16 nov, 2014

Agrahayan 2, 1421 Muharram 22, 1436 Regd No DA 6238 Vol 2, No 222

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

20 pages | Price: Tk12

B1 | BUSINESS

7 | CAREER

11 | OP-ED

14 | SPORT

RURAL ECONOMY REVIVES WITH MAJOR WAGE HIKE

CREATING A WORLD THAT HAS NEVER BEEN

KISSY KISSY KISSY

GERMANY LABOUR AT RONALDO’S GOAL RECORD

Another RU professor killed Shafiul is the third professor of the university killed since 2004 n Our Correspondent, Rajshahi A Rajshahi University professor was hacked to death outside his house in the Chauddapai area of Rajshahi city yesterday.

Shafiul Islam Lilon, a professor of social science at the university, was taken to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital after he was attacked at noon. The director of the hospital, Brig Gen Nasir Uddin, officially declared him dead around 4:45pm.

“He received several injuries to the head which caused severe bleeding, eventually leading to his death,” said Nasir.

Shafiul was rumoured to be dead already when he was about to undergo

transports Rajshahi University teachers, said he was returning after dropping off a teacher at his residence when he saw Lilon standing by holding his motorcycle.

“He was surrounded by people and had blood stains all over his body. He held a mobile phone in his hand.

“What happened to me...who are you...why they did this to me...why am I feeling so much pain?” he said as I approached him.

“I tried to put him in the easy bike but could not do it alone,” he said.

“I called for help but nobody came forward.

“I eventually got a rickshaw-puller half an hour later who helped me put Shafiul in the vehicle. RAB 5 officials in-

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surgery after being taken to the hospital by a university car around 3:15pm.

Doctors took him to the intensive care unit instead of carrying out the procedure but he died soon after.

Officer-in-Charge of Motihar police station Alamgir Hossain said the killing appeared to be a premeditated one and a machete was recovered from the crime scene, but police could not ascertain the motive for the murder.

How it happened

Shafiul’s colleague AKM Mostafizur Rahman said he was with the deceased before setting off for his own residence on a motorcycle following an unofficial meeting at the university around 2pm.

“I heard the news 30 minutes after I left,” he said.

Tanvir Hossain, an easy bike [battery-run three-wheeler] driver who

DB: Indian national involved in Trishal police van attack n Mohammad Jamil Khan The Detective Branch (DB) of police yesterday said an Indian citizen was involved in a jailbreak operation in Mymensingh that snatched three militants from police custody and left a policeman dead.

A DB high official, on condition of anonymity, said the Indian national was in charge of arranging to get the prison-break Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) leaders to India. He identified the Indian national as Leku, but said his identity would be verified in further investigations. In Bangladesh Leku stayed in Savar, the DB official said.

“The information surfaced while investigating the Bardhaman bomb blast and the role of JMB commander Sheikh Rehmatullah alias Masum alias Sajid,” a DB high official told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday, on condition of anonymity.

Excessive bleeding in head led to his death Teachers’ association to boycott classes, exams today Reason of the attack could not be ascertained Shafiul was a follower of Lalon

formed the university vice-chancellor as we reached the headquarters in Binodpur. A car arrived shortly and carried the professor to the hospital,” he said.

Rasheda Begum, a housewife who lives near the scene of the attack, said she heard the sound of someone falling off a motorcycle while she was having lunch around 2:30pm.

“I looked out of the window and saw Shafiul lying on the ground beside the motorbike. I came out onto the road.

He was still conscious,” she said.

The woman said she would see Shafiul riding to work and returning home every day.

“Apart from the commute, he was hardly to be seen outside. I would hear people singing because he often arranged musical programmes at his home,” she added.  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Mominul Haque raced to an unbeaten century against Zimbabwe on the fourth day of the Chittagong Test yesterday

He always thought he was a target of Jamaat-Shibir n Julfikar Ali Manik Rajshahi University (RU) Professor Dr AKM Shafiul Islam, who was brutally killed yesterday, had a longstanding suspicion that Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir men might assault him physically.

The professor of sociology at RU who has always been vocal against Jamaat-Shibir’s activities on campus, shared his notion several times over the last eight years with his family members, relatives and close associates, one of his relatives told the Dhaka Tribune.

Prof Shaiful was known as a progressive and secular-minded teacher, who played a significant role in protesting the gruesome killing of RU geology Pro-

fessor Dr S Taher Ahmed in 2006.

Jamaat-Shibir men and pro-BNP-Jamaat teachers were largely blamed for Taher’s killing. Two years before that, another progressive and secular-mind-

Prof Shaiful Islam was known as a progressive and secular-minded teacher ed teacher Prof Muhammad Yunus was killed. The radical and communal groups were largely suspected for that killing too.

Just like Chittagong University (CU), RU has come to be known as a den of the Jamaat-Shibir. The manner in

Western leaders confront Putin at G20 with threat of more sanctions n Reuters Western leaders warned Vladimir Putin at a G20 summit yesterday that he risked more economic sanctions if he failed to end Russian backing for separatist rebels in Ukraine.

Russia denied any involvement in an escalation of the separatist war in eastern Ukraine, where more than 4,000 people have been killed since April, but faced strong rebukes from leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

“I guess I’ll shake your hand but I have only one thing to say to you: you need to get out of Ukraine,” Harper told Putin at the summit in Brisbane, Australia, according to his spokesman Jason MacDonald.

Putin’s response to the comment

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

which these three RU teachers had been killed were almost identical. They were all brutally hacked to death.

Family members, relatives and colleagues, who knew him closely, have said he was a good soul.

Shafiul, an ardent follower of Bangla folk music traditions especially Baul, led a very simple life. His colleagues confirmed that he had been researching on 19th century Baul legend Lalon Shah over the last one year.

His wife died many years ago and he used to live with his only son at their RU campus residence.

However, after his son got admitted to the Dhaka University and moved away to the capital, he shifted to a rented house in the Chouddopai area.

Resuming the fourth day of the third and final Test against Zimbabwe on 23 without loss, Bangladesh rode on Mominul Haque’s fourth hundred to set their highest ever target, 449, in the longer version after declaring their second innings on 319/5 at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium yesterday.

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PM’s son Joy yesterday inaugurated a national platform that aims to unlock the potentials of the youth by providing them with necessary opportunities.

4 | News

Students of the Department of Development Studies at the DU yesterday demanded ramps for physically handicapped people at all academic institutions across the country.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott (R) stands near Russian President Vladimir Putin after officially welcoming him to the G20 leaders summit in Brisbane yesterday REUTERS

Infrastructure shortfalls have remained a great concern for the $20bn-apparel industry, the mainstay of the country’s economy. Other factors including undue external pressure, redtapism, propaganda and shortage of skilled manpower have also worked as setbacks.

The observations came out of a brainstorming roundtable organised by the Dhaka Tribune at the Cirdap Auditorium in the capital yesterday.

To bring dynamism in the industry, apparel leaders yesterday once again raised their demand for setting up a separate dedicated ministry for the ready-made garment sector.

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed attended at the event where RMG leaders, makers and exporters, leaders of

8 | World

15 | Entertainment

13 | Sport

England captain Alastair Cook insisted Friday the controversy over Kevin Pietersen’s autobiography was well and truly in the past for his side ahead of their ODI series in Sri Lanka.

The previous highest set by Bangladesh was 401 against the same opposition in Harare last year. The Tigers had won the match by 143 runs.

In pursuit of the mammoth target, Zimbabwe finished the day’s proceedings on 71 for the loss of Brian Chari’s (nought) wicket and require a further

Infrastructure continues to be the biggest headache n Tribune Report

The G20 has welcomed a commitment from the IMF to provide $300m (£190m) in extra funding to help fight Ebola in the three worst-affected west African countries.

P12 MOMINUL’S CENTURY

ROUNDTABLE ON RMG

INSIDE

3 | News

Tigers patiently awaiting series sweep n Mazhar Uddin from Chittagong

Singer Hridoy Khan and model Suzena will soon be seen together in a music video titled “Tumi Heena.” The song will be featured in Hridoy’s latest album “Bhalo Lageena.”

workers and representatives from ILO, Accord and Alliance were present.

Dhaka Tribune Editor Zafar Sobhan conducted the roundtable.

“Poor infrastructure is the main challenge for export growth. It takes about one day to transport goods from Gazipur or Narayanganj to the Chittagong port,” said Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) president Atiqul Islam in his keynote presentation.

He said: “We eye on taking Bangladesh’s apparel export to $50bn by 2021, but we have some challenges on our road to achieving the export target.”

He said the country had been having to spend Tk400 crore every year as fees to around 19,000 foreigners working at the mid-management level or higher positions in the sector because  PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

2 Target of Jamaat

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Infrastructure continues to be the biggest headache

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The rent was lesser than the university teachers’ quarters.

The Chouddopai area, which is very close to the university campus, is dominated by Jamaat-Shibir, locals say.

Yesterday, most of Shafiul’s colleagues were not willing to talk about the sensitive issues out of fear and shock at his tragic demise.

A colleague said Shafiul was going back home around 2:30pm, when he was brutally hacked in broad daylight by a group of assailants right in the middle of the road.

Many of his colleagues strongly believe that it was a planned murder, although the police was still in the dark about the motive or the killers until the filing of this report at 10:30pm yesterday.

His colleagues and relatives said it was beyond their imagination that Shafiul might have such dreadful enemies.

Md Rafiqul Bari Mukul, Shafiul’s brother-in-law told the Dhaka Tribune: “He [Prof Shafiul] was engaged in research on Lalon for more than a year.

He was away from other activities of the university except academic work.

But, two years ago he told me about his suspicion that Jamaat-Shibir men followed him.”

Mukul said: “He told me that if he faced any brutal consequence like the others [Prof Taher and Prof Yunus], then be sure that Jamaat and Shibir were behind it.”

Prof Shafiul started wearing the traditional Baul attire – the long white gown that Lalon and his followers wear – after he began his research.

Mukul said: “I have told Prof Shafiul that Jamaat-Shibir do not like Lalon or Baul songs. So, they might not like you for wearing the dress.”

His suspicion about getting attacked by the fanatics deepened after the killing of Prof Taher in 2006, at least that is what he had told his family and relatives.

He often had heated debates with the pro-Jamaat teachers of the university over various issues.

Several years ago, in order to check cheating during examinations, the sociology department decided not to allow any female student in burqa, the Islamic veil. Prof Shafiul was a key figure behind implementing that decision.

That ignited many heated debates between the professor and pro-Jamaat teachers.

Many in Rajshahi suspect that it was a big reason why Shafiul could have become an enemy of the Jamaat-Shibir.

In 2008, a Rajshahi tribunal sentenced Dr Mia Mohmmad Mohiuddin, also a teacher of the university, and one other in connection with the 2006 killing of Prof Taher. In 2013, that sentence was upheld by the High Court. Both convicts are now in jail. l

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of a weak forward linkage industry and shortge of skilled manpower.

The BGMEA president said productivity in the garment factories had not been increasing in line with the rising cost of production. Compared to India’s 92%, Pakistan’s 88% and Vietnam’s 90%, Bangladesh’s productivity was only 77%, he said.

For speeding up and achieving sustainable growth in the sector, Bangladesh needed to address issues such as forward linkage, skilled human resources, bureaucratic hurdles, gas and power shortage, high bank interest rates, Atiqul said.

Reinforcing their longstanding demand for a separate RMG ministry, he said that day was not too far way when there would be no east, no west, but Bangladesh would the best.

In his speech, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said despite being competent in compliance, the sector has failed to achieve the expected growth because of propaganda spread by some workers who do not work in the factories.

“According to Accord and Alliance reports, only 1.8% or 30 out of the 2,021 factories are faulty...But 2% is acceptable as per international law. Despite this, we are not getting positive response from the USA.” He said: “We do not see any organisation like Accord and Alliance in Cambodia. They have only 30 trade unions.

There is no trade union in China at all....But we have them in Bangladesh.

Then why are we the second largest exporter in the world?”

Slamming a US envoy who claimed that Bangladesh paid zero tariff for garment exports, the minister said: “We are paying higher tariff than any other countries for apparel exports to the US market. Bangladesh is 46th in terms of exports to the USA, but second in terms of paying tariff, which is unfortunate.”

Despite fulfilling the 16 initial conditions set after GSP suspension, the USA kept on imposing more conditions, which the minister said was unexpected.

In the view of Tipu Munshi, a former BGMEA president and now a parliament member, the first and foremast problem was infrastructure. “Once we have sufficient infrastructural support, we can give rise to miracles,” he said.

He said: “We have faced strong competition in the international market after we increased wage last time as cost of production increased manifold.

We have been assured at that time by the buyers that we would look into the matter. But unfortunately, instead of increasing prices, buyers reduced price, making it difficult for the apparel sector here to survive.”

Leading worker rights activist Shi-

Panelists at a roundtable discussion on ready-made garment sector organised by the Dhaka Tribune at capital’s CIRDAP auditorium yesterday rin Akhter, also president of Karmojibi Nari, said it was true that huge employment generated by the apparel industry had brought drastic changes to the society.

“But we have to ensure worker rights and safety, which help boost productivity and to achieve the export target of $50bn by 2021,” she said.

“There is no alternative to effective trade unions for the betterment of the industry,” she suggested.

Former BGMEA president Anwar-ulAlam Chowdhury emphasised on concerted efforts to address the difficulties that the RMG industry had been facing right now.

“The effects of the Rana Plaza tragedy can still be felt as buyers are offering no fresh orders. This is bad news for the industry. This problem might get worse in the days to come, if immediate measure are not taken,” Anwar said.

He also said: “Accord and Alliance inspections have identified only 2% factories faulty. This message should be broadcast to the outer world to build a positive image of the country.”

Abdus Salam Murshedy, former BG-

Another RU professor killed

On April 21 last year the death sentences awarded to two of the convicts were commuted to life imprisonment.

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Protests against the killing

Soon after Shafiul’s death, Rajshahi University Teachers’ Association announced a boycott of classes and exams today. General secretary of the association Professor Pranab Kumar Pandey said the programme was announced to highlight the demand that the murders are quickly arrested. More announcements will follow, he said.

University students marched in protest through the campus around 5pm.

They blocked the Rajshahi-Natore road and staged a demonstration.

Vice-chancellor of the university Professor Dr Muhammad Mizanuddin said he suspected that it was a premeditated killing.

“Police and intelligence officials will carry out an investigation and we hope they will be able to identify who killed Shafiul. We also hope the perpetrators will receive exemplary punishment,” he added.

Not the first case

Shafiul is not the only teacher of the

MEA president and managing director of the Envoy Group, said: “Our products have become less competitive after we ensured safety and compliance in line with the labour law and raised workers’ wages. This is now our main challenge.

“The global apparel market has been growing bigger, but our export is falling. That is also a matter of concern. So, it is high time that we make a strategy to save our industry,” he said.

Stressing the need for infrastructural development, Murshedy said: “Only building four-lane highways is not a solution. We need to set up deep sea ports for sustainable growth of the RMG sector as well as the economy.”

Labour leader Sirajul Islam Rony said making sure that the workers affected by industrial disasters and closures got their benefits was also important for cementing rights.

Saying that trade unions were good for boosting productivity, but should not be used against the owners, Rony said the fact that workers were sometimes instigated to take to the streets, also needed attention.

Towfique Ali, chief executive of the

Brief professional identity

Rajshahi University students stage a demonstration in front of the varsity main gate demanding punishment of killers of their teacher Shafiul Islam yesterday AZAHAR UDDIN university who was killed. On December 24, 2004, Dr Md Yunus, a professor of economics, was hacked to death while jogging in the Binodpur area near the campus.

Yunus’ younger brother Abdul Halim filed a murder case with Motihar police station on the day.

Eight JMB men were charge-sheeted in the case and two of them – Shahidullah alias Mahbub and Shafiullah alias Tarek were given the death penalty on January

28, 2010. The six others were acquitted.

On February 1, 2006, Professor S Taher of the Department of Geology and Mining went missing from his residence in the teachers’ quarters.

His body was found in a sewer outside his residence two days later.

Police named six people in the charge sheet of the case submitted on March 18, 2007. Of them, four were condemned to death and two were acquitted in the verdict handed down on May 22, 2008.

Shafiul was elected vice-president in the previous teachers’ association polls as a pro-Awami League candidate.

His colleagues said he was a member of the university’s Progressive Teachers’ Society, which believes in the spirit and values of the Liberation War. He vied for a number of positions in the teachers’ association from the panel of pro-Awami League teachers several times.

He also held several key posts such as senate member and department chairman.

The director of the university administration (planning and development), Afsar Uddin, said Shafiul emulated Lalon Faqir and learned to play the Dotara.

Shafiul was from Sonatala in Bogra.

He lived in a rented house in Chauddapai. His only child, a son, studies at the University of Dhaka. l

Bangladesh International Arbitration Centre, said: “Along with the micro perspective, we have to focus on larger perspective as well. We are facing challenges from Vietnam and Cambodia.

We have to make sure that we maintain the minimum standard and at the same time be able to compete from within our limits.”

Rob Wayss, Accord executive director in Bangladesh, said: “There seems to be an important missing constituent [of union workers] from the discussion.

“One of the most important things I think in going forward for the continued growth and dominance of the garment industry in Bangladesh as a global industry is remedying the factories, and being cooperative about that.”

He said: “It is true that 2% of the factories that we inspected are critical and most of the factories have some problems which have to be fixed. It is important for all of us to fixing those and fixing in a timely manner. And that is the best way to show the buyer, show the world that Bangladesh is improving and will dominate the industry.”

In reply to the commerce minister’s

RAJIB DHAR

query, Rob said USA had 9% trade union in the private sector and 25% in public sector.

Alliance Managing Director Mezbah Robin said: “The entrepreneurs rely upon others when they are asked to fix something. Fixing my house is my obligation. Nobody else will do that for me.”

He said another Tazreen or Rana Plaza disaster would bring in newer challenges for the industry. “For the relocation, the small and medium factories will face trouble as buyers are not interested to put order in share dealings.”

He also said: “A number of factories work on sub-contracts. They are not members of the BGMEA or the BKMEA and the government has no control over them. They are non-traceable. So, sub-contracting should be brought under a common umbrella.”

General Secretary of Bangladesh Trade Union Kendra Wajedul Islam Khan, Director of Desh Group Vidiya Amrit Khan and Director of International Labour Organisation (ILO) Baki Srinivasa Reddy also spoke at the roundtable. l

Western leaders confront Putin at G20 with threat of more sanctions  PAGE 1 COLUMN 2

was not positive, MacDonald said in an email, without elaborating.

A source in Putin’s delegation told Reuters that the Russian president would leave the summit early, skipping a working breakfast on Sunday, because he needed to return to meetings in Moscow.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied any such plans, saying: “This is wrong. The president is taking part in all the (G20) events.”Western nations have imposed successive rounds of sanctions on Moscow, accusing it of sending troops and tanks to back pro-Russian rebels fighting to break away from Ukraine. Russia denies the charges.

The measures, aimed at sectors like oil and banking, as well as individuals close to Putin, are squeezing Russia’s economy at a time when falling oil prices are straining the budget and the rouble has plunged on financial markets.

Obama said the United States was at the forefront of “opposing Russia’s

aggression against Ukraine, which is a threat to the world, as we saw in the appalling shoot-down of MH17” -- a reference to the downing of a Malaysian airliner over rebel-held territory on July 17, with the loss of 298 lives.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the European Union was considering further financial sanctions against Russian individuals because of the crisis in Ukraine.

Putin’s isolation was evident with his placing on the outer edge for the formal G20 leaders’ photograph. While Obama and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping were met

by Australia’s governor general and attorney general when they arrived in Brisbane, Putin was greeted by the assistant defence minister.

Despite being under intense pressure, Putin was all smiles, shaking hands with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. The host had threatened to “shirt front”, or physically confront, Putin over the downing of MH17, in which 28 Australians died. l

Tigers patiently awaiting series sweep

DB: Indian national involved in Trishal police van attack

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378 runs for an unlikely victory going into the final day’s play today in Chittagong. Right-arm paceman Rubel Hossain dismissed Chari for the second time in the match.

Chari, who bagged a pair in the match, however, can count himself unlucky as TV replays suggested that his leg-before decision was a wrong one as the ball was missing the line of the stumps.

The two half-centurions in the first innings, Sikandar Raza and Hamilton Masakadza, ensured there were no more hiccups in the remainder of the day. Sikandar was batting on 43 while Hamilton was unbeaten on 26 as the first wicket duo are looking to prevent the hosts from claiming a series sweep.

Earlier on the day, the Bangladesh batsmen executed their plans perfectly with Mominul Haque posting his fourth Test hundred. The start, however, was

not a good one as opener Imrul Kayes added just four runs to his overnight score before being dismissed for 15 by right-arm seamer Tinashe Panyangara.

Imrul’s partner, Tamim Iqbal though continued to flay the Zimbabwean bowlers from the other end.

Tamim was joined in the middle

by Mominul Haque following Imrul’s departure and the second wicket partnership put on 113 runs as Bangladesh were looking to set Zimbabwe a big total to chase.

Tamim blasted his 17th Test fifty and went for his shots throughout the entirety of his innings as Bangladesh were targeting some quick runs.

Tamim, however, played one shot too many and was dismissed by Natsai M’shangwe for 65 off 142 balls.

Mominul though continued with his good work and remained compact.

The diminutive left-hander reached his fifty off 69 balls and achieved a

few milestones in the process. Everton Weekes, Alec Stewart, Kumar Sangakkara, Jacques Kallis, Matty Hayden and Simon Katich previously scored more than 50 runs in nine consecutive Tests. Mominul has now joined the six cricketers in the list.

The lad from Cox’s Bazar has also become the fourth cricketer after Weekes, Sunil Gavaskar and Mark Taylor to score 50s 11 times in his first 12 Tests.

It does not stop there. Among the Test players who have batted in at least 20 innings, Mominul has the second highest average (63.05), behind a certain Sir Donald George Bradman.

Along the way Mominul blasted his fourth Test hundred and remained unbeaten on 131, his innings featuring 13 boundaries. Mominul’s 131 enabled him to break into the top 10 highest Bangladeshi run-scorers in Tests. Not surprisingly, the 23-year old cricketer has the highest average in that list. l

On February 23, JMB operatives mounted an operation to snatch Salahuddin alias Salehin alias Sajeeb, Zahidul Islam alias “Boma” Mizan and Rakib Hasan from police custody in an attack on a prison van in Trishal, Mymensingh during transport from Kashimpur Jail in Gazipur.

The attack on the prison van in the Trishal area of Mymensingh broke three top JMB leaders out of police custody. JMB men killed a police constable.

One of outlaws, Rakib, was re-arrested and killed in a “gunfight” with police the next day. The two others, Salehin and Mizan, managed to get away.

Monirul Islam, DB joint commissioner, said the jail-break JMB leaders crossed the border and took shelter in West Bengal.

Another DB official investigating the

Trishal attack told the Dhaka Tribune that the militants used five motorbikes, two micro-buses and a truck in the operation. The truck was used to create traffic jam and the micro-buses were used as getaway vehicles, the official said.

The break out was earlier planned to be executed in Konabari, but was later moved to Trishal out of security considerations, the official said.

The Indian national was supposed to ferry the fugitives to India. DB officials could not say which militant outfit he belonged to.

Sanowar Hossain, additional deputy commissioner of DB police and chief of the counter terrorism unit, said investigators arrested five of 31 people believed to be involved in the Trishal attack, two of whom are financiers.

Sanowar said of the 31 wanted for the attack, the name in position six of the list is “Sajidur.”

Police said they believed that this is none other than JMB commander Sheikh Rehmatullah alias Masum alias Sajid who was arrested in West Bengal and is in the custody of India’s National Investigation Agency.

Sajid, bailed out from jail some months earlier in the JMB snatching incident, may have fled to India with the snatched JMB leaders after conducting the operation, the chief of the counter terrorism unit said.

“We need to investigate further to completely verify it,” ADC Sanowar said.

A DB official involved in the investigation said JMB funding was connected to the cloth trading business in the northern part of the Bangladesh and to kidnap and ransom operations as well.

The official said the investigation yielded a list of suspected businesspeople connected to the illegal trade in explosives. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Kona’s last phone call could be the reason for her death n Mohammad Jamil Khan The last phone call made by twentyfour-year-old Dr Shamaruf Mahzabin Kona to her father may have cost her her life.

Engineer Nurul Islam, Kona’s father, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday that Kona called him just a day before her dead body was recovered by police.

“During the phone call around 11am on Thursday, Kona told me that had got hold of some documents about her father-in-law Khan Tipu Sultan’s illegal activities while cleaning the house,” Nurul said.

Nurul said Kona told him that she was “frightened” because the documents contained sensitive information about her father-in-law, which she did not want to disclose over the phone.

Nurul Islam alleged that Kona’s father-in-law could have overheard the conversation between them, killed her for it, and was now claiming her death was “suicide.”

Nurul said Kona’s father-in-law remarried in secret.

“I have a strong suspicion that Kona might have found documents about drug dealing, prostitution, arms trading or murder connected with former member of parliament Tipu and she was killed to cover it up,” Nurul Islam said.

Police recovered the dead body of Dr Shamaruf Mahzabin Kona, wife of exMP Tipu Sultan’s son Humayun Sultan, from Dhanmondi Central Hospital.

The victim’s father, Nurul Islam, filed a murder case with Dhanmondi police station accusing Humayun, exMP Tipu and his wife Dr Jesmin Ara Begum.

Although police arrested Humayun after getting the murder complaint, they have not arrested the former parliamentarian or his wife saying they would keep an eye on them and would make the arrest after getting the autopsy report from Dhaka Medical College.

Humayun is in jail awaiting a hearing on remand to be held today, Abu Bakkar Siddique, officer-in-charge (OC) of Dhanmondi police station, told the Dhaka Tribune.

From the beginning, the ex-MP’s family has claimed that Dr Shamaruf committed suicide by hanging herself from the window grill of the bathroom.

The inquest report, however, mentions other injury marks on her body apart from the black mark on her throat.

Kona’s father Nurul Islam, an engineer of the Public Works Department, said he told the police about the 32-minute call between him and his daughter the day before her death. He also said that Kona’s mother died on November 11, 2012.

Tipu’s family asked for Kona’s hand for Humayun saying he is a barrister by profession. We gave priority to his profession over his family’s political ties, said Nurul.

After the marriage ceremony on April 26 last year, we found out that Humayun had basically just completed an LLB degree from a private organisation and was not a barrister, Nurul said.

Moreover, Humayun was a drug addict and Kona tried her best to save him from his drug-wrecked life, Nurul said.

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Sunday, November 16, 2014

Nurul said his daughter was forced to obey her mother-in-law and fatherin-law’s orders.

After the completion of her MBBS degree, the ex-MP’s family verbally harassed her for enrolling for the FCPS degree at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University.

“The family forced her to do housework and Kona found the documents implicating her father-in-law while cleaning the house,” Nurul Islam added.

