29 Aug, 2014

Bhadro 14, 1421 Zilqad 2, 1435 Regd No DA 6238 Vol 2, No 147

FRIDAY, AUGUST 29, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

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5 MARKETING LESSONS FROM DIGI CAFE 1.0

THE IMPACT OF DRONES ON DEMOCRACY

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DUST SETTLES AS SHAKIB JOINS GTC

Faruqi murder: Who was that woman?

Stolen infant reunited with mother n Moniruzzaman Uzzal

She gave conflicting information on herself, left minutes before killers came “When I was preparing food, she sudn Tazlina Zamila Khan denly appeared in the kitchen from A woman of her forties named Asma appeared at the house of Shaikh Nurul Islam Faruqi several hours before the murder on Wednesday only to see him.

She called him several times in the last couple of days for his appointment.

Faruqi could receive her call on Tuesday. “She told my husband that she wanted to meet him since it was her long-time wish. On Wednesday,

‘If the police check the call list of my husband and arrest the woman, then they can reach the main culprits’ she called again and requested him for location of the house. The woman aged between 40 and 50 came around 4pm.

She was wearing an unclean burqa and had a hand bag with her. Identifying as Asma, she said she was coming from Barisal,” second wife of the slain Islamist leader Lubna told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

Entering the house, Asma wandered around the rooms very carefully. “She went to my husband’s room and said ‘I came from the Sundarbans to see you.’”

She asked for food. Lubna said:

the bedroom. Then I told her that I will serve the food in the bedroom. But I noticed that she roamed around each room and was asking about my family.”

Later, Asma told Faruqi that she had been in deep trouble since her only son did not look after her. “Asma said she worked at a garment factory and made her son an engineer. Though the son earns Tk30,000, he does not give her money.”

Lubna added that even though Asma mentioned that she was a very pious woman, she did not say her Maghrib prayers.

“After the prayers, Asma said she hailed from Rupganj [in Narayanganj].

I was surprised as her statements were conflicting. Asma then said she wanted to stay over. But my husband did not approve it and asked my son Faysal to drop her in Farmgate area so that she could take a bus. But the woman said there was no bus at that time. When my husband wanted to give her some money, she refused and said she had Tk3,000 with her.”

Asma was continuously sweating while entering the house. Lubna said: “While leaving, she took a new burqa from the bag and put it on.”

Lubna said 15 minutes after Asma had left, two youths aged around 25  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Police implicate 56 in Ekram murder, dropping Nizam Hazari n Mohammad Jamil Khan with Our Feni Correspondent Police yesterday submitted the charge sheet in the Fulgazi upazila chairman Ekramul Haque murder, accusing 56 people but dropping the name of Feni 2 MP Nizam Uddin Hazari.

In the charge sheet submitted to a Feni court, the police have shown 27 of the accused arrested and 29 absconding.

Sixteen of the arrested accused have already confessed their involvement in the gruesome murder. Most of them are associated with the ruling Awami League and its youth wing, the Jubo League.

A number of them are close associates of MP Nizam Hazari, whose involvement in the murder is suspected on the basis of the statements given by the accused.

Inspector Abul Kalam Azad of Feni Model police station, who investigated the case and submitted the charge sheet to the court of Feni Senior Judicial Magistrate Khairul Amin,  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Mother of the baby boy stolen from DMCH on August 20 gives a happy smile after she got back her child yesterday. A team of RAB rescused the baby MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

“I am so happy to get my baby back,” said Runa, the mother who beat the odds and was reunited with her child 170 hours after it was stolen from a neonatal ward.

The baby’s abduction was caught on Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) surveillance cameras and enabled Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) to follow clues that lead to Kalameshwar village in Board Bazar of Gazipur, where the baby was recovered at 3:30am yesterday, the director of RAB Legal and Media wing, Mufti Mahmud Khan, said.

RAB arrested Rasheda Khanam alias Parvin, 48 and Bely Akhter alias Rahima, 45, who are alleged to be involved in the abduction of the newborn baby.

Parvin, a midwife and Gazipur pharmacy owner, is alleged to be involved in the theft and sale of newborn babies, as well as in the kidnap and ransom of newborns.

Parvin sold the baby she had stolen  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Three shot dead at home in Moghbazar Islam Shaon and n Ashif Mohammad Jamil Khan Armed assailants shot three people, including a woman, dead and left another critically injured at their residence in the capital’s Moghbazar last night.

The dead were Ranu Begum Brishti, 30, her tenants Munna, 20, and Billal Hossain, 22, and the injured young man was her brother Ridoy, 22.

The latest killings come only a day after media personality and religious

scholar Nurul Islam Faruqi was slaughtered at home in the capital’s Rajabazar area.

Witnesses and police said around 8:30pm yesterday, a group of 10-12 armed criminals entered the premises of a building.

One group stormed a flat on the second floor of the building where Ranu and her brother used to live. The other group entered the tin-shed house adjacent to the building where Munna and Billal lived.

Both the groups fired indiscriminate gunshots at the victims and left the area quickly.

Billal’s uncle Mohammad Hanif said he and Billal had rented a room in the tin-shed house a few months ago. Billal was the owner of a shop near New Market in the capital.

“I was coming from my workplace and Billal was at home. When I was about to enter a lane where our place was situated, I saw some young men running out of the lane. I went to the

house and found Billal bullet-hit,” said Hanif, who then took Billal to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) where doctors declared him dead.

Hanif said he had no dispute with anyone that could lead to the killing.

Munna’s mother Monwara Begum told the Dhaka Tribune that she did not know either Billal or Ranu or Ridoy.

“My son used to work in a garments factory two months ago. His father, I, Munna, Munna’s wife and my other  PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

2

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Friday, August 29, 2014

Body formed to negotiate with 343 Gulistan businessmen n Kamran Reza Chowdhury A parliamentary body has decided that the government will try to reach a compromise with 343 businessmen, who have been running businesses in the Gulistan Shopping complex without paying rent to the Muktijoddha Kalyan Trust.

At a meeting yesterday, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Liberation War Affairs Ministry formed a three-member sub-committee tasked with negotiating with the businessmen.

The businessmen say one square foot space in the mall costs at least Tk25,000 According a report of the ministry placed before the watchdog, at least 733 businessmen have signed deals with the Muktijoddha Kalyan Trust – the freedom fighters welfare trust – to pay monthly rent for the rooms. But 343 of them have been running business for years without paying a single penny to the trust.

AB Tajul Islam, chairman of the committee, said: “It will be almost impossible to collect the due rents of so many months. They may claim that they started business one or two months ago and refuse to the pay the total due rent.”

He also said: “So, it would be better if we can make them agree to start pay-

ing rents from next month. The most difficult challenge is to make the errant businessmen come to an agreement with the trust.”

Nurun Nabi Chowdhury is the head of the sub-committee and the two other members are Asheq Ullah Rafiq and Swapan Bhattacharjee.

The businessmen have alleged that a local Jubo League leader has been collecting money from the 343 businessmen, depriving the trust.

According to an agreement, construction company Western Engineers will construct the 20-storey building and sell possessions to the businessmen, who will pay rent to the trust every month.

So far, eight floors have been completed and the structure for four more has been erected. The agreement says the company should have completed the construction by 2011.

The businessmen say one square foot space in the mall costs at least Tk25,000.

Yesterday, while reviewing the construction of the shopping mall at the heart of capital city, the parliamentary committee also observed that any fire incident at the complex might result in huge casualty.

“The shopping complex is like a warehouse, with very few outlets. In case of any fire, huge casualty will occur. There is a massive fault in the design,” said Tajul, a former state minister of the Liberation War Affairs Ministry. l

Banglanews24 editor, 2 others summoned n Our Correspondent, Thakurgaon

One of the relatives of the three murdered in the city yesterday burst into tears after the incident

RAJIB DHAR

3 people shot dead at home Hours of power failure in city n Tribune Report

Armed assailants killed three members of a family, including a woman, over land dispute after breaking into their house at Sonalibagh in the capital’s Moghbazar area last night.

Ranu Begum Brishti, 30, Munna, 20, and Billal Hossain, 22, were shot dead, while Ridoy, 22, were critically injured in the attack. Family members said Munna, Ridoy and Ranu were brothers and sisters.

Eyewitnesses said local criminal Kala Babu along with his associates walked into the house around 8pm and left the spot after shooting them.

According to sources, Sramik League leader Chan Mia of Bangladesh Railway, brother of deceased Ranu, gave her 2.5 katha land that belonged to the railway. Mother of Kala Babu was also interested to own the land, they added.

Since then Kala Babu had been trying to extort Ranu in connection with the incident. Eventually, Kala Babu went to Ranu’s house last night and shot the three dead. Hearing the chaos, neighbours rushed to the scene and took all the injured to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where on-duty doctors declared Ranu, Munna and Billal dead.

Ranu’s uncle Shah Alam told the Dhaka Tribune: “A group of local criminals, including Kala Babu, Jahangir, Rasel, Dulal and Alam, had been demanding extortion from Ranu for a long time. After failing to collect the extortion, they killed three of the family after entering into their house.”

Iqbal Hossain, deputy police commissioner of Ramna zone, told the Dhaka Tribune that police had started their investigation, adding that the culprits would be brought to justice soon. l

n Aminur Rahman Rasel A number of areas in the capital suffered power outage for seven hours as circuit breakers at two grid sub-stations failed around 3pm. The power supply was restored at 10pm.

The areas that suffered from the outage are Rampura, Kakrail, Taltola, Karwan Bazar and Dhanmondi – all covered by the Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC).

Director (operation) of DPDC Mizanur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune last evening: “The supply of electricity in those areas has been hampered since 3pm as the Ullon grid sub-station at Rampura and the Dhanmondi grid sub-station stopped generating power due to glitches in the circuit breakers.

“The repair work is going on and the

'Be competent before criticising others' n Tribune Report

Bangladesh Islami Front brings out a procession yesterday from the National Press Club demanding punishment to the killers of its leader Nurul Islam Faruqi RAJIB DHAR

SQ Chy’s wife and son charged with verdict leak  PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

General Recording Officer of the CMM court Mahmudur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune: “The charge sheet was sent to Metropolitan Magistrate Sabrina Ali for cognisance.”

On October 1 last year, tribunal 1 sentenced Salauddin Quader to death for committing crimes against humanity and genocide in Chittagong during the 1971 Liberation War. Immediately after the pronouncement of the verdict, his family mem-

bers and the defence counsels told media that the verdict had already been available on a few websites. To establish the claim that it had been prepared by the government, they alleged that the draft verdict had been retrieved from a computer of the Law Ministry.

A 164-page document, which did not contain the judges’ observations or the sentence, was found online a day before the pronouncement of the verdict in Salauddin Quader case.

The following day the tribunal con-

firmed that an organised group had leaked parts of the draft verdict to make the trials controversial.

Detectives started the investigation after AKM Nasiruddin Mahmud, registrar of the International Crimes Tribunal, filed a general diary with Shahbagh police.

Later, DB Inspector Md Fazlur Rahman filed a case against Nayan, Faruk, Mehedi and some unidentified persons with Shahbagh police under the ICT Act. DB police earlier said Nayan and Faruk had stolen the copy of the draft

Faruqi murder: Who was that woman?  PAGE 1 COLUMN 2

came to the house to talk about Hajj issues. One of them had a cap and small beard. The duo also came on Tuesday.

They talked with Faruqi for around 1520 minutes and left saying that they would come again.

Around 9am, they came again and went to drawing room. Within 2-3 minutes, several other youths wearing T-shirt and jeans entered the house.

“They came to the bedroom where all the female members of the family were staying at that time. The youths entered another bedroom and cut lungis and saris. They locked me, mother-in-law Joygun Nesa and a domestic help in a room and tied my hand, eyes and mouth.”

Lubna said: “Three youths had pistols, three had machetes while the rest were in bear hands. They demanded Tk50 lakh as extortion. When my husband said ‘we have cash worth around Tk1.50 lakh and gold.’ The youths said those were not enough for them” The killers took away all the belongings including money from the house, she claimed. Faruqi’s nephew Maruf

said his uncle had asked him to bring a chair from another room when the two youths entered the house.

“After bringing the chair, I noticed that one person placed a machete on his neck while another person held a pistol on the head. They then took him to the dinning room. They also tied me with a chair, slaughtered my uncle within few minutes and left the place immediately,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.

Lubna said: “The murders threatened that if we inform the police they will kill all of us. We did not receive calls on land phone even after the murder. If the police check the call list of my husband and arrest the woman, then they can reach the main culprits.”

She claimed that the miscreants had killed her husband since he used to speak the truth all the time which might go against some extremists.

The police are checking the call list on Faruqi’s phone while also questioning the three visitors to get idea about the killers’ appearance.

Faruqi was staying with his family in the east Rajabazar house for the last 20

A Thakurgaon court yesterday summoned the editor of news portal banglanews24.com and its two journalists in a case filed by former water resources minister Ramesh Chandra Sen for allegedly publishing fabricated news involving him on it.

The ex-minister and also an MP from Thakurgaon 1 constituency of the ruling Awami League, filed the case at noon with a court of Thakurgaon Chief Judicial Magistrate Julfiker Ali Khan against the news portal’s Editor Alamgir Hossain and his Roving Correspondent Mahbub Alam Sohag and Senior Correspondent Asad Zaman.

Afterwards, the court directed the accused to appear before it on October 9 and to show cause against the allegation brought. The case statement says the report stated that Ramesh was thrown out from a meeting of the district unit AL. l

years. The four storey building is near the Dhaka University’s IBA hostel. They lived on the first floor of the building.

There are two bedrooms, one dinning room, one drawing room and a kitchen in the flat. Faruqi used the drawing room as his office. Faruqi was Presidium member of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat and also Islamic Front Bangladesh.

Apart from anchoring programmes titled “Shantir Pothe” and “Kafela” on Channel i, he owned Faruque Tours and Travels Private Limited, and served as the imam of Supreme Court mosque.

His son Faysal Faruqi filed a case yesterday with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police accusing eight-nine unnamed people.

Dr Mohammad Hossain, lecturer of the forensic medicine department at Dhaka Medical College, told the Dhaka Tribune: “The killers are professional. They slit the vocal cord at a stretch. There are also marks on the left arm of the body. The killers might cut the skin to confirm death.”

While talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Faysal blamed extremists for killing his father. “The police are questioning the three visitors who were present inside

Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad yesterday asked the government to first achieve competence in different fields before criticising others.

“Do not silence the press. Rather, formulate a commission through discussions. Otherwise, there might be problems,” he said, referring to the government.

“Allow the media to reveal the truth and achieve the ability to criticise others,” Ershad said while addressing a programme organised by Jatiya Juba Sanghati at the Engineers Institution in the capital yesterday.

Bashing the government's indifference to keep the law and order situation

verdict from a computer of the former tribunal chairman, Justice ATM Fazle Kabir, and supplied it to Mehedi on a flash drive.

Faruk asked Nayan to give Mehedi some documents related to the trial from the tribunal’s computers. Nayan handed over the soft copies of the draft verdict to Mehedi in phases.

At one stage, Nayan refused to continue the task. He, however, had to give in to the threats made by Mehedi and Faruk. l

the house during the murder,” OC Abdul Momen said. Investigation Officer Munshi Sabbir Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune: “We are working on it. Three people have been detained.”

Deputy Commissioner of Tejgaon zone Biplob Kumar Sarker said: “The killers are completely professional; no doubt. It seems that their intention was to kill Faruqi only.” RAB’s Additional Director General Col Ziaul Ahsan said: “We are investigating the matter from different aspects – political, family feud and business conflict. The culprits will be identified soon.”

Meanwhile, Islamic Front Bangladesh, a platform of several Islamist groups, yesterday gave the government 48-hour ultimatum for arresting the killers of Faruqi, its Chairman MM Mannan told the Dhaka Tribune over phone.

He said tougher programmes would be declared if the culprits were not arrested within the given period.

The family took the body to their home in Rajabazar around 2pm after a postmortem examination at the DMCH. l

stable, he said: “We now see killing and enforced disappearance happening every day but the government is apathetic about these. The country has become a place where you would not want to live.

People want change, people want peace.”

“We live in a society and the government is responsible to protect the citizens. People are being slaughtered, and the law and order situation is going out of control of the authorities,” the former president observed.

Lambasting the BNP, Ershad said that nationalists are people who believe in the War of Liberation and in Islamic values.

“BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami do not believe in the values of the War of Liberation,” he said. l

supply will resume around 9pm.”

Mizan later confirmed that the power supply resumed at 10pm. When contacted last evening, Director of Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) Chowdhury Alamgir Hossain said they were yet to form a committee to investigate the incident.

Thousands of people in the five areas suffered due to the power failure.

Shahana Begum from Dhanmondi told the Dhaka Tribune that there was no electricity for over four hours and they were facing many problems in carrying out household chores.

Munir Hossain, a local restaurant owner, said: “Due to the power outage, many of our customers cancelled their orders and left.” According to DPDC officials, around 2,000,000 consumers live in those five areas. l

Shafi: Blaming Hefazat for Faruqi murder a plot n Tribune Report Chief of Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh Shah Ahmed Shafi yesterday demanded arrest of the killers of Shaikh Nurul Islam Faruqi while he also criticised a section of media for implicating Hefazat with the killing deliberately.

In a statement issued, Shafi said: “Implicating Hefazat with the killing of Faruqi is a well-planned conspiracy to create confusion among the religious Muslims and create confrontational situation in the country.”

He also urged all to play responsible role until the real culprits were brought to the book. l

Stolen infant reunited with mother  PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

from the DMCH ward to Bely Akhter alias Rahima, the wife of Sona Mia of Gazipur, for Tk40,000, law enforcers said.

The RAB media director told journalists that the elite force was investigating whether DMCH staff were involved in the theft of the baby.

DMCH director, Brigadier General Mustafizur Rahman, at a press briefing organised after the recovery of the infant, said the hospital authorities could do nothing if patients’ families were not careful enough to prevent kidnappings.

He thanked the media, saying it played a vital role in rescuing the missing child.

When the DMCH director was asked by reporters how RAB had assured the identification of the rescued child without conducting a DNA test, the hospital director claimed he was one hundred percent sure the child had been correctly identified.

He said the circumstances of the crime, the CCTV footage, the connection of the suspect’s name and mobile number, and the circumstances of the arrest of the suspect all suggested that the recovered baby was indeed the stolen child.

At one stage the DMCH head said if confusion arose about the child’s identity then the hospital could conduct a DNA test. The hospital director said the hospital would not do it voluntarily.

Successful operation

In carrying out its investigation, RAB

collected the CCTV footage, and the name and mobile number of the suspected baby thief, Parvin, from the DMCH Ansar force register book where she had signed in. The number was tracked to Gazipur.

The DMCH director yesterday called the mobile number and the woman who received the call said her name was Parvin and that she was located in Gazipur. The number was found to be switched off a few minutes later.

RAB 3 then launched a drive at 3:30am yesterday morning and arrested Parvin.

According to her statement, law enforcement officers then raided Rahima’s house and rescued the child.

The DMCH director told media that the hospital was taking steps to protect mothers and newborns from child thieves.

The hospital had removed ayas, or ward maids, from the labour ward. An identification sticker system for both the mother and newborn children will be introduced and all movements in and out of the ward will require the matching of stickers.

Female Ansar will remain on-duty 24 hours a day in the labour ward, he said. Nurses will now register and preserve the details of the mother and children.

Mustafizur Rahman said the DMCH is a 2450-bed hospital operating on the staff level of an 800-bed hospital, putting tremendous strain on the system.

He claimed his staff were not involved in the baby theft. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

3

Friday, August 29, 2014

Faruqi killing: Police analyse similarities SQ Chy’s wife and son charged with verdict leak n with Gopibagh six murders Md Sanaul Islam Tipu and Udisa Islam

n Mohammad Jamil Khan The similarities between the murder of Channel i presenter Shaikh Nurul Islam Faruqi and last December’s Gopibagh murders which saw the deaths of six people including a self-proclaimed pir – have prompted law enforcement agencies to explore a new avenue of investigation: finding out whether both the crimes had been committed by the same group of people.

Sources at different intelligence agencies said they suspected that the same group of “fanatics” had committed both the crimes; while the motives behind the killings might have been religious issues as the victims were involved in disseminating Islamic lessons.

In both incidents of murders, which took place eight months apart, the victims were slaughtered by a group of armed assailants who entered the house in the guise of well-wishers or help-seekers. During both the murders, the family members of the victims were tied up in separate rooms away from where the killings were committed, while the killers appeared to be profes-

sional assailants.

Analysing the murders, Col Ziaul Ahsan, additional director general of Rapid Action Battalion, said the elite force strongly suspected that both incidents of killings had been carried out by the same group of people. He, however, added that the issue would be clear after further investigation.

Biplab Kumar Sarker, deputy commissioner of police of Tejgaon division, also echoed the RAB ADG regarding the possibility of common perpetrators being behind both the incidents. As well pursuing the similarities between the crimes, the police were also analysing whether Faruqi might have been killed because of any previous enmity, or any political or personal conflict, he said.

The main focus of the investigation, however, was the possibility of religious reasons for being the motive behind the killing as Faruqi gave religious lessons, Biplab added.

On December 21 last year, a group of unidentified men posed as religious followers to enter the Gopibagh house of Lutfor Rahman – a self-proclaimed pir or preacher – before slaughtering

him along with his son, an associate and three disciples.

The victims’ arms and legs had been tied up before the killers slit their throats. The precision of the fatal wounds suggested that the crime might have been committed by trained killers, who were also careful in not leaving behind any murder weapon.

Wednesday night’s murder of Shaikh Nurul Islam Faruqi, also the Presidium member and international affairs secretary of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, had many similarities to the Gopibagh six-murder case.

To gain entry to Faruqi’s Rajabazar home, the assailants reportedly carried sweets with them as they posed as well-wishers who sought advice from him.

Similarly to the Gopibagh murders, the criminals tied up the family members and other visitors – who were at Faruqi’s house at the time – in separate rooms. In what appeared to be a preplanned murder, the killers also took with them the weapon that was used to slaughter Faruqi.

These similarities have prompted

police to find out if the same people were behind the crimes.

Although over eight months had passed since the Gopibagh murders, the police have made no significant progress in the case.

Abdullah Al-Faruk, the younger son of Lutfor, told the Dhaka Tribune that his family was confused about the status of the case, as the Detective Branch of the police only kept telling them that investigation was under way.

Sources claimed that even though the mystery behind the murder was yet to be revealed in eight months, the police suspected that the a “fanatic” group had committed the crime in retaliation of Lutfor’s religious preachings.

Contacted, Abu Al Khayer Matubbor, investigation officer of the case and also an inspector of DB police, told the Dhaka Tribune that there was no new update in the case.

Asked about the sluggish progress of investigation, he said the suspects in the case were constantly changing their hiding places, adding that the police were trying their best to apprehend them. l

Myanmar Deputy Foreign Minister arrives in Dhaka n Tribune Report Myanmar Deputy Foreign Minister U Thant Kyaw arrived in Dhaka yesterday to have an official dialogue with Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque.

The dialogue will be held on Sunday.

During the talk, officials of the two neighbouring countries will discuss several issues including Rohinya repatriation, border management and gas import.

The Myanmar delegation is also scheduled to visit different tourists attractions in Sylhet on Saturday and Sunday, said an official of the foreign ministry. l

BSF pick up, torture Bangladeshi cattle trader n Our Correspondent, Jessore The border guards of India tortured a Bangladeshi cattle trader after picking him up on Agrobulot border in Jessore’s Sharsha upazila yesterday. Cattle trading is illegal in India.

His companions were however able to flee back to Bangladesh.

Abdul Malek Khokon, 28, was now receiving treatment at a public hospital in Kolkata.

Locals said several Bangladeshi cattle traders were returning home along with cows from India by crossing the Ichhamati, a trans-border river yesterday, when BSF members chased and were able to pick up only Khokon.

Khokon made an attempt to flee, but he was shot by the BSF members and fell to the ground. The BSF members then took him to Jhaudanga camp and tortured him there, locals added.

Agrobulet BGB Camp Commander Nayek Subedar Nurul Islam said Khokon had been injured by a type of splinter, not by any bullet. He had received splinter injuries from head to hand on the left side.

He said they had protested against this and held a flag meeting with the BSF, soon after the incident. The BSF had promised that they would hand over Khokon whenever he recovered. l

Parking on the bridge or flyover is completely prohibited. BRTC buses regularly park its buses over the Babu Bazar bridge causing traffic congestion RAJIB DHAR

Seven people including the wife and a son of convicted war criminal Salauddin Quader Chowdhury have been implicated in a case filed over leaking of the draft verdict from the International Crimes Tribunal last year.

The Detective Branch of police yesterday submitted the charge sheet to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court in Dhaka.

The investigating officer named former BNP lawmaker Salauddin Quader’s wife Farhat Quader Chowdhury, son Hummam Quader Chowdhury, Salauddin’s manager Mahbubul Ahsan, counsel AKM Fakhrul Islam, Fakhrul’s assistant Mehedi Hasan, and tribunal employees Nayan Ali and Faruk Hossain as accused.

Out of the accused, Farhat, Hummam and Mehedi are on the run while the four others are in jail.

According to the charge sheet, the accused leaked parts of the draft verdict, which sentenced Salauddin to death in a war crime case, from the tribunal and uploaded it on a few websites to make the trial controversial.

The verdict’s copy was sent abroad through email and was later uploaded on different websites.

Investigators also found that the accused had made huge investments for the purpose.

Nayan and Faruk gave confessional statements before a magistrate on October 9 last year. Nayan mentioned that several people, including Fakhrul, Mehedi, Faruk and Mahbubul, had been involved in the incident.

Upon completion of investigation into the much-talked-about incident, investigator DB Inspector Mohammad Shahjahan pressed the charges under the Information and Communication Technology Act 2006 and the Penal Code. Twenty-five people have been made prosecution witnesses in the charge sheet.

The investigating officer also filed a petition with the court for issuing warrants for the arrest of the fugitive accused.

General Recording Officer of the CMM court Mahmudur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune: “The charge sheet was sent to Metropolitan Magistrate Sabrina Ali for cognisance.”

On October 1 last year, tribunal 1 sentenced Salauddin Quader to death for committing crimes against humanity and genocide in Chittagong during

the 1971 Liberation War. Immediately after the pronouncement of the verdict, his family members and the defence counsels told media that the verdict had already been available on a few websites. To establish the claim that it had been prepared by the government, they alleged that the draft verdict had been retrieved from a computer of the Law Ministry.

A 164-page document, which did not contain the judges’ observations or the sentence, was found online a day before the pronouncement of the verdict in Salauddin Quader case.

The following day the tribunal confirmed that an organised group had leaked parts of the draft verdict to make the trials controversial.

Detectives started the investigation after AKM Nasiruddin Mahmud, registrar of the International Crimes Tribunal, filed a general diary with Shahbagh police.

Later, DB Inspector Md Fazlur Rahman filed a case against Nayan, Faruk, Mehedi and some unidentified persons with Shahbagh police under the ICT Act. DB police earlier said Nayan and Faruk had stolen the copy of the draft verdict from a computer of the former tribunal chairman, Justice ATM Fazle Kabir, and supplied it to Mehedi on a flash drive.

Faruk asked Nayan to give Mehedi some documents related to the trial from the tribunal’s computers. Nayan handed over the soft copies of the draft verdict to Mehedi in phases. At one stage, Nayan refused to continue the task. He, however, had to give in to the threats made by Mehedi and Faruk.

Shahriar Kabir, a war crimes trial campaigner, said since the family of Salauddin Quader had failed to hinder the trial process, they planned to create controversy. “If they were not involved, how could they get it too early and have printed copies before coming to the court?” he said.

Tureen Afroz, designated prosecutor in the trial against Salauddin Quader, said: “We are very much anxious.

We are concerned about the security of our information.”

She mentioned that some documents from her official computer had been stolen from the prosecution office premises recently.

Prosecutor Shahedur Rahman said there was a huge investment of the family of the convict behind the leak.

“Now they will have to pay more since they betrayed through this conspiracy – hatched only to malign the tribunal in front of the international community.” l

Suranjit: Govt dropped idea of impeachment through 15th amendment n Kamran Reza Chowdhury The government dropped the idea of making the Supreme Court judges accountable to the legislature through the 15th amendment to the constitution in 2011, considering the time “not convenient” for such provision, said Suranjit Sengupta, who was the co-chair of the parliamentary standing committee on law ministry.

The committee was tasked with making recommendations for changes to the constitution.

Suranjit, now the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee, said the government then had to compromise on restoring article 96 of the constitution.

“Now is the right time to restore article 96 of the charter,” he told reporters yesterday after the meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on law ministry.

The 15th amendment to the constitution created one of the toughest political crises in Bangladesh as the BNP-Jamaat alliance launched politics that led to severe

violence across the country, demanding scrapping the amendments that binned the provision of the non-party caretaker government from the charter.

