21 July, 2014

Shraban 6, 1421 Ramadan 22, 1435 Regd. No. DA 6238 Vol 2, No 111

MONDAY, JULY 21, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com

| SECOND EDITION

8 | BODIES PUT ON TRAIN FOR REBEL CITY

7 | THE BEAR AND THE DRAGON

20 pages | Price: Tk12

11 | GERMANY’S WIN AND THE ROBUST ECONOMY THEORY

B1 | THREAT OF POLITICAL MOVEMENT MAKES BB CONSERVATIVE

Ramadan extortion bonanza on footpaths Hawkers have to pay a total of Tk670 crore to get space and permission for business Zamila Khan and n Tazlina Mohammad Jamil Khan With the capital’s makeshift footpath-stalls seeing an extra rush of customers ahead of Eid, a large number of unscrupulous people and law enforcers are set to bag at least Tk670 crore by “selling” pavement space and extorting hawkers during the month of Ramadan.

In what becomes the biggest haul of the year for them, the gangs earn up to 4.4 times more compared to what they bag during a regular month.

Law enforcers also allegedly join the profitmaking frenzy during Eid by extorting the hawkers every day While the city’s rich and the elite head to luxurious shopping malls to buy high-end products, most of the lower-middle income Dhaka residents have to rely on the makeshift shops where they can buy clothing and gift items at an affordable price.

As more and more people crowd the pavements ahead of Eid, getting a spot to set up shop on the footpath becomes difficult for the hawkers. To profit from the situation, around 60 groups – some of them with alleged links to the ruling party – are active in the city extorting at least Tk9 crore daily from hawkers.

Although the police are supposed to prevent such illegal practices, there are widespread allegations that the law enforcers also join the profit-making fren-

zy during Eid by extorting the hawkers every day.

According to MA Kashem, president of Bangladesh Hawkers Association, the capital has around 2.5 lakh permanent footpath hawkers; while around 50,000 additional traders have arrived in Dhaka to do business ahead of Eid this year.

Sources said each hawker has to pay at least Tk300 every day during Ramadan; on the other hand, the seasonal hawkers have to pay Tk30,000 to “buy” their pavement space and the permanent ones pay Tk10,000 to renew their “permission” to sell on the footpaths.

Ahead of Eid, the gangs allegedly collect around Tk400 crore by “selling” pavement spaces, while a further Tk270 crore is also extorted by both goons and corrupt law enforcers during Ramadan from over three lakh hawkers active in the city.

During the rest of the year, however, the hawkers have to pay around Tk150 crore a month in total for continuing their business on footpaths, sources said, adding that floating hawkers number around 10,000 at other times.

Abul Azad, 35, a farmer from Noakhali, has been coming to Dhaka for the past three years ahead of Eid to sell jewellery. Sitting on his footpath-stall near New Market area, he told the Dhaka Tribune that he “bought” the makeshift stall for one month for Tk25,000.

“The footpaths in the capital’s new market area is under control of Ali Hossain group. If anyone wants to start business on the footpath, the group sells spots according to the size,” he said.

Ali Hossain, the joint convener of the New Market thana unit of Jubo League, however, denied the allegation, claiming that police middlemen were in-

BRTC monitors city ticket counters to check anomaly n Abu Hayat Mahmud and Ashif Islam Shaon

PAVEMENT SPACE EXTORTION BY GOONS AND LAW ENFORCERS PAVEMENT TOLL BUSINESS: FACTS REST OF THE YEAR Seasonal Hawkers Permanent Hawkers Daily Toll

Monthly Collection

10,000 2.5 lakh Tk100 Tk150 crore

PAVEMENT SPACES AND THEIR PRICE SIZE TYPE Boro Bhiti Chhoto Bhiti

5’x3’ 2’x3’

EXTORTION SYNDICATES AND THEIR AREAS

New Market RAMADAN

50,000 2.5 lakh Tk300 Tk670 crore

Joint Convener of the New Market thana unit of Jubo League

Mirpur Mazar Road

Miron

Publication Secretary of Dhaka Metropolitan (North) Jubo League

Gausia

Shahdat

Ramna

‘Foot’ Hanif

PRICE FOR ‘FIXED’ STALLS

Tk2-2.5 lakh Tk1-1.5 lakh

SPACE RENTAL AND PERMISSION RENEWAL TO SELL ON PAVEMENTS Permission renewal for permanent hawkers: Tk10,000 Pavement space rent for seasonal hawkers: Tk30,000 SLH/DT INFOGRAPHIC

volved in such business and his enemies might have spread such rumours.

Asked about the issue, Jubo League’s New Market thana unit President Alamgir also told the Dhaka Tribune that no member of his unit was involved in such illegal business.

Kalam, 25, who sells shoes at a foot-

Ali Hossain

path-stall in Mirpur Mazar road, said: “Local Awami League leader Miron’s group controls the footpaths from Mirpur 1 to Mazar Road. I gave the group around Tk30,000 to buy my spot, which was earlier sold at Tk25,000.”

Miron, the publication secretary of Dhaka metropolitan (north) unit of

Dhaka College area

Rafiq & Sattar

Islampur

Moin

Mouchak-Malibagh

Habib & Mokbul

Mirpur 12

Ashraf

There are about 60 groups involved in pavement space selling and extortion Jubo League, could not be reached for comments despite repeated attempts.

But, Awami League’s Mirpur thana unit President Delwar Hossain admitted that Miron was involved in extorting hawkers and that he had the support of an influential politician.  PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) has begun surveillance of its counters in the capital to ensure that homebound passengers are not charged extra fare ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.

The BRTC started selling advance tickets at seven depots and other terminal counters yesterday. A few BRTC bus leasers and counter managers earlier said they would raise the fare for special services introduced for Eid. BRTC Director Col Md Abdullahel Karim told the Dhaka Tribune: “Today, we have monitored a number bus depots to check if passengers are being charged extra.”

P5 TICKETS SOLD OUT IN CTG “With regard to the communication minister’s directive, we have warned all depots, counter managers and bus leasers to avoid involvement in illegal act. If they take additional money from passengers, they would be penalised,” he said.

Karim said the surveillance team found no anomaly in the sale of tickets.

Last week, Communication Minister Obaidul Quader said stern action would be taken if excessive fare was charged from people who would travel to their hometowns during Eid. He said the sale of tickets would be monitored to prevent any anomaly.

Compared to private bus services, fewer people turned up at BRTC depots and counters in the capital to buy tickets.

Besides, a few counters opened late, Gabtoli being one of those. This correspondent found Gabtoli counter closed during a visit yesterday morning.  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

At least 62 dead in fresh Israeli attack on Gaza suburb n Reuters, Gaza/Jerusalem At least 62 Palestinians were killed yesterday in Israeli shelling of a Gaza neighbourhood that left bodies strewn in the streets and thousands fleeing for shelter to a hospital packed with the wounded, Palestinian witnesses and officials said.

The Israeli military said militants from Gaza’s dominant Hamas group

responded with anti-tank missiles and heavy weapon fire in some of the bloodiest fighting since Israel launched its Gaza offensive 13 days ago.

A two-hour “humanitarian ceasefire” in the area, agreed by both sides at the request of the International Committee of the Red Cross, broke down in minutes with each side blaming the other.

Palestinian President Mahmoud

Abbas accused Israel of carrying out a massacre and declared three days of mourning.

The Israeli military said Hamas had fired rockets and built tunnels and command centres in Shujayea and that it had warned locals to evacuate two days earlier. Its ground forces were backed up by air strikes and artillery, the army added.  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

A Palestinian man carries children in Shejaia in Gaza which was heavily shelled by Israel on July 20. At least 50 Palestinians were killed with bodies strewn in the street. Thousands fled for shelter to a hospital packed with wounded REUTERS

EDCL’s monopoly fetches ultra-profit from lifesaving injections n Moniruzzman Uzzal The government drug manufacturing company EDCL is allegedly exploiting its monopoly over the public hospitals to raise the price of antibiotic injections, charging double or thrice more than what is charged by other pharmaceuticals.

According to public rule, if any medicine or injection is available in the Essential Drug Company Limited (EDCL) list, public hospitals must purchase the items from the EDCL without floating any tender.

Although the lifesaving injections were not originally on the list of medicines produced by the EDCL, the staterun company is currently producing injections like Ceftriazone, Ceftazidime, Cefuroxime and Cepharadine.

As hospitals have no other choice but to buy these injections from the EDCL at higher prices, they often do not have adequate funds to buy the required number of drugs to meet the demand, and so patients are forced to buy injections from pharmacies.

During the last fiscal year, most public medical college hospitals bought 70% of their drugs from the EDCL and the rest from other pharmaceuticals through the competitive tender process.

However, the EDCL is now getting a bigger market share from the public hospitals after it began producing medicines that were not previously on its

list. The government-owned company is also charging extra for the new items.

Brig Gen Dr Mustafizur Rahman, director of Dhaka Medical College Hospital, admitted that the cost of commonly used antibiotic injections had seen a rapid increase, adding that the hospital was unable to buy enough injections compared to the previous year.

Last fiscal year, most public hospitals bought 70% of their drugs from the EDCL and the rest through tender “We have to spend most of the money allotted for MSR [medicine and surgical reagent] to pay the EDCL bill. But we are trying our best to continue to supply antibiotics to the patients free of cost,” he added.

Asked about the issue, EDCL Secretary Ratan Kumar refused to comment and instead referred to the DGM of sales for any inquiries. However, the DGM, Abul Kashem Patwary, could not be reached for comments despite repeated attempts.

Ceftriazone – one of the most common antibiotic injections being used at the hospitals – was bought earlier  PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

INSIDE 3 | News

Sex workers evicted from Kandapara brothel have sought refuge and new work spaces in hotels and residential areas in Tangail town.

Some have taken to walking the streets.

5 | News

Most commuters in Chittagong failed to book advance train tickets ahead of the Eid as all allotted for day one were sold out in just two hours, allegedly because of illicit activities of ticket scalpers.

6 | Nation

Extortion in the name of a number of associations, including the Bus Owners’ and Workers’ Welfare associations, is prevalent on the Sirajganj highway.

9 | World

Six Thai students draft a newsletter celebrating democracy – a meeting that would have barely attracted a glance two months ago, but could now land them in jail.

12 | Entertainment

To protest against the atrocities in Palestine, leading theatre troupe Prachyanat organised a road show at Chobir Haat. They displayed installation and instrumental play.

14 | Sport

Barcelona’s new coach Luis Enrique notched up a 1-0 win Saturday in his first game in charge, a pre-season friendly against second division club Recreativo de Huelva.

Girl Summit to help establish girls’ rights n Julfikar Ali Manik Despite some remarkable progress over the past decades, the government is still facing many challenges in ensuring women’s rights especially for girls who go through ordeals including child marriages.

There are also problems created by radical Islamist groups who campaign against women development and empowerment because they want to confine them to the four walls.

Against this backdrop, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina left Dhaka this morning to attend the first ever Girls Summit 2014 to be held in London tomorrow.

Premier Hasina was invited to this summit by British Prime Minister David Cameron with whom she has scheduled a bilateral meeting before joining the summit.  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

SEHRI & IFTAR TIME Day Ramadan 22/July 21 Ramadan 23/July 22

Sehri – 3.53am

Iftar 6.51pm 6.50pm

2

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Police asked to follow procedures in encounters n Kailash Sarkar In the wake of recent incidents of “encounters,” custodial deaths, torture and extortions centring the Eid-ul-Fitr, the police high-ups yesterday asked the lawmen to refrain from such activities in the future.

The top brass observed that crimes had risen sharply during April-June compared to the previous quarter.

Around a dozen people were killed in “shootouts” with the police in the last three months. Of them, four were in the capital. Several others died in police custody.

These issues were discussed at the “Quarterly Crime Conference” held at the police headquarters, said sources at the meeting chaired by Inspector General of Police Hassan Mahmood Khandker.

The meeting observed that the incidents of snatching and looting across

the country had increased during this period.

In his speech, the police chief directed the field-level policemen to follow rules and procedures properly during the incidents of “encounter” and to contain custodial deaths and torture.

According to sources, Hassan Mahmood also asked the policemen not to be involved in extortion on highways that might cause harassment of the people. He also asked them to prevent robberies and ensure smooth movement of vehicles.

Additional Deputy IGP (special crimes) Md Zahirul Islam Bhuiyan presented the crime statistics at the conference. He said around 48,000 criminals cases had been filed in the last three months.

He, however, mentioned that the number of cases had increased for the filing of additional cases related to the recovery of drugs. l

News

Monday, July 21, 2014

Hasina’s visit to London significant n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to Britain is very significant as this is the first time after the January 5 election that she is going to any western country, said Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali at a press briefing yesterday.

“We hope that all bilateral issues will be discussed there,” the minister said.

British Prime Minister David Cameron invited Hasina to attend Girls Summit on July 22 and she will be flying today.

This invitation is considered significant as the British government and

other governments of western countries criticised the government for its one-sided election on January 5.

“During her visit, the prime minister will have a bilateral meeting with her British counterpart at 10 Downing Street,” the minister said.

After the January 5 this is the first time Haisna will be having a meeting with a top leader of any western country, Mahmood said.

The minister refused to make any comments regarding if Bangladesh would raise the issue of deporting BNP leader Tarique Zia from London.

Ashraf flays BNP’s Dhaka City unit reshuffle n Tribune Report Awami League General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam has criticised the BNP for reorganising its Dhaka City unit without holding any convention.

“The BNP has made Mirza Abbas the convener of the Dhaka City unit but changing the unit even a hundred times will not affect the government in any way,” Ashraf said yesterday during an iftar hosted by Jubo League.

Ashraf, also the LGRD Minister,

blamed BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia for the current crisis of her party. “[Sadeque Hossain] Khoka, Abbas or [Mirza] Fakhrul [Islam Alamgir] are not responsible for the consequences you are facing. It is you [Khaleda]. This has happened as you boycotted the January 5 polls under democratic goverment,” he said. “We have talked to some BNP leaders and they are now very frustrated over the policy adopted by Khaleda.”

“Many BNP leaders have fled Dhaka although they have been made members

BRTC monitors city ticket counters to check anomaly  PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

“We started selling tickets today and presence of ticket buyers is relatively low. We are hoping more passengers in a day or two,” an official of Motijheel depot said.

Habibullah, who bought two tickets for Gopalganj from Fulbaria terminal, said he was charged the regular price.

As part of the Eid special service, a total of 900 BRTC buses - 500 from Dhaka and 400 from elsewhere - will run from July 24 to three days after Eid. Advance tickets are available at Motijheel, Gazipur, Joar Sahara, Uthli, Narayanganj, Kallyanpur and Mohakhali depots and other other terminals in the capital.

Train ticket sale kicks off

People thronged Kamalapur Railway Station in the capital yesterday as railway authorities began selling advanced tickets for Eid. Although selling began around 9am, hundreds of passengers arrived at the station after sehri. By 12 noon, the queues of passengers reached the road in front of the station and more people came to buy tickets as time went by.

Those who could finally collect tickets after a long wait were happy.

From the station, tickets for Chittagong, Rajshahi, Sylhet, Khulna and other important routes were sold.

Yesterday, tickets for July 24 were

sold while today, passengers will be collecting tickets for July 25. Tickets for July 26, 27 and 28 will be sold on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday respectively.

“Standby tickets will be available on the days of journey. Tickets will not be sold at other stations in the city,” Kamrul Ahsan, divisional railway (Dhaka) manager, said.

According to railway officials, a total of 17,000 tickets will be sold from Kamalapur station and 6,800 from Chittagong station before Eid. The counters will remain open from 9am to 5pm and a person can buy a maximum of four tickets at a time.

Like the previous years, 5% of the total tickets will be reserved for railway staff and VIPs. Meanwhile, railway officials said 16 CCTV cameras were installed at Kamalapur station to prevent ticket scalping.

Additional Armed Police Battalion members and railway police had been deployed at the stations, said Mohammad Abdul Majid, officer-in-charge of railway police.

The railway has arranged ten special trains for the east zone, of which four will run on Chittagong-Chandpur route and two on Dhaka-Dewanganj route.

Moreover, two extra trains will run on Dhaka-Khulna route and another two on Parbatipur route.

For the biggest Eid congregation

at Sholakia in Kishoreganj, four extra trains will carry passengers on the day of eid.

Ticket touting goes on despite measures

Despite the authorities introducing a system to prevent ticket scalping, touts were seen attempting to sell tickets.

According to the system, a ticket collect has to first collect a form and fill it out writing the name, address and sex before standing in the queue.

However, despite the system, police arrested two youths on allegation of scalping in the morning.

“It is a useful system. The sellers check the forms first and then sell tickets. It is a time-consuming process but will help people in the end,” said Khairul Bashar, station manager of Kamalapur station.

There were also some people at the station who stood in the queue on behalf of passengers in exchange for money.

Railway minister assures hassle-free ticket sale

While visting Kamalapur station yesterday, Railway Minister Mujibul Haq said the authorities would try to address problems related to collection of tickets.

Many complained to the minister, saying ticket sellers were slow in per-

forming their duties which compelled them to stand in the queue for a long time. Several also claimed they were unable to buy tickets online.

The minister replied that he would look into the allegations.

“Some machines are working slowly which is why the ticket sellers are unable to serve passengers fast. The machines will be replaced next year,” he said.

Passengers also urged the minister to increase the daily hour for sales of tickets which currently is eight hours from 9am to 5pm.

Meanwhile in Chittagong, all tickets allotted for the first day were sold out in the first two hours into the launching of the advance ticketing schedule.

As most commuters failed to manage their desired tickets, ticket seekers blamed irregularities and rampant scalping of tickets, allegedly by both professional scalpers and members of the Bangladesh Railway, for their sufferings.

However, Chittagong Railway Station authorities claimed that scalping of tickets had decreased due to strong vigilance of Bangladesh Railway and law enforcing agencies and reasoned that the tickets were sold out in the first two hours of the first day because ticket seekers had been queuing at the station for the last 12 hours. l

At least 62 dead in fresh Israeli attack on Gaza suburb  PAGE 1 COLUMN 3

Anguished cries of “Did you see Ahmed?” “Did you see my wife?” echoed through the courtyard of Gaza’s Shifa hospital, where panicked residents of Shujayea gathered in family groups. Inside, bodies and the wounded lay on blood-stained floors.

Elderly men there said the Israeli attack was the fiercest they had seen since the 1967 Middle East war, when Israel captured Gaza.

Shifa hospital’s director, Naser Tattar, said 17 children, 14 women and four elderly were among the 62 dead, and about 400 people were wounded in the Israeli assault.

Death toll tops 400

gaza’s Health Ministry officials said at least 403 Palestinians, many of them civilians, have been killed and about 2,600 wounded in the 13-day offensive, that Israel says it launched to halt mounting cross-border rocket fire by militants.

On Israel’s side, two civilians have been killed by cross-border fire and five soldiers have died in fighting.

More than 50 Israeli troops have been wounded, hospital officials said.

Thousands fled Shujayea, some by foot and others piling into the backs of trucks and sitting on the hoods of cars filled with families trying to get away.

Several people rode out of the neighbourhood of 100,000 in the shovel of a bulldozer.

Video given to Reuters by a local showed at least a dozen corpses, including three children, lying in rubble-filled streets, though the footage could not be verified independently.

As the tank shells began to land, Shujayea residents called radio stations pleading for evacuation. An air strike on the Shujayea home of Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official, killed his son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren, hospital officials said.

Israel, which has accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields by launching rockets from residential areas, sent ground forces into the Gaza Strip on Thursday after 10 days of air, naval and artillery barrages failed to stop the salvoes.

The military said it beefed up its

Tarique, the son of former prime minister Khaleda Zia, has been residing in London since 2008 but he has now gone to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah and meet his mother.

In answer to a question the minister said Britain is a democratic country and anybody can have peaceful demonstrations there.

If BNP supporters in London wanted to stage a demonstration during the prime minister’s visit, they could, Mahmood said. Hasina will lead a 20-member delegation and is scheduled to come back on July 24. l

presence yesterday, with a focus on destroying missile stockpiles and a vast tunnel system Hamas built along the frontier with Israel.

“It has been a tough day of combat, but it won’t deter us,” Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid said, without referring to events in Shujayea.

“The operation is necessary and, if needed, we will broaden it,” he told reporters while visiting wounded Israeli soldiers in a hospital in the southern city of Beersheba.

Truce efforts

egypt, Qatar, France and the United Nations, among others, have all been pushing for a permanent ceasefire, with little sign of progress.

Militants yesterday kept up their rocket fire on Israel. Sirens sounded in southern Israeli towns and in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. There were no reports of casualties on the Israeli side.

Qatar was due to host a meeting between Abbas and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday, a senior Qatari source told Reuters. Ban was due to

travel to Kuwait, Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Jordan during the week, a UN statement said.

The Qatari source said Abbas would also meet Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal.

Western-backed Abbas in April struck a reconciliation deal with Hamas, which seized the Gaza Strip in 2007 from forces loyal to his Fatah movement. The agreement led to the formation of a Palestinian unity government and Israel’s pullout from US-brokered peace talks.

Hamas has already rejected one Egyptian-brokered truce, saying any deal must include an end to a blockade of the coastal area and a renewed commitment to a ceasefire reached after an eight-day war in Gaza in 2012.

Hostilities escalated following the killing last month of three Jewish students that Israel blames on Hamas.

Hamas neither confirmed nor denied involvement.

The apparent revenge murder of a Palestinian youth in Jerusalem, for which Israel has charged three Israelis, further fuelled tension. l

of the convening committee,” he added.

Ashraf said no change in any of BNP’s committee, including the Standing Committee, would work unless Khaleda changed her political strategy. He urged the BNP to stop issuing threats.

Lambasting the BNP for its recent statement, the AL general secretary said: “Their statements seem like they will unseat the government and assume power anytime. They will not be able to do anything to the government that was elected by people’s vote.” l

Move to impeach judges challenged n Nazmus Sakib A lawyer yesterday challenged the government move to get back power to impeach Supreme Court judges as he lodged a writ petition with the High Court.

Petitioner Eunus Ali Akond told the Dhaka Tribune that the bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice Abu Taher Md Saifur Rahman might hear the plea today. “If the parliament gets back the impeachment authority, the judiciary cannot function independently,” he said.

On July 16, Law Minister Anisul Huq hinted that the government had been working on probable restoration of the legislature’s authority over the Supreme Court.

On June 26, the Law Commission, the lone government body, suggesting legal reforms, submitted a report on the ways in which backlog of pending cases can be reduced, suggesting restoration of article 96 of the 1972 constitution.

Military ruler Ziaur Rahman, also BNP founder, after the assassination of Bangabandhu in 1975, had unlawfully amended Article 96, curtailing the authority of the legislature over the judiciary.

Zia also introduced a new provision for the judiciary’s accountability – the Supreme Judicial Council. l

Ramadan extortion bonanza  PAGE 1 COLUMN 5

Sources inside different hawkers associations said there are around 60 syndicates in the capital involved in “selling” footpath spaces during Eid, including Shahdat group in Gausia, “Foot” Hanif in Ramna, Rafiq and Sattar in Dhaka College area, Moin group in Islampur, Habib and Mokbul in Mouchak and Malibagh area and Ashraf group in Mirpur 12.

MA Aziz, acting president of Dhaka city unit Awami League, denied allegations that ruling party men are involved in the business. He said organisational actions would be taken against anyone found guilty of extorting or “selling” footpath illegally. “These members will not be given any post in the party ranks in future,” he said.

Sources said footpaths are “sold” to hawkers under two categories: “Boro Bhiti” covering a 5-foot by 3-foot space, while “Chhoto Bhiti” covering a 2-foot by 3-foot space.

For a permanent arrangement, Boro Bhiti spaces are sold for around Tk2 lakh to TK2.5 lakh and Chhoto Bhiti at Tk1 lakh to Tk1.5 lakh. However, to set up a shop for only a month before Eid, the hawkers have to pay at least Tk10,000 to get a space.

The extortion ring

Many hawkers claimed that they have to pay extortion to the police as well as the local gangs for conducting their business on the pavement.

Several hawkers told the Dhaka Tribune that although corrupt police officials daily collected at least Tk100 during most of the year, the rate climbed to Tk300 ahead of Eid. Hawkers Association President MA

Kashem said: “We talked to the authorities many times about the extortion issue, but nothing happened. Hawkers still have to pay the money.”

Masud, a 39-year-old hawker, told the Dhaka Tribune: “The lineman [middleman] of Uttara West police station collects around Tk50-Tk150 from each shop every day. The extortion rate usually depends on the position of the footpath. The Chunnu group sells footpath from House Building area of Jasimuddin area.”

Iajuddin, a hawker in Gulistan, said lineman Shahjalal collected around Tk350 daily from the hawkers who set up shops on the pavement between the intersections of Dainik Bangla and Paltan.

Arif Chowdhury, president of National Hawkers’ Federation, told the Dhaka Tribune: “We have agreed to give a fixed amount of toll to the government. Because of extortion, hawkers are facing losses. The government is also being deprived of revenue.”

Asked about the corruption claims, Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of the Detective Branch of police, said: “We have taken several steps to resist extortion, and the tendency has reduced from earlier. “If any policeman is involved in such kind of wrongdoing, we will definitely take action.”

Responding to graft allegations, Motijheel police station Officer-in-Charge Forman Ali said: “These are only allegations, but no one can give any proof. We believe on evidence. If anyone is caught red-handed, he will be punished.”

Rafiqul Islam, officer-in-charge of Uttara West police station, also claimed that no official of the station was involved is such wrongdoing. l

EDCL’s monopoly fetches ultra-profit  PAGE 1 COLUMN 5

by the DMCH at Tk26, Tk34 and Tk68 for each vial containing 500mg, 1g and 2g of the drug, respectively. Tender process was used to buy over 50,000 vials of Ceftriazone every month from private pharmaceuticals. However, the same vials are now being bought from the EDCL for Tk98, Tk115 and Tk175, respectively.

The 500mg and 1g vials of Ceftazidime – mostly used for treating burn patients - were bought earlier by the

DMCH from private pharmaceuticals for Tk40.65 and Tk64.5; the EDCL prices for the same vials are Tk85 and Tk150.

Last year, market prices for the 750mg and 1.5g vials of Cefuroxime (ram) injection were Tk40.4 and Tk69.94; but the EDCL is currently charging Tk100 and Tk150 for the same vials.

Sephradine (500 mg) was bought for Tk18.30 whereas as the EDCL is currently charging Tk60 per vial. l

Comparison of drug prices between tender and EDCL Name

Private pharma price (2013)

EDCL price (2014)

Ceftriazone, 500mg

Tk26

Tk98

Ceftazidime, 500mg

Tk40.65

Tk85

Cefuroxime, 750mg

Tk40.4

Tk100

Cephradine, 500mg

Tk18.30

Tk45 Source :DMCH

Girl Summit to help establish girls’ rights  PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

This will be Sheikh Hasina’s first visit to any European country in her second tenure after the January 5 election.

Meher Afroze Chumki, the state minster for the Women and Children Affairs Ministry, who will accompany the prime minister to the Girl Summit said on Saturday night over the phone that there would be a significant number of participants South Asian countries.

She said the problems of the girl child will be a major issue of discussion in the summit as girls still face many challenges like child marriages, trafficking and hazardous work in Bangladesh and other South Asian countries.

The participating countries will share their experiences of how they are fighting these challenges and on that basis they will hammer out solutions to the problems of the girl child, Chumki said.

Government sources told the Dhaka Tribune it had a vision that, by 2012, it would ensure that no girl under 15 is married and would wipe out child marriage entirely by 2035.

The UNICEF is a co-host of the summit that is being organised by the UK government. The summit is aimed at mobilising domestic and international efforts to end female genital mutilation (FGM) and forced marriages (CEFM) within a generation.

According to the UNICEF’s latest findings Bangladesh has one of the highest rates of child marriages in the world. A recent survey indicates that 64% of women currently aged between 20 and 24 years are married before the age of 18 years, a number which, in 2011, stood at 65%.

Two decades ago, the rate of getting married under the age of 15 was 52% but this has now declined to 17%. Even a few years ago it was at 29%.

A government official said though the proportion of women marrying in their early teens and under the age of 18 is decreasing, this trend is still not up to expectations.

If the rate of decline in early mar-

riage remains the same, it will take more than 30 years to eliminate child marriages from the country, and the government wants it to happen much faster, said a source.

State Minister for Women Affairs Chumki said, child marriages are much more common in rural areas than in urban areas.

Capitalising on the backwardness of women in the rural areas, radical Islamist organisations campaign against the development and empowerment of women.

When the world hails the freedom of women and considers women’s participation a key to development and “Girls have the right to reach their

full potential” is the slogan of the first Girls Summit, Bangladesh’s Qawmi madrasa-based Islamic fundamentalist organisation the Hefazat-e-Islam is fanatically campaigning against women’s liberty, education and employment.

Hefazat-e-Islam Ameer (chief) Shah Ahmed Shafi said in one of his religious sermons, “Women should take care of furniture, bring up children and stay inside their homes.”

He preached to women: “You should stay within the four walls of your houses. Sit inside your husband’s home and take care of your husband’s furniture and raise your children, your boy children. These

are your jobs. Why do you have to go outside?”

Shockingly, he compared women with tamarind, a fruit that any man would like to taste.

Shafi also campaigns against sending women to work in garment factories.

He also said: “Women go to schools, colleges and universities; let them study till class four or five. After marriage, keeping records of their husbands’ finances is good enough for them.”

