08 November 2014

Kartik 24, 1421 Muharram 14, 1436 Regd No DA 6238 Vol 2, No 214

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

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8 | PRESCRIPTION

9 | HERITAGE

15 | SPORT

THE BEDROOM THERAPY

ALL ABOUT MENOPAUSE

THE BHAWAL ESTATE SCANDAL

SIDDIKUR HITS TWO EAGLES, JUMPS TO JOINT THIRD

Impressive Bangladesh clinch Test series Tigers seal only their third Test series victory, climb to ninth in the ICC Test rankings

n Mazhar Uddin

n Minhaz Uddin Khan from Khulna Premier all-rounder Shakib al Hasan was back to his marauding best as Bangladesh romped to their sixth Test win and their third Test series victory after defeating Zimbabwe by 162 runs on the fifth and final day of the second Test at Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium yesterday.

Having set the visitors a target of 314 runs in 68 overs, the Tigers cantered to a convincing win, bundling out Zimbabwe for 151 in 51.1 overs to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series going into the third Test in Chittagong in four days’ time.

In the process Bangladesh also leapfrogged Zimbabwe in the International Cricket Council’s Test rankings. The Tigers are now ninth in the rankings with Zimbabwe down at the bottom in the 10-team table.

Resuming the final day’s play on 201/5 in their second innings, Bangladesh added 47 runs for the loss of four wickets before skipper Mushfiqur Rahim declared, setting Zimbabwe a target of 314 runs. Before Mushfiq’s call of declaration, Shuvagata Hom reached his maiden Test fifty.

Another five-wicket haul from  PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

INSIDE 3 | News

A fire inside the boundary wall of Dhaka Central Jail in the capital’s Bakshibazar area gutted a blanket factory located within the jail precincts yesterday.

11 | Op-Ed

This time around, an Islamist party has resorted to hartals to protest the court verdicts regarding war criminals.

Tigers acknowledge the crowd as they walk off the field after winning the second cricket Test match against Zimbabwe at Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium in Khulna yesterday

Shakib proves his mettle once again

AFP

It requires a tremendous amount of mental toughness and determination for a cricketer returning to international cricket after serving a three-month suspension. Not only did Shakib al Hasan have it in abundance, the premier Bangladesh all-rounder also created several milestones yesterday as Bangladesh strode to a 162-run win in the second Test against Zimbabwe at Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium in Khulna.

Previously, former Pakistan captain Imran Khan and former England captain Sir Ian Botham were the only cricketers who achieved the feat of scoring a hundred and grabbing a 10-wicket haul in the same Test. Shakib became the third cricketer yesterday to claim the amazing record.

Besides his all-round heroics, Shakib also became the second cricketer to pick up three five-wicket hauls and score a century in a Test series, joining former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram.

Shakib’s 10-wicket haul was also the second time a Bangladesh bowler took 10 wickets in a Test, joining left-arm spinner Enamul Haque Jr in the list.

The poster boy of Bangladesh cricket added another feather to his already glorious Test cap. Shakib regained his  PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

Protesting students attacked in DU Competitors go past Bangladesh in US n apparel market DU Correspondent

A group of students staging a protest on the Dhaka University campus was attacked yesterday allegedly by a group of Bangladesh Chhatra League activists, where one protester was injured.

The incident took place when the protesters were participating in a human chain in front of the Raju Memorial around 11:20am to protest against the university authorities’ decision to bar applicants from taking the admission test twice.

Abdul Aziz, the injured protester, who passed HSC examination this year from Dhaka College, was given primary treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

The protesting students claimed that the attackers first asked them if they had DU ID cards. When they replied no, the other group chased them and locked in a clash with them, labelling them as activists of Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-eIslami.

Mohammad Hossain, one of the protesting students, told the Dhaka Tribune: “At first, police tried to bar us from staging the demonstration in the TSC area, but we did it. But later, this group of students came to us and asked

if we had university IDs. When we said we did not, they started beating us.”

The protesting students also claimed that the attackers were activists of Chhatra League’s unit in the university’s Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Hall.

Salman Habib, member of Socialist Students Front’s DU unit who witnessed the incident, told the Dhaka Tribune that he had seen a Chhatra League activist named Jamal on the scene, but he was not sure if it was the Chhatra

League activists from Bangabandhu Hall who had launched the attack.

When contacted, Darus Salam Shakil, president of Chhatra League’s Bangabandhu Hall unit, denied the allegation of being involved in the scuffle.

“How could it be possible? I am currently in my home district Narsingdi attending a programme. I did not even know about the students’ demonstration this morning,” he told the Dhaka Tribune over phone.  PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

Police officials stand inactive as alleged Bangladesh Chhatra League activists scuffle with a group of protesting students at Dhaka University yesterday SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

n Ibrahim Hossain Ovi Apparel export to US market has seen a 2.12% fall in January-September period compared to the corresponding period last year while its nearest competitors India and Vietnam have posted significant gain.

As per the latest data by the US Department of Commerce’s Office of Textile and Apparel (OTEXA), in January-September period of 2014 Bangladesh’s apparel export to the US market plummeted to $3.78 billion which was $3.86 billion last year.

Bangladesh’s close competitors India’s export, on the other hand, rose by 5.64% (from $2.5 billion to $2.64 billion), Vietnam’s by 15.63% (from $6.05 billion to $6.9 billion), China’s by 0.26% (from $22.36 billion to $22.4 billion) while South Korea’s by 3.64% (from $171 million to $177 million).

Pakistan has also seen a 1.19% decline ($1.12 billion to 1.10 billion) in its apparel export to the US market..

After the Rana Plaza building collapse which killed 1,135 workers and

EXPORT GROWTH TREND TO US MARKET

injured over 2,500 Bangladesh’s apparel export to the US market has seen a downtrend.

On June 27 last year, the US government suspended Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) for Bangladesh because of concerns over labour rights and workers’ safety after hundreds of  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

2

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Call for invalidating Tarique Rahman’s citizenship n Abu Hayat Mahmud Awami League Advisory Council member Advocate Yusuf Hossain Humayun yesterday called for revocation of BNP Senior Vice-chairman Tarique Rahman’s Bangladeshi citizenship for repeatedly making negatives remarks on Bangabandhu.

He made the call while addressing a discussion arranged by Khaled Mosharraf Memorial Council at Bangladesh Bar Council auditorium in the capital. Mrs Mosharraf, also President of the council, chaired the discussion while Deputy Leader of the House Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury was the chief guest.

“Tarique has begun implementing his father Ziaur Rahman’s model. He has lately been making negative comments on Bangabandhu and the country’s history from London. I urge the

government to cancel his citizenship,” said Humayun.

The discussion attendees shouted in agreement.

Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque said at the discussion a fresh list of the genuine freedom fighters would soon be drawn up.

“An individual’s age at the time of the Liberation War will not be taken into account while including him in the list. Anyone involved in any activity in favour of the war will get a freedom fighter certificate,” he added.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited her Dhanmondi office in the capital yesterday.

This was her second visit to the office after the Awami League came to power early this year.

It was a casual visit and involved no political affairs, sources said. l

President Abdul Hamid in Beijing n BSS

Bangladesh Ambassador to China M Fazlul Karim and China’s Protocol Ambassador Chi Shi greet President Md Abdul Hamid yesterday on his arrival at the Beijing International Airport to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference PID

President Abdul Hamid arrived in Beijing yesterday to attend ‘dialogue on strengthening connectivity partnership’ at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

A regular flight of Singapore Airlines carrying the president landed at Beijing International Airport at 2:40pm (China local time).

On his arrival at the airport, the president was received by ambassador of Bangladesh to China M Fazlul Karim and protocol ambassador of China Chi Shi. Later, the president was taken to Diaoyutai State Guest House where he will stay during the tour.

Earlier, the Abdul Hamid left Dhaka for Beijing at 11:55pm (Bangladesh local time) on Thursday.

During the visit, the president is also expected to hold bilateral meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Myanmar President Thein Sein.

On November 11, the president will go to Singapore from China for medical treatment on his way back to Bangladesh. l

Sheikh Hasina asks party leaders FBCCI to launch antito hold AL national council in time hartal campaign

Nasim warns of stern action against corruption in health sector n UNB n BSS Awami League Health Minister Mohammad Nasim yesterday sounded a note of warning against any sort of corruption in the health sector.

“We will definitely take action as we find specific corruption allegation against any person,” he said while inaugurating the four-day eighteenth congress of Federation of the Asia and Oceania Parental Society at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre here.

With President of the society National Professor MR Khan in the chair, among others, President of Bangladesh Medical Association Prof Mahmud Hasan were present at the meeting.

Coming down heavily on Transparency International of Bangladesh (TIB) the report, the minister said, “TIB prepared the report with a motive as it brought a blanket corruption allegation without mentioning any specific claim.”

“A total of 6000 physicians have been appointed simultaneously at different levels across the country without exchanging of any sorts of bribe.

But, the TIB report did not mention it,” Nasim, a presidium member of Awami League also said. l

President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday instructed her party leaders to hold its national council in time and prepare a draft on the overall activities to this end.

The Awami League chief came up with the instruction during her first visit to her Dhanmondi political office since assuming office through the January 5 polls.

Hasina arrived at the office around 4:30pm and held discussions with leaders of the party on various issues relating to organisational activities for more than an hour.

Awami League General Secretary and LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Syed Ashraful Islam, its presidium members Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury, Shahara Khatun and Nuh-ul Alam Lenin, Prime Minister’s Adviser HT

Imam, Mahbubul Alam Hanif, Barrister Fazle Noor Tapas were present.

In her discussion with the leaders, Hasina stressed the need for holding the party council in time and asked them to prepare a draft on the overall activities to this end.

Briefing reporters at the PM’s Dhanmondi political office, Syed Ashraful said the party chief mainly enquired about the organisational activities, and the ongoing councils of the party’s district committees across the country.

“She asked how many of the councils have been held and how many are going to be held,” he said adding that the AL chief laid emphasis on finishing all the councils as soon as possible.

The AL general secretary said councils in many districts have already been held and district committees formed, while the rest would be constituted accordingly.

He noted that senior leaders of the organisation are visiting the remaining districts to hold conferences there.

Ashraful said holding councils at district, upazila and union parishad levels and formatting fresh committees is going on, and these are being done as per directives of the party president.

He added that the central council of Awami League will be held in due time.

Responding to a query, Ashraful said there is no doubt about the implementation of the verdicts of war criminals trial by the government.

When his attention was drawn to a recent remark by BNP Senior ViceChairman Tarique Rahman about Bangabandhu, he said there is no scope to frame a dead person in any case.

“Nowhere in the world you will find a dead person indicted in a case,” he said adding that no one should take into account the remarks of an immature person having no sense of proportion. l

 PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

No 1 spot in the rankings for the best all-rounders in Tests, surpassing India’s Ravichandran Ashwin.

After the match, Shakib posted this on his official Facebook page: “Thank you all for your wonderful wishes and prayers...I am truly humbled and honoured to be in the company of such legendary crick-

apparel workers died in the deadliest Rana Plaza building collapse.

“Buyers from the US market has shifted orders from Bangladesh to Vietnam, which caused downswing in Bangladesh export to US, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Vice-President Shahidullah Azim, said adding that Disney World had shifted its order worth $500 million from Bangladesh to Vietnam.

Buyers have to change their attitude toward Bangladesh as we are in satisfactory level over safety issues and as per the buyers demands safety standard had improved.

Inspection conducted by the Alliance platform of North American buyers had found less than 2% factories risky, said Azim.

eters who have given so much to this wonderful game of cricket! In order for records to be reached, we need to dream and work hard...and I never stop dreaming and working hard...I dream for the day when Bangladeshis will be playing at the top of their game on a regular basis and show our fans what it feels like to be champions...Love, Shakib.” l

Protesting students attacked in DU  PAGE 1 COLUMN 4

Workers of the blanket factory that caught fire inside the Dhaka Central Jail yesterday watch their workstation burn sitting in front of the factory MEHEDI HASAN

Competitors go past Bangladesh in US apparel market  PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

The FBCCI is planning to launch an anti-hartal campaign soon to protest the financial fallout caused by the countrywide shutdowns.

The board members of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) have already discussed about holding meetings with top political leaders on this regard.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune yesterday, FBCCI Vice-President Md Helal Uddin said: “We will start campaigning against political hartals across the country from next week.”

In a press release on Monday, the FBCCI – the country’s apex trade body – expressed deep concerns over the damages dealt to the country’s economy by the recent rounds of nationwide hartal enforced by the Jamaat-e-lslami.

Last December, the FBCCI also hoisted white flags in a programme protesting the political deadlock that saw businesses come to a near stand-

still ahead of the general election.

In 2013, the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry conducted a sector-wise survey to estimate the extent of losses caused by hartals. The survey found that a single day of hartal caused losses of around Tk1,600 crore.

At this rate, the country lost around 8% of its GDP during the 52 hartals that were staged during the 2013-14 fiscal year.

The Bangladesh Shop Owners Association also said all shops in the country have a total daily transaction of around Tk3,000 crore, while on a hartal day the shops lose around Tk400 crore.

The BGMEA has also repeatedly voiced protests against hartals, claiming that the shutdowns disrupted timely shipment of goods and caused buyers to turn away from investment in the country.

According to Bangladesh Bus and Truck Owners Association, owners face a daily loss of Tk300 crore on hartal days.

According to a 2001 World Bank estimate, hartals led to a loss of $10bn from 1995 to 1999. l

Shakib proves his mettle once again

Pay Tuba Group workers’ dues n UNB Garments Sramik Oikya Forum yesterday demanded that the government pays the dues of Tuba Group workers by confiscating the assets of the group’s owner Delwar Hossain.

The demand came from a human chain programme in front of the Jatiya Press Club in the capital.

Speaking on the occasion, the Garments Sramik Oikya Forum’s finance secretary Shahidul Islam said Tuba Group owner has violated the labour law and his assets should be seized to pay the dues of the workers according to section 136 of the Bangladesh Labour (Amendment) Act 2013.

He said the State Minister for Labour, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and the Tuba Group owner have pledged the workers to pay their dues in time, but the workers are still deprived. l

n Tribune Report

Azim also said government to government (G2G) relation has to be improved to overcome the situation as the nature of problems are political to some extent.

He also said there is no lacking from our side and we are on the edge of becoming a compliant sector across the world.

“Production cost has risen significantly due to hike in wage, rise in gas and electricity tariff and compliance issues but the prices of the products have not gone up.

Rana Plaza building collapse, Tazreen Fashion fire and political unrest acted as catalyst for export downtrend,” said Abdus Salam Murshedy, president of Bangladesh Exporters Association (EAB) told the Dhaka Tribune.

“Businessmen shifted orders from

Bangladesh to India and other competitors due to increase in cost, political unrest and safety issues, said a factory owner.

On the other hand, India is gradually grabbing its share in apparel exports to the US, he observed.

Mirza Azizul Islam, former adviser to a caretaker government stressed the need for pointing out the problem whether it is arisen from the supply side or demand side.

“After I have talked to the global lender I came to know that the problem lies with the supply side and there is no problem with the demand in the US market.”

Production may have been hampered due to inspection by the buyers leading to closure of many factories. He also attributed political unrest to poor production.l

Sub-Inspector Shaheb Ali of Nilkhet police outpost, who was on the scene during the attack, said he was not sure whether the attackers were Chhatra League activists.

“I did not see any known face from Chhatra League. Most of them were first or second-year students, so I could not exactly tell if they were from the party or not,” he said.

Mohammad Habil, inspector at Shahabagh police station, also denied the protesters’ allegation against Chhatra League activists, but said the attackers could be students at DU. DU acting proctor Professor Amzad Ali also denied the allegation, saying:

“If Chhatra League had attacked the protested, they (protesters) would not have been able to stay there. They are trying to create an issue over the attack and blaming Chhatra League.”

When asked whether the attackers were students at the university, the acting proctor said he was not sure about it.

Despite the attack, the protesting students continued yesterday’s demonstration until 4pm. They also announced to hold a demonstration rally in protest of yesterday’s attack at the same venue this morning.

They also said they would submit a memorandum regarding their demands to the university’s chancellor.l

Impressive Bangladesh clinch Test series  PAGE 1 COLUMN 1

Shakib, his 14th in Tests and third of the series, ensured Zimbabwe were never in the hunt. With the exception of first-innings centurion Hamilton Masakadza (61), none of the other Zimbabwean batsmen were able to come up with any sort of resistance in the face of some disciplined bowling by the Bangladesh spinners.

Much like the first Test in Dhaka which the hosts won by three wickets, the Bangladesh spinners again accounted for 18 of the 20 wickets to fall, with the trio of Shakib, Taijul Islam and Jubair Hossain scalping all of the 10 Zimbabwean wickets in the second innings.

Hamilton was the only hurdle the Bangladesh bowlers had to face on the final day. The burly right-handed Zimbabwe batsman grabbed his second fifty-plus score of the match but it was too little, too late.

And for the umpteenth time, the day belonged to Shakib. His 5/44 in the

Bangladesh’s Test win records Year 2005 2009 2009 2013 2014 2014

Opponent Victory margin Zimbabwe Won by 226 runs West Indies Won by 95 runs West Indies Won by 4 wickets Zimbabwe Won by 143 runs Zimbabwe Won by 3 wickets Zimbabwe Won by 162 runs

Venue MAAS, Chittagong Kingstown St George’s Harare SBNS, Dhaka SANS, Khulna

second innings, alongside his 5/80 in the first innings, enabled him to register his maiden 10-wicket haul in Tests, only the second instance of a Bangladeshi bowler picking up 10 wickets in a Test. Left-arm spinner Enamul Haque Jr is the previous bowler who achieved the feat against the same opponents at home nine years ago.

Having also scored a century in the first innings, Shakib enlisted his name in a distinguished club. He is now the third player in the history of Test cricket to claim 10 wickets and score a

hundred in the same match. The two cricketers in the list are none other than former England captain Sir Ian Botham and former Pakistan captain Imran Khan.

Shakib’s first wicket of the final day was that of opener Sikandar Raza (9) who was caught at short-leg. His second dismissal – Zimbabwe skipper Brendan Taylor (0) – came in the first over of the post-lunch session. The left-armer’s three other wickets were bagged in the post-tea session completing a memorable match for the 27-year-old cricketer.

Taijul and Jubair played their part in the victory providing Shakib with valuable support. Taijul, who scalped three wickets in the first innings, replicated his performance in the second innings while Jubair took two wickets.

Masakadza’s 61 only delayed the inevitable and when Shakib dismissed him, Zimbabwe’s hopes of posting a come-from-behind victory were all but dashed. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

3

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Smoke billows from a blanket manufacturing factory, located just beyond the walls of a building housing the inmates, which caught fire inside the Dhaka Central Jail premises yesterday . Right, firefighters battle the flames inside the factory MEHEDI HASAN/MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Fire at Dhaka jail compound guts factory PGCB blackout report Tk22 crore in merchandise lost in fire, some suffer minor injuries n

Tribune Report

A fire inside the boundary wall of Dhaka Central Jail in the capital’s Bakshibazar area gutted a blanket factory located within the jail precincts yesterday.

The one-storey tin shed factory, manned by outside workers, is situated a few yards away from the jail compound adjacent to the office of the Inspector General (IG) of Prisons.

The inmates’ prison cells are surrounded by a high wall.

The fire which broke out around 4:20pm at Kajal Woolen Mills Limited caused panic among the inmates, but did not breach the prison buildings, jail sources said.

It took eight units of fire fighters to bring the blaze under control at 5:32pm.

Fire fighters were still trying to douse the fire completely, said Mohammad Ali, an official of the fire service’s control room at 8pm when

this report was filed.

According to sources, Netrokona 5 constituency lawmaker, Waresat Hossain Belal, operated the blanket factory after leasing it from jail authorities.

The IG of Prisons Brigadier General Syed Iftekhar Uddin visited the spot immediately after the incident. He told reporters that although the fire did not affect the jail building, authorities had shifted the inmates to a safer place as an extra precaution.

He said: “Factories should not be located near important establishments like the central jail.”

However, jailer Nesar Ahmed said inmates had not been relocated because the main boundary wall was high enough to prevent fire entering the compound.

He confirmed that some inmates had gathered in front of the buildings in panic.

Dhaka Central Jail, the largest jail in Bangladesh, is located in the old part of the city. The jail has been used to house criminals as well as political prisoners and war crimes convicts.

According to jail authorities, a number of VIP inmates and death row convicts, including convicted war criminals like Jamaat-e-Islami leader Kamaruzzaman, were inmates of the jail.

The Netrokona lawmaker told journalists that more than 150 workers were busy making blankets when the fire due to an electric short circuit broke out.

“We have been working to deliver an order of 2,214,000 blankets to the Disaster Management and Relief Ministry and 20,000 blankets for the jail authorities ahead of winter. In addition there were many blankets and raw materials stocked in the warehouse.

Goods worth Tk21-22 crore were lost in

the fire,” he said.

Md Maznu Mia, who was working in the cutting section of the factory told reporters that he saw sparks from a machine light the blankets on fire. The flames spread quickly, he said.

“We three workers were there and we tried to douse the flames with the help of some others but it spread too quickly. Then all of us got out in a hurry,” he said.

Ziadul Islam, acting director general of the fire service, said the electricity line was disconnected following the fire. The fire fighters fought hard to bring the fire under control.

“No one was burned but some workers fell ill because of the fumes,” he said.

Officer-in-Charge of Chawkbazar police station Azizul Haque said additional police officers had been deployed for security. Traffic came to a halt on the roads around the jail area. l

within 7 days n Aminur Rahman Rasel A report on the causes of the November 1 blackout by a technical investigation committee of the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) will be submitted to the power ministry within seven days, the probe committee head said yesterday.

