concept of dynasty” but that “power is an instrument that can be used for certain things.” l

Pakistan frees 16 TTP prisoners to revive peace talks n Agencies The government has freed at least 16 Pakistani Taliban prisoners with the approval of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, officials said yesterday, in a move designed to invigorate a shaky peace process with the militant group.

The Pakistani Taliban called a onemonth ceasefire on March 1 but said this week they would not extend the truce because the government was not serious about meeting their demands.

The demands include releasing 800 prisoners the insurgent group describes as innocent family members and withdrawing the army from parts of the semi-autonomous tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan.

The political agent of South Waziristan, the highest government official in the northwestern tribal region, confirmed the government has started releasing non-combatant prisoners to boost reconcilliation efforts.

“South Waziristan’s political administration released 16 men on April 1,” Islam Zeb told Reuters.

“They are not major commanders.

They are innocent tribals who were arrested during different search operations in South Waziristan in the last two to three years.”

Zeb said all the released prisoners belonged to the Mehsud tribe. Another 100 prisoners on the Taliban’s list were being processed and would be released in the next few days, he added. Taliban negotiators were not immediately available to comment on the releases.

Intelligence officials confirmed that the prisoners were brought to the Zari Noor army camp in Wana, the region’s main town. The enclave on the Afghan border was once the epicentre of a spreading Taliban insurgency and the site of a major military offensive in 2009 that displaced half a million people.

Security officials said once at Wana, the prisoners were handed over to office of the political agent, who then released them to the Taliban.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif personally authorised the releases, a source in his office said.

Sharif, who took power last year promising to strike a negotiated peace with the Taliban, has been trying to engage the militants. But talks broke down last month, when a Taliban wing operating in the Mohmand tribal region said it had executed 23 soldiers in revenge for the killing of its fighters by the security forces.

Islamabad then refused to hold further talks until the Taliban announced a ceasefire on March 1. l

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

Editorial

Letters to

www.dhakatribune.com

Keep up progress to regain GSP

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e welcome the statements by the commerce minister and US Ambassador on Monday, indicating that satisfactory progress is being made towards complying with the conditions required to regain GSP (generalised system of preferences) status for Bangladesh’s exports to the US market.

The government reported in February that 13 out of the 16 conditions set had already been met, and that it expected to be able to move ahead with implementing the remaining items. It is vital that everything possible be done to move these forward ahead of the progress report due to be submitted to US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 15.

Regaining GSP would have huge symbolic value and provide a long-term boost to the economy.

On a recent visit, the Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee made clear that addressing concerns about union organisers and members being harassed or intimidated was important to allow suspension of the GSP facility to be lifted. The commerce minister’s announcement of the formation of an Alternative Dispute Resolution Council for the RMG sector is therefore very welcome, for providing a new and more accessible approach to resolving complaints about labour abuse and harassment.

It is also encouraging that the government will be appointing 222 industrial inspectors this month to help comply with GSP requirements.

Improving monitoring and public inspection standards is one of the key goals sought by the international brands and consumers supporting the Accord and Alliance multi-stakeholder safety initiatives. The government should build on this progress and make it a high priority to keep making progress.

It is vital that everything possible be done to implement the remaining items ahead of the progress report

Sexual harassment is a cancer to society

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t is alarming that sexual harassment of women and girls is on the rise in the capital.

While attention is rightly drawn by headline statistics for rape and other serious sexual crimes, there is a worrying prevalence of non-physical forms of harassment, which undermines women more generally.

Recent research notes that over three quarters of female students report being subjected to so called ‘’eve teasing’’ on a regular basis and this is a major factor behind female dropout rates.

This serves as a blunt reminder of the serious obstacles that women still face in their participation in public life.

While this is undoubtedly a failure of legal protection for women, it also reflects entrenched power imbalances in our society. For instance, more female students report having been harassed by their teachers, rather than by their classmates.

Societal norms and stigma attached to sex crimes are often preventing victims from coming forward and this allows and encourages perpetrators.

The atmosphere of fear created by sexual harassment is denying young women their right to equal opportunities. This is a cancer that harms our society as a whole and needs to be dealt with urgently.

We require not only better laws and enforcement but also more awareness about the seriousness of these crimes. This will also require a fundamental shift in attitudes and behaviours towards the role of women in society.

Friday, April 4, 2014

the Editor

LETTER OF THE DAY

The ‘sum and substance’ of our cricket April 2

Bangladesh’s performance in the men’s Twenty-20 format could not be any worse than expected. One simply cannot fathom why they played as they did. For our batsmen, getting 200 runs in 20 overs seems to be as difficult as climbing Mt Everest! And dropped catches are the norm, though there are always a few exceptional catches.

Small wonder that cricket enthusiasts are engrossed when other teams play. Waving another country’s flag is merely a sign of appreciating that team’s performance, which sadly was prohibited for a time. The less said about this folly, the better, but it certainly sums up our approach to cricket.

Ex-fan

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Myanmar upset at DT article March 26

Idiot99 This is a question of press freedom. The article by Zeeshan Khan was a simple op-ed. The Burmese seem to be blowing it out disproportionately. Although Bangladesh cannot claim to have excellent press freedom like Finland or Netherlands, according to the 2013 World Press Freedom Index, our press freedom index is 144 while Burma’s is 151.

Our media has excelled at opposing military colonialism and dictatorship since the early 1950s, and even during the rule of Ershad. The Burmese media has been the mouthpiece of its military dictators since 1962. Burma should not attempt to temper the press freedom of other countries. Bangladesh shall proudly uphold her press freedom. The Rakhine State violence is a creation of Myanmar. Rights organisations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, and UN Human Rights Commission etc have reported signs of genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya in Burma.

Zeeshan Khan must keep on freely expressing his opinion. This is a free world.

Vikram Khan I have worked for more than 25 months in Myanmar and it is not only the Muslim population that is persecuted in Myanmar, but the entire population: Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, ethnic minorities etc. It is absolutely wrong (of the international observers and press) to put the accent always on the plight of the Rohingyas. Other people are suffering the same fate in Mynamar and deserve the same attention too!!

Idiot99 Vikram Khan: Thank you for bringing up an inclusive view of the oppression being inflicted upon all people of that beautiful land.

I am fully aware of the on-going Kachin War, which has made more than 100,000 refugees and destroyed more than 300 Kachin villages. Rights groups such as HRW, Irish Human rights group, and UNHCR

also have expressed grave concerns about the situation there. There are about 150,000 Burmese refugees in Thailand as per US State Department.

I have visited Mae La refugee camp in Thailand twice. Things are surely bad. The war and refugee conditions in the Kachin and Shan area are also in a grave situation. I have lived with the 88-generation for a few months at the Thai-Burma border. In overview, the ethnic people like the Kachin, the Karen, the Shan, the Mon, the Chin, the Pao, the Kokhant, the Kaya, the Rakhine etc are duly recognised as official residents of Myanmar with bona fide citizenship, and they are not stateless. But the Rohingya are stateless. Recently, there have been reports published of Doctors without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) being expelled from Rakhine State, so that the Rohingya are left without healthcare.

The UNHCR categorically classified the Rohingya as the most persecuted people on this planet.

Since Bangladesh borders Rakhine State and has a historical relationship with the people of Arakan from the early days of the Brahmaputra civilisation, it is logical for the Bangladeshi people, their media, and government to focus on the Rohingya crisis which is spilling into their country. As you may know China is taking care of the Kachin refugees and also working for a meaningful ceasefire between the KIO and the Nay Pyi Taw forces. Thailand is working for all refugees from Burma.

I am glad that Zeeshan Khan’s article has opened up a new horizon for open and educated discussion.

Everyone, including you and I, want to see a peaceful Burma that can live and work for the regional peace and overall development. The world is ready to help but the Burmese must open the door for discussion and representation of the Rohingya in the same manner that has been given to the 135 national races that are represented by the United Nationalities Federal Council.

I view that Zeeshan Khan’s point of the referendum is to highlight the need of such discussion and representation. He has posted it in a very effective way, though it may sound sarcastic.

Do you have unregistered SIM cards?

April 1

Adriano Zahid SIM cards operators should offer options to register those unregistered SIM cards online. Otherwise, many people will fall in danger.

Zebrul Hossain I really don’t understand how they decide this so fast. At least they should give 1 month’s time to get registered.

A regrettable debate about facts March 30

There are many historical facts that go against both the parties. Better not to argue about historical events, rather focus on contemporary issues like reforming the whole flawed and faulty constitution in order for politicians to fix political parties and all the constitutional organsation for the takeoff of our economic progress! Let the historians deal with history!

Babul Sarwar

BNP: AL desperate to bag poll results

March 30 Any doubts? Have we not seen enough proof about this issue already?

Ahnaf Saber

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

CALVIN AND HOBBES

There is a need for a fundamental shift in attitudes and behaviours towards the role of women in society

PEANUTS

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU ACROSS 1 Former ruler of Iran (4) 4 Play for time (5) 9 Bees’ sound (3) 11 Operatic air (4) 12 Country (5) 13 Untidy state (4) 14 Light blows (4) 15 View (5) 19 Take unjustly (5) 21 Grasped (4) 25 Dry (4) 26 Cunning (5) 28 Factory (4) 29 Extinct bird (3) 30 Go in (5) 31 Salamander (4)

DOWN 1 Vessel (4) 2 Mean dwelling (3) 3 Gather for oneself (5) 5 Meddle (6) 6 Region (4) 7 Incline to one side (4) 8 Mustering rope (5) 10 Old stringed instruments (5) 16 Hug (6) 17 Poke gently (5) 18 Ignominy (5) 20 Charge (5) 22 Poet’s Ireland (4) 23 Cadence (4) 24 Tidy (4) 27 Depressed (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.

Sudoku

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Op-Ed

11

Friday, April 4, 2014

Those most vulnerable n Kazi Nazrul Fattah

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Marred by violence

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Ruling the streets

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n Zafar Sobhan

t looks like I spoke to soon (it wouldn’t be the first time). Six weeks ago, when the results of the first phase of the upazila elections were in, I praised the government for what appeared to be adept handling of the polls, evidenced by the number of BNP and Jamaat supported candidates who came out on top.

After the first set of results were in, the ruling AL had a choice to make.

It could either do whatever it took to ensure as many victories as possible or it could re-dedicate itself to providing free and fair elections, and let the chips fall where they would.

No prizes for guessing which option they took.

In the first phase amid reports of sporadic trouble, AL-backed candidates won just 35 out of 97 chairman’s posts compared to 44 for BNP-backed candidates and 12 for Jamaat proxies.

The opposition continued to hold its edge in the second phase, with BNP proxies winning 51 out of the 115 chairmanships, the Jamaat 8, and the AL 44.

But already the ruling party was mobilizing and there was a significant uptick in violence from the first phase.

Voting was suspended in over 150 polling stations and 13 BNP-backed candidates pulled out citing massive irregularities.

By the time the fifth phase of voting was complete, the AL had succeeded in overhauling the BNP and its allies.

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Amid widespread credible reports of rigging and violence, the AL romped home in the fifth phase, winning 51 of 73 posts, the BNP finishing with a suspiciously poor 12 and the Jamaat an even poorer three.

By the time the dust had settled, the AL emerged as the big winner with 225 chairmanships, well ahead of the BNP with 157 and Jamaat with 35.

must be won. As a result, instead of a showcase for the EC, we got the precise opposite: An object lesson in the weakness of the EC and the ruling party’s preference for victory over credibility.

The upazila elections were a missed opportunity for the AL and seem to have made the BNP’s point for them.

At bottom, the BNP argument against

We should prepare ourselves for the long, hot summer of 2014

There can be little doubt that the upazila elections were seriously marred by violence and strong-arm tactics and other irregularities, and that the worst offender and primary beneficiary was the ruling party.

The AL could have chosen to use the upazila elections as a showcase for the strength and independence of the Election Commission, its own fidelity to democracy, and as evidence that BNP fears about the January 5 parliamentary elections were unfounded.

After the first phase, it seemed as though this was exactly what was happening. But somewhere along the line, the high command switched tactics, and a decision was made. The election

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the January 5 polls was that the AL could not be trusted to hold credible elections, and the upazila polls would seem to bear out this contention.

But the equally interesting and perhaps more worrisome point is that the AL doubtless knows this as well as you and I. They are shrewd and experienced pols who understand when they need to project power and when they need to project credibility.

They obviously took a cold, hard look at the political landscape and decided that the need to project the party’s power and to control the local administrative structure outweighed the need to project their democratic bona fides or to win over the populace.

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Note how the pre-election promises of a fresh election as soon as practicable have been blithely cast aside without any concomitant concern for what it does for the government’s legitimacy and how it looks to the voting public.

In short, the political calculation of the ruling party is that credibility and fairness and conciliatoriness are out.

Projecting power is in. What matters is sending a message both to their own troops as well as to the opposition that they still rule the streets.

This isn’t a happy augury. It suggests that the political battles of the near future will not be contested at the ballot box but in the streets, and the AL is serving notice far and wide that it is in no mood for playing nice and is that it is ready to defend its turf by any means necessary.

The message is clear. BNP leaders are once again behind bars or facing arrest. Given the legal charges that are being brought against her it seems simply a matter of time before party chief and ex-PM Khaleda Zia joins their ranks. The AL clearly does not expect that the BNP will go down quietly and it is readying itself for the inevitable backlash.

For the most part, it has been a blessedly quiet first few months of the year, certainly in comparison to the last quarter of 2013, but if the rising political temperature is anything to go by, it won’t last. We should prepare ourselves for the long, hot summer of 2014. l Zafar Sobhan is the Editor, Dhaka Tribune.

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s I was scanning through a recently published report by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) on violence against women, something caught my eye – the tables showed that 77.8% of women forced to have sex for the first time were between the age of five and 19. Almost 42% of them were between the ages of 10 and 14.

As shocking as it is, this is completely absent from our conversations regarding child protection and child safety. Even the BBS report, which is very significant because it presents the findings of the first ever national-level survey on violence against women (VAW) in Bangladesh, mentions this almost in passing.

It is of critical importance to recognise that children are highly vulnerable to sexual abuse. The prevalence of sexual violence against children is alarmingly high, particularly rape and attempted rape which is one of the most hidden and unreported forms of violence.

According to an estimate by WHO, across the globe, as many as 150 million girls and 73 million boys below 18 years of age experience different forms of sexual violence.

Obtaining reliable data on the actual extent of sexual violence is extremely difficult due to the social stigma and the culture of shame associated with it. However, Brac’s field reports indicate that the problem is no less widespread in Bangladesh. In fact, the number of child victims of rape and attempted rape is often nearly twice the number of adults.

It seems that there are few places where children are safe from sexual violence. They can be sexually assaulted in their own homes, schools, market places, shops, playgrounds, crop fields, roadsides, riverbanks, and abandoned houses.

It is said that being alone without the presence of a vigilant adult is often the primary vulnerability factor for children.

But people who are supposed to be the vigilant adults, such as family members, relatives, and teachers, they themselves turn on children and become sexual offenders. More than three-fourths of the child victims are sexually abused by someone they know, such as family members, neighbours, or school teachers. Almost half of the perpetrators belong to the age group of 18 to 25 years.

Engaging in an act of violence against children (or any other human being) requires a perpetrator to overcome a number of external and internal inhibitors that otherwise would prevent that person from doing so. The pervasiveness of sexual abuse of children clearly suggests a mix of different socio-cultural elements including values, norms, beliefs, and social constructs that foster conditions in which

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sexual abuse of children thrives.

In the case of Bangladesh, the state’s failure to provide any effective authoritative prohibition against sexual abuse contributes to an implicit social tolerance towards it. Failure to convict sexual offenders sends a silent message not only to the perpetrators but also to society as a whole that it is possible to get away with rape.

Societal acquiescence in the long run is perpetuating a problem where children, particularly girls, grow up accustomed to sexual assault and harassment by males as part of their everyday life.

Sexual violence against children is one of the most hidden and unreported forms of violence In Bangladesh, a large percentage of victims or victims’ families do not file any complaint with legal authorities after incidences of sexual assault on children. Lack of trust in law enforcement and in the existing legal system is a key reason. Even if they take it to the court, the accused often exploits numerous loopholes in the legal system and goes unpunished.

