28 May, 2015

SECOND EDITION

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

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Jyoistha 14, 1421, Sha’ban 9, 1436

ROHINGYA CAMPS TO SHIFT TO HATIYA PAGE 3

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Regd No DA 6238, Vol 3, No 46

CTG DOUBLE MURDER SUSPECT CONFESSES PAGE 5

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

TRADITIONAL LIVELIHOODS AT RISK IN TEESTA BASIN PAGE 32

The void caused by subsidence beside the Sundarban Hotel at Karwan Bazar is being filled with sand yesterday while the building still faces risk as several large cracks have developed on it

Land subsidence puts hotel building at risk n Kamrul Hasan The sudden subsidence of land at the construction site of a multi-storied building in Dhaka yesterday put the building of popular Hotel Sundarban at risk, triggering an evacuation.

The incident damaged a part of the hotel’s basement and boundary wall, ate up a big part of the adjacent Bir Uttam CR Dutta Road near the Karwan Bazar intersection and took down several tea stalls, rickshaw vans, trees and electricity poles. However, there has been no report of any casualties.

Witnesses said that around 7:30am, torrential rain triggered a subsidence at the construction site of the twin towers of the National Bank Limited. The boundary wall and parts of the basement of the Hotel Sundarban were damaged immediately. Soon, with a loud bang, part of the road caved into the piling site.

Immediately, Sundarban evacuated all of its 25 boarders as the hotel building developed several cracks.

Brig Gen Ali Ahmed Khan, acting director general of the Fire Service and Civil Defence, also said the hotel building might collapse if

MEHEDI HASAN

Rajuk official shifts blame on owners n Abu Hayat Mahmud

immediate steps were not taken.

The authorities restricted vehicular movement on the road near the subsidence site, giving rise to hours of traffic congestions in the surrounding busy roads. Law enforcers were deployed in the area to control an inquisitive crowd so that nobody got hurt in case there were any further shift in soil.

Utility authorities disconnected water, gas and power supply in the adjacent areas because some of these lines were also damaged in the incident.

In a joint effort around 12:30pm, Dhaka

Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha (Rajuk) has said it would investigate into yesterday’s land subsidence at a Karwan Bazar construction site and take legal measures against the people responsible for the incident.

The investigation would be conducted alongside probe by teams from the two city corporations, additional member of Rajuk Planning Division Md Abdur Rahman told journalists during his visit to the scene of the incident yesterday.

Blaming Rajuk’s irresponsibility for the incident, Dhaka North City Corporation

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2 Garo woman rape accused held Mujaheed’s final verdict June 16 n Kamrul Hasan Members of the Rapid Action Battalion early yesterday arrested two drivers who raped an indigenous woman on a moving microbus in the capital on May 21.

Ashraf alias Tushar, 36, was arrested at Kalapara in Patuakhali around 1am and Jahidul Islam Lavlu, 26, from Gulshan 1 around 5am yesterday, RAB’s Director (legal and media wing) Mufti Mahmud Khan told reporters

PAGE 3 Bangladesh to take back all its nationals adrift at sea

at the elite force’s headquarters in Uttara.

They both are drivers at a buying house named Signet at Banani. RAB seized the microbus (Dhaka Metro Cha 15-4701) used in the crime from a house in the same area.

RAB members came out successful though Bhatara police are investigating the case, filed by the victim the following day, and another police team monitoring the probe.

Mufti Mahmud confirmed that there was

PAGE 4 Divisions to get antitrafficking tribunals

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n Ashif Islam Shaon The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court is set to deliver its verdict on June 16 in the appeal case of Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed, who had led the systematic killing of intellectuals at the fag end of the 1971 Liberation War as the chief of notorious death squad al-Badr.

A four-member bench headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha set the date

PAGE 5 Rajeeb’s father testifies against Ansarullah killers

yesterday after concluding arguments by both defence and state counsels.

During the nine days of hearing on the appeal, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam argued for the state while BNP chief’s Adviser Khandker Mahbub Hossain and SM Shajahan stood for the Jamaat leader.

Mujaheed’s lawyers argued that the Jamaat leader had not served as the chief of al-Badr.

Even the investigation officer did not find

PAGE 8 EU asks its members to admit 40,000 asylum seekers

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PAGE 32 Tk22,000cr to be allocated for pay hike

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2 NEWS

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

Salahuddin sent to jail for 14 days n Tribune Report A Shillong court yesterday sent BNP Joint Secretary General Salahuddin Ahmed to jail for 14 days in a case filed for illegal intrusion in India under the Foreigners Act. Magistrate KNL Nombary passed the order after a short hearing in the case and also asked the Shillong police authorities to complete Salahuddin’s medical check-up before sending him to jail.

Earlier on Tuesday, the BNP leader was discharged from the specialised hospital North

Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (Neigrihms).

During the hearing, Meghalaya police did not ask the court for permission to remand him in their custody.

The BNP joint secretary general was brought to the court earlier in the day amid tight security.

BNP Joint Secretary General Salahuddin Ahmed was discharged from Neigrihms in Shillong on Tuesday, six days after he was admitted there.

The spokesperson of the BNP has been receiving treatment under police custody since

he reappeared in Shillong on May 11 after going missing in Bangladesh for two months.

Later, he was admitted to Shillong Civil Hospital in Meghalaya.

On May 20, the BNP leader was shifted to Neigrihms for better treatment.

His wife, Hasina Ahmed, wants to take him to Singapore for treatment and says she is confident the Indian court would grant him bail on medical grounds.

She says they are worried that India might hand him over to Bangladesh considering the Interpol red notice on him. l

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

2 Garo woman gang rape accused held no other person on the microbus during the incident.

On May 17, Tushar along with two South African women went to the shop in Jamuna Future Park where the victim works as a sales person and pretended to be a senior official of a buying house. Offering her a better job, he asked the woman to prepare a resume and they exchanged contact numbers.

He planned to rape the woman the same night and shared the plan with his colleagues – Lavlu and Firoz. Tushar kept contact with the woman. They were supposed to meet on May 18, but she declined.

On May 21, Tushar asked the woman to wait at Kuril bus stand when she finishes her work, Mufti Mahmud said.

Lavlu was driving the microbus while Tushar sitting in the back seat when they met the woman around 9:30pm. Tushar got down and asked whether she recognised him. As she said “yes,” Tushar offered her a lift to her home at Jasim Uddin Road in Uttara saying that they were going to airport area.

As she declined the offer, Tushar forcibly pulled her into the microbus. Later both Tushar and Lavlu raped the woman while

driving the vehicle on Kuril Flyover and adjacent areas for around one and a half hours.

When the woman tried to scream for help, Tushar threatened to throw her out of the microbus, officials said. They later dropped her at Jasim Uddin Road.

The victim filed the case with Bhatara police on May 22, after several hours of hectic attempts at Turag and Gulshan police stations.

She alleged that five miscreants raped her and told investigators that during the incident, she heard the name of Tushar only.

On May 23, forensic doctors at Dhaka Medical College Hospital found sign of gang rape.

Asked about the number of rapists, RAB Additional Director General (operations) Ziaul Ahsan said it might be a mistake since the girl had been traumatised following the incident.

He said RAB had two persons – Firoz and Khokon – as witnesses in the case. The identity of Khokon could not be confirmed.

When contacted, victim’s sister said they did not have any objection over RAB’s findings.

Different organisations and individuals have been demonstrating on the streets and condemned the incident on social media

expressing concern over the insecurity the working women often face.

The incident created much hype since the law enforcers have failed to arrest many of the perpetrators responsible for gang rape, rape and sexual harassment of women and children that took place recently.

Following the arrests, Bangladesh Garo Chhatra Sangathan yesterday held a rally at TSC on Dhaka University campus and demanded death penalty of the culprits.

Adivasi Chhatra Sangram Parishad also brought out a procession on the campus over the same demand.

The High Court on Monday sought explanation from the police for delaying to register the case and asked the police and the government to explain why the girl should not be compensated for the delay in recording the case.

The court also ordered the government to make sure that the police accept any rape complaint and serve all victims without any discrimination in the future. It asked the authorities concerned to explain why action should not be taken against the police members responsible for “negligence.” l

north and south city corporations started filling up the void created by the slide with different kinds of sand and brick dust. Officials said the filling of land would continue for two days.

There is still no official word on the exact reason behind the subsidence but Buet Professor Ahmed Ansari, after visiting the site, said the three-tier under construction basement of the NBL twin tower is very weak and the method followed was not correct either.

“As an immediate step to prevent any further disaster, the first thing that the authorities should do is filling up the excavated place with land,” Prof Ansari said.

Md Wazed Ali, general manager of the hotel, said he had filed a general diary (GD) against the construction companies with the Kalabagan police station.

Md Farook Hossain, executive director of the hotel, said: “We have stopped boarding order on security grounds. The hotel will be reopened after security is ensured.”

He also claimed that a few days ago, they had warned the construction company that such an accident might happen.

However, when contacted, Md Salauddin, owner of MAM Imtext and MS Construction, the sub-contract companies doing the work of laying the deep foundation for building, de-

nied allegations that the collapse was a result of flaws in their work.

He said they got the sub-contract from South Korean company Dong Ha, the main constructor of the bank building.

Salauddin also said the building was being erected on a 64-katha land and they had excavated some 50 feet of land starting in the first week of April without any problem.

He said the boundary wall of the hotel collapsed first and damaged the sewerage and drainage pipes beneath. When the pipes got broken, water came out and created pressure on the surrounding earth, eventually triggering the slide.

“We are lucky that the accident happened at that time. There could have been casualties if it happened just half an hour later. Our workers would have started working by then,” he said.

Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) Mayor Annisul Huq visited the spot around 10:45am. He said: “This area falls under Dhaka south. But it does not matter where it falls.

The area is very risky and out main duty now is to make things safe for people again.”

A little later, Dhaka South City Corporation Mayor Sayeed Khokon and local lawmaker Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh also visited the site. Both of them held Rajuk – Dhaka city

development authorities who approve and monitor building construction projects – for the incident.

Taposh said: “I think the Rajuk authorities are fully responsible for this incident. Action should be taken against the people concerned for their negligence.”

In a press conference around 4 o’clock in the afternoon, DNCC boss Annisul said that Rajuk authorities had told him that they were forming a probe committee. But Annisul told them to do whatever they want but the city corporation would form its own committee to look in to the incident.

He also said that around 1,500 trucks of sand and two days would be needed to fill the entire place dug for laying the deep foundation of the under-construction building.

“It is not going to be as easy as we thought it would be,” the mayor said.

He also said that an expert team from the Army had visited the spot and looked at the filling up work. “Hopefully, we will be able to overcome the situation in a short time.”

Fakhrul Amin, professor of civil engineering at Buet, said that some 30-35m area around the site of the collapse is very risky.

“People must keep away from this area to avoid any further accident,” he suggested.l

Land subsidence puts hotel building at risk

Rajuk official Mayor Annisul Huq and Dhaka South City Corporation Mayor Sayeed Khokon announced at the spot, in presence of local MP Fazle Noor Tapash, that they would form a committee to investigate into the incident.

The committee would include representatives from the Army Engineering Corps, Fire Service, Rajuk, Dhaka north and south city corporations and others concerned.

Rajuk officials said the investigation would be conducted following the Building Construction Act 1952 (amendment 1987) and the Real Estate Development and Management Act 2010.

Rajuk official Abdur Rahman, however, said the responsibility of the setback fell on the owners of the under-construction building and Sundarban Hotel.

“Rajuk may have some irresponsibility, but the major defaulter is the building owners,” he said. “After ending the investigation, steps will be taken against the people responsible.”

He further said the construction company did not follow the building code, causing the vulnerable situation.

Earlier, Rajuk officials said the authority sometimes could not take action against illegal buildings due to High Court stay orders.

The regulator, in a survey conducted during 2008-2010, identified more than 300 vulnerable buildings in Dhaka city.

Rajuk, the regulator of planning, development and monitoring of real estate sector in Dhaka city and its adjoining areas, undertook the Detailed Area Plan (DAP) in 2004 to develop Dhaka into a more organised and better structured metropolitan, encompassing the peripheral areas like Savar, Narayanganj and Gazipur. But very little of the DAP has so far been implemented.l

Mujaheed verdict his name on the list of al-Badr, another defence lawyer Shishir Monir claimed.

The attorney general later told reporters that most of the Islami Chhatra Sangha members had joined al-Badr. Mentioning about the speech of Chhatra Sangha chief in December 1971, and citing newspaper clippings and books, he argued that it was Mujaheed who had led the notorious death squad.

“Mujaheed encouraged al-Badr members to commit murders by giving speech against the freedom fighters and the Hindus. We hope that the court will upheld his death penalty,” Mahbubey said.

Mujaheed led al-Badr, formed with members of Jamaat’s student wing as an auxiliary force of the Pakistani occupation forces, during the war.

The tribunal 2 on July 17, 2013 sentenced the 67-year-old Jamaat secretary general to death after it found him guilty on five out of seven charges brought against him by the prosecution.

He was given death penalty on two charges – for abetting and facilitating killing of intellectuals, and participating in and facilitating the murder of nine Hindu civilians in Faridpur.

Mujaheed appealed against the tribunal verdict on August 11, 2013 seeking acquittal.

So far, the Appellate Division has delivered verdict in three appeals cases – upheld death sentences awarded to Jamaat assistant secretaries general Abdul Quader Molla and Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, commuted death penalty of another Jamaat leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee to imprisonment until death.

Quader Molla was executed on December 12, 2013 while Kamaruzzaman on April 11 this year.

The bench is set to hear seven more appeals cases. l

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THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

Rohingya camps to be relocated to Hatiya n AFP Bangladesh plans to relocate thousands of Rohingya who have spent years in refugee camps near the Myanmar border to a southern island, a government official said yesterday.

The government has started planning the relocation to Hatiya island in the Bay of Bengal in a move backed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said Additional Secretary Amit Kumar Baul.

“The relocation of the Rohingya camps will definitely take place. So far informal steps have been taken according to the PM’s directives,” Baul, head of the government’s Myanmar Refugee Cell, told the AFP. A Rohingya leader urged the government

to cancel the plans, saying it would only make life worse for the refugees – many of whom have been languishing in the camps for years since they left Myanmar.

“We want the [Bangladesh] government and international organisations to resolve our issue from here,” Mohammad Islam, a community leader in one of the camps, told the AFP. Bangladesh is home to 32,000 registered Rohingya refugees who are sheltering in two camps in the southeastern district of Cox’s Bazar which borders Myanmar.

Baul said the move was partly prompted by concerns the camps were holding back tourism in Cox’s Bazar.

“The government has been paying [in-

creasing] importance to the tourism sector.

Therefore, a plan to relocate them to an isolated area is under process,” he said.

News of the plan comes just days after Hasina slammed Bangladesh’s own economic migrants, many of whom are stranded in dire conditions at sea, calling them “mentally sick” and accusing them of hurting the country’s image.

The island plan has not been formally announced, but officials have been tasked with preparing for the relocation.

Badre Firdaus, government administrator of Hatiya island, said 500 acres (200 hectares) of land has been identified as suitable for the relocation.

Before Myanmar seized migrant boat, Rohingya whisked away

Myanmar government officials and UN officials stand on a boat used for human trafficking at a jetty outside Sittwe, Myanmar last Saturday

n Reuters When Myanmar navy seized a people smugglers’ boat last week, it announced that the 200 found aboard were mostly Bangladeshis.

But in interviews with Reuters, people who were on the boat said between 150-200 Rohingya were aboard at one point many of whom were quietly whisked away before the ship was caught.

“All of the Rohingya got off the ship. The Bangladeshis stayed behind,” said a 27-yearold Rohingya woman.

It was not possible to independently confirm the account. Like many Rohingya, she uses only one name. But six other villagers said they were among the scores of Rohingya taken off from the boat.

Matthew Smith, executive director of the Southeast Asia-based Fortify Rights group, said in testimony to the US Congress that Myanmar’s security forces are complicit in and profit from the trafficking. The government has dismissed the accusation.

Myanmar officials have said that Bangla-

deshis often claim to be Rohingya to receive United Nations aid.

Most of Myanmar’s 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims are stateless and live in apartheid-like conditions in Rakhine state. Almost 140,000 were displaced in deadly clashes with majority Buddhists in Rakhine in 2012.

They are denied citizenship and have long complained of state-sanctioned discrimination.

About 100,000 have fled overseas since 2012, according to the Arakan Project, a Rohingya advocacy group.

The message was clear that very few people on the boat or those drifting in the sea, were Myanmar Rohingyas. Myanmar denies discriminating against the Rohingya or that they are fleeing persecution.

The boat seized by the Myanmar navy was at anchor for about two months off the coast of Myanmar to load up before it was supposed to set sail for Malaysia, the seven villagers and two community leaders, who did not want to be named, told Reuters.

At the time it was filled with about 200

The move would not include the estimated 200,000 unregistered Rohingya refugees who have fled across the border over the past decade and taken refuge in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.

The United Nations refugee agency, which has been assisting the refugees in the camps since 1991, said such a scheme would have to be voluntary to succeed.

“The success of the plan would depend on what will be on offer in the new location and if the refugees would like to be there,” UNHCR spokeswoman Onchita Shadman told the AFP. A forced relocation would be “very complex and controversial,” she said. l

ADRIFT AT SEA

Bangladesh to take back all its nationals n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

REUTERS

Bangladeshis and around 150-200 Rohingya, before Thailand launched its crackdown on traffickers.

Small fishing boats started coming up to the ship and began offloading the Rohingya for about a week before it was brought ashore by the navy last Thursday, the seven Rohingya migrants who came back from the ship told Reuters.

The jobless woman who gave her name as Arafa said she was trying to join her husband in Malaysia and was allowed off the ship for free. Most others had to pay traffickers between $200 and $300 to return to the same villages they tried to escape weeks earlier.

One of them was Mohamed Anyis, 18, from a village close to Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state. He befriended some of the Bangladeshi men during the two-month stay on the ship.

Anyis, Arafa and other villagers separately recognised and correctly named several of the Bangladeshis in photographs Reuters took at the ceremony where the Bangladeshi men were presented to UN officials, confirming they spent weeks on the same boat. l

Bangladesh will take back all Bangladeshis found anywhere in the world and it will also urge the international community to take the responsibility of nationals of other countries and address their plight.

This is the message that Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque will give at the regional conference on human trafficking to be held in Bangkok tomorrow where high-level delegations from 15 countries will take part.

Bangkok is organising the conference in the backdrop of growing number of human trafficking to Malaysia through sea via Thailand.

“We will send a clear message. We will take the responsibilities of Bangladeshis, not the citizens of other countries,” said a senior official of the government.

Bangladesh is a country of destination and transit and the government will also urge the international community to help the country to address it, he said. The government is facing a big challenge and it has prepared a strategy to address it, he added.

Different government wings and organisations have banged their heads together to formulate the strategy to address the human trafficking that have shaken not only Bangladesh but also the whole world.

Bangladesh ambassadors in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar also came to Dhaka to give their views about the ground reality.

“Bangladesh is facing challenge from two sides,” said another senior government official.

Dhaka believes that the root cause of human trafficking is Rohingya issue in Myanmar.

If Bangladesh confronts Myanmar over the issue, it will create tension between the two countries, but on the other hand, if it does not do that, it faces false campaign by Myanmar that propagates that Rohingyas are Bengalis, the official said.

“We will try to solve the problem by maintaining friendly relations with Myanmar.

Many things can be said without confrontation,” he added.

About the identity of 208 people who were found in Myanmar coast on Friday, he said a Bangladeshi team went to Sittew to interview them. “We are yet to get their reports,” he said.

The team will send a list of possible Bangladeshis for nationality verification and after verification, they will be repatriated. l

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4 NEWS

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

Divisions to get anti- Three more testify in August 21 attack cases trafficking tribunals n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu Tribune Report n

The government has decided to set up special courts in all the divisions of the country in an effort to curb human trafficking, Law Minister Anisul Haque said yesterday.