“We [yesterday] visited the High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) grid sub-station at Bheramara in Kushtia and collected data on the incidents of November 1,” Tapan Kumar Roy, executive director of the PGCB and chief of the investigation committee, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

“We hope that we can submit the technical investigation committee report to the power ministry within seven days,” he said.

The committee will visit another grid sub-station and several power plants, he said. It has already visited the National

Load Despatch Centre in Aftab Nagar, Dhaka, and will also collect information from the Indian side of the cross-border power transmission line, he said.

There has been speculation that the reason for the outage was a malfunction on the Indian side of the India-Bangladesh power transmission line that links up with the Behramara HVDC grid sub-station.

A ministry probe, working separately from the PGCB committee, had not found anything substantial to report, the state minister for power, Nasrul Hamid, said on Thursday.

The public limited electricity distribution company set up a five-member technical investigation committee to probe the massive blackout that switched the country off on November 1.

The PGCB is responsible for the operation, maintenance and development of the country’s electricity transmission system. l

Hearing-impaired November 7 observed girl gang raped by n Tribune Report that the government would be compelled to hold a midterm poll in the UP members Different political parties yesterday face of mass upsurge.

“There is no democratic environobserved the November 7 in different n Our Correspondent, Tangail ment in the country. The government manners across the country.

A 15-year-old hearing-impaired girl was allegedly gang raped by three Union Parishad members in Tangail in the Dashakia Union Parishad (UP) office premises on October 25.

The victim’s mother lodged a case with Kalihati police station on Thursday night accusing three UP members of gang raping the girl who is from the Dashakia Union in Tangail’s Kalihati upazila.

The accused are Md Sahidul Islam, 38, Kurban Ali, 50, and Shahjahan Sarkar, 40, all Dashakia UP members.

The victim’s mother said: “I went out to my neighbour’s house in the morning. A neighbour named Fozila came to my house while I was away and took my daughter to the Dashakia Union Parishad office premises where three UP members raped her.”

“Locals warned me not to complain to police about the rape because the rapists are powerful people of the area,” she said.

“I want justice. I want exemplary punishment for those who ruined my daughter’s life,” the victim’s mother said.

The fatherless victim’s younger sister too is hearing-impaired.

Assistant Superintendent of Police Md Abul Hasnat told the Dhaka Tribune: “We brought the victim and her mother to the police station on Thursday. The victim was sent to Tangail Medical College Hospital yesterday for a medical check-up.”

Md Mahbubul Haque, officer-in-charge (investigation) of Kalihati police station said, “We conducted a drive in the area soon after the case was filed and arrested Fozila from her residence. We will keep up our drive to arrest the accused.” l

BNP observed the day as National Revolution and Solidarity Day, Awami League as Freedom Fighters Killing Day while Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Inu) as Civil-Military Uprising Day. To mark the day, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia yesterday paid floral tributes to party founder and her husband Ziaur Rahman’s grave in the capital.

On November 7, 1975, soldiers and civilians in a joint move freed then chief of army staff Ziaur Rahman from captivity in Dhaka cantonment that paved the way for Zia’s coming to power The former premier went to Zia’s grave with thousands of party leaders and activists and placed a wreath and attended a special prayer there.

The party has chalked out a 10day programmes including a rally at Suhrawardy Udyan on Saturday where Khaleda is scheduled to address it. But Dhaka Metropolitan Police yesterday denied the party permission to organise the rally.

The BNP also hoisted national and party flags across the country.

Meanwhile, the JSD organised a discussion meeting at party’s Taher Auditorium to mark the day.

After placing the floral wreaths, party’s acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told journalists

has narrowed down all the spaces of democracy. They have destroyed all the democratic institutions,” he said.

The spokesperson of the party said on November 3, 1975 there was a conspiracy against country’s sovereignty and independence and at that time Ziaur Rahman was detained.

“Patriotic soldiers and people freed him from his cantonment residence on November 7 and brought him into the center-point of power.”

Awami League leaders at a discussion yesterday said in the name of Civil-Military uprising on November 7 Ziaur Rahman killed Khaleda Mosharraf and other army personnel to assume the office.

The ruling party leaders and family members of Khaled Mosharraf demanded the trial of the killers of Khaled Mosharraf and his colleagues Nazmul Huda and Haider.

“The conspirators who killed Bangabandhu Sheikh Mijibur Rahman and his family members also killed Khaled Mosharraf and other army personnel on November 7 on the instruction of Ziaur Rahman,” said Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque.

He made the statement addressing a discussion organised by Khaled Mosharraf Memorial Council at Bangladesh Bar Council Auditorium in the capital.

The minister said Zia led the killings just to assume the office.

On this day in 1975, amid political chaos soldiers and civilians in a joint move freed then chief of army staff Ziaur Rahman from captivity in Dhaka cantonment that paved the way for Zia’s coming to power. l

Workers of Hamim Sportswear Ltd that was closed down without notice on October 13, bring out a procession in front of the National Press Club yesterday demanding reopening of the factory MEHEDI HASAN

Four BCL activists identified over attack on photographer

n DU Correspondent

The Dhaka University authorities yesterday identified four Chhatra League activists for their involvement in an attack on photographer Imtiaz Alam Beg and his two nieces on the university campus on Wednesday.

The accused – Faruk, Masum, Jinat and Jahir of the botany, physics, statistics and mathematics departments respectively – are first-year students, residents of Shaidullah Hall and activists of the Chhatra League unit of the hall.

DU acting proctor Prof Amzad Ali said the attackers had been identified with the help of the hall’s Chhatra League activists and leaders, adding: “Stern action will be taken after the probe committee submits the report.”

A six-member probe body was formed on Wednesday to investigate the incident and submit a report within seven days.

On Wednesday, four men beat up Imtiaz Alam Beg, principal of Beg Art Institute of Photography, and his two nieces and verbally assaulted them.

The victims filed a case with Shahabagh police station in this regard. l

Deprived leaders attack Annie-Tuku’s car n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla Deprived and aggrieved student leaders of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) vented their grievances by launching an attack on former student leaders Sahiduddin Chowdhury Annie and Sultan Salahuddin Tuku yesterday.

A section of deprived JCD leaders attacked the vehicle carrying Annie and Tuku at the Bijoy Sarani intersection while they were going to party founder Ziaur Rahman’s grave to pay tribute to mark the “National Revolution and Solidarity Day”.

Witnesses said some of these leaders gathered near the military museum before going to Zia’s grave and around 11.20am Tuku and Annie’s vehicle was crossing the area. As they saw Annie and Tuku they chanted slogans and threw bricks at the vehicle, damaging the front part of the vehicle, but Tuku and Annie managed to escape injuries.

Later senior deprived leaders brought the situation under control and left the place.

When Chhatra Dal leaders placed

wreaths at the party founder’s grave neither Annie nor Tuku was seen in the graveyard.

Since the announcement of the new committee of Chhatra Dal headed by Rajib Ahsan and Akramul Islam as president and general secretary respectively, a section of deprived leaders demanded cancellation of the new committee and expulsion of Annie and Tuku from the party. These leaders even vandalised the party’s Nayapaltan office and also blockaded the office for one day.

Sensing that the situation might worsen, party’s acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir held a meeting with the deprived leaders but the meeting ended inconclusively. Party standing committee member Mirza Abbas also held a series of meetings with them but to no avail.

There are allegations that Annie and Tuku picked their loyal leaders to the new committee. The deprived leaders at one stage centred their demand only on expulsion of Annie and Tuku.

They made several abortive attempts to launch attacks on Annie and Tuku. l

4

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Saturday, November 8, 2014

A group of alleged Bangladesh Chhatra League activists assaulting students seeking a second chance to sit for the Dhaka University admission tests while protesting in front of Raju Memorial yesterday. Story on front page

SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Four killed in separate road accidents in Dhaka

Fire at Panchagarh court destroys case documents

10 Shibir men held in Chittagong n CU Correspondent

n UNB

n Tribune Report

Documents relating to several hundred cases at the Joint District Judge’s court were burnt to ashes by a fire that broke out at the courtroom yesterday.

Police said Azhar Ali, night guard of the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court, noticed smoke billowing out of the Joint District Judge’s court around 7am and informed the fire service.

The fire fighters rushed to the spot and doused the blaze around 7:30am.

Several hundred case records, computer and furniture of the courtroom were burnt to cinders by that time.

Court’s bench assistant (peshkar) Afaz Uddin said he was the last man to leave the courtroom on Thursday after work.

He said he left the room around 10pm and claimed no mosquito coil or cigarette was burning during his departure.

Abdul Malek, inspector (warehouse) of Panchagarh Fire Service and Civil Defence, said the fire did not originate

Police detained 10 Chhatra Shibir activists at a house in the Chawkbazar DC Road area in Chittagong yesterday, but did not disclose their identities.

AKM Mohiuddin Selim, officer-in-charge of Kotwali police station, said two of the 10 were held at Chandanpura area and the rest were detained based on information given by the two.

“The eight were detained on the fourth floor of a four-storey building around 3:30pm. They had some documents related to Shibir with them,” he said. Of the detainees, two allegedly blasted crude bombs in different parts of the city during the recent general strike enforced by the Jamaat-e-Islami.

“We found some text messages in their mobile phones containing subversion plans,” Selim said.

All of them were detained in two cases filed on charges of vandalism and subversive acts, he added. l

Four people, including a transgender, were killed in separate road accidents in different areas of the capital yesterday.

In Banani, a transgender named Maria, 22, was critically injured when a bus hit her in front of Banani graveyard while she was crossing the road.

She was admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital by another transgender named Forhad where the duty doctor declared Maria dead around 6:45pm, says Mozammel Haque, inspector of DMCH police outpost.

Forhad, who knew Maria from before, said Maria’s real name was Mahbub. His father’s name was Dudu Mia and their native village was in Jafornagara area of Kishoreganj. Maria used to live with the transgender community in the capital’s Niketon

area of Gulshan.

In Uttara, two people were left spot dead and one critically injured when a speedy private car hit them from behind in front of Scholastica near Jasimuddin Road of Uttara around 4:45pm. The dead were Md Harun, 48, a day-labourer, and Moktar, 18, an assistant of a pick-up van driver.

The injured was Jakir Hossain, 35, the driver of the pick-up van. He was undergoing treatment at the Intensive Care Unit of National Medical in the capital’s Uttara.

Describing the incident, Mohammad Yousuf Ali, sub-inspector of Airport police station, said: “The pick-up van had caught a leak in the tyre while it was on its way to deliver a printing press machine in Uttara. Jalal and Moktar had parked the van in front of Scholastica school and were working to repair the leak while Harun was watch-

ing it standing beside them. During that time, a speedy car hit them from behind, leaving Moktar and Harun spot dead.”

“We were able to seize the private car but the driver managed to escape. A general diary was filed with the police station in this regard,” added SI Yousuf.

In Khilkhet, a young man named Saiful Islam, 22, was killed after he was struck by a vehicle with the registration number Dhaka Metro Ba-11-0401.

Saiful was crossing the road at Kuril highway rail gate area around 3pm.

Later, locals rushed him to Kurmitola General Hospital where the doctors declared him dead, Mohammad Ekramul, SI of Khilkhet said.

The SI said Saiful hailed from Pirojpur area and was son of Md Tareq. “His body has been sent to DMC morgue for autopsy and we are in search of the killer vehicle, SI Ekramul added. l

from electrical short circuit or any other sources from the electric connection.

Although he could not ascertain the reason behind the fire, he observed that the fire could have been generated from sources like mosquito coil or cigarette.

Senior lawyer of Panchagarh Bar Association Nazmul Islam Kajal said many of the records destroyed in the incident, particularly the records of civil cases, are irretrievable and will lead to immense hassles for the plaintiffs and the defendants as well.

Joint District Judge Mamun-ur-Rashid told reporters that details of the losses could be known after further scrutiny.

Meanwhile, a three-member committee, headed by Senior Judicial Magistrate Krishna Kanta Roy, has been formed to probe the incident.

The committee has been asked to submit the report within next three days. Krishna Kanta Roy yesterday recorded the statement of bench assistant Afaz Uddin and sent him to jail. l

One killed, two injured in air-conditioner blast n

Tribune Report

A man was killed and two others sustained severe burn injuries in an air conditioner blast at a hotel in the capital’s Gulshan area yesterday.

With 62% and 45% burn injuries respectively, Sohel and Kartik were admitted to DMCH The deceased is Anwar Hossain, 35, a technician of the Wattson Group. The injured are the group’s assistant manager (service) Sohel Rana, 30, and Kartik, 40 a staff member of the hotel.

The blast took place around 3:00pm when Anwar and Sohel were engaged in repairing the air conditioner on the 16th

floor of “Six Seasons” Hotel in the Gulshan-2 area, killing Anwar on the spot, said Rafiqul Islam, officer-in-charge of Gulshan Police Station.

At the time of the incident, Kartik was standing beside them to supervise the work, he said.

With 62% and 45% burn injuries respectively, Sohel and Kartik were undergoing treatment at the burn and plastic surgery unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).

Partha Sankar Paul, a residential surgeon at the burn unit of DMCH said that Sohel’s condition was critical.

“We have kept both Kartik and Sohel under observation. We are doing our best and hope they recover soon,” he said.

Authorities of the hotel could not be contacted for their comments.

A person, who refused to reveal his identity, at the hotel’s inquiry desk said no other harm was caused to the hotel. l

Three injured in gas leak in capital n Tribune Report A young man and two of his students sustained burn injuries in a suspected gas leak at a house in the Ulan area in Rampura of the capital yesterday.

The injured are Ashraful Islam, 24, and his students Tanzina Akther Shila, 13, and Ashrafi Akther, 8, students of class 8 and class 2 of Khaleda Memorial High School respectively.

They are under treatment at the burn and plastic surgery unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).

Ashraful Islam, a second year student of Titumir College and a part time teacher at Khaleda Memorial High School, said Shila and Ashrafi were his

neighbours who came to him for private tuition. Around 4pm yesterday the two of them came to his house. Shila found a box of matches and lit a match; there was an explosion instantly.

“The blast might have occurred from a gas leak because before Shila struck the match we sensed a strong odor in the room,” said Asharful.

“We are yet to ascertain how much burn injuries their bodies sustained, but the respiratory systems have been damaged,” Dr Partha Shankar Pal, residential surgeon at the DMCH burn and plastic surgery unit told the Dhaka Tribune.

Rampura Sub-Inspector Murad Hossain Milon said police are yet to find the cause behind the fire. l

Bangladeshi man beaten by Indian mob dies n Our Correspondent, Comilla A Bangladeshi man died in an Indian hospital yesterday after he was beaten by an Indian mob on suspicion of theft.

Ershad Hossain was a resident of Aranyapur, a border village near Comilla frontier, who sustained serious injuries in a mob beating after entering Indian territories early yesterday.

The 30-year-old died in a local hospital around 9am.

Commander of BGB 10 battalion Lt Col Zakir Hossain said local Indians beat Ershad up as they suspected that he was a thief. His condition was critical when Indian police took him to hospital but doctors there declared him dead, he said.

BSF officials informed the BGB of Ershad’s death yesterday evening.

Zakir said yesterday evening that the body was supposed to be handed over to the BGB at Bibir Bazar area around 9pm. l

Firefighters carrying out the body of a technician who died in an air conditioner blast at a hotel in the capital’s Gulshan area yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Moncho protests Pakistan minister’s statement over Nizami verdict n Tribune Report Gonojagoron Moncho activists yesterday protested against Pakistani Home Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan’s recent statement over the death penalty meted out to war criminal and Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami.

“When we are trying the war criminals in our country, Pakistan government is protesting against it in order to save them. It is easily understood that the war criminals had sided with them during our liberation war,” said Imran H Sarkar, spokesman of the Moncho.

The government should re-evalu-

ate its ties with Pakistan if they do not withdraw their statement over the trial of war criminals in Bangladesh, he said.

He also demanded quick execution of the death penalty meted out to war criminal Mohammad Kamaruzzaman.

The Moncho revealed three points of demand – ‘withdrawal of Pakistani embassy and expulsion of its diplomats, ‘postponement of commercial ties with Pakistan and revaluation of the relations between Bangladesh and Pakistan’ and boycott of all Pakistani goods.

Activists of Bangladesh Students’ Union, Socialist Women Front and Udichi, among others, were part of the protest rally held at Shahbagh in the capital.

Bangladesh Chhatro Moitri also arranged a human chain at Shahbagh around the same time demanding quick execution of all death-sentenced war criminals.

Expressing concern over Nizami’s death penalty, Pakistan’s Home Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had though what happened in Bangladesh was that country’s internal matter, yet Pakistan could not remain divorced from references to 1971 and its aftermath.

On Thursday, Dhaka summoned Pakistani acting high commissioner Ahmed Hussain Dayo, strongly protesting the statement as well as handing over him an aide-mémoire. l

Depression over Bay

n Tribune Report A depression was formed over west central Bay and adjoining East central Bay early yesterday, a Met office bulletin said.

The location of the depression was about 1045km southwest of Chittagong port, 975km southwest of Cox’s Bazar port, 950km south southwest of Mongla port and 940 km south southwest of Payra port at 3pm yesterday.

The bulletin said the depression was likely to move in a west-northwesterly direction towards Andhra Pradesh coast.

Maximum sustained wind speed within 44km of the deep depression centre was about 40km/h rising to 50km/h in gusts or squalls, said the bulletin, adding that sea would remain rough near the centre.

The Met office advised to hoist distant cautionary signal number one to all maritime ports Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Mongla and Payra. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Guideline on stone extraction yet to be finalised

Man jailed right before marrying a child n Our Correspondent, Gaibandha A young man at Ganga Narayanpur village in Bhaatgram union was sentenced to prison for a month on charges of marrying a fifth-grader on Thursday.

Md Hazrat Ali, 21, son of Munsur Ali of Sardar Para in Dhaperhaat union, was awarded the jail sentence by Upazila Nirbahi Officer Md Ahsan Habib, also a mobile court judge.

Sadullapur police station Officer-inCharge Latiful Islam said the upazila nirbahi officer, along with police, arrived at the wedding venue minutes before Hazrat was about to sign the document to marry Rahima Khatun.

“The girl is the daughter of Rafiqul Islam of the village and studies at Ganga Narayanpur Government Primary School. Her father fled quickly after seeing the upazia nirbahi officer’s car while we detained Hazrat and brought him to the police station,” he said.

Hazrat was given the jail sentence at the police station around 9:30pm.

The man was sent to Gaibandha district prison this afternoon, Latiful said yesterday. l

Local influential people are randomly lifting stones from river beds

n Our Correspondent, Sylhet Illegal extraction from the stone quarries in Sylhet continues unabated as the Environment and Forest Ministry is yet to finalise a guideline on the process, following the directive issued by the High Court in 2010.

In the absence of an official guideline, mismanagement and deteriorating law and order situation is becoming evident at the stone quarry areas, claimed the concerned local residents and environmentalists.

In 2009, a writ petition was filed with the High Court for banning extraction of stones through dredging systems Advocate Shah Shaheda Akther, divisional coordinator of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers’ Association (BELA), said: “In 2009 we filed a writ petition with the High Court division of the Supreme Court asking for banning extraction of stones through dredging systems. Before hearing in 2010, the court banned lifting of stones through dredging systems and ordered the Environment and Forest Ministry to make a guideline.

“Upon receiving the High Court directives, a team of the ministry visited the stone quarries in Bhulagonj and Jaflong in the same year. Later, they made a draft policy, however, the final guidelines did not see light in the last

four years,” she said.

Md Shahidul Islam, deputy commissioner of Sylhet, told the Dhaka Tribune that a draft policy was made following the court directives, but not finalised.

“I have attended two meetings with the ministry last year. Without guideline it is very hard for us to maintain the law and order situation in the quarry areas. Given the current context, guidelines are badly needed,” he said.

In absence of the guidelines, local influential people including the ruling party men are reportedly lifting stones and creating environmental hazards.

They are lifting stones by dredgers from a depth of over 100/150 metres, creating a hollow space underground.

Some people are extracting stones form the river bed and some from the adjacent arable lands, said local environmentalists.

“District administration, with the help of department of environment, launches regular drives against them, but somehow they are continuing their activities aided by political influence,” said Rokon Uddin, Companiganj Upazila Nirbahi Officer.

Abdul Alim, a stone businessman of Companiganj said local influentials are indiscriminately lifting stones from the bed of Dholai River.

“The labourers are helpless in this regard. They are hired with a daily wage of Tk400-500 to lift stones from the rivers using dredgers,” he said.

At present four quarries are running in the Sylhet district – Bhulagonj by the River Dholai, Jaflong by the Piyain River, Lawachhara at Lova and Bisnakandi stone quarry on the Gowainghat border. l

45km tailback on Dhaka-Ctg highway n Our Correspondent, Comilla

With the support of bamboos, the sculpture of Nur Hossain is kept on a road island on the Dhaka University campus. The sculpture was shifted from its old spot near the Shamsunnahar Hall for placing the recently inaugurated 'Road Accident Memorial Installation,' built in memory of noted filmmaker Tareque Masud and media personality Mishuk Munier, and all other road accident victims of the country.

The process caused considerable damage to the sculpture RAJIB DHAR

33 to vie for each seat at SUST n Our Correspondent, Sylhet

Wasfia selected one of National Geographic Adventurers

About 33 students will vie for each seat in the upcoming admission test of the first year honours course for academic session 2014-15 at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST).

The admission test will be held at 27 Centres on November 15 , said Associate Professor and Member Secretary of the Admission Committee Faruk Uddin.

He told Dhaka Tribune: “A total of 48,228 aspirants had submitted applications against 1,463 seats that includes all the quotas under six faculties of 25 departments.”

The test under A unit will be held around 9:30am and the test under B will be held at 2:30pm, said Faruk Uddin.

