18 May, 2016

SECOND EDITION

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

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Jyoishtha 5, 1423, Shaban 10, 1437

Humiliated headmaster suspended amid outrage Recast probe committee asked to submit report in 5 days

Students of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology form a human chain by holding their ears in symbolic protest against the humiliation of a head teacher in Narayanganj DHAKA TRIBUNE

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Regd No DA 6238, Vol 4, No 26

n Tanvir Hossain, Narayanganj

INSIDE

Bangladeshis on social media are joining hands – or rather ears – in a show of solidarity with a school teacher who was recently publicly humiliated by a sitting MP. Social media giant Facebook has been flooded with pictures of users posing while holding their ears.

Being forced to do squats while holding one’s ears - called uthbosh in Bangla - is a form of shaming and punishment meted out to unruly kids in many primary schools in the region. The punishment is widely criticised even when used

on children; applying it to an adult and a teacher has been regarded as unbearably humiliating.

#SorrySir and #WeAreSorrySir trended all of yesterday Bangladeshis, including some celebrities, posted themselves holding their ears, in solidarity with Shyamal Kanti Bhakta, the Narayanganj headmaster who was humiliated.

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

The management committee of Piyar Sattar Latif High School has suspended Shyamal Kanti Bhakta, the school’s headmaster who was publicly humiliated by local lawmaker Selim Osman on Friday.

A suspension letter signed by committee president Faruqul Islam was served to Shyamal yesterday morning at Narayanganj 300-Bed Hospital, where he is currently undergoing treatment, Shyamal told the Dhaka Tribune.

Shyamal has gone on record to say that MP Selim had in fact saved him from an angry mob by appeasing it in part, but reiterated that his

ing place around the country.

The school committee letter listed four reasons for suspending Shyamal.

They are: that he physically tortured students, that he took bribes promising to secure jobs at the school, that he made derogatory comments about Islam and finally, that he frequently took unauthorised leave and came late to work.

“You have been warned several times regarding the complaints against you, yet you have failed to refrain from such illegal and immoral activities. Hence, the committee at its May 13 [Friday] meeting has decided to suspend you from your duties,” the letter read.

tact Faruqul Islam in this regard, but his phone was found switched off.

Sources said he is currently abroad.

The headmaster was initially beaten up.

He was then seen being made to do squats while holding his ears on the instruction of Selim Osman, a Narayanganj lawmaker from the Jatiya Party, at the school on Friday for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.

Speaking to the Dhaka Tribune, Shyamal claimed that the entire incident had been staged by the school management committee which had been trying to remove him from the headmaster’s post for the past few months in order to

ill-treatment had been orchestrated by the school committee.

Outrage at the public humiliation of the headmaster and support for him have flooded the social media, while protests have been tak-

Interestingly, although the letter is dated May 13 in the top right corner of the document, the date that appears under the committee president’s signature is May 16.

The Dhaka Tribune tried to con-

put Faruqul Islam’s sister Parveen Akhter, who is also the school’s assistant head teacher, in his place.

“I am a victim of a conspiracy by the management committee.

Netizens stand by headmaster n Tribune Desk

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Shyamal, headmaster of Piyar Sattar Latif High School in Narayanganj’s Bandar upazila, was physically assaulted last Friday by members of the school’s management committee.

To add insult to injury, he was then made to perform uthbosh by local lawmaker AKM Salim Osman.

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid denounced the incident and Law Minister Anisul Huq termed it a “punishable offence,” but the Bangladeshi public went one step further to defend the honour of a school teacher.  PAGE 2 COLUMN 3

 PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

Shyamal’s shaming ‘a punishable offence’ n Ashif Islam Shaon Law Minister Anisul Huq yesterday said the incident of public humiliation of a teacher is a punishable offence.

“Those involved will be punished because no one can take the law into their own hands,” he told reporters at a programme in Dhaka yesterday morning.

Drawing reference to the incident that has been storming the so-

Verdict on legality of section 54 next week

Country’s first anatomy museum in Chittagong

Faulty design delays Hotel InterContinental opening

SC will deliver its verdict on May 24 on an appeal challenging the HC directives on arrest and remand of someone without any warrant under sections 54 and 167 of the CrPC.  PAGE 3

Many students, researchers and academics are not aware of country’s first anatomical museum housed at Anatomy and Histology Department of Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (CVASU).  PAGE 7

Due to a faulty design, it would now take five more months and cost more money to renovate and open services at Shahbagh’s Hotel Intercontinental, previously known as Sheraton and more recently as Ruposhi Bangla.  PAGE 32

cial media, he said such incidents would not be tolerated.

“I have read news reports that said this teacher had beaten up a student but that could have been dealt with legally. Taking drastic measures without seeking legal recourse will not be tolerated.”

On Friday, Shyamal Kanti Bhakta, headmaster of Piyar Sattar Latif High School in Narayanganj, was beaten up by a mob and forced to  PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

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PM flies to Japan, Saudi Arabia n

Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is flying to Japan and Saudi Arabia to engage more politically with the outer world.

Hasina will attend the G-7 outreach programme to be held during the summit meeting in Japan while she will also go to Saudi Arabia on a bilateral visit in the first week of June.

G-7 summit

The G-7 summit meeting to be held in Japan and heads of state of government of Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam are also invited in the outreach meeting.

This is the second time, Hasina is attending the programme as she attended a similar event held in Italy in 2001.

The United State, United Kingdom, Japan, Italy, France, Germany and Canada are the member of G-7.

Bangladesh Ambassador to Japan Rabab Fatema told the Dhaka Tribune that many top leaders are invited to the G-7 summit to learn about achievements.

The invitation is considered as a recognition to the achievements that an individual country achieves and to that extent it is an honour for Bangladesh, she said.

A Foreign Ministry official seeking anonymity said economic and global issues would get prominence in the G-7 summit.

Countering terrorism and violent extremism, refugees, cyber issue, space, climate change, women and sexual violence, peacekeeping, corruption, global health and other issues would be discussed at the meeting, he said.

The foreign ministers of the G-7 countries met in April and declared a joint comminuque where countering terrorism and violent extremism was the prior issue.

Bangladesh has many success stories in combating countering terrorism and violent extremism and this is a good platform where the achievements can be showcased before the top global leaders, he added.

Saudi Arabia visit

Hasina will fly to Saudi Arabia in the first week of June for her second bilateral visit since 2009.

Another Foreign Ministry official said the visit would strengthen the existing bilateral relationship.

Complete opening of Saudi labour market for Bangladeshis, investment and other development issues will get dominance from Bangladesh side while Saudi side is expected to raise combating countering terrorism and violent extremism. l

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Shyamal’s shaming do squats holding his ears in the presence of local Jatiya Party lawmaker AKM Selim Osman on allegations of “demeaning religion.”

Following the incident, Shyamal claimed that locals were provoked with false allegations as a group of the school’s teachers held a grudge on him as had refused to meet their unfair demands.

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid has condemned the incident and a probe body has been formed to investigate into the incident.

However, the district police chief said the incident was not a “criminal offence” and law enforcers “could not have done anything.”

Meanwhile, asked about Comilla Victoria college student Sohagi Jahan Tonu murder, the law minister said: “If the Home Ministry thinks, the trial of this murder can be processed in a speedy trial tribunal.”

“The reports have been given, now the court will take a decision in this regard,” he added. “These autopsy reports are also part of the police investigation. Police will make a clear statement about them when they submit their report to the court.” l

Netizens stand by headmaster Meanwhile, a protest was organised in Shahbagh, Dhaka yesterday against the public humiliation of the school headmaster in Narayanganj on Friday.

Teachers, students, cultural activists, writers and people from all walks of life gathered at Shahbagh staging a rally around 5pm to voice their outrage over the matter.

Members of Gonojagoron Moncho were also among the protesters.

“This is a country where when a crime takes place, the victims get punished, instead of the culprits.

And when the protesters protest against such incidents, they get harassed by the state and its police,” said Dr Fahmidul Haq, associate professor at the department of mass communication and journalism of Dhaka University.

“Expecting justice in this incident is futile, because incidents like this have been happening frequently in Narayanganj, and this [Osman] family always gets away with their crime. Instead, they get praised at parliament,” he said at the rally.

Geeti Ara Nasrin, who also teaches at the department of mass

communication and journalism in Dhaka University, said the humiliation of the teacher had humiliated the entire nation.

Jyotirmoy Barua, lawyer and human rights activist, said: “The state and government has never brought the criminals to book before. It will be the same in this case as well. When the head of the state applauds this family [Osmans] in parliament, you know that they are beyond the grasp of state law.”

Faizul Hafiz, secretary at National Mukti Council, said: “The education minister must take his share of responsibility in this incident and resign from this post. He has no right to be the minister of education if he cannot even ensure the dignity of our teachers.”

Lucky Akhtar, president of Bangladesh Student Union, said: “This incident is in violation of the spirit of our Liberation War, and it has also severely hurt our dignity as a sovereign nation.”

The victim, Shyamal Kanti Bhakta, headmaster of Piyar Sattar Latif High School in Narayanganj Bandar upazila, was forced to do sit-ups while holding his ears – a form of punishment often doled

out to children – in the presence of local lawmaker Selim Osman for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.

Several students of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) too protested against the humiliation of the school teacher in presence of a ruling Awami League MP in Narayanganj.

The protesters stood in front of SUST central library on Tuesday morning holding their ears.

Piyar Sattar Latif High School’s headmaster was beaten up and made to do squats holding his ears in presence of Salim Osman MP on Friday for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.

SUST English department student Sagarika Chowdhury convened the protest. “Such incidents only hasten the degradation of social morality,” she said, offering empathy to the humiliated teacher.

The victim said the whole episode was planned and that it was the fallout of his conflict with the management committee. He claimed religion was dragged into the affair after his rivals failed to get rid of him several times in the past. l

Humiliated headmaster suspended amid outrage Committee members Motiur Rahman and Mobarak Hossain and Upazila Nirbahi Office peon Mizanur Rahman have made serious attempts to remove me from my post. The whole thing has been stage-managed,” he said.

He also claimed Mizanur and Mobarak assaulted him on Friday on Motiur’s orders, and they tried to kill him. “Just a day ago, Motiur threatened me.”

The school management committee has vehemently denied the allegations.

