24 Dec, 2014

Paush 10, 1421 Rabiul Awal 1, 1436 Regd No DA 6238 Vol 2, No 260

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

20 pages plus 8-page Treehouse children’s supplement | Price: Tk12

TREEHOUSE

7 | LONG FORM

11 | OP-ED

14 | SPORT

JOY IN EVERY MOMENT

BANGLADESH IS NO BASKET CASE

THE NEXT STEPS FOR SAARC ENERGY AGREEMENT

MOURINHO ECSTATIC AT PLAYERS ATTITUDE IN WIN OVER STOKE

Leader of wolves Qaisar to die Tribunal said he was a high profile criminal who jumped ship at opportune moments kar Ali Manik and n Julfi Ahmed Zayeef A tribunal yesterday compared Syed Mohammed Qaisar to a leader of a pack of wolves and sentenced him to death for the heinous crimes that he had committed during the Liberation War. The war crimes tribunal labelled him a high profile criminal with a political background of jumping ship at opportune moment.

Qaisar’s war-time crimes include mass killing, rape, abduction, confinement, torture and other inhuman acts committed by his aides and Pakistani occupation force.

This was the first ever war crimes case where not only a rape victim but also her war child gave witness deposition against accused Qaisar for his “act of substantially contributing, facilitating and abetting” Pakistani army in raping women.

The proved charges against Qaisar “indubitably fall within the kind of such gravest crimes which tremble the collective conscience of mankind,” said the International Crimes Tribunal 2 verdict in the war crimes case against him.

The convicted war criminal committed heinous crimes in Habiganj district during the war in 1971 after forming his private armed outfit named “Qaisar Bahini” to foil the birth of Bangladesh.

The Tribunal in its verdict termed Qaisar Bahini a “pack of wolves.”

The tribunal said this notorious private force “collaborated with the Pakistani occupation army with extreme ferocity in carrying out appalling activities directing proliberation civilians, under the infamous “headship” of Qaisar.  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

TIMELINE T R I A L O F Q A I S A R May 15 May 21 May 22 Aug 5 Sep 22 Nov 10 Dec 17 Dec 26

2 0 1 3 Arrest warrant issued Qaisar arrested Rejecting bail plea, tribunal sends him to prison Tribunal allowed conditional bail Investigation agency submits probe report Formal charges pressed Hearing on charge matter started Defence sought discharge

Jan 30 Mar 4 Mar 9 Jul 23 Aug 7 Aug 19 Aug 20 Dec 23

2 0 1 4 Tribunal framed 16 charges Trial commenced Prosecution started examining witnesses Prosecution completed presenting evidence Prosecution summed up argument Defence summed up argument Case made CAV, Qaisar sent to jail again Tribunal sentenced him to death

A young woman captured by a collaborator militia and handed over to the Pakistani occupation army to be used as a sex slave narrated how she was abducted and raped during the Liberation War and how she later gave birth to a war child.

Captured together with her father and uncle from their home, she was separated from them and imprisoned in a hole dug by the militia, where she awaited the unspeakable horrors she would be made to endure.

“Just after sunset as it started to rain, razakars and members of the Qaisar Bahini picked me up from the hole and took me to a room of the Pakistani army camp set up at the school,” said Majeda Begum, 59, who was captured by the Qaisar Bahini and later raped by Pakistani army personnel.

Rape is more serious a crime than murder kar Ali Manik and n Julfi Ahmed Zayeef The International Crimes Tribunal in its observation of the offence of rape committed during the Liberation War in 1971 yesterday said rape is “more than a murder.”

Tribunal 2 yesterday awarded death sentence to convicted war criminal Syed Md Qaisar in seven of the proved 14 charges against him, including his involvement in two mass rape incidents during the war.

Tribunal Chairman Justice Obaidul Hassan and members Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah and Justice Md Shahinur Islam in their verdict termed the war crimes case against Qaisar unique as it involves mass rape during the Liberation War.

“The tribunal notes that rape or sexual violence, either during war or in peace, is a revolting act of robbery that takes the thing that cannot be given back. Mass rape is graver than murder,” the judges said in their verdict.

The verdict termed the rape incidents narrated in two charges against Qaisar “genocidal rape.”

“We fail to understand how the accused Qaisar being a Bengali Muslim actively aided, abetted and facilitated the commissioning of such beastly physical invasion upon the women which was worse than murder. Did it match any political ideology and humanity?” observed the tribunal.

One rape incident narrated in the case occurred at the dwelling shed of victim Hiramoni Santal, an indigenous  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

P2 DEDICATED TO VICTIMS

War criminal Syed Mohammed Qaisar is escorted back to jail after the International Crimes Tribunal sentences him to death yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Pay scale hike to cost exchequer an additional Tk30,000 crore n Asif Showkat Kallol

visit our website @

www.dhakatribune.com

The Finance Division estimates that an additional Tk30,000 crore above current expenditure will be required to implement the recommendations of the eighth National Pay and Services Commission (NPSC) which is significantly higher than an earlier estimate made while the report was being drafted.

A Finance Division official closely tied to the implementation of the current budget told the Dhaka Tribune that the earlier estimate of about Tk23,000 crore would have to be notched up to a higher figure.

The NPSC report estimates it would cost the exchequer some Tk22,919.47 crore – Tk 19,326.79 crore for civil servants and another Tk3592.67 crore for the armed forces – to implement its recommended doubling of salaries. The government currently spends Tk38,980.33 crore on payroll and pensions.

But Finance Division officials said

the non-payroll increases envisaged by the pay commission were not accounted for in the report, and estimated that these proposals would add another Tk10,000 crore to the final bill.

Finance Division officials said the non-payroll increases envisaged by the pay commission were not accounted for in the report Capital would be required to operationalise the civil service welfare scheme management system and the setting up of a bank - Shamriddhir Shopan - proposed by the pay commission.

Public monies would also be required to operationalise the management of the civil servants’ insurance and pension system and to extend car

INSIDE

5 | News

Only a few years back, traffic congestion was rarely seen on roads of Sylhet city, but now it has become common phenomenon.

4 | News

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the Dhaka Central Jail will be shifted to Keraniganj on the outskirts of the capital in June.

3 | News

Construction of the New Mooring Container Terminal at the Chittagong port was completed seven years ago, but the authorities have still not managed to make it fully operative because of a limbo in appointing operator.

9 | World

At least 151 Talibans were killed by government forces during 12 days of fighting in the volatile east, near the border with Pakistan, a Kunar province spokesperson said yesterday.

6 | Nation

Different departments of Barisal Government Brojomohun College are realising extra fees from students in the name of extra curricular activities. *** Academic activities at Lakshmipur Government Women Degree College are being hampered severely due to a lack of adequate number of teachers, office staff and classrooms.

15 | Entertainment

Legendary Bangali screen goddess Suchitra Sen will be remembered in ‘Bangali Biswamoy’ today at 8:05pm on GTV. *** The three-day long Kathak Dance Festival 2014 will be held at 6:30pm to 8:30pm each night from tonight until December 26 at the Chhayanat Sanskriti Bhaban.

12 | Sport

National opener Tamim Iqbal is likely to fly to Australia this Friday for treatment on his Grade 1 meniscus injury. He applied for the visa at Australian High Commission yesterday and should get the paperwork done by today.

Rape victim and her war child battered but not beaten n Ahmed Zayeef

and home loans to third and fourth-tier public employees, the Finance Division official said.

NPSC Chairman Muhammad Farashuddin submitted the 250-page report to Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Sunday, whose recommendations, if implemented fully, would increase government expenditure by 63.7%.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Sunday said the upgraded pay scale would come into effect on July 1 next year and non-payroll recommendations would be executed in phases.

The government formed the 17-member pay commission in November 2013, headed by Farashuddin, a former Bangladesh Bank governor, to look into the salaries and pensions of the more than 1.3 million current and former public employees.

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

“The Pakistani soldiers began to abuse and torture me. I heard the screams of other women who were detained at the camp. When I too began screaming because of the torture, they gagged me by stuffing a rag in my mouth,” she said.

Majeda Begum and her war child, Shamsun Nahar, gave individual statements before the International Crimes Tribunal 2 several months ago.

Yesterday, the tribunal sentenced to death Syed Mohammad Qaisar, who lead a namesake militia of 500-700 collaborators, for his crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War in seven of the 16 charges brought against him.

He was awarded the death sentence, among other charges, for abetting and contributing to the multiple rape of  PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

BNP doubts Khaleda will get justice, plans big showdown today n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla The BNP doubts whether Chairperson Khaleda Zia will get justice in the Zia Orphanage and Zia Charitable Trust graft cases.

The party also threatened to wage a movement demanding withdrawal of the two cases.

“The government filed cases to keep her away from politics and to humiliate her,” Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, acting secretary general of the BNP, said at a press briefing at Nayapaltan.

Meanwhile, the party planned to stage a showdown on the court premises as Khaleda appears before it today.

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

To make it a success, Dhaka city

leaders and front and associate bodies held a series of meetings.

Fakhrul said the government is desperate to complete the trials quickly.

Demanding withdrawal of the cases, the BNP spokesperson said if the government’s good sense does not prevail, the BNP will launch a movement.

“She [Khaleda] is fighting the legal battle knowing that she would not get justice. In such a situation scope of getting remedy in the upper court has also narrowed down,” he said adding that they would face the issue politically.

Criticising Anti-Corruption Commission member Sahabuddin Chuppu, Fakhrul said he is talking like a political leader. The ACC does not have any jurisdiction to investigate the two cases filed against Khaleda Zia as the cases are related to a private trust, he said.  PAGE 2 COLUMN 6

2

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Tarique faces more Qaisar’s verdict dedicated to the biranganas, war children warrants, cases n Ahmed Zayeef

n Tribune Report More legal actions continue to be pursued against BNP leader Tarique Rahman for his latest remarks on Bangabandhu, with courts in Chittagong and Netrakona yesterday issuing warrants for his arrest in separate defamation cases.

The court of Chittagong Senior Judicial Magistrate Masud Parvez issued an arrest warrant against the BNP senior vice-chairman after hearing the statement of plaintiff Chhatra League Rangunia upazila unit’s Religious Affairs Secretary Nurul Alam.

The court adjourned its proceedings until January 11 next year.

Four cases have so far been filed in Chittagong against Tarique in this regard, while the arrest warrant was the first to be issued in those cases.

On December 15, Tarique called Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman a “razakar,” blaming him for accepting Yahya Khan as the erstwhile Pakistan’s president and going for the national and provincial elections under his conditions.

The Netrakona court of Senior Judicial Magistrate Kamal Hossain also issued an arrest warrant against Tarique in a separate defamation case filed by

the district Chhatra League president, Faizur Murshed Khan. Nine people including Daily Janakanthha Editor and Publisher Atiq Ullah Khan Masud were named as witnesses in the case.

In Brahmanbaria, a defamation case was filed against Tarique by district Chhatra League President Masum Billah, also accusing BNP leaders Ruhul Kabir Rizvi and Mir Nasir. The district’s Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Saifur Rahman Siddique heard the case and said an order would be passed later.

Soon after the case was filed, Chhatra League leaders formed a human chain demanding punishment for Tarique, while pro-BNP lawyers demonstrated in court area and Chhatra Dal activists brought out a procession demanding that the case be withdrawn.

In Bhola, the local Muktijoddha Sangsad staged demonstrations and formed a human chain in the town, protesting Tarique’s remarks and demanding punishment for him. They also submitted a memorandum on this regard to the deputy commissioner.

Later the Bhola unit of Chhatra League also brought out a protest procession in the town and burned an effigy of Tarique. l

The prosecution of Syed Mohammed Qaisar’s war crimes trial dedicated the verdict to the war children and the biranganas – the women raped during the Liberation War. Qaisar was sentenced to death yesterday for the crimes he had committed against humanity in 1971. The three-member second International Crimes Tribunal, led by Justice Obaidul Hassan, found him guilty in 14 out of the 16 charges.

The prosecution came up with the opinion after the tribunal cited some significant observations about war children and the biranganas in the judgement.

Mentioning that the rape victims are the symbol of trauma, the tribunal said the government may initiate a compensation scheme for them. “The rape victims should be honoured as freedom fighters...The nation salutes the sacrifice of the rape victims.”

“We are pleased with the verdict,” prosecutor Rana Dasgupta told reporters after the verdict.

“We sought compensation for the victims and the war children. The tribunal has saluted them. It [tribunal] said it is the duty of the nation to give them the respect.

Hailing the verdict that awarded death penalty to Syed Mohammad Qaisar for crimes against humanity committed during the 1971 Liberation War, a freedom fighter shows victory sign in front of the International Crimes Tribunal yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU “As law does not mention anything about compensation, the tribunal suggested that the government should identify the victims and launch a compensation scheme. ICT asked the Liberation War Affairs and the Social Welfare Ministries and the NGOs to initiate this,” the prosecutor said.

Terming the verdict a great achievement, prosecutor Tureen Afroz said: “The tribunal said the wound of a rape

is deeper than a bullet wound. This is the first time that the tribunal has given an observation on the crimes. We dedicate the verdict to the biranganas who underwent torture for the sake of liberation and also to the war children.”

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman first used the word birangana to describe the women raped in 1971. In October this year, the government recognised them as freedom fighters. l

AL vows to resist BNP on January 5 n Tribune Report Dhaka City Awami League General Secretary Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya yesterday the BNP-led alliance would not be allowed entering the capital on January 5, calling them “the enemies of democracy”.

“The alliance, led by Begum Khaleda Zia, are the enemies of democracy and they would not be allowed entering the capital on January 5,” he told a discussion, organised by Sheikh Russell Sangsad, at the party’s central office, marking the Victory Day, December 16. Presided over by Sheikh Russell Sangsad Acting President Mohammad Hossain Mansur, the discussion was also addressed by City AL Office Secretary Sahidul Islam Milon and Publicity and Publication Secretary Abdul Haq Sabuj.

The minister for relief and disaster management urged the party leaders and activists to be alert to any BNP-Jamaat act of anarchy and resist them.

BNP chief Khaleda Zia had tried to hinder the trial of the war criminals by calling hartals again and again, he said, adding: “But she failed. Insha Allah, she would not be able to save the war criminals.”

The 20-party alliance, led by the BNP, are reportedly likely to hold public rallies in the capital on January 2 and 5 to mount pressure on the government to hold national election under a non-partisan government. l

Rape is more serious a crime than murder

Rape victim and her war child

BNP doubts

 PAGE 1 COLUMN 3

 PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

nal aunt’s house at the time.

“When I went to my husband’s house, he sent back me to my father’s house when he learned I was pregnant.

After that he did not look after me for a long time,” said Majeda.

“Then I gave birth to a baby girl and named her Shamsun Nahar. My husband took me to his house, but my baby girl was raised by my paternal uncle, freedom fighter Advocate Matin.

“My father and uncles married my daughter to Askir Mia, the son of Shamsu Mia, of Amrut village of Chunarughat. On the marriage statement it said my husband, Alai Mia, was the father of my girl.

Later, when they came to know that my husband was not the father they sent her home after the death of my husband. They still have not taken her back. Her husband, Askir Mia, has remarried,” Majeda said.

Shamsun Nahar, the tenth prosecution witness of the case and the war child of Majeda told the Tribunal: “When I grew up, I asked my grandfather and grandmother why I could not go to my father’s house. They told me I was the child of a Pakistani soldier.

“After my marriage, when my inlaws learned that I was a war child, they tortured me. After a few days, they sent me back to my father’s house.”

The Tribunal also sentenced Qaisar to death on the eighth charge of abetting and contributing to the rape of tea garden worker, Hiramoni, at Chanpur Tea Garden on May 11, 1971. l

 PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

“Qaisar by accompanying the group of army made them effectively able in getting the pro-liberation civilians and the local Awami League leaders identified and captured,” the verdict said.

“On his identification, the army had carried out massive and wanton destruction of civilians’ property causing grave detriment to non combatant civilians’ fundamental right and mental harm to them as well,” said the verdict.

Hirendra Chnadra Roy were on the way to Indian border to take refuge in India.

Stopping the jeep the army men dragged them to the premises in front of the native house of former Chief Justice Syed AB Mahmud Hossain at Laskarpur along the bank of river Khoai.

They were hanged there with a tree and were subjected to torture and after the dusk they were shot to death and their dead bodies were left abandoned near the house of one Ramjan Ali alongside Laskarpur rail line.

On May 11, 1971 about 10am Qaisar accompanied a group of Pakistani occupation army towards Chanpur Tea Garden under Chunarughat police station of Habiganj and on their arrival the group tortured the garden laborers and dwellers belonging to Hindu community and at a stage entered the dwelling hut of one Santal woman Hiramoni.

Qaisar asked the army to enjoy [ravish] and with this 2-3 army men raped Hiramoni.

On June 13, 1971 about 2 to3pm Qaisar being a leader of his private armed outfit Qaisar Bahini instructed its members and Razakar (anti-liberation) force to forcibly pick up local organiser of liberation war Shah Firoz Mia from his house at Mokambari locality under Habiganj police station in Habiganj.

Firoz was first brought to Habiganj police station where he was kept confined for one night and the following day he was brought to Shaestaganj R&H Duck Bungalow where Qaisar handed him over to the Pakistani army.

On information, Shah Hossain Ali, son of the abducted and confined victim Shah Firoz, returned home on July 16, 1971. On the very night of his return he too was apprehended by Qaisar Bahini and Razakars and brought to Habiganj police station.

The following day he was handed over to the Pakistani army at R&H Duck

Bungalow at Shaestaganj wherein he was kept detained for 20-25 days and during this period the army men inflicted severe torture causing grave bodily injury to him leading to amputation of his left leg.

He was however released at the end of August 1971. But his father Shah Firoz Ali had been handed over earlier to the army. Shah Firoz could not be traced.

At noon of any day of mid August of 1971 Qaisar, his aides and Razakar force, brought Majeda Begum, her father Atab Mia and uncle Ayub Mia to the army camp set up at Jagadishpur High School under Madhabpur police station.

Qaisar handed Majeda Begum over to the army for their entertainment, despite protest on her father’s part.

The army men thus committed successive rape upon Majeda, during night for 8/10 days and later on physically and mentally devastated Majeda.

She was left abandoned at a place near Temunia Primary School. Majeda, from that place, managed to return home somehow and received necessary medical treatment and few days later she felt her pregnancy that resulted from the forcible sexual invasion caused to her at the army camp On November 15, 1971, between 7 to 7.30am and 3 to 3.30pm Qaisar led a group of members of Razakar force, peace committee, Qaisar Bahini and the members of Pakistani armed force.

They launched attack on civilians of villages Daura, Nishcintapur and twenty other villages under Nasirnagar police station of Brahamanbaria district and created horror by indiscriminate gun firing around the crime sites, setting houses on fire, looting households of civilians, with intent to destroy the Hindu religious community, either whole or in part.

In conjunction with the horrendous event, Qaisar and other perpetrators killed 108 unarmed civilians. l

woman, and another happened at the army camp, keeping victim Majeda in protracted captivity.

Hiramoni Santal could not come on dock to narrate her trauma due to old age complications.

However, a relative who had seen the attack and a witness testified the facts materially relevant to prove culpability of the accused.

Mass rape at the army camp upon Majeda made her pregnant and eventually she gave birth to a daughter. The war baby, Shamsun Nahar, has been in a life-long struggle for survival. But they both came on dock and narrated the trauma, ignoring social ostracism.

“They are brave women indeed,” said the verdict.

“Their testimony is a mere part of horrific scenario of physical invasion committed upon the countless women in the territory of Bangladesh in 1971, during the war of liberation by the Pakistani occupation army and their local collaborators.”

The prosecution in the case against Qaisar demanded compensation for the rape victims. While the tribunal was not against this view, it did not give any order in this regard as the International Crimes Tribunal Act does not mention any type of punishment of reparation.

The tribunal said in the verdict: “From humanitarian point of view, there has been no scope to disagree

that the victims of crimes, especially the victims of war time rape, must have something like ‘reparation’ or ‘compensation’ that can reduce their continuing sufferings and trauma, as emphasised by the learned prosecutor.

“We must say that the state cannot ignore designing programme removing the stigma of rape by honouring and compensating the victims for the supreme sacrifice they laid and also to provide long-term support to them aiming to see that the ripple effects do not continue to haunt our society and community in the days to come.”

The tribunal observed that the government may take immediate initiative of forming a scheme or board for reparation or compensation for the “war time rape victims who sacrificed their supreme self-worth for the cause of our independence.”

It observed that although more than four decades have already elapsed, the war rape victims and the war babies who are still alive and have been suffering from long-term psychological effects of rape that often include many types of disorders, such as, panic attacks, flashbacks, feeling of shame and dishonour, sense of insecurity and many other disorders affecting normal livelihood.

“These effects can last even lifelong if the victims and war babies born as a result of sexual violence does not get support and care form the society and the state,” observed the tribunal.

Leader of wolves Qaisar to die  PAGE 1 COLUMN 1

Qaisar, now 73, throughout his political career, before and after the independence, has been involved with rightwing communal political parties – conventional Muslim League, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and military dictator HM Ershad-led Jatiya Party.

After that he joined PDP. After the Liberation War victory he fled to the UK and returned to the country in 1978 during the militarty regime of Ziaur Rahman.

He won the controversial national election during Major General Ziaur Rahman’s regime in late 70s as a member of parliament from a constituency in Habiganj district.

But it was a widely discussed issue yesterday among the lawyers present in the tribunal during the pronouncement of the verdict that Qaisar also has relation in laws with some influential leaders, minsters of ruling Awami League.

Qaisar’s two brothers and a nephew were present in the packed court room during the verdict delivered by the 3-member tribunal – Chairman Justice Obaidul Hassan and members Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah and Justice Md Shahinur Islam.

Justice Obaidul alone read out the summery of the 484-page judgment in an hour that began around 11am. The convicted Qaisar was sitting in the dock sporting an olive-coloured sweater and a coat over a punjabi with a pair of pyjamas.

When Qaisar was sitting in the dock he placed his trembling hands on his walking stick as if he could not hold onto it any longer due to his old-age complication.

But after the verdict when Qaisar along with his brothers, nephew and lawyers was taking his lunch inside the lock-up of the tribunal he was eating Biriani and seemed to be quite all right.

Qaisar’s lawyer said they would ap-

peal against the verdict with the Supreme Court. The prosecution brought 16 charges against Qaisar and the tribunal found him guilty in the 14 and acquitted him in two charges as his involvement was not proved.

Among the 14 charges the tribunal sentenced Qasier to death for each of the seven charges. Of them, five for murders and two for mass rape. In the seven other charges he was awarded jail in different terms.

“We are of the view that war-time rape can be seen as raping the whole community,” tribunal judges said in the verdict.

“Rape victims Hiramoni Santal and Majeda Begum (in Qaisar’s case) belonged to pro-liberation culture and community,” the verdict said adding that the perpetrators’ intention was to malign the dignity of the entire community.

“Hiramoni Santal and Majeda Begum were the victims of “genocidal rape”, said the tribunal verdict.

Majeda gave witness deposition as a rape victim in Qaisar’s case. Shamsunnahar, war child of Majeda, also gave witness deposition to the tribunal.

Soon after the verdict was pronounced Majeda, who lives in Chunarughat of Habiganj, in her instant reaction told the Dhaka Tribune over phone: “We are happy and we do not have any more demand.”

Hiarmoni, a former tea garden worker from under privileged Santal community now more than an 80-year-old women, could not appear before the tribunal to give witness deposition due to her illness but gave a written statement, according to Tureen Afroze, a prosecutor of the case.

Four of the seven other charges include murders, abduction, confinement, torture and other inhuman acts for which the tribunal sentenced Qaisar to imprisonment for life till death.

In the rest three the tribunal award-

“The nation must raise a collective voice that they are war heroines. They are brave ‘freedom fighters’ as they too sacrificed their supreme self-worth, for the cause of our independence.”

The judges said: “The war-time rape victims are our great mothers and sisters. We cannot shut our eyes any more.

The nation, the society must come forward to recognise and salute their sacrifices, to heal their wound, to compensate the barbaric wrongs done to them.”

The rape victims are an integral part of our war of liberation. “They are our pride.”

The tribunal said war child Shamsun Nahar “is the symbol of the trauma.”

Shamsun Nahar gave witness deposition before the tribunal in the case.

“It is true that the trauma they sustained can never be minimised,” said the verdict.

The tribunal said the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs, Ministry of Social Welfare, social organisations and NGOs are expected to initiate prompt and necessary steps first, in a coordinated way, to identify the war time rape victims and war babies.

It also suggested identifying the secondary victims of rape and then formulating effective programmes aiming to honour them, reducing their disorders resulted from the trauma and stigma they sustained and also making an arrangement for providing them with monthly honoraria. l

ed Qaisar 10 years, seven years and five years in jail respectively.

The offense for which the tribunal awarded Qaisar 5 years in jail is the only charge where the tribunal found Qaisar guilty by a majority view.

Chairman Justice Obaidul and Justice Shahinur found Qaisar guilty in the charge but Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah did not find him guilty.

In the judgment, the tribunal made many observations about rape especially during the war.

The verdict said the mass rape was not only an attack on an individual but also to her family, community, society and the entire humanity.

Qaisar constituted the principal crimes by handing over the captured civilians to the army. In respect of some events of brutal killing of civilians it was proved that the accused Sayed Md. Qaisar consciously and knowing the consequence accompanied the group of army towards the killing sites.

As a local potential aide and a man of strong pro-Pakistan ideology accused Qaisar sided with the Pakistani occupation army not only in attacking the civilians in Habiganj town on 30 April 1971, said the tribunal.

The verdict said: “Naturally, the Pakistani army was unfamiliar with the layout of Habiganj town and locations of residences of the targeted pro-liberation civilians and Hindu people.”

“It was accused Syed Md Qaisar who not only accompanied the group of army men but also with malicious intention guided, substantially contributed and abetted them in accomplishing the act of wanton destruction,” said the verdict.

“Qaisar physically participated in abducting civilians and kept them confined and caused torture for the purpose of extracting whereabouts of freedom fighters.”

Majeda at an army camp at Jagadishpur High School on several days in mid-August 1971.

In a statement before the Tribunal, Majeda said: “The Pakistani army continuously and immensely tortured me in that room for 8 to 10 days. At one stage when I became sick and had collapsed, Qaisar came. Seeing my situation he asked a member of his force to pick me and dump me somewhere. I had not fainted and I heard Qaisar’s words.

“By the instruction of Qaisar, the razakars and members of his force dumped me in the Temunia Jagadishpur Primary School at night. There was a storm and it was raining,” she said.

“My whole body was bloody and my clothes were torn. My body was covered in mud. I lay like this under the open sky the whole night. I could feel ants and insects climbing onto my body. At dawn, I struggled to my knees and then made my way to my father’s house which was less than half a mile away,” the fifth prosecution witness said.

“A month after the incident, I noticed that my period did not start. My mother, paternal aunt and grandmother guessed I was pregnant. I realised that I had become pregnant from the torture of the Pakistani army.” But this was not the end of Majeda’s suffering.

