April 30, 2016

SECOND EDITION

SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2016

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Boishakh 17, 1423, Rajab 22, 1437

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Regd No DA 6238, Vol 4, No 9

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

Unfounded hope for high fish yield behind Sundarbans fire Bakar Siddique with n Abu Hedait Hossain in Khulna

INSIDE

Some influential people engaged in fishing often set fire to bushes and plants of the Sundarbans mangrove forest under Chandpai range as they think that the particular ashes attract more fishes.

The specific spot where the recent incidents of fire broke out is relatively higher than the nearby areas, but it goes under water in the monsoon. The businessmen torch this part of the forest ahead of the rainy season so that the ashes bring in more fishes in the area when submerged.

This spot, separated from the main forest by a canal, is full of herbs and shrubs.

“The local influential people have repeatedly been burning these plants to get more fishes in the monsoon,” Ishtiaq Uddin Ahmad, country representative of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Bangladesh, said, adding that they have not found any scientific proof behind the belief.

He observes that the latest fire – fourth time in a month – would not harm the main forest as it is isolated and there is no presence of tall or dense trees. “But the fire will certainly affect the ecosystem of the area,” said Ishtiaq, also a former chief conservator of forests.

The latest fire that broke out in Tulatola area under Dhansagar Forest Station on April 27 was yet to be brought under control as of filing of this report at 10:30pm. Fire fighters said the fire spread on four kilometres area of the forest affecting Sundori, Gewa, Chalua and Amra trees as well as many herbs and shrubs.

The work to put out the fire has become tough due to the dry weather and heat wave as well as water crisis.

RECENT FIRE INCIDENTS AT THE SUNDARBANS MARCH 27 Abdullah Chila area hours

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APRIL 13 Nangli area hours

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APRIL 18 Pocha Koralia area hours

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APRIL 27 Tulatola area hours

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Photo shows fire fighters working to douse the forest fire that broke in Nangli Camp area under Chandpai range of the Sundarbans on April 13.

The fire lasted more than 24 hours burning to ashes bushes and plants of the area. Forest department investigated the fire incident and filed a case against some locals DHAKA TRIBUNE

Earlier, fire broke out three times in a four kilometre-radius area under Dhansagar Forest Station of Chandpai range in the Sundarbans east zone. The first fire occurred on March 27 in Abdullah Chila area and it took the fire service and forest officials eight hours to douse the fire.

Fire engulfed part of the forest in Nangli area under Dhansagar on April 13 and Pocha Koralia area on April 18. In both the cases, the fire was brought under control after 24 hours.

According to the Forest Department officials, the same area has experienced fire on 25 occasions in the last 14 years.

They claim that the latest fire incident is a sabotage. It came as a retaliation as they sued some people for the April 13 fire incident.

Divisional Forest Officer of the east zone Saidul Islam said it was taking much time to douse the fire because of heat wave and strong wind.

Moreover, in some places the

roots of shrubs have caught fire making the task difficult, he added.

They are also facing water crisis since they have to bring water from a place two kilometres away through pipeline.

Apart from the fire officials, around 100 local people have also been working to douse the fire.

Xulhaz’s mother still doesn’t know the truth

4 former law enforcers among 6 held for fraud

Sons held over BD couple murder in California

Hot spell, load-shedding hamper life

FB responds to Dhaka’s request for the first time

Xulhaz Mannan’s mother Sakhina Khatun witnessed her son getting hacked to death. She herself was injured trying to stop the killers.  PAGE 3

RAB yesterday arrested six individuals, four of them former police and army personnel, for allegedly cheating people by providing them fake appointment letters in return for money.  PAGE 4

Police have arrested two sons of the Bangladeshi couple shot dead in California.

Hasib Golam Rabbi, 22, and his 17-yearold brother were taken into custody on Thursday, reports AP.  PAGE 5

People of Rajshahi have been suffering the most due to scorching heat that has been sweeping over Bangladesh and the 12 to 10 hours loading shedding has increased their suffering.  PAGE 7

Facebook has provided information to Bangladesh about users for the first time.

A Facebook report shows that Bangladesh government made 12 requests about 31 users accounts.  PAGE 32

Devastating fire

 PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

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SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2016

Kamal: Three identified over Xulhaz-Tonoy killing n Arifur Rahman Rabbi Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal yesterday said three people had been identified over Monday's murder of LGBT rights activist Xulhaz Mannan and his friend Mahbub Tonoy.

Talking to reporters at his Dhanmondi residence in the capital, he said: "Concerning the investigation into the double murder, we are moving forward in the right direction. We have so far identified three people in this connection, as you have seen in newspaper reports.

“But I cannot reveal the details right now. Everything will be disclosed after a few days,” he said.

Kamal said some of those involved in the killing of bloggers had also been identified. “Some have been brought to trial and the rest will be arrested soon."

The Detective Branch official involved in the investigation into the double murder also said they had managed to identify a few suspects and were proceeding in the right direction.

Investigators are trying to arrest the killers using CCTV footage and a bag left at the scene by the killers, sources said.

Detectives suspect that Xulhaz was targeted for his advocacy of homosexuality and that the killers were members of banned militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team. Ansarullah Bangla Team members are operating under the banner of Ansar al-Islam after the group was banned.

Intelligence officials said Xulhaz

and Tonoy were killed in a fashion similar to the previous murders committed by Ansar al-Islam members.

They said the bag left by the perpetrators proved to be very helpful in the probe.

An intelligence official said a mobile phone was found in the bag and the persons whom the killers maintained contact with using the phone were under surveillance.

A high official of the Detective Branch, asking not to be named, said the killers used advanced software to send information to one another.

“They used protected text for communication. The text was removed within a minute after it was sent. Detectives are trying to recover the message with the help of technology.”

Monirul Islam, chief of the counter-terrorism and trans-national crime unit, said they are using different strategies to catch the killers.

“Several teams are working to identify and capture the killers. We are currently analysing the clues.

Hopefully, the killers will be arrested and brought to book soon,” he added.

On Monday, Xulhaz was killed in his Kalabagan residence in the capital along with Tonoy.

Xulhaz, an official of the United States Agency for International Development and a former protocol officer of the US embassy in Dhaka, was a cousin of former foreign minister Dipu Moni.

Tonoy was also an LGBT and theatre activist. l

An ice trader is about to transport ice blocks to different roadside juice vendors – in a manner that surely is not hygienic – at Sawarighat of Old Dhaka as a passerby takes the opportunity to touch the coolness in this scorching heat. The photo was taken on Thursday RAJIB DHAR

BNP offers support to government in tackling militancy n UNB Claiming that the previous BNP government was the most experienced and successful in controlling militancy, party senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi yesterday said their party is ready to help the government eliminate destructive militant activities.

"BNP is ready to help (government) control any anti-civilisation and destructive militant activities with its previous experiences," he said.

The BNP leader came up with the remarks while speaking at a press briefing at the party's Nayapaltan central office.

Rizvi also urged the government to come up with united and

all-out efforts creating a national consensus irrespective of party and opinion to eliminate life taking and anti-democratic militant forces in a bid to ensure peace and security.

He observed that militancy has emerged with its ugly face in the country as the government remains busy eliminating opposition avoiding its other responsibilities.

The BNP leader alleged that the government and the ruling party leaders are trying to hide the real offenders by intentionally involving their party men with recent killings, including Kalabagan double murders.

Mentioning that Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu recently said 8,000 trained militants have returned to Bangladesh, Rizvi sug-

gested the prime minister to ask the minister to know about whereabouts of the militant without blaming BNP. “Because, he (Inu) knows their hideouts.”

“Stop patronising the militants… the remarks of your (PM’s) minsters and leader have demonstrated that you are pampering militants,” he added.

BNP does not do the politics of killing and terrorism, Rizvi said their party had rather broken the backbone of militants. “There’ll be no use of giving BNP a bad name involving with militancy as people don’t believe it.”

He urged the government to track down the extremists involved in criminal activities and mete out exemplary punishment to them. l

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Unfounded hope for high fish yield behind Sundarbans fire Forest Conservator (Khulna region) Md Zahir Uddin Ahmed claimed that they had already brought the fire under control. But when asked, he said that they had nothing to do with the smoke coming out at some spots.

The Environment and Forests Ministry has already formed a six-member probe committee led by a joint secretary to find out the reason behind the fire and to assess the loss.

Md Mojahed Hossain, the team leader, is supposed to submit the report by next 10 days.

‘It’s sabotage’

The Forest Department filed two

cases against some locals including ruling party leaders after the fire incidents of April 13 and 18. “Angered by the cases, these people have set the forest on fire again,” he claimed.

Meanwhile, Sharankhola OC Shah Alam said that they had arrested one Khalilur Rahman Hawlader from Uttor Rajapur yesterday as he was facing arrest warrant in a case filed with the police station.

Three forest officials were also suspended for negligence in performing their duties properly.

In the wake of subsequent fire

incidents, the Forest Department on Thursday issued a special alert for Chandpai and Sharankhola ranges, asking locals – who depend on the forest resources – not to enter the forest.

In addition, it has also stopped issuing pass for people engaged in fishing and collecting honey.

The restrictions would be in effect until the forest returns to normalcy, Sharankhola Range Officer Kamal Uddin Ahmed said.

Earlier, they formed five fire watch committees with three members each. The teams were asked to monitor every two-kilo-

metre area.

Md Atul Mandal, the Sharankhola UNO, said that they would launch mobile courts to try the people engaged in subversive activities.

Members of Rapid Action Battalion and Coast Guard have increased patrol in the area.

‘Reform Forest Department’ Demanding fair probe into the fire incidents, rights activists, NGO workers and academicians of Khulna have asked the government to modernise the Forest Department and make the forest laws stricter.

From a press conference in

the city, the speakers alleged that subversive acts centring the Sundarbans had increased alarmingly.

Moreover, the people who depend on the forest have been made more vulnerable through the restrictions imposed by the authorities.

In his written statement, Jana Udyog Member Secretary Mahendra Nath Sen also said that the Forest Department officials should not be kept in the investigation teams to ensure fair probe.

“The Sundarbans has protected us [from natural disasters] like a mother. We should also stay alert to protect it,” he added. l

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SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2016

Xulhaz's mother still doesn't know the truth n Arifur Rahman Rabbi Xulhaz Mannan’s mother Sakhina Khatun witnessed her son getting hacked to death. She herself was injured trying to stop the killers.

The 76-year-old retired teacher who has a faltering memory now only remembers the incident infrequently, and at those moments her family placates her with the lie that Xulhaz is alive and has gone abroad for treatment.

“Sometimes she asks about Xulhaz. We tell her that Xulhaz went outside the country for treatment,” younger son Minhaj Mannan Emon told the Dhaka Tribune over phone yesterday.

Sakhina, a former headmis-

tress of Motijheel Government Girls School, was moved to Emon’s home after the gruesome incident.

“Mother’s physical condition is not good. We are not telling her anything. We don’t want to remind her of that,” Emon said.

USAID employee and LGBT magazine Roopbaan editor Xulhaz Mannan was killed along with his friend Mahbub Tonoy at his Kalabagan residence on April 25. Al Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent has claimed the murder, saying Police reports and accounts from family members say that Sakhina and a housemaid were at home during the incident. When the killers attacked Xulhaz and Tonoy with machetes, Sakhina was

sleeping. She woke up hearing the commotion and came to the living room where she tried to save the victims from the attackers.

The killers threw a chair at Sakhina and she was injured in the leg. After the killers fled Sakhina tried for some time to pull Xulhaz up but failed. First responders found her standing at the scene of the crime.

Xulhaz was a cousin of former foreign minister Dipu Moni. He had also served as a protocol officer at the US Embassy in Dhaka. Tonoy was also an LGBT and theater activist.

Tonoy’s father: Allah will judge them Tonoy’s father Khandakar Nur-E

Rabby told the Dhaka Tribune his son was the victim of cruel fate, as he happened to be at Xulhaz’s flat only by chance.

“He had an exam that day. After the exam he went to see Xulhaz to talk about getting a visa to America,” he said.

“I’ve heard that three hours before the incident the killers came looking for Xulhaz at his building.

But he was not there at that time,” Rabby said.

“I have nothing to say about this matter. It was so unexpected. So I didn’t file any case. Police and Xulhaz’s brother have filed the case. I want justice. Allah will judge Tonoy’s murderers,” he said.

He urged the government not to

let these sorts of incidents be repeated.

Rabby said he was not aware of any progress in the investigation.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Detective Branch is in charge of the investigation. Police have seized footage from several CCTV cameras near Xulhaz’s building in Kalabagan that purports to show several of the killers’ faces. A sub inspector who was injured in a scuffle with one of the killers while they were getting away also managed to snatch his bag. Police are saying important evidence was found in it.

DMP Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia said police were hopeful the murders would be solved, but they needed some time. l

KL hints at resuming hiring foreign workers n UNB

Father, son arrested over RU teacher murder n Our Correspondent, Rajshahi

Malaysia will soon announce its decision on recruiting foreign workers saying the government understands the need for certain sectors who are in need of foreign workers.

“An important decision on this will be announced in due course,” Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was quoted by Malaysia state news agency Bernama as saying.

In February, Dhaka and Kuala Lumpur signed an agreement for recruiting 1.5 million Bangladeshi workers.

Malaysia later suspended recruitment of foreign workers, including those from Bangladesh, while the government reviewed the two-tier levy programme for foreign workers. l

A retired school teacher and his teenage son were arrested yesterday in connection with the killing of Rajshahi University’s Prof AFM Rezaul Karim Siddique, police said.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Md Shamsuddin disclosed the development at a media conference.

Abdul Hakim, 63, who taught at Bagmara Pilot High School, and his son, Bagmara College first year student Ariful Islam, were picked up from their house at Sreepur, family members said.

Hakim’s younger brother Ishaq Ali said a group of men, identifying as law enforcers, barged into their house and arrested his brother and nephew in the morning. They also confiscated mobile phones of other members of the family.

Hakim’s son Shariful Islam, 25, is a student at RU English department.

Police Commissioner Shamsuddin said there was no major breakthrough in the case. He requested witnesses to contact police and promised to ensure their safety.

English department teacher Prof Siddique was murdered last week near his house. He is the fourth RU teacher to be hacked to death since 2004. l

Former students and colleagues of slain Rajshahi University Professor AFM Rezaul Karim Siddique form a human chain yesterday at Dhaka’s Shahbagh demanding punishment for the professor's killers RAJIB DHAR

Forced marriage to cop shatters teen’s dreams Correspondent, n Our Dinajpur She was 16 and had just sat the secondary school examinations. Her big dreams fell apart like a house of cards after she was married off to a policeman who had teased, harassed and beat her up brutally in broad daylight for rejecting his proposals to have an affair with him.

Constable Mostofa Kamal, wireless operator of Dinajpur Kotwali police station, managed to put a ring on his love interest 24 hours within attacking her.

The marriage took place on Wednesday night with the apparent approval of both families at a dower – or “Den Mohor” in local parlance – of Tk5 lakh at the Raishaheb Bari office of sadar upazila Awami League unit Gen-

eral Secretary Biswajit Ghosh Kanchon.

In Bangladesh, the minimum legal age for girls’ marriage is 18 years.

Dinajpur district administration said they had nothing to do and the upazila nirbahi officer (UNO), tasked with preventing child marriages, claimed he knew nothing about it. The ruling party leader could not be reached for comments.

The victim’s family said Mostofa had been pestering the girl with love proposals for about a year. On Tuesday, the girl told reporters that the policeman tried to abduct her when she was going to a coaching centre. He beat her up after she protested and at one stage fled the scene leaving her seriously injured.

Locals rushed her to Dinajpur General Hospital. Victim’s father Zahidul Islam filed a complaint with Kotwali po-

lice that night but the girl was married off to her assaulter shortly afterwards.

“The constable proposed my daughter many times before beating her up. I received a marriage proposal for my daughter from his family,” he said. “I finally agreed, considering my daughter’s future.”

Kotwali police OC AKM Khalequzzaman said he did not know about the marriage. He said he had visited the girl in hospital after she was assaulted and had withdrawn the constable as her allegations were found to be true.

“Filing of a case depends on the victim’s family. The marriage took place with the consent of both families,” he claimed.

UNO Abdur Rahman said he had learned about the matter from journalists. “We would not have let the

marriage take place had we known it beforehand.”

He said if law enforcers were involved in such crimes, they would face actions. “We have already spoken to police higher ups and initiated steps against the accused.” l

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Four former law enforcers among 6 held for fraud n Kamrul Hasan Rapid Action Battalion yesterday arrested six individuals, four of them former police and army personnel, for allegedly cheating people by providing them fake appointment letters in return for money.

The arrested are Mamun Akand, 23, Abul Kashem, 52, Abdur Razzak, 57, Tarek Hasan, 53, Nasir Uddin, 46, and Rashedul Majid, 32.

RAB conducted drives from Thursday night until yesterday morning in different parts of Dhaka and arrested the six.

However, some other members of the gang managed to flee.

The victims of the fraud were usually offered 4th grader jobs at Dhaka Cantonment – such as ward boy, cleaner, office assistant, operator at Ministry of Defence

In primary interrogation, the arrestees gave names of the other members of the fraud gang and also revealed that there are three other former law enforcers involved in the scheme.

Among the arrestees, Kashem and Nasir were former army personnel and Tarek was in police, RAB sources said.

They also said that a member of the gang who managed to flee during the raids was an expelled BGB member and a fugitive named Didar.

The other identified members of the gang are Rafiqul Islam, Tariqul and Sabuj.

RAB ASP Akramul Hasan told the Dhaka Tribune that Rafiqul and Tariqul were the masterminds of the gang and

they were also former army personnel.

Rafiqul was a clerk and Tariqul was a uniformed personnel, RAB sources said. However, Tariqul’s rank could not be ascertained yet.

ASP Akram said members of the gang would disguise as army personnel and lure village people telling them that they can provide government jobs at law enforcement agencies.

In return, the fraudsters would take Tk4 lakh to Tk5 lakh from each candidate and complete all procedures necessary to make them believe that they were actually going to start the job.

RAB sources said the victims of the fraud were usually offered 4th grader jobs at Dhaka Cantonment – such as ward boy, cleaner, office assistant, operator at Ministry of Defence.

In interrogation, the arrestees confessed that they had taken a total of Tk39 lakh from 13 candidates and provided them fake appointment letters to different jobs.

