22 nov, 2014

Agrahayan 8, 1421 Muharram 28, 1436 Regd No DA 6238 Vol 2, No 228

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

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AVENUE T

7 | PRESCRIPTION

11 | OP-ED

14 | SPORT

HOLUDS: THEN AND NOW

STAY WELL DURING WINTER

BAN, BANISH, HANG

ARSENAL, MAN UNITED IN DUEL TO STAY IN HUNT

Crackdown on gold-smuggling racket imminent

Unstoppable Shakib elevates Bangladesh Uddin Khan, n Minhaz from Chittagong

Detectives have prepared a list of 15 more Biman officials n Ashif Islam Shaon Detectives are all set for a crackdown on corrupt officials of Biman, customs and Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (Caab) whose names came up in the investigation into recent gold smuggling incidents.

The Detective Branch (DB) of Police has prepared a new list of those involved with the smuggling racket. The list contains the names of 15 more high officials including a captain and two flight stewards.

Detectives’ top priority is to arrest the cohorts of the five, who were held on Tuesday The DB has also collected the addresses and whereabouts of these officials to start the drive immediately, said an investigator.

“The drive can be started tonight or tomorrow morning. We will not spare anybody,” the officials told the Dhaka Tribune last night.

In a 12-hour operation, detectives had arrested five members of the racket at the Hazrat Shahjalal International

Airport in Dhaka, Uttara and Bashundhara areas in the capital since Tuesday evening.

Of them, three are Biman Bangladesh Airlines high-ups – Captain Abu Mohammad Aslam Shaheed, chief of Biman’s planning and scheduling and a pilot; Emdad Hossain, deputy general manager of flight services; and Tozammel Hossain, manager of scheduling.

The other two arrested are Mahmudul Haque Palash, an influential contractor known for having close ties with Biman top officials, and Md Harunur Rashid, owner of a money-exchange agency in Uttara.

The DB official said they had prepared names of 40 persons. Some of them are outsiders and involved with money-exchange business. The money exchangers bring in money from some countries, including the United Arab Emirates, from smugglers to pay the corrupt officials.

“There are some 10 money-exchange firms in the capital’s Uttara, Motijheel and Paltan which are involved with the trade. We will hunt for them too,” he said.

Detectives will primarily try to find out the entire gold smuggling racket and will not work to find out the illegal properties the corrupt officials have  PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

Premier Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib al Hasan, right, acknowledges the crowd’s applause after blasting a hundred in the first ODI against Zimbabwe in Chittagong yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Myanmar: Plight Shibir moles, AL touts hobble RU BCL of Rohingya a Tuhin was expelled by the central involved in showdowns and protests Jamil Khan n Mohammad committee three months ago for threat- on campus, according to several senior media fabrication from Rajshahi ening and beating up the chief engineer students of the university, who asked The infiltration of Shibir cadres and the of the university over his failure to pay to not be named. n Reuters Sources within both BCL and Islami domination, for personal gain, of Ra- the student leader extortion money.

Myanmar President Thein Sein has denied that minority Muslim Rohingya are fleeing “torture” in western Rakhine state, telling the Voice of America Burmese Service such media reports were fabricated.

“It is just a media story that boat people are fleeing torture,” he said.

The president said that there were more people who wanted to live in Myanmar “because it is spacious, (with) many places to live in and work”, he continued.

International concern was overblown, Thein Sein told the VOA on Thursday at his presidential residence in Naypyitaw, the capital of Myanmar.

“Some people are writing negative things with malice,” he said. “International organisations are also helping them well.”

The comments by Thein Sein, a general who left the military to lead the reformist government, reflect the government line regarding the 1.1 million Rohingya, but they fly in the face of reports by domestic and international media as well as leading international NGOs. Prejudice against the Muslim minority is widespread in Myanmar, which says many have no right to citizenship, despite having lived in the area for generations.

In recent weeks, thousands of Rohingya, a mostly stateless people, have sailed across the Bay of Bengal to the west coast of Thailand, from where human-smugglers deliver them to neighboring Malaysia. Many thousands  PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

jshahi city AL leaders on the Rajshahi University unit BCL committee, are two reasons for the committee’s many failures, sources said.

Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) activists of the Rajshahi University unit reportedly have not been able to organise a single major national programme on the campus in the last five years.

The most recent BCL committee was formed on July 20, 2013 with Mizanur Rahman Rana as president and SM Towhid Al Hossain Tuhin as secretary.

Since then, Khaled Hossain Biplob has been the acting secretary of the BCL university unit.

Ibrahim Hossain Moon was president of RU BCL in 2009, Awal Kabir Joy was president in 2010 for two years, and Ahmed Ali Mollah was elected president in 2012.

None of the committees has been able to organise a national programme since 2009, not even on days like August 15, December 16 and February 21.

Their only activity has been to be

Chhatra Shibir said at present there are 171 members in RU BCL committees of which 30 to 35 are actually Shibir members.

The Dhaka Tribune was able to get hold of the names of some of the cadres but failed to confirm their posts.

These Shibir agents working inside the BCL are president group members Mehedi, Bony (management), Bani (political science), Selim, Mehedi, Rinet, Shawon, Islam, Mizan, Runi and Billah.  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

The rickshaw lane beside the approach road of Mayor Hanif flyover in the capital’s Chankharpool area has turned into a puddle, owing to the lack of responsibility of the authorities concerned. Rickshaws now ply the approach road creating congestion MEHEDI HASAN

5 | News

4 | News

6 | Nation

Ruling Awami League and its student wing Chhatra League yesterday made contradictory statements about the clash between two Chhatra League factions of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology in Sylhet.

Bangladeshi seamen and ex-marine cadets have recently been finding it hard to compete in the international shipping sector as they slide down the preference list of recruiters.

n Aminur Rahman Rasel Complainants against a UK mining company licensed to run the controversial Phulbari open pit mine, say a narrowly defined UK government ruling on complaints against the firm has failed to allay fears about its practices.

Christine Haigh, campaigner at the World Development Movement, said: “The UK government’s investigation is right in pointing to the company’s failures to date. But by omitting to consider the inevitable effects this mine would have on the region’s population, the investigation does little to ensure that their rights are protected. If it goes ahead, the Phulbari coal mine will be a human rights disaster. Local people have repeatedly made it clear that they don’t want it and GCM should expect continued resistance if it pushes ahead against their wishes.”

The agency that made the ruling, the National Contact Point (NCP) for the OECD, is charged with upholding guidelines for multinational corporations of Organisation for Economic Development countries to adhere to the values and rules of the organisation.

The NCP Final Statement, published on the UK government website on Thursday, itself acknowledges the narrowness of its remit and limitations in its methods in its ruling on Global Coal Management Resources plc (GCM).

GCM Rescources plc is a UK registered company incorporated in 2003

Mathematics manifests itself in everyday life, from simple counting to complex research, philosophy and human thought process, opined speakers at the Dhaka (north) regional Olympiad competition yesterday.

The drug business in Comilla is worth Tk200 crore a month making the district a prominent hub of the illegal activity. Various drugs are exported to eight districts of the country.

8 | Hay Festival

Lucy Hawking, children’s book author and daughter of Stephen Hawking, talks about her book series and the challenges of writing science fiction

7 | World

Military vehicles of the Kurdish security forces move during an intensive security deployment in Diyala province north of Baghdad on Wednesday. Read more on page 16

 PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

Phulbari mining firm’s human rights record okayed

INSIDE 3 | News

Shakib al Hasan’s timely hundred - his sixth in ODIs and third against Zimbabwe – and four-wicket haul enabled Bangladesh to begin the five-match ODI series on a winning note as the hosts humbled the visitors in the first game by 87 runs at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium (ZACS) yesterday. The win brought some much-needed relief in the Tigers’ camp as it was their first ODI victory this year in 14 attempts.

Playing his first ODI since returning from a reduced three-month suspension, Shakib was at his brilliant usual self once again. First, the maverick all-rounder struck 101 off 99 balls – his first ODI century in four years - to guide Bangladesh to a competitive total of 281/7. He then starred with the ball taking 4/41 to help bundle out the opposition for 194 in 42.1 overs. In the process, he became the 12th player in history, and the first Bangladeshi, to score 100 runs and pick up four wickets or more in the same ODI. Bangladesh ODI captain Mashrafe bin Mortaza earlier lost his fourth toss in a row as the visitors asked the hosts to bat first. Zimbabwe ODI skipper Elton Chigumbura probably wanted his bowlers to avoid the dew factor later on in the evening, hence, the decision to field first under broad daylight.

Chigumbura’s decision proved be a right one, in the beginning overs at least as the Tigers were struggling at 31/3 and later, 70/4.

It all started with opener Tamim Iqbal (five) playing a Tinashe Panyangara delivery onto his stumps.

Tamim’s opening partner, Anamul

15 | Entertainment

Dhallywood diva Mahiya Mahi is going to produce a film named ‘Nioti’. Abdullah Zahir Babu penned the orthodox romantic drama. Zakir Hossain Raju is expected to direct the film.

under the name Asia Energy plc. It changed its name in January 2007 to Global Coal Management plc and in December 2007 to GCM Resources plc.

In 2006, the company was embroiled in controversy when Bangladeshi protesters opposed its bid to start open pit mining in Phulbari. The Guardian reported on August 30, 2006 that during protests by 30,000 people against the firm, security forces opened fire injuring 300 and killing six.

The NCP admitted that it did not visit the country, let alone the site of the disturbance “GCM is a British company so government has a soft corner for it. It is a simple mater. There is no legal basis for GCM in the Phulbari coal project,” National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Minerals Power and Ports Member-Secretary Professor Anu Mohammad told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday. His organisation opposes the project and has been involved in protests against it.

“The UK government is in favour of GCM but our people is against the project and have rejected it,” he said.

On December 21, 2012 the International Accountability Project (IAP) and the World Development Movement (WDM) claimed the Alternative  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

2

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Armed Forces Day observed, Khaleda absent n Julfikar Ali Manik Armed Forces Day reception at Senakunja has always been considered as an event that creates scope for incidental meeting between top leaders of all major political opponents but the programme yesterday saw nothing like that.

According to the layout of the programme Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, also the defence minister, hosted the reception at Senakuja.

As usual Hasina gave a speech in the programme and exchanged pleasantries with officials and family members of armed forces and dignitaries.

At the same programme last year guests were curious about the possibility of an incidental meeting between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and then Opposition Leader and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia but Khaleda did not turn up.

Yesterday too Khaleda Zia, a former PM, opposition leader and also wife of former army chief Lt. General Ziaur Rahman, was invited on the occasion of celebrating glorious Armed Forces Day but she did not join the Senakunja reception.

Like last year, there was no official explanation as to why Khaleda refrained herself from joining the reception that she hosted for many years during her premiership.

Not only Khaleda, none from BNP joined the programme except for BNP’s standing committee member Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman who has always been invited to the reception as a former chief of army staff.

Mahbub told the Dhaka Tribune

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina exchanging greetings with families of members of the Army, Navy and Air Force at Senakunja inside the Dhaka Cantonment yesterday, on the occasion of Armed Forces Day. As part of the day’s celebrations, a decorated ship of Navy is opened for visitors at the Narayanganj Launch Terminal PID

‘Our government wants to see a disciplined, efficient, modern and well-equipped armed forces’ over phone that Khaleda Zia was invited yesterday but he doesn’t know why she did not turn up “I heard that Fakhrul Saheb (BNP’s acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir) too was invited.”

Though Khaleda was absent Fakhurl last year joined the reception at Sen-

akunja. But yesterday Fakhrul also abstained himself from participating the reception.

When contacted over phone, Fakhrul told the Dhaka Tribune, he had a per-scheduled public rally in Bogra and that is why he could not attend the reception.

When asked why BNP Chairperson Khaleda did not join yesterday, Fakhrul said: “Madam was a bit sick.”

However, former army chief Mahbub gave a different version: “Khaleda needs help of others when she moves somewhere. I guess, as her personal attendants were not invited she could

not come to the programme.”

Jatiya Party and Opposition Leader Rawshan Ershad was also absent from the reception programme yesterday.

Rawshan’s Political Secretary Golam Moshi told the Dhaka Tribune that the leader of the Opposition was in Singapore for treatment.

But Jatiya Party chairman and former army chief HM Ershad, also a special envoy of PM Hasina attended the reception. Leaders of many left political parties were also present at the reception.

Prime Minister Hasina in her speech expressed her hope that armed forc-

Parliamentary delegates tour India to discuss terrorism and militancy n Rafe Sadnan Adel

An eight-member parliamentary delegation led by Muhammad Faruk Khan left Dhaka for India yesterday to attend meetings in Kolkata and New Delhi on an invitation by the Indian government.

The delegates will take part in discussions on various aspects of regional

issues regarding terrorism, extremism and democracy in the two countries.

Other members of the team are Parliament Whip Iqbalur Rahim, Pankaj Nath, Mustafa Lutfullah, Nahim Razzak, Mahjabin Khaled, Shafiqul Islam Shimul and Kazi Nabil Ahmed, said SM Manzoor, director of public relations at the Parliament Secretariat.

During the Kolkata visit, the Bang-

ladeshi delegates will meet the chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, and will exchange views on various topics, including visa process simplification and cooperation between the countries to prevent terrorist and militant activities in the border area.

In New Delhi, the delegates will meet the Indian parliament speaker, ministers, members of parliament,

diplomats, prominent journalists and academics to exchange views on different regional topics. The team will also meet senior BJP leaders as well as Rahul Gandhi of the Congress.

In addition, they will meet the Election Commission of India to discuss their new electronic voting system.

The parliamentary delegation will return home on November 26. l

Secretary group members Himu, Tamim, Mamun, Tagar, Masud, Sumon, Ashif and Rifat also reportedly work for Shibir.

A Shibir leader, on condition of anonymity, told the Dhaka Tribune that some members of his organisation are able to work within the BCL by changing their names and hiding their identities. Some BCL members have switched sides as well, he said.

One way Shibir has won over members of the opposing party is to stand in support of BCL members beaten up by other BCL members; that act of personal support is paid back in political allegiance.

It was alleged that because of massive support from Shibir leaders, it is unlikely that the present RU BCL unit president Rana would take stringent action in certain circumstances.

Ahsanul Haque Pintu, an AL leader elected three times as secretary to the RU BCL committee, told the Dhaka Tribune that most leaders inside the

BCL committee are Shibir cadres.

“How is it possible to organise a programme in such a situation?” he asked.

A senior teacher of the university told the Dhaka Tribune: “When the AL government came to power, the BCL committee would not even hold a procession on campus. But the then president of BCL, Ibrahim Hossain Moon, was able to bring out a procession at noon with over 300 people, although it was scheduled for the morning.

“When progressive minded teachers went to thank him for the act, Moon told us that most of the activists among the 300 belonged to Shibir,” the teacher added, requesting anonymity.

Moon told the Dhaka Tribune: “You have to accept reality in some cases and there is nothing one can do about it.”

Asked about not holding any program on campus, the present RU BCL committee president, Mizanur Rahman Rana, told the Dhaka Tribune: “It is not actually true that we did not

hold any programmes in the last five years. We brought out processions and sometimes formed human chains but all of that was conducted outside the campus as there was university embargo on activities on campus.”

RU authorities had in a syndicate meeting, on May 12 of the year, passed a 15-point order following the bloody clash between BCL and Shibir on March 13, 2009 that killed the then Shibir secretary of RU unit Sharifuzzaman Numani,.

The syndicate ordered all meetings, processions, gatherings, hanging of banners, sticking posters, campaigning and distributing leaflets be prohibited on campus until a fresh order was provided.

But there was no embargo on holding discussion meetings or observing national programmes on the campus.

A top BCL leader of RU, wishing to remain anonymous, said: “We could not do so because our firstly we could not getting enough people to attend

Investment Market-listed company had breached OECD guidelines for multinational companies.

The complainants claimed that human rights violations against 23 different tribal groups and the destruction of 12,000 hectares of prime agricultural land would result from the GCM pit mine.

The IAP is a civil society organisation based in the United States and WDM is a UK civil society organisation.

In its Final Statement, the NCP concluded the company had not breached most OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises but included significant qualifications to its findings.

While the NCP found one partial breach in GCM’s failure to properly communicate with and foster trust with local communities, it absolved the company of actual breaches of human rights during this time.

But the NCP admitted that it did not visit the country, let alone the site of the disturbance, saying “it did not consider a visit an effective use” of its resources, despite appeals by both complainants to do so. It admits that it did not speak to representatives of the Bangladeshi government either.

One of the ways in which GCM failed to communicate properly is found in an admission by the company that the Resettlement Plan for those displaced by the mine was not available in Bangla at the time of the protests in August 2006.

When it was made available in Bangla after the shootings, the company opted against distributing it and made it available online instead.

Yet the efficacy of an online disclosure, requiring literate people with access to computers and the internet in order for it to be effectively communicated, is doubtful.

In fact it is undermined by the NPC’s own admission that “its ability to verify information and sources were limited by the lack of UK government contacts in the Phulbari area,” indicating it remoteness.

Fears of the real implications of open pit mining, and the lack of any written resource from the company in Bangla spurred the residents’ agitation, the report records.

The NCP report recognises there was an ongoing debate regarding the impact of open-pit mining and of a foreign-owned company’s involvement in such a project.

Kate Hoshour, of International Ac-

countability Project, says: “There are grave concerns about the high risk of further violence in Phulbari if GCM persists in its efforts to force this project forward despite massive local opposition. The UK government should be taking all possible action to avert further harm, rather than restricting its assessment to harm that has already been inflicted. The government should also recognize and condemn the ongoing violation of the rights to self-determination and to free, prior, and informed consent for indigenous peoples who have been fighting to halt this project since 2006.”

Crucially, the NPC report acknowledged that its narrow reading of its remit in the complaint precluded it from commenting on the key issue of potential impacts of the open pit mine.

It acknowledged the limitation, saying an independent assessment of the impacts fell outside its remit and that it could only consider whether GCM’s assessment was properly conducted.

The Bangladesh government’s policy on extractive mining procedures has undergone several changes, contributing to uncertainty for all parties. The ADB withdrew consideration of the Phulbari project in 2008 over a lack of

Plight of Rohingya minority  PAGE 1 COLUMN 1

more have escaped across Myanmar’s borders to neighboring countries.

Thai authorities largely pin the exodus on the Myanmar government, arguing that Rohingya are fleeing persecution and violence.

“The problem starts with Myanmar. The reason they’re coming over is because Myanmar does not want them (the Rohingya) and they are being persecuted and forced to flee because of violence over there,” Sanya Prakobphol, chief of police for

 PAGE 1 COLUMN 2

and secondly the city AL committee dominates over us and only allows us hold programmes which are favourable for them. They want to use the university BCL committee for personal reasons.”

BCL president Rana said it was not true that the city AL committee disturbed them. He refuted allegations of Shibir infiltration into the BCL’s ranks.

Abdullah Al Hasan Sohel who was killed in a BCL intra-party turf war on October 16, 2012 was later shown to be a Shibir cadre. His father was also Jamaat-e-Islami leader in the Kaunia upazila, Rangpur.

Khairuzzaman Liton, president of the Rajshahi city AL, admitted that some Sathi level Shibir cadres had infiltrated BCL committees.

He said the BCL committee was working on expunging members of other parties and currently the percentage was almost down to zero.

He denied the city AL was trying to dominate the RU BCL. l

made with the black money.

“In the interrogation we have found that all the arrestees have properties such as flats, land and luxury cars in the capital. But our top priority is to arrest their cohorts. I think the Anti-Corruption Commission will investigate into their illegal wealth later,” the investigator told the Dhaka Tribune, requesting anonymity.

“You will be surprised by the wealth of Palash [one of the arrestees], who used to introduce himself as the ‘dharmoputro’ [god son] of Biman Chairman Jamal Uddin Ahmed.

He is not a contractor or does not have any source of income. But among the arrestees he owns more wealth,” he said.

Earlier DB officials had found that the senior Biman officials arrested Wednesday were only a small part of a big gold-smuggling racket that may involve bigwigs such as ministers, lawmakers, high-ranked government offi-

Kapoe district in southern Thailand, told Reuters.

According to the Arakan Project, which plots migration across the Bay of Bengal, about 100,000 Rohingya have left Rakhine since 2012. Violent clashes with ethnic Rakhine Buddhists that year killed hundreds and left 140,000 homeless, most of them Rohingya.

Some Rohingya, as Reuters reported last year, are held for ransom by trafficking gangs at jungle camps in Thailand until relatives pay to secure their release. l

certainty regarding the country’s coal policy.

“There is no gain for the country in not extracting from the coal mine.

Many fear that following an open pit system will bring disaster in 30 years.

I think, if during extraction proper techniques are followed, no disaster will happen,” Ijaz Hossain, professor at Buet, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

“But the government has to come to a concrete decision about coal, as without it we will face shortages in electricity production,” he said.

GCM chief operating officer and chief executive officer of its Bangladesh subsidiary Gary Lye said: “The OECD report is a timely reminder for the people and Government of Bangladesh of the high quality work done for the Phulbari Coal Project. This project is ready to start now and will provide Bangladesh with the most efficient and fastest way to access new and affordable large scale commercial energy and electricity.”

The fate of the GCM project at the Phulbari coal mine, with 572 million tonnes in reserve, has been hanging in the balance after the government suspended it in 2006. l

cials and influential businessmen. The arrested officials generally looked after the implementation part of a smuggling assignment.

Officials from some other departments of Biman are also suspected to be involved in the racket, such as engineers who know the ins and outs of the aircraft structure.

The DB now believes that although the arrestees controlled a major part of the smuggling and the airport-based syndicate, they never owned any of the consignments.

Wednesday’s arrests came a couple of days after detained Biman crew Mazharul Afsar Russel gave a magistrate the names of people allegedly involved in gold smuggling. He was arrested on November 12 with five gold bars weighing 2.6kg.

