22 Dec, 2014

Paush 8, 1421 Safar 28, 1436 Regd No DA 6238 Vol 2, No 258

MONDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

20 pages | Price: Tk12

B1 | BUSINESS

7 | LONG FORM

11 | OP-ED

12 | SPORT

JUNK IPOS FLOOD MARKET IN 2014

FREEDOM AND MEMORY

THE VISION OF 1971 IS CLEAR NOW

DELIGHTED SANJIDA EYES IMPROVEMENT

Public servants to get up to double salaries

BNP alliance plans rallies on Jan 2, 5 n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla The BNP-led 20-party alliance is likely to hold public rallies on January 2 and 5 to mount pressure on the government to hold national election under a non-partisan government.

The alliance’s movement to topple the government would get a new dimension if they were denied to hold the rallies in the capital, said party insiders, because in that case tough programmes such as hartals and blockades would be enforced.

BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, BNP chairperson’s Adviser Abdul Awal Mintoo, Standing Committee member Mirza Abbas, Dhaka city unit BNP Member Secretary Habib-un-Nabi Khan Sohel last night held an hour long meeting with BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia at her Gulshan residence.

A senior leader of the party told the Dhaka Tribune that these decisions were made in that meeting.

Pay commission says government’s expenditure to rise by 64% n Asif Showkat Kallol In a move that has drawn mixed reactions, the highly anticipated pay commission report has proposed up to more than doubled salaries for public servants, with the proposed lowest to the highest basic salary grades ranging between Tk8,200 and Tk80,000.

The latest proposal sees a higher spike than the previous pay commissions: the two most recent commis-

P3 BANK FOR GOVT SERVANTS

PAY COMMISSION’S PROPOSED SALARIES Following are the salaries proposed by the 8th national pay and service commission that reduced 20 grades to 16 by merging previous grade number 8&9, 12 & 13,17 & 18,19 & 20.

Fixed salary of a senior secretary has been proposed at Tk90,000 from Tk45,000 and the cabinet and principle secretaries at Tk1,00,000 from Tk50,000.

Existing salary

Proposed salary (taka)

1 40,000 2 33,500 3 29,000 4 25,750 5 22,250 6 18,500 7 15,000 8 (8 & 9) 12,000 & 11,000 9 8,000 10 6,500 11 (12 & 13) 5,900 & 5,500 12 5,200 13 4,900 14 4,700 15 (17 & 18) 4,500 & 4,400 16 (19 & 20) 4,250 & 4,100

80,000 70,000 60,000 52,000 45,000 37,000 32,000 25,000 17,000 13,000 11,500 10,500 10,000 9,500 9,000 8,200

Grade

Four Pakistan terror convicts executed n Agencies Four prisoners, convicted for attacking former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf, were executed yesterday at a district jail in Faisalabad.

Zubair Ahmed, Rasheed Qureshi, Ghulam Sarwar Bhatti and Russian citizen Akhlaque Ahmed were shifted from the central jail in Faisalabad to another district jail late Saturday to be hanged, the Dawn online reported.

Family members were allowed to meet the convicts before the hanging.

Strict security measures were put in place with additional contingents of security personnel deployed on the routes leading to the district jail.

Similar preparations are underway in Lahore for the execution of four other prisoners in Kot Lakhpat central jail. The executions are expected to be carried out within the next one or two days, media reports said.

All the roads leading to the detention facility in Lahore have been blocked and mobile phone jammers have been installed around the jail premises.  PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

sions in 2005 and 2009 had asked for 94% and 96% hikes respectively, while the current commission has recommended up to 112.5% salary hike, according to the Finance Ministry.

The Eighth National Pay and Service Commission (NPSC) Chairman Muhammad Farashuddin submitted the final report to Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday, recommending the government to spend 63.7% more on its employees.

The commission also suggested that all kinds of deputation appointments be cancelled in the government administration, Farashuddin said, adding that the government has also been advised to introduce an option to allow public servants to retire after 20 years of service, instead of the existing 25 years.

He added that the salary hike proposal would have little impact to the annual enhancement of budget and revenue earning of the country.

The massive salary hikes were proposed as an incentive to draw in better educated talents into public service, to raise the financial status of government employees, and to keep them in service to ensure good governance to an expanding economy, Farashuddin said.

While preparing the recommendations, the commission counted six-member family units – unlike the four-member units counted before – as well as considering six years’ worth of accumulated inflation of 63%, said Farashuddin, a former central bank governor.

Public servants’ salaries in other countries, as well as the compensations offered by the private sector organisations were also brought into consideration in the preparation of the proposal, he added.

The 250-page report was submitted to the finance minister at his secretariat office auditorium yesterday. Finance  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

P3 ‘PREPARE FOR FACE-OFF’

This kid could easily be the bravest and yet the stupidest boy in the world, daring to cross railway tracks at Tejgaon in Dhaka right in front of a speeding train. Despite all the government drives to evict structures from near railway tracks, this photo, taken yesterday, shows that very little has changed SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

7-murder charge sheet likely in a month after Nur’s extradition n Ashif Islam Shaon Investigators probing the seven murders in Narayanganj are expected to submit the charge sheet within a month after Nur Hossain, the key accused, is extradited from India.

“The investigation is almost complete and will end once Nur is handed over to us,” Narayanganj Police Super Khandaker Mohid Uddin said yesterday.

He did not say how long it would take to prepare the charge sheet but some officials dealing with the case said submission of the charge sheet would be delayed if Nur’s extradition took time.

“The case involves preparing a slew of documents. The final report will be prepared after recording Nur’s statement and collecting some additional evidence. The process could take more than a month,” said a police officer.

“Investigators have been keeping an eye on some people whose involvement is suspected in the abductions and kill-

ings. Nur’s statement will help investigators get a clear picture,” he said.

Police headquarters sources meanwhile said Nur’s extradition is expected within seven to ten days as officials are now waiting for response from the Indian authorities.

‘We have been asked to help police at border with Nur’s extradition and we said we are ready’ The state minister of home yesterday also hinted at Nur’s quick extradition.

“Have patience. We are doing what we are supposed to do on our part.

There will be a good news soon,” he said at a programme in the capital.

On April 27, Narayanganj panel mayor Nazrul Islam, three of his associates and the driver, and senior lawyer Chandan Sarkar and his driver were kid-

napped from Dhaka-Narayanganj link road. Three days later, six bodies were found floating in the Shitalakhya River while the other was also recovered from the river the following day.

Nur, who had been on the run since the incident, was arrested in India on June 14 for illegal entry.

So far, 17 people, including 15 RAB personnel, confessed in a Narayanganj court that they were involved in the crime.

Home Ministry sources said India’s Foreign Ministry had recently told officials in Dhaka in writing that Nur would be extradited, and had asked for the place and time where the man could be handed over.

On September 4, Bangladesh requested India at a joint meeting of officials in Dhaka to extradite Nur and some other criminals who have been hiding in the neighbouring country.

After Nur was arrested in India, Bangladeshi officials sent some  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Arrest warrants issued against Harris, Ariful n Our Correspondent, Habiganj In nine years, the case filed in connection with the murder of former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria has been probed and re-probed thrice by three different investigation officers and has seen three charge sheets.

Yesterday, a Habiganj court issued arrest warrants against 11 people, including several central and local BNP leaders, after the third investigation officer submitted the third charge sheet in the case, accusing 35 people.

In the first charge sheet, there were 10 accused and 14 in the second. The murder case was re-investigated twice because the complainants objected to both of the first two charge sheets.

The list of accused in the last charge sheet includes Harris Chowdhury, former political adivsor of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia; Ariful Haque Chowdhury, mayor of Sylhet City Corporation; and GK Gaus, Habiganj Municipality

3 | News

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia yesterday asked party leaders and activists to finalise their preparation for oust-government movement to restore democracy in the country.

A parliamentary body has suggested that the government should form an “estate division” immediately to protect the lands and establishments of the primary school in Dhaka from illegal occupation.

5 | News

Residents of Ulania in Mehendiganj upazila of Barisal demand constructing another one kilometre embankment to protect historical places in the area from erosion.

6 | Nation

A section of people, who have lost their land for constructing the Padma bridge, formed a human chain in front of Madaripur Press Club yesterday demanding compensation.

9 | World

The Taliban attacked a checkpoint in northern Afghanistan, killing at least seven policemen, an official said yesterday. A reporter wounded in an attack earlier this month died.

 PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

KIBRIA MURDER CASE

INSIDE

4 | News

On Saturday, a few senior BNP leaders planned the programmes and then went to meet Khaleda to finalise those.

Fakhrul is scheduled to hold a meeting with the general secretaries of the BNP-led 20-party alliance members today at the Nayapaltan BNP office and the decisions might be announced at the meeting.

Party insiders said they would seek permission to hold the rallies either in Suhrawardy Udyan or in front of the party’s Nayapaltan headquarters.

“If the government denies us the permission to hold the rallies, hartal and blockade-like programmes might be announced,” a senior leader said.

Apart from these, the BNP is also planning a huge showdown in the capital on January 24 as party Chairperson Khaleda Zia will go to court to appear in a corruption case related to the Zia orphanage and Zia Charitable Trust on that day.

Party insiders said as the party chief would go to the lower court, thousands of party leaders and activists would throng the court premises to stage a demonstration.

To make the showdown a success, leaders of the Dhaka city unit BNP and

15 | Entertainment

Popular TV actress Banya Mirza will be returning, after a break of four years, to a role in the play ‘Dorponey Shorothshoshhir,’ produced by theatre troupe Desh.

mayor and general secretary of the district chapter of BNP. Soon after the charge sheet was taken into cognisance and the warrants issued by the Senior Judicial Magistrate’s Court of Habiganj, local BNP supporters brought out a procession in the district town in protest.

P2 MAYORS OUT OF SIGHT A clash with local Awami League supporters ensued in which at least eight people were injured and police had to charge batons to tame the mob.

Shah AMS Kibria, technocrat finance minister of the Awami League government from 1996-2001, was killed in a grenade attack on January 27, 2005. He was returning to Dhaka after attending a rally in Habiganj. Four others were killed and more than a hundred people injured in that gruesome attack.

A few hours later, local Awami  PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

2

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Monday, December 22, 2014

First meeting of Saarc energy regulators held n Aminur Rahman Rasel The energy regulators in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) countries should establish a forum to periodically share knowledge and experience, said Nasrul Hamid, state minister for power, energy and mineral resources.

Speaking at the inauguration of the first meeting of energy regulators in Saarc countries yesterday, the state minister also said the forum would be the platform where the energy regulators could discuss matters of mutual interest and cross-border energy and power trade issues.

The state minister was the chief guest at the inauguration ceremony of the meeting, which was held at a city hotel yesterday.

Announcement for the meeting was made at the Fifth Saarc Energy Ministers’ Meeting in New Delhi, India in October this year.

“The Saarc leaders at the 12th Saarc Summit in January 2004, emphasised that for accelerated and balanced economic growth, it is essential to strengthen energy cooperation in the region,” he said.

“The Saarc emphasised on the re-

7-murder

gional energy cooperation by endorsing the concept of an ‘Energy Ring’ of interconnected energy systems in the region,” the state minister said.

During the Fourth Saarc Energy Ministers’ Meeting in September 2011 in Dhaka, Bangladesh offered to host a meeting of energy regulators or bodies in Saarc countries, which was accepted by all the member states.

“The South Asian nations, namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, have so far lagged far behind their developed counterparts in terms of access to clean, reliable, and affordable energy, especially electricity,” Nasrul said.

“The existing power shortages and growing import of fossil fuels impose a heavy cost of energy insecurity on the region. The energy endowments of South Asia are limited and dispersed across the region, with large unexploited hydro-electric potential in some parts and growing dependence on fossil fuels in others,” he said.

Presided over by Energy and Mineral Resources Division Secretary Abu Bakar Siddique, the meeting was also addressed, among others, by Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman AR Khan. l

Sylhet, Habiganj mayors out of sight n Our Correspondent, Habiganj

To save the Sundarbans from oil spill and scratch the Rampal power plant project, different left leaning orgnisations hold cultural programme in front of the National Museum in the capital’s Shahbagh area yesterday RAJIB DHAR

ACC quizzes SB DIG over illegal wealth n Adil Sakhawat The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday interrogated Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Special Branch (protection) of Police in Dhaka Rafiqul Islam over allegation of accumulating wealth illegally.

ACC Deputy Director Hamidul Hasan quizzed him for one and a half hours at the commission’s headquarters in the capital’s Segunbagicha.

 PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

the party’s front and associate bodies held a closed-door meeting at the party’s Nayapaltan headquarters yesterday afternoon.

On Saturday, a number of senior leaders had met with acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, following which Fakhrul held a meeting with Khaleda. Yesterday, too, Khaleda held a meeting with the leaders of her party’s city unit and front and associate bodies.

Dhaka city unit Convener Mirza Abbas, Member Secretary Habib-un-Nabi Khan Sohel, Jubo Dal President Moazzem Hossain Alal, General Secretary Saiful Alam Nirob, Swechchhasebak Dal General Secretary Sharafat Ali Shofu, Organising Secretary Shafiul Bari Babu, Mohila Dal President Noore-Ara Safa, General Secretary Shirin Sultana,and presidents and general secretaries of other front and associate bodies attended the meeting yesterday.

Meeting sources said the party had planned to gather 100,000 people on December 24 and a few thousands more from adjacent districts. They said the local party units had already been directed to make preparations for the gathering in the capital.

A leader of a front body told the Dhaka Tribune, seeking anonymity, that if law enforcers barred them on December 24, they would resist it.

Mirza Fakhrul is scheduled to hold a

meeting with the general secretaries of the BNP-led 20-party alliance members today at the Nayapaltan BNP office.

On September 22, the trial began against Khaleda and eight others in the corruption cases.

Khaleda, her eldest son Tarique Rahman, BNP founder Ziaur Rahman’s nephew Mominur Rahman, Khaleda’s former principal secretary Kamal Uddin Siddiqui, BNP’s former lawmaker Kazi Salimul Haque Kamal and businessman Sharfuddin Ahmed are accused in the Zia Orphanage Trust case.

The three other accused are Harris Chowdhury, Khaleda’s former political secretary, Ziaul Islam Munna, assistant private secretary of Harris, and Monirul Islam Khan, APS of former Dhaka City Corporation mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka.

The ACC filed the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case in 2009 for embezzlement of over Tk2.1 crore by forming a fake trust which existed only on paper.

The anti-corruption watchdog filed another case in 2011, accusing four people, including Khaleda Zia, of abusing power in setting up the Zia Charitable Trust.

BNP leaders including Khaleda have repeatedly alleged that the government has been filing false cases against the party leaders and activists to keep them away from the election and withdrawing cases filed against the Awami League men. They also allege that

Public servants to get up to double salaries  PAGE 1 COLUMN 2

Secretary Mahbub Ahmed and 17 members of committee also attended the handover ceremony.

Sources said an additional Tk20,000 crore will be kept aside for the payment of salary as per the recommendations.

Currently, the government spends Tk38,000 crore for the payment of salaries and pensions of government staffs and officials.

Salaries

According to the proposal, the existing 20 pay grades would be reduced to 16 grades, while classification of posts – such as distinctions between first-class and fourth-class employees – would be cancelled to introduce only gradebased identification.

Farashuddin added that only monetary difference would remain between two separate grades, with a total of 20 tiers suggested between the ninth grade and the 16th grade.

The commission also suggested withdrawing the efficiency bar – a regulation that has existed since colonial times, to stop the increment for officials after a certain level.

The selection grade and time scale would also be withdrawn, as these have prompted many cases to be filed with courts, meaning government employees would only reach higher grades through promotion.

Officials would also enjoy an annual compound 5% increment in every grade, resulting in the salary of fourth to sixteenth grade employees to double

ACC sources said the DIG had amassed a whopping sum through abuse of power while in his job.

Rafiqul, who joined the police department in 1986, owns wealth worth Tk1 billion, said an ACC official.

According to complaints received by the commission, Rafiqul has three houses in Jatrabari valued at Tk60 million, another house worth Tk15 million in Uttara and two cars worth Tk10 million.

BNP alliance plans rallies on Jan 2, 5

 PAGE 1 COLUMN 4

documents related with the seven-murder case to the Indian Home Ministry and requested his extradition.

When India responded positively, Home Ministry officials in Bangladesh asked police to complete necessary steps to take Nur back. They also asked police to take help from the BGB if necessary.

“We have been asked to help police at border with Nur’s extradition and we said we are ready,” BGB Director General Maj Gen Aziz Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

The probe committee of the Public Administration Ministry is also awaiting Nur’s extradition.

But the investigation committee of RAB has already submitted its report to the High Court where it said 21 officials of the force were involved. The report also mentioned Nur as the mastermind.

Home Ministry sources said the process of deporting Anup Chetia, general secretary of United Liberation Front of Asom in Assam, would be initiated after the extradition of Nur. Anup was arrested in 1997 on charges of entering Bangladesh without valid documents. He is now in safe custody as he has sought political asylum.

Home Ministry sources however said Anup’s deportation had no link with Nur’s extradition.

Meanwhile, detectives in Narayanganj yesterday arrested Asaduzzaman, who was in RAB 11 when the seven were killed. l

KIBRIA MURDER CASE

within 15 years.

Under the proposal, the lowest grade’s basic salary would increase 100% to become Tk8,200 from Tk4,100. The main salary of the highest grade would also be doubled to become Tk80,000.

Farashuddin said the existing ninth and eighth grade would be merged to create a new eighth grade with a basic salary of Tk25,000.

The pay scale report suggests a ratio of 1:9.076 between the lowest and highest salaries, a ratio which had remained the same for the past few commissions.

However, according to the proposal, a senior secretary’s basic salary would be fixed at Tk88,000, while the basic salaries of the cabinet secretary and the PM’s principal secretary would be Tk100,000. They would be paid 5% to 10% of the basic salary or Tk4,000 for any additional duty.

Recommendation was also made to increase existing pensions by 90%, Farashuddin said.

Allowance

Regarding 20% dearness allowance, Farashuddin said it would be abolished from 2015-16 fiscal year when the eighth pay commission comes into effect.

The proposed raise in salary and pension amounts to only 14% of the current fiscal year’s budget, Farashuddin said, adding that for the earlier pay commission the number was around 15%.

Observing that allowances should be rationalised, he said the commis-

sion has recommended against giving any new allowance as the salary hike has been massive.

Recommendation has also been made to introduce a four-stage house rent allowance for officials based in metropolitan areas in Dhaka, Chittagong, Narayanganj, and district and upazila levels.

New benefits

According to the proposal, an accommodation scheme was recommended to allow groups of government employees to purchase flats under a 60:40 ratio with the developers on pieces of government khas land or abandoned buildings; a move which Farashuddin hoped would boost the country’s real estate sector.

The government would provide 50 months’ worth of basic salaries to a group of at least five or six public servants if they can show documentation of land purchase, Farashuddin also said.

In another experimental offer lasting one year, the government would provide loans of Tk25 lakh to third and fourth grade employees to purchase cars. The staff of the government autonomous bodies will also be given the same amount as loan, but the car maintenance costs would be the responsibility of those autonomous bodies.

For the first time, the government was also recommended the introduction of a comprehensive insurance system for all public servants, including life insurance at a Tk100 premium and health insurance at Tk400 premium.

If this is implemented, there would

the government has withdrawn some 8,000 cases filed against ruling party men including 15 cases against Awami League President Sheikh Hasina.

On Saturday night, Fakhrul also held a meeting with a few leaders of Islami Chhatra Shibir, the students body of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, at Khaleda’s Gulshan office.

The Shibir team led by Yeasin Arafat, literary affairs secretary of Shibir, gave Fakhrul several publications of the organisation including a pamphlet titled “Islami Chhatra Shibir: victims of state-sponsored terrorism,” said a press release of Shibir. l

4 Pakistan terror  PAGE 1 COLUMN 1

Over 300 terror suspects held in Islamabad

Over 300 terror suspects, including some foreigners, were nabbed by security agencies in Pakistan’s capital city during joint operations, a media report said yesterday.

Six teams of sniffer dogs, armed personnel carriers, bomb disposal squads and commandos participated in the operations, carried out across Islamabad in the light of intelligence inputs about militant threats, the Dawn reported.

Arms and ammunitions were also recovered in the swoops, carried out by the police, Pakistan Rangers, and intelligence agencies on Saturday. l

be no cash transactions for government employees at hospitals, as they would submit their insurance demand with the hospital. The move would boost the insurance sector and reduce government expenditure, Farashuddin hoped.

The insurance premium would later be used to construct a modernised 500bed cardiac hospital, he said.

The pay commission also suggested to move away from the existing 12-month-long PRL (post-retirement leave) system and return to the previous LPR (leave prior to retirement) system of 18 months. The commission chairman also said there was no legal base for the one rank-one pension system.

Welfare, insurance, and pension fund management should be reorganised and empowered, the commission observed. In order to do so, the Government Employees Welfare Association would sell 20-25 katha of its land near the capital’s Dainik Bangla area for around Tk400 crore and use it as capital to set up a bank named “Shamriddhir Shopan,” the commission chief said.

Further review was required to ensure better service from public servants, while assessment was needed to reduce the facilities gap between the cadre and non-cadre officials of the government, the commission observed.

A new organogram should be introduced for officials who have remained in the same post for a long time, Farashuddin said, adding that it has been suggested to execute the recommendations of the National Pay and Services commission 2015 in line with the 1977

The policeman owns 74-decimal land in Kaliakair of Gazipur, which is worth Tk3.2 million.

Apart from that, Rafiqul also has huge land properties worth millions of taka in several areas of Kaliakair.

He has also been alleged to have siphoned off at least Tk200 million abroad.

Following his interrogation, Rafiqul refused to talk to reporters but said all the allegations against him were false. l

Since their names were included in the charge sheet of the Kibria murder case, Sylhet city mayor Ariful Haque Chowdhury and Habiganj municipality mayor GK Gaus have not appeared in public in over a month.

Ariful and Gaus – both BNP leaders – have neither attended their respective offices nor joined any political programme of their party since mid-November.

However, local BNP activists claimed that without appearing in public, both leaders continue to issue directives to the party members.

Meanwhile, one of Ariful’s close aides told the Dhaka Tribune that the Sylhet mayor would surrender before the Habiganj court today. On condition of anonymity, the source said Ariful – who is currently staying in Sylhet – would appear before the court with 200 lawyers including five senior lawyers of Sylhet District Bar Association to submit a bail petition.

On November 13, the police submitted a supplementary charge sheet against 35 people including 11 new in former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria murder case. The freshly-indicted accused included Arif and Gaus as well Harris Chowdhury, a former political adviser to Khaleda Zia. Yesterday, a Habiganj court issued arrest warrants against 11 accused in the case, including Ariful and Gaus.

On January 27, 2005, five people including Kibria were killed in a grenade attack after attending a rally in Boidyer Bazar of Habiganj. l

Arrest warrants against Harris, Ariful  PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

League leader Abdul Majid Khan, now an MP from Habiganj, filed two cases with the sadar police station – one for murder and the other under the explosives act. Majid yesterday said: “I am satisfied with the charge sheet. We can now say that the trial of Kibria murder officially began today. I hope to see the trial completed within the ongoing tenure of the government.”

When contacted, Dr Reza Kibria, son of the murdered minister, told the Dhaka Tribune over phone: “We are not happy because the [third] charge sheet excluded several names including former Habiganj deputy commissioner Emdadul Haque. We are not going to file objection this time but we will bring the matter to the court’s attention.”

Defence attorney Saleh Ahmed said: “We believe that this charge sheet has not brought the real culprits to light.

Even Kibria’s family have said in cross examination that the investigation officer did not talk to them.

“Harris Chowdhury, Ariful Haque Chowdhury and GK Gaus have been made accused only to serve political interests. The intention is to make Sylhet BNP leaderless. The Awami League is using the Kibria murder to its own advantage,” he alleged.

The court yesterday also rejected a bail plea for former BNP state minister for home Lutufuzzaman Babar. His name was included in the list of ac-

pay and service order.

The commission also recommended the government to form a permanent pay commission or service commission or service reform commission to look into the services issues that were not addressed.

The government had formed the 17-member commission, headed by Farashuddin for more than 1.3 million current and former public servants.

Presently, there are more than 832,000 government employees and around 500,000 pensioners in the country.

Other recommendations

The government’s attention was also drawn to Village Defence Party (VDP) – also known as the Gram Police – half of whose salaries could not be paid by the authorities concerned at the union councils. Government-procured rice would be sold to the VDP personnel at a lower price, Farashuddin pointed out.

The MPO-based colleges and schools should wait six more months than the rest of the administration to implement the proposed pay scale, he said, adding that some of the profitable MPO-based institutes would have to submit a portion of their earnings to the government exchequer.

The chairman added that the boards of directors of these profitable entities that are not depended on government financial support – can fix their own salary structures with permission from the Finance Division.

The commission was against separate pay scales for non-profitable

cused in the second charge sheet along with Huji leader Mufti Hannan.

Case timeline

On March 20, 2005, Munshi Atiqur Rahman, an assistant superintendent (ASP) from the police’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and the first investigation officer in the case, submitted the first charge sheet accusing 10 people including BNP leader Abdul Qaiyum.

On May 3, 2006, plaintiff Abdul Majid filed an objection against that charge sheet which was scrapped by the court. On May 14, the plaintiff appealed with the High Court. Upon hearing that appeal, an HC bench issued a ruling against the government asking why the case should not be reinvestigated. Four days later, the government filed a leave to appeal petition against that ruling. The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court scrapped that leave to appeal petition.

Further investigation into the case started next year after the army-backed caretaker government came to power. On June 20, 2011, when the Awami League was in power, CID official Rafiqul Islam, filed the second charge sheet accusing Babar and Hannan.

Eight days later, Kibria’s wife Asma Kibria objected to that charge sheet as well. The a speedy trial tribunal of Habiganj took that objection into cognisance on January 5, 2012, and CID official Meherun Nessa was made the third investigate officer in the case. l

autonomous bodies including stateowned banks and public universities; but supported a separate salary structure for Bangladesh Bank – a structure which would have to be approved by the Finance Division.

Reactions

After receiving the report, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said he was very happy with it, adding that the policymakers of the Finance Division would now go through the report before its execution.

The government would now form an implementation committee after getting approval from the cabinet, while the new pay structure would come into effect on July 1 next year.

Asked whether there would be any inflationary impact of the new pay scale, Muhith said: “Absolutely not.”

Meanwhile, Mirza Azizul Islam, adviser to a past caretaker government, said such a huge salary hike would definitely increase the demand of products in the market and have a negative impact on product prices.

His views were echoed by Ahsan H Mansur, executive director of Policy Research Institute Bangladesh, who said such a huge salary hike would cause an inflationary pressure in the market. He also recommended that the proposals of the pay scale commission be executed in phases.

Former cabinet secretary Shahadat Hossain, however, praised the move, claiming that it would reduce the inferiority complex of government servants and boost their financial status. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

3

Monday, December 22, 2014

Khaleda: Get ready for a final face-off this month n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia yesterday asked party leaders and activists to finalise their preparation for the oust-government movement to restore democracy in the country.

The former premier also blamed the ruling Awami League for not reaching a mutual consensus on the national history of the country.

“Our demand is very little. No voting was held in the country on January 5... one year has passed and the country’s situation is deteriorating day by day.

“They (government) did not respond to our call. So we cannot sit idle.

People of the country want movement; they want a change,” Khaleda said.

Addressing a rally of Muktijjodha Dal at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh, the former premier said people are urging us to launch a movement. “We will respond to their plea soon and our movement will be peaceful and systematic.”

Rebellion against injustice is justified. “The time is ripe and you have to complete the preparation for the struggle in this month of victory,” she said.