According to the constitution, MPs enjoy blanket immunity in discussing any issue and no court can take cognisance of the parliamentary proceedings “Sparing restoration of original article 96 of the constitution in the 15th amendment was a wrong decision. I told the government about it, but the government did not do so as in democracy, such decision is collective,” he said. “In democracy, you may need to compromise. Then the government thought that it was not the right time,” he added.

In the first constitution framed in 1972, article 96 stipulated that the legislature would impeach the Supreme Court judges by the two-third majority in parliament for misconduct, abuse of power, violation of charter and incapability.

In the fourth amendment to the constitution in 1975, the authority was given to the president who was made the centre of all powers. After the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on August 15, 1975, Lt Gen Ziaur Rahman, who usurped power on November 7 the same year, through a military order introduced the Supreme Judicial Council to impeach the judges for misconduct, violation of charter and incapability. The chief justice is the chief of the council compromising two other senior judges as the members.

The provision is still in place.

The judiciary in 2010 declared the amendments made by Gen Ziaur Rahman illegal, asking the government to restore the original 1972 constitution.

The AL formed a special committee

to make recommendations for amending the constitution. The judicial service commission and senior lawyers talked against restoration of article 96 of the charter.

The MPs demanded restoration of original article 96 came to the fore as a justice in 2012 observed that Speaker Abdul Hamid, now president of the Republic, committed seditious offence by commenting the judicial in the assembly.

According to the constitution, the MPs enjoy blanket immunity in discussing any issue and no court can take cognisance of the parliamentary proceedings.

The judges comment put the judiciary and the legislature in an apparent conflict. The MPs demanded restoration of original article 96, but the government refrained from doing so.

The January 5 polls formed the 10th parliament in which no practical opposition parties existed. The Jatiya Party is controversial in its dual role as opposition and part of the government.

Requested by the Suranjit’s commit-

tee, the Law Commission in April this year came up with the suggestion that the government could restore original article 96 of the constitution to make the judges accountable to the legislature.

The government accepted the proposal and the Law Ministry had been making the draft law on the 16th amendment proposal. The bill is likely to be tabled in the upcoming session of parliament.

“We will give special attention to the bill when it will come to our committee for further examination. We will invite the judicial services association, judges, senior laws and other stakeholders while preparing the recommendations,” Suranjit said. The meeting yesterday discussed the success of the “Mymensingh model” for quick disposal of the cases.

In Mymensingh, 54,000 cases have been disposed of in 33 months, thanks to the proper utilisation of the alternative dispute resolution that was made mandatory in many cases. The government figures show that around 33 lakh cases have been pending in different courts. l

Awami League urges BNP to withdraw Anup Chetia, Nur Hossain extradition talks likely at secretary summit August 30 programme n Emran Hossain Shaikh The Awami League (AL) urged the BNP-led 20-Party Alliance yesterday to withdraw their programme coinciding with that of the ruling party on August 30.

“Please do not make any chaos by holding your programme on the same day,” said Dhaka City unit Awami League Joint Secretary Quamrul Islam at an extended meeting of the city unit at the capital’s Bangabandhu Avenue.

He pointed out that the city AL unit had planned its programme at Suhrawardy Udyan on August 30, long before the BNP-led alliance scheduled its programme for the same day.

The BNP-led alliance is supposed to hold its human chain programme at all district towns, cities, including Dhaka city, on August 30, marking the

’International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearance’.

Food Minister Quamrul said AL leaders and activists would come to Suhrawardy Udyan from every ward in the capita on that day, apparently meaning that there might be chaos if they and those of the BNP-led alliance came face to face on the way.

Warning the BNP-led alliance against holding their programme, he said: “If you do not have any intention to make chaos in the name of your programme, then hold back.

Otherwise, you will be responded back in your way.”

Dhaka City Unit Awami League General Secretary Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya said BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and some of her ‘black sheep’ had announced their programme coinciding that of the ruling party on August 30. “They plan

to make chaos on will.”

Similar to Quamrul, he also warned the BNP-led alliance against holding their programme and said they would have their hands and legs broken if they provoked any chaos on that day.

Taking a swipe at Khaleda for celebrating her “birthday” on August 15, the death anniversary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, by cutting cake, he said that by doing this at such an old age, 70, she had just exposed her lowmindedness.

“Mourn on the month of mourning Otherwise, there is grief in store for you,” he added.

City AL leaders Foyez Uddin Miah, Mukul Chowdhury, Haji Selim, Awlad Hossain Shahe Alam Murad also spoke at the meeting, with Vice President Bazlur Rahman in the chair. l

n Rabiul Islam The extradition of Anup Chetia and Nur Hossain are likely to come up in the 15th home secretary level meeting between Bangladesh and India scheduled for September 2 - 4 in Dhaka, officials said.

Fence shooting incidents by India’s Border Security Force that have caused a large civilian death toll will also likely be discussed.

Bangladesh’s home ministry senior secretary Md Mozammel Haque Khan will lead the 13-member delegation.

“We will discuss various issues including border killings, and the extradition of Anup Chetia and Nur Hossain may come up during the three-day long meeting,” Mozammel Haque Khan told the Dhaka Tribune over phone yesterday.

Another official at the ministry said, after the meeting of an Indian High Commission official with Chetia, that it was

clear his extradition was under process.

An official of the Indian High Commission in Dhaka recently met Anup Chetia at Kashimpur jail. Chetia told the official that he agreed to return home if there were no legal bars.

Police arrested Chetia, chief of Assam separatist organisation Ulfa (United Liberation Front of Assam), in 1997 from a house in the Mohammadpur area of the capital. He was sentenced to seven years’ jail in three cases filed for the illegal possession of firearms and a fake passport, and for illegally entering Bangladesh.

Nur Hossain is the prime accused in Narayanganj seven murders. It is alleged that Nur fled to India where he was arrested by local law enforcement officials.

Home Ministry officials said the land boundary agreement, the demarcation of 6.5 kilometres of undemarcated land and the transfer of enclaves would be discussed at the meeting. The issues of

woman and child trafficking, smuggling, trans-border crimes and drug trafficking would also be discussed.

An official said a list of around 50 Bangladeshi criminals would be given to the Indian delegation.

Bangladesh is seeking the assistance of India in arresting two convicted killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who are now hiding in India, officials said. “We will reiterate our demand that border shootings by Indian Border Security Forces be brought down to zero,” a senior official said. “We will press for the ratification of the long pending land boundary agreement,” the official added.

The then prime ministers of the two countries signed the Land Boundary Agreement on 16 May, 1974, to demarcate 4,156 kilometres of the two countries’ shared frontier. On November 27, 1974, Bangladesh ratified the agreement while India has not. l

4

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Friday, August 29, 2014

NARAYANGANJ SEVEN-MURDER

Probe body to quiz high officials soon n Mohosinul Karim The high-powered probe committee, formed by the government to investigate the Narayanganj seven-murder case, plans to request the High Court to extend the investigation time by four more weeks to quiz some high officials and five detained RAB members.

The probe body has, however, backtracked from its decision to grill prime accused Nur Hossain in Kolkata, considering the government move to bring him back.

The sources in the probe body yesterday confirmed the Dhaka Tribune about its recent move.

Probe body chief Shahjahan Ali Mollah, also additional secretary of the Public Administration Ministry, told the Dhaka Tribune that they would interrogate some senior officials shortly.

“The body has already asked Dhaka Divisional Commissioner Zillar Rahman and Dhaka Range Deputy Inspector General of Police Mahfuzul Haque Nuruzzaman to face the interrogation,” he added.

He said DIG Nuruzzaman will be interrogated at 2:30 pm on Sunday while Divisional Commissioner Zillar at 10:30 am on September 2 at the secretariat office of the probe body chief.

“Although the probe is in the final stage, we have decided to quiz the senior officials of division level administration and take their opinions. They will be quizzed on the scheduled date.

They have already been asked to face the interrogation,” he said.

Mollah said, “The probe committee will also take steps to interrogate five detained RAB members who have already given primary confessional

statements to the court.”

“They will be quizzed after their police remand ends. They will be grilled at the jail gate separately,” he added.

He said, “We have already started preparing the draft of the probe report.

It’s still in the initial stage. It may take enough time to complete preparing the final report as it is a sensitive incident.”

“We have already identified killers and responsible persons behind the incident, reasons and motives of the murder interrogating and talking with the local people. We are still talking with the people. We will try to continue quizzing the related persons until the report is being handed over,” he said.

Earlier, the police on Tuesday arrested five more RAB members suspected to be involved in the gruesome seven murders and a court placed them on an eight-day remand.

The arrestees are Habildar Mohammad Emdadul Haque, Radio Operator Md Arif Hossain, Lance Naik Hira Mia, Sepoy Md Belal Hossain and guard Abu Tayeb.

On April 27, Narayanganj panel mayor Nazrul Islam, three of his aides and driver, and senior lawyer Chandan Sarkar and his driver were kidnapped from the Dhaka-Narayanganj Link Road. Three days later, six bodies were found floating in the Shitalakkhya. The seventh body was recovered from the river the next day.

Selina Islam Beauty, the wife of Nazrul, filed a case with Fatullah Model police station naming Nur Hossain as the prime accused; while Chandan Sarker’s son-in-law Bijoy Kumar Pal filed a separate case with Fatullah police station for the killing of Chandan and his driver Ibrahim. l

Halima Begum (second from left) and her son take a boat from Keraniganj every afternoon to cross the Buriganga River and supply food to clients who are mostly low-income workers in Islampur and Sadarghat area. In the picture taken yesterday, she is seen crossing the river with the deliveries in tiffin carriers RAJIB DHAR

4 held with 66 tolas of gold ornaments n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong Police after a three-day drive nabbed four persons and seized 66 tolas of gold ornaments, eight mobile phones, a laptop, two modems and a hard disk of computer from a residence at Chokoria upazila in Cox’s Bazar yesterday.

The arrestees are Ruma Akhter, 18, Humayun Kabir, 24, Abu Taher, 60, and Jamir Uddin, 30, said Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Manjur Morshed of Chittagong Metropolitan Police (south zone).

He said Ruma was a domestic help and Humayun was driver of local BNP leader Ahmad Khalil Khan’s residence and they were in a relationship.

On Monday, when the residents of the BNP leader’s flat went out to join a family programme Ruma along with Humayun stole the gold ornaments, mobile phones, laptop, modems and hard disk of a computer after confining another domestic help Shaheda into a washroom.

Later, they kept the ornaments and valuables under earth at a house of Hu-

mayun’s relative Taher in his village at Chokoria.

Mohammad Jaced Khan, son of BNP leader Ahmad Khalil Khan, lodged a case with Chawkbazar police station on that day. Then, police nabbed Ruma from the residence.

Acting on Ruma’s information, police arrested Humayun. Later, the law enforcers recovered the gold ornaments kept under earth, said the ADC. Police also arrested Taher and Jamir for their alleged with stealing incident. l

Internal feud hits BNP Rajshahi city unit

3 imposters arrested, 292 sacks n Tribune Report of rice recovered Exclusion of Rajshahi City Corporation Mayor Mosaddek Hossain Bulbul n Our Correspondent, Naogaon (RCC) from the newly formed committee of Police arrested three frauds for illegally making off with 400 sacks of rice worth Tk7,86,000 in Naogaon.

Liton Piyada and Yunus Sikder were arrested from Jhalakathi while another accomplice Manik Hawlader was held from Patuakhali.

SI of Naogaon Sadar thana, Afzal Hossain said: “On August 12, the accused introduced themselves as the renowned rice trader Bhola Chowdhury and took off with the truck loaded with rice sacks from Sonali Automatic Rice Mill. The truck was tricked into delivering the rice sacks to a different address.

The culprits then went into hiding without paying the rice mill.”

After three days of investigation, police arrested the perpetrators and recovered 292 sacks of rice from Jhalakathi.

The SI said, the arrestees had been sent to a Naogaon court yesterday morning. l

Jubo Dal Rajshahi city unit has resulted in a third wing in the already internally disputed BNP unit in the metropolis.

Till date the Rajshahi BNP was divided into two streams backed by District BNP General Secretary Nadim Mostofa and Rajshahi city unit President Mizanur Rahman Minu, Bulbul being a close associate to the latter.

On Saturday, a fresh 169-member committee of Jubo Dal Rajshahi unit was formed excluding Bulbul. On Monday, 70 leaders of BNP Rajshahi city unit, including Organising Secretary Shafiqul Islam, resigned after holding a three-and-a-half-hour long meeting.

They also laid siege to Mizanur Rahman Minu’s residence, rejecting the new committee.

Sources close to Rajshahi BNP unit said the move of these 70 supporters of Bulbul had created a new group inside

the unit.

According to the new committee, the new president of Jubo Dal Rajshahi city unit is Waliul Haque Rana and the general secretary is Abul Hasnain Hikol.

Mosaddek Hossain Bulbul was made the senior vice-president of the unit.

On the other hand, former senior vice-president of the unit Nazrul Islam was excluded while Organising Secretary Shafiqul Islam was replaced by Jubo Dal city unit joint convener Aslam Sarker.

Abdullah Al Mahmud Biplob and Mainul Islam were appointed as city unit joint conveners.

The reshuffles triggered extreme criticism among the leaders and activists of BNP Rajshahi city unit.

At a press conference on Saturday, Bulbul’s supporters demanded that he be made either the president or the general secretary of the Jubo Dal city unit.

Jubo Dal city unit Joint Convener Abdullah Al Mahmud Biplob said the council of the unit was last formed in 2003 with Mosaddek Hossain Bulbul as

the president and Aslam Sarker as the general secretary.

Later, dissolving the council in 2012 a committee was formed with Bulbul as the convener.

He said under the new committee, the process of forming 30 ward committees of RCC had started, but because of the city corporation election and movements the process was halted in 13 wards.

Recently while they were preparing for resuming the process in rest of the wards, this new committee was created without any council, said Biplob.

He alleged that many businessmen who had not been much involved with the party so far were favoured while selecting for important posts.

He mentioned that a total of 17 businessmen, including Abul Hasnain Hikol, was given the appointment in a mysterious manner.

Hikol had been involved with Jubo Maitree earlier and joined BNP in 2008.

“Despite having qualified leaders in Jubo Dal metropolitan unit, appointing

Hikol was a mysterious move. That is why I have resigned,” he said.

Denying the allegation, BNP Rajshahi unit President Mizanur Rahman Minu said the committee had been formed upon approval from BNP Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Saturday.

Calling the new committee “undemocratic,” Jubo Dal Metropolitan unit Vice-President Shahnur Islam Mithu said the committee was formed without consulting city Mayor Mosaddek Hossain Bulbul.

When contacted, Bulbul refused to make any comment over the matter.

Asked if the resignation of 70 leaders would create a crack in the party, BNP Rajshahi unit President Mizanur Rahman Minu said: “Councils do not function properly, which is why the committee has been formed upon consultation with the central body. Those who have been deprived are currently sulking but eventually everything will be alright.”

He also said there was no division in Rajshahi city unit of the BNP. l

ACC sends notices to 8 Destiny officials n UNB

Rajshahi Boaliya police bring four arrested criminals in front of the media along with the seized tools used for theft

The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday sent notices to eight Destiny officials, including seven directors of Destiny 2000 Limited, seeking their wealth accounts.

ACC has already sent notices asking them to submit their wealth statements to the commission within the given time, ACC Public Relations Officer Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya said. All are the accused in the Destiny swindling cases.

On July 31, 2012, the ACC filed two AZAHAR UDDIN

Training for foreign diplomats held n

Tribune Report

Bangladesh Foreign Service Academy arranged a two-week long course on international relations and diplomacy for diplomats of neighboring countries in the capital.

Fifteen diplomats from Afghanistan, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Bangladesh participated in the sessions, said a press release issued by the foreign ministry.

Ambassadors and high commissioners of the countries and senior officials of the ministry also participated.

Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque distributed certificates among the participants at the closing ceremony held at the academy premises yesterday.

Resource persons and academicians delivered lectures on the basics of international relations ranging from diplomacy and foreign policy to emerging issues like human rights, international trade, energy security, climate

money-laundering cases against Destiny 2000 Limited chairman Lt General (retd) M Harunur Rashid and Managing Director Rafiqul Amin and 20 others on charge of misappropriating investors’ money amounting to Tk3,285 crore.

ACC Deputy Director Mozahar Ali Sarder filed one case with Kalabagan police station against 12 officials of Destiny 2000 Limited, including its chairman and managing director for misappropriating over Tk2,106 crore from the Destiny Tree Plantation Limited (DTPL). l

change as well as subcontinent’s history, culture, democratic values, traditions and development priorities.

As part of the programme, the trainees were taken to institutions that play important role in the socio economic development of the country including art galleries, museums, chambers, manufacturing plants etc.

Foreign Service Academy provides specialised diplomatic trainings to the officers of Bangladesh Civil Service (Foreign Affairs) cadre. l

Tk1.5cr illegal handsets seized n UNB Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate seized some 409 handsets of different brands worth about Tk1.5 crore from two showrooms in the city area yesterday.

Sources at the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate said the mobile sets had been imported illegally as those have no valid documents from Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).

Acting on a tip-off, a team of the di-

rectorate raided the two showrooms of Gadgets N Gear at Banani Road-11 and Gulshan Avenue and seized the handsets of different brands, including Samsung, Nokia, Sony, Blackberry and Motorola.

Most of the mobile sets are clone or duplicate. Besides, International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers of those sets are not registered.

It will not be possible to trace the mobile sets or its users by law enforcers if those are used in criminal activities, said a BTRC official. l

BBC Media Action signs contract with Radio Today n Tribune Report BBC Media Action, Bangladesh yesterday signed two contracts with the private FM radio station Radio Today to air its two programmes for two years.

The programmes, one on adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights and, gender based violence, while the other is on maternal and neonatal health issues, were supposed to start from this month, says a media release.

The contracts were signed by Rafiqul Haque, Managing Director of Radio Today and Charlotte Imbert, the Country Director of BBC Media Action, Bangladesh in the capital.

Through entertainment, the programmes will feature issues related to adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender based violence, maternal and neonatal care, birth preparedness, safe home births, early neonatal care and postnatal care, the release continued. l

Body of a female student recovered from college hostel n Tribune Report Police recovered body of a female student from a hostel inside Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) premises yesterday.

The deceased is Nur Nahar Akhter, 22, a second-year student of Dhaka Nursing College run under DMCH. Shahbagh police station Sub-Inspector Md Abdul Azim said her mates found her body hanging from a collapsible gate of the hostel’s kitchen with a scarf.

Police recovered the body in the morning and sent it to DMCH morgue for autopsy.

“She might have committed suicide anytime during Wednesday night. We are trying to find out the reason behind her act,” the SI said. l

Outlawed party leader killed n Our Correspondent, Chuadanga A leader of an outlawed party was killed at Batiapara village in Alamdanga upazila yesterday.

The deceased was identified as Tokon Ali alias Kaya Tokon,43, son of late Moslemuddin Mandal of Ramnagar Kolabari village of Damurhuda upazila.

Locals spotted the beheaded body of Tokon in the area in the morning and informed police around 9am.

Moniruddin Molla, officer-in-charge of Alamdanga police station said the police recovered the body and sent it to Chuadanga Hospital morgue for autopsy.

Assistant Superintendent of police Kamruzzaman said Tokon was a top leader of the Janajuddha, a faction of the outlawed Purba Banglar Communist Party (ML).

He was accused in many cases including murder and extortion, the ASP added.

Internal feud of the outlawed party might have been the reason behind the murder, the police officer suspected. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Government to build Revised National Building Code to be converted into law 440 flats for cleaners n Abu Hayat Mahmud The government has revised the Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) 1993 and planed to convert into a law for ensuring public safety.

Housing and Public Works Minister Mosharraf Hossain made the disclosure at a seminar yesterday.

The seminar “Sharing of Updated Bangladesh National Building Code 2014” was arranged by the Housing and Building Research Institute (HBRI) in association with the National Alliance for Risk Reduction and Response Initiatives.

ASM Ismail, former chief architect to Department of Architecture who presented the keynote paper of the seminar, said: “Due to weakness in the administration and the enforcement authorities, it was not possible to implement the BNBC 1993. To overcome the lacking, it was revised and updated.”

According to the revised code, he said, a common building regulatory authority would be formed to monitor the whole process of the building code all over the country.

The newly included chapters in the code were energy efficiency and sustainability, maintenance and man-

agement, repairs, retrofitting and strengthening of buildings, rain water management, conservation and rehabilitation of historical and cultural heritage, steel-concrete composite structural members and bamboo, ASM Ismail added.

Sources at the HBRI said the revised BNBC 1993 had been named the BNBC 2014, and it would be published as books: both soft copy and hard copy.

Housing minister urged Rajuk to ask the owners of the existing buildings of the capital to reform their buildings in accordance with the new code as much as possible As the chief guest of the seminar, the housing minister said: “The BNBC 2014 will presented at cabinet meeting for approval. If necessary, it will be raised to the parliament to make it a law.”

Mosharraf also said: “It has long been a confusion regarding who will

give approval for constructing a building in the district, upazila and union levels, and the code has been updated to fulfil the present needs. Countrywide regulatory authorities will monitor the process of approval for constructing a building.”

The minister urged the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) to ask the owners of the existing buildings of the capital to reform their buildings in accordance with the new code as much as possible.

“In future, all buildings under the Rajuk, National Housing Authority and Public Works Department will be constructed following the UNBC 2014 strictly,” Mosharraf added.

Hinting at Detailed Area Plan's (DAP) technical committee head Professor Jamilur Reza Chowdhury's earlier statement that the DAP had few lapses, the housing minister said it was decided to revise and update the DAP and the BNBC 1993 for the same reason – to plug the loopholes.

The BNBC 1993 was formed to regulate the technical details and maintain the standard of building construction, so that tragic building collapses could be avoided. In 2006, the government formally enacted the code and made it obligatory across the country. l

n Tribune Report

The government will build 440 small flats for the cleaners of Dhaka city, involving Tk78.96 crore, up by 14.98% than the estimated cost.

A proposal put forward by the LGRD Ministry for building 440 flats, 427 sq ft each, was approved at a meeting of the cabinet committee on public purchase yesterday. Finance Minister AMA Muhith chaired the meeting.

According to the tender document prepared three years ago and re-floated early this year, the estimated cost for building these flats was Tk68.67 crore.

But Navana Construction Ltd, the lowest bidder, had quoted Tk78.96 crore.

Initially, 11 firms quoted the prices, of whom four were selected.

The tender floated earlier was cancelled as the government had found that none of the bidders was qualified enough for the work. A total of 13 firms took part in the tender.

LGRD Secretary Manjur Hossain who signed the proposal told the Dhaka Tribune that the cabinet committee had approved the proposal for constructing five 10-storey buildings for the cleaners. The project is expected to be completed in 2017.

The price quoted by Navana was higher than the estimated cost, but it

was 5.6% lower than the current market price, he said, adding that considering the level of inflation over last three years, the rise in the project cost was justified.

The new flats have been planned for those who work under the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC).

Currently, there are two “sweeper colonies” in the capital – one at Kamalapur and another at Dayaganj – that accommodate most of the 8,000 sweepers who work under the DSCC. In 2007, a six-storey building collapsed at Dayaganj soon after it was erected. There were allegations that the erstwhile Dhaka City Corporation authority resorted to huge corruption, using poor quality building materials that led to the collapse.

The Anti-Corruption Commission is investigating an allegation of using “poor quality raw materials” for building the colony that resulted in a Tk58 lakh loss to the public exchequer.

There are also two temporary colonies – one at Hazaribagh and another near Mitford Hospital. The living conditions are extremely poor in those colonies and the boarders badly need alternate dwellings.

At present, there are about 55 lakh sweepers in the country who work under various local government bodies. l

Arrest warrant against six in explosion case near Hasina's rally n Our Correspondent, Sylhet A Sylhet court on Wednesday issued arrest warrant against six witnesses in connection with the bomb explosion near Awami League President Sheikh Hasina's Sylhet rally in 2001.

Special Sessions Judge Md Maidul Islam issued the arrest warrant against Md Abu Kalam of Munsiganj, Rais Ali of Kandigaon union, Bipun Singh of Masimpur, Salam and Abdus Shahid of Sylhet town. The court also fixed November 26 for next hearing.

Among the six accused in the case, Mufti Abdul Hannan of JMB and HuJi leader Maolana Abu Sayeed are already behind the bars. The other four, Dr Arif Ahmed Mumtaz alias Rifa, Masum Ahmed, Shafiq and Obaida Harun are on bail.

They appeared before the court on Wednesday but since there was no witnesses present, the court deferred the hearing. Mufti Abdul Hannan and Maolana Abu Syed could not be present as they had to appear before a Dhaka court in another case.

In September 26 of 2001, two persons died in an explosion while making bomb at a house near Sheikh Hasina's Sylhet rally. Though a case was filed on September 27, the chargesheet was submitted after a long time in March 15 of 2004. Later in 2010, the accused were indicted and trial of the case began. l

WEATHER

HEAVY RAIN

DHAKA TODAY TOMORROW SUN SETS 6:20PM SUN RISES 5:39AM FORECAST FOR TODAY Dhaka

34

26

Chittagong

31

25

Rajshahi

33

25

Rangpur

35

26

Khulna

31

25

Barisal

31

25

Sylhet

34

25

Cox’s Bazar

30

25

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW

34.5ºC Jessore

23.8ºC Sylhet

Source: Accuweather/UNB

PRAYER TIMES Fajar Sunrise Jumma Asr Magrib Esha

4:22am 5:38am 12:00am 4:31pm 6:20pm 7:38pm SourceL IslamicFinder.org

Former Sylhet city councillor sent to jail

n Our Correspondent, Sylhet A Sylhet court sent former councillor of Sylhet City Corporation to jail on Wednesday, rejecting his bail plea in a land grabbing and police assault case.

Ashik Mahmud, former councillor of ward 25, appeared before the Sylhet Metropolitan Magistrate Court 5 with nine other accused in the same case and sought bail. Magistrate Md Anwarul Haque granted bail to others but ordered the authority concerned to send Ashik to jail.

The court also fixed September 16 for the next hearing.

According to the court document, on February 19 Ashik tried to grab a land beside south Surma bypass area by force. A bloody clash broke out between police and Ashik’s gang at that time. At least 50 people, including some policemen, were injured in the incident. l

Housewife commits suicide in Chittagong n Tribune Report A housewife allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself in Chittagong's Kattoli area yesterday.

The dead Ratna Dhar, 23, wife of Rupom Dhar of Banikpara area of Uttar Kattali under Akbar Shah police station.

Quoting the victim's relatives, Nayek Abul Bashar of Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) Police Outpost said an altercation over family issues had ensued between Ratna and her husband on Wednesday night at their residence.

Following the altercation, the wife had hanged herself from the ceiling with a sari around 12pm, he said.

Later the family members brought her to CMCH where the duty doctors declared her dead around 1:30pm. l

Barisal University arts faculty dean steps down n Our Correspondent, Barisal

The Rajshahi City Corporation starts repair work on a road adjacent to an amusement park in the Borokuthi area after a photo over collapse of the road was published in the Dhaka Tribune yesterday AZAHAR UDDIN

Mawa-Kawrakandi ferry service disrupted for tenth day n Our Correspondent, Munshiganj

FRIDAY, AUGUST 29

5

Friday, August 29, 2014

The lack of ferries able to run against the current disrupted the Mawa-Kawrakandi ferry service for the tenth day yesterday, leaving more than 150 goods-laden trucks stuck at both terminals.

Three ferries, unable to run against the strong current in the river, are now closed, said BIWTC Assistant Manager Shekhar Chandra Roy. He said 13 ferries out of 16 were operative but could not function smoothly, hampering the whole service.

It now takes three to five hours to reach Mawa from Kawrakandi and the

rain has multiplied the problems.

Passengers from 21 southern districts were bearing the brunt of the tailback.

It now takes three to five hours to reach Mawa from Kawrakandi and the rain has multiplied the problems BIWTC sources said all six ferry terminals remain operative, but the problem lies in the lack of ferries robust enough to operate in the face of strong current.

Illegal structures demolished n Our Correspondent, Gazipur The authorities of the district Roads and Highways Department (RHD) in a drive yesterday pulled down about 30 shops erected allegedly by some local ruling Awami League leaders along the Dhaka-Tangail Highway of Kaliakoir upazila town.

Gazipur RHD Sub-assistant Engineer Shamim Ahsan said they conducted the eviction drive after filing a general diary with the local police station, which would continue in the future.

Local sources said, some meat traders had long been conducting business constructing makeshift shops on the

local RHD's land located on the south side of Phulbaria bus station along the highway, but several months ago followers of publicity secretary of Kaliakoir upazila unit AL Tofazzal Hossain and former organising secretary of the upazila unit Jubo league Moinul Hossain forcefully evicted the traders and grabbed the land.

In the incident, the affected traders filed a case with Kaliakoir police station against the leaders. Suddenly on Wednesday, the leaders made the shops and rented those to others.

The RHD demolished the shops and directed the other shop owners to remove those within two days. l

The stream is expected to stay for a couple days more unless the upstream water recedes.