“There has been no attempt to remove the headmaster,” both Parveen and Motiur told the Dhaka Tribune.

But a three-member probe committee that was initially charged with investigating the matter found evidence of a conspiracy and conflict between Shyamal and the management committee. The probe team was formed anew yesterday with the addition of two more members, said Mousumi Habib, upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) of Bandar upazila, where the school is located.

“The three-member probe team has been recast into a five-member team. They have been instructed to submit the probe report within five working days,” she told the Dhaka Tribune. The Dhaka Tribune was not able to learn why the probe committee had been recast.

Doubts regarding Shyamal’s hurtful comments on Islam

There are doubts regarding the

claim that Shyamal made hurtful comments about Islam or mocked the religious sentiment of the student who complained about being beaten by him.

Speaking to the Dhaka Tribune on Saturday, the tenth-grader said Shyamal had beaten him during class on May 8 when he failed to respond to the teacher’s call.

“Some students were making noises behind me, which is why I did not hear Sir when he called me. Sir then came at me, grabbed my collar and beat me. At one point I fell unconscious. When I came around, I took Allah’s name and Sir made a mocking comment.”

But when the student’s mother submitted an official complaint against Shyamal on May 10, she did not mention anything about derogatory comments about Islam and only stated that Shyamal had physically assaulted her son.

When the Dhaka Tribune contacted the student again yesterday, he recanted his earlier accusation and said there had been no hurtful comments about Islam made by Shyamal.

Asked why allegations of hurting religious sentiments had been brought against the teacher, the student said he did not know anything about it.

UNO Mousumi, too, said the student’s mother never complained about Shyamal’s hurtful comments about Islam when she talked to her.

Shyamal told the Dhaka Tribune: “I did not utter a single word against Islam, let alone any derog-

atory comment. This entire fiasco has been staged.”

Who instigated the assault?

No one seems to know who started the protest against Shyamal on Friday. The announcement that Shyamal had mocked Islam was made by microphone at Baitul Atiq Mosque, which is located near the school.

The mosque’s Imam, Mahmudul Hasan, said: “Some unknown young men entered the mosque around 10:30am and started announcing on the mike that Shyamal had insulted Islam.”

Hearing the announcement, hundreds of people gathered in front of the school and started demanding Shyamal’s death, said Shamsul Haque, vice-president of Balyandi village panchayat.

Mawlana Borhan Uddin, the teachers’ representative at the school, said: “We do not know who made the announcement. We did not even know about the comments until we heard it. We saw people gathering in front of the school all of a sudden, demanding punishment of our head teacher.”

At one point, some of the people broke into the school and started beating Shyamal, he said.

’Selim Osman saved my life’

Shyamal told the Dhaka Tribune that Selim Osman saved him from the angry mob on Friday.

Witnesses said the teacher had been held captive and tortured for nearly six hours. Police had been

informed to bring the situation under control. But onlookers said they did hardly anything and took on the role of silent observers. As the situation deteriorated, locals informed lawmaker Selim Osman.

Over phone, Selim asked the agitated crowd not to take the law in their own hands. He reached the school around 4pm, accompanied

by UNO Mousumi, Jatiya Party Narayanganj district unit Convener Abul Zaher, Awami League Bandar upazila unit President MA Rashid, Bandar uapzila parishad Chairman Ataur Rahman Mukul and Bandar upazila Secondary Education Officer AKM Nurul Amin.

Witnesses said when the MP asked the crowd about the matter, they complained about Shyamal making hurtful comments about Islam as well as beating a student.

They also complained that Faruqul and Shyamal were responsible for many irregularities in the school’s management.

The lawmaker then directed the UNO to suspend Shyamal and fire Faruqul from the school’s committee and instructed Shyamal to apologise before the crowd, by performing squats while holding his ears.

When contacted, Selim Osman told the Dhaka Tribune: “The crowd was demanding that Shyamal be hanged, and then demanded he apologise by doing squats holding his ears. I had to think about bringing the crowd under control and save Shyamal from being killed by the mob.” l

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

Verdict on legality of sections 54, 167 next week n Ashif Islam Shaon The Supreme Court will deliver its verdict on May 24 on an appeal challenging the High Court directives on arrest and remand of someone without any warrant under sections 54 and 167 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha fixed the date yesterday after recording the second day's hearing on the appeal.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam and Deputy Attorney General Murad Reza represented the state while Barrister Amir-Ul Islam stood for the petitioner.

Murad Reza told reporters that the Appellate Division would decide whether the High Court direc-

tives given in 2003 would remain effective or not.

The petitioner's lawyer told the court that the law enforcers do not follow the guidelines putting the detainees in an unsafe situation.

He also said that custodial deaths could be stopped if the directives were implemented.

According to the case, private university student Shamim Reza died in the DB police custody at its Minto Road office on July 23, 1998 following his arrest from Siddheshwari in Dhaka under section 54.

The incident drew much criticism at that time. A judicial body formed over the death of Shamim recommended that the two sections of the CrPC be amended.

As the recommendations were not implemented, Bangladesh Le-

gal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) filed the writ petition the same year. Following this, the High Court ruled upon the government on November 21.

On April 7, 2003,the High Court gave 15 point directives to the government including those related to arrest and remand of persons, and asked it to implement the directives within six months.

The court asked the government to follow the directives before amending the law. But the then government appealed with the Appellate Division seeking a stay order on the High Court verdict.

On August 2 the same year, the Appellate Division accepted the government’s leave to appeal.

Since the Appellate Division did not put a stay on the High Court's

directives, the government filed the appeal on the ground of acceptance of the leave to appeal.

Sections 54 (arrest under suspicion) and 167 (interrogation in remand) of the CrPC of 1898 empower the police to detain any person under suspicion and question any accused in remand.

The High Court said that the police must not arrest anyone under section 54 to put him/her into detention. They will show their identity cards while arresting the person and must inform the person about the reason behind the arrest within three hours.

Moreover, the law enforcers will inform the relatives of the detainee within an hour of the arrest through telephone or a messenger.

The detainee will be allowed to

meet a and relatives for legal assistance.

If the police want to quiz the person in custody, they will need to take permission from a magistrate while the interrogation must take place in a glass-made room inside the prison. The relatives and lawyers of the detainee can be presented outside the room.

The detainee must be checked by a doctor before and after the interrogation, the High Court said.

If the arrestee alleges physical torture during the interrogation, the magistrate will form a medical board promptly to check his/her health condition. If the allegation is found to be true, the magistrate will take action against the police members responsible under section 330 of the CrPC. l

RU teachers postpone strike on ministers' promise

n Dulal Abdullah, Rajshahi

Rajshahi University Teachers' Samity has postponed the ongoing movement, which was in protest of Prof AFM Rezaul Karim Siddique murder, following the assurance of justice from several ministers.

The organisation's General Secretary Prof Shah Azam made the announcement in a press conference held in the RU's Juberi Bhaban around 10am on Tuesday.

On Saturday and the next day, home, education, health and foreign ministers visited the university and expressed solidarity with the movement of the teachers.

During the visit, the ministers assured of taking quick action and the four urged the teachers to halt the strike for the sake of the students.

“As a consequence of initiative, solidarity and request from the ministers, we have taken a decision to postpone the movement. But we continue observing the development."

“We will adopt tougher programmes if there appears any absence of sincerity of the authorities concerned in arresting the killers,” Prof Shah Azam said.

Besides, RU English department has followed the path of the samity, said its president AFM Masaud Akhter, adding that new programmes would be announced after the vacation if there is no further development in the case.

In protest of Prof Rezaul murder, the RU teachers took to the streets with various programmes since April 23.

On April 23, Prof Rezaul was hacked to death by assailants in Rajshahi city’s Shalbagan area. l

Activists of Communist Party of Bangladesh stage a demonstration in front of the National Press Club yesterday demanding the reduction of all bus fares and provide sufficient BRTC buses in all routes across the country MEHEDI HASAN

Safadi denies claims of conspiring with Aslam n Tribune Desk Israeli politician Mendi N Safadi has admitted that he met with BNP leader Aslam Chowdhury in New Delhi, but said the two never had any discussion on secret matters nor hatched any conspiracy against Bangladesh.

“Nothing can be more ludicrous than the claim that we had hatched a plot of military coup in Bangladesh or any conspiracy to topple the government,” the Likud Party leader told BBC Bangla over phone.

“Everybody knows the situation of Bangladesh and the minorities

living there. The two of us spoke about this at a public event.”

Safadi also questioned whether it was possible for conspirators to plot against a government in a public programme, and later post smiling photographs of themselves on Facebook.

Safadi said he has recently visited India many times and the youth unit of BJP had invited him to the Agra programme, where he met BNP Joint General Secretary Aslam.

“Aslam was also invited there as a leader of a political party from a neighbouring country. We were unknown to each other and we had

usual discussion as guests in the same event.

“I do not believe that Aslam was arrested for having a conversation with me. Has he [Aslam] killed anyone? He just talked to an Israeli citizen in India,” Safadi said.

Commenting on media reports suggesting his alleged links to Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, Safadi said: “Show me one spy who posts his activities on Facebook every hour, gives speeches at seminars, and gives interviews to newspapers.

“If after all this someone still thinks that I am a spy, then I have nothing more to say,” the Israeli

leader said.

The meeting in March between Safadi and Aslam was reported by Bangladesh media earlier this month.

On Sunday, a travel ban was imposed against the BNP leader, and hours within that move he was arrested from Dhaka's Kuril Bishwa Road area for his alleged conspiracy with Mossad.

On Monday, a Dhaka court placed Aslam and his personal assistant Asaduzzaman Mia under a seven-day remand.

A general diary was filed against them under Section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. l

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

Arms case filed against Banshkhali protest organiser Hussain, n Anwar Chittagong A case has been filed against one of the organisers of the Banshkhali protest after police found firearms and bullets during a drive at his home.

The arms case was filed yesterday against Liakat Ali, a BNP leader and convener of the local Committee to Protect Homestead and Graveyard in Banshkhali upazila of Chittagong, after two locally made firearms and four rounds of bullet were found in his house.

The police could not arrest Liakat during the drive on Monday; but they arrested Li-

akat’s 70-year-old father Dudu Mia from the house in Gondamara union, said Banshkhali OC Md Alamgir Hossain.