Talking to reporters after a meeting with Swedish Ambassador to Bangladesh Johan Frisell at the Secretariat, the minister said the government will form seven special tribunals at the seven divisional headquarters, under the Human Trafficking Deterrence and Suppression Act 2012, to try and punish human traffickers.

He said the district and session judges concerned would conduct the tribunals and the highest punishment for such organised crimes under the act would be death penalty.

He said there are 557 filed cases of human trafficking that are pending with different courts in the country. Charge sheets have been submitted in 257 cases and trial proceedings of 12 cases have been finished. l

Motorbike thief killed in mob beating n Our Correspondent, Chittagong

An alleged motorcycle thief was beaten to death by an angry mob in Datmara union of Fatikchhari upazila, Chittagong yesterday morning.

Bhujpur police station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Jahedul Kabir said the incident took place at the Rubber Garden area of Datmara at around 5:30am.

The OC said locals caught Rafiq, 26, when he was trying to steal a motorbike and beat him to death. When informed, police went to the spot and sent the body for autopsy to Chittagong Medical College Hospital. l

Three more prosecution witnesses, including a victim, yesterday testified in two cases filed over the August 21 grenade attack on an Awami League rally in the capital in 2004.

The three are Mahbuba Parvin, Md Abdul Awal and Mohon Bashi. Parvin is a victim of the attack while the others are tenants of a house at Merul Badda where Arif Hasan Sumon, one of the accused in the cases, used to live.

Shahed Nur Uddin, judge of Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal 1, recorded the depositions and

said the next hearing would be held on June 1 and 2.

Parvin told the court that she was the women affairs secretary of Swechchhasebak League’s Dhaka district unit when the bomb attack was made in Bangabandhu Avenue. “I sustained serious injuries in the attack and was rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital but was mistakenly sent to the morgue by doctors who thought I had died.”

A total of 145 witnesses, including the three yesterday, have so far testified in the cases.

The lawsuits have 491 prosecution wit-

nesses who will testify.

The makeshift court set up at a building near the entrance to Dhaka Central Jail is holding the trial of the cases - one murder case and the other filed under the Explosive Substances Act. The grisly attack on the Awami League rally left 24 people, including late president Zillur Rahman’s wife Ivy Rahman, dead and more than 300 others injured.

Sheikh Hasina, Awami League chief and then opposition leader, survived the attack with serious hearing impairment. l

JUJA, JUTA demand punishment of BCL men over journo assault n JU Correspondent The teachers, students and journalists of Jahangirnagar University yesterday demanded punishment of JU unit Bangladesh Chhatra League leaders and activists allegedly for beating up and assaulting some three journalists of the university.

Sources said Jahangirnagar University Journalists Association (JUJA) formed the human chain around 12pm in front of “Amor Ekushe” sculpture to raise their voice against journalist harassment in the university while JU Teachers Association (JUTA) President Prof Khabir Uddin, general secretary Prof Mafruhi Sattar, JU Student Welfare and Advising Centre Director Prof Rasheda Akhter were present.

JUTA President Prof Khabir Uddin said they were against all kinds of terrorism in the university. Condemning the attack on journalists he demanded punitive action

against the attackers.

JUJA President Joni Alam, General Secretary Mamunur Rashid, Vice President Nazmus Sakib alleged that Bangladesh

The protesting journalists also threatened to boycott media coverage of BCL in the university if authorities and JU unit BCL fail to punish the guilty Chhatra League (BCL) leaders and activists in the university are regularly getting involved in appalling activities and causing trouble to the university journalists.

Demanding exemplary punishment

against the assaulters, JUJA Vice President Nazmus Sakib said: “Chhatra League leaders and activists lock in clashes and vandalise university properties; they attack journalists who try to do their job.”

The protesting journalists also threatened to boycott media coverage of BCL in the university if authorities and JU unit BCL fail to punish the guilty. The protesting journalists later submitted a memorandum to JU Vice Chancellor Prof Farzana Islam demanding punitive action against the assaulters and a safe campus for the journalists, sources said.

On Tuesday afternoon, BCL leaders and activists of Mir Mosharrof Hossain Hall beat up Alamgir Mizan, a university reporter of an online news portal, when they were locked in a clash with activists of AFM Kamaluddin Hall over the share of money from a university tender. Two other journalists including JU assistant proctor Sikder Md Zulkernine were assaulted when they protested the attack. l

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THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

Chittagong double murder suspect arrested, confesses to killing n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong Three weeks after the sensational double murder in Chittagong city, the Detective Branch of Chittagong Metropolitan Police has arrested the suspected killer who has confessed to having committed the crime.

A team of detectives conducted a drive in Chittagong’s Sadarghat area yesterday morning following a tip-off and arrested Md Belal from his residence at Dakkhin Nalapara in Sadarghat, police sources said.

The murders took place on the morning of May 7; Belal hacked up and slaughtered Nasima Akhter, 30, and her daughter Riya Akhter Piya, 10, at their home in the same area.

Nasima’s husband Shah Alam filed a case with Sadarghat police station that day. The DB was called in to investigate the murder.

Belal was detained twice before in connection with the murders, but he managed to talk his way out, Deputy Commissioner Kusum Dewan said at a press conference at the DB

office yesterday.

But this time, evidence against him was strong and he confessed to killing the mother-daughter duo, he said.

Belal also robbed the victims’ residence and stole valuables worth Tk271,000 including gold jewelleries, cash money and two mobile phones.

All this was done to cover his wedding expenses, the deputy commissioner said.

The detectives seized a television, a DVD player and a sound system, all bought with the money acquired from selling the jewelleries, and 1.03 tola of gold from Belal’s possession.

Family turns foe

A repair worker who hails from Comilla, Belal is a cousin of Shah Alam, Nasima’s husband, who is a butcher by profession. Belal was close to the family and even worked for Shah Alam.

“Belal was in a relationship and his girlfriend has been pressuring him for marriage.

To cover the wedding expenses, he planned

to rob Shah Alam’s residence but ended up killing Nasima and Riya,” Kusum said at the press conference.

Describing the incident, the deputy commissioner said Belal stole an old knife from Shah Alam’s shop when he was hired to repair a tube well in the shop two days before the incident.

On the day of the murder, Belal went to Shah Alam’s house around 9am, after Shah Alam had left home with his two sons. When Nasima asked him why he was visiting, Belal started hacking her up indiscriminately and ended up slaughtering her.

Riya, who was asleep at the time, woke up by the commotion and witnessed her mother’s murder. As Belal noticed her, he took her to a bathroom and killed her the same way, and then fled after robbing the place.

Some time later, he changed clothes and went back to the scene and even helped Shah Alam with dealing with police and other authorities, which is why no one suspected him at first, Kusum said.

Caught up by his crime

The DB first linked him to the murders when they found one of the stolen phones in the possession of Belal’s girlfriend’s brother, Additional Deputy Commissioner Tanvir Arafat told the Dhaka Tribune.

“We also found the other mobile phone on him earlier when he was detained, he misguided us saying he had stolen it from the residence later in the day of the incident,” he said.

Another link between him and the murder surfaced when the detectives traced the stolen gold jewelleries to Moumita Jewellers, where Belal had sold them for Tk39,000. The shop’s owner Titu Saha was later arrested for buying stolen goods, the additional deputy commissioner said.

Claiming Belal was a yaba addict, Shah Alam said: “I want the highest form of punishment for him.”

Tanvir said they were preparing to produce Belal before a court for his confessional statement. l

KALPANA CHAKMA ABDUCTION

BLAST files appeal seeking fresh progress report n Muktasree Chakma Sathi

Bangladesh Adivasi Chhatra Sangram Parisad forms a human chain in front of the Raju Memorial on Dhaka University campus yesterday demanding arrest of those who gang raped a 21-year-old Garo woman inside a running microbus in Kuril area in Dhaka on Thursday night MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Rajeeb’s father testifies against Ansarullah killers n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu The trial of banned militant group Ansarullah Bangla Team’s chief Mufti Jasim Uddin Rahmani and his seven followers, all expelled students of North South University, began yesterday in Ahmed Rajeeb Haider murder case.

Judge Sayeed Ahmed of Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal 3 started the trial by recording deposition of Dr Nazim Uddin, father of war trial campaigner Rajeeb and also complainant of the case.

After completion of his statement, defence counsels including Mosharraf Hossain Kajol cross-examined him.

The court fixed June 2 for recording the deposition of the rest of the witnesses.

The eight militants were first indicted on March 18 and later on May 21 afresh. The case was transferred to the tribunal on May 11, following a decision taken by the Home Ministry, for quick disposal.

The seven other accused are Redwanul Azad Rana, Md Faisal Bin Nayem alias Dweep, Maksudul Hasan alias Anik, Md Ehsan Reza alias Rumman, Nayem Sikdar alias Iraj, Nafis Imtiaz and Sadman Yasir Mahmud.

Of them, Rana, who was mentioned in the charge sheet as the planner, has fled the country. He is also accused in several other cases and suspected as planner of the attack on science writer Avijit Roy. Secular writer-architect Rajeeb was hacked to death near his Pallabi house on February 15, 2013. l

A Rangamati court has set June 16 for further hearing in indigenous leader Kalpana Chakma abduction case following a petition filed against a report on the investigation.

Police in the latest progress report filed on July 20 last year said they could not solve the case without taking statement of the victim.

Bangladesh Legal Aid and Service Trust (BLAST) Coordinator and lawyer Jewel Dewan filed the petition yesterday seeking the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court’s order to the police to submit another progress report mentioning what steps had been taken after July 20 last year.

Outside the court, members of Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samity (PCJSS), Hill Women’s Federation (HWF) and Parbatya Chattagram Mahila Samiti (PCMS) jointly formed a human chain condemning the progress report. “…Since victim Kalpana Chakma herself is the main witness in the case, until she is found or a final decision is taken about her [whereabouts], it is not possible to complete the investigation work in the case,” then Rangamati police superintendent Amena Begum said in the report.

On June 12, 1996, Kalpana, the then HWF organising secretary, was abducted allegedly by Lt Ferdous and two Village Defence Party (VDP) members Nurul Haque and Saleh Ahmed from her home at New Lalyaghona of Baghaichhari in Rangamati. The abduction took place several hours before the seventh national elections.

She was then campaigning for independent candidate Bijoy Ketan Chakma, the then senior Presidium member of Pahari Gana Parishad.

After 14 years of investigation, Baghaichhari police submitted a final report to the court

on May 21, 2010. Earlier a judicial inquiry commission also investigated the incident.

The CID filed a report 16 years after the abduction. But the court rejected it as the report neither identified the abductors nor gave information about her whereabouts.

Upon an objection petition by the victim’s brother, the court appointed Amena Begum in March 2013 to probe the case.

Kalpana’s brother Kalindi Kumar Chakma said: “I do not understand why my statement is not being included in any report prepared by the law enforcement agencies.

“We [he and his brother Lal Bihari, and his wife and mother] witnessed the whole incident. Amena Begum heard me but did not write anything. She did not want to take statement from my brother or any local leader.”

Kalindi’s remarks corroborate with the progress report where Amena Begum mentioned that she had not written any statement during her investigation “as the statement was same as given to the other investigation officers.”

As many as 35 investigation officers investigated the Kalpana abduction case.

Condemning the role of police, PCJSS Information Secretary Sajib Chakma and PCMS General Secretary Suprabha Chakma alleged that the police were trying to save the accused since they are from law enforcement agencies.

Hana Shams Ahmed, coordinator of the International CHT Commission, says this is a false and evasion tactic by the state.

“The then police superintendent questioned all the three suspects but has sadly been unable to draw a conclusion. This is an evasion; the investigator is now an accomplice to the abduction if she deliberately protects the suspects.” l

DT

6 NEWS

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

Voters show less interest in Magura by-election n Our Correspondent, Magura With only a couple of days left for the by-election of Magura-1 constituency, the campaign is yet to pick up due to the lack of interest of the voters.

Four candidates are contesting in the election scheduled for May 30. Among them ruling Awami League’s candidate ATM Abdul Wahab is running a low-key campaign while three other candidates – independent Tapon Kumar Roy, NPP’s Tohidul Alam and BNF’s

Mushtashim Billah – were not seen doing any campaign at all.

Voters said they were not much bothered since the result was predictable with no candidates of the BNP contesting in the election.

Khan Moniruzzaman, a voter and an NGO worker, said he was not enthusiastic about the election. “In the past, we have had a bitter experience and we are expecting the same mindless vote rigging this time too.”

Meanwhile, independent candidate Tapon Kumar Roy brought allegation of hindrances

to his campaign.

He alleged that the ruling party men vandalised the vehicle which was being used in the campaign. He was also pressured to withdraw his candidacy.

“I will boycott the election unless congenial atmosphere is created to hold a free and fair election,” he added.

When contacted, APS to the prime minister, Saifuzaman Shekhor said the by-election would undoubtedly be free and fair.

Magura Superintendent of Police AKM Ehsan-

Woman murdered

Death-row prisoner dies in jail

n Our Correspondent, Gopalganj

A woman was allegedly murdered after rape in Kashiyani upazila of Gopalganj yesterday.

The dead is Majeda Begum, 45, wife of Jahid Haider of Tita village.

Kashiyani police station Sub-Inspector Mosharrof Hossain said Dr Amirul Islam Zafar used to work as a sub-assistant medical officer at the Directorate General of Family Planning in the upazila and live nearby Majeda’s house. A few days back, Majeda came from Dhaka to visit her home at the village. She earlier had lent Dr Amirul some money. On Tuesday night she went to his chamber to get back the money, said the SI. She did not return since and upon being informed by locals, police came to the chamber yesterday afternoon and found her dead. l

n Our Correspondent, Gazipur

The Samajtantrik Chhatra Front Rajshahi unit, a left-leaning student organisation, holds a rally at Saheb Bazar Zero point in the city yesterday, demanding special allocation for education sector AZAHAR UDDIN

DEATH OF TWO YOUTHS

Family says police killed them in a planned way n Our Correspondent, Jessore Family members of two youths who were killed in an alleged mob beating in Rajapur area, Jessore sadar upazila alleged that police had killed them in a planned way.

Delwar Rahman Dipu, secretary for library of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, and uncle of Ismail Hossain, made the allegation while addressing a press conference at Jeesore Press Club yesterday.

He said they would take legal actions against Kotwali police soon. He also demanded judicial probe of the deaths.

ullah said the image of Magura was tainted by a farcical election in 1994. “This soil will be freed from the stigma with this election on May 30.”

Deputy Commissioner of Magura Md Mahabubur Rahman said: “We are determined to hold a fair and free election. Voting is the democratic right of a citizen and we are pledge-bound to protect that right.”

The Magura-1 seat of the Jatiya Sangsad fell vacant at the demise of ruling Awami League lawmaker Sirajul Akbar due to heart ailments on March 9. l

In a written statement, he said police had picked up l-Amin, 23, son of Abdul Aziz of Arpara Ghurulia village, and Ismail Hossain, 22, a student of Jessore Polytechnic Institute, from their houses on Sunday afternoon.

Later, they got their bodies at Jessore Sadar Hospital.

“Police told us that they were killed in mob-beating in Rajapur area, but local residents of the area are not aware of the beating.”

At the press conference he claimed that his nephew had been over love affair as family of the girl hired police to kill them.

A confusing situation has created over the

deaths of youths as police as well as their families are saying different views about their deaths.

Police said they were killed in a mob-beating while snatching a motorbike from Rajapur, but their families claiming that police had shot them to death in a planned way.

But their families said they had noticed mark of bullet injuries on their heads.

Salauddin Sagor, younger brother of Ismail, said: “They had been killed in a planned way.”

However, according to the hospital register book, Al-Amin and Ismail were dead when they were taken to he hospital. They were not accused in any case. l

A death-row prisoner died yesterday at Kashimpur High Security Central Jail in Gazipur.

The deceased was identified as Nurul Islam houlader, 65, son of Ashraf Ali Houlader, of Jhalakati.

Zannatul Farhad, Jailer of Dhaka Central Jail Part 2 in Kashimpur, said Nurul was taken to the jail hospital as he felt chest pain around 8:45pm.

Later, he was shifted to Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Medical College Hospital, where doctors declared him dead.

Nurul Islam was sentenced death penalty in a case filed under Women and Children Repression Prevention (Special) Act 2000 in 2003. l

Five human traffickers held n

Our Correspondent, Cox’s Bazar

Members of law enforcers arrested five human traffickers in the district yesterday.

RAB-7 of Cox’s Bazar company commander Major Zia said on a tip-off, a team of the Rapid Action Battalion raided Islamabad area of Sadar upazila and Sabrang area of Teknaf upazila and arrested Nur Hafez,26, son of Nur Mohammad and Hasan Sharif,23, son of Pethan Ali. The elite force recovered Tk 2 lakh and nine cell phone sets from their possession. Kala Mian,60, Shamsul Alam,23, Shafiul Alam,20, were arrested by police from Leda area in the upazila, said Md Ataur Rahman Khandoker, officer-in-charge of Teknaf police station. l

DT

NEWS 7

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

Youth jailed for ‘hurting’ religious sentiments n Our Correspondent, Barisal A mobile court in the district yesterday sentenced a youth to 2-year imprisonment on the charge of hurting religious sentiments.

The convict was identified as Samar Ghosh alias Felu Ghosh,22, son of late Joydev Ghosh in Char Gadhatali area under Gournadi municipal town.

Sajjad Hossain, officer-in-charge of Gournadi police station, said the mobile court led

by Masud Hasan Patowary, upazila nirbahi officer and administrative magistrate handed down the verdict.

Sources said following an allegation from local people, police recovered one copy of Holy Quran and four copies of Holy Geeta placed on the funeral pyre (chita) at the cremation ground in the house of one Narayan covered with national flag of Bangladesh.

The police arrested Felu in this connection and produced him before the court.

Examining the records, the court handed down the verdict. l

Police officers sued for destroying rape evidence in Rangunia n FM Mizanur Rahaman, Chittagong A mother of a minor girl, who was allegedly raped by a local elderly man at Rangunia upazila in Chittagong, filed a case yesterday against the two police officers for allegedly destroying evidence of the rape case.

The case was filed with the court of Mir Safiqul Islam, judge of Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal 2 in Chittagong, accusing Officer-in-Charge Humayun Kabir and Sub-Inspector Mojibur Rahman of Rangunia police station.

According to the case, the police officers tore away the statement of the rape case filed by the victim’s mother and also snatched away the document of the victim’s abortion, plaintiff ’s counsel Advocate Arshadul Rahman Ritu told the Dhaka Tribune.

In addition, the OC also took the signature of the victim’s mother in a blank paper and forcibly filed another rape case accusing the victim’s brother, mentioning his age as 18

years when he is actually 14, Ritu said.

The court took cognisanse of the case and scheduled the delivery of the verdict on the issue today, the lawyer said.

According to the case, the police officers tore away the statement of the rape case filed by the victim’s mother and also snatched away the document of the victim’s abortion Sources said the girl in question, a 13-yearold, was allegedly raped by Md Shah Alam, in whose residence she was employed as a domestic help, on May 8. The victim got pregnant from the rape and had an abortion at a

Youth lynched for killing woman

WEATHER

n Our Correspondent, Gazipur

THUNDERSHOWER WITH RAIN

THURSDAY, MAY 28 DHAKA TODAY

TOMORROW

SUN SETS 6:40PM

SUN RISES 5:12AM

FORECAST FOR TODAY Dhaka

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Chittagong

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Rajshahi

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Rangpur

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Khulna

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Barisal

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Sylhet

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PRAYER TIMES Fajr Sunrise Zohr Asr Magrib Esha

local hospital in Rangunia.

The victim’s mother filed a rape case against Shah Alam on the day of the incident with Rangunia police station. Police arrested Shah Alam after the case was filed, but later they released him after local policians put pressure on them for his release, as Shah Alam is a man of influence in the area.

