13 dec, 2014

Agrahayan 29, 1421 Safar 19, 1436 Regd No DA 6238 Vol 2, No 249

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MADE IN BANGLADESH

ARE ADENOIDS DEFORMING YOUR CHILD?

SEEING FOES AMONG FRIENDS?

UNDER-FIRE WENGER FACES NEWCASTLE THREAT

Charges ready despite unclear motive All arrestees to be named in charge sheet for Prof Shafiul murder Jamil Khan with n Mohammad RU Correspondent Amid contradicting statements about the motive behind the murder of RU professor Shafiul, the Rajshahi police are reportedly set to bring charges against all the men arrested so far – including Jamaat-Shibir men and Chhatra Dal leaders who had been arrested separately on unrelated leads.

Although the RMP had initially denied the RAB claims about personal vendetta as the potential motive, Alamgir Hossain, officer-in-charge of Rajshahi’s Motihar police station, yesterday echoed the elite force’s sugges-

Police insist Shafiul was murdered in retaliation for misbehaving with Chhatra Dal leader’s wife tion, claiming that the arrestees had admitted to the police that Shafiul was killed as a retaliation to the professor’s misbehaviour towards Nasrin Akther Reshma, wife of Chhatra Dal leader Abdus Samad Pintu.

“Along with the six people arrested

by RAB, we are also bringing charges against the previously arrested 11 Jamaat-Shibir men who were also aware about the murder and gave us sensational information behind it,” said Alamgir, also the investigation officer of the case. Witness statements are now being collected to move ahead with the case.

However, when asked whether the

Bid to break gridlock on final day of climate talks n AFP, Lima, Peru Talks on a pact to curb climate change entered their final day yesterday, seeking an end to deadlock among rich and poor countries, amid appeals to avoid a weak compromise.

Progress in the December 1-12 talks has been hampered by a flare-up in a years-old dispute over sharing responsibility for tackling the climate problem.

Efforts to overcome the row went into the night, setting the annual UN parlay on course for a familiar climax of haggling and frayed nerves.

Campaign groups warned that any face-saving fudge would be catastrophic for a pact due to be completed in Paris in December 2015.

“Heading into the final day of negotiations is like reading a choose-yourown adventure novel,” Jan Kowalzig, policy advisor for Oxfam, told AFP. “The choices made today will either put us on a barely workable path leading into Paris or doom us to a dangerous future.”

Countries disagree on how a long-standing principle in UN talks  PAGE 2 COLUMN 3

Jamaat-Shibir men were directly involved with the murder, the OC refused to comment.

Soon after the incident, the local police arrested several Jamaat-Shibir men, while a Facebook page, apparently representing an unknown militant group, claimed responsibility for the murder.

But a different avenue of investigation was pursued after the Rapid Action Battalion claimed that AKM Shafiul Islam had been killed to avenge the humiliation caused to Reshma.

However, the Chhatra Dal leader’s wife – who has been in hiding since the arrest of her husband by the RAB – earlier told the Dhaka Tribune that she had never known or worked with the slain teacher. Reshma, who is a section officer of Rajshahi University’s (RU) account section, claimed she only first heard the professor’s name when reports about his death were published in the media.

Reshma’s uncle Rabbel Hossain, the president of Awami League’s Rajshahi ward number 30 unit, also claimed that “misleading and baseless” information was being spread against their family to protect the real perpetrators behind the murder.

Soumin Shahrid Javin, son of the slain professor, also said such a gruesome murder could not have taken place for such a “trifle reason,” adding that media report’s on Reshma’s denial about knowing his father meant that the police needed to reconsider the motive again.

On November 15, unidentified assailants killed Prof Shafiul while he was returning from work to his rented house at Rajshahi city’s Chouhoddipara.

Residents of Mrigamari in the Sundarbans yesterday painstakingly collect furnace oil that spilled into the Sela River following the capsize of tanker ship Southern Star 7. In the absence of a government clean-up effort, locals are using sponges, rags and tin cans to scoop up what they can in order to resell it. The photo was taken yesterday SHEIKH RAJIB

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Dilly dallying delays clean-up of Sundarbans spill Bakar Siddique from the n Abu Sundarbans The clean-up of the “Southern Star 7” oil spill, which has spread across an 80km range since the oil tanker capsized on the Sela River in the Sundarbans 4 days ago, has stalled because of bureaucratic foot-dragging.

In the absence of major government push to contain the ecological damage, Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan crowd-sourced the clean-up effort, asking local residents to collect whatever spilled furnace oil they could. He said Padma Oil was willing to pay for it.

Naval vessel “Kandari 10” brought from Chittagong on Thursday evening, could not start to apply oil dispersant till yesterday night because it had not been cleared to do so by the Environment Ministry, Commodore Habibur Rahman Bhuiyan, the chairman of Mongla Port Authority, said.

“Since we have not received clearance from the Environment and Forest Ministry to use the chemical dispersant, we are now thinking of using raw jute sacks and sponges attached to trawlers to remove floating oil from the water,” he added.

Different government agencies, in-

cluding the forest and environment department, fear that the use of oil dispersant will further damage the ecology and biodiversity of the world’s single largest mangrove forest. Government agencies are delaying any decision to act until forming a clearer idea of the effects of dispersant on the mangroves, sources said.

Elbow grease

While a major government-led cleanup operation is being delayed by indecision, local people in the area are manually sopping up the floating furnace oil with sponges, encouraged by a

Mamata’s minister held BNP’s shake-up move a fiasco in Saradha scam n BNP has backtracked from its plan to reorganise the party fearing intra-party conflicts in the rank and file.

Internecine clashes erupting following the formation of a number of committees recently prompted the high ups to suspend the move, said some party insiders.

They now think any divisions in the party over committee formation will rather jeopardise their plan to launch an anti-government movement in January-April.

It will also embarrass the party publicly again, said a leader in exchange for anonymity.

A team of party leaders has already started visiting areas including those in Dhaka where the party was embarrassed over committee formation, he said.

“The visits were aimed at bury the hatched in the rank and file of the organisation.”

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, however, started holding meetings with front and associated bodies driving them to take preparation to wage a movement.

She, however, has never disclosed any outline of the movement strategy before them.

The former premier held meetings with Swechchasebak Dal and Jubo Dal on Wednesday and Thursday respectively.

Party sources said Khaleda is expected to hold meetings with Krishak Dal, Sramik Dal and Mohila Dal soon.

Meanwhile, after identifying some troubled districts, senior BNP leaders have started visiting those districts to resolve organisational problems.

The trouble-stricken districts include Chandpur, Chittagong, Maulavi Bazar, Chapai Nawabganj, Magura, Borguna, Jhalkhati and Patuakhali, said a central leader.

The plan to reconstitute the party has been temporarily suspended, said party insiders.

Senior leaders including acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, vice-chairman Abdullah Al Noman, joint secretary generals Mizanur Rahman Minu and Barkatullah Bulu were assigned to resolve the problems by December 15.

Earlier, after the January 5 election, Khaleda Zia started holding meetings with different district committee leaders to bridge gaps between leaders at different levels but it stopped midway through.

“Yes, there are some problems in some districts and we are addressing

9 | World

15 | Entertainment

Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

n Tribune Desk West Bengal Minister Madan Mitra was arrested in the Saradha chit fund scam yesterday, apparently increasing trouble for the government of Mamata Banerjee. The arrest came hours after he had been interrogated by detectives.

He is the first minister and third major leader of West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress to be arrested in the scam, in which hundreds of thousands of people were cheated out of their savings.

Mitra, the Indian state’s transport and sports minister and a senior Trinamool Congress leader, was summoned through an email by the central probe agency on November 15 for questioning.

However, the minister citing health reasons had sought relaxation from questioning. After being discharged from hospital later in November, he called up the Central Bureau of Investigation, expressing his availability.

A large number of policemen and barricades were placed to prevent the media from approaching the minister.

Though reporters threw questions at him, Mitra ignored them and walked inside the CBI building.

Mada is the first minister and third major leader of West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress to be arrested in the scam Mitra is known to be one of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s most trusted aides and a founder member of the party.

He was seen in video clips praising Saradha Group Chairman Sudipta Sen at a meeting of Saradha agents and allegedly enjoyed benefits such as a car,  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

INSIDE 3 | News

The government has reportedly not been extracting from the coal reserves in the country’s north-western regions, as it wanted to export the indigenous coal which had a higher calorific value.

4 | News

Two train drivers and a railway director (guard) were withdrawn and sent to the Parbatipur division in the wake of Thursday’s freight train accident, which claimed five lives and injured another 16.

Padma Oil offer to purchase the furnace oil for Tk30 per litre.

The clean-up so far has covered an insignificant portion of the volume of the oil spill.

Rafiqul Islam Babu, a local contractor of Padma Oil Company, said he purchased only 2,200 litres of oil collected by local people in the Joymonirgol area till yesterday evening.

“I think we will be able to purchase hardly 80-90 barrels [16,000–18,000 litres] from local people in the next few days because the spilled oil has already spread across a vast area and started to

5 | News

Three-day long smartphone and tablet computer fair began in the city yesterday at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre.

6 | Nation

Four people, including a student of JSTU, were killed after collision between a truck and a human haulier at Abdullahpur Bazar under Jessore Sadar Upazila yesterday.

The Pakistani Taliban hit out at teenage education activist Malala Yousafzai over her Nobel peace prize on Friday, slamming her as a “soldier against Islamic society.”

Marking the 44th Victory Day of Bangladesh, the Indira Gandhi Cultural Centre will organise a musical evening at its auditorium in the capital’s Dhanmondi today.

those problems and hopefully we can resolve them by December 15,” Abdullah Al Noman, party vicechairman, said.

When asked about the party’s reorganisation process he said: “It is going on. When everything gets okayed we will announce new committees,” said Noman.

After boycotting the January 5 elections, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia said her party would launch a political movement after party reconstitution.

‘The plan to reconstitute the party has been temporarily suspended’ But 10 months later the said reshuffle had not taken place as it backfired on many occasions.

Out of the BNP’s nine associated and front organisations, two have seen severe clashes between different factions over the announcement of new committees.

The remaining six committees expired a year ago or earlier.

When new committees for the Sramik Dal and Chhatra Dal were announced, the party leadership was  PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Saturday, December 13, 2014

AL to observe January 5 as ‘Victory Day of Democracy’ n Abu Hayat Mahmud The ruling Awami League yesterday announced that it will observe the January 5 as the “Victory Day of Democracy”.

Terming the January 5 as the day for protection of democracy, AL Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif said if the national polls would not have taken place on that day, the democracy of the country would have fellen into a deep crisis.

He came up with the statement while addressing a press conference after a joint meeting of the party and its associate bodies at AL President Sheikh Hasina’s Dhanmondi office in the capital yesteray.

The meeting was organised to make plans and preparation for programmes to observe, on behalf of the party, the Martyred Intellectuals Day on December 14 and Victory Day on December 16.

The party’s senior leaders, including

presidents and general secretaries of the associate bodies, were present at the meeting.

Hanif said: “The BNP-Jamaat alliance had tried to stop the general polls on January 5, and unleashed violence all over the country.”

“But, their violation against the democracy was not succeded. The election was held successfully. The Awami League won the polls and formed government again,” he said.

Due to the BNP led violations before and after the elections, panick gripped the country, he added.

The BNP-led 20 party alliance, however, has recently termed the January 5 as the “Black Day” and announced several programmes on that day.

Replying to questions from the journalists, Hanif said: “Our programmes in January are not to counter any programme of any party.”

The Awami League does not belive in conflict and violation with another party. The BNP can arreange their pro-

‘Punish conspirators against war crimes trial’ n Tribune Report Those who are trying to spark a debate over the number of people killed during the 1971 Liberation War in order to foil the ongoing trial of war criminals, should be brought to book.

Members of Projonmo 71, an organisation formed by the children of the martyrs of 1971 Liberation War, made the observation at a press conference yesterday.

Projonmo 71 General Secretary Tawheed Reza Noor, who is the son of martyred journalist Sirajuddin Hossain,

said: “Genocide specialists from several countries have already acknowledged the number of our martyrs. Reducing the number cannot reduce the agony of those who had lost their loved ones.” He said if anyone speaks in support of the Nazi Party in Germany, they are brought under trial. It is considered as a criminal act there.

By the name of human rights and freedom of expression, a group of people are trying to foil the trial of war criminals, said the participants at the conference arranged at the SagarRuni Auditorium of DRU. l

grammes freely, he said.

Earlier, the AL joint general secretary announced the party’s programmes for observing the Martyred Intellectuals Day on December 14, Victory Day of December 16 and Bangabandhu’s hocomming day on January 10.

The party will celebrate the days by bringing out processions, colourful rallies in the capital as well as in districts, upazilas and municipalities in the country.

AL General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam has asked leaders and activitists of the party and its all associated bodies, students wings and supporters to join the programmes to make those a success.

Meanwhile, the AL-led 14-party alliance on Thursday announced that the combine will hold rallies in the country’s upazila level from January 15 to 22 in protest at what it said a plot by the BNP-Jamaat alliance to kill Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. l

The first 10 winners of the Sixth National Undergraduate Mathematics Olympiad pose for a photograph with the organisers and guests at AF Mujibur Rahman Ganit Bhaban of Dhaka University yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Sixth National Undergraduate Mathematics Olympiad 2014 ends

2 ‘extortionists’ n Arif Ahmed winners emerged from 58 particiinjured in shootout Ten pating students at the finale of the 6th National Undergraduate Mathematics n Tribune Report Olympiad 2014 held at the Dhaka UniTwo alleged extortionists were injured in a “shootout” with police in the capital’s Merul Badda area yesterday.

The injured are Bacchu, 20, and Robin, 22. A gang of criminals went to a house in Merul Badda’s DIT project area seeking extortion money, SI Abdus Salam of Badda police station said. Receiving information, a team of police raided the area and cordoned the house, he said.

Sensing their presence, the miscreants opened fire and police also retaliated with gun shots, he added. Later, police arrested five members of the gang with a pistol, the SI said.l

versity’s AF Mujibur Rahman Ganit Bhaban yesterday.

Saiful Islam from Dhaka University (DU) topped the list while rest of the winners are, as their ranks, Md Taibur Rahman from Khulna University, Shihab-Al-Mehedi from BUET, Junaid Kamal from DU, Mir Imtiaz Mostafiz from BUET, Ahmed Nazimuddin from BUET, Md Tarikul Islam from Uttara University, Md Jahangir Hossen from MM College, Jessore, Nafiz Imtiaz Tripto from BUET and Md Lelin Chowdhury from Begum Rokeya University.

Organised by Bangladesh Math-

ematical Society and funded by AF Mujibur Rahman Foundation, the olympiad kicked off at the regional level in Khulna University on November 14 and later took place in Rajshahi, Dhaka North, Dhaka South, Chittagong and Sylhet regions subsequently.

Alongside crests and certificates, the top 10 winners were presented with financial awards for pursuing further education.

Cheif guest at the finale DU Science Faculty Dean Dr Md Abdul Aziz distributed the accords among the winners.

In the first round, around 600 participants took part in the six regions and appeared for a 90-minute test on analytical geometry, algebra and calculus.

Professor AFM Khodadad Khan,

Bid to break gridlock on final day of climate talks Abdul Gaffar pledges his undying support for Hasina  PAGE 1 COLUMN 1

n Abu Hayat Mahmud Noted writer and journalist Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury said his support would continue for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for her commitment to fight fundamentalism and try the war criminals.

On the occasion of his 80th birth anniversary Abdul Gaffar said: “What is the alternative to Hasina? Fundamentalism, militancy and drone attacks resulting in Bangladesh becoming like Afghanistan, or Pakistan or Iraq?”

“No, never, I am not in support of it. Sheikh Hasina is always against the fundamentalists and militants, which is why my support for her will continue until my death,” he said.

Gaffar Chowdhury made the remarks at the birthday celebration programme organised by the Birthday Celebrations Committee at Abdul Karim Sahitya Bisharad Seminar Room of Bangla Academy in the capital yesterday.

Shamsuzzaman Khan, director general of Bangla Academy delivered the welcome speech, while Professor Rafiqul Islam, president of Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury Birthday Celebrations Committee presided over the event.

Gaffar went on to say that Sheikh Hasina and her party Awami League believed in secular politics. “But it is not possible for Hasina to control the fundamentalists alone. So we should help her in this regard.”

Earlier, the Cultural Affairs Minister

Syed Shamsul Haq hugs Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury on his 80th birth anniversary at a ceremony yesterday MEHEDI HASAN Asaduzzaman Noor, prime minister’s political adviser HT Imam and former foreign minister Dipu Moni felicitated Abdul Gaffar on behalf of the PM. Different cultural, social, political organisations and educational institutions also joined in the celebration.

Meanwhile, yesterday morning the Press Institute of Bangladesh accorded a reception to Abdul Gaffar on his birthday.

Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury, popularly known as the lyricist of ‘Amar Bhaier Roktey Rangano Ekushey February’, was born in 1934 in Ulania, Barisal. He is also a well known writer, poet, author, and columnist. l

Mamata’s minister held  PAGE 1 COLUMN 3

fuel and driver at the company’s expense. He allegedly also extracted donations out of Sudipta Sen for a temple.

Sen, who is behind bars, had told the CBI that Mitra had taken money from him on various occasions and the company’s executive director, Debjani Mukherjee, told the agency that she had seen Mitra at Saradha’s Midland Park office on quite a few occasions.

The CBI also recorded the statement of Bapi Karim, Mitra’s former confidential assistant, in which he alleged that he accompanied the minister to the Midland Park office several times.

One of the most prominent ministers in Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet, the summon to Mitra triggered an extensive tongue-lashing by opposition leaders who said his questioning was a sign of the noose inching towards the top echelons of West Bengal’s ruling party.

Trinamool leaders said they anticipated this “vindictive move” after BJP President Amit Shah’s recent rally in Kolkata. The party has accused the ruling BJP at the Centre of targeting its

members after Banerjee had attended a Nehru conference organised by the Congress.

Reacting to the charge, Shah said: “The CBI is doing their work.”

The Saradha Group operated a Ponzi scheme offering massive returns of 40% and more until it collapsed last year, leaving hundreds of thousands of small investors bankrupt in West Bengal and Odisha.

With Mitra’s arrest, three of the four leaders that Mamata had strongly defended at a party meeting last year are now in jail. She had asked rhetorically: “Are they thieves? Am I a thief?”

Trinamool lawmakers Srinjoy Bose and Kunal Ghosh were earlier arrested in the scam. Rajat Majumdar, a former police officer and Trinamool vice-president, was also arrested in August.

In November, the police said Kunal Ghosh had overdosed on sleeping pills in jail. The lawmaker had threatened in court that he would take his own life if the “real beneficiaries” of the chit fund scam were not arrested. He has alleged that top leaders of his party are being shielded. l

called “differentiation” will be applied in national pledges to address climate change.

The pledges – scheduled to be put on the table next year – would be the core of the most ambitious environment accord in history.

The pact would take effect from 2020, screwing down emissions of greenhouse gases in order to keep global warming within two degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels.

Developing nations in Lima have defended a long-standing principle that Western countries should bear a bigger burden for carbon cuts, having started decades earlier to pollute their way to prosperity.

But rich countries point the finger at developing giants like China and India furiously burning coal to power their rapid growth.

On Thursday, US Secretary of State John Kerry urged developing nations to realise they too would have to roll back pollution from fossil fuels, even if they felt it was unfair.

“I know the discussions can be tense and decisions are difficult, and I know how angry some people are about the predicament they’ve been put in by big nations that have benefited from industrialisation for a long period of time,” Kerry said. But, “we have to remember that today more than half of global emissions – more than half – are coming from developing nations. So it is imperative that they act, too.”

Between 2000 and 2010, the share of developed countries fell from 51.8%

to 40.9% of the global emissions total, while that of developing countries surged from 48.2% to 59.1%, according to the UN Environment Program (UNEP).

Developing nations are also demanding that the roster of national pledges go beyond mere promises in emissions curbs.

To reflect the greater responsibility of rich countries, it should also incorporate pledges of financial help and “adaptation” aid to shore up the defenses of climate-vulnerable countries, they say.

With little movement by late Thursday, Peru’s Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, who presides over the talks, called for constructive exchanges.

“We are in a time in which we should take decisions,” he said. “We don’t want to leave Lima with empty hands.”

Bloated text

Adding to concern in Lima is that nearly two weeks of talks have inflated rather than reduced a proposed draft text for the agreement.

Cutting through the bloat could be a major headache in the complex process leading up to Paris.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged ministers and officials Thursday to embark on “real, serious negotiations.” “We have been talking over the last two decades,” said Ban. “We don’t have a moment to lose.”

Scientists say 2C of warming is relatively safe but still no guarantee against damage to the climate system.

On current carbon trends, the planet is on course for around 4 C of warming this century, dooming future generations to a planet of worsening drought, flood, storm and rising seas, they say. l

BNP’s shake-up move in fiasco  PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

embarrassed when aspirants who were by-passed publicly repudiated the new committees and demanded they be dissolved.

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

Factions within Chhatra Dal led by by-passed hopefuls have clashed violently with the incumbent committee leadership and its supporters.

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

“We have repeatedly said we will wage movement and organise the party simultaneously. Senior leaders have already started visiting some districts where there are some problems,” Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, joint secretary general of the party, said.

He also said: “Organising the party does not mean announcement of new committee, it could take in any form.”

Whenever the party thinks a new committee is indeed necessary it will be announced, he said. l

Dilly dallying delays clean-up of Sundarbans spill  PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

dissolve,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.

On Thursday afternoon, the authorities asked local people via loudspeakers to collect oil floating on the river.

But residents said they found it difficult to gather the oil because of its rapid and continuous spread across the river and surrounding areas.

Ismail Ali, a resident of Joymonirgol village said he, together with five others, collected some 350 litres of furnace oil from the water in the last two days.

“We cannot work throughout the day to collect the oil because we have to wait for high tide as the oil detaches from the trunks of trees and soil and floats on the water during the period of high tide,” he added.

He said it would be near impossible to remove the oil completely from the vast area.

Meanwhile, two probe committees separately formed by the Shipping Ministry and the Environment and Forest Ministry yesterday visited the site to identify the causes of the accident and to measure the probable negative impacts of using oil dispersant. Neither

could come to any decision.

Oil tanker “Southern Star 7,” carrying around 358,000 litres of furnace oil, sank in the Sela River at Mrigamari in the East Zone of the Sundarbans after being hit by cargo vessel “Total Cargo” at 6am on Tuesday, causing a serious threat to the existence of the mangrove forest and its natural resources.

Seven crew members of the oil tanker managed to swim ashore while its master, M Mokhlesur Rahman, remains missing.

The sunken oil tanker was salvaged by a private salvage ship under the supervision of the Bangladesh Navy on Thursday morning with two undamaged compartments containing around 100,000 litres of furnace oil.

Toxic impact

While visiting the Sela River and adjacent canals in the Sundarbans by boat, the Dhaka Tribune did not find any dead fauna or aquatic species but found the roots and trunks of trees on the banks of the river and in the tiny surrounding canals turned black by oil contamination.