On April 4, at least four protesters were shot and killed and over 30 others were injured when locals gathered to protest the proposed construction of a power plant in the area.

On February 16, the government signed a deal allowing the joint venture of S Alam Group and China’s SEPCO-3 Electric Power Construction Corporation and HTG Group to build an ultra supercritical thermal power plant with a net capacity of 1,224MW at a cost of $2.4bn. l

5 people killed Dhaka n Kamrul Hasan Five people including a university student were killed in separate incidents in Dhaka yesterday.

Of the deceased, two girls committed suicide in Dakshinkhan and Mirpur areas, and three bodies were recovered from Tikatuli, Tejgaon and Dakshinkhan areas in the city.

Police officials sent the bodies to Dhaka medical College Hospital for autopsy.

Sub-Inspector Nannu Khan of Dakshinkhan police station said police recovered the hanging body of Jannatul Ferdous, 17, from a house at road number 1 of Banabithi Residential area around 12:30am after breaking her room’s door.

Police suspected that she might commit suicide after family feud.

Mirpur police recovered the hanging body of garment worker Jannatul Rupa, 17, from a house of south Pirerabagh around 12am.

SI Nasir Uddin said Rupa’s father Badal Sarder found the door locked from inside and after breaking the door he found her daughter hanging from selling fan.

GRP police recovered a Jagannath university student’s a body in afternoon from Tejgaon area. The deceased is Obaidullah, 21, a second year student of Economics Deparment of the

university.

Abdul Majid, officer-incharge of railway police said Obaidullah was hit by Sylhet bound Jayantika Express at Nakhalpara area of Tejgaon.

Quoting witnesses he said Obaidullah was talking on cell phone while crossing the rail line.

The body was handed to his parents, said DMCH sources.

Police recovered bodies of two men from Dakshinkhan and Tikatuli area.

The deceased are Mohammmad Hridoy, 25, and Al-Amin, 22.

Dakshinkhan SI Habibur Rahman said police recovered Hridoy’s body from house behind Khan Supermarket of Southern city.

His roommates after returning found their room locked from inside. They immediately informed the police on Monday morning.

Police found Hridoy’s body in his room.

Al Amin was killed by his friend Sani while taking drugs near Tikatuli super market.

Wari police station SI Shahid Hasan said Al Amin and Sani were taking drugs.A one stage, Sani hit Al Amin with brick pieces in his head.

He was immediately rushed to DMCH where on-duty doctor declared him dead around 3:30am.

Police arrested Sani from Bangabndhu stadium area on yesterday morning, the official said. l

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School to be built in Sunamganj honouring Bangladeshi nanny n Tribune Desk

Traders from the hills of Chittagong anchor their fruit-laden boats at Kaptai Lake. This year, the Chittagong hills has seen a good harvest of different fruits which are brought by the hill people and sold to locals from their boats better known Nouka Bazar (a boat market) . The photo was taken on Friday DHAKA TRIBUNE

ONSHORE GAS EXPLORATION

Bapex to sign deal with international consortium n Aminur Rahman Rasel

Bapex is looking to sign a joint venture agreement with an international consortium to carry out exploration and development of four onshore geological structures.

Through this, the government is once again giving international oil companies a chance to explore for onshore gas in Bangladesh.

The move comes after the High Court recently disposed of a previous stay order on allowing international oil companies to explore onshore gas blocks.

“Bangladesh does not have the funds or technical capacity to explore these structures. So we invited expressions of interest (EoI) and request for proposal (RFP) aiming to explore oil and gas from reputed international oil and gas companies to explore and develop four potential onshore gas structures in gas block 22, in the greater Chittagong region,” Bapex Managing Director Md Atiquzzaman told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

A consortium of China-based Geo-Jade Petroleum Corporation,

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fect during the production phase, with Bapex taking 30-35% of revenues.

Bapex currently has just one joint venture with Canadian Niko Resources. Together, they developed Feni Gas Field, but production has been suspended because of a payment dispute.

They also undertook drilling at Chhatak.

In 2010, Niko filed a lawsuit with International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), against the Bangladesh government, Petrobangla and Bapex after Petrobangla withheld payments on gas sales from Feni gas field from 2006.

It filed another case involving two blowouts at Chattak gas field in 2005 after a Bangladeshi court held Niko liable for the accident.

The proceedings of the trial are still pending.

The country’s lone stateowned oil and gas exploration firm has so far discovered seven gas fields – Saldanadi, Fenchuganj, Shahbazpur, Semutung, Sundalpur, Srikail and Rupganj. l

Canada-based Longhorn Oil & Gas Ltd and Chinese Sinopec has already been selected for the joint venture agreement, he said.

“We hope that we will sign the contract soon,” added the MD of state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited (Bapex).

Earlier, Bapex invited EoIs from international oil companies to explore a number of welldefined four-way anticline closures – Patiya, Jaldi, Kasalong and Sitapahar – situated in Chittagong and the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

Several companies submitted proposals, and of those, Bapex selected four companies and eventually selected one consortium.

Sources said the RFP stipulates that until production begins, the company partnering with Bapex would bear sole responsibility for mishaps and the costs of correcting them.

Bapex will not spend any money during the exploration phase. The joint venture between Bapex and the selected firm will come into efDhaka

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A Dubai-based charity is building a secondary school in Sunamganj district in memory of one Sufia Akter, a nanny who died saving four Emirati boys from drowning two years ago, reports Gulf News.

Sufia Akter, who migrated to the UAE to work as a nanny for an Emirati family, was swept away in the sea after she rescuing four Emirati boys in her care, aged between six and ten on October 24, 2014. Sufia drowned before the arrival of emergency services.

The school is being built at Bhatapara, the village where Sufia was born and raised, and where her family still lives.

Sufia Akter was swept away in the sea after rescuing four Emirati boys aged between six and ten on October 24, 2014. Sufia drowned before the arrival of emergency services Following the tragedy, Dubai Cares, under the directives of UAE Vice-President and Prime Minister Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoumh, and with the support of the UAE Embassy in Bangladesh and the Embassy of Bangladesh in the UAE, has been campaigning to honour Sufia’s bravery with an education project in her village.

After extensive consultation with Bangladeshi NGO Brac, a trusted partner of Dubai Cares, it has unveiled its plan to construct

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will reach more than 3,200 children across six years. The proposed school will start functioning initially as a junior secondary school by providing education for classes 6 to 8. After three years, the school will turn into a fully functional secondary school which will also provide education for children in grades 9 to 10. By year six, the secondary school will be self-funded to provide a sustainable educational resource for the children of Bhatapara and surrounding areas. l

A representative of Dubai Cares with the family of Sufia Akhter during the laying foundation stone ceremony. Source GULF NEWS Khulna

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and support the secondary school.

The foundation stone for the school was laid on May 10 and the construction of the school will be complete in a year.

The new secondary school, the only one of its kind in Sufia’s village, will provide education to children, particularly young girls, living in Bhatpara.

Dubai Cares will also fund the school’s operational costs for five years after the completion of construction. The charity believes the six-year intervention will generate both immediate and long-term benefits for the community of Bhatapara, especially young girls who cannot afford to continue their education.

The charity believes it’s effort

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Cox’s Bazar

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Fajr: 4:45am | Zohr: 1:15pm Asr: 5:15pm | Magrib: 6:40pm Esha: 8:30pm Source: Islamic Foundation

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

No progress over a month despite PM’s directive Dejected jute workers mull fresh movement to realise their demands with their protests even after the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ortheir demands and would take necn Md Hedait Hossain Molla, prime minister’s order. They finaldered Finance Minister Abul Maal essary and effective measures to Khulna

Jute workers in Khulna and Jessore say they are utterly disappointed as their demands have not been met even after the prime minister’s order in this regard came over a month ago.

Workers in the past few months have staged a series of protests to highlight their demands, including payment of unpaid wages and dearness allowance.

They expected that the authorities concerned would pay heed to

meet those but to no avail.

Now they say they are thinking of fresh and more intense demonstrations to have their demands fulfilled.

At a press conference held at Khalishpur Jute Workers Union office in Khulna on May 11, workers announced an ultimatum, saying they would organise fresh protests if their demands were not met by June 7.

In the face of continuous strike and blockade of road and railways,

Tortured madrasa student hospitalised n Ariful Islam, Kurigram A madrasa student was admitted to a local hospital after he was reportedly tortured by his teacher in Ulipur upazila in the district yesterday.

The victim was Md Wazer, 14, a residential student of Katalipar Anarul Sunnah Hafizia Madrasa in Tabarakpur union.

According to local sources, Wazer brought a cell phone from his home on Sunday in the madrasa hostel. Use of cell phone is forbidden in the hostel.

On information, Hafez Noor Mohammad, a teacher of the madrasa, went to Wazer and beat up him brutally leaving critically injured.

Later, other students of the hostel admitted him to Ulipur Health Complex.

Habibur Rahman, father of Wazer, said he had filed a case with Ulipur police station accusing the teacher.

SK Abdullah Al Syed, officer-incharge of the police station confirmed the incident.

The teacher was not found in the madrasa for comment. l

purchase the necessary amount of jute.

Sohrab Hossain, convener of State-owned Jute Mill CBA-Non CBA Oikya Parishad, told the May 11 press briefing that workers called off protests after getting assurance but the authorities had not kept the promises they made.

He also warned that there was no way but to resume protests as labour leaders could not resolve the problems even after contacting officials at the ministry and Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation. l

Abdul Muhith on April 11 to release a fund of Tk1,000 crore in order to pay the outstanding wages of jute workers. She gave the order during a cabinet meeting.

The premier also announced an allocation of Tk200 crore to purchase raw jute and another Tk200 crore for development of jute sector. She ordered Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu and Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed to oversee the whole matter.

But jute workers carried on

ly backed off after labour leaders were assured by Textiles and Jute Minister Emaj Uddin Pramanique and State Minister Mirza Azam during meetings on April 12 and 13 that all overdue wages would be paid by April 25.

After the prime minister’s order, only Tk200 crore had so far been released. Of the amount, Tk100 crore was supposed to be allocated to jute mills for buying jute but they had only been given Tk33 crore, making them unable to

Bank official held for embezzling fund n Jasim Majumdar,

Four killed, 14 injured in Comilla mishap

A principal officer of Agrani Bank was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Commission in Khagrachhari.