Khaleda delivered her written speech by paying her tribute to the martyrs and freedom fighters and gratitude to the foreign countries including India for their support and assistance during the country’s liberation war.

She claimed Ziaur Rahman proclaimed the independence of the country and turned the resistance war into the War of Independence.

The BNP chief alleged that the Awami League had been trying to politicise the Liberation War since the independence and to achieve this heinous motive it had tried to distort the country’s history.

“The Liberation War was not a war of any party rather it was a national war, people’s war.”

Without naming Awami League, Khaleda said a particular party is talking about distorted facts of history and when effort is made to correct those it incurs their wrath.

Even when facts and findings were presented, they (Awami League) did not reply but launched blistering criticism and issued threats.

It is because their role in the Liberation War was questionable. They failed to carry out their role at the critical mo-

ment, she alleged.

After the January 5 election BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman launched into a tirade against Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Tarique called Bangabandhu, who led the Liberation War, Pakbandhu (friend of Pakistan). He even went so far as to say Bangabandhu was a Razakar.

Tarique on Saturday at a press release told the ruling party that he would not stop until and unless Awami League stopped propagating falsehood.

Khaleda seemingly defended her son who distorted the historical facts of Liberation War. The BNP chief, in an oblique reference to Awami League, alleged that one party claimed that they led the Liberation War but their statements backfired when their party men wrote about it.

If anyone differs from their own history then he is called razakar or agent of Pakistan.

Nobody can politicise the Liberation War this way. History will take its own course; the trajectory of the history can not be changed by issuing threats, she asserted.

None is above err and failure and nobody is above criticism either.

“Accepting this truth, when we were in the government we proposed in parliament that Sher-e-Bangla AK Fazlul Haque, Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani, Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Ziaur Rahman – the five leaders – should be declared as national leaders to keep them out of controversy.”

Unfortunately they (Awami League) did not respond to the proposal, she lamented.

She alleged that the ruling party leaders continued to criticise Ziaur Rahman in a bid to eliminate the name of Zia from the country.

That’s why consensus was not made on the question of national history. “if people of the country do not want to hold anyone in high esteem then, any state order or legal bindings cannot make them do so.”

Branding the freedom fighters as the best sons of the Liberation War, Khaleda alleged that they had fallen victim to politics.

“We will not do so and freedom fighters also do not want it. They do not crave for anyone’s kindness but what they want is honour.” l

These workers have very little idea about the health hazards posed by the massive amount of dust they inhale every day while crushing stones to make construction material in Ashulia near Dhaka. The picture was taken yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Pay commission recommends separate bank for public servants n

Asif Showkat Kallol

The Eighth National Pay and Services Commission has recommended a separate state-run bank for the welfare of the country’s public servants – both on and off service – despite a huge capital shortage currently faced by the staterun banks.

The recommendation was made by pay commission Chairman Dr Mohammad Farashuddin, who went to the Finance Ministry to submit the final report on pay-scale upgrade for government employees yesterday.

Speaking at a press conference after his visit to the ministry, the pay commission chairman said the government servants’ welfare fund would sell land near the Dainik Bangla intersection in Motijheel to set up the bank, named “Shamriddhir Shopan.”

The bank would be set up with a paid up capital of Tk400 crore, to be operated on both development and commercial bases.

The face value of each share of the

‘The director of the bank will be elected by the 130,000 government employees’ He also said the management of government fund for the public servants’ welfare, insurance and pension fund should be reorganised and more empowered so that it can function independently and contribute to the betterment of government employees.

Unless the welfare fund management is made stronger, it will not be possible to set up the proposed bank, Farashuddin pointed out.

“The director of the bank will be elected by the 130,000 government employees,” the pay commission chairman said.

Sources at the Finance Ministry said the proposed new bank would be similar to the Trust Bank Limited, which is run by the Army Welfare Trust.

Recently completing 14 years of operations, Trust Bank was listed on the country’s bourses in Dhaka and Chittagong in 2007.

However, the recommendation was opposed by former caretaker government adviser AM Mirza Azizul Islam, who said: “I do not support the establishment of a new state-run bank when the existing state-run banks, especially Sonali and BASIC Banks, are facing capital shortage at present.”

The government gave Tk4,100 crore to the state-run banks in the last fiscal year to cover their capital shortage.

This fiscal year, Sonali Bank and BASIC Bank sought Tk1,500 crore from the budget, which would be burden on the government, he said. l

The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday interrogated Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Special Branch (protection) of Police in Dhaka Rafiqul Islam over allegation of accumulating wealth illegally.

ACC Deputy Director Hamidul Hasan quizzed him for one and a half hours at the commission’s headquarters in Segunbagicha.

The DIG had amassed a whopping sum, abusing power while in his job.

Rafiqul, who joined the police department in 1986, owns wealth worth Tk100 crore, said an ACC official.

Rafiqul has three houses in Jatrabari valued at Tk6 crore, one worth Tk1.5 crore in Uttara and two cars worth Tk1 crore.

The policeman owns 74-decimal land in Kaliakair of Gazipur, which is worth Tk32 lakh.

Rafiqul also has land properties worth several crores in other areas of Kaliakair. It is also alleged that he has siphoned off at least Tk20 crore abroad.

Rafiqul refused to talk to reporters after the interrogation but said all the allegations against him were false. l

‘Hasan killed my father and uncle in 1971’

Teacher files rape case against student in Mirpur

n Tribune Report

n Tribune Report A teacher of a private institution has raised an allegation of rape against her own student of the same institution, in the capital’s Mirpur area on Saturday night.

The victim filed a case with Mirpur Model police station against her student Riaz Hossain Babu, 26, alleging that he offered to marry her and developed a physical relationship based on that promise.

Sub-Inspector Asaduzzaman Asad was assigned to investigate the case.

“After the filing of the case, the victim was taken to the Victim Support Centre at Tejgaon and then to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital for medical tests,” Asad told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

According to the case, the victim teaches at a fashion design institution at Mirpur, where Babu is a student in the merchandise department. She was involved in a relationship with Babu, which grew physical as Babu said he would marry her.

However, Babu later showed reluctance to marry the victim, and from September 9 to December 17, he engaged in sexual relationship with the victim at his mess with the promise of marriage.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Md Moinul Islam, officer-in-charge (investigation) at Mirpur Model police station, said: “They developed a relationship three months ago. Babu refused to marry her, so she filed a rape case against him.”

Babu had yet to be arrested in this case, police said. l

bank will be Tk4,000, to be owned by government employees, and the bank will grant loans to government employees at interest rate below 10%, he added.

SB DIG quizzed over illegal wealth n Adil Sakhawat

Ekhlas Molla, principal of Pallabi Government Primary School, tries to persuade AKM Zahangir Hossain (wearing a brown sweater), head of a JS body on the Primary and Mass Education Ministry, when the latter yesterday went to inspect the school where a building was allegedly built to provide secondary education without permission RAJIB DHAR

ANIT-HAJJ REMARKS

Latif denied bail again n Tribune Report A Dhaka court yesterday again rejected a bail petition of sacked minister Abdul Latif Siddique in a case filed against him for hurting religious sentiments of Muslims.

Metropolitan Magistrate Md Rezaul Karim passed the order after hearing the petition submitted by Latif’s counsel Barrister Jyotirmoy Barua.

Latif’s counsel told the court that the charges against his client are bailable, and since he is ill, the plea may be granted.

The case, one of the seven cases filed with Dhaka chief metropolitan magistrate court, was lodged by Lion Abu Bakar Siddique on October 2.

Yesterday, Latif was not produced before the court as he is undergoing treatment at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University.

Earlier, he was denied bail in two similar cases filed against him over the

same allegations.

On November 25, Magistrate Atiqur Rahman sent Latif Siddique to jail in a case filed for his remarks, after Dhanmondi police produced him before the court.

The former minister faces 33 cases filed with courts across the country following his comments on hajj and Tabligh Jamaat at a programme in New York on September 28.

Latif said, “During Hajj, much manpower is wasted. Over 20 lakh people have gone to Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj. They have no work, no production and are offering only deduction.”

He added some 20 lakh Tablighi Jamaat people get together annually. They do not do any work, except for halting traffic movement in the whole country.

Amid massive criticisms for such comments, the government sacked him from the cabinet on October 12.

Later, he was expelled from the post of Awami League presidium member, and also lost primary membership. l

A prosecution witness yesterday described how war crimes accused Hasan Ali and his associates killed 12 people including his father and uncle during the 1971 Liberation War in Kishoreganj.

Khogesh Chandra Paul, 70, martyr Shorat Chandra Paul’s son, testified before the first International Crimes Tribunal, led by justice Enayetur Rahim, as the fourth prosecution witness.

Khogesh said: “It was around 1pm on September 9 in 1971. I was walking to my house, and saw two boats coming from the south. One anchored at the Mothra Bhowmick jetty, the other

headed west.

“Wearing Khaki dresses and carrying rifles, 8-10 people got off the anchored boat. One wore a white cap. He was shouting ‘capture Malaoons [Hindus]. Kill them.’

“Hearing that, I fled to a nearby jungle. From their I saw them take my father Shoroth Paul and uncle Akru Paul, to Jogdish Paul’s yard and killed them,” he said.

After the killers headed west, he heard the sound of gunshots again from a nearby jute field. “They set several houses on fire and left the area,” he said.

“Later, from Ahommod Mir, Rohmot Ali Mir and Hossain Ali, I came to know that the man wearing the white cap

was Hasan Ali who killed 12 people including my father and uncle.

“Because we could not cremate or bury the dead bodies, we took them to the Veron Tola lake and let them float.

Later, I went to the Meshgao village and requested local people to send my family members to India. Then they made the arrangements to send us to India by boat.

“We took shelter in the Bagmara Refugee camp and stayed their until Bangladesh got independence,” he said.

Syed Md Hasan Ali, an alleged Razakar commander now at large, is facing six charges of crimes against humanity and genocide in Kishoreganj during the Liberation War. l

Tarique’s legal woes pile up Sanaul Islam Tipu in Dhaka n Md and Tarek Mahmud from Chittagong In the latest of a series of defamation and sedition cases filed against him, BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman yesterday was issued another arrest warrant by a Dhaka court for calling Sheikh Mujibur Rahman a “razakar.”

In Chittagong, a sedition case was filed yesterday against the BNP chairperson’s son for remarks he made about the country’s founding father and the Liberation War of 1971.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Waez Kuruni Khan Chowdhury, took cognisance of the defamation case filed by the Awami Hawkers’ League General Secretary Abdul Mannan and issued the arrest warrant.

The complainant filed the case against Tarique, the BNP’s Adviser to the Chairperson Mir Mohammad Nasir Uddin, Joint Secretary Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, International Affairs Secretary Majedur

Rahman and 500 unknown others.

Another Dhaka court issued an arrest warrant against Tarique Rahman on the same charge on December 18 while another Metropolitan Magistrate issued a warrant for his arrest in a defamation case on December 10.

In Chittagong yesterday the widely condemned remarks resulted in the filing of a sedition case against Tarique.

A former Bangladesh Chhatra League upazila unit general secretary, Shihab Ul Haque, on behalf of the BCL’s district south unit, lodged a sedition case against Tarique before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Moshiur Rahman Chowdhury.

The court ordered the Kotwali police station officer-in-charge to look into the matter and submit a report within 10 days, Chittagong Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner (Prosecution) Nirmolendu Bikash Chakrabarty said.

Plaintiff ’s counsel, Advocate Rony Kumar Dey, said his client claimed Tarique, in the deliverance of derogatory speeches, had plotted against the

country’s birth and sovereignty and lodged the case under section 123(A) of the Criminal Procedure Code.

On December 18, the BCL Chittagong city unit General Secretary Nurul Azim Rony lodged a case before the same court with the same charge.

Case statements say that while addressing a programme in London on December 15, Tarique Rahman called Sheikh Mujibur Rahman a “razakar,” a term meaning traitor.

Tarique said Sheikh Mujib had accepted Yahya Khan as Pakistan’s president and his conditions in participating in the general election of December 1970.

He claimed Sheikh Mujib, the father of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, never wanted an independent Bangladesh, but a combined Pakistan.

Tarique has been living in London since September 11, 2008 on medical grounds, after securing parole in various cases.

He faces 14 charges, of which four, including the August 21 grenade attack case, are on trial. The rest were stayed. l

4

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Monday, December 22, 2014

‘Estate division’ recommended to protect primary schools’ land n Tribune Report A parliamentary body has suggested that the government should form an “estate division” immediately to protect the lands and establishments of primary schools in Dhaka from illegal occupation.

Most government primary schools in the capital do not have accurate records of their land. Some of these schools lost their land because of negligence in and lack of monitoring over the demarcation by the authorities.

There are examples of politically influential people, including parliament members, using muscle to grab or illegally occupy primary school lands and property.

Even many high schools use the premises and buildings of adjacent primary schools to conduct classes and run other academic activities.

A five-member sub-committee of the parliamentary watchdog for the Primary and Mass Education Ministry yesterday visited a total of six such schools in different parts of the city.

While visiting one such school, lawmaker AKM Zahangir Hossain, chief of the sub committee, told journalists: “Each government primary school in the capital has its own problems. There have been gaps in land records. Many schools are psychologically indebtedness to the relatives of persons who donated land to the schools.”

One of the schools that the committee visited yesterday was the Gabtoli Government Primary School. The team recommended to the school authorities that the abandoned building on

the premises be demolished, a new multi-storied structure be built in its place and expand its academic activities up to the eighth grade.

The family of late Hazrat Munshi Lalmiah, who donated land to the school, said they did not want the old building demolished because it contained his memories. However, after a discussion with the committee, they agreed to allow the school authorities to bring down the old building.

At the Pallabi Government Primary School in Section 11 of Mirpur, the investigation committee found that one floor of the two-storey building of the school was used by the neighbouring Pallabi Mazedul Islam Government Model High School.

The sub-committee advised the governing bodies of both schools to properly demarcate their boundaries in a month with help from the Directorate of Primary Education and the Dhaka district administration.

Zahangir Hossain also directed the high school authorities to shift their classes and other activities from the primary school building.

On December 2 and 3, the sub-committee visited seven schools in the city.

Their aim is to facilitate the reclaiming of grabbed lands of 51 government primary schools in the Dhaka metropolitan area.

On October 22, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Primary and Mass Education Ministry formed the five-member sub-committee tasked with recommending steps to be taken for reclaiming grabbed land of the government primary schools and reporting on the progress. l

ActionAid celebrates its 30 years of journey in Bangladesh yesterday by arranging a trilogue in the capital’s Chhayanaut yesterday

MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

20 truckloads ‘brand’ cosmetics destroyed n Tazlina Zamila Khan A mobile court yesterday destroyed 20 trucks of so-called brand cosmetics in Chawkbazar area of the capital.

The court led by Rapid Action Battalion conducted a drive in Khan Market run by Haji Mofiz, the president of Chawkbazar Shop Owners Association, in Old Dhaka and found the items.

Seven people were arrested in this connection – Din Islam, Delwar Hossain, Md Shamim, Hemayet Khan, Sayeed Hossain, Md Samad, and Omar Faruq.

These cosmetic items including shampoo, body spray, body lotion, and soap were on display in five shops on the first floor of the market while the manufacturing factory was situated on the second floor, said RAB members.

They said the workers inside the factory, looked after by Mofiz’s son Sayeed

Hossain as well as Samad, were found making internationally known ”Johnsons” soap as instructed by the Chawkbazar Dokan Malik Samity President Hazi Mofiz.

They buy local Meril soap wholesale at Tk20 per cake, process it to make it look like Johnsons and sell at Tk85.

The shop owners had to pay Mofiz Tk3,000 per month, said some of the arrestees.

Shampoos branded as Vaseline, Pantene, Head & Shoulders, Sunsilk, Clear, Garnier, and, Rejoice were on display too.

Din Islam, one arrestee and owner of one shop, empty containers of the originals are collected and refilled with duplicated liquids and scents.

The duplicated Pantene shampoo is sold at Tk100, while the price of the original is Tk310. A sticker on the bottle

shows the original rate, he said.

Some unscrupulous businessman buy these duplicated items from them and sell it at the original price, said the arrested men.

Cosmetic items including shampoo, body spray, body lotion, and soap were on display in five shops ”Body sprays with brands like Do It, Axe, Cool, Maxi, and Fogue are duplicated in a similar manner, refilling the original containers with locally made sprays. People can differentiate be-

tween the original and the locally made stuff,” said an arrested Shamim. ”The locally made contents can be identified by spraying inside a glass. If water remains then it is the duplicated low quality item. If it is original then water will vapourate within seconds,” he said.

Around 20,000 pieces of such ‘branded’ cosmetics worth Tk20 lakh were destroyed at the dumping ground nearby. ”This mobile court has conducted drives three times in the area earlier, however, the culprits get back to the business once release from jail,” said Magistrate Anwar Pasha of the court.

Major Md Sohel Hassan of RAB 10 said the arrested were awarded with two years of imprisonment and Tk1.50 lakh fine each, in defaut to serve more three months in jail. l

DUNMUN 2014 begins at Dhaka University n Tribune Desk

‘BNP to join next general polls under AL in 2019’

Dhaka University National Model United Nations (DUNMUN), known as the country’s most prestigious Model United Nations (MUN) conference, began yesterday at the Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Building.

Organised for the third time in a row, the event is a simulation of the United Nations assemblies offering a ground for the youth to learn and practice the art of diplomacy.

This year, keeping in mind the approaching deadline for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the deliberations of the international community to finalise the next set of sustainable development agenda, the theme has been chosen as “Empowering Youth for Sustainable Development”.

The ceremony, inaugurated by DU VC Professor AAMS Arefin Siddique, was attended by Professor Delwar Hossain, International Relations, DU, Chen Shuang, the councilor of Cultural Affairs from the Embassy of China, and Md Moniruzzaman, officer in-charge, United Nations Information Centre.

DUMUNA, as the first MUN club in Bangladesh, has been arranging DUNMUN since 2012. It works for the development of intellectual as well as organisational capacity of the youth by promoting MUN conferences in Bangladesh through voluntarism.

The sessions are going to be held till December 24 with the participation of young students from across the country. l

Relief and Disaster Management Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya said the BNP would have to take part in the next general election under the ruling Awami League led 14-party alliance government as per the constitution.

“The present government will stay in power for four more years and the national election will be held in 2019 as per the constitution,” he said addressing a rally at Bangabandhu Avenue in the city yesterday.

Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Sramik League (BSPSL) organised the rally to protest the defamatory remarks on

Reception on Romanian Nat’l Day held n Tribune Report Marking the Romanian National Day, Honorary Consul of Romania in Bangladesh Enayetullah Khan hosted a reception at his Baridhara residence in the capital on Saturday.

Board of Investment Executive Chairman Dr SA Samad, Egyptian Ambassador to Bangladesh Mahmoud Ezzat, Russian Ambassador Alexander Nikolaev and Dutch Ambassador Gerben Sjoerd de Jong attended the programme.

Political leaders, civil and military officials, members of foreign diplomatic corps, media personalities and cultural workers were also present on the occasion. l

n Tribune Report

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

He said there was no scope of grabbing power by hatching conspiracy and killing people, adding that the BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia was playing the role of the Aamir of Jamaat-eIslami.

He remarked that the BNP would turn into another Muslim League, if Jamaat-Shibir did not remain with her.

“Begum Khaleda Zia wants to make Bangladesh a dysfunctional state. For that reason, mother and son together have resorted to falsehood,” he said.

“Anarchy and violence will not be tolerated in the name of demonstration,” he warned. l

12TH SESSION OF CHILD PARLIAMENT HELD

Dhaka University National Model United Nations conference began at the Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Building of the University of Dhaka yestertday DHAKA TRIBUNE

‘Justice’ at arbitration leaves teenager dead n Our Correspondent, Gazipur A teenage girl has committed suicide in Gazipur’s Sreepur upazila after a “salish” (village court) humiliated her for allegedly engaging into a love affair.

The dead is Moushumi Akhter, 14, a class-nine student in Kodma village under Sreepur upazila.

According to locals, Sujon, 23 son of Asroy Ali of adjacent village Bhitipara, was harassing Moushumi for the last three years. Six months earlier, he tried to abduct her on way to school but was stopped by locals.

When Moushumi’s mother Nilufer Begum decided to file a case against Sujon, local influential including Union Parishad member Shamsul Hoque set up a salish and ordered Nilufer not to file a case.

However, Sujon again attempted to abduct Moushumi and this time he succeeded on December 14.

After abduction, Sujon’s friend Ismail Hossain spread a rumour that Moushumi had eloped with Sujon because she was in a relationship with him, said Moushumi’s uncle Joynal Abedin.

After one day of abduction, Moushumi’s paternal aunt Masuda Begum rescued her from Ismail’s house in Shi-

multoli area of Gazipur.

After rescue, when Moushumi’s family wanted to file a case, but Shamsul Hoque, member of ward 7 under Prohadpur union, called a salish inside Moushumi’s house on December 20.

Nilufer said the village elders ordered Sujon and Moushumi to marry each other, but Sujon denied the order.

Shamsul Hoque and an elder - Abdus Sattar - called Moushumi names and ordered both Sujon and Moushumi to do five squats holding ears as a punishment.

Rahima Khatun, a witness, said: “When Moushumi wanted to state her complains crying, they threatened of lashing 100 dorra on her. They called her a prostitute and made her do 50 squats by holding her ears.”

After completing the task, Moushumi ran inside her room and hanged herself from the ceiling fan.

Moushumi’s mother filed a case against seven people including Sujon, his sister Jesmin, aunt Monowara, Shamsul Hoque, Abdus Sattar, and Sujon’s Friend Ismail.

Sujon, Shamsul Hoque and Abdus Sattar have been absconding since the incident said Sreepur Model police station Sub-Inspector Mohsin-ul-Quadir. l

Eight members of Jamaat-eIslami sent to jail n Our Correspondent, Sylhet A Sylhet court yesterday sent eight Jamaat-e-Islami activists to jail after police picked them up during a raid on Saturday night.

The arrestees were identified as Md Faruk, 30, Md Uddin, 27, Md Uzzol, 28, Md Ala Uddin, 27, Abu Bakor Siddik, 43, Mohammad Bin Mamun Bulbul, 24, Mohammad Ali Monsur, 31 and Ashiqul Islam, 20.

Kotwali Model police station acting on a tip off raided the Al Hamra shopping complex. During the two hour raid, they detained 15 Jamaat-Shibir activists from a ‘secret’ meeting at Hamadan Restaurant which is on the 4th floor of the market.

“Sensing the presence of the law enforcers, the top leaders of Jamaat, including its city unit Ameer Ahsanul Mahbub Jubaer, fled the scene,” said Second Officer of the Kotwali police station Shah Md Mubassir.

He further said, the arrestees were produced before the court under Section 54 yesterday. While the court released seven, it ordered the rest to be sent to jail. l

Child parliamentarians identify causes for early marriage n Tribune Report Lack of awareness and poor economic conditions of parents, and prevalence of eve teasing are main reasons behind early marriages of children in the country, said child parliamentarians yesterday.

Raising awareness among parents, increasing of stipends for female students and stopping eve teasing can help reducing the early marriages, they said.

Some 84 children from the country’s 64 districts, including representatives from marginalised communities, attended the 12th session of the Child Parliament at the auditorium of the Local Government Engineering Department in the capital.

The representatives of the mock parliament for children shared their personal experiences at the session on “Child marriage Hampers Education and Protection”.

Jibonnesa, a child parliamentarian from Narshingdi, said though she managed to stop her marriage, she could not have the engagement of that marriage cancelled. She cannot go to school now because of the engagement.

“I was a victim of child marriage.

With the help of the local people, I could manage to stop the marriage,” she said.

“But, one of my friends could not stop her marriage, and she delivered a dead child. Now she is working at a garment factory in Savar,” she added.

Asif Hossain, another child parliament from Barguna, said on an average

66 percent girls in the country get married before the age of 18.

Speaking on the occasion, Jatiya Sangsad Deputy Speaker Fazle Rabbi Miah said the government will not change the existing minimum age limit for marriage of girls. The age limit will remain at 18 years, he said.

Representatives of the local government and marriage registrars have to play more roles to stop child marriage in the country, he said.

The ministry of law should engage more manpower to their programmes to ensure strong monitoring of marriage registrations, he added.

“I agree with all the recommendations put by the child parliamentarians.

I will share those with the law makers at the Jatiya Sangsad,” Fazle Rabbi said.

“I will communicate with the deputy commissioner of Narshingdhi to motivate the parents of Jibonnesa to send her school and take necessary steps regarding her education,” he said.

The Child Parliament is the advocacy wing of the child rights organisation National Children Task Force (NCTF) which has been working on UNCRC implementation in Bangladesh since 2003.

Over 40,000 registered NCTF members between 12 and 18 years are working at district level to raise awareness on child marriage.

With technical support from the Save the Children, Plan Bangladesh and World Vision, Bangladesh Shishu Academy (BSA) is helping to run the advocacy. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

5

Monday, December 22, 2014

Security to be tightened ahead of Christmas, 31st December n Tribune Report State Minister for Home Affairs Asaduzzaman Khan said the government had arranged tight security across the country for celebrations of the Christmas Day and 31st December to avoid any kind of untoward incident.

“Tight security arrangements were made in and around the capital city so that the people can celebrate Christmas and New Year peacefully,” he said while talking to journalists after a meeting at his ministry’s conference room at the secretariat yesterday.

Asaduzzaman said members of law enforcement agencies had been asked to conduct foot patrolling for peaceful celebration of the Christmas Day and 31st December night.

He said additional forces would be deployed in the capital as well as across the country to ensure security for people on December 25 and December 31, respectively.

The inter-ministerial meeting on the

security measures has also taken 10 decisions on the occasion of the Christmas Day and 31st December, the state minister said.

State Minister For Social Welfare Pramod Mankin, Inspector General of Police Hasan Mahmood Khandker and other high officials of the law enforcement agencies were present at the meeting.

He said on December 25, police forces would be deployed all night long around the church areas to so that the members of the Christian community would celebrate the Christmas with due fervour.

On the December 31 night, movement along the Baridhara Diplomatic zone would be restricted for non-residents. Additional police force will also be deployed in Banani, Gulshan, Dhanmondi and Baridhara areas, the state minister added.

Asaduzzaman Khan and Pramod Mankin celebrated the Christmas Day in advance by cutting cake after the meeting. l

Muhith: BNP has gone crazy n Our Correspondent, Savar

Quader: Footpaths to be recovered in phases

Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith yesterday said the BNP was not concerned about the country, now it was struggling how to save itself from ruination.

“Leaders of the party have been making controversial comments as they have become crazy,” the minister made the comment while addressing the 57th orientation programme of civil servants at Bangladesh Public Administration centre in Savar, outskirts of the capital.

About a remark of Dr Abdul Moin Khan, member of BNP standing committee, over Bangladesh’s presidency in International Parliamentary Union and Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, the minister said: “I do not understand why he made such comment, he would have to show prove.”

He said the BNP had already proved that they did not want prosperity of the country.

Over BNP’s preparation of movement from January next year, the minister said: “Since formation of the government we have been hearing about BNP’s movement, but we passed this year without any hassle. Lets see what happens in future.” Meanwhile, food Minister Kamrul Islam while addressing a rally at the playground of Adhorchandra School in the district termed BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and its Senior Vice-President Tarique Rahman as imprudent. He said: “Imprudent Tarique Rahman has brought a bad political culture into the country. l

n

Tribune Report

Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said the government would recover the footpaths from illegal possession in phases beginning next month.

The decision was taken at the 22nd meeting of the National Road Safety Council at a city hotel yesterday, the minister told reporters after the meeting.

The two city corporations – north and south – and the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) will enforce the drive, he added.