Around 8:45pm on Tuesday, Ro-ro ferry terminal no 3 was destroyed by erosion of Padma river, creating deadlock in the whole ferry service. 46 hours later, it was shifted to terminal no 2, disrupting the general ferry service there.

Terminal no 3 was set up afresh 120 yards away beside the speedboat terminal and was opened for general ferries on Sunday evening.

Loading and unloading of vehicles continues at the new terminal, except those done by Ro-ro ferries. l

The dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Barisal University (BU), Dr M Muhsin Uddin, has resigned from his post.

The acting registrar of the university, Monirul Islam, said the dean had shown personal grounds for his resignation in the afternoon on Wednesday.

Muhsin also resigned from the posts of chairman of the English department and joint convener of the admissions committee, the acting registrar said.

The letters of resignation were sent to the BU syndicate committee for acceptance, he added.

Muhsin confirmed that he had resigned from the posts. l

Manjur faces contempt charges n Ahmed Zayeef The High Court has charged four men, including Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) Mayor Manjur Alam, with contempt of court for violating an order to stop the construction of a supermarket by filling drain and waterbodies near Shojon Super Market and Chandgaon police station in Chittagong.

The vacation bench of Justice Sheikh Hasan Arif and Abu Taher Mohammad Saiful Rahman passed the order yesterday.

The three others facing the charges are: Ali Ahmed, CCC chief executive officer, Yusuf Ali, president of Bahaddarhat Pauro Market, and Anwar Hossain, a contractor and proprietor of Four Star Syndicate.

In its ruling, the court asked the four to explain why contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated against them for violating the court order. They were asked to respond within four weeks while CCC Chief Executive Officer Ali Ahmad was also ordered to appear in court on September 15 to explain the role he played in construction of the market.

On Wednesday, Haripoddo Boishnob, Jogonnath Boishnob, Ramchondro Boishnob and Shojon Super Market Business Welfare Association Committee filed a contempt petition.

Earlier on August 14, Haripoddo, Jogonnath, Ramchondro and the committee filed a writ petition seeking a High Court order to halt construction of the market. l

RU employees beaten up by BCL men n RU Correspondent

Leaders and activists of chhatra league in Rajshahi University beat up the university's acting chief engineer and two other employees yesterday after failing to get extortion money.

The victims were Sirajum Munir, acting chief engineer of the university, Sumon Ahmed, a peon at chief engineer's office and Abul Kashem, a security guard at the university's first administrative building.

Witnesses said, around 1:30pm, a group of 10 to 12 BCL activists led by the organisation's RU unit's General Secretary Touhid-al-Hossain Tuhin

and Vice President Tanmoyanda Ovi and Mamunur Rashid Mamun went to Munir's office at the second administration building. Not finding Munir at his office, the BCL men beat up Suman, the peon at the chief engineer's office, witnesses added.

Later, BCL men rushed to vice chancellor's office and got involved in an altercation with Munir who had been waiting there to meet the VC. At one stage, Tuhin, Ovi, Mamun and their accomplices beat up Munir.

When BCL men were leaving the administrative building, they also beat up Abul Kashem, a security guard who locked up the gates of the building. Mu-

nir was admitted to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital.

A source seeking anonymity told the Dhaka Tribune that as acting chief engineer Munir refused to meet Tuhin on Saturday on the campus when he was called over phone.

Another RU official said Tuhin was demanding a huge amount of money from Munir to participate in a grand rally organised by BCL's central committee, scheduled to be held on August 31 at Suhrawardy Udyan.

RU Vice Chancellor Professor Muhammad Mizanuddin stern actions would be taken against the BCL men responsible for the attack. l

6

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Nation

Friday, August 29, 2014

Kalai municipal dispute hinders development, office affairs

20 injured in Shibir-Jubo League-police clash

n Our Correspondent, Lakshmipur

The councillors have kept themselves isolated from municipal affairs for 28 months n Our Correspondent, Joypurhat The alleged longstanding conflict between the mayor and seven councillors at Kalai municipality in Joypurhat has been hampering development activities in the area for nearly four years.

Accusing Mayor Towfiqul Islam Talukdar Belal of calling all the shots and his involvement in a range of irregularities, the councillors have kept themselves isolated from municipal affairs for 28 months, while the locals are bearing the brunt of the contention.

The councillors have alleged that Towfiqul, after winning the Kalai municipal elections on January 9, 2011, he seems to act like an authoritarian in carrying out officials tasks at the municipality.

The Anti-Corruption Commission filed two cases against him on charges of misappropriating more than Tk28 lakh collected rents from markets.

Apart from using municipality trucks to transport his own materials, the mayor allegedly makes money by renting them to others, a charge he denies. He allegedly approves projects at will without giving councillors the copies of statement of work.

Towfiqul, who was the general secretary of Kalai upazila unit of Awami League before the 2011 elections, allegedly collects money from drivers of CNG-run auto-rickshaws using fake tokens and embezzles the money without depositing in the bank. He allegedly misused the loan he took illegally from the Asian Development Bank.

The mayor allegedly passed the municipality budget without the approval of the council. He also allegedly pocketed a big amount of cash by appointing six employees in the municipality without the council’s approval.

He has been accused of depriving seven councillors, who protested the irregularities, of their honorarium for 28 months. The councillors were 10 in number at first, but three of them were lured by promises of extra facilities who then went in favour of the mayor a couple of months ago, prompting rivalry with the seven.

The director of the Local Government Division in Rajshahi carried out a probe against the mayor on December 5, 2012, in the wake of complaints submitted by the councillors to the secretary of the Local Government Division and the deputy commissioner of

Joypurhat. The allegations were found to be true in the investigation and the secretary of the Local Government Division issued a show-cause notice to Towfiqul, asking him to respond within seven days.

The ACC filed two cases against the mayor on charge of misappropriating more than Tk28 lakh collected rents from markets Besides, Director of the Local Government Division ABM Arshad Hossain conducted another investigation into the allegations in January this year, and found them to be true as well.

Along with the mayor, nine male councillors and three women councillors were elected in nine wards under Kalai municipality in the 2011 elections. Although the councillors were discontented with the mayor’s dictatorial attitude, they assisted him at the beginning.

In June 2012, eight male councillors

and two women councillors got into a conflict with the mayor, but three of them later ended up on the mayor’s side.

Councillor of ward 4 Sirajul Islam said he and his fellow councillors are not respected at all in the council.

“Soon After the elections, the mayor, to showcase his power, transferred 10 workers of the municipality against our will. He also showed fake appointment under master roll and embezzled the salaries and bills withdrawn in their names,” he said.

Councillor of ward 5 Abdul Khaleq said the mayor strategically won the contracts for all the development projects of the municipality.

“He accumulated Tk8-10 lakh in just a couple of years by manipulating tenders. He also fired 18 registered cleaning workers of the municipality soon after taking office. The drainage system in nine wards has collapsed since then,” he said.

Rezaul Islam, councillor of ward 6, said the mayor took signatures of all the councillors to appoint six workers but embezzled around Tk37 lakh in the process.

“He also asks the workers not to

serve us tea when we go to the office.

This is really humiliating and the situation has forced us to stay away from office affairs,” he said.

The councillors alleged they could not participate in any development work in the locality in the past few years because of the mayor’s dictatorial approach to work. They also said the mayor continues to enjoy impunity just because of the influence of the ruling party in spite of the vidence revealing his corruption and authoritarianism.

Towfiqul, however, strenuously denied all the allegations against him, arguing that he became the centre of envy in the eyes of his rivals because of his social and political position, who incited the councillors to raise false allegations of abuse of power against him.

Claiming that he is an accomplished mayor, Towfiqul said the government would not have sent him abroad had he been involved in misdeeds.

He also defended the allegation of suspending the honorarium of councillors, saying: “They want to have the money without attending monthly meetings but it cannot happen. They have to participate in the meetings and should sign the resolution.” l

Tk6 lakh robbed after stabbing bKash agent

We herewith forward the un-audited financial statements of the company for the third quarter ended July 31, 2014 as per Notification No. SEC/CMRRCD/2008-183/Admin/03-34 dated September 27, 2009 of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission. Copies of the statements have also been dispatched to BSEC, DSE and CSE

n Our Correspondent, Brahmanbaria Miscreants stabbed a bKash agent near Barhmanbaria’s Kautoli stadium yesterday and snatched away over Tk6 lakh from him. Critically injured bKash agent Ataur, 28, had been admitted to Brahmanbaria Sadar Hospital.

Musa Al Ashri, a co-worker of the victim, told the Dhaka Tribune that he and Ataur were on their way to Bijoynagar and Akhaura by a motor cycle.

When they reached Kautoli stadium, two muggers on another motor cycle blocked their way and started stabbing Ataur. Then 4/5 associates of the muggers came out of nowhere and snatched away two bags containing Tk605,000 from Ataur, Musa added. The miscreants also blasted several cocktails before leaving the spot, Musa said.

Confirming the incident, Brahmanbaria police station Sub-Inspector Ishtiak Ahmed said police had visited the crime scene, adding that no one had yet filed any complaint in this regard. l

At least 20 people, including four police constables, were injured in a fierce clash among police, Jamaat-Shibir and local Jubo League activists in Lakshmipur’s Kamolnagar on Wednesday night.

Locals said the Jamaat-Shibir activists had brought out a procession and blocked a road near the upazila parishad office, protesting the arrest of upazila Vice-Chairman and Jamaat Ameer Humayun Kabir.

The clash erupted as Jubo League activists challenged the roadblock. Later, police fired tear-gas shells and blank shots to disperse the agitating activists of the two parties, locals added.

At one stage of the clash, Jamaat-Shibir activists vandalised three passenger buses and a truck, and Jubo League activists vandalised several pro-Jamaat shops at Hajirhat market.

The clash left at least 20 people, including constable Abu Sufian, Zahir Uddin, Mahbubur Rahman, Anisur Rahman, Shibir activists Anwar Hossain, Bahar Uddin and Julhas Uddin, injured.

They were admitted to local clinics and hospitals. Additional law enforcers were deployed in the area following the clash to avert further untoward incidents.

Lakshmipur Assistant Police Super Md Nasim Mia told the Dhaka Tribune that the situation had been under control. l

Aman cultivation has started in full swing in the northern districts. The photo was snapped from Subgram village in Gabtali upazila of Bogra yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Aman cultivation cost increases in country's northern districts n Hasibur Rahman Bilu, Bogra Farmers in the country’s northern districts have been compelled to bear additional costs, compared to the last season, in cultivating Aman paddy this season because of price hike in irrigation, seeds, labour and some other related aspects.

Sources at the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) offices in these districts said they generally fixed the cultivation cost based on the assumption of the production volume after the sowing period.

According to the DAE, the farmers of the 16 northern districts have spent about Tk7,018 crore for Aman cultivation this year on more than 1 million hectares of land, of which targeted production was 2.8m tonnes of rice.

On the other hand, farmers spent about Tk6,813 crore last year to produce 2.716 tonnes Aman rice on 1.02m hectares of land.

Bogra DAE Deputy Director Chandi Das Kundu said the production cost of Aman paddy had been estimated at Tk16.46 per kilogram this season. Last year it was Tk16.42.

The DAE had calculated per-hectare production cost to be Tk68,000 on the basis of a field-level survey; the figure was Tk67,000 the previous year.

As a result, Aman cultivation will see an additional expenditure of about Tk583.06 crore this season to achieve the production target, the DAE official said.

A landlord named Mohammed Al Emran Sarker Ratan of Kalingira village in Ghoraghat upazila of Dinajpur said he had spent about Tk14,000 to cultivate a land of 100 decimal, which was Tk3,000 more than the last season.

A farmer named Nurun Nabi of Phulbari village in Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila said he had spent about Tk4,000 for Aman cultivation on 81 decimal of land, but this year’s cost was Tk5,000.

Another farmer named Mafizur Rahman of Bhagroil village under Nachol upazila in Chapainawabganj echoed them.

Chandi Das Kundu advised farmers to adopt mixed fertiliser and the alternative wetting and drying technology for irrigation, which lessens cultivation cost remarkably. l

Three sentenced to death in a student murder case n Our Correspondent, Gazipur A locals court yesterday sentenced three convicts to death and another by seven years imprisonment in connection with a school student murder case in Gazipur’s Tongi.

Judge Khaleda Yeasmin passed the verdict in presence of death sentenced Ibrahim Hossain Selim, 25, Nahid Islam, 28, Saheb Ali, 30, and jailed Hannan, 28.

Assistant Public Prosecutor Nasir Uddin Faruk Shipon told the Dhaka Tribune that

Inzamul Haque, a class six student of Sristi Central School, was abducted on October 17, 2007. Later, his body was found on October 27 that year.

Inzamul’s borther-in-law Mobarak Hossain earlier filed a case with Tongi police station following the abduction.

Sub-Inspector Alam Chand later filed the charge sheet of the case, accusing the four.

Sofi Uddin, father of the victim, told the Dhaka Tribune that justice was served, and demanded that the verdict be implemented soon. l

(12.5 x 2) Dhaka Tribune, 29.08.2014

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Long Form

7

Friday, August 29, 2014

The impact of drones on democracy

The proliferation of drones only heightens the needs to clarify a policy on how these strikes will continue to be conducted in the future. Failure to do so will ensure that states will simply conduct similar operations when it is perceived to be in their national interests A Reaper remotely piloted air system – a mainstay of the US UAV fleet

T

n Liam Maddrell he global drone industry is booming, with expenditure on the research and manufacture of these weapon platforms expected to total at least $94bn for the second decade of the 21st century.

In what circumstances these weapons are deployed, and how international law is constructed around these revolutionary weapons will help determine if the new post-human military reality will usher in either a new era of perpetual warfare, or one of general global security and peace.

Already there is concern that the current deployment of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to the theaters of Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia are undermining the democratic restraints on the use of force. Indeed this can be seen by the fact that the personnel on “our side” in the West are not placed at risk with the use of these weapons, which in turn disengages the democratic populace from the decision to use military force in their name.

quently not only is greater proliferation inevitable, but so is the greater automation of these systems.

This in itself will create further distance between the democratic elected civilian officials or their military subordinates and the lethal actions of their operations.

This process is already evident within America, whose use of UAVs and other unmanned vehicles has caused the greatest consternation to date over the long term effects these weapons will have on international law. US President Barack Obama has shown himself consistently as a supporter of these weapons in the American-led War on Terror, seeking to disrupt terror networks.

In fact his insistence that these weapons be used, even at the expense of the sovereignty of another nation, (notably Pakistan) was on the public record before his election. Resultantly “by the time Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2009, he had authorised more drone strikes than George W Bush had approved in his entire presidency.”

With drone warfare, there is no need to unite the country behind a conflict, no need to call for shared sacrifice, no need for gruelling debates in Congress.

Unmanned vehicles of all types, and UAVs in particular constitute the first military revolution of the 21st century.

It is therefore increasingly apparent that not only are such weapons systems here to stay, but also that their proliferation is likely to intensify.

Due to their now proven abilities on the battlefield, growing sophistication through continued research and also the relatively low cost (the US military can buy 13 Predator UAVS for every joint-strike fighter), any effort to halt this global proliferation is doomed to failure. Consequently the world is not merely exploring the post-human era, but rather rushing headlong into it.

Time will tell if drones will emancipate us from the ravages of modern warfare of if they will become appliances of Orwellian control. It is now a universal fact that humans have increasingly become the weakest link within defensive systems. Conse-

Further complicating the situation is the manner in which these “drone strikes” are carried out. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which retains control of the drone programme without direct congressional oversight or accountability, is unsure as to who exactly is being killed in each drone strike. While President Obama has sought to prosecute the war against al-Qaeda with greater aggression, the legal ramifications (both internationally and domestically) of the extrajudicial killings of terror suspects have received a somewhat lower priority.

Resultantly in his first term in office, the targeted assassinations of terror suspects have seen some 3300 al-Qaeda, Taliban or affiliated jihadists killed in Pakistan and Yemen alone, including 50 senior leaders.

While they are extrajudicial in nature, the targeted killings of terror suspects via UAVs by the Ameri-

can government are claimed to be conducted with due process by the Obama administration, which has by its own admission worked “vigorously” to establish a framework that governs the use of force against terror suspects.

The premise of this argument revolves around the fact that the president alone may authorise the inclusion of someone onto the list of High Value Targets (HVTs), and often does so in consultation with the US Justice Department and the leaders of Congress. While transparency and accountability is required to build a greater international consensus around how UAVs in particular and unmanned vehicles in general will be used into the future, the Obama administration seems unwilling to provide such assurances.

Adding to the contention surrounding the American government’s continued use of UAVs in this manner, “Obama continues to keep secret the details of the procedures that the administration uses in deciding who can be targeted in drone strikes and other lethal operations off traditional battlefields.”

The proliferation of drones only heightens the needs to clarify a policy on how these strikes will continue to be conducted in the future. Failure to do so will ensure that states will simply conduct similar operations when it is perceived to be in their national interests.

In his seminal 1932 political thesis, “The Concept of the Political,” Carl Schmitt declared that “the justification of war does not reside in its being fought for ideas or norms of justice, but in its being fought against a real enemy.” In this sense, the War on Terror is indeed a war; however the ill-defined nature of the enemy and the lack of geographic constraint enabled by UAVs, cause problems in the definition of the Schmittian exception and thus exposes the inherent flaws within modern representative democracy to the dictatorial whims of the unrestrained sovereign.

This involves the suspension of the constitutional order, authorised by that very order, as an exceptional means for its protection from a particular threat. While Obama still claims that the programme of extrajudicial killings is not subverting the American commitment to the rule of law, the actions of his administration show other intent.

For Schmitt, the guardian of the constitution had to be a person, ideally the head of state. By proclaiming that he was doing this, Obama and his administration were taking on the

Wikimedia role of as the ultimate guardians of the American constitution while dealing with the continuing exception of the War on Terror.

This has been reinforced by a complicit media which is fulfilling their Schmittian ideals through their fear-driven quest for greater audience shares. “The masses are won over through a propaganda apparatus whose maximum effect relies on an appeal to immediate interests and passions.”

As a result the American population has, by a large majority, accepted the use of drones in lethal strikes against terror suspects. This has been accentuated by the exponential growth in the abilities of UAVs. The fact that drone strikes that once seemed impossibly futuristic are so routine that they rarely attract public attention unless a high-ranking al-Qaeda figure is killed, ensures that the general veil of secrecy surrounding these missions encourages little substantiated information on the real costs of the drone war in either Pakistan, Yemen, or Somalia to be available.

This lack of repercussion only encourages the representative to be “independent of his constituents and party” which further weakens democratic oversight over these military actions.

The clearest evidence of this is the lack of real protest over the UAV assassinations in Yemen of American citizen and al-Qaeda operative, Anwar al-Awlaki and his teenage son, Abdurrahman Anwar al-Awlaki in October 2011.

If the killing of a 16-year-old American fails to spark and substantial debate in the American media regarding the blatantly extrajudicial nature of drone strikes, then certainly the killing of poor Yemenis or Somalis is not going to cause a stir. The death of the al-Awlakis was in fact applauded by major news organisations despite the flagrant violation of the US constitution in the protection of its citizens.

Unmanned vehicles and their continued deployment encourages the American public to not think of the legal precedents being set by the Obama administration in other, more subtle ways. The lower enlistment levels and resultant lower casualties that unmanned vehicles allow for produce less of a sense of urgency to examine if a particular war is actually worth fighting.

This means that as unmanned systems become more and more prevalent, the US will be more likely to use force(Singer 2010, p316). It will also mean that the much touted reduction

‘For Americans, these unaccounted for acts of aggression represent an erosion of democracy,’ it is therefore not inconceivable that the advent of similar acts of aggression committed by states that are inherently less democratic than America to begin with will cause a greater problem

of US military personnel levels to their lowest since 1940, is unlikely to reduce US military capabilities to the same capacity.

In fact this result is seen as desirable by the American body politic.

“The US military has been striving for years to replace soldiers in battle with machines so as to make foreign wars more palatable to the American people” (Gray 1997, p42).

Ultimately with no draft, no need for congressional approval, no tax or war bonds, and now the knowledge that the Americans at risk are mainly just American machines, the already lowering bars to war may well hit the ground. Put simply, it is human nature that if you know someone is grading your homework, you are likely to be more careful about how you perform.

Without the vested interest required of previous generations of citizens during war, a major check on the power to make war has been removed from the American government. With this in mind, if democracy “is only the equality of equals, and the will of those who belong to the equals,” as is being shown by the general popularity in which the drone programme is held domestically within America, then the ideal espoused by the Democratic Peace Theory is erroneous in the extreme.

While American policy makers will still construct their programmes to be easily marketable so that they are perceived popularly by their constituents to ensure re-election, unmanned vehicles and their subsequent removal of American personnel from danger will allow involvement in wars that previously the lack of public support would not allow for.

With drone warfare, there is no need to unite the country (USA) behind a conflict, no need to call for shared sacrifice, no need for gruelling debates in Congress.

The growing prominence of unmanned vehicles cannot easily

be halted and in most respects the world’s governments collectively have shown little inclination towards doing so. As this will undoubtedly mean that the autonomy of these weapons will itself increase, how these weapons are programmed and deployed will be just as important, if not more important that their mere existence itself.

“Washington must remain mindful of the built-in limits of low-cost, unmanned interventions, since the very convenience of drone warfare risks dragging the United States [and the world] into conflicts it could otherwise avoid” (Byman 2013, parenthesis added).

Similarly other countries that also develop these weapon platforms further will likewise face these issues.

America, however, “practices perpetual war for perpetual peace” (Blum 2004 (1987), p392).

“For Americans, these unaccounted for acts of aggression represent an erosion of democracy” (Benjamin 2013, p125), it is therefore not inconceivable that the advent of similar acts of aggression committed by states that are inherently less democratic than America to begin with will cause a greater problem.

Despite these fears, unmanned vehicles will ensure that “the principle of using minimum force, when absolutely necessary, to maintain the balance of power is (and will remain) the driving force of US foreign policy throughout the twenty-first century” (Friedman 2009, p46).

Consequently the world will continue to fly blindly into the post-human era, and to expect emancipation from global warfare will ultimately prove erroneous. l Liam Maddrell is an international relations scholar and is currently undertaking an internship at the Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA). This article was first published on Alochonaa.com.

8

DHAKA TRIBUNE

World

Friday, August 29, 2014

Crisis deepens as Ukraine says Russian troops back rebel advance Ukrainian president summons defence chiefs, rebels advance in southeast, capture coastal town

n

nances until Russia withdraws armed forces, equipment and agents.”

Reuters, Kiev

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said yesterday that Russian forces had entered his country and the military conflict was worsening after Russian-backed separatists swept into a key town in the east.

Poroshenko said he was cancelling a visit to Turkey and conferring with defence chiefs because of the “rapidly deteriorating situation” in the eastern Donetsk region, “as Russian troops have actually been brought into Ukraine.”

Russia says it has no involvement in the conflict between pro-Moscow rebels and the Ukrainian military, in which more than 2,200 people have been killed since April.

It denies sending in weapons or troops, despite the capture of 11 soldiers inside Ukraine this week who Moscow said had probably crossed the border by accident. Russia’s envoy to the OSCE security forum in Vienna said no Russian forces were crossing the Ukrainian border “at any point.”

The latest sharp escalation in the crisis came only two days after the presidents of both countries held their first talks in more than two months and agreed to work towards launching a peace process. Ukraine’s security

New front

Freshly dug grave is seen at the Vybuty cemetery in the Pskov region. In a public cemetery in an area of north-west Russia dominated by the Pskov military base are two freshly-dug graves that some locals believe hold the bodies of two Russian paratroopers killed last week fighting alongside rebels in Ukraine REUTERS and defence council said the border town of Novoazovsk and other parts of Ukraine’s south-east had fallen under the control of Russian forces.

“A counter-offensive by Russian

Erdogan consolidates power with ascent to presidency

n Reuters, Ankara Tayyip Erdogan was sworn in as Turkey’s 12th president yesterday, cementing his position as its most powerful leader of recent times, in what his opponents fear heralds an increasingly authoritarian rule. Reading the oath of office in a ceremony in parliament, Erdogan vowed to protect Turkey’s independence and integrity, to abide by the constitution and by the principles of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the modern secular republic.

“In my capacity as President of the Republic, I swear upon my honour and repute before the great Turkish nation

and before history to safeguard the existence and independence of the state,” he said at the brief ceremony.

He was then seen off by military salute as he left to lay a wreath at Ataturk’s mausoleum which lies on a hill in the heart of Ankara and is one of the most important symbols of the secular republic. This was to be followed by another ceremony at the presidential palace.

Moments after being sworn in, Erdogan appointed outgoing foreign minister as acting prime minister, according to an announcement in the official gazette. Davutoglu will oversee the existing cabinet until Erdogan asks him to form a new government, expected to be announced on Friday.

Members of parliament from Turkey’s main opposition CHP walked out moments before Erdogan took his oath, while party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu boycotted the event entirely, accusing Erdogan of breaching the constitution by remaining in office as prime minister after his presidential victory.

“We’re now more worried than ever about one-man, autocratic rule in Turkey,” CHP deputy Aykan Erdemir told Reuters. Erdogan’s victory in Turkey’s first popular presidential election this month capped more than decade as prime minister in which the economy has tripled in dollar terms. l

troops and separatist units is continuing in south-east Ukraine,” it said on Twitter. It said Ukrainian government forces had withdrawn from Novoazovsk “to save their lives” and were

now reinforcing defences in Mariupol.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk appealed to the United States, European Union and G7 countries “to freeze Russian assets and fi-

Rebel advances this week have opened a new front in the conflict just as Ukraine’s army appeared to have gained the upper hand, virtually encircling the separatists in their main strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, said on Facebook: “The invasion of Putin’s regular Russian army of Ukraine is now an established fact!”

Russia’s defence ministry declined to comment on reports of Russian tanks in Novoazovsk. A Russian diplomatic source said: “The Russian authorities clearly said many times there are no regular Russian troops there. Russia is not taking part in this armed conflict.”

But a member of President Vladimir Putin’s advisory council on human rights, Ella Polyakova, told Reuters she believed Russia was carrying out an invasion of Ukraine. “When masses of people, under commanders’ orders, on tanks, APCs and with the use of heavy weapons, (are) on the territory of another country, cross the border, I consider this an invasion,” Polyakova told Reuters. l

Russia sees chance to lift Iran sanctions through international talks n Reuters, Moscow Russia said yesterday the possibility of lifting sanctions on Iran had emerged thanks to international talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme and urged all countries involved to show political will to reach a deal.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Friday to discuss the negotiations with six world powers on a decade-old stand-off over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions.

The talks between Iran and the United States, France, Russia, Britain, China

and Germany failed to yield a deal by a July deadline and were extended by four months in view of remaining wide differences in negotiating positions.

They are expected to resume in September, with the aim of reaching a settlement by Nov. 24 that would scale back Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for a lifting of sanctions that are severely hurting its oil-dependent economy.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it still hoped a deal was possible no later than November. “Despite the difficult course of the negotiating process, a possibility is emerging to satisfy in full all integral rights of Iran as a member state of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, in-

cluding the right to enrich uranium and lifting the sanctions regime,” it said.

“We presume all parties in the talks will show political will to reach a final, mutually acceptable agreement that would allow to fully restore the international community’s trust in the exclusively peaceful character of Iran’s nuclear programme.”

In Paris, French President Francois Hollande said: “Iran must have the courage to take measures that show in a verifiable and uncontested way that it renounces it’s military nuclear capacity.”

Iran denies Western accusations that it has been seeking the capability to assemble nuclear weapons. l

Polish PM favourite for top EU job n Reuters, Brussels/Paris

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has emerged as clear favourite for the key post of president of the European Council when EU leaders meet for a special summit on Saturday, several sources familiar with the selection process said.

If confirmed, his appointment to chair and steer policymaking meetings of EU leaders, would be a victory for the 10 ex-communist central and eastern European countries that joined the European Union a decade ago which have demanded that one of the top jobs go to

a candidate from their region. It would also consecrate Poland’s rise as a major player in the 28-nation bloc alongside EU founders France and Germany.

The pro-European, centre-right Tusk, 57, has not acknowledged in public that he is a contender. He avoided discussing his own future when he announced a giveaway programme of increased benefits for Poles in parliament on Wednesday ahead of a general election next year.

However, two Brussels sources said current council president Herman Van Rompuy, who chairs and prepares EU summits, will put Tusk’s name to fel-

W H O WO N T H E WA R , AC T UA L LY ?

low leaders as part of a package deal in a round of telephone calls on Thursday and Friday. “Van Rompuy is to call EU leaders today and if no one is opposed to Tusk there is a deal,” a person involved in the process said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the consultations.

A senior source in Tusk’s Civic Platform party told Reuters for the first time on Wednesday there were “different outcomes” possible for the prime minister, “including the option that Tusk takes one of the most important posts in Europe.” l

Nato believes well over 1,000 Russian troops are operating inside Ukraine, a Nato military officer said yesterday.

The officer, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, referred to the Russian actions as “incursions” rather than an invasion.

“We assess well over 1,000 Russian troops are now operating inside Ukraine,” he said at Nato’s military headquarters in southern Belgium.