Further details related to admission test are available on the university website at: www.sust.edu/admission. l

n Tribune Report

WEATHER

DRY WEATHER LIKELY SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8 DHAKA TODAY TOMORROW SUN SETS 5:16PM SUN RISES 6:09AM FORECAST FOR TODAY 32 29 31 31 31 30 33 29

Dhaka Chittagong Rajshahi Rangpur Khulna Barisal Sylhet Cox’s Bazar

Mountaineer Wasfia Nazreen has been selected as one of the National Geographic Adventurers of the Year 2014/2015 for her activism and commitment to empower women through her work in the field of adventure.

The information was disclosed on National Geographic’s website yesterday.

A total of 14 adventurers has been selected in 10 categories this year. With Wasfia’s name on the top of the list, the 13 other adventurers are: Alpinist Ueli Steck, adaptive adventurers Erik Weihenmayer and Lonnie Bedwell, climber Tommy Caldwell, filmmakers Matt Stoecker, Ben Knight and Travis Rummel, kayaker Aleksander Doba, paragliders Will Gadd and Gavin McClurg, ski mountaineer Kit DesLauriers, surfer Liz Clark, and swimmer Lewis Pugh.

National Geographic is also hosting People’s Choice Adventurer of the Year where one can vote every day for their favourite adventurer. One can vote every day until January 31 next year, and the winner will be announced in February. Votes can be cast at: http:// on.natgeo.com/1E8oMz3.

In addition, this year marks the 10th

anniversary of National Geographic’s mission to find adventurers of the year from across the globe, selected for their extraordinary achievement in exploration, conservation, humanitarianism, and adventure sports.

The Dhaka Tribune tried to contact Wasfia and her father yesterday, but could not reach either of them as their phones were switched off.

However, Wasfia posted a status on her Facebook page in reaction to the announcement. “Such a great feeling to land back in Motherland with the news of being listed for the 10th Anniversary special National Geographic Adventurer of the Year Award!! [sic] Mindblowingly humbling to be amongst such an amazing group of individuals around the planet. At the same time, super proud to represent Bangladesh for the first time where she always belonged!” she wrote.

Wasfia is the first Bangladeshi to attempt to climb the Seven Summits. In 2011, in celebration of 40 years of independence of Bangladesh as well as to promote women empowerment, she took up the challenge of climbing the highest mountain in each of the seven continents. Until now, she has successfully conquered six of them. l

n Tribune Desk A move is underway to build some 550 cyclone shelters to help save the lives of the people of nine coastal districts and their property from natural disasters.

The Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) under the Ministry of LGRD has initiated the move to undertake a project titled ‘Multipurpose Cyclone Shelters (2nd Phase)’, which is now at the Planning Commission for its consideration.

A meeting of the pre-evaluation committee (PEC) on the proposed project was held on October 19, 2014 with Planning Commission member of the Agriculture, Water Resource and Rural Institution Division Mohammad Shofiqul Azam in the chair. At the meeting, the Planning Commission made some recommendations to fine tune the project.

A Planning Commission official said the proposed cost of the project is Tk2,909.39 crore of which Tk13.28 crore will come from the national exchequer while the rest, Tk2,896.11 crore, is expected to come from the World Bank as project assistance, reports UNB.

24 25 20 19 21 22 21 24

n FM Mizanur Rahman, Chittagong

18.5ºC Dinajpur

PRAYER TIMES 4:51am 6:07am 11:42am 3:40pm 5:16pm 6:33 pm SourceL IslamicFinder.org

Some 74 upazilas of nine coastal districts have been selected as the project areas likely to be implemented from January 2015 to December 2021.

The proposed districts to be covered under the project are Barisal, Bhola, Patuakhali, Pirojpur, Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Feni, Lakshmipur and Noakhali.

The official said the project also aims to create opportunities for operating primary and other educational activities at the cyclone shelters alongside creating short-term employment scope and operating other social and government programmes like EPI as well as creating facilities for the coastal community through NGO training.

Apart from the construction of the 550 new cyclone shelters, the official said that under the project, there will be development of the existing 450 cyclone shelters, construction or reconstruction of some 550 km cyclone shelters connecting roads alongside the construction or reconstruction of some 500 metre bridges and culverts on the connecting roads to the cyclone shelters.

Planning Commission member of Agriculture, Water Resource and Rural Institution Division Mohammad

Shofiqul Azam said that during the PEC meeting, various aspects of the proposed project were discussed with some recommendations and observations.

He said the DPP of the project were also sent to Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal for his consideration.

Another official at the LGRD Ministry said the people living in the country’s some 8,900-sqkm coastal area are highly vulnerable to natural calamities like flood and cyclone.

In a span of 200 years, 70 cyclones hit the coastal belt of the country claiming many lives and damaging property, shelters, domestic animals and coastal infrastructures.

Even, the cyclone ‘Sidr’ in 2007 followed by ‘Aila’ in 2009 ravaged the coastal belt that underscores the need for improving the cyclone shelters to reduce the loss of lives and property in case of natural disasters.

Under the circumstances, the LGRD Ministry moved the Development Project Proforma (DPP) to the Planning Commission for its consideration to help protect the people of the coastal districts from possible flood, cyclone and other natural disasters. l

Agitation breaks out over death of domestic help

Source: Accuweather/UNB

Fajr Sunrise Zohr Asr Magrib Esha

Several hundred passengers have suffered due to a 45-kilometre long tailback on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway in Comilla.

The tailback was created between Swalpa Pennai area and Comilla Cantonment area as a covered van broke down in Jingatali area of Daudkandi upazila around 3:00pm on Thursday, police said.

Moreover, there were rush of vehicles on the highway due hartal, they said.

Comilla Highway Police Sub-Inspector Rafiqul Islam said the traffic became normal by 2:00pm yesterday after the covered van was removed. l

Move underway to build 550 cyclone shelters

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW

34.5ºC Situakunda

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Saturday, November 8, 2014

Gonojagoron Moncho spokesperson Imran H Sarker speaking at a rally held in protest of Pakistan’s interference with the war crimes trial in Bangladesh in capital’s Shahbagh yesterday MEHEDI HASAN

Agitators clashed with police over the death of a domestic help found in a house belonging to returned Bangladeshi expatriates in Chittagong city yesterday.

Police recovered the body of Parveen Akhter, 21, from a bathroom in the house where she worked at Islam Hazi Brickfield Road in the Chotopul area of Halishahar around 3pm, Syed Abu Mohammad Shahjahan Kabir, officer-in-charge (OC) of Halishahar police station, said.

Kamal Haidar, the owner of the house, and his wife were detained, the OC said. Police sources described them as expatriates who had returned to Bangladesh. A tense situation prevailed between police and residents of the shanty town as news spread of Parveen’s death. Locals said they believe the girl, an orphan, had been mur-

dered. The deceased lived with her aunt in a nearby shanty, police sources said.

Parveen had been working for the couple for some time, the OC said, quoting residents of the area.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) SM Tavir Arafat of Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) West Zone said police pursued and dispersed angry residents of the area who tried to attack the couple while they were in police custody. Yesterday morning, the wife of Kamal had scolded and later beat Parveen over some gold ornaments that had gone missing, the OC said.

On receiving information in the afternoon, police recovered Parveen’s dead body from a bathroom of the house. Her body was found hanging from the window grill by a scarf.

Parveen’s death appeared to be a suicide because the body bore no marks of injury, said the OC. But police have not ruled out foul play, he said. l

6

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Nation

Saturday, November 8, 2014

UNO-chairman row slows down dev in Ishwarganj n Our Correspondent, Mymensingh A row has erupted between Ishwarganj Upazila Nirbahi Officer Tahmina Akhter and Upazila Parishad Chairman Mahmud Hasan Sumon, also an Awami League leader, in Mymensingh after the former filed a case against the followers of the latter over an attack at her office last month.

In an apparent bid to maintain his distance from her, Upazila Parishad Chairman has gone on leave until November 20 from October 20, affecting the Upazila Parishad activities.

Meanwhile, Upazila Awami League President Abdus Sattar has sided with the UNO. He leads a factional rival to the one led by Upazila Parishad Chairman Mahmud.

Ishwarganj Municipality Awami League unit Joint Secretary Rafiqul Islam said UNO Tahmina had committed corruption in various projects, including 40-day job generation programme for the poor, over the last three years of her office in the upazila.

Since Upazila Parishad Chairman Mahmud had protested her corruption, she filed the false case against his followers in a bid to take revenge on him, he claimed.

Upazila Awami League General Secretary Abdul Hakim said there might be a mental conflict between them over

the case. Nothing else.

Upazila Parishad Vice Chairman Amirul Islam Bhuiyan, also a BNP leader, said the Upazila Parishad had become almost dysfunctional since the chairman took leave last month.

On September 3, a mobile court, led by UNO Tahmina, allegedly took down an illegal billboard with Upazila Parishad Chairman Mahmud’s photo and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib’s on it. Local Awami League leaders and activists got furious at it and attacked the office of the UNO on that very day.

UNO Tahmina filed the case under the Speedy Trial Tribunal Act against 50 to 60 persons, naming only 12 of them in it. Police have submitted a charge sheet against 32 persons in this case. Twenty five followers of Mahmud are now behind bars in the cºase.

Talking about the case, Upazila Parishad Chairman Mahmud said those who had been made accused in the case were in no way involved in the incident.

This is just a case filed by the UNO to harass party leaders and activists.

When asked, UNO Tahmina declined to say anything more than that she had filed a case against the followers of the Upazila Parishad chairman over the attack at her office and now it was up to the court. l

Labourers sow garlic seeds at a field at Bolpur village under Puthia upazila, Rajshahi yesterday. Farmers of Puthia, Durgapur, Taherpur and Bagmara upazilas in the district are now more interested in cultivating garlic as they made huge profit last year AZAHAR UDDIN

‘Ekti Bari, Ekti Khamar’ project turns boon Wild elephants attack for Mymensingh indigenous people villages in Jamalpur

Three Shibir activists arrested n Our Correspondent, Barisal

n Our Correspondent, Mymensingh

Police arrested three activists of Islami Chhatra Shibir, student front of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, from Adhuna village under Gournadi upazila of Barisal early yesterday. The arrested were identified as Nazmul Hossain Nahid, 19, son of Barek Sardar from Garangal village under Gournadi upazila of Barisal, Abdullah Al Mamun, 26, son of Abul Bashar from Sangkojkhali village under Sadar upazila of Magura, Nure Millat Jamaddar, 22, son of late Qari Abdur Rob Jamaddar from Vandaria upazila of Pirojpur district.

Abul Kalam, officer-in-charge of Gournadi police station said they had been arrested while they conducting secret meeting for doing sabotage at Adhuna village. Other participants of the meeting managed to flee from the scene. l

Some landless indigenous people, namely Nelson Marak, Januti Marak and Kemol Marak, residents of Sonakhali village in Bhaluka upzaila, have recently been confident of tearing out the cycle of poverty by dint of the project of “One House, One Farm”, also known as “Ekti Bari, Ekti Khamar” in Bangali.

One upon a time, this new dimension of the life was out of their imagination while they used to earn their livelihood by working in the lands of the locals. Even, many poverty elimination activities of the government do not reach to them owing to having a gap of information in this regard to the facilities.

This is not an example of stray incidents rather it is presenting the contemporary overall situation of the indigenous people living in the district.

Consequently, the people have started getting benefit from the project adopted by the government particularly for the sake of them in the district.

Under the project, the state authorities supplied one dairy cow and some shits of tin as well as arranged training for them on poultry and vegetable cultivation.

And finally, a cooperatives society has also been developed with the indigenous people so that they can get banking facility from it.

It was learnt from local Bangladesh Rural Development Board (BRDB) that there are more than 166 indigenous

families in Bhaloka and Haluaghat upazilas and at least 50 in Dhobaura upazila. All of the family members are hopeful of being solvent with the grace of the project.

In this regard, Kemol Marak said: “I have gotten a new life with the project as there was no hope of being solvent and thought of passing life in the impoverished condition.”

BRDB sources stated that the project of “One House, One Farm” was aimed to help the 300 indigenous families living in the district to develop their financial condition.

When contacted, local MP Dr M Amanullah said the incumbent government has been trying to ensure due public facilities for the indigenous people living there. l

n Our Correspondent, Jamalpur It’s a battle for survival.

Loss of habitats and food sources have forced wild elephants to march to adjacent villages in search of food, triggering a conflict with villagers in Bakshiganj upazila of Jamalpur.

Several herds of elephants from deep forests of India’s Meghalaya are making the lives miserable for the people at seven villages in the upazila.

Locals said the elephants come to the villages at night, destroy paddy fields and fruit orchards.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, several villagers told that they spend sleepless nights amid fear of attacks by the wild elephants.

Mostofa Kamal, a chairman of Ka-

malpur union parishad, said the elephants have destroyed new crops in about 400 acres of land in the villages, including Satanipara, Shuknathpara, Tilapar, Balujhuri, Dighakona,Garopara and Laochpara.

Farmers of the villages are being forced to harvest their crops before those being matured, he said.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, the villagers alleged the elephants herds cannot be pushed back anyhow as India shut the doors of barbed fences on the border after the elephants enter the Bangladesh territory. Md Ershad, Upazila Nirbahi Officer in Bakshiganj, said they have taken initiative to raise awareness among the villagers so that they can save their lives and properties from the attacks of the wild elephants. l

Police release acid attack case accused n Our Correspondent, Mymensingh

Road accidents claim lives of five

Police at Pagla police station in Gafargaon upazila have been alleged to have released an accused, who faces a warrant in an acid attack case.

Locals claimed Khurshed Mia, son of Sirajul Islam, was released an hour after his arrest in exchange for a large sum.

On Thursday, he was arrested in Goyeshpur Bazar of Paithal union around 7:30pm but police mysteriously set him free in an hour.

A case was filed against Khurshed with Pagla police station, accusing him of throwing acid at Nargis Akhter, a housewife of Chhoto Borai village in the union, in December 2012. He has been on the run ever since.

Assistant Sub-Inspector of the police station Rahim said Khurshed was released in the face of pressure from locals, who said there would be an outof-court settlement. l

Five people were killed in separate road accidents that took place in Gazipur, Gaibandha and Dinajpur yesterdays Two garments workers have been killed in separate road accidents in Gazipur. The deceased are Sohel Rana, 28, son of Dulal Mia of Tirgachha village in Sheerpur and Rezaul Hoque, 40, son of late Samsul Hoque of Gopalpur village in Jhenaidah.

Naojor highway police outpost Sub-Inspector Mizanur Rahman said: “A bus of Basumoti Paribahan rammed Rezaul at Borobari area around 8am, killing him on the spot.”

“On the other hand, Sohel died when an unidentified vehicle ran over him in Targachha area in the early hours of the day,” he said. Meanwhile, three persons, including a housewife, were killed in two separate road accidents in Dinajpur and Gaibandha.

n Tribune Report

A truck was damaged badly in a collision with a covered van in Kadamrasul area under Sitakunda upazila, Chittagong yesterday. Two people were injured in the accident DHAKA TRIBUNE

Bridge over Shila River a dire need n Our Correspondent, Mymensingh A concrete bridge over the Shila River is a dire need for around 50,000 residents of 11 villages under the Moshakhali and Longair unions of Goforgaon upazila in the Mymensingh district.

Many commuters including the elderly and school-going children daily use a rickety make-shift bamboo bridge to cross the river. Residents of Kandi, Bailona, Rajoi, Proshadpur, Belab, Risab, Shonatolam, Mukhi, Moshakhali, Kashmir, Neoka, and Golabari villages have been using the 200 ft long bamboo bridge for last 50 years for various purposes including education and commerce.

A concrete bridge over the river is a long standing need of the people, said

Nazrul, 40, and Parul Akter, residents of Bailona village.

People of these unions collaboratively submitted an application stating the need of such a bridge over the river to the Upazila Nirbahi Officer two years ago, but no steps have been taken as yet.

“Although a fearful task the elderly and school-going children, having no alternative, use the bamboo bridge,” said Mariam, 35, another resident, adding that a concrete bridge would contribute to the development and betterment of people’s lives.

Local MP Fahmi Golondaj Babel, elected in the January 5 election, said he had recently sent a letter to the Communication Ministry seeking approval to build a bridge over the Shila River. l

A housewife was killed after a bus crushed her at Hirok Mour on the Rangpur-Dhaka highway under Gobindaganj upazila in Gaibandha while she was crossing the road around 3:50pm.

The deceased was identified as Amina Begum, 33, wife of Mostafizur Rahman of nearby village Sakapla under Gobindaganj upazila of Gaibandha.

In another accident, two persons were killed when a bus hit a van at Bhushirbandar point on the Rangpur-Dinajpur highway under Chirirbandar upazila in Dinajpur.

The deceased were identified as Manik Chandra, 30, son of Sattyen Chandra of village Kachimia under Khansama upazila and Abdul Aziz, 35, son of Nazrul Islam of village Fotejongpur under Chirirbandar upazila in Dinajpur. In both cases, drivers and helpers of the killer buses along with their vehicles managed to escape the scenes soon after the accidents. l

NEWS IN BRIEF Female RMG worker held with fake currency

A female RMG worker was arrested with a huge amount of fake currency from her residence in Bhogra area under Gazipur city corporation on Thursday night. She was identified as Salma Akter, 26, wife of Habibullah of Nazrulnagar village under Chorfashion upazila in Bhola. Sub-inspector of Bhogra police out post Mobarak Hossain said they had conducted a raid in the Salma’s rental house around 8pm on Thursday and recovered Tk3.26 lakh fake currency from there. Then police arrested Salma, but her husband had fleed away from the spot befor police arrived. Among the recovered currency, 264 pieces of Tk1,000 note and 125 pieces of Tk500 notes. police said,

Salma and her husband had been living in the house for seven months and doing the business. – Our Correspondent, Gazipur

10 with female councillor injured in clash

At least 10 people, including a female councillor, were injured in a clash over the ownership of a piece of land at Mothbari village under Kotalipara upazila, Gopalganj yesterday. Sub-Inspector of Kotalipara police station said there was a long-standing dispute between female councillor Rina Begum and freedom fighter Khalil Hawladar over the ownership of a piece of land. When Rina along with her supporters tried to buld a room on the disputed land, Khali and his

supporters resisted them, trigering a clash.

Police said they brought the situatation under control. – Our Correspondent, Gopalganj

led by Kaliganj Upazila Nirbahi Officer Mohammed Moniruzzaman gave six months of imprisonment each of the youth. – Our Correspondent, Gazipur

Three drug addicts jailed for six months

Contraband items worth Tk32.28 lakh seized

A mobile court sentenced six months of imprisonment to three drug addicted youths in Gazipur on Thursday night. The youths were identified as Sajib, 22, Faisal Ahmed, 22, Zahirul Islam. Officer-in-charge of Kaliganj police station Nazmul Haque Bhuiyan said police had conducted a raid in Bagdi bridge area under Kaligonj upazila and arrested them along with 300 grams of hemp and a knife. Later, a mobile court

Members of the BGB seized a huge amount of contraband items from Chuadanga frontier yesterday. Chuadanga 6 BGB Battalion Director SM Moniruzzaman said acting on a tip off they had conducted a drive in Munshipur and Hudapara areas in the early hours of yesterday and seized Indian saris, Urea fertiliser, liquor, phensidyl, and medicines in abandoned state. – Our Correspondent, Chuadanga

DHAKA TRIBUNE

World

Ukraine says Russia has sent tanks into east n Agencies Ukraine has accused Russia of sending dozens of tanks, heavy weapons and truckloads of armed men into the country’s rebel-controlled eastern areas.

Andriy Lysenko, a military spokesman, said on Friday that at least 32 tanks and 16 artillery systems, as well as 30 trucks loaded with armed men and ammunition, had crossed into eastern Ukraine from Russia on Thursday.

Lysenko said that another convoy with three mobile radar stations also entered the same area.

He also said that five Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and 16 injured in the past 24 hours in clashes between government forces and rebel fighters that underscored the doubts over a two-month ceasefire that both continue to insist they are respecting.

Ukraine and the West have continuously accused Moscow of fuelling a pro-Russian rebellion in the east with troops and weapons. The accusations have been repeatedly denied by Russia.

Russia made no immediate comment on Lysenko’s statement, but earlier it again rejected Western allegations Moscow was deploying more troops near the border. There was no way to confirm the Ukrainian claims independently.

Tensions rising

Sri Lanka ‘sabotaging’ war crimes probe n Reuters, Geneva The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Friday accused Sri Lanka of trying to “sabotage” a war crimes inquiry, creating a “wall of fear” to prevent witnesses from giving evidence.

The UN Human Rights Council set up the inquiry in March to investigate crimes allegedly committed by both government forces and Tamil rebels during the final stages of a 26-year conflict that ended in 2009.

“The Government of Sri Lanka has refused point blank to cooperate with the investigation despite being explic-

China, Japan set aside isle row, paving way for leaders to meet n Reuters, Beijing/Tokyo

Fifteen civilians were wounded by shrapnel in the separatist bastion of Donetsk, the mayor’s office said, in a night of shelling in two neighbourhoods near the ruins of the airport, where government troops are holding out.

Kiev has recently ordered the military to increase the number troops on the frontline to prevent further losses of territory to the rebel.

While the September truce agreement has seen full-scale confrontations halt along most of the frontline, shelling has continued at flashpoints around the industrial east.

Claims of fresh troop movements are reinforcing fears of a return to allout fighting.

The latest casualties came after Kiev moved to isolate the Kremlin-backed separatist regions, firming up the split of the former Soviet republic in a crisis that has sent East-West relations to their lowest ebb since the Cold War. The AFP news agency reported that shelling in the fog-shrouded city of Donetsk had subsided on Friday morning.

Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands, reporting from Moscow, said there are many people saying that all these things point to crumbling of the peace process. l

itly requested by the Human Rights Council to do so,” Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said in his statement.

“A wall of fear has been created that has undoubtedly served to deter people from submitting evidence.”

