20 nov, 2014

Agrahayan 6, 1421 Muharram 26, 1436 Regd No DA 6238 Vol 2, No 226

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

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TMAG

9 | BOOK REVIEW

11 | OP-ED

12 | SPORT

BAND, BAAJA AND GRAND STYLE ENTRY!

KNOWN UNKNOWNS OF THE CLASS WAR

BANKING ON FAITH

NASIR, SEAMERS ADD TO VISITORS’ WOEFUL RUN

International racket of gold smugglers traced Three officials of Biman arrested in the capital Zahidul Islam, n Muhammad Ashif Islam Shaon and Md Sanaul Islam Tipu After yesterday’s arrest of five people, including three senior Biman officials, the detectives have concluded that a gang, comprising people in and outside the airline, has been involved with gold smuggling through the Dhaka airport for quite some time now.

One of the arrested, Captain Abu Mohammad Aslam Shaheed, is the chief of flight planning and scheduling and also the pilot of an aircraft. Tozammel Hossain and Emdad Hossain are deputy general manager and manager of flight scheduling respectively.

This is the first time that any top officials of the national flag carrier have been arrested in connection with gold smuggling. The Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police arrested them at different parts of the capital.

Over the last couple of years, detectives and customs officials have been regularly catching gold mules from the Dhaka and Chittagong airports, but the frequency and volume have increased alarmingly this year.

Until yesterday, law enforcers and customs intelligence officers have only managed to arrest some low-level Biman employees such as cabin crew, flight attendants, ground handling staff and carriers.

In the past, smuggled gold has been seized from passengers’ bodies, hidden in their luggage, strapped under seats, abandoned at restrooms inside the aircraft or at the airports.

Intelligence officials were aware that such nature and amount of smuggling could not have been taking place without the involvement of some bigwigs from the Biman’s ground handling staff.

One of the two other people detained yesterday was Mahmudul

The photograph shows the five members of a gold smuggling racket including three top Biman officials, arrested yesterday in Dhaka by DB MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Gold seizure jumps over 100 times in a year n Tazlina Zamila Khan

In the first 11 months of the current year, the amount of smuggled gold seized at different airports in the country has been more than a hundred times higher compared to last year, customs intelligence officials have said.

In the last 17 months starting from July, 2013, gold consignment weighing a total of 677kgs have been seized and 88 arrested in connection.

However, only 75 gold smuggling cases have been filed in 115 such incidents under the Special Powers Act. These are all non-bailable cases.

According to the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate, 4.3kg was seized in 2009-10 financial year, 0.35kg in 2010-11, 1.21kg in 2011-12 and 5.56kg in 2012-13.

The jewellery market in Bangladesh is entirely dependent on smuggled gold because of cumbersome import procedures. Moreover, the higher duty on imported finished jewellery than on

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Shibir traps freshmen with material baits Jamil Khan n Mohammad from Rajshahi “As I came to Rajshahi University from Naogaon in 2010 to sit for the admission test a boro bhai [senior student belonging to Islami Chhatra Shibir politics] approached me, enquired about my problems and managed a room for my 20-day stay in a dormitory.

“He also arranged model tests for me and put forward some guideline on how to face the hurdle of admission test.

“After the test result was published they [Shibir men] relayed the news to me over cell phone,” this is how a Shibir leader narrated his story of getting entangled in the politics of Chhatra Shibir.

And this is how the Chhatra Shibir expand its political network on the RU campus. This radical Islamist organisation offers all kinds of facilities to a

student from the very first day an admission seeker makes his/her entry to the university.

Two leaders of the student affiliate of the Jamaat-e-Islami are now Shibir hall committee leaders who bared their minds open to this correspondent yesterday as they walked down their memory lane.

“Why should not you join Chhatra Shibir when you are provided with all the facilities?” they questioned.

Asked about how they established their dominance over the university they said other organisations such as Bangladesh Chhatra League has no hall committee in 11 dormitories of the university.

“But we have not only hall committee but also floor committee in each of the halls. Our members and leaders

Second Frenchman likely on IS beheading video n Reuters, Paris France believes a second French militant appears on a beheading video released by Islamic State at the weekend, government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said yesterday.

Officials said on Monday that one of the men shown herding prisoners to their execution was Maxime Hauchard, a French Muslim convert who left for Syria in 2013. Further analysis suggested another French citizen also took part in the video.

“It seems that there is a second Frenchman,” Le Foll told BFM TV. “We are checking his identity,” he said declining to confirm a name circulating in French media.

An official at the Paris prosecutors’ office, which is leading the investigation, said there were “strong

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INSIDE

B1 | Business

The business community yesterday recommended giving priority to develop infrastructure in the 7th five-year plan beginning from next year.

4 | News

Shah Amanat Hall, the biggest dorm at Chittagong University, was reopened yesterday after more than 10 months, but tension still prevailed between two Chhatra League factions over the hall’s occupation.

7 | World

15 | Entertainment

5 | News

6 | Nation

Eleven kindergarten children were killed when their packed bus crashed into a truck in eastern China in the latest of a series of accidents that have sparked anger over unsafe school transport.

A large number of unfit and unauthorised vehicles are back on the streets in the capital amid the ongoing special drive by Bangladesh Road Transport Authority across the country.

After signing her debut film ‘U-Turn’, Sonia Hossain made sure her presence in Dhallywood continues to shine by joining the team of another big screen venture ‘Ratrir Jatri.’

The laparoscopy machine at the Chapainawabganj Sadar Hospital has been lying unused for last two years and nine months depriving the locals from a laparoscopy surgery at a limited cost.

2

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Thursday, November 20, 2014

PM: Bangladesh’s democracy enjoys confidence of international community

Fakhrul: All-out movement soon to oust government

n BSS

BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir yesterday said that an all-out movement would be staged soon to overthrow the government.

He also said the BNP wants to see the party’s Senior Vice Chairman Tarique Rahman beside the chairperson, Khaleda Zia. “We do not want to see Tarique abroad. We want to see him beside our chairperson. We do not have time to sit idle. On the birthday of Tarique, we have to vow that we will wage an allout movement against the repressive regime of Sheikh Hasina,” Fakhrul said while addressing a discussion at Engineers Institution in the capital. The discussion was arranged to mark Tarique’s 50th birth anniversary.

Khaleda was present at the discussion but she took a seat in the audience row and listened to speeches. Two documentaries on Tarique were screened after she had arrived at the venue.

Greeting Tarique, who has been living in the UK since 2007 and faces several graft charges, Fakhrul said: “Ziaur Rahman carried the flag of the coun-

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said Bangladesh’s victory in two global parliamentary forums like the CPA and the IPU was a rare achievement and manifestation of Bangladesh’s growing relations with the international community as well.

She said this in reply to a question from independent member M Rustam Ali Farazi during PM’s question-answer session in the House with Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair.

Hasina said Bangladesh’s victory in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) and Inter-parliamentary Association (IPU) is an example of complete trust of the international community in our continued progress

in the areas of democracy, development and good governance.

She said Bangladesh is now considered as a “role model” in the world in establishing democracy and good governance. “With the success of Bangladesh in the two parliamentary forums it has been proved again,” she said.

The prime minister said some quarters have launched an intensive negative propaganda at international level against the government after 10th Jatiya Sangsad election.

But the base of Bangladesh’s friendly relations and mutual cooperation with outside world is gradually gaining a firm footing, she said adding Bangladesh’s continued success in achieving the MDGs, her democratic advance-

ment and stride to uphold human rights are the cornerstone of the country’s image abroad.

Hasina said Bangladesh since formation of the government by Awami League government in 2009, has been making tremendous economic success.

About 50 million people lifted their position to medium income level from extreme poverty, lessening overall poverty by 24.47%. Per capita income of the people has been raised to $1,200.

Foreign reserve of Bangladesh, an indicator of healthy economic growth, now stands at $22.33 billion. The country is the seventh highest remittance-earning nation in the world.

The prime minister said Bangladesh is now a global brand for its success in agriculture. With around 160 million

people, she said, the country is now self-sufficient in food production.

Hasina said Bangladesh is playing an active role in all multilateral forums.

Bangladesh has also been elected as member and chair in many global forums including different bodies of the UN with a high margin.

She said Bangladesh is now installed in a very dignified position in the global arena. Bangladesh is recognized as a progressive, democratic, secular and effective country aspiring for development, peace and prosperity.

She laid importance on sustaining the country’s progress in all fields particularly in the areas of good governance, upholding human rights and economic development. l

Government unfavourable to private aviation operators n Muhammad Zahidul Islam A ruling lawmaker yesterday alleged in parliament that the government was not favourable to private aviation entrepreneurs and it even extended undue privileges to losing Biman Bangladesh Airlines.

On point-of-order, lawmaker Moinuddin Khan Badal from Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JaSaD) said once it was said that Biman had no modern aircraft but that scenario had changed and yet Biman did not have many passengers.

“Private carriers are the backbone of local communication since Biman has no local flights, but the government does not favour the private carriers,” Badal said.

Earlier in the question-answer session, Menon told parliament that Biman was currently operating 10 aircraft with a total 2,786 manpower, including 106 Bangladeshi and six foreign pilots.

In reply to a scripted question from lawmaker AKM Maidul Islam of Kurigram 3, Menon said: “Of the total manpower, 478 officers are from the administration pay group and 223 from the technical pay group, and 1,971 are ground staff and workers.” He informed the House that the 10 aircraft were four Boeing 777-300 ER, two Boeing 777-200 ER, Airbus A310300 and Boeing 737-800 each.

Replying to treasury bench member M Abdul Latif from Chittagong 11 constituency, Menon said Biman was now operating flights from 18 stations outside the country.

The minister, responding to a question from Rajshahi 4 lawmaker Enamul Haque, said the government had a plan to conduct flights on Rajshahi route and arrangement for two planes was already under process. Responding to a question from ruling party lawmaker Israfil Alam of Naogaon 6, Menon said there were two state-run five-star hotels – Ruposhi Bangla and Pan Pacific Sonargaon – while six private ones – four in Dhaka and two in Cox’s Bazar. l

n Tribune Report

Sufia Kamal’s 15th death anniversary today n Tribune Report

gold bars also encourages businessmen to rely on smuggled gold.

According to sources, the gold jewellery business in Bangladesh is completely regulated by the Bangladesh Jewellers’ Association (BJA), who fix the price of gold and frame the rules of business.

Travellers and migrant workers, mainly from the Middle East countries, are allowed to bring in 200 grams of gold on each visit to Bangladesh. Apart from the Middle East countries, gold come to Bangladesh from Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong and Malaysia as well.

But the volume brought in that way covers a very negligible part of the total demand for gold in the country.

In April this year, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) directed the Civil Aviation and Home Ministries to take action against at least a dozen officials and employees of the Shah Amanat International Airport in Chittagong for their alleged involvement in gold smuggling.

Some of the names mentioned were Momen Moksed, personal assistant to the manager of the Chittagong airport who is now working at the Barisal airport; Ansar member Nurul Alam Momen, formerly posted at Chittagong but later transferred; Absar and Yeasin, security guards of the Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh (CAAB); Haradhon and Nirmol, sweepers of the national flag career Biman; helpers Parimal, Rajib, Sohel and Daudh; and mechanic Abdus Satter.

to empowering women. She was at the forefront of all political, social and cultural movements.

She took part in all political movements that defined the future of the country since 1947. Her role in the struggle leading to the 1971 Liberation War, anti-autocratic movement in 1990 and the anti-collaborators movement in 1992 are memorable.

Sufia was instrumental in establishing the Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, Chhayanaut and Kachi Kanchar Mela.

She received the Independence Day Award, Ekushey Padak, Bangla Academy Award, Deshbandhu CR Das Gold Medal, and many other national and international accolades. l

Not just the ones that are parked on the roadsides, even the CNG-driven autorickshaws on the run are being stopped in the middle of the road and extorted at Gulistan in the city NASHIRUL ISLAM

Today is the 15th death anniversary of Poet Begum Sufia Kamal, a pioneer in the movement for women emancipation.

Different socio-cultural organisations have drawn up programmes to mark the day.

Born on June 20, 1911 in an aristocratic family, known as the Nawab family of Shayestabad of Barisal Sufia Kamal dedicated her whole life to the promotion of women liberty.

This iconic figure dedicated her life

Shibir traps freshmen with material baits

Second Frenchman

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provide freshers with the room facility and all kinds of moral support, said one of them.

A student of Journalism Department and a Shibir hall committee leader from Chapainawaganj said: “I went almost mad after I had failed to collect the admission fee for my Master’s Degree course but a teacher, a believer to Allah, came to my rescue and gave me Tk3000.”

If the authorities permitted at least 10,000, out of the total 26,000 students of the university will join its rally, he boasted.

The leader further said the internecine conflicts between different factions of Chhatra League is the source of their recruits.

“Leaders in Chhatra League sidelined by factional feud join us and work as our members with the identity of Chhatra League,” he said.

Some senior-most teachers said Shibir drew their recruits mostly from urban poor family.

Of the students, 35% come from poor families, 25% from lower middle-class families while the rest from the middle class, says a professor of Sociology Department unwilling to be named.

Another professor of Geology Department imparting teaching in the university over the last 32 years, told the Dhaka Tribune that the Jamaat-Shibir has permeated all the levels of the university.

They have Jamaat-minded reporters, teachers, officials. “As far as I know at least 120 senior teachers of the university among 1200 teachers are Jamaat men and donate a hefty amount to the party fund.

One of the Shibir leaders said his organisation provides tuitions to the needy students and also help them get

a job in future after the graduation.

“Sometimes our members are driven out of the campus due to clashes with other organisations and in that case we help him sit for the exam under a private university. We also help them go abroad for higher education.”

Rajshahi University Vice-Chancellor Mohammad Mizanuddin said the anti-liberation forces provide financial support to students to establish their supremacy on the campus as most of the students of this area are poor.

About the Shibir domination Mizanur Rahman Rana, president of Bangladesh Chhatra League of RU unit, said Chhatra Shibir was garnering support from the areas adjacent to the university as those areas were completely under the control of Jamaat-Shibir.

Moreover, they get married to the girls of localities nearby the university to take refuge there and garner support from them as well, says the BCL leader. l

indications” that the second man was a 22-year-old from the Parisian suburbs.

Thousands of Western volunteers have joined Islamic State, which is waging a bloody war in both Syria and Iraq. More than 1,130 French citizens are involved in jihadi cells linked to the two countries, of which 376 nationals, are in the region.

According to the prosecutor’s office, the second French suspect was also a Muslim convert, who travelled to Syria in Aug. 2013 and was known to intelligence services.

The 15-minute video posted online shows the decapitations of 18 men who Islamic State said were pilots and officers loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as well as the severed head of US aid worker Peter Kassig.

France is part of a coalition carrying out air strikes on Islamic State and earlier this year toughened anti-terrorism laws

Gold seizure jumps over 100 times International racket of gold smugglers traced  PAGE 1 COLUMN 3

try’s independence and sovereignty, and now our leader Khaleda has been doing so. Tarique is also carrying the flag now which is why conspiracy was plotted against him.”

“I want to tell you all that if we truly love Tarique then we have to oust the government and establish people’s government afterwards. If we really want to give Tarique a birthday present then the government’s ouster will be a big gift for him,” he said.

Former Dhaka University vice-chancellor Emajuddin Ahmed said: “I hope Tarique after three months will deliver a speech at Dhaka University that he gave at the Queen’s University in the UK.” Earlier at a programme, BNP Standing Committee member Mirza Abbas said a threat from Khaleda was enough to shake up the government. “We want to see how many bullets the government has. We are ready to take bullets in our chest,” he said.

“What will you [the government] do when the supply of bullets will run out? People will not spare you,” said Abbas while speaking at a discussion arranged to mark Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani’s death anniversary at National Press Club. l

Apart from these, the PMO asked the ministries concerned to prepare lists of unscrupulous officials and employees of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, CAAB, Ansar, customs and the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to stop gold smuggling.

However, when contacted, Kamal Uddin, additional secretary of the Home Ministry, told the Dhaka Tribune: “I do not remember anything like that [the PMO directive]. I might have been on vacation at that time. Honestly, I am not aware of this matter.”

According to the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID), more than 4,000 people were arrested for smuggling at the Dhaka airport in the last three years.

They include 89 airline employees, 396 CAAB officials, 34 customs and immigration officials and 240 Ansar personnel.

CIID Director General Moinul Khan told the Dhaka Tribune: “Organised criminals are involved with the smuggling. There are also underworld transactions. We are trying our best to resist it. Although we have certain limitations, we strengthened enforcement and have been following various tactics. However, despite manpower and technology crunch, we are getting some results.”

Md Shah Alam, OC of the capital’s airport police station, said: “Around 10-12 smuggling rackets are active in Bangladesh. Around 95 gold smuggling and 31 currency smuggling cases have been filed with the police station from January to October this year.” l

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Haque Palash, a listed contractor of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, and the other was Mohammad Harunur Rashid, a money exchange businessmen.

The Dhaka Tribune has learned that together with the outsiders, these influential officials had been practising absolute control over the flights, pilots, cabin crew and first officers.

The sources also say the smuggling racket is actually international in scope because it includes officials and individuals from several cities in the gulf including Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

These two cities are know as hubs of the global gold trade. As a result, the airport authorities in these countries are not very strict about monitoring the transportation of the expensive metal, the Dhaka Tribune has learned.

According to sources, Mahmudul Haque Palash, the listed Biman contractor, is the local coordinator of the smuggling racket.

He is a former official of the national flag carrier who continued maintaining his ties with Biman as a contractor. He has also worked for the Bangladesh Air Force.

Palash’s wife Nur Zahan is a senior cabin crew of Biman. Using his wife, Palash had recently engineered the recruitment of several dozens of cabin crew, a senior Biman official said.

With the help of the officials detained yesterday, Palash used to make sure that certain flights from Jeddah and Dubai only had their people as flight staff.

At times, the Biman officials would spend as much as Tk50 lakh in the form of bribe paid to various people, to take control of a particular flight. Often they have had to spend Tk5 crore to ensure absolute control over the 11 flights that operate between Dhaka, Chittagong, Jeddah and Dubai, sources said.

The Dhaka Tribune has also learned that Captain Abu Mohammad Aslam Shaheed, detained yesterday, retired on October 10 but was yet to hand over his duties.

According to other sources, some of the Biman cabin crews, apparently those serving the smuggling racket, went into hiding after the officials were arrested yesterday.

In fact, it was the arrest of and the confessional statement given by one such cabin crew named Mazharul Afsar Rassel on November 12 that has led to yesterday’s arrests of the Biman big shots.

On that day, Rassel was nabbed by customs officials with gold bars weighing 2.6kg at the Shahjalal International Airport in the capital. The case was later handed over to the Detective Branch (BD) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) “Rassel confessed that these officials and some others were involved with the gang. They [the officials] were arrested from the airport, Uttara and Basundhara areas in the capital. We have also got the names of some other high-ranked officials,” DMP Joint Commissioner and DB chief Monirul Islam said at a press briefing yesterday.

The officials arrested yesterday were

all shown arrested in the 2.6kg gold haul case.

Monir said the November 12 consignment had come from Dubai. “In Dubai, there is no restriction on buying big amount of goldbars or carrying those inside of the country. The Bangladeshi gold smugglers, after buying the gold bars, concentrate on smuggling those into Bangladesh. One Shafiul Azam control the syndicate there. He buys the gold bars,” Monir said.

“The Biman officials take care of carrying the bars in flights and bringing them out of the Dhaka airport. Palash used to coordinate the whole process and the negotiation among the Biman officials, employees and the smugglers. He has a lot of influential in Biman,” he said.

“The ‘negotiated money’ was then transferred through Harun’s money exchange firm Farhan Money Exchange,” said the DB boss.

“Biman flight captains, along with other officials concerned, were put in charge of making sure that the gold passed through the airport customs without hassle. For safe passage, the DGM and captain chose flight crew, attendants and other staffs. All of them were given separate assignments.

“In this particular case, the arrested officials are directly involved. Some other officials were also involved,” Monir explained.

According to the DB boss, the smugglers have three to four different ways for bringing the consignments in. Instead of using the Biman syndicate, which is very expensive, the smugglers sometimes use individual carriers.

to stop citizens going to Syria and prevent young Muslims becoming radicalised.

A report published by the CPDSI, an institute created specifically to study radicalisation linked to Islam in French society, showed on Tuesday that the majority of those that had turned to radical Islam were from middle class families, originally atheist and under 21.

Sebastien Pietrasanta, a lawmaker involved in finalising the new anti-terrorism legislation, told Reuters that only 50% of the 1,130 linked to IS cells were originally known to intelligence services. “[Hauchard] is the perfect example of the phenomenon we’re facing: a small provincial village, a well integrated family with jobs, radicalised on the internet at a very young age, converts and leaves,” he said.

“It illustrates the diversity of the profile and the self-radicalisation on the internet.” l

“However, when they use the Biman network, they make a full-proof blue print about who will carry the gold as passenger, who will hide those in the aircraft and who will help it pass to the customs,” Monir said at the briefing.

According to the detectives, the most attractive sources of gold are Dubai, Jeddah, Riad, Dammam and Kuwait as Biman operates flights in all these places. Some officials from the scheduling, operation and training departments of Biman take from Tk20 lakh to Tk50 lakh as bribe for creating “favourable environments” for the smugglers in a flight by posting chosen employees on the flights.

The detectives have so far made a list of over 50 officials and crew members who are involved with the smuggling.

“Rassel admitted that since 2003, he had been on duty at over 200 flights.

He went to Saudi Arabia, Italy, Germany, Singapore, Thailand and UAE and smuggled gold many times. The last time he went to Dubai on a BG046 flight on November 10 and came back with a gold consignment and got caught in Shahjalal,” said a DB official seeking anonymity.

Meanwhile, the court of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Erfan Ullah awarded DB four days’ remand for each of the five people arrested yesterday.

According to sources, a total of 56 cases have been filed in connection with gold smuggling only this year, although the number of actual incidents is said to be a lot higher. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

3

Thursday, November 20, 2014

No sign of BNP shake-up The plan was announced 10 months back but is yet to be initiated When asked about the frustration of n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla the aspirants, Nirob said: “When a parAfter boycotting the January 5 elections, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia said her party would launch a political movement after reorganising itself, but, 10 months later, the proclaimed reshuffle had not taken place.

Of the BNP’s nine associate and front organisations, two have seen severe clashes between internal factions over the announcement of new committees, and fully six have committees that expired a year ago or earlier.

Nobody could say when the expired committees would be formed.

Barkatullah Bulu, joint secretary general of the party, told the Dhaka Tribune: “I do not know anything about it. I cannot say anything about the reorganisation of the party. Madam [Khaleda] or the acting secretary general can tell you.”

But after the death of former BNP secretary general Khandakar Delwar Hossain, the party had not appointed a new secretary general.

Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has been carrying out the responsibilities of the secretary general even though the charter of the party does not make provision for the position of acting secretary general.

Even the BNP’s central committee tenure expired two years ago. After holding the fifth council of the party, it has not held another.

But it was confirmed that new committees would be formed according to the opinions of the senior party leadership instead of by council, party leaders said.

As the party rank and file await the announcement of the new committees, frustration reportedly has gripped leadership hopefuls and their supporters.

Central leaders claimed the process of reorganising the associate and front bodies of the party were on the cards and would be completed soon.

Saiful Alam Nirob, general secretary of Jubo Dal, said: “Yes, our committee has expired. Whenever Madam feels it is necessary to form a new committee, she will do so.”

ty is undertaking a movement, nothing runs according to normal procedure or schedule. There is nothing to be frustrated about.”

Nevertheless, when new committees for the Sramik Dal and Chhatra Dal were announced, the party leadership was embarrassed when aspirants who were by-passed publicly repudiated the new committees and demanded they be dissolved.

Even the party’s Nayapaltan office came under attack because of the rancour over the announced committees.

Despite the disputes, leaders claim the upcoming movement will not be hampered.

The party’s front organisations are Jubo Dal, Swechchasebak Dal, Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Muktijoddha Dal, Mohila Dal, Jasas, Krishak Dal, Tanti Dal, Olama Dal and Matsajibi Dal. Its associate bodies are Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal and Sramik Dal. Front organisation Muktijoddha Dal was formed in 2013. New committees for associate bodies, Sramik Dal and Chhatra Dal, were announced on April 20 and October 14 this year, respectively.

Despite the fact that the new committee of the Sramik Dal was formed through council, a counter committee was announced by leadership aspirants and activists who had been passed over.

And while the Chhatra Dal has not launched a movement against its political opponents, factions within, it led by by-passed hopefuls, have clashed violently with the incumbent committee leadership and its supporters.

Shamsuzzaman Dudu, general secretary of the Krishak Dal, said a new committee would be formed soon but failed to say when.

“Madam has said the party will be reorganised first and then the movement will be waged. Reorganising the Krishak Dal could take place at any time.”

Shafiul Bari Babu, organising secretary of Swechchasebak Dal, said the party chairperson had already started the process of reorganising the party. l

Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaiqul Quader briefs reporters from a BRTA mobile court set up on the road in front of Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital yesterday. He has frequently been addressing such conferences in open places by blocking roads after the BRTA started drives against unfit vehicles SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

RU teacher murder probe stuck in mobile phone tracing Jamil Khan, n Mohammad from Rajshahi The investigation into the murder of Rajshahi University professor AKM Shafiul Islam Lilon is unlikely to advance until a few phone numbers used by the killers, who are believed to be outsiders, can be traced.

An official of the Rajshahi Metropolitan Police, who is coordinating the investigation, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday that the phone numbers were found switched off.

RMP Commissioner Mahbubur Rahman, who received a transfer order on Monday, said apart from the regular police, members of the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) started investigating the case. “We have already detained all suspected accused and hope that we would able to reach a breakthrough shortly.”

Rajshahi University professor Shafi-

ul Islam Lilon was hacked to death by some unidentified assailants on Saturday.

A Rajshahi court yesterday sent 11 persons arrested in connection with the murder on two-day police remand for interrogation.

The court of Rajshahi Metropolitan Magistrate Sharmin Akter issued the order after investigation officer and officer-in-charge of Motihar police station Alamgir Hossain placed the 11 in the court.

The arrestees include Humayun Ahmed, principal of Islamia Degree College, and another teacher of the college Fazlul Haque. The others are Mosharraf Hossain, Abdullah Al Mahamud, Mashiur Rahman, Hasibur Rahman, Jinnat Ali, Saif Uddin, Rezaul Karim, Sagar and Arif.

When contacted, Alamgir Hossain said they strongly believed that they would get a lead into the investigation after interrogating the arrestees and

the mystery behind the murder would be solved shortly.

Meantime, a high official at the RMP headquarters, told the Dhaka Tribune that a team of Detective Branch of Police detained the boyfriend of the female student, who was found locked inside Shafiul’s residence, from Dhaka for interrogation.

“We have, however, not got any significant information yet from the boyfriend and from the girl,” said the official.

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) is also investigating the sensational murder. A high official of RAB 5, requesting anonymity, said they were gathering all pieces of information from the field level.

Meanwhile, protests by teachers and students of the university continued demanding immediate arrest of and punishment to the killers. They formed a human chain at Shaheb Bazar intersection in the city at 4:30pm demon-

strating their demands.