Khan Tipu Sultan, a former Jessore MP, said if investigators found evidence of his son’s guilt, then he and his family would show respect the law.

Abu Bakkar Siddique, OC of Dhanmondi, said they would not arrest the two other accused in the case because they are respected persons.

He said he could not comment on the ongoing investigation at the moment.

He said the police were analysing the details of phone record of Kona and other family members. l

Joy: 50% news reported in local media wrong n Abu Hayat Mahmud Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son and also her IT Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy yesterday claimed that about half of the news items reported by the Bangladeshi media are wrong.

BCL has been doing many social welfare activities which were not being focused on in the media, instead they criticise the organisation “Almost 50% news items reported by the Bangladeshi media are based on wrong information and it is very difficult to depend on all news. So we should make our own efforts to find out everything,” Joy said.

He also stated that the Awami

League student wing Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) has been doing many social welfare activities which were not being focused in the media, but were bent on criticising the organisation.

The adviser made the remark at the inauguration ceremony of a national platform “Young Bangla” at Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel in the capital.

Representatives of over 200 youth organisations from 64 districts joined the programme as partners. Joy made the statement in response to a query from one of these representatives about the disorder in student politics particularly in the BCL. “Problems in student politics appear as few leaders of the party (AL) have been involved in irregularities and corruption and then the student wing follow their path as well,” Joy continued.

He, however, went on to say that the BCL does not tolerate such type of illegal activities. “During the AL tenures nearly 650 leaders and activists have been punished for different allegations hurled at them.” l

Fakhrul to Joy: Do not talk like a fool n Mohammad Al-masum Molla BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakrhul Islam Alamgir yesterday advised Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy to stop talking like a “fool” if he really wanted to be a leader of the next generation.

Fakhrul made the remark at a programme in the capital, in response to a recent comment by Joy, who said he doubted whether BNP founder Ziaur Rahman really believed in the spirit of Liberation War.

‘Making derogatory remarks about Ziaur Rahman and his contribution means denying the history of Bangladesh’ “Mr Joy is a new leader of the new generation. He is every young. What can I say about him? I do not have anything personal against him...[the only thing I can say to him is] stop talking like a foolish boy,” Fakhrul said.

“Making derogatory remarks about Ziaur Rahman and his contribution means denying the history of Bangladesh,” he said.

Addressing Joy, who advises his mother on information and communication technology affairs, Fakhrul said: “Read the country’s history and then talk about it. Then people will also accept it. If you talk like the other Awami League leaders, then the young generation will not accept you as a new leader.”

At a programme in the capital on Friday, Joy said the BNP was a “party

WEATHER

DRY WEATHER LIKELY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 16 DHAKA TODAY TOMORROW SUN SETS 5:12PM SUN RISES 6:15AM FORECAST FOR TODAY 29 29 28 29 29 29 30 29

Dhaka Chittagong Rajshahi Rangpur Khulna Barisal Sylhet Cox’s Bazar

20 21 16 17 16 18 17 20

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30.8ºC Cox’s Bazar

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PRAYER TIMES Fajr Sunrise Zohr Asr Magrib Esha

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of Razakars” because it had been doing politics with Razakars. He also said if BNP had to prove otherwise then it would have to cut its ties with the Razakars.

Questioning Joy’s patriotic integrity, Fakhrul said: “Mr Joy was born in Bangladesh under the Pakistan army’s protection. He spent a big part of his life in India and is now living in the United States. People can judge how patriotic he actually is.”

The BNP spokesperson then referred to the recent dismissal of minister Latif Siddique, who said at a programme in New York that the government paid Joy $200,000 per month.

“Abdul Latif Siddique said this in New York but the government is yet to say anything in this regard. We want to know why Latif lost his job; is it for commenting on Hajj or on Joy?” Fakrul inquired.

During yesterday’s programme, Fakhrul also thanked PM’s adviser HT Imam for what he said was unveiling the truth about the January 5 election.

At a programme organised by Chhatra League last week, Imam said the leaders and activists of the ruling party’s student front, who worked for the January 5 election, needed not to worry about getting government jobs.

Fakrul interpreted Imam’s remarks as: “Prime minister’s adviser HT Imam said the truth. He said how people’s hopes and aspirations have been shattered on January 5. He also said how the partisan officials occupied the voting centres. We congratulate him for unveiling the truth.

“The ‘golden boys’ of Chhatra league grabbed people’s houses, properties and educational institutions. Now Mr Imam and company want to give them government jobs,” the BNP leader said. l

Agitated workers of a garment factory in capital’s Mirpur area throw bricks at an adjacent factory building after its workers declined to join their demonstration in demand of overdue wages yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

RMG workers take to street demanding arrears n Mohammad Jamil Khan

Several hundred workers of a ready made garment (RMG) factory yesterday took the street in the capital’s Mirpur area demanding payment of their arrears.

A huge gridlock was created from the Mirpur-1 intersection to the Technical intersection for about one hour as the workers of Padma Sweater Limited were staging demonstration by putting blockade on the road in the area.

The agitating workers took the street around 10am. The vehicular movement became normal when police took the situation under control around 11:00am, police said.

At one stage, some agitating workers entered the building of another factory, Vortex Fashion, asking its workers to join them. Later, they threw brick chips at the Vortex Fashion leaving its windows broken as the workers of Vortex denied to join the agitating workers of Padma Sweater.

On information, police went to the spot and fired a dozen of shells of tear gas to bring the situation under control. Being dispersed from the area, the demonstrators went to the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) in the capital’s Kawranbazar area to press home their demand.

Mizanur Rahman, an agitating work-

er, said they were not getting their wages for the last three months.

Demanding the arrears, they were observing work abstention since Thursday last. But the officials and the owners of the factory did not pay heed to their demand, he said.

“We will continue our demonstration until our demand was not met” said another worker Mostarin.

“When we demanded our arrears last week, officials and owners had just left the factory,” she said.

Sakhawat Hossain, assistant commissioner of police of Mirpur circle, said: “The factory owners and their associates have gone into hiding. We are

trying to find out them.”

Additional police have been deployed in the factory area to avoid any untoward incident, he said. Visiting the factory premises, the Dhaka Tribune did not find any official or representative of owners of the factory yesterday.

Rafiqul Islam, additional secretary for labor cell of the BGMEA, said: “We have came to know that the owners of the factory would not pay arrears for the month of October and for the five days of September.”

“We are trying to communicate with the factory owners. Once we get, we will hold discussion with them about the payment.”l

Detective Branch takes short break before Joy urges youths to join next drive against illegal foreigners Young Bangla n Mohammad Jamil Khan After the end of special drive against the foreigners illegally staying in the country, the Detective Branch (DB) of Police are preparing for their next drive, which will be conducted after a short break.

The next drive would be carried out at Bashundhara residential area, Banani and Nikunja, Abdul Ahad, Additional Deputy Commissioner of DB police, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

He said they had got hold of the information that many foreigners who had entered the country illegally or legally were getting involved in crimes such as currency forgery, illegal drug trade and even in murder.

The prime cause of this drive was to take action against them, the senior DB official added.

On Friday, the DB police picked up 31 foreigners on charges of having no legal documents in a special drive at Uttara, Rampura and Gulshan areas in the capital.

Of the foreigners, 25 have been shown arrested after filing nine cases against them with different police stations.

Among the cases, six were filed with Uttara west police station against 15 foreigners, who are now in jail.

Two cases were filed with Rampura police station against six illegal foreigners

and one case was filed with Gulshan police station against four foreigners.

The special drive followed the murder of teenager Zubair Ahmed, an O level student from the Uttara area, reportedly by an Algerian national Abuubaida Kadir.

A DB police official, who is involved in the drive, said they had a suspect list of around 500 foreigners Around 400 police members and three polce stations took part in the Friday overnight drive, Sheikh Nazmul Alam, deputy commissioner (detective branch) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told the Dhaka Tribune.

Thirty two assistant commissioners led the special drive while six additional deputy commissioners of DB police coordinated it.

The drive that started around 4am to hunt down 147 houses ended minutes before 8am on Friday.

DC Nazmul said many nationals who had come in illegally from Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana, Algeria, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Cameroon and Liberia were

often found involved in crimes.

He added that they were keeping close eyes on the foreigners living in Bangladesh as players of different national leagues, teachers of different English medium educational institutions, buyers of ready-made garments, travellers and students.

Nazmul said the arrested foreigners were found to have been working at different apparel factories, imparting training at different institutions and schools.

“We are yet to ascertain any criminal link of the arrested 25 people, but investigations are on in this regard,” he added.

When he was asked whether any embassy contact them about the arrest of the 25 foreigners, DB police DC Nazmul said no embassies of the counties of the detained people were yet to communicate with them. They would inform the respective African countries about the issue and then communicate with International Organisation of Migration (IMO) to send back the foreigners, he said.

Asked about any suspect on their next drive, DC Nazmul said they were yet to make any such list. However, it would be done soon.

Requesting anonymity, a DB police official, who is involved in the drive, however said, they had got a suspect list of around 500 foreigners to check their status and documents. l

n Abu Hayat Mahmud Sajeeb Wazed Joy, son of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, yesterday inaugurated a national platform which aims to unlock potentials of the country’s young generation by providing them with opportunities and recognising their talents and achievements.

On behalf of other convening organisations, the Centre for Research and Information (CRI) launched the platform named “Young Bangla” to represent voices of the youth to achieve “Vision 2021”.

The programme was organised by CRI at the capital’s Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel.

Law maker Nahim Razzaq was made the convener of the platform, sponsored by eight leading corporate houses in the country.

Sabbir Bin Shams, executive director of CRI, said, the key focus of Young Bangla was to integrate the youth from different parts of Bangladesh and involve them with ‘Vision 2021’, an initiative of the present Awami League-led government.

Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state minister for ICT, among others, was present on the occasion.

Later, Joy, who advises his mother PM Sheikh Hasina on ICT issues, visit-

ed the Young Bangla website and registered himself as a member.

Describing the youth as the country’s future, he said: “The young people should be involved in the development process as they are the future of the country.”

“They can join the platform and contribute in achieving ‘Vision 2021’, he added.

Many of the 40 million young people who were unemployed five to six years ago have now found employment. The country is progressing in every sector, Joy said, adding that technical training to around 50,000 young people in the country is being provided.

“The goal of the platform should be creating new job opportunities for the youth. In order to reach our goal, the government is introducing a number of internship programmes under different ministries,” he added.

Five ministries—Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Health and Family Affairs, Science and Technology, Social Welfare and Women and Children’s Affairs are involved with the platform, Joy said.

More than 200 youth organisations from 64 districts have joined as partner organisations of the platform.

Youths from 64 districts involved in various social and developmental works attended the event. l

4

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Sunday, November 16, 2014

DMP online GD service ‘ineffective’, ‘non-cooperative’ Of the 34,000 complaints, around 9,000 went to investigation had to file a written complain with the of 34, 375 GDs has been registered in n Mohammad Jamil Khan DMP areas in last four years but only station for the GD. Back in the year 2010, Dhaka Metropolitan Police, as part of its digital process, introduced online general diary (GD) filling system but due to lack of cooperation and proper service from authorities concerned, the project has now become ineffective as the number of complaints online have dropped to almost zero.

Although the service was introduced so that people could file their complaints from home, the DMP online GD process needs the complainant to come to the police station in person.

Moreover, sources alleged that most of the GDs filed through the online process would not get investigated.

Barrister Tanjib Rashid Khan, after receiving a threat over the phone, registered an online complaint with Uttara West police station on September 14.

However, though the point of an online complaint is its immediate response, Tanjib received a verification code for the GD after three days. Later he had to go to the respective station to get a copy of the GD after signing some documents.

Interestingly, the investigation of Tanjib’s complaint is yet to start.

When asked, Rafiqul Islam, officer-in-charge of the police station, said: “Receiving such threats over the phone is nothing new. We will definitely look into the matter if such threats come repetitively.”

Barrister Tanjib’s luck may have favoured him because other users of the service alleged that they did not receive a copy of the GD, rather they had to file a written complaint again going to the respective police station.

Rashid Khan, a businessman in the capital’s Bangshal area, told the Dhaka Tribune that he had filed an online complaint with Bangshal police station in September regarding his lost National Identity Card but even after seven days of the complaint he did not receive any verification code nor any form of response from the police. He

Rashid also claimed that before he left the police station, he had to pay Tk100 to the person who instructed and helped him to file the written complaint.

When inquired, Abdul Kuddus, officer-in-charge of Bangshal police station, said the area under the jurisdiction of his police station was too small and no one preferred to file a GD online, rather complainants were comfortable to come in person to the station. About the money, he said: “It is a baseless claim as no official has the right to demand any money for filing a GD and no one at the station will do so.”

At least 25 GDs were filed everyday in analog system at each of the 49 police stations of DMP but online applications was almost zero In another incident, Fazlul Haque, a garment owner of East Bengal Market of Sadarghat, said he had went to submit a GD at Sutrapur police station couple of months back but the duty officer told him that the GD was not written properly. Although Fazlul claims that he had written it properly, he said the officer asked him to go to a writer in the next room and then come again.

Fazlul alleged that when the writer completed the GD, he saw both his and the new copy and found no difference.

“The writer then, after completion of the job, demand Tk200 from me,” he claimed.

Sources at the DMP system analysis department and police headquarters said the then police commissioner of DMP, Shahidul Haque, introduced the online GD service on March 3, 2010, under the access to information project.

The slogan of the project was “O Police, Bondhu Amar” which was financed by personal police fund.

Since the start of its journey, a total

9,786 of those GDs were enlisted in the register for investigation, according to sources of the department concerned.

When inquired about the reasons behind such a situation, an official of DMP, requesting anonymity, said in the case of most online applications the local police stations would not respond because if the complainant came to the station in person to file a GD, he would give a minimum amount to the duty officer as a token of appreciation in order to process the complaint accurately.

But in online application there was no such scope.

Visiting different police stations in last three days, this correspondent came to know that in an average at least 25 GDs were filed everyday in analog system at each of the 49 police stations under the DMP but the number of online applications was almost zero, suggesting that the project might go offline.

Requesting anonymity, an official working as a system analyst of DMP, said: “Online complaints has been losing its popularity among the people since the last six months but it had a good response soon after the system’s introduction.”

When contacted, Dhanmondi police station OC Abu Bakkar Siddique on Wednesday said he had received only three online complaints in the last five months. However, when asked about the reason, he said: “People now a days feel comfortable filing a complaint in person and for this reason the applications online might have dropped.”

However, DC Masudur Rahman, media and publication of DMP, said they were working on improving some technical aspects of the online GD service, refuting the allegations of inefficiency and lack of cooperation. When asked if the service was about to stop, he said there was no such possibility. “Once the technical aspects are improved, the service will be back in track and people would able to use the service more easily.” l

A dreadful gap on the Sultana Kamal Bridge in capital’s Demra area puts the vehicles at a high risk of accidents

Sylhet BNP’s internal feud deepens n Mohammad Serajul Islam, Sylhet With the formation of a new convening committee, the internal feud in Sylhet city unit of BNP has been intensified between the two factions of the party.

Followers of the party’s Vice Chairman Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury and the leaders and activists loyal to missing BNP leader M Ilyas Ali have recently taken face-to-face position.

On November 8, the BNP central committee announced a convening committee consisting of 33 members for the city unit.

Dr Shahriar Hossain Choudhury and Badruzzaman Selim were made the convenor and member secretary of the committee respectively.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, many leaders and activists loyal to Ilyas alleged that most of the members of the newly formed committee are the followers of Shamsher Mobin.

Since the announcement of the committee, they are staging demonstrations demanding that the committee be scraped soon.

They declared Shamsher Mobin ‘persona non grata’ in the city. They are also trying to resist all of his political activities.

On Friday evening, the aggrieved BNP leaders tried to attack the motor-

Sylhet International trade fair to begin on December 3 Correspondent, n Our Sylhet

Students of Development Studies at Dhaka University form a human chain in front of the Aporajeyo Bangla yesterday demanding ramps for physically handicapped people in all academic institutions of the country DHAKA TRIBUNE

Students form human INDO-BANGLA HIGH COMMISSIONERS’ SUMMIT chain demanding ramps for physicallyhandicapped people enhanced level of awareness, mutual

‘Dhaka Declaration’ adopted

n Tribune Report

Students of the Department of Development Studies at the University of Dhaka yesterday demanded ramps for physically handicapped people at all academic institutions across the country.

They voiced their demand at a human chain held on the premises of Aporajeyo Bangla on the campus, reasoning that it will foster integrated national development.

When the students handed over a memorandum to Vice Chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique about their demand, he lauded them for coming up with such a demand and promised to establish ramps at all buildings on the campus.

According to a recent study conducted by them, most facilities of Dhaka University do not offer any accessibility to physically handicapped people on the campus.

The Disabled People’s Rights and Protection Act, 2013 lays it down that the physically handicapped people shall be protected against any form of discrimination in the country. l

n Arif Ahmed

On the concluding day of the two-day Bangladesh-India High Commissioners’ Summit, the envoys reiterated emphasis on taking a holistic approach to strengthen mutual trust, cooperation and amity between the two countries.

A nine-point recommendation termed as ‘Dhaka Declaration’ was also adopted yesterday following a closed door meeting of the diplomats.

DU International Relations department professor Imtiaz Ahmed announced the ‘Dhaka Declaration’.

The declaration heavily emphasised on economic engagement, and intense cooperation on security matters between the two neighbours.

The most envoys encouraged the governments of two countries to bolster their efforts to strengthen their relationship by taking a holistic approach in addressing bilateral issues and challenges.

It suggested to recognise the importance of deeper and effective communications by facilitating flow of contacts between students, academicians, print and electronic media, and other stakeholders in order to build

trust and confidence.

The declaration underscored the importance of deepening and widening economic engagement with particular focus on free and increasing flow of goods and services.

Enhanced cooperation on all security related matters was also highlighted.

Importance of strengthening cooperation at sub-regional and regional levels with particular focus on SAARC and BIMSTEC was also recommended.

The diplomats suggested to form an alumni of Indo-Bangla high commissioners who have served in the two countries for regular interaction and sharing of experiences among themselves and with other stakeholders and to hold regular biennial summit.

Among the former high commissioners of Bangladesh to India, Harun ur Rashid, Tarik Karim, Mostafa Faruque Mohammed, and Memayetuddin were present.

Among the Indian envoys to Bangladesh, IS Chadha, Deb Mukharji, Rajeet Mitter, and IP Khosla attended the programme.

The next summit of the diplomats will be held in India in 2016. l

A month-long international trade fair organised by the Sylhet Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SMCCI) will begin at Shahi Eidgah Maidan in Sylhet city on December 3.

Hasin Ahmed, first vice president of (SMCCI), announced this at a press briefing at its conference hall yesterday.

Some 160 stalls will be set up for displaying products from home and abroad at the fair, he said.

Traders from Turkey, Thailand, Iran, China and Pakistan have expressed their interests to take part in the fair, he said adding that there will have three separate zones for foreign businessmen.

Hasin said: “We have completed 80 percent preparation works for the fair. Visitors will have to pay Tk10 each for entering the fair ground.”

At the end of the fair, a raffle draw will be held. The first prize winner will get a Tata nano car, he said.

SMCCI vice president Afjal Rashid Choudhury, director Abdul Jabber Jalil, Khairul Hossain, Tahmin Ahmed, Huraira Iffat Hossain, Muhibul Bari Muhit and Anup Kumar Deb, among others, were also present. l

cade of Shamsher Mobin in Tukerbazar Temuky area when he was going to attend a party programme in Sunatola area.

On that day, police recovered nine machetes (Ramdao) from a CNG-run auto-rickshaw from the spot. The attackers, however, managed to flee scene, said Jalalabad Police Station Officer-in-Charge Akther Hossain.

Terming the newly formed committee a ‘pocket committee’, BNP leader Forhad Choudhury Shamim, who is loyal to Ilyas, demanded immediate scrapping of the committee.

Otherwise tougher movement will be launched, he said.

In a press briefing on Friday, Shamsher Mobin, however, said: “We are united, there is no feud in Sylhet BNP.” Grouping in Sylhet BNP surfaced in late 2005.

Since then, the larger faction was led by former finance minister M Saifur Rahman and the other one by M Ilyas Ali. After the demise of Saifur Rahman, leaders and activists belong to his faction joined the group led by Shamsher Mobin.

Now Samsuzzaman Zaman, member of Sylhet district unit of BNP convening committee, is leading the faction loyal to Ilyas. l

MEHEDI HASAN

Gawher Rizvi: Bureaucrats to play major role n Tribune Report Bureaucrats have to play the major role to achieve the target of lifting the country into middle income or developed status, Dr Gawher Rizvi, advisor to the prime minister, said yesterday.

“If we want to achieve the growth target, we have noway to avoid the performance management of the civil servants,” he added while addressing the inaugural session of a workshop titled “Designing and Implementing Government Performance Management Systems” held at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre.

Speaking as the chief guest, he said bureaucrats usually play the major role in implementing the government’s decision and desire.

Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan expressed his hope to introduce an effective performance management system in the country’s government offices to make the government’s move towards development faster.

The workshop was jointly organised by the Cabinet Division, World Bank and Brac Institute of Governance and Development. The event was attended by more than a hundred participants including the senior secretaries and the secretaries of different ministries and divisions, representatives from World Bank and BracU were also present at the discussion. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Advertisement

Sunday, November 16, 2014

5

6 Robbers kill student Correspondent, n Our Brahmanbaria A college student was killed by robbers during a robbery incident at Noagaon village in Sarail upazila of the district yesterday.

The deceased was identified as Ratna,20, a first year honours student at Islampur Kazi Shafiqul Islam College.

Locals said a gang of robbers stormed the house of Osman Mia, a Saudi expatriate, and kept the house inmates hostage at gunpoint in the dead of night.

Later, the robbers looted valuables including gold ornaments and cash from the house.

The robbers also hit Ratna and three other house inmates with sharp weapons as they screamed for help, leaving Ratna and others injured.

Ratna died while she was being taken to hospital. Abdul Haque, officerin-charge of Sarail police station confirmed the incident. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Nation

Sunday, November 16, 2014

24 teachers, including principal suspended over alleged corruption They were appointed by representatives from RU, NU and education ministry The suspended teachers also re- Teachers’ Association, Firoza Bulbul crore. It also found irregularity in apn Our Correspondent, Jessore pointment of 21 teachers with forged futed the claim of certificates forgery. Koli said, she had no knowledge about At least 24 teachers, including 21 lecturers and the principal, of Keshabpur Degree College were suspended over allegation of corruption.

According to the president of the college management committee, Reba Bhoumik, a probe report of the education ministry unveiled the corruption in July.

The investigation, led by education ministry’s joint-secretary Mojibor Rahman and deputy director of Inspection and Audit Directorate Rasheduzzaman, found that the college principal Rafiqul Bari was involved in embezzling Tk2

certificates or no certificates at all.

The ministry would soon be informed of the dismissals, said Bhowmik.

However, Rafiqul Bari denied any such allegations and claimed that he was a victim of personal anguish. He also asserted that the education ministry report was full of loopholes.

“The teachers were appointed after being interviewed by representatives from Rajshahi University, National University, education ministry and experienced teachers. There was no scope for corruption,” Rafiqul Bari said.

Kurigram distirct unit of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad ,Sammilito Sanskritik Jote and Socialist Student Front form a human chain in Dada Mor area in district demanding immediate implementation of death sentence of the convicted war criminals DHAKA TRIBUNE

NEWS IN BRIEF Driver killed; vehicle snatched Miscreants snatched a CNG Auto Rickshaw after killing the driver to death at Nalka union in Sirajganj yesterday. Rezaul Haq, Officer-in-charge of Salanga police station confirming the matter said, we have recovered the strangulated body of Jahangir Hossain, 22.

He added quoting victim’s family members, Jahangir went out with his vehicle Friday morning and never came back.

– Our Correspondent, Sirajganj

Six bombs recovered At least six crude bombs were recovered in Hardi Agriculture area of the district yesterday. On information, a team of police

recovered the bombs at night. Alamdanga police station Officer-in-Charge Asaduzzaman said the bombs were stored in the area to commit gruesome crimes.

– Our Correspondent, Chuadanga

Tk30lakh Indian contraband seized Members of Border Guard Bangladesh in a drive seized Indian contraband worth Tk 33.52 lakh from Amrakhali border point yesterday.

On a tip-off, a BGB patrol team launched the drive in Amrakhali area and seized the Indian smuggled goods worth Tk33.52 lakh, said Lt Colonel Jahangir Hossain, commanding officer of BGB Battallion-26.

Sensing the presence of BGB team, the smugglers fled away.

– Our Correspondent, Jessore

Runa Laila, lecturer of Political Science department said, they had been a victim of conspiracy and Reba Bhoumik took the decision without consulting with other management committee members.

Lecturer of Bangla department Mohsin Hossain said, some of the teachers had no certificates at the time of their appointment. However, they submitted the certificates later. Besides, some teachers were fresh graduates or were waiting for results to be out.

When contacted, president of district chapter of Bangladesh College

the matter and no teacher of Keshabpur college had contacted her.

The same response came from the secretary of the association Makbul Hossain, who further added that a college principal had little say over teachers’ appointment. Usually the parliament member of the area is the key person.

In the meantime, students of the college expressed concern over the suspension of so many teachers at one go. They feared that this would affect their studies and threatened to shut down the college if the matter was not resolved soon. l

Shibir-cops clash; eight held n Our Correspondent, Bogra A clash ensued between the activists of Islami Chhatra Shibir and the policemen when Shibir activists brought out a procession yesterday in the district.

Witnesses said, the Shibir activists brought out a procession at Shatmatha in the town around 8am according to their scheduled countrywide demonstration. When the procession reached at Press Club, police intercepted them.

Police fired rubber bullets to disperse them. At one stage, Shibir men also blasted cocktails.

Bogra senior assistant police super Ujjal Kumar said, they detained eight Shibir men from the spot.

The arrested men are identified as--Shamiul Islam, president of Azizul Haque College unit ICS and its activists Mushfiqur Rahman, Kayes Uddin, Abdul Matin, Shariful Islam, Uzzal Hossain, Shah Alam and Rezaul Karim. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Career

7

Sunday, November 16, 2014

ENGINEERING CAREERS

BIGSTOCK

Creating a world that has never been

n Mahmud Hussain Because engineering majors in general study a broad-based education which teaches the ability to systematically analyse problems and formulate sound solutions among many alternatives, most career sectors would trust the judgment of an engineer

“Scientists study the world as it is; engineers create the world that has never been.” - Theodore von Kármán

E

ngineering is one of the most fast-paced fields of study in today’s technology-driven world. It has shaped the world as we see it today, and has made it hard to imagine what this planet would have looked like without the advancement of this field.

Wild, savage and full of spear-wielding tribesmen, perhaps!

For this reason, it is extremely important to assess available choices very carefully whenever someone decides to study engineering. There are many engineering majors available in different universities, and in order to choose a suitable major among many others, one needs to get an insightful view of different careers on various engineering fields.