“We have overcome many challenges and this time we will also take on the challenges thrown at us by the Hefazat,” vowed Chumki. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

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Monday, July 21, 2014

Evicted sex workers Tangail sex workers demand to be allowed to return to their brothel spread across Tangail town n Our Correspondent, Tangail Sex workers evicted from Kandapara brothel have sought refuge and new work spaces in hotels and residential areas in Tangail town. Some have taken to walking the streets. Others reportedly have also migrated to adjacent areas such as Daulatdia, Jamalpur and Mymensingh brothels.

After hours, residential streets, offices, and school and college campuses get converted into sex work premises.

Those who have been able to afford the rent have presented their pimps as husbands and moved their work into houses in the area. Others rented homes by saying their husbands worked overseas.

Those who couldn’t afford to hire out spaces work in the open and sleep in the slums.

Residential hotel owners were reportedly doing brisk business after sex workers faced an ultimatum to vacate their brothel and were evicted after July 12, as the displaced sex workers sought spaces to live and trade in.

Hotels in Club Road, Victoria Road, Bara Masjid Road, Bot tola intersection in Tangail town, and Elenga Bus stand in Kalihati upazila faced a heavy influx of sex workers looking for a place to go.

A non-government organisation source said 37 of 56 house owners in Kandapara were female, while the remaining 19 were male. Some 803 rooms in the 56 houses served as the work and

living spaces of 991 sex workers. Three hundred and sixteen of these sex workers were minors.

Sources said a large proportion of the money sex workers earned went to brokers, the police and ruling party musclemen. The remaining money was distributed among the house owners and sex workers.

Drug pushers operated in the brothel to feed the needs of workers and their clients alike, creating a local marketplace for drug users in the town.

Two previous attempts to evict the brothel, in 2006 and 2010, were unsuccessful.

Activists of the Asamajik Karjkolap Protirodh Committee (committee to prevent anti-social activities) said they were unhappy to see evicted sex workers disperse and migrate to new locations. They claimed they had called for the eviction of the brothel for moral reasons but were stunned to find that sex workers had merely scattered across the township and restarted operations.

The self-appointed moral watchdog vowed to continue to confront the brothels and had called on law enforcement agencies to help them.

Law enforcers told the Dhaka Tribune they were trying to rout the proliferation of sex-work venues in the town.

Local residents said the sudden eviction without a rehabilitation plan for sex workers was unwise. l

Sex Workers Network, a platform promoting the rights of sex workers, forms a human chain in front of the National Press Club yesterday protesting the recent evictions at Tangail brothel RAJIB DHAR

n Adil Sakhawat Sex workers who were recently evicted from a brothel in Tangail, along with sex workers who were similarly evicted a year ago in Madaripur, demanded the right to return to their homes during a protest organised by the Sex Workers Network (SWN) of Bangladesh yesterday.

Sex workers and their civil society allies formed a human chain at the National Press Club yesterday where their spokespersons said they had been evict-

ed without warning and under duress.

Speakers said on July 10, the followers of the mayor of Tangail had given them a three-hour ultimatum to vacate the brothel premises. They said the decision to evict them was allegedly taken at a meeting between Mayor Shahidur Rahman Khan Mukti and local MP Amanur Rahman Khan Rana.

On July 12, the local mayor’s followers disconnected the power supply of the brothel area after the sex workers defied the ultimatum, said Chumki Be-

Mirpur OC among 10 sued for killing trader n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

Ten people including the officer-in-charge of Mirpur police station were sued yesterday in connection with the death of a garment leftover (jute) trader in police custody.

Dhaka’s Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md Jahrul Haque also ordered a judicial inquiry in the case after Mamtaz Sultana Luchi, the widow of victim Mahbubur Rahman Sujan, filed a case before the court.

The court recorded the deposition of the plaintiff and ordered authorities concerned to submit the inquiry report

by August 18.

The accused in the case are Mirpur OC Salauddin Ahmed, Sub-Inspector Zahidur Rahman Zahid, Assistant

12-year-old raped in capital n Tribune Report A 12-year-old girl was raped at her sister’s residence in Mirpur on Saturday.

The son of their landlord allegedly raped her. Police said they had arrested Polash, 40, the accused and sent the victim to DMCH for examination. Police also said finding the girl alone, Polash broke in, tied her hands up and put a cloth in her mouth. The girl managed to spit out the cloth and shouted for help. Hearing her scream, neighbours rescued her and handed Polash over to police, said Mirpur SI Afzal Hossain. l

Sub-Inspector Raj Kumar, constables Asad and Rashedul, and police sources Mithun, Nasim Sheikh, Foysal, Khokon and Palash.

Meanwhile, Salma Ali, executive director of Bangladesh National Women Lawyers’ Association (BNWLA), submitted an application to the court seeking security of the plaintiff.

In response to the plea, the court said the application would be forwarded to the Home Ministry.

Luchi filed the case under section 15 of the Torture and Custodial Death Act, 2013.

On July 17, another Dhaka court placed SI Zahid and his source on a fiveday police remand.

According to the case statement, a police team led by SI Zahid stormed into

Sujan’s house in Dhanmondi’s Shankar area early on July 13, and assaulted and tortured him in front of Luchi and their five-year-old son for money.

SI Zahid also demanded Tk2 lakh as monthly subscription to avoid arrest.

If they failed to pay the money, the police official had threatened him to implicate in a case for possessing illegal arms. Meanwhile, SI Zahid kept a pistol and 10 bullets on a table.

Later the three were taken to Mirpur police station on a police van. At that time, Luchi was also assaulted on the van. SI Zahid then told someone, presumably the OC, over the walky-talky that he had arrested the “culprit” and tortured him, and asked for further directives.

The case says later Sujan was killed

in custody at the police station.

Mirpur police arrested SI Zahid from Shialbari in Mirpur’s Rupnagar on July 17. He was withdrawn and closed to Rajarbagh Police Lines later in the day. An unnatural death case was filed with the police station.

Mirpur police received the post-mortem examination report of Sujan on July 16 evening. It said the businessman died due to “homicide” which prompted the authorities to arrest the sub-inspector.

Another accused in the case, OC Salauddin, was transferred to Mirpur police station from Kotwali in the face of protests by journalists in 2012. He was accused of assaulting a female justice-seeker on the judge’s court premises. l

Birth certificate mandatory for NID card n Mohammad Zakaria The Election Commission is making it mandatory for the National Identity card seekers to obtain their birth certificates first prior to their registration for NID. Besides, transgender population that earlier registered in the voter list choosing their gender either as “man or as “woman” would now be able to list their names as voters with self-identity.

The commission has amended the procedures relating to this and sent the proposed amendment to the Law Ministry, EC acting Secretary Sirazul Islam said.

HC: Enact safe food rules in two months n Nazmus Sakib The High Court yesterday asked the government to submit a report before it within two months after publishing a gazette notification on the safe food rules.

According to the Safe Food Act, 2013, the government can enact the rules to ensure health safety, which is the purpose of the statute. The bill was passed in parliament on October 7 last year.

Deputy Attorney General Al-Amin Sarker said as per an earlier order, he yesterday placed a report on behalf of the Food Ministry. The report said formulation of the rules was at the final stage. It was later sent to the Law Ministry for vetting.

The bench of Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Khurshid Alam Sarkar yesterday ordered the law secretary to submit a compliance report on publishing the gazette of the rules within two months.

However, the court told the lawyer that it would allow time-extension, if needed, to implement the order, Al-Amin said.

On May 26, the High Court bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice ABM Altaf Hossain asked the food secretary to place a compliance report on what measures the government had taken to make the Safe Food Act 2013 effective.

The bench passed the order following a writ petition filed by Legal Action Bangladesh. l

In the proposed registration, applicants must submit their birth registration certificates and the attested copies of PSC, JSC and SSC certificates with the form.

The lawmakers, elected representatives of local government body and other gazetted officers would be able to attest the papers.

The officials also said if anyone had more than one wife, he must attach his wives’ NID numbers with the form.

The commission would use the amendment from an NID to update the voter list in future, the EC officials said, adding that there was not virtually any

difference between the proposed registration form and the existing one.

The National Identity Registration (Amendment) bill was passed in the parliament in 2013 keeping the provision for providing all citizens with NID cards.

But the commission is yet to start collecting information of those worth getting NID. The proposed amendment will pave the way for the transgender community to register as voters using self-identity, added the EC officials.

There are around 10,000 transgendered people across the country. l

gum, vice president of SWN. After the power was cut, the brothel workers left the premises, fearing for their lives. “Now the evicted sex workers and their children have no place to live and they are shunned by mainstream society,” said ex-president of SWN, Shahnaz Begum.

The mayor of Tangail denied the allegations made against him. “I am not the type of person that would evict them from the brothel without offering some sort of rehabilitation. They

left the brothel willingly. Their organization never contacted me about their demands. They were evicted by their landlords,” said Mayor Shahidur Rahman Khan.

“House owners ordered the sex workers to leave the brothel because they were being harassed by the local people.

Forced eviction is a violation. How could I, an elected representative, force them out of their homes?” he questioned.

“I promise if they come to me for rehabilitation or for living space, then I will look into it,” Shahidur told the Dhaka Tribune over the phone.

His story was disputed by the sex workers’ group. Aklima Akhter Akhi, leader of the Tangail brothel, said: “I informed the local mayor many times about the threats made against us.

Even when sex workers were fleeing the brothel in fear for their lives and I asked the mayor to intervene, he did nothing.”

Some influential residents of the area tried to have the brothel evicted in 2006. But protests by sex workers and support from the district administration helped the sex workers remain where they were.

The protesters demanded the government and local administration step in to help them. They also raised issues regarding ambiguities in the law to be eliminated, for street-walking sex workers to not be arrested, for allocations in the national budget to improve the lives of sex workers and their children, and to protect sex workers from being evicted from brothels. Representatives of Care Bangladesh, Action Aid, ICDDRB, HASAB, UNAIDS, Save the Children, BLAST, and ASK participated in the human chain. l

EKRAM MURDER

Prime suspect Minar ordered to surrender n Nazmus Sakib The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court yesterday directed BNP leader Mahtab Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury Minar, the prime suspect in the Feni Awami League leader Ekramul Haque murder case, to surrender before a trial court within two weeks.

Responding to a state petition, Chamber Judge Hasan Foez Siddique passed the order after staying a High Court order that had granted Minar six months’ bail.

During the hearing, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, assisted by Deputy Attorney General Ekramul Haque Tutul, contended for the state while Barrister Rafique-Ul Huq pleaded for Minar.

The suspect was freed from Feni District Jail on July 17 after he got bail from the High Court bench of Justice Borhanuddin and Justice KM Kamrul Kader on health grounds.

Deputy Attorney General Tutul told the Dhaka Tribune: “There is a specific allegation against Minar in the first information report. Other accused also said in their statements that the BNP leader was involved in Ekram’s murder on May 20. So, Minar’s freedom may influence the investigation of the murder case.”

If Minar did not surrender within the stipulated time, the law enforcers could arrest him, he added.

Ekramul Haque, chairman of Fulghazi upazila in Feni, was killed in broad daylight in Feni town on May 20. l

4

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Monday, July 21, 2014

Indictment order in Jabbar case August 14 n Udisa Islam After conducting a hearing on the formal charges, the International Crimes Tribunal 1 yesterday fixed August 14 for passing order on whether to indict fugitive war crimes accused Mohammad Abdul Zabbar, an alleged Peace Committee chairman from Mothbaria, Pirojpur.

Prosecutor Rhishikesh Saha took part in the hearing on behalf of the prosecution while Mohammad Abul Hassan, state-appointed defence counsel, stood for Jabbar, a former Jatiya Party lawmaker.

The prosecution on May 11 submitted the formal charges against Jabbar, who had played a key role in forming

In another charge, the accused on October 6 of 1971 had detained 37 people of Angulkata and Mothbaria, and brutally tortured them the razakar force in Mothbaria. They brought five charges including crimes like murder, genocide, forced conversion and looting against the accused.

As per the formal charges, Jabbar was involved in the killing of more than 200 people, arson and loot in 557 houses and forcefully converted about 200 people. Most of the incident took place at Naligram, Tushkhali and Angulkata villages of Mothbaria.

Charge number four is related to crime of forceful conversion which the prosecution mentioned as genocide.

The tribunal in its observation asked whether a single incident could be recognised as genocide or it needed continuous mental harassment after conversion. The prosecution could not place any satisfactory answer on the matter.

The incident has taken place on a day in the last week of May of 1971 when Jabbar along with his accomplices forcefully converted 200 Hindus into Muslim in Tushkhali.

As per another charge, the accused on October 6 of 1971 had detained 37 people of Angulkata and Mothbaria, and brutally tortured them. As many as 22 persons were killed. The prosecution placed names of the martyrs in the formal charge.

The prosecution also could not answer when the tribunal asked them how they had accused Jabbar for charge number five. Prosecutor Rhishikesh said: “We will probe the crime. Jabbar is responsible for incitement, planning and direction of all the atrocities.”

The first charge says Jabbar was involved in the killing of two freedom fighters in Tushkhali and set fire to over 100 houses.

The tribunal on July 8 decided to carry on the trial in absentia and appointed the state counsel for the fugitive accused.

On May 12, the tribunal issued a warrant of arrest against Jabbar taking into cognisance the charges brought against him. But the law enforcement agencies failed to arrest him. The investigation agency handed over the probe report against Jabbar on April 29.

Meanwhile at the tribunal 2, the defence in the trial of Maulana Abdus Subhan continued cross examining 21st prosecution witness Md Shahidullah alias Shahid.

The tribunal adjourned the hearing until today leaving the cross-examination incomplete.

Following this, the defence resumed questioning Investigation Officer Monowara Begum in the trial against Syed Mohammad Qaisar. The IO placed her deposition on July 7 but the defence could not cross-examine her due to her illness. l

A girl falls asleep at Kamalapur Railway Station after waiting long hours with family members to buy advance tickets which went on sale from yesterday

MEHEDI HASAN

Bangladesh to conserve water potential for biodiversity n Mohosinul Karim Bangladesh is planning to preserve 17% of its terrestrial and inland water as well as 10% of coastal and marine areas – potential for biodiversity and ecosystem services – under protective area network within 2020.

“As per our commitment to international agreements, we need to declare 10% of our sea exclusive economic zone (EEZ) as Coastal and Marine Protected Areas (CMPAs) by the year

2020,” Fisheries and Livestock Minister Sayedul Hoque said yesterday.

He made the comment while inaugurating a workshop titled “Community-based Climate Resilient Fisheries and Aquaculture Development in Bangladesh.”

Department of Fisheries organised the two-day workshop at the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council in association with Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Global Environment Facility (GEF) in the capital.

Sayedul said: “The settlements of

maritime boundary disputes between Bangladesh and Myanmar in the eastern side and Bangladesh and India in the western side have given Bangladesh enormous right of economic jurisdiction for exploration, exploitation, conservation and management of all kinds of coastal and marine resources.”

The minister also said the country’s diversified fisheries ecosystem and fishing-based livelihood were subject to various climate-related issues.

“But the impact of climate change

on fisheries and aquaculture is yet to be assessed,” he said while urging for more research on this field.

DoF’s Director General Syed Arif Azad chaired the inaugural ceremony while Permanent Representative of FAO in Bangladesh Mike Robson also addressed.

Researchers and scientists from home and abroad, delegates from the FAO headquarters, development partners and officials from government and non-government organisations are attending the workshop. l

Plaintiff testifies in Savar businessman murder

Mozammel’s family to get compensation

n Nazmus Sakib

n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

The Supreme Court directed the Bangladesh Beverage Industries Limited yesterday to pay compensation to the family of Mozammel Hossain Montu, the former news editor of the daily Sangbad. He was run over and killed in the city in 1989 by a Bangladesh Beverage company truck.

A five-member bench headed by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain delivered the ruling, disposing of an appeal by the company. On May 11, 2010, the High Court ordered Bangladesh Beverage to pay a compensation of Tk20,147,000.

Following an appeal by the company, the Appellate Division reduced the amount of compensation yesterday. l

US delegation meets Forest Minister

In the witness box yesterday, plaintiff Amin Sarker burst into tears demanding justice for the killing of his elder brother Shamim Sarker by torture under police custody.

Dhaka’s Eighth Additional District and Sessions Judge Jewel Rana recorded his deposition and fixed today for cross-examination.

In his deposition, Amin said on June 6 last year the accused policemen had detained his brother and nephew from their microbus in Hemayetpur while returning home.

“They were taken to Shyamoli Paribahan’s Trinoyoni Petrol Pump. The police demanded Tk5 lakh from them for release, otherwise they were threatened to be shown arrested in a case.

Later the police tortured my brother to death, left the body at Mitford Hospital and sped away,” he said.

The accused – ASI Akidul Islam, Sub-Inspector Emdadul Haque, and constables Md Mofazzal Hossain, Md Ramjan Ali and Md Yousuf Miah of Savar model police station – were produced before the court during the hearing.

The court indicted them on November 18 last year. The IO of the case, OC of Savar police station Md Aminur Rahman, pressed the charge sheet on August 19. He named 45 people as prosecution witnesses.

Real estate businessman Shamim was picked up by a team of plainclothes police along with his nephew Saiful Islam, another businessman, from in front of Mollah CNG Pump near Hemayetpur Bus Stand.

Following the death of Shamim, the accused policemen were suspended and arrested on June 7.

Amin filed the murder case the same day. l

n Tribune Report

Customs officials display 41kg of gold bars seized at Dhaka airport yesterday. Story on Page 5

A high-power delegation from the USA’s Forest Service, NASA and USAID yesterday met Forest Minister Anwar Hossain Manju at his Secretariat office, says a handout.

During the meeting, the lawmaker sought technical help from the team for natural disasters caused by climate change, deforestation. In response, the delegation assured the minister of giving necessary help. They also discussed many bilateral issues in the meeting. l

‘Sardar Karim will remain as a luminary’

Organisations protest Israel's assault on Gaza

n Tribune Report

Organisations across Bangladesh yesterday protested the ongoing Israeli aggression against Palestinians, as the Israeli ground offensive went into its 13th day and the Palestinian death toll climbed to 410.

The organisations expressed solidarity with growing international humanitarian outrage at the rising death toll of Palestinians, mostly civilians, as Israeli heavy bombardment continued unabated and a Red Cross

Mosharraf remains in jail as SC stays bail

n Nazmus Sakib BNP standing committee member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain has to remain in prison as the Appellate Division yesterday stayed his bail in a money-laundering case.

Following the pleas of state and Anti-Corruption Commission, a five-member apex court bench led by its Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain halted his bail till September 2.

The petitioners were asked to file petitions against the High Court verdict, seeking the top court’s permission.

On July 9, the HC bench of Justice Md Rezaul Haque and Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore gave the BNP leader conditional bail. l

The role of Sardar Fazlul Karim in the struggle of the nation is particularly significant and he will stay as a leading light, said speakers yesterday.

Personalities like him devote their lives for the people and the nation, they said yesterday at a programme organised to commemorate the death of the noted philosopher.

The meeting was held at Mukti Bhaban where the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) is headquartered and was presided by CPB President Mujahidul Islam Selim.

Terming Sardar Fazlul Karim a versatile man, Selim said he never absurdly confined himself to the quest for knowledge.

“Rather, he saw the practice as part of the revolutionary activism which is why he never lost his way,” he said.

Selim also focused on Fazlul Karim’s lifelong sacrifice for liberation of the nation and emancipation of the people that included his 11-year imprisonment.

He said: “Sardar Fazlul Karim had an incredible contribution to the country’s struggle until he died.”

Adviser to the CPB Manjurul Ahsan Khan said Fazlul Karim successfully combined theories with practice.

“He was always outspoken in his style against the practice of escapism and fraudulence,” he said.

“He defied all his limitations to pursue his activities. He will lead the way for us in future as our guardian,” Manjurul added.

Kamal Lohani, president of Bangladesh Udichi Shilpi Gosthi, said Fazlul Karim enlightened the nation with his outstanding knowledge, prudence and writings. “His role in every struggle for the nation’s progress, including the 1971 War of Liberation, will always be remembered,” he said.

“With his demise, the nation has lost a great philosopher, a guardian, a great teacher, and a torchbearer. The loss is irrecoverable,” said Lohani.

Sardar Fazlul Karim has always been affiliated with CPB. Professor Shafiuddin Ahmed, Jubo Union leader Abdullah Al Kafee Ratan also addressed the programme among others. It was moderated by CPB central committee member Aniruddha Das Anjan. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Tribune Report

brokered two-hour truce to evacuate the wounded fell apart as Israeli troops resumed operations shortly after the ceasefire.

Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) formed a human chain in front of DRU building and Lamp-post held a separate protest in front of IDB Bhaban in Agargaon.

In Thakurgaon, Udichi Shilpi Goshthi Thakurgaon unit formed a human chain at Thakurgaon Chowrasta yesterday at noon while Udichi Magura unit staged a demonstration on the

deteriorating situation in Palestine at Chowrongee Square in Magura town.

Speakers at the different human chain protests made similar comments.

They called on the international community and upon Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, to intervene in the conflict and pressure Israel to halt its aggression.

Speakers at the Thakurgaon protest condemned the United States president, Barack Obama, for his government's support for Israel. l

Cheated migrants observe sit-in in capital n Rabiul Islam Nineteen migrant workers staged a sitin demonstration in front of Probashi Kallyan Bhaban in the capital’s Eskaton area yesterday, demanding compensation from the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment for alleged frauds committed by four recruitment agencies.

The recruiting agencies are Meghna Trade International Agency, Morning Sun Enterprises, East Bengal Overseas

and Idea International Overseas.

The protesting migrant workers placed complaints about the recruitment agencies to Khandkar Mosharraf Hossain, the minister, in January this year, after returning from Iraq empty-handed.

“The ministry assured us of compensation, but we have yet to get any,” Mozammel Hoque, one of the victims in the demonstration, said.

Mozammel said: “I, along three others, met Nurul Islam who told us to call off the sit-in, assuring us that we could be

compensated soon. The joint secretary threatened to hand us over to the law enforcers unless we stopped the protest.”

The workers threatened to continue the sit-in until their demand was met.

“We have taken the due time for the procedure and we have to follow rules,” Nurul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune. “But we will reach a solution soon,” he added.

The licences of the recruitment agencies would be cancelled in a week, said the joint secretary, adding that money deposited at the agencies would be forfeited. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

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Monday, July 21, 2014

Advance train tickets in Chittagong Vermicelli being made unhygienically sold out within two hours in Chittagong A total of 3,650 train tickets were allotted for the first day n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong Most train commuters in Chittagong yesterday failed to book advance tickets ahead of the Eid-ul-Fitr as all tickets allotted for the first day had been sold out in just two hours into the launching of the ticketing schedule, allegedly due to the illicit activities of ticket scalpers.

According to the railway sources, 3,650 train tickets were allotted for the first day, which were sold out within the first two hours after its launching at 9:00am.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, many commuters at Chittagong Railway Station alleged that scalpers had collected most of the tickets.

However, the station authorities claimed that scalping had reduced drastically this year due to strong vigilance of law enforcing agencies.

This correspondent, posing as a commuter, contacted some of the listed scalpers of Detective Branch of Chittagong Metropolitan Police, and

they all agreed to sell tickets of desired destinations at a much higher price.

Md Abul Kalam Azad, station manager of Chittagong Railway Station, however, claimed that the tickets were sold out in the first two hours of the first day as ticket seekers had been queuing at the station for the last 12 hours.

He further added Chittagong Railway Station sold 531 tickets for Subarna Express, 591 for Mahanagar Provati, 391 for Paharika Express, 304 for Chandpur Express, 559 for Mahanagar Godhuli, 439 for Meghna Express, 330 for Udoyn Express and 504 tickets for Turna Nishita Express on the first day.

“We have 30 CCTVs covering the entire station complex and three separate monitoring teams from Bangladesh Railway (East Zone) to look over the fair ticketing practices. Besides, different law enforcing agencies have their own teams in both on uniform and plaincloths. We also introduced a form for ticket buyers asking some quires to evade ticket scalping. So, the scalping

has not been so easy this year,” claimed Azad.

During visit in the railway station, Dhaka Tribune found long queues of ticket seekers before every booking counter.

Sources said most ticket seekers started queuing from Saturday night while many hired street children or station porters to keep stand in their place on the queue at night in exchange of money.

However, the sufferings of most commuters ended in vain when scalpers grabbed a large share of the allotted tickets using various methods.

Kazi Muzurul Islam, an employee of a private firm who had been standing in the queue some three hours before the bookings started, had failed to manage four tickets for Branhamanbaria.

He said that the frontier ticket seekers mostly purchased four tickets on average which was looking suspicious.

Sarwar Ahmed Jamil, a university student, said he found two tickets in-

n CU Correspondent stead of four tickets for Dhaka for July 24 while 10 persons in front of him consequently purchased four tickets each.

Ishaq, a shop owner and a listed ticket scalper, told this correspondent that he could manage five tickets for Dhaka for July 24, each costing Tk300 more than the actual price.

Similarly, Mohammad Helal, a shopkeeper of BRTC area in the city, also offered this correspondent three tickets of Sylhet at a much higher rate.

Divisional Commercial Officer Mizanur Rahman of BR (East) told Dhaka Tribune that scalping had occurred but this year its percentage was cut down heavily.

“If anyone purchase tickets standing in a line and sold them out of the station area, then what can we do?” he asked.

Recently, an intelligence report identified 48 scalpers, a list that included some 11 personnel of Railway Nirapatta Bahini. Three booking clerks of the railway station were also mentioned. l

A section of corrupt factory owners have been producing vermicelli in unhygienic condition in the port city putting public health at risk ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.

Sources said many seasonal factories have been allured into making adulterated vermicelli due to the high demand because of eid and marketing those elsewhere in country.

To check into the crime, law enforcers and authorities concerned have yet to take any mentionable measures.

The sources continued that about 150 vermicelli factories located at city’s Chaktai, Khatunganj, Asadganj, Rajakhali, Char Chaktai and Miakhan Nagar areas were producing vermicelli by using sub-standard raw materials like unrefined plum oil and fat, hazardous chemicals and toxic colour in unhygienic condition.

Besides, the factories have no Bangladesh Standard and Testing Institution (BSTI) license.

SM Harunor Rashid, president of Chaktai Silpo and Traders Association that enrolled 19 factories, said about

BIWTC offers special Eid services from Thursday

Discussion held on 89th birth anniversary of Tajuddin Ahmed n Abid Azad A discussion was held yesterday, marking the 89th birth anniversary of the country’s first prime minister and Awami League leader, late Tajuddin Ahmed.

The program was organised by Jatiya Ganotantrik League, National Awami Party (NAP) Bhashani and Kazi Aref Foundation on Sunday at the capital’s Bangladesh Shishu Kalyan Parishad Auditorium.

However, senior Awami League leader Suranjit Sengupta did not attend the programme though he was supposed to be there as chief guest.

“Although Tajuddin Ahmed played a vital role during the absence of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in the history of Bangladesh, he is not properly acknowledged and evaluated” said Ekushey Padak winner and renowned poet Asad Chowdhury.

“This is not only a shame for the martyrs and patriots who had sacrificed their lives for the liberation of Bangladesh, but also for the nation itself” he added.

Journalist and columnist Kabir Chowdhury Tonmoy, NAP Bhashani chief Mostak Ahmed Bhashani and Kazi Aref Foundation chief Kazi Masud Ahmed spoke at the programme, with Former Secretary Sirajuddin Ahmed in the chair. l

WEATHER

PARTY CLOUDY MONDAY, JULY 21 DHAKA TODAY TOMORROW SUN SETS 6:47PM SUN RISES 5:23AM FORECAST FOR TODAY Dhaka

32

26

Chittagong

29

26

Rajshahi

33

26

Rangpur

34

26

Khulna

31

26

Barisal

30

26

Sylhet

34

25

Cox’s Bazar

28

26

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW

36.2ºC Sylhet

25.2ºC Srimangal

Source: Accuweather/UNB

PRAYER TIMES Fajar Sunrise Zohr Asr Magrib Esha

3:59am 5:22am 12:05am 4:45pm 6:47pm 8:12pm SourceL IslamicFinder.org

250 mounds of vermicelli were being produced at the seasonal factories, most of which were using substandard ingredients.

While visiting the area, the correspondent found that the workers were seen making vermicelli in a grimy environment and drying them under the open sky without any dust preventive measures.

Few factories locked the main entrance in fear of mobile court drive; however, the workers continued work inside the factory to dodge the law enforcers.

A seasonal factory owner, seeking anonymity, said a section of businessmen have been marketing vermicelli using the labels of renowned companies.

“The BSTI and the district administration have conducted several joint drives on vermicelli factories in the city and fined 13 factories in Chaktai Khatunganj area for violating rules and regulations of production” said KM Hanif, assistant director of BSTI, Chittagong.

Due to the drives, such type of misdeed has lessened a little bit, the AD continued. l

n Our Correspondent, Barisal

The Sramik-Karmachari Oikya Parishad brings out a procession in the capital yesterday, demanding salaries and festival allowances ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr

RAJIB DHAR

41kg gold seized at Dhaka airport, four held n Kailash Sarkar

In separate hauls, customs officials seized 328 gold bars, weighing around 41kg, at the Shahjalal International Airport yesterday.

Officials from the Customs Department and the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) made the recovery and also arrested four men connected with the smuggling – Amirul Islam, 27, Mohammad Iqbal Hossain, 32, Mohammad Ali, 50, and Shariful Islam, 32.