“They are supporting separatists (and) fighting with them.”

Ukraine accused Russia on Thursday of bringing troops into the southeast of the country in support of pro-Moscow separatist rebels.

The Nato officer showed reporters a satellite picture, dated Aug. 23, of Russian self-propelled artillery lined up inside eastern Ukraine.

“This is highly sophisticated equipment which requires a well-trained crew. It takes months to train crews like that. It’s extremely unlikely these sorts of units are manned by separatists,” he said.

“Russia is trying to prevent a defeat of the separatists and wants to hold on to this area.

The recent upsurge and now even direct involvement of Russian troops inside Ukraine is aimed at this,” the official said. l

WHO: Ebola outbreak could strike 20,000 people n Reuters, Geneva The current Ebola outbreak in West Africa could infect more than 20,000 people, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said yesterday in a bleak assessment of the deadly disease.

The United Nations health agency issued a strategic plan to combat the oubreak in four West African nations where it said the actual number of cases could already be two to four times higher than the reported 3,069. The death toll stands at 1,552.

“This roadmap assumes that in many areas of intense transmission the actual number of cases may be 2-4 fold higher than that currently reported. It acknowledges that the aggregate case load of Ebola Virus Disease could exceed 20,000 over the course of this emergency,” the WHO said.

The deadly outbreak that began in Guinea in March and has spread to neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone as well as to Nigeria requires a massive and coordinated international response, the WHO said.

A separate outbreak of Ebola in Democratic Republic of Congo identified as a different strain, is not included in its toll. “Response activities must be adapted in areas of very intense transmission and particular attention must be given to stopping transmission in capital cities and major ports,” the WHO said. l

Away from Gaza war, East Jerusalem seethes with protests and raids n Reuters, Jerusalem

A Palestinian man kisses a Hamas militant sniper during a parade by Hamas militants in Shejaiya. Israel and Palestinians both boasted of victory in the Gaza war but analysts say Hamas received only promises while the conflict aggravated divisions in the Israeli leadership AFP

‘More than 1,000 Russian troops operating in Ukraine’ n Reuters, Mons, Belgium

Violent protests in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem have been raging nightly beyond the spotlight on the Gaza war, leading to a crackdown by Israeli police in which hundreds of Palestinians have been detained.

Street clashes with police in riot gear, military-style raids on homes late at night and stone-throwing at Israeli vehicles have marked the most serious outbreak of violence in Jerusalem since a Palestinian uprising a decade ago.

The protests erupted in July after the murder of a Palestinian teen in an alleged revenge attack by three Jews, who are standing trial. That followed the killing of three Israeli youths in the occupied West Bank by Hamas Islamist militants.

The seething tensions have underscored deepening divisions in a city that Israel claims as its “indivisible capital.”

Damage caused by Palestinians to a Jerusalem light railway, which links Arab and Jewish neighbourhoods and was once hailed by Israeli authorities as a symbol of coexistence, put a third of its carriages out of commission.

Security sweeps across East Jerusalem have arrested more than 600 Palestinians, including 150 minors, according to the Israeli police. Most have since been released on bail or put under some form of restriction.

Lawyers and family members say the raids resemble the military tactics of Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, including doors being blown off hinges, rather than urban law enforcement.

“The police’s treatment is setting alight areas that were quiet before,” said Dmitri Daliani, a Palestinian rights activist in East Jerusalem. “They think more aggression and psychological pressure will quash an uprising, but it’s only making the people more angry.”

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that after “widescale disturbances in different neighbourhoods,” all the suspects arrested were directly involved in clashes with police, including throwing stones which wounded officers.

Israel captured East Jerusalem along with Gaza and the West Bank in the 1967 Six Day War. It annexed the city shortly afterwards and passed a law in 1980 that declared all of Jerusalem its capital. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

World

Modi eyes breakthrough nuclear pact on Japan trip India operates 20 mostly small reactors at six sites n Reuters, New Delhi India is hoping to win Japanese backing for a nuclear energy pact during a visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and lure investment into its $85bn market while addressing Japan’s concern about nuclear proliferation.

India has been pushing for an agreement with Japan on the lines of a 2008 deal with the United States under which India was allowed to import US nuclear fuel and technology without giving up its military nuclear programme.

But Japan wants explicit guarantees from India, which has not signed the international Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, to strictly limit nuclear tests and to allow more intrusive inspections of its nuclear facilities to ensure that spent fuel is not diverted to make bombs.

India, which sees its weapons as a deterrent against nuclear-armed neighbours China and Pakistan, has sought to meet Japan’s concerns and over the past month the two sides have speeded up negotiations ahead of Modi’s visit.

“Serious efforts are being made to resolve any special concerns that Japan has. Whether it will be fully resolved and ready for signing before the end of the PM’s trip is unclear,” said a former member of India’s top atomic energy commission who has been consulted in the drafting of the energy pact.

Modi and Abe will not seal an agreement at next week’s summit, TV Tokyo reported on Thursday, but the meeting

‘As long as world exists, rape will continue’ n Agencies A Trinamool Congress leader in India has again managed to put his foot in mouth by claiming that rapes are a common phenomenon that have happened in the past and will continue forever.

The comments were made at a meeting at Diamond Harbour in South 24-Parganas, a district adjoining Kolkata, by local legislator Dipak Haldar on Wednesday.

Speaking at a rally, Haldar said other political parties and individuals were free to protest on issues that would lead to the state’s development but warned that if someone raised the issue of mothers and sisters being raped, they would not be able to leave Diamond Harbour alive.

“There have been rapes in the past.

Rapes are happening today and will continue to happen as long as the earth exists,” Haldar said. Earlier this year, Trinamool Congress MP Tapas Paul had made a fiery speech in Nadia district threatening to set his boys loose to rape women in CPM households. The speech televised last month drew condemnation from all quarters. l

will be closely watched for any progress toward a pact.

Japanese officials were tight-lipped about prospects for a nuclear deal.

Modi travels to Japan on Saturday for a five-day visit, his first major bilateral trip since taking over in May. The visit is being billed as an attempt by the two democracies to balance the rising weight of China across Asia.

Modi and host Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are also expected to strengthen defence ties, speeding up talks on the sale of an amphibious aircraft to the Indian navy. Abe is keen to expand Japan’s network of security partnerships with countries such as Australia and India to cope with the challenge presented by China.

The two leaders will agree to have

their countries jointly produce mixed rare earth minerals and metals, key elements in defence industry components and modern technology, the Nikkei business daily said on Thursday.

Another focus is infrastructure, with the Indian leader seeking Japanese backing for the high-speed ‘bullet’ trains he promised to voters in his election campaign. But it is the nuclear pact that could transform ties in a way the deal with the United States did by establishing India as a strategic partner, although nuclear commerce with the United States has since foundered because of concern over India’s liability laws.

Japanese companies are also reluctant to step in without clarity on nuclear disaster compensation. l

Friday, August 29, 2014

Bank accounts for all Indians launched n BBC Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched a plan to provide a bank account for every household, in a landmark initiative to help the poor.

Nearly 40% of Indians have little access to financial services and are often at the mercy of moneylenders who charge extortionate interest.

Modi has told state and private banks to support the plan. Correspondents say taking banking to the poor, who may have no identity papers, will be a challenge.

Reports say Modi’s government aims to provide bank accounts to 75 million households by 2018, and to have two account-holders per household.

Officially launching the project on Thursday, Modi said it would give the poor “renewed strength to fight poverty.” “When a bank account is opened, it’s a step towards joining the economic mainstream.”

Under the banking scheme, account holders would receive a debit card and accident insurance cover of up to 100,000 rupees ($1,654). They would also get an overdraft facility of up to 5,000 rupees.

Modi announced the programme in his first Independence Day speech on 15 August after sweeping to power with a landslide victory in general elections in May. “There are millions of families who have mobile phones but no bank accounts. We have to change this scenario,” he told the nation.

Tens of thousands of Indians have filed applications to open accounts since the 15 August speech, the Associated Press reports. l

BJP embarrassed as Rajnath’s outburst triggers infighting rumours n Agencies The bad old days of intrigue and infighting seemed to have returned to haunt the ruling BJP when news reports about India’s Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s son being ticked off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for an alleged misconduct hit the headlines.

At a time when the Modi government prepares to mark its 100 days in office, the Prime Minister, the home minister and BJP got busy with damage control through the day on Wednesday amid apparent differences among the top rung in the government causing much embarrassment to the party and its government.

As opposition parties revelled in the discomfort of the ruling party, BJP chief Amit Shah followed the PM and Rajnath Singh in condemning reports saying “propaganda” against ministers is baseless and misleading.

Shah, in a long and detailed statement issued on Wednesday afternoon said, “baseless and misleading rumours about some ministers and also about Rajnath Singh’s son are being propagated. As party president I can say that all our ministers have very high moral standards.”

“As for Rajnath Singh, he is among our senior most leaders in the party.

He has proved his credentials as central minister and as chief minister of UP and as party president at the highest level. He has worked shoulder to

shoulder with Narendra Modi in the recent Lok Sabha elections to ensure the magnificent majority for the party. His son Pankaj Singh has proved himself as loyal party worker for the last 10 years in Uttar Pradesh.

“Rajnath Singh’s political career has been a picture of integrity, decency and dignity. Therefore anything that is being said against him is baseless and is motivated with the purpose of damaging the image of the party,” Shah said in the statement issued in Hindi.

Shortly after newspapers carried reports of the PM’s unhappiness over some alleged misdemeanour of Singh’s son and that he was warned about it, Rajnath Singh sought to scotch the “rumours,” saying he would quit politics if even “prima facie” it is proved that any of his family member had been involved in any misconduct.

Simultaneously, the PMO issued a statement, rubbishing the reports and dubbing them as “plain lies, motivated and malicious attempt” to tarnish the image of the government.

But the party office that was thronged by the media through the day, had no leaders tending to them and the just two newly-appointed spokespersons — Sambit Patra and Nalin Kohli — were left to defend an embarrassed BJP and its ministers in the face of spins and twists to the story on infighting among BJP biggies.

The media queries were all about how much of the rumour was true and who were its sources. l

China says ‘no change’ in policy on improving ties with Japan n Reuters, Shanghai/Beijing China yesterday rejected remarks by former Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda that Beijing had expressed willingness to improve ties between Asia’s two biggest economies, and said there was “no change” in its policy on Tokyo.

Relations between China and Japan have been frayed by rows over the legacy of Japan’s wartime militarism, a territorial feud over tiny islands in the East China Sea, and mutual distrust over defence policies.

China’s foreign ministry was asked to respond to a speech on Wednesday in which Fukuda described his recent meetings with Chinese leaders, and added that both sides had shown the same sense of crisis over Sino-Japanese ties.

But Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said there was no change in China’s position on the improvement and development of Sino-Japanese relations.

“Japan must face up to reality, show sincerity, take concrete actions and make efforts to eliminate political obstacles that affect the development of bilateral relations,” Qin added, in a statement on the foreign ministry’s website.

Earlier this month, the Nikkei business daily said Japan and China were trying to arrange two-way talks between their leaders at an APEC summit in Beijing in November.

Chinese President Xi Jinping had expressed his desire to mend ties during a meeting with Fukuda, who visited China late in July on a “stealth mission” to broker a rapprochement, the paper said, citing sources from both sides.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has yet to meet Chinese leaders since he returned to power late in 2012, as relations have cooled over disputed islands in the East China Sea and Abe’s visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, which China sees as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism. l

In this file photo, crew aboard the Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield move the US Navy’s Bluefin-21 autonomous underwater vehicle into position for deployment in the southern Indian Ocean to look for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Malaysia yesterday said it would share with Australia the cost of the latest effort to uncover signs of the missing flight, in the hope of unlocking modern aviation’s greatest mystery REUTERS

In democracy and disaster, emerging world embraces ‘open data’

Malaysia Airlines warns of further losses

n Reuters, Singapore

n BBC

‘Open data’ - the trove of data-sets made publicly available by governments, organisations and businesses - isn’t normally linked to high-wire politics, but just may have saved last month’s Indonesian presidential elections from chaos.

Data is considered open when it’s released for anyone to use and in a format that’s easy for computers to read. The uses are largely commercial, such as the GPS data from US-owned satellites, but data can range from budget numbers and climate and health statistics to bus and rail timetables.

It’s a revolution that’s swept the developed world in recent years as governments and agencies like the World Bank have freed up hundreds of thousands of data-sets for use by anyone who sees a use for them. Data.gov, a US site, lists more than 100,000 data-sets, from food calories to magnetic fields in space.

Consultants McKinsey reckon open data could add up to $3 trillion worth of economic activity a year - from performance ratings that help parents find the best schools to governments saving money by releasing budget data and asking citizens to come up with cost-cutting ideas. All the apps, services and equipment that tap the GPS satellites, for example, generate $96bn of economic activity each year in the United States alone, according to a 2011 study.

But so far open data has had a limited impact in the developing world, where officials are wary of giving away too much

9

information, and where there’s the issue of just how useful it might be: for most people in emerging countries, property prices and bus schedules aren’t top priorities.

But last month’s election in Indonesia - a contentious face-off between a disgraced general and a furniture-exporter turned reformist - highlighted how powerful open data can be in tandem with a handful of tech-smart programmers, social media savvy and crowdsourcing. “Open data may well have saved this election,” said Paul Rowland, a Jakarta-based consultant on democracy and governance.

Culture club Indonesia, home to 247 million people and some of the world’s largest Facebook and Twitter populations, has been a few steps ahead in embracing open data. It’s one

of eight founding members of the Open Governance Partnership (OGP), a government-led initiative to free up data that now has more than 64 members.

The embrace of open data has had few tangible benefits, but created a buzz and fostered a culture that prodded Indonesia’s election commission to tweak the way it handles vote results. “There was nothing in this OGP stuff that said you had to put up results from each village,” said Kevin Evans, a Jakarta-based governance consultant. “But it provides a culture where the commission says, ‘why don’t we try a bit of transparency?’”

While it was not allowed to speed up or ditch the manual tabulation of votes, the commission provided equipment for tallies from nearly half a million polling stations to be scanned and uploaded to its servers, and from there to its website. l

Malaysia Airlines has warned of further losses in the second half of the year because of the two tragedies to hit the airline in recent months.

In a statement it said it had seen “a sharp decline” in weekly bookings. It comes as the airline reported a second quarter net loss of 307m Malaysian ringgit ($97.4m) for the three months to June.

The airline has been heavily affected by the crash of flight MH17 in Ukraine and the disappearance of flight MH370.

“We expected the impact of MH370 on the performance in Quarter 2,” said chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya.

“Given that, our team put in much hard work and effort to regain market confidence and rebuild sales. Tragically, just as we were beginning to see signs of recovery in all regions, we were dealt the blow of MH17.

“The full financial impact of the double tragedies of MH370 and MH17 is expected to hit Malaysia Airlines in the second half of the year,” he added.

Average weekly bookings declined 33%, with numerous flight cancellations immediately after the MH17 incident, the company said.

Flight MH370 disappeared on 8 March on its way to Beijing with 239 people on board while MH17 was shot down in Ukraine on 17 July killing all 298 passengers on board. It is unclear who is responsible for the latter incident.

Malaysia Airlines is being taken pri-

vate by Malaysia’s state investment firm Khazanah Nasional. A restructuring announcement from the company is expected on Friday.

The company said it operated in a “harsh business environment of stiff competition” and that even before the two tragedies it was “acutely aware” of the need to restructure. It has not made an annual profit since 2010.

The airline has been heavily affected by the crash of flight MH17 in Ukraine and the disappearance of flight MH370 Media reports suggest as much as 25% of its 19,500 strong workforce could lose their jobs and international routes are likely to be axed.

Reuters reported that the company’s shares would be suspended ahead of the announcement.

The BBC’s Russell Padmore pointed out that Malaysia operates 108 aircraft, a similar sized fleet to Singapore Airlines, which is run with 5,000 fewer staff.

Over the last nine years, Singapore has enjoyed profits of nearly $9bn, compared to Malaysia’s losses of more than a $1bn, he added. l

Indian Ocean search for MH370 refined n BBC Australia says the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will focus on the southern part of the search area in the Indian Ocean.

Officials said further refinement of satellite data found the plane may have turned south earlier than thought.

The announcement came as Australia and Malaysia signed an agreement on the search’s next phase, which will see the two countries sharing costs.

The Beijing-bound plane disappeared on 8 March with 239 people onboard. Based on analysis of satellite data, it is believed to have ended its journey in seas far west of the Australian city of Perth.

Investigators do not know what happened to the flight and finding its “black box” flight recorders is seen as key to understanding the factors behind its disappearance.

Australia, which is responsible for search and rescue operations, has been looking for the plane in an area about 1,800km off its west coast. The latest detail on the plane’s possible flight path came from an analysis of a failed attempted satellite phone call from Malaysia Airlines to the plane, said Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss.

“The search area remains the same, but some of the information that we now have suggests to us that areas a little further to the south... are of particular interest and priority,” he told reporters in Canberra. l

10

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Editorial

Friday, August 29, 2014

CODE-CRACKER

Bring in carbon taxes

S

atellite observations indicate that the rate of loss of the planet’s two largest ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland has more than doubled since 2009.

With evidence growing of the speed of climate change, it is more important than ever for Bangladesh as a nation on the frontline, to integrate addressing climate change into all aspects of policy.

The government should move to taxing carbon emissions through levies on the production, distribution, and import of fossil fuels. The main aim will be to reduce the growth of greenhouse gas emissions and bring related benefits by stimulating investment in efficiency and renewable energy.

Income-generated or, just as importantly, taxpayer funds saved from reducing or even eliminating subsidies on fossil fuels could be allocated to improving living standards and supporting adaptation and mitigation projects.

Many existing carbon offset and trading schemes in the leading industrialised nations, which are historically responsible for man-made climate change, are currently being used to subsidise forests within those nations, rather than generating funds to help poorer people in more vulnerable countries.

We need to be more pro-active ourselves in addressing the challenges ourselves, rather than waiting for more international support.

Care needs to be taken not to jeopardise living standards for people in rural areas who rely more directly on diesel fuel for their livelihoods.

One way to do this would be to divert subsidies to people affected. Alternatively the tax could be phased in a revenue neutral manner by simultaneously reducing other import duties or levies so that total taxation on consumption does not increase.

Allocate funds to improve living standards and support adaptation and mitigation projects

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 www.dhakatribune.com Join our Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/DhakaTribune

Trusting the untrustworthy!

August 23

Morally misfit In the last few days, the news about fraudulent freedom fighters, working at the highest levels of our nation’s administration, was an ugly revelation. What is surprising is that they are still serving the government!

Anywhere else, including the private sector, employers would have sacked them already. So why have they been allowed to remain in service?

What example are they setting for the country’s future? How can such fraudulence be tolerated?

The people rightly deserve an explanation from

the highest level of the government for this shameful matter.

To top it, now these swindlers are trying to assure that their children will not use their false demand for quota in admission to educational institutions. How will they reply to their children’s normal query on this matter?

We are living in a corrupt country that can now be labeled as morally bankrupt, for failing to take any punitive steps against even confessed scammers. Small wonder we are going down the drain, and the drain is getting deeper day-by-day.

Garbage-filled water from Rayerbazar Beribadh area used to wash clothes from nearby hospitals

How to get better managers

August 21

A

The country still faces various intangible hurdles to building up as a thriving tourist centre

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

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.

Shahidur Rahman Nurullah Awal: Thank you!

Tarek Alam Tarek Good thinking, with lots of information. BGMEA should work on this. I am interested to work in the garment industry, as an intern.

A place for tourists

ccording to recent reports, the cabinet has approved proposals for the construction of a tourism complex of international standard in Cox’s Bazar, and an exclusive tourist zone in Teknaf. With a budget of Tk50,000cr, the plans are being spearheaded by the tourism sector itself and are to be implemented under a private-public partnership.

The government is also considering signing a waterways deal with Delhi in order to promote tourism in Bangladesh.

While it is good to see concrete efforts being made to bolster our country’s ailing tourism front, it is worth bearing in mind the various intangible hurdles that the country faces in being built up to a truly open and thriving centre for tourists.

From rampant harassment and discriminatory behaviour towards foreigners, to conservative views on conduct between men and women, to the matter of providing even the most basic forms of security, the administration faces a lot of adversity in transforming Bangladesh into even an acceptable destination for tourists.

Not to mention the facilities and opportunities which are coveted by the average foreign tourist; if we wish to cultivate an environment for tourism that can be considered acceptable, there can be no cutting of corners.

While increased financial allotment in improving the regrettable state of our country’s tourism sector is a good move, it is not enough. Drastic changes have to be made to our attitudes if we wish to emulate the hustle and bustle of tourists in our neighbouring countries throughout our own metropolises and rural landscapes.

August 24 Nurullah Awal A very nice article.

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a different letter of the alphabet. For example, today 15 represents S so fill S every time the figure 15 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.

Requiem for Dhaka August 23 Ezaz Rahman All of this is possible only in Bangladesh.

SK The hospitals are sanitised, though.

CROSSWORD

Ideas: For Bangladesh How surprised are we? Think about it.

Dhaka city: The second least liveable August 21

Iftekhar Ahmed No doubt!

Zubin Rahman To me, Dhaka is the best. It’s my home!

Fuad Ahmed When we are thinking about why the city is unliveable, and how to get rid of this problem, those who are supposed to work towards improving the city are busy thinking it might be a conspiracy by the opposition and are stuck in that state of mind forever. It’s ridiculous!

Ishtiaq Ahmed Fahim “Now, where do we get from here? We all know the state of our city, its prospects, and problems.

If our ambition is to remain what we are now, we don’t have anything much to say. But, if our objective is to improve, then we should be serious about it. Without trying to beat around the bush and unnecessarily trying to beautify Dhaka, we should fix the basics first. Shouldn’t we?”

Thanks for your opinion article. I must agree with your “we should fix the basics first. Shouldn’t we?” We should go back to the first stages to improve the quality of life here.

Speakers: 30 million affected with kidney diseases

ACROSS 1 Cicatrix (4) 3 Parts of speech (5) 8 Dissolve (4) 9 Leave out (4) 11 Sovereign (5) 12 Dreadful (4) 14 Fuss (3) 15 Discharge a debt (5) 18 Postpone (5) 19 Respectful fear (3) 21 Dash (4) 24 Tasmanian river (5) 26 Inflamed swelling (4) 27 Soon (4) 28 Gives for temporary use (5) 29 Niggardly (4)

DOWN 1 Black deposit (4) 2 Dry (4) 4 Flightless bird (3) 5 Transmit in stages (5) 6 Lost blood (4) 7 Razor sharpener (5) 10 Weary (4) 11 Drive back (5) 13 Allude (5) 16 Desert dweller (4) 17 Causing death (5) 18 Wicked spirit (5) 20 Decline in power (4) 22 Not any (4) 23 Small secluded valley (4) 25 Also (3)

August 23 MA Halim Kidney disease is of great concern for the Bangladeshi people. This news article, however, was very short. I would have liked to have been provided more information. For instance, there are no suggestions in this article on how to be freed from this problem.

Bobby and Mousumi Hamid in upcoming film ‘Blackmail’

CALVIN AND HOBBES

August 21

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

PEANUTS

Abrar Khan Saif Girls like this are destroying our nation’s moral character. So please, don’t see this movie.

Sbua Joy Abrar Khan Saif: I don’t agree. I hope these girls can become successful.

Faisal Xafar Haha Ohh good grief! Bangalis are such hypocrites.

When Bollywood/Hollywood female celebrities show off their skin, their cleavage, all of you have become glued to them, Your blood pressure goes up and your pulse quickens.

So when women in your own country dress modern, what’s wrong with that!?

All the best for you ladies! Go crazy! Make us proud!!

SUDOKU

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Op-Ed

11

Friday, August 29, 2014

Bangladeshi hero n Irfan Chowdhury

B

BIGSTOCK

Young, restless, ready

I

n Abak Hussain

t is no big secret that the youth of a country tend to have something to do with driving it forward. Unencumbered by the ways of their parents and grandparents, young people not only have the fresh ideas needed to revitalise a country, they are also the most physically capable members of the workforce.

Imagine a country without a young population – progress would come to a halt in a stagnating, ultra-conservative business culture. Luckily, certain demographic realities threaten change. Even a country like Saudi Arabia, known for being oppressively traditional, backwards even, is bracing itself for change – about three quarters of its population is under the age of 30, and these young people are keen to open up the kingdom to the modern world.

Bangladesh is now at an interesting time in its history, demographically speaking. Even though our rear-view (43 years) is not as long as that of most countries, there is much in it to foster pessimism. Our rampant population growth has adversely affected every aspect of our development, taken a toll on public health, spurred desperate migration, and turned Dhaka city into one of the most unliveable cities on God’s green Earth. Let’s face it – Bangladesh has more problems than we can possibly count.

T

H

But in the midst of innumerable problems, perhaps there is some hope.

Bangladesh, like Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, stands on the verge of experiencing a demographic dividend. The statistics are mindboggling.

Geographically, Bangladesh ranks 94th in the world in terms of size – we’re smaller than Tunisia and just a little bit bigger than Nepal.

drop in our infant mortality rate and birth rate. Right after independence, our birth rate was over 6 babies per woman, a rate which has dropped to 2.2 babies in the present day. This should mean a huge chunk of our population, now all grown up, is ready, willing, and able to work, but has fewer children to support. Lots of people working and a low number of dependents ought to be

past which held back our business potential while we found a hollow sense of pride in lofty nationalistic rhetoric.

Business on the world stage is a game that Bangladesh needs to play wisely. We must realise that free trade is a good thing. Not just goods and services, but knowledge and technologies must flow across our borders. The fresh and sometimes dangerous ideas of young people must be respected.

It is their restless minds that will build the infrastructure to contain the future.

One look at the number of Bangladeshis who have achieved great things in tech or creative fields abroad shows that there is no shortage of good brains in the country, even within our borders. The wrong policies, policies based on a closed-up, antediluvian way of thinking, will fail to do justice to their bright ideas, and simply breed a generation of angry and resentful young people who want nothing more than to simply migrate out of Bangladesh and never come back.

Our system needs to be able to absorb their ideas. We need to encourage and embrace new models, and try things a bit differently from how we tried them yesterday. If we fail our youngsters, demographic dividend will remain just another meaningless term in economics tomes, and we will continue hurling towards mass destruction. l

We need to encourage and embrace new models, and try things a bit differently from how we tried them yesterday

But with a population of about 160 million (the number varies depending on who you ask) we’re the world’s number eight. We have more mouths to feed than Russia. Is there a good side to all of this? Could some of those teeming millions contribute in turning Bangladesh into a force to be reckoned with in the global arena in the near future?

The theoretical basis behind expecting a demographic dividend from Bangladesh is sound. The idea is that we will experience a great boost in our growth and productivity as we experience a

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the road to prosperity.

A poor country can work its way out of the dumps. It has been done before.

The growth in East Asian economies in the 90s has been described as nothing short of a miracle by some reports.

However, if we don’t use our chance wisely, there is every possibility that once again we will mess it up.

We need to get our heads straight and start thinking in new ways if we want to emerge as the sort of global player the world’s eighth largest nation should be. There is a need for turning away from the dusty ideologies of the

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angladeshis rarely get to cheer on their heroes, but when they do, they are euphoric. They came out in droves to celebrate the nation’s first ever qualification for the cricket World Cup, and for some memorable wins since then. But wins have been few and far between. There were other celebrities and celebrations – the Nobel Prize for Grameen Bank and its founder – but they would hardly match the glitz and glamour bestowed by a “would be” Bangladeshi film or cricket star.

The country’s film stars, like those of neighbouring countries, barely survive under the mighty shadows of Bollywood stars, and numerous TV serials (mostly dramas) continue to entertain a “more urbane” middle-class.

Performers achieve popularity following in this genre, but they have yet to be superstars.

Cricketers, save for the exceptional Shakib Al Hasan (again, known more for performance than glamour), have been slow to feed a nation which is hungry for heroes.

Films, with a few exceptions (yes, there have been some), along with many other productions, lacked financial backers or artistic visionaries to bolster them, left to cater for the occasional entertainment needs of the less well-off.

They followed their much bigger, more successful siblings’ scripts, unleashing simple-yet-consistent tales told in sub-continental cinemas for years: Love triumphant, treachery exposed, good overcoming twists and obstacles, they are sure to triumph.

They evoked emotions from an excited crowd: Whistles, sometimes almost in unison, at the hero’s entrance, at his smart moves (and comments), inevitably entangling the heroine in his web of love, sighs for the heroine in her dilemmas, applause when a villain is vanquished.

Urged on by this enthusiasm, directors (and producers) made actors perform the roles, giving respite from their immeasurably tough lives. The actors, acquiesced, hardly set themselves up as heroic models. A few had a following, but they never generated the razzmatazz drawn by a superhero.

But maybe all this is about to change. Ananta Jalil, fondly abbreviated as AJ, unearthed his fourth blockbuster in as many years,

Most Welcome 2, in July.