According to her statement, 6 or 7 months later Bangladesh became independent. She was staying at her pater-

Death for murder and mass rape

On 27 April 1971 at about 7pm Qaisar being accompanied by Qaisar Bahini and a group of Pakistani occupation armed force launched an attack on proliberation civilian population of village Krishnanagar under Madhabpur police station in Habiganj.

They looted households and destructed 40-45 houses by setting them on fire. Following Qaisar’s instruction the army shot four civilians – Ahid Pathan, Cherag Ali, Jonab Ali and Madhu sweeper to death.

On 29 April 1971 about 1am to1:30 pm Qaisar and his para-militia force members arrived at the food godown at Shaestaganj of Habiganj and physical tortured the employees and officers of the godown and kept them detained there at gun point for about one month.

On 29 May 1971 about 3:30pm Qaisar and his force members along with anti-liberation peace committee members and members of Pakistani occupation armed force came to the godown.

They brought seven confined persons from the godown to beneath the rail-bridge over the river Khoai and then following Qaisar’s instruction the army shot them to death.

On 29 April 1971 in between 3:30 and 4pm at a place of Puran Bazaar point at Shaestaganj, Qaisar asked the members of Pakistani armed force to stop the Jeep by which Dr Salehuddin and

“Did you go to the appeal division challenging when prime minister’s 15 cases were withdrawn?” Fakhrul posed a question to Sahabuddin Chuppu.

BNP Standing Committee member Rafiqul Islam Miah in the press briefing said before resolving a sub-judice matter, the Law Ministry decision to change judge was indicative of government influence on the judiciary.

“It proved that there is a slim chance for Begum Khaleda Zia to get justice in the court,” he said.

Meanwhile, Khaleda Zia said in a meeting last night that her party’s ongoing movement will be successful.

“The country is now on the verge of destruction. We have to be united and wage movement to get rid of the situation,” she said.

“Insallah, our movement will be successful and victory is confirmed. I am hopeful that the year 2015 will be the year of development and democracy,” she added.

She told these after exchanging greetings with members of the Christian community at her Gulshan office late last night.

Leaders of Christian Welfare Association and a number people of the community exchanged greetings with her on the eve of Chirstmas.

Khaleda cut a cake and entertained the guests with sweets. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

3

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

No fate for the Ctg New Mooring Container Terminal n Tribune Report Construction of the New Mooring Container Terminal at the Chittagong port was completed seven years ago, but the authorities have still not managed to make it fully operative because of a limbo in appointing operator.

Yet another meeting – ninth to be specific – of the Chittagong Port Advisory Committee finished without any decision yesterday, with Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan giving the same old assurance of fixing the problem “soon.”

“Do not be anxious,” the minister told businessmen during a press conference after the meeting at the Chittagong Port Training Institute Centre Auditorium yesterday.

But the local businessmen, who have been asking the government all these years to make the new terminal operative, now want specific dates.

Mahbubul Alam, president of Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said: “Decisions are being taken at every meeting of the Port Advisory Committee; but none of them have ever been implemented. So, the time has come to fix a time-frame about when the terminal will go into full operation.”

There has been a long-standing conflict of interest between two powerful groups centring the kind of contract that an operator should be awarded for handling the new terminal.

One group wants the port to procure

equipment for the New Mooring Container Terminal (NCT) with its own money and appoint a private operator on a short-term basis.

Another group wants that an appointed private operator should purchase the equipment and run the terminal for on a long-term basis.

Former Chittagong mayor and a member of the advisory committee AMB Mohiuddin Chowdhury, who belongs to the first group, yesterday said the port has been engulfed in corruption.

In reply, lawmaker M Abdul Latif said it would be hard to find a place in the country where there is no corruption.

“We should not raise any wholesale accusation. You [Mohiuddin] cannot say that all the officials of Chittagong port or the Chittagong customs are corrupt,” Latif said.

Claiming the credit for being able to partially make the NCT functional, Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan yesterday said: “We still have questions to answer whether a local or a foreign operator should run the new terminal.”

At present, only two of the five berths of the NCT are being operated by private operators.

The construction of NCT was completed in 2007 at a cost of Tk582 crore and the first tender procedure was initiated in August 2008.

The 1km long new terminal has five jetties and can handle up to 1.3 million TEU (twenty equivalent unit) containers every year, in addition to the old terminal’s capacity of handing 1.8 million. l

Complaint filed against Shipping Minister Shajahan n Tribune Report

Wreckage of a bus lies in a ditch by the Dhaka-Mawa Highway in Sreenagar area. Because of mechanical glitch, the bus plunged there losing control yesterday and left scores injured MEHEDI HASAN

JS body: Acquire land for 1,500 new primary schools n Abu Hayat Mahmud A parliamentary body has recommended that the government should launch an initiative to acquire land for 1,500 new proposed primary schools, as it was unlikely to find anyone willing to donate their land for the project.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Primary and Mass Education Ministry made the observation at a meeting in the parliament building yesterday.

The committee also recommended to immediately start providing salary to teachers of those schools that were recently nationalised.

Jahangir Hossain, a committee

member, told the Dhaka Tribune that the government had decided to set up 1,500 new schools for areas which have no primary schools.

“In most cases, land donors cannot be found; so, the government should acquire land for the schools,” he said.

Jahangir said it was a distant dream to find out people willing to donate their land when grabbers were occupying many of the government primary schools’ land.

Referring to the 51 primary schools in the capital, Jahangir said: “Many of these 51 primary schools’ land were occupied by grabbers; several were recorded under the names of the land

Khaleda to hold press conferences before all-out movement n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia is likely to hold press briefings before waging an all-out movement.

Insiders said the BNP chief will hold two pressers: the first will highlight the rationality of holding an election under a non-partisan government; the next one would announce the programme.

The first conference is likely after the December 27 public rally in Gazipur; if the government bars them from holding planned rallies on January 3 and 5, then the second conference would announce the programme, sources said.

The party has already sought permission for holding rallies in the capital. The party is looking to wage an all-out movement from January to materialise their demand by March to April, according to party insiders.

Some senior leaders of the party on Sunday held a meeting with the BNP chairperson, where she reportedly asked the party’s acting secretary general and others to make a draft of her speeches.

“We will present to the people what we want and what the people wants,” Goyeshwar Chandra Roy, a standing committee member of the party, told the Dhaka Tribune.

He added that at the same time, the government’s one year’s “misdeeds and misrules” will also be presented before the people.

“Apart from the demand of election under a non-partisan government, a charter of demand – including Election Commission reconstitution, disbandment of the RAB, law and order situation and corruption – will be presented,” a senior leader seeking anonymity told the Dhaka Tribune.

The leader also said Khaleda Zia would also explain what she would do if her party assumed the office again. l

donors’ third generation.

“Even many of the high schools are using land of their adjoining primary schools,” he added.

After visiting 16 of those schools recently, a five-member sub-committee under the watchdog has suggested that an “Estate Division” under the Directorate of Primary Education should be formed immediately to protect the land and establishments of all primary schools in different cities including the capital.

At the time of the visits, the sub-committee recommended every school authority to demarcate their schools and build boundary walls, said Jahangir, a ruling party lawmaker.

He also claimed that the government has decided to open new primary schools in Dhaka as the number of primary schools was lower than the city’s high schools.

On October 22, the parliamentary body formed the five-member sub-committee, with AKM Jahangir Hossain as its head, to submit recommendations on what steps to take for reclaiming the grabbed land of government primary schools.

Yesterday’s meeting, presided by committee Chairman Motahar Hossain, was also attended by Primary and Mass Education Minister Mustafizur Rahman among others. l

ACC grills three Sonali Bank officials n Adil Sakhawat The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday grilled three officials of the state-run Sonali Bank for their alleged involvement with with a Tk1,500 crore loan scam.

ACC’s Senior Deputy Director Mir Jainul Abedin Shibli interrogated the officials from 10am to 1pm at the commission’s Segun Bagicha headquarters in the city.

The bankers quizzed yesterday are Senior Officer Jahangir Helal, Officer (Import) Mosarraf Hossain and Executive Officer Jakir Hossain from the bank’s local office.

An ACC official said: “The commission is now running an inquiry into a loan scam of

Officials look on as fire blazes in a compartment of Parabat Express at Kamalapur yesterday

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Fire breaks out in train compartment at Kamalapur n Shohel Mamun Fire broke out inside a compartment of a passenger train in Kamalapur Railway Station at two different times yesterday evening.

No casualties were reported in the incidents.

Bhajan Sarker, duty officer at the central Fire Service and Civil Defence department, told the Dhaka Tribune that the fire first started around 4pm in compartment No 7048 of Parabat Express, which was parked at the station, and later spread through the compartment.

On information, four units of firefighters rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control around 4:45pm, he said.

Asked about what caused the fire, he said: “The fire experts have yet to ascertain what originated the fire, as the train was parked.”

Sources at Kamalapur station

Graft over Petrobangla hiring Ahsan Habib. Of them, Man Adil Sakhawat mun and Siraj are now servThe ACC yesterday questioned three deputy general managers of Karnafuli Gas Field Company Limited over an inquiry regarding the corruption of former Petrobangla chairman Hossain Monsur. The two-member ACC team comprising Deputy Director Hrittik Saha and Assistant Director Al Amin quized them from at its head office in the capital.

The questioned gas company officials are Abdullah Al Mamun and Sirajul Islam and

A complaint was filed yesterday against Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan for his “derogatory remark” about BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman.

Advocate Shamim Kabir Chowdhury, joint secretary of Bangladesh Nationalist Ainjibi Forum, filed the Tk20 crore defamation complaint with Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) court.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Maruf Hossain recorded the statement of the complainant around 2pm.

On December 15 in London, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s elder son Tarique Rahman pulled reference from the past and dubbed Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman a “razakar.”

In response, On December 19, Minister Shahjahan Khan, at a programme in Madaripur Circuit House, called Tarique a “mad man and a black sheep in the country.” l

ing as deputy general managers of the gas company.

The complaint against Monsur is that he took bribe in appointing 43 employees to 13 associate organisations.

Previous inquiry officer submitted a report recommending a case against Monsur and 11 others.

The commission did not approve the report and formed the third team. Ahsan Ali was assigned to inquire but later he was withdrawn and sent into retirement. l

said the train was parked in the “wash fit” area of the station for cleaning, which is a restricted area.

Abdul Majid, officer-in-charge of Government Railway Police in Dhaka, said the incident was suspicious as it occurred in a restricted area.

“We have started investigating the incident, and will be able to say anything about the fire only after it ends,” the OC told the Dhaka Tribune.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Railways in a prompt decision suspended four members of Railway Security Force – namely watchmen Hafiz and Shahjahan, Nayek Kader and Sub-Inspector Tazbir – for negligence of duty. Two others – Commandant Jahirul Islam and Assitant Commandant Kuddus – are to be transferred from the security force for the same reason.

Minister of Railways Md Mazibul Hoque visited the spot shortly after the fire. Director General of

Bangladesh Railway Tofazzal Hossain and ministry Secretary Mansur Ali Sikder were present at the visit as well.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, the ministry secretary said the minister had instructed to form a probe committee to look into the fire incident, while two other probe committees had been formed by Bangladesh Railway authorities for the same purpose.

The three-member ministry probe committee will be headed by Additional Secretary Kamal Biswas Chakroborty and will submit a report as soon as possible, the secretary said.

Asked about the reason behind the fire, Mansur said: “It is not possible to say anything about it until the investigation is finished. We have railway experts and fire brigade officials to trace the reason, and hopefully we will get the result soon.” l

Tk1500 crore from six branches of the Sonali Bank.”

The suspects the loan scams took place from 2012-2013 at the Foreign Trade Corporate Branch, the Bangabandhu Avenue Corporate Branch, Chittagong Agrabad Corporate Branch, Laldighi and Narayanganj Corporate Branches. The alleged loan scam were found by an internal audit investigation run by Sonali Bank.”

The official said: “Alltex Industries, KNS Industries, Kangsun Industries, Tharmex Textile, Eco Cotton Mills and Rahima Food Corporation have allegedly misappropriated the money in association with the branch officials. l

4

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

PM: Central jail to be shifted to Keraniganj by June n Tribune Report Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said the Dhaka Central Jail that inherits rich history of ancient Dhaka and Bengal, will be shifted to Keraniganj on the outskirts of the capital in June.

The premier made the statement while inaugurating Prison Week at Kashimpur Prison Campus Parade Field in Gazipur in the morning.

She said: “After the shifting, Bangabandhu Memorial Museum and National Four Leaders Memorial Museum will be opened for people and the remaining area of the jail will be turned into a park, serving the need for open spaces.”

The process of shifting the Dhaka Central Jail has been going on in phases since 2003. A portion of the jail was shifted to Gazipur after the establishment of four separate jails in Kashimpur. The project for constructing jails in Keraniganj on 194 acres of land was approved in the 2005-06 fiscal year. The construction work began in September 2007.

At the programme, Sheikh Hasina said the government is implementing

SB constable suspended for carrying yaba pills n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) authorities have suspended a constable of the city Special Branch following his arrest with 1,595 yaba pills in his possession on Monday.

The suspension order, signed by SB Deputy Commissioner Faruk Ahmed, was issued on the same day against the arrested – Constable Bashir Ahmed. The Dhaka Tribune acquired a copy of the order.

According to the order letter, a team of police led by Sub-Inspector Manjurul Kader arrested Basir on Chittagong-Cox’s Bazar Highway at Fashiakhali area in Chakaria upazila, Cox’s Bazar around 12:40am on Monday following a tip-off.

Bashir was dressed as a civilian when police found him, and later, the team recovered the yaba pills from his possession. He was in a car, and police arrested the driver, Zahir, as well.

Later, a case was filed in this regard with Chakoria police station under the Narcotics Control Act, the order letter said.

SI Manjurul said Bashir collected the yaba pills from Cox’s Bazar and were on their way to Chittagong when they were arrested. Police have yet to find out whom Bashir had collected the pills from in Cox’s Bazar.

Chakoria police OC Prabhat Chandra Dhar said they would seek remand against the duo to collect more information about their yaba peddling circles, routes and patterns.

Sources at the CSB said Bashir, who is from Chandpur, was often absent without leave from his duty, especially recently. He was also absent on Sunday, the day before he got arrested. l

massive programmes for improvement of jail atmosphere. The concept of prison came to award punishment to the offenders but in the civilised world, the prisons are used as centres of correction and rehabilitation, she added.

Congratulating the prison officials and employees marking the Prison Week, the prime minister said the week was being observed after a span of seven years. She hoped that the observance of the day will enhance working spirit among the prison workers and ensure disciplined and safe custody of the prisoners, reports BSS. She said jail keepers play important role in maintaining law and order in the society through keeping the convicted and accused persons safe and secured in jail. The security system of the prisons would be modernised so that militants and top terrorists cannot conduct their activities from the jail, she added.

At the same time she warned that stern action will be taken against the persons who will assist the militants, terrorists or drug traders. “The jail authorities have to face tougher punishment if any of them is found to be in-

volved with militancy, drug dealing or any other crime,” Sheikh Hasina said.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the government has started relocation of 100 years old dilapidated Khulna District Jail and Sylhet Central Jail for widening their spaces. New prisons were already inaugurated in Brahamanbaria, Jhenaidah, Chandpur, Meherpur, Gopalganj, Natore, Nilphamari and Netrokona districts while construction of new jails in Dinajpur, Sunamganj, Kishoreganj, Feni, Madaripur and Pirozpur are going on.

Renovation work of Chittagong Central Jail has been completed and new perimeter of Dhaka Central Jail was constructed, she added.

Sheikh Hasina said the inmates of jails are being provided vocational training for their self-employment and manufacture various products having demands at home and abroad.

She said the government has a plan to construct a multi-storied convention centre and its income will be utilised for welfare of the jail staffs. “A training institute will also be established for jail officials and employees,” she said. l

‘Abdur Razzak was a fearless, progressive leader’ n Abu Hayat Mahmud

Politicians, academics and people from other professions yesterday said former Awami League advisory council member Abdur Razzak was a fearless crusader and progressive political thinker.

Razzak had strongly stood against fundamentalism, and for secularism. He was one of the key organisers of the War of Liberation in 1971, they also said at a memorial meeting, held at Dhaka University’s TSC Auditorium.

Razzak was elected a member of Jatiyo sangsad from the Awami League in national polls in 1973, 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2008 Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said: “Abdur Razzak was a close aide to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He had an active role in the movement for bringing the war criminals to book. The best way to respect him duly is to complete the trial.”

Information Minister Hasanul Haque Inu, also president of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Jasod), said former water resources minister Razzak had played a key role in organising the War of Liberation as a leader of the then Awami League and its

student wing Chhatra League.

Civil Aviation Minister Workers Party President Rashed Khan Menon said Razzak had actively taken part in the movement for the trial of the war criminals, which was led by Shahid Janani Jahanara Imam’s Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee, in the 1990s.

Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) President Mujahidul Islam Selim, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) President ASM Abdur Rab, Abdur Razzak’s son and ruling party’s lawmaker Nahim Razzak also spoke at the memorial meeting.

Abdur Razzak Smriti Sangsad organised the memorial meeting with Dhaka University Professor Abdul Mannan in the chair.

Yesterday, the ruling party and its associate organisations also remembered the late Awami League leader through various programmes marking his third death anniversary.

Razzak was elected a member of Jatiyo sangsad from the Awami League in national polls in 1973, 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2008.

He held different important positions in the party, including its presidium member and general secretary. The historic Ganges Water Treaty was signed between Bangladesh and India in 1997 when Razzak was a minister.

Razzak breathed his last on December 23 in 2011 while undergoing treatment at King’s College Hospital in London. l

Officials of Kashimpur prison in Gazipur welcome Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina with gift yesterday. The prime minister made the visit to the prison on the occasion of Prison Week 2014 PMO

BNS Group chairman faces ACC interrogation n Adil Sakhawat The Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC) yesterday interrogated the chairman of BNS Group of Companies for allegedly evading around Tk22 crore in taxes.

ACC’s Assistant Director Helal Uddin Sharif questioned NSH Bulu from 10am to 2pm. Bulu is also the owner of the BNS centre, a shopping mall at the capital’s Uttara.

Seeking anonymity, an official confirmed this to the Dhaka Tribune.

“Bulu built the shopping mall without the permission of Rajdhani Unnayan Kortipakkha (Rajuk).

Besides, he sold the mall’s position, evading Tk21.91 crore tax,” he said.

The anti-graft body on October 1 decided to run an inquiry into the complaint against him. On December 4, it assigned its Assistant Director Helal to inquire into the issue against him. l

Man held with 2 pistols in Ctg n Staff Correspondent, Chittagong Police yesterday arrested an alleged arms peddler with two 9mm pistols and four blank magazines from Chittagong city’s Akbarshah area.

Chittagong Metropolitan Police’s Additional Deputy Commissioner (West) Tanvir Arafat said they arrested Abdul Majid Bhuiyan alias Rocky, 24, of Sonaimuri upazila, Noakhali from an inter-district bus at a police check post in the area around 4pm.

Rocky tried to flee after getting down from the bus sensing the presence of a team of police when they were conducting a regular search at the check post, he said.

Later, the police team found the arms and magazines after searching his body, he said.

Akbarshah police station Officer-in-Charge Abdul Majid said one of the pistols was made in Japan while another in the USA. An arms case was lodged with Akbarshah police station in this regard, he said. l

National Dalit Women’s Federation organises a human chain and a rally in front of National Press Club yesterday, demanding fundamental rights and equality DHAKA TRIBUNE

Harijans demand inclusion in development n Tribune Report Harijan and Dalit communities yesterday demanded inclusion in mainstream development activities of the country. They also demanded a stop to their segregation in society.

The call was made in a discussion programme titled “Racism and Untouchability is Violation of Human Rights” organised by Bangladesh H a r i j a n Community

in the capital’s National Press Club with support from European Union and Oxfam.

The programme was arranged marking the Global Dignity Day which was celebrated on October 15 worldwide.

Prior to the discussion, a procession was organised which marched from Central Shaheed Minar to the National Press Club.

Nirmal Chandra Das, Harijan Oikya Parishad secretary general, said: “We are neglected everywhere in the society. A minimum wage of Tk1,500 is not sufficient for us. We do not know what will we do with such a poor salary as price of all commodities are doubling.”

Mahfuza Khanom, honorary member of National Human Rights Commission, said: “We need to

have quota for unprivileged people in parliament and Bangladesh Public Service Commission; similar to that for women.”

Talat Mahmud, programme director of Save the Children, said: “Harijan and Dalit people are treated as untouchables in our society and it is a problem of our perception. Our family, society, education, policy, budget – everything is responsible for this.” “Our constitution gives them equal right as a human but as a nation, we do not offer them equal rights, which is a shame for us.”

According to the Harijan community, Dhaka city has around 7,500 sweepers and cleaners and the ratio of cleaner to citizen is 1:2000, which is not sufficient to clean a big city like Dhaka. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

5

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Traffic jam brings woes to Sylhet residents IGP rewards three

BUSTING NOTORIOUS ROBBERS’ GANG

police stations with Tk1 lakh n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

n Our Correspondent, Sylhet

Only a few years back, traffic congestion was rarely seen on roads of Sylhet city, but now it has become common phenomenon.

City dwellers said they could hardly reach their destinations on time because of severe traffic jam.

Most traffic-clogged areas in the city are: Kean bridge, Zindabazar, Bondarbazar, Lamabazar, Mendibagh, Dargahgate, Amberkhana, Chouhatta, Mirabazar, Shibganj, Sylhet Railway station, Kotomtoli and Kumargaon bus stand areas, according to townspeople.

Nurun Nahar, a resident of Lamabazar area, said sometimes people were compelled to walk on roads as makeshift shops put up by hawkers along footpaths have grabbed a portion of walkways which also contributing to traffic congestion.

“Moreover, pedestrians also face road accidents while walking on main roads,” she said.

She demanded the authorities clear the footpaths ensuring safe movement at zebra crossings and footbridges and underpasses so that the pedestrians can move safely.

Lack of trafficking knowledge, narrow road and encroachment of footpaths are the main reason behind the traffic congestion, said sources at Sylhet Metropolitan Police.

The sources which preferred to be unnamed told the Dhaka Tribune that thousands of people from adjacent upazilas and other parts of the district came to the city area for various purposes every day. Entrance of additional people from outskirts of the city with a good number of vehicles during office hours contributed to the city’s traffic jam.

Mominul Islam Momin, a city dweller, said: “I get late at my office everyday due to traffic congestion.”

Housewife Afsana Begum, who was

Much like the capital, the city of Sylhet also suffers from severe traffic congestion these days. The photo was taken recently at the city’s Bandar Bazar area returning home after shopping from Zindabazar on Monday, said: “After ending shopping, we cannot get any rickshaw or battery-run easy-bike on road. Drivers disagree to carry the passengers. Even if we manage to get a rickshaw or easy-bike, we have to spend extra money to travel the distance due to severe traffic jam.”

City dwellers alleged that drivers parked vehicles on roads. Besides,

haphazard parking of rickshaws and battery-run easy-bikes by the side of markets, shopping centres, educational institutions and key installations are narrowing the space of city streets, hampering smooth traffic movement.

According to Sylhet City Corporation, they have taken initiatives to ease traffic congestion of the city. In this regard, they have appointed private security and make a new lane in Bondor

area for rickshaws.

“But, drivers are not habituated to use the lane. All the makeshift shops on the roads would be removed soon,” the sources said.

Md Rahmat Ullah, additional deputy commissioner of Sylhet Metropolitan Police, said: “Traffic jam creates as drivers of three-wheelers and rickshaw pullers are mostly illiterate and they are reluctant to obey traffic rules.”

DHAKA TRIBUNE

The also informed the Dhaka Tribune that they had taken extra measures to ease traffic jam in the city.

Chairperson of SHUJON Sylhet unit Faruk Mahmud Chowdhury said more than one lakh people and regular office-going passengers are suffering for lack of vehicles as well as traffic congestion, he said, adding that battery-run easy-bikes are intensifying traffic congestion in the city. l

Bhutan to supply stones QUADER TO LGED Repair Moghbazar-Mouchak for Padma Bridge road by January 10 n Our Correspondent, Madaripur

Bhutan would supply stones for constructing the much-talked about Padma Bridge, said Pema Choden, Bhutanese ambassador in Dhaka.

She said: “We have a very friendly relationship with Bangladesh and we are ready to supply stones for the construction works of major establishments in the country.”

The Bhutanese envoy made the statement while exchanging views with journalists in Madaripur yesterday.

Recalling the traditional friendship and long- standing relations and engagements between Bangladesh and Bhutan, she further said: “We first have

WEATHER

DRY WEATHER LIKELY WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24 DHAKA

TODAY SUN SETS 5:18PM

TOMORROW SUN RISES 6:39AM

FORECAST FOR TODAY 27 28 26 26 27 27 28 28

Dhaka Chittagong Rajshahi Rangpur Khulna Barisal Sylhet Cox’s Bazar

14 16 12 12 11 14 13 18

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW

29.6ºC Sitakunda

8.0ºC Chuadanga

Source: Accuweather/UNB

PRAYER TIMES Fajr Sunrise Zohr Asr Magrib Esha

5:17am 6:37am 11:58am 3:42pm 5:19pm 6:39 pm SourceL IslamicFinder.org

visit our website @

www.dhakatribune.com

recognised Bangladesh as an independent country.”

“In order to celebrate the historic moment, our Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay arrived here on December 6 and inked two deals.”

During the visit of Tshering Tobgay, the countries inked a deal on trade that would allow the two countries duty free access to 90 of each others products.

The two Saarc neighbours signed another deal on land allocation that would see the handing over of a plot in Dhaka Baridhara for the embassy of Bhutan Pema Choden is visiting the district on a special invitation of the staff members of Bhutanese embassy in Bangladesh. l

n Tribune Report Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader has asked the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) to repair the Moghbazar-Mouchak road which has been pushing commuters in sufferings for more than a year.

“The LGED has been constructing the Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover and as per law the road is under their supervision. Potholes on the busy road have been causing sufferings for commuters,” he said.

He said: “The street must be repaired with concrete pavement within

January 10, next year. By that time it should be made usable for traffic movement. I will visit the road on the date and I hope that I will see a repaired road then.”

The minister made the instruction while talking to reporters after visiting the Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover project area yesterday.

“When I had visited the road in the last rainy season, director of the project had said they could not repair the road due to rain. But now dry season, whom will you blame,” the minister asked the project director.

In response, Project Director Najmul Islam said they would be able to repair

the road within the deadline.

Answering to a query, the minister said the flyover would be completed by December 2015, but part of the flyover from Satrasta to Ramna police station will be opened likely in October next year.

Executive Director of Dhaka Transport Coordination Kaikobad Hossain, Additional Secretary of Local Government Ministry AKM Mozammel Haque, Additional Commissioner of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (traffic) Mily Biswas, Joint Commissioner Mosle Uddin Ahmed and representatives from Dhaka City Corporation were also present during the visit. l

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Hasan Mahmud Khandaker has rewarded three police stations with Tk1,00,000 for their success in busting a notorious robbers’ gang in the country.

The reward money will be distributed among Pahartoli and Kotwali Police Stations in Chittagong; and Khilgaon Police Station in Dhaka for arresting top leaders and cohorts of the gang, BabulHasan-Kalam Bahini.