RAB said the gang had three major groups – one searched for people in villages who needed a job urgently. Second group would complete all procedures necessary to apply for a real government job such as a medical test which would usually be performed somewhere around Combined Military Hospital and charged Tk20,000.

Lastly, the job seekers were taken to the boss (Rafiq) who would take Tk4 to Tk5 lakhs from each person for job gurantee.

ASP Akram said when the 13 deceived victims went to join their job, they came to know that the appointment letters were fake. Later, when they went back to the gang’s office to query, Rafiq threatened to take their lives.

The 13 victims then lodged a complaint with RAB on Thursday following which RAB teams conducted the raids and made and arrests.

ASP Akram said: “Drives to apprehend the other fraudsters is currently going on.” l

Dhaka Tribune

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SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2016

Two AL men shot dead in Lakshmipur n Saiful Islam Swapan, Lakshmipur

Two local Awami League members were hacked and shot dead by assailants in Lakshmipur yesterday.

Police recovered the bodies of Ismail Hossain Manik and Kamrul Islam from a field at Rajibpur village in Lakshmipur Sadar upazila and sent to morgue.

Family members said Manik and Kamrul went out of their houses after they received calls on their phones around 1am after which they did not return home.

Kamrul’s maternal uncle Nur Alam said it was not clear who phoned his nephew.

Manik’s daughter Jenny said two local goons - Ripon and Sangram – threatened her father recently.

Lakshmipur ASP (circle) Md Nasim Miah said the two men might have been killed over personal feuds.

He said the victims had been named in several cases filed over theft and robbery charges. “We have launched an investigation.” l

Members of Bangladesh Diploma Nurses Association go on fast unto death in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka to press home their demands yesterday SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Sons held over Bangladeshi couple murder in California

‘Coastal embankments urgently needed’

n Tribune Desk

Rights groups have urged the government to take immediate measures to build embankments on the coastal areas of Bangladesh to protect people and land from sea level rise and tidal surges.

A human chain was organised in front of the National Press Club yesterday by 16 coastal area rights organisations to call for embankments in endangered coastal areas.

The event was held in remembrance of the super cyclone Marian that hit the Chittagong coast on April 29, 1991, killing around 150,000 people.

Speakers at the event criticised the government for “over-emphasising on infrastructure projects like flyovers and four-lane highways” to ensure export-led economic growth, while on the other hand ignoring critical infrastructure like coastal embankments.

The activists urged the government to put in its own funds to build the embankments instead of waiting around for foreign funds.

“The coastal areas are still unsafe.

Police have arrested two sons of a Bangladeshi couple who were shot dead inside their house in California.

Hasib Bin Golam Rabbi, 22, and his 17-year-old brother were taken into custody on Thursday, reports AP. Police did not disclose the teenager’s name because of his age.

Golam and Shamima Rabbi were found dead inside their San Jose residence on Sunday by friends who came to check on them.

A source told local media ABC7 News off-camera they found a gruesome scene, with the bodies of the couple lying on the hardwood floor, and a message in ink that read: “Sorry, my first kill was clumsy.”

According to the report, the couple were popular fixtures at their mosque for three decades and had helped relatives emigrate from their native Bangladesh.

Word of the deaths of Shamima and Golam Rabbi and the arrest of their sons sent shock waves

through the close-knit Muslims who perform at nearby Evergreen Islamic Centre.

“Everybody is praying that it is somebody else who did this and not the kids,” said Abdul Jaka, a co-founder of the mosque where

The couple were popular fixtures at their mosque for three decades and had helped relatives emigrate from their native Bangladesh the couple performed their prayers and attended holiday celebrations and other events. “They were a nice family.”

The victims’ nephew Golam Mustakim and his family emigrated from Bangladesh in 2000 and initially stayed with the Rabbis in

TEMPERATURE FOREC AST FOR TODAY

RAIN OR THUNDERSHOWER LIKELY SATURDAY, APRIL 30

Dhaka

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Chittagong

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their four-bedroom home.

Jason Wong, 16, a classmate of the 17-year-old at Evergreen Valley High School, said the junior was “quiet and kept to himself mostly.”

Wong, also a junior, said he saw the teen on campus on Monday, the day after his parents were found dead.

“I did not think anything was wrong then because I didn’t know his parents had died,” Wong said.

“But now it seems strange.”

Relatives discovered the bodies, and it was not clear how long the couple had been dead, police spokesman Sgt Enrique Garcia said.

No further details were released.

“This is one of those tragedies nobody ever wants to be in,” mosque spokesman Faisal Yazadi said. “All we can do is pray.”

It was not immediately clear if the suspects have attorneys.

They were being held without bail. The older son was expected to be in court yesterday. An appearance date for the teen was not immediately available. l 29

Rajshahi

DHAKA TODAY SUN SETS 6:27PM

n Abu Bakar Siddique

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Rangpur

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Khulna

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Barisal

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW

TOMORROW SUN RISES 5:25AM

41.2ºC Rajshahi

19.9ºC Mymensingh

Source: Accuweather/UNB

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PRAYER TIMES

The flooding and loss of land is forcing people to migrate to cities where they become slum dwellers and work in low-income jobs like house maids, labourers, garments workers or rickshaw pullers,” said Rezaul Karim Chowdhury from COAST Trust.

The government was paying no heed to the loss of land which was a threat to the country’s food security, he said.

“This is a sort of exploitation by the elites and ruling classes of Bangladesh of the coastal population,” he added.

“We must invest our resources to protect the coastal people and lands before anything else,” Dhaka University pro-vice chancellor Dr Shahid Akhter Hossain said at the event.

He also said that the government has the capacity to build sustainable embankments in the coastal area with its own resources, but there is hardly any political goodwill behind the issue.

Rezaul Karim Chowdhury also blamed “international NGOs and donor-funded consultants” saying they were using coastal vulnerability issues for aid marketing. l Sylhet

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Cox’s Bazar

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Fajr: 4:01am | Jumma: 11:56pm Asr: 3:22pm | Magrib: 6:30pm Esha: 7:57pm Source: IslamicFinder.org

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14-party calls rally 650 MPs to join CPA conference n protesting ‘antigovt conspiracy’ UNB

n Abu Hayat Mahmud The ruling Awami Leagueled 14-party alliance will hold rallies in Dhaka and Rajshahi protesting “conspiracy against the government and the country by national and international evil forces.”

The rally in Dhaka will be held at Central Shaheed Minar on May 8 and in Rajshahi on May 14.

The alliance spokesperson and Awami League Presidium Member Mohammad Nasim announced the programmes yesterday after a meeting held at Awami League president and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s political office in Dhanmondi, Dhaka.

The ruling alliance also claimed that the evil forces have been carrying out secret killings and arson attacks

to tarnish the image of the 14-party government and assume power.

Nasim said: “BNP and Jamaat have been plotting conspiracies to create anarchy in the country after failing to join the national polls on January 5, 2014.”

He, however, said the 14-party alliance was ready to resist the conspiracy of BNP-Jamaat and their foreign masters.

Health Minister Nasim said: “BNP-Jamaat and their foreign masters are trying to create an unstable environment in the country in order to foil the rapid development flow of Sheikh Hasina’s government.”

He urged law enforcement agencies to be more vigilant and asked them to trace down the criminals and secret attackers. l

CREATIVE CHALLENGE 2016 AT CU

16 teams qualify for semi-final round on first day n FM Mizanur Rahaman Beating their opponents, a total of 16 teams from different universities qualified yesterday for the semi-final round of a competition held at Chittagong University.

The teams secured their positions on the first day of a four-day long Inter Business School National Business Idea and Branding Competition “Creative Challenge 2016” after solving cases over supply chain and branding.

40 teams were given contemporary business cases regarding catering and poultry industry problems and the possibilities on global and local aspects, out of which 16 made the cut.

CU BBA teachers Abu Bakar and Enamul Haque, Southern University teacher Md Hasan , Bangladesh Bank’s Assistant Director Rafiul Munir, Danone’s Corporate Executive Alamin, Case Doctors Founder

Tanmoy Ananda Paul and MediaVest’s Cofounder Naimul Haque were present as adjudicators.

The contestants will fight for their place at the next round of the competition at the “Start up Idea” round today based on E-commerce, women’s empowerment, underprivileged community development and organic product development, said the organisers.

Marks, a brand of Abul Khair Group has sponsored the programme with a view to develop intellectual aptitude of the nation while Pragmat has been providing free management consultancies for the best innovative idea.

Finance and Banking Debating Association of CU have put the event together for the third time at the BBA auditorium campus with a total count of 120 participants under 40 public and private universities, added the organisers. l

Some 650 parliamentarians and representatives from 53 countries under nine regions will participate in the 62nd Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) conference to be held in September.

Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury

on Thursday said this while addressing the half-yearly CPA executive committee meeting as the chairperson at Portcullis House of British Parliament in London, said a parliament secretariat handout yesterday.

“Bangladesh has formed 26 sub-committees to arrange the conference and the committees have started their prepa-

rations to this end defining their working areas,” said Shirin.

CPA Vice Chairperson Shirley M Osborne, MLA, Secretary General Akbar Khan, Treasurer Request Muntanga MP and Chairperson of Commonwealth Women Parliamentarian Rebecca Kadaga, among others, attended the meeting. l

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SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2016

Hot spell, load-shedding hamper life Rajshahi residents yesterday experienced season’s highest temperature and regular activities at both govthe Dhaka Tribune that they had a single drop of rainfall since n Abdullah Al Dulal, Rajshahi not ernment and non-government ofexperienced load-shedding four second week of the current month.

People of Rajshahi have been suffering the most due to scorching heat that has been sweeping over Bangladesh for the last couple of weeks. Moreover, 12 to 10 hours loading shedding in a day has also added their sufferings.

Due to the severe heat a droughtlike situation is prevailing in the district especially in the barind tract affecting daily lives of people.

Local met office yesterday recorded season’s highest temperature at 41.2 degrees Celsius and the mercury level remained above 40 degrees celsius in most days of the last two weeks.

The local met office recorded

Sufferings of the people, especially day labourers, rickshaw and van pullers, construction workers, masons and street vendors have no bound due to daylong hot spell.

Sazzadur Rahman, a student at Rajshahi City College, told the Dhaka Tribune that he could not study properly. Moreover, he could not sleep at night due to load shedding and severe heat.

Ali Ehtesam Oishik, a student of New Degree College, said: “I have to study lighting candles at night as we have to remain without electricity throughout almost every night.”

Mohammad Raju, a resident at Ramchandrapur Bou Bazar, told

times from Thursday evening to yesterday morning and each load-shedding lasted over an hour.

Nuruzzaman Hossain, a student at Rajshahi University, said: “Most of the time in a day we remain without power. My examination is coming soon, but I cannot study properly.”

Esrat Jahan Eli, an HSC examine from Agani School and College, told the Dhaka Tribune that the load shedding would cause adverse impact on the results.

People do not dare to come out of houses except for emergencies during daytime. So, production at factories, sale in markets, presence of students at schools and colleges

fices are being affected by the hot spell and load shedding.

Jamaat Khan, general secretary of Rajshahi Raksha Sangram Parishad, told the Dhaka Tribune, there was a system loss in electricity supply and for this reason people were suffering a lot. The government should look into the matter without any delay.

Hazrat Ali, chief engineer of Rajshahi Power Development Board, told the Dhaka Tribune there was a huge gap between demand and supply of electricity.

“We need 1,000 MW electric per day for the region while we are getting 700MW.”

He also expressed hope that the situation would be changed within a few days.

About the severe heat, doctors have advised people to drink sufficient water, particularly during the daytime.

Dr Mahbubur Rahman Khan, associate professor of medicine of Rajshahi Medical College Hospital, said children, newborns, elderly people and cardiac patients suffered the most in such weather.

Sources at Rajshahi Livestock Office said the domestic animals were also suffering from diarrhoea, dysentery and dehydration due to extreme heat. Absence of green grass as fodder has increased their diseases. l

‘Meeting on bus fare reduction Monday’ n BSS

Minister for Road Transport and Bridges Obaidul Quader yesterday said a meeting will be held with the transport owners on Monday to decide on adjusting bus fares following the reduction of oil prices.

He said this to journalists while visiting the construction site of an underpass at Nabinagar-Chandra road at Tetuibari in Gazipur.

The minister said a decision would be taken on reducing bus fares after holding a meeting with the transport leaders at BRTA. The government reduced the prices of octane and petrol by Taka 10 while the diesel price by Taka 3 from Sunday midnight.

Replying to a question from journalists, the minister said the recent murders are ‘organized target killing.’ l

This road next to Dhaka’s Jurain graveyard is flooded as an open sewer overflows, rendering the road unusable and causing suffering for pedestrians. The photo was taken recently MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

UNION PARISHAD ELECTION

Campaign being affected by blistering heat Islam Khan, n Zahirul Madaripur Since the inception of Bangladesh, union parishad elections have been held in winter, but this is the first time the root-level polls are being conducted in summer season which is hampering election-related activities.

Chairman, woman member and member candidates as well as their supporters have to face the scorching heat while going to door-todoor of voters to seek votes.

Candidates have already re-

quested Election Commission through the district election office to conduct election during a convenient weather specially in winter in future to ease sufferings of voters, candidates plus employees of the election office.

Ruhidas Mol, a leader of Awami League in Nobogram Union Parishad, Kalkini upazila. He has also served as vice-chairman for once and chairman for twice in the union parishad.

Ruhidas Mol said: “We previously saw union parishad election was held during winter season. But

this time, all [voters, candidates plus employees of the election office] are facing trouble due to the blistery heat which has been sweeping through Bangladesh for the last several weeks.

“We are exhausted, although we [Awami League leaders and activists] are working for our chairman candidate and hoping that our handwork will work.”

Bibhutibhuson Barai, a chairman candidate of Nobogram union parishad, echoed the same words.

Abdul Matin, a chairman candidate at Baligram union parishad,

told the Dhaka Tribune that as the election was going to be held in summer this time, they were badly missing gathering at tea stalls which was considered as one of most important place for any election campaign.

Arjun Naag, chairman candidate at Dasa union parishad, said they were arranging oral salines and coconut water for campaigners so that they would not fall sick.

Mir Nasiruddin, chairman candidate at Gopalpur union parishad, said not only activists, but also voters would face sufferings as they

would have to stand in long queue while casting votes.

Madaripur district election office sources said elections would be held at seven union parishads under Razoir upazila and 13 union parishads under Kalkini upazila on May 7.

Madaripur District Election Officer Mohammad Alauddin told the Dhaka Tribune all were suffering due to scorching heat.

He also said it was decision of higher authorities when the local-level election will be held in future. l

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8

News

SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2016

Madaripur Sadar Hospital reopens n Zahirul Islam Khan, Madaripur

Doctors and staff at the Madaripur Sadar Hospital have resumed duties after being on a strike for a week demanding action against people who assaulted a doctor there.

Services resumed at the hospital yesterday around 1pm following a meeting of the hospital management committee, chaired by local lawmaker and Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan.

Also present at the meeting were Bangladesh Medical Association Madaripur branch President Dr Ab-

dul Bari, Civil Seurgeon Dilip Kumar Biswas, Sadar Upazila Chairman Shafik Khan, Municipal Mayor Khalid Hossain Yaad and Resident Medical Officer Shashanka Chandra Ghosh.

Patients were seen returning to the hospital from yesterday morning, but about half the beds were still empty at the time of filing this report.

In the early hours of April 22, Dr Khandker Mainul Ahsan, who was in charge of the emergency ward, was harassed and assaulted by the family of a man who died there. His colleagues went on strike the same

People crowd mobile phone shops on the streets of Khagrachharhi to register their SIMs with the biometric registration process yesterday as deadline for SIM registration ends today DHAKA TRIBUNE

1 jailed for derogatory remarks over religion on Facebook last year had the donor’s n M Kamal Mridha, Natore lage name inscribed on the main A medical student was put behind bars in Natore yesterday afternoon, following the post of an objectionable comment involving religious sentiments on Facebook.

The accused was identified as Khandaker Mahin, a student of the department of surgery and medicine at Kushtia Medical College and son of Golam Mostafa of Shekherhat of Sadar upazila in the district.

OC (investigation) of Natore Sadar police station, Nazrul Islam Jewel, said a mosque that was set up in Shekherhat vil-

entrance.

A man named Mannan from the village published a comment over the matter on Facebook. Mahin posted an unfavourable reply.

Locals became agitated after the remarks went public.

Afterwards, Sadar upazila Chhatra League General Secretary Shohanur Rahman lodged a case against the duo under the Information and Communication Technology Act. Police forces arrested Mahin yesterday. He was sent to jail after being produced before court. l

One killed in nor’wester Shekor Vodro, n Himadri Sunamganj

A child was killed during a nor’wester early yesterday in Biswambharpur upazila of the district. The dead was identified as Tanzina Begum, 11, daughter of Fazar Ali, a resident of Jagannathpur village.

According to the police and locals, Tanzina died after the roof of her house collapsed on

her during the nor’wester that swept through 10 villages of the upazila including Palash, Alipur, Jagannathpur, Dhanpur and Shalukabad around 1am.

The nor’wester damaged around 250 village homes and injured five people, locals said.

Biswambharpur police station Officer-in-Charge Md Sohibur Rahman confirmed the child’s death and the damage the villages received. l

day and also wore badges and held protest rallies, demanding punishment for the criminals .

Over the week the hospital emptied out as patients left for the lack of treatment.

Resident Medical Officer Shashanka Chandra Ghosh said indoor and outdoor services were closed during the strike, but emergency services were available at all times for critical patients.

The hospital staff have demanded that a police box be put up in front of the hospital for the sake of their safety. l

21 sued over Kushtia AL activist killing n Tribune Desk A case was filed against 21 people in connection with Thursday’s clash that left an Awami League activist dead and 15 others injured.

Mahbubul Karim Mollah, brother of deceased Masud Karim Laltu, filed the case with Kushtia Model Police Station on Thursday night, said police.

Akhterazzuman Biswas, incumbent chairman and also the general secretary of Sadar Upazila unit

Awami League, his two sons – Sabuj and Biplab have been named as accused in the case.

Police also arrested five people in connection with the incident, said Shahabuddin Chowdhury, officer-in-charge of Kushtia police station, reports UNB. Earlier, Masud Karim Laltu Molla, a supporter of AL rebel candidate Sheikh Siraj Uddin, a former chairman of the Alampur union, was killed and 15 others were injured in a clash with the rival party l

9

DT

Learn English

SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2016

1. Pre-reading task 2. What is your opinion of renewable forms of energy?

3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of wind power?