Hence, a large number of victims and their families do not go to court at all, and of those who do, only a small percentage pursue the case to the final stages.

Because of the lengthy legal procedures and the costs associated with it, victims’ families, particularly those that are poor, often settle the matter with the perpetrator(s) outside of court.

Despite ratification of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) by the government of Bangladesh, there has not been any significant progress in preventing violence against children, especially sexual violence. It is high time that we start talking about it. To start, we have to recognise the severity of sexual abuse on children and not as a footnote under the topic of violence against women.

As a signatory of the CRC, the government has acknowledged the state’s primary obligation to prevent and respond to violence against children, to protect children against all forms of violence, including sexual abuse, and to ensure children’s right to live their lives free from violence. It is then our responsibility to make sure our government is held accountable for its obligation to ensure that all children live a life free from fear of sexual violence. l Kazi Nazrul Fattah is Program Co-ordinator, CEP of Brac

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A letter to Shakib Al Hasan n Ekram Kabir

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earest Shakib, We haven’t met, but I have thought about you a million times since I’ve been watching you playing for our national team. I’ve cheered for you and your team-mates no matter how you had performed in the matches. When you became the number-one all-rounder, we all had hearts-full of felicitation for you. You became our pride. You’ve shown that it is possible for a Bangladeshi to excel in the international arena.

However, I’ve decided to write this letter to you after reading your interview in a vernacular daily. It was quite a thought-provoking interview after our breakdown as a team since the Sri Lanka series. This is a commoner’s response to your views about our cricket.

I must humbly say I couldn’t agree with your analysis on how the people’s expectation, media reporting, as well as pressure from the board hinder your natural talents. Well, after all these years, it would be very unfair on your part to blame our expectation from you as an obstacle to your performance.

I’ve played quite a lot of cricket when I was in cadet college. I remem-

ber the expectations from our college mates during the sports carnivals: The expectations were sky high and that immensely helped me perform much better.

It’s very likely that one would fall out of the team when one doesn’t perform. Performance is actually the name of the game. When you say the media is adding fuel to your bad performance, I’d kindly request you to have a look at the media in other cricketing countries.

You must remember when you defeated India in 2007. You scored 53, Mushfiq 56, and Tamim 51. Remember that? You must have noticed how the media in that country dissected their cricketers. Their cricket board was also equally critical of their performance.

I’m sure the media and the board weren’t demonising their cricketers – they actually wanted their national cricket to improve. And it did! Indian performance became fantastic after that! It was similar in all the cricketing nations.

Do you think our expectations would be less when you’re not playing in the home ground? Our expectations would be the same as you see around you when you’re in our own surroundings.

We’d cheer, we’d shed tears, and

we’d shrug at you in the same manner.

Only you wouldn’t see that. If you had felt the “expectation” pressure from us, you never asked us to stop calling you “tigers.”

Rather, you always enjoyed being termed as “tigers.” Your TV commercials, done for the various businesses, are also testimony to that. You call yourselves “tigers.” We, the commoners, would naturally expect tiger-like performances from the tigers.

Yes, you’re right when you say we don’t have enough players in the pipeline and the state of our local cricket isn’t good enough. Our board hasn’t taken or couldn’t take the initiative to improve it. And you must have also seen how the media as well as the people were critical of the board for this.

Yes, whatever lacking we have is the responsibility of all of us. We don’t, in fact, blame the players for our performance. But when you say you don’t have proper practising facilities, we humbly don’t agree with you.

It’s you who have to utilise the facilities for our nation. We’re no longer in the 70s or 80s when we played friendly matches with foreign teams. We are now in the big league and we chose to be there. We chose to fight; we chose to dance in the tunes of international arena. Let’s act like a big-leaguer. Let’s

believe that we can also be a big player in the game.

If we don’t believe, we may never become like West Indies, or Pakistan, or India. We don’t think you have anything less than players like Chris Gayle and others. You had successfully defeated the teams that had Tendulkar and many more outstanding cricketers. But when you consider yourself physically inferior to them, that they have all kinds of juice and you don’t, it really sounds very funny.

I’ve never stood by you to see how well-built you are to fight them, but from a distance, I could tell that you’re as good as them. I don’t think you’re anything less than Rahul Dravid or Saeed Ajmal, or Sunil Narine. But it hurts me when you say you’d never bowl like Ajmal and Narine. It’s clear that you do want to be like them.

The first task is to “want.” If we fail in our want, we’ll never achieve what we “need.” Yes, there’s a huge gap between our national “want” and “need.”

And, my dear Shakib, you have turned out to be one of the best examples. I must thank you for subconsciously agreeing that we don’t have that killer instinct, or the will to win matches.

We’re pretty much satisfied with the small wins we get from time to time.

You seem to chicken out from the great potential that you have in you. You’re failing to see the light in yourself, the inspiration from your countrymen, the crazy supporters. It’s not pressure from us; it should be your fuel to keep up.

You call yourselves ‘tigers.’ We would naturally expect tiger-like performances

Having said that, I must thank you for bringing up the issue of patriotism.

With hand on my heart, we never thought you’re any less patriotic than any of those who consider themselves patriots. You guys are the best patriots we’ve ever seen after the independence. Keep making us proud, play for us, play for your team.

Remember, we’re always with you, looking forward to support you in the coming challenges. l Ekram Kabir is Executive Editor of Natunbarta.com.

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

Entertainment

Fair, exhibition and cultural show mark National Film Day 2014

The inaugural moment of the National Film Day on the premises of BFDC

n Afrose Jahan chaity With the slogan - Egiye Choli Bhobishyot Srijone - National Film Day 2014 inaugurated yesterday at the open premises of Bangladesh Film Development Corporation (BFDC). The day is being observed since the government declared a special day to celebrate the Bangladeshi film industry. This is the third year of celebrating the event.

BFDC has designed and celebrated the occasion with various programmes. The entire BFDC premises was decorated with collected posters from the Bangladesh Film Archive. Saat Bhai Chompa, Behula, Ora Egaro Jon to Guerilla and many more exclusive collections of film posters from the archive gave the BFDC a lively and familiar appearance to the viewers.

There was also a photography exhibition held at a lobby of BFDC. The exhibition focused on the Liberation War of 1971, history of films, culture and national issues. Some exclusive moments from behind the camera was also exhibited. Collected photographs of eminent actors and actresses also captured the limelight of the exhibition, while exclusive film posters such

Friday, April 4, 2014

The Beautiful Bride is on display n Entertainment Desk A photography exhibition The Beautiful Bride presented by VLCC in association with RED is going on at Gallery Chitrak and will continue till April 6. The exhibition has been organised by Look- Beauty Salon and Amitabh Dewri is the curator.

The chorography of the exhibition has been done by renowned choreographer Shahrukh Amin and makeover by Afroza Parveen, the main person of RED beauty parlor. The exhibition features five wedding and fashion photographers, five designers, forty models and celebrities.

The show is a delightful array of images of wedding of different religions, which enhances the understanding of wedding traditions. The exhibition offers a wide choice of thematic wedding pictures in a variety of ambiances created for wedding ceremonies. The Beautiful Bride will be a compilation of a photo album. The design of the album has been done by Shobbo Shachi Hazra. l

SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

as, Surjokonya, Lathiyal, Asia, Dumurer Phul, Ayna O Oboshistho and many more also caught the viewer’s curiosity and attraction.

There was also a fair held at the open premises of BFDC. Some upcoming films were promoted on the occasion, such as Game, Ek Cup Chaa, Dobir Shaheber Shongshar and Prem Korbo Tomar Shathe. There was a stall which introduced the filmmaking technologies and instruments to the visitors. Exclusive movies and audios were also available for movie lovers.

Another fun and attractive aspect of the programme was the performances of celebrated film stars in colourful attires which kept the audience well entertained throughout the duration.

The day-long celebrations wrapped up at Hatirjheel through a fanush and fireworks display.

Honourable Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu inaugurated the programme. Later, the members of the film industry brought out a procession from the BFDC premises. Eminent film personalities and young stars were also present at the inaugural ceremony. Eminent film actor Abdur Razzak was the convener of the National Film Day Observing Committee. l

Shakib and Mim pair up for a TVC n Entertainment Desk International cricket star and all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan and the bold beauty of Bangladeshi showbiz Bidya Sinha Saha Mim pairs up in an advertisement which is directed by celebrated actor and director Mahfuz Ahmed.

A beverage product named Macberry Milk Chocolate’s advertisement features the two superstars from the different arenas under the banner of Nokshikantha productions.

About casting both of them together Mahfuz

Konjus sees 638th staging today n Entertainment Desk Konjus, the most staged play in the history of Bangladesh, will be staged today for the 638 times.

This time, the show will have new set designs, light and costume. Loko Natyadal (Siddheshwari) will stage the play at the Experimental Theatre Hall of the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy at 7pm.

Based on playwright Molière’s world famous satirical comedy The Miser, Konjus has been adapted and scripted by Tariq Anam Khan while Liaquat Ali Lucky has been directing the play since its premiere in 1988.

The story of Konjus is about a sixty-year-old

Never Mind featuring Mousumi-Sajal airs today

miserly person, Haider Ali. He does not wish to spend even for his own son Kazim and daughter Laili. He has a big amount of money hidden in a pot in his garden. Kazim is in love with neighbour Marjina, while Laili is in a relationship with Bodiuzzaman, son of Haider’s friend Aslam Beg. The plot of the play comes to a climax when Haider Ali himself plans to marry Marjina. Meanwhile, another dramatic situation is created when Haider Ali’s hidden money gets stolen and Kala Mia, Haider's cook and rickshaw-puller puts false blame on Bodiuzzaman. The course of event leads Haider Ali to yield to his children's choices. However, he only surrenders when when Aslam Beg agrees to pay all the expenditure of the marriages. l

n Afrose Jahan chaity Singe episode drama Never Mind will air on Channel 9 at 10:00pm tonight. The drama is written by Sourav and directed by Dipankar Dipan. The cast includes Sajal and Mousumi Nag in lead roles. Lutfar Rahman George, Niloy Monir and Tanmoy Tania will be seen in important roles along with others.

The story of the drama revolves around Fahim, who works for a fortnightly publication named Meyeli. Fahim often use to get scolding from his boss for his preoccupied nature. One day, he discovers that he has supernatural powers and whatever he imagines, comes true. When he started to enjoy the power, he stumbles on to a young and beautiful sub-editor named Zara. It catches him unaware as things happen differently than his imagination. Subsequently, Fahim gets to know that Zara has the same powers and he is mesmerised by the knowledge. They become close and make a resolution that they will never apply this power on each other. When casual friendship turns into a love affair, Fahim is forced to break the resolution about using his powers on her. This infuriates Zara and she fights back. Clash of the superpowers create a hash out of things at the office. l

Telefilm Bad Luck featuring Hasan Masud and Ahana in the lead roles will be aired on ETV at 3:30pm today. The story revolves around Shafik, played by Hasan, who again and again fails the final exam of his honours degree.

Later, he falls in love with Tina, played by Ahana, who is much younger than Shafik. Tina offers a condition to him: if Shafik is able to pass the exam, she will marry him

Ahmed shared: “Shakib is an international superstar. He co-operated with us a lot and helped us to give a new look to the advertisement. Mim is also a superstar. Both of them were so serious and sincere about it.”

Shakib Al Hasan shared: “I am very happy to work in this advertisement. I hope my fans will love it.”

Mim shared: “Mahfuz Ahmed is one of my favourite actor and director. He is so co-operative. I am very hopeful about the advertisement.” l

2nd season of Future Leaders Programme on the cards n Entertainment Desk Followed by the success of the first season, The Future Leaders Programme on Business and Science 2014 will be aired on Channel i soon.

Impress Telefilm Ltd, Channel i and UK-based organisation, The Future Leaders Ltd will be hosting the reality show.

The show will involve graduates from the business and science faculties of public and private universities nationwide. The lead judge allocates specific business tasks to the participants and they team up to demonstrate their specific Business leadership skills. Tasks have been carefully chosen and designed, focusing on our economic challenges and needs as a nation.

The main objective of this reality show is to create leaders in business and science background.

The registration will begin anytime this month. To register, the interested people should browse the website: www.futureleaders.com.uk Likewise the first season, Abdul Muktadir (main judge) and Taslim Ahmed (assistant judge) will be in the judging panel of the reality show. Besides, every episode will have one guest judge. l

Ranveer Singh picks Bajirao Mastani over Shuddhi n Entertainment Desk The casting of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's period romance Bajirao Mastani and Karan Johar's ambitious love story Shuddhi, has kept Bollywood buzzing overtime with many speculations.

While, the names of Shah Rukh, Hrithik Roshan and Ajay Devgn were being tossed around to play Bajirao, Ranveer Singh, Bhansali's Ram from Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram-Leela was always the frontrunner. In fact, according to a source close to the development, the director had told the actor at the very onset that he was his Bajirao.

On March 7, Mirror had reported that Ranveer was "in advance talks for the role," and unless there was a last-minute hitch, would devote 2015 to Bajirao Mastani. The rumours continued to fly after Hrithik Roshan opted out of Shuddhi, and Ranveer who has become a sought after name with top banners with back-to-back hits, was in the running for that role too. But buzz is, despite his best efforts to accommodate the Karan Malhotra directed film, Ranveer has apparently had to bow out of the Shuddhi race.

Since both films have announced the same release date, Christmas 2015, there is no way the actor can accommodate both his favourite filmmakers. Moreover, Bajirao Mastani, which Bhansali plans to start by the end of this year, will be an 11-month commitment and Ranveer may even have to shave off his hair for the film.

According to last update, Karan was wooing Aamir Khan to take up Shuddhi. l

Did you know?

Cristiano Ronaldo has scored his 14th Champions League goal of the season, equalling Lionel Messi’s record in 2011-12

Sport

Friday, April 4, 2014

14 Mourinho

laments ‘ridiculous’ late goal

14 Injuries and

absentees hit last-8 ties

South Africa look to upset India Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium promises a cracking second semifinal of the World Twenty20 today between India and South Africa. The unbeaten tag beside India makes them the favourite in the game and though South Africa had showed maturity and composure in reaching the stage, it is also the stage where they often fail to shine.

After been beaten by Sri Lanka, the Proteas won close matches against New Zealand, Netherlands and England to avoid the chokers tag and reach the final.

Spinners Amit Mishra, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja so far played the key role behind India’s success and they will once again prove to be vital against the South African

At six matches, this is India’s longest winning streak in T20Is. If India win this tournament, they will have equalled the longest overall streak, which belongs to England and Ireland India have never lost a semi-final under MS Dhoni AB de Villiers is three short of becoming the 16th man to 1000 T20I runs

Aussie Women survive WI scare to reach final Daren Sammy’s motivation from the side lines was not enough to secure West Indies women’s a final berth as they lost by eight runs to defending champions Australia in their World Tweny20 semifinal at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday.

The Caribbean women needed 16 from the last over but set Stacy-Ann King was not able to find a single boundary off medium fast bowler Rene Farrell, who had dismissed the West Indian skipper Merissa Aguilleira in the previous over, as the batting side eventually finished their innings on 132/4.

The start to the chase of 141 was bright with Kycia Knight (21) and Stafanie Taylor (24) adding 43 in seven

batsmen.

Meanwhile, Yuvraj Singh picked up an injury on his left ankle during an adventurous barefoot football session and it will certainly keep skipper MS Dhoni a tad worried as the left hander just returned to form with a 43 ball 60 against Australia in their last match. In case the 32-year-old does not make it to the playing XI, Ajinkya Rahane will retain his spot in the opening slot side-

lining Shikhar Dhawan who had a poor outing in the tournament so far.

Dhoni will however be worried with the pace bowling department as Mohammad Shami proved to be expensive so far despite Bhuvneshwar Kumar maintain a high standard.