Addressing the rally, organised by the university teachers’ association, Professor Ananda Kumar Saha, convener of the Progressive Teachers Alliance, said Shafiul could be killed for social or political reasons.

“The killers, who can carry out such an act in broad daylight, are able to do anything,” he said, adding: “If punishment is not ensured, the day is not far when we will see repetition of such incidents.”

The teachers and staffs of the university wore black badges all day long.

Around 11am, members of the Ghatok Dalal Nirmul Committee held a human chain in front of the university’s main gate.

Activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League’s university unit also held a protest programme at the city’s Binodpur area around 4pm, demanding punishment to Shafiul’s killers. l

Fresh freedom fighter, Razakar lists to be finalised simultaneously n Muhammad Zahidul Islam The government is finalising a list of anti-liberation forces that committed crimes against humanity during the 1971 War of Liberation along with a fresh list of freedom fighters.

During a question-answer session in parliament yesterday, Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mojammel Haque said: “The list of anti-liberation forces, including members of Razakars, alBadr and al-Shams, will be prepared to identify the anti-state elements during the War of Liberation in 1971.”

He said: “People of the country as well as the whole world will be able to know about the war criminals along

Students and staff of Holy Family Red Crescent Medical College form a human chain in front of National Press Club yesterday demanding a fair trial in Dr Shamarukh Mahjabin killing case SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Shamarukh was killed, father claims n Our Correspondent, Jessore

Nurul Islam, father of Dr Shamarukh Mahjabin who was found hanging in her flat on November 13, claimed yesterday that her in-laws had killed her.

Demanding justice in incident, Nurul said Shamarukh’s father-in-law Khan Tipu Sultan, his wife Dr Jesmin Ara Begum and son Humayun Sultan Sadab had conspired all together to kill the girl.

“My daughter’s tongue was inside her mouth after her death. Her eyes were normal. But there were scratches on both sides of her throat, bruises under the left wrist and blood coagulated on the back. These suggest she was killed,” he said while addressing a press briefing at Jessore Press Club.

Nurul termed Tipu Sultan a devil, saying he stood in the way of Shamarukh because she opted for higher education.

“He [Tipu Sultan] did not let her take the BCS and FCPS exams. His son is unemployed which is why he did not want his son’s wife to receive higher education. His son could not protest the decision as he himself depends on the parents financially,” said Nurul.

“My daughter got hold of some documents exposing Tipu Sultan’s corruption. She told me over phone about those on November 12 but Tipu overheard the conversation and later killed my daughter,” he added.

Shamarukh’s father said the people in Jessore know that Sadab is a barrister by profession but it was revealed after the marriage that he actually obtained an LLB degree from a private college.

“He took the bar council test twice but failed which made him ineligible for practicing in court,” he said.

Nurul alleged that Tipu Sultan’s greed is limitless and the man used a

range of excuses to obtain dowry from him after Shamarukh was married off to Sadab.

“I borrowed from bank and my friends to meet Tipu Sultan’s demand but still the family did not let my daughter live,” he said.

Nurul, an engineer by profession, also urged the media to stand by him, saying Tipu Sultan is pressuring the chief of the forensic medicine department at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital to manipulate the autopsy report.

“Only the press can ensure justice in such a situation,” he added.

On November 13, Shamarukh was found hanging in her Dhanmondi residence and doctors declared her dead after she was taken to hospital.

Shamarukh’s father-in-law Tipu Sultan is the former lawmaker of Jessore 5 constituency and the vice-president of Jessore district unit of Awami League. l

with the list of freedom fighters, the brave sons of the soil.”

In reply to a supplementary question from treasury bench member Shameem Osman, he further said: “We have in the meantime collected some information from upazila level.”

Answering to a scripted question of lawmaker Abdur Rauf from Kushtia 4 constituency, he informed the House that the authorities concerned were also trying to finalise a list of genuine freedom fighters by using a database so that none in the guise of freedom fighters could get away with government facilities including jobs for their children and grandchildren.

ACC summons 12 more Islami Bank officials over loan scam n Adil Sakhawat The Anti- Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday summoned another 12 officials of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited, including two Deputy Managing Directors, as part of an inquiry into Ananda Shipyard’s loan scam involving nearly Tk1,300 crore.

ACC Senior Deputy Director Mir Jainul Abedin Shibly issued the notices, asking the bank officials to be present for facing interrogation at the ACC headquarters in the capital on November 26 and 27.

Officials asked to be present on November 26 are DMD Shamsul Haque, DMD Nurul Islam, former executive president Farid Uddin, retired officer ATM Harun-ur-Rashid, former executive vice president Setaur Rahman and Syed Abdullah Mohammed Saleh.

The rest who are to be quizzed on November 27 are executive vice president Engineer Mohammed Ali, Senior Vice President Engineer Moij Uddin, Vice President Hasnain Abid, Former assistant vice president Delwar Hos-

sain, Assistant Vice President Mahmud Hossain Khan and former senior officer Engineer Jahidul Islam.

The anti-graft body summoned the 12 as their involvement is suspected in issuing loan amounting to Tk456.34 crore from Islami Bank in favour of Ananda Shipyard without any security, ACC sources said.

Source also said the company, in the name of exporting ships, borrowed Tk1,300 crore from 14 banks and financial institutions without depositing the security, which is a violation of rules of the institutions.

The company was also alleged to have no prior experience in exporting ships.

In the wake of an investigation of Bangladesh Bank revealing the loan irregularities, the ACC initiated the inquiry in April this year.

The commission earlier interrogated 26 officials of the bank in this connection. The interrogation was done after a notice had been issued on November 6.

The bank authorities, however, replied to the notice, claiming the loan was given in compliance with rules. l

“All freedom fighters will be provided with certificates containing nine security codes...and this process is in progress.”

Responding to a question from Wasika Ayesha Khan, Mojammel said the Liberation War Affairs Ministry had taken a project named “Construction of Housing for Landless and Insolvent Freedom Fighters” for 2,971 families at the cost of Tk227.97 crore.

“Work on this housing project, which started in July 2012, will be executed by June 2015. A total of 241 residences have already been built while construction of 678 others continues and tender has been floated for 233 more houses,” he said. l

Man jailed for spreading offensive picture

n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court yesterday sentenced a man to seven years in jail for spreading an offensive picture of a housewife through mobile phone. The convict Shohag Mollah was a resident of Nagarkanda upazila of Faridpur. The victim was also from the same upazila.

Judge KM Shamsul Alam of Dhaka Cyber Tribunal delivered the verdict and also fined Shohag Tk1 lakh in default to suffer six months more in jail.

According to the case statement, Shohag used to give the housewife propositions for engaging in an illicit relationship with him. However, when the woman refused, on March 8, 2013, the accused tried to rape her after entering her house forcibly. But his attempt went unsuccessful as locals came to her rescue hearing the woman’s screams.

On March 13, the accused made an offensive picture of the victim and spread it through mobile phone. The victim filed a case with Nagarkanda police station. The case was then shifted to Dhaka Cyber Tribunal. l

4

DHAKA TRIBUNE

CU SHAH AMANAT HALL REOPENS

Tension between Chhatra League factions yet to ease n CU Correspondent Shah Amanat Hall, the biggest dorm at Chittagong University, was reopened yesterday after more than 10 months, but tension still prevailed between two Chhatra League factions over the hall’s occupation.

The university authorities decided to reopen the dorm, which was shut on January 12 following a heavy clash between Chhatra League and Chhatra Shibir activists, for the students who had been allotted seats. The clash led to the death of a student.

Chhatra League activists of different factions forcibly got into the hall yesterday after it was reopened in the presence of police and university officials but the number of registered students was very low.

Witnesses said Chhatra League activists loyal to Chittagong city unit Awami League General Secretary AJM Nasir Uddin and members of Amit-Mamun group backed by city unit President ABM Mohiudin Chowdhury entered the dorm while another Chhatra League faction called Varsity Express (VX) took position in front of the hall.

Police later dispersed the VX men.

Shah Amanat Hall has 632 seats but it accommodates around 1,500

students, said sources.

In addition to Shah Amanat Hall, Chhatra League now has two dormitories under its occupation whereas Chhatra Shibir dominates three.

Shah Amanat Hall Provost Professor Dr Mohammed Abul Mansur told the Dhaka Tribune that the dormitory was reopened for the registered students while the re-allotment decision was cancelled.

“Initially, only the registered students will be be allowed at the dormitory by November 25 while the fresh students who applied for seats will be allowed later based on their merits,” he said.

Proctor of the university Siraj Ud Dowla refused to talk about the Chhatra League issue, saying the hall authorities were better informed of this.

The hall provost said only the registered students were allowed inside yesterday and general students should have nothing to fear.

Hathazari police station Officer-in-Charge Md Ismail Hossain said additional police were deployed on the campus to avert any untoward situation.

Rashed Hossain, a VX leader, alleged the hall authorities allowed some outsiders inside the dorm. l

Lawyer hacked to death n Our Correspondent, Tangail At least two people, including a lawyer, were killed in Tangail district yesterday.

Golam Mostafa, officer-in-charge of Sadar model police station said Shahidul Islam Jewel, 35, the executive body member of district Bar Association was hacked to death by a gang of assailants in Futani Bazar area.

Locals found the body of Shahidul lying in the area around 8am and informed the police. His body was later recovered by police and sent to Tangail Sadar Hospital morgue.

OC Golam said they were suspecting previous enmity to be the cause of the murder. He said according to locals Shahidul had a long standing enmity with local outlaws. l

News

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Speakers: Transparency, democratic commitment key to women’s political leadership n Tribune Report Transparency and a commitment to democracy can have enormous contributions to the growth of women’s leadership in politics, panelists opined yesterday at the launch of “Narir Joye Shobar Joy” (When Women Win, We All Win) campaign.

“I recommend a system wherein our businessmen and entrepreneurs can donate some of their income for a woman who is running for office,” said Selima Ahmed, Founder and President of Bangladesh Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BWCCI).

She continued: “This happens worldwide – businesses often endorse political candidates. We can do that too. We need to focus on fundraising – the more we bring transparency in that field, there will be less corruption as well.”

She spoke at the event organised

by Democracy International (DI) at the Lake Shore Hotel in the capital.

Dan W Mozena, US ambassador, Janina Jaruzelski, mission director, USAID, Ayesha Khanom, president of Bangla-

Panelists at the launch of ‘Narir Joye Shobar Joy’ campaign yesterday at the capital’s Lake Shore Hotel desh Mohila Parisad, and Katie Croake, deputy chief of party, Democracy International were present at the event , among others. “[This issue] is a question of basic fairness. Of true democracy,” said the US ambassador. Ayesha Khanom called on all women to come together despite the barriers of their political parties.

“We must be united across different parties. We do not belong to any party,

we have our own politics, and that is the politics of women’s rights,” she said.

According to DI, the last decade has seen significant progress in women’s political leadership in Bangladesh. The leaders of the three largest political parties are women and the country has one of the most widespread quota systems for women globally, with 50 appointed seats in parliament and one third of local government positions. However, women

Women’s Entrepreneurship Day celebrated in Bangladesh n Tribune Report The inaugural Women’s Entrepreneurship Day (WED) was celebrated yesterday at the United Nations headquarters in New York, the US, along with 144 countries across the world including Bangladesh.

The event, organised in partnership with the US Department of State.

Wendy Diamond, an entrepreneur, humanitarian, pet-lifestyle expert and animal advocate, is the CEO and founder of the WED. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo gave his support to promote the day as well. Global partners for the

day include PricewaterhouseCoopers, BNP Paribas Bank, Nestle, Microsoft, United Nations Foundation, PVBLIC Foundation, and Global Partnership Forum.

The mission of the WED is to celebrate, support and empower women worldwide. The main initiative is to engage women and men globally to pledge their support with a female-owned business.

Bangladesh celebrated the day along with the world yesterday. With Naila Husain Chowdhury as the WED ambassador from Bangladesh, the core team from the country includes Rubina Husain Farouq, Vidiya Amrit

Khan, Tootli Rahman and Tareen Hossain Manju.

A round table discussion was featuring 50 successful woman entrepreneurs from all sectors in the country. The keynote speakers at the event were Rokia Afzal Rahman, president at the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Ann Barrows McConnell, director at the American Center in Dhaka, Rubana Huq, managing director of the Mohammadi Group, Tasmima Hossain, editor of the fortnightly magazine Anannya and former member of parliament, and Dilruba Ahmed, principal at Little Jewel’s School in Chittagong. l

MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

are still left out of many decision-making positions within political parties, and that is the issue that ‘Narir Joye Shobar Joy’ campaign aims to address.

After the panel discussion, the campaign was launched under the Democratic Participation and Reform program (DPR), funded jointly by USAID and UKAid. The programme that began in 2012 currently works with 10,000 potential women political leaders. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Unfit vehicles back on city roads again

Many unauthorised vehicles seized a week back have been released again in return of money n Abu Hayat Mahmud A large number of unfit and unauthorised vehicles are back on the streets in the capital amid the ongoing special drive by Bangladesh Road Transport Authority across the country.

Unauthorised and unfit buses, human haulers, CNG-run auto-rickshaws, mishuks, pick-up vans, private cars and other vehicles were seen plying on the streets yesterday.

Ali Reza, a resident of Tejturi Bazar, said: “I have heard about a drive against faulty and unauthorised vehicles, but the results seem to be zero as a large number of vehicles have returned to the city streets.”

The city witnessed disappearance of the faulty vehicles a week ago only to see them back on its streets again, adding that such drives by the BRTA had triggered same situation in the past, he said.

Mahfuzur Rahman, who lives at Mohakhali, said he had been going to his workplace at Farmagate’s Khamarbari area for a week by pick-up van and saw most of the vehicles being stopped as the vehicles did not seemed fit to ply on the streets.

He also said as far as he heard from such vehicle drivers, these vehicles ply on the streets by paying a hefty amount to traffic police every day.

This correspondent visited different busy spots such as Farmgate, Gulistan, Mirpur, Moghbazar, Jatrabari, Mohakhali, Gabtoli in the capital and found that faulty vehicles were plying on the streets right under the nose of the traffic police.

Dhaka city roads became almost bereft of public and private vehicles on November 10, when the stateowned road transport regulatory body launched its drive against unfit, date-expired and unlicensed vehicles across the country, as owners took their vehicles off the roads in fear of legal action.

Transport operators however alleged that a section of traffic police

Teacher suspended for beating female student n Our Correspondent, Gopalganj A primary school teacher at Kotalipara upazila in the district was suspended yesterday for caning a female student.

According to sources, Bimamla Baroi, the headmistress of 70 No Primary School in Hizla area of the upazila beat up Setu Baroi, Class V student of the school mercilessly while she was gossiping with her classmates.

Later, she was admitted to the upazila hospital in critical condition.

On information, the upazila education officer Shah Alam went to the spot and suspended Bimola.

When contacted, Bimala denied the allegation brought out against her.

Dr Nagubur of the hospital said he found marks of torture on the body of Setu. l

WEATHER

DRY WEATHER LIKELY THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20 DHAKA TODAY TOMORROW SUN SETS 5:11PM SUN RISES 6:18AM FORECAST FOR TODAY 29 29 27 28 29 28 29 29

Dhaka Chittagong Rajshahi Rangpur Khulna Barisal Sylhet Cox’s Bazar

19 20 15 16 14 15 16 21

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW

31.3ºC Sylhet

14.0ºC Chuadanga

Source: Accuweather/UNB

PRAYER TIMES Fajr Sunrise Zohr Asr Magrib Esha

4:56am 6:14am 11:43am 3:36pm 5:12pm 6:30 pm SourceL IslamicFinder.org

Although a drive against unfit vehicles is still going on, a large number of unauthorised vehicles have started coming back to the streets in the capital. The photo taken from Farmgate area shows that human-hauliers were plying road on Tuesday ABU HAYAT MAHMUD members had got engaged in extorting money in the name of examining papers and vehicle conditions in the city, forcing them to take their vehicles off the roads.

They pointed out that most of the vehicles, mostly passenger buses, human haulers and CNG-run auto-rickshwas, which were seized during the driver, have already been released again in return for money.

They blamed several “dishonest” traffic police officials behind such a public transport crisis in the city streets.

A number of drivers have however said the opposite to what the owners told the Dhaka Tribune.

They told this correspondent at the

Gabtoli Bus Stand that public transport owners had created an artificial crisis by limiting the number of vehicles on roads as well as reducing trips only to compel the BRTA to stop its drive.

They also said they would not return to work until the BRTA stopped its drive. They also claimed that this drive would bring no results as most of the owners belong to the ruling party against whom the BRTA officials must not take any action as usual.

Besides, BRTA office at Mirpur has reportedly been issuing fitness certificates to vehicles without properly going through the inspection procedures set by the transport regulatory body itself.

Sources at the BRTA said there are at least 30 different tests that all vehicles have to pass for getting certified for fitness. In most cases, officials are only checking the colour of buses, human haulers, autos and in case of some private cars, checking the engines just for eyewash before issuing the certificates.

This correspondent also found a syndicate of BRTA officials who are taking bribe in return for issuing fitness certificates for faulty vehicles.

When BRTA Mirpur Zone Assistant Director Shafiquzzaman Bhuiyan was asked about this, he denied the allegations and said there is no such malpractice here.

BRTA Chairman Nazrul Islam told

the Dhaka Tribune: “The drive against unfit vehicles is going on. We are trying to remove all the unfit vehicles from streets step by step.”

BRTA data shows some 313,000 motor vehicles without fitness certificates are operating across the country.

Further, some 93,600 out of around 800,000 motor vehicles carrying passengers in Dhaka do not have fitness certificates.

Of the vehicles, there are around 5,000 unfit human haulers, around 13,000 commercially-run green CNG auto-rickshaws and 3,000 private ones, all are date-expired and unfit.

The BRTA banned 2,829 mishuks (diesel-run local auto rickshaws) from city roads.. l

Security guard falls prey Five foreigners arrested to dope gang in capital n Tribune Report

n Tribune Report A security guard died at a city hospital after being drugged by a dope gang yesterday.

The victim Altaf Hossain, 50, was living with his family members at the capital’s Rajarbagh area and working as a security guard at a private company located in Elephant road.

Sohag, son of the victim, told reporters that his father had come home from his workplace by a rickshaw around 10pm on Monday. As soon as he reached home, he fell unconscious and later on he gained sense on Tuesday afternoon.

“After gaining sense he told us that a dope gang doping him took away his money while he was returning home.”

Then, he was lying on the road unconsciously for around three hours.

Later, a known person noticed him and helped him gaining conscious. He also hired a rickshaw so that he could reach home, he said.

After his return, family members noticed that his condition was deteriorating and they took him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital yesterday morning where he died.

Mozammel Haque, camp-in-charge of the DMCH police post, said the body had been sent to morgue for autopsy. l

At least five foreign nationals were detained from Dhaka and Chittagong yesterday.

Acting on a tip-off, the Rapid Action Battalion-1 arrested three foreigners from house-7 on road-8 of sector-10 of the capital’s Uttara.

The arrestees were identified as Zadi Joseph, 57 of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Agodi Francis Kanu John, 41 from Lagos, Nigeria, and Andrew Lulenga, 49 from Zambia.

RAB officials said, they were conducting illegal activities inside the house for several days. None of the foreigners could produce any legal visa, passport and work permit.

Major Rumman, deputy director of RAB’s Legal and Media Wing said:

“Legal actions will be taken against them.”

Meanwhile, Detective Branch (DB) of Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) yesterday afternoon nabbed Masseger of Cameroon and Bemcko of Ghana from a residential hotel in Chittagong city’s Chawkbazar area on charge of deceiving people.

Police arrested the duo with some dollar-like foreign currencies after getting complaint from a person who was victimised by them.

CMP DB Additional Deputy Commissioner Engineer Hasan Chowdhury said, the two used to deceive people by changing Taka into US Dollar by showing some Dollar-like fake notes.

“We are verifying their documents and will take action accordingly,” he said. l

Eateries, bulb factory fined in Chittagong

Two rapists get life term in Chittagong n Our Correspondent, Chittagong A Chittagong court yesterday, in separate verdicts, pronounced life term for two persons and fined Tk50,000 each on charges of raping a seven- year-old girl and a young woman.

The judge of Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-1, Md Rezaul Karim, passed the order against Sirajul Islam and Abdul Hai. Public Prosecutor Jesmin Akter of the tribunal said, Sirajul, of Firingi Bazar area under Kotwali police station in the city, had a love affair with the victim and violated her on September 8, 2013 in promise of marriage.

The victim lodged a case with the Kotwali police station on October 9, 2013 when Sirajul refused to marry her.

Police submitted charge sheet against the accused on November 30 of the same year following by charge framing on February 16 of 2014. Sirajul has been absconding since then.

In another case, Hai, of Boalkhali upazila, raped a class-two madrassa girl on December 5, 2011. Victim’s mother lodged a case with Boalkhali police station on that day in this connection.

Police submitted the charge sheet against the accused on February 11, 2012 while the court framed charge on April 4, 2012. The court sentenced the verdict after hearing seven witnesses.

The verdict was pronounced in presence of the accused.

The PP said the charges against the accused were proved beyond doubt. l

Esho Mati Ullashe starts today in Ctg n CU Correspondent A two-day programme titled “Esho Mati Ullashe” is going to start today in the port city marking the World Children Day-2014.

Lion Mukhlesur Rahman Foundation is organising the programme at Techno Sider International School of Nasirabad.

Executive Director of the foundation (LMRH) Dr Shameem Khan announced this at a press conference held at Chittagong Press Club yesterday.

He said they had been working for children with disabilities and cleft lip since 2001.

Dr Shameem Khan said a total number of 4,700 cleft lip children had been treated during this period.

Md Shafat Khan, programme manager of Cure Cleft Project under the LMRF, said the aim of the programme is to create awareness among about children with physical disabilities.

Mirakkel champion Abu Hena Roni and performers of Ha-Show of Ntv and Sisimpur will perform at the first day of the programme.

At the concluding day, the LMRF will celebrate its 2,000 Surgeries Achievement where Divisional Commissioner of Chittagong Muhammad Abdullah will be present as the chief guest and Deputy Commissioner of Chittagong Mesbah Uddin as special guest. l

NSU inter-varsity debate starts today n Tribune Report “NSU Inter Varsity Debate Championship 2014” is going to start on its campus around 5pm today, says a media release.

North South University Debate Club (NSUDC) has been hosting the annual competition comprised of both Bangla and English language while the former will continue till November 22 and the latter will be started from November 27.

The grand finale of both sections will be held on November 30. l

Mizanur Rahaman, n FM Chittagong Six eateries and a bulb manufacturing factory was fined an accumulated total of Tk1 lakh yesterday by two separate mobile courts in Chittagong city on charges of operating business without any legal documents.

Assistant Commissioner and Executive Magistrate Tamim Al Yiameen of Chittagong district administration led the court which conducted drive at six eateries in Agrabad area from 11am to 3pm.

The executive magistrate said the mobile court fined five eateries with Tk15,000 each while Haji Biriyani was fined Tk10, 000 for selling food in unhygienic environment and running the businesses without having any license from Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institute (BSTI).

Meanwhile, another mobile court, led by Assistant Commissioner and Executive Magistrate Suraiya Akhter Sweety of Chittagong district administration, fined JHD Electrical Industries Ltd with Tk10,000 for producing substandard energy saving bulbs and also operating without a BSTI license, said a BSTC press release.

The mobile court seized a large amount of substandard energy saving bulbs from the factory, added the press release. l

5

The Dhaka University Photographic Association organises a photo exhibition at the TSC in the capital yesterday marking the World Toilet Day DHAKA TRIBUNE

Hygiene public toilet for all demanded n Tribune Report Speakers urged all the city corporation across the country to ensure hygiene public toilet for its dwellers.

They made the demand while addressing a rally held in front of Dhaka South City Corporation building arranged in observance of the World Toilet Day 2014.

They also demanded separate toilet for men, women and physically challenged people. The programme was organised by the Paribesh Bachao Andolan

(PoBA) while the NGO Forum for Public Health, the Space, the Nagorik Odhikar Shongrokkhon Forum and the Work for a Better Bangladesh were among the participant organisations of the rally.

PoBA Chairman Abu Naser Khan said: “To encourage people to use hygienic toilet, the World Toilet Day is observed worldwide every year. But almost all the public toilets situated in and around the cities of the country are unhygienic.” But the authorities have no concern about it and they do not take necessary initiative and actions

regarding the matter, he said.

“Therefore, we demand hygienic public toilets for all people. The authorities concerned should build separate toilet for men, women and physically challenged people.” In most cases, women cannot use public toilet as there is no separate facilities for them.

“They (women) are the worst sufferers of the situation as they do not drink adequate water during travel time to avoid using public toilets and for this reason women suffer from kidney-related diseases. l

6

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Nation

Surgeries halted for 2yrs at Chapainawabganj hospital Correspondent, n Our Chapainawabganj The laparoscopy machine at the Chapainawabganj Sadar Hospital has been lying unused for last two years and nine months depriving the locals from a laparoscopy surgery at a limited cost.

The machine which is generally used in surgeries to treat gallstones and ovarian cysts, was brought to the hospital three years ago.

However, there have been allegations that the hospital authorities later started lending it to private clinics for cutting extra profits.

Denying the allegation, Residential Medical Officer (RMO) Dr Shafiqul Islam said the machine could not be used as there were no physician to assist the

senior consultant in doing surgeries.

One and a half years ago, an assistant to the senior surgery consultant, Dr Nadim, was transferred from this hospital. Since then the service for laparoscopy surgery had been discontinued at the only modern hospital in the region.

Although Dr Nadim rejoined the hospital three months back, he was placed at the emergency unit rather than the surgeries, said hospital sources.

Senior Surgery Consultant of the hospital Dr Md Moniruzzaman said: “I am always eager to do laparoscopy surgery. But the hospital authorities could not provide me with helping hands. It is a group work, it cannot be done alone.”

He alleged that they had to take

help of the ward boys even during minor operations. The hospital also lacked experienced nurses.

A few years ago, at least four laparoscopy surgeries used to take place in a month in this hospital which was a great relief for the local poor people.

“The surgery costs Tk30,000 at private clinics but we are not being able to help the poor despite having the equipment,” he said.

Chapainawabganj Civil Surgeon Dr Mozahar Hossain said within one week the problem would be solved and the machine would be in use to treat poor people.

Everyday around 450 patients throng the outdoor unit of the hospital which was established in 1982.

Around 250 patients avail services at the 100-bed indoor unit. l

Thursday, November 20, 2014

DHAKA TRIBUNE

World

7

Thursday, November 20, 2014

11 kindergarten children killed in China bus crash n Reuters, Beijing

Eleven kindergarten children were killed when their packed bus crashed into a truck in eastern China, state media reported on Tuesday, in the latest of a series of accidents that have sparked anger over unsafe school transport.

The collision took place around 8 a.m. when the truck collided with the minibus carrying 14 children in the eastern province of Shandong, the official Xinhua news agency said. The bus driver was also killed.

Local police said the bus was overloaded at the time, Xinhua reported. It was meant to carry eight passengers.