The arrestee was identified as Karunamoy Chakma, 52, principal officer of Agrani Bank, Khagrachhari Sadar branch.

Deputy Director of ACC, Rangamati Safiqur Rahman Bhuiyan said they arrested Karunamoy Chakma on Monday on charge of misappropriating Tk92,000 with the help of three others. l

Four people were killed in two separate road accidents at Chouddogram, Comilla yesterday morning.

In the first accident, three people have been killed as a truck knocked down their rickshaw.

People who lost their lives in the accident are Shariful, rickshaw puller and resident of Aditmari upzila in Lalmonirhat and Ariful Islam, a resident of Chandina of the district. But identity of other person could not be

Khagrachhari

n Mohiuddin Molla, Comilla

known immediately.

Officer-in-Charge of Chauddagram police station Md Farhad said: “The truck knocked down the rickshaw on Dhaka-Chittagong highway around 10:30am, killing the three on the spot.”

In another accident, driver of a pickup van was killed and 14 others were injured when a human haulier collided with a pickup van and covered van around 6am. At least 14 people were also injured in the accident. The injured are labourer by profession. l

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Many still unaware of country’s first anatomy museum n Anwar Hussain, Chittagong Lack of adequate publicity, many students, researchers and academics are not aware of country’s first anatomical museum housed at Anatomy and Histology Department of Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (CVASU).

The first-ever full-fledged museum was set up in 2013 under Higher Education Quality Enhancement Project (HEQEP) of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

By definition, anatomy is the branch of science which deals with the bodily structure of humans, animals and other living organisms, especially as reveled by dissection and the separation of parts.

As many as 60 skeletons of different animals, including horse, ox, deer, camel, duck, goat, sheep, pigeon, crocodile, snake, lizard, pig, ostrich and monkey, are available in the museum.

Besides, the museum displays 30 stuffed animals, 500 specimens preserved in formaldehyde, 2,000 different types of bones, 75 models of different animals and 3,000 different slides. Dried soft organs of some animals are also preserved in the museum.

The university authorities have not fixed any entrance fee yet.

Therefore, anyone can visit the

A view of country’s first anatomy museum located on the campus of Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University RABIN CHOWDHURY museum free of cost on weekdays.

“We have a very rich collection of anatomical specimens in the museum. The museum houses skeletons of different types of mammals, birds, reptiles, primates and ruminants,” said Prof Dr Mohammad Lutfur Rahman, chairperson of department of anatomy and histology, CVASU. “The students will gain handson knowledge from the museum.

Besides, evolutionary anatomists, anthropologists, ornithologists, zoologists, wildlife conservationists, embryologists and paleontologists will be greatly benefited from the museum,” added Prof Dr Lutfur.

Drawing a line between an anatomical laboratory and an anatomical museum, Prof Dr Lutfur Rahman, said: “The educational institutes of our country do have some anatomical laboratories. However, the laboratories cannot be called museums. A museum remains open for a visitor. From that point of view, we can say that this is the country’s first anatomical museum in the true sense of the definition.

“The veterinary students will be greatly benefited from the museum as they have a subject called ‘Comparative Anatomy’. Comparative anatomy is the comparative study of the body structure of different

Entering Bangladesh’s territory BSF takes away cattle, crops n Moazzem Hossain, Lalmonirhat Members of the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) took away cattle and crops entering Bangladesh’s territory in Patgram upazila, Lalmonirhat yesterday, just a day after the BSF came to a consensus with its Bangladeshi counterpart to work together to investigate criminal activities which are taking place in border areas of the both countries.

The BGB, however, sent a letter to the authorities of the BSF, protesting the looting incident. They also requested the BSF to arrange a flag meeting.

Quoting locals, the BGB sources said a team of the BSF from Kuchbihar camp, West Bengal entered Dahagram union parishad and exploded several grenades. Later, they looted 12 cows, a van loaded with maize and valuables.

Local sources said a tense situation was prevailing in the area, although BGB members were on strong vigilance.

BGB’s Lalmonirhat 15 battalion’s Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Ahmad Bazlur Rahman Hayati said on receiving information, BGB members went to the spot and brought the situation under control.

In the afternoon, a flag meeting was held

where Bazlur Rahman led four member-BGB team and Lieutenant Colonel Ajoy Kumar Luthara led the BSF team.

When contacted, Bazlur Rahman said the two-hour meeting was fruitful and the BSF expressed sorrow for the incident.

Despite repeated assurance from India’s side, criminal activities, including looting and killing, by the BSF members go rampant in border areas, much to create concern among people of Bangladesh.

On Saturday, the BSF shot a teenager to death while he was plucking mangoes in an orchard in Goalpara border area under Jibonnagar upazila of Chuadanga.

The deceased was Shihab Uddin, 16, son of Mahabul Halsana of Goalpaara village.

Minister for Home Affairs Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal recently told newsmen that at least 146 Bangladeshi citizens had been killed by the Indian Border Security Force and Indian civilians along borders since 2012.

Of them, 34 were killed in 2012, 28 in 2013, 40 in 2014, 39 in 2015 and five persons till April 18, 2016.

Besides, the Border Guard Bangladesh handed over 423 Indian citizens, who were picked up while crossing border, to the BSF. l

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species of animals in order to understand the adaptive changes they have undergone in the course of evolution from common ancestors,” added Prof Dr Lutfur.

“Skeletons of Asian Elephant, camel, female deer and Indian rock python are some of the unique collections of the museum. We have a rich collection of stuffed or taxidermic animals in the museum like local cock, geese, pigeons, lizard, guinea pig, mongoose, rabbit, wood pecker and king fisher,” said Dr Shubrata Kumar Shil, assistant professor, department of anatomy and histology, CVASU. Taxidermy is the art or process of preparing, stuffing and mounting animal skins so that they have a lifelike appearance.

Talking about the process of collecting skeletons, Dr Shubrata Kumar Shil, said that the process of collecting anatomical specimens was a bit cumbersome.

“Some of the bone specimens were collected from slaughter houses. As you know that we have a veterinary hospital at the university. We also collect the animals which die at the hospital,” said Dr Shubrata.

Asked about the lack of vigorous campaign, Dr Shubrata said that they had undertaken a number of plans to popularise the museum among the people. l

AL LEADER FARUK MURDER CASE

Court orders seizure of MP Rana, nine others’ assets Afzal Hossain, n Mohammed Tangail A Tangail court yesterday ordered seizure of all assets belong to 10 accused, including lawmaker of Tangail constituency 3 Amanur Rahman Rana and his 3 brothers, in the killing case of Awami League leader and freedom fighter Faruk Ahmed.

Senior Judicial Magistrate Golam Kibria passed the order following a petition filed by officerin-charge of Detective Branch (DB) of police Mahfizur Rahman, also investigation officer of the case.

The court also asked the accused to surrender before it by June 16.

Earlier on April 6, a court issued a warrant for 10 accused accepting the charge sheet submitted by Inspector Golam Mahfizur Rahman on February 3.

Inspector of Tangail court Anwarul Islam said an order asking to seize property of nine accused were sent to Tangail Sadar police station while another was sent to Kalihati police station to seize property of an accused.

OC of Tangail Sadar police station Nazmul Haque Bhuiyan said they yet to receive any directive from the court in this regard. Faruk was shot dead on January 18, 2013. l

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TOP STORIES

Myanmar religious tolerance activists face police action Myanmar police said Monday said they have begun legal action against five protesters over a weekend rally intended to promote religious tolerance.

PAGE 9

The main entrance of India’s parliament building in New Delhi

CREATIVE COMMONS

ANALYSIS

BJP to make significant gain in Rajya Sabha polls next month Hillary Clinton is under pressure to do well in Democratic nominating contests in Kentucky and Oregon on Tuesday so she can turn her attention to the general election and the mounting attacks on her

by Republican candidate Donald Trump.

PAGE 10

Qatar bachelor ban tests relations with migrant workers As Nami Hader, a 30-year-old gardener from Nepal, approached the entrance to a park outside Qatar’s second city Al Khor one day last month, a security guard blocked his way.

PAGE 10

The Indian National Congress (INC) will remain the single largest party in the India’s upper House Rajya Sabha, but the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will make considerable gains following the June 11 elections to 57 seats in the 250-member upper assembly.

The gap between the two parties will narrow considerably, providing solace to the ruling BJP. The party’s bench strength is expected to go up to 52 after the election, which was notified by the Election Commission last week, while the Congress’ tally will fall to 58 seats.

The BJP can also now count on the support of six new members who were recently nominated to the upper House. The figure will go up to seven once the sole vacancy in the nominated category is filled. While these members can vote independently, they usually favour the government that nominates them.

The change in the composition of the upper House will come as a relief to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, which, being in the minority, has been struggling to push through its legislative agenda in the Rajya Sabha.

For instance, the ruling alliance has not been able to push through the Goods and Services Tax Bill because it hasn’t had the numbers in the Rajya Sabha. It has been dependent on the INC, which has set three pre-conditions for supporting the legislation.

Gaining in strength

Of the 57 members whose term ended on Friday, 14 each belong to the BJP and the Congress. The BJP’s figure will go up to 17 after the June election, while the Congress’ numbers will come down by eight. The Congress has got a bonus of one seat after the Supreme Court restored the state government in Uttarakhand. However, it is not in a position to win the seat from Gujarat which fell vacant after the death of its sitting member last Thursday.

The BJP will pick up all four seats in Rajasthan as the party had swept the 2013 assembly polls in the state. Similarly, the ruling party will also be able win three seats from Maharashtra on the back of its outstanding performance in the 2014 assembly election. Among the BJP members who have retired are federal ministers M Venkaiah Naidu, Piyush Goel, Suresh Prabhu, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Nirmala Sitharaman, Birender Singh and YS Chowdhary.

Naqvi is hoping to return to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh where the BJP can win one seat, while Goel and Prabhu will have no problems winning from Maharashtra. While it is certain that Naidu and Sitharaman will return to the upper House, it is not clear which states they will be fielded from.

