24 March, 2015

SECOND EDITION

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015

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Chaitra 10, 1421, Jamadius Sani 3, 1436

SMUGGLED MIGRANT SMUGGLES OTHERS PAGE 3

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Regd No DA 6238, Vol 2, No 348

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PAY HIKE REVIEWERS GET MORE TIME PAGE 5

www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages | Price: Tk10

COWHERD KILLED

BY BSF PAGE 32

City polls build-up gains momentum Annisul, Kabari, Pintu collect nomination papers in Dhaka; 397 more in Chittagong in five days

BNP may request more time for nominations

Sakhawat in Dhaka, and n Adil Tarek Mahmud in Chittagong With less than a week before the deadline for the submission of nominations, the upcoming city corporation elections appear to be gathering momentum, albeit without the main political opposition BNP making any official announcement about its participation yet.

Seven mayoral aspirants, including Awami League-backed businessman Annisul Huq and former AL MP and film actress Sarah Begum Kabari, collected nomination forms in both Dhaka and Chittagong yesterday for the polls scheduled for April 28.

Since the announcement of the election schedules, 25 aspirants have so far collected nomination forms for the three city corporations – Dhaka north and south, and Chittagong.

Ruling party-nominated AJM Nasir Uddin, the AL Chittagong unit general secretary, Syed Sajjad Zoha and Hossain Mohammad Muzibul Haque have so far collected forms for the Chittagong mayoral.  PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

Awami League-backed businessman Annisul Huq collects nomination papers for the upcoming DCC north polls in Dhaka yesterday MEHEDI HASAN

The BNP is yet to nominate mayoral candidates although the submission deadline for Dhaka and Chittagong city polls ends in less than a week.

A senior leader of the main political opposition said the BNP may request the Election Commission to modify the polls schedule to allow them more time without moving the election date. To this end, he said, a BNP delegation will soon meet with the Election Commission.

A BNP policymaker told the Dhaka Tribune that some pro-BNP intellectuals and professionals will hold a meeting at 10am today where they are likely to form a citizens’  PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

JMB man reveals plan for Islamic Bangladesh by 2020

Kiwis, Proteas bent on breaking semi-final jinx

n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

n Reuters

Based on interrogation of a militant commander, law enforcers reveal that militant groups are working in concert to establish a Sharia-based state with the help of international terrorist group Islamic State.

The police arrested a regional commander of banned Islamist outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh yesterday and made the statement after initial questioning.

Their aim is to turn Bangladesh into a mod-

el Islamic country by 2020 incorporating parts of India and Myanmar with it, said the police.

A new umbrella of militants named “International Lions Force of Hindustan” has also been working to turn the three neighbouring countries into one unified Islamic state in the long run.

A four-member delegation of the IS from Syria visited Chittagong in October last year and sat with the top leaders of banned Islamist outfits JMB, Huji and Hizb ut-Tahrir,  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

The cricket World Cup semi-final between New Zealand and South Africa at Eden Park today has more at stake than a first final for the winner.

Both teams will hope to banish some unwanted baggage from the global showpiece that has dogged them for years.

The Proteas have long worn the tag of cricket’s ultimate chokers for repeated failures in the tournament’s knock-out rounds.

Their breakthrough quarter-final win over Sri Lanka, a first win in a knock-out match at the World Cup, will quickly be forgotten if defeated in Auckland.

Like their opponents, New Zealand have never been further than the penultimate hurdle and want to prove themselves heavyweights, rather than merely the team that punches above its weight.

The game will be New Zealand’s seventh appearance in the semi-finals at the World  PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Kiwis, Proteas Cup, and third in succession, while it is South Africa’s fourth since their re-integration into global sporting competition following the end of the apartheid era.

Lose and the stain of failure remains - as was plainly spelled out for AB de Villiers’ team by the country’s sports minister Fikile Mbalula before the tournament.

“We don’t want you in the World Cup to add numbers and just become a bunch of losers,” Mbalula said at the team’s farewell function.

Australia and India clash in the second semi-final in Sydney on Thursday.

South Africa entered the World Cup with the two best one-day batsmen in the world in De Villiers and Hashim Amla, a potent pace bowling attack, a wily legspinner in Imran Tahir and a destructive middle order laden with all-rounders.

Pre-tournament, South Africa vied with Australia as bookmakers’ favourites to win, but slipped up twice in pool play, losing to India and Pakistan.

Tellingly, both losses came after chasing totals.

De Villiers and South Africa fans may well sweat on the toss. De Villiers said he would have 15 fit players to choose from, with swing bowler Vernon Philander having trained for the last two days at “100 percent.” But it would be a difficult choice, he added.

New Zealand have been forced into at least one change, with fast bowler Adam Milne ruled out with a heel injury and Matt Henry brought into the squad.

“Whoever gets the nod, we’ve got full confidence they will be able to go out there and perform their skills and fit into the game plan appropriately,” Captain Brendon McCullum said.

“I think tomorrow will be a great spectacle and I expect the team that is able to handle the crunch situations the best will come out on top.” l

BNP may request more time for nominations committee, which will announce BNP’s mayoral candidates who will get the party’s blessings.

All local government elections, including the city polls are technically obligated to be non-partisan.

The party has more or less decided to back businessman Abdul Awal Mintoo for Dhaka north, but the party is yet to finalise a candidate for Dhaka south or Chittagong.

Insiders said Mirza Abbas, former Dhaka mayor and a party policymaker, is the first choice for Dhaka south. Abbas is, however, wanted in more than a dozen cases. There is an apprehension of legal complications even before the elections begin.

The party is currently mulling over two alternatives for Dhaka south, where Awami

League has nominated Sayed Khokon, son of Dhaka’s first elected mayor. The BNP hopefuls are said to be BNP’s Dhaka city unit secretary Habib-un-Nabi Khan Sohel and central International Affairs Secretary Asaduzzaman Ripon.

“It is a tough selection because there are so many competent candidates. I am sure Madam [Khaleda Zia] will make the right choice,” said Mahbubur Rahman, a standing committee member also a former army chief.

According to another senior leader of the party, things got complicated in Chittagong after Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, adviser to the BNP chief and their first choice for Chittagong mayor, declined to contest.

“Madam talked to him over phone on Sunday night, but he was rigid about contesting

City polls build-up gains momentum Convicted of life in prison for the BDR carnage of 2009, former BNP MP Nasir Uddin Ahmed Pintu collected his nomination forms through his lawyer yesterday for the Dhaka south mayoral polls.

Pintu filed an appeal in January 2014 seeking acquittal in the case.

His party has yet to officially endorse a candidate in the polls, which are technically non-partisan.

The BNP is scheduled to sit for an internal meeting evidently to discuss their participation. Rumours abound about the possible BNP candidates indicating a strong positive inclination.

Election Commission (EC) officials said anyone could collect nomination papers but the election office approves candidatures after scrutinising the candidates.

Main opposition in parliament Jatiya Party nominee Saifuddin Milon collected nomina-

tion forms yesterday for Dhaka South.

Dhaka North saw two more mayor aspirants collect papers yesterday – former head of BGMEA Annisul Huq, who is the AL candidate, and former AL MP Sarah Begum Kabari.

A gathering of ruling party supporters was seen in front of the zonal election office at Agargaon, chanting slogans in support of Annisul and the prime minister.

EC regulations bar candidates from bringing more than five people to collect nomination papers.

When his attention was drawn to the fact that a crowd was chanting slogans in his support, Annisul said: “It would be better if it could be avoided.”

Annisul said he wanted to ensure good governance for the capital.

“We need to broaden the reach of our services and increase their volume to reach more people,” he said.

JMB man reveals plan for Islamic Bangladesh by 2020 and the recently-emerged Ansarullah Bangla Team, according to the information given out by the militant commander in custody.

JMB chief Saidur Rahman, Ansarullah’s Mufti Jashim Uddin Rahmani, and several top leaders of Huji held meetings inside the Kashimpur High Security Jail in September last year and decided to work together as they had the same goal – establishing an Islamic state in Bangladesh, said detectives.

Members of Chittagong city’s Akbar Shah police yesterday morning arrested Ershad Hossain alias Mamun, 20, of Birol upazila in Dinajpur, at a residence in the city’s New Monsurabad area. Police claim that grenade maker Ershad is the district commander of JMB, banned since 2005.

During interrogation, Ershad said the JMB members were working jointly with banned Huji and Hizb ut-Tahrir and other extremist groups including Islami Chhatra Shibir.

Their primary mission is to establish a separate Islamic country comprising Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Rangamati, Bandarban, Khagrachhari, and some border areas of India and Myanmar. Later they intend to bring entire Bangladesh under their grip.

Former Chhatra Shibir leader Ershad told the police that JMB alone has over 1,000 camouflaged members in the district preparing for jihad. Many of them were trained in Pakistan.

Police say the militant groups are regrouping mainly following the announcements by

the polls. However, efforts are on to persuade him,” the leader said.

A BNP leader from the port city told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday that most of them do not want the party to back incumbent Chittagong Mayor Manjur Alam again.

Instead, their first choice for mayor was Khosru and the alternatives could be former MP Wahedul Alam and businessman Abdus Salam.

“But if the central command cannot settle on any of these three, then Manjur might get party blessings again,” he said.

City unit BNP General Secretary Shahadat Hossain has also expressed his intentions to contest for the mayor of Chittagong if Khosru cannot be convinced eventually, the leader said. l

al-Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri last year who urged Bangladeshi Muslims to take part in the holy war adopting al-Qaeda’s version of Islam. The leader vowed to export jihad to India, Myanmar and Bangladesh to defend vulnerable Muslims in the region.

Last month, law enforcers busted a number of militant dens and arrested some of their mid-level organisers in Chittagong. Since September last year, a number of militant leaders were arrested for suspected links to al-Qaeda, Islamic State and other international militant outfits. After the Bardhaman blasts, it was revealed that the JMB has its men in West Bengal of India too.

CMP Commissioner Abdul Jalil Mandal said: “Though they belong to different groups, the militants are now working together exploiting the anti-government movement to launching violent attacks on the members of different law enforcement agencies.”

He claimed that the members of Jamaat-e-Islami were carrying out subversive acts together with the JMB tactically. Police recently found arms, ammunition and explosives from two Shibir-dominated government colleges in the port city meant for conducting sabotage.

Camouflaged members

Kept in police custody, Ershad told the Dhaka Tribune that under his leadership, the district unit of JMB had about 15 commanders who control around 150 Eshar (key members), 500 Gayri Eshar (mid-level members) and a num-

ber of ansar (associate members).

To hide their identity and evade arrest, the members usually get engaged in different professions including stationery salesmen, day labourers and hawkers. Some of them have set up small shops in densely-populated areas of the city to ensure smooth contact within the group.

The ansar members can contact only their immediate seniors and they are asked not to use their own mobile phones, Ershad said.

Ershad himself has had been working at a stationery shop in the port city since early 2014 when he became the district commander.

Police found crude bomb-like objects, gunpowder, grenade-making materials, jihadi books and other documents in Ershad’s possession. Ershad confessed that he took training on sophisticated arms in Bogra and can make grenades, Akbar Shah police OC Sadip Kumar Das said.

Ershad was arrested around 7:30am at his shop beside the rail tracks in Baganbari Residential Area’s NR Gate after some members of Chittagong district unit Ansar had called the police finding his activities suspicious.

Abdul Hamid, platoon commander of Chittagong Ansar, told the Dhaka Tribune that while they were on patrol duty on the rail tracks, some locals sought for help to solve an altercation between Ershad and a local woman over making a phone call.

“We found that Ershad wanted to use the woman’s mobile phone to call somebody.

Kabari collected her nomination forms through a representative. She said she would be running as an independent candidate since she did not get the backing of her party.

A total of 397 aspirants collected their nomination forms for the Chittagong City Corporation elections for the posts of mayor, ward councillor and reserved female ward councillor.

Chittagong mayoral hopeful AJM Nasir said his top priority would be to tackle water logging. He vowed to make Chittagong a clean, healthy and drugs-free city.

Till yesterday, eight aspirants collected nomination forms for mayor, 46 for reserved female ward councillor and 343 for ward councillor, said the returning officer.

The deadline for submitting papers is March 29. Scrutiny will be done on April 1 and 2 and the last date for withdrawal of candidacy is April 9. l

Asked why he wanted to use another person’s phone, he tried to avoid us. Then we started enquiring about his details, went to his rented house nearby and found many suspicious and unusual objects. Later, we called the police,” Hamid said.

Police said Ershad had regular communication with two people who used to visit him at the shop.

Ershad said he became involved with Chhatra Shibir politics in 2011 as a student of Balandor High School in Dinajpur. After passing the SSC exams that year, he met with a Chhatra Shibir leader named Al Fuad alias Rocky from Gaibandha at a party meeting.

Rocky later joined the JMB in Bogra and was appointed the divisional commander of Chittagong. He then chose Ershad as the Chittagong district commander.

Police are out to arrest Rocky. Akbar Shah police said they would produce Ershad in court today.

Joint Commissioner of DB police Monirul Islam acknowledged that militant groups were regrouping across the country, mainly in Chittagong, in the wake of recent video statements of the IS and al-Qaeda.

He said the law enforcers were gathering intelligence and arresting the leaders to uproot militancy from the country. “In a proposal submitted to the Home Ministry recently, we have proposed a special force to tackle militant outfits.” l

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TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015

Once smuggled migrant now smuggles others n Mohammad Jamil Khan Just over a year ago, Anowar Islam, 30, was illegally smuggled into Thailand where he picked up the tricks of the migrant smuggling trade; he was yesterday arrested on suspicion of operating a migrant smuggling business of his own.

Anowar remained in Thailand for nearly a year, learning the business of migrant smuggling and making contact with receivers of smuggled migrants before returning home to Bangladesh to set up shop for himself.

A Rapid Action Battalion team arrested Anowar, son of Rustom Ali of Ukhia police station in Cox’s Bazar, along with eight other migrant smugglers early yesterday.

Following his arrest, he was placed in front of the media at RAB headquarters, where he described his path to becoming a migrant smuggler.

Anowar told reporters that he did not study past class five. He said he started driving a Jeep, locally known as Chander Gari, to support his family.

In 2014, while working as a Jeep driver, he met a man who said he could get Anowar into Thailand at a very cheap rate.

He went to Teknaf to meet the broker.

Anowar told the media that he was transported to Thailand in a succession of small trawlers with his legs and hands tied with rope.

“They kept us in a small room below deck and we changed trawlers a number of times during the journey,” he said.

“The people piloting the trawlers were from Myanmar and did not speak our language. For this reason, when we asked for water or food they would not give us any and used to beat us,” Anowar said.

Anowar said two migrants died during the journey and their dead bodies were thrown into the sea.

“Finally, when we reached Thailand, we were kept in a room called the ‘reception room’ after crossing the jungle,” he said.

“There, I found some people who spoke our language and they asked me to call my family and have some money sent,” Anowar said, adding that he was free to move on after his smugglers were paid Tk1.80 lakh.

“I worked in a garbage factory for six months and later started working at a construction site.

“But accidentally, I broke my hand and leg while working. So I came back home,” he said.

Anowar returned to driving a Jeep but also stayed in touch with Faruq, his contact in the migrant smuggling network, through whom he now helps would-be migrants connect with smugglers for a Tk500 fee.

“I make some easy money and transport people. I do not know anything more,” Anowar said, distancing himself from the migrant smuggling network.

But RAB sources said Anowar had been in contact over the phone with would-be migrants. They said he helped arrange their passage to Malaysia and provided them with transportation to their port of departure in Teknaf.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime describes migrant smuggling as the “procurement, in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit, of the illegal entry of a person into a State Party of which the person is not a national or a permanent resident.”

The UN distinguishes migrant smuggling from human trafficking which involves the use or threat of use of force, coercion, abduction or purchasing of consent from a person’s guardians to ship them off for purposes of exploitation. l

MIGRANT SMUGGLING AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING FROM BANGLADESH 

 

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Over 1.20 lakh people via sea route from Bangladesh and Myanmar from 2012 to 2014

60 points at Cox’s Bazar are being used Over 500 people died in 2014 while being smuggled to Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand

2,728 people have been victims of

migrant smuggling/human trafficking



615 cases were filed regarding smuggling/trafficking



734 people were arrested for their alleged involvement



Since 2012 migrant smuggling/ trafficking by sea has increased dramatically Sources: UNHCR, CID and intelligence sources in Bangladesh

59 job seekers rescued, 16 traffickers held n Tribune Report Three law enforcement agencies in separate drives yesterday arrested 16 alleged members of human trafficking rackets and rescued 59 Bangladeshis travelling to Malaysia and Thailand for job.

Of them, elite force Rapid Action Battalion arrested nine human traffickers from Chittagong, Tangail and the capital, and rescued 12 job seekers from Chittagong early yesterday.

The trafficking syndicate, led by one Yunus Ali, had offered some people in Tangail better jobs abroad without money. His accomplices are Rubel, Shahidul Islam, Shawkat, Abu Mohammad, Pintu, Anwar, Mahmudul and Hamidul Haque.

“Once job-seekers reach the destination, the traffickers ask for ransom from their families taking them into hostages. They even threaten to kill the hostages if money is not paid to their local agents by the deadlines they set,” he said.

Meanwhile, members of the Bangladesh Coast Guard and the Detective Branch of police in separate drives rescued 47 people and arrested seven brokers in Teknaf and Maheshkhali upazilas of Cox’s Bazar yesterday, UNB reported.

A coast guard team rescued 39 people and arrested a trafficker during a raid near Cheradia of Saint Martin’s Island in the Bay around 10am when they were heading for Malaysia by a trawler, station In-Charge Kyati Mong Marma said. The broker, Syed Alam from Ukhiya upazila, was later handed over to Teknaf police.

In another drive, a team of DB police rescued six Malaysia-bound people and arrested six alleged human traffickers from Sonadia Island in Maheshkhali around 2pm. The arrestees are Rashid Ullah, 45, of Ramu; Abdul Kaiyum, 30, Abu Taher, 19, and Nurul Amin, 33, of Ukhiya upazila; and Myanmar nationals Abdullah, 20, and Nur Hossain, 24. l

Rapid Action Battalion produces nine people of a gang allegedly involved in human trafficking and extortion before the media at its headquarters yesterday.

They were arrested from various locations at various times during the month. Twelve victims were also rescued at the time MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Migrant smugglers lure teens using telemarketing n Mohammad Jamil Khan On Thursday morning, 16-year-old Ibrahim Ali from Chuadanga was preparing to go to work as usual when he got a call in his mobile phone.

“The caller identified himself as Monohor and asked me whether I was interested to migrate to Malaysia without spending a penny,” Ibrahim said.

“My family is very poor. After my father’s premature death, I had to drop out of school and take over the responsibility of earning a living for my mother and sister. It was an unexpected offer and I could not turn it down.

But I had no idea that such a disaster would come down on me,” the teenager said. Ibrahim was detained in Chittagong along with migrant smugglers by a team of RAB yesterday.

“I left home on Friday for Chittagong along with my friends Ariful and Mosharraf. A per-

son received us there. We were about to leave for Cox’s Bazar when RAB members detained us and brought us to Dhaka,” Ibrahim said yesterday while sharing his experiences with the Dhaka Tribune.

“They wanted our families to pay them only Tk1 lakh after we reached Malaysia and a further Tk90,000 after we got work there.

But who knew that they would turn out to be frauds,” he said.

Ibrahim does not have any idea how in the world have these people got his mobile number. He also does not remember talking to anyone about going to Malaysia ever.

RAB officials said a racket of field-level brokers collect information about poor people living in the rural areas who are struggling to make a decent living. Then they call them up and convince them to go abroad, hold them hostage there and collect ransom from their families.

At the RAB headquarters in Uttara of Dhaka, this reporter yesterday met another person named Anisur Rahman who said his teenage son was now in Malaysia as a hostage of the migrant smugglers.

“The smugglers lured my son into going to Malaysia. Immediately after he arrived there, he was taken hostage by them. Now they are demanding Tk2.3 lakh as ransom for releasing my son. They said if I do not pay, I will never see my son again,” Anisur said.

He also said that he had filed a complaint with RAB and the officials are now trying to bring his son back home.

In a drive in Chittagong yesterday, RAB rescued 12 people who were about to go to Cox’s Bazar and leave for Malaysia on boats.

Meanwhile, in separate drives, members of Bangladesh Coast Guard and police yesterday rescued 47 others from Teknaf and Maheshkhali upazilas of Cox’s Bazar. l

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TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015

Court orders inquiry against Bimstec foreign secretaries to discuss Tarique Rahman for Bangabandhu remarks working modalities n n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

meetings, full participation is needed.

Foreign secretaries from the Bimstec member countries will discuss and finalise future working modalities of the regional bloc to make it a vibrant organisation.

“The secretaries are expected to have the meeting in Kathmandu [of Nepal] in May to set up the working guidelines of the organisation,” said a senior official of the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry.