A spate of school bus accidents,

India’s threat from Ebola is non-existent

n Agencies

often in underdeveloped areas, have sparked public anger over unsafe transport for children, particularly in a country where many couples are allowed to have only one child.

In July, 11 passengers, including kindergarten children and teachers, were killed when their bus tumbled into a reservoir in southern China. Eight children died in a bus crash on the island province of Hainan in April.

In 2011, a nationwide outcry erupted over the deaths of 18 nursery school children after a coal truck slammed into their overcrowded school van in northwestern China, prompting then-premier Wen Jiabao to promise more government funds for schoolbus services. l

Family members mourn over the body of a child killed in a car accident in Penglai, east China’s Shandong province yesterday

Israel begins demolishing homes France: Jets strike to break IS Kirkuk frontline n Agencies

n Reuters, Paris France’s defense ministry said on Wednesday that two Rafale jets had struck Islamic State targets alongside coalition planes near the northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk in an effort to breach the group’s frontlines.

Two Dassault-built (AVMD.PA) Rafale fighters, both armed with four missiles, targeted trenches used by Islamic State to besiege the city at around 0330 GMT/

2030 ET, the ministry said in a statement.

“This action was carried out simultaneously with our allies to create a breach in the defensive positions held by the terrorists on the frontline between Iraqi forces and Islamic State,” the ministry said.

French government spokesman Stephane Le Foll earlier on Wednesday told BFM TV that France would soon increase its deployment in the region to tackle Islamic State. l

Israel has demolished the East Jerusalem home of a Palestinian who carried out a deadly October attack, just hours after Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister, warned of strict security measures in response to Tuesday’s synagogue killings in Jerusalem.

The house demolished on Wednesday in the Silwan neighbourhood near the Old City belonged to Abdel Rahman al-Shaludi, who last month killed two people among a crowd standing on a light rail platform in Jerusalem.

Four families who lived in the build-

ing - including that of al-Shaludi - had to evacuate, Al Jazeera’s Dalia Hatuqa reported from East Jerusalem, adding that the entire neighbourhood was closed off by Israeli security forces.

Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker, reporting from outside the demolished house, said people in the area considered the Israeli action as a form of collective punishment - “a wider way to punish - even the extended family.”

Punitive demolition was a tactic frequently employed by Israeli security forces before defence chiefs decided to suspend it in 2005 after concluding that it was not an effective deterrent.

Ukraine rules out direct talks with separatists n Reuters, Kiev/Moscow Russia urged Ukraine’s leaders on Wednesday to talk directly to separatists to end the conflict in the east, but Kiev rejected the call and told Moscow to stop “playing games” aimed at legitimizing “terrorists.”

Kiev and the West accuse Russia of destabilizing Ukraine by providing the rebels with money, arms and reinforcements. The West has imposed sanctions on Moscow over the conflict in which more than 4,000 people have been killed since mid-April.

Russia backs the separatists but

denies it is directly involved in the conflict in the Donbass region.

“We are calling for the establishment of stable contacts between Kiev and Donbass representatives with the aim of reaching mutually acceptable agreements,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

But Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk hit back, accusing Moscow of trying to push Ukraine into recognizing the pro-Russian rebels who are fighting government troops to split parts of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions from Kiev. l

Maria Jose Alvarado, 19, Miss Honduras World and her sister Sofia Trinidad Hernandez were found on the banks of a river in the west of Honduras yesterday, one week after both siblings had been abducted AFP

CERN scientists discover two new subatomic particles n AP, Geneva Scientists at the world’s largest smasher said Wednesday they have discovered two new subatomic particles never seen before that could widen our understanding of the universe.

An experiment using the European Organization for Nuclear Research’s Large Hadron Collider found the new particles, which were predicted to exist, and are both baryons made from three quarks bound together by a strong force.

In a statement Wednesday, officials at the lab known by its French acronym CERN announced the discovery, which could shed more light on how things work beyond the “Standard Model” physics theory explaining the basic building blocks of matter. The results also were submitted to the publication Physical Review Letters.

“Nature was kind and gave us two particles for the price of one,” said one of the CERN collaborators, Matthew Charles, of the CNRS’s LPNHE laboratory at Paris VI University.

The new particles are more than six times as massive as the protons that scientists have been deliberately crashing into each other in a 17-mile (27-kilometer) tunnel on the Swiss-French border near Geneva to see what they can discover about the makeup of the universe and its tiniest particles.

The heavier weight of the two particles is due in part to their “spins” in opposite directions which is “an exciting result,” said Steven Blusk of Syracuse University in New York.

CERN-based physicist Patrick Koppenburg said the study, using data taken during 2011 and 2012, could help differentiate between Standard Model effects and “anything new or unexpected in the future.”

Teams of thousands of CERN scientists also used the state-of-the-art particle accelerator to discover the subatomic particle known as the Higgs boson, without which particles wouldn’t hold together and there would be no matter. The discovery helped Peter Higgs win the Nobel Prize by proving his theories right. l

AFP

Since then the policy has been used occasionally - three times in East Jerusalem in 2009, and three times over the summer in response to the killing of an Israeli policeman and the murder of three Israeli teenagers.

Sitting amid the rubble of the family home in Silwan on Wednesday, al-Shaludi’s grandmother said: “No one should feel sorry for us, for our demolished home.”

She said she was proud of al-Shaludi’s actions. The October attack killed a threemonth-old baby girl and a 22-year-old woman as he drove his car into the train stop before he was shot by Israeli police. l

India successfully whisked away the first person who arrived with traces of the Ebola virus, thus ending the threat, however remote, of his potentially infecting others. What made it easier for health officials at Delhi airport was that the 26-year-old man, who was returning home from Liberia, produced a certificate from the Liberian ministry of health stating he had been treated and cured of the disease in September.

Fresh blood tests returned negative for Ebola. He also showed no symptoms– infected persons become contagious only when they develop symptoms – but the ever-vigilant health workers decided to go a step ahead and also test his urine and semen for residue virus, traces of which remain in some people for up to 90 days after recovery. The man tested positive.

So he was put away in an isolation ward till his body was completely free of the virus, which has infected close to 14,500 people and killed more than 5,000.

If you look beyond the self-congratulatory back-thumping by health ministry officials, India’s threat from Ebola is non-existent. The ministry says at much in the press-release fineprint.

“It is reiterated that the person concerned is a treated and cured case of ebola. No cases of relapse of ebola have been documented. All necessary precautions are being taken at the isolation facility. This would rule out even the remote possibility of the disease spreading through the sexual route. l

NOTICE For unavoidable reasons, today’s Juris page is not published. We regret any inconvenience caused.

8

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Hay Festival

Thursday, November 20, 2014

TODAY AT HAY On the Main Stage 12:45-1:45pm | Rana Dasgupta: Cities Capital cities, globalisation and big money Rana Dasgupta author of Capital: A Portrait of Twenty-First Century Delhi, with Boston-based Bangladeshi writer Javed Jahangir and Indian writer and social theorist Somnath Batabyal (see interview) 2-3pm | In the Age of the Aggregator The future of journalism Eminent literary journalists Dwight Garner (New York Times), Carolyn Kellogg (LA Times), Jonathan Shainin (The Guardian’s Long Reads) and Isaac Fitzgerald (Buzzfeed), with Tahmima Anam (festival co-director, author and columnist) 3:15-4:15pm | Lessons from the Slushpile What editors look for in new writing Alexandra Pringle (Bloomsbury), Meru Gokhale (Random House India) and Dwight Garner (New York Times), with Olivia Smith (Unnamed Press) 4:30-5:30pm | Michael Puett The philosophical lecture that made him one of the most popular professors at Harvard University Renowned China scholar Michael Puett Hay Festival Dhaka, the biggest international literary festival in Bangladesh, kicks off today at the Bangla Academy (pictured above). The three-day festival brings together writers and creative thinkers from Bangladesh and 13 others countries for a series of discussions, readings, and cultural programmes SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

SOMNATH BATABYAL: Interconnected cities n Sabrina Toppa Somnath Batabyal’s debut novel The Price You Pay follows a Delhi crime journalist’s search for truth. Somnath started his career as a journalist reporting on crime, but he now teaches at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He will appear in this year’s Hay Festival Dhaka to discuss world capitals, commerce and globalization in Thursday’s “Cities” panel alongside Rana Dasgupta and Javed Jahangir. On Friday, he will join British historian William Dalrymple to interrogate the historical narratives behind the Anglo-Afghan War.

As we move increasingly toward global, interconnected cities, what is Dhaka’s position on the world stage?

The very fact that the prestigious Hay Festival is now in Dhaka, running not only successfully but with an enhanced reputation each year, shows that Dhaka and Bangladesh are upcoming players in the global literature stage.

Nonetheless, global brands from the UK and US publish particular kinds of stories and the rest of the world follows that trend. While it is encouraging that many South Asian writers play on the global stage, the dark side is we play the game to someone else’s rules and standards. And we are all people who have benefited and suffered from this trend.

Are there any stories that are particularly made for a Bangladeshi audience?

Great stories are universal. A Purbo Paschim will reach out to a global audience. In that sense, books just have to be well-written. Having said this, there are particular literary traditions in South Asia, especially in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, where we have a long tradition of storytelling. Some of this limps on, unmindful of the global onslaught.

Who are you most interested in meeting at the Hay Festival?

connect the reading public and authors. It is an utopia, an almost perfect Habermaasian notion of the public sphere. For any country and its reading public, literature festivals are both a carnival (and I mean this positively) and a space to read, think, and most importantly, listen.

Literature festivals are both a carnival and a space to read, think, and listen There are so many friends coming.

There is William Dalrymple whom I am sharing a session with, and with Rana Dasgupta. Both are friends from my Delhi days who I greatly admire and follow.

There is Arunava Sinha who has changed the tradition of translation in India, particularly Bengal, almost single-handedly.

I am so looking forward to hearing Indian poet Joy Goswami recite.

I have also hugely enjoyed K Anis Ahmed’s debut novel Good Night, Mr Kissinger, and look forward to meeting him.

These festivals are a great way to

NUPU PRESS: Film fix

n Rumana Habib

Adding some variety to the mix is Nupu Press, who will present a multimedia interactive session on “10 Ways of Storytelling Through Film,” today at 5:45pm.

Your session title is intriguing. Tell us more about your concept.

No tickets are needed and there’s no entry fee. Just show up.

I’ve learnt everything about telling stories from films. The nature of cinema demands dynamic, swift and clear narrative techniques, all of which I find are applicable to other forms of storytelling. I thought it would be fun to discuss some of these lessons, like establishing the genre fast and early, and why we use a three-act structure.

Is Hay just for book nerds?

What is the ‘interactive’ component?

Hay first-timer FAQs How do I get tickets?

It’s definitely bibliophile heaven, but any lover of the creative arts will enjoy the talks and performances. This year also includes sessions about math, architecture, spirituality, politics and social issues.

Where is Bangla Academy?

These lovely enclosed grounds are in the Dhaka University area. It’s near Shahbagh, right next to the TSC building.

What should I bring?

Comfortable shoes, a shawl in case it gets cold in the auditorium, cash to buy lots of books, and a pen to get those books signed by the authors.

With each point, I’ll first talk about how it’s done in film, and then work out with the audience how we may apply this to writing.

What kinds of films will you be showing?

All clips are from commercial films, mostly English language, to keep things in line with my talk.

Is your panel aimed at film geeks, writers, or a lay audience?

The session is for anyone who’s interested in telling stories. But I hope a lay audience will find it fun, and gain a deeper appreciation of films.

You have quite an impressive film

I have grown up with writers from Bangladesh. My father was from Dhaka, and though our family left in the early 40s, we carried East Bengal with us. My early readings were thus influenced by this and most of the writers I was reading had their roots in Bangladesh. Tahmima, Kaiser Haq, Razia Khan and Anis carry this glorious tradition forward.

Bangladeshis write brilliantly on what they see around them, their cities and their towns, the ills of class and poverty, the effects of globalisation, and the evils of religious bigotry. Bangladeshi writing is in good, competent hands. l

7-8:15pm | The Last Mughal An evening of readings and music take us back to the splendour of a bygone era Author of The Last Mughal William Dalrymple and India classical musicican Vidya Shah

Best of the rest 11-12:30pm | Inaugural | Lawn Inaugural address, with music by Bangla Choir PEN International President John Ralston Saul, historian William Dalrymple and Bangladeshi poet and writer Syed Shamsul Haq 12:45-1:45pm | Chhoto Golper Boro Jogoth (The Big World of Short Stories) | Cosmic Tent A session in Bangla, about the Bangla short story, by Bangladeshi authors Bangladeshi authors Selina Hussein, Papri Rahman and Wasi Ahmed, with Parvez Hussein 2-3pm | Philosophical Excursions | Lawn South Asia has witnessed the confluence of Sufi and Tantric practices which have both informed and enriched each other Classical dancer and Sanskrit scholar Lubna Marium (see interview), Sufism and Islamic professor Shankar Nair, and India-based Bangla translator Arunava Sinha 5:45-6:45pm | 10 Ways of Storytelling Through Film: Nupu Press | KKTea Stage Storytelling through cinema is given a fresh perspective in this interactive session Film industry veteran and writer Nupu Press (see interview)

LUBNA MARIAM: Shohoj manush

n Rumana Habib

I’ve learnt everything about telling stories from films

Lubna Mariam, best known as a classical dancer and founder of Shadhona dance company, is also a serious scholar of Sanskrit and regional spirituality.

You have said the Bangla language is very philosophical.

background yourself.

Thank you. I started as Mira Nair’s assistant nearly 20 years ago, then worked my way up from coordinator to manager to line producer with directors such as Deepa Mehta and Paul Greengrass. I was primarily affiliated with Hollywood studios, like Universal. I also headed production for Walt Disney in India.

You reviewed many books released at last year’s festival in the Weekend Tribune. Who are you looking forward to reading this year?

I can’t wait to read all the Bangladeshi English writers debuting this year. I’m always thrilled to read local voices telling our stories.

Which Hay sessions are you definitely not going to miss?

The panel with Lucy Hawking on how to make science popular sounds fascinating, as does anything with William Dalrymple. I’m also looking forward to Zia Haider Rahman, as I recently finished his novel and would love to hear more about how he wrote it. l

What about food?

What do you wish you would see more of among Bangladeshi writers?

5:45-6:45pm | The Colonel Who Would Not Repent Launch of the powerful book on the repercussions of the Liberation War, which was Salil Tripathi with freedom fighter A Qayyum Khan

The philosophy is rooted in this subcontinent and so it uses words that we use regularly. “Chmothokaar” and “ologeek,” are regular words, but for so many years, these words have been extensively debated by philosophers and Tantrics.

But for Bangladesh, the most important word is “shohoj” (ease).

Shohoj? Why is that so important?

Shohoj is supposed to have the characteristics of ultimate reality. Shohoj is something that comes innate, which is within everyone. We use it differently now.

Lalon, the Sufi mystic, said: “Try to understand a shohoj man” – a moner manush (man of the heart).” It has thousands of years of history behind it.

He uses it many times. A shohoj person means the person in my heart, the man within me. Or the creative principle within you, whatever it is. But the use of “sahajat” starts from Buddhist Tantric texts, from 6-7th century AD. That’s around the time Atish Depanker used to live in Dhaka city. Nearby, just 15 miles away.

The philosophy is rooted in this subcontinent and so it uses words that we use regularly Atish Dipankar, the Buddhist monk?

Yes. Atish Dipankar is revered in the Buddhist world. He’s one of our greatest philosophers. But the land in which he was born has forgotten him. He went to Nepal, where he established a monastery called Bikram Sheila Brihad. He reorganised Buddhism there. He’s the founder of the yellow hats.

Around that time, you had Buddhists rulers in Bengal. There was a vast Buddhist culture.

Some Buddhist texts were discovered in the Nepali Royal Archive of “charyapad,” a collection of Buddhist chants and poetry, which uses “twilight language,” double-edged language, to talk about very esoteric philosophical topics – but using the metaphors of daily life. So who else uses that here? The Bauls.

So the Bauls are keeping that alive.

Yes. Doubled-edged words have an inner meaning and an outer meaning.

Because the Buddhist used to practice some esoteric sexo-yogic rituals which they did not want to discuss – they were Tanrics. There were a lot of ritu-

als through which you could actually attain enlightenment. So they had this double-edged language to talk about these things.

Was ‘shohoj’ one of their words?

Shohoj is actually a combination of two words: saha (together) and jatham (born). What are these two things? The Vajayanis say these are: free will and wisdom. When free will and wisdom emerge together, then you realise shohoj.

Free will is actually the characteristic of Shiva, the male principle, and wisdom is the characteristic of Shakti, the female principle. So the Tantrics believed that you had to have a union of the male and female principle, and the joy and the bliss that you get is sahajat.

Everyone has free will within themselves. But we are born into a structured society, which takes away your freedom – what is innate to you, your “shobhab” (nature). But innate to every human being is free will.

And who are the people, the radicals, who fight this structure? The Bauls.

Our kobigaan (lyrical poetry) is constantly telling us, after more than thousand years of meditation, that this is not you. You have something beautiful inside.

Look for it, search for it. Bauls do it.

But also, in village after village, they listen to kobigaan. This is a wonderful heritage that we carry with us. l

B O O K S L A U N C H I N G T O D AY

There are several delicious food and drink stalls. Try the fresh seasonal juices.

What’s the best day to go?

Friday has the most extensive and varied programme, but Thursday and Saturday are also full of treasures.

Which panels are worth going to?

Check the Dhaka Tribune every morning for our top picks of the day.

You can pick up a brochure when you get there, or download the full programme beforehand at: www. hayfestival.com/dhaka/

Can I bring my kids?

Five fun programmes have been set up for them, on Friday 9:45am5:30pm. l

Electric Shadows Selected Stories

by Aamer Hussein 2-3pm | KKTea Stage

Ghost Alley

by Javed Jahangir 2-3pm | Cosmic Tent

Piazza Bangladesh

by Neeman Sobhan 2-3pm | Cosmic Tent

Fault Lines by Asif Farrukhi and Niaz Zaman 4:30-5:30pm | Cosmic Tent

The Colonel Who Would Not Repent

by Salil Tripathi 5:45-6:45pm | Main Stage

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Book Review

9

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Known unknowns of the class war Zia Haider Rahman’s novel In the Light of What We Know under the microscope

A

n Naeem Mohaiemen t a press briefing in 2002, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was asked about the missing evidence of Iraqi linkages to “weapons of mass destruction.” In reply, Rumsfeld coined the now notorious phrases “known unknowns” and “unknown unknowns.” “[T]here are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

When you turn to page 186 of Zia Haider Rahman’s novel In the Light of What We Know, you encounter an equally complex, and mischievous illusion. The novel’s text is broken by an illustration: a diagonal line runs from top left to bottom right, interrupted by a vertical rectangle. On the other side of the rectangle, two diagonals slope downward. If you are not particular about the condition of your books, you will want to fold the page to better work out the optical illusion. It appears as if the descending diagonal line continues along the upper diagonal on the right. But folding would reveal the opposite – that it is the lower diagonal that it is joined with.

Named “Poggendorff ’s illusion,” after the nineteenth-century German physicist Johann Poggendorff, the illusion obsesses Zafar, this novel’s British-Bangladeshi protagonist. As with meticulously plotted diversions within Rahman’s novel, Zafar does not finish the story. It is up to the narrator to fill in the gaps, after “consulting pages on the Internet,” as one of the novel’s many David Foster Wallace-style footnotes inform us.

Even after the optical dislocation has been explained – in dialogue and an expansive reference to the Müller-Lyer illusion – the reader will be drawn back to page 186. The illusion stubbornly refuses to budge. As Zafar underscores, “Knowing doesn’t

Poggendorff ’s illusion

At some point in their lives, their post-school arcs separated, and they fell out of contact. The story sets off with the sudden return of Zafar to the narrator’s home, and most of the book is taken up with his elliptical description of the intervening years.

The two characters take turns struggling with the limited horizons of their future – the moment when the smooth journey was interrupted, when things came apart. For our narrator, everything seemed to have gone right: posh English school, family wealth (doubtless smuggled out of Pakistan during one of the many military coups), an ideal wife.

The decentering takes place after the collapse of his Tom Wolfe-style “masters of universe” finance industry job, twinned with the slow-motion implosion of his marriage (its doomed trajectory reminiscent of Hanif Kureishi’s Intimacy).

For Zafar, whose family is from a Bangladeshi village and lacks landed wealth, events are always on the edge of a cliff. Even as he assumes the role of host at a dinner, the concealed menace of English sarcasm makes us tense up. Something bad is about to happen, your mind whispers.

In the spirit of Poggendorff ’s illusion, the book teems with textual illusions as well. Even the novel’s climactic act of intimate violence, inside a room, is only hinted at through two epigraphs. The reader cannot quite connect the lines – interruptions derail us and move our eyes away.

l Both Zafar and the narrator studied mathematics at Oxford, and an obsession with this discipline as the Rosetta Stone for many of this past century’s foibles runs through the novel. Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem (“a theorem that denies certainty”) is one such concept, and there is a recuperative project at work in the book. While Einstein’s relativity theory, or Crick and Watson’s double helix discovery, gained recognition by being “useful,” Gödel’s theorem became an elegant concept beloved of mathematical thinkers, but unknown to lay audiences.

Mathematics provides not only a framework for understanding what is happening to humans, but for Zafar it is also a refuge from England’s relentless class war. It’s why Zafar fervently believes that “mathematics doesn’t care about authority, it doesn’t care about who you are, where you’re from, what your eye color is, or who you’re having supper with.”

The egalitarian dream of mathematics as the great equaliser is undone finally by the collapse of financial markets. Here we see the flaws in the dream of a supercomputer, able to execute thousands of trades faster than a human can jot down a thought. Why bother with human inefficiency, aging, and hesitation? High-speed math

Even after the optical dislocation has been explained – in dialogue and an expansive reference to the Müller-Lyer illusion – the reader will be drawn back to page 186. Poggendorff ’s illusion stubbornly refuses to budge. As Zafar underscores, ‘Knowing doesn’t fix things’

fix things.” We might add, too, that knowing doesn’t overcome the desire to have faith in the unknown, the unverifiable. Immanuel Kant’s idea of the sublime affirmed the capacity of human reason to comprehend and size up that which cannot be perceived by the faculties.

Kant described three kinds of emotions evoked by this comprehension: wonder, beauty, and terror. A volatile combination of these three forms of the sublime permeate the pages of this acidic, inventive novel.

The two protagonists in In the Light of What We Know, Zafar and the British-Pakistani narrator, were friends at Oxford, drawn to each other as one of the few Asian faces at that elite institution.

prevails until the day when everything goes wrong and the machine cannot stop itself from hurtling over the cliff of meltdown contagion.

The novel is keen about mathematics, as both an answer and refuge from the world’s crises, including the rise of earthly and ethereal dogmas. But the world cannot forever be held at bay, especially the way class hierarchies enervate British society (Zafar widens the canvas beyond England when he says, “Aren’t all class structures terrible?”).

The two protagonists – Pakistani elite scion and Bangladeshi village-to-Oxford self-made man – are both visible outsiders to (white) British upper class society. As the novel reveals gradually, even after they

NAEEM MOHAIEMEN

have succeeded in school and jobs, there are still subtle ways they can be reminded, to paraphrase Morrissey’s notorious song about British-Bengalis, you don’t belong here.

Correct your girlfriend’s comment about Samuel Butler’s Erewhon – she thinks it is “nowhere” spelled backward, but Zafar points out that it is an anagram – and she will wait four pages to strike back with a correction of your pronunciation of Beauchamp wine.

Zafar quietly concludes, “One way or another, I thought, the English will get you, even if it’s with their French.”

Indeed, everyone inside this bitter social satire recognises, lets slip, and is reminded of their social position at every occasion. A family called the Hampton-Wyverns are described as “coming from the stock that populates the foothills of the aristocracy, a buffer zone,” and we’re left to wonder if the hyphen in their surname is a tackedon nobility.

Our suspicions increase when Mrs. Hampton-Wyvern asks a question about MDF and ply furniture. Since we have already noted that she did not ask for an expansion of the acronym (there is never an unplanned moment in this novel), we can intuit that she knows things that are outside her current “social station.” The reader glimpses that she has travelled that other arc of English class hierarchy – the erasing of one’s “lesser” past during the journey upward, toward a life of grouse shooting in Scotland.

Of course, not everyone can blend smoothly into the English national narrative. Race can trump class, and race and class together create prisons.

We already know that immigrant over-achievers can be instrumentalised to reinforce the immiseration of other communities of colour while safeguarding the position of white privilege. Even for those who may have imagined themselves to be distant from the derogatory “Macaulay’s children” and closer to the Duboisian “talented tenth,” days of reckoning do finally arrive.

Zafar, ejected from the plush life, has returned to remind the narrator that their position is as permanent outsiders. Between the two, Zafar has always felt the bite of the British class war more directly. The narrator has a father able to gift single malts from Harrods or buy entire rows of seats at the ballet. Zafar, on the other hand, is made uncomfortable by party chatter about servants in South Asia not for the usual reasons of “culture,” but because, “My family were the staff.”

In these moments, we understand Zafar’s embarrassment about his parents’ visit to Oxford, the dismissal of the possibility that they would make a wedding speech in English, and the condescension about Bangladeshis as inquisitive about family ties. It is perhaps not the curiosity that upsets him so much as the fact that the “lineage” question will eject him from a vaunted position attained only through education.

Although otherwise a defiant figure, Zafar is unwilling to assault class

condescension directly by flaunting his subalternised position against white manor privilege. I yearned for the defiance of the autodidact Richard Wright against the elitism of the American literary establishment. Or the steadfastness of Langston Hughes, in his poem I, Too: “Tomorrow,/I’ll be at the table/ When company comes./ Nobody’ll dare/ Say to me,/”Eat in the kitchen,”/Then.”

Bangladesh is an appropriate entry point, since the country’s NGOs have participated in some parts of postwar reconstruction work. Zafar even briefly encounters a fictional version of Dr Kamal Hossain, the former UN special rapporteur for Afghanistan.

In Kabul, the novel follows a depressingly familiar post-9/11 arc: things fall apart; there is no centre, only illusions of friendship and trust. The world

The novel’s poignant finale includes a meditation on the friendship between Einstein and Gödel. I looked wistfully at this episode and wanted to insert, in the spirit of the novel’s digressive style, the figures of Satyendra Nath Bose and Srinivasa Ramanujan. Both these mathematical geniuses were underappreciated in their lifetime by the Euro-American academic axis.

l Zafar handles the perpetual othering of the “Where are you from?” question with teeth-clenched patience. His recursive dialogue with the questioner echoes an encounter in Zadie Smith’s first novel White Teeth – in which Samad Iqbal famously said, “I’m not actually from India, you know?”.

British Bangladeshis occupy a unique position in British migration history, spanning a gamut of events from the 1978 murder of Altab Ali (which inspired the Rock Against Racism movement) all the way up to today’s “cool Britannia” appropriation of Bangladeshi enclave Brick Lane (think of the whiteout via gentrification of black Brooklyn).