“Such a refusal does not, however, undermine the integrity of an investigation set up by the Council - instead it raises concerns about the integrity of the government in question. Why would governments with nothing to hide go to such extraordinary lengths to sabotage an impartial international investigation?”

A Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry official rejected Zeid’s remarks. l

US President Barack Obama (C) pauses to recognise injured services members in the audience as he introduces a performance during the “In Performance at the White House” series at the White House in Washington on Thursday REUTERS

Obama to host US Congress leaders as post-election battles boil n Reuters, Washington Republican victors of Tuesday’s US congressional elections break bread with Democratic President Barack Obama on Friday as the two sides assess what legislation can be enacted in coming months despite years of confrontation.

In the run-up to the lunch meeting at the White House, it was clear that in this post-election era, Obama and Republicans controlling the Congress next year would continue going at each other, just as they did before the Nov 4 vote.

House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner and Senator Mitch McConnell, who is set to become Senate majority leader in January, said they intend to send Obama legislation repealing all or parts of the president’s landmark healthcare law.

Obama countered that he will ignore Republican warnings and use his executive powers to ease some restrictions on undocumented residents, since House Republicans have steadfastly refused to advance immigration legislation.

“Finding common ground is going to be hard work. But it will be even

harder if the president isn’t willing to work with us,” Boehner warned at a press conference on Thursday.

The White House took a more optimistic tone ahead of the meeting, saying Obama was committed to working with Republicans on issues of shared interest like infrastructure, tax reform and international trade even as differences remain on health care and immigration.

Friday’s meeting is expected to focus on some major bills that must be passed promptly, once Congress begins its post-election “lame duck” session on Wednesday.

It will be the “old” Congress, the one that ends its legislative session in mid-December and has a Democratic Senate pitted against a Republican House, that must produce these bills.

At the top of the list is a $1 trillion spending bill to keep the government running beyond Dec. 11, when current funding runs out.

Other bills likely to see action in the month-long session include one to extend some temporary tax provisions, a bill renewing Pentagon programs and an expiring terrorism risk insurance bill that is important to developers of major construction projects in big cities.

The Republican and Democratic

leaders of the Senate and House will also receive a briefing from military commanders on whether there has been progress in the difficult air campaign the United States and allies are waging against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

Congress in coming weeks is expected to begin debating whether to formally authorise military force against the Islamic State, but a vote might not come until next year.

Meanwhile, Congress is expected this year to debate Obama’s plans for arming and training Syrian rebels. A current authorisation for these activities expires on Dec. 11.

Democratic leaders are likely to use Friday’s session with Obama to try to raise other issues, such as increasing the federal minimum wage for hourly workers and providing equal pay for women.

“Instead of voting on GOP (Republican) bills to protect millionaires and big corporations and repeal health coverage and patient protections for millions of Americans, Americans want us to come together and immediately address these priorities,” said Drew Hammill, a spokesman for House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. l

US general: Iran strikes would only delay nuclear program

No progress in Iran nuke probe

n AFP, Washington

n Reuters, Vienna

Air strikes on Iran would set back but not destroy its nuclear capabilities, the top US military leader said Thursday, with a deadline looming for a deal between Tehran and major powers.

Iran and the P5+1 group (the United States, Britain, China, France, Russia and Germany) have set a November 24 deadline for a historic accord curbing the Islamic republic’s nuclear energy program after a decade of on-off negotiations.

The West accuses Iran of seeking to develop the nuclear weapons under

the guise of a peaceful civilian energy program.

Israel in the past has raised the threat of military action to prevent Iran from getting the bomb, while Washington has left its options open.

“We do have the capability – were we asked to use it – to address an Iranian nuclear capability,” said General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff.

“But... as we look at using the military instrument if necessary to address the Iranian nuclear issue, that would delay it, it will not eliminate it,” he told a forum at the Carnegie Endowment

for International Peace.

The United States and Iran broke off diplomatic ties in 1980, but the two sides have both engaged in the multilateral negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program.

Top US diplomat John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif are due to meet in Oman over the weekend in talks hosted by European Union foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton.

A final session of talks is then due to take place in Vienna from November 18-24, and Kerry has stressed that the deadline would not be extended. l

Iran is failing to address suspicions it may have researched how to build an atomic bomb, a UN watchdog agency’s report showed on Friday, potentially complicating efforts by six powers to reach a deal with Tehran on its nuclear program.

The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency said Tehran had still not provided information about two specific areas of the IAEA’s investigation that it was supposed to do more than two months ago.

The confidential document was issued to IAEA member states less than

three weeks before a self-imposed Nov. 24 deadline for Iran and the six global powers to end a decade-old standoff over the Islamic Republic’s atomic activities.

“Iran has not provided any explanations that enable the agency to clarify the outstanding practical measures,” the IAEA report said.

It was referring to two steps that Iran had agreed to carry out by late August, to help clarify allegations of explosives tests and other activity that could be used to develop a nuclear weapons capability. Iran denies any nuclear weapons aims. l

Indian intelligence agency on the cheap hampers war on militants n Reuters, New Delhi When a bomb went off last month in West Bengal state, police at India’s leading counter-terrorism organisation had to hail taxis to get to the scene because they did not have enough cars.

The admission by two officers from the National Investigation Agency underlines how poorly equipped it is to fulfill its role of investigating the most serious terrorism cases, cutting off funding to militants and putting suspects on trial.

The NIA’s woes are symptomatic of an overstretched intelligence network at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi must counter the growing threat of Islamist militants from Al Qaeda, and possibly also Islamic State, gaining a foothold in the world’s largest democracy.

The NIA has no officers specialising in cyber surveillance, explosives or tracing chemicals and has been forced to ask companies to decrypt computers recovered at crime scenes, officers said.

“The government has its budget constraints; we have done quite well in cracking cases with the resources at our disposal,” NIA head Sharad Kumar told Reuters in an interview.

When NIA officers eventually arrived

at the scene of the blast in West Bengal, bordering Bangladesh to India’s east, what they discovered was important.

Two members of a banned Bangladeshi militant group had blown themselves up building bombs, and the NIA believes they were part of a series of plots to destabilise Bangladesh.

The NIA, which had only opened its West Bengal branch five days earlier, was caught by surprise by the blast, as were other Indian intelligence agencies.

It is now investigating the case and says it is struggling to find a dozen senior militant leaders who it said had fled the area after the explosion.

Shoestring budget The NIA was created in response to the siege of Mumbai, India’s financial capital, when gunmen killed 166 people in a commando-style assault on two luxury hotels, a train station and a Jewish centre in 2008.

The agency is seen as India’s answer to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s counterterrorism wing, although, despite a population four times that of the United States, it has about 0.5 per cent of the funding of its American counterpart.

Before the Mumbai attack, India’s security agencies were so riven by conflict

7

Saturday, November 8, 2014

and miscommunication that they failed to process warnings about the threat of a seaborne assault, the government said later, vowing to revamp the state machinery.

Six years later and Modi has yet to lay out plans to overhaul the structure of the security services or improve the information flow between agencies, according to police and intelligence officers.

Since winning power in May, his domestic security focus has been to boost surveillance of suspects in the Muslim community following the rise of Islamic State and to improve intelligence ties with the US and Israel, government officials said.

So far his government has not responded to the NIA’s request made months ago to double the staff, recruit more specialists and create a national centre of excellence to train officers.

A home ministry spokesman declined to comment on those requests, part of a blueprint to overhaul the NIA. Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi, said there had been “aggression from the new government in its statements and its posturing on terrorism.

“There is no sign of a dramatic transformation in its approach, and until we get that, then the best you can hope for is for

the same people to do a little better.”

Infighting among intelligence groups Like many countries, India has several intelligence and investigation agencies.

The Intelligence Bureau is the domestic unit and the Research and Analysis Wing is an external spy agency.

The military runs its own intelligence wing and so do paramilitary organisations like the Border Security Force.

Infighting continues to hinder India’s ability to prevent attacks and agencies are often reluctant to share information, according to intelligence officials at these organisations as well as experts.

“The Indian intelligence services have long been plagued by stove piping and failure to share information,” said Bruce Riedel, a former senior CIA expert on South Asia who has advised President Barack Obama on policy in the region.

“Modi’s new national security adviser, Ajit Doval, a long-time intelligence professional, will have the job of making the services perform at a higher level.”

The NIA was supposed to be complemented by a National Counter Terrorism Centre that would sit above other agencies and sift through what they provided, as well as a national intelligence database

accessible by other agencies.

But the plan has been stalled by opposition from Indian states concerned about giving up powers to central government.

India’s constitution makes law and order primarily a state issue, and NIA officers say part of the problem is that they need help in intelligence gathering from local police, who are typically poorly trained and ill-equipped.

At present, when Indian police arrest suspects there is no way to check if they are wanted, a problem that has led to embarrassing blunders.

Police arrested Yasin Bhatkal, accused of orchestrating a series of deadly bomb blasts, as one of the co-founders of the militant Indian Mujahideen group.

Bhatkal spent months in a West Bengal jail for handling forged currency before he was released four years ago because police were unaware he was on the NIA’s most wanted list.

He was finally re-captured in a hideout on India’s border with Nepal last year.

The Indian government is working to build a national computer database linking the country’s 14,000 police stations. This will allow officers for the first time to check a suspect’s background based on fingerprints or iris scans. l

China and Japan agreed on Friday to work on improving ties and signalled willingness to put a bitter row over disputed islands on the back burner, paving the way for their leaders to meet at an Asian-Pacific summit next week.

The agreement, ahead of an expected ice-breaking chat between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the gathering in Beijing, signals a thaw in ties between the two nations.

Relations have been soured over the past two years by the territorial row, regional rivalry and the bitter legacy of Japan’s wartime occupation of China.

Abe said the two sides were making final arrangements for one-on-one talks, although neither he nor China’s foreign ministry confirmed that the talks were set.

“Both Japan and China are coming to the view that it would benefit not just the two countries but regional stability if a summit is held,” he told a TV programme.

But in signs that fundamental problems would not easily be resolved, Abe also said there had been no change in Japan’s stance on the isles at the heart of the territorial dispute, while China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, urged Japan to properly handle sensitive issues like history and the islands. l

Peres: Modi paving the ‘third revolution’ in India n Agencies Nobel Prize winner and former president of Israel Shimon Peres on Friday lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying he is paving the ‘third revolution’ in India by combining tradition with the right technology to take the country to new heights.

“I met yesterday your Prime Minister and he himself is running the ‘third revolution’. The first was introduced by – I would call him a prophet – Mahatma Gandhi. Then Jawaharlal Nehru looked how to pave the ground for sustainable India. He did something which is unusual. Five-year plan from Russia and another from MIT. “Then came the Prime Minister (Modi) who has great experience and wisdom in India itself, and created a ‘third revolution’ combining the spirit of Gandhi and the pragmatism of Nehru.

Stating that the world can learn a lot from India’s farm experience, Peres said, “Your commitment to basic scientific agri-research is the only way that India today is more food secure than it was 50 years ago. And, amazingly, you have done this while still relying primarily on small-scale farmers.”

Presently, India is suffering shortage of land and water and the way forward is that the “India, Israel and Australia – should join hands” to address the challenges of food and water security, he said. l

Series of blasts strike Fatah targets in Gaza

n Reuters, Gaza

A series of small explosions targeted the homes and vehicles of officials from President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement in the Gaza Strip on Friday, members of the party and witnesses said, causing minor damage but no injuries.

The explosions came days ahead of the 10th anniversary of the death of former Palestinian president and Fatah leader Yasser Arafat, a memorial that has lead to tensions between Fatah and Hamas, the Islamist group that dominates Gaza.

Senior Fatah official Abdallah Abu Samhadana said the Nov. 11 commemoration would go ahead despite the explosions, one of which targeted the wooden stage where the event is to be held.

“No one will deter us from holding the event, regardless of what explosions and terror they commit,” Samhadana said in a statement carried on the official Palestinian news agency, WAFA. Hamas condemned the explosions as a “criminal” act and ordered those who carried them out to be brought to justice.

Hamas and Fatah agreed in April to form a “reconciliation” government, an effort to overcome deep political rifts that date back to 2007, when Hamas seized power in Gaza after a weeks-long civil war with Fatah.

It was not clear who carried out Friday’s attacks, but a letter left at the scene of one of the blasts was signed

by Islamic State. Fatah sources said they doubted the letter was authentic and more likely an attempt by attackers to spread fear and cover for their true identity. l

8

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Prescription

Saturday, November 8, 2014

All about menopause

Menopause is a natural part of life, and it cannot be avoided. However, management of the symptoms can play an integral part in ensuring that menopausal symptoms do not impact heavily on a woman’s life

n Dr Meherun Nessa

hot flashes and deplete your body of nutrients such as magnesium and B vitamins. Alcohol also puts a strain on your liver, which is responsible for breaking down fats.  Eat more menopause-friendly foods such as fish, natural yoghurt, quinoa, broccoli, cabbage, tahini, almonds, pomegranate and oats.

M

enopause occurs when the production of hormones by the ovaries begins to slow down.

As this change occurs, the hormone levels in a woman’s body will tend to fluctuate, which will most likely have an effect on the woman’s menstrual cycle. Eventually, hormone production levels fall to a point where menstruation stops altogether – this point is the menopause. During menopause, levels of oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone decline as ovulation ceases.

Menopause normally affects women between the ages of 45 and 55, with the average age falling around 50 years old.

Menopause causes a range of different symptoms, but the most likely to occur include hot flashes, night sweats, aches and pains, irritability, tiredness and headaches. Less common symptoms include forgetfulness, reduced libido or sex-drive, vaginal dryness and increased urinary frequency.

Perimenopause, when hormone levels begin to fluctuate, can occur up to four years before menopause, producing symptoms such as hot flashes, sleep disturbances, low libido, weight gain and mood changes.

We look at the two most common symptoms and how to treat them.

Hot flashes

These are due to small blood vessels in your skin dilating and you may also

feel your heart race and become dizzy, sweaty and anxious. Hot flashes can occur as little as once a week or as often as every five minutes. They can be worse at night.

Low libido

As levels of estrogen decrease your libido can take a nose dive. Your skin can become thinner and drier, which often results in vaginal dryness and painful intercourse.

FOOD THERAPY

The fighter foods you need daily Spinach

It is noted muscle builder is a rich source of plant-based omega-3s and folate, which help reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, and osteoporosis. Folate also increases blood flow to the nether regions, helping to protect you against age-related sexual issues. And spinach is packed with lutein, a compound that fights macular degeneration (and may help your sex drive). Aim for 1 cup fresh spinach or 1/2 cup cooked per day.

enoids – fat-soluble compounds that are associated with a reduction in a wide range of cancers, as well as reduced risk and severity of inflammatory conditions such as asthma and rheumatoid arthritis – but none are as easy to prepare, or have as low a caloric density, as carrots. Aim for 1/2 cup a day.

Blueberries

Host to more antioxidants than any other North American fruit, blueberries can help prevent cancer, diabetes, and age-related memory changes (hence the nickname “brain berry.”) Studies show that blueberries, which are rich in fiber and vitamins A and C, also boost cardiovascular health. Aim for 1 cup fresh blueberries a day, or 1/2 cup frozen or dried.

Black Beans

Yogurt

Yogurt helps boost your immune system and helps provide protection against cancer. Aim for 1 cup of the calcium and protein-rich goop a day.

Tomatoes

All beans are good for your heart, but none can boost your brain power like black beans. That’s because they’re full of anthocyanins, antioxidant compounds that have been shown to improve brain function. A daily 1/2-cup serving provides 8 grams of protein and 7.5 grams of fiber. It’s also low in calories and free of saturated fat.

Walnuts

Richer in heart-healthy omega3s than salmon, loaded with more anti-inflammatory polyphenols than red wine, and packing half as much muscle-building protein as chicken, the walnut sounds like a Frankenfood, but it grows on trees. Other nuts combine only one or two of these features, not all three. A serving of walnuts - about 1 ounce, or 7 nuts - is good anytime, but especially as a post-workout recovery snack.

Oats

There are two things you need to know about tomatoes: Red are the best, because they’re packed with more of the antioxidant lycopene, and processed tomatoes are just as potent as fresh ones, because it’s easier for the body to absorb the lycopene. Studies show that a diet rich in lycopene can decrease your risk of bladder, lung, prostate, skin, and stomach cancers, as well as reduce the risk of coronary artery disease. Aim for 22 mg of lycopene a day, which is about eight red cherry tomatoes or a glass of tomato juice.

Carrots

Most red, yellow, or orange vegetables and fruits are spiked with carot-

| Compiled by Dr Kazi Mahbuba Akhtar

Best ways to burn off kilos

Menopause and HRT

Older women only

Symptoms before menopause

QUICK TIPS

The oats are packed with soluble fiber, which lowers the risk of heart disease.

Yes, oats are loaded with carbs, but the release of those sugars is slowed

by the fiber, and because oats also have 10 grams of protein per 1/2-cup serving, they deliver steady, musclefriendly energy. l

How to prevent menopause

Regular exercise, between 30-45 minutes per day, most days of the week, can help to reduce or relieve many of the symptoms of menopause. A healthy diet can also alleviate many of the symptoms.

How to cope with menopause 

Hormone Replacement Therapy is a medical intervention in the natural process of menopause, and works

by artificially replacing the decreasing hormone levels in the body. It is usually reserved for women who are suffering either moderate to severe menopausal symptoms, or if menopause is taking a long time to occur.  To avoid hot flashes, the first step is to cut out caffeine, alcohol and spicy foods. Caffeine activates the adrenal glands, which results in a surge of the stress hormones, adrenaline and cortisol. This will exacerbate

Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) was once recommended to women almost universally for both short- and long-term use, but since 2002, when research pointed to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and breast cancer for some women, recommendations have changed significantly.

It is now recommended that HRT be used at the lowest possible dose for the shortest possible time, and only for women experiencing moderate to severe menopausal symptoms. Shortterm (up to five years) HRT is generally considered safe, but each woman needs to discuss her individual situation with her doctor.

For women suffering menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness, urinary problems, insomnia, low libido and mood swings, the impact on quality of life is immense and often the remedy is HRT. HRT comes in many forms: tablets, patches, creams, gels, implants and vaginal pellets or creams. l The writer is an Associate Professor of Gynae department in Holy Family Red Crescent Medical college Hospital

Beware of nipple changes n Prescription Desk I have noticed changes to one of my nipples.

It is flaky, scaly, red and itchy. Sometimes there is tingling and burning and it is senHEALTH ALERT sitive. Could this be anything to worry about?

While it is possible flaky, scaly, itchy or sensitive skin on the nipple could be caused by eczema or dermatitis, it can also be a condition called Paget’s disease of the nipple, a type of breast cancer that forms around the nipple.

It is relatively rare, accounting for less than five per cent of all breast cancers, and is mostly found in women over 50. However, women have been diagnosed in their 20s.

Early symptoms include redness, scaling, flaking and irritation. More advanced symptoms include tingling, itching, sensitivity, burning and pain.

There may be a discharge or bleeding and the nipple may become hard, lumpy, flattened, indrawn or inverted. In some cases there may also be a breast lump and underlying breast cancer.

If you notice any changes to one or both nipples, see your doctor as soon as possible. It may not be anything serious, but if your doctor suspects Paget’s disease, a biopsy can be performed, where a small sample of the skin tissue and any discharge is examined.

If you’re over weight and need to get moving to lose them, here few kilojoule burners to kickstart your exercise regime.

What the numbers mean: The kilojoule totals we’ve given for all the activities reflect the amount of kilojoules per kilogram of body weight that a 60-kilogram woman will burn in 30 minutes. These figures are a guide only – different people will get different results.

Swimming

The faster you swim, the better your fat-burning results will be.

High-intensity intervals work well with swimming. Do a 50m hard sprint and then rest for 30 to 60 seconds, or swim 50m slowly as your recovery. If you’re a good swimmer with a smooth, effortless technique you’ll unfortunately need to push extra hard for the same results. But if you’re like me, finishing the pool length at any pace will burn plenty of kilojoules.

25 metres per minute = 660kJ / 30 mins 50 metres per minute = 1260kJ / 30 mins

Running / Jogging

It’s no surprise that running is high on the fat-burning scale. Not surprisingly, the faster you run, the better your results will be.

High-intensity interval training is the most effective. This involves repeats of short sprints (10 to 30 seconds) interspersed by short rests (20 to 60 seconds). Do one to four sets of between six to 10 reps.

8km/h = 1020 kJ / 30 mins 10km/h = 1260 kJ / 30 mins 13km/h = 1680 kJ / 30 mins 16km/h = 1920 kJ / 30 mins

Sports

For very early cancer it may be possible to remove just the nipple and affected area of breast followed by radiation therapy You may also need a mammogram and ultrasound to check for underlying cancer.

Treatment of Paget’s disease of the nipple varies depending on how

advanced, invasive or aggressive the cancer is. Your doctor will talk to you about your options. For very early cancer it may be possible to remove just the nipple and affected area of breast followed by radiation therapy. In other cases the whole breast and lymph nodes may need to be removed.

As with any cancer, the sooner you get yourself checked out, the more treatment options you may have and the more likely they are to be successful.

Don’t ignore any health concerns, especially breast or nipple changes. l

Sugared soda makes you older early n Prescription Desk According to a new study, drinking sugary drinks was associated with cell aging. The study revealed that telomeres – the protective units of DNA that cap the ends of chromosomes in RESEARCH cells – were shorter in the white blood cells of survey participants who reported drinking more soda. The findings were reported online October 16, 2014 in the American Journal of Public Health.

The length of telomeres within white blood cells – where it can most easily be measured – has previously been associated with human lifespan. Short telomeres also have been associated with the development of chronic diseases of aging, including heart disease, diabetes, and some types of cancer.