In a confessional statement given to the magistrate on November 17, Russel gave the names of 61 members of Biman and Caab allegedly involved in gold and currency smuggling. l

Unstoppable Shakib  PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

Phulbari mining firm’s human rights record okayed  PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

The government is set to buy three bullet-proof BMW sedans for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The decision came as three vehicles in the prime minister’s car pool went out of commission, sources said.

The three vehicles will be kept for use for the prime minister, foreign dignitaries and other VVIPs as designated by the government, said officials involved with the procurement process.

An official memo said the first instalment, amounting to Tk1.17 crore, would have to be disbursed from the Finance Division as the expenditure had already been approved by the relevant department.

According to sources at the Prime Minister’s Office as well as the Expenditure Control Wing of the Finance Division, the prime minister has already approved the proposal. The memo notes that delay in payment in favour of BMW’s local agent Executive Motors Limited would mean a delay in arrival of the vehicles too. The three BMW 7 series sedans will cost Tk13.54 crore.

According to records of the prime minster’s transportation pool, one bullet proof car is 16 years old, while another four are almost nine years old.

During the 2007-08 military-controlled interim government, expatriate AL leaders and workers arranged funds for purchasing two bullet-proof cars for the former prime minster following the recommendation by her security committee. l

Crackdown on gold-smuggling

Shibir moles, AL touts hobble RU BCL  PAGE 1 COLUMN 4

es would make more contribution to building the country maintaining discipline and professional efficiency.

Hasina said: “The armed forces radiant with the Liberation War spirit is our national pride.”

Citing the steps taken by her government for the development and modernization of Army, Navy and Air Force, Hasina said, she wants continuous prosperity of the armed forces.

“Our government wants to see a disciplined, efficient, modern and wellequipped armed forces.”

“We will do all needed to build a modern armed force,” said the premier. l

3 more bullet-proof BMWs for prime minister n Tribune Report

Haque (12), followed soon after mistiming a Tendai Chatara delivery into the safe hands of Chigumbura stationed at mid-off. Mahmudullah (one), batting at No 4 for only the second time in ODIs, was the next to depart after facing just nine balls.

Mominul Haque, coming in at No 3, was then joined at the crease by Shakib. Just when the duo were starting to settle down at the wicket, Mominul was dismissed by John Nyumbu for 31 while going for a wild heave.

Mominul’s dismissal, however, paved the way for the most enterprising part of the game, not if you are a Zimbabwean supporter. Shakib, alongside Mushfiqur Rahim (65 off 72), took stranglehold of the game and counter-attacked the opposition bowlers at will.

The fifth-wicket pair added 148 runs to take Bangladesh to a strong position - a position from which debutant Sabbir Rahman would later take advantage of. This is Bangladesh’s highest partnership for the fifth wicket in ODIs and also the highest stand for any wicket in one-day internationals at ZACS. Shakib initially took time before shifting his gear while Mushfiq at the other end played with responsibility and scored his 17th ODI fifty – his sixth against Zimbabwe. Shakib in the meantime, en route to his century, ac-

cumulated another amazing record. He became the fourth cricketer after Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya, South Africa’s Jacques Kallis and Australia’s Steve Waugh to score more than 2000 runs and take more than 100 wickets in ODIs at home.

Even after Shakib’s innings – featuring 10 boundaries - came to an end, the entertainment was not over for the holiday crowd. Sabbir, Bangladesh’s 113th ODI cricketer, smashed 44 runs off just 25 balls on his debut and added some late impetus to the Tigers’ innings. The youngster from Rajshahi clobbered three fours and as many sixes.

Even though Zimbabwe started brightly, courtesy opener Hamilton Masakadza’s quick 42, a flurry of wickets at regular intervals meant the visitors were always behind in the running for the eight-ball.

Bangladesh’s spinners dominated again, much like the Test series, accounting for eight of the 10 Zimbabwean wickets. Besides Shakib, Arafat Sunny, touted as the replacement of veteran spinner Abdur Razzak, picked up two wickets while Mahmudullah made up for his disappointment with the bat by scalping two wickets.

Mashrafe also picked up two wickets.

In the midst of it all, Brendan Taylor struck his first fifty of the tour, and 30th overall, but it did not hinder Bangladesh’s cause one bit. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

3

Saturday, November 22, 2014

SUST VIOLENCE

Contradictory statements from AL, BCL leaders Hayat Mahmud and n Abu Arif Ahmed Ruling Awami League and its student wing Bangladesh Chhatra League yesterday made contradictory statements about the clash between two Chhatra League factions of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) in Sylhet.

Awami League Advisory Council member and former railways minister Suranjit Sengupta strongly criticised the SUST clash and said such activities of Chhatra League had contaminated its historic tradition and put the government in an embarrassing position repeatedly.

“We should save Chhatra League. A handful of its activists are hampering its glorious history. The achievements of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government are not being appreciated properly because of them,” Suranjit said during a meeting organised by Bangabandhu Academy at the Liberation War Museum in the capital’s Segunbagicha area, chaired by another ruling party leader Hazi Selim MP. “We cannot let it happen. We should bring back the glory that the organisation had when Bangabandhu founded it,” the veteran Awami League leader said.

The clash was between two factions of the student organisation over establishing supremacy on the SUST campus on Thursday. It was a gunfight which left a private university student dead and nine people injured. Police arrested 17 Chhatra League activists alleged to be connected with the incident.

Suranjit also commented on the statements made by Finance Minister AMA Muhith and Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid – both of whom are from Sylhet – on the incident.

Addressing Muhith’s reply to critics, Suranjit said: “The finance minister is an MP from Sylhet, so I request him to please visit the spot (SUST) and say ‘Rubbish,’ like he says when expressing his displeasure.”

Referring to Nahid’s reaction when a Chhatra League member set fire to MC College hostel in 2012, Suranjit said: “I request you to go to the university

campus and shed some tears, at least.”

But Chhatra League Central Committee President Badiuzzaman Shohag denied the organisation’s involvement in the clash.

Addressing a press conference at Dhaka University yesterday, Shohag said: “No Chhatra League member was involved in the clash, as the prime accused [Uttam Kumar Das] had been expelled from the party a year ago for assaulting party leader Shamsuzzaman Sumon. Chhatra League will not take the responsibility of his misdeed.

“Moreover, the student killed in the clash was an outsider. So, how can Chhatra League be involved in it?” he asked, adding: “We express deep shock over the death of the student.”

He also raised questions on the role of police as “the law enforcers failed to arrest the accused in spite of the cases that had been filed against him earlier.”

Claiming that Chhatra League was firm in upholding its reputation, he said: “If we find any of our members involved, we will take punitive action against that person.”

What police say

Akhtar Hossain, officer-in-charge of Jalalabad police station, said following the clash, police and detectives conducted separate drives in different areas of Sylhet city and arrested 17 Chhatra League men on the night of the incident.

Two of the arrested were identified as Anik and Khokon, while the identities of the rest had yet to be determined when this report was filed. One revolver and 19 sharp weapons were recovered from Anik’s possession during his arrest.

Earlier, police filed a case against 250 Chhatra League activists in connection with the violence.

The victim, Sumon Das, 22, was an activist of Chhatra League in a private university, sources at police said.

Following the incident, the SUST authorities suspended all operations of the university for an indefinite period, and a three-member probe committee headed by university professor Dr Ilias Uddin was formed to investigate the incident. l

Artistes of Prachyanat Theatre perform a street play in memory of the victims of Tazreen fire tragedy that occurred on November 24 two years ago. The photo was taken from capital’s Shahbagh area RAJIB DHAR

Chhatra League continues to be violent n Ahmed Zayeef

More and more acts of atrocity and crimes, including killing and mugging, committed by Chhatra League activists at educational institutions continue to be reported across the country.

There have even been reports of Chhatra League activists killing their own fellows for trivial reasons or to establish dominion.

To date, killings at educational institutions have amounted to eight since the tenth parliamentary elections were held on January 5. The victims include five Chhatra League men, a Chhatra Dal leader, a Chhatra Shibir leader and a general student. Four institutions were also closed because of clashes involving Chhatra League factions during the period.

Top Chhatra League leaders have been said to be busy making their own fortune and their incumbencies have

run out. Besides, disqualified leaders were allowed to form the majority of the committees in exchange for money, a reason they are now unable to control activists.

In a meeting with Chhatra League leaders on November 13, Prime Minister’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy advised them not to be involved in acts that might defame the ruling party.

But his advice seems to have fallen on deaf ears as two Chhatra League factions got into a gunfight at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology over establishing dominion on the campus on Thursday. Sumon Roy, a third-year business student at Sylhet International University, was killed in the gun battle.

Chhatra League men, as a matter of fact, have run amok on different occasions after the Awami League claimed victory in the 2008 general elections.

According to reports, Chhatra League

“In many cases, those who were disciplined for their misdeeds later occupied key posts in the organisation.

This is why Chhatra League men are not afraid of committing atrocities,” he said.

Another Chhatra League leader said the present central committee expired more than a year ago as the leaders took oath on July 11, 2011.

“The committee was formed for two years. Now most of the leaders are trying to get government jobs or to get involved in business by using party posts,” he said.

Chhatra League President Badiuzzaman Shohag could not be reached for comment despite repeated attempts over the phone.

He, however, claimed at a press briefing yesterday that Chhatra League was not involved in any offence.

“The press is spreading propaganda against Chhatra League,” he added. l

Scanty clues complicate RU Professor Shafiul killing investigation

Tarique’s trial to start after he returns n Tribune Report

Awami League Publicity and Publication Affairs Secretary Hasan Mahmud yesterday said the trial of BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman would start as soon as he returns home.

While addressing a discussion meeting, Hasan Mahmud said: “Tarique Rahman, whose 50th birthday was celebrated recently by BNP leaders, is a fugitive. Like BNP, we, along with law enforcement agencies and the court, also want his return to the country to start his trial.”

“However, his party [BNP] leaders stated that security would be provided to Tarique on his return,” he added.

He said BNP was now a political party with no leaders, activists and supporters adding that “The party is now busy celebrating the birthday of Tarique Rahman after losing strength to launch any movement.”

The Awami League leader made the comments while speaking as the chief guest in a meeting on Current Politics And People’s Rejection of Destructive Politics of BNP-Jamaat, organised by Swadhinata Parishad at Mukti Bhaban in the capital. The programme was chaired by the organisation’s adviser, Barrister Zakir Ahmed.

Criticising the recent remarks made

by BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir towards Prime Minister’s Information and Communication Technology Affairs Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy, he said: “Pass remarks with courtesy, otherwise, leaders and workers of Awami League will not sit idle.”

“Do not come up with derogatory remarks against Sajeeb Wazed Joy. He completed his graduation from Harvard University and is the main brain behind transforming Bangladesh into a digital country.”

“Leaders and workers of our party will give a befitting reply if anybody passes derogatory remarks against him,” the Awami League leader warned. l

factional clashes have accounted for 38 deaths around the country since then.

On November 2, Chhatra League activist Mahmudur Rahman Manna was killed in a Chhatra League factional clash in Halishahar of Chittagong. On October 29, Mustafizur Rahman Taukir died when his Chhatra League fellows pushed him out of a train while he was returning to Chittagong after attending a conference in Dhaka.

Earlier this month, Dhaka University authorities temporarily expelled four Chhatra League activists for assaulting a photojournalist and his nieces on the campus.

Several Chhatra League men were sentenced to death last year for assaulting and killing a tailor named Biswajit in Old Dhaka in 2012.

Requesting anonymity, a vice-president of the central committee of Chhatra League, told the Dhaka Tribune Chhatra League men have no accountability.

Jamil Khan from n Mohammad Rajshahi

Demanding representation of people with physical disabilities in every sphere of society, Bangladesh Society for the Change and Advocacy Nexus form a human chain in front of the National Press Club yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Rafiqul terms Joy’s belated appointment circular mysterious n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla BNP Standing Committee member Rafiqul Islam Miah yesterday said the belated circular announcing the appointment of the prime minister’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy as an honorary adviser to his mother was mysterious.

“Joy has been the prime minister’s adviser since she assumed office but why the circular was not issued back then is a mystery. The government should clarify why it suddenly became necessary to issue the circular at this particular period,” he said while addressing a discussion at National Press Club organised by Sadhinota Forum.

The circular came in the wake of BNP leaders’ calls seeking clarification from the government about Joy’s honorarium.

Former posts, telecommunications and

information technology minister Abdul Latif Siddique claimed Joy is paid around 2 lakh dollars a month for his advisory role. Rafiqul claimed he received a proposal to terminate then chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission Wazed Mia when the BNP was in power from 1991-96.

“When I was in charge of then Science and Technology Ministry, the then secretary brought the proposal to me and I was stunned. I talked to our chairperson and then premier Khaleda Zia about it, and the proposal was dismissed. Our chairperson is an individual who never believes in vengeance,” he said.

The BNP leader claimed the secretary who brought the proposal to him is now very close to the Awami League.

“But the government led by Sheikh Hasina is now filing cases in a row against Khaleda Zia and Tarique Rah-

man out of vengeance. This is the difference between the BNP and the Awami League,” he said.

The senior BNP leader said HT Imam, political affairs adviser to the prime minister, administered Chhatra League activists who operated mobile courts during the January 5 elections.

“The Election Commission was subservient to the interests of the government and had no power. HT Imam was the co-chairman of the commission at the time,” he said.

The BNP standing committee member said Khaleda Zia’s decision to boycott the election was right as HT Imam had revealed the inside story of the polls.

“Opposition leaders would not have got the chance today to speak if Khaleda Zia chose to contest the elections,” he added. l

A lack of clues from the 11 arrestees has proved it difficult for police to make headway with the investigation into the killing of Rajshahi University teacher AKM Shafiul Islam.

Seven days have passed since the killing took place but there has been little progress with the probe. The twoday remand period of the arrestees has also ended while police are facing mounting pressure to arrest the killers.

Police yesterday evening produced the arrestees before Rajshahi Metropolitan Court and petitioned for putting them on a fresh seven-day remand.

But Magistrate Sharmin Akther said hearing on the remand prayer would be held tomorrow and sent the arrestees to prison.

Alamgir Hossain, officer-in-charge of Motihar police station and the investigating officer in the case, told the Dhaka Tribune no concrete evidence could be obtained yet but the raw clues suggested militancy behind the murder.

On November 15, sociology professor Shafiul was killed in front of his rented house at Chauddapai area in Rajshahi. A day after the murder, Rajshahi University Registrar Entajul Haque filed a case with Motihar police station against unnamed criminals.

Police detained over 50 people in different parts of Rajshahi city during the investigation for their suspected involvement in the crime. Of them, 11 were shown arrested and were remanded in custody for two days. The remand period ended yesterday.

An official of Motihar police station, who was involved with the interrogation of the 11, told the Dhaka Tribune no information could be received during questioning that might help make progress.

This made it necessary to petition for a fresh remand, he said.

Sardar Tamizuddin Ahmed, additional commissioner of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police (RMP), said the special probe team was zeroing in on the slain professor’s social life and possible involvement of militants.

A top RMP official said the primary probe suggested that the killers were outsiders but they could not be traced yet Inspector of the RMP Detective Branch told the Dhaka Tribune the attack, which took place in broad daylight, was not possible to carry out without local support.

“We are receiving statements that vary greatly and we are finding it difficult to piece together the details of the murder,” he said.

Police, meanwhile, have combed different parts of the district based on the account of a female witness, who said she had seen five to six youths fleeing the scene after committing the murder.

She claimed she witnessed the crime from her window.

A top RMP official said the primary probe suggested that the killers were outsiders but they could not be traced yet.

RAB has also failed to achieve any breakthrough in the probe. Lt Col Mahbub Alam, commanding officer of RAB 5, told the Dhaka Tribune investigation was underway but no conclusion had yet been drawn. l

4

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Bangladeshi mariners fall behind in global race n FM Mizanur Rahaman, Chittagong Bangladeshi seamen and ex-marine cadets have in recent times been finding it hard to compete in the international shipping sector as they slide down the preference list of recruiters.

Cadets say there are several reasons behind this including visa-related complications and a deterioration of reputation because of certificate forgery by some dishonest Bangladeshis.

There have also been instances where Bangladeshi mariners have illegally stayed back in foreign countries during shipping transit.

Finding jobs in foreign vessels is particularly important for Bangladesh sailors and ex-marine cadets at this time because the number of local vessels – including both government and private – have decreased significantly in recent times.

Many cadets have complained that they failed to join their work on board foreign ships despite having appointment letters, because the foreign visa authorities took too long to give them clearance.

According to Saiful Islam, a junior cadet, Bangladeshi mariners need to wait at least one month for getting visa to board an Indian ship as a crew. While on the other hand, for Indian mariners, getting visa to board Bangladeshi ships does not take more than two to three days.

After some Bangladeshis were caught with fake certificates, the special permit facility known as “okay to board” was withheld. In the past, that permit enabled mariners to fly to a country without visa and join work on a ship anchored in a port in that country.

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO), who used to award that special permit to mariners, have withheld the facility for Bangladeshis.

As a result, the Bangladeshi mariners these days have to get the usual visa for joining work on board foreign ships.

One arrested for anti-state propaganda n Tribune Report A team of Rapid Action Battalion 3 arrested a man yesterday in the capital’s Shahjahanpur area on charge of spreading propaganda against the government and the state.

The arrestee was identified as Anwar Hossain.

Major Maksudul Alam, assistant director of RAB’s legal and media wing, said they also seized a pistol, ammunition, six crude bombs and some jihadi books from the 32-year-old during a drive early yesterday.

“He is a cyber criminal. He put up derogatory posts on social media websites including Facebook and Twitter against Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as well,” the RAB official claimed.

However, he did not disclose what Anwar had posted on the social media websites.

He also said Anwar might have connection with Islami Chhatra Shibir, or militants.

RAB filed two cases against Anwar in this connection. l

Saiful said some manpower agencies have been providing countrfeit certificates to unskilled Bangladeshi sailors.

Captain Zillur Rahman Bhuiyan, president of the Bangladesh Merchant Marine Officers’ Association, told Dhaka Tribune that the visa-related complications had been creating problems for not only fresh cadets but also for the professional seafarers.

“They are facing visa problems in the United Arab Emirates [UAE], Singapore and India – the major employers in the global shipping sector – in particular,” he said.

“We have already the urged the government to strengthen vigilance to stop people from getting jobs abroad with counterfeit certificate of competency [COC] and continuous discharge certificate [CDC]. Moreover, we have called for intensified diplomatic activities to resolve visa issues as early as possible,” he said.

Commodore M Zakiur Rahman Bhuiyan, director general of the Department of Shipping, said they had already taken punitive measures against the fake seamen.

“Moreover, we have already talked to the ministries concerned, including the Foreign Ministry, to fix the visa tangles as soon as possible,” he said.

Supply-demand mismatch

At present, there are a total of 17 marine academies in the country; of them one is public and the rest are private. In fact, most of these private academies have started functioning only very recently.

As a result, there has been a sudden momentous rise in the number of marine cadets in the country, at a time when the number of local vessels have declined significantly.

According to the Bangladesh Ship Owners Association, there were as many as 70 Bangladeshi vessels operative in 2012. In 2014 however, that number has come down to only 38, sig-

nificantly cutting down sources of local jobs for mariners.

Captain Habibur Rahman, general secretary of the association, told the Dhaka Tribune: “Many local ships have been made inoperative because they are more than 30 years old. In addition, many other ships have found it hard to make a profit as their trade was limited in the subcontinental waters.”

On October 23, a group of ex-marine cadets of the state-run Bangladesh Marine Academy held a press conference in Chittagong where they urged the government to postpone admissions in some of the private institutions because supply had been way above demand.

Out of the 313 cadets, who have graduated from the Marine Academy in December last year, 170 were still to find any job, they said in the press conference.

Getting jobs would be even tougher when 256 more fresh graduates from the government academy and 500 more from the private institutions would join the job hunt this year, they said.

Other problems

There are allegations that the Bangladeshi shipping authorities do not regularly update the mariners’ verification database that they maintain.

Junior cadet Kamrul Islam, who has completed three voyages so far, told Dhaka Tribune: “I have recently found that my CDC certificate in verification system is not up to date. It shows that I have completed only one voyage whereas in reality, I have already made three voyages on different ships.”

However, shipping department boss Commodore M Zakiur Rahman claimed: “The database of the online verification system is regularly updated with latest information about the cadets. if anyone faces any problem online, just send an email to the onduty officer and the problems will be fixed.” l

CPB, BSD to protest gas price hike move today, Monday n UNB Two left-leaning parties, namely Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) and Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal (BSD), are jointly going to stage demonstrations in the capital today protesting the recent move to raise gas prices.

Besides, the parties will also hold such sort of programme across the country on Monday against the move that was supposed to come into effect from January 1 next year.

BSD General Secretary Khaliquzzaman made an announcement in this regard after a meeting with the CPB in the latter’s central office in the capital’s Paltan area.

Energy expert Badrul Imam, member secretary of the National Committee to Protect Oil Gas Mineral Resources Power and Ports Prof Anu Muhammad, economist Prof MM Akash, CPB President Mujahidul Islam Selim and its leader Ruhin Hossain Prince, among

others, addressed the meeting chaired

by Khaliquzzaman.

They urged upon the government shunning its move to raise the gas prices.

Anu Muhammad said the price hike decision would directly affect 80-85 percent of people living under the poverty line.

Badrul Imam blamed mismanagement and corruption in the energy sector, saying “Bapex should take over the charge of the country’s gas exploration immediately from profit-making multinational companies like Chevron, Gazprom, Niko for the sake of the sector.”

MM Akash demanded suspension of the government’s move till completion of the public hearing over the hike, which has remained pending to Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC).