It was also decided at the meeting that a coordination committee of five ministries – Road Transport and Bridges Ministry, Shipping Ministry, Railways Ministry, LGRD Ministry and Home Affairs Ministry – would be

Two women with baskets filled with green tomatoes are family members of Isarul Islam, an assistant teacher of a local school in Chapal village under Rajshahi’s Godagari upazila. The teacher, alongside teaching , have seems to become a source of inspiration by taking up tomatoes cultivation in the area AZAHAR UDDIN

formed to take measures to prevent road accidents across the country.

Among a series of other decisions taken at the meeting, notable were a project of Tk165 crore for addressing black spots and 144 accident-prone turns on the highways, constructing 20 bus stoppages at various points, and putting up signs, signals and zebra crossings in the capital.

The meeting also approved the National Road Safety Strategic Action Plan for the next three years.

The Council also decided to sit after every two months to monitor the road safety situation.

Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan, Home Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Khan and State Minister for Rural Development and Cooperatives Division Moshiur Rahman Ranga, among others, attended the meeting. l

More investment needed in agriculture n Tribune Report Investment in the country’s agricultural sector needs to be increased to ensure food security, and the government should offer more flexible agricultural loan schemes to farmers, experts said at a discussion yesterday.

Titled “Trialogue on Development, People’s Option and Space: 30 Years of Fighting Poverty, Injustice and Exclusion” and organised by ActionAid Bangladesh to celebrate its 30 years of service in Bangladesh, the event was held at Chhayanaut auditorium in Dhaka and saw politicians, businessmen, farmers, rights activists, youth and women representatives, and others in attendance.

The discussion was conducted by Farah Kabir, country director of ActionAid in Bangladesh.

Speaking at the discussion, lawmaker Fazle Hossain Badshah said: “There is a serious lack of coordination in different departments of the government.

‘BMA silent as prime suspect is a doctor’ n Our Correspondent, Jessore

DRY WEATHER LIKELY MONDAY, DECEMBER 22 DHAKA

TOMORROW SUN RISES 6:38AM

FORECAST FOR TODAY 26 28 26 26 28 28 28 29

Dhaka Chittagong Rajshahi Rangpur Khulna Barisal Sylhet Cox’s Bazar

14 17 12 12 12 14 12 17

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW

29.5ºC Cox's Bazar

9.1ºC Srimangal

Source: Accuweather/UNB

PRAYER TIMES Fajr Sunrise Zohr Asr Magrib Esha

5:16am 6:36am 11:57am 3:41pm 5:17pm 6:37 pm SourceL IslamicFinder.org

orous profession than farming. They are no longer interested to study or be involved in agriculture.

“We are producing larger volume of food now, but we do not have the facilities to store such a large quantity.

We need to build modern facilities for proper food storage, and ensure hassle-free distribution for the farmers, in order to help build a strong agricultural industry in the country,” he said.

Monir Ahmed, a farmer from Noakhali and president at Kendriyo Krishak Maitree, said: “The businessmen get the opportunities to acquire government loan, but such facilities are always out of reach for the farmers.

This is a major reason behind the downfall of farmers, and it also forces them to migrate to Dhaka and seek employment in other areas.”

He further said: “The rate of interest for the loans that are available for the farmers is so high that it takes years for them to be able to pay off the debt. l

SHAMARUKH MURDER CASE

WEATHER

TODAY SUN SETS 5:17PM

The state has created an anti-farmer situation, and the agricultural sector is left to the hands of market economy.

We experienced how it had a negative impact on the sector after 1/11, as we faced food crisis then. We also saw how farmers destroyed tomatoes and potatoes because they did not get fair price.

“We should free agriculture from such market system. It is not a good news that we are exporting rice; we need to have more food sufficiency before doing that,” he opined.

He also said the finance minister had announced to start agriculture insurance during the last budget session, but it had yet to happen. Shirin Akhter, another member of parliament, said: “To ensure food security we need to build up strong political commitment.”

Humayun Rasheed, senior vice-president at Dhaka Chambers of Commerce and Industries, said: “The job preferences in our country has changed. Everyone wants a more glam-

The Meghna River embankment which the locals want to be extended by at least by one kilometre for safeguarding historical spots under Ulania in Mehendiganj upazila of Barisal DHAKA TRIBUNE

Steps for protecting historical places from erosion demanded n Our Correspondent, Barisal Residents of Ulania in Mehendiganj upazila of Barisal demanded constructing another one kilometre embankment to protect the historical places in the area from erosion by the Meghna River.

In 2013, an 875-meter long embankment was built to save various historical places including the zamindar bari, a mosque and the century old Coronation High school.

However, the local people now wanted to extend the embankment for making it sustainable in the long run.

They reiterated their demand at a reception event of noted journalist and language hero Abdul Gaffar Chowd-

hury on Saturday.

Recalling the history of the area, poet Asad Chowdhury, a resident, said Mughal rulers had sent Hanif Khan, one of their armed forces general, to Ulania to fight the pirates coming mostly from Arakan.

“Hanif Khan later settled down in the area permanently and his ancestors became wealthy land lords. They constructed a fine mosque in 1861, many buildings and market places in the area,” he said. The Coronation High School was also established by the zamindars in 1912.

Many historical places like a fort named Sangram Kella and a village called Govindapur were washed away by the mighty Meghna.

Fakhrul Islam Anu, a descendent of the Ulania zamindar family, said more than two kilometre area gradually went into the river in the last 12 years. So they started a movement in 2008 demanding permanent safety measures against erosion.

To the great relief and joy of the local people, Bangladesh Water Development Board (WDB) constructed an embankment in 2013 at a cost of Tk22 crore.

However, this was not sustainable as a portion of the bank was still exposed to the risk of erosion. “Local people demanded to extend the embankment by at least by one kilometre to make the protection sustainable,” Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury, also a resident of Ulania, said during his recent visit to the area. l

As Dr Jesmin Ara, a prime suspect of the much-talked-about murder case of Dr Shamarukh Mahjabin, is one of the central committee leaders of Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA), the organisation is not taking up any protest programme.

Quoting BMA President Dr Iqbal Arslan, Shamarukh’s father Nurul Islam made the claim at a press conference held at the Jessore Press Club yesterday.

“Even when a bird dies, other members of that species flock together and show some gesture of mourn. But Bangladesh Medical Association did not take any activity following the death of my daughter which is very shocking,” he said.

“When I asked BMA President Dr Iqbal Arslan why his organisaton was silent when different organisations both at home and abroad where condemning the murder, he said Tipu Sultan’s wife Dr Jesmin was a central leader of BMA. Any activity taken would go against her, therefore, nothing could be done,” said Shamarukh’s father.

However, Dr Arslan said BMA would discuss the matter in its next central committee meeting to be held tomorrow, he added.

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

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

The deceased’s father, a retired PWD engineer, filed a murder case against Shamarukh’s husband Humayun and implicated his parents, Tipu Sultan and Jesmin Ara.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had expressed deep shock at the death of Dr Shamarukh and assured of providing all sorts of assistance regarding the investigation in the case, Nurul said referring his visit with the premier on December 15.

“The Prime Minister asked me why I had married off Shamarukh into Tipu Sultan’s family and why Shamarukh did not leave that house despite facing torture.

'All doctors are not alike. The doctors in Jessore would deliver the correct report I hope' “She also inquired over the second autopsy report,” said Nurul Islam.

The report of Shamarukh’s first autopsy done at the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital suggested that Shamarukh had committed suicide.

Rejecting the report, Nurul Islam claimed that the Tipu Sultan and his wife had “influenced” the findings.

Regarding the second autopsy that is currently under process in the country’s three different hospitals, he said: “All doctors are not alike. The doctors in Jessore would deliver the correct report I hope.”

Former president of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad Habiba Shefa said Shamarukh did not go through any event that could lead her to attempt suicide. She called for prompt and fair trial.

Shamarukh’s teacher, former principal of BAF Shaheen College Mokbul Hossain was present at the press conference among others. l

6

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Nation

Monday, December 22, 2014

Jessore’s name for date juice under threat n Our Correspondent, Jessore The name that Jessore has had for its date juice, patali and molasses across the country is under threat as date trees are fast disappearing in the district.

The villages – Khajura, Enayetpur, Lebutola, Pantaparha, Jadavpur, Gobra, Jahurpur, Majhiali, Mothurapur, Telkup, Mirzapur and so on – are known for date juice, patali and molasses, especially Nalengur.

Enayetpur village’s Zakir Hossain said: “We had over 80 trees but now that amount has come to a half. Since these trees were divided among his six brothers, juice has not been extracted from the trees as before.

“We just extract juice from the trees depending on what we need in a year and also make Nalengur a bit because it can be sold for a good price.”

Farmer Shafiar Rahman said they had around 300-400 date trees but it was now 60-70. Despite that, all the date trees had not been processed for

extracting juice.

Farmer Atiar Rahman said: “I heard that date seedlings are being distributed by the government in the district, but I have not seen any in our area.”

Jahrupur High School teacher Intajul Islam said date trees were declining in the district because people had been cutting them down to make way for cultivation of paddy and other crops.

Besides, skilled date juice collectors became rare because most of them had switched to another profession, failing to manage their livelihood in it, he said.

When Nityaranjan Das, deputy director at the Department of Agriculture Extension, was contacted, he admitted this all and said: We have taken up a project to preserve the date trees in the district.

“We already planted around 5000 date trees along roads under this project.,” he said.

He added that there were about 10 lakh date trees in the district. Of them, around seven lakh are processed for extracting date juice every year. l

5 held in accused snatching case n Our Correspondent, Mymensingh Police yesterday arrested five people from different places in Muktagacha of Mymensingh, in connection with snatching of an accused from the law enforcers on December 10.

The arrestees are Babul Mia, Hablu Mia, Saju Mia, Abdul Mia and Abdul Quddus, police said.

Muktagacha Police Station Officerin-Charge Kamal Hossain said some miscreants attacked a team of police when they were returning to the police station after arresting Babul Mia, an accused in 77 cases filed by the forest department, from Chandpur village on December 10.

Two assistant sub-inspectors were injured in the attack, he said. l

Human chain demands compensation for land

n Our Correspondent, Madaripur

People, who have lost land acquired for Padma Bridge, form a human chain in front of Madaripur Press Club yesterday demanding fair compensation

Haimchar UP poll: Candidates fear vote rigging n Our Correspondent, Chandpur With just few hours to go, candidates, supported by both the ruling party Awami League and the BNP, fear widespread irregularities and vote rigging in the election of Haimchar upazila in Chandpur on December 23.

Even the former foreign minister, Dipu Moni, a prominent figure of the ruling party, shared her concern.

At a view exchange meeting with local journalists on Saturday night, Dipu Moni said it was the BNP that she was worried about.

“We are concerned about the attitude of district BNP Convenor Sheikh Farid Ahmed and his cohorts. Their display of muscle and money power is certainly troubling. They are also spreading falsehood about AL candidates by sensing our possible victory,” she said.

Aman paddy harvest starts amid fear of failing target n Our Correspondent, Sylhet Farmers in Sylhet region have started harvesting Aman paddy with expectations to meet the yearly target but the regions Agricultural department is in doubt as cultivation was interrupted repeatedly because of flooding in July and the drought that prevails now.

According to Sylhet’s Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), the region had set a target to bring 141,927 hectares of land under Aman cultivation with a production target of 313,432 tonnes but the target failed as the flood in July hampered cultivation and reduced the cultivated area to 135,431 hectares, said an official.

Last year, the target of cultivated land was 145,866 hectares but 152,030 hectares of was brought under cultivation which increased the production to 366,410 tonnes of Aman.

Deputy Director of Sylhet DAE Khairul Bashar said: “This year we faced repeated flood and it is the main reason we were unable to achieve the cultivation target.”

He said: “After the farmers started cultivation, inadequate rainfall then hampered the Aman production at different upazilas. So, now we are fear that we would fail to achieve the target set but we are hopeful.”

Monjur Ahmed, a farmer of Alirgaon village under Goainghat upazila, said: “This season flood affected 11 times at Goainghat upazila. After the flood, we cultivated land and now the drought prevails. As a result, the production has been severely hampered and it will be hard for us to collect the production cost to harvest paddy.” l

A human chain was formed in Moulvibazar town yesterday, protesting hike in price of gas and electricity. The government has decided to hike the tariffs of electricity and gas which would be effective from January next year

Criminal held after gunfight in Lakshmipur n Our Correspondent, Lakshmipur An alleged member of a criminal gang was arrested after he was injured in a gunfight between police and his associates at Latifpur village in Sadar upazila early Sunday.

The arrested was identified as Mahiuddin,32, a member of notorious terrorist gang ‘Jisan Bahini’ in the area and son of Ali Akbar, a resident of the village.

Humayun Kabir, officer-in-charge of Chandraganj police station, said on a tip-off, a team of police launched a drive in the area to arrest Solaiman Uddin Jisan, leader of the terrorist gang, around 2.30am.

Sensing the presence of the police, Jisan and his associates opened fire on

them, prompting the law enforcers to fire back, triggering a gunfight, leaving Jisan’s associate Mahiuddin bullet-hit.

Later, police arrested injured Mahiuddin while Jisan and other members of the gang managed to escape.

Mahiuddin was admitted to Lakshmipur Sadar Hospital under police custody.

Police also recovered one light gun, three bullets and a motorcycle from the spot.

He was wanted in several cases including murder and robbery, said the OC. When contacted, Zalal Ahmed, elder brother of Mahiuddin denied the allegation. He said his brother had been living in Saudi Arabia for a long time.

Recently he came home and started business of bricks. l

NEWS IN BRIEF One beaten to death in Chandpur A man was beaten to death by the villagers at Bhawalpur in Faridganj upazila yesterday. The dead was identified as Imran Hossain, 27, son of Murad Hossain. Md Mozammel Haque, officer-in-charge of Faridganj police station said, local caught Imran at night when he went to the house of Mijii to commit robbery. Later, they beat Imran up, leaving him dead on the spot. On information, police recovered the body and sent it to Chandpur Sadar Hospital morgue. Imran’s wife Shilpi Begum also said some youths called her husband out at night and they killed him in a planning way.

– Our Correspondent, Chandpur

100 injured in clash in Brahmanbaria At least 100 villagers including several policemen were injured during a clash between the people of Kalichcho and Nayagaon villages under Sarail upazila in the district yesterday. Witnesses said Mujibar Rahman, a local businessman of Surjakandi village, got locked into an altercation with CNG-run auto-rickshaw driver Parves of Nayagaon when the latter denied giving side to Mujibur’s

A section of people, who have lost their land for constructing the Padma bridge, formed a human chain in front of Madaripur Press Club yesterday demanding compensation.

Harun Boyati, secretary of Compensation Committee spoke the function as chief guest.

Later, they brought out a procession in the town.

The government has acquired 2,452 acres of land in three districts Shariatpur, Madaripur, Munshiganj for constructing the Padma bridge which is Bangladesh biggest ever infrastructure project. l

motorcycle at Kalichcho Bazar. At one stage, two groups with some local arms locked into clash in the morning. They also clashed with police. More than100 people including some police men were injured during the clash. More than 10 to 12 houses were also set on fire. A motorcycle of private TV channel ‘Somoy Television’ was also vandalized. Ali Ashraf, officer-in-charge of Shorail police station said, additional police forces were deployed in the area.

The injured were admitted to Sarail Upazila Health Complex.

– Our Correspondent, Brahmanbaria

Four held with phensidyl in Chapainawabganj Members of Rapid Action Battalion arrested four people with 3,129 bottles of phensidyl in the district yesterday. In a press briefing, RAB-5 camp commander Major Kamruzzaman Pavel said on a tip-off, the law enforcers conducted drives in several areas in Sadar upazila and arrested Jhiltu Mian, Tarep Ali, Zakarul and Alam Hossen with the contraband. The arrested had been doing drug business for a long time in the district, said Kamruzzaman.

– Our Correspondent, Chapainwabganj

Trashing her comment, Sheikh Farid said no free and fair election was possible during the tenure of the AL government. “The BNP, in the last six years, has no record of vote rigging,” he claimed.

“Local AL lawmakers have been campaigning in favor of their candidate. This is a clear violation of electoral code. They are also threatening our people and have beaten up some of our activists,” alleged Sheikh Farid.

Meanwhile, the tension and apprehension run high among the rebel candidates of the Awami League.

Though a large number of law enforcers have been deployed in the area, the candidates are not assured of credibility and transparency.

Chunnu Sarkar, a rebel candidate, said the AL-backed Nur Hossain had threatened to fill up ballot boxes within

early morning. “That is why there are ample reasons to be worried about. If the election is fair, I am very hopeful of winning.”

Echoing Chunnu, another rebel candidate Shahjahan Mia said Nur Hossain was gathering supporters from the adjacent districts to occupy the polling booths.

However, Nur Hossain disregarded all the allegations saying that people would be able to cast their vote without any intimidation. “People in this area are peace loving. They have held peaceful elections before and will do so this time. Moreover, AL government did a lot of development works for Haimchar. So I am very positive about winning.”

When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Ataur Rahman said sufficient number of law enforcers, including

the army, had been deployed and they were expecting a proper election.

Nurul Nuri, the returning officer of the election said: “We have made all the preparation for holding a credible election. Army had been deployed and will remain in the area till December 26. Besides, magistrates, BGB, RAB, police, coastguard and Ansar members have also been deployed.”.

The election of the Haimchar upazila was twice postponed due to natural calamity and a court case. Months after the initial date of February 27, it was finally announced to be held on December 23. A total of five persons for the post of chairman, five for vice-chairman and two for reserved women vice-chairman posts would be competing in the election. 69,780 voters will cast their votes in 31 polling centres laid across the upazila. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Long Form

7

Monday, December 22, 2014

Freedom and memory

It is time that we cease to be children and take control of our history away from politics

W

n Tibra Ali and Zahur Ahmed e Bangladeshis are not known for holding back our emotions — we tend to use emotional arguments as a recourse in situations where we are perhaps unable to fully articulate rational arguments. We were reminded of this recently when the verdict of “guilty” of contempt of court was awarded to David Bergman. The judgement, handed down by the International Crimes Tribunal-2, has put particular emphasis on hurting “the nation’s emotion.”

Appealing to hurt emotions or sentiments to put an end to a conversation always comes at a cost. Let us explain.

When the first unexpurgated edition of DH Lawrence’s famous novel “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” was first published in the UK, the publisher, Penguin, had to face a high-profile court case for “obscenity.” However, the trial ended up becoming a useful public debate on the nature of literature with many writers of the day weighing in and explaining to a great extent the nature of literature and why the great novel was not obscene.

The court in the end returned a verdict of “not guilty” and established the intellectual freedom in which lit-

seem necessary, but is in fact a must for the well-being of a nation. Yet, this fact can only be realised if a society is allowed to have an open discussion in order to gain public consensus and understanding on the issue.

As soon as the charges of “contempt of court” were brought against David Bergman for discussing the various sources and estimates of the number of war dead in the Liberation War of 1971, and for pointing out what he took to be the problematic elements of in-absentia trial process at the ICT-2 in comparison to those of various international tribunals, a few voices spoke out (including one of us) defending his right to do so.

However, to our great regret, the International Crimes Tribunal-2 swiftly put a halt on the possibility of any open discussion either on the matter of the war dead, or the freedom of expression, by decreeing that no discussion of the case be held in Bangladesh media citing it as a “sub judice” matter. We, along with the media, obliged.

As the verdict is now out, and as on paragraph 44 of the judgement it says: “We reiterate that we always welcome post-verdict criticism,” – we presume we are able to discuss the issue.

Following the verdict a chorus of “liberal” voices has come out in

Why, then, our intellectuals today are so eager to give up what our fathers and mothers gained at such high cost? If we are to give up our freedom of expression have we really become free?

erature can be cultivated more freely.

This public debate contributed significantly in increasing an awareness of the intellectual freedom required to foster and for the flourishing of literature.

High profile cases such as this one, and the one involving David Bergman, present us with rare but important opportunities. They give us the chance to discuss some of our most cherished freedoms. One of the fundamental freedoms that human beings cherish the most is the freedom to express themselves without being threatened, which at times may not

Bangladesh justifying the sentence against Mr Bergman. However, David Bergman has been misrepresented in the media. For example, the opinion piece “Holocaust, 1971 genocide and preventing distortion of history through law” by Showgat Ali Sagor published in bdnews24.com recently, justifies the guilty verdict by comparing Mr Bergman to some of the most infamous holocaust deniers in the Western world, and arguing that since holocaust denial is a crime in many Western countries, we too are justified in punishing David Bergman for denying the genocide of 1971.

If we allow the discussions and debates about our past to be limited and controlled, we also become complicit in the forgetting of the past.

And by forgetting our past we give up our identity and the reins of our destiny to those who rewrite that history for us

The problem with these arguments is that they are straw man arguments.

Not only has David Bergman never denied that there was genocide in Bangladesh, he has done more than any of these people to bring perpetrators of that genocide to justice through his award winning film “The War Crime Files.”

Another appalling aspect of the vituperation that has been unleashed on David Bergman is that our intellectuals and justice system seem to have descended to explicit or barely concealed racism and xenophobia.

Are we not a nation of immigrants?

Earnings from the hard labour of Bangladeshis living abroad, many of whom have dual nationalities or permanent residencies, form a significant part of our economy. As immigrants abroad each of us expect to be treated with respect in our second homes, and we are appalled when we are subjected to racism or xenophobic prejudices that threaten to impinge on our civil liberties. Yet such sentiments are being used in Bangladesh in trying to vilify Mr Bergman, a foreign national married to a Bangladeshi, for doing his job as a journalist!

In 1968, at the height of persecution of all things Bengali, Professor Anisuzzaman, at the behest of two of his students, Ahmed Sofa and Kazi Shiraj, edited and published a book of essays titled “Rabindranath” on the great Bengali poet, novelist, musician, philosopher and educationalist Rabindranath Tagore. The essays were written by the East Pakistani Bengali intellectuals of the day, and the publication of this book was a major event, both as a literary and a political act of freedom of expression, in the life story of the Bengali Muslim identity that gave birth to Bangladesh.

This book was reissued in 2001

and in the new introduction Professor Anisuzzaman reminisces: Translation: “From the time of planning until publication of the book it took quite some time. During this period, on the 22 of June 1967, Khaja Shahabuddin, who was the Central Minister for Information, announced in the National Parliament of Pakistan that in the future Rabindra sangeet (songs of Tagore), which was contrary to the values of Pakistani culture, will no longer be broadcast in the country’s media, and there will also be a reduction in the broadcast of all songs of this kind. Immediately after this, nineteen of us writers put out a press statement protesting this decision. For quite some time after this, there were some arguments about this, and in the end all discussions about this subject in the newspapers were banned by a verbal order from the Central Ministry of Information.”

[Emphasis added.]

Can one see a parallel between what was happening then and the suppression of freedom of expression at present? As Sara Hossain has recently argued and as intellectuals in our fight for freedom, such as Professor Anisuzzaman or the late Professor Abdur Razzak would have said, freedom of expression was an integral and important part of our struggle for freedom from West Pakistani rule.

One ought to ask: What has changed? When we were children in school we were often given a sentence to write an essay upon: “It is harder to defend freedom than to gain it.” Why, then, our intellectuals today are so eager to give up what our fathers and mothers gained at such high cost? If we are to give up our freedom of expression have we really become free? Or have we just replaced one master (Pakistani) with another (Bengali)?

Milan Kundera in his novel “The Book of Laughter and Forgetting” explains to us why politicians and those in power, even though they always talk of the future, are actually obsessed with controlling the past. This is because he who controls the past also controls the future.

Thus the slogan “Children: you are the future,” which is so popular amongst politicians, has a deeper and more sinister meaning: politicians in power, by erasing the past, and by dictating what can or cannot be talked about in our historical narrative, are trying to induce mass forgetting, and by doing so trying to reduce us to a state of childhood.

If we allow the discussions and debates about our past to be limited and controlled, we also become complicit in the forgetting of the past. And by forgetting our past we give up our identity and the reins of our destiny to those who rewrite that history for us.

Our War of Liberation does not belong to Awami League or the BNP, even though both have repeatedly tried to lay claim to it. With all due respect, it does not belong to our courts, although they have tried to limit discussions (perhaps with the best of intentions) about it. It belongs to all of us. The radical nature of freedom demands that we strongly resist any attempt to wrest away our history from us. It is an integral part of our freedom that we be able to have conversations, discussions or even arguments and disagreements about our history without fear of prosecution.

It is time that we cease to be children and take control of our history away from politics. l The article was first published in alalodulal. org.

8

DHAKA TRIBUNE

World

Monday, December 22, 2014

Gunman kills two New York police officers n Reuters, New York A gunman shot dead two New York City police officers and then killed himself, police said, after a social media post indicated he may having been seeking revenge for the death of an unarmed black man during an arrest attempt.

The two New York City Police Department officers, Rafael Ramos, 40, and Wenjian Liu, 32, were ambushed in their patrol car Saturday afternoon, said NYPD Police Commissioner William Bratton.

“They were quite simply assassinated, targeted for their uniforms,” he told a news conference after the attack, the first in which NYPD officers had been killed by gunfire since 2011.

The two men were attacked outside a housing project in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn at a tense time for the NYPD, the largest police force in the country.

Protests over policing tactics have roiled the city since a grand jury declined this month to indict a white NYPD officer in the killing of Eric Garner, a black man who died after being placed in a chokehold during a July arrest on Staten Island.

The shooter fired through the passenger-side window of their marked

patrol car, striking both officers in the head before they had a chance to respond, Bratton said. The suspect fled on foot, followed by other police, then took his own life on a subway platform.

President Barack Obama condemned the killings, saying “two brave men won’t be going home to their loved ones tonight.” Attorney General Eric Holder promised the support of the Justice Department throughout the investigation.

Bratton said the gunman, identified as Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, had made “anti-police” comments online.

Shortly before the double shooting, a message on an Instagram account apparently belonging to Brinsley said “They Take 1 Of Ours ... Let’s Take 2 of Theirs.”

The posting was followed with hashtags referencing Garner and Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager shot and killed by a white officer in Ferguson, Missouri in August.

Bratton said investigators were checking whether Brinsley had attended any of the recent protests.

The killings also revealed bitter anger among some police toward New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who they see as not being supportive in the face of public anger. l

An ambulance carrying one of the two New York Police officers who were shot dead passes by a New York Fire Department honor guard along Broadway in the Brooklyn borough of New York yesterday REUTERS

Egypt allows in travellers from Gaza Obama does not consider Sony hack an act of war for first time since October n Reuters Egypt opened the Rafah border crossing yesterday for incoming passengers from the Gaza Strip for the first time in almost two months, Palestinian and Egyptian officials said.

Rafah is the only major crossing between impoverished Gaza, home to 1.8 million Palestinians, and the outside world that does not border Israel, which blockades the strip and allows passage mainly on humanitarian grounds.

Egypt shut the crossing on October 25 after Islamist militants in Egypt’s adjacent Sinai region killed 33 members of its security forces in some of the worst anti-state violence since Islamist president Mohamed Mursi was toppled in July 2013.

Since then, Cairo has opened the crossing only twice to allow thousands of Palestinians stranded in Egypt and beyond to return to Gaza, which is dominated by the Islamist Hamas faction.

Hamas has long had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, which was ousted from power in Egypt when Mursi was overthrown, but its relations with the current Egyptian government are tense.

Maher Abu Sabha, the Hamas-appointed director of crossings, said Rafah would open for two days to allow Gazans with serious illnesses to travel to Egypt and beyond for treatment and to allow foreign nationals and students to travel.

An Egyptian official, citing “security reasons,” said there was no decision

yet to allow the permanent and full opening of the crossing as was the case before October 25.