Hossain Ahmed, Customs Department commissioner at the airport, said gold smuggling seemed to increase before Eid because the smugglers might have assumed that airport vigilance would be minimal.

The Customs Department recovered 278 gold bars weighing over 35kg in two

separate hauls and arrested three persons, while the CIID personnel seized 50 gold bars weighing around 6kg and arrested another person, according to airport sources.

In one of the hauls, the Customs Department officials recovered 270 gold bars weighing around 31kg around 3:30pm from a Biman Bangladesh Airlines plane coming from Thailand and arrested Mohammad Ali and Shariful Islam.

“Half of the gold was recovered from inside two seats of the flight, and the rest was found hidden in one of its washrooms,” said the customs commissioner.

“The flight came from Thailand, but we have information that the gold came from Dubai. The smugglers took a detour to Thailand to dodge the law enforcers.”

In another haul, the Customs officials seized eight more gold bars weighing 4.4kg from Amirul Islam after he arrived in Dhaka from Malaysia around 1am, he said.

Ishrat Jahan, assistant commissioner at the Customs Department, said four of the eight bars weighed 1kg each, and the rest weighed around 100g.

The CIID, on the other hand, seized 50 gold bars weighing 5.8kg from Iqbal Hossain, who came from Dubai around 2:30am, said Moinul Khan, director general of the CIID. Earlier on Saturday, members of Armed Police Battalion (APBn) arrested the imam of a Civil Aviation Authorities of Bangladesh (CAAB) mosque in the airport with 18 gold bars and US$18,240 after he arrived in Dhaka from Cairo, Egypt.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Hos-

sain Ahmed, the customs commissioner, said those who were detained at the airport with gold bars were usually just carriers of the smuggled goods, and the main perpetrators remained out of reach.

Gold smuggling in Bangladesh increased after India imposed restrictions on gold import in the country.

The Indian restrictions prompted gold smugglers to opt for the airports in Bangladesh, said sources at the airport and the intelligence agencies, adding that a section of airport officials and employees here also play key roles in the smuggling process.

Several hundred officials and employees of different government and non-government agencies have been arrested for their connection with gold smuggling, the sources said. l

Sub-standard materials being used in road repair n Our Correspondent, Rajshahi An allegation has recently surfaced that low quality elements are being used in the road reparation work in the district.

Locals alleged that the public money was being wasted as the roads may soon return to their previous sorry states due to the constant downpours of the ongoing rainy season.

While visiting, this correspondent found that the sporadic potholes on the Rajshahi-Chapainawabganj Highway and Anmura road were quickly being repaired using sub-standard brick chunks and sacks of sand to get the work done faster than the usual allotted time.

After receiving stern orders from the communications minister, the local roads and highways department started the road repair work ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr to ensure smooth travel conditions for the home-bound people.

Sources at Rajshahi Roads and Highways Department said the pot-

hole repair work on about 300km of highway across all eight districts under the region has been going for a couple of days. During the department’s visit, they noticed that the work had been started on many of the shabby roads.

However, no RHD officials were found at the repair spots.

Edul Ahmed, assistant deputy engineer of RHD, said no tender was floated for the ongoing renovation work.

To ensure the smooth movement of homebound travellers and to stop the roads from getting more damaged during the rainy season, the only work being conducted was the setting of bricks on the potholes.

When contacted, RHD (divisional) Executive Engineer AKM Shamsuddin refused to make any remarks about the allegation.

Another engineer, wishing not to be named, said the work was being rushed due to the minister’s order that it be done before the occasion of Eid. That was also why quality was not being ensured during the repair work. l

A garment worker puts bricks on the damaged portion of the Rajshahi-Chapainawabganj Highway at Godagari in Rajshahi yesterday AZAHAR UDDIN

The Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) will offer specially scheduled launch services for 13 days from Thursday July 24 until August 5, alongside regularly scheduled services, to meet the rush of Eid travellers, said the national river transport company.

Five vessels will be added to augment the number of regularly scheduled Dhaka departures, according to MA Matin, deputy general manager (commercial/passenger and ferry) of BIWTC. Barisal and Narayanganj BIWTC stations will provide special tug boats and piloting services and will be prepared for emergencies, the BIWTC official said.

BIWTC sources said four paddlewheel steamers, the PS Ostrich, PS Lepcha, PS Mahsud, PS Turn, and a screw-wheel motor vessel, the MV Banglaee, will provide extra tonnage on the routes to Chandpur, Barisal, Jhalakathi, Hularhut of Pirojpur and Morelganj of Bagerhat during the special Eid service period.

At least one regular and one special vessel will leave Dhaka each day, bound for different ports, said Gopal Chandra Majumdar, assistant general manager of BIWTC, Barisal.

Gopal Chandra said the vessels, with the exception of the MV Banglaee, will stop at Chandpur river port. He said ticket prices for BIWTC carriers will be the same for both regularly scheduled and specially scheduled trips. Aside from the MV Bangalee, he said cabin passengers’ tickets could only be collected from the Dhaka office and deck passengers’ tickets from their respective stations.

The BIWTC fare for a oneway journey on the 161 kilometre Dhaka-Barisal route will be Tk1050 per first class cabin seat, Tk630 per second class cabin seat and Tk170 per deck seat, compared with Tk1000-1100 per first class cabin seat (equivalent to second class on a steamer), Tk600 per sofa and Tk230-250 per deck seat charged by private services on the same route.

Sea trucks and the BIWTC vessel, LCT Kajal, will connect 11 stations on coastal routes under the Barisal, Bhola, Laxmipur, Noakhali and Chittagong districts including Maju Chowdhurir Hat, Manpura, Shashiganj, Ilisha, Charchenga, Boyarchar, Hatiya, Kumira and Guptachhara.

BIWTC coastal ships, MV Monirul Huq, MV Abdul Matin and MV BaroAwlia, will operate on regular and special Eid schedules to connect destinations under Hatiya, Sandwip, and Chittagong ports.

Additional ferry trips will also be made on the Paturia-Daulatdia, Mawa-Keorakandi, ChandpurShariatpur, Bhola-Lakshmipur and Laharhat-Veduria river crossings during the Eid holiday rush, BIWTC sources added.

Eid-ul-Fitr, the Muslim festival celebrating the end of Ramadan, will likely fall on July 29 or 30, and office holidays will start on July 25. l

6

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Nation

Monday, July 21, 2014

Extortion rampant on highway At Hatikumrul intersection in Sirajganj, 60-70 people collect toll, from four points n Our Correspondent, Sirajganj Extortionists are running rampant ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr and extortion in the name of a number of associations, including the Bus Owners’ and Workers’ Welfare associations, is prevalent on the Sirajganj highway.

Toll is being collected from hundreds of Dhaka-bound and northbound buses around the clock and law enforcers have been said to be turning a blind eye to these acts.

According to police sources, on June 6, the deputy inspector general of Rajshahi Range ordered a stop to extortion by traffic and highway police on the Sirajganj highway.

Although police complied with the order, extortion in the name of the Bus Owners’ and Workers’ associations goes unchecked.

The collectors get 10% of the money. Of the remaining amount, 51% goes to the associations and 49% is deposited in the workers’ fund Toll is collected in the name of welfare money in every northern district and on both sides of Bangabandhu Bridge.

Apart from welfare toll, the vehicles are required to pay regular tolls at a number of points, including Mahishluti, Boalia, Ulapara, Bhagabari and Chandaikona.

On July 14, Nur Amin, secretary of Bogra District Motor Workers’ Union, and Aminul Islam, acting general secretary of Bogra District Bus Owners’ Group, wrote to the local administration and several ministries, urging officials to take steps to stop the extortion in Chandaikona, but to no avail.

Toll is collected at makeshift toll collection points set up on the Sayedabad-Kadda-Hatikumrul highway in Sirajganj. On the south side of the highway, Rafiqul Islam collects toll from buses travelling to the north and on the north side, Montu Sheikh does

so from Dhaka-bound buses.

At the toll collection points on both sides of the highway, there are 64 people, 32 on each side, who collect the money. Several of them carry batons.

Although Tk50 is written on the toll receipt, Tk120 is collected from each of the buses.

“The collectors get 10% of the money. Of the remaining amount, 51% goes to the associations and 49% is deposited in the workers’ fund,” said Rafiqul.

At Hatikumrul intersection, 60-70 people collect toll, from four points, in shifts. Although welfare toll is not collected there, extortion goes on in the name of other associations.

“Tk130-280 is forcefully collected, though it is supposed to be Tk50, from north-bound buses in Bogra,” claimed Komol Paul, general secretary of Raiganj Upazila Workers’ Welfare Cooperative Society.

General Secretary of Sirajganj District Motor Workers’ Union Ansar Ali said a decision was made jointly by the workers’ and owners’ associations to collect Tk50 from vehicles as welfare toll.

“The rate is supposed to be maintained in all northern districts, including Sirajganj, but in most cases, non-compliance is observed. Failure to maintain consistency in the rate in other districts results in such an anomaly in Sirajganj,” he said.

Officer-in-Charge of Bangabandhu Bridge police station (west) Aminul Islam said there was no extortion by police on highway from June 8 after the June 6 directive issued by the DIG. “We learned about extortion by the workers’ and owners’ associations near Kadda traffic outpost. The extortionists there are very shrewd. They flee whenever we carry out drives there,” he said.

Traffic Inspector Mahbub Nabi said he had joined recently and would look into the matter.

Additional Superintendent of Police Moktar Hossain and Superintendent of Police SM Emran Hossain said no extortion would be allowed on the highway.

Despite this, extortion is rampant near Kadda traffic outpost. l

People from District Transport Owners-Workers Association collect extortion from different vehicles at the western side of Bangabandhu Multipurpose Bridge in Sirajganj yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Extortionists on the prowl in Bagerhat n Tribune Desk

Different criminal gangs making use of the names of the operatives of the outlawed parties have started widespread extortion in the district with Eid-ul-Fitr approaching.

These extortionists mainly make high bank officials their target this time to fulfill their aim of collecting high amount of money from the illegal source.

The criminals claiming themselves to be belonging to different outlawed parties demanded money from 26 officials of state-run Sonali Bank and Agrani Bank in Bagerhat and threatened to kill them or pick up their children if the demanded money is not paid.

Such threat for toll has struck many bank officials with panic following which they lodged complaints with the police stations concerned.

Meanwhile, police have already

beefed up security at the local branches of the banks and launched drives to catch the criminals issuing threats for toll through tracking down their phone calls.

However, no extortionists could be arrested as of Wednesday evening.

Intelligence officials’ sources said criminals introducing themselves as outlaws have been demanding toll from public representatives, engineers, politicians and businessmen over the last few days.

On Monday and Tuesday, the extortionists demanded toll ranging from Tk1 lakh to five lakh over mobile phone from 22 branch managers and four principal officers of Sonali Bank and Agrani Bank in the district, added the sources.

Managers of Sonali Bank’s branches in Sadar, Kachua, Morrelganj, Rampal, Mongla, Sharankhola, Chitolmari, Fakirhat and Mollahat and principal officers of its two zonal offices were

formed the higher authorities about the matter and wrote to the superintendent of police in Bagerhat requesting him to take necessary measures to ensure security for the threatened bank officers.

Similarly, Assistant General Manager M Anwar Hossain of Agrani Bank regional office in the district said extortionists demanded Tk1-5 lakh from six officials of the bank and threatened them with dire consequence unless the money is paid.

The Agrani Bank AGM said he has already informed the higher authorities about the incident.

However, contacted, Bagerhat Police Super Nizamul Haque Mollah claimed that leaders and activists of the outlawed parties have become inactive in the district due to continued drives by the law enforcers, and confirmed that threats for toll money was issued to the bank officials using the names of the operatives of the outlawed parties. l

Seven killed in road accidents in 4 districts

College principal assaulted by BCL men n Our Correspondent, Thakurgaon Some members of Pirganj Government College Chhatra League unit allegedly assulted the principal, vice-principal and teachers of the college on Saturday.

They vandalised rooms inside the science building, set fire to a teacher’s motorbike and tore a policeman’s uniform. The violence took place after the 11th class admission examination for the 2014-15 session.

The admission process for the 11th class started on June 23.

The college authority processed the admissions of 826 students, all under the merit list prepared by the Dinajpur Education Board from June 23-25.

On June 28, it started selecting students from the wait list for the remaining vacant seats.

However, some Chhatra League members, who were also students at the college, started pressuring the authority to admit students of their choice, even if they were not eligible for admission. In the wake of the pressure, the authority had halted the admission process.

After 20 days, it resumed the admission process on Saturday. Hearing the news, a group of students led by Pirganj Government College Chhatra League unit President Nur-e-Alam Siddique Biddut, assaulted Vice-Principal Md Moslem Ali. When Principal Abdur Raman and other teachers went to the spot, the students assaulted them too.

Upon being informed, police had brought the situation under control, said Officer-in-Charge of Pirganj police station Murshidul Karim.

Prof Abdur Rahman said they did not have any security and in this situation it was not possible to continue the admission process.

The college authority went to the police station to file a case and submitted the relevant papers. However, it was not certain if police had filed the case or not, he said.

The college authority has halted its admission process for the 2014-15 session for an indefinite period. l

among those who received threats from the extortionists over phones.

Six managers of Agrani Bank’s branches in Sadar, Kachua and Mongla upazila and two of its principal officers were also among the threat receivers.

Following such threat, families of the bank officials are said to be passing days in panic.

Assistant general manager Ashutosh Mandal of Sonali Bank regional office in Bagerhat said the criminals introducing themselves as officials of the Public Administration Ministry collected cell phone numbers of 18 bank officials on Monday.

Later, they introducing themselves as members of the outlawed parties demanded Tk 1-5 lakh from the bank officials over cell phone, AGM Ashutosh Mondol said, adding that the extortionists threatened to kill the bank officials if the demanded money is not paid within the set time.

Ashutosh said he has already in-

n Tribune Report

A makeshift market has been set up along the Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway at Sripur upazila in Gazipur ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr DHAKA TRIBUNE

Hawkers' markets at villages pop up ahead of Eid in Gazipur n Our Correspondent, Gazipur Hawkers' markets have popped up at villages along the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway in Sripur upazila of Gazipur ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.

Hawkers say they are selling their goods for quite a cheap price because they do not have to pay any toll like they would have had to if they had set up their shops at the traditional markets.

Shoppers say they are buying their goods for a reasonable price and so are happy with shopping at the makeshift markets.

A makeshift clothes market has sprung up on the premises of SK Garments Manufacturing Factory at Kewa Purbokhondo village in the municipality.

Khalilullah, a shopper, says people are being able to buy their clothes, in-

cluding shirts, lungis, sarees, t-shirts and pants, as well as bedsheets and children’s toys for reasonable prices from this market.

A lungi and chador seller, Dulal Mia, says: “I sell my products by actually hawking here and there. Since Tuesday, I have been selling lungi and chador here, making more than what I could from hawking every day.”

“I have been selling clothes amounting to around Tk15,000 on average since Tuesday,” he said, adding that he sold Tk10,000 worth on Tuesday and Tk 14000 worth on Wednesday.

He adds that the sales of clothes are increasing as Eid draws nearer.

A hawker, Mintu Mir, who has set up a shop next to Mita Textile at Gorgoria Masterbari, says he hawks from village to village, selling clothes. This time, he

has set up his shop here.

He said: “I am making very good profit since setting up my shop here on Tuesday. Sales are increasing every day. Though I failed to sacrifice any animal during the last Eid-ul-Azha, I hope to spend this Eid well.”

Another hawker, Ahmed Ali, who is selling imitation ornaments and children's toys at the same place, says: “It is quite profitable to sell goods at the popup markets rather than to hawk on foot.”

He explains that nobody comes to take any toll from such pop-up markets.

Most shoppers are either women or children and so clothes can be sold easily.

Sripur Municipality Councillor Kamruzzaman Mandal said: “No toll is imposed on those who are setting up makeshift markets in and around the villages. l

At least seven people were killed in road accidents in Gaibandha, Habiganj, Jamalpur, and Dhaka districts yesterday.

According to Gaibandha correspondent, an unidentified man was killed as a running train hit a three-wheeler in Shantahar-Lalmonirhat Rail Gate area.

Police sources said the man had been killed in the area around 1am as a local train had hit the three-wheeler when it was crossing the area.

When contacted, SI Mujibul Islam confirmed the incident.

A case was filed in this connection.

In Habiganj, a couple was killed in Natun Bazar area under Sadar upazila as a covered van rammed into an auto-rickshaw.

According to sources, Sunil Acharya and his wife Rina Acharya were killed in the area at noon when the covered van hit the rickshaw coming from the opposition direction.

On information, police recovered the bodies and sent them to hospital morgue. OC Ezajur Rahman confirmed the incident.

In Jamalpur, three college students

were killed as a tractor plunged into a large pothole at Merurchar in Sadar upazila.

According to sources, Jewel, Assadul and Sourav, students of Bakshiganj Keamutullah College, were critically injured when the tractor plunged into the pothole.

Later, they were sent to upazila health complex where doctors declared them dead.

Bakshiganj police station Officer-inCharge Montasir Rahman confirmed the incident.

According to Savar correspondent, an RMG worker was killed in an accident on the Nabinagar-Chandra Highway in Ashulia Baroipara area on the outskirts of Dhaka.

According to sources, Monowara Begum, worker of Dipized Express factory, died in the morning as a bus ran over her while she was going to the factory.

On information police recovered the body and sent it to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital morgue.

Ashulia model police station Officerin-Charge Badrul Alam confirmed the incident. A case was filed in this connection. l

5,000 CFT more wood recovered from UP chairman house Correspondent, n Our Khagrachhari Law enforcers yesterday recovered 5,000 cubic feet more of logs from the residence of a union parishad chairman in Gachhabil area under Manikchhari upazila in Khagrachhari district.

Manikchhari police station Officerin-Charge Md Shafiqul Islam said acting on a tip-off, a joint force team raided Gachhabil UP Chairman Abul Kalam Azad’s house around 8am and recovered the wood.

Later, they handed over the wood to Manikchhari Upazila Forest Officer, the

OC said. When contacted the upazila Forest Officer Noni Gopal confirmed the incident and said a case would be filed against the Chairman and his cohorts under the Forest Act. Earlier, 10,000 cubic feet of wood, worth about Tk1 crore, was recovered from the chairman’s go-down. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Long Form

Monday, July 21, 2014

7

The bear and the dragon

A Sino-Russian love story and a possible change in the global economic order

T

n Rajeev Ahmed he recent developments of the Sino-Russian relationship, the US-EU relationship, the US-Japan association, the Syrian crisis, Snowden’s asylum in Russia, and the Ukrainian political crisis in recent times, clearly punctuates the sweetness in the Sino-Russian affair, and the bitterness of the EU-Russia-US relationship.

Latest media observations suggest, the vibrant Sino-Russian ties can be very fruitful for South Asian nations, while the crumbling relationships between the US, the EU and Russia are ghastly destabilising the whole of Europe politically, economically, militarily, and even culturally.

The Western propaganda projects these events as “the new Cold War.” Pretty soon, this escalating political-polarisation of the world’s leading regionalities will have an impact in this subcontinent as well.

Let’s talk about a “motivated by business” love story between a crouching Russian bear, and a hidden Chinese dragon. Very recently, a startling news covered world wide stated that the world’s fastest growing economy, China, and the energy superpower Russia have sealed a 400 billion dollar gas deal.

This historical deal, so far, is the biggest between states. According to the deal, the Russian state-owned oil company Gazprom will supply 38 billion cubic metres of gas to the China National Petroleum Corporation for 30 years, starting from 2018.

This kind of deal is lucrative due to its huge volume, and its multi-dimensional applications and indications for the global political-economy of the future. For that reason, the deal is a major blow to the West while they were collectively busy showering economic sanctions on the Russian Federation regarding the Ukraine issue.

Why will there be a love story between a bear and a dragon? Which sky was the eagle flying in, if it considers itself the ruler of the jungle? What will happen to the historical half-century-long engagements between the eagle and the dragon? Why is the dragon suddenly in love with the bear after being at odds throughout the cold war era? Wasn’t the eagle concerned?

It is understandable that the US was concerned about the possible change in the global economic order. It has been pin-popinted by two American think-tanks. US foreign policy expert Zbigniew Brzezinski advocated the importance of Sino-US partnership in his 2009 write-up in the financial times, where he named that proposed relationship the Group of two, or the G2.

The article was titled “Group of two that could change the world.” In that advisory article, Brzezinski concluded by saying that the US should work on the expansion of the G8 to G14 or G16 which should include China and other major states in it, and creating an informal G2 of the US and China, paralleling relations between them with Europe and Japan.

A similar kind of thought was expressed by another US foreign policy pundit Henry Kissinger in his article published in The Independent on January 20, 2009. It was titled “The world must forge a new order or retreat the chaos” where he backed Brzezinskis idea by saying that the future global economic order will depend on how

The deal between Russia and China is lucrative due to its huge volume, and its multi-dimensional applications and indications for the global political-economy of the future China and America deal with each other over the next few years.

After a bitter-sweet, silent, long walk together on a road to prosperity for half a century, the unadventurous relationship between China and the US is now in the “pre-separation phase,” and eventually it will tear apart.

In defence of my statement, let me first focus on recent Chinese foreign policy statements. If you observe carefully, you will find that the essence of Chinese foreign policy mainly focused on ensuring a peaceful and harmonious environment for the country, creating encouraging conditions for its

state of the world.” So, there is no place for Ideological understanding.

And the final reason, of course, is the economy. China has a growing concern for their investment in the US (According to the IMF, China is currently the largest holder of foreign currency reserves, 54% of its $3.2tn in foreign reserves are in US dollars). In this regard, China has already warned the world that if America continues to borrow too much money to keep up with the excessive spending, the dollar may collapse. The White House had to reassure the world that investing in the US is the safest in the world.

Interestingly, the historical rivalry between Russia and China ended when the world badly needed to get rid of the “West-led” globalisation for its nonsuccess, tyranny, and bedlam

economic growth, and “not interfering” in international conflicts which do not affect its vital interests directly or indirectly.

So, we see there is no room for China to take the world’s “clash-burden” on its shoulders solely with the US. China has no interest in getting involved even in the Indo-Pak crisis, the Arab-Israel conflicts, or any other conflict as an ally of the US. China has a small peacekeeping force which is operating under specific United Nation programmes. On the other hand, China may not be able to afford a war economy with the US in the foreseeable future.

Secondly, the human rights groups, working in the US and/or outside, who voice frequently against China, and want Tibet and Taiwan’s independence, can get exasperated by that daydream of the US and China pact.

Thirdly, NATO partners of the US will not accept any close rapprochement towards Beijing. Any utopian Sino-US relationship could hatch brand new possibilities for inter-state relations, and may cause the EU to incline towards Russia.

Fourthly, the conflict of ideals between the US and China on capitalism and communism will not perish in the near future; while a wing of the US promotes “democracy” worldwide, their other wing is busy in branding China as “the largest authoritarian

Even then, the White House assurance was not enough to relieve or ease the apprehension in China.

Understanding the gaping hole between the current position of the respective systems, and the dark future of the few times the opposing ideals have tried to co-operate with the US-led western politico-economic system, the Russian Bear and the Chinese dragon have come closer to form a new economic bloc that can be the most scientific model that has the potential to bring sustainable, mutually prosperous results.

For instance, China has geared up the Shanghai Cooperation organisation (SCO) and BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South-Africa) which are supposed to be the alternatives to the US-lead alliances such as G7.

Amongst those mutual prosperity focused organisations, the BRICS has all chances to become the most influential of all international associations. It includes Russia, the energy superpower, the center for knitting the interests of major non-western centers of a multi-polar world.

But, history tells us that China and Russia were rivals in the cold war period. Interestingly, their historical rivalry ended when the world badly needed to get rid of the “West-led” globalisation for its non-success, tyranny, and bedlam.

Recently, Russian representation

and attention in the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and EAC (East Asia Community) indicates that the Russian federation is more interested in the Asian relationship than the “expansionist” EU. There are strong reasons for the Sino-Russian declination from the European Union as well. The geographical distance between China and Europe is very far from that of Russia. Russia has the world’s biggest conserved energy and China needs more energy to support its development programmes to keep rolling and progress.

On the other hand, if we put some light on the EU, we can clearly see that the recession riddled European Union needs massive changes to its policies because of its failure to protect all of their member countries from the decade long economic downturn.

Only Germany sees steady economic growth rate under the umbrella of the EU, but other countries such as Italy, Greece, Portugal, and Spain have been suffering. However, some western academics proposed that Germany – the leader of EU should take the responsibilities for other nation’s sufferings. The recent EU poll suggested a huge uprising of euro-skeptic parties in Germany, France, Spain, Greece, and the UK. It is a clear sign of people’s dissatisfaction over EU policies, where countries like Greece suffer from 24% unemployment. Taking into account these adverse situations for long-lasting mutual growth, it was very clear to China that Russia is a more suitable candidate for a long-term relationship.

On the other hand, the latest Ukraine crisis has added salt to the EU-Russia relationship which was already suffering first degree burns due to the Syria conflict. Now, the EU and the US are jointly and aggressively trying to expand their sphere of influence in Ukraine, a country very important for Russian security, a country in which 40% of the citizens are ethnic Russians.

As a result, Russia voiced against that US-EU made conflicts in Ukraine which have already allowed running riots in favour of Neo-nazis, taken a thousand lives, erupted into civil war, and has torn the country to shreds.

Later, the western powers collectively threw economic sanctions against Russia for supporting eastern Ukrainean freedom fighters, and these sanctions created a collective push for Russia to move towards Asia briskly, and make strong ties with the eastern nations and states for long-term mutual benefits.

The Gazprom Gas deal with China is without doubt a positive consequence of the failure of US-led “Globalisation” effort and a success of the multi-polar

doctrine. So, the romantic relationship between a Bear and the Dragon was forced to be unavoidable.

What is next? Only the prelude of the love story between a crouching bear and a hidden dragon has been published, and the beginning chapters indicate that the eagles – US-led western powers – are villains who tried to put obstacles in the name of “democracy” and economic sanctions against China and Russia.

Let’s wait for the rest of the story.

But, keep it in mind that the essence of Sino-Russia multi-polarity has no room for aggression, on the other hand it unleashes the vigor of self-determination in culturally diversified places and countries.

So, there is no doubt that this love story between two countries will be a romantic and long-lasting one because of its sustainable ideology against the US-led uni-polar world concept.

In this qualitative global context, the increasing centre power of emerging economic partnerships of China, Russia, India, South Africa, and Brazil are extremely important for the world’s prosperity, economic stability, and peace.

This is the right time for Bangladesh, when we should dissolve and resolve the differences with our neighbors like India and Myanmar to prepare our country for the new multi-polar challenges and opportunities

Even for a foreign trade dependent country like Bangladesh, the ties with India, China, and Russia need to be tightened to attain a sustainable growth rate, to effectively resolve the disputes with India. And bilateral ties with other BRICS countries should go through intensive review.

This is the right time for Bangladesh, when we should dissolve and resolve the differences with our neighbours like India and Myanmar to prepare our country for the new multi-polar challenges and opportunities. We should bear in mind that Bangladesh, like so many other developing countries, has the huge financial and business dependency on the west. l Rajeev Ahmed is a freelance contributor.

REUTERS

8

DHAKA TRIBUNE

World

Monday, July 21, 2014

P R AY E R A N D R E M E M B R A N C E F O R M H 1 7 V I C T I M S 1

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4 (1) Young Indian school children of Bright Academy hold candles and prayer messages for the passengers of the crash of a Malaysia Airlines plane carrying 298 people, in Siliguri. (2) Family pictures are displayed showing Arnold Huizen (L), his wife Yodricunda Theistiasih Titihalawa (R) and their daughter Yelena Clarice Huizen (C), Indonesian victims of Malaysia Airlines MH17 crash in Jimbaran, on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali. (3) A woman places flowers at the base of a large sign for the 20th International AIDS Conference, as a tribute to those killed in the Malaysia Airlines flight, in Melbourne. At least six people aboard the flight were heading to the AIDS conference. (4) Flowers and plush toys are left at the site of the crash of a Malaysia Airlines plane in Grabove, in rebel-held eastern Ukraine AFP/REUTERS

Bodies put on train for rebel city n AP, Hrabove

Armed rebels forced emergency workers to hand over all 196 bodies recovered from the Malaysia Airlines crash site and then had them loaded onto refrigerated train cars bound for a rebel-held city, Ukrainian officials and monitors said yesterday.

The surprising, rapid-fire developments yesterday morning came after a wave of international outrage over how the bodies of plane crash victims were being handled and fears that the armed rebels were tampering with evidence at the crash site.

Ukraine and the separatists accuse each other of firing a surface-to-air missile at Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 as it flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur some 33,000 feet (10,000 meters) above the battlefields of eastern Ukraine.

Both deny shooting down the plane. All those onboard the flight — 283 passengers and 15 crew — were killed.

Ukraine says Russia has been sending sophisticated arms to the rebels, which Moscow denies. The crash site is close to the Russian border.

The rebels have been strictly limiting the movements of international monitors and journalists at the crash site, and Ukraine’s Emergency Ministry said its workers were laboring under duress and forced to hand over the

bodies to the armed rebels.

Associated Press journalists saw reeking bodies baking in the summer heat Saturday, piled into body bags by the side of the road or still sprawled where they landed in the verdant farmland in eastern Ukraine after their plane was shot out of the sky Thursday.