Because engineering majors in general study a broad-based education which teaches the ability to systemat-

Making the most of meetings n Ahsan Sajid

W

hatever the reason, the purpose of all meetings is at its core the same – to establish an objective and seeing it through.

Meetings that do not establish an objective are prone to getting derailed and turning into bad meetings.

An effective meeting should make you feel accomplished and motivated. Whatever the purpose of a meeting, an effective one hits three criteria – it reaches the objective the meeting has established, it does not waste anyone’s time, participants leave with a better grasp of what’s at hand and what their tasks are going forward.

Whether you are merely a participant or the moderator, following are a number of tips to help ensure the three criteria for running effective meetings are met.

Establishing objective Establishing an objective for a meeting gives it a roadmap to follow, without which all participants would simply be making disorganised contributions. An effective meeting serves a purpose. Establishing an objective is figuring out what this desirable outcome is.

Ask yourself the following questions.

Does the meeting require a decision to be made? Is it to generate ideas or for everybody to update one another? Is there anything in specific that you have to communicate to the rest of the group? Is there going to be any planning involved?

Participants need to be clear about what the objective of the meeting is.

The answers to the questions posed, among a number of other possibilities, are examples of a meeting objective. This step is necessary before calling a meeting or planning for it. Once you have the desired outcome defined, it is easy to determine how long the meeting should be or who needs to be present and who can sit it out.

Making the most of time Time is a finite resource, and ought to be treated like it. Every participant of a meeting owes it to the others to not waste time. If a meeting has ten attendants, one of whom wastes ten minutes, they have just cost the company an hour and a half.

The meeting’s objective has been established, and the rest of the meeting should be conducted accordingly.

There are a number of ways to trim the fat around the edges and making sure time is utilised perfectly. For example, if the meeting is to troubleshoot a problem, participants should arrive with viable solutions already in mind instead of coming up with ideas during the meeting. It is important to figure out if there are required tasks that can be taken care of before the meeting begins and to attend to them.

When a meeting involves multiple talking points, it is essential to prioritise which ones must be covered before others. It is important to sequence them in a particular order, and to allocate sets of time for each point.

A common source of time loss is when individuals are invited to the meeting simply as figureheads, with little to contribute.

The person calling the meeting should list necessary participants and leave out redundant names.

Apprising all participants Meeting participants should come out of a meeting better informed than when they went in. To ensure this, a number of issues need to be taken into consideration.

If you are moderating the meeting, make sure everyone is aware of the meeting’s agenda before the start of the meeting, so they can offer suggestions such as taking items off the list or adding to it. If you are a participant, try to understand what the objective of the meeting is and at the end ask yourself if you recognise what your steps are to be, going forward.

Meetings often get unbalanced by certain individuals dominating the discussion time, but an effective meeting provides time to all participants for their contribution. At the end of each topic, one participant should summarise the discussion and repeat what deliverables are expected off which individual. All participants should agree it is a fair summary.

One participant must be assigned to keep note of all tasks generated during the meeting, and who has been assigned which. This person should ideally compile a meeting summary, and provide a copy for all participants and any other member concerned. This is a crucial step to making a meeting effective, one that often gets overlooked.

The success of a meeting can be measured against the completion of the meeting objective originally established. l

ically analyse problems and formulate sound solutions among many alternatives, most career sectors would trust the judgment of an engineer.

Global competition and rapid technological advances have increased challenges in engineering careers, and today engineers are employed in a huge variety of diverse arenas, including but not restricted to government sector, technology, business, non-profit sector, industry, finance, education, law, health, medicine etc.

Your work can range from developing smartphone apps for physically-challenged kids, making nano chips for supercomputers, and building robots for car-manufacturing plants to designing prosthetic limbs that operate by brain signals, manipulating biomaterials for producing energy, and customising human body-cells to fight cancer.

Needless to say, besides carving the path to an exciting and vibrant career, an engineering degree may also help you change the world!

The engineering sector in Bangladesh has changed over the years, and

industries on the endless quest for meeting the ever-changing needs of the country are always on the lookout for potential employees. In general, engineering graduates in Bangladesh have a good number of career choices depending on individual majors.

The present job market for computer engineering in Bangladesh is pretty good, partly due to the fact that overseas development companies are attracted by the cheap labor market here.

The salary is quite high in these smallscale companies, but the job switching rate is high as well. Many computer engineers also get employed by the telecoms sector and research and development companies.

For electrical engineers, the traditional job areas are the government sector, telecoms, power, R&D etc. Recently, the telecoms sector has also changed several of its modes of service delivery, often moving from delegated jobs to sub-contractors (also known as third-party vendors) which provide employees to these companies on a contract basis.

There’s also the opportunity to work for international telecoms operators on a yearly contract basis outside Bangladesh. For example, between 2006-2009, MTN Group recruited a lot of engineers from local telecoms companies on an extremely high salary rate to work on a yearly contact basis. Other companies like Ericsson and Huawei have also hired engineers on a contract basis with high salary bases recently.

Power sector jobs, which are typically for mechanical and electrical engineers, are competitive and high-paying. The power sector work in conjunction with foreign companies, and some people with extraordinary performances regularly get job offers from these companies.

There’s a high demand for Bangladeshi power engineers at Middle-eastern countries, and a lot of engineers from Bangladesh are working at high positions in the power plants there.

Others like industrial and mechanical engineers go to heavy industries, while gas and oil exploration companies are the grounds for chemical en-

gineers. Apart from technical arenas, some graduates with extraordinary academic achievements often work as lecturers in public and private engineering universities.

Among engineers there’s also a recent trend of joining start-up companies in Bangladesh as well as around the world. With all the affiliated risks of failure, engineers are starting their own start-up projects, sometimes after gaining experience from working at larger companies for a while.

Although payment in these sectors may depend on what you invest, the thrill of working without bureaucratic red tapes is definitely worthwhile-you can define your own projects and work with a sense of autonomy.

A significant number of graduates go abroad for graduate studies, and most try obtaining MSc and PhD degrees from countries like the USA, Canada, Australia, Germany, Switzerland etc.

While attending graduate school, a lot of students get scholarships and assistantships for financing their education.

Engineering career choices abroad are diverse, vibrant and exciting, and many of these careers provide chances to grow individually and professionally since there are more spaces for improvisation within the career structures.

Those with the passion for experimentation often get into topnotch research centers and universities as researchers, while others work in various industries and technical fields as engineers. Some also work in teaching positions at colleges and universities.

Engineering curricula are now evolving to respond to the fact that technical innovation, critical thinking, leadership, globalisation, and lifelong learning are becoming ever more critical to retain a competitive edge in careers, thus enabling graduates to excel in their professions at national and international levels, and to respond to the continuously changing needs of technologically oriented societies.

It is indeed true to a significant extent that an engineer can actually work anywhere he or she wants to, at any time! l Mahmud Hussain is an Intern, Content Writing at GradInsights, the career intelligence service of GradConnect. More articles from the team can be found at www. grad-insights.com

Tackling conflicts at meetings n Ahsan Sajid

T

here are conflicts which ruin organisations, and conflicts which save them. Anyone who has attended more than one meeting has experienced some amount of tension in the room. Sometimes such tension between colleagues is actually a good thing – conflict is not only exciting and energising, but a catalyst for great ideas.

However, more often than not, conflicts deflate the team’s spirit and hurt its progress and morale. The same conflict that motivates one to think outside of the box can also make their thought process stagnant with the idea that everybody else is wrong. Furthermore, it takes little to nothing for a professional difference to turn to a personal issue.

If you’re in a tense meeting and conflict is imminent, what can you do?

Whether you are conducting the meeting or are simply participating, following are a few suggestions to address conflicts directly and nipping it at the bud.

Types of conflicts

To stop conflicts, one must understand the two major kinds of conflicts that may arise at a meeting – professional differences and personality clashes.

Conflicts arise from differences in opinions, and more so when the outcome is of extreme importance. These differences don’t become full-fledged conflicts unless the outcome is important, the decision being made cannot be reversed, or when the decision is going to impact everyone in the meeting.

Such conflicts sour relationships if left unresolved and can become a different and more personal kind of conflict.

Less commonly, conflicts take an uglier shape when individuals or different departments participating in a meeting do not like one another, or one group or individual feels threatened by another. These conflicts are really more to do with personality issues than with facts or professional opinions. While they can be similarly handled, the underlying problem behind such a conflict should be separately addressed.

Prevention is the key

The best way to resolve a conflict is to prevent is altogether. If you are con-

BIGSTOCK

It is not possible, nor required, to make everyone happy or get everyone to agree, it is important to remember this ducting the meeting, make sure it is tightly structured – email everyone the meeting’s agenda beforehand so individuals have fewer opportunities to push personal agendas. If you are simply participating, keep the focus on the objective at hand by reminding the group when they seem to be straying.

If there are attendees in the meeting who have a reputation for causing conflict, one needs to be alert from the get go. Conflicts also arise in groups where individuals struggle and vie for influence without having established effective ways of working yet.

The simplest way to overcoming these problems is by introducing a number of rules. n All attendees will be allowed to speak only after raising their hands, or in some way signalling that they have something to contribute. n Everyone will be invited to contribute at the end of each individual item on the agenda, to ensure no one hijacks the discussion. n One person will summarise the entire meeting, to ensure that all attendees are on the same page.

Keeping an eye out for it

When a conflict is due to real professional differences instead of a personality clash or power struggle, it is best

to have individuals air their grievances as soon as possible. If you’re sensing disagreement brewing, make sure that people have the opportunity to express this disagreement first before moving on to a different issue. The discussion should not proceed with a number of meeting attendees dissatisfied with it.

In the following section, we are discussing conflict resolution approaches.

When conflict happens it is best to end it at the source instead of letting it grow bigger than it needs to be. Do not simply react to a problem; address it before it becomes one.

Conflict resolution –When your best efforts to prevent conflict have failed, you may use the following conflict resolution techniques to calm the situation.

Depersonalise – through this technique, one phrases an issue of conflict to take focus away from any individual, or group and directing it towards the issue itself. For example, instead of saying that one person is simply better at the job than another person, a better way to put it would be to say that while both persons have strengths, one’s strengths are more in line for the issue at hand.

The focus is directed towards the issue at hand and the individuals’ strengths, instead of themselves.

Question – turn every conflict into a question. Instead of allowing meeting attendees to simply state that they disagree with something, ask them to find a way out of it through research, brainstorming etc. Ask for suggestions for how the disagreeable idea may be changed so that a consensus may be reached.

Remove perceived threat – one of the

biggest reasons that conflicts occur in a meeting is because of perceived threat.

This is ubiquitous in nature – animals attack when they perceive a threat. The conflict may be arising because someone may feel that the discussion is putting their position or reputation on the line, or hampering their chances of enjoying a free weekend or a festival bonus.

This kind of conflict may be addressed through a strict agenda, as mentioned earlier. If everyone is on the same page as to what the meeting seeks to discuss, what the objective is and what is expected off it, a lot of individuals may relax a little and not jump in at every speed bump.

Set up another meeting – sometimes it may come to pass that a conflict at a meeting is simply irresolvable or that it is an issue that cannot be freely discussed amidst all the current meeting participants. In this case, the conflict needs to be acknowledged, and a future meeting should be set up, preferably on the same day, to only address the issue at hand.

Some conflict should be expected

The best way to avoid conflicts in meetings is to prepare for it properly. It is good to know exactly what the meeting entails, and not get derailed. Develop an atmosphere where individuals may comfortably state their problems and issues.

It is not possible, nor required, to make everyone happy or get everyone to agree, it is important to remember this. If everyone has had a fair chance to offer their professional opinion at the meeting, and everyone has been a part of the process equally to reach the meeting’s objective, it has been a successful meeting. l

8

DHAKA TRIBUNE

World

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Top US general arrives in Iraq

The recapture of Beiji is the latest in a series of setbacks for the jihadi group Services Committee that America has n AP, Baghdad a modest force in Iraq now, and “any America’s top military leader arrived Saturday to Iraq, state television reported, his first visit to the country since a US-led coalition began a campaign of airstrikes targeting the extremist Islamic State group.

The visit by Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, was not previously announced. It came just two days after he told Congress that the United States would consider dispatching a modest number of American forces to fight with Iraqi troops in the campaign against the Islamic State group, which controls about a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria.

The Iraqi military and security forces, trained by the US at the cost of billions of dollars, melted away in the face of the Islamic State group’s stunning offensive this summer, when they captured most of northern and western Iraq, including the country’s second-largest city, Mosul.

Dempsey said Thursday that Iraqi forces were doing a better job now, although an effort to move into Mosul or to restore the border with Syria would require more complex operations.

He also told the US House Armed

expansion of that, I think, would be equally modest.”

“I just don’t foresee a circumstance when it would be in our interest to take this fight on ourselves with a large military contingent,” he said.

Dempsey’s visit comes just one day after Iraqi forces drove Islamic State militants out of a strategic oil refinery town north of Baghdad, scoring their biggest battlefield victory yet.

The recapture of Beiji is the latest in a series of setbacks for the jihadi group, which has lost hundreds of fighters to US-led coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, particularly amid the group’s stalled advance on the Syrian town of Kobani. On Friday, activists there reported significant progress by Kurdish fighters defending the town.

Meanwhile Saturday, two parked car bombs exploded minutes apart north of Baghdad, targeting a checkpoint staffed by army soldiers and security forces, authorities said. The blast killed six people and wounded 25, police and hospital officials said.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief journalists. l

Iraq’s largest refinery complex in the northern town of Baiji. Iraqi pro-government forces broke the siege of the country’s main oil refinery yesterday, where security forces had held out for months against the Islamic State jihadist group AFP

IS militants withdraw from area around Iraq refinery n Reuters, Baghdad Islamic State militants withdrew on Saturday from the perimeter of Iraq’s biggest oil refinery after months fending off government troops seeking to retake the strategic complex, said an army officer and Al-Hadath television station.

The officer, speaking to Reuters from the Baiji refinery, said the Sunni insurgents removed roadside bombs

they had planted and fled. Al-Hadath said security forces had entered the compound.

It was not immediately possible to confirm either account.

Islamic State militants surrounded the Baiji refinery, some 110 miles north of Baghdad, in June, trapping pro-government forces inside. But a contingent of Iraqi soldiers and government-aligned militia held out against

the jihadists, who staged repeated attacks in a bid to seize the terminal.

Police Brig. Gen. Khalil Ramal Ahmed said on Saturday as many as 400 police forces had infiltrated the refinery from the south after the militants mounted full retreat. But a spokesman for Asaib ahl al-Haq, a government-aligned Shiite militia with forces inside the refinery, also said on Saturday afternoon that the siege had

Russia wants to deal on Britain prepared to walk away from EU nuclear talks with Iran n AFP, London

n Reuters, Brisbane A senior Russian diplomat said a deal could be reached this month between world powers and Tehran on curbing Iran’s nuclear program if there is the will in Washington and Tehran.

In Australia for a meeting of the G20 major and developing economies, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters six world powers and Iran had never been so close to an agreement and it could be reached by a Nov. 24 deadline.

“Therefore, from (Nov.) 18 to 24 there is enough time for such decisions

to be taken,” he said.

“But there is no guarantee that these decisions will be taken in those capitals where there are the biggest problems with current solutions, I mean, - Washington and Tehran.”

Six powers - Russia, China, the United States, France, Britain and Germany - want to ensure Iran’s nuclear program does not enable it to build nuclear weapons, though Iran says its nuclear work is for civil needs.

Some officials, including from Russia, have expressed doubts a deal can be reached in the timeframe. l

Britain will walk away from negotiations with European Union partners if its pleas for immigration reform are ignored, raising the real possibility of leaving the bloc altogether, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Friday.

Hammond told the Daily Telegraph that the British public could vote to end the country’s membership unless there was “substantial, meaningful reform” from Brussels.

Prime Minister David Cameron has promised an in-out referendum for 2017 if his Conservative Party wins next year’s general election, but has failed to win support for border reforms from fellow European leaders.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel last week warned her British counterpart that he was approaching a “point of no return” with the EU over his immigration proposals, according to a German news report.

However, Hammond insisted that there would be no turning back, saying that Britain would be “prepared to stand up from the table and walk away” if its proposals were not considered.

“We have to be prepared to. In this case it isn’t even our decision because there’s going to be a referendum at the end of this process,” he said in comments published on the Telegraph’s website.

Eurosceptic Hammond promised to be “candid” with EU partners and to warn them that the British public were

expecting results.

“I’d like to be telling my German counterpart honestly, if you draw the line there, I don’t think we’re going to get this past the British public in a referendum â - but if you could move your line to there, I think we might.”

He ruled out talk of quotas on the amount of immigrants coming to Britain from the EU, but suggested he may raise the idea of “a mechanism that delivered the same kind of outcome.”

The Conservatives are struggling to open up a lead over the embattled Labour Party due to the loss of supporters and MPs to the anti-EU UK Independence Party, and Hammond’s appointment was widely seen as an attempt to woo back disgruntled voters. l

IMF to provide $300m extra fund to fight Ebola n Agencies

On the outskirts of the city of Monrovia, Liberia, health workers walk around medical tents that form part of a new American clinic to be used for the treatment of people suffering from the Ebola virus AP

The G20 has welcomed a commitment from the IMF to provide $300m (£190m) in extra funding to help fight Ebola in the three worst-affected west African countries.

The IMF money for Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia will come through “a combination of concessional loans, debt relief, and grants,” according to a statement issued by the world leaders’ summit, being held in Brisbane.

The G20 also claimed to be “committed to do what is necessary to ensure the international effort can extinguish the outbreak,” while pointedly urging “governments that have yet to do so to join in providing financial contributions, appropriately qualified and trained medical teams and personnel, medical and protective equipment, and medicines and treatments.”

The US had been pressing the IMF to offer $100m in debt relief to the three countries.

The British prime minister, David

Cameron, has joined the US in pushing to put Ebola on the agenda of a summit that Australia had been trying to focus rigidly on economic growth and jobs.

The IMF has already agreed to provide $130m of emergency financial assistance, including $48.3m to Liberia, $41.4m to Guinea and $39.8m to Sierra Leone. It is also empowered to offer debt relief in such emergencies if required.

The IMF had previously estimated the epidemic would be brought under control by the first quarter of 2015, but now believed this was likely to be the second half of the year, increasing the cost to the countries affected. It has forecasted that growth estimates for the three countries is likely to be downgraded.

The US Treasury secretary, Jack Lew, welcomed the IMF’s announcement of extra cash: “The IMF’s expanded support, including debt relief, for Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone will free-up critical resources in these countries for both immediate economic needs and longer-term recovery efforts.” l

not yet been broken.

Pro-government forces “are very close, just a few meters away,” Naim al-Aboudi, the spokesman, said. He said the jihadists had planted dozens of improvised explosive devices to slow the government advance.

“They have many wounded and they are retreating,” he said of the Islamic State fighters. “But we are not inside yet.” l

Yazidi girls seized

by ISIS speak out after escape n Agencies The 15-year-old girl, crying and terrified, refused to release her grip on her sister’s hand. Days earlier, Islamic State fighters had torn the girls from their family, and now were trying to split them up and distribute them as spoils of war.

The jihadist who had selected the 15-year-old as his prize pressed a pistol to her head, promising to pull the trigger. But it was only when the man put a knife to her 19-year-old sister’s neck that she finally relented, taking her next step in a dark odyssey of abduction and abuse at the hands of the Islamic State.

The sisters were among several thousand girls and young women from the minority Yazidi religion who were seized by the Islamic State in northern Iraq in early August.

The 15-year-old is also among a small number of kidnapping victims who have managed to escape, bringing with them stories of a coldly systemized industry of slavery.

Their accounts tell of girls and young women separated from their families, divvied up or traded among the Islamic State’s men, ordered to convert to Islam, subjected to forced marriages and repeatedly raped.

While many of the victims are still living in areas of northern or western Iraq under the control of the Islamic State, many others have been sent to Syria or other countries, according to victims and their advocates.

Five girls and women who recently escaped agreed to be interviewed at the end of October. Four of them were in Khanke, a predominantly Yazidi town in the far north of Iraq, and a fifth in the nearby city of Dohuk. Tens of thousands of Yazidi refugees have sought refuge in this region, in vast tent camps and in relatives’ homes, after fleeing their villages around the Sinjar mountains. l

50,000 and not counting: South Sudan’s war dead n AFP, Nairobi When gunfire shattered the silence of a December evening last year in South Sudan’s capital Juba, initial reports pointed to several dozen rival soldiers dead.

In the following days, gunfire and explosions continued to shake the city, as troops loyal to President Salva Kiir fought it out with those allied to his ousted deputy, Riek Machar, and terrified residents cowered in their homes and independent observers kept indoors under curfew.

Witnesses reported soldiers going door-to-door, as members of Kiir’s Dinka tribe hunted down ethnic Nuer, the people of Machar. At night, bodies were discreetly trucked out of the city and burned or buried, witnesses and human rights groups say.

“We estimate as many as 5,000 people died in Juba during that first week alone.

After that, it’s been the same kind of thing

over and over again in other towns. In some places, people have been there to count, in others, not at all,” said one Western aid worker, who asked that his name nor that of his organisation be published due to the sensitivity of the issue.

Eleven months on and South Sudan is still locked in civil war, with the killings in Juba having set off a cycle of retaliatory killings across large swathes of the country.

Both Kiir’s forces and rebels loyal to Machar have been accused of widespread atrocities — massacres, gang rapes and child soldier recruitment — that have seen the country teeter on the brink of genocide.

But missing from the conflict is a clear death toll, as nobody — not even United Nations peacekeepers — has been keeping count. The International Crisis Group (ICG), a conflict think-tank, estimates at least 50,000 people have already died but it admits the true figure could even be double

that. It also says the failure to count the dead is a scandal — both as a dishonour to the victims and as something that has kept the country’s suffering off the international radar.

“It’s shocking that in 2014, in a country with one of the largest UN peacekeeping missions in the world, tens of thousands of people can be killed and no one can even begin to confirm the death toll,” ICG researcher Casie Copeland told AFP. “Surely more can be done to understand whether the figure is closer to 50,000 or 1,00,000?”

Instead, she argues, the South Sudanese are victims of a process of “appalling dehumanisation” — the result being a lack of “concerted action to end the war.”

“Counting the dead goes beyond understanding the scale of this devastating war, it honours those who have been lost and is a minimum form of respect to the tens

of thousands of South Sudanese who have been killed.”

Akshaya Kumar of the Enough Project, a genocide prevention campaign group, stressed the need to create accountability with clear numbers in order to “counter the widespread belief that combatants have immunity in South Sudan.”

“It’s an imperfect science but in other countries, such as Syria, the UN has done a much better job of tracking the numbers of civilians killed than in South Sudan,” added Skye Wheeler from Human Rights Watch.

“Alongside more vigorous reporting on human rights abuses, public estimates would have shed light on the violence and the extent of abuse, and helped put pressure on both sides to end abusive tactics.”

The reality in South Sudan, however, has been the polar opposite: without any apparent fear of the consequences, armed groups have shot and gang raped patients

in their hospital beds, massacred civilians in churches, machine-gunned fleeing civilians in swamps — leaving their bodies to rot, be carried away by the Nile river or be consumed by its crocodiles.

Tens of thousands more are feared to have died from hunger and disease in isolated villages, swamps and bush beyond the reach of aid agencies.

The UN peacekeeping mission to South Sudan, UNMISS, say they are unable to provide “a reasonably precise estimate of the casualty toll,” saying only that “thousands” have been killed.

The 14,000-strong peacekeeping mission said in a statement that it “doesn’t have a presence in every single county in South Sudan, so it is impossible to provide a comprehensive and independently verifiable number.”

The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also admits it

has “unfortunately ... not been collecting information on the number of deaths since the crisis broke out” — although it does track those still alive, notably the 3.8 million people in need of aid and the 1.91 million people displaced.

“If the UN is able to estimate with such precision the number of displaced, it is inexplicable that they cannot similarly monitor those killed,” the ICG’s Copeland said.

As the body counters opt out of South Sudan’s civil war, a group of South Sudanese civil society activists are trying to step in — launching the “Naming Those We Lost” project to try and name the dead. But they have a long way to go — having so far confirmed around a thousand names.

“It’s a vital step to recognising the collective loss,” said project organiser Anyieth D’Awol. “The lack of justice, accountability and acknowledgement of losses suffered by people has fuelled the current conflict.” l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

World

9

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Tsunami alert sparks panic in Indonesia

The tsunami of 2004, left more than 170,000 people dead in Aceh, on Sumatra island

n AFP, Kota Ternate A powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake rocked the Maluku Islands in eastern Indonesia Saturday, sparking a tsunami warning and causing panicked people to flee their homes.

Small waves generated by the undersea quake were detected in several parts of the sprawling archipelago, local authorities said, although there were no reports of casualties or major damage and the tsunami warning was lifted after a short while.

Nevertheless, the prospect of a major tsunami set nerves on edge in one of the most seismically active countries in the world, almost a decade after quake-triggered destructive waves devastated western Aceh province.

The tsunami of December 26, 2004,

left more than 170,000 people dead in Aceh, on Sumatra island, and tens of thousands more in countries with coasts on the Indian Ocean.

Saturday’s tremor struck northwest of the town of Kota Ternate, at 0231 GMT, the US Geological Survey said. It was followed by a series of aftershocks that measured between magnitude 4.3 and 5.8, the USGS said.

“Tsunami waves are possible for coasts located within 300 kilometres,” said the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

The centre also warned of small tsunami waves in the Philippines, Japan, Taiwan and islands in the South Pacific.

On the tiny Sangihe Islands close to the epicentre in Indonesia, people ran out of their homes when the quake hit, Toni Supit, head of the islands’ Sitaro district, told AFP.

Modi: G20 reforms should be people-driven n Agencies World leaders at G20 summit Thursday called for higher growth and more jobs, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi adding that reforms should be people-driven.

Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott in his opening statement at the summit in Brisbane vowed that world leaders would deliver on an initiative to add $2 trillion to global GDP, promising freer trade and more investment in infrastructure.

Abbott, who has repeatedly promised this year’s G20 gathering in the Australian city of Brisbane would be more than a “talkfest,” said the growth plans would add millions of jobs and boost global GDP by “more than 2%” above expected levels over the next five years.

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking at the sidelines of the summit, said the reform process is bound to face resistance and wanted it to be insulated from political pressures.

Making a strong pitch for economic reforms, Modi told fellow G20 leaders that reforms should lead to simplification of processes and that methods of governance must be reformed.

“Reform is bound to face resistance...must be insulated from political pressures,” said Modi.

The Prime Minister also made it clear that reform has to be driven by the people and that it cannot be undertaken by “stealth.”

Asserting that reform must be people-centric and people-driven, he said globally reforms are handicapped with perception of being government programmes and a burden on the people and this needs to change.

PM Modi also brought up the issue of black money ahead of his meeting with world leaders, saying repatriation of black money kept abroad is a key priority for India.