If the BJP wants to field Sitharaman from Andhra Pradesh again, it will have to walk the extra mile to placate chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party. Naidu has been sulking

HOW THE RAJYA SABHA LOOKS NOW

245 seats

109 OTHERS

66 NDA

70 UPA

Mohammad Razon / Dhaka Tribune

Oregon, Kentucky primaries put pressure on Hillary Clinton

n Tribune International Desk

because central government has yet to fulfil its promise of a special economic package for the redrawn state. Birender Singh will be re-elected from his home state Haryana, and MJ Akbar is likely to be fielded by the BJP from Jharkhand, where it can get one seat.

Reduced tally

As for the Congress, there is no hope of returning for three members – JD Seelam, Jairam Ramesh and Hanumanth Rao – from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh as the grand old party lost control of the two states in the last assembly election. Ramesh is hoping to get re-nominated from Karnataka, where the Congress can win two seats. Sitting member Oscar Fernandes has already been named, but the second seat is up for grabs.

The strength of the Janata Dal

(United) is set to come down from five to two as it now has to share the spoils with its Bihar ally, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). Dormer JD(U) president Sharad Yadav is expected to return to the upper House. However, there is still no clarity on the second name. The other four members who retired on Friday include party spokesperson KC Tyagi, Pawan Verma, Ghulam Rasool Baliyawi and RCP Singh.

The results of the Tamil Nadu assembly elections, which will be declared this week, will decide how the six vacancies in the state will be shared. The AIADMK has 12 members while the DMK has four, but the equation could well change after the results. l

This is an excerpt of a SCROLL.IN article, which can be found at http://bit. ly/25aElJx

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Triple IS blasts kill 63 in Baghdad n Reuters, Baghdad Three bombings killed at least 63 people and wounded more than 100 in Baghdad on Tuesday, police and medical sources said, extending the deadliest spate of attacks in the Iraqi capital so far this year.

A suicide bombing claimed by Islamic State in a marketplace in the northern, mainly Shia Muslim district of al-Shaab killed 38 people and wounded over 70, while a car bomb in nearby Shia Sadr City left at least 19 more dead and 17 wounded.

Another car bomb, in the mixed Shia-Sunni southern neighbourhood of al-Rasheed, killed six and wounded 21, the sources said, in what a military spokesman described as a suicide attack.

Security has improved somewhat in Baghdad in recent years, even as the Salafist militant Islamic State (IS) seized swathes of the country almost up to the outskirts of the capital.

People gather at the site of a car bomb attack in Baghdad's mainly Shia district of Sadr City on Tuesday REUTERS But attacks claimed by IS in and around the city last week killed more than 100 people, sparking anger in the streets over the government’s failure to ensure security.

There are fears that Baghdad could relapse into the bloodlet-

ting of a decade ago when sectarian-motivated suicide bombings killed scores of people every week.

That has cranked up pressure on Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to resolve a political crisis or risk losing control of parts of Baghdad

even as the military wages a counter-offensive against Islamic State in Iraq’s north and west with the help of a US-led coalition.

Abadi has said the crisis, sparked by his attempt to reshuffle the cabinet in an anti-corruption bid, is hampering the fight against Islamic State and creating space for more insurgent attacks on the civilian population.

A spokesman for the Baghdad Operations Command told state television the attacker in the alShaab neighbourhood had detonated an explosives-filled vest in coordination with a planted bomb.

Initial investigations revealed that the bomber was a woman, he said.

Islamic State said in a statement distributed online by supporters that one of its fighters had targeted Shi’ite militiamen with hand grenades and a suicide vest.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the other two bombings. l

Myanmar religious tolerance activists face police action

Singapore, Philippines central banks move to tighten cybersecurity

n AFP, Yangon

n Reuters, Singapore/Manila

Myanmar police said Monday said they have begun legal action against five protesters over a weekend rally intended to promote religious tolerance.

The move came as rights groups raise concerns about efforts by the new pro-democracy government to amend draconian laws on demonstrations.

Dozens of activists and students marched through Yangon on Saturday in a rare gesture of religious solidarity in the diverse nation, where rising Buddhist nationalism has stoked anti-Muslim sentiment and sporadic bouts of bloodshed in recent years.

Police said they decided to take action against five rally leaders -believed to be three women and two men of several faiths -- because the campaigners had deviated from the agreed protest route.

They now face a charge that could land them in jail for up to six months under a controversial law, currently being reviewed by the new government led by political prisoner-turned-politician Aung San Suu Kyi. “We have started legal action against five protest leaders under Section 19 of the Peaceful Assembly Act,” police Lieutenant Major Win Tin from Kyauktada township said.

Suu Kyi’s party is stacked with former dissidents who served prison time for their opposition to My-

anmar’s military governments during decades of repressive rule.

They are now in government following a landslide November election victory.

Since taking the helm the administration has freed scores of activists and political prisoners and signalled its determination to repeal oppressive laws.

But rights groups have raised the alarm over a number of provisions in a draft amendment to the Peaceful Assembly Act. They fear these will continue to penalise non-violent demonstrations, albeit with shorter jail terms.

“You don’t need these punishments in your draft. If you remove these three or four things then it’s pretty good and you won’t be condemning another generation of peaceful protesters for breaking a flawed law,” said David Mathieson of Human Rights Watch.

He said the revised law would still give “carte blanche to abusive local officials” to prosecute activists and urged a rethink.

The proposed draft would mean protesters must still give local police 48 hours’ notice of the place and time of any rally, as well as details of planned speeches and slogans.

Those who protest without giving prior notice could be imprisoned for three months, while repeat offenders could face a year behind bars.

Parliament is due to debate the law in the coming days. l

Singapore’s central bank has asked banks to maintain a high level of security for their critical IT systems following recent cyber attacks using the SWIFT financial messaging system.

And in the Philippines, the central bank was crafting more regulations to help banks and other financial institutions fend off cyber heists and minimise damage after any systems breach, a senior official said.

The actions come after Vietnam’s Tien Phong Bank said earlier this week it had interrupted an attempted cyber heist that involved the use of fraudulent SWIFT messages, the same technique at the heart of February’s massive theft from the Bangladesh Bank.

The two attacks through SWIFT, used by about 11,000 banks and institutions around the world, have sent tremors through the global financial industry.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore “expects financial institutions to implement strong controls in their IT systems as set out in the MAS Technology Risk Management Guidelines”, a spokeswoman said in response to media queries.

“This includes maintaining a high level of security for

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their critical IT systems, such as SWIFT.” Singapore’s monetary authority, commonly known as MAS, would continue to monitor the security landscape and threats faced by the financial industry and provide guidance where necessary, the spokeswoman said.

Nestor Espenilla, the Philippines’ central bank deputy governor in charge of banking supervision, said cyber threats were growing.

“That basically reminds us that there is absolutely no room for complacency,” he told reporters. “We consider it to be a very serious threat that financial institutions should really be preparing for.”

Regulators were looking at requiring banks to immediately report cyber crime to contain the threat and to ensure financial institutions learn from each other, Espenilla said.

The additional measures would also elevate information technology standards of banks to align them with international norms, he said.

The central bank had also boosted its own defences, he said.

About $81m stolen from Bangladesh in the cyber heist went to bank accounts in the Philippines and most remains missing. l

SOUTH ASIA

Sri Lanka flood toll hits 11, thousands homeless Emergency workers in Sri Lanka on Tuesday found the bodies of a woman and two children killed in a landslide, taking the toll from two days of heavy rain to 11, with thousands more forced to flee their homes. Over 200,000 individuals have been displaced by the floods and are being looked after at several welfare centres.

-AFP

INDIA

Indian police arrest man over Facebook post Karnataka Police Tuesday arrested a man for posting a doctored image on Facebook after ruling BJP complained about the post. The image showed Modi touching the feet of Akbaruddin Owaisi, a controversial Muslim legislator from neighbouring Telangana state who has been prosecuted for making derogatory remarks about Prime Minister Modi in the past. -AFP

CHINA

Hong Kong under tight security for Chinese official’s visit Hong Kong authorities rolled out a massive security operation on Tuesday as they braced for protests during a top Beijing official’s visit to the semi-autonomous city, where tensions are rising over Chinese rule. Thousands of police officers were deployed as Zhang Dejiang, China’s third-highest-ranking Communist Party official, began his three-day “inspection visit” to the former British colony.

-REUTERS

ASIA PACIFIC

Russia to sign arms deal with Indonesia Russia will this week sign deals with Indonesia to supply unspecified arms and for ammunition to be manufactured under license, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters on Tuesday. He said the deals would be signed at a Russia-Asean summit in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi later this week and that President Vladimir Putin would receive Indonesian President Joko Widodo in Sochi on Wednesday.

-REUTERS

MIDDLE EAST

Lebanon seeks to ease concerns over US law on Hezbollah The Lebanese prime minister sought to ease concerns about a new US law targeting Hezbollah’s finances in comments published on Monday, after the group attacked the central bank for agreeing to measures it depicts as part of a war against it.

The US Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act passed in December threatens sanctions against anyone who finances Hezbollah in a significant way. -REUTERS

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USA

MSF urges US to pay Afghan hospital victims A leading medical charity that suffered massive losses when US helicopter gunships mistakenly struck its clinic in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz is criticising the US for failing to pay compensation to the wounded and families of the Afghans killed in the assault last October. The organization, known by its French initials MSF, has decided - at least for now - not to resume operations in Kunduz. -AP

THE AMERICAS

Deadly attack on Haiti police headquarters Gunmen stormed a police headquarters in southern Haition Monday leaving at least 6 killed in a shootout and a related accident in an apparent uprising attempt days after the volatile country missed a deadline to sign in a new president. The police chief for Haiti’s southern region, Luc Pierre, said gunmen in military fatigues attacked at night in the coastal city of Les Cayes.

-REUTERS

UK

Survey: Ethnic minorities could hold key to Britain’s EU referendum Britain’s ethnic minorities could hold the key to deciding the outcome to the June 23 referendum on membership of the EU, with non-white voters strongly in support of staying in the bloc, according to a survey. However, ethnic minority groups are far less likely to vote, according to the findings by the British Election Study.

-REUTERS

EUROPE

Turkey rules out reforming its terror laws Turkey’s foreign minister insists his country will not revise its terrorism laws and says EU pressure on Turkey over the issue is tantamount to support for terrorism. The EU says Turkey must meet several conditions, including narrowing its legal definition of terrorism, in order for Turks to enjoy visa-free travel to Europe’s passport-free Schengen zone. -AP

AFRICA

Red Cross targets $110m drought relief for Southern Africa The International Federation of Red Cross and the Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has launched an appeal for $110m to a new initiative to help drought-stricken southern African countries. An estimated 31.6m people across the region are struggling to feed themselves, and the figure is expected to rise to more than 49m by the end of the year.