Sources at the Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) said they have already received the money from the police headquarters in Dhaka, and it will be handed over to the representatives of the respective police stations today.

On December 13, members of the gang looted about 10 tolas gold ornaments worth Tk4.40 lakh from jewelry shops—Gini Jewelers and Aprupa Jewelers—on Hossain Shahid Suhorawardy Road in Chittagong.

On that night, the gang members fled the spot after blasting bombs that killed a hawker named Syed and injured 12 others.

Later, Pahartoli police arrested the gang’s top leader Imtiaz Uddin Babul with arms and ammunition in Chittagong.

Meanwhile, Kotwali police nabbed the gang’s two members—Kalam and Monir who ware also injured in the blast—from a medical and seized the microbus used during the robbery.

On December 15, Dhaka’s Khilgaon police nabbed the gang’s leaders Hasan Jamadar and Manik with the looted jewelry from Khilgaon area.

Later, Chittagong’s Kotwali police arrested seven more cohorts of the gang including four women with four arms and ammunition.

Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) Additional Commissioner (Crime and Operation) Banaz Kumar Majumder told the Dhaka Tribune that the IGP awarded the police stations to inspire the members of the police.

CMP Assistant Commissioner (Double Mooring circle) said this type of reward would inspire them while they work to maintain law and order situation and to keep public lives and properties secured.

Source at the CMP said some 80 members of the gang have been active across the country in the past few years.

Of them, 12 members, including the three ring leaders, of the CMP blacklisted gang were arrested in the police drives, they said.

In last five years, the gang carried out about 400 robberies across the country, the sources said.

Of the incidents of robberies, about 100 had taken place in Chittagong and some 12 people were killed in the incidents. l

Haimchar UP poll ends amid vote rigging clashes n Our Correspondent, Chandpur The upazila parishad poll of Haimchar in Chandpur districyt hardly saw any voters today as most of the voters refrained from going to the polling centres while the rest came back without casting votes.

When asked, the locals attributed the situation to the intimidation created by the associates of the candidates.

Witnesses said the so-called poll ended amid widespread vote rigging and clashes between supporters of the candidates.

Although a number of law enforcers were deployed in the area, most of the polling centres became vacant by 12:30pm. The polling officers and assistant presiding officers were seen loitering outside the centres.

Around 11:30pm, a rebel candidate of the Awami League and current chairman of the upazila Shahjahan Miya and BNP backed candidate Mokhlesur Rahman boycotted the polls.

Another rebel candidate of Awami League Chunnu Miya requested the returning officers and upazila nirbahi officers to suspend the polls.

Accusing Awami League backed candidate Nur Hossain Patwary for vote rigging, Shahjahan Miya said: “Almost all the centres were taken over by the men of Nur Hossain with the aid of law enforcers.”

Mokhlesur Rahman echoed with Nur Hossain.

Trashing the allegations, Nur Hoaain said: “The other candidates are trying to foil the peaceful and fair election, sensing my possible victory they are creating tension at the centres.”

District Election Officer Ataur Rahman said: “There was no provision for boycotting polls in such manner.

Around 460 ballot papers were stolen from two polling centres following which voting were suspended there, 100 of the stolen ballot papers could not be recovered yet.

Returning Officer Nurul Nabi said apart from one or two occurrences, the polls were done peacefully in the region.

Many voters in the region complained that they were barred from casting votes after reaching the centres.

Saiful, a voter of North Algi Durgapur Roshidiya Community Primary School said: “I went to cast vote for the first time in my life. But after reaching the centre the people present there told me that my vote was cast already.”

When asked about casting votes in the upazila parishad polls, Quashim, a local betel leaf seller, smilingly said: “I would not go. My vote will be cast.”

Associates of Nur Hossain Patwary had filled up the ballot boxes by 10:30am at a centre in Nilkomol Osmaniya High School, alleged Al-Amin and Nazmul Hossain, two voters of the centre.

Another voter of the centre Farid Ahmed Haolader said: “There were some people inside. Sensing danger of being beaten up, I left the centre without casting my vote.”

Sipahikandi Government Primary School Presiding Officer Md Mostafa Kamal said: “Around 10am, supporters of ink-pen [election symbol of Nur Hossain] and horse [election symbol of Mokhlesur Rahman] engaged in a clash at the centre, they forcefully snatched away the ballot papers.” l

Pedestrians in the capital are forced to walk on the streets as hawkers have taken possession of the footpaths in almost all parts of the city, setting up their stalls and running businesses. The photo was taken yesterday at Gulistan area MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

Drive to remove mounds from Mongla channel starts n Tribune Desk The local administration has launched a drive to execute the Prime Minister’s order for removing illegal embankments and mounds built on the mouths of over 50 canals along the Mongla-hashiakhali channel in the Kumarkhali River.

The drive kicked off on Tuesday as MP from Bagerhat 3 constituency Talukdar Abdul Khaleque led the action of the local administration in the breaching of a mound laid on the mouth of

Orabunia canal of the Kumarkhali River in Rampal Sadar upazila.

Deputy commissioner of the district M Shukkur Ali, superintendent of police M Nizamul Haque Molla and UNO of Rampal upazila Rafa M Arif were also present on the occasion. Divisional commissioner of Khulna M Abdus Samad told UNB that this drive to evict the shrimp farms that had blocked the canals will continue for the next one month.

The mounds or embankments had been illegally built by influential quarters for shrimp farming through the

obstruction of the natural water flow from the river.

After the recent oil spillage from a crashed oil tanker in the Shela River of the Sundarbans, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordered the authorities to take quick steps to complete the dredging of the silted-up Mongla-Ghashiakhali channel, which was the older route of shipping through Mongla Port. As part of the move, the local administration has started removing the illegal mounds and embankments of the mouths of canals linked to the important channel. l

6

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Nation

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

BM College students counting extra fees n Our Correspondent, Barisal Different departments of Barisal Government Brojomohun College are realising extra fees from students in the name of extra curricular activities.

On condition of anonymity, students said they were giving Tk4,000-4,500 for form fill-up of 2nd year final examination while the National University had fixed the fees at Tk1,200-1,300.

A student said: “Although the college was established with the motto ‘Satya Prem Pabitrata (Truth Love Purity)’ the college authorities are not now following it.”

He also said expenditure of education had become burden for poor students as college authorities often realised extra money from them in the pretext of extra curriculum activities.

Schoolteacher found dead n Our Correspondent, Rajshahi Police yesterday recovered the hanging body of a teacher from a tree in Bagha upazila.

The dead was identified as Rezaul Karim, 55, assistant teacher of Sonadah Government Primary School.

Aminur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Bagha police station said, a child found the hanging body in the morning and informed the police. l

Protest against price hike in agri-inputs n Our Correspondent, Jamalpur Bangladesh Jatiotabadi Krishak Dal, the farmers wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party brought out a procession in the district protesting hike in the price of fertilizer and diesel. A memorandum was also sent to the president through the deputy commissioner. l

The college office also realises cost of study tour, picnic, sports, seminar, publication, poor fund, practical, model test, field work, absence-fine, library charges with examination fees.

Another student said: “If a students does not want to go to picnic, he or she has pay for it, it is not justified.”

Many students alleged that the college office sometimes did not provide receipt to them in a bid to conceal the fact that they were taking additional money.

Prof Fazlul Haque, principal of the college, said they had collected additional money from students during the year-final examination as they had to bear travel, food, and accommodation cost for external examiners.

“It is for the well being of the college, nothing else,” he said.

Rezaul Islam, a student of general history department, said: “The matter is now an open secret and we could not take risk of failure or low-grade results by complaining against the collection of extra fees by our teachers.”

“Our family could bear Tk500-1,000 extra charges with the NU fixed examination fees, but the departments are collecting two-three times more than it. Application for help from poor-fund or to curtail rate of extra fees often rejected by the college and department authorities,” said Sumaiya, a student of Physics department.

As the money of extra fees is collected without any receipt, so there would be no chance for audit objection or any documentary evidence, said a 2nd-year final examine of accounting department denying disclosing his name. l

LAKSHMIPUR GOVT WOMEN DEGREE COLLEGE

Teachers lack hampers activities n Our Correspondent, Lakshmipur Academic activities at Lakshmipur Government Women Degree College are being hampered severely due to a lack of adequate number of teachers, office staff and classrooms.

There are total 31 posts for teachers, including the posts of principal and vice-principal at the college. Of the posts, 14 have remained vacant for long time, according to sources in the college.

Meanwhile, some five posts of office assistants, including the posts of third and fourth class employees, have also remained vacant. There are total 14 posts for office assistants at the college, the sources said.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, many teachers said mainly par-time teachers are taking classes at most of the departments, including Bangla, English, sociology, economics, political science, philosophy, mathematics, management, islamic history.

Two posts in management depart-

ment, three in political science department, and three posts in accounting department have remained vacant for many years. One post each in Bangla, English, economics, sociology, islamic history and mathematics departments has also remained vacant.

On condition of anonymity, a teacher said most of the newly appointed teachers do not want to stay as there is not scope to get promotion at the college.

There is no post for assistant professors and associate professors at the college, he said.

So most of the lectures try to leave the college right after getting appointment. And the posts remain vacant until recruitment of new teachers, he added.

According to sources in the college, there are 697 students in humanities, 541 in business, 49 in science faculties in the college.

Moreover, there are there 406 students in different academic years in bachelor of social science and bachelor

Painting competition held n Our Correspondent, Barisal

The Bangladesh Mutkijoddha Sangsad Bhola unit brings out a procession in the district town yesterday, protesting remarks made by Tarique Rahman against Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman DHAKA TRIBUNE

A painting competition to observe 80th birth anniversary of language-hero Azharuddin held at the pavement of Bijoy-Bihango in Swadhinita Mancho in the town on Monday night.

Bhashasoinik AKM Azhar Uddin Shikkha Trust arranged the programme.

Total 108 competitors participated the competition.

AKM Shahidullah, Barisal City Corporation Panel Mayor, Moniruzzaman, artist Sushanta Ghosh distributed prizes among the winners. l

Six killed in road accidents n Tribune Report

At least six people were killed in road accidents in Noakhali, Meherpur, Faridpur and Rangpur districts yesterday.

Our Noakhali correspondent reports: A local Jubo League leader was killed on the Noakhali-Feni Road in Teker Bajar area under Senbag upazila.

The victim was identified as Md Humayun Kabir of Mohammadpur village and also the president of Mohammadpur Union Jubo league.

Md Mominul Islam, officer-incharge of Senbag police station, quoting the locals said around 10.45pm, Humayun Kabir was coming from Feni

Farmers plant saplings of Boro Zira Katari variety of paddy at Talando village under Tanore upazila, Rajshahi yesterday

by a motorbike. When he reached Teker Bajar, a tractor hit him from opposite direction leaving him critically injured.

Locals rushed him to a local hospital where he died.

In Rangpur, two people were killed and 10 others injured in a head-on collision between a bus and a truck on the Rangpur-Borra Highway in Kelamu Bridge area of Pirganj upazila. The deceased could not be identified immediately.

Police said the accident took place when the Dinajpur bound bus from Rangpur collided with the truck from the opposite direction around 5:30am on the highway, leaving the duo dead on the spot and ten others injured.

Faridpur correspondent said, two motorcyclists were killed and 10 others injured in a road accident on the Dhaka-Khulna Highway in Bahirdia.

The deceased were identified as Moshiur, 20, and Jony, 24, a resident of Khabaspur area of the town.

Quoting witnesses, police said the accident took place on the highway in the afternoon when a bus from the opposite direction crashed into the motorcycle carrying them, leaving the duo dead on the spot. Meherpur correspondent said, a CNG run auto rickshaw driver was killed on the Meherpur-Mujib Nagar Road when another three wheeler hit the auto rickshaw. l

NEWS IN BRIEF Robber arrested with gun in Kishoreganj Police have arrested an alleged robber from Uttar Satiadi village in Pakundia upazila of the district on Monday night. An LG gun with five rounds of bullets and a snatched mobile set were recovered from his possession, police said. The robber is identified as Reaz Uddin, 40, son of late Foez Uddin of Uttar Satiadi village in Pakundia. Jakir Rabbani, officer-in-charge (OC) in Pakundia said acting on a tip-off, a group of police led by SI Matiur Rahman conducted a raid in Satiadi Borokanda Fisheries area about 12pm and arrested alleged robber Reaz Uddin with arms. There are 13 robbery cases against Reaz with Pakundia and Katiadi police stations, the police official added.

– Our Correspondent, Kishoreganj

30 shops gutted in Feni At least 30 shops were gutted in a devastating fire in Chhagalnaiya upazila of the district yesterday. Fire service sources said the fire

broke out in the morning and engulfed the adjacent area leaving 30 shops including a godown burnt to ashes. The firefighters doused the fire after one hour of hectic efforts. The fire broke out rapidly as there was oil-shop near the shops in the market, said Fire Service Inspector Mohammad Mahmudul Haque. The shop owners claimed that the loss caused by the fire could go up to Tk1.5crore.

– Our Correspondent, Feni

Missing woman found dead in Jhalokati The body of a missing woman was recovered from a canal in Rajapur area of the district yesterday. The deceased was identified as Saleha Begum, wife of late Kashem Karal in Kanu Das Kathi area. Deceased family members said Saleha went out on Thursday and did not return home. In the morning, locals found the body in Durgapur Canal infront of Sikder Bari in the area and informed police. Rajapur police station Officer-in-Charge Masuduzzaman confirmed the incident.

– Our Correspondent, Jhalokati

of business studies departments.

A female student of the college said she has to waste her times as most of the days no class is taken place at her department due to lack of teachers.

“I just come to college and go back to home without attending any class,” she said.

Abdur Rahman, a guardian of a female student, said: “I admitted my daughter to the government college expecting that she could get proper education.” “Its really a matter regret that no class is taking place due to lack of teachers.”

Md Abdus Salam, a teacher at Bangla department, said they are taking classes a their department with the help of part time teachers.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune Safiqul Ameen Khan, vice-principal of the college, admitted that academic activities are being hampered at different departments due lack of teachers.

He said they have informed the matter to the education ministry. The college was nationalised in 1997. l

AZAHAR UDDIN

First martyr’s family is not well n Our Correspondent, Sunamganj

The family of Sunamganj’s first martyr Abul Hossain is not living well.

Her wife Rahima Khatun, now around 70, is still struggling.

Her husband Abul Hossain died during a gunfight with Pakistani occupation forces in the district town in the noon of March 27, 1971.

Afterward, she along with their all two daughters and a son took shelter at an orphanage and then shifted to Kalibari School in the town.

Thus a year went by. Her two daughters grew up and she married them off with the help from local people.

The martyr’s wife returned to her husband’s homestead at Asinpur village, but by that time, it had eroded into the Surma river.

She then went to her father’s house at Ibrahimpur village, where her father built a hut for her and her son to live in.

Twelve years ago, the house got broken for lack of repairs and now she

along with her son Rezaul lives at a small tin-roofed house.

Now around 70, Rahima Khatun is suffering from various ails, including high blood pressure, cataract.

The Dhaka Tribune correspondent visited and talked to her and found that she and her son Rezaul are living in a congested house, which bears every mark of poverty.

She told the correspondent that now at such an age, she only expects the government to arrange for a piece of land so that she can die with her family living there proudly.

When District Freedom Fighters’ Council Commander Haji Nurul Momen was contacted, she urged the government to do something for the district’s first martyr’s family.

When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Sheikh Rafiqul Islam said she knew about the family and the woman had come to him with a request for a piece of land “I am trying to keep the request of the martyr’s family.” l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Long Form

7

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Bangladesh is no basket case Bangladesh is one of the few countries likely to meet almost all of the Millennium Development Goals.

The country is still very poor, but it has made spectacular progress

Today, there are around 3,000 RMG factories. They export more garments than the textiles sector of any other country except China

O

n Marianne Scholte ne of the most overlooked development success stories of the past decades has been steadily unfolding in one of the poorest and most populous countries: Bangladesh.

The little attention the country attracts in the international media tends to focus on floods, cyclones, allegedly deplorable labour conditions in the textiles industry and poor governance.

Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index places the country near the bottom of its ranking.

Bangladesh’s reputation of desperate misery is decades old. Henry Kissinger, the influential US secretary of state in the 1970s, famously derided it as a “basket case.” The international public has barely noticed Bangladesh’s achievements in terms of income levels, food security, industrialisation, health, family planning, education, disaster prevention and the empowerment of women.

The international public has barely noticed Bangladesh’s achievements in terms of income levels, food security, industrialisation, health, family planning, education, disaster prevention and the empowerment of women

Perceptions only began to change slowly at the end of the past decade, when World Bank experts, for instance, noticed the “development surprise.” This surprise results from several factors that cannot be easily replicated: Governance was often better than its reputation. There is indeed reason to complain about corruption, overblown and manipulative partisanship.

Politically motivated violence has occurred, top leaders have been assassinated, the military grabbed power several times. In spite of these downsides, however, the state apparatus did focus on specific development goals with considerable success.

Bangladesh has a vibrant civil society. It spawned many path-breaking non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which supplemented government action and – where such action

was lacking – often substituted for it.

Many of them pay special attention to improving the lot of women and empowering them.

Entrepreneurs have acted dynamically and built strong new businesses.

International donor agencies played their part. Well-targeted social-development programmes always found donor support, and the donors knew they could rely on competent and committed local staff.

Bangladesh is a small but densely populated country. Its culture is unusually homogenous for a developing country: 98% of its people speak Bangla as their first language, and almost 90% are Muslim. These characteristics have proven helpful. What works in one village is likely to work in the next village as well – and the next village is never far away. Moreover, development workers only need a bicycle to reach many thousands of clients.

Traumatised by war Bangladesh became a sovereign nation in late 1971 after a war of independence that left millions dead and destroyed the country’s infrastructure. At the time, the country’s future looked bleak. A whole generation of intellectuals and professionals had been murdered by the Pakistani army, and hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi women had been systematically raped. Two years later, a devastating famine killed another estimated 1.5 million people. There was reason to doubt that the new nation of 72 million people squeezed into an area of only 144,000 square kilometres had a future. Its population was larger than West Germany’s, but its territory was 40% smaller.

However, the Bangladeshis were determined to rebuild and develop their country. Massive amounts of foreign aid arrived and civil-society groups and government agencies distributed the assistance to destitute people. A number of important NGOs were started as part of the relief effort.

Some of them, for instance BRAC and Grameen Bank, have become internationally active organisations with world-wide recognition and millions of members.

In the 1970s, government relief efforts quickly evolved into effective development policies. The massive donor-funded food distribution programmes of the post-war period were transformed into rural infrastructure development programmes, headed by the Local Government Engineering Department (initially the Rural Works Programme) and its charismatic leader Quamrul Islam Siddique. Among other things, the extensive, meticulously

RAJIB DHAR

planned network of rural roads, bridges, markets and boat landing sites dramatically increased the volume of marketed rice and contributed to falling real prices of rice.

High-yielding rice and wheat varieties were introduced in the 1970s and 1980s, and the markets for farm-inputs were liberalised. The introduction of various kinds of tube wells and surface irrigation boosted the dry-season rice crop. Rice production steadily increased from 10 million tons in 1972/73 to 34 million tons in 2011/2012.

Today, Bangladesh is basically self-sufficient in food.

Budding industries The war destroyed the country’s small business sector and it took several years until the private sector – including the ready-made garment industry (RMG) – began to emerge.

Today, there are around 3,000 RMG factories. They export more garments than the textiles sector of any other country except China. Garment exports from Bangladesh were worth $24.5bn in fiscal year 2013/14 and accounted for 81% of export earnings. The sector provides direct employment to more than 3.5 million people – the majority poor rural women – and indirect employment and income to millions more.

RMG production clearly dominates Bangladesh’s manufacturing sector, but other industries – including generic pharmaceuticals, leather products and ship-building – are also gaining strength. Since 2004, two Bangladeshi ship-building companies have exported ships worth $200m. Industrial production now accounts for almost 30% of GDP. A massive flow of remittances from millions of Bangladeshis who live abroad has helped. The World Bank reckons that remittances amounted to almost $13bn in fiscal year 2011/12.After an average annual GDP growth rate of less than 4% a year in the 1980s, Bangladesh’s GDP growth averaged 4.8% in the 1990s and 5.9% in the 2000s, according to official statistics. Per-capita income increased by an average of 1.7% per year in the 1980s, 2.7% in the 1990s and 4.5% per year in the 2000s.

Making the most of growth Economic growth matters, but there is much more going on here. Social development has outpaced rising incomes. With a per-capita GNI of $900 in 2013, the World Bank still ranks Bangladesh as a low-income country.

The UN lists Bangladesh among the least-developed countries, taking into account additional indicators for edu-

cation, health and people’s vulnerability to shocks. Nonetheless, Bangladesh is on track to meet key Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The share of the people below the national poverty line fell from 56.6% in 1992 to 31.5% in 2010. Bangladesh is one of the few countries that are likely to achieve the MDG of reducing infant,

had approximately 69 million and West Pakistan (Pakistan) 62 million people. They had the same fertility rate. Today, Bangladesh has a population of approximately 150 million, while Pakistan’s has grown to more than 176 million. The fertility rate for 2012 was 2.2 children per woman in Bangladesh and 3.3 in Pakistan.

Today, NGOs are crucial to the path-breaking rural solar-energy programme that has brought solar home systems to over 7 million Bangladeshis since 2002

child and maternal mortality by twothirds. It is also on track to immunise 100% of its one-year-old children against measles and achieve 100% net enrolment in primary school. Gender disparity has been eliminated in primary and secondary education. The country will meet or has already met most of the targets for fighting HIV/ AIDs, malaria and tuberculosis.

In regard to family planning, Bangladesh surprised the world long before the MDGs were even defined. The nation reduced its total fertility rate from 6.9 children per woman in 1970 to 3.3 children per woman in the mid1990s. Experts had believed that such a decline would only be possible in the context of rapidly rising incomes, increased levels of education for women or a powerful non-familial welfare system such as in China.

In Bangladesh, however, the dramatic drop in the fertility rate was the result of strong and persistent government commitment to an innovative, multi-layered programme: Family-planning information reached almost every village in the country through the media, local elites, NGOs and even religious leaders. Contraceptives were widely advertised and made available at low-cost, subsidised prices. The heart of the programme consisted of 23,500 female family welfare assistants who brought health and family planning information as well as free contraceptives to women in their homes. The assistance was backed-up by clinical services. By the mid-1990s, the Ministry of Health was employing 44,000 family planning personnel – all financed at that time by donor agencies.

In 1970, East Pakistan (Bangladesh)

The successful family-planning programme is perhaps paradigmatic for Bangladesh’s social development in general. Government agencies and NGOs typically cooperate on implementing comprehensive policies in selected sectors and rely on international funding. It is noteworthy, for instance, that Grameen Bank had received $148m in grants and $85m in loans from international donors by the end of the 1990s. Today, around 2,000 development NGOs in Bangladesh are active in education and health services, micro-finance and women’s empowerment. Many of them contribute to the spectacularly successful disaster-risk reduction system. Before cyclone Sidr hit the coast of Bangladesh in 2007, some 3.5 million people were evacuated. The storm killed about 3,500 people, but that number has to be put in perspective. A cyclone of similar strength had claimed 138,000 lives in 1991 and the region’s most devastating storm of all times left half a million dead in 1970.

In view of a growing population and a rising sea level, this kind of progress is very important.

Today, NGOs are crucial to the path-breaking rural solar-energy programme that has brought solar home systems to over 7 million Bangladeshis since 2002. The programme, once again, was initiated by a government-owned company, is promoted by local NGOs and relies on international funding. l Dr Marianne Scholte is a freelance journalist.

Her blog about Bangladesh is: http://www. threadsandborders.blogspot.de. This article was first published in Development and Cooperation.

8

DHAKA TRIBUNE

World

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Australia PM warns of ‘chatter’ as memorials held for siege victims n Reuters, Sydney Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said yesterday security officials had intercepted a heightened level of “terrorist chatter” in the aftermath of the Sydney cafe siege.

As memorial services were held for the two victims of the 16-hour siege a week ago, Abbott warned that the public needed to remain alert as the country headed into Christmas and New Year celebrations.

“The national security agencies today indicated that there has been a heightened level of terrorist chatter in the aftermath of the Martin Place siege,” Abbott told reporters in Sydney.

Man Haron Monis, a self-styled sheikh, held hostages at gunpoint at the Lindt Chocolate Cafe in Martin Place, a central Sydney shopping and office precinct, from mid-morning on Monday last week.

Two hostages, cafe manager Tori Johnson and lawyer Katrina Dawson, were killed along with Monis when police stormed the cafe. An official investigation into the final moments of the siege and the deaths of all three is underway.

Parliamentary deputies applaud after a renouncing of Ukraine’s ‘non-aligned’ status during a session of a parliament in Kiev yesterday

Ukraine angers Moscow by scrapping ‘non-aligned’ status n Reuters The Ukrainian parliament yesterday renounced Ukraine’s “non-aligned” status with the aim of eventually joining Nato, angering Moscow which views the Western alliance’s eastward expansion as a threat to its own security Kiev first announced its intention of seeking the protection of Nato membership in August following what it deemed the open participation of Russia’s military in a separatist war in Ukraine’s eastern provinces.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called Ukraine’s renunciation of its neutral military and political status a “counterproductive” step that would only boost tensions around the crisis in the east.

“It will only escalate the confrontation and creates the illusion that it is possible to resolve Ukraine’s deep internal crisis by passing such laws,” TASS news agency quoted him as saying.

Addressing deputies in Kiev before the vote, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said the

move underscored the country’s determination to pivot towards Europe and the West.

“This will lead to integration in the European and the Euro-Atlantic space,” he said.

The amendment passed easily, receiving 303 votes, 77 more than the minimum required to pass into law.

Any accession to the Western military alliance is likely to take years, but a Nato spokesman in Brussels said: “Our door is open and Ukraine will become a member of NATO if it so requests and fulfils the

standards and adheres to the necessary principles.”

Ties between Moscow and Kiev are at an all-time low since Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in March and the subsequent outbreak of the pro-Russian rebellion in the east.

The pro-Western authorities in Kiev accuse Russia of orchestrating and arming the uprising after the overthrow of a Ukrainian president sympathetic to Moscow. The Kremlin denies that it is behind the revolt. l

Untested Ebola drug given to patients in Sierra Leone causes UK walkout

US state department’s guantanamo envoy resigns

n Guardian

n Reuters, Washington

Ebola patients at a treatment centre in Sierra Leone have been given a heart drug that is untested against the virus in animals and humans, a move that has been deemed reckless by one senior scientist and has prompted UK medical staff at the centre to leave.

A 14-strong team of British doctors, nurses and paramedics stopped working at the Lakka treatment centre in Freetown because of their concerns over what they considered the experimental and potentially dangerous use of the drug, and other safety issues.

The 22-bed treatment centre is run

by Emergency, an Italian NGO set up by heart surgeon Gino Strada to bring world-class cardiac surgery to some of the poorest parts of Africa.