Calling for close coordination among countries over combating black money, Modi also said this unaccounted money is also linked to security challenges. l

“People in coastal areas felt the strong quake, which lasted for quite some time, and they immediately went to the sea to see if the water was receding abnormally, which is a sign of an incoming tsunami,” he said.

Tsunami waves nine centimetres high were detected at Jailolo on Halmahera island, in the Maluku Islands, the meteorological agency said.

Tiny waves were also detected in Tobelo on Halmahera, and in Manado, on nearby Sulawesi island.

An agency official on Sulawesi said early reports indicated that cracks had appeared in the walls of some houses after the quake, although full damage reports had yet to come in.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said earlier that waves up to one metre high could hit parts of Indonesia. l

Concrete fragments are seen outside a building as Manado city residents evacuate onto a street after a 7.3-magnitude earthquake shook the capital of Northern Sulawesi island yesterday. A powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake rocked the Maluku Islands in eastern Indonesia, sparking a tsunami warning for areas up to 300 kilometres (185 miles) away and causing panicked people to flee their homes AFP

Obama defends commitment to Asia Pacific region

‘Thousands missing in boats en route to Malaysia’

n AP, Brisbane

Thousands of Rohingya boat people who have left Myanmar in the past month have yet to reach their destinations, say relatives and an advocacy group for the persecuted minority, raising fears their boats have been prevented from reaching shore.

About 12,000 Rohingya, a mostly stateless Muslim people, have left the western Myanmar state of Rakhine since Oct. 15, said Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project, which plots migration across the Bay of Bengal.

Another 4,000 boat people, both Rohingya and Bangladeshis, left neighbouring Bangladesh during the same period, said Lewa.

The boat people are headed for Malaysia, but most transit through Thailand, where smugglers and traffickers hold them at jungle camps near the Malaysian border until relatives pay ransoms to secure their release.

About 460 boat people were found and detained by the Thai authorities in November, but thousands more have not made landfall or contacted relatives after what is usually a five-day voyage. l

President Barack Obama vigorously defended his commitment to strengthening US ties with the Asia Pacific, arguing on Saturday that while a flurry of crises elsewhere in the world have demanded his attention, those matters have not weakened his dedication to this fast-growing region.

“There are times when people have been skeptical of this rebalance, they’re wondering whether America has the staying power to sustain it,” Obama said during remarks in Brisbane, Australia, where he was attending the Group of 20 economic summit of developed and developing nations.

“I’m here to say that American leadership in the Asia Pacific will always be a fundamental focus of my foreign policy.”

Obama has long faced questions about his commitment to putting the Asia Pacific at the center of his foreign policy, an effort he sees as a core part of his presidential legacy. Politically weak-

ened in the US as he enters his final two years in office, Obama arrived in the region this week also facing skepticism about whether he has the power to follow through on his pledges.

During a speech at the University of Queensland, the president argued that challenges around the world often have the effect of deepening ties between the US and the Asia Pacific rather than creating divides. He singled out the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, noting that 38 Australians were killed when Moscow-backed rebels shot down a commercial airliner.

“As your ally and friend, America shares the grief of these Australian families and we share the determination of your nation for justice and accountability,” he said.

Obama devoted a significant portion of his remarks to addressing the complex relationship between the US and China, his first stop on a weeklong tour of the region that also included a visit to Myanmar. Given its size and rapid growth, Obama said China, too,

will inevitably play a critical role in the future of the Asia Pacific.

“The question is what kind of role will it play,” he said. He said that while the US welcomes the rise of a peaceful and responsible China, the Asian power must “adhere to the same rules as other nations.”

The president’s tone toward China was noticeably tougher during his remarks in Australia than during his three days in Beijing, where he and President Xi Jinping sought to emphasize their areas of agreement. Obama’s shift in emphasis reflects the concern among other nations in the region about China’s increasing aggression, particularly in its territorial disputes with neighbors.

That’s expected to be a major focus of Obama’s meeting Sunday with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Australia Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

China has long been skeptical of the relationship between the three countries, seeing their alliance as an effort to counter its rise. l

Pakistan assures support for Afghan peace process n AP, Islamabad

A couple walks next to a poster with the image of Beijing’s Tiananmen Square at the protest area site of the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement, next to the central government offices in Hong Kong yesterday AFP

Hong Kong protest leaders prevented from flying to Beijing n AFP Three Hong Kong democracy protest leaders were Saturday denied permission to board a flight to Beijing, where they had hoped to bring their demands for free elections to Chinese authorities.

The leaders of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, spearheading mass rallies that have paralysed parts of the city for six weeks, said airline officials informed them that their permits used for travel to the mainland had been cancelled by Chinese authorities.

“Airline officials informed (the leaders) they did not have the required travel documents to get on the plane,” Lester Shum, deputy secretary general of HKFS, told reporters.

Fruitless talks with the Hong Kong government almost a month ago have led to an impasse and protest leaders had planned to travel to Beijing to bypass the unpopular local administration altogether.

“We have received information from relevant departments on the mainland that the Home Return Permits of the passengers in question have been cancelled,” a Cathay Pacific staff member told the trio, footage from Cable Television News showed.

The permit, issued by mainland authorities, allows Hong Kong residents free travel within mainland China, but some of the city’s pro-democracy figures have been denied access to the country in the past.

“Residents holding valid travel documents shall be free to leave the Region without special authorisation,” a spokeswoman for the city’s immigration department told AFP on Friday.

Before they were turned back, the three leaders – Nathan Law, Eason Chung and Alex Chow – were mobbed by supporters who unfurled yellow umbrellas, a symbol of the city’s democracy movement.

They also carried banners with pro-democracy messages including “we want real elections.”

“Dialogue is important for resolving the current (situation) but it depends on whether Beijing has the initiative to open talks with students,” HKFS leader Alex Chow said before he was turned back. l

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday pledged his support to the Afghan president in his attempt to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table, a sign of warming ties between the two neighbors.

Sharif met with visiting Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at his sprawling office in the capital, Islamabad. Ghani arrived in Pakistan on Friday for a twoday visit, seeking to repair a relationship between the two nations that was often tense in recent years. Ghani’s predecessor, Hamid Karzai, frequently accused Pakistan of turning a blind eye to the Taliban and other militants carrying out cross-border attacks from lawless tribal regions. Pakistan in turn blamed Kabul for failing to police its own borders.

Several weeks ago, Ghani invited the Taliban to join national reconciliation negotiations. On Saturday, Sharif backed Ghani’s initiative, but added that the process must be fully Afghan-led and Afghan owned.

“I reaffirmed that a peaceful, stable, united and prosperous Afghanistan is in Pakistan’s vital national interest,” Sharif said.

“The bonds between Pakistan and Afghanistan are special. Our fraternal ties are fortified by common faith, kinship and shared history. We have common woes and common joys. We grieve together and rejoice together.

Our security and future prosperity remain interlinked,” he said.

The new Afghan leader praised the Pakistani prime minister and called for the two nations to turn a new page in their relationship. “We must overcome the past,” Ghani said. “We will not permit the past to destroy the future.”

Ghani expressed hope that Pakistan and Afghanistan would “serve as the heart of Asia to ensure that economic integration in Asia becomes a reality.”

He also called for a joint effort to curb extremism and terrorism in both countries, saying “any instability in Pakistan affects us and any instability in Afghanistan affects you.” l

Sterilisation: Rat poison chemical found in pills n Reuters, Bilaspur/Raipur Tablets linked to the deaths of more than a dozen women who visited a sterilisation camp in India are likely to have contained a chemical compound commonly used in rat poison, two senior officials in Chhattisgarh state said on Saturday.

Preliminary tests of the antibiotic ciprocin tablets were found to contain zinc phosphide, Siddhartha Pardeshi, the chief administrator for the Bilaspur district, told Reuters.

The antibiotics were handed out at the mass sterilisation held a week ago in the impoverished state. At least 15 women have died, most of whom had

attended the camp.

Authorities tested the tablets after being informed that zinc phosphide was found at the nearby factory of Mahawar Pharmaceuticals, the firm at the center of investigations into the deaths at a government-run family planning camp, Pardeshi and Chhattisgarh health minister Amar Agarwal said.

Samples of the drugs have now been sent to laboratories in Delhi and Kolkata to verify that the tablets were contaminated as the preliminary report suggested, Pardeshi said.

“But, this is what we anticipate,” he said. “Symptoms shown by the patients also conform with zinc phosphide (poisoning).” l

n Reuters, Bangkok

India court library ban on women ‘unconstitutional’ n Agencies A court in northern India says it is against the country’s constitution for female students to be barred from a main university library.

Several thousand female undergraduates at Aligarh Muslim University in Uttar Pradesh are being barred from entering the Maulana Azad Library.

The University’s Vice-Chancellor has reportedly argued that female students would attract a lot of young men.

He has also argued that young women can order books online instead.

The Allahabad High Court addressed the issue after a petition was filed by a law intern, supported by the Human Rights Law Network (HRLN).

A lawyer with HRLN, Smriti Kartikeya, told the BBC that access to the library was a basic right for all students, regardless of gender, religion or caste.

The court said that if there were not enough seats available for female students, the university needed to make provision to accommodate them. l

China launches new remote sensing satellite

n Agencies, Beijing

China on Saturday launched a new remote sensing satellite into scheduled orbit from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre.

The satellite Yaogan-23 will mainly be used for scientific experiments, natural resource surveys, crop yield estimates and disaster relief, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

It was carried by a Long March-2C rocket, marking the 198th mission for the Long March rocket family.

China launched the first satellite in the “Yaogan” series, Yaogan-1, in 2006.

The new satellite was put in orbit amid plans announced by China on November 10 to launch around 120 more applied satellites to “accommodate economic and social needs.” l

10

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Editorial

Sunday, November 16, 2014

CODE-CRACKER

US should set up tariffs for RMG standards fund

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

T

he commerce minister has rightly criticised the US ambassador in Dhaka this week for saying Bangladesh pays zero tariffs for RMG export to the US market.

From his remarks, it appears the envoy was noting that it was buyers and their customers in the US who ultimately pay this money, so arguably the dispute was only semantic.

Either way, it is the case that the tariff rate charged on Bangladeshi RMG exports to the US (15.6%) is highly discriminatory as it is almost twice the rate paid by Vietnam and roughly five times that charged on RMG exports from China and India.

With Bangladesh as one of the largest suppliers to the US market, this amounted to over $828m in tariffs paid to the US government last year.

As we have noted before, finding finance for developing new land and building safer, more productive factories is the most important challenge facing the RMG industry. With the Accord setting strict requirements for the installation of fire safety equipment, the BGMEA estimates that that alone will cost RMG factories over Tk2,400 crore.

The US is in a unique position to help by following the proposal made by the chief economist of the Bangladesh Bank for a Tariffs for Standards fund.

It could pay a portion of the excess rate paid by Bangladesh, say $200m, into a fund administered by a third party to finance factory upgrades and improvements in working standards. This would help to both level the playing field for Bangladeshi exporters and support the improvements stakeholders are seeking to ensure it sustains future growth.

The US is in a unique position to help support improvements to secure the future of RMG

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Pakistani home minister criticises Nizami death sentence November 3

DR An Afghan, upon landing at Islamabad Airport, introduced himself to a Pakistan immigration officer, as ex-minister of ports and shipping of Afghanistan. The Pakistani officer was surprised, and asked: “But there is no sea in Afghanistan. How can you be the ex-minister of ports & shipping?”

The Afghan replied: “Wallah ya habibi, don’t you have a minister for law & justice in Pakistan?”

GT DR: Rightly said.

Pratik Bhowmick There’s a saying in Bengali: “Chorer mayer boro

T

his week’s conference organised by the Bangladesh Internet Professionals Community drew over 1,200 Internet professionals from across the country.

As the country’s biggest gathering of freelancers and outsourcing service providers, it highlighted the potential for Bangladesh to grow exports in IT and outsourcing services. Since 2009, the number of Internet users has multiplied from from 1 million to over 40 million and the total value of ICT exported services from Bangladesh now exceeds $100m last year.

In order to develop the country’s expanding pool of IT professionals to achieve BASIS’s aim of IT earning over $1bn and contributing 1% to GDP within the next five years, it is vital to remove barriers to the sector’s growth.

Power outages and infrastructure bottlenecks need to be overcome in order to free the potential of the sector, which largely consists of small scale enterprises and individual freelancers. These depend in large part on small scale contracts.

The lack of official access to the internationally recognised PayPal online payment system, is a significant obstacle to freelancers seeking international contracts, particularly because freelancers in neighbouring countries like India and Nepal’s enjoy PayPal support.

The Bangladesh Bank needs to speed up its efforts to resolve this problem as soon as possible.

As this week’s robotic competition at BUET showed, there is a growing pool of innovative technical talent in Bangladesh.

We need to see more such events to help the IT sector share skills and know-how and develop clusters of expertise to allow it to compete for larger international customers.

Make online payments easier, share know-how and develop clusters of expertise

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

gola.” I think Pakistan should shy away from making comments on our sovereign decisions, as they have done enough for Bangladesh in the past. A crime is a crime. Once you commit it, it means you are liable for it till death, whatever good work you do after the crime. Had he killed your father or raped your mother and sister, you wouldn’t have spoken about forgive and forget.

RS Pakistan should understand that Nizami was a war criminal, and so he was sentenced to death. Besides, it does not need to interfere in our nation’s sovereign matters. It should focus on solving its own problems first.

SUDOKU Pakistan envoy summoned over minister’s comments November 7

Free obstacles to IT exports

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a different letter of the alphabet. For example, today 20 represents P so fill P every time the figure 20 appears.

You have one letter in the control grid to start you off. Enter it 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.

NK “The Pakistani politician said he believed the government of Bangladesh had misused the process of law as a political tool against the Jamaat leader.”

Shame on them. They should blame their Pakistani government for what they did in the name of Islam.

Jamil Mirza The BD Supreme Court has set a cruel and unfair example by passing a sentence on an innocent citizen. It is a shameless and condemnable act.

The UNO should interfere in this.

Sunshine Ravi The Pakistani comments actually kind of show the assistance and love the Jamaatis had back in 1970. Now, people should think twice about those who keep on saying that it’s AL making up all these kinds of charges. If they were so innocent, why does Pakistan need to have a “say” on it?

And I don’t understand why Pakistanis have to interfere in such a matter.

Arafat Rahman Sunshine Ravi: Because they have got nothing better to do.

NK It’s just more proof of what they did in 1971. Now they just feel losses for their supporting brothers in BD. Mula Ram Bangladesh is not a colony of Pakistan. It is a sovereign state, and progressing faster than Pakistan.

That’s why Pakistan is interfering in the internal matters of Bangladesh.

Pakistan seems to have the mindset that Bangladesh and Afghanistan are their colonies.

Is Jamaat a boon or burden for BNP?

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.

November 3

Mahmudul Hoque Khan Dulal My heartiest thanks to the author of this article for giving us such a wonderful write-up regarding the remark on Azam’s son, Azmi. I do not want to further utter his name, or his son’s, as they are common enemies of the pro-liberation forces and I dislike them immensely.

Truly, BNP is not indebted to Jamaat, rather, this party of anti-liberation forces were more benefited by their liaison with BNP. How could the BNP leader express condolences over Azam’s death? BNP, a political party, is now in serious difficulties, as they could neither express condolence nor any kind of protest regarding the verdict on the war criminals.

As for Azmi, being quite overwhelmed with grief, he expressed his reaction after the death of his father.

BNP still has time to leave Jamaat, or the association of pro-Pakistani people from their party.

If they do so, I am sure BNP has a chance to come back to power again. Otherwise, they will be thrown into the dustbin of history over the course of time.

In a true sense, Jamaat is not a political party at all. It only uses religious sentiment for their ill purposes. In the name of religion, what Jamaat did in the past is clearly known to all peace-loving people. So please leave Jamaat in a bid to have a beautiful Bangladesh.

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Slave (5) 4 Sibilate (4) 7 In abundance (6) 8 Diaphanous (5) 10 Part of speech (4) 11 Thick (5) 12 Metric surface measure (3) 14 Plunder (4) 17 Talk wildly (4) 19 Wildebeest (3) 20 Waterway (5) 23 Sicilian volcano (4) 25 Regions (5) 26 Restricts (6) 27 Large brown seaweed (4) 28 Inward feeling (5)

DOWN 1 Light cavalryman (6) 2 S-shaped moulding (4) 3 Mountain lake (4) 4 Mean dwelling (5) 5 Choler (3) 6 Pulpit discourse (6) 9 Paradise (4) 13 Disconcert (6) 15 Wicked giant (4) 16 Sharp struggle (6) 18 Vagrant (5) 21 Fermentation vessels (4) 22 Celtic tongue (4) 24 No score (3)

Rodders We can all agree on this though, that Jamaat are political parasites. In any other sane country, they would have been a complete irrelevance and non-entity.

Raihan Jamil No one – even the most hardcore supporters of BNP – believes BNP can form a government without the war criminals’ support. Numbers do not lie, but liars can sure use numbers. :)

Mir Quasem repeats the V-sign

CALVIN AND HOBBES

November 3

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS CODE-CRACKER

PEANUTS

Guest We want to see him hanged fast. There are allegations of his Islami Bank being the mastermind for the JMB and Huzi blasts in Bardhaman, India (according to Anandabzar), and he should not be allowed to get away with creating any more havoc. The SC must fast-track his case and hang him quickly.

VK Quasem is not only a criminal, but also foolish for flashing the V-sign. He does not understand that the V stands for villain, verdict, and of course victory for the legal system in Bangladesh bringing such a corrupt war criminal to justice after so many years!

Defending press freedom matters

November 3 rose The press freedom is a must in today’s world, and the government should understand this.

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Op-Ed

11

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Us and them n Saba Ahmad

U

Is this obscene?

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Kissy kissy kissy

T

n Taslima Nasrin here is nothing as wonderful as kissing. We shall kiss in the daylight, out in the open, and in front of hundreds of people – this is the mantra of the ongoing “Kiss of Love” protest in India.

University students have been shouting slogans in this public kissing campaign. They are protesting against the acts of arresting two youngsters for kissing on the streets in Kerala, and not letting a girl enter Star Theatre in Kolkata for wearing a miniskirt. Mainly, they are kissing to protest against moral policing in India.

Incidents like these have been occurring often in many countries. If policemen see couples getting intimate in parks or beside streets, lakes, or rivers, they tend to harass them. As if dating is a crime. Holding hands, hugging, or kissing in public are considered vulgar.

Sexuality is also considered obscene.

Is violence obscene too? Sadly, I don’t think anyone believes that violence is vulgar.

Disrespecting people on the streets, swearing at people by using filthy words, sexual harassment, mob killings of pickpockets – none of these seem very obscene to anyone. No one objects to people spitting or urinating on the streets. People starving to death or dying on the streets for lack of treatment doesn’t seem to be offensive to anyone.

But, it is offensive when you hold

someone’s hand or kiss someone out of love. Loving is a crime. That is why there’s so much hatred around us.

Do you remember how John Lennon protested against the Vietnam war? He got naked in front of the whole world and announced: “Make love, not war.” Those who believe in the politics of hatred and jealousy prefer wars to making love. It is surprising that in this 21st century, Bengali writers and littérateurs believe that kissing in public is not right.

I don’t want to go into discussions about patriarchy. I am simply taking the side of human bodies, and love

Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay said: “This can’t be a way to protest. This shows nothing but bad taste. People protested in Kerala by arranging a mass-kissing event. That doesn’t mean the same thing needs to be done in Kolkata.”

Minister Bratya Basu of West Bengal said: “Would they accept it if their parents did the same?” There are

moral police everywhere! Even in the intellectual society.

I wonder why we need to make love only inside the four walls of locked rooms. Go near nature. Go to secluded forests. Go to quiet sea beaches on moonlit nights. Kiss. Love and make love.

We are nothing but the children of nature. Let the world see that we love each other. Let the sky see. Let the jasmines see.

Even though our Western friends are used to this, our friends from the East are not. To them, bodies – especially women’s bodies – are still vulgar.

So is sexuality.

When I first went to Europe, I was surprised to see naked and half-naked men and women sun-bathing near the sea. That was probably the time when I discovered that our bodies are beautiful, not vulgar. Whenever I see two people kissing deeply, I feel that we don’t need walls around us to steal a kiss.

Kisses are just as beautiful and nourishing under the open sky. The taste of a kiss is the same – indoors or outdoors. But, when you want to kiss each other and you can’t – because of what people would say – that pain of repression is awful.

I didn’t have many lovers in my life.

But, in the city of Paris, I kissed one of my boyfriends whenever I wanted to, in the gardens, streets, cars, theatres, and cafes. I am not talking about kisses on the cheek, I am talking about long, deep kisses.

Without kisses, my life used to feel so dry. I feel really good when I see people loving each other. Jealous and resentful people cannot stand others loving one another.

I have noticed that those who are for kissing in public, and those who are against it, both sides are blaming patriarchy. Kissing in public means turning women into commodities – a trick of patriarchy.

On the other hand, the reason behind stopping people from kissing in public is to keep women locked indoors; to go against the independence of women. This is also a trick of patriarchy!

I don’t want to go into discussions about patriarchy. I am simply taking the side of human bodies, and love.

I accept all kinds of love – love between man and woman, two women, or two men. I praise the expression of all kinds of love. I don’t want to see anyone dying or suffering on the streets.

I don’t want to see anyone being beaten up or beating up someone else.

I don’t want to see arson.

I don’t want to see people insulting, harassing, or raping girls. I want to see people loving and kissing each other on the streets. I’ll be happy even if I see people making love! Making love is a lot more beautiful and sacred than war, famine, or death. l

s and them – we do not share friends on Facebook, we do not run into each other at the Hay Festival. We do not share scintillating conversations over chopstick meals about some esoteric “ism.” We are living in such a segregated society that the only frame of reference “they” have about me is the “bratty girl in her satin housecoat,” plucked directly from a commercial Bangladeshi film.

They think I wear leather pants, I learned, as I flipped through the smear campaign on Facebook, following the attack. They think I call my parents Mommy and Daddy. Pieced together, I am the spoilt daughter of a Chowdhury shaheb, who eventually gets whipped straight by the proletariat protagonist. Who are “they”? They are those, who are against “us.”

They were enraged because I lived in Canada, mad because my sister attended a school in the US. They questioned why these Baridhara-Banani divas dared to step into their land! They are infuriated because we are born into families who are privileged enough to live in the secured zip codes, where hartals or load shedding are irrelevant.

They are angry because we can fly out of this cesspit of a politicised administration, any time we want.

And I don’t blame them. I would be mad too. Many a time I coiled inside, when I locked eyes with a passenger hanging off of an overloaded bus, while I was sitting in an air-conditioned car, alone. I would be angry too, if I thought that the privileged class had better access to better education, better jobs, and a better life altogether, just because they were born into it.

Everybody wants hope. And we, as a nation, have failed to nurture a culture of hope.

When did it all change? I grew up in Sobhanbagh quarters. I attended Dhaka University and ate my meals either at the IBA canteen or at Mouli/Sylvana in Shahbagh. During my school years (Agrani), I had to turn in the evidence of the waned pencil stub to my mother to get a new one. Our father never allowed us to take the fancy stationeries which my uncle brought for us, to school, lest other children should feel bad. So when did I become the bourgeois and worthy of pure hatred from another student of my own university,

Taslima Nasrin is a feminist writer and columnist currently in exile in India. This article has been translated from the original Bengali.

in one instance, a debater from the Mathematics Department?

With regards to the Curzon hall incident, there has been much discussion about the utility of student politics, about the state of the democracy and the general lawlessness of our motherland – and those are all valid.

I would be angry too, if I thought that the privileged class had a better life just because they were born into it

However, through my designer lens, this rage might as well be an outcome of the elitist policies in transportation, corrupt taxation, or land management, taken by my government. Policies perhaps I, my friend, and my kin have helped shape. Policies that favour the favoured and further marginalise those on the fringe. Bingo!

How do I bridge this gap? How do we bridge this gap? It starts with getting out of our bubble and looking around. Are we priming our children with their Club Gelato pamper time, to fit in with the 1%? Isn’t it about time we rethink how our choices impact others? Which causes do we lend our resources and our influential voices to?

I write about egalitarian living (and try to practice as much as possible within my reality). I weigh the legitimacy of all design solutions based on their accessibility and their ability to reduce social segregation. Is there anything you can do, within your capacity?

Perhaps starting by treating the less fortunate with some empathy and respect (pick Islamic or socialist or any other brand of your choice).

If we don’t mend this frayed fabric today, the whole social weaving will unravel tomorrow and we, the ones in the insulated zip codes, might just find ourselves on the wrong side of the French revolution. l Saba Ahmad is a blogger. This article was first published on sabahmad.com.

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Celebrating the power of tolerance n Dan Mozena

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n November 16, the world community will observe the 19th United Nations International Day for Tolerance. This day highlights the vital contribution of tolerance towards building and sustaining

peaceful, harmonious communities that thrive from diversity of thought, religion, and ethnicity.

As I crisscrossed Bangladesh in my quest to visit all 64 districts, I experienced first-hand the rich mosaic that is Bangladesh – a mosaic of different ethnicities, religions, and cultures, a

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mosaic that reflects the beauty and majesty of wonderful Bangladesh.

I was deeply touched everywhere I went by the strong Bangladeshi tradition of different religious groups living side-by-side in peace and harmony, with respect for religious differences. I saw the beautiful diversity of the traditions of the great religions of Bangladesh: Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity.

I saw this diversity too in the tapestry of ethnic groups – Garos, Manipuri, Tripura, Chakmas, Khasis, and others – who have lived in harmony with the Bengali majority for hundreds of years, and who continue to live side-by-side in friendship to this very day.

I believe this powerful tradition of social harmony is one of Bangladesh’s greatest strengths. This is why it is so jarring when a minority community suffers an attack. Such attacks do not reflect the Bangladeshi tradition and spirit of tolerance; such attacks are aberrations often driven by motivated interests who sow discord as they seek to reap financial or other profit by taking advantage of the vulnerable. I support Bangladeshi citizens and their leaders as they speak out against intolerance and hold accountable those who commit violent acts.

Bangladesh is not alone in confronting these challenges. As the world has recently witnessed in the racial confrontations in Missouri, America too is dealing with intolerance.

Elsewhere around the world, other communities are struggling with the violence of war, blatant disregard for human rights, outright injustice, discrimination, and marginalisation.

These problems are largely born of fear and intolerance, and work to break down communities, families, and individuals, affecting the overall well-being of society.

This day speaks to the importance of tolerance and acceptance in achieving important public health objectives, especially for those living on the margins. I believe there can be no social progress without tolerance; where intolerance thrives, all suffer.

Social inclusion and tolerance ensure equal opportunity for all, regardless of background or beliefs, and enable full and active participation of every member of the society in all aspects of life. Tolerance is the foundation for peace, and it requires treating everyone – even those who are different or who hold different ideas – with dignity and respect. It means respecting and embracing differences

to strengthen the nation for the benefit of all.