Hamas’s leaders have distanced themselves from violence in Egypt and in Sinai and say they have no armed presence in areas outside Palestinian boundaries.

Some children stood by the fence, while others sat or slept over luggage that piled up outside the gate as their families awaited to pass.

“I have been waiting for three months to leave, this is very bad,” said Mnwar Shaath, 58, a Palestinian woman clad in a long black robe who lives in Saudi Arabia and came to visit family in Gaza.

“I am sick and I was afraid I may die here, away from my children, I want to go back and die among them,” she said. l

n Reuters, Washington

US President Barack Obama does not consider the cyber attack on Sony Corp to be an act of war, he said in an interview, remarks apparently aimed at limiting US anger over the incident which Washington blames on North Korea.

Obama and his advisers are weighing how to respond in kind to the attack, which prompted the Hollywood studio owned by the Japanese firm to withdraw a comedy, “The Interview,” prepared for release to movie theaters during the holiday season.

“No, I don’t think it was an act of war. I think it was an act of cyber vandalism that was very costly, very expensive. We take it very seriously. We will respond proportionately,” Obama told CNN’s “State of the Union with Candy Crowley” show, which was taped on Friday and due to be aired on Sunday.

North Korea has denied responsibility for the attack on Sony. The film depicts the fictional assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Obama also said his government was considering putting North Korea back on a US list of countries that sponsor terrorism. It was removed from the list six years ago.

Obama told a White House news conference on Friday that he believed

Sony made a mistake by withdrawing the movie in response to the hack of its computer networks.

Sony CEO Michael Lynton has said in response that Sony had no choice but to cancel the film’s release because major theater chains refused to show it.

In the CNN interview, Obama said he was sympathetic to Sony’s business considerations but stuck to his argument that the entertainment company had made a mistake.

“Had they talked to me directly about this decision, I might have called the movie theater chains and distributors and asked them what that story was,” he said.

Obama said an important free speech principle was at stake.

“If we set a precedent in which a dictator in another country can disrupt, through cyber, you know, a company’s distribution chain or its products and, as a consequence, we start censoring ourselves, that’s a problem,” he said.

He called on the US Congress to pass a cyber-security law.

“We’ve got to work with the private sector and the private sector has to work together to harden their sites.

But in the meantime, when there’s a breach, we have to go after the wrongdoer. We can’t start changing how we operate,” he said. l

Jordan ends death penalty moratorium n BBC

A Palestinian girl, hoping to cross into Egypt with her mother, is pictured through a fence as she waits at the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the southern Gaza Strip yesterday REUTERS

Jordan has executed 11 men convicted of murder, ending an eight-year moratorium on the death penalty in the country.

The interior ministry said the men, convicted in different cases, had been hanged at dawn yesterday.

Jordanian authorities gave no reason for the lifting of the 2006 morato-

rium on capital punishment.

Interior Minister Hussein Majali recently said the public blamed a rise in crime on the non-application of the death penalty, AFP news agency reports.

A number of Middle East countries have retained capital punishment, including Jordan’s neighbour Saudi Arabia which has carried out dozens of public executions this year. l

Coalition strikes hit IS north of Syria’s Aleppo

Ukraine crisis: Russia defies fresh Western sanctions

n AFP, Beirut

n BBC

US-led coalition air strikes hit the Islamic State group Sunday in areas north of Syria’s second city Aleppo where it has been fighting rival jihadists, a monitoring group said.

It was the first time that coalition aircraft had targeted IS in the Madajen area, where it has been fighting Al-Qaeda loyalists of Al-Nusra Front and their allies, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The area lies between the IS stronghold of Dabiq and the town of Marea to the southwest, which is held by its rivals.

“At least 12 coalition strikes hit IS positions and weapons depots in areas that had never been targeted before,”

said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.

“The strikes might help the rebels and Al-Nusra Front in their fight against IS,” he added.

Al-Nusra and its allies have been battling IS in Aleppo province and some others parts of Syria since January.

The drive by IS to assert its dominance in rebel-held areas which culminated in its declaration of a “caliphate” straddling Iraq and Syria in June prompted armed resistance from the rival rebel groups.

Washington launched an air campaign against IS in Iraq in August, extending it to Syria the following month with the support of Arab allies. l

Russia says it will not “cave in” to pressure, following a fresh set of US, EU and Canadian sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine.

A spokesman said Moscow regretted “that the West is yet again displaying a complete lack of interest” in resolving the crisis in south-east Ukraine.

Russia was developing “retaliatory measures,” the spokesman said.

The US sanctions focused on Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in March.

US President Barack Obama signed an executive order to ban the export of goods, technology and services to Crimea, in addition to new sanctions

on Russian and Ukrainian individuals and companies.

US President Barack Obama said the move showed the US would never accept Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

Similar measures agreed by the European Union earlier this week came into effect on Saturday. Canada announced its own sanctions on Crimea on Friday.

After the peninsula was annexed, pro-Russian separatists took control of parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine in April, and later declared independence.

Some 4,700 people have died and another million have been displaced by fighting in recent months.

On Friday, five Ukrainian soldiers were killed in fighting - the highest death toll since the latest attempt at a ceasefire began on 9 December.

In addition to the goods, technology and services ban, US individuals or companies cannot now buy any real estate or businesses in Crimea or fund Crimean firms.

The new measures also include sanctions on 24 Ukrainian and Russian individuals and on a number of companies deemed to be destabilising Ukraine.

They include the Russian equity investment group, Marshall Capital Partners. The Night Wolves biker group is also targeted for its involvement in military action in Crimea. l

Australian mother charged with murder of eight children n Reuters, Sydney An Australian mother has been charged with the murder of eight children, seven of them hers, two days after their bodies were found in a home in the city of Cairns.

Police said the 37-year-old woman was charged in a bedside hearing at a Cairns hospital, where she is recovering from stab wounds, with the murder of four girls and four boys, aged from 18 months to 15 years.

“It is simply eight counts of murder, one for each victim,” Detective Inspector Bruno Asnicar told reporters.

Asnicar, who said the five fathers of the children had been informed, said police were investigating whether drug use was involved in the tragedy.

“I want to make clear I’m not dismissing it,” he said. “I’m saying that I can’t discuss whether it’s true or not.”

Police have taken more than 100 witness statements and autopsies of the children, the eighth of whom was a niece of the charged woman, are expected to be completed later on Sunday, Asnicar said.

The killing of the children, whose bodies were discovered on Friday, shocked a nation already reeling from the siege and killing of two hostages at cafe in the city of Sydney earlier in the week. l

‘Allahu Akbar’ attacker shot by French police n BBC Police in central France have shot dead a man who attacked them with a knife while shouting “God is great!” in Arabic, French media report.

The man injured three police officers at Joue-les-Tours police station near the city of Tours before he was shot.

The assailant was a Burundi-born French national with a criminal record, a source close to the investigation told France’s AFP news agency.

Anti-terrorism investigators were sent to the scene, the source added.

Christophe Crepin, a member of France’s police union, told France 2 TV channel the attacker had had “a long knife, like a kitchen knife.”

“He was banging on the fittings [of the door], so the officers opened [the door] to see what he was doing, and he immediately threw himself at my colleagues, stabbing one in the hand, and attacking the second on the neck and face,” Mr Crepin added.

Investigators are reportedly focusing on whether radical Islam played a role and have launched an inquiry into “attempted murder and criminal conspiracy in connection with a terrorism organisation,” the BBC’s Lucy Williamson in Paris reports.

Some reports suggest the attacker’s brother was known to have expressed a desire to travel to Syria, our correspondent says.

In 2012, French Islamist Mohammed Merah killed seven people in the city of Toulouse. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

World

Taliban kill seven Afghan policemen n AP, Kabul The Taliban attacked a checkpoint in northern Afghanistan, killing at least seven policemen, an official said Sunday. In Kabul, a reporter wounded in an attack earlier this month on a French-run school died of his injuries.

The checkpoint attack took place in Jawzjan province, said Abdul Manan Raoufi, the region’s police operational chief. Along with the seven killed, five other policemen were wounded in the attack late Saturday in a village in the province’s Qashtepa district.

Police reinforcements were sent to the location and a gunbattle ensued in which five insurgents died, Raoufi said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

Meanwhile, a battle has been raging between insurgents and government forces for more than a week in eastern Kunar province, said Abdul Ghani Musamem, spokesman for provincial governor. He said it was difficult to determine exact casualty figures, though at least three civilians had been killed and around 28 insurgents so far.

“There are casualties among civilians who are stuck in the battlefield but we don’t know how many right now,” he said.

Elsewhere in Kunar, seven civilians, including two children, were killed when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Nari district late Saturday, the spokesman said. Three other civilians were wounded in the blast.

Also late on Saturday, 22-year-old journalist Zubair Hatami died in Kabul from wounds sustained in a Taliban attack on a French-run school earlier this month.

Hatami, a cameraman with the privately-run Mitra Television, was seriously wounded when a teenage suicide bomber blew himself up during a performance at the Etsiqlal High School on Dec. 11. A German aid worker was also killed in that attack.

Taliban militants have intensified their war on the Afghan government in recent months, and have been hitting soft targets such as schools and foreign guesthouses in the capital ahead of the withdrawal of most foreign combat forces on December 31. l

US dismisses N Korea hacking probe offer, seeks China’s help

n AFP, Seoul

Afghans carry the coffin of Afghan cameraman Zubair Hatami, who died on Saturday of injuries sustained in a Taliban attack at a French cultural centre, in Kabul yesterday REUTERS

Tunisia in landmark vote for president North Korea denies n hacking Sony Reuters, Tunis

Tunisians voted yesterday in a presidential run-off election that completes the country’s transition to full democracy nearly four years after an uprising which ousted autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali. With a new progressive constitution and a full parliament elected in October, Tunisia is hailed as an example of democratic change for a region still struggling with the aftermath of the 2011 Arab Spring revolts.

The North African nation avoided the bitter post-revolt divisions troubling Libya and Egypt, but Sunday’s election pits a former Ben Ali official against an incumbent who claims

to defend the legacy of the 2011 revolution.

Frontrunner Beji Caid Essebsi, a former parliament speaker under Ben Ali, won 39% of votes in the first round of voting in November with current president Moncef Marzouki winning 33%.

Polling opened at 8 a.m. local time (0700 GMT) with a heavy security presence but morning turnout looked thin at stations around the capital. Official preliminary results were not expected until Monday.

Overnight one gunman was killed and three arrested after they opened fire on a polling station in the central Kairouan governorate, a defence ministry official said.

Essebsi, 88, dismisses critics who

say he would mark a return of the old regime stalwarts. He says he is the technocrat Tunisia needs after three messy years of an Islamist-led coalition government.

Marzouki, 69, is a former activist who once sought refuge in France during the Ben Ali era. He has painted an Essebsi presidency as a setback for the “Jasmine Revolution” that forced the former leader to flee into exile.

“We need a president who looks after the people and is not interested only in power,” said Ibrahim Ktiti, an electrician who voted in the poor Ettadhamen neighbourhood of Tunis.

“The old regime won’t make it back.

Essebsi never excused himself for all the time he was with Ben Ali.” l

n Reuters, Seoul/Washington North Korea has said US accusations that it was involved in a cyberattack on Sony Pictures were “groundless slander,” and that it wanted a joint investigation into the incident with the United States.

The United States stands by its assertion that North Korea was to blame, a White House National Security Council (NSC) spokesman said on Saturday, in response to the remarks.

US President Barack Obama had blamed North Korea for the devastating cyberattack on Sony, which had led to the Hollywood studio cancelling the imminent release of “The Interview,” a comedy on the fictional assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. An unnamed spokesman of North Korea’s foreign ministry said there

Bomb blast kills three in India

n AP, Guwahati

A woman shows her ink-stained finger after casting her vote at a polling station in Tunis yesterday

US mulls putting N Korea on terrorism sponsor list n AP, Honolulu The United States is reviewing whether to put North Korea back onto its list of state sponsors of terrorism, President Barack Obama said as the US decides how to respond to the cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment that law enforcement has blamed on the communist nation.

Obama described the hacking case as a “very costly, very expensive” example of cybervandalism, but did not call it an act of war. In trying to fashion a proportionate response, the president said the US would examine the facts to determine whether North Korea should find itself back on the terrorism sponsors list.

“We’re going to review those through a process that’s already in place,” Obama told CNN’s “State of the Union” in an interview to air Sunday. “I’ll wait to review what the findings are.”

North Korea spent two decades on the list until the Bush administration removed it in 2008 during nuclear negotiations. Some lawmakers have called for the designation to be restored following the hack that led Sony to cancel the release of a big-budget film that North Korea found offensive. l

REUTERS

Four Guantanamo inmates sent home n BBC Four Afghan prisoners in Guantanamo Bay have been sent back to their home country, the Pentagon says.

Shawali Khan, Khi Ali Gul, Abdul Ghani and Mohammed Zahir were repatriated after a review of their cases.

Eight Afghans are believed to be among the 132 detainees remaining at the US prison in Cuba.

President Barack Obama has pledged to close the facility, opened in 2002 to hold “enemy combatants” in what the US termed its war on terror.

‘Nowhere to go’ “As a result of that review, which examined a number of factors, including security issues, these men were unanimously approved for transfer by the six departments and agencies comprising the task force,” a Pentagon statement said on Saturday.

The four Afghans - who had been held at Guantanamo Bay for more than 10 years - were flown to Afghanistan’s capital Kabul aboard a US military plane and handed over to the local authorities.

The Pentagon provided no further details.

Afghanistan’s High Peace Council - a

9

Monday, December 22, 2014

body set up by the government to deal with insurgents - said all four would be reunited with their families in the “near future,” according to the Associated Press news agency.

US lawyers for the former detainees had always argued that their clients were innocent.

Wells Dixon, who worked on the case of Shawali Khan for a number of years, told BBC World TV: “They decided unanimously that he posed no threat to anyone.

“I am frankly surprised that he wasn’t released many years ago.”

Mr Dixon added that he expected to see more transfers from Guantanamo Bay in the near future.

President Obama seeks to eventually shut the facility.

Earlier this month, six prisoners were flown to Uruguay, which said they would enjoy complete freedom in the South American nation.

About half of the remaining inmates at Guantanamo Bay have been cleared for transfer but have nowhere to go because their countries of origin are unstable or unsafe.

President Obama’s efforts to shut the facility have also been stalled in part due to a reluctance by Congress. l

An explosion in the parking lot of a bus station early Sunday killed three people and wounded five others in India’s remote northeastern state, where several separatist groups operate, police said.

The homemade bomb went off in Imphal, the capital of Manipur state, killing three construction workers, said police Superintendent Ibomcha Singh.

Five other men were hospitalised. No one has claimed responsibility for the blast.

Imphal is about 550 kilometers (340 miles) southeast of Guwahati, the biggest city in the region. At least 17 separatist groups are active in Manipur state and often stage hit-and-run attacks on government forces. Their demands range from greater autonomy for the state to an independent homeland for the people of Manipur. l

would be serious consequences if Washington refused to agree to a joint probe and continued to accuse Pyongyang, according to the North Korean UN mission and its official KCNA news agency.

“We propose to conduct a joint investigation with the US in response to groundless slander being perpetrated by the US by mobilising public opinion,” the North Korean spokesman was cited as saying by KCNA. “If the US refuses to accept our proposal for a joint investigation and continues to talk about some kind of response by dragging us into the case, it must remember there will be grave consequences,” the spokesman said.

NSC spokesman Mark Stroh dismissed this, saying: “We are confident the North Korean government is responsible for this destructive attack.

We stand by this conclusion.” l

The United States has dismissed a call

by North Korea for a joint investigation into the hacking of Sony Pictures and wants China to help block cyber attacks from Pyongyang.

Washington blames North Korea for a breach of cyber security at Sony which led to the release of embarrassing emails and prompted executives to halt the release of “The Interview.”

The movie, which was due to open on Christmas Day, is a madcap romp about a CIA plot to kill leader Kim Jong-Un that has infuriated the secretive state.

Pyongyang has repeatedly denied that it was behind last month’s crippling attack, which also led to the leaking of scripts, and called Saturday for a joint probe with the US. But US National Security Council spokesman Mark Stroh said: “If the North Korean government wants to help, they can admit their culpability and compensate Sony for the damages this attack caused.”

A senior US administration official told AFP that Washington had asked Beijing, Pyongyang’s closest ally, to help block further cyber attacks. l

Pakistan issues arrest warrant against TTP chief

n Agencies

PM Nawaz Sharif vowed on Saturday to eliminate terrorism from the country following the brutal Taliban attack on an army-run school in Peshawar.

After his statement, an anti-terrorism court in Karachi issued non-bailable arrest warrants against eight persons, including Pakistan Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah, for the brazen militant assault on Karachi airport in June.

Some media reports claimed that Fazlullah could be among militants killed in Saturday’s air strikes. But, sources said they were yet to confirm the killing of self-styled cleric in the strikes along with other top commanders. The court issued the warrants after police filed a chargesheet in the court, The Express Tribune reported.

At least 37 people, including 10 terrorists, were killed after an all-night battle with militants. l

10

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Editorial

Monday, December 22, 2014

CODE-CRACKER

A new era of cooperation

I

t is encouraging to see that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reassured President Abdul Hamid that a resolution to the issues which are keeping both the Teesta water-sharing deal and the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) from coming into fruition will be dealt with.

Now it is about getting things done. It is a matter of concern that there is no specific timeframe for a resolution, which is why the administration must do its utmost to press India to act swiftly. This is a chance to build confidence between the nations, and to send a strong message to the Bangladeshi people as to India’s intention.

It is well-documented how the obstruction of Teesta waters still proves itself to being highly detrimental to Bangladesh, primarily affecting our farmers who depend on it for irrigation purposes, or how the lives of the people living in border and enclave areas (both Bangladeshi and Indian) are still being dramatically impacted by the delays in ratifying the LBA. The hopes of many are resting on these two agreements. This is not just an issue for Bangladesh, as both countries stand to gain from these deals. Accelerating the process of finalising the LBA and Teesta water-sharing deal would send a message of hope that one-sided and unfair dealings on India’s part are a thing of the past. It is in India’s interests – perhaps even more than Bangladesh’s – that these issues be resolved, signalling a new era of cooperation.

This is a chance to send a strong message to the Bangladeshi people as to India’s intention

Bring banking to the poor

T

he results of a recent survey, which found that only 22% of adults in Bangladesh have bank accounts, stresses the need to make banking services more accessible throughout the country.

According to the study, Bangladesh ranked sixth among seven developing countries in the number of adult account-holders, with nearly half the accounts inactive.

These findings are a clear indication that financial inclusion needs to be a top priority of the government as well as banking sector regulators. Bank accounts can allow the poor and marginalised to save, borrow, and invest, thereby actively involving them in our economic growth. What is more, extending banking services to more remote areas would bring millions of cash transactions into the banking system.

While the micro-finance industry has helped to bring banking services to a large section of the poor, banks themselves must make sure clients are not discouraged by cumbersome procedures.

Besides a lack of money, excessive paperwork is also a reason why many people choose not to open accounts.

It is crucial that our banking industry formulate a structure that not only accommodates but attracts lower-income depositors. That so many citizens do not have access to basic banking benefits is unacceptable, and something the government should waste no time in amending.

It is crucial that our banking industry formulate a structure that attracts and accommodates lower-income depositors

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

LGBT rights are human rights December 10

Kmak LGBT “rights” have no place in a country where Islam is the state religion. LGBT “rights” have no place in a sexually-illiberal country such as ours, where films don’t depict kissing, much less nudity, where arranged marriages are still the norm, where sex before marriage is a major taboo, and more.

Rights don’t exist without duty.

As the situation is, the average Bangladeshi isn’t obligated to accommodate the rights of homosexuals to live openly. I challenge anyone here to make a case for the acceptance of homosexuals based on Bangladeshi values as opposed to relying on Western notions of rights.

Momoaswan Kmak: Rights are by definition universal. To conflict one’s own personal views with everybody in Bangladesh or everyone in the “West” is a red herring. Bangladeshis want to live and let live in peace and security as much as any other group of people. Legal protection for people with minority sexual orientations (which have and will continue to exist in human nature) is not only good manners, but also needed to guard against the greater harm of discrimination and threats from bigots.

Rajeeb Kmak: What Bangladeshi values are you talking about? Please be specific. I am a Bangladeshi, a Muslim, and a proudly open homosexual. How does any of that identity contradict each other? Oh please don’t cite the rhetoric of tradition, norms, and some “open-to-interpretation” lines of the Quran.

Let us consider the basic element of the society – our families. I am a loving son, a brother, a cousin, a friend, and everything else. My family is very average, typical middle class, you can say. My family and such many others I know of have embraced their homosexual members … don’t you think that

highlights a significant change in society? You can deny this as much as you want, but changes are here to stay.

So, before you force us to marry one of your daughters, you may very well accept our rights to live with dignity and peace. manon Kmak: Is it illegal to consume alcohol or pork in Bangladesh? Is it illegal for males to be uncircumcised? Sex before marriage may be taboo, but is it illegal? Do people who partake in premarital sex deserve to be deprived of their rights as human beings? Should homosexuals (or anyone for that matter) be deprived of human rights because they are, according to you, bad Muslims?

Bangladesh was founded on secularism. We seem to be faltering now but I hope we can find our way back to a secular state sometime in my lifespan.

Door-Swinger Kmak: 1. “Homosexuals” = “People” (and maybe even some species of animals); 2. “People” (all 7 billion of them) have the right to live a good life; 3. “Rights of homosexuals” aren’t an exclusive set of rights that homosexuals get to enjoy over everyone else.

End of today’s lesson, Mister Man.

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

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

Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.

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

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

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.

riazo Kmak: You really ought to stop playing your broken record on this topic. It’s getting tiring. Chill out and let others do the same.

Rajeeb Thank you Dhaka Tribune for the editorial! This is certainly the best gift to the LGBT community of Bangladesh on World Human Rights Day. We salute you for your courage and your conviction.

CROSSWORD Family of four slaughtered in Mymensingh

December 16 Tamjid Bin Islam Anik This is certainly not the Bangladesh we all wanted.

Deep down, every single person in BD hates this country. Its systems, traffic, pollution, corruption, political unrest, inflation, river bank erosion, criminal activity, among others, have left us with no choice. I hope that someday I’ll wake up and smell real victory.

Garment worker gang-raped in Gazipur December 16

Sharina Muzahid Chowdhury It’s infuriating that this keeps happening.

HC summons 26 school heads for charging extra SSC fees December 15

Faisal Ahmed They should be punished for taking excess fees from students.

Democr@cy wanted: Dead or alive?

December 9 RB Many important truths observed, bravo to the writer. We should all take note.

Foxymophandlemama This article deserves a standing ovation from everyone who reads it. Bravo, sir.

Komola Brilliant piece. It’s sad that we had to fight a war only to end up in a very similar place.

A citizen Wow. Just wow. An op-ed with teeth.

ACROSS 1 Meal (6) 5 Corded fabric (3) 7 Aviator (5) 8 Quickness of perception (6) 10 Prohibit (3) 12 Talk wildly (4) 13 Insect (3) 14 Prison room (4) 16 Part of a shoe (4) 17 Play on words (3) 18 Separate (4) 20 Large deer (3) 23 Dress (6) 24 Passageway between seats (5) 25 Perform (3) 26 Make beloved (6)

DOWN 1 Bring up (4) 2 More than one (6) 3 Used up (5) 4 Tinge (4) 5 Plunder (3) 6 Greek letter (3) 9 Neck hair (4) 11 No score (3) 14 Rudely brief (4) 15 Tempt (6) 16 Prosecute (3) 17 Communion plate (5) 18 Pallid (4) 19 Be afraid (4) 21 Resinous substance (3) 22 Outfit (3)

DispassionateObserver “Today’s Bengali middle class has an elite that is indifferent to their needs.” Wait until the economy hits 7+% growth and stays there for a few years (which I have no doubt it will, with or without the current government in the Gono Bhaban). The swelling middle class will then demand and extricate their voters’ right to decide who rules the roost.

Where were you when you heard news of the victory?

CALVIN AND HOBBES

December 16

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS CODE-CRACKER

Syed Hashemi I was in Shamibag. My brother came with his friend on a motor bike; he was a commando with the Crack Dhaka brigade.

PEANUTS

CROSSWORD

A timeless friendship

December 9 RetiredBUET “Bangladesh and Bhutan can only gain by building on our strong bilateral ties and connections.”

A correct and far-sighted editorial.

Secure land for sustainable factories

December 8 Momoaswan “The government should lease or sell idle state land to build cleaner, new, safe factories.”

Good move. Our leather and tannery industries must follow suit to stay viable, and for the sake of saving our rivers.

SUDOKU

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Op-Ed

human rights, democracy, secularism, economic empowerment, the right to vote, the right to speak our mother tongue, and maintain a progressive vision for our country.

It is a long journey for any nation, and we still have many struggles to overcome. We need to remain forever vigilant of Islamic fundamentalism, which is a threat to our well-being and stability. We need to conduct a health check as a nation each year on December 16.

The values of 1971 should be a guiding principle – a map which will help us navigate forward in this world

MEHEDI HASAN

The vision of 1971 is clear now

I

n Nusrat Rabbee

was disappointed with the media coverage of our 44th Victory Day this year because of the lack of reflection on what our freedom means to us in today’s context.

Then the morning of December 16 dawned, and journalists broke the news of the Peshawar school shooting in Pakistan.

Suddenly the vision of 1971 became crystal clear to me. It was not a coincidence that Pakistan was being forced to contend with its problems

S

E

R

with fundamentalism on that day.

The founding principles of our nation, which led to our war of independence from Pakistan, are as relevant today as they were 44 years ago.

I am so proud of my parents – martyred intellectual Dr Mohammed Fazle Rabbee and his wife, the late Dr Jahan Ara Rabbee – and many others who had the courage to have a different vision for Bangladesh.

They wanted to free our nation from fundamentalism and oppression.

They believed in a nation where all religions would be treated equally.

P

E

They played a prominent role in the war of 1971.

As a result, my father, an eminent cardiologist, perished in the intellectual extermination carried out by the Pakistani army. The killing of intellectuals was masterminded to leave the new nation absolutely handicapped to move forward after liberation.

The vindictive, evil plan did not work in the long run. After struggling for decades, we stand a victorious nation today, blessed by those who sacrificed themselves for our victory. Our principles are: Protection of

N

T

11

Monday, December 22, 2014

We could continually improve if we are willing to honestly assess where we are and what we need to achieve with respect to these values. The values of 1971 should be a guiding principle – a map which will help us navigate forward in this world.

What can we do in our personal lives to help Bangladesh become a better country as defined by our founding principles?

We should stand in solidarity with the children who were killed in Peshawar. We can wipe out fundamentalist and terrorist mindsets and practices in our own country.

How can we protect the rights of the religious minorities in Bangladesh?

How do we protect our environment?

How do we protect the rights of working people in factories and fields?

The Peshawar school massacre was the lowest expression of violence in a long time in human history. Only recently has the world paid attention to the terrorists within Pakistan. It is in fact a chronic problem, which has taken millions of lives over more than 50 years in the region.

Some media highlights include recent travel advisories, the shooting of Malala for going to school, the harbouring of fugitive Bin Laden by the Pakistani army, the terrorist group that unleashed the heinous attacks in Mumbai in 2008, the mass genocide of Bengalis in 1971, and more.

Pakistan never acknowledged their role in perpetrating the genocide, and never investigated the leaders responsible for the atrocities.

Forty four years ago, we defeated this violent force of fundamentalism and welcomed our new nation. Almost three million Bangladeshis were killed in the war.