Emergency says it wants to give patients the standard of care they would get in Europe, both at its Ebola treatment centre (ETC) at Lakka and at a new 100-bed centre at Goderich in Freetown, built by the British army and funded by the Department for International Development (DfID).

But UK volunteers sent to work in Lakka in late November felt Emergency’s approach was too ambitious and may have contributed to a death rate higher than at some other centres.

Emergency has stopped using the drug, amiodarone, after a request from DfID, which had been alerted by the British medics. It says it is planning a formal trial.

Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, which is funding drug trials starting in west Africa, said it would be reckless to use amiodarone, which affects the heart, other than under strict conditions. “This is the sort of terrible consequence of not having a logical, sensible approach. I think it is reckless not doing this in carefully controlled conditions.”

Farrar, a member of the World Health Organisation scientific and technical advisory committee that is looking at potential Ebola drugs, said amiodarone “was considered for the WHO priority list and it was decided it was not on the priority list. It doesn’t mean to say it is absolutely terrible, but you shouldn’t really be using it unless you have got very careful monitoring of the heart. What we see sometimes in the lab does not translate into having an antiviral effect in humans.” l

The State Department envoy responsible for negotiating prisoner transfers from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is resigning, officials said on Monday, even as President Barack Obama is promising a stepped-up push to close the facility.

The surprise announcement of Clifford Sloan’s departure followed a flurry of detainee repatriations and resettlements, though officials at the State Department and White House had made clear their frustration with the slow handling of such moves by outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

Sloan assumed the post in July 2013 and the State Department said he was stepping down and returning to his Washington law practice after finishing an 18-month commitment.

A senior US official said another factor in Sloan’s decision was that the Pentagon “certainly hasn’t been as helpful as they could have been” in speeding up the process of sending prisoners home or resettling them in other countries.

Still, Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement Sloan’s “skillful negotiating” led to the transfer of 34 detainees and “with more on the way.”

With the detainee population whittled down to 132, several more are expected to be transferred by year-end and that figure could reach low “double digits” as further moves involving “various nationalities” take place in following weeks, the senior official said.

Sloan’s resignation, which takes effect Dec. 31, is not likely to affect transfers already in the pipeline, but it remains to be seen what kind of impact it will have beyond that.

“I’m going to be doing everything I can to close it,” Obama told CNN in an interview broadcast on Sunday, renewing a pledge he made to shut the internationally condemned prison when he took office nearly six years ago.

He said keeping the prison open “continues to inspire jihadists” around the world and is “wildly expensive.”

But he faces obstacles posed by the US Congress, not least of which is a ban on the transfer of prisoners

REUTERS

to the US mainland.

Sloan forged agreements that led to the repatriation of four Afghans last weekend and the resettlement of six prisoners in Uruguay in mid-December, but both deals faced delays at the Pentagon, which by law must give final approval.

Differences over the pace of transfers, the US official said, added to friction between Hagel and Obama’s inner circle that culminated in the defense secretary’s resignation last month.

Obama has not decided on a replacement for Sloan.

Guantanamo was opened by Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, to house militant suspects rounded up overseas. Most of the detainees have been held for a decade or more without being charged or tried.

Sixty-four prisoners have been cleared by an interagency review but the problem remains finding ways to send them home or identify other countries that will accept them. l

New ‘magic‘ arthritis implant hailed n Guardian A new treatment for arthritis sufferers has been hailed as “magic” by a woman who had a pioneering electronic implant fitted.

Monique Robroek, who took part in a study at the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam, told Sky News she had seen a major improvement in her condition, having previously required the strongest drugs to help ease her pain.

“I have my normal life back,” she said, having had the implant fitted a year ago. “Within six weeks I felt no pain. The swelling has gone. I go biking, walk the dog and drive my car. It is like magic.”

Scientists have seen an improvement in the conditions of more than half of the 20 patients in their trial, which uses small

pacemaker-type devices to send electrical impulses to a nerve relaying brain signals to vital organs.

Scientists have seen an improvement in the conditions of more than half of the 20 patients in their trial Rheumatoid arthritis, which causes joint pain, swelling, stiffness and fatigue, is the second most common form of arthritis in the UK and the most common inflammatory joint disorder. More

than 400,000 people are affected by the disease in the UK, according to NHS figures.

Prof Paul-Peter Tak, a rheumatologist at the Dutch hospital, told Sky News: “Even in patients who have failed everything, including the most modern pharmaceuticals, we have seen a clear trend of improvement. We may be able to achieve remission in 20% to 30% of patients, which would be a huge step forward in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.”

He said the treatment could provide an alternative for patients who would otherwise have to take medicines for most of their lives.

Kris Famm, of the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, said he was hopeful that one day similar implants could help people with asthma, obesity and diabetes.l

“I’m alerting people to the fact that the terror level remains high and at this level an attack is likely,” Abbott said.

Police have said they would be boosting their presence at prominent locations such as Sydney Harbour, home to the Opera House, over the Christmas period.

Several of the 17 hostages taken by Monis attended the funeral service for 34-year-old Johnson at a church just metres away from the cafe.

New South Wales (NSW) state Premier Mike Baird and Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione also joined mourners, who included Johnson’s partner of 14 years.

A quote from philosopher Rumi under a photo of Johnson graced the cover of the funeral booklet: “Outside the ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing, there is a field. I will meet you there.”

More than 1,000 people attended a separate memorial service for 38-year-old Dawson at her alma mater, Sydney University.

Her three children, aged four, six and eight, each chose a song for the service: “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” “Somewhere over the Rainbow,” and “The Gambler” respectively. l

Leader of Algerian ‘beheading group’ killed n Agencies Algerian special forces have killed the leader of the rebel group responsible for kidnapping and beheading French tourist Herve Gourdel in September, Algeria’s ministry of defence has said.

Abdelmalek Gouri, also known as Khalid Abu Suleiman, was killed yesterday in an ambush near Boumerdes, 50km east of Algiers, it said in a statement.

Gouri was a veteran of Algeria’s 1990s conflict and leader of the Jund al-Khilafa, or “Caliphate Soldiers” group, which declared

its allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant in September. Jund al-Khilafa beheaded Gourdel on September 24 in a gruesome video posted online after France rejected their demand to halt air strikes in Iraq.

A former regional head of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Gouri had aligned his fighters with ISIL, whose battlefield clashes and declaration of a “Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria have drawn in other North African groups, challenging al-Qaeda.

Two other fighters were killed in a separate operation yesterday in nearby Tizi Ouzou, the ministry’s statement said. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

World

9

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

PDP largest party in hung Jammu and Kashmir assembly BJP to form govt in Jharkhand n PTI, Srinagar, Ranchi In a heavily-fractured verdict in Jammu & Kashmir, the PDP yesterday emerged as the single largest party throwing many possibilities in government formation while the BJP was all set to form government in Jharkhand in coalition with ally AJSU. With 28 seats, the PDP was in a pole position to form the government, but the party appeared to be keeping all options open like the BJP which has won 25 seats, all in the Jammu region, recording its best performance in the state.

The BJP’s success in Jharkhand comes on top of its victory in Maharashtra and Haryana in the recent assembly elections after the stupendous victory in Lok Sabha polls.

However, the BJP, for whom Prime Minister Narendra Modi carried out an extensive “Mission 44+” campaign in the 87 member Jammu & Kashmir Assembly, failed to make any breakthrough in the valley and Ladakh where it drew a blank in 50 seats.

However, the party had more than doubled its seats from 11 in 2008 to 25 now while the PDP went up from 21 to 28.

The ruling National Conference was routed when it secured only 19 seats against 28 it had won in the last elections. Chief minister and National Conference president Omar Abdullah lost from Sonawar seat but managed to cling on to Beerwah with a slender margin of 1,000 votes.

J&K chief minister and National Conference president Omar Abdullah being greeted by his supporters as he comes out from a counting station after his win from Beerwah assembly constituency.

Omar, who contested from Sonawar as well, lost from the constituency.

Its partner in the government Congress slipped to the fourth position getting 12 seats against 17 it had. Jammu & Kashmir People Conference headed by former separatist Sajjad Lone won two seats while JKPDF (Secular) and CPM won one seat each. Independents won in three seats.

As the picture became clear, BJP

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) supporters shout slogans after PDP candidate Mohd Ashraf defeated incumbent Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for the Sonwar constituency, in Srinagar yesterday AFP president Amit Shah said all three options were open for the party.

“The option of forming the government, the option of supporting a government and the option of participating in a government are all open,” Shah told reporters in Delhi.

To further questions, he said it is for the media to guess what the BJP would do. The party’s parliamentary board will meet on Wednesday to discuss the situation.

BJP president Amit Shah said his party kept all its options open in Jammu & Kashmir and wants a popular government in the state.

In Srinagar, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti also kept everyone guessing.

“Our priority will not be to cobble together a government by hook or crook.

It will take time to explore possibilities and formation of government to meet the people’s expectations and good governance. It is difficult to say when it will materialize,” she told reporters.

Outgoing chief minister Omar Abdullah also did not reveal his party’s plan

except to claim that the National Conference cannot be ignored in the current situation. “The NC will be a serious player in whatever unveils in Jammu & Kashmir in the next few days,” he said.

Interestingly, BJP has emerged the largest party in terms of vote share in Jammu & Kashmir securing 23% votes despite the washout in terms of seats in the valley and Ladakh.

The PDP came next with 22.7% , the National Conference got 20.8% while the Congress recorded 18% of votes.

Jammu & Kashmir saw record voter turnout in the 2014 assembly election.

Jharkhand, a state that was formed 14 years ago, got its first stable government with the BJP winning in 33 seats while leading in 4 seats in the 81-seat assembly. It ally AJSU has won five seats giving the alliance 42 seats, one more than the required majority of 41.

The ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha won 18 seats and was leading in one more while its partner in government Congress won four seats and was leading in two. l

Parties drown separatist voice in J-K n Hindustan Times, Srinagar

The fallout of the high turnout in the Jammu and Kashmir elections, at 66%, has been that major political parties have eaten into the legitimacy of separatists rooting for rejection and boycott.

Except for separatist Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and hardline Hurriyat led by Syed Ali Geelani, the moderate Hurriyat faction of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) took a guarded approach to elections.

Though the Hurriyat faction and the JeI desisted from launching an anti-poll campaign, they stuck to the united Hurriyat’s constitution that “polls are not substitute for plebiscite.” Ahead of the polls, senior JeI leaders had asked people to go by their conscience.

Hurriyat chairman Farooq may publicly describe the high voter turnout as

“fallout of lack of governance and vote for grievances and not aspirations,” many constituents are now in favour of a debate on boycott.

In fact, United Jehad Council supremo Syed Salahuddin has asked separatists to mull over polls.

“Militant leadership believes participation is betrayal with the sacrifices. But whatever the decision is taken by the Hurriyat over the issue, we will abide by it,” said Salahuddin.

The fast emerging trend in Kashmir is that people largely rejected boycott politics except for a few separatist bastions like Srinagar.

Insiders in the separatist camp accept being on the back foot after largescale participation of people in the election, and admit they have to redraw the strategy.

It is still unclear whether the new strategy means warming up to democratic challenges, but has certainly left

the door ajar for electoral politics.

“So upbeat was electoral environment that separatists, though gave a call for boycott, did not pursue it seriously. Extension of electoral space is certainly challenging for separatists. If nothing else, one of the tools of their politics has lost its relevance,” said Rekha Chowdhary, the former head of department of political science, Jammu University, and a known columnist.

She attributed the shrinking space for separatists to the 2002 Assembly polls. “Political developments post 2002 period helped in the extension of the electoral space. Emergence of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that ended hegemony of the National Conference (NC) made electoral politics highly competitive with other parties also joining. No more seen as manipulated from above, this process has gained greater credibility,” she said. l

N Korea ‘back online’ after internet outage

Pakistan to protect citizens of all castes, state, and religion

n Agencies

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said yesterday that each and every citizen of Pakistan will be protected by the state, irrespective of their religion, sect or caste, and that no cause is holier than protecting the life and property of the people.

PM Nawaz was addressing a meeting in Islamabad to discuss matters relating to the scourge of terrorism in the country.

“We cannot forget and forgive atrocities committed by barbarians in Peshawar, Quetta and Wagha,” the prime minister said. “There will be no discrimination and exception in our war against terrorism.”

On Dec 16, a deadly Taliban attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar left 141 people dead — including 132 school children.

In the wake of the attack, a meeting of the country’s civilian and military leadership, headed by PM Nawaz, had agreed on zero tolerance for terror. The leadership had agreed that no leniency would be extended to terrorists and tough steps would be taken in this regard.

The country’s political leadership also constituted a committee to work out a national action plan for countering terrorism and asked recommendations from all parliamentary parties in this regard. The first meeting of the committee is under way at the Parliament House in the federal capital.

The premier also lifted the moratorium on the death penalty, allowing capital punishment for those sentenced to death in terrorism cases in the wake of which six terrorists have been executed.

Earlier today, the premier cancelled all his routine appointments and announced dedicating the whole day to reforms on security-related matters.

Nawaz held meetings to discuss counter terrorism measures with Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif and other military officials.

They reviewed progress on the ongoing operations in North Waziristan and Khyber Agency. The military leadership informed Nawaz about their meeting with Afghan National Army and ISAF commanders at the General Headquarters. l

A traditional drummer wears a mask bearing the portrait of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters celebrate following the Jharkhand, and Jammu and Kashmir state assembly election results in New Delhi yesterday AFP

n Agencies

Afghan troops in ceremonial uniforms

REUTERS

Afghan official: Over 150 Taliban killed in 12-day fight near border n AP, Kabul At least 151 Taliban fighters have been killed by government forces during 12 days of fighting in the volatile east, near the border with Pakistan, the spokesman for the police chief of Kunar province said yesterday.

Gen Abdul Habib Sayedkhaili said at least another 100 insurgents were wounded in the fighting in Dangam district. He said the Pakistani Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) – the group responsible for the attacks on Mumbai in 2008 in which more than 160 people were killed – were also taking part in the battle.

“That 17 foreign fighters that were killed during the battle proves that foreigners are supporting local insurgents in the area,” he said.

“As Dangam is so close to the border, it is very easy for them to cross the border into Afghanistan and help the insurgents here. We are very careful with conducting our operations to prevent civilian casualties,” he said.

The presence of foreign fighters in Taliban battles in Afghanistan is not

unusual. The Afghan Taliban leadership is believed to be based in the Pakistani city of Quetta, and Kabul has long accused Pakistan of turning a blind eye to the group.

Dangam is four kilometers (2.5 miles) from the porous border. The Taliban denied losing so many fighters but did not provide their own figures.

Sayedkhaili said local people had joined the fight against the insurgents, and that five had been killed and 12 wounded among both locals and security forces. He said there was no involvement of either Pakistani government forces or international forces that have been based in Afghanistan for the past 13 years.

The US and Nato are due to withdraw the last of their combat troops on Dec 31, leaving behind a residual force of 13,000 to provide training and some battlefield backup.

Taliban attacks have escalated since international forces withdrew from Kunar four months ago and the fight across the country has intensified.

The statement comes the same day as Chief of General Staff of the Afghan

National Army (ANA) General Sher Muhammad Karimi, along with Commander of International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) John Cambell, called on Pakistan’s Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif at the in Rawalpindi.

The visiting dignitaries expressed their grief over the Peshawar school carnage in which 149 innocent lives were lost, including 133 children.

The Afghan army chief and the Isaf commander assured their full support in the war against terrorism as well as in eliminating terrorists on Afghan soil.

In the wake of the Army Public School massacre, Gen Raheel had made an unscheduled visit to Kabul to share vital intelligence with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and General John Campbell.

Gen Raheel had sought Kabul’s help in order to extradite top Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Mullah Fazlullah who is wanted for terrorism cases in Pakistan. He received assurances from the Afghan government and Isaf for action against a Kunar-based Taliban splinter group that is believed to be behind the Peshawar school attack. l

US denies involvement after reported online-access disruption amid tensions over cyberattack on Sony Pictures.

North Korea, at the centre of a confrontation with the US over the hacking of Sony Pictures, experienced a complete internet outage for hours before links were restored, according to a US company that monitors internet infrastructure.

Dyn, the New Hampshire-based internet monitor, said yesterday the reason for the outage was not known but could range from technological glitches to a hacking attack.

Several US officials close to the investigations of the attack on Sony Pictures said the US government was not involved in any cyber action against North Korea.

US President Barack Obama had pledged on Friday to respond to the major cyberattack, which he blamed on North Korea, “in a place and time and manner that we choose.”

Dyn said North Korea’s internet links were unstable on Monday, and the

country later went completely offline.

“We’re yet to see how stable the new connection is,” Jim Cowie, chief scientist for the company, said in a telephone call to Reuters news agency after the services were restored.

“The question for the next few hours is whether it will return to the unstable fluctuations we saw before the outage.”

North Korea is one of the most isolated nations in the world, and the effects of the internet outage there were not fully clear.

Very few of North Korea’s 24 million people have access to the internet.

However, major websites, including those of the KCNA state news agency, the main Rodong Sinmun newspaper and the main external public-relations company went down for hours.

Almost all of the country’s internet links and traffic pass through China, except, possibly, for some satellite links.

“North Korea has significantly less internet to lose, compared to other countries with similar populations: Yemen [47 networks], Afghanistan [370 networks], or Taiwan [5,030 networks],” Dyn Research said in a report.” l

Doctor charged in Cambodia HIV outbreak n Agencies An unlicensed doctor accused of causing an outbreak of HIV in a small community in Battambang province has been charged with murder.

Since late November, more than 100 people in Roka commune in northwestern Cambodia tested positive for HIV, including children as young as six years old.

On Monday, the provincial court issued three charges against 55-year-old Yem Chrin, whom many in Roka have accused of spreading the infection.

“He is charged with one count of spreading HIV. The second charge is committing cruel murder,” Heng Luy, deputy provincial prosecutor, told Al Jazeera.

“He is also charged with violating

medical ethics.”

Yem Chrin is local medical practitioner who received healthcare training in refugee camps in the 1980s and for the past 20 years has treated a vast array of illnesses for a large number of people in this community.

While being questioned by police, Yem Chrin admitted to using the same syringe on two or three patients before discarding it.

“He will be sentenced to life in prison if found guilty,” Heng Luy said, adding that some of the patients under Yem Chrin’s care had already died from AIDS. Neither Heng Luy nor Seng Luch, Battambang’s deputy penal police chief, would elaborate on how Yem Chrin allegedly infected more than 100 people with HIV. l

10

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Editorial

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

CODE-CRACKER

A welcome rebound

I

t spells great news for our economy that the remittance inflow from Middle Eastern countries is back on the rebound after having dipped around this time last year during the pre-election political crisis. The volume of remittance inflow has risen by 12% compared to this period last year.

This is a welcome rebound, and a sign of hope for not just migrant workers, but for the country’s economy.

Remittance had recently slowed down due to the shutdown of recruitments of migrant workers going from Bangladesh to Middle Eastern countries. However, the fact that our inflow has rebounded, despite the recruitment shutdown and other obstacles, is testament to the political stability we have gained at home in the past year.

We should do all we can to encourage expatriates to send home remittance. This can be done by making remittance-related paperwork easier to process.

Furthermore, there can be awards and recognition for doing so, as a Bangladesh Bank official has pointed out.

We must bear in mind that it is imperative to help our workers to keep this momentum going. Diplomatic efforts at all levels can help reopen labour markets for our workers abroad. Remittances are crucial to the growth and development of a country like Bangladesh – from alleviating poverty, to raising general living standards, to developing our rural areas. Let us do all we can to support our expatriate workers who remit over $14bn a year.

The fact that our inflow has rebounded is testament to the political stability we have gained

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

Future University December 11

Karl Hungus “A technology-infused curriculum increases student engagement.”

A very good point has been made here. The government clearly has grand designs of moving the country forward by riding on technology, but has done little to promote actual ICT-based education within universities, public or private.

The suggestions which the authors chalk out

Muhith frustrated at Grameen Bank board activities

December 17

Babul Sarwar “We are now in a stagnant position on the development of the Nobel-Prize winner Grameen Bank, as all the activities of the bank are held up because of anti-GB activities, which was launched by professor Yunus and his followers.”

Hasina should have had a better replacement.

And Muhith should have been kicked out by the PM a long time ago!

‘God was with me. But so were a lot of people’ December 17

Kicking extortion to the kerb

W

e are glad that the administration has acknowledged the problem of footpaths being illegally taken over by various makeshift establishments throughout the capital.

The drive to recover footpaths from illegal possession is slated to begin next month. However, as necessary as it may be to free up our footpaths, we must make sure that measures are in place to stop the corruption and extortion that is rampant in illegal footpath trades.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police is to enforce the drive, and it is important to make sure this does not open up scope for further extortion. If a monitoring mechanism is not put in place, the efforts of the drive will prove futile. As it is, street vendors pay law enforcers and political goons several crores a month in illegal tolls to be allowed to operate.

The focus of the government should be on ending this extortion racket, and finding a workable solution for footpath vendors.

Instead of a temporary show of being proactive, where footpaths go back to business as usual, we need to make legal and feasible arrangements for our merchants, so that public space does not need to be grabbed in the first place.

If a monitoring mechanism is not put in place, the efforts of the drive will prove futile

KH “A mill manager from 1971 remembers the diverse friends – Bangali, Adibashi and expatriate – who helped his family out of the warzone.”

We also respect the mill manager and his friends – Bangali, Adibashi, and expatriate alike.

December 17: The day Chittagong was liberated December 17

CALVIN AND HOBBES

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

would be a good place to start. shottikar bangalee The private sector has an important role to play here. We need to make a change from the dusty, old classrooms that haven’t changed in the past century. chy We need better people at the top.

Tk100 crore compensation sought over oil spill

December 10 Akhtar Shah The forest department has a better chance of finding snow leopards in the Sundarbans than getting any compensation from the vessel owners!

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.

DH Keep in mind, the company is owned by a close relative of Tofail, the flag holder of the spirit of 1971.

Forget getting any compensation.

Anisul: Zero tolerance towards terrorism December 11

Dr Ahsan Habib How about showing zero tolerance to violence by BCL and JL people, zero tolerance to smuggling of Yaba

by Bodi, zero tolerance to looting bank money, zero tolerance to the kidnappings of human beings, and zero tolerance to deaths by road accidents?

Imran Dr Ahsan Habib: Road accidents, and many more.

Thank you, Mr Mozena December 11

A citizen Goodbye to a fine ambassador and a good man.

Evil People Politics Mr Mozena was truly a good ambassador. He never let bureaucracy get in his way of expressing his love for our country.

Here’s hoping that his successor carries his legacy forward.

Matiur Rahman As Bangladesh celebrates its 43th Victory Day over Pakistan, we see a new wave of fake patriotic people who want us to believe “they love Bangladesh more than anything else.” From making Facebook profiles to national flags, to making anti-Pakistan propaganda.

But what we know about Bangladesh is that it is one of the most corrupt countries in the world with no rule of law. Most corrupt people are at the top of the government. Many of our statesmen now live in the USA, UK, and seek citizenship there.

I just wonder how a country, with so many patriotic people, lacks good governance and rule of law. Justice for all?

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

anwar We will always miss a diplomat like Dan Mozena who went out of his way to encourage and support the young generation.

Wish you the best in your new assignment.

Malala, Kailash receive joint Nobel award

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Motif (5) 6 Lubricant (3) 7 Nostrils (5) 10 Separated (5) 12 American state (4) 13 Composure (5) 15 Cult (4) 16 Droop (3) 18 Prosecute (3) 20 Poet’s Ireland (4) 22 Worship (5) 23 Speech defect (4) 25 Retains (5) 27 Tenth part (5) 28 Fastener (3) 29 Oozes (5)

DOWN 1 Drinks to (6) 2 Part of the body (3) 3 Slip by (6) 4 Tempted (7) 5 Wager (3) 8 Regret (3) 9 Long, detailed story (4) 11 Fish eggs (3) 14 Blows (7) 16 Cold symptom (6) 17 Holds firmly (6) 19 Single entity (4) 21 Anger (3) 22 Liable (3) 24 Transgression (3) 26 Fruit seed (3)

December 10

rose “The Nobel committee said earlier it was important that a Muslim and a Hindu, a Pakistani and an Indian, had joined in what it called a common struggle for education and against extremism.”

Heartiest congrats to Malala and Satyarthi for their achievement.

TIB implements others’ agenda, alleges ACC December 10

DB Is there any difference, even if it true? The ACC has consistently served the interests of the ruling parties, forgetting the interests of the nation, always at the cost of truth.

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS CODE-CRACKER

Rapist of disabled teen gets life term

CROSSWORD

sirajulmo All usual cases of rape should get lifetime imprisonment, but those who rape children below the age of 18 must be punished by hanging.

Also, people involved in arranging child marriage must get at least 10 years imprisonment. Child rape starts because of the prevalence of child marriages as a root cause. Someone’s brother can get married to a 14-year-old girl, giving the license to the younger brother to rape her. Child marriage must be stopped by punishing the parents and the mullahs who encourage it.

We are very happy for the verdict considering our society and his age. But in regular rape cases, committed by people above 20, the perpetrators must receive strict punishment.

SUDOKU

December 11

PEANUTS

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Op-Ed

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

11

The next steps for Saarc Energy Agreement

T

n Mirza Sadaqat Huda he viability of Saarc was once again put to test at the 18th Saarc Summit recently, when the three agreements on connectivity and energy cooperation that were due to be signed in Kathmandu failed to garner consensus among all eight countries.

Pakistan stated that it was unwilling to sign the agreements as its “internal processes” were incomplete.

Despite the low expectations that have been generally associated with Saarc Summits, the three agreements had generated some hope, particularly as they were aimed to be a collective declaration of the need for interdependence via transport and energy infrastructure.

Saarc countries must come together to envision energy as the means of reducing lowlevel political conflicts

However, in the concluding ceremony of the summit, Nawaz Sharif agreed to sign the Saarc Framework Agreement for Energy Cooperation, with the other two agreements also expected to be signed in the near future. Whether this is meant to be a last minute face-saver for Saarc or a genuine appreciation of the need for cooperation in energy, remains to be seen. Given that this is the only substantial outcome of the Saarc Summit, what implications it can have for energy cooperation in the region needs to be examined.

Firstly, the conceptualisation of energy security under the agreement has still not been revealed. This is extremely important as this underlying theme determines the repercussions that this agreement will have on future initiatives on the regional grid. One would hope that the outdated supply-centric and economic growth-focused understanding of energy has been discarded for a more comprehensive view.

Agreements on energy and energy projects at the Saarc level must aim to increase accessibility and affordability among the under-privileged, and

have an impact on reducing inter-state tensions in the South Asian region, in addition to fueling economic growth.

Secondly, the agreement is solely on the issue of electricity. This raises the question whether pipeline projects such as the IPI (Iran-Pakistan-India), TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India), and MBI (Myanmar-Bangladesh-India) have been excluded to divert resources for the realisation of the Saarc Energy Grid, or if pipelines are no longer considered to be feasible in the current geopolitical context.

Thirdly, although the agreement is meant to be an overarching cooperative scheme that aims to address broad issues, such as the enabling of cross-border trade in electricity, the development of a common regulatory mechanism and the waiving of customs fees, energy projects are inherently sub-regional.