-REUTERS

INSIGHT

Oregon, Kentucky primaries put pressure on Hillary Clinton n Reuters, Washington, DC Hillary Clinton is under pressure to do well in Democratic nominating contests in Kentucky and Oregon on Tuesday so she can turn her attention to the general election and the mounting attacks on her by Republican candidate Donald Trump.

The continued presence in the race of Bernie Sanders – who remains a long-shot to upset Clinton and win the Democratic nomination – is prompting concerns among Clinton allies that he will damage her ability to take on Trump and hurt the Democrat in the fall.

But Sanders supporters shrug off that worry, arguing that Trump is such a flawed candidate that Clinton will easily despatch with him if she faces him in the November 8 election.

In interviews with 14 voters who back the US senator from Vermont, supporters said they did

not believe Trump, who is all but certain to be the Republican nominee, could win the election.

They said Sanders should keep fighting until the Democratic National Convention in July, to push Clinton to the left and challenge her ties to Wall Street and support for free-trade deals.

Tough slog for Clinton

Allies of Clinton have held back from overt calls for Sanders to exit the race. Moves by her campaign to try to push him out could risk angering Democratic voters and backfire.

So Clinton must continue her primary fight in Kentucky and Oregon, where analysts predict she will have a hard time winning. The Democratic race is unlikely to wrap up before California, New Jersey and several other states vote on June 7.

Oregon, with a heavily white, liberal population, politically resembles its northern neighbour Washington, which voted for Sanders.

Oregon voters cast their ballots by mail, meaning voting there actually

Hillary Clinton greets supporters at Transylvania University in Kentucky REUTERS began in the last week of April.

After Sanders won both West Virginia and Indiana this month, analysts said he has a good chance of taking Kentucky.

Both Oregon and Kentucky are closed primaries in which only registered Democrats can vote, a stricture Sanders has criticised as discouraging independent voters from joining the party.

Sanders has insisted that he will stay in the presidential election

until the Democratic convention on July 25-28 and planned two rallies in California on Wednesday.

Some Democrats are concerned Trump could repeat any criticisms Sanders makes against Clinton.

Clinton allies also worry that Sanders could so damage the former US secretary of state in the eyes of his supporters that they will choose not to vote in November if he is not on the ballot. Sanders supporters played down this concern. l

Qatar bachelor ban tests relations with migrant workers n Reuters, AL Khor As Nami Hader, a 30-year-old gardener from Nepal, approached the entrance to a park outside Qatar’s second city Al Khor one day last month, a security guard blocked his way.

“No bachelors,” the guard said.

The newly-renovated park - its boating lake, miniature golf course and neatly manicured lawns - was off-limits to men unaccompanied by women or children, the guard said. “It’s for families only.”

So-called “bachelor bans” that bar lone men from entering malls and parks on certain days of the week and from living in residential neighbourhoods are a common, often loosely-enforced, practice in the conservative Muslim Gulf.

Local authorities say the measure, enforced by businesses and municipalities, allows families and women who live in crowded and male-dominated cities space to enjoy public facilities.

But a recent ramping up of family-only rules in Qatar is excluding the country’s vast South Asian workforce, mostly young men who live as temporary residents away from their families, and cutting them off from society, rights groups say.

The small Gulf Arab state’s reliance on foreign workers to power a

elected body the Central Municipal Council, is petitioning the government to introduce family-only days in malls across the country.

No-go housing zones

South Asian visitors walk at Aspire Park in Doha on April 8 $200bn construction boom ahead of the 2022 World Cup has drawn criticism from labour unions who say migrants are exploited and forced to live in squalid conditions.

A government official said Qatar was seeking to improve conditions for migrant workers.

The tremendous influx of workers has also raised concern among Qataris - outnumbered by foreigners in their own country - that rapid demographic change threatens their way of life.

Qatar’s population stands at 2.6m, 75% of whom are male, according to the country’s ministry of planning.

No one knows exactly how many Qatari citizens there are as the government refuses to release a total but estimates say there are between 200,000 to 250,000.

REUTERS

Unsettled by development pace

“Bachelor workers are eroding the privacy and comfort of families,” Rashed Al Fadeh, a Qatari journalist, wrote in a column for local Arabic-language daily al-Sharq last year, saying workers overrunning neighbourhoods was damaging Qatar’s social fabric.

“Some Qatari families have abandoned habits inherent to them and no longer open their doors to visitors. This hurts us. We are accustomed to being generous towards outsiders ... but now the purity of our lives, sleep and rest is disturbed.”

Unsettled by the ferocious pace of development and the strain it has put on resources in his home city of Al Khor, 50km north of the capital Doha, Nasser al-Mohannadi, a member of Qatar’s only

Authorities have in recent months taken steps to further separate workers from locals: Interior Ministry maps which highlight in stark green and yellow Doha’s “no-go” housing zones for migrant workers were plastered last month on billboards across the capital.

“Honestly it’s embarrassing for all bachelors around Doha,” said Sudeep Paraaj, a steel worker from India’s Kerala province.

“Friday is a day off for us but if we go to the parks or the big markets we are turned away. It is sad.

Doha is limited for us.”

Migrant workers who live in labour camps in the desert outside cities often travel to shopping malls in the capital on weekends to transfer money home.

Other workers use plywood to partition villas in Doha into separate apartments, defying a 2010 law that rules it illegal for workers to live in “family areas”.

A government official said relations between local citizens and expatriates were “harmonious” and “deeply respectful” and that Qatar was working to improve facilities for its more than 1.6m workers. l

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TOP STORIES Surplus rice export in the offing

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed yesterday said the government has decided to export surplus rice to give a cushion to the farmers. The minister came up with the announcement at a view exchange meeting with the traders to discuss the situation of essential commodity market ahead of Ramadan at his office yesterday.

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Saudi Arabia aims to salvage white elephant financial district

The plan to build a financial district from scratch was viewed by Saudi Arabia’s neighbors as among the glossiest excesses of the kingdom’s oil boom profligacy: a white elephant in the making, unlikely to attract tenants and possibly never even to be completed.

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Default loans see steep rise in March n Jebun Nesa Alo The banking sector experienced a steep rise in default loans of Tk8,000 crore in March, thanks to the tough stance of Bangladesh Bank on the issue of compliance with the loan classification rule.

The default loan rate climbed to 9.92% in January-March quarter from 8.79% in October-December quarter last year, according to the data prepared by the Banking Regulation and Policy Department (BRPD) of Bangladesh Bank.

The total classified loan amount rose to Tk59,411 crore against the outstanding amount of Tk5,98,648 crore during the first quarter of this year compared to Tk51,371 crore against Tk5,84,615 crore in the last quarter of previous year, the data showed.

The six state-owned banks have mostly higher growth in default loans as they recorded a default

Abenomics has over-promised and under-delivered. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s bid to revive anaemic growth, reverse falling prices and rein in government debt has relied too heavily on the central bank and been sideswiped by a global slowdown. Keeping the project alive now requires fresh boldness.

PAGE 15

Capital market snapshot: Tuesday DSE Broad Index

4,326.6

0.9% ▲

Index

1,062.0

0.8% ▲

30 Index

1,689.5

1.4% ▲

Turnover in Mn Tk

3,020.3

4.6% ▲

Turnover in Mn Vol

81.3 -17.7% ▼

CSE All Share Index 13,320.9

0.8% ▲

30 Index

0.4% ▲

Selected Index

12,371.2 8,099.7

0.8% ▲

Turnover in Mn Tk

181.7

19.1% ▲

Turnover in Mn Vol

7.0

11.7% ▲

loan of around Tk27,000 crore in March, a rise over Tk3,000 crore from Tk23,700 crore in December last year.

The country’s private banks saw an increase in Tk4,200 crore

in default loans to Tk25,000 crore in the first three months of the current year compared to Tk20,700 crore in the last three months of 2015.

The default loan amount of foreign banks was almost unchanged to Tk1,800 crore during the first quarter of this year.

Bangladesh Bank suspected that high default loan rate may affect the capital adequacy ratio of the banking sector.

The high default loan will need to maintain higher provision that will affect the profit, ultimately edging down the banks’ capital, said a senior executive of BRPD of Bangladesh Bank.

He predicted that the Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR), a ratio that measures bank’s capital to its risk, may come down to 10.5% compared to the regulatory requirement of 10.62% for March.

The CAR was 10.84% in December last year above the regulatory requirement, he said.

The default loan rate slipped significantly in December last year, as traditionally banks remain relaxed in classifying loans to avoid high provision at the year end.

Bangladesh Bank also appeared in relaxed mood so that commercial banks can show handsome profit, said a senior executive of a private bank.

Moreover, loan rescheduling facilities helped banks cut default loans last year, but from the beginning of this year, the central bank tightened its monitoring on the loans rescheduled by taking advantage of relaxed policy.

Moreover, the central bank emphasised the need for compliance with the classification rule which pulled up the default loan rate, he said. l

World Bank: Half of Bangladesh farmers using excess fertiliser n Shohel Mamun

Abenomics has over-promised and under-delivered

Bangladesh Bank suspected that high default loan rate may affect capital adequacy ratio of banking sector. The high default loan will need to maintain higher provision that will affect profit

Almost half of the farmers in the country are using excess fertiliser in an attempt to produce more crops, says a new World Bank report.

The World Bank launched the report titled “Dynamics of Rural Growth in Bangladesh: Sustainable Poverty Reduction” at the CIRDAP auditorium in the city yesterday.

The study has been conducted in partnership with the Planning Commission.

According to the report, almost half of the farmers overuse fertiliser and its excessive use leads to create environmental and health hazards.

However, an Additional Secretary of the Agriculture Ministry Nazmul Islam, however, ran counter to what the World Bank report said.

Speaking as a special guest, Nazmul reacted sharply as saying: “The information about the excessive use of fertiliser is not at all true nowadays, because it is not a common phenomenon in Bangladesh any further as we have already trained up our farmers.”