Fishermen who depend on the forest

said the amount of fishing was high in the first two days after the accident and subsequently declined significantly.

“I used to catch around 20kg a day, but I got only 8 kg on Thursday. I think weak aquatic species like small fishes, shrimps, crabs and others, might have died by getting entangled in the oil spill,” said Afjal Hossain Khan who lives near the Sorki canal of the nearby Mrigamari forest beat. “Perhaps the contamination of the water by the furnace oil was a reason for the reduction of the amount of fish in the nets,” he added.

Faruk Khan and his 10-year-old son, who trap crab in the Sundarbans, said that over the last few days, the number of crabs he has netted has dramatically decreased.

“During the last two days we have collected only 32 crabs weighing six kg, though we usually collect at least 20 kg in that time,” he added.

Political ecology researcher Tanzim Uddin Khan said two or three days are not enough to measure the negative impacts of the accident on different species of flora and fauna. We have to wait for some time to know the actual damage. l

former professor of Dhaka University, said: “The goal of the olympiad is to encourage the gifted students to cultivate and enhance their analytical skills, problem-solving skills, communication skills and research skills.”

“Mathematics is playing the most basic and essential role in this modern era, without math, technology and science cannot work,” he said.

He urged the students to keep practicing mathematics and participating in such olympiads to measure their developments.

Dr Md Shahidul Islam, secretary general of Bangladesh Mathematical Society, said: “If a nation wants to achieve development, its manpower must be educated in maths as mathematics is needed in every sector of development.” l

Charges ready  PAGE 1 COLUMN 2

Two days after the murder, 11 people – all of them involved with the politics of Jamaat-Shibir – were shown arrested in connection with the killing.

However, on November 23, RAB officials arrested six more people including Chhatra Dal leader Abdus Salam Pintu and Jubo Dal Organising Secretary Ariful Islam Manik, and claimed that Shafiul was murdered in retaliation of the RU professor’s misbehaviour with Pintu’s wife Reshma.

At the time, Manik also named local Jubo Dal leader Anowar Hossain Uzzal – who remains absconding – as the planner behind the killing.

In this regard, Motihar OC Alamgir said the police was trying to arrest Uzzal after finding his involvement in the killing, adding that his arrest would make the total incident “crystal clear.”

Two more people – Shariful Islam and Rayhanul Islam Shadhin – were also arrested for creating the Facbook page named Ansar Al Islam Bangladesh 2, which was opened only six hours after the killing to claim responsibility for the murder.

Although the two remain arrested in a case under the ICT act, Motihar OC Alamgir said it was not possible to prove them as killers as they had only posted “Our Mujaheeden has killed Shafiul” on the page to take credit for the killing.

Currently, 17 people including the six arrested by the RAB are staying in RMP custody in connection with the sensational murder.

Contacted, Iftekharul Alam, spokesperson for the RMP commissioner and also an assistant commissioner of the Detective Branch, told the Dhaka Tribune that it was true that some progress had been made in the case, but added that the investigation was still under way.

RU teachers to stage work abstention

The Rajshahi University Teachers Association (RUTA) has announced a twohour work abstention programme for today to press home their demand of arresting and punishing the real perpetrators behind the murder of Prof Shafiul.

Confirming the news, RUTA General Secretary Dr Pranab Kumar Pande blamed the law enforcers for showing no significant action in identifying or apprehending the killers, even though more than 25 days had passed since the incident. The teachers will stop their work from 10am to 12pm, Pande added.

All academic activities except only the pre-scheduled exams will remain closed during the work abstention programme. Dr Pande also warned that RU teachers would go for a tougher movement if effective steps were not taken for a quick trial in the Shafiul murder case. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

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Saturday, December 13, 2014

Several Indian trawlers are moored near the Sundarbans after being seized by patrolling law enforcement personnel for catching fish illegally inside the Bangladeshi maritime border. Right, Locals display several swordfish that were recovered from the vessels. The photos were taken recently SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Govt plans on exporting indigenous coal n Aminur Rahman Rasel The government has reportedly not been extracting from the coal reserves in the country’s north-western regions, as it wanted to export the indigenous coal which had a higher calorific value.

“The calorific value of Bangladeshi coal is higher than any other coal imported from other countries. So we want to use these imported coal for power generation instead of ingenious coal,” Secretary of Energy and Mineral Resources Division Md Abu Bakar Siddique told a seminar, organised by the Power Division to mark the National Electricity Week at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre yesterday.

“We will be more financially benefited by exporting our coal. So we should think how to extract and

export... If we would be able to manage coal in a minimum rate then we will bring it from Indonesia or even the moon,” State Minister for Finance and Planning MA Mannan said.

Bangladesh has coal reserves of about 3.3 billion tonnes comprising five deposits at depths of 118-1158 meters.

Commenting on the controversial Asia Energy Corporation, Abu Bakar said: “Asia Energy Corporation has no valid contract to extract coal with us in the country. The company had a deal to conduct feasibility study which was done much earlier.”

Locals in Dinajpur – with the support of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports – have been demonstrating for the past few years against Asia Energy’s bid to conduct open pit mining

at the Phulbari coal mine.

On another note, the secretary said: “The Institute of Water Modelling has recently conducted water modelling and hydro-geological survey at the Barapukuria site to determine the flow of underground water required for extracting coal through open-pit mining method.

“They have submitted their final report. We are now evaluating it,” he added.

Meanwhile, Md Abul Kalam Azad, senior secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office, said: “The government is actively thinking how to extract coal under the new method of coal bed methane (CBM).”

Also speaking at the programme, Power Division Secretary Monowar Islam said: “We have been emphasising on food security to save land. So we do

Two hurt in BNP Dinajpur conference clash n Our Correspondent, Dinajpur

One detained for beating witness to Bishwajit murder

Two people were injured in a clash involving three groups during a joint worker conference of the BNP at Lok Bhaban in Dinajpur yesterday.

But BNP activists claimed the clash left five to seven people injured. The clash led to the suspension of the conference as the stage was vandalised.

Witnesses said members of the group led by General Secretary of the BNP’s local unit Mukur Chowdhury got into an altercation with those of the group led by Khaleda Zia’s nephew Shahriar Akhter Haque Don over sitting on the stage. The clash started when members of Lutfor Rahman Mintu, president of the unit, arrived at the venue.

The organisers were forced not to continue the conference as key central leaders left the stage soon. Members of the Mukur-led group later attempted to occupy the office of the district unit of BNP but were dispersed by police.

The district unit leaders have been in favour of the groups led by Mintu and Mukur for long, but some activists belonging to the group of Don became their rivals.

In another clash with the groups of Mintu and Mukur on December 6, five people, including former lawmaker Rezina Islam, were injured. l

Police yesterday arrested a transport worker from the capital’s Sayedabad area in connection with the attack on the prime witness in Bishwajit Das killing case.

The arrestee was identified as Md Razu, 26. He comes from Khanza of Faridpur. The arrest was made after rickshaw puller Ripon Sarker, 28, a witness in Bishwajit Das killin case, filed a case with Sabujbagh police station Thursday night, Rafiqul Islam, officer-in-charge of Sabujbagh police station, said.

Both Razu and Ripon used to be transport workers. Razu was arrested four months back with Yaba. Razu suspects that police arrested him on information from Ripon.

This infuriated Razu leading to the attack on Ripon, suspected OC Rafiqul.

Ripon, however, said he came under attack as he testified in Bishwajit killing case, said Rafiqul.

Ripon Sarker was the man who took Bishwajit Das to Sir Salimullah Medical College Hospital on his rickshaw after BCL men stabbed him on December 9, 2012. He was the prime witness to the murder.

The Speedy Trial Tribunal gave death penalty to eight BCL men and life-time imprisonment to 13 others.

n Mohammad Jamil Khan

Ripon said as he is very often threatened by Bishwajit killers he went to his native village at Majhipara of Sharitapur last year with his wife and son. But his poor financial condition forced him to become a driver assistant this year in Dhaka.

As he goes out he covers himself in blanket to avoid being identified, he said.

“Most of the time I sleep inside bus.”

“On Thursday night between 7:30pm and 8pm I boarded a bus bound for Jatrabari from Uttara. Razu along with his accomplices was lurking inside the bus.”

While beating, Razu said it was his punishment for the predicament of 21 accused in the Bishwajit murder case, said Ripon Sarker. At one point Ripon was thrown out of the bus window near Kamlapur foot-over bridge.

“They also took away Tk1820 I earned over the past two days.”

Ripon over his friend’s cell phone pleaded with this correspondent for extending helping hand to save his life.

Masudur Rahman, deputy commissioner (Media) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said a team of Sabujbagh police had already arrested the prime accused Razu.

“Our officials are investigating the incident and all necessary steps would be taken very shortly,” he added. l

Train hits human haulier in Gazipur, two killed n Our Correspondent, Gazipur Two people were killed and eight others injured when Khulna-bound train Sundarban Express hit a locally made human haulier called tomtom (a shallow engine-run three wheeler) at a railway crossing in Kaliakoir upazila of Gazipur yesterday morning.

Syeda Siddiqui, a physician of Gazipur General Hospital, said an unidentified person was brought to the hospital dead while Farid, 35, succumbed to his injuries in the afternoon.

Saiful Islam, sub inspector of the Mouchak Police Outpost, said the accident took place at Mouchak level crossing in the upazila. The other injured were taken to nearby hospitals and clinics for treatment.

The SI said absent security measures at the level crossing was the reason behind the accident. The signal that was given at 10:15am was ignored and no one was there to oversee it, he added. l

not extract domestic coal. We want to preserve our own resources like coal for the future.”

Presenting the keynote paper, Summit Group Chairman Muhammed Aziz Khan said: “The abilities of the private sector have been well proven in the last five years when they have added more than 2500MW in the national grid.

“Bangladesh has shortage of natural gas, yet natural gas is the most suitable primary energy for generating electricity... Bangladesh’s indigenous private sector needs to be involved to enhance the supply of natural gas,” he said.

“Yet another challenge is financing approximately $40bn in the next 15 years; investment that is necessary to generate, transmit and distribute an additional 28,000MW of electricity,” Aziz Khan added. l

CJ for more judges and courts n Adil Sakhawat Chief Justice Md Mozammel Hossain yesterday said backlog of cases could be reduced with a rise in the number of judges.

The Chief Justice made this comment at 17th founding anniversary of Jatiya Samannita Unnayan Parishad at Diploma Engineers’ Institute in the capital.

He said: “People will get judgement at appropriate time and backlog of cases be reduced significantly If manpower at all the courts is increased.”

Former Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Mohammad Farasuddin, Rabea Khan, Mahfuza Khanam, poet Asad Chowdhury and Journalist Ajoy Das Gupta were awarded at the programme for their contribution to the country’s different sectors. The chief justice also emphasised the need for increasing the number of courts in order to reduce the

huge backlog of cases.

He expressed his thanks to Jatiya Samannita Unnayan Parishad for rewarding people and organisations every year for their contribution to the progress of the country.

Jatiya Samannita Unnayan Parishad was founded by the premier’s husband Dr MA Wazed Mia. Former Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Mohammad Farasuddin said: “Due to geographic position Bangladesh is now a key point. Bangladesh is much more established than the countries in Europe and America for its manpower.”

“Now the four economic giants of the world – America, China, Japan and India – want to be partner of Bangladesh’s development among whom China and Japan are now competitors as our country will become an important economic centre in this region in near future,” he noted. l

A mobile court raids the feed factory in Hazaribagh yesterday for mixing toxic elements in poultry feeds

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Factory using toxic element in feeds sealed off n Ashif Islam Shaon The RAB in a drive yesterday sealed off a factory in the capital’s Hazaribagh for using tannery wastes containing chromium in poultry and fish feeds.

A mobile court also sentenced Md Saiful Islam, an employee of Hypo Feed Factory, to two years in jail, and fined him Tk2 lakh. Another employee Md Jamal was fined the same amount as well.

Young girl found dead in capital n Tribune Report

Police recovered the body of a young girl from Nikunjo area of Khilkhet in the capital early yesterday.

The identity of the girl, aged around 22, was not known till yesterday night.

“Based on information, we recovered the body just beside the road 3 of plot 22 around 1.30am and sent it to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for autopsy,” said Nazrul Islam, officer incharge of Khilket police station.

“There were injury marks on the body and also a black spot on her throat. We are suspecting that she might have been strangulated to death by someone,” he added.

When asked about any physical harassment, OC Nazrul said they could only say about it clearly after getting the autopsy report.

A general diary was filed in this regard with the Khilkhet police station. l

“Each of the two will serve three more months in prison if they fail to pay the fine,” said the court’s Executive Magistrate AHM Anwar Pasha.

Saiful, who was in charge of the factory in the absence of its owner Khalil, said factory workers used to boil and dry wastes in the sun after collecting those from local tanneries.

“The dried wastes would be sold at Tk17 per kg in the wholesale market. The

wholesalers crushed those to make poultry and fish feeds. The factory has been doing this for four years,” said Pasha quoting Saiful. “The presence of chromium in poultry and fish feeds should not cross 30ppm but the amount of chromium in the feed they were producing was more than 5,000ppm. Besides, 100 kilograms of quality feed will cost Tk4,500 to produce but the feed made from tannery wastes cost them Tk3,000.” l

Suranjit: Quader Molla son’s remarks amount to contempt of court n BSS

Awami League Advisory Council member Suranjit Sengupta yesterday said the recent remarks of Hasan Jamil, son of Quader Molla who was given capital punishment for crimes against humanity, on the review of his father’s verdict was tantamount to contempt of court.

“Quader Molla’s son remarked that the Supreme Court killed his father.

Such remarks were objectionable, similar to contempt of court and contradictory to the constitution,” he said while addressing a discussion at the Diploma Engineers Institute in the capital yesterday.

Describing the remarks of some BNP leaders on the Dhaka City Corpo-

ration polls as unwarranted, Suranjit said: “BNP should make its stance clear whether it wants DCC polls or not. The fact is that the city dwellers want that the polls be held, no matter what the BNP chairperson says about this. So, the polls should be held expeditiously for the sake of democracy.”

“The cat came out of the sack after the European Union in its recent statement said they have no comments on the polls in Bangladesh,” added the Awami League leader.

Dhaka City Awami League Vice-president Faezuddin Miah, Bangabandhu Academy leader Abdul Hye Kanu and Assistant Secretary of Awami League sub-committee Barrister Zakir Hossain addressed the discussion among others. l

4

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Saturday, December 13, 2014

JOYPURHAT FREIGHT TRAIN ACCIDENT

2 drivers, a director withdrawn; three security officials fired n Our Correspondent, Joypurhat Two train drivers and a railway director (guard) were withdrawn and sent to the Parbatipur division in the wake of Thursday’s freight train accident, which claimed five lives and injured another 16.

The drivers were Selim Hossain and Uzzal Hossain while the director was Anwar Hossain.

Three railway security officials – Atikur Rahman, Ajgar Ali and Alauddin - were also temporarily dismissed for negligence of duty while the accident is being investigated separately by the railway authorities and Joypurhat district administration.

Officials of Santahar Railway police station has filed a case on the grounds of unnatural death.

The accident took place when four wagons of an oil-laden freight train got detached at Khasbaguri Railgate area in Panchbibi upazila. The train was travelling to Parbatipur from Khulna.

General Manager of Rajshahi Railway (west zone) Abdul Awal formed a four-member probe committee while Joypurhat Deputy Commissioner formed another three-member committee after the accident.

The four-member committee went into action this morning and talked to doctors, locals, witnesses as well as railway officials, Area Operating Man-

ager of Parbatipur railway Shah Alam said yesterday.

Members of the other committee have also started working as they are trying to find out what actually caused the accident, he added.

Convener of the three-member committee Khorshed Alam said the train was carrying more than a hundred passengers even though it was a freight train and was supposed to carry oil only.

He refused to make further comments before the end of the probe.

Ramjan Ali, a local man who witnessed the accident, said he heard a bang when the detached wagons hit the engine of the train from behind, causing passengers who were sitting on couplers to fall down.

He said it was horrifying to look at the passengers as they were instantly decapitated or had their limbs severed in the accident.

“A large number of locals rushed to the scene and took the injured to hospital,” he added.

Of the injured, four were admitted to Joypurhat District Hospital while six others were treated at the Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital in Bogra.

Officer-in-Charge of Santahar Railway police station Sayeed Ikbal said the bodies of the deceased were handed over to the families on Thursday night. l

Following several days of gloomy weather, a little bit of sunshine brought out a fresh round of enthusiasm among local residents in Rajshahi’s Kakonhat area yesterday. Forgetting that winter is here, a boy runs a tyre along the rail tracks in a youthful game AZAHAR UDDIN

Gonojagoron Moncho announces 3-day programme to celebrate Victory Day n Tribune Report Gonojagoron Moncho yesterday announced a three-day programme to celebrate the Victory Day 2014.

Imran H Sarkar, spokesperson of the organisation, declared the programme at a press conference at Shahbagh.

According to the programme, on December 14, the Moncho will pay homage to the martyred intellectuals

at Martyred Intellectuals Memorial in Mirpur at 7pm. Before that “Rokto Alekkhya”, a memorial of martyrs family, will be held at 3pm at Shahbagh. In the evening, a torchlight procession will start from Shahbagh and end at Shahid Minar. After that, movie screenings on the liberation war will go on till 10pm.

On December 15, a discussion titled “Trial of War Criminals, Communal Politics and Future of Bangladesh” will

be be held at 3pm followed by movie screenings.

On the Victory Day, December 16, Gonojagoron Moncho will celebrate the time of the surrender of Pakistani army at 4.31pm by singing the national anthem.

Imran H Sarkar said, just after the Victory Day programme, they would announce new activities to press home their six point demands. l

Bengal Foundation pays tribute to Qayyum Chowdhury n Tribune Report

Guests attend a memorial for late artist Qayyum Chowdhury at Bengal Shilpalaya in the capital yesterday

RAJIB DHAR

With musical rendition and photo exhibitions, veteran artist Qayyum Chowdhury was remembered at a memorial meeting organised by Bengal Foundation in the capital yesterday.

Addressing the session, Professor emeritus Anisuzzaman said Qayyum Chowdhury was most well-known for his cover designs.

He was the creator of several posters made during different movements of Bangladesh, among them, the posters symbolising insurgency of 69 and 1971 Liberation War were remarkable, said the professor.

“Qayyum Chowdhury will remain alive through his works,” he added.

A short film on the passionate painter Qayyum Chowdhury titled “Nishorger Aakiye” was screened at the event

that portrayed different aspects of the artist’s of life and activities.

His last speech delivered at the Bengal Classical Music Fest was also shown.

Artist and cartoonist Rafiqun Nabi and Director General of Bengal Foundation Luva Nahid Chowdhury spoke at the session.

They said passion for literature, music and films made Qayyum Chowdhury’s life optimistic, variety seeking and an abundant source of good taste.

Among others, Aditi Mohsin, Mita Haque, and Sharmin Shathi Islam paid tribute to the artist by rendering songs.

On November 30, Qayyum Chowdhury fell sick while delivering his speech on the fourth-day of Bengal Classical Music Fest at the capital’s Bangladesh Army Stadium. He was taken to CMH, where on-duty doctors declared him dead. l

Haors abuzz with winged guests, hunting goes unabated n Our Correspondent, Kishoreganj Come winter, hundreds of birds, both from the country and abroad, throng the haor areas of Ghagra, Abdullahpur, Bhatshala, and Guradigha of Kishoreganj. Various species of birds are seen flocking in numbers to the haors filling up the areas with their sweet twittering and lively presence.

The Mithamoin, Itna and Austagram upazilas of Kishoreganj have historically been a safe paradise for the migratory birds. There are hundreds of big and small fresh water bodies offering a safe sanctuary.

Around 50 migratory species including locals from different parts of the country such as Hakaluki and Hyle Haors and Tanguar Beel in Sylhet, and the Chittagong Hill Tracts come to Kishoreganj. The other species come from the mountains of the Himalayas

and as far as Siberia.

Desi Khanjana, Pintail, Lanja Duck, Tufted Duck, Spoonbill, Seagull and Moorhen are some of the endangered species among the local migratory birds that visit the water bodies in the district.

The guest birds normally arrive in November for two or three months.

They float on the water, play or fight with each other, fly in the open sky and sometimes wander from one beel to another and one haor to another in search of food.

This extraordinary display of the lives of feathery animals attract a large number of visitors. Hundreds of people visit Kishoreganj everyday to see the birds and enjoy their company. Also for local people, it is a great fun time and a boon to their livelihood.

However, some visitors come not only for birdwatching. With the arrival

of the birds, a group of poachers also become active. They indiscriminately catch birds setting trap at night and sell those to different markets of the upazila.

‘I hunt birds every winter as it is my hobby.

I have been hunting for five years and can hunt six to ten migratory birds a day’ While most poachers engage in the unscrupulous act for seasonal earning, the others do it just as a pastime.

Md. Selim Uddin, a residence of Gh-

agra area in Mithamoin upazila said: “We the local people protest bird hunting at haors but our protest often falls into deaf ears.”

Abdur Rahman, a school teacher at Abdullahpur village in Austagram upazila said bird hunters usually gathered around Dhanu River basin for hunting birds every winter season. “Their illegal act goes on openly. Sometimes the villagers protest it but to no effect,” he said.

“I hunt birds every winter as it is my hobby. I have been hunting for five years and can hunt six to ten migratory birds a day,” boasted Nayan Mia, 35, a resident of Bhatshala village in Austagram upazila.

“I don’t know about any law against bird hunting,” he added.

Mustafizur Rahman, 40, a resident of Hatkobila of Itna upazila, said: “Many people hunt migratory birds

to earn money. We go to different remote villages especially to the river banks for hunting guest birds. Each of us can hunt 10 to 12 birds a day. There is a good demand for birds as an exotic food item.”

Seeking anonymity, another hunter said: “I know there is a law against hunting of guest birds. But many people do so and I also have been hunting migratory birds for the last ten years.

I hunt them by netting from different haor areas in Itna.”

Acknowledging the unlawful hunting, Nasir Uddin Bhuiyan, officer in-charge of Mithamoin said the law lacked implementation.

Upazila Nirbahi Officer of Mithamoin Aziz Hayder Bhuiyan said most of the hunters did not know about the law.

“So mass awareness campaign should be done to end migratory bird hunting,” he added. l

3-day CSE Festival to end at WUB today Man killed in city’s road accident n Tribune Report A three-day CSE Festival will end at the World University of Bangladesh (WUB) today.

Education Secretary Nazrul Islam Khan is expected to be present as the special guest at the closing ceremony.

Two hundred students of Information and Communication Technology from 10 universities and 15 colleges have par-

ticipated in the festival that featured IT olympiad, gaming contest, debate competition, IT fair, workshops and seminars on ICT related subjects at WUB’s Dhanmondi campus in the capital.

At the inaugural session special guest Mostafa Jabbar, former president of Bangladesh Computer Society and inventor of Bangla font BIJOY, said: “We did not have internet in 1996. Now 4.25 crore people are using

internet. Around 8.5 crore people are using mobiles phone, around 80 universities of our country are providing education in Computer Science and Engineering.”