As per the BERC law, the commission shall conduct a public hearing over any energy price hike related to policy decisions, Akash went on. l

Aparajeyo Bangladesh, a national child rights organisation, brings out a rally yesterday in the capital’s Farmgate area, on the second day of the ongoing End Child Slavery Week 2014 SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Muggers loot Tk10 lakh in Mirpur n Tribune Report

Armed muggers snatched Tk10.80 lakh by shooting a money exchange trader at Mirpur-10 in the capital on Thursday night.

The victim identified as Sharif Nasir Hossain, 28, is a resident of Janata Housing. He runs a money exchange business at Mirpur-10.

Lok Sabha MP stresses regional unity

n Tribune Report

Indian Lok Sabha MP and Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs Dr Shashi Tharoor said only unity among the states could ensure economic development in South Asia.

He said at a meeting with Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury yesterday in her parliament office.

In the brief meeting they talked about issues pertaining to bilateral relations between two neighbouring countries and how to strengthen parliamentary democracy.

Tharoor congratulated Shirin Sharmeen on her being elected as the executive chairperson of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA).

The speaker told Tharoor that the CPA wants to give priority to the agricultural sector in this territory.

In a recent workshop jointly organised by Punjab State Parliament and Greenwich University titled Role of the Parliamentary Agricultural Committee in Chandigar of Punjab in India the speaker had emphasised the same.

Dhaka too recently organised a three-day workshop titled Economic and Financial Challenges for Emerging Economies in South Asia where the speaker stressed the need for macroeconomic stability in South Asia.

The continuation of the economic progress will depend on how quickly and effectively the region can deal with it. l

Quoting the victim, SM Mizan, sub-inspector of Mirpur police station said a gang of muggers riding two motorbikes stopped Nasir when he reached Janata Housing area at about 7:55pm. Brandishing guns they tried to take a bag full of money.

They fired several gunshots targeting Nasir’s legs as he tried to resist them. They were finally able to snatch

Tk10.80 lakh and flee the scene leaving him in a pool of blood. The victim was immediately rushed to Delta Medical Hospital at Mirpur and was later shifted to National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation.

A case was filed in this connection with Mirpur police station. No one was arrested in this connection till yesterday evening. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Mathematics manifests itself in everyday life

10,000 yaba pills seized n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Speakers tell the 6th Undergraduate Mathematics Olympiad n Our Correspondent, Gazipur Mathematics manifests itself in everyday life, from simple counting to complex research, philosophy and human thought process, opined speakers at the Dhaka (north) regional Olympiad competition yesterday.

The event was organised as part of the 6th National Undergraduate Mathematics Olympiad 2014 at the Dhaka University of Engineering and Technology (DUET) campus in Gazipur.

Addressing the event Co-convenor of the National Undergraduate Mathematics Olympiad Committee Professor Anwar Hossain said: “Without mathematics, development of science and technology is impossible.”

Echoing the same sentiment, DUET student Nasiruddin said: “Maths not only helped develop my skills but also enabled me to help others. That is why I am participating in the event.”

Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) student Khadija Akter Mousumi said, mathematics is important in all aspects of life as it helps resolve various problems.

A total of 140 undergraduate students from 16 universities attended the competition. The participating universities were DUET, Jahangirnagar University, NSU, EWU, Uttara University, IUBAT, IUT, IUB, Ananda Mohan College, Prime University, Bhawal Badre Alam Government College, Mymens-

ingh Agricultural University, Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University, City University, Islamic University and International University.

Top 10 students were selected, after a written test, to compete in the final Olympiad which will be held at the Dhaka University on December 12 along with other regional winners.

The winning students are Imran Islam, Mehnaz-e-Ferdous and Md Eusha bin-Hafiz of Jahangirnagar University, Md Tariqul Islam of Uttara University, DUET students Md Koushik Islam and Md Mehedi Hasan Shahin, NSU students Anika Tasnim and Saeed Ahmed, Badhan Chandra Sarkar from Ananda Mohan College and IUBAT student Syed Mohammad Iqbal.

Convenor of the Olympiad committee Professor Munibur Rahman Chowdhury, DUET Vice-chancellor Professor Mohammad Alauddin, President of the Olympiad committee Professor Shirajul Haque, and mathematics professor of Jahangirnagar University Professor Layek Sajjad Andallah were also present.

Professor Alauddin in his remark said: “Maths make people persevering, attentive and calculative. Maths reigns supreme.”

With financial support from the AF Mujibur Rahman Foundation, the undergraduate Olympiad is being organised by Bangladesh Mathematical Society. The Dhaka Tribune is the media partner this year. l

5

Saturday, November 22, 2014

With winter tightening its grip, warm clothes have started to arrive in the markets. This trader carries stacks of blankets and warm clothes bought wholesale to his shop in capital’s New Market yesterday SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Police found 10,000 yaba pills in a microbus as it was entering Chittagong along the Shah Amanat Bridge over the Karnaphuli River yesterday and held its driver, 29-year-old Bashir Ahmed.

Bakalia police station Officer-inCharge Mohammad Mohsin said they stopped and checked the microbus around 7:30am and found the contraband hidden in a spare tyre close to the driving seat.

He said Bashir was on his way to the port city from Cox’s Bazar to deliver the goods to a vendor there. According to the information in Bashir’s statement, police are now trying to arrest the local yaba vendors in Chittagong .

A case was lodged with Bakalia police station in this connection.

Bakalia police, in another drive, held one Fazlul Haq from the Chaktai area of Chittagong city, with 16 yaba pills.

The OC said Fazlul had been involved with yaba peddling for long and yesterday a mobile court led by Assistant Commissioner and Executive Magistrate Ashraful Alam sentenced him to a one-year jail term.

According to the Department of Narcotics Control, around 37 yaba manufacturing factories are located in the Mongdu town of Myanmar ; not far away from the Teknaf upazila of the Cox’s Bazar district.

Around 90% of the smuggled yaba enter the country through the Naf River and are later distributed across the country from Chittagong.

Admitting an alarming increase in the incidents of yaba smuggling through the port city, Chittagong Metropolitan Police Additional Commissioner (Crime and Operation) Banaz Kumar Majumder told the Dhaka Tribune that they had tightened security measures to thwart smugglers.

“We have increased watch over the city’s entrance points, particularly the Shah Amanat Bridge area where vehicles enter the city from Cox’s Bazar,” he said. l

Fire at Mir Paper Mill in Chittagong n CU Correspondent

AL activists with political clout to grab school land in Barisal

Inu: Khaleda trying to restore militancy

n Our Correspondent, Barisal

n Our Correspondent, Kushtia

A fire gutted a warehouse of a paper mill in Chittagong city’s Kalurghat area yesterday morning.

No causality was reported, said fire brigade sources.

Md Yahia, assistant director of Fire Service and Civil Defence headquarters in Agrabad said the fire had originated from an electric short circuit at the warehouse of Mir Paper and Carton Mill located in BISIC industrial area of Kalurghat around 8:30am.

On receiving information, fire fighters with two units from Agrabad and Kalurghat fire station rushed to the spot and doused the flame after two and half-an-hours, said the sources.

The extent loss of the fire was estimated at Tk7 lakh while owner of the paper mill claimed that the fire had gutted valuables worth about Tk10 lakh. l

Two local activists of the ruling Awami League have allegedly been grabbing the land belonging to the Poisa Higher Secondary School and College in the Poisarhat area of the Agoiljhara upazila in Barisal.

The activists who are siblings have played music loudly during school hours, which disturbed the quiet and calm atmosphere of the school within which a public primary school is run.

On a visit to the school, this correspondent found that the Akbar Chowkidar and his brother Joynal Chowkidar, activists of Agoiljhara upazila unit AL, lived in a house beside the school and had also had cut down trees along the school boundary to erect an extra house, latrine and a barn.

It was learnt that Joynal is also a man-

WEATHER

DRY WEATHER LIKELY SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22 DHAKA

TODAY SUN SETS 5:11PM

TOMORROW SUN RISES 6:19AM

FORECAST FOR TODAY 29 29 28 28 28 28 29 29

Dhaka Chittagong Rajshahi Rangpur Khulna Barisal Sylhet Cox’s Bazar

18 19 13 15 13 16 15 20

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aging committee member of the school.

When asked, Mizanur Rahman, principal of Poisa Higher Secondary School and College, acknowledged that the land had been grabbed. He further said that a four-decimal piece of land adjacent to the school had been donated by local social workers, namely Anwar Hossain, Monachchher Hossain, Kawsar Hossain, Russel Hossain and Rina Begum.

However, the siblings have been using their political clout to grab the land and finally they have almost blocked the entrance of the institution, the principal went on.

Abdul Khalek Shikdar, founder and president of the managing committee, echoed the voice of the principal, saying the siblings’ ill move was very disheartening for them. They had already failed to recover some portion of the school

land from the other influential people.

The school authorities on November 2 have complained to the local UNO, OC and upazila education officer seeking action.

In response, Agoiljhara police station ASI Paresh Chandra Shikdar visited the spot. When contacted, the ASI acknowledged the grabbing and termed the move of the activists very unfortunate.

A report, however, would be submitted after more investigation, the ASI continued.

Agoiljhara UNO Devi Chanda also acknowledged having receiving the complaint and assured that legal action would be taken after investigation.

Joynal Chowkidar however, denied the allegation hurled against him and he claimed that his forefathers donated the land to the school without proper measurement as per the document. l

Information Minister Hasanul Haque Inu yesterday said the BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia was trying to restore militancy in the country after failing to thwart the January 5 election and constitutional process.

“I want to make it clear that Khaleda Zia is the leader of militancy and she is trying to create an anarchy in the country. We should not forget that she had supported militancy and terrorism in the past,” said the minister talking to reporters before attending a discussion at Mirzanagar Government Primary School in the Mirpur upazila of Kushtia.

He said the leader of the BNP was now raising the demand for fresh parliamentary polls to cover the crimes of the militants, war criminals and her family.

60,000 students attend classes inside ‘risky’ school buildings n Our Correspondent, Barisal A hundred and eighty-nine government run primary school buildings in Barisal have been marked “risky” by the district primary education department.

Although renovation and reconstruction work of 146 buildings have already begun, students are still attending classes amid risks because of lack of alternative locations.

The building of Kawnia Government Municipal Primary School, built in 1994 in ward 2 under the Barisal City Corporation, started to gradually fall apart a few months ago.

Reconstruction of the building, that accommodates more than 400 students, is going on at a snail’s pace.

Students are still attending classes although it is risky, said Baby Haldar, headmaster of the school.

Last week four students sustained injuries when a portion of plaster fell on them inside a classroom. Students are loosing interest to come to school these days, she said.

More than 60,000 students in the 189 schools are currently facing the risk of being crushed down by dilapidated school buildings.

Local guardians and some of the

Two killed in Ctg road accident n CU Correspondent Two people were killed in separate road accidents in the Mirsarai upazila in Chittagong yesterday.

The deceased were Sahidul Islam,45, and Taslima Aktar, 15, both were residents of the upazila.

Police said a covered-van hit Sahidul when he was crossing the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway in the Bortakia area around 9:00am.

Locals rushed him to Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) where doctors declared him dead. l

school authorities claimed that the low quality materials used in constructing the school buildings were responsible for the quick decay.

Most of these buildings were built only two decades ago, they said.

Last week four students sustained injuries when a portion of plaster fell on them inside a classroom Barisal District Primary Education Officer Towhidul Islam said there were a total of 1,513 government run primary schools in Barisal.

Reconstruction of 149 schools have already started while the rest would be done in the near future, he said.

The buildings of Sirajia Government Primary School and Chahuta Primary School on the outskirts were found in dire straits.

Officer Towhidul Islam said: “We can do nothing. Reconstruction and repairs of buildings require time, but most of the schools have no alternative space to provide education.” l

Later, the minister attended a rally at Juniadah Porankhali Primary School ground under Bheramara upazila.

Referring to BNP’s subversive activities before the national election he said: “The pace of development cannot be foiled by torching private and public properties in the name of movement for democracy.”

The minister who is also the President of the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal said his party joined the Awami League-led grand alliance to root militancy out of the country.

JSD leader and valiant freedom fighter Dr Abdul Hakim presided over the rally, which was also addressed, by Central Convener of Nari Jote Afroza Haq Reena, District JSD General Secretary Abdul Aleem Swapon and JSD central leaders – Abdullah Emdadul Islam Ata, SM Ansar Ali and Aslam Uddin. l

Alal released from Kashimpur jail n Our Correspondent, Gazipur

Ansar men loading sacks full of phensedyl and some security guards on a pick up van who were arrested from an apartment in capital’s Segun Bagicha area in a drive led by Ramna police yesterday MEHEDI HASAN

President of the Jaiyatabadi Jubo Dal, Sayed Moazzem Hossain Alal was released on bail from Kashimpur central jail in Gazipur yesterday morning.

Kashimpur central jail part 1 Jailor Amzad Hossain Don said necessary documents of Alal’s bail reached the jail on Thursday night. Alal was released around 11:15am after the checking of documents was completed.

Alal was arrested from the capital on October 30 in connection with a vandalism case filed with Mohammedpur police station.

He was then sent to Kashimpur jail on October 31. l

6

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Nation

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Business of illegal drug worth Tk200 crore infests Comilla n Our Correspondent, Comilla The drug business in Comilla is worth Tk200 crore a month making the district a prominent hub of the illegal activity. Various drugs are exported to eight districts of the country from Comilla everyday.

Every month, law enforcing agencies confiscate drugs worth Tk5 crore, which is claimed to be only one fortieth of the huge amount of drug smuggled in through the border.

This makes the monthly business a staggering Tk200 crore one. It is alleged that politicians, law enforcers and some journalists are involved with the business.

Sources from the district law and order committee said, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) confiscated drugs worth Tk3 crore 61 lac 27 thousand and 571 in September while RAB seized

drugs worth Tk23 lac 54 thousand 760, Police Tk62 lac 56 thousand 300, narcotics control department Tk9 lac 43 thousand 500 and forest department seized drugs worth Tk2 lac 6 thousand 284.

BGB sources said, there are 15 border posts in the 101 kilometre border area spanning over the five districts of Comilla. Most of the drugs are smuggled through various areas of Brahmanpara, Burichang, Adarsha Shahar, and Chouddogram. 40 percent of these drugs are exported to Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet, Feni, Noakhali, Lakshmipur, Brahmanbaria and Chandpur.

The rest 60 percent is sold in retail in various areas of the district using women and children.

Such widespread availability of drug has been destroying the social fabric in Comilla. It has also contributed to increasing violence,

crimes and family problems.

Earlier in September, a father sold his child for Tk20 thousand just to buy drugs. An addict killed his child after an altercation with wife over drug use. On October 16, siblings could not but kill their drug addict younger brother and dumped him in Gomti River to get relief from his torture. Besides, a number of complaints and cases of mugging, blackmailing, kidnapping and killing are being filed with Comilla’s police stations everyday.

Chairman of Janmo Drug Rehabilitation Centre Shoeb Ahmed Jewel said, there had been at least 500 addicts getting treatment at five rehabs of the district. More than 10 thousand people received treatment in the last 10 years in these cetres.

Despite such destructive and widespread use of drugs, there has been no instance of any drug lord getting

arrested in Comilla. Sometimes when the cohorts are arrested, they get out with the support of politicians and law enforcers.

Senior Police Super of Comilla Sadar Circle Jahangir Alam said: “Drug paddlers are being arrested on a daily basis.

Even cases are filed against them. But they get out very easily with the help of superiors.”

Commander of BGB-10 Lieutenant Colonel Zakir Hossain said, they had taken initiative to raise awareness among the mass against drugs. To rein in drug business, demand for it also must be curbed.

Deputy Commissioner of Comilla Hasanuzzaman Kollol said: “As part of our anti-drug campaign, we have introduced a football tournament titled ‘Football Against Drug’. Moreover, the number of mobile courts will also be increased.” l

Gas supply disrupted in Tangail as pipeline explodes n Our Correspondent, Tangail Gas supply in Tangail district was severely disrupted as a pipe line at Elenga in Kalihati upazila exploded yesterday morning.

The pipe line of Town Valve Station at Elenga suddenly erupted causing gas leak and suspending the gay supply from Elenga to Gazipur’s Kaliakoir area, Barun Babu, deputy manager of Tangail Titas Gas Transmission Company told the Dhaka Tribune.

As a result, residents, gas stations and other establishments faced sufferings throughout the day.

CNG-run vehicles could not operate due to shortage of gas. Akter, an auto-rickshaw driver, said he had to wait at a refuelling station for hours but without any success. “I cannot run

my vehicle as there is no gas. This also means no income for me today,” he said.

Owner of a gas station Abdul Kayyum said: “We cannot refuel the vehicles as there is no gas supply. This is hurting our business.”

Meanwhile, residents of the district could not prepare food at home due to the disruption. Many people had to buy food from restaurants.

Rikta Akter, resident of Shibnath Para of Tangail town, said gas supply came to a halt at around noon, when most of the families were preparing lunch on the first day of the weekend.

Deputy Manager Barun Babu said they were working on bringing an expert from Dhaka to fix the damaged pipe line.

The repair work was still going on when this report was filed at 6pm. l

Srimangal tea workers deprived of minimum rights to survive n Our Correspondent, Rajshahi Hundreds of workers of Srimangal tea estates have been passing their days amid untold suffering for long as there is no basic rights for them to live.

Consequently, their children have also been forced to adopt the profession and to be the victim of the sorry consequence for the generations.

It was learnt that about 150 years ago, the then British government had developed many tea gardens in the Maulvibazar and Sylhet areas and they took the forefathers of the workers to there from different states of the undivided India as worker.

Later, the authorities had erected mini houses, called labour line, inside the gardens for their living. After the independence of Bangladesh, there was no change in their profession and suffering.

In course of time, the family members of the workers have increased, resulting a serious accommodation crisis.

Finally the labour line has turned into a place of congested habitation and stinky environment due to unavailabil-

Accident kills one, injures two in Gazipur n Our Correspondent, Gazipur

A man was killed and two others were injured in a road accident on Dhaka-Mymensing highway in Baniarchala area in Gazipur yestrday. The deceased was AKM Nurul Amin,60.

The injured were Nurul Amin’s son Ashfakul Islam,30, and their car’s driver, police said.

Police said the accident took place as a truck hit the car of Nurul Amin from behind, killing him on the spot. The injured were first rushed to Kazi Hospital in Bagherbazar. Later, they were shifted to Dhaka Orthopedic Hospital. l

Fire guts five shops in Bhairab n Our Correspondent, Kishoreganj

Five shops were gutted in a fire in Bhairab upazila yesterday. The fire originated from a electric short circuit in an electrical shop of one Mamun Mia in Komolpur New Town area in Bhairab around 8: 30am, and soon engulfed adjecent four other shops.

The owners of the shops claimed that the flame gutted valuables worth about Tk30 lakh. Three units of firefighters from Bhairab Fire Service doused the flame with the help of locals after one and a half hours of efforts. l

ity of proper facilities as the tea garden owners do not permit them to build new house elsewhere.

Even the owners cut their names from accommodation list when any worker adopts other profession.

Dewanti Rajbangsi, a tea worker at Madhabpur National Tea Estate in Kamalganj upazila, said every worker’s weekly income is just Tk414 and they are struggling to ensure food for the family members. Sometimes they have to pass their days without lunch.

Another worker named Shibani Mahara echoed the voice of Rajbangsi, saying with sorrow that they get just Tk3 for one kg tea leaves while the figure for the owners is Tk250.

On the contrary, Samareshpoor Dankan Brothers’ Field staff Tanvir Hasan differed with the workers, telling that the tea workers enjoy many facilities, including free medical service, food rationing and education for their children.

“Their wages would be lifted as early as possible as the crisis prevailed centring it has recently disappeared,” Tanvir added.

Bangladesh Tea Workers’ Union General Secretary Ramvajan Koiri said: “We the tea workers have participated in the 1971 Liberation War as well as the anti-British and Pakistan movements, but we are still far away from the benefit of the country’s independence. Even we have no homestead despite living there for four generations at a stretch.”

“The state should be ashamed for the poor condition of us. Besides, we have no right to go away without permission from the tea garden owners,” the secretary continued.

Society for Environment and Human Development, which works for the tea workers’ right, Director Fhilip Gaine said: “The life of the workers is almost like in prison while their pay is very low and education facility too much poor as well. On the other hand, the state authorities have ensured special arrangement for the tea workers in Sri Lanka and India.”

The director went on that if the government can ensure due wages and proper education for the workers, they would be able to overcome the sorry state. l

A farmer is seen taking care of his mustard field at Alimganj village under Godagari upazila, Rajshahi. A vast tract of land in Barind area have been brought under mustard cultivation this year. The photo was taken yesterday AZAHAR UDDIN

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Prescription

7

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Stay well during winter Cold weather means your skin’s barrier is under threat. The dreaded cold and flu season is coming – and arming your immune system is more important than ever. When the mercury drops, here’s how to keep your body healthy inside and out

Women, who like to chew on their lips wearing lipstick the body absorb iron, so if you’re tucking into a steak – which ticks the three boxes of being high in protein, iron and zinc – have some tomato and capsicum on the side.

Maintaining a healthy diet during winter is also good for the skin. Eat a diet rich in vegetables and increase your intake of foods that moisturise skin from the inside, such as omega-3-rich fish, walnuts and linseeds. If you’ve already got a cold, Fischer says to dose up on garlic, ginger and hot lemon drinks and eats chicken soup to help reduce mucous production.

Skin and hair care

Skin and hair tends to dry out in winter. The skin produces less oil, and it’s dehydrated further as we have hotter showers and are less physically active.

Use a cream for thicker hair and a spray for finer hair.