4. Now, read the article and compare your opinions with those outlined in the article.

Wind power

PHOTO: BIGSTOCK

n Chris Cavey Most respected scientists agree that we need to find another source of energy – and quickly.

Oil is running out anyway. If we continue to burn oil and pump carbon into the atmosphere, then the effects on global climate will lead to global catastrophe even

before the oil disappears.

The British government has set a target of a 20 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2010. Central to this policy is the search for alternative, renewable forms of energy production – and this is where the serious disagreement among scientists begins. Is there truly a source of

Word search

Exercise 1

energy that is clean, safe, and most importantly, renewable (it will never run out) that can replace our current reliance on fossil fuels?

Controversially, the government plans to build a number of wind farms around the UK. Supporters of wind power say that this is a safe, efficient and clean way of meeting the demand for electricity. Opponents of wind farms, however, say that the schemes will disfigure the British countryside while doing little to meet the nation’s energy needs.

Here, two people active in the debate about wind farms give their points of view: Simon Shearman (British Wind Energy Association) says, “First, a few facts about wind power. Wind is one of the cheapest of the new, renewable forms of energy. A typical wind farm will produce enough energy to meet the annual electricity needs of 1,500 homes. It is extremely safe – no member of the public has ever been injured at a wind farm. The shallow waters around Britain are the windiest in Europe – ideal locations for wind farms and, by 2010, up to 10 percent of the electricity used in the UK could be produced by wind power.

I find it annoying and frustrating that the biggest objection that opponents of wind farms can come up with is that wind farms don’t look very nice.

Don’t they realise that the crisis of global warming is real and something must be done urgently?”

Alice Evans (Campaign to Protect Rural England) says, “The simple, obvious fact is that wind turbines cannot generate electricity if the wind is too light or too strong, and it often is. Many scientists estimate that wind turbines generally produce only 30 percent of their capacity. This is not a reliable enough supply to enable us to close down conventional power stations. In fact, demand for electricity is growing and may increase by 20 percent in the next 10 years. Wind power can’t keep up with this growth, let alone replace other sources of power.

These arguments do not justify the destruction and disfigurement of the British countryside.”

It’s a topic that is causing heated debate around the country – but one we must address before it’s too late.

Before the oil runs out. l

Comprehension: True/False.

Read the article and decide if the following sentences are true or false: 1 There may be a global catastrophe before the world runs out of oil.

2 The British government wants people to use 20 percent less electricity by 2010.

3 Scientists are confident of finding a renewable energy source.

4 Opponents of wind farms think they are ugly.

5 Supporters of wind farms say they are less expensive than other energy sources.

6 Supporters say that Britain is a particularly suitable place for wind farms.

7 Supporters feels that their opponents don’t understand how serious the situation is.

8 Opponents of wind farms say they will not produce enough electricity.

Exercise 2

Vocabulary: Matching. Match each word in the first column (a to h) with its definition in the second column (1 to 8): a turbine b global warming c fossil fuels d carbon emissions e generate f capacity g conventional h renewable 1 will never run out 2 the maximum amount something can produce 3 gases released by factories, etc. that damage our atmosphere 4 an increase in the world’s temperature 5 produce 6 a large machine that produces power 7 e.g. coal, oil and petrol – all containing carbon 8 traditional, not new or different

Want to find more learning activities?

Visit www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish

© British Council 2016

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10

Biz Info

SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2016

| conference |

CBA at IUB

The concluding session of the 10th International Conference on Community Based Adaptation

(CBA 10) was held on April 28 at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) campus, in the

capital's Bashundhara residential area.

The conference was held from April 21-28, and was jointly organised by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), International Center on Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) of IUB and the Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies (BCAS).

More than 300 delegates from across the world attended the CBA10, which is the latest in a series of international conferences looking at how local communities can adapt to climate change.

Saber Hossain Chowdhury, MP, and president, InterParliamentary Union, attended the program as the special guest. He mentioned that togetherness and partnerships are very important

to combat climate change. “We have to integrate adaptation and mitigation,” he said.

Saleemul Huq, director, International Center on Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) of IUB, provided a brief summary on the conference.

Among others, Prof M Omar Rahman, vice chancellor, IUB; Dr Kamal Uddin Ahmed, secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forest; Dr Paul Desanker, UNFCCC secretariat, Bonn, Germany; Prof Dr Shamsul Alam, member, Planning Commission of GED, and Dr Atiq Rahman, executive director, Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies (BCAS) also spoke at the event.

Through strengthening networks, knowledge sharing and supporting collaboration, CBA 10

aimed to enhance the capacity of practitioners, governments and donors to scale-up, mainstream, monitor and support communitybased adaptation that reaches out to the ever-increasing number of vulnerable and poor people who are affected by climate change.

The theme of this year’s conference was “Enhancing Urban Community Resilience,” which included a three-day field visit to CBA projects in different ecosystems across Bangladesh, such as drought, flood-prone, forest and urban areas.

Participants also discussed the latest developments in CBA best practices, policies and theories in different sectors across the globe, with a focus on the urban circumstances. l

| bootcamp |

| entrepreneurship |

Opportunity for social entrepreneurs at YY Goshti

GP Accelerator prepares to launch its second batch

YY Goshti is a hub for social business incubation. They provide training, mentorship, office space, seed capital and necessary resources to social business entrepreneurs.

At YY Goshti, the aim is to help thinkers shape their ideas into a viable social business.

They will gain the opportunity to refine their ideas, develop products and services, and work closely with successful social business ventures. By the end of the program, the participants will get a chance to increase their efficiency and success rate by polishing their ideas through an intensive approach that allows direct interaction with the right kind of resources, networks and environment, and thereby break free from the generic growth method.

YY Goshti is a platform for social business entrepreneurs in the earliest stages of business and successful participants are considered by programs like Spark.

The core model is based on an immersive social business experience. Firstly, the entrepreneurs will be required to develop a social business idea.

They are required to apply through an online application procedure.

After the initial screening, six teams will be selected for the Boot Camp.

The Boot Camp involves an intensive training program where selected entrepreneurs will be brought to the training venue for a period of six days. They will undergo intensive training and mentoring facilitated by seasoned social business experts, academicians and entrepreneurs.

The all inclusive training session will conclude with a "Pitch Day," where the entrepreneurs will have to pitch their ideas in front of an audience of veteran entrepreneurs, investors and stakeholders. Two winners will be chosen at the end

of the finale.

The judges will select one entrepreneur as the “Judges’ Pick” (winner) and the audience will select the “People’s Choice.” The winners will be awarded seed funding to create a prototype of their business, with the Judges’ Pick receiving a seed of Tk100,000 and the People’s Choice receiving a seed of Tk50,000. The winners will enter the project’s second phase, which is a three month long startup operations session.

They will be provided with office space, mentorship and necessary resources required to generate a prototype of their original social business idea, which they can then use to pursue bigger funding. l

SD Asia, in partnership with Grameenphone Ltd, is going to start its 2nd batch for the GP Accelerator program. GP Accelerator is the first of its kind development platform for ICT startups in Bangladesh. The program is designed to provide seed funding, office space, and mentorship to prospective tech startups.

GP Accelerator and SD Asia will work together to select the best entrepreneurs from Bangladesh to turn their business ideas into reality.

Samad Miraly, co-founder of SD Asia, was particularly excited about the second batch. He said, “After four months, we’ve cried, laughed and learned a lot from our first batch. Now, the GP Accelerator is ready to bring on the next five startups.

We keep trying to improve the program, and from our learning, some new partnerships and new relationships with great mentors, hopefully we can provide an even better

experience this time around.

We’re really excited about assisting the next crop of startups.”

This time too, five projects will be selected to participate in the session, and at the end of it, the participants will have the opportunity to pitch their ideas in front of prospective investors on the investor demo day. The candidates will receive a seed funding of more than Tk10,00,000, and work in GP House with the mentorship of SD Asia’s panel of start-up ecosystem experts.

SD Asia will play a pivotal role in this process as well. Mustafizur Rahman Khan, CEO and founder of SD Asia, believes that this opportunity is beneficial for all parties.

“For this batch, we are looking for teams who work well together, have a working model, have a proper revenue model for their proposed business and is on top of their burn rate,” added Mustafizur. l

DT

Editorial 11

SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2016

INSIDE

Death of a friend PAGE 12

How to act like a Bangladeshi PAGE 13

RAJIB DHAR

Climate change PAGE 14

The right road to safety

T When waters meet PAGE 19

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

The views expressed in Opinion articles are those of the authors alone. They do not purport to be the official view of Dhaka Tribune or its publisher.

he government should heed calls by traffic police to ensure the proposed Bangladesh Road Transport Act 2016 retains some provision for law enforcers to issue on-the-spot fines.

It is certainly right that the act is seeking to tighten standards by increasing fines and making it possible for police to arrest anyone violating the new law without an arrest warrant.

However, if it ends up excluding spot fines altogether, it will drastically add to the over 122,000 cases presently pending with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court alone.

As traffic police file an average of 2,233 new cases each day, rather than risk clogging up the courts, it would be better for the new act to build on and upgrade the existing system.

There is no question that authorities need to do much more to reform the bad driving habits and reckless behaviour which are responsible for so many accidents on our roads. BUET studies indicate fatality rates from road accidents in Bangladesh are over 85 deaths per 10,000 vehicles, one of the highest in the world.

Effective enforcement of traffic laws is key to improving driving standards and stopping preventable accidents on our roads.

The government should apply lessons learned in countries where better civic education and use of technology such as speed cameras has been successful in massively cutting accident rates and making roads safer.

Such methods can go a long way in deterring bad habits by making it easier for police to record evidence of speeding , not wearing a seat belt, and other common offences and allowing fines to be automatically sent to car owners and drivers.

The new act should facilitate such methods to free up court time and allow the police to concentrate resources on investigating and preventing the most serious accidents.

Effective enforcement of traffic laws is key to improving driving standards and stopping preventable accidents on our roads

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DT

Opinion

SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2016

Death of a friend Is an ‘eye for an eye’ the only way we can deal with religious extremists?

The death of a Xulhaz Mannan is a tragedy on every level

BIGSTOCK

If Xulhaz and his friend Tonoy were killed because of their sexual orientation, then it is an infringement of privacy and human rights. Sadly, they raised their voices in a society that is not yet ready to accept such a truth, and, as a result, were targeted by extremists

n Nadeem Qadir

A

ny death is sad. Over the past months, I have lost a few friends due to medical reasons or at the hands of so-called “religious” extremists who have only tarnished the name of Islam with their terrorist activities.

Reactions to the killings have been immense.

Xulhaz Mannan was an LGBT activist. I knew him as a warm, smiling, and loving man who was always ready to help anyone who came to him.

Xulhaz was a human being first, that was his primary identity, and I

want to remember him as such.

Over the last couple of months, I lost my friend and publisher Dipan. We talked about publishing the second edition of my book with historic, earth-shaking information. Suddenly, a pious, true Muslim like him was killed by bigots.

I met his father during my brief visit to Dhaka to convey my condolences. I did not have the words when I met him at his office at the Dhaka University arts building. I looked at him and thought how pained he was as a father, as pained as I am by the absence of my parents every day. I cry often, and what is he doing? His wife? I

only conveyed that if she agreed, I will keep my promise to publish the second edition through Dipan’s publishing house Jagriti.

Then came Rajeshwary Priyobashini, the daughter of famed sculptor Ferdousy Priyobhashini. She was an angel in the garbs of a human. She was an amazing friend with whom I shared my soul. She suddenly bade us goodbye after falling prey to cancer.

I still have not recovered from that loss. She was a friend of a different magnitude, who could paint beautifully in her very own style.

She lov ed journalism too, and I was one of her dearest guests.

If Xulhaz and his friend Tonoy were killed because of their sexual orientation, then it is an infringement of privacy and human rights. Sadly, they raised their voices in a society that is not yet ready to accept such a truth, and, as a result, were targeted by extremists.

Xulhaz never asked me about my orientation, but we were from the same Dhaka University department of International Relations. Junior to me, Xulhaz cracked jokes as he had a great sense of humour. He knew how to have fun and would often set out on travels by himself.

I met him when I attended one of the receptions at the American ambassador’s residence. I remember how he jokingly told me at a party: “Oh, Nadeem Bhai you are a VIP!” That was Xulhaz.

I know he counselled many young men and women confused or depressed over their sexual orientation. Did he harm anybody?

I don’t know any such case.

The reactions that I received from Western observers have been one of anger but also understanding, because they know that certain entities have been

resorting to all kinds of violence to unseat an elected government.

These same elements have sheltered anti-liberation and proPakistani forces along with war criminals, who, at any cost, would want to tarnish the image of the government and create panic.

The Guardian published a writeup by Simon Tisdall, who visited Bangladesh and interviewed our prime minister, on Bangladesh’s political scenario as a factor for such groups taking advantage.

As I have already mentioned, the opposition has been failing to garner the people’s support and have been engaged in such activities with rogue organistions such as Jamaat-e-Islami.

Who are these Islamic bigots?

They kill, and, as such, cannot be the torch-bearers of a religion of peace and love. They have no right to dictate an individual’s life.

The Holy Qur’an, in Chapter 5, Verse 32, says: “... If anyone killed a person, it would be as if he killed the whole of mankind; and if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole of mankind.” The extremists are clearly unaware of this specific verse, since real Islam does not preach murder or bloodbath.

“An eye for an eye” is not a regular court, but a special tribunal with a quick trial.

“An eye for an eye” is not mere statements by security forces, but visible actions.

“An eye for an eye” is not a lapse in intelligence, but proactive deeds that can prevent any more killings.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina can save us as she stands for the right values, for a secular Bangladesh, one which respects human rights.

She is the leader that can save Bangladesh from Talibanisation against a BNP-Jamaat government, which gave birth to religious extremism with the likes of Bangla Bhai.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has categorically stated that she would neither tolerate any unacceptable comments against any religion nor the killings by the bigots.

It is time we stood by a leader who stands for peace, human rights, and democracy.

A tougher leader creates a better Bangladesh. l Nadeem Qadir, a senior journalist, is a UNCA Dag Hammarskjold Scholar in journalism. He is the Press Minister of Bangladesh High Commission in London.

13

DT

Opinion

SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2016

How to act like a Bangladeshi The ultimate guide to becoming a countryman

n Muktasree Chakma Sathi

I

n Bangladesh, politeness means you are a weak person, ie a person with no “personality.” There is no chance the person with whom you are talking politely will treat you with respect, be it a rickshawpuller or a high official.

In Bangladesh, straightforwardness means you are rude and insensitive. If you point out to a professional person where you believe they could have done better, they will take it personally rather than as constructive criticism which could help the entire country to become a better one.

In Bangladesh, when you are attending a gathering, be it a wedding or a social or cultural occasion, you have to wear your most expensive dress, almost all of your jewelry -- “the bling must ting”?

You must have a car, put on your suit and watch that you bought from a world-famous shop, you must, from time to time, mention the position that you hold (even if it is inherent). Everybody will treat you with respect.

In Bangladesh, you need to talk with a fake smile because you need to keep the connections with the influential people so that you can use them when you need some help.

In Bangladesh, you need to be on the friends list of a person whom you abhor. You like, comment, and chat with them but hold hatred towards them.

You gossip about people based on your personal opinion rather than knowing the true story of his/ her life.

In Bangladesh, a movement means attending conferences and seminars in air-conditioned rooms. In Bangladesh, one can attend an international conference or seminar if they are from a posh background, know a bit of English, and, most importantly, have close ties with a member of the selection committee.

It doesn’t matter whether or not you possess in-depth knowledge about the subject of the event or if you have worked for that cause your whole life. Connections matter here.

In Bangladesh, being a “rights activist” means you have one job in a “rights organisation” and you conduct campaigns according to the mandate of that organisation in exchange for a salary. You don’t necessarily even have to believe in the respective cause.

To be a Bangladeshi is to conform and assimilate

BIGSTOCK

You must be a straight, macho male here with a patriarchal mindset in order to save yourself from sexual violence. If you want to survive, you must follow the religion of Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, every day you wake up and start your day with news stories about university professors and students being hacked to death, minorities’ temples and gods being desecrated, the homes and ancestral lands of indigenous peoples in the Chittagong Hill Tracts being stolen and destroyed in the name of tourism or development, parents leaving their newborn baby at the hospital just because it’s a girl, a young woman’s brutalised body being found in the cantonment area, supporters of LGBT rights being arrested for attending a Pohela Boishakh rally, no significant developments in the case of the Savar tragedy three years after its occurrence where at least 1,135 people were killed because some

chose not to follow basic civil engineering rules and regulations.

Still, you can’t say anything about all of these things. The patriots and intellectuals will label you “anti-state.” The religious preachers will allege you are hurting their sentiments.

So please, hush and don’t utter a word. Remain safe. Don’t get killed.

You have to be a patriot here.

You must be a Bengali here. You must be from a wealthy family.

You must go with the flow. You cannot have a dissenting voice here.

You must be a straight, macho male here with a patriarchal mindset in order to save yourself from sexual violence.

If you want to survive, you

must follow the religion of Bangladesh.

If you want to survive, you must belong to the nation.

If you want to survive, you must hold on to your fake smile and hateful mind.

If you want to survive in Bangladesh, you must become a monster.

And if you are a woman, or a person from a powerless class, community, or religion, then this is not a country for you. Then Bangladesh is not yours. l Muktasree Chakma Sathi is an activist, feminist, and researcher presently working with Minority Rights Group International and SANGAT, a South Asian Feminist Network. You can follow her on Twitter @SathiChakma.

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14

Climate Change

SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2016

LESSONS FROM UGANDA

Creating a network of climate champions

Climate change in Uganda has led to less snow on the mountains, leading to less available melt water as the season progresses, which especially impacts the large majority of the population who are smallholder farmers

n Lynne M Carter

C

limate change is already impacting Uganda; we are seeing changes in both timing and amount of rainfall (leading to flooding, droughts, and seasonal changes), increases (mostly) in temperatures (leading to the need for more water availability and the use of additional energy for cooling) and less snow on the mountains (leading to less available melt water as the season progresses).