Regular consumption of sugar-sweetened sodas might influence disease development, not only by straining the body’s metabolic control of sugars, but also through accelerated cellular aging of tissues. This is the first demonstration that soda is associated with telomere shortness.

Telomere shortening has previously been associated with oxidative damage to tissue, to inflammation, and to insulin resistance.

Based on the way telomere length shortens on average with chronological age, the researchers calculated that daily consumption of a 20-ounce soda was associated with 4.6 years of additional biological aging. This effect on telomere length is comparable to the effect of smoking, or to the effect of regular exercise in the opposite, antiaging direction. l

Most of us don’t participate in team sport to lose weight, but it’s a nice bonus. The higher intensity the sport, the greater its fatburning effectiveness. The figures below are an estimate; if you push really hard in a game you’ll undoubtedly do even better.

Soccer = 1080 kJ / 30 mins Squash = 1140 kJ / 30 mins Tennis = 900 kJ / 30 mins Volleyball = 660 kJ / 30 mins Basketball = 1200 kJ / 30 mins

Skipping

I love the versatility of skipping.

You can do it pretty much anywhere and it’s the perfect cardio burst for a strength circuit. You can do it while travelling - a rope won’t take up much bag space - or you can do it in your lounge room when the weather is bad. Skipping is your no-excuse fitness tool that is super-effective.

Fast skipping = 1560 kJ / 30 mins l

| Compiled by: Shirsho Saaeadat

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Heritage

9

Saturday, November 8, 2014

The Bhawal estate scandal Justice delayed, justice denied

The Bhawal prince with a tropy, in his glory days

D

n Tim Steel haka, and, indeed, the rest of the lands that are now Bangladesh, and even far beyond, in the 1920s and 30s were riveted by a scandal. The kind of scandal that even today, worldwide, continue to obsess the “redtops” and popular media.

Revealing insights into the private lives of the rich, famous and powerful may well be a covert means of enjoying, secretly, the fall from grace, however temporary, of those with wealth, and the power and protection it brings.

The Bhawal Zamindari was the second greatest land holding in these lands by the end of the 19th century, with aristocratic roots going back five centuries

The case of the “Tichborne Claimant” had scandalised and enthralled mid Victorian Britain. Likewise, nearly a hundred years later, the Bhawal Case enraptured the lands of Bangladesh.

The Bhawal Zamindari was the second greatest land holding in these lands by the end of the 19th century, with aristocratic roots going back five centuries. In fact, one of the truly great families of the lands that are now Bangladesh, with the great name of Gazi, and the largest palace in the land, at Gazipur.

The palace, built in the late 19th century, and believed to have been designed by the same architectural practice which designed the White House in Washington DC, is said to have contained 365 rooms.

What the scandal achieved, was to bring into the spotlight the history of such, “noble” families, and the way in which their history interlaced with that of the lands in which they lived.

The earliest family member on record was Fazail Gazi, who, in the

WIki Commons

mid 16th century, already holding substantial lands, and with very apparent influence, supported the temporary rule of the last of the Pashtuns, Sher Shah Suri.

However, skillfully making his peace with the Mughals, after the fall of this last Pashtun rule in Bengal, he is credited with retaining his landholdings, maintaining the foundation of the family fortunes of the ensuing centuries. Fortunes that survived, not only the fall of the last of the Pashtun rulers, but also both the rise and fall of the Mughal dynasty, and the arrival, and decline of the British. All in the best traditions of the greatest of the aristocratic families, around the world, and throughout the centuries!

In late April, 1909, the then zaminder of Bhawal, Raja Ramendra Narayan Roy, was persuaded by his family to take treatment, for what is believed to have been the syphilis which was the result of the debauched life led by him, and the two brothers who predeceased him, in Darjeeling.

It was soon announced, by his wife, Vivabati Devi, and his personal doctor, that he had died, and been cremated there.

In fact, his body, left for cremation, by the wife and her apparent co-conspirator, with whom she is believed to have become enamored, that family doctor, had remained unattended during a storm, and was rescued by a passing group of Sadhus. Revived by those holy mendicants, he joined them, apparently having suffered memory loss in the trauma of his attempted murder.

For 12 years, it seems, he wandered across the subcontinent in this guise of an indigent devotee. It appears, however, slowly recovering some of his memory, he returned to Dhaka, and took up a station on Buckland Bund, on the banks of the Buriganga, close to the Bhawal palace, where he was recognised by servants and tenants of the estate.

It is said that he first attracted attention for being unusually well built for a Saddhu. His identity, however, was denied by many of his family, now in possession of the considerable wealth, lands and revenues.

His sister, Jyotirmayi, however, had long believed he was still alive, and being told of the resident of Buckland Bund who bore a remarkable resemblance to her brother, arranged for him to be invited to visit the family palace.

Although the family, including his nephew, Buddhu, remained unconvinced, on a subsequent visit,

when he remembered the name of his infantile wet nurse, known to few, the conviction grew that he was, indeed, the lost master of the family, especially amongst estate workers and servants. His wife, unsurprisingly perhaps, continued to deny him.

But, on May 29, 1921 he arrived at Bhawal palace in Dhaka with two lawyers, and met with the district magistrate, and the Government appointed Collector of Dhaka, JH Lindsay, to make his claim for restoration.

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, such Government bodies as the Court of Wards and the Board of Revenue, both with a clear financial interest in the outcome, sought evidence against him, and, indeed, managed to find others to identify him as someone completely different.

Despite this, both the public, and even many of the estate’s tenants remained convinced, and some tenants even went so far as to pay their rents to him.

Both opponents and supporters then commenced a campaign for support of their positions, stimulating press articles, and publishing pamphlets.

The Board of Revenue even went as far as identifying witnesses who could testify he was someone completely different; the passions aroused may be judged by the fact that one such witness was even stabbed to death by unidentified assailants, evidently protagonists for recognition.

In 1924, he moved to Calcutta, where he received considerable public recognition, being accepted into membership of the Bengal Landowners Association, and becoming a Director of the company that ran many of the river transport services of the time, Bengal Flotilla Service. He was not slow to use such recognition to advance advocacy for his case.

In 1929, moving back to Dhaka, he and his lawyers began assembling a case for presentation to the courts, and in November, 1933, the case came, finally, before the courts, with the defendant in the case being the Court of Wards, who had consistently denied recognition.

It is, of course, worth remembering that the 12 years during which public interest had been sustained, was, itself, a traumatic period for India, and Bengal. The 1920s was a period of considerable political interest, with Gandhi emerging as a substantial figure in the burgeoning independence movement, and Jinnah wrestling with his own commitments; and Subhas Chandra Bose was developing his

firm belief in the process of wrestling independence from Britain, and such colonial establishments, indeed, as the Court of Wards!

1930, even as the case was being prepared, was the year of the politically and socially traumatic Chittagong Uprising, led by Surya Sen. And in 1931, the assassination of the District Magistrate in Comilla shocked society in Dhaka and Calcutta.

Throughout Bengal, politics were generating, at best, rising tensions and social preoccupation. Perhaps the case provided a much needed distraction?

The case lasted for three years, with hundreds of witnesses called on both sides, although, arguably, the greatest disagreement was between the claimant’s ever loyal sister, and the disloyal, even, if gossip is to be believed, adulterous, wife.

However, in August, 1936, Justice Pannabal Basu, who, after Independ-

to appeal the Calcutta verdict. That appeal was finally granted, and commenced at the beginning of July 1946.

The appeal was dismissed after a 28 day hearing in London, perhaps one of the last such judgements on Indian justice. The same evening that news was telegraphed to Calcutta, Raja Ramendra Naryan Roy collapsed with a stroke, and died, two days later.

Was there ever a finer example of the adage, “Justice delayed, is justice denied?”

The case, surely, provided much needed distraction from the political and international turbulence that engulfed the lands of Bangladesh, together with most of the contemporary world. And the ending of the Zamindari only a few years later marked, in fact, the true ending of this colourful distraction, a glimpse of what interested society, high and low, in these lands, nearly a century ago. l

The 1920s was a period of considerable political interest, with Gandhi emerging as a substantial figure in the burgeoning independence movement, and Jinnah wrestling with his own commitments

ence became education and Land Revenue Minister of West Bengal in 1952, delivering the last verdict of his distinguished career in the judiciary, shook the British establishment to its bureaucratic roots by finding for the claimant.

However, unwilling to be defeated, an appeal was immediately made against the judgement, and that appeal opened in October 1936.

Once again, the case dragged on, and although the hearing ended in August 1939, the outbreak of war delayed judgement until November 1940, once again finding by a two to one majority, for the claimant.

The establishment, in the midst of war, were ready to withdraw. The wife, however, was not, and sought leave of the Privy Council in London

Tim Steel is a communications, marketing and tourism consultant

10

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Editorial

Saturday, November 8, 2014

CODE-CRACKER

Support solar pumps, not diesel

S

olar-powered water pumps are now a proven and viable technology, and are being used widely across many parts of the world.

They are a good illustration of the way in which technical advances can help countries reduce greenhouse emissions and move towards cleaner and more efficient renewable energy sources for key tasks.

At least 100 tube wells in Bangladesh are currently being fully operated by solar-powered pumps.

They are highly cost effective and their use should be encouraged.

However, the large amount of taxpayer money spent by successive governments on subsidies for diesel means that diesel-powered pumps remain more prevalent.

The government needs to update the assumption that agricultural irrigation pumps, which are crucial to the engine of our largely agrarian economy, can only be commonly run using diesel-powered pumps.

Diesel is not only costly but environmentally detrimental, and ultimately not sustainable for the economy. There is no need to continue subsidising diesel pumps when solar pumps are a viable substitute.

It is time for the government to stop burning money on diesel fuel.

The price of diesel in Bangladesh should be raised, not lowered, as we need to discourage its use. The revenue gained from cutting subsidies on diesel should be used to subsidise solar irrigation pumps more widely across the nation.

We must use every means available to support cleaner and more sustainable use of energy. This means a move away from diesel and towards solar pumps.

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

info@development

Use every means available to support cleaner and more sustainable use of energy

Review system for employment injury insurance

S

ince Rana Plaza, major efforts have been made by leading brands and the government to collect compensation for injured workers and their families.

The task has highlighted many areas for improvement in the way our national labour law deals with workplace injuries. The time taken to identify victims and their families and to ensure they receive monies collected to them certainly needs to be shortened.

Despite the setting up of highlevel committees to assist with this work, the task is still rife with potential for lengthy legal disputes over liability. Outstanding issues must be sorted quickly to ensure victims are fully and properly assisted.

As everyone accepts, the most important lesson to learn from Rana Plaza is to improve safety in order to help prevent future disasters.

However, there is also a case for looking more broadly at our insurance system for workplace injuries. Existing commercial employer-liability insurance is arguably prone to legal delays and disputes about liability.

According to the ILO, the Bangladesh government has shown keen interest in working to set up a national EII scheme under the ILO Convention on Employment Injury Benefits (No 121).

The claimed merit of such a scheme is that it could provide a timelier and lower cost no-fault approach to compensating those directly affected by workplace accidents. If as is claimed, a national EII scheme would cost no more than 3% of the total wage bill, then it might be a sound investment for the government and industry stakeholders to consider.

There is merit in looking at suggestions to make compensation timelier and more effective

October 25 to know is how to find the information that they need and then utilise it in the best possible way.

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a different letter of the alphabet. For example, today 13 represents B so fill B every time the figure 13 appears.

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

Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.

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

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

RS Obviously, we need information in today’s time period, and for this reason there is the existence of the internet as a tool. The government could also play a vital role in giving importance to information.

TJ “As a development tool, information is no less effective than investment or education.”

Everyone has access to excessive information through all sorts of technology. What they need

Md Hasan Al Arif Tito We are living in the era of an information explosion, so to be successful in both perspectives – at the individual and institutional levels, proper access of information is a must.

SUDOKU Govt picks 199 future IT leaders October 27 Sanil Sanwar “Leveraging ICT for Growth, Employment and Governance (LICT) Project Director Md Rezaul Karim said that experts and academics have been engaged to provide training that would begin at Comilla BARD from October 28.”

Good! Let’s get it done!

Move away, flag-stand cars are coming

October 27 Shammi Huda Can we have a counter piece telling us that we should consider all this a privilege and that it statistically occurred more in BNP days? Abuse of privileges and self-entitlement under protection of officialdom has increased at every level in every way.

I hear Pepe Mujica is retiring in Uruguay. ;-)

‘Biggest sea port to be built in Barisal’

October 25 imzy I hope they carry out this project and other such projects! Bangladesh has a large population.

We are agriculturally fertile. Let us develop our industry and services!

Are we doing it right?

October 25 rose Our traffic system obviously needs improvement.

Before bringing so many cars into this country, the road system should have been taken into consideration. Thorough and wise planning is needed in order to overcome this problem.

Why not a national minimum wage?

October 26

Momoaswan It is the right thing to do, that’s why we don’t have a national minimum wage. The people who make decisions are too used to paying their domestic servants nada.

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PK Jamaat: Stop Bangladesh’s ‘illegal action’ against Jamaat

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.

October 26

Raihan Hadi So after all that Jamaat has done to our country they still have the courage to ask for more? How shameless can one be?

Vikram Khan Raihan Hadi: Pakistan still cannot get that Bangladesh is an independent country; same goes for Jamaat. Just ban them from Bangladesh!

A culture of evidence October 26

Anon “Thousands of professional journals across the world testify to the position of the scientific method as the sole criteria for real knowledge creation.”

Scientific research is duly important in today’s world time, and so it should be given more significance. Schools and universities can take this into consideration.

Karl Hungus “Faith and ideology have their place; genuine scholarship is not that place. At least, not in the year 2014.”

The concluding line … [slow clap].

Just a child October 26

SR I strongly believe that all the females in this society need to be aware of and understand the adverse effects of child marriage. It is not just the government or any organisation who alone could solve such a problem. It is a matter of understanding and acknowledgment.

We need to understand that we have our own rights, and can be independent in our own ways.

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Waver (6) 5 Boring tool (3) 7 Period of time (3) 8 Abstract (6) 11 Pungent (3) 12 Raised platform (5) 14 Untidy state (4) 16 Concise (5) 18 Consumed (5) 20 Close by (4) 21 Words spoken in undertone (5) 23 Goal (3) 24 Food cupboard (6) 27 Narrow beam (3) 28 Vast age (3) 29 Choose (6)

DOWN 1 Passing craze (3) 2 Limb (3) 3 Long locks (7) 4 Direction (4) 5 Stick (6) 6 Stretcher (6) 9 Notion (4) 10 Make lace (3) 13 Army rank (7) 14 Threat (6) 15 Pollen-bearing organ (6) 17 Unharmed (4) 19 No score (3) 22 Venture (4) 25 Stain (3) 26 Rodent (3)

Zero-Agenda It’s scary to think how comfortable our society can sometimes appear to be when it comes to marrying off children.

Failure to govern October 26

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS CODE-CRACKER

PEANUTS

SE “Latif Siddique cannot be punished only for his remarks, he must also be penalised for his misdeeds to ensure good governance.”

The establishment of good governance is indeed needed for this country. Perhaps there are issues where the government is trying to make changes, but they should also take into consideration aspects such as poverty alleviation, the law and order situation, and so on. nds What does it mean? Is it not abundantly clear that as long as you do not cause any harm politically to the interest of the party, your corruption can easily be ignored?

ZA nds: A fair enough point, but you cannot ignore that it is exactly the first impression one gets upon inspecting this incident to some degree.

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

Op-Ed

DHAKA TRIBUNE

11

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Flying solo n FS Aijazuddin

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akistan’s successes are individual, its failures collective.

Take mountaineering: A young mountaineer Samina Baig conquers Mount Everest in 2013. In exploration, Namira Salim reaches both Poles - the North in 2007 and the South a year later.

Pakistanis disintegrate when required to act in concert

Nothing good comes out of these

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AZAHAR UDDIN

G

E

R

T

H

A

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I

F

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Ban these hartals

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n Ekram Kabir his time around, an Islamist party has resorted to hartals to protest against the court verdicts regarding war criminals. It is shocking to see that a party that wants to do politics in this country is trying to save the people who acted against the independence of our country. The positive aspect is that people have totally rejected this spate of hartals. They weren’t scared to come out of their homes this time. The government has also taken precautions for saving public property from the enforcers of hartals.

However, this doesn’t mean that people will not be scared of hartals in the future. The party in power, which is now working to prevent hartals, will resort to hartals themselves when they’ll be the opposition. This has been the fact since the independence of Bangladesh. Whenever a party has lost power, they have always used hartals as a tool to depose the party in power.

Since our independence, for about two decades, hartals were quite useful for the opposition. But after the 90s, this political tool became nothing but acts of destruction. The essence of a political or any other strike, as we fathom, is that the parties will urge the people to observe strikes in favour of something that they believe in.

If people also think the reasons

behind hartals are logical, they might want to respond to their call and stay at home. However, the hartal-callers these days have become the hartal enforcers. They are not giving a damn about what the people want – they are simply doing what they want.

the nation’s students have to bear.

We’re quite sure that the enforcers of hartals themselves do understand the fact that this so-called political tool can no longer harm or unnerve the government. Rather, this tool has become an anti-people program. Har-

We want to see a proper solution. If there’s any doubt about banning hartals, we can go for a referendum on this issue

Exploding bombs, setting buses full of passengers on fire, uprooting railroads, and fighting law personnel cannot be the right way to observe political strikes or put forward your cause.

Hartals have now become a tool for violence, death, maiming, mutilation, and loss in business. Hartals have become the promoters of poverty in the country.

FBCCI said Bangladesh loses Tk10,000cr in one day’s hartal. World Bank said Bangladesh’s production has suffered a loss of Tk11,000cr due to hartal violence. CPD said investments worth of Tk240cr is lost due to hartals.

Also, think about the unthinkable loss

tals harm the people – they get people killed, and harm our economy.

We’ve also seen that anti-hartal programs multiply the intensity of violence even more. 27 law personnel have died in the past three years for such programs. The loss to the families of these police personnel cannot be measured. Hartal violence has killed our children and women.

Many have been left physically challenged for life.

The world’s first hartal was staged more than 100 years ago in 1906. It was in South Africa and was lead by Mohandas K Gandhi to protest the Black Act in 1906. In the past, it was

used for the welfare of a country. In those days, the politicians weren’t either power or wealth-mongers. But these days, greed has become the prime driving force behind all kinds of political showdowns.

The businessmen as well as the common people have been demanding an end to these hartals by formulating laws. The politicians have also sometimes talked about it. Recently, a parliamentary committee discussed how to stop the enforcement of hartals by formulating laws. The representatives from both the government and the opposition have agreed to go ahead with this.

They want the bill to be in the parliament. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also had given her consent in favour of such a bill. The bill was put up by a Jatiya Party MP in 2010. But, something is surely wrong somewhere. After the discussion of the standing committee, nothing has changed yet. The law ministry found a few contradictions within our constitution, and now the process has been stalled.

We want to see a proper solution to a problem, which is harming the people and the country. If there’s any doubt about banning hartals, we can go for a referendum on this issue. Let’s see what the people mandate about hartals. Let’s settle this once and for all. We want to see our politicians care for our wants and needs. l Ekram Kabir, a journalist, is a DT columnist.

Dr Abdus Salam wins the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1979. 17-year-old Malala Yousufzai joins him as our latest and only other Nobel laureate.

In squash, Azam Khan, Jahangir Khan, and then Jansher Khan; in tennis, Rashid Malik and Haroon Rahim (then 15) both play in the Davis Cup, and later Aisam-ul-Haq reaches the men’s and mixed doubles finals of the 2010 US Open Championship.

Even in team sports, individuals outshine their teammates. In hockey, Islah-uddin, Sami-ullah, Kalim-ullah, not to mention Hassan Sardar. And in cricket, most recently, Younis Khan scores three successive centuries against Australia and his teammate (and captain) Mishbah-ul-Haq knocks a historic lightning 50 runs off 21 deliveries.

In every case, their achievements began where the dreams of others ended.

And yet, Pakistanis disintegrate when required to act in concert. The harmony that should rise from voices singing in unison too often degenerates into a rasping dissonance. It will take social scientists decades to analyse the causes. Meanwhile, we, in today’s Pakistan, live with its effects.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the governance of our country. Perceptibly, the nation is collapsing under the burden of collective incompetence.

Those who lack power clamour for it.

Those who have it treat it as a bauble.

They use it to play out their fantasies.

To them, governance is less a responsibility than a heightened form of institutionalised condescension.

We hold a high opinion of ourselves, as individuals and as a nation.

A truer measure is always the esteem in which others hold us. Compliments from one’s friends are no achievement.

Respect by one’s enemies is better, but ephemeral. Being courted by foreign investors nowadays seems to be the highest form of economic flattery.

Every government has used Investors’ Conferences to showcase Pakistan as an investor-friendly haven.

They have solicited foreign investors at the front door while their own citizens scurry out of the back door to secure their funds abroad - in Swiss banks, in London’s real estate, to buy nationalities, or to place their assets anywhere but in Pakistani banks. It is said that one canny political-entrepreneur has squirreled his wealth beyond the pale of repatriation, in Israeli banks.

And yet we persist in organising Investors’ Conferences. These have become like GUM, the huge state-run departmental store in Moscow’s Red Square during the time that Soviets ruled Russia.

Then, its window displays enticed Muscovites with a display of consumer goods – crockery, clothes, appliances, haberdashery, and furniture, one of everything – except that every shelf inside was empty. What was on show was not available. There was nothing in stock. GUM became notorious for advertising what it did not have.

Our latest International Investment Conference, held in Islamabad on October 27-28, 2014, must have been organised by bureaucrats trained in marketing by GUM. Foreigners were invited to invest in two mega corporations – one a failing PIA, even though many attendees must have travelled to Pakistan by every international airline other than PIA. And the second, inexplicably, Pakistan Steel Mills.