They will finalise a set of proposals regarding holding summits, ministerial and senior official -level meetings, he said.

In the last 18 years, Bimstec had only three summits and now everybody realises that the frequency needs to be increased.

“There are two proposals. Some members support biennial summit and some triennial. The SOM will decide on the issue,” the official said.

The members want to have annual ministerial meetings and the foreign secretary level meeting is expected to give a stamp on the proposal, he said. “About senior official-level meeting, they want to hold two SOMs every year.”

About quorum, the official said the members are of the view that in all policy-level

BIMSTEC power exchange deal

BGB arrests two BNP men with firearms n FM Mizanur Rahaman, Chittagong

Cabinet okays draft laws on new medical universities n Tribune Report

Members of Border Guard of Bangladesh in an overnight drive arrested two BNP activists from Jhaowtala area in Chittagong city for their alleged involvement with subversive activities.

The activists arrested during the drive, which started around 10pm Sunday, were Shahjamal alias Boma Dilip and Tajul Islam Rony, said BGB 28 Battalion Additional Director Major Tanvir Mahmud.

Two locally made pistols, 10 rounds of bullets and a machete were recovered from their possession, said Maj Tanvir.

The BGB official said Dilip was accused in three cases and Tajul in two cases filed on different charges including murder and sabotage.

Tanvir said they were engaged with subversive activities in city area since the announcement of indefinite blockade by BNP-led 20-party alliance. The duo were later handed over to Khulshi police station and a case was lodged in this connection, he added. l

BSRM and Ahsania find alternative fuel n Tribune Report To prevent deforestation, Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM) and BSRM Group of Companies have joined hands to set up an alternative fuel factory in Bashkhali in Chittagong.

Unde the initiative, a factory for making briquette, an alternative for wood, at Sadhanpur Union in Banshkhali Upazila, some 45 kilometers from the Chittagong City. l

The final draft text of the trans-power exchange memorandum of understanding will be submitted before the foreign secretaries for consideration.

“The secretaries will put forward their recommendations for the consideration of energy minister-level meeting to be held in July in Nepal,” the official said.

The Bimstec members have finalised the text of the MoU at the fifth meeting of the Bimstec taskforce on trans-power exchange held in Dhaka this month. In the meeting, all the member countries were requested to complete their internal consultation and by July, so that it could be signed in the ministers’ meeting.

The MoU needs the approval of the cabinet.

It would be the second such initiative in the region, after Saarc signed an energy agreement in November to trade electricity among themselves.

Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan, Thailand, India and Sri Lanka are the members of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (Bimstec). l

The council of ministers has approved in principle the drafts of “Chittagong Medical University Act 2015” and “Rajshahi Medical University Act 2015” for the establishment of the institutions.

All the medical colleges in Chittagong and Rajshahi including Chittagong Medical College and Rajshahi Medical College would be affiliated with the new public universities.

The universities would provide post-graduate level studies and bachelor degrees in nursing. The move will raise the number of medical universities in the country to three.

In 1998, the then Institute of Post Graduate Medicine and Research, popularly known as the PG Hospital, was made Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University that offers higher education for medical practitioners.

The approval was given in the regular cabinet meeting held yesterday at the Secretariat chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The premier announced to establish the two medical universities on November 22 last year.

Earlier, Hasina also announced to make Dhaka Medical College a university. But the initiative did not see light in the face of criticisms.

Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told reporters the two new autonomous universities would be established according to the decision of the National Health Council last year. The Council had decided establishing the universities to create more specialist medical persons in the country aimed at improving the country’s healthcare services. l

Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court asked Paltan police yesterday to launch an inquiry against BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman, his party’s foreign affairs envoy Jahid F Sardar Saadi and 500 others for their remarks against Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman over his role during the Liberation War in 1971.

Metropolitan Magistrate Md Yunus Khan passed the order in response to a complaint filed by Bangladesh Muktijuddha Projonmo President Fazlul Karim Arif Patwari, seeking warrant against the accused.

The court also asked Paltan police to submit their report by April 27.

Complainant Arif accused Tarique, who is currently residing in the UK, and Jahid, US expatriate and also a cousin of revolutionary leader Siraj Sikder, and unnamed 500 leaders and activists of the BNP in the case.

The complaint was filed under Sections 499 and 500 of the Penal Code and Sections 57(1) and 57(2) of the Information and Communication Technology Act. Eleven people, including the editor of Bangla daily Prothom Alo and editors different other dailies and online media were listed as witnesses.

According to the petition, Tarique and Jahid demeaned the founding president by calling him a friend of Pakistan.

Arif also stated in the complaint that Tarique and Jahid both made derogatory and false claims against Bangabandhu.

According to the petition, Tarique and Jahid demeaned the founding president by calling him a friend of Pakistan Speaking at an event in London on December 15 last year, Tarique called Bangabandhu a “razakar,” a term which is synonymous with a collaborator of Pakistani military in the Liberation War. The complaint also stated that Jahid, also a special adviser of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, released a written statement on December 30 in which he demanded posthumous trial of Bangabandhu for committing murder and establishing dictatorship by introducing Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League. l

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TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015

DANDY DYEING LOAN CASE

Koko’s wife, daughters to be served summons n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu A Dhaka court yesterday ordered its staff to serve summon to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and three members of her family asking them to respond by April 12 in the Dandy Dyeing Ltd loan default case.

The three are Khaleda’s son late Arafat Rahman Koko’s wife Sharmila Rahman Sithi and his daughters Zafia Rahman and Zahia Rahman, who are now in Malaysia.

After hearing a petition submitted by stateowned Sonali Bank, Judge Fatema Ferdous of the Money Loan Court 1 asked for the order to be served to addresses in Dhaka’s Gulshan.

But the court officials did not allow anyone to see what exactly was written in the order.

An employee of the court told the Dhaka Tribune that the order had asked Koko’s wife and daughters to respond either personally or through their counsels by April 12. On that day, the court will also hear on the case.

Sonali Bank’s lawyer Jahangir Hossain said the summon was meant for notifying the respondents that they were named as defendants in the case after Koko’s death.

On March 16, the same court granted a Sonali Bank prayer for including Khaleda, Sithi and the two girls as defendants.

The other defendants in the case are Dan-

dy Dyeing directors Tarique Rahman, Khaleda’s eldest son, Giasuddin Al Mamun, his wife Shahina Begum, Nasrin Iskander, wife of late Sayeed Iskander, his sons Shams Iskander and Shafin Iskander and daughter Sumaiya Iskander, Gazi Galib Abdus Sattar, Shamsun Nahar and Masud Hassan.

According to the case documents, on October 2, 2012, Nazrul Islam, senior executive officer of Sonali Bank Ltd, filed a money suit with the court as the defendants failed to repay the loan amounting to Tk45.59 crore.

Dandy Dyeing borrowed Tk12.16 crore from the bank’s principal office in Dhaka on October 16, 2001, the case statement said. l

DB arrests six for Sumi murder n Tribune Report Detectives have arrested six persons from the capital’s Motijheel Sunday night in the Shimu Akter Sumi murder case.

The arrestees are Saidul Islam, Hanif, Ratul Ahmed, Sujan, Nurunnabi Shaon and Suman.

“The arrestees were abusing substances at Rokeya Manjil, where Sumi’s sliced head was found. A knife, a machete, a ball wrapped in plastic-tape used to bind Sumi’s mouth, a log used for chopping meat, a bottle of kerosene, and blood stained apparels [a shirt and a pair of trousers] were also found on site,” said Joint Police Commissioner Monirul Islam at a press briefing at the DMP media centre on Monday morning.

“Saidul, Hanif, Ratul and Shaon have given statements before the court under section 164 and have been sent to jail. Sujan and Suman are in DB custody as they are yet to provide statements,” he added.

Before the arrests, police have been combing through Motijheel in search of suspects for some time, police also informed.

Jahangir Hossain Sohel alias Bangla Sohel was arrested on the same case earlier by RAB; while another suspect Mobarak Hossain Monti died in “crossfire” with RAB after being arrested.

On March 10, the decapitated, cleaved corpse of Sumi was found from a house in the capital’s Garam Pani Passage under Culvert road in Fakirapul. Her sliced free limbs and legs were found in different locations near the house while the head was found at Rokeya Manjil.

Sumi was the wife of Nasir, a drug-dealer.

RAB suspects that she was killed over a dispute related to drug peddling.

A case is filed with Motijheel police against unidentified persons. l

Bangladeshi cowherd killed by BSF n Our Correspondent, Chapainawabganj People from Madbarchar union of Madaripur who were affected by the Padma bridge project staged demonstrations near the capital’s National Press Club yesterday demanding rehabilitation and compensation for their lost land, houses and other properties SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Govt pay hike reviewers get more time n Tribune Report

The government has for the second time extended the tenure of a secretarial committee tasked with reviewing the recommendations of the 8th National Pay and Service Commission (NPSC).

According to a Cabinet Division circular issued yesterday, the committee’s tenure has been extended from March 15 to April 15. Earlier, its tenure was extended by one month on February 15.

Finance Ministry Senior Secretary Mahbub Ahmed, an influential member of the secretarial committee, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday: “We hope the review committee will submit its report by April 15.”

“It is the government’s decision when it will execute the NPSC recommendations,” he added.

The senior finance secretary said: “We have

the funds to execute the recommendations but it has not yet been decided over what period of time they will come into effect.”

Last year, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said the NPSC’s recommendations would be implemented from July 1.

Finance Ministry sources said implementing the proposals would cause expenditures to rise by 63.7%,requiring an additional Tk22,953 crore.

NPSC Chairman Mohammad Farashuddin earlier said financing the additional amount would not be a problem, if only 1% revenue growth could be ensured.

The six-member secretarial committee, led

by Cabinet Secretary Muhammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, was formed in January this year.

The five other members of the committee are the finance secretary, the secretary to the

prime minister, the public administration secretary, the defence secretary, and the housing and public works secretary.

The NPSC submitted its proposals to the finance minister on December 21 last year, recommending the doubling of salaries at all pay grades, the allocation of plots for group housing and the introduction of bank loans with single-digit interest rates for public servants.

The highest salary of Tk1 lakh was recommended for the cabinet secretary and principal secretary to the prime minister. Currently their basic monthly pay is Tk45,000.

The government plans to implement the pay hikes from July this year.

The 8th National Pay and Services Commission was formed in November 2013.

There are currently over 832,000 government employees and around 500,000 pensioners in the country. l

A Bangladeshi cowherd was shot dead by the Indian border security force near the Wahedpur border in Shibganj of the Chapainawabganj district around 2:30 am yesterday.

The casualty was identified as Tariqul Islam, 35, son of late Yusuf Ali from nearby Jamaipara village in the Paanka Union.

“Around 1 am Monday morning, five to six Bangladeshi cowherds entered India by Wahedpur border pillar 16/4-S. At that time, patrol teams from Chandni Chawk 20 BSF jawans from Maldaha, West Bengal, India, fired rounds at the cowherds.

“Tariqul, wounded by the shots, died around 2:30 am, after accompanying cowherds had brought him back home,” said the commandant of BGB 9, Lieutenant Colonel Abu Zafar Sheikh Md Bazlul Haque, while describing the details of the incidents.

Company commanders from both BGB and BSF held a flag meeting at 10:30 am, yesterday morning, after BGB valiantly protested the killing in writing.

In the meeting, BSF agreed to remain vigilant so that the incident is not repeated and to bring and end to the killings in the border. BGB was strong in its protest against the incident.

Shibganj police was on the way to recover the dead body in order to conduct an autopsy when this report was being written. l

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Relief funds to be redirected for use in alternative energy sector n Asif Showkat Kallol The government will be redirecting the money allocated for rice and wheat under the Test Relief and Food for Work programmes, using it instead to set up solar panels and biogas plants.

Government sources said 193,000 tonnes or 51% of the total rice and wheat under the two programmes, amounting to Tk667.08 crore of a total Tk1,308 crore allocated for the 2014-15 fiscal year, would now be repurposed under the move.

The decision was made at an inter-ministerial meeting presided over by Finance Secretary Mahbub Ahmed at the

Finance Ministry auditorium a few weeks ago.

Seeking anonymity, a Finance Division official said: “We are trying to find out the possible impact of decision, which will be analysed with help of the Ministries of Food and Disaster Management.

“The Ministry of Disaster Management will also prepare the policy of handing out money to the traders of solar panels and biogas plants” the official added.

The Prime Minister’s Office had earlier issued a directive on this regard a couple of months ago, he said.

Sources in Finance Division said some lawmakers who are involved in the alternative

energy business would get preference for the jobs of supplying solar panels as well as equipment for bio-gas plants.

According to the decision, the government will prepare a fresh guideline to collect rice and wheat under the TR and Food for Work programmes for the current fiscal year.

Food Minister Qamrul Islam, however, told the Dhaka Tribune that it was not compulsory to use the 50% allocation of rice and wheat for the solar panel and biogas projects.

Once the move is implemented, the Food Ministry would supply funds according to the demand of the businessmen involved in the solar panel and biogas projects, he added. l

RAB arrests fake journo n Tribune Report RAB 2 arrested a fake journalist from the capital’s Farmgate area yesterday morning. The detained Mohammad Mahmud, 27, was conning people with offers of media jobs in exchange for money.

RAB-2 Commanding Officer Lt Col SM Masud Rana said Mahmud targeted young people interested to work in electronic and print media houses through advertisements in news dailies.

CO Masud said: “If anyone contacted Mahmud, he introduced himself as a high official in the media industry and charged them Tk20,000-50,000, to be sent through Bkash, with the promise of desired jobs.”

RAB arrested him after they received a complaint against one of his advertisements that appeared on March 7 issue of the daily Bangladesh Protidin. l

Hasan Mahmud: BNP-Jamaat activities part of global terrorism n Tribune Report

Mario Hardy, chief executive officer of PATA was welcomed at Dhaka Regency Hotel & Resort by Shahid Hamid FIH, chairman of PATA Bangladesh Chapter yesterday COURTESY

Nasir: I will turn Chittagong into a city of dreams n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong AJM Nasir Uddin, the Awami League-nominated mayoral candidate for the upcoming Chittagong City Corporation polls, said he would turn the port city into a megacity and a city of dreams if he won the election.

Speaking at a discussion with journalists at the Institute of Engineers Bangladesh, Chittagong yesterday, the Awami League leader aslo talked about his plans to make Chittagong a people-friendly and modern, commercial city. The discussion was attended by other local senior Awami League leaders as well.

Citing the city’s waterlogging problem his top priority, Nasir said he would dig all canals properly and renovate the city’s drainage system in order to solve the crisis.

He also vowed to make Chittagong a clean, healthy and drugs-free city, adding that task force would be formed in all the wards in the city to ensure that people had access to all kinds of civic facilities.

“If people choose me as their mayor, I will work to remove traffic congestion by expanding the city roads and ensuring proper traffic management. I will especially look over the underdeveloped areas such as Bakalia, Halishahar,

Mohora, Patenga and many others,” he said.

Being the vice-president at Bangladesh Cricket Board and general secretary of Chittagong District Sports Association, Nasir said if he was elected city mayor, he would build playground in every ward and set up more sports institutions.

He also pledged to bring the entire city under WiFi network to facilitate use of internet among the city-dwellers.

Praising former Chittagong city mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, who is the president of Awami League’s Chittagong city unit, Nasir said: “Mohiuddin Bhai is the most experienced politician in the city, who is helping me run for mayor with his advice.”

Seeking the blessings of the city people, he said: “The Chittagong Awami League is united and in a better position than ever; we will definitely win this election.”

Mohiudding said: “Nasir was elected for this election by our party leader herself for his competence. We will work together for his victory.”

Nasir nominated as the mayoral candidate of Awami League for Chittagong city polls at a party meeting headed by Awami League President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Ganabhaban on Friday night. l

Publicity and Publication Affairs Secretary of Awami League Hassan Mahmud yesterday said the ongoing strike-blockade programme of BNP-Jamaat is a part of international terrorism.

“Khaleda Zia should be arrested for unleashing violence, hurling bombs in the name of [political] movement. It is the demand of the people to arrest her and save the country from terrorism and militancy,” said Hassan Mahmud at a discussion at the National Press Club auditorium.

The event was organised by Bangladesh Awami Hawkers’ League protesting the country-wide blockade and hartals called by the BNP led 20-party alliance. President of the hawkers’ league SM Zakaria Hanif presided over the discussion.

The former minister also said: “Strikes and blockades are the highest form of political movement but BNP-Jamaat has reduced the integrity of these forms of protest. All government and non-government offices, business establishments, banks are functioning normally and employee attendance everywhere is normal.” l

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Suranjit: City polls an opportunity for BNP n Our Correspondent, Sylhet Contesting in the Dhaka and Chittagong city corporation elections will pave the way back to democratic politics for the BNP, said Awami League leader Suranjit Sengupta.

“It is a great opportunity for the BNP, and I hope the democratic and peaceful leaders of the party will be even able to score a win,” the veteran politician said yesterday at a press briefing on the occasion of 100th anniversary of Dirai High School in Sunamganj.

He said: “In the past two-and-a-half months of Khaleda Zia’s political movement, 163 people have been burnt to death and 600 people have been maimed. Democracy cannot be established with petrol bomb and crude bomb attacks. Terrorism and militancy can never and will never co-exist with democracy.”

He also said there were a number of BNP leaders who were against the current direction of the movement by the 20-party alliance.

“I think there are some BNP politicians who want to participate in the city polls. They have seen the error in their ways of violent politics.”

Speaking about the troubling schedule of SSC examination due to hartals and blocakade, he said: “They [the 20-party alliance] did not even spare the SCC examinees. They are actively ruining students’ lives with their violent political programmes. But I hope they would consider exempting the HSC exams from their programmes.” l

Conflicts thwart city traffic development plans n Shohel Mamun A number of development plans taken by government agencies for creating a smooth traffic system in the capital have conflicted with each other, making it difficult to implement those.

To remove the conflicts, the agencies have been directed to hold meetings.

Building flyovers and bus rapid transits are among the development plans.

The order to hold meetings came up at the board meeting of Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA) held at its headquarters in Dhaka on Sunday.

Meeting sources said Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, also the DTCA chairman, ordered the agencies to hold meet-

ings for resolving the problems within 15 days.

It was also said that the government would arrange an inter-ministerial meeting to resolve the issues if the agencies failed to devise a solution.

The government has a 20-year strategic transport plan (STP) for greater Dhaka, which was approved back in 2005, but some of the agencies made plans without following it.

Besides, the STP is undergoing revision, leading to the conflicts among the plans.

For example, Rajuk plans to construct a flyover from Golapshah Mazar in Gulistan to Keraniganj via Babu Bazar. But this conflicts with the DTCA’s bus rapid transit project to connect Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport and Sadarghat via Babu Bazar.

100,000 yaba seized in the capital n Tribune report Detectives on Sunday night detained two drug dealers and seized more than 100,000 pieces of yaba from their possession in the capital’s Demra area.

The detained were Md Ayub and Md Hossain. Detective Branch of Police Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam told reporters at a press briefing yesterday afternoon.

Monirul said the two were held during a DB drive at Amulia road near staff quarters under Demra police station.

“They were involved in drug business and used to bring yaba from Myanmar and smuggle it to India through the Chapanawabganj border,” he said.

Legal measures against is already being taken, he added. l

WEATHER

DRY WEATHER LIKELY TUESDAY, MARCH 24 DHAKA TODAY SUN SETS 6:11PM

TOMORROW SUN RISES 5:58AM

FORECAST FOR TODAY 35 32 36 34 36 34 35 31

Dhaka Chittagong Rajshahi Rangpur Khulna Barisal Sylhet Cox’s Bazar

24 23 20 22 20 22 20 23

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW

36.8ºC Rangamati

15.8ºC Srimangal Source: Accuweather/UNB

A water supplier fills up earthen water pitchers from the only deep tube well operative in Sonadanga area of Khulna city yesterday. The pitchers will then be supplied to various households. With the advent of the summer, Khulna city is facing acute crisis of drinking water as the groundwater level has gone down significantly DHAKA TRIBUNE

Agitation ends as SBMC agrees to nurses’ demands n Our Correspondent, Barisal

PRAYER TIMES Fajr

4:43am

Sunrise

5:58am

Zohr

12:05am

Asr

4:29pm

Magrib

6:11pm

Esha

7:27pm SourceL IslamicFinder.org

Besides, Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) has the plan to build a flyover from Amini Bazar to Azimpur on Mirpur road, which clashes with the metro rail line 5 project to be implemented on Mirpur road.

DNCC Additional Chief Engineer Syed Qudrat Ullah, who was present at the DTCA meeting, told the Dhaka tribune that most of the projects that conflicted with each other were taken by Rajuk, Dhaka North City Corporation, Dhaka South City Corporation and Local Government Engineering Department.