With the majority trapped in an economic undertow, the position of Asian working class communities has been the material for fierce narratives such as Gautam Malkani’s Londonstani (“shudn’t b callin us Pakis, innit?”). If you believe the hysterical UK tabloids, Asian migrant youth are forever vacillating between the binaries of Hizbut Tahrir and Cambridge scholarships.

Although Zafar’s class origins trouble him on a psychic level, this novel is not located within the working-class milieu of the majority of British Asians. Instead, the story navigates a space of temporary privilege, where the Pakistani and Bangladeshi characters, after the right schooling and jobs, can enjoy an encounter as equals.

Given the enduring open wounds between the characters’ two countries of origin, the brutal 1971 war does surface repeatedly. The novel does this quietly, through references to “why don’t you speak Urdu” taxi drivers, Henry Kissinger’s wartime role in the White House (he makes a larger cameo in the fiction of K Anis Ahmed), the China ping-pong talks (“These days no one needs Pakistan as an intermediary…”), and mass rape during the war. In the end, the war’s embedded trauma manifests through an act of unspeakable betrayal.

In many of the post-2001 novels, wars internal and external, at home and abroad, are a palpable presence within lives out of sync. In the Light of What We Know traverses one of the less discussed phenomena of the “war-on-terror,” the ascendancy of the NGO-industrial complex. Analysed deftly in Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine, and made solid through the fakery fiasco of Three Cups of Tea, the black comedy of post-war reconstruction projects is harpooned in the book’s final act.

Zafar, ejected from the plush life, has returned to remind the narrator that their position is as permanent outsiders. Between the two, Zafar has always felt the bite of the British class war more directly

is not mathematics, as Zafar learns.

Authority and motivation do matter, in dreadful ways.

Let me come back to Poggendorff ’s illusion, where I began. Zafar is fascinated by this concept, and so is the narrator, as he discovers that it also helps to “explain” the British flag. The design of the Union Jack was engineered so that the saltire of St Patrick, the red diagonal cross, was mildly displaced, so each spoke appears aligned with its opposite spoke. The flag design preceded Poggendorff; even though he formalised the optical conundrum, its effect was already known.

While reading the passages about the flag, my mind wandered over to scholar Paul Gilroy’s genre-breaking There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack, which bears the influence of cultural theorist Stuart Hall. The research of Hall and the Birmingham School of Cultural Studies, as well as his inheritors such as Gilroy, permanently altered the way England now thinks of race and class.

Although In the Light of What We Know does not make references to this scholarship, this novel exists in a post-Birmingham mode of speaking about these questions. The Birmingham School approached British racism as a deadly toxin that needed to be named directly. This novel is received in a different manner partially because of the foundational work done by the Birmingham scholars.

One can even imagine Zafar providing the narration for the iconic TV special in which Stuart Hall first spoke about the racial coding of Britain’s panic over “mugging.” Hall leveraged his access to the markers of elite Britain to attack that same privilege, always with empathy for the vast underclass. Parts of this novel also carry out an attack on British privilege, in a more indirect, poetic mode.

Bose’s paper on the quantum statistic of integer spin particles (bosons) was rejected until he sent it to Einstein who arranged for its publication.

Bose-Einstein condensation is a form of matter that Einstein discovered based on Bose’s work. Ramanujan’s story was an autodidact “natural genius” (more so than Bose who had university degrees, although no PhD) with very little formal training.

Ramanujan’s letters to academics were ignored until he wrote to GH Hardy, who arranged for him to come to Cambridge to work with him. He was appointed Fellow at Trinity College, in spite of not having finished college, but this was all cut short when Ramanujan became ill and died at age 32.

I want to imagine Bose and Ramanujan quietly entering the final chapters, and Zafar might find in them kindred spirits, especially after his own steep fall from the high citadel.

He could launch another sinuous anecdote, weaving in stories of the links between British India and Europe, and why Asian scientists were written out of the script of the age of scientific upheaval.

Among the many things we continue to know is that we don’t live in a post-racial world, no matter what smooth narratives may be whispered to us. I do not ask a novel to address all of these issues; it is fiction after all.

But the role of literary critics can be to open the conversation further, in rambunctious dialogue with this beautiful book. l Naeem Mohaiemen is author of “Prisoners of Shothik Itihash” [Kunsthalle Basel, 2014] and editor of “Between Ashes and Hope: Chittagong Hill Tracts in the Blind Spot of Bangladesh Nationalism” [Drishtipat/ Manusher Jonno Foundation, 2010]. An earlier version of this review appeared in Margins.

10

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Editorial

Thursday, November 20, 2014

CODE-CRACKER

Make books more accessible

I

n three short years, Hay Dhaka, which starts today at the Bangla Academy, has established itself as one of South Asia’s leading English language literary festivals.

Like the larger, landmark Ekushey book fair, it highlights the huge appetite for books among readers and writers in the country.

As a nation, we are failing to properly satisfy public demand because of barriers holding back our publishing and book-selling industries.

For Bangladesh to advance in the global knowledge economy, we need to do much more to remove constraints on publishers and to increase readership and book sales.

In part, the lack of a truly vibrant publishing industry is a reflection of high rates of adult illiteracy in the country, which is something the government must do more to address. Likewise, it and philanthropists should do more to create and develop public lending libraries, which can readily be set up at or alongside schools and public offices.

More immediately, we can and should reduce our higher than average taxes and levies on books, and consider coming in line with countries which impose no such taxes at all.

The curse of piracy is perhaps the biggest challenge we need to overcome. While superficially attractive to students who obtain cheaply photocopied textbooks, creativity and research is stifled as piracy deprives writers and publishers of the royalties and funds needed to support the development of new work.

The net result is severe scarcity in the availability of good quality and original books. We must do better to allow new talent to flourish.

To advance in the global knowledge economy, we need to develop libraries and remove taxes on books

Punish incitement to murder

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rofessor Dr AKM Shafiul Islam, the Rajshahi University professor who was brutally murdered last Saturday, had long voiced concerns that supporters of Islami Chhatra Shibir men might assault or otherwise harm him.

Law enforcers must take all violent threats and acts of incitement seriously. Even one case in which a threat is followed up by an act of violence is too many to tolerate.

With many groups going around putting bounties on people’s heads, it is important to set an example against those who incite violence.

The recent placing in remand of Mozaffor Bin Mohosin for being the prime instigator behind the murder of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat television preacher, Shaikh Nurul Islam Faruqi, in August, is a case in point.

The accused, a preacher from a different religious grouping, denies involvement in the killing carried out by a group of multiple, unknown assailants, but is well known for having regularly preached and disseminated sermons demanding “violent punishment” for Faruqi.

It is important to investigate the significant amount of evidence available indicating the accused regularly incited violence against the victim. It is one thing for a preacher to speak generally of divine punishment but to exhort followers to commit violence against a specific individual crosses a line.

Section 504 of the Penal Code on intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach of the peace and Section 505’s prohibition against statements which may induce someone to commit an offence are both pertinent to consider.

The harm done to society by repeated threats and encouragement imploring others to commit violence is obvious. This kind of intimidation and incitement to commit violence cannot be allowed to stand. We are glad that the courts are finally taking notice.

Intimidation and incitement to commit violence cannot be allowed to stand

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

Car crash just the beginning of nightmare ordeal November 6

Zubier Abd This is the kind of story that breaks my heart.

If Bangladesh is ever going to be a country where the power is in the hands of the people and not in the hands of those in power, then we need to rise up and see justice done. The power of the internet is amazing and we should not let this case, which is clearly a case of unjustified police pressuring, go to trial. We should help Jannati.

Kudos to Dhaka Tribune for their excellent coverage.

Vikram Khan A few days ago I read in the newspaper an article about the son of a high-ranking police official who killed a pedestrian due to reckless driving.

Furthermore the son of the policeman had no driver’s license on hand, and the car he was driving was clearly marked as a police car (although the son is not a policeman). Although all evidence stood against the son of the high-ranking police official, his son was freed on bail a few days after the accident. Justice in Bangladesh, a joke!

Sugared soda makes you older early November 9

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a different letter of the alphabet. For example, today 17 represents B so fill B every time the figure 17 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.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

nina malik Because of her driving, a person died. She has to be held accountable for it. A father lost his son and he is not supposed to seek legal action against her?

She should have been granted bail while waiting for a trial.

The Arbiter nina malik: The father lost his son to an accident, not to the woman’s driving. Brake fails happen; you can’t predict it nor can you stop it once it does. A sad incident, but making this girl and her family suffer further will not make anything better.

The late Mostamsir would probably be ashamed of his family for being so hateful and shallow as to make someone he worked with and evidently trusted suffer so much.

OS A heart-breaking incident indeed. If Jannati is not guilty, then she should be granted bail.

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

Indian fellowship program for Bangladeshi researchers November 5 RS

It was indeed good to know about this fellowship program which has been initiated by India.

Sheikh Jinat Mahmid Avoid soft drinks, and stay young!!

Sayeeda Ahmad “Daily consumption of a 20-ounce soda was associated with 4.6 years of additional biological aging.”

And now you know why I always say no to Coke, and other such sugared drinks. Imagine people’s reactions: “Omg, what? You don’t want to drink coke? Why? Are you crazy?” Umm, no. -_-

Mukesh A very good step to encourage cooperation between all countries and take this region forward.

I spy with my little eye November 6

Bangladeshi migrants eke out a living in the Italian capital November 9

Jahangir Abdullah It’s a familiar scene in all areas across Italy and Greece, and heartbreaking to witness their sufferings.

DB police: Zubair murder mystery solved November 9 Nazmul Khair It is really sad. The accused should be charged with the highest penalty.

nds Three all-powerful weapons in the hands of all government authorities throughout the world have made our life irredeemably miserable. These weapons are 1) reasonable, 2) for public interest, and 3) for public and state security. Unless governments are stripped of these weapons, public peace will remain a delusion .

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Slowly (mus) (5) 4 Low in pitch (4) 7 Tool (3) 8 Lubricant (3) 9 Neckwear (5) 12 Singing voice (4) 13 Soup containers (7) 15 In favour of (3) 16 Secret agent (3) 18 Zodiac sign (3) 19 Pinch (3) 21 Guarantees (7) 24 Pretended (4) 26 Make into a statute (5) 27 Tiny (3) 28 Contend in rivalry (3) 29 Frank (4) 30 Search (5)

DOWN 1 Final (4) 2 Plea (6) 3 At hand (4) 4 Prejudice (4) 5 Everyone (3) 6 Tale (5) 10 Corded fabric (3) 11 Decorative plants (5) 14 Clamour (5) 17 Abstract (6) 18 Lariat (5) 20 Play on words (3) 21 Prayer ending (4) 22 Utter wildly (4) 23 To let stand! (4) 25 Reverential fear (3)

sr Obviously, we Bangladeshis value the concept of freedom and human rights, and the progress of this country is our concern as well.

Momoaswan Very important article. Even governments more democratic than ours misuse security pretexts to spy on people. Everyone needs to be vigilant against IT being used to breach civil liberties.

Agony of teaching and learning law in Bangladesh

CALVIN AND HOBBES

November 6

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS CODE-CRACKER

PEANUTS

Mohammad Badruzzaman The mind of professionalism in respective legal fields of Bangladesh is an important factor indeed. The overall academic environment may not provide adequate fuel to set it alight, but latter efforts for upgrading the standard shouldn’t be ignored. So far, my experiences say a maximum number of the existing law schools in our country do not have defined objectives either.

CROSSWORD

Mother commits suicide after killing son

November 7 rose A thorough investigation into this matter is needed.

Chhatra League make a name as muggers at DU November 9 Syed Moazzem Hussain “Outsiders hanging around at Suhrawardy Udyan and Fuller Road are top targets.”

From revolutionaries in 1971 to rascals in 2014. Evolution from man to ape.

SUDOKU

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Op-Ed

11

Thursday, November 20, 2014

It’s their land too n Zahin Hasan

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There are possibilities to be explored in Sharia financing

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BIGSTOCK

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Banking on faith

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n Mamun Rashid

f we dismiss Islamic banking and finance in Bangladesh as just a religion-based party’s business exercise, it would be a gross injustice, and foolish too.

As of now, there are eight full-fledged Islamic banks, 10 commercial banks, including three foreign banks, which are offering branch-based Islamic banking, and another six banks including two state-owned banks have Islamic banking windows. There were rumours that the partially stateowned IFIC Bank was contemplating converting itself into an Islamic bank.

Though we don’t have the latest data on all these banks, eight fullfledged Islamic banks control 18% of the banking sector deposits, and more surprisingly, 21% of banking sector advances or loans. More than 30% of the total inward remittances are routed through these eight banks, and of that, 28% come through only one bank – Islami Bank Bangladesh. These few banks process 21% of the country’s imports trade and 24% of Bangladesh’s exports. Ask any BGMEA senior member and they will likely mention Islami Bank as their bank of choice.

This is happening even after Islami Bank had to face the music following the HSBC penalty episode in the USA, and after many other US-based banks or foreign banks’ branches suspended credit or clearing facilities to Islami Bank.

If people think common people or an increasing number of business houses are shifting to Sharia-based banking or trying to avoid interestbased banking, they would be utterly wrong. The reason has more to do with

committed human resources, service quality, and most importantly, these banks’ ability and willingness to stand with their clients during difficult times.

Their offered products have also been proven to be more protective and client-satisfying. Bangladesh Bank data shows 20% of their facilities went to industries, 26% to trade and commerce, 16% to housing, around 4% to agriculture, and almost 23% to the transport sector.

a few of his recommendations and streamline the sector.

Bangladesh Islamic banking has also gained momentum in the recent years through issuance of various pragmatic guidelines from the central bank itself. The 2009 guidelines on Islamic banking, Islami Investment Bond, Interbank Islamic Fund Market, Sharia compliant refinancing scheme, separate inspection team for Islamic banks, more cooperation with other

Time has possibly come for the central bank to think of investing more of their quality time to further streamline Islamic banking

In view of the subprime crisis and too much synthetic solution-building in banking, welfare based Islamic banking has been reportedly gaining importance in the developed world too. While Islamic banking assets in the mid-90s was only $150bn, it dramatically increased to $1.8tn in 2013. Global banks like HSBC, Standard Chartered, or even Citi have shown keenness to reorganise their Islamic banking offers/products and also introduce Sharia-based capital market products, including bonds.

They are fast moving to introduce Sharia-based hedging products too.

India, thanks to Raghuram Rajan, has reviewed the Islamic banking potentials and is now trying to implement

Islami banking regulators, organising training, and more importantly focusing on the welfare bias of Islamic banking has helped this sector to go forward.

This has helped Islamic banks’ deposits to grow by 26% over the last five years, where the loans have grown by 25%. With huge uncaptured assets among common people, this could grow much faster too.

What can we do next to further streamline Islamic banking? Reorganising the Sharia boards with direct hand-holding of the central bank, like Malaysia, and determining their terms of reference, better visibility about Islamic banking product offerings, continuous product development

efforts, close supervision of distressed assets, integrity and transparency of numbers, total automation of processing capacities, and most importantly, training for the officials can help Islamic banking to grow more respectfully and with esteem.

Because of micro-level intervention ability, inclusive banking approaches, religious bias, and welfare motivation, Islamic banks could attract a lot of clients, even youths, to join them.

Many of their employees are from Jamaat-e-Islami or their student organisation, Islami Chhatra Shibir.

However, the scenario has changed fast, with many mainstream conventional bankers joining their leadership.

Bangladesh Bank’s renewed focus to bring in further transparency into Islamic banking management and revenue earnings model has also helped that process a lot.

While many borrowers and depositors like Islamic banking, mostly for their welfare and customer-centric model, there is still confusion regarding how much they are paying a deposit client or charging a borrower or trade house. Their commission and fee-earning model also warrants further review. They are not out of suspicion for known and unknown terrorist financing, or favouring a particular group.

However, time has possibly come for the central bank, and maybe the development partners, to think of investing more of their quality time to further streamline Islamic banking operations, product offering, governance, and the revenue earning architecture. l Mamun Rashid is a business professor and financial sector entrepreneur.

t is estimated that Bangladesh hosts over 300,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. These refugees deserve our sympathy; they fled ethnic violence which was perpetrated by the Buddhist majority of Myanmar with the support of the government of Myanmar.

Rohingya who remain in Myanmar live in an apartheid state. More than 130,000 who were displaced by ethnic violence in 2012 are still confined to camps for internally displaced people.

They cannot enter the fields they used to cultivate, or the towns where they used to work; they are dependent on humanitarian aid.

Myanmar denies the Rohingya citizenship, in spite of the fact that the community has lived in Myanmar for over a century. Recently, the government of Myanmar has made a plan to allow Rohingya to apply for citizenship if they can prove that they have lived in Myanmar since before independence (in 1948); however, it is likely that the vast number of Rohingya who live in rural areas will not have the documents to prove this.

Rohingya have been asked to register as “Bengali” in Myanmar’s census, implying that they are recent illegal immigrants; many Rohingya have refused to register, fearing that if they do they will be confined to camps as illegal immigrants.

It has been estimated that 100,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar by boat over the last two years. In recent weeks, the media has reported that over a hundred Rohingya have been arrested on (apparently) trumped-up charges, and some have been beaten or tortured to death by security forces.

The Rohingya have their rights

Human rights groups have voiced the opinion that the recent violence appears to be part of a campaign to terrorise them so that they leave.

It looks as if Bangladesh may be about to receive another wave of Rohingya refugees

It looks as if Bangladesh may be about to receive another wave of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. Our government should not be silent while this is happening. We should warn Myanmar that we expect it to guarantee full citizenship to the Rohingya, and create a situation in which the Rohingya refugees now in Bangladesh can return to Myanmar. If Myanmar does not do this, we should place an embargo on trade with Myanmar and lobby for sanctions against Myanmar at the UN General Assembly.

Recently, US President Obama put pressure on Myanmar when he said: “Discrimination against the Rohingya or any other religious minority does not express the kind of country that Burma over the long term wants to be.” We should keep the pressure on Myanmar until it ends its system of apartheid. l Zahin Hasan is a businessman, and a member of the board of directors of Dhaka Tribune.

REUTERS

The last stylist n Tunku Varadarajan

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ow low India has sunk in the sartorial stakes can be seen in the touting (by some) of Narendra Modi as a species of fashion mannequin – all on account of a few brightly coloured waistcoats. In the eye-watering dingy world of our professional political class, an ochre or green “bandi” is seen as the acme of style, a jaunty change of pace from the monochrome netas and bureaucrats who offend our aesthetic sensibilities daily.

But, Modi is as nothing compared with the true style icon of Indian political history, Jawaharlal Nehru, whose renowned jacket manages – somehow – to be both eponymous and a misnomer. We call it the Nehru Jacket, yet Nehru never really wore it, favouring instead the longer achkan. “His” jacket is really (and more accurately) the Jodhpuri coat; but who cares? Any coat that is buttoned up to the throat and topped with a mandarin collar is referred to, outside India, as the Nehru Jacket. Blame the Beatles for that, or Time magazine.

This is not an essay about Nehru’s dress style. It is, more broadly, a meditation on Nehru’s aesthetics. But, first

we should get a few truths out of the way: Nehru is the only modern Indian politician to be a global romantic icon.

I hesitate to call him a “sex symbol” because he was, for much of his prime ministership, an avuncular man.

But I only hesitate; I do not reject the notion. As Ramachandra Guha wrote: “Women adored Jawaharlal Nehru – Brahmin women, working-class women, Hindu and Muslim and Christian and Parsi women.”

Guha writes of how his mother “worshipped” Nehru, and donated her gold bangles to the National Defence Fund in the aftermath of India’s humiliation in the 1962 war with China. Of course, part of the adoration Indian women had for Nehru was for him as the national leader. But there can be no doubting the effect of his slim build, his handsome face, his fine clothes, and his red rose, on women who gazed upon him from afar.

With all respect to Guha’s mother, there has to have been something psychosexual – however deeply embedded in the subconscious – in the offering up of jewellery to this strong and charismatic man who was not her husband. Thousands of women did the same.

Nehru had sexual charisma. He was a man unafraid of being attractive, and disinclined to be plain and self-effacing in the traditional Indian manner.

Not for him the elaborate theatre of an abnegation of his sexuality, a la Gandhi. In his relationship with Edwina Mountbatten – and whether or not they “did it” – he offered India a delicious breach of interracial sensual taboos. Gandhi experimented (denial) with his nieces. Nehru carried on with the viceroy’s wife.

In truth, Nehru was adored, let us admit, because he was such a refreshing contrast to Gandhi. To an India that was parched of glamour in its leaders – to an India that had suffocated in the airless dowdiness of the Mahatma – Prime Minister Nehru was an aesthetic godsend.

After the ascetic strictness of the freedom movement, with its sartorial scolds and the oppression of khadi, the Nehru of Free India brought a gust of panache into the nation’s consciousness. His message was: Indians didn’t have to be plain. Indians didn’t have to be drab.

Nehru’s aesthetic predisposition wasn’t confined to his clothes and bearing. It also controlled his politics

and his thought. Any discussion of his “style” must also include his political philosophy and preferences.

Nehru had sexual charisma. He was a man unafraid of being attractive

His vision for India sought to ensure that the country embarked on a path that was seemly. He was obsessively careful to thwart ugliness. “Never speak to me of profit,” he told JRD Tata, “It is a dirty word.” His secularism was also an aesthetic inclination.

He was repulsed by religious ideologues, and was forever concerned with how they made India look – especially in the eyes of foreigners.

Writing to chief ministers on August 1, 1951, Nehru said: “Whatever harm

communalism may do in India, and it can do great harm because it is a disruptive and degrading force, the harm it does to India in other countries is tremendous. Immediately the higher edifice that we have built up in their eyes begins to crack up and totter, and we appear to them as narrow-minded bigots following social customs which nobody in the world understands or appreciates.” What will they think of us? This is a political concern. It is also an aesthetic worry.

India’s industrialisation, and the modernisation wrought by massive infrastructural projects, were also regarded as essentially elegant objectives, “a fascinating vision of the future which fills one with enthusiasm.”

In April of 1948, Nehru the aesthete-moderniser wrote these remarkable lines, again in a letter to his chief ministers (I quote from Letters for a Nation, edited by Madhav Khosla, published recently by Penguin): “As I threw in some concrete, which was to form the base of the great Hirakud Dam, a sense of adventure seized me and I forgot for a while the many troubles that beset us.” The leader throws wet concrete, an adoring nation looks on. This perfect, escapist Nehruvian

theatre sets India’s future in motion.

Evident in these few lines I quote – as well as in the majestic books he wrote – is his beautiful facility with language. His prose was irrefutably elegant, and it was the elegance of a man with an uncluttered mind. His use of the English language was his greatest stylistic marker, and while his prose was not always as stirring as Churchill’s, it was frequently the equal of the Englishman’s in clarity and cadence.

Ugly English pained him, and he was to write in lament of the decline of the language in India in the early years after Independence. “The kind of English that is written (by university students) is deplorable. Indeed, it is not English at all.”

Nehru had every right to pass stylistic judgment – after all, as the critic Chandrahas Choudhury has observed: “The most stirring sentences of 20th century Indian writing in English were composed by Nehru.” l Tunku Varadarajan is a writer-at-large for The Daily Beast. A former editor of Newsweek, he is the Virginia Hobbs Carpenter research fellow in Journalism at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. This article was previously published in Open Magazine.

12

DHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, November 20, 2014

13 Finch, Smith drive

Aussies to big win against Proteas

14 Ronaldo-Messi

showdown proves damp squib

14 Dunga trying

to repair WC damage: Ronaldo

Sport

BCB XI v ZIMBABWEANS

Zimbabwe continued their terrible tour with another heavy defeat in their only warm-up game before the limited-over series against Bangladesh. Led by Anamul Haque, BCB XI handed the visitors an 88-run thumping at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium yesterday.

Shamsur Rahman and Nasir Hossain starred with the bat as the hosts piled up a huge 282 before the frontline pacers – Shafiul Islam, Mohammad Shahid and Abul Hasan – scalped two wickets each to end Zimbabwe’s runchase at 194.

Shamsur lost his place in the national fold to Imrul Kayes in the third Test before being overlooked for the ODI squad, but has been in prime touch in the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League bagging three consecutive fifties for Kalabagan KC. However, the 26-year-old fell one short of a half-century yesterday.

Meanwhile, another player to exit from the regular Tigers squad was Nasir who showed glimpses of his old form during his 62-ball 61 that included three fours and two sixes.

Coming in at No 7 and 8, Shuvagata Hom and Abul scored 40 and 33 respectively with the latter sending the ball flying over the rope four times in his 17-ball blister.

Zimbabwe experimented with their batting order as Brendan Taylor opened the innings alongside Regis Chakabva but with runs on the board, the BCB XI

quickies steamed in to initiate regular breakthroughs.

Timycen Maruma’s 50 and Sikandar Raza’s 44 were the only notable scores for the visitors as they were bowled out with more than four overs to spare.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Anamul, who is also a part of the squad for the first two matches in Chittagong, felt Zimbabwe are at a place where the Tigers were not so long ago.

“Throughout 2014 we lost a number of close matches and as a result we were mentally a bit down. The case with Zimbabwe at the moment might be similar. They may be morally down and we need to use that to our advantage,” said the 21-year-old.

“Our bowlers bowled really well and they also did not have two or three of their main players. If they come back they will be stronger. But I believe that if we can play to the best of our ability, we can win this series by a big margin,” he added.

He also added, “In an ODI it takes one batsman or bowler is enough to change the momentum of a game. It will be a good fight. So we really have to give it our best.”

The day match ended in the evening after which the Bangladesh national team took the field for a light practice session. The two key members – Shakib al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal – however, opted to rest and did not take part in the brief fielding session under lights. l

Bangladesh Cricket Board XI innings Anamul lbw b Madziva 13 Shamsur lbw b Nyumbu 49 Rony c & b Madziva 2 Soumya b Kamungozi 14 Sabbir lbw b Nyumbu 22 Nasir b Sibanda 61 Shuvagata c †Moor b Sibanda 40 Abul c Chakabva b Sibanda 33 Muktar c Chakabva b Sibanda 17 Shafiul run out (Nyumbu) 1 Shahid not out 1 Extras (lb 3, w 24, nb 2) 29 Total (all out; 50 overs; 218 mins) 282 Fall of wickets 1-21 (Anamul), 2-33 (Rony), 3-51 (Soumya), 4-111 (Sabbir), 5-118 (Shamsur), 6-212 (Shuvagata), 7-249 (Nasir), 8-280 (Muktar), 9-280 (Abul), 10-282 (Shafiul) Bowling Shingirai 7-0-53-0 (1nb, 6w), Madziva 7-2-22-2 (4w), Kamungozi 10-1-58-1 (1nb), Mire 3-0-18-0 (1w), Nyumbu 102-40-2 (2w), Maruma 6-0-44-0 (1w), Sibanda 7-0-44-4 (1w) Zimbabweans innings (Target: 283 runs from 50 overs) Taylor c Shafiul b Muktar 28 Chakabva c Nasir b Shahid 14 Sikandar c Nasir b Sabbir 44 Maruma c Rony b Shafiul 50 Sibanda* b Shafiul 5 Moor† c Soumya b Abul 0 Mire c †Anamul b Abul 4 Madziva b Sabbir 1 Mutumbami c Muktar b Nasir 22 Shingirai b Shahid 15 J Nyumbu not out 2 Extras (lb 6, w 3) 9 Total (all out; 45.3 overs; 204 mins) 194

Recently discarded national cricketers Nasir Hossain (L) and Shamsur Rahman enjoy each other’s company during their warm-up game against the Zimbabweans at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

BCB splashes out cash Nepal deny Bangladesh once again for triumphant Tigers n SAFF WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP

Raihan Mahmood

Bangladesh failed to break the Nepal jinx in the Saff Women’s Championship

losing 1-0 in the second semifinal of this year’s edition at Jinnah Stadium in Islamabad yesterday.