All of these changes have impacts on many sectors in Uganda, especially on the large majority of Ugandans that are small holder farmers dependent on rain-fed agriculture.

Individuals and communities are increasingly expected to include climate change considerations in their planning and few have any direct knowledge of how to go about doing such.

In fact, according to the Uganda Vision 2040 document, “There is still poor understanding of climate change and variability in Uganda and hence inadequate adaptation and mitigation measures currently in place in the country.”

The four-year (Dec 2013-Nov 2017) USAID/Uganda Education and Research to Improve Climate Change Adaptation Activity (implemented by FHI 360) was established to support increased levels of knowledge, understanding and actions around preparing for and responding to climate changes. The Activity has implemented many efforts

as represented by the four result areas of the Activity: • Assisting in the establishment of the Makerere University Centre for Climate Change Research and Innovations (MUCCRI) • Offering formal and informal programs to support capacity building around climate change and its response options, mainly on adaptation • Supporting research efforts for graduate and undergraduate students in adaptation; • Develop a method of disseminating those research findings.

One of the in-depth training efforts for the Activity has included identifying and working with over 40+ individuals interested in championing climate change actions in various districts in Uganda.

The lasting goal in developing the climate champions is to leave a legacy of an increased ability in the country to understand the choices and the options to avoid the avoidable climate changes, as well as be better prepared to cope with the unavoidable impacts.

The climate champions program is a major training and capacity building effort that began with an in-depth two-day introduction to climate issues followed by one-day sessions per month for four months of focused trainings. The Activity envisions the climate champions become the established local/regional “go-to” people for accurate and useful climate change advice.

The climate champions are expected to be people who are

passionate about understanding the climate science basics, the likely impacts in their regions and the ways to respond.

Once trained and the network established, the champions are expected to provide helpful advice and guidance as district local governments begin and carry out the planning processes of adaptation and mitigation around a changing climate.

The Activity is partnering with three other USAID funded Feed-the-Future Uganda Activities (Enabling Environment for Agriculture Activity, Agricultural Inputs Activity and Commodity Production and Marketing Activity) and with the Uganda National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO), whose agricultural climate champions address agricultural and forestry issues in districts around the country.

The first training held was a two-day immersion into climate change understanding.

It included a range of climate related information that provided an overview to establish mental models of how the climate issue works so that when new information is presented, the learner knows where that information belongs in the climate change story.

The champions were introduced to an understanding of climate science as well as what climate change is not (as there are many misconceptions around the issue); they learned how to identify likely impacts; they were introduced to the international

issues, consensus and processes; they began to understand the options for responses and the Uganda scope of the issue.

The champions were introduced to a number of issues like: Climate and gender, climate and development, an overview of mainstreaming climate in planning, and case studies in mitigation and adaptation options.

Following the intense two-day immersion into climate change issues, the climate champions were called together for one day for each of the next four months to focus on one issue/response option in more depth. The first one-day training focused on Uganda-relevant mitigation responses.

The next two one-day trainings focused on adaptations to drought and heavy rainfall, including both urban and ruralappropriate response options and actions. The final one day training for 2015 included a discussion of mitigation and adaptation funding opportunities, where to find those opportunities, and training and practice on how to write a proposal to secure funding for local mitigation and adaptation activities.

For 2016, the trainings will be quarterly and focus on in-depth skill development of vulnerability assessment training and how to input climate change information into planning.

This partnership of district individuals, NARO expertise, new knowledge and training on how to assess and respond to climate changes, is already leading

to activities and information sharing in the various districts.

Many of the champions reported conducting radio talk-shows in which they discuss various topics on climate change.

One reported that they are given free air time because their programs are of such interest that they boost the listenership of that station. One station promotes a text option to ask questions.

Many of the champions are sharing their information with farmer field schools and their communities, eg drought tolerant technologies, early maturing crops, and agro-forestry options and possibilities, to name a few.

They are sharing specific crop varieties that are better adapted for their districts than other crop varieties -- information that the NARO climate champions have shared.

Including climate considerations in planning is now a very talked about and implemented concept. Which trees to plant where for what benefits is an important mitigation option for Uganda and developing nurseries for seedlings and encouraging afforestation in bare or dry areas is critical information that is being shared.

All of this work and outreach by the champions also comes with lessons learned; the biggest lesson is that they need to know how and where to raise funds as the farmers are unable or unwilling to support this new knowledge sharing and training.

A network of knowledgeable individuals who are committed to working on these climate issues is developing. This effort is becoming one of the main ways of building a climate change action network that can disseminate and apply accurate climate knowledge and thus help Uganda to become more resilient to climate changes in the future. For more information, please see www. usaid.gov/uganda. l Lynne M Carter, PhD, is the Chief of Party, USAID/Uganda Education and Research to Improve Climate Change Adaptation Activity.

This page has been developed in collaboration with the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) and its partners, Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) and International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). This page represents the views and experiences of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of Dhaka Tribune or ICCCAD or its partners.

EDITOR'S NOTE

POETRY

L

ooking at the amount of English language writing that came out in the past three or four years in the form of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and translation, it is hard to say that not much is happening in English.

Bangladeshi authors, both from local and diasporic communities, are getting increasingly published by international and regional publishing companies.

The local publishing scene in English is thriving too.

A review essay on Prof Rehman Sobhan’s memoir Untranquil Recollections, published by an acclaimed Indian publishing house, and a report on a new translation of Kazi Nazrul Islam’s prose fiction and a coffee table book on the history of Buddhism partly testify to that new tide of Bangladeshi English writing.

There are also a literary reflection that addresses a current debate on “cultural appropriation” and a short piece that covers the ongoing celebrations of Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary of death. l

INSIDE

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Arts & Letters

SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2016

Because Zero Stopped By Shamsad Mortuza

Zero is zeroing in on us.

Zero, Brother Zero.

When he got it We laughed at his zero See, nothing comes out of nothing You believed nothing You became nothing Look what has happened To your blogs now!

Who’ll write them?

Who’ll right them?

Meanwhile, I listened to The Doors: ‘There’s a killer on the road...’

And explained how Jim Morrison Got his band’s name from Blake’s ‘The doors of perception.’

And I updated my status, And I joined a human chain, And I brewed storms over teacups,

A tale of two economies

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Can you really ‘own’ a culture?

And I sighed, And I sighted: Conspiracy, distractions, politics, Ideology, tactics, insanity.

And I sang: ‘there’s a killer on the road...’

And then Fizz came along-And I marveled at his cutter (secretly) And I raised myself on a moral high ground (publicly) And looked at those virtual minions ‘How could you forget Tanu, Rana Plaza, Cyber Heist, Biometrics...

Oh the Indian Plate, the fault line And the tremor looming large?’

That didn’t stop me from going to restaurants Uploading fancy pics and copying and pasting cool links God didn’t stir; why should we?

Mere mortals ...

Stay still. Stay nil.

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Shakespeare celebration & book corner

Then Zero bled-It was a clean slit; Cleaner than Fizz’s dot balls The blood came out like the Onrush of AB de-Villier’s runs; The man who played sitar The man who taught poetry Lay near the bus stop That would have taken him to ...

Well Brother Zero stopped by Because he needed to Bag another zero!

Another zero?

Don’t count your numbers yet !

One day there will be One Who will stand before all the zeroes And make all these zeroes count!

Send your submissions to: anl@dhakatribune.com

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16

SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2016

Arts & Letters

A tale of two economies

REVIEW ESSAY

n Deb Mukharji

R

ehman Sobhan needs no introduction to civil societies in the Indian sub-continent. In Bangladesh his is a deeply respected name. An economist and teacher by profession, he has been intimately involved with social, economic and political issues, maintaining his objectivity and remaining above the fractured politics of his country. Acknowledged worldwide as a development economist, Prof Sobhan has written many books which both educate and illuminate. The three volume collection of his essays (Centre for Policy Dialogue:2007) covered not only his own intellectual odyssey but also the history of the last years of erstwhile East Pakistan and the first decades of Bangladesh.

Untranquil Recollections ends with the emergence of Bangladesh in 1971 and is a book of quite a different genre. It is part autobiography, shared with candour and humour, and part a biography of East Pakistan, the two often intermixing. The author had lived through “interesting times”.

His own family connections (leaving aside descent from the first Caliph, Hazrat Abu Bakr Siddiq) were with the non-Bengali ruling elite of East Pakistan who were ever at odds with the Bengali nationalists. He went to St Paul’s School in Darjeeling and the Aitchison College in Lahore; he obtained his bachelor’s degree from Cambridge University. He had all the qualifications to become the staunchest supporter of Pakistan’s upper crust. Yet, for reasons he is not quite able to explain, he chose Dhaka instead of Peshawar for a teaching post.

“At that stage of my life, my adopted homeland was for me, an idea – not a place ... chose Dhaka not out of compulsion or circumstance, birth or ancestral inheritance, but an ideological decision to proclaim myself a Bangali”.

While it was true he made friends among the Punjabi elite at Aitchison, the overweening attitude of their superiority displayed towards East Pakistan (“ East Bengal was viewed as a remote colony in the same way as students of Eton must have viewed the Indian empire”) might have rankled with him.

As the young lecturer took up his assignment in Dhaka, he had no distinct political ideology or affiliation, though he held progressive ideals since Cambridge where he acquired the “capacity to challenge received wisdom, pomposity or authority established by virtue of age”.

The author had met Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib only hours before the crackdown and recalls him saying, ‘Yahya thinks he can crush the movement by killing me. But he is mistaken.

An independent Bangladesh will be built on my grave’

Untranquil Recollections -The Years of Fulfilment

By Rehman Sobhan SAGE India January 2016 Pages 486 Price: Rs. 450 (PB) Rs. 1,250 (HB) (available on amazon and flipkart) But the political environment in Dhaka was such that issues had to be squarely faced. While East Pakistan was suffering from blatant economic discrimination, Rehman Sobhan stated that there were in fact two economies in Pakistan.

His statement was carried in the media beside Field Marshal Ayub Khan’s statement to the contrary.

It was the dark period of Governor Monaem Khan’s tenure in East Pakistan when laws were openly flouted and goons were let loose on teachers at Dhaka University. This was also the period when Sobhan wrote trenchantly and passionately about the discrimination against Pakistan’s eastern wing, as his collected works testify.

The early 1960s were also the

time when Dhaka was seething with anger towards the establishment’s efforts to curb cultural activities. Tagore songs had been banned and Monaem Khan was said to have instructed that the government should find people to compose “Tagore” songs appropriate to the ethos of Pakistan. Sobhan, however, does not dwell on these developments at any length.

His attention was on the economy and the cultural-linguistic upheaval did not have a direct impact on him. There is no pretence in him of writing a history of events that he had witnessed but with which he was not actively involved. He writes about the areas he understood and was involved with.

Even though Sobhan was not in-

volved in politics, it was inevitable that as East Pakistan demanded its economic rights, his contribution to the cause would be required.

He denies his personal authorship of the Six Points demand of the Awami League, voiced by Sheikh Mujibur Rehman in 1966, but there is little doubt that he left a stamp on the economic aspects of the demand, which led to its final formulation.

The Six Points was to continue to resonate both in East and West Pakistan. The 1970 election was fought by the Awami League with the Six Points as its charter. The East saw it as the gateway to autonomy and emancipation from the dictatorship of the West while the West saw it as the first step to secession. Prof Sobhan’s comment that Sheikh Mujib may not have appreciated the full implications of the Six Points is noteworthy.

The author provides an invaluable insider account of the discussions within the AL, following its sweeping victory in the 1970 elections, and of how its demands could be accommodated within the constitution to be framed. Sobhan was among those assigned to discuss possible areas of convergence with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and was dismayed to find that PPP stalwarts, many of them well known to him, despite their liberal pretensions, retained their primary loyalty to the welfare of Punjab. He must have been reminded of the Punjabi arrogance towards East Pakistan that he had witnessed in his Aitchison College days. Years later, he was to receive confirmation of the Faustian deal that Bhutto in his thirst for power had struck with Yahya Khan at

a Larkana weekend when he had advised the president that Bengali pretensions could be disposed of by a whiff of grapeshot. As Yahya remained reticent in convening a new parliament, the control of the administration passed into the hands of the AL from early March 1971. In Islamabad at the time, I had listened in wonderment as Radio Pakistan Dhaka, transmuted to Dhaka Betar Kendra, broadcast rousing “nationalist” songs.

These were deeply turbulent times. As Yahya and Bhutto kept up the charade of negotiations with the AL, Pakistani troops with modern weapons and ammunitions flowed into East Pakistan. And the charade went on till the army was let loose on the people to contain resistance.

The author had met Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib only hours before the crackdown and recalls him saying, “Yahya thinks he can crush the movement by killing me. But he is mistaken. An independent Bangladesh will be built on my grave.”

There are questions that may still remain with regard to the hours, weeks and years that preceded the fateful night of March 25, 1971. Mujib had committed himself to the Six Points, limiting the space for manoeuvre. How did he or his advisers expect this to play out in the realm of politics? Mujib had been an ardent believer in Pakistan, though issues of discrimination had frayed his loyalty at the edges, as his Unfinished Memoirs indicate. It was as prime minister of Pakistan that he had wished to deliver justice to the East. When did he decide that a parting of ways was inevitable? As Sobhan points out, his speech at the Race Course on March 7 was a masterpiece, calling on the people to be prepared for a final battle, and yet leaving open the possibility of a negotiated settlement. Some recent memoirs confirm that Sheikh Mujib had been cautioned about the Pakistani troop building up and the certainty of a crackdown. Yet he had not agreed to a preemptive move by the Bengalis in the armed forces, preferring the constitutional route and, hence, legitimacy. Besides, his message read out over the radio in Chittagong, had no instructions on how the struggle was to continue.

His comments to Sobhan on the evening of March 25 display confidence about the final outcome, but do have a tinge of fatalism. The author does not claim to have all the answers and, as he rightly says, “it is always possible to be wise after the event – and amateur historians can sit at a safe distance and pass judgement”.

The author’s comment that “few

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Arts & Letters

SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2016

REFLECTION

Can you really ‘own’ a culture?

Arts & Letters encourages literary reflection on issues of contemporary culture. It can be analytical observation or an outpouring of emotions and thoughts about new trends in fashion, music, architecture, film, literature etc. Here’s a piece that engages us in the ongoing debate on ‘cultural appropriation’

n Shuprova Tasneem

While East Pakistan was suffering from blatant economic discrimination, Rehman Sobhan stated that there were in fact two economies in Pakistan

Bangalis at the time retained any sentimental attachment to the Pakistani concept” could be open to debate, given the important role Bengali Muslims played in the creation of Pakistan as well as post-liberation developments in the polity of Bangladesh itself. It is arguable that while 1971 was the final stage in the East’s quest to be free from the West, it did not negate the ‘Pakistani concept’ (or the two nation theory). Abul Mansur Ahmed was to say it was the “‘end of a betrayal and the restoration of the Lahore Resolution.”

Sobhan was a prime target of the Pakistani forces. He fled to Agartala after many adventures, where

his non-proficiency in Bangla, and wearing his lungi with a belt, could have had dire consequences as he ran the gauntlet of freedom fighters on the way. In Delhi, his past connections with the fraternity of economists gave him access to the highest echelons of power where he recounted the trauma to which his people were being subjected.

Later, in the United States, he was to play an important role in creating public opinion against Pakistani actions and ensuring the curtailment of World Bank assistance to Pakistan, despite the best efforts of Nixon and Kissinger.

Untranquil Recollections could well stand on its own as a candid autobiography .The author has had the courage to admit to his brief training as a cobbler. Prowess in sports and continuing fondness for pulsating forms of western dance reveal a personality going much beyond the public image of the professor. But its lasting merit would lie in the extensive insider’s view of the internal processes that led to the emergence of Bangladesh.

In conclusion, the author speaks of “moments of infinite possibilities earned through enormous sacrifices” and wonders how far they have been realised. That question remains. l The writer, a former diplomat, was Indian high commissioner to Bangladesh.

The phrase “cultural appropriation” has popped up frequently in mainstream media, and the latest fad that caused an uproar was certain European pop artists wearing bindi (or teep, as we call it here), turning it into fashion statements at concerts.

Twitter exploded thereafter with Reclaim the Bindi movement and women of South Asian descent began sharing pictures of themselves in traditional attire as a protest against the appropriation of bindi by those of non-South Asian, particularly, European descent.

According to the anonymous founder of the movement, “The campaign is a way for South Asians to show pride in their culture … it is a huge part of the cultural identity of South Asians, a reminder of where I come from and the community I belong to. It’s a part of my religious identity, a marker of my third eye, a reminder that I am a Hindu.”

It was amazing, indeed, to see young women in our part of the world take pride in their culture. At the same time, it did make one wonder – can we really adhere to set definitions of culture, and appoint gatekeepers to guard the sanctity of a specific mark of a culture?

Firstly, how does this movement pertain to Bangladeshi women like me who love the teep and consider it a symbol of their Bengali identity, but not a sacred symbol of religious identity? More importantly, how can I, as someone who wears jeans on winter days instead of kameezes/saris and goes to Bangladeshi weddings only to eat biryani and sustains multiple nearheart attacks during cricket matches, complain when someone else adopts something from my own culture?

We cannot say with certainty that the world is divided into separate and specific cultures, especially not in our parts of the world. From the mid-seventh century on, the spice trade in this region was dominated by Arab traders and for centuries, the Silk Road and the Indian Ocean had connected China to the Indian subcontinent, Arabia, East Africa and the Mediterranean. Alongside all of these cosmopolitan influences stood our vast rivers with innumerable villages on their banks, giving birth to Bhatiyali, Bhawaiya, Gombhira, Lalon geeti and of course, the cultures of our indigenous populations, and a myriad of other folk traditions.

For generations, a strong oral tradition has been kept alive in our rural areas simply through daily cultural practices and collective memory. The culture we now have is like a river of Bangladesh - a roaring force with a steady stream of folk tradition converging on tides of different cultures brought to us through expansion of commerce and trade and many traits of colonial culture adopted while under Turkish, Afghan, Mughal and British rule.

Bangladeshi culture (and South Asian culture as a whole) has always been synonymous with pluralism.

This is the essence of who we are, and when we latch on to one specific item or attire as our cultural prerogative and exclusively so, we do not speak out against social injustice or racism, but put up barriers that strangle multiculturalism in its path. In a world that is already divided by identity politics and creating a Huntington-esque “clash of civilisations”, we end up perpetuating stereotypes and making ourselves the exotic “other” by insisting on creating gated cultures, inaccessible to the rest of the world.