Let us forever be thankful to all the Bengali martyrs and freedom fighters of 1971, and let us never lose sight of the vision of independence for our nation. We owe it to them and to our future generations to keep steering our nation in the right direction of peace, freedom, integrity, empowerment, and prosperity. l

Can we put a price on the Sundarbans? n Enayetullah Khan

T

here is a possibility that our authorities’ singular failure to show any form of urgency in averting the aftermath of the oil spill in the Sundarbans recently, owes a great deal to the difficulty of capturing the disaster’s monetary value. How much will it cost us?

This plays into the recent trend of everything being standardised in terms of its worth in taka or dollars, and the difficulty of monetising our natural resources, unless they are converted into a form that lends itself to commercial valuation, is part of the reason why it took the world so long to wake up to the reality of climate change.

Biodiversity, unique ecology – all of these terms associated with the Sundarbans resist easy valuation. But that should hardly be an excuse for undervaluing them. The innumerable benefits of the Sundarbans range from from mitigating the effects of a cyclone like Sidr to its potential for being developed as a tourist hotspot. If anything, that alone should tell us that it is, in a word, invaluable.

Yet, it is sad but true that, as disastrous as the oil spill of December 9 has been, what probably bodes far worse for the future of the world’s largest mangrove forest is the callous attitude displayed by the administration towards mitigating the ill-effects and ensuring that something like this never happens again. Some 350,000 litres of oil can sound a lot worse than it is in reality.

But truly, you would be hardpressed to find a representative of any government in any country around the world, who sounds worse than Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan did last week, in his callous pronouncements about a source of such pride and joy for the nation.

For his benefit, let me be clear: This is the worst man-made disaster the Sundarbans has ever experienced.

The Sundarbans is not only the last stronghold of Bangladesh’s tiger and spotted deer populations, it is home to our saltwater crocodiles, the globally threatened masked finfoot, and the largest population of Irrawaddy dolphins in the world.

On top of all this, about 10 million people’s livelihoods depend on the

Sundarbans. So it is preposterous to pretend as if this is merely an environmental issue. It is every bit a human issue.

Having said that, we must wean ourselves off an attitude where whenever something goes wrong, we blame the government. As a nation, are we aware of our own responsibilities? Are we prepared to make the sacrifices needed, in order for Bangladesh to shine amongst other nations?

This train of thought is occasioned by the fact that the capsised vessel was carrying furnace oil, to be supplied to a power plant project near Gopalganj.

Although the Shela river is meant to be off-limits to vessels carrying supplies such as furnace oil, the closing down of the usual route from Khulna to Gopalganj, due to massive siltation, has caused the authorities to permit this in the last three years.

The smirk the shipping minister has allowed himself all week probably owes to his knowledge of his fellow countrymen’s hunger for electricity, and the amount of investment in the sector. But the Sundarbans’ value is incalculable. A statement like that is often hyperbolic, but in this case, it is not. The sooner the authorities, and indeed all stakeholders, realise that, the better.

It isn’t just a matter of the odd commercial vessel capsising, of which this latest one was the third this year.

Just in general as well, the forest has suffered from a history of neglect.

I understand that in Nepal, their armed forces are helping conserve wildlife in their protected areas. Our Sundarbans are ruled by pirates and poachers. We need to protect the Sundarbans, and the whole nation is left looking at the prime minister now to take the lead and show that we are earnest about doing that.

The surest way may well be to declare the forest a safe zone, and put it under the defence ministry that is usually looked after by the premier. It may sound a bit drastic, but as events over the last week have shown, in our efforts to conserve the Sundarbans, we are falling far short of what is necessary. l Enayetullah Khan is Chairman, WildTeam and Editor-in-Chief, UNB and Dhaka Courier. This article was previously published in Dhaka Courier.

Nusrat Rabbee is the daughter of martyr Fazle Rabbee.

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SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

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A view to a film n Towheed Feroze

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ow’s this for a delicious conspiracy theory? North Korea had no hand in hacking Sony Pictures. It was an inside job, done with the sole purpose of adding to the allure of the film itself. A sort of marketing ploy with a twist of genius!

But one may argue that the movie

has been taken off of film halls; so if it can’t be shown, then how will the profits be made?

Look at it this way: Even if the film is not screened, pirated copies would spread globally, and trust me, even though I know for certain that it will be a mediocre movie with a below average script, I will buy a copy once it’s available. The reason is simple:

REUTERS

You would just have to know what the pandemonium is all about.

I visited the film’s IMDB page and guess what – even though The Interview has been pulled from cinemas, the film’s rating is at a sparkling ten out of ten. You heard me. Now, if such ratings are taken as a true reflection of the quality of a movie and its actors, then the list of the 100 best Hollywood films will have to be redrawn.

Just to elaborate, Ananta Jalil’s movies are given higher ratings than productions such as “Roman Holiday” and “Come September.” I am not saying AJ’s films are not fun, but come on, unless you left your brains back home taking four shots of Tequilla neat, it’s often a torture to sit through most locally-made movies.

Anyway, instead of subscribing to conspiracy theories, the theatrical release of The Interview has been canclled because after North Korea protested without success that the plot of the movie lampoons the reclusive country and its leader, someone hacked into Sony Pictures, allegedly stealing the first draft of the upcoming Bond film titled Spectre.

Now, there is reason to worry because 007 is the marquee product, and with the earnings for the last film Skyfall crossing the billion-dollar mark worldwide, the last thing Sony would want is the leaking of the plot,

irrespective of the pilfered script being at an elementary stage.

But I am intrigued, because if this is not an ingenious marketing ploy, and a rattled Sony has taken a backseat, then the capability of the hackers has been well established. Obviously, it piques one’s curiosity because North Korea is not known for having widespread computer literacy.

We are told by the international media regularly that people there can’t even buy food, let alone afford computers. Of course, this is hardly a tenable rationale, since, with the right payment, a cyber army can easily be maintained, and the tech infantry need not be North Korean either. They can be mercenaries, working for the highest-paying employer. I won’t be surprised if the techies are actually based in the US! Coming back to the movie, the row, along with the protests, and followed by the incursion into Sony, have made headlines everywhere. Obama deplored the backing down of the electronics giant, calling it a victory for the isolated country that is known for flexing military strength from time to time.

Now, if the president is talking about it, then something must be there. While the hackers have reportedly threatened to carry out more damage if the movie is shown, it’s still

not clear if this threat covers Asian releases too. Say, will the cyber offense go on if the film is set to be released in India?

To be honest, it does not have to be shown on big screen at all. It can be released on DVD, sold to private TV channels, and after a year, when the current brouhaha has settled somewhat, it can be quietly sent to the halls.

If this is not an ingenious marketing ploy, the capability of the hackers has been well established

Meanwhile, North Korea has steadfastly denied any involvement in the hacking, even saying that they would like to join hands with the US in launching an investigation. Hmm. A partnership with North Korea seems very shocking, though nothing is impossible in a world where sworn enemies of the US – like Iran – can be pursuaded into

a strategic alliance in the fight against the Islamic State.

The row regarding The Interview comes at a time when talks are underway for a thaw in US-Cuba relations, which froze in 1961. While Cuba still remains one of the last bastions of socialism, with life still a tantalising mixture of the old and the new, there is general consensus that the country needs to come out of its time capsule.

If there really is a united probe led by both the US and North Korea, we just might get the first step towards an improved relation. A great Christmas gift – better relations between two major thorns! In the meantime, the so-called North Korean hackers have pledged to stand down if the offending movie is not released.

From what I understand, Sony is determined to save the Bond film from getting compromised. Conspiracy theories aside, despite the gadgets, the girls, the toned body, the heartstopping Aston Martin, and all that bravado … 007 is not invincible.

Someone less flamboyant – wearing an old-fashioned grey coat, walking with a limp, and carrying cellulite – holds the button for the much needed quantum of solace. I wonder if he likes his drink shaken or stirred. l Towheed Feroze is a journalist currently working in the development sector.

12

DHAKA TRIBUNE Monday, December 22, 2014

13 Ajmal picks up

two wickets in comeback

14 Supreme Real

Madrid clinch Club World Cup

14 Lacklustre

PSG held at home

Sport

Did you know?

Lee Cattermole is the only player with fewer than 250 Premier League appearances to reach 70 yellow cards

Salahuddin explains value of foreign coach n Raihan Mahmood Bangladesh Football Federation president Kazi Salahuddin believes local coaches are yet to attain the required experience to guide the national team efficiently in the international arena which prompted him to re-think about former Dutch coach Lodewijk de Kruif.

The BFF boss at his federation office yesterday cited three reasons for his belief. “Firstly, I want to say the local coaches are yet to fully read the opposition’s game plan, it requires a lot of international exposure and our coaches are lagging behind in this aspect.”

“Secondly, in the aspect of tactics and techniques, our coaches are yet to reach the required international level, I want to pinpoint that club level and the national team level are not the same, it’s far different,” added Salahuddin before saying, “Thirdly, I want to say that, though its a little uncomfortable, local coaches fail to pull the best out in the national team, I cant explain the real reasons behind it but its the unpleasant reality.”

Salahuddin, however, also said its not only his concern but the technical director and the assistant coach has also asked for a foreign coach.

Wrapping up the conversation

Salahuddin said he wants Lodewijk de Kruif to take charge of the Bangladesh team during the Bangabandhu International Gold Cup. He said, the players know Kruif’s work while a new coach will find it difficult to cope in the short time available.

“I want him (de Kruif) for one month, not long term. I have faith that he will be able to inspire the team in the

I want to say the local coaches are yet to fully read the opposition’s game plan, it requires a lot of international exposure and our coaches are lagging behind in this aspect Bangabandhu Cup. I also want to say I am in touch with a German group who have shown interest. Without a foreign coach its not possible to reach the next height, the local coaches also learn from the overseas coaches and gain experience,” said Salahuddin.

The BFF chief also revealed his interest in merchandising the national team jersey during the Bangabandhu Gold Cup as they plan to make around 25,000 jerseys available for sale. l

Premier Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib al Hasan (C) practises while national paceman Rubel Hossain (R) observes during a training session in Mirpur yesterday

Delighted Sanjida eyes improvement Rubel focused on n Shishir Hoque

Juvenile Bangladesh winger Sanjida Akhter has elevated her name in the list of the top ten Under-16 female goalscorers in Asia, occupying seventh place in the rankings.

Sanjida came into the limelight through her amazing displays during Bangladesh’s Group B matches of the AFC U-16 Women’s Championship qualifiers at home in October this year.

The latest rankings took into account the players’ goalscoring exploits during that tournament.

Sanjida netted four goals in the AFC U-16 Women’s Championship qualifiers, including a brace against the United Arab Emirates in Bangladesh’s second match. Meanwhile, her solitary strike against Jordan was the cornerstone of Bangladesh’s 1-0 win in the opener. She also grabbed the only goal for the home side against a formidable Indian side.

The winger first caught the attention with her speed, technique, shooting as well as goalscoring ability. She exhibited exceptional footwork and courage to stamp her authority in the grand stage.

Despite being called up to the senior side for the Saff Women’s Championship in Pakistan last month, Sanjida could not

take part due to her JSC examination.

While hearing the news over phone, Sanjida could barely understand the meaning of rankings and its significance. After being explained the importance of rankings, she said, “If that is really what happened then I will now be more determined to become a great player and also a promising player for the country in future. I am quite elated.”

Sanjida is currently at her hometown in Mymensingh.

Now, I will be more determined to become a great player for the country “I could not play in the Saff Championship in Pakistan due to my JSC exam but I never stopped practising. I am practising regularly to stay on top of my game,” added Sanjida, who is practising under the supervision of her school’s fitness teacher, Mofiz Sir. This is the second time a Bangladesh player – male or female – has achieved such an accomplishment in the AFC rankings. In 1996, former striker Alfaz Ahmed was adjudged the AFC’s player of the month. l

cricket only n Minhaz Uddin Khan Almost a week after the “unexpected” embarrassment of Rubel Hossain, the national spearhead finally appeared in public and as “expected”, he was not able to dodge the media who were eager to hear from him.

With the World Cup knocking at the door, the cricketers are fine tuning themselves for the Dhaka Premier League super league which starts in two days’ time and Rubel, who is playing for Legends of Rupganj, spent some time at the gymnasium of the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday.

Naznin Akter Happy, an actress and model, filed a case against Rubel on December 14 at the Mirpur Model Police Station under the Women and Children Repression Act. Rubel went quiet following the issue but had said of speaking about it in public at the right time.

Although he tried to escape the journalists waiting for him, after several requests the 24-year-old agreed to talk, that too without any questions regard-

Abahani’s new coach Kottan arrives today n Raihan Mahmood Former Hungarian-Austrian football coach of Bangladesh, George Kottan, will arrive in Dhaka today to take over the role of head coach of top-flight club Abahani Limited.

The 68-year old coach, who guided Bangladesh to the 2003 Saff Championship title in Dhaka, will fill the shoes of Iranian coach Ali Akbar Parmoslemi.

Kottan left the Bangladesh job in 2003 before coaching local outfit Muktijoddha Sangsad. Kottan won the Federation Cup title with Muktijoddha in 2005.

In 2009, he was appointed the head coach of Pakistan and guided them in the 2010 South Asian Games in Dhaka.

The veteran coach is an Uefa pro-license holder and prior to his arrival in Bangladesh, he was working in Germany as an instructor. He also coached Indian I-League outfit Churchill Brothers in 2006.

Abahani manager Satyajit Das Rupu believes Kottan’s vast experience will help the team. “He is very much involved with the game. Age is not a factor. I hope he will deliver the required bite in the team.” l

Kalabagan KC or Partex?

Jospehites, Adamjee Cantt in college rugby final n Raihan Mahmood St. Joseph Higher Secondary School and Adamjee Cantonment College cruised into the final of the Quick City College Rugby after winning their respective semifinals at the Paltan ground yesterday.

In the first semifinal, Adamjee Cantonment College thrashed Gazipur Cantonment College by 19-5 points while St. Joseph outplayed Cambrian College by 19-11 points in the following semifinal. The losing semifinalists will face each other in the third-place decider that will be held before the final today.

National Sports Council secretary Shibnath Roy will distribute the prizes as the chief guest. Quick City Real Estate chairman Azam Khan will also be present as the special guest. l

ing his “Happy incident.”

“I hope I will be able to get a call in the squad,” said Rubel. “I think I performed fairly in the Zimbabwe series and also in the ongoing Dhaka League.”

“I will try to perform in the best way possible in the Super League (of Dhaka Premier League) so that the selectors can have faith on me. It is every cricketer’s dream to play in the World Cup and I also dream the same,” he said.

Rubel thinks the condition in Australia and New Zealand will give an extra edge to the fast bowlers.

“The pacers take the benefit from the wickets there (Australia-New Zealand). A team at times play three-four pacers so I think our team will also be formed in that way. We (pacers) will have heavy responsibility as the wickets are friendly to us,” said Rubel, who has 69 wickets from 53 one-day internationals.

Rubel also has 32 Test wickets in 22 appearances. In Bangladesh’s last assignment against Zimbabwe, he bagged five wickets in two Tests and four from as many ODIs.l

MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

n Mazhar Uddin

Players in action in the Quick City College Rugby tournament at the Paltan ground yesterday

MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

Can the traditional light-green outfit Kalabagan KC survive the Dhaka Premier League relegation scare? Will Partex SC also be relegated in their first season in the top-flight like Old DOHS? All answers will be known by today evening as the bottom lurkers, Kalabagan and Partex, with three wins each from 12 games, lock horns in a do-ordie match at the BKSP-3 ground.

Old DOHS, who were promoted from first division in the previous season, lost all 13 matches in the league to dig their own way back to the lower tier. The losing side from the match today will join DOHS in the first division.

Led by Shamsur Rahman, Kalabagan edge Partex in terms of strength but one cannot rule out any possibilities of the latter who are boosted by the experience of discarded national players Rajin Saleh and Mehrab Hossain Jr. Shahadat Hossain and Abdur Razzak will be key to the Kalabagan bowling

unit while Zimbabwean all-rounder Elton Chigumbura’s contribution should be vital.

Meanwhile, the super league stage will start from this Wednesday with the intense fixture between rivals Abahani Ltd and Mohammedan SC. Abahani and Prime Bank CC both have 18 points from nine wins although the Sky Blues sit top of the table with a better net run-rate.

Prime Bank will also take the field on the same day against Shakib al Hasan’s Legends of Rupganj while Victoria SC take on Kalabagan Cricket Academy.

The super league promises to be a special one for the cricketers as the importance of it increased many folds with the World Cup knocking at the door. 25 cricketers from the Tigers’ World Cup preliminary squad will take part in the super league with the selectors closely monitoring the players’ performance before making the final squad which will be submitted to the ICC in the first week of January.l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

13

Monday, December 22, 2014

QUICK BYTES

Palolic stun holders Sk Russel Last year’s runners-up, Palolic Group, stunned defending champions Sheikh Russel by 3-2 sets in the Super League of the Agrani Bank Dhaka Metropolis Premier Division Table Tennis League at the Paltan ground wooden-floor gymnasium yesterday. In the other matches of the day, Ciciron beat Ornima by 3-0 sets while Dhaka Mariners defeated Wari Club by 3-1 sets. In the women’s event, holders Abahani continued their winning run defeating Sohel Smriti Club by 3-0 sets while Uttara Club and Alam TT Club outplayed Dhaka Youngs TT Club and Dhaka Striders by 3-0 and 3-1 sets respectively.

–Raihan Mahmood

BKSP Alumni forms new ExCo The Alumni Association of Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishthan (BKSP), AAB, has formed a new executive committee. Former hockey player Nurur Rahman Durbar was made the president of the association while former footballer Rafiqul Islam Siddiqui has been named the general secretary. Former cricket team captain Naimur Rahman was announced the chief adviser while national hockey coach Mamunur Rashid, former cricket fielding coach Mohammad Salahuddin, Zahid Rahman Khan, Lieutenant Colonel Zahid Hasan, national Test captain Mushfiqur Rahim and ace all-rounder Shakib al Hasan were declared the other advisers in the new committee. The newly-formed committee has plans to arrange a reunion at BKSP on January 23.

–Tribune Desk

Afridi to quit ODIs after World Cup Shahid Afridi has said that he will retire from ODIs after the 2015 World Cup. The allrounder will continue to play T20 cricket, the format in which he leads Pakistan. Afridi had stepped in as captain in the recent ODI series against New Zealand in the UAE in place of the injured Misbah-ul-Haq. He put in a strong all-round performance, with 205 runs at a strike-rate of 164 and eight wickets at an economy-rate of 4.03.

Afridi, who will turn 35 during the World Cup, has played 389 ODIs since hitting the fastest century on his debut in October 1996 against Sri Lanka in Nairobi.

The record stood for more than 17 years before New Zealand’s Corey Anderson broke it in January this year. He has scored 7870 ODI runs at an average of 23.49 and a strike-rate of 116.29. He has also taken 391 wickets, the sixth-most in ODIs, at 33.89 and an economy-rate of 4.62. Afridi had quit Tests in 2010 before leading Pakistan to the semi-finals of the 2011 World Cup. –Cricinfo

No way back for England’s Pietersen England cricket chiefs have moved quickly to make it clear that Alastair Cook’s dismissal as one-day captain has not opened the door for a return to international cricket for batsman Kevin Pietersen. The South African-born maverick’s undermining of Cook was one of the reasons Pietersen was cast aside by England in January after England’s 5-0 defeat in the last Ashes series in Australia. The swashbuckling stroke-maker has a much better relationship with middle-order batsman Eoin Morgan, who has replaced Cook as captain for the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand early next year. The 34-year-old batsman said earlier this month that he still had hopes of a recall but England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) managing director Paul Downton moved to quell any hopes of a comeback. “We parted company with Kevin in January because throughout the ECB management, from the dressing room up to the board, it was felt that it was the right decision to go in a slightly different direction,” he told Britain’s Daily Telegraph. “If anything more bridges have been burnt by Kevin’s book. There is no interest from our point of view in going backwards.”

–Reuters

These combination of photographs show Pakistan off-spinner Saeed Ajmal delivering a ball during the one-day match against the visiting Kenyan team at the Gaddafi Cricket stadium in Lahore on Saturday. The ace Pakistani rightarm spinner last Friday said he is confident of scripting a comeback in the international level after bowling for the first time with a remodelled action, three months after his suspension AFP

India not far off from Test wins, says Dhoni n AFP, Brisbane Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said India have the pace threat and aggression to win Tests away from home and it’s just a matter of time before results go their way.

The Indians lost by four wickets to Australia in Saturday’s second Test in Brisbane after going down all guns blazing by 48 runs chasing 364 in the opening Adelaide Test.

While India have been in contention in both Tests, the Australians have won the key moments to turn around the contests.

The Brisbane loss was India’s fifth

straight away defeat and their 15th in the last 18, with only one win.

India were thumped 3-1 in England this year and trail Australia 2-0 in the four-match Border-Gavaskar series, but Dhoni is undeterred.

“There’s plenty of areas we’re showing improvement, but we’re still not crossing the line,” Dhoni said.

“We need to give it a bit more time.

Once they start crossing that line, once they harness that aggression in the right channel you’ll see plenty of good results from this side.”

Dhoni, lining up for his 90th Test match as a player and 60th as captain in the third Test in Melbourne on Box-

ing Day, said it is important for India to compete against the Australians in what is the toughest tour for overseas teams.

“The exciting thing is we have competed. What’s really important is it can turn at any point of time,” he said.

“The competition has been good, though the results have not been in our favour.

“It’s exciting to see the youngsters putting in a fight. It’s just a matter of time. It will turn out to be a very consistent side.”

Dhoni said it was important for his team to fight it out to the end of their Test matches, irrespective of their situation in the contest.l

n Agencies Saeed Ajmal played his second match in 24 hours and picked up two wickets to help Pakistan ‘A’ to victory over Kenya in Lahore.

The spinner came on second change and returned figures of 2-25 from 6.1 overs as Kenya were bowled out for 61 as Pakistan won by 108 runs.

It followed on from his figures of 1-23 in six overs against the same opposition yesterday.

The 37-year-old, who picked up 63 LV = County Championship wickets for Worcestershire last season, was banned from international cricket after his action was reported during the Sri Lanka-Pakistan Test in Galle in August.

Ajmal has to pass an ICC biome-

chanics test to be allowed to play in the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in February.

He said yesterday that he felt “comfortable” with his new action.

Worcestershire Director of Cricket Steve Rhodes has confirmed he wants to re-sign Ajmal for the 2015 campaign if his action is deemed legal by the ICC and has constantly shown his support for the player.

He spoke with Ajmal during his recent spell in England when he undertook two unofficial biomechanic tests at Loughborough and worked on his action with former Pakistan spinner Saqlain Mushtaq.

Ajmal also scored 16 batting at number seven as Pakistan ‘A’ were dismissed today for 169 in 44.2 overs. l

Australia call up rookie Cook 'gutted' after sack from Burns for Boxing Day Test England ODI captain role n Reuters, Sydney

Australia all-rounder Mitchell Marsh has been ruled out of this week’s third Test against India in Melbourne with uncapped batsman Joe Burns coming into the 13-man squad to replace him.

Marsh pulled up with a hamstring problem on the opening day of the second Test in Brisbane, which Australia won by four wickets to take a 2-0 lead in the four-match series on Saturday.

Burns’s inclusion was the only change for the Boxing Day Test, which starts on Friday at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, and Marsh will remain with the squad to prepare for the final Test in Sydney.

Coach Darren Lehmann said Shane Watson’s performance with the ball, if not the bat, in Brisbane had made it easier to go for a batsman in the shape of 25-year-old Burns, who hit 183 for Queensland in a Sheffield Shield match last month.

“He’s a very good player against fast bowling,” Lehmann told reporters in Brisbane on Sunday.

“His performances this year have been very good. He’s a good young kid and a very aggressive player. His opportunity has come up and now he’s got to grab it.”

Opener David Warner was included

in the squad despite injuring his thumb on Saturday and Lehmann was confident he would be fit to face India on Friday.

Fast bowler Ryan Harris has recovered from the thigh strain which ruled him out of the Brisbane Test and will be in contention for a return to the pace attack against India.

“Ryan bowled with Peter Siddle this morning, they were fine, that’s a pleasing thing for us,” Lehmann added.

SQUAD David Warner, Chris Rogers, Shane Watson, Steve Smith (captain), Shaun Marsh, Joe Burns, Brad Haddin, Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood, Ryan Harris, Peter Siddle “We’ll have to make a call on the team closer to Boxing Day.” Steve Smith will continue to captain the side in place of the injured Michael Clarke with experienced wicketkeeper Brad Haddin continuing as vice captain despite a poor run of form with the bat.

“We need Brad to make runs, he knows that,” Lehmann added. “He’s been working really hard behind the scenes and he’ll be disappointed with a couple of Test matches so far.l

n Dailymail.co.uk Alastair Cook was said to be devastated on Saturday over his sacking as oneday captain just two months before the World Cup but England insist he simply is not worth his place in the one-day team any longer.

England wielded the axe in ruthless fashion on the man they have put such faith in at the end of a dismal seven-match tour of Sri Lanka where his highest score was just 34.

Now they have turned to Eoin Morgan, himself in worse form than Cook during 2014, to somehow spearhead a challenge for a World Cup in Australia and New Zealand that England will start as rank outsiders.

Cook took the decision badly when Paul Downton, the managing director, and national selector James Whitaker visited his Buckinghamshire home late Friday afternoon to deliver the news.

The man who was charged with leading England’s new era in the bitter fall-out of their Ashes shambles was unceremoniously dumped even though there were repeated public reassurances that he would take them to the World Cup. The scale of his feeling was revealed in the ECB’s confirmation of the news

on Saturday that broke on Friday when Cook said, "I am gutted to be left out of the World Cup squad and it is likely to take me a while to get over the disappointment. That said I wish Peter Moores, Eoin Morgan and the lads all the best for the World Cup. I would also like to thank all the players and fans who have supported me as one-day captain."

There was no attempt to mask the extent of the blow to Cook at Lord’s on Saturday from the men who have backed him but now sacked him. "Of

course he’s upset," said Downton, who only on Monday had said he would be "very surprised" if England had a new captain for the World Cup. "Gutted was the word he used. He had a dream to lead England at the World Cup and it’s been taken away from him a month from its fulfilment.

"He still believes he’s the right man for the job but the selectors had to make a decision in the best interests of English cricket. He’s very raw and of course it’s a blow to have the captaincy taken away from you." l

Holder replaces Bravo as Windies ODI skipper n AFP, St. John’s

DAY’S WATCH Star Sports 2 10:00AM Kerala v Hyderabad

Star Sports 4 2:10PM Perth Scorchers v Adelaide Stickers 1:45AM English Premier League Stoke City v Chelsea

Ten Action 2:00AM French Ligue 1 Bordeaux v Olympic Lyon

Ajmal picks up two wickets in comeback

Walton additional director FM Iqbal bin Anwar Dawn (2L) unveils the Victory Day International Rapid Chess Tournament while chess legend Rani Hamid (R) look on at the chess federation premises yesterday COURTESY

Barbados all-rounder Jason Holder was named as the new captain of the West Indies one-day squad on Saturday, taking over from Dwayne Bravo who has been axed after his high-profile role in October’s India tour fiasco.

Holder, 23, will lead the West Indies into their five-game series against South Africa in January before heading the squad at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in February and March.

“Jason is one of the good, young players who we believe will form part of the long-term future of West Indies cricket,” said Clive Lloyd, the chairman of selectors.

“We expect him to be around for long

time. He is a young man with a very bright future. We have invested in him.