South Africa’s chances in the game will hugely depend on their speed maestro Dale Steyn who has displayed exceptional wicket taking ability with

KEY PLAYERS

INDIA

India came out victorious five times out of the seven they played against South Africa, but with a new tournament the Proteas will be eying to clinch their first ever major title in 15 years and remove the chokers tag. However, for that they have to pass the hurdle of high flying India who are also looking for their second World T20 title after claiming the inaugural edition in 2007. l

SOUTH AFRICA

VIRAT KOHLI Runs 170, HS 57*, (4x14, 6x4), SR 117.24 A very aggressive batsman Kohli has been instrumental behind India’s success across the ODI and T20 format. He is as usual in sublime touch already having two fifties in the tournament and the more he spends batting time in the middle, more India has the chance of a positive result l

HASHIM AMLA Runs 163, HS 56, (4x17, 6x3), SR 130.40 A stylish opener Amla has so far carried South Africa’s batting baton in the tournament. He provided just the starts a team need and with not much of the other batsmen clicking for them, it is vital that his willow continues to speak l

ROHIT SHARMA Runs 147, HS 62*, (4x12, 6x5), SR 119.51 He gives stability to the batting order and has been in prime form opening the batting. He partnered Kohli in two match winning partnerships and also made two fifties. Sharma must fire at the top in this crucial stage to set the platform for hitters like Yuvraj and Dhoni l

IMRAN TAHIR Wkts 11, BBI 4/21, Econ 6.31 The Pakistani-born leg-spinner was added to the World T20 squad for his potential threat on turning pitches and Tahir has returned the faith with dividend. He is their highest wicket taker and has produced breakthroughs on key moments. His wrong-un is what the Indians should watch out for l

AMIT MISHRA Wkts 9, BBI 3/26, Econ: 5.25 The leg-spinner is leading team India’s bowling chart and has been a major factor behind their unbeaten streak.

He gifted crucial blows while keeping the economy rate under six. The conditions are his main advantage and with an armoury of variations up his sleeve, Mishra will be a threat to the Proteas l

DALE STEYN Wkts 9, BBI 4/17, Econ 7.31 He is fast and he is ferocious. Steyn produced overs in the Super 10s which kept South Africa alive in the tournament. His sheer pace and aggression makes him a severe threat for the opponent – may that be with a new ball or in the death overs. His wicket taking ability will be a key factor if South Africa are to break the semifinal jinx l

Fresh mindset the key: du Plessis South Africa Twenty20 captain Faf du Plessis said his side needs to concentrate on the task in hand ahead of their World Twenty20 semifinal against India today. The Proteas are termed as ‘chokers’ for their record of stumbling in the knock-out phases of a major tournament. The last time they won a world event was back in 1998, when they won the ICC Knockout Trophy, now known as the ICC Champions Trophy, in Dhaka.

“I think I was in school, so I was very young. It is irrelevant to be looking at past performances. These T20 tournaments are what you do on the day. It is important as a team for us to go with a fresh mindset,” said du Plessis in the

pre-match conference yesterday when queried if the game from 1998 will inspire his side.

The 29-year-old from Pretoria has been penalised twice for South Africa’s slow over-rate in the tournament and also served one-match suspension in their group game against England.

However, that does not worry du Plessis as he prioritises winning their semifinal even if it is by risking the final.

Du Plessis was sidelined with an injury during their opening game as AB de Villiers led on his absence. He returned in their close wins over New Zealand and Netherlands and on each occasion they were deemed to have been two overs short.

“I’ll always be on the side of looking at the situation in front of you now,” du Plessis said when asked whether he would try to ensure South Africa kept time better. “You can’t be playing or

BRIEF SCORE

making decisions like it’s in the future.

“When it comes to crunch time it’s important that you take your time and make sure you and the bowler are very clear in your decision making,

The 29-year-old from Pretoria has been penalised twice for South Africa’s slow over-rate in the tournament and also served one-match suspension in their group game against England I feel that’s the best way to go. With the conditions here maybe favouring spin a bit more, we can get some more overs out of JP (Duminy) and that will also make sure the over rate is a bit quicker,” he said.

When asked if South Africa feels they are close to history, du Plessis said, “We’ve felt like that a couple of times before. But if you look at it, India have been pretty much regarded as favourites, whereas we played much of the tournament as underdogs. No one really gave us a chance.”

Du Plessis is no stranger to quite a few members of the Indian team. He has shared the dressing room at the Chennai Super Kings with MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohit Sharma. Speaking about Dhoni’s captaincy, du Plessis said, “Yeah, I have really enjoyed my time at Chennai. I’ve learnt quite a bit from him as a captain, he is a very good leader. He has had huge success for India and his record speaks for itself. My style of captaincy is completely different to his.

But it is nice to play with someone who has been in that role for long.” l

We don’t have any baggage, says Ashwin

Australia Women 140/5 in 20 overs (E Villani 35, A Healy 30; A Mohammed 2-24, S Taylor 1-19) West Indies Women 132/4 in 20 overs ( D Dottin 40, S King 36; E Osborne 1-18, R Farrel 1-25) Australia Women won by 8 runs overs before Deandra Dottin and King put on 73 for the third wicket to keep the charge on course.

Dottin and King dominated the Australian bowlers smashing the odd boundaries which eventually found them needing 21 from the last two overs. Dottin tried to smash Sarah Coyte but found the fielder at deep midwicket to leave in the penultimate over after scoring 40 off 35 balls with four fours and a six. West Indies could not recover from the loss which handed Australia a chance to clinch their hat-trick World T20 title.

Earlier, Elyse Villani (35) gave Australia a rapid start after they opted to bat first in the afternoon game. She added 32 for the first wicket with Jess Jonassen (5) before off spinner Anisa Mohammed dismissed her with the Aussies on 48.

Australian skipper Meg Lanning made 29 off 22 balls and tried to hold the ship together but lost partners in regular intervals before she too fell which left them reeling at 92 for 5.

However, wicketkeeper-batsman Alyssa Healy and Alex Blackwell stepped up and contributed 48 valuable runs which took them to 140.

Healy remained unbeaten on 30 off just 21 balls smashing four boundaries while Blackwell was not out on 13.l

his attacking spells in the mid overs.

The underdogs have their own spin genius in Imran Tahir. The leg spinner’s attacking mentality separates him from the occasional lot and he has led the bowling unit in the tournament with extreme temperament. Meanwhile, the South African batting depends on the top four - Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock, AB de Villiers and skipper Faf du Plessis.

Australia’s Alyssa Healy plays a scoop during her unbeaten 30 against West Indies in the women’s World Twenty20 semifinal at SBNS yesterday MUMIT M

Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin remained cool and calm ahead of their crucial ICC World Twenty20 semifinal against South Africa and said they have nothing to lose.

“Most of these guys were involved in the Champions Trophy, so that’s one experience everybody can draw from. Apart from that, the one thing that the young side will have an advantage over the other teams, is that we don’t have any baggage, We have nothing to lose. We never walked into this tournament as favourites, and we wouldn’t want to be tagged as favourites. We just go in and enjoy ourselves,” said the 27-year-old during the pre-match conference at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium yesterday.

The spinner said they know the conditions pretty well but in the semifinals “it’s anybody’s game.”

“You can’t really say we hold a majority, it’s just about anybody’s game.

Whoever plays well on that particular day will have the advantage. But yes, we do hold an age having played so many games here. We know what to expect,” said Ashwin.

Ashwin was ready to take the challenge of delivering with the new ball and said, “I’ve been playing alongside Mahindra for some time, and he probably knows where to use me and where not to use me.

“I’m always open to bowling in any

situation, so for me it doesn’t make any difference. In the last two or three months, I feel that I’m probably at the top of my bowling game. The ball is landing exactly where I want in,” he said.

The wily spinner from Chennai poured respect to his rival spinners.

“When it comes to international cricket, there’s a very small margin between the quality of spinners. Everybody’s bound to have a certain amount of quality in them. It’s all about the mental makeup of the spinner and what amount of guts he has in that particular scenario.

“It’ll be handling pressure that makes the difference, because Imran Tahir has been in top form. And I expect Phangiso to play. When that happens, you’re pretty much evened out on the amount of spinners both teams will play,” said Ashwin.

Commenting upon Shane Warne’s short stint with South Africa Ashwin said they are not bothered with it.

“I don’t know what the South African management called him for. Probably he could add value in terms of what he can do to a spinner. Probably Tahir could learn something from him,” Ashwin said.

“We’re just going to be guessing from a far distance, so we can’t really say how much of a difference he can create. He could have probably told what’s happening in Dhaka, what’s happening in Mirpur, and those kind of things could have helped them. Apart from that, I don’t know what he can do in a day’s time.” l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

13

15 Pakistan’s

Hafeez quits T20 captaincy

WOMEN’S WT20

England eye final berth Former Women’s World Twenty20 champions England will look to set another final clash against Australia when they take on South Africa in the second women’s semifinal at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium today.

South Africa women have never made it in to the knockout stage of the World T20 in the last three editions while England are the only team other than Australia to have the honour of lifting the title.

England had lost to Australia, who already sealed a final berth beating West Indies yesterday, in the World T20 final in 2012 and a win today will be a perfect platform of avenging their defeat.

England have a strong pace department at their disposal and will look forward to with Anya Shrubsole, top wicket taker in the tournament so far picking 10 wickets from four matches, and Natalie Sciver, placed third in the list with seven wickets. Meanwhile the South African pace bowling duo of Marizanne Kapp and Shabnim Ismail, both taking seven each so far, is key to their chances of restricting the English women to a gettable total.

Skipper Charlotte Edwards, with 151 runs from 4 matches, will also lead the England batting chart while South Africa have Dane van Niekerk who scored a run less than her counterpart.

Losing only one match in the group stage Charlotte, who won the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year award in 2008 and was player of the tournament in 2012, said, “We really back ourselves, and the way the girls have bounced back from the first defeat is outstanding. We feel we’re in a really good position going into the semifinals stage of this tournament.

This is the part of the tournament we all looking forward to, we get to play in front of the big crowds and a television audience. We really can’t wait to get there.”

South Africa captain Mignon du Preez was delighted to play in their first ever WT20 semifinal and said, “The girls have been working so hard for the past few years. We knew we had it in us but we could never make it click in the crucial stages. I’m honoured to be captain of this team and to lead South Africa in our first semi-finals.” l

England have not hit a six in the tournament; South Africa have managed 10 England have not lost to South Africa in eight previous T20s - their last defeat to them in any format was in an ODI in Port Elizabeth in 2004

Bangladesh Women 9th in World T20 Bangladesh women pulled off a tremendous achievement by finishing ninth in their maiden ICC World Twenty20 after they beat Ireland women by 17 runs in a play-off match at the Sylhet International Stadium yesterday. It was Bangladesh’s second win in the multi-national event after they enjoyed their first victory in their last match against Sri Lanka.

The confident home side posted a middling total of 106/7 before they pushed Ireland out of the game with regular blows and bowled them out for 89 with three balls to spare.

Opener Sharmin Akhter’s career best 35 was the highest in the team.

She struck three boundaries while Rumana Ahmed added 16 off 14 balls.

14-year-old Irish seamer Lucy O’Reilly claimed three wickets for 15 runs to keep the check on the scorecard.

Ireland went off to a disastrous start losing 3 wickets for 14 runs and never recovered from the setback despite efforts from Cecelia Joyce (19) and Melissa ScottHayward (16). Panna Ghosh flourished with ball taking 3 wickets for 25 runs. l

BRIEF SCORE Bangladesh Women 106/7 (20ov), Sharmin 35, Rumana 16, Lucy 3/15, Joyce 2/17 Ireland Women 89 all out (19.3 ov), Joyce 19, Panna 3/25, Salma 2/8 Bangladesh Women won by 17 runs

14

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Barcelona to appeal Fifa transfer ban Barcelona are to appeal a one-year transfer ban imposed by FIFA on Wednesday the club revealed. Football’s governing body found that the Spanish giants had committed a “serious” breach of rules in the signing of 10 under-age players between 2009 and 2013. “FC Barcelona will present an appeal to FIFA and if need be will take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport,” the club said in a statement released on their website.

–AFP

Sport

Friday, April 4, 2014

Venus into Charleston third round Venus Williams rallied in each set on Wednesday for a 7-5, 7-5 secondround victory in the WTA Family Circle Cup, a day after sister Serena crashed out. Venus, the 11th seed who won the title on the green clay at Charleston in 2004, defeated South African Chanelle Scheepers 7-5, 7-5. “She was playing so well, but the good thing is that when I get behind, I give even more effort and get even more focused,” said Venus, who lost in the semi-finals last year to her younger sister Serena.

–AFP

Bahrain tightens Grand Prix security Bahrain tightened security Thursday, as the three-day Formula One Grand Prix was about to get underway, with the country’s Shiite opposition planning protests to seize world attention for pro-reform demands. Demonstrations have been held during the event every year since 2011 by opponents of the ruling Sunni Al-Khalifa dynasty in an attempt to highlight those demands. Clashes frequently erupt on the outskirts of Manama demanding that the Khalifas surrender their grip on all key cabinet posts in favour of an elected government.

–AFP

Real take revenge, PSG stun Chelsea Ronaldo equals Messi record Real Madrid and Paris Saint Germain both gained convincing victories on Wednesday in their respective Champions League quarterfinal first leg matches to give themselves the upper hand ahead of next week’s second legs.

Real, who have reached the semi-finals in the past three seasons, avenged in part last season’s semi-finals defeat to Borussia Dortmund by beating the German side 3-0 while PSG – who reached the quarter-finals last term – saw off 2012 winners Chelsea 3-1.

It was, however, a tale of contrasting fortunes for Real and PSG’s leading scorers.

Real’s world footballer of the year Cristiano Ronaldo scored their third to equal Barcelona’s Lionel Messi (2011/12) and Brazilian Jose Altafini’s ‘Mazzola’, in 1962/63, record haul of 14 goals in a season in the the European Cup/Champions League and on his

RESULTS

PSG

3 1

Lavezzi 3, David Luiz 61-o.g., Pastore 90+3

Real Madrid Bale 3, Isco 27, Ronaldo 57

3 0

Chelsea Hazard 27-P

Dortmund

100th appearance in the competition proper to boot.

For PSG’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic, though, it was a night to forget on a personal level as he failed to score and then pulled up clutching his right hamstring shortly after the hour mark.

Ronaldo too had to go off early, with pain in a knee – unlike last Saturday where he was booed by the home crowd for not passing to a team-mate, this time it was to a standing ovation.

Ronaldo knocked in the third in the 57th minute taking him to 64 in total for the competition, just seven off record holder and former Real darling Raul – Messi lies second with 67.

PSG too got off to a flying start with the outstanding Ezequiel Lavezzi scoring in the fourth minute with a divine half volley.

However, Chelsea levelled when Eden Hazard stroked home a penalty on the ground where three years ago he secured the Ligue 1 title with Lille.

The hosts, though, restored their one goal lead in the 61st minute as a freekick by Lavezzi caused havoc in the Chelsea defence and David Luiz put the ball into his own net.

Mourinho threw on Frank Lampard for his 100th Champions League appearance but his only real contribution was to be one of the two players fooled

by Javier Pastore’s trickery in time added on that saw the Argentinian give the hosts their third goal. l

Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo (R) scores his side's 3rd goal past Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller during their Champions League quarterfinal first leg match at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain on Wednesday AP

Mourinho laments 'ridiculous' late goal Jose Mourinho labelled Paris St Germain’s third goal “ridiculous” after Chelsea slipped to a 3-1 defeat in their Champions League quarter-final first leg on Wednesday.

Chelsea went behind in the fourth minute at the Parc des Princes when

Ezequiel Lavezzi fired past Petr Cech, but Eden Hazard’s coolly-struck penalty drew them level.

A David Luiz own goal on 61 minutes swung the tie back in PSG’s favour and they took a huge stride towards the semi-finals when Javier Pastore capitalised on some lackadaisical Chelsea defending in injury time to beat visit-

PSG's Javier Patore (L) celebrates with teammates after scoring their third goal during the Champions League quarter-final match against Chelsea in Paris on Wednesday REUTERS

ing keeper Cech at his near post.

“It was ridiculous,” Mourinho told Sky Sports.

“You expect them to score fantastic goals. You don’t expect them to score the goals they scored.

“First goal the ball goes to Lavezzi, control, half volley boom.