No one could have missed the irony.

Even while Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad was touting PSM as an irresistible investment opportunity, PSM’s ovens and furnaces in Karachi were cooling to a halt, its coal bunkers as empty as its coffers.

Punjabis in the audience with a feel for history must have remembered a similar situation of state bankruptcy that occurred in 1846. Following the First Sikh War, the British levied a fine of Rs2cr upon the defeated Sikh Darbar.

Not one notable who had benefited from Ranjit Singh’s largesse came forward to contribute. Henry Lawrence regretted that given their private wealth, they could have redeemed the debt easily, had they “a spark of patriotism – if their selfishness had been restrained by the commonest gratitude or shame.”

Patriotism is an expensive commodity. Not everyone is prepared to pay the price. Certainly 60 Pakistanis did so on when, on November 2, they were blown up by a sole suicide-bomber after they had watched the flag ceremony at Wagah border.

In October 1984, the terrorist IRA targetted Margaret Thatcher in a bomb attack in Brighton. She survived. At the Conservative Party Conference later the same day, she described it as the day she was “not meant to see.”

Governance is less a responsibility than a heightened form of institutionalised condescension

One can only salute the involuntary sacrifice of all those who embraced martyrdom at Wagah, and the conscious courage of those who, the very next day, challenged terrorism by attending the same ceremony, a ceremony we Pakistanis were “not meant to see.” l FS Aijazuddin lives in Lahore and is a columnist for Dawn, Pakistan’s main Englishlanguage newspaper. This article was first published in Dawn.

No major changes abroad n Esam Sohail

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y the time you read this, Republicans would have made significant gains in the American mid-term elections from last Tuesday and, very likely, won the Senate, thus giving them full control of Congress for the last two years of Democrat Barack Obama’s presidency.

This may signal more polarisation in the domestic policymaking arena in the United States and will likely trigger even more intense battles over the shape of budgets, entitlement reforms, and environmental regulations. But observers abroad need not be too worried about at least one thing.

As far as foreign policy is concerned, not much is going to change in substantive terms despite the frequent criticisms that the Obama administration fields from Republican legislators regarding his handling of foreign affairs.

Constitutional provisions, statutory interpretations, and respected traditions going back at least to the

end of the Second World War give the president of the United States a much stronger hand in the implementation and execution of foreign policy vis-àvis the otherwise powerful Congress.

The broad swath of American policy beyond its borders includes, of course, issues pertaining to national and global security, trade, immigration, and human rights. While changing the tenor and tone to a more lawyerly pitch than his famously swaggering predecessor, President Obama has largely kept in place the broad contours of the Bush foreign policy.

The foreign policy agenda of George W Bush, a man in whose presidential campaign I worked in 2000, pivoted on three hinges: National security and counter-terrorism, trade and immigration, democracy and human rights.

With a nod to an appearance of greater collaboration with allies, President Obama has not only continued the Bush legacy but, in some ways, doubled down on it: Surveillance activity is at an all-time high, American-led coalition forces continue to

strike at developing threats, free trade is pushed as the touchstone of global uplift, and tertiary-level advocacy of democracy and human rights continues.

With the Senate in Republican hands, ironically, the president may find it easier to renew his office’s authority to negotiate free trade agreements, an area where a strange combination of labour union supporting Democrats and isolationist, nativist Republicans was able to thwart his desire.

Nonetheless, no such luck is likely forthcoming to the president on the immigration issue: Like his predecessor, he too is destined to see the business-community supported immigration reform measures get stuck in a Congress where, after last Tuesday, the nativist and insular voices will be even louder.

Where one may see some hesitation with the president’s broad foreign policy agenda now, is the Senate exercising more scrutiny of ambassadorial nominees and the full Congress using

REUTERS

the power of the budget to push for more muscle behind the rhetoric of democracy and human rights.

The rather lacklustre response of the Obama administration to high-

ly irregular elections in Myanmar, Venezuela, and Bangladesh may, for a change, get a deeper look in the foreign relations committees of the Republican-controlled Congress.

Beyond such sniping at the margins, it is highly unlikely that the Republican legislators can do much to alter even the tone of the Obama foreign policy. For starters, the Republican party’s caucuses in Congress are spectacularly divided between the hawkish, internationalist, and isolationist wings, leaving the party without a coherent alternative to the Obama approach to foreign policy.

Confounding the absence of an alternative narrative is the Senate lineup where the current Republican leadership has no figures of global stature at par with previous Republican Senate leaders like Bob Dole, Howard Baker, and Robert Taft.

Bottom line is that in terms of the proverbial “meat and potatoes” of American foreign policy, there is likely to be very little change as a result of this week’s elections in the United States. l Esam Sohail is an educational research analyst and college lecturer of social sciences. He writes from Kansas, USA.

12

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Entertainment

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Riaz, Tina in Amar Ami today n Entertainment Desk

Actor Riaz and his wife Tina will be the guests of popular talk show, “Amar Ami”, on private channel Banglavision at 9:05pm today.

In the show anchored by Rumana Malik Munmun, the couple will share their experiences about culinary art. Besides, substantial incidents of the couple’s life will come to light through the show, produced by Sazzad Hossain. l

Munich

HBO Defined, 4:25pm

During the Munich Olympics in 1972, eleven Israeli athletes were murdered ruthlessly. This film follows the story of what happened afterwards.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs HBO, 7:41pm

Adventure thriller ROAR premiers at Star Cineplex n Entertainment Desk

Indian action adventure thriller “Roar: Tigers of the Sundarbans” will be premiered at the Star Cineplex theatre in the Bashundhara City in the capital today.

Directed by Kamal Sadanah, the film was released world wide on October 31. Moroccoan super model Nora Fatehi played a character in the film.

An exotic Canadian belly dancer, an international body building champion, an ex-marine, a “Survivor” finalist, an Iranian singer-actor, and a

South African beauty have also shared the screen of the film.

The story of the film revolves around a photojournalist who was killed by a white tigress in the jungles of the Sundarbans. Pandit, the brother of the photojournalist, and his team of commandos enter the prohibited core area of the forest to avenge his death.

A team for aerial photographers from Finland captured the glory of the Sundarbans for the first time by commercial cinema. Hollywood cinematographer Micheal Watson supervised the cinematography. l

Flint would like to believe that he is a scientific genius. But the things that he has invented so far remain of no use to anyone.

Shutter Island

Zee Studio, 9:35pm

Film

Onek Sader Moyna Dracula Untold Hundred-Foot Journey Pipra Bidda Star Cineplex, Level 8 Bashundhara City

Annabelle Pipra Bidda Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit Amra Korbo Joy The Maze Runner Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3D Blockbuster Cinemas, Jamuna Future Park

PIPRABIDYA: Little ant and the sugar-woman

n Mosabber Rahman

“Piprabidya” is a film for crackpots and about crackpots. It is about the hopeless middle-class youth of the country. Their life story is best epitomised in a t-shirt slogan: “no job, no money, no woman”.

Mostofa Sarwar Farooki’s peers may be more eloquent, but his one-upmanship lies in his ability to reveal what no one else has attempted in the country – how people behave in the real world.

For Farooki, it’s always character over story. The plot is just an excuse to put the lab-rats in his maze.

The poster of the film reveals the basic idea – an ant strays from its colony and proceeds to collect the nectar smeared all over a woman’s voluptuous lips.

The ant is responding to its basic instinct. But surely it would be crushed in no time. Unless?

Mithu is the ant, the hopeless middle-class youth (played by Nur Imran Mithu), and Rima is the sugar-woman, the model-cum-actress (played by Sheena Chohan). There is another sugar-woman, Mithu’s ex-girlfriend who jilted him for a more secured life.

The sugar-women are guarded by two corporate men – the alpha-ants. The alpha-ants are not necessarily better than the little-ants. But somehow they got the sugar. The ants-in-the-palm metaphor made famous in Luis Bunuel’s “Un Chien Andalou” refers to both the unfulfilled venereal fantasy and decay.

The condition of Mithu is far worse than Somnath of Satyajit Ray’s “Jana Aranya”, who at least had a choice. Mithu is more like the boy from Abbas Kiarostami’s “Traveler”, and has no discernible choice. He is

a vehicle without a drop of petrol in the tank and yet his fuel gauge must indicate “full” – a bad case of confidence without competence.

After many unsuccessful attempts to find a job, Mithu ends up at the door of a colourful MLM candy store, which would eventually use the invisible hand of capitalism to pick the pockets of million youths. Mithu’s job is to bullshit people into investing in non-existent products and help the cracker-

jacks build their pyramids. Of course Mithu is not aware of all this, and frankly, he could not care less, all he wants to do is feed his family- a silent father, a talkie mother and a sissy sister.

For some reason, which I will avoid revealing here, Rima seeks Mithu out and chooses to honey trap him and their gamesmanship of phobia and philia begins. While the two sugar-women immerse him in phantasmagoria, his mother and sister keep pulling him back to reality.

In the most important scene where Mithu and Rima have a one-on-one confrontation, and the audience kept cheering for Mithu rather than Rima. As a matter of fact, the audience had no sympathy for Rima at all, for them Mithu is the real victim. I wonder if that was Farooki’s intention. After all Mithu’s crime in “Piprabidya” is quite different from Sabzian’s crime in Kiarostami’s “Close up.”

At a time when our films are either government funded pathos or tit-for-tat action flicks in the country, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki is the only filmmaker who is able to make a film exactly as he tries to make films without any creative compromise. However, that does not necessarily make his films very palatable, and in all honesty, I am fonder of his works for television, such as “420” and “Karam”.

In the theme song “Leje rakha pa” by Chirkut, we hear a female voice warn the ant in mock sympathy about its new wings, perhaps referring to Icarus, a character in Greek mythology who flew too close to the sun and perished after his wings of wax and feather burned down by the heat of sun. l

Kareena Kapoor believes in “feeling of love” which, she feels, can happen between two people regardless of caste, creed, or religion. Therefore, the actress doesn’t relate to the concept of “Love Jihad” and says that she never believed in such theories.

“I believe only in the feeling of love,” Kareena, who is married to actor-filmmaker Saif Ali Khan, told IANS when asked about Love Jihad, which is allegedly a Muslim project of luring Hindu girls into marriage and religious conversion.

“Saif has a very broad perspective and he also shared his perspective on ‘Love Jihad’ (via an open letter). He married a Hindu, which is me, and we had a civil marriage,” said the actress.

“I feel that love is something that you can’t term. There is passion, there is lust... there are so many things. It can happen between two human beings,” said Kareena.

“Now if somebody is Hindu and he or she starts loving a Muslim person, you can’t stop them. You cannot ask somebody, ‘Are you a Muslim or are you a Hindu?’ and then fall in love. Love is a feeling, it’s an emotion. That’s why I don’t believe in Love Jihad. I believe in the feeling of love,” added the 34-year-old.l

Mahakal Natya Sampraday to stage PROMETHEUS today

n Entertainment Desk Mahakal Natya Sampraday will stage “Prometheus” at the Experimental Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy at 5:oopm today. The production is a part of 30 years founding anniversary celebration of Natyajatra.

The troupe has organised a six day long theatre festival under the title of “Natyajatra Trish Bocchor.” Twelve acclaimed productions will be staged

at the festival till November 14.

The “Prometheus” was written

by Anan Zaman based on the Greek tragic drama “Prometheus Bound”

by Aeschylus. Mostafizur Noor Emran will instruct the drama.

The play begins on a barren wasteland of Scythia. Three gods—Hephaestus, power, and violence—are leading a fourth—Prometheus, who is their prisoner. Hephaestus chains Prometheus to a rock. l

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY posed topless to protest photoshopping

KAREENA: I don’t believe in Love Jihad n Entertainment Desk

The film is set in 1954. US Marshal Teddy Daniels is assigned the task of investigating the disappearance of a patient from Shutter Island.

CUMBERBATCH announces engagement n Entertainment Desk Benedict Cumberbatch has got engaged to his girlfriend Sophie Hunter. A modest and traditional announcement posted in the Times read: “The engagement is announced between Benedict, son of Wanda and Timothy Cumberbatch of London, and Sophie, daughter of Katharine Hunter of Edinburgh and Charles Hunter of London.”

It’s a typically low-key gesture by a couple who have kept their relationship out of the limelight. Cumberbatch, 38 and Hunter, 36, were only confirmed as a couple earlier this year, after they were pictured together at the French Open.

As well as a number of small film roles – including one alongside Cumberbatch in 2009 film “Burlesque Fairytales” – Hunter has frequently directed for the stage.

She won the Samuel Beckett award for writing and directing her play “The Terrific Electric” in 2007, and has since staged productions of Britten’s opera “The Rape of Lucretia,” Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” and Ibsen’s “Ghosts.”

Cumberbatch meanwhile shot to fame with his lead role in Sherlock, and has since appeared in a series of high profile films, the latest being Alan Turing biopic “The Imitation Game” due for release on 14 November. l

n Entertainment Desk Keira Knightley recently posed topless in Interview Magazine as her own personal protest against photoshopping. Knightley told the Times she demanded the (not safe for work) photos be unedited so people could see what she really looked like.

“I’ve had my body manipulated so many different times for so many different reasons, whether it’s paparazzi photographers or for film posters,” Knightley said.

“That [shoot] was one of the ones where I said: ‘OK, I’m fine doing the topless shot so long as you don’t make them any bigger or retouch.’ Because it does feel important to say it really doesn’t matter what shape you are.”

Knightley’s figure was controversially distorted on the poster for “King Arthur” in 2004: Her breasts were edited to look bigger than they are in real life. Though the studio bore the brunt of that scandal, the actress herself came under fire in 2006 when she and Scarlett Johansson posed nude with a fully clothed Tom Ford on the cover of Vanity Fair, in a picture that emphasised the gap the demands made of famous women and men in terms of playing up their sexuality.

But Knightley is taking a stand now. The Interview shoot captures Knightley’s real figure— including her true breast size. l

Did you know?

Shakib Al Hasan has taken 30% of Bangladesh’s wickets and scored 16% of the team’s runs in the Tests he has played since the beginning of 2011

Sport

14 Gerrard in

spotlight as Reds face Chelsea

DHAKA TRIBUNE

14 Rodgers ‘wrong’

15 Siddikur hits

over Sterling: Hodgson

Record-breaking Shakib doing what he does best n Minhaz Uddin Khan from Khulna Premier Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib al Hasan just keeps on getting better and better.

Returning to international cricket having served a reduced three-month suspension due to indiscipline, Shakib took very little time re-establishing his authority in world cricket. His exploits with the bat and ball against Zimbabwe guided Bangladesh to only their third Test series victory and their fifth and sixth wins in five-day cricket.

His latest all-round performance steered Bangladesh to a 162-run win in the fifth and final day of the second Test match at Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium in Khulna yesterday. En route to the victory, the left-arm all-rounder created and broke a host of records.

In the first innings, Shakib struck a crucial 137, the highest score by a Bangladeshi batsman against Zimbabwe in Tests.

As far as bowling is concerned, Shakib scalped five wickets for 80 runs in the first innings. In doing so, he became one of only a few cricketers to have scored a century and grab a five-wicket haul in the same Test match. Little did he know that he would better this particular re-

TOP 10 TEST ALL-ROUNDERS

Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib al Hasan reacts after the dismissal of Zimbabwean batsman Natsai M’shangwe (unseen) during the fifth day of their second Test at Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium in Khulna yesterday AFP

NUMBERS GAME

3

Shakib is only the third player overall after Imran Khan (1983) and Ian Botham (1980) to score a hundred and take 10 wickets in the same match.

2

Bangladesh bowlers who have taken two five-wicket hauls in a Test - Enamul Haque Jnr. and Shakib Al Hasan. Both are left arm spinners, both achieved the feat against Zimbabwe, and both at home.

31

Years since a player has scored a hundred and taken 10 wickets in the same Test. Before Shakib, Imran Khan achieved this double against India at Faisalabad in 1983. Ian Botham is the only other player to have achieved this feat. Shakib is the first spinner.

1

Previous instances of a player taking three five-wicket hauls and scoring a hundred in a three match series. Wasim Akram achieved this feat during Pakistan’s tour to Australia in 1990.

4

Players who take a five-wicket hauls more frequently in Tests than Shakib.

Shakib has 14 five-fors in 36 Tests. The table below lists the best matches-to-fivefor ratio of all bowlers who have taken at least 14 five-wicket hauls (as many as Shakib) in Tests.

9

Years since a Zimbabwe wicket-keeper last scored a Test century. Regis Chakabva scored 101 during Zimbabwe’s first innings. He is only the third Zimbabwe wicket-keeper to score a Test hundred, after Tatenda Taibu and Andy Flower.

312

Balls Tamim Iqbal took to get to his century during Bangladesh’ s first innings - the slowest by a Bangladesh batsmen. Tamim also holds the record for the fastest hundred by a Bangladesh batsman, off 94 balls, against England in 2010.

21

Innings taken by Mominul Haque to reach 1000 Test runs - the fastest for a Bangladesh batsman. Sunil Gavaskar and Brian Lara also needed 21 innings. The overall record is held by Herbert Sutcliffe, who got to the milestone in 12 innings.

2

Number of times Bangladesh have won two Tests in a series. They did this against West Indies in 2009, and now against Zimbabwe. This is Bangladesh’s sixth Test victory, four of which have been against Zimbabwe.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Rating

Name

Country

419 357 348 296 281 236 226 214 210 175

Shakib al Hasan R Ashwin VD Philander SCJ Broad MG Johnson SR Watson RJ Harris TG Southee DW Steyn JP Duminy

BAN IND SA ENG AUS AUS AUS NZ SA SA

13

Saturday, November 8, 2014

cord in the second innings.

Although Shakib failed with the willow in the second innings having scored only six runs, he came back harder with the ball. His 5/44 was largely responsible for Bangladesh’s convincing victory in the final day of the second Test.

The man-of-the-match award was, of course, a foregone conclusion.

Shakib’s match figures of 10/124 was only the second instance of a Bangladeshi bowler picking up 10 wickets in a Test match. Enamul Haque Jr is the only other cricketer with a five-wicket haul in Tests.

A hundred and a 10-wicket haul in the same Test are few and far between.

In fact, only two cricketers – former Pakistan captain Imran Khan and former England captain Sir Ian Botham – have been able to achieve the feat. Now, Shakib finds himself beside these legendary cricketers.

When asked to describe his feelings upon finding himself in the same bracket as Sir Ian and Imran, Shakib said he is elated and expressed his ultimate delight.

“The names that you (media) just mentioned are great players. It is great to be with them. I have my name there which makes me feel good,” Shakib told the media in the post-match press conference yesterday.

“However, my job is to contribute for the team and perform as good as possible for my country,” he said.

“Today’s (yesterday) five-wicket haul was very important,” he said referring to his 5/44 in the second innings, his 14th five-wicket haul in Tests.

“They had only two-and-a-half sessions to bat out. Taking wickets are difficult on this pitch. If we think that way it was really important,” he explained.l

two eagles, jumps to joint third

2ND TEST, DAY 5 Bangladesh 1st innings 433 (Shakib al Hasan 137, Tamim Iqbal 109, Mahmudullah 56; T. Panyangara 2-49, T. Chatara 2-61, M. Waller 2-65) Zimbabwe 1st innings 368 (H. Masakadza 158, R. Chakabva 101; Shakib al Hasan 5-80, Taijul Islam 3-96, Rubel Hossain 2-55) Bangladesh 2nd innings (Overnight 201-5) Tamim Iqbal c and b Panyangara 20 Shamsur Rahman c Taylor b Waller 23 Mominul c Chakabva b Waller 54 Mahmudullah c Masakadza b M’shangwe 71 Shakib al Hasan lbw b Waller 6 Mushfiqur c Chakabva b Waller 0 Shuvagata c Masakadza b M’shangwe 50 Taijul Islam c Panyangara b M’shangwe 1 Shahadat c Masakadza b M’shangwe 3 Rubel Hossain not out 8 Extras (b4, lb4, w3, nb1) 12 Total (for 9/declared, 83.5 overs) 248 Fall of wickets 1-28, 2-75, 3-131, 4-145, 5-145, 6-220, 7-222, 8-236, 9-248 Bowling Chigumbura 6-2-13-0 (w1 nb1), Panyangara 12-3-45-1 (w1), Chatara 7-3-19-0, Waller 27-4-59-4, Raza 6-0-22-0, M’shangwe 25.5-2-82-4 (w1) Zimbabwe 2nd innings S Raza c Mominul b Shakib B Chari c and b Taijul H Masakadza c Mominul b Shakib B Taylor c Shuvagata b Shakib R Chakabva c Mahmudullah b Jubair C Ervine st Rahim b Jubair B Chigumbura c Mahmudullah b Shakib M Waller b Taijul T Panyangara not out N M’shangwe c Rahim b Shakib T Chatara lbw b Taijul Extras (b4) Total (all out, 51.1 overs)

9 4 61 0 27 21 12 4 8 0 1 4 151

Fall of wickets 1-11, 2-13, 3-15, 4-85, 5-117, 6-137, 7-142, 8-142, 9-142, 10-151 Bowling Taijul 15.1-3-44-3, Shakib 18-5-44-5, Shuvagata 4-2-9-0, Rubel 4-2-8-0, Jubair 10-0-42-2.

Bangladesh won by 162 runs, lead three-match series 2-0

‘There are few like Shakib in the world’ Taylor appreciates n Bangladesh, Shakib Minhaz Uddin Khan from Khulna

Bangladesh Test skipper Mushfiqur Rahim spoke in glowing terms about all-rounder Shakib al Hasan following the home side’s 162-run win over Zimbabwe in the fifth and final day of the second Test at Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium in Khulna yesterday. Hence, the Tigers clinched only their third series victory in Tests heading into the third and final game in Chittagong.