Urging the World Bank to correct its information on excessive use of fertiliser he said: “There might be a few areas where a handful of farmers are still using excess fertiliser.”

The report was presented by Madhur Gautam, lead economist of

the World Bank and also team leader of the study while Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain attended the ceremony as chief guest.

The World Bank study identifies key changes in the rural economy, principal drivers of rural income, policy implications, and actions needed to foster growth, reduce poverty, and improve food security and nutrition.

“Agriculture is a leading contributor to poverty reduction in Bangladesh since 2000. The country now needs to shift towards high-value agriculture, including horticulture, livestock, and fisheries as well as greater value addition to improve farmers’ income and household nutrition. Pro-poor agricultural growth has stimulated the non-farm economy,” reads the World Bank report.

According to the report, it estimates that a 10% rise in farm income generates a 6% rise in non-farm income. Hence, the growth of the non-farm economy largely depends on agriculture. Although rural non-farm employment is almost 2 times higher than all urban employment put together, non-farm activities are not progressing sufficiently in scope or sophistication. The report calls for greater attention to foster a robust

rural non-farm economy.

“Bangladesh has raised agricultural productivity significantly in the last few decades. It is remarkable that, with so many people and so little arable land, the country has been able to provide sufficient food for almost everyone,” said World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal Qimiao Fan. “While rice will remain its focus, Bangladesh needs to find effective ways to diversify its agriculture, as well as adapt to a changing climate.”

Bangladesh is widely recognized for its progress in human development, but its achievements in agriculture remain little known.

Several factors supported the sector’s growth: extensive irrigation, high-yielding varieties, more effi-

cient markets, and mechanization, all backed by policy reforms and investments in agriculture research, human capital, and roads, the report said.

Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain said: “The findings of the report that growth of non-farm activities depends on connectivity, and whereas mega cities are benefiting from connectivity, poorly connected secondary cities are falling behind.”

The government is investing in rural transportation in order to facilitate non-farm activities in rural areas, he added.

The migration is a rapidly growing phenomenon and the impact of remittance on the rural economy is substantial which has been left out from the study, he said. l

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Surplus rice export NBR to set over Tk2,00,00cr revenue target for FY’17 in the offing n Ibrahim Hossain Ovi Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed yesterday said the government has decided to export surplus rice to give a cushion to the farmers.

The minister came up with the announcement at a view exchange meeting with the traders to discuss the situation of essential commodity market ahead of Ramadan at his office yesterday.

“Last year, Bangladesh produced 3.87 crore tonnes of rice. After meeting the domestic demand, there will have about 30-40 lakh tonnes of surplus rice which the government can export,” said Tofail.

But the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistic (BBS) data showed that last year the country produced 3.33 crore tonnes of rice against the demand of around 3.6 crore tonnes.

The Commerce Ministry is on the lookout for market exploration so that rice can be exported to even African countries, the minister said.

Some private companies have shown interest in exporting rice and they have been asked to explore markets, he added.

“If we get export markets and can export rice there, it would give some benefits to our farmers.” l

n Tribune Business Desk The government may set the revenue earning target from National Board of Revenue at Tk2,03,152 crore for the next fiscal year, with the highest from value-added tax.

The likely target is Tk26,782 crore more than the original target of the current fiscal year and Tk53,152 crore than the year’s revised target.

As of now, the lion revenue share came from income tax. But the government now wants to shift its focus to VAT. In the fiscal year 2016-17, the

VAT wing alone will, therefore, have to mobilise around 37.5% of the total revenue target.

Official sources said of the total target, around Tk75,743 crore will come from VAT, around Tk73,600 crore from income tax and Tk53,600 crore from customs duty in next fiscal.

To achieve this large revenue target from VAT, NBR says it will focus on expansion of the VAT base. Efforts like bringing shops at upazila and union levels under the VAT system have been taken to this end.

It will also make the use of Electronic Cash Register machines

mandatory for the major shops from next fiscal year.

The government will also put attention to preventing loopholes in VAT collection and will take necessary steps against VAT evasion to reach the gigantic target, officials said.

This fiscal year (2015-16), the NBR has so far mobilised Tk1,05,432 crore revenue while the year’s total revised target is Tk1,50,000 crore.

Of the amount, the customs wing has collected Tk32,338.05 crore, VAT wing Tk39,915.43 crore, and income tax wing has collected Tk53,436 crore. l

NCC Bank MD: Big budget to open up investment opportunity n Jebun Nesa Alo The National Credit and Commerce Bank Limited Managing Director Golam Hafiz Ahmed yesterday said big budget will bring investment opportunity for banking sector struggling to get business for a long time amid political uncertainty. ‘’The banking business will grow while big projects will start functioning, getting allocation from the budget’’ he said, while addressing a press briefing on the occasion of 23rd anniversary of the bank.

He emphasised the need for improvement of governance to take the advantage of a big budget.

Hafiz addressed current situation of IT security in the banking sector saying that the

central bank’s reserve heist opens up eyes of banks.

He said banks took lesson from the cyber heist and investing more in IT sector to secure their network system.

The deposit rate in the banking sector is falling fast than lending rate as banks focused on business expansion last year by accelerating credit growth, he said.

NCC bank reduced its deposit rate last year as its strategic plan to reduce cost and the plan started to work since credit growth of the bank rose.

The credit growth of the bank was 27% as of April while its default loan rate was 7.20% as of March this year. The Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) of the bank is 13.5%, far above from the regulatory requirement of 10%. l

Stocks gain for 2nd day n Tribune Business Desk Stocks gained for the second consecutive day yesterday amid limited participation in trading.

The market opened higher in the morning with a sluggish mood, which continued till close.

The benchmark index DSEX gained 38 points or 1% to close at 4,326.

The Shariah index DSES rose almost 9 points or 1% to 1,062. The blue chip comprising index DS30 was up by 23 points or 1.4% to 1,689.

The Chittagong Stock Ex-

change Selective Category Index CSCX ended at 8,099, rising 63 points.

Trading activity remained slow as the DSE turnover stood at over Tk300 crore, an increase of around 4.6% over previous session, with Tk14 crore coming from the block transactions.

Power and engineering were the major turnover contributors, grabbing 17.8% and 15.5% of the day’s total trade value respectively.

Almost all the sectors moved up modestly, with food and allied leading the way by gaining 0.7%. l

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A man views the under-construction King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia REUTERS

Saudi Arabia aims to salvage white elephant financial district n Reuters, Riyadh The plan to build a financial district from scratch was viewed by Saudi Arabia’s neighbors as among the glossiest excesses of the kingdom’s oil boom profligacy: a white elephant in the making, unlikely to attract tenants and possibly never even to be completed.

The creators of the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) envisaged a kind of mini-Dubai, a haven for foreign financial services and investors as well as local banks and companies currently doing business from offices all over Riyadh.

But more than 10 years later - and a year after it was supposed to be finished - most of the 1.6-million-sq-metre district on the edge of Riyadh is still a construction site, and no businesses have moved in.

Reform-minded Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said last month he wants to salvage the $10 billion project. The Public Investment Fund, reimagined as the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, will be based there and sources have said it will also own the project.

According to the prince’s “Vision 2030”, KAFD will become a “special zone” with internationally competitive regulations, an easier visa regime and a direct connection to the airport, steps he hopes will “increase the chances of ... success”.

Another change is to increase the amount of residential use from the 1.7 million sq meters now designated for office space. According to a 2015 report by real estate analyst Jones Lang LaSalle, rents are bottoming out in Riyadh’s current 2.5 million sq meters of office space but prices for residential units are rising.

Potential tenants and investors are both hopeful and

skeptical about the plan.

“The potential is amazing.

The inside is impressive. I’d like to live there,” said one Dubai-based expatriate who does business in Saudi and who has toured the site. “As an urban space it’s interesting, with its design and architecture.”

He questioned how successful the project could be in the current economic climate, however. The main contractor is Saudi Binladen Group, the biggest construction firm in the kingdom, which has been struggling since last year.

“It will not be finished. Decision-making is very slow (on the project, and) people don’t have cash,” he said. Like other business people interviewed for this story, he didn’t want to be named expressing an opinion about such an important royal initiative.

A senior Saudi former banker expressed similar concerns.

“If the plan does create a genuine free zone and makes things smoother for newcomers, it’ll be ‘bingo!’” he said, but added that a recovery in the oil-dependent economy was key.

Another senior Gulf banker said his firm had no plans to move into the complex despite its “impressive” looks, and expressed concern that banks might only be able to rent, rather than own, buildings there.

At the moment, visas can take many days to arrange and require a complex process of invitation by a sponsor and plenty of supplementary documentation. Setting up a business means getting permissions from many government departments.

Mustafa Alani, a security expert with close ties to the Saudi Interior Ministry, said visa exemptions could work like the waiver program in the United States, or like residence permits issued by free zones in the United Arab Emirates.v l

Abenomics has over-promised and under-delivered n Quentin Webb Abenomics has over-promised and under-delivered. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s bid to revive anaemic growth, reverse falling prices and rein in government debt has relied too heavily on the central bank and been sideswiped by a global slowdown.

Keeping the project alive now requires fresh boldness.

When he took office in December 2012, Abe set out to lift real economic growth to 2% a year, with consumer prices rising at the same rate. His main weapons were the famous “three arrows” of aggressive monetary policy, a flexible fiscal stance, and widespread structural reform.

Abe has achieved some success. Unemployment is just 3.2%, a low last seen in 1997. In his first three calendar years in office, the economy expanded about 5% in nominal terms. A weaker yen has helped deliver record corporate earnings; as of May 13 the Topix stock index had returned 70% including dividends. Prices have inched upwards.

But the core targets remain out of reach. The International Monetary Fund expects Japan’s GDP to grow just 0.5% this year. Even after cutting out volatile prices for fresh food and energy, the Bank of Japan’s preferred measure of inflation is running at just 1.1%.

And the central bank keeps delaying its deadline for hitting the 2% target, which it now expects to reach in the year ending March 2018. Analysts still think that optimistic.

Meanwhile, the yen has rallied unhelpfully and the BOJ faces accusations it is ineffective, after unexpectedly making no change to policy at its last meeting.

Orthodoxy

One snag is psychological: the deflationary mindset is hard to shake. Firms can borrow very cheaply yet hoard lots of cash and resist big pay rises. Workers are not pushy about wage hikes, and reluctant to spend.