“It’s like this at this level: one chance one goal. Then an own goal and the third goal is a joke. It’s not a goal it’s a joke.”

Chelsea started without a recognised striker in Paris, with Andre Schuerrle leading the forward line, but the German failed to make an impact and Mourinho withdrew him after an hour.

“With Andre I know we have a player who can control the ball.

“I changed the team at 1-1 because I thought Fernando Torres could give us more depth than Andre Schuerrle.”

With the return leg at Stamford Bridge next week, Mourinho once again hinted that his side’s lack of strikers could count against them when compared to the attacking riches PSG possess.

“It’s difficult for us to score goals especially when the games are tight,” added Mourinho, who won the Champions League with Porto in 2004 and Inter Milan in 2010. l

In-form Roma retain hope of Juventus slip-up

Chelsea accused of fixing Dutch league

been suspended after nine minutes in February because of a powerful storm that battered the Italian capital, and hopes are high in Rome that they can give leaders Juve a run for their money in the closing weeks of the season.

Juventus are on 81 points and are still clear favourites for the title as they have an easier-looking run-in, but they have to travel to Rome in their penultimate game of the season, and there is a feeling that their European exploits are starting to have an effect on their form.

Juventus are at Lyon in the quarter-finals of the Europa League on Thursday night before what should be a simple home match against thirdfrom-bottom Livorno.

Juve’s performances have started to dip in recent weeks, and a series of unsure displays for Antonio Conte’s side culminated in a comprehensive beating at Napoli, their first league defeat since October. l

English Premier League giants Chelsea, which financially backs Dutch club Vitesse Arnhem, have been accused of trying to fix the Dutch league.

Former Vitesse owner, Merab Jordania, claimed in the daily De Telegraaf that Chelsea do not want the Dutch club to win the league because both cannot compete in the Champions League as UEFA rules prevents two clubs under the same ownership competing in the same competition.

“In Arnhem, Chelsea is without doubt in control,” former club technical director Ted van Leeuwen was also quoted as saying by the ANP agency.

This season Vitesse have four players – Lucas Piazon, Bertrand Traore, Patrick van Aanholt and Christian Atsu – on loan from Chelsea while Gael Kakuta and Sam Hutchinson were on loan in January.

Vitesse have won just three of their last 11 matches. l

After lying dormant for weeks the Serie A title race was brought flickering back to life after Roma’s impressive 4-2 win over high-flying Parma on Wednesday saw them cut Juventus’ lead to eight points with seven games remaining.

Rudi Garcia’s side travel to struggling Cagliari on Sunday (1300GMT) on the back of five straight league wins, while on Monday night a tiring Juventus host third-from-bottom Livorno(1700).

Juve had built up a 14-point lead and their third consecutive league title looked a formality, but after they lost 2-0 at Napoli following Roma’s easy win at lowly Sassuolo on Sunday the capital side pounced with a thrilling display against Parma in the early evening sunshine.

The win came in a game that had

Bayern ban British tabloids for Man Utd clash Bayern Munich have taken the unusual step of refusing two British tabloids accreditation for next Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final second leg at home to Manchester United over headlines referring to midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger.

The Germany midfielder was sent off after receiving a second yellow card for a 90th-minute foul on United’s England star Wayne Rooney as Tuesday’s first leg finished 1-1 at Old Trafford.

“You dirty Schwein”, wrote the Daily Mirror in a headline, while The Sun ran “You Schwein!” on their back page on Wednesday.

Reporters from both newspapers have now been refused accreditation for the return leg at Munich’s Allianz Arena, with reigning European champions Bayern admitting they are not amused by the play on words, ‘Schwein’ meaning ‘pig’ in German.

Bayern have already been fined 10,000 euros (US$13,764) by UEFA and ordered to close part of the Allianz Arena for the game after supporters displayed an offensive banner against Arsenal last month. l

I didn’t dive against Bayern, says Rooney Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney has hit out at suggestions that he dived to get Bastian Schweinsteiger sent off during his side’s Champions League quarter-final first leg against Bayern Munich.

Schweinsteiger was shown a second yellow card after sliding in on Rooney towards the end of Tuesday’s 1-1 draw at Old Trafford, ruling the Germany midfielder out of next week’s second leg in Munich.

Schweinsteiger exchanged angry words with Rooney after the incident, while Bayern coach Pep Guardiola appeared to make a ‘dive’ gesture, but the England striker insisted that he had been fouled.

“I don’t really want to say what he (Schweinsteiger) said, but I thought it was a foul,” Rooney said, in comments reported by several British newspapers on Thursday.

“If I didn’t get out of the way, he could have hurt me. He’s gone in with his studs and the referee has booked

him, so it’s not my decision.

“It’s not nice to see anyone get sent off. I didn’t try and get him sent off -the referee has made the decision. I have tried to stop myself from getting hurt and the referee has had a decision to make.

“He’s a great player and he’s obviously someone they will miss -- and (Javi) Martinez as well being suspended -- but they have a great squad of players who can come in.”

United took a 58th-minute lead against the defending champions through captain Nemanja Vidic, before Schweinsteiger equalised nine minutes later.

The hosts could have gone in front in the first half, only for Danny Welbeck to miscue an attempted chip when one-on-one with Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, and Rooney was critical of his team-mate’s decision-making.

“We have watched videos of their goalkeeper and we know he is a bit like (former United goalkeeper Peter) Schmeichel in the way he comes out, so it’s a bit disappointing that he tried to dink him, but he will learn from that and I’m sure if he gets a chance over there he won’t do that again,” said Rooney.l

Injuries and absentees hit last-8 ties Injuries and unavailability have played havoc with the Davis Cup quarter-finals starting on Friday with two-time defending champions the Czech Republic up against it away to Japan.

The Czechs will be without star player and world number five Tomas Berdych, who opted out of playing to take a wellearned rest from the competition.

That leaves 40th-ranked Lukas Rosol as their lead singles player with backup from veteran campaigner Radek Stepanek.

That briefly installed the Japanese as favourites to continue their giantkilling run, but it ended with the news their number one player, Kei Nishikori was out with a groin strain, an injury that forced him to forfeit in the semi-finals of the Miami Masters last weekend after defeating Roger Federer.

The Japanese, in the quarter-finals for the first time since the 16-nation world

format was introduced in 1981, will look to Go Soeda to shoulder the burden of the lead singles role with youngster Taro Daniel called up. Team coach Minoru Ueda tried to remain upbeat despite having his worst fears confirmed.

“Losing Kei has definitely hurt the team’s chances but we have to keep believing we can win,” he said. “I believe Taro has the potential to be a top 100 player. The other players have to step up now.” l

Switzerland's Roger Federer (L) poses with Kazakhstan's Mikhail Kukushkin after the draw ceremony in Geneva yesterday. Switzerland will play against Kazakhstan in their quarter final Davis Cup match April 4 to 6, 2014 REUTERS

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

15

Friday, April 4, 2014

We deserve to be in the final: Mathews n Mazhar Uddin Sri Lanka all-rounder Angelo Mathews said they deserved to be in the final but it would have been a close finish had the rain not interfered and handed them the 27run win via D/L method against West Indies in the first semifinal of the World Twenty20 yesterday.

“It would have been great if it was 20 overs, and a close game as well. We deserve to be in the final, because we have played very good cricket,” said Mathews at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday.

The 26-year-old informed that they heard about the weather forecast during the break and wanted to keep West Indies under pressure. “After the first half, we heard there might be bit of rain. We just had to keep them tight because they have some big hitters who can’t be stopped if they got going. We had to take wickets to push them back. Lasith came to bowl in the first six overs which he doesn’t do normally, but we needed our best bowler to come and take wickets,” he said.

Mathews smashed two sixes and three fours scoring 40 off just 23 balls which lifted Sri Lanka to 160. He said there was no signal from the dressing

QUICK BYTES Walton Cricketers beat Chiang Mai Warriors Walton Cricketers continued their winning spree in the Chiang Mai Six-a-Side Cricket beating Chiang Mai Warriors of Pakistan at Thailand yesterday. Batting first Chiang Mai Warriors scored 54 for three while Walton Cricketers, riding on the unbeaten 32 of opener Mehrab Hossain Jossy and 11 of Elias Sunny scored 55 in 4.3 overs. Jossy was adjudged as the man of match. Walton Cricketers will face Australia in their second match of the second round today.

–RM

Ramsey in line for Arsenal return Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey could make his first appearance since December in Sunday’s Premier League game at Champions League qualification rivals Everton, manager Arsene Wenger revealed on Thursday. “Aaron and Nacho Monreal are back training with the squad, so that is good news,” Wenger told the Arsenal website. “Hopefully they will be available for Sunday.” Welsh midfielder Ramsey made a superb start to the season but he has not featured since suffering a thigh strain at West Ham United on December 26.

–AFP

room to accelerate the innings rather it was his calculated plan.

“I never got a signal. We just had to calculate who to attack. We had to choose our options and Narine wasn’t one of them. We wanted to get 7-8 runs off Narine and look for runs from the other end. From the 16-over mark, we just had to take the risk,” he added.

Sri Lanka’s T20 skipper Dinesh Chandimal opted himself out of the crucial encounter for his poor form and Mathews informed it was a collective decision while Chandimal also wanted the best XI to be selected.

The Sri Lankan team has been in Bangladesh for almost over two months and so far displayed disciplined cricket throughout their stay by winning the Asia Cup and now reaching the final of the World T20. Mathews said it’s the hard work from the players which paid off.

On the other hand, West Indies reached the stage on the back of some tremendous death over hitting and while the stage was perfectly set for another show the rain halted their play. Skipper Darren Sammy helplessly said that it’s the almighty who wanted Sri Lanka to go into the finals as two of their stars Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara will be retiring after the tournament.

“I took it like, we’ve won a World Cup. We’re a praying team, God normal-

ly answers our prayers. But today I guess two gentlemen who play for Sri Lanka, who’ve given a lot, not only to Sri Lankan cricket, but to cricket on a whole, and I guess the almighty wants them to leave on a high. I guess they have one more game to try and win a World Cup and leave on a high. Probably that’s the reason God put a hand on this match. I’m sure I’ll have another shot at playing T20 world cup, and we’re looking forward to winning it again in the near future.

“Disappointing to come out of the tournament like this, but credit to Sri Lanka, they won the toss and batted because they probably knew that some weather was around. But we’ve had a good run in this tournament and it’s just sad that we got knocked out by the Duckworth/Lewis system. But that’s life, you move on and we’ll start planning for the next T20 World Cup,” said Sammy. l

BRIEF SCORE Sri Lanka 160/6 in 20 overs (Thirimanne 44,Mathews 40; Santokie 2-46) West Indies 80/4 in 13.5 overs (Bravo 30, Samuels 18*; Malinga 2-5) Sri Lanka won by 27 runs in D/L method

Pakistan’s Hafeez quits T20 captaincy Pakistan’s Mohammad Hafeez stepped down as Twenty20 captain on Thursday after the team’s failure to qualify for the semi-finals of the World Twenty20 in Bangladesh.

Pakistan went out from the Super-10 stage after a disappointing 84-run defeat against the West Indies on Tuesday, failing to reach the last four for the first time in five editions of the tournament since its inception in 2007.

Hafeez said he accepted responsibility for the early exit.

“I accept all the responsibility of team’s failure,” Hafeez told reporters

after a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) meeting in Lahore.

Hafeez led Pakistan to the semifinals in the last World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka two years ago, shortly after taking over from Misbah-ul Haq. The allrounder, who opens both the batting and the bowling with his off-spin, said no one had forced him to quit.

“I am under no pressure and felt that I must step down as leader by taking responsibility, and it’s for the PCB to decide who to lead the team,” said Hafeez.

Pakistan have no assignment before their series against Australia in October when they play two Tests, three ODIs and one T20 in the United Arab 2 Emirates. l

Sri Lanka's Angelo Mathews plays a shot during his crucial knock of 40 against West Indies in the first semifinal of the World Twenty20 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday MUMIT M

Mohammedan oust Muktis Dhaka Mohammedan Sporting Club produced their best performances of the season to cement a place in the semifinals of the Modhumoti Bank Independence Cup with a 1-0 win over Muktijoddha Sangsad Krira Chakra at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.

It was the strategy of Mohammedan’s Portuguese coach Jose Rui Capella Batista that made all the difference. Capella deployed two gigantic African defenders, Cameroonian Baybeck and Nigerian Ubom Henry to nullify the three pronged Nigerian attack of Muktijod-

DAY’S WATCH BTV, Gazi TV, Maasranga TV Star Sports 1, HD1 ICC World T20 2014 7:00PM Second Semifinal (Men) India v South Africa 2:30PM Second Semifinal (Women) England v South Africa Star Sports 4 La Liga 1:00AM Almeria v Osasuna Sony Six 6:00AM NBA 2013-14 Oklahoma City v San Antonio

Mamun Khan stranded in the near one.

Breakthrough finally came when Mohammedan’s Baybeck put his team ahead in the 44th minute as the tall defender rose timely to send a glancing header through the far post from a free kick by Zahid Hossain. Mohammedan piled up pressure after the break and Emily sent a low cross to Vincent Hemanta in the 77th minute but Vincent failed to flick the ball into the net.

In the dying minutes of the match, Muktijoddha forward Nkwocha Kinglesy saw his header on a cross of Eleta Kingsley fly past the side post.

In the semis, Mohammedan will face the winner of the 4th quarterfinal which is to be played between Sheikh Jamal and Dhaka Abahani. l

India say Yuvraj fit for World T20 semi-final India received a boost ahead of Friday’s World Twenty20 semi-final against South Africa when Yuvraj Singh was declared fit following an ankle injury, an official said.

The flamboyant cancer survivor hurt his left ankle while playing football with team-mates on Wednesday, but the Indian squad’s media manager R.N. Baba said there was no cause for worry.

Seven arrests in English spot-fixing probe Seven players from English lower-league clubs have been arrested over alleged spot-fixing, with six others re-arrested, Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) announced on Thursday. The 13 men, aged between 18 and 30, were being interviewed at police stations across Britain as part of an investigation into alleged bribery and money laundering, the NCA said. The original six suspects were arrested in December following an undercover investigation by British newspaper The Sun on Sunday. They were bailed to return on April 8. The newspaper said that former Portsmouth player Sam Sodje had allegedly told an undercover reporter he could arrange for players to get booked during English second-tier matches in return for tens of thousands of pounds.

–AFP

dha and it worked. The Muktijoddha trio -Nkowcha Kingsley, Eleta Kingley and Sunday Chizoba made several attempts but all their attacking instincts were limited to outside the Mohammedan D-box and never threatened Mohammedan’s goal post.

Mohammedan owes victory to Baybeck also who scored the all-important goal in the first half which won the match for Mohammedan. After Ubom Henry ‘s head from a Zahid Hossain corner rebounded off Muktijoddha crosspiece in the 32nd minute, Muktijoddha hit back with Eleta Kingsley.

However, he was cursing his luck in the 35th minute as his angular shot from the left edge of the box missed the Mohammedan far post with custodian

England’s women cricket captain Charlotte Edwards, left, and a teammate attend a training session ahead of their ICC Twenty20 Cricket World Cup semi-final match against South Africa in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, yesterday AP

Smith baffled by KP’s England axing Former South Africa captain Graeme Smith on Thursday expressed his surprise at England’s decision to end the international career of his Surrey teammate Kevin Pietersen.

Pietersen, 33, was sensationally axed by England in the aftermath of their 5-0 Ashes whitewash in Australia, despite the South Africa-born batsman being his country’s leading run-scorer across all formats.

England captain Alastair Cook this week described the England and Wales Cricket Board’s decision to jettison Pietersen as a “brave call”, but Smith feels that the ECB took its decision too hastily.

“I’m uninformed, just speaking from an outsider’s perspective, but it would be surprising when you have a really quality player like that, and you wouldn’t try to make it work,” said Smith.

“He’s in the middle of his career, has a few good years left in him. If there’s a guy in his last two seasons and he’s becoming grumpy, then you start to look at things differently.

“But Kevin’s still got plenty of energy, he’s fit, healthy and still performing well. It was surprising.”