Contacted, DTCA Executive Director Kaykobad Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune that effective steps would be taken for resolving the conflicts within the deadline set by the road transport and bridges minister. l

An eight day long agitation programme from nurses has come to an end since yesterday morning after Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College authorities agreed to stop accommodating medical college student on the Barisal Nursing College premises.

The assurances came after SBMC academic council held a meeting with the figureheads of the agitation programme on Sunday night and informed them about the alternative accommodations arranged for the medical college students.

“On the basis of the assurances from the SBMC authourity, we declared to postpone our eight-day long agitation programme, and

released BNC principal withdrawing the sixday-long lockout of her office,” said Mohiuddin, spokesperson of nursing students.

Apart from him, the president and the secretary of Bangladesh Diploma Nurses Association, and the vice president of the Association for Registered Nurses Ismat Ara Parvin, Anisur Rahman, and Kawsar Mahmud were present in the meeting, Mohiuddin informed.

SBMC will now accommodate the students in the college doctors and officers’ quarters, quarters for the interns, and other girls’ hostels.

SBMC Principal Dr Bhaskar Saha and BNC principal Aleya Begum confirmed the details to the Dhaka Tribune. l

RMG workers block road for due salary n CU Correspondent Workers of a readymade garment factory blocked a busy Port Connecting road at the Nimtala area in Chittagong city yesterday morning demanding payment of their salaries outstanding for two months.

Witnesses said 100 workers of Alif Apparels took to the street around 11am, halting traffic movement on the road in front of the factory.

Md Arif Hossain, a machine operator of the garment, said the owner Jan-E-Alam Munna had closed down the factory after completing a consignment without paying the January and February salaries of 120 workers. The workers had taken the issue to the police on Sunday evening but they could not resolve the matter; the workers then blockaded the road.

Bandar Police Station Sub-Inspector Osman Gani said police rushed to the spot after receiving information and assuaged the agitating RMG workers without incident.

Traffic movement resumed in the area around 11:30am, said the SI and added that police tried to communicate with the owner but found his phone switched off. l

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Illegal and unplanned housing projects litter Khulna, authorities nonchalant n Our Correspondent, Khulna

Private housing projects, which have no approval from the Khulna Development Authority (KDA), have taken over the Khulna metropolitan and its adjacent areas.

About 50 companies have put up signboards in various areas under the KDA master plan and have been attracting buyers to buy their plots.

Experts opined that such unplanned development could cause serious harm to the environment if not checked right now.

Professor Dilip Dutta of Environmental Science Department of Khulna University said: “The projects developed on low-lying lands without proper survey and method not only pose risks for the residents but also to the environment. Filling up waterbodies can also cause long-term waterlogging.”

According to the KDA officials, the master plan for the development of Khulna city includes the city corporation area and stretches to Nowapara municipality to the north, Katakhali of Fakirhat upazila to the south, Rupsha upazila to the east and Keya bazar area of Dumuria upazila to the west. Any development within this area must take approval from KDA. However, many companies have already bought up land in those areas and started selling plots under various housing schemes.

Some of the projects are Hanif Mohammad Housing project, Khanjahan Nagar Housing project, Arafat Housing, Madaninagar, Rajdip, National, Mohanagar, Arpita, Madani Society, Ashiknagar, South Bangla, Shanta Neer Holding Real Estate and Jubok Housing Real Estate etc.

These projects are offering plots of various sizes with promise of good infrastructure, utilities and security. However, a recent visit to some of these projects found complete disregard to regulations and promises.

Assistant Town Planner of KDA Md Tanvir Ahmed said according to the real estate de-

Traders protest mobile court drive n Our correspondent, Munshiganj Store owners at Munshiganj town market kept their shops closed for two hours yesterday protesting a mobile court drive against the use of polythene bags.

They demonstrated outside the deputy commissioner’s office around 1pm and also submitted a memorandum.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (revenue) Quddus Ali Sarker talked to the protesters on behalf of the deputy commissioner, Md Saiful Hasan Badal, to calm them. They then opened their shops two hours later.

Earlier in the day, a mobile court led by Executive Magistrate Fatema Johra fined three rice traders of the market Tk3,500 for using polythene bags.

Town Traders’ Association President, Arifur Rahman Arif, said mobile courts fine traders for using polythene bags but do not take any action. l

Progoti Abashon, one of the 50 unapproved housing projects in Khulna city, displays a signboard attracting plot buyers in Nijkhamar area under Batiaghata upazila DHAKA TRIBUNE velopment and management act of 2010, any housing project would require registration of the project owner and consultants. Trade license, tax identification number and value added tax registration numbers are also required for approval.

Moreover, each project should have minimum 10 acres of land with 40-60 feet-wide main roads and 25 feet-wide inner roads. The residential projects should also have school, college, playing field, community centre, markets, police station and other civic facilities.

But projects such as Kader Housing at Khulna’s zero point, Mohanagar project at Batiaghata and Madaninagar project had only 5-6 acres of land for their projects. The roads and infrastructure were also not up to the requirement.

Hanif Uddin, owner of Hanif Mohammad Housing project, said many projects started

off with small area of land but would expand gradually. He, however, admitted that no project in the area had permission from KDA. Arafat Housing project’s owner Arifur Rahman claimed that his project fulfilled all the KDA requirement. “When I took up the project, there was no master plan of KDA. So there was no need for approval. But as per the new law, the project would be registered very soon.”

Despite having no registration and approval, many of these projects have been drawing a good number of customers.

Erin Sultana of Khulna metropolitan bought two plots at Shopnopuri Housing project. She already built a two-storey house on one of the plots.

When asked about buying plots from unapproved companies, Erin said she did not know whether the project had government approval. “I have my building plan approved

Tangail sweet makers face bitter experience n Mohammed Afzal Hossain, Tangail

Sweet makers in Tangail are facing bitter experiences to run their business and maintaining families due to hartal and blockade.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune many sweet makers at Porabari said they have forced to cut drastically their daily production as they cannot supply their products to the buyers across the country.

Despite the cut in production volume, they are incurring losses as they have pay salaries to their employees and spend money behind operation costs.

Many small sweet traders, however, have been forced to stop their production, leaving many employees jobless, who are facing difficulties to maintain their families.

Krishna Dash, owner of Gopal Mistanna Bhander at Pach Ani Bazaar in Tangail town,

said: “We have reduced the volume of daily production to one-fourth of our capacity. We are now only trying to keep continue our business.”

Shapan Ghosh, president of Tangail District Restora Mistanno Malik Somity, said the Porabari Cham Cham are sold at more than 300 shops in the district.

“Sells of our sweet usually increase during the winter season. But this year, we could not sell as expected due to the political unrest,” he said.

“Normally, we produce sweet from 20 to 25 mound of milk a day. But now it has gone down to only four to five mound a day,” he added.

If the situation continues, it will be difficult to continue the business, said Shapan Ghosh, who is also an owner of Joykali Mistanno Bhander.

There is a good demand of the traditional sweet in the country’s different parts, including Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet. But buyers from the cities cannot come. l

from KDA. If the project was illegal, why did they approve my five-storey building plan then?” she said.

Sarwar Khan, another plot owner at Arafat Housing project, said the project was the oldest one in the area. “My father bought the plot 20 years ago. I had to go through legal hurdles to get it in my name.”

He further added that many plot owners were forced to spare a portion of their land for the roads of the project. Also many projects did not even have electricity connection let alone other facilities.

Sheikh Ashrafuzzaman, president of Greater Khulna Development Shongram Shomonnoy Committee, said the fault was not only with the corrupt project owners. “A group of unscrupulous KDA officials were also involved. Otherwise, it would not be possible for these projects to do open marketing and sell plots.”

He reiterated that all projects should follow the law and urged the KDA authority to look into the matter and take measures against the corrupt officials.

KDA engineer, Kazi Md Sabirul Islam, confirmed that no projects within the radius of the master plan had permission. “Some companies have applied for approval. We may consider their application if the projects meet the requirement.”

He added that KDA was pledge-bound to make Khulna a planned city and had taken extensive plans to promote the master plan and the laws regarding private housing development.

Chief Engineer of KDA, ATM Wahid Azhar, said they would soon launch a campaign to make people aware about buying plots from unapproved companies.

“People would face legal complications to build structure on illegal plots. So we will publish notices in the newspapers and take other measures to create public awareness.

We will also take proper action against the illegal projects,” he added. l

BSF picks up youth near Thakurgaon border n Our Correspondent, Thakurgaon Indian Border Security Force (BSF) detained a Bangladeshi young man on charge of alleged drug smuggling near Beurjhari border in Baliadangi upazila on Sunday night.

The victim is Ejabuddin, 28, son of later Yunus Ali, from Moradhar village in the upazila.

Sources said a BSF patrol team from Barobillah camp caught Ejabuddin from the Indian territory, 300-yard away from the border pillar, around 10:30pm.

When contacted, 30 Bangladesh Border Guard (BGB) Commander Lieutenant Colonel Tuser Bin Yusuf confirmed the detention, saying they, being informed, sent a letter to the BSF camp seeking the return of Ejabuddin and wanted a flag meeting.

Later, a company-commander level meeting between BGB and BSF was held on the Beurjhari-Barobillah border around 11am. l

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Ancestral home of Nihar Ranjan Gupta in tattered condition n Our Correspondent, Narail The ancestral home of popular novelist and screenwriter Dr Nihar Ranjan Gupta situated at Itna village of Lohagora upazila of Narail is on the verge of extinction.

The two-storey house on a two acre land near the historical Itna High School was built during early 1900s. But due to lack of maintenance and destruction by various land grabbers, the house is falling apart taking down the history and legacy of the Gupta family along with it.

A recent visit to the house found that the building, which stands as a remnant of the glorious past, is now filled with filth of animals that take shelter there. It is very hard to even stand there for few minutes because of the stench.

Moreover, the site is also a safe haven for drug addicts and other social outcasts. A group of corrupt people have also been trying to claim the house by forging documents.

The temple adjacent to the house is facing the same fate due to non-maintenance.

Neighbour of Nihar Ranjan and painter SM Ali Azgar Raja told this correspondent that the building housed the Itna Government Primary School till 1990.

But after the school was transferred to its permanent location, the building was left to decay.

When some unscrupulous people tried to take over the house, prominent artist SM Sultan, who also hails from Narail, intervened and saved it.

With the support of the then Narail deputy commissioner and SM Sultan, the house was given to Ail Azgar Raja and educationist Narayan Chandra to run an art school for children.

On November 24, 1993, SM Sultan inaugurated the art school named Shishu Shorgo-2.

But after a few years of operation, the school was closed down and the house once again became empty.

Dilapidated structure of the ancestral home of Dr Nihar Ranjan Gupta still stands as a remnant of the glorious past. If properly renovated and preserved, the house can be a top tourist destination in Narail.

The photo was taken recently DHAKA TRIBUNE Former principal of Itna High School educationist Haridas Bannerjee said: “The house of Nihar Ranjan Gupta can be a tourist attraction of Narail if the archeology department can renovate it. Moreover, this will also be a highlight of our heritage.”

Itna UP Chairman Sihanuk Rahman said they were trying their best to preserve the house.

“However, restoring the house needs money which only the government can manage. We have formally written to the archeology department. We got nothing but promises from them.”

Abdul Gaffar Khan, deputy commissioner of Narail, said it was important to preserve the house. “We have also approached the

authorities and hopefully something will be done soon.”

Nihar Ranjan Gupta was born in 1911 in Kolkata as his father was posted there then. After completing his I.Sc. from Krishnanagar College, he took admission at Carmichael Medical College to study medicine.

But he gave up practicing medicine at the peak of his career as a doctor to be a writer.

In his literary career he has composed over two hundred novels, plays, short stories and essays. The most popular among them are Ulka, Badshah, Lalubhulu, Uttarphalguni, Asti Bhagirathi Tire, Mayur Mahal, Devyani, Neeltara, Mayamriga, Komalgandhar and Nishipadma. l

Man to die for killing wife in Sirajganj n Our Correspondent, Sirajganj A court in the district yesterday sentenced a man to death for killing his wife in 2008.

The convict was identified as Abdus Salam, 33, son of Shukur Ali of Dohokhola village in Ullapara upazila.

According to the prosecution, Salam strangled his wife Fatema Khatun, 25, to death following a family feud on 27 November, 2008.

Later, he set fire to the body by pouring kerosene and said that she had committed suicide.

Golzar Hossain, maternal uncle of Fatema, filed a murder case accusing nine people.

Police submitted charge sheet against them in 2011.

After examining the records and witnesses, Women and Child Repression Prevention Tribunal Judge Masudur Rahman handed down the verdict acquitting eight other accused as allegations brought against them could not be proved. l

Suspected robber beaten to death n Our Correspondent, Munshiganj A suspected robber was killed by a mass beating at Purarbagh village under Srinagar upazila of the district early yesterday.

The deceased was identified as Farid Mollah, 38, son of Rostom Ali of Ranipur village under Dohar upazila.

Shrinagar police station Officer-in-Charge Mujibur Rahman said a gang of robbers numbering 20-25 stormed into the house of Azim of the village and looted gold ornaments and other valuables at the gun point around2am.

Hearing the screams of the house inmates, locals rushed to the spot and caught one of the robbers red-handed and beat up him, leaving dead on the spot.

Police recovered the body and sent it to Munshiganj General Hospital morgue for autopsy. l

NEWS IN BRIEF Houses, shops gutted At least 25 houses and five shops were gutted as a fire broke out in Harinahati area of Kaliakoir upazila early yesterday. Fire service sources said the fire broke out in a house of local Shah Alam in the area around 2am and engulfed the adjoined establishment which burned down 25 houses and five shops. On information, two fire fighting units from Gazipur Fire Station rushed to the spot and doused the blaze after one and half hours of frantic effort. The reason behind the fire could not be ascertained immediately.

– Our Correspondent, Gazipur

11 shops fined A mobile court fined Tk70,000 to 11 business establishments for selling date expired medicines and food in unhygienic conditions in the town yesterday. The court, led by executive magistrate and UNO Mohammad Azizur Rahman, conducted the drives in 11 shops, 5 medicine stores and 6 hotels in the town for selling date expired medicines and making and selling foods to the customers in unhy-

gienic conditions. The fines were realized from the owners of the shops under the ‘Consumers Rights Act,’ the court sources said. The court also warned the businessmen to abide by the law in future.

– Our Correspondent, Lakshmipur

Juba League leader shot in encounter A leader of Awami League’s youth front Juba League was shot early yesterday in an encounter with police, who claimed he was about to commit a robbery in Sadar upazila. “The victim Kabir Hossain, is the general secretary of Juba League at Ward NO-3, in the upazila,” said Mizan Patwari, joint convener of the ruling party’s youth front. He claimed that the police stopped Kabir on his way to Chandraganj and took him to the Chandraganj police station. He was blindfolded and taken to an unknown place, where he was shot in the leg late and later admitted to Lakshmipur Sadar Hospital.

Chandraganj police station Officer-in-Charge Humayun Kabir said on a tip-off, a law enforcers team conducted a drive at Ratanerkhil around 3:30am when a gang of robbers were taking preparation to

commit robbery. Sensing the presence of the police they opened fire, forcing the police to retaliate.

– Our Correspondent, Lakshmipur

Cases against youth for killing parents Two cases were filed yesterday against a drug addict young man who allegedly killed his parents to death and injured six people, including two policemen, in the town on Sunday. The accused was identified as Monjurul Hasan Shanto, 35, son of Mizanur Rahman, 65, a former official of Panchagarh Sugar Mills Ltd, Sultana Begum, 50, of Puratan Camp area. Witnesses said Shanto hacked his parents to death at their house near the police station around 1pm as they refused their drug addict son money for buying some drugs. When local people and police men rushed to the spot after hearing the screams of the couple, Shanta also attacked them, leaving sub-inspector Arif, assistant sub-inspector Enamul and police van driver Mahbub’s wife Nasima Begum and three others injured. Later, additional policemen went to the spot and arrested Shanto. Of the injured, Nasima was taken to Rang-

pur Medical College Hospital while three others were admitted to the Sadar Hospital. Aktaruzzaman, another son of the deceased, filed a case with Sadar police station. Mohammad Babul Islam, SI Sadar police station, also filed a case against Shanto for obstructing police on duty. According to locals, Shanto, father of a three-month-old son, had long been suffering from mental disorder due to his drug addiction.

– Our Correspondent, Panchagarh

Cops assault on journo Mizanur protested Local journalists held a human chain in front of the district press club yesterday protesting the police assault on Md Mizanur Rahman, Patuakhali correspondent of the Bangla daily Prothom Alo. Around 9:30am, Jhalokati Press Club and the local Prothom Alo Bandhu Sova hosted the programme in protest of the misdeed. During the event, the leaders of the organisations demanded withdrawal of the cases filed implicating Mizanur as well as other journalists across the country.

– Our Correspondent, Jhalokati

DT

10 WORLD

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015

UN WARNS OF CIVIL WAR

Yemen militia sends forces south

Pro-Houthi police troopers use tear gas to disperse anti-Houthi protesters in Yemen’s southwestern city of Taiz yesterday

n AFP Yemen’s Shiite militia sent reinforcements south and clashed with local fighters yesterday after the United Nations warned the country is on the brink of a protracted civil war.

Security sources said the militiamen, known as Huthis, had sent several thousand troops south and fought with local Sunni tribes as they approached the main southern city of Aden, where President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi took refuge after fleeing the capital last month.

On Sunday the militia seized the airport and a nearby military base in Taez, Yemen’s third-largest city which is just 180 kilometres

Ebola outbreak ‘over by August’, UN suggests

n BBC

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa will be over

by August, the head of the UN Ebola mission has told the BBC. Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed admitted the UN had made mistakes in handling the crisis early on, sometimes acting “arrogantly.”

A year after the outbreak was officially declared, the virus has killed more than 10,000 people. The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres says a “global coalition of inaction” led to tragic consequences.

Looking back over the year, the charity suggests its early calls for help were ignored by local governments and the World Health Organisation.

Most deaths occurred in the worst-affected countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The head of the UN Ebola response mission told the BBC, when the virus first struck, “there was probably a lack of knowledge and there was a certain degree of arrogance, but I think we are learning lessons.

“We have been running away from giving any specific date, but I am pretty sure myself that it will be gone by the summer.”

The first person to succumb to the disease during this outbreak is thought to have been a toddler in a remote part of Guinea. He died in December 2013. l

(110 miles) north of Aden and seen as a strategic entry point to Hadi’s southern refuge.

Yemen, a long-time US ally which borders Saudi Arabia, is increasingly divided between a north controlled by the Huthis, who are allegedly backed by Iran, and a south dominated by Hadi supporters.

Mounting unrest in the country – including suicide bombings claimed by the Islamic State group that killed 142 people in the Huthi-controlled capital Sanaa on Friday – have raised international concerns and prompted an emergency session of the UN Security Council on Sunday.

Its 15 members voiced their unanimous support for Hadi, with UN envoy Jamal Benomar warning that without immediate

REUTERS

action the country will slide into “further violence and dislocation.” “(Recent events) seem to be leading Yemen to the edge of a civil war,” Benomar told the meeting by video link from Qatar, warning of a protracted crisis like “a Libya-Syria combined scenario.”

The Huthis seized Sanaa in September and have been expanding their territory, clashing with Hadi loyalists, local tribes and Sunni Islamist groups including Al-Qaeda.

The Huthis moved to expand their reach in the south after taking the airport in Taez, security sources said, and had pushed toward Aden but two convoys were forced to turn back after overnight clashes with tribesmen. l

ISRAEL FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS

World powers, Iran likely to agree bad nuke deal n Reuters Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz said yesterday it was probable that world powers and Iran would agree a “bad deal” over Iran’s nuclear program, but he would still lobby to toughen any accord before talks resume this week.

“We think it’s going to be a bad, insufficient deal,” Steinitz told Reuters in an interview before meeting French officials in Paris. “It seems quite probable it will happen unfortunately.”

France, the United States and four other world powers suspended talks with Iran in Switzerland on Friday and are to reconvene this week to try to break the deadlock over Tehran’s atomic research and the lifting of sanctions before a March 31 deadline for a framework deal.

Israel, which is believed to have the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal, is not a party to the negotiations but feels especially threatened by the possibility of a nuclear-armed Iran.

It has long described France as the negoti-

ating power with views closest to Israel’s and Steinitz is due to speak to France’s top negotiator and President Francois Hollande’s diplomatic adviser later in the day.

“Although we are against a deal in general, until it is completed we will point to specific loopholes and difficulties,” he said.

He said two fundamental issues that need to be toughened up were the number of centrifuges - machines that spin at supersonic speed to increase the concentration of the fissile isotope - and any potential capacity Iran is given to pursue research and development.

“In this (accord) you are getting a robust and complicated deal that enables Iran to preserve capabilities and allow it to remain a threshold nuclear state,” he said.