West Indies ODI squad:

Jason Holder (captain), Sulieman Benn, Carlos Brathwaite, Jonathan Carter, Sheldon Cottrell, Narsingh Deonarine, Leon Johnson, Chris Gayle, Denesh Ramdin, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Smith, Jerome Taylor; 15th man TBA

West Indies Twenty20 squad:

Darren Sammy (captain), Sulieman Benn, Carlos Brathwaite, Dwayne Bravo, Sheldon Cottrell, Andre Fletcher, Gayle, Jason Holder, Ashley Nurse, Pollard, Denesh Ramdin, Andre Russell, Samuels, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Smith. l

14

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

Monday, December 22, 2014

Supreme Real Madrid clinch Club World Cup n AFP, Marrakech Real Madrid defeated San Lorenzo of Argentina 2-0 on Saturday to win the Club World Cup and secure their fourth trophy of 2014.

The Spanish giants dominated the final with Sergio Ramos, who had been an injury doubt because of a hamstring strain, and Gareth Bale getting on the scoresheet.

Real added the year-ending trophy to the Champions League, Copa del Rey and European Super Cup titles they

RESULT

Real Madrid

2-0

San Lorenzo

Sergio Ramos 37, Bale 51

had already secured in 2014. They will also end the year on top of La Liga.

Saturday’s triumph was also their 22nd consecutive win in all competitions, and they now have in their sights the mark of 26 straight wins achieved

by Johan Cruyff ’s Ajax side in 1971-72.

Real are also guaranteed to finish the year as La Liga leaders and Ancelotti was already setting his sights on similar achievements in 2015.

Ramos opened the scoring after 37 minutes when he rose above the San Lorenzo defence to send a thumping

header past goalkeeper Sebastian Torrico from a Toni Kroos corner.

Bale made it 2-0 six minutes into the second half when he collected a pass from Isco and fired the ball straight at Torrico.

But the Argentine ‘keeper made a terrible hash of the Welshman’s tame shot and fumbled the ball over the line.

Real ‘keeper Iker Casillas was relatively untroubled, called into serious action for the first time well after the hour mark to keep out an Emmanuel Mas drive.

At the other end, Karim Benzema went close to a third Real goal but his touch went wide of the post.

Cristiano Ronaldo had a quiet night and failed to get on the end of a Benzema cross in the 80th minute. In the last minute, San Lorenzo’s Juan Mercier unleashed a powerful, long distance drive which was saved by a diving Casillas.

Earlier, New Zealand’s Auckland City claimed third place after defeating Cruz Azul 4-2 in a penalty shoot-out to become the first Oceania team to win a medal at the tournament.

The two sides were locked 1-1 at the end of normal time with defender Ryan de Vries’ goal in first-half injury time equalised by Joao Rojas’ close-range effort just before the hour mark for the Mexican side. l

Real Madrid players and officials receive their Club World Cup trophy from Morocco’s Prince Moulay Hassan as the Los Blancos celebrate following the final against Argentinian side San Lorenzo at Marrakech Stadium on Saturday REUTERS

Roma held by Milan to lose ground Mourinho backs Chelsea to n AFP, Milan Ten-man AC Milan handed Roma their first home draw of the season to leave Rudi Garcia’s title challengers three points adrift of leaders Juventus on Saturday.

Roma had recently capitalised on two consecutive draws by defending champions Juve to reduce their deficit to a point.

But in their final game of the year, the Giallorossi - denied a first-half penalty after a clear handball by Nigel De Jong - ultimately failed to break down a well-drilled Milan side in a thrilling Stadio Olimpico goalless stalemate.

Roma remain second, three points adrift of Juve after their 3-1 win at Cagliari on Thursday, with Napoli in third a further nine points adrift. Milan remain seventh but are only two points off Napoli in the final Champions League qualifying spot.

Milan’s 2-0 home win over Napoli

last week put much-needed wind into their sails and Filippo Inzaghi was so delighted he said Milan should be aiming higher than just qualification for the Champions League.

Milan underlined their intentions from the outset of a balanced first half

RESULTS Sassuolo

1-1

Zaza 76-P

Roma

Cesena Ze Eduardo 90+4

0-0

AC Milan

at the Stadio Olimpico and, but for Pablo Armero’s sending-off in the 70th minute for a handling offence, Milan might have snatched a win.

Seconds after kick-off Keisuke Honda fired a speculative shot from 25 metres to force Morgan De Sanctis into a double save at his near post after Andrea Poli rushed in to fire the rebound from a tight angle.

Garcia had left on-form Serbian Adem Ljajic on the bench in place of Alessandro Florenzi, who was given a rare start up front alongside Francesco Totti and Gervinho, who hobbled off in the final minutes after suffering a knock.

But the normally potent Roma front line was conspicuous by its absence.

After half-chances by Florenzi and Totti went amiss, Gervinho provided the first real threat.

The Ivorian slalomed his way into the Milan area and skipped around Phillipe Mexes to fire a low shot which Lopez did well to block.

Roma were denied what looked like a stonewall penalty soon after when a corner whipped in from the left was deflected by the forearm of Nigel De Jong.

Despite protests, Roma’s pleas fell on deaf ears but Garcia later hit out: “I’ve said this before but if the goal-line officials don’t take responsibility for things there’s no point having them.”l

AS Roma goalkeeper Morgan de Sanctis tries to save a shot from AC Milan midfielder Jeremy Menez during their Italian Serie A match at the Olympic stadium in Rome on Saturday REUTERS

Abidal exits with Olympiakos win n AFP, Mytilene Former France international defender Eric Abidal played his last official match Saturday as his Olympiakos team blasted Kalloni 5-0 in a Greek Super League contest on the Aegean island of Mytilene.

The 35-year-old former Barcelona star, who returned to playing football after undergoing a liver transplant, had announced his retirement at an emotional press conference in Piraeus on Friday stating “personal reasons.”

“These are moments I will never forget. Very good and unique moments. It was my last match, we played well and an ideal way to go on holiday,” Abidal told Nova TV after the match which lifted Olympiakos to first place in the league standings, two points ahead of PAOK Thessaloniki.l

avoid more Stoke misery n AFP, Stoke-on-Trent

Jose Mourinho knows Chelsea must avoid a repeat of last season’s nightmare trip to Stoke if they are to re-establish their three-point lead at the top of the Premier League.

Mourinho’s side travel to the Britannia Stadium 48 hours after Manchester City’s 3-0 victory over Crystal Palace drew the champions level on points with the Blues.

City are behind the leaders only on goal difference and while Chelsea boss Mourinho insists his team will not feel any extra pressure, anything less than victory will hand Manuel Pellegrini’s team a major lift heading into the busy Christmas period.

And if they are reassert their early

standing as favourites to be crowned champions, Chelsea must improve on last December’s showing at Stoke when individual errors contributed to the home side’s 3-2 victory.

But Mourinho is confident his team have learned their lesson and are more than capable of matching Mark Hughes’ side.

“We played so well collectively last season but we made two individual mistakes that cost us the game. This is also part of the game,” Mourinho said.

“We have to play our football. Our football is the way we believe.

“That’s part of our project for this club. We have to go there and play our game, but we know well their qualities as a team, and their qualities individually.l

Late Johnson strike earns Sunderland derby win n Reuters, London Adam Johnson’s late winner earned Sunderland a 1-0 victory over Newcastle United in a frantic Premier League Tyne-Wear derby at St James Park on Sunday.

With a minute remaining, and seconds after Moussa Sissoko had almost won it for hosts Newcastle, Johnson kept his cool to slam a shot past keeper Jak Alnwick and wrap up a fourth successive win for Sunderland in the fixture.

It was only Sunderland’s third league victory of the season and lifted them to 14th place with 19 points. Newcastle, who have lost three matches in a row in all competitions since beating leaders Chelsea, are ninth on 23. l

Roberto Carlos quits Turkey’s Sivasspor n AFP, Istanbul

Last-gasp penalty denies Real Sociedad

Brazilian football legend Roberto Carlos on Sunday resigned as coach of Turkish top flight side Sivasspor after a succession of poor results, reports said.

The board met immediately after Saturday’s 0-2 defeat to Istanbul’s Basaksehir and then with Carlos himself on Sunday morning where it was mutually agreed he should quit, Turkish sports daily Fanatik said.

He is expected to leave Sivas, a major city in central Turkey, by Monday evening, online news site Radikal added.

A search for a new manager is to begin immediately. Roberto Carlos, who won renown in the Brazilian national team for his stunning free kicks, took on the Sivasspor job in 2013 after ending his playing career at Russian side Anzhi.l

Real Sociedad were left frustrated after a late Levante penalty denied them a first league away win of the season on

n Reuters, Barcelona RESULTS Levante

1-1

Ivanschitz 90+3-P

Eibar

Real Sociedad Canales 48

0-1

Valencia Alcacer 31

Rayo Vallecano Baptistao 45

1-3

Espanyol Garcia 9, 90+5, Lucas 76

Saturday with their inability to hold on to the lead a further indication of the tough job facing coach David Moyes.

The former Everton and Manchester

United manager had urged his players to become stronger mentally if they wanted to pick up a first away win since April and start moving up the table towards the European places.

The match was an uninspiring affair but Sociedad were on course for that victory through Sergio Canales’ strike at the start of the second half before fullback Carlos Martinez handled the ball inside the area in stoppage time.

When television cameras turned to Moyes on the touchline his face was a picture of controlled anger.

Valencia moved up to fourth with a hard-fought 1-0 win at Eibar thanks to Paco Alcacer’s goal on the half hour mark.

With Sevilla not in action as they were due to face Real this weekend, Valencia move a point ahead of the Andalusians in the final Champions League slot. l

Lacklustre PSG held at home n AFP, Paris

Paris Saint-Germain failed to find the killer punch in a drab goalless draw at home to Montpellier on Saturday, handing arch-rivals Marseille the chance to end the year on top of the Ligue 1 table.

Marseille stay top on goal difference before they take on Lille at home on Sunday while third-placed Lyon, who could theoretically upset the apple cart if Marseille came unstuck, travel to Bordeaux.

But for the Parisians, it was another case of failing to live up to the pressure, following defeats to Barcelona in the Champions League and then Guingamp in the league, before an unconvincing 3-1 victory at second-tier AC Ajaccio in the League Cup in midweek.

An error-strewn first-half at the Parc des Princes saw the mid-table visitors

knock the Parisians out of their normally fluid style and frustrated them throughout the first 45 minutes.

Montpellier could even claim the best chance of the first 45 minutes when Morgan Sanson had the the ball

RESULTS

PSG

0-0

Caen

1-1

Bastia

Feret 74

Lorient

Karmano 21

1-2

Ayew 73

Metz

Montpellier

Nantes

Bammou 44, Audel 79

0-1

Monaco Ferreira-Carrasco 79

Rennes

1-3

Mexer 45

Charbonnier 66, Fortes 76, De Preville 90+1

Toulouse

1-1

Doumbia 25

Reims

Guingamp Giresse 8

in the net with an acrobatic volley from Antony Mounier’s cross from the left, but Mounier was harshly ruled offside and the goal did not count.

PSG had to wait until five minutes from half-time before carving out a creditable chance of their own but failed to take advantage as Edinson Cavani needed one touch too many on Marco Verratti’s through pass and the ball ran away from him, allowing Montpellier ‘keeper Jonathan Ligali to smother it at his feet.

The home side were looking anything like reigning champions even after upping the tempo at the start of the second half, as Montpellier managed to soak up everything PSG could throw at them.

But PSG gave notice that it might not be long before they took the lead as they moved up a gear in the 63rd minute.l

PSG defender David Luiz (L) and forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic are dejected after their draw against Montpellier on Saturday at Parc des Princes stadium in Paris AFP

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Entertainment

Monday, December 22, 2014

ON BORDERS goes on display BANYA MIRZA to perform on stage today n Entertainment Desk

n Entertainment Desk Popular TV actress Banya Mirza will be returning, after a break of four years, to a role in the play “Dorponey Shorothshoshhir,” produced by theatre troupe Desh. The play will be staged today and tomorrow at 6pm at the National Theatre Hall of the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.

Banya has worked with Desh for the last twenty-two years and, despite being busy for TV productions, she always makes time for the stage. She last performed in “Dorponey Shorothshoshhir” four years ago.

“Dorponey Shorothshoshhir,” written by Monoj Mitra and directed by Aly Zaker, is set a century ago.

It showcases the passion of a landlord’s son for theatre and addressed the difficulties in staging a play that people of that time had to face.

Banya plays the protagonist, Shorothshoshhir, who encourages young women to work in the theatre.

For here, the work takes on a sacred meaning.

Also, the production describes how theatre is a traditional art forms in which women have always made an immense contribution. l

A photography exhibition titled “On Borders” is on display at the Daily Star-Bengal Arts Precinct. Jointly organised by the Goethe-Institut and the Bengal Foundation, the exhibition features the works of 10 photographers from OSTKREUZ Agency of Berlin, Germany.

The photography exhibition showcases that human beings have gradually settled across the entire planet. No ocean, no desert, no mountain range has been able to stop them. In the end, they have even travelled in space and to the moon. Tirelessly, as if this is their manifest destiny, they have transcended every limitation that nature and its laws have confronted them with. The only boundaries they have not yet been able to overcome are those that they have set up between themselves. Why is this?

A border is no more than an imaginary line drawn to mark a difference. This ends here, something else starts over there — a different country, a different people, another language, another belief system, a different skin colour. Most crossings occur smoothly, but once a barrier has been constructed, it can only be crossed at a border checkpoint. A barrier emphasises differences via fences, walls and gestures.

“On Borders” will remain open to viewing until January 4, 2015. l

Bad Teacher HBO, 5pm

A lazy, incompetent middle school teacher who hates her job and her students is forced to return to her job to make enough money for a boob job after her rich fiancé dumps her.

127 Hours Star Movies, 7:30pm

A mountain climber becomes trapped under a boulder while canyoneering alone near Moab, Utah and resorts to desperate measures in order to survive.

On the occasion of celebrating the Victory Day and the month of victory, Wheel and Channel i have jointly organised a film festival titled Muktijoddha Chalachitra Utshab 2014 on Channel i. As part of the festival, ‘Khondo-Golpo ‘71’ will be aired today at 3:05pm on Channel i.

The film was directed by Badrul Anam Soud and stars Suborna Mustafa, Raisul Islam Asad and Intekhab Dinar among others

JESSICA PARKER plots Divorce comedy at HBO n Entertainment Desk

15

Enemy at the Gates Zee Studio, 4:50pm

A Russian sniper and a German sniper play a game of cat-and-mouse during the Battle of Stalingrad.

RABEYA to be screened today

n Entertainment Desk

The film “Rabeya” (The Sister), based on the Liberation War, will be screened at the Liberation War Film Festival at the International Digital Cultural Archive, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy at 6pm today.

Directed by Tanvir Mokammel, the plot of the story revolves around the War of Liberation in 1971. In a remote village on the banks of the River Rupsha live two young sisters, Rabeya and Rokeya.

Both their parents are dead , so they live with the religiously conservative household of their uncle (their aunt’s husband). Their uncle Emdad Kazi, rich, powerful and belonging to the landed gentry of the area, is a local Islamic leader.

To serve his political ambitions, Emdad collaborates with the marauding Pakistan Army and their lo-

Nearly 11 years after “Sex and the City” ended its run, star Sarah Jessica Parker is re-teaming with HBO for a new comedy.

HBO is near a pilot deal for “Divorce,” a comedy that would likely star and be produced by Parker, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Divorce centres on a middle-aged woman (Parker), who, influenced by her two recently single friends, impulsively brings up the idea of divorce with her husband but then can’t decide whether to actually go through with it — until her husband discovers the affair she’s been having and calls the marriage off.

“Divorce” marks Parker’s latest TV comeback. The actress had a recurring role as a magazinefashionista on “Glee’s” fourth season and, more recently, eyed a TV return in “Busted,” a limited series from optioned by Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and packaged with Anonymous Content (True Detective). l

AAMIR KHAN’s PK makes Rs50 crore in 2 Days n Entertainment Desk Aamir Khan-starrer “PK” has minted over Rs50 crore in two days in the domestic market, and trade experts expect it do “steady” business in coming days.

The film, directed by “3 Idiots” director Rajkumar Hirani and also starring Anushka Sharma, bagged the second highest non-holiday opening after Aamir’s last Christmas outing “Dhoom 3.”

“PK,” which released on December 19, in around 6000 screens all over including 5200 in India, got positive response from the audience and critics for its gripping storyline and powerful performances.

Produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, the film stars Sanjay Dutt and Sushant Singh Rajput in pivotal roles. l

cal collaborators. Khaled, the only brother of the two sisters, a college student enlightened with secular ideas, joins a Bangali resistance guerilla group to fight against the Pakistan Army. Rabeya, the elder of the two sisters, is greatly influenced by the secular and progressive ideas of her brother and their idealistic father who was a schoolteacher.

Khaled’s guerrilla group operates on the other side of the Rupsha River fighting against the Pakistani soldiers and their collaborators, the “razakars.” But during a guerilla operation, Khaled is killed in a skirmish.

The Pakistani captain orders that the dead body of the young guerrilla fighter be denied burial. The corpse is left by the river bank in order to frighten the villagers and deter would-be rebels.

The dead body is kept under watch by Emdad Kazi’s retainers and nobody dares to bury Khaled’s dead body.

One night, Rabeya secretly proceeds to bury her brother and is shot and killed. The villagers then rise up and defeat the enemy. They remember Rabeya as a martyr for the cause of freedom. l

MADONNA responds to leak, releases songs as Christmas gift n Entertainment Desk Singer Madonna didn’t plan on releasing her new album “Rebel Heart” anytime soon, but that all changed after unfinished versions of her newest songs found their way on the Internet. Early mixes from the Queen of Pop’s 13th album had been leaked, and longtime manager Guy Oseary asked the public to help find those responsible.

Madonna fired back by officially releasing six new tracks Saturday morning, which are now up for sale on iTunes.

In a tweet, the singer wrote, “Happy early X-Mas!” and linked to where people go could to purchase her new songs.

The tracks available immediately for download include “Living for Love,” an upbeat anthem, “Devil Pray,” a haunting composition, “Ghosttown,” an emotional mantra, “Illuminati,” an electronic orches-

tra of melodies, as well as two other songs.

Madonna took to Instagram this past week, thanking fans for not listening to the tracks floating around online. “Thank you for not listening! Thank you for your loyalty!

Thank you for waiting and if you have heard please know they are unfinished demos stolen long ago and not ready to be presented to the world,” she wrote in her post.

Earlier this month, the singer posted a photo of her smashed iPod on Instagram after discovering the leak of her track “Rebel Heart.” In her post she wrote, “This broken ipod is a symbol of my broken heart! That my music has been stolen and leaked! I have been violated as a human and an artist!” l

Elton John marries his long-term partner David Furnish n Entertainment Desk Sir Elton John and David Furnish have officially married – exactly nine years after they tied the knot in a civil partnership ceremony.

The veteran musician married his partner at their Windsor estate on Sunday, with a number of stars to attend the ceremony.

The singer has already posted snaps on the photo-sharing website, including an image of a wedding invitation emblazoned with red roses which confirms the big day is 21 December.

The couple have two sons of tod-

dler age called Zachary and Elijah.

On 21 December 2005, they tied the knot in a civil partnership ceremony at the Windsor Guildhall.

The pair first met in 1993 when a mutual friend invited BritishCanadian film-maker Furnish to dinner with the rock legend.

Their civil partnership service took place in the same venue where the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall got married.

With Furnish by his side, John has hosted star-studded bashes and raised huge sums for his Aids Foundation. l

16

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Back Page

Monday, December 22, 2014

It isn’t a drone, just a remote controlled flying object n Mohammad Jamil Khan A flying object recently seized by detectives from two members of Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) is merely a remote controlled flyer, not a high-tech “drone”, say experts.

On December 17, Detective Branch (DB) of police, arrested two members of the militant outfit from the capital’s Jatrabari area. The arrested Islamist militants are Golam Maula Mohan and Tanzil Hossain Babu.

After the arrest, the DB claimed in a briefing that the duo were conducting research on drones capable of conducting attacks on targets.

The detectives also claimed that they recovered a squad chopper, drone and equipment for making remotely-controlled devices from the arrestees.

A high official of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) told the Dhaka Tribune that what the detectives recovered is nothing but a toy “The militants were conducting research for six months on how to make drones capable of flying at an altitude of 200 or 300 feet while carrying a payload of 20 to 30 kilogrammes of explosives,” DB Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam said.

“If we call it a simple remote controlled flyer, instead of calling it a “drone” then it would be more appropriate,” Security Analyst Maj Gen (Retd) Md Abdur Rashid told the Dhaka Tribune.

Drones are mini aircraft that have a navigation capacity, can be piloted remotely and are able to hit targets as commanded, he said.

“A drone is basically a high-technology mini aircraft which is used by the military or air force and it would be difficult for militants to build such things,” he said.

He explained saying that a pipe gun and an AK-47 can both kill. But there are differences between pipe guns and AK-47s.

“The ABT militants made a flying device that can be controlled remotely and carry a payload, he said.

“But that doesn’t mean they made a high-tech drone,” he added.

Militants, in a bid to get the attention of the international media or drum up support for local operations from international militant outfits, often adopt different techniques to raise interest, said the security analyst.

The militants hoped to fly to a target and wreak destruction on their target area, he said. For them, this would be considered a success, he said.

We must investigate seriously to determine just what their capabilities are, added the security analyst.

Drones, formally known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), are essentially flying robots. The aircraft may be remotely controlled or may fly autonomously through software-controlled flight plans in their embedded systems working in conjunction with GPS. UAVs have most often been associated with the military but they are also used for search and rescue, surveillance, traffic monitoring, weather monitoring and fire fighting, among other things.

Asked about the recent DB raid that yielded a so-called drone weapon, a high official of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) told the Dhaka Tribune that what the detectives recovered is nothing but a toy.

“It is not a drone,” the official said, requesting not to be named. “The capacity to operate drones are only available in certain countries. How would it be possible to operate them in the sub-continent?” he asked.

The RAB official, who was seconded from the army, said investigators need to be more aware of what they are investigating and careful of the message they give to the public.

Asked about latest DB drive, SM Shahjahan, former inspector general of police (IGP), told the Dhaka Tribune that detectives need to launch a better investigation into the militants and emerging weapon technologies.

“The public needs to understand that they too must help inform law enforcement officials about militant activities,” the former IGP added. l

Jute genome decoder Maqsudul Alam dies

n Mohammad Abu Bakar Siddique

The huge fleet of cars, buses and other vehicles running on the city streets drastically limit the speed of the vehicles cutting down commuters’ working hours substantially. The photo was taken from the capital’s Farmgate area yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

Scientist Dr Maqsudul Alam, decoder of the genome sequence of the indigenous variety of jute, died at the age of 60 early yesterday.

He was undergoing treatment at the Queen’s Hospital of Hawaii in the United States, BSS reported. He was suffering from cirrhosis of the liver.

He will be buried at a local graveyard in Hawaii today.

Maqsudul, born on December 14, 1954, leaves behind his wife, a daughter and a host well-wishers to mourn his death.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed profound shock at the death of the noted scientist.

The scientist and his team discovered the genome sequence of “Tosha” jute – the Jute Plant Draft Genome – in June, 2010. Prime minister Sheikh Hasina announced his discovery in 2010, which he did leading a research team with financial assistance from the Agriculture Ministry, He taught at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and achieved two more milestones in genomics – sequencing the genomes of papaya in the US and rubber in Malaysia.

Born in Faridpur of Bangladesh, he obtained a master’s degree in microbiology from the University of Moscow in 1979. In 1982, he obtained a PhD from the same university. In 1987, he completed a second doctorate in microbiology from the Max Planck Institute in Germany.

His family said Maqsudul had been receiving treatment for liver cirrhosis for 21 days. On Saturday night, when his condition deteriorated, he was put on life support.

Anwar Hossain, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Dhaka University, termed his death as “a great loss” because he had raised the chances for the revival of Bangladesh jute’s lost glory.

Jute – known as the golden fibre of Bengal – was once the backbone of Bangladesh’s economy.

Although based in Hawaii, Dr Maqsudul always took Bangladeshis as partners. Data Soft, a Bangladeshi software firm, and several other scientists from here worked with him. He worked at the Dhaka University as well. l

No progress in Gopibagh six murders Baby thieves were DMCH nannies n Mohammad Jamil Khan

A year has elapsed since unidentified assailants entering a house in the capital’s Gopibagh area slaughtered six people but the mystery behind the murders are yet to be unearthed.

Given the sensitivity of the case the investigation charge was handed over to Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) on December 22 last year, just a day after the murders.

DB police have so far arrested four Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) men in the case. The arrestees were taken remands in two phases but to no avail.

Asked, Jahangir Hossain Matubbor, deputy commissioner of DB (East) police, said investigation into the cases is under way but there had been no major development yet.

About the four arrested JMB members he said they had gleaned some in-

formation from the arrestees.

“It is taking time as the killers were professional. They rarely left any clue behind but we are doing our level best,” added DC Jahangir.

Earlier on December 21 of 2013 socalled spiritual leader Lutfar Rahman Faruk, 60, was killed at his rented house on the 64/6 Ramkrishna Mission Road of Gopibagh.

Along with Faruk, assailants also killed five more persons in the house identified as Sarowar Islam Faruk, Shahin, Mujibor, Manjurul Alam and Rasel Bhuyan.

Just a day after the incident, Lutfar’s son Abdullah Al-Faruk, filed a case against 10 to 12 unidentified assailants with Wari police station.

Investigators, soon after the murder started investigation, centring three clues – family conflicts, property and Islamist extremist groups.

Based on the third clue Investiga-

tion Officer and Inspector of DB Police Abul Khayer on September 16 showed four JMB members arrested who were already in the jail in a previously filed case with Ramna police station.

The arrestees were identified as Golam Sarowar Rahat, Azmir Amit, Sayed Ziaul Islam Jitu and Al-Amin.

Inspector Abul Kahyer said: “We have not been able to make any major breakthrough in unearthing evidence but we got some information that might help us hunting down the perpetrators.”

Abdullah Al-Faruk, son of slain Lutfar expressed his dissatisfaction over the investigation process.

“It is really painful that police have failed to make any progress in the case, Faruk, told the Dhaka Tribune, yesterday.

Faruk also blamed the investigators for their negligence in finding out the criminals. l

n Tazlina Zamila Khan

Four women, arrested from Dhaka’s Lalbagh area for stealing newborn babies from the Dhaka Medical College Hospital’s maternity wards, are all parttime nannies, police confirmed.

All four women belong to a newborn baby theft gang, Lalbagh police Sub-Inspector Md Farukuzzaman, told the Dhaka Tribune after the arrestees were questioned for two days in remand.

RAB arrested Farida, 42, Jahanara, 50, Ferdousi, 30, and Rozina, 50 on December 15, and rescued a baby girl who was going to be sold.

After contacting the gang under the guise infant buyer, RAB men set up a deal to buy the recently kidnapped child for Tk70,000.

During the bust Monoara, believed to be the ringleader, and her husband, Babul, managed to escape. The four arrestees were handed over to Lalbagh

police station.

During interrogation, Ferdousi said Monoara was a nanny at DMCH. She had strong links with brokers, who deal in kidnapped babies, and the Ansar force.

With help from brokers, the four nannies got their part-time jobs at the hospital. They claimed Monoara and her husband were veterans in the business.

Police also arrested Jabbar, 35, Monoara’s brother, who runs a shop in the Shahidnagar Beribandh area in the capital. Sources said all were involved in the infant stealing business.

They have been sent to Dhaka Central Jail, police said.

SI Farukuzzaman said: “The baby rescued on December 15 was picked up on November 24.”

The thieves use code words, calling boy babies “jamai” [groom] and girl-babies “bou” [bride], police said.

Girls are priced above Tk50,000 while boys fetch at least Tk1 lakh. “If

Monoara is caught, we may catch other gangs operating in various hospitals and clinics,” the SI said.