To hide the real culprit, police then framed the victim’s 14-year-old brother in the rape case, arrested him and produced him before a court, who sent the boy to Gazipur Juvenile Development Centre, Advocate Ritu said.

A High Court lawyer filed a writ petition with the High Court in this regard after reports on this matter was published in in several national dailies, following which the High Court directed Rangunia police on Saturday to arrest Shah Alam.

Later, The victim’s mother filed a rape case with the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal 2 accusing Shah Alam on Monday. l

3:46am 5:11am 11:56am 4:34pm 6:40pm 8:06pm SourceL IslamicFinder.org

A team of the Rapid Action Battalion conducts a drive in Bagsara area of Paba upazila, Rajshahi yesterday and unearthed an illegal cigarette factory. Later, the court destroyed a huge amount of cigarettes by setting them on fire AZAHAR UDDIN

Angry mob has beaten a youth to death for allegedly killing a sexagenarian woman during a conflict in Bhanua area in Gazipur. The deceased is Mokarram, 22, son of Mohammad Ali of Kaliganj.

Joydebpur Sub-Inspector Azizul Hoque said: “Allauddin Bhanua, 70, was working in his house when he locked into a conflict with Mokarram over previous enmity around 7:30am Wednesday.”

He said Allauddin’s distant relative Mokarram had come to their house to stay for some days.

“At a stage of the quarrel, Mokarram attacked Allauddin with a sharp weapon. Later, he hacked Akhlima, 65, severely when she came to the rescue of her husband. “She died on the spot.” l

Musclemen again make erosion-affected homeless n Our Correspondent, Khulna Miscreants attacked 10 families living on the bank of Bhodra River in Dumuriya upazila of Khulna yesterday leaving at least 15 people injured.

From 7am to 10am, 40/50 miscreants continued the attack with sharp local weapons vandalising homesteads and looting valuables, alleged members of the affected families who are currently living under sky.

With women and children around 40 people used to live in 15 homes around 200 yards away from the Dumuriya police station near the Bhodra trawler terminal.

Around 11am, Assistant Police Super Forhad Khan visited the spot.

He said: “If anyone claims the ownership of the land he should resolve the matter through court. Such attacks are illegal. On the other hand, I request the landless families to take lease of the land following government rules and legal procedures.”

More than 300 families currently reside on the land filled on part of the Bhodra River.

On behalf of the affected families, a man named Nazrul Islam filed a case in this connection accusing 30/40 people yesterday.

Among them, he identified 14 people. Police arrested one Shahinuzzaman Sarder, member of the Dumuriya Union Parisad, following the complaint.

Abdul Hannan Sheikh, 67, member of an affected family, said around three months ago, a local man named Shimul Biswas threatened the landless people to leave the land.

Yesterday Shimul and Habi, along with a group of men suddenly attacked the families.

“They drove me out of my house while I was having breakfast and hit me with a piece of wood on my back,” described Hannan.

He claimed that the land they were living on was khas land and that they had appealed for lease.

Leader of the landless people and former member of the Dumuriya Union Parishad Ja-

hanara Begum said the miscreants had been threatening the families for the last one month.

“Today’s attacked was more heinous than the torture during 1971 Liberation War. Earlier we have informed about the threats to police several times. But police ordered the landless people to leave the place instead,” she said.

Shimul Biswas, claiming ownership of the land, said he had brought 50 decimal of land from a man named Faruq. Around 12 families used to live on the land.

“As I wanted to construct a building on the land I told the families to leave the place.

Still, they were not leaving the place. The matter was informed to police and police also ordered the same. Still they did not listen so yesterday they were evicted,” said Shimul.

Upazila Nirbahi Officer and Assistant Commissioner (land) Md Rafiqul Hasan termed the attack on the landless people inhumane.

He added that the district commissioner had assured of helping the affected families with relief materials and money. l

DT

8 WORLD

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

Iraqi forces take positions on Ramadi outskirts n AFP, Baghdad

An Afghan child migrant is helped off a rib as it lands on a beach on the Greek island of Kos, after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece yesterday AFP

EU asks member states to admit 40,000 asylum seekers n AFP, Brussels

The European Union yesterday asked its member states to admit 40,000 asylum seekers from Syria and Eritrea landing in Italy and Greece, which have been overstretched by an influx of migrants.

The emergency proposal, which comes atop another one to resettle in member states some 20,000 refugees who are outside Europe, is in response to a surge in migrants making the dangerous crossing over the Mediterranean.

Both Rome and Athens, which are struggling with the wave of migrants, appealed to the 26 other EU states to share the burden.

“We...have a proposal for an emergency mechanism to relocate 40,000 asylum seekers to other European (member) states,” EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos told a press conference.

Japan nuclear plant obtains final permit n

AP, Tokyo

A nuclear plant in southern Japan yesterday obtained the final permit needed to restart its reactors, paving the way for it to become the first to go back online under new safety standards introduced following the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority approved operational safety plans for the Sendai nuclear power station’s two reactors, owned

by Kyushu Electric Power Co. The approval leaves the Sendai utility needing only on-site checks before it can restart its reactors.

Kyushu Electric plans to restart its No 1 reactor in late July, and the No 2 unit in late September. l

“Syrians and Eritreans will be relocated from Italy and Greece to other European Union member states over a period of two years,” he said. The measure concerns people arriving in those countries after April 15 this year, the commissioner said.

The proposal suggests migrants be distributed according to four criteria: gross national product, population, unemployment and the number of asylum requests already registered in the country.

Repeating an earlier proposal, Avramopoulos said the EU is also asking the members to admit 20,000 people from third countries who have “a clear need for international protection”.

However, EU states Britain, Ireland and Denmark can opt out of both schemes under existing EU treaties, according to EU officials.

Avramopoulos insisted that the European Commission, the executive arm of the 28-na-

tion EU, was not proposing a quota system for distributing people.

Many member states, which are under pressure from anti-immigrant parties during tough economic times, have strongly objected to quotas.

“It’s up to each member to decide how many refugees they will grant refugee status (to),” he added.

However, EU sources said, countries must first admit the 40,000 asylum seekers based on a “distribution key,” which looks like a quota. It opens a breach in the Dublin rules that require the country where asylum seekers first land to take them in.

The task is bound to be particularly difficult because Britain, Hungary, the Baltic states, the Czech Republic and Poland oppose mandatory relocation based on a redistribution “key” system. l

Deaths from major heatwave sweeping India top 1,100 n AFP, Hyderabad More than 1,100 people have died in a blistering heatwave sweeping India, authorities said yesterday, as forecasters warned searing temperatures would continue.

Southern India has borne the brunt of the hot, dry conditions and many of the victims are construction workers, elderly or homeless people unable to heed official advice to stay indoors.

In the worst-hit state of Andhra Pradesh nearly 900 people have died since May 18 – double the total number of heat-related deaths last summer, authorities said.

In neighbouring Telangana, where temperatures hit 48 degrees Celsius over the weekend, more than 200 people have died in the last week compared to 31 in the whole of last year.

In New Delhi, forecasters said they expected the high temperatures to continue into next week – adding to the misery of the thousands of poor living on the capital’s streets with little shelter from the hot sun.

Brahma Prakash Yadav, director of the Indian Meteorological Department, said top temperatures in the capital would remain around 45 degrees Celsius -- the national benchmark for a heatwave. l

Iraqi forces took up positions around Ramadi yesterday, seizing two districts after clashes with jihadists.

The Islamic State group also came under pressure in neighbouring Syria, where Kurdish fighters expelled the jihadists from more than a dozen Christian villages in the northeast.

Iraqi forces fought IS militants on the southern outskirts of Ramadi, the provincial capital of Iraq’s western Anbar province which the jihadists seized on May 17.

They moved into the districts of Taesh and Humeyrah and also entered the neighbouring Anbar university compound, an army colonel on the ground told AFP. “Iraqi security and Hashed forces took control of both neighbourhoods. They also managed to enter the university but have yet to liberate it,” he said.

Hashed al-Shaabi is an umbrella group for mostly Shiite militias and volunteers that the government called in after Ramadi fell to IS. l

Talibans target Kabul foreigners again n AFP, Kabul An all-night gunbattle with Taliban insurgents who stormed a guesthouse in Kabul’s diplomatic quarter ended at daybreak yesterday, with four attackers killed in the second assault in two weeks on a venue popular with foreigners.

The raid on the property owned by a prominent political family triggered loud bursts of gunfire and explosions but the government reported no civilian or military casualties.

“Four attackers who had one RPG launcher, three AK-47s and one grenade launcher were killed in Wazir Akbar Khan,” deputy interior minister Mohammad Ayoub Salangi said on Twitter.

The assault was claimed by the Taliban, who are intensifying their annual spring offensive despite repeated overtures from the government about reopening peace negotiations. l

Thai elections pushed back to Sept 2016 n AFP, Bangkok Thailand’s junta confirmed yesterday that elections will not be held until September 2016, dealing a further blow to hopes that the kingdom’s generals will swiftly hand power back to a civilian government.

When army chief and now Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha swept to power in a coup last May he initially said he hoped to hold elections within 15 months. But that timetable has repeatedly slipped as the junta goes about rewriting the country’s constitution, a process critics have described as an attempt to consolidate an unelected elite’s control over Thai politics once new polls are held.

Thailand’s constitution has undergone more than a dozen re-writes since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932 – often after military coups. l

DT

WORLD 9

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

UK confirms European Union referendum in Queen’s Speech n AFP, London

The EU referendum bill, which is due to be published today, is expected to keep open the prospect of a vote next year – which Cameron has not ruled out – but not include a precise date for the ballot.

Parliament could start debating the bill as early as June, media reported.

Cameron, who addresses the House of Commons after the Queen’s Speech, embarks on a whistle-stop tour of European capitals including Paris, Warsaw and Berlin today and tomorrow as he pushes for reforms which he

says are necessary before the referendum.

Some of Cameron’s goals include controlling migration by making it harder for EU migrants to claim state benefits in Britain and opting out of the commitment to “ever closer union”.

The speech also featured legislation to secure a “strong and lasting constitutional settlement” which will hand new powers to Scotland after it voted against independence in a referendum last year.

In the speech, the queen promised “wide-ranging powers” for Scotland as well as Wales, another constituent nation of Britain.

But Nicola Sturgeon’s pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP), which became the third largest group in the Commons following the election, wants the government to go further.

Other measures in the Queen’s Speech included plans to pass a law which would ban it from increasing income tax, VAT and national insurance (contributions towards state benefits) for the next five years.

The government is also introducing new powers to ban “extremist organisations” seen as responsible for radicalisation and a communications bill, dubbed a “snoopers’ charter” by critics, which could oblige mobile phone companies and Internet service providers to hand individuals’ browsing data to security services.

The Conservatives have only a narrow majority and could struggle to pass controversial legislation if they face rebellions from within their own ranks.

Cameron has reportedly delayed a plan to scrap some European human rights laws, which had been expected in the Queen’s Speech, due to opposition from within his own party. l

Malaysia detains 12 police in smuggling camps probe

Saudi air strikes kill at least 80 in Yemen border area

n Reuters, Kuala Lumpur

n Reuters, Cairo

Twelve Malaysian police officials have been held on suspicion of links to people-smuggling camps where authorities have uncovered nearly 140 graves believed to hold the bodies of migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh, a government minister said yesterday.

Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar was speaking the day after police forensic teams began exhuming bodies from the graves, discovered around 28 camps at six locations along a 50-km (30-mile) stretch of the border with Thailand.

“Although there are 139 graves, we have not managed to dig up all of them,” he told reporters at Malaysia’s parliament.

“Forensics have to do it carefully so the bodies and evidence are preserved. We don’t know how many there are, and who they are.”

The dense forests of Thailand and Malaysia have been a major stop-off point for smugglers bringing people to Southeast Asia. l

Saudi-led air strikes killed at least 80 people near Yemen’s border with Saudi Arabia and in the capital Sanaa yesterday, residents said, the deadliest day of bombing in over two months of war in Yemen.

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels seized Sanaa last September and then thrust into central and south Yemen. Seeing the Houthi advance as a bridgehead for Iranian influence in the region, a Saudi-led coalition began air strikes on March 26 in a campaign to restore Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power.

Yesterday’s air raids on the Bakeel al-Meer area in Hajjah province across Saudi Arabia’s border with Yemen killed at least 40 people, most of them civilians, local inhabitants said.

Tribesmen aligned with the Houthis have been fighting Saudi ground forces in the area, and border clashes have escalated the conflict between the Shi’ite Muslim rebels and the coalition of Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab states.

Prime Minister David Cameron’s government confirmed it will hold a referendum on whether Britain should leave the EU yesterday in a policy speech read by Queen Elizabeth II on Westminster’s grandest day.

The 89-year-old monarch also set the stage for further budget austerity under Cameron’s newly elected centre-right government but promised measures for “working people” such as more free childcare.

Wearing a crown and full ceremonial dress, the queen said Britain would “pursue reform of the European Union for the benefit of all member states.”

She added: “Alongside this, early legislation will be introduced to provide for an inout referendum on membership of the European Union by the end of 2017.”

The Queen’s Speech also featured plans to hand more powers to Scotland and prohibit raising three main taxes for the next five years, despite planned cuts to reduce Britain’s deficit including welfare savings of £12 billion (17 billion euros, $18.5 billion).

Referendum bill to move quickly

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth leaves after the State Opening of Parliament at the Palace of Westminster in central London, Britain yesterday REUTERS

“Houthi gunmen were attacking Saudi border positions from this area but the coalition’s planes failed to hit the fighters and bombed civilians (instead),” one resident told Reuters by telephone.

Several hours later, air strikes on a special forces base allied with the Houthis in central Sanaa, the Houthi-run state news agency Saba said, in an account confirmed by residents.

“Around 40 people were martyred and more than 100 others were wounded, according to a preliminary toll, in bombing by the Saudi aggression’s planes on the Sabaaeen area in the capital Sanaa today,” the Saba dispatch said.

A Yemeni soldier who survived the attack said: “So far we’re not sure how many are dead,” the soldier told Reuters.

Arab warplanes and ships also hammered Yemen’s largest military port in the Red Sea city of Hodeida at dawn yesterday, a local official said, the most serious attack on the country’s navy in over two months of war. l

US, its Asian allies seek ways to halt N Korea’s nuclear programme n Reuters, Seoul The United States and two key Asian allies discussed how to increase pressure on North Korea to halt its nuclear programme and will urge China to help bring Pyongyang back to the negotiating table, officials said.

The talks in Seoul follows a test of what the North said was a submarine-launched ballistic missile earlier this month, which if true, could mean progress in the reclusive state’s military capabilities.

“We held specific discussions on ways to deter North Korea’s provocations and increase the effectiveness of sanctions,” South Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator Hwang Joonkook told reporters after meeting envoys from the US and Japan. Hwang said the North’s test of its submarine-launched ballistic missile system was clearly a violation of UN Security Council resolutions. l

DT

10 ADVERTISEMENT

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

DT

EDITORIAL 11

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

INSIDE

Raising the bar Does Bangladesh need to update its national poverty line to reflect a better assessment of who is poor? I believe it is time to do so PAGE 12

Fix our image Those who want to migrate by following proper legal procedures are likely to suffer because of the recent events PAGE 13

There’s something in the water The arsenic problem is still a big concern that may hinder our goals for sustainable development PAGE 14

Be heard Write to Dhaka Tribune FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka-1207 Email letters.dt@ dhakatribune.com

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Teesta treaty can open the door to real progress

W

e welcome reports that the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is intensifying efforts to secure support for a Teesta water-sharing pact ahead of his first visit to Bangladesh on June 6.

Around 9 million people in Bangladesh, especially farmers of boro season rice, have been adversely hit for years by reduced water flows caused

by India’s Gazaldoba Barrage and diversion of water to the Mahananda-Mechi-Fulhar Rivers.

Flows from the Teesta into Bangladesh are at a record low according to the Joint Rivers Commission.

The promised new treaty can help to reduce some of the detrimental impacts on Bangladesh and allow farmers to overcome the hardship caused by changes made to seasonal water patterns.

It is absolutely essential to properly implement the mooted pact to uphold the spirit of the Bangladesh-India Ganges water treaty and ensure compliance with the International Convention on Non-navigational Uses of Watercourses.

With the recent successful progress made on implementing the Land Boundary Agreement, there is every reason to hope next month’s visit will seal progress on Teesta and pave the way for further improvements in bilateral relations.

Bangladesh and India both stand to gain by building closer relations. Improving connectivity and lowering non-tariff barriers to mutual trade and investment can help allow both our economies to flourish.

Next month’s talks also offer a chance to advance complementary initiatives being considered by Bimstec and Saarc and serve the common interest of all peoples in our region.

All parties should approach the talks on a win-win basis and not see them as a zero-sum game.

Both Bangladesh and India stand to gain by building closer relations

DT

12 OPINION

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

Raising the bar n TM Tonmoy Islam

I

n October 2014, the World Bank released the Bangladesh Development Update where it was stated that the national poverty rate of Bangladesh fell from 31.5% in 2010 to 24.47% in 2014. Using the population estimates from the World Bank and Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, it can be shown that the total number of poor fell from 47.6 million to 38.5 million between 2010 and 2014.

This seems to be a remarkable achievement, as the number of people considered poor fell by almost 10 million within the past four years, thus showing that the anti-poverty and inclusive growth targets of the government are being met.

However, upon closer inspection, it is evident that the bar to identify who is poor has been set too low, and the standard used to determine the poverty status of a person does not fully reflect the well-being of the general population of Bangladesh. Cost of living in urban areas of Bangladesh is very high, and even after earning well above the poverty line, the urban-poor families tend to struggle financially.

The Bangladesh Development Update notes that the national poverty line has been set by the government to be $1.13 per person per day, which comes to about Tk87.38 per person per day at the current exchange rate.

Anyone living on less than this amount per day is considered to be poor.

One thing to note is that the national poverty line of Bangladesh is lower than the $1.25 poverty line that donor organisations now use to measure extreme poverty across the world. By casual observation, this Tk87.38 per person per day seems to be too low of a number to lead a decent standard of living.

Indeed, the Asian Development Bank argued in a recent report that the poverty line should be much higher than $1.25 per person per day for Asian countries.

According to ADB’s estimate, with a revised poverty line of $1.51 per person per day, 58% of Bangladeshis (or 86 million) were in poverty in 2010. Raising the poverty line from by just 38 cents, about Tk30, increases the number of poor by almost 40 million. About 40 million Bangladeshis earn between $1.13 and $1.51 per day, but this amount seems low in maintaining a decent standard of living in Bangladesh, once one takes the cost of living into account.

According to the World Bank, the Bangladeshi poverty line is calculated by estimating and then adding two costs -- one is the cost of purchasing 2,122 kcal of food, and the second includes the cost of purchasing a bundle of certain necessities needed in daily life. However, this line does not include cost of rent, transportation, and educational expenses.

Consequently, the current poverty line of Bangladesh underestimates the number of poor, because the poverty line is not adjusted for the cost of living in the country. Proper adjustment of the poverty line is absolutely necessary because it is one of the criteria used to gauge whether inclusive development is being implemented by the government.

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Does Bangladesh need to update its national poverty line to reflect a better assessment of who is poor? I believe it is time to do so

If the threshold is set too low, without any reference about the cost of living of a country, then the true impact of inclusive development cannot be ascertained. With a low poverty line, it would seem that poverty is decreasing in the country; however, there can be a large group of people who are struggling to make ends meet because of the high cost of rent, utilities, and transportation, even though they may earn well above the poverty line.

These people should be considered to be in poverty too, and development goals should have provisions to help these individuals.

Does Bangladesh need to update its national poverty line to reflect a better assessment of who is poor? I believe it is time to do so. To understand why, let’s consider a thought exercise: For a family of four, the minimum amount needed to keep the family out of poverty is 87.38 x 4 = Tk349.52 per day, according to the official measure. This amount comes to about Tk10,485 per month.