He bears the uniqueness dreamt of by the heroes of yesteryear – making his debut as an actor and producer in his first film Khoj in 2010, with his future wife as the heroine. How many superheroes have achieved this feat?

He struggled out of his racing car swamped by his followers. Were they seeing the arrival of a hero, at last?

A successful entrepreneur with an esteemed foreign education (a business qualification from the UK), he shares some of his fortunes in charitable tasks – he runs orphanages and old peoples’ homes, and is never shy to promote them.

Like his scripts, his plans are always rosy. He will bring back a decent crowd to the cinemas, he will maintain his figure and won’t allow anyone to be out of shape (plump) in his movies (he explained this as the reason why the “respectable” middle class of the country went off local productions).

He prefers to perform his own stunts – an inspiration evoked by Tom Cruise, however accidentally. With the grace of the Almighty, he says, he even has plans to make a Bangladeshi incarnation of the James Bond movies.

If he does not respond suavely in interviews, his answers are straightforward with the flamboyance of a champion. His short celebrity status has not been without controversy – there was an unsavoury episode involving his pronunciation, and many highbrows have written him off as uncouth.

But he seems to be immune to this, arriving in a sea of admirers to premiere his latest film. As they chanted his name, as he struggled out of his racing car swamped by his followers, and as the police made room for him to enter the theatre, spectators marvelled. Were they seeing the arrival of a hero, at last? l Irfan Chowdhury is an opinion columnist.

This article was previously published on AlalODulal.org.

SADIA MARIUM

Abak Hussain is Op-Ed Editor, Dhaka Tribune.

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Not-so-happy birthday n Nadeem Qadir

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he Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), or Bangladesh Jatiotabadi Dal, is all set to celebrate its 34th birthday on September 1, amid total political disarray.

Born under the shadow of the military uniform of Major General Ziaur Rahman, the party ruled Bangladesh for the majority of the time since its independence in 1971.

Founded as a centre-right liberal democratic party, after minor error and trial, it was formally floated in 1978, just three years after the brutal assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. In 1982, military dictator Hussain Muhammad Ershad took helm and ruled with an iron-fist until he was overthrown in the 1990 mass upsurge. But in the first democratic elections of 1991, the BNP returned to power under the leadership of Zia’s widow, Khaleda Zia, a housewife-turned-politician.

Its weaknesses soon emerged and

it was proven when the Awami League came to power in 1996 after 21 years of political wilderness. Sheikh Hasina, the elder daughter of Bangabandhu, proved her leadership by ousting the BNP under difficult circumstances.

Tarique Rahman, the elder, good-looking, son of the Zia couple, emerged as an influential force within BNP in 2001 and still holds the post of senior vice chairman while in London on “medical grounds.” He is involved in several cases in the courts of Bangladesh, of which the most serious is the August 21, 2004 grenade attack on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. He has been convicted in a money laundering case.

BNP’s loss in the 2008 general elections has been blamed not only on its poor governance, but hugely on Tarique and his allegedly parallel government run from the very infamous “Hawa Bhaban.” The party too blew up in the air since then, and despite efforts to make a comeback, is now even further from state power as it is not

even represented in the parliament.

“Yes, we are always ready for elections which will be participatory, fair, and transparent,” Lt Gen M Mahbubur Rahman, a former army chief, told me recently. A member of the BNP standing committee, the soft-spoken general said: “The party has moved away from many of the ideals and principals as set up by late Ziaur Rahman.”

Has the BNP missed the train, and are they waiting for the next elections five years from now? “Not at all,” he said, adding: “We are reorganising, and movement does not mean violence always. Violence breeds violence.”

Regarding the party’s future, he was hopeful. But when asked to comment on Tarique Rahman’s insulting comments against Bangabandhu, General Mahbub apparently differed. “Bangbandhu is a great leader and everyone should get his due,” he said. When questioned why he was addressing the country’s founding father as “Bangabandhu,” which his party disowns, he smiled and said Bangabandhu gave us

Bangladesh. He however refused to comment further on Tarique, saying he could say anything as a senior leader of the BNP. Tarique and the Hawa Bhaban are blamed mostly for BNP’s loss, yet the party leadership is scared to say that in public.

Has the BNP missed the train, and are they waiting for the next elections five years from now?

Diplomats are convinced that without a miracle, the BNP has no chance of steering an anti-government move-

ment and force general elections ahead of the one set for 2019.

“The party is in frail shape … it will be difficult to overcome this situation anytime soon,” said one diplomat, praising Sheikh Hasina’s political acumen.

Another diplomat was convinced that BNP will have to wait and hope for a comeback in 2019 if it can face its real problems, including the negative image of Tarique Rahman. “When he entered politics, we were impressed … but soon, he could not live up to our expectations.”

Sheikh Hasina, who has conquered east and west since the 2014 general elections boycotted by BNP, Jamaat, and their allies, has almost reached the gate of the White House. Many believe Washington has already softened on its stand on the polls, while China, India, and Japan are already in a working relationship. China is providing two submarines which will join the naval fleet in 2015. The Japanese prime minister is coming on a return investment

visit in September.

So, Begum Zia, who had cut a cake amid fan-fare on her birthday on August 15, ignoring the National Mourning Day, will not have much delight in cutting a cake on her party’s birthday.

She has the Herculean task of delivering amid animosity or doubts and infighting amid BNP’s leadership.

There are also those who are in favour of or against Tarique. Some even say that the decision to stay away from the January 5 polls and resorting to widespread violence was politically wrong.

One can safely say that people in general want peace and stability against street protests or violence.

Thus, BNP has to think of new strategies if it wants to regain state power, which seems a miracle now.

Still, after all, it is another birthday and another year. Happy Birthday, BNP! l Nadeem Qadir, a senior journalist, is a UNCA Dag Hammarskjold Scholar in journalism.

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

Entertainment

Friday, August 29, 2014

MIM AND NIROB INKED FOR ANJAN DUTT’S FLICK n Punny Kabir Bidya Sinha Mim and Nirob are on cloud nine as they have signed up for veteran Indian filmmaker-actor-singer Anjan Dutt’s upcoming flick “Mon Baksho.” Written by Tushar Abdullah, also an accomplished journalist of Bangladesh, the film is the first directorial venture of Anjan Dutt in Bangladesh. His fans will be more elated to know that the gifted artiste will also be acting in the film.

“Mon Baksho” is an entirely Bangladeshi production in which a few of Anjan Dutt’s close co-workers and singers from Kolkata will work along with Bangladeshi actors, crew and singers, said Dutt to the Dhaka Tribune.

When asked about his decision to make a film in Bangladesh, the dynamic Anjan said: “The script itself convinced me to do so. It has many shades of gray and a director like me is always allured by such features in a script.”

Anjan, who, through his directorial projects like “The Bong Connection,” “Ranjana Ami Ar Ashbona,” “Dutta Vs Dutta” to name a few, evolved as one of the most demanding directors for the urban audience, said: “‘Mon Baksho’ is also targeted towards the urban audience of Bangladesh.”

The story of the film revolves around a bohemian poet (Dutt) and his daughter Moitri (Mim).

The psychological drama depicts the hiccups in the relationship between the father and daughter while she faces trouble in her love life.

On the other hand, Nirob will play the role of a bold young man named Doirgho who is Moitri’s lover.

Both the actors,

who signed for the film on Wednesday night at a guest h o u s e in Dhanmondi, are extremely excited to be a part of Anjan Dutt’s film and consider it a big break for their careers.

Mim said: “This is one of the biggest achievements of my journey as an actress. I am a big fan of Anjan’s films and music.”

Nirob said: “I was in talks for the film for the last two weeks and throughout the time I was nervous.

Now I am nervous once again since this could be the biggest chance for me to prove my skill.”

The shoot will begin in the mid of November in Moulvibazar and later in some locations of Dhaka. l

Surprise tasks for Lux-Channel i Superstar contestants n Entertainment Desk Lot of surprises await the audience in this segment of the Lux Channel i Superstar. This time, the contest introduced a new section which will include surprise tasks such as make over, dance and acting performances to judge the improvement of the contestants.

The audience will also get to witness what

is more important to the participants, friendship or winning the competition. The show will feature actor Iresh Zaker, dancer Shamim Ara Nipa, make-up artiste Kaniz Almas and others as judges.

Lux Channel i Superstar started from 2005 in search for the young woman with that unique spark of beauty inside her - an alluring presence and a striking personality. This year's winner will get a brand new car. Watch the third episode tonight at 9:35pm on Channel i. l

Mou dates Kalyan n Entertainment Desk

Romance between an older woman and a young man always create controversies in our society and is frowned upon. The story of the single episode drama “Prem Ar Protaronar Golpo” revolves around the relationship of a middle-aged woman portrayed by Sadia Islam Mou who dates Kalyan Corraya.

Mou is an independent woman who works in an advertising agency. She is a divorcee who was forced into a short term marriage through blackmail. Kalyan is a student who is also an environment activist and meets Mou during an

assignment for the environmental organisation of his university. Despite the age difference, they start seeing each other. Things take a different turn when Kalyan’s ex girlfriend, who was forcefully married off by her family, comes back to him.

The drama will be aired on Maasranga TV at 7:40pm today. l

TODAY IN DHAKA Film Fast Five

Edge of Tomorrow 3D X-Men: Days of Future Past 3D Transformers: Age of Extinction 3D Maleficent 3D Most Welcome 2 Hercules 3D Most Welcome 2 The Fault in Our Stars Hero Honeymoon Noah 3D Godzilla 3D Time: 12:30pm – 9:30pm Blockbuster Cinemas, Ka- 244 Pragati Avenue, Kuril

Star Movies 7pm

Former cop Brian O’Conner partners with ex-con Dom Toretto on the opposite side of the law.

The Italian Job Zee Studio 1pm

Exhibition

Images of Caring Men Time: 3pm – 8pm Dhaka Art Centre, House 60 Rd No 7/A

Charlie is a mastermind thief and the gold bullion heist at a palace in Venice is a job executed to perfection. Along with him are Steve, the man inside, Lyle, the computer expert, Rob, the wheelman, Left-Ear, the bomb expert and John.

Ode to Beauty

By Shama Shaiom Time: 3pm – 9pm Alliance Francaise de Dhaka 26 Mirpur Road Show: Yourself Time: 18, 10am – 8pm Athena Gallery of Fine Arts, Progoti Shoroni, Uttar Badda

Agents of S H I E L D Star World 3:30pm

Phil Coulson of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division assembles an elite covert team to find and deal with these threats wherever they are found.

Nupur Beje Jay

Shadhona staged an outstanding performance of its acclaimed production Nupur Beje Jay on August 27 at the Chhayanaut Shangskriti Bhaban. The show featured Bharatnatyam dance performance by Rajdeep Banerjee and group from Kolkata, Kathak dance performance by Ashimbandhu Bhattacharjee, founder director of Upasana Centre for Dance (Kolkata, India) and Bharatnatyam dance performance by Amit Chowdhury. A series of dramatic turn of events complimented by subtle work of light and music, and graceful dance recitals by a number of master dancers made the event a memorable one for the KHAN HASAN MUHAMMAD RAFI houseful audience

Aishwarya and Irrfan Khan pair up n Entertainment Desk Filmmaker Sanjay Gupta has roped in Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Irffan Khan in his upcoming film “Jazbaa.”

Aishwarya Rai who was on a break post her pregnancy is all gearing up for this film.

Reportedly, she will be seen playing a lawyer in the movie opposite Irrfan, who will be essaying the part of a suspended cop known to pick a bone with the authority.

Earlier there were reports that actor John Abraham had bagged the role of the male lead in the film.

Aishwarya will be doing some strenuous action-packed stunts in the film for which she will soon undergo special training.

“Fast & Furious” stunt director Spiro Razatos has been roped in to choreograph action sequence for Aishwarya in the film.

“Jazbaa” is set in modern day Mumbai and it will be shot across the city. Produced and directed by Sanjay Gupta, the movie is slated to go on floors in January 2015. l

Momentary History

By Niamul Bari Time: 12pm – 8pm Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts Life and Works of Tajuddin Ahmed Time: 12pm – 8pm Gallery 21

Arjun Rampal as writer in Roy n Entertainment Desk Bollywood actor Arjun Rampal is all set to start the shoot of a new flick “Roy” where he plays a writer.

The actor, who was last seen in Prakash Jha’s “Satyagraha,” went for a final haircut before leaving for Malaysia yesterday where he will start shooting for Bhushan Kumar’s “Roy.” Ranbir Kapoor plays the role of a thief named Roy and Jacqueline Fernandez has a double role in the love triangle. The last schedule of “Roy” is set to kick off in Malaysia today. While the crew has already left for Kuala Lumpur, The schedule will spread over 20 odd days. With this, the film will be complete, except for some patchwork which will be filmed in Mumbai. Produced by Bhushan Kumar of T-Series, “Roy” is slated to be released on February 13, 2015. l

Did you know?

England have suffered their two largest ODI run-margin home defeats this summer (157 runs v Sri Lanka and 133 v India)

Sport

Friday, August 29, 2014

14 Tendulkar

backs new Indian Super League

15 Ronaldo named

European Player of the Year

End of drama, Gazi Tank lands Shakib n Minhaz Uddin Khan The final day of the players’ transfer of the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League 2014 ended on a high with star all-rounder Shakib al Hasan signing for reigning champions Gazi Tank Cricketers yesterday. The former national skipper, who saw his six-month suspension shortened by three months on Tuesday, received the green signal from the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) to sign for his desired club like the rest of the players.

Shakib’s ban imposed by BCB due to indiscipline had kept the 27-year old all-rounder off the national pool.

However, the board reconsidered the punishment following which a debate enraged over whether Shakib would be considered a national pool player in the transfers.

On the opening day of the second phase of the players’ transfer, the organising body of the premier league, the Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis was hesitant over the issue surrounding Shakib and asked for BCB’s intervention.

Answering to the request, there was talk that BCB had decided to arrange a special lottery to sell Shakib’s services for the season between clubs who had not bought any of the pool players. The board’s solution to the Shakib issue was of no use as he informed the board that he had already taken advance payment

from Gazi Tank months ago which eventually smoothed the process.

While talking to the media for the first time since the beginning of his now three-month suspension, Shakib informed that BCB Chief Executive Officer, Nizamuddin Chowdhury, had called him yesterday and said he could have a normal transfer like all the other cricketers.

“This is completely the board’s decision and they would never want something bad for a player,” said Shakib after completing the registration formalities yesterday.

“It was a normal decision. Since I was suspended, I was not in the national pool so it created complications.

I think it was resolved through discussions,” the ace all-rounder added.

Shakib’s three-suspension will come to an end on September 15 making him available for the premier 50-over competition of the country which will begin in the first week of October. The Magura lad informed that he felt relieved to be back and said he is looking forward to not disappointing the board in future.

“I am a happy man now and thankful to BCB and to all those who were beside me during the tough phase. Such a phase is really tough for a sportsman,” said the number-one Test all-rounder.

A total of 134 non-pool players registered in the two-day transfer window which ended yesterday. l

A confident Bangladesh Under-23 football team will take on the Nepal U-23 side in the second and final match of the SS Steel International Friendly Series at the Sylhet Zilla Stadium at 5pm today.

A 1-0 win in Dhaka on Tuesday brought confidence with in the home team who are looking to make Sylhet’s debut as an international venue a memorable one. BTV World will telecast the match live.

However, the playing pitch still remains the major talking point of the clash. The teams got involved in some sort of a nasty brawl in the opening match at the Army Stadium with rain

Zimbabwe A to arrive in Dhaka on September 10 n Mazhar Uddin

pouring down, leaving the field muddy and sluggish.

Continuous rain in the last 10 days indicated a worst pitch in Sylhet and with a little sunshine yesterday the ground staffs were seen trying their best to ready a minimum standard ground.

“We are trying to upgrade the pitch.

If there is no more rain and if we get sun as well, i hope the pitch will be alright by tomorrow (Friday) noon,” said match commissioner Monirul Islam to Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

Practice schedules were cancelled from the Zilla stadium due to the circumstances and instead were shifted to the Sylhet Cricket Stadium. Nepal enjoyed a very short training session in

National all-rounder Shakib al Hasan (L) smiles while shaking hands with Gazi Tank Cricketers owner Lutfar Rahman Badal after completing the registration on the final day of the players’ transfer of the Dhaka Premier League at the BNS yesterday MUMIT M

the morning which lasted for an hour while Bangladesh trained for couple hours from 4pm with the player sreflecting a very positive body language ahead of the clash.

Bangladesh’s Dutch coach Lodewijk de Kruif is, however, concentrating on to improve the strength of the players. “The boys played very well in the previous match, especially in the first 70-75 minutes. Now our target is how to make it 90 minutes and we are working on it. The boys gave me words to play 90 minutes in same rhythm and beat Nepal,” said Kruif after their training session.

Skipper Mamunul Islam also promised to give 100 percent on the pitch and said, “Some complained that

we lack commitment and don’t give 100 percent on the pitch but we proved them wrong in Army Stadium and hope to continue it tomorrow (today).”

Meanwhile, Nepal’s Polish coach Jack Stefanowski looked to build on the positives from their losing encounter.

“In the first match, we didn’t play well in the first half where we couldn’t defend well and Bangladesh dominated. We played better in the second half and created more chances and we want to carry the momentum of the second half tomorrow in the 90 minutes.”

“We need to believe in our passing game and get our possession game going. We need to do a better job defensively as well,” he said.

Nepal captain Sagar Thapa carries the experience of playing Bangladesh previously and the oldest member of the squad admitted that the Bangladesh team are a lot more developed side now.

“This team is very different than the side we played against in Saff Championship. When we played against them last time, we comfortably won the game. Now they are fast, they play good football, keep the possession and they have a solid defence too.”

“Tomorrow’s (today’s) match is important for us. We already lost the first game and we need to win,” he added.

Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith will be present during the the game as chief guest. l

Sylheti boys look to mark homecoming n Shishir Hoque from Sylhet

Zimbabwe ‘A’ team will be arriving in Bangladesh on September 10 to play two four-day and three one-day matches as the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) gave out the itinerary of the tour yesterday.

The second-string Zimbabwe side will travel straight to Cox’s Bazar after their arrival and will practice on September 12-13 before taking part in the first four-dayer against Bangladesh ‘A’ at the Sheikh Kamal International Stadium in Cox’s Bazar from September 15.

BCB has announced a preliminary squad for the series with the national side’s preparation camp already underway The visitors will return to Dhaka on September 18 to participate in the second and final four-day match from September 22 at the Khan Shaheb Osman Ali stadium in Fatullah.

Zimbabwe ‘A’ will then play three one-dayers against the hosts on September 27, 29 and October 1 with all the matches scheduled to be held at the Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium.

The BCB has announced a 22-member preliminary squad for the series with the national side’s preparation camp already underway at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium from August 24. The visitors, meanwhile, has also announced their squad for the month-long tour. l

13

15 103-year-old

challenges world’s fastest man

Janak Gamage new women’s cricket coach n Mazhar Uddin

Nepal out to spoil home party in second friendly today n Shishir Hoque from Sylhet

DHAKA TRIBUNE

(L-R) Wahed Ahmed, Yeamin Munna and Toklis Ahmed pose for a selfie at a hotel in Sylhet yesterday COURTESY

The existing festive mood surrounding the SS Steel International Friendly match between the national Under-23 sides of Bangladesh and Nepal are expected to rise to a new height with the homecoming of three of Sylhet’s own - Wahed Ahmed, Toklis Ahmed and Yeamin Munna.

It will be the first international affair at the home town for these three youngsters and it’s needless to mention that the people of Sylhet, who are eagerly waiting, will give it all to be present at Sylhet Zila Stadium today for the last match of the friendly tournament.

Strikers are often the most talked about players from a team and it is not a surprise the two attacking prodigies – Wahed and Toklis – are very popular at their home town, while the newcomer in the side left-back Munna is also growing in terms of familiarity.

The trio was received with flower bouquets after their arrival in Sylhet on Wednesday and though it is possible the expectations from the Sylhetis will pile up the pressure on the three youngsters, Wahed was focused on winning the game and not getting carried away.

“Although we are playing on Sylhet soil, we will not play there as a Sylheti but as a Bangladeshi. We learned everything about football here for seven-eight years. We three now have one target and that is to win the game and complete our preparation for the Asian Games,” said Mohammedan striker Wahed who scored the highest goals among the local players in the last season of the premier league.

“The Sylhet people know about us through social media like facebook. They now have the chance to watch us play live from the gallery and I predict the stadium will be fully packed.”

Apart from a win, second on Wahed’s wish list is an international goal for himself on his home ground.

Sheikh Jamal forward Toklis last played in Sylhet during the Upazila Cup for Balaganj district and he too is very excited about playing here.

“It feels really good to see the people of Sylhet eagerly waiting for our game.

The neighbours are asking my family when the game is and a huge interest has grown among them,” said Toklis.

“There will be no pressure, rather it will encourage us to perform better,” echoed Toklis as according to him the crowd number shall be two to three times bigger than it was in Dhaka.

Toklis, who grabbed attention during the Mayor’s Cup in 2009-10, also believed the current squad is stronger than the one which played in the Saff Championship and said, “The best performers are playing in this team along with eight players from the senior side. I personally believe this team is stronger than the Saff squad. The young players are giving more efforts and if this continues I hope we will leave the pitch as winners.”

Munna did not feature in the U-23s’ playing XI in the first game, but he too is excited about playing at his home ground.

“I played a season in the league in Sylhet and I saw the enthusiasm of football among the people here. I want us to win the game for them,” he said. l

Former Sri Lankan cricketer Janak Champika Gamage has joined the Bangladesh women’s team as the head coach, replacing Australian Shane Deitz.

The 50-year old, who used to be a pace-bowling all-rounder in his playing days, arrived in Dhaka yesterday and is set to join the national women’s camp today.

Having signed for a year, Gamage’s first assignment with the Bangladesh women’s team is the upcoming 17th Asian Games to be held in Incheon, South Korea next month.

“I have some ideas about the Bangladesh team as I know they beat Sri Lanka in the previous tournament. I would like to work on fitness, fielding and running between the wickets ahead of the tournament,” said Gamage.

The Sri Lankan is quite familiar with Bangladesh cricket as he played for Mohammedan in 1987 and also coached the side in 2005.

Gamage can speak Bengali as he has a lot of friends here and said it will work as a big advantage while communicating with the cricketers. He went on to say his main aim will be to improve the team’s ranking in the international stage.

“I learned to speak Bengali by talking with friends over here. I think this will be a big advantage for me to communicate with the players as most of the foreign coaches do not understand the language and my aim would be to reach a better position in the ICC rankings,” he said. l

Sylhet braces for first ever int’l football game n Shishir Hoque from Sylhet Football fever gripped Bangladesh during the 2014 Fifa World Cup which ended one-and-a-half months ago. A new sort of football fever has taken hold of the people of Sylhet ahead of the first ever international football match to be held in the north-eastern city.

The match between Bangladesh and Nepal will be played at the Sylhet Zila Stadium, the pitch of which is, however, not upto the mark. An incredible 90 percent of tickets have already been sold out and it will not be a surprise if many misses the game for not being able to buy a ticket in advance yesterday.

“90 percent of the tickets have been sold out by today (yesterday). The demand is very high and I expect the rest of the tickets to be sold out before the game and it will be a full-house gallery tomorrow (today),” said Sylhet District Football Association president Mohiuddin Ahmed Selim yesterday.

The Sylhet DFA is said to be carrying out all the expenses of the players from both the teams. They provided the accommodation of the full squads of both the teams in a well-reputed hotel, provided quality food and all other costs.

The situation in Sylhet regarding the international football friendly could be an eye opener for the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) who should now think of arranging more football matches outside the capital city.

The federation, however, received criticism for arranging the travel of the players from Dhaka to Sylhet. It took the bus 11 hours to arrive in Sylhet whereas the regular time is usually five hours.

While talking to Nepal coach Jack Stefanowski, the first thing the media asked was how long it took the Nepalese team to arrive in Sylhet. “How long did it take? 12 hours?” The reply was, “No. Six hours.” He smiled and said, “You guys are smart and intelligent.”

The conversation indirectly mocked the arrangement of the journey they had to take from BKSP to Sylhet. The criticism was also about the team bus (Saint Martin) the federation provided for the squad.

BFF, however, is now planning for a different route and a change of transport for the return of the players.

“We will follow a different route when the teams return to Dhaka. We will finalise it by tomorrow (today). It could be on train or a shortcut route from Sylhet to Dhaka. We could also replace the bus,” said BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag yesterday. l

14

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

Friday, August 29, 2014

Tendulkar backs new Indian Super League n AFP, Mumbai

Nita Ambani (3rd R), director of Reliance Industries, poses with promoters and owners of football teams during the launch of the Indian Super League (ISL) football tournament in Mumbai yesterday. Batting superstar Sachin Tendulkar threw his weight behind the upcoming ISL, saying it was the way forward to unearth football talent in the cricket-mad country. The eight-city franchise-based ISL tournament is to be played in October-December AFP

Sanchez sends Arsenal through

Napoli blown away by Bilbao, Centreback Moti turns GK to lift Ludogoretsto wanted -- on the tactical side, on the ter Slovakian Marek Hamsik had given Bulgarian club Ludogorets into the CL n AFP, Paris technical side, and on the mental side,” the visitors the lead early in the sec- group stage for the first time at the exA goal by Chilean star Alexis Sanchez saw Arsenal scrape into the Champions League group stages on Wednesday as they beat a plucky Turkish outfit Besiktas 1-0 in their play-off second leg clash for a 1-0 aggregate victory.

Arsene Wenger’s side managed to hold on despite being reduced to 10 men -- like the first leg when Aaron Ramsey was red-carded -- after Mathieu Debuchy was sent off for a second bookable offence in the second-half.

“We produced the performance we

RESULTS Malmo (SWE)

3-0

said Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, who may still have to sign a striker as Frenchman Olivier Giroud will be out for up to four months after undergoing surgery on a broken tibia.

Arsenal have qualified for the CL for the 17th season in a row His Besiktas counterpart, the former Croatia national handler Slaven Bilic will have to content himself with the Europa League.

A double by Aritz Aduriz -- aided by some woeful Napoli defending -- and Ibai Gomez saw the hosts to victory af-

ond-half.

It ended the hopes of Napoli’s Spanish boss Rafael Benitez of adding another Champions League title to the one he won with Liverpool in 2005 and leaves only two Italian representatives in the competition, champions Juventus and runners-up Roma.

Sweden’s Malmo, beaten in the 1979 final by Nottingham Forest, and German outfit Bayer Leverkusen eased through, the latter also ensuring Germany has four clubs in the draw.

Meanwhile, Defender Cosmin Moti was forced into goal for a penalty shootout and made two saves to send

1-0

n AFP, London

Besiktas (TUR)

Sanchez 45+1 Arsenal win 1-0 on aggregate

Leverkusen (GER)

4-0 Copenhagen (DEN)

Son 2, Calhanoglu 7, Kiessling 31-p, 65 Bayer Leverkusen win 7-2 on aggregate

Athletic Bilbao (ESP) 3-1

Napoli (ITA)

Aduriz 61, 69, Hamsik 47 Gomez 74 Athletic Bilbao win 4-2 on aggregate

Ludogorets (BUL)

1-0

St Bucharest (ROM)

Wanderson 90 Ludogorets win 6-5 on penalties after tie finished 1-1 on aggregate after extra-time

Ludogorets defender Cosmin Moti is congratulated by his teammates after they through to the CL group stage for the first time on Wednesday INTERNET

Rooney gets nod as England captain n AFP, London

Villa and QPR fall victim to League Cup giantkillers

Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney will take over from Steven Gerrard as England captain, manager Roy Hodgson announced during a press conference at Wembley Stadium on Thursday.

The 28-year-old forward has won 95 caps since making his debut against Australia in February 2003, scoring 40 goals, and was also named captain of United two weeks ago.

n AFP, London

Since his debut in February 2003, Rooney (40) has scored 11 more goals than any other England player He succeeds Liverpool midfielder Gerrard, who stepped down after England’s group-phase exit at the World Cup, and will begin his tenure as permanent captain in next week’s friendly at home to Norway.

“I think Wayne’s an obvious choice and he certainly deserves it,” Hodgson told journalists. “His commitment to the cause, his experience, the fact he’s already captained England in the past, and now he has the responsibility at Manchester United - all these factors weighed on my thought process.l

Del Piero to sign for Delhi n AFP, Mumbai Italian World Cup winner Alessandro Del Piero was set to be unveiled as the Indian Super League’s latest marquee signing Thursday as organisers spoke of sparking a football “revolution” in the cricket-mad country.

Reports said the 39-year-old had agreed to play for the Delhi Dynamos in the 10-week tournament which begins in October and has been modelled along the lines of cricket’s cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL).

Del Piero’s signing was expected to be confirmed later Thursday at a press conference called by ISL organisers, who have already persuaded former French star David Trezeguet and ex-England goalkeepr David James to sign up.

Eight city-based teams are due to take part in the tournament which runs

from October 12 to December 20. Several of the franchises have tie-ups with European football giants such as La Liga champions Atletico Madrid who are the co-owners of Atletico Kolkata.