This is owing to India assuming a central position as the fulcrum of energy demand in South Asia, which creates two energy markets: The eastern market, comprising of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal; and the western market, comprising of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The countries in these two markets are expected to trade in electricity with India as well as provide transit facilities for transmission lines. The vast difference in the geopolitics of these two markets, notwithstanding the common regional denominators such as the need for energy infrastructure development, may require a breakdown of the agreement into two loosely connected action plans.

Eastern market

The eastern market would comprise of Nepal and Bhutan, each with hydroelectric potentials of 83,000MW and 30,000MW respectively, providing electricity to India and Bangladesh.

India will also aim to export electricity from its northeast region to its eastern states through Bangladesh.

However, the realisation of crucial multilateral projects in this region has been held down by India’s refusal to provide Bangladesh access to Nepal and Bhutan through India. Bangladesh has formally requested a “power corridor” to access the Bhutanese and Nepalese markets several times, each of which has been turned down.

This is despite the fact that very recently, Bangladesh agreed to allow India to transfer hydroelectricity from Assam to Bihar through Bangladeshi territory. For the Saarc energy agreement to have any impact, allowing

The energy agreement focuses solely on electricity Bangladesh to access the hydroelectric markets in Nepal and Bhutan is crucial, and this issue should be looked at with pragmatism, in light of the need to strengthen the relationship between the two friendly but often disputing neighbours.

In addition, if India seeks to exploit the more than 5,8971MW of hydroelectric potential in its northeast region, Bangladesh would be a natural partner in transmission and trade, owing to its geographic position. Bilateral negotiations in this regard would be a lot smoother if reciprocity is shown by India regarding the provision of a power corridor for Bangladesh to access electricity from Nepal and Bhutan.

Western market

Some analysts may argue that the western market is much more problematic due to the continuing conflict between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Pakistan and India, which to some extent overshadowed many Saarc Summits, including the recently concluded one in Kathmandu.

However, the gateway to the Central Asian region provided by Pakistan and

Afghanistan, and the opportunity for India to tap into some projects that are already underway in that region, makes the western market very important in terms of energy cooperation.

In addition to the potential trade in electricity between India and Pakistan, two other projects that are underway will be greatly enhanced if they can be linked to the South Asian region via India: The CASA-1000 project and TUTAP. CASA-1000 envisions the transfer of excess hydroelectricity from Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan in the summer months, when there are huge shortages of power in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The TUTAP project consists of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan trading in power with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

These two projects are conceptualised under the Central Asia-South Asia Power Transmission initiative, and therefore, long-term objectives of such projects should link them to India, which would increase the number of stakeholders in the project and provide greater opportunities for peace building

BIGSTOCK

between India and Pakistan.

It may even provide a platform for perceiving common interests in Afghanistan by the two South Asian rivals. The countries involved in the CASA-1000 and TUTAP projects should thus collectively approach India to join the project, keeping in mind that, in the very long-term, the Saarc Energy Grid may well be connected to the Central Asian electricity grid.

Energy for prosperity and peace

The agreement signed on November 28 may have given some hope for the realisation of energy cooperation in South Asia. However, it needs to be understood that an overarching agreement has little impact on project-based cooperation, owing to the centrality of India in the South Asian geography.

The follow-up of the agreement should thus be two separate action plans: One for the western market, and another for the eastern market.

Within such action plans, arguably, one of the most important aspects would be the issue of financing infrastructure development, for which South Asian countries must come up

with innovative means of attracting international donors. In addition, the action plans must conceptualise energy in the economic, geopolitical, and social realms.

In addition to the overt purpose of fueling economic growth, the plans should thus include issues such as affordability and accessibility, owing to the 584 million people in the region who do not have access to electricity.

Most importantly, the peace-building capabilities of energy projects must be recognised and duly exploited.

Saarc countries must come together to envision energy as the means of reducing low-level political conflicts in the eastern market by binding countries together via mutual benefits, and as a deterrent to highlevel military conflicts in the western market by incentivising peaceful means of dealing with intractable disputes. l Mirza Sadaqat Huda is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining, University of Queensland, and a Visiting Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi.

Sustaining the Bangladesh paradox

Women are the agents of change

n Niaz Asadullah and Zaki Wahhaj

B

angladesh today is a global poster child within the Muslim world for women’s development.

When it comes to gender equality, it ranks above all South Asian countries and Muslim-majority nations in Asia.

The Bangladesh gender paradox – the superior status of women despite a patriarchal social structure and the strong influence of religion – owes to another paradox: Health conditions and economic participation of women have improved over the last twenty years despite limited public investment in social sectors.

At a time when women’s development has been lacking in much of Africa and South Asia, millions of Bangladeshi women are going to work every

SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

day as factory workers, primary school teachers, and healthcare providers.

This has happened not because of any large-scale public investment project.

When the boom in women’s participation in export-oriented factories started in the mid 1990s, most girls in Bangladesh were barely completing primary school.

Rather, the foundation for women’s development was laid by non-state actors. Bangladesh’s micro-finance pioneer Professor Muhammad Yunus saw women as the key agent of social change nearly four decades ago, when gender development was yet to be recognised in the country’s development agenda.

In later years, NGOs like Grameen Bank and Brac not only championed development schemes that targeted

women, they also employed hundreds of thousands of women at the community levels to deliver health, family planning, and education services.

Bangladeshi NGOs have further promoted the status of women by increasing their participation within the organisation. While seven out of 20 directors at Brac are women, Grameen Bank has gone one step forward by employing female borrowers as members of its governing board. In later years, the government built on these transformative measures by adopting a gender-sensitive budget and further promoting women in leadership positions in the public sector.

However, this unique collaboration between the state and NGOs for women’s development is now under threat.

In 2011, Yunus was forced to step down as managing director of the bank on the ground that he was older than the mandatory retirement age of 60.

That was followed by a number of attempts to bring Grameen Bank under state control. Last month, the Bangladesh government amended the rules to give itself the authority to appoint board members for Grameen Bank.

Many see this as a blatant attempt to strengthen government control over and eventually nationalise the bank.

Previously, its more than 8 million rural female borrowers would directly select board members of Grameen Bank through open elections among themselves. That power to appoint its own board members has now been taken away from Grameen Bank’s female members, who own a majority of the bank’s shares, and given to the central bank. Following the new government directive, elections will be overseen by officials from another bank.

The government will form a three-member committee to elect nine members of the 12-member board. The three-member body will comprise of two deputy managing directors, one from a state-owned commercial bank and another from the Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation.

The evidence on whether microfinance reduces poverty has been contentious. A number of recent studies based on randomised control trials – today considered the gold standard for the evaluation of development programs – find no sign that access to micro-finance improves household consumption in India, Morocco, Mongolia, Thailand, and the Philippines. But the same studies demonstrate that micro-credit, if reasonably priced, can lead to business creation and expansion.

Moreover, in the case of Bangladesh, a large-scale, long-term study by World Bank researchers published earlier this year shows a positive impact on personal expenditures, household assets, and children’s education. Recent research on Bangladesh’s social achievements also conjectures that without the platform created by NGOs, women’s development in Bangladesh would have been unlikely, given the restrictive social setting and limited public spending on social outcomes.

The paradox: The superior status of women despite a patriarchal social structure

Women’s participation in NGO programs in Bangladesh, including initiatives in health, education, savings, and microcredit, remains strikingly high even today. In a nationwide survey of 8,000 households conducted earlier this year, we found that almost 12% of rural women between the ages of 20-39 had joined a new NGO program, predominantly in micro-credit, since last year alone.

The Bangladesh paradox, or strides in gender equality in a cultural context that is seen as hostile to women, can be linked to the presence of a vibrant NGO sector that has ensured that poverty and patriarchy will not stand in the way of expanding women’s agency

in the country.

Beyond teaching women how to save and get access to credit, the NGO-driven micro-credit program created a sense of solidarity, and improved outside mobility as borrowers formed credit groups and met each other on a regular basis. This helped deliver other important social services such as family planning, and maternal and child healthcare.

Most importantly, these actions have facilitated significant changes in norms, attitudes, and practices related to gender equality.

Bangladesh has improved its rank in this year’s Global Gender Gap report, moving from 75 (in 2013) to 68. Much of this is owed to the inclusive model of social development that has seen NGOs working side by side with the state for four decades.

This has facilitated social innovations in the field of women’s empowerment and gender development.

NGOs like Grameen are invaluable in environments where conventional solutions to gender issues (such as poverty reduction and economic growth) alone have failed to deliver.

Further progress is possible if the government-NGO partnership is nurtured and left outside politics. On the other hand, the country gains nothing if state control over Grameen Bank is strengthened. It would at best marginalise millions of female borrowers who have quietly fought for gender equality in this economically poor Muslim majority nation. l Niaz Asadullah is Professor of Development Economics and Deputy Director of the Centre for Poverty and Development Studies (CPDS) at the University of Malaya. Zaki Wahhaj is Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Kent. This article was first published in The Diplomat.

12

DHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, December 24, 2014

13 Haddin backs

call to make Smith captain

14 Spot-on Napoli

edge Juventus to lift Super Cup

14 Mourinho ecstatic

at players attitude in win over Stoke

Sport

Did you know?

Eden Hazard has completed 78 dribbles in the Premier League this season, 23 more than any other player

Bangabandhu Gold Cup awaiting sixth team n Raihan Mahmood

The Mohammedan (L) and Abahani players are seen during their respective practice sessions yesterday. The Dhaka giants will lock horns today in the Super League phase of the Dhaka Premier League

Bangladesh Super Soccer proposed n Shishir Hoque The Celebrity Management Group (CMG), one of the leading sports management groups in India, is interested in organising a franchise-based professional football league in Bangladesh titled ‘Bangladesh Super Soccer’.

CMG executive director, Bhaswar Goswami, appeared at the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) office yesterday with two lucrative proposals – one, to arrange a football tournament in Bangladesh, just like the Indian Super League, with the participation of franchise-based clubs.

The second proposal is likely to be an attractive proposition for the BFF. CMG wants to buy the rights of every Fifa international friendlies involving Bangladesh in the next one-and-a-half years. The Indian sports management group also wants to assist the BFF in choosing the opposition.

“The Celebrity Management Group came to the BFF with two proposals.

They want to buy the rights of Bangladesh’s international matches

according to the Fifa calendar for the next one or one-and-a-half years including sponsorship, ticketing and broadcasting rights etc. They will also help us to find the opponent team according to the proposal,” said BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag yesterday.

“The other proposal is that they want to host a football league in

We just received the proposals today (yesterday). They (CMG) need the BFF to approve the proposals and make the regulations before holding the event Bangladesh, just like the Indian Super League. It would be titled Bangladesh Super Soccer. They will buy the rights of the event and manage sponsors as well as provide financial assistance to the franchise clubs,” added Shohag.

Goswami, however, could not meet BFF president Kazi Salahuddin, who

MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

Crucial Super League begins today n Mazhar Uddin

left the office before CMG’s arrival.

The BFF supremo though knows about the proposals but is yet to make any response.

“We just received the proposals today (yesterday) and the president more or less knows about it. They need the BFF to approve the proposals and make the regulations before holding the event. If the BFF agrees then they (CMG) will advance further and come up with the details,” informed Shohag.

CMG earlier organised the Fifa international friendly between powerhouse Argentina and African superpower Nigeria at Bangabandhu National Stadium in 2011. However, despite previous plans, CMG later onwards was unable to hold a tri-nation international football tournament in the United Kingdom with the participation of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Goswami added that if the colourful tournament does take place, there is a chance that iconic Argentinian football legend Diego Armando Maradona might be one of the organisers.l

The January 7 deadline for the selection of the final 15-man Bangladesh squad for the ICC 2015 World Cup in Australia-New Zealand is not far away.

Keeping that in mind, the importance of the six-team Super League phase of the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League has increased two-fold as the final stage of the country’s lone domestic 50-over competition begins today.

And according to Prime Doleshwar captain Mushfiqur Rahim, the players of the six teams will be looking to perform at this crucial juncture in order to secure their place in the national side for the global showpiece event.

“I think it (Super League) is important for both the cricketers and also for the clubs. All the six clubs of the Super League phase are capable of beating any team. This is the reason why I think it will be quite interesting. On the other hand, the probable cricketers will try to give their best to stake their claim for selection,” Mushfiq told the media yesterday, ahead of their match against Kalabagan Cricket Academy at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium today.

As far as the title race is concerned, Mushfiq said if Prime Doleshwar are able

to overcome the challenges of Abahani and Prime Bank, the top two sides in the points table, then anything is possible.

“Definitely, it will be challenging as two teams are slightly ahead but the remaining four clubs all have equal 14 points. We have nothing to lose. But, if we can manage to beat the top sides then the equation will be different as all the teams have the strength of winning. So, I am hoping for a good competition,” he added.

Alongside Mushfiq, national batsman Mominul Haque has also been unable to register a big score. However, the 26-year old believes it is only a matter of time before the national cricketers shine for their respective sides.

“Mominul is working really hard and I think he will score in the upcoming five Super League matches and gain his confidence ahead of the World Cup,” said Mushfiq.

Meanwhile, national paceman Shafiul Islam, who is suffering from a slight hamstring injury, is currently recuperating and will be vital to Prime Doleshwar’s hopes in the Super League. In the other two matches of the day, Mohammedan will face arch-rival and table-toppers Abahani in Fatullah while Prime Bank, at second spot, will take on Shakib al Hasan’s Legends of Rupganj at BKSP 3. l

Following Maldives’ snub, Sri Lanka and Nepal will probably be Bangladesh’s last hope for the sixth and final slot of the Bangabandhu Gold Cup International Football, slated for the middle of next month.

The Football Association of Maldives informed the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) last Monday that they will not be able to participate in the tournament due to internal issues lingering in its governing body.

Maldives were invited to the tournament as Pakistan’s replacement. It is mentionable that Pakistan also refused to take part citing unavoidable circumstances.

BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag admitted the latest development. “We have started communicating with the sub-continental teams and Nepal and Sri Lanka are among them.

Myanmar are also in the list. However, nothing has been finalised yet. We will confirm the sixth team within a few days. All we can confirm right now is that the Bangabandhu Gold Cup International Football will be a six-team event,” said Shohag, adding that Bahrain, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand have so far confirmed their participation.

The Bangabandhu Gold Cup International Football is seeing light after a five-year hiatus. The tournament will get underway on January 16 simultaneously in Dhaka and Sylhet with the final scheduled for January 27. Following several requests by the BFF, the National Sports Council officials visited the Sylhet stadium to initiate the renovation procedure. Increasing the illuminance in both the venues will be a major task. At least 1200 Lux is required but at the moment it is well below the required standard. Apart from the floodlights, the dressing rooms, media facilities, washrooms, fencing and seating arrangements for the VIP guests are the other areas that also require renovation work, especially in Sylhet.

Shohag though said everything will be completed on time. “We have enough time in our hands. If proper workforce is implemented, I think all the problems will be resolved. We have been provided the assurance from the government.” l

Tamim to catch early Aussie flight n Minhaz Uddin Khan

The Abahani players pose with the Premier Table Tennis trophy at the Paltan wooden-floor gymnasium yesterday

Turner to plan for BCB n Minhaz Uddin Khan

Former International Cricket Council (ICC) global development manager Ross Turner has been roped in by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB). Turner will perform his duties as the consultant and will be responsible for formulating the BCB’s long-term strategic plans from 2015 onwards.

Turner is likely to visit Dhaka on January, 2015 to pen down his deal which is expected to run for four years. BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury confirmed the development to the media yesterday.

“He (Turner) will assist the board in putting together the strategic plans from 2015-2018,” said Nizamuddin.

Previously on several occasions, Turner worked for the ICC, the BCB, Cricket Australia and Cricket New South Wales.

He first joined Bangladesh in 2000 as the ICC’s global development manager. During that time, he worked with the local umpires and his last role was as the head coach of the NCA in Mirpur.

And this time around, Turner will be responsible for preparing strategies for a wide range of departments. This will include exploring ways that will improve Bangladesh’s position in the ICC Test rankings. At the same time he will also try to enhance the overall game development in the country’s grass-roots level.

Meanwhile, the BCB handed Australian trainer Stuart Karppinen additional responsibility as the NCA’s operations manager. Karppinen’s primary duty is to train the players. Efforts are being made to hire a new head coach for the NCA. The post went vacant after Richard McInnes left the job earlier this year. l

MI MANIK

National opener Tamim Iqbal is likely to fly to Australia this Friday for treatment on his Grade 1 meniscus injury. He applied for the visa at Australian High Commission yesterday and should get the paperwork done by today.

If everything goes according to plan, the Bangladesh Test vice-captain will meet Australian surgeon Dr David Young this Monday in Melbourne.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) initially thought of seeking long-distance consultancy from Young but with no time to waste ahead of the ICC World Cup on February 2015, both Tamim and the board high-ups agreed on first-hand treatment.

“Trouble occurs when I am running,” said Tamim to the media yesterday. “The pain sometimes gets unbearable. After several discussions with the board it was decided that I should leave as soon as possible and see the doctor,” he added.

The level of injury is not severe and BCB physician Debashish Chowdhury had already said these injuries are common among most athletes. However, an operation will mean the 25-year-old Tamim will be out for at least a month and doubts remain as to whether he will regain fitness before the mega event.

National chief selector Faruk Ahmed is hopeful of getting the hard-hitting southpaw’s services and said, “We will

Sk Jamal ready for Busan IPark n Shishir Hoque

Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club are gearing up in full swing as the Bangladesh Premier League champions are just three days away from facing South Korean top flight club Busan IPark in a friendly encounter.

Club captain and talismanic midfielder Mamunul Islam returned on Sunday, after completing his three-month loan move with Indian Super League champions Atletico de Kolkata, which bolstered the Sheikh Jamal squad as all the players are fit and available for their maiden clash against the Korean club.

The reigning King’s Cup champions, Sheikh Jamal hold an impressive record against the foreign clubs away from home, but the friendly at the Bangabandhu National Stadium will test the

nerves of the booters playing in front of the home crowd.

The Korean club are the former champions of AFC Champions League and although the triumph was 28 years ago, they have been a regular in the top flight football K-League Classic since it was founded in 1983. The four-time K-League Classic champions also have the Korean national goalkeeper Lee Bum-young in their side.

Sheikh Jamal coach Maruful Haque is well aware of the capability of his forthcoming opponents and said they have to be fast and cannot afford mistakes.

“I watched two of their games last season. They are a very good team.

They played almost the same way as the Korean national team so they are likely to play high pressing football and we have to play against that. They

won’t give us much space so we have to be quick,” said Maruf.

“We don’t have the quality players in our country we need to face such clubs.

But if every player contributes and gel together we can perform well against any team,” added the former Sk Russel coach.

Maruful, however, pointed out the advantages and said, “It’s pre-season time for them. They just began their pre-season where as we began our pre-season period some time ago, took part in a tournament and played five international matches.”

“The other advantage is that they are coming here to play an away match while we will be in home condition.

The weather, crowd and the ground are in our favour. If we play as a team along with these advantages, it’s possible to do something positive,” hoped Maruf. l

get to know the exact situation once he (Tamim) meets the doctors in Australia and also how much time will the recovery process need if he undergoes the operation.”

“I think we will have enough time to get him fit for the World Cup if the recovery time is one month. There is no doubt that he will be part of the final squad for the World Cup. He is a very important member,” he added.

Tamim picked up a knee injury during the recently-concluded bilateral series against Zimbabwe at home.

However, it gradually intensified into a Grade 1 meniscus injury putting his chances of opening the innings for Bangladesh in the World Cup into major doubt. l

Victory Day Open Boxing starts today n Raihan Mahmood The two-day long Marcel Television Victory Day Open Boxing, comprising 90 male and 25 female boxers of the country, begins at the Muhammad Ali Boxing stadium today. The boxers will be taking the ring in 23 different weight categories.

Bangladesh Boxing Federation general secretary MA Quddus Khan said the tournament will be the perfect warm-up for the boxers ahead of the upcoming Indo-Bangladesh Bangla Games. “We will select 10 boxers for the camp and five will represent Bangladesh in the Games.”

Walton additional director FM Iqbal bin Anwar Dawn and Marcel assistant director Rabiul Hossian Shumon revealed the details of the tournament in a press conference yesterday. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

13

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

QUICK BYTES

FACTS

Palolic Group clinch Table Tennis title Palolic Group lifted the title of the Agrani Bank Dhaka Metropolis Premier Division Table Tennis League despite losing their last match against Mariner Young’s Club at the Paltan wooden-floor gymnasium yesterday.

In the last league match, Mariner defeated Palolic by 3-2 sets. With the win, Palolic and Mariners were both tied with the same number of points but due to their 3-1 win in the first league, Palolic were adjudged the champions. In the women’s league, Abahani successfully defended their crown courtesy a 3-0 win over Dhaka Women’s TT Club while Jahangir Builders TT Club finished runners-up.

–Tribune Desk

Downcast Cook takes to the oche after World Cup snub

Alastair Cook tried to take his mind off his shock World Cup snub as the deposed England captain stepped onto the oche at the World Darts Championships on Monday. Two days after the heartache of being sacked as England’s one-day captain and dropped from the squad for next year’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, Cook made his return to the public eye in a light-hearted darts contest with international team-mate James Anderson at London’s Alexandra Palace.

–AFP

Struggling Cagliari sack coach Zeman Serie A strugglers Cagliari sacked coach Zdenek Zeman on Tuesday after two wins in 16 matches left them in the relegation zone. “Cagliari Calcio announce that from today Zdenek Zeman is not coach of our team. The club thanks the coach and all his staff for the work they have done during these months with great professionalism and dedication,” the club said in a statement on their official website (www.cagliaricalcio.net).

The 67-year-old Czech took charge of Cagliari in July but the Sardinians have not won a home league game in this campaign and sit 18th, with only Cesena and Parma below them. Zeman was fired

by AS Roma last February following a disastrous nine months in charge that saw the club lose nine times in 23 games, leaving them languishing in mid-table.

–Reuters

Swansea sign Benfica striker Oliveira on loan Benfica striker Nelson Oliveira has signed for Swansea City on loan until the end of the season, the Premier League club said on Tuesday. The 23-year-old will be eligible to play for the Welsh side when the transfer window opens on Jan.1 and will provide cover for Wilfried Bony when the striker joins up with Ivory Coast for January’s Africa Cup of Nations. “I already know quite a bit about Swansea and it was their style of play and the ambience at the club that attracted me,” Oliveira, who has been capped 14 times by Portugal, told the club’s website (www. swanseacity.net). “The deal was agreed early so I can spend an extra 10 days in Swansea training with the squad and getting to know my new team mates.

That way I hope to be ready to offer my services to the team that much earlier.”

Swansea, who are eighth in the Premier League with 25 points from 17 matches, host Aston Villa on Friday.

–Reuters

USA defender Yedlin to join Spurs United States defender DeAndre Yedlin is joining Tottenham in January, the north London club announced on Tuesday. The 21-year-old signed a four-year deal with Spurs in August with his move to White Hart Lane from the Seattle Sounders delayed until the end of the Major League Soccer season. “We are pleased to confirm that DeAndre Yedlin will be joining the Club in January,” a statement on the Premier League club’s website read. Yedlin ended his MLS stint in style, helping the Sounders win the Western Conference title and Supporter’s Shield before losing to the Los Angeles Galaxy in the Conference Finals, and big things are expected from him by Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino. Yedlin, who has 10 international caps, made three appearances for the USA at the World Cup, in group games against Portugal and Germany and in their last-16 defeat to Belgium.

–AFP

Australia captain Steve Smith (L) catches the ball while vice-captain Brad Haddin observes during a training session at the MCG yesterday

Watson forced to leave training by bouncer blow n Reuters, Melbourne Australian all-rounder Shane Watson was forced to cut short his training session in the Melbourne Cricket Ground nets after being hit on the helmet by a bouncer on Tuesday, three days before the start of the third Test against India.

Watson, under pressure for his place at number three in the batting order, was knocked to the ground when a short ball from James Pattinson hit him flush on the helmet.

“Shane Watson shaken up, but OK, after helmet blow,” Cricket Australia tweeted.

Pattinson was also shaken up by

the incident, which came less than a month after former Australia batsman Phillip Hughes was killed by injuries sustained when he was hit by a short ball in a domestic match in Sydney.

Left-arm paceman Mitchell Starc also left the session early after being hit on the knee by a ball but his likely replacement in the side, Ryan Harris, was apparently untroubled by the thigh injury.

The aggressive opener, one of Australia’s best performers with the bat this year, had little doubt in his own mind that he would be ready to go by Friday.

“I will definitely be playing, I will be doing everything I can,” he told reporters on Monday.l

Long-lost Freeman bodysuit believed found

Haddin backs ‘outstanding’ call to make Smith captain n Reuters, Melbourne

Brad Haddin has backed the elevation of Steve Smith to the Australian Test captaincy in place of the injured Michael Clarke for the remainder of the India series, despite being overlooked for the caretaker role himself.

As vice-captain, the 37-year-old wicketkeeper would have been first cab off the rank for the position once it became clear that Clarke required surgery on the latest in a string of hamstring injuries.

Instead, after Haddin took charge for the last couple of hours of the 48-

n AFP, Sydney

Windies lose Roach, call up Peters for Tests n Reuters, Cape Town

One of Australia’s greatest sporting mysteries may have been solved after a silver-white bodysuit thought to be the one Cathy Freeman wore when she lit the 2000 Olympic flame - believed lost or stolen - turned up.

The Aboriginal sprint legend wore the custom-made garment during the opening ceremony of the Sydney Games, lighting the flame in what was seen in Australia as a symbolic moment of reconciliation. But the suit vanished from her dressing room after the ceremony, prompting speculation that it was either stolen and turned into a souvenir or even thrown away by a cleaner.

It now looks to have been found after a garment was anonymously mailed to the Melbourne Cricket Club last week.l

West Indies have lost their most accomplished fast bowler after Kemar Roach was ruled out of the final two matches of the Test series in South Africa and replaced by uncapped Kenroy Peters, the country’s cricket board announced.

Roach injured his right ankle while bowling on the first day of the first Test in Pretoria that ended in an innings and 220 run defeat for the tourists and will return home to continue his rehabilitation.

Peters, a 32-year-old left-arm fast bowler, was the leading bowler in the domestic four-day competition in 2014.