Nepal repeated history by defeating

Bangladesh captain Suinu pru Marma (L) slaloms forward as a Nepal player looks on during the semifinal of the 3rd Saff Women’s Championship at Jinnah Stadium yesterday COURTESY

Bangladesh Navy on verge of chess title n Raihan Mahmood

Bangladesh Navy chess team are on the brink of winning their maiden title as they just require a draw in the last round against their junior team today.

The Navy team maintained their solo lead in the Walton Home Appliance Premier Division Chess League with 14 points beating Sultana Kamal Smriti Pathagar 4-0 at the media center of Bangladesh Olympic Association yesterday.

GMs Abdullah al Rakib and Enamul Hossain, IM Minhazuddin Ahmed and FM Sheikh Nasir Ahmed of Bangladesh Navy won accordingly against Sheikh Mohammed Khairul Islam, Din Mohammad, Mohammad Aminul Islam Polash and Delwar Hossain of Sultana Kamal Smriti.

Defending champions Dhaka Mo-

hammedan Sporting Club Limited are in second position with 12 points as they beat Pritam-Prism Chess Club, Narayanganj 4-0. Georgian GMs Merab Gagunashvili and Mikheil Mchedlishvili, IM Abu Sufian Shakil and FM Syed Mahfuzur Rahman Emon won accordingly against FMs Younus Hasan, SAM Nasir, Mohammed Jamal Uddin and Abzid Rahman of Pritam-Prism.

Titas Club chess team are at third position with 10 points. Titas Club beat Sreejan Chess Club 4-0 as FMs Debaraj Chatterjee, Shafiq Ahmed, Mohammed Abdul Malek and Golam Mostafa Bhuiyan of Titas Club defeated Mohammed Alamgir Hossain, Dewan Mohammed Riad, Mohammed Ibrahim Hossain and Abu Hanif of Sreejan Chess Club respectively. l

England have won six games in a row.

They last won six internationals in a row back in 2006

SCORECARD

Nasir, seamers add to visitors’ woeful run n Mazhar Uddin from Chittagong

Did you know?

Bangladesh, much like the first edition held in Cox’s Bazar four years ago. On that occasion Nepal had strolled past Bangladesh 3-0 in the coastal city but this time only a solitary goal separated the two sides. The win also set up a repeat final between holders India and Nepal with the former tasting a 3-0 success over the latter in the previous edition of the women’s regional football championship.

Nepal scored the all-important goal in the 56th minute with Sajana Rana scoring from the spot. Nepal made it to the last four as Group B winners after winning all their three group matches. They started off their campaign with a resounding 8-0 drubbing of Bhutan which was followed by a 2-1 win over hosts Pakistan and a 2-0 victory over Sri Lanka to round of their group campaign.

Bangladesh on the other hand beat Afghanistan 6-1, lost to India 5-1 and outplayed Maldives 3-1 in the group stages to make their way through to the last four stage. In the first semifinal of the day defending champions India outclassed Sri Lanka 5-0 at the same venue.

The final will be played tomorrow.l

n Mazhar Uddin from Chittagong

Three-nil is a morale boosting result for any country in cricket and the recent Test series whitewash over Zimbabwe saw the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) flash the wallet as the victorious national team and its staff were rewarded with $81,500 (Tk6.4m approx) as bonus.

The series sweep took Bangladesh’s win tally to seven out of the 88 matches they have played across 44 series’ in the last 14 years while it was also only the second time the Tigers whitewashed an opponent – the first being West Indies 2-0 in 2009.

Each squad members (total 15 players for each match) received $1500 (Tk1,12,500 approx) for each win (amounting to $67500 for each match) while the full squad and the team management received an extra $14000 (Tk1.05m approx).

This meant the cricketers, for their brave performance to turn around their dismal fate in 2014, received more than

$5000 (Tk375000 approx).

The splash of the cash does not end there as the ICC also distributes a bonus of $2000 to any team winning against their higher-ranked opponents in Tests, while they provide $1500 for a win against a lower-ranked team.

Each squad members received $1500 for each win while the full squad and the team management received an extra $14000 The governing body of Bangladesh cricket is also encouraging the cricketers to put on a scintillating performance in the one-day series against Zimbabwe and it was learnt that the BCB will spend big this time too, given Mashrafe bin Mortaza brings home a similar achievement. l

Stadium Tokai win Walton Kabaddi n Raihan Mahmood Stadium Tokai team lifted the title of the Walton Tokai Kabaddi Tournament beating Agargaon Taltala Tokai team at Kabaddi Stadium yesterday. Stadium Tokai stamped their authority from the very beginning and won the final 6838. They led the first half 37-24.

The champions were awarded Tk15000 and a trophy while the runners-up received Tk10000. Bangladesh Kabaddi Federation organised the tournament to provide some entertainment to the street children.

Freedom fighter Harun Chowdhury distributed the prizes as the chief guest.

Walton additional director FM Iqbal bin Anwar Dawn and kabaddi federation vice president Nizamuddin Chowdhury Parvez were also present among others.l

Stadium Tokai team celebrate with the trophy and winner’s cheque after winning the Walton Tokai Kabaddi title yesterday COURTESY

Fall of wickets 1-40 (Chakabva), 2-55 (Taylor), 3-132 (Sikandar), 4-144 (Sibanda), 5-149 (Maruma), 6-154 (Moor), 7-154 (Mire), 8-168 (Madziva), 9-188 (Mutumbami), 10-194 (Masakadza) Bowling Shafiul 9-0-24-2, Shahid 7.3-1-25-2, Abul 9-0-53-2 (1w), Muktar 6-1-26-1 (1w), Soumya 3-0-14-0 (1w), Sabbir 6-0-23-2, Nasir 5-0-23-1 BCB XI won by 88 runs

Benazir new chess fed president n Raihan Mahmood The Police Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, Benazir Ahmed BPM (bar), was appointed as the president of Bangladesh Chess Federation yesterday. A National Sports Council gazette official declared Benazir as the successor of GM Kader who was the previous president of the federation. Kader left the office a long time ago and vice president Syed Shahabuddin Shamim was the acting president for the last few months.l

NSC hopeful of DFA solution n Shishir Hoque A 12-member committee formed by the National Sports Council (NSC) last month held its first meeting yesterday.

The committee is looking into the problems of the District Football Associations (DFA) and will find out the solutions.

The first meeting of the committee was convened by NSC’s director of sports, Narayan Chandra Debnath. Bangladesh Football Federation general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag and vice-president Badal Roy were also present.

“In our first meeting, we heard what type of problems the DFAs are facing and we discussed how to solve those. The problems are not that difficult to solve.

I’m hopeful,” said Narayan yesterday.

“The sports council has to make contributions and the DFAs should be given financial support in order to run district football regularly. I hope if each of the DFAs receive Tk400-500,000 they can keep the ball rolling on the field. There are also some DFAs who are facing venue crisis. NSC should look into this as well,” he added.

The committee, with the presence of only four members, also discussed on how the NSC can provide financial support to the DFAs as the football associations do not have affiliation with the ruling body of sports. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

Finch, Smith drive Aussies to big win

QUICK BYTES

World champ Magnussen at odds over training regime Swimming Australia said Wednesday it does not endorse James Magnussen’s new training programme but will continue to provide the world champion swimmer with financial support. Magnussen, 23, a two-time 100-metres freestyle world champion, ended his four-year partnership with coach Brant Best in September and is training under untested young coaches Mitch and Lach Falvey as he prepares for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Magnussen, known as ‘The Missile’, has been at loggerheads with Swimming Australia’s head coach Jacco Verhaeren and high performance director Michael Scott over his plans to train under the Falvey brothers in Sydney. “From the outset Swimming Australia has wanted what we believe is best for James to fulfil his potential and to be ready for next year’s world championships and the 2016 Olympics,” Scott said in a statement.

–AFP

n AFP, Canberra

Kenyan athleteturned-MP seeks to criminalise doping

Kenyan marathon-star-turned-politician Wesley Korir has announced plans to criminalise doping, arguing drastic action was the only way to halt a worsening sporting crisis in his east African nation. Korir, a former Boston marathon champion who was elected MP in 2012, said his own investigations had unearthed evidence of “a big supply of drugs being provided by a cartel of people” among the east African nation’s fabled distance runners. The call comes in the wake of last month’s shock revelation that the world’s current top female marathon runner, Kenya’s Rita Jeptoo, tested positive for the blood blood-boosting drug EPO during an out-of-competition anti-doping control.

“Unless we put in place a law to criminalise doping, we will have lost,” Korir told AFP, saying the legislation should apply to both athletes who knowingly dope and doctors who administer performance-enhancing drugs.

–AFP

Abu Dhabi double ‘artificial’, says Prost French legend Alain Prost Wednesday hit out at the double points on offer at Abu Dhabi this week as the unpopular innovation threatened to cast a shadow over the climax to the Formula One season. The four-time world champion said he was never a fan of awarding twice the normal number of points at the final race, known as the “Abu Double” - an idea aimed at maintaining interest throughout the season. In the event, Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg are just 17 points apart, meaning the Briton will have to work hard to make sure his second world title isn’t cruelly snatched away. “I was never in favour of double points because it’s artificial,” Prost told AFP in Singapore, during an industry conference run by high-tech composite manufacturer JEC. –AFP

Treble-chasing Scott targets Masters not McIlroy

Adam Scott said Wednesday he was putting aside thoughts of next week’s showdown with world number one Rory McIlroy as he chases a third straight win in this week’s Australian Masters. The Australian world number two missed a chance for a perfect end to 2013 when he bogeyed the final hole of last year’s Australian Open at Royal Sydney, with the Northern Irishman holing a giant birdie putt to win. World golf’s top two will resume their rivalry in Sydney next week, but first Scott will defend his Australian Masters title at Melbourne’s Metropolitan course, starting on Thursday.

Scott, the 2013 US Masters champion, is vying to become the first golfer to claim three successive Australian Masters gold jackets. His boyhood idol and fellow countryman Greg Norman won six Australian Masters, but never more than two in a row.

–AFP

Aaron Finch of Australia celebrates his century during the third ODI against South Africa at the Manuka Oval in Canberra yesterday AFP

Australia cruised to a 73-run victory over South Africa in their third oneday international on Wednesday on the back of big-hitting innings by Aaron Finch and Steve Smith.

Opener Finch cracked 109 off 127 balls and Smith hit a swashbuckling unbeaten 73 off 55 balls as Australia amassed a formidable 329 for five off their 50 overs in Canberra.

The Proteas were always up against it and were dismissed for 256 in the 45th over, with last man Imran Tahir unable to bat because of a knee he injured while fielding.

The Australians now lead the fivematch series 2-1 ahead of the final games in Melbourne on Friday and Sydney on Sunday.

Left-armer Mitchell Starc troubled the South Africans with his late swing and finished with four for 32 off eight overs, while fellow opening bowler Josh Hazlewood claimed three for 51.

Hashim Amla hit 102 off 115 balls and skipper AB de Villiers cracked a belligerent 52 off 34 balls to briefly threaten Australia’s bowlers.

Smith was named man-of-thematch for his innings which was full of improvised shots, including one boundary cheekily hit through his legs.

n AFP, Dubai

PAKvNZ, DAY 3

New Zealand bowled with discipline and, despite Azhar Ali and Younis Khan’s half-centuries, looked set for a lead in the second Test against Pakistan in Dubai on Wednesday.

Pakistan lost Asad Shafiq in seamer Tim Southee’s penultimate over for 44 to close the third day on 281-6, still trailing by 122 runs on New Zealand’s first innings total of 403.

Sarfraz Ahmed was unbeaten on 28 and Yasir Shah on one in a day when the Pakistani batsmen failed to score big after getting good starts.

Leg-spinner Ish Sodhi led the New Zealand bowling with 2-65.

Pakistan, resuming at 34-2 saw off the first session without losing any wicket as Younis Khan (72) and Azhar Ali (75) shared a 113-run stand for the third wicket.

But New Zealand got four wickets in the next two sessions to press home their claims for a useful lead and in turn improve their chances for a series-levelling win.

Pakistan won the first Test by 248 runs in Abu Dhabi.

Azhar added another 50 runs with skipper Misbah-ul Haq, but New Zealand hit back with the second new ball

New Zealand Ist innings 403 (T Latham 137, Craig 43; Babar 4-137) Pakistan Ist innings (Overnight 34-2) Shan Masood b Sodhi 13 Taufeeq Umar st Watling b Craig 16 Azhar Ali b Sodhi 75 Younis Khan c Craig b Neesham 72 Misbah-ul Haq c Taylor b Boult 28 Asad Shafiq c Taylor b Southee 44 Sarfraz Ahmed not out 28 Yasir Shah not out 1 Extras: (b1, lb2, nb1) 4 Total: (for six wkts; 109 overs) 281 Fall of wickets 1-28, 2-32, 3-145, 4-195, 5-220, 6-279 Bowling Boult 22-8-46-1 (1nb), Southee 21-341-1, Craig 24-5-94-1, Sodhi 30-7-65-1, Anderson 7-0-26-0, Neesham 5-1-6-1 taken after 83 overs with the score at 194-3.

Trent Boult claimed his first wicket in the series when he produced a beautiful delivery which got the edge of Misbah’s bat and landed in the safe hands of Ross Taylor at first slip.

Misbah’s 28 had two boundaries and a six.

Ali drove spinner Mark Craig through point for three to complete his 18th half-century.

But he too fell soon, trying to cut Sodhi and was bowled. He hit six boundaries and a six during his patient five-hour 22-minute vigil.

Shafiq was lucky to survive at 26 when Boult bowled him with a sharp incoming delivery but much to New Zealand’s dismay it turned out to be a no-ball.

He too failed to bat for long and was caught off a loose shot in the end, adding 59 for the sixth wicket with Sarfraz.

In the morning Pakistan’s in-form batsmen were under pressure after a big New Zealand total and, more so, after losing both the openers cheaply on Tuesday.

But Younis and Ali showed no sign of pressure as they started the day solidly.

Younis reached his half-century with a sweetly-timed boundary off Craig.

Younis hit seven fours and two sixes both off Craig - during his 160-ball knock but fell to a casual shot, spoiling a good chance of scoring another hundred.

He also amassed 468 runs with three hundreds in the 2-0 white-wash of Australia in the preceding series, also played in United Arab Emirates.

The third and final Test begins in Sharjah from November 26. l

Australia innings D Warner c de Villiers b Philander 53 A Finch b de Villiers 109 S Watson c Miller b Behardien 40 S Smith not out 73 G Bailey c du Plessis b Morkel 12 M Marsh c de Villiers b Morkel 22 M Wade not out 8 Extras (lb1, w7, nb4) 12 Total (5 wickets; 50 overs) 329 Fall of wickets 1-118, 2-189, 3-242, 4-264, 5-295 Bowling Morkel 10-0-84-2, Philander 10-0-70-1, Steyn 10-0-53-0, Behardien 8-0-39-1, Tahir 6-0-40-0, De Villiers 6-0-42-1 South Africa Innings H Amla b Hazlewood 102 Q de Kock c Marsh b Hazlewood 47 F du Plessis c Warner b Marsh 17 R Rossouw c Wade b Starc 2 AB de Villiers lbw b Richardson 52 F Behardien c Finch b Hazlewood 12 D Miller lbw b Starc 3 V Philander c Finch b Starc 1 D Steyn c Marsh b Starc 12 M Morkel not out 0 I Tahir absent injured 0 Extras (lb5, w2, nb1) 8 Total (all out; 44.3 overs)

256

Fall of wickets 1-108, 2-143, 3-148, 4-224, 5-226, 6-231, 7-238, 8-252, 9-256 Bowling Starc 8-1-32-4, Hazlewood 9.3-0-51-3, Watson 6-0-47-0, Richardson 8-0-49-1, Doherty 6-0-31-0, Marsh 7-0-41-1 Australia won by 73 runs, lead series 2-1

Tennis star Sania Mirza with Chief Secretary of Telangana Ajay Sharma and Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anurag Sharma at an Anti Child sex-abuse rally in Hyderabad yesterday AP

Hafeez to undergo test Stan’s my man says injured Federer n of bowling action AFP, Paris

n AFP, Dubaï Under-scrutiny Pakistani all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez will fly to England for tests on his suspect bowling action, an official said Wednesday.

Hafeez’s action was reported during the first Test against New Zealand in Abu Dhabi last week.

Under International Cricket Council (ICC) rules for dealing with suspect actions, a bowler must undergo a bio-mechanical test in an accredited laboratory within 21 days of being reported.

Pakistan team manager Moin Khan said Hafeez would undergo testing in Loughborough on November 24.

Hafeez was ruled out of the ongoing second Test against New Zealand in

Dubai after suffering a hamstring injury.

Khan said Hafeez would fly back to Dubai on November 25 if cleared.

“If physically fit, he will be in contention to regain his spot for the third Test against New Zealand at Sharjah.”

The third and final Test begins on November 26.

If the bio-mechanical tests prove his action is illegal, Hafeez will be suspended from international cricket and will have to undergo remedial work on his bowling.

Under the ICC rules bowlers may only straighten their bowling arm by up to 15 degrees.

Hafeez is the eighth bowler to be reported in an ICC crackdown on chuckers launched in June this year.l

Roger Federer said Tuesday he still hopes to be able to defend Swiss colours in the Davis Cup final against France in Lille this weekend despite a crippling back injury.

He added that he and teammate Stan Wawrinka are back on the best of terms after an ugly bustup.

It has been a troubled buildup to say the least for the Swiss pair as they seek a first ever Davis Cup triumph for their country against a powerful French team on a specially laid indoor claycourt inside the Pierre Mauroy stadium - home for Lille football club - and expected to host a record 27,000 crowd.

All had been going well until the two Swiss stars - ranked second and fourth in the world - were pitted against each other in the semi-finals of the presti-

gious ATP World Tour Finals in London on Saturday evening.

Many thought there would be some kind of an “understanding” between the two given the importance of what faced them in Lille the following week.

Instead they embarked on one of the most draining matches of the season nearly three hours of cut-throat tennis that Federer won 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (8/6) after saving four match points along the way.

There was a price to pay for both players, though, with the Australian Open champion distraught after a heart-breaking loss and Federer ailing with a back spasm that forced him the next day to pull out of the final against Novak Djokovic.

On top of that, there was a bustup that followed - Wawrinka taking umbrage at what he saw as inappropriate words from Federer’s wife Mirka from

the players’ box at a key point in the third set.

Both players in Lille on Tuesday admitted that there had been an altercation, but both said it had been overplayed by the press and that all was back to normal service between the two - Olympic doubles champions in Beijing in 2008.

“We had a conversation after the match. Everything’s totally relaxed about the situation. We’re old enough,” Federer said of the altercation.

“I just wanted to see if there was any hard feelings because it was probably one of the loudest moments of the match, around 5-4, 5-5 score. Clearly a lot of noise.

Wawrinka, who has long lived in the shadow of the man many consider to be the greatest tennis player of all time, agreed.l

Nadal looking forward to Aussie Open preparation n AFP, Madrid

Ten Cricket 12:00PM Pakistan v New Zealand Second Test, Day 4

Sony Six Champion Tennis League

8:30PM Punjab v Mumbai

Finch was in blistering form as the Australians made full use of the slow Manuka Oval pitch after winning the toss.

Finch hit nine fours and three sixes to spearhead the Australian run plunder before he was dismissed by parttime bowler de Villiers in the 41st over.

Fellow opener David Warner pounded 53 off 50 balls, with six fours and two sixes, in a first-wicket stand of 118 in 20 overs.

Warner looked set for a big score before he found de Villiers, who took a leaping catch at mid-wicket.

Smith crashed eight fours in a majestic knock, while Shane Watson took a more controlled 40 off 38 balls before he miscued and was caught in the deep

by David Miller off the medium pacers of Farhaan Behardien.

Watson holds the highest ODI score at Manuka Oval with 122 against the West Indies in 2013.

Morne Morkel was the best of the Proteas bowlers with two for 84, while Vernon Philander, de Villiers and Behardien took a wicket each.

South Africa’s hopes were pinned on the fourth-wicket stand of 76 between Amla and de Villiers, but once the skipper fell leg before wicket to Kane Richardson in the 38th over, the tourists were unable to keep pace with the Australian total.l

AUSvSA, 3RD ODI

New Zealand push Pakistan hard

DAY’S WATCH

5:30PM Bangalore v Pune

13

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Brazilian former footballer Ronaldo (R) plays a poker match for charity with tennis player Rafael Nadal (L) of Spain at a casino in central London on Tuesday. According to the organisers, an online poker company, the athletes for the past two months have been in training, after Ronaldo challenged Nadal to the live head-to-head poker match after the two first went head-to-head in December at the European Poker Tour Prague Charity Challenge. Nadal won the match to receive a $ 50,000 donation for the Rafael Nadal Foundation AP

French Open champion Rafael Nadal is aiming to be fit for the Australian Open, which starts in January, as he recovers from an appendicitis operation, the Spaniard said Tuesday.

The former world number one missed the end of the current season due to appendicitis but says he wants to use December to help prepare him for 2015.

“As ever after a period when things haven’t gone well, you’re a bit more eager to (prepare) well, although there is

uncertainty about how things will go,” said the 28-year-old during a promotional event.

“I hope to use December to prepare well.

“I’ll have a month before things start in Australia, I hope and believe that’s enough to get me to my best level.”

Nadal last played at Basel in October and went under the knife at the beginning of this month.

He said the last few months had been “complicated” but added that “a year in which you win a Grand Slam cannot be a bad year”. l

14

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Ronaldo’s showdown with Messi proves damp squib n AFP, Manchester

Argentina captain Lionel Messi (R) shakes hands with Portugal skipper Cristiano Ronaldo ahead of their international friendly kickoff at Old Trafford in Manchester on Tuesday

AFP

Cristiano Ronaldo’s latest duel with Lionel Messi proved a damp squib as the two superstars played for just 45 minutes of Portugal’s 1-0 friendly win over Argentina at Old Trafford on Tuesday.

The 27th meeting between Portugal winger Ronaldo and Argentina forward Messi had been billed as a golden opportunity for the world’s two best players to underline their credentials for this year’s Ballon d’Or award.

Between them, current holder Ronaldo and Messi have won the past six coveted Ballon D’Or contests, awarded to the player voted the world’s best by managers, players and journalists.

But neither Barcelona’s Messi nor Real Madrid’s Ronaldo were anywhere near their brilliant best, with the latter especially anonymous on just his second return to Old Trafford since his 2009 move from Manchester United.

In the end, Portugal claimed only their second win over Argentina, and their first since 1972, thanks to Raphael Guerreiro’s diving header in stoppage-time.

Despite the presence of Ronaldo and Messi, fan interest had been tepid and the disappointing attendance of 41,233 provided a suitably low-key backdrop to a forgettable encounter which proved the stay-aways had got it right.

Inevitably, all eyes were on the

Last-gasp Portugal sink Argentina

Brazil, England end year with morale-boosting victories as Germany, Italy snatch wins In the end, Portugal claimed only that means I break the record then I’ll was yellow-carded for handling the ball ple asked me about Firmino I said he n AFP, Paris has goals in him,” he said. into the Brazilian net. their second win over Argentina, and be delighted.”

England notched up a 3-1 victory over old foes Scotland on Tuesday while world champions Germany and Portugal sealed last-gasp 1-0 wins over Spain and Argentina respectively in friendlies on Tuesday.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s latest duel with Lionel Messi proved a damp squib as the two superstars played for just 45 minutes of their match Old Trafford.

The 27th meeting between Portugal winger Ronaldo and Argentina forward Messi had been billed as a golden opportunity for the world’s two best players to underline their credentials for this year’s Ballon d’Or award.

But neither Barcelona’s Messi nor Real Madrid’s Ronaldo were anywhere near their brilliant best, with the latter especially anonymous on just his second return to Old Trafford since his 2009 move from Manchester United.

their first since 1972, thanks to Raphael Guerreiro’s diving header in stoppage-time.

Meanwhile, Wayne Rooney became England’s third-highest goal-scorer outright as Roy Hodgson’s side defeated the Scots to record a sixth successive victory.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain put England ahead at Celtic Park and Rooney scored either side of a late Andy Robertson strike to chalk up his 45th and 46th international goals on his 101st appearance.

It took the Manchester United striker clear of Jimmy Greaves, with whom he had previously shared third place, and left him three goals shy of Bobby Charlton’s all-time record and two goals behind Gary Lineker.

“I’ve always loved playing for England,” said Rooney. “I’m on a good run of goals and I hope that continues. If

Brazil’s Roberto Firmino (C) celebrates his winner against Austria in an International friendly in Vienna, Austria on Tuesday AP

Dunga trying to repair WC damage: Ronaldo n Reuters, London Dunga faces an uphill battle to repair the scars of Brazil’s World Cup campaign, but was at least looking like he might be on the right path, according to former striker Ronaldo.

Dunga, whose real name is Carlos Bledorn Verri, replaced Luiz Felipe Scolari after the World Cup that Brazil hosted earlier this year and ended with a humiliating 7-1 thrashing by eventual champions Germany in the semi-finals.

The Brazilians then lost the thirdplace playoff 3-0 to the Netherlands and with confidence shaken in the soccer-mad country, the former World Cup winner has gone about trying to restore the team’s pride.

“It’s early to see any changes in the Brazilian team,” Ronaldo told Reuters in an interview. “It was very difficult and hard to forget about the World Cup and the loss against Germany.

“I know Dunga has a very hard job to do to bring some confidence to the players.”

The 51-year-old Dunga, who previously coached Brazil from 2006 to 2010, won the 2007 Copa America and the 2009 Confederations Cup but was sacked after losing to the Netherlands in the quarter-finals of the 2010 World Cup. Since replacing Scolari in July, however, his Brazil side have won their last six matches, including a 2-1 victory over Austria on Tuesday.l

In Genoa, a virtual second-choice Italy side laboured to a narrow 1-0 win over Albania. The winning goal even had a touch of fortune about it as Hamdi Salihi diverted Stefano Okaka’s shot past goalkeeper Etrit Berisha with seven minutes left.

On his debut, Okaka, a second-half substitute for Sebastian Giovinco, was a rare bright spark for Italy. For Albania, it was a case of so near and yet so far, just a few days after holding France to a 1-1 draw.

France meanwhile notched up a 1-0 victory over Sweden thanks to an 84th-minute goal from Raphael Varane, and Ireland beat the United States 4-1 in further friendly action.