Iran says that its nuclear program is for peaceful needs only.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this month that the United States was negotiating a bad deal with Iran that could lead to a “nuclear nightmare” - drawing a rebuke from US President Barack Obama and exposing a deepening US-Israeli rift. l

In skeptical Berlin, Merkel to hear Greek PM’s reform plans in person

n Reuters Germany’s Angela Merkel does not expect talks yesterday with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to resolve his differences with the euro zone over Greece’s bailout but she does want to hear from him in person about his reform plans, an aide said.

The German chancellor and Greek leader have played down expectations that he would use his first official visit to Berlin to present a brand new list of reform proposals which he promised European Union leaders at a summit last week.

Tsipras’ talk of coming up with a new reform package within days to unlock the cash that Greece needs to avoid crashing out of the euro has met deep-seated scepticism in Germany, the currency zone’s largest economy.

Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said the meeting, which was scheduled for 5 p.m. local time (1600 GMT) followed by a joint news conference and then dinner, could not replace Greece’s talks with all of its euro zone partners. l

Kremlin urges France, Germany to push Ukraine more on peace deal

n Reuters Russia accused Kiev yesterday of violating parts of the Minsk peace deal for east Ukraine and urged Germany and France, which helped negotiate it, to do more to ensure Kiev sticks to the agreements that were reached.

“The countries acting as guarantors of the Minsk agreements ... Russia, Germany, France .. should carry out their share of responsibility for ensuring the provisions are fulfilled,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“To ignore that one side is not delivering on the agreements is not conducive to normalising the situation.” l

US not speaking at UN rights debate on Israel, Palestinians

n Reuters The United States will not take the floor at the main UN human rights forum yesterday during the annual debate on violations committed in the Palestinian territories, as part of a previous agreement not to speak.

The European Union, however, reiterated “the urgency of renewed, structured and substantial efforts towards peace.”

“The US delegation will not be speaking about Palestine today,” a US spokesman in Geneva told Reuters in response to a query as the debate began.

The last time that Washington spoke under that stand-alone agenda item was in March 2013, UN records show.

The decision not to talk since then was part of an agreement in October 2013 when Israel resumed participation in the UN Human Rights Council. In Israel, the Foreign Ministry said that the annual debate “negatively singles out Israel and Israel every year asks its friends on the council not to express themselves.” l

DT

WORLD 11

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015

Monitor: Islamic State India police: Hindu group attacks cathedral moves west to attack n Agencies Indian police said yesterday they have arrested six people after Hindu fundamentalists were shown vandalising a cathedral in central India, the latest attack on Christian establishments in the Hindu-majority country.

CCTV footage showed a group of men smashing plant pots, breaking down doors and shattering windows in the grounds of the cathedral in Madhya Pradesh state late Friday.

The right-wing Hindu Dharma Sena group had accused the church of converting around 200 people from local tribal groups to Christianity, although it denies causing any damage to church property.

“We arrested six men last night in connection with the vandalism. We are trying to identify more people... there may be more arrests,” HC Mishra, a senior state police official, told AFP by telephone.

Religious conversions are highly controversial in India, a secular country where religious freedom is considered a fundamental right.

Critics say Hindu hardline groups have be-

come emboldened since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won power in India last year.

The latest attack comes at a time of heightened sensitivity over religious freedom in India, where churches and a Christian school have been attacked in recent months.

Masked men on Saturday attacked a church in Mumbai, capital of western Maharashtra state, which like Madhya Pradesh is ruled by the BJP. Earlier this month, an elderly nun was raped at a convent school in the eastern state of West Bengal, triggering protests across the country.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month pledged to crack down on religious violence and ensure freedom of worship for all faiths.

He had been criticised for not speaking out earlier.

India is 80 per cent Hindu while Muslims make up 13.4 per cent of the 1.2 billion population. Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs and other religions account for the rest. l

Founding father of modern Singapore dies at 91

Singaporeans pray in front of an image of late former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew alongside messages and flowers left at the Tanjong Pagar community center in Singapore yesterday AFP

n Reuters Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first prime minister, died yesterday, aged 91, triggering a flood of tributes to the man who oversaw the tiny city-state’s rapid rise from a British colonial backwater to a global trade and financial center.

US President Barack Obama described Lee, who ruled Singapore for three decades, as “a true giant of history” whose advice on governance and economic development had been sought by other world leaders down the years.

In his lifetime, Lee drew praise for his market-friendly policies, but also criti-

cism at home and abroad for his strict controls over the press, public protest and political opponents.

Lee had receded from public and political life over the past few years, but was still seen as an influential figure in the government of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, his eldest son.

“The first of our founding fathers is no more. He inspired us, gave us courage, and brought us here,” a choked Prime Minister Lee said in a live television address. “To many Singaporeans, and indeed others too, Lee Kuan Yew was Singapore.”

The government declared a period of national mourning until his funeral on Sunday. l

Syrian army in Homs n Reuters Islamic State fighters attacked a military airport in Syria’s Homs province yesterday as they pushed on with an offensive against government strongholds towards the west, a monitoring group said.

Skirmishes by Islamic State – which is strongest in the northeast and east – into the provinces of Homs, Hama and even Damascus pose a fresh challenge for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Syria’s army has carved a bulwark of territory from Damascus through the cities of Homs and Hama to the western coast by defeating other, less powerful militias including rebels fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the violence through a network of sources in the country, said Islamic State attacked a military airport in Tadmur, a town

in Homs province, early yesterday.

Syrian officials could not immediately be reached for comment, and the fighting was not reported on state media.

The offensive followed a three-day battle that erupted on Friday further west in Hama around Sheikh Hilal village, the Observatory said. Islamic State was trying to cut the road from Hama to Aleppo, once Syria’s most populous city, it added.

Observatory head Rami Abdulrahman, said 74 soldiers in Hama had been killed by Islamic State, which he speculated launched both attacks to raise morale after losses to Kurdish forces in the northeast.

Around 200,000 people have been killed since 2011 in Syria’s civil war, which pits Assad against a range of rebels including jihadist groups such as Islamic State and al Qaeda’s Nusra Front. A U.S-led coalition is bombarding Islamic State in both Syria and Iraq. l

DT

12 EDITORIAL

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015

A success to be celebrated

B

angladeshi pharmaceutical company Incepta is currently undertaking trials to allow it to market its anti-Hepatitis C drug overseas.

Its prospects are good as it has already proved it can profitably market a generic version of this medicine, at 1% of the $1,000-a-pill price for which it sells in the US. The trials provide further evidence of the high degree of innovation and quality found in the Bangladeshi pharmaceutical sector. Not only is it efficient at producing low-cost medicines, but a growing number of companies are investing in new plants and technology to produce newer drugs.

Some 97% of the national demand is met by locally owned companies.

If the TRIPS waiver for LDC countries to produce patented drugs is not extended when it becomes due to expire in December, the need for the sector to keep improving competitiveness and grow exports will become much more important.

It is encouraging that the sector’s competitive prices and high quality are already helping it sell medicines to 79 different countries, including Brazil, Kenya, and the UK. There are good grounds to hope the sector will continue to create new jobs and generate vital foreign revenues.

Bangladesh’s pharmaceutical sector is a national success story which deserves to be heralded in a wider manner. Entrepreneurs and the government have built it into an industry that is in a position to reach beyond self sufficiency and grow globally.

It is an important example of the innovation and quality which can be made in Bangladesh.

Be heard

Writeto toDhaka DhakaTribune Tribune Write Tower,8/C 8/CPanthapath, Panthapath, Sukrabad, Shukrabad,Dhaka-1207 Dhaka-1207 FRFRTower, Email letters.dt@dhakatribune.com Email letters.dt@dhakatribune.com Sendususyour yourOp-Ed Op-Edarticles: articles: Send opinion.dt@dhakatribune.com opinion.dt@dhakatribune.com www.dhakatribune.com www.dhakatribune.com Join our Facebook community: Join our Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/DhakaTribune

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Stop writing

Pharmaceuticals show the innovation and quality which can be made in Bangladesh

March 1

rose Should people really get frightened and stop writing?

Adnan rose: No. The piece is ironic ... not literal.

Adnan Beautiful, haunting prose. Kudos.

Arun Nonsense. People who sacrifice freedom for a little security deserve neither.

sushil Heart-breaking.

sneep Arun: Please adjust for irony.

sujaul khan Thanks for voicing the incorrigible, inconvenient truth. Please, eat, drink, be merry, and keep big brother healthy and smiling! It ain’t hard to do! Stopping reading is also a good idea too, in order to stay safe and become harmless.

faiza Arun: Did you hear a big ass whoosh when this article went over your head?.

Tom Clancy’s Sunglasses Arun: Picture an imaginary “/s” tag at the very end of the article.

DT

Catch the land office arsonists

I

t is imperative that law enforcers take all practical steps to apprehend the people responisble for the multiple arson attacks at land ministry offices on Sunday.

Deputy commissioners from 14 districts reported over 18 different arson attacks on land offices at upazillas across the country.

This deliberate targeting of land offices comes just days after the Land Ministry asked the Home Ministry to order extra security for its many hundreds of unprotected offices.

While police have blamed pickets involved in the the BNP alliance-led blockade for the attacks, a full investigation is still needed to idenify those responsible.

Land Ministry officials have pointed out that non-political criminals could also have a motive for undertaking these types of attack. Corrupt officials, forgers, or land grabbers could all have taken advantSage of the poltical turmoil to target land offices to try and burn land records.

The high number of outstanding land disputes across the country already causes tremendous misery for citizens due to poor recordkeeping practices and would be complicated even further by the destruction of records.

Allowing land offices to fall prey to arsonists would set the country back hugely by disrupting ongoing plans to build new land offices and digitise the national land record management system.

It is a matter of the utmost priority to catch the culprits responsible and to enhance security for land ministry offices to deter future incidents.

Enhance security to deter more incidents

PM’s reply to Ban Ki-moon unlikely to mention dialogue March 5

Abu Syeed Yes! Not only dialogue ... UN should monitor and take responsibility for the election!

SM Masum No need.

Babul Sarwar What Bangladesh really needs is to overhaul the constitution. That will ensure rule of law for the elected government. The existing constitution is intentionally and ignorantly tailored to empower the PM, thus making it in line with undemocratic, anti-liberation spirit. The sooner it is done, the better it will be for the nation!

Padma nodir majhi Awami League was a party led by the freedom fighters, that same party is now dragging the country into destruction. The party seems prone to employing village politics over national and regional politics.

‘Faridpur, Mymensingh, Comilla to be made divisions’ March 4 Golam Ahmed Khan This is good for Faridpur.

Filling up of pond continues in B’baria defying DoE order February 27

hanafunwatcher Good to know ‘brahman! Thanks!

Excitement gets the better of Tigers February 27 Pranta Dutta I would like to say the same thing that Captain Mashrafe said: Because of the fielding, Bangladesh has lost the match against Sri Lanka.

That was the worst fielding I have ever seen from Bangladesh. Anamul is used to playing wicket keeper so he should know the technique of catching better than anyone else in Bangladesh. But what he did? He missed it, if he had gotten the catch I think it would have helped Bangladesh a lot, because Sri Lanka would have been under pressure because they lose their opener early.

Modi: My govt’s only religion is ‘India first,’ holy book the constitution February 28

Magnum092 Right, then why does his party members plan on converting the whole of India into Hindus?

DT

OPINION 13

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015

Are we really pluralistic? n Shoaib Alam

P

leas for pluralism are not new in our country -- one recently appeared in the DT -- but these are often girded with references to the pre-colonial past. History certainly has its place, but using the past alone as justification for pluralism ignores the complex Bangladesh of the present.

Bangladesh has to be diverse. As one of the largest countries in the world (eighth largest by population), there are more Bangladeshis roaming the planet than, say, there are Russians. It should not be surprising, then, that this humongous populace is diverse in ideology, interests, and ambitions.

People in such large numbers are bound to be heterogenous.

On the whole, however, diverse is not a word we use to describe Bangladesh, and many Bangladeshis tend to view the country through the narrow lens of their personal experiences. To some extent, it may be the fault of popular culture, which eschews complexity in favour of uniformity.

Our political establishment doesn’t help either, by painting the country in two broad strokes. Increasingly on the Internet, as well as in real life, Bangladesh is not presented as what it is but as either the liberal Dhaka University campus or the orthodox madrasa classroom.

Still, in a crowd of Bangladeshis, each can look like they belong to a different part of the world -- our gene pool, after all, is mixed. Today, our government identifies three genders instead of two.

We speak a dozen languages and belong to several ethnicities. Bangladeshis are among the world’s poorest; a handful are among the

wealthiest. Some live in cities, many in the countryside. Bangladeshis uphold traditions that are hundreds of years in the making, many choose to break those and move on.

We live all over the globe -- not just the motherland -- bringing with us the culture and ideologies of disparate civilisations when we return home. All this is to say that there is not one unique Bangladeshi experience that binds us all, and we are all the better for it.

When we ignore this diversity, we do so to our own detriment. Take the issue of language. Besides Bangla, there are at least a dozen other indigenous languages that belong to the people of Bangladesh.

There is not one unique Bangladeshi experience that binds us all, and we are all the better for it

Step outside the major urban areas today and the hegemonic power of Bangla and the elitism of English are easily felt, slowly eroding indigenous languages and, along with them, the natural identities of many citizens of this country. Lack of national consciousness about this issue and many others like it undermine all efforts at an inclusive society.

As many have pointed out, the problem

Are we ready to hear all voices? lies in imposing the construct of a nation on what has historically been a diverse landscape. Like every nation, we yearn to define what is and what is not Bangladeshi, to find the real Bangladesh.

In search for authenticity, and perhaps in reaction to a neighbour that strives for diversity, we have largely stayed away from a broad and tolerant definition of what it means to be Bangladeshi.

Factions seek to weed out competition and defend against imagined enemies along the lines of culture and religion. The murder of Avijit Roy comes to mind but so should the intolerant argument of Lipika Pelhman in the New York Times. This is a mistake.

There is of course no “real” Bangladesh

BIGSTOCK

-- it does not exist. We live in a complicated country and our present is as complex as our past. Nationhood has changed many things but there should be no doubt that upscale shopping malls and rickshaws are just as Bangladeshi as Hajj camps, which are as Bangladeshi as Jatiyo Sangsad Bhaban, English medium schools, and public toilets, which are as Bangladeshi as tea stalls and roadside restaurants. No one has a claim on the “real” Bangladesh. Let us embrace complexity in our search to find ourselves. l Shoaib Alam is a writer from Dhaka, currently based in Fort Collins, Colorado. He chronicles writing about Bangladesh and by Bangladeshis at thefictionists. tumblr.com.

Bangladesh and India depend on each other n Md Shariful Islam

E

ven though Bangladesh achieved independence with the help of India, there have been ups and downs in Indo-Bangla relations over the years.

Investigating Indo-Bangla relations in contemporary times, it is noticeable that under the Modi regime, along with other small neighbours of India, Bangladesh is getting prioritised in the foreign policy ruminations of India. In fact, during the oath-taking ceremony of Modi, inviting all the Saarc leaders demonstrates a willingness on India’s side to deepen relations with its neighbours.

With regard to Indo-Bangla relations under the present Modi and Hasina regimes, it is pertinent to note that the visit of Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, within a month of the Modi government assuming charge in India, shows the significance that India attaches to deepen Indo-Bangla relations under the Modi regime.

In addition, during his maiden meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on September 27, 2014 on the sidelines of the 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Modi expressed his

keen interest to resolve the pending issues including Teesta water sharing agreement, and the land boundary agreement.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee visited Bangladesh on February 19 on a three-day official visit to deepen Indo-Bangla ties. Notably, earlier, in September 2011, Mamata had cancelled her trip accompanying the then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which ultimately resulted in the stalemate situation of the Teesta water sharing deal.

In recent times, a number of developments can be observed which have deepened Indo-Bangla relations. The introduction of a third border haat at the convergence of Feni and Tripura that has boosted local trade and contacts, the re-opening of the historic bus service between Guwahati and Dhaka, and the proposed Saarc Motor Vehicles Agreement (MVA), are some of the more notable ones.

In addition, Indo-Bangla “cricket diplomacy” is also noticeable on the occasion of the on-going cricket World Cup, especially considering Modi’s phone call to Hasina. Besides, according to the BSS news agency, Modi told Hasina that he would visit Dhaka soon “with good news.” This certainly testifies to the

warm relations that India and Bangladesh are enjoying under the leadership of Modi and Hasina.

In fact, Bangladesh holds a key strategic position, vis-à-vis India’s connectivity, to China as well as the rest of Southeast Asia.

In recent times, the increased Chinese engagement in small South Asian countries, including Bangladesh, have also drawn Indian attention. Considering its geo-strategic, economic interests, Bangladesh matters to both India and China.

To uplift Indo-Bangla relations, certain concrete measures can be expected from both sides. First, there is an untapped market for Bangladeshi products in the Indian market which needs to be explored. Notably, since 1971 to 2004, India was the largest trading partner of Bangladesh. But China’s trade with Bangladesh has increased manifold in recent years, even surpassing India’s from 2004 onward.

Notably, China is providing duty-free access to more than 4,700 Bangladesh-made items. Hence, India also needs to open its market to Bangladeshi products and provide duty-free access.

Second, it’s time to resolve the pending issues, including the Teesta water sharing

and land boundary dispute to foster cooperation. Third, there is no alternative to promote people-to-people contact to deepen bilateral relations. In fact, promoting peopleto-people contact is quite imperative to galvanise Indo-Bangla relations.

Introducing border haat to the IndoBangla border is imperative to promote people-to-people contact between India and Bangladesh in the days ahead. In addition, the recent relaxation of rules in terms of obtaining an Indian visa is a positive move from the Indian side -- expectedly accelerating Indo-Bangla people-to-people contact.

Finally, it is argued that India cannot rise as an economic superpower until the nation’s poor neighbours are developed. In the globalised world, it is time to come out of the 19th century notion of sovereignty to the 21st century idea of inter-dependence.

Hence, for its own interests, India needs to engage her neighbours and deepen her relations based on mutual respect and reciprocity. Consequently, India and Bangladesh need to seek a new future for the greater interests of its people and the region. l Md Shariful Islam is a freelance contributor.

DT

14 OPINION

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015

BIGSTOCK

Surya Sen and arrest laws today n Faruque Hasan

A

long time ago, I read a book on Surya Sen -- the revolutionary from Chittagong who fought the British colonial power with arms in the 1930s. Unfortunately, I forgot the name of the book, but I still remember some of the events described in it.

When Surya Sen, along with some members of his small Republican Army, took shelter in the Jalalabad hills, the British troops -- most of them were Indian sepoys -- got engaged in a battle with them on April 22, 1930.

In the unequal fight, 14 revolutionaries lost their lives; many were arrested, some of them managed to flee, including Surya Sen. The British buried the Republican Army fighters playing the last post on the bugle.

Surya Sen stayed in hiding to reorganise his group. To avoid arrest, he kept moving from one place to another. In February 1933, he was hiding in a house at Gairala village in Patiya (Chittagong).

The greedy house owner betrayed him and revealed his hiding to the police to receive a cash award from the government. When police, with a Gurkha contingent of British Army, arrived at the village to capture him, the sun had already started to set.

As it was not permissible, under the law, for police to enter a house between sunset and sunrise, they, and the Gurkha contingent surrounded the house and waited outside till sunrise. Next day, at dawn, they entered the house and arrested Surya Sen. This was the

respect the British colonial master used to show to their subjects.

These days, in Bangladesh, we often come across news about members of a law enforcment agency entering houses of citizens in the middle of the night to conduct a search or to make arrests. What is going wrong with this country?

lost from the criminal procedural code of the country during its amendments, let us reintroduce it. Progress, not regress, in the civil rights enjoyed by the citizens should be our target.

We must not forget that the human rights situation in Bangladesh is constantly under the radar of international communities and

To preserve law and order in the country, the government needs to arrest criminals and suspects, both white collar and blue collar

At present, people don’t have the civil rights which they used to enjoy during the colonial period, when they were mere subjects of the colonial masters; but now they are supposed to be citizens of an independent country.

The government is their own government, not the master. Three million people sacrificed their lives for the liberation of this country. The freedom fighters fought for nine months to realise the dream of independence of the compatriots.

If the law regarding police not entering the house of a citizen during the time between sunset and sunrise has become rusty from lack of use, let’s polish it new. If the law is

human rights watchers.

To preserve law and order in the country, the government needs to arrest criminals and suspects, both white collar and blue collar.

Political opponents can also be arrested, given that there is ample evidence that they are disrupting the law or working against national interests. But all these arrests must be transparent and be made according to the law of the land.

If the sunset-sunrise law is reintroduced and obeyed by the law enforcers, it might not only improve the human rights situation in the country, but also save the government from embarrassment at home and abroad

caused by the disappearance of citizens, whether a political opponent or not, during night time.

Also, this law of not arresting a suspect by entering his/her house at night will not only save the government from embarrassment, at the same time, it will drastically reduce the kidnappings by criminals impersonating as members of law enforcment. The ultimate blame for these sorts of kidnappings might fall on the government.