Shakib grabbed a five-wicket haul in the second innings to give him a 10-wicket haul in the Test match, only the second instance of a Bangladesh bowler picking up 10 wickets in a Test. The mercurial all-rounder also smashed 137 in the first innings, the highest score by a Bangladesh batsman against Zimbabwe in Tests.

In the post-match press conference yesterday, Mushfiq reserved special mention for the ace all-rounder saying Shakib is a dream selection for just about any captain in the world.

“The job would have been easier if we had another player like Shakib. He is by far the most talented player in the team. There are only few like him in

the world. So any captain will feel comfortable when a player like him is in the team,” said Mushfiq.

“I think there were a few matches that we could have won if he was there in the team. I hope he will keep on performing this way in the upcoming days. I also hope others will do the same,” he said.

This was Mushfiq’s third Test victory in his 18th game. However, it was in the first Test in Dhaka that Mushfiq became the most successful Bangladesh skipper in five-day cricket as the Tigers took a 1-0 lead beating Zimbabwe by three wickets.

The diminutive wicketkeeper-batsman said he felt lucky having established himself as the most successful Tigers skipper in Tests.

“I think I am lucky,” Mushfiq said adding, “There were many who led the Bangladesh team but I got three Test wins under my belt so I think I am lucky for that. This to be honest is a result of a team effort. A win is not possible without good batting, bowling and fielding. So the whole credit goes to the Bangladesh team.”

The series victory enabled Ban-

gladesh to ninth in the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Test rankings, pushing Zimbabwe down to the bottom of the pile. This is a crucial leap in the context of Bangladesh’s long-term future in five-day cricket.

Following the reshuffle of the world cricket structure, it has been stipulated that the 10th-ranked side in the ICC’s Test team rankings as of December 31 2017 will have to play two fiveday matches at home and two five-day matches away against the winner of the ICC Intercontinental Cup. The series win against Zimbabwe will boost Bangladesh’s chances of survival in fiveday cricket.

Mushfiq concluded by saying home Tests next year will help the Tigers to extend their gap with the 10th-ranked Test side.

“I think today (yesterday) we achieved our primary target and to be honest it is harder to hold onto an achievement rather than achieving.

As far as I know all our matches are at home next year so I will hope that we hold onto the good run given the fact that we have a good track record at home,” he added.l

n Minhaz Uddin Khan from Khulna Zimbabwe skipper Brendan Taylor praised Bangladesh and Shakib al Hasan after an awe-inspiring performance from the ace all-rounder led the hosts to a 162-run win in the fifth day of the second Test at Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium yesterday.

If a guy hits a century and takes ten wickets, he is certainly going to be a threat Shakib took five wickets in the second innings to go with his five-wicket haul in the first innings as the visitors were skittled out for 151 chasing a competitive 314 for victory in 68 overs. This was only the second time a Bangladesh bowler picked up a 10-wicket haul in Tests. Shakib’s hundred in the first innings also enabled him to join legendary cricketers like Sir Ian Botham and Imran Khan as the only players to have scalped a 10-wicket haul

Max Group Under 10-12 Football starts today n Raihan Mahmood The Max Group Under 10-12 Football Festival, organised by Sonali Otit Club, the organisation of former football players, begins at the artificial turf of the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) today.

A total of 12 teams, split into four groups will play in the two-day tournament. Among the youngsters, only the very best footballers will be selected in the Bangladesh U-12 team scheduled to visit Malaysia next month. Moreover, the young players will also be considered for the BFF Football Academy.

Formed in 1980, Sonali Otit Club have been involved in many football ac-

tivities before but this will be their first endeavour in terms of talent grooming.

The club and its former players pledged to continue with their talent grooming work in the future.

BFF president Kazi Salahuddin will inaugurate the event as the chief guest.

Max Group managing director, Engineer Mohammed Alamgir, will be the special guest.

In a press conference held at the club premises yesterday, Sonali Otit Club president Badal Roy presented the event to the media. The club’s general secretary Sheikh Mohammed Aslam, vice president Hasanuzzaman Khan Bablu, several Max Group representatives and club officials were also present on the occasion. l

Badal Roy (2L), the president of Sonali Otit Club, speaks at the presser of the Max U 10-12 Football Festival at the club premises yesterday COURTESY

and score a century in the same Test. Following the conclusion of the Test match, Taylor gave credit where it was due.

“We are still looking for the answer.

You can’t take the credit away from Shakib, he is a world-class performer. If we batted first, things might have been different. But Bangladesh played better cricket than us and deserved to win. We fought hard for four-and-a-half days and it’s a tough pill to swallow that we got blown away in the last hour or two,” Taylor told the media in the post-match press conference yesterday.

“We were quite happy, we wanted Bangladesh to bat longer. But it proved to be a very good declaration and there was more than enough time to win the game. He (Bangladesh Test skipper Mushfiqur Rahim) understands his bowlers and conditions very well.

“If a guy hits a century and takes ten wickets, he is certainly going to be a threat. There were others who were good too. Tamim’s [Iqbal] hundred was really good. They worked well as a team,” he added. l

BD U21s continue winning run n Raihan Mahmood Bangladesh Under-21 hockey team continued their superb run of form in the tour of Punjab after registering their third consecutive victory, beating Chandigarh XI 6-0 in Chandigarh yesterday.

In the first match of the tour last Wednesday, Bangladesh U-21 defeated Sports Authority of India 5-1. The young hockey players of Bangladesh maintained their winning streak by defeating Centre of Excellence, Patiala 5-2 in their second practice match in Patiala last Thursday.

Bangladesh U-21 will play their fourth practice match against Punjab Hockey Academy tomorrow. l

14

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Messi aims for history, Suarez his first goal n AFP, Madrid

Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard takes part in a practice session yesterday alongside his teammates ahead of their English Premier League match against Chelsea

Lionel Messi continues his quest to become the alltime leading goalscorer in La Liga just days after equalling a similar feat in the Champions League when Barcelona visit Almeria on Saturday.

Messi drew level with Real Madrid legend Raul on 71 Champions League goals with a brace as Barca bounced back from two consecutive defeats to beat Ajax 2-0 in midweek and progress to the last 16.

The Argentine is just one goal short of the 251 goals Telmo Zarra scored for Athletic Bilbao between 1940 and 1955, but has been kept scoreless in his last La Liga outings as Barca slipped to defeat against Real Madrid and Celta Vigo.

That downturn in form has coincided with Luis Suarez’s introduction to the side after serving his four-month ban for biting at the World Cup. The Uruguayan has yet to find the net in his three appearances for the Catalans and endured a frustrating night on his return to old club Ajax as he squandered his best chance to break his duck by firing straight at Jasper Cillessen with only the Dutch international ‘keeper to beat.

League leaders Real Madrid are also in action on Saturday as they look to extend their 12-game winning streak against Rayo Vallecano at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Madrid eased past an under-strength Liverpool on Tuesday thanks to Karim Benzema’s winner to secure their passage into the last 16.

And the in-form Frenchman, who has 10 goals in 16 appearances this sea-

FIXTURES Almeria Getafe Real Madrid Malaga Celta Vigo

v v v v v

Barcelona Elche Rayo Vallecano Eibar Granada

son, believes he is enjoying his best run of form since joining the European champions five years ago.

Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti confirmed in midweek he would recall Gareth Bale to his starting line-up after the Welshman looked lively in his 30-minute cameo appearance from the bench against Liverpool following a five-game absence due to a pelvic muscle injury.

Isco is the player most likely to make way for Bale with James Rodriguez switching to the left side of midfield. l

INTERNET

Gerrard in spotlight as Reds face Chelsea n AFP, London Brendan Rodgers insists there is no chance Steven Gerrard will crack under pressure when the Liverpool captain bids for redemption against Chelsea on Saturday.

Gerrard endured one of the worst moments of his career when the Reds midfielder last faced Chelsea in April as his disastrous slip allowed Demba Ba to score the goal that shattered Liverpool’s challenge to win the title for the first time since 1990.

The 34-year-old has been well below his best since that agonising mistake and his spluttering campaign, which mirrors his team’s own struggles, suffered another blow on Tuesday when

FIXTURES Burnley Liverpool Man United QPR Southampton West Ham

v v v v v v

Hull Chelsea Crystal Palace Man City Leicester Aston Villa

Berahino gets first England call-up n Reuters, London Burundi-born Saido Berahino wants to repay the country that gave him “a second chance in life” after receiving his first England call-up for Roy Hodgson’s squad.

The West Bromwich Albion striker moved to England aged 10 and has played his way through the English Football League, with loans at modest Northampton Town and Brentford, to become the top-scoring Englishman in the Premier League this season with seven goals.

The 21-year-old, who has represented England at six junior age groups and scored 10 goals in 13 games at Under-21 level, said he and his family are extremely proud after making the senior squad for the Euro 2016 qualifier against Slovenia and a friendly with Scotland this month.

“I remember coming home and seeing I’d got my first-ever call up for England as a schoolboy. I was excited then and I’m excited now,” Berahino said on West Brom’s website (www.wba.co.uk).

“It will be a very emotional experience for me - if selected, I will play with all my

heart. England host Slovenia at Wembley on Nov.15 before a visit to British rivals Scotland for a friendly three days later.

Squad:

Goalkeepers: Joe Hart (Manchester City), Fraser Forster (Southampton), Ben Foster (West Bromwich Albion) Defenders: Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Chris Smalling (Manchester United), Leighton Baines (Everton), Phil Jagielka (Everton), Nathaniel Clyne (Southampton), Kieran Gibbs (Arsenal), Calum Chambers (Arsenal), Luke Shaw (Manchester United) Midfielders: Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Adam Lallana (Liverpool), James Milner (Manchester City), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal), Raheem Sterling (Liverpool), Andros Townsend (Tottenham Hotspur), Jack Wilshere (Arsenal), Theo Walcott (Arsenal), Ross Barkley (Everton), Michael Carrick (Manchester United), Stewart Downing (West Ham United) Forwards: Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Danny Welbeck (Arsenal), Rickie Lambert (Liverpool), Saido Berahino (West Bromwich Albion) l

he was restricted to a 20-minute substitute appearance in the 1-0 Champions League loss at Real Madrid.

Reds boss Rodgers also rested several other key players and said he was trying to keep Gerrard, who has been bothered by a hamstring injury, fresh ahead of the Chelsea showdown.

But with Liverpool languishing 12 points behind leaders Chelsea, Gerrard desperately wants to erase the bitter memory of last season’s mistake and this week’s demotion by delivering a dominant display against Jose Mourinho’s team, who will swagger into An-

field unbeaten in 16 games in all competitions this season.

Gerrard has risen to the occasion many times before and Rodgers is banking on another inspirational display from his talisman.

“He has had hard moments in his career and he always responds magnificently. There was no blame. It was just an unfortunate thing,” Rodgers said of the slip that is now immortalised by Chelsea fans in a taunting chant Gerrard is sure to hear many times on Saturday.

“He was instrumental in our run last year and how well we played.

As if Gerrard’s attempt to make amends for his costly mistake isn’t a juicy enough sub-plot to Saturday’s clash, there is also the lingering bad blood following Rodgers’s criticism of Mourinho’s cautious tactics in their 2-0 win at Anfield last season.

If Liverpool do avenge last season’s loss, it would be a welcome tonic for champions Manchester City, who trail Chelsea by six points and are in severe danger of crashing out of the Champions League following their shock midweek defeat against CSKA Moscow.

Manuel Pellegrini’s side travel to

Everton, Spurs on brink of last 32 n AFP, Paris

Everton, Tottenham and Celtic all moved to the brink of the Europa League last-32 on Thursday while Dinamo Moscow, Legia Warsaw, Salzburg and Fiorentina ensured their passage to the knockout rounds.

Everton eased past Lille 3-0 at Good-

ison Park to stay top of Group H with eight points after goals from Leon Osman, Phil Jagielka and a thunderous drive from Steven Naismith.

Rivals Wolfsburg also stayed in contention in the pool with a 5-1 thumping of Krasnador with former Arsenal misfit Nicklas Bendtner scoring twice in the last two minutes.

Everton striker Steven Naismith (2nd R) celebrates scoring with teammates during their Uefa Europa League Group H match against Lille at Goodison Park on Thursday AFP

Celtic’s Group D 1-1 draw against Astra Giurgui in Romania was played out in thick fog.

The Scottish champions were fired into the lead by Stefan Johansen only for Brazilian substitute William Amorim to level with a brilliant curling shot to beat Celtic keeper Craig Gordon.

While a win would have seen them safely through to the next round, the draw left them second on eight points, two adrift of Salzburg, 5-2 winners at Dinamo Zagreb.

Jonatan Soriano scored a hat-trick for the Austrians who are safely into the knockout stages.

Legia Warsaw beat Metalist Kharkiv 2-1 in the Polish capital to also make the last-32 with a fourth win in Group L. Manuel Pasqual scored two minutes from time as Fiorentina drew 1-1 with PAOK in Florence to secure qualification in Group K. Fellow Italians Inter Milan were held 1-1 at Saint-Etienne but still lead Group F. Napoli are level on points in Group I with Sparta Prague after a 3-0 win over Young Boys with Dutch international Jonathan De Guzman scoring a hat-trick.

Defending champions Sevilla top Group G after a 3-1 home win over Standard Liege. l

Rodgers ‘wrong’ over Sterling: Hodgson Alaba loss massive blow n for Bayern, says Guardiola AFP, London

England manager Roy Hodgson stoked his feud with Brendan Rodgers on Thursday by saying the Liverpool manager’s claims about his handling of the club’s teenage forward Raheem Sterling were “wrong”.

Sterling started on the bench in England’s 1-0 win away to Estonia in 2016 European Championship qualifying last month and Hodgson told BBC radio at the time that it was because the Liverpool winger had told him: “I’m feeling tired, I’d rather sit this one out.”

According to Rodgers, Sterling did not say that he was too tired to play, but Hodgson now denies ever claiming that the 19-year-old had said that.

“If that’s all it is, he obviously got the wrong end of the stick and I would be very happy to put him right on it if he needs to be. He wasn’t there.”

Hodgson added: “I never ever said to anyone that Raheem Sterling said he was too tired to play. In fact he did play, and he got us the free-kick which won us the game.

“I said that he said before training

that he felt too tired to train that day and wanted to miss that training session, and as a result I left him out of the team.”

Rodgers and Hodgson had previously clashed after Sterling’s Liverpool team-mate Daniel Sturridge sustained a thigh injury on England duty in early September. He has yet to return to action.

The England manager insisted that

his relationship with Rodgers was “good”, but he admitted to feeling “very, very sad” that Sterling had found himself at the centre of a media storm.

Hodgson on Thursday named Sterling in his squad for England’s Euro 2016 qualifier at home to Slovenia on November 15 and the friendly against Scotland in Glasgow three days later.

Captain Wayne Rooney stands to win his 100th cap against Slovenia and when asked if Sterling could emulate the Manchester United striker, Hodgson replied: “I think he could, yeah.

“Raheem Sterling is excellent. I think he’s an outstanding player. I saw Steven (Gerrard) quoted as saying that he thinks he’s going to be one of the top-class England players of the future.

“So of course I felt sorry for him that this happened. It’s happened, it’s gone, and we move on. We hope he helps us win the next two games.”

Sterling was joined in the squad by uncapped West Bromwich Albion striker Saido Berahino, while Arsenal’s Theo Walcott and Everton’s Ross Barkley were recalled after periods on the sidelines.l

n AFP, Berlin Pep Guardiola says Bayern Munich’s ever-present utility-man David Alaba will be sorely missed as club doctors revealed he needed knee surgery on Thursday.

BUNDES LIGA Leverkusen Augsburg Hoffenheim Frankfurt Freiburg Bremen

v v v v v v

Mainz 05 Paderborn Cologne Bayern Munich Schalke VfB Stuttgart

The 22-year-old suffered a ruptured ligament and meniscus damage to his right knee during the 2-0 win over AS Roma in the Champions League on Wednesday.

He came off after setting up Franck Ribery’s opener on what was his 17th start for the Munich giants this season.

“He could be out as long as two or

three months but maybe we’ll get him back after Christmas,” Bayern coach Guardiola told the club’s website.

Guardiola explained that Alaba’s versatility meant his absence would leave not one gap on the pitch, but many.

“He’s a complete player, we’re losing a guy who can operate in several positions, all over the pitch in fact. So we’re losing a great guy, a top player and he’ll be missed.”

Guardiola has said his Bayern will now focus on improving their fourpoint lead in the Bundesliga after Wednesday’s 2-0 win over Roma secured both their place in the Champions League’s last 16 and confirmed them as group winners.

Munich are at Frankfurt on Saturday in a game which will go ahead despite the four-day rail strike which is set to hit Germany this weekend.

Guardiola is set to rotate his squad after both Germany winger Thomas Mueller and Arjen Robben sat out the win over Roma. l

second bottom QPR on Saturday with captain Vincent Kompany conceding his team-mates will have to improve quickly if they want to overhaul the leaders and also progress in Europe.

Second-placed Southampton have provided the most uplifting story of the season by defying predictions of a relegation battle following the departure of manager Mauricio Pochettino and five star players.

But boss Ronald Koeman, whose team host Leicester on Saturday, has little hope Saints will keep pace with Chelsea and City in the title race.l

EUROPA LEAGUE Apollon Limassol

0-2

M’gladbach

Rafael 56, Herrmann 90+5

FC Zurich

3-2

Etoundi 21, Djimsiti 26, Chikhaoui 29

FC Copenhagen

Villarreal Pina 20, Gerard 24

0-4

Club Brugge Rafaelov 7, 30, 36, Vormer 60

HJK Helsinki

2-1

Baah 60, Moren 81

Asteras Tripolis

1-2

Barrales 90-P

Besiktas

2-1

Partizan Belgrade Markovic 78

1-5

Henriquez 60

Salzburg

Jonathan S. 40, 64, 85, Kampl 59, Bruno 72

1-1

FC Astra De Amorim 79

Dinamo Moscow

Tottenham

Townsend 36-P, Kane 42

Ba 57-P, 62

Dinamo Zagreb

Torino Quagliarella 90

Celtic Johansen 32

1-0

Estoril

Kuranyi 77

Panathinaikos

2-3

Ajagun 11, Petric 43

Garabagh

1-2

George 36

Dnipropetrovsk Kalinic 15, 73

1-1

Saint-Etienne Bayal Sall 50

Feyenoord

PSV Eindhoven Depay 27, de Jong 65 Wijnaldum 78

Inter Milan Dodo 33

2-0

Rijeka

El Ahmadi 9, Immers 20

Sevilla

3-1

Gameiro 19, Reyes 41, Bacca 90

VfL Wolfsburg

Mpoku 32

5-1

Hunt 47, 57 Guilavogui 73, Bendtner 89, 90+1

Everton

Standard Liege

FC Krasnodar Wanderson 72

3-0

Lille

Osman 27, Jagielka 42, Naismith 61

Sparta Prague

4-0

Slovan Bratislava

Lafata 29, 84, Krejoí 32, Nhamoinesu 75

Napoli

3-0

Young Boys

De Guzman 45+2, 65, 83

Dynamo Kiev

2-0

Aalborg BK

2-1

Steaua Bucharest

Vida 70, Gusev 90+3

Rio Ave Diego Lopes 35, 77-P

Guingamp

Keșeru 61

2-0

Dinamo Minsk

Beauvue 44, Mandanne 86

Fiorentina

1-1

Pasual 88

Lokeren

1-1

Patosi 5

Legia Warsaw Saganowski 29, Duda 84

PAOK Martens 81

Trabzonspor Waris 45+2

2-1

Metalist Kharkiv Kobin 22

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

Faulkner shines as Aussies level series

QUICK BYTES

QPR keen to sign Defoe in January Queens Park Rangers will try to lure prolific FC Toronto striker Jermain Defoe back to the Premier League during the January transfer window if the price is right, the club’s manager Harry Redknapp said on Thursday. The 32-year-old Defoe, who scored 124 goals during his time in the Premier League, has previously worked under Redknapp at Tottenham Hotspur and Portsmouth. The QPR coach came close to signing the former England international again from Major League Soccer (MLS) team Toronto during the summer but a deal did not materialise.

British media claimed on Tuesday that a deal had been done to sign the striker in January but Redknapp said nothing had been confirmed, though he would continue to pursue the player.

–Reuters

n AFP, Melbourne

Pistorius lawyers to oppose appeal of ‘light’ ruling

Lawyers for South Africa’s disgraced athlete Oscar Pistorius said Friday they will oppose the state’s bid to appeal his five-year manslaughter sentence for killing his girlfriend in February 2013. Brian Webber said they have filed papers at the High Court in the capital Pretoria stating their “intention to oppose the leave for appeal”. He refused to divulge the reasons for the appeal saying they would be released “in due course.” On Tuesday, prosecutors lodged court papers pressing for a murder conviction and a harsher sentence for the Olympic and Paralympic star, calling his punishment “shockingly light” and “inappropriate”.

–AFP

Button ready to walk away Jenson Button dropped a heavy hint on Thursday that he is prepared to walk away from McLaren and Formula One at the end of this year. As the team continues to make no statement on its driver line-up for 2015, leaving the future of 2009 world champion Button and his current team-mate Kevin Magnussen undecided, it has become clear that the British driver is ready to make his own decisions and not wait for an offer. Two-time champion Fernando Alonso, who was with the team for one acrimonious and unhappy season in 2007, appears set to leave Ferrari at the end of the year with McLaren his most likely destination, but that too remains shrouded in mystery.

–AFP

DAY’S WATCH Star Sports 1 English Premier League 6:30PM Liverpool v Chelsea 9:00PM Man United v Crystal Palace 11:30PM QPR v Man City

Star Sports 4 5:30PM MotoGP World Championship Qualifying Spanish La Liga

Wayne Parnell of South Africa (L) and James Faulkner of Australia exchange words during their T20I at the MCG yesterday

AFP, Sydney

n Tribune Desk Ace Bangladesh golfer Siddikur Rahman, who produced two eagles yesterday, returned in style scoring a five-under-par 67 in the second day to total his halfway score seven-under-par 137 and jumped to joint third in the Panasonic Open India.