Smith retired from international cricket in March after a 109-game run as South Africa captain and having seen his debut season at Surrey ruined by an ankle injury, he is eager to make up for lost time in 2014.

Surrey begin their County Championship Division Two campaign on Sunday, hosting Glamorgan at The Oval, and Smith is excited by the prospect of taking to the crease alongside Pietersen.

“I think it’s a huge bonus for us to have a match-winner like Kevin – a powerhouse, crowd-puller – as part of our team,” Smith said. l

Municipal School, Jessore reach semis Municipal School Jessore reached the semifinals of the First Security Islami Bank National School Hockey beating Chittagong Municipal Model School by 4-3 goals after a penalty shoot-out in the first quarterfinal. The stipulated time ended goalless.

In the second quarterfinal, Khanjanpur High School, Joypurhat beat Nawab Habibullah School, Dhaka by 3-0 goals. Ayub Hossioan Rakib scored twice while Mehedi netted the other for the winning team.

Zinzira PM Pilot High School and Rangpur Keramatia High School will play in the 3rd quarterfinal while Armanitola High School and Al Hikmah School of Rajshahi will face each other in the 4th quarterfinal on Friday. l

“Yuvraj is fit. He will attend practice,” Baba told reporters at the Sher-eBangla stadium in Dhaka.

The 32-year-old overcame a lean trot to smash an attractive 60 off 43 balls, containing four sixes and five fours, against Australia on Sunday.

Yuvraj, who was man of the match during India’s World Cup-winning campaign in 2011, was diagnosed with a rare lung cancer later that year and received chemotherapy treatment in the USA. l

16

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Friday, April 4, 2014

45 expelled on first day of HSC examinations n Mushfique Wadud At least 45 students were expelled on the first day of the Higher Secondary Certificate and its equivalent examinations for cheating in examination halls, said education ministry officials.

As many as eight teachers were also expelled for helping students in adopting unfair means.

A total of 10,282 students were absent from the Bengali examination on the first day.

The highest number of 29 students was expelled from institutions under the Technical Education Board.

Meanwhile, a large number of examinees and their guardians said they had found it difficult to get to the exam halls because of huge traffic congestions. Many guardians said their children could not reach examination halls in time.

Bokhtiar Hossain, a guardian who was waiting at Mirpur Girls Ideal College examination centre, told the Dhaka Tribune that his daughter had reached the examination hall 30 minutes after the examination started.

In 2013, the number of students tak-

ing the HSC and its equivalent examinations was 1,012,581 but this year the number increased to 1,141,374.

Students from 301 new colleges took part in the examinations this year.

Examinations of 25 subjects will be held under creative method. The number of the subjects held under the same method was seven last year.

The creative method was first introduced in the HSC level in 2012 when students sat for only Bengali first paper examination under this method.

Like the previous years, students with disabilities will get 20 minutes extra to complete their examinations.

Theoretical exams will end on June 5 while the practical ones will be held between June 7 and 16.

Education Ministry officials said results would be announced within 60 days of the completion of all examinations.

Meanwhile, rumours were rife in some districts, including Sherpur and Brahmanbaria, that questions papers had been leaked out.

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, however, dismissed the allegation, saying that it was only rumours. l

Land broker gunned down in capital

Faulty EVM in Assam mock poll always casts vote for BJP

Scrap yard now last stop for final DC-10

n Kailash Sarkar

n Tribune Desk

n Muhammad Zahidul Islam

A land broker was shot dead by unidentified miscreants in front of his residence at Kantasur in the capital’s Mohammadpur yesterday morning.

The deceased was identified as Anisur Rahman.

Quoting witnesses and local people, Mohammadpur police station’s Sub-Inspector Tamal said miscreants came in front of Anis’ house on a motorcycle, shot him around 7:30am, and sped away.

The 45-year-old was returning home after leaving his children at school.

Locals took the bullet-hit man to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where the doctors pronounced him dead around 8:30am.

Hailing from Sirajnagar of Atibazar in Keraniganj, Anis had been residing in a flat on the first floor of a building at West Kantasur of Basila since March 1 this year. He is survived by his wife Ismat Ara; daughter Anita, 11; and son Anik, 6.

Ismat Ara demanded immediate arrest and punishment of the killers.

Rahima Begum, a tenant of the building, said she had heard several gunshots outside the house at the time of the killing.

“As we opened the door, we found him lying on the ground”, she said.

Anis’ next-door neighbour Maksuda Akhter said: “There were two masked people. One of them was sitting on the motorbike while the other fired several shots at Anisur.

“When Anisur fell on the ground, the perpetrators drove away,” she said.

Apart from working as a land broker, Anisur was involved with an association representing traders of a market in Satmasjid Road. His maternal uncle Sirajuddin owned the association.

He earlier had a window grill business.

Family members and relatives said Anisur had purchased a piece of land in Ashulia with the money of the association. He, however, sold the land for Tk2.5 crore following a feud with some people in Ashulia.

Sub-inspector Mahbubur Rahman of Mohammadpur police station said Anisur might have been killed because of the feud over the sale of the land. l

An electronic voting machine in Assam of India have added fuel to a suspicion that the device and the results can be doctored with.

During a mandatory mock poll in Jorhat the state on Tuesday, every time a button was pressed, the vote went in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Returning Officer Vishal Vasant Solanki told the Time of India that all EVMs in his custody were being put through a second level of test by engineers of the Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL), one of the two companies from Hyderabad, which manufactures EVMs. This Jorhat Lok Sabha seat has Congress stalwart and former Union

Students take part on the first day of this year’s HSC examinations yesterday. The photo was taken at the capital’s Motijheel Ideal School

minister Bijoy Krishna Handique locking horns with young BJP leader Kamakhya Tasa. Jorhat votes on April 7.

Congress, who said EVM results could not be manipulated, now files a complaint with the Election Commission Vijyandra, chief electoral officer of the state, on Wednesday said: “It is a defective machine and it was noticed when EVMs were readied in front of representatives of all political parties.

We will not send the faulty unit to any polling station.”

The returning officer said: “These EVMs were here for a long time. Usually, EVMs are kept in the custody of the deputy commissioner. During elections, they are taken to strong rooms.”

On Wednesday, Congress lodged a complaint with the Election Commission and demanded thorough inspection of all EVMs in the state. Ranjan Bora, general secretary of local Congress who lodged the complaint, said the incident had fuelled suspicion that EVMs might have been tampered with.

Interestingly, after Congress got an overwhelming mandate in the 2011 assembly polls, Asom Gana Parishad had lodged a complaint against Congress accusing it of tinkering with EVMs. The Congress leadership had rejected the charge saying EVM results could not be manipulated. l

The biggest civil Earth-observation programme ever conceived begins its rollout on Thursday with the launch of a radar satellite from French Guiana.

The EU’s Sentinel-1a spacecraft will be followed into orbit by a fleet of other satellites in the coming years.

Together, they will return an unprecedented volume of data on the state of the planet.

the auction. The schedule is available at Biman website: www.biman-airlines.com.

Earlier in February, Biman held an open tender to sell a separate DC-10 aircraft for Tk60 lakh.

“We sold the earlier DC-10 craft, which was in poor condition, and the buyer took the body after cutting it from the airport,” Dr Shafiquer Rahaman, director (store and purchase) of Biman told the Dhaka Tribune.

Regarding the latest sale, Debabrata Banik, chief engineer of the national flag carrier, said the management has decided to sell the engine and other equipments as separate parts and then go for scrap selling.

He added that the Biman or the civil aviation authority were facing challenges as they did not have any extra large cutter for cutting a craft like the DC-10.

Sources said Biman had also recently sold some other aircrafts from their fleet as scrap.

The DC-10 aircraft for sale was originally bought by Biman in 1989, while the Biman fleet received its first DC-10 in 1983.

The first wide-bodied tri-jet, the Douglas DC-10 had been the backbone of the Biman fleet for nearly a quarter century, as well as remaining a mainstay of medium and long-haul routes of many airlines around the world. l

Four killed and two poisoned by toxic gas n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Relatives of businessman Anisur Rahman, who was gunned down by assailants in the capital’s Mohammadpur yesterday, wail in front of the DMC Morgue DHAKA TRIBUNE

EU set to roll out Sentinel space project n BBC

Following the recent retirement of the DC-10 aircraft from the Biman fleet, the national flag carrier authority has now invited an international tender to sell the aircraft as scrap.

Although an aviation museum in the US city of Seattle had earlier expressed its interest in acquiring the DC-10 from Biman Bangladesh Airlines, it eventually withdrew the offer, sources said.

“As we have no other option, we need to open an auction for selling it [DC-10]. That is why an international tender has been opened,” Civil Aviation Minister Rashed Khan Menon told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

Admitting that he did not know the details about the auction process, the minister added that Biman could sell the aircraft body without its engines, which were still in working condition.

Biman’s previous plan to donate the DC-10 to the aviation museum did not go through, Menon added.

The DC-10 passenger aircraft of Biman, which was the last of its model to be in operation, made its farewell flight on the Dhaka-Kuwait-Birmingham route on February 20, before being brought back to Dhaka on February 26.

According to the tender opened by the national flag carrier, any company could apply before April 23 to attend

MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

European nations have so far committed 7.5bn euros (£6.2bn; $10.3bn) to the project, through to the decade’s end.

But the vision is that Copernicus, to give the venture its official title, is unending - that every Sentinel satellite is replaced at the demise of its mission, to ensure there is continuity of information deep into this century.

“There is no Earth observation project as big as this,” said Prof Anne Glov-

er, the European Union’s chief scientific adviser.

“It will give European scientists and European citizens the ability to understand precisely what is happening on our planet - from the poles, to the oceans, to the land,” she told BBC News.

Sentinel-1a will be carried into space on a Soyuz rocket, launching from Sinnamary on the Guianese coast at 18:02 local time (21:02 GMT; 22:02 BST).

The flight, to an altitude just above 690km, should take 23 minutes, putting the satellite on a path that sends it around the Earth via the poles.

The Sentinel’s Synthetic Aperture Radar (Sar) instrument and solar arrays were folded to fit inside the Soyuz, and unfurling them is the priority task once orbit is achieved.

“That takes up the first 10 hours after separation,” explained spacecraft operations manager Ian Shurmer. l

At least four people died and two others poisoned after being exposed to toxic gas at a ship breaking yard in Sitakunda in Chittagong yesterday afternoon.

The deceased were identified as Faruk, 28, Jashim, 26, and Gias Uddin, 30, of the same upazila, while the identity of another victim was yet to be confirmed.

According to the police, some seven to eight persons went to the ship breaking yard to purchase electronics items of a scrap ship, MV Capital Lysenko, which recently arrived at the yard, at around 3:30pm.

“When the victims were going through the electronic goods of the ship, they mistakenly opened a cylinder filled with carbon diox-

ide which soon spread into the entire vessel,” he added.

The victims were rushed to the hospital where the on duty doctors declared four of the victims dead.

The two other victims, Ramjan and Akbar, were receiving treatment in Al Amin Hospital in Chittagong city, said Sitakunda police station Inspector Aminul Islam.

Authorities of the ship breaking yard could not be reached over phone following the incident. l

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B3 Abuzz with smartphones

B4 China takes first step to steady growth

FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014 www.dhakatribune.com/business

NEC okays 9% ADP cut for FY14 n Kayes Sohel The government yesterday slashed almost 9% the size of annual development programme (ADP) for this fiscal year, bringing an end to the disagreement between the finance and planning ministries over the ADP cut.

With Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair, the National Economic Council (NEC) approved the revised ADP of Tk60,000 crore, down from original allocation of Tk65,870 crore and up by 15% from the last fiscal year’s revised ADP of Tk52,000 crore.

ADP revision is a regular phenomenon in the country as the government evaluates the project implementation and revises the allocation when the fiscal year approaches towards its ending in June.

Earlier, the finance ministry asked the planning commission to make the revised ADP size within the limit of Tk55,000 crore, but the planning commission insisted to keep it within Tk60,582 crore.

In the last two months, the planning ministry and the finance ministry remained at loggerheads over demand for additional funds from the ministries and divisions.

“The planning commission placed Tk55,000 crore worth of revised ADP before the NEC meeting, but the Prime Minister asked the finance minister to allocate additional Tk5,000 crore due to higher demands by some ministries and divisions,” said Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamanl, after the meeting.

“Now the additional funds will be

spent for the priority projects,” he said.

The NEC kept Tk2,100 crore for the Padma Bridge project, reducing from the original allocation of Tk6,852 crore.

“Since it is only three months from June, the last month of the current fiscal, we have given lower allocation for the Padma Bridge project. If the executing agency can spent more we will provide them with more fund in the next fiscal,” said Kamal.

About the disagreement between the finance and planning ministries, he said, it is a personal matter. “I do not talk about the issue as enough talks have already taken place. Now I want to be careful about uttering any ward.”

Of the revised ADP, the government would provide Tk38,800 crore from its own resources while the rest Tk21,200 from the external resources.

The number of projects in the revised ADP is 1,254, rising from 1,052 in the original ADP. Another 304 projects

with no allocation have been included in the revised ADP. Three months ago, the planning commission started working on revising the ADP, cutting funds from the

A salesman displays gold ornaments at a jewellery showroom

REUTERS

gold policy, but we see no result yet.”

The BJS leader said a policy has been a long demand from the local gold traders while the neighbouring countries already have it.

Regarding amendment to baggage rules, he said: “It’s necessary as the country’s jewellery market is mainly dependent on baggage carrying and recycling of old ornaments.” l

BPMCA seeks income tax waiver n Tribune Report Private medical college owners have requested the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to waive 15% tax imposed on their salaries for the sake of keeping the student fees at a tolerable level and help manage their college expenses properly.

Bangladesh Private Medical College Association (BPMCA) yesterday came up with the proposal at a pre-budget meeting with NBR official held at NBR headquarters in the city, where representatives from pharmaceuticals, clinics and diagnostic sectors also participated.

“Earlier, we did not to pay any taxes on our incomes, but the government had imposed 15% tax on our incomes in 2010, which needs to be removed as we are working in a service sector,” said Mohammad Enamur Rahman, vice-president of BPMCA. “We have to deposit US$1,000 per foreign student to the national exchequer,” he added.

Putting emphasis on the implementation of Vision 2021, president of the association Moazzem Hossain said: “We will need 2lakh doctors to implement the vision, but the country now has only 61,000 registered doctors. It would facilitate the

'We want an increased allocation for us in the upcoming budget, and VAT exemption to ensure further growth of this sector' medical colleges to help meeting the target if the incentives are given to this sector.”

Attending the meeting, Bangladesh Aushad Shilpa Samity representative

Power import and transit protocol high on agenda

A two-day commerce secretary level meeting between Bangladesh and Bhutan is scheduled to begin in the Bhutanese capital of Thimpu on Wednesday next.

Commerce Secretary Mahbub Ahmed will lead a seven-member Bangladesh delegation comprising officials from ministries of commerce, foreign affairs, communication, shipping and National Board of Revenue (NBR).

Apart from the proposed transit deal, the meeting is set to discuss five more new agendas, including the import of hydro-electric power from the hydro-power rich Bhutan, according to officials.

Other issues include exchange of information relating to foreign investment, cooperation between trade associations, cooperation between Bangladesh Standard and Testing Institute (BSTI) and the National Standard body of Bhutan, and enhancing cooperation in the tourism sector, according to commerce ministry officials.

The trade officials of commerce ministry said the delegation will put forward the proposed transit deal issues and import of electricity from Bhutan as the office of the Prime Minister wants to ink those deals shortly.

n Tribune Report

provision for the registered gold traders allowing 2 kg of gold jewelleries paying taxes,” said BJS General Secretary Dewan Aminul Islam.

He said it would not only help the traders but also the country with an increased remittance inflow.

On gold policy he said: “The government has formed a committee for making a

 B3 COLUMN 6

n Asif ShowkatKallol

Jewellers ask for 2kg baggage permission, tax cuts The jewellers demanded allowing them carry up to two kilograms of jewelleries while coming from abroad.

They said they would pay tax for it but wanted to have this special privilege to help the business grow.