Look for brands that contain omega-3 oils, lipids and vitamin E. Topically, look for moisture creams and lotions that contain hyaluronic acid to quench

FOOD THERAPY

Foods for hair care Avocados With over 25 vital nutrients, avocados pack a punch with Vitamins E and B. Replace your pricey conditioner with a ripe avocado and apply to wet hair after using your favorite cleanser and let it linger on your locks for a few minutes. Rinse throughly and you’ll have a clean, fresh, and shiny head of gorgeous hair.

Beans

Beans are a great source of vitamin B6 and folic acid; and the minerals magnesium, sulfur and zinc. Add black beans to your favorite Tex-Mex recipe or workday lunch for a vitamin and protein boost that will keep you and your hair shining throughout the day.

Vegetables

Green leafy, sea vegetables and root vegetables are helping in hair growth.

Green leafy vegetables are good sources of BIGSTOCK minerals like iron, calcium, and silica; and vitamins A, C, and E. Seaweeds and other sea vegetables offer minerals like iodine and protein. Root vegetables contain vitamins A and E, as well as minerals like iodine and silica.

Seafood Seafood is a great way to stay slim and keep your heart healthy, and it can also benefit your hair. Halibut is full of more iron than other seafood, keeping your hair strong. Broil, bake, or grill this tasty fish for a great way to get the iron that your hair craves.

Not only does dairy build strong bones, but it also keeps your hair strong with calcium and Vitamins D and B12. Fill up on low-fat milk and cottage cheese to keep your gorgeous hair growing strong.

BIGSTOCK

Eggs

Dry Skin

The biggest cause of winter itch is dry skin. Less humidity in the air and cold temperatures certainly contribute to dry skin but many of us add to the problem with long hot showers or baths. Hot water strips your skin of essential oils, drying out the outer layer of the skin and with it, decreasing the moisture in the lower layers of the skin. Soap and other chemicals can also add to the dryness.

To help soothe dry, winter skin:

Folic acid lowers risk of autism n Prescription Desk

Mothers who took folic acid supplements in early pregnancy had a 40% lower risk of having children with autistic disorder compared with DID YOU KNOW? mothers who did not take folic acid, a team of European researchers found.

A study showed children born to women who started taking folic acid

supplements four to eight weeks before pregnancy appear to be at a lower risk of autism. Pal Suren of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and colleagues looked into the use of folic acid supplements before and during early pregnancy, and any impact on the later risk of various disorders on the autism spectrum. It is already recommend that folic acid lowers the risk of birth defects, and that women are often advised to take folic acid supplements before and during preg-

Not only will honey sweeten your tea, it can also add some s w e e t ness and shine to your hair.

BIGSTOCK Mix one tea spoon of honey with one glass of warm water and take it after awaking in the morning, your hair will appreciate the sweet effort.

Peas Peas provide an excellent way to get the carbohydrates and potassium that your hair needs to stay vibrant and strong. Although they contain more calories than other green vegetables, these nutrient-filled calories will keep you full and your hair at its healthiest.

Full of lean protein, turkey is an excellent choice for iron, which makes for healthy, strong hair. With less calories and fat than beef, turkey can be eaten more frequently and that means more ways to get solid protein in your diet.

Replace bacon with turkey bacon and throw a few turkey burgers on the grill for a lean, mean way to keep your hair strong.

Walnuts An excellent source of Vitamin E, walnuts provide a crunchy and satisfying way to give your hair the oils it needs to stay full of shine and luster. l

| Compiled by Rehana Ferdoushi Mili, Nutritionist

nancy. Suren’s research appears to confirm that the advice to take folic acid supplements is well-founded.

About 1 in 88 children, or 1.14%, in the United States have been identified with an autism spectrum disorder, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Mothers who took folic acid supplements in early pregnancy had a 40% lower risk of having children with autistic disorder compared with mothers who did not take fo-

It is already recommend that folic acid lowers the risk of birth defects, and that women are often advised to take folic acid supplements before and during pregnancy

Honey

Turkey

Dairy

Whether you like t h e m scrambled, poached, ove r - e a s y, or sunny side up;

eggs are an inexpensive way to get the protein you need to start your day off right. Take a egg everyday, your hair will be sparkling.

Having healthy lips in winter may be a dream come true for many. You tend to have very dry and cracked lips every winter. The skin on your lips is very thin and has no oil glands to prevent it from chapping.

Even the most expensive lipstick will not cure the dryness of your lips. Women, who like to chew on their lips wearing lipstick, will consume about 4 to 9 pounds of lipstick in their life time! Aging plays a very important role in causing dry lips.

Biting your lips will result in bleeding and cracked lips.

Licking your lips is the worst habit! So you have to avoid bad habits.

To protect your lips quit smoking! It will completely spoil your lips and it may become too late to regain the color and texture of your lips. Always keep your lips moisturized by applying a natural lip balm. Apply lip balm before going to bed. Licking your lips is a bad habit. Yes, it may look like it is keeping your skin moisturised for a moment, but it worsens the situation! l

lic acid, the researchers found.

Folic acid is found in naturally high levels in foods such as dark leafy greens, asparagus and broccoli, as well as citrus fruits. l

n Cut showers down to a maximum of 10 minutes and don’t take more than one shower every 24 hours. n Lower the temperature of your shower or bath. While hot water is more relaxing, it also dries out your skin. n Use moisturising shower products and use fragrance and dye free mild soaps. n When done your shower, pat dry and liberally apply moisturizer. n Use a humidifier to offset dry winter heat inside your home n Wear soft, comfortable clothing n Other Causes of Winter Rashes n While dry skin is the most common cause of winter rashes/itchiness, there can be other causes: n Contact with latex or rubber n Sensitivity to products or ingredients in your soap, laundry soap or cosmetics. Remember, manufacturers can change ingredients so just because you didn’t used to be sensitive to certain products, don’t completely rule them out until you are sure. n Viral, bacterial or fungal infections.

When to See a Doctor For most people, at home remedies such as the ones outlined previously for dry skin, will help to improve Winter Itch.

But you should check with the doctor if: n Your rash doesn’t go away or worsens with home remedies n You have joint pain, fever or a sore throat along with the rash n Your rash is red, swollen or tender n You developed the rash shortly after starting a new medication n Your doctor will be able to determine if your itchiness/rash needs medical treatment or can suggest some additional home remedies to help relieve the itchiness.

| Compiled by: Shirsho Saaeadat

Brown rice contains more arsenic than white n Prescription Desk A report said, brown rice contains 80% more arsenic than white variety. After releasing a report in 2012 that left several RESEARCH questions unanswered, Consumer recently released an updated report on levels of arsenic in different kinds of rice, as well as other grains.

Available both online and in the January 2015 magazine, the report finds that the source and type of rice matter, and that children are especially vulnerable to going over recommended arsenic levels, notes Consumer Reports. Combining findings from the Consumer Reports Food Safety and Sustainability Center, which tested 128 samples of white, basmati, and jasmine rice, with tests and data from the original 2012 study, as well as with data from tests performed by the FDA, the report takes

697 samples into account.

Among the key findings: Geography clearly affects levels of toxicity – basmati rice from California contains the lowest levels of arsenic, while Texas rice ranks among the highest.

And because arsenic accumulates in the grain’s outer layers, brown rice actually contains 80% more arsenic than white rice. While washing rice can remove some nutrients, it can also reduce up to 30% of the rice’s arsenic.

Other grains that take up less arsenic from soil include buckwheat,

BIGSTOCK

Vaccination is the most effective defense against the flu, but it only covers three main strains and offers no protection against a head cold that can leave you feeling just as ill as a mild flu. Vaccination is not widely practiced in our country. While cold and flu might be our worst enemy, plenty of other viruses do the winter rounds. Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), which causes pneumonia and chest infections like bronchiolitis, is common and usually accounts for most hospital admissions of young children in winter.

Other winter problems to watch out for include parainfluenza (which causes croup), rhinovirus (runny nose), rotavirus (diarrhoea), adenovirus (pneumonia, diarrhoea, conjunctivitis), coronavirus (common cold).

Most people take the right precautions, but those most vulnerable to winter sickness are the young, the elderly, the immuno-suppressed, chronically ill and smokers. And if you do get sick, keep your distance, stay home, don’t do anything strenuous, rest, eat well and you should be back to normal within days.

Take every possible protection from winter and never hesitate to wear different winter clothes for different body part.

Take care of your lips

BIGSTOCK

Fighting flu

You must have enough protein in your diet to enable the body to respond to infection, while iron, zinc, vitamin C and amino acids such as lysine (found in beef and poultry) also bolster immunity. If you have good levels of those things to start with, then you’d have pretty good resistance to infection.

Boosting your diet is a better way to go than supplements. Vitamin C helps

For many people, the winter time brings itchy skin, often referred to as Winter Itch. It may or may not come with a rash – small, low-grade bumps.

But the most obvious symptom is the itchiness.

thirsty skin and help maintain its protective lipid barrier.

BIGSTOCK

It’s the time of year when you’re likely to stay under a warm blanket.

But exercise in a winter morning and good nuHEALTH trition are vital to keepFLASH ing your immune system strong through the winter months, when we’re most vulnerable to the 200 varieties of virus that cause cold and flu.

How to control Winter Itch

BIGSTOCK

n Dr Sajol Ashfaq

Food as a medicine

QUICK TIPS

millet, barley, and farro. The report includes a point system people can follow for recommended weekly limits, while the FDA has yet to set safety levels for arsenic in rice.

“Children younger than 5 should not drink rice drinks as a substitute for milk,” one scientist tells Time. The FDA, meanwhile, says assessing arsenic in rice is a top priority. l

8

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Hay Festival

Saturday, November 22, 2014

TODAY AT HAY Our top picks 10-11am | In the Light of What We Know | Main Stage Zia Haider Rahman talks about Godel’s theory of incompleteness, writing life, and his connection to Bangladesh.

Zia Haider Rahman, author of one of the most lauded debut novels of the year, talks to Firdous Azim.

11:15-12:15am | Architecture of Cultural Spaces | Lawn The Architecture of Art and Literature.

Discussing the crossover and tensions between art and architecture.

Aurelien Lemonier, curator of architecture of the Centre Pompidou and Bangladeshi architect Kashef Chowdhury, with Diana Campbell Betancourt.

11:15-12:15am | That Which Cannot Be Said | KKTea Stage Inspired by the Vagina Monologues, this performance is based on the lives of Bangladeshi women.

Production by Naripokkho.

12:30-1:30pm | Champion of the Word | Main Stage Freedom of speech, championing of indigenous languages and writers in exile, and the bestselling novel that started it all.

John Ralston Saul, novelist, essayist, and activist talks to Peter Florence.

The second day of Hay Festival Dhaka at Bangla Academy included a variety of panels (top: Science Matters with Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, Hossain Zillur Rahman, Lucy Hawking and Marcus du Sautoy), performances (left: Honey Hunters Pala set in the Sundarbans by BotTola Theatre Company, inspired by a newly launched book) and readings (right: spoken word artist Kosal Khiev) MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

GOOD LINES

Best quotes of the day “Someone commented that my work was written in the cold detached Germanic style. When you’re from (Bangladesh), people expect writing to be warm with flavour and spice.”

- Naeem Mohaiemen, Treasures in Texts “Any place I go, what grabs me is the people. People make the place, not the other way around.

And that’s how I feel in Bangladesh – like I’ve always been here.”

- Kosal Khiev, Against All Odds Advice for young women writers? “Just claim your space. Don’t waste your time being something other people want you to be.”

- Nilanjana Roy, The Woman as a Writer “You can’t have freedom without literature or literature without freedom of expression …

Freedom of speech is how societies function.”

- John Ralston Saul, Freedoms of Expression “The real journalist is interested in everything but himself.”

- Gideon Haigh, The Long Form “In writing by women, a woman character gets out of problems by using her wits. With male writers, she uses her body.”

- Muneeza Shamsie, The Woman as a Writer “To get your writing to go viral, write in a way that people connect with it and share it … After all what is literature? It’s about connecting.”

- Isaac Fitzgerald, Top Ten Buzzes of the Year “A lot of people think freedom of expression is Western, but the Indian subcontinent has leaders, like Gandhi, who pushed for it.”

- Salil Tripathi, Freedoms of Expression

2:30-4pm | Shakespeare Is Ours | Main Stage These vignettes cover four decades of translated Shakespeare in Bangladesh.

Iconic performances by Aly Zaker, Firdousi Majumdar and Sara Zaker, featuring Nagorik, DU theatre department and Podatik 5:30-6:30pm | The Great Indian Statesman | Main Stage Shashi Tharoor discusses the intersection of his writing and political life, the recent debate on colonialism, and the book with the unforgettable title.

Shashi Tharoor with K Anis Ahmed.

3-3:45pm | Bishyo Darbar | Bottola Experiences with the Sufi order in Mirashorai, Chittagong.

Anna Cocchiarella with Arunava Sinha.

4:15-5:15pm | The Book of Gold Leaves | KKTea Stage Mirza Waheed on his second novel, set in the Kashmiri capital of Srinagar, where two star-crossed lovers find themselves in the midst of war.

Mirza Waheed with Alex Clark.

6:45am-7:45pm | Family Matters | Main Stage The politics of writing about families, real or imagined.

Mirza Waheed, Sandip Roy and Manju Kapur with Muneeza Shamsie.

LUCY HAWKING: Kids, here’s the key to the universe

MARIA CHAUDHARI: On memoirs

n Tausif Sanzum

n Sabrina Toppa

Lucy Hawking, children’s book author and daughter of Stephen Hawking, talks about her book series and the challenges of writing science fiction

Maria Chaudhuri’s new memoir Beloved Strangers charts one young Bangladeshi woman’s journey to escape: “It is not that home is an unhappy place. It is just that in her family, joy is ephemeral. With a mother who yearns for the mountains … and a charismatic but distant father … they are never able to hold on to happiness for very long.”

Chaudhari is able to find home in many places – from her childhood one in Bangladesh to new frenetic Asian megacities like Hong Kong.

After studying French and Russian literature, how did you transition to writing science fiction?

Quite naturally in fact. I studied arts and I grew up with a scientist.

The books are a fusion of storytelling and scientific information – I have the creative writing and adventure story background, and my father inputs the scientific information. So in a sense it works perfectly.

How do you interpret the concept of ‘home?’ Your characters move past national boundaries and discover new cities to establish themselves in.

How much does your father’s work influence your work?

I think I have made something new out of it. For example, the Goerge’s series is really the first attempt that I know of to try and explain the universe through adventure stories for children. So it’s something quite new that I have taken those two elements and made something original and different out of it.

As a literature student myself, I find writing for children is one of the most difficult types of storytelling.

Yes you identified the main issue. How do we get enough information into the books? How do we phrase it simply enough? How do we keep the adventure story moving fast enough so we don’t lose readers? That is something we work on all the time.

Tell us about the George’s series.

There are four books in print and the fifth and final book is coming soon.

The first one is George’s Secret Key to the Universe. It’s about a boy named George who lives with his parents in an ordinary house in a small town. One day, a new neighbour moves in named Eric, and he is the world’s greatest living scientist. (He is modelled on my fa-

ther as a young man, and that’s what he looks like in the drawings).

Eric has a supercomputer called Cosmos, which can open doorways to anywhere in the universe. So the books are the adventures of George and his best friend Annie. Each time they go somewhere through the doorway, you learn something about the place.

We put in as much info as we can. We also have essays written by leading scientists for children, writing about topics that we touch on in the story line.

There are quite tight constraints about what I am allowed to do. Because we have never met an alien, I can’t have one in the book.

What do you have to say to critics who say sci-fi is low literature?

Yes there is a significant amount of snobbery towards science fiction as a genre within the literary canon and it is never going to be considered high art, but it is very vibrant and exciting, and people love it.

There is a massive appetite for it. For kids, what is more exciting than getting into a spaceship with your friend and

going off on a journey, where you are the commander of the spaceship, and who knows who or what are you going to meet along the way?

It is doesn’t bother me at all if there is literary snobbery towards it.

How could sci-fi books like yours be incorporated into school curricula?

Well there are lot of things you can do.

The first book for example contains a lot of information, because where a topic is mentioned in the storyline, we included extra information about that in a box. These boxes are very educational.

The books give teachers a way to keep students engaged without getting bored.

Teachers can also ask students to write their own stories based on the books.

I can’t help but ask: Have you seen the movie Theory of Everything?

Yes I have. I actually talked about it in my panel. It’s beautiful, very beautiful.

It’s very odd for me to watch it, but I quite liked it because people always ask me what its like to have Stephen Hawking as a father. Now I just will ask them to go see the movie. l

In the 21st century, when even small children have lived in at least two different places by the time they are three, the concept of home is anything but stationary.

For myself, the answer to “Where is home?” depends on what is being implied by the question. Am I being asked where I was born, where I live now, where I would ideally like to live or where I might end up living?

Certainly the answers to each of those would be different. And in many ways I find that to be such a liberation.

I find it so terribly comforting that I can carry my home in my heart, sometimes more than one.

This is the idea that my narrative explores, this idea of a mobile, intangible home that has more to do with our souls than the physical habitation of our bodies. I think this idea is relatable to anyone, anywhere, in today’s world.

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

No, not really. Stories are stories and their very strength lies in being accepted by readers across the board. Certain imagery or settings or historical references specific to Bangladesh may be

Today 2:30-3:30pm | Lawn Writing The Self With Abeer Hoque and SB Veda easily recognised by the Bangladeshi reader, but that doesn’t mean the story is meant only for them.

How would you describe the literary culture of Bangladesh?

“Bangla shahitto” has always thrived in Bangladesh despite many odds, and Bangla Academy is an example of that tradition. As far as the English literary scene, I’d have to say it has gathered speed and momentum in the last decade or so. As a Bangladeshi writer writing in English, this is terribly exciting for me. I feel that I am part of a movement that is young but promising.

I find it so terribly comforting that I can carry my home in my heart, sometimes more (homes) than one What do you wish you would see more of among Bangladeshi writers?

This year some wonderful new work is being launched by more Bangladeshi writers.

I don’t feel like anything is lacking in terms of the diversity of topics and genres that have already been tackled by our very own.

Kazi Anis Ahmed has written political fiction, Ahsan Akbar has written an incredible collection of poetry that has all the qualities of humor, heartache and honesty.

I’ve written a memoir. I suppose what’s different about memoirs in the Bangladeshi context is that no one has quite attempted anything like it in recent years. Biographies and autobiographies are prevalent enough, but not exactly memoir. l

B O O K S L A U N C H I N G T O D AY Launching today Kindle magazine 12:30-1:30pm Lawn

“I am almost six-novels-old. It took me until the third novel to call myself a writer.”

- Manju Kapur, The Woman as a Writer “Every Bangladeshi is a poet.

There is so much flexibility in our language. Our language is not fit for writing science, so I started encouraging people to write science fiction.”

- Zafar Iqbal (Science Matters)

12:30-1:30pm | Commonwealth Writers Session | KKTea Stage Translations coming out of the Dhaka Translation Centre workshop.

Kaiser Haq, Shaheen Akhtar and Arunava Sinha, with Katie Grin.

1:45-2:15pm | Wheels In Motion | Main Stage Mimi Khalvati reads from her kaleidoscopic collection of poetry.

Discovering Sylhet by Ihtisham Kabir 1:45-2:15pm | KKTea Stage Belonging (Clémentine de la Féronnière)

by Munem Wasif 2:45-3:45pm | Cosmic Tent Forty Steps

by K Anis Ahmed (Bengal Lights Books) 3-4pm | KKTea

On the Side of the Enemy

by Khademul Islam (Bengal Lights Books) 3-4pm | KKTea

The Guerrilla (Daily Star Books)

by Bir Protik Shahzaman Mazumder 4:45-5:30pm | Cosmic Tent

This Old World (Bengal Publications) by Zeeshan Khan 4-4:30pm | Cosmic Tent

Six Seasons Review (Bengal Publications) 1:45-2:15pm Lawn

Jamini

(Bengal Publications) 1:45-2:15pm Lawn

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Israeli mayor’s ban on Arab workers ignites uproar n AP, Jerusalem The mayor of a southern Israeli city sparked a national uproar Thursday by barring Israeli Arab construction workers from jobs in local preschools, citing security concerns after a rash of attacks by Palestinian assailants elsewhere in the country.

The proposal was condemned as racist by Israeli leaders, but it reflected the tense mood in the country and deepened longstanding divisions between the nation’s Jewish majority and Arab minority. An opinion poll showed solid public support for the measure.

Israel has been on edge following a wave of Palestinian attacks that has killed 11 people over the past month, including five this week in a bloody assault on a Jerusalem synagogue. Most of the attacks have occurred in Jerusalem — whose population is roughly one-third Palestinian — with deadly stabbings in Tel Aviv and the West Bank as well. l

Israel says Hamas planned to assassinate Lieberman n Reuters Israel has arrested four Palestinians suspected of planning to kill Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman with an anti-tank rocket while he drove to his Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, Israeli officials say.

The alleged Hamas plot was hatched during the July-August war in Gaza. Its disclosure comes as ties fray between Israel and US-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is based in the West Bank, over a contested Jerusalem shrine.

A statement by Israel’s domestic intelligence service Shin Bet identified three of the detainees as Hamas members and, citing their confessions under interrogation, said they had hoped killing Lieberman “would relay a message to the State of Israel that would bring about an end to the Gaza war.”

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip although it is formally under Abbas’ rule, neither confirmed nor denied the allegations. l

Japan PM dissolvs house for snap election n Reuters Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dissolved parliament’s lower house on Friday for a snap election on Dec. 14, seeking a fresh mandate for his struggling “Abenomics” revival strategy just two years after he returned to power promising that “Japan is Back.”

Abe had vowed to revive the economy with a mix of hyper-easy monetary policy, government spending and reforms, while moving ahead with plans to rein in Japan’s massive public debt.