Chief guest of the session Prof M Kaykobad of Buet advised the students to become expert in Information and Communication Technology and emphasised on building a knowledge-based society. l

n Tribune Report A man was killed as he fell under the wheels of a bus when he was getting off the vehicle at Motijheel Balaka Chattar in Dhaka yesterday.

The deceased was Akbar Ali, 35, a driver of a private company and resident of Matuail in Demra area, said BM Forman Ali, officer-in-charge of Motijheel Police Station.

Md Alauddin, an eyewitness of the incident, said the accident took place as the victim fell down on the road when he was trying to get off the bus around 8:30am.

Critically injured Akbar was rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) where doctors declared him dead around 9:15am, the OC said.

The body was sent to DMC morgue for an autopsy. l

Housewife strangled allegedly by husband in capital n Tribune Report Police recovered the body of a housewife who was allegedly killed by her husband in Bhashantek area of Dhaka yesterday.

The victim is Morzina Bagum, 28, a worker at a garment factory in the capital, and wife of Amir Hossain, a rickshaw puller.

Quoting locals, police said the couple engaged in altercations over their family feud at their house on Thursday night.

The neighbours found Morzina lying on the floor of her room yesterday morning, they said.

Mohammad Nuruzzaman, sub-inspector of Bhashantek police station, said they recovered the body around 1:20pm and sent it to Dhaka Medical College for an autopsy.

Police suspect that Morzina was strangulated as several injury marks were found on her neck.

Victim’s husband Amir is absconding after the incident.

A case was filed in this regard. l

Training on healthcare held for journalists n Tribune Report The Dhaka Ahsania Mission organised a training programme for journalists at the Chittagong Press Club yesterday.

Under the “Every One Campaign,” the mission has been working on child and maternal health engaging locals, particularly students.

Chittagong Union of Journalists (CUJ) President Ezaz Yusufi inaugurated the porgamme presided over by Kazi Abul Mansur, vice-president of Chittagong Press Club.

CUJ’s former president Nasirul Haque presented keynote paper on “Health Care and Service Reporting” while Kazi Abul Mansur discussed on the present trends of journalism.

Jahangir Hossain and Siplok Chakma, officials of Dhaka Ahsania Mission were present at the programme among others.

Dhaka Ahsania Mission runs the “Every One Campaign” project in Chittagong’ Satkania upazila, Barisal and Moulvibazar. l

Death anniversary of intellectual martyr n Tribune Report Today is the 43rd death anniversary of Rafiqul Haider Chowdhury (Eshika), a martyred intellectual.

On this day in 1971, Razakars, the local collaborators of the Pakistan occupation forces, picked up Rafiqul from his Shahidbagh residence. He was taken away blindfolded and later killed.

A milad mehfil will be held after the Asr prayer at Aminbagh mosque in the city to mark the day. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

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Saturday, December 13, 2014

Kazirbazar Bridge unlikely to open in December n Our correspondent, Sylhet The much talked about Kazirbazar Bridge on Surma River in Sylhet is unlikely to be inaugurated in December this year, despite minister Obaidul Quader’s promise of gifting it to the people of Sylhet on the Victory Day. While visiting the bridge site on Thursday, the Road Transport and Bridges Minister said, it depended on the Prime Minister’s scheduled visit.

However, the construction works of the south side of the bridge is yet to completed.

Faruk Mahmud Chowdhury, president of Sushashoner Jonno Nagorik said: “We are disappointed by the minister’s commitment. In the present situation, it is very unconvincing that the bridge will open within six months. In fact, I doubt whether it could be inaugurated even in December, 2015.”

Sub Divisional Engineer of the Roads and Highways Department of Sylhet, Mir Nizam Uddin said they failed to complete the work of the bridge in time due to various obstacles. “Around 90% work of the northern approach has been completed. As for the south-

ern approach, we have some barriers.

A warehouse of the food department needs to be relocated,” he said.

“Moreover, we have signed a treaty with the railways department to remove their infrastructures on November 24. After getting the land and finishing all the procedures, we would start the approach work.”

In a related question he said, the Prime Minister would open the Kazirbazar, Chandarpur and Surma bridges in a day.

While visiting the bridge on Thursday, the minister said: “Construction of the main structure of the bridge is completed. So it’s our gift. I have already discussed the issues with authorities concerned and those would be resolved soon. When we get the schedule of the Prime Minister, the bridge will be opened.”

On December 24, 2005, M Saifur Rahman, the then finance minister, laid the foundation stone of the bridge. The initial cost of the project was estimated to be Tk44.64 crore but in nine years it has more than tripled to Tk144 crore.

Kamal Associates, a Dhaka-based firm, is implementing the project. l

The Bigyan Andolan Mancha holds a human chain in front of the National Press Club yesterday, demanding prompt measures to save the Sundarbans from pollution

MEHEDI HASAN

Green activists demand protection for the Sundarbans

Rare documents of Trouble compounds as 1971 Liberation War fog disrupts ferry services on display at Kawrakandi terminal. Some ferries n Tribune Report n Tribune Report n Our Correspondent, Barisal were also stuck in the middle of the Exclusive documents of the 1971 Liberation War is put on display at the Chittagong University Museum.

The six-day exhibition was inaugurated by CU Vice-Chancellor Prof Anwarul Azim Arif on Wednesday.

The rare documents include pictures, letters, posters, significant news published in the national and international dailies during the war, and books portraying the horror unleashed by the Pakistani oppressors.

Scripts aired on the Bangladesh Betar during the war will also be on exhibit.

“The archive houses a number of rare documents including handwritten speech of Major General Ziaur Rahman that was broadcast from Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra on behalf of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,” Director of CU Museum Prof Imran Hossain said.

Speech of Syed Nazrul Islam, acting president of the country during the Liberation War, radio scripts: “Banglar Kotha” by Belal Mohammed, “Joy Shadhin Bangla” by Abul Kashem Swandip and “Ronangone Banglar Nari” by Mustari Shafi are also on display.

Amina Islam, a masters student of Communication and Journalism, told Dhaka Tribune that she had read a lot of books and stories on the Liberation War, but the history came alive in front of her eyes after seeing the documents and pictures at the exhibition.

Free for all, the exhibition will continue from 9am to 2pm until Tuesday. l

Dense fog disrupting the ferry service on Shimulia-Kawrakandi route has heightened the misery of the passengers, with some 1,500 vehicles stuck on both sides till yesterday noon.

The vehicles are mostly freight trucks and lorries destined for different parts of the country, including the capital. There are also trucks loaded with raw materials and perishable goods.

The disruption, which caused a 6km tailback from Kawrakandi terminal to Haji Shariatullah bridge, occurred at three intervals since Tuesday night as ferry services remained halted for 36 hours till yesterday morning.

Thick fog has made it difficult to clearly see objects even just a few metres away.

The Dhaka-bound passengers coming from southern districts got stuck

Padma River because of fog, compounding the woes of the passengers.

BIWTC Manager of Kawrakandi terminal Salam Hossain said they had no technology to prevent disruptions to ferry services caused by fog during winter.

“We have to suspend services to prevent possible accidents. The traffic congestion is just the result of this as the number of vehicles continues to grow on both sides of the terminal,” he said.

BIWTC Assistant Manager of Shimulia terminal Shekhar Chandra Roy said ferry services were suspended as fog had obstructed the view and the beacon lights were not distinctly visible.

“Ferries that got stuck in the mid-river were anchored, and will resume journey once the fog is cleared,” he added. l

Environmental activists formed a human chain in Barisal yesterday demanding immediate ban on mechanised water transportation on routes surrounding the Sundarbans.

Asking for permanent steps to save the World Heritage Site, the activists also demanded immediate cleaning of the oil spilt from the oil tanker that capsized on Tuesday.

The demonstration was organised by the Barisal unit of Bigyan Andolon Moncho, the science wing of Socialist Students’ Front, in the city’s Ashwini Kumar Hall.

Presided over by Reazul Haq Sumon, president of the organisation, the event was addressed by Faisal Ahmed Rana and Apurbo Ahom from Bigyan Andolon Moncho, Moslem Shikdar from Bangladesh Trade Union Kendra,

FORECAST FOR TODAY 27 28 25 26 25 27 28 29

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YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW

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PRAYER TIMES Fajr Sunrise Zohr Asr Magrib Esha

5:12am 6:31am 11:53am 3:37pm 5:13pm 6:33 pm SourceL IslamicFinder.org

save it from any man-made disaster or accident, the speakers said all environment-polluting activities around the world’s largest mangrove forest must be stopped at once, especially the construction of Rampal coal-based power plant, as well as unplanned tourism, hunting, etc.

“We have to realise that the Sund-

n Tribune Report

DRY WEATHER LIKELY SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13

Dhaka Chittagong Rajshahi Rangpur Khulna Barisal Sylhet Cox’s Bazar

'We have to realise that the Sundarbans is necessary to control carbon dioxide emission'

arbans is necessary to control carbon dioxide emission. It is the people living in the region who are paying the price for the activities of the money mongers who making a fortune by using the resources of the forest,” the speakers said.

“No one cares that we will face severe environmental disaster if the Sundarbans is damaged or destroyed,” they added.

“Any incident or activity damaging the Sundarbans will ultimately affect the inhabitants of the forest, as well as increase the risk of a hike in the amount of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide in the air.

“This will seriously harm the bio-diversity, ecology, water management, flora and fauna of the Sundarban and the coastal areas. So, there is no alternative to protecting the Sundarbans from any and all damage,” they said. l

GP smartphone and tab fair begins

WEATHER

DHAKA TODAY TOMORROW SUN SETS 5:13PM SUN RISES 6:32AM

and Dr Manisha Chakroborty from the Socialist Students’ Front.

Supported the United Nations’ call to ban mechanised water transportation surrounding the Sundarbans to

People visit a stall at GP Smartphone and Tablet Computer Fair in the capital yesterday. The fair began at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital yesterday SHEKHAR MONDAL

Three-day long smartphone and tablet computer fair began in the city yesterday at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre.

The fair was formally inaugurated

by Science And Technology State Minister Yafes Osman yesterday evening, however, it was open to people from the morning. Event management company Expo Maker organised the fair with mobile telecommunication company Grameenphone, the title sponsor.

After the opening, from the very first hour, the fair found a huge gathering of tech-lovers who were able to buy and experience new smart devices of world famous brands like Asus, Huawei, Lenovo, Samsung, Symphony, Maximus and Acer.

The event also includes mobile gaming, application zones, seminar and workshop. Special discounts are also available at the expo.

At the inauguration ceremony Yafes Osman said smart handsets and tabs played a key role in ensuring internet for all in the country.

Marcus Adajtusson, director of Communication at Grameenphone, said 65% people of the country did not know anything about the internet and Grameenphone has been working to change the scenario.

The fair will remain open from 10am to 8pm and the entry fee is Tk20.

There will be a dialogue on “What Kind of Internet We Want” on the last day of the fair which will be participated by state minister for ICT as the chief guest. l

Man arrested from press club with explosives

'Govt investigating question leakage'

n Our Correspondent, Jessore

Primary and Mass Education Minister Mostafizur Rahman said the government had started looking into the allegations of question leakage at the Primary School Certificate examinations this year.

The minister made the comment while visiting an under-construction district Scout building at B M School Road in Barisal city yesterday morning.

“The government is taking these allegations seriously, and is trying to figure out the facts in this regard as well as find the probable leaks in the ministry, the Directorate of Primary Education, and printing press,” he said while addressing the event as chief guest.

In reply to a reporter’s question, the minister further said the government was working to ensure primary teaching in a risk-free environment, and

Police yesterday arrested a drug dealer from Jessore Press Club after he entered the premises with five explosives allegedly to conduct an attack.

Jessore Press Club Office Secretary Kazi Ashraful Azad said when the arrestee, Kalu, 45, came to the press club in the afternoon around 12:30 he was spotted carrying five explosives and detained. When members of the press club questioned him, Kalu alleged that some people of the districts Ghop area forced him to carry out drug dealing but when he refused, they kidnapped his wife and child.

The explosives were immediately taken from him and put on a water bucket after which the police were informed, Ashraful said.

Later, Sub-Inspector Shahidul Islam of Kotwali police station came and arrested him. They also found 38 pieces of yaba from his possession, he added.

The office secretary said when Kalu was questioned, he claimed that five to seven people including Milon and Hossain of Ghop area used to conduct the business of selling yaba, phensidyl, marihuana and other drugs through him. But when he refused, Kalu claimed that the people he used to work for kidnapped his wife and child. When he informed the police about it, they did not pay a heed and that is why he came with explosives to the press club.

However, when contacted, SI Shahidul said Kalu was lying and his mental state was not stable. He claimed that Kalu came to the press club to conduct an attack on journalists. l

n Our Correspondent, Barisal

work for repairing and reconstructing all dilapidated school buildings was underway.

The minister also assured that the new textbook would be supplied in due time.” Books have already been sent to the schools in remote areas,” he said.

'The new textbook would be supplied in due time. Books have already been sent to the schools in remote areas' The minister also criticised the custom of having school children stand beside the road to give ovation to the visiting VIPs such as ministers and lawmakers.

“I do not think the lawmakers

feel any special welcome by that. We should change our mindset and eliminate this bad practice. I myself am trying to change it, and I also urge all the others to do so,” he said.

The programme was attended by Shahidul Alam, deputy commissioner of the district, Mahbube Elahi, divisional deputy director of the Directorate of Primary Education, Qari Lutfar Rahman, district Scout officer, and other high officials of the administration as well.

The minister also inaugurated the centenary festival of Baptist Mission School in the city.

There, he said the distribution of free text books and mass scholarship increased the attendance and pass rates of primary students.

Awami League lawmaker Advocate Talukdar Md Yunus was present at the inauguration ceremony. l

6

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Nation

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Land in enclaves is valuable, not life Many residents said pay was better in India, but they cannot go there as they do not have any papers

n Our Correspondent, Kurigram They are foreigners in their own land.

Unwanted and unacknowledged. Seeing the miserable life they lead being forever condemned in those narrow strips of land, one may wonder if they are considered human beings at all!

“If we are a part of India, why doesn’t the Indian government look after us? They value our land, but not our lives,” said an enraged Rafiqul of Boro Garaljora enclave, which is situated inside Bangladesh but belongs to India.

The lives of hundreds of people living in the disputed enclaves – more commonly known as Chhitmahals – in Bangladesh and India are at the mercy of political power game. Since the time of the Mughal empire to the present day, there had been a number of initiatives to exchange the adversely held enclaves. Much has also been written about the hardship of the Chhitmahal residents. But the issue still remains unresolved putting the lives of the people in a limbo.

The 162 Chhitmahals, 111 within Bangladesh and 51 India, is home to

some 51,000 people. Among them 37,369 people are residing in Bangladesh while 14,221 are in India.

There are 12 Chhitmahals belonging to India in Kurigram district of Bangladesh. At least 10 are in the Bhurungamari upazila housing about 300 families. According to an estimation, about 1800 people live in those enclaves.

Boro Garaljora Chhitmahal measuring at 35.24 acre has 17 families, while the Chhoto Garaljora is 17.78 acre and Kalamati is 21 acre. From these enclaves, India’s Dinhata police station is about 20-25 kilometre and the Coochbihar district Sadar is about 45-50 kilometre.

A visit to the Chhitmahals in Kurigram has revealed what hardships the residents go through everyday.

There is no schools, hospitals, markets or access to bare necessities for these people. Each time they step out of enclaves they can be arrested by law enforcers or humiliated by others.

Children of the Chhitamahal dwellers have no access to education. Sometimes they have to hide their identity to get admitted into schools as being a Chhitmahal resident is deemed shameful.

19 year old Sajjad Hossain of the Boro Garaljora enclave said with anguish: “If we are Indian citizen, why didn’t the Indian government provide us education facility? Why have we remained illiterate?”

The state of healthcare is probably the worst in the Chhitmahals. In absence of proper doctors and hospitals, people are often victim of quacks. They are not allowed to cross the border for better treatment. In many areas, the enclaves have literally become prisons for its inhabitants, who grow up and die in that small strip of land.

“We are living a caged life being stuck between two independent countries.

When will we have our independence?

If this Chhit goes to Bangladesh, we will be able to breathe freely, finally,” said Basir Hossain of Kalamati Chhitmahal.

The residents complaint of no accountability, jurisdiction and administration making the enclaves a haven for terrorists, drug dealers and all sorts of criminals. Because there is no government in most of the enclaves, the infrastructure is heavily underdeveloped.

Agriculture, the basic income source

for the enclave residents, is dependent solely on the primitive method.

Non-existence of modern irrigation, machinery or knowledge harms the production to a great extent. Moreover, the farmers are bound to sell their produce at a low price in the Bangladeshi market.

Many residents said the pay was better in India. But they cannot go there as they do not have any papers. Major portion of the border area around these enclaves are separated by barbed wire fencing put up by India. Border Security Force (BSF) patrols the areas with guns.

Since the residents share the same language, skin colour and religious belief with their Bangladeshi neighbours, it is hard to distinguish. However, whenever they reveal their identity, the enclave residents face untold miseries.

“We are deprived of all basic amenities. I am at the end of my life but yet I do not know my nationality,” 60 year old Mahiuddin let out a deep sigh.

The frustration and hopelessness ring true for all the residents of the enclaves, both in India and in Bangladesh.

For them, it is neither about bread and

butter nor a standard living, but more about being free.

Chhitmahal residents want to live their lives with independence, dignity and identity. Most of them want to stay in their land as Bangladeshis as they have relatives here and share the same religious belief. But there are exceptions too. Kalamati’s Amena Begum said she wanted to live in India as her ancestral home is there.

On this backdrop, the recent development in settling the land dispute between Bangladesh and India has come as a breath of fresh air for the enclave dwellers.

Welcoming the recent statement of Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of Paschimbanga, on her approval of the proposed Land Boundary Agreement deal, Golam Mostafa of Bangladesh-India Enclaves Exchange Coordination Committee said, they were very happy with the news.

“We also distributed sweets among us. Now we are hoping that the bill will be approved before the Victory Day of Bangladesh on December 16, which will be also our day of freedom,” he said in an emotion-choked voice. l

2 members of Jakir Bahini arrested n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong Two members of “Jakir Bahini,” a robbers’ gang active in southern parts of Chittagong, were held in a drive yesterday.

The two members are Jakir’s wife Salima Akhter, 22, and Mahbub Alam, 32, residents of Banshkhali upazila and Lohagora upazila under Chittagong district respectively.

Both were held from a house located in the Mohora area of the port city.

Chandgaon police station Officer-inCharge Abdur Rouf said they conducted the drive around 2:30am after being tipped off about the gang’s presence there.

Police held the robbers while they were taking preparations for conducting a robbery in the area. Police could held two of them while two others managed to flee the scene, he said.

The recovered firearms and other items include a rifle with nine rounds of bullets, six one barreled guns, 26 shotgun bullets and five mobile phone sets.

Through primary interrogation, police found out that the gang of around 15 members was influential in the southern parts of the district. Many members of the gang were accused in different cases lodged with police stations situated in the southern zone. l

Truck-human haulier collision kills four n Our Correspondent, Jessore

Four people, including a student of Jessore Science and Technology University, were killed after collision between a truck and a human haulier at Abdullahpur Bazar under Jessore Sadar Upazila yesterday. At least 10 people were injured in the accident.

The deceased were identified as Abu Hanif, a third year student of Physical Education department of Jessore Science and Technology University, Khadija Begum, 50, wife of Maulana Habibur Rahman Bubulbuli, Fakhrul Islam and driver of the human haulier Anisur Rahman.

Of the injured, nine were identified as Sharmin Sultana, Swapna Begum, Khadija Begum, Ratna, Bristy and Jahid Hasan. Quoting witnesses, police said a Jhenaidah-bound truck hit a human haulier which is locally known as Alamsadhu from behind, leaving the three dead on the spot.

Later, Fakhrul Islam died at Jessore Sadar Hospital.

Policeman, informant assaulted by Dinajpur drug dealers n Our Correspondent, Dinajpur Drug peddlers in Dinajpur assaulted police, who were carrying out an anti-narcotics drive early yesterday.

The attack, which left two people including a policeman injured, was made at a slum behind Dinajpur Power House around 12:30am. The injured police official, Bidyut Kumar Majumder, is the sub-inspector of Dinajpur Kotwali police station while the other, Orange, is a police informant.

Orange, son of Kazi Amir Hossain, lives in Nimnagar Balubari in Dinajpur city, and was admitted to Dinajpur General Hospital in a critical condition after the attack. Police said one of the assailants had been detained and police were looking for the others. l

After the accident, driver and helper of the truck fled the scene leaving behind the truck. Then, agitated locals set the truck on fire.

As the news of Jessore Science and Technology University’s student’ death spread, hundreds of students took to the street and put up barricade on Jesoore-Chougacha road. The agitators demanded stoppage of plying of unfit vehicle such as human haulier in the district.

On receiving information, police rushed to the spot and dispersed the agitators charging batons in which two students were injured. The injured were taken to Jessore Sadar Hospital.

Officer-in-Charge of Kotwali police station told the Dhaka Tribune that the situation was under their control.

In another incident, Jaheda Begum, 44, wife of Habibur Rahman Sheikh of Sujapur village in Lohagara upazila of Narail district was killed when she fell from a human hauler on the Jessore-Narail road at Charabhita Jamdia area in Sadar upazila at night. l

Agitators set a truck on fire after it hit a human haulier killing three people, including a student of Jessore Science and Technology University, in Jessore Sadar upazila yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Vegetable cultivation inside mango orchards appears profitable in Tangail n Our Correspondent, Tangail Md Delwar Hossain, a successful mango farmer of Sakhipur upazila here, has recently been trying to cultivate different sorts of vegetables in the blank spaces in his mango orchard in a bid to making maximum use and profit from the land.

Delwar who is a post graduated first ever adopted the profession nine years ago as the locals thought that mango farming would not be much profitable.

He planted two thousands of mango sapling on a 13-acre land and in course of time it was extended to 77-acre and he earns Tk50-60 lakh each year by selling mango.

But this year, he has partially cultivated cauliflower, cabbage and turnip, tomato and different sorts of vegetables in his orchard to ensure ultimate

use of the land as the move will bring extra profit for him. Even, there was a mustard seed bed of 2-acre.

When contacted, Delwar said: “I have cultivated advanced variety of winter crops in my orchards and I also

Delwar who is a post graduated first ever adopted the profession nine years ago as the locals thought that mango farming would not be much profitable want the farmers use of their land in such way to developed their livelihood as well as for the sake of our country.”

“Last year I started the cultivation ex-

perimentally in a 1.5-acre land and I succeed. This year I expect to make a profit of Tk7 lakh to Tk8 lakh,” he continued.

While visiting the area, locals told the correspondent that they have started following the Delwar’s initiative while the blank spaces of their orchard remains idle most of the time of year.

Another youth, namely Habib Khan in Araliabari area, cultivated seasonal crops on 2.5-acre of his mango orchard, saying he adopted the move being inspired by Delwar. He hopeful of making a handsome profit from the new cultivation this year.