The jewellers also urged the government to formulate a gold policy as it is in the neighbouring countries – India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Bangladesh Jewellers Samiti (BJS) yesterday presented its budget proposals at a pre-budget meet with National Board of Revenue in Dhaka.

The Samiti sought reducing total tax rate on polished and finished diamond to 15% from 154.74%.

It also urged the government to reduce value added tax (Vat) rate on the purchase of jewelleries to 1.5% from 2%.

BJS said under the existing baggage rules, one passenger can carry maximum 200 grams of gold jewelleries from abroad without duty.

The passengers are only allowed to bring jewelleries, but not bar. Jewelleries weighing over 200 grams even with paying tax are not allowed.

“We urge the NBR to include a special

total allocations as many executing agencies have failed to implement their projects in time, said an official at the commission.

Dhaka-Thimpu meet begins Wednesday

Abdul Malek Chowdhury demanded for VAT exemption in manufacturing of kidney dialysis solution, exemption of VAT in the raw materials of Insulin, Cancer curable medicines, vaccines and in hormone for curing the patients.

He also demanded reduction of duties in manufacturing of infusion bottle amber from existing 25% import tax and 5% regulatory duty to only 5% import tax.

Bangladesh Ayurvedic Aushad Shilpa Samity representative said: “Currently, there has been a budgetary allocation of Tk9,000 crore for the health sector whereas only Tk9 crore has been allocated for ayurvedic, homeopathic and unani sectors.

“We want an increased allocation for us in the upcoming budget, and VAT exemption to ensure further growth of this sector.”

Among others, leaders from Bangladesh Homeopathic Medicine Manufacturers’ Association and Bangladesh Unani Aushad Shilpa Samity addressed the meeting. l

BTCL cuts bandwidth price by 42% n Muhammad Zahidul Islam Bangladesh Telecommunication Company Limited (BTCL), a state-owned company, has reduced the bandwidth price for end users by 41.67% to spread the internet services to the grassroots, officials said.

From April 1, the price stood at Tk2,800 megabits per second (Mbps) from existing Tk4,800 as approved at the board meeting of the company recently.

BTCL also reduced its dial-up (ADSL) charge to Tk0.10/minute, officials said.

Director of Public Relations Department Mir Mohammed Morshed said the state-owned operator has some special arrangement to help achieve the government vision 2021. “They are trying to expand services and that’s why reduced the bandwidth price.”

Earlier on April 2013, the government has fixed the internet bandwidth price at Tk4,800 per Mbps, after reduc-

ing 40% from previous rate of Tk8,000 Mbps.

The government had slashed the bandwidth price for five times after 2009 when it was Tk27,000 per Mbps.

Industry sources said the company has been compelled to cut the price to match the market as six international terrestrial cable (ITC) links has imported bandwidth from India at cheaper prices, offering a tough competition.

Industry insiders said mobile penetration in the country shot up because of its low-cost nature, and also the call charge is much lower. So, the same can be true for internet penetration.

They demanded withdrawal of 15% VAT as maintenance cost and other charges are very high compared to the bandwidth price.

Officials said there are around 36.50 million internet users in the country, which would be increased cumulatively, keeping pace with the boom of mobile users. l

Meanwhile, NBR has made a decision to remove the barriers changing the Harmonised System (HS) Code of the three Bhutanese products, out of 18, so these items can also get duty free access to Bangladesh market.

Out of 18 Bhutanese products, three products-pebbles gravel, fruit juices, especially grape-fruit juice, and crushed stone, were facing difficulties in getting duty-free access to Bangladesh market due to the wrong HS code.

Besides, Bhutan authority has sought duty-free access of 17 more Bhutanese products to Bangladeshi market. However, Bangladesh Tariff Commission has suggested to allowduty-free access of only 5 more Bhutanese products, out of the proposed 17, to the domestic market.

“There are some minor differences on the proposed transit agreement and the protocol on transit between the two countries. The upcoming trade talks are expected to resolve those differences for paving the way to formally sign the two proposed deal,”said a senior trade official.

“Bhutan is also eager to strike a deal with Bangladesh to use our seaports and airports under a proposed protocol on transit,” said a high official at the finance ministry.  B3 COLUMN 4

Accord suggests to evacuate six more RMG units n Ibrahim Hossain Ovi The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh has recommended the review panel to evacuate six more garment units as those are detected as flaws on structural integrity ground during its recent fire-safety inspection.

The factories identified as flawed are Four Wing Ltd, Terry Pvt Ltd, All Weather Fashion, Elegant and Libas Textile in Dhaka and Mens Apparel in Chittagong, according to a member of the inspection team.

After the Accord recommendation, the review committee, comprising representatives from the government, the Accord, the Alliance, BUET, BGMEA and BKMEA, has started scrutinising the structural flaws of the six factories.

“I came to know that six factories has been identified as flawed on structural integrity and also recommended to review by the panel,” Moshiur Rahman, additional Inspector general  B3 COLUMN 4

RAK Ceramics plans to enhance production n Kayes Sohel RAK Ceramics, a Bangladesh-UAE joint venture company, plans to increase its annual production capacity in Bangladesh this year, said its chief executive.

The UAE-based Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) Ceramics, one of the world’s biggest makers of floor tiles, plans to invest $80m this year on plant expansions in India and Bangladesh as well as technology upgradation at other plants, Abdallah Massaad told Reuters.

The news was recently carried by Arabian Business.com.

“In Bangladesh, RAK Ceramics plans to increase annual capacity by 3.5m square metres of tiles from the current 7m, and by 350,000 pieces of sanitary ware from 1m, Massaad said.

“This year we have an expansion coming,” he said, adding that the new Indian production would start coming on stream in June.

The company, which makes ceramic wall tiles and sanitary ware as well as floor tiles and is part owned by the ruling family of the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, posted revenues of AED3.5bn ($953m) last year.

RAK Ceramics is the first company that was listed with the Bangladesh bourses in 2010 under book building method.

According to Dhaka Stock Exchange, sponsor or director has a stake of 79.07%, institute 9.95% and public 10.98%.

In Bangladesh operation, the company’s net profit after tax in 2013 stood at more than Tk68 crore against nearly Tk61 crore a year earlier. It started commercial production in Bangladesh on November 12, 2000.

The company is boosting annual production in India to almost 800,000 pieces of sanitary ware from 300,000 to meet rising demand.

Besides India, it runs plants in the United Arab Emirates – which accounts for around 70% of its overall production capacity – Bangladesh, China, Iran and Sudan. Its capital expenditure totalled $60m in 2013.

The company is also upgrading technology at factories in the UAE and elsewhere. “Within the next two months, we will have technologies to produce

the largest slabs available worldwide,” said Massaad.

RAK Ceramics, in which Ras Al Khaimah’s ruler Sheikh Saud bin Saqr al-Qassimi owns nearly 48% and the emirate’s government holds a further 5%, will finance its expansion through bank loans. Bond issues have not been considered, Massaad said.

Overall, the group has an annual capacity of 117m square metres of tiles and 4.5m pieces of sanitary ware – its core businesses. It can also produce 24m pieces of tableware annually.

The company’s Abu Dhabi-listed shares are up 24% so far this year, outperforming a 15% rise in the stock market index.

Massaad said a decision was likely to be made this year on possible further expansion plans, given a strong outlook for the construction industry as the UAE and other markets emerged from the global financial crisis. l

B2

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Stock

Stocks rally for 4th day

DSE key features April 3, 2014

n Tribune Report

Number of Contract

tantly, participation spiked up and remained above the recent baseline of Tk500 crore.”

Higher than expected dividend declaration by the Heidelberg Cement caught investor attention as it gave 380% cash dividend for 2013.

The cement sector rallied 2.8%, driven by Heidelberg that became top gainer with a rise of nearly 11%.

Five mutual funds shined on the day as they were in the top gainers’ list. Among other major sectors, telecommunications rose highest 3%. Food and allied, and power sectors edged higher while pharmaceutical and engineering closed red.

The financial sectors, including banks and non-banking financial institutions, witnessed marginal gains. Zenith Investment said the market drifted between gains and losses throughout the day, then finally closed higher in the last moment of trading.

“Overall, there was pressure from both buyers and sellers, and since the momentum is with the bulls, the market somehow made it to positivity near the end.”

Padma Oil was the most traded stock of the session with a turnover of almost Tk42 crore. It was followed by Heidelberg Cement, Grameenphone, Lafarge Surma Cement, Olympic Industries, Meghna Petrolium, Square Pharmaceuticals, Mercantile Bank and Jamuna Oil. l

Stocks rallied for the fourth straight session yesterday, backed by persisting buying binge mainly on heavyweight stocks.

The market opened green with bumpy ride but finished higher at close, as fresh fund was injected in the stock market in the wee hour of the trade.

The benchmark index DSEX gained 25 points or 0.6% to close at 4,621. Shariah Index DSES was 7 points or 0.7% to 1,008. The bluechip comprising DS30 rose 23 points or 1.5% to end at 1,670. Chittagong Stock Exchange Selective Category Index, CSCX, closed at 8,959 with a rise of 57 points.

Trading activity increased with the DSE turnover stood at Tk518 crore, up by 3.5% over the previous session. The power and cement sector accounted for 18% and 14% of the total turnover respectively.

Lanka Bangla Securities said selective heavyweight shares of DSE saw strong buying interest pushing the DS30 to close to its historic high amid hefty volume.

IDLC Investment said market positivity approached to fourth session and surpassed DSEX beyond 4,600 points level.

“Since upbeat reversal resumed, investors’ perception and market scenario improved further. Resul-

DSE GAINERS Company

Turnover (Million Taka)

5,180.64

Turnover (Volume)

77,687,603 92,763

Traded Issues

295

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

131

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

154

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

10

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,318.44

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

28.10

Turnover (Million Taka)

369.41

Turnover (Volume)

7,362,097

Number of Contract

12,398

DSE Broad Index :

4595.80704

(+) 1.52%

▲

Traded Issues

213

DSE Shariah Index :

4595.80704

(+) 1.43%

▲

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

100

DSE - 30 Index :

1646.50485

(+) 1.73%

▲

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

109

CSE All Share Index:

14158.6708

(+) 1.53%

▲

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

3

CSE - 30 Index :

11856.9104

(+) 1.11%

▲

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,207.50

8901.7877

(+) 1.69%

▲

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

26.76

CSE Selected Index : DSE LOSERS

Zeal Bangla Sugar -Z National Tubes -A Eastern Lubricants -A Green Delta M.F.-A Delta SpinnersA Desh Garments -B Savar Refractories-Z Al-Haj Textile -A

-7.69 -7.61 -7.44 -6.78 -6.17 -6.04 -5.22 -4.68

Average (% change) -7.05 -4.71 -6.80 -3.60 -8.30 -5.12 -3.17 -3.98

Prime Textile -A Monno Stafllers -A

-4.46 -4.27

-3.91 -3.80

Company

Closing (% change)

CSE LOSERS

Delta SpinnersA GSP Finance-A Paramount Insur-A Samorita Hospital -A National Life I -A Premier Leasing-Z CVO PetroChem RL-Z Beach Hatchery -A

-5.32 -4.92 -4.89 -4.55 -4.35 -4.17 -3.87 -3.65

Average (% change) -6.41 -3.63 -3.47 -4.55 -4.20 -1.99 -4.10 -1.73

Sun Life Insurance-N Anlima Yarn -A

-3.36 -3.35

-3.41 -2.75

Company

Closing (% change)

ANALYST

Closing average

Closing

Bank NBFI Investment Engineering Food & Allied Fuel & Power Jute Textile Pharma & Chemical Paper & Packaging Service Leather Ceramic Cement Information Technology General Insurance Life Insurance Telecom Travel & Leisure Miscellaneous Debenture

DSE Million Taka 400.58 185.56 64.00 375.12 792.49 861.66 4.89 347.32 352.14 1.85 76.98 123.95 19.29 659.32 37.10 51.90 120.16 432.60 40.37 233.31 0.02

Turnover in million

Daily low

Latest EPS

Latest PE

9.75 167.33 569.89 5.62 35.79 114.35 58.10 121.96

9.60 162.70 560.10 5.50 35.00 112.00 58.10 120.20

10.00 175.00 605.00 5.90 37.50 120.00 58.10 127.00

9.50 160.00 559.80 5.40 34.60 111.00 58.10 115.00

0.157 59.041 5.357 0.835 35.128 11.858 0.003 19.788

-25.08 2.26 6.02 0.46 1.26 1.18 0.60 2.06

-ve 74.0 94.7 12.2 28.4 96.9 96.8 59.2

26.07 391.57

25.70 383.20

27.00 409.00

25.50 377.00

12.409 1.997

1.12 5.25

23.3 74.6

Closing average

Closing

Daily high

Turnover in million

Daily low

Latest EPS

35.60 23.20 21.40 105.00 330.00 9.20 807.50 29.00

38.40 23.50 21.40 105.00 330.00 9.40 815.00 31.90

35.50 23.20 21.40 105.00 330.00 9.20 805.00 28.80

2.842 0.061 0.011 0.053 0.050 0.726 0.346 4.109

1.26 1.34 1.51 2.74 12.46 0.04 -4.06 1.14

29.1 17.5 14.2 38.3 26.5 233.8 -ve 26.0

63.20 26.18

63.20 26.00

63.30 27.00

63.10 25.60

0.126 0.432

0.00 0.80

32.7

Market drifted between gains and losses throughout the day, then finally closed higher in the last moment of trading

CSE GAINERS Company HeidelbergCement -A 6th ICB M F-A Aziz PipesZ Eastern Cables-Z BATBCL -A Dutch Ban. Bnk- A Padma Oil Co. -A Apex Foods -A Usmania Glass -A Generation Next Fashions-A

% change 7.73 3.58 1.24 7.24 15.30 16.63 0.09 6.70 6.80 0.04 1.49 2.39 0.37 12.73 0.72 1.00 2.32 8.35 0.78 4.50 0.00

Million Taka 30.82 11.70 5.05 33.21 28.53 65.05 49.48 20.80 28.80 6.81 31.42 3.58 50.63 1.94 1.40 3.12 53.90 5.28 23.34 0.00

% change 6.78 2.57 1.11 7.30 6.27 14.30 0.00 10.88 4.57 6.33 1.50 6.91 0.79 11.13 0.43 0.31 0.69 11.85 1.16 5.13 0.00

Million Taka 431.40 197.26 69.05 408.33 821.03 926.71 4.89 396.80 372.94 30.64 83.79 155.36 22.87 709.94 39.05 53.30 123.28 486.51 45.65 256.65 0.03

Total

Closing (% change) 11.29 9.04 8.11 4.80 4.21 4.17 4.10 4.08 3.85 3.85

Average (% change) 10.49 9.07 8.11 5.14 5.27 4.17 2.32 3.51 4.01 2.06

ARGONDENIM: The Board of Directors has recommended 6% cash dividend and 15% stock dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2013. Date of AGM: 24.04.2014, Time: 11:00 AM, Venue: Greentech Resort & Convention Center, Bhabanipur, Gazipur.

Record date: 10.04.2014. The Company has also reported net profit after tax of Tk. 226.84 million, EPS of Tk. 3.15, NAV per Share of Tk. 27.66 and NOCFPS of Tk. 1.28 for the year ended on December 31, 2013.

HEIDELBCEM: The Board of Directors has recommended 380% cash dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2013.

Date of AGM: 22.05.2014, Time: 11:00 AM, Venue: Factory Office, Tatki, Jatramora, Tarabow, Rupgonj, Narayangonj. Record Date: 17.04.2014. The Company has also reported Net profit after tax of Tk. 1,474.08 million, EPS of Tk. 26.09, NAV per share of Tk. 132.58 and NOCFPS of Tk. 39.62 for the year ended on December 31, 2013 as against Tk. 1,291.09 million, Tk. 22.85, Tk. 111.50 and Tk. 26.53 respectively for the year ended on December 31, 2012.