While India are only 150th in the world rankings, football draws big crowds in some parts of the country - particularly the east - and has been dubbed the game’s “sleeping giant” by world governing body FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

The English Premier League (EPL) draws big TV audiences and team owners are hoping to replicate the success of the IPL, the domestic Twenty20 cricket tournament that attracts some of the biggest names in the game.

Organised by the All India Football Federation, the ISL is being backed by India’s Reliance Industries, which is controlled by the country’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, and by sports management giant IMG. l

Eto’o calls time on Cameroon

Salzburg (AUT)

Rosenberg 11-P, 84, Eriksson 19 Malmo win 4-2 on aggregate

Arsenal (ENG)

pense of Steau Bucharest.

The victory has now created a headache for club management who may need to play games outside of the country due to a lack of a suitable stadium.

In the final minute of extra time, Ludogorets keeper Vladislav Stoyanov was sent off after bringing down Steaua’s Fernando Varela and with all three subs having been used Moti was forced into goal.

Romanian Moti, who has spent most of his career with Steaua’s bitter rivals Dinamo Bucharest, actually took the first kick for his team, confidently converting.l

Batting superstar Sachin Tendulkar on Thursday threw his weight behind the upcoming Indian Super League (ISL), saying it was the way forward to unearth football talent in the cricket-mad country.

“There is a lot of sporting talent in the country, but no platform to showcase the talent. Perhaps ISL is the answer,” Tendulkar said in Mumbai at the launch of the eight-city franchise-based tournament to be played in October-December.

Tendulkar, who retired last year as the leading run-getter in both Test and one-day cricket, is co-owner of the Kochi franchise in the new league that has been modelled on the lines of cricket’s cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL).

While the 40-year-old’s fame and fortune is due to his exploits on the cricket field, he said that the most important thing was for Indians to develop and nurture a love of sport.

“My vision for India is sport for all.

It is not about being professional but staying healthy and fit,” he said.

Meanwhile, Italian World Cup winner Alessandro Del Piero, 39, was set to play for Delhi Dynamos and also serve as a brand ambassador for the ISL, a source associated with the league told AFP. “He is on board, a formal announcement will be made shortly,” the source added. l

A fine curling effort by journeyman Adam McGurk heaped the pressure on English Premier League strugglers Queens Park Rangers manager Harry Redknapp as fourth tier Burton beat them 1-0 in the second round of the League Cup on Wednesday.

QPR, who came into the game on the back of a 4-0 hammering by Spurs last weekend, were not the only Premier League outfit to fall prey to giantkillers as Aston Villa also exited beaten 1-0 by third tier side Leyton Orient, Romain Vincelot’s goal three minutes from time proving the difference.

They joined several other Premier League sides, most notably Manchester United, to fail to make it through to the third round.

Both last season’s finalists did make it to Wednesday’s third round draw with holders Manchester City getting a home draw with Sheffield Wednesday while Sunderland, who beat Birmingham City 3-0 on Wednesday, will host Stoke in an all Premier League tie.

Redknapp, whose side are yet to win in three matches this season, was

phlegmatic about the humiliating defeat which earned Burton a home game with Championship side Brighton.

His Aston Villa counterpart Paul Lambert, who could be facing a second successive battle againast relegation, was left extremely disappointed by the defeat to Orient.

“Leyton Orient took their chances and we didn’t take ours. Darren Bent, who is deadly from that range, would normally get you one.

“The goal we conceded was poor and I didn’t think we were strong defensively.

“The team I picked was strong. I expected us to win the game.”

While both Redknapp and Lambert will probably be given some more time that is unlikely to be the case for David Hockaday, the manager of second tier ailing giants Leeds United, as they went out 2-1 to third tier Bradford City.

Club owner Massimo Cellino, a renowned firer of coaches from his days in Serie A, apparently toyed with the idea of sacking him on Sunday after a 4-1 defeat

by Watford and their exit on Wednesday will not have done the inexperienced manager’s cause much good.l

Cameroon’s four-time African player of the year Samuel Eto’o confirmed on Wednesday that he was calling time on his international career just days after he was stripped of the captaincy of the national side.

“I inform you that I am ending my international career... Thank you to all Africa, and to all my fans for your unconditional support,” the 33-year-old forward announced on his Twitter account.

Eto’o, who had not been named in Cameroon’s 25-man squad for the qualifiers for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations which begin in September, played his

ENGLISH LEAGUE CUP DRAW Chelsea Arsenal West Brom Crystal Palace Leyton Orient Cardiff Sunderland Derby Liverpool MK Dons Man City Burton Swansea Shrewsbury Fulham Tottenham

v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v

Bolton Southampton Hull Newcastle Sheff Utd Bournemouth Stoke Reading Middlesbrough Bradford Sheff Wed Brighton Everton Norwich Doncaster Nottm Forest

Ties to be played on September 23-24

RESULTS Aston Villa Birmingham City

0-1

Leyton Orient

0-3

Sunderland

2-1

Leeds United

1-0

Queens Park

3-0

Portsmouth

Vincelot 87

Jordi Gomez 77, Johnson 87, Wickham 88

Bradford City Knott 84, Hanson 86

Burton Albion Rangers

Smith 82

McGurk 77

Stoke City

Walters 16, 47, Crouch 90

last game for The Indomitable Lions during their mediocre World Cup campaign in Brazil.

Eto’o, who on Tuesday signed a two year contract with English Premier League side Everton, played just one match - a 1-0 defeat to Mexico - in his fourth World Cup campaign (1998, 2002, 2010, 2014).

Capped 116 times, he won two Africa Cup of Nations titles in 2000 and 2008, a competition in which he is the all-time leading scorer with 18 goals. He is also Cameroon’s record scorer with 56 goals.

His biggest triumph with the national side was winning Olympic gold in Sydney in 2000.l

Alonso retires from Spain duty, set to join Bayern n AFP, Berlin German champions Bayern Munich on Thursday announced they had agreed terms with Spanish midfielder Xabi Alonso for his move from Real Madrid.

Alonso was to have a medical in Munich on Thursday while Bayern finalise the deal with Real with whom Alonso is under contract until 2016, the German club said.

The move comes after Alonso on Wednesday announced his retirement from international football.

The 32-year-old was a key member of the Spanish sides that won European Championships in 2008 and 2012, as well as their first World Cup in 2010.

“I quit the Spanish National Team.

The hardest thing is knowing when to say goodbye, and after thinking about it, I think that my time with the National squad has come to an end,” the 32-year-old said in a statement on the Spanish football team’s official website.

“It has been a glorious period with the Spanish team that started more than 11 years ago, I have formed part of an historical generation that has fulfilled the dreams of millions of fans.”

However, Alonso’s final international tournament ended in catastrophe as the holders crashed out of the World Cup in Brazil in the group stage following defeats to the Netherlands and Chile.

At Bayern he will link up with former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola who has endured a difficult start to the

season with injuries to Javi Martinez, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Rafinha and Thiago Alcantara.

He also lost central midfielder Toni Kroos in the close season, the German international going to Real Madrid.

The injuries saw Bayern bolster their defensive options on Wednesday by signing Moroccan international fullback Mehdi Benatia on a five year deal from Italian Serie A side Roma. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

15

Friday, August 29, 2014

Sharapova, Wawrinka reach third round

QUICK BYTES

Tottenham sign Argentine centre-back Fazio

n AFP, New York

Tottenham Hotspur have signed Argentine defender Federico Fazio from Sevilla on a four-year contract, the Premier League club announced on Wednesday.

News of the 27-year-old’s arrival, for a reported fee of £8 million ($13.3 million, 10 million euros), comes a day after Tottenham allowed long-serving central defender Michael Dawson to join Hull City. “We are delighted to announce that we have completed the transfer of Federico Fazio from Sevilla,” Tottenham said in a statement on their website.

“The Argentina international has joined us on a four-year contract.” Fazio spent seven seasons at Sevilla and won the Copa del Rey, the Uefa Super Cup, the Spanish Super Cup and last season’s Europa League during his time in Spain.

–AFP

India’s Kom qualifies as flag row unfurls Five-time world women’s boxing champion Mary Kom will return to the ring at the Asian Games next month, but her competing under the Indian flag remains in doubt, a top official said on Thursday. Kom, 31, qualified for her first international competition since winning an Olympic bronze medal at the London Games in 2012 after clinching the trials in the 51kg category in Patiala on Wednesday. “It is good to be back and prove those people wrong who thought my career was over,” said Kom, who had been busy promoting an upcoming Bollywood movie on her life starring popular actress Priyanka Chopra. “I think I can win a medal, hopefully a gold medal.” Kom won a bronze medal at the last Asian Games in Guangzhou in 2010.

–AFP

Women ‘blackmailed’ Mexican football star Mexican police have arrested two sisters on charges of blackmailing football star Oribe Peralta with compromising photos taken at a party, prosecutors said Wednesday. Peralta, a striker who shone for Mexico at the World Cup in Brazil, reported to police last week that he was being extorted by a young woman he had met at a party who was threatening to publish the photos unless he paid her half a million pesos ($38,000). Peralta told police that he and the woman exchanged phone numbers at a party in January and that she took pictures of him that made him “uncomfortable,” according to investigation documents published in Mexican media.

–AFP

Israel v Belgium Euro 2016 qualifier postponed

Israel’s Euro 2016 qualifier at home to Belgium has been postponed until March following an agreement between the national associations of the two countries, UEFA said on Wednesday.

European soccer’s governing body said the Group B match, due to be played on Sept. 9, would go ahead on March 31 instead. “The kick-off time and venue will be confirmed at a later stage,” it added. Israel has been barred indefinitely from staging any European competition matches, at either national team or club level, due to the security situation in the country. Maccabi Tel Aviv have been playing their home ties in the Champions League qualifying competition in Cyprus. Andorra, Bosnia, Cyprus and Wales are the other teams in the group.

–Reuters

Director of Bangladesh Cricket Board Naimur Rahman Durjoy (C) poses with Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim (R) and West Indies captain Darren Sammy (L) with the T20 trophy after no decision was made and the game was cancelled due to rain delay at the Warner Park cricket ground in Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis on Wednesday. Play was halted by torrential showers with Bangladesh at 31 without loss off 4.4 overs batting first. The West Indies won the preceding one-day series 3-0 and the sides will now play two Tests at Kingstown in St Vincent from September 5-9 and at Gros Islet, St Lucia from September 13-17 AFP

Real draw Liverpool, Barca get PSG

Ronaldo helped Di Maria join United’s Ronaldo named European Player of the Year, 4 domestic champions drawn in Group A magnificent 7s n AFP, Manchester GROUPING n AFP, Monaco Angel Di Maria has revealed he con-

Champions Real Madrid will play five-time former winners Liverpool while fellow Spanish giants Barcelona plucked big-spending Paris Saint-Germain as the Champions League group stage draw was made in Monaco on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo was named European Footballer of the Year, the Portuguese striker topping the journalists’ poll ahead of Germany’s World Cup winner Manuel Neuer and Dutchman Arjen Robben.

Ronaldo is the fourth recipient of the award, succeeding Franck Ribery, Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi.

“I’ve worked hard for this award, I am very happy, I thank all my team, because without that kind of team individual awards couldn’t exist,” said the reigning Ballon d’Or titleholder, after receiving his award from UEFA chief Michel Platini.

Ronaldo failed to sparkle at the World Cup in Brazil where Portugal were eliminated in the first round, but inspired Real Madrid on the European stage.

The 29-year-old broke the record for goals, 17, by a player in a Champions League campaign last season as Madrid claimed their tenth European title.

“It was amazing, something that Madrid had looked to do for many years,” said the striker.

“As Madrid players we feel as though you have to win the Champions League. It was a fantastic season - we won the Champions League, the Spanish Cup and the (UEFA) Super Cup.” But the most mouth-watering draw saw 2013 champions Bayern Munich paired with Manchester City, Roma and CSKA Moscow in Group E. It is the third time in four years that Bayern and City will have faced each

BTV 4:00PM Fifa ‘A’ category friendly Bangladesh U23 v Nepal U23 Star Sports 2 9:30PM Pro Kabaddi League

Ten Cricket 1:30PM Tri-Nation ODI Series Zimbabwe v South Africa Ten Action 12:30AM French Ligue 1 2014/15 Olympic Marseille v Nice

Group A Atlético(ESP) Juventus(ITA) Olympiacos(GRE) Malmö(SWE) Group B Real Madrid(ESP) Basel(SUI) Liverpool(ENG) Ludogorets(BUL) Group C Benfica(POR) Zenit(RUS) Leverkusen(GER) Monaco(FRA) Group D Arsenal(ENG) Dortmund(GER) Galatasaray(TUR) Anderlecht(BEL) Group E Bayern(GER) Man City(ENG) CSKA Moskva(RUS) Roma (ITA) Group F Barcelona(ESP) Paris(FRA) Ajax(NED) APOEL(CYP) Group G Chelsea(ENG) Schalke(GER) Sporting(POR) Maribor(SVN) Group H Porto(POR) Shakhtar Donetsk(UKR) Athletic(ESP) BATE(BLR)

other in the group stages.

For English Premier League winners City, who failed to progress from the group stages in two of the last three years, it continues a run of tough draws at this stage of Europe’s premier club competition.

In 2011/12 they were paired with Bayern and Napoli and missed out on the knock-out stages after failing to beat the Italians at home.

A year later they finished bottom of a group containing Real, Borussia Dortmund and Ajax as they failed to win a single game.

Only last year, when they were also thrown in with Bayern, did City manage to get through the group stages and this time their job will not be simple.

103-yr-old challenges Bolt

DAY’S WATCH

La Liga 12:00AM Getafe v UD Almeria 2:00AM Valencia v Malaga

French Open champion Maria Sharapova and Australian Open winner Stan Wawrinka survived some shaky moments Wednesday to book their thirdround berths at the US Open.

Sharapova, who lifted her fifth Grand Slam title at Roland Garros this year, fought back from a set down in a gritty 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over 95thranked Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru.

The fifth-seeded Russian was reluctant to blame the windy conditions in the cavernous Arthur Ashe Stadium court for her difficulties, which included 46 unforced errors.

And after two hours and 26 minutes on court - in a match that began in hot sunshine and ended under the floodlights - she had her 17th three-set win of the season, the most on the WTA Tour.

Sharapova and Wawrinka were the day’s headliners as two-time defending women’s champion Serena Williams and the top men Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray all had the day off.

Wawrinka, the third seed from Switzerland, turned back the challenge of Brazilian left-hander Thomaz Bellucci 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7/1) to become the first men’s seed into the third round. l

n AFP, Kyoto Closing in on his 104th birthday, a twinkle-toed Japanese sprinter has thrown down the challenge to the world’s fastest man Usain Bolt, telling him: “let’s rumble!”

Hidekichi Miyazaki -- who holds the 100 metres world record for centenarians at 29.83 seconds and is dubbed ‘Golden Bolt’ after the Jamaican flyer -- plans to wait another five years for his dream race and was happy to reveal his secret weapon: his daughter’s tangerine jam.

“I’d love to race Bolt,” the wispyhaired Miyazaki told AFP in an interview after tottering over the line with a joyful whoop at a recent Japan Masters Athletics competition in Kyoto.

“I’m keeping the dream alive. I try to stay in top shape and stay disciplined and healthy. That’s important for everyone -- even Usain Bolt.”

Born in 1910 -- the year Japan annexed Korea and when the Titanic was still under construction -- the pint-sized Miyazaki offered some dietary tips to Bolt, whose world record is 9.58 seconds.

“My body is small so I take care of what I eat,” said Miyazaki, who stands just 1.53 metres (five feet) tall and weighs in at 42 kilograms (92 pounds).

“When I eat, I chew each mouthful 30 times before swallowing,” he added, loosening his Usain Bolt running shoes.

“That makes my tummy happy and helps my running. And I eat my tangerine jam every day.”

In a country with one of the world’s highest life expectancies, Miyazaki is the poster boy for Japan’s turbo-charged geriatrics. l

But perhaps the most eagerly-anticipated group matches will see four-time winners Barcelona come up against PSG, who recruited Brazilian centre-back David Luiz from Chelsea in the close season.

He will be meeting a familiar foe in new Barca signing Luis Suarez, the former Liverpool forward.

Four-time former winners Ajax, another of Suarez’s previous sides, are alongside the pair in Group F, as well as Cypriots Apoel.

Real and Liverpool will be confident of progressing from Group B where debutants Ludogorets of Bulgaria, who were only formed in 20001 and whose stadium holds just 8,000 fans, and Swiss outfit Basel, who knocked out

Manchester United at this stage three years ago, await. Ludogorets’s participation came in large part thanks to the heroics of defender Cosmin Moti.

He was forced into goal in the last minute of extra-time of their play-off second leg 1-1 draw with Romanians Steaua Bucharest after goalkeeper Vladislav Stoyanov was dismissed in the final minute.

The game went almost immediately into penalties where not only did Moti score his side’s first spot-kick but he saved two of the Romanians to send the Bulgarians into the lucrative group stages.

There was a kinder draw, on paper at least, for 2012 champions Chelsea, who poached Germans Schalke 04, Sporting Lisbon of Portugal and Slovenia’s Maribor in Group G. l

sulted with Cristiano Ronaldo before completing his record transfer to Manchester United and accepting the club’s iconic number seven shirt.

Di Maria has followed in the footsteps of United legends Ronaldo, George Best, Eric Cantona and David Beckham by taking the number seven after his week’s British record £59.7 million ($98 million, 75 million euros) transfer from Real Madrid this week.

The Argentina midfielder joins United with the club in their worst state for more than two decades, without a win in two league games and fresh from a humiliating 4-0 League Cup defeat at third tier minnows Milton Keynes Dons on Tuesday. But Di Maria, 26, revealed that a brief chat with his former Real team-mate Ronaldo was sufficient to convince him that he should accept the challenge of wearing the coveted number seven jersey at Old Trafford.

“I was aware of the importance of the number seven shirt. Cristiano Ronaldo had spoken to me at Real Madrid and told me how important it was,” Di Maria said at his first press conference as a United player on Thursday. l

Ispahani, Westin, Metronet, Midas post contrasting wins n Arsalan Quddus The first match on day seven of the Bowl Pre-Quarter Finals in the 9th Ascent Corporate 5-a-side Indoor Football Cup saw Midas Financing take on Rahimafrooz Renewable in a close match which ended in a 1-1 draw.

Mohsin Ali converted for Midas, while Jamil put one back for Rahimafrooz.

Hence the first penalty shootout of the tournament was played out in which Midas outscored their opponents 3-2.

We say goodbye to our old friends Rahimafrooz who have been a part of this tournament for many years and wish to see them back next year. Meanwhile the financing company edge one step closer to the bowl final.

The Cup Pre-Quarter Finals was a dog fight between Securex & Ispahani. The tea giants found themselves 3-1 down in the early stages of the match after Shariful of Securex scored a Hatrick. But 4 goals from Midul saw an epic comeback from Ispahani which

RESULTS, DAY 7 Midas Financing (Won 3-2 In Penalties)

BAT Westin Dhaka Securex General Electric

1-0

2-2

Rahimafrooze Metronet (Won 3-2 In Penalties)

3-1 3-4 0-5

Cream & Fudge Ispahani Aarong Dairy

all but ended Securex’s hope for a trophy this year. Well, there is always next year.

The BAT tie against Metronet also ended in a 2-2 draw after Nafiz & Mizan of both teams scored a brace. The second penalty

shootout was played which saw the internet company edge past the tobacconist in a 3-2 tiebreaker.

Westin continued their progress towards the bowl final with a 3-1 win against Cream & Fudge, Chisto netting a fine double and Rony scored a curler from the left flank. Diponkar reduced the margin with e solitary goal for the ice-cream giants.

Aarong Dairy milked General Electric for all they were worth. The Electric Multinational didn’t know what hit them, as the dairy farm went on a blitzkrieg on the GE goalkeeper. Dipongkor scored 2, while Akibul, Rokibul & Probir all added to Aarong’s cause. l Arsalan Quddus is a key member of the organiser Excalibur Entertainment, a die hard Manchester United fan and also a passionate football fanatic.

16

DHAKA TRIBUNE

CONSTITUTIONAL OBLIGATION

Ministry commits to enact 49 laws n Kamran Reza Chowdhury The Law Ministry has finally made a formal commitment about enacting 49 long overdue laws that the country’s constitution stipulates, and the absence of which has led to questions about many government decisions over the past 40 years.

When the constitution was formulated in 1972, there were at least 49 instances for which the constitution stipulated that the relevant articles would come in force when corresponding laws were passed, preferably immediately.

Those instances covered a wide range of issues including appointment of Supreme Court judges, determining the authority of the parliamentary standing committees, and the privileges of parliament, its committees and the lawmakers.

Since 1973, various quarters have been demanding the formulation of these laws, but none of the governments, irrespective of their ideologies, seemed serious.

Yesterday, Law Minister Anisul Huq assured the parliamentary standing committee on his ministry that these laws would be passed. He made the remark at a meeting when the watchdog asked whether the government would formulate the laws without which the constitution and good governance were meaningless.

The Law Ministry yesterday presented a paper that mentioned the required laws.

After the meeting, Suranjit Sengupta, chairman of the parliamentary body, told the Dhaka Tribune: “The constitution has instructed the executive to enact 49 laws to ensure constitutional rule, but the laws have not been passed. Without enacting these laws, the constitution cannot be implemented properly.”

Suranjit said there were currently some laws in place that addressed some parts of the issues mentioned in the 49 articles. “But complete laws must be enacted,” he said.

The watchdog yesterday assigned the Law Commission to start working on the preparation of the constitutionally obligatory laws. The commission has the authority to suggest the government on legal reform.

In April, being tasked by the parliamentary body, the Law Commission suggested that the government should restore the original article 96 of the constitution to impeach judges for misconduct or violating the constitution or incapability.

In line with the commission’s recommendation, the Law Ministry recently initiated a move to amend the constitution and bring back the provision that would make judges accountable to the legislature.

“We fully agree with the [parliamentary] committee’s observation about enacting the laws,” Suranjit quoted Anisul Huq as telling the 10-member watchdog, that has members from both the ruling Awami League and the opposition Jatiya Party.

Former law minister Shafique Ahmed told the immediate past 9th parliament twice that the government would not enact the law for appointing judges to the apex court.

In the same parliament, Jatiya Party MP Mujibul Haque, now state minister for labour, in line with the article 95(2) of the constitution, submitted a private-member bill regarding the appointment of judges. But that bill was not even discussed in the House.

The parliamentary standing committee on the law ministry in the 9th parliament, headed by Suranjit Sengupta, drafted a bill to determine the authority of the parliamentary watchdog bodies and sent it the Law Ministry for passage.

Article 78 of the constitution orders enacting laws on the privileges of parliament, its committees and the MPs. But the proposed law was also shelved.

Article 5(2) of the constitution says the boundary of the capital Dhaka must be determined by law. That law, however, has not either been enacted as yet. l

Back Page

Friday, August 29, 2014

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

Dhaka South City Corporation came to sense after the pictures and reports of this potholed road had been published on newspapers over the last few days. DSCC starts to repair the Mouchak Road yesterday SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Muhith: No plan for hiking fuel oil price soon n Asif Showkat Kallol

Because the global oil market has remained stable despite the unrest in Iraq and Syria, the government has no immediate plan to hike the price of fuel oil, Finance Minister AMA Muhith has said.

“We have decided to procure more than 1.6m tonnes of fuel oil from seven countries. The Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase has approved that decision,” he told reporters after a meeting of the committee yesterday.

In reply to question, the minister said although the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had recommended increasing the price of fuel oil, there would be no hike in price for the time being.

“Price of fuel oil in the local market will be adjusted in accordance with the scenario in the global market. We are

also planning to introduce an ‘automatic price adjustment mechanism’ in a very short time,” he said.

The cabinet committee meeting, presided over by the finance minister, yesterday approved eight separate proposals from the Energy Ministry to purchase 1.62m tonnes of fuel oil at a price of Tk11,098 crore for the July-December period.

As per the proposal, Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) will import the oil from eight state-run companies in China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait to meet the rising demand of diesel- and furnace oil-based rental power plants during the period.

BPC Chairman Md Eunusur Rahman said: “It is a good thing for us that the prices of diesel, furnace oil and jet fuel

have not increased despite the tension and unrest in Iraq and the Middle East.

This means that the government will not have to spend additional foreign currency for importing fuel oil.”

Officials said the total demand for fuel oil over the next six months would be around 25m-26m tonnes, going up to about 50m-52m tonnes by the end of the year.

The demand for diesel was likely to decline over the period because of an adequate generation of electricity across the country, said a senior official of the government’s Energy Division.

For the next six months, the projected demand for diesel is 1.74m tonnes and furnace oil 520,000. During the same period last year, demand for diesel was 1.8m tonnes.

The Eastern Refinery Limited in

Chittagong will refine 180,000 tonnes each of crude diesel and furnace oil.

In the proposal, the premium for furnace oil is set at $34 per barrel; during the first six months of this year, the premium was $35 per barrel. The premiums for jet fuel and kerosene will remain at the existing $5.80 per barrel.

In January 2013, the government increased the prices of diesel and kerosene by Tk7 and those of octane and petrol by Tk5 per litre. The immediate past Awami League government hiked the prices fuel oil five times after 2011.

IMF has always been pushing the Bangladesh government to adjust the prices of petroleum fuel in line with the trends in the international market.

The global lender wants Bangladesh to reduce subsidy in the sector by hiking the price of fuel and power. l

Student stabs Sust professor n Our Correspondent, Sylhet

Hartal Sunday if Faruqi’s killers not arrested

Professor Dr Niaz Ahmed, chairman of social works department at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet, was stabbed by one of his students at his office yesterday.

Sust student advisor Professor Dr Anwarul Islam said Oyes Ahmed, a masters student of the department, entered into Dr Niaz’s room around 11am and started stabbing indiscriminately, leaving the teacher critically injured.

Later, general students sent Dr Niaz to Osmani Medical College Hospital and gave Oyes a mass beating before handing him over to police, he added.

Quoting the arrestee, Assistant Deputy Commissioner Rohmotullah of Sylhet Metropolitan Police said Dr Niaz had been torturing Oyes mentally, prompting the untoward incident. Oyes was also admitted to the same hospital, as he got injured in a mass beating.

Osmani Medical College Hospital’s Deputy Director Dr Tonmoy Bhottacharya said Dr Niaz was not out of danger yet.

Zalalabad police station OC Gousul Hossain said Sust Registrar Ishfakul Hossain filed a case accusing Oyes Ahmed in connection with the incident.

Sust Teachers’ Association and the Proctorial Body held an emergency meeting last evening in connection with the incident. The Proctorial Body had recommended that Oyes be permanently expelled from the university.

A three-member probe body was also formed to look into the incident.

Meanwhile, the students of the university boycotted classes and exams following the incident, and locked the social works department.

Agitated students also vandalised the car of English department Professor Dr Ati Ullah, assaulted geography department teacher Md Anwar Hossain and Shah Poran hall Muazzin Hafiz Nur Uddin in connection with the incident.

It is alleged that Chhatra League activists of the campus, under the banner of general students, had been carrying out the vandalisms after the incident.

Sust Chhatra League Vice-President Anjon Roy denied the allegations and said the general students were conducting the agitation programmes. He, however, alleged that Chhatra Shibir was responsible for the brutal attack.

On the other hand, Sust Shibir President Saiful Islam Sujon claimed that Oyes had no connection with Shibir politics. l

n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Students take classes in a makeshift school in Sariakandi upazila under Bogra. The school was shifted to a nearby road as river erosion damaged their school DHAKA TRIBUNE

Erosion, rainfall exacerbate flood situation n Tribune Report Heavy rainfall, river erosion and nonstop rise in water level have submerged many villages, left thousands of people marooned and destroyed arable lands in a number of districts across the country.

The flood situation remained unchanged in some areas while getting worse in other places. Relief goods were distributed in a number of areas while local authorities elsewhere said there would be more allocation and distribution soon.

Bogra

A rise in the water level in Jamuna river has aggravated flood situations in 94 villages of Bogra, including Sonatala, Sariakandi and Dhunot.

Nearly one lakh people in the flood-affected areas are facing an acute crisis of safe water, baby food and fodder.

District Relief and Rehabilitation Officer Md Arifuzzaman said Tk3 lakh in cash and 160 tonnes of rice are to be distributed among the flood victims.

We will begin the distribution once the upazila officials inform us of the demand in their respective areas, he said, adding: “We earlier distributed Tk1.75 lakh and 90 tonnes of rice.”

Meanwhile, another 17m of the flood prevention embankment in Rauhadaha Bazar area eroded away on Wednesday night.

Local Water Development Board officials said water in Jamuna flowed

74cm above the danger level yesterday afternoon.

Munshiganj

At least 30,000 people were marooned and arable lands were inundated in different areas of Munshiganj, though the flood situation there remained unchanged yesterday.

At Bhagyakul point, the water level in Padma fell by 1cm yesterday morning but was still 17cm above the danger level.

No new areas was inundated while the situation in low-lying areas affected by flood remained the same.