When asked, Tangail Deputy Commissioner Md Mahbub Hossain said: “Certainly it is a good initiative and I will visit the area soon. Besides, we are ready to help anybody who is enthusiastic and wants to change their state by the initiative.” l

Businessman killed for extortion n Our Correspondent, Narshingdi

With the advent of winter, sale of warm clothes have got a momentum at makeshift shops and hawkers markets in Rajshahi city. People from low income group are crowding the roadside shops to buy second-hand warm clothes to protect themselves from the winter cold.

According to the Met office, the lowest temperature in the district was 13 degree celcious yesterday. The photo was taken in front of Rajshahi Education Board office AZAHAR UDDIN

A transport businessman was killed by miscreants at Polash Upazilla in Narshingdi yesterday morning.

The deceased is identified as Milon Mia, 50. The relatives of the deceased said Milon started the construction of his own house at Fularditek area of Narshingdi.

Some notorious criminals of the neighbourhood like Mohiuddin, Selim, Alamgir, Arif and their gangs demanded high amount of extortion from him. As Milon denied them they entered into the Milon’s house and fired at his head with gun in front of his wife. He died instantly.

Police rushed to the spot and send the dead body to the morgue of Narshingdi Sadar Hospital.

Officer-in-Charge of Palash police station Shahdat Hossain told three people are arrested regarding the issue and being interrogated. Police is making further operations to arrest other accused. l

NEWS IN BRIEF Seven jailed for five years in a carjacking case A tribunal on Thursday convicted seven people and sentenced them to five years’ imprisonment for snatching a microbus leaving its driver unconscious in 2011. The court also fined them Tk10,000 each, in default, to suffer six months more of rigorous imprisonment. According to the prosecution, the convicts hired a microbus from Dariapara microbus stand in the city for going to Jaflong on November 9, 2011. Later, they made the microbus driver Mostafa unconscious and took away the vehicle leaving Mostafa at a place near Sayestaganj rail crossing. However, police in a drive arrested four people along with the microbus from Kamaura area on the Sylhet-Dhaka Highway in Ashuganj while the others managed to flee.

– Our Correspondent, Sylhet

Chandpur district BNP convening committee formed A 71-member convening committee of BNP’s Chandpur district unit has been formed.

Sheikh Farid Ahmed Manik has been made convenor of the committee. Manik told the Dhaka Tribune that the committee consists of 15 joint convenors and 55 members. “I will fulfill my duties given by our leader Khaleda Zia,” Manik said in an instant reaction. The last committee of the district was formed in 2010 with Engineer Mominul Haque as president and Sheikh Farid Ahmed Manik general secretary. I will fulfill my duties given by our leader Khaleda Zia, says Sheikh Farid Ahmed Manik – Our Correspondent, Chandpur

Businessman goes missing in Moulvibazar An air-travel businessman has been remained missing since Thursday afternoon in Moulvibazar town. The missing businessman is identified as Mahbub F Anwar, proprietor of Aro-World Travels located in Berirpar area of the town. Family and police sources said Anwar came out from his business firm around 2pm on Thursday and since then he has been missing. Family and his business firm sources said Anwar had no enmity, but he owed of a huge amount of money from clients.

– Our Correspondent Moulvibazar

7 detained by BGB while crossing border illegally Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) yesterday arrested seven persons, including women and children, from Harinkhola border of Madhabpur upazila in Habiganj. BGB said, three men, one woman and three children, yet to be identified, were illegally trying to cross over to India with the help of a pimp. BGB, however, could not arrest the pimp. Lieutenant Colonel Sajjad Hossain of BGB 55 Battalion acknowledged the incident.

– Our Correspondent, Habiganj

Man killed by wife, children in Chuadanga A man has been strangulated to death allegedly by his wife and children for land in Sadar upazila yesterday. Police recovered the body of Rabiul Haque, 43, son of late Azhar Ali Mondal of Natidanga village in Alamdanga upazila, from his in-law’s house at Garabaria village on Friday morning. Police and locals said Rabiul’s wife Jahera Khatun and her three children from her earlier marriage -- son Shanta, and daughters Rehena and Sabina -- had long been pressurising him to hand over his ancestral land to her name. However, Rabiul repeatedly refused to entertain her demand whereby the couple used to lock in altercation. Rabiul, who used to live at his in-law’s house, had picked a quarrel with his wife and children over the issue on Thursday night. On information, police recovered the body of Rabiul on Friday morning and sent it to hospital morgue for autopsy. They also arrested Jahera and her three children in this connection.

– UNB

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Prescription

7

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Are adenoids deforming your child?

Children can get a stuffy nose, mouth breathing and snoring from time to time. Sometimes the enlarged tonsils and nasal allergy are the causes. However, these are not the only cause of these symptoms.

Enlargement of Adenoids, located higher up in the mouth, behind the nose and roof of the mouth, can be another unseen cause. Most of us are not aware of the effect of enlarged and inflamed adenoids

n Dr Sajol Ashfaq Enlarged adenoids are commonly a disease of children. Adenoids are small tissues located at the back of the throat.

HEALTH They are similar to the FLASH tonsils, and located right above them, but they are not visualised through mouth. Adenoids are present at birth, and they grow until a child is between the ages of 3 and 5. Normally, they begin to shrink after around age 7. They shrink considerably at the age of 12.

Usually adenoids are supposed to get enlarged in childhood. Certain children have a tendency to suffer from enlarged adenoids enlarged more due to repeated nasal allergy and infection in throat. If it is growing too large then it causes nasal obstruction and or breathing and sleeping problems.

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Symptoms of enlarged adenoids Symptoms related to nose:

n Stuffy nose is the common symptom, this leads to mouth breathing. Nasal blockage also interferes with feeding and sucking in a child. n Chronic runny nose is usually seen due to obstruction of the inner openings of the nose by enlarged adenoids, as the normal nasal secretion cannot drain through the inner openings of the nose to the throat. n Speaking with a nasal sound due to nasal obstruction n If adenoids get infected, bleeding from nose can occur with nose blowing. n Because of blocked nose, child cannot smell properly and loses appetite. n Enlarged adenoids narrows the airway and make the breathing difficult, resulting in snoring, restlessness during

n

sleep, pauses in breathing for a few seconds at night may indicate sleep apnea.

Symptoms related to ear:

n Blocked feeling of either or both ears, as hugely enlarged adenoids can block the openings of a tube situated in nasopharynx (An area above the uvula and behind the nose) which connects middle ear to nasopharynx. The tube called Eustachian tube. The openings of these tubes in the nasopharynx are to maintain the balance of middle ear air pressure with atmospheric air pressure. n Pain in either or both ears is another symptoms due spread of infection to

FOOD THERAPY

Foods to help ease gout Eating certain foods can have beneficial effects for gout sufferers. Gout is an arthritic condition caused by swelling of the joints that often strikes out of the blue and can be extremely painful.

However, the good news is that this is the only form of arthritis where there is clear medical evidence showing that a change in diet can result in significant benefits.

The problem with purine

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Gout is caused when crystals of uric acid – a natural waste product in the body – form in the joints. Food that contains high levels of purine produces more uric acid, so start by avoiding those if you suffer from gout.

Red meat, offal and sweetbreads, gravy, stock cubes and yeast extracts such as Vegemite are the foods which has got high purine level. Some shellfish and certain fish such as herring, sardines, mackerel and anchovies are also high in purine, which are natural chemicals found in both plant and animal cells.

Unfortunately, these are also the oily fish containing omega-3 fats, found to reduce inflammation with some forms of arthritis. However, foods rich in omega-3 also include linseeds, linseed and canola oil, and walnuts.

The good food

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While purine-rich foods and alcohol are to be avoided, some foods may actually be good for patients with gout. A popular remedy is the cherry cure. Cherries contain anthocyanidins which help lower uric acid. Eat a cup of cherries, either fresh or canned, each day. Strawberries and blueberries are also good.

Herbs that increase uric acid excretion are nettle leaf, gravel root, parsley, celery seed and birch. Drinking herbal tisanes containing nettles helps rid the body of excess uric acid. And a juice made of two-thirds carrot, one-third celery and several sprigs of parsley may help relieve the inflammation during an attack.

Lifestyle matters

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In the drink Excess consumption of alcohol (and especially beer) and binge drinking are linked to gout, so suffers should limit their alcohol intake.

During an acute attack of gout, it is best to cut out alcohol altogether.

Coffee is more confusing. Both regular and decaffeinated coffee may lower your uric acid level and reduce your overall risk of gout. However, a sudden large intake may actually trigger an acute attack. If you choose to drink coffee, keep to a regular daily intake of no more than four cups.

An overall healthy attitude to eating and exercise lessens your risk of contracting gout. The typical gout sufferer is overweight, regularly eats red meat and drinks large amounts of alcohol, especially beer. Crash dieting also contributes to gout.

Alcohol, overeating, dieting and dehydration can trigger a gout attack. Cut down on excessive alcohol consumption, drink plenty of water and avoid fructose, found in many soft drinks.

Healthy lifestyle choices combined with a correct treatment program should mean that gout can be successfully managed. l

| Compiled by Dr Kazi Mahbuba Akhtar

middle ear via Eustachian tube. n Deafness is a late symptom of enlarged adenoid. It is caused by blocked Eustachian tube opening which in turn causes collection of fluid in the middle ear, as through a patent Eustachian tube fluid in the middle ear is supposed to be drained out. n Due to deafness, a child becomes inattentive in the class and gradually it hampers the performance in school.

Longstanding cases:

Chronic nasal obstruction and mouth breathing lead to a characteristic facial appearance called adenoid facies. This child has an elongated face with dull

expression, open mouth; prominent and crowded upper teeth, hitched up upper lip and pinched nostrils.

Adenoids can affect

n Adenoid enlargement also affects throat. Infected nose results secondary throat infection which may involves tonsils, pharynx and larynx. n Enlarged Adenoid with symptoms increase energy expenditure for breathing and reduces food intake which in turn may cause physical growth retardation. The child becomes small size and thin. n Due to obstruction of airways, Children with enlarged adenoids usually

snore and have sleep apnea. This leads to a poor quality sleep or deprivation of sleep and thus hampers the growth hormone production which only occurs during sleep.

Enlarged adenoids will cause Eustachian tube obstruction. This causes fluid to build up in middle ear. This fluid acts as good cultural medium for bacterial growth and acute infection with pus formation occurs.

Accumulation of pus in the middle ear can cause perforation of tympanic membrane. If pus in the middle ear is treated with antibiotic, the pus becomes sterile and remains in the middle ear which resulting a disease called glue ear.

Adenoid enlargement with snoring, sleep deprivation and sleep apnea causes reduced oxygen and increased carbon dioxide level in the blood which can cause cognitive, academic, intellectual and behavioral problems.

Long-standing nasal obstruction due to enlarged adenoids can cause pulmonary hypertension.

How are enlarged adenoids diagnosed?

A child with enlarged adenoids can be assessed by taking history and proper clinical examination. Finally an x-ray easily reveals the size and extent to which air way has been compromised.

What about treatment?

When symptoms and signs are marked, affects ears or causing facial deformity then removal of adenoids is advised.

Otherwise child can take medication for symptomatic relieve. l The writer is an associate professor of ENT in the Holy Family Red Crescent Medical College Hospital

Vitamin D deficiency linked to depression in winter Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to increased risk of asthma, cancer and chronic pain, among other conditions.

RESEARCH Now, a new study led by researchers from the University of Georgia associates low vitamin D levels with greater risk of seasonal affective disorder.

Researchers say vitamin D deficiency could be a driver of seasonal affective disorder – a form of depression that occurs during the winter months. The research is published in the journal Medical Hypotheses.

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) – a form of depression that usually begins in the fall, continuing throughout the winter months – affects up to 10% of the US population.

Symptoms include feeling sad or anxious, fatigue, concentration problems, irritability and feelings of guilt and hopelessness.

Although the exact cause of SAD is unclear, numerous studies have suggested the condition may be trig-

QUICK TIPS

When asthma symptoms can get worse When you are exposed to your asthma triggers

Asthma symptoms usually get worse if patient is exposed to asthma triggers.

Triggers are allergens, irritants, or conditions that may cause your asthma symptoms to worsen. It’s important to identify and minimise your exposure to your asthma triggers.

At night Asthma is a chronic condition. Asthma symptoms can get worse in the middle of the night. Factors that can cause your asthma symptoms to worsen at night may include: Your body clock. Your body makes certain substances that protect against inflammation. Levels of these substances can be lower at night, which may be the reason you experience worsening symptoms during this time.

If you have asthma and are pregnant, talk to your doctor about asthma management Sinus infections or postnasal drip caused by allergens such as dust mites or pet dander.

Heartburn, or GERD. Heartburn, which can be a symptom of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), is caused by stomach acid backing up into your esophagus or sometimes into your throat. If you have GERD, lying down can make your heartburn and your asthma symptoms worse.

If you are having nighttime asthma symptoms, try not to eat too close to bedtime. Treating GERD may help to improve asthma symptoms in people who have both conditions.

When you’re pregnant During pregnancy, some women find that their asthma improves, while others find that it worsens or stays the same. Well-controlled asthma is not associated with significant risk to mother or baby. So if you have asthma and are pregnant, talk to your doctor about asthma management.

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gered by lack of sunlight.

SAD is more common among people who live at high altitudes or areas with lots of cloud.

One hypothesis behind SAD is that reduced sunlight exposure interferes with the body’s biological clock that regulates mood, sleep and hormones.

Another theory is that lack of sunlight causes an imbalance of neurotrans-

mitters – such as dopamine and serotonin – which regulate mood.

This is not the first study to associate vitamin D deficiency with mental health conditions. A research in Iran showed vitamin D deficiency doubled the risk to have schizophrenia than with normal vitamin D levels. l

| Compiled by: Dr Md A Sikder

When taking medication Some medicines can trigger asthma symptoms such as aspirin, cold medicines, nonsteroidal pain relievers (for example, ibuprofen and naproxen sodium), and even some eye drops used to treat glaucoma. Talk to your doctor about the medicine you have been taking. l

| Compiled by: Shirsho Saaeadat

The truth about soy Soy – a protein made from the soybean plant - has gained a lot of attention in the food and health industry as a nutritiousDID YOU ly edible bean with KNOW? numerous uses. It is rich in omega-3 fats, B-vitamins, zinc, iron, polyunsaturated fat, fiber, phytochemicals and antioxidants. Most popular within the vegetarian community, soy protein is a replacement for animal protein - one cup contains 23 grams of protein (about half the daily requirement). Soy is found in popular foods including tofu, edamame, tempeh and soy milk.

Soy contains isoflavones, which are changed in the body to phytoestrogens. Phytoestrogens are similar to the hormone estrogen. Women often use soy as a hormone replacement therapy to relieve menopause-related symptoms. It has also been linked to the prevention and control heart disease and cancer.

However, the effects of soy are controversial. Because human estrogen

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and soy-derived phytoestrogen are so similar, human cells cannot distinguish between the two. Some believe that soy’s phytoestrogen may cause breast cancer growth due to its similarity to human estrogen. On the other hand, some believe it may prevent breast

cancer by taking human estrogen’s place within the protein receptors.

Soy’s controversy begins with the two different types: fermented and unfermented. Fermented soy is native to East Asia where it is consumed in small amounts. Fermented soy is an

excellent source of vitamin K2. When combined with vitamin D, K2 can help prevent heart disease, dementia, osteoporosis, and some cancers.

This is different from the type of soy consumed by Americans, which is unfermented and processed. 90% of soybeans grown in the United States are genetically modified. Unfermented soy contains high amounts of antinutrients which block your body from absorbing its nutrients.

In order to get the benefits from soy, consuming only fermented soy products – such as miso, tempeh, natto and most soy sauces – in small amounts, is the way to do it. Soy protein is still a good alternative for animal protein and dairy – both of which are high in saturated fat.

Avoid processed soy products such as soy ice cream, canned tuna, soy chips, soymilk, soy burgers, soy infant formula, soy nuts and some tofu. Eat only fermented soy products such as miso, tempeh, natto, and some soy sauces. l

| Compiled by Dr Ishrat Shormy

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

World

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Torture, deny, repeat: ‘Enhanced interrogation’ never works, CIA never learns n

Reuters

When the United States was attacked on 9/11, every member of the Central Intelligence Agency’s clandestine services had a rule book on the conduct of interrogations. It was clear and concise.

It outlawed the following methods: “Torture, cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment or punishment, or prolonged detention without charges or trial.” It was based on five decades of experience.

President George W Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and the leaders of the CIA threw out the rule book as they set out on their global crusade against terrorism. This was unwise.

Anyone who was in New York or Washington after 9/11 remembers the fear — every day, every night, every time the phone rang — that there would be another attack. I sat down with George Tenet, the director of Central Intelligence, not long after 9/11.

The exhaustion, the fear — and the terror — that I saw in his eyes is an image I will never forget.

Fear trumped wisdom for the next seven years.

CIA Director John Brennan said on Thursday that some intelligence officers used “abhorrent” methods on the people they detained after the attacks.

He said it was “unknowable” whether the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques — EITs, in CIA jargon, torture in plain English — yielded useful intelligence.

“We have not concluded that it was the use of EITs,” Brennan said, “… that allowed us to obtain useful information from detainees.”

This much we know: The CIA threw out the rule book instructing its officers that torture does not work as a method of gathering intelligence. And out with the rule book went the agency’s institutional knowledge and hardwon wisdom.

During the Korean War, the CIA created clandestine prisons — the biggest was in the Panama Canal Zone — where suspected Russian double agents were

Cash-strapped Iraq seeks Kuwait war reparation delay n Reuters Iraq is seeking to postpone a final $4.6bn installment of reparations for its 1990-91 occupation of Kuwait, Finance Minister Hoshiyar Zebari told Reuters, as it faces a cash crisis caused by falling oil prices and war with Islamic State.

Since Iraq was first allowed to resume oil sales nearly two decades ago it has paid funds into a United Nations body overseeing compensation for looting and damage inflicted during Saddam Hussein’s seven-month occupation of Kuwait.

More than a million claimants have been paid and nearly all the $52.4bn reparations bill has been met through Iraq’s annual allocation of 5% of crude oil exports to the UN Compensation Commission (UNCC).

But with its economy now set to shrink for the first time since the 2003 US-led invasion toppled Saddam and ended more than a decade of sanctions, Iraq can ill afford to divert a large chunk of the 2015 budget to make that last payment due next year.

“We have been really committed to paying this on time up until now,” Zebari said in a telephone interview conducted on Thursday. “We are in discussions with the Kuwaitis, trying to defer the payment for two years or at least a year, to allow some space... to present a realistic budget.”

A senior UNCC official in Geneva said no decision had yet been made, and any change would require the agreement of the UNCC’s Governing Council, which has same 15 member states as the UN Security Council.

“We are hearing the Governing Council will be considering the issue at a special session next week,” the official told Reuters, adding that a meeting had been tentatively set for Dec. 18 in Geneva.

There was no immediate comment from Kuwaiti officials.

OPEC producer Iraq is suffering from the sharp fall in oil prices and the Islamic State takeover in the north and west, which has caused mass displacement of people, destruction of infrastructure and a sharp increase in military expenditure.

Two weeks ago, after the latest oil price fall, it scrapped a draft 2015 budget and said it would cut back spending plans. l

9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and accused USS Cole bombing mastermind Abd Rahim Al-Nashiri AFP injected with drugs and brutally interrogated. The agency gave four suspected North Korean double agents the same treatment in occupied Japan.

“Like Guantanamo,” a charter member of the CIA, Tom Polgar, told me in a 2005 interview. “It was anything goes.”

The CIA searched for many years for a magic potion — a truth serum that would draw confessions from incarcerated subjects, especially suspected enemy spies — using LSD, heroin, amphetamines and other “special techniques in CIA interrogations,” to quote from a 1952 CIA report.

The legendary CIA Director Allen Dulles approved an expanded program code-named ULTRA, in which, to cite one among many examples, seven prisoners at a federal penitentiary in Kentucky were dosed with LSD daily for 11 weeks. When the agency slipped the drug to an unsuspecting army civilian employee named Frank Olson, he jumped out of the window of a New York hotel.

All the subjects of these tests were human guinea pigs in the Cold War. They were expendable. The CIA destroyed most of the records of these tests. But a 1956 progress report described the continuing “planning of overseas interrogations” and new “special interrogation” techniques un-

der research and development.

In 1964, the CIA secretly incarcerated Yuri Nosenko, a KGB defector, suspecting he knew something about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. With the approval of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, the CIA threw Nosenko into a secret prison at the CIA’s training grounds in Virginia. As if in a Soviet gulag, under a single bare light burning 24 hours a day, Nosenko suffered psychological assault, physical hardship and solitary confinement for nearly four years.

CIA Director Richard Helms finally determined that the agency had kept an innocent man “in durance vile … against the laws of the United States.”

During the Vietnam War, thousands of enemy combatants were interrogated, often fatally, in search of intelligence under the CIA’s Phoenix program. But that search proved largely futile. Helms said the CIA “could not determine what was going on” inside the enemy’s camp. At the root of this failure was “our national ignorance of Vietnamese history, society and language,” Helms lamented. That was, in part, why the enemy won the war.

When Nosenko died in 2008, Clair George, a former chief of the CIA’s clandestine service, told the Washington Post that his incarceration had

been “a terrible mistake.” But after all, George said: “You can’t be in the spy business without making mistakes.”

What, then, did we learn from our mistakes with “enhanced interrogation techniques” — or, if you prefer, torture?

The CIA had firmly rejected cruel and unusual punishment, Richard Stolz, chief of the clandestine service under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, said in 1988 — “not only because it is wrong, but because it has historically proven to be ineffective.” The CIA’s 1990s codes of conduct stated: “Inhumane physical or psychological techniques are counterproductive because they do not produce intelligence and will probably result in false answers.”

I added the emphases for reasons that may be obvious. Former leaders of the CIA – and Cheney — insist that torture works.

CIA Director John Brennan said on Thursday that some intelligence officers used ‘abhorrent’ methods on the people they detained after the attacks That is false. The Senate report released Wednesday makes this painfully clear.

It uses the CIA’s own records to make an irrefutable case. The report contains no great revelations about violations of the Geneva Convention in the CIA’s secret prisons, the “black sites.”

But it shows that the claim that torture worked is a delusion, and the insistence that it produced unique intelligence is a lie.

“The use of the CIA’s enhanced interrogation techniques was not an ef-

fective means of obtaining accurate information or gaining detainee cooperation,” the Senate report says. “Multiple CIA detainees fabricated information, resulting in faulty intelligence … on critical intelligence issues, including the terrorist threats which the CIA identified as its highest priorities.”

This information comes from the CIA’s own records. And false intelligence is worse than no intelligence.

The report looks at 20 of the most prominent examples of “purported counterterrorism successes that the CIA has attributed to the use of its enhanced interrogation techniques.” In some of those cases, “there was no relationship between the cited counterterrorism success and any information provided by detainees.” In the rest of the 20 cases, “the CIA inaccurately claimed that specific, otherwise unavailable information was acquired from a CIA detainee ‘as a result’ of the CIA’s enhanced interrogation techniques.”