By Sunday morning, AP journalists saw no bodies and no armed rebels at the crash site. Emergency workers were searching the sprawling fields only for body parts.

It was immediately not clear Sunday if the rebels and the Ukrainian government were working together or at odds with each other on the bodies — and from their comments, many of officials didn’t appear to know either.

Nataliya Khuruzhaya, a duty officer at the train station in Torez, 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the crash site, said she saw emergency workers loading plane victims’ bodies Sunday morning into five sealed, refrigerated train cars.

She said the train was scheduled to head to the town of Ilovaysk, 35 kilometers (22 miles) further east toward the Russian border, but no instructions had been given about when it would leave or any possible destinations beyond Ilovaysk.

Russian news agencies said the bodies were heading to the rebel stronghold of Donetsk. Ukrainian officials say

they expect to have the bodies eventually delivered to government-held city of Kharkiv, but it’s unclear if the rebels will agree to do so.

Earlier, Ukrainian Emergency Ministry spokeswoman Nataliya Bystro said recovery workers in the rebel-held territory were forced to give the bodies to the armed gunmen and didn’t know where they were going.

“Where they took the bodies — we don’t know,” Bystro told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Separatists were not immediately available to comment on her statement.

Alexander Pilyushny, an emergency worker combing the crash site for body parts Sunday morning, told the AP it took the rebels several hours to take away the bodies on Saturday. He said he and other workers had no choice but to hand the bodies over to the rebels.

“They are armed and we are not,” Pilyushny said. “The militiamen came, put the bodies onto the trucks and took them away somewhere.”

Neither Bystro nor Pilyushny could explain what happened to the 102 bodies of plane victims that have not yet been recovered.

The US has pointed blame for downing the plane at the separatists, saying Washington believes the jetliner was probably downed by an SA-11 missile from rebel-held territory and “we can-

not rule out technical assistance from Russian personnel.”

An Associated Press journalist saw a Buk missile launcher in rebel-held territory close to the crash site Thursday just hours before the plane was brought down.

The latest US intelligence assessment suggests that more than one missile system was given to the separatists by the Russians in the last week or so. But both Russia and the rebels vehemently deny any role in downing the plane.

In a blistering article for the Sunday Times, British Prime Minister David Cameron called the attack a “direct result of Russia destabilizing a sovereign state, violating its territorial integrity, backing thuggish militias and training and arming them.”

“We must turn this moment of outrage into a moment of action,” he wrote.

In a coded rebuke of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European leaders who have blocked efforts to impose tougher sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin for Russia’s actions in Ukraine, Cameron said Europe must now “respond robustly.”

“For too long, there has been a reluctance on the part of too many European countries to face up to the implications of what is happening in eastern Ukraine,” Cameron wrote. l

UN mulls resolution on Ukraine crash site access n Reuters, United Nations The UN Security Council is considering a draft resolution to condemn the “shooting down” of a Malaysian passenger plane in Ukraine, demand armed groups allow access to the crash site, and call on states in the region to cooperate with an international investigation.

Australia - which lost 28 citizens - circulated a draft text, seen by Reuters, to the 15-member Security Council late on Saturday and diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it could be put to a vote as early as Monday.

The draft resolution “demands that those responsible for this incident be held to account and that all states cooperate fully with efforts to establish accountability.”

It “condemns in the strongest terms the shooting down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 ... resulting in the tragic loss of 298 lives” and “demands that all states and other actors in the region refrain from acts of violence directed against civilian aircraft.”

The United States and other powers have said the plane was likely brought down on Thursday by a surface-to-air missile fired from rebel territory.

Can Malaysia Airlines salvage its brand? Islamic State claims wave of Baghdad bombings the past three years. The disappearance of Flight 370 with many Chinese passengers on board also caused a backlash in the crucial China market. Experts don’t see any short cuts to recovery.

Is Malaysia airlines to blame?

n Agencies Malaysia Airlines is in uncharted territory after the disappearance of Flight 370 in March with 239 people aboard was followed this week by the downing of another of its jets, carrying 298 people, over Ukraine. Before the disasters the carrier had among the worst financial performance of any airline. An even bigger question mark now hangs over the future of Malaysia Airlines, with its brand tied to two almost unfathomable tragedies.

How bad is the situation for Malaysia Airlines?

Other airlines have come back from disasters but none have experienced two tragedies of such magnitude within the space of four months.

“There’s no historical precedent,” said Mohshin Aziz, aviation analyst at Maybank.

“It’s completely not their fault, but right now if you ask any customers would they fly with Malaysia Airlines, they’d just have that negative sentiment of I’d rather choose something else.”

The airline was already losing about $1.6m a day and has been in the red for

The airline was blasted for its erratic response to the disappearance of Flight 370 en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.

Because the whereabouts of the plane was unknown, Malaysia Airlines had little meaningful information for the families of passengers. Communication of what information it did have was often mishandled, compounding the anguish of relatives.

The plane, believed to have crashed far off course in the southern reaches of the Indian Ocean, still hasn’t been found.

The fate of Flight 17, which was heading to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam, is far more clear-cut. It was shot out of the sky over an area of Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian separatist rebels.

“They are a victim this time, so it is very different from a situation where they have no answers,” said Caroline Sapriel, managing director of CS&A, a company that specializes in reputation management in crisis situations. “The whole world is going to be sympathetic to them.”

But another narrative questions why airlines continued to fly over the conflict zone.

Malaysia Airlines may face more scrutiny about its risk management decisions once the initial shock of the tragedy dissipates.

How should Malaysia Airlines handle the latest tragedy?

Clear, consistent and compassionate communications are essential, experts say.

“I think their immediate response

has been consistent and caring. They are communicating on Twitter and Facebook, they are definitely going out on the commercial media,” said Sapriel of CS&A. That’s important, she said, because “if they weren’t getting the immediate response right, then it just would be the nail in the coffin for them.”

Others say that being open and transparent, continuing to assist the families of passengers and crew members while also running a punctual and reliable business will help the airline build on the sympathy about its plight.

What can the airline do to rebuild its brand?

The airline needs far reaching changes. “I think the Malaysian government is going to look at it eventually and say ‘Do we keep this same name or do we rebrand them?’ Maybe they will feel that they need a new name,” said Sapriel, the reputation management expert.

Because of its financial struggles, some analysts had advocated the sale of the state-owned airline to bring in fresh capital, ideas and expertise. Like all international airlines, Malaysia Airlines needs to renew its fleet with modern jets to be competitive, which requires substantial investment.

Its capacity to make those investments is further compromised if travelers avoid the airline because of the disasters. But even a partial sale of the airline is unpopular with the airline’s union, the government and sections of the Malaysian public.

There are other ways it could make a break with the past, such as installing a new executive leadership. “Malaysia needs to bring in a new CEO and head of flight operations to restore employee and consumer trust in the airline,” said travel consultant Henry Harteveldt of Atmosphere Research. l

n Reuters, Baghdad The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a wave of car bombs in mostly Shi’ite areas of Baghdad which killed at least 27 people on Saturday.

The hardline Sunni Islamist organisation which has led an offensive across northern and western Iraq said two of the explosions were suicide missions by bombers it named as Abu al-Qaaqaa al-Almaani and Abu Abdul Rahman al-Shami - noms de guerre which suggested they were from Germany and Syria.

Saturday’s blasts were the deadliest in the Iraqi capital since the Sun-

ni insurgency erupted in the northern city of Mosul and then swept through Sunni regions of Iraq towards Baghdad.

The first suicide bombing took place at a checkpoint where soldiers, police and Shi’ite volunteer fighters were gathered, the Islamic State said in an Internet statement. The other struck in Kadhimiya, the site of a major Shi’ite shrine.

At the same time two car bombs were set off in the west of the capital.

“The toll of these blessed operations was the killing and wounding of 150 people,” the statement said, warning of greater attacks to come. l

Heavy clashes erupt around Tripoli airport n Reuters, Tripoli Heavy fighting has erupted around Tripoli International Airport, where rival militias have been battling for a week for control of the site, local residents said yesterday.

The fighting broke out just days after one powerful militia said it was ready to put an end to heavy clashes that had deepened fears the north African country is becoming a failed state. There were no immediate reports of casualties from Sunday’s clashes. Three years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya’s fragile government is failing to assert authority

over heavily armed brigades of former rebel fighters who have often clashed over political and economic power.

The airport stand-off pits fighters from Zintan in the northwest, who controlled the airport since the ousting of Gaddafi, against armed groups tied to Misrata, a western coastal town. Both are loosely allied with competing Islamist and nationalist political factions.

The clashes have all but suspended international flights from Libya, damaged more than a dozen planes parked there and prompted the United Nations to pull its staff out of the North African country because of security fears. l

US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said on Friday that Washington could not rule out Russian help in firing the missile.

Russian President Vladimir Putin urged the pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine to cooperate and insisted that an international investigation must not leap to conclusions. Moscow denies involvement and has pointed a finger at Kiev’s military.

Ukraine and its Western allies accuse Moscow of fueling a pro-Russian uprising that threatens to break up the former Soviet republic of 46 million people. Russia denies orchestrating the unrest and says Ukraine’s attempts to end it by military force are making the situation worse.

The draft UN resolution “calls on all states and actors in the region to cooperate fully in relation to the international investigation of the incident, including with respect to immediate access to the crash site.”

It “demands that the armed groups in control of the crash site and the surrounding area refrain from any actions that may compromise the integrity of the crash site and immediately provide safe, secure, full and unfettered access to the site and surrounding area.” l

Arab League calls Israeli attack in Gaza ‘war crime’ n Reuters, Cairo The head of the Cairo-based Arab League, Nabil el-Araby, described Israeli attacks on Gaza that killed at least 60 Palestinians on Sunday as a «war crime.”

Palestinian witnesses and officials said at least 62 Palestinians were killed in shelling of a Gaza neighbourhood that left bodies strewn in the streets and thousands fleeing for shelter.

The Israeli military said militants from Gaza’s dominant Hamas group responded with anti-tank missiles and heavy weapon fire in some of the bloodiest fighting since Israel launched its Gaza offensive 13 days ago.

“El-Araby (...) considered Israel’s terrible shelling and ground attack operations in the neighbourhood of Shejaia as a war crime against Palestinian civilians and a dangerous escalation,” the Arab League said in a statement on Sunday.

Israel says its air strikes, naval barrages and ground assault in Gaza, controlled by Islamist group Hamas, aim to halt rockets fired into Israeli territory. Analysts say its estimates of the size of Hamas’ remaining arsenal will be a key factor in its deliberations on how long to continue the offensive.

A two-hour humanitarian ceasefire in the area on Sunday, agreed by both sides at the request of the International Committee of the Red Cross, broke down within minutes with each side blaming the other. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

World

Thai students mobilise to resist junta rule n AFP, Bangkok Huddled around a table at a university canteen, six Thai students draft a newsletter celebrating democracy – a meeting that would have barely attracted a glance two months ago, but could now land them in jail.

They are part of a small but growing troop of undergraduates uniting in Bangkok to resist the curtailment of civil liberties under military rule.

“We should write about what isn’t being reported,” says Achara, a 24-yearold languages student spurred into action by the junta’s censorship of domestic media.

Democratic rights. Students and the coup. The legality of the takeover. Just some of the ideas she lists in a notepad whose cover reads “Big things often have small beginnings.”

These small and sporadic acts of resistance by students – from launching alternative publications to group readings of George Orwell’s anti-authoritarian novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four” – are among the few public expressions against the takeover.

That is because even a typical campus debate on a newsletter carries a huge risk in post-coup Thailand, where the line between what the junta deems lawful and illegal is increasingly blurry.

Paradorn, a 20-year-old political sciences student, was arrested last month for handing out sandwiches after police thwarted a picnic rally.

“I’ve seen authoritarian rule in Thailand before. But I was shocked that 350 officers turned up,” he says at a meeting of anti-coup friends at another Bangkok university.

Monday, July 21, 2014

Japan’s Abe vows dialogue with Russia’s Putin in softer line than West n Reuters, Tokyo

This June 1 file photo shows a banner carrying a drawing depicting Thai army chief General Prayut Chan-O-Cha and a reference to George Orwell’s famous dystopian novel ‘1984’ is displayed during a gathering at a shopping mall which was broken up by security forces in downtown Bangkok AFP

‘Freedom taken’

Despite agreeing to forsake further political activity and face trial at a no-appeal military court if he breaches the terms of his release – conditions other arrested students have also had to sign – Paradorn remains defiant.

“I wasn’t arrested because I did something wrong... My rights and freedom have been taken away. I cannot accept a system that wants to destroy democracy.”

Two days before it seized power on May 22, the army banned political assemblies of more than five people. It has responded increasingly aggressively to any form of protest.

In June, police arrested a lone student reading “Nineteen Eighty-Four”

and eating a sandwich, while others have been detained for displaying a three-finger salute from the “Hunger Games” films – symbols of defiance against the junta.

Social media has become another target, with police trawling for dissenting voices, and authorities have even offered citizens a financial reward if they submit evidence linking someone to anti-coup activity.

This crackdown on freedom of expression has forced students to become more innovative in their campaigns.

To avoid detection, they rely on encrypted mobile apps, secret Facebook groups and even fake identities to plan protests – changing meeting times and locations at the last minute. l

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged to continue dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin, taking a softer line with Moscow than some Western powers after the shooting down of a passenger jet over Ukraine.

Abe has worked to improve Japan’s relations with resource-rich Russia, a centerpiece of his foreign policy.

“Russia should commit constructively to various international issues as a responsible state. To help that I will continue dialogue with President Putin,” Abe said in a speech carried in Japanese media.

“Any conflict should be solved not by power but by diplomatic means based on international law,” he said.

Ukraine has accused Russia and pro-Moscow rebels of destroying evidence to cover up their guilt in the shooting down of the Malaysia Airlines jet that has intensified a showdown between the Kremlin and Western powers.

Calling it “an outrage of unspeakable proportions,” US President Barack Obama stopped short of directly blaming Russia for the incident but warned that he was prepared to tighten economic sanctions.

Britain said on Sunday it would seek to persuade other European nations at an EU meeting on Tuesday to ratchet up sanctions on Russia.

World leaders have called for a rapid investigation into the shooting down of the airliner which was carrying 298 passengers. The incident could mark a pivotal moment in deteriorating relations between Russia and the West.

The United States and Britain said a surface-to-air missile appeared to have been fired from rebel-held territory.

In his first year in office, Abe met with Putin five times, while failing to secure a summit with the leaders of neighboring China or South Korea.

‘Russia should commit constructively to various international issues as a responsible state. To help that I will continue dialogue with President Putin’

Closer ties between Tokyo and Moscow, despite a territorial dispute dating from the end of World War Two, are driven by mutual energy interests, as Russia plans to at least double oil and gas flows to Asia in the next 20 years.

Japan has been forced to import huge volumes of fuel to replace lost energy from its nuclear power industry, shut down after the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

Abe also wants to advance talks on the dispute over islands north of Hokkaido, which Russia says are part of the southern Kuriles but Japan claims as its Northern Territories. l

9 Strongest storm in decades kills 18 in south China n AP, Beijing The strongest typhoon to hit southern China in four decades has killed 18 people, the government said yesterday, while in the Philippines the death toll from the storm’s earlier destruction rose to 94.

Typhoon Rammasun killed nine people and left five missing after hitting Hainan island on Friday off China’s southern coast, the civil affairs ministry said in a statement. Nine others died later in the Guangxi region as the storm plowed into the mainland on its way north to Vietnam.

The typhoon is the strongest to hit southern China in 41 years, according to the China Meteorological Administration. Wind speeds reached 216 kilometers (130 miles) per hour. l

Myanmar finds rape case causing unrest was faked n AP, Yangon Authorities in Myanmar announced yesterday that the alleged rape of a Buddhist woman by two Muslim men that triggered religious violence in the central city of Mandalay was fabricated.

Rumors that teashop owners had raped one of their employees set off attacks on Muslims and mayhem over several days earlier this month. One Buddhist and one Muslim man died and 14 other people were injured, and property was damaged.

A Home Ministry announcement published Sunday in the Myanma Ahlin newspaper said a third Muslim man wanted to frame the two shop owners for rape charges that he was facing. l

Late monsoon starts Indian farmer’s ‘journey to hell’ n Reuters, Shamli, India Indian farmer Asghar Bhura scrapes a living by growing sugarcane, but this year’s late monsoon has left his tiny plot parched and he will earn nothing from his harvest.

Bhura will have to go and work for a big grower to feed his family of six, making 250 rupees ($4.00) a day, as he did when India suffered its last severe drought in 2009.

“I have no option but to become a bonded labourer just to feed my family one meal a day,” said Bhura, 50, looking at his stunted crop on his third of a hectare of land.

Bhura’s borderline existence is shared by many farmers in the district of Shamli, in the sugarcane belt of India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, three hours’ drive north of the capital New Delhi.

With this year’s monsoon rains several weeks late, the world’s second-largest sugar and rice producer is on the verge of widespread drought in the face of a developing Pacific Ocean weather event known as El Nino, which is often associated with drought in South Asia.

In good years, the four-fifths of local farmers who tend a hectare or less, can get by. In bad years, they slide into debt. Some lose their land. Others are forced into servitude.

Hunger for land and water feeds social tensions. In nearby Muzaffarnagar, communal clashes last year killed about 65 people, most of them Muslims, and displaced thousands more.

India’s farm sector accounts for about 14% of the economy but two thirds of its 1.2 billion people depend on farming to live. Most poor live on the land. Areas that lack irrigation are most vulnerable when the rains fail.

Although the national weather office said on Thursday that the monsoon had covered all of India, rainfall in the first six weeks of the wet season has been more than a third below normal.

A poor monsoon could raise imports of cooking oil to India, the leading buyer of vegetable oils. The country may also cede its position as top rice exporter to Thailand. Cane and basmati rice fields in Shamli, a district carved out of Muzaffarnagar three years ago, showed gaping cracks on a recent visit.

“For me, my wife and two sons and two daughters, the journey to hell has already started. Our stomachs will be half empty soon,” said Bhura, whose gaunt face and unkempt beard betrayed anxiety and exhaustion.

Even if the monsoon revives during the rest of the planting month of July, farmers here expect losses of at least a fifth in summer-sown crops like rice, corn, cane, soybean and cotton.

India harvested 348m tonnes of cane last year, with an average sugar content of 11%. Productivity in Uttar Pradesh typically lags that of other growing regions like subtropical Maharashtra due to poorer soils and a less favorable climate. Another two weeks without rain could lower both tonnage and sugar content, possibly to 8%, local farmers reckon. l

A farmer plants rice saplings next to a sugarcane crop at a field in Shamli, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh July 19. With this year’s monsoon rains several weeks late, the world’s second-largest sugar and rice producer is on the verge of widespread drought in the face of a developing Pacific Ocean weather event known as El Nino, which is often associated with drought in South Asia REUTERS

Indonesia’s democracy faces test as tally comes in n AP, Jakarta

After an ugly presidential election campaign, Indonesia is set to declare the winner on Tuesday — but that may not settle a simmering dispute between the two candidates, both of whom claim victory.

Unofficial counts by eight polling agencies of the July 9 election have given Joko Widodo, the popular and sneaker-wearing former governor of Jakarta known as “Jokowi,” a slim lead.

But Prabowo Subianto, a former general with a checkered human rights record who has drawn voters with his thundering nationalistic rhetoric, insists he has polling data showing he has won, raising speculation that he might may not accept the results if he loses.

The tension could threaten Indonesia’s fragile transition to democracy 16 years after it emerged from the long and brutal Suharto dictatorship. The country of 240m is experiencing a slowing economy — the largest in Southeast Asia — and needs leadership to tackle a rap-

idly crumbling infrastructure.

Once the Election Commission announces the winner, it is highly likely the losing candidate will appeal to the Constitutional Court, the country’s highest. Judges there will have two weeks to rule on any complaints before deciding who won.

However, some experts worry that Indonesia’s endemic corruption could affect that decision. Last month, the court’s chief justice was sentenced to life in prison for taking a bribe to adjudicate in favor of a plaintiff in a case related to a disputed provincial election.

“That will be a challenge for the Constitutional Court, whose image has already been ruined,” said Mohammad Qodari, a political analyst.

Subianto, who has declared assets of $140m and is on his third bid for the presidency, denies any intention to attempt to buy the vote.

The results could trigger social unrest such as clashes between supporters of the two candidates. Indonesia

has experienced frequent outbreaks of political, ethnic and separatist violence during its transition to democracy. The security situation across the country’s 18,000 islands has improved markedly in recent years, but the unprecedented rancor of the campaign, the first between just two candidates in the country’s history, means that tensions are running high.

There were significant smear campaigns in the run-up to the election, and supporters of both men used social media for personal attacks.

“On the Jokowi side there are too many parasites, they are a danger to the country,” Subianto supporter and lawmaker Fahri Hamzah tweeted recently. “After the 22nd we will ‘deal’ with them. Just be patient,” he said, using language that could easily be interpreted as menacing.

Widodo, a former furniture maker, is widely seen as untainted by the often-corrupt military and business elite that have run Indonesia for decades.

He likes to wear casual plaid shirts, listen to heavy metal music and make impromptu visits to the slums.

Subianto, late dictator Suharto’s former son-in-law, is seen by some as providing stronger leadership and was endorsed by Islamic-based parties, hard-line Islamic groups and outgoing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s political party. He was trailing behind Widodo for months before the polls but caught up on the back of a well-organized, well-funded campaign that was supported by most of the country’s establishment political parties. His supporters also spearheaded a smear campaign against Widodo, spreading unfounded rumors he is not a Muslim — which could undermine his standing in this Muslim majority nation.

Voters for Subianto chose to ignore his links to past human rights abuses.

He admits taking part in the abduction of pro-democracy activists during the dying days of the Suharto dictatorship when he was head of the army’s stra-

tegic command, saying he was following orders. He was fired from the army as a result, and spent several years in self-imposed exile in Jordan.

Unofficial “quick counts” carried out by eight agencies, which tally a sampling of votes around the country, have given Widodo a lead of around 4%, or roughly 6 million votes. The counts have been highly accurate in forecasting the results of previous elections. Independent analysts say there is no reason to think otherwise this time around, and that anything but a Widodo victory by about 4% would be highly suspicious.

Four polling firms with links to the Subianto campaign produced tallies that showed him in the lead by differing margins. Earlier this week, the Indonesian Association of Public Opinion Surveyors dismissed two of them from the grouping after they refused to reveal their research methods. The two other pollsters were not members of the association.

The Electoral Commission has need-

ed about two weeks to collect and tabulate votes from nearly a half-million polling stations across the country’s 33 provinces. The commission’s national leadership is mostly seen as professional and impartial, but the same can’t be said for its official and local or provincial levels.

Once the formal results are announced, it might be difficult for Subianto to keep up his campaign.

The political coalition that supported his bid might abandon him, preferring to try and get positions in a Widodo administration. Public and media support could wane.

“My suggestion is that the two (Subianto and his running mate, Hatta Rajasa) should have a reality check,” Abdillah Toha, a leading member of a political party that supported the pair, wrote in an open letter this week. “I know that deep in their hearts, they know they have lost. They should be just resigned to the results, as gentlemen and statesmen.” l

10

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Editorial

Monday, July 21, 2014

CODE-CRACKER

A clean-up job

Be heard Write to Dhaka Tribune FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Sukrabad, Dhaka-1207 Email letters.dt@dhakatribune.com Send us your Op-Ed articles: opinion.dt@dhakatribune.com

D

haka North City Corporation (DNCC) has launched the “Cleanliness Campaign 2014,” reminding citizens that keeping Dhaka clean is just as much of a responsibility for them as it is for the administration.

This is true, of course. It is not realistic to think that the government has the capacity to pick up after every individual instance of littering, retching and spitting, and dumping waste right out on the pavement, activities which are sadly still a part of the everyday sights, sounds, and smells for residents.

However, this does not mean that the administration is exempt from doing its own share of the work.

Ludicrous amounts of waste are still being sorted openly out on the streets.

This not only results in noxious fumes but also eats up a sizeable portion of roads, adding to pavement and traffic congestion.

More properly equipped venues are sorely needed in which our waste can be properly sorted.

The city corporations need to up their game and adopt good practice from experience in cities around the world.

The job of keeping Dhaka clean can also be made easier by being efficient in how each household manages its own waste.

Building owners and managers can help reduce waste to an optimum level by engaging in on-site composting and following the awareness-raising ideas of schemes such as the Baridhara Society’s recycling strategy. Every resident needs to play their part in maintaining a healthy and sanitary city.

Keeping Dhaka clean is just as much of a responsibility for its denizens as it is for the administration

Set clear goals for marine resources

B

angladesh secured nearly four-fifths of the 25,000 square kilometres of disputed maritime areas which were settled by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) at The Hague recently.

Together with the 2012 international tribunal ruling, giving Bangladesh the benefit of 111,631 square kilometres disputed by Myanmar, the settlement opens the door to potentially large new maritime resources.

Clear delineation of boundaries is particularly helpful in relation to exploring hydrocarbon reserves. The government has encountered lukewarm interest to plans to seek investment in oil and gas exploration. Added legal certainty should help revive interest in tenders to explore these resources.

The settlement of disputes over the continental shelf makes it imperative for the government to facilitate comprehensive surveys of resources available in the country’s exclusive economic zone in the Bay of Bengal. A start has been made with the presentation of the country’s first integrated maritime border map by Chittagong University, but much more needs to be done.

This is vital not only to assess the scope for exploiting new resources, but also to protect existing habitats and resources.

An expanded area for fishing will help provide more food security to supplement costal aquaculture and fisheries. In order to sustainably exploit new resources, however, we need better mapping to allow a proper strategy to be put into place.

This will need to include investing in new equipment and improving skills to enable more offshore fishing for a start, let alone permit access to other mineral and seabed resources. The government must not delay on making proper plans.

To sustainably exploit new resources, we need better mapping to allow a proper strategy to be put into place

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Beware of muggers in private cars!

July 16

deep purple blue Given the recent activities of law enforcers, who knows if these robbers are law enforcers themselves? How can law enforcers, who act as goons, provide protection to the public?

Concerned Citizen Some of the facts are not straight. In most of the cases, the victims’ families contacted the police and did not get any help! And these incidents started before Ramadan and increased manifolds during Ramadan! deep sea fish You don’t have the right information on the Gulshan incident. It happened on June 20. And the guy was released in front of Raddison. I was personally present during the whole situation.

Concerned Citizen deep sea fish: And as far as I know the parents contacted the Gulshan police station but did not

Drive against vermicelli producers July 17

Md Ashraf Hossain Large quantities of vermicelli are consumed in every Eid festival, and seldom at other times. The production of vermicelli is a good business opportunity for cottage industry. Anyone wanting to pursue this, as a small business, will get an opportunity to make a profit twice a year during Eid festivals.

The media has often published news of mobile courts accompanying Bangladesh Standard Testing Institution (BSTI) personnel in a drive against cottage producers of vermicelli. The courts usually impose fines for producing vermicelli without having gotten a license from BSTI. Yet, there is no doubt that according to existing laws, it is legal to produce vermicelli without a license.

From the point of view of justice, this phenomenon deserves review. Getting license from BSTI is a very cumbersome process. Speed and money are also factors. The illiterate small cottage producers are not familiar with the bureaucratic procedure of getting a BSTI license. Owing to this provision, big businesses have taken over the vermicelli market and have grabbed the lion’s share, pushing out the small cottage producers. This results in consumers paying at least 50% higher prices.

BSTI and police officers of different districts also have been known to raid cottage factories, and fine owners in plea of production without BSTI license or production in an unhygienic environment. In an independent country, this is not wanted. Government agencies should motivate vermicelli producers to produce food items in a hygienic condition, and play a role of development agency, rather than a controlling authority. This is why I would like to urge BSTI to de-list vermicelli from its license required list, and urge the public health department to motivate vermicelli producers to make vermicelli in a hygienic environment.

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a different letter of the alphabet. For example, today 1 represents O so fill O every time the figure 1 appears.

You have two letters in the control grid to start you off. Enter them in the appropriate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.

Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.

As you get the letters, fill in the other squares with the same number in the main grid, and the control grid. Check off the list of alphabetical letters as you identify them.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

get any help. And the ransom amount was much higher as far as I remember! In another case, the same Gulshan police were quite reluctant in taking any case and said the victims can solve the issue by paying the ransom! Is it not then obvious that the police also know about who the muggers are? tanvir This has been happening for the past three years.

The same Premio and Allion. bazinga I have been a victim of abduction (not any Allion/ Premio case, though) myself. Trust me, they are very skilful in what they do.

Unfortunately, the only thing to avoid such incidences is to avoid traveling through empty roads.

By the way, it is not possible to draw Tk3m from an account in one day (using plastic of course).

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

Our democratic fallacy July 16

nds Dear author, the reasons you have identified, for our people being indifferent towards reclaiming democratic governance in the country, are all well-known, even to ordinary, semi-literate citizens like me. For this knowledge, one need not to be a professor of a university.

If you have any genuine interest, then just give up your private university job and join politics like Subash Bose, Nehru, Gandhi, Fazlul Huq, etc, did.

Stop posing as the conscience of the nation.

Legal battle in the Bay July 17

Vectra “India sees control over South Talpatti as ‘significant gain.”

This is what was said by the Indian media, because India tactically won the case, though GOI said the process was solved in an arbitrary fashion but it (India) had not lost.