Meanwhile, 48 families lost their homes in erosion in Kumarbhogh and Kamarkhara areas. Kamarkhara Barail Government Primary School was also closed.

Munshiganj Deputy Commissioner Md Saiful Hasan Badol said medical teams were working in the submerged villages and the government allocated 100 tonnes of rice for the victims.

Upazila officials were directed to supply every family with 30kg rice and the local administration is closely monitoring the overall situation, he said.

Academic affairs are open at all educational institutions in the district, except a primary school, and no shelter has yet been opened.

Jamalpur

Water in Jamuna at Bahadurabad point of Jamalpur flowed 60cm above the danger level yesterday morning, marking a 26cm rise in 24 hours.

The continuous rise in water for two weeks has worsened the flood situation further in the district, multiplying the plight of more than two lakh people in seven upazilas.

Apart from the crisis of safe water and food, water-borne diseases are spreading.

Deputy Commissioner Md Shahabuddin Khan held an emergency meeting of the district disaster and relief committee yesterday morning and directed officials to extend support and assistance to the flood victims.

Another 81 tonnes of rice and dry food worth Tk2 lakh were allocated by the district administration yesterday.

Agriculture Extension Department officials said 16,311 hectares of paddy fields and vegetable plantations went under water.

District Education Officer Shamsul Haque said a total of 164 flood-hit educational institutions, including 27 secondary schools and 137 primary schools, were closed so far.

Schools also feel the heat

Academic affairs in schools in the flood-affected areas were disrupted as many institutions were either inundated or affected by river erosion.

Teachers said they were worried whether they could complete teaching all the lessons in the syllabus for the upcoming Primary School Certificate and Junior School Certificate examinations.

Both the public exams are scheduled for November. l

Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Sena, the student wing of Islamic Front Bangladesh, has called a dawn-to-dusk hartal in greater Chittagong for Sunday, protesting the murder of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat leader Shaikh Nurul Islam Faruqi.

Shahadat Hossain Chowdhury, president of Islami Chhatra Sena in Chittagong, confirmed the matter to the Dhaka Tribune, saying the hartal will be enforced in Chittagong, Khagrachhari, Rangamati, Bandarban and Cox’s Bazar districts on Sunday.

They also threatened to enforce a nationwide dawn-to-dusk hartal on Sunday if the killers of Faruqi were not arrested within Saturday, said Mohammad Jamal Uddin Rabbani, general secretary of the central committee of Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Sena, from a programme in front of the Chittagong Press Club yesterday.

The announcements came as activists of Ahle Sunnat staged demonstrations at different places in the country yesterday protesting the murder of their leader.

In Chittagong, protesters blockaded roads in the port city’s Muradpur, Sholoshahar, Kajir Dewri, Anderkillah and Jamal Khan areas as well as barricading Chittagong-Rangamati and Chittagong-Cox’s Bazar highways at the district’s Potiya and Hathazari upazilas respectively for several hours.

Activists of Islami Chhatra Sena formed a human chain in the morning protesting the killing, as well as calling a protest rally and protest procession for today.

The activists and leaders of Ahle Sunnat also demonstrated in front of Chittagong Press Club in the afternoon, protesting the murder.

In a press conference there, Advocate Mosaheb Uddin Bakhtiar, Presidium member of Ahle Sunnat, blamed the followers of Wahhabi and Moududi’s ideals for the murder of Faruqi.

“It was a planned murder as Maulana Faruqi was a supporter of Sunni and he was broadcasting truth through the media,” Bakhtiar said; adding that Faruqi was killed as he was always against of all kinds of militancy.

Setting the government a September 1 deadline for arresting the killers, Ahle Sunnat also announced a rally and protest procession in Chittagong’s Laldighi ground on September 2.

If the law enforcers fail to arrest the culprits within September 2, the next course of action would be announced on September 3. Among other programmes, doa mahfils would be held at all mosques today; protest rallies would be held on August 30 and 31 at all upazilas and divisional headquarters respectively; while kulkhani and dua mahfil will be held on September 1, the organisation announced.

Meanwhile, in Brahmanbaria, Ahle Sunnat activists staged demonstrations in the district town to protest Faruqi’s murder by bringing out a procession and holding a rally in front of Nabinagar police station.

In Narsingdi, activists of the organisation’s district unit brought out a procession in protest of the murder from Basail Railgate area of the town.

On Wednesday night, unidentified armed assailants slaughtered Shaikh Nurul Islam Faruqi, a presenter of religious programmes on Channel i, at his own residence in the capital’s East Rajabazar area.

The deceased was the Presidium member and international affairs secretary of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, as well as the Presidium member of Islamic Front Bangladesh – a platform of several Islamist groups.

Apart from anchoring programmes titled “Shantir Pothe” and “Kafela” on Channel i, he owned Faruque Tours and Travels Private Limited, a Hajj agency, and served as the imam of Supreme Court mosque.

Faruqi’s first namaj-e-janaza will be held at Jamiatul Falah Mosque in the port city at 10am today; the second one at Jatiya Eidgah ground in the capital city after Jumma prayers; and the third will be held at his village home in Panchagarh after Asr prayer.

Khaleda condemns Faruqi killing

Expressing deep concern over the murder of Nurul Islam Faruqi, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia yesterday said the people of the country were no longer safe as killing has become a common phenomenon.

“Common people have been passing their days in fear because of the ruling party’s vengeful activities of abduction and killing. Faruqi’s killing has proved that the reign of killing has been established in the country,” she said in a press statement. l

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B3 Bruised euro holds

B4 Cameron urges Scotland

ground ahead of inflation test

to stay as business leaders clash over independence

Biman losses rise despite recovery plans National flag carrier now eyes new routes to make it profitable n Muhammad Zahidul Islam Biman Bangladesh Airlines once again incurred 9.6% loses in last fiscal year (201314) despite having massive plan to reduce its annual losses by 38.86% through offering improved customer services, including strict flight schedules.

Though the management of the national flag carrier had earlier planned to reduce its net lose to Tk118 crore in the fiscal year 2013-14, finally it had to count a loss worth Tk210 crore at the end of the fiscal.

During the period, Biman earned a revenue worth Tk4,002 crore against the huge expenditures of over Tk4,212 crore, according to statistics provided by a senior officer of Biman.

Claiming that the national flag carrier has now been offering better ser-

Biman has, however, fixed a revenue target of Tk5,500 crore for the current fiscal year.

“Two more new aircrafts will be added in our fleet shortly and at the same time we will also lease two more planes to carry the passengers on time,’’ said an official.

Biman top boss hopes that the Hajj flights and probable new destinations like Dhaka-New York would help it make profitable.

According to Biman officials, though the airliner had estimated Tk118 crore loss at the beginning of the last fiscal year but the actual loss crossed Tk148 crore in the first six months. Then, the Biman authority had re-estimated the losses at Tk156 crore by the end of the fiscal 2013-14. The national flag carrier, however, counted a loss of Tk62 crore

BIMAN’S BOTTOM LINE (TK CRORE) Fiscal 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14

Revenue 2,979 3,040 2,948 3,344 3,823 3,959 4,002

vices than ever before, Biman officials, however, noted the airliner was suffering from a major setback against the backdrop of a declining trend in the Middle East bound labours and other passengers.

“Despite the losses because of the political unrest last year, Biman was able to earn highest-ever revenue in the last fiscal,” AM Mosaddek Ahmed, acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Biman, told the Dhaka Tribune recently.

He said: “Our revenue crossed Tk4,002 crore-mark for the first time in the last fiscal, but we could not make it profitable due to huge expenditures on fleet maintenance and fuel price hike.”

After adding new aircrafts to the fleet, Biman also needs to pay more interests on loans and adjust more depreciation.

During the fiscal year 2012-13, Biman had to adjust a depreciation of over Tk189 crore, which was Tk191 crore in the fiscal 2011-12.

Expenditure 2,974 3,024 2,948 3,568 4,418 4,151 4,213

Profit/loses (+) 6 (+) 16 (-) 46 (-) 224 (-) 594 (-) 192 (-) 210

in the second half of the last fiscal year.

A senior official said: “Biman has incurred losses around Tk80 crore during the political unrest of November and December last year.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had underscored the need for making it profitable to ensure the survival of the national flag carrier.

Biman has introduced a revenue management system and a consultant is working on it to ensure its revenue.

Recently, the Biman authority informed a parliamentary standing committee that it was going to introduce “revenue integrity” system.

Over the past seven years, Biman incurred its biggest loss of Tk594 crore in the fiscal 2011-12 while it witnessed profits in 2008-09 fiscal.

Biman had incurred losses worth Tk1,182 crore in the fiscal 1972-2007 while the carrier counted its losses of around Tk1,250 crore in between 20092014. l

FRIDAY, AUGUST 29, 2014 www.dhakatribune.com/business

PM stresses bigger domestic market for local goods n Tribune Business Desk Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina laid emphasis on expansion of domestic market for Bangladeshi goods reducing export dependency so the economy continues to grow, reports BSS. “It won’t be proper to only consider export. We will have to focus on creating internal market and increasing purchasing capacity of the people.”

Prime Minister was addressing senior officials of the Commerce Ministry during her visit to the ministry office yesterday.

Sheikh Hasina said the per capita income of the people has increased to $1,190 thanks to various steps taken by the government in last five years.

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed also spoke on the occasion, while Secretary Hedayet Ullah Al-Mamun was present.

Sheikh Hasina said the main task of the commerce ministry is to specify the import-export policy and its implementation by keeping consistency with the country’s production and demands of the consumers.

“Keeping this in mind, we will have to control inflation by keeping the prices of essentials within buyers’ capacity and establish rights of the consumers,” she said.

PM said Bangladesh has been facing various challenges in the open market economy. “But we will have to advance by encountering these challenges and take steps by considering our socioeconomic condition.”

“We will also have to take measures by considering the demands of the people, access to the world market and producing the goods which have demand in the global market.” she stressed.

Regarding government intervention to control market, Sheikh Hasina said Bangabandhu had established Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) in 1972 to ensure affordable products and services for the people.

“There will be no control over the market if TCB is not run properly although there are many big donors who often give many suggestions not un-

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina speaks to high officials at commerce ministry during her visit yesterday derstanding the reality.”

She said if prices of the essentials are to keep within buyers’ capacity, there is a necessity of controlling.

About sale and consumption of adulterated food and abuse of formalin, Sheikh Hasina said her government has improved BSTI services through modernisation.

“The drive against the adulterated food would continue, while there is a need to create massive awareness among people about formalin.”

Highlighting the country’s success in the export sector, the premier noted the export earnings have almost doubled reaching $30.17bn in the last fiscal year compared to $15.56bn in FY2008-09 earning 94% growth during the years.

She cited huge potentials of processed fish, meat and vegetables and

tea in the global market, especially in the Middle East through value addition.

Putting importance on allowing duty-free access of more Bangladeshi products in global market, Sheikh Hasina criticised the role of a country without mentioning name.

“The country is always vocal about free-market economy but does not give duty-free access of the products of some countries to its own market. This dual-policy should not continue,” she asserted.

PM said there is a huge potential for expanding trade and commerce among the South Asia and South-East Asian countries.

She also stressed the need for increasing the number of border huts with India where she thinks Bangla-

Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman has instructed the BASIC Bank new board of directors to remain vigilant from the outset in a bid to restoring goodwill of the bank.

He also warned the board members that the government and the central bank no longer want to see the repetition of banking failure.

The instructions came at an orientation meeting that Bangladesh Bank held with the BASIC Bank board of directors yesterday at its headquarters in the capital.

Criticising the previous board, the governor said the bank went through a troublesome situation due to their sheer irresponsibility of management and lending and non-compliance with the rules.

As a result, Bangladesh Bank and the Finance Ministry had to take strong action against them, he said.

He asked the board to submit the restoration plan, following the central

bank instruction.

The board was also asked to follow prudent guidelines, remain active in monitoring and recovering loans, mete out exemplary punishment to corrupt

The BASIC board was instructed to bring down its classified loan to 15% by June 2015 of its total outstanding loan which was 40.77% as of June this year

officials and follow an appropriate policy for promotion.

He said the central bank has taken some long-term preventive actions in the wake of recent serious violations of

desh will benefit more.

PM suggested the commerce ministry take steps in removing non-tariff barriers.

Sheikh Hasina said the Bangladeshi missions abroad would have to be more active and take steps in expanding trade and commerce.

She noted that the country experiences heavy deficit in edible oil as it has to import almost 90% of overall consumption.

PM emphasised reducing dependency on import of edible oil through raising production including from nut and rice husk.

She mentioned her government has been working relentlessly to turn Bangladesh as a middle-income country well before 2021 and a developed one by 2041. l

MD pick for state banks likely to be delayed n Tribune Report The appointment of managing directors to state-run banks might be delayed by two months as search committees were yet to be formed, said an official at Bank Division.

Janata Bank and BASIC Bank sought members to Bank and Financial Institutions Division to form search

committees for MDs. The banks yesterday sent letters to the Division seeking its representatives for three-member committees, said official sources.

As per the government decision, five state-owned banks will form three-member committees to search for “non-political” MDs. Each of five committees will have a representative

from Bank Division.

In a circular, the Bank Division asked the state-owned banks this month to formulate three-member search committees.

The state-owned banks are Sonali, Janata, Agrani, BASIC and Bangladesh Development Bank Limited.

As per the circular, the committee will select three candidates for MD post

BASIC warned not to repeat banking failure Lamudi initiates housen Tribune Report

PID

loan disbursement.

The disbursement was made capitalising on the weakness of corporate governance and financial management.

He called upon the board to strengthen the bank’s loan discipline, internal audit and controlling frameworks.

The last five-year capital growth rate in the banking sector is 139% which indicates the ability of risk management, but it is not true for all banks, the governor said, referring to the capital shortfall of BASIC. The bank suffered the capital shortfall of Tk1372 crore in June this year, and the central bank asked it to make up the shortfall amount by June 2015.

The central bank recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the BASIC bank, setting out a series of conditions.

The BASIC board was instructed to bring down its classified loan to 15% by June 2015 of its total outstanding loan which was 40.77% as of June this year. l

Import falls 11.6% in July n Tribune Report

hunting online n Tribune Report Lamudi Bangladesh – a leading real estate marketplace - launched an online service “Dial For Home” for House-hunters to find out their dream property, thanks to the new service initiative to bring the buyers and renters directly in contact with real estate agents.

Lamudi Bangladesh’s Managing Director, Rajesh Grover, launched the first-ever House-hunting service at a press conference in the city yesterday.

“From our experience, we have seen that property seekers are always pressed for time when looking for their ideal home. To simplify the process and take the stress out of House-hunting, the Lamudi business development team came up with the idea, Dial For Home,” said Rajesh.

This one-of-a-kind service will bring property buyers and sellers closer than ever before, he added.

and send the selections to the Bank Division. The division will pick one from them for appointment.

The bank will seek consent from Bangladesh Bank for the final selection before appointing.

Some of the existing and former MDs the state-owned banks havestarted lobbying to get back the jobs,said a high official of the Banking Division. l

The innovative service is an initiative of Lamudi Bangladesh, the country’s leading online real estate marketplace, where homeowner can place advertisement and House-hunters can make call to find out their dream property.

As part of the service, the house seekers can dial hotline and stay in touch with the agents and brokers who have properties tailored to their needs.

The House-hunters can call the 01777-777-187 hotline and explain their requirements to a customer service representative, who will cross-reference their needs with Lamudi’s extensive property database.

After the call, a text message will then be automatically sent within 10 seconds to the agents or brokers who have properties matching the caller’s requirements. This text message will include the House-hunter’s contact details so that the brokers can be directly in touch with potential clients. l

The country’s import expenditure fell by 11.6% to $2.8bn in the first month of current fiscal compared to the same period last year.

The import growth, however, turned around recently following a period of political unrest, but dropped by 14.19% in July in comparison with June due to fall in capital machinery import.

The LC (letter of credit) settlement value against the capital machinery import fell by 32% to $130m in July while it was $192m in June, according to the central bank data released yesterday.

The central bank, however, is encouraging import as it maintains enough foreign exchange in its reserve, said a senior executive of Bangladesh Bank.

The central bank official said import has taken an upturn recently, mainly due to increase in food and capital machinery imports. l

7th Five-Year Plan to focus manpower skill development n Tribune Report

The government has decided to prepare the 7th Five-Year Plan, which would be put into implementation after the end of the 6th Five-Year Plan next year.

The decision came at the first meeting of National Steering Committee (NSC), which was formed earlier to make the 7th FiveYear Plan beginning from 2016, at the Planning Commission yesterday.

A panel of economists, led by renowned economist Prof Wahiduddin Mahmud, has already been formed to prepare necessary guidelines for implementing the Plan.

The planning commission will also complete on issue-based 28 backgrounds study by November next for making the Plan a success.

Theme of the 7th Five-Year Plan is “Accelerating Growth: Empowering Every Citizen.”

Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal took part in the first meeting of NSC and

said the 7th Five-Year Plan will be formulated giving priority to build skilled manpower through introducing time-befitting education for achieving desired GDP growth.

In March this year, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told the Parliament that the present government stepped up its initiatives to formulate the 7th Five-Year Plan.

She had said the Plan would carry forward the development programmes of the present government by ensuring the eco-

nomic stability of the country.

Prime Minister’s economic affairs adviser Moshiur Rahman, who was present at the NSC meeting, said Bangladesh is gradually being involved with the world market economy. “From this point of view, regional economic cooperation should be given importance while making the 7th Five-Year Plan.”

Member of the General Economics Division (GED) Prof Shamsul Alam also spoke at the meeting. l

B2

Stocks fall on profit booking n Tribune Report

IDLC Investments said market remained shy around 4,600-mark, pondering on the valuation level

The Shariah index dropped 7 points or 0.7% to 1,066. The comprising blue chips DS30 closed at 1,726, falling 8 points or 0.5%.

Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, shed 22 points to 8,658.

All the major sectors closed in red except food and allied, which

DSE LOSER Closing (% Change)

4th ICB M F-A Reliance1 M.F.-A Rupali Life Insur.-B Apex Tannery -A Asia Pasific Insu. -A Meghna PET Ind. -Z Samata LeatheR -Z GeminiSeaFood-Z Republic Insu.-A ICB Islamic Bank-Z

-7.16 -6.82 -5.64 -5.35 -5.12 -5.08 -4.98 -4.96 -4.92 -4.26

CSE LOSER Company SonarBangla Insu. -A EXIM Bank 1 MF-A Apex Tannery -A ICB -A Khulna Printing-N Takaful Islami Insu-A Prime Bank-A Rupali Life Insur.-B Reliance1 M.F.-A Unique Hotel RL - A

Closing (% Change) -9.84 -7.14 -6.00 -4.87 -4.29 -4.09 -3.92 -3.76 -3.45 -3.29

4577.99730

(-) 0.47%

1726.47583

(-) 0.49%

14167.72110

(-) 0.22%

11649.77410

(-) 0.20%

8658.38030

(-) 0.26%

Average (% Change) -7.16 -3.91 -1.61 -4.87 -0.10 -4.14 -5.14 -3.77 -2.83 -4.03 Average (% Change) -9.62 -7.14 -5.81 -4.87 -4.90 -4.13 -1.50 -3.77 -2.33 -3.16

ANALYST

ClosingAvg. 188.00 8.36 48.98 150.86 20.43 5.56 22.90 128.30 25.39 4.52

6,322.13 152,438,791

Number of Contract

Weekly capital market highlights DSE Broad Index : DSE - 30 Index : CSE All Share Index: CSE - 30 Index : CSE Selected Index :

Company

Turnover (Million Taka) Turnover (Volume)

Closing

▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼

DHIGH

188.00 8.20 48.50 148.60 20.40 5.60 22.90 128.30 25.10 4.50

188.00 8.50 51.60 153.10 20.80 5.90 22.90 128.30 26.10 4.70

164,445

Traded Issues

301

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

106

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

185 10

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,399.75

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

29.09

CSE key features August 28-2014 Turnover (Million Taka)

545.04

Turnover (Volume)

15,504,700

Number of Contract

26,177

Traded Issues

227

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

96

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

126

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

5

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,303.81

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

27.92

Turnover in Million

188.00 8.20 48.20 147.80 20.30 5.40 22.90 128.30 24.00 4.40

Latest EPS

0.019 3.469 3.328 13.396 0.715 0.025 0.011 0.006 2.534 4.528

23.11 1.38 5.33 5.51 2.26 -1.33 0.09 -1.80 3.26 -0.80

Turnover in Million

ClosingAvg.

Closing

DHIGH

DLOW

16.53 6.50 148.72 1,680.00 34.19 25.79 19.70 48.55 8.40 68.35

16.50 6.50 147.30 1,680.00 33.50 25.80 19.60 48.60 8.40 67.70

16.60 6.50 151.00 1,680.00 35.70 26.00 20.00 48.80 8.40 70.50

16.50 6.50 146.50 1,680.00 33.40 25.50 19.50 48.30 8.40 67.40

Midas Financing-Z Kay & Que (BD) -Z Golden Harvest Agro-N Salvo Chemicals-B Libra Infusions-A Fu-Wang Food A Fu-wang Ceramic-A Marico BD Ltd-A Global Heavy Chemicals-N BATBCL -A

Latest EPS

0.025 0.003 1.294 0.084 23.214 0.129 0.015 0.146 0.025 2.311

1.74 1.28 5.51 53.53 1.31 1.50 1.96 5.33 1.38 2.98

Latest PE 8.1 6.1 9.2 27.4 9.0 -ve 254.4 -ve 7.8 -ve

Company Golden Harvest Agro-N Salvo Chemicals-B Fu-wang Ceramic-A 6th ICB M F-A Marico BD Ltd-A Deshbandhu Polymer-A Ambee Pharma -A FAS Fin. & Inv. Ltd-B National Polymer -A Barakatullah E. D.-A

9.75 9.66 8.50 7.84 6.27 6.25 5.45 5.00 4.65 4.49

Average (% Change) 6.44 7.45 5.29 7.84 6.27 4.68 5.47 5.00 6.96 3.48

ClosingAvg. 14.65 12.80 34.23 22.03 413.00 19.71 16.09 1,059.84 43.22 2,566.25

ClosingAvg. 34.06 22.22 16.32 55.00 1059.50 18.77 265.00 16.80 59.75 34.45

Closing 14.80 12.80 34.90 22.50 413.00 19.80 16.30 1,067.80 42.90 2,631.80

Closing 34.90 22.70 16.60 55.00 1059.50 18.70 265.00 16.80 58.50 34.90

DHIGH

DLOW

14.80 12.80 34.90 22.60 413.00 20.10 16.40 1,072.90 44.40 2,633.20

13.10 12.80 28.70 19.00 413.00 17.20 15.00 1,017.00 40.50 2,475.00

DHIGH

DLOW

34.90 22.70 16.80 55.00 1059.50 19.00 265.00 16.80 60.00 35.20

28.70 18.80 15.40 55.00 1059.50 18.00 265.00 16.80 58.50 33.20

Turnover in Million 0.016 0.083 94.615 82.788 0.083 29.904 25.705 6.624 35.579 36.569

Turnover in Million 10.084 9.502 5.038 0.088 0.053 4.365 0.013 0.008 0.036 7.079

Latest EPS -6.91 -1.24 1.55 1.10 4.20 0.96 0.49 59.28 2.44 95.74

Latest EPS 1.55 1.10 0.49 6.47 59.28 0.81 3.18 0.52 2.11 1.69

Latest PE -ve -ve 22.1 20.0 98.3 20.5 32.8 17.9 17.7 26.8

Latest PE 22.0 20.2 33.3 8.5 17.9 23.2 83.3 32.3 28.3 20.4

2014 profit after tax was Tk. 186.03 million and basic EPS was Tk. 2.04 as against profit after tax of Tk. 183.52 million and basic EPS of Tk. 2.02 for the same period of the previous year. It is to be noted that the said EPS has been calculated based on weighted average Pre-IPO paid-up number of shares i.e. 91,030,800 shares for both periods. However, considering Post-IPO 116,030,800 number of shares, Company's basic EPS would be Tk. 1.60 for 9 (nine) months ended on 31 March 2014 (July 2013 to March 2014) and NAV per share would be Tk. 22.39 as on 31 March 2014.

SINOBANGLA: (Q3): As per un-audited quarterly accounts for the 3rd quarter ended on 31st July 2014 (May'14 to July'14), the Company has reported profit after tax of Tk. 7.79 million with EPS of Tk. 0.39 as against Tk. 6.76 million and Tk. 0.34 respectively for the same period of the previous year. Whereas profit after tax was Tk. 18.11 million with EPS of Tk. 0.91 for the period of nine months (Nov'13 to July'14) ended on 31.07.2014 as against Tk. 9.57 million and Tk. 0.48 respectively for the same period of the previous year.

AAMRATECH: The Company has informed that it has signed an agreement with Pubali Bank Limited for Upgrading and Installing new Sun and Oracle based Hardware, Software, Operating System, Storage Solution, Half Rack Exadata, Backup System

and Related services for Data Center (DC) and Disaster Recovery (DR) Center for the Bank's information technologies Division.

Financial summary of the agreement is: Price: Tk. 46,43,00,000.00, Duration: 16 weeks from the agreement date.

IPO Subscription: Khan Brothers PP Woven Bag Industries Ltd. subscription date 24-28 August 2014, NRB upto 06 September 2014. @ taka 10, face value taka 10 and market lot 500. Western Marine Shipyard Limited subscription date 10-14 August 2014, NRB upto 23 August 2014. @ taka 35, face value taka 10 and market lot 100.

Right Share: MIDASFIN: Subscription period for rights issue will be from 01.09.2014 to 30.09.2014. Record date for entitlement of rights share: 03.08.2014.

ICB: Subscription period for rights issue will be from 07.12.2014 to 30.12.2014. Record date for entitlement of rights share: 09.09.2014.

Dividend/AGM BSCCL: 10% cash, AGM: 12.10.2014, Record date: 04.09.2014.

PRAGATILIF: No dividend, AGM: 30.09.2014, Record date: 14.09.2014.

GPHISPAT: 15% cash and 5% stock, AGM: 10.11.2014, Record date: 22.09.2014.

Dividend of Mutual Funds: 1JANATAMF: 12.50% 'Re-Investment' Units. EXIM1STMF: 12% 'Re-Investment' Units.

IFIC1STMF: 9% 'Re-Investment' Units.

Latest PE 9.5 5.1 27.0 31.4 26.1 17.2 10.1 9.1 6.1 22.9

Investors were busy at bagging profit on the manufacturing and banking stocks as some large cap stocks offered good return in this week

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

Closing (% Change)

From TradeServers: BDSERVICE: The Company has informed that as per management agreement signed between Bangladesh Services Limited and InterContinental Hotels Group (Asia Pacific) Pte Ltd (IHG) on 19 February 2012, Ruposhi Bangla Hotel (the "Hotel") will have to be renovated as per brand standard of IHG. Accordingly, the renovation is going to start from 1st September 2014.

Therefore, the Hotel will be closed to the guests from 31 August 2014 till rebranding.

The renovation is scheduled to be completed by December 2015. The Hotel will be rebranded as 'InterContinental Dhaka' after completion of renovation.

FEKDIL: (Q3): The Company has reported its profit after tax Tk. 107.44 million and basic EPS of Tk. 1.18 for the 3 (three) months ended on 31 March 2014 (Jan 2014-March 2014) as against profit after tax of Tk. 56.28 million and basic EPS of Tk. 0.62 for the same period of the previous year. It is to be noted that basic EPS has been calculated based on weighted average Pre-IPO paid-up number of shares i.e. 91,030,800 shares for both periods. However, considering Post-IPO 116,030,800 number of shares the Company's basic EPS for the 3 (three) months ended on 31 March 2014 would be Tk. 0.93 For the period of 9 (nine) months (July 2013 to March 2014) ended on 31 March

Company

DSE Million Taka 241.75 186.13 73.62 1039.57 311.39 700.13 1.30 826.05 1011.98 125.33 85.90 30.28 40.04 293.08 214.78 41.28 74.73 177.20 190.96 656.41 0.23

9.63 9.40 9.40 8.70 6.44 5.88 5.84 5.51 5.15 4.94

Average (% Change) 6.24 8.57 6.90 6.63 6.44 1.91 3.14 5.09 4.40 2.25

News, analysis and recent disclosers

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Sector

Closing (% Change)

CSE GAINER

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

DLOW

Friday, August 29, 2014

DSE GAINER

DSE key features August 28-2014

gained by almost 4%.

Profit booking took place on textile, telecommunication, power, banks, pharmaceutical and non-banking financial institutions.

Turnover at DSE improved by 9.3% over the previous session’s value and stood at Tk632 crore supported by debutant Far East Knitting and Dyeing Industries Limited.

Far East Knitting, in its first trading day, gained 68% to Tk45.4 a share on its face value. It rose as high as Tk48.5 a share.

Lanka Bangla Securities said index showed a lack of direction on early trading, after showing a strong move to upside over the past previous sessions.