These are lies that CIA officers told to themselves, to one another and then repeated to their colleagues in the government of the United States.

We must leave the questions of deception for another day, but they begin with self-deception — a grave danger in the business of secret intelligence.

Better to conclude with two pieces of wisdom. One is something Helms told me a long time ago. He started out in the CIA in the very beginning, back in 1947, and served as director for seven years — until President Richard M. Nixon cut his throat, figuratively speaking, in 1972. Helms was talking about political assassination. Let’s forget about the laws of man and God and war, he said. It’s a practical question: If you try to kill their leaders, why shouldn’t they try to kill yours?

A professionally distinguished and highly intelligent former FBI counterterrorism agent, Ali H Soufan, said much the same today on page one of The New York Times. His words broke my heart, hardened by six postings in Afghanistan. l

Australian photographer Peter Lik’s picture titled Phantom has been sold for $6.5m dollars setting a new world record

Gene mutation behind malaria drug resistance A new study has discovered reasons for malaria’s drug resistance.

Scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), using a cost effective micro array technique, analysed 1,000 malaria samples taken from patients in the area of the Greater Mekong Subregion that includes countries such as Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar.

Team leader Zbynek Bozdech said the surprising find was that almost all the malaria parasites found in Cambodia and nearby regions had mutated and developed resistance to Artemisinin, the main drug used in combination therapies to treat malaria.

This is a stark difference when compared to malaria parasites from the Congo and other African countries, where only one to three per cent of the malaria parasites had mutated and drug resistance has not yet been detected in the rest.

Bozdech added that doctors in the Greater Mekong Subregion are finding that Artemisinin based treatment, the wonder drug cocktail that can treat patients in three days, is now taking twice as long to work, and in some rare cases, has little to no effect.

Scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) analysed 1,000 malaria samples taken from patients in the area of the Greater Mekong Subregion Bozdech said that to find out exactly what the parasite cell is doing to protect itself against Artemisinin, they correlated the clinical data of the 1,000 samples

n Agencies The government is under pressure to explain whether UK ministers and officials repeatedly lobbied the US to delete references to British spies from a damning report about CIA torture of detainees in the wake of 9/11.

New documents show that, from 2009, UK government representatives had 24 meetings with members of the US committee that found CIA methods were brutal and ineffective.

Among those who met the committee were the home secretary, Theresa May, the former Labour minister Lord West and the UK’s ambassadors to Washington, according to information obtained by the human rights group Reprieve.

Downing Street has admitted that British spies were granted redactions on “national security grounds” but denies that there was a cover-up. However, the number of meetings has led to suspicions about a concerted UK lobbying campaign to secure redactions.

The Reprieve spokesman Donald Campbell said: “We already know that the UK was complicit in the CIA’s shameful rendition and torture programme. What we don’t know is why there is no mention of that in the public version of the Senate’s torture report.

“There are important questions which members of the current and the previous governments must answer: did they lobby to ensure embarrassing information about the UK was ‘redacted’ or removed from the report?

He said May and West both met the Senate committee while it was working on its report. “They need to provide clear answers on whether they sought to lobby the committee to keep embarrassing information about the UK out of the public eye.”

In a letter to Reprieve in July, the then foreign secretary, William Hague, said: “The UK government has not sought to influence the content of the Senate report. We have made representations to seek assurance that ordinary procedures for clearance of UK material will be followed in the event that UK material provided to the Senate committee were to be disclosed.” l

US House passes $1.1tn government funding bill n Reuters

RECORD BREAKING PHOTOGRAPH

n Agencies

UK ministers met Senate committee during torture inquiry

with functional genomics results using their own customised techniques.

First author Sachel Mok said they found the malaria parasite’s two major ways by which it becomes resistant to Artemisinin. First, the malaria parasite increased its capacity to repair the damage caused by the anti-malarial drug which gives it a higher chance of survival and second, because the drug is more effective against the parasite at its later stage of its development, the parasite slowed down its growth so it could survive longer in the younger stages.

Mok added that using methods like gene expression analysis, they linked these two phenomena to a gene named K13, which was previously suggested to be associated with drug resistance but it was not clear how.

The findings of this study will also give scientists and government valuable data on how to better monitor the drug resistance of the malaria parasite and develop more effective ways of combating it. l

GUARDIAN

The US House of Representatives passed a $1.1tn spending bill late on Thursday to fund most federal agencies through September 30, the end of the current fiscal year.

By a vote of 219-206, the House approved the bill, which would fund the Department of Homeland Security only through February to give Republicans a chance early next year to try to stop President Barack Obama’s immigration reforms that are largely carried out

by DHS. The legislation still must be passed by the Senate before it can be sent to Obama for signing into law.

A separate bill to fund the government for two days is likely to be passed by the House, according to a Republican leadership aide.

The measure is needed to give the Senate time to pass the $1.1tn bill and also avoid a government shutdown at midnight on Thursday when current funding expires. l

Assange raises fund to build his statue n Agencies He has been holed up inside the Ecuadorian Embassy for the past two and a half years to avoid being arrested and extradited to Sweden. But that has not stopped Julian Assange from courting publicity, whether from the balcony or from behind his computer.

The WikiLeaks founder has used the whistleblowing website’s official Twitter account to publicise a funding drive for the creation of a life-size bronze public artwork featuring himself, Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, described as a “a monument to courage.”

The proposed statue by Italian sculptor Davide Dormino, entitled Anything to Say?, will depict the trio standing on chairs, with another empty seat beside them onto which members of the public will be encouraged to climb - allowing them to stand shoulder to shoulder with the whis-

tleblowers. Organisers need £100,000 to complete the project, a sum they hope to raise by 1 January through the crowd-funding website Kickstarter.

With just 21 days to go, only £19,360 has been pledged - perhaps explaining why Mr Assange chose to alert WikiLeaks’ 2.4 million Twitter followers to the campaign.

According to the Kickstarter page, the statue “is not a simple homage to individuals, but to courage and to the importance of freedom of speech and information.” “This is the reason for the empty chair,” it continues.

“Each of us can climb onto it, however uncomfortable and vulnerable, and change our point of view. The work of art will travel from country to country and offer the opportunity for us to hear each other out and think.”

Mr Assange has been living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in Knightsbridge, west London, since seeking asylum in the country in June 2012. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

World

9

Saturday, December 13, 2014

US frowns on India-Russia defence deals, presence of Crimean leader in Putin team n Agencies

The United States on Thursday expressed its disapproval of India concluding defence and nuclear deals with Russia, saying it is not time for “business as usual” with Moscow in the backdrop of its aggression in Ukraine. Washington also said it is troubled by the presence of the leader of the breakaway Crimean region in President Putin’s delegation to India and has sought clarifications from New Delhi about it.

The Russian leader’s engagement in New Delhi, particularly his being accompanied by Sergey Aksyonov, the Prime Minister of Crimea, the former Ukrainian territory annexed by Russia, evoked sharp reaction in Washington, where preparations are already underway for President Obama’s visit to India on January 25/26.

The fact that Russia and India are trumpeting business ties, particularly in the area of nuclear power at a time the US-India civilian nuclear deal is yet to attain fruition, appeared galling to Washington, which has tried to isolate Putin for his invasion of Ukraine.

India does not support western sanctions against Russia for his actions in Ukraine, but at the same time it has not approved the Russian annexation of Crimea either.

At the US State Department briefing, spokesperson Jen Psaki gave India’s external affairs ministry the benefit of doubt, suggesting that New Delhi had conveyed to Washington that it was

Al-Qaida commander arrested in Karachi n Reuters Pakistani police have arrested a man they describe as an important commander in al-Qaida’s newly created South Asian wing.

Shahid Usman and four other suspects were arrested in the southern city of Karachi late on Thursday. Police also seized weapons and 10kg (22lb) of explosives.

Al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent tried to hijack a Pakistani navy ship in September this year, a few days after the group had announced its formation. Police say Usman is the head of al-Qaida’s wing in Karachi and was planning more attacks there.

A senior officer at the police counter-terrorism unit said Usman was in his mid-30s, lived in Defence, a wealthy neighbourhood, and owned a car-parts dealership in one of the city’s most expensive commercial areas. “Unlike the usual militant profile, Usman comes from an affluent background,” the officer said. l

not ‘’officially aware’’ of Aksyonov’s presence in the Putin delegation and the US had no reason to disbelieve that assertion. Further clarifications were being sought on the matter.

“I really don’t have more details than that. But I don’t think we have any reason to believe they were aware,” Psaki said, when pressed about whether New Delhi had been dodgy about the matter.

In New Delhi, the external affairs ministry had earlier said it was not officially aware of the Crimean leader’s visit and Aksyonov was not formally a member of Putin’s delegation. Apparently, Aksyonov traveled on Putin’s plane, but his meeting with an Indian business groups was deemed private, although he was accompanied by Russian officials. No Indian official was at the meeting, allowing New Delhi to claim it did not endorse or support the meeting.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the World Diamond Conference in New Delhi, on December 11, 2014.

Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko meanwhile lashed out at India for entertaining the Crimean leader saying India was placing more importance on money than values by welcoming the “criminal” Aksyanov, and it was ‘’not standing with civilisation’’ against Russian aggression.

“The Indian position doesn’t help, it doesn’t save Aksyanov,” Poroshenko, who is backed by the US, told the Lowy Institute think tank in Sydney during a

visit. “He is a criminal, it’s very simple.

He has a criminal background and no doubt he has a criminal future.”

The flap could cast a shadow over Obama’s visit to New Delhi late January, when the US president will be chief guest at India’s Republic Day parade, which also serves as an occasion for New Delhi to showcase its military hardware. US and India have been fostering closer military ties and that aspect of the engagement is expected to get a boost during the Obama visit, particularly since the US president has picked as his new defense secretary Ashton Carter, a man who has been a driving force behind breaking down bureaucratic barriers to closer military ties.

But at a joint news conference after meeting Putin, Prime Minister Modi emphasised India’s deep defense ties with Russia, cryptically observing. “Even if India’s options have increased, Russia remains our most important defense partner.” Spokesperson Psaki too seemed to make light of the purported agreements with Russia, saying Washington has seen press reporting on India concluding business, nuclear, and defense deals with Russia, but not confirmation of those agreements or specifics of what those agreements would entail.

“Our view remains that it’s not time for business as usual with Russia. But beyond that, we’d have to take a closer look at what these agreements entail,” Psaki said, dismissing any idea of an official protest for the time being. l

China wants no more protest in Hong Kong n Reuters As the dust settles on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy ‘‘Occupy’’ protests, China is likely to embark on a sweeping but covert campaign across the territory’s judiciary, media and universities to ensure there is no recurrence, activists and politicians say.

The surprisingly resilient, 75 days of protest for a fully democratic vote to choose Hong Kong’s next leader was the most serious challenge to China’s authority since the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations and crackdown in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

To ward off future protests, activists say Beijing’s rulers are unlikely to embark on a harsh response that could pose a risk to stability and prosperity in Hong Kong, a financial hub that is the gateway to the world’s second-biggest economy.

Alex Chow, one of the student protest leaders, said “Chinese methods” could be applied in Hong Kong, a term he used to refer to pressure, intimida-

tion and coercion against government critics in China.

“How long can we maintain Hong Kong’s judicial independence?” Chow said at the protest site before he was hauled away by police as they cleared the main protest site on Thursday.

“We’ve already seen judges make decisions that have been highly contentious. Beijing might be able to put pressure on Hong Kong to charge us (the protest leaders) with more serious offences to shut us up.”

China rules Hong Kong under a “one country, two systems” formula which allows wide-ranging autonomy and freedoms in the territory not enjoyed on the mainland.

“The illegal ‘Occupy Central’ actions did not enjoy popular support,” China’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office said on Friday. “(We) hope that all sides in Hong Kong society take this as a lesson, reflect on it coolly, further correctly understand and follow the ‘one country, two systems’ policy.” l

Islamic groups found this anti-Islamic State editorial cartoon offensive

Indonesian editor accused of blasphemy over IS cartoon n AFP The chief editor of a leading English-language newspaper in Muslim-majority Indonesia has been named a suspect in a blasphemy case after the publication of a cartoon about the Islamic State group, police said Friday.

The Jakarta Post’s Meidyatama Suryodiningrat could be jailed for up to five years if found guilty, and is the latest person to face action under the country’s tough blasphemy laws that have been criticised by rights groups as overly harsh and outdated.

The cartoon, published in the paper

on July 3, shows a man raising an IS flag with religious text over a picture of a skull and crossbones, with armed fighters in the background.

Following an outcry from Islamic groups, the Jakarta Post issued a frontpage apology and retracted the cartoon five days later, insisting it was meant to “critique the use of religious symbols” and as a “reproach” to IS, a brutal Islamist group which holds vast swathes of territory across Syria and Iraq.

A group called the Jakarta Muslim Preachers Corps filed a complaint to the police and on Friday, Jakarta police spokesman Rikwanto, who goes

Liu Xiaobo to the world: ‘Pay attention to other Chinese activists’ n AP The jailed Chinese Nobel peace prize laureate Liu Xiaobo has told an overseas friend that he is relatively healthy but wants the world to pay more attention to other Chinese activists.

In a message that was smuggled out of prison, he writes: “The aura around me is enough already. I hope the world can pay more attention to other victims who are not well known, or not known at all.”

The message was to Liao Yiwu, who posted it on Facebook on Thursday. Liao did not say how he received the message from Liu, who is serving an 11-year sentence for inciting state subversion. Liu’s friends have said the message is genuine.

While in prison, Liu was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 2010 for his calls for political reforms. Beijing con-

demned the award and put his wife, Liu Xia, under house arrest.

Liu Xia still can visit her husband, although their meetings are under tight watch.

‘The aura around me is enough already’ Liao, who lives in exile in Germany, said he received the message on Tuesday through channels in China and that it was the first he had heard from Liu in more than six years.

“My eyes are suddenly moist,” Liao said on Facebook.

In the message, Liu said he was doing well and had been reading and thinking. “Through studies, I have become even more convinced that I have no personal enemies,” he added. l

Taliban slams Malala over Nobel prize, calls her ‘soldier against Islam’ n AFP The Pakistani Taliban hit out at teenage education activist Malala Yousafzai over her Nobel peace prize on Friday, slamming her as a “soldier against Islamic society.”

Malala became a global icon after she was shot and nearly killed by the Taliban in October 2012 for insisting that girls had a right to education.

The 17-year-old vowed to continue her struggle for every child’s right to go to school when she collected her Nobel at a ceremony in Oslo on Wednesday.

She is the youngest ever Nobel peace laureate, and the first Pakistani to claim the prize, but some in her home country condemn her as a Western agent – including the militants who shot her.

Muhammad Umar Khorasani, spokesperson for the main faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) headed by Mullah Fazlullah, told AFP that Malala had won the Nobel prize for “promoting Western culture, not education.”

Pakistan’s patriarchal society often relegates women to subservient domestic roles, but Malala has praised her father Ziauddin, a schoolteacher, for encouraging her to pursue her dreams.

The militant spokesperson singled him out for criticism.

“Malala’s father Ziauddin has made an agreement with the Western powers

to destroy Pashtun culture and Pakistan,” Khorasani said, referring to the dominate ethnic group in the country’s northwest, where Malala is from.

“Her father is using Malala as a soldier against Islamic society and teachings of Islam.”

After she was shot in the head at point blank range, Malala was taken to Britain for treatment. Her family moved to join her and she now goes to school there, unable to return to Pakistan because of Taliban death threats.

In her Nobel acceptance speech, peppered with self-deprecating humour, Malala called not just for education but also for fairness and peace.

“The so-called world of adults may understand it, but we children don’t.

Why is it that countries which we call ‘strong’ are so powerful in creating wars but so weak in bringing peace?” she said.

She also described herself as the “first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize who still fights with her younger brothers.”

Malala will split the eight million Swedish kronor ($1.1m) prize with her fellow laureate Kailash Satyarthi, the Indian child slavery campaigner.

On Thursday she wept at the sight of the bloodied school uniform she wore on the day she was attacked, on display at an exhibition in the Norwegian capital. l

INTERNET

by one name, said that Suryodiningrat had been officially named a suspect the previous day.

“The status of MS has been upgraded to suspect,” said the spokesman, using the editor’s initials, the usual practice in criminal cases in Indonesia.

Local media reported that he will be summoned for questioning next week.

In some criminal cases in Indonesia, people are first named a suspect and only detained at a later date.

In a statement published on the Jakarta Post’s website, Suryodiningrat said that the paper was “amazed” by the move. l

China admits its stealth fighter not a match to US F-35 n Agencies China has denied its new stealth fighter J-31 could take down the US F-35 joint strike fighter, but admitted challenging the latter has always been its goal.

Lin Zuoming, the president of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) which manufactured J-31, denied in interview with CCTV that J-31 “should be able to take (the opponent model) down when it takes to the sky.”

Lin said that he is “fully confident” the company’s chief designer has taken “the opponent model” into consideration when the J-31 was designed.

The stealth fighter which was displayed in last month’s air show at the Chinese city of Zhuhai created a lot buzz in the Chinese official media and Pakistan minister for defence production Rana Tanveer Hussain said Islamabad is in talks with the Beijing to acquire it for Pakistan Air Force.

The J-31 fighter’s chief designer, Sun Cong, said while J-31 has better performance than its US counterpart in some aspects, he admitted that it has some flaws. l

Doctor Puts Patient on Anesthesia in Operation Theatre, Then Falls Asleep

n Agencies

Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi, left, consoling co-winner Malala Yousafzai as Malala started sobbing at the sight of her blood stained school uniform at the opening of the Nobel Peace Prize exhibition at the Nobel Peace Center on Thursday AFP

A gynaecologist at a medical camp in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh has been suspended for falling asleep during a surgery after administering anesthesia to a patient on the operating table.

“We have placed the doctor under suspension for negligence and have ordered an inquiry into the incident by a District Programme Officer at Mandi and strict action would be taken after the enquiry report is submitted,” Health and Family Welfare Minister Kaul Singh Thakur informed the state Assembly today.

Jai Ram Thakur, the health minister said that it was a matter of luck that all the women, who underwent surgeries, at the camp were fine and that there was no complication on any count.

The minister said the medical examination of the doctor had proved that he was drunk even though he took a small quantity of liquor.

According to Mr Thakur, the gynaecologist was posted at Mandi hospital in 2008 during the previous BJP regime and the same doctor had earlier performed surgeries in camps at different places in Mandi district and all were successful.

“We have zero tolerance for any kind of negligence by the doctors and para medics as it can cost life,” he said. l

10

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Editorial

Saturday, December 13, 2014

CODE-CRACKER

Show accountability, not lip service, to protect Sundarbans

D

elays in responding to Tuesday’s disastrous tanker accident have allowed over 220,000 litres of furnace oil to spread over an 80sq-km area of the Sundarbans.

Attempts are now being made to use chemical disbursements, as authorities lack access to the other option of spreading oil-consuming bacteria to break up the spilt oil. Local people meanwhile have been left with limited tools to attempt the hazardous task of manually cleaning up polluted water and soil.

While we hope these efforts will help, it is painfully clear that a lot more could have been done had authorities been quicker and better prepared to take action. A major dolphin habitat has been inundated and the harm being done to vegetation is actively endangering the food chain of wild deer and tigers.

It is deeply concerning that having now seen the havoc inflicted, the government has not been more active in taking action to mitigate the damage done to this precious ecosystem.

Nobody should need reminding about our duty to protect the unique natural sanctuary of the Sundarbans.

As a national icon and World Heritage site, the negligence and law breaking which allowed unfit vessels to risk carrying hazardous oil in this area, should never have been permitted in the first place .

The government has to ensure full accountability for the evident failings shown by the vessel operators and regulators responsible for this catastrophe. It must take all necessary preventative measures to safeguard the Sundarbans from future accidents and risks.

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

Then what?

November 27

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a different letter of the alphabet. For example, today 16 represents H so fill H every time the figure 16 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

Take all necessary preventative measures to safeguard the Sundarbans

Empowerment builds resilience

B

angladesh is ranked second from bottom out of seven South Asian states in the new Women’s Resilience Index released by ActionAid. The index which is topped by Japan assesses the capacity of different countries to prevent, reduce, and recover from disasters, both natural and man-made.

While great strides have been made over the years in mitigating the loss of life and damage caused by cyclones, there is still considerable room for improvement.

Our nation’s huge vulnerabilities to changing water levels caused by climate change and poor infrastructure are both significant factors in reducing Bangladesh’s score.

The report notes the importance of communication and empowerment in helping communities cope with and prevent disasters. As avoidable disasters like Rana Plaza have shown, empowering ordinary citizens to suggest and act on sensible precautions can make all the difference to protecting human life.

Hence, in addition to undertaking vital infrastructure improvements, such as improving the earthquake preparedness of buildings, we also need to do more to empower citizens generally.

Improving empowerment of women socially and economically should play a bigger role in furthering the nation’s disaster risk reduction policies.

Experience shows local authorities are better able to respond to disasters when all parts of the community are able to act and provide support. Having more women in leadership roles and local government institutions improves the reach and effectiveness of relief and vital communications.

We need to encourage empowerment anyway to ensure equality and maximise the potential of our economy. We should not overlook its potential to also help disaster risk reduction.

Empowering citizens helps reduce disaster risks

Kmak “I wonder if Bangladesh can ever become a country like Sweden. … Even if it takes a thousand years, one day, the country will be civilised.”

Spoken like a true Brown Sahib, or in your case Brown Memsahib. One need not look further to understand how self-hating and how detached Bangladeshi “free thinkers” are with respect to the history, culture, and values of Bangladesh as well as the aspirations of its common people.

Henry Krinkle Kmak: You don’t need to be a “free thinker” to realise how much of an intellectual and humanitarian wasteland Bangladesh can be. Don’t kid yourself.

Kmak Henry Krinkle: You’re right. You don’t need to be a freethinker. Only a Brown Sahib.

Henry Krinkle Kmak: Nor that. Any honest, nose-to-thegrindstone citizen will vouch for the fact that Bangladesh is not exactly the most welcoming of places.

Kmak Henry Krinkle: Let me rephrase that for you. Any honest, nose to the grindstone citizen who is also a Brown Sahib will vouch for the fact that Bangladesh is not exactly the most welcoming of places.

Ashraf The author’s hatred is not at all mature or sensible.

Bangladesh is actually civilised like the rest of the world, just not developed enough for her liking maybe. Every developed nation took its time to come to their current state. We have the potential to go a long way, and I believe with time we will.

Nikola Tasev Ashraf: “Bangladesh is actually civilised like the rest of the world.”

Do you mean that people there are not arrested for expressing their faith? Do you mean that women are not harassed for not covering their hair and doing a male’s job? News seem to suggest otherwise.

Being poor is one thing; being intolerant and uncivilised is another thing entirely. I’m not assigning any blame. Bangladesh suffered greatly from the 1971 genocide, with a lot of the intellectuals killed.