Gaining South Talpatti and exclusive access to Hariabhanga river is the major gain, which India says has huge oil and gas reserves at twice the amount of hydrocarbons as compared to the Krishna-Godavari basin in Andhra Pradesh, and that will benefit India in the long run, as that region contains a massive amount, at nearly 100 trillion cubic feet, of natural gas in a creek about 50km to the south of the mouth of the Hariabhanga, which India had discovered In 2006.

So after this verdict, India had its grip over the large oil and gas reserves and had not lost the sea boundary either.

India added 6,135sq km more to its existing sea boundary, and the good thing is both Bangladesh and India accepted the verdict. Bangladesh is happy and India is happy.

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Documents (6) 6 Cover (3) 9 Unaccompanied (5) 10 Large volume (4) 11 Snow vehicles (5) 12 Copy (3) 13 Offer (6) 15 Comfort (4) 18 Excuse (4) 21 Injured (6) 24 Greek letter (3) 25 Proverb (5) 28 Tear (4) 29 Vital organ (5) 30 Strange (3) 31 Held principles (6)

DOWN 1 Adhesive (5) 2 Everyone (3) 3 Verses (5) 4 Finish (3) 5 Remainder (4) 6 Burden (4) 7 Obstruct (6) 8 Horned ruminant (4) 14 Short sleep (3) 16 Lessened (6) 17 Tree (3) 19 Depart (5) 20 Declares in positive manner (5) 21 Brave man (4) 22 S African monetary unit (4) 23 Valley (4) 26 Loud noise (3) 27 Obtain (3)

CALVIN AND HOBBES

Stuck on the road

July 16 SD I wonder that everybody – every Tom, Dick and Harry – knows what needs to be done to solve all problems prevailing in the country, but surprisingly the problems refuse to go away, and continue increasing at an exponential rate.

PEANUTS

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

Now National Bank stuck in loan tangles July 16 liman chy Oh, here we go. The problems are now heading for private banks from government banks.

EU renews call for dialogue over poll-time government July 16 indigo By increasing financial support, the EU is actually beefing up the present illegitimate government that returned to power through a massive electoral fraud. The EU should make its financial support conditional upon holding early democratic elections.

SUDOKU

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Monday, July 21, 2014

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Germany’s win and the robust economy theory

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n Towheed Feroze he World Cup is over though the aftertaste lingers – it’s hard to suddenly give up the habit that had developed over a period of one month.

A bit like Ramadan. After Eid, for the next few weeks, people automatically follow an austere eating habit.

This article is not a general piece extolling the world’s greatest sporting event and neither is it a piece which tries to glorify the winning team.

Instead, here we try to look into the not-too-apparent messages sent by the World Cup that have both sporting implications and, to an extent, political plus economic ones.

Let’s start with German premier Angela Merkel attending the games. After Germany mauled World champions of 2010, Spain, 5-1, Merkel went into the players’ changing room to share a triumphant start to the tournament.

A laudable gesture indeed – the leader of the country basking in its sporting success and inspiring the team to carry on till the end.

As for the England team, which went out with one miserable point, there’s a long way to cross to become a first rate European outfit. I remember seeing a caricature where the “three lions” insignia was changed to three sobbing sheep. In both the losses, against Uruguay and Italy, the winning goals were scored by players who play in the English League. What a paradox – one of the best leagues in the world yet the national side is so rickety.

For Germany, the bubbling confidence of roaring economic prowess was reflected on the field. Many people tend to isolate sports from hardcore economics, but sometimes, these two opposite forces are intertwined. Look at the teams that bowed out from the World Cup with humiliation – Spain, England, and Portugal – three top sides, failing to make it to the last sixteen.

Bring the sputtering economies of the three countries into perspective.

Bogged down by domestic resentment stemming from scarcity of jobs, these three nations have just crossed the worst recession in decades. Simmering

The bubbling confidence of roaring economic prowess was reflected on the field A golden era for Germany

But there is more to it than only the celebration of football victory. Germany’s emphatic start to the tournament is but a reflection of its stature as an unfaltering European economic giant, which has become a saviour of sorts for other beleaguered nations.

When several European nations struggle to get their economy out of years of slump, painfully overcoming impediments like torpid growth and spiraling unemployment, Germany is the lone shining player among the outof-form ones.

She is helping others, forging mutually beneficial alliances, taking an assertive stance while David Cameron and the problem-plagued British economy huffs and puffs to a safe zone. A disgruntled fan said: “England’s terrible performance was only a reflection of how the country is doing in economic terms.”

public disenchantment still lingers in these countries.

Multiculturalism in Europe – much publicised to showcase societies of tolerance and harmony – has failed, leaving millions in a state of bewilderment. Taking advantage of this opaque state, ethnic divides are widening with several religious sections adopting radical views. Think about the so-called Trojan Schools in the UK, which were propagating prejudiced views among students, in many cases injecting in them with the belief that only their faith is the correct one.

Spain has been in turmoil for some time now with the royalty receiving flak for being aloof to the plight of the people. King Juan Carlos thought it was wise to abdicate as news spread that when ordinary Spaniards were coping with unemployment, bleak growth, and an ingrained sense of ma-

laise, he was taking an exotic hunting trip in Africa.

Portugal is no better. The truth remains – Europe is in still in downturn and that sense of pessimism was present in their games. The exception was of course Germany, which had to bail out several countries and is still going strong herself. To be frank, the decade ahead belongs to Germany – be it in sports or economy.

Every country has a golden period, and for the Germans, that time began five years ago. They did not win the last World Cup due to bad luck but with the current trophy, supported by a thriving economy, things can only become better. In sport too, every country has a sparkling period.

Italy had it in the 80s, Hungary in the 50s, Brazil in the 50s and then again in the 90s, and Argentina, for a brief period in the late 70s and 80s.

The success of the teams reaches an

REUTERS

apex when they make it to the final stages of the World Cup tournament.

Some win it, others don’t, but making it to the last four is a praiseworthy achievement in itself. If we look at the 2014 teams, Argentina was also a title contender. Their loss in the final is not the ultimate failure. On the contrary, if we look at the Argentine football history since 1990, then we see this is the first time in 24 years the team crossed the quarter-finals to make it eventually to the final round.

Winning the cup is all about luck and not about performance on the field all the time. In the final game, Argentina played the better football, missing three solid chances. In a World Cup final, only one chance of victory comes.

Germany got a fifty-fifty chance, when the ball was received by Goetze on the chest in the D box. Instead of bringing the ball to the ground, he took the volley, acting on instinct.

Argentina, also another country making headlines with its fiery president Cristina Fernandez, revived the Falklands’ issue becoming politically vocal in the South American sphere.

Once more, sporting prowess matched by vigorous political mood within the domestic sphere.

So much has been written about the top teams at the World Cup that in the feverish debates, Asian teams were obscured. Not a single game was won by an Asian team this time – a reminder that while others have gone forward, Asia hasn’t made much progress. It seems, in Asia, people are still living in the successes of the 2002 World Cup when South Korea and Japan both impressed, with the former reaching the semi-finals.

As far as golden periods are concerned, Germany is living it – on and off the football field. There was naturally disappointment for other

European sides that left the World Cup early. However, with livelihood on a precarious state, future ramifications of sporting failure were possibly superseded by survival instincts.

Almost all European nations that went out, quickly switched off from the game, concentrating on other issues. BBC went to the extent of giving a tad too much coverage to the India-England test along with overanalysing an alleged on-the-field row between players.

The ultimate lesson is this – solid sporting success is linked to the overall domestic mood of a nation. If the country in question is grappling with social maladies and general displeasure, an impact will automatically be felt in sports. Is Germany thinking about mastering the gentleman’s game now? l Towheed Feroze is a journalist currently working in the development sector.

The best way to punish Putin

Gaza needs to be saved

n Tunku Varadarajan

n Shariful Islam and Tania Sultana

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wo days after Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine, killing all passengers and crew aboard, the world is contending with a fiendishly difficult question: What is the appropriate punitive response to this atrocity?

The civilian airliner was destroyed with a ground-to-air missile of Russian provenance, fired either by Russia-backed separatists or by the Russian military. Moral and political responsibility for the slaughter must lie, ultimately, with Moscow, even as we investigate the forensic sequence of a commander’s chilling order: “Fire!” and an underling’s deadly compliance.

Three-hundred people, 189 of them Dutch, are dead at the hands of forces who owe their loyalty to Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, the man who has thrown his weight behind the armed rebellion in Ukraine. He is in every way the separatists’ godfather.

The dismemberment of Ukraine is as much his cause as theirs. So any response has to make him hurt, personally; it has to puncture his ego, his pride. And one certain way to hurt him would be to strip from Russia the right to host the 2018 World Cup. States opposed to Putin’s international lawlessness can (and should) contemplate all manner of economic sanctions against Russia in response to the shooting down of MH17. As it happens, the very day before the plane was felled, the US had restricted access to American capital markets for Rosneft, the Russian oil company and Gazprombank, the financial arm of gas-goliath Gazprom.

Yet, while sanctions like these can be painful, they can also make Putin more adamantly resistant to withdrawal from Ukraine. Give the nature of the Russian state and its undemocratic political system, Putin is perfectly equipped to survive a turning of the financial screws. He will, no doubt, portray sanctions as an act of aggression against the people of Russia. So punishing Putin, not the people of

Russia, should be our primary aim.

How does one punish the autocratic, omnipotent president of a quasi-superpower? It is much harder to do so than to spank the piddling ruler of a smallish rogue state, but options exist.

Putin believes that a World Cup in Russia can be sold to his people as an endorsement of his rule. Why should the world become an accomplice in a dictator’s Ponzi scheme of pride?

The cup is four years away – perfect time for FIFA to undo formal agreements with Moscow

As he preened for the cameras at the World Cup final in Rio de Janeiro on July 13, it was clear that Putin regards Russia’s staging of the cup’s next edition as a propaganda godsend, a global vote for his achievements. Imagine his consternation if he were prevented from putting on such a show.

Putin preys on the fact that the West thinks money and sport are neutral, or at least civilising influences. So, when Russian money comes to Wall Street or the City of London, it stops being political for the West.

It is also a peculiarly Western conceit that the gathering together for sport has a civilising effect on the nations participating.

But for Putin, money and sport are tools, or weapons. Hosting the World Cup is the weapon he uses to prove to his people that he is all-powerful, that there is no point in opposing him.

In letting him host that cup, we all become part of that weapon.

The cup is four years away, perfect time for FIFA – the governing body of world soccer – to undo formal agreements with Moscow while giving another host every opportunity to

provide for the entire infrastructure.

Stadiums take up to two years to build, airports need to be upgraded, and a range of hotels must be secured, as must the capacity for domestic rail and road transportation to cope with an influx of hundreds of thousands of fans.

As sponsorship contacts are being scripted and haggled over, a passionate drive is in place by pro-Ukraine opponents of Putin to organise a boycott of companies that will sponsor a World Cup in Russia. How long before those companies, which include Anheuser Busch, Visa, Kia Motors, and Sony, start to press FIFA for a change of host?

The World Cup is quite unlike the Olympics, where every nation has a right to participate. Qualification is exacting, and a majority of the teams that do qualify are from the West. The Asian powerhouses are Japan and South Korea, and the West African nations who tend to comprise Africa’s contribution to the roster are not beholden to Putin. Mustering a coalition of disapproval for the World Cup should be much easier than it would be for an Olympiad.

In all of this lies the chance, also, for FIFA to redeem itself. Under Sepp Blatter, its interminable head, the body has been opaque and corrupt. Now is the moment for FIFA and Blatter to take a rare moral stand and not act as obstacles to the revocation of Russia’s hosting rights.

Who should host the Cup instead?

May I propose the Dutch, who were among the original bidders for 2018.

Unlike Russia, their country is a world soccer power, with an open, democratic society, a civic exemplar. And after the downing of MH17, in which so many of its innocent citizens were killed by men loyal to Putin, a World Cup in The Netherlands would be cosmic justice. l Tunku Varadarajan is a writer-at-large for The Daily Beast. A former editor of Newsweek, he is the Virginia Hobbs Carpenter research fellow in Journalism at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. This piece was previously published in The Daily Beast.

Even though the ongoing Israeli assaults on Palestinians have made headlines in the media tens of thousands of times, raised political and academic debates, triggered rallies and processions, and prompted Facebook profiles and statuses around the world to show solidarity with the Palestinians, the predicament of the Palestinians remains the same. But who will actually protect the helpless, unarmed civilians and the innocent children in Gaza? Whose responsibility is it to prevent the gross violations of human rights and preserve the “principle of non-intervention?”

The ongoing Israeli attacks through sustained rocket launching and bombings in Gaza have already resulted in at least 280 deaths, including children and pregnant women, injured more than 1900 Palestinians, and created tens of thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs) in the last few days alone.

On the contrary, at least 10 Israelis have been injured by rockets fired from Gaza, and one Israeli fatality has been recorded. Each and every day, the number of casualties is increasing drastically. The beginning of Israeli ground invasion is a grave concern for the peace, prosperity, and security of the civilians in Gaza. Unfortunately, Israeli assaults in Gaza have become routine. According to Al Jazeera reports, this is the third war between Hamas and Israel since 2009.

How long will such atrocities last?

Where is the so-called international community now? Where is the UN Charter’s principle of non-intervention? How long will this injustice and atrocities dominate? It’s time to raise our voices and put an end to this carnage. The world cannot be a silent spectator anymore.

Furthermore, the UN Charter focuses on the importance of protecting human rights. For instance, the Charter’s preamble and Articles 1(3), 55, and 56, all highlight the importance of human rights. It is the moral responsibility of the international community

to protect the civilians in Gaza from Israeli atrocities. Every individual has the right to protect him/herself from any kind of repression.

The Israel-Hamas conflict may escalate throughout the region, becoming a threat to international peace and security. Hence, it is the responsibility of the international community, including the United States and the European Union, to stop Israeli atrocities in Gaza and work towards a reasonable, peaceful, and permanent solution.

It must be taken into account that after the 30 years of War (1618-1648), through the Treaty of Westphalia, the state system came into being. To a larger extent, inter-state conflict came to an end and the world found stability and order. But, if in the name of “self-defense” other states start to intervene on the weak, developing states, this might lead to the pre-Westphalian anarchic situation just as Wheeler argued in 2000. So, what’s the point if the chaotic situation is back again?

The international community should come forward to handle the Israel-Palestine crisis with a firm hand

If the recurring Israeli military operations in Palestine are justified and no exemplary action is taken, this might provide an example to the stronger countries to intervene on the weaker ones to uphold national interests, which might give birth to the chaotic situations prevalent in the 16th and 17th centuries. Therefore, there is no alternative but to preserve the nation-state system and territorial integrity to avoid anarchy. This merits preventing Israeli military assaults and

protecting Palestinians.

We are in the 21st century, but we keep going back to the sages of warfare where the preferred means of achieving peace is still violence. I seriously doubt this stance where people fight to achieve peace. We should not forget the goals which we entrust upon ourselves to fulfil, which also corresponds to the preamble of the United Nations’ charter which promises to “save the future generation from the scrouge of war.”

Still, after almost 70 years of formation of the global platform to discuss and put forth agendas and resolve disputes, the practice of Israeli military intervention in Palestine is quite irrational. Notably, the United Nations came up with a response in 1945 to wars and conflicts for a more stable, secure, and peaceful world which gave the state the principle of “non-intervention.”

Finally, in this critical situation, the international community, and above all, every humanitarian organisation, should come forward to handle the Israel-Palestine crisis with a firm hand.

If no one can revolt against this crucial crisis, if like ostriches we only bury our heads in the sands of the mythic past, and bind ourselves into their own time, it cannot be made certain that what is happening in Gaza today will not happen in other countries as well.

As the proverb goes – when Rome was burning, Nero played the flute.

The international community should take immediate and effective steps to solve this crisis without further delay.

So, in order to uphold basic human dignity, we need to preserve the principle of “non-intervention” and save the innocent civilians in Gaza. The peaceful settlements that have been developed over time from diplomacy and negotiation should be used to resolve all conflicts. War is not the answer. l Shariful Islam did his Masters in International Relations from Dhaka University and South Asian University. Tania Sultana is pursuing her Masters in Sociology from South Asian University.

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

Entertainment

Monday, July 21, 2014

Anjan Dutt to visit Dhaka n Entertainment Desk Famous Indian singer Anjan Dutt known for songs like “Eta ki two-four-four-one-onethree-nine,” “Ronjona ami ar ashbo na,” “Meriyen,” “Kanchonjonga,” is coming to Dhaka on an invitation form Desh TV to perform in their show “Kaaler Gaan” the day after Eid. The show will air live at 9:45 pm.

From July 14, he has been acting in Srijeet Mukkhpoddai’s “Nirbak” opposite Bollywood actress Sushmita Sen. He will arrive on Eid day and will return to India after the show. Desh TV has also invited Indian singers Onnesha (4th day of Eid) and Sri Radha Boddhopoddai (6th day of Eid). The audience will also see Lalon, Soulz, SI Tutul, Dhrubotara, Shumona Haq, Labu Rahman, Nakib Khan and Kazi Hablu perform in the show.

Aamir Khan rumoured to play baddie in Robot 2 n Entertainment Desk SADIA MARIUM

Prachyanat’s call to save children in Gaza n Shadma Malik To protest against the atrocities in Palestine, leading theatre troupe Prachyanat organised a road show on July 19 at Chobir Haat, Shahbagh. They have displayed several forms of art such as installation, instrumental play, and theatre presentation.

The performers, including theatre activists, artists, students- all in black- gathered

to call for an end to Israeli military action in Gaza.

An installation was showed by Shobbo Shachi Hazra depicting three coffins. The symbolic coffin represented a flag, a peace sign and another one against war, coloured in black. These coffins were surrounded by red roses and candles, depicting love and hope.

An improvised musical piece was performed by Prachyanat.

They performed a short skit that showed the bombing in Gaza, people dying and the last part showed people being mere spectators in the Palestine-Israel conflict.

Saiful Islam Jarnal, member of Prachyanat, said: “The aim of the production was to ask for justice and freedom of the Palestinians and demanding victory for humanity.”

The theatre troupe is raising funds to save children in Palestine. l

After putting up a great show as the villain of “Dhoom 3,” Aamir Khan is all set reprise the villainous avatar in Rajnikanth’s “Robot 2.” If reports of an Indian leading daily are to be believed, the actor has been roped in by Shankar to play the negative character in the sequel of the immensely popular flick.

Aamir, who is currently working on “PK” primarily has not cleared the air about his next film. Many speculations have been doing the rounds. But after Salman agreed on “Shuddhi,” and the project with Farhan still being in the haze, reports suggest that the actor is in talks for “Robot 2.” The film was conceptualised keeping SRK in mind who was going to produce the film as well but the project fell out due to creative differences. Though the perfectionist Khan hasn’t finalised anything at all so far,

probably it is post the release of “PK” that he will announce his next. l

Eid TVProgramme

Honeymoon creates buzz in social media n Entertainment Desk Film “Honeymoon” staring Bappi and Mahi, is set to release on the silver screen this Eid. Directed by Shafiuddin Shafi, the film has gained a lot of recognition in the social media. The cast and crew are busy promoting the film online, such as Facebook and Youtube. The film’s trailer has taken the crowd by storm. The audience has expressed their desire

to watch the film through shares and comments on the video.

Regarding the film, the director said: “I knew from the very beginning that the audience would love this film. We have done everything to make the film enjoyable for the present day crowd. The clothes, music and locations are very attractive.”

Besides Bappi and Mahi, the film also stars Syed Hasan Imam and Ahmed Sharif. l

Chirkut and Shunno’s fusion

n Entertainment Desk

Alia Bhatt walked the ramp wearing an outfit designed by celebrated Bollywood designer Manish Malhotra on Saturday

Chirkut and Shunno will be seen performing a music fusion for the first time this Eid on Massranga TV. The fusion has a total of eight songs, four from each band.

The filming of the programme is complete. Both the bands are very excited to work on this collaboration.

“Music Fusion” will be aired on the second day of Eid at 8 pm on Maasranga. l

FROM AKHRA TO FUSION: TRANSFORMATION OF BAUL MUSIC (PART-14)

New millennium advances and female Bauls n Maqsoodul Haque Fakir Lalon Shah in one of his famous verses said “only worshiping your mother, will lead you to the address of your father” signaling that among Bauls there are no gender biases. Yet as we look back at the evolution of Baul music, there are incredibly no references or names of any female exponents, practitioners or Gurus for that matter. One reason may well have been the entrenched patriarchy in our culture was more malicious in the ages gone by, with women being assigned back seats. The other and more significant aspect could be that on the Sufi paradigm of Bauls and Islamic spirituality, the complex gnosis or Ma’arefat schools of thought, demands that secrecies centering spiritual transmission chains are best protected and preserved by women – not men.

Over 200 years ago when “women’s right” was unknown in our - or any other part of the world, among Bauls it was a complete part and parcel of their belief system. Women hold commanding position among Baul

as even today and are in many case equated above the male for they not only take on the pain of bearing and rearing children, they have traditionally assisted the male in all cumbersome burdens in activities within our agrarian society. That is not all, other than agriculture, among the hundreds of household chores that they actively participate in, as well as shouldering the protection and preservation of esoteric secrecies in the belief system, most Baul women are also volunteers in the para-military auxiliary forces Ansar and VDP, and have firearms training – everything from pistols, rifles to sub-machineguns!

Nonetheless, over times and the historical transformation of Baul music what has stood apart – is for reasons unknown, and despite the dominant male singers in the genre, the female voice has a uniquely compelling ability to convey the pangs, pathos and the deep meanings of Baul songs. Although there are no empirical evidence to the same, many a musicologist have argued that Baul music is essentially a female musical form that has been usurped by the male!

Whatever the case may be, among the very few women mentioned in scholarly books on Bauls, we across the earliest name of Layli Begum.

From the Kushtia/Chuadanga region, she came into prominence in the 1960’s courtesy of the radio. Staying true to Akhara traditions the name of Kangalini Sufiya who at age 14 left the comforts of her home and ventured out to be a Baul singer is the most prominent. Sufiya is one of the most extensively travelled Baul singer and has visited the US, UK and other European countries and as far off as China, Korea. At age 70 and in very poor health her on-stage presence today continues to enthrall audience

as much as her wit, self deprecating humor and candor are legendary.

Sufiya has also been featured in the ground breaking academic book “Women Renunciation in South Asia” where she is extensively quoted on Baul sexuality.

Among the notable female Bauls from the Akhara tradition, Aklima Begum whose ancestor can be traced back to the earliest “shiri” or “transmission ladder” of Lalon is noteworthy. Aklima has been a practicing Baul as well as a householder and has staked her claim as an outstanding artist and performer since the late 1970s. It was post the appearance of Farida Parvin in the early 1970s that female Baul performers were getting noticed and other than the quality of their voices, they immediately started receiving rave responses from listeners who earlier had no inclination to listen to Baul music at all.

Between 1980 to the late 1990’s outstanding singers such as Shehnaz Beli from Abdalpur, Kushtia were rocking the Akharas as well as major folk festivals all across Bangladesh, yet their appearance in the mainstream Bangladesh Television was limited. This was mainly because of intense competition among Bauls, and also apathy of the state run institute to embark upon

proper research or creating database of artists. Shehnaz for instance was rarely heard in Bangladesh, yet was well known among the diaspora Bengalis all across the Middle East, Europe and America before her albums back at home finally brought her to media and national limelight – that too after 2000.

Among artists still holding on to Akhara traditions and not known in the mainstream despite their tremendous performance and skills as artists are; Zahura Begum from Harishpur, Harinakundu, Jhenaidah, Onjoli Durga Ghosh from Bheramara, Kushtia and Kohinoor Akhter Golapi from Seuria, Kushtia are mentionable.

There is undoubtedly hundreds more female Baul artist worthy of mention all across the far flung corners of Bangladesh, who regrettably cannot be mentioned in this series, given space constraints.

The advent of the new millennium saw the arrival of the folk-rock fusion band Bangla’s first album Kingkortobbobimurho in 2002, that set a new milestone on the way forward with Baul music. The multi talented vocalist of the band Anusheh Anadil, through her perseverance created a niche audience comprising Dhaka’s educated elite and their English me-

dium school and University going children. She sent waves down rural Bangladesh where for years her association with masters of the Akhara tradition such as Fakir Rob Shah and teacher Shafi Mondol among others, gave her rendition of Lalon’s song an unsurpassed acceptability at the grassroots... Taking Baul music to newer heights, in 2007 Bangla performed with likes of Bono of U2, Bob Geldof and Youssou N’Dour in a concert tour of Germany. Baul music thanks to Anusheh earned the millennium prefix of “cool” to Baul music!

Following closely on heel with Bangla is the band Lalon – whose lead vocalist Nigar Sumi set new standards of fusing Baul music with rock. Their performances attract audiences all across Bangladesh, as much as they have toured the UK and elsewhere in Europe, the feather to their cap came during a packed performance at the hallowed precincts of the United Nations Headquarters in New York on June 15 of this year with the Secretary General Ban Ki Moon in rapt attendance. l Maqsoodul Haque is a jazz-rock fusion musician and cultural researcher who is writing a series on the transformation of Baul music.

Sport DHAKA TRIBUNE Monday, July 21, 2014

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Uttar Baridhara relegated n Raihan Mahmood

Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club forward Shakhawat Hossain Rony celebrates one of his three goals against Uttar Baridhara in the Nitol-Tata Bangladesh Premier League at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday

MUMIT M

Shakib apologises to all and vows better behaviour in future n Mazhar Uddin Star all-rounder Shakib al Hasan appealed formally to BCB yesterday to reconsider the punishment slapped on him for leaving the country without No Objection Certificate (NOC) to play in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) and then engaging in a heated argument with head coach Chandika Hathurusingha regarding his return from CPL. Shakib arrived at the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) headquarter in Mirpur in his Toyota Crown car at around 12:15pm yesterday where a large contingent of media was present much before the poster boy of Bangladesh cricket arrived and was ready to catch the star on the camera. After his arrival, the 27-year old went straight to BCB Cricket Operations head Akram

EPL clubs hike up ticket prices yet again n

Agencies

More than half of Premier League clubs have hiked season-ticket prices — despite cashing in on the latest TV deal worth £5.5billion over three years.

The Football Supporters’ Federation (FSF) are planning a march in protest and their chairman Malcolm Clarke said: ‘Nine out of 10 fans already think they are paying too much for tickets and these figures only back that point of view.

HOW TICKET COSTS HAVE GONE UP Top season ticket price £949

Per cent increase +38

Burnley

£685

+37

Hull

£572

+27

Norwich

£646

+12

C Palace

£720

+11

Man City

£860

+10

Southampton

£853

+4

Arsenal

£2013

+3

Everton

£719

+3

Aston Villa

£615

+3

Stoke

£609

+2

Liverpool

£869

+2

Leicester

£730

+2

Tottenham

£1895

0

Chelsea

£1250

0

Man Utd

£950

0

West Ham

£910

0

Sunderland

£525

0

Swansea

£499

0

West Brom

£459

0

Newcastle

£710

-1

Average

£902

+6.6

QPR

‘Clubs are swimming in cash and the last media deal was worth £5bn. The huge increase would have been enough for clubs to let every fan in for free and they would have been no worse off.

‘Top-flight clubs need to think longterm and cut prices. Never mind all the clever PR strategies clubs come out with, nothing would earn goodwill like dropping prices.

‘The FSF will lead a march on Premier League and Football League HQ on August 14. We would encourage all fans to join us.’

With clubs out to maximise revenues to be able to compete in the Premier League within the constraints of Financial Fair Play, fans are once again paying increased prices and 13 sides have raised season-ticket prices this season.

The biggest price hikes have been made by Burnley and QPR, both promoted last season — Burnley have raised the price of their cheapest season ticket prices by a whopping 47 per cent. Substantial rises have also been announced at Stoke and Hull.

Burnley chief executive Lee Hoos has defended the increases by pointing out that fans able to watch Premier League football this season and because £100 from this year’s season-ticket price will go towards the 2015/16 season tickets when fans renew.

With the Premier League acknowledged as the most lucrative in the world, only two clubs have lowered prices this season.

Football for some fans in the North East has come down in price after Mike Ashley announced marginal price cuts at Newcastle and Sunderland kept their prices down, too. l

Rashed, Ripon share lead in Metro Chess n

Raihan Mahmood

Sheikh Rashedul Hasan and Mukitul Islam Ripon jointly led the points table with maximum five points each at the end of the fifth round of the Metropolis Chess Tournament 2100 Rating at the hall-room of the Bangladesh Chess Federation yesterday.

Nasim Hossain Bhuiyan and Shahnaz Md. Faruk shared second place with 4.5 points each. In the fifth round, Rashed beat Sanowar Hossain, Ripon beat Matiur Rahman Mamun and Nasim drew with Shahnaz. l

Khan’s office to officially inform him about his appeal.

Moments later Shakib met coach Chandika Hathurusingha which was the pair’s first meeting since that heated conversation over phone. However, after having a chat of thirty minutes, he came out from Akram Khan’s office and met CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury to officially submit the appeal letter, and asked the media to wait outside.

But BCB media manager Rabeed Imam informed the curious media later that Shakib would not entertain any question today. Shakib then read out a statement written by the all-rounder himself.

The statement read: “I am expressing my sincerest of apologies if my behavior embarrassed the BCB, the Bangladesh cricket team and our fans. I

accept that as a professional and a cricketer under contract, I didn’t behave in a disciplined and restrained manner on several occasions. I am determined to behave with more restraint in future.