But doubts have grown about his strategy, especially after data showed this week that the economy had surprisingly slipped into recession in the third quarter after an initial rise in the sales tax to 8% from April.

“This is an ‘Abenomics’ snap election. Will ‘Abenomics’ go forward, or stop in its tracks? That is the question in this election,” Abe told a news conference. “Are our economic policies a mistake, or are they correct? Is there really any other way? This is what we want to ask all the people.”

Abe has said he would delay for 18 months a second tax hike to 10% that had been slated for October 2015. He pledged that the second increase, which advocates say is needed to fund the bulging social security costs of a fast-ageing population, would go ahead in April 2017.

No general election needed to be held until late 2016, and surveys show around two-thirds of voters are wondering why Abe is taking the plunge now. “The whole reason is a bit unclear, or a bit trivial,” said Yutaka Watanabe, a middle-aged tourist snapping a photo of the parliament building on Friday morning.

But the prime minister hopes to cement his grip on power before his support ratings slip too far. Next year, he plans to tackle unpopular policies such as restarting reactors that went off-line after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis.

An Asahi newspaper poll published on Friday showed Abe’s support fell to 39% - the lowest since he took office in December 2012 - and just a bit more than the 40% who do not back him. l

World

Nigerian village buries 45 after Boko Haram ‘slaughter’ n Reuters

IRAQ CONFLICT CLOSES IN ON BAGHDAD

Military vehicles of the Kurdish security forces are seen during an intensive security deployment in Diyala province north of Baghdad on Wednesday. Iraqi armed forces backed by the Kurdish peshmerga launched an attack to liberate Sadiya town, in Diyala province, east of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. Read more on page 16 REUTERS

Fears grow in India about ‘Modi-fication’ of education n Reuters Indians were flying aeroplanes, carrying out stem cell research and may even have been using cosmic weapons 5,000 years ago, according to the chairman of India’s leading historical organisation.

Professor Y. Sudershan Rao, the head of the Indian Council of Historical Research, has been criticised by fellow historians for comments that Hindu epics are adequate to understand the ancient world, rather than relying on evidence or research.

The Hindu nationalist government appointed Rao to the prestigious academic post soon after winning the biggest landslide in three decades, fuelling concerns of a push to teach the superiority of Hindu values and mythology at the cost of academic rigour, and cutting against the grain of secularism that runs through multi-faith modern India.

“We have so many proofs that these events happened,” Rao, 69, said in an

interview, describing events in the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, the ancient Hindu epics about love and war, truth and deceit, that feature characters using inextinguishable fire and weapons with the destructive power of a nuclear arsenal.

Similar views have won support from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and in part reflect a belief that India’s history books are beholden to colonial powers, foreign invaders and Marxists.

While there is debate over the exact age of the Hindu epics, historians say they were probably written at least two millennia ago. Rao says this in itself is proof the texts are factual because humans did not develop the art of fiction writing until a few centuries back.

Many academics are horrified by such views, and describe his appointment as a blow for the history organisation set up four decades ago to guide research and hand out grants.

They point to signs of a broader plan to bring more Hinduism to the classroom through changes to the curriculum.

Two Indian states run by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party have recruited controversial Hindu nationalist Dinanath Batra to advise on writing textbooks.

In June, thousands of schools in Gujarat were given textbooks by Batra that claimed cars were invented in ancient India and told children to draw an enlarged nation to include countries including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

Teachers at Batra’s organisation say they want the books to be in every school.

“The lessons from today’s history books are that Indians are nothing and good for nothing,” said Atul Kothari, secretary of Batra’s Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti, or Save the Education Movement. “The truth is that historically we have been a far superior race.”

Education Minister Smriti Irani, a former soap actress, declined to comment on what revisions will be included in a review of the curriculum planned next year.

The last time the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party was in power a decade ago it began to rewrite school books in line with Hindu-nationalist orthodoxy.

When the rival Congress party came back to power it rewrote the books again. Academics say the loser in all this are confused, and sometimes ill-informed, school children.

Modi is the first prime minister to publicly back the view that holy texts show many discoveries of modern science were made by ancient Indians. He told an audience of doctors last month that the Hindu god Ganesh’s head was evidence of ancient plastic surgery. A warrior the Mahabharata describes as born outside his mother’s womb was a test-tube baby, Modi said.

“These claims can be interpreted as signs of an inferiority complex,” said Romila Thapar, a leading scholar on ancient India. “The most disturbing thing is that many people accept this without questioning it,” said Thapar, whose books one BJP leader has said should be burned. l

Karzai: Afghanistan does not need Indian boots on its soil

Arizona sheriff sues Obama over immigration order

n Agencies

n Reuters

Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai said Afghanistan did not need Indian boots on its soil, only to add later that it did not need any boots on its ground, said a report published on NDTV. Speaking to Indian journalist Barkha Dutt during the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2014 in New Delhi, the former Afghan president also said that India was well situated to train Afghanistan’s officers, civil services as well as fulfill its needs of military equipment.

Meanwhile, referring to Pakistan, Karzai said the discovery of former Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in Pakistan proved that US was waging war against the wrong country.

Bin Laden was killed by US Navy Seals inside his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan in May 2011.

In an address to a think-tank in New Delhi earlier this week, Karzai had also rejected warnings by former military

ruler Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf that India and Pakistan could co-opt allies among Afghanistan’s main ethnic groups to effectively wage war against each other, saying such claims were “hurtful.”

“Of course Afghanistan will not allow a proxy war between Pakistan and India,” Karzai had said, saying he was “sure” India wouldn’t allow such a scenario either.

In an AFP interview earlier this week, Musharraf had warned that Pakistan would look to use ethnic Pashtuns to counter if India tries to achieve its goal of creating an “anti-Pakistan Afghanistan.”

India and Pakistan have long accused each other of using proxy forces to try to gain influence in Afghanistan.

Pakistan was one of only three countries that recognised the mainly Pashtun Taliban regime that ruled in Kabul before being toppled in late 2001 after a US-led invasion in the wake of the September 11 attacks. l

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Saturday, November 22, 2014

An Arizona police chief who calls himself “America’s Toughest Sheriff ” sued Barack Obama on Thursday soon after the US president imposed sweeping immigration reforms, saying the changes were unconstitutional.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whose force used racial profiling during a crackdown on illegal migrants last year according to a judge, said Obama has overstepped his powers by bypassing Congress and bringing in the changes himself.

Arpaio’s lawsuit said the reforms, which eased the threat of deportation for about 4.7 million undocumented immigrants, amounted to an amnesty and would encourage more people to cross the border illegally.

The biggest overhaul to immigration in a generation has set up a confrontation between the president and Republicans, who took full control of Congress this month and also said the

president had gone too far by imposing the changes.

It was Obama’s biggest use of executive actions in a year in which they have become his signature way of working around congressional gridlock. “(Obama’s immigration) programs are unconstitutional abuses of the President’s role in our nation’s constitutional architecture and exceed the powers of the President within the US Constitution,” read Arpaio’s complaint filed in a federal court in Washington.

Obama earlier dismissed Republican accusations that the changes amounted to an amnesty for illegal immigrants.

“Amnesty is the immigration system we have today, millions of people who live here without paying their taxes or playing by the rules,” Obama said.

The White House could not be immediately reached for comment on the lawsuit. l

At least 45 people were killed in a Boko Haram reprisal attack on a village in northeastern Nigeria, the epicenter of the Islamists’ five-year insurgency, the head of the local government and a military source said on Friday.

The military source said the militants stormed the village in Wednesday’s attack to avenge four of their members who had wandered into the market but were identified and killed by soldiers in a gun fight.

“The Boko Haram militants mobilised and came on a reprisal,” the source told Reuters in the Borno state capital Maiduguri.

The attack on Azaya Kura village occurred on a busy market day, Shettima Lawan, chairman of Mafa district council said by telephone.

“They slaughtered 45 people.

They’ve been buried,” Lawan said.

Mafa district and Azaya Kura are located in an area near the Nigerian border with Cameroon which is mostly under the control of the Boko Haram, which is seeking to establish an Islamic caliphate in northern Nigeria.

The group has stepped up attacks in the northeast of Nigeria in recent weeks since it rejected a ceasefire announced by the government. l

Iran minister to leave nuclear talks for Tehran consultations n Reuters Iranian Foreign Minister Mohommad Javad Zarif will leave the nuclear talks with six world powers on Friday and return to Tehran for discussions with top officials four days before a deadline for a final agreement expires.

“Zarif will return to Tehran tonight for consultations and exchange of views with top officials,” Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported, citing a member of the Iranian delegation at the Vienna talks. Western diplomats in Vienna told Reuters Zarif was expected to return to Austria during the weekend. l

White House disappointed as TVs snub Obama speech

n AFP, New York The White House admitted Thursday it was disappointed that leading US television networks – ABC, NBC and CBS – have decided to snub President Barack Obama’s prime-time address on immigration.

The White House had hoped for broad prime-time, live television coverage of the speech in which Obama will declare his plans to shield millions of undocumented migrants from deportation.

But CBS News said it would not broadcast the address live, NBC said it would carry the speech only on its news channel MSNBC and ABC across its news digital platforms, not its TV network.

“The decision made by the English language broadcast networks is disappointing,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said.

Two Spanish-language networks, Univision and Telemundo, are to broadcast the speech live when it is delivered at 8:00 pm (0100 GMT Friday) along with CNN, MSNBC, PBS and Fox News. l

More arrests as protesters await Ferguson jury decision

Ukraine president heckled by relatives of Maidan dead

n Reuters

n Reuters

Riot police arrested at least two demonstrators in Ferguson, Missouri, for a second night running as tensions simmer ahead of a grand jury decision in the case of a white officer who shot dead an unarmed black teenager in August.

The grand jury is deciding whether to charge officer Darren Wilson in the slaying of 18-year-old Michael Brown in the St. Louis suburb in a case that has exposed fresh strains in often-troubled race relations in the United States.

About a dozen protesters gathered again outside the police station in Ferguson in frigid conditions, sometimes blocking vehicles as they waved plac-

ards and chanted “Whose streets? Our streets!” and “Killer cops have got to go!”

Officers in helmets and shields were deployed after a commander told protesters not to block traffic. Brief scuffles broke out and at least one woman and a man were handcuffed and taken away.

The grand jury could continue meeting into January but a decision on the Brown case is expected by the end of November.

The Aug. 9 killing of Brown triggered weeks of sometimes violent protests demanding Wilson be indicted.

Businesses and schools in Ferguson are bracing for renewed unrest, especially if the grand jury decides not to bring charges against Wilson. l

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was shouted down by angry relatives of 100 protesters killed in Kiev’s “Euromaidan” revolution at a ceremony on Friday to pay tribute to the victims.

The relatives, frustrated by Poroshenko’s failure to bring officials of the previous government to justice, shouted, “Who is a hero for you, Poroshenko?,” “Where are their killers?” and “Down with Poroshenko!”

They also attacked him for failing to keep a promise to confer the title of national hero on the victims, which would bring financial benefits to their families.

It was the first real public display of anger against Poroshenko, who was elected president in May after the pro-Moscow Viktor Yanukovich fled the country.

US Vice President Joe Biden, who is currently in Ukraine, had been due to make a visit to the area off Kiev’s Independence Square but called it off, apparently for security reasons.

Friday marked the first anniversary of the decision by the Yanukovich government to ditch a political and free trade agreement with the European Union in favor of renewed trade ties with Kiev’s old Soviet master, Russia.

The move sparked protests from

tens of thousands who see Ukraine’s future in the European mainstream.

After Yanukovich fled in February, Russia annexed Crimea and backed separatists in the east in a conflict which has killed more than 4,300.

Before the confrontation with the relatives, Poroshenko laid candles with other members of the government on a hill off Independence Square - locally known as the Maidan - where more than 50 of the 100 or so dead were killed in late February.

He was scarcely able to be heard as he tried to speak to the hostile crowd afterward, but said: “If shouting like this continues, everything we did on the Maidan will have been in vain.” l

10

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Editorial

Saturday, November 22, 2014

CODE-CRACKER

Update measures against unfit vehicles

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

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he High Court’s restoration of a seven-year term of imprisonment for reckless driving instead of the existing three, is a welcome signal that the law will take a tougher stance on road safety issues.

Recent moves to curb the large number of unfit vehicles in the country are proving too little, too late, to make much of a difference.

With public announcements being made well in advance of BRTA drives, it has been easy for some irresponsible owners to avoid the crackdown altogether.

Even if this were not the case, corruption and a lack of resources have undermined its ability to take effective action to stop the increasing number of unfit vehicles still on the loose. With pollution and accidents rising, it is inexcusable that the government does not do more to look out for the safety of citizens on the roads.

It is no use tightening up laws and licensing requirements if regulations are not enforced and new equipment to control traffic lights are not properly implemented.

Authorities have plenty of readily available technology to extricate unfit vehicles from our roads. Machine-readable licence plates should be issued to each and every vehicle on the roads, and closed-circuit cameras should be installed at gas stations, parking lots, and traffic lights, to help identify, trace and punish offenders.

Unfit vehicles and irresponsible drivers pose a serious and growing threat to public safety, as well as worsening congestion and pollution.

The government must treat the problem with the gravity it deserves instead of taking ad hoc piecemeal measures.

Do more to look out for the safety of citizens on the roads

Sex education matters

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s a country with a very youthful population, we face a pressing need to improve education on sex and relationships.

Parents commonly avoid talking about even basic facts about sex with their children.

Government and NGO programs on family planning and prevention of STDs and AIDS can only go so far and are limited in their effect.

The result is that adolescents often fail to receive accurate knowledge about sex and social attitudes are prey to harmful taboos.

Lack of public discussion and advice on sexuality means that many young women fall pregnant when they don’t want to, and there are believed to be over half a million women suffering health complications from unsafe and illegal abortions.

Other consequences include a failure by society to acknowledge the extent of sexual abuse and to stand up to sexual violence.

The government needs to acknowledge that societal taboos condemning or denying the existence of pre-marital sex do not and cannot stop sexual activity. Health experts and educators should work with parents and community groups, including cultural and religious organisations by pointing out the harm created by the lack of proper sex education in the country.

Research shows parents’ communication about sex with their children, particularly between mothers and daughters, can hugely decrease incidents of unprotected sex, and help young girls stand up to pressures to engage in sex and marriage before they are ready.

Everyone can benefit from breaking the silence.

Everyone can benefit from breaking the silence

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4 BCL men identified over assault on photographer, nieces November 8

kazi abdullah al mamun The article is somehow focusing on Manjur Alam Beg more. My question is: Does it really matters what is the identity of the victim? It could be anybody, and the incident cannot be expected to happen. However, I hope necessary legal action will be taken, though we don’t expect more from our law enforcement institute. What a shame! justice-seeker This is great news.

But note that revealing the identity of the

Washington National Cathedral to host Friday Muslim prayer

November 13

Md Mazharul Islam A good decision.

Nazmul Khair “We want the world to see that the Christian community is partnering with us, and is supporting our religious freedom in the same way we are calling for religious freedom for all minorities in Muslim countries.”

Is it possible?

Anon Why wouldn’t it be possible? As long as naysayers and haters do not get in the way. And even then, there should be no reason for tolerance and love to not triumph, and for communities and religions to not come together.

Justice for Jannati demanded November 14

Arch Bishop She should join the BCL … then she can have all charges magically dropped.

Muhith annoyed at traffic jam November 14

guilty can help reduce this kind of offense (at least we can hope).

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a different letter of the alphabet. For example, today 22 represents M so fill M every time the figure 22 appears.

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

Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.

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

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

3MC To me, this is nothing but an eyewash to save the AL golden boys ... by the time the report is published (if it is published at all) these four will be clearly out of sight (or at least in the eyes of the law enforcement and/or uni authority) for the next few weeks/months ... and after that they will join again as if nothing happened, and will be hailed by their similar-minded flock for this “noteworthy” act ...

Can we have a new political conversation?

November 9

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.

Osmania “There will never be an East Pakistan again, but was this the kind of Bangladesh they gave everything for?”

Very insightful article. Agree our rulers set very low goals.

RS Obviously a better Bangladesh is needed for everyone, and for that, we need to work ever harder. nds We also like to place our hopes on new blood, and the next generation, but what we are seeing all around belies that hope. Student league, Chhatra dal are not constituted of old generation people, they are full of new blood. All terrorist organisation activists are enthused with fresh blood, and new generation universities like North South. All coaching centres are organised and run by new blooded talents, all tender-baji belongs to the new generation people. Regarding what promise they inspire in society, the less said the better . Would it augur well if all our hopes and aspirations are placed on them? I really don’t know. The author definitely knows better. May God help him.

Girl gangraped by UP members November 9

Vikram Khan “Village police guarded the hall room from outside.”

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Scourge (4) 4 White heron (5) 9 Optic (3) 11 Bellow (4) 12 Passenger vessel (5) 13 Comfort (4) 14 Insects (4) 15 Encounters (5) 19 Cricket trophy (5) 21 Allows (4) 25 Leave out (4) 26 Oily fruit (5) 28 Drink (4) 29 Inferior horse (3) 30 Harsh (5) 31 Camera part (4)

DOWN 1 Remaining (4) 2 Vote in favour (3) 3 Watery part of blood (5) 5 Lubricant (6) 6 Soft sheepskin leather (4) 7 Direction (4) 8 Long lock (5) 10 Old stringed instruments (5) 16 Church period (6) 17 Pulsate (5) 18 Sudden shocks (5) 20 Glisten (5) 22 Send out (4) 23 Fork spike (4) 24 Seeks charity (4) 27 Forefront (3)

Death penalty for all culprits involved!

Ban these hartals November 8 Mohdud Ul Huq This is nothing new to us though. Jams due to lack of regional and local planning in “Sonar Bangladesh.”

CALVIN AND HOBBES

rose The politicians should care about what people want in this country, and for that reason, hartals ought to be banned.

Chhatra League makes a name as muggers in DU November 9

PEANUTS

Anwar These students who study in university are my children’s age. I have been observing that ever since we left our studies – the activities of BCL in matters of attitude, behaviour, and links to crime and indecent activities have risen, thanks to our political leadership of AL and leaders who protect them in all their acts.

They use them in all their ill motives, and to their advantage. They have spoiled the younger generations who don’t have any regard even for their seniors. I wonder why we need the student politics and why the AL has to maintain this BCL. They never want their children to be like that, but are keen to patronise our younger generations. When I hear of student leaders and what they are involved in, I go wild and feel like cursing their mentors.

HRW: Halt Kamaruzzman’s execution November 9

RE One thing is for sure – Kamaruzzaman did commit crimes against humanity, and so he should be punished accordingly.

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Op-Ed

11

Saturday, November 22, 2014

The vale of tears n FS Aijazuddin

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o view history, one needs to use bifocals – to see distance in perspective, and in close-up to observe the minutiae that provide it substance and colour.

Take the Indo-Pak summit at Simla in July 1972. Everyone is over-familiar with what transpired in that misty eyrie. And yet, how many know the true opinion PN Haksar (then principal secretary to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi) held about Pakistan? Only a year earlier, he spoke dismissively of it to Dr Henry Kissinger as “that part of India which bears an Islamic label.”

On this 125th anniversary of his birth, Nehru, like his beloved vale, stands partitioned by politics

Stuck in the trifecta of Bangladeshi discourse

BIGSTOCK

Ban, banish, hang

M n Esam Sohail

any decades ago, in an interview with a British magazine, Field Marshal Ayub Khan had frustratingly told the journalist that it appeared that pluralist democracy could work only amongst people in colder climates.

Well, in the progress of time, countries as varied as India, Russia, Jamaica, and Moldova have poked serious holes in the hypothesis of the late Pakistani president.

But Bangladesh keeps stubbornly proving that the self-proclaimed field marshal may have been on to something. No, the reference is not just to the recent travails of dubious voterless elections and endemic tyranny of the student wings of ruling parties. Frankly, the structural politics is of lesser concern to me in this regard; rather, what worries me is the social undercurrent that is anything but tolerant.

We want to ban everything that displeases us: Hindi serials, bizarre political parties, rock bands, New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Durga Puja, milads, offensive books, mothers-inlaw, sports utility vehicles, cigarettes, alcohol, women athletes, English medium schools, uppity newspapers, fancy clothes … well, you get the point. Granted that the same people don’t want to ban all the same things, but the first reaction to being given offence is, more often than not, a call to ban something.

Or to banish someone. Declaring a person “unwanted” in a city or district is a favourite tool of expressing personal indignation, Bengali-style.

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Following closely, are righteous calls to kick someone out of the club, the party, the country, and what not. The coup de grace, of course, is the moral frothing of the mouth demanding that someone’s citizenship be revoked because the said person has upset a lot of worthies.

pers, blogs, and social media are any indicators, this lack of tolerance is one place where Bangladeshis of all stripes are thoroughly united: Arch secularists and religious fundamentalists, British educated lawyers and rickshaw-pullers, professors and factory workers, Awami Leaguers and Jamaatis, Sylhetis and

The first reaction to having our feelings offended is to reach, it seems, for the bluntest available tool to silence the offender

Being merely banished from the city or the country is immeasurably better, of course, than being banished from the world! Those who cause grave offence to very important people – as a Kolkata-based exiled novelist and a former air force chief have found out – can easily trigger calls across social media for their necks to be hung by the executioner’s rope.

The first reaction to having our feelings offended is to reach, it seems, for the bluntest available tool to silence the offender. Not to argue, not to reason, not to debate the merits of the matter, but to silence into submission if needed, into the grave if possible.

I wish I could say that such Talebanesque reactions of medieval mindsets are found only amongst the less enlightened. Sadly, if newspa-

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Noakhaillas, and so on and so forth.