“The accused said they had delivered the stolen baby. But they claim to know nothing about the mother. It seems all are lying...It is clear that Monoara and her husband played key role sin the gang,” he added.

No trace of the child’s parents

Nobody has yet claimed the girl, although though a week has passed since she was rescued.

She has been kept at the neonatal ward of the DMCH and will soon be handed over to the Chotomoni Nibash, a children’s home run by the Department of Social Welfare.

Lalbagh OC Md Moniruzzaman said: “We did not receive any complaint from any parents after the child was kidnapped. It has been difficult tracing the parents.” l

Secretariat gets free Wi-Fi n Muhammad Zahidul Islam To bring dynamism to administrative activities, the government has launched a free, high-speed Wi-Fi service at the Secretariat.

Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state minister for the Information and Communication Technology, inaugurated the service in the conference room of the Public Administration Ministry.

Palak said uninterrupted broadband internet through Wi-Fi would speed up administrative work. “Administrative tangles will be eased by the new technology,” he said.

“Administrative activities often get hampered by bureaucratic tangles, but I believe such modern initiatives will gradually reduce those problems.”

The Wi-Fi network was installed as part of Bangladesh Computer Council’s National ICT Infra-Network for Bangladesh Government Phase-II project.

“Now, the Secretariat will be connected with the Wi-Fi network round the clock and

any one can avail the service in the Secretariat using 506 access points,” Palak said.

Palak informed that over 18,130 government offices were being brought under internet connectivity through fibre optic cable to expedite administrative activities.

The government is also installing facilities for video-conferencing from 800 spots across the country. Also, 24,960 officers will get tablet PC for their use.

“The Tablet PCs would help the officials to connect with the offices round the clock so that they could not shirk their responsibilities,” the state minister added.

Earlier, the government introduced Wi-Fi services in different public universities, including Dhaka University. It also introduced Wi-Fi buses in the capital in April this year.

The government also plans to establish 100,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in different rural areas to provide free internet connectivity with the aim to diminish the information and communication gap between the urban and rural areas, sources at the ICT division said. l

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B3 For Russia’s economy,

the worst is yet to come

BB cuts maximum farm loan rate to 11% n Tribune Report Bangladesh Bank has reset the highest limit of interest rate on farm loan at 11% instead of existing 13%, considering the downward trend in interest rate on loans and deposits in the banking sector.

Earlier, the central bank set the interest rate on farm loan at 13% in 2011 while the weighted average lending rate was 12.80%.

The new instruction will be effective from January 01, said a circular Bangladesh Bank issued yesterday.

Average interest rate on bank loans and advances has come down to as low as 12% in July this year According to the circular, the new interest rate has been set, considering agriculture and rural credit as priority sector.

Average interest rate on bank loans and advances has come down to as low as 12% in July this year, breaking a steady trend of over 13% in last 30 months.

This is due to lack of loan demand in the industrial sector and increased inflow of low-cost foreign loans.

The lending rate stood at 12.49% in October from 12.58% in the previous month.

It had been ranging between 13.9% and 13.1% for the last two and half years, according to the central bank data.

Earlier in December 2011, the rate came below 13% to stand at 12.9%.

The interest rate on deposit also fell to 7.40% in October from 7.48% in the previous month. It came down to as low as 7% in June, breaking a steady trend over 8% in last two years. l

B4 The reason oil could drop as low as $20 per barrel

MONDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2014 www.dhakatribune.com/business

Junk IPOs flood market in 2014

‘This is the best year for the new IPOs but we have failed to see the good brands of the corporate world getting listed’

n Kayes Sohel The busiest year ever for issuing IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) is poised to pass away with a bang infested by mostly poor quality issues.

Though record number of public offerings hit the market in 2014, quality of most of the IPOs is under question as some companies allegedly received IPO nod by cooking their financial health, taking advantage of the securities regulator’s weak monitoring and political clout, according to investors and industry insiders.

Firms like Khulna Printing and Packaging Ltd (KPPL), C&A Textile, Shurwid Industries and Shasha Denims have already stuck with legal tangle for providing false documents to Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC).

Analysts feared that this development bodes ill for the stock market and investors’ confidence that is yet to recover from the shock of the stock market debacle from late 2010 to early 2011, would sink it further.

According to the BSEC, a total of 20 IPOs was approved by the BSEC in the outgoing year, raising an estimated total of Tk927 crore. That makes 2014 the best year for IPOs by both number of IPOs and amount raised since 2000.

During last year, numbers of IPOs were 12 worth more than Tk829 crore.

This year was particularly busy for textile firms that accounted for half of all IPOs, the data shows.

“This is the best year for the new IPOs but we have failed to see the good brands of the corporate world getting listed,” said Md Moniruzzaman, managing director of IDLC Investments Limited.

“Profit margins of some are better even than the leaders of the very sector, which is too good to believe,” he said.

He also opined that there should be

a due diligence guideline for the issue managers –as BSEC is approving IPOs based on their checklist of disclosures and not on merit.

C&A Textile got IPO approval providing false documents about their directorships to the securities regulator. The company increased its paid up capital by issuing only shares for their directors to Tk120 crore in 2013 from only Tk5 lakh in 2001. Then, it applied and got permission easily and swiftly to raise Tk45 crore from the stock market.

Recently, some investors have brought allegation against Shasha Denims as saying, “The company’s pre-IPO net asset value (NAV) was Tk29 but in its IPO prospectus, it showed NAV

Tk52.95, which is not fair.’’

On December 15, High Court issued a rule asking BSEC and other government agencies concerned to explain in four weeks why Shasha Denims IPO should not be declared illegal.

According to the prospectus of Khan Brothers PP Woven Bags Industries, it showed its net profit stood at Tk7.5 crore in the fiscal year 2013-2014, Tk6.5 crore in 2012 and 2013, Tk1.8 crore in 2011-2012 and Tk2.2 crore in 2010-2011.

The rising profits over the last four years showed that the company’s net profit jumped more than 261% in 20122013 from 2011-2012 just before proposing the IPO. In this context, the company ex-

plained in its prospectus that though, in the years of 2011-12 and 2010-11, Khan Brothers made few of its exports through deferred L/C. So, in those years the amount of accounts receivables remained at much greater percentages on sales compared to that of the previous years.

In case of KPPL, the firm’s revenue in 2009-10 was only Tk34 crore, soaring 247% to Tk119 crore in next year.

Then, its revenue shot up to Tk208 crore in 2011-12 before losing more than 8% to Tk191 crore in 2012-13.

On behalf of investors, lawyer Md Rahanul Mostafa filed a writ in May last, accusing the KPPL of providing false and fabricated information in its

Remittance inflow from Parliamentary body formed Middle East rebounds to watch MLM works n Tribune Report

Remittance inflow from Middle East countries is presently on the rebound in the backdrop of political stability in the country.

The remittance inflow from gulf regions rose around 12% to $3.6bn in the first five months of FY2014-15compared to the same period last year.

The country experienced around 17% fall in remittance inflow in July to November period last year amid political crisis ahead of the national election on January 5.

The expatriates sent home remittance worth $3.2bn during FY2013-14 compared to $3.9bn in the last fiscal year, according to Bangladesh Bank data.

The total remittance inflow shot up by around 12% to $6.2bn in the first five months of current fiscal compared to $5.56bn in the same period last year.

Remittance inflow had been witnessing a slower trend since 2013 due to shutdown of recruitment of migrant

workers from Bangladesh in the Middle East countries.

Despite that crisis remittance inflow rebounded and the country’s economy got some motion after a long break, said a senior executive of Bangladesh Bank.

He added that the central bank is also encouraging expatriates to send more remittance home through giving awards and through making remittance-sending process easier.

The country’s foreign exchange reserve reached a new height of $22.4bn in this week. The country received $2.5bn in last five months of 2014-15 fiscal year which was around 12% higher from $$2.3bn in the same period last year.

The remitters from western countries sent $2.2bn in July to November period during FY2012-13.

Expatriates from Saudi Arabia have remitted highest $1.3bn in the first five months of FY2014-15 followed by $1.14bn from UAE, $977m from USA, 533m from Malaysia and $449m from Kuwait, according to the central bank data. l

n Tribune Report Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Commerce has formed a three-member sub-committee to monitor activities of Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) companies currently operational.

The decisions were made at a meeting of the standing committee yesterday, presided over by the committee chairman Tajul Islam Chowdhury.

Md Motahar Hossain, MP has been made convener of the newly formed MLM sub-committee which also includes Enamul Haque MP and Waresat Hossain Belal MP as members.

Additional commerce secretary ATM Murtaza Reza Chowdhury and joint commerce secretary Abdul Mannan will assist the committee.

Senior commerce secretary Hedayetullah Al Mamoon were also present at the meeting which discussed issues on awarding licence to MLM companies and effectiveness of the MLM business

in an open market economy.

Besides, the parliamentary standing committee recommended opening Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) offices in all districts with first office in Rangpur.

Parliamentary standing committee recommended opening EPB offices in all districts Discussions were also held on EPB’s works and the next month-long international trade fair in Dhaka which is set to begin on January 1.

In previous meeting of the committee, Tajul Islam Chowdhury, president of the body, alleged that MLM companies were taking away money from rural people by making “alluring offers of benefits” to them.

He also wanted to know why some

MLM companies were given licence despite the government had stopped such business activities in the country.

The meeting urged the government to report on the companies if they are being run as per laws and what they are doing. On March 5, 2014, the government awarded licences to five MLM companies to operate their business in the country.

The companies are Sadhin Online Public Limited, World Mission 21 Limited, Rich Business Limited, MXN Modern Herbal Food Limited and Jar Electronics Pulse Massager Limited.

Of the companies, four are running their business while Jar Electronics Pulse Massager Limited, owned by a Malaysian, is closed.

Sources concerned said the owner left Bangladesh shutting down the business. The ministry already issued a show cause notice to the company asking why its licence would not be cancelled. l

IPO prospectus.

Shruwid Industries is the latest company that never held any annual general meeting before getting IPO approval but in securities rules, a company needs to hold regular AGM for eligibility of going public.

Interestingly enough, issue manager to the controversial four companies—C&A Textile, Khan Brothers, KPPL and Shasha Denims –is same company named ‘AFC Capital’ having link with a top leader of the ruling party, according to sources concerned.

Another vicious trend in the market is that the newly listed companies are traded at very high prices on debut, declare high bonus shares and no cash and sell the bonus part swiftly which are lock-in free, market players said.

They (issuers) often go for rights offering to fetch in more cash from the public, they alleged.

“Such unexpected development is bringing very bad message for the market because the market is yet to recover from earlier shock and this will be like rubbing salt over wounds,” said former finance adviser to the caretaker government Mirza Azizul Islam.

Islam, also former SEC chairman, suggested the regulator to become more cautious before giving IPO approval for the betterment of the market as well as investors.

The BSEC kept mum itself over giving IPO approval to some firms despite their fictitious documents. BSEC spokesperson, however, did not respond to several phone calls and texts message sent by the Dhaka Tribune.

The IPO market was sluggish since the beginning of 2010 when the market boomed and then doomed as the regulator had tried to limit new issues.

However, from 2013 it got some pace.

Since 2005 in Bangladesh stock market, IPO activity began rising to tap the primary markets, taking advantage of growing demand for shares. l

Cabinet body okays fertiliser import proposals n Tribune Business Desk Cabinet Committee on Purchase approved three proposals to import over half a million tonnes of TSP and DAP fertilisers for the coming season.

According to the proposals, the government will import 450,000 tonne of Triple Super Phosphate (TSP) and 150,000 tonne of Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) fertilisers to meet the season’s domestic requirement, reports UNB. Of the proposed bulk TSP fertiliser import, 300,000 tonne will be procured from Tunisia’s stateowned fertiliser company Groupe Chimique Tunisien (GCT) and 150,000 tonne from Moroccan state-owned OCP SA. The Moroccan company will also supply 150,000 tonne of DAP fertiliser.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith presided over the cabinet body’s meeting which approved the proposals of fertiliser imports. l

Walton seeks $20m German credit for expansion n Asif Showkat Kallol Electronic goods manufacturer Walton is going to borrow $20m from Germany’s DEG as part of its expansion plan in refrigerator market.

With the loan, the company will increase its fridge production capacity by 500,000 units annually, officials said.

Under the current capacity, Walton HiTech Industries Ltd is able to manufacture 1m units of refrigerators a year.

On November 13, the company placed a credit proposal seeking loan from DEG before the Board of Investment’s scrutiny committee for approval. The committee approved the proposal which says the loan will be repaid in seven years with one year grace period.

The interest will be LIBOR+ 4.30% in six months, and “is payable semi-annually in arrears.”

“The loan is being taken for balancing modernisation replacement and expansion of hi-tech fridge factories,” said Uday Hakim, operative director of Walton.

He claimed the Walton now meets 75% of local demand of refrigerators.

The total domestic demand of refrigerators is 1.4m in Bangladesh, he added.

Besides, the company also plans to set up its third hi-tech refrigerators factory as the maker aims to increase local supply during next year’s Eid festivals.

It also wants to produce hi-tech refrigerators for the United States and European markets, increasing the production to 2.4m.

German Investment and Development Corporation (DEG) is a subsidiary of German government-owned development bank KfW. DEG, one of the largest development financing institutions in Europe, was founded in Cologne in September 1962 as a federally-owned company.

It finances investments of private companies in developing and emerging economies.

As one of Europe’s largest development finance institutions, the corporation promotes private business structures to contribute to sustainable economic growth and improve living conditions in the countries. l

workers are busy making refrigerators at a Walton factory in the city

DHAKA TRIBUNE

B2

Stock

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Stocks finish flat with low volume

DSE key features December 21, 2014

n Tribune Report

Number of Contract

traded, 112 advanced, 160 declined and 35 remained unchanged.

The major sectors posted mixed results with cement coming out as the strongest sector with 1.7% gain.

Telecommunication and pharmaceuticals registered marginal gains of 0.2% each.

Food & allied, non-banking financial institutions, banks, engineering, textile and power edged down.

IDLC Investments said market continued sidewalk amid muted turnover where worried investors refrained from taking new position.

Turnover was also concentrated among the small cap scrips, it said.

Lanka Bangla Securities said though buyers tried hard to force the bear from the market, index closed flat.

Small cap continued to lead the gainers list, while large cap financial sectors chucked the bull away over the last few trading sessions, it said.

Summit Alliance Port Limited remained the most traded stock of the session with liquidity worth Tk8.4 crore changing hands.

It was followed by Agni System, Beximco Pharmaceuticals, Fuwang Food, RAK Ceramics, Lafarge Surma Cement and Tung Hai Knitting.

Fuwang Ceramics was the biggest gainer soaring over 10%. It was followed by Salvo Chemical, Rangpur Dairy Food, Beach Hatchery, National Polymer and Stylecraft.

Miracle Industries was the worst loser falling almost 6%, followed by Libra Infusion, Anwar Galvanising, Shahjibazar Power Company Limited, Imam Button and Bangladesh Investment and Finance Corporation. l

Stocks closed flat with low volume of trade yesterday, after a one-day rebound in the previous session.

The market opened the session on a positive note. However, it could not sustain the momentum and closed in red amid volatility.

The benchmark DSEX inched around 7 points or 0.2% higher to settle at 4,849.

Market continued sidewalk amid muted turnover where worried investors refrained from taking new position The Shariah index DSES witnessed fractional losses of 0.7 points to 1,144. The comprising blue chips DS30 closed at 1,790, shedding marginally over 2 points or 0.2%.

Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, edged 8 points down to 9,094.

Market depth remained low since the commencing of flex trading system.

Investors continued to take cautious stance in trading activities as DSE turnover stood at almost Tk238 crore, a slight rise of nearly 3% from previous session’s Tk231 crore.

The market breadth also remained negative as out of 307 issues

Weekly capital market highlights DSE Broad Index : DSE - 30 Index : CSE All Share Index: CSE - 30 Index : CSE Selected Index : DSE LOSER Company

Closing (% Change)

Miracle Industries -B Libra Infusions-A Anwar Galvanizing-B Shahjibazar Power-N Imam Button -Z B I F C -A Safko Spinning-A Quasem Drycells -A Midas Financing-Z Meghna PET Ind. -Z

-5.95 -5.93 -4.95 -4.84 -4.76 -4.09 -4.06 -3.89 -3.45 -3.33

CSE LOSER Company

Closing (% Change)

Aziz PipesZ Midas Financing-Z Asia Pasific Insu. -A Eastern Cables-A Apex Foods -A Pragati Gen. I -A Shahjibazar Power-N Quasem Drycells -A B I F C -A Miracle Industries -B

-9.79 -8.64 -6.12 -5.60 -5.34 -5.31 -4.87 -4.85 -4.65 -4.37

4849.68990

(-) 0.14%

1790.41331

(-) 0.14%

14959.91960

(+) 0.03%

12124.70890

(-) 0.44%

9098.24230

(-) 0.05%

Average (% Change) -3.20 -3.43 -5.13 -4.05 -3.93 -5.04 -2.30 -3.35 -1.33 -4.29 Average (% Change) -9.55 -8.83 -6.28 -3.18 -5.30 -5.25 -2.41 -2.37 -4.54 -1.05

ANALYST

ClosingAvg. 17.83 371.43 40.84 232.68 8.06 16.40 33.53 77.15 17.08 5.80

ClosingAvg. 21.22 14.77 18.37 121.06 95.70 39.20 546.84 78.30 16.39 17.89

Closing

Bank NBFI Investment Engineering Food & Allied Fuel & Power Jute Textile Pharma & Chemical Paper & Packaging Service Leather Ceramic Cement Information Technology General Insurance Life Insurance Telecom Travel & Leisure Miscellaneous Debenture

DSE Million Taka 208.90 158.71 29.66 339.91 232.53 217.86 0.25 246.65 303.88 11.72 109.51 8.36 100.19 72.70 125.41 28.46 37.71 51.38 24.02 71.00 0.00

DHIGH

17.40 371.20 40.30 230.20 8.00 16.40 33.10 76.60 16.80 5.80

Closing

19.00 371.30 45.00 248.50 8.40 17.00 35.00 80.00 17.50 5.80

DHIGH

21.20 14.80 18.40 118.00 95.70 39.20 230.60 76.50 16.40 17.50

21.30 15.00 19.00 125.00 95.70 39.20 232.00 80.60 17.00 18.30

DSE GAINER Company

2,378.81

Turnover (Volume)

65,409,054 78,849

Traded Issues

307

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

134

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

171

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

2

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,595.88

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

31.47

CSE key features December 21, 2014 Turnover (Million Taka)

217.51

Turnover (Volume)

7,007,803

Number of Contract

14,256

Traded Issues

250

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

99

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

145

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

5

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,515.91

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

30.50

Turnover in Million

DLOW 17.00 371.20 39.50 221.00 8.00 16.00 32.80 75.40 16.50 5.70

6.939 0.026 4.854 6.089 0.223 8.885 17.882 38.839 0.780 0.087

Turnover in Million

DLOW 21.20 14.70 17.80 118.00 95.70 39.20 223.50 76.50 16.20 17.20

% change 8.78 6.67 1.25 14.29 9.78 9.16 0.01 10.37 12.77 4.60 0.35 4.21 3.06 5.27 1.20 1.59 2.16 1.01 2.98 0.00

Million Taka 13.24 15.48 3.82 29.22 13.40 19.18 29.73 21.50 4.04 11.94 2.65 9.24 10.12 14.51 1.33 2.25 5.53 4.86 11.77 0.02

CSE

% change 5.91 6.92 1.71 13.06 5.99 8.57 0.00 13.28 9.60 1.80 5.34 1.18 4.13 4.52 6.48 0.59 1.00 2.47 2.17 5.26 0.01

Latest EPS 0.40 5.52 0.84 9.00 -1.72 1.41 1.24 2.24 -7.00 -0.44

Latest EPS

0.009 0.003 0.004 0.151 0.048 0.002 0.361 1.207 0.412 0.500

Million Taka 222.14 174.19 33.49 369.13 245.93 237.04 0.25 276.38 325.37 15.76 121.45 11.01 109.42 82.82 139.92 29.79 39.96 56.91 28.88 82.77 0.02

Fu-wang Ceramic-A Alltex Industries -Z Northern Jute -Z Salvo Chemicals-B Padma Islami Life*-N Rangpur Dairy-N Beach Hatchery -A National Polymer -A Stylecraft -A Kay & Que (BD) -Z

Closing (% Change) 10.00 8.71 6.69 5.83 5.77 5.53 5.14 5.00 4.98 4.96

CSE GAINER

-0.37 -7.00 2.32 0.08 3.64 2.47 9.00 2.24 1.41 0.40

Latest PE 44.6 67.3 48.6 25.9 -ve 11.6 27.0 34.4 -ve -ve

Company Reliance Insur -A Fu-wang Ceramic-A Alltex Industries -Z AIBL 1st Is. M. F.-A National Polymer -A Rangpur Dairy-N Salvo Chemicals-B ISN Ltd. -Z BATBCL -A BDCOM Online-A

9.98 9.35 7.79 6.98 6.35 5.99 5.31 5.13 4.57 3.75

Average (% Change) 8.91 7.45 5.64 6.05 8.77 5.29 5.07 5.99 4.57 4.00

ClosingAvg. 15.17 25.91 333.33 21.47 39.77 22.86 26.20 70.44 900.00 14.84

ClosingAvg. 61.10 15.00 26.03 4.56 71.18 22.89 21.54 12.39 2779.70 24.99

Closing 15.40 26.20 319.00 21.80 40.30 22.90 26.60 71.40 893.50 14.80

Closing 61.70 15.20 26.30 4.60 72.00 23.00 21.80 12.30 2779.70 24.90

DHIGH 15.40 26.40 320.00 21.90 41.20 23.40 26.70 72.70 900.00 15.10

DHIGH 61.70 15.20 26.60 4.60 72.80 23.20 22.00 12.50 2779.70 25.50

DLOW 14.20 24.60 317.00 20.90 38.50 21.90 25.00 67.20 891.90 13.10

DLOW 55.10 14.20 25.00 4.50 69.00 22.00 20.50 12.20 2779.70 24.40

Turnover in Million 38.988 5.489 0.001 29.020 1.815 38.760 26.473 28.826 0.009 0.187

Turnover in Million 0.029 2.134 0.828 0.012 1.149 3.405 5.912 0.085 0.003 0.208

Latest EPS 0.40 3.28 1.00 1.15 1.10 1.11 1.29 2.76 44.98 -1.41

Latest EPS 3.79 0.40 3.28 -0.08 2.76 1.11 1.15 0.13 94.59 1.64

Latest PE 37.9 7.9 333.3 18.7 36.2 20.6 20.3 25.5 20.0 -ve

Latest PE 16.1 37.5 7.9 -ve 25.8 20.6 18.7 95.3 29.4 15.2

News, analysis and recent disclosures DBH: The Company has informed that Cash dividend for the year ended on June 30, 2014 has been remitted to the respective shareholders Bank Accounts through Bangladesh Electronic Fund Transfer Network (BEFTN) System. The dividend warrants of the NRB Shareholders and the Shareholders whose Bank details were incomplete, have been distributed through courier services.

SHURWID: The Company has further informed that due to unavoidable circumstances the 4th EGM and 10th AGM of the Company which was scheduled to be held on December 20, 2014, has been adjourned. The new date will be notified later on.

TUNGHAI: The Company will be placed in A category from existing N category with effect from December 22, 2014 as the Company reported disbursement of 10% stock dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2013.

TUNGHAI: The Company has informed that it has credited the bonus shares for the year ended on December 31, 2013 to the respective shareholders BO Account on December 17, 2014.

IPO Subscription: Shasha Denims Limited subscription date 14 to 21 December 2014, NRB upto 30 December 2014. @

taka 10, face value taka 35 and market lot 200. Zaheen Spinning Limited subscription date 28 December 2014 to 04 January 2015, NRB upto 13 January 2015. @ taka 10, face value taka 10 and market lot 500.

Right Share: ICB: Subscription period for rights issue will be from 07.12.2014 to 30.12.2014. Record date for entitlement of rights share: 09.09.2014. FIRSTSBANK Subscription period for rights issue will be from 07.12.2014 to 28.12.2014. Record date for entitlement of rights share: 20.11.2014.

Dividend/AGM HFL: 10% cash and 10% stock, AGM: 30.12.2014, Record Date: 22.12.2014.

SONALIANSH: 10% cash AGM: 30.12.2014, Record Date: 21.12.2014.

KEYACOSMET: 20% cash, Record Date: 21.12.2014. Date, Time and Venue of the AGM will be notified later.

BENGALWTL: 23% cash, AGM: 28.12.2014, Record Date: 02.12.2014.

MPETROLEUM: 95% cash and 10% stock, AGM: 16.01.2015, Record date: 04.12.2014.

ENVOYTEX: 12% cash and 3% stock dividend, AGM: 24.12.2014, Record date: 02.12.2014.

AFTABAUTO: 17% cash, AGM: 24.12.2014, Record date: 30.11.2014.

JAMUNAOIL: 90% cash and 10% stock,

AGM: 07.02.2015, Record date: 11.12.2014.

GEMINISEA: 7.50% cash, AGM: 22.12.2014, Record Date: 08.12.2014.

KBPPWBIL: 10% stock, AGM: 29.12.2014, Record Date: 08.12.2014.

RAHIMAFOOD: No dividend, AGM: 24.12.2014, Record Date: 04.12.2014.

PHARMAID: 25% cash, AGM: 28.12.2014, Record Date: 02.12.2014.

TALLUSPIN: No dividend, AGM: 23.12.2014, Record Date: 01.12.2014.

MITHUNKNIT: 20% stock, AGM: 23.12.2014, Record date: 20.11.2014.

PRIMELIFE: 10% cash and 15% stock dividend, AGM: 24.12.2014, Record Date: 20.11.2014.

OLYMPIC: 20% cash and 35% stock, AGM: 24.12.2014, Record Date: 27.11.2014.

PADMAOIL: 100% cash, AGM: 14.02.2015, Record date: 22.12.2014.

EASTRNLUB: 30% cash, AGM: 17.01.2015, Record Date: 25.11.2014.

ATLASBANG: 35% cash, AGM: 24.12.2014, Record date: 27.11.2014.

SAMORITA: 20% cash and 10% stock dividend, AGM: 07.01.2015, Record Date: 19.11.2014.

DULAMIACOT: No dividend, AGM: 24.12.2014, Record Date: 27.11.2014.

POWERGRID: 10% cash, AGM: 17.01.2015, Record Date: 25.11.2014.