He has yet to represent the West Indies at senior level in any form of the game but has an impressive first-class record with 190 wickets at an average of 20.21.l

DAY’S WATCH Star Sports 2 10:00PM Ranji Trophy Kerala v Hyderabad

CRICINFO

First Test Adelaide, Australia won by 48 runs Second Test Brisbane, Australia won by four wickets Third Test Melbourne, Dec 26-30 Fourth Test Sydney, Jan 6-10 AUSTRALIA World ranking : 2nd Captain : Steve Smith Coach : Darren Lehmann Squad David Warner, Chris Rogers, Shane Watson, Steve Smith, Shaun Marsh, Joe Burns, Brad Haddin, Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood, Ryan Harris, Peter Siddle INDIA World ranking : 6th Captain : Mahendra Singh Dhoni Coach : Duncan Fletcher Squad MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Wriddhiman Saha, Naman Ojha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Karn Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron Previous Tests at the MCG Matches : 11 Australia wins : 8 India wins :2 Draw :1 1948 Australia won by 233 runs 1948 Australia won by an innings and 177 runs 1967-8 Australia won by an innings and four runs 1977-8 India won by 222 runs 1981 India won by 59 runs 1985 Match drawn 1991 Australia won by eight wickets 1999 Australia won by 180 runs 2003 Australia won by nine wickets 2007 Australia won by 337 runs 2011 Australia won by 122 runs

Participants of the Olympic Solidarity Course on weightlifting pose for photograph at the BOA yesterday

COURTESY

run victory in Adelaide, Cricket Australia turned to 25-year-old Smith, who led the team to a four-wicket victory in Brisbane last weekend.

“I think they’ve made a very brave and good decision in making Steve the captain. I think it’s the perfect time for him,” Haddin told reporters at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) ahead of this week’s third Test.

“He’s a good leader, he’s only young but he’s going to get better and better at it. I think the decision was an outstanding one. He’s got a good core of senior players to help him out if he needs it.

But things are going well, he’s a good thinker about the game and he still wants to learn.

“I’d much rather you remember the last two hours at Adelaide than do it full time.”

While Smith has been enjoying a purple patch with the bat, scoring 375 runs at an average of 187.5 in the series so far, Haddin has been struggling with that aspect of his game and has only 92 in the last seven Tests.

“I’m not concerned about it, all my preparation and everything is okay, I’ve just been out of runs,” Haddin said. l

FM Iqbal bin Anwar Dawn (2R), the additional director of Walton speaks in the press conference of the Victory Day Open Boxing at the BNS yesterday COURTESY

Sri Lanka begin WC tune-up in New Zealand n AFP, Wellington Sri Lanka will open hostilities against the Black Caps in their first tour of New Zealand for eight years on Friday, looking to acclimatise to local conditions for the upcoming World Cup. The tour features two Test matches, the first beginning in Christchurch on Boxing Day, but the emphasis is squarely on the 50-over game, with seven one-dayers as a warm-up to the February-March tournament co-hosted

by Australia and New Zealand.

“We have to be mentally and physically fit for the most-important game on February 14,” coach Marvan Atapattu told Sri Lankan media, referring to his team’s clash against New Zealand in the opening match of the World Cup. Sri Lanka are buoyant after humiliating England 5-2 in a one-day series, a result that contributed to Alastair Cook’s sacking as limited overs captain, and notching Test and one-day series wins over Pakistan in August.

But skipper Angelo Mathews said he expected a tough match against the New Zealanders, particularly since Mahela Jayawardene will be missing from the Test line-up after retiring from the long form of the game to concentrate on a World Cup swansong.

“We’re playing without Mahela for the first time in about 18 years and that’s going to be a challenge for us,” Mathews said.

“But there’s pressure on all of us anyway, this is going to be a challenging series. Playing against New Zealand in New Zealand is going to be tough.

They’ve been playing really good cricket in the recent past.”

Sri Lanka will be without left-arm spinner Rangana Herath for the opening Test after he strained a hamstring against England.

Only two of Mathews’ Test team, Kumar Sangakkara and Prasanna Jayawardene, have experienced New Zealand’s seam-friendly wickets before, so Mathews said it was important to adjust. l

14

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

The Juventus players are dejected after losing the penalty shoot-out during the Italian Super Cup against Napoli at the Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad stadium in the Qatari capital of Doha on Monday AFP

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

The Napoli players are on cloud nine after winning the penalty shoot-out during the Italian Super Cup against Juventus in Doha on Monday REUTERS

Spot-on Napoli edge Juventus to lift Super Cup n AFP, Doha Italian Cup holders Napoli beat Juventus 6-5 on penalties to claim their second Super Cup on Monday after a dramatic final played in Doha which saw the game finish 2-2 after extra-time.

The match, moved to December to accommodate Napoli’s Champions League play-off commitments last August, was pushed into extra time after Gonzalo Higuain hit a 68th-minute leveller to cancel out Carlos Tevez’s early opener for the Serie A champions.

The Argentinian duo went on to complete a brace apiece in extra time, forcing the match to be decided by a dramatic series of spot-kicks.

Juventus spurned three chances during the penalties to take the advantage

before losing out at the end when Simone Padoin saw his effort saved by Rafael.

“We played a great match and it was even greater because we beat a team like Juventus,” said Napoli coach Rafael Benitez after claiming his 12th career title.

“We’re all very happy and want to dedicate it to the fans who came here and also to those in Napoli.

“All the lads played well: Higuain made the difference in attack, Rafael was decisive at the end.”

Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri said: “It’s a shame about the result.

We played a very open game and just couldn’t bring the victory home despite having three match points.”

Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon got the Serie A champions off to a great start in the shootout when he

palmed Jorginho’s shot on to the upright, only for Tevez to hit the post despite sending Rafael the wrong way.

At 4-4, the match went to sudden death, and after Walter Gargano and Leonardo Bonucci scored, Juve scented victory when Buffon beat away Dries Mertens’ effort.

However Giorgio Chiellini then sent his weak penalty straight at Rafael, and both Jose Callejon and Roberto Pereyra then missed too.

Kalidou Koulibaly put Napoli within sight of their first Super Cup since 1990 - when a Diego Maradona-inspired Napoli thrashed Juventus 5-1 - as his penalty went in off the inside of the post.

And the Cup finally went to Benitez’s men when Rafael pulled off a great save to deny Padoin. l

RESULT

Juventus

2-2

Napoli

Tevez 5, 106 Higuain 68, 118 Napoli win 6-5 on penalties

SHOOTOUT Carlos Tevez Arturo Vidal Paul Pogba Claudio Marchisio Alvaro Morata Leonardo Bonucci Giorgio Chiellini Roberto Pereyra Simone Padoin

0–0 Jorginho 1–1 Faouzi Ghoulam 2–2 Raul Albiol 3–3 Gokhan Inler 4–4 Gonzalo Higuain 5–5 Walter Gargano 5–5 Dries Mertens 5–5 Jose Maria Callejon 5–6 Kalidou Koulibaly

Uefa slaps four clubs with bans, fines for unpaid bills n AFP, Geneva Turkey’s 2010 league champions Bursaspor were one of four European clubs fined Monday and barred from playing in the next Uefa club competition they qualify for over unpaid bills.

Uefa said in a statement that its Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) had decided to sanction Bursaspor, Ekranas of Lithuania, and Romanian clubs CFR Cluj and Astra Giurgiu “for overdue payables.”

The clubs had been accused of having “important overdue payables towards other clubs, employees and social and tax authorities”.

In 2012, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) overturned a previous Uefa ban against Bursaspor over unpaid transfer fees amounting to 300,000 euros.

But Uefa said Monday that exclusion would now come into effect, meaning the Turkish club would be blocked from taking part in “the next Uefa com-

petition for which it would otherwise qualify” through 2019.

“This new exclusion applies unless the club is able to prove by January 31, 2015 that it has paid the amounts that were identified as overdue payable on September 30, 2014,” it said in a statement.

The club was also fined 100,000 euros, but half of that would be lifted if the club could prove it had paid its overdue bills, it said.

CRF 1907 Cluj and FC Astra Giurgiu were also excluded from the next Uefa club competitions they qualify for through 2018, unless they can show by the end of January that their overdue bills had been paid.

CRF 1907 Cluj was also fined 150,000 euros, while its compatriot was fined 100,000. FK Ekranas was meanwhile banned from participating in the next Uefa club competitions it qualifies for over the next two seasons and was fined 15,000 euros, Uefa said. l

Mourinho ecstatic at players attitude in win over tough-tackling Stoke n AFP, Stoke-on-Trent

Chelsea’s Spanish midfielder Francesc Fabregas celebrates scoring his side’s second goal against Stoke City at the Britannia stadium in Stoke-on-Trent, central England on Monday AFP

Hyypia resigns as Brighton boss n AFP, London Former Liverpool defender Sami Hyypia resigned as Brighton and Hove Albion manager on Monday after only six months in charge of the Championship club.

Hyypia took over from Oscar Garcia on a three-year contract in the close-season, but the Finn has walked away from the Amex Stadium with the Seagulls in the relegation zone after winning just one of their last 18 games in the English second tier.

The 41-year-old, who was managing in the Champions League with German club Bayer Leverkusen as recently as last season, saw his struggling side held to a 1-1 draw at Wolves on Saturday after conceding a late equaliser and that proved to be his last match in charge.

Hyypia’s assistant Nathan Jones will take charge of the team against Reading on Boxing Day. In a statement club chairman Tony Bloom said: “Sami offered his resignation, and we reluctantly accepted earlier today.

“Sami is an incredibly honourable man. He remains a hugely respected and very popular figure at our club. He has decided to step down for the benefit of the team and the club.” l

Arsenal’s injury woes confirmed by study n Reuters, London Arsenal and injuries have gone hand in hand over the last decade when the Gunners have had more players spending lengthy spells on the sidelines than many of their Premier League rivals, a study has shown.

Premier Injuries Ltd has produced a database of comparative Premier League injuries over the past decade which was published in the Daily Telegraph on Tuesday.

From the 2003-04 season to 2013-14, Arsenal suffered 312 significant injuries which led to players being out for 10 days or more.

That is exactly 100 more than Chelsea, while Arsenal’s total number of injuries was above the Premier League average in 10 of the 11 campaigns, including each of the last seven completed seasons.

This term is proving to be no different. Arsenal have racked up 25 injuries since August, more than any other Premier League club.

While the Gunners trail Newcastle United and Manchester United in terms of significant injuries this season, it is

hardly surprising they are sixth in the Premier League table with 27 points from 17 matches - 15 behind leaders Chelsea.

Arsenal’s treatment room is bursting at the seams with Laurent Koscielny, Mesut Ozil, Aaron Ramsey, Mikel Arteta and Jack Wilshere all sidelined.

Other first-team regulars, including Theo Walcott, Olivier Giroud, Mathieu Debuchy, Kieran Gibbs and Nacho Monreal, have also paid regular visits to the club’s doctors this season.

“It is frustrating for everyone that the run of injuries we have sustained in the first third of the season has meant we have only seen flashes of this talented squad’s true potential,” Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis wrote in his quarterly update to shareholders.

“We continue to work hard to improve our prevention of injuries and to accelerate recovery but it is clear there is no single contributing factor.”

In attempting to ease their injury woes, Arsenal are working on a new athletic development centre within their London Colney training base, while construction work on new medical and educational facilities and a gym will take place at the club’s Hale End Youth Academy.l

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho hailed his side’s 2-0 Premier League victory at Stoke City as one of their most significant yet this season.

A second minute header from John Terry and Cesc Fabregas’ finish in the second half gave the Londoners a three point lead at the top of the table over Manchester City at Christmas.

But it was the manner of the victory that pleased Mourinho the most with Chelsea forced to win a physical battle.

“To win here we must play a very good game and we did it because we adapted well to their style of play,” he said.

“When we had the ball we tried not to lose our identity and play our game.

“They are always strong in this stadium, the crowd are always behind them.

They have good players and a good bench. It was a very difficult victory.

“It was a victory that means a bit more than the three points. It was not

just difficult but you need more than just your quality to win here.

“The players coped well with the difficult style and were not afraid to have responsibilities and our creative players were not afraid to assume the game.

“Our defensive players were very solid. Only with a great team performance was it possible to beat Stoke.”

RESULT

Stoke

0-2

Chelsea Terry 2, Fabregas 78

Mourinho saluted captain Terry who scored in the Premier League for a 15th consecutive season.

“He is very dangerous in set piece, he is very good player in the air, he is always a threat,” he said.

“More importantly is the way he has been playing this season again. When I came here last year he was in a bit of trouble, his career was a bit up and down.

He was not playing regularly for Chelsea.

“But suddenly in the last two years he is playing basically every game and for me at the same level as when I was here 2004-2007.

“It’s just our way of work. He adapted well to our training methodology with his body type.

“He feels sharp and fast in good conditions. He is happy and when you are happy and feel confident it feels easier in every job. Football is very specific on that. He knows I trust him and is very confident and playing very well.”

Stoke full back Phil Bardsley was booked for a bad tackle on Belgian star Eden Hazard in the first half but Mourinho, who was incensed at the time, thought it should have seen him sent off.

“From my position and in the flesh it looks for me a red card but I don’t know,” said Mourinho.

“What I know is that if it was a bad tackle it was the only one. It was a clean game but an aggressive one. l

Dortmund sign Slovenian Kampl n AFP, Berlin Struggling German giants Borussia Dortmund on Monday announced that they have agreed a deal to sign Slovenian international midfielder Kevin Kampl from Austrian champions Salzburg.

Dortmund said that Kampl, 24, will sign a long-term contract to keep him at the club until 2019.

“Kevin Kampl is a versatile attacking midfielder, who we have been observing for some time. His style of play fits in perfectly with our own,” Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc told the club website.

Borussia said that “both clubs agreed details of the transfer fee shall remain undisclosed”, although the website of German magazine Kicker reported the fee would be in the region of 10 to 12 million euros (£7.8m-9.4m, $12.2m-14.7m).

Kampl, who will join his new club in January, was born in Germany but represents Slovenia at international level.

He started his career at Bayer Leverkusen and played for several lower-league clubs in Germany before moving to Salzburg in 2012.

News of Kampl’s arrival comes as a boost to Dortmund. l

Brazil’s Barcelona starlet Neymar Junior takes part in the charity football match ‘Ball Hunger Only’ at Jaime Cintra Stadium in Jundiai, Sao Paulo on Monday. Donations will be divided between the Social Solidarity Fund of Jundiai (Funss) and the Neymar Junior Project Institute AFP

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Entertainment

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

SUCHITRA SEN in Bangali Biswamoy

n Entertainment Desk Legendary Bangali screen goddess Suchitra Sen will be remembered in “Bangali Biswamoy” today at 8:05pm on GTV. The show will focus on Suchitra’s origins, early life in Bangladesh,

Exhibition

and later life, work and success. Produced by Arindam Mukherjee Binku, Bollywood singers will talk about the veteran actress over the phone.

Over a vast span from the fifties to the seventies, Suchitra teamed up with film idol Uttam Kumar to create one of the most famous pairs in Indian cinema.

For the past three decades since she quit the world of film, Suchitra led the life of a recluse, and was never seen in public.

Suchitra made a mark for herself in the Bangali film industry and also established herself in Bollywood. She worked in memorable Hindi films like “Devdas,” “Aandhi” and “Mamta.”

Suchitra was seen as a strong, independent woman in her personal life, too. She is the mother of actress Moon Moon Sen and the grandmother of Riya Sen and Raima Sen. Suchitra died at the age of 82 on January 17, 2014 in Kolkata, India. l

Shifting Sands Time: 12pm – 8pm Bengal Art Lounge 60, Gulshan Avenue

Film

Meghmallar Ouija Interstellar Gone Girl Annabelle Pipra Bidda Ek Cup Cha Into The Storm Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3D Time: 12:30pm – 10:00pm Blockbuster Cinemas The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 John Wick Meghmallar Brick Mansions Big Hero 6 (3D) Pipra Bidda Time: 10am – 10pm Lavel 8, Star Cineplex Panthapath Birangona Birmatar Jobanite Ekattor er Bhoyal Sriti Liberation War Film Festival Time: 6pm International Digital Cultural Archive, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy

Gravity HBO, 9:30pm

Kathak Dance Festival begins today n Entertainment Desk The three-day long Kathak Dance Festival 2014 will be held at 6:30pm to 8:30pm each night from tonight until December 26 at the Chhayanat Sanskriti Bhaban. Organised by the Kathak Dance Community, this is the third time the troupe is holding the festival.

The delightful Kathak dance event will feature the powerful, stamping

footwork matched to the complex rhythms of on-stage musicians that characterise the dance form. A multitude of facial expressions and finely honed gestures allow the practitioner to incarnate multiple personalities or creatures in the time-honoured tales of the great epics like the Mahabharata.

Along with the dance presentation a seminar will be held and an honorary award titled Zeenat Zahan will be given to a promising dancer. The

n

Entertainment Desk

Joe Cocker, whose distinctive raspy voice and soulful musical renditions made him a favourite of his peers with hits like Beatles’ cover “With a Little Help from My Friends” and “You Are So Beautiful,” died on Monday. He was 70.

The British rock singer, famous for flailing his arms during performances, lost a long battle with lung cancer, said his label, Sony Music Entertainment, in a statement.

The Sheffield-born Cocker’s rocky but ultimately successful career took

SONAKSHI to turn serious with AMRITA PRITAM biopic

him from working-class pubs in Northern England to the Woodstock festival in 1969, to the top of the charts in the 1980s.

Former Beatle Paul McCartney credited Cocker for giving “With a Little Help from My Friends,” a mid-tempo melody, a whole new life.

“It was just mind blowing, totally turned the song into a soul anthem and I was forever grateful to him for doing that,” McCartney said in a statement, calling the fellow Englishman a “lovely northern lad.”

His explosive, at times unintelligible performance of that song at Woodstock helped him break through to larger audiences in what Rolling Stone magazine called “one of the most iconic sets from the legendary festival.”

Cocker lived in Crawford, Colorado, and released nearly 40 albums as he toured the world during a career spanning five decades.

The Grammy winner was born into a working-class family and worked as a plumber while pursuing his singing career.

He was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) at Buckingham Palace in 2011. l

A medical engineer and an astronaut work together to survive after a catastrophe destroys their shuttle and leaves them adrift in orbit.

Red Dawn HBO Hits, 10:55pm

A group of teenagers look to save their town from an invasion of North Korean soldiers.

The Proposal Zee Studio, 9:30pm

A pushy boss forces her young assistant to marry her in order to keep her Visa status in the US and avoid deportation to Canada.

Mars Attacks!

WB, 3:05pm

Shafi Mondal’s Guru Go his first electronic fusion album n Entertainment Desk Shafi Mondol, known for his rendition of folk songs an in particular, Lalon songs, lends his voice to folk album “Guro Go” which will be remixed by renowned disc-jockey, DJ Rahat.

Some 11 popular fast-paced folk songs feature in the album including five by Lalon, five by Baul Shah Abdul Karim and one by Jasimuddin.

Shafi Mondol told the Dhaka Tribune: “When DJ Rahat approached me to do an album of folk songs I consented on two conditions. First, the singing style, especially for the Lalon songs, should follow the original form that I use and second, no

New teaser of GAME OF THRONES season five released

distortion of tune or rhythm can be made.”

“I performed Lalon songs in their authentic form while technology has been used to make it more acceptable to the youth,” he said.

Shafi Mondol, a leading Lalon song practitioners who has previously produced two Lalon albums “Gurukey Goponey Rakhbo” and “Bhaab,” added that two songs on the album, “Ami opar hoye” and “Amay bhashaili re,” which won’t be digitally remixed.

Masum Hossain, the keyboardist of Souls, composed the music for the album.

Produced by Aage, the album was released on December 16. l

Earth is invaded by Martians with unbeatable weapons and a cruel sense of humor.

The Adventures of Tintin HBO Defined, 10:30pm

Intrepid reporter Tintin and Captain Haddock set off on a treasure hunt for a sunken ship commanded by Haddock’s ancestor.

Paltrow rejected by Yahoo for lack of college degree n Entertainment Desk

n Entertainment Desk Bollywood actress Sonakshi Sinha, who has been a part of various commercial hits, is all set to take the sober route with a biopic on eminent author-poet Amrita Pritam. The actress has done a serious role in Vikramaditya Motwane’s “Lootera,” for which she was critically acclaimed.

Amrita Pritam biopic will be directed by debutante Jasmeet Reen.

Sonakshi, known so far for her bubbly and effervescent characters, is all set to take a serious shot at an intense and real performance.

A source very close to the actress said, “Though no formal announcement has been made Sonakshi is playing Amrita Pritam. She is very excited about the challenge of playing her first real-life character.”

“There are many reasons why Sonakshi does commercial films. Firstly, she enjoys them. And secondly, she can’t say no to friends who want her in their films. But now she’s determined to try her hand at something more serious,” the source added.

Meanwhile, Sonakshi Sinha is looking forward to the release of “Tevar” co-starring actor Arjun Kapoor. l

show has been choreographed by Saju Ahmed, Tabassum Ahmed and Dipa Sarkar.

The Kathak Dance Community is dedicated to the promotion, preservation and teaching of Kathak dance.

It was established in 1990. The organisation performs in Bangladesh and in many international programmes.

It is working to build an awareness of Kathak and to train the future generation of dancers in the country. l

JOE COCKER dies at 70

16th Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh Time: 11am – 8pm National Art Gallery Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy

15

n Entertainment desk A new teaser of popular fantasy drama “Game of Thrones” season five has been released, which shows character Tyrion Lannister, played by actor Peter Dinklage, in a new look.

The 45-year-old actor will be sporting a beard in the series to conceal himself after having escaped from the castle and it also shows Masise Williams who plays the role of Arya Stark, who has landed on the shores of Braavos.

Season five is expected to go on air in 2015. It is being said that character of Arya Stark would get a costume makeover to reflect her location change and show her as a young woman.

“I love Arya’s new look. It’s very neutral, very plain, but clean! I have clean hair that actually moves,” star Maisie Williams said. The actress added, “I had my hair braided up to these big buns and bits of jewellery and a jumper thing with a long skirt, and I came onto the set and nobody recognised me.” l

Gwyneth Paltrow has won an Academy Award. She’s launched her own lifestyle brand, starred in dozens of movies and is worth tens of millions of dollars. But all that didn’t qualify her for a job at Yahoo.

According to Sunday’s cover story in the New York Times Magazine, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer didn’t want to hire the popular actress to be a contributing editor at Yahoo Food -- at least in part because she never graduated from college.

“Even though the actress Gwyneth Paltrow had created a best-selling cookbook and popular lifestyle blog, Mayer, who habitually asked deputies where they attended college, balked at hiring her as a contributing editor for Yahoo Food,” the article reads.

“According to one executive, Mayer disapproved of the fact that Paltrow did not graduate college.”

Mayer, who earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from Stanford, took over Yahoo two years ago. Since then she has struggled to remake the company into the successful tech giant it once was, and some have been critical of her management style.

Paltrow reportedly dropped out of the University of California, Santa Barbara, to pursue an acting career.

Of course, a college degree can be quite helpful in landing a job, and college graduates tend to earn a lot more than their peers without a degree. But there are some very successful people without that credential.

Both Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard. l

16

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Back Page

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Jhalakati accident kills 10, injures 40 n Our Correspondent. Barisal At least 10 passengers were killed and another 40 injured after a bus veered off a road and plunged into a ditch at Rajapur upazila in Jhalakati yesterday.

The accident took place at the Biswasbari point of Khulna-Jhalakati-Barisal road around 4:30pm, said Masuduzzaman, officer-in-charge of Rajapur police station.

Resident Medical Officer (RMO) of Rajapur Health Complex Mahbubur Rahman said three passengers died on the spot and five others were declared dead after they were brought to the hospital.

Five of the deceased were identified. They were Shaon Hossain, 35, and his wife Jharna, 28, Abul Kalam, 35, of Lebukhali village in Patuakhali, Mukul Ranjan, 27, and Kulsum, 35, of Barisal district.

Three others were yet to be identified. After identification, they would be sent to Jhalakati General Hospital for autopsy, RMO Mahbubd said.

According to our correspondent, two other bodies were recovered around 8:30pm and death toll might increase further as the rescue operation was still

going on.

The injured were admitted to Rajapur Upazila Health Complex and Jhalakati General Hospital and Barisal Sher E Bangla Medical College Hospital.

Among those admitted to Barisal SBMCH are Zulfikar, 31, Hafizul, 30, Rezaul, 44, Haider, 18, Abdul Latif, 75, Abu Saleh, 35, Shah Alam, 40, Nowsher, 35, Ayub Ali, 26.

According to the SBMCH emergency medical officer, most of them suffered serious injuries in the accident.

Witnesses and passengers said the accident had taken place as a result of the driver’s failure to control the bus after one of its front tyres was punctured while taking the diversion road beside an under-construction bridge there.

The bus, which left Khulna at 2pm, was bound for Barisal.

Locals, police, fire services and RAB from Rajapur, Jhalakati, Kaukhali, and Barisal launched the rescue operation.

The bus has got twisted in such a way that it is now a wreckage.

Jhalakati Deputy Commissioner Md Shakhawat Hossain, Superintendent of Police Md Majid Ali, Senior Assistant Superintendent of Police AFM Anwar Hossain visited the site. l

Locals try to rescue trapped passengers from inside the Barisal-bound bus that plunged into a roadside ditch in Rajapur upazila of Jhalakati district yesterday

Twelve endangered vultures rescued in Panchagarh n Our Correspondent, Panchagarh Twelve vultures were rescued earlier this week from different areas in Panchagarh Sadar upazila. The wildlife and forest authorities have decided to rehabilitate the birds at Bangabandhu Safari Park in Gazipur.

Sources said the vultures, an endangered species, were rescued by local residents. The first vulture was captured on Sunday, and the other 11 on Monday.

Locals handed them over to Panchagarh district administration, who

transferred them to the Panchagarh forest office for treatment and feeding.

Anowara Begum, a schoolteacher and one of the rescuers, said she found one of the vultures near her home in Rajnagar area and captured it with the help of her neighbours, later handing it over to the district administration.

The birds were under the supervision of Dr Abdus Sobhan, veterinary surgeon at Panchagarh district animal hospital.

Sources at Panchagarh forest office said Forest Range Officer Md Arshadul Haque notified the Wildlife Manage-

ment and Nature Conservation Division in Dhaka of the rescue, who instructed the Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Division in Rajshahi to bring the vultures to Dhaka.

Following the directive, the wildlife division’s Junior Wildlife Scout Officer Md Mamunur Rashid went to Panchagarh on Monday night, and started for Dhaka with the vultures in a pick-up van around 4:45pm yesterday.

The Dhaka Tribune talked to Mamunur Rashid, who said the vultures had been cared for well at Panchagarh forest office.

“I am taking the vultures to the Forest Department headquarters in Dhaka. Preparations have been taken at Bangabandhu Safari Park to house them, and the Forest Department will set them free once the get there,” he said.

Panchagarh Forest Range Officer Arshad said there were no facilities in Panchagarh for the conservation of this endangered species, which is why the authorities decided to transfer them to the safari park.

Panchagarh Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Salahuddin applauded the locals’ effort to protect the vultures and thanked them for handing them over to the district administration.

“The vultures may have gone to the localities due to the extreme cold weather,” he opined. l

Kidnappers disguised as detectives arrested after mob kills one n Tarek Mahmud from Chittagong An angry mob foiled a kidnapping attempt by four men – all disguised as members of Detective Branch of police from Dhaka – and beat one of them to death before police rescued them in Chittagong’s Madam Bibir Hat. The incident occurred when locals blocked the Dhaka-Chittagong highway, and stopped a car carrying a certain Zahir Uddin, shouting for help while he was being taken to Dhaka, handcuffed, and kidnapped. They then started beating the other four people in the car.

They also torched the car, police said.