From BIASL Desk: Impact after declaration: ARGONDENIM

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS Company Padma Oil Co. -A HeidelbergCement -A Olympic Ind. -A Grameenphone-A BATBCL -A LafargeS Cement-Z Meghna Petroleum -A

CSE

10.91 8.16 7.41 5.97 5.56 4.34 4.28 4.10 3.85 5.49

Average (% change) 9.93 8.33 8.78 4.48 4.21 4.34 4.36 2.47 2.40 3.80

Closing average 483.74 285.45 70.84 7.00 5.69 214.00 73.06 356.60 21.31 56.84

Closing average 483.69 71.20 20.00 168.50 2469.00 100.00 356.42 119.51 210.53 21.26

Closing 487.00 285.00 71.00 7.10 5.70 214.00 73.10 360.70 21.60 57.60

Closing 486.90 71.20 20.00 168.00 2469.00 100.00 360.80 120.00 210.30 21.60

Daily high 498.00 286.00 72.40 7.30 5.80 214.00 75.00 361.70 21.80 59.00

Daily high 500.00 71.80 20.00 176.30 2469.00 100.00 362.00 120.00 219.00 21.80

Daily low 450.00 284.00 67.00 7.00 5.50 214.00 71.50 318.00 20.50 52.40

Daily low 476.00 65.20 20.00 167.00 2469.00 100.00 346.00 119.30 204.10 20.80

Turnover in million 368.484 0.157 3.953 0.014 1.189 0.043 2.411 420.078 28.205 4.980

Turnover in million 22.177 0.299 0.002 1.432 0.123 0.100 32.148 0.102 3.332 4.914

Latest EPS 26.09 35.42 6.54 -1.30 0.60 25.96 8.32 20.68 1.35 2.56

Latest EPS 26.09 6.54 0.59 1.40 81.14 10.00 20.68 3.56 5.10 1.35

Latest PE 18.5 8.1 10.8 -ve 9.5 8.2 8.8 17.2 15.8 22.2

Latest PE 18.5 10.9 33.9 120.4 30.4 10.0 17.2 33.6 41.3 15.7

price up 2.61%, close at taka 57.40 with PE 18.22. HEIDELBCEM price up by 10.91%, close at taka 487.0 with PE 18.67.

RIGHT SHARE: ARAMITCEM: Subscription 23.03.2014 to 17.04.2014. RD for entitlement of rights share: 09.01.2014.

RUPALILIFE- Subscription 06.04.2014 to 05.05.2014. RD for entitlement of rights share: 16.01.2014. BRACBANK: Subscription 20.04.2014 to 15.05.2014. RD for entitlement of rights share: 10.02.2014.

GENNEXT: Subscription 18.03.2014 to 09.04.2014, RD: 25.02.2014.

IPO Subscription: The Peninsula Chittagong Limited subscription date 30 March-03 April 2014, NRB upto 12 April 2014. @ taka 30, face value taka 10 and market lot 200. Shahjibazar Power Co. Limited subscription date 06-04 April 2014, NRB upto 19 April 2014. @ taka 25, face value taka 10 and market lot 200.

Dividend/AGM FAMILYTEX: 100% stock, AGM: 15.05.2014, Record Date: 22.04.2014.

SIBL: 12% cash, AGM: 31.05.2014, Record Date: 24.04.2014.

RUPALIINS: 10% cash & 10% stock, AGM:

28.04.2014, Record Date: 10.04.2014.

BEACHHATCH: 15% stock, EGM and AGM: 14.05.2014, Record Date for EGM and AGM: 17.04.2014.

MERCANBANK: 8% cash & 12% stock, AGM: 12.06.2014, Record date: 09.04.2014.

APEXFOOT: 55% cash, AGM: 14.05.2014, Record date: 16.04.2014.

JAMUNABANK: 15% stock, AGM: 08.05.2014, Record date: 16.04.2014.

ONEBANKLTD: 9% cash & 10% stock, AGM: 15.05.2014, Record Date: 07.04.2014.

CITYBANK: 20% stock AGM: 29.05.2014, Record Date: 13.04.2014.

EASTLAND: 15% cash & 10% stock, AGM: 25.05.2014, Record Date: 07.04.2014.

CONTININS: 10% cash , AGM: 20.05.2014, Record Date: 16.04.2014.

UTTARABANK: 15% cash & 10% stock, AGM: 11.05.2014, RD: 06.04.2014.

ICBIBANK: No dividend, AGM: 10.06.2014, RD: 16.04.2014.

UNITEDINS: 10% cash, AGM: 30.04.2014, RD: 06.04.2014.

BIFC: 5% stock, AGM: 24.04.2014, RD: 03.04.2014.

Latest PE

36.62 23.39 21.40 105.00 330.00 9.35 805.58 29.61

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY Sector

Daily high

HeidelbergCement -A 2nd ICB M F -A 6th ICB M F-A Meghna PET Ind. -Z Phoenix Fin. 1st MF-A 4th ICB M F-A 8th ICB M F-A Padma Oil Co. -A G Next Fashions-A AramitCementA

Closing (% change)

News from trede server

CSE key features April 3, 2014

Daily capital market highlights

Friday, April 4, 2014

% change 7.66 3.50 1.23 7.25 14.57 16.44 0.09 7.04 6.62 0.54 1.49 2.76 0.41 12.60 0.69 0.95 2.19 8.63 0.81 4.55 0.00

Prepared exclusively for Dhaka Tribune by Business Information Automation Service Line (BIASL), on the basis of information collected from daily stock quotations and audited reports of the listed companies. High level of caution has been taken to collect and present the above information and data. The publisher will not take any responsibility if any body uses this information and data for his/her investment decision. For any query please email to biasl@bol-online.com or call 01552153562 or go to www.biasl.net

Mercantile Bank -A Square Pharma -A Jamuna Oil -A

BD Submarine Cable-A BSC-A LankaBangla Fin. -A Apex Footwear-A Emerald Oil Ind. -N CSE TURNOVER LEADERS Company Grameenphone-A

Padma Oil Co. -A LafargeS Cement-Z HeidelbergCement -A BD Submarine Cable-A BSC-A Appollo Ispat CL -N Square Pharma -A Paramount Textile Ltd.-A Meghna Petroleum -A Eastern Housing -A LankaBangla Fin. -A Mercantile Bank -A UCBL - A Emerald Oil Ind. -N

Volume shares 1,178,021 761,745 1,664,924 1,450,610 115,850 4,577,500 696,270 9,761,948 648,868 534,739

508,799 162,230 1,402,310 157,800 1,223,500

Volume shares

160,600 90,197 471,000 45,850 84,695 21,905 466,200 28,577 163,060 23,160 107,244 95,500 293,602 225,642 24,000

Value in million 420.08 368.48 361.02 325.11 289.83 231.54 198.90 185.00 179.66 123.82

107.49 106.89 88.76 72.65 61.95

Value in million

36.00 32.15 23.82 22.18 17.90 14.43 13.15 7.92 7.49 6.62 6.20 6.01 5.54 5.30 5.24

% of total turnover 8.11 7.11 6.97 6.28 5.59 4.47 3.84 3.57 3.47 2.39

2.07 2.06 1.71 1.40 1.20

% of total turnover

10.14 9.05 6.71 6.24 5.04 4.06 3.70 2.23 2.11 1.87 1.75 1.69 1.56 1.49 1.48

Daily closing 360.70 487.00 220.80 226.30 2545.50 51.20 287.10 19.40 278.50 232.90

212.90 664.00 63.60 462.60 49.70

Daily closing

225.90 360.80 51.20 486.90 212.90 663.00 28.20 278.20 45.80 287.90 56.90 63.60 19.10 23.60 50.10

Price change 4.10 10.91 3.76 2.86 0.90 0.00 3.01 2.11 1.27 1.79

Daily opening 346.50 439.10 212.80 220.00 2522.70 51.20 278.70 19.00 275.00 228.80

Price change

Daily opening

3.35 2.23 3.08 2.35 -2.93

2.73 4.10 0.20 11.29 2.75 2.08 3.30 0.94 2.46 3.38 -2.74 2.91 2.14 -0.42 -76.40

206.00 649.50 61.70 452.00 51.20

219.90 346.60 51.10 437.50 207.20 649.50 27.30 275.60 44.70 278.50 58.50 61.80 18.70 23.70 212.30

Daily high 361.70 498.00 222.00 227.00 2550.00 52.20 288.40 19.70 279.50 235.00

Daily low 318.00 450.00 200.00 215.00 2492.80 49.60 255.00 17.20 252.00 210.00

Daily average 356.60 483.74 216.84 224.12 2501.74 50.58 285.66 18.95 276.88 231.55

Daily high

Daily low

Daily average

220.00 669.00 64.00 470.00 51.80

226.50 362.00 51.50 500.00 213.60 667.00 28.90 279.80 46.40 288.90 60.20 64.00 19.20 24.00 52.00

188.00 647.50 55.60 453.60 49.30

221.50 346.00 49.80 476.00 205.30 646.80 27.30 274.80 45.40 281.80 56.50 61.80 18.30 23.20 49.90

211.27 658.89 63.30 460.41 50.63

224.19 356.42 50.57 483.69 211.32 658.95 28.20 277.19 45.92 286.00 57.79 62.90 18.86 23.48 218.48

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

RNB signs agreement for safer textile factories in Bangladesh

ICT villages, hi-tech park get cabinet nod

n Ibrahim Hossain Ovi

Proposals to build ICT villages in Dhaka and Rajshahi and a hi-tech park in Sylhet received cabinet committee approval yesterday.

Under public private partnership (PPP) schemes, one ICT village will be established in the capital’s Mohakhali and another in Poba, Rajshahi.

The approvals came at a meeting of cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) as the telecom ministry’s ICT division placed the proposals.

“ICT village and hi-tech park proposals have been approved today (Thursday),” Nurul Karim, additional secretary to cabinet division, told the Dhaka Tribune.

Before getting the approval, the ICT division however had invited requests for proposal (RFP) for the works and received applications too.

Officials said Mohakhali ICT Village will be built on a 47-acre land now oc-

The number of brand signatories to the Accord on Fire and Building and Safety in Bangladesh has now been increased up to 151 as RNB RETAIL AND BRANDS joins the retailer’s platform to attain the goal of a safe and sustainable Bangladesh ready-made garment industry.

We have made a decision to participate in the Bangladesh Accord as a complement to our own work of monitoring and improving our suppliers.

Some of the questions we had about the practical application have now been cleared and we can conclude that the initiative evolved, and continues to evolve in a positive way, said a press statement issued by Camilla Sandberg, CSR Manager of RNB RETAIL AND BRANDS. “We look forward to greater coop-

eration with other companies and organizations on this important issue,” said Sandberg.

Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (Bangladesh Accord) is an international initiative, which aimed at enhancing the safety of the apparel factories.

RNB has worked systematically for a long time with definition of requirements and monitoring of working conditions, including work environment and fire safety at factories and suppliers, reads the statement.

The follow-up and development work will continue in parallel with the participation in Bangladesh Accord.

The ability to work under decent working conditions and in safe conditions is crucial for the textile workers’ lives and for continued economic development in the country, it added.

The RNB statement said: Through participating in the international member initiative BSCI, RNB also interacts with other companies to develop tools and methods for the control and improvement of working conditions in Bangladesh and other countries of production in for example Asia.

Following the deadliest incident at Rana Plaza building collapse that killed over 1,100 workers, the retailer platform made commitment to provide financial and technical support to improve fire and building safety standard of RMG factories, from where they source products.

As per their commitment, the Accord will inspect over 1700 factories through September 2014 for fire, electrical, and building safety. The Accord has already inspected around 130 factories. l

More similar projects in the offing cupied by slums. Mir Telecom Ltd, a n Tribune Report local company, along with a foreign

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A visitor looks at a smartphone at Robi Smartphone and Tab Expo 2014 being held at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre, Dhaka. The fair will end tomorrow SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Growing service sector will not avert China slowdown n Reuters, Beijing A robust services sector will not stop China’s economy from slowing into the middle of the year, analysts said after modest government stimulus was seen as a signal authorities want to steady growth to keep their reform drive on track.

Two surveys yesterday showing growth in the service sector offered some relief after a run of disappointing data this year, but did little to alter the view that the world’s second-largest economy has lost more momentum than expected in 2014.

On Wednesday, the government said it would accelerate construction of rail projects and cut taxes for small firms, the

first concrete action this year to boost activity. “The scale of the stimulus is modest, likely aimed at smoothing GDP growth at around the 7.5% target, rather than another round of massive stimulus,” HSBC economists said in a report.

The targeted moves showed authorities wanted to stop growth falling below 7% without undermining efforts to reshape the economy, the economists said.

“This should buy time to implement reform measures, which could involve some short-term pain.”

Services growing

The official services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) dipped to 54.5 from February’s 55, but still held well above

partner has applied for the works.

The company also submitted application for Sylhet Hi-tech Park, said its managing director Mir Nasir.

Bangladesh High-Tech Park Authority (BHTPA) received two more proposals from two different consortiums for the works, according to the sources concerned.

For hi-tech park in Sylhet, the government has acquired 162.83 acres of land in the district’s Companiganj.

A land of 34.56 acres has been acquired to establish “Varendra Silicon City” at Poba upazila in Rajshahi.

The government has also undertaken similar projects in Jessore, Natore and other districts, likely to be placed for approval in next few days.

The government plans to establish ICT parks in every district across the country, said ICT Division officials. l

Accord suggests evacuating six more RMG units

ABUZZ WITH SMARTPHONES

the 50 level that divides expansion and contraction. The Markit/HSBC Services PMI rose to 51.9 in March from February’s 51.

“The data shows that China’s nonmanufacturing industry still maintained a relatively fast growth rate,” said Cai Jin, a vice president at the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, which compiles the official PMI, said in a statement.

That contrasts with a run of weaker indicators this year. On Tuesday, two surveys showed manufacturing struggled in March, with activity at smaller, private firms contracting for a third month, and exports unexpectedly dropped in February. l

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Friday, April 4, 2014

of the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishment (DIFE), told the Dhaka Tribune.

“The review panel has already reviewed three factories, of which two factories needs further inspection and scrutiny, while rest of the factory has already been asked to vacate its two floors.”

The review committee will go to Chittagong today to visit the factory and they would sit again to review it before making any final recommendation, said another source.

Earlier, the review panel of factory inspections asked Softex and Fame Sweater to suspend production and asked to retrofit before going for production.

The panel also asked Jeans Care, a

Tejgaon-based garment maker, to take immediate steps to upgrade its safety standards to continue its production.

On February 20, the Accord, the platform of 151 European retailers, launched the first phase of inspection involving fire and structural integrity to inspect 200 factories and inspected over 130 factories as of yesterday.

The issue of fire and building safety came under the spotlight last year, following the catastrophic incident at the Rana Plaza building collapse that killed over 1,100 workers.

Following the factory disaster, the retailers’ platform made a commitment to provide financial and technical support to improve fire and building safety standards of RMG factories, from which they source products. l

Foreign investors continue to shy away from bourses n Tribune Report Foreign investors continued to shy away from injecting fresh funds on stocks for the second consecutive months.

Their investment fell 20% in March from the previous month as they bought stocks worth Tk205.27 crore and sold Tk108.31 crore during the period, according to the Dhaka Stock Exchange.

However, foreign investment in the stock market makes up only 1% of the total DSE investment, which is lowest in the South Asia region.

High sale figure of Tk205.27 crore in February clearly showed that the foreign investors were on profit taking mood from their buying binge in January when their portfolio investment recorded more than 300% higher, said an equity analyst.

“So, it can be said that they are still in bullish about the market and drop in the growth of fresh fund might be due to a lot of different reasons,” said Shahidul Islam, chief executive officer of VIPB Asset Management Company Limited. l

NEC okays Tk600bn revised ADP for FY14  B1 COLUMN 4

The Planning Minister said: “The additional Tk5,000 crore from our drafted Tk55,000 crore will be spent on priority projects through consultation with the finance ministry. Then we will publish the final revised ADP of Tk60,000 crore.”

According to the new revised ADP, the transport sector has been given highest allocations followed by the power sector and the education sector respectively.

Earlier, the Planning Minister said his ministry did not support cutting funds from the original ADP if the agencies can utilise those in time. The different government agencies sought Tk6,583 crore in addition to the planning commission’s drafted revised allocations of Tk55,000 crore for the current fiscal. l

Dhaka-Thimpu meet begins Wednesday  B1 COLUMN 6

At present, export and import between Bangladesh and Bhutan are taking place through two land customs stations - Burimari and Tamabil.