Apart from the obvious ethical dilemma in wanting to silence offending perspectives, the wise man, when doing honest introspection, can plainly see that such an attitude does rarely work in a society made up, principally, of human beings who are curious, enterprising, and supervised by other human beings who are greedy.

Go to Nilkhet market and tell me that the banned publications, from Playboy to Salman Rushdie, cannot be found … that is, if you cannot find those proscribed things on the Internet by virtue of a few keystrokes. Perhaps you want a good bottle of prohibited Scotch … a few thousand takas in hands of the right people will produce it miraculously in most of Chittagong, as the port city’s denizens well know.

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Or, look at Ayub Khan’s Pakistan where every time a bad organisation is banned, it resurrects itself under a slightly different name and goes on its merry way. As for hanging, well, it seems to work well to stop the proven perpetrator of a violent crime but is rather counter-productive against ideas or products which have a market, however small that market may be.

The Islamists recently executed a Rajshahi University professor whose mystical beliefs were offensive to the rabid ones; I can assure you that those sublime Sufi beliefs are not going anywhere except from strength to strength, despite the morbid bloodlust of the purists.

Bad ideas can only be beaten permanently by one method: Through an intellectual duel with good ideas.

Common sense, human psychology, and history all confirm that essential truth. Suppressing ideas or hanging people on the basis of expressed thoughts is a cowardly approach unfit for the 20th century, let alone the century after that.

That such an approach is comforting to lazy minds or uneducated souls is only human; that otherwise enlightened folks like journalists, educators, lawyers, and “democratic” politicians would be tempted by the conceit that one has a right not to be offended is astounding.

More than astounding, it is dangerous to a people who wish to find their places amongst the civilised nations of the world. l Esam Sohail is an educational research analyst and college lecturer of social sciences. He writes from Kansas, USA.

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And who knew that during those tense negotiations at Simla, Mr Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his daughter Benazir “preferred to have their meals together, just by themselves? This enabled them to discuss the day’s events and exchange notes.”

This nicety was revealed by Benazir’s minder, an Indian Foreign Service officer, in a report she sent to her superiors. The Indian government probably knew what had transpired between the Bhuttos during their table-talk. Mr Bhutto was too canny not to anticipate eavesdropping, and too wily not to use the hidden microphones to convey his own thinking to the Indians.

Revelations such as these abound in S Avatar Singh Bhasin’s gargantuan 10 volume compilation India-Pakistan Relations 1947-2007 – A Documentary Study, published in 2012 in cooperation with the Public Diplomacy Division of India’s Ministry of External Affairs. The work bears a stamp of authenticity provided by two Indian high commissioners to Pakistan - Mr Shivshankar Menon (2003-2006) and his then deputy and now successor TCA Raghavan.

Sardar Bhasin’s archival trove is the counterpart of Foreign Relations of the United States, a published record of its major foreign policy decisions and diplomacy. Both publications demonstrate the truism that responsible nations protect their history by archiving documents. They reveal their self-confidence by declassifying them.

Inevitably, there is an unquantifiable selectivity to them. Historians of Indo-Pak relations over the past 60 years could do worse, though, than plough through Bhasin’s 10,000 pages, particularly Volume III that covers the war over Bangladesh and the Simla negotiations; Volume IV, the Ziaul Haq years; Volume V, the Lahore Declaration of 1999, the Kargil misadventure, and the inconclusive No War shadow-boxing bouts; and Volume VI, on Defence Issues, Nuclear parity, Junagadh which India digested, and Jammu and Kashmir which has caused it indigestion since September 1947.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has neither the time nor the need to study such parchments. His policy on

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Jammu and Kashmir was made clear in the BJP Election Manifesto. It pledged to scrap Article 370 of the Indian constitution, a palliative applied by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to the aggrieved Kashmiris, granting them a “special status.”

Despite reservations expressed by his Kashmiri BJP candidates, Mr Modi remains obdurate. He intends to disentangle the 67-year-old knot of Jammu and Kashmir in the same manner with which he became prime minister – through the ballot box. It will be his unarguable answer to a UN plebiscite.

The J & K state elections are scheduled to be held from November 25 until December 20. At stake are 87 seats, of which Mr Modi plans to control 44, either absolutely (unlikely, considering that the BJP has never won a seat before in the valley) or through a strong showing that will attract the iron filings of smaller parties.

This BJP strategy is not a post-general election phenomenon. Infiltration began over two years ago when BJP representatives initiated negotiations with like-minded Kashmiris. That might explain why over 20 BJP candidates are in fact Muslims.

Another constituency that the BJP has assiduously courted is of Kashmiri pandits who had fled to Jammu, and are waiting to return to their valley.

They may no longer be resident in Kashmir but their votes still count, as will those of their adult children who are being encouraged by the BJP to register and vote.

Politics in such valley-bound communities fosters inbreeding, and is therefore less about policies than dynasties. Omar Abdullah (chief minister since 2009) is the son of Farooq Abdullah (CM for three terms) and grandson of Sheikh Abdullah (PM and then CM).

Dr Karan Singh is a descendant of Maharaja Gulab Singh of Jammu who bought Kashmir from the British in 1846. He reveals a hereditary propensity as an astute political weather-vane, pointing where the winds of success are blowing. This may explain why while he remains in Congress, his son Ajatshatru Singh has joined BJP. Will National Conference and Congress receive a drubbing in the forthcoming? We will know on December 23.

Politics in such valleybound communities fosters inbreeding, and is therefore less about policies than dynasties

Meanwhile, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, having already conceded the prime ministership to Modi, has relinquished Nehru’s official papers to the PM’s office. Nehru’s legacy, however, she refuses to surrender.

On this 125th anniversary of his birth, Nehru, like his beloved vale, stands partitioned by politics. l FS Aijazuddin lives in Lahore and is a columnist for Dawn, Pakistan’s main Englishlanguage newspaper. This article was first published in Dawn.

I

F

E

Terror rising n Ekram Kabir

B

ad days may be in the offing in Bangladesh. A few news reports in both the national and international media have exposed some spine-chilling information about the possible rise of terror groups in this country.

The latest Global Terrorism Index has just revealed that Bangladesh is at substantial risk of terrorist activity. The index has ranked us at 23rd among 162 nations. We’ve also been listed among the 13 countries listed as vulnerable to high terrorism risk and the third South Asian country at such a position besides Sri Lanka and Myanmar, the report said.

Then again, after the Burdwan blast in West Bengal, India has revealed that Bangladeshi terrorists may be active there. Delhi has informed Bangladesh about the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh’s (JMB) plans to carry out terror strikes in India.

Indian police in Guwahati have recently arrested a 36-year-old woman suspected of being involved in a plot to assassinate Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and carry out a coup in this country.

These are certainly some worrying news for Bangladesh. These show that terror elements are also working in and from abroad, and Bangladesh could be a terror destination if they are not prevented with the help of overseas governments.

As far as the government in Dhaka is concerned, it has already shown a tough stand taken against the insurgent elements that have been fleeing from the country and building terror bases in the border.

However, the question remains: Who has been patronising the terrorists in Bangladesh? News reports reveal that al-Qaeda chief, Ayman al-Zawahiri had visited Bangladesh several times in the past, and definitely would have influenced

radical elements here. If this is true, then it is certainly a matter of serious implications.

Bangladeshi law enforcers have supported this view. The police have been raiding against a comparatively new militant group named Ansarullah Bangla Team. The detectives in Bangladesh have arrested a few militants of this group who were being trained on 21 killing techniques.

They also recovered a killing manual from the militants. The 79-page manual, “How to Kill Secretly,” written by a foreigner named Master Hei Long, has four chapters that giving details of how to use traditional and fire weapons in order to kill.

The mission of this group is, reportedly, to eliminate, what the militants call the “atheists” in Bangladesh. The law enforcers have found truth in this particular piece of information. A TV presenter of an Islamic show – Nurul Islam Faruqui – and six persons in Dhaka’s Gopibagh

were killed in the same style.

It has also been said that they also want to create anarchy in the country.

This group has a similarity to another banned group, Harkat-ul-Jihad. This

Certainly, political violence is a source of terror in this country

group had also targeted more than a hundred people who they thought were atheists.

Many analysts in Bangladesh don’t agree with the fact that international terror organisations have targeted or

may target this country as a possible ground for so-called jihadi campaigns.

Our analysts, as did the Global Terrorism Index, blame the political instability as the prime reason for terror acts in this country.

True. The extent of political violence is another name for terrorism in our country. Countless lives were sacrificed in the name of so-called movements in this country. Certainly, political violence is a source of terror in this country.

I, however, believe that we should also be scared of al-Qaeda-style terror in our country. The signs are all there.

Bangladesh could be an easy breeding ground for terror elements in the name of religion.

The local militants have in fact slaughtered humans in the name of upholding religion. We have seen what JMB had done across the country.

Although, Hizb ut-Tahrir workers say they don’t resort to terror, they have been branding Bangladesh as an un-Is-

lamic and kafir country.

Some of the groups have also called for killing Bangladeshi heads of states for not turning this country into a sharia nation. Radical groups are continuously showing up in the scene.

The foreign militant groups have always kept an eye on this country. The discourses of imams in the mosques around the country could also be misinterpreted as the calls for radicalisation of the society.

Bangladesh actually needs to get serious about religions, especially Islam.

Since there’s a global fear of Islam being misinterpreted into radicalisation and extremism, we should do more to uphold the true values of Islam, which is not “extreme.” We need to encourage our preachers to help spread real values of Islam in order to prevent external influence that may give a wrong interpretation of Islam. l Ekram Kabir is head of program, ABC Radio 89.2, and a Dhaka Tribune columnist.

12

DHAKA TRIBUNE Saturday, November 22, 2014

13 Wawrinka gives

Switzerland first blood in final

14 Australia seal

ODI series over South Africa

14 Arsenal, Man

United in duel to stay in hunt

Sport

Did you know?

Juan Mata has scored four goals and set up two more in five starts against Arsenal in all competitions

One cannot simply keep him out of action Uddin Khan n Minhaz from Chittagong One cannot simply keep Shakib al Hasan out of action as the Bangladesh one-day international vice-captain continued to steal the show with his record breaking performances. Yesterday, Shakib became the 12th player in history to hit a ton and claim four wick-

ets or more in the same ODI. The southpaw registered his sixth limited overs hundred before helping the home side with four vital breakthroughs against Zimbabwe in the dewy evening at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium.

Shakib walked in to bat in the 12th over when Bangladesh were tottering at 31 for three and smashed his way to

2,000 RUNS & 100 WICKETS IN ODIs AT HOME Player Sanath Jayasuriya Steve Waugh Jacques Kallis Shakib al Hasan

Country

Match

Runs

Wickets

Sri Lanka Australia South Africa Bangladesh

128 153 142 75

3,880 3,165 5,178 2,085

119 101 116 105

100 RUNS & 4+ WICKETS IN THE SAME ODI Player

Team

Opposition

Ground

Date

Viv Richards

West Indies

New Zealand

Dunedin

1987

Nathan Astle

New Zealand

Pakistan

Mohali

1997

India

Australia

BNS, Dhaka

1998

India

Sri Lanka

Nagpur

1999

Sri Lanka

Australia

Sydney

2003

Holland

Namibia

Bloemfontein

2003

West Indies

Zimbabwe

Harare

2003

Sachin Tendulkar Sourav Ganguly Sanath Jayasuriya JF Kloppenburg Chris Gayle Shoaib Malik

Pakistan

Hong Kong

Colombo

2004

Paul Collingwood

England

Bangladesh

Nottingham

2005

Yuvraj Singh Tillakaratne Dilshan Shakib al Hasan

India

England

Indore

2008

Sri Lanka

Zimbabwe

Pallekele

2011

Bangladesh

Zimbabwe

Chittagong

2014

101 off 99 balls that not only pulled the hosts out of sure trouble but also paved the way for a challenging total of 281 runs. It was his first century since 2010.

He dominated the visiting bowlers and took advantage of any width or pitched up deliveries on offer. Shakib hammered 10 fours during his 139-minute stay at the wicket and it was his third century against Zimbabwe in 38 matches.

Shakib, after completing his 137th ODI, now stands 64 away from 4000 one-day runs, a feat that no other Bangladeshi has been able to achieve while his partnership of 148 runs with Mushfiqur Rahim is also the highest for Bangladesh for the fifth wicket.

Later in the evening when the home side’s seamers were finding it difficult to contain the attacking Zimbabwean openers, the left-arm spinner struck twice in his second and Bangladesh’s eighth over to break the momentum of the run-chase. He grabbed two more to complete his contributions with the ball.

The world is witnessing an altogether different Shakib who elevated his performance to a new level after returning from the three-month suspension handed to him by the Bangladesh Cricket Board.

He retained the number one spot in the ICC Test all-rounders’ ranking with 251 runs and 18 wickets in the three Tests against Zimbabwe while yesterday’s contributions will surely help the Bangladeshi maestro gain valuable rating points. Shakib is now third in the ODI all-rounders’ list. l

An airborne Shakib al Hasan smacks a four through point during Bangladesh’s 1st ODI against Zimbabwe at ZACS yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Maturity comes with age, says Shakib Uddin Khan n Minhaz from Chittagong Appearing in the press conferences more often nowadays, how does it feel?

When I was captain I had to come to press conferences every day. It feels good to come for these reasons.

These performances inspire you to be more responsible?

I think maturity comes with age.

Who was the celebration directed to?

I did it because i knew you would ask the question. It wasn’t anything special. Salahuddin sir apparently has become emotional, it is directed to him.

Batting or bowling?

I enjoyed batting more. I would have felt better had I taken five wickets.

Your plan when you went in to bat?

There was no specific plan. It was important not to lose wicket and building a partnership was necessary.

Difference between Shakib before the tour and now?

It is difficult to say specifically, but I can feel it. Now I feel that I am calmer, especially while batting today and throughout the Test series. I was relaxed and calm. I think this was eye-catching. Maturity is important. I think that works inside me. I have to continue, not just

a match or two. When I think of my career that has gone by, there is a bit of regret. I didn’t bat as well back then as I am today. I thought that I use my head a little more, maybe I could have scored 500-1000 runs more had I batted like this in the past in Tests and ODIs.

You started off slow in your batting, a planned approach?

I have the confidence that if I stay at the wicket longer I will score more. I think from now on, I can’t make any mistakes. I have the ability to cover the deliveries. These days there is one extra fielder inside the circle, so there are more gaps. You can cover at any time if you are set on a good wicket.l

Mashrafe credits his deputy, teammates Uddin Khan n Minhaz from Chittagong

Bangladesh debutant Sabbir Rahman (L) gets his ODI cap from captain Mashrafe bin Mortaza before the start of the 1st ODI against Zimbabwe at ZACS yesterday COURTESY

Siddikur joint 25th after 2nd round n Tribune Desk Premier Bangladesh golfer Siddikur Rahman was tied for 25th position along with three other golfers following the conclusion of the second round at the Resorts World Manila Masters in the Philippines yesterday.

Siddikur struck two-under-par 70 yesterday to take his overall score to three-under-par 141 and now finds himself eight shots behind the joint leaders – Singapore’s Mardan Mamat and Wang Jeung-hun of South Korea.

Siddikur hit four birdies against a double bogey on the 7th hole on the second day of the $1,000,000 tournament. l

Bangladesh’s new one-day international captain Mashrafe bin Mortaza gave the Tigers their much needed win in the format, but the veteran believes they have no room to relax.

“We have no room for that (relaxation),” said Mashrafe during the post-match conference yesterday. “We won just a game, not the series. I don’t think winning streak gets any cricketer relaxed. I don’t think anyone is even thinking about it.”

Bangladesh have accomplished their primary target which was to start

the series on a winning note, but the start to the game wasn’t as comfortable as the win.

The all-round heroics from Shakib al Hasan was the major reason behind the success and the Bangladesh skipper did not forget to give his deputy the credit while also recognising the effort put in by others.

“I have told this before many times – Shakib is the key member of the side and his contribution does make a difference. If you ask me he played the game single-handedly today (yesterday).

“There were contributions from others like Mushfiq, Sabbir, Mahmudullah.

Cricket is a team game and their contri-

butions were important too,” added the 31-year-old fast bowler.

Meanwhile, disappointed Zimbabwean skipper Elton Chigumbura rued their butter fingers in the first half of the match that enabled the hosts to build vital partnerships.

“It is always disappointing not to take the chances you get as one catch can lose you the match,” said Chigumbura.

“I thought 280 was a chase-able score looking at the condition because the ball didn’t turn as much while it was also slow off the pitch. Our batters also had a good start compared to Bangladesh’s start,” added the all-rounder.l

Abahani face Manang today in crucial tie n Tribune Desk Abahani Limited must not lose points in order to keep alive their hopes for the last four when they take on Nepalese A-Division League champions Manang Marshyangdi Club (MMC) at the King’s Cup in Thimphu, Bhutan today.

The traditional Sky Blues began their campaign with a narrow 1-0 win over Assam Electricity but they stumbled in their second Group B match by conceding a shocking 1-0 defeat against Bhutan National League outfit Ugyen Academy.

A defeat for Abahani today will shatter their hopes of a last-four berth in King’s Cup As the group table stands, Abahani are fourth with three points while Indian League side Pune FC top the table with six points. Ugyen and MMC are second and third respectively with the same number of points (three) but the former have a better goal difference. The top two teams of the group will get the ticket for the semifinals which means a defeat for Abahani today will shatter their hopes of a last-four berth.

The four-time professional league champions of Bangladesh will face Pune in their last group match this Tuesday. l

Sports personalities pay homage to the late Monzur Hasan Mintu n Raihan Mahmood Tributes poured in for the late Monzur Hasan Mintu as officials, organisers, players, journalists and commentators paid their last respects at his namaz-ejanaza at Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.

Veteran sports journalist Mohammed Quamruzzaman said Monzur was the epitome of all sportsmen across the country. “He loved sports. He was the goalkeeper of the Pakistan football team at the 1958 Asian Games. Though he was a government official, sports was in his heart.

He was also the pioneer of sports commentary in the country. He was my friend for the last 60 years. I will miss him deeply.”

National Sports Council secretary Shibnath Roy, Bangladesh Cricket Board directors Ahmed Sajjadul Alam Bobby and Jalal Younus, CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury, Bangladesh Football Federation executive committee members Harun-ur Rashid, Badal Roy and Fazlur Rahman Babul, general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag, former star footballer and minister Hafizuddin Ahmed, former secretary Akhter Hossain, Bangladesh Women’s

Sports Association, Bangladesh Athletics Federation, Wanderers Club, Bangladesh Sports Journalists Association, Bangladesh Sports Writers Association and Bangladesh Sports Journalists Community all placed floral bouquets in honour of his contribution to sports.

Monzur, 78, recently visited India along with his wife to offer prayers at the Dargah Sharif in Ajmer. Last Tuesday, the couple reached Jaipur where Monzur collapsed at a hotel bathroom and started vomiting. After being taken to a nearby hospital, the doctors later declared him dead. l

Indian women’s football team captain Oinam Bembem Devi (L) and midfielder Ngangom Bala Devi (R) hold up the winner’s trophy after defeating Nepal in the final of the 3rd Saff women’s football championship in Islamabad yesterday. India defeated Nepal 5-0 AFP

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

Pakistan hold firm to draw in second Test

QUICK BYTES

Srinivasan pushes court for BCCI return World cricket chief Narayanaswami Srinivasan filed a petition Friday before India’s Supreme Court to allow him to be reinstated as president of the country’s board since he had been cleared of corruption. The petition by Srinivasan and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will be taken up on Monday when the apex court is due to resume hearings over a corruption scandal around the Indian Premier League. The court-appointed panel probing the scandal had in its report released last Monday exonerated Srinivasan of match-fixing and also absolved him of trying to scuttle investigations into match-fixing. However the court has said it wants Srinivasan to reply to the panel’s charges that he did not act against an unnamed player despite knowing that he had violated the players’ code of conduct during the 2013 edition of the annual Twenty20 tournament.

–AFP

n Reuters, Dubai

Blind, Falcao injury blows for Man United Manchester United suffered a double blow on Thursday with Daley Blind ruled out for a “long” spell due to a knee problem and Radamel Falcao receiving a “new injury” that will keep him out for at least two more weeks.

“Blind is not ready, he has a brace on his knee. He needs 10 days’ rest. Then we’ll have another scan and say more about his injury,” manager Louis van Gaal was quoted as saying on the club website (www.manutd.com). “It’s not as bad as the doctors thought after the match. It shall be a long story, I believe, but not six months or something.” Midfielder Blind limped off in the Netherlands’ 6-0 win over Latvia in a Euro 2016 qualifier on Nov. 16. Earlier on Thursday, United said on their Twitter account that Blind “could be out for six months”.

–Reuters

Clarke ‘hopeful’ for first India Test Australia are hopeful that captain Michael Clarke will be available for next month’s first Test against India despite a recurrence of his hamstring injury, physiotherapist Alex Kountouris said on Thursday. Clarke has missed just one of Australia’s 39 Tests since he assumed the captaincy in 2011 despite a degenerative long-term back condition which contributes to his frequent hamstring injuries. The 33-year-old damaged his hamstring for the third time in 12 weeks in the first one-dayer against South Africa in Perth last Friday and Kountouris said he was not yet ready to play cricket again.

“As he is right now, he hasn’t started running, he hasn’t started doing any of the functional things that we want him to do,” Kountouris told reporters at the Sydney Cricket Ground nets.

–Reuters

DAY’S WATCH Sony Six 4:30PM World Kabaddi League Ludhiana: 43

Pakistani cricket captain Misbah-ul-Haq (L) shakes hands with his New Zealand counterpart Brendon McCullum at the end of the fifth and final day of their second Test at Dubai International Stadium in Dubai yesterday AFP

Hasan guides Rupganj atop n Mazhar Uddin Abul Hasan’s five-wicket haul enabled Legends of Rupganj to keep their Dhaka Premier League winning streak intact as they beat title contenders Abahani Limited by three wickets to complete four wins out of four matches.