-ve -ve 7.9 1513.3 26.3 15.9 60.8 35.0 11.6 44.7

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS Company

Total

Closing (% Change)

Average (% Change) 8.05 5.63 11.48 4.78 4.82 5.25 3.48 4.23 6.18 5.77

Latest PE

Small cap continued to lead the gainers list, while large cap financial sectors chucked the bull away over the last few trading sessions

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY Sector

▼ ▼ ▲ ▼ ▼

Turnover (Million Taka)

Monday, December 22, 2014

% change 8.54 6.69 1.29 14.18 9.45 9.11 0.01 10.62 12.50 0.61 4.67 0.42 4.20 3.18 5.38 1.14 1.54 2.19 1.11 3.18 0.00

Prepared exclusively for Dhaka Tribune by Business Information Automation Service Line (BIASL), on the basis of information collected from daily stock quotations and audited reports of the listed companies. High level of caution has been taken to collect and present the above information and data. The publisher will not take any responsibility if any body uses this information and data for his/her investment decision. For any query please email to biasl@bol-online.com or call 01552153562 or go to www.biasl.net

SummitAlliancePort.-A Agni Systems -A Beximco Pharma -A Olympic Ind. -A Fu-Wang Food A RAK Ceramics-A LafargeS Cement-Z Tung Hai Knitting -N Deshbandhu Polymer-A Square Pharma -A

Grameenphone-A WesternMarine -N aamra technologies-A Fu-wang Ceramic-A Quasem Drycells -A Alltex Industries -Z

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS Company SummitAlliancePort.-A LafargeS Cement-Z Hamid Fabrics -N People`s Leasing-A Agni Systems -A WesternMarine -N BEXIMCO Ltd. -A RAK Ceramics-A Square Pharma -A Tung Hai Knitting -N

aamra technologies-A Salvo Chemicals-B DESCO Ltd. -A Grameenphone-A Appollo Ispat CL -N

VolumeShares 1,011,982 2,296,248 1,229,814 319,019 2,558,938 959,137 457,066 2,335,711 2,025,736 183,851

Value in Million 83.26 78.71 77.35 76.96 70.74 59.79 53.37 49.07 47.84 46.53

% of TotalTurnover 3.50 3.31 3.25 3.24 2.97 2.51 2.24 2.06 2.01 1.96

VolumeShares

Value in Million

% of TotalTurnover

127,531 744,562 1,001,827 2,570,204 503,444 4,845,000

123,925 70,635 188,550 337,589 220,367 140,128 191,433 112,645 26,906 302,426

159,307 274,507 72,771 13,105 213,151

44.95 39.38 39.02 38.99 38.84 113.67

10.19 8.23 8.04 8.00 7.58 7.42 7.18 7.01 6.83 6.35

6.21 5.91 4.74 4.62 4.41

1.89 1.66 1.64 1.64 1.63 1.51

4.71 3.80 3.72 3.70 3.50 3.43 3.32 3.24 3.16 2.93

2.87 2.73 2.19 2.13 2.04

ClosingP 83.10 33.90 62.60 233.70 27.10 63.70 118.10 21.40 23.50 253.30

351.50 52.90 39.00 15.40 76.60 22.90 ClosingP

82.90 117.00 42.50 23.70 34.20 52.50 37.30 63.50 254.10 21.30

39.00 21.80 67.00 352.10 20.60

Change % -1.54 2.42 -0.48 -2.91 -1.45 2.58 2.70 0.47 3.07 -0.39

0.20 -1.49 2.36 10.00 -3.89 4.09

Change %

-1.54 1.65 -0.93 -0.42 3.64 -2.60 -1.58 2.42 -0.31 0.95

2.09 5.31 3.88 0.49 -1.44

ClosingY 84.40 33.10 62.90 240.70 27.50 62.10 115.00 21.30 22.80 254.30

350.80 53.70 38.10 14.00 79.70 22.00 ClosingY

84.20 115.10 42.90 23.80 33.00 53.90 37.90 62.00 254.90 21.10

38.20 20.70 64.50 350.40 20.90

DHIGH 85.20 34.90 63.30 245.00 28.20 64.30 119.50 21.90 24.00 255.00

355.50 55.00 39.40 15.40 80.00 24.20 DHIGH

85.70 117.20 43.20 24.10 34.90 54.80 38.40 63.80 259.70 21.50

39.20 22.00 67.00 356.90 21.00

DLOW 79.70 33.40 62.30 231.30 26.80 60.60 115.00 20.60 23.10 251.50

350.30 51.60 37.80 14.20 75.40 20.50 DLOW

79.60 115.20 42.20 23.40 33.00 51.60 37.30 60.60 253.00 20.60

38.20 20.50 65.00 350.70 20.40

AvgPrice 82.27 34.28 62.90 241.23 27.65 62.34 116.76 21.01 23.62 253.09

352.44 52.89 38.95 15.17 77.15 23.46 AvgPrice

82.24 116.56 42.66 23.69 34.38 52.92 37.50 62.21 253.98 21.00

38.96 21.54 65.16 352.32 20.68

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

For Russia’s economy, the worst is yet to come n AFP, Moscow Deep recession, skyrocketing prices and a fragile banking system: although the ruble seems to have stabilised after its abysmal drop this past week, Russia still faces the heavy consequences of the turbulence.

For most Russians, the week ended with relief: after trading at unbelievable levels of 80 to the dollar and 100 to the euro, the ruble appears to have stabilised at around 60 and 73, respectively.

A double whammy of Western sanctions over Ukraine and plunging oil prices finally caught up with the country that depends on energy exports for half of government revenue, and the authorities came out of their apparent stupor only as the ruble’s plunge in value had already gained momentum.

After the ruble fell by nearly 10% on Monday, the central bank moved beyond its limited currency market interventions and in the middle of the night hiked the key interest rate by a tremendous 6.5 percentage points to 17%.

But that failed to stop the panic, with the ruble dropping by 20 percent on Tuesday - bank websites crashed as too many users tried to connect, and crowds packed Ikea until 2 am to get a hold of goods before announced price increases took effect.

‘Confidence shaken’

President Vladimir Putin tried to put a brave face on the crisis at his annual year-end press conference, saying that recovery is “inevitable”, although he acknowledged it could take up to two years to materialise.

He did not announce any economic reforms or specific solutions to the crisis.

“The trend of the economy in the next six months is certainly going to be

tion of nearly 5 percent next year if oil prices stay at current levels.

‘Crisis spreading’

Pedestrians walk past a board listing foreign currency rates against the Russian ruble outside an exchange office in central Moscow AFP much worse” after this past week, said Chris Weafer, an analyst with Macro Advisory consultancy.

“Confidence is shaken - in the central bank, in the currency, in the direction of the economy,” he told AFP. “Consumption and investment are going to take a hit because of higher (interest) rates, inflation will be higher because of the weaker currency... the banks are going to turn to the government and shelves will be empty after the New Year.”

In a sign of the challenges ahead, several suppliers have halted deliveries

Google aiming to go straight into car with next Android n Reuters, San Francisco Google Inc is laying the groundwork for a version of Android that would be built directly into cars, sources said, allowing drivers to enjoy all the benefits of the Internet without even plugging in their smartphones.

The move is a major step up from Google’s current Android Auto software, which comes with the latest version of its smartphone operating system and requires a phone to be plugged into a compatible car with a built-in screen to access streaming music, maps and other apps.

Google, however, has never provided details or a timeframe for its long-term plan to put Android Auto directly into cars. The company now plans to do so when it rolls out the next version of its operating system, dubbed Android M, expected in a year or so, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

The sources declined to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the plans publicly.

“It provides a much stronger foothold for Google to really be part of the vehicle rather than being an add-on,” said Thilo Koslowski, vice president and Automotive Practice Leader of

industry research firm Gartner, who noted that he was unaware of Google’s latest plans in this area.

If successful, Android would become the standard system powering a car’s entertainment and navigation features, solidifying Google’s position in a new market where it is competing with arch-rival Apple Inc. Google could also potentially access the valuable trove of data collected by a vehicle.

Direct integration into cars ensures that drivers will use Google’s services every time they turn on the ignition, without having to plug in the phone. It could allow Google to make more use of a car’s camera, sensors, fuel gauge, and Internet connections that come with some newer car models.

Analysts said Google’s plan could face various technical and business challenges, including convincing automakers to integrate its services so tightly into their vehicles.

Google declined to comment.

Technology companies are racing to design appliances, wristwatches and other gadgets that connect to the Internet. Automobiles are a particularly attractive prospect because Americans spend nearly 50 minutes per day on average on their commute, according to US Census data. l

in a bid to raise prices.

Some stores decided to close their shutters - Apple stopped sales via its Russian online store, while Ikea suspended sales of kitchens and home appliances and warned that prices on the website “may differ from prices in stores”.

Opel and Chevrolet are no longer delivering to dealerships.

Russian media said that stores selling imported alcohol or clothing including Zara, Topshop and Calvin Klein are also trying to avoid selling at a loss while observers predict that many Western

brands will soon disappear from Russia.

That trend has begun and inflation -- already close to ten percent -- threatens to reach 15 percent in the coming months. This will hit the purchasing power of Russians, whose real incomes already declined in the first 11 months of the year compared with 2013.

With the ruble having now lost nearly 50 percent of its value against the dollar in the past year imported food and consumer goods are quickly becoming luxuries.

Even the central bank estimates the economy could suffer a sharp contrac-

“Events have moved quickly and there are now growing signs that the currency crisis is spreading to the banking sector,” wrote emerging markets economist at Capital Economics William Jackson.

Russia’s financial sector is particularly vulnerable, as its state-controlled banking behemoths and a multitude of smaller institutions have been unable to raise funds in the West due to sanctions over Russia’s annexing Crimea and support for separatists in Ukraine.

The central bank announced measures Tuesday aimed at ensuring their survival by improving access to liquidity and easing accounting standards.

On Friday, Russian lawmakers approved a bill on the recapitalisation of banks worth one trillion rubles ($16bn, 13bn euros). The finance ministry is also hoping to increase capital in the banking sector by 13% and the volume of loans issued by 15%.

For many Russians, the downward spiral of the ruble brought back memories of the crisis in 1998, when Russia defaulted on its debt.

“People are behaving like it’s 1998 but there is no reason for it: Russia was a bankrupt country then and now it’s actually financially in a pretty good shape,” Weafer said.

High oil prices over the past decade have allowed Moscow to pile up substantial hard currency reserves. Even after having spent heavily to support the ruble, the central bank’s reserves still stand at around $400bn.

Public debt is just over 10% of GDP. The budget remains balanced and the government has a big rainy day fund to draw upon to sustain social spending. l

In rural Russia, plunge of the ruble still a remote concern n AFP In a myriad of villages like Voskresenskoye, nestled deep in the Russian countryside, the monetary turmoil roiling the nation’s large cities still seems a largely distant threat.

“This crisis is for the rich, for people who have dollars. We never had money here,” said Tamara Boychenko, a 68-yearold retired resident of the village located in northwest Russia about 80 kilometres (50 miles) from Saint Petersburg.

“I can’t afford much with my pension of 15,000 rubles (200 euros, $250).

Luckily I have my vegetable garden,” said Boychenko, smiling.

That rustic, phlegmatic attitude is far removed from Russia’s big cities, whose residents watched in panicky dismay the plunge of the ruble -- which in the first two days of last week alone lost a quarter of its value.

Out in villages like Voskresenskoye, grim resignation is difficult to differentiate from stoic sang-froid.

“I don’t expect anything at all from either the government or (President Vladimir) Putin” in this current crisis or in general, said Boychenko.

Her feelings were echoed by Stanislav Kushevich, a farmer who runs a

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Monday, December 22, 2014

small butcher’s shop nearby.

“We can change nothing. We have no impact on anything,” he said with a sigh.

Neither the turbulence of the markets nor measures taken by the government have done much to improve or worsen his lot, he believes.

“I have no savings, and I spend everything I make on my farm. I’ve never travelled abroad, nor bought imported goods,” the bearded 46-year-old said.

Fears over price hikes

Still, the chaotic economic events raising alarms in Russia’s cities are starting to resound in the nation’s heartland.

The swift and sudden slide of the ruble, accelerated by declining oil prices and the impact of Western sanctions slapped on Moscow over its annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in Ukraine, have generated the first flushes of concern among a portion Russia’s broader population.

At the top of the list of fears is the prospect of prices of all sorts of basic necessities spiking, and Russians expects the authorities to take strong action to keep a lid on price hikes.

Many food products and most consumer goods are imported in Russia, meaning the 50% drop in the value of

the ruble will inevitably find its way onto price tags, although inflation is only running at 10 percent, according to government statistics.

But in his annual marathon press conference Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin remained rather vague on the burning questions lapping at Russia’s economy. Instead, the Kremlin leader preferred to speak of an end of the spreading crisis “in two years, at worst”.

As concerns about Russia’s economic fate are slowly gravitating from cities to villages, reactions to how the Kremlin has responded still differ considerably.

“Putin is a good man, but what can he do? It’s too complicated, the country is too big, and corruption is everywhere,” said Kushevich, before confessing to “preparing for the worst, as usual”.

That sense of fatalism was shared by Tatyana, who sells candles in the small church in the neighbouring village of Kobrino.

“It doesn’t really matter, we’re used to following along,” she said.

“We survived the fall of the USSR, and the crisis of 1998. This isn’t the first time, and things will work out,” said Tatyana. l

Saudi minister: Oil prices will improve n AFP, Abu Dhabi

Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said Sunday he was confident world prices would improve after a slide he blamed partly on “lack of cooperation” by producers outside the OPEC cartel.

“I am confident that oil markets will recover... and that oil prices will improve,” Naimi told an energy forum in Abu Dhabi.

He said the sharp drop in prices was partly due to the “lack of cooperation by main producing countries outside OPEC, misleading information and speculators’ greed.”

Naimi, whose country is OPEC’s leading producer, said producers from outside the cartel would eventually “realise the importance of cooperation to secure new fair prices.”

He predicted that “high-cost producers will not continue to increase production,” in a clear reference to shale and sand oil output from North America.

Naimi dismissed claims of a Saudi “plot” to push prices down for political goals, insisting that the kingdom’s policy is “based on pure economic principles.”

“Recently, certain analyses and articles have spoken of a politically motivated Saudi plot, using oil and its prices against this country or that... This is baseless,” he said.

Russia and OPEC-member Iran, whose economies rely heavily on oil revenues, have spoken of a conspiracy in the oil market to keep prices low. l

Flipkart raises $700m in fresh funding n Reuters, Mumbai Flipkart, India’s largest online retailer, on Saturday said it had raised funding worth $700 million, as it tries to compete with Amazon, which is rapidly scaling up operations in the country.

Flipkart, founded in 2007 by two former Amazon employees, has been in talks in recent weeks to raise up to $1bn.

The company said it raised the $700m from new investors including Baillie Gifford, Greenoaks Capital, Steadview Capital, T Rowe Price Associates and Qatar Investment Authority along with existing investors including DST Global, GIC, ICONIQ Capital and Tiger Global.

Popular for selling books and electronics online, Flipkart operates as a marketplace that allows third-party vendors to sell products on the site.

This year it acquired fashion portal Myntra and crossed the $1bn mark in gross merchandise value.

The company is incorporated in Singapore and has filed with the regulator there for conversion to a public company, obligatory for companies with more than 50 shareholders, it said in the statement.

“This filing ensures we are in compliance with the laws of Singapore and is in no way indicative of any upcoming IPO or of any corporate activity that the company is engaged in either in Singapore or any other part of the world,” the statement added. l

CORPORATE NEWS

Micromax has recently launched Canvas A1, first Android One device in Bangladesh. The company’s international business head, Amit Mathur talked about the device at a press briefing DHL Bangladesh has recently launched its DHL Women’s Network initiative, a communications platform to inform, inspire and engage employees, men and women alike, to enhance their leadership skills and positively impact the success of DHL in Bangladesh. Amy Yee, independent journalist and contributor to The New York Times, moderated the panel discussion on the initiative

Debate team of IBAIS University has recently won the Joint Debate Championship Trophy

Deputy managing director of Phoenix Finance & Investments Limited, M Shah Alam has recently handed over blankets to AFM Asaduzzaman, general manager of Bangladesh Bank for distribution among cold affected people

Mahindra Two Wheelers Limited, a part of Mahindra Group has recently announced launch of its Mahindra ARRO in Bangladesh

Jamuna Bank Foundation has recently organised an art competition at Bangladesh Shishu Academy in Dhaka on the occasion of victory day in 2014. The foundation’s chairperson Al-Haj Nur Mohammed was present on the occasion as chief guest

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

Back Page

Monday, December 22, 2014

The reason oil could drop as low as $20 per barrel n Reuters How low can it go - and how long will it last? The 50% slump in oil prices raises both those questions and while nobody can confidently answer the first question (I will try to in a moment), the second is pretty easy.

Low oil prices will last long enough for one of two events to happen. The first possibility, the one most traders and analysts seem to expect, is that Saudi Arabia will re-establish OPEC’s monopoly power once it achieves the true geopolitical or economic objectives that spurred it to trigger the slump. The second possibility, one I wrote about two weeks ago, is that the global oil market will move toward normal competitive conditions in which prices are set by the marginal production costs, rather than Saudi or OPEC monopoly power. This may seem like a far-fetched scenario, but it is more or less how the oil market worked for two decades from 1986 to 2004.

Whichever outcome finally puts a floor under prices, we can be confident that the process will take a long time to unfold. It is inconceivable that just a few months of falling prices will be enough time for the Saudis to either break the Iranian-Russian axis or reverse the growth of shale oil production in the United States. It is equally inconceivable that the oil market could quickly transition from OPEC domination to a normal competitive one. The many bullish oil investors who still expect prices to rebound quickly to their pre-slump trading range are likely to be disappointed. The best that oil bulls can hope for is that a new, and substantially lower, trading range may be established as the multi-year battles over Middle East dominance and oil-market share play out.

The key question is whether the present price of around $55 will prove closer to the floor or the ceiling of this new range. The history of inflationadjusted oil prices, deflated by the US Consumer Price Index, offers some intriguing hints. The 40 years since OPEC first flexed its muscles in 1974 can be di-

An employee of state-owned Pertamina refuels a motorcycle at its petrol station in Jakarta vided into three distinct periods. From 1974 to 1985, West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, fluctuated between $48 and $120 in today’s money. From 1986 to 2004, the price ranged from $21 to $48 (apart from two brief aberrations during the 1998 Russian crisis and the 1991 war in Iraq). And from 2005 until this year, oil has again traded in its 1974 to 1985 range of roughly $50 to $120, apart from two very brief spikes in the

2008-09 financial crisis.

What makes these three periods significant is that the trading range of the past 10 years was very similar to the 1974-85 first decade of OPEC domination, but the 19 years from 1986 to 2004 represented a totally different regime.

It seems plausible that the difference between these two regimes can be explained by the breakdown of OPEC power in 1985 and the shift from mo-

EU investment plan may be a day late and a euro short n Reuters, Paris The European Union’s vaunted investment plan, due to be formally blessed by the bloc’s 28 leaders at a summit this week, may be a day late and several euros short to revitalise a stagnant economy.

Because of Europe’s mountain of public debt, the initiative outlined

by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker contains no new public money and relies on financial engineering to turn 21bn euros in existing EU and European Investment Bank funds into a putative 315bn euros in project funding.

Whether it can revive sagging public and private investment will hinge largely on the choice of shovel-ready infrastructure projects that boost Europe’s growth potential, and on the way that national contributions are treated by the EU bean counters.

Investment in the 28-nation EU in 2013 was on average 15% below pre-crisis levels, according to an EU task force report, with a plunge of more than 60% in the worst affected southern countries.

There is much debate about whether the slump is mostly due to weak demand, tight credit conditions, an absence of economic reform or a lack of business confidence, but EU governments agree that something must be done now.

The Juncker plan, due to be up and running in mid-2015 and last three years, will focus on “viable investments of European significance” mostly in transport, energy and digital networks, as well as research and development.

Juncker has promised “favourable treatment” for countries that take equity stakes in the planned European Fund for Strategic Investment when the EU authorities calculate budget deficits, which must be below 3% of national output.

Polish Finance Minister Mateusz Szczurek told a conference of the Council for the Future of Europe last week no government would pay into the fund unless it was guaranteed that money invested would not be counted against its deficit.

But economic powerhouse Germany, the biggest stickler for EU budget discipline, opposes bending the fiscal rules, fearing a precedent and abuses of the definition of “investment”.

European flags are hung outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels REUTERS

“Any renewed discussion about tweaking the fiscal rules runs the risk of undermining market confidence,” German deputy labour minister Joerg Asmussen told the conference. It was very hard to define good and bad expenditure, and all spending needed to be refinanced either by taxation or by borrowing, he argued.

Former Italian prime minister Mario Monti wants the bloc to go much further to promote productive investment by excluding from the deficit calculation not only payments into the EU fund but also EU-approved national projects that boost infrastructure and raise a country’s growth potential.

Action needed at national level

“Although highly welcome, the plan is unlikely to be large enough or fast enough to have the needed impact all on its own,” Monti and French European lawmaker Sylvie Goulard wrote in a joint paper. “Action is required at the national level too.”

Like the Germans, Monti believes in strict enforcement of rules, but he argues the EU should adopt Germany’s own post-war “golden rule” that authorised borrowing for investment, not to finance current spending.

Berlin replaced that principle in its constitution in 2009 with a so-called “debt brake” that forces the federal government to run a virtually balanced budget from 2016, except in cases of natural disasters or severe economic crisis.

Monti, a former EU competition and single market czar, argues that at a time

when interest rates are at a record low, there is a strong moral case for governments to borrow cheaply to produce social and economic benefits.

Perhaps surprisingly, the International Monetary Fund shares that view.

Its annual World Economic Outlook in October said a debt-financed increase in public infrastructure investment would deliver a reduction in debt-toGDP ratios by boosting output.

Without growth, highly indebted countries like Italy cannot reduce their debt burden. But Italy also highlights a potential hurdle to Juncker’s investment plan: it has been unable to spend some 20 billion euros in EU regional funds because it lacks the so-called absorption capacity - a term that covers clean public administration, project definition and management capability and matching national money.

Without sizeable investments at national level, notably in Germany, the Juncker plan is unlikely to deliver a significant growth stimulus, economists say, especially since the leverage ratios for private money seem highly optimistic.

It may speed up construction of some gas pipeline and electricity grid inter connectors in central Europe, helping reduce dependency on imported Russian gas over time, and supporting the transition to renewable energy sources.

But it also risks repeating past errors of EU structural funds by promoting bridges and airports to nowhere to please national politicians. l

REUTERS

serves. Additional pressures for low oil prices in the long term include the possible lifting of sanctions on Iran and Russia and the ending of civil wars in Iraq and Libya, which between them would release additional oil reserves bigger than Saudi Arabia’s on to the world markets.

The US shale revolution is perhaps the strongest argument for a return to competitive pricing instead of the OPEC-dominated monopoly regimes of 1974-85 and 2005-14. Although shale oil is relatively costly, production can be turned on and off much more easily - and cheaply - than from conventional oilfields. This means that shale prospectors should now be the “swing producers” in global oil markets instead of the Saudis. In a truly competitive market, the Saudis and other low-cost producers would always be pumping at maximum output, while shale shuts off when demand is weak and ramps up when demand is strong. This competitive logic suggests that marginal costs of U.S. shale oil, generally estimated at $40 to $50, should in the future be a ceiling for global oil prices, not a floor.

On the other hand, there are also good arguments for OPEC-monopoly pricing of $50 to $120 to be re-established once markets test the bottom of this range. OPEC members have a strong interest in preventing a return to competitive pricing and could learn to function again as an effective cartel.

Although price-fixing becomes more difficult as US producers increase market share, OPEC could try to impose pricing “discipline” if it can knock out many US shale producers next year.

The macro-economic impact of low oil prices on global growth could help this effort by boosting economic activity and energy demand.

So which of these arguments will prove right: The bearish case for a $20 to $50 trading-range based on competitive market pricing? Or the bullish one for $50 to $120 based on resumed OPEC dominance?

Ask me again once the price of oil has fallen to $50 - and stayed there for a year or so. l

nopolistic to competitive pricing for the next 20 years, followed by the restoration of monopoly pricing in 2005 as OPEC took advantage of surging Chinese demand.

In view of this history, the demarcation line between the monopolistic and competitive regimes at a little below $50 a barrel seems a reasonable estimate of where one boundary of the new long-term trading range might end

up. But will $50 be a floor or a ceiling for the oil price in the years ahead?

There are several reasons to expect a new trading range as low as $20 to $50, as in the period from 1986 to 2004. Technological and environmental pressures are reducing long-term oil demand and threatening to turn much of the high-cost oil outside the Middle East into a “stranded asset” similar to the earth’s vast unwanted coal re-

Ruble volatility leads grain exporters to halt purchases

Reform or ‘miss the bus’, warns India finance minister

n AFP, Moscow

Major grain exporters in Russia, a top supplier to the world market, have stopped buying stocks from Russian farmers in the hope that it would squelch a surge in the domestic price of wheat due to a plunge in the ruble.

It is the latest in a series of developments that analysts have interpreted as government attempts to slow wheat exports without resorting to an outright ban in order to keep the politically sensitive price of bread from soaring.

Russia’s national association of agricultural exporters said in a statement it would refrain from new purchases “until the situation concerning the availability and the price of cereals stabilises” and called on non-member exporters to also follow its policy.

Russia is normally the world’s number three grain exporter, and enjoyed this year one of its best harvests ever at 104 million tonnes.

With world prices set in dollars, Russian farmers have an incentive to sell to exporters who can offer a more competitive price.

Even Russian farmers are affected by the ruble having lost nearly half of its value against the dollar this year, as most seeds and pesticides are imported.

Markets are worried that if too many Russian farmers try to export their crop and there is insufficient grain for the domestic market that Moscow might impose an export ban, as it did in 2010 following a bad harvest.

At the start of the week Agriculture Minister Nikolai Fyodorov dismissed the possibility of such a ban, but exports have dropped sharply in recent days.

According to Russian media, the veterinary and agricultural service is only issuing a small percentage of export certificates it normally does, without providing any official explanation.

And the national railway company has informed exporters that it is cutting back on grain shipments due to circumstances beyond its control, again without providing an explanation.

Analysts have interpreted these two developments as a covert effort by the government to reduce exports.

The business daily Kommersant reported recently that the politicallysensitive price of bread could jump by 10 percent in the coming weeks as the Russians celebrate the holidays, prompting authorities to take action to ensure no abusive price hikes. l

n AFP, New Delhi

India’s finance minister appealed to opposition parties Saturday to cooperate in passage of economic reform legislation, warning otherwise Asia’s third-largest economy “will miss the bus” again.

The traditionally fractious parliament has been stalled once more by political rows that have hindered efforts by the new right-wing government to enact reforms and revive the stuttering economy.

Stormy scenes in parliament under the previous left-leaning Congress government also hindered economic reform efforts.

“The clear choice before us is - either we reform or we miss the bus once again,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told a top-level corporate audience in a speech in New Delhi.

“If the latter were to happen, a whole generation will not pardon us,” Jaitley said.

He added there was a need for “a shared national vision” to get the country back to nine-to-10 percent annual growth levels it enjoyed until a few years ago to lift hundreds of millions of Indians out of poverty.

India has been stuck in the longest spell of below-five-percent growth in a quarter-century, hit by high interest rates, an investment slowdown and flagging consumer confidence.

Economic growth in the last financial year to March 2014 was 4.7% after falling to 4.5% the previous year.

This year, the government hopes growth will accelerate to 5.5% and next year “we have to first cross the six-percent-mark”, Jaitley said.

Growth downturns and uncertain investment landscapes in other parts of the world mean “investors are looking to come to India”, Jaitley said.

But to capture this investment opportunity, India needs to slash red tape, liberalise the economy, speed decisionmaking and become a more businessfriendly destination, analysts say.

DILBERT

“For the next decade we can have a full reform agenda on our table” if all sides get on board, Jaitley said.

Overseas investors have waited for years for India to overhaul its economy “and are confounded” by its failure.

“That is the challenge,” he said and asked, “Can we allow this to continue?”

The minister’s comments came a day after the government introduced in parliament tax changes which analysts hailed as a “game changer” that will cut the cost of doing business domestically and boost growth.

Economic growth in the last financial year to March 2014 was 4.7% after falling to 4.5% the previous year

The government tabled the long-awaited goods-and-services tax (GST) harmonising varying state levies to create a single internal market.

The legislation will be debated in the next session of parliament and the government aims to implement the new tax in April 2016.

The government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi which was elected in May, is seeking to step up the pace of reforms after criticism from business it was not moving ahead swiftly enough.

Spelling out plans for the year ahead, Jaitley added the government “is determined” to go ahead with liberalising the coal and insurance sectors to draw more investment.

He will present his first full budget in February.

The government is “absolutely clear about one fact - the (reform) course we’ve adopted is unalterable”, he said. l