We often blame our law enforciment agencies for any untoward incidents in the country. We must not forget that our law enforcment agencies are not well-equipped or well-trained; they are overstretched, understaffed, and overworked.

Under all these constraints, they are working hard. Each and every member of these agencies needs to be trained on understanding and respecting civil and human rights.

Blaming law enforcment agencies will not serve the purpose. They do as they are instructed. So, putting blame on them is “one doth the scathe and another hath the scorn.”

Almost all the time, such forces are used for political purposes.

Today, they may be used to suppress political opponents, without giving a damn about civil and human rights, tomorrow, when the opponents are in power, the same story shall be repeated. The human rights condition needs attention now, if there are to be any changes in the future. l Faruque Hasan is a freelance contributor.

16

Oil prices drop as output remains unchanged

20

FBCCI chief calls for duty-free access to Vietnam market

20

Call for strategy to make RMG sector ready for duty regime

BASIC loses Tk2,700cr in 2014 n Jebun Nesa Alo

The trouble-hit BASIC Bank incurred a highest loss of Tk2,686 crore in 2014 because of spillover effects of loan scams of the previous years.

“The bank has finally shown the accumulated loss of the previous years at the end of the last year as the prior board had earlier concealed the actual picture of financial condition of the bank”, said BASIC Bank Chairman Alauddin A Majid while talking to the Dhaka Tribune.

“Although the amount of loss incurred in the year 2014 seems to be unusually high, we just tried to give a clear picture about the health of the bank,” he said.

Of the other state-owned banks, Sonali Bank made net profit of Tk492 crore, Janata Bank Tk394 crore, Agrani Bank Tk377 crore, Rupali Bank Tk46 crore while BDBL Tk143 crore in the last year.

The state-run BASIC bank had to meet the provision shortfall in last year, which also pushed the net loss to a higher level, said a senior executive of Bangladesh Bank.

The provision shortfall of the bank stood at zero at the end of the year 2014, which was Tk789 crore in the previous year, according to the central bank data.

The bank plunged into a loss of Tk53 crore for the first time in the year 2013 since its inception, compared to the net profit of over Tk2 crore in 2012.

The loss increased by 153.52% during last year as the bank witnessed a negative growth with the piling of the default loans over the years.

The operating loss of the BASIC bank was around Tk111 crore in the last year compared to operating profit of Tk147 crore in the previous year.

The bank has failed to get any income from more than half of its assets, which turned into default for last two years, said another senior executive officer of the central bank.

As the provisioning requirements of the bank are increasing as well as default loans, it badly hit the earnings of the bank, he said.

He also observed: “The interest income has accumulated to the suspense account as the bank could not show the interest in the income statement.”

The default loans of the bank rose to 53.32% or Tk6,310 crore at the end of the year 2014, more than half of the total assets of Tk11,834 crore, according to the Bangladesh Bank data.

The interest to the suspense account rose to Tk419 crore during the last year compared to Tk173 crore in the previous year.

Both the return from asset and equity deteriorated further to negative 15.70% and 210.66% respectively in the last year compared to negative 0.34% and 8.80% in the previous year.

The capital shortfall of the bank stood at Tk2,223 crore at the end of the year 2014.

Though the bank got the capital support of Tk790 crore from the government on December 29 last year, it did not reflect in the annual balance sheet.

Attending a recent meeting with Bangladesh Bank, BASIC Managing Director Khondoker Md Iqbal expressed his hope that the financial picture of the bank would changed

by June this year after adjusting the government fund.

The bank rescheduled loans of around Tk3,000 crore during last two years, taking advantages of relaxed rescheduling policy, according to the central bank data.

visit our website @

www.dhakatribune.com

Of the amount, loans over Tk1,725 crore were rescheduled during last year and Tk1,151 crore were rescheduled in the previous year.

A Bangladesh Bank inspection detected many irregularities in four branches of stateowned Basic Bank-Motijheel, Shantinagar, Dilkusha and Gulshan branches that involved loans of nearly Tk4,424.93 crore between December 2009 and November 2012. l

DT

Business

15

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015

Telcos seek Muhith’s intervention in SIM replacement tax issue n Muhammad Zahidul Islam Leading four mobile phone operators of Bangladesh have sought finance minister’s intervention in resolving the SIM replacement tax claim dispute with the revenue authorities before the forthcoming spectrum auction.

“From any shareholders or investors’ perspective, removal of taxation uncertainties and certainty in fiscal incentives are fundamental to make further investment,” the operators said in a joint letter to Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Sunday.

The letter was signed by Grameenphone CEO Rajeev Sethi, Banglalink CEO Ziad Shatara, Robi CEO Supun Weerasinghe and Airtel CEO Prasanta Das Sarma.

SIM replacement tax claim is a long-disputed issue of about Tk3,000 crore, which has remained unresolved in the past three years.

Earlier on March 1, the parent companies of the operatoes also sent a same type of letter to Finance Minister, Prime Minister’s Office, State Minister for ICT, Chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission and Telecommunication Secretary.

“Although we are keen to participate in the forthcoming auction, recent development and uncertainties related to SIM replacement dispute has forced our shareholders to reconsider the investment decision,” the letter reads.

“Considering the developments (regarding the issue), its impact on our financials and resulting uncertainties, our shareholders have indicated their inability to support further investment in spectrum until resolution of this long pending dispute,” the letter notes. l

Call to close down BTRC amid corruption claims n Tribune Report

VoIP licence holders have recently written to the prime minister requesting that the telecom regulatory body be shut down for its corrupt activities.

Khudra Telecom Babshaye Samity (KTBS), an association of VoIP Service Providers (VSP), wrote to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina last week claiming that the telecom sector was fraught with indiscipline.

KTBS Secretary General Masumur Rahaman confirmed about the letter, saying: “We will arrange a press conference about it next week to clarify our position.

“Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) is an out-and-out corrupt organisation where some senior officers have grabbed more than a thousand crore taka by giving illegal facilities to some licensees,” said Masumur, also an owner of a VSP service.

The letter by KTBS reads: “BTRC is moving forward with a plan to form a cartel of international gateway (IGW) operators – a move that

would allow a handful of companies to form a two-tier clearing exchange for gaining control over the pricing of international incoming call termination.”

Through this process, a syndicate could earn more than a thousand crore taka within a short time, it also said.

The letter claimed that under this process, the regulator managed to cut international incoming call rate to 1.5 US cent per minute from 3 US cents, even though incoming international call rates in different countries varied between 6 US cents to 11 US cents. The move had already cost government losses close to Tk500 crore.

The KTBS letter also mentioned four IGWs have already gone out of the scene after grabbing Tk380 crore. According to KTBS claims, some BTRC officials were also involved with these companies – helping the IGWs drain money from the government.

The KTBS also sent copies of the letter to the Ministries of Finance, Law, Public Administration, Post and Telecommunication and ICT. l

DT

16 BUSINESS

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015

BOJ’s Kuroda: Told PM Abe Japan’s long-term price trend unchanged n Reuters, Tokyo

Pumpjacks taken out of production temporarily stand idle at a Hess site while new wells are fracked near Williston, North Dakota

Oil prices drop as output remains unchanged n Reuters, Singapore Oil prices dropped over a percentage point yesterday after Saudi Arabia said over the weekend that the market defined prices and the kingdom would not unilaterally cut its output to defend prices.

Since oil prices started to fall in June 2014, many analysts have expected OPEC’s biggest producer to eventually curb its output as it has done many times in the past to support prices.

Yet Riyadh has so far opted to keep its output stable to protect market share against non-OPEC producers such as the United States - where production has soared as a result of the shale exploration boom - and Russia.

Benchmark Brent crude oil futures was trading at $54.65 a barrel at 3.00 a.m. ET, down 67 cents from their last settlement. US WTI crude was down 72 cents at $45.85 a barrel.

“We repeat that, as for prices, the market determines it,” Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi said on Sunday, adding that Saudi Arabia would only consider output cuts in cooperation with non-OPEC producers.

“We tried, we held meetings and we did not succeed because countries (outside OPEC) were insisting that OPEC carry the burden (of cuts) and we refuse that OPEC bears the responsibility,” Naimi said.

With OPEC output making up about 30% of world supply and 70% coming from elsewhere, “everybody is supposed to participate if we want to improve prices,” he said.

Analysts said that the surplus of oil in the market would increase if production is not cut.

“If OPEC production were to remain around current production levels and close to its target of 30 mb/d, the implied surplus in the oil market would expand from 0.9 mb/d to 1.3 mb/d,” Barclays said yesterday.

‘We are not against anybody we are with whoever wants to maintain market stability and the balance between supply and demand and (with regards to) price the market decides it’

REUTERS

cause (OPEC) produces 30 percent of market output and 70 percent comes from outside,” Ali al-Naimi said in remarks carried Monday by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA). Crude prices slumped by about 60% between June and February, weighed down by a glut of global supplies and concerns about stalling demand.

The slide was exacerbated in November when the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) refused to cut production to rescue falling prices, saying it wanted to maintain its market share.

The 12-member group, led by top producer Saudi Arabia, pumps around a third of the world’s oil but other major producers, such as Russia, are not tied by its decisions. l

Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said he told Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday that inflation is slowing due to a decline in oil prices but there is no change in the longterm rising trend for consumer prices as the economy improves.

Kuroda, speaking to reporters after the meeting, said he also told Abe that the economy remains on a gradual recovery path.

Kuroda also said that monetary policy was not discussed, but that may do little to quell speculation that the prime minister had a message for the central bank governor.

The meeting occurred at a time when slowing inflation is testing the BOJ’s ability to meet its 2% consumer price growth target, and raising questions about whether additional monetary easing is needed later this year to keep prices on track.

“I explained that the economy is doing well and remains on track for recovery,” Kuroda told reporters. “Oil price declines will eventually stop having an impact on consumer prices, so there is no change to the price trend.”

The prime minister and the central bank governor regularly meet to exchange views on the economy.

Kuroda said Abe did not ask questions.

However, government officials attending the BOJ’s policy meeting in February dropped their calls for the central bank to hit its inflation target “at the earliest date possible” - signaling less urgency. Last week Kuroda admitted that consumer prices could temporarily fall due to lower oil prices but sent a strong signal that he saw no need to expand its quantitative easing.

Data due on Friday are expected to show that excluding the effects of a sales tax hike, the core consumer price index (CPI) rose just 0.1% year-on-year in February, as a collapse in oil prices from last year weighs on CPI. Kuroda has said the BOJ can meet its 2% inflation target sometime around fiscal 2015 starting in April, because the output gap between the economy capacity to produce and its actual performance is improving, while the oil price decline will start to fall out of the year-on-year comparison.

Many economists say achieving the target on time is unlikely because inflation may not accelerate fast enough within what many central bank watchers consider to be an overly ambitious timeframe. l

CORPORATE NEWS

Saudi oil minister denies “conspiracy theory” behind OPEC decision

Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi denied on Sunday that there was a “conspiracy theory” behind OPEC’s decision in November to keep oil output unchanged.

“There is no conspiracy and we tried to correct all the things that have been said but nobody listens,” he told a conference in Riyadh.

“We are not against anybody we are with whoever wants to maintain market stability and the balance between supply and demand and (with regards to) price the market decides it.”

Oil producers outside OPEC must cooperate to boost falling crude prices as the cartel refuses to take responsibility alone, Saudi Arabia’s oil minister has said.

“We refuse to take responsibility alone be-

Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL) has recently signed a participation agreement with 12 new Partner Organizations (POs) under IDCOL’s ICS programme to disseminate improved cook stoves (ICS) in Bangladesh. Mahmood Malik, executive director & CEO, SM Formanul Islam, deputy CEO and Md Enamul Karim Pavel, head of renewable of energy of IDCOL were present at the signing ceremony along with other IDCOL officials and heads of the POs’

DT

BUSINESS 17

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015

Interim Chief: At least 35 countries to join AIIB n Reuters, Beijing

At least 35 countries will join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) by the deadline of March 31, the bank’s interim chief, Jin Liqun, said on Sunday.

Currently, India, Indonesia and New Zealand have expressed interest in joining the bank, he told a conference in Beijing, following a request by Britain, France, Italy and Luxembourg to become founding members.

“By deadline, (we believe) 35 countries, or more, will become founding members of the bank,” he said.

Leaders of the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank told a conference in Beijing on Sunday they were in talks with or happy to cooperate with the AIIB US proposes cooperation between new China-led bank and Western institutions

President Barack Obama’s administration is proposing that a new Chinese-led development bank over which Washington has voiced concerns work collaboratively with Western development groups like the World Bank, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

The United States, worried about China’s growing diplomatic clout, has been urging countries to think twice about joining the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, or AIIB, considered by some as a challenge to the World Bank and the Manila-based Asian Development Bank.

Despite US misgivings, Britain said earlier this month it would join the AIIB. France, Germany and Italy quickly followed.

Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said on Sunday that 27 countries had now signed up

Jin Liqun speaks during an interview with Reuters in Islamabad to participate in the new bank, a $50bn fund set to begin operations at the end of the year providing project loans to developing countries.

The Journal reported that the US Treasury undersecretary for international affairs, Nathan Sheets, said: “The US would welcome new multilateral institutions that strengthen the international financial architecture.”

He told the Journal that co-financing projects with existing institutions like the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank would help ensure the new bank complements rather than competes with existing institutions.

REUTERS

The US Treasury Department had no immediate comment.

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said in a statement on Sunday that his institution was discussing with the AIIB “how we can closely work together. We have every intention of sharing knowledge and co-investing in projects throughout Asia.”

US allies Japan, Australia and South Korea are still absent from the AIIB’s list of members.

Leaders of the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank told a conference in Beijing on Sunday they were in talks with or happy to cooperate with the AIIB. l

IMF head welcomes China-backed bank on Beijing visit n AFP, Beijing International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde said yesterday she welcomed Beijing’s creation of a new infrastructure bank - an institution that has drawn support from Europe and scepticism from Washington.

Lagarde made the comments as she wrapped up a five-day visit to China and after a host of European countries announced their intention to sign up for the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

The moves by Britain, Germany, France, Italy and others have caused consternation in the United States and Japan, which lead the World Bank and the Manila-based Asian Development Bank respectively.

Some view the new bank as a competitor to the two institutions.

In a statement issued after she met Premier Li Keqiang, Lagarde hailed Beijing’s “impressive efforts” to reform in areas including combating corruption, controlling pollution and “clearing the path to even more engagement with the world”.

“I welcomed China’s various initiatives in this area, including through the newly established Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank,” she said.

China has embraced the European eagerness to take part in the new body, with state media claiming that the US risks being sidelined.

Beijing touts the $50bn institution as a tool to help meet gaps in financing needs for regional development in Asia.

But US officials have expressed caution amid worries the institution could undermine the World Bank.

Lagarde also said the IMF welcomed Beijing’s longstanding drive to include its yuan in the IMF’s basket of reserve currencies, adding: “We will work closely with the Chinese authorities in this regard.”

Lagarde’s visit comes amid mounting concern over slowing growth in the world’s second-largest economy.

Top Chinese leaders have said the economy is in a delicate transition from decades of double-digit annual growth to a new, slower and more sustainable model, a stage they have branded as the “new normal”. l

NEWS IN BRIEF Euro slips ahead of Greek debt talks The euro inched lower yesterday ahead of more talks aimed at solving Greece’s debt crisis, as investors eye a slate of speeches by Federal Reserve officials for further clues about the timing of an interest rate hike.

The single currency eased to $1.0813 and 129.69 yen on Monday from $1.0821 and 129.98 yen in New York on Friday. The decline comes before the leaders of Greece and economic powerhouse Germany meet in Berlin Monday to discuss Athens’ debt woes and economic reforms necessary to unlock fresh bailout cash. Spain’s economy minister Luis de Guindos turned the screw on Athens another notch Sunday by insisting that it will not receive any money until it implements all its proposed reforms. German Chancellor Angela Merkel also insists that if Athens wants more bailout loans, of which Germany stumps up the biggest share, Greece must accept the bitter medicine of cuts and reforms. In other Tokyo trading Monday, the dollar slipped to 119.91 yen from 120.11 yen in New York and well off the 120.71 yen in Tokyo earlier Friday. “We are watching Fed officials this week,” said Toshiya Yamauchi, a senior analyst in Tokyo at Ueda Harlow. “The market is weighed down by the dollar’s weakness and the currency is unlikely

to trade actively ahead of their remarks,” he wrote in a note to clients.

Fed vice chair Stanley Fischer is to speak on Monday with chair Janet Yellen is giving a lecture on Friday. Other officials scheduled to speak yesterday include Cleveland Fed president Loretta Mester, a non-voting member, and San Francisco Fed president John Williams, who does vote on policy. A dovish statement from the Fed last week sent the dollar tumbling as it dampened expectations for an early summer interest rate rise. Currency rates hardly moved following a meeting between Bank of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday. After the meeting, Kuroda said Japan’s economy remains on the path to recovery with inflation set to rise as the impact of lower oil prices fades. The dollar mostly weakened against other Asia-Pacific currencies, slipping to Sg$1.3764 from Sg$1.3878 on Friday, to Tw$31.39 from Tw$31.45, to 1,115.11 South Korean won from 1,122.50 won, and to 12,998.00 Indonesian rupiah from 13,115.00. The greenback also fell to 62.29 Indian rupees from 62.53 rupees, and to 32.54 Thai baht from 32.68 baht, while it was unchanged at 44.84 Philippine pesos. The Australian dollar jumped to 78.22 US cents from 76.82 cents, while the Chinese yuan fell to 19.32 yen from 19.51 yen.

– AFP

RBI deputy: India needs to further develop corp bond markets The development of corporate bonds has “not been too satisfactory”, Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor R. Gandhi said yesterday, calling the huge supply of government bonds one of the impediments.

Speaking at a debt market summit in Mumbai, Gandhi also called for a “reassessment” of the role played by pension funds and insurance companies in corporate bond markets. Both categories of investors face limitations in investing in corporate debt. “The progress in the growth of corporate debt segment has not been too satisfactory for our liking,” Gandhi said. Gandhi also called for corporate bond market infrastructure to be brought at par with that of the government bonds market, saying it would improve liquidity and enhance transparency.

Gandhi also said allowing re-issuance of corporate bonds can help in market development, but warned that companies should ensure that does not lead to redemption pressures. Corporate bonds are regulated by capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

– Reuters

DT

18 BUSINESS

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015

Stocks back in red as investors still look for exit n Tribune Report Stocks closed lower yesterday with increased trading activities on selling spree.

The market opened higher but late selling pressure, mainly on banking, energy and pharmaceuticals stocks, wiped off early gains.

Analysts say investor found no reason to get back confidence as there was still no political settlement in sight.

The benchmark index DSEX lost 26 points or 0.6% to close at 4,506. The Shariah Index DSES was slightly down over 8 points or 0.8% to 1,096. The comprising blue chips DS30 fell 9 points or 0.6% to 1,711.

Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, declined 30 points to 8,345.

“The market might not get back its strength fully as long as the political dust is not settled,” said a leading stock broker. “So any sudden rally might not sustain as investors were looking for exit,” he said. The country is now suffering grave political crisis due to the strife within two major parties over the national election. As a result the economy and normal life have been affected severely.

All the large cap sectors closed lower except food & allied and telecommunication, which advanced marginally.

After sharp rise in the previous session, cement suffered most, falling almost 2%.

All other sectors, including banks, non-banking financial institutions, pharmaceuticals and textile went down.

Strong selling pressure helped turnover cross Tk300 crore-mark and stood at Tk314 crore, with an increase of more than 17% from the previous session.

IDLC Investments said the previous session’s gain attracted pessimistic sellers from the sideline, who believed that the rebound was temporary and market outlook remained downbeat in the mid-term.

“Buyers held the helm in the beginning of the session, navigating the market to quick gain in early moments. The enthusiasm was very short-lived as sellers overpowered them and remained under the control for the rest of the session.”