I believe that America, Bangladesh, and all peace-loving countries of the world can work together to combat intolerance, to promote tolerance.

Social inclusion and tolerance ensure equal opportunity for all, regardless of background or beliefs

Working together, we can germinate the seeds of tolerance by engaging men, women, and children of all backgrounds and beliefs, by engaging all elements of society, the government, schools, NGOs, private sector, media, and others. Collective action can make a difference. By understanding the causes of violent intolerance, we can combat it; we can reduce it. A free media can play an important role in

exposing the causes and perpetrators of intolerance.

I applaud efforts such as the “Stop Violence, Build a Peaceful Nation” campaign launched by UNDP and 15 NGOs on October 2 – the United Nations International Day of Non-Violence – to generate greater public awareness of and support for Bangladesh’s traditional values of social harmony and tolerance. Initiatives such as this promote public discourse on the importance of tolerance and the need to preserve this proud Bangladeshi tradition.

On this International Day for Tolerance, we here in Bangladesh, and citizens around the world, should reaffirm the right of all persons to live free of discrimination and marginalisation. Closer to home, we should recommit ourselves to supporting all Bangladeshis as they build on their traditional values and aspirations to construct better futures for themselves and their children.

Let us together recognise and celebrate the great Bangladeshi traditions of tolerance, peace, and social harmony. l Dan Mozena is the US Ambassador to Bangladesh.

12

DHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, November 16, 2014

14 Djokovic

13 England have put

14 Germany labour

seals year-end top spot

Pietersen row behind them: Cook

as Ronaldo sets goal record

Sport

Did you know?

Bangladesh paceman Rubel Hossain is the first Bangladeshi bowler to dismiss an opposition batsman for nought in both the innings of a Test match

Mominul dedicates century to sister n Mazhar Uddin from Chittagong Mominul Haque split the gap between point and short third man with a strong cut off Sikandar Raza that was immediately followed by a broad smile on his face, and why not? It was the fourth Test century for the 23-year-old who immediately dedicated the unbeaten 131-run knock to his younger sister Momo as her birthday gift.

“I had asked my younger sister what she wanted on her birthday. She told me ‘I do not need anything, please score a hundred.’ My sister is probably very happy now,” said Mominul at the post-day conference at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium yesterday.

The calm and cautious batting approach of Mominul is making him break and equal records with every innings he bats in. The left-hander joined Everton Weekes, Alec Stewart, Matthew Hayden, Jacques Kallis, Simon Katich and Kumar Sangakkara in scoring more than nine consecutive Test fifties while he stands second to the legendary Sir Donald Bradman in terms of batting average.

His batting consistency and temperament has been an example for his struggling teammates in the last 12 months and his way of viewing situations is also something to learn for the restless cricketers in the middle.

Mominul, who completed his third hundred in Chittagong yesterday, is also the fourth batsman to have 11 fifties in 12 Tests after Sunil Gavaskar,

Mark Taylor and Weekes.

“I did not make any technical changes. It was mostly tactical. I think about my batting when I am on my own, trying to overcome the areas that are not helping me. How am I getting out? It is not a lot of things that I think about.

It is better to stay normal and take less pressure,” he said.

That lazy elegance in his batting, the sweetly-timed drives to pierce the cover fielders or the short-arm jabs through mid wicket – Mominul has already gained immense popularity with his batting but he is also aware of the responsibility that comes with his successes.

“When success comes to a player, the responsibility rises. Now there is expectation on me, and it is steadily rising. Sometimes it does not work if you are satisfied with what you have done. I do not know what others think,” he said before adding “nothing satisfies me, the more I get the more I want.”

Zimbabwe require another 378 runs on the final day on a pitch that has already produced over 1200 runs in four days. Mominul believes it will be challenging for them to bowl out the visitors and the first session will be pivotal.

“I think it might be challenging but at the same time, we have to give importance to the first session and particularly the first two hours. But there are a lot of rough areas on a fourth and fifth day pitch, as there usually are so it is the same here,” said Mominul. l

TOP 5 TEST AVERAGES (minimum 1000 runs)

Player

Span

Mat

Inns

NO Runs

HS

1928-1948

52

80

10

334 99.94

29

Mominul Haque (Ban)

2013-2014

12*

23

4

1198

181

63.05

4

7

Graeme Pollock (SA)

1963-1970

23

41

4

2256

274 60.97

7

11

George Headley (WI)

1930-1954

22

40

4

2190

270* 60.83

10

5

Herbert Sutcliffe (Eng) 1924-1935

54

84

9

4555

194

16

23

Don Bradman (Aus)

6996

Ave

60.73

100 50 13

Bangladesh skipper Mushfiqur Rahim (C) leads his team off the field following the conclusion of the fourth day of their third and final Test against Zimbabwe at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Nasir and Shamsur , Jubair and Sabbir n Minhaz Uddin Khan Nasir Hossain and Shamsur Rahman were the two major names missing from the Bangladesh one-day squad for the first two matches of the upcoming five-match series against Zimbabwe.

On the other hand, Jubair Hossain’s impressive outing in the Test arena earned the 19-year-old leg-spinner his maiden call-up in the 13-member ODI squad announced by the Bangladesh Cricket Board yesterday.

Shakib al Hasan returned to the national set-up while Sabbir Rahman and Arafat Sunny were also named in the squad.

After being one of the irreplaceable players in the Tigers’ line-up for the past two years, Nasir was omitted from the plans for the ongoing Test series and was sent to play an invitational tournament in India with BCB XI as the selectors said “they want him concentrating on the one-day format.”

Nasir might call himself unlucky as Sabbir (who is arguably his replacement in the team) was not even among the

top 40 scorers in List A cricket last year while in this season’s Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League he has so far scored 36, including a first-ball duck on the day of selection, in two matches.

22-year-old Nasir made only 225 runs at an average of 20.45 without a 50-plus score this year. Imrul Kayes’

SQUAD (1st, 2nd ODI)

Mashrafe bin Mortaza (C), Shakib al Hasan (VC), Tamim Iqbal, Anamul Haque, Mominul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim (WK), Mahmudullah, Sabbir Rahman, Imrul Kayes, Al Amin Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Arafat Sunny, Jubair Hossain emphatic return to Test cricket saw him stick to the squad at the expense of Shamsur whose batting average is 18.12 with one fifty and a total of 145 runs.

National chief selector Faruk Ahmed made no comment on the exclusion of Nasir but justified Jubair and Arafat’s inclusions by saying, “Jubair has variations that I believe he will be able to exploit more in a limited-over game.

Arafat Sunny was in competition with

Taijul [Islam] and Elias [Sunny] and as we now have Shakib as an option with his left-arm spin we thought Arafat to be the better option.”

Nasir, Shamsur and Mohammad Mithun are the three changes from Bangladesh’s last ODI series against the West Indies. For the first two their patchy form in the longer version was also possibly taken into account while Mithun is simply unlucky to lose his place as he did not even play a match in their last series.

Injuries to veteran left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak (hamstring) and quickie Taskin Ahmed (side-strain) and Sohag Gazi being suspended from bowling also forced the trio out of the squad.

Mashrafe bin Mortaza will lead the side after recently being re-appointed as the ODI captain of Bangladesh.

However, with the World Cup in sight some of the axed players might return to the squad for the last three one-dayers in Dhaka. The first two matches will be played at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium on November 21 and 23 respectively. l

SAFF WOMEN’S C’SHIP

India get the better of Bangladesh n Raihan Mahmood India defeated Bangladesh 5-1 in a Group A match of the 3rd Saff Women’s Championship at Jinnah Stadium in Islamabad yesterday. Maldives defeated Afghanistan 1-0 in the other group match of the day.

The Bangladeshi women put up a gallant show in the first half which was goalless. Defending champions India, however, came back in the second half with all guns blazing and scored five goals. Uma Pati Devi broke the deadlock in the 46th minute before Mandarani Devi doubled the lead in the 48th minute. Bala Devi added the third in the 57th minute and also scored the fifth in the 86th minute.

The fourth was netted by Indu Mati in the 76th minute. Bangladesh’s consolation goal was attained by forward Sabina Khatun six minutes before the final whistle.

Bangladesh thumped Afghanistan 6-1 in their first match last Thursday.

They will conclude their group campaign against Maldives tomorrow.l

I was in the ice-bath, says Panyangara n Reazur Rahman Rohan The Zimbabweans, thrown a target of 449 to win the third Test to restore some parity in their tour, need 379 runs on the final day with nine wickets to spare, and the attacking approach from Sikandar Raza and Hamilton Masakadza gave an early indication of their intent.

Though it was quite visible from Sikandar’s counter attacking run-aball 43 that they are eyeing to upset the hosts on the flat batting track, their pace bowler Tinashe Panyangara sounded funny enough in saying, “When the guys discussed it, I was in the ice-bath. I don’t know what they were batting for.”

“I was thinking how I bowled. So I was just sitting in the ice-bath and when I go back now and see the scorecard, I will think and see what happens,” he added at the post-day conference.

“I think the wicket will be the same.

I don’t think it will change a lot. It is

Sk Jamal begin King’s Cup with 3-0 victory n Raihan Mahmood

Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith shakes hands with the Sheikh Jamal players prior to the start of their King’s Cup opener against Druk United FC at Changlimithang Stadium in Thimphu, Bhutan yesterday COURTESY

Bangladesh Premier Football League champions Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club Limited kicked off their King’s Cup campaign with a convincing 3-0 win over Druk United FC at Changlimithang Stadium in Thimhpu, Bhutan yesterday.

The Dhaka giants led the first-half 1-0 after they went up in the 25th minute with Nigerian forward Landing Darboe curling in a free kick from the edge of the box.

Change in ends saw Jamal continue their dominance on the local outfit before Wedson Anselme, the Haitian forward doubled the lead with a solo effort which was followed by winger Rubel Miah completing the rout in the final minute of the match.

Indian giants Mohun Bagan and Nakhon Ratchasima FC from Thailand are the other two teams pitted in the group.

Ugyen Academy, another local team participating are in Group B with the defending champions Manang Marshyangdi Club (MMC) from Nepal, Abahani Limited from Bangladesh and Assam Electricity – replaced at the eleventh hour by Indian side Pune FC. King’s Cup is the biggest sporting event in Bhutan and it is hosted to celebrate the glorious reign of the kings.

Initially in the 1990s, the tournament was named Jigme Dorji Wangchuck Gold Cup. This is the third edition of the tournament after being retitled in 2001.

Abahani, the other outfit from Bangladesh, begin their campaign against Assam at 3pm today. l

quite flat so I don’t see it changing. The right-arm seamer grabbed two wickets in either innings and said it was tough to bowl on the placid wicket while he hoped for the best result in their favour.

“The best possible result is a Zimbabwe win. If we win it it will make me happier, if it is a dramatic draw, we are happy. No one likes to lose,” he said. l

SCORECARD, DAY 4 Bangladesh 1st innings 503 (Imrul Kayes 130, Tamim Iqbal 109, Shakib Al Hasan 71; Sikandar Raza 3-123, H. Masakadza 2-23, T. Panyangara 2-70, S. Masakadza 2-77).

Zimbabwe 1st innings 374 (E. Chigumbura 88, S. Raza 82, H. Masakadza 81, R. Chakabva 65; Jubair Hossain 5-96, Shafiul Islam 2-50) Bangladesh 2nd innings (Overnight 23-0) Tamim Iqbal c M’shangwe Imrul c Mutumbami b Panyangara Mominul Haque not out Mahmudullah c Mutumbami b Panyangara Shakib c Ervine b M’shangwe Mushfiqur c M’shangwe b Raza Shuvagata Hom not out Extras (b8, lb3, w1) Total (for 5/declared; 78 overs)

65 15 131 30 17 46 3 12 319

Fall of wickets 1-36, 2-149, 3-204, 4-237, 5-308 Bowling S. Masakadza 7-0-28-0, Panyangara 12-3-31-2, Raza 25-0-114-1, M’shangwe 18-2-77-2, Chigumbura 9-2-19-0, H. Masakadza 7-1-39-0 (w1) Zimbabwe 2nd innings: S. Raza not out 43 B. Chari lbw b Rubel 0 H. Masakadza not out 26 Extras (lb2) 2 Total (for one wicket; 19 overs)

71

Fall of wicket 1-4 (Chari) Bowling Shafiul 4-0-8-0, Rubel 3-1-16-1, Taijul 6-1-17-0, Jubair 2-0-12-0, Shakib 3-016-0, Shuvagata 1-1-0-0 Zimbabwe need 378 runs more with nine wickets in hand

DHAKA TRIBUNE

QUICK BYTES

CAB U16s arrive for four three-dayers The Cricket Association of Bengal Under-16 side reached Dhaka yesterday.

The tourists will play four three-day matches against the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) U-16 team. The first two games will be played in Cox’s Bazar’s Sheikh Kamal International Cricket Stadium. The opening three-dayer will begin tomorrow while the second game will start on November 21. The third and fourth three-dayer will get underway in Chittagong’s Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium on November 26 and December 1 respectively.

BCB U-16 Squad

Afif Hossain, Mahidul Islam, Asadur Rahman, Aminul Islam, Riazul Islam, Jalal Uddin, Ridoy Islam, Sharif Islam, Golam Rabbi, Mohammed Rakib, Shahriar Rahman, Siddikur Rahman, Ishak Ali, Muhib Billah

Standby

Mahmudul Hasan, Shahadat Hossain, Saiful Islam, Tawhid Hridoy –Tribune Desk

Sport

13

Sunday, November 16, 2014

MSC, Kalabagan CA, Prime Bank open account n Minhaz Uddin Khan Mohammedan, Kalabagan Cricket Academy and Prime Back registered their first victories in the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League 2014-15 season after winning their respective matches yesterday. The three matches held at different venues across the capital city meant the tournament concluded its second round with Legends of Rupganj, formerly known as Gazi Tank Cricketers, jointly sharing top spot with Abahani. The two sides have bagged two wins apiece.

Mohammedan SC v Victoria SC, Mirpur

Mohammedan picked up their maiden win of the season defeating Victoria by 53 runs at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. The defeat was a hard one to digest for Victoria’s top-order batsman Chamara Kapugedera who blasted his second century of the tournament.

Batting first, the traditional Black

and Whites posted 282 runs on the board for the loss of five wickets courtesy Naeem Islam’s 92, wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammed Mithun’s 83 and Angelo Parera’s unbeaten 50.

In reply, Victoria gave a good account of themselves despite a poor start as their openers departed with only 21 runs on the board. Kapugedera made 106 off as many deliveries and alongside Marshal Ayub, the third wicket duo added 102 runs and tried to revive the early damage. However, the break of the partnership was followed by the fall of wickets at regular intervals.

The game though ended early due to bad light with Victoria batting on 221/9 in 46.1 overs. Mohammedan eventually won the tie by 53 runs according to the Duckworth-Lewis method.

Paceman Alauddin Babu and left-arm spinner Rahatul Ferdous picked up three wickets each for Mohammedan.

Kalabagan CA v Old DOHS, Fatullah

Kalabagan garnered their first points of the season riding on Jeevan Mendis’ all-round heroics to defeat Old DOHS by 11 runs at Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium.

Kalabagan took first strike and posted 231 runs on the board losing all of their wickets. The side’s Sri Lankan recruit Mendis led the innings from the front scoring 62 runs with the help of four boundaries and one six.

Kalabagan skipper Mahmudul Hasan added 54 to the tally. Nehaduzzaman scalped three wickets for Old DOHS while Al Amin Siddique bagged two.

Later, Old DOHS managed to score 220 runs losing all wickets. Opener Shahnaz Ahmed and top-order batsman Shehan Jayasuriya scored 72 and 74 runs respectively. Mendis caused the most damage with four dismissals. Mohammed Sharif picked up two wickets.

Prime Bank CC v Brothers Union, BKSP 3

At BKSP 3, Prime Bank registered a close 14-run victory over Brothers Union.

Prime Bank scored 237 for nine wickets with Sri Lanka’s Dilshan Munaweera top-scoring with 53 and skipper Forhad Reza chipping in with an unbeaten 51.

Brothers’ foreign recruit, Sri Lankan all-rounder Milinda Siriwardana picked up three wickets while Asif Hasan and Ahmed Sadiqur bagged two wickets each.

Later, the Prime Bank bowlers successfully restricted Brothers dismissing the Gopibagh outfit for 223 in 48.2 overs. Brothers’ top-order batsman Nazmus Sadat topped the chase with 91 off 102 deliveries with the help of half a dozen boundaries and four sixes.

Left-arm spinner Mohammad Forkan took three wickets for Prime Bank while Taposh Baisya, Forhad Reza and Enamul Haque Jr bagged two wickets each. l

Captain Clarke ruled out of S Africa ODIs Australia captain Michael Clarke will miss rest of the one-day international series against South Africa with a hamstring injury, the country’s cricket board (CA) said on Saturday. Clarke re-injured his problematic left hamstring on Friday in Australia’s 23-run win over the Proteas in the first match in Perth and had scans on Saturday.

“Michael had scans today in Perth for his ongoing left hamstring problem and as a result has been ruled out of the remaining matches in the... ODI Series,” CA team doctor Peter Brukner said in a statement. “Michael will return to Sydney for further treatment and an update on his fitness for the first test in Brisbane will be made in due course.” Perth also hosts the second game on Sunday with George Bailey confirmed to lead the home side, a role he is set to continue to play in the five-match series. Clarke’s injury sidelined him for the entire one-day series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates and almost all of a preceding one-day tournament against South Africa and hosts Zimbabwe.

–Reuters

DAY’S WATCH Star Sports 2 9:20 AM Australia v South Africa 2nd ODI 7:30PM

Mohammedan: 282/5 in 50 overs (Naeem 92, Mithun 83, Parera 50*, Kamrul 2/55) Victoria: 221/9 in 46.1 overs (Chamara 106, Alauddin 3/29, Rahatul 3/44) Mohammedan won by 53 runs (D/L)

Kalabagan CA v Old DOHS SC Kalabagan: 231 allout in 49.3 overs (Jeevan 62, Mahmudul 54, Nehaduzzaman 3/61) Old DOHS: 220 allout in 49 overs (Shehan 74, Shanaj 72, Jeevan 4/46) Kalabagan CA won by 11 runs

Prime Bank CC v Brothers Union Prime Bank: 237.9 in 50 overs (Dilshan 53, Forhad 51*, Milinda 3/51) Brothers: 223 allout in 48.2 overs (Nazmus 91, Forkan 3/26, Enamil Jr 2/24) Prime Bank won by 14 runs

Bangladesh beat Maldives n Raihan Mahmood

New Zealand cricketers take part in a net practice session at the ICC Cricket Academy in Dubai yesterday

Pakistan spinners not unplayable: Latham n AFP, Dubai New Zealand opener Tom Latham is convinced Pakistan’s spinners are not unplayable, but his team will have to adapt quickly if they want to level the series in the second Test starting in Dubai on Monday.

Pakistan won the first Test in Abu Dhabi by a big 248-run marging to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

New Zealand’s travails against spin will not lessen at the Dubai stadium where the pitch is more likely to turn.

Left-arm spinner Zulfiqar Babar took five wickets while leggie Yasir Shah took four in the Abu Dhabi Test.

That came on the back of Babar’s 14 and Shah’s 12 in the 2-0 rout of Australia that preceded the current series.

But Latham, who scored his maiden hundred in the first Test, was convinced Pakistan’s spinners can be negated.

“Pakistan’s spinners obviously have variations, the make up of their side is a left armer and a leg spinner and they do challenge us, but I dont think they are unplayable,” Latham said after New Zealand’s practice on Saturday.

Latham said New Zealand’s tail put up a brave show against Pakistani spinners on the final day.

“We showed that on the morning of the fifth day and Ish (Sodhi) and Trent (Boult) dug in,” said Latham of the

tenth wicket stand of 54 between Sodhi and Boult.

Sodhi made a career-best 63 while Boult remained not out on 19.

“They played really well so if we get ourselves in those situations and keep them (spinners) out for long then we can be able to put a big total on the board,” said Latham, whose father Rod also played for New Zealand.

“It’s a good opportunity to right some wrongs, we have shown that in the past in the West Indies after losing the second Test and then come back by winning the third and win the series,” said Latham of New Zealand’s 2-1 win in June this year.

“The basic priciple is to apply ourselves and you go out and if the ball is reverse swinging or spinning then we have to apply ourselves and try to adapt to the situation as quickly as possible to those conditions,” said Latham.

Pakistan have retained the same squad for the second Test, minus opener Ahmed Shehzad who was ruled out of the Test series due to a minor skull fracture after being hit by a bouncer from seamer Corey Anderson.

Shehzad made a career-best 176 in that knock.

The third and final Test will be played in Sharjah (November 26-30).

The teams will also play two Twenty20s and five one-day internationals.l

Indian Super League Delhi v Kerala

PREMIER DIVISION CHESS

AFP

Bangladesh basketball team enjoyed the lone success of the day in the ongoing Asian Beach Games being hosted by Phuket, Thailand yesterday.

The Bangladesh cagers lost the first match against Qatar 21-9 but bounced back to winning ways with a 20-10 victory over Maldives. Bangladesh will play Turkmenistan and Afghanistan today.

Bangladesh swimmer Mahmudun Nabi Nahid participated in the 5km marathon swimming and finished at 15th out of 20 swimmers. He completed his swim in 1 hour, 18 minutes and 9 seconds.

In beach handball Bangladesh lost against hosts Thailand 22-10.

In wrestling Mohammed Dipu fought in the 70kg event and lost to Mongolia, Iran and Korea to get eliminated in the first round. l

England have put Pietersen

Mohammedan, Titas Club joint top row behind them: Cook n Raihan Mahmood n AFP, London Dhaka Mohammedan Sporting Club Limited beat Sultana Kamal Pathagar 4-0 in the 4th round of the Walton Home Appliance Premier Division Chess League at the media center of Bangladesh Olympic Association yesterday.

The two Georgian Grandmasters Mikheil Mchedlishvili and Merab Gagunashvili, GM Niaz Murshed and IM Abu Sufian Shakil won against Sheik Mohammed Khairul Islam, Nazrul Islam David, Mohammad Aminul Islam and Delwar Hossain respectively. Bangladesh Navy chess team defeated Titas Club chess team 3-1.

GM Abdullah al Rakib, GM Enamul Hossain Razib and FM Sheikh Nasir Ahmed outplayed FM Mohammed Saif Uddin, FM Debaraj Chatterjee and FM Mohammad Fahad Rahman of Titas respectively. Shafiq Ahmed of Titas got a walk-over against IM Minhazuddin Ahmed Sagar who did not turn up.

Mohammedan Navy and Titas Club are joint top of the table with six points following the conclusion of the 4th round.

In the other matches of the day, Fire Services & Civil Defence Sports Club beat Leonine Chess Club 2.5-1.5. Bangladesh Navy chess team (Junior) beat Dreejan Chess Club 2.5-1.5. l

England captain Alastair Cook insisted Friday the controversy over Kevin Pietersen’s autobiography was well and truly in the past for his side ahead of their oneday international series in Sri Lanka.

England fly out on Sunday for a seven-match series designed as part of their preparations for next year’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

They do so with the furore over star batsman Pietersen’s book having just about died down since it was launched in a blaze of publicity last month.

South Africa-born Pietersen, ditched

by England earlier this year following the 5-0 Ashes series loss in Australia, blasted former coach Andy Flower and several current players, saying a “bullying culture” had been created in the dressing room. But Cook, speaking to reporters at Lord’s on Friday, was adamant England’s one-day squad had not been disturbed by all the sound and fury happening around them.

“We’ve had a couple of weeks together and we haven’t felt the need to talk about it at all,” Cook said.

“It’s all happened now, it’s all out now from his (Pietersen’s) side and as players we’ve left it, there’s nothing more that can really come out.

“We just want to build and move forward as a side and as a captain, that’s a

England captain Alastair Cook is looking forward to the challenge in Sri Lanka good place to be.”

England have lost five of their last six one-day international series and last week retired India great Sachin Tendulkar wrote off their chances of winning the World Cup. Indeed England, on home soil, were comfortably beaten by reigning World Cup champions India during their last ODI series, with former skipper Michael Vaughan and retired off-spinner Graeme Swann, who played alongside Cook, both calling for the Essex lefthander to step down as one-day captain of the national side. l

Fifa confirm Garcia World Cup corruption appeal

Star Sports 1 1:50PM India v Sri Lanka 5th ODI

Sony Six 9:00AM

n AFP, Paris

Ufc 180 Cain Velasquez v Fabricio Werdum 12:00AM World Kabaddi League 2014 Ludhiana: 41 Ram Slam T20 05:45PM Lions v Warriors 9:45PM Dolphins v Knights

Sony Six HD Euro Qualifiers 2016 10:45PM Belgium v Wales 1:45AM Italy v Croatia

Victoria SC v Mohammedan SC

ASIAN BEACH GAMES BASKETBALL

Awarding WC to Qatar ‘a mistake’: Cantona Former France idol Eric Cantona has added his voice to the growing wave of criticism of FIFA’s vote to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. A day after world football’s governing body was thrown into turmoil when its own chief investigator Michael Garcia slammed a report exonerating Qatar and Russia of any wrongdoing in their World Cup bids as a misinterpretation of his findings, Cantona gave his own view on the controversy. In an exclusive interview with AFP, the one-time Manchester United idol who is carving out a successful second career as an actor, called the decision to award the 2022 tournament to Qatar “a mistake”. Qatar, he said was just “a very wealthy country which has bought itself a World Cup”.

“When you award the World Cup to a country, it is to develop football there,” Cantona explained. “When they gave the (1994) World Cup to the United States, there was great potential there, with the Mexican and South American immigration, to develop football.

–AFP

BRIEF SCORES

Winners of the ‘Confidence Jar Bike Tar’ week, a promotional campaign of Fair & Lovely Max Fairness, pose for a photograph alongside the officials of Bangladesh Limited and Bronze Limited on Wednesday COURTESY

FIFA on Friday confirmed that investigator Michael Garcia has lodged an appeal after complaining his report into alleged World Cup corruption was misrepresented.

Garcia carried out an exhaustive investigation into the bidding which led to the controversial awarding of the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 tournament to Qatar.

FIFA cleared Qatar and Russia of corruption and ruled out a re-vote for the tournaments despite widespread allegations of wrongdoing.

However, Garcia slammed an “incomplete and erroneous” version of his report and said he planned to appeal.

“Regarding media reports about a potential appeal by Michael J. Garcia, chairman of the investigatory chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee, FIFA can today confirm receipt of his intention to appeal to the FIFA Appeal Committee,” said a FIFA statement.

“Taking into consideration that the deadline to submit reasons for the appeal is on-going, FIFA is not in a position to comment further for the time-being.”

Garcia, a former New York federal prosecutor, spent 18 months investigating the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

His 350-page report summed up an investigation that involved interviewing more than 75 witnesses

and compiling a dossier with more than 200,000 pages and audio interviews.