Thus, if the family earns Tk11,000 a month (husband, wife, and maybe the two children too), the family is considered to be living above the poverty line.

But how much is actually needed to have a decent standard of living in, let’s say Dhaka, for this family of four? A recent report on Dhaka Tribune states that rent in a slum in Dhaka averages between Tk1,500-3,500 per month for a single room, with electricity bill being Tk500 and water bill being Tk200.

Price of housing in the district towns might be slightly lower, but not by much. On top of that, another news article mentions that price of IRRI rice is Tk33-35 per kg in Dhaka, lentils cost Tk95 per kg, eggs cost Tk35 per hali (four pieces), and onions cost Tk45 per kg.

Therefore, this family of 4 might be paying Tk4,000 a month on rent and utilities (living in a slum) and Tk3,000-4,000 on food, and so very little is left over for “luxuries” like transportation, clothing, education for the children, entertainment, and spending

on toiletries such as soap, shampoo, and detergent.

A family may be able to get-by through earning slightly above the poverty line, but that lifestyle will not include elements that we often tend to take for granted, like a decent living and nutritious food.

Thus, we see millions migrating out of the country, or families scattered between cities and villages because it is too expensive for the whole family to live in one place. It is not that the government is not reducing poverty.

But a revised poverty line that reflects the actual needs and the cost of living of a typical family in rural and urban parts of Bangladesh is necessary.

What steps can be taken to revise the poverty line? A large portion of a family’s budget goes towards expenses such as rent, transportation, and utilities in urban areas, and so the revised poverty line should account for the amount needed for a person to meet the minimum level of housing, utilities, and transportation in both rural and urban areas, in addition to food expenditures.

The Household Income and Expenditure Survey of Bangladesh conducted by BBS gives a good picture of how much families in Bangladesh spend on food, clothing, housing, education, utilities, transportation, etc.

Using those numbers, the government can get an understanding of what kind of goods a typical Bangladeshi family spends money on, and what is the minimum amount needed to maintain a decent standard of living in Bangladesh. l TM Tonmoy Islam is Assistant Professor of Economics, Elon University, North Carolina, USA.

DT

OPINION 13

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

Fix our image n Shahabuddin Rajon

W

e are all now well-aware of how countless Bangladeshis are frequently cheated and kidnapped by traffickers, and forcibly put on boats in order to extort ransom from their families. That these unfortunate people did not become illegal migrants out of their own free will is something we must keep in mind.

Another alarming message is that many bloggers, or I suppose it is better to call them free-thinkers, are being killed one after another.

The most disgraceful act was when Bangladeshis who went to perform Umrah in Saudi Arabia did not come back.

While Bangladesh is overcoming all of its bitter experiences and past odds and is well on its way to achieving middle-income status by 2021, such an unexpected series of events tarnishes the country’s image badly and portrays us as untrustworthy to the global community.

stranded at sea until they can be sent home or are resettled in a third country.

Bangladeshis among this lot are mostly economic refugees who have made huge financial sacrifices for the chance of working abroad, and are quite likely to resist return.

The move by Malaysia and Indonesia came mainly as a response to international pressure to save these migrants. And while it is a welcome move, it is merely a temporary fix to a problem that goes much deeper.

That the migrants’ home countries, Bangladesh and Myanmar, did not even participate in these talks is a sure sign of underlying issues. Moreover, Thailand, which has been a safe haven for human traffickers until now, did not agree to take in any of the stranded migrants But it is vital that these people be brought back to shore as soon as possible and that they are provided immediate care.

Then there are the blogger killings-another problem that is tarnishing our country’s image. I wonder what global writers and leaders actually think about

Those who want to migrate by following proper legal procedures are likely to suffer because of the recent events

BIGSTOCK

I felt very ashamed when the news about the people who went for Umrah not coming back caught my attention.

Subsequently, the Saudi Arabian government announced that they would no longer allow any Bangladeshi to perform Umrah there because of this issue. This is also very upsetting and unfair for Bangladeshis who are pious and genuinely want to perform Umrah. This sort of tendency discourages countries from legally hiring manpower from Bangladesh.

That is another distressing issue -- we have been witnessing on electronic as well as print media the plight of desperate Bangladeshi migrants and their illegal efforts to enter other countries through perilous voyages by sea.

Myanmar’s navy on April 22 brought ashore another 200 migrants (who they are calling Bangladeshis) found in a boat off its coast. According to the International Organisation for Migration, there are over 8,000 people from Bangladesh and Myanmar presently stranded at sea after being abandoned by smugglers.

This is an international humanitarian crisis, and it is imperative that urgent action be taken to put an end to such a massive scale of human suffering. The only good news that enables us to breathe a sigh of relief is that Indonesia and Malaysia recently agreed to take in thousands of migrants

Bangladesh and its current level of security.

But I am sure it is nothing positive.

Writers the world over have urged Bangladesh to put a stop to the killing of secular bloggers and bring the perpetrators to justice. They said freedom of expression is a fundamental right under Bangladesh’s constitution, and writers and journalists who are peacefully expressing their views should not have to fear such violent repercussions.

All of the issues that I have mentioned have battered Bangladesh’s image. Those who want to migrate by following proper legal procedures are likely to suffer because of the recent events.

In order to stop illegal migration, it is important to strengthen vigilance along our coastline. Law enforcement agencies also need to come down hard on human traffickers and put a stop to this practice once and for all.

Lastly, in order to prevent anymore free-thinkers from being murdered, I ask the prime minister to do everything in her power to put the perpetrators behind bars so that Bangladesh is no longer regarded as a country where free-thinkers are hacked to death, but as a nation that allows its citizens their basic right to freedom of speech, regardless of caste, creed, religion, or gender. l Shahabuddin Rajon is Assistant Deputy Secretary at BKMEA.

DT

14 LONG FORM

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

There’s something in the water n Md Ashik Sarder

T

hough the arsenic contamination in groundwater in Bangladesh is a rising concern when it comes to ensuring health security for the people, these days, the issue is getting less focus than it did in the past.

Many water reserves in rural Bangladesh have been identified with high arsenic concentration, which is frighteningly higher than the level set by the WHO, and many more areas are feared to have been contaminated with the same level. Areas in various regions are intensively affected with the arsenic problem, and numerous areas have yet to be identified in terms of the level of contamination.

It is likely that over 7 million people are at arsenic related health risks, with 2.4 million already susceptible to potential arsenic contamination. Arsenicosis patient management still depicts a bleak picture of the rural health services in Bangladesh, where studies reveal that 48% of arsenicaffected patients were found to remain out of any treatment facilities.

The arsenic problem is still a big concern that may hinder our goals for sustainable development

Though the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) have identified many Arseniocsis patients, it is predicted that more than half of the patients stay behind to be listed because of poverty, ignorance, lack of information, false notions, and other social factors.

Arsenic patient management has seen big challenges, from various socio-cultural aspects, lack of coordination among the stakeholders, and an absence of sufficient treatment facilities. Though Bangladesh has achieved the MDG target in terms of water supply, the arsenic problem is still a big concern that may hinder our goals for sustainable development, and even though a National Policy for Arsenic Mitigation of 2004 has been formulated, it has not been properly implemented.

Many activities and research projects have been conducted, and many are still underway -- with the government, various policy-makers, international development organisations, and NGOs working together with the goal of mitigating the arsenic problem, but expected results are not being yielded mostly because of a lack of coordination among the various initiatives.

To eradicate the arsenic problem, combined efforts are necessary from all the stakeholders: The issue to be treated from multi-disciplinary aspects, like, for example, disaster management, climate change, and adaptation studies.

For this, a combined survey needs to be conducted by the health department to sketch out the arsenic scenario in Bangladesh.

All arsenic-prone areas, along with specific arsenic-free aquifers, need to be properly identified along with the actual number of arsenicosis patients, specially addressing the socio-cultural and health aspects, as soon as possible.

In most cases, the rural people are kept from receiving better treatment for arsenic because of their lack of knowledge on the matter and the lack of access to treatment facilities -- these people need to be informed about community clinic services on offer throughout the country, and community clinics themselves should be equipped with modern logistical support for the initial identification of arenicosis patients and have staff who are trained well enough to deliver proper treatment to even the remotest areas of Bangladesh.

It has always been a big challenge for the government to ensure proper treatment facilities to arseniocosis patients. This problem could be kept at bay if newly recruited doctors could be trained well.

ADP’s fund for Rural Public Health can be utilised for accurate identification and providing treatment facilities for arsenicosis patients.

The problem of authorities installing water technologies without testing for arsenic is also a major cause for concern. Therefore, uncompromising action needs to be taken against such people.

A national management committee needs to be formed in order to identify the level of necessary task, and to work as a pressure group at various stages to mitigate our problem with arsenic.

The seventh five-year plan for Bangladesh is going to be formulated in the coming year. Accurate concentration on the arsenic issue is necessary, and if the projects are to be undertaken, it is imperative that they be supplied well in terms of medicine, treatment facilities, and livelihood facilities, alongside safe drinking water options, of course.

And finally, proper implementation of the National Policy for Arsenic Mitigation 2004 and the Implementation Plan for Arsenic Mitigation is essential in order to make good on the opportunity to eradicate our arsenic problem.

Arsenic contamination has caused unfavourable effects in terms of health, social, cultural, and economic factors in our country. There is no room for ignoring the issue or its adverse effects any longer.

This problem needs to be identified through co-ordinated research, with findings disseminated far and wide. l Md Ashik Sarder is a development worker and researcher currently working at NGO Forum for Public Health.

BIGSTOCK

16

Dollar near eight-year high against yen

17

IMF: China’s yuan currency no longer undervalued

19

Stocks end flat with roller-coaster ride

20

EU envoy urges Bangladesh to prepare for GSP+ BANGLADESH EXPORTS TO EU MARKET

Pierre Mayaudon

n Tribune Report European Union ambassador Pierre Mayaudon said Bangladesh would have to meet four conditions to get GSP+ trade facilities after graduation to the middle income country status.

The conditions include ensuring human and labour rights and maintaining environmental and good governance principles.

Pierre Mayaudon was speaking at a seminar styled as “Bangladesh-EU Trade Ties: Prospects and Challenges” in Dhaka yesterday.

The Economic Reporters Forum (ERF) organised the event at the National Press Club.

The per capita income of Bangladesh is now $1,314, according the latest official data.

To achieve middle-income country status as defined by the United Nations, Bangladesh must continue a per capita income above $1,398 for four consecutive years.

Replying to a question the envoy said the EU will provide support including research and development, technology and academic assistance to explore the country’s emerging blue economy.

He said the vision of Digital Bangladesh and proper exploration of blue economy will help Bangladesh achieve middle-income status.

The GSP+ scheme provides a strong incentive to respect core human and labour rights, the environment and good governance principles. The scheme is part of the revised GSP scheme that entered into force on 1 January 2014.

ERF president Sultan Mahmud moderated the programme, where secretary Sajjadur

2009-10

2011-12

2012-13

Source: Bangladesh Bank

0

85,711

20000

85,258

40000

46,832

60000

67,819

80000

99,384

Taka in crore

100000

2010-11

Rahman, among others was also present.

“EU ambition in economic relation is to establish broader economic partnership between Bangladesh and the European countries,” Pierre Mayaudon said.

The vision of Digital Bangladesh and proper exploration of blue economy will help Bangladesh achieve middle-income status The envoy added the EU had identified three main objectives including implementation of the sustainability compact, improving business climate and accompanying Bangladesh in climbing value chain.

He urged the government to implement the labour rules not only in the RMG sector but also in other 42 sectors.

As per the Vision 2021, Bangladesh will reach status of the middle income status.

After reaching that status, the country will no longer benefit from the GSP facility, which is only for the least developed countries (LDCs).

To prepare for the candidacy of GSP+ facility, Bangladesh will have to implement 27 international conventions on the subjects like

2013-14

human rights, labour rights, environment and good governance, Mayaudon said.

As a LDC, Bangladesh is now enjoying duty-free and quota-free market access to the EU market under the GSP regime.

The ambassador suggested reforms to the Companies Act integrating the service sector.

He stressed the need to have transparent and credible regulatory framework to secure investment.

Mayaudon said they would meet Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed to tell him about what they can do for the reforms of the Companies Act. The envoy laid emphasis on peaceful environment to attract investment.

“Some disturbing news make investors worried, which is keeping potential investments away from Bangladesh.”

Mayaudon added: “70% of the court cases in Bangladesh are related to land disputes, which sends discouraging signal to foreign investors.”

In a globalised economy, Bangladesh has to compete with many attractive destinations for foreign direct investments, he said.

“Designing and conducting economic reforms is an absolute necessity, but it is vary difficult for the country to reform an economy.”

Bangladesh has many assets to bravely carry out the process, the ambassador said. l

DT

Business

15

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

Cabinet committee okays variations to Dhaka-Ctg highway

DSE, CSE get more claws in listing n Tribune Report

Dhaka Stock Exchange and Chittagong Stock Exchange yesterday got more claws from securities regulator in approving initial public offering (IPO) and overseeing pre-and post listing requirements and compliances.

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission has brought massive changes in listing regulations of both the stock exchanges to give them more authority in listing regulations as a primary regulator.

“The commission has approved the draft listing regulations proposed by the DSE and CSE,” said a statement issued yesterday.

From now on, for any public offer the exchanges will be able to put primary recommendation, get authority to call or require additional disclosure, information documents, certification and clarification, and give final recommendation along with a deceleration.

The exchanges will also be able to give its recommendations for listing for listing equity securities, mutual fund and debt securities.

In case of direct listing and re-listing requirements, disposal of shares and publication of offer documents, the bourses can recommend.

For post listing continuous compliance requirements like preparation of financial statement, auditing of financial statements, prior notice for adoption of quarterly financial statements, deceleration of quarterly NAV per share, EPS and so on, and submission of annual audited financial statements, posting of financial statement in website, submission of annual report and dissemination price sensitive information, the DSW and CSE will oversee.

Other regulations such as listing and annual fees for equity securities, mutual fund and debt securities, requirement on having of official website of the issuer of listed securities and minimum content of the website, prohibition on false and misleading information and Publicly Listed Companies membership requirement will be monitored.

DSE and CSE will have authority to make queries on unusual movement in price of securities, voluntary de-listing of securities and inspect. l

DT

16 BUSINESS

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

Dollar near eight-year high against yen n AFP, Tokyo

The dollar was sitting around eight-year highs against the yen Wednesday following upbeat US data, while the euro came under further selling pressure on growing fears Greece will default on its debt obligations.

In Tokyo, the greenback bought 123.15 yen, compared with 123.09 yen in New York, where it passed the 123.30 yen level at one point, its highest since mid-2007.

Figures Tuesday pointing to improvements in US consumer confidence, home sales and prices, and orders for core industrial goods pointed to a pick-up in growth in the world’s biggest economy after a weak first-quarter.

The latest results, along with comments Friday from Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen that she expects to hike interest rates “at some point this year”, put talk of a rate increase back on the table.

“Looking at Yellen’s comments from the end of last week, it seems like she’s determined to act this year,” said Yasuhiro Kaizaki, vice president for global markets at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank.

“Until recently, I think people were only really buying the dollar against the euro, but it’s clear now that you can buy the dollar against many different currencies.”

The dollar has gained 8.4% in the past six months against a basket of developednation currencies tracked by Bloomberg as expectations for a rate rise build. That is despite struggling in recent weeks on the back of a string of weak data that had analysts suggesting a rise could be put back to the start of 2016.

“The Fed is approaching the hiking stage within this year,” Kei Katayama, who trades US bonds in Tokyo at Daiwa SB Investments,

Employees of a foreign exchange trading company work in front of monitors displaying the exchange rates between the Japanese yen against the US dollar at its dealing room in Tokyo REUTERS told Bloomberg News. “With Greece, geopolitical risk is increasing. The dollar is a safe haven.”

The euro bought $1.0881 and 133.91 yen, against $1.0879 and 133.92 yen in US trade.

The long-running saga over Greece’s bail-

out reform continues to drag on the single currency, with Athens unable to reach an agreement with its creditors that will release much needed cash to help it avoid a default.

With a June 5 repayment deadline looming, the two sides have still not reached a deal

G7 finance ministers, central bankers to meet in Dresden n AFP, Berlin Finance ministers and central bank governors of the Group of Seven wealthiest nations meet in Dresden this week to discuss the health of the global economy and financial regulation, with Greece also certainly on the agenda.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has invited his counterparts and their central bank chiefs from Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Japan and the United States, for a meeting starting Wednesday and “an in-depth exchange of views” in the eastern German city.

But there will also be other experts seated around the table, Schaeuble said in an interview with German public radio Deutschlandfunk at the weekend.

For the first time, “we’ve also specifically invited a number of the world’s leading economists and monetary policy experts so that we can think about and find better solutions” to today’s pressing economic policy issues, he said, such as striking a balance between budget consolidation and investment, and the rules of the international financial architecture.

A “real novelty” will be a “symposium” organised for Thursday morning, where the

finance ministers will meet seven top economists, such as Nouriel Roubini, Kenneth Rogoff and even Larry Summers, former US Treasury Secretary.

And contrary to past practice, the German government does not plan to issue a final communique when the meeting wraps up on Friday. Greece’s troubles Schaeuble conceded that Greece would also “certainly be on the agenda.”

He insisted that Greece’s troubles were “not a problem that the G7 can solve. But it would be illusory to expect us not to talk about it and for our colleagues and partners from the US, Canada and Japan not to ask what’s going on.”

In addition, International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde, Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem, European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi and the EU Commissioner For Economic and Monetary Affairs, Pierre Moscovici - all key players in the Greek dossier - will all be in Dresden.

The IMF, ECB and EU Commission - previously known as the “troika” of Greece’s creditors - are trying to hammer out a debt deal with Athens, in return for pledges by the Greek government to push through crucial

economic reforms.

“Of course, we will talk about it, but the problem still has to be resolved in Greece,” Schaeuble said.

Talks on unlocking some 7.2bn euros in remaining bailout cash for Greece were set to resume in Brussels on Tuesday. According to Athens, the two sides are still apart on tax issues, social insurance, labour rights and the size of Greece’s budget surplus. The government hopes to secure an agreement by early June at the latest. Other issuesThe Dresden meeting will also examine the current high level of volatility on the financial markets and the outlook for global growth against a backdrop of disappointing data.

The G7 ministers will also discuss the battle to cut off financing to terror groups such as the Islamic State.

On the first evening of the meeting, a ceremony will be held in Dresden’s reconstructed Frauenkirche, the church almost totally destroyed in the bombing of Dresden by the British and US allies during World War II and the remaining ruins of which were left as a war memorial.

The church was rebuilt following German unification and finally reconsecrated in 2005. l

that will unlock the last batch of bailout money. There are fears that a Greek default could see the country tumbling out of the eurozone, spooking global investors.

The common currency is sharply down from $1.1149 and 134.54 yen last week. l

‘Global smartphone growth cools on China sales’ n AFP, Washington

A slowdown in smartphone sales in China is cooling the global market for the devices, research firm IDC said Tuesday.

The market tracker said global smartphone sales will see a rise of 11.3% in 2015, following robust growth in 2014 of 27.6%.

IDC said the overall market is still moving forward thanks to growth in other countries and estimated sales rising to 1.9 billion units by 2019 from a projected 1.44 billion this year.

“Smartphone volume still has a lot of opportunity in the years to come, but two fundamental segments driving recent years’ growth are starting to slow,” said analyst Ryan Reith.

“As reported earlier in May, smartphone shipments in China actually declined year over year in the first quarter of 2015, showing that the largest market in the world has reached a level of maturity where rapid growth will be harder to achieve.”

Reith said China has been a key driver of Android, accounting for 36% of total volume in 2014.