Shahjibazar Power Ltd topped the liquidity chart with a turnover worth Tk13.3 crore, followed by One Bank, ACI, IFAD Autos, Grameenphone, ACI Formulations, Lafarge Surma Cement. l

Turnover (Volume) Number of Contract

Company Aziz PipesZ Monno Ceramic -B Brac Bank -A BD Submarine Cable-A Social Islami. B-A Golden Son -A Bangladesh Lamps -A Sinobangla Indu.-A Aramit -A FAR Chemical-N

Closing (% Change) 7.24 6.83 4.93 4.54 4.51 4.37 4.06 4.05 3.30 3.28

CSE GAINER Company Aramit -A Phoenix Insur -A Wata Chemicals -A Golden Son -A BD Submarine Cable-A Social Islami. B-A FAR Chemical-N Brac Bank -A AFC AgroBiotech-A Anwar Galvanizing-B

Closing (% Change) 8.01 7.38 6.10 4.35 4.10 3.79 3.69 2.89 2.85 2.84

DSE LOSER Company Savar Refractories-Z Unique Hotel RL - A United Insur -A Jute SpinnersA Pioneer Insur -A Hwa Well Textiles-A Pragati Gen. I -A Standard Ceramic -A 1st Janata Bank MF-A Envoy Textiles Ltd-N

Closing (% Change) -8.50 -4.97 -4.95 -4.90 -4.89 -4.46 -4.36 -4.21 -4.17 -4.17

CSE LOSER Company Prime Insur -A 3rd ICB M F-A Dhaka Ins. Ltd.-A NLI 1st M F-A Linde (BD) Ltd. -A Envoy Textiles Ltd-N Power Grid Co. -A Reliance1 M.F.-A CVO PetroChem RL-A I P D C -A

Closing (% Change) -9.76 -8.33 -7.41 -5.88 -5.76 -5.24 -5.23 -4.48 -4.32 -4.14

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

DSE key features March-23, 2015 Turnover (Million Taka)

DSE GAINER

Sector

3,143.82 68,026,649 78,034

Traded Issues

309

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

134

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

172

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

3

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,489.78

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

30.18

Bank NBFI Investment Engineering Food & Allied Fuel & Power Jute Textile Pharma & Chemical Paper & Packaging Service Leather Ceramic Cement Information Technology General Insurance Life Insurance Telecom Travel & Leisure Miscellaneous Debenture

DSE Million Taka 347.57 66.67 21.38 386.33 74.57 422.34 2.79 231.64 582.32 9.17 69.07 286.45 13.45 95.72 62.28 15.87 43.96 273.07 49.89 88.60 0.70

% change 11.06 2.12 0.68 12.29 2.37 13.43 0.09 7.37 18.52 0.29 2.20 9.11 0.43 3.04 1.98 0.50 1.40 8.69 1.59 2.82 0.02

Million Taka 16.98 4.22 1.09 47.71 3.16 29.54 23.09 28.83 0.34 6.85 0.32 0.65 12.67 5.97 0.56 1.48 14.85 6.09 12.49 0.04

Average (% Change) 6.21 6.27 2.94 3.42 (0.80) 3.80 4.21 3.91 2.64 2.67

Average (% Change) 4.32 7.30 6.16 3.91 2.76 2.51 3.40 2.51 2.61 4.18

Average (% Change) -20.95 -2.26 -5.27 -4.41 -3.60 -5.21 -4.39 -3.64 -3.51 -1.97

Average (% Change) -9.76 -8.33 -7.27 -6.59 -5.90 -5.10 -1.15 -5.37 -1.49 -1.83

CSE

ClosingAvg. 16.42 26.43 35.37 125.64 13.56 40.40 118.93 25.49 286.28 28.07

ClosingAvg. 280.10 26.18 226.13 40.66 125.43 13.47 27.99 35.17 43.20 40.33

ClosingAvg. 40.00 57.02 26.80 46.84 39.37 30.36 37.24 34.69 4.67 48.86

ClosingAvg. 14.80 220.00 20.03 7.94 900.03 48.80 32.62 6.34 411.20 13.93

% change 7.83 1.94 0.50 21.99 1.46 13.62 0.00 10.64 13.29 0.15 3.16 0.15 0.30 5.84 2.75 0.26 0.68 6.84 2.81 5.76 0.02

Closing 16.30 26.60 36.20 126.60 13.90 40.60 117.80 25.70 288.40 28.30

Closing 290.00 26.20 226.00 40.80 126.90 13.70 28.10 35.60 43.30 39.80

Closing

DHIGH 16.60 27.30 36.60 127.80 14.00 41.00 121.90 25.90 291.80 28.60

DHIGH

14.80 220.00 20.00 8.00 900.00 48.80 32.60 6.40 194.70 13.90

Million Taka 364.55 70.89 22.48 434.04 77.73 451.88 2.79 254.73 611.15 9.50 75.92 286.77 14.10 108.39 68.25 16.43 45.44 287.91 55.98 101.09 0.73

15.90 25.50 34.60 122.70 13.10 39.50 116.00 24.80 279.30 27.50

DLOW

290.00 26.80 227.00 41.10 127.60 13.70 28.30 35.90 43.40 41.00

DHIGH

46.30 55.50 26.90 46.60 38.90 30.00 37.30 34.10 4.60 48.20

Closing

DLOW

280.00 23.60 226.00 40.10 123.00 13.10 26.90 34.60 43.00 39.50

DLOW

46.50 59.10 27.30 48.00 40.50 32.40 38.10 34.20 4.90 49.90

DHIGH 14.80 220.00 20.70 8.00 900.10 48.90 32.70 6.40 208.50 14.00

Total

46.00 54.90 26.30 44.10 38.50 29.70 37.00 34.10 4.60 48.00

DLOW 14.80 220.00 20.00 7.90 900.00 48.30 32.50 6.30 192.30 13.90

% change 10.85 2.11 0.67 12.91 2.31 13.45 0.08 7.58 18.18 0.28 2.26 8.53 0.42 3.23 2.03 0.49 1.35 8.57 1.67 3.01 0.02

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

Turnover in Million

Latest EPS

0.247 0.169 27.109 56.666 51.167 52.218 7.055 4.625 5.815 24.852

Turnover in Million

-0.37 0.20 3.13 0.76 2.74 2.47 1.13 0.92 14.12 2.76

Latest EPS

0.028 0.012 0.002 4.093 13.139 0.975 2.461 0.570 0.370 0.551

Turnover in Million

-ve 132.2 11.3 165.3 4.9 16.4 105.2 27.7 20.3 10.2

Latest PE

14.12 3.88 5.37 2.47 0.76 2.74 2.76 3.13 2.65 0.64

Latest EPS

0.002 34.387 0.829 0.037 0.939 2.217 0.603 0.017 1.102 5.083

Turnover in Million

Latest PE

19.8 6.7 42.1 16.5 165.0 4.9 10.1 11.2 16.3 63.0

Latest PE

-0.62 3.05 2.91 -43.64 4.83 2.66 2.47 0.52 0.84 4.84

Latest EPS

0.004 0.011 0.026 0.006 0.009 0.055 0.027 0.171 2.309 0.006

-ve 18.7 9.2 -ve 8.2 11.4 15.1 66.7 5.6 10.1

Latest PE

2.41 24.64 2.44 1.78 40.75 4.84 -1.66 0.62 8.56 1.31

6.1 8.9 8.2 4.5 22.1 10.1 -ve 10.2 48.0 10.6

CSE key features March-23, 2015 Turnover (Million Taka) Turnover (Volume) Number of Contract

216.93 5,961,442 11,338

Traded Issues

227

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

94

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

121

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

12

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,358.42

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

28.59

DT

BUSINESS 19

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015

News, Analysis and Recent Disclosures SHAHJABANK: The Board of Directors has recommended 10% cash dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2014. Date of AGM: 07.06.2015, Time: 10:00 AM, Venue: RAOWA Convention Hall No. 1 (HELMET), VIP Road, Mohakhali, Dhaka-1206. Record date: 09.04.2015. The Company has also reported consolidated EPS of Tk. 1.02, consolidated NAV per Share of Tk. 15.95 and consolidated NOCFPS of Tk. 6.32 for the year ended on December 31, 2014.

EASTLAND: As per Regulation 30 of DSE Listing Regulations, the Company has informed that a meeting of the Board of Directors will be held on March 29, 2015 at 03:30 PM to consider, among others, audited financial statements of the Company for the year ended on December 31, 2014.

IPO Subscription: Tosrifa Industries Limited Subscription March 24, 2015 to March 31, 2015; NRB UPTO April 09, 2015. Offer Price per share Tk. 26.00, Market Lot (Shares) 200.

Dividend/AGM

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS Company Bata Shoe Ltd. -A Grameenphone-A Square Pharma -A Shahjibazar Power-N One Bank -A ACI Limited- A Ifad Autos -N ACI Formulations-A LafargeS Cement-Z MJL BD Ltd.-A

Shasha Denims -N BD Submarine Cable-A BEXIMCO Ltd. -A Titas Gas TDCLA Golden Son -A

VolumeShares 200,639 639,286 806,030 667,093 7,829,340 231,081 1,588,746 535,820 585,640 531,343

Value in Million 275.88 216.40 207.74 132.88 120.52 111.31 99.54 82.11 70.70 65.58

% of TotalTurnover 8.78 6.88 6.61 4.23 3.83 3.54 3.17 2.61 2.25 2.09

VolumeShares

Value in Million

% of TotalTurnover

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS Company GPH Ispat Ltd-A Shahjibazar Power-N BD Submarine Cable-A Shasha Denims -N BEXIMCO Ltd. -A LafargeS Cement-Z ACI Limited- A Ifad Autos -N ACI Formulations-A WesternMarine -N

SummitAlliancePort.-A MJL BD Ltd.-A UNITED AIR-A Golden Son -A Agni Systems -A

1,652,615 451,011 1,731,287 781,424 1,292,376

399,193 68,906 104,749 258,719 272,007 70,213 17,222 131,985 40,839 144,534

95,578 39,448 590,343 100,663 126,339

62.01 56.67 56.66 56.49 52.22

16.37 13.71 13.14 9.66 8.90 8.62 8.28 8.24 6.25 6.11

5.61 4.89 4.73 4.09 3.95

1.97 1.80 1.80 1.80 1.66

7.55 6.32 6.06 4.45 4.10 3.97 3.82 3.80 2.88 2.82

2.59 2.25 2.18 1.89 1.82

ClosingP 1376.70 335.90 256.90 194.90 15.50 479.90 62.60 152.70 120.20 122.80

37.30 126.60 32.30 72.30 40.60

ClosingP

Change % 0.01 -0.12 -0.27 -3.90 1.31 -0.54 -1.26 1.13 -2.67 -0.49

-1.32 4.54 -1.82 -1.63 4.37

Change %

42.00 195.20 126.90 37.20 32.30 121.70 480.60 62.50 152.50 41.90

58.10 122.60 8.00 40.80 31.00

-1.87 0.88 4.10 -1.06 -1.82 -2.41 -0.48 -1.11 0.99 0.24

-1.53 -0.33 -1.23 4.35 -2.52

ClosingY 1376.60 336.30 257.60 202.80 15.30 482.50 63.40 151.00 123.50 123.40

37.80 121.10 32.90 73.50 38.90

ClosingY

42.80 193.50 121.90 37.60 32.90 124.70 482.90 63.20 151.00 41.80

59.00 123.00 8.10 39.10 31.80

DHIGH

DLOW

1389.00 340.00 258.50 209.00 15.70 490.00 64.30 156.00 125.00 125.40

1375.00 335.40 256.40 192.10 15.20 477.50 61.70 150.10 118.00 122.60

DHIGH

DLOW

38.30 127.80 33.50 73.00 41.00

42.30 208.50 127.60 38.00 33.30 125.90 489.00 64.20 155.00 42.90

60.00 125.00 8.20 41.10 32.30

37.10 122.70 32.20 72.10 39.50

41.00 192.30 123.00 37.10 32.10 119.00 477.00 61.80 150.10 41.70

57.80 122.00 7.90 40.10 30.70

AvgPrice 1375.01 338.50 257.73 199.19 15.39 481.70 62.66 153.24 120.73 123.42

37.52 125.64 32.73 72.29 40.40

AvgPrice

41.00 199.03 125.43 37.33 32.72 122.73 480.99 62.45 152.99 42.25

58.70 123.96 8.02 40.66 31.25

Daily capital market highlights DSE Broad Index : DSE - 30 Index : CSE All Share Index: CSE - 30 Index : CSE Selected Index :

4506.55716

(-) 0.59%

1711.57136

(-) 0.55%

13795.84830

(-) 0.42%

11323.93120

(-) 0.50%

8353.28430

(-) 0.27%

▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼

IBBLPBOND: Annual profit rate of 11.18%, Record Date 16.04.2015.

FLEASEINT: 5% stock, AGM: 16.04.2015, Record date: 01.04.2015.

ISLAMIBANK: 15% cash, AGM: 13.06.2015, Record date: 16.04.2015.

UTTARABANK: 20% cash, AGM: 23.04.2015, Record date: 01.04.2015.

BRACBANK: 20% cash, AGM: 23.04.2015, Record date: 30.03.2015.

BERGERPBL: 220% cash , AGM: 19.04.2015, Record date: 30.03.2015.

ONEBANKLTD: 12.50% cash and 12.50% stock, AGM: 30.04.2015, Record date: 29.03.2015.

FIRSTSBANK: 10% stock, AGM: 09.05.2015, Record date: 02.04.2015.

RELIANCINS: 15% cash and 15% stock, AGM: 30.04.2015, Record date: 19.03.2015.

UNITEDFIN: 5% cash and 10% stock, AGM: 23.04.2015, Record date: 18.03.2015.

LAFSURCEML: 5% final cash dividend (i.e. total 10% cash dividend for the year 2014 inclusive of 5% interim cash dividend which has already been paid), AGM: 11.06.2015, Record Date: 07.04.2015.

UNIONCAP: 10% stock, AGM: 31.03.2015, Record date: 16.03.2015.

TRUSTBANK: 5% cash and 10% stock, AGM: 30.03.2015, Record date: 15.03.2015.

DUTCHBANGL: 40% cash, AGM: 30.03.2015, Record date: 15.03.2015.

SOUTHEASTB: 15% cash, AGM: 29.03.2015, Record date: 15.03.2015.

ALARABANK: 14% cash, AGM: 31.03.2015, Record Date: 15.03.2015.

PRIMEBANK: 15% cash, AGM: 30.03.2015, Record Date: 10.03.2015.

ANALYST

Market started off the week very positively, following a steep correction in last week. The benchmark DSEX index started moving up from the very beginning of the trading session and closed at the day’s high

DT

20 BUSINESS

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015

Call for strategy to make RMG sector ready for duty regime n Tribune Report

FBCCI President Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed speaks at a meeting with the visiting Vietnamese trade delegation at his office in Dhaka yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

FBCCI chief calls for duty-free access to Vietnam market n Tribune Report FBCCI President Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed urged the visiting trade delegation of Vietnam to allow duty-free and quota-free access for the Bangladeshi products to their market.

“Despite our close and long-standing bilateral relations, the trade volume between the two countries has not reached its desired level. So we call for 100% duty-free and quota-free access for Bangladeshi goods,” Bangladesh’s apex trade body chief said at a meeting with the high-profile delegation yesterday.

The delegation led by Vietnam’s Deputy Minister for Industry and Trade, Hoang Quoc Vuong met Kazi Akram at the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) office in the city.

The visit of the seven-member team aims

Bangladesh Aushad Shilpa Samity elects president n Tribune Report Beximco Pharmaceuticals Managing Director Nazmul Hassan has been elected president of Bangladesh Aushad Shilpa Samity for the term 2015-2016 and 2016-2017, the association said in a statement.

He is also an adviser of Pharmatek Chemicals Ltd and Member of the Parliament, it said.

Hassan and other office bearers were elected at the organisation’s annual general meeting yesterday.

Managing Director of Hudson Pharmaceuticals Ltd SM Shafiuzzaman, Chairman and Managing Director of Globe Pharmaceuticals Ltd Harunur Rashid, and CEO and MD of Renata Ltd Syed S Kaiser Kabir were elected as secretary general, senior vice-president and vice-president respectively. l

to explore trade and investment opportunities here in a bid to widen bilateral trade ties.

“It is clear that our trade balance is hugely in favour of Vietnam. In this context, trade facilitation has become necessary to resolve the non-tariff barriers like certification requirements and important licensing system for Bangladeshi exports,” said FBCCI president.

“We are very much hopeful that the joint committee on trade will address these issues.”

Akram invited the Vietnamese businesses and enterprises to visit Bangladesh and explore the market and investment opportunities firsthand.

He said Bangladeshi business people are eager to increase cooperation in trade and investment with Vietnam.

Vietnamese Deputy Minister Hoang Quoc Vuong said the bilateral trade between the

two countries is now modest.

He said direct Dhaka-Hanoi air link and simplification of visa processing could enhance the relation.

In the first eight months of the current fiscal year, Bangladesh earned $35.70m from exports to Vietnam.

In the last fiscal year, Bangladesh exported products worth nearly $56m to the Asian country, while imports value amounted to $582m.

Bangladesh imports salt, sulphar, earth and stone, plastering materials, lime and cement, man-made filaments, iron and steel and fertiliser from Vietnam.

Export goods to Vietnam include fish, molluscs, medicine, oil seeds, grain, fruits, rubber, raw hides and skin, special woven and other several items. l

NBR summons Dr Yunus to settle unpaid taxes n Tribune Report The revenue board yesterday summoned Grameen Bank founder Dr Muhammad Yunus to appear before the tax office concerned on March 29 for settlement about the unpaid taxes claimed by the National Board of Revenue (NBR), officials said yesterday.

It, early this week, wrote to Nobel laureate to attend in a parley with its commissioner Meftha Uddin Khan to bring an end to the dispute between NBR and Yunus.

The National Board of Revenue earlier claimed that Yunus dodged more than Tk15.53 crore as tax for the fiscal year of 20112012.

He also dodged taxes in the year of 2012-

2013 and 2013-2014 against his donation to his family members, poor people and different organisations, sources said.

The donation is not seen by the NBR as taxfree. The NBR’s claim, however, is now in the High Court as Yunus on March 5 this year filed a case against the NBR move.

A high official of the revenue board said that it is a routine work of tax offices to hold meeting with taxpayers to realise unpaid taxes if it crosses over Tk50 lakh.

In 2012, the NBR summoned the income tax files of Grameen Bank and its 54 associate companies founded by Yunus. At that time, the tax zones concerned were asked to submit updated information about the payment of taxes by Yunus and the companies founded by him. l

Canadian High Commissioner Benoit Pierre Laramee urged Bangladesh to set strategy to manage the RMG sector as it won’t get duty-free market access during the transition from a low- to middle-income country.

The Canadian envoy came up with the call at a meeting with the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) at its headquarters in the city yesterday.

Bangladesh’s RMG sector has set target to export $50bn apparel products by 2021. It will contribute towards the broader vision of Bangladesh reaching middle-income status, said Laramee.

However, the time now is ripe for Bangladesh to strategize and plan on how it will manage the sector during the transition from a low- to middle-income country as Bangladesh will not get duty-free access once it reaches middle-income status, he said.

‘We are able to take challenge in future as Bangladesh has 35 years of experience’ The Canadian government will continue its duty-free market access for Bangladesh and provide assistance to develop workers’ efficiency and building capacity of RMG manufacturers, said Lameree. Bangladesh apparel export to Canada reached $1bn in the fiscal year 2013-14, which is a remarkable growth from $595.55m in fiscal year 20109-10, said Laramee.

The value of bilateral merchandise trade has more than triple going from $478 million in 2003 to nearly $1.7 billion in 2012.

“Our trade relationship stands at 1.9 billion. It has grown by over 300% since 2004,” he said.

The RMG sector is critical to Bangladesh’s economy and responsible for significant women employment and economic empowerment in the country as well as foreign currency earning, he adds.

Bangladesh has shown excellent competencies in apparel making and Canadian consumers are ready to pay high for it, said Laramee.

The envoy also said in cost and efficiency, Bangladesh is one of the most competitive countries in the world for mostly the apparel items and it needs to maintain the quality and efficiency to sustain its comparative advantage.

Export to Canada went down due to devaluation of Canadian dollars against the US dollar as the prices of their products are set based on the dollar rate, said BGMEA President Atiqul Islam, replying to a question. “We are able to take challenge in future as Bangladesh has 35 years of experience, skilled manpower, fair price, quality and vibrant population.”

Bangladesh has sent the safety message of RMG sector to the global buyers and the orders will come back to Bangladesh very soon, he added.

In the first eight months of the current fiscal, Bangladesh’s export to Canada declined by 12.6% to $587 million compared to the same period last year. l

DT

21

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015

T-JUNCTION

Royal Enfield Continental GT Whether rocketing on land, or flying through the air, the Continental GT will gladly take in all the scars to prove it all NEWS

INSIDE

Payza’s E-wallet introduces Bangladeshi Taka

Bangladesh Commerce Bank Limited (BCBL) and Payza, an E-wallet Payment System similar to PayPal, officially introduces Bangladeshi

Taka as one of its 27 acceptable currencies, keeping in line with the rules and regulations set by Bangladesh Bank for e-commerce payment activities.

What this means for all the individuals across Bangladesh who own any websites and Facebook pages, and are selling products or services through the platforms, is that they can concentrate on their

online businesses instead of battling the current major industry issue of having to physically collect cash from their customers for products they have ordered.

Payza will enable these merchants and business owners to do so, by allowing them to integrate simple do it yourself “Payza Buy Now” buttons into their sites and under the pictures of items sold on FB pages.