Two goals from Robbie Brady and one each from Anthony Pilkington and James McClean helped the Irish to victory, with Max Diskerud grabbing the Americans’ sole goal. l

Germany’s victory over Spain, the team that preceded them as world champions, came in a game between two experimental sides thanks to a 90th-minute goal by Toni Kroos.

“It was just what we’d been hoping for. It’s been a big year and this was a fine way to close it,” Kroos said after the game.

Spain’s substitute goalkeeper Kiko Casilla was guilty of a howler, fumbling Kroos’s innocuous-looking shot from the edge of the area.

Real Madrid keeper Iker Casillas had started for Spain in his 160th international appearance, but made way for his near namesake Casilla with 20 minutes to go.

In a packed Ernst-Happel Stadium, the Austrian fans thought they had got off to the perfect start against Brazil, but apparent goal-scorer Rubin Okotie

As it was, Brazil ended a disappointing year with a 2-1 win over Austria, Paris Saint-Germain centre-back David Luiz opening the scoring for the visitors before Aleksandar Dragovic equalised from the penalty spot, only for Roberto Firmino to snatch the Brazilian winner seven minutes form time.

This result won’t make up for Brazil’s humiliating 7-1 World Cup semi-final defeat to eventual champions Germany on home soil in July, but will at least send the Selecao into the new year with a more positive vibe.

It was their sixth straight win since the end of the World Cup but the first goal they had conceded under coach Dunga, who took over from Luis Felipe Scolari after the global bonanza.

Dunga was delighted to see his gamble on new face Firmino paying off.

“When I picked the squad and peo-

Real president reveals ‘IPIC’ stadium name n Reuters, Madrid

Hodgson dismayed by England fan chants

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has been caught on camera apparently revealing the future name of the club’s revamped stadium as either ‘IPIC Bernabeu’ or ‘CEPSA Bernabeu’.

Real last month agreed a strategic partnership with Abu Dhabi fund International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC) that will help finance a planned stadium overhaul costing around 400 million euros (501.5 million US dollars) and due to be completed by 2017.

IPIC’s holdings include Spanish energy firm Compania Espanola de Petroleos (CEPSA) and Perez was captured on the sidelines of an event on Tuesday by a camera from television show ‘El Chiringuito de Neox’ saying: “We are going to put IPIC Bernabeu or whatever they want ... or CEPSA Bernabeu”.l

England manager Roy Hodgson admitted that his side’s 3-1 friendly victory over Scotland in Glasgow had been slightly tarnished by antagonistic chanting from the away supporters.

Wayne Rooney scored twice and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain also found the target in Tuesday’s game at Celtic Park as England recorded a sixth win in six games.

But England’s fans could be heard chanting about the IRA (Irish Republican Army), the paramilitary group responsible for hundreds of deaths during the Irish Troubles, in an apparent bid to rile rival supporters at the home of Celtic, who have a historic association with the Irish community.

It came after Scotland’s supporters had booed ‘God Save the Queen’, the British national anthem, but Hodgson told

n AFP, Glasgow

Argentina propose 30-team top flight n Reuters, Buenos Aires Argentina’s proposed 30-team first division championship, brainchild of the late soccer chief Julio Grondona, looks set to go ahead provided TV match broadcasters give approval.

A transition championship lasting five months from February will have 30 teams divided into two groups, Grondona’s successor Luis Segura said on Tuesday, with the 10 extra teams promoted from the second-tier Primera B Nacional this December.

The AFA, which currently runs a 20-team top flight, wants to maintain an August-June season aligned with Europe’s transfer windows given that most of Argentina’s best players play for clubs in the major European leagues. l

his post-match press conference: “I don’t condone any chanting, I’ve got to say.

“My concentration was on the football match. I was aware the crowd were tremendously supportive. I didn’t have a clue what they were chanting. I heard a few about (Scotland manager) Gordon Strachan.

“But unfortunately, chanting and people singing songs which no-one in football condones goes on. I don’t condone it.

“If anyone was offended, I’m sure the FA (Football Association) would apologise to them. All we can do is play our football and hope our fans behave themselves and enjoy our football.”

Rooney’s brace, either side of a late strike by Scotland left-back Andy Robertson, took his tally of international goals to 46, leaving the Manchester United striker three goals short of Bobby Charlton’s record.l

sport’s two marquee figures, whose relationship is said to be on the frosty side, when they emerged onto the pitch after exchanging a brief handshake and rather strained smiles in the tunnel.

Ronaldo was given a warm welcome by his old fans, who also made an extra effort to make the United legend feel at home by aiming a few jeers at Messi when the Argentine was in possession.

Messi didn’t look bothered by that inhospitable reception and he provided the first chance when his pass picked out Angel di Maria, with the Manchester United winger curling just wide from the edge of the penalty area.

Messi gave a glimpse of his dazzling close-control when he worked space for a low shot that flashed across goal from an acute angle.

But there was a worrying moment for United manager Louis van Gaal when Di Maria went down in a crumpled heap after being caught on the foot by a late challenge, ironically from Nani, who remains on United’s books despite being loaned to Sporting Lisbon.

With United plagued by injures at present, Van Gaal, watching from the stands, must have breathed a sigh of relief when Di Maria returned to the fray.

A rare moment of attacking ingenuity saw Argentina’s Javier Pastore force Beto into action with a save from Facundo Roncaglia’s cross. l

INT’L FRIENDLIES Austria

1-2

Dragovic 75-P

Belarus

3-2

Kislyak 50, Signevich 56, Nekhaichik 81

France

Brazil Luiz 64, Firminio 83

1-0

Mexico Jimenez 48, 53

Sweden

Varane 84

Hungary

1-2

Nikolic 86

Italy

Russia Ignashevich 49, Kerzhakov 80

1-0

Albania

2-2

Switzerland

Salihi 82-og

Poland Jedrzejczyk 45+1, Milik 62

Portugal

Drmic 4, Frei 87

1-0

Argentina

Guerreiro 90+1

Rep of Ireland

4-1

Pilkington 7, Brady 55, 86, McClean 82

Scotland

1-3

Robertson 83

Slovenia

USA Diskerud 39

England Chamberlain 32, Rooney 47, 85

0-1

Colombia Ramos 43

Spain

0-1

Germany Kroos 89

England’s Wayne Rooney (bottom) celebrates his second goal with Adam Lallana against Scotland in Glasgow on Tuesday REUTERS

Fifa criminal complaint reignites World Cup row n AFP, Paris

The Euro 2016 mascot appears before the int’l friendly between France and Sweden in Marseille, France on Tuesday AP

Controversy over the awarding of the next two World Cups took a fresh twist on Tuesday as football’s world governing body Fifa lodged a criminal complaint over “possible misconduct” by individuals in connection with the bids.

Fifa president Sepp Bladder has acted on the advice of judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, whose final summary of the Garcia investigation cleared Russia and Qatar to host the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.

The complaint lodged with the Swiss attorney general is the latest turn in a saga that has rumbled on since the tournaments were controversially awarded to both countries in December 2010.

“The subject of the criminal complaint is the possible misconduct of individual persons in connection with the awarding of the hosting rights of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups investigated

by Michael Garcia, chairman of the investigatory chamber of the Fifa Ethics Committee,” Fifa said in a statement.

“In particular there seem to be grounds for suspicion that, in isolated cases, international transfers of assets with connections to Switzerland took place, which merit examination by the criminal prosecution authorities.”

Garcia, a former New York federal prosecutor, spent 18 months investigating the bidding process for the two tournaments.l

Entertainment

CHRIS HEMSWORTH named sexiest man alive

n Entertainment Desk “Thor” star Chris Hemsworth was named People magazine’s “sexiest man alive” on Tuesday. Hemsworth, 31, appeared via Skype clad in a loose-fitting t-shirt with his face obscured and his voice disguised electronically, answering questions from the audience about his age, whether he was single and if he was an actor as they tried to guess his

Film

Interstellar, Annabelle, Kistimaat Amra Korbo Joy Into The Storm, Hercules 3D Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3D Valkyrie, Most Welcome 2’ Blockbuster Cinemas,

identity.

The star of “Thor,” sequel “Thor: The Dark World” and “The Avengers” gestured towards his face and thanked his parents for putting this all together after he was correctly identified by an audience member and his full appearance was revealed.

Hemsworth also thanked all the other previous intelligent men, because this is based on an IQ test, not just physical appearance.

Past choices of the magazine, which began handing out the accolade in a 1985 cover story on fellow Australian Mel Gibson, have ranged in age from 27, with John F Kennedy Jr in 1988, to 59, with Sean Connery a year later.

Johnny Depp, George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Richard Gere have each been chosen twice. Last year’s cover, rocker Adam Levine, was one of the few non-actors selected by the editors.

Hemsworth, whose first film was 2009’s “Star Trek” and is married to Spanish actress Elsa Pataky, will appear on the cover of People in the issue published on Friday. l

Thursday, November 20, 2014

SONIA’s second big screen venture n Entertainment Desk

Oblivion

and Salahuddin Lavlu are among the cast of the film directed by Habibul Islam Habib, who has also written the screenplay and dialogues of the film.

Recently Sonia appeared in a single episode drama titled “Middle Class Sentiment,” in which her performance as a girl from middle-class family garnered much appreciation.

Sonia Hossain rose to prominence in 2003 when she won the ‘Best Smile’ award in “You Got The Look” pageant. After a five-year hiatus, during which she studied law in England, the model-actor-anchor is back to the scene again with two major motion pictures. l

After signing her debut film “U-Turn”, Sonia Hossain made sure her presence in Dhallywood continues to shine by joining the team of another big screen venture “Ratrir Jatri.”

In the film, Sonia will play the role of Paribanu, a rural girl portrayed in a rural milieu. About her role Sonia said: “Portraying the character of a rural girl on big screen is an exciting endeavour. I am looking forward to working more in such out-of-the-box characters in future.”

Moushumi, Anisur Rahman Milon, ATM Shamsuzzaman, Aruna Biswas

15

Star Movies, 11:30pm

KHAN HASAN MD RAFI

DHAKA TRIBUNE

A veteran assigned to extract Earth’s remaining resources begins to question what he knows about his mission and himself.

Saving Private Ryan Zee Studio, 9:30pm

Following the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.

Before Sunset

HBO Defined, 5:50pm

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

Aupee Karim performs forms of Indian classical dance, Kathak along with other dancers on Tuesday as part of monthly series ‘Understanding Classical Dance-2’, curated by choreographer Sharmila Banerjee

BLAKE LIVELY is forever beautiful in Age of Adaline n Entertainment Desk

“The Gossip Girl” star Blake Lively is going to stay young and beautiful forever in her upcoming movie “Age of Adaline.”

Film “Age of Adaline” in which she plays beautiful Adaline, born at the turn of the century and rendered ageless after a mysterious accident in the 1930s. Director Lee Toland Krieger believes Lively, 27, is ideal casting.

“She sort of embodies a woman who is perfect physically, so in that regard, she’s a perfect fit,” says Krieger. “Also, for someone who is 27 years old, she’s wildly sophisticated and seems like an old soul.”

“To put Blake, who would look good in a trash bag, in the great clothing from all of these eras was kind of a once-in-alifetime opportunity,” says Krieger.

Being immortal has its severe complications. As Adaline stays forever young, her daughter continues to age and surpasses her. In the present, her daughter is played by 81-yearold Ellen Burstyn. It makes for a jarring juxtaposition.

The film is expected to be released next year. l

DIA MIRZA: Making films is my priority, not starring n Entertainment Desk Dia Mirza’s last big screen outing was a Bengali film in 2012 and the actress, who has turned movie producer, says acting has taken a backseat as she is enjoying the process of filmmaking.

The 32-year-old actress co-owns Born Free Entertainment with her husband Sahil Sangha and they have produced films like “Love Breakups Zindagi” and “Bobby Jasoos.”

Dia says there have been several acting offers but she has not taken up any project as she is yet to make her mind about returning to movies.

“There have been offers but nothing is decided right now. I am really enjoying being part of the filmmaking process for now. I would definitely want to come in front of the camera and do a film. I enjoyed that phase of my career. May be next year I will be able to finally take a call

Kamar Ahmad Simon talks about Filmy Bahas and its consequence How may these discussions impact n Shadma Malik our film industry?

Tell us about Filmy Bahas and Tareque Masud Master’s Class.

“Bahas” means discourse or debate.

Filmy Bahas is about a dialectical intercourse around issues relating to film in general. And Tareque Masud Master’s Class’ is one of its biannual initiatives, where we present the living masters of world cinema to the younger film enthusiasts.

If Filmy Bahas is a platform for debate, who are the targets for TMMC and how are they benefited from this?

TMMC is targeted at mostly the young, budding talents who are exploring different media, but have yet to venture into the real world of cinema. The idea is to open a window for the youth to explore the parallel narratives in contrast to the stereotyped mainstream.

n Entertainment Desk

In true sense, our current film industry lacks most of the ingredients of a functional industry. It is impossible to overcome these challenges with small initiatives like this, but we believe this discourse has the potential to shape the future minds.

The platform was incepted in memory of Tareque Masud. How do you think he would do it?

Tareque Masud was a great source of inspiration for many young film enthusiasts. No matter what age you were – 15, 25 or 35 years old – Tareque, at the age of 55, would still listen to you and would try to guide you with utmost sincerity, a quality very rare in his generation of filmmakers. The idea of Filmy Bahas came into being with this very vacuum that Tareque Masud left us with.

Will the event be different this time, as the previous event was conducted

by Prof Nilotpal Majumdar? What are your plans?

It is obvious that with the change of conductors, rules of the play will change. This edition is scheduled for two days instead of one, and I plan to allow little space for jargon, and more for close to the heart discourse. When you get an opportunity to listen to a master filmmaker like Claire Denis, it is better to explore and grasp her essence of filmmaking, not her techniques.

on the film which I will star in,” Dia said in an interview.

The former beauty queen, who has acted in films like “Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein,” “Lage Raho Munna Bhai” and “Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd,” has not ruled out starring in a film made by her production company.

“I never founded the production house with the aim to create movies for me. But having said that, I feel there is nothing wrong with it. A lot of people here and in the west do it. I will also do it if a great script comes my way. But my focus is to build our production house at the moment.” l

RANBIR-ANUSHKA duo’s Bombay Velvet gets release date

Let the Bahas begin...

Claire Denis, the most challenging and distinct filmmaker in today’s French cinema, is coming to Dhaka for the second edition of Tareque Masud Master’s Class (TMMC) presented by online forum Filmy Bahas. Kamar Ahmad Simon, an award-winning new generation filmmaker in Bangladesh whose debut film “Shunte Ki Pao? (Are You Listening?)” has gained critical acclaim around the world, is the mastermind behind and will conduct the Bahas with Denis. The Dhaka Tribune caught up with the promising director.

Nine years after Jesse and Celine first met, they encounter each other again on the French leg of Jesse’s book tour.

Tell us about the programme schedule.

only because she is a Palm d’Or nominee of Cannes or Golden Leopard winner in Locarno, but because she is one the most acclaimed film professors at the European Graduate School.

Why did you choose to invite international filmmakers to Bahas?

Victor Kossakovsky, the Berlinbased-Russian director, said at the first series of TMMC: “If you are a nice person, you should not make films.”

As a filmmaker, what do you think about that statement?

It is a 9am-to-9pm session including the screening of six films of the master, followed by a bahas after every screening.

Living in a global age, with converging cultures, the language of cinema around the world is struggling to sustain uniqueness against the star-driven Hollywood or Bollywood formula productions. Ours is a more delicate case, since we have yet to find a language that we may call “our cinema,” the idea is to infuse the belief into the future filmmakers that a different world is still possible.

Tell us about Claire Denis?

Our film industry has mostly lacked the touch of educated professionals all along. Thus the motivation behind inviting Claire Denis this year is not

Making cinema is no doubt one of the toughest practices compared to any other artistic genres. It is a medium that asks for more than talent and commitment. If you are not ready to deal with this, you are not ready for cinema.

I completely agree with Victor on this.

Registration at Filmy Bahas can be done online, at http://filmy-bahas. info/. Registration will be open until November 22, and the event will be held on December 8-9 at Chhayanaut in the capital. l

Anurag Kashyap’s ambitious period drama, “Bombay Velvet,” which was scheduled for a Christmas 2014 release, before being brought forward by three weeks to November 29 to avoid a clash with an upcoming Aamir Khan starrer, has now got a new release date: May 15, 2015.

Confirming the same Kashyap told Mirror, “The film needed time, given all the work that was pending. Now that we have locked the release date, everyone associated with it is thrilled. An exciting marketing plan is being crafted to promote it in a way no film has been presented before.”

Endorsing the decision to postpone the release by over six months, the film’s producer Vijay Singh says that it was necessary because Ranbir Kapoor starrer recreates the Mumbai of the ‘60s and as a result needed extensive visual effects which will only be completed by January end. “It will definitely b e the biggest release, in terms of prints, of the first half of 2015,” he says. l

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

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Thursday, November 20, 2014

Illegal voyage to Malaysia: 90 sued

Death penalty of two upheld in Kazi Aref killing case n Tribune Report

n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong Bangladesh Navy yesterday lodged two cases with Patenga Police Station against 90 people including 82 Myanmar nationals in connection with an attempt to send 625 people to Malaysia by sea illegally.

Bangladesh Navy Ship Durjoy’s Executive Officer Lt Commander Mahbubur Rahman lodged a case under Foreign Citizen Control Act and the other under Human Trafficking Prevention and Suppression Act. Patenga Police Station Officer-inCharge (OC) Kazi Sahabuddin Ahmed said 14 Myanmar nationals are sued in both cases.

On Monday around 9:35am, BNS Durjoy rescued 614 people and 21 boatmen from Bay of Bengal, 135 nautical miles southwest from Saint Martin’s Island, when they were being sent to Malaysia illegally through the unnamed Myanmar-flag hoisted trawler.

The detainees were fetched to Chittagong city on Tuesday around 6:30pm. Navy handed the detainees over to police on Tuesday night while police released all but 85 people and 12 children, added the OC. The arrestees were produced before a court till filing of this report, he further added.

During primary interrogation police found arrested Myanmar national Aung Kai drove the 25-meter-long fishing trawler where the huge number of people was kept jam-packed.

The trawler was waiting in deep sea for 12-15 days and by the time traffickers gathered victims in small groups into the trawler from some areas of Bangladesh and Myanmar, said the arrested traffickers.

The traffickers marked the hands of victims with a sign to count them and when some of them tried to erase it in an effort to flee the traffickers used to beat them.

“My younger brother, Mahbub Bashar, who is in Malaysia, asked me to send people there in exchange for Tk6,000 for each person,” said arrested human trafficker Gul Mohammad lliving in Potiya upazila in Chittagong for few years who comes from Chattar area of Myanmar.

“My brother also went abroad by sea a few years ago with the help of his expatriate brother-in-law Kala Mia, who went their illegally while I, along with four others, were aboard the trawler for nine days before it was

Four sentenced to death for Pakistan ‘honour killing’ n Agencies A Pakistan court sentenced four men to death yesterday over the mob killing of a pregnant relative who married against her family's will.

Farzana Perveen, who was pregnant at the time, was beaten to death by her father and other relatives outside a courthouse in Lahore on May 27, according a report by AP. Farzana was going to the Lahore High Court in connection with a kidnapping case filed by her family against her husband, Muhammad Iqbal. An attacker claimed to be Farzana's husband, saying she married another man without divorcing him.

Police said a scuffle took place between about 20 members of Farzana’s family and 10-15 of Iqbal’s, during which she was struck with a brick three times and fatally wounded. He managed to escape, a BBC report said.

Police said Farzana was already dead.

Farzana’s father, brother, cousin and the man who claimed to be Farzana’s husband were sentenced to death. Another brother got 10 years in jail.

Court officials said the defendants would have the right to appeal in Lahore’s high court.

The case sparked global outrage.

There are hundreds of so-called “honour killings” in Pakistan each year.

Pakistan has one of the highest rates of violence against women globally. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says some 869 women were murdered in honor killings in 2013.

This case prompted particular outrage, with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif describing it as “totally unacceptable”.

It emerged that Iqbal had killed his first wife six years ago to marry Farzana. Iqbal’s son from first marriage, Aurangzeb, told the BBC in May that relatives had persuaded him to forgive his father, enabling his release from prison under Pakistani law. l

intercepted by Bangladesh Navy,” he said.

“Two local human traffickers – Rahimullah of Teknaf upazila in Cox’s Bazar and Khulla Mia of Sabrang area in Teknaf – managed the four others,” he also added.

He further said one Anwar, son of Yunus who is chairman of Merula area in Myanmar, collected people and supplied them to the trawler, Another alleged Bangladeshi human trafficker Mohammad Hashem of Potiya upazila said he along with 11 others worked in the trawler as cook.

He said he was a fisherman and his master left him and some others on the trawler at deep sea at one stage of fishing.

“We only served people on the instruction of those the trawler belonged to and provoked crews of other fishing boats to go to Malaysia at low cost,” he added.

Rescued Victim Elam Bahar of Teknaf upazila in Cox’s Bazar told the Dhaka Tribune her husband was in Malaysia and she attempted to go to her husband as a local middleman offered her. l

Police bring human traffickers, including a few women, from Myanmar to the court yesterday

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Four bodies found in Rampal ashram in India n Tribune Desk

The Haryana police yesterday stormed into the Satlok ashram of self-styled godman Rampal in Barwala, Hisar in India, reports the Indian media.

Meanwhile, mounting pressure on godman Rampal to surrender, police has slapped sedition and other serious charges against him and several of his followers while ruling out any negotiations with him, a day after armed clashes took place.

Haryana Director General of police SN Vashisht yesterday asserted that police will continue its “operation” till he is arrested for production before Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday in a contempt case, reports The Times of India.

He said the ashram authorities have handed over bodies of four women and two sick persons, including an infant, who also died in a hospital later. The cause of their death will be investigated.

“There is no possibility of negotiations... There is not even any plan..

He is accused of serious crimes. My suggestion to him is that he should surrender before the law,” Vashisht said while addressing a press conference in Chandigarh.

Police registered fresh cases on Tuesday night against Rampal, ashram spokesman Raj Kapoor, another key functionary Purshottam Dass and several other followers under various sections of the IPC. The fresh cases were filed after clashes broke out at the ashram between police and Rampal’s supporters, who allegedly resorted to firing and threw petrol bombs.

Rampal is already an accused in a murder case. Earlier this week, Punjab and Haryana high court gave the government time till Friday to produce Rampal in contempt of court case, after which authorities have been asking the devotees in and around the Satlok Ashram to disperse and help them comply with court order.

The DGP said 10,000 followers have come out of the ashram, while nearly

5,000 are still believed to be inside.

The Director General of Police SN Vashisht told the Hindu about 5,000 of Rampal’s his followers still remained in the ashram and the operation to bring the fugitive godman to book would continue till he is arrested and produced before the High Court, which had issued non bailable warrants against him.

Police have detained 270 people in connection with the violence and Rampal and his followers have been booked for sedition and on other charges.

Mr Vashisht said it was around 10 last night that the first batch of followers of the godman began coming out of the Ashram. About 2,000 men came out in the first round and expressed their desire to go home. They were taken to railway stations and bus stands in Hisar and Jind by Haryana Police and Haryana Roadways buses. Subsequently through the night about 8,000 more people, including women, children and elderly who were being captive in the ashram for over a week, came out.

Most of the followers were from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan

and had come to Barwala for a four-day satsang which had started on November 6. The DGP said he was in touch with Delhi Police and Uttar Pradesh officials to ensure that there was no regrouping of Rampal’s followers.

The police screened these people for the presence of some of Rampal’s followers engaged in yesterday’s violence and has so far detained about 270 people.

Stating that the Haryana police was committed to saving the lives of the innocent people, Mr Vashisht said he was hopeful that the remaining 5,000 people in the ashram would also come out by this evening. Those involved in the violence have been booked for sedition, criminal conspiracy, illegal detention and rioting among other charges.

Mr Vashisht said the operation was suspended last evening to enable women and children to come out and he was glad that the strategy worked as they did not want any casualties among this section. “The interviews of these people to the media in Hisar show that they were being kept in the ashram by Rampal’s men against their wishes.”

The DGP said the suspects would

More than 200 people were injured as police lobbed teargas and used batons to disperse hundreds of stone-throwing supporters of Rampal AGENCIES

have to face the full force of law.

He said so far the security personnel had not entered the ashram and denied that there had been any delay or laxity on part of the police.

He said that this morning the ashram authorites handed over the bodie of four women to them, including that of a 70-year-old.

The women whose bodies had been handed over were identified as Savita, 31, of Delhi, Santosh, 45, of Rohtak, Raj Bala, 70, of Bijnore and Malikit Kaur, 50, of Sangrur in Punjab.

Besides, 20-year-old Rajni, who was in a serious with a heart ailment, was rushed to Hisar hospital from the Ashram at around 4am, but died there four hours later.

A one-and-a-half year old infant, whose father’s name is Vipin Pratap Singh, also died as he was suffering from congenital jaundice.

The infant belonged to Rewa district in Madhya Pradesh, he said.

DGP said that police will investigate all deaths to ascertain the cause.

“Postmortem examination of the bodies will be conducted to ascertain the exact cause behind their deaths,” he said.

DGP made it clear that there were no wounds on the bodies of the four women the police was also not certain under what circumstances they had passed away.

“Inquest proceedings are being conducted. When postmortem examination report comes, then we will know whether they died due to natural causes or due to any other reason...,” he said.

DGP Vashisht denied that there had been any intelligence or police failure which allowed Rampal to use thousands of followers as “human shield” and put the forces on the backfoot.

“There is no laxity or lapse or delay on our part. One has to keep in mind that here we are dealing with a situation where thousands of lives are at stake and we could not have carried out a sudden attack and put them in danger,” he said. l

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of two convicts – Anwar Hossain and Rashedul Islam alias Jhantu - in the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) leader Kazi Aref murder case.

A four-member bench headed by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain passed the order yesterday, rejecting review petitions filed by the two.

Aref, one of the key organisers of the 1971 Liberation War and then JSD president, was killed in an attack at a rally at Kalidaspur village under Daulatpur upazila of Kushtia on February 16, 1999.

Four more men - JSD Kushtia unit president Lokman Hossain, general secretary Yakub Ali, and local JSD leaders Shamser Ali and Israil Hossain – also died in the attack.

Additional Attorney General Momtazuddin Fakir stood for the state while Khandakar Mahbub Hossain represented the defence during yesterday’s hearing.

On August 30, 2004, Fazlur Rahman, the then additional district and sessions judge of Kushtia, pronounced the verdict in the case, sentencing 10 people to death and 12 others to life imprisonment. Three were acquitted and case proceedings were stayed against another accused in compliance with a High Court order.

Those awarded the death penalty were Iliyas Hossain, Sahir Uddin, Baker, Mannan Mollah, Anwar Hossain, Rashedul Islam Jhantu, Jahan Ali, Jalal, Safayat Hossain and Roushan.

Of them, Anwar, Jhantu and Iliyas are now behind bars while Mannan, Jahan, Jalal and Baker have been in hiding. Roushan was killed in a “shootout” with police on August 27, 2006.

On September 25, 2004, the jailed convicts appealed to the High Court against the lower court verdict.