But he issued a statement on Thursday saying: “Today’s decision by the chairman of the adjudicatory chamber contains numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations of the facts and conclusions detailed in the investigatory chamber’s report.

I intend to appeal this decision to the FIFA Appeal Committee.”

German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, chairman of the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA’s independent ethics committee, had stated that the investigation had not yielded evidence of corruption and there would be no revote on awarding the tournaments.l

14

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Djokovic seals year-end top spot n AFP, London Novak Djokovic was at his imperious best as he sealed the year-end world number one spot and advanced to the semi-finals of the ATP Tour Finals with a 6-2, 6-2 thrashing of Tomas Berdych on Friday.

Djokovic finishes on top of the rankings for the third time in four seasons and is only the seventh player to hold first place at the end of the calender year on at least three occasions.

The Serb’s third successive victory at the prestigious season-ending event at London’s O2 Arena ensured he won Group A and will face Japan’s Kei Nishikori in Saturday’s semi-finals.

“It’s been a long year, a long season, it’s an incredible achievement and I want to thank my team and my family and all the people who supported me,” Djokovic said.

“I’m aware that being number one in the world is the biggest challenge a tennis player can have. It’s an incredible feeling and I’m very happy.

“This was definitely one of the best performances. I hoped I could continue the way I played in the first two matches.”

The number one ranking is a fitting reward for the Serb’s remarkable consistency during a year in which he won Wimbledon, reached the French Open final and claimed five other titles.

With top spot wrapped up, Djokovic can focus on becoming the first player to win the Tour Finals three years in a row since Ivan Lendl in the 1980s.

Few would bet against him after he lost a combined nine games during his three majestic group victories.

It is the 11th consecutive year that one of Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal has finished on top of the rankings.

And, after Federer’s brilliant demoli-

tion of Andy Murray for the loss of only one game on Thursday, it was Djokovic’s turn to showcase the current gap that exists between the big three and the rest of their rivals. The 27-year-old had looked untouchable in his routs of Marin Cilic and Stan Wawrinka and he continued to dominate against Berdych, who had lost 16 of his 18 meetings with the Serb.

Berdych’s power serve is his main weapon but the slow pace of the court at the O2 Arena has neutralised many of the big hitters this week and it was no different this time as Djokovic broke without dropping a point in the opening game.

Djokovic’s remarkably agile movement when forced to defend meant there was no chance of Berdych out-hitting him from the baseline and the Czech was soon left shaking his head in frustration as he was broken again.

Although the world number seven finally got on the scoreboard after losing the first four games, it was too late to stop Djokovic clinching the set and with it his place in the last four.

Later on Friday, Wawrinka set up a meeting with Federer, his partner in the Davis Cup final for Switzerland next weekend, needing just 12 minutes to win the three games which guaranteed a semi-final place for a second year running.

Fresh from breaking Cilic’s serve to move into that 3-1 lead, Wawrinka looked sharp and in no mood to let up, taking the first set in 32 minutes. It looked odds on that an 11th encounter among the 12 round-robin matches would not go beyond two sets.

Instead, the rarity of a proper contest breaking out suddenly materialised when Wawrinka threw in an absent-minded service game at 4-5 in the second set, getting broken to love.l

Germany labour as Ronaldo sets goal record n AFP, Paris World champions Germany laboured to a 4-0 win over Gibraltar in Euro 2016 qualifying Friday as Cristiano Ronaldo became the tournament’s all-time leading scorer and Scotland edged Ireland 1-0 in a blood and thunder clash.

Elsewhere, 2004 champions Greece were humiliated 1-0 by the part-timers of the Faroe Islands to pile the pressure on home coach Claudio Ranieri whose team have now lost their last four home games.

In Nuremburg, Thomas Mueller scored twice with Mario Goetze adding a third for Germany before Gibraltar defender Yogan Santos put through his own goal.

The win lifted Joachim Loew’s World Cup winners into third spot in Group D but the anticipated goal bonanza against a side who had conceded 17 goals in their first three games failed to materialise.

Germany missed the chance to finish 2014 second in the table and their unconvincing display drew some boos and jeers at the final whistle.

“We would have liked a better result,

but it’s not easy when a team stands as deep as Gibraltar did,” said Goetze.

“We could have created more goals and played more convincingly, which we have to put our hands up to.”

Poland have a three-point lead over

RESULTS Georgia

0-4

Poland

Glik 51, Krychowiak 71, Mila 73, Milik 90+2

Germany

4-0

Gibraltar

Mueller 12, 29, Goetze 38, Santos 67-og

Scotland

1-0

Ireland

1-0

Finland

2-0

N Ireland

Maloney 75

Hungary Gera 84

Romania Papp 74, 79

Greece

0-1

Faroe Islands Edmundsson 61

Portugal

1-0

Armenia

Ronaldo 72

Serbia Tosic 4

1-3

Denmark Bendtner 60, 85, Kjaer 62

Ireland, Germany and Scotland as they maintained their undefeated start with a convincing 4-0 over Georgia in Tbilisi.

After hitting the woodwork twice in the opening half, Poland breezed home after the break with goals from Kamil Glik, Grzegorz Krychowiak, Sebastian Mila and Arkadiusz Milik.

In Glasgow, Scotland boosted their qualification chances as Shaun Maloney’s superb strike in the second-half handed them a 1-0 win over the Republic of Ireland.

It was Scotland’s first competitive goal against the Republic of Ireland since 1961.

“I am a proud man tonight. That was an epic duel. We knew what was going to happen and we dealt with that. It was hard, we kept trying to play,” said Scotland manager Gordon Strachan.

“Ireland were a handful all night, it was like a British cup tie. This is the hardest group of them all and one goal decides every game.”

In Group I, Real Madrid star Ronaldo scored in the 72nd minute as Portugal egded out Armenia 1-0, converting from close range after Ricardo Quares-

ma had a shot saved.

It was Ronaldo’s 23rd goal in 37 European Championship games, to take the outright goal-scoring lead having been locked on 22 goals with Jon Dahl Tomasson of Denmark and Turkey’s Hakan Suker.

Portugal are second in the group, one point behind Denmark who came from a goal down to beat Serbia 3-1 in Belgrade in a game played behind closed doors.

Former Arsenal star Nicklas Bendtner scored twice for 1992 champions Denmark.

In Group F, Northern Ireland lost their 100 percent record when they were went down to a 2-0 defeat to Romania in Bucharest with Paul Papp scoring both goals.

The Faroe Islands, ranked at 187 in the world, stunned former champions Greece 1-0 in Piraeus with Joan Edmundsson scoring in the 61st minute.

The result left the Greeks at the foot of the table with just one point from four games while the Faroes claimed just a fourth away win in 24 years.

Hungary beat Finland 1-0 in Budapest in the group’s other game. l

Italy target Croatia jinx

Mancini returns to Inter after six years n AFP, Milan n AFP, Milan Italy host Croatia at the San Siro SunRoberto Mancini was confirmed as Inter Milan’s new coach on Friday just hours after the struggling Serie A giants sacked Walter Mazzarri.

A statement on the club’s website, www.inter.it, quoted club president Erick Thohir as saying: “Happy to welcome back Roberto Mancini. Together we’ll make Inter one of the very top Clubs in Europe again.”

Mancini returns to the San Siro following a six-year absence, having won three straight Serie A titles during his previous spell from 2004-2008.

Thohir added: “Today I made the difficult decision to suspend Walter Mazzarri as head coach. It was a difficult decision because he has been continuously supportive of the direction that we have wanted to take the club, and he has worked tirelessly and selflessly for Inter, with both belief and passion.

“I would like to thank him sincerely for his efforts.”

News of Mancini’s return was warmly welcomed by Nerazzurri fans throughout the city on Friday. l

day in a crucial Euro 2016 qualifier .

The four-time world champions are in reconstruction mode after a second straight first-round exit from the World Cup where mercurial striker Balotelli failed to live up to expectations.

FIXTURES Netherlands Czech Republic Turkey Belgium Cyprus Israel Azerbaijan Bulgaria Italy

v v v v v v v v v

Latvia Iceland Kazakhstan Wales Andorra Bosnia Norway Malta Croatia

After a poor start to his Liverpool career, Balotelli was sidelined by new coach Antonio Conte for their opening three Group H wins against Norway, Azerbaijan and Malta.

However, Balotelli has been ruled out of Sunday’s qualifier against Croa-

tia due to concerns over his hamstring and groin, the Italian football federation (FIGC) confirmed Saturday.

Balotelli had been called into the squad by coach Antonio Conte after being sidelined for Italy’s opening three wins in Group H. However the Liverpool striker has left Italy’s Coverciano training camp after being diagnosed with a “hamstring strain and sore groin”. Italy will also miss Juventus defender Angelo Ogbonna, who has a sore left thigh.

And without him Italy are currently running second behind leaders Croatia on goal difference.

Roma midfielder Daniele De Rossi, who will pick up his 100th cap, should marshall the midfield in the absence of Juventus stalwart Andrea Pirlo and Marco Verratti of Paris Saint Germain.

In their six meetings since then, Croatia have won three and drawn three against Italy.

Boban, who also underlined the importance of Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric, added: “It will be a tactical, difficult and physical game. It will probably end in a draw. We’ll put Italy in difficulty.”l

Ranieri sacked after Faroes shock n AFP, Athens Claudio Ranieri on Saturday was sacked as coach of Greece, paying the price for a humiliating 1-0 loss at home the previous evening to minnows the Faroes Islands in a Euro 2016 qualifier.

A statement from the Greek Football Federation said that the 63-year-old Italian would remain at the helm for the friendly match against Serbia on Tuesday and would then leave for home.

The devastating loss to the Faroes left former European champions Greece bottom of group F and facing an uphill struggle to qualify for the Euro 2016 finals in France. The statement said that Ranieri’s departure as coach had been decided at a meeting with federation president Giorgos Sarris which had taken place “in a good climate.”

“There was no other option than to terminate the contract,” it added referring to the loss to the Faroes.

Regarding Ranieri’s compensation, although his contract called for the full amount (1.6 million euros for two years) to be paid in case of removal from his post, the two sides agreed “on a much lesser total,” the announcement said. l

Colombia rally past USA as France settle for draw n AFP, Paris Colombia, skippered by their youngest ever captain James Rodriguez, came from behind to beat the United States 2-1 in an international friendly Friday in London as France salvaged a 1-1 draw against Albania in Rennes.

The South Americans rallied with two second half goals at Craven Cottage after captain Jozy Altidore had put the United States ahead in the tenth minute when he converted from the penalty spot.

In Rennes, Antoine Griezmann saved the day for France after a Mergim Mavraj header five minutes before the break had seen Didier Deschamps’ side trailing in Brittany against the 48thranked Albanians.l

RESULTS Colombia

2-1

Bacca 61, Gutierrez 87

James Rodriguez of Colombia (C) is mobbed by female fans after his team’s international friendly against the US at Craven Cottage in London on Friday INTERNET

France Griezmann 73

United States Altidore 10-P

1-1

Albania Mavraj 40

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Entertainment

15

Sunday, November 16, 2014

HRIDOY KHAN and SUZENA to pair up for music video

Blade II

Movies Now, 7:30pm

n Entertainment Desk Newly-wed couple singer Hridoy Khan and model Suzena will soon be seen together in a music video titled “Tumi Heena.” The song will be featured in Hridoy’s latest album “Bhalo Lageena.”

Shot in different locations of the United States, the video is expected to be completed by the following week.

Director of the video, Hridoy said: “I gave my best input in this video. Suzena has been able to develop herself in different aspects.

There are some sparks in this music video.”

“My wife Suzena is my lucky charm,” adds the popular musician.

Suzena said: “I first met Hridoy when he was directing a music video for the track ‘Aaraal’ for his debut album ‘Chhoya.’ I am excited to be paired with my husband on-screen.”

Khan will be heard in playback tracks in a couple of upcoming films including “Sweetheart” and “Ek Prithibi Prem.” l

Theatre Punyabhumi to stage Mohua today n Entertainment Desk Theatre Punyabhumi is going to stage “Mohua” at the Experimental Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy at 7pm today.

Written by Dwij Kanai and directed by Julfikar Hussain Sohag, the play is based on Moimonshingho Gitika, a collection of folk ballads from the region of Mymensingh.

However, the troupe has redesigned the play to stage as their fifth production.

Julfikar Hussain Sohag, Durjoy Anowar, Sohag Ashrafi, Hridoy Babu, Projapati Sarkar, Fatema Begum will be seen playing the major roles. l

LIFE IS HER on display at Bengal Art Lounge n Entertainment Desk “Life is Her,” the solo painting exhibition of Kanak Chanpa Chakma was inaugurated yesterday at capital’s Bengal Art Lounge. With her signature style of portraying daily life activities of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Kanak brings “Life is Her” to art enthusiasts after two years of sincere efforts. The artist dedicates this set of work to the Chakmas,

the community which she belongs to.

Women dominate her canvases.

They are seen carrying baskets or dreaming by the pond, generating a sense of both strength and grace.

Hanne Fugl Eskjaer, Ambassador, Royal Danish Embassy, Shiro Sadoshima, Ambassador, Embassy of Japan and artist Hashem Khan graced the event. The exhibition will continue until December 6. l

Film

Festival

Shikhondikotha National festival Time : 6:30pm-8:30pm Music and Dance theatre hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Shegunbagicha

Parker

HBO Hits, 10:40pm

A thief with a unique code of professional ethics is double-crossed by his crew and left for dead.

DANIEL BRUHL joins Captain America

Interstellar Annabelle Kistimaat Amra Korbo Joy Into The Storm Hercules 3D Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3D Valkyrie Most Welcome 2’ Blockbuster Cinemas Jamuna Future Park Ka- 244, Pragati Avenue, Kuril Pipra Bidda How to Train Your Dragon 2 Guardians of the Galaxy Million Dollar Arm Tarzan Star Cineplex, Level 8 Bashundhara City 13/3 Ka Panthopath

Blade forms an uneasy alliance with the vampire council in order to combat the Reaper vampires who feed on vampires.

n Entertainment Desk Daniel Bruhl has been added to the cast of Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War.” “The Inglourious Basterds” star will play an unnamed part in the film, said The Hollywood Reporter.

Studio president Kevin Feige cited the actor’s ‘ability to deliver intense, nuanced performances’ as the reason behind his joining a cast that already includes Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr and Chadwick

Boseman, making his Marvel debut as the Black Panther ahead of the 2017 solo feature for the character.

Jeremy Renner’s name has also come up for the project.

No details have been given about the character Bruhl, 36, will play in the film, to be directed by helmers of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” Joe and Anthony Russo, beyond the fact that he will play the villain in the movie.

“Captain America: Civil War” is scheduled for a May 6, 2016 release. l

I would want DEEPIKA to do my biopic: SANIA n Entertainment Desk Tennis star Sania Mirza says she does not want her life to be seen on the big screen, but adds that if it ever happens, she would want Deepika to play her onscreen avatar. Sania says that she is a private person in real life and so, a biopic on herself does not interest her.

Sania does not want to share the details of her life for a biopic but says that if anything along the lines of her biopic would happen in the future, she’d like Deepika Padukone to play her role. “I’m a private person. I don’t want a film to be made on me because I don’t want to share my intimate details. I’m not that kind of a person, and I have got offers for a biopic previously but I have said no. But if someone puts me on the spot and I have to choose, then I would want Deepika Padukone to play my role,” she added. l

Hollywood Film Awards 2014 red carpet and honorees n Entertainment Desk The Hollywood Film Awards, which have actually been taking place since 1997, were televised for the first time Friday night on CBS. The 18th annual Hollywood Film Awards was a star-studded affair. From Keira Knightley and Eddie Redmayne to Kristen Stewart and Emily Ratajkowski, huge stars filled the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles on November 14. List of the 2014 Hollywood honorees: Film: “Gone Girl” Actor: Benedict Cumberbatch, “The Imitation Game” Blockbuster: “Guardians of the Galaxy” Actress: Julianne Moore, “Still Alice”

Career Achievement: Michael Keaton Documentary: Mike Myers, “Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon” Animation: “How to Train Your Dragon 2” Comedy Film: Chris Rock, “Top Five” Director: Morten Tyldum, “The Imitation Game” Song: Janelle Monae, “What is Love?” from “Rio 2” Supporting Actress: Keira Knightley, “The Imitation Game” Supporting Actor: Robert Duvall, “The Judge”

Nemesis and Chirkut’s vocal Sumi performing at a fund raising concert for Asad held in the capital on Friday

16

DHAKA TRIBUNE

BTRC cagey about implementing watchdog proposal n Muhammad Zahidul Islam The telecoms regulator which has not implemented a loss prevention proposal put forward by a parliamentary watchdog, is expected to reject the proposal at a meeting today, sources said.

The parliamentary standing committee on Posts, Telecommunication and Information Technology ministry, at a meeting on July 23, recommended that Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) introduce a digital call auditing system that would accurately tally the volume of international calls.

The proposal was meant to staunch revenue losses on international calls due to alleged theft by businesses and government functionaries, according to the parliamentary watchdog.

It is being objected to by the telecoms regulator reportedly on technical grounds, available documents show.

Obtaining the working paper prepared for the meeting, the Dhaka Tribune has learned that the BTRC is arguing that it will be scheduling visits to the terminals of the International Gateway (IGW) and the Interconnection Exchange (ICX), situated on BTRC premises, to double check the accuracy of BTRC monitoring terminal data.

The Dhaka Tribune spoke with officers at different levels of the organisation and with spokesperson Md Sarwar Alam, also the BTRC secretary, but nobody could say anything about the question of implementing a digital call auditing system.

Everybody the Dhaka Tribune approached at the BTRC refused to comment on the subject.

An international tender floated in 2013 by the BTRC for a Centralised Monitoring System (CMS) was abruptly abandoned by the regulator just before the contract was awarded.

But BTRC Chairman Sunil Kanti Bose, present at the parliamentary standing committee meeting that made the recommendation, agreed with the committee’s proposal to set up a call auditing system, meeting documents show.

The committee meeting said currently there was no digital system in the BTRC server to tally international call volume. The BTRC maintains a

manual system to track the volume of international calls that the IGW companies connect.

If digital call auditing was implemented, the system would instantly show live times of international calls.

The IGW companies would not be in a position to reject the data.

The current set up cannot deliver absolutely certain data on call volume and revenue gains and losses.

“If there was a call auditing system to show call times, thefts during international calls would not be possible. That is why we suggested the call auditing system,” Imran Ahmed, the committee chairman, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday over the telephone.

“Is it possible to count the duration of thousands of calls that come everyday? There are questions about the transparency of government revenue from international calls,” he said.

“As a regulator, the BTRC must have the auditing process and there can be no way to bypass it with short-cuts,” he said.

Illegal Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) allows international calls to be made by bypassing the BTRC server.

The BTRC is deprived of revenue from each of these calls.

Many telecoms companies including the leading mobile phone operators were found to be involved in the illegal VOIP business.

Imran said the committee suggested not only call audits but also service audits because so many users suffered dropped calls and poor service.

An industry expert said if a CMS is introduced, illegal calls would be brought down to zero and mobile operators would be accurately monitored.

As of July 2014, the BTRC was earning around Tk7cr from 60mn minutes of incoming calls per day. At the time, IGW companies were paying the BTRC 51.75% of three US cents for each minute of an international call.

The government then halved the international call termination rate to US$0.015 from US$0.03 per minute while concurrently fixing the BTRC’s revenue share portion at 40% of the decreased call termination rate.

By November, even though incoming calls had risen to 97mn minutes every day, BTRC revenue had declined. l

Back Page

Sunday, November 16, 2014

THE MAD RUSH

Commuters engage in a risky competition to ride on the limited number of public buses left on the city streets in the wake of BRTA’s ongoing drive against unfit vehicles

Two brothers abducted by people impersonating members of Detective Branch of police n Ashif Islam Shaon Two brothers Omar Faruk, 32, and Firoz, 27, were allegedly abducted by some persons posing as members of the Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) at Darussalam in the capital yesterday.

The victims who own a bookstore named ‘Nobojatra Library’ at the Nilkhet book market, were picked up from their house at Tolarbagh by 10-12 men around 2am, said their father Hakim Ali Sarder, who lodged a general dairy (GD) with Darussalam police station in this connection in the afternoon.

Hakim said the men, who were mostly in jeans and T-shirts and the

rest wearing lungi, knocked at the door, introducing themselves as members of the DB police.

As the doors were opened, the men asked his two sons to go with them.

They were then asked by the family members whether they had any arrest warrant and they replied that they did not have any, he said.

Hakim added that they even slapped one of his sons across the face as they asked them to show their identity cards. They even threatened other family members not to obstruct them.

When contacted over phone yesterday evening, Hakim told the Dhaka Tribune he and his family live on the ground floor of a three-storey building.

Shorna, the Malala of Bangladesh n Our Correspondent, Gazipur

Shahida Akhter Shorna, a participant in the recent annual conference of ‘Because I Am A Girl’ in Norway, was described as “Malala of Bangladesh” by Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg.

The Norwegian premier praised Shorna after she had shared the moving story of how she stopped her own child marriage and also the challenges she is now facing as she works to stop child marriages in her own community.

She flew to Norway on October 7 to take part in the conference ‘Because I Am A Girl’ which is a global campaign of Plan International and returned on October 24.

Shorna spoke as a special guest in the session on child marriage, and the a role she plays in stopping child marriage where her performance was greatly appreciated.

The girl participated in the Oslo Freedom Forum and was interviewed

by Norwegian media.

Shorna’s story is an inspiring one.

She comes from a poor family and her father Tota Mia abandoned his wife Sharifunnesa, as she failed to give birth to a boy, along with his five daughters.

Because the mother could not afford school expenses, she married off the three elder girls when they were minors.

Shorna’s marriage preaparations

Shorna meets with Prime Minister of Norway Erna Solberg in an annual Conference on “Because I Am A Girl” held at Oslo in Norway recently came next when she was a ninth-grader but being aware of child rights as a member of Child Organisation, supported by Plan, she knew that child marriage was a gross violation of the rights of a child.

She decided to stand up to her mother’s decision to marry her off. However, after she took the SSC examination, her

RAJIB DHAR

mother attempted to arrange her wedding. Her father would often pressurise her mother to marry her off.

Failing to convince her parents, Shorna threatened them, saying she would inform the upazila administration and would ask for disciplinary action.

Her parents took her words seriously this time but she was disgraced by

“They pounded on the door, prompting us to open it quickly. They were behaving rough, did not let us talk that much.”

“I saw one carrying a firearm, usually used by the police. Another had a wireless set in his hand and one other was wearing a jacket with ‘DB police’ written on it.”

“They were tall, well built men and their haircut was similar to the law enforcers,” he said. He added that they had not yet received any ransom call.

He said they went to the DB office at Mintoo road in the morning and officials there said they had not picked up his sons.“We waited all day long and in the afternoon they asked me to contact the relevant police station.”

Darussalam police’s Sub-Inspector Zahanur Ali said they had contacted DB office and the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) after the GD was lodged, but got no information about their arrest.

As the law enforcers said they had not picked up his two sons, he told the Dhaka Tribune that his sons might have been abducted due to personal reasons or business enmity, adding that as far as he knew his sons had no enemy.

DB (west) Additional Deputy Commissioner Saiful Islam was asked about the incident, he said they had not conducted any raid in the Darussalam area and “Those who picked them up are criminals. We will try to rescue the victims and nab the criminals.” l

He passes Microsoft exam at 5 neighbours. However, with support from a child organisation, Shorna was able to overcome all the adversities.

Shorna is now an icon in her community and also an activist working to eradicate child marriage. She started off by convincing parents not to marry their minor children off. If she failed, she sought assistance from teachers, union parishad members, upazila officials and police. She has so far stopped six child marriages in her area.

The 20-year-old now studies zoology at Bhawal Badre Alam Government College in Gazipur. She works as an adviser at Shishu Forum of Mawna union under Sreepur upazila and is also a member of Child Protection Group run

by Plan International. In 2012, she became the president of Shishu Forum.

Her dream now is to work for neglected children and women around the country.

In recongition of what she did to stop child marriage, Mawna union Chairman Fazlul Haque nominated her for the honorary title “Joyeeta” from his union. In 2013, she won the title from the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs.

Shorna’s father now thinks he was wrong to push for his daughter’s marriage. “Now I realize the importance of education. I wish her every success in life,” he said. l

n BBC A boy from Coventry has become the youngest computer specialist in the world.

Ayan Qureshi is now a Microsoft Certified Professional after passing the tech giant’s exam at five.

Ayan, now six, whose father is an IT consultant, has set up his own computer network at home.

He said he had found the exam difficult but enjoyable, and hoped to set up a UK-based tech hub one day. “There were multiple choice questions, drag and drop questions, hotspot questions and scenario-based questions.”

“The hardest challenge was explaining the language of the test to a five-year-old.

But he seemed to pick it up and has a very good memory,” explained Ayan’s father Asim.

Qureshi introduced his son to computers when he was three. He let him play with his old computers, so he could understand hard drives and motherboards.

“I found whatever I was telling him, the next day he’d remember everything I said, so I started to feed him more information,” he explained.

“Too much computing at this age can cause a negative effect, but in Ayan’s case he has cached this opportunity.”

Ayan has his own computer lab at his home in Coventry, containing a computer network which he built.

He spends around two hours a day learning about the operating system and how to install programmes.

When the boy arrived to take the Microsoft exam, the invigilators were concerned that he was too young to be a candidate. His father reassured them that Ayan would be all right on his own.

The test is usually taken by people who want to become IT technicians.

Ayan’s mother Mamoona is training to be a GP. The family moved to England from Pakistan in 2009.

“I’m very happy and very proud, I don’t want to see him set a world record every day. But I want him to do his best whatever he does in his life,” she said.

Ayan hopes to launch a UK-based IT hub similar to America’s Silicon Valley one day, which he intends to call E-Valley.

He also wants to start his own company sometime in the future. l

Bapex starts extraction from the 4th Shahbazpur well n Aminur Rahman Rasel

State-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited yesterday began experimentally extracting 20 million cubic feet of gas per day from the fourth well at the Shahbazpur gas field in Bhola.

Bapex, a subsidiary of the stateowned Petrobangla, initiated the drilling of wells through Gazprom, the Russian state-run gas exploration com-

pany.

With this, Gazprom finished drilling the 10 wells around the country for which it had been contracted.

Gas from this well will be supplied to the under-construction 225MW power plant of the Power Development Board (PDB).

A PDB official said the construction of the PDB power plant would be completed by March next year. “So, the gas [extracted from the fourth Shahbazpur

well] will be become useable after four months. A total of 40mmcfd gas will be required for the power plant. That volume will be produced from the third and fourth wells from the field. Gas has already been found in the third well.”

Abdul Halim, director of the well-drilling project, told the Dhaka Tribune: “Drilling of the well at 3,805 metres ended recently. However, we have found commercially viable gas reserves at a 2,920-metre depth. We will

start formal extraction from the fourth well after PDB’s power plant starts working.”