Zahir had withdrawn Tk1.5 lakh from a branch of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited in the port city’s Alangkar area around 11am.

Tofazzal, Enamul, Belayet, and Swapan, followed Zahir from Alangkar, and intercepted him at Fauzdarhat. Identifying themselves as detectives, they cuffed Zahir, and boarded him onto a vehicle.

Fortunately for Zahir, a few people who were in the vicinity during the “arrest” happened to know him. As they inspected if there were indeed any such police team that was on the lookout for Zahir, they got a negative reply.

They gathered people and blocked the only road from Sitakunda to Dhaka

at Madam Bibir Haat, around 5km away from where Zahir was kidnapped.

By the time police arrived and rescued the abductors the four abductors had been beaten severely and were taken to Chittagong Medical College Hospital in critical condition. Around 5pm, Tofazzal succumbed to his injuries.

Officer-in-Charge of Sitakunda Model police station Iftekhar Hasan confirmed the details of the incident while CMCH Police Outpost In-charge Zahirul Islam confirmed the death of an abductors.

The kidnappers are under police custody now, and the incident is being investigated.

While it is not yet clear if this was another of the many frequent kidnappings happening in Chittagong, or a crime motivated by professional animosity, circumstantial evidence suggests that this was a kidnapping attempt for extorting money, said Assistant Superintendent of Sitakunda Model police station Saiful Islam.

Interrogation has revealed that the kidnappers had arrived from Dhaka a day before the incident happened, and that they were taking Zahir to Dhaka, he added.

Police recovered Tk1 lakh from the scene, while the rest of the money is still missing. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Three to hang for Old Dhaka murder n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu A Dhaka court yesterday condemned three people to death for the beheading of electrician Md Rubel, 20, of Barisal, in Old Dhaka in 2010.

Judge Mohammad Rezaul Islam of Dhaka Special Judge Court 5 pronounced the verdict yesterday afternoon in a packed courtroom in the presence of the convicts. The court also fined the condemned man Tk25,000 each.

The convicts are Md Rubel, 24, of Barisal, Md Rumman, 23, of Mymensingh and Md Ronny Biswas, 23, also of Barisal.

According to the charge sheet, the victim was friend with the murderers and frequently borrowed money from them to feed his drug habit.

On May 30, 2010, the victim borrowed Rumman’s mobile telephone but then refused to return it unless Rumman paid him Tk500 for it.

An agitated Rumman plotted with the other two to kill Rubel and invited the victim to Old Dhaka’s Shah Kamal Hotel at Johnson Road on June 6, 2010. There, they tied up Rubel and decapitated him.

Rumman buried the headless corpse under the ground floor of the hotel, while a sack containing Rubel’s severed head was placed in a store room of Meem Hotel.

When Meem Hotel Manager Jahangir Hossain arrived, the murders threatened of framing him for the murder unless he paid Tk2 lakh. The manager then notified the Sutrapur police station, prompting law enforcers to arrest the men.l

Titas seeks major gas price hike despite making substantial profit n Aminur Rahman Rasel Titas Gas company has submitted a proposal to the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) to raise the price of gas even though it profited Tk310.73 crore during FY2013-14, continuing its profitability of several years.

The BERC said it would hold a public hearing in the first week of February before making a decision.

During FY2013-14, a total of 14,732.08 mmcfd of gas was sold and a sales revenue of Tk7,773.28 crore was earned. Compared to the previous year’s revenue of Tk7,462.55 crore, the growth rate in revenue income for the year under review was 4.16%, according to figures published yesterday at the company’s 33rd Annual General Meeting at a club in the capital.

The company’s net pre-tax profit and net after-tax profit were Tk1,379.84 crore and Tk1,026.89 crore, respectively, during FY2013-14.

An official of Titas Gas said, on average, the company was making a profit of over Tk300cr over the last few years.

“As per Petrobangla’s order, we recently sent a proposal to BERC asking for a price hike,” Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited acting managing di-

rector Md Nowshad Islam said. Asked why the decision had been made to seek a price hike, he said: “It is Petrobangla’s decision.

We have nothing to say here.”

BERC chairman AR khan told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday: “We hope they will hold a public hearing in the first week of February. But we are not sure when the decision will be finally taken in this regard.”

According to the Titas Gas proposal, domestic users will have to pay Tk1,000 instead of Tk450 for each double burner – a hike of 122.22%. For single burners, a new rate has been proposed of Tk850, up from Tk400 a month. This is 112.5% higher than the previous price.

Consumers using meter-based burners will have to pay Tk235 instead of Tk146.25 per month – a 60.68% increase. The second highest price hike of 102.94% has been proposed for captive powers (privately-owned smaller power plants) – Tk240 from Tk118 for 1,000 cubic feet of gas.

“We know Titas gas has been making a profit every year. What is the reason behind hiking the existing price of gas?” Prof Samsul Alam, adviser of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh, said.

“The government should focus on curbing the wastage of gas instead of increasing its price,” he said. l

Editor: Zafar Sobhan, Published and Printed by Kazi Anis Ahmed on behalf of 2A Media Limited at Dainik Shakaler Khabar Publications Limited, 153/7, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka-1208. Editorial, News & Commercial Office: FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka 1207.

Phone: 9132093-94, Advertising: 9132155, Circulation: 9132282, Fax: News-9132192, e-mail: news@dhakatribune.com, info@dhakatribune.com, Website: www.dhakatribune.com

B3 Oil prices likely to

rebound in second half of 2015

B4 Arab OPEC sources see oil back above $70 by end-2015

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2014 www.dhakatribune.com/business

Dhaka-Ctg rail project okayed for faster movement Ecnec approves spending of Tk6,504 crore to complete dual-gauge track in 5 years government will provide Tk2,502 crore, n Tribune Report Tk2,618 crore from the respective orThe government will set up Akhaura-Laksham dual-gauge railway track at a cost of Tk6,504 crore in next five years for carrying passengers and cargoes smoothly.

The existing 72-kilometer (km) Akhaura-Laksham metre-gauge railway line will also be converted into to a dual-gauge with additional 40-km dual-gauge establishing for loop and sidings line.

Of the total cost, Tk5,477 crore will come from Asian Development Bank and European Investment Bank as loan and the rest from public exchequer.

The project titled Construction of Dual Gauge Double Rail Line and Conversion of Existing Rail Line into Dual Gauge between Akhaura and Laksam was taken after the Prime Minister recently announced that the country will see no more meter-gauge rail line.

It was one of the eight projects of Tk10,625 crore approved by a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) at the NEC conference room yesterday, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

Of the eight projects, six are new and two revised ones.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said once this project was completed by 2020, and Tangi-Bhairab Bazar and Laksam-Chinki Astana Section will be completed by 2015, the entire Dhaka-Chittagong railway line will be converted into dual-gauge.

“This will make transportation of goods and passengers easier and faster from Dhaka to Chittagong that will also be a prime corridor for trans-Asian railway and both local and foreign investors will be attracted,” he said.

Of the total eight project costs, the

ganisations’ own fund and Tk5,478 crore from foreign aid.

Projects including construction of Moheskhali-Anowara Gas Transmission Pipeline, Bibiyana-Dhanua Gas Transmission Pipeline (2nd revised) and nine-bridge construction projects got approval.

Computer lab project

The meeting approved a project of expanding computer education and internet connection across the country aiming at spreading freelancing and outsourcing profession in the country.

The project costing Tk299 crore will be implemented by 2016 from the government’s own fund. Around 2,000 computer labs will be set up in the same number of educational institutions across the country.

One computer lab will consists of at least 17 laptops, one printer, one scanner, one LED multi-media projector, one headphone and a 3G pocket router.

Pre-paid electricity meter

Another Tk224 crore project tilted prepaid metering project for five NOCS division under Dhaka Power and Distribution Company (DPDC) got Ecnec approval.

The pre-paid meters will be launched in five areas – Khilgaon, Tejgaon, Kazla, Kamrangirchar and Swamibag. The project will be completed by 2017 and the government plans to bring all electricity subscribers of the country under the system, which will help cut use of electricity and load shedding as well.

To implement the project, some Tk189 crore will come from government exchequer and Tk35 crore from the implementing agency. l

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed delivers speech at a dialogue in Dhaka yesterday

Signing of Dhaka-Seoul CEPA may boost economies n Tribune Report

Speakers at a dialogue have called for signing a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between Bangladesh and Korea for further enhancing bilateral economic cooperation in terms of Free Trade Agreement, investment and services.

The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and Embassy of South Korea jointly organised the dialogue styled “Korean Development Experience: Lessons for Bangladesh” at a city hotel yesterday.

The dialogue aimed at sharing experience of Korean development strategy with Bangladeshi counterpart.

Speaking as chief guest, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed urged the Korean government to relax the rules of origin for Bangladeshi products, as, what he said, it was very tough to meet the current value addition.

“Although Korea provides duty free

BGMEA election may be delayed over scrapping 1,654 membership n Ibrahim Hossain Ovi Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has so far canceled the membership of 1,654 RMG manufacturing units due to their non-existence and failure to address the compliance issues.

The decision was made at a board meeting of the BGMEA held yesterday at its office in the capital, said an official.

Following the development, the biennial election of BGMEA for the year 2015-16 is likely to be delayed by three months due to the process for up dating the voters list. The election is scheduled to be held by the end of March 2015.

“The Directorate of Trade Organisations (DTO) of Commerce Ministry in a letter has asked to submit a list of those factories having updated Tax Iden-

tification Numbers (TINs) and Trade Licenses to bring transparency in updating the voters’ list for the upcoming poll,” BGMEA Vice President Shahidullah Azim told the Dhaka Tribune.

The election may be delayed by three months, as it would take time to collect the latest data from the members as per the ministry’s direction, said Azim.

“Only the updated TIN and License holders will be eligible member for becoming a voter,” he added.

The BGMEA board yesterday also decided to issue a circuital to its members, seeking the updated Tax Identification Numbers (TIN) and Trade License information but it could not set ant time frame for submitting the required data to the ministry, said a director of the BGMEA on condition of anonymity.

He also said the apex trade body of the apparel industry would form a sub-com-

DHAKA TRIBUNE

mittee to look into the issues and set time frame for submission of data.

The BGMEA canceled membership as they did not pay subscription fees in due time and failed to comply several compliance conditions in line with the article 7 of BGMEA constitution, said a statement issued yesterday.

The memberships of 1,654 RMG units were canceled in between 2002 and 2014 from Dhaka and Chittagong area.

After the cancellation of membership, the total membership of the BGMEA will be 4,222 instead of 5,876, said the statement.

In 2014, BGMEA canceled license of 341 units from Dhaka and 104 from Chittagong area while it had canceled 502 RMG units in 2002, 586 units in 2012, 101 units in 2013 and the licenses of 20 units were canceled as the owners had appealed for scraping their memberships. l

Banks asked to follow jute packaging law n Tribune Report Bangladesh Bank has asked all scheduled banks to follow “Mandatory Jute Packaging Act, 2010”. The Ministry of Textiles and Jute issued an instruction in October, asking the government and private millers, plus traders to mandatorily use jute bags for imported rice and wheat.

The central bank issued a circular yesterday, asking the banks to take necessary steps in this regard. The government enacted the Jute Packaging Act in October 2010, but it was yet to be implemented.

The government enacted the law to increase environment-friendly jute goods instead of polythene bags. l

market access to major Bangladeshi products under its Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) scheme for the least developed countries (LDCs), Bangladesh is yet to reap the maximum benefits due to the existing higher Rules of Origin (RoO),”said Tofail.

Pressing the Korean government for reducing the level of RoO, the minister noted that there were opportunities for further bolstering the regional value chain between East Asia and South Asia, where Bangladesh can play an effective role.

“If Bangladesh could form Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Korea, its economy would be more competitive, firstly, by enjoying the benefit at par with those of other south East Asian Countries, secondly, it would be better competitive over those of other supplying countries currently providing same or higher level of tariff Vis-à-vis (face to face) those of Bangladesh products,” said KhondakerGolamMoazzem,

an additional research director of CPD while presenting his paper.

During his presentation Moazzem said: “Thereare scope for enhancing export of both traditional and non-traditional products are significant if RoO becomes flexible and preferential market access extended to other products.”

Korean investment in Bangladesh would be accelerated if a regional value chain operated between countries of East Asia and South Asia while the scope for enhancing temporary migration to Korea particularly for skilled workers, said Moazzem.

By signing FTA, Bangladesh could attract Korean investment in the value chains being operated between Korea, China, India and ASEAN countries. Korea’s strong manufacturing base in SME related industries could also benefit Bangladesh as well as, he added.

Among many reasons for the Korea’s miracle, it would be worthwhile how

Bangladesh Bank asks banks not to force CEOs to resign n Tribune Report Banks’ board of directors will not be allowed to force the chief executive officers of banks to resign prior to expiry of their employment agreement, a central bank circular said yesterday.

The board must serve the managing directors with a termination notice at least one month ago and also take Bangladesh Bank’s consent at the same time.

If the CEOs want to cancel their agreements or resign voluntarily before expiry of their appointment agreements may also give a notice to the chairman one month ago, citing specific grounds.

The bank will immediately fulfill the vacant posts of resigned MDs by appointing an efficient officer of lower ranks to the post.

In this case, a career detail of that officer will have to be sent to Bangladesh Bank, said the circular.

The central bank issued the circular in order to ensure the managing directors’ job security, said a senior executive of Bangladesh Bank.

Recently, some MDs lost their job under the pressure of boards of some banks. In this perspective, they urged the central bank to issue a guideline to protect their jobs so that they can raise their voice in case of wrongdoings by the board of directors, he said. l

Muhith slams stance against new Vat law n

Asif Showkat Kallol

Finance Minister AMA Muhith has criticised apex trade body for opposing the proposed value added tax and supplementary duty act 2012.

“The VAT reform was announced in 2009, but FBCCI has now woke up from sleep after five years and demanded cancelling the law we have made,” Muhith wrote the comment on a letter sent by the trade body to him urging not to implement new law.

The law, formulated as per the 2009 announcement of Vat reforms, has been passed by the Parliament and is due to be implemented from July 1, 2015.

The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), however, alleged that its suggestions were not taken into account while making the law.

The body said the new law imposes Vat on all stages of production and trading. It demanded reforming the existing law rather than implementing the new one.

It thinks the demand should be considered in the “interest of both public and private sectors, and the people.” But finance minister thinks the country’s trade and business will benefit from the new Vat law.

“The law has all strong elements and so the country’s trade and business will benefit from implementation of it,” he said at a seminar in September this year.

Internal Resources Division organised the seminar on Vat and SD Act 2012, aimed at reducing differences between government and businessmen on the issue.

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, Food Minister Advocate Qamrul Islam, Economic Affairs Adviser to the Prime Minister Dr

Mashiur Rahman and FBCCI president Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed also attended the event.

The seminar discussed pros and cons of the new law with the representatives from businesses.

Meanwhile, a committee is now assessing new law before its implementation. The committee is due to submit its report next week.

Muhith said the committee would have to submit a report after reaching a consensus on disputed provisions, if there is any, of the new VAT law.

“Recommendation of the committee will be accepted for the law. There would be scope for open discussion in the committee,” he added.

The current row over the issue is feared to delay the implementation of the law by one year.

Officials said it may be delayed by one year due to opposition from the FBCCI and lack of preparedness on the part of the NBR. l

Korea has made use of the global trend of economic integration with liberal trade policies including the ambitious FTA initiatives extending its economic space, because Bangladesh needs new markets and new export items to ensure sustainable economic growth for the national agenda, “Middle Income Country by 2021”, said Lee Yun-Young, Korean ambassador to Bangladesh.

Professor Moosung Kang, division of international studies of Korea University, explained how they achieved economic growth through FTA, export-led industrialisation, heavyweight industry and attracted foreign direct investment (FDI) and over come economic crises.

According to the data of Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) and the central bank, Bangladesh exported goods worth $345m in the last fiscal year, which was $250bn in 2012-13. FBCCI President KaziAkramUddin Ahmed wasalso present at the programme. l

BSEC to set ETF norms n Tribune Report Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has moved to formulate Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) norms in a bid to diversify instruments in the capital market.

To make the process faster, it yesterday formed a three-member panel, led by its executive director M Hasan Mahmud, and asked the committee to submit the report by next 30 working days.

An ETF is like a mutual fund that tracks an index, a commodity or a basket of assets like an index fund, but trades like a stock on an exchange.

A three-member panel has been formed to make a report on ETF, which is absent in the country’s stock market at present The BSEC move came following a recent proposal of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) that is preparing itself to introduce the new instrument in the stock exchange.

“A three-member panel has been formed to make a report on ETF, which is absent in the country’s stock market at present,” said a BSEC official. After completion of the report, the commission will scrutinise it for introducing ETF norms, it said.

For months, as part of its business plan in line with its demutualisation scheme, the DSE is working to launch the ETF. In case of launching mutual fund, a portion of the fund is raised through public offering.

But in the case of ETF no fund will be raised through public offering as the authorised participants such as banks, broker dealers, professional trading houses and institutional firms contribute funds to create the ETF units and sell the units in the secondary market. l

B2

Stock

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Stocks fall with lacklustre trading

DSE key features December 23, 2014

n Tribune Report

Number of Contract

nications also ended lower though marginally.

Mutual Funds returned well with six securing position at the list of top ten gainers while all the sectors ended in negative territory.

Losers took strong lead over gainers as out of 309 issues traded, 186 declined, 88 advanced and 35 remained unchanged at DSE. IDLC Investments said: “Negative tone prevailed in the bourse due to the lack of perfect confirmation of up rise ahead of year-end, participants and investors continued pursuing meticulous strategy.”

Besides, it said, investors remained more focused on grabbing short-term return than long or midterm amid the sluggishness and increased level of volatility.

Lanka Bangla Securities said investors are still unsure about any particular market direction in near term reflected by trifling turnover level.

Large-cap stocks suffered some losses, thus pulling off the index in the red territory, it said, adding that mutual funds and small caps were in the buying radar.

Zenith Investments said bearish market gains more weight, as last day’s positive index crumbled down to negativity with narrow turnover volume.

It said the problem tied with many institutional investors who refused to participate during the year ending period.

Lafarge Surma Cement was the most traded stock with shares worth Tk11.3 crore changing hands, followed by BRAC Bank, DESCO, Beximco Pharmaceuticals and Grameenphone. l

Stocks fell amid lacklustre trading yesterday as investors were cautious ahead of the year-end.

The market opened on a negative note and selling spree got its pace as days progressed.

The benchmark DSEX was down nearly 30 points or 0.7% to close at 4,838, hitting highest 4,869 in the morning and lowest 4,835 just before final session.

The problem tied with many institutional investors who refused to participate during the year ending period It edged higher in the previous session.

The Shariah index DSES dropped 6 points or 0.5% higher to 1,142. The comprising blue chips DS30 ended at 1,791, rising 11 points or 0.7%.

Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, lost 46 points to 9,053.

Trading activities remained poor as DSE turnover came down to Tk200 crore, registering a decline of over 24% over the previous session.

After edging higher in previous session, all the large cap sectors slipped in red with power leading the way falling nearly 1%.

Pharmaceuticals, non-banking financial institutions, cement, banks, food and allied, and telecommu-

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)

Hamid Fabrics -N Rangpur Foundry -A Padma Oil Co. -A RAK Ceramics-A AMCL 2nd MF-A Anwar Galvanizing-B Mercantile Insur -A Provati Insur.-A Fu-wang Ceramic-A National Polymer -A

-12.18 -8.04 -6.47 -5.09 -4.26 -4.01 -3.95 -3.92 -3.82 -3.80

CSE LOSER Company Hamid Fabrics -N Padma Oil Co. -A Fu-wang Ceramic-A RAK Ceramics-A Prime Insur -A Tung Hai Knitting -N DBH 1st MF-A Anwar Galvanizing-B ICB -A Agni Systems -A

Closing (% Change) -12.24 -6.43 -6.21 -4.76 -4.69 -4.69 -4.35 -4.28 -3.96 -3.94

ANALYST

4838.63537

(-) 0.61%

1791.40857

(-) 0.61%

14913.91510

(-) 0.40%

12088.73440

(-) 0.51%

9062.86440

(-) 0.40%

Average (% Change) -11.44 -4.91 -5.83 -5.59 -3.63 -4.31 -2.62 -3.47 -4.16 -2.32 Average (% Change) -11.04 -5.42 -3.82 -6.03 -4.69 -3.71 -1.33 -4.99 -3.96 -4.24

ClosingAvg. 37.92 99.04 248.81 58.60 4.51 38.64 17.13 20.30 15.22 70.35

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

DHIGH

37.50 97.20 247.40 57.80 4.50 38.30 17.00 19.60 15.10 68.30

39.60 104.00 251.00 61.60 4.60 40.20 17.60 21.40 15.60 72.00

DSE GAINER Company

2,025.26

Turnover (Volume)

53,851,718 65,163

Traded Issues

282

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

68

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

208 6

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,594.51

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

31.45

CSE key features December 23, 2014 Turnover (Million Taka)

706.06

Turnover (Volume)

7,163,556

Number of Contract

11,694

Traded Issues

240

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

76

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

155

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

8

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,507.22

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

30.39

Turnover in Million

DLOW 37.20 95.10 245.00 57.30 4.50 38.00 17.00 19.60 15.00 68.00

Latest EPS

26.691 12.785 27.601 25.729 0.403 2.573 0.903 2.217 12.814 5.574

3.12 3.23 18.80 1.68 0.72 0.84 1.48 1.97 0.40 2.76

Turnover in Million

Closing

DHIGH

DLOW

37.95 249.62 15.35 58.77 18.30 20.52 4.44 37.90 1,380.00 32.06

37.30 247.40 15.10 58.00 18.30 20.30 4.40 38.00 1,380.00 31.70

38.80 255.00 15.70 61.00 18.30 21.20 4.60 38.40 1,380.00 33.80

37.10 247.00 15.00 57.70 18.30 20.10 4.40 37.70 1,380.00 31.60

Latest EPS

11.379 7.392 1.755 3.801 0.005 5.927 0.027 0.013 0.001 2.536

3.12 18.80 0.40 1.68 1.81 1.19 0.56 0.84 94.16 1.32

Latest PE 12.2 30.7 13.2 34.9 6.3 46.0 11.6 10.3 38.1 25.5

% change 12.12 8.50 2.31 11.95 5.73 13.69 0.06 11.58 12.95 3.45 0.38 2.07 1.05 3.66 1.34 1.39 3.60 1.09 2.63 0.00

Million Taka 14.89 8.62 3.46 22.07 6.15 20.27 32.78 274.72 4.55 10.56 3.50 5.67 11.54 3.77 2.26 1.41 276.68 3.74 8.47 0.02

CSE

% change 2.08 1.21 0.48 3.09 0.86 2.83 0.00 4.58 38.41 0.64 1.48 0.49 0.79 1.61 0.53 0.32 0.20 38.69 0.52 1.18 0.00

Million Taka 243.45 168.87 47.01 247.37 114.16 278.40 1.17 251.18 518.94 12.71 75.65 10.65 44.70 31.32 72.78 27.44 27.66 344.62 24.25 58.05 0.02

10.00 6.45 5.20 3.66 3.20 2.90 2.62 2.43 2.22 2.22

Total

Company Standard Ceramic -A Prime Textile -A ICB AMCL IslamicMF-A Asia Insur. Ltd.-A Rupali Bank - A S.B. 1st M. F.-A Sinobangla Indu.-A Emerald Oil Ind. -N Mithun Knitting -A National Housing Fin.-B

Closing (% Change) 7.00 5.20 4.08 3.18 3.15 2.86 2.65 2.61 2.50 2.45

Average (% Change) 10.00 4.26 2.98 3.23 1.96 1.44 2.20 1.71 0.44 2.86 Average (% Change) 7.00 5.79 4.01 2.86 3.15 2.86 1.29 1.73 1.53 1.64

ClosingAvg. 6.60 6.61 17.30 19.79 150.47 28.11 1,118.23 377.36 4.55 4.67

ClosingAvg. 42.80 18.26 15.29 22.69 59.00 7.20 31.41 38.87 69.07 29.10

Closing 6.60 6.60 18.20 19.80 151.40 28.40 1,120.00 380.00 4.60 4.60

Closing 42.80 18.20 15.30 22.70 59.00 7.20 31.00 39.30 69.70 29.30

DHIGH 6.60 6.80 18.60 20.50 153.50 28.60 1,130.00 380.10 4.60 4.80

DHIGH 42.80 18.30 15.40 22.70 59.00 7.20 31.70 39.70 69.70 29.40

DLOW 6.60 6.40 16.30 18.90 148.00 27.70 1,101.00 380.00 4.50 4.60

DLOW 42.80 18.00 14.70 22.10 59.00 7.20 30.90 35.30 68.00 28.80

Turnover in Million 0.000 0.096 4.757 1.159 0.398 25.304 0.227 0.020 0.118 1.521

Turnover in Million 0.004 0.151 0.252 0.023 0.065 0.065 0.536 1.197 0.037 0.087

Latest EPS 0.64 0.48 1.04 1.27 4.13 4.71 45.56 2.08 0.56 0.64

Latest EPS 0.60 1.04 2.76 2.17 2.04 1.36 1.21 2.56 3.40 1.88

Latest PE 10.3 13.8 16.6 15.6 36.4 6.0 24.5 181.4 8.1 7.3

Latest PE 71.3 17.6 5.5 10.5 28.9 5.3 26.0 15.2 20.3 15.5

News, analysis and recent disclousers BDLAMPS: Emerging Credit Rating Limited (ECRL) has assigned the surveillance rating of the Company as A- in the long term and ECRL-2 in the short term along with a stable outlook based on audited financials of the Company up to December 31, 2013 and unaudited financials up to June 30, 2014 including other relevant qualitative information up to the date of rating.

Conduction of IPO lottery: Ifad Autos Limited: All concerned are hereby informed that the IPO lottery program of Ifad Autos Limited will be conducted on 24 December 2014 at 10:30 am at Seminar Hall of the Institution of Engineers (IEB), Ramna, Dhaka.

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

ECABLES: 10% cash, AGM: 26.02.2015, Record Date: 05.01.2015.

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.

SPCL: 25% cash and 5% stock dividend, AGM: 29.01.2015, Record Date: 27.11.2014.

ANWARGALV: 7.50% cash dividend to the general shareholders, AGM: 12.01.2015, Record Date: 13.11.2014.

DAFODILCOM: No dividend, 24.12.2014, Record Date: 20.11.2014.

SAMATALETH: No dividend, AGM: 24.12.2014, Record Date: 23.11.2014.

Latest PE 12.2 13.3 38.4 35.0 10.1 17.2 7.9 45.1 14.7 24.3

All the large cap sectors slipped in red with power leading the way falling nearly 1%

DSE Million Taka 228.55 160.25 43.55 225.30 108.01 258.13 1.17 218.40 244.22 8.16 65.08 7.15 39.03 19.78 69.01 25.18 26.25 67.94 20.51 49.58 0.00

EXIM Bank 1 MF-A BD Fixed Income MF-A Prime Textile -A FAS Fin. & Inv. Ltd-B Popular Life Insu. -A AIMS First -A 1st ICB M F -A Eastern Lubricants -A DBH 1st MF-A EBL NRB M.F.-A

Closing (% Change)

CSE GAINER

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

ClosingAvg.