“Investors were busy at bagging profit on the manufacturing and banking stocks as some large cap stocks offered good return in this week,” it said.

IDLC Investments said market remained shy around 4,600-mark, pondering on the valuation level.

“However, caution reined, summoning profit-taking spree.”

Beximco Limited continued to top the turnover chart for the seven straight sessions with shares worth Tk48.7 crore changing hands, followed by Far east Knitting and Dyeing, Golden Son, Beximco Pharma, Bangladesh Building, Mobil Jamuna Limited Bangladesh and Lafarge Surma Cement. l

Stocks fell with volatility yesterday, snapping the three consecutive sessions of gains.

The market swung between positive and negative throughout the session as investors played both sides of fence.

The benchmark DSEX was down 21 points or 0.5% to 4,577, hitting highest 4,608 in the final session and lowest in the morning.

Company

Stock

DHAKA TRIBUNE

% change 3.82 2.94 1.16 16.44 4.93 11.07 0.02 13.07 16.01 1.36 0.48 0.63 4.64 3.40 0.65 1.18 2.80 3.02 10.38 0.00

Million Taka 19.31 14.58 5.31 53.43 35.80 57.73 131.51 56.91 30.81 4.23 10.63 6.57 12.98 33.73 18.82 2.42 14.13 31.89 49.76 0.01

CSE

% change 3.27 2.47 0.90 9.05 6.06 9.78 0.00 22.27 9.64 5.22 0.72 1.80 1.11 2.20 5.71 3.19 0.41 2.39 5.40 8.43 0.00

Million Taka 261.06 200.70 78.93 1093.00 347.18 757.86 1.30 957.56 1068.89 156.14 90.14 40.92 46.60 306.07 248.51 60.10 77.15 191.33 222.85 706.17 0.24

Total

% change 3.78 2.90 1.14 15.81 5.02 10.96 0.02 13.85 15.46 2.26 1.30 0.59 0.67 4.43 3.59 0.87 1.12 2.77 3.22 10.22 0.00

Prepared exclusively for Dhaka Tribune by Business Information Automation Service Line (BIASL), on the basis of information collected from daily stock quotations and audited reports of the listed companies. High level of caution has been taken to collect and present the above information and data. The publisher will not take any responsibility if any body uses this information and data for his/her investment decision. For any query please email to biasl@bol-online.com or call 01552153562 or go to www.biasl.net

BEXIMCO Ltd. -A FarEast Knitting -N Golden Son -A Beximco Pharma -A BD Building Systems -A MJL BD Ltd.-A LafargeS Cement-Z Square Pharma -A BSRM Steels-A Barakatullah E. D.-A

Grameenphone-A BSC-A

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS Company FarEast Knitting -N BEXIMCO Ltd. -A MJL BD Ltd.-A Khulna Printing-N UNITED AIR-A Republic Insu.-A Golden Son -A Emerald Oil Ind. -N Square Pharma -A The Peninsula CTG.-N

Beximco Pharma -A Golden Harvest Agro-N

VolumeShares 11,366,931 8,654,200 5,521,666 4,570,763 3,336,000 1,892,653 1,990,500 768,663 1,546,809 4,016,983

420,535 209,090

VolumeShares

2,091,400 982,772 210,148 679,000 1,494,621 661,500 317,903 54,000 50,880 316,400

177,311 296,058

Value in Million 486.53 393.98 277.24 264.86 220.91 212.68 212.08 185.42 147.04 138.00

% of TotalTurnover 7.70 6.23 4.39 4.19 3.49 3.36 3.35 2.93 2.33 2.18

Value in Million

% of TotalTurnover

135.14 126.56

95.30 42.29 24.84 23.21 18.80 17.07 15.93 12.41 12.28 10.78

10.30 10.08

2.14 2.00

17.61 7.81 4.59 4.29 3.47 3.15 2.94 2.29 2.27 1.99

1.90 1.86

ClosingP 43.10 45.40 50.50 58.10 65.90 110.90 106.40 239.70 94.70 34.50

321.10 601.50

ClosingP

45.10 43.50 110.40 33.50 12.60 25.70 50.50 45.70 240.10 34.10

58.00 34.90

Change % 2.62 0.00 3.70 1.93 1.38 -2.20 -0.47 -2.16 -0.63 1.77

-1.32 -2.31

Change %

0.00 3.57 -2.47 -4.29 -1.56 -3.75 3.06 0.66 -1.40 -0.29

1.05 9.75

ClosingY 42.00 0.00 48.70 57.00 65.00 113.40 106.90 245.00 95.30 33.90

325.40 615.75

ClosingY

0.00 42.00 113.20 35.00 12.80 26.70 49.00 45.40 243.50 34.20

57.40 31.80

DHIGH 45.00 48.50 50.90 60.00 67.50 116.00 107.80 245.00 97.70 35.20

DLOW 38.00 39.00 44.10 52.00 59.80 102.40 105.60 223.00 92.00 30.10

330.00 619.75

308.00 600.75

DHIGH

DLOW

48.50 44.20 122.00 35.70 12.80 26.20 50.90 46.40 244.80 34.50

42.10 41.40 109.60 33.40 12.30 25.70 49.00 45.10 239.60 33.90

59.80 34.90

55.90 28.70

AvgPrice 42.80 45.52 50.21 57.95 66.22 112.37 106.54 241.23 95.06 34.36

321.35 605.27

AvgPrice

45.57 43.03 118.21 34.19 12.58 25.80 50.11 229.77 241.27 34.07

58.07 34.06

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

Bruised euro holds ground ahead of inflation test

China supplier of Samsung, Lenovo denies using child workers

n Reuters, London

n Reuters, Beijing

The euro clung to modest gains and a rally in Europe’s share and bond markets cooled yesterday as investors put bets on possible fresh ECB stimulus next week on hold ahead of German inflation data.

Escalating tensions in Ukraine kept riskier assets under pressure, with the top share index in Germany -- whose corporate sector has strong trade ties with Russia -- extending initial losses on reports Russian troops had crossed the border to fight alongside separatists.

The recently-battered euro inched off a one-year low versus the dollar to $1.3204 as bond markets steadied with yields in most key parts of the euro zone pinned near record lows.

Ahead of the German August inflation numbers, which will be released state-by-state throughout the day, equivalent Spanish figures saw a slightly smaller-than-forecast drop to 0.5% year on year and revised Spanish second quarter GDP held up at growth of 0.6%.

European Central Bank sources told Reuters on Wednesday it was unlikely to take new policy action next week unless overall euro zone inflation figures due on Friday show the bloc clearly sliding towards deflation.

“If the German CPI (inflation figures) underline strengthening deflation, it will fuel caution towards the euro zone... and add selling pressure on the euro,” said Junichi Ishikawa, a market strategist at IG Securities.”

European stocks took their lead from a quiet Asia as the main markets in London, Frankfurt and Paris opened 0.2, 0.4 and 0.2% lower after three days of gains.

But by 0845 GMT, the DAX was down 0.7%, as Kiev accused Moscow of launching a fresh military incursion across the countries’ border.

The news dealt a blow to hopes sparked by this week’s meeting be-

A China-based supplier for Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Lenovo Group Ltd said yesterday it had never hired child laborers, denying allegations by a US-based activist group.

Samsung Electronics also said it had found no children or students working on the Samsung production line at the Huizhou-based factory of supplier HEG Technology, which was cited as violating China’s labor laws by the New Yorkbased watchdog China Labor Watch.

A Lenovo spokeswoman said the company would look into the report.

In a statement, China Labor Watch said it had found more than 10 children working at the HEG factory during an investigation that took place in July and August. It also said the probe had found over 100 student workers who were not being paid overtime wages or a night shift subsidy.

The watchdog said it had shared the evidence with Samsung last week and that Samsung demanded the supplier pay some students’ wages. It did not say whether Samsung took any action on the matter of child labor or whether it had reached out to Lenovo with the information.

An employee surnamed Zeng at HEG Technology’s human resources department told Reuters the company had never hired children, and that it had facial recognition systems in place to ensure workers were not underage.

For Samsung products, HEG employs workers aged 18 and over while the minimum age for workers on Lenovo’s product lines is 16 years, she said.

The company relies on an outsourcing company to hire students, she added.

In its statement, Samsung said it had proposed to China Labor Watch that they conduct a joint onsite investigation “for more precise verification” of the allegations.

Samsung also said it had informed

A new 10-euro banknote is pictured during its presentation at the Austrian national bank in Vienna tween their leaders. Shares in Moscow tumbled 2.5% and the rouble dropped 0.4 percent, while Ukraine’s credit default swaps surged to three-month highs and its dollar bonds fell.

“Recent optimism around a negotiated solution to the crisis as reflected in market pricing appears overdone in our view,” JP Morgan analysts wrote in a note to clients.

Inflation expectations

Trading in Asia had been largely subdued with stocks pulling back from a 6-1/2 year high despite Wall Street grinding out another incremental record high overnight.

In the currency market, the Australian dollar was in demand after second quarter business investment data beat forecasts, while the U.S. dollar all but sat on recent gains as it hovered 0.1% lower.

US Treasuries had rallied overnight as month-end buying helped send 30year yields to their lowest in over a year. [US/] Euro zone government bond yields continued to probe record lows in early European trading as markets waited on the German inflation figures.

“For the euro area, inflation may now be 0.3 or 0.4% but I don’t think this one figure is of major importance,” said Piet Lammens, a strategist at KBC in Brussels.

REUTERS

“What is important is that (ECB head Mario) Draghi said (in a recent speech) that during August inflation expectations have dropped substantially.”

US crude oil dipped after choppy trading overnight following a report showing declining US gasoline demand.

US crude dipped 33 cents to $93.55 a barrel with the market looking to US economic data due later in the session to gauge the outlook for demand from the world’s largest oil consumer.

Gold edged up 0.3% to $1,286.36 an ounce as the more subdued dollar and political tensions helped offset selling pressure from bullish U.S. equities. l

Dollar slips in Asia ahead Gold up for third day on softer dollar n of US data Reuters, Singapore

n AFP, Tokyo The dollar slipped against other major currencies in Asia yesterday as investors await revised US second-quarter growth data.

In Tokyo afternoon trade, the greenback weakened to 103.73 yen, from 103.86 yen in New York.

The euro turned up to $1.3212 from $1.3195, while it bought 137.06 yen against 137.05 yen in US trading.

Many investors were sticking to the sidelines ahead of the April-June figures due later in the day, which will give fresh clues about the state of the world’s number one economy.

The dollar rallied in July when preliminary data showed 4% growth after a sharp contraction during the previous three months.

“The most recent data suggest that smaller positive contributions from consumption and inventories will be offset by a smaller negative contribu-

tion from net trade to leave growth broadly unchanged,” Capital Economics said in a note.

“The latest surveys imply that the economy will perform well in both the third and fourth quarters of this year,” it added The euro crept higher after Germany’s finance minister on Wednesday downplayed the chances of the European Central Bank (ECB) unveiling new measures to stave off deflation at a policy meeting next week.

Wolfgang Schaeuble said markets “over-interpreted” remarks by ECB chief Mario Draghi when he said last week the bank “will use all available instruments needed to ensure price stability over the medium term”.

The bank has already launched unprecedented measures to counter an economic downturn and weak inflation in the 18-member bloc.

The dollar also weakened against other Asia-Pacific currencies. l

Gold rose for the third straight day yesterday on softening dollar and increased tensions between Ukraine and Russia, but the precious metal was under pressure from rallies in equities and the prospect of a US interest rate hike.

Higher interest rates would dull the appeal of non-interest-bearing assets such as gold, which was struggling to cross the key resistance of $1,300 an ounce. Gold prices were more than $600 below a record hit in 2011. Gold added 0.56 percent to $1,289.60 an ounce by 0635 GMT, moving away from a twomonth low of $1,273.06 hit on Aug. 21.

“As far as gold is concerned, the complex has more stacked against it than it has going for it, at least over the short-term,” said INTL FCStone analyst Edward Meir.

“In this regard, investment and jewellery demand remains weak, although there are indications of a pickup in India,” said Meir, referring to the world’s second-largest consumer. US gold was at $1,290.40 an ounce, up 0.55%, partly due

B3

Friday, August 29, 2014

to geopolitical tensions after Ukraine accused Russia of launching a new military incursion across its eastern border.

Although the recent fall in gold prices spurred some buying from the jewellery sector, physical dealers said the quantity was small and some investors also turned to equities.

“Demand from India, especially for silver, has picked up because of the

upcoming festival season. Overall, demand has been good in the last two days, but things are quieter today,” said a physical dealer in Singapore.

“I guess that’s because gold doesn’t move either way. It’s not clear whether it will break $1,300, so people who need gold may have bought it. Those who want to sell are still waiting for the right price.” l

the watchdog about the results of its own investigation, adding: “We find it regrettable that CLW issued the allegations today without any mention of our statement.”

This is the second time in as many months that China Labor Watch has said it found children working at Samsung’s Chinese suppliers. Samsung halted business with one supplier and later reinstated it, but with a 30% reduction in orders.

Other multinational companies, including Apple Inc, have been plagued by revelations of underage workers in their supply chains.

This is the second time in as many months that China Labor Watch has said it found children working at Samsung’s Chinese suppliers Child workers have previously been discovered at Foxconn, the supplier for some of the world’s biggest tech brands, including Apple. Foxconn is the trading name of Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry.

Two years ago, China Labor Watch accused HEG of using child labor.

Samsung subsequently said it had not found any workers below the legal working age of 16 in its audit of the facility.

The problem goes beyond electronics, according to the US Department of Labour’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs. Bricks, cotton, fireworks, textiles and toys also feature on its list of goods which it says it has reason to believe are produced by child labor in China. l

Microsoft CEO Nadella to visit China amid antitrust probe

n Reuters, Beijing

Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella is set to visit China in late September, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday, as the Chinese government conducts an antitrust investigation into the world’s largest software company.

It is not clear if Nadella, who took over as Microsoft CEO in February, will meet with any Chinese government representatives as part of his visit, or try to resolve issues with the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), one of China’s antitrust regulators.

A Microsoft spokesman would not confirm the visit, saying the company does not comment on executive travel plans. SAIC officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Microsoft is one of many foreign firms to have come under scrutiny as China seeks to enforce a 2008 anti-monopoly law, which some critics say is being used to unfairly target overseas businesses. l

Oil prices down in Asia n AFP, Singapore

AB Bank Limited and Hyundai Motors Bangladesh Limited have recently signed an agreement on facilitation automobiles loan to the customers of Hyundai Motors Bangladesh Limited. Shamim Ahmed Chaudhury, the bank’s president and managing director and Shareq Fahim Haque, managing director of Hyundai Motors Bangladesh Limited signed the agreement

Modhumoti Bank Limited’s training institute has recently organised a training programme on risk management. The bank’s deputy managing director Md Touhidul Alam Khan inaugurated the programme

First Security Islami Bank Limited has recently opened an ATM booth at Amari Dhaka Hotel in Gulshan, Dhaka. The bank’s managing director AAM Zakaria inaugurated the booth

Reckitt Benckiser has recently held the prize giving ceremony for the second phase of the Harpic Gold Offer at the company’s head office in Dhaka

Oil prices moved lower in Asia yesterday as dealers look ahead to fresh US economic data for clues about demand in the world’s top crude consumer following a neutral weekly stockpiles report.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for October delivery eased 31 cents to $93.57 while Brent crude slipped 13 cents to $102.59 in afternoon trade.

Singapore’s United Overseas Bank said “oil prices were little changed” as investors weighed a 2.1 million barrel fall in overall US crude reserves, but with a 500,000 barrel increase at the key Cushing, Oklahoma depot.

The US Energy Department’s week-

ly report released Wednesday also showed a 0.4 percent increase in total petroleum inventories, including distillates and gasoline.

Desmond Chua, market analyst at CMC Markets in Singapore, said investors “remain on the sidelines awaiting key US economic data”.

Data on initial jobless claims for the week to August 23 as well as pending home sales figures for July will be released later Thursday, along with revised US gross domestic product figures for the second quarter.

“Aside from the second reading of GDP data - which is expected to notch slightly lower, from 4% to 3.9% - the labour and housing sectors are expected to continue to show signs of growth,” Chua said. l

Mutual Trust Bank has recently opened its 95th branch at Dumni in Khilkhet, Dhaka. The bank’s vice chairperson MA Rouf inaugurated the branch as chief guest

B4

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Back Page

Friday, August 29, 2014

Cameron urges Scotland to stay as business leaders clash over independence

Leader of the 'Better Together' campaign and former British minister Alistair Darling (L) shakes hands with Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond (R) after the second live television debate on Scottish independence in Glasgow, Scotland on August 25 AFP

n AFP, London British Prime Minister David Cameron heads to Scotland yesterday to make the business case for it remaining part of Britain as 200 business leaders signed an open letter backing independence.

Questions over whether Scotland’s economy could go it alone have been at the heart of the campaign - with a rival group of 130 captains of industry claiming Wednesday that independence would be “bad for business”.

Scotland votes in three weeks’ time on whether to become a separate country after over 300 years of union with the rest of the United Kingdom.

Most opinion polls currently suggest the proposal is set to be rejected.

The “Yes” and “No” camps have traded statistics and accusations on everything from whether Scotland could keep using the pound to what share of Britain’s national debt it should take on if it broke away.

Cameron is set to urge Scots not to turn their backs on “one of the oldest

and most successful single markets in the world” in a keynote speech to CBI Scotland, a leading business lobby group, in Glasgow.

He will say that Scotland does twice as much trade with the rest of the United Kingdom as with the rest of the world put together, according to prereleased extracts of his speech.

He is also expected to highlight “the opportunities that come from being part of something bigger”.

PM unpopular in Scotland

Cameron has been keeping a low profile on the campaign trail due to his centre-right Conservative Party’s unpopularity north of the border, where it only holds one out of 59 House of Commons seats.

As the prime minister was set to arrive in Glasgow, The Herald newspaper published a letter from 200 business people arguing that an independent Scotland would be better for business.

This is because policy would be set by people “who truly understand and care most” about Scotland, not politicians in London, according to the letter.

It added that independence would provide “more opportunities for our talented and determined young people to stay and succeed”.

The signatories range from big business leaders such as Brian Souter - chairman of major transport group Stagecoach and a prominent donor to the independence campaign - to the owners of smaller enterprises such as guest house owners.

The letter comes the day after over 130 captains of industry, including top executives at HSBC bank and mining group BHP Billiton, signed another open letter in The Scotsman newspaper saying “the business case for independence has not been made”.

First Minister Alex Salmond, who is leading the “Yes” to independence campaign, argues that the British government’s economic policies are unfairly skewed in favour of London and southeast England.

He said business leaders were “waking up to the opportunities of independence”.

“With full control over economic powers, we have the opportunity to tailor economic policy to our needs,” Salmond added. l

A bastnaesite mineral containing rare earth from the US, is pictured next to cell phones, which utilises the minerals during manufacturing at a laboratory of Yasuhiro Kato REUTERS

Japan, India to ink rare earths deal n AFP, Tokyo Tokyo and New Delhi will next week sign an agreement that will see around 2,000 tons of rare earths imported from India, a report said yesterday, as Japan looks to diversify supply away from China.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi are expected to agree on the deal at their summit in Tokyo on Monday, the Nikkei newspaper reported.

Some 2,000 to 2,300 tons of rare earths - roughly 15% of what Japan’s manufacturers use each year - will be shipped from India to Japan, it said, adding that imports will start as early as February.

China accounts for 95% of global production of rare earths, a category of 18 metals vital for the production of smartphones, hybrid car batteries, wind turbines, steel and low-energy light bulbs, amongst other things.

The country is home to 23% of global reserves of such metals, and this month lost an appeal on a ruling by the World Trade Organisation that said it had violated global trade rules

by restricting exports.

Beijing says its restrictions were aimed at conserving natural resources and reducing pollution caused by mining.

But critics say the limits are a bid to drive up prices and gain market advantage for domestic producers with cheaper access to the raw materials.

Japan also accuses China of strangling supply to score political points.

In 2010, Beijing restricted rare earth exports when Japan arrested the captain of a Chinese trawler that was involved in a run-in with Japanese coastguards near the disputed Senkaku Islands, claimed

by China as the Diaoyus.

Under the accord, Indian Rare Earths (IREL), a wholly owned subsidiary of India’s Department of Atomic Energy, and Japanese trading house Toyota Tsusho will sign a contract on joint production as early as September, the Nikkei said.

IREL will make mixed rare earth materials from uranium and thorium ores, which Toyota Tsusho will use to produce neodymium for electric and hybrid cars, as well as lanthanum, cerium and praseodymium, the newspaper reported. l

Bitcoin shows staying power as online merchants chase digital sparkle

France’s new economy minister sparks storm over ‘35-hour’ law

n Reuters, New York

n AFP, Paris

Bitcoin is catching on at US online merchants including Overstock.com and Expedia, as customers use a digital currency that just a few years ago was virtually unknown but is now showing some staying power.

Though sales paid for in bitcoin so far at vendors interviewed for this article have been a fraction of one percent, they expect that as acceptance grows, the online currency will one day be as ubiquitous as the internet.

“Bitcoin isn’t going anywhere; it’s here to stay,” said Michael Gulmann, vice president of global products at Expedia Inc. in Seattle, the largest online travel agent. “We want to be there from the beginning.” Expedia started accepting bitcoin payments for hotel bookings on July 11.

Until recently a niche alternative currency touted by a fervent group of followers, bitcoin has evolved into a software-based payment online system.

Bitcoins are stored in a wallet with a unique identification number and companies like Coinbase and Blockchain can hold the currency for the user.

When buying an item from a merchant’s website, a customer simply clicks on the bitcoin option and a popin window appears where he can type in his wallet ID number.

Still, broad-based adoption of bitcoin is at least five years away because most consumers still prefer to use credit cards, analysts said.

“Bitcoin is a new way of making payments, but it’s not solving a problem that’s broken,” said George Peabody, payments consultant at Glenbrook Partners in Menlo Park, California. “Retail payments aren’t broken.”

There are also worries about bitcoin’s volatility: its price in US dollars changes every day. On Wednesday, bitcoin was up 0.4% at $514.09.

That risk is borne by the consumer and the bitcoin payment processor, such as Coinbase or Bitpay, not the retailer. The vendor doesn’t hold the bitcoin and is paid in US dollars. As soon as a customer pays in bitcoin, the digital currency goes to the payment processor and the processor immediately pays the

DILBERT

merchant, for a fee of less than 1%.

“We don’t have to deal with the actual holding of the bitcoin: it’s the payment processor that takes the currency risk for us,” said Bernie Han, chief operating officer at Dish Network Corp, in Englewood, Colorado. “That’s what makes it appealing for us and I guess for other merchants as well.”

Dish, with about $14bn in annual revenue, started accepting bitcoins in mid-August.

Payment processors do some form of hedging though, said Gil Luria, a financial technology analyst at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles. These entities would, for instance, sell bitcoins in the market to offset the ones they have processed and in their books, so they’re not left with much exposure, Luria said.

The only risk for the retailer is if the counterparty, or payment processor, doesn’t fulfill its obligation. That risk is minimal, Luria said, “Coinbase and Bitpay are now wellfunded start-ups and they have put a lot of resources behind security,” Luria said. “You can consider them as secure counterparties, as opposed to a year ago, when they were very small.”

Adding to earnings

For some, it has become a beneficial situation for retailers, as they take advantage of lower transaction fees and sales from new customers. In at least one instance, bitcoin sales are expected to pad a company’s bottom line, adding 4 cents a share to 2014 earnings at Salt Lake City-based online merchant Overstock.com, said chief executive officer Patrick Byrne.

Overstock was the first U.S. company with annual sales of at least $1bn to accept bitcoins. Soon after, other companies including computer maker Dell Inc, Dish, and Newegg Inc, an online retailer of computer hardware and software, began to accept payments in bitcoin.

To date, there are about 63,000 merchants globally accepting bitcoin, estimates from data provider CoinDesk show. It forecasts that figure to rise to 100,000 by year-end. Overstock’s Byrne estimated bitcoin sales of between $6m and $8m by the end of 2014, a fraction of the company’s total revenue.

More importantly for Byrne, the bulk of bitcoin sales comes from new customers, who would otherwise not shop at Overstock if the website didn’t offer bitcoin payments. Bitcoin owners tend to be high net-worth individuals and tech-savvy consumers.

In a way, bitcoin has been used by retailers as a marketing strategy to bring some much-needed buzz to brands that may be struggling.

“Every retailer knows that if they make some sort of announcement on bitcoin these days, they know it’s going be picked up more broadly by the media, than if they decided to accept Discover cards,” said Glenbrook’s Peabody.

One disadvantage from a consumer’s point of view is that, in general, Bitcoin sales are final and irreversible. Still, there are some vendors that do return bitcoin payments for faulty products, said Adam White, director of business development and strategy at Coinbase, an online wallet company in San Francisco.

France’s new economy minister touched off a political storm Thursday, only one day into the job, with comments made before he was appointed about the controversial “35-hour” labour law.

Emmanuel Macron, a former Rothschild banker and ex-advisor to President Francois Hollande, told Le Point weekly he was open to allowing companies and sectors of the economy to “depart from” the law limiting French employees to a maximum 35 hours of work per week.

“We could allow companies and sectors ... to depart from the rules on working time and pay,” Macron told the weekly in an interview published on Thursday but carried out the day before he was appointed.

“This is already possible for companies in difficulty. Why not extend it to all companies, provided there is a broad agreement with the employees?” he added.

The 35-hour law, introduced under the previous Socialist government of former prime minister Lionel Jospin, is a flagship policy of the French left.

Supporters say it creates jobs by limiting the amount of time employees are allowed to work, thereby encouraging companies to take on more staff.

Critics say it is an inflexible law that hampers business and creates a bloated workforce in the country.

French authorities scrambled to contain the fall-out from the interview.

The office of Prime Minister Manuel Valls told AFP the government “will respect” the 35-hour legislation.

Apple to unveil ‘iWatch’ on September 9 n AFP, San Francisco

Saving on transaction costs

For retailers, the biggest benefit in accepting bitcoins is lower transaction costs. Coinbase and Bitpay, for instance, charge less than 1% per transaction. A credit card payment, in contrast, typically carries a 3% fee.

Dell, which started accepting bitcoins in July, Dish, and Expedia all say their bitcoin revenue so far have exceeded their expectations. The three companies declined to give specific figures, but said bitcoin sales are modest relative to their overall revenues.

“From the first day...we saw traffic at the site, it has been growing since,” said Paul Walsh, chief information officer at Dell Commerce Services in Texas. He cited a recent single purchase in bitcoins of a server worth more than $50,000.

At online travel agent Cheapair.com in Calabasas, California, bitcoin sales totaled $1.5m so far since it started accepting them in November 2013, said CEO Jeff Klee. In July alone, bitcoin sales at the company jumped 20%.

Data from BlockChain.info, a bitcoin wallet which stores the digital currency for customers, showed that over the last three months, there were between 50,000 and 75,000 bitcoin transactions a day on average, worth between $45m and $85m. That compares with US retail sales of about $15bn a day during July, according to US Census Bureau estimates.

As of the end of June, bitcoin wallets, representing the number of users who have bitcoin accounts, have grown to 5.32 million, from 765,039 users a year ago, CoinDesk data show. It predicted that wallets would increase to 8 million by year-end. l

“The organisation of working time can already be altered within companies via collective agreements,” Valls’ office said, pointing out the interview was conducted “well before his appointment as economy minister”.

But unions jumped on the comments of the 36-year-old former banker, who was a shock appointment to the economy ministry as Hollande seeks to shore up a more pro-business policy.

Laurent Berger, head of the CFDT union, said it was “not a good idea” while the UNSA union dismissed the proposal as “out of the question”.

Opposition politicians also leapt on the remarks, with former prime minister Francois Fillon, from the centreright UMP, saying he would vote “without hesitation” for a change in the 35-hour week. l

A model poses during a promotion for Japanese company Canon's new inkjet printers for personal and business use, the "Pixus" and the "Maxify", at the company's showroom in Tokyo on August 28 AFP

Apple will unveil an “iWatch” in September with the maker of the iPhone finally embarking on its much-rumored foray into wearable computing, technology news website Re/code said Wednesday.

The California tech giant is expected to merge style and innovation, along with sensors and computing power, in a wrist-worn device that links wirelessly to iPhones or iPads.

Apple is believed to be planning a September 9 event at which it will introduce the iWatch, along with newgeneration iPhone 6 smartphones with increased screen sizes.

The company has not sent out invitations to such an event, nor - as is standard Apple practice - has it commented on reports it will even take place.

Apple’s next-generation iPhones are rumored to have screen sizes stretched to 4.7 and 5.5 inches and have faster processors.

Apple typically updates its product cycle in the second half of the year, getting a lift from holiday sales.

Last year it unveiled the iPhone 5S and the lower-priced iPhone 5C in September, getting record sales at the launch.

Apple is tuning a new operating system which allows for mobile payments and includes a health platform, which could mesh nicely with an “iWatch” for tracking activity, sleep, pulse and more.

The system iOS8 is expected to be in the new iPhones. l