However, a High Court bench on 5 August, 2008, acquitted all 12 who were given life sentence and Sahir while upholding the punishment of others.

The three death row inmates then appealed to the Appellate Division against the High Court verdict. The state also appealed against the High Court verdict for those who had been acquitted.

On August 7, 2011, the Appellate Division dismissed all the appeals filed by both parties.

On April 17, 2012, Anwar and Jhantu filed review petitions and the Supreme Court stayed their execution after the primary hearing.

Additional Attorney General Momtazuddin Fakir told reporters yesterday that the convicts can now seek presidential mercy.

“If they choose not to do so, the jail authorities can execute them any day,” he added.

M Masud Rana, counsel for the convicts, said his clients would take decision whether to seek mercy from the president after receiving the full copy of the Supreme Court judgment. l

Government has no statistics on ’75-’81 coups n Tribune Report Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader yesterday in parliament said the government had no statistics on how many military officers and members lost their lives in coups and mutinies during 1975-1981.

He, however, claimed that the truth behind the dark period was gradually coming out.

Lawmaker AKM Jahangir Hossain from Patuakhali 3 expressed dissatisfaction at the statement, saying citizens needed to know the information for the sake of history.

Obaidul made the remarks in response to a supplementary question from Jahangir on behalf of Syed Ashraful Islam who is responsible for the Defence Ministry in the House.

Obaidul said he had heard that Gen Ziaur Rahman had signed the orders of capital punishment.

He said there had been no democratic government at that time.

He said there had been coups and mutinies at different times during 1975-81. “It is a time consuming matter to come up with detailed data on the incidents since these had happened a long time ago.”

He also said there had been no coups in the navy and air force except for mutinies in navy in November 1975 and in air force on November 3, 1975 and October 2, 1977. l

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B3 RBI chief Rajan wants focus on sustainable growth

B4 German investor

sentiment bounces back in November

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2014 www.dhakatribune.com/business

Business wants infrastructure to get priority in new 5-year plan They also seek measures to diversify exports to avert economic risks in future n Tribune Report The business community yesterday recommended giving priority to develop infrastructure in the 7th five-year plan beginning from next year.

Lowering interest rates, diversification of exports, removing energy shortage and developing skilled manpower were also the recommendations for accommodating in the plan.

Before giving the final shape to the 7th five-year plan, the government has started taking opinions from economists, academics, entrepreneurs, journalists and other stakeholders since August.

As part of the process, opinions of the country’s business people were taken at a meeting at the Planning Commission conference room yesterday, with Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in the chair.

Bangladesh Finished Leather and Footwear Exporters Association President Abu Taher said there is no alternative of developing infrastructure for boosting private investment, which is the driving force for quality economic growth.

To woo investment, the country must remove infrastructure bottlenecks, he said.

Stressing the need for diversification of exports, he said leather industry that has bright prospect in the $220bn global market is the alternative of RMG industry.

He sought government’s support to help flourish leather industry to earn more foreign exchange.

Director of apex trade body the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) Obaidur Rahman said higher lending rate holds back investment.

“It should be reduced to single digit for attracting the private investment.”

Bangladesh relies heavily on single export item of apparel that shares 80% of the country’s total export earnings He urged the government to give attention on diversification of export basket for sustainable economic development.

Bangladesh Association of Software Information and Services (BASIS) Joint Secretary General Mostafizur Rahman Sohel underscored the need for building skilled manpower to increase productivity.

“Skilled manpower resource is important to raise productivity,” he said.

In response, the Planning Minister said the government will give importance in the 7th five-year plan to increase both private and foreign investment.

He requested the business people to

set up industry individually or jointly outside of Dhaka for industrialisation of the country.

On lowering lending rate, he said the banks are now burdened with non-performing loans. “Lowering interest rates will hit their operational cost,” he said.

As per 7th plan, the government aims to raise the economic growth at 10% and increase per-capita income for both urban and rural residents by 2021.

The five-year economic development guidelines from next financial year (2015-2016) are being prepared by the Planning Commission. The preparation work for the 7th five-year plan will end in January next.

SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

In August, a panel of economists headed by country’s renowned economist Dr Wahiduddin Mahmud has been formed to give necessary guidelines for formulating the draft document of the 7th plan.

The 7th plan will be formulated adopting 28 agendas, including economic development, employment generation, ensuring electricity and energy security, developing education and health sectors, increase agriculture production, developing capital market, equally developing rural areas and cities, and strengthening local government.

The current 6th five year plan will expire in 2015. l

Banking Division asked to immediately appoint GB board of directors n Asif Showkat Kallol Finance Minister AMA Muhith has asked the Bank and Financial Institutions Division to appoint new board of directors for Grameen Bank immediately to make it fully functional, official sources said.

In a Demo-Official (DO) letter sent yesterday to the banking Secretary, M Aslam Alam, Muhith asked to take immediate steps to do the task.

On November 6, the government amended the Grameen Bank election rules and tightened its grip on the microlender.

The rule gave the government an authority to pick up board members for the bank.

The amendment came after the central bank disagreed to take responsibility to conduct the Grameen Bank nine women-member election.

According to a notification from the Banking and Financial Institutions Division, the government will now form a three-member committee to elect nine of the 12 board members.

The newly amended rules reveal that the three-member body is comprised of two deputy managing directors – one from a state-owned commercial bank and another from Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation, and a former district judge that will serve as the chief election commissioner.

The newly amended Grameen Bank election rules will be effective from October 5, 2014 to the same date of 2015, and an election will be held within this time, according to the Gazette notification.

Earlier, the finance minister said the board of directors of Grameen Bank failed to function as the pro-Yunus nine board of directors used their veto on any government decision.

As per its share, the government ap-

points chairman and two board members for Grameen Bank.

Banking Secretary M Aslam Alam said: “We will immediately form an election commission within this year to hold the board of directors’ election within a year.”

He, however, mentioned it is not easy to hold the election overnight.

The newly amended Grameen Bank election rules will be effective from October 5, 2014 to the same date of 2015, and an election will be held within this time Tahsina Khatun, a director of the microcredit institution, and also spokesperson for the nine directly-elected directors, said there was no need to change the Grameen Bank laws at all.

She added that election under the new election rules will only politicise the Grameen Bank.

According to the original rule, GB board will choose an official of the bank to conduct the election.

The Grameen Bank board appointed ASM Mohiuddin as the acting managing director after Mohammad Shahjahan went on Leave Preparatory to Retirement (LPR) last week.

Mohiuddin had been involved with GB since 1982 when the bank was operating as a project. Later he had been promoted to the position of deputy managing director from general manager for administration. l

Australian buyers urged Shahjibazar Power finally beaten n to visit RMG industry

Five brokerage houses robbed n Tribune Report

n

Robbers stole a total of around Tk8 lakh from five brokerage houses at Modhumita building at the capital’s Motijheel area yesterday.

The robbery might take place in early hours of the day at the building’s 5th and 6th floors breaking collapsible gate, officials said.

Police said they didn’t find CCTV cameras of the building after the incident.

The brokerage houses are Al Muntaha Trading, Khurshid Securities Limited, Kaiyum Securities, Total Communication Securities and Oshadhi Securities Limited. Police held four security guards of the building for interrogation.

Al Muntaha Trading executive Samsul Alam said the robbers looted Tk5 lakh from an almirah of the house along with some cheque books and two mobile sets of the office.

Firoz Ahmed, Sub Inspector of Motijheel Police Station, said: “The robbers took away the CCTV cameras also. The thieves entered using alternative paths, but the security officials couldn’t tell us anything about it.” l

Kayes Sohel

Tribune Report

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed has called upon Australian buyers, consumers and stakeholders to visit RMG industry in Bangladesh to see the actual picture, instead of paying heed to propaganda.

He said the government has taken all-out steps to ensure safe workplace for the workers, following the Rana Plaza disaster, according to a press release issued here yesterday.

The minister was addressing a seminar titled “Global garment industry after Rana Plaza: The way forward” held at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre in Australia.

School of Management of Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Centre for Sustainable Organisation and Works and European Union Centre, Bangladesh High Commission in Canberra and Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association jointly organised the seminar.

Tofail said improvement has been

made within a short time to building and fire safety while workers’ wage increased and occupational health safety ensured.

International community and stakeholders had expressed satisfaction over the government initiatives and significant progress, Tofail claimed.

He said the government of Bangladesh wants to extend overall export to $50 billion on the eve of 50 years celebration of the country’s independence.

“I hope the government of Australia would help in meeting the target,” he said.

The participants at the seminar said this programme would help clear misconception about Bangladesh’s RMG industry, centring Rana Plaza disaster and enhance business linkages and collaborations among the governments, garment factory owners and buyers.

In July-September period of the current fiscal, Bangladesh earned nearly $127 million, exporting RMG products to Australian markets, which is 4.15% higher compared to the same period in the last fiscal year. l

The onward march of Shahjibazar Power Company Limited (SPCL) with its stock price increase has finally been resisted.

The securities regulator’s move drove away buyers and reigned in the company share price.

The downfall of the company’s share price comes a day after the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) put a number of trading restrictions on it, aiming to restrain the abnormal price hike without any fundamental reason.

Its abnormal behaviour is also currently under the regulator’s investigation.

The small-cap power generation company that never fell since its debut about four months back witnessed no buyers yesterday at the stock exchanges, dragging down its share prices by 8.73% to Tk309 a share in the spot market.

Before witnessing forcible correction, it rose more than 1,200% on on its offer value of Tk25 a share since its debut on July 15 last.

“Regulator’s move might bring it

down,” said Md Moniruzzaman, Managing Director of IDLC Investments Ltd. On Tuesday, the BSEC declared the issue as non-marginable securities with effect from yesterday and shifted it from the main market to the spot market.

The regulator also asked the brokerage firms that have already exceeded single exposure limit in share transaction of SPCL to bring down the limit within the three trading days.

Every brokerage houses have also been ordered to send daily trading details of SPCL after end of each trading day to the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and Chittagong Stock Exchange(CSE) until further order.

Some investors alleged that the regulator’s move is just an eye-wash, as it is easy to find out manipulators who are inflating share prices only to swindle small investors.

“Regulators lax monitoring has given the chance to big players to play game with the stocks,” said a market player on condition of anonymity.

On November 9 last, the commission started probing into unusual rise in share prices of Shahjibazar Power Com-

pany Limited for the second time within a span of more than three months.

The two-member committee was asked to submit the probe report by 15 working days since its formation.

Back in July 31, BSEC had formed a two-member probe panel after the company’s share price climbed 61% in just nine trading sessions from its debut.

Following formation of the probe panel, Dhaka Stock Exchange on August 11 suspended share trading of Shahjibazar for an indefinite period, but on October 20, allowed it to resume share trading following completion of probe by the Commission.

The BSEC probe team found that the company inflated its net profit to Tk28.6 crore from its original profit of Tk16.9 crore in its financial statement for nine months (July 2013-March 2014).

For the offence, the regulator fined the company’s five directors and managing director Tk55 lakh. According to market sources, share prices of Shahjibazar gained without break despite many irregularities just on the basis of rumour that the price of the scrip would increase further. l

Human trafficking may come under money laundering law n Tribune report The government is considering to bring human trafficking under the money laundering law.

It would then be taken as a crime subject to incorporation in the law.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith, who heads the national coordination committee on anti-money laundering, is supposed to chair a meeting scheduled to be held on November 23 to discuss the issue.

The meeting will also discuss another proposal to involve police in both investigation and the trial process of money laundering cases, besides the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

An official of the banking division said: “We are now examining the issue how migrant trafficking can be incorporated.”

Trafficking of women and children are incorporated among 28

types of offences under the existing law promulgated in 2012.

Corruption, bribery, counterfeiting currency, counterfeiting deeds and documents, extortion, fraud, forgery, illegal trade of fire arms, illegal trade of drugs and illegal trade of stolen goods are other major offences.

Meanwhile, punishment for money laundering offences would be imprisonment for a term not less than six months and not exceeding seven years. In addition, property involved in the offence shall be forfeited in favour of the state.

The Bank and Financial Institution Division had earlier decided to incorporate human trafficking as offence after a rise in international rackets transporting overseas job seekers from Bangladesh to East Asian countries, including Malaysia and Thailand, illegally through the Bay of Bengal. l

Bangladesh Navy rescued a group of people on board a trawller on Tuesday as they were being trafficked. Human trafficking has become rampant recently through Bangladesh territory DHAKA TRIBUNE

B2

Stocks bounce back from losses amid poor turnover n Tribune Report

8.73% to Tk309 a share in the spot market.

The company was the second biggest loser following Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission move to put a number of trading restrictions aiming at controlling the company’s abnormal price hike.

Before witnessing correction, it rose more than 1,200% on its offer value of Tk25 a share since its debut on July 15 last. Other largest losers include Malek Spinning, Anowar Galvanising, Pharma Aids and Bangladesh Lamps.

IDLC Investments said after last four consecutive sessions of market correction, broad market resurfaced in positive.

Among the top ten traded stocks, three came from fuel and power sector. Consequently, the sector attracted the highest trade followed by engineering and pharmaceuticals.

Western Marine Shipyard was the most traded stock with shares worth almost Tk27 crore changing hands followed by Barkatullah Electrodynamics Ltd, Jamuna Oil, Khan Brothers PP Woven Bag, Desco and Aftab Automobile.

GSP Finance was the largest gainer, followed by Hakkani Pulp and Paper, Exim First Mutual Fund, Aftab Automobile, National Housing and Finance Ltd. l

Stocks rose with poor turnover yesterday, snapping their fourth consecutive session of losses.

After rising more than 40 points in the morning, the benchmark DSEX gained 27 points or 0.6% to close at 4,926.

The Shariah index DSES was marginally up almost 4 points or 0.4% to 1,154. The comprising blue chips DS30 ended at 1,826, surging 27 points or 0.6%.

Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, closed at 9,312 with a rally of 69 points.

However, trading activities continued to decline with the DSE turnover sinking below Tk600 crore after three weeks. It was Tk576 crore, a decrease of over 8% over the previous day and lowest since October 29 this year.

Out of 299 issues traded, 158 closed higher, 102 lower and 39 remained unchanged. Share price of Khan Brothers PP Woven Bag that skyrocketed in its first trading day was the worst loser in its second trading day, tumbling almost 17%.

Shahjibazar Power Company that never fell since its debut about four month back witnessed no buyer, dragging down its share prices by

Weekly capital market highlights DSE Broad Index : DSE - 30 Index : CSE All Share Index: CSE - 30 Index : CSE Selected Index : DSE LOSER Company

Closing (% Change)

Khan Brothers-N Shahjibazar Power-N Malek Spinning-A Anwar Galvanizing-B Pharma Aids A Bangladesh Lamps -A Ambee Pharma -A Keya Cosmetics -A Eastern Cables-A Rangpur Foundry -A

-16.71 -8.74 -8.04 -7.53 -6.84 -6.52 -5.43 -5.42 -5.29 -5.25

CSE LOSER Company

Stock

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Closing (% Change)

Malek Spinning-A Reliance Insur -A Bangladesh Lamps -A Keya Cosmetics -A Safko Spinning-A Rangpur Foundry -A Deshbandhu Polymer-A Eastern Cables-A Takaful Islami Insu-A Aziz PipesZ

-6.70 -6.50 -5.85 -5.74 -5.41 -4.94 -3.85 -3.81 -3.70 -3.47

4926.23925

(+) 0.56%

1826.51688

(+) 0.64%

15238.51100

(+) 0.69%

12474.59060

(+) 0.81%

9312.59560

(+) 0.75%

Average (% Change) 18.93 -7.13 -7.53 -4.49 1.03 -3.73 0.75 -1.30 -2.63 0.30 Average (% Change) -6.99 -6.50 -5.76 -2.12 -2.99 -3.56 -2.51 -2.74 -3.70 -7.69

ANALYST

ClosingAvg. 72.81 309.20 20.76 37.23 278.02 134.36 292.36 28.81 134.53 112.94

ClosingAvg. 20.76 56.10 131.92 28.57 29.85 109.25 22.96 131.17 26.00 16.20

Closing

▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲

DHIGH

63.80 309.20 20.60 35.60 265.70 131.90 278.40 27.90 132.50 108.20

Closing

85.00 309.20 22.40 39.60 298.00 142.30 307.00 30.00 141.90 117.80

DHIGH

20.90 56.10 131.90 27.90 29.70 107.70 22.50 131.20 26.00 16.70

21.30 56.10 132.00 30.00 30.20 114.00 23.90 133.50 26.00 16.70

DSE GAINER

DSE key features November 19, 2014 Turnover (Million Taka)

Company

5,763.29

Turnover (Volume)

127,187,909

Number of Contract

126,621

Traded Issues

300

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

183

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

112 5

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,635.27

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

31.94

CSE key features November 19, 2014 Turnover (Million Taka)

450.53

Turnover (Volume)

10,978,869

Number of Contract

16,586

Traded Issues

226

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

134

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

84

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

7

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,536.24

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

30.74

Turnover in Million

85.00 309.20 20.20 35.10 261.00 130.60 272.00 27.00 132.00 107.10

20.20 56.10 131.30 27.50 28.70 107.50 22.40 130.00 26.00 15.60

Latest EPS

175.954 1.793 7.991 7.427 91.831 8.149 8.692 135.700 0.861 9.487

Turnover in Million

DLOW

GSP Finance-A Hakkani P& Paper -B EXIM Bank 1 MF-A Aftab Auto.-A Bangladesh Welding -Z National Housing Fin.-B Summit Power -A aamra technologies-A Grameen1:Scheme2 -A GBB Power Ltd-A

1.36 9.00 1.84 0.84 9.88 1.13 4.68 1.93 0.08 3.23

Latest EPS

0.853 0.028 0.059 6.724 0.239 0.219 2.557 0.039 0.052 0.006

1.84 3.79 1.13 1.93 1.24 3.23 1.52 0.08 1.43 -0.37

Latest PE 53.5 34.4 11.3 44.3 28.1 118.9 62.5 14.9 1681.6 35.0

Company Hakkani P& Paper -B GSP Finance-A Janata Insur -A Apex Footwear-A National Housing Fin.-B Provati Insur.-A Aftab Auto.-A BEXIMCO Ltd. -A aamra technologies-A Bangladesh Welding -Z

9.89 8.94 7.74 7.56 6.83 6.31 6.10 4.45 4.44 4.41

Average (% Change) 9.67 7.43 8.45 7.56 5.54 8.28 4.25 3.80 3.29 4.57

ClosingAvg. 27.34 31.27 6.90 82.47 14.13 29.17 41.58 37.51 13.38 25.48

ClosingAvg. 31.08 26.76 16.81 478.00 29.34 21.85 81.40 39.86 37.31 14.19

Closing 27.60 31.40 6.90 82.20 14.30 29.30 41.80 37.80 13.20 25.20

Closing 31.10 26.80 16.70 478.00 29.70 21.90 81.70 39.90 37.60 14.20

DHIGH 27.70 31.50 6.90 85.20 14.60 29.60 42.60 38.20 13.80 26.00

DHIGH 31.10 27.00 17.00 478.00 29.90 22.00 84.90 40.80 38.10 14.20

DLOW 23.00 29.00 6.90 70.00 12.10 27.80 36.00 35.00 12.00 22.00

DLOW 30.80 25.80 16.70 478.00 28.80 20.80 74.00 38.70 36.70 14.10

Turnover in Million 78.997 8.866 0.003 136.348 1.681 7.321 73.748 40.053 16.942 34.309

Turnover in Million 1.834 0.953 0.054 0.096 0.602 0.236 19.579 18.918 1.887 0.092

Latest EPS 1.59 0.64 0.64 2.69 0.44 1.88 3.16 1.72 1.54 1.47

Latest EPS 0.64 1.59 0.37 20.48 1.88 1.97 2.69 1.01 1.72 0.44

Latest PE 17.2 48.9 10.8 30.7 32.1 15.5 13.2 21.8 8.7 17.3

Latest PE 48.6 16.8 45.4 23.3 15.6 11.1 30.3 39.5 21.7 32.3

pany as "A+" in the long term and "ST-3" in the short term along with a stable outlook based on audited financial statements of the Company up to December 31, 2013, unaudited financials up to June 30, 2014 and other relevant quantitative as well as qualitative information up to the date of rating declaration.

FIRSTSBANK: The Company has informed that the Board of Directors of the Company has decided Mr. Syed Waseque Md Ali as the Managing Director (Current Charge) of the Company in addition to his current post of Deputy Managing Director with effect from November 15, 2014.

GEMINISEA: The Company has further informed that the 32nd AGM of the Company will be held on December 22, 2014 at 11:30 AM at Celebrity Convention Centre, 3B, Satmasjid Road, Dhanmondi, Dhaka-1207. Other information of the AGM will remain unchanged.

KPPL: The Company has informed that the Registered Office of the Company has been shifted to its new location at Khulna Mongla Road, Katakhali, Shambagath, Post-Lockpur, P.S- Fakhirhat, Bagerhat.

IPO Subscription: C & A Textiles Limited subscription date 09 to 13 November 2014, NRB upto 22 November 2014. @ taka 10, face value taka 10 and market lot 500. IFAD Autos Limited subscription date

23 to 27 November 2014, NRB upto 06 December 2014. @ taka 30, face value taka 10 and market lot 200.

Right Share: ICB: Subscription period for rights issue will be from 07.12.2014 to 30.12.2014. Record date for entitlement of rights share: 09.09.2014. BIFC: subscription period for rights issue of the Company will be from 09.11.2014 to 30.11.2014. Record Date for entitlement of rights share: 19.10.2014. FIRSTSBANK Subscription period for rights issue will be from 07.12.2014 to 28.12.2014. Record date for entitlement of rights share: 20.11.2014.

Dividend/AGM JAMUNAOIL: 90% cash and 10% stock, AGM: 07.02.2015, Record date: 11.12.2014.

GEMINISEA: 7.50% cash, AGM: 22.12.2014, Record Date: 08.12.2014.

KBPPWBIL: 10% stock, AGM: 29.12.2014, Record Date: 08.12.2014.

RAHIMAFOOD: No dividend, AGM: 24.12.2014, Record Date: 04.12.2014.

DACCADYE: 10% stock dividend, AGM: 12.12.2014, Record date: 25.11.2014.

ORIONINFU: 15% cash dividend, AGM: 18.12.2014, Record date: 25.11.2014.

LRGLOBMF1: 5% cash dividend, Record date: 25.11.2014. Earnings per unit of Tk. 0.69.

PHARMAID: 25% cash, AGM: 28.12.2014, Record Date: 02.12.2014.

Latest PE 11.3 14.8 116.7 14.8 24.1 33.8 15.1 1639.6 18.2 -ve

After last four consecutive sessions of market correction, broad market resurfaced in positive

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY Bank NBFI Investment Engineering Food & Allied Fuel & Power Jute Textile Pharma & Chemical Paper & Packaging Service Leather Ceramic Cement Information Technology General Insurance Life Insurance Telecom Travel & Leisure Miscellaneous Debenture

Closing (% Change)

AFTABAUTO: The Board of Directors has recommended 17% cash dividend for the year ended on August 31, 2014. Date of AGM: 24.12.2014, Time: 10:30 AM, Venue: Bashundhara Convention Center-2, Baridhara, Dhaka. Record date: 30.11.2014.

The Company has also reported EPS of Tk. 4.01, NAV per share of Tk. 53.35 and NOCFPS of Tk. 3.63 for the year ended on August 31, 2014.

JANATAINS: Alpha Credit Rating Limited (AlphaRating) has rated the Company as "A-" in the long term and "AR-3" in the short term along with a stable outlook based on audited financial statements of the Company up to December 31, 2013, half yearly unaudited management report of June 30, 2014 and relevant qualitative information up to November 18, 2014.

APEXSPINN: Credit Rating Agency of Bangladesh Limited (CRAB) has announced the entity rating (surveillance) of the Company as "AA3" based on audited financial statements of the Company up to March 31, 2014; unaudited six months management prepared financial statements; Bank Liability position as on September 30, 2014 and other relevant quantitative as well as qualitative information up to the date of rating declaration.

ACI: Credit Rating Information and Services Limited (CRISL) has rated the Com-

Company

DSE Million Taka 579.62 254.09 59.17 1025.81 296.07 1127.58 10.56 270.60 878.75 93.56 126.06 38.92 37.08 101.22 66.90 28.59 127.77 141.07 73.55 426.06 0.27

9.52 9.41 7.81 6.89 6.72 5.78 5.03 5.00 4.76 4.13

Average (% Change) 7.01 10.11 7.81 5.35 4.43 4.74 3.43 3.22 5.35 4.17

News, analysis and recent disclosures

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Sector

Closing (% Change)

CSE GAINER

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

DLOW

Thursday, November 20, 2014

% change 10.06 4.41 1.03 17.80 5.14 19.56 0.18 4.70 15.25 2.19 0.68 0.64 1.76 1.16 0.50 2.22 2.45 1.28 7.39 0.00

Million Taka 41.96 12.50 5.68 108.40 9.08 64.81 21.59 58.49 8.27 23.12 1.93 2.75 7.25 3.19 1.25 4.38 7.16 9.11 62.16 0.01

CSE

% change 9.26 2.76 1.25 23.92 2.00 14.30 0.00 4.76 12.91 1.83 5.10 0.43 0.61 1.60 0.70 0.28 0.97 1.58 2.01 13.72 0.00

Million Taka 621.59 266.59 64.84 1134.21 305.15 1192.39 10.56 292.19 937.24 101.83 149.18 40.86 39.83 108.46 70.09 29.84 132.15 148.23 82.67 488.22 0.28

Total

% change 10.00 4.29 1.04 18.25 4.91 19.18 0.17 4.70 15.08 1.64 2.40 0.66 0.64 1.74 1.13 0.48 2.13 2.38 1.33 7.85 0.00

Prepared exclusively for Dhaka Tribune by Business Information Automation Service Line (BIASL), on the basis of information collected from daily stock quotations and audited reports of the listed companies. High level of caution has been taken to collect and present the above information and data. The publisher will not take any responsibility if any body uses this information and data for his/her investment decision. For any query please email to biasl@bol-online.com or call 01552153562 or go to www.biasl.net

WesternMarine -N Barakatullah E. D.-A Jamuna Oil -A Khan Brothers-N DESCO Ltd. -A Aftab Auto.-A Keya Cosmetics -A BEXIMCO Ltd. -A Brac Bank -A JMI Syringes MDL-A

Grameenphone-A Beximco Pharma -A AB Bank - A CSE TURNOVER LEADERS Company WesternMarine -N Khan Brothers-N Barakatullah E. D.-A SAIF Powertec-N Aftab Auto.-A BEXIMCO Ltd. -A JMI Syringes MDL-A Bengal Windsor-A AB Bank - A Brac Bank -A

Jamuna Oil -A Orion Infusions -A Keya Cosmetics -A

VolumeShares 3,567,200 6,723,327 717,816 2,416,500 2,090,482 1,653,309 4,710,095 3,307,712 3,542,247 609,500

Value in Million 268.58 267.02 185.37 175.95 154.66 136.35 135.70 132.57 132.03 128.43

% of TotalTurnover 4.66 4.63 3.22 3.05 2.68 2.37 2.35 2.30 2.29 2.23

VolumeShares

Value in Million

% of TotalTurnover

374,311 1,692,604 3,548,038

513,300 541,500 606,995 243,800 240,527 474,620 63,500 222,400 350,855 277,943

32,420 132,600 235,345

127.35 107.80 107.19

38.57 38.14 24.16 19.74 19.58 18.92 13.62 13.45 10.59 10.31

8.39 7.26 6.72

2.21 1.87 1.86

8.57 8.47 5.37 4.39 4.35 4.20 3.03 2.99 2.35 2.29

1.86 1.61 1.49

ClosingP 74.40 39.40 257.00 63.80 72.40 82.20 27.90 39.80 37.20 198.50

339.00 62.60 30.20

ClosingP

74.60 62.10 39.40 76.30 81.70 39.90 199.00 64.10 30.40 36.90

256.50 53.60 27.90

Change % -0.40 3.41 -0.35 -16.71 -1.36 6.89 -5.42 3.92 2.76 -1.15

-0.12 2.12 2.03

Change %

-0.27 -17.75 3.68 0.13 6.10 4.45 -2.21 -1.23 3.05 2.50

-0.66 -0.37 -5.74

ClosingY 74.70 38.10 257.90 76.60 73.40 76.90 29.50 38.30 36.20 200.80

339.40 61.30 29.60

ClosingY

74.80 75.50 38.00 76.20 77.00 38.20 203.50 64.90 29.50 36.00

258.20 53.80 29.60

DHIGH 77.90 40.90 262.40 85.00 76.30 85.20 30.00 41.00 38.60 218.30

343.00 64.90 30.80

DHIGH

77.00 84.50 40.60 82.50 84.90 40.80 221.30 65.90 30.80 37.90

260.20 56.90 30.00

DLOW 73.80 34.60 240.00 85.00 67.00 70.00 27.00 35.00 34.00 196.20

336.00 55.20 26.70

DLOW

73.30 58.50 38.70 76.00 74.00 38.70 198.00 62.80 29.40 36.00

255.00 52.80 27.50

AvgPrice 75.29 39.72 258.24 72.81 73.98 82.47 28.81 40.08 37.27 210.71

340.24 63.69 30.21

AvgPrice

75.13 70.44 39.81 80.97 81.40 39.86 214.45 60.48 30.17 37.08

258.84 54.73 28.57

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

Thursday, November 20, 2014

RBI chief Rajan wants focus on sustainable growth

OECD raises India growth outlook, urges reforms n Reuters, New Delhi

n Reuters India will focus on sustainable economic growth and developed economies should do the same, Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan said on Tuesday.