Growth for Android, the free operating system from Google, will be only around 8.5% this year due to the China slowdown, according to IDC. l

DT

BUSINESS 17

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

Low inflation gives India chance to cut rates, but window could close n Reuters, Mumbai

A sharp fall in inflation has provided India with a window to cut interest rates for a third time this year, as the central bank prepares for a policy review on June 2.

“We are expecting a 25 basis point rate cut in June with a cautious tone, but not too hawkish,” said Shubhada Rao, chief economist with Yes Bank, looking ahead to the policy review.

Wait any longer, and the start of monsoon rains and potential US rate hikes could limit chances for the Reserve Bank of India to reduce the repo rate, currently at 7.50% after two quarter-percentage point cuts in January and in March.

Bonds and overnight index swaps have rallied on prospects for a rate cut after data last week showed consumer inflation at a fourmonth low of 4.87% in April and industrial output at a five-month low.

“All recent high frequency data point to a severe disinflationary trend in the country,” said Rupa Rege Nitsure, chief economist at L&T Financial Services.

“There is no immediate threat from the rupee weakness either, so they have the opportunity of reducing rates until June. After that, there will be more uncertainties.”

India will release gross domestic product data for the January-March quarter on Friday.

Although India’s growth rate overtook China’s in the October-December quarter, the economy is still in need of stimulus, as investment remains stubbornly low, and there are doubts over the reliability of data, after the statistics department changed its methodology earlier this year.

At the last policy review on April 7, the RBI expressed caution over the economy, noting “mixed signals” in the services sector and potential underlying weakness in consumption.

Low credit growth and weak capacity utilisation also point to an economy only in the early stages of recovery.

Second half cuts rare

RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has shown willingness to act swiftly: each of the two rate cuts this year came outside of scheduled policy reviews.

Poor rains could cause sharp spikes in food prices. But, inflation - the main determinant of monetary policy, remains well within the RBI’s 2-6% target range because of slumping oil prices.

If the RBI does choose to wait beyond next week’s review to cut rates, it could be delayed until much later.

Since adopting the repo rate as a main tool for interest rate policy in 2004, the RBI has never cut interest rates during the monsoon rains season, running from mid-June to September.

During that time, the RBI has only cut later than May in one year, 2008, when it cut three times between October and December to counter the impact of the global financial crisis.

The main external risks this year are posed by potential market volatility once US rates rise, and danger of some crisis developing should Greece fail to repay debt to the International Monetary Fund. l

A staff member counts Renminbi (RMB) banknotes at a branch of Bank of China in Changzhi, Shanxi province

REUTERS

IMF: China’s yuan currency no longer undervalued n AFP, Beijing China’s yuan currency, which Washington has long alleged was manipulated, is “no longer undervalued”, the International Monetary Fund said Tuesday.

The value of the yuan, also known as the renminbi, has been a source of tension for years, with China’s major trade partners led by the United States - accusing Beijing of keeping it artificially low to give Chinese exporters an unfair competitive advantage, which Beijing denied.

“Our assessment now is that the substantial real effective appreciation over the past year has brought the exchange rate to a level that is no longer undervalued,” the IMF said in a statement after a consultation mission to China.

China keeps a tight grip on the value of the yuan out of concerns that unpredictable currency inflows and outflows could harm the economy and weaken its financial control.

But it is still pushing for the currency to play a greater role in the world financial system, such as being included in the basket that makes up the IMF’s own “special drawing rights” reserve currency. US: yuan still too low The yuan has been one of the world’s most stable currencies, with day-to-day volatility strictly limited by the authorities.

It spent almost two years around the 6.82 to the dollar level until May 2010, before appreciating, under US pressure, to a high of 6.04 in January 2014.

But with Chinese economic growth slowing, the currency slid back. It traded little-changed at 6.21 after the IMF announcement.

Washington nevertheless held its position Tuesday, with an official of the US Treasury, who asked not to be identified, insisting that the yuan remains too cheap.

That has been the official position for years in the Treasury’s semi-annual assessment to Congress about the currencies of the country’s major trading partners.

The most recent report last month conceded that on a trade-weighted, inflation-adjusted basis, the currency had risen 10% against the dollar over the previous six months.

But even with that, it remained “significantly undervalued”.

US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew last week reiterated the opinion, urging China to make more progress on foreign exchange reforms, according to Bloomberg News.

Fawad Razaqzada, an analyst with London-based currency trading platform Forex. com, was sceptical about the IMF findings.

“It probably will give the Chinese authorities an excuse to hold down the value of the yuan, especially against currencies where the central banks are still pretty much dovish such as the euro,” he told AFP. “Against the dollar they won’t need much help anyway, as the greenback will most likely appreciate further as the market prepares for a rate hike later this year,” he added. Yuan to join SDR?

The IMF nevertheless was critical of Beijing’s world-leading foreign exchange reserves - $3.73tn at the end of March - and urged “greater exchange rate flexibility, a key requirement for a large economy like China’s.”

“The still-too-strong external position highlights the need for other policy reforms - which are indeed part of the authorities’ agenda - to reduce excess savings and achieve sustained external balance,” the Fund said.

China has slowly loosened controls on the international use of the yuan. The currency is now among the top ten held as reserves by foreign countries.

Beijing has set up yuan clearing arrangements with 10 countries and regions and signed currency swap agreements with 28 central banks.

It has also permitted Chinese and foreign entities to issue yuan-denominated “dim sum bonds” in the international market, though the total issued remains relatively small.

The Beijing-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which aims to support infrastructure development across the continent, is also expected to facilitate wider international use of the yuan.

China is now also pursuing the inclusion of the yuan in the basket underpinning the IMF’s SDR currency, currently based on only the US dollar, the euro, the Japanese yen and the British pound.

The Fund will be reviewing the SDR basket later this year, with the yuan’s potential as a component a key subject. l

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18 BUSINESS

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

News, analysis and recent disclosures UCBL: Emerging Credit Rating Limited (ECRL) has assigned the surveillance rating of the Company as AA in the long term and ECRL-2 in the Short term along with a stable outlook to the Company based on financial statements of the Company up to December 31, 2014 and other relevant qualitative information up to the date of rating.

IFADAUTOS: Credit Rating Agency of Bangladesh Limited (CRAB) has announced the entity rating (surveillance) of the Company as A1 with a stable outlook based on audited financial statements up to June 30, 2014, bank liability position as on September 30, 2014 and other relevant quantitative as well as qualitative information up to the date of rating declaration.

GENNEXT: Generation Next Fashions Ltd. has further informed that due to unavoidable circumstances, the 11th AGM of the Company will now be held on 27 June 2015 at 11:00 AM instead of 16 June 2015 at 10:30 AM. Other information of the AGM will remain same.

IPO Subscription: Aman Feed Limited Subscription 25.05.2015 TO 04.06.2015.

Offer Price per share Tk. 36.00, Market Lot (Shares) 200.

Dividend/AGM DELTALIFE: 20% cash dividend, AGM: 21.06.2015, Record Date: 02.06.2015.

FAMILYTEX: 10% stock dividend,EGM & AGM: 07.08.2015, Record Date: 09.07.2015.

KPCL: 40% cash, AGM: 25.06.2015, Record Date:

31.05.2015.

BDWELDING: 5% stock dividend AGM: 25.06.2015, Record Date: 09.06.2015.

NBL: 10% stock dividend, AGM: 14.09.2015, Record date: 30.08.2015.

ORIONPHARM: 15% cash dividend, AGM: 28.06.2015, Record Date: 21.05.2015.

ISNLTD: No dividend, AGM: 28.06.2015, Record date: 16.06.2015.

PURABIGEN: 15% stock dividend, AGM: 30.07.2015, Record date: 07.06.2015.

JANATAINS: 10% stock dividend, AGM: 25.07.2015, Record Date: 21.05.2015.

AMBEEPHA: 28% cash dividend, AGM: 14.06.2015, Record Date: 25.05.2015.

ISLAMIINS: 5% cash and 10% stock, AGM: 13.06.2015, Record Date: 19.05.2015.

NCCBANK: 10% stock dividend, AGM: 24.06.2015, Record Date: 18.05.2015.

PEOPLESINS: 13% cash dividend, AGM: 09.06.2015, Record Date: 18.05.2015.

LEGACYFOOT: 5% stock, AGM: 13.06.2015, Record Date: 14.05.2015.

RUPALIBANK: 15% stock , AGM: 31.05.2015, Record date: 14.05.2015.

UNIQUEHRL: 20% cash dividend, AGM: 25.06.2015, Record Date: 24.05.2015.

WATACHEM: 5% cash and 25% stock dividend, AGM: 11.06.2015, Record Date: 14.05.2015.

CMCKAMAL: 12.50% stock dividend, AGM: 31.05.2015, Record Date: 17.05.2015.

Turnover (Volume) Number of Contract

Company BSRM Ltd. -N BEXIMCO Ltd. -A BSRM Steels-A Khulna Power-A Ifad Autos -N Northern Jute -Z Rahima Food -Z Alltex Industries -Z Bangladesh Welding -Z ACI Formulations-A

Closing (% Change) 10.00 8.36 8.26 8.13 7.94 7.76 7.65 7.33 7.18 6.78

CSE GAINER Company BSRM Ltd. -N BEXIMCO Ltd. -A ICB AMCL 2nd NRB -A Khulna Power-A ACI Formulations-A Alltex Industries -Z Rahima Food -Z BSRM Steels-A Eastern InsurA

Closing (% Change) 9.87 9.38 8.96 8.78 8.36 8.12 8.00 7.92 7.09

DSE LOSER Company Dulamia CottonZ Kay & Que (BD) -Z ICB AMCL 1st NRB -A Aziz PipesZ First Finance- A B I F C -A Meghna PET Ind. -Z AIMS First -A Tung Hai Knitting -N AIBL 1st Is. M. F.-A

Closing (% Change) -9.52 -7.69 -7.17 -6.94 -6.08 -5.84 -5.08 -4.98 -4.83 -4.76

CSE LOSER Company Pioneer Insur -A B I F C -A ICB Sonali Bank 1 MF-A Tung Hai Knitting -N Shinepukur Cera-Z AsianTigerSandhani GF-A Takaful Islami Insu-A Asia Insur. Ltd.-A Hwa Well Textiles-A National Feed-N

Closing (% Change) -12.17 -7.86 -7.69 -6.22 -6.06 -5.56 -5.45 -5.42 -5.29 -5.06

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

DSE key features May 27, 2015 Turnover (Million Taka)

DSE GAINER

Sector

8,424.90 204,980,895 171,656

Traded Issues

312

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

68

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

241

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

3

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,579.68

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

31.27

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 667.50 226.62 44.55 1067.34 175.08 1888.26 4.12 490.91 1431.81 25.84 471.84 17.34 184.43 174.89 140.24 36.32 92.33 553.74 267.77 462.39 1.59

% change 7.92 2.69 0.53 12.67 2.08 22.41 0.05 5.83 16.99 0.31 5.60 0.21 2.19 2.08 1.66 0.43 1.10 6.57 3.18 5.49 0.02

Million Taka 28.65 30.87 1.68 126.19 11.22 174.80 45.91 81.26 2.41 28.30 1.11 17.64 17.25 11.60 0.99 11.68 58.91 37.70 53.65 0.04

Average (% Change) 4.90 2.28 4.45 8.54 3.99 5.55 8.81 2.24 10.81 7.06

Average (% Change) 5.31 2.61 8.96 8.29 8.69 3.57 14.63 3.39 7.09

Average (% Change) -17.44 -7.41 -7.68 -5.23 -6.30 -7.56 -5.55 -3.42 -4.36 -3.34

Average (% Change) -12.17 -6.73 -7.08 -4.36 -2.38 -5.66 -7.55 -3.86 -5.29 -7.10

CSE

ClosingAvg. 71.75 33.70 74.61 83.10 118.62 200.18 38.41 28.78 21.02 232.77

ClosingAvg. 71.61 33.79 7.30 82.92 234.62 29.04 38.24 74.02 27.20

ClosingAvg. 7.86 12.00 20.56 16.14 14.13 13.09 5.62 27.07 19.96 4.05

ClosingAvg.

% change 3.86 4.16 0.23 17.01 1.51 23.56 0.00 6.19 10.95 0.33 3.82 0.15 2.38 2.32 1.56 0.13 1.57 7.94 5.08 7.23 0.01

30.30 13.02 6.04 19.94 9.42 6.84 19.09 19.19 34.00 22.91

Closing 74.80 35.00 76.00 85.10 119.60 204.10 38.00 29.30 20.90 236.20

Closing 74.60 35.00 7.30 85.50 238.50 29.30 37.80 76.30 27.20

Closing

DHIGH 74.80 35.50 77.10 86.50 121.80 206.50 38.80 29.60 21.40 239.00

DHIGH

DHIGH

DLOW 67.10 31.50 7.30 78.00 222.00 27.80 35.50 69.50 27.20

DLOW

8.00 12.00 21.80 16.80 14.60 13.80 5.70 28.00 21.40 4.20

DHIGH

30.30 12.90 6.00 19.60 9.30 6.80 19.10 19.20 34.00 22.50

Million Taka 696.15 257.49 46.24 1193.53 186.30 2063.06 4.12 536.82 1513.06 28.26 500.14 18.45 202.06 192.13 151.84 37.31 104.01 612.65 305.48 516.04 1.63

67.10 31.60 69.10 78.70 114.10 191.00 36.20 27.40 20.10 220.60

74.60 35.20 7.30 86.40 239.30 29.80 38.50 77.00 27.20

7.60 12.00 20.70 16.10 13.90 12.90 5.60 26.70 19.70 4.00

Closing

DLOW

7.60 12.00 20.40 15.90 13.70 12.70 5.60 26.60 19.60 4.00

DLOW

30.30 13.30 6.50 20.20 9.50 7.00 19.10 19.90 34.00 23.50

Total

30.30 12.90 5.90 19.60 9.30 6.80 19.00 19.10 34.00 22.40

% change 7.59 2.81 0.50 13.02 2.03 22.51 0.04 5.86 16.51 0.31 5.46 0.20 2.20 2.10 1.66 0.41 1.13 6.68 3.33 5.63 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

146.032 387.032 139.721 562.301 168.878 2.059 5.559 90.275 26.694 203.288

Turnover in Million

0.73 1.04 3.56 6.36 2.60 1.75 -0.47 1.89 -0.40 6.80

Latest EPS

36.828 45.188 0.000 46.671 10.180 7.955 0.812 9.100 0.002

Turnover in Million

98.3 32.4 21.0 13.1 45.6 114.4 -ve 15.2 -ve 34.2

Latest PE

0.73 1.04 0.87 6.36 6.80 1.89 -0.47 3.56 3.52

Latest EPS

0.009 0.030 0.073 0.211 3.716 9.240 0.024 3.170 9.176 1.459

Turnover in Million

Latest PE

98.1 32.5 8.4 13.0 34.5 15.4 -ve 20.8 7.7

Latest PE

-3.15 0.28 2.61 -2.64 1.60 1.41 -0.53 1.70 0.92 -0.32

Latest EPS

0.011 0.141 0.015 0.382 0.138 0.112 0.021 0.044 0.027 2.351

-ve 42.9 7.9 -ve 8.8 9.3 -ve 15.9 21.7 -ve

Latest PE

5.44 1.41 0.97 0.92 0.12 0.60 1.40 2.17 2.32 1.61

5.6 9.2 6.2 21.7 78.5 11.4 13.6 8.8 14.7 14.2

CSE key features May 27, 2015 Turnover (Million Taka) Turnover (Volume) Number of Contract

741.86 20,415,821 28,703

Traded Issues

247

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

59

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

184

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

4

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,509.12

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

30.41

DT

BUSINESS 19

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

Stocks end flat with roller-coaster ride n Tribune Report

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS Company Khulna Power-A BEXIMCO Ltd. -A BD Submarine Cable-A United Power-N UCBL - A ACI Limited- A SummitAlliancePort.-A SAIF Powertec-N S Purbanchol Power-N ACI Formulations-A

Grameenphone-A RAK Ceramics-A Ifad Autos -N Baraka Power-A Keya Cosmetics -A

VolumeShares 6,766,274 11,484,336 2,095,396 1,358,550 11,592,915 457,876 3,563,204 2,452,405 3,596,231 873,345

Value in Million 562.30 387.03 354.90 266.02 249.10 236.99 235.68 217.93 214.82 203.29

% of TotalTurnover 6.67 4.59 4.21 3.16 2.96 2.81 2.80 2.59 2.55 2.41

VolumeShares

Value in Million

% of TotalTurnover

611,948 2,399,654 1,423,638 4,136,414 6,703,733

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS Company BD Submarine Cable-A Khulna Power-A BEXIMCO Ltd. -A BSRM Ltd. -N United Power-N UNITED AIR-A Keya Cosmetics -A Ratanpur Steel -N MJL BD Ltd.-A RAK Ceramics-A

S Purbanchol Power-N SummitAlliancePort.-A WesternMarine -N LafargeS Cement-Z FAR Chemical-N

300,707 562,851 1,337,319 514,282 179,851 3,325,771 924,550 305,539 146,444 227,267

255,802 212,548 301,530 115,325 253,677

198.84 177.40 168.88 152.39 148.26

50.85 46.67 45.19 36.83 35.12 31.54 20.52 17.66 17.16 16.80

15.38 14.05 13.79 13.73 13.46

2.36 2.11 2.00 1.81 1.76

6.85 6.29 6.09 4.96 4.73 4.25 2.77 2.38 2.31 2.26

2.07 1.89 1.86 1.85 1.81

ClosingP 85.10 35.00 170.80 191.70 21.30 521.00 66.50 89.70 61.50 236.20

324.30 72.80 119.60 36.20 22.20

ClosingP

Change % 8.13 8.36 5.96 -1.54 -1.39 5.34 5.39 5.90 6.22 6.78

-1.34 -0.68 7.94 -1.09 3.74

Change %

170.40 85.50 35.00 74.60 192.10 9.40 22.30 57.40 116.00 73.10

61.60 66.70 45.50 118.10 52.10

5.84 8.78 9.38 9.87 -1.34 -3.09 4.69 1.77 -1.44 -0.14

6.76 5.87 -1.09 0.94 -4.23

ClosingY 78.70 32.30 161.20 194.70 21.60 494.60 63.10 84.70 57.90 221.20

328.70 73.30 110.80 36.60 21.40

ClosingY

161.00 78.60 32.00 67.90 194.70 9.70 21.30 56.40 117.70 73.20

57.70 63.00 46.00 117.00 54.40

DHIGH 86.50 35.50 173.00 201.80 21.90 535.00 68.30 92.00 62.50 239.00

330.00 75.30 121.80 38.70 23.40

DHIGH

174.00 86.40 35.20 74.60 200.00 9.90 23.00 58.90 120.00 75.20

62.90 68.90 46.40 121.50 55.90

DLOW 78.70 31.60 165.00 190.30 21.00 498.80 63.60 84.80 56.80 220.60

323.60 72.20 114.10 36.00 21.40

DLOW

164.50 78.00 31.50 67.10 191.10 9.20 21.50 55.30 115.50 72.10

57.00 63.40 45.40 116.00 51.00

AvgPrice 83.10 33.70 169.37 195.81 21.49 517.59 66.14 88.86 59.73 232.77

324.93 73.93 118.62 36.84 22.12

AvgPrice

169.10 82.92 33.79 71.61 195.30 9.48 22.20 57.80 117.20 73.93

60.14 66.09 45.74 119.01 53.05

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

4616.12026

(-) 0.24%

1760.15811

(+) 0.65%

14278.91030

(+) 0.004%

11373.28110

(-) 0.25%

8709.24340

(-) 0.04%

▼ ▲ ▲ ▼ ▼

Stocks closed flat amid roller-coaster ride yesterday as investors went for booking profits from previous fourday gains. But trading activities remained vibrant.

The market moved between positive and negative heavily in the early trading with intra-day volatility around 40 points.

The benchmark index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSEX, fell marginally 11 points or 0.3% to 4,616, hitting lowest 4,608 in the final minutes and 4,646 in the very beginning. The index broke its fourth straight session winning streak.