Even more worryingly, we end up giving ammunition to certain factions who would rather do away with these cultures anyway. Certain extremist organisations like Hefazat-e-Islam have already claimed teep is a part of Hindu culture and have tried to bin it along

with saris, folk music and even Pohela Boishakh celebrations! Only a week ago, Rajshahi University Professor AFM Rezaul Karim Siddiquee was brutally murdered, and his only crime, it seemed, was that he opened a school and was involved in cultural activities. Now is not the time to nitpick at cultural appropriation or appreciation, but to focus on preserving the plurality and liberal ideals that make up our culture and to make sure they are not misrepresented and exterminated.

It is time to recognise that culture is fluid and ever-changing, and that’s what makes it so beautiful. We should definitely find meaningful ways to protest against racism, and by all means, encourage others to adopt other cultures with respect, not appropriate them. However, we cannot outright ban others from wearing our traditional attire because culture does not come with intellectual and property rights, and it cannot be attached to notions of ownership. When we do this, we are not policing fashion, but we are policing the exchange of ideas, which is a dangerous way forward. In these critical times, we need to broaden the platform for cultural exchange, which only can lead us to a kinder and more tolerant society. l Shuprova Tasneem is a journalist. She writes on various cultural issues.

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Arts & Letters

18

SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2016

SHAKESPEARE CELEBRATION

A poet for all time n Arts & Letters Desk

T

he English department of Dhaka University celebrated on Tuesday the 400th death anniversary of William Shakespeare through a day-long programme of recitations, presentations, poster competition and exhibition and a number of skits based on Shakespeare’s plays.

The second session, which was held at the RC Majumdar Auditorium, saw both teachers and students of the department perform in skits and recitations. It was also the session in which scholars such as Professor Emeritus Serajul Islam Chowdhury, Prof Syed Manzoorul Islam, Prof Fakrul Alam and Prof Tahmina Ahmed read excerpts from their articles on different aspects of Shakespeare’s plays and poems. Prof Rubina Khan, chairperson of the department, started the session with a welcome address.

A festive mood was in the air with students donning dresses or costumes that reminded one of characters from an Elizabethan play. All the luminaries of the Eng-

lish faculty were seen mingling with the students.

Rabindranath Tagore’s poem in tribute to Shakespeare and late Prof Khondokar Ashraf Hossain’s “Horatio’r Proti Hamlet” (Hamlet to Horatio) were recited by students.

In another interesting segment, Prof Niaz Zaman and Prof Rubina Khan, among others, recited some of Shakespeare’s sonnets while Prof Selim Sarwar of North South University, read out his own Bangla translation of those sonnets.

The readings of Prof Chowdhury, Prof Islam, Prof Alam and Prof Mortuza emphasised Shakespeare’s relevance to the current social, political and literary issues.

The cultural programme began with winners reading out their entries in the competition “Emails to Shakespeare and/or his Characters”.

This was followed by the “Dress as your favourite character” contest.

Then, skits performed both by students and teachers were staged.

The day-long programme ended in the evening with the prize giving ceremony. l

Posters designed and painted by students for the occasion

BOOK CORNER

Strides towards translation and historiography n Arts & Letters Desk

N

ymphea Publication has brought out a fresh new translation of Kazi Nazrul Islam’s fiction Mrityukshudha (December 2015) and a fat coffee table book, Buddhist Heritage of Bangladesh (August 2015), on the history of Buddhism in this country.

Mrityukshudha has been translated by Professor Niaz Zaman, distinguished writer, editor and translator. This is the first English translation of the novel which adds significantly to the body of Bangla classics in translation.

In her preface to the translation, Prof Zaman notes, “However, unlike Rabindranath Tagore – whose novels have been translated and discussed – Kazi Nazrul Islam’s novels have generally been brushed aside by scholars. While it is true that his [Nazrul’s] novels are pale in comparison to his poems and songs, they not only complement his poetic writings but also provide a siginificant perspective on some of his perennial themes ...”

She goes on to say, “ ... the novel is perhaps his most detailed account of poverty in his prose writings as well as of a political activist. The novel also focuses on a number of other significant themes: the plight of a rebel who is a loner, the relationship between different religions, the situation of women in a conserva-

tive society, the importance of education and the question of identity.”

Edited by Bulbul Ahmed, Buddhist Heritage of Bangladesh is quite a voluminous collection of essays on the genesis and spread of Buddhism in Bangladesh and of numerous rare photographs of Buddhist archaeological sites, temples, plaques, paintings, coins and sculptures. In his foreword, Enamul haque, chairman of The Internation Centre for Study of Bengal Art, writes, “This anthology of seventeen essays presents various aspects of Buddhist heritage of Bangladesh. The authors contributed their chapters on topics assigned by the Editor as part of a

project on presenting Bangladesh’s rich Buddhist past to the world.”

In his editorial, Bulbul Ahmed says, “Arcaeological evidences and pilgrim accounts suggest that Buddhism created a rich culture and civilization in ancient Bangladesh from the 5th to 12th centuries AD.” It covers not only all the religious, cultural and literary legacies of Buddhism but also the recent archaeological discoveries including those at Wari-Bateshwar in Narshingdi that have uncovered new materials of Buddhist heritage and enriched our understanding of our own past.

Both the books stand out for their impeccable, glazy cover design and sturdy binding. l

The novel is perhaps his most detailed account of poverty in his prose writings as well as of a political activist. The novel also focuses on a number of other significant themes: the plight of a rebel who is a loner, the relationship between different religions, the situation of women in a conservative society, the importance of education and the question of identity

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Heritage

SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2016

When waters meet Bangladesh houses one of the finest museums of living history

n Tim Steel

T

he famous “Watersmeet” at Lynton in Devon, UK, is a very popular tourist attraction where, to tumbling waters of the East Lyn River meet those of the Hoar Oak Water. The site has been open to tourists since 1901, but not even the waterfalls, rapids, gorges, woodland, and traditional cream tea shops can reasonably be compared, for magnificence, to a far more majestic site in Bangladesh.

Nor can the various approaches to Britain’s own confluence of the two rivers begin to compare with the sheer majesty of heritage offered by the approach roads to that in Bangladesh. Where the great, wide waters of two of Asia’s greatest rivers merge, to the west of Dhaka. It may seem that there, neither enjoys the name by which they are so well known worldwide.

The two “holy” rivers, the great Ganges, and the Brahmaputra, join their waters as, respectively, the Padma and the Jamuna. Since the deification of the two rivers is an essentially Hindu tradition, it is sometimes speculated that the name changes derives from the fact that, today, their shores are in Muslim majority Bangladesh.

However, since 1971, the great majority of the liberal Sunni peoples of the lands has sustained a high level of religious tolerance, despite the attempt of some military and political people of influence to sustain their authority with the “religious card.”

In fact, the Jamuna, it appears, following an earthquake in the late 18th or early 19th century, managed a river capture of the waters of the great Brahmaputra.

Certainly, the map of the lands of Bangladesh, produced in 1776 for the East India Company by Major James Rennel, shows the main flow of the Brahmaputra

north of Dhaka, and merging, rather, with the Meghna river, east of Dhaka.

Never having found any reasonable explanation for the name change of the Ganges, where, today, it crosses the border from India, it may be reasonable to speculate, the ever-changing principal flow of the Ganges in 1776, following the main course through Dhaka, could, for a while, have altered to the Hoogly River, leaving some smaller stream in the lands that are now Bangladesh.

It makes a great day out of today’s teeming metropolis of Dhaka, to head west out of the city, along the way that leads to the Aricha crossing place of the Padma, towards this great confluence. Just a bit of a pity it cannot match the visitor attractions in Devon.

Along the way, the rich heritage of the lands lies open to the interested traveller to pass through, and experience, five or six millennia of that heritage.

Savar, the first major outskirt community of Dhaka in the direction of travel, is the home of the famous garment manufacturing industry of Bangladesh. Containing, also, the National Martyrs Memorial, commemorating the fallen in the 1971 Liberation War, a spectacular piece of modern architectural excellence.

And also a liberal scattering of the 19th century magnificence of merchant and Zamindar mansions; though these are not always easy to find in the tangle of much, evidently unplanned, urban development. There are signs too, locating “Harish Chandra Palace,” the residence of a legendary monarch of the early centuries of the first millennium CE. There is, however, little doubt that the impressive remains are, in fact, those of a Buddhist Vihara, probably of those early centuries

of the Common Era. The next community along the roadway is Damrai, appropriately in proximity to the garment capital as historically famous for the famous fabric, largely unique to Bangladesh. Despite attempts

by India to lay claim to it, the famous Jamdani, the very apex of a fabrics tradition in Bangladesh, embracing both silk and muslin!

More examples of the subsidiary buildings of such grand estates as that of Teota are not hard to find. Barns, store houses, tax collecting points, and temples, like so many parts of the endlessly fascinating countryside of Bangladesh, offer the evidence of an extraordinarily rich cultural and social history Across the lands, it is always possible in Bangladesh to still find ancient pottery communities manufacturing, as they have for millennia, the terracotta ware for which Bangladesh is, rightly, famed.

Damrai Palace is in a sadly, semi-ruinous state, as it was left in 1971 by the Pakistan Army, but is still occupied by the family whose forebears acquired the Zamindar rights about 1830. However, its collection of pavilions,

set amongst farmlands and woodlands, are worth the trouble of finding.

But it is at Manikganj, where a detour to Baliati Palace reaches, through farmland in season yellow with mustard to the fine, partlyconserved magnificence of the late 18th century, neo-classical masterpiece.

Like most such palaces, the towering columns with their fine capitols, along the fascias of the great pavilions are fine cement work, such as the natural stones used in similar buildings elsewhere in the world are entirely lacking in the Ganges plains, but represent craftsman skills which, we are told, were not so finely honed, working in concrete, as those in contemporary Britain.

There is, between Baliati and Damrai, a social connection that beautifully illustrates the rigid social formality of the Zamindari.

A match was agreed between a daughter of Baliati, and a son of Damrai, late in the 19th century.

However, no agreement could be reached on the whereabouts for the solemnisation of the match. As a result, it took place upon a boat, on a canal, which, in those days, conveniently connected the two estates!

It is, however, beyond both Manikganj, and Arichaghat, that the road continues to the site, close to the confluence, of Teota Palace, constructed early in the 19th century. The fine, Navaratna Temple, built about 1920, with some clear traces of Art Deco influence in its design, which has received some conservation work, stands a short walk from both Padma and Jamuna banks. The Palace, itself, is in a somewhat sad, ruinous state, but, within is some fascinating architectural detail, including inlaid artwork.

It was Panchanan Chaudhuri, who was born, locally, in 1740, and made his fortune, under the East

India Company, in North Bengal, but who returned, very early in the 19th century, to acquire the Zamindar rights hereabouts. By the middle of the 19th century, so wealthy had his descendants become, that they had also acquired substantial property in Calcutta, and built a further “palace” in Benares.

It was at Teota Palace that Kazi Nazrul Islam, the great poet, met his wife, Promila Debi, who was born in the palace, whilst visiting his friend, Promila’s cousin, Dhiren Sen. A very large, wooden barn almost dominates the site; no doubt for the storage of harvests.

Its survival is, perhaps, somewhat miraculous as an impressive example of estate agricultural architecture of the 19th century.

At such a spectacular heritage site, in such a magnificent location of grand confluence, it does seem rather a pity that facilities for visitors are neglected.

Along a narrow road, returning eastward, and running south-east along the banks of Padma from Arichaghat more examples of the subsidiary buildings of such grand estates as that of Teota are not hard to find. Barns, store houses, tax collecting points, and temples, like so many parts of the endlessly fascinating countryside of Bangladesh, offer the evidence of an extraordinarily rich cultural and social history.

The roads that reach from Dhaka, which stands, today, on the banks of what was, once, the main stream of the Ganges that unites the waters of two of the world’s greatest rivers -- uniting, as they have, through the great ages into the world’s greatest delta system are, perhaps, one of the finest museums of “living” history to be found anywhere. l Tim Steel is a communications, marketing and tourism consultant.

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SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2016

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Separates (5) 5 Table-shaped hill (4) 8 Public speaker (6) 9 Thespian (5) 10 Speaker's platform (4) 11 Roofing items (5) 12 Unwell (3) 15 Fasting period (4) 18 Hold responsible (5) 21 Fish eggs (3) 22 Game of skill (4) 24 Outer covering (4) 25 Presages (5) 28 Lump of gold (6) 29 Billiard rods (4) 30 Not flighty (5)

DOWN 1 Calm (6) 2 Decay (3) 3 Easy pace (4) 4 Hindu garment (4) 5 Mannequin (5) 6 Rubber (6) 7 Donkey (3) 13 Behold! (2) 14 Of the wolf (6) 16 Denial (2) 17 Tantalised (6) 19 Additional payment (5) 20 In the direction of (2) 23 Ships' records (4) 24 Dry, of champagne (3) 26 Encountered (3) 27 Greek letter (3)

Downtime CODE-CRACKER How to solve: Each number in our CODECRACKER grid represents a different letter of the alphabet. For example, today 11 represents V so fill V every time the figure 11 appears.

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

Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.

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

A B C DE FG H I J K L MN 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

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World 21

SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2016

INSIDE POINTS TAKEN

How would Brexit affect United Kingdom's financial services?

Africa leaders, conservationists seek end elephant poaching The future of Africa’s elephants and rhinos depends on the ability of the continent’s nations to battle together against poaching, Kenya’s president and conservationists said on Friday as they met at an East African summit.

PAGE 22

Britain, Europe’s biggest financial centre, votes on June 23 on whether to leave the European Union.

The country’s banking and fund management industries are among those that could lose most from a so-called Brexit, many analysts have said, though much depends on the trading terms Britain would be able to negotiate with the EU. The following details the potential changes that could affect different parts of the industry.

Regulatory structure Rules Nearly all of Britain’s financial services rules are derived from EU law. Though Britain has gone further than the EU in some cases, such as tougher capital requirements and restrictions on banker pay, a new rule framework would have to be devised within two years of Brexit.

Passporting

Asian American super PAC targets swing states in White House race A new group plans to spend millions of dollars to register and turn out Asian American voters in a handful of US swing states, a bid to give the relatively small but fast-growing group outsized influence in the November 8 presidential election.

PAGE 23

Financial firms like insurers, banks, asset managers, payment services providers who are authorised in Britain have “passport” rights to conduct their business in all EU countries, either remotely from Britain or from a branch in another member state. If Britain were to join the European Economic Area (EEA) - comprised of Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein -- financial companies would continue to have passporting rights to conduct business in all EU countries but would have no say over the formulation of EU rules. If Britain did not join the EEA, UK firms wanting to operate in the EU would have an “equivalence” test to prove to Brussels that their home rules are as strict as those in the EU. British firms seeking to offer financial services to retail customers in the EU are also likely to need a locally capitalised subsidiary in the EU, which would be more expensive than running a branch.

Political implications Open-ended negotiations over equivalency are prone to political horse-trading and it took several years for the EU to accept the equivalence of US rules on derivatives clearing. A British departure from the EU could alter the political balance within the bloc by removing a major pro-market member, possibly tilting it towards less sector-friendly rules.

The industry Banks

In quest for ethnic roots of the Rohingyas In even a cursory survey of Rohingya history, it is clear that the Rohingya are not an ethnic, but rather a political construction. There is evidence that Muslims have been living in Rakhine State since the 9th century, but a significant number of Muslims from across the Bay of Bengal immigrated to British Burma with the colonialists in the 20th century PAGE 24

Among the most costly Brexit factors for banks would be the loss of the passporting facility, necessitating creation of European subsidiaries rather than merely operating additional branches.

Funds Much of the UK’s £5.5tn mutual funds sector is run almost entirely under EU rules known as UCITS. Unless Britain joins the EEA, lawyers say there is potential for substantial disruption as funds could lose their UCITS designation, seen as a gold standard globally.

Trading, clearing, reporting Pan-EU share trading platforms, such as Bats Chi-X (BATS.Z) and Turquoise (LSE.L), along with clearing houses including LCH.Clearnet (LSE.L), CME Clearing Europe (CME.O) and ICE Clear Europe (ICE.N), are also authorised in Britain under EU rules providing a passport to serve customers across the bloc. Leaving the EU and not being part of the EEA could affect their

YES

Would Brexit work?

TRADE

• EU trade is no longer vital to the UK

NO

UK loses its main trading partner • approx. 50% of trade, worth £500bn per year

UK can have: • free trade deal with EU eg. Norway, Switzerland

UK must: respect EU rules it cannot influence • eg. production standards

• bilateral trade deals with growing export markets eg. BRICs

pay tariffs on exports to the EU •

ECONOMY • 0.6% - 1.6% gain

0.8% - 9.5% loss •

Impact on GDP by 2030

• Billions saved per year Net UK contribution to the EU = £8.5bn

Membership of the EU has • increased UK exports by 55%

JOBS

• No more EU regulations or red tape = UK firms create jobs

Multinationals move to lower-cost EU states • Bad for UK car industry, financial services

IMMIGRATION UK economy relies on migrants’ • labour and tax payments Britons need visas to work in EU •

• Visa restrictions on EU migrants = more jobs for Britons, less pressure on schools, hospitals

INFLUENCE • UK remains a powerful global voice It is a nuclear power, member of Nato and the UN Security Council

UK loses influence in EU, Germany, France • Is sidelined by the US on transnational issues • security, environment and trade

LAWS • UK parliament regains sovereignty • UK not bound by EU law and order measures

Britons lose protection • eg. from EU employment and social laws Delays extraditing subjects from EU •

Source: ONS, parliament.uk, LSE, Open Europe

cross-border business and EU-based customers might be unable to use trading platforms and clearing houses authorised by UK regulators until they have gained approval from Brussels.

Ratings agencies Credit rating agencies (CRAs) are authorised by EU markets watchdog ESMA. There are eight CRAs in Britain authorised by ESMA, but the larger ones would be able to operate via subsidiaries already established in some EU states.

Trade repositories Derivatives transactions in the EU must be reported to a repository and four of the six authorised in the bloc are based in London. To continue serving customers in the EU, the London-based repositories would have to show regulation equivalency.