Since its inception in 2004, Payza has established itself as a leading OPGSP and is registered and in full compliance with the legal and regulatory requirements of the Advanced Payments Industry.

Payza.com is one of the world’s leading global online payment platforms specialising in e-commerce processing, corporate disbursements and remittances.

22 gaming

In-game Sweatshops

24 tires

Return of the Victorian dope

DT

22 T-JUNCTION

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015

Gadgets & gaming

In-game

gaming

Sweatshops A game that showcases the complexities of child labour in Bangladesh

n Azfar-ul Islam I have a dreadful confession to make - it turns out that I have been complicit in condoning child labour in Bangladesh.

As the co-owner of European Leather Industries (ELI, for short), we only wanted what was best for our customers.

What happened when we looked beyond the cold, exacting figures on the balance sheet? We saw haunted eyes staring back from each zero.

In Global Conflicts: Sweatshops (whose sobering subtitle should abort any comparisons to CoD), I found myself playing as co-owner Michael Badesha.

With escalating global scrutiny on child labour, it must have come as a shock (or not, actually) to be contacted by an NGO in Bangladesh claiming that his company’s subcontracted leather factories were powered by the sweat and toil of younglings.

For this journey, I have the pleasure of introducing insight from lead designer Jeppe Herley Nielsen, part of the Danish company (Serious Games Interactive) who produce the Global Conflicts series.

The ultimate goal of Sweatshops is to gather information supporting the NGO’s claims - combining them with arguments about equally cogent topics like education and workplace safety - and confront the archvillain, er, factory magnate known as Raihan. The confrontation is designed as a conversation which should lead to equitable outcomes for the working children.

If you succeed, that is.

Nielsen said the main audience was “13-20 year-olds” European students to allow them to “experience the human consequences of child labour so that they might be able to contextualise it with their own reality and privileges.” Sadly, whilst I no longer adhere to that demographic, I still desired to see if I could enact any social change.

My investigation began with Maxine, the NGO’s representative on the ground.

She was initially standoffish, and I couldn’t blame her. There I was, representing someone whose interests would be focused on performing damage control to the reputation of his company. Maxine naturally second-guessed Michael’s noble intentions (despite the responses I chose - which hurt a little) to genuinely fight

for the children. As a critic, I was worried that my lack of empathy might incite dissonance between story and game. When I spoke to Nielsen about this, he confirmed that this wasn’t role-play, and most players were likely to “forget” about Michael - as you became immersed, you would use him as a conduit for your own philosophies.

Speaking of philosophy, the game is clearly informed by that of the designer and his team - and Denmark’s lauded schooling system - with regards to education. (Your talk with Maxine happens in front of a free NGO-run school - maudlin yet thematically effective.) My journey involved speaking with two children who work at the factory, Sumi and Zahir, and their views on education were quite divergent. This was deliberate according to Nielsen since the impetus behind this series is “not to present solutions or give answers, but to pose questions and present the player with alternatives to what they already know and believe in.”

In Sumi’s case, she wished to stop being

a child labourer and enter education for a brighter future - a dream I wholeheartedly supported. Unfortunately, her father vehemently disagreed with me, subscribing to the archaic notion that children should work and education proffers no future. It also saddened me when Sumi recounted an incident where she came home exhausted, yet had to cook. When I asked if her father should have helped out, she exclaimed how that couldn’t be possible.

Adults, in general, were painted in a rather negative light, none more so than the irascible, sycophantic factory manager Hakim. It is a testament to the writing that Hakim’s general demeanour incensed me, and his abuse of Zahir certainly pushed me over the edge. Zahir’s plight was chilling enough as he ardently believed that working (rather than school) was what gave him worth and that supporting his family, despite his age, was what truly drove him.

Implicitly, it accused the environment and adults of instilling the wrong values in vulnerable children. Despite the usage of tropes, I felt that there was a pervasive truth and keen awareness of real issues in all my encounters.

Ultimately, I managed two confrontations with Raihan, thanks to the

brief (yet intense) nature of the game. The first time, my investigations amounted to naught as I misplayed my hand, and watched the arguments fall flat. I felt like I had truly let the children down when all I achieved for them was granting them one working hour less per week. The second attempt was incomparably better as Raihan agreed to safer environmental conditions, active support for schooling and appreciation of children’s rights. While I feel the overall experience could have been exemplary with more substance, it was still provocative in the right places. Early on, when Maxine spoke about arrangements with factories to allow children to leave early for school, I challenged her with a pithy “Doesn’t that mean you support child labour?” (Have at you, Maxine.)

There are more perspectives here than just being right or righteous, and Nielsen expressed it well, “Sometimes we are unable to act right - maybe because we lie to ourselves, maybe because we are forced to act like we do, maybe because we are negligent or ignorant.” The onus is on games like Sweatshops to help showcase such problems holistically, and incite the right conversations so that we can truly start to inspire change. l

T-JUNCTION 23

DT

Gadgets & gaming

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015

Game room Questions with Jeppe Herlev Nielsen, game designer and project manager of Global Conflicts: Sweatshops Q: The game was made in 2009 and the Rana Plaza tragedy took place in 2013.

How would you have approached this game today?

A: At the time of making this game, we already talked about a different perspective. Maybe we would have let the player take on the part of a child caught in child labour and might potentially also have made the story more dramatic (not necessarily through deaths, but the game might have had to reflect some severe tragedies to resemble real life).

Q: How did you conduct the research for this game?

A: The research was mainly done on-line by me and a school teacher we had hired for the project. Whenever we do this type of research we make sure to be critical towards the sources of information, so as not to become biased. We were also in contact with the Danish Embassy in Dhaka, which provided us with some valuable information. Sometimes, though not in this case, we also contact NGOs (like Red Cross) to get their views on the matter.

Q: Ultimately, what did you want people to achieve at the end of it?

A: Ultimately, we want players to gain knowledge and understanding about child labour and some of the potential consequences beyond the obvious ones.

We want them to have some “experience” and context to start discussing what can and should be done about child labour.

And we also wanted them to understand the various perspectives at stake - like the one suggesting that child labour can’t be gotten rid of right away because a lot of families wouldn’t survive, and some kids might end up in worse situations. l

DT

24 T-JUNCTION

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015

Wheels

tires

Return of the Victorian dope Royal Enfield’s new Continental GT is a cafe racer with performance, ability and authentic appeal from the 1960s

auto correct

What’s the correct way to lower your car?

(Part 4)

In this fourth and final part of the saga, we will walk you through the things you need in order to properly lower the suspension of your vehicle

n Tahsin Momin Searching specifics for your make and model is what will yield countless possibilities than you will likely ever need. These four things are what you should be keeping an eye out for:

n Tahsin Momin This is the all new Continental GT, and like its namesake of the 60s, it is a stylish cafe racer; bright red paintwork, low handlebars and racing-style humped seat.

Subsequently, you would imagine that this is a hasty tarmac burner with a price tag to match. Hardly!

The original Continental, a tuned 250cc single aimed at young riders, was in fact one of the last bikes ever built before Royal Enfield shut down its original factory at Birmingham in 1967.

And almost half a century later, this mirror identical copy is the most powerful and enchanting bike yet from Royal Enfield’s new factory in India. But it remains true to its heritage; it’s still a simple, single-cylinder, aircooled roadster that produces no more than 30HP and costs just over £5,000.

The Continental is based on Royal Enfield’s old favourite, the Bullet, which has been revamped and modernised during the past decade. However, it is still true to its own character.

Reviving the Continental GT was all about going back to the roots. As such so, that it looked up to Britain once again for

inspiration. It was drafted in joint-venture with Northumberland-based Xenophya for the design work, while the chassis came from Harris Performance of Hertford.

At the heart of it is a mildly tuned version of the traditional pushrod-operated powerplant of the Bullet. While, a larger piston boosts the capacity from 499 to 535cc; revised throttle bodies and bigger cams increase peak power output by a couple of horses. Be that as it may, the proclaimed 30HP looks feeble.

But the ecstasy of the Continental GT is that it combines the bare simplicity of Bullet’s non-threatening performance with significantly increased styling sense. The look is still authentic and in some ways the ride is too. It even has the kick-starter.

Provided that you’re content with vintage style and period charm, rather than speed, the Continental GT hits the sweet spot every single time you take her out for a spin. l

Coilovers These kits are a proper mix of lowering, suspension travel and damping; yes, there are cheaper options like the lowering springs but it is a hard choice to pass up a full set of coilovers. These kits generally include shorter shocks and adjustable spring sleeves, which allow changes to ride height as situation demands, without reducing valuable suspension travel. Moreover, many of these kits are fitted with matched shocks that feature adjustable damping levels.

This gives out a reduced ride height while avoiding many of the problems that are caused when using just the lowering springs.

End links The end links on a lowered suspension is very crucial. They keep several of the other components in place by securing the ends of the suspension frame parts.

These links provide the crucial stability of the suspension kit.

Tie bar The tie bar secures several of the suspension parts in place by extending across the base of the vehicle.

Shocks The most vital part of a lowered suspension kit is the shock absorbers.

Shocks respond to the different driving styles and terrains to provide a smooth ride and to help prevent you from bottoming out. l

New Zealand fast bowler Adam Milne has been ruled out of the remainder of the World Cup after suffering pain in his heel and has been replaced in the squad by Matt Henry

Sport 29

25

DT

REPLACEMENT

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015

SUAREZ STUNNER SINKS MADRID

Soumya in it for the long haul Bangladesh top-order batsman Soumya Sarkar was only one ODI old when he was picked in the final 15-man squad for the World Cup. There were doubts surrounding his ability to perform in the biggest stage but the elegant left-hander put paid to all those worries. The 22-year old looked comfortable batting at No 3 while facing some of the best bowlers in world cricket and scored 175 runs in six innings, including a highest score of 51 against co-hosts New Zealand. The cricketer from Satkhira, who believes either New Zealand or Australia will win the World Cup, managed some time yesterday to share his experience of the flagship event with Minhaz Uddin Khan. ever, I have just started my career and I hope I will overcome them soon.

Dhaka Tribune: The difference between Soumya Sarkar now and before the World Cup.

Soumya: I am yet to feel the difference as it has only been a day since we came back and I have not gone out much. Everyone (family and friends) had expectations on me that I would perform for the team. I think there were a few innings where I looked good but failed to convert those into big ones. This has frustrated my close ones. They are telling me I have shown that I have the ability and now I need to work harder to overcome the glitch.

You played just a single ODI before heading into the World Cup. Yet, you still looked comfortable while facing the world’s best bowlers. What was the secret behind your success?

I had faced a lot of questions as to how I will deal with the opposition attacks in the World Cup having played only one ODI which is equal to zero experience. So, this had settled in the back of my mind and I took up the challenge. I tried not to think of whom I was facing. Rather, I played the way I usually do.

You have played for the Bangladesh A team and in big tournaments like the Bangladesh Premier League Twenty20. Where do you feel the difference lies?

You crafted beautiful starts but was unable to convert them into big scores. What did you lack?

To be honest, I am yet to find out what I am doing wrong. The type of cricket I have played before, in comparison with the World Cup, did not have this amount of pressure. The intensity in A team matches or any domestic

game is not the same that I felt in the World Cup matches. There, I did not have the option to be relaxed. At the same time, bad deliveries are rare in a tournament like the World Cup so it becomes a challenge for a batsman. Concentration is also key. A slight derail of concentration costs your wicket. So, I think I came up short in these aforementioned aspects. How-

While playing for the A team, we never got to know the opposition bowlers unless we played against them before so facing deliveries even at 140 (km/h) at that stage becomes easy. But, in the World Cup or in the international stage, you know the bowler who is about to attack you. This makes you go cautious, pick up some unwanted pressure and take it as a challenge. I think this was a different experience for me as a batsman.

Bangladesh will be facing some of the best sides this year. What are your plans?

If I am given the chance I will try to continue the way I played in the World Cup. The only thing I will need to ensure is not to give away my wicket after getting a start. I will soon start working on it. l

DT

26 Sport

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015

SEMI-FINAL Played: 61 Tied: 0 No result: 5

NEW ZEALAND 23

Wins

S AFRICA 30

At Eden Park, Auckland today (7AM)

Umpires

Rod Tucker (AUS), Ian Gould (ENG) TV umpire: Nigel Llong (ENG) Match referee: David Boon (AUS)

Weather forecast

Fine spells with a few showers. Light winds. Maximum temperature 23 Celsius.

Pitch report New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum (C) smiles during training yesterday ahead of their 2015 Cricket World Cup semifinal match against South Africa at Eden Park in Auckland AFP

2015 ICC WORLD CUP, 1ST SEMI-FINAL, SOUTH AFRICA–NEW ZEALAND

The right to fight before the world in the Coliseum of Melbourne Yousuf Rahman (Babu), former national cricketer, vice captain and first centurion writes from New York for Bangladesh fans all across the globe.

So far, only two teams have breezed through the tournament from the very beginning and reached the “Final Four” - the semi-finals without any major hiccups. New Zealand came close to being embarrassed by Bangladesh in its last fixture of the group stage and India could have been jolted by Zimbabwe had a catch not been floored that could have seen the back of Suresh Raina. However, neither loss would change the team standings as both had secured the top position in their respective groups. The only significant change would be for India had Bangladesh won the day against the Kiwis, in which case it would have had to overcome Sri Lanka in the quarter-final – somewhat of a different ball game than having Bangladesh as the way to the semis. Both Australia and South Africa played two exceptional quarter-finals. While Australia survived a torrid spell of hostile bowling from Wahab Riaz and with the expected aid from the Pakistani fielders managed to overcome Pakistan’s meagre score of 213, South Africa steamrolled the Lankans in one of the most lop-sided quarter-finals in World Cup history.

Based on pure performance, the four best teams are deservingly playing for a place in the final and hence have the opportunity to be called the world champions for the next four years. Let us ponder over the two matches and analyse each match-up from a practical

point of view. Of course, there will always be the “X Factor” that comes into play to determine the final outcome of the match.

idea for Brendon to change his approach and try a more sedate one to smother the Proteas attack.

South Africa has shelved its ‘jinx’ once and for all

Tahir is the ‘X Factor’

In the past South Africa has turned up with some of the best units in world cricket, played the initial rounds with tenacity and won convincingly only to lose when it really mattered, i.e., at the knockout phase. This time, they lost two group stage matches against oppositions (India and Pakistan) that no one really considered as serious threats. Their win against Sri Lanka in the quarter-final was not just a win.

It was the way they won, which was emphatic and dominating. This in itself can drive this team to a new level of intensity that could see them take the day against the Kiwis.

He is the man in the middle for De Villiers who has a lot of faith in his leggie. Pakistan’s loss is South Africa’s gain and Tahir has proven this time and again on center stage. How the Black Caps play him will be the key. If Tahir goes wicketless in the middle, the match will swing in favor of the New Zealanders.

All in all, this should be a cracker of a match. l

PLAYERS TO WATCH Martin Guptill

(New Zealand) The New Zealand opener has woken from a yearlong slump when needed most with his stunning 237 not out against West Indies in the quarter-finals continuing a growing return to form which includes 57 and 105 in his previous two innings.

He has repaid the faith shown in him by the selectors who included him in the World Cup squad despite a wretched run in the lead up to the tournament which included two golden ducks against Sri Lanka.

A strong driver of the ball, and mentored by New Zealand legend Martin Crowe, Guptill has found the form that means New Zealand can rest easy if fellow opener Brendon McCullum fails as he did against the West Indies.

Hashim Amla

Martin Guptill is in a powerful mode but will need some help from the others

He cannot ride the bus alone. Between him, Brendon McCullum and Kane Williamson, the Kiwis have a total of 983 runs with Guptill leading the pack with 498 runs. On the other hand, AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla and David Miller have scored 1015 runs with the individual spread being closer than the Kiwis. The wicket taking numbers favour the Black Caps.

Between their three strike bowlers, Trent Boult, Daniel Vettori and Tim Southee, they have a total of 49 wickets as opposed to the Proteas’ tally of 39 wickets with Imran Tahir leading the pack.

The above scenario clearly indicates that both teams will need a collective effort to come up big in this match. It may not be a bad

Eden Park is a drop-in wicket in a multi-purpose stadium where New Zealand won the Rugby World Cup four years ago. It tends to be a slow wicket and has produced only six innings in excess of 300. The best bowling performance is Trent Boult’s 5-27 against Australia in the World Cup three weeks ago.

South Africa’s captain AB de Villiers speaks to the media at Eden Park yesterday AFP

(South Africa) The fastest player to 20 ODI centuries -- in 111 matches -- and reaching the milestone with his 159 against Ireland in pool play, the elegant strokemaker is due another big one after averaging only 22 in three innings since.

The 31-year-old’s ability to usually get among the runs cannot be questioned with South Africa captain AB de Villiers describing the opening batsman as the “rock” who can be relied on to lay a foundation at the top of the innings.

The Wisden Cricketer of the Year, and fastest batsman to score 4,000 ODI runs, should feel comfortable against the Black Caps pace attack after notching a century when South Africa made a brief tour of New Zealand in October.

DT

Sport 27

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015

‘Mashrafe is one of the best leaders in world cricket’ n Mazhar Uddin from Melbourne

we have done well from number three. I think Tamim [Iqbal] was more disappointed than any other but his 95-run knock against Scotland was vital for us to chase down the 300 plus target. Like him I am also disappointed over his performance and we need to work with him.

Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusingha is the man responsible for the team’s outstanding success in the 2015 cricket World Cup. The 46-year old not only guided his side to the quarter-final for the first time in the country’s history, he also promoted Mahmudullah up the batting order. The rest, as they say, is history as the right-handed batsman emerged as the Tigers’ highest run-scorer in the flagship event.

The former Sri Lankan cricketer is now in Sydney spending time with his family but before departing from Melbourne, he had a brief conversation with the Bangladeshi journalists at a coffee shop yesterday. Here are the excerpts:

Bangladesh were going through tough times when you were named the head coach.

What were your plans for the World Cup and what was your approach heading into the tournament?

I have observed the team during the India series and found out the areas I needed to work on. And in the West Indies we had to play without Shakib [al Hasan] but I had chalked out the plan for the future. I observed the players’ mental strength and after returning to Bangladesh, Dr Phil Jauncey, the psychologist, was included. I have already worked with him. He rectified the personality and the mentality of the cricketers. And then we got to know what are the areas we need to work on.

Which quality or aspect of the cricketers impressed you the most?

I liked their skill as the players are very talented. They just needed to improve their mental strength. And they have started to implement the game plans in the World Cup and I think they did not had that belief earlier. Now, the boys have started to believe in themselves and once you start to believe, it will work as they did in the World Cup.

The fast bowling department looked promising, didn’t it?

Our strength is the spin department and which team we are playing against, that’s important. If the spin works then we will choose the spinners. As they have done well here doesn’t mean they will be the automatic choice and I told them not to get satisfied as they have to perform in every game.

How did Mashrafe bin Mortaza fare as captain?

MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

Previously, more often than not, the cricketers were unable to follow up a victory with another win. Now that it has changed, what do you think has brought about this alteration?

Either you win or lose, that’s not important.

The main thing is the belief of what are your limits and how you can execute those. And, I have made some changes which has been criticised but I know what I have done. Although it will take time but the cricketers are learning very fast.

How challenging was it to shift Mahmudullah from number seven to four?

We had the belief that he has the ability and I think it was the weight of his talent when he was batting at number seven. Mushfiq[ur Rahim] used to bat at number four and he is my best player and he is the unsung hero of this World Cup for Bangladesh. We lost few wickets upfront and I realised that our mid-

‘No one can stop us’, says South Africa skipper de Villiers n AFP After years of South Africa being lumbered with the “chokers” tag, captain AB de Villiers boldly declared Monday the World Cup was theirs for the taking this time.

De Villiers was in a confident mood on the eve of the semi-final in Auckland against New Zealand with neither side having made a World Cup final before.

Ahead, lies a date next weekend in Melbourne with the winner of Thursday’s second semi-final between defending champions India and former winners Australia.

“We have a lot of confidence behind us. I feel the team is in a really good space at a really good time. We have a lot of reason to be confident,” de Villiers said.

“If we play to our full potential, no one is going to stop us in this tournament.”

In a brief series at the start of the New Zealand summer, South Africa came out on top 2-0 before New Zealand won a warm up match days before the World Cup started.

In previous World Cups they have met six

times with New Zealand holding the edge 4-2, including the last three encounters.

However, de Villiers was not interested in looking back. All that mattered to him was how his class of 2015 performed.

“There has been a lot of emphasis on our past and South Africa not doing well at World Cups. I have gone through the whole package of emotions, fighting it, accepting it, then fighting it again,” he said.

“I honestly am not putting emphasis on that at all.

“We know if we play a good game of cricket we will come out on top. We are that confident in our abilities as a cricket team.

“We have been through a lot of hardship in the past with our World Cup games but we feel very fresh and are very excited for tomorrow.”