But facts are facts. There don’t seem to be significant efforts in facing and solving the problems in the country.

anonymous Ashraf: My sentiments exactly. When I glanced through a few paragraphs of her article, I thought that she was trying to play the victim, and play on the readers’ sympathies. The only time the government made an exception was to let her see her dying mother. In reality, the author had everything, and now she make believes that she has no home, in exile etc. I can understand that she had a difficult relationship with the male members of her family and I also understand that there is discrimination against women in BD. She could have taken up activism as her career choice. Instead she started to attack Islam. In the process, she made a lot of people angry, and that is the reason she cannot come to BD. Lisa anonymous: Has anyone noticed the fact that she is internationally recognised? That people abroad might have positive ideas about Bangladeshi women seeing that someone is strong enough to express her opinion, no matter what that is, even after being exiled by her own country? It’s actually very easy to isolate and humiliate someone who has different points of view, rather than realising the fact that it is not always black and white.

Kmak Lisa: Internationally recognised as what exactly?

Karl Hungus Kmak: As a living proof of how utterly frightening this country’s attitude towards a liberal and inclusive way of thinking is.

Kmak Karl Hungus: Or maybe she’s just a famous Islamophobe? Okay I admit. She’s not even good at being an Islamophobe.

Karl Hungus Kmak: I’m sorry but I could not find a single mention of Islam in this article; religion in general, but not Islam specifically.

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.

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Alloy (5) 4 Favourite (3) 6 Wicked (4) 8 Foreign (5) 9 Uncommon (4) 11 Soon (4) 12 Fashion (5) 15 Carries (5) 18 Cereal (4) 20 Of the ear (4) 21 Less well (5) 22 Festivity (4) 23 Small child (3) 24 Transmit in stages (5)

DOWN 1 Annoying children (5) 2 Friendship (5) 3 Inward feeling (5) 4 Scheme (4) 5 That time (4) 7 Angry (5) 10 Bellow (4) 13 Easy pace (4) 14 Cavalry weapon (5) 15 Shady garden recess (5) 16 Month (5) 17 Out of sorts (5) 18 Young horse (4) 19 Fissure (4)

venezia A thoughtful reflection on the pain of exile, and hoping against hope that one day Bangladesh will be a better place. The author attracts a lot of criticism because of her very personal revelations, and that she doesn’t censor herself much. All the better for that. Glad Dhaka Tribune carried this piece.

Osmania Surely there have been some Bangali freethinkers and feminists over the years who influenced the author. After all, she grew up here.

Fair investigation on HTI students’ attack demanded

CALVIN AND HOBBES

December 6

Abu Syeed Who is going to investigate? The government? The police? Do you think the government will want to put the blame on themselves? Or put it on the police, a government agency who plays a key role in upholding the current government’s power?

Finally, upon putting the police in charge of the investigation, do you think they (the police) will blame themselves?

Mir Ahmed Be sorry for your actions. Don’t beat students.

Remember, you were also students once.

PEANUTS

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

Residents demand punishment to rapist-killer of mentally challenged girl December 6

SUDOKU

MA “In response to a call from various social and human rights organisations, people brought out a rally and gathered in front of the Chawkbazar police station to lay siege.”

The government would do well to take immediate action against this rapist and killer.

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Op-Ed

11

Saturday, December 13, 2014

What is love? n Md Shahriar Kabir

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Why the outburst against the Obama machine?

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Seeing foes among friends?

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n Esam Sohail

ike so many others, I too was shocked by the intemperate outburst about a visiting foreign dignitary by the minister who is also the second-in-command of the ruling party.

That the outburst incorporated all the worst stereotypes that attaches to men in retrogressive societies is surprising from a seasoned politician who apparently knows the ways of the world. But that surprise is nowhere near the much bigger surprise of the direction of such vituperative: The administration of President Barack Obama of the United States.

Hear me out as I ask you to suspend your disbelief for a few minutes.

The American administration of the incumbent president has been one of the strongest and most effective supporters of the current government in Dhaka whose antecedents are shrouded, to put it very mildly, in a highly dubious electoral exercise that would not pass muster in my alma mater’s student government polls.

In stark contrast to the largely impotent rhetoric from Washington DC, the actual actions (or lack thereof) of the various levers of the Obama foreign policy machine have been very much geared towards helping the ruling party stay snugly put in power.

For starters, there is the indelible image of President Obama’s resident envoy in Dhaka literally watching birds on a college campus on the very day that the electoral farce was taking place in early January; had the preference been otherwise, surely the said envoy would have at least gone about to watch these elections take place in the many polling stations that

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were set up around the country.

That image came closely on heels of another revealing picture of the worthy plenipotentiary where he was seen proudly donning an emblazoned vest of a major police agency in Bangladesh while speaking to a commencement ceremony of that highly controversial force, underlining further the sympathy there is at Foggy Bottom for this regime.

Countless reports and investigations by America’s leading public and private sector organisations – not to mention the many global ones like Human Rights Watch, AHRC, and Amnesty International – have corroborated what Bangladeshi newspapers themselves have pointed out in words and pictures: A country where the space for dissent is being shrunk every day through officially condoned

President Obama has done nothing to discourage any multilateral body from providing loans or direct assistance to Bangladesh’s government

Lest readers think this is merely a diplomatic courtesy, keep in mind that the American foreign office’s own annual human rights reports in the last three years have pointed out with chilling detail the atrocious behaviour of that police agency in suppressing dissent and violating basic citizen rights with impunity.

It is much more than mere show of support by putting on a ceremonial police vest. The Leahy Amendment is a statute that prohibits American technical support to any law enforcement agency abroad that engages in a pattern of human rights violations, while the broader Foreign Assistance Act specifically forbids any aid to a government that allows such patterns to continue by design or default.

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violence on the streets in the day and extra-judicial disappearances in the dead of the night.

Yet, in a strong show of silent support for the Dhaka regime, the Obama administration has studiously refused to invoke either the Leahy Amendment or the broader Foreign Assistance Act prohibition provisions in regards to Bangladesh.

In fact, quite the opposite has happened: The fiscal 2013 budget presented to a fiscally conservative Congress by the Obama foreign policy machine prefaced its half a billion dollar aid request for Bangladesh by praising it as a “progressive, democratic alternative” in the Muslim world!

With that kind of whitewashing of the current government’s increasingly autocratic misdeeds, it is no surprise

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that the administration of President Obama has done nothing to discourage any multilateral body from providing loans or direct assistance to Bangladesh’s government.

Similarly, no actions have been taken by the American administration to put any of the routine sanctions on individuals affiliated with the Dhaka regime’s security and judicial apparatus.

The human rights situation in Bangladesh is hardly hyperbole whipped up by malcontents. Indeed, America’s own most prestigious human rights award – incidentally named after one of President Obama’s heroes, the late Robert F Kennedy – was given last month to a Bangladeshi human rights lawyer with part of the citation reading “Robert Kennedy would have admired Adilur Rahman Khan’s courage and persistence in documenting his government’s complicity in a wide range of human rights abuses. We are inspired and humbled by his work to improve the lives of all Bangladeshis, and we are proud to honour him with the 2014 Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Award.”

Though the award was presented only a few blocks away from President Obama’s office in downtown Washington DC, the president’s own advisers were visibly absent, probably in a sign of latent support for the government in Dhaka.

That this is the American administration which has incurred the ire of the minister is truly puzzling. The gentleman seems to have lost sight of the forest for the trees. l

nanta Jalil has been the talk of the town for a while, especially since the release of his muchhyped movie Nishwartha Bhalobasha, translated as “What is Love?” People are discussing Ananta Jalil in everyday gossip, and even in social networking sites such as Facebook. However, much of Ananta’s fame is the result of his fumbles rather than his deeds, and the numerous Facebook pages devoted to mimicking his antics in even funnier ways hold testimony to that.

But he certainly has garnered a lot of attention, and he can be appropriately termed as an accidental superstar. Ananta Jalil has been very successful in selling his films and, more importantly, himself. People find amusement in every single move he makes, such as his unsuccessful attempts at speaking English, the bizarre plots and dialogue of his movies, and his outrageous comments during interviews.

He is far from perfect, but people are rushing to cinemas to watch his films, seeing how they provide some much needed levity after a hectic day at work. All of his movies are big budget affairs, and you can enjoy his comical action scenes in Dolby 7.1 surround sound – he is very proud of his efforts of introducing new technologies into Dhaliwood. While such efforts are indeed laudable, he should really give a thought to whether he wants to continue making more money by capitalising on his image as a buffoon.

The purpose of a commercial movie is purely entertainment, but even that entertainment has to be presented in a refined and sophisticated manner.

Today’s viewers are more conscious than ever before, and surely they may flock to the theatre to watch Nishwartha Bhalobasha once or twice just for entertainment’s sake, but in the long run, such films don’t do much good to the industry.

To make commercial movies on a frequent basis, one needs a large amount of funding, and Ananta does seem to have that covered. But trouble starts when he tries to do everything by himself – scriptwriting, producing, directing, and of course, acting. There

is no dearth of talented people in various capacities in the Bangladeshi film industry, and Ananta Jalil, who is also a very successful businessman, surely knows the importance of specialisation in any commercial operation.

One particular scene in Nishwartha Valobasha has become the source of comic entertainment for everyone, where Mr Jalil rips open his chest, tears out his heart, and presents it to his love interest Barsha to show how much his heart aches in her absence.

Ananta Jalil, who is also a very successful businessman, surely knows the importance of specialisation

And now, after his famous commercial that says “Ananta can make the impossible possible,” you can rest assured that more such one-liners await us in his future movies. Ananta shot back at his critics saying that the scene was “symbolic,” and that there is nothing wrong with using such elements.

Maxim Gorky used such a setting in his famous short story “The flaming heart of Danko,” where Danko, the protagonist, rips open his chest, tears out his heart, and holds it high above his head, and his flaming heart shows the light to his followers. My question is, while both scenes are similar, why does one elicit laughter while the other stirs a feeling of love and compassion for the human condition?

One can surely “make the impossible possible,” but it still requires finesse in terms of execution. Perhaps my comparison of Maxim Gorky to Mr Jalil was not quite called for, but time has certainly come for not only Ananta Jalil, but the entire film industry of Bangladesh, to answer this question. l Md Shahriar Kabir is adjunct faculty member, International Islamic University Chittagong.

Esam Sohail is an educational research analyst and college lecturer of social sciences. He writes from Kansas, USA

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No human, no cry n Ekram Kabir

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et’s not look for any definition of human rights. Why? Well, we ensure rights only when we recognise ourselves as human. When I look around or switch on the TV, and listen to the statements of our rights champions, I only see the animalistic desire of humans to reign.

When we look at each other, we

don’t seem to be looking at human beings. I sometimes feel pity for the United Nations, which seems to have toiled since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 with little success. 76 years later, gross, systemic abuses continue to be perpetrated at an alarming rate across the world.

It’s been three years since the Syrians started leaving their country. A total of 3.1 million humans have become

BIGSTOCK

homeless, and they are regarded as unwelcome aliens in another country.

Let’s not mention the number of dead souls in their own land. The UN itself said there were roughly 10 million people worldwide who lacked a nationality and the human rights protections that go with it. If you think of Rohingyas in Myanmar, you can tell the extent to which humanity is disregarded.

We all condemned a section of light-skinned humans for their slave trade once; keeping other humans caged in slavery is perhaps the worst kind of rights violation that ever existed in the world. We may think that we, as a civilisation, have overcome that cursed practice. Have we really?

Then why are an estimated 30 million humans still confined to modern-day slavery?

Slavery still exists through laws and their practices. If you’ve seen the state of Bangladeshi migrant workers in various Middle Eastern countries, you’d think twice before you can call their employers “humans.” Have you seen how Qatar forced all its migrant workers to surrender their passports to their employers, the migrants involved in laying the groundwork for

the 2022 World Cup? It’s frustrating to see how some governments, claiming to be champions of human rights, are preparing annual rights indexes. The same governments, reportedly, are engaged in torture and arbitrary detention in Guantanamo Bay, police brutality, and creating groups such as the Islamic State. They are even sermonising about upholding rights in their regions.

This year, between May and October, militants of IS have massacred soldiers and residents in Iraq and Syria; they were seen beheading humans who belonged to minority tribes, non-Sunni Muslim sects, and other religions. In April, 276 Nigerian girls were kidnapped from a school by Boko Haram militants.

The number of attacks led by terrorist groups and the communal or political actors in that country has risen rapidly since 2010. This group killed at least 5,100 Nigerians in 2014, and the advocates of rights don’t seem to take notice. They seem busy manufacturing weapons of war.

A recent US Senate report said the CIA carried out “brutal” interrogations of al-Qaeda suspects in the years following the 9/11 attacks on the US.

It used sexual threats, waterboarding, and other brutal methods to interrogate suspects of terrorism, and none of those methods were very effective in yielding critical information. There’s not a single day that goes by without reports of loathsome human rights abuses everywhere. We’ve also seen beheadings in Mexico, and we’ve seen racism and xenophobia in Europe.

Why are an estimated 30 million humans still confined to modernday slavery?

Even if, as we understand, rights belong to us by virtue of being humans, we have to accept all these atrocities as realities of life. We believe that God causes wars and creates drug lords in order to punish humans who have sinned, and we have nothing else but

to pray for our salvation.

What would happen if we weren’t born as humans? We’d get hold of our prey and eat, mate and produce children, abide by the laws of nature and then, when it’s time, die with no thought of the future. Only humans can anticipate the future and plan accordingly for making it better.

Perhaps it’s time for us to find out a new definition for the word “human,” and perhaps only then we might be able to understand our rights. If we have a look at the half-fed deprived people around the world, as a fellow human, there’s not much we can do, except feel like helpless humans.

Every day, almost 25,000 people starve to death, that too after prolonged suffering. Dying of starvation is the worst kind of death in the modern age of science and food production.

Well, the UN does some good on December 10 every year; it reminds us our true existence in the face of inhumane actions. But I don’t understand why we observe human rights day. It only serves to pain me, without giving me even a shred of solace. l Ekram Kabir is Head of Program, ABC Radio 89.2, and a Dhaka Tribune columnist.

12

DHAKA TRIBUNE Saturday, December 13, 2014

13 Abbott takes 8

wickets on return following tragedy

14 Under-fire

Wenger faces Newcastle threat

14 Hart vows to

spend rest of his career with City

Sport

Did you know?

D Warner has recorded the 21st instance of an Australian hitting 2 tons in a Test; first since Bradman in 1948 to do so v India

Naimur adds new twist to conflict n Minhaz Uddin Khan Bangladesh Cricket Board director and Cricketers Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB) president Naimur Rahman has added a new twist to the ongoing saga involving the governing body of cricket in the country and Legends of Rupganj owner Lutfur Rahman Badal.

In an interview with a leading national daily that was published yesterday, the country’s first Test captain mentioned he was unaware that the press conference which was organised in Mirpur last Monday to protest against Badal’s indecent comments against the board and a few directors recently would be a joint one.

Alongside former captains, Dhaka Premier League Clubs Association (DPLCA) and Bangladesh Cricket Umpires and Scorers Association, CWAB was one of the organisers of the presser.

On top of that, another surprising aspect of the press conference was the presence of former opener Hannan Sarker, who represented CWAB, instead of Naimur.

Moreover, Hannan’s statement, which contained ill remarks against Badal, contradicted a press release that was earlier distributed by CWAB regarding the prevailing controversy.

Questions were immediately raised as to why there were drastic changes in Hannan’s statement compared to the CWAB press release.

CWAB vice president Khaled Mahmud, who is one of the chief protagonists of the burning issue haunting Bangladesh cricket at the moment, had said back then, “CWAB president (Naimur) is aware of the press conference. I have personally talked to him

about it. Otherwise, we would not have counted CWAB as a part of the protest.”

Naimur’s interview though revealed quite the opposite. “[Khaled Mahmud] Sujon bhai had called me over the phone and asked me to take some steps against Badal bhai’s ill comments. I think he (Mahmud) was not aware that CWAB had already circulated a media release on the issue,” said Naimur in the interview.

“Sujon bhai also said he wanted to arrange a press conference. I replied that this should not be a problem. But, I only knew that the press conference will be on behalf of CWAB. I was never informed that DPLCA and another organisations will be a part of it. I thought only the CWAB members will be present in the press conference,” he said.

Naimur also expressed his surprise with the fact that Hannan, being a CWAB member, read out the statement as opposed to the general secretary of the organisation.

“We have a committee but it seems that Sujon bhai informed no one. Usually, the general secretary of the association should read the statement in such situations,” he informed.

Naimur added that the board president, Nazmul Hasan, and the players’ association should not have been involved in this issue in the first place.

“It is totally a personal issue between Sujon and Badal bhai. This has been going on for several years now. Efforts have been made by us at different times in the past to solve the issue between the two persons but it never worked. Also, it is never right to involve the BCB president and CWAB. This should never have happened,” he added. l

Players and officials of Sheikh Jamal DC pose with the King’s Cup alongside State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh at the club premises yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

Army, Air Force brace for volleyball final

n Tribune Desk Bangladesh Army and Bangladesh Air Force went through to the final of the Walton Smart TV Victory Day Volleyball Tournament after winning their respective semifinals at the volleyball stadium yesterday.

In the day’s first semifinal, Air Force pipped Bangladesh Navy by 3-2 sets while Army had to toil hard in the second semifinal before eventually beating Power Development Board by the same margin. The final will be held today at 3pm. l

Faridpur seal Gold Cup crown n Our Correspondent, Jessore

Lawmaker of the Jessore 3 constituency, Kazi Nabil Ahmed (2R), hands over the Shams-ulHuda Gold Cup trophy to the winning team in Jessore yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Faridpur claimed the 8th Shams-ul-Huda Gold Cup Football Tournament title after edging Chuadanga 1-0 in the final yesterday in Jessore.

Although the champions dominated the first half, the all-important goal did not arrive before the 88th minute of the game. Faridpur skipper Saiful, who plays at right-back, grabbed the match-clinching goal following a brilliant solo run.

It is mentionable that Faridpur played the last quarter of the game with 10 men after Ima received his marching orders in the 75th minute.

Despite the defeat, Chuadanga goalkeeper Mamun was rewarded with the player of the final accolade.

Kazi Nabil Ahmed, lawmaker from the Jessore 3 constituency, was the chief guest and later on distributed the prizes among the winning team.

Police Super Anisur Rahman and Jessore District Commissioner D. Humayun Kabir were also present among others on the occasion. l

Suarez happy in Messi’s shadow, angry at racist label n Reuters, Barcelona Luis Suarez is unconcerned at being overshadowed by Lionel Messi’s scoring feats at Barcelona but remains angry about being labelled a “racist” and a “cheat” in England.

The former Liverpool striker has made more an impact with his assists since returning from a biting ban at the end of October while Messi has become the top scorer in La Liga and Champions League history.

“I have always been a goal scorer but I also like to help set up goals,” Suarez told the Catalan newspaper Sport.

“I came here to score goals and not provide passes. I came because I had scored a lot of goals in the my career and above all at Liverpool but fortunately I have more to my game than just that.

“We don’t just play for Messi but for everyone. We have players that we know can make the difference like Messi, Neymar and (Andres) Iniesta. They are players that give you confidence when they

have the ball at their feet.” Suarez said it was easy to play with Messi.

“I am having a great time here. Obviously I want to score more goals but while the team is doing well then there is no problem. It is fantastic to play alongside the best player in the world,” the Uruguayan added. “On his own and with his skill he has ended all the doubts over the team and him.”

Suarez, however, is unhappy at the way he was treated in England and the eight-match ban he received at Liverpool for racially abusing Manchester United defender Patrice Evra.

“For now I have to accept that I was accused of being a racist without any proof over what happened with Evra,” added Suarez.

“Also of being a diver and throwing myself on the ground. It is lies.” l

Sheikh Jamal sports complex unveiled

Fifa to vote on releasing WC corruption report

n Tribune Desk

n AFP, Paris

A new sports complex was inaugurated at the Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club premises yesterday in the presence of distinguished personalities. The sports complex includes a tennis, basketball and badminton court.

Yesterday was also the club’s fifth anniversary and on the occasion, an Annual General Meeting was held before the inauguration ceremony.

Sheikh Jamal’s triumph in the Federation Cup and Bangladesh Premier League last season and their success in the recently concluded King’s Cup in Bhutan were also showcased during the programme.

State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal inaugurated the sports complex as the chief guest while Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh and Police Commissioner Benazir Ahmed were also present. l

Ansar clinch women’s weightlifting crown n Shishir Hoque Firoza Parvin, last Thursday, set a new national record in the women’s event of the National Weightlifting Championship that concluded with the masters event at National Sports Council gymnasium yesterday.

Meanwhile, this is the first time that the Masters Weightlifting Championship took place in the country where valiant freedom fighter Mujibur Rahman turned out victorious.

Mujibur became first in the 65+ year category as he lifted a total of 85 kilogrammes (35 in the snatch and 50 in the jerk event). The 72-year old was honoured with the Bir title for his role

in the liberation war.

Bangladesh Ansar weightlifter Firoza lifted 77 kgs in the clean and the jerk category of the 69-kg event to break Rokeya Sultana Sathi’s record. In the previous edition held two years ago, Sathi had lifted 76 kgs.

Firoza lifted a total of 144 kgs, including 67 kgs in the snatch and 77 kgs in the clean and the jerk category.

Ansar emerged as the champions in the women’s event of the tournament while Bangladesh Army finished second. BJMC ended at third position.

Fahima Akter Moyna, who also set a new national record earlier in the tournament, was adjudged the best female weightlifter of the four-day event. l

Army reach kabaddi final n Tribune Desk Bangladesh Army swept into the final of the Victory Day Kabaddi Championship despite being held to a draw by Bangladesh Air Force at National Ka-

baddi Stadium yesterday.

In spite of the 28-28 points draw, it was Army who progressed as they have more points (seven). Meanwhile in the day’s other match, Bangladesh Police defeated Fire Service 22-19. l

FIFA face a vote next week on whether or not to publish the controversial and sensitive report into alleged corruption during the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, it was claimed Thursday.

The sport’s world governing body will discuss the matter at its two-day executive committee meeting being held on the sidelines of the Club World Cup in Morocco on December 18 and 19.

The agenda released on Thursday for the meeting will hear a proposal submitted by Theo Zwanziger, the former head of the German football association and a powerful critic of the decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.

Britain’s Daily Telegraph claimed that Zwanziger wants a redacted version of the full Ethics Committee report published to protect the identities of witnesses who co-operated with the probe led by US lawyer Michael Garcia.

Garcia carried out an 18-month investigation into the bidding which led to the controversial awarding of the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 tournament to Qatar.

The former New York federal prosecutor’s 350-page report summed up an investigation that involved interviewing more than 75 witnesses and compiling a dossier with more than 200,000 pages and audio interviews.

However, Garcia blasted as “incomplete and erroneous” a subsequent version of his report.