The Shariah index, DSES, inched down 3 points or 0.3% to 1,110. The blue chip comprising index DS30, however, gained 11 points or 0.7% to 1,760.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange prime index, CSCX, declined 3 points to end at 8,709.

Profit booking took place mostly on heavyweight sectors, including banks, non-banking financial institutions and telecommunications that were down more

than 1% each.

Food and allied posted a gain of 1.3%, followed by cement 0.8%. Pharmaceuticals ended the session flat.

Total turnover at the Dhaka Stock Exchange still remained strong and stood at Tk840 crore, up 0.8% over the previous session.

Lanka Bangla Securities said index stuck to its zigzag pattern throughout the day and remained exposed to the whims of selling forces on large cap stocks.

IDLC Investments said most recent bull-run took a halt as the market dented after four sessions while investors reassessed their positions. However, the turnover remained high amid large-scale retail and institutional participation, as the session also marked a number of block transactions.

Khulna Power Company Limited was the most traded stocks for the fourth consecutive session with shares worth over Tk56 crore changing hands.

It was followed by Beximco Limited, Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited, United Power Generation Company and ACI. l

ANALYST

Most recent bull-run took a halt as the market dented after four sessions while investors reassessed their positions

DT

20 BUSINESS

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

Cabinet committee okays variations to Dhaka-Ctg highway projects

n Tribune Report

Merchandise exporters are entitled to a foreign exchange retention quota of 60% from existing 50% for their repatriated FOB value of exports.

Bangladesh Bank has enhanced the retention quota of export earnings in foreign exchange for the exporters’ business expenses abroad, including office maintenance, import of raw materials, machinery, spares etc, said a circular the authority issued yesterday.

The retention quota for merchandise exports of high import contents (low domestic value) like naptha, furnace oil and bitumen, electronic goods has been enhanced to 15% from existing 10%, with taking immediate effect.

The quota for exports of services has also been increased to 60% from existing 50% of repatriated export receipts, said the circular. l

n Tribune Report The Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase has given its consent to proposals of the Roads and Highways Department for variations of six packages under the four-lane Dhaka-Chittagong highway project with overall increase of expenditures.

A meeting of the committee made the approval at the Cabinet Division yesterday with Finance Minister AMA Muhith in the chair.

Of the proposals of six-package variations, the expenditure has increased for four variations while cost for two other variations has fallen, additional secretary of the Cabinet Division Mustafizur Rahman told the journalists after the meeting.

In the four variation orders, the cost has increased by a total of Tk151.43 crore while the original total figure was Tk844 crore.

In other two variation orders, the cost has dropped by Tk11.35 crore from total original amount of Tk346.50 crore.

Mustafizur Rahman said the increase and fall of the cost is a common phenomenon in the development projects.

“The addition of works inflates the cost while elimination of works reduce it.”

Other six proposals of the committee are variation of the agreement for Chittagong Station Remodeling under JICA ODA funded Dhaka-Chittagong Rail Route Development (Tk251.86 crore, increased by Tk24.66 crore), appointment of contractor for the package WD-4 (Lot-b) under construction of

BB enhances forex retention quota for exporters

Dhaka-Chittagong highway new rail track to Dhalarchar from Ishwardi via Pabna (Tk159.80 crore), construction of RHD headquarters building at Tejgaon under Joydevpur-Chandra-Tangail-Alenga four-lane project (Tk145.64 crore), package number-11 (lot-1) and package number-17 (lot-20 under the Purbachal New City project (Tk14.09 crore and Tk15.04 crore), procurement proposals of three groups under one package for the construction of apartment for limited and middle income people at Uttara (Tk170.08 crore, Tk49 crore and Tk79 crore) and construction of the remaining part of the bridge number-6 at Uttara Adarsha Town, third phase (Tk12.52

DHAKA TRIBUNE

crore).

Besides, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved three proposals yesterday. Finance Minister AMA Muhith also chaired the meeting.

The firms going to get the job of Block 3 construction of the Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park at Kaliakoir include Fiber Home Limited, Technology Park Malaysia SDN BHD, Irish Corporation Bharad MSC Technology Center SDN BHD and Alfa Informatics Limited.

Industry Ministry’s proposal to de-list Chittagong Chemical Corporation was also approved. l

KDS Accessories get IPO approval

n Tribune Report KDS Accessories Limited yesterday received green signal from the securities regulator to go public.

The company will raise Tk24 crore by issuing 1.20 crore ordinary shares with an offer value of Tk20 each, including the premium of Tk10, according to a statement of Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission.

The raised fund will be used for business expansion, bank loan payment and meeting IPO expenses. l

France to give 100m euros Govt plans to set up IT to upgrade Dhaka power parks in 12 districts n distribution network Ishtiaq Husain

n Tribune Report Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the French development agency, is set to provide Bangladesh with a 100 million euro (Tk850 crore) loan for establishing a stronger and more reliable electricity network in Dhaka.

The money will be spent for strengthening power distribution network in areas under Dhaka South City Corporation.

The loan agreement will be signed with the Economic Relations Division under the Ministry of Finance on June 1.

Under the Power System Expansion and Efficiency Improvement Investment Programme (PSEEIIP), AFD will fund construction of 14 new sub-stations - seven 132/33kV sub-stations and seven 33/11kV sub-stations - as well as electric lines.

Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC) will be responsible for implementing this part of the project.

AFD has teamed up with Asian Development Bank (ADB), the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to finance the PSEEIIP. The objective of this ambitious project is

to modernise and strengthen both production and distribution capacities of the country’s power system.

After the Greater Dhaka Sustainable Urban Transport Project and Dhaka Environmentally Sustainable Water Supply Project, the PSEEIIP is the third major project in Bangladesh financed by AFD. The AFD fund will significantly upgrade the capacity and stability of DPDC network as the frequency of power outage in Dhaka south will be minimised and power distribution will become more reliable.

It is estimated that living conditions of 1.25 million households will be improved once the project is implemented.

The project will take electricity to 225,000 homes which are now deprived of legal power connections, thus stimulating social and economic empowerment of the low-income communities there.

DPDC is one of the country’s largest distribution companies and is in charge of distributing electricity to the southern part of the capital. It covers 21% of the total region of Dhaka and provides around 2,000MW of electricity every day. l

Government plans to set up 12 Information Technology (IT) parks in the country for building a digital Bangladesh with the support from the proposed Indian second line of credit.

Information Communication Technology (ICT) Division of the Ministry of Post, Telecommunication & ICT will implement the proposed project.

ICT division has already sent the project proposal to the planning ministry for getting approval from the next ECNEC meeting.

A total of 12 IT parks will be established in 12 separate districts-Jamalpur, Natore, Thakurgaon, Comilla, Maymensing, Kareniganj (Dhaka), Barisal, Rangpur, Rajshahi, Sylhet, Khulna and Chittagong.

“As ICT has been considered as a thrust sector, the government has taken various initiatives to achieve the digital Bangladesh target including setting up of IT parks across the country,” said an official of the ICT division.

According to an estimate of ICT division, it will cost US$201m for setting up the 12 proposed parks while all the technical assistance will be provided by neighbouring India.

ICT division hopes that the loan will be sanctioned during the upcoming visit of In-

dian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June6-7.

“Setting up of Information and Technology (IT) Park in 12 districts will be one of the priority project which would be a milestone for the development of ICT sector as well as industrialisation in Bangladesh,” Sham Sundor Sikder, secretary of ICT division, told the Dhaka Tribune.

The construction works for the 12 IT parks will begin in the next fiscal year and will be completed by 2018.

“If India finally did not sanction the proposed loan, the government will go for other alternatives to implement the project. In that case,the project will be implemented from the government’s own funds,’’ said a top official.

ICT division has reportedly communicated with China, South Korea, Singapore and Japan for technical assistance for implementing the project in case India turned down Bangladesh’s priority project.

Strongly criticising the decision to establish IT parks outside the capital, Fahim Mashrur, former president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS), viewed that the IT park should be established in Dhaka city to boost the software industry as 90% software companies are located in this territory. l

DT

21

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

Photo: Bigstock

NEWS

INSIDE

WINGS holds its first monthly general meeting WINGS (Women in Need Group) is a support group for Women, launched to facilitate positioning the country’s women in workplace, society and family. WINGS provides immediate support for women in distress. After the launching ceremony of WINGS in January and its first get together in May, WINGS recently arranged its first monthly general meeting.

President of WINGS, Farzana Chowdhury who is also the

T-JUNCTION

Make your money grow

managing director and CEO of Green Delta Insurance, talked about the various activities and initiatives of WINGS. Among others, veteran designer Tootli Rahman, executive vice president and Faria Afzal, secretary of WINGS were also present.

WINGS is currently taking the responsibility of 15 females who are known as Angels and were inducted on the first get together of WINGS.

22

hot topic

Choosing business development as a career

23

theatre blog

Discovering Bangladesh

24 ticket

What’s cooking?

DT

22 T-JUNCTION

Hot Topic

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

Choosing business development as a career

Photo: Bigstock

Are you cut out for it?

n Helal Hussain

fresh graduates.

Business development or fundraising, a term preferred by nonprofits, is a career path very few aspiring aid personnel seek out intentionally. Every year there are billions of funding dollars at stake compelling nonprofit organisations to employ teams dedicated to business development activities. These activities include research and intelligence gathering, proposal writing, financial proposal development, recruitment of project personnel, and extensive travelling, both nationally and internationally.

If you are someone who is intellectually promiscuous and constantly seeking new ideas, information and knowledge, that address social and economic problems and keep you amused at work, then you should definitely consider working in business development roles in nonprofit organisations.

On a more serious note, here are a few reasons why business development can be a good career move or path, specifically for

You’ll get noticed Business development requires you to work closely with the leadership and top-notch technical colleagues of an organisation, which provides an opportunity to learn from them and also get noticed by those making hiring and career advancement decisions. The network you build with colleagues from your organisation and others during a proposal development process can be really valuable throughout your career.

However, it is imperative that you are on your toes to keep up with the rest of the team members. With strong work ethic, perseverance, and an ability to think on your feet and tackle challenges, you are likely to move up the ranks more quickly within the organisation.

You earn numerous (personal) diplomas If your organisation focuses on a wide range of sectors (food security, education, health, economic development, etc.) then you are

exposed to a lot of in-depth knowledge in a short period of time. Depending on your interest and engagement, the entire process of business development is likely to teach you more than what you could have learned in a diploma course.

Typically, a single proposal requires four to six weeks (or sometimes even longer) of effort and the intensity of the work requires you to dive deep into a specific sector and start unfolding existing problems, looking at possible

T-JUNCTION 23

DT

Hot Topic

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

solutions, innovations and best approaches.

You will work closely alongside senior technical experts, who will (subconsciously) help you build an arsenal of your own knowledge.

You develop valuable marketable skills The skills you will surely develop over a period of time are concise and persuasive writing, understanding partnership dynamics, creating realistic budgets, working with diverse team members and time management. As employers highly value these skills you become a more

theatre blog

Discovering Bangladesh n Brett Lee Roberts We are now in our tenth and final day of our trip to Dhaka. It has been both myself and our producer Michael’s first time in Bangladesh. In fact it is our first time in Asia and so Bangladesh has been our first introduction to an entire continent. And what an introduction it has been. Our purpose in being here has been to conduct research on our latest project MADE, a new play in development in the UK about Bangladesh and its huge garments sector. Ikhtisad Ahmed, our writer in residence, first brought the idea of working with Bangladesh to me over two years ago when I directed his debut play ‘The Deliverance of Sanctuary’

competitive and competent candidate for many other jobs in the future.

You earn more in less competitive positions Most HR managers will tell you that business development roles are some of the most difficult positions to fill. Fewer applications are received for these roles as most people envision a career in project delivery roles.

Also, one of the best things about working in business development is that it is easier to prove your value to the organisation. For instance, you can easily demonstrate how you helped bring in $5 million from the Bill

in London. Until meeting Ikhtisad my knowledge of Bangladesh was fairly embryonic, mostly informed by charity aid appeals, Brick Lane curry houses and the vague sense that some of my clothes had been manufactured in the subcontinent.

“Take a look at your luggage now” Ikhtisad directed during one of our late night conversations at his home in London. “How many of your clothes have been made in Bangladesh?” Sure enough, over half of my clothing bore that label. How could I wear something every day whilst knowing so little about the country or people that made it? How is it that our skin can come so close, so often, to material that another human hand has touched and yet we remain, for the most part, completely oblivious to their existence? After some searching we realised that this lack of knowledge was the status quo for most people in the UK. Coming so close to Bangladesh all the time and yet never knowing it. It wasn’t long before Bangladesh could not

& Melinda Gates Foundation. Therefore, salaries offered for business development roles tend to be one of the highest paying in the sector.

You have more career options in the future The business development team is always involved at the inception period of any new project. Many organisations assign a member(s) from their business development teams to the project start-up team when they win a project. This is primarily because the business development team

be ignored any longer and our links to the country were laid horrifyingly bare, through the usual prism of tragedy. Rana Plaza was the catalyst for much soulsearching in the west. How far does our individual responsibility stretch to the countries who make the products we consume? Should we make more effort to get to know the countries and people that sustain our lifestyles? This is when we decided to create MADE. To tell the stories of a country that clothes us. We put our idea forward to the Arts Council in England who are now our biggest supporters for the project, which I think reflects Britain’s hunger to get even closer to Bangladesh. This piece will not focus on the tragedies of the garments industry but instead on the human lives that account for 80% of Bangladesh’s exports, the medium in which the country has been introduced to the world. We want to explore Bangladesh through the eyes of its workers and introduce the UK to a country via our closest link, garments. For too long Bangladesh’s voice has been secondary to

is more acquainted with the project and specific donor requirement than anyone else. Therefore, starting your career in business development does not mean you spend the rest of your life in the same function. In fact, it can be a launch pad to many different national and international roles. With an exposure to wider technical areas, improved marketable skills, and better visibility and recognition amongst leadership will open doors to many opportunities, and could eventually lead you to the highest positions. l

other South Asian countries in the UK’s cultural scene despite the UK’s significant Bangladeshi population. We hope to go some way in rectifying that. As we come to the end of our trip I leave this country with a heavy heart, not because I have witnessed the bleak image of Bangladesh often perpetuated in the UK media but because I have been to a country that welcomes you with warmth, kindness and generosity, is full of culture, vibrancy and people who must be celebrated on the world stage, and I am sad to leave. I will leave this county better for having been here. The humanity and resilience of Bangladesh is the lasting image I will take home and I feel privileged that we will have the opportunity and responsibility of sharing your country with audiences in the UK. Brett Lee Roberts is the Artistic Director of Target Theatre Company and Director of MADE. Find him on Twitter: @targettheatreco or Facebook at www.facebook.com/ targettheatrecompany

DT

24 T-JUNCTION

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

Ticket

What’s cooking?

Whether you’re making a delish meal for the whole fam or simply cleaning the kitchen countertop, handling each and every housewares delicately while you’re at it is no easy job. Materials such as glass or ceramic need careful handling and sometimes a single hurriedness can cost you your precious belongings in the kitchen. On the flipside, tin or wooden kitchen utensils are less durable and really not all that handy.

But here’s RFL and Bengal Plastic housewares to the rescue. The have a wide range of smart plastic products such

as water bottles, jugs, rice dishes, food containers, bowls, trays, laundry baskets, hangers and many more.

Log in to the following for a sneak peek: 1) rflplastics.com/product-category/ household 2) bengal.com/houseware

Photos: Courtesy

news

Singer’s furniture & family festival

“Singer Furniture Family Fiesta - Furniture and Family Festival” took place from

May 26 to 28 at Karotoa Auditorium, Jaleshwaritala, Bogra. During the exhibition, Singer’s attractive furniture items were exhibited. The exhibition offered attractive discounts, warranty and a 12-month installment facility for Singer Furniture. An art competition for children and kitchen appliance demonstration for housewives were also organised as part of the festival.

On May 26, the fair was formally inaugurated by Mozammel Hoque, editor of Daily Karotoa. Among others, MH Fairoz, marketing director of Singer Bangladesh Limited along with high officials and local elites attended the ceremony. l

Sri Lankan cricketers are to get fielding tips from the man who pretty much revolutionised the art after former South African player Jonty Rhodes agreed to a short stint with them

Sport 26

SOUMYA, MOSADDEK STEER SOUTH ZONE TO BCL TITLE

28

US CORRUPTION PROBE ROCKS FIFA, 7 OFFICIALS DETAINED

29

25

DT

NEW ROLE

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

MESSI WINS AS’ PLAYER OF THE YEAR POLL

WHAT THEY SAID Mardan Mamat (SIN) First Round 66 (-5)

I’m hitting the ball good and playing well from tee-to-green. I kept myself very steady and patient. I knew it will be a long day so I told myself to keep calm and steady. The key putt for today had to be on the 11th hole (15-foot birdie).

Casey O’Toole (USA) First Round 66 (-5)

I hit a lot of fairways and greens. I birdied all the par fives and hit it solid. It feels good to get off to a get start and shoot under-par but we still have far to go. I’ll try to keep my head down and see how it goes.

Amardip Malik (IND) First Round 67 (-4)

It was tough out there especially with the delays and rain. I had to warm up twice but overall it was a good day. The rain delay didn’t help at all because I returned to threeputt on two holes (3 and 8) for bogeys!

Janne Kaske (FIN) First Round 68 (-3)

I got off to a rough start with two bogeys in a row. We got a rain delay after that and I found a good thought and things turned around.

During the delay I got to cool off and warmup again. I got my putter working again during the delay and that helped.

Siddikur Rahman (BAN) First Round 72 (+1)

I won’t do anything differently. This is not an easy course. The rough is long and the key is to find fairways and greens. I’m not disappointed with my first round scores. I need to motivate myself to do better. There’s still a long way more to go.

LEADERBOARD, DAY 1 # Name (NAT)

R1 To Par AGG

1 Mardan Mamat (SIN)

66

-5

(66)

1 Casey O’toole (USA) 3 Amardip Malik (IND) 3 Carlos Pigem (ESP) 3 Wannasrichan (THA) 6 Sanjay Kumar (IND) 6 Janne Kaske (FIN)

66 67 67 -4 68 68

-5 -4 -4 -4 -3 -3

(66) (67) (67) 15 (68) (68)

6 Sujjan Singh (IND) 15 Wiratchant (THA)

68 70

-3 -1

(68) (70)

20 Berry Henson (USA) 20 Dulal Hossain (BAN) 33 Siddikur Rahman (BAN) 49 Chapchai Nirat (THA) 49 Himmat Rai (IND) 49 Badal Hossain (BAN)

71 Par 72 73 73 73

Par Par +1 +2 +2 +2

(71) 12 (72) (73) (73) (73)

49 Zamal Hossain (BAN) 80 Marcus Both (AUS) 80 Rashid Khan (IND)

73 74 74

+2 +3 +3

(73) (74) (74)

114 Shakhawat Sohel (BAN)

+5

+5

15

(L-R) Thailand golfer Thaworn Wiratchant, Bangladesh’s Siddikur Rahman and India’s Digvijay Singh go through their motions during the first round of the Bashundhara Bangladesh Open at Kurmitola Golf Club yesterday SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Siddikur disappoints in rain-hit day n Tribune Report Siddikur Rahman began his campaign on an average note as the ace Bangladesh golfer carded one-over-par 72 following the first round of the country’s first ever Asian Tour event. Singaporean golfer Mardan Mamat and Casey O’Toole of the United States jointly led the standings with a score of five-under-par 66 at Kurmitola Golf Club yesterday.

Siddikur, who missed the cut four times in his last five professional tournaments, ended the opening day’s play at 33rd place, tied with 15 other golfers. Siddikur unexpectedly produced five bogeys against four birdies and was not even the best performer among the local golfers as Dulal Hossain struck a par 71 to be placed jointly at 20th position.