In April 2012, the government signed a deal with Gazprom to drill 10 gas wells around the country, spending $193.55m, without floating any tender under the Power and Energy Quick Supply (special provision) Act. Under the agreements, the Russian party was supposed to complete the drilling of the wells by the end of last

year. But the company consumed an additional 11 months to drill the 10 wells.

On April 9 last year, the PDB signed an agreement with China Chengda Engineering Company Ltd to install a 225MW power plant at Bhola’s Borhanuddin, which is supposed to start supplying power to the national grid by 2015.

The Shahbazpur gas field was discovered in 1994 with an estimated re-

coverable reserve of 390 billion cubic feet. Over the last four years, a total of 9 billion cubic feet has been extracted from the first and the second wells.

The Shahbazpur gas field started supplying gas to the 33MW rental power plant in Bhola in 2010.

Bapex is currently producing and supplying 108mmcfd gas to the national grid from its six gas in Saldanadi, Fenchuganj, Shahbazpur, Semutung, Sundalpur and Srikail. l

Editor: Zafar Sobhan, Published and Printed by Kazi Anis Ahmed on behalf of 2A Media Limited at Dainik Shakaler Khabar Publications Limited, 153/7, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka-1208. Editorial, News & Commercial Office: FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka 1207.

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B3 India’s inflation hits

5-year low, fans rate cut hopes

B4 IEA: Oil ‘price rout’ not over

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2014 www.dhakatribune.com/business

Rural economy revives with major wage hike Urbanisation, crop diversification, fishing and poultry farming, and partly remittance are the driving factors n Kayes Sohel Putting a panama hat knitted with palm leaf over his head to prevent scorching heat and wearing a T-shirt and lungi, 37-year-old Sardar Aslam was busy baking boiled paddy in the sun before husking in a rice mill.

Stout and energetic as he is, Aslam, a father of three, works at a rice mill in Bera upazila under Pabna District since he was 22.

“My children are going to school,” he was talking the Dhaka Tribune recently, as sweat was tickling down his head. “I failed to go to school because of my father’s poor income. Now I have made it for my children.”

His monthly income on the basis of work is now around Tk14,000, which was around Tk7,000 in 2004. The figure shows his wage increased by 100% during the period.

It is also smooth sailing for a mason named 38-year-old Quddus Shayi who earns Tk17,000 per month now. It was Tk9,000 ten years back.

“People now prefer to build brickbuilt house to traditional tin-shed ones,” said Shayi, who lives in Natunpara under the same district.

Work orders have increased significantly nowadays compared to 10-15 years ago when time was not good, he said, adding that they worked for two weeks of a month due to non-availability of work then.

“It is a place to live in with optimism and ambition. Everywhere you see people aspiring to make more money and to live a better life.”

It is a view that Quddus shares.

This confidence has come with the country’s economic development over the past decade, and even though growth has remained flat, hovering around 6% over the past couple of decades, people like Aslam and Quddus believe that Bangladesh still has miles to go.

In Bangladesh, average rural wages

Workers, busy husking paddy in rural Bangladesh, now enjoy increased wages for the work rose to $2.21 a day in 2010 from $1.52 in 2005, a 45% increase, while India saw a rise of 35% between 2005 and 2012 to $2.91 a day from $2.15, according to the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) that reported Rural Wages in Asia released early last month.

The ODI is Britain’s leading independent think tank on international

development and humanitarian issues.

Female rural workers in China, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh earn up to a third less than their male counterparts, but the wage gap appears to be narrowing, the report said.

“The rise in rural wages now taking place across Asia could lift hundreds of millions of people out of extreme pov-

SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

erty in the next decade.”

Falling birth rates and a growing demand for factory workers mean that rural wages will keep rising sharply across the continent, the report said.

The study found that up to three quarters of the world’s poorest people, particularly those who earn less than the extreme poverty level of $1.25 a

day, live in rural areas.

The report analysed information from the 13 most populous countries in East, South and Southeast Asia.

Reports indicate that in Bangladesh, China, India and Indonesia, rural wages are rising, apparently faster in the second half of the 2000s than before.

“Growth in manufacturing and jobs

off the farm, especially construction in cities, is drawing labour off the fields.”

The report showed that agricultural labour productivity rose in all cases except Pakistan in the 2000s, in most countries faster in the latter half of the decade, with seven countries seeing average growth of 2.5% a year or more.

Manufacturing output grew rapidly across most of the region in the 2000s.

Growth of manufacturing accelerated between 1997-2004 and 2005-2012 for China, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.

Rising rural wages will push up costs of production in agriculture – already increased by the effect of higher oil prices seen since 2007 – and spur on mechanisation for those tasks where machinery is cheaper than the increased cost of manual operations, the report said.

Research Director at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Binayak Sen said: “No doubt, real earning of rural workers has increased over the last 10 years.”

Urbanisation, diversification of crop production, fishing and poultry farming, and partly remittance are the pulling factors for the wage hike in rural areas, he said.

“People are attracted to the city due to urbanisation, tightening labour market in the rural area. This factor substantially has pushed up wages of rural workers.”

In 1980s and 1990s, one third of rural workers remain unemployed, but now situation has changed. Besides traditional paddy cultivation, people cultivate non-rice crops like vegetables round the year.

“We often do not take into account that rural people also started involving with other farming like poultry and fishing,” he said, adding that use of agricultural machinery has also increased in farming because of the wage hike.

“So these are the factors that keep economy going despite many odds.” l

Economic data called into question Private sector may

5 new projects approved by Social Business Design Lab n Tribune Report

n

Tribune Business Desk

Five Nobin Udyokta business projects launched by children of Grameen Bank borrowers have been approved by the Social Business Design Lab at Grameen Bank Bhaban yesterday.

Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus chaired the Design Lab who earlier opened the lab, welcoming the audience and participants via live stream from 70 countries, said a press release.

Of the six new plans presented at the lab, five were Nobin Udyokta businesses by the young entrepreneurs.

These are Ma Pet Loom House of M Aminul Haque, a business to produce variety of satranji mats; Borhan Traders by M Borhan Uddin for trading in grocery items; Rizu Cosmetics by Sree Dulal Kumar, a business to sell cosmetic; Maa Refrigeration Workshop

by Sheikh M Taslim Uddin; and Hasan Quail Bird Hatchery by M Rafiqul Islam.

At the end of the day, two deals were signed between Grameen Kalyan and two Nobin Udyokta businesses. l

Noted economist Prof Nurul Islam yesterday said the reliability of different economic data has been called into question.

“The data of default loans, remittance, export, import and apparel sector workers are used in different research papers which have no reliability,” he said.

Former deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Prof Islam was delivering his speech as a keynote speaker at a seminar titled “Reflections on the first BEF conference: challenges facing economic research in Bangladesh”.

Bangladesh Bank and Bangladesh Economic Forum (BEF) jointly organised the seminar at Bangladesh Bank Training Academy in the capital.

The keynote speaker also criticised the country’s primary education system and the quality of teachers engaged in imparting teaching at primary level.

Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman said the rapid growth and ad-

vent of new technologies bring heightened risks of fraud and scams.

Atiur described the slippages, scams and fraudulent incidences as scare stories run by the news media.

Atiur described the slippages, scams and fraudulent incidences as scare stories run by news media

The governor claimed that due corrective and preventive attention of BB and other relevant authorities have prevented these sporadic incidents from blowing up into systemic stress or crisis.

Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal attended the programme at the chief guest.

He said the government is trying to

strengthen and empower local institutions by improving education system which lacks standard and does not go in line with expectations.

The basics of education system need to be improved, he added.

Despite all potentials the country fails to advance due to lack of adequate logistical support, observed the minister.

“Our investment to GDP is very low because of lower foreign investment flow. Maximum investment comes from public and private sector of the country,” he said.

Mustafa said the government delays implementing big projects due to lack of skilled manpower.

“We have to hire foreign consultants to implement big projects as our local institutions do not have adequate capacity.”

The government has planned to implement four projects under the Public Private Partnership initiative, he said.

Dhaka Elevated Expressway, Padma Bridge at Paturia point and a tunnel under the Karnaphuli River in Chittagong are also among the four. l

Hardware fair ‘Make-A-Thon’ begins November 18 n Tribune Report A three-day hardware hackathon styled “Make-A-Thon”, first of its kind in the country, begins in the city on Tuesday with an aim to generate new ideas of technologies and devices.

Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) and Better Stories, an idea agency, are going to jointly organise the event, speakers said at a press conference at the BASIS auditorium in the capital yesterday.

The event is to introduce an initiative to make life easy for the technology users. An-

yone could participate in the event and solve problems at the exhibition to be held at EMK Cente in Dhanmondi.

Tech lovers, engineers, programmers could participate in the three-day event just after registering themselves through www. bangladeshstartup.com or calling at 0172639843.

The event will be followed by competition on idea generations, workshops, seminars, and training sessions, which will continue till November 20, said the organisers.

Menhaz Anwar of Better Stories said: “For the first time, this type of event is going to be held with an aim to reduce

the load and make it easy for peoples’ daily life.”

Three winners of this program will attend an international hardware Hack-a-Thon in January 2015, which is scheduled to be held at Ahmedabad, India.

The organisers hinted that they had a plan to organise this exhibition every three-month though they are organising the event for the first time in the country.

The press conference was attended, among others, by Sami Ahmed, the executive director of BASIS and Mahmudul Hasan Sohag, chairman of OnnoRokom Group of Companies. l

get pension scheme from 2018 n Asif Showkat Kallol The government is planning to launch a national pension scheme from 2018 bringing both public and private employees under a same post-retirement benefit fund.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith sent a demi-official (DO) letter to Finance Secretary Mahbub Ahmed last week in this regard, said official sources.

“We want to introduce a pilot pension scheme programme for some of the organised private enterprises from 2018 according to our election pledge made six years ago,” the letter reads.

The finance minister asked the officials to hold primary discussions with representatives from private sector about the proposed scheme.

When contacted, experts and business leaders said the government should discuss with the stakeholders before launching such scheme.

They said it is not possible to implement the proposed scheme without talking with stakeholders and amendment to labour law of 2006.

They said necessary fund also needs to be injected into the scheme as a total of 1.81 lakh firms are registered under the Office of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms.

In the letter, finance minister asked the finance secretary to incorporate Planning Commission in the initiative.

Last week, an inter- ministerial meeting was held on the matter, said finance ministry sources.

The meeting, presided over by finance secretary, held initial discussion on the proposed national scheme.

It discussed the amount of fund to be needed to introduce such programme in private sector.

The meeting said the Constitution of Bangladesh contains fundamental rights encompassing economic, social and cultural rights.

Amongst them, Article 15(d) has made it a fundamental responsibility

of the State to secure citizen’s “right to social security.”

The existing government pension scheme is being run with a fund of Tk5,000 crore.

About the future of the scheme if launched, the letter cited the government’s “success in social safety net” and the ministry is also hopeful to succeed in the proposed programme.

In this point, finance minister hinted that social safety fund would be cut as the country “is now self-sufficient in food production and poor people are receiving benefits of that.”

FBCCI President Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed told Dhaka Tribune yesterday that it is not possible to introduce pension scheme in private sector without any discussion with private sector stakeholders.

“Such pension scheme is a good initiative as it will be helpful for the retired private sector staff. But discussions should be held with the beneficiaries,” he said.

Ex-adviser to a caretaker government AB Mirza Azizul Islam suggested having an adequate fund and strong law to introduce pension scheme for private sector.

He said the US and Indian governments formed national pension schemes for private sector by enacting such law.

Last February, the finance minister said there were some 20 lakh government officials and employees under its pension scheme and if private sector was included, the number would rise to 50 lakh.

Of the total firms registered with the Office of the Registrar for Joint Stock Companies and Firms, 71% are private and public companies and 22% are partnership firms.

Besides, a large number of industrial establishments operate under the individual proprietorship, which is 73% of total industrial establishments, according to fiscal year 2005-06 data. l

B2

Stock stay flat with bumpy ride n Tribune Report

LankaBangla Securities said market got some footing during the week though benchmark index lost slightly.

It said some of the companies’ encouraging earnings, which were published during the week, might have lured investors from sideline.

IDLC Investments said despite clear downward direction, large positive swings were observed, which couldn’t fade the bearish trend. Micro and mini cap stocks performed relatively better, while large cap stocks slipped, it said.

Among the sectors, top gaining sectors of the past week were IT that rose over 9%, miscellaneous 1%, food and allied 0.8% and travel and leisure 0.7%.

Conversely, top losing sectors were service and real estate that lost 6%, tannery 3%, bank 2% and life insurance 2%.

Losers outpaced gainers as out of 314 issues traded, 198 declined, 97 advanced and 19 remained unchanged on DSE floor last week.

The week featured all five trading sessions. Of them, three sessions saw negative trend while two sessions saw upward trend.

The new issue Western Marine Shipyard dominated the top turnover chart for the second consecutive week with shares worth Tk30 crore changing hands, followed by Keya Cosmetics, Barkatullah Electrodes Dynamics Ltd, DESCO and Jamuna Oil. National Polymer was also the week’s top gainer, posting a rise of over 45% while Tallu Spinning was the week’s worst loser, plunging by 28%. l

Stocks stayed flat in the past week as investors were cautious over the recent market’s heavy volatility.

The benchmark DSEX came down below 5,000-mark to close the week at 4,984, shedding over 40 points or nearly 1%.

The comprising blue chips DS30 index lost 7 points or 0.9% to 1,860.

The DSE Shariah Index dropped 6 points or 0.5% to close at 1,175.

Despite clear downward direction, large positive swings were observed, which couldn’t fade the bearish trend

The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, declined 72 points or 0.8% to 9,371.

The week’s total turnover improved significantly as the daily turnover averaged Tk760 crore, registering an increase of almost 9% over the previous week’s average of Tk694 crore.

Investors’ attention was mostly focused on engineering, power and pharmaceuticals, which together accounted for over 46% of the total week’s turnover.

Weekly capital market highlights DSE Broad Index : DSE - 30 Index : CSE All Share Index: CSE - 30 Index : CSE Selected Index : DSE LOSERS Company

Closing (% change)

Tallu Spinning -Z Modern Dyeing -Z Midas Financing-Z National Tubes -A SAIF Powertec-N FarEast Knitting -N Shurwid Ind. -N WesternMarine -N ICB Islamic Bank-Z Ratanpur Steel -N

-32.53 -13.96 -13.92 -12.13 -12.11 -11.59 -11.45 -11.45 -10.00 -9.77

CSE LOSERS Company Tallu Spinning -Z Midas Financing-Z Sonargaon Tex -Z WesternMarine -N Provati Insur.-A SAIF Powertec-N Shurwid Ind. -N FarEast Knitting -N Paramount Textile Ltd.-A Ratanpur Steel -N

Closing (% change) -32.00 -13.07 -11.86 -11.25 -10.92 -10.86 -10.83 -10.74 -9.54 -9.22

4984.46023

(-) 0.81%

1860.15487

(-) 0.37%

15378.7886

(-) 0.79%

12486.5171

(-) 1.59%

9371.1218

(-) 0.76%

Average (% change) -37.33 -13.01 -14.47 -10.69 -5.21 -10.10 -8.40 -3.69 -11.69 -5.78 Average (% change) -37.66 -13.40 -7.78 -4.08 -11.54 -4.59 -8.71 -10.26 -9.79 -4.89

ANALYST

Closing average 15.70 83.33 13.65 146.59 87.84 29.28 49.17 74.72 5.44 74.21

Closing average 15.74 13.25 10.43 74.49 20.24 88.31 48.93 29.20 27.37 74.56

Weekly closing

Bank NBFI Investment Engineering Food & Allied Fuel & Power Jute Textile Pharma & Chemical Paper & Packaging Service Leather Ceramic Cement Information Technology General Insurance Life Insurance Telecom Travel & Leisure Miscellaneous Debenture

DSE Million Taka 1597.98 1274.16 256.27 7712.34 2358.62 7409.50 53.43 2411.69 5987.35 755.43 1561.31 210.87 408.23 1099.11 756.88 181.25 526.45 1104.69 960.79 1145.10 0.56

▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ Weekly high

16.80 82.00 13.60 145.60 84.20 29.00 48.70 72.70 5.40 72.00

Weekly closing

25.30 101.30 14.70 164.30 100.00 30.50 57.00 94.00 6.10 77.50

Weekly high

17.00 13.30 10.40 72.60 20.40 84.50 48.60 29.10 27.50 71.90

25.60 13.80 12.30 94.00 22.60 99.00 57.50 31.00 28.40 77.70

DSE key features November 09-13, 2014

DSE GAINERS

Turnover (Million Taka)

National Polymer -A Orion Infusions -A Pharma Aids A Sonali Ansh -A Shahjibazar Power-N Northern Jute -Z Agni Systems -A Safko Spinning-A Aziz PipesZ Sinobangla Indu.-A

Company

37,772.03

Turnover (Volume)

840,930,552

Number of Contract

754,261

Traded Issues

314

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

106

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

202 6

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,662.76

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

32.28

CSE key features November 09-13, 2014 Turnover (Million Taka)

3,183.19

Turnover (Volume)

75,239,112

Number of Contract

103,786

Traded Issues

254

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

83

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

162

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

9

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,558.06

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

31.01

Turnover in million

13.00 80.80 12.90 138.10 77.00 27.90 47.80 72.00 5.10 66.10

Weekly low 14.70 12.70 10.00 72.00 19.20 78.00 48.00 28.40 26.90 66.60

Latest EPS

109.276 1.064 1.966 198.883 667.853 89.729 395.089 2291.696 11.029 849.347

Turnover in million

Closing (% change) 45.31 28.55 24.61 21.51 19.49 19.27 18.94 16.04 14.94 14.84

CSE GAINERS

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

Weekly low

Sunday, November 16, 2014

1.51 -2.16 -6.16 1.24 2.00 2.28 1.64 2.32 -0.71 5.44

Latest EPS

14.160 0.047 0.621 395.247 0.963 83.621 44.219 14.037 7.143 56.570

1.51 -6.16 -0.84 2.32 1.97 2.00 1.64 2.28 1.94 5.44

Latest PE 10.4 -ve -ve 118.2 43.9 12.8 30.0 32.2 -ve 13.6

Latest PE 10.4 -ve -ve 32.1 10.3 44.2 29.8 12.8 14.1 13.7

Company National Polymer -A Orion Infusions -A Shahjibazar Power-N Aziz PipesZ Safko Spinning-A Agni Systems -A Sinobangla Indu.-A Global Heavy Chemicals-N Mozaffar H.Spinning-A Fu-Wang Food A

Closing (% change) 44.71 28.17 22.39 20.00 17.80 17.29 13.83 11.26 11.11 11.06

Average (% change) 48.72 25.95 15.56 23.40 19.50 19.17 16.66 14.88 14.49 14.01 Average (% change) 45.52 25.65 14.19 20.00 17.69 16.33 12.40 10.69 9.03 9.62

Closing average 84.89 72.41 208.01 145.31 263.60 216.00 31.09 30.96 17.62 35.49

Closing average 83.79 72.45 598.15 18.60 31.07 30.99 35.34 48.26 23.67 24.83

Weekly closing 83.70 73.40 221.80 142.90 263.60 216.00 31.40 31.10 17.70 35.60

Weekly closing 83.50 73.70 260.70 18.60 31.10 31.20 35.40 48.40 24.00 25.10

Weekly high 87.80 77.00 229.00 160.30 263.60 216.00 32.00 31.50 18.00 36.30

Weekly high 84.40 76.50 260.70 19.20 31.20 32.00 36.10 51.50 24.40 25.50

Weekly low 53.50 55.20 174.00 117.00 214.00 198.50 25.00 24.00 15.40 32.10

Weekly low 62.00 55.60 214.00 16.00 26.00 26.40 31.60 43.20 20.90 22.70

Turnover in million

Latest EPS

375.966 677.139 208.814 53.020 680.796 0.126 251.394 63.332 2.426 213.793

Turnover in million

2.76 4.81 5.58 0.76 3.71 1.69 1.01 1.24 -0.37 1.21

Latest EPS

14.056 51.885 16.016 0.280 0.780 9.642 8.244 13.395 17.967 15.807

2.76 4.81 3.71 -0.37 1.24 1.01 1.21 2.43 2.10 0.91

Latest PE 30.8 15.1 37.3 191.2 71.1 127.8 30.8 25.0 -ve 29.3

Latest PE 30.4 15.1 161.2 -ve 25.1 30.7 29.2 19.9 11.3 27.3

Weekly news from trade server AGM/Dividend SAMORITA: 20% cash and 10% stock, AGM: 07.01.2015, Record Date: 19.11.2014.

EPS of Tk. 3.01, NAV per share of Tk. 60.44.

NPOLYMAR: 18% stock, AGM: 18.12.2014, Record Date: 19.11.2014. NAV of Tk. 439.93 Million, EPS of Tk. 3.09.

OLYMPIC: 20% cash and 35% stock dividend, AGM: 24.12.2014, Record Date: 27.11.2014. EPS of Tk. 7.39, NAV per share of Tk. 21.46.

PADMAOIL: 100% cash dividend, AGM: 14.02.2015, Record date: 22.12.2014. EPS of Tk. 21.66, NAV per share of Tk. 74.22.

EASTRNLUB: 30% cash dividend, AGM: 17.01.2015, Record Date: 25.11.2014. EPS of Tk. 4.60, NAV per share of Tk. 73.03.

ATLASBANG: 35% cash dividend, AGM: 24.12.2014, Record date: 27.11.2014. EPS of Tk. 5.06, NAV per share of Tk. 210.94.

TALLUSPIN: No dividend, AGM: 23.12.2014, Record Date: 01.12.2014. EPS of Tk. 1.51, NAV per share of Tk. 16.19.

MITHUNKNIT: 20% stock, AGM: 23.12.2014, Record date: 20.11.2014. EPS of Tk. 3.02, NAV per share of Tk. 23.55.

WMSHIPYARD: 5% cash dividend to the general shareholders only, and 10% stock dividend to all the shareholders, AGM: 21.12.2014, Record date: 20.11.2014. EPS of Tk. 2.32, NAV per share (with revaluation reserve) of Tk. 42.59, NAV per share (without revaluation reserve) of Tk. 31.70.

PRIMELIFE: 10% cash and 15% stock dividend, AGM: 24.12.2014.

PHARMAID: 25% cash dividend, AGM: 28.12.2014, Record Date: 02.12.2014.

NPAT= Tk. 17.39 Million, EPS of Tk. 5.58, NAV per share.

Audited/unaudited Financial Reports: MICEMENT:(Q1): NPAT= Tk. 167.65 million with EPS of Tk. 1.13 as against Tk. 165.97 million and Tk. 1.12 respectively.

NTLTUBES: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 6.24 million with basic EPS of Tk. 0.35 (restated 0.31) as against Tk. 8.37 million and Tk. 0.46 (0.42) respectively.

AAMRATECH: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 23.65 million with EPS of Tk. 0.43 as against Tk. 17.15 million and Tk. 0.31 respectively.

ECABLES: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 0.37 million with EPS of Tk. 0.02 as against Tk. 4.13 million and Tk. 0.17 respectively.

PENINSULA: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 42.65 million with EPS of Tk. 0.38 as against Tk. 33.54 million and Tk. 0.30 respectively.

BEDL: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 123.09 million with consolidated basic EPS of Tk. 0.94 (0.80 restated) as against Tk. 70.19 million and Tk. 0.54 (0.46) respectively.

ATLASBANG: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 1.33 million with EPS of Tk. 0.06 as against Tk. 30.66 million and Tk. 1.29 respectively.

MODERNDYE: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. -0.75 million with EPS of Tk. -0.54 as against Tk. 0.49 million and Tk. 0.36 respectively.

DBH: (Q1): NPAT=Tk. 155.76 million with EPS of Tk. 1.34 as against Tk. 137.10 million and Tk. 1.18 respectively.

STANCERAM: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 1.00 million with EPS of Tk. 0.15 as against Tk. 0.85 million and Tk. 0.13 respectively.

ASIAINS: (Q3): NPAT= Tk. 76.87 million with EPS of Tk. 1.63 as against Tk. 52.32

million and Tk. 1.11 (restated) respectively.

SAMORITA: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 8.56 million with basic EPS of Tk. 0.63 ( restated 0.58) as against Tk. 7.58 million and Tk. 0.56 (0.51) respectively.

USMANIAGL: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 1.56 million with basic EPS of Tk. 0.14 (restated 0.13) as against Tk. 15.39 million and Tk. 1.42 respectively.

MALEKSPIN: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 88.62 million with consolidated EPS of Tk. 0.46 as against Tk. 125.87 million and Tk. 0.65 respectively.

RAHIMTEXT: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 9.52 million with basic EPS of Tk. 3.46 (restated 2.75) as against Tk. 1.05 million and Tk. 0.38 (0.30) respectively.

EASTRNLUB: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 0.51 million with EPS of Tk. 0.52 as against Tk. 1.30 million and Tk. 1.30 respectively.

PADMAOIL: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 461.87 million with EPS of Tk. 4.70 as against Tk. 669.69 million and Tk. 6.82 respectively.

RSRMSTEEL: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 72.60 million with basic EPS of Tk. 1.70 (restated 1.36) as against Tk. 35.84 million and Tk. 1.21 (0.88) respectively.

AMCL(PRAN): (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 11.38 million with EPS of Tk. 1.42 as against Tk. 10.18 million and Tk. 1.27 respectively.

SAVAREFR: (Q1): NPAT=Tk. -0.15 million with EPS of Tk. -0.11 as against Tk. 0.15 million and Tk. 0.10 respectively.

KPPL: (Q1): NPAT=Tk. 33.81 million with basic EPS of Tk. 0.74 ( restated 0.65) as against Tk. 23.91 million and Tk. 0.91 (0.72) respectively.