German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, chairman of the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA’s independent ethics committee, said that the investigation had not yielded evidence of corruption and there would be no re-vote on awarding the tournaments. He also argued that Garcia’s report could not be published for legal reasons. l

Bangladesh Air Force (whites) in action against Bangladesh Army in the Victory Day Kabaddi Championship at National Kabaddi Stadium yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Second ton for Warner as Aussies in charge

AUSvIND, DAY 4 Australia 1st innings 517 for 7 declared (Smith 162 not out, Warner 145, Clarke 128; Shami 2-120) India 1st innings (369 for 5 overnight) M Vijay c Haddin b Johnson S Dhawan b Harris C Pujara b Lyon V Kohli c Harris b Johnson A Rahane c Watson b Lyon R Sharma c and b Lyon W Saha c Watson b Lyon K Sharma b Siddle M Shami c Watson b Siddle I Sharma c Smith b Lyon V. Aaron not out Extras (lb4, w1, nb2) Total (all out; 116.4 overs)

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53 25 73 115 62 43 25 4 34 0 3 7

88 24 135 184 76 89 68 8 24 2 4

n Reuters Red-hot opening batsman David Warner punished a wasteful India with his second century of the first Test on Friday as Australia seized control of the match at the close of play on day four.

The combative left-hander, who scored an emotional 145 in the first innings, added another 102 to help fire Australia to a 363-run lead at a sundrenched Adelaide Oval.

Steven Smith added a half-century to his own first innings ton to push the hosts to 290-5. He was unbeaten on 52 at stumps, with wicketkeeper Brad Haddin on 14, and Australia in position to make an early declaration on the final day.

Warner gazed at the sky in tribute to batsman Phillip Hughes during his first innings knock and repeated the gesture on Friday after raising his sixth hundred in his last 11 Test innings.

Two of those hundreds also came in the same Test on tour against South Africa earlier in the year.

Hughes, who died two weeks ago after being hit by a ball during a domestic match, famously became the youngest player to score two centuries in a match when he achieved the feat against South Africa in Durban in his second Test in 2009.

Warner got himself out attempting a frivolous reverse sweep and was bowled by legspinner Karn Sharma as the Australians picked up the tempo in the last session.

Mitchell Marsh smashed 24 runs,

444

Fall of wickets 1-30, 2-111, 3-192, 4-293, 5-367, 6-399, 7-406, 8-422, 9-422, 10-444 Bowling Johnson 22-6-102-2 (2nb), Harris 21-655-1, Lyon 36-4-134-5, Siddle 18.4-2-88-2 (1w), Marsh 11-4-29-0, Watson 5-1-13-0, Smith 3-0-19-0

R Australia 2nd innings C Rogers c R. Sharma b K Sharma 21 D Warner b K Sharma 102 S Watson b Shami 33 M Clarke c Saha b Aaron 7 S Smith not out 52 M Marsh c Vijay b R. Sharma 40 B Haddin not out 14 Extras (b1, lb6, w5, nb9) 21 Total (5 wickets; 69 overs)

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Fall of wickets 1-38, 2-140, 3-168, 4-213, 5-266 Bowling Shami 11-2-42-1, I. Sharma 14-3-41-0 (6nb), K. Sharma 16-2-95-2, Vijay 6-0-27-0, R. Sharma 12-2-35-1, Aaron 10-0-43-1 (1w, 2nb)

India’s Shikhar Dhawan (L) exchanges words with Australia’s David Warner (2R) on the fourth day of their first Test at the Adelaide Oval yesterday AFP

including three sixes, off one over from Sharma but chanced his arm once too often to be caught slogging in the deep after a cavalier 40 off 26 balls.

Injured captain Michael Clarke could not repeat his first innings heroics when he scored 128 despite a painful back strain and was caught behind for seven off the bowling of Varun Aaron.

Warner was reprieved on 66 when Aaron bowled him only to be recalled when television replays showed the paceman overstepping the crease on his delivery.

A match that had proceeded in good spirit suddenly became tetchy. Aaron gave Warner a big send-off after rattling his stumps and the Australian retaliated after his let-off.

Umpires Marais Erasmus and Ian Gould intervened to stop the opposing players from arguing and had to do so again after Smith and Rohit Sharma exchanged words following a hopeful lbw appeal after tea, which also fired up India captain Virat Kohli.

Warner also survived a big shout for caught behind off Aaron’s bowling and was dropped in the gully when on 89 off Mohammed Shami.

Earlier in the day, India were bowled out for 444, with Australia spinner Nathan Lyon finishing with 5-134.

The highest victorious run-chase in Adelaide was Australia’s 315-6 against England in 1902, though the hosts will remember ruefully how South Africa managed to bat through an entire fifth day with only six wickets in hand to save the match in 2012. l

India, Pakistan set for intriguing semi Abbott takes eight wickets n Agencies Arch-rivals India and Pakistan return to centre stage in field hockey on Saturday after a controversial format helped them reach the Champions Trophy semi-finals in Bhubaneswar.

Instead of rewarding performances in the preliminary league, all eight teams were assured of reaching the quarter-finals - a round which turned the tournament on its head, and left some teams quietly fuming.

The top four teams in the league England, the Netherlands, Argentina and Belgium - were all knocked out in Thursday’s round of eight, while the bottom four sailed through to the semi-finals.

The format also helped new-look world champions Australia, seeking a sixth successive title, and Olympic gold-medallists Germany recover from shaky starts to line up for Saturday’s other semi-final.

Hosts India, ranked ninth in the world, fought back from a 0-2 deficit to beat number four Belgium 4-2.

Eleventh-ranked Pakistan stunned the Dutch by a similar margin after losing all their three league matches.

The Germans knocked out England 2-0 and Australia ousted Argentina 4-2.

In contrast, the surviving teams could not hide their glee.

Millions of fans across India and Pakistan will tune in to what should be a rousing semi-final, a repeat of the

Asian Games gold medal clash in South Korea in October which India won in a penalty shoot-out.

Once the masters of the sport, neither team has advanced to the final of a major world competition since 1998, when Pakistan lost the Champions Trophy final to the Dutch in Lahore.

India have not won a major title since bagging the last of their eight Olympic gold medals at the Western-boycotted Moscow Games in 1980.

Dutchman Roelant Oltmans, India’s high performance director who is acting as coach after Australian Terry Walsh was controversially axed last month, preferred to look ahead to the 2016 Olympics.l

Ten Cricket 11:00AM Sri Lanka v England 6th ODI

Star Sports 1 6:00PM Int’l Tennis Premier League 1:45AM Italian Serie A Lazio v Atlanta

Star Sports 2 7:30PM Indian Super League Kerala v Chennai 3:00AM Malaga v Celta Vigo

Star Sports 4 English Premier League

11:30PM Arsenal v Newcastle

Ten Action 6:15PM Sky Bet Championship Middlesbrough v Derby County 9:30PM French Ligue 1 FC Nantes v FC Bordeaux 12:30AM French Ligue 1 SC Bastiais v Stade Rennais

Ten Sports Hockey Champions Trophy 5:45PM Semi Final 1: Germany v Australia 8:00PM Hockey Champions Trophy Semi Final 2: India v Pakistan

Neo Prime German Bundesliga 8:30PM Augsburg v FC Bayern Munich 11:30PM Mainz 05 v VfB Stuttgart

n Reuters, Sydney Sean Abbott, the Australian fast bowler who delivered the ball that killed Phillip Hughes, has made a remarkable return to cricket, helping New South Wales beat Queensland on Friday.

The 22-year-old Abbott has been receiving counselling, and the support of the cricketing world, after he bowled the bouncer that struck Hughes on the neck last month.

Hughes died in a Sydney hospital two days later, triggering a massive outpouring of grief in Australia, and devastating Abbott, a former team mate and friend of Hughes.

Leicester’s Schmeichel out until 2015 n AFP, London

DAY’S WATCH

9:00PM Leicester City v Man City

on return following tragedy

A granadier stands next to a banner with the route of the 2015 Rally Dakar in Buenos Aires yesterday AFP

Wanderers avert Club World Cup boycott n AFP, Sydney Australia’s Western Sydney Wanderers have resolved a pay dispute with players which threatened to see them boycott the FIFA Club World Cup, but said terms were confidential.

The Asian champions left for Morocco earlier this week despite not having worked out with the club how much they were to be paid for their efforts. In a statement, the Wanderers said they had come to an agreement with the playing group over the allocation of prize money ahead of their first match on Saturday.

The dispute had revolved around how much players would receive in prize money, fees and bonuses from the Club World Cup being played in the

north African nation.

The Professional Footballers’ Association had argued that players were due 50 percent of the guaranteed minimum payment of US$1,000,000 given they had won the Asian Champions League.

The association said the club had had only wanted to give the players 10 percent, something they said was “a percentage without precedence”.

But the Wanderers said the players’ earnings would “not be limited to 10 percent”, saying if they won their opening match they could collectively earn over Aus$600,000 (US$495,720).

The Wanderers are scheduled to play their first Club World Cup game against North/Central American champions Cruz Azul on December 13.l

Leicester City’s bid to avoid relegation from the Premier League received a blow on Thursday with the announcement that goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel will be sidelined for around six weeks.

Kasper son of former Manchester United goalkeeping great Peter Schmeichel, broke a metatarsal bone in his foot during training on Thursday and will undergo surgery on Friday.

Asked how long he expected to be without Schmeichel, manager Nigel Pearson told a press conference: “I’ve got an idea. The best thing to do is update you (the press) on Saturday. Hopefully he’ll have the operation on Friday and an optimistic view would be four to six weeks, but it could be longer. We don’t know.”l

Abbott attended his funeral and was consoled by Hughes’ family and other cricketers, who urged him to resume playing. Still stricken by grief, he made his return this week at the Sydney Cricket Ground, the same venue where Hughes was fatally injured.

After a slow start in which he took two wickets in Queensland’s first innings, Abbott hit his stride on Friday, showing why he is regarded as one of Australia’s rising talents.

With the match seemingly heading to a draw, Abbott produced an extraordinary spell to capture 6-14 as Queensland collapsed to 99 all out in their second innings and NSW wrapped up victory. l

Milan will be great again, promises Inzaghi n Reuters, Milan Filippo Inzaghi has promised that seven-times European champions AC Milan will break away from their midtable mediocrity and become great again.

“We have alternated very good matches with others which have been less good, but I never claimed to have a magic wand,” the AC Milan coach told reporters during an event organised by one of the club’s sponsors on Thursday night.

“So many other teams are struggling, such as Napoli and Inter, and we need patience but I’m sure we will be great again soon.

“I hope this is Milan’s moment.”

Former Italy and Milan striker Inzaghi, who had no previous experience of coaching a senior team, took

over before the start of the season hoping to improve on last season’s modest eighth-place finish.

Milan have won five of their 14 Serie A games this season and are seventh with 21 points, five behind Genoa who are third in the Champions League playoff spot.

Inzaghi also praised Japanese attacking midfielder Keisuke Honda, who has scored six Serie A goals this season.

“He is doing some very good things,” said Inzaghi. “He spoiled us with his six goals but he is also important when he doesn’t score.

“He’s one of those who are very useful to the team for the attitude and the great dedication.”

Milan last won Serie A in 2011 under Massimiliano Allegri. l

Kvitova eyes world number one spot n AFP, Prague

Reigning Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic has said she was looking to improve her Grand Slam performances while keeping an eye on the world number one spot for 2015.

“Next year I have some clear goals in my mind,” the 24-year-old left-handed world number four wrote in her official blog.

“I want to have better results at the Grand Slams and of course one day I want to be number one in the world.”

“I have been close already, but I really hope that day will come,” she added.

Kvitova notched up her second title win at Wimbledon this year, but she only made it to the third round at the French and US Opens and lost in the first round of the Australian Open.

“Wimbledon was the highlight of the year, I won my second Grand Slam and to have two Wimbledon trophies

in my parents’ house means absolutely everything to me,” said Kvitova, who also won the tournament in 2011.

In November, Kvitova led the Czech Republic to a third Fed Cup trophy in four years after beating Germany’s Angelique Kerber in the finals in Prague in “a great battle and the perfect match to end the season on a high.”

Kvitova has started training for next season with a new fitness coach, Alex Stober, whom she inherited from Li Na after the Chinese star had ended her career earlier this year.

“He has a lot of experience and he knows what to do, he arrived with a very specific plan to make me stronger and faster on court,” Kvitova said.

“The exercises we are doing are very focused on tennis and on my game specifically so that I can play tennis the ‘Petra’ way,” she added. l

14

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

Saturday, December 13, 2014

RESULTS

M’gladbach

3-0

FC Zurich

Herrmann 31, Hrgota 59, 64

Apollon Limassol

0-2

Villarreal Gerard 35, Vietto 40

2-1

Club Brugge

HJK Helsinki

Gedoz 28-P, Rafaelov 88

Kandji 51

1-5

FC Copenhagen

Torino

Amartey 6

Martínez 15, 47, 49, Amauri 42-P, Silva 53

Partizan Belgrade

0-0

Asteras Tripolis

Besiktas

1-0

Tottenham

5-1

Astra Giurgiu

Cenk Tosun 60

Austria Salzburg

Sabitzer 9, Kampl 34, 90+2, Alan 46, 70

Dinamo Zagreb

4-3

Pjaca 14, 40, 50, Brozovic 48

Florescu 51

Celtic Commons 23, Scepovic 30, 82

0-1

PSV Eindhoven

Dinamo Moscow Ionov 90

1-1

Panathinaikos Karelas 55

1-0

Saint-Etienne

Qarabag

0-0

Inter Milan

Standard Liege

0-3

Dnipro Fedetskiy 66

Supporters light up the Ataturk Stadium in Istanbul with their mobile phones during a power failure in the Uefa Europa League Group C match between Besiktas and Tottenham on Thursday

Under-fire Wenger faces Newcastle threat n AFP, London

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger will again look to confound his critics when his side welcome in-form Newcastle United to the Emirates Stadium in the Premier League this weekend.

The Frenchman was jeered by a small group of Arsenal fans as he boarded a train following his team’s 3-2 loss at Stoke City last Saturday, in scenes widely condemned within the football community.

That loss meant Wenger’s side were unable to take advantage of league leaders Chelsea’s first defeat of the season and left the north London club in sixth spot, 13 points adrift of the head of the table.

A title challenge now seems unlikely and while Arsenal reacted positively by winning 4-1 at Galatasaray in the Champions League in mid-week, Wenger remains under scrutiny.

In particular, he has been criticised for his failure to strengthen his defence during the last transfer window, although the manager can point to an alarming run of injuries to key players this season.

A victory over Alan Pardew’s upwardly mobile Newcastle will be the best way to silence the doubters, and midfielder Aaron Ramsey says the players are fully behind their manager.

“It was obviously a disappointing first half at Stoke, but we did well in the second half and almost got back into it,” said the Wales international.

“It was important to bounce back from that defeat and we did that. Every player here wants to work hard for the manager. We proved that again on Tuesday night (against Galatasaray).

FIXTURES Arsenal Burnley Chelsea Crystal Palace Leicester City Sunderland West Brom

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Newcastle Southampton Hull City Stoke City Man City West Ham Aston Villa

“He has been under some unfair criticism, but we are all out there; we are in it together. We wanted to get the result for us and for him.

“I think whenever we go into a game, he knows our qualities, always believes in us and gives us a great feeling for matches. Every time we go out there, we are representing ourselves, our club and our manager.”

Current premier league champions Manchester City secured their place in the last 16 with a superb 2-0 victory away to Serie A title contenders Roma.

It followed a run of four straight league wins that has seen the champions whittle leaders Chelsea’s advantage down to just three points ahead of Saturday’s trip to bottom club Leicester City.

City will learn the identity of their next Champions League opponents on Monday, but goalkeeper Joe Hart has urged his team-mates not to lose focus in their quest to topple Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea.

“We are confident we can do well against anyone, but it is Leicester now and we have to turn our eyes to that,” said the England international. “That’s our next big game.”

Chelsea saw their unbeaten run come to an end at Newcastle United last weekend, but goalkeeper Petr Cech believes Wednesday’s 3-1 win over Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League has restored momentum.

“It’s always important to win, especially when you lose a game in the league,” said the Czech, who will give way for Thibaut Courtois for Saturday’s home game with thirdbottom Hull City.

Southampton, who have slipped to fifth after three consecutive defeats, visit second-bottom Burnley, while high-flying West Ham United will look to tighten their grip on fourth place when they travel to Sunderland. l

Barca backing Suarez to end Liga drought n Agencies

Hart vows to spend rest of his career with City n AFP, London Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart says he wants to spend the rest of his career at Eastlands as he prepares to sign a new contract with the Premier League champions.

Hart has been in talks over a lucrative new five-year deal for several months and City manager Manuel Pellegrini last week said he expected negotiations to be completed imminently.

The 27-year-old, speaking after his fine performance in Wednesday’s 2-0 win at Roma helped City qualify for the Champions League last 16, has revealed the contract is now all but signed.

And England international Hart, who has won two Premier League titles with City, is adamant he has no intention of leaving a club at any time in his career.

“I love this place and I love everything about Manchester City,” he said.

“I have been here for a long time. I feel like it is my club now and I want to be here as long as I can. l

The blockbuster signing Luis Suarez has yet to net in the La liga but will be brimming with confidence after striking for the second time in the Champions League in midweek Barcelona hope Suarez can carry a run of goalscoring form into Saturday’s trip to Getafe after netting at Camp Nou for the first time.

The Uruguayan forward, who completed a €94 million move from Liverpool in the close-season, has struggled to justify his price tag so far.

FIXTURES Getafe Valencia Cordoba Malaga

v v v v

Barcelona Rayo Vallecano Levante Celta Vigo

Suarez is no longer the main man in attack and has to share the spotlight with both Lionel Messi and Neymar.

He had scored just one goal in eight matches prior to Wednesday night, but impressed in a new formation as he netted in Barca’s 3-1 Champions League success against Paris Saint-Germain.

Luis Enrique opted for a 3-5-1-1 formation with Messi and Suarez working together up top, meaning Neymar occupied a role on the left.

All three of Barca’s star forwards

scored in a triumph that saw them move top of Group F and emerge victorious in an eighth successive game in all competitions.

Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen said afterwards that Suarez has made an excellent impression on his team-mates and hopes his latest goal will trigger a run.

Finding a way for Suarez, Messi and Neymar to gel might just be the key to La Liga glory.

And despite Real Madrid’s superb 19-match winning run in all competitions, Barca, who sit second, are just two points adrift.

Given Real’s form, that offers cause for optimism for Enrique and a 1-0 win at Valencia last month showed his men have the mettle for a title fight.

Barca boast the best defence in the Spanish top flight, having conceded just seven goals in 14 matches, with 13 and 11-goal contributions from Messi and Neymar helping them to a tally of 36 which is bettered only by Real Madrid.

In stark contrast, only one side have scored fewer goals than the paltry 11 netted by 12th-placed Getafe.

French midfielder Abdoul Karim Yoda tops their scoring charts with four but the likes of forwards Babacar Diawara and Alvaro Vazquez need to improve if Cosmin Contra’s side are to snare a tophalf finish. Getafe have not won in any of their last four Liga matches. l

AFP

Lights out as Besiktas overhaul Tottenham n AFP, Paris Besiktas beat Tottenham 1-0 in the Europa League on Thursday to climb above the Londoners and win Group C on a night that saw the floodlights fail twice.

In the final round of group games Tottenham only needed to draw to top the pile, but a 60th-minute tap in from the six-yard line from Cenk Tosun gave the Turks the game and the group.

Spurs ended runners-up and thereby go into the hat for Monday’s draw along with the other top two finishers as well as the Champions League third placed teams, Olympiakos, Liverpool, Zenit, Anderlecht, Roma, Ajax, Sporting Lisbon and Athletic Bilbao.

Besiktas may end up paying a UEFA fine as the game was held up early in the first half for a full 17 minutes with the referee ordering the players off the Ataturk Olympic Stadium pitch.

The same thing then happened in time added after 90 minutes with another lengthy delay leaving fans to make the best of the darkness by holding aloft

Estoril Kleber 87

Feyenoord Toornstra 16, Boetius 60, Manu 88

1-0

Sevilla

Rijeka

Suarez 20

cigarette lighters and mobile phones.

Spurs were themselves were fined 15,000 euros by UEFA earlier Thursday for pitch invasion delays in their last Europa League game.

Everton were already certain to progress as Group H winners but Roberto Martinez’s reshuffled pack were beaten 1-0 at home by Russians Krasnodar, who were already out.

Wolfsburg beat Lille 3-0 to end up second behind Everton.

Guingamp were left as France’s lone team in the next round after they won 2-1 at Greek side PAOK in Group K to finish second behind Fiorentina.

Celtic travelled to Croatia to take on Dinamo Zagreb in Group D knowing they’d finish runners-up come what may.

In the end the hosts were on top with Marko Pjaca hitting a hat-trick as they ran out 4-3 winners.

Pajca’s third was a brilliant longrange shot, after he’d rounded a defender and produced a low strike for the first and fired home after getting to a loose ball first for the second.l

0-3

Lille

Wolfsburg Vieirinha 45+1, Rodriguez 65, 89

0-1

Everton

Krasnodar Laborde 30

2-0

Young Boys

Sparta Prague

Hoarau 76-P, Steffen 90+4

3-0

Napoli

Slovan Bratislava

Mertens 6, Hamsik 16, Zapata 75

Steaua Bucharest

0-1

Dynamo Kiev Yarmolenko 71

2-0

Rio Ave

Aalborg

Del Valle 59, 79

1-2

PAOK Athanasiadis 22-P

1-2

Fiorentina

Guingamp Beauvue 7, 83

Marin 88

Dinamo Minsk

Kontsevoi 39, Nikolic 55

Metalist Kharkiv

0-1

Lokeren Leye 16

2-0

Legia Warsaw

Trabzonspor

Fatih Ozturk 22-og, Orlando Sa 56

EUROPA LEAGUE LAST 32 QUALIFIERS SEEDED TEAMS

Salzburg (AUT) Dynamo Moscow (RUS) Inter Milan (ITA) Everton (ENG) Fiorentina (ITA) FC Bruges (BEL) Moenchengladbach (GER) Besiktas (TUR)

UNSEEDED TEAMS

Feyenoord (NED) Napoli (ITA) Dynamo Kiev (UKR) Legia Warsaw (POL) Olympiakos (GRE/from CL) Zenit (RUS/from CL) Sp Lisbon (POR/from CL) Athletic Bilbao (ESP/from CL)

Celtic (SCO) PSV Eindhoven (NED) Dnipropetrovsk (UKR) Tottenham (ENG) Villarreal (ESP) Torino (ITA) Wolfsburg (GER) Young Boys (SUI)

Aalborg (DEN) Guingamp (FRA) Trabzonspor (TUR) Sevilla (ESP) Anderlecht (BEL/from CL) AS Roma (ITA/from CL) Ajax (NED/from CL) Liverpool (ENG/from CL)

Augsburg bid to upstage Bayern in Bavarian derby n AFP, Berlin Modest Augsburg, enjoying their best ever start to a season, will hope history repeats itself on Saturday when they play host to the mighty Bayern Munich in a Bavarian derby.

Last season Augsburg ended Bayern’s record 53-game unbeaten run when they beat Pep Guardiola’s side 1-0 at the SGL Arena in April thanks to a Sascha Moelders strike.