Among the other local participants, amateur golfer Dil Mohammad and Mohammed Sajib also attained the same place as Siddikur while Nur Jamal, Mohammed Sayum, Badal Hossain and Zamal Hossain carded two-overpar 73 to finish jointly at 49th.

“I started well but I made too many mistakes. It was windy out there and to be honest, I have not played in this condition at Kurmitola before. But, it is okay because I have good confidence and have three more days to go,” said Siddikur yesterday before adding, “I am not disappointed with my first-round scores. I need to motivate myself to do better. There is still a long way to go. I have a good chance to catch up with the others.”

Rain and wind played foul throughout the

day as there were two rain interruptions from 7:43-8:40am and 9:55-11:10am. A total of 29 golfers were unable to finish their course and will resume today.

Meanwhile, veteran golfer Mardan, a fourtime Asian Tour winner, stayed patient despite two weather delays and returned with six birdies while O’Toole, an Asian Development Tour regular, birdied all the par-fives to share the lead with Mardan. India’s Amardip Malik trailed by one shot in third place. Janne Kaske of Finland and Sanjay Kumar of India jointly shared fourth place on 68.

“This golf course suits my game a lot. It isn’t a power golf course but more a thinking course. You have to keep the ball in play and hit it straight. This is the type of golf course which I like to play on,” said Mardan.l

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26 Sport

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

Attacking wings boost booters n Shishir Hoque The variation in attacking options at their disposal made the Bangladesh football team coaching staff confident of getting good results in the upcoming friendlies against Singapore and Afghanistan. Expatriate footballer Jamal Bhuiyan yesterday joined the national camp that has been preparing for the two friendlies and the Fifa World Cup qualifiers in mid-June.

Meanwhile, another expatriate Reasat Khaton, who lives in Germany and plays league football in Philippines, was initially expected to arrive after May 30 but an early end to the Philippines league made the player available.

He landed in Dhaka yesterday night and will join the camp today while Jamal arrived yesterday morning.

The players, however, enjoyed a break from training yesterday with the exception of the six Sheikh Jamal DC players who attended a short training session as they joined the camp late.

Assistant coach Saiful Bari Titu is excited with the inclusion of the new attacking options and believes the two friendlies are important for the side to know where they stand.

We will know what we are capable of against tough opponents after playing these two friendlies “There are now more options and varieties in the attacking line,” Titu said. “Enamul’s [Haque] return to the squad is a positive sign and [Towhidul Alam] Sabuj is also doing well while [Jahid Hasan] Ameli, Wahed [Ahmed], Toklis [Ahmed] are also doing good. Enamul played in the right wing with Ameli as the lone striker. The good thing about Ameli and Enamul is that they can play in any position in the attacking line.

“We will know what we are capable of against tough opponents after playing these two friendlies. The recovery time between the two matches is very short due to which we can field two different playing XI.” Sheikh Russel KC striker Ameli also echoed the same tune. “It’s a good sign that both Enamul and [Aminur Rahman] Sajib are performing. We need enough options in the same position as we have to play several matches in the upcoming days.”

National captain Mamunul Islam said, “It’s a big advantage for us that Enamul came back to form with Sabuj also doing well. I hope the inclusion of these two players will reduce the crisis of scoring.”

Meanwhile, a youth-based 21-member Singapore team is scheduled to arrive in the city tonight for their match on May 30.

Singapore are also taking the friendlies seriously and their German head coach Bernd Stange included three new players in the squad - midfielder Izzdin Shafiq, Yasir Hanapi and goalkeeper Zaiful Nizam.

More than half of the players in Singapore team are from Malaysia Super League giants Lions XII and the club’s head coach Fandi Ahmad was also included in the coaching team for the friendly encounter against Bangladesh.

Midfielder Hariss Harun, forwards Khairul Amri, Shahril Ishak and center-back Baihakki Khaizan are the most experienced and threatening players in the Singapore line-up.l

Players and officials of the triumphant Prime Bank South Zone team pose for a photo following their BCL match against Islami Bank East Zone at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Soumya, Mosaddek steer South Zone to BCL title n Minhaz Uddin Khan Prime Bank South Zone emerged as the champions of the Bangladesh Cricket League longer-version 2014-15 season following the fourth day’s play of the third and final round yesterday. Although the title-decider against Islami Bank East Zone at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong ended in a draw, South clinched the crown of the country’s premier domestic first-class competition by virtue of a first-innings lead. Whilst South ended their campaign on 46 points, East finished theirs on 39 points.

Resuming the final day’s proceedings on 231/4, South added a further 221 runs to take their overall lead to 590 runs. Riding on the back of centuries from Soumya Sarkar and Mosaddek Hossain, South ended their second innings on 452/9 as skipper Abdur Razzak was unable to bat.

Soumya struck 127 off 165 balls with the help of 15 boundaries and three sixes while Mosaddek smashed 119 from 183 deliveries, his knock featuring eight fours and five sixes.

The fifth-wicket pair of Soumya and Mosaddek added 176 runs to take the ti-

tle away from the opposition. Following Soumya’s departure, Mosaddek partnered Nurul Hasan and added 86 runs for the sixth wicket as East’s slim hopes of an unlikely win all but evaporated.

In reply, East, requiring 591 for victory, ended their second-innings tally on 166 for the loss of three wickets. Opener Liton Kumar Das and skipper Alok Kapali made fine half-centuries but East had very few overs at their disposal to record an improbable victory.

Meanwhile in the other match of the final round at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, Walton Central Zone posted an 80-run win over Bangladesh Cricket Board North Zone to finish third in the points table.

In pursuit of 203 for victory, North resumed the final day’s play on 11/2, still needing 192 runs. North’s chase however, lasted a little less than 39 overs as they were skittled out for 122, thus presenting Central with an 80-run win.

Central spinner Shuvagata Hom scalped four wickets to take his match-tally to nine while Mohammad Shahid and Mosharraf Hossain bagged three apiece.l

FINAL POINTS TABLE Teams

M

W

L

South East Central North

3 3 3 3

1 1 1 0

0 0 1 2

Draw Pts 2 2 1 1

44 40 33 17

BRIEF SCORE, DAY 4 South Zone v East Zone South 385-allout & 452/9 in 107.2 overs Soumya 127, Mosaddek 119; Hasan 3/26, Jayed 2/77, Apu 2/87 East 247-allout & 166/3 in 34 overs Liton 74, Kapali 55*; Al Amin 3/43 Match drawn

Central Zone v North Zone Central 289-allout & 200-allout North 287 & 122-allout in 40.4 overs Shuvagata 4/35, Mosharraf 3/27, Shahid 3/32 Central won by 80 runs

DT

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THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

QUICK BYTES Sanchez wins fan award Arsenal dynamo Alexis Sanchez was on Tuesday announced as the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) Fans’ Player of the Year after an excellent first season in English football. Sanchez, 26, joined Arsenal from Barcelona last year in a reported £35 million ($53.9 million, 49.5 million euros) deal and has been an instant hit, scoring 16 Premier League goals and supplying eight assists.

–AFP

Suarez back in training Barcelona forward Luis Suarez has returned to training with his team mates, suggesting he will be able to play a part in Saturday’s King’s Cup final against Athletic Bilbao after two weeks out with a hamstring problem. The Uruguay international sustained the injury in the Champions League semi-final, second leg at Bayern Munich and missed Barca’s final two La Liga games, including the 1-0 win at Atletico Madrid when they secured a fifth title in seven years.

–Reuters

Germany give Mueller, Kroos a rest after long year

Germany’s World Cup winners Thomas Mueller and Toni Kroos have been rested for matches against the United States and Gibraltar next month, coach Joachim Loew said on Tuesday. The pair had played a combined total of 131 matches for club and country, including the 2014 World Cup, Loew said, –Reuters

Howe, Mourinho land LMA manager awards

Eddie Howe of Bournemouth and Chelsea’s Jose Mourinho have been honoured at English football’s League Managers Association (LMA) end-of-season awards ceremony. Howe who led Bournemouth to promotion from the Championship, was named Manager of the Year, while Mourinho was named Premier League Manager of the Year for steering Chelsea to a league and League Cup double.

–AFP

Team effort needed against India, says Mushfiq n Minhaz Uddin Khan A total team effort and contribution are the ingredients for a positive result against India next month, believes Bangladesh Test captain Mushfiqur Rahim. The wicketkeeper-batsman, during a signing ceremony with Samsung Electronics Bangladesh as the brand ambassador yesterday, said the upcoming home series will be a challenge for the high flying Tigers.

“Expectation on us has gone higher following our performance in the World Cup and in the Pakistan series. Along with that, everybody seeks a good result at home yard.

The last series, against a strong team like Pakistan, was better. We developed our skills.

We have to contribute in three departments in the forthcoming home series against India to do better,” he said.

The 28-year-old completed a decade in Test cricketer on May 26 following his international debut against England in 2005. In the 10 years, Mushfiq featured in 45 Tests and scored 2555 with an average of 32.34. His double century, the first-ever for Bangladesh batsman in Test, against Sri Lanka at Galle is the high-light of the career.

Mushfiq, however, recently was stormed with criticism with claims that his captaincy in Test is not up to par. Many suggested he should be relieved from the duty which will allow him to concentrate on his batting.

“Head coach Chandika Hathurusingha has not come yet. I will discuss with him and decide what will be the next plan of the team’s combination and what will be my part. Hopefully coach will come within two or three

West Ham reach Europa League via Fair Play

West Ham United have qualified for next season’s Europa League by topping the Premier League’s Fair Play table, the London club announced on Tuesday.

–AFP

days and then it will be decided,” the Test skipper revealed.

“When you expect 50 or 100 runs and if you can’t make it, everybody will criticize you. This is a normal thing. Earlier, I played a role in three departments. I have done well nobody said anything.”

“It’s Bangladesh team, where nobody can take individual decision. The team has always been set up by the team management. It is they, who actually work behind the formation of the 15-member squad and select the playing XI ahead of a match,” he added.

However, Choon Soo Moon, the country

De Villiers gets paternity leave, to miss Bangladesh Tests

Real Madrid players ignoring Bale: Wales coach

Wales manager Chris Coleman has rallied to the defence of forward Gareth Bale by accusing his Real Madrid team-mates of deliberately ignoring him on the pitch.

Bale, 25, has endured a difficult second season in Madrid, coming under fire from fans and the media, and lost a key ally on Monday when Carlo Ancelotti was sacked as manager.

–AFP

Bangladesh Test captain Mushfiqur Rahim is all smiles after signing for Samsung as their brand ambassador yesterday COURTESY

n Reuters, Johannesburg AB de Villiers has been granted paternity leave and will miss the two-test series in Bangladesh, Cricket South Africa (CSA) said on Wednesday.

The Proteas named four uncapped players in their test squad for the matches in July and August.

Opener Reeza Hendricks, wicketkeeper Dane Vilas, spinner Aaron Phangiso and fast bowler Kagiso Rabada have all previously represented the country in the limited overs formats. One-day captain De Villiers, however, will play the limited over matches preced-

ing the tests.

“The changes have been brought about partly by the retirement of Alviro Petersen and the non-availability of AB de Villiers who has been granted paternity leave,” CSA convener Andrew Hudson said in a statement.

“Reeza and Stiaan van Zyl are both options to open the batting and Stiaan can also be used in AB’s batting position in the middle-order. Dane provides us with the wicketkeeping cover that would normally also be AB’s responsibility.

“Aaron gives us a left-arm spin bowling option and we see this as the ideal opportunity to involve Kagiso in the test team environment once again, so he will be the back-up fast bowling option.”

Pace duo Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander have been rested for the three-match one-day series and were replaced by Rabada, Chris Morris and all-rounder Ryan McLaren.

The remainder of the squad that went to the World Cup earlier this year has been retained.

Leg-spinner Eddie Leie is the only uncapped player included in the Twenty20 squad.l

manager of Samsung Bangladesh, wished Mushfiq all the best and said, “Sports is a passion point for people. But nothing can ignite the passion better than cricket in Bangladesh. Association with cricket now begins with the welcoming of Mushfiqur Rahim to the Samsung family as our new Brand Ambassador. We hope our journey with Mushfiqur will be amazing and his image as Mr. Dependable will add positive value to Samsung’s brand image.”

Young Woo Lee, general manager, and Badrul Karim, head of consumer electronics and IT of Samsung Bangladesh, were also present during the ceremony.l

TOUR ITINERARY July 5

1st T20I in Mirpur

July 7

2nd T20I in Mirpur

July 10

1st ODI in Mirpur

July 12

2nd ODI in Mirpur

Jul 15

3rd ODI in Chittagong

July 21-July 25

1st Test in Chittagong

July 30 – Aug 3

2nd Test in Mirpur

Test squad Hashim Amla (captain), Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Dean Elgar, Simon Harmer, Reeza Hendricks, Morne Morkel, Aaron Phangiso, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada, Dale Steyn, Stiaan van Zyl, Dane Vilas.

ODI squad AB de Villiers (captain), Kyle Abbott, Amla, Farhaan Behardien, De Kock, Duminy, Du Plessis, Ryan McLaren, David Miller, Morkel, Chris Morris, Wayne Parnell, Phangiso, Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, Imran Tahir.

T20 squad Du Plessis (capt), Abbott, De Kock, De Villiers, Duminy, Beuran Hendricks, Eddie Leie, Miller, Morris, Parnell, Phangiso, Rabada, Rossouw, David Wiese.

DT

28 Sport

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

Top football officials detained as US corruption probe rocks FIFA n AFP, Zurich The dawn detention of several FIFA leaders and a corruption raid on its headquarters on Wednesday rocked world football’s governing body two days before its leader Sepp Blatter seeks a new term.

A FIFA vice-president was among seven people arrested at the luxury Zurich hotel where they were preparing for a congress starting Thursday. All now face deportation to the United States on charges of accepting more than $100 million in bribes.

US authoities said nine football officials are among 14 people facing charges over the longstanding corruption.

Separately, Swiss police seized files and emails at the FIFA headquarters as part of an investigation into the awarding of the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 tournament to Qatar. The 2010 vote by FIFA that attributed the events has been surrounded by widespread allegations of fraud. A spokesman said Wednesday though that there was no question of changing the venues.

FIFA spokesman Walter de Gregorio said

JACK WARNER

(Trinidad and Tobago) Age: 72 Minister of National Security, Trinidad and Tobago Former President of CONCACAF (1990-2011) Former FIFA Vice President (to 2011)

Blatter is not involved in the investigations and that the presidential vote would be held as planned on Friday.

“The timing is not great,” de Gregorio told reporters. But he added that “FIFA welcomes actions that can help contribute to rooting out any wrongdoing in football.”

Blatter has been overwhelming favourite to win a fifth term at the head of the multi-billion dollar body. But the events could swing many votes. His only challenger, Prince Ali bin al Hussein, a FIFA vice president from Jordan, called the arrests “a sad day for football.”

Prince Ali and European federation chiefs say a change of leadership is now urgently needed to save FIFA’s tainted image.

The FIFA spokesman said Blatter was “relaxed” about the future fallout from the investigation.

“He isn’t dancing in his office,” de Gregoria told reporters. “He is very, very calm, he sees what happens. He is fully cooperative with everybody.”

Swiss police gave a surprise 6:00am wake up call to FIFA vice-president Jeffrey Webb, from the Cayman Islands, and other six of-

EUGENIO FIGUEREDO JEFFREY WEBB (Uruguay) Age: 83 FIFA Vice President Former President of South American Football Confederation (2013-14)Former President of Uruguayan Football Association (1997-2006)

(Cayman Islands) Age: 50 FIFA Vice President President of Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) (since 2012)

ficials at the luxury Baur au Lac hotel. A US Department of Justice statement said seven people were detained.

US Attorney general Loretta Lynch said the investigations “spans at least two generations of soccer officials who, as alleged, have abused their positions of trust to acquire millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks.”

Webb is head of the CONCACAF North and Central American confederation and a longstanding ally of Blatter. US police also raided the CONCACAF headquarters in Miami.

Eduardo Li, a FIFA executive committee member from Costa Rica, and Eugenio Figueredo, president of South American football governing body Conmebol from Uruguay, were also among those detained.

Police in plain clothes took the room keys from the reception and went to the rooms of the six, the New York Times said. The operation was carried out peacefully, it added.

The Swiss justice ministry said those detained were suspected of accepting “bribes and kick-backs between the early 1990s and the present day.”

A ministry statement said that represent-

RAFAEL ESQUIVEL

(Venezuela) Age: 68 President of Venezuelan Football Federation (Since 1987) Member of FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee

EDUARDO LI

(Costa Rica) President of Costa Rican Football Federation Special advisor to the Organising Committee for the FIFA U-20 and U-17 Women’s World Cups

JOSE MARIA MARIN

Age: 83 Former President of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) (2012-2015) President of Local Organising Committee for 2014 World Cup Former Governor of Sao Paulo State (1982-1983)

‘Blatter not involved in corruption probe’ n AFP, Zurich

FIFA president Sepp Blatter is not involved in major corruption probes launched into world football’s governing body and a presidential vote will go ahead Friday, his spokesman said.

FIFA has been rocked by the arrest of several top officials as part of a Swiss and US corruption investigation into the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar and into bribe taking for sports contracts.

Blatter is “relaxed” about the fallout from the controversy, his spokesman Walter de Gregorio told a press conference at FIFA headquarters.

“The general secretary and the president are not involved in this,” De Gregorio said, referring to Blatter and FIFA secretary general secretary Jerome Valcke.

FIFA spokesman Walter De Gregorio gives a press conference at the FIFA headquarters yesterday “He isn’t dancing in his office -- (not) this kind of relaxing. He is very very calm, he sees what happens. He is fully cooperative with everybody.”

De Gregorio insisted that FIFA wanted the

atives of sports media and sports marketing companies allegedly paid bribes “in exchange for the media rights and the marketing rights for competitions in the United States and South America.”

The seven could agree to be extradited immediately or challenge the move in court. The US Justice Department said the detained officials could face up to 20 years in jail.

The Swiss raid on FIFA’s headquarters formally opened an investigation into the 2018 and 2022 World Cups that FIFA itself asked for in November. Police are to question 10 members of the executive committee who took part in the 2010 vote while they are in Zurich for the Congress, officials said.

Qatar has strongly denied any wrongdoing linked to its bid. A former FIFA vice president from the Gulf state, Mohammed bin Hammam, was banned for life from FIFA because of corruption. In May, Blatter denied he was a target of an FBI corruption investigation and that he had no fear of going to the United States.

He said he would probably go in 2016 for a football tournament there and to Canada next month for the Women’s World Cup.l

full truth to come out and that the US and Swiss investigations would help the body in its cleanup. The spokesman said FIFA’s congress would start as scheduled on Thursday and that the vote for the body’s president would be held Friday. De Gregorio said that for the moment there was no plan to review holding the 2018 and 2022 World Cups in Russia and Qatar.

The announcements followed the dawn arrests of several top football officials in a Zurich hotel as part of a US investigation into bribe taking. Two FIFA vice presidents were among those detained an now facing extradition to the United States.

Separately, Swiss police raided the FIFA headquarters as part of a probe into the votes for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. FIFA initiated the police inquiry in November after widespread accusations of corruption.l

NICOLAS LEOZ

(Paraguay) Age: 86 Former President of CONMEBOL (1986-2013) Former member of FIFA’s executive committee (1998-2013) former President of Paraguayan Football Association

FIFA arrests a ‘sad day’ for football: Prince Ali n Reuters, Zurich Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, the man challenging Sepp Blatter for the most powerful job in world soccer, said he was saddened by the latest corruption scandal involving the sport’s governing body FIFA. Prince Ali issued a brief statement on Wednesday following the news that six high-ranking soccer officials, including two FIFA vice-presidents, had been arrested by Swiss police and detained pending extradition to the United States. “Today is a sad day for football,” Prince Ali said.