The semi-final may be a high-stakes game, and New Zealand have talked about the hours spent analysing the South Africans, but de Villiers was not concerned about the New Zealanders nor the injury that has ruled out speedster Adam Milne. l

dle order needed to play well. And, what I explained to the cricketers, they realised it and took the challenge pretty well. Our team have the number one all-rounder but we played as a team and I think we are going in the right direction.

Say something about Soumya Sarkar, the new star of Bangladesh cricket.

I think Soumya, he is the best young talented cricketer of this team and I am not talking about the established cricketers. He is the best among the young players and we need to take good care of him as we can’t discourage him if he does not play well for a few matches.

You can take the example of Steven Smith who was out of the side for three years but now he is the best batsman of the Australian side.

Your thoughts on the Bangladesh opening pair which failed to spark in the World Cup. It’s difficult to face the new balls in the conditions like Australia and New Zealand but

He has done a tremendous job as he is a leader. He has set the example of a perfect leader.

I think he means a lot to the cricketers and he has taken out the best from the cricketers and he is one of the best leaders in world cricket at the moment.

Do you think the coach should have a role in team selection?

It depends on the board. Australia already started to do that as Darren Lehmann is involved in team selection and the coach of New Zealand (Mike Hesson) also selects the side and they have only one selector (Bruce Edgar). I think it depends on the success to start the tradition.

What is your expectation on the upcoming Pakistan series at home?

We never played without high ambitions but Pakistan are a strong team in the subcontinent. But, I believe there are strong chances to put up a good show after the successful World Cup as the players are in good form and I think we can play well. l

INTRA EAST-WEST UNIVERSITY BADMINTON

The 2nd Intra East-West University badminton tournament got underway with the participation of its students, faculty members and members of the administration across the male and female categories.

Smashers and Arefin Brothers reached the final of the boy’s doubles while Ovi and Shanai made it to the boy’s singles final after day two of the three-day event. Meanwhile, Smashers and Wraith Troopers have also booked their place in the mixed doubles final. l

DT

28 Sport

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015

Djokovic fells Federer to keep Indian Wells title

n Reuters, Indian Wells

(L-R) Bangladesh Under-23 football team skipper Raihan Hasan, Wahed Ahmed, Sohel Rana and Hemanta Vincent Biswas share a light moment at the BFF House yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

World number one Novak Djokovic fought off a determined challenge from Swiss great Roger Federer on Sunday to claim back-to-back titles at Indian Wells and celebrate his 50th tournament win on the ATP Tour.

The Serb made hard work of his 6-3 6-7(5) 6-2 victory in the BNP Paribas Open final, giving up the second set after serving three double-faults, but he recovered to clinch a fourth trophy at Indian Wells following victories in 2008, 2011 and 2014.

Djokovic joins Federer as the only other man to win the tournament four times.

Enjoying a fine season that started with a fifth Australian Open triumph, Djokovic thrashed semi-finalist Andy Murray, the man he beat at Melbourne Park, and showed the same ruthless efficiency in the opening set against Federer.

The Serb broke in the fifth game and with his powerful, deep returns caused constant problems for his opponent.

He dropped just four points on serve and after taking the opening set, it was hard to see how the 33-year-old Swiss could recover.

But Federer, trailing 4-3, lifted his game to break Djokovic, bringing the Californian crowd to their feet. l

De Kruif urges low expectation n Raihan Mahmood Lodewijk de Kruif, the Dutch head coach of Bangladesh football team urged to keep the expectations low in the AFC Under-23 Group E Qualifiers scheduled to start from March 27 in Dhaka.

De Kruif and his coaching staff appeared before the press at the BFF House yesterday and informed how he is seeing things. “After 14 days of preparation we are doing very well, we are getting prepared step by step and making progress every day, although we know we have a big role to play in the upcoming tournament, we have to play two very good countries – Syria and Uzbekistan – and let’s say India are on our level but still they are ahead of us.

“Expectations in case of winning games are not very high when facing Syria and Uzbekistan as they are at the moment ranked higher than us,” said De Kruif before adding, “To reach that level we have to play international matches.”

He said, “For us the expectations are to form a good team with organisation specially in the defence, but in football everything can happen, our U-23 team have the experience of playing against very good countries and survive, we will fight for the country and see what opportunities we have.”

U-23 skipper Raihan Hasan also echoed his mentor but vowed to make their presence felt.

The national defender said, “We did not train for many days but we have the target of securing at least the runners-up spot and stay alive

in the tournament.”

Meanwhile, Christian Schweichler, the German goalkeeping coach who was flown in just few days back, said he has been focusing on the modern mode of goalkeeping.

“These days goalkeeping is a little bit different from the past, it’s not the man standing under the bar especially in high level football, its not just catching the ball, you need special skills, a goalkeeper has to act like a player, he has to read the game, you have to organise the defence, that’s where I am focused on, though I had a short time I hope it will be implemented duly, I want to see them implement what we have talked.”

Bangladesh play Syria on March 27 before facing Uzbekistan on March 29 and India two days later. l

Khanjanpur lift national school hockey title n Raihan Mahmood Khanjanpur High School, Joypurhat clinched the title of the First Security Islami Bank National School Hockey beating Armanitola Government High School, Dhaka 2-1 at the Moulana Bhashani National Hockey Stadium yesterday.

Mohammed Shihab Hossain of Armanitola put his team ahead in the 9th minute but Fahim Faisal of Khanjanpur restored parity in the 35th minute. Amiruddin Fakir netted the winner in the 44th minute. The champions received Tk3,00,000 while the runners-up pocketed Tk2,00,000.

JM Sen High School of Chittagong, who fin-

ished third, collected Tk1,00,000 while Rafikuddin High School, Comilla bagged the Fair Play trophy.

Shihab was adjudged the best forward, Arman of Armanitola was named the best goalkeeper while Yamin and Ashraful of Khanjanpur were rewarded with the trophies of the best defender and the best midfielder respectively.

State Minister for Youth and Sports Biren Sikder distributed the prizes as the chief guest.

Federation president Air Marshal Enamul Bari, First Security Islami Bank Managing Director Syed Wasek Mohammed Ali and tournament committee chairman Mahfuzur Rahman were also present on the occasion. l

Players and officials of Khanjanpur High School, Joypurhat pose with the national school hockey trophy at the Moulana Bhashani National Hockey Stadium yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

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Sport 29

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015

Tevez lifts Juventus, Roma beat Cesena n Reuters, Rome Juventus striker Carlos Tevez scored a magnificent first-half goal, and later missed a penalty, as the runaway Serie A leaders won 1-0 at home to mid-table Genoa on Sunday.

Juve’s third straight victory by the same scoreline put them on 67 points as they remain 14 points clear of second-placed AS Roma, who also won 1-0 at lowly Cesena, with 10 games left. Despite the size of their lead, Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri remained cautious, telling Sky Sport Italia: “We haven’t won anything yet.

We’ll celebrate when the time comes.”

Tevez scored when he collected a pass from Claudio Marchisio on the edge of the area in the 25th minute and ran past Andrea Bertolacci and Sebastien De Maio before rifling a shot past Mattia Perin from an acute angle that went in off the bar. l

Bayern suffer home defeat to Gladbach n AFP Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich suffered only their third defeat of the season on Sunday as they lost 2-0 at home to Borussia Moenchengladbach, whose Brazilian striker Raffael scored twice.

It was Bayern’s first home defeat of the season and was only Gladbach’s third win in Munich in 47 league games, lifting Lucien Favre’s side back to third in the table.

Following a defeat to Manchester City in the Champions League’s group stages in November and a 4-1 thrashing at Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga in January, it was only Bayern’s third defeat in all competitions this campaign. Despite the loss, Bayern still hold a ten-point lead at the top of the table and are on course for a third straight league title. l

Real coaches Palestinian children in West Bank

n AFP Hundreds of Palestinian children on Monday attended a football training session given

by Spanish giants Real Madrid in the West Bank, as part of a charitable project organised through the UN. The Real Madrid Foundation sent professional coaches to the Palestinian territories for three days of training with children at schools run by the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA. Suma Abdelrahman, a young teenager, was enthralled after taking part in a session organised in Ramallah. Having been granted permission by Israel to come from the blockaded Gaza Strip for training, she proudly sported her black Real Madrid replica shirt, with the name of Spanish defender Sergio Ramos on the back. l

LA LIGA RESULTS Deportivo la Coruna

0-0

Villarreal

0-2

Espanyol Sevilla (Coke 50, Vitolo 65)

Real Sociedad

3-1

(Agirretxe 34, Castro 75, Finnbogason 90+2)

Barcelona (Mathieu 18, Suarez 56)

Cordoba (Andone 12)

2-1

Real Madrid (Ronaldo 31)

Real Madrid’s Gareth Bale (L) reacts as Barcelona’s Lionel Messi (R) celebrates with teammates at the end of their Spanish first division match at Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona on Sunday REUTERS

Suarez stunner sinks Madrid n AFP

Barcelona moved four points clear at the top of La Liga as Luis Suarez’s brilliant individual effort handed them a 2-1 win over Real Madrid on Sunday.

Jeremy Mathieu headed Barca in front early on from Lionel Messi’s free-kick, but Cristiano Ronaldo hit back at his critics in recent weeks with a deserved equaliser before the break.

Suarez was to have the final say, though, as he registered his first goal in El Clasico by controlling Dani Alves’s long ball before turning to strike into the far corner.

“It is my most important goal for Barca so far, it has an extra meaning given the opponents that it was against,” Suarez told TV3.

Barca boss Luis Enrique hailed the Uruguayan’s quality and said that is why the Catalans splashed out a club record fee for him despite his checkered past.

“It is clear the goal is something very few players can do. That is why we signed him. We valued him because he is a player that makes the difference,” said Enrique.

“Ever since he arrived we have been very happy with his performances, his commitment and everything he does for the team.”

A third defeat in four games for Madrid will see coach Carlo Ancelotti come under increasing pressure to hold onto his job, but he insisted he had been encouraged by his side’s performance for the first hour.

“We played a lot better until the second goal. After that it was very difficult,” said the Italian. “In the first-half we played very well, we had control, were dangerous up front and solid at the back.

“We lacked a bit of a cool head to try and equalise rather than playing long balls.”

And Ancelotti believes Madrid’s title fight is far from over despite dropping eight points in their last four league games.

PDB beat BGB n Raihan Mahmood

DAY’S WATCH BTV, Gazi TV, Maasranga TV Star Sports 1, 3 7:00AM ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 SF1: New Zealand v South Africa

“Four points is obviously an advantage for Barcelona. We won’t give up, particularly because of the way we played in the first-half.

We have to keep going to try and play like that for 90 minutes.”

Madrid started the brighter as Karim Benzema pulled a shot wide of the far post before his teasing cross was volleyed onto the bar at the back post by Ronaldo.

However, it was Barca who went in front on 18 minutes when Mathieu headed home Messi’s in-swinging free-kick from the left for his first league goal for the club.

Neymar should have doubled the hosts’ advantage on the half hour when he fired straight at Iker Casillas with the goal gaping after a mishit Suarez shot rolled across goal.

Seconds later Real were level thanks to a lovely move as Benzema backheeled Luka Modric’s pass into Ronaldo’s path and he poked the ball past Claudio Bravo on the stretch. l

An action from the volleyball match between Bangladesh Navy and Bangladesh Police at the volleyball stadium yesterday COURTESY

Defending champions Bangladesh Power Development Board defeated Border Guard Bangladesh by 3-0 games at the volleyball stadium yesterday.

In the other matches of the day, Bangladesh Navy outplayed Bangladesh Police by 3-2 games while Bangladesh Army outplayed Bangladesh Jail by 3-0 games.

FM Iqbal bin Anwar Dawn, the first senior additional director of Walton, inaugurated the event as the chief guest. Chief of international marketing Walton, Lokman Hossain Akash, volleyball federation general secretary Ashikur Rahman Miku and joint secretary Fazley Rabbi Babul were also present on the occasion. l

DT

30 DOWNTIME

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Stringed instruments (5) 4 Little devil (3) 6 Ugly amphibian (4) 8 Dance (5) 9 Position (4) 11 Associate (4) 12 Traditional stories (5) 15 Raised platform (5) 18 Fingerling salmon (4) 20 Dry (4) 21 Sky-coloured (5) 22 Touched (4) 23 Make lace (3) 24 Kind of wheat (5)

DOWN 1 Seraglio (5) 2 Send money (5) 3 Heavenly bodies (5) 4 Worshipped image (4) 5 Sympathetic sorrow (4) 7 Separated (5) 10 Garden pest (4) 13 Period of time (4) 14 Multitude (5) 15 Short gaiters (5) 16 Sharp (5) 17 Make effort (5) 18 Agreement (4) 19 Fissure (4)

CODE-CRACKER How to solve: Each number in our CODECRACKER grid represents a different letter of the alphabet. For example, today 3 represents M so fill M every time the figure 3 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.

A B C D E FG H I J K L M N O P Q RST UVWXYZ

SUDOKU

CALVIN AND HOBBES

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.

PEANUTS

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

DILBERT

SUDOKU

DT

SHOWTIME 31

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015

Take a bow n Mahmood Hossain

After six seasons of this high school musical, the final curtain has arrived. The last episode of the final season came to an end on March 20. While the last episode garnered the highest ratings of the season, it comes nowhere near the number expected. In true hopeful fashion, there was a sneak peek into the future to see where each character ended up. There was also a McKinley High reunion which signaled a Finn Hudson Memorial Auditorium. Honouring the passing of Cory Monteith. Emotional it was, as expected, but the audience turn out was a disappointment. The truth is in the numbers.

In its first three seasons, the show averaged around 9.3 million, 11.6 and 7.3 viewers. Unfortunately, the writers ran head first into the biggest problem in a high school TV show. The subject of graduation could not be given a smooth transition. The evolution of characters fell short, and naturally, the audience grew further apart from the characters they began to love. The last season of Glee only averaged 1.92 million viewers, a stark difference from its peak position. Some will blame the no-show of many could be blamed on the on-demand or Web based streaming services on various devices.

Others may simply take the decline in interest when one of the main actors, Cory, had passed away. There was a sudden shift in the plot, almost an empty feeling. And that gap was never fully rectified. l

New serial Dohon on the air

CELEBS ON SOCIAL

CANDICE SWSWANEPOEL @angelcandice Africaaaaahhhh https://instagram. com/p/0cPZXOyfFh/

Sazzad Hossain

n Showtime Desk Playwright and maker Aranyo Anwar brings a new TV serial titled Dohon which premiered last Sunday on ATN Bangla.

Focusing on the contemporary social issues, the cast of the serial includes Aruna Biswas, Najnin Chumki, Prova, Shamima Tushti, Samapti, Shahadat Hossain and others.

About the serial, Aruna Biswas said, “As the serial focuses on our society’s present-day matters, we the actors feel

compelled to work in the serial. Through the dialogues of the serial, necessary and thought provoking messages have been carried out.”

Director Aranyo Anwar said, “Certainly the audience would decide whether it is successful or not, but I can assure that no negligence were cropped up during shooting. I have spent one hundred percent potentials in the serial.”

52 episodes of the serial have wrapped up, which are all set to be aired soon. l

AYUSHMANN KHURRANA @ayushmannk The root word of Guptill is Gupta. The community is genetically good with extreme numbers and digits. #CWC15 #highestscore #DoubleCentury MARK RUFFALO @MarkRuffalo It’s #WorldWaterDay! Win a trip to the premiere of @ Avengers 2 by supporting @WaterDefense. Every little bit helps! http://bit. ly/1CoTitv

WHAT TO WATCH TELEVISION

JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT B

HBO 06:53 pm Cast: Chris Pine, Kenneth Branagh, Keira Knightley, Kevin Costner, Gemma Chan Jack Ryan, a secret CIA agent, uncovers a carefully planned scheme to crash the US economy and is the only man with the skills to stop it.

SHOOT ‘EM UP B

WB 07:36 pm Cast: Paul Giamatti, Monica Bellucci, Stephen McHattie, Greg Bryk, Daniel Pilon After saving a newborn infant from assassins, gunman Mr Smith teams up with a woman named DQ to protect the baby.

UNINHABITED C

Zee Studio 11:50 pm Cast: Geraldine Hakewill, Tasia Zalar, Bobs Baines, Billy Milionis, Terry Siourounis, Henry James A couple’s holiday on a deserted island paradise takes a horrifying turn when they realise they’re not the only ones here.

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32 BACK PAGE

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015

BASIC LOST TK2,700CR IN 2014 PAGE 15

SOUMYA IN IT FOR THE LONG HAUL PAGE 25 M

A

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C

H

NEW SERIAL DOHON ON THE AIR PAGE 31 1

9

7

1

D

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Negotiating from strength

Y

This extract is the penultimate part of a series that concludes on March 25, in which we reproduce Rehman Sobhan’s contemporaneous account of the events of that momentous month in Bangladeshi history. This was first published in Forum on March 20, 1971

n Rehman Sobhan

The first design of the national flag made during the 1971 war is carried as part of a procession by the Liberation War Affairs Ministry and Bangladesh Police in Dhaka yesterday SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Flag Day observed n Nure Alam Durjoy With the slogan “Revolution for flag, the flag of glory”, the National Flag Day 2015 was observed at Suhrawardy Udyan yesterday.

People of all ages, especially students and teachers from different schools and colleges in the capital, attended the ceremony organised

by Jatiya Pataka Utsab Udjapan Committee.

They held up flags of Bangladesh and shouted the “Joy Bangla” slogan.

Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Huq inaugurated the programme by freeing balloons up in the sky at 10am.

Among others, HT Imam, public administration affairs adviser to the prime minister, IGP AKM Shahidul Hoque, DMP Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia, and Sector Commanders Forum leaders were present.

Earlier in the day, an art competition was held among school children. All the partici-

pants were below the ninth grade, and they drew flags and portrayed freedom fighters from the war period. Seven contestants were awarded at the programme after the competition.

Dr Khandaker Bazlul Haque, member secretary of Jatiya Pataka Utsab Udjapan Committee, said the ceremony would add to the values of the young people which eventually would help build a secular country.

Noman, a student of Rajarbagh Police Lines School and College who came with his classmates and teachers at the programme, pointed at a flag and said: “This is our national flag. On this day, the flag was hoisted by student leaders.”

After the lunch break, a cultural programme was held where artistes from Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra, close-up one singer Mehrab, and bands Souls and Bappa and Friends performed till evening. l

The second miscalculation carne from the belief that Mujib would not gain sufficient command of the situation to bring the law and order situation under his control so quickly, so that even the excuse of wanton loot and mayhem, which was serving as a fig leaf for Operation Genocide, was not available to them.

Yahya’s report of loot and murder as the justification for killings had by March 6 ceased to bear any relation to reality. The calm which prevails in Dacca since his arrival is evidence enough of Mujib’s authority.

Within West Pakistan itself the front began to crumble. Chairman Bhutto had been assigned the role of rousing the masses against Bangladesh. He went around circulating the totally tendentious canard that Six Points meant the perpetual domination of West Pakistan by Bengalis when in fact it meant a repudiation of this very principle.

In this task it was expected that Mr. Bhutto would use his control over the masses to intimidate other parties in West Pakistan into boycotting the Assembly so that confrontation would be total.

Bhutto’s task had temporary success, but by the end of February the attempt was fac-

ing disaster and the only party which had joined the boycott was the Qayyum Muslim League. This party had all along been receiving support or patronage from a certain section of the administration who now pressured them into lining up with Bhutto.

It is well known that Rizvi, director of Central Intelligence, had openly persuaded prominent figures to join the QML, and that Major General Omar was also soliciting support for this party in the election along with Nawab Qizalbash.

Rizvi and Omar along with Major General Akber, the Service Intelligence chief, appear to have switched their support to Bliutto after the QML’s debacle, and there is evidence that Omar actually canvassed MNAs outside the PPP and QML against attending the Assembly.

When even three members of the QML booked their seats for Dacca and Bhutto faced the threat that more than half of his Sindhi MNAs and some from Punjab would also take the flight, the Omar-Akber axis, buttressed by Bhutto’s new adviser and intimate, MM Ahmed, had to intervene.

They seem to have mounted sufficient pressure to bail Bhutto out by having the Assembly session postponed.

It is not certain if the additional time was desired to firm up the crumbling West Wing front behind Bhutto to ensure a total confrontation with Bangla Desh or whether they wanted to sabotage the entire attempt to restore democracy. l

I’M MADE IN BANGLADESH: TODAY’S WINNERS STORY OF THE DAY Believe it or not, the happiest moment for me was when I got a visa refusal letter from the Canadian High Commission, My parents had wanted me to study abroad and settle down there, and showing respect to them, I applied and was accepted by a renowned university. But I feel that I can live a happy life with inner peace and dignity only when I’m in my beloved country. And now I’m doing fine with my study and my life. This photo was taken after getting that letter.

Story: Monirul Islam

PHOTO OF THE DAY

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Photo: G'son Biswas

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