As per its new proposal, Bhutan has sought seven LC stations including the existing two for export, import and transit purposes. The proposed new stations are-Moghalhat, Noonkhawa, Nakugaon, Haluaghat and Banglabandha.

Bhutan in its protocol proposal has also sought for using the country’s Chittagong seaport, Chittagong airport, Mongla seaport and Dhaka HazratShahjalal International Airport for transit purpose.

Bangladesh and Bhutan had earlier signed a transit agreement in 1980, but it did not come into effect fully, as India failed to reach an agreement on giving Bhutan a corridor and to allow it to use a strip of the Indian Territory.

“The government wants to give fa-

RAK Ceramics Bangladesh Limited held its 15th annual general meeting on April 02 at Bashundhara Convention Centre in Dhaka. The company approved a dividend of 15% cash and 10% stock for the last year. The company’s chairperson, Abdallah Massad presided the meeting

Jamuna Bank and TATA Consultancy Services signed an agreement for core banking solution at the bank’s head office recently. Kanutosh Majumder, the bank’s chairperson and Shafiqul Alam, MD and CEO of TATA Consultancy Services were present at the ceremony

NRBCB (NRB Commercial Bank Limited) yesterday inaugurated its 11th branch at Dhanmondi adjacent to Rifle Square. The bank’s director and chairperson of risk management committee, Syed Munsif Ali inaugurated the branch

Butterfly Marketing Limited has introduced the LG Mosquito Away AC fitted with ultrasonic wave technology in Bangladesh yesterday at the presence of the company’s director (sales and marketing) Mustafizur Rahman Shazid

cility to the local businessmen through holding trade negotiationslike the upcoming secretariat level meeting, which will be held in Bhutan,’’commerce secretary Mahbub Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune.

With a yearly demand of electricity growth rate 12% in country, power division plans to obtain electricity of 3500 MW through sub-regional cooperation under elasticity master plan.

Bhutan and Nepal have huge hydropower potential as the countries have a prospect of 23,000mw and 42,000mw of electricity generation from water resources respectively.

Bangladesh government has already sought corridor from India to install a cross-border transmission line to import power from Bhutan and Nepal.

But New Delhi is yet to allow Dhaka to construct the transmission grid.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) would help Bangladesh import power from hydro-power-rich Bhutan, with

the setting up of a regional power transmission line for cross-border electricity trading.

In this regard, ADB said: If both Bangladesh and India are linked through the Indian power market, power trading opportunities can be explored in the South Asia region.

Bangladesh exports to Bhutan items like ready-made garments, pharmaceuticals, melamine, toilet soap, dry food, fruit juice and mineral water.

On the other hand, Bhutan exports products like fresh fruits, paper and paper boards, crushed stones, coffee and spices.However, the trade volume is still insufficient given the huge potentials, said a trade official.

Bhutan exports products like fresh fruits, paper and paper boards, crushed stones, coffee and spices to Bangladesh. The total export of Bhutan to Bangladesh in 2012-2013 was US$ 24.62m while the trade deficit was $ 22.85m. l

A day long SME seminar and loan distribution ceremony was organised by Pubali Bank Chittagong Regional Office was held at BGMEA auditorium in Chittagong on April 1.

Chairperson of Chittagong Development Authority Abdus Salam, president of Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mahbubul Alam, managing director and CEO of Pubali Bank Ltd was present at the ceremony

Grameenphone recently signed an agreement with Ratanpur Steel Re-Rolling Mills Ltd (RSRM) to provide complete communications solutions under its business solution package. Marzanur Rahman, director of RSRM and Sajjad Alam, deputy director of Grameenphone Ltd signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations

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Friday, April 4, 2014

IMF ramps up loan conditions despite promises, study finds n Reuters, Washington The number of conditions the International Monetary Fund attaches to its loans has grown in recent years, despite promises to limit what critics see as onerous requirements, according to a study released on Wednesday.

The Eurodad network of European development groups also said nations desperate for cash are at a disadvantage in their dealings with the IMF, likening them to negotiating “at the barrel of a gun.”

The IMF attached nearly 20 conditions on average to each loan it approved in the past two years, Eurodad found. That was more than the number the group had calculated in two prior reports.

Many of the conditions also focused on politically contentious areas, such as public sector wage cuts or private sector reform, according to the report.

Eurodad looked at the period from October 2011 to August 2013, covering 23 loans.

In a 2011 review, the IMF promised to keep “conditionality parsimonious and focused on macro-critical issues.”

The Eurodad report said: “The IMF is going backwards - increasing the number of structural conditions that mandate policy changes per loan, and remaining heavily engaged in highly sensitive and political policy areas.”

The results were partly skewed by the biggest IMF loan programmes during the period covered. Loans to Cyprus, Greece and Jamaica accounted for 87 percent of all funds approved, and had an average of 35 conditions each, Eurodad said.

In the case of Cyprus and Greece, they were shaped by the IMF’s European-dominated executive board, which demanded strict budget cuts in exchange for aid, said Eurodad’s director, Jesse Griffiths.

The report comes six years after the IMF’s own internal watchdog urged the fund to dramatically reduce the conditions it attaches to loans, arguing they were not entirely effective.

POLITICAL CONSTRAINTS The IMF’s loan conditions have long

been a sore point for many countries and grassroots groups, who have argued they are excessive and harmful to the poor.

Many governments also complain IMF conditions are not well-tailored to country circumstances and political constraints, and may have unrealistic deadlines. They argue conditions reduce a country’s ability to effectively control its economic programmes.

Griffiths said nations in dire straits are at a disadvantage in negotiating with the IMF. They are desperate to get cash and show financial markets and other donors that their policies have the IMF’s seal of approval.

For example, Ukraine had long resisted the IMF’s conditions, but it finally agreed to them this year after saying it was close to default. Ukraine’s prime minister said his government is on a “kamikaze” mission to make painful decisions.

“It’s like at the barrel of a gun,” Griffiths said. “Those are decisions that are political and should be made in consultation with the people in those countries, and not through negotiations” with the IMF. The IMF argues its conditions are necessary to put economies on the growth track, and ensure it gets its money back.

Eurodad, however, found most countries were repeat borrowers.

Twenty out of the 22 countries with new IMF programmes from 2011 to 2013 had borrowed in the past decade, and a majority had borrowed in the previous three years.

Some IMF conditions, such as drastic budget cuts that can weigh on an economy, may also make it more difficult for countries to repay their loans.

The IMF in 2012 admitted it had miscalculated the economic cost of government austerity.

Eurodad said deeper changes were needed, including overhauling the IMF’s governance structure to give developing countries a bigger voice. The IMF in 2010 agreed to an initial step to boost the power of emerging markets, but the reforms have been held up by the opposition of the US Congress. l

A sign belies a full hearing room as General Motors CEO Mary Barra testifies before the full House Energy and Commerce hearing room in a hearing entitled "The GM Ignition Switch Recall: Why Did It Take So Long?" on Capitol Hill on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The committee is hearing testimony on a safety defect that's been linked to at least 13 deaths and has sparked a 2.6 million-vehicle recall.

AFP

Microsoft launches ‘Cortana’ smartphone assistant n AFP, San Francisco

Microsoft on Wednesday took on Apple’s Siri and Google Now with a smartphone personal assistant dubbed “Cortana.”

Windows Phone vice president Joe Belfiore introduced Cortana onstage at the technology titan’s annual developers conference.

“Cortana is the first truly personal digital assistant who learns about me, and the things that matter to me most, and knows about the whole Internet,” Belfiore said in a presentation.

Cortana responds to conversationally spoken requests or commands, using insights gleaned from calendars, contact lists, online searches and other smartphone sources to respond in a manner akin to a real-life aide, Belfiore said.

Cortana’s voice and character is based on a popular artificial intelligence character in Microsoft’s blockbuster Xbox console video game “Halo.”

It comes as a long-awaited counter to the Siri virtual assistant on Apple mobile devices and Google Now capabilities in Android tablets and smartphones.

Cortana will be in a test, or beta, mode when it becomes available in a Windows Phone 8.1 software update, which is to begin rolling out in the United States in coming months.

The new version of Windows Phone 8.1 should be available on new phones beginning in late April or early May, according to Belfiore.

Microsoft met with real-life personal assistants while designing Cortana, which is powered behind the scene by search engine Bing, he said.

As do Siri and Google Now, Cortana can remind users of flights, appointments, birthdays, routes, or other information for managing lives.

“Imagine a real personal assistant, and the kinds of things you might ask to be organized,” Belfiore said while extolling Cortana’s capabilities.

After being tested in the US, Cortana will expand to Britain and China, and then other countries.

In a sign that Microsoft gave Cortana a playful side, Belfiore asked the virtual assistant to reveal the storyline of the next “Halo” game only to be told “I’m

quite certain you don’t have the proper security clearance for that information.”

Wooing the app makers Insights into updates of Windows software for mobile devices and traditional computers came as Microsoft wooed developers of the fun, hip, or functional applications that strongly influence decisions about what gadgets to buy.

Microsoft is also keen to entice business and consumers to remain faithful to its computer operating system - the software platform on which the Redmond, Washington-based company’s fortune was built - as it phases out support for its much-loved but aging version Windows XP. “We have a billion-plus PCs (personal computers) that will all be upgrading,” freshly-minted Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella told the gathering of developers.

“That is a significant opportunity for any application that targets Windows.”

Nadella told the gathering of developers that Microsoft is “innovating in every dimension” to gain momentum

in lifestyles increasingly revolving around mobile devices and services offered by computers in the Internet “cloud.”

Software improvements were aimed at business, where Microsoft products remain strong, as well as at the booming tablet and smartphone markets.

Microsoft also used the stage to announced that Nokia will release a set of low-priced Windows-powered Lumia smartphones, starting in developing markets in Asia and India next month before gradually working its way to the United States in July.

The move takes aim at markets being overlooked and underserved, and breaks from trying to slug it out with Apple iPhones and Android-powered Samsung handsets in countries where buyers are more interested in high-end or medium-tier devices, according to Gartner principal research analyst Tuong Huy Nguyen.

“They really needed to move the price point of Windows devices down market, and this seems to be a step in that direction,” Nguyen said. l

How to run or ruin a company in 140 characters n Reuters, London

Labourers work to build a railway station in Wuhan, Hubei province

REUTERS

China takes first step to steady growth n Reuters, Beijing

China acted for the first time this year to steady its stumbling economy by cutting taxes for small firms on Wednesday and announcing plans to speed up the construction of railway lines.

The Chinese cabinet said after its weekly meeting that it will accelerate the construction of rail projects that have been approved, and increase the total length of lines being laid this year by 18% compared to 2013.

The government also said it would lower tax rates for smaller companies by relaxing the criteria that allows them to halve their income taxes. This policy will be extended to the end of 2016, the government said.

The measures mark the first concrete action being taken by China this year to boost its economy, and come after Premier Li Keqiang last week sought to reassure jittery markets that Beijing

was ready to provide support.

Flagging growth has unnerved global investors and fuelled speculation about a modest stimulus package to boost activity.

Two surveys of China’s vast manufacturing sector showed this week that factories faced persistent headwinds in March, raising fears that the economy may be cooling much faster than thought.

“We will find innovative ways including fiscal and financial methods to ... steady economic growth,” the cabinet said in a statement on the government’s website.

The Chinese government said in March that it aims to grow the economy by around 7.5% this year, and a minority of analysts believe growth will ultimately fall short of 7.5%.

Increased construction of railway lines will foster investment, the biggest driver of China’s economy, and which

is rising at its slowest rate in at least a decade as the country moves towards consumption-driven growth.

The railway investment will be partly financed by bank loans, the government said. Authorities will also create an annual fund worth 200bn yuan ($32.2bn) to 300 billion yuan each year that is open to private investors.

For this year, the government will also sell 150bn yuan worth of bonds to pay for over 6,600 kilometers of new railway track.

Railway projects in China gained infamy in recent years for their rife corruption and heavy debt load - problems that culminated in a series of corruption scandals at the Ministry of Railways that led to its dissolving in March 2013.

Projects are now overseen by China Railway Corp, which won approval on Tuesday to sell 150bn yuan worth of bonds, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. l

When Nat Rothschild, the co-founder of troubled miner ARMS, insulted his former investment partner on Twitter last week, he showed the power of social media for business leaders seeking publicity - but also the perils of saying the wrong thing.

“Whilst your dad is an evil genius,” the scion of the Rothschild banking dynasty tweeted to Aga Bakrie, “the word on the street is that you are extremely DUMB.” The tweet made the front pages of media around the world as journalists, used to the measured language of corporate press releases, seized on a seemingly unguarded remark showing that even powerful businessmen can descend to playground taunts.

For Rothschild, the publicity was a welcome opportunity to revive interest in his long-running campaign against Indonesia’s influential Bakrie family, whom he blames for a plunge in the value of ARMS’ predecessor company. Within 24 hours, his number of followers on Twitter had jumped to 1,700 from 200.

But not all business leaders have been so fortunate with their apparently off-the-cuff remarks on social media.

Last year Michael O’Leary, boss of budget airline Ryanair, was denounced by one Twitter user as a “sexist pig” after he tweeted: “Nice pic. Phwoaaarr!” to a woman, whose image was shown during a live question and answer session.

The former chief executive of Britain’s Co-operative Group, meanwhile, laid open the divisions within the company in March when he accused one or more board members via Facebook of being “determined to undermine me personally” after his pay package was leaked to the press. He resigned a few days later.

Even Twitter boss Dick Costolo has got into hot water on the social media site, comparing academic Vivek Wadwha to over-the-top US comedian Carrot Top, after the professor was quoted as saying Twitter’s board lacked diversity.

Little surprise then that research last year by CEO.com and Domo found 68 percent of Fortune 500 chief executives were not on any social network.

Company bosses on Twitter are on the increase, up more than half from 2012 to 2013, but the number remains small with just 28 out of top 500 CEOs on the site. For many chief executives, the risks are just too high.

“Unless you’re happy for something to appear on the front page of a newspaper or on a newswire you shouldn’t really tweet it,” said Mary Whenman, managing director of corporate, financial and public affairs at PR agency Weber Shandwick.

Activist investors

While a dangerous platform for plainspeaking chief executives, social media has been used more effectively by activist investors looking to drum up support for a campaign.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn, for example, used Twitter for months to urge Apple to buy back more shares, before the technology group eventually proposed in February a $14bn stock repurchase programme.

Nat Rothschild himself, while insisting his outburst against Aga Bakrie was “instinctive”, concedes he joined Twitter a few weeks ago for “strategic reasons.”

“I’m interested in Indonesia and my investments, one of which has a serious litigation component to it, and in that respect I want to make sure people continue to focus on the situation,” he told Reuters.

Although announcing market moving news over Twitter has been allowed in the United States since last year, it is off limits in Britain, where it must first go though a regulated channel.

But Twitter allows businesses to jump into a moving news story and re-

DILBERT

spond to events immediately.

“You can see how slow it is to use traditional emails and press release distribution systems,” said Rory Godson, founder of communications agency Powerscourt, who suggested to Rothschild he should join Twitter.

“It is definitely not suitable for everyone ... but for Nat in this case it enables him to respond very quickly and it also enables him to build global support.”

Know when to stop

Some business leaders do make it work.

Rupert Murdoch and Richard Branson are both seen within the communications industry as masters of moving minds with 140 characters or less, although they are protected by virtually unassailable positions within their own companies. Murdoch has around 500,000 followers on Twitter, and Branson four million.

Jeff Joerres, chief executive of staffing group Manpower who has over 7,000 Twitter followers, told Reuters the social network was an important way of giving big business a human face, though it was essential to know the boundaries.

“You’ve got to put a bit of personality and imagination into it, but not go overboard,” he said. “It’s my personal account, but at the same time it is not I’m speaking as the company.”

One executive to have won plaudits for his use of Twitter is Paul Pester, boss of Britain’s TSB Bank, who jumped on to the social network in January to respond to complaints after thousands of cash machines failed. His personal tone in apologising and offering advice helped to manage the crisis. l