Market got some footing during the week though benchmark index lost slightly

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY Sector

Stock

DHAKA TRIBUNE

% change 4.23 3.37 0.68 20.42 6.24 19.62 0.14 6.38 15.85 2.00 4.13 0.56 1.08 2.91 2.00 0.48 1.39 2.92 2.54 3.03 0.00

Million Taka 108.70 83.62 28.38 766.12 169.92 383.60 0.00 291.48 348.60 186.06 136.38 116.52 37.13 95.89 132.78 6.67 15.92 80.23 139.78 138.22 295.84

CSE

% change 3.05 2.35 0.80 21.51 4.77 10.77 0.00 8.18 9.79 5.22 3.83 3.27 1.04 2.69 3.73 0.19 0.45 2.25 3.92 3.88 8.31

Million Taka 1706.68 1357.78 284.65 8478.47 2528.54 7793.10 53.43 2703.17 6335.95 941.49 1697.69 327.39 445.36 1195.00 889.66 187.92 542.38 1184.91 1100.57 1283.33 296.40

Total

% change 4.13 3.28 0.69 20.51 6.12 18.85 0.13 6.54 15.33 2.28 4.11 0.79 1.08 2.89 2.15 0.45 1.31 2.87 2.66 3.10 0.72

Prepared exclusively for Dhaka Tribune by Business Information Automation Service Line (BIASL), on the basis of information collected from daily stock quotations and audited reports of the listed companies. High level of caution has been taken to collect and present the above information and data. The publisher will not take any responsibility if any body uses this information and data for his/her investment decision. For any query please email to biasl@bol-online.com or call 01552153562 or go to www.biasl.net

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS Company WesternMarine -N Keya Cosmetics -A Barakatullah E. D.-A DESCO Ltd. -A Jamuna Oil -A Ratanpur Steel -N Grameenphone-A MJL BD Ltd.-A The Peninsula CTG.-N Khulna Printing-N CSE TURNOVER LEADERS Company WesternMarine -N IBBLMPB-A The Peninsula CTG.-N BEXIMCO Ltd. -A Raspit Data Mgt -Z Khulna Printing-N SAIF Powertec-N Appollo Ispat CL -N MJL BD Ltd.-A LafargeS Cement-Z

Volume shares 27,958,800 36,838,235 29,934,406 13,777,695 3,766,444 11,926,200 2,399,822 6,227,646 22,353,400 21,842,500

Volume shares 4,835,300 299,900 3,240,800 2,820,418 2,549,500 2,549,500 945,400 3,424,810 496,087 563,500

Value in million 2291.70 1129.05 1112.26 1049.02 933.78 849.35 838.61 830.76 765.88 745.79

Value in million 395.25 295.83 110.69 109.97 86.96 86.96 83.62 83.05 66.42 66.22

% of total turnover 6.07 2.99 2.94 2.78 2.47 2.25 2.22 2.20 2.03 1.97

% of total turnover 12.27 9.18 3.44 3.41 2.70 2.70 2.60 2.58 2.06 2.06

Weekly closing 72.70 28.80 37.80 78.40 254.30 72.00 349.60 135.30 33.50 32.10

Weekly closing 72.60 962.00 33.50 39.90 32.20 32.20 84.50 23.60 135.40 122.80

Price change -11.45 0.00 0.80 5.66 6.22 -9.77 -1.05 4.48 6.35 -3.89

Weekly opening 82.10 28.80 37.50 74.20 239.40 79.80 353.30 129.50 31.50 33.40

Weekly high 94.00 32.80 39.80 79.10 259.50 77.50 355.40 142.50 36.70 36.80

Weekly low 72.00 26.00 30.00 67.00 214.00 66.10 338.60 114.70 31.40 31.30

Weekly average 74.72 29.03 38.05 77.67 255.11 74.21 351.25 137.29 34.32 32.61

Price change -11.25 0.00 6.69 3.64 0.00 -3.88 -10.86 3.96 3.83 -1.52

Weekly opening 81.80 962.00 31.40 38.50 33.50 33.50 94.80 22.70 130.40 124.70

Weekly high 94.00 980.00 36.10 42.30 36.80 36.80 99.00 25.30 140.20 128.10

Weekly low 72.00 950.00 31.50 35.00 31.70 31.70 78.00 22.70 124.00 109.00

Weekly average 74.49 962.00 33.99 40.99 32.58 32.58 88.31 23.73 136.63 124.34

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

India’s inflation hits 5-year low, fans rate cut hopes n AFP, New Delhi

India’s wholesale inflation cooled to a fresh five-year low as fuel and food prices fell, firing hopes the hawkish central bank could finally start cutting interest rates and spur stumbling economic growth.

The Wholesale Price Index or WPI, India’s inflation measure with the biggest goods basket, slipped to a betterthan-expected 1.77% in October from a year earlier.

Wholesale inflation is now at its weakest since September 2009 as the fuel-import-reliant nation benefits from tumbling global oil prices.

The central bank “could begin to cut rates soon - perhaps even as early as December”, said Shilan Shah, analyst at macroeconomic research firm Capital Economics.

The data swept the Bombay Stock Exchange’s benchmark index to a record high of 28,046.66 points.

Wholesale inflation, which was 2.4% in September, has fallen from over six percent in May. The annual wholesale inflation decline was also helped by bountiful harvests which pushed down food prices.

The cost of onions, an Indian cooking pot staple, has fallen nearly 60 percent from a year ago.

Business leaders and finance minister Arun Jaitley, a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new rightwing government, have been clamouring for a cut in borrowing costs which they say deter investment and consumer spending.

India has been mired in its longest stretch of sub-five-percent growth in a quarter-century.

The economy grew by 4.7% last year and the central bank expects it to expand by 5.5% this year - far below the near double-digits needed to generate jobs for tens of millions of new entrants.

Labourers carry grocery items at a wholesale market in Kolkata

‘Break the back of inflation’

The wholesale price data came days after figures showed the consumer inflation index, comprised of a widely tracked smaller goods basket, dropped to a far better-than-expected 5.52% last month.

That figure was also below the central bank’s six-percent goal for January 2016, and down sharply from doubledigit inflation last year.

But even with inflation falling faster-than-expected, the central bank has resisted appeals to loosen monetary policy and boost growth.

It says it’s determined to “break the

back” of inflation - a chronic problem that causes misery for India’s hundreds of millions of deeply poor citizens and a major restraint on growth in the emerging-market nation.

Some economists say the central bank could cut rates at its next policy meeting slated for December 2.

But other economists worry inflation will resurge when a low statistical base-effect, which has helped make price rises look weaker, wears off. They say any premature easing of rates could stoke prices.

“We still expect the Reserve Bank of India to remain on hold as risks re-

REUTERS

main to the six-percent inflation target for January 2016,” said Goldman Sachs economist Tushar Poddar.

Economists who are sceptical the latest inflation fall will be sustained suggest the central bank may hold its trend-setting lending rate at eight percent until at least mid-2015.

Central bank governor Raghuram Rajan, himself, has signalled caution on rate-cut hopes.

“Base effects will temper inflation in the next few months - only to reverse towards the end of the year,” Rajan said in a recent speech. “The Reserve Bank will look through base effects.” l

Weak growth weighs on euro, stocks n AFP Sluggish economic growth in eurozone heavyweights Germany and France weighed on the European single currency and the region’s stock markets on Friday.

Nevertheless equities ended in positive territory, with London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index rising 0.29% to end the day at 6,654.37 points.

The Paris CAC 40 climbed 0.35% to 4,202.46 points, while in Frankfurt the DAX 30 added 0.05 percent to 9,252.94.

Milan jumped 0.97% and Madrid edged up 0.07%.

“Shares in Europe fluctuated in and out of gains and losses on Friday continuing the sideways trading seen since the beginning of the week,” said analyst Jasper Lawler at CMC Markets UK. Official data showed France and Germany narrowly avoided a new recession in the third quarter, while the broader 18-nation eurozone also faces anaemic growth with just a 0.2% expansion. Eurozone inflation came in at a low 0.4% as expected.

“The moderate growth and inflation was cause for relief in European markets but narrowly avoiding recession is hardly a cause for exuberant buying,” said Lawler.

Analyst Mike McCudden, at online broker Interactive Investor, said “the euro will no doubt remain under pressure as investors anticipate fresh stimulus intended to drag the region out of the mire.”

The shared single currency spent most of the day down against the dollar, but by evening had recovered to $1.2483 from $1.2476 late in New York on Thursday. But without a fresh signal from the European Central Bank equities are unlikely to get an immediate strong push upwards.

Story of stagnation unchanged

“Any positive market impact will be limited and temporary,” Daiwa Capital Markets economist Chris Scicluna told AFP.

Improvement in eurozone Google Glass future clouded as some as Germany, France early believers lose faith skirt recession n Reuters, San Francisco

n AFP

The economic clouds over Europe appeared to lift slightly in the third quarter as its two biggest economies both narrowly escaped a new recession, official data showed on Friday.

Overall the eurozone grew by just 0.2%, a still worryingly low figure, but a slight acceleration from the standstill reported originally for the previous quarter.

The data from the EU’s Eurostat agency was an improvement, but will do little to dispel fears that problems in Europe, which include low inflation and stalled reforms, could spread to the world economy.

“The eurozone is having an almighty struggle to develop even modest growth momentum,” said Howard Archer, chief European economist for IHS Global Insight.

“Heightened geopolitical tensions, particularly related to Russia and Ukraine, have weighed down on confidence and investment across the eurozone, reinforcing ongoing challenging conditions in many countries,” he said.

Turnaround in Germany, France

In Germany, Europe’s economic powerhouse, gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 0.1% in the period from July to September, after shrinking by 0.1% in the preceding three months.

And in Paris, the French economy grew by 0.3% in the third quarter, following a contraction of 0.1% in the second quarter.

Since recession is technically defined as two consecutive quarters of falling GDP, both countries avoided a new recession.

In Germany’s case, positive impulses came primarily from private households, which ramped up their spending, the official Destatis agency said.

In addition, foreign trade also helped, with exports rising more strongly than imports, it said.

‘Growth too weak’

In Paris, France’s Finance Minister Michel Sapin said that while the figure was higher, the growth remained “too weak to ensure the job creation our country needs.”

With growth in both countries still very modest, however, analysts were cautious about the outlook for the eurozone. Berenberg Bank economist Christian Schulz said that the usually strong

Germany “remained a key drag” with the crisis in Ukraine affecting it “and other central European countries more than Western European countries”.

“Once this and other external risks fade, Germany will resume its economic leadership role,” he said.

Italy, the bloc’s third biggest economy, remained stuck in recession in the third quarter, contracting 0.1% after sliding 0.2% in the previous threemonth period.

Economist Paolo Mameli said the latest figures for Italy suggested a forecast rebound in 2015 would be very weak.

“For a real recovery, we’ll have to wait until 2016,” said the Intesa Sanpaolo analyst.

The poor data landed the same day as anti-austerity protests were staged in around 25 Italian towns and cities, turning occasionally violent.

Protesters opposed government plans to kickstart growth by pushing through EU-backed labour reforms, with clashes in Milan and Padova leaving a total of eight members of the security forces injured.

After two years of popping up at highprofile events sporting Google Glass, the gadget that transforms eyeglasses into spy-movie worthy technology, Google co-founder Sergey Brin sauntered bare-faced into a Silicon Valley red-carpet event on Sunday.

He’d left his pair in the car, Brin told a reporter. The Googler, who heads up the top-secret lab which developed Glass, has hardly given up on the product - he recently wore his pair to the beach.

But Brin’s timing is not propitious, coming as many developers and early Glass users are losing interest in the much-hyped, $1,500 test version of the product: a camera, processor and stamp-sized computer screen mounted to the edge of eyeglass frames. Google Inc itself has pushed back the Glass roll out to the mass market.

While Glass may find some specialized, even lucrative, uses in the work-

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Sunday, November 16, 2014

place, its prospects of becoming a consumer hit in the near future are slim, many developers say.

Of 16 Glass app makers contacted

by Reuters, nine said that they had stopped work on their projects or abandoned them, mostly because of the lack of customers or limitations of the device. Three more have switched to developing for business, leaving behind consumer projects.

Plenty of larger developers remain with Glass. The nearly 100 apps on the official web site include Facebook and OpenTable, although one major player recently defected: Twitter.

“If there was 200 million Google Glasses sold, it would be a different perspective. There’s no market at this point,” said Tom Frencel, the Chief Executive of Little Guy Games, which put development of a Glass game on hold this year and is looking at other platforms, including the Facebook Inc-owned virtual-reality goggles Oculus Rift.

Several key Google employees instrumental to developing Glass have left the company in the last six months, including lead developer Babak Parviz, electrical engineering chief Adrian Wong, and Ossama Alami, director of developer relations.

And a Glass funding consortium created by Google Ventures and two of Silicon Valley’s biggest venture capitalists, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Andreessen Horowitz, quietly deleted its website, routing users to the main Glass site.

Google insists it is committed to Glass, with hundreds of engineers and executives working on it, as well as new fashionista boss Ivy Ross, a former Calvin Klein executive. Tens of thousands use Glass in the pilot consumer program.

“We are completely energized and as energized as ever about the opportunity that wearables and Glass in particular represent,” said Glass Head of Business Operations Chris O’Neill. l

“Despite modest upside surprises to today’s GDP (gross domestic product) data, the story of broad stagnation in the euro area including Germany is unchanged.”

“Compared to economic conditions in the United States - where monetary tightening is still likely by the end of the first half of 2015 - the euro area economy is in a terrible state.”

Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, grew by a slender 0.1% in the period from July to September, after shrinking by 0.1% in the preceding three months.

And the French economy grew 0.3% in the third quarter, following a contraction of 0.1% in the second quarter.

The technical definition of a recession is two successive quarters of falling economic output.

The broader eurozone economy grew by just 0.2% in the third quarter.

The euro remains weighed down from expectations that the European Central Bank could expand its asset purchasing programme in 2015, dealers said.

Across the Atlantic, Wall Street was flat in midday trading.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.08% to 17,639.01 points after having eked out a new record Thursday.

The broad-market S&P 500 slid 0.03 percent to 2,038.82, while the techrich Nasdaq Composite rose 0.02% to 4,681.06. Asian markets were mixed Friday on profit-taking, although Tokyo pushed 0.56 higher as the dollar broke the 116 yen barrier. Sydney rose 0.21% while Seoul fell 0.78%.

In the final trading session before the launch of a cross-exchange connection, Shanghai ended 0.27% lower while Hong Kong gained 0.28%.

Meanwhile, in company news on Friday, European aerospace giant Airbus said quarterly net profits nearly halved, as it ran into headwinds from adverse foreign exchange moves.

Earnings after taxation sank 41% to 264m euros ($329m) in the third quarter from a year earlier, Airbus announced in a statement. l

Facebook to curb promotional posts on user timelines

n AFP, San Francisco

Facebook on Friday said it is making moves to reduce the number of promotional posts that pop up in timelines, in response to users’ demands for fewer advertisements.

Beginning in January, people should start seeing fewer posts in news feeds urging them to do things such as buy products, download applications or enter sweepstakes, according to the leading social media titan.

“People told us they wanted to see more stories from friends and pages they care about, and less promotional content,” the California-based social network company said in a blog post.

The change was prompted by a survey that revealed Facebook users think there are too many advertisement-like posts in news feeds. The social media giant said it discovered that a lot of pitches that came across as advertising were actually posts from pages people had “liked,” according to the blog post. l

‘Still on track’

The picture for bailed-out eurozone countries that have adopted major structural reforms was mixed. The end of recession was confirmed in Greece, which grew by 0.7% in the third quarter.

Data was not yet available for Ireland, but in the second quarter it was set to roar ahead with 6.5% annual growth, way above the 0.8% estimated for the eurozone.

Portugal disappointed with just 0.2% quarterly growth even after a huge wave of reforms. Cyprus, the last country to receive an EU-IMF bailout, meanwhile continued a painful recession with a 0.4% contraction.

The European Commission said “the recovery was on track but still too slow and fragile” and urged reforms.

The EU’s executive arm is also looking to a mooted 300bn euro ($374bn) investment plan to boost growth, a key plank of Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker’s incoming team, which took office on November 1.

Loynes of Capital Economics warned growth was “still nowhere near strong enough” to reinvigorate the economy and “diminish the risks of deflation”.

Those risks remained alive, with Eurostat also confirming that inflation in the eurozone stood at a low 0.4% in October. l

Standard Bank Limited has recently opened its 96th branch at Bhai Bhai Plaza, Ashulia in Dhaka. The bank’s director, SAM Hossain inaugurated the branch as chief guest

Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith has recently handed over a crest to Mohammad Abdul Mannan, MD of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited for getting the award, 'Best Small Entrepreneur Friendly Bank of the Year at SME Banking – 2014'

Okapia, a mobile cellphone maker has simultaneously entered the markets in Khulna, Barisal and Bogra. The company’s chairperson Subrata Das inaugurated the entry to new markets at the presence of its MD, Tofazzul Hossain at the Azmal Plaza in Khulna yesterday

Modhumoti Bank Limited has recently opened its 8th branch at Sakhipur in Tangail. The bank’s chairperson, Humayun Kabir inaugurated the branch as chief guest

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Sunday, November 16, 2014

IEA: Oil ‘price rout’ not over

A pump jack is seen at sunrise near Bakersfield, California

n AFP

REUTERS

ing on November 27 in Vienna, would decide against cutting output quotas.

This is because OPEC is battling to maintain its foothold in the US market against the flood of oil being extracted domestically from shale rock -- which had in part caused the global glut.

Oil prices are expected to keep sliding well into 2015, held down by weak demand and increased shale production, the International Energy Agency said Friday.

Global prices have collapsed by some 30% since June, and crude futures slumped on Thursday to lows not seen since September 2010, diving well below the $80-per-barrel mark.

The IEA said while there had been speculation that the high cost of shale extraction “might set a new equilibrium for Brent prices in the $80 to $90 range, supply/demand balances suggest that the price rout has yet to run its course”.

“Our supply and demand forecasts indicate that barring any new supply

disruption, downward price pressures could build further in the first half of 2015,” it added.

Prices were unlikely to reverse course anytime soon, as there are “deep structural changes” transforming the industry.

China, which in recent years has had a voracious appetite for energy, is now entering a less oil-intensive stage of growth, while technological innovations have unlocked shale resources in North America.

“A return to previous price highs may not be a close prospect, as it is increasingly clear that we have begun a new chapter in the history of the oil markets,” the IEA said.

Dealers were also betting that the 12-nation OPEC cartel, which is meet-

China calls for swift movement on BRICS development bank

G20 mulls overhaul of global energy market

n AFP, Brisbane

n AFP, Brisbane

China yesterday urged BRICS nations to speed up the creation of a development bank as an alternative to the Westerndominated global financial system.

The BRICS group of emerging economic powers - which also includes Brazil, Russia, India, and South Africa - agreed in July to form the New Development Bank to finance infrastructure projects and an emergency reserve fund.

The Chinese have already chosen a site for the future Shanghai headquarters of the US$50 billion facility and China’s vice finance minister Zhu Guangyao is keen to get moving.

“All (countries) share the view that they should speed up the process to have it completed as quickly as possible,” he said on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Australia.

An overhaul of the global energy market could be a surprise outcome of the G20 summit with plans for a new agency to protect against oil and gas supplies being used as foreign policy tools, a report said yesterday.

Energy security is a vital issue for many countries, and the long-term stability of oil markets is seen as crucial to ensure the reforms necessary to meet the G20’s aim of lifting its combined economic growth by at least two percent over the next five years.

The Australian newspaper said that central to ensuring open markets was the creation of a new global institution, giving a greater voice to rising economies and addressing energy security fears.

It said this weekend’s Brisbane summit would not establish the new agency, but was aiming to agree the principles that it would adopt.

If approved, it would lay down principles of governance for all participants in energy markets and sit above both the OPEC cartel and the International Energy Agency (IEA).

There was no immediate comment from the Australian government or other G20 delegations.

The emergence of energy as a central G20 platform comes with oil prices diving well below the $80-per-barrel mark, with global prices collapsing by some 30 percent since June.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who reportedly supports the idea of a new institution, admitted volatile energy prices were a major concern.

“We’re considering all the scenarios, including the so-called catastrophic fall of prices for energy resources, which is quite possible, and we admit it,” he said

But the Bretton Woods institutions are regularly criticised for their inability to reflect the growing and important contributions of the major emerging economies to the global economy “And each country will identify feasible projects for the bank as quickly as possible, so that at the moment the bank is launched it will be able to immediately carry out (financing) processes.”

Chinese state media has said the BRICS bank aims to reduce Western dominance of the global financial system, while criticising multilateral agencies like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

For the past 70 years, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have been the pillars of the world’s economic system, coming to the rescue of countries in trouble and supporting development projects, respectively.

But the Bretton Woods institutions are regularly criticised for their inability to reflect the growing and important contributions of the major emerging economies to the global economy.

Since their creation in 1944, the IMF and the World Bank have only been led

by Americans and Europeans. l

‘It’s purely business’

As pressure mounts on OPEC to slash output, Ali Al-Naimi, oil minister of the cartel’s kingpin Saudi Arabia, said that “talk of a price war is a sign of misunderstanding - deliberate or otherwise and has no basis in reality”.

“We do not seek to politicise oil, nor do we collude against anybody. For us, it is a question of supply and demand. It is purely business,” he said on Wednesday.

in an interview with the TASS agency ahead of the G20 when asked about global imbalances.

Putin said Russia, a key major oil and gas producer, was well-placed to deal with such issues but expressed concern about how emerging economies would cope.

“Our reserves are big enough and they allow us to be sure that we will meet our social commitments and keep all the budgetary processes and the entire economy within a certain framework,” he said.

“And what about those who don’t have these reserves?

“It will be hard for them in a situation like that, but I’d like to say once again that I expect us to have a joint discussion and seek a joint solution on how to change things for the better and eliminate these imbalances.”

The IEA this week forecast that prices would keep sliding well into 2015, held down by weak demand and increased shale production, amid “deep structural changes” transforming the industry.

China, after voraciously consuming energy for years, is now possibly entering a less oil-intensive stage of growth, while technological innovations have unlocked shale resources in North America.

Crude exporters struggling

In a report to the G20 industrial powers ahead of Brisbane, the International Monetary Fund said the “recent appreciable fall in oil prices, if sustained, will boost growth”.

But the lower prices are hurting some crude exporters, including Venezuela, Iran and G20 member Russia.

The latter two are also struggling with the impact of Western sanctions. l

Traffic on Melbourne Street near the venue of the G20 Leaders Summit in Brisbane, prior to the G20 Summit in Brisbane REUTERS

In a report to the G20 group of leading industrial powers ahead of a summit in Brisbane this weekend, the International Monetary Fund said the “recent appreciable fall in oil prices, if sustained, will boost growth”.

But the lower prices are hurting some crude exporters, including Venezuela, Iran and Russia. The latter two are also struggling with the impact of Western sanctions.

The IEA noted that production at current or even lower prices may not be uneconomical, but “it may take a toll on social stability and thus indirectly affect production prospects”.

Prices had touched a high in June of $115.71, when the Islamic State organisation’s offensive in Iraq had pushed up costs. But abundant supplies, tepid demand and the strong dollar have forced them back down.

Supply growth also shows few signs of abating. On Thursday, US production hit a new record. The world is awash in oil even as both Iraq and Libya - the two countries responsible for OPEC’s recent recovery in supply growth - are both in the throes of conflicts.

Demand growth is meanwhile expected to remain at the five-year low rate of 680,000 barrels a day in 2014, reaching an estimated 92.4 million barrels a day, the IEA said.

“Relatively weak Chinese demand growth, coupled with large absolute declines in both European and OECD Asia Oceania, curb the upside momentum otherwise provided by gains in other non-OECD economies and the US,” it said.

Accelerating global momentum is seen lifting demand growth to reach 1.1 million barrels a day to 93.6 million barrels a day.

Oil prices rebounded slightly on Friday, although they remain well below $80. Brent crude for January gained 70 cents to $78.19 per barrel in late morning London deals, while US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for December rose 13 cents to $74.34. l

Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri speaks during a news conference to announce its first quarter earnings in Espoo REUTERS

Nokia says vanishing consumer brand may return n Reuters, London

Don’t call it a comeback yet. But Nokia is thinking about how to revive its brand name in consumer markets just months after selling off its former flagship mobile phones business to Microsoft for more than $7bn.

“I think you can expect our brand will return to the consumer world,” Nokia’s chief executive Rajeev Suri said on Friday when asked about rumors that the networks equipment maker was looking to re-enter the handset market.

Suri told investors at a presentation in London that his company will look to licensing the brand name to other firms rather than starting up a new handset business itself.

“We see brand licensing as an opportunity ... But I would say it is more of a long-term opportunity,” Suri said of potential deals where other makers of consumer electronics might pay Nokia

to use its brand on their products.

Another company executive on Friday pointed to Porsche Design as an example of the sort of brand-licensing deals Nokia might consider.

No deal is imminent but the Nokia brand could eventually appear on a range of electronics, not necessarily phones. “This is not a sentimentality thing,” Suri said.

Microsoft this week dropped the Nokia name on its latest Lumia 535 smartphone, having acquired the Nokia business back in April.

Nokia was once synonymous with mobile phones but the brand’s ranking sank to 98th this year among the world’s best known corporate names, down from fifth in 2007, according to a survey by market researcher Interbrand.

The slide came after first Apple Inc and then Samsung Electronics entered the smartphone market to successfully challenge the Finnish company’s decade of market leadership. l

A worker checks the growth of lettuce at the cultivation room of Toshiba's plant factory, 'Clean Room Farm Yokosuka' at Yokosuka, Kanagawa prefecture on November 12, 2014. Japan's electronic giant Toshiba unveiled the vegetable factory with a closed growing system as part of their healthcare business AFP

EU’s Juncker defends position, urges global tax evasion fight n AFP, Brisbane European Commission head JeanClaude Juncker urged a global fight against tax evasion yesterday while defending his position after revelations top companies paid less tax during his time as Luxembourg premier.

“I really do think that on the international, on the global level, we have to fight all together against tax evasion,” he told reporters in Brisbane on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brisbane.

Tax is a key issue at this weekend’s gathering of world leaders, with the host country Friday vowing a “very aggressive” crackdown on tax avoidance as part of an agenda that focusses on growing global growth by more than 2% by 2018.

“At the beginning of the year we set out to restore integrity and resilience to our tax bases, and give our citizens the confidence that everyone is paying their fair share of tax,” Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey told finance ministers on Saturday.

“Now I can say that we will bring international tax rules into the 21st century and ensure the rules keep pace with changing business models.”

His comments came as Juncker, who took over the European Commission on November 1, faces pressure

over generous tax concessions offered to top global companies when he was prime minister of Luxembourg.

An international journalistic investigation revealed this month that Luxembourg allowed hundreds of top companies - including Pepsi, IKEA and Deutsche Bank -- to enjoy preferential tax treatment.

The revelations show that in some cases tax bills were as low as 1% of earnings for some of the world’s richest companies - a politically explosive development at a time when cash-strapped EU governments have sharply cut budgets.

Asked whether he agreed that Luxembourg’s tax policies had been “picking peoples’ pockets”, Juncker said: “Tax avoidance is an important issue for each and every one of us.

“We are decided in Europe to fight against tax evasion,” he said, adding that when he had addressed the EU be-

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fore being voted into office as president he had mentioned this as an issue.

‘Fair tax competition’

Juncker, who was Luxembourg’s prime minister from 1995 to 2013, has previously denied he was the “architect” of the system and vowed to fight “unfair” tax evasion as head of the EU’s executive.

He said Saturday that tax evasion sometimes happened due to the “interactions between very divergent national tax rules” and Europe was working to change this.

“In accordance with the law you can create a situation, the result of it is a very low taxation for companies. This has to be avoided,” he said.

“What we are intending is not a fully fledged harmonisation on each and every detail, but eliminating from our national tax legislations the open gates for tax evasions. l