Elsewhere, Wolfsburg, after a decisive Europa League trip to Lille on Thursday, will be looking for a ninth win in 10 Bundesliga games when they host Paderborn on Sunday.

Meanwhile, fourth-placed Bayer Leverkusen, one of four German clubs through to the last 16 of the Champions League, entertain Borussia Moenchengladbach.

Borussia Dortmund, another of Germany’s Champions League hopefuls, go to Hertha Berlin bidding to make it back-to-back Bundesliga wins for the first time since September.l

FIXTURES Schalke 04 Augsburg Hertha Berlin Bremen Freiburg Mainz

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Cologne Bayern Munich Dortmund Hanover 96 Hamburg Stuttgart

Torino players celebrate their victory over FC Copenhagen after their Europa League match in Parken Stadium, Copenhagen on Thursday REUTERS

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Entertainment

Musical soiree at Indira Gandhi Cultural Centre today

Month-long Zainul festival begins at DU n Cultural Correspondent

n Entertainment Desk Marking the 44th Victory Day of Bangladesh, the Indira Gandhi Cultural Centre will organise a musical evening at its auditorium in the capital’s

Dhanmondi today. Partha Barua, lead vocalist of band Souls; Bappa Majumdar, lead vocalist of rock band Dalchhut; and Elita Karim, a versatile singer and journalist, will perform at the programme at 5:30pm, said a press release. l

HRITHIK ROSHAN voted the world’s sexiest Asian man n Entertainment Desk Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan has been voted the world’s sexiest Asian man for the third time in four years.

The 40-year-old actor reclaimed

the crown, which he lost last year, in the 11th edition of the “50 Sexiest Asian Men In The World” list produced annually by Britain’s weekly newspaper Eastern Eye.

Television actor Kushal Tandon was the surprise runner up in this year’s list and last year’s winner Ali Zafar slipped to third place on the ratings released on Wednesday.

TV actor Vivian D’Sena, who made it into the top 10 for the first time, was fourth in a record-breaking year that saw more than 10 million votes cast in all.

“Thank you ‘Eastern Eye’. I am humbled by the desirable tag. I believe sexy is less to do with the physical and more to do with the mental perspective on life, others and yourself,” Hrithik said.

“Do good, never please, know your worth, walk your path, have a sense of humour, be the giver, be self-sufficient and contribute with power to all around. Sexy is as sexy does. Create your own sexy!”

Eastern Eye showbiz editor Asjad Nazir, founder of the list and chair of the judging panel, believes Hrithik is on his way to become India’s first global cinematic superstar.

“The reason why Hrithik is regularly voted top is that he ticks all the boxes. He is a talented actor, is the best dancer in Bollywood, has arguably the best physique and has the kind of humility that connects him to the everyday individual,” Nazir said.

The win rounded off a roller-coaster year for the actor that saw him star in one of the year’s biggest hits “Bang Bang” and his amicable divorce from wife Sussanne Khan.

Actor Fawad Khan was in seventh position. Others stars in the top 10 include Shahid Kapoor (5), Barun Sobti (6), Ranbir Kapoor (8) and Salman Khan (10). l

Exhibition

16th Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh Time: 11am – 8pm National Art Gallery Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy

Saturday, December 13, 2014

In observance of the 100th birth anniversary of Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin, a month-long art and cultural festival has begun at the Faculty of Fine Arts (FFA) of Dhaka University.

Thirty six artists will be awarded for their outstanding works in arts and culture on December 29, the anniversary Zainul Abedin.

Samarjit Roy Chowdhury, a professor of FFA faculty, and Indian noted artist Golam Muhammad Sheikh will receive special honour in memory of Zainul this year.

Born on December 29, 1914, Zainul Abedin was also the founder of the fine arts faculty at the university.

The FFA faculty celebrates birth anniversary of the artist every year. This year’s festival is featuring exhibition of 500 artworks by teachers and students of the faculty.

The festival began on Thursday through an inauguration of an art exhibition by teachers of the faculty at the Zainul Gallery.

DU Vice-Chancellor Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique, as the chief guest, attended the inaugural programme.

15

Dead Man Walking HBO Defined, 11:20pm

FFA Faculty Dean Nisar Hossain and teachers of the faculty were present on the occasion.

Besides, eight departments of the faculty have organised separate exhibitions to showcase works of students of the respective departments.

Moreover, 10 art installations are on display at different corners of the campus.

The festival will also feature a fair and cultural programme at the Lichu Tola from December 26 to 29.

Songs of different genres will be presented at a stage in the fair every day afternoon.

The fair will also feature commemorative speech on Zainul Abedin by different artists.

The month-long festival will also include several seminars in January next year.

Eight keynote papers will be presented in the seminars.

Indian folk art expert Bijan Kumar Dutta and expert of art of small ethnic communities Rakesh Bhoumik will be present at two of the seminars.

The festival has been dedicated to memory of recently deceased master artist Qayyum Chowdhury. l

A nun, while comforting a convicted killer on death row, empathizes with both the killer and his victim’s families.

Machine Gun Preacher

HBO Hits, 6:25pm

Sam Childers is a former drug-dealing biker tough guy who found God and became a crusader for hundreds of Sudanese children who’ve been forced to become soldiers.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Star Movies, 10:00am

Meet the Faces

By Nasreen Sultana Mitu Time: 3pm – 9pm Alliance Francaise Be Smart About Art Time: 10am – 8pm Athena Gallery of Fine Arts

In an alternate Victorian Age world, a group of famous contemporary fantasy, SF and adventure characters team up on a secret mission.

KHAN HASAN MD RAFI

Tête-à-tête with singers Suranjon Roy, Alok Roy

Singer Suranjon Roy

n Hasan Mansoor Chatak Indian eminent singers Suranjon Roy and Alok Roy Chowdhury, performed in a musical soiree in Dhaka yesterday.

The soiree titled ‘Anandadhara Bahiche Bhubone’ was held at the House No 41 on Dhanmondi 6A hosted by Ameenah Ahmed, a renowned Rabindra Sangeet artiste.

This was the first visit of the artists to Bangladesh for performing songs.

Suranjon, son of noted Tagore exponent Subinoy Roy, performed Tagore gongs and Brahma songs at the event.

His music lesson begun under his fa-

ther’s supervision. The artist later developed a long span of musical career.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, he said: “I did not give much concentration to learn music at my early ages.”

“But when I started to realise that why the people pay such honour to my father, I plunged into Tagore songs promptly,” he said.

“I feel privileged to live in a world of Tagore’s positiveness, which could be found generously in his lyrics,” he added.

He also inherited deeply the lines of Brahma songs, a worship song practised in the Brahaman society. This

genre of song was mainly developed by Tagore’s family.

Suranjon gave voice in more than 20 albums. His latest album “Swapner Athiti” hit the market three years ago.

The artist, who also taught Tagore songs, is against any distortion of Tagore songs. He vowed to establish the forms and styles of singing Tagore which is introduced by his father Subinoy Roy. While, Alok Roy Chowdhury devoted to singing old Bangla songs and a special genre of old comedy songs.

He holds a distinct quality of covering old Bangla songs of a variety of singers, including Rajinikanta, Dwijendralal Ray, Atul Prasad Sen and Tagore songs.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Alok said he is against any form of distortion of old Bangla songs, including Tagore

songs, in the name of remake or remix.

But he ready to accept the use of western instrument in Tagore songs.

“A instrument has no country, its universal,” he said.

Alok is not that sort of predetermined artist who come up the stage with a song-list. Rather he first observe the audience, the ambience and improvise his song-list on stage.

In the artist’s family no one was linked to music. He practised hard. His devotion to music and patience established himself as a musician.

He shared his memory with great singer including Hemanta Mukhpaddhaya, how he inspired Alok to roll his career in singing and Hemanta’s advice “do not practise to much” startled him, certainly an aberrant advice a musician could get! l

Singer Alok Roy Chowdhury

Golden Globe Awards nominations announced KAREENA linked with Sangeeta Bijlani role in Azharuddin biopic Best Performance by an actor in a Motion Picture, Drama Steve Carell, “Foxcatcher” Benedict Cumberbatch, “The Imitation Game” Jake Gyllenhaal, “Nightcrawler” David Oyelowo, “Selma” Eddie Redmayne, “The Theory of Everything”

Best Performance by an actress in a Motion Picture, Drama The actresses nominated for the best performance in a motion picture drama category

n Entertainment Desk

Richard Linklater, “Boyhood”

The Hollywood Foreign Press announced nominees for the 2015 Golden Globe Awards on Thursday, December 11. This years crop of nominees, which honour work in film and television, will be held on January 11.

Here is the nominations lists:

Best TV Series, Drama The Affair Downton Abbey Game of Thrones The Good Wife House of Cards

Amy Adams, “Big Eyes” Emily Blunt, “Into the Woods” Julianne Moore, “Map to the Stars” Quvenzhané Wallis, “Annie” Helen Mirren, “Hundred-Foot Journey”

Animated Feature Film

Big Hero 6 The Book of Life The Boxtrolls, How to Train Your Dragon 2 The Lego Movie

Best Motion Picture, Drama Boyhood Foxcatcher The Imitation Game Selma The Theory of Everything

Best Director, Motion Picture

Wes Anderson, “The Grand Budapest Hotel” Ava Duvernay, “Selma” David Fincher, “Gone Girl” Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, “Birdman”

The actors nominated for the best performance in a motion picture drama category

n Entertainment Desk “Ungli” might have failed at the box office, but Emraan Hashmi has many more films coming up in 2015. While the actor is now busy wrapping up “Humari Adhuri Kahaani” with Vidya Balan, he will start shooting for his Mohammad Azharuddin biopic soon. And now the news swirled that Kareena Kapoor might play the leading lady in the biopic.

If the speculation is to be believed, Kareena will play the role of Azhar’s second wife Sangeeta Bijlani, with whom he had a split a few years back. Emraan on the other hand has been prepping up for the biopic while Kareena has been roped in to essay Sangeeta’s part.

Given that it is an Emraan Hashmi film, there are supposedly a lot of steamy scenes and lip locks in the film. History has it that post her marriage, there have been talks about Kareena signing films on a no-kiss clause, but the actress cleared the air about the incident. l

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Saturday, December 13, 2014

Maximum 1-yr warranty for computer products Industry specialist criticise the move by the BCS

n Muhammad Zahidul Islam In a highly controversial move, the apex body of computer traders have slapped a new regulation on the entire industry that would allow sellers to provide the maximum of only a one-year warranty on any new computer-related products sold to consumers.

The first ever warranty policy by the Bangladesh Computer Samity (BCS) – which came into effect from December 1 – was lambasted by industry insiders, who claimed that it would deprive the end users and the retailers as well as ruining the possibility of business expansion for importers.

Claiming the move would narrow the scope of business, they added that the decision would prove damaging to the Tk3,000 market.

Signed by Md Shah Alam Siddique, executive director of the BCS, the order published on November 29 read: “The executive committee of the BSC expects through this move, the recession of hardware and computer business in the country will change.”

Although the BCS termed it a time-befitting policy, former president of the organisation, Mostafa Jabbar, told the Dhaka Tribune that the warranty policy would directly hurt the users’ interests.

“Warranty is the contract between users and the manufacturers, but these two parties are out of the scene here.

The BCS has no right to fix the warranty limit as some of the computer products already have three to four years’ warranty,” he said yesterday.

Jabbar added that the organisation could not publish this type of policy without consulting its general members.

“It is not a decision of only seven executive members; this type of decision needs to come from general members – who are against it,” he added.

His view was also echoed by another former founding leader of the BCS, Abdullah H Kafi, who said the policy would not be accepted in the long run.

“The policy should be acceptable to

all, especially the users; but I am frustrated with it,” said Kafi.

Partha Chowdhury, a distributor of Aptech Computer Institute in Sylhet’s Zindabazar, said his institute had alread implemented the warranty policy.

Claiming that it might help their business, Partha admitted that it would adversely affect customers.

“No doubt this policy will help us to increase our sales, but at the same time it will cause some losses to the customers,” Partha told the Dhaka Tribune over phone yesterday.

Market sources said before the implementation of this policy, almost all monitors, motherboards, rams had three years’ warranty, hard disk drives had two years’ warranty and printers had one year warranty.

“Every two or three years, global brands change and update their products; so it is tough for us to fulfil the previous high warranty,” said Md Nijam Uddin, owner of ARK Solution from Barisal City Corporation Market.

Sources said the sellers previously often had to pay cash back to the consumers as the products they still had warranty to – were discontinued by manufacturers.

Mustafa Jabbar said the BCS was looking to give more flexibility to the importers and distributors as currently the computer business was not so lucrative compared to the market for tablets and smartphones.

“As far I know, this type of warranty policy does not exist in this region, and I think computer product manufacturers will laugh at this when they hear of it,” Jabbar added.

Sources said, previously only 10% products had a one-year warranty.

Despite repeated attempts by the Dhaka Tribune, BCS President Mahfuzul Arif neither picked up his phone nor replied to a text message.

However, BCS Joint Secretary SM Wahiduzzaman, also the convenor of the policy formulating committee, said all members of the BCS must follow this policy for establishing a regulation in computer products warranty. l

Floating people lights a fire at the capital’s Karwan Bazar yesterday to get some warmth in the face of sudden onslaught of cold wave across the country

Separate pay scales for BB, public banks opposed n Asif Showkat Kallol

The National Pay and Services Commission opposes a separate pay scale for state-owned commercial banks and the central bank because of resource constraints, according to pay commission recommendations expected to be formally submitted next week.

A separate pay scale for central bankers and state-owned commercial bank employees was approved by the prime minster last year but had not been implemented because of legal complexities, sources said.

The NPSC has now recommended that state-owned commercial banks follow the proposed government pay structure until they pull out of the red by reducing defaults and increasing earnings. It has recommended that central bank employees also follow the proposed government pay structure since they are state employees.

If in the future Bangladesh Bank wants to implement a separate pay

scale, its board of directors must first approve it and then Finance Division consent must be sought, according to the recommendations.

A high official of the Bank and Financial Institutions Division, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “We will examine the facilities that are supposed to be incorporated by the national pay commission under the eighth national pay scale for government staff.’’

“The Banking Division will adjust the salary structure of the separate pay scale before executing it in July for the next fiscal year,” the official said.

After the recently held fifth meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Finance, committee chairman Abdul Razzaque said: “We have recommended executing a separate pay scale for the central bank and the four state-owned banks.”

A competitive pay structure is necessary in order to compete with private commercial banks, he added.

After a meeting with Asian Devel-

Electric shocks and denailing: Stories of unfortunate migrants n Ashif Islam Shaon Being subjected to electric shocks, getting fingernails pulled out by pliers, and getting severe blisters from boiling water being poured over the body – are some of the few tortures Bangladeshi migrants had to face during their captivity in foreign lands by profit-hungry brokers.

Speaking at a programme in the city’s Dhaka Reporters Unity auditorium yesterday, several victims of immigration scams recounted horrendous tales about how they were cheated out of their life savings, sold into slavery, and then tortured in captivity for ransoms from their families in Bangladesh.

“I paid a recruitment agency Tk4.5 lakh to go to abroad two years back, but had to finally return home losing Tk8.15 lakh in total. My family had to pay Tk3.65 lakh ransom to save my life,” Md Ilias – a returnee migrant worker hailing from Barisal – told the programme titled “Ordeals of Migrants, Implementation of Migration Act 2013.”

The programme was organised by an online news agency, and NGOs WARBE Development Foundation and AWO. Saying that he made the initial payment to Polytrade International, a recruitment agency at Road 7 in Gulshan 1, Ilias claimed he remained stuck in Dubai for months as the agency actually provided him a tourist visa.

“At one stage, I met a Bangladeshi who offered me a job in Oman. He did not want any money and said I could pay his fees by working in Oman.”

Despite being promised only a 20-minute walk to enter Oman where a promising future lay ahead, little did Ilias know that a harrowing ordeal was waiting for him.

“We were 19 Bangladeshis in number and we walked the whole night in jungle, mountain and desert before finally stopping in a jungle beside a river.

We were given only a bottle of water

when we started the journey. The brokers beat us up several times whenever we became tired or asked for a break,” Ilias added.

The group was then handed over to some Pakistani brokers who then took them to an island in Iran. “There was a dense jungle. We smelled decomposed bodies. When asked, one of the Pakistanis said some Bangladeshi migrants who were in a previous team had died there,” he narrated.

After days of being confined in a cave, the victims were asked to pay Tk5 lakh as the brokers had “spent the money” to bring them to the island. After being refused, the Pakistanis started to torture and asked the captive men for phone numbers of their parents.

“I told them I could not remember any of my family members’ phone number. So, they added more brutality in their torture. One day, one of the brokers tried to pull out my fingernails with a plier. So, I phoned my maternal cousin at home. Finally they arranged Tk3.65 lakh by selling land and borrowing money,” Ilias said.

Finally one day, Iranian law enforcers rescued the captive Bangladeshis.

MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

“We were in jail for several months.

Later Iranian law enforcers released us and pushed into the Pakistani border.

From there, with the help of a broker, we returned home,” Ilias said, adding that the process cost another Tk65,000.

“I saw some of the migrants die.

The brokers tortured them with electric shock, pulling up nails, pouring hot water on body and forcing them to keep standing for two-three days,” he said.

Ilias said he has filed a case against Polytrade International’s manager Golam Mortuja with the Gulshan police station, but law enforcers were yet to arrest him.

Also addressing reporters, Ishaque Faruki, another victim hailing from Patuakhali, said he paid Tk9 lakh ransom to Bangladeshi brokers to save his own life, but could not escape tortures like denailing and lashing.

“I was sold four times as a slave in the three years I was abroad, and the worrying matter was that all of the brokers in Iran were Bangladeshi.

“They collect ransom from Bangladesh by SA Paribahan Courier Service.

Some Chinese helped them to take us to an Iranian island from Oman. Total

16 of us died; of them, three died when we were floating on a small vessel in the Arab sea. I think some officials of the courier service are also involved with the ransom business. They should be punished,” Faruki said.

Asma Akhtar Daliya, hailing from Narayanganj, said she flew to Dubai on promises of a high-paid job, but was put into work as a domestic help. For five months she worked there, the entire time being physically and mentally abused.

Although promised a 750 dirham salary a month, she was eventually paid nothing by the mistress of the house, who sold Daliya to an Indian woman for 5,000 dirham. On her third month of work for the Indian woman, Daliya broke a medicine bottle and was consequently beaten up and sent to the airport with only a ticket back home and no salary paid, Daliya told reporters.

When asked about the measures being taken to compensate victims of such scam, Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain said those who raised the allegations had all used illegal measures to travel abroad; so, there was nothing that could be done about them.

Some NGOs were exploiting these migrants for their own business, he claimed, adding that the government has a Tk100 crore fund for those who were cheated after abroad through legal ways. If they could produce legal documents and smart cards, then the government would take steps to compensate them, the minister assured.

At one point during the conversation with the Dhaka Tribune, Mosharraf became enraged and cursed the migrants who used illegal measures to travel abroad, saying the government repeatedly told all migrants that the government would take care of them if they chose to travel through a legal way. l

opment Bank Vice President Wencai Zhang, Finance Minister AMA Muhith reaffirmed last Wednesday that the national pay scale for government staff would come into effect next July 1.

After receiving the NPSC report of recommendations, a secretary-level committee will review it before placing it in cabinet, he said.

The central bank and state-owned banks secured clearance from the Law and Parliamentary Affairs Ministry in March for a separate pay scale.

On 24 November, the government formed the Eighth National Pay and Service Commission to formulate a new pay structure for public servants.

Mohammad Farashuddin, a former central bank governor, leads the 17-member commission which is comprised of three full-time members, 12 part-timers and a member secretary.

Bangladesh Bank and the four stateowned banks have a total of 61,000 personnel.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina signed

the recommendation of the secretaries’ committee for a separate pay scale for Bangladesh Bank and the state-owned banks on November 12, 2013.

Under the as yet unimplemented separate pay scale, a new 11-grade salary structure will replace the existing 20-grade pay structure. The proposed basic salary for those in the lowest grade will be Tk6,000 and will be Tk55,000 for the highest grade.

The NPSC did not recommend separate pay scales for public universities.

According to NPSC recommendations, officials of the Bangladesh Rice Research Institution and the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission will be allowed to work in the private sector for three years to participate in higher research.

Officials of public sector agriculture, fisheries, livestock and scientific institutions will be eligible for awards of up to six months’ salary for special contributions to their sectors, according to NPSC recommendations. l

UP governor’s call for building Ram temple triggers row n Agencies Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik sparked a fresh row by saying the Ram temple should be built in Ayodhya at the site of razed Babri Masjid as per the “wishes of Indian citizens” amid a row over alleged religious conversions in the state.

“Ram Mandir should be built as soon as possible. That is the wish of the Indian citizens and the wish should be fulfilled,” he said during the convocation programme of Awadh University at Faizabad, where he was the chief guest.

There is nothing wrong if Ram Naik has become the supporter of Ram. There is no power in the world that can stop the construction of the temple Last month, on a visit to Ayodhya to take part in an event organised by a VHP leader, Naik had said the vexed issue would be resolved within five years as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is working out a plan to sort it out peacefully.

A former Bharatiya Janata Party MP and a Union minister, Naik was named the UP governor in July this year after the NDA government came to power at the Centre.

Reacting to the remarks by Naik, Hashim Ansari, the oldest litigant in the Babri Masjid case, said: “I have stated earlier that we are ready to come to the negotiation table but before we start talks, the Union government must ensure that the accused in the Babri Masjid demolition case must be punished.”

Ansari said the trial against them has

been lingering for the last 22 years and not a single person has been punished.

His comment adds to an ongoing controversy over religious conversions in Agra, allegedly by groups linked to the BJP’s ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which has seen an angry opposition stalling Parliament for the past few days.

The governor’s comment invited strong reactions from opposition parties.

Naresh Agarwal, a leader of Uttar Pradesh’s ruling Samajwadi Party, said even if it is Naik’s personal opinion, he must avoid such comments as he is no longer a BJP leader but a governor now.

Another SP leader Abu Azmi too said: “Ram Naik is in a constitutional post. He should not make such statements. Every day BJP leaders are making communal comments.”

Defending the governor, the BJP and the Shiv Sena said that there is nothing wrong in his remark.

“Is it wrong to take Ram’s name? Is it wrong to construct Ram’s temple?

Is the belief of millions in Lord Ram is wrong? Opposition should raise valid issues before the public and not spread propaganda,” said BJP spokesperson Sidharth Nath Singh.

BJP leader Sakshi Maharaj too said there is nothing wrong if Naik is supporting the cause of the temple.

“There is nothing wrong if Ram Naik has become the supporter of Ram. There is no power in the world that can stop the construction of the temple,” he said. Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut echoed his feelings and said Naik has “Ram” in his name so he will be naturally active in the Ram Mandir movement.

“What is wrong in what Ram Naik said? He maybe the governor today, but he has been active in Ram Mandir movement from the beginning,” Raut added. l

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