Meanwhile, his countryman Zamal Hossain passed a bad day with a threeover-par 75 to slip 22 places to share 24th position with seven other golfers while Rahil Gangjee of India maintained a two-shot lead at the halfway stage at the challenging Delhi Golf Club.

The home favourite rode on a hot putter and accurate drives to emerge as the only player to return with double digits on 10-under-par 134 in the event sanctioned by the Asian Tour and Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI).

Wade Ormsby of Australia rolled in five birdies to stay in the hunt as Mithun Perera (67) of Sri Lanka, Terry Pilkadaris (68) of Australia, Siddikur

(67) and Indian amateur Pratap Atwal (68), the nephew of Indian star Arjun Atwal, were tied in third on 137, three back from the leader at the $300,000 showcase event.

EurAsia Cup star Siddikur, who is making a return on the Asian Tour after a lengthy back injury, opened with a 12-foot eagle putt before holing a thirty-footer putt from the edge of the eighth green for a second eagle.

“It was an awesome day because I had two eagles. I’m very happy with my putting and short game. My confidence level is still not as high as I would like it to be.

I’m also feeling tired. My hitting was good on my front nine. I had a few chances on the back but I’m still happy,” said Siddikur, who started the day on 14th spot.

“I’m not surprised with my position because my short game is really good.

I’m confident with my putter. I’m not confident off the tees but when I’m on the green, I know I can hole my putts,” said Siddikur, who won the Indian Open here in 2013. l

11:00PM Getafe v Elche 1:45AM Italian Serie A Sampdoria v Milan

Star Sports 2 7:30PM Indian Super League Chennai v North East 10:00PM F1: Brazilian GP Qualifying Spanish La Liga 1:00AM Real Madrid v Rayo Vallecano

Sony Six 04:30PM World Kabaddi League Ludhiana: 33 02:30AM NBA: Regular Season Clippers v Portland

Ten Action French Ligue 1 10:00PM Club De Lens v Bordeaux 1:00AM Caen v Nantes

Neo Prime German Bundesliga 8:30PM Eintracht Frankfurt v Bayern Munchen 11:30PM Werder Bremen v Stuttgart

AFP

Australia bounced back from their opening heavy loss to hammer South Africa by seven wickets and square their Twenty20 series in Melbourne on Friday.

The Australians, beaten by the same margin in Adelaide on Wednesday, were superior with bat and ball to cruise to victory.

The home side restricted South Africa to 101 for seven off their 20 overs and had few problems reaching 102 for three in 12.4 overs to wrap up victory.

The series now goes to a decider in Sydney on Sunday.

“That was as good Twenty20 bowling as I’ve seen from our boys, we bowled to the conditions really well,” Australia skipper Aaron Finch said.

“We used our pace and (leg-spinner) Cameron Boyce was unbelievable on a wicket that doesn’t traditionally spin a lot and he deserved his wickets and the man of the match.”

The Proteas, who dominated the Australians in the Adelaide opener, were always under pressure after winning the toss.

Skipper JP Duminy played a lone hand topscoring with 49 off 51 balls with three fours and a towering six over the fence at the vast MCG arena before he was caught in the deep by Finch.

In the space of two overs, openers Quinton de Kock and Rilee Rossouw were both back in the changerooms.

Two days earlier the pair formed a match-winning 129-run partnership that powered the Proteas to a comfortable victory in Adelaide.

In the space of 13 overs, Australia had four wickets - more than what they managed in Adelaide.

Leg-spinner Cameron Boyce flighted the ball well to snare the stumpings of

Reeza Hendricks (18) and Farhaan Behardien (5) in taking two for 15 off four overs, while paceman James Faulkner claimed three for 25 off his complement of four overs. l

SCORECARD, 2ND T20 South Africa Innings Q De Kock c Dunk b Bollinger R Hendricks st Dunk b Boyce R Rossouw c and b Faulkner JP Duminy c Finch b Faulkner F Behardien st Dunk b Boyce D Miller c Cummins b Faulkner R McLaren c Faulkner b Cummins W Parnell not out K Abbott not out Extras (w1) Total (7 wickets, 20 overs)

0 18 12 49 5 11 1 2 2 1 101

Fall of wickets 1-1 (De Kock), 2-14 (Rossouw), 3-46 (Hendricks), 4-60 (Behardien), 5-90 (Miller), 6-92 (McLaren), 7-97 (Duminy) Bowling Bollinger 4-0-23-1 (1w), Faulkner 4-025-3, Abbott 2-0-16-0, Maxwell 2-0-110, Cummins 4-1-11-1, Boyce 4-0-15-2 Australia Innings B Dunk c Abbott b Parnell A Finch not out S Watson c Abbott b Parnell G Maxwell c Rossouw b Rabada C White not out Extras (w3, nb1) Total (3 wickets, 12.4 overs)

23 44 30 0 1 4 102

Fall of wickets 1-43 (Dunk), 2-92 (Watson), 3-99 (Maxwell) Bowling Abbott 2-0-17-0 (1w), Rabada 3-0-25-1 (1w), Duminy 1-0-9-0, Parnell 3.4-1-17-2 (1nb), Imran Tahir 2-0-18-0 (1w), McLaren 1-0-16-0 Australia won by seven wickets, series tied at 1-1

Siddikur hits two eagles, Clarke welcomes return of Aussie quicks n jumps to joint third

9:00PM Almeria v Barcelona

3:00AM Celta Vigo v Granada

15

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Bangladesh golfer Siddikur Rahman in action during the second round of the Panasonic Open India at the Delhi Golf Club yesterday ASIAN TOUR

Skipper Michael Clarke Friday welcomed the likelihood of Australia having a surfeit of fit pacemen ahead of a demanding season of cricket climaxing with next year’s World Cup. The gruelling schedule of international matches at home began on Wednesday, with the first of three Twenty20 matches against South Africa.

That will be followed by five oneday internationals against the Proteas, a four-Test series against India and a limited overs tri-series involving England and India before the one-day World Cup in February-March.

Pat Cummins, who has played little in the last three Australian seasons through injury, made an encouraging return to international cricket in Wednesday’s T20 loss to South Africa.

Josh Hazlewood, whose last international appearance was over nine months ago, starred for his New South Wales state side in the recent domestic one-day tournament.

Test paceman Ryan Harris, mean-

while, returned to action this week after being sidelined since his match-winning efforts in the Cape Town Test against South Africa back in March.

And James Pattinson, who hasn’t played a first-class game since that Cape Town Test, is also on the comeback trail.

“I think it’s great for Australian Test cricket that a lot of our fast bowlers are on the mend,” Clarke said at the launch in Sydney of his latest book, “Captain’s Diary”.

“Josh Hazlewood has done really well in the one-dayers, Ryan Harris is getting fitter and stronger, James Pattinson is back as is Pat Cummins.

“That’s a real positive sign for Australian cricket, moving forward.”

Clarke said Australia’s disastrous two-Test hammering by Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates this month would serve to spark the players in all forms of the game.

“I guess that’s extra hunger and fire in the belly for us as the Australian team, to make sure we’re at the top of our game, whether it be T20, one-day cricket or Test cricket,” he said.l

Michael Clarke poses with his wife Kyly Clarke for a photograph at the launch of his book “Captain’s Diary” in Sydney yesterday

Kvitova, Petkovic Colour-blind Rogers stands to clash in Fed Cup down from pink ball trial final opener withdrawal would not be a major factor n AFP, Sydney in Test selection.

AFP, Prague n Rogers put on a lacklustre perforCricket Australia said Friday that co-

Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova will take on Andrea Petkovic in the opening rubber of the Fed Cup final between the Czech Republic and Germany starting in Prague on Saturday.

After Friday’s draw, world number four Kvitova will face 14th-ranked Petkovic on the hardcourt of Prague’s O2 Arena at 1200 GMT on Saturday.

Then 17th-ranked Lucie Safarova will take on Germany’s world number ten Angelique Kerber. l

lour-blind batsman Chris Rogers’ decision to withdraw from a match in which a pink ball will be trialled would not jeopardise the opener’s Test career.

Rogers has pulled out of Victoria’s day-night Sheffield Shield clash against Tasmania, starting on Saturday, citing his difficulties in detecting the experimental pink ball.

“The selectors have reiterated that no player is judged on one match,” CA team performance manager Pat Howard said, indicating the left-hander’s

mance in the just completed series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates, and at 37 his opener’s slot is under threat from the likes of Phil Hughes and Shane Watson.

But Rogers, who had a successful season with English county side Middlesex, said a one-game break should not impact on his chances of Test selection.

CA have pushed ahead with pink ball trials as they aim to stage a proposed day-night Test match against New Zealand in Adelaide next year. l

Walton Wrestling begins Monday n Raihan Mahmood The Walton Mobile 5th Services Wrestling comprising 118 male and female wrestlers will get underway at Kabaddi Stadium, Paltan Ground this Monday.

To open the doors for the new and rising wrestlers, the wrestling federation has decided to take double entries from each team this year.

The two-day event will see the same eight weight categories in both the male and female sections.

The champions will be awarded a purse of Tk30,000 while the runners-up will receive Tk20,000.

In a press conference held at the conference room of Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday, Tabiur Rahman Pahlawan, the general secretary of Bangladesh Wrestling Federation presented the event to the press. FM Iqbal bin Anwar Dawn, the additional director of Walton and other federation officials were also present on the occasion. l

FM Iqbal bin Anwar Dawn (C), the additional secretary of Walton speaks at a presser of the Services Wrestling yesterday

COURTESY

16

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Back Page

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Spells of hartal hit hawkers’ livelihood n Asif Showkat Kallol The recent rounds of hartals have been creating different kinds of financial challenges for the country’s small traders, vendors and hawkers – who make their living day-to-day.

With most of their customers choosing to stay indoors because of the Jamaat-called hartals, the small traders are being forced to dip into their savings and working capitals; thus going downhill on a path that will see many of them leaving their professions out of desperation.

Harish Chowdhury, who sells cucumber and fruits in front of the capital’s Kamrunnesa Government Girls School, said he could hardly make any sale throughout the past week as the school stayed closed because of the hartals.

“We [hawkers in the area] are resuming selling cucumber from today [Friday] as the JSC [Junior School Certificate] exam has started. As schools are supposed to be open tomorrow, we are expecting sales to rise again.”

Harish said many other fruit-sellers also had to move their regular business elsewhere on hartal days and scout for

potential gatherings of people.

Ismail Ali, another hawker, told the Dhaka Tribune: “I carry out my trade in front of Notre Dame College in Arambagh; but the college and Bangladesh Bank School along with Model and Ideal schools stayed closed last week, severely affecting our livelihood.”

FBCCI Vice-President Md Helal Uddin said the hartals had badly hit the country’s service sector, which covers around 55% of the economy Ismail said he bought fruits worth Tk900-Tk1,000 every day and made a 100% profit on a regular day, using the earning to support a six-member family. If the profit was slashed, he was forced to dip into his working capital, the fruit vendor said.

Siddiqur Rahman – who sells toys, caps and money bags in front of Baitul Mukarram National Mosque – said the amount of sales have declined sharply

by 40% during hartal days.

“We wait for Friday when people come to Baitul Mukarram Mosque for [Jumma] prayers,” he added.

Small traders in the area, however, are not unfamiliar with political unrest hurting their business; Siddiqur pointed out that many hawkers near the mosque went broke after Hefazat-e-Islam activists burned down their makeshift shops in May last year.

FBCCI Vice-President Md Helal Uddin said the hartals had badly hit the country’s service sector, which covers around 55% of the economy and includes informal sectors like hawkers and small vendors. The hartals ate up the working capital of small vendors, the vice-president of the apex trade body said.

Maruf Rahman, an advocacy officer for the NGO World for Better Bangladesh(WBB) which works to promote rights of small traders, said it was not possible for the government – which had not yet given a legal identity to hawkers – to provide the traders with financial support during hartals.

In our neighbouring country India, the government had enacted a hawkers law in 2009 to give the small traders le-

gal protection and licences, he pointed out.

“During any hartal, the educational institutions remain closed. So, the income of the vendors just gets halved.

Then the small traders start spending from their capital. And thus at one stage, they become a poor man and leave the sector to work as day labourers,” Maruf added.

Research by the WBB shows that there are 235,000 people doing their business with small capital in Dhaka, while the number of mobile hawkers is 95,000. The total number of hawkers and small makeshift business besides footpaths across the country is 2,197,000. The study also shows that the working capital of small traders ranges between Tk200 and Tk50,000, while their average income ranges from Tk300 to Tk1,000 per day.

Following the death penalty verdict against Jamaat Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami, the Islamist party called hartals on October 30 as well as on November 2 and 3. A fresh round of hartals was called again by the Jamaat on November 5 and 6, protesting the verdicts against party leaders M Kamaruzzaman and Mir Quasem Ali respectively. l

BNP’s Suhrawardy Udyan rally hangs in the balance n UNB BNP’s today’s rally at Suhrawardy Udyan, marking the civil-military “uprising” on November 7, 1975, headed towards uncertainty as the party did not get the formal permission as of 10pm yesterday.

The party decided to hold an emergency press conference at its Nayapaltan central office at 11am today to brief about its latest stance over the rally.

BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir will address the press conference, said BNP Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.

Talking to reporters at BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office yesterday night, he said: “Now it is 10pm, but we still did not get the permission for the rally.

Our party acting secretary general will announce the next course of action at a press conference at 11am tomorrow (today).”

Party sources said Fakhrul sat with some leaders of the city unit BNP leaders at the Gulshan office around 8pm and worked out the party’s possible action programmes if the authorities

finally deny them the permission.

Earlier, two senior BNP leaders - party joint secretary general Barkatullah Bulu and former Dhaka city unit BNP member secretary Abdus Salam - waited for over an hour at the office of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) yesteday evening for the permission, but their wait went in vain.

Salam said they were not given the permission for the rally as of 9pm.

Contacted, DMP Deputy Police Commissioner (media) Masudur Rahman said: “Suhrawardy Udyan is under Public Works Department (PWD). We will provide necessary security and permission for using the loudspeakers if the PWD authorities allow them to hold the rally there.”

He said they will also allow BNP to hold an indoor rally in the city if the party wants to do so.

Salam, however, said the PWD authorities told them that they will allow BNP to hold the rally if the DMP allows it to use loudspeakers.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia is scheduled to address the rally today in the afternoon. l

JSC, JDC examinations finally begin at weekend n Tribune Report Faced with an unwelcome delay caused

by Jamaat-e-Islami hartals, pupils finally began their certificate examinations across the country yesterday.

Junior School Certificate (JSC) and Junior Dakhil Certificate (JDC) examinations began at 9am and ended at 12 noon. Bangla First Paper test under JSC and Quran Majid and Tajbid test under JDC were held on the first day.

The examinations were supposed to begin on November 2 but they had to be rescheduled to yesterday due to five days of hartals called by Jamaat.

The Jamaat had enforced hartal for October 30, November 2, 3 and November 5, 6, protesting against the death penalty meted out to its three top leaders on charges of crimes against humanity during the country’s liberation war in 1971.

Three top Jamaat leaders – Motiur Rahman Nizami, Mohammad Kamaruzzaman and Mir Quasem – had been sentenced to death for their crimes like genocide, rape and murders during the liberation war.

According to our Barisal correspondent, JSC examinations were held

smoothly there.

Barisal Education Board’s Assistant Controller of Examinations Arun Kumar Gyien said 96,845 pupils were supposed to take exams at 124 centres on the first day.

However, 2,205 pupils were found absent from examinations. Of them, 638 were in Barisal, 488 in Bhola, 379 in Patuakhali, 280 in Barguna, 243 in Pirojpur and 177 in Jhalakathi, he said, adding that no pupil faced any expulsion on the first day of the exams.

According to our Thakurgaon correspondent, JSC and JDC examinations were held peacefully at 29 centres in five upazilas of the district under Dinajpur Education Board.

Deputy Commissioner Mukesh Chandra Biswas visited the exams centres.

A total of 21159 pupils sat for their JSC exams and 3256 others for JDC exams yesterday.

Three vigilance teams were formed under the aegies of the district administration to keep the exams free from unfair means.

Around 21 lakh pupils from 27,925 educational institutions are sitting for JSC and JDC exams this year. l

Students sit for a JSC exam yesterday that remained postponed for five days because of countrywide shut-downs called by the Jamaat-e-Islami. The photo was taken from New Paltan High School in the capital’s Azimpur area MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

India interested in importing potatoes from Bangladesh

Ex-US Navy SEALs make rival claims

n Abu Bakar Siddique

n Reuters, Washington

India has expressed its interest in importing potato from Bangladesh for domestic consumption.

Indian High Commission in Dhaka has recently sent a letter to the government, expressing interest of the Indian authorities in buying potato from Bangladesh.

“We welcome the consideration as this will create a new market for our potato and also help farmers get fair prices of their produces,” said Dr Anwar Faruque, additional secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture.

The letter also sought information about the pest risk to analyse the quality of potato grown in Bangladesh.

Faruque told the Dhaka Tribune that the quality of the potato grown in the

country was up to the mark, attributing the fact to favourable weather and soil.

He also said the ministry had recently taken an initiative to bring potato exporters under a common rule, which would direct them to appoint potato growers on their own and maintaining quality in order to ensure continuous export.

The ministry’s plans include using selective lands for potato production by the exporters, which will be implemented in the current season to avoid the probable threat of an export ban.

In the last season, Russia identified the presence of “Brown Rot” in potatoes produced in Bangladesh.

“To stop recurrence of such incidents, the government has decided to stop the common practice of procuring export-bound potatoes from local farmers as the crops might be defective,”

Faruque said, adding that the ministry wants to ensure quality of exported potatoes and other vegetable items.

According to the Department of Agricultural Extension, the average annual production of potato in the country is around 80 lakh tonnes, much higher than the local demand of around 50 lakh tonnes.

In fiscal 2013-14, Bangladesh exported potatoes worth around $34m to foreign markets, including Malaysia and Russia.

Malaysia is the largest importer of potato from Bangladesh, buying around $13m of potatoes from Bangladesh in the last fiscal while the figure was $9m for Russia. In the face of last year’s outrage among potato growers at not getting fair prices, the government encouraged exporters to export potatoes in order to save the farmers. l

WHO SHOT OSAMA BIN LADEN?

Members of the US Navy SEAL commando team that killed Osama bin Laden at his Pakistan hideout in May, 2011 are making conflicting claims as to who actually shot the al-Qaeda leader.

The Washington Post published a story on Thursday quoting Rob O’Neill, a former SEAL, as claiming to have fired the fatal shot that hit bin Laden in the forehead after O’Neill stormed into a room in bin Laden’s house in Abbottabad.

The claim by O’Neill, who travels the country giving motivational speeches, was countered by a source close to another SEAL team member.

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the team member told him the fatal shot was fired by one of two other men who entered the

room before O’Neill.

The Washington Post said O’Neill acknowledged shots were fired at bin Laden by at least two other SEAL team members, including Matt Bissonnette, a former Navy SEAL who wrote a 2012 book about the raid titled “No Easy Day.” The book did not identify the person who shot bin Laden.

NBC News quoted Bissonnette on Thursday as saying: “Two different people telling two different stories for two different reasons... Whatever he [O’Neill] says, he says. I don’t want to touch that.”

Last year, after Esquire Magazine published an interview with an anonymous SEAL member, now widely reported to have been O’Neill, who claimed to have shot bin Laden, other media outlets questioned the account.

An article titled “Who really killed bin Laden,” by Peter Bergen, a CNN analyst and al-Qaeda expert, quoted a then-serving SEAL team member saying the story as presented by Esquire was “complete BS.” A representative of a speaker’s organisation which says it represents O’Neill said he was unavailable to comment. O’Neill’s page on the website of the organisation describes his career as a SEAL, but makes no mention of a role in killing bin Laden.

Bissonnette’s lawyer, Robert Luskin, acknowledged Thursday that Bissonnette for some time had been under criminal investigation by both the Naval Criminal Investigation Service and the Justice Department for possible violations of a US espionage law because he did not seek official clearance before publishing his book.

Bissonnette denies wrongdoing. l

Obama sends secret letter to Khamenei n Agencies

Farmers passing a busy time in planting potato seeds as the season for Aman cultivation comes to an end. The photo was taken from the Hariyan area under Poba upazila of Rajshahi district AZAHAR UDDIN

US President Barack Obama has secretly written a letter to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urging progress on nuclear talks and stressing common interest in fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Wall Street Journal says.

Obama sent the letter to Khamenei in mid-October, according to the report published on Thursday citing unnamed White House officials.

“Mr Obama stressed to Mr Khamenei that any cooperation on [ISIL] was largely contingent on Iran reaching a comprehensive agreement

with global powers on the future of Tehran’s nuclear programme by a November 24 diplomatic deadline,” the report said.

It also noted that it was at least the fourth time Obama had written to Khamenei since taking office in 2009.

Carol Lee, one of the journalists behind the report, told Al Jazeera the letter shows just how much officials in the White House believe Khamenei is key to achieving a deal.

“They can talk to [Mohammad Javad] Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, and others within the government, but it is really the supreme leader who holds the keys to

whether or not they get this done,” Lee said.

Obama said on Wednesday that his administration has put forward a “framework” plan for a nuclear agreement with Iran. But he warned it was unclear if a deal would be struck by the November 24 deadline.

“We presented to them a framework that would allow them to meet their peaceful energy needs,” Obama said.

It is the first time the US has alluded to a completed framework being on the table, and has come just days before John Kerry, US secretary of state, holds fresh negotiations with his Iranian counterpart. l

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