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY Sector

▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼

Turnover (Million Taka)

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS Company

% change 9.36 6.49 1.81 9.51 4.39 10.71 0.04 9.66 19.96 0.49 2.91 0.41 1.72 1.20 2.80 1.06 1.06 13.25 0.93 2.23 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

Brac Bank -A DESCO Ltd. -A Beximco Pharma -A Grameenphone-A Square Pharma -A Tung Hai Knitting -N SummitAlliancePort.-A Quasem Drycells -A Agni Systems -A Mozaffar H.Spinning-A

IDLC Finance -A Fu-Wang Food A GSP Finance-A BEXIMCO Ltd. -A Padma Oil Co. -A AB Bank - A

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS Company Grameenphone-A Square Pharma -A Hamid Fabrics -N SummitAlliancePort.-A LafargeS Cement-Z Padma Oil Co. -A WesternMarine -N Tung Hai Knitting -N BEXIMCO Ltd. -A MJL BD Ltd.-A

RAK Ceramics-A R. N. Spinning-Z IDLC Finance -A Appollo Ispat CL -N Keya Cosmetics -A

VolumeShares 2,289,159 1,092,846 1,200,511 175,372 216,942 2,468,460 577,573 554,686 1,307,361 1,291,639

Value in Million 85.83 75.56 74.06 62.57 56.14 53.85 47.16 42.48 42.02 37.56

% of TotalTurnover 4.55 4.01 3.93 3.32 2.98 2.86 2.50 2.25 2.23 1.99

VolumeShares

Value in Million

% of TotalTurnover

446,019 1,199,947 956,593 750,237 110,930 900,847

764,336 1,006,690 299,861 106,153 66,594 29,613 129,450 288,808 153,636 40,450

64,680 111,640 39,136 138,655 106,127

33.50 31.69 31.34 27.66 27.60 27.38

275.11 261.73 11.38 8.59 7.97 7.39 6.96 5.93 5.68 4.76

3.80 3.17 2.92 2.81 2.59

1.78 1.68 1.66 1.47 1.46 1.45

39.05 37.15 1.62 1.22 1.13 1.05 0.99 0.84 0.81 0.68

0.54 0.45 0.42 0.40 0.37

ClosingP 37.50 68.40 61.50 357.40 257.60 20.90 80.40 76.50 31.80 28.30

75.00 26.00 33.10 36.70 247.40 30.10 ClosingP

356.70 257.70 37.30 80.30 119.30 247.40 53.20 20.30 36.80 116.60

58.00 28.40 75.80 20.20 24.50

Change % 0.00 0.44 -1.60 -0.06 -0.58 -3.24 -3.37 -0.78 -2.75 -1.74

-0.66 -0.38 0.30 -1.61 -6.47 -0.99

Change %

0.06 -0.46 -12.24 -2.90 -0.83 -6.43 -2.39 -4.69 -1.34 -1.27

-4.76 1.07 0.40 -1.46 -2.00

ClosingY 37.50 68.10 62.50 357.60 259.10 21.60 83.20 77.10 32.70 28.80

75.50 26.10 33.00 37.30 264.50 30.40 ClosingY

356.50 258.90 42.50 82.70 120.30 264.40 54.50 21.30 37.30 118.10

60.90 28.10 75.50 20.50 25.00

DHIGH 37.60 69.90 62.90 358.00 261.40 23.50 83.70 78.00 33.00 30.50

76.00 27.00 35.00 37.60 251.00 31.00

DHIGH

359.90 259.80 38.80 83.40 121.00 255.00 55.00 21.20 37.50 118.00

61.00 29.00 75.90 20.70 25.00

DLOW 37.40 67.70 61.00 354.60 256.50 20.30 80.00 75.50 31.70 28.00

74.60 25.80 32.00 36.60 245.00 30.10 DLOW

355.00 256.20 37.10 79.80 118.90 247.00 53.00 20.10 36.70 116.00

57.70 27.70 74.10 20.10 24.00

AvgPrice 37.49 69.14 61.69 356.76 258.77 21.82 81.65 76.59 32.14 29.08

75.11 26.41 32.77 36.87 248.81 30.40

AvgPrice

359.93 259.99 37.95 80.92 119.61 249.62 53.80 20.52 36.96 117.74

58.77 28.36 74.74 20.28 24.37

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

Oil prices likely to rebound in second half of 2015 n Reuters Crude oil prices are likely to bottom out in the first half of 2015, until a possible slowdown in US shale production counters a supply glut exacerbated by OPEC’s decision not to cut output, a Reuters monthly survey showed.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ agreement last month to stand pat on output meant the onus for any supply cutbacks was now on non-OPEC producers, primarily led by US shale oil, analysts said.

“Oil prices will be lower, making shale oil production less attractive for investments, which are necessary to keep shale oil production growing,” Commerzbank’s Carsten Fritsch said.

Oil is seen recovering in the second half as non-OPEC production responds to lower prices, while demand picks up in the course of the year, the poll showed.

The survey of 30 economists and analysts projected Brent to average $74.00 a barrel next year and $80.30 in 2016.

The forecast for 2015 is $8.50 below the average projection in the previous Reuters poll. The November poll number was down $11.20 from October, marking the biggest downgrade in average forecasts since the 2008 economic downturn.

Brent this month hit five-year lows

A customer fills up his tank in a gasoline station in Nice below $60 a barrel, down almost half from peaks reached in June. Brent has averaged $100.57 so far this year.

Brent was up 74 cents at $62.12 on

Monday. US crude was up 66 cents at $57.79 a barrel. “In terms of the floor price, we think $60 per barrel will be the level at which fast-rising U.S. shale

REUTERS

oil producers will feel the pinch,” ANZ analyst Natalie Rampono said.

“Supply cuts above this level will be limited to other smaller, high-cost US

Oil rose yesterday on optimism over upcoming US data and lower Libyan output, but gains were capped after Saudi Arabia declared OPEC will not cut output even at $20 per barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for delivery in February gained 75 cents to stand at $60.86 a barrel nearing midday in London.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for February won 83 cents to $56.09 per barrel compared with Monday’s closing value.

“We could see oil move slightly up today as investors expect the US thirdquarter GDP figures to be revised upwards,” Daniel Ang, investment analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore, told AFP. The US Commerce Department will release the latest gross domestic product estimates later yesterday.

Economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal expect the agency to say

the US economy grew at a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.3% in the July-September quarter, up from its previous estimate of 3.9%.

US economic data is closely watched by crude investors as the country is the world’s biggest oil consuming nation.

Tuesday’s oil gains were however capped by comments from Saudi Arabia, which is the biggest producer in the 12-nation Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cartel.

OPEC will not cut oil production even if the price drops to $20 a barrel - and it is unfair to expect the cartel to reduce output if non-members do not, Saudi Arabia said.

“Whether it goes down to $20 a barrel, $40, $50, $60, it is irrelevant,” the kingdom’s Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said in an interview with the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES), an industry weekly.

‘Crooked logic’ In

unusually

detailed

comments,

Naimi defended a decision by OPEC last month to maintain a production ceiling of 30 million barrels per day.

The decision sent global crude prices tumbling, worsening a price drop that has seen them fall by around 50% since June.

Slower demand growth and a stronger dollar have also contributed to the slump, pushing oil prices to five-year lows last week.

Saudi Arabia has traditionally acted to balance demand and supply in the global oil market because it is the only country with substantial spare production capacity, according to the International Monetary Fund.

The kingdom pumps about 9.6 million barrels per day but Naimi said it is “crooked logic” to expect his country to cut and then lose business to other major producers outside OPEC. The increasingly competitive global oil market has seen daily United States output rise by more than 40% since 2006, boosted by booming shale en-

ergy output, but at a production cost which can be three or four times that of extracting Middle Eastern oil.

“Is it reasonable for a highly efficient producer to reduce output, while the producer of poor efficiency continues to produce?” Naimi asked during the interview conducted with MEES on Sunday.

“If I reduce, what happens to my market share? The price will go up and the Russians, the Brazilians, US shale oil producers will take my share.”

Naimi added it is “unfair” for the cartel to reduce output because it is not pumping most of the world’s oil.

“We produce less than 40% of global output. We are the most efficient producer. It is unbelievable after the analysis we carried out for us to cut,” he said.

Oil prices spiralled last week to their lowest points for more than five years.

Brent tumbled to $58.50 per barrel on December 16, touching a trough last seen in May 2009. WTI hit a similar low of $53.60 the same day. l

US dollar holds steady in Asian trade n AFP, Singapore

Google self-driving car prototype ready to try road n AFP, San Francisco Google on Monday announced that the first completed prototype of its selfdriving car is ready to be road tested.

“We’re going to be spending the holidays zipping around our test track, and we hope to see you on the streets of Northern California in the new year,” the Internet titan’s autonomous car team said in a post at Google+ social network.

The prototype is a manifestation of plans that California-based Google revealed in May to build its own autonomous car minus typical features such as steering wheels.

“They won’t have a steering wheel, accelerator pedal, or brake pedal ... because they don’t need them. Our software and sensors do all the work,” Google’s Chris Urmson said in a blog post in May.

Technical specifics about the prototype were not disclosed on Monday.

For Google, the car marks a shift away from adapting vehicles made by others in its quest to pioneer individual transport that needs only a stop-andgo function.

Google said early this year that the top speed of the battery-powered prototypes will be 25 miles (40 kilometers) per hour and that they would be designed for utility, not luxury.

The blog post on Monday showed a white, rounded bug-looking vehicle.

“Weve been working on different prototypes-of-prototypes, each designed to test different systems of a self-driving car—for example, the typical car parts like steering and braking, as well as the self-driving parts like the computer and sensors,” Google said.

“We’ve now put all those systems

together in this fully functional vehicle—our first complete prototype for fully autonomous driving.”

Several automakers have been working on autonomous or semi-autonomous features for cars, such as self-parking, but no fully autonomous car has come to market.

“Self-driving cars, if widely adopted, stand to be as transformative to consumer life as the smartphone,” said Mike Hudson, who tracks the automotive industry for eMarketer.

Matt Inman, the former computer programmer behind popular technology-focused humor website The Oatmeal, depicted Google’s car as a hypercautious marshmallow in a playful post about a test ride.

“I’m ready for our army of Skynet Marshmallow Bumper Bots,” the post at theoatmeal.com concluded. l

and Canadian unconventional oil producers. Although we think it will take six to 12 months for these supply cuts to become apparent,” she added.

Some analysts, however, were sceptical whether OPEC’s stand would serve as a deterrent to U.S. shale oil producers.

“The lag in oil production response from existing wells from the US suggests that only the marginal oil projects will be discouraged at this stage,” Vyanne Lai of National Australia Bank said.

The poll forecast US light crude would average $68.70 a barrel next year, and $74.90 in 2016. US crude has averaged $93.99 so far in 2014.

“Some of the highly leveraged US shale oil producers will face serious trouble. In the long term, OPEC strategy should pay off for OPEC as this strategy should lead to higher oil prices from 2016/17 on,” Hannes Loacker of Raiffeisen Bank said.

Raiffeisen is among the most bullish forecasters, projecting Brent to average $80 a barrel in 2015, and is one of 11 institutions that had participated in the previous poll and retained their outlook since then.

Of the 14 banks polled that have cut their forecasts since the previous month’s survey, Morgan Stanley slashed its projection by $28 to an average 2015 Brent price of $70. l

US gas prices fall to lowest since May 2009 n Reuters, New York The average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States fell 25 cents in the past two weeks, tumbling to its lowest level in more than five-and-ahalf years, according to the Lundberg survey released Sunday.

Prices for regular-grade gasoline fell to $2.47 a gallon in the survey dated Dec 19, down 25 cents since the previous survey on Dec 5.

The recent drop has taken prices down more than $1.25 a gallon since a recent peak in May of this year.

“This is mostly driven by crude oil prices, and absent a sudden spike we very well may see a drop of a few pennies more,” said the survey’s publisher, Trilby Lundberg. “That said, demand is up at these low prices.”

US crude futures have been sharply weaker of late, dropping for four straight weeks, as well as in 11 of the past 12 weeks. Crude prices fell 14.2% over the past two weeks, though they rose 5.1% on Friday, settling at $57.13 per barrel.

The highest price within the survey area in 48 US states was recorded in Long Island at $2.82 per gallon, with the lowest in Tulsa, at $2.06 per gallon. l

CORPORATE NEWS

Oil rises despite Saudi comments n AFP, London

B3

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

The greenback held steady in thin Asian trade yesterday, supported by hopes for fresh upbeat figures on the US economy and expectations the Federal Reserve will hike rates in mid-2015.

The US dollar was at 120.14 yen in afternoon Singapore trade, up slightly from 120.07 yen in New York on Monday. The euro bought $1.2230 and 146.92 yen, against $1.2226 and 146.80 yen in US trade.

“The focus of today would likely come from US durable orders and US GDP figures,” Singapore-based Phillip Futures said in a note to investors.

“Durable goods orders depict a strong manufacturing sector, which implies a higher industrial output ... with the US economy picking up, we expect the figures to be favourable,” it added.

The commerce department’s release of the latest gross domestic figures (GDP) for the world’s top economy later Tuesday will be closely watched by the market, analysts said.

Economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal predicted the US economy grew at a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.3% in the July-September quarter, up from its previous estimate of 3.9%.

Also being released in the US yesterday is data on new home sales, personal consumption as well as a survey of consumer confidence by the University of Michigan. Analysts said trading volumes were thin in Asia, with many dealers away during the holiday season and Japanese markets closed for a public holiday.

The greenback is expected to remain well-supported against other major currencies after the US Federal Reserve last week left in place market expectations that it may raise interest rates in the middle of next year.

The dollar was higher against AsiaPacific currencies.

It rose to 12,463.80 Indonesian rupiah from 12,452.50 rupiah on Monday, to 1,103.17 South Korean won from 1,096.46 won, and to 44.64 Philippine pesos from 44.60 pesos. l

Dutch-Bangla Bank has recently opened its 143rd branch at Companiganj in Comilla. The bank’s DMD, Md Sayedul Hasan has inaugurated the branch

Mutual Trust Bank Limited has recently organised daylong workshops on anti money laundering, financing of terrorism and foreign account tax compliance act at Chittagong, Comilla and Bogra respectively. The bank’s DMD, Md Hashem Chowdhury inaugurated the workshops as chief guest

NRB Commercial Bank Limited has recently opened its 24th branch at Chatkhil in Noakhali.

The bank’s chairperson, Engr Farasath Ali inaugurated the branch

Mercantile Bank Limited has recently donated 20 thousand pieces of blankets to Prime Minister’s Relief Fund for cold effected people, as part of bank’s CSR. The bank’s chairperson, Morshed Alam handed over the blankets to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Gonovobon

Southeast Bank Limited has recently opened its new branch at Rajbari. The bank’s DMD, Muhammad Shahjahan inaugurated the branch as chief guest

B4

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Back Page

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Arab OPEC sources see oil back above $70 by end-2015 n Reuters, Abu Dhabi Arab OPEC producers expect global oil prices to rebound to between $70 and $80 a barrel by the end of next year as a global economic recovery revives demand, OPEC delegates said this week in the first indication of where the group expects oil markets to stabilise in the medium term.

The delegates, some of which are from core Gulf OPEC producing countries, said they may not see - and some may not even welcome now - a return to $100 any time soon. Once deemed a “fair” price by many major producers, $100 a barrel crude is encouraging too much new production from high cost producers outside the exporting group, some sources say.

But they believe that once the breakneck growth of high cost producers such as U.S. shale patch slows and lower prices begin to stimulate demand, oil prices could begin finding a new equilibrium by the end of 2015 – even in the absence of any production cuts by OPEC, something that has been repeatedly ruled out.

“The general thinking is that prices can’t collapse, prices can touch $60 or a bit lower for some months then come back to an acceptable level which is $80 a barrel, but probably after eight months to a year,” one Gulf oil source told Reuters.

A separate Gulf OPEC source said: “We have to wait and see. We don’t see 100 dollars for next year, unless there is a sudden supply disruption. But average of 70-80 dollars for next year – yes.”

The comments are among the first to indicate how big producers see oil markets playing out next year, after the current slump that has almost halved prices since June. Global benchmark Brent closed at around $60 a barrel on Monday.

Their internal view on the market outlook will provide welcome insight to oil company executives, analysts and traders, who were caught out by what

Oil companies seen cutting spending 25% in 2015 n Reuters, Houston Plunging oil prices will prompt energy companies to cut investments in new projects by 25% or more in 2015, analysts said over the past week, as firms try to stay cash-flow positive and keep debt in check.

With oil prices down more than 40% since June, some companies, including ConocoPhillips, have slashed spending by 20%. But because crude prices have yet to stabilize, other companies are waiting to draw up budgets.

“Many are buying time on 2015 capex and production guidance while hoping for a stable baseline to plan from,” Capitol One Securities said in a note to clients. “We think cuts of 25% or more versus a year ago are on the way and won’t be unusual.”

Whiting Petroleum Corp said on Monday it will not release its 2015 capital spending plan until February, citing volatile oil prices. Budgets from Chevron Corp and Exxon Mobil Corp are also due out in early 2015, along with comprehensive spending surveys from industry analysts at Cowen and Barclays.

The spending reductions, once announced, are likely to be the biggest in years. But the U.S. government still expects output to be the highest in decades as productivity for new wells rises. Investment bank Simmons expects average US oil production growth of about 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) next year, up from around 9 million bpd in November.

Bernstein Research said if benchmark Brent crude oil was at $80 per barrel, then global exploration and production spending would fall 20% to $640bn.

If Brent were at $65 a barrel, then spending would fall by 30%. Bernstein added that a decline of 35% in North American capex would be likely if benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI), which trades at a discount to Brent, averages $65 a barrel. WTI is currently around $56.

Wood Mackenzie said the top 40 oil companies would collectively need to slash spending $170bn, or 37%, to keep net debt flat if global oil were at $60 a barrel.

That would be in addition to $9bn in cuts announced in the last few weeks by the companies.

In total, there are about $127bn of global industry greenfield projects at risk of deferment, Wood Mackenzie said. l

Labourers work at a refinery in Jingmen, in central China's Hubei province was seen by some as a shift in Saudi policy two months ago and have struggled since then to understand how and when the market will find its feet.

For the past several months, Saudi officials have been making clear that the Kingdom’s oft-repeated mantra that $100 a barrel crude is a “fair” price for crude had been set aside, at least for the fore-

seeable future. At the weekend, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi was blunt when asked if the world would ever again see triple-digit oil prices: “We may not.”

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest exporter – and its close Gulf allies within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) – say it’s time for others, whether that is coun-

REUTERS

tries like major exporter Russia or U.S. shale drillers, to slow down; OPEC can no longer slash output, ceding market share, to spare them a downturn.

As Naimi told the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) in an interview this weekend: “It is not in the interest of OPEC producers to cut their production, whatever the price is.”

Without OPEC to defend prices, oil entered a free-fall, but most of OPEC’s members are holding fast.

At this point, intervening in the market would simply invite new rivals to carry on pumping crude, eroding OPEC’s market share without any guarantee of a sustained price recovery, another Arab oil source told Reuters on

Gold inches up after losses, but still near 3-week low n Reuters, Singapore

The shop window of a jewellery displays gold items near the Grand Mosque during the annual Haj pilgrimage in Mecca REUTERS

Gold edged up yesterday after sharp overnight losses, but was still stuck near its lowest in three weeks due to weaker oil prices and strength in global equities and the dollar.

Spot gold was up 0.3% at $1,178.60 an ounce at 0328 GMT. It tumbled nearly 2% in the previous session, dropping to $1,170.17 an ounce - its lowest since Dec 1.

“Skyrocketing equity markets, a firm dollar and weakening oil prices finally caught up to gold, triggering long liquidation and position squaring ahead of the Christmas and New Year break,” said Jason Cerisola, a metals dealer at MKS Group.

Rising equities and a stronger dollar dull demand for gold as a safe-haven asset. Lower oil prices decrease its appeal as a hedge against oil-led inflation. Gold should likely see some support at $1,170, but more stop-loss orders will be triggered if the level is breached, Cerisola said.

Wall Street closed at historic highs on Monday, boosting global equities.

The dollar index, a measure of the greenback’s strength against a basket of major currencies, was holding close to a nine-year peak.

A stronger greenback makes dollardenominated gold more expensive for holders of other currencies.

Oil prices resumed their downward march on Monday, after Saudi Arabia’s powerful oil minister said OPEC would not cut production at any price, though they edged up modestly on Tuesday.

Bullion found some support in the physical markets, where top consumer China saw bargain hunters emerge after the price drop on Monday.

Prices on the Shanghai Gold Exchange were at a premium of $4-$5 an ounce over the global benchmark, compared with $2-$3 in the previous session.

“While emerging market buying on dips is likely to moderate further potential price declines, ongoing oil market weakness is a significant weight on bullion and may very well cap rallies,” HSBC analysts said in a report.

In central bank activity, data from the International Monetary Fund data released on Tuesday showed that Russia raised its gold reserves for an eighth month in a row in November, while Ukraine reduced bullion holdings for a second straight month. Significant buying and selling by central banks can influence gold prices. l

the sidelines of a meeting in Abu Dhabi of the Organization of the Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC).

“Every time prices fall, we would be asked to cut,” the source said.

The second Gulf OPEC source reiterated that OPEC would not cut alone.

Non-OPEC producers such as Russia, Mexico, Kazakhstan and “anyone producing more than one million barrels per day” should also cut or at least freeze their output if they wanted a stable market and better prices, the Gulf OPEC source said.

To be sure, there is no suggestion that OPEC is targeting a specific price, or would want to do so. The group hasn’t had a formal price goal in about a decade, and Saudi Arabia has long maintained that it is only seeking price stability, not a set level.

But it offers a convenient metric at a time when traders are struggling to figure out where and when markets will settle down.

Asked about market signals OPEC is looking for to decide on whether the market is stabilising or not, irrespective of the price, Naimi said: “The signals need time, one year, two years, three years. There is not one signal that we look to and say that’s it... but for sure those who are the most efficient producers are the one who would rule the market in the future.”

Iraqi oil minister Adel Abdel Mehdi told Reuters in an interview on Monday he thought prices would stabilise now at about $60 a barrel but could rise to over $70 by mid-next year.

“I believe that market has started to stabilise itself now,” Falah al-Amiri, head of Iraq state oil marketing SOMO told Reuters in Abu Dhabi.

“The future for next year, I don’t think there would be much optimism in the market that the price would go to $80 or above. But I don’t even think prices would reach $80,” said Amiri, citing a resilient shale oil production to current prices. l

Spain economy could grow 1.4% in 2014 n AFP, Madrid Spain’s recovering economy could grow by up to 1.4% this year, the country’s central bank said on Tuesday in a forecast that exceeds the government’s estimates.

The Bank of Spain forecast in a monthly report that output could grow by 0.6% in the final quarter of this year.

“With that end to the year, gross domestic product would increase by 1.4% overall in 2014” compared to 2013, it said. Spain’s conservative government is forecasting a 1.3% rise this year, following a 1.2 contraction in 2013.

After emerging from recession, Spain’s domestic demand is now contributing to a recovery despite weak external demand particularly in the struggling eurozone, the bank said.

It forecast the recovery in the eurozone’s fourth-biggest economy would continue in 2015 with growth of about two percent, in line with the government’s estimate. Better credit conditions, a depreciation of the euro and lower oil prices could help compensate for the weakening of the export market in 2015, it said. l

OPEC won’t cut output even at $20 a barrel German business slams n AFP, Riyadh OPEC will not cut oil production even if the price drops to $20 a barrel and it is unfair to expect the cartel to reduce output if non-members do not, Saudi Arabia said.

“Whether it goes down to $20 a barrel, $40, $50, $60, it is irrelevant,” the kingdom’s Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said in an interview with the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES), an industry weekly.

In unusually detailed comments, Naimi defended a decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, whose lead producer is Saudi Arabia, last month to maintain a production ceiling of 30 million barrels per day.

The decision sent global crude prices tumbling, worsening a price drop that has seen them fall by around 50% since June. Slower demand growth and a stronger dollar have also contributed to the slump.

Saudi Arabia has traditionally acted to balance demand and supply in the global oil market because it is the only country with substantial spare production capacity, according to the International Monetary Fund.

The kingdom pumps about 9.6 million barrels per day but Naimi said it is “crooked logic” to expect his country to cut and then lose business to other

major producers outside OPEC. The increasingly competitive global oil market has seen daily United States output rise by more than 40% since 2006, but at a production cost which can be three or four times that of extracting Middle Eastern oil.

“Is it reasonable for a highly efficient producer to reduce output, while the producer of poor efficiency continues

No, we knew the price would go down because there are investors and speculators whose job it is to push it up or down to make money to produce?” Naimi asked during the interview conducted with MEES on Sunday.

“If I reduce, what happens to my market share? The price will go up and the Russians, the Brazilians, US shale oil producers will take my share.”

Naimi added it is “unfair” for the cartel to reduce output because it is not pumping most of the world’s oil.

“We produce less than 40% of global output. We are the most efficient producer. It is unbelievable after the analy-

sis we carried out for us to cut,” he said.

Gulf can ‘hold out’

OPEC tried to seek market stability through a common front between members and non-members “but there was no way,” he said.

In Asian trade on Tuesday prices nudged higher on hopes of improved economic figures from the United States.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for February delivery gained 64 cents to $55.90 while Brent crude for February was up 33 cents to $60.44 in afternoon trade.

Prices were above $100 a barrel earlier this year, a level which Naimi said “we may not” see again.

Repeating comments he has made elsewhere, Naimi told MEES that oil prices will, however, improve.

“The timing is difficult to know,” he said, but international oil companies have reduced their future capital expenditures, “which means there is no exploration”.

That, in turn, signals they will not have additional production, he added.

The minister said OPEC was not surprised by the extent of the price drop.

“No, we knew the price would go down because there are investors and speculators whose job it is to push it up or down to make money,” he told MEES. l

growing anti-Islam rallies n AFP, Berlin A powerful German business leader slammed a growing anti-Islam movement in the country Tuesday, saying Europe’s top economy needed more immigration to remain competitive and should take in more asylum seekers.

The president of the German Federation of Industry, Ulrich Grillo, said the emergence of the group “Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident” or PEGIDA, which has been holding weekly marches, was undermining the country’s interests and values.

“We have long been a land of immigration and we must remain so,” he told German news agency DPA. “As a prosperous country, and also out of Christian love for our fellow

DILBERT

man, our country should take in more refugees.”

Grillo blasted the PEGIDA protests, which organisers have billed as a grassroots movement, calling participants “neo-Nazis and xenophobes”.

He said the group was trying to harness fears of Islamist terrorism “to smear a whole religion” which he called “unacceptable”.

Grillo’s federation represents the political interests of more than 100,000 companies employing around eight million people.

He said Germany’s rapidly ageing population needed a strong influx of qualified newcomers to support the economy and the social welfare system.

“Considering our demographic development, immigration ensures growth and prosperity,” he said. l