The Swiss Federal Office of Justice said the arrested officials were suspected by U.S. investigators of having received or paid bribes amounting to millions of dollars.l

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Sport 29

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

Federer cruises on, Halep out n Reuters, Paris

Russia’s Maria Sharapova returns the ball to Russia’s Vitalia Diatchenko during their women’s second round of the Roland Garros 2015 French Open in Paris yesterday AFP

Messi wins AS’ Player of the Year poll ahead of Ronaldo n Agencies Barcelona forward Lionel Messi has beaten Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo to claim AS’ La Liga Player of the Season award.

Messi came first in the poll after receiving 55.87 percent of the vote, with Ronaldo finishing in second with 35.37 percent.

The Argentina international helped Barca to lift the Primera Division title this season, while he also topped the league’s assists charts with 18.

His impressive tally of 43 La Liga goals for the campaign, however, was not enough to beat Ronaldo, who found the back of the net 48 times. Ronaldo scored 61 goals in all competitions - a personal record for goals in a season for the forward.

The Portugal international, who created 16 league goals this season, was joined in the top three by Madrid teammate James Rodriguez.

Rodriguez, who received 5.89 percent of the vote, struck 13 times during his debut La Liga campaign, while also racking up 13 assists.

Atletico Madrid’s Antoine Griezmann and Barca’s Neymar finished fourth and fifth respectively, with the former claiming 1.7 percent of the vote and the latter 1.17 percent.l

DAY’S WATCH Star Sports 2 10:30PM Natwest T20 Blast 2015 Leicestershire v Durham

Roger Federer avoided any more security scares as he moved smoothly into the third round of the French Open on Wednesday but danger still lurks in the bottom half of the draw, namely in the shape of Japan’s Kei Nishikori.

While second seed Federer was beating Spain’s Marcel Granollers 6-2 7-6(1) 6-3 on Court Suzanne Lenglen, Nishikori was given centre stage on Court Phillipe Chatrier and produced further evidence as to why he is being tipped as a potential champion.

The 25-year-old fifth seed was handed a tough test by left-handed Brazilian claycourt specialist Thomaz Bellucci but passed it with flying colours, winning 7-5 6-4 6-4 to reach the third round for only the second time.

There were considerably more people in the stands for Nishikori’s match than there were for the opening match on the main showcourt in which women’s defending champion Maria Sharapova powered past fellow Russian Vitalia Diatchenko 6-3 6-1 to set up a juicy third-round clash with Samantha Stosur.

Stosur, the 2010 runner-up and twice a semi-finalist, came within a game of serving up a “double bagel” over French wildcard Amandine Hesse but had to be content

with 6-0 6-1.

Meanwhile, Romanian Simona Halep, last year’s runner-up, was knocked out in the second round of the French Open 7-5 6-1 by Croatian Mirjana Lucic-Baroni on Wednesday.

Lucic-Baroni, who next plays French 29th seed Alize Cornet, ended Halep’s resistance with an ace.

There was no repeat of Sunday’s scare when a fan ran on to court for a selfie with 17-times grand slam champion Federer, the only trouble the Swiss encountering was a 4-2 second-set deficit which he quickly fixed.

While the 33-year-old conserved some energy, Nishikori had to be at full-throttle throughout the two hours 22 minutes he required to subdue 40th ranked Bellucci.

He saved a break point at 2-3 in the opening set and then struck decisively at 5-5, nailing a forehand winner at the end of a 22-stroke baseline rally for a decisive break.

Federer, who could face Nishikori in the semi-final, will play Bosnia’s Damir Dzumhur in round three after he beat Marcos Baghdatis 6-4 6-3 4-6 6-2.

Eighth seed Stanislas Wawrinka also made progress despite dropping a set against Serbian Dusan Lajovic as did respective French number ones Gilles Simon and Alize Cornet.

Twelfth seed Simon led the home charge, beating Martin Klizan 7-5 6-2 6-3 while Cornet beat Romania’s Alexandra Dulgheru (Romania) 6-2 7-5. l

Bolt wins 200m, Powell takes 100 in Ostrava n Reuters, Prague Usain Bolt won the 200 metres in his season’s best time of 20.13 seconds in rainy, cold conditions at the Ostrava Golden Spike meeting on Tuesday as he builds up for the world championships.

His Jamaican compatriot Asafa Powell claimed the 100 in 10.04 seconds but failed to match his season’s best of 9.84 and the world leading 9.74 set by Justin Gatlin on May 15 in Doha. Isiah Young of the United States finished second in both races, trailing home behind Bolt in 20.35 and Powell in 10.13. American Dedric Dukes has the world leading 200 time of 19.99.

“Yes, it was a little colder than I thought it would be,” said Bolt on his return to the meeting for a seventh time.

“But it’s all about working on my technique, getting back into shape and I’ll see what happens in the next one.”

Before the race Bolt said he felt fine despite dropping out of the last day of a meeting in the Bahamas this month. He said he felt pain in his thigh there but that had gone away.

The 28-year-old Bolt is preparing for the Beijing worlds in August where he said he wanted to be better than at the 2008 Beijing Olympics where the Jamaican won three gold medals.

Bolt is the favourite to retain his world 100

Ton-up Malik lifts Pakistan n AFP, Lahore Shoaib Malik hit his first century in six years to help Pakistan outbat Zimbabwe in the first day-night international by 41 runs in Lahore on Tuesday, taking a 1-0 lead in the threematch series.

Malik, playing his first one-dayer after two years, notched up a 76-ball 112 with 12 fours and two sixes to steer Pakistan to 375-3 - their highest against Zimbabwe - before restricting the tourists to 334-5 in 50 overs at Gaddafi Stadium.

Zimbabwe tried their valiant best with skipper Elton Chigumbura hitting a rapid 95ball 117 but the mounting asking rate proved too much in the end. Chigumbura hit 10 boundaries and four sixes in his maiden oneday hundred as Zimbabwe also improved on their previous highest total against Pakistan,

beating 295-9 in Bulawayo in 2002.

Pakistan captain Azhar Ali attributed the win to team effort.

“We got a good start and everyone chipped in with Malik build on that for our big total which won us the match,” said Ali. “It was a good team effort.” l

BRIEF SCORE Pakistan 375 for 3 in 50 overs (Malik 112, Sohail 89*, Hafeez 86, Azhar 79)

Zimbabwe 334 for 5 in 50 overs (Chigumbura 117, Masakadza 73, Riaz 3-47) Pakistan won by 41 runs

title but knows he will have to be at the top of his game and fully fit to hold off the challenge of 2004 Olympic champion Gatlin.

Czech Zuzana Hejnova won the 400m hurdles, returning after a foot injury which had kept her out for most of last season.

Poland’s Marcin Lewandowski claimed the 1,000 metre race in a world leading time of 2.17.25. American Sharika Nelvis set a meet record of 12.55 seconds in the 100 hurdles, just missing her personal best of 12.54 set in Doha.

World record holder David Rudisha of Kenya dropped out halfway through the rarely-run 600 metres holding his right thigh, and limped off the track. The race was won by Poland’s Adam Kszczot in one minute 16.02 seconds. l

DT

30 DOWNTIME

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Singer (4) 5 Conductor’s wand (5) 9 Dress (6) 10 Land measure (3) 11 Tidy (4) 12 Swift rodents (5) 14 Decoration (5) 16 At all times (4) 19 Numeral (4) 21 Western entertainment (5) 24 Useful thing (5) 27 Minute particle (4) 29 Vigour (3) 30 Ancient Jewish ascetic (6) 31 Closes up (5) 32 Paradise (4)

DOWN 1 Musical group (4) 2 Consumed (3) 3 Pollen-bearing organ (6) 4 Location (4) 5 Conducted oneself (7) 6 Sailor (3) 7 Metal-bearing rock (3) 8 Cosy retreats (5) 13 Drink (3) 15 Signifies (7) 17 Disturbed the peace (6) 18 Applauds (5) 20 Anger (3) 22 Comfort (4) 23 Prayer ending (4) 25 Bishop’s territory (3) 26 Mineral spring (3) 28 United (3)

CODE-CRACKER How to solve: Each number in our CODECRACKER grid represents a different letter of the alphabet. For example, today 17 represents D so fill D every time the figure 17 appears.

You have one letter in the control grid to start you off. Enter it 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

CALVIN AND HOBBES

SUDOKU How to solve: Fill in the blank spaces with the numbers 1 – 9. Every row, column and 3 x 3 box must contain all nine digits with no number repeating.

PEANUTS

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

DILBERT

SUDOKU

DT

SHOWTIME 31

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

Sign up

premieres as Bangladesh’s first online mega-serial

The launching of Sign up, Bangladesh’s first online mega-serial, was announced at a press conference held on May 25, 2015, at the main office of 3rdBell Entertainment Limited. The serial was created as part of the original content line up of 3rdBell.com - Bangladesh’s first ever online entertainment that features both original and syndicated content.

Sign up is primarily a coming-of-age drama serial that deals with issues of love, friendship, betrayal and all the complications and indecisiveness that come with the wonderful yet terrifying time of life - youth.

Rubayet Mahmud is directing the drama serial and Michil Saha looked over the cinematography. The script is written by Sharmin Hayat Deepa.

A talented team of young actors have been charged with bringing the story to life including Lutfor Rahman Gorge, Nawsheen Nahreen Mou, Milon Bhattacharjee, Mumtahina Toya, Isheka Khan, Ali Anubhab Rajat, Niyaz Morshed, Nelson Rozario, and Ruslan Haider.

Each episode of Sign up is seven minutes long and five episodes will be up on 3rdBell.com every Thursday. Catch the premiere today. l

Thursday May 28th- “Bhaab” featuring Pother Dol Dhaka continues to be the nexus of a modern folk tradition.

Pother Dol creates new sounds with traditional influences.

500BDT Friday May 29th- “Open Mic” This event has really taken off over the last month. So many new singers, poets, dancers and performers have come and shared just about anything they could do.

300BDT Saturday May 30th-”Electro/Acoustic” featuring Don Donadoni and The Speakeasy Crew.

This week’s special guest: Shawjeeb 500BDT All events are from 6-11pm Free Puchka and Tea with entry fee

Stand-up Comedy Show (English) Performers: Naveed Mahbub, John Venue: Caspian, 3rd floor, RM Centre, 101 Gulshan Avenue, Gulshan, Dhaka 1212 Date: May 28, 2015 Time: 7:30pm Info: 01720902019 Organiser: Naveed’s Comedy Club

n Hasan Mansoor Chatak Warda Rihab is a gifted classical dancer who recently performed Rabindranath Tagore’s sublime dance-drama “Shyama”, portraying the drama in a new light. With a tantalising visual presentation, Warda’s portrayal of the eponymous character and revived choreography received much applause at home and abroad. Dhaka Tribune caught up with the stunning dancer to know the particulars behind the production.

KANYE WEST @ kanyewest Kim, I’m so happy to be married to the girl of my dreams… I love you and Nori so much!!! I would find you in any lifetime.

WHAT TO WATCH 30 Days of Night HBO 7:01 PM The electricity goes out for 30 days leaving the cold alaskans in a vulnerable position. The sheriff suddenly fins broken cell phones hid in the streets and what happens next is a shock! Watch the movie to find out.

Cast: Josh Hartnett, Melissa george, Ben Foster

To what extent was Shyama changed from the previous versions?

Shyama was developed into a complete lyrical dance drama in Tagore’s lifetime and the legacy of it has continued ever since that day. And this time, we have changed a few things particularly in presentation and choreography to give it a new glimpse.

In this version, we ensured more involvement of the companions (sakhi) as they are used in metaphorical roles as narrators or as the subconscious of one of the main characters. We changed the appearance of the royal guard as well.

How challenging was the Shyama role to carry out?

I would say, the Shyama character is one of the most ambiguous creation of Tagore.

It is essentially a profound romantic tragedy with love and frustration, sublimation and retribution at its core.

Shyama’s player has to portray strings of emotions simultaneously. I reckon enough maturity is a requisite to don a character like Shyama.

Channing Tatum @channingtatum Celebrate their lives. Honor their sacrifice. Thank you to the troops, past & present. #MemorialDay #freedomisnotfree

Riteish Deshmukh @ Riteishd Happy Birthday PAPPA : the father that you were to me, is what I aspire to be to my son. #70thBirthAnniversary

Warda Rihab’s Shyama rejuvenation

Biroti Bulletin

CELEBS ON SOCIAL

Fast Five Star Movies 6:30 PM Dom leaves the country and hides in Mexico after escaping prison with the help of Mia Toretto and brian o’ Connor. A new cop takes the responsibility to bring Dom back while Dom Brian and Mia faces more challenges in Mexico.

Cast: Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Paul Walker Some advices to the aspiring dancers who wish to land a role in dance-drama?

A role in dance-drama, especially in Tagore’s one, demands more perfection and dedication than any other usual dance piece. It would be more implemental to be adept in the theatre departments like designing set, props, costume and lights. l

Fool’s Gold Warner Bros 6:58 PM Ben and Tess, a recently divorced couple, goes on a mission to find a long lost treasure under the sea after Ben’s research. Somehow putting the divorce on hold, they re-unite emotionally during their quest.

Cast: Mathew Mc’conoghey, Kevin Hurt, Kate Hudson

DT

32 BACK PAGE

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

EU ENVOY URGES DHAKA TO PREPARE FOR GSP+ PAGE 15

TOP FIFA OFFICIALS HELD FOR CORRUPTION PAGE 28

ONLINE MEGA-SERIAL SIGN UP PREMIERES PAGE 31

Traditional livelihoods at risk in Teesta basin Al-Masum Molla n Mohammad back from Lalmonirhat The ever decreasing flow of water in the Teesta River has been directly affecting the livelihoods of thousands of fishermen and boatmen in the seven northern districts of Bangladesh.

Many have been forced to become crop growers; but as these people have been either catching fish or paddling boats for generations, they do not own much of land.

As a result, whether they will be able to sustain in agriculture – because they neither have the experience nor own the land – remains a tough question to answer.

Since India built a barrage in Gajoldoba of West Bengal in 1977, the Teesta has never been the same mighty river it used to be.

But things have become particularly dreadful because the flow has been hitting new lows every year in recent times. On a particular day earlier this year, the measured flow in Teesta was 232 cubic feet per second (cusec), an all time low.

The impact on boatmen is quite obvious – the dryness even at the peak of wet season means that the shallow river is unfit for navigation, even for small boats.

“Even four years ago, I earned Tk200Tk250 a day ferrying passengers. But nowadays, that earning is beyond imagination. As the flow of water in the river is decreasing, it has become impossible to survive in this profession,” said Morshed Mia, resident of Doani village of Hatibandha upazila, Lalmonirhat.

He also said many boatmen have already changed profession – most pulling rickshaws or working as day labourers.

As the flow of water falls drastically, plying of all types of water vessels has already been suspended in many of the routes. Around 60,000 people living in the 85 shoal villages in the five upazilas of Lalmonirhat have been

The fishermen and boatmen of the Teesta basin are being forced to look for alternative professions, as decreasing flow of water in the river coupled with siltation continues to create ever growing shoals each year SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN struggling to connect to the mainland. At least 300 boatmen who operated on 42 routes have become jobless.

The problems that some 1,200 ancestral fishermen living in the Teesta basin in this district are facing have several angles.

Like many others, the family of Ali Akbar, a fisherman living on the banks of the Teesta for years, migrated to Lalmonirhat from a neighbouring district.

“We need water in the river in November-December. But water comes in the river in May-June and the breeding season of fishes is already over. The stock of fish in the river is decreasing. In March-April, the river turns into a pond. How will fishes survive in such little water?” Ali Akbar said.

Many like Akbar have expressed grave concerns with the rate at which fishes such as Boreli, Mohashol, Bagar, Piyali and Darengi

have been disappearing fast from these waters.

Even four years ago, the Teesta offered plenty of fishes more than six months a year. But now, fishes are available only during monsoon.

Mohammad Nuruzzaman from the Niksheksundar village under Hatibandha upazila has been fishing in the Teesta for four decades.

“As there is no water, there is no fish in the river. We are now using mosquito nets, but even those are not catching any fishes for us.

In the last three years, I have not caught any big fish. But just a few years ago, I used to catch big fishes almost every day,” Nuruzzaman said.

“A regular fishing net costs us Tk400. And it remains fit for fishing only four to five days.

But we do not get fishes worth Tk400 even in a week!” said Zainal Abedin, a migrant fishermen like Akbar.

Hundreds of fishermen who live along the banks of the river and depend on it for a living

Tk22,000cr to be allocated for pay hike n Asif Showkat Kallol

The government will use around 20.52% of the next national budget to pay its debt interests, recapitalise ailing state banks, and implement the pay hike of public servants, Finance Division sources have said.

Of the Tk62,000 crore to be allocated for these purposes, around Tk22,000 crore alone would be used to pay the increased salaries of government employees, the sources said, adding that the new budget outlay might be Tk302,000 crore – 25% more from the current revised budget of Tk240,000 crore.

State Minister for Finance MA Mannan told the Dhaka Tribune that the government would allocate enough funds in the next budget for execution of the new pay scale and meet other revenue expenditures.

There would not be any problem as long as the country’s revenue collection remained

stable, he said.

Sources at the Finance Division said Tk22,000 crore will be put aside as a block allocation to meet the pay commission recommendations for salary, while more funds would be sanctioned if needed.

The allocated amount is expected to be enough for covering all the increased salaries of around 21 lakh government employees; however, it would fall short in covering the newly proposed bonus for Bangla new year.

Without accounting for allowances and bonuses, an earlier proposal had suggested that the government should allocate Tk15,000 crore to pay the regular salaries of its employees.

For the 2014-15 fiscal year, the government had allocated Tk14,060 crore to pay salaries to its employees and an additional Tk15,915 crore for their allowances.

Meanwhile, according to budget docu-

ments, Tk35,000 crore – which is almost onethird of the ADP – will be paid as interest for local and international loans in the next fiscal year, with most of it being used for local interest payment especially savings instruments.

Under the current revised budget, government’s payment of interest is Tk31,000 crore.

Also, in a bid to recapitalise ailing stateowned banks, the government has decided to set aside Tk5,000 crore for the next fiscal year; this money is also part of the Tk62,000 crore allocation in the budget.

Two weeks ago, a secretary-level review committee submitted its recommendation to Finance Minister AMA Muhith, keeping the existing 20 grades and removing provisions for time scale and selection grades.

Muhith had earlier said the pay commission recommendations would be executed from July 1 this year after the cabinet gives its consent. l

have the same story to tell.

According to ecology and biodiversity researcher Pavel Partha, the irregular and thin flow in the Teesta has severely impacted the fish diversity.

“Bagar and Putital, among the commonest fishes in the river, have been gradually disappearing. People in the Teesta basin have not only been forced to switch profession, but many of them have also been displaced. Even the river-based religious and social rituals have become rare these days,” Pavel said.

Indo-Bangla Joint Rivers Commission member Mir Sajjad Hossain thinks that agriculture can be viable alternative for people dependent on the Teesta.

“We are using Teesta water for agriculture.

There may be some changes in people’s livelihoods. Some boatmen might face difficulties, but their plight will not be very big,” he said. l

People-trafficking racket busted in Ctg n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Police yesterday detained three members of a racket involved in trafficking people to India.

They also rescued two victims - Rakib Hossain and Mohammad Hassan - from Bank Colony area in Chittagong city.

The arrestees, Mohammad Selim, 25, of Bagerhat, Mohammad Ali, 19, of Jhalakati and Helal Uddin Rana, 21, of Pirojpur, were sued in a case lodged with EPZ police station.

“Two other members of the gang –Mamun and Monir – are now on the run,” said EPZ police OC Abul Kalam Azad.

“They were planning to send 12 people to Bangalore with the promise of giving jobs with a salary of Tk25,000.

“The smugglers seek ransoms between Tk1,00,000 and Tk2,00,000 from each once they are inside Indian territory,” he added. l

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