I respect the board’s decision, but there is nothing more painful than staying away from cricket. It is my life and I have worn Bangladesh’s colors and BCB’s logo since the Under-15 days.

It is my pride. The Bangladesh team is above everything. I give my all when I play for them, and I would do so in future. I have grown up with Bangladesh cricket, and I have an emotional connection with it. From that point of view, I am requesting BCB to reconsider my suspension.”

All eyes will now be on BCB to see what decisions they make regarding Shakib’s suspension. l

In a match of contrasting fortunes, newly crowned champions Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club thrashed relegation bound Uttar Baridhara 6-0 in the Nitol-Tata Bangladesh Premier Football League at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday. Forward Shakhawat Hossain Rony slammed a hat-trick for the winners whose prowess proved to be too much in the lopsided affair.

The loss confirmed Baridhara’s demotion from the top flight this year and sealed their place as the promotee side of the second tier, the Bangladesh Championship League.

Jamal would have won by a bigger margin but they faced stiff resistance from Osman Goni, the Baridhara keeper who singlehandedly saved his team from conceding a few more goals.

Rony put Jamal ahead in the very sixth minute of the match. Rony’s brilliant interception enabled him to take control of the ball from an opposition defender as he hit the far post net with an angular shot.

Haitian forward Wedson Anselme doubled the lead in the 16th minute with a solo effort. The tall forward, receiving the ball from midfield, dodged past two opponent defenders before unleashing a fierce right footer towards the far post net.

Rony scored his second and third for Jamal in the 24th minute, playing a neat one-two with partner Toklis Ahmed. Rony completed the job with a right footed grounder from the edge of the box.

In the 60th minute Wedson curved a free kick from 20 yards out but Osman managed to tip the ball over the crosspiece. Four minutes later Osman denied Toklis with a reflex save.

Rony could have completed his hattrick in the 72nd minute but he failed to head a Toklis corner into an empty net despite being unmarked in the sixyard box.

Toklis notched Jamal’s fourth five minutes later with a solo effort, running onto a through pass from Raihan Hasan. Toklis beat the onrushing Osman in the far post with a delicate touch.

Rony, however, succeeded in completing his treble in the 89th minute when he volleyed home a Toklis cross into the middle of the net.

Wedson completed the rout in the 90th minute with a 20-yarder.

Following this win, Jamal took their tally to 61 points from 26 matches while relegation-bound Baridhara remained at the bottom of the table with 12 points from the same number of games. l

Shakib submits appeal letter, finally n Mazhar Uddin National all-rounder Shakib al Hasan has appealed to reconsider his punishment and also offered a public apology while handing over the letter to acting CEO of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), Nizamuddin Chowdhury, at the Sher-e-Bangla National stadium yesterday.

The star cricketer was suspended on July 7 for his “serious misbehaviour” with Bangladesh’s new head coach Chandika Hathurusingha besides clashing with a spectator during the first ODI against India at Mirpur last month.

Nizamuddin confirmed that he had received the letter and informed that

he will forward it to the board but was unwilling to make any comments.

The awaiting journalists were not given the chance to ask any questions as Shakib read out a handwritten statement which he prepared himself.

“Shakib al Hasan has submitted a prayer to reconsider the July 7 sanction made by the board of directors. Since this is a board decision, they will decide on it,” said Nizamuddin.

Shakib was involved in a few controversies and the most recent one was when he went to take part in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) Twenty20 without a valid no-objection certificate and later reportedly threatened to quit from Tests and T20 internationals.

On his way to the Caribbean, Shakib suddenly returned from England as the BCB asked the 27-year old cricketer to join the ongoing training camp and it was later revealed that he had an argument with Hathurusingha. The Sri Lankan coach reported it to the board and the troubled star was subsequently punished.

However, Shakib did have a meeting with the head coach and chairman of the BCB Cricket Operations Committee, Akram Khan, before he handed over his appeal letter to the interim CEO. It was learned that both Shakib and Hathurusingha sought out the issues and were looking forward to curving out a practice schedule for the cricketer. l

All-round Jadeja puts India on top n AFP, London Ravindra Jadeja proved a thorn in England’s side with both bat and ball as India took charge of the second Test at Lord’s on Sunday.

Jadeja made a dashing 68 before the left-arm spinner struck with his first ball Sunday to have Australia-born opener Sam Robson lbw for seven.

At tea on the fourth day England were 18 for one, needing a further 301 runs to reach their imposing victory target of 319.

One consolation for England was that captain Alastair Cook, looking to end a run of 26 innings without a Test hundred, was still there on five not out, with first-innings century-maker Gary Ballance unbeaten on one.

Only three times in their history have England made more than 300 in the fourth innings to win a Test, most recently when they posted 315 for four

against Australia at Leeds in 2001.

At lunch, India were 267 for seven, a lead of 243.

Three quick wickets early in the second session and England would have been well-placed to end their run of nine Tests without a win.

DAY 4, AT TEA England 319 and 18 for 1 (Cook 5*, Ballance 1*) India 295 and 342 (Vijay 95, Jadeja 68, Bhuvneshwar 52) England need another 301 runs Jadeja made a dashing fifty while tailender Kumar was last man out for 52 - his third fifty in four innings this series.

The pair put on 99 for the eighth wicket with Kumar, whose six for 82 in England’s first innings was the second time this campaign he’d taken Test-

best bowling figures, more than playing his part.

India resumed in overcast conditions on 169 for four, with Murali Vijay 59 not out and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni unbeaten on 12.

The pair put on 79 before Dhoni fell for a laboured 19, caught by second slip Ian Bell off Liam Plunkett (three for 65) before Stuart Binny holed out off parttime spinner Moeen Ali for a duck.

After England took the new ball, James Anderson was soon bowling to Jadeja, with both players facing the possibility of being banned as a result of their alleged confrontation in the Trent Bridge pavilion during last week’s drawn first Test.

But in sight of his second hundred of the series opener Vijay, who made 146 in Nottingham, fell for 95 when he flicked an Anderson delivery to wicketkeeper Matt Prior after more than six hours at the crease. l

India’s Ravindra Jadeja leaves the field after being dissmissed during the fourth day of the second Test against England at Lord’s yesterday AP

14

Sport DHAKA TRIBUNE Monday, July 21, 2014

Enrique wins first friendly as Barca coach n AFP, Huelva Barcelona’s new coach Luis Enrique notched up a 1-0 win Saturday in his first game in charge, a pre-season friendly against second division club Recreativo de Huelva.

In the absence of star strikers Lionel Messi, Neymar and new signing Luis Suarez, Enrique gave a workout to substitutes and B-team youngsters such as Joan Roman, 21, who scored Barca’s 65th-minute winner.

Seconds earlier Barcelona’s returning first-team forward Gerard Deulofeu, 20, had a powerful shot blocked by Huelva’s goalkeeper Dani Sotres only for Roman to slam home the rebound from close range.

Barcelona dominated possession over their Andalusian hosts but laboured to hit their target in the first half.

In the second half Enrique changed the line-up, introducing Deulofeu, who has returned to the club after a season on loan to Everton.

As well as his saved shot, he hit the crossbar two minutes from full time after being played through by Ibrahim Afellay.

The Catalan club’s new goalkeeper, German international Marc-Andre ter Stegen, also played in the second half for his first game in a Barcelona strip.

Enrique is overhauling the squad after a disappointing season in which Barcelona narrowly failed to defend their Spanish league title.

Barcelona have said goodbye to stalwarts such as Carles Puyol, goalkeeper Victor Valdes and midfielder Cesc Fabregas, and have made several new signings.

These include two new goalkeepers, Ter Stegen and Claudio Bravo, and Croatian midfielder Ivan Rakitic. The latter two did not play on Saturday.

Argentine ace Messi and Brazil’s Neymar were on holiday after playing for their countries in the World Cup. Uruguay’s Suarez, the club’s latest star signing, is serving a four-month FIFA ban for biting an opponent in the World Cup. l

Barcelona players pose with a trophy during the Trofeo Colombino friendly match against Recreativo Huelva at the Nuevo Colombino stadium in Huelva on Saturday

Sabella set to decide on Argentina Brazil eye Dunga as Scolari successor future in midweek n Reuters, Buenos Aires With a September friendly looming for Argentina against their World Cup final conquerors Germany, coach Alejandro Sabella is aware of the urgency of a decision on his future.

Sabella, whose side lost 1-0 after extra time to Germany in the Maracana final a week ago, told reporters on Friday he would be mulling over his future this weekend and then arrange a Wednesday meeting with Argentine FA chief Julio Grondona.

“I know there are friendlies scheduled. In the middle of the week I’ll talk with Julio,” Sabella said.

“It’s a situation that can’t wait much, this weekend I’ll think about it and I’ll call Julio to have a meeting with him... I have to feel capable of doing (the job),” the 59-year-old said.

Argentina play Germany in Duesseldorf on Sept. 3 in a match that will serve

as a warm-up for the world champions’ opening Euro 2016 qualifier against Scotland four days later. Argentina also face Brazil and Hong Kong in friendlies in October. Argentina’s World Cup squad have said they want Sabella to

Wilshere’s smoking concerns Wenger n AFP, London Arsene Wenger admits he will speak to Jack Wilshere after the Arsenal midfielder was pictured smoking while on holiday in Las Vegas.

Wilshere was criticised by Wenger last season after he was seen smoking a cigarette outside a nightclub and the England international responded by insisting it would not happen again.

Yet the 22-year-old was photographed smoking this week during a swimming pool party while on holiday with members of his family.

Wenger wants to find out what exactly happened and plans to speak to Wilshere shortly.

Speaking after Arsenal’s 2-0 friendly win at Boreham Wood on Saturday, he told his club’s official website: “I know what you can make of pictures - I have to speak to him really to see what hap-

pened before I come out publicly.

“I’m not deeply concerned by it. I just want to know what happened and before I know what happened, I don’t want to talk too much about it.”

A common consensus is that Wilshere’s career has stalled over recent years, with injury and loss of form costing him his place in both the Arsenal and England teams last season. And Wenger insists the coming campaign will be an important one for the talented midfielder if he is to fulfil his potential.

“He’s at an age where you want him to move forward,” Wenger said.

“He has the potential. I believe for him, the most important (thing) now is to have a good preparation and focus on getting really fit.

“Jack is a great player - he has a football brain and he’s ambitious. I’m sure that if he’s injury free, he will have a great season.”l

The England midfielder Jack Wilshere (2R) was seen smoking a cigar and cigarettes given to him by his brother last week

stay at the helm and prepare the team for the Copa America in Chile next year.

“That makes me proud but my decision doesn’t depend on that... It’s down to whether I feel strong enough to give 100 percent,” he said.

“If I can’t give the players what I ask of them, it wouldn’t be honest.”

Sabella said he was not analysing alterative job offers.

“If I leave the national team it won’t be to work elsewhere, it will be to rest.”

He added he believed Argentina played their best match of the tournament in the final.

“I think that, taking into account who our opponents were, it was our best match at the World Cup. It was very even with the clearest chances for us.

We should have won it in 90 minutes, then it got harder physically,” he said.

“With Germany it’s hard to go blow for blow because, like great boxers, they have an extraordinary punch.” l

Ronaldo not as talented as ‘freak’ Messi : Henry n Agencies Thierry Henry believes that his former Barcelona team-mate Lionel Messi is untouchable in terms of pure talent, even from Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Camp Nou star was unseated as Ballon d’Or holder earlier this year by the Real Madrid forward, but he starred in the World Cup as Argentina reached the final and won the tournament’s Golden Ball for his efforts.

Henry, who played with Messi at Barca before joining New York Red Bulls in 2010, stressed that he rates Ronaldo but just does not think that the Portugal international - or anyone else in the world - can match Messi toeto-toe for talent.

“Lionel Messi is the best player in the world but I respect the amount of work Cristiano Ronaldo has put into the game,” Henry told BBC. “But Messi is just a freak. It is nice for kids to watch as they can see one guy who was given a gift and the other guy who does it through hard work.

“Louis Saha used to tell me Ronaldo was the hardest worker at Manchester United. I am not saying Messi does not work hard - but it is more natural.

“Ronaldo had to work really hard to reach the top. They have the same mentality but that’s the difference.”

Arsenal legend Henry also weighed in on the future on Luis Suarez, who has joined Luis Enrique’s side this summer for €88 million, and suggested that the Uruguayan would be a massive hit in La Liga.

“He has everything. He’s in your face, he’s arrogant in a good way, he can volley it, he can score headers,” the Frenchman added.

“He has that vicious side to his game - I will not call it cheating. He knows how to score goals. We have seen it against England. They gave him two chances and he scored two goals.” l

n AFP, Rio de Janeiro

Brazil could appoint former coach Dunga to replace Luiz Felipe Scolari as national team boss, media reports indicated Saturday, despite ex-Corinthians coach Tite being considered the long time favourite.

The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) earlier confirmed it will unveil its choice of Scolari’s successor on Tuesday at 11 a.m. (1400 GMT) in western Rio and a clutch of Brazilian newspapers said Dunga, 50, would return for a second spell.

Front-runner, at least until Saturday, was believed to be Tite, full name Adenor Leonardo Bacchi, who oversaw wins in the Copa Libertadores and FIFA Club World Cup, at Chelsea’s expense, in 2012.

Last Thursday, the CBF Thursday took the wraps off a revamped technical commission under new technical coordinator Gilmar Rinaldi, replacing Carlos

Alberto Parreira, the coach of the Brazil side that won the World Cup in 1994.

Gilmar - not to be confused with the Gilmar who kept goal for the 1958 and 1962 world champions - was a reserve keeper on the 1994 championship-winning side, which was skippered by Dunga.

Dunga, who replaced Parreira in the top job after the 2006 World Cup, went on to lead Brazil to Copa America success in 2007 and then won the Confederations Cup in 2009.

But the former Fiorentina midfielder was fired after a 2010 World Cup quarter-final loss to Holland.

The CBF would Saturday only reiterate that Marin would present the new man on Tuesday but Rio daily O Dia described Dunga as “close to returning,” highlighting his “good relationship” with Gilmar.

Globo indicated for its part reported that Gilmar and Dunga had reached a rapid agreement in principle with the CBF electing not to pursue the Tite option. l

AFP

Nedved insists Juve key men going nowhere n Agencies Juventus director Pavel Nedved has insisted that the Turin giants have no intention of selling Arturo Vidal and Paul Pogba.

Former Juve coach Antonio Conte walked out on the Italian champions this week, with reports suggesting he was unhappy with a lack of transfer activity.

Conte was also said to be concerned by talk of Vidal potentially joining Manchester United, while fellow midfielder Pogba has also been linked with a big-money move ahead of the new season.

Juve legend Nedved has set the record straight, though, stating that the club plan to keep hold of their sought-after players and will only sell if they receive offers they are unable to refuse.

He said: “Anyone who thinks Antonio Conte resigned due to the transfer strategy is wrong. Our plan is clear: we want to keep all our best players, including Vidal and Pogba.l

Can injury shades Liverpool win

AFC Wimbledon’s 180kg forword Adebayo Akinfenwa fights for possession with Chelsea’s Oriol Romeu on Saturday

n AFP, London

RESULTS

Emre Can suffered a calf injury on his Liverpool debut as the German midfielder limped off during his side’s 2-1 friendly win at Preston on Saturday.

Can, who moved to Anfield from Bayer Leverkusen for £10 million earlier this month, started for the first time at Deepdale, but the 20-year-old’s maiden appearance didn’t last long as he was taken off after just 20 minutes due to tightness in his calf.

He had already missed the midweek friendly against Danish side Brondby with a minor ankle complaint, but

Liverpool Chelsea Arsenal Sunderland West Brom

2–1 3-2 2-0 5-1 0-0

Preston AFC Wimbledon Boreham Wood Darlington Wycombe

was cleared to feature against Simon Grayson’s League One outfit.

However, after getting a knock early on he was substituted with Jordon Ibe sent on in his place.

Can will now be assessed to see if he is fit to fly to the United States for the

next stage of Liverpool’s pre-season preparations.

That injury blow overshadowed the Reds debut of England striker Rickie Lambert, who helped Brendan Rodgers’ side come from behind to win.

Lambert, who supported the Reds as a boy, made his dream move to Anfield from Southampton in June and played 45 minutes at Deepdale before being replaced at half-time.

Philippe Coutinho, Fabio Borini -who remains a target of Sunderland -Joe Allen, Martin Skrtel and Jon Flanagan were included in a strong Liverpool line-up, but it was Preston who took the lead through Josh Brownhill.

Liverpool, however, scored twice in three minutes in the second half as Suso applied a curling finish in the 74th minute before Kristoffer Peterson side-footed home the winner.

Elsewhere on Saturday, Chelsea staged a late fightback to beat League Two minnows AFC Wimbledon 3-2 thanks to two goals from captain John Terry. Nemanja Matic, Mohamed Salah and Kurt Zouma were all named in a young Chelsea line-up that fell 2-0 behind before half-time courtesy of Alan Bennett’s opener after 38 seconds and Matt Tubbs’ penalty.

Terry was introduced at the interval and the centre-back scored two goals either side of Salah’s equaliser to seal a second pre-season victory for Jose Mourinho’s men.

FA Cup holders Arsenal eased to a 2-0 win at non-league Boreham Wood.

Aaron Ramsey started for the Gunners alongside Carl Jenkinson, Nacho Monreal and Wojciech Szczesny but it wasn’t until the 68th minute that Kristoffer Olson gave Arsene Wenger’s side the lead.

Benik Afobe then made sure of the victory with a penalty late on.

Sunderland beat Darlington 5-1 and West Bromwich Albion drew 0-0 with Wycombe. l

Sport DHAKA TRIBUNE Monday, July 21, 2014

McIlroy on cusp of Open glory

QUICK BYTES

Wozniacki, Vinci to clash for Istanbul title Top seed Caroline Wozniacki will tackle Roberta Vinci for the Istanbul WTA title on Sunday as the magical run of 16-year-old Ana Konjuh was ended at the semi-final stage. Wozniacki made the final with a 6-2, 6-3 win over France’s Kristina Mladenovic while second-seeded Italian Vinci brushed aside Konjuh 6-4, 6-2. Vinci had lost to Konjuh in the first round in Auckland this season in the pair’s only other previous meeting. “The conditions were difficult out there today with the wind, so it made everything a little harder,” Wozniacki said of her clash with Mladenovic. “I just tried to stay focused and play my best tennis and I’m glad it worked out.” Vinci leads Wozniacki 2-1 in head-to-head meetings, including beating the Dane when she was ranked number one in 2011 and also winning their only 2014 encounter.

Vinci is also on a roll, winning eight of nine matches since coming out of Wimbledon.

–AFP

n Reuters, Hoylake

Gourcuff named new Algeria coach Frenchman Christian Gourcuff was named the new coach of Algeria on Saturday, replacing Vahid Halilhodzic who took them to the second round of the World Cup in Brazil last month.

Gourcuff had long been the earmarked to take over after Brazil but was only formally confirmed after a meeting of the Algerian Football Federation leadership in Algiers on Saturday. The 59-year-old Frenchman will start the job on August 1 and has been given a contract until the end of the next World Cup in Russia, said a federation statement. It means he will also be in charge for the next two African Nations Cups in 2015 and 2017 as well. Gourcuff was last coach of Lorient, leaving the job in May at the end of the Ligue 1 season.

He has also coached at Le Mans and Stade Rennes and had a one-year spell in Saudi Arabia.

–Reuters

Military service casts doubt over Salah’s Chelsea future

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland reacts after making his eagle putt on the 18th green during the third round of the British Open Championship at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, northern England on Saturday REUTERS

n AFP, London Michael Vaughan has joined the list of former skippers questioning whether Alastair Cook should continue as England captain.

After nine Tests without a win and 26 innings since he made the last of his England record 25 Test hundreds, Cook’s position has come under intense scrutiny, with the opener out for just 10 in his side’s first innings during the ongoing second Test against India at Lord’s.

The likes of Geoffrey Boycott, Alec Stewart and, most recently, Mike Brearley, have suggested the burden of leading England may now becoming too heavy for 29-year-old Essex left-hander Cook to carry.

Vaughan said England were in danger of doing permanent damage to Cook’s ability as a batsman if he was allowed to remain as captain.

“We have reached the stage with Cook when he cannot be enjoying cricket. You don’t when you are not playing well and the team is struggling,” Vaughan, England’s 2005 Ashes-winning captain, wrote in his Telegraph column.

Real Madrid sell Morata to Juve, loan Casemiro to FC Porto

DAY’S WATCH Star Sports 1, 3, HD1 4:00PM India Tour of England Second Test, Day 5

Rory McIlroy left the door invitingly ajar for a charging pack led by Rickie Fowler and Sergio Garcia before slamming it shut with a dazzling finish on Saturday to lead the Open by six strokes with one round left.

The Northern Irishman began the day four shots clear of Dustin Johnson, was reeled in by inspired American Fowler after 12 holes, but magnificent eagles at the 16th and 18th saw him disappear over the horizon with a 16-under-par total of 200 at a rain-soaked Royal Liverpool course.

It is 50 years since a player went into the fourth round of the Open with a bigger lead, on that occasion Tony Lema taking a seven-stroke advantage into Sunday at St Andrews in 1964.

Yet for much of the third round on a links course softened to perfection by stormy weather, McIlroy seemed in real danger of missing out on his fair share of the birdie feast which allowed 17 players to shoot sub-70 rounds and 35 to break par.

After 13 holes he was level par for the day and, with dark clouds brewing overhead, Fowler was breathing down his neck.

He responded with an incredible 3-3-3-3-5-3 climax to move clear and only an extraordinary turnaround on Sunday can prevent him completing a first Open triumph to add to the U.S. Open and U.S PGA titles he won in 2011 and 2012 respectively.

“I was conscious that Rickie was getting a little closer or Sergio or whoever it was,” McIlroy, who would break three-times winner Tiger Woods’s Open record of 19 under (set in 2000) with a round 68 or lower on Sunday, told reporters.

“But it was nice to be able to come up with the goods when I needed them the last few holes.”

Should he close the deal on Sunday, the 25-year-old McIlroy will have completed three legs of the career slam on Sunday, leaving just the Masters title

Vaughan voices Cook captaincy fears

Mohamed Salah’s Chelsea career is hanging in the balance as he may be ordered to return to Egypt to complete military service, Egyptian media reported. Salah, who completed a move to Stamford Bridge from Swiss club Basel in January, is allowed to live in England on the basis of his participation in an educational programme. However, his registration to that programme has been rescinded by the Minister of Higher Education in Egypt, the football website www.kingfut.com said, meaning the pacy 22-year-old may have to return to the country. If Salah was obliged to return home, he would not be allowed to leave Egypt again until completion of a period of military service, ranging from 12 months to three years. “Salah has expressed his shock about the decision,” Egyptian National Team director Ahmed Hassan said on kingfut.com. “He told me that he is trying to represent Egypt in the best way possible. Is this the best response from the country?”

–Reuters

Real Madrid said Saturday they have sold Spanish under 21 striker Alvaro Morata to Juventus and were loaning Brazilian midfielder Casemiro to FC Porto. Morato has been a regular in Madrid’s team this year and has scored 11 goals in 52 games for the side overall.

Italian champions Juventus confirmed the 21-year-old had signed a five-year deal worth 20 million euro ($27m) to be paid over three years which includes a buy-back clause. The 22-year-old Casemiro played 25 games for Madrid in 2013-2014, but only started four of those. Competition for Real midfield places is heating up with the arrival of German World Cup winner Toni Kroos this week. The Real-Porto accord includes an option to buy. Porto have already bought Dutch defender Bruno Martins Indi this week and taken attacker Cristian Tello on a two-year loan from Barcelona.

–AFP

15

Tomic faces Karlovic in Bogota final n AFP, Bogota Australian Bernard Tomic will face defending champion Ivo Karlovic in the Bogota ATP final after edging Victor Estrella 7-6 (7/2) 6-7 (5/7) 7-6 (7/5) in Saturday’s semi-final.

Tomic’s appearance in Sunday’s final as a wildcard comes three days after he split with global management company IMG with reports blaming the divorce on concerns over his off-court behaviour.

This is the 21-year-old’s first ATP final since January’s Sydney International.

“It’s always very tough when I play Victor, he’s a fighter,” said the Australian.

“I knew it was going to be a hard match, I tried to stay focussed on my serve and get the win.

“Now I’m going for the title,” add-

ed the Wimbledon quarter-finalist as a qualifier in 2011.

Karlovic beat Czech fourth seed Radek Stepanek 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in the second semi-final.

Tomic’s career has taken a downward turn since making the fourth round of the 2012 Australian Open, a decline which has seen his ATP ranking slip from 27 to a current 124.

He withdrew in the first round of the Australian Open against Rafael Nadal and underwent double hip surgery shortly afterwards and then suffered a record 26-minute defeat on his comeback event at Miami.

Last year, his father John was banned from attending the French Open, even as a paying spectator, after he was charged with assaulting his son’s hitting partner, Frenchman Thomas Drouet in Madrid. l

“It is easy for the England and Wales Cricket Board hierarchy to say it is going to stick by him but it has to ask what is best for the team and for Cook.

“The ECB has a responsibility to Cook the person to do the right thing and if that means taking the captaincy away then so be it.”

For the 39-year-old Vaughan, Cook’s plight was reminiscent of the situation he found himself in when struggling to combine the roles of England captain and opening batsman.

“I went through terrible moments opening the batting and captaining the side. I could not buy a run in my first series against South Africa and really struggled in Sri Lanka. It was killing me going to my room at night hating this job,” he added.

“He looked me in the eyes over coffee and said what about dropping down the order to give yourself space and time to gather your thoughts and make the transition from captaincy to batting,” Vaughan recalled.

“That one chat with Duncan saved me as a captain. If I had been stubborn and carried on as before I would not have lasted in the job because my form

would not have been good enough to stay in the side.”

However, Vaughan said a similar move was not an option for Cook and added the best course of action might be simply to remove the captaincy in the hope it allows him to concentrate solely on his batting.

The new hierarchy at the ECB installed after England’s 5-0 Ashes thrashing in Australia have staked plenty on Cook’s leadership, even saying the need to support his captaincy was a reason for sending star batsman Kevin Pietersen into international exile.

But Vaughan insisted any concerns the management had about being seen to perform a U-turn or “give in” to Cook’s critics missed the point.

“English cricket has to get him back to batting consistently at the top of the order,” Vaughan said.

“He needs a bit of honest feedback.

The ECB and Alastair cannot be stubborn and just carry on because they fear giving in to his critics.

“Plenty of great players have had to relinquish the captaincy to carry on being a player.” l

missing from his collection.

“I’d be in pretty illustrious company,” he added.

“So not getting ahead of ourselves, here, but yeah, it would mean an awful lot. I didn’t think that I’d even have the chance at 25 to go for three legs of the Grand Slam. So I’m going to try to put all of that out of my head.”

Like McIlroy, Fowler also carded a four-under 68 but three bogeys over the closing five holes left him ruing what might have been as he chases a first major title.

Spaniard Garcia, who hit back from a poor start in which he found two greenside bunkers at the first, is seven shots adrift in a tie for third place with Johnson after a round of 69.

Frenchman Victor Dubuisson is on eight under.

Darren Clarke, the 2011 champion, fired the day’s joint best round of 67 but three-times winner Tiger Woods, who started on the 10th along with half the field, was wallowing in a distant 58th place at three over par after a rusty 73.

Last year’s champion Phil Mickelson fared slightly better than his old sparring partner with a one-under 71 but his hopes of retaining the title are over.

McIlroy looked anxious early on, finding sand with his second shot at the first and then missing a par putt after an under-cooked bunker shot.

His heart was racing at the second when he badly misjudged a birdie putt and left himself an awkward return which he holed.

A birdie at the par-five fifth got him back to level par for the day but he was in trouble after driving into deep sodden rough at the long par-four seventh.

After chopping out sideways to the fairway he pitched into the green and rattled in a brave 15-foot par putt to put distance between himself and Johnson, who bogeyed.

With Fowler snapping at his heels McIlroy was unable to make another birdie until the par-four 11th, only to hand back a shot at the next hole after finding the rough off the tee. l

Ferrer ends teenager Zverev’s Hamburg run n AFP, Hamburg Spanish veteran David Ferrer ended the breakthrough run of German 17-year-old Alexander Zverev with a 6-0, 6-1 victory in the semi-finals of the Hamburg ATP tournament on Saturday.

The 32-year-old top-seeded Ferrer dismissed Zverev in just 56 minutes to advance to his 44th tour-level final where he will face Leonardo Mayer of Argentina.

World number 285 Zverev was the youngest player ever to compete in the semi-finals of an ATP World Tour 500 tournament, having ousted the likes of fifth seed Mikhail Youzhny and number 11 Santiago Giraldo.

He had never won a tour-level match coming into Hamburg and is now set to break the world top 200 at around 160, having sat as low as 665 three weeks ago.