Prime Doleshwar SC and Victoria SC also won their respective matches on a day that saw no team across the three matches exceed the 200-mark.

Legends of Rupganj v Abahani, Fatullah

Hasan’s five-for at the expense of 32 runs restricted Abahani to 186 before the Sky Blues threatened a comeback by picking up quick wickets in the latter stages. However, No 7 batsman Sharifullah’s calm 54 guided the defending champions to 189 for seven.

Abahani skipper Ziaur Rahman was the standout performer with 51 runs and

three wickets while the other notable batsmen are Nasir Hossain (30), Farhad Hossain (39) and Raqibul Hasan (28).

Rupganj were in a spot of bother at 94 for five before Alok Kapali (38) and Nazmul Milon (21) supported Sharifullah who guided the side to top of the table.

Brothers v Prime Doleshwar, BKSP-4

Brothers opener Avishek Mitra scored his season best 50, but the club only made 159 losing eight wickets in 50 overs. The Doleshwar bowlers enjoyed regular breakthroughs which at the same time tied the run-rate down.

In reply, Doleshwar were cruising to their target before right-handed seamer Iftekhar Sajjad struck four times to spice up the proceedings. The eventual winners were reeling at 126 for six before English recruit Dawid Malan secured their third win with an unbeaten 46.

Star Sports 4 7:00PM F1: Abu Dhabi GP Qualifying English Premier League Chelsea v West Brom Spanish La Liga 11:00PM Eibar v Real Madrid 1:00AM Barcelona v Sevilla

Star Sports 2 7:30PM Indian Super League Goa v Pune 1:45AM Italian Serie A Lazio v Juventus

9:00PM Man City v Swansea City 11:30PM Arsenal v Man United

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Neo Prime German Bundesliga 8:30PM Bayern Munchen v 1899 Hoffenheim 11:30PM FC Koln v Hertha Berlin

Victoria dominated Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club in their eightwicket victory at BKSP. Opting to bat first, Jamal were bundled out for 185 on the back of left-arm spinner Sohrawardi Shuvo’s 4-22. Sohag Gazi, batting at number seven, scored the highest 45 while Abu Sayeem and Shahriar Nafees posted 43 and 33 respectively.

The target never troubled Victoria who rode on the 125-run second wicket partnership between Mahbubul Karim and Marshal Ayub to land the win, their second in the season, in the 37th over.

Mahbubul scored 66 while Marshal smashed an unbeaten 72 off 103 balls that included five fours and two sixes.

Gazi, in his second match of the league, bowled six overs and took a wicket giving away 24 runs. l

n Agencies

9:00PM

English Premier League

Sheikh Jamal v Victoria SC, BKSP-3

A defiant fifth-wicket stand of 74 between Younus Khan and Asad Shafiq ensured Pakistan secured a draw in the second test against New Zealand on Friday to maintain a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

Chasing 261 for victory, Pakistan were 196 for five when the teams agreed to a draw in fading light, with Shafiq (41) and first-innings centurion Sarfraz Ahmed (24) unbeaten at the crease.

Younus (44) fell late in the last session to off-spinner Mark Craig, but had steadied the ship after a mini-collapse threatened to swing the match New Zealand’s way.

Pakistan were comfortably placed at 70 for one but were reduced to 75 for four in the space of a few overs.

Coming back to bowl after a fourover spell in the morning, left-armer Trent Boult dismissed opener Shan Masood (40) leg before and then had captain Misbah-ul-Haq caught behind in his next over.

Masood had added 62 for the second wicket with Azhar Ali (24) before the latter threw away his wicket, hitting a full toss from Craig to James Neesham at cover.

Younus struck three sixes and two boundaries during his 84-ball knock to calm Pakistan’s nerves.

Earlier, Ross Taylor completed his 12th test century before New Zealand declared their second innings on 250 for nine.

Former skipper Taylor, unbeaten on 77 overnight, tapped paceman Ehsan Adil on the leg side for a single to reach his mark, his innings studded with 12 boundaries.

The 30-year-old right-handed batsman was stumped on 104 to give leg-spinner Yasir Shah his first five-wicket haul in tests.

Taylor had added a crucial 60 for the seventh wicket with Craig (34).

BRIEF SCORES Legends of Rupganj v Abahani Ltd Abahani 186/10 in 48.5 overs Ziaur Rahman 51, Farhad Hossain 39 Abul Hasan 5/32 Legends of Rupganj 189/7 in 48.3 overs Sharifullah 54*, Alok Kapali 38 Ziaur Rahman 3/34 Legends of Rupganj won by 3 wickets

Brothers Union v Prime Doleshwar Brothers Union 159/8 in 50 overs Avishek Mitra 50, Zabid Hossain 34* Habibur Rahman 2/25, Mukhtar Ali 2/37 Prime Doleshwar 160/7 in 40.4 overs Dawid Malan 46*, Rony Talukdar 39 Iftekhar Sajjad 4/20 Prime Doleshwar won by 3 wickets

Victoria SC v Sk Jamal DC Sheikh Jamal 185/10 in 45.5 overs Sohag Gazi 45, Abu Sayeem 42 Suhrawardi Shuvo 4/22 Victoria SC 186/2 in 36.3 overs Mahbubul Karim 66, Marshal Ayub 72* Victoria won by 8 wickets

Southee whacked 20 in five balls, with three consecutive sixes off leftarm spinner Zulfiqar Babar (4-96) to boost New Zealand’s total. Captain Brendon McCullum signalled the declaration after Southee holed out attempting another big shot off Babar. l

SCORECARD, DAY 5 New Zealand 1st innings 403 (T. Latham 137, M. Craig 43; Zulfiqar Babar 4-137) Pakistan 1st innings 393 (Sarfraz Ahmed 112, Azhar Ali 75, Younis Khan 72; T. Southee 3-67) New Zealand 2nd innings (Overnight 167-6) T. Latham c Shafiq b Shah B. McCullum lbw b Babar K. Williamson c Umar b Babar R. Taylor st Ahmed b Shah C. Anderson b Shah J. Neesham b Babar BJ Watling c Shafiq b Shah M. Craig c Rahat b Shah T. Southee c Ali b Babar I. Sodhi not out Extras: (lb3)

9 45 11 104 0 11 11 34 20 2 3

Total: (for 9 wkts dec; 64.5 overs) 250 Bowling Rahat 8-0-39-0, Adil 8-1-33-0, Babar 27.5-5-96-4, Shah 21-1-79-5 Pakistan 2nd innings Shan Masood lbw b Boult 40 Taufeeq Umar c Watling b Southee 4 Azhar Ali c Neesham b Craig 24 Younis Khan c Watling b Craig 44 Misbah-ul Haq c Watling b Boult 0 Asad Shafiq not out 41 Sarfraz Ahmed not out 24 Extras: (b15, lb2, nb1, w1) 19 Total: (for 5 wkts; 67 overs) 196 Bowling Boult 10-6-12-2, Southee 11-3-21-1, Craig 17-3-66-2, Sodhi 21-5-63-0, Anderson 3-1-4-0 (1w), Neesham 2-1-1-0, McCullum 3-0-12-0 Result: Drawn

McIlroy, Scott to be kept apart in Australian Open n AFP, Sydney The highly anticipated pairing of the world’s top top-ranked golfers Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott will not happen in the early rounds of next week’s Australian Open, officials said Friday.

Ever since world number two Scott raised the prospect of a direct shootout with the top-ranked McIlroy, there has been keen interest in whether the two rivals would be paired in the opening rounds at Sydney’s The Australian course.

While Golf Australia championship director Trevor Herden admitted he would love to make it work, he said there were several reasons why the two, who thrilled record crowds at last year’s Australian Open, will not pair up until at least the Saturday (Nov 29) of the tournament.l

Lazio could hurt Juventus, says Allegri

2:00AM Rugby Union France v Argentina

Star Sports 1

13

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka reacts during their Davis Cup final singles match against France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at the Pierre-Mauroy stadium in Lille yesterday REUTERS

Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri has warned his players they cannot afford to underestimate Lazio in this weekend’s Serie A clash.

The reigning champions hold a ninepoint lead over Saturday’s rivals, but Allegri is insistent the Biancocelesti are a force to be reckoned with.

“It will be a very difficult game for us, Lazio are a team who can aim for third place and have some excellent players,” Allegri said at a press conference.

“Lazio are a well drilled, physical outfit and will want to bounce back after suffering a defeat in their last game.

“We need to be raring to go and ready for Lazio.

“We’re a little short in defence as it stands but the team’s doing well. Ours is the league’s best rearguard and that’s a comforting stat.”

“Pirlo and [Arturo] Vidal are available to play against Lazio. Romulo still has

SERIE A Atalanta v Roma Lazio v Juventus his groin problem, he has good days and bad days but we’ll see if he’ll make it for Lazio. Evra will be back training with us on Sunday, Asamoah will definitely be available for Wednesday, Caceres after Torino, while Marrone will be back with us after the Torino game.” l

Wawrinka gives Switzerland first blood in final n Reuters, Lille

Stan Wawrinka survived a second-set wobble to beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-1 3-6 6-3 6-2 and give Switzerland a 1-0 lead over hosts France in the Davis Cup final on Friday.

World number four Wawrinka was more consistent than French number one Tsonga in front of a record 27,432 crowd at the Pierre Mauroy stadium.

World number two Roger Federer,

who missed training early this week due to a back injury, takes on Gael Monfils in the second singles later on Friday.

The doubles will be played on Saturday and the reverse singles on Sunday.

France, who last triumphed in 2001, are looking to win the Davis Cup for the 10th time while Switzerland are seeking their maiden title.

Wawrinka breezed through the opening set, relying on his accurate

one-handed backhand to unsettle Tsonga, who had trouble finding his range with his usually booming forehand.

The Swiss bagged eight points on his way to a double break, sealing the set when Tsonga sent a forehand long.

Tsonga held serve throughout and clinched the set with a service winner.

But he lost the momentum, conceding a break for 4-2 by spraying another forehand wide and Wawrinka sealed

the set on his second opportunity with a crosscourt backhand winner.

Wawrinka piled on the pressure and a backhand volley earned him a break in the first game of the fourth set, which he firmed up with another break for 5-2 with a backhand winner.

The Australian Open champion, who hit 61 winners to Tsonga’s 39, wrapped it up on his first match point with a routine volley following yet another charge to the net. l

Tennis star Sania Mirza at a promotional event in Hyderabad yesterday AP

14

Sport

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Saturday, November 22, 2014

AUSvSA, 4TH ODI South Africa Innings Q de Kock c and b Maxwell H Amla c Cummins b Coulter-Nile F du Plessis c Wade b Cummins AB de Villiers c Smith b Cummins D Miller c Smith b Faulkner F Behardien run out (Warner) R McLaren c Wade b Starc R Peterson b Faulkner W Parnell not out D Steyn not out Extras (b5, lb5, w9) Total (8 wickets; 50 overs)

17 18 28 91 45 22 13 11 3 0 19 267

Fall of wickets 1-28 (Amla), 2-70 (de Kock), 3-77 (du Plessis), 4-199 (Miller), 5-230 (de Villiers), 6-246 (McLaren), 7-261 (Peterson), 8-262 (Behardien).

Bowling Starc 10-0-40-1 (3w), Coulter-Nile 3-0-16-1 (1w), Cummins 10-0-61-2 (5w), Maxwell 9-0-43-1, Watson 5-0-25-0, Faulkner 10-0-45-2, Smith 3-0-27-0.

Australia Innings A Finch a du Plessis b Parnell 22 D Warner lbw b Abbott 4 S Watson c de Kock b McLaren 19 S Smith b Peterson 104 G Bailey c de Kock b Steyn 16 G Maxwell c Amla b Steyn 2 M Wade c McLaren b Parnell 52 J Faulkner not out 34 P Cummins not out 1 Extras (b5, lb2, w6, nb1) 14 Total (7 wickets; 49 overs)

Fall of wickets 1-8 (Warner), 2-43 (Watson), 3-48 (Finch), 4-86 (Bailey), 5-98 (Maxwell), 6-219 (Wade), 7-267 (Smith) Bowling Steyn 9-0-47-2, Abbott 10-0-43-1, McLaren 10-0-62-1 (1w), Parnell 9-052-2 (1nb, 3w), Peterson 8-0-44-1 (1w), Behardien 3-0-13-0 (1w) Australia won by 3 wickets Australia lead 3-1

Australia batsman Steven Smith raises his bat after scoring a century during their fourth ODI against South Africa at the MCG in Melbourne yesterday AFP

Arsenal, United in duel to stay in hunt n AFP, London Arsenal striker Danny Welbeck’s reunion with former club Manchester United supplies one of the sub-plots as the Premier League resumes this weekend following the international break.

Arsenal welcome United to the Emirates Stadium on Saturday evening for a match that will see both teams attempt to avoid conceding further ground to early-season pace-setters Chelsea.

Beaten 2-1 at Swansea City on their last outing, Arsenal approach the weekend in sixth place, 12 points behind leaders Chelsea and a point above United, who edged Crystal Palace 1-0 in their most recent encounter.

Welbeck has excelled at centre-forward for both Arsenal and England since leaving United on transfer deadline day in a £16 million ($25.1 million, 20 million euros) transfer.

The Manchester-born striker, 23, came through the youth ranks at Old Trafford and his departure prompted former assistant coach Mike Phelan to declare that United’s identity had been “broken”.

Welbeck was withdrawn as a precaution during England’s 3-1 friendly win over Scotland in Glasgow on Tuesday after complaining of tightness in his hamstring, but he is expected to face United.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has also been boosted by the news that France striker Olivier Giroud is ready to return to action after making a speedy recovery from a broken leg.

United received a blow during the international break when Dutch midfielder Daley Blind sustained a knee ligament injury likely to sideline him for several weeks.

But although they face ongoing injury problems in defence, goalkeeper David de Gea and midfielders Michael

Carrick and Angel di Maria should all be fit to face Arsenal despite sustaining knocks on international duty.

“Di Maria has trained today normally, so I don’t think that is a question mark, but (Luke) Shaw is,” United manager Louis van Gaal revealed on Thursday.

FIXTURES Arsenal Chelsea Everton Leicester City Man City Newcastle Stoke City

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Man United West Brom West Ham Sunderland Swansea City QPR Burnley

“De Gea is good, no problem. I think I have to wait for the reaction in training with Carrick, but I also expect he’s ready to play.”

Chelsea host West Bromwich Albion on Saturday and will hope to see top scorer Diego Costa firing on all cylin-

ders after he was left out of the Spain squad to rest his troublesome hamstrings.

The only team who have threatened to keep pace with Chelsea are Southampton, who trail the leaders by four points ahead of their trip to Aston Villa in the Monday night game.

Champions City will look to drag themselves out of a damaging rut when they host Swansea on Saturday, having won only one of their last six matches in all competitions.

Manuel Pellegrini’s side are on the brink of elimination in the Champions League ahead of Tuesday’s home game with Bayern Munich, but have at least been able to rely on the form of Sergio Aguero.

The Argentine sharp-shooter scored his 11th and 12th league goals of the season in City’s 2-2 draw at Queens Park Rangers a fortnight ago and appears to have overcome the injury problems that bedevilled him last term.l

Australia seal ODI series over South Africa n Reuters, Melbourne Steve Smith smashed a brilliant century to lead Australia to a series-clinching three-wicket win over South Africa in their fourth one-day international on Friday.

Smith hit a career-best ODI total of 104 from 112 deliveries as the Australians passed South Africa’s 267-8 with six balls to spare at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

The Australians were in deep trouble after the top-order collapsed to 98-5 in the 25th over when Smith and Matthew Wade turned things around.

The pair added 121 runs for the sixth wicket before Wade departed for 52 in the 45th over with the match still in the balance. But all-rounder James Faulkner, who finished unbeaten on 34 off just 19 balls, shared a 48-run stand with Smith to tie the scores.

Smith then had the chance to hit the

High-flying Bayern adjust to life without Lahm n AFP, Berlin Runaway Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich need to adjust to life without captain Philipp Lahm when they host Hoffenheim on Saturday ahead of next week’s Champions League match at Man City.

BUNDESLIGA Bayern Munich Schalke M’gladbach Mainz Hanover 96 Paderborn Cologne

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Hoffenheim Wolfsburg Frankfurt Freiburg Leverkusen Dortmund Hertha Berlin

The 31-year-old Lahm has been ruled out for the next three months after fracturing his ankle in training, depriving coach Pep Guardiola of one of his key assets, either at right-back or in the defensive midfield.

Bayern’s nearest rivals, second-placed Wolfsburg, are chasing a sixth consecutive victory at Schalke 04 on Saturday. Belgium winger Kevin de Bruyne is in outstanding form, creating four goals in their last two matches.

At the other end of the table, 15thplaced Borussia Dortmund are set to welcome back Germany winger Marco Reus after an ankle injury as they attempt to pull clear of the relegation places against Paderborn.l

Real Madrid’s superstars, flying high at the top of La Liga, enter the land of Spanish football’s little people on Saturday when they take on humble Eibar in the Basque country.

Unlike Real’s cavernous, fabled Bernabeu with its 85,000-capacity, Eibar’s Ipurua stadium has room for just 5,000 fans -- they have had to build temporary seating to accommodate fans wanting to see Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale.

The contrast between the two adversaries is also highlighted by their respective budgets - 10-time European champions Real are worth 500 million euros.

Eibar, promoted last season, survive on 30 times less.

Despite the gulf in class and financial resources, Eibar have not been intimidated in La Liga where they sit comfortably in mid-table.

However, Real are expected to keep rolling on as they start the weekend with a two-point lead over Barcelona.

They are undefeated in 13 matches in all competitions, scoring 52 goals and conceding just eight, although their planning for the trip to Eibar hasn’t been helped by a thigh injury to influential midfielder Luka Modric.

LA LIGA Atl Madrid Eibar Barcelona La Coruna

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Malaga Real Madrid Sevilla Real Sociedad

winning run but was bowled by spinner Robin Peterson, trying to smash the ball out of the ground, leaving Pat Cummins to seal the victory off the next ball.

AB De Villiers earlier fell just short of a deserved hundred after a masterful batting display for the Proteas.

De Villiers finished with 91 off just 88 deliveries and David Miller hit a quick-fire 45 while six other South Africans made double figures.

Cummins and Faulkner bagged two wickets each for the Australians, who wrapped up the series with a one match to go despite the absence of injured captain Michael Clarke and strike bowler Mitchell Johnson.

The visitors were looking set for a total in excess of 300 after reaching 230-4 in the 42nd over when De Villiers lost his wicket, holing out to Smith at deep midwicket after being deceived by a slower ball from Cummins.l

Osman eyes Everton milestone n AFP, Liverpool

Players from Boca Juniors and River Plate (white jersey) argue during their Copa Sudamericana first round semi-final match in Buenos Aires on Thursday. The match ended 0-0 REUTERS

Real Madrid giants enter land of Eibar n AFP, Madrid

268

Barcelona host Sevilla, who are just two points behind them, facing a potential crisis of confidence having seen a six-point lead over Real disappear over the autumn.

Luis Enrique’s team now face a testing stretch of games -- after Sevilla, they travel to Apoel Nicosia in the Champions League, go to Valencia, face a derby against Espanyol before completing their European duties against Paris Saint Germain.

Meanwhile, seven months after being sacked by Manchester United, David Moyes returns to the dugout as coach of Real Sociedad with a trip to Deoprtivo La Coruna in store for the Scot.

Valencia are at Levante where they find themselves in the midst of a bizarre legal wrangle.l

Everton manager Roberto Martinez has called Leon Osman an “incredible example” to aspiring players as he prepares for his 400th appearance for the club against West Ham United on Saturday.

Osman, who made his debut against Tottenham Hotspur in January 2003, signed a one-year contract extension earlier this month and Martinez says the 33-year-old remains a key figure at Goodison Park.

“I’m sure people know the names of the other players who have reached 400 appearances. There are not many from the modern era,” Martinez said.

“It is so difficult to find such a loyal footballer who can also cope with the demands of the modern game. l

Six charged in French fixing probe n AFP, Paris

Fifa to hold new review of WC corruption report

Six people, including the presidents of Ligue 1 side Caen and Ligue 2 Nimes, were charged on Thursday in connection with a match-fixing inquiry that has rocked French football.

Caen chief Jean-Francois Fortin, Jean-Marc Conrad, the boss of Nimes as well as Nimes’ main shareholder Serge Kasparian were all charged.

The other three individuals were named by sources as businessman Michel Moulin, Franck Toutoundjian, the president of amateur side AS Ararat Issy-les-Moulineaux and Caen’s security chief Kaddour Mokkedel. Labrune’s predecessors, Jean-Claude Dassier and Pape Diouf, were freed on Wednesday.l

n AFP, Zurich World football body FIFA said Thursday it will hold a new review of an investigation into bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, widening access to a report written by a former US prosecutor into alleged corruption.

The step was announced after a meeting in Zurich between chief investigator Michael Garcia, who led an 18-month probe into the controversial campaigns of Russia and Qatar, and German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert.

The two have been at loggerheads over how much of the report should be made public.

Under their new accord the whole report will be given to the head of FIFA’s audit and compliance committee who would then decide how much detail should be given to FIFA’s all powerful executive committee to decide any next steps.

Eckert said last week that Garcia’s investigation had not produced enough evidence to warrant a revote for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. But Garcia protested that Eckert had misrepresented his findings and declared that he would appeal against the actions of FIFA’s ethics judge.