Derivatives, repos, stock lending A large chunk of the world’s $550tn derivatives market is traded using contracts that come under UK law, even if both sides of the trade are based elsewhere. Courts in EU countries have agreed to recognise UK law for resolving disputes, but this could change if Britain left the bloc. Hundreds of thousands of contracts could be affected. Repurchase agreements (repos) and stock lending could face similar disruption.

Benchmarks If the UK left the EU and did not join the EEA, any benchmark administered in Britain, such as Libor, could only be used by EU banks after equivalency approval.

Data protection If Britain joined the EEA there would be little change in terms of the use of personal data. Outside the EEA and EU, Britain would have to show that its standards of protection meet EU rules to allow data transfers between the UK and the EU. Without this, it would be disruptive to banks that regularly transfer personal data across borders.

Insurance UK insurers and reinsurers benefit from passporting under the EU’s Solvency II rules, but this would be lost if Britain left the EU and did not join the EEA and firms could have to open offices in the EU.

Failing banks Under new EU rules, regulators are required to recognise each other’s actions in dealing with a failing bank, such as debt writedowns. If Britain were to leave the EU, there would be no legal guarantee that an EU state would cooperate with any UK regulatory action. l

Source: REUTERS

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SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2016

Africa leaders, conservationists seek to end elephant poaching n Reuters, Mount Kenya The future of Africa’s elephants and rhinos depends on the ability of the continent’s nations to battle together against poaching, Kenya’s president and conservationists said on Friday as they met at an East African summit.

Signalling its commitment, Kenya will burn 105 tonnes of seized ivory on Saturday, seeking to send a message that the real value of tusks when they are on the live animals that draw tourists to Africa’s savannas and forests, where herds have been decimated.

From 1.2m in the 1970s, the number of elephants roaming Africa has plunged to around 400,000. Poaching exceeded 30,000 a year between 2010 to 2012, threatening to wipe them out in some African regions.

The future for Rhinos, now numbering less than 30,000, is even more bleak if poaching is not checked.

“The poachers do not care about national borders, nor do the criminal gangs who smuggle illegal

wildlife parts out of the continent.

There is no solution to this struggle that can be implemented by one country alone,” Kenyatta said in a statement before the Giants Club summit which he is due to address.

In Kenya, 93 elephants were killed in 2015, down from 384 in 2012. But conservations say the East African nation remains a transit point for poached wildlife parts from other countries.

Leaders from Uganda and Gabon also joined the summit to outline their efforts to curb illegal hunting by poachers, who in some regions have in the past used beltfed machine guns to mow down dozens of animals at a time.

Conservationists have called for action ranging from improved prosecution of poachers to slashing demand for ivory and rhino horn abroad, most of it coming from Asia.

“Political will, that is the key ingredient,” Max Graham, the founder and chief executive officer of charity Space for Giants, speaking before the summit.

Moves to stop illegal ivory trade Saturday April 30: 105 tonnes of ivory burned, representing 5% of current world stocks Destruction of ivory in Africa since 1989 Total elephant population in Africa

450,000 500,000

Chad

1.1

Ethiopia

Cameroon

6 The main destruction of stock

105 28

Hong Kong, 2014

15

Kenya, 2015

12

United Arab Emirates, 1992

12

Kenya, 1989

10 Source: WWF

Gabon

4.8

Malaysia, 2016

6.1 Kenya

DR Congo

38.8

4.7

105 tonnes

of ivory burnt

Kenya, 30 April 2016

in tonnes

Zambia

9.5

Mozambique

2.4

16,000 tusks

Animals killed in conflicts with humans/ wild animals

30,000 38,000

20

60%

20

Animals killed by poachers and ivory seized by customs

His group seeks to share techniques to combat poaching and protect habitats for elephants and

Animals that died of natural causes

elephants slaughtered each year by poachers in Africa 1kg of ivory in Asia

130

1,000 €

tonnes of ivory destroyed since 1989 by 14 countries

rhinos.

Ol Pejeta Conservancy has been at the forefront of those initiatives,

protecting and slowly starting to rebuild Kenya’s rhino numbers.

Airborne rapid reaction rangers, a helicopter with night vision and better intelligence in the local community helped.

But it seems too late for the northern white rhino. Just three individuals of the species remain, guarded 24 hours at the Ol Pejeta site. Scientists are racing against time to work out ways on reproductive techniques for the aging animals.

There have also been gains made in stemming international trade in ivory and rhino horn. China and the US, two of the biggest ivory markets, announced plans last year to enact almost complete bans on imports and exports.

The ivory price in Hong Kong, a major trade route to China which also announced plans for a sales ban, has fallen to about $380 per kg from $1,500 per kg in 2014, Peter Knights, executive director of WildAid which campaigns to end the trade, said. l

23

SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2016

INSIGHT

SOUTH ASIA

Asian American super PAC targets swing states in White House race n Reuters, New York A new group plans to spend millions of dollars to register and turn out Asian American voters in a handful of US swing states, a bid to give the relatively small but fast-growing group outsized influence in the November 8 presidential election.

If successful, the effort could give voice to a portion of the electorate that has traditionally leaned Democratic but has voted in lower numbers than other minority groups and been largely ignored by candidates in past presidential elections.

The Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) Victory Fund plans to spend $2m to register at least 50,000 voters in places like Nevada, Virginia and North Carolina before election day - states where it says the number of eligible Asian American voters exceeds the margin of victory in the 2012 presidential poll.

“If this community were to turn out more, it can actually swing the election,” said Dilawar Syed, the co-founder and vice chairman of the super PAC. The group, launched in January, is non-partisan. But Asian Americans have tended to vote Democratic, meaning the efforts are more likely to benefit Hillary Clinton, who is close to clinching her party’s nomination, in a gen-

DISTRIBUTION OF ASIAN ORIGINS IN UNITED STATES

China 23.6% Phillippines 16.6%

Indian Subcontinent 19.9% Other 15.3% Vietnam 10.6%

Japan 5.0% Korea 9.0% Source: Pew Research Centre, 2013

ASIAN AMERICAN KEY DEMOGRAPHICS Ü Asians are the fastest growing multi-cultural race in the US Ü 10 states have the largest Asian American population-- California, New York, Texas, New Jersey, Illinois, Hawaii, Washington, Florida, Virginia, Massachusetts ÜThe majority of the population consists of Chinese/Taiwanese, Indian, Filipino, Vietnamese, and Korean origins ÜThe nation’s 19.4m Asian population estimates 5.6% of the total population Sources: US CENSUS BUREAU, PEW eral election against a Republican.

The group has so far seen more than 3,500 new voters registered among people who received its first round of 73,371 mailers, sent out in late March. It plans another round of mailers in June and perhaps another in September.

Other target states include Colorado, Ohio and Florida, accord-

ing to the group.

There are about 19.4m Asians in the United States, making up about 5.6% of the US population, according to US Census data. African Americans, by comparison, make up just over 13% of the population and have been a powerful force in the presidential primaries, helping Clinton to beat Sanders in southern states.

But Asian Americans are also now the fastest-growing ethnic group in the country, said Mark Hugo Lopez of the Pew Research Center. “By 2060, Asians will surpass blacks in terms of population numbers,” he said.

At the moment, Asian Americans are registered at lower rates than many other groups - around 50% in the 2014 election, compared with 63% for blacks and 66% for whites.

Part of the reason for that could be that Asians and Pacific Islanders - people of a number of ethnicities and national origins - have been largely overlooked in past elections.

The AAPI Victory Fund is not the only group looking to register and turn out Asians at the polls. The nonprofit APIAVote, for example, does similar work. But its efforts are aimed broadly, looking less to influence specific swing states than to raise Asian American voter engagement across the country.

The Clinton campaign said it has worked on voter turnout among Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. The candidate did numerous stops in Asian neighbourhoods before her recent win in New York’s primary.

Clinton was the only presidential candidate scheduled to appear at a reception next week held by an Asian American and Pacific Islander group in Washington, DC. The AAPI Victory Fund has not endorsed any candidate as of yet. l

Aussies at odds with Pacific neighbours over immigration policy n Reuters, Sydney Lawyers for 850 asylum seekers held in a controversial detention centre in Papua New Guinea (PNG) said on Friday they planned to seek potentially billions of Australian dollars in compensation, as Australian officials prepared to travel to PNG for emergency talks.

PNG announced this week the closure of the detention centre it operates on behalf of Australia, which has pursued a hardline immigration policy criticised by the UN and international human rights organisations.

The closure of the Manus Island facility - which holds asylum seekers fleeing violence in the Middle East, Afghanistan and South Asia - has the two South Pacific neighbours at loggerheads.

The number trying to reach Australia is small compared with Europe, but immigration has long been a sensitive political issue.

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World

A protester holds placard during a demonstration in Sydney on Thursday REUTERS Under Australia’s policy, asylum seekers intercepted trying to reach the country by boat after paying people smugglers are sent for processing to camps in Manus Island or the tiny Pacific island of Nauru, which holds another 500 people in detention. They are told they will never settle in Australia.

The harsh conditions and reports of systemic child abuse at the camps have drawn wide criticism inside and outside Australia.

Domestic opposition to the policy was stirred even more on Friday with confirmation that a 23-yearold man, who set himself on fire earlier this week in protest against

his treatment on Nauru, had died.

Australian Prime Minister Turnbull has warned against being “misty-eyed” over immigration and Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton reiterated on Friday there would be no policy change.

New Zealand on Friday repeated an earlier offer to accept 150 of the refugees but that was again rejected.

“Settlement in a country like New Zealand would be used by the people smugglers as a marketing opportunity,” Turnbull told Australian radio.

Lawyers in PNG will go the country’s Supreme Court on Monday to argue for the immediate release of Manus Island detainees back to Australia, as well compensation for their detention.

The legal action has supportfrom PNG’s High Commissioner to Australia, Charles Lepani, who said on Thursday responsibility for what to do with the men rested with Canberra. l

WB: S Asia apparel industry can employ millions more women South Asia’s clothing industry can create millions of jobs for the region’s women, boosting economic growth, a World Bank report said. The industry is already the most female-intensive in much of the region, women making up 71% of its workforce in Sri Lanka, 35% in India and 34% in Bangladesh.

-THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION

INDIA

Gujarat grants new job quotas after violence Gujarat administration said Friday it will reserve 10% of government jobs and university spots for people whose income falls below a certain threshold. India sets aside a proportion public jobs for its lower castes to try to counter historic discrimination, but that has caused deep resentment among other communities. At least 10 people were killed when thousands of Patidars took to the streets last year.

-AFP

CHINA

Rights groups decry China’s tough new NGO law Rights groups lambasted a new Chinese law governing non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on Friday, saying it treats the groups as a criminal threat and would effectively force many out of the country. The law, which was passed by parliament on Thursday despite months of intense criticism and lobbying by the West, brings NGOs under the Ministry of Public Security, giving police broad authority over their finances and work.

-REUTERS

ASIA PACIFIC

N Korea sentences American to 10-yr prison North Korea’s Supreme Court on Friday sentenced a Korean American man to 10 years of hard labour for subversion. Kim Dong Chul, 62, was arrested in North Korea in October and had admitted to committing “unpardonable espionage” including stealing military secrets, the North’s official KCNA news agency reported.

-REUTERS

MIDDLE EAST

Kuwait steps up deportations of expats Kuwait has stepped up deportations of expatriate workers this year, a newspaper reported Friday, with most expelled for outstaying their residency permits but others sent home for traffic offences. In the first four months of the year, authorities deported 14,400 expats, compared with 26,600 in the whole of 2015.

Expatriates make up some 70% of Kuwait’s 4.3m population, greatly outnumbering its 1.3m citizens. -AFP

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World

SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2016

USA

Protests at Trump California rally turn violent Protests at a California rally for Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump reportedly turned violent Thursday, with 20 people arrested. Hundreds of demonstrators clashed with police outside the Orange County venue during a Trump campaign stopover, ahead of the state’s June 7 primary. The demonstrators hurled rocks at passing vehicles and vandalised cars.

-AFP

THE AMERICAS

Brazil prosecutors charge Rousseff campaign strategist Brazilian prosecutors charged political strategist Joao Santana, the architect of President Dilma Rousseff ’s 2010 and 2014 election victories, and 16 others with corruption on Thursday as part of a massive graft investigation. Santana, who was arrested in February, is accused of receiving bribes from engineering conglomerate Odebrecht in a scheme to divert funds from staterun oil company Petrobras. -REUTERS

UK

UK pair accused of giving money to Brussels, Paris attacks suspect Two people appeared in court in London on Friday accused of giving thousands of pounds to a Brussels and Paris attacks suspect. Briton Mohammed Ali Ahmed and Belgian citizen Zakaria Boufassilgave £3,000 to Abrini, prosecutors allege. Abrini was arrested in Brussels on April 8 and has confessed to being involved with suicide bombers at Brussels airport on March 22.

-AFP

EUROPE

UN chief vows to back Olympic refugee team UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Friday he will not remain neutral at the Rio Games, pledging to cheer for a team of refugees. Ban applauded International Olympic Committee for the inclusion of a team of up to 10 refugees at the 2016 games. About 40 refugees have been identified by the IOC as possible contenders in various sports, with a selection to be made in June, a UNHCR source said.

- AFP

AFRICA

S Sudan names national unity cabinet South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir named a new cabinet including former rebels and members of the opposition on Thursday. The decree said a third of the ministers in the “national unity” cabinet were members of the party led by ex-vice president Riek Machar.

Machar only returned to Juba on Tuesday, and was swiftly given back his old job.

- REUTERS

INSIGHT

In quest for ethnic roots of the Rohingyas n Tribune International Desk After over 50 years of military rule, Myanmar has finally made the long-awaited transition to elected government. Its second liberation is brought about by Aung San Suu Kyi, the head of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD). Yet, as foreign media converges on the nation, coverage in recent months has been focused on one issue: the Rohingya.

In a latest development, hundreds of demonstrators denounced the US for its use of the term Rohingya to describe the country’s stateless Muslim community during a protest outside of the US embassy in Yangon on Thursday. The demonstration was sparked by a statement from the embassy last week expressing condolences for an estimated 21 people, who media said were Rohingyas, who drowned off the coast of Rakhine State.

The fact that tens of thousands of Rohingyas have been forcibly confined in deplorable conditions in Sittwe, whilst there is evidence that the ethnic cleansing perpetrated under the military government amounts to genocide, is not under dispute. But international attention directed at

Rohingya children and adults pose for a photograph at a camp in Sittwe, capital of Myanmar’s Rakhine State FLICKR/CREATIVE COMMONS the issue – meant to hold the government accountable –may have in fact inadvertently played a role in exacerbating tensions between the Rohingyas and the Rakhine Burmese.

In most cases the situation has been mischaracterised. Rakhine history expert Jacques P Leider may have put it best in his analysis Rohingya: The Name, The Movement, The Quest for Identity. “By narrowing the debate on the Rohingyas to the legal and humanitarian aspects, editorialists around the world have taken an easy approach towards a complicated issue… where issues like ethnicity, history, and cultural

Uproar over Indian Shia leader’s endorsement of female genital mutilation n Thomson Reuters Foundation, Mumbai A speech by the spiritual leader of the Dawoodi Bohra (Shia) community, in which he appears to be urging followers in India to continue the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM), has angered and upset campaigners trying to end the centuries-old practice.

The audio clip of Syedna Muffadal Saifuddin’s speech at a mosque in Mumbai, has been authenticated by several members of the community. According to a transcript, he said: “The act must be done. It needs to be done discreetly when it is a woman, but it needs to be done.”

Calls and e-mails to a spokesman for the Syedna and the administrative office of the leader received no response. A person described as a close friend of the Syedna family told the Times of India newspaper that the remarks were a “general comment” and that people were “interpreting it differently”.

Campaigners in the city spoke out against the speech.

“The speech is a huge disappointment for us,” said Masooma Ranalvi, who was cut as a sevenyear-old and leads an online petition as part of the ‘Speak Out on FGM’ campaign, which has drawn almost 50,000 signatories, including Mia Farrow, who tweeted her support on Thursday.

“Ever since we began the campaign, there has been only silence from the clergy. But now that it’s out in the open, at least there’s no ambiguity about where they stand,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Little is known about FGM in India where the ritual is carried out in great secrecy by the close-knit Shia Muslim sect thought to number over 1m. l

identity are key ingredients of legitimacy,” Leider states.

In even a cursory survey of Rohingya history, it is clear that the Rohingya are not an ethnic, but rather a political construction.

There is evidence that Muslims have been living in Rakhine state (at the time under the Arakan kingdom) since the 9th century, but a significant number of Muslims from across the Bay of Bengal (at the time a part of India, now Bangladesh) immigrated to British Burma with the colonialists in the 20th century. They are, as defined

by Benedict Rogers (himself a prominent critic of the military re-

gime’s persecution), “Muslims of Bengali ethnic origin.” The group referred to as “Rohingyas” by contemporary Rohingya scholars (and most of the international community) today actually display huge diversity of ethnic origins and social backgrounds, and, as Leider argues, the existence of a “single identity” is difficult to pinpoint.

At stake are issues of legitimacy.

The international community’s use of the term “Rohingya” validates the narrative of essentialising a Muslim identity in Rakhine state.

In the most conservative terms, it can be said that scholars of Rohingya history have not understood this to conclusively be the case.

Yet, the lack of nuance with which the international community has approached very important issues of legitimacy has contributed to a sense that Rakhine Buddhists are misunderstood, and besieged. On the other side of the political tension in Rakhine State, as shown by Schissler, Walton and Phyu Thi’s “listening project,” are Rakhine Buddhists who are genuinely afraid of a (false) Muslim takeover.