World number 46 Mayer upset seventh-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany, 7-5, 6-4. l

Spain’s David Ferrer returns the ball during the semi final against Germany’s Zverev during their ATP tennis tournament in Hamburg, northern Germany on Saturday AFP

16

DHAKA TRIBUNE Monday, July 21, 2014 DHAKA TRIBUNE Monday, June 16, 2014

13 Shakib vows better behaviour in future

14 Sabella set to decide on Argentina future

Sport

15 Vaughan questions Cook captaincy

SCORECARD, DAY 5 South Africa 1st innings 455-9 decl (D. Elgar 103, J. Duminy 100 no; Perera 4-162) Sri Lanka 1st innings 292 all out (A. Mathews 89, U. Tharanga 83; D. Steyn 5-54) South Africa 2nd innings 206-6 decl. (De Villiers 51; R. Herath 4-79) Sri Lanka 2nd innings (overnight 110-1) U. Tharanga c de Kock b Steyn 14 K. Silva c de Kock b Steyn 38 K. Sangakkara c Amla b Duminy 76 M. Jayawardene c de Kock b Morkel 10 L. Thirimanne c de Villiers b Steyn 12 A. Mathews not out 27 D. Chandimal c de Kock b Morkel 1 D. Perera c de Kock b Steyn 0 R. Herath c de Villiers b Duminy 20 S. Lakmal c Tahir b Morkel 12 S. Eranga c Elgar b Morkel 0 Extras: (b1, lb4, nb1) 6 Total (all out; 71.3 overs) 216 Fall of wickets 1-14 (Tharanga), 2-118 (Silva), 3-138 (Jayawardene), 4-149 (Sangakkara), 5-153 (Thirimanne), 6-158 (Chandimal), 7-161 (Perera), 8-190 (Herath), 9-216 (Lakmal), 10-216 (Eranga) Bowling Steyn 17-3-45-4, Philander 11-4-34-0 (1nb), Morkel 13.3-6-29-4, Tahir 19-464-0, Duminy 10-4-38-2, Elgar 1-0-1-0 South Africa won by 153 runs

South African bowlers Morne Morkel, center left, and Dale Steyn cheer each other after defeating Sri Lanka by 153 runs during fifth day of the first Test cricket match in Galle, Sri Lanka yesterday AP

Quicks bowl Proteas to rare win in Sri Lanka n Reuters, Galle South African fast bowlers Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel ripped through the Sri Lanka batting lineup to seal a 153run win in the first test on Sunday as Hashim Amla started his captaincy in fine style.

Steyn took four for 45 and Morkel finished with four for 29 to dismiss the hosts for 216 shortly before the tea break and seal a first win in Sri Lanka for 14 years.

Sri Lanka had started the final day on 110 for one, optimistic of chasing down the 370 victory target after Amla had declared on 206-6, but collapsed

under the pressure of the two quicks to lose nine wickets for 106 runs.

Steyn ended with match figures of nine for 99 to take the man of the match award after the best bowling figures by a quick at Galle.

“His figures speak for themselves, he bowled excellently,” Amla said of Steyn. The lengths he bowled, the pace, the aggression - a great performance from a great bowler.

“I could look in the dictionary for a million adjectives to describe him, but I think it suffices to say that it was a great performance by a great bowler.”

Steyn started South Africa’s victory push by grabbing an early break-

through on Sunday when he had Kaushal Silva edge to wicket-keeper Quinton De Kock to end his innings on 38 and the second wicket stand of 104 with Kumar Sangakkara.

Morkel then struck with the first ball after the drinks breaks when Mahela Jayawardene edged behind for 10 to leave Sri Lanka on 138-3.

The hosts still held hope, though, with Sangakkara holding firm against the barrage before the former skipper fell to one of the worst balls of the day.

The left-hander pulling a woeful long hop delivery from JP Duminy straight to Amla at mid-wicket to depart for 76 and leave the hosts in big

trouble on 149-4.

Sangakkara could not believe what he had done, staring at the pitch before walking off with his head down.

Lahiru Thirimanne was the next to go, falling in similar circumstances to the first innings as he edged a ball from Steyn outside his stumps to AB de Villiers in the slips for 12.

Dinesh Chandimal then completed the miserable session by departing for one as he gloved an attempted pull off Morkel to de Kock to leave the hosts six down at lunch.

Steyn returned in the second session to take his fourth wicket when he had Dilruwan Perera caught by de Kock

for his second duck of the match. It was the fourth wicket to go down for only 12 runs as the hosts fell to 161-7.

Duminy then ended Rangana Herath’s 18-ball cameo for 20 when he top edged a sweep and was caught by a darting De Villiers, who ran from slip to short fine leg to take the catch.

Morkel wrapped up the victory by claiming the final two wickets in two balls, dismissing Suranga Lakmal at long leg for 12 and then Shaminda Eranga fending a short ball to short leg to leave Mathews unbeaten at the crease on 27.

“The bowlers were really hungry Dale and Morne asked for the ball regularly, which was brilliant,” said Amla.

“We picked up a few early wickets which made it a lot easier to maintain the pressure.”

Sri Lanka captain Mathews blamed his middle order batting for the defeat.

“Where we lost the test was the failure of our batsmen to score runs on the first innings,” said Mathews, who reckoned Sri Lanka were at least 100 runs short in their first innings when they folded for 292.

“When we started the day at 110 for one, our plan was to go after the target but like in the first innings we didn’t bat well enough.”

The second test starts in Colombo on July 24.l

Raza, Masakadza rout Afghans in second ODI n AFP, Bulawayo

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg of Germany leads the field after the start of the German Formula One Grand Prix in Hockenheim, Germany yesterday

RESULT 1. Rosberg (GER/Mercedes) 1:33:42.914s 2. Bottas (FIN/Williams) at 20.789s 3. Hamilton (GBR/Mercedes) 22.530 4. Vettel (GER/Red Bull) 44.014 5. Alonso (ESP/Ferrari) 52.467 6. Ricciardo (AUS/Red Bull) 52.549 7. Hülkenberg (GER/FI) 1:04.178 8. Button (GBR/McLaren) 1:24.711 9. Magnussen (DEN/McLaren) 1 lap 10. Perez (MEX/Force India) 1 lap 11. Raikkonen (FIN/Ferrari) 1 lap 12. Maldonado (VEN/Lotus) 1 lap 13. Vergne (FRA/Toro Rosso) 1 lap 14. Gutierrez (MEX/Sauber) 1 lap 15. Bianchi (FRA/Marussia) 1 lap 16. Kobayashi (JPN/Caterham) 2 laps 17. Chilton (GBR/Marussia) 2 laps 18. Ericsson (SWE/Caterham) 2 laps

AP

Leader Rosberg wins German GP n AP, Hockenheim

Nico Rosberg won the German Grand Prix on Sunday to stretch his lead in the Formula One drivers’ championship over Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton, who finished third after starting 20th.

“It’s an amazing feeling to win at home. It’s a very special day,” said Rosberg, who led throughout to become the first German to triumph at Hockenheim since Michael Schumacher won in 2006.

Hamilton, who crashed in qualifying and survived a number of scrapes throughout the race, could not get past Valtteri Bottas in the closing laps and the Finn took second to give Williams its 300th F1 podium finish.

“It was not easy and required input from all the engineers. Thanks to all the fans. I saw many Finnish flags so thank you,” Bottas said.

Hamilton was pushed back to the penultimate row of the grid due to his qualifying crash and a penalty for changing his gearbox, but threaded his way through the field despite a broken front wing caused by a collision with former teammate Jenson Button of McLaren.

His super-soft tires wore quickly in his final stint and he did not have the grip to get past Bottas. Rosberg leads Hamilton by 14 points going into next weekend’s race in Hungary.

Four-time defending champ Sebastian Vettel was fourth, ahead of Fer-

rari’s Fernando Alonso who won his exciting battle with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo for fifth.

There was a collision at the first corner between Kevin Magnussen’s McLaren and Felipe Massa’s Williams, which flipped over and slid across the run-off area in a shower of sparks.

The McLaren also left the track and Ricciardo had to steer wide around them to avoid the damage, dropping him down to 15th and compromising his race.

Magnussen had to pit to repair damage to his left front tire but Massa’s race was over. The Brazilian emerged unhurt from the car to cheers from the crowd. l

Sikandar Raza struck 141 runs as Zimbabwe cruised to an eight-wicket oneday international (ODI) triumph over Afghanistan in Bulawayo Sunday.

A century from 17-year-old Usman Ghani was pivotal as Afghanistan made 256-7 in 50 overs at Queens Sports Club in the southern Zimbabwe city.

But a succession of Afghan bowlers had no answer to right-hander Raza, who combined with Hamilton Masakadza for a 224-run opening partnership.

Zimbabwe reached a victory-clinching 257-2 off 43.3 overs.

The emphatic victory coupled with a six-wicket win two days ago gave Zimbabwe a 2-0 lead in the four-match series with matches to come on Tuesday and Thursday.

Opener Ghani struck 118 runs from 143 balls in a 200-minute stand laced with 12 fours and one six.

No other Afghan batsman impressed with the second-best score

an undefeated 23 from lower-order Gulbadin Naib.

Pakistan-born Raza, who made his ODI debut last year against Bangladesh, averaged over a run a ball as he tormented the visitors’ attack.

The knock came off 133 balls and his 171-minute spell of havoc included 11 fours and seven sixes.

Masakadza fell on 93 having scored 10 fours and one six.

Zimbabwe and Afghanistan are preparing for the 2015 Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. l

BRIEF SCORE Afghanistan 256-7 in 50 overs (Ghani 118, Naib 23 no, Rahmat 22, Nabi 22; Raza 2-25, H Masakadza 2-37, Panyangara 2-58) Zimbabwe 257-2 in 43.3 overs (Sikandar Raza 141, Masakadza 93) Zimbabwe win by eight wickets Zimbabwe lead four-match series 2-0

Sikandar Raza (R) and Hamilton Masakadza run during the second ODI against Afghanistan in Bulawayo yesterday AFP

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Phone: 9132093-94, Advertising: 9132155, Circulation: 9132282, Fax: News-9132192, e-mail: news@dhakatribune.com, info@dhakatribune.com, Website: www.dhakatribune.com

The BRICS nations The BRICS group of emerging economic powers meeting in Fortaleza, Brasil

41.6%

of the world population

19.8%

of the world‘s GDP

2013 10

4.4

GDP as a %

2015 forecast 2014 Narendra Modi 5.4

6.4

Population

10

Per capita GDP

= 10 million In $US Vladimir Putin

1.3 1.3

25%

2.3

144 million $US 14,604

of the world‘s territory

Xi Jinping

7.7 7.7 7.5

RU S S I A

CHINA

B3 G20 trade ministers

reaffirm growth commitments

INDIA

B4 BRICS shake up global Dilma Rousseff

2.5 1.8 2.7

1.211 billion $US 1,418

Jacob Zuma

S OUTH economic architecture BRAZIL AFRICA

MONDAY, JULY 21, 2014 www.dhakatribune.com/business

2.7 1.9 2.3

201 million $US 11,171

1.357 billion

Threat of political movement makes BB conservative Sources: IMF, World Bank

51 million $US 7,810

$US 6,768

H1 credit growth target to remain at the same level of last half at 16.5% as the central bank unveils monetary policy statement early next week n Jebun Nesa Alo Bangladesh Bank is going to announce a new monetary policy for the first half of the current fiscal year on Sunday next, with a challenge to stimulate investment in private sector.

The credit growth target would be set at 16.5%, a senior executive of the central bank said yesterday.

The target would then remain same to what it was in the January to June period, which would also remain far short of the period’s target. He said the credit growth in the last six month would be 13.5% at best, portraying sluggish investment.

The credit growth remained far below from the programmes estimated in last several monetary policies.

“There will be no surprise in the new policy we are going to announce,” said Bangladesh Bank senior adviser Allah Malik Kazmi. He said credit space will be kept almost unchanged as local market would not be so crowded due to inflow of foreign loans.

The Monetary Policy Statement would continue with the existing measures to keep inflation below 7% and set the GDP growth above 7% in line with the government target of 7.3% for the fiscal year 2014-15.

“We will have policy to divert the liquidity to investment. We have already raised the cash reserve requirement (CRR) to absorb the excess liquidity from the market and have plans to increase it further, if needed,” he said.

He said the central bank will take steps to keep stability in the money market, but increase of investment would depend on political situation.

“We will take the political situation under consideration in setting the monetary policy programmes as BNP announced to go for movement after Eid festival.”

The central bank expects import expenditure will rise this year, but will have no pressure on reserve as it has surplus current account balance. The current account may not remain surplus due to rise in import payment, but it would not be negative, he said.

He added that the central bank failed to achieve its target to use the credit growth set in the last few monetary programmes due to lack of confidence among the businesspeople amid political uncertainty.

Under the monetary programme for the fiscal year 2013-14, the central bank had set 15.5% credit growth target for the private sector by December 2013 and 16.50% by June 2014.

The BB data showed that the credit growth in the private sector stood at 11.39% in May and the central bank is expecting it would stand 13.5% at best at the end of June, which is far below the target.

The actual credit growth of the private sector was 16.6% in December 2012, which was far from the target of 18.3%. Then the central bank cut its credit growth target to 10.8% in June 2013 considering the lack of demand and achieved it.

But, the gap between the actual and programmed target widened during last two monetary policies amid political unrest. The actual credit growth stood at 10.6% in December 2013 against the programme of 15.5% and in May it stood at 11.39% against 16.8%, according to the Bangladesh Bank data. l

Salaries of 10 lakh RMG workers of subcontracting factories uncertain n Ibrahim Hossain Ovi Some 10 lakh workers, who are employed in around 1,200 subcontracting ready-made garment factories, are still facing uncertainties in getting their salaries and bonus before Eid as the factory owners are now facing fund shortage due to order crisis.

According to Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), there are 1,200 subcontracting RMG factory in the country employing over 10 lakh workers.

Among the subcontracting factories, 800 are fully depend on subcontracting job while rest of the 400 are directly export-oriented factories, which also do subcontract job when they lack work orders.

The subcontracting factories cut and make garments in contract and are paid off for that, which is also known as cutting and making (CM) charge.

I have got my salary of the last month on Thursday last, which has become a usual scenario for us as it is happening every month, Ahsan, an operator at a subcontracting factory at Badda in the capital, told the Dhaka Tribune.

“We may get only bonus before Eid as the factory has not enough funds to pay the monthly salary,’’ said Ahsan quoting a factory official.

After the Rana Plaza incident, which killed 1,135 workers and injured over 2,500 last year, global buyers have become more cautious about workers’ safety and also imposed conditions on subcontracting.

According to a BGMEA source, factory owners, especially the actual subcontracting factory owners, are facing financial crisis due to lack of enough work orders. ”Subcontracting factories may face problems in paying the workers’ wages and bonus in due time as they are now

Committee formed to search site for EPB finalises $33.2bn international convention center export target today n Tribune Report

An eight-member committee has been formed to find out a suitable site for setting up an international convention center on 50 bighas of land near Dhaka-Mawa.

A committee headed by Public Works Secretary Md Golam Rabbani has been formed to prepare a report on the possible sites, which will be submitted in September next to finally select the project area and sources of funds for setting up the proposed convention center, said Finance Minister AMA Muhith after attending an inter-ministerial meeting held yesterday at the finance ministry at the secretariat in the capital.

The meeting was, attended, among others, by LGRD minister Syed Ashraful Islam and Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu. The meeting opined that an international convention centre might be constructed in the Nobabganj Upzilla

Galimpur moza area, which is six kilometer east from Nobabaganj Upzilla head quarters, besides Dhaka -Dohar roadside, and it will be 25 kilometer from zero point of Dhaka city.

Proposed convention center site will be on 44 acres, which is now being used as agriculture land. Of the 44 acres, 43.86 acres private land and rest of khas land and there is no establishment in the areas, as per the proposal.

“Possible sites of an international convention center may be three but it is not right time to disclose the name of areas because price of the land may be increased in those areas,’’ Muhith pointed out. He also said an international airport and railway station would be set up near the convention center.

He said the convention center will establish within two years with most of expenses bear by the government of Bangladesh under Public and Private Partnership initiative.

The project will be implemented at

a cost of US$300m or Tk2,400 crore with the financial and technical assistance from the Chinese government.

Terming Bangladesh is an attractive place not only for the investors but also for huge gathering of people from home and abroad, the finance minister said: We need another international convention centre to tap the opportintunities.

As per the proposed infrastructure plan, the centre will house a large gallery with seating capacity of 5,000 spectators, two medium sized galleries, having 500 seats each, 10 seminar rooms, having seating capacity of 200 people each and several offices for the government. The centre will also have a parking lot for 500 cars.

The proposed convention centre, which will have an exclusive office for the Prime Minister and offices for some cabinet members. According to the draft plan, the estimated project cost worth Tk2,400 crore would be out sourcing from the public and private sectors. l

n Tribune Report

Export Promotion Bureau will finalise $33.2bn export target today for the fiscal year 2014-15 with an aim to earn $27.5bn from the nation’s garment sector after making a change to its previous draft of $34.2bn.

A meeting to be presided over by Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed at EPB auditorium will finalise the target which is 8.85% higher than that of the last year’s earning.

“Commerce minister will fix the target of export despite global odds and uncomfortable situation of US market in regaining GSP facility of local export,” an EPB official told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

In the FY2013-14 the country earned $30.17bn posting over 11% growth from the previous year.

However, the figure was short of the target which was $30.5bn.

EPB data showed the export sec-

tor failed to reach targets as set in last two years. In 2011-12, the target was $26.5bn, but the earnings amounted to $24.3bn while in FY2012-13 the achievement was $27bn against the target of $28bn.

The country only witnessed a big jump in exports compared to target during the FY2010-11. While the target was $18.5bn, the earnings exceeded $24bn in the year.

The performance could have encouraged the EPB to set bigger targets in the following years.

However, the export sector has continued to grow over the last several years even in the recent time when the country’s biggest foreign exchange earner garment industry faced trouble after the disastrous Rana Plaza incident.

Bangladesh mainly depends on garment, leather, agricultural products, shrimp and jute and jute goods to achieve its export target. l

BTRC earns Tk10,000cr in FY14 n Muhammad Zahidul Islam Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) collected Tk10,016 crore as government revenue in the fiscal year 2013-14, which is nearly double compared to the earning one year ago.

The collection was driven by spectrum fee for newly launched third generation mobile broadband, second generation licence renewal fee and revenue sharing of the operators along with other fees, according to the regulator sources.

In FY2012-13, the BTRC received Tk5,404 crore from operators.

Of the amount collected in the just concluded fiscal, BTRC which earns the highest non-tax revenue for government has deposited Tk9,722 crore to Bangladesh Bank.

The telecom watchdog officials.The collection would be further boosted if the operators paid outstanding revenues.

Teletalk, the state-owned mobile operator, paid only Tk60 crore for 3G licence

fees although the total fee was Tk1,627 crore. Other four private mobile operators paid Tk4,250 crore for 3G spectrum.

However, the telecom market analysts said although the regulator earned a huge sum, it could not facilitate the market. They said the market expansion has been slow and the regulator has no control over it.

“It is a natural cash flow and there is no credit to BTRC from here to collect this huge amount of money. Rather BTRC should spend more money for hiring telecom experts. Only the professionals should lead this sector,” said Abu Saeed Khan, a senior policy fellow of the Colombo-based regulatory think-tank LIRNEasia and a former secretary of Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (Amtob).

BTRC should expand its service and physical presence across the country, he added. The collection in the last fiscal year exceeded the target of Tk9,398 crore.

In the first six months of the year, BTRC got Tk6,126 crore revenue, said the regulator sources. l

The road-side makeshift shops have been major place of shopping for the low-income people in Dhaka. With Eid-ul-Fitr only a few days away, hundreds of Eid shoppers have started crowding these cheap price outlets. The picture taken yesterday shows the shoe shops built on the footpaths of the city’s busy new market area RAJIB DHAR

facing order shortage, which put them in fund crises,” BGMEA vice- president Shahidullah Azim told the Dhaka Tribune. “ We have urged the finance minister to order the banks to pay us fund only for paying bonus and salary before Eid, which could be adjusted after the Eid, when they received funds from the buyers,” said Azim.

Azim also noted that May-August is a lean time for the country’s RMG sector, which created shortage in work orders but it would be over soon.

‘We have information that the subcontracting factory owners are facing problems in managing funds to pay the workers’ dues before Eid’ “After the implementation of new wage structure, subcontracting factories are suffering fund shortage badly as the lack of enough work orders make the situation worse,” a subcontracting factory owner, told the Dhaka Tribune, who preferred not to be named.

The problem can be resolved only if the buyers allow us subcontracting, increase CM charge and put more order in Bangladesh, he added.

Currently, the subcontracting factories are not allowed to perform the job for the supplier without permission of the respective buyers.

“We have information that the subcontracting factory owners are facing problems in managing funds to pay the workers’ dues before Eid,” said Rony.

He also urged the government and the BGMEA to take necessary steps to avert any unrest in the apparel industry. l

Double taxation treaty with Kyrgyzstan likely next month n Asif Showkat Kallol

Bangladesh and Kyrgyzstan are close to signing two agreements after seven years of initiative, which include avoidance of double taxation treaty and avert tax fraud agreement between the two countries.

Official of the Internal Resources Division said: “We exchanged model drafts for avoidance of double taxation treaty and avert tax dodge agreement in 2007 but the negotiations between Bangladesh and Kyrgyzstan authorities stalled since then for different reasons.”

He also said negotiation between the two nations will start again next month as the both parties already agreed.

Summary of singing the two agreements between Bangladesh and Kyrgyzstan was placed for endorsement of Finance Minister AMA Muhith last week.

According to the summary of Internal Resources Division under Ministry of Finance, the Kyrgyzstan authorities invited the Bangladeshi delegation team to Bishkek on August 4-7 or August 18-21 to finalise the two agreements.

Kyrgyzstan authorities had earlier invited the Bangladeshi delegation twice in last seven years but for “unavoidable circumstance” Bangladeshi delegation could not go to Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan.

Internal Resources Division has already formed a five-member team headed by Chairman of National Board of Revenue Md Ghulam Hossain.

The team will go to Bishkek on the any of the mentioned dates. They will discuss about the interest of Bangladesh’s exports, investment trade and commerce in Kyrgyzstan.

Bangladesh has been exporting pharmaceutical goods, melamine, garments and jute goods to Kyrgyzstan for last couple of years. In FY2013-14, Bangladesh export to Kyrgyzstan was $209,216.90. l

B2

Stocks start week with red n Tribune Report

and power.

Pharmaceuticals sector was the worst sufferer with a fall of more than 3%, pulled down by heavyweight Square Pharmaceuticals that slumped 8%, as its dividend declaration of 30.0% cash and 15% stock for the year ended March 2014 failed to satisfy investors.

IDLC Investments said with corporate disclosures and half-yearly earnings floating on board, investors prompted to shuffle their choice across scrips and sectors.

The expectation mismatch dwindled scrip-level scenario, especially Square Pharmaceuticals secured worst position in top ten losers’ list, it said.

“However, coupled with the news of increased interest rate spread and better half-yearly earning declarations in some banks impulsed investors’ positioning.”

Lanka Bangla Securities said first day of the week started with selling frenzy with major large cap stocks closing in negative territory.

As quarterly earnings started to come out, investors reacted positively at the end of trading; especially on financial stocks, which squeezed the day’s losses, it said.

Beximco continued leading the chart for the fifth consecutive session with Tk30 crore changing hands, followed by Shahjibazar Power Company, Grameenphone, Olympic Industries, FAR Chemical and United Commercial Bank Ltd. l

Stocks started the week with red yesterday amid lacklustre trading activities.

The market opened on unhappy note as indices tumbled losing almost 50 points till midsession, but some modest buying mainly on financials offset some losses.

'The expectation mismatch dwindled scrip-level scenario, especially Square Pharmaceuticals secured worst position in top ten losers’ list' The benchmark DSEX lost over 18 points or 0.5% to end at 4,374. The Shariah index was down 14 points or 1.5% to 984. The comprising blue chips DS30 closed at 1,591, shedding 12 points or 0.8%.

Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, fell 35 points to 8,291.

Turnover at DSE remained sluggish amounting to Tk260 crore, which was over 4% higher than that of the previous session.

The major sectors closed with mixed performance with banks gaining the most 1.4%, followed by non-banking financial institutions

Weekly capital market highlights DSE Broad Index : DSE - 30 Index : CSE All Share Index: CSE - 30 Index : CSE Selected Index : DSE LOSERS Company Square Pharma -A BD Fixed Income MF-A Reliance Insur -A Midas Financing-Z Rupali Life Insur.-A Popular Life Insu. -A MBL 1st M. F.-A Meghna Life Ins. -A BD. Thai Alum -B Wata Chemicals -A

Closing (% change) -8.01 -5.06 -5.01 -4.85 -4.51 -4.10 -4.00 -3.58 -3.56 -3.55

CSE LOSERS Company Nitol Insurance -A Square Pharma -A Asia Insur. Ltd.-A H.R. Textile -A Padma Islami Life*-N Rupali Life Insur.-A JMI Syringes MDL-A The Ibn SinaA Meghna Life Ins. -A Union Capital -A

Closing (% change) -9.31 -7.93 -4.69 -3.68 -3.51 -3.23 -3.05 -3.03 -2.99 -2.96

Turnover (Million Taka)

2,636.97

Turnover (Volume)

67,560,840

Number of Contract

68,482

Traded Issues

293

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

122

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

162

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

9

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,269.06

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

27.50

CSE key features Jujy 20, 2014 Turnover (Million Taka)

221.49

Turnover (Volume)

6,510,782

Number of Contract

10,210

Traded Issues

197

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

101

984.26708

(-) 1.46%

▼

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

91

1591.20483

(-) 0.46%

▲

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

4

11068.76260

(-) 1.67%

▲

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,171.98

8291.68650

(-) 0.42%

▼

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

26.33

Average (% change) -1.19 -7.81 -4.24 -1.47 -3.39 -4.66 -3.07 -3.03 -3.58 -2.96

Closing average 252.12 7.50 58.89 21.63 51.11 171.00 4.93 91.91 27.69 229.56

Closing average 26.68 252.54 18.30 26.80 55.00 50.92 155.85 96.00 94.01 19.68

Weekly closing

DSE Million Taka 278.19 71.81 24.30 233.18 121.52 334.95 0.39 257.26 526.66 0.07 34.10 22.19 9.36 91.41 9.78 24.44 32.97 114.62 95.58 353.84 0.35

Weekly high

252.60 7.50 58.80 21.60 50.80 170.90 4.80 91.50 27.10 225.60

Weekly closing

260.00 7.50 60.00 22.30 52.40 171.20 5.10 94.90 28.80 237.00

Weekly high

26.30 253.20 18.30 26.20 55.00 50.90 155.90 96.00 94.10 19.70

28.00 260.00 18.30 27.20 55.00 51.10 158.00 96.00 103.00 19.90

Weekly low

Turnover in million

235.00 7.50 58.50 20.90 50.00 170.70 4.70 91.30 25.50 215.00

Weekly low 26.30 248.00 18.30 26.20 55.00 50.80 154.00 96.00 90.00 19.50

Latest EPS

281.711 0.004 0.265 0.173 3.304 0.684 1.598 3.456 11.198 5.863

Turnover in million

Shahjibazar Power-N Savar Refractories-Z Apex SpinningA United Insur -A Rupali Bank - A Linde (BD) Ltd. -A Bengal Windsor-A FAR Chemical-N Jamuna Bank -A National Life I -A

Closing (% change) 15.40 9.59 5.49 5.45 5.34 5.07 4.92 4.84 4.17 3.82

CSE GAINERS

▲

8.36 0.56 5.84 -6.91 5.33 17.00 -0.36 6.45 0.84 6.24

Latest EPS

0.017 27.673 0.005 0.040 0.028 0.127 0.468 0.048 0.131 0.081

3.24 8.36 1.56 1.62 1.10 5.33 2.08 3.12 6.45 2.08

Latest PE 30.2 13.4 10.1 -ve 9.6 10.1 -ve 14.2 33.0 36.8

Latest PE 8.2 30.2 11.7 16.5 50.0 9.6 74.9 30.8 14.6 9.5

Company Bengal Windsor-A Safko Spinning-A AMCL (Pran) -A Power Grid Co. -A Golden Harvest Agro-N DESCO Ltd. -A UCBL - A IDLC Finance -A AMCL 2nd MF-A Orion Infusions -A

Closing (% change) 5.41 4.89 3.97 3.86 3.78 3.65 3.44 3.44 3.39 3.06

Average (% change) 10.68 6.67 3.94 1.57 3.03 2.98 3.99 6.05 2.91 1.76 Average (% change) 4.31 3.21 3.97 3.86 3.83 2.86 2.17 3.46 3.05 2.10

Closing average 48.18 64.00 72.30 31.77 67.76 865.86 44.31 49.25 12.39 226.42

Closing average 44.29 18.99 222.50 43.00 30.06 55.66 26.87 44.57 6.08 43.21

Weekly closing 51.70 64.00 73.00 32.90 69.10 884.60 44.80 49.80 12.50 230.80

Weekly closing 44.80 19.30 222.50 43.00 30.20 56.80 27.10 45.10 6.10 43.80

Weekly high 52.30 64.00 73.70 33.90 71.50 893.00 45.20 50.70 13.00 231.90

Weekly high 45.10 19.30 230.00 43.00 30.50 60.00 27.30 45.20 6.10 44.00

Weekly low 43.70 64.00 70.10 30.50 60.00 836.00 39.00 47.80 10.80 222.20

Weekly low 43.20 17.50 215.00 43.00 29.90 54.20 25.50 43.70 6.00 42.40

Turnover in million 104.773 0.003 3.239 0.019 2.628 5.022 32.829 69.911 2.526 2.434

Turnover in million 3.419 0.031 0.045 0.043 0.352 0.584 4.308 0.981 0.015 0.199

Latest EPS 3.04 0.52 2.24 2.44 3.96 38.76 2.60 3.92 0.60 12.46

Latest EPS 2.60 1.08 5.85 2.13 1.55 0.95 4.64 -0.88 0.99 4.81

Latest PE 15.8 123.1 32.3 13.0 17.1 22.3 17.0 12.6 20.7 18.2

Latest PE 17.0 17.6 38.0 20.2 19.4 58.6 5.8 -ve 6.1 9.0

News, analysis and recent disclosers SQURPHARMA: The Board of Directors has recommended 30% cash dividend and 15% stock dividend for the year ended on March 31, 2014. Date of AGM: 25.09.2014, Time: 10:00 AM, Venue: Factory premises, Kaliakoir, Gazipur. Record Date: 26.08.2014. The Company has also reported NAV of Tk. 22,277.52 million, EPS of Tk. 8.36 and NOCFPS of Tk. 12.90 for the year ended on March 31, 2014.