The FIFA leadership has also faced widespread pressure to allow the full publication of the investigation.l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Entertainment

MAHI to produce film n Hasan Mansoor Chatak Dhallywood diva Mahiya Mahi is going to produce a film named “Nioti.” Abdullah Zahir Babu penned the orthodox romantic drama.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, she said Zakir Hossain Raju is expected to direct the film. Mahi’s latest venture “Onek Sadher Moyna” was alos directed by Zakir.

“From the beginning of my career, I had a desire to produce films. In fact, I saved some money from the remunerations I get for my works,” she told about her inspiration to be a film producer.

“This is my dream project. The storyline of the film really overwhelmed me,” she said.

The Dhallywood beauty said: “We are trying to make this production in association with a producer from Kolkata. But we are not confirmed about the endorsement.”

If the film goes in joint venture, an actor from Kolkata could join Mahi in the lead cast-line.

The shooting of the film will start in April next year.

The Dhallywood star is now busy in Zakir Hossain Raju’s project “Onek Daame Kena”, in which she shared the screen with Bappy Chowdhury.

In another recent production, Mahi completed her part of shooting of a film titled “Desha: The Leader” in which she played a role of a journalist. The movie is expected to hit county’s theatres on December 16.

Mahi will leave Dhaka for Bangkok in the next month to take part in a workshop on fighting action, as she is gong to reprise her protagonist role in action flick titled “Agnee 2,” a sequel to “Agnee.” l

BOB MARLEY’s family go corporate on cannabis

n Entertainment Desk The family of the late Jamaican reggae artist, Bob Marley has launched what they describe as the world’s first global cannabis brand.

It will be called Marley Natural and be used to sell cannabis-infused lotions, creams and various accessories.

The new brand is being developed with Privateer Holdings based in Washington state, stressing the life and legacy of Jamaica’s greatest cultural export.

It is intended to be sold in the US and possibly worldwide from next year.

Bob Marley’s daughter, Cedella Marley, said her father would welcome the move.

“My dad would be so happy to see people understanding the healing power of the herb,” she said.

Privateer’s chief executive Brendan Kennedy said a Marley was “someone who, in many ways, helped start the movement to end cannabis prohibition 50 years ago.

“It was just a natural fit between Bob Marley and this product. You know if you were to look for the most famous human being who ever walked the face of the earth related to cannabis, it would be Bob Marley.”

Bob Marley died of cancer in May 1981. He embraced cannabis as a key part of his Rastafarian faith and supported its legalisation. l

The “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” actress will star alongside Ben Stiller in the upcoming comedy sequel, “Zoolander 2,” Deadline reports.

It is so far unclear what role Cruz, who has a small part in the upcoming Sacha Baron Cohen comedy

Jaago holds charity concert n Entertainment Desk A musical programme on “Our Beautiful Universe” will be held at the Red Shift Coffee Lounge in the capital at 6:00pm today.

Some 22 children from Jaago Foundation School will display their performances in acting, 11 others in singing songs.

Imran Rabbani will play guitar and Mahbub Farid will play the keyboard.

Apart from the musical session, the children will play the roles of astronauts, planets, stars, meteors, the sun, the moon and many more bodies found in space.

Art works created by the children will also be displayed at the programme.

Tickets are available at Tk 1500 each.

The money earned from the programme will be donated to the Jaago Foundation for the education of the children. l

15

SHAILA TASMEEN to perform at IGCC n Entertainment Desk Indira Gandhi Cultural Centre (IGCC) will organise a programme on classical music at the IGCC in the capital’s Gulshan-1 6:30pm today.

Shaila Tasmeen will perform at the programme.

Born in Rajshahi, Shaila Tasmeen got inspiration to learn music from her family members, especially from her elder sister, Ireen Parveen.

She is a vocalist of Hindustani classical, semi classical music and Tagore songs.

Tasmeen initiated her music training under several Gurus – Onup Kumar Das, Late Abul Aziz Bacchu, Late Ostad Rabiul Hossain, Sadi Mohammad Takiullah Deshai Shubda, and Pandit Tusar Dutta.

A talented singer, Shaila Tasmeen has performed at many conferences and programmes on classical music.

The conferences and programmes include “Sadarang” classical conference in Chittagong, “Lokkhayapar” classical conference in Narayanganj, Suddho Songit Prosar Gosthi, Chhayyanaut and Dhaka Shilpakala Academy.

Tasmeen has released two new albums from Kolkata “Bihan Music” and “Bare Bare Firale.”

Now she is working as an assistant professor in the Department of Music at Rajshahi University. l

FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA: Godfather was an accident Megamind

Zee Studio, 7:35pm

The supervillain Megamind finally defeats his nemesis, the superhero Metro Man. But without a hero, he loses all purpose and must find new meaning to his life.

n Entertainment Desk Hollywood director Francis Ford Coppola got talking from cinema and wine at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2014.

Much to the surprise of his fans, Francis Ford Coppola mentioned how he never even intended to make another “Godfather.” In fact, he said that “Godfather” itself was an accident.

And when he did make the third “Godfather” he wanted to name it “Death of Micheal Corleone.”

On glorification of mafia in “Godfather,” he added, “’Godfather’ was a

PENELOPE CRUZ on board for Zoolander 2 n Entertainment Desk

Saturday, November 22, 2014

“Grimsby” and recently wrapped on Julio Medem’s “Ma ma” in Spain, will take on in “Zoolander 2.”

Stiller will reprise his role as the dim-witted supermodel Derek Zoolander while it is been rumoured Will Ferrell will return as fashion mogul Jacobim Mugato and Owen Wilson as Zoolander’s rival Hansel McDonald.

The “Dodgeball” actor directed and contributed to scriptwriting for the first film but “The Leftovers” star Justin Theroux will now direct from his own script for Paramount Pictures and Stiller will produce alongside Stuart Cornfeld for Red Hour.

The original “Zoolander” saw Stiller fully commit to his stupid role, from his “Blue Steel” pose to the catwalk showdown between himself and Hansel, to the freak gasoline fight accident.

The 48-year-old actor has been looking to make the sequel for 13-years now but has yet to confirm whether his 87-year-old father Jerry Stiller—who is best known for his role in the sitcom “The King of Queens”- will be reprising his role as model agent Maury Ballstein. l

metaphor for America.”

Coppola said how it is about to change dramatically. “All cinema is after all a fusion of technology and art form. When technology changes, art changes too. There will no longer be any distinction between cinema and TV, going forward. Today, all theatres are electronic, no film can get delivered now. Very soon it will be done with satellite.”

“The audience will be the master of the situation; there won’t be any Paramount, MGM any more. It will be Netflix, Facebook, in the future.”

“All artists help people understand

SALMAN: I gave you a chance to be Katrina Khan but you chose to be Katrina Kapoor

and to live in modern and uplifting times. Audience should not patronise films that show human beings at their worse. They should patronise films that show them at their best. I want to see films that are more human.”

“All good cinema really is the marriage of acting and writing. And audience can know when it is fake,” said Coppola.

Apart from his movies, he also spoke about his other great love, wine. “Wine is helpful. Wine is like music. The more you enjoy it, the more you like it.”

Coppola said he never wanted to make the sequel of “The Godfather,” but he did so because of financial distress.” l

Movies Now, 9:30pm

In a twist to the fairy tale, the Huntsman ordered to take Snow White into the woods to be killed winds up becoming her protector and mentor in a quest to vanquish the Evil Queen.

At 63, ZEENAT AMAN wants to settle down again

n Entertainment Desk Ranbir Kapoor might not have received an invite for Salman Khan sister, Arpita Khan’s wedding but when beau Katrina Kaif decided to attend it, he also kept a close tab on what happened at the wedding. So when he heard Salman Khan joked with Katrina calling her Katrina Kapoor, he simply laughed it off.

Salman called Katrina on stage when the DJ started playing “Chikni Chameli” but Katrina tried to hide behind Karan Johar as she was too reluctant to be on the dais with ex beau Salman. To that, Salman asked Karan to come on stage and get Katrina also on stage with him. But that did not work either. Hence Salman, who was in high spirit that night reportedly said, “Ok fine, not Katrina Kaif, Katrina Kapoor, please come on stage”.

An embarrassed Katrina could not shy away before Salman made another statement. “I gave you a chance to be Katrina Khan but you chose to be Katrina Kapoor instead”, said the actor. All this happened in Hyderabad but when Ranbir got to hear about the incident, he did not get miffed. Rather he took it as a joke and seemed quite amused with the whole episode. l

Snow White and the Huntsman

n Entertainment Desk Bollywood actor Zeenat Aman, who turned 63 on November 19, says she is ready to settle down again. “Of course I want to settle down with someone once again. Why wouldn’t I? You see, all these years I’ve single-mindedly focused on my sons Azaan and Zahaan.

Their well-being and happiness are all that mattered to me while they were

growing up.”

“Now that they have matured and have a life of their own. I can begin to think about my own life once again,” says Zeenat with a laugh, as she takes on her 60s headlong.

During her heydays Zeenat worked round the clock to become one of the most sough-after actresses in the 1970s. Her marriage to Mazhar Khan in 1985 considerably slackened her work-pace.

“You must understand I worked relentlessly for 15 years. When I got married I had reached a sort of saturation point.

I wanted to focus on my marriage, husband and then the two boys. Now my sons are grown up and have a life of their own.

They are both multi-talented.”

Zeenat describes her own state of the heart as also fluid. She won’t admit having someone in her life but readily admits to being ready for love and marriage in spite of being singularly unlucky all her life in matters of the heart.

“I hold no grudges against anyone.

I believe there are good people out there. And I believe there is always room for love and companionship,” says Zeenat. l

16

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Back Page

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Rags to riches: The prospects of recycled RMG by-products n Ibrahim Hossain Ovi Recycling and reusing jhoot, the local word for left-over scraps of fabric from the manufacturing of ready-made garments, will add significant value to the raw material, creating jobs and augmenting export earnings.

“There is a huge opportunity for Bangladesh to create new jobs, and indeed a new market, by establishing new factories to recycle RMG by-products,” Khatib Abdul Zahid Mukul, managing director of Givensee Group of Industries Ltd, said.

“We can make quality carpets and rugs, if the latest machines to recycle jhoot are introduced to the industry,” Zahid said.

“We have to import cotton at Tk80 per pound, which is made of waste cloth. Value addition can bring more earnings to the sector and create more jobs,” he said.

Importers of cotton said they spend Tk80 per pound of cotton, which they say is made from jhoot worth Tk10.

The country already exports RMG by-products to countries that are recycling the materials into cotton, yarn and other products.

According to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), Bangladesh exported RMG by-products worth $30.85 million in the last fiscal year.

The country earned $8.33 billion in the first quarter of the current fiscal year.

Bangladesh exports RMG by-products to India, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, USA and European Union (EU) countries.

According to exporters, white jhoot is exported to India and China at Tk60,000 per tonne, while mixed-colour jhoot sells for Tk40,000 per tonne.

But the country has just eight big factories spinning cotton yarn from RMG waste-products.

“We basically use RMG waste to make yarn, which local manufacturers use to make terry-cloth towels, carpets and blankets, said Anwarul Alam Chowdhury Parvez, owner of Altex Polycot.

Sector leaders urged the government to ban the export of RMG by-products and to take steps offer financial support to set up recycling factories.

Although currently unable to make use of the by-products of its main export industry, the country could do so if the government helps, they said.

“Due to a lack of proper government initiative and financial support, we are not able to do this business. The country is being deprived of thousands of crores in earnings because the raw materials are being exported,” Md Babul Bepary, director of Mirpur Kata Kapor Babosayee Samity, told the Dhaka Tribune.

He said if the by-products were recycled, earnings would double.

According to the Bangladesh Garment and Textile Waste Exporters Association (BGTEA), the market size of RMG by-products is over Tk2,000 crore.

According to Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) sources, there are some 4,500 active RMG units producing over 351,000 tonnes of by-products.

An industry source said a typical factory produces around 250 kg of waste fabric per day. There is no formal data available about garment manufacturing by-products given by authorities in Bangladesh.

The simple scraps of fabric that are a by-product of making ready-made garments are generating new jobs, especially for women in the informal sector.

Some 150,000 people are currently employed in the informal, small-scale operations of the potentially lucrative sector.

The business of reusing wasted cloth is a three-step process. First a person, usually a locally influential person, collects the cloth forcibly or via negotiations, then it is sold to the reuse or recycling business and then the final product is sold to different consumers and exported.

After collection, the process of recycling starts with sorting, which is done by the colour, type and size of fabric.

Larger scraps of cloth are used

As part of recycling, workers at Mirpur Jhootpatti sort out leftover scraps of garments for colours and sizes for resale to local traders to make children’s frocks, skirts, shirts, pajamas and sometimes pillow covers.

“The price of waste cloth depends on quality and size, starting from Tk10 and going up to Tk300 per kilogramme of jhoot, said Alimuzzaman Farazi, a trader at Mirpur Jhootpatti.

Large scraps of fabric are sold to local traders to make garments for children. Most of these children’s clothes are sold in Bangladesh but some are exported to India, he added.

“We have to pay a lot, as we cannot buy the by-product fabric directly from factory owners,” said a trader at Mirpur. “If we could buy jhoot directly from the factory then it would be better for us,” he said.

Dhaka’s bedding industry is dependent on jhoot. Mattresses, pillows, cushions, seat stuffing and padding in cars, public buses and rickshaws use recycled cloth and processed cotton.

Factory owners and traders said giving formal shape to the informal sector

would reduce criminality in the jhoot trade, reduce operational risks and draw in much needed investment.

The country cannot properly absorb the supply of RMG by-products because there is no full-fledged recycling industry, industry sources said.

That is why the lion’s share of jhoot gets exported to India and China.

Meanwhile, the country’s Tk2,000 crore jhoot business is controlled by politically-backed local leaders and gangsters, which has led to unrest and

RAJIB DHAR

even murder over the control of the business.

A factory owner in Narayanganj, on condition of anonymity, told the Dhaka Tribune that the jhoot and stock-lot business is in the control of local politicians and their strongmen.

Factory owners alleged that influential local political leaders foment labour unrest as a pretext to contact factory owners and then try to wrest control of the business under the pretence of subduing the workers. l

Officials: IS attacks Tobacco firms incentivising deforestation Expat found dead in flat Iraq provincial Tobacco companies provide all According to DAE statistics, farmers Shahidul is a maternal cousin of the n Abu Bakar Siddique n Ashif Islam Shaon produce 70 bales [1 bale equals 40kgs] sorts of agricultural input, including premier and was a minister in the Ercapital fertilizer, seeds, pesticides and cash, Deforestation and tobacco cultivation of tobacco leaves per hectare of land.

Police yesterday recovered the body of shad cabinet, he said.

DAE figures show that currently in advance, to farmers on condition of Mejbah’s nephew Shahed Jamil also in the country’s hill districts go hand in an aged man from his flat in the capiReuters n claimed the relation to be true. hand as hills are deforested to collect 15,000 hectares of land are under to- cultivating tobacco on their land, he tal’s Banani.

Islamic State fighters attacked a government complex in the heart of Ramadi yesterday, local officials said, part of an apparently coordinated assault to seize full control of the provincial capital west of Baghdad.

Gunmen fired from rooftops at the buildings, which house the Anbar governorate building and police headquarters, while security forces and tribal fighters tried to prevent the militants from advancing.

Mosques broadcast appeals for reinforcements to prevent the Sunni militants taking full control of Ramadi, which would be a major setback for government forces after they broke an Islamic State siege of Iraq’s biggest oil refinery this week. Most of Ramadi, about 90 km west of Baghdad, and the surrounding Sunni Muslim province of Anbar is already held by Islamic State.

It also seized much of northern Iraq from the Shi’ite-led government in June, plunging Iraq into its worst security crisis since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003. l

The victim, Mejbah Uddin Ahmed, is an expatriate in the UK and also a distant relative of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Relatives and police said they do no suspect foul play and believe the 72-year-old, who came to Bangladesh on November 3, died of natural causes.

Police however detained three people, including the caretaker and security guard of the building, for questioning.

Nurul Alam, assistant commissioner of Gulshan zone of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said Mejbah’s body was found in a pool of blood.

“His relatives broke into the flat after failing to reach him over the phone in the morning. Seeing the body lying on the ground beside a bed, they informed the police,” he said.

Nurul said the body was sent to Dhaka Medical College morgue for autopsy.

Bhuiyan Mahbub Hossain, officerin-charge of Banani police station, said Mejbah was the uncle of the wife of Jatiya Party leader Sheikh Shahidul Islam.

“There was blood in my uncle’s face.

He had high blood pressure and we think the blood came out through his mouth and nose, leading to his death,” he said.

Mahbub said the actual cause of the death could not be confirmed without the autopsy report.

The expat lived on the fourth-floor of the six-storey building. His wife is a Sri Lankan national and lives with the couple’s two daughters in England. According to the neighbours, Mejbah was a bank official in the UK before launching Friends for Bangladesh, an NGO, after his retirement.

The NGO operates a school in Kurigram.

Sohel Mahmud, assistant professor at the Forensic Department of Dhaka Medical College, said there were scars near Mejbah’s lips and eyes.

“Injury marks appeared in his head and the lips were cut. We are examining his viscera and heart to check if he took any poisonous food or faced a cardiac arrest,” he added. l

firewood to cure leaves and provide wider acreage for tobacco farming.

A study named “Tobacco and Poverty: Observations from India and Bangladesh” conducted by PATH Canada suggests that tobacco growing is a significant cause of deforestation in Bangladesh, accounting for over 30% of annual deforestation, putting the country third internationally in terms of the severity of the problem, after South Korea 45 % and Uruguay 40%.

Forest department officials blamed the aggressive incentivisation of tobacco cultivation in the country’s hill districts especially at Bandarban as a major cause of deforestation.

According to the Bandarban district Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), tobacco cultivation has increased 5 or 6 times in the last 10 years as farmers are drawn to comparatively high profits.

Bandarban agricultural extension officials, on condition of anonymity, said the rate of expansion of tobacco cultivation in the hill district has been high.

bacco cultivation.

This works out to approximately 1,050,000 bales of tobacco produced in the hill districts annually.

Some 60,000 tonnes of firewood is required for 1,050,000 bales of tobacco leaves annually.

“All of this firewood comes from the nearby forests, including protected forests,” said Hafizul Islam, a Tondul owner of Ali Kodom upazila.

Rafiqul Islam Chowdhury, divisional forest officer of Lama upazila, told the Dhaka Tribune that the forest coverage of the district was diminishing each day to meet the firewood demand of the tobacco trade.

The source of the required firewood is the forest, which is under district authority. He said protected forests were also being sourced illegally for firewood.

Rafiqul said the forest office is working to reduce tobacco cultivation from this year in consultation with farmers and the local administration to halt the rapid rate of deforestation.

said.

The tobacco companies, moreover, offer to buy up their production in advance at a high rate.

He said company agents give farmers tips about successful tobacco cultivation at different times during the cultivation process.

British-American Tobacco (BAT), Dhaka Tobacco and Akij Tobacco are the major growers of tobacco leaf in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

BAT is the largest grower and offers the largest incentives to farmers to cultivate tobacco, thus contributing most to deforesting the hill tracts.

But the company has launched a reforestation programme and is distributing saplings to local people to improve the forest coverage in the region.

Rafiqul told the Dhaka Tribune that the current reforestation effort is insufficient to protect the forest.

He said he has met with stakeholders, including tobacco companies, to advocate the reduction of tobacco cultivation to save the forests. l

UBS-WEALTH X STUDY: RICH GETTING RICHER

Four of 100,000 people own $13 out of $100 n Tribune Desk

Owners putting new paints on their vehicles in wake of the ongoing BRTA drive against unfit vehicles. The photo was taken from capital’s Fulbaria area yesterday RAJIB DHAR

A bare 0.004% of the world’s adult population controls nearly $30tn in assets, 13% of the world’s total wealth, according to a new study released Thursday.

This means if all the wealth of the world was worth $100, and the population of the world was 100,000, four people among the 100,000 owned $13.

The rest of the worlds 99,996 people owned $87 all-together.

And perhaps unsurprisingly, the study by the Swiss bank UBS and luxury industry consultant Wealth-X said the concentration of money in the hands of the ultra-rich is growing. Average wealth of uber-rich individual has risen to $139.4m, up $1.8m since last year, a more than 77% increase.

The report said 211,275 people qualify as “ultra-high net worth” (UHNW) – those with assets above $30m. Of them, 2,325 have more than $1bn, reports AFP. Their numbers grew 6% over the past

year, but their wealth grew 7% as asset markets like stocks and property soared in many places around the world.

The fastest growth, indeed, came in the “demi-billionaire” group worth a half-billion to a billion dollars apiece, the study said.

“Even amid geopolitical conflicts, socio-economic strife, and volatile currency markets, the world’s equity markets displayed strong performances, thereby enabling UHNW individuals’ wealth to increase and their influence across industries and sectors to grow – from their importance in wealth management to their consumption of luxury goods,” it said.

“Such a large concentration of wealth in the hands of these few individuals means that they tend to have a large degree of influence, whether on global equity markets or specific industries.”

Of the nearly $30tn this elite group controls, just over one-third is in the hands of tycoons in North America,

more than one-quarter in Europe, and almost a quarter in Asia.

Of them, 87% are men, of the average age of 59, and nearly one-quarter of them were in banking. Of them, 68% were “self-made” rich, 13% rich by inheritance, and the rest a combination of the two.

The average ultra-rich woman was 57 years old, and more likely to be involved in non-profit and social organisations (19%) than any other sector.

Nearly half became wealthy through inheritance, while one-third made their fortunes themselves.

The average uber-rich spends $1m a year on luxury goods and services. Yet, the study points out, luxury items can be “part and parcel of their lifestyle and are not necessarily considered a ‘luxury.’”

“For example, UHNW individuals with private jets use their aircraft not only for leisure, but also for business purposes. On the other hand, while yachts, and particularly superyachts, are usually a non-necessity. l

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