[This is an excerpt of a The Diplomat article, which can be found at http://bit.ly/1RuwZnC] l

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Sport 25

SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2016

INSIDE

BFF ELECTION

Passion rules baseball pioneers The conclusion of the friendly baseball game between the Bangladesh national team and the local-based Samurai Japan side at the Bangabandhu National Stadium’s outer ground yesterday was unlike any other sporting event. PAGE 26

Difficult climate at home cost us title A “difficult climate” at Emirates Stadium contributed to Arsenal’s poor home form this season in English Premier League and eventually led to the team missing out on a chance to win the Premier League title, manager Arsene Wenger said yesterday. PAGE 27

Villarreal late strike sink Liverpool Villarreal’s Lopez produced a stinging sucker punch in stoppage time to leave Liverpool reeling and move the Spaniards closer to a maiden European final after first leg clash finished 1-0. PAGE 28

Hummels seeks move to rivals Bayern Dortmund centre back Mats Hummels has told his club that he wants to join Bayern Munich after the season ends. Earlier this week, Bayern chairman Rummenigge disclosed that his club were already in talks with the Dortmund skipper over a move. PAGE 29

Kazi Salahuddin

Kamrul Ashraf Khan Poton

VOTING TIME: 2pm-5pm VENUE: Radisson Blu Water Hotel

Widely known as Bangladesh’s first football superstar

ELECTORAL PROCESS 134 delegates or voters

Member of Swadhin Bangla Football team

4 candidates for 1 president post (2 have unofficially withdrawn)

Former Bangladesh and Abahani coach

10 candidates for 4 vice-president posts

SAFF president since 2009

32 candidates for 15 executive member posts KAZI SALAHUDDIN BFF president since 2008

COMBINED PANEL Led by Kazi Salahuddin Already elected senior vicepresident: Abdus Salam

Murshedy (for third time in a row) Vice-president post candidates: Kazi Nabil Ahmed, Badal Roy, Shamsul Haq Chowdhury MP and Mohiuddin Ahmed Mohi KAMRUL ASHRAF KHAN POTON BFF presidential candidate Narsingdi-2 MP Narsingdi District Football Association president Bangladesh Fertiliser Association chairman

SAVE FOOTBALL PANEL Led by Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club president Manjur Kader and Mohammedan director in-charge Lokman Hossain Bhuiyan, though they are not participating in the elections President post candidate: Kamrul Ashraf Khan Poton Vice-president post candidates: Ashraf Uddin Ahmed Chunnu, Mominul Haque Sayeed, Nazib Ahmed and Khurshid Alam Babul

BANGLADESH FOOTBALL FEDERATION ELECTION TODAY

Salahuddin’s to win, but what of football? n Shishir Hoque Unlike last time, the incumbent Kazi Salahuddin is not going to be elected unopposed in today’s election of the Bangladesh Football Federation. He faces a stiff challenge to retain the post from the “Save Football Panel” who have put up Kamrul Ashraf Khan Poton as their president candidate.

Even if Salahuddin is re-elected for a third time under the banner of “Combined Panel”, he will surely be working with a new executive committee which will decide the future of country’s football. Whoever wins today, they will have to address the standard of the national team and that of the domestic leagues from the top to the grassroots level, which have barely improved in the last four years.

There are nine similar points in the manifestos released by the two panels though the Save Football Panel has not any promised

anything about the national team.

But both vowed to take football to districts, upazilas and villages.

The Combined Panel has said it will build academies in every division and districts in the country.

This sounds unrealistic looking at what they did in the last eight years. They managed to build only one academy in Sylhet whose activity has been closed for a few months. But neither of the panels have anything in their respective manifesto to force the clubs to build their own stadium and academy.

Before the 2008 election

Football in Bangladesh was dying prior to the 2008 BFF election.

Apart from the lack of basic facilities, there was no professional tournament for years, no periodicity of first and second division football in the capital.

Salahuddin came up with a promise to keep the game on the field, and went on to defeat Major Gen (retd.) Amin Ahmed Chowdhury by 13 votes to become the

BFF president for the first time.

Abdus Salam Murshedy, Kazi Nabil Ahmed and Badal Roy participated in the election against Salahuddin’s panel but were elected for respective posts.

Salahuddin’s 8-year tenure

He started the B. League, which was his first priority, and then the Bangladesh Premier League has been held every year since 2009.

Other professional tournaments like the Federation Cup and Independence Cup were also held along with introduction of the big-moneyed Super Cup. The second tier Bangladesh Championship League was also introduced while the Pioneer Football league became regular.

But success also came through the age-level men’s and women’s teams that were successful in international tournaments. International matches for the senior side have increased while footballers now earn more money. But there is barely any improvement in the

performance and results of national team. Bangladesh’s average FIFA ranking in 2008 was 174 while it was 182 last year, when they played most number of international matches at home and abroad, and it is 177 now. If rankings do not show the actual scenario, Bangladesh’s performance in the last three tournaments including SAFF Championship was disastrous.

As it was in back in 2008, all of the Dhaka-based clubs still have only the Bangabandhu National Stadium. The majority of the Premier League clubs failed to build their own stadium and academy.

From 2008 to 2016, the audience during match days has also gone to a new low.

Salahuddin was re-elected unopposed in 2012 but nothing much changed in the last four years. Domestic tournaments were held regularly in the capital but there wasn’t much grassroots development. District football is still irregular.l

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(Clockwise) Bangladesh baseball team coach Hiroki Watanabe looks on intently. A Bangladesh player watches the trajectory of the ball closely. A Samurai Japan player goes big while both the teams pose for a photograph following the end of their friendly game yesterday at the outer ground of Bangabandhu National Stadium MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

Passion rules baseball pioneers n Rashad Banna The conclusion of the friendly baseball game between the Bangladesh team and the local-based Samurai Japan at the Bangabandhu National Stadium’s outer ground yesterday was unlike any other sporting event.

Rather than basking in the glory of victory under the scorching April sun, Samurai Japan, the winning team, were just content to help raise the awareness of the game in Bangladesh. Despite losing 2-0 the Bangladesh players were just glad to lap up the experience as they desperately seek to

turn professional. The result of the friendly therefore, was largely inconsequential in the larger scheme of things.

Compared to the other sports in the country, baseball is still in its embryonic stage. Established in 2006, the Bangladesh Baseball and Softball Association did not organise its first tournament until 2009. Even then, the only real stage where the players get to strut their stuff is in the national championship so it goes without saying that they have had to bide their time.

Hiroki Watanabe, a coach at the Bangladesh Baseball and

Softball Association, is however quite ambitious despite the lack of experience among baseball players. He is already eyeing the 2020 Olympics for his charges. He said there would be more matches to give them the experience.

“We are getting there slowly. It is a gradual thing. More tournaments will eventually be held. We have about 150-160 players now in the pipeline. Most of them got to know about the game by watching on TV,” said Hiroki in fluent Bangla, a bit unbecoming of someone who is born and bred in Japan.

“In the next four years we will try to raise our profile in Asia.

During this time we will play more and more games. And I think qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics can be a target for my boys,” he added.

BBSA general secretary Aminul Islam Liton informed that at least eight teams take part in the national championship every year.

He said these friendly matches are the only other time they get some action in the middle.

The frustration of a lack of game-time however, is not at all evident among the youngsters, who are just about elated with whatever they get.

On hand was the mother

of Dipto Ibne Zakir, one of the star baseball players in Bangladesh. Farhana Parvin has been seeing the improvement in Dipto’s game over the last few years, and said his passion hasn’t died.

“My son has a real passion for baseball. He was born in Japan and since the game is the number one sport there, he became quite passionate about it from an early age.

And after coming here in Bangladesh, he only went to the next level. Despite a lack of tournaments, his motivation never wanes. He is determined to make it big-time,” she said.l

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Seven bowlers reported in DPL n Mazhar Uddin

QUICK BYTES Mohammedan crush Sonali Bank in Club Cup Hockey Mohammedan Sporting Club continued their winning streak in the Club Cup Hockey Tournament as they thrashed Sonali Bank SRC 7-1 at Maulana Bhasani National Hockey Stadium yesterday. It was Mohammedan’s third straight victory in the event. Russel Mahmud Jimmy, Rubel Hossain and Deen Islam Emon netted two field goals apiece while Kamruzzaman Rana added the other for the traditional Black and Whites. Ajit scored the consolation goal for Sonali Bank in the second half.

Meanwhile in the day’s other match at the same venue, Bangladesh Sporting Club thumped Wari Club 5-0 at the same venue. Belal and Sohel bagged two field goals apiece while Hosne Mobarak Suman added another from a penalty corner. In today’s matches, Usha Krira Chakra will face Mariner Young’s Club while Sadharon Bima will take on Ajax SC. –TRIBUNE REPORT

Agbonlahor fined, quits as Villa captain Gabriel Agbonlahor has decided to stand down as captain of relegated Premier League club Aston Villa following a number of disciplinary incidents, he announced on Thursday. “I am stepping down as club captain with immediate effect as I do not deserve to carry out such a role anymore,” the striker wrote on his official Instagram account.

–AFP

Du Plessis out of IPL with broken finger South African batsman Faf du Plessis was Thursday ruled out of the IPL with a broken finger, raising concerns about his availability for the upcoming tour of the West Indies. Du Plessis was the secondhighest run-getter for his IPL side Rising Pune Supergiants before getting injured in his sixth game of the season on Tuesday.

–AFP

Three-game ban ends Spurs star Alli’s season Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Dele Alli will not play again this season after he was given a three-game ban for violent conduct by the Football Association on Thursday.

The 20-year-old, elected England’s Young Player of the Year last weekend, was punished after punching Yacob in the stomach during Spurs’ 1-1 draw with West Bromwich Albion on Monday.

–AFP

A model holds the Copa America Centenario trophy, to be awarded to the winning team of the 2016 Copa America, presented by the South American Football Confederation in Bogota, Colombia on Thursday REUTERS

Gazi Group Cricketers off-spinner Mustafizur Rahman’s bowling action has been reported for the second time in as many matches. His bowling action came into question during their Dhaka Premier League match against Legends of Rupganj last Thursday.

Mohammedan Sporting Club’s left-arm spinners Naeem Islam Jr and Faisal Hossain were also reported for suspect bowling action during their game against Victoria Sporting Club on the same day.

Mustafizur was also among four bowlers who were reported for their bowling actions on the opening day of the tournament.

Faisal, on the other hand, was also reported way back in the 2006-07 domestic season. However, since 2007-08, he was allowed to bowl but was kept under observation.

A total of seven bowlers have been reported till the second round of the Dhaka League. All of them though can continue to bowl in the DPL as the Bangladesh Cricket Board’s proposed bowling action review committee is yet to be formed. l

Smith backs campaign for day-night Test n Reuters, Sydney

Cricket Australia has bolstered its campaign to host a day-night Test against South Africa later this year by publishing an interview with captain Steve Smith in which he backed the proposed fixture.

South Africa’s players balked at an invitation to play a day-night match in Adelaide in November after discussions with Australian players including Smith, Proteas skipper AB de Villiers said this week.

Smith, however, said his

team would be happy to play a day-nighter against South Africa at the famous South Australian venue, as well as the fixture already scheduled to be played under lights at the Gabba against Pakistan in December.

“I’m surprised that he named me,” Smith was quoted as saying from India on the Cricket Australia (CA) website. “The feedback we gave them was that Adelaide is the best place to play it, in our opinion.

“We’re playing one in Brisbane now, but Adelaide is the best place to play it and I think it could

work there.

“I don’t know where they’ve got their ideas from,” he added. “If they wanted to play one we’d be happy to.”

The Australian Cricketers’ Association, however, said yesterday that feedback it had received from the players indicated they would “prefer to only play one day-night Test in 2016/17”.

“Pink ball Tests are a fundamentally different game to traditional red ball Test matches,” chief executive Alistair Nicholson said in a statement.

Wenger: Difficult climate at Emirates cost Arsenal league title n Reuters A “difficult climate” at Emirates Stadium contributed to Arsenal’s poor home form this season and eventually led to the team missing out on a chance to win the Premier League title, manager Arsene Wenger said yesterday.

Among the top five teams, fourth-placed Arsenal have the worst home record and disgruntled supporters have voiced their frustrations over the club’s failure

to finish atop the league for a 12th successive campaign.

“Some people question this team’s character but they have character and attitude and some people who question them have less character than this team has,” Wenger told reporters.

“They should not question this team. We have to stick together.

We lost the championship at home against lower teams but we played at home in a very difficult climate. We are top of the league in the top teams;

we want to add what is needed.”

Arsenal duo Santi Cazorla, out since November with an Achilles and knee problem, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, sidelined for two months with a knee injury, will both be available for selection against relegation-threatened Norwich.

“One of the two could be involved. Cazorla has practiced for two weeks with the team, Alex for one week, so one of the two could be,” Wenger said. l

“We continue to be concerned about the durability and visibility of the pink ball, both the changing light conditions and the specifically prepared pitches are altering the conditions that the players are used to at each venue.”

CA are determined to reprise the success of last year’s inaugural daynight Test against New Zealand at Adelaide Oval.

The Test attracted huge crowds but lasted only three of the scheduled five days on a wicket especially prepared to offset durability problems with the pink ball. l

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SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2016

VILLARREAL v LIVERPOOL 1-0

Liverpool

Possession (%)

48 13 2 6 5 0 3 4 0 0 7 527 469

Villarreal Adrian Lopez 90+2

52 9 3 4 2 1 7 0 1 0 7 445 385

Total attempts On target Off target Blocked Against woodwork Corners Offsides Yellow cards Red cards Fouls committed Passes Completed

SHAKHTAR v SEVILLA 2-2

Shakhtar Marlos 23, Stepanenko 36

47 13 4 5 4 0 8 1 2 0 11 369 314

Sevilla Vitolo 6, Gameiro 82-P

Possession (%) Total attempts On target Off target Blocked Against woodwork Corners Offsides Yellow cards Red cards Fouls committed Passes Completed

53 9 4 2 3 0 5 2 3 0 17 445 377

Liverpool defender Alberto Moreno (2L) vies with Villarreal's Denis Suarez (C) during their Uefa Europa League semi-final first leg at El Madrigal on Thursday

AFP

Villarreal late strike sink Liverpool, Sevilla hold Shakhtar n Reuters, London Villarreal’s Adrian Lopez produced a stinging sucker punch in stoppage time to leave Liverpool reeling and move the Spaniards closer to a maiden European final after their Europa League last four first leg clash finished 1-0 on Thursday.

Liverpool, who got a taste of their own medicine having scored

deep in added time to knock Borussia Dortmund out in the quarter-finals, looked comfortable before Denis Suarez broke into the box and unselfishly squared for Lopez to sweep home.

In the other semi-final, holders Sevilla had their fingers briefly loosened from the trophy before grabbing a 2-2 draw at Shakhtar Donetsk that left them well-placed

to progress.

Sevilla’s bid to become the first side to lift the trophy three years running got off to a great start when they opened the scoring through Vitolo after six minutes.

Shakhtar produced a spirited response, though, with goals from Marlos and Taras Stepanenko to lead at halftime before Kevin Gameiro’s 82nd-minute penalty

left the Spaniards as favourites to progress with two away goals.

Five times European champions Liverpool had not lost in 12 Europa League games this season and were facing a Villarreal side out to banish a last-four curse and reach a European final for the first time at their fourth attempt.

Villarreal had proven to be shrewd opponents in Europe’s sec-

ond tier competition and in Cedric Bakambu boast a striker with nine goals in this season’s Europa League, while no Liverpool player has scored more than two.

“It is only the first leg,” said Klopp. “It is 1-0 and they have to come to Anfield where we know how strong we are. We had our moments, we defended really good.

This race is not over.” l

7 THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR IN EPL ROUND 36 Is this the weekend that Leicester wrap up the title?

Everyone thought they would falter before Christmas, or at the start of 2016, or in the run-in, or at some unspecified point of the season. But Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester City have dealt with everything thrown in their way and now, unbelievably, can win the Premier League if they beat Manchester United at Old Trafford tomorrow.

Can Wilshere win race against time?

Jack Wilshere’s substitute appearance last weekend against Southampton had been a long time coming. His sum total of competitive football this season stands at less than 10 minutes, but he is determined to book his place in the England squad for this summer’s

European Championships. He has three matches to prove himself, starting against Norwich City today.

Has Newcastle’s fight run out?

Newcastle United supporters have been given hope in recent weeks.

Better late than never, Rafael Benitez has sparked some fight from his players, beating Swansea City and securing respectable draws against Liverpool and Manchester City. But that might not be enough. Anything less than a win against Crystal Palace today and the season may be all but over.

What will be the effect of the absence of Alli?

After his brainless punch against West Bromwich Albion last Monday, it looks

like Dele Alli’s season is over. The most likely replacements are Son Heung-min or Nacer Chadli. But so strong is the relationship between Alli and Harry Kane that it is inevitable Spurs will feel the loss of their star midfielder. And they face a difficult trip to Chelsea this Monday.

Will Sturridge make it to the XI? The Liverpool striker has looked to be coming back to his best in recent weeks with four goals in his last four Premier League games. But, after being dropped in favour of Divock Origi for both legs of the Champions League quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund, Daniel Sturridge then sat out the semi-final first leg against Villarreal last Thursday with Roberto Firmino deployed as a central striker.

Will he be back leading the line at Swansea tomorrow?

How will City cope with their fixture pile-up?

Ok, it’s not exactly a huge pile-up, but Manuel Pellegrini isn’t happy about it. Despite their attempts to have the game brought forward, City have to wait until 4:30pm tomorrow to face Southampton - just three days before their Champions League semi-final second leg against Real Madrid.

Can West Ham bring European football to their new home?

Currently sixth in the table, Slaven Bilic’s side have just a point advantage over Liverpool as they look to cling on to the final Europa League spot. l

FIXTURES SATURDAY Arsenal Everton Newcastle Stoke Watford West Brom

v v v v v v

Norwich Bournemouth Crystal Palace Sunderland Aston Villa West Ham

SUNDAY Man United v Leicester Southampton v Man City Swansea v Liverpool MONDAY Chelsea v Tottenham

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Platini appeal against six year ban heard at CAS n Reuters, Lausanne

DAY’S WATCH CRICKET SONY SIX 4:30 PM Indian Premier League Delhi v Kolkata 8:30 PM Hyderabad v Bangalore

FOOTBALL STAR SPORTS 1 7:50 PM Barclays Premier League Newcastle United v Crystal Palace 10:20 PM Arsenal v Norwich City

STAR SPORTS 2 7:16 PM Bundesliga 2015/16 Bayern Munich v M'gladbach

STAR SPORTS 4 7:16 PM Bundesliga 2015/16 Dortmund v VfL Wolfsburg 10:16 PM Bayer Leverkusen v Hertha Berlin

TEN 1 5:30 PM Sky Bet Championship Bolton Wanderers v Hull City 8:00 PM Sheffield Wednesday v Cardiff

TEN 1 HD 8:50 PM French Ligue 1 2015/16 Saint-Etienne v Toulouse FC 12:50 AM Olympique Lyonnais v Ajaccio

TEN 2 5:50 PM French Ligue 1 2015/16 FC Nantes v Nice 10:50 PM AS Monaco v EA De Guingamp

SONY SIX 12:40 AM Serie A TIM 2015/16 Chievo Verona v Fiorentina

SONY ESPN 12:30 AM Real Betis v FC Barcelona

TENNIS TEN 3 5:30 PM ATP World Tour 250 2016 BMW Open: SF 1 7:30 PM BMW Open: SF 2

FORMULA 1 STAR SPORTS 4 5:55 PM FIA F1 World Championship Qualifying: Sochi, Russia

Ajax Amsterdam's head coach Frank De Boer walks on crutches as he watches a training session in Amsterdam yesterday. De Boer snapped his Achillies during training on March 21 AFP

Suspended UEFA president Michel Platini’s appeal against his six-year ban from soccer was being heard at sport’s highest tribunal yesterday with former FIFA president Sepp Blatter among the witnesses.