LINDEBD: The Company has informed that the Board of Directors has approved 200% interim cash dividend for the year ending 31st December 2014. Record date for entitlement of interim dividend: 03.08.2014.

APEXSPINN: The Board of Directors has recommended 20% cash dividend for the year ended on March 31, 2014.

Date of AGM: 28.09.2014, Time: 9:00 AM, Venue: Trust Milonayatan, 545 Puraton Biman Bandar Sarak (Adjacent to Shahid Bir Shresta Jahangir Gate), Dhaka Cantonment, Dhaka-1206. Record date: 07.08.2014. The Company has also reported net profit after tax of Tk. 18.80 million, EPS with fair valuation surplus of Investment of Tk. 3.35, EPS without fair valuation surplus of Investment of Tk. 2.24, NAV per share of Tk. 49.75 and NOCFPS of Tk. 2.50 for the year ended on March 31, 2014 as against Tk. 18.49 million, Tk. 2.01, Tk. 2.20, Tk. 49.32 and Tk. 18.09 respectively for the year ended on March 31, 2013.

STANDBANKL: (H/Y): As per un-audited half yearly accounts as on 30.06.2014 (Jan'14 to June'14), the Company has reported consolidated profit after tax of Tk. 644.78 million with consolidated EPS of Tk. 1.13 as against Tk. 473.91 million and Tk. 0.83 respectively

for the same period of the previous year.

Whereas consolidated profit after tax was Tk. 508.43 million with consolidated EPS of Tk. 0.89 for the period of 3 months (Apr'14 to June'14) ended on 30.06.2014 as against Tk. 164.30 million and Tk. 0.29 respectively for the same period of the previous year.

MJLBD: (H/Y): As per un-audited half yearly accounts as on 30.06.2014 (Jan'14 to June'14), the Company has reported consolidated net profit after tax (excluding non-controlling interests) of Tk. 600.16 million with consolidated EPS of Tk. 2.52.

Whereas consolidated net profit after tax (excluding non-controlling interests) was Tk. 318.26 million with consolidated EPS of Tk. 1.33 for the period of 3 months (Apr'14 to June'14) ended on 30.06.2014.

FASFIN: (H/Y): As per un-audited half yearly accounts as on 30.06.2014 (Jan'14 to June'14), the Company has reported consolidated net profit after tax (excluding non-controlling interests) of Tk. 29.45 million with consolidated EPS of Tk. 0.26 as against Tk. 0.57 million and Tk. 0.01 respectively for the same period of the previous year.

Whereas consolidated net profit/(loss) after tax (excluding non-controlling interests) was Tk. 15.76 million with consolidated EPS of Tk. 0.14 for the period of 3 months (Apr'14 to June'14) ended on 30.06.2014 as against Tk. (10.86) million and Tk. (0.10) respectively for the same period of the previous year.

UCBL: (H/Y): As per un-audited half yearly accounts as on 30.06.2014 (Jan'14 to June'14), the Company has reported consolidated profit after tax of Tk. 1,939.97 million with consolidated EPS of Tk. 2.32 as against Tk. 1,058.61 million and Tk.

1.27 respectively for the same period of the previous year. Whereas consolidated profit after tax was Tk. 977.54 million with consolidated EPS of Tk. 1.17 for the period of 3 months (Apr'14 to June'14) ended on 30.06.2014 as against Tk. 2,058.46 million and Tk. 2.46 respectively for the same period of the previous year.

LINDEBD: (H/Y): As per un-audited half yearly accounts as on 30.06.2014 (Jan'14 to June'14), the Company has reported net profit after tax of Tk. 294.95 million with EPS of Tk. 19.38 as against Tk. 343.34 million and Tk. 22.56 respectively for the same period of the previous year. Whereas net profit after tax was Tk. 157.29 million with EPS of Tk. 10.34 for the period of 3 months (Apr'14 to June'14) ended on 30.06.2014 as against Tk. 146.95 million and Tk. 9.66 respectively for the same period of the previous year.

ISLAMIBANK: The Company has informed that the Board of Directors of the Company has decided to enhance Paid up Capital of Islami Bank Securities Limited, a subsidiary Company of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited from Tk. 270.00 crore to Tk. 472.50 crore subject to approval of Regulatory Authorities.

BEXIMCO: The Company has informed that it has credited the bonus shares for the year ended on December 31, 2013 to the respective shareholders' BO Account on July 20, 2014.

PURABIGEN: The Company has informed that it has credited the bonus shares for the year ended on December 31, 2013 to the respective shareholders' BO Account on July 15, 2014.

First day of the week started with selling frenzy with major large cap stocks closing in negative territory

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY 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

Company

(-) 0.41%

Average (% change) -7.72 -5.30 -3.46 -4.76 -4.72 -3.81 -1.40 -3.53 -0.65 0.02

Monday, July 21, 2014

DSE GAINERS

DSE key features Jujy 20, 2014

4374.19425

ANALYST

Sector

Stock

DHAKA TRIBUNE

% change 10.55 2.72 0.92 8.84 4.61 12.70 0.01 9.76 19.97 1.29 0.84 0.35 3.47 0.37 0.93 1.25 4.35 3.62 13.42 0.01

Million Taka 26.72 4.94 2.05 19.78 20.05 26.18 28.70 43.45 35.72 1.49 36.39 0.89 6.14 0.79 0.27 1.68 13.33 15.84 44.11 0.09

CSE

% change 8.13 1.50 0.63 6.02 6.10 7.97 0.00 8.73 13.22 10.87 0.45 11.07 0.27 1.87 0.24 0.08 0.51 4.06 4.82 13.42 0.03

Million Taka 304.91 76.76 26.36 252.96 141.57 361.14 0.39 285.96 570.11 35.79 35.59 58.59 10.24 97.55 10.57 24.71 34.65 127.95 111.42 397.95 0.44

Total

% change 10.28 2.59 0.89 8.53 4.77 12.18 0.01 9.64 19.22 1.21 1.20 1.98 0.35 3.29 0.36 0.83 1.17 4.31 3.76 13.42 0.01

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

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS Company BEXIMCO Ltd. -A Square Pharma -A Shahjibazar Power-N Grameenphone-A Olympic Ind. -A FAR Chemical-N UCBL - A The Peninsula CTG.-N Envoy Textiles Ltd-N Appollo Ispat CL -N CSE TURNOVER LEADERS Company BEXIMCO Ltd. -A Square Pharma -A The Peninsula CTG.-N FAR Chemical-N Grameenphone-A UNITED AIR-A Appollo Ispat CL -N BSC-A BD Submarine Cable-A UCBL - A

Volume shares 8,687,561 1,117,370 2,174,800 306,078 318,622 1,419,500 2,535,551 1,945,200 1,223,103 2,028,600

Volume shares 1,090,437 109,581 286,200 186,000 30,600 475,600 199,800 10,015 26,800 160,359

Value in million 306.73 281.71 104.77 85.88 75.09 69.91 68.27 67.55 65.23 57.60

Value in million 38.46 27.67 9.94 9.13 8.57 5.82 5.67 5.33 4.76 4.31

% of total turnover 11.63 10.68 3.97 3.26 2.85 2.65 2.59 2.56 2.47 2.18

% of total turnover 18.89 13.59 4.88 4.49 4.21 2.86 2.79 2.62 2.34 2.12

Weekly closing 35.50 252.60 51.70 279.30 236.50 49.80 27.20 34.80 53.40 28.20

Weekly closing 35.40 253.20 34.80 49.00 279.50 12.20 28.30 529.50 177.10 27.10

Price change 0.85 -8.01 15.40 -2.03 1.20 4.84 3.42 1.46 1.14 -1.40

Weekly opening 35.20 274.60 44.80 285.10 233.70 47.50 26.30 34.30 52.80 28.60

Weekly high 38.70 260.00 52.30 285.00 237.20 50.70 27.40 35.20 53.80 29.00

Weekly low 31.70 235.00 43.70 270.00 225.00 47.80 23.70 34.30 48.00 28.10

Weekly average 35.31 252.12 48.18 280.57 235.68 49.25 26.93 34.73 53.33 28.39

Price change 0.57 -7.93 1.46 2.94 -2.17 -0.81 -2.08 0.42 -1.12 3.44

Weekly opening 35.20 275.00 34.30 47.60 285.70 12.30 28.90 527.30 179.10 26.20

Weekly high 36.10 260.00 35.20 50.50 284.00 12.40 28.90 536.00 179.50 27.30

Weekly low 32.00 248.00 34.10 47.90 278.90 12.00 28.10 527.25 176.10 25.50

Weekly average 35.27 252.54 34.74 49.10 280.20 12.23 28.40 532.00 177.60 26.87

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

B3

Monday, July 21, 2014

G20 trade ministers reaffirm growth commitments n AFP, Sydney G20 trade ministers reaffirmed Saturday their commitment to free trade as a central driver of growth and to streamline the flow of goods through borders.

The ministers met in Sydney for the latest round of talks among the world's leading economies, with Australia's Trade Minister Andrew Robb saying all nations were still committed to the Bali agreement struck in December.

Robb said while some G20 members raised concerns about the deal, which streamlines the global flow of goods, "every country there at the meeting did reaffirm their commitment to all nine (elements of the Bali agreement) being completed".

The Bali agreement by the World Trade Organisation's 160 members saw them commit to lowering global trade barriers, with the intention of making it easier for developing countries to trade with the developed world in global markets.

French Trade Minister Fleur Pellerin said the G20 also discussed how free trade was key in driving economic growth amid fiscal consolidation and declining government revenues.

"We focused a lot on free trade being one of the leverages that we can use to boost growth in France ... investment and trade ... are definitely the main aspects of our growth agenda," Pellerin told AFP. The crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 on Thursday had threatened to overshadow the summit, with both Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Robb meeting the Russian trade representative on the sidelines of the talks.

Russia's role in the incident has come under scrutiny amid its possible links to the separatists controlling territory in eastern Ukraine where the aircraft had come down in.

"We made requests for Russia to give its unequivocal commitment to facilitate these sorts of immediate ob-

Central Women's University holds career-counseling session n Tribune Business Desk Business school of Central Women’s University organised a career-counseling session on July 16 for its student to have better understanding on future professional life.

The faculties advised about job opportunities, future academic prospect in home and abroad and the importance of communication skills.

The university’s business club has been actively organising workshops for its students. The club had previously organised a workshop on stock trading, which was aimed at teaching the students how the stock trading is done.

The representatives from Azam Securities Ltd instructed the workshop.

Alongside the workshop, the club has also introduced a wall managing named Brainstorming, where best ideas had been published that were generated by the students. l

jectives" of safe access to the crash site and a binding United Nations' Security Council for an independent investigation, Robb said.

Earlier Saturday, Robb warned that Canberra may consider trade sanctions against Moscow as a result of the crash, which killed 298 people, including 28 Australians, subject to how it "responds, cooperates and is proactive in seeking answers".

Australia, along with several other countries, already has imposed sanctions and travel bans on some Russians and Ukrainians.

'Visitors to this country are people who have done the right thing by this country and lets hope that's exactly what we would find in the weeks and months ahead' Questions over Putin's G20 visit

Senior ministers have refused on comment on whether Russian leader Vladimir Putin would be invited to the G20 leaders' summit in Brisbane, Queensland's capital, in November.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said: "Let's wait and see what will happen, but I can give you this assurance - Australia is a self-respecting country.

"Visitors to this country are people who have done the right thing by this country and lets hope that's exactly what we would find in the weeks and months ahead."

A small protest in Sydney near the talks called for Putin to be blocked from the leaders' summit, with organiser Pete Shmigel from the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations

Trade Ministers of the Russian Federation Alexey Ulyukaev (centre), New Zealand Tim Groser (right) and Tawfig bin Fouzan Al-Rabiah of Saudi Arabia listen to Australia's Minister for Trade and Investment Andrew Robb (back on screen) as he makes his opening remarks during the G20 Trade Ministers meeting in Sydney on Saturday AFP calling it a "defining moment" for the international community.

Despite the talk of trade sanctions, Robb said the G20 ministers focused on their goal to boost economic growth by an additional 2% over the next five years - an agreement the countries' fi-

nance ministers signed up to at a meeting in February.

He added that while some countries had put forward ambitious growth agendas during the talks, "there was still quite a lot of room for many countries to take more domestic-related ini-

US judge OKs warrant for Google user's emails, stoking debate n Reuters, New York A federal judge in New York has granted prosecutors access to a Gmail user's emails as part of a criminal probe, a decision that could fan the debate over how aggressively the government may pursue data if doing so may invade people's privacy.

US Magistrate Judge Gabriel Gorenstein said Friday he had authorized a warrant to be served on Google Inc for the emails of an unnamed individual who is the target of a money laundering investigation.

Gorenstein said his decision ran counter to several other judges' rulings in similar cases that sweeping warrants give the government improper access to too many emails, not just relevant ones.

But he said the law lets investigators review broad swaths of documents to decide which are covered by warrants.

Google did not respond to a request for comment.

The ruling came three months after

US Magistrate Judge James Francis in New York said prosecutors can force Microsoft Corp to hand over a customer's email stored in an Ireland data center.

Microsoft has appealed, in what is seen as the first challenge by a company to a warrant seeking data stored overseas.

Companies including Verizon Communications Inc, AT&T Inc, Cisco Systems Inc and Apple Inc have filed briefs in support of Microsoft, as has the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group. A hearing is set for July 31 before US District Judge Loretta Preska in New York.

The government's ability to seize personal information has grown more contentious since former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked secret documents in June 2013 to media outlets outlining the agency's massive data collection programs.

In June, a unanimous US Supreme Court ruled police generally need a

warrant to search an arrested suspect's cellphone, citing privacy concerns.

Gorenstein's ruling joined a public debate playing out among several magistrate judges, who typically handle warrant requests. It is unusual to issue lengthy opinions on such matters particularly when, as in Gorenstein's case, the judge approves the application.

In April, John Facciola, a magistrate in Washington, DC, rejected a warrant for the Apple email account of a defense contractor as part of a kickback investigation, one of several similar opinions he has authored recently.

Last year, a Kansas magistrate denied warrant applications for emails and records at Google, Verizon, Yahoo!

Inc, Microsoft unit Skype and GoDaddy in a stolen computer equipment case.

Both judges said the warrants were overly broad.

On the other hand, several US appeals courts have rejected motions to suppress such searches, Gorenstein said. l

tiatives" to boost their GDP. Abbott has said said he wants G20 nations to push harder on their growth plans.

Business leaders at a B20 summit this week made a series of recommendations on structural reforms and free trade that could boost global growth by

India Reliance posts record $1bn Q1 profit n AFP, New Delhi Indian retail-to-energy group Reliance Industries Ltd reported a record $1bn net profit for the financial first-quarter, fuelled by a strong petrochemicals performance.

Reliance, controlled by the country's wealthiest man Mukesh Ambani, announced net profit for the three months to June climbed by a betterthan-expected 13.7% to 59.57bn rupees ($1bn) in the same period a year ago.

The matter is under arbitration amid claims by the oil ministry that output has fallen because the company failed to drill the number of wells it had pledged The group, which owns a supermarket chain and a telecommunications company but derives most of its earnings from its massive energy operations, has "delivered a record level of consolidated net profit this quarter," Ambani said.

The company "has a great pipeline of new projects" that will keep Reliance ahead of rivals, Ambani said in a statement.

The performance beat analysts' expectations that the company, which runs the world's biggest refinery complex, would post a net profit of around

Public Relations Association of Banks has recently held a get-together meeting in Dhaka.

The meeting was presided over by the association’s president and head of PR at Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd, Md Ataur Rahman

First Security Islami Bank Limited has recently held its 8th extraordinary general meeting at a hotel in Chittagong. The meeting was presided over by the bank’s vice chairperson Alhaj Mohammed Abdul Maleque. The bank’s stakeholders have approved the proposal of issuing one rights share against every two ordinary shares at the meeting

US$3.4tn and create millions of jobs.

They included a call for the free flow of goods, services, labour and capital, an effective and transparent regulatory framework, as well as structural reforms that would boost trade and lift infrastructure investment. l

54bn rupees during the first quarter of the 2014-15 financial year.

"The petrochemicals business performance highlights the strength of our portfolio-mix," Ambani said.

"Alongside, this robust financial performance, we also made significant progress on our growth commitments," he said.

The company's strong lineup of new projects "will give Reliance "an enduring competitive advantage".

He said that the company was further expanding its retail business in existing markets and "exploring newer markets".

Reliance's revenues jumped by 7.2% to 1.1tn rupees ($17.9bn) in the first quarter from a year earlier.

The company said that gas output from offshore fields in the KG-D6 block on the country's east coast had fallen by 15% during the quarter from a year earlier.

Earlier this month, the government refused to allow Reliance to recover $2.4bn it had invested to develop the D6 offshore gas block as production had fallen dramatically and was significantly below expected volume.

The company said the fall in output was mainly due to the shutdown of wells in D1 and D3 fields in the D6 block.

The matter is under arbitration amid claims by the oil ministry that output has fallen because the company failed to drill the number of wells it had pledged.

The company says that gas, used widely in energy-hungry India for power, is far harder to extract than initially expected. l

United Commercial Bank Limited recently held its half yearly conference for its managers in Chittagong zone at Chittagong Club. The conference was presided by the bank’s managing director Muhammed Ali

RFL recently opened its Best Buy outlets at East Rampura and Merul Badda in Dhaka.

PRAN-RFL Group’s chairperson Lt Col Mahtabuddin Ahmed (retd) inaugurated the outlets

Masthead PR, a public relations agency has recently signed an agreement with Banglalink on providing holistic PR solutions at a ceremony held at the head office of Banglalink.

Solaiman Alam, marketing director of Banglalink and Salma Adil, chief financial officer of Masthead PR attended the signing ceremony among others

B4

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Back Page

Monday, July 21, 2014

BRICS shake up global economic architecture n AFP, Washington By creating their own multilateral financial institutions, the BRICS emerging-market powers are shaking up global economic governance but remain far from dismantling the post-war system dominated by the West.

For the past 70 years, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have been the pillars of the world's economic system, coming to the rescue of countries in trouble and supporting development projects, respectively.

But the Bretton Woods institutions are regularly criticised for their inability to reflect the growing and important contributions of the major emerging economies to the global economy.

China, the world's second-largest economy, continues to have just slightly more voting power in the IMF than Italy, about five times smaller.

And, since their creation in 1944, the IMF and the World Bank have only been led by Americans and Europeans.

"Broader global governance reforms have become stalled, despite the many commitments made by advanced economies to emerging markets to give them a more prominent role in international financial institutions and other international forums," said Eswar Prasad, a trade policy professor at Cornell University and a former IMF expert.

In this context, the launch Tuesday of a development bank and an emergency reserve fund by the BRICS - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - appears to be a concrete attempt to address those inequities.

"If the existing institutions were doing their jobs perfectly, there would be no need to go to the trouble of creating

a new bank, a new fund," said Paulo Nogueira Batista, who represents Brazil and 10 other countries at the IMF, in an interview.

The mere creation of the two BRICS institutions sends a strong signal to Western powers, where some doubt the ability of the five powerhouses to surmount their individual needs and ambitions.

The launches "are significant actions that represent a game changer as they turn statements and rhetoric about cooperation among these countries into reality," Prasad said.

'On the contrary, we wish to democratize it and make it as representative as possible'

The BRICS nations The BRICS group of emerging economic powers meeting in Fortaleza, Brasil

41.6%

2013

of the world population

10

19.8%

4.4

of the world‘s GDP

GDP as a %

2015 forecast 2014 Narendra Modi 5.4

6.4

Population Per capita GDP

10

= 10 million In $US Vladimir Putin

1.3 1.3

25%

For now, only the BRICS countries will be able to draw from the $50bn in the New Development Bank and $100bn in the Contingent Reserve Arrangement.

However, proof of the new institutions' effectiveness will come when other countries knock at their door for money.

"Will the BRICS take the financial risk to lend to other countries? And what conditions will they impose?" said an IMF official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Accustomed to bailing out a country, and being reimbursed, in exchange for austerity conditions, the IMF has

of the world‘s territory

The International Monetary Fund warned on Friday that the pro-Russia uprising engulfing Ukraine's economically-vital eastern rustbelt had delivered a "notable" blow that would shrink its economy faster than feared.

The Fund said upon completing its latest review of the pro-Western leaders' compliance with the terms of a $17bn (12.6bn euro) two-year rescue that Ukraine was facing new headwinds that had not been envisioned when the programme was unveiled at the start of May. It said the economy would probably contract by 6.5 rather the 5% initially forecasted because of revenue collection shortfalls in crisis-hit regions and higher spending on defence.

The IMF added that its programme's success now hinged not only on Kiev's ability to adopt urgent but unpopular belttightening measures but also "crucially on the assumption that the conflict will begin to subside in the coming months."

The Fund's country mission chief also complimented Prime Minister Ar-

seniy Yatsenyuk's government for doing a good job meeting commitments that could see the quick release of a second loan tranche of $1.4bn.

"The conflict is putting increasing strain on the program and a number of key elements of the macroeconomic framework have had to be revised," Nikolay Gueorguiev said in a statement.

"Economic prospects have deteriorated notably, and GDP is now expected to contract by 6.5% this year, compared to 5% when the programme was adopted," he said.

"A shortfall in revenue collections in the east, higher security spending, and lower-than-expected debt collection

by Naftogaz will cause fiscal and quasifiscal deficits and financing needs to rise above the programmed path."

Gueorguiev added that higher-thanexpected capital outflows were also putting the country's currency and budget forecasts in peril.

'End of Russian trade'

The IMF review was completed before Europe's most explosive standoff in decades escalated further on Thurs-

CHINA INDIA

Dilma Rousseff 2.5 1.8 2.7

1.211 billion $US 1,418

BRAZIL

201 million $US 11,171 Sources: IMF, World Bank

SOUTH AFRICA

Jacob Zuma 2.7 1.9 2.3 1.357 billion 51 million $US 7,810

day with the downing of a Malaysian jet that Kiev blamed on rebels who allegedly receive covert shipments of sophisticated Russian arms.

The 298 people who perished on the Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur flight came from around the world and brought down the wraths of governments stretching from the United States to Australia on Russia.

Some economists said the incident raised the chances of Washington and its European allies unleashing the most punitive economic sanctions against Russia to date.

"The Malaysian Airliner tragedy is a potential game changer," said Chris Weafer of Moscow's Macro-Advisory consultancy. "In the US and Europe, the readiness to incur short-term economic costs and impose more punitive sanctions on Russia has probably gone up," Berenberg Bank economist Holger Schmieding added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that such steps could affect the fate of massive investments made by global energy giants in vast Siberian and Artic oil and gas fields.

But Ukraine's bigger concern is that Putin's anger will translate into restrictions on Ukrainian imports that Moscow had already warned about when Kiev signed an historic EU free trade agreement last month.

Yatsenyuk told a cabinet meeting on Friday that "we must prepare for a practically complete restriction of bilateral trade with Russia."

He said that Ukraine's loss of access to the Russian market would reduce annual exports by $5bn - about seven percent of the country's total.

Russia receives about a quarter of all goods shipped abroad by Ukraine and Yatsenyuk failed to explain how came up with the figure.

"But Russia is not the only market in the world," the prime minister added.

"The government must do everything to help diversify our sales markets over the short term."

The European Union estimates that the so-called economic portion of the Association Agreement it sealed with Kiev on June 27 would boost Ukraine's exports to the 28-nation bloc by 1bn euros ($1.35bn) this year. l

Singapore Airlines apologises for 'insensitive' MH17 post n AFP, Singapore Singapore Airlines (SIA) has apologised for posting an "insensitive" comment on social media about the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crash in crisis-stricken eastern Ukraine.

Hours after the Boeing 777-200 passenger jet with 298 people on board went down on Thursday, believed shot by a surface-to-air missile, SIA posted a oneline statement on Facebook and Twitter.

It read: "Customers may wish to note that Singapore Airlines flights are not using Ukraine airspace."

The comment sparked anger among users of social media.

"How about at least acknowledging the terrible event and sending condolences to those families and friends involved instead of this cold, classless update?" wrote a Michael Reif in response.

Hundreds of others joined in the condemnation but some defended the airline, saying it was trying to reassure customers concerned about the safety of their flight route.

"We are aware that our Facebook and Twitter update on Friday morning may have come across as insensitive to some," SIA said in a Facebook posting late Saturday. "We recognise that the information could have been better communicated and we sincerely apologise if it had offended our customers and anyone else in the online community," it added. l

7.7 7.7 7.5

RUSSIA

IMF sees Ukraine's economy shrinking faster than feared n AFP, Kiev

Xi Jinping

144 million $US 14,604

Still, many areas of uncertainty cloud the new BRICS structures, giving the IMF and the World Bank a long lead on their fledgling rivals.

Battles for influence

2.3

$US 6,768

Concerns mount over India's stance on global trade pact n Reuters, Sydney Eleventh hour negotiations to win Indian approval for a breakthrough global trade pact may not have succeeded in the end despite initial signs of progress, sources involved in the discussions said on Saturday.

India is the most prevalent among a group of developing nations angry at rich countries for failing to address their concerns about a deal on trade facilitation - struck by WTO member states in Bali last year - that must be detailed by a July 31 deadline. Proponents believe the deal could add $1tn to global GDP and 21 million jobs.

But India’s Trade Ministry said on Wednesday it would “find it difficult" to support the protocol unless it was satisfied that adequate emphasis is being placed on negotiations about food security and other issues important to poor countries -sparking furious negotiations at the G20 Trade Ministers meeting in Sydney.

Three officials involved in the negotiations, speaking under the condition of anonymity in order to speak frankly, expressed exasperation with what they described as a history of erratic behaviour on the part of the Indian trade team that made it difficult to trust.

India has not provided any clear description of exactly what changes it would like made to the agreement, they said, although it would not matter anyway because no concessions were on offer given how difficult the negotiations had proven to conclude the first time round.

The Indian demands appear to have shaken confidence in the new government of Narendra Modi, who came to power earlier this year with a pro-business agenda but now appears set to derail what several officials called the most significant global trade pact in two decades.

Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb said assurances had been given to all of the signatories to the treaty

DILBERT

Chief negotiators for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) Dan Mullaney (left) of the United States and Ignacio Garcia Bercero of the European Union (EU) deliver a joint press conference following the sixth round of negotiations at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels on July AFP

the kind of expertise that "doesn't happen overnight," the official said.

Some also have concerns that the BRICS institutions - dominated by China - will be less careful about safeguarding the environment or fighting corruption when they make their financing deals.

Aware of their current limitations, the BRICS made a point to say they were working closely with the IMF. Some of their financing would be available only to countries already receiving Fund assistance.

Dilma Rousseff, the president of Brazil, said the creation of the BRICS institutions did not mean her country was moving away from the IMF. "We have not the least interest in distancing ourselves from the IMF," she said. "On the contrary, we wish to democratize it and make it as representative as possible."

Unsurprisingly, the Bretton Woods institutions responded with offers of cooperation.

The IMF managing director, Christine Lagarde, said in a statement Wednesday that her staff would be "delighted" to work with the BRICS team on the reserve fund.

The World Bank, facing other new development rivals and undergoing a major internal restructuring, welcomed the arrival of an "invaluable partner" in the battle against poverty, a bank spokesman told AFP. This display of friendliness, however, could in time give way to rivalries and battles for influence in the corridors of the 188-nation institutions, based in Washington.

"The new institutions aren't created against anyone," said Nogueira Batista, the IMF representative.

"But they are a first step toward a multilateral world." l

that their concerns would be met and expressed optimism that it would be resolved before the deadline.

"There was strong resolution around the table that India’s issues to do with food security would and should and will be addressed as decided previously and I think there will be discussions about how to satisfy the Indians and they won’t be left behind," Robb told reporters.

The row over subsidies has raised fears that the so-called "trade facilitation agreement", the first ever global trade agreement under the World Trade Organisation, will be derailed.

'There was strong resolution around the table that India’s issues to do with food security would and should and will be addressed as decided previously and I think there will be discussions about how to satisfy the Indians and they won’t be left behind' A deal was only reached after New Delhi extracted promises that its concerns related to food subsidies would be addressed.

India stockpiles food for its poor, putting it at risk of breaking current WTO rules. In Bali, WTO members agreed to give India a pass until 2017, while negotiating a permanent solution.

"We are focused on implementing the full Bali package that will deliver for every country involved," said Michael Froman, the US Trade Representative. "Reinvigorating the multilateral system is too important to put at risk with any backsliding on commitments." l