The RBI is under corporate and government pressure to bring down interest rates and boost economic growth.

“We have to make sure that across the world we focus on sensible, sustainable sources of growth,” Rajan told reporters in Mauritius on Tuesday.

“Developing countries understand that very well ... It is something that Mauritius is trying to do, it is also something that India is trying to do. It is something that even the developed world has to realise it has to do.”

India’s economy has grown at less than 5% for the last two years. It picked up some momentum to grow 5.7% in the June quarter, but this is still way below the near double-digit growth last seen in 2008.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley suggested on Monday the bank could consider a rate cut, noting slower inflation.

However, Rajan has been focussed on achieving 6 percent inflation by January 2016 and most analysts do not expect a cut when he makes his next policy annoucement on Dec 2. Rajan has often emphasised that sustained

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan listens to a question during a news conference in Mumbai economic growth requires inflation to fall and stay low.

India’s consumer price inflation slowed to 5.52% in October on lower food and fuel prices, but is expected to

inch up after December as comparisons become less striking.

“Lots of work to do to get India back on a strong growth path. The government has been putting together a series

REUTERS

of reforms which I think cumulatively amount to big reforms. The central bank is putting together reforms. My sense is we will do what it takes,” Rajan said. l

India’s economy will accelerate in 2015/16 but will fail to attain the heady growth rates of the past decade without sweeping structural reforms, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said yesterday.

In a country survey, the Paris-based think tank forecast that Asia’s thirdlargest economy would grow by 6.6% in 2015/16, up from its last forecast of 5.7% growth in May. Growth would edge higher to 6.8 percent in 2016/17, it said.

“The economy has shown signs of a turnaround and imbalances have lessened,” the OECD said in the report which, while providing comfort to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that things are looking up, highlighted tough choices ahead.

Modi’s election by a landslide earlier this year has lifted business confidence, while fiscal consolidation and easing pressures on inflation and the current account deficit all point in the right direction.

In its latest forecast, the OECD said it expected inflation to fall to 5.4% in 2015/16 and nudge higher to 5.6% the following fiscal year, after 6.9% in 2014/15. In May, it forecast that inflation would remain above 6 percent over the next few years.

Yet while current risks are broadly balanced, the medium- term outlook is less bright. Exports are constrained by

BoJ keeps economic outlook despite Venezuela calls ‘OPEC and non-OPEC’ talks on oil slide Japan sinking into recession n AFP, Tokyo

n Reuters

The Bank of Japan yesterday held on to its upbeat view that Japan’s economy was recovering, despite GDP data that showed the country had unexpectedly slipped into recession, forcing a snap election.

Wrapping up a two-day policy meeting, the central bank kept policy unchanged - after expanding its already huge stimulus package last month - as investors eye BoJ governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s press briefing later in the day.

Markets want to see what Kuroda says about the government’s decision to delay a sales tax rise next year, after a levy hike in April slammed the brakes on growth just as the deflation-plagued economy appeared to be turning a corner.

The BoJ chief - who was hand picked

by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe - has repeatedly called on Tokyo to follow through on tax rises, which are aimed at generating fresh revenue to pay down Japan’s enormous national debt.

“With regard to the outlook, Japan’s economy is expected to continue its moderate recovery trend, and the effects including those of the subsequent decline in demand following the frontloaded increase prior to the consumption tax hike are expected to dissipate gradually,” the BoJ said in a statement.

Despite its bullish view on the overall economy, the bank was more cautious on inflation expectations, saying that they “appear to be rising on the whole from a somewhat longer-term perspective”.

“The tone of the statement turned

Venezuela has called for a meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC countries to address the slide in oil prices, which is adding to the woes facing President Nicolas Maduro’s cash-strapped government.

With the price of Brent crude at less than $80 a barrel, a drop of more than 25% since June, Venezuela and many other major oil producers are feeling the pinch.

“We have coordinated a special meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC countries to be held very soon to take decisions in defense of oil and oil prices and the world oil market,” Maduro said Monday in a televised address.

“We are defending our industry, our oil, our life.”

He did not give details on when or where the meeting would take place.

Venezuela depends on crude exports for 96 percent of its foreign currency, and the price crunch has added to the headaches of a government already struggling to halt rampant inflation and ease severe shortages of the food and medicine it relies on oil money to import.

Venezuela and Ecuador have called publicly for OPEC, the 12-member cartel of oil-producing countries, to implement a production cut in a bid to prop up prices.

But OPEC nations, which hold their next meeting on November 27 in Vienna, are divided on reducing output.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s top producer, has reduced prices on crude exports to the US in a move seen by some analysts as an effort to maintain market share as it faces competition from rising

Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda walks after meeting with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Abe's official residence in Tokyo REUTERS more optimistic with regards to the economic outlook. While board members noted that some weakness on the production side remained, they upgraded their views on exports, housing investment and private consumption,” said Marcel Thieliant from Capital Economics.

“However, the BoJ now expects inflation to remain at current levels of 1.0 percent for the time being, rather than to pick up as in previous statements.”

Thieliant added that “the statement suggests additional stimulus in the near-term is not on the cards”.

Snap election, tax rise delayed

In forex markets, the yen weakened further with the dollar at a seven-year high of 117.30 yen after the announce-

ment, up from 116.83 yen in New York.

The BoJ’s decision means it will keep trying to pump cash into the banking system at an annual pace of 80tn yen ($682bn), a scheme designed to stimulate the economy.

Last month, the bank surprised markets by ramping up its vast monetary easing programme by as much as 20tn yen annually to the current level.

It also slashed its economic growth forecast by half and trimmed consumer price expectations as a much-touted 2% inflation target looked increasingly out of reach.

Abe on Tuesday said he was calling a snap election and delaying the second sales tax rise next year after the poor gross domestic product figures on Monday. l

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shale oil production in the United States.

The US boom in oil extracted from shale rock has helped create a global supply glut and lower prices.

The US pumped 8.8 million barrels of crude a day in September, putting it among the world’s top producers.

Its output has risen nearly 60 percent since 2008.

Maduro said Venezuelan Foreign Minister Rafael Ramirez was touring various oil-producing countries encouraging their governments to take action to increase prices. His tour includes Algeria, Qatar, Iran and nonOPEC member Russia.

Maduro highlighted Russia, whose relations with the US are deeply frayed over the crisis in Ukraine, in announcing his plans for the meeting.

He said he had taken the measure “because of our extraordinary relations with Russia and all the OPEC and nonOPEC countries.”

He accused the US of “inundating” the market with oil in a bid “to hurt Russia and collaterally hurt us as major producers.”

Venezuelan oil analyst Luis Oliveros said OPEC was unlikely to make significant production cuts despite demands from Venezuela and other members including Ecuador.

“Who’s really ready to reduce production?” said Oliveros, an economist at Caracas Metropolitan University.

“Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are the most important countries that could slow production, but it would be maybe 400,000 or 500,000 barrels a day. That doesn’t help,” he told AFP. l

supply-side bottlenecks, while high corporate borrowing and deteriorating asset quality at banks “may put the investment recovery at risk”, the report added.

Huge barriers to growth, from infrastructure bottlenecks to restrictive labour laws to weak education, will hold India back if not addressed.

“Structural reforms would raise India’s economic growth. In their absence, however, growth will remain below the 8 percent achieved during the previous decade,” the OECD said in the 158-page report.

In its key recommendations the OECD said India should work on the following issues.

Improve the macroeconomic framework by introducing flexible inflation targeting, pursuing fiscal consolidation, implementing a national valueadded tax and strengthening banking oversight.

Boost manufacturing jobs by simplifying labour laws, improving access to education, accelerating approvals for infrastructure projects and improving the business climate.

Increasing female economic participation by ensuring equal work opportunities for women and expanding access to education and skills training for female entrepreneurs.

Improving access to, and the quality of, healthcare.

The OECD tracks its 34 advanced economy members, in addition to issuing forecasts and surveys of large nonmember countries like India. l

Nokia plans comeback with 2015 tablet launch in China n AFP Finnish telecom equipment group Nokia announced an unexpected return to mobile devices Tuesday with a tablet aimed at the Chinese market.

“We are pleased to bring the Nokia brand back into consumers’ hands with the N1 Android tablet, and to help make sophisticated technologies simple,” Nokia’s head of products Sebastian Nystroem said in a statement.

It will be made by the Taiwanese technology group Foxconn - Apple’s biggest supplier - and launched on the Chinese market in early 2015 retailing “for an estimated $249 (199 euros) before taxes,” Nokia said, “with the anticipation of expanding sales to other markets”.

The device, presented at the Slush technology fair in Helsinki, resembles Apple’s iPad mini with a 7.9 inch (200 mm) screen and uses the Android operating system unlike its predecessor, Nokia’s first tablet, the Windows-driven Lumia 2520 launched in 2013.

The Lumia had a far higher price tag of $499 (around 400 euros) when it was launched in the United States and enjoyed limited success with consumers, partly due to its Windows Phone 8 operating system which has fewer applications than its Android and Apple competitors.

Nokia’s comeback was not expected, as the once world-dominating telecom company appeared set to focus on telecom services following the $7.52bn sale of its handset division to US software giant Microsoft in April. l

Twitter indexes every public tweet ever sent n AFP, San Francisco Twitter on Tuesday began letting users search through every tweet publicly fired off at the globally-popular oneto-many messaging service since it launched in 2006.

Twitter has built a searchable index of the billions of tweets posted during the past eight years or so using the service known for its real-time torrent of messages, the company said in a blog post.

“Since that first simple tweet over eight years ago, hundreds of billions of Tweets have captured everyday human experiences and major historical events,” Twitter said.

“Our long-standing goal has been to let people search through every Tweet ever published.”

Examples of when the new capability may come in handy included revisiting sports or television show seasons, learning what was revealed at conferences such as #TEDGlobal, and tracking down news about major events such as #JapanEarthquake or #ScotlandDecides.

The enhanced search tool will be rolled out during the next few days, according to San Francisco-based Twitter.

Complete search results from the entire index will be found under an “All” tab on Twitter pages for Web browsers as well as in applications for mobile devices powered by Apple or Android software.

The full index was described by Twitter as a major infrastructure investment.

Standard & Poor’s gave Twitter’s recent $1.8bn debt issue a “speculative” rating of BB- last week, weighing the company’s push for acquisitions against likely slow growth in earnings.

S&P said the rating, roughly in the middle of the speculative or “junk” range, acknowledges expectations of healthy user and income growth at the popular online micro-messaging and social networking service.

“The company is investing very aggressively in growth. Depending on the level of business reinvestment, Twitter may not generate positive discretionary cash flow until 2016,” S&P said. l

Nusrat Jahan Mim, an architect-lecturer from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology has recently won Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction 2014 for her project titled, “Portable Housing For Urban Poor In Bangladesh”. Holcim Bangladesh CEO Sumanta Pandit led the delegation team at the prize giving ceremony in France

World Academy for Research & Development (WARD) has recently organised its 2nd WARD HR Summit in Dhaka. Prof Dr Humayun Kabir Chowdhury, Pro Vice Chancellor at Southeast University was the session chair while Monower Ahmed, Lead Consultant of Monower Associate was the chief guest and Lt Col Md Aminul Islam (rtd), head of risk management & administration of Lafarge Surma Cement Ltd was the special guest at the summit

Mercantile Bank Limited has recently opened its 96th branch at RB Tower in Laxmipur.

The bank’s chairperson, Morshed Alam inaugurated the branch as chief guest

South Bangla Agriculture & Commerce (SBAC) Bank Limited has recently opened its 28th branch at Sarbalakkhana, Manohardi in Narsingdi. Vice chairperson at the executive committee of SBAC, Abdul Kadir Molla inaugurated the branch

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

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German investor sentiment bounces back in November n AFP Investment sentiment in Germany rebounded in November, a survey found on Tuesday, adding to signs that Europe’s biggest economy is stabilising in another piece of positive news for the eurozone.

After hitting a 22-month low in October, the widely watched investor confidence index calculated by the ZEW economic institute was back in positive territory in November, jumping to 11.5 points from minus 3.6 points the previous month, ZEW said in a statement.

The increase was much bigger than analysts had expected.

The barometer “has increased for the first time in 2014. The recent growth figures for the euro area suggest that the economy is stabilising, which contributed to the indicator’s increase,” said ZEW president Clemens Fuest.

“However, the economic environment remains fragile, not least due to ongoing geopolitical tensions,” he cautioned.

Data last week showed that Germany escaped recession in the third quarter, when gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by a modest 0.1% following a contraction of 0.1% in the preceding three months.

For its survey, ZEW questions analysts and institutional investors about their current assessment of the economic situation in Germany, as well as their expectations for the coming months.

The sub-index measuring financial market players’ view of the current economic situation in Germany inched higher by 0.1 points to 3.3 points in November.

Rebound still volatile

A frequent criticism of the ZEW index is that it can be volatile and is therefore

Thursday, November 20, 2014

What is Abenomics? n AFP, Tokyo Japan slipped into recession, official data showed this week, an unexpected reading that delivered a body blow to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s attempts to revive the world’s number three economy, dubbed Abenomics.

So, what is Abenomics, has it failed, and what lies in store for Japan’s longsuffering economy?

What is Abenomics?

Investment sentiment in Germany rose for the first time this year in November, amid signs that Europe's biggest economy is stabilising, a survey found AFP not particularly reliable.

As a result, analysts were cautious about reading too much into the November data.

“It is too early to call for a trend reversal,” said Natixis economist Johannes Gareis.

Nevertheless, “the higher ZEW numbers support the notion that the German economy is stabilising after several months of poor hard and soft data.”

Gareis said he is now pencilling in GDP growth of 0.2% in the fourth quarter.

Capital Economics expert Jennifer McKeown also said the rise in the ZEW index “is a relief, although the index remains at a fairly low level.”

The increase “probably reflected the softening of the euro, an easing of concerns over geo-political factors” and hints of further policy moves by the European Central Bank, she said.

“However, we would be wary of placing too much weight on one monthly increase in a volatile survey.

On balance, the survey suggests that Germany will soon be leading the eurozone recovery again, but with modest growth that will fail to ensure a meaningful revival in the rest of the region,” McKeown said.

‘Fundamentally intact’

Berenberg Bank economist Rob Wood

agreed.

“Careful, the ZEW is volatile. One swallow does not a summer make and one improvement in the ZEW survey does not a turnaround in Germany make,” he warned.

“We want to see a couple more monthly gains before concluding that the trend has decisively changed.”

Postbank economist Thilo Heidrich said the German GDP data last week “show that the recovery in both Germany and the eurozone is fundamentally intact.

“We expect growth to continue in the coming months, but it will remain sluggish for now,” he said. l

The three-pronged plan, launched shortly after Abe swept to power in late 2012, is meant to drag Japan out of about 15 years of growth-sapping deflation.

It consists of big government spending - such as infrastructure projects - as well as massive monetary easing by the Bank of Japan and an overhaul of the highly regulated economy.

The cornerstone is a 2% inflation target, reversing the price drops that gave consumers an incentive to hold off purchases in the knowledge goods would be cheaper in the future.

That held back wage growth and new hiring. Abenomics aims to slay this “deflationary mindset” and spur a so-called virtuous cycle of spending - consumer and corporate - that drives job growth, pushes up wages and powers the wider economy.

What went wrong?

Abenomics initially helped sharply weaken the yen, a plus for exporters such as Sony and Toyota, driving up stock prices and company profits. That was followed by modest wage hikes and an uptick in consumer spending.

Prices also began to rise but, crucially, that was largely driven by the weak currency pushing up import costs, rather than a broad-based jump in consumer demand - and it dug into the real value of people’s incomes.

Gross domestic product expanded 1.6% - or 6.7% at an annualised rate - in the first quarter of 2014 and things seemed to be working.

Financial markets brace for Swiss ‘gold’ referendum

South Korea puts economic unification tab at $500bn

n AFP, Zurich

n AFP

As Switzerland prepares to vote this month on whether to force the country’s central bank to increase its gold reserves, economists warn a ‘Yes’ vote could wreak havoc in financial markets.

The initiative “Save Switzerland’s gold”, which will be put to a popular referendum vote on November 30, would oblige the Swiss National Bank (SNB) to boost its gold reserves to at least 20% of its holdings, nearly three times more than the current level of seven percent.

It would also require the bank to stop selling its gold and repatriate reserves held in Canada and Britain to ensure that all of its holdings of the precious metal are stored within Switzerland.

“A majority of the Swiss don’t even realise that part of ‘the people’s fortune in gold’ is stored abroad and that SNB has already sold off more than half of its gold reserves,” warns the committee behind the initiative, made up of members of the populist right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP).

Posters showing a smiling piggy bank painted red with a white cross like the Swiss flag have been plastered across the wealthy Alpine nation urg-

ing voters to “protect the people’s wealth” by voting “Yes”.

But the initiative has been flatly rejected by the Swiss government, all the large political parties, even including its initiator SVP whose members are divided on the issue.

Industry organisations have also warned that the move would tie the central bank’s hands and damage its credibility.

Financial markets are wary of the consequences if the initiative passes in a country that already counts the world’s highest gold reserves per inhabitant.

Contradictory polls

Two different polls in late October provided contradictory clues to which way the wind will blow on November 30, with one showing 44% in favour and 39% opposed, and the second showing 38% in favour and 47% opposed.

The polls also showed that between 15-17% of voters were undecided. No new polls have been released since.

Most observers expect the Swiss to snub the motion, and low global gold prices indicate investors agree.

The price of gold traded on the London Bullion Market slumped by 28% last year, and struck a four-year low

earlier this month.

On Tuesday, gold was changing hands for $1,192.75 per ounce at closing.

However, “if the ‘Yes’ side wins, gold risks reacting strongly, since the market is not expecting that result,” Nannette Hechler-Fayd’herbe of Credit Suisse warned.

Gut reaction

UBS chief economist Daniel Kalt meanwhile acknowledged the outcome remained clouded by the lack of attention paid to the initiative in Switzerland.

“People may just decide with their gut,” he told AFP. There has been little debate about the gold initiative, which has been eclipsed by two other explosive issues on the table as part of Switzerland’s direct democratic system.

On November 30, the Swiss will also decide whether to cap annual immigration numbers in the name of protecting the environment, and also on whether to axe special rules offering deep tax breaks to rich foreigners residing in the country.

Swiss central bank chief Thomas Jordan has however appealed to Swiss voters to pay attention, warning that if the gold initiative passes the consequences could be disastrous. l

South Korea’s top financial regulator said Wednesday that developing North Korea’s moribund economy in the wake of eventual reunification would cost around $500bn.

Financial Services Commission (FSC) chairman Shin Je-Yoon told a seminar in Seoul that the estimate covered a period of 20 years that would be needed to raise the North’s per capita GDP from the current $1,251 to $10,000.

The FSC stressed the figure of $500bn was open to revision and should not be taken as an official government position, but rather a starting point for discussion.

A survey released by the Unification Ministry earlier this year showed that while 70 percent of South Koreans support the idea of a unified peninsula, almost half have no interest in helping cover the massive financial cost.

The FSC estimate noted that the South’s GDP was more than 40 times greater than the North’s in 2013, compared to the near 10-fold difference between West Germany and East Germany at the time of their reunification in 1990.

Shin said half the needed funds could be bankrolled by public finance institutions in the South such as the Ko-

rea Development Bank and Korea Exim Bank. The other half could be financed by commercial banks, tax revenues from development projects in North Korea and international organisations such as the World Bank, he said.

Forecasting the cost of unification is an almost meaningless task, given the large number of possible scenarios under which a merger might occur.

As a result, estimates vary wildly, with the only real consensus being it would be far from cheap.

Last year, South Korea’s finance ministry put the cost at around seven percent of South Korea’s annual GDP for a decade. That would mean around $83bn a year for 10 years - and that is assuming a peaceful unification scenario, which is by no means assured.

President Park Geun-Hye has said reunification would bring a “bonanza” through the marriage of the South’s capital and technology with the North’s human and natural resources.

But the nuclear-armed North Korea reacted angrily, accusing the South of dreaming “a pipe-dream” of reunification through absorption.

Because the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a ceasefire rather than a treaty, the two Koreas remain technically at war. l

But Abe had to answer growing calls for Tokyo to rein in an eye-watering national debt that is more than twice the size of the economy.

So, the premier gave the green light for a plan to raise sales taxes for the first time in 17 years, to 8% from 5% in April, to slow the growth of the huge debt pile.

As a result domestic spending- which accounts for 60% of the economy tumbled as consumers took fright and tightened their purse-strings.

The Bank of Japan may also weigh in with even more easy money in the wake of the GDP figures, after expanding its already huge programme in October What happens next?

Despite pleas from finance ministry officials who want to pare the debt pile, a second tax rise - to 10% in October 2015 - will almost certainly be shelved.

Abe is also expected to call an snap election for December, hoping to stamp his authority on his party ahead of a threeyearly leadership poll in September.

Yet more stimulus is expected, putatively as economic medicine, but undoubtedly sweetening voters’ choice.

The Bank of Japan may also weigh in with even more easy money in the wake of the GDP figures, after expanding its already huge programme in October.

Abe’s reforms, including a pledge to draw more women into the workforce and overhaul the protected farming sector, will be under even more scrutiny as they are seen as critical for the ultimate success or failure of the Abenomics project. l

Rising computer game prices lift UK inflation n Reuters The rising cost of computer games in the run-up to Christmas helped to push up British inflation during October, official data showed on Tuesday.

The 12-month Consumer Price Index (CPI) rate accelerated to 1.3% in October from a five-year low of 1.2% in September, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement.

“Smaller falls in transport costs than a year ago - notably for motor fuels and air fares -- and price rises for computer games were the main contributors to the rise in the rate of inflation,” the ONS said.

Analyst expectations had been for the annual rate to remain at 1.2% in October, according to a survey by Dow Jones Newswires. l The statistics office added that the October rate would have been 0.3 percentage points higher, had it not been for falling food and petrol prices.

“Consumer price inflation edged up in October primarily because petrol prices fell even more in October 2013 than they did this October,” said economist Howard Archer at the IHS Global Insight consultancy.

“There was also a rise in the price for some computer games.” l

Yen weakens after BoJ meeting n AFP, Tokyo

A detailed view of the interior of the Mazda CX-3 on November 18, 2014 in Hollywood, California. Mazda Motor Corporation today revealed the all-new Mazda CX-3 to the world. The new compact crossover SUV is the fifth model in Mazda's line-up of new-generation vehicles that feature the full range of SKYACTIV TECHNOLOGY and KODO-Soul of Motion design. With global launches starting from Japan in the spring of 2015, the CX-3 is set to become a core model in the automaker's line-up. The all-new Mazda CX-3 will be on display at the Los Angeles Auto Show, open from November 21 through November 30 AFP

The yen slipped in Asia yesterday after the Bank of Japan wrapped up a meeting with policymakers trimming their inflation expectations but holding off fresh easing, despite the economy slipping into recession.

In Tokyo, the dollar rose to a fresh seven-year high of 117.40 yen after the announcement, up from 116.83 yen in New York. The euro also strengthened to 146.94 yen against 146.47 yen, while it edged down to $1.2516 from $1.2537 in US trade.

The yen’s fall came after the BoJ kept policy unchanged - it expanded its already huge stimulus package last month as investors eye bank governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s press briefing later in the day.

Markets want to see what Kuroda says about the government’s decision to delay a sales tax rise next year, after a levy hike in April slammed the brakes on growth just as the deflation-plagued economy appeared to be turning a corner.

“If (Kuroda) makes remarks critical of the domestic political scene, it could indicate the government and the BoJ is out of step and lead to some buying

back of the yen,” said Junichi Ishikawa, market analyst at IG Securities in Tokyo.

Minori Uchida, chief currency analyst at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, said expectations of a weaker yen among investors were extremely high, and the currency was being oversold.

“The pair could see it rise to 118 yen in the short term,” he told Dow Jones Newswires. On Monday, official data showed that Japan’s economy shrank 0.4%, or at an annualised rate of 1.6%, in the July-September quarter.

It was the second consecutive three months of decline, underscoring how the April tax rise dented growth and dealing a huge blow to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s bid to turn around the laggard economy. Abe on Tuesday said he

DILBERT

was calling a snap election and delaying a second sales tax rise next year after the poor gross domestic product figures.

The dollar and euro drew support from upbeat data Tuesday that showed investment sentiment in Germany, the eurozone’s biggest economy, rebounded in November, while in the United States, homebuilder confidence rose by four points to 58, according to the National Association of Home Builders/ Wells Fargo Housing Market Index.

After hitting a 22-month low in October, the widely watched German investor confidence index calculated by the ZEW economic institute was back in positive territory in November, jumping to 11.5 points from minus 3.6 points the previous month. l