Platini, who arrived in a taxi for the hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), is hoping that the ban will be overturned in time for the Euro 2016 tournament, which will be held in his native France in June and July. CAS said a decision could even be made as early as next week, depending on how the day-long hearing progresses.

Platini was banned for eight years in December along with former Blatter over a payment of 2 million Swiss francs ($2.08 million) made to the Frenchman by FIFA with Blatter’s approval in 2011 for work done a decade earlier.

FIFA’s ethics committee said the payment, made at a time when Blatter was seeking re-election, lacked transparency and presented conflicts of interest. l

Barca await Real, Atletico UCL hangover n AFP, Madrid

Barcelona hold the slightest of advantages in a thrilling three-way La Liga title race with just three games remaining ahead of their trip to Real Betis today.

The Catalans lead Atletico Madrid solely thanks to their better head-to-head record with Real Madrid just a point behind the leaders in third.

However, Barca’s chances of retaining their title could be boosted

by Atletico and Real’s European commitments as their respective clashes with Rayo Vallecano and

Real Sociedad are sandwiched between the two legs of their Champions League semi-finals.

Atletico and Real remained on course for a second Madrid derby final in three years in midweek as Atletico will travel to Germany with a 1-0 lead over Bayern Munich, while Real host Manchester City at the Santiago Bernabeu with the scores level at 0-0.

By contrast, Barca have enjoyed just their second free midweek of 2016 and appear to have turned the corner with 14 goals without reply against Deportivo la Coruna and Sporting Gijon in their last two

outings after a run of three straight league defeats.

Luis Suarez scored four times in each of Barca’s last two games to streak three ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo in the race to be the league’s top scorer. The Uruguayan is well set to win at least that personal duel as Ronaldo is expected to miss a third straight game with a thigh injury as Real travel to San Sebastian. Benzema will join the threetime World Player of the Year on the sidelines after he picked up a hamstring injury in the first leg at City.

In their absence Gareth Bale will be charged with leading the Ma-

Hummels seeks move to rivals Bayern n Reuters Borussia Dortmund centre back Mats Hummels has told his club that he wants to join Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich after the season ends.

Earlier this week, Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge disclosed that his club were already in talks with the Dortmund skipper over a move.

Dortmund confirmed in a statement that the 27-year-old Germany international, who is under contract till June 2017, had submitted an official transfer request.

“Defender Mats Hummels Borussia Dortmund has communi-

cated his desire to leave the club in the summer and wants to join league rivals Bayern Munich next season,” Dortmund said on their website (www.bvb.de).

“So far, Bayern Munich has not made an offer. As a precaution, it is pointed out that... no exit clause has been agreed and the player is logically tied to Borussia Dortmund until June 30, 2017.”

A switch to Bayern would represent something of a homecoming for Hummels, who came through the ranks at the Bavarian club before moving to Dortmund in October 2008. Dortmund are currently second in the Bundesliga table, trailing Bayern by seven points. l

drid attack as he did with a double when they came from 2-0 down to register a ninth straight La Liga win at Rayo Vallecano last weekend.

Atletico look to have the easiest task of the three title contenders today when they welcome struggling Rayo to the Vicente Calderon in a Madrid derby.l

FIXTURES Real Sociedad Atletico Madrid Real Betis Granada

v v v v

Real Madrid Rayo Vallecano Barcelona Las Palmas

Sakho banned for 30 days: UEFA n AFP, Paris Liverpool defender Mamadou Sakho was on Thursday provisionally suspended for 30 days after failing a drugs test, European football’s governing body UEFA announced.

The France international reportedly tested positive for a fat burner after Liverpool’s 1-1 draw against Manchester United in the Europa League on March 17.

“Disciplinary proceedings have been instigated against Liverpool FC player Mamadou Sakho. The proceedings relate to a violation of the UEFA Anti-Doping Regulations, after the player failed a doping test.” l

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Showtime

Five Bangladeshis selected for Film Festival Locarno’s Open Doors

n Hasan Mansur Chatak On April 28, the Film Festival Locarno’s Open Doors unveiled its selection of projects from South Asia, which will make the trek to Switzerland in order to present in front of potential European and international partners.

At this year’s festival, Open Doors, a co-production initiative, supports eight projects and eight emerging producers from South Asia.

Five Bangladeshi filmmakers and producers have made the selection in two different sections, namely the Open Doors Hub and the Open Doors Lab.

Ishtiaque Zico’s Cinema, City and Cats and Kamar Ahmad Simon’s Day After Tomorrow have been selected for the Open Doors Hub, which is set to take place from August 4 to 9. These two film projects will compete for the Open Doors prize worth $49,000, mostly financed by the Swiss production fund Visions Sud Est, alongside some smaller grants.

Three Bangladeshi directorsproducers, including Aadnan Imtiaz Ahmed of Kino-Eye Films, Abu Shahed Emon of Batayan Productions and Rubaiyat Hossain of Khona Talkies, have been selected to take part in the Open Doors Lab which brings over a

group of producers and directors for training and personalised support.

The Open Doors of Film Festival Locarno will run from August 3 to 13 in a lakeside town located in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland.

From 2016 to 2018, the Open Doors initiative will start discovering the diverse cinematographic landscape of South Asia and its promising talents. During the three years, the project will cover Afghanistan, Maldives, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and Nepal; the latter four countries shall be focused on within the Open Doors events this year. l

First look at ‘Bhuban Majhi’ n Promiti Prova Chowdhury A soft romantic song, with an elegant cinematography depicting rural simplicity is what the trailer of Bhuban Majhi attempted to illustrate.

The scenic film starring Parambrata and Aparna, published a teaser online, which is likely to create a soothing impact on the viewer’s mind while promising an engaging story.

In the government-funded film directed by Fakhrul Areefen Khan, Kolkata’s Parambrata Chatterjee plays the role of a spiritual singer Nahir who is inspired by a young lady named Farida, played by Aparna Ghosh, to join the struggle of 1971 Liberation War. Maznun Mizan

and Sushma Sarkar are seen in brief scenes.

Shot in a peaceful, rural setting, the 86-second teaser plays a romantic number and highlights the chemistry between the two powerhouse actors.

Bhuban Majhi depicts a number of historical incidents such as the 1970s general election, the horrific night of March 25 and the EPR rebellion in 1971.

The songs for the film were composed by Kalikaprasad.

According to Fakhrul, the film is based on true events and the characters’ names have not been altered. The film has already been shot in Kolkata and Kushtia, and is expected to hit theatres this November.l

Ankit Tiwari claims innocence

n

Showtime Desk

One of the most trending Bollywood playback singers of all time, Ankit Tiwari, who was arrested for allegedly raping a woman, has moved an application in the session seeking discharge in the case.

While stating that his relationship with the complainant woman was consensual, the application also says that her claim to have never drunk liquor can’t be true because she worked in the advertising industry.

His lawyer Mahesh Vaswani said that the plea will appear for hearing on May 4.

Tiwari was arrested in May, 2014 and was granted bail a month later. In the application, he says that the complainant’s allegations in her written statement to the police and those in the subsequent First Information Report (FIR), vary.

“The victim claimed that she had never consumed liquor but the fact is that the victim was working in an advertising company and it cannot be believed

that she had never consumed alcohol. His relationship with her was consensual,” reads the application.

The application also reads that the accusation about him making a video clip of the victim and threatening her to make it public is false as he is a reputed singer and a music director.

The complainant, questionably Tiwari’s one-time girlfriend, has alleged that he raped her repeatedly between October 2012 and December 2013 and promised to marry her but subsequently failed to keep that promise.

Ankit Tiwari’s brother Ankur was also arrested for supposedly threatening the woman. The singer was booked under sections 376 (rape), 493 (cohabitation caused by a man deceitfully inducing a belief of lawful marriage) and 506 (2) (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.

The 24-year-old singer is known for the hit song “Sun Raha Hai Na” from the film Aashiqui 2.

Last week, the court issued a non-bailable warrant against him for non-appearance. The court said that Tiwari must remain present next time around. l Source: Bollywood Mantra, Business Standard

An exceptional FrenchBangla fusion n Showtime Desk Title: A Toutes les Femmes Je Vous Aime Performed by: The Vincent Meyer World Music Quartet Date and Time: Saturday, April 30, 2016 at 7pm Entry: Tk600 available at Red Shift/Radius or online Tk660 at www.imdhaka.com or www. jetechao.com (Limited seating, so please book early) Vincent Meyer is a French singer, guitarist and composer who is currently living in Bangladesh.

Vincent had always wanted to try writing songs which could combine a bass guitar and a tabla. He was also very keen to have a feminine vocal back-up.

In the course of playing in this country and developing his interest in Bangla music, Vincent found to his pleasure that he was able to achieve all three of his aims.

The result is the Vincent Meyer World Music Quartet, which features Vincent Meyer guitar

and vocals, Humayra Jahan doing back-up vocals, Arif Sadab Khan on bass guitar and Sanjib Mazumder on tabla.

The playlist will consist mainly of haunting French songs written

by Vincent, but will also have at least three French-Bangla songs written together with his friend Parag. In addition, we can expect a showstopping version of a famous Lalon song, which everyone will recognise.

In other words, the audience may be privileged to witness a new genre of music: French Chanson and Bangla Folk in marvelous fusion.

Events at Red Shift Coffee Lounge.

Location: Radius Centre, 5th Floor, Bay’s Galleria, 57 Gulshan Avenue, Gulshan, Dhaka.

Phone: 8833471-3 or 01730054403 (Shiuly).

Opening hours: Sat-Thurs 10am – 11pm; Fri: 3pm - 11pm Website: www.radiuscentre. com.bd Facebook:www.facebook.com/ redshiftcoffee l

Bangla hip-hop and Black Zang

n Rayan Quddus Bangladesh’s hip-hop community started in the early 2000s, when young adults began rapping for fun. Deshi MCs and Stoic Bliss were some of the earliest groups in the scene. At first, they received mixed reactions for their use of “Banglish” but eventually, listeners caught on and now they have a cult following amongst school students. Surprisingly, Bangla hip-hop has a strong hold outside of Dhaka; there are rappers in Sylhet, Savar, Chittagong, etc. It is

still an underground movement, but most interestingly, it has a multidisciplinary approach to the arts, including poetry, graffiti, dance, music, and others.

I discovered them on the internet years ago and recently started growing an interest in their work. I caught up with the rapper, RJ, entrepreneur and activist, Black Zang and sat down to have a conversation with him.

How did you start your journey with hip-hop?

I started this around eight years ago. I never thought that I

would be talking on the radio or releasing music. I live and breathe hip-hop. And in the midst of doing so, I got involved with the US Department of State’s cultural exchange program. After, I was motivated to promote hip-hop to the world, which is why I have been able to work on rap music, and I love what I do.

What are you currently working on?

I am hosting a radio show, Planet Hip-Hop on 101.6 FM, every Tuesday from 9-11pm. I talk about the different aspects

of the hip-hop movement in the show. Recently, I opened a YouTube channel based on my radio show, in order to reach a wider audience. Hip-hop is more than rapping; it is a culture on its own. Bangla hip-hop is widely dominated by the rappers, but there are many graffiti artists, beatboxers and DJs involved. I am trying to help everyone to get a little recognition for their hard work. This platform helps me explore hip-hop and keep me engaged with my fans. In a way, it is like killing two birds with one stone, which keeps me active and grooms the audience to accept our work. It’s a lengthy process.

This is important because most of the artists and listeners are still young, so it is important that they get some source of inspiration and information. Plus, I get to talk with other artists. Few days back I talked with Sylheti rapper Fakir Lal Miah.

Do you have any upcoming projects?

Yes, I have my own creative content called Black Diamond.

Currently, I am designing T-shirts and other apparel. And I am also working on some songs; the radio show helps me a lot with research on my creative projects.

I plan to build my brand. I hope it will make positive contributions to the society. I really hope everything works out. l

Bipasha Basu’s mehendi night n Farhan Shahriar Bollywood actor Bipasha Basu and Karan Singh Grover were photographed during their mehendi ceremony at a lounge in Mumbai suburb named Juhu on April 29.

For her mehendi event, Bipasha picked a pink lehenga with printed underlay and matching box purse. She accessorised with phool gehna, comprising a tiara, haath-phool and baju bandh. To complement his bride-to-be, Karan wore a white kurta pyjama.

While Bipasha and Karan’s wedding will take place on Saturday, the pre-wedding events are in full swing. Thursday was family time with briddhi - a pooja held according to Bengali rituals.

All of Bipasha’s close friends from Raj Kundra, Shilpa Shetty, sister Shamita Shetty, designer Rocky S, director Siddharth

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WHAT TO WATCH

Green Lantern WB 3:24pm Reckless test pilot Hal Jordan is granted an alien ring that bestows him with otherworldly powers that inducts him into an intergalactic police force, the Green Lantern Corps.

Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Mark Strong, Tim Robbins Terminator Salvation HBO 4:22pm In 2018, a mysterious new weapon in the war against the machines, half-human and half-machine, comes to John Connor on the eve of a resistance attack on Skynet.

But whose side is he on, and can he be trusted?

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SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2016

A TALE OF TWO ECONOMIES PAGE 16

SALAHUDDIN’S TO WIN, BUT WHAT OF FOOTBALL? PAGE 25

BANGLA HIP-HOP AND BLACK ZANG PAGE 31 Facebook responds to Dhaka’s request for the first time n Tribune Desk

It is halfway into summer but the much-awaited rain is yet to drench Bangladesh. The picture taken in Dhaka’s Keraniganj yesterday shows cracks in the soil caused by torrid summer heat that is sweeping all parts of Bangladesh SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Social networking site Facebook has provided information to Bangladesh about users for the first time.

Facebook’s “Global Government Requests Report” shows that Bangladesh government made 12 requests about 31 users accounts in between July and December last year.

In response, Facebook gave 16.67% information.

“We restricted access to four pieces of content alleged to violate local law regarding blasphemy, pursuant to a request from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission,” says the report.

This is the first time Facebook provided any data to Bangladesh government since 2013.

In its report Facebook provided country-wise statistics of government requests and its responses.

The report is one of the chief indicators of government interest in the company’s data. l

Deadline for biometric SIM registration likely to extend Hossain, Narayanganj n Tanveer and Probir K Sarker The government is likely to extend the deadline for biometric SIM re-registration as only 65% of the active SIMs were registered until Thursday amid concerns that the fingerprint data could be misused by the mobile operators.

“The decision on whether to increase the deadline will be announced tomorrow [today],” State Minister for Posts and Telecommunications Tarana Halim said yesterday after visiting Kandapara Primary School at Tarabo of Narayanganj’s Rupganj.

“We are a democratic government. We, the public representatives, are not here to make you suffer. The government is respectful towards the people,” she told reporters.

Operators have already asked the government to extend the deadline.

Some 83.8 million out of around 130m active SIMs were reverified from December 16 until Thursday. The process was suspended

for several hours yesterday due to technical glitch.

“We have received complaints from many areas that the NID server was down. But actually the server was not dysfunctional. We will check whether it occurred due to problems at the mobile operators’ end,” Tarana said.

On Thursday, she said the re-registration process would continue until 10pm on April 30 and that all the unregistered SIMs would be blocked for several hours on May 1.

People thronged customer care centres and temporary re-registration camps in the last few days to have their SIMs reverified. On the other hand, many people are reluctant to complete the process raising concerns about the safety of the biometric information as they cannot rely on the private mobile operators.

Since the beginning, many people have been campaigning against the move on Facebook and blogs to drum up public support. They question the legality of the government order saying that only the Election Commission can seek such information and fingerprints of the citizens.

The government, however, claims that the fingerprints are not being stored and that vested interests have been campaigning against the process. On the other hand, the BTRC has said that the mobile operators will have to pay $50 for each unverified SIM. In February, the government also formed a panel of experts to monitor the re-registration process. In the last few months, the state minister visited some customer care centres to oversee the Tarana Halim thinks that if the project is successful, it will totally stop extortion, criminal activities and illegal VoIP business.

Concerns

A petition filed challenging the government move was rejected by the High Court on April 12. But the full text of the verdict is yet to be published while the petitioners said that they would move the Appellate Division once they get the full judgement.

In the verdict, the court ordered the operators to ensure secrecy of the information collected by them

for the purpose.

The petition says that collecting such private information by the mobile companies is not safe for people. Except for state-owned Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd, owners of the five mobile operators are foreigners. So, there is a high risk of the information getting leaked, and it can cause a great loss to the people and the country.

It observes that the move will create a high risk if national and international criminal organisations, networks or syndicates get access to the database.

The concerns rose high recently after it was reported that the voter list database of the Philippines, Mexico and USA were stolen by hackers. Currently, biometric information is used only in four countries – Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Moreover, the law enforcers recently arrested officials of mobile operators for their involvement with mobile banking forgery gangs.

The officials have been accused of sharing information of the sub-

scribers with the criminals.

Even though the government claims that the fingerprints would not be stored by the mobile companies, the documents submitted to the court by the operators clearly show that the data is going to the servers kept with the operators and then to the servers of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.

“Fingerprints are added to the registration process to verify the NID and nothing will be preserved,” Tarana Halim told parliament on February 16.

Foyzur Rahman Chowdhury, secretary of the posts and telecommunications division, echoes the state minister saying that the mobile operators do not have the technology to store the information.

At a programme on March 6, he also threatened that the people who are involved in negative propaganda against biometric SIM registration would be identified soon.

The state minister too on several occasions criticised those who are opposing the move and warned of taking legal action against them. l

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