There were errors, too. Abe faced concerns that Japan’s government debt, at 2.4 times GDP, could become unsustainable. So he kept fiscal policy relatively orthodox, promising that taxes would cover public

spending, excluding interest payments, by 2020. He hiked the country’s sales tax in 2014, denting growth and confidence. And he relied heavily on BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, whose institution now buys an extraordinary 80tn yen a year ($740bn) of bonds. Meanwhile, structural reforms remain far from complete – in everything from encouraging more women into the workforce to reconsidering a deep aversion to immigration.

So is it time for Abe to ditch his main goals? Yes and no. The inflation target is ambitious after decades of falling prices, especially as many developed nations are now grappling with similar issues.

But it remains worth shooting for, not least because aiming lower would invite currency appreciation. The real GDP growth target is less useful, and could be replaced by a goal for nominal output.

Illegal helicopters

For a truly radical move, the central bank could unleash its unlimited ability to print money. Governor Kuroda says “helicopter money”, which is usually taken to mean handing central bank cash directly to citizens, is illegal – and those around him think he means it, Reuters says. But Deutsche Bank analysts have argued this and other kinds of “monetary financing” are actually doable in Japan, albeit sometimes subject to parliamentary or prime ministerial approval.

The true bombshell, as championed by former UK regulator Adair Turner, would be for the central bank to effectively write off the government debt it owns by converting it into interest-free bonds.

That would spur growth by loosening the shackles on the state, which would no longer have to worry about fiscal rectitude.

And it would embolden households to spend more, knowing tax hikes were not looming ahead. Abenomics may not be there quite yet. But that would be a truly bold reboot. l Quentin Webb is an Associate Editor at Reuters Breakingviews.

The article was initially published at Reuters.

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The five kinds of girlfriends every woman needs Because life is a road trip, and it’s always better shared with friends

n Sabrina Fatma Ahmad

F

riends come in all shapes, sizes and sexes, and can appear at any point in life. Let’s ignore those catty frenemies they’re always portraying on soaps and serials, and talk about the five kinds of femme friends every woman needs.

The Rearview Mirror She may or may not be a cousin or sib, she could be the one school friend you’ve stayed in touch with, or the girl next door, and you may not really have much in common with her anymore, but this is someone you’ve known for a long time, possibly since you were both kids. She’s seen you through your pimples-andbraces phase, has an idea of what your childhood was like. As we move forward in life, evolving into the final version of ourselves, whether by choice or fate, it is important to have that one friend who remembers where we came from. There will be moments when you feel like a failure, or alienated from yourself. It is in those moments that the Rearview Mirror friend can remind you of who you used to be, and how far you’ve come, and it’s an amazing feeling. And even on days that aren’t so dark, it’s always nice to have that one friend you can reminisce with.

The Lighthouse Life can be as tumultuous as a stormy sea, tossing you to heights at one moment, plummeting you to the depths in the next.

In circumstances like this, it’s comforting to have a lighthouse in sight, illuminating the way with a steady beacon.

There is a certain type of woman who can play that role in your life. She might be a little older, or at a stage in life you haven’t reached yet (eg, got

married and had babies before you did), or is proficient in something you aren’t (maybe she’s an accountant, or a doctor, or started her own business). She’s the one you turn to for advice and perspective when you want a peer and not your family to weigh in. Not to be confused with busybodies who offer unsolicited advice, she’s welcoming, but never pushy.

The Vault In this world of gossips, tattlers and oversharers, it is absolutely essential to have a friend who can keep your secrets for you, and skeptics be damned, women like that do exist, and aren’t as rare as one would have you believe. The Vault is a great listener, non-judgemental, and above all discreet. She might be super loyal, or just keeping your secrets because she doesn’t find them all that interesting or relevant to her, but if and when you find yourself a friend who is a Vault, hang on with both hands!

Naga Morich When you bite into a particularly spicy chilli pepper, your mouth may burn for a few minutes, and you might break out into sweat, but afterwards, you feel a rush when the endorphins kick in.

While being surrounded by positive people who boost your self-confidence is always recommended, it’s just as vital to have at least one friend who isn’t afraid to tell it like it is.

PHOTO: BIGSTOCK

She’ll be the one to tell you those jeans aren’t doing your behind any favours, or that your new boyfriend has no right to demand your Facebook password, And her sick burns may, well, burn initially, but after the tears have dried, you acknowledge the truth in her words, and appreciate that much-needed reality check. How do you separate the Naga Morich from the toxic harpies who only want to drag you down? She’s just as upfront with the sincere

compliments, and totally chuffed when things go well with you.

The Nor'wester One of the awesome things about a good Kalboishakhi in April and May is how it comes in with bluster and fanfare, bringing normal life to a standstill, and leaves mayhem in its wake, but you end up feeling refreshed and rejuvenated? Some girls perform just that function in your life.

This is the friend best

enjoyed in small doses. You meet infrequently, but when you do, she pushes you out of your comfort zone and forces you to experience new and exciting things, whether it’s a wild night of partying, or getting that mad new haircut, or simply laughing like you haven’t in months. She’s the spice to your life, that little spark to make your stories worth telling, and you’re happier for knowing her.l

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In conversation with

Wasfia Nazreen

As part of training for Denali, Wasfia paddling a canoe in Columbia River Valley near Wilmer, BC

n National Geographic

W

asfia Nazreen gained acclaim for being the first Bangladeshi to climb the Seven Summits, which she completed in 2015, and now she’s using the momentum to bring her love of the outdoors to young girls. An activist, writer, and social worker, Nazreen’s personal pursuit of climbing has become a worldwide message of celebration and hope for women.

You were working with nonprofits in the Himalayan region, which is where your mountaineering began. Tell us more about that.

Wasfia Nazreen: My base was in Dharamsala, India, but I was traveling a lot in and out of Tibet and Nepal and the greater Himalayan region because of all the mountain people I was working with at that time. For mountain communities, whether it’s Tibetans or Sherpa people, climbing is a sacred journey. It’s not going out to conquer—rather, it is a journey to surrender to the mountain. Everyone I worked with, they might not be in the Western definition “qualified mountaineers,” but they were skilled people on the mountain who also joined in climbing, so that’s how I got introduced to bigger mountains. Even before that, I started trekking while I was studying in Scotland and in the Appalachian regions of the United States.

That’s where I found that going back to nature, going back to mountains, I could really heal myself. It was a very personal journey, because I had a very traumatic upbringing as a child and as a teenager, and that’s where I found my refuge.

Can you talk more about your upbringing?

Wasfia Nazreen: Because of certain circumstances, I had to take care of myself from a very young age. But when I look back at it, that’s made me who I am today. I realized at a very young age that the only way to set myself free, and to be independent, would be to educate myself. The whole drive to be educated started from there.

How did your nonprofit work start?

Wasfia Nazreen: While I was still in college [at Agnes Scott in Georgia], I had a grant to go to India and study how women were using art as therapy. In Dharamsala I worked with Tibetan women who had gone through so much torture in their lives at Chinese prisons.

A lot of them had been sterilized and had seen the worst possible physical and mental violence you can think of. While I was working with them, the whole time I was the one who was crying. But these women were radiating really joyful compassion all the time and praying for the people who hurt them. That was a very life-altering experience for me, at that age especially—barely 21.

PHOTO: PAT MORROW

Forgiving your enemies and really embodying that principle in your day-to-day life was something that was very new to me.

Even though I had a job in the States lined up for after graduation, I decided on the flight back that I needed to go back there. I didn’t have any guarantee at that time about who I would be working with, or what kind of job would await me, or how much the salary would be. Nothing like that. So I just had to take that leap of faith. Two weeks after moving there, everything was set in place, which was great.

It seems like in your life, a lot of times you’ve been brave enough to just wing it. What have you learned from diving into things with a lot of unknowns that you would tell someone younger?

Wasfia Nazreen: [Sometimes if] you live an idealistic life, you tend to box yourself in this small world. We just have to trust there’s such a bigger world out there.

If we respect our intuition, and work honestly and with patience, everything will be taken care of by the universe. As cliché as it sounds, I believe it 100 percent.

Wasfia Nazreen: A lot of my problems in life got solved after climbing all these mountains.

For example, family members came back to my life, I was finally socially accepted, and now I was a matter of pride—to a lot of people I was a source of shame before. I always say if I had known that this would solve so many problems

In the treacherous Khumbu icefall

I would have climbed these mountains many moons ago.

None of us knows when we’re going to exit this planet. We just have to trust our intuition and not waste it living someone else’s life, which is often the case for South Asian women—we’re made to live other people’s lives. I’m sure everywhere in the world that happens, but for my region specifically, from very early on in life we’re treated [as] more of a weight than a child that you love.

What made you think of climbing as something that could be a potential tool for you in this larger goal of helping women and your country?

Wasfia Nazreen: To be very honest, I didn’t actually think about it logically, like climbing would be the best, but that’s what I knew I could do. Climbing was my passion, and the activism and nonprofit work was my career, so I put that together to highlight how far women had come, at the same time recognizing that we still have a long way to go.

At home, many people could relate to it because living in this society is such a huge struggle. But I did not think it out like that; I just knew that worked for me and was

PHOTO: NGIMA GIRMEN SHERPA

a good parallel. Walking to every continent by itself, symbolically, was taking Bangladesh to every continent. The struggle on the mountain was the struggle of the women in our society.

What is your focus on the activism side, going forward?

Wasfia Nazreen: I have worked for a long time with the indigenous people in my country and I’m going to be focusing a lot more on their wisdom. With Ösel Foundation, a lot of our projects and trips [with schoolgirls] will be about taking care of Mother Earth and really reflecting on how much our time on Earth affects it negatively. It’s just mindful awareness on walking this planet. It’s about honoring the feminine energy. The curriculum is a combination of both Western wilderness studies and Eastern philosophies to grow the heart.

Children in our education system are taught to grow materialistically, but schools don’t necessarily educate the heart. l Reprinted by special arrangement from Nat Geo. http://nationalgeographic.org/ projects/explorers-week/wasfianazreen/

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Paradigm shift in tourism for Bangladesh Jovago making hotel booking easy, one step at a time

n Features Desk With its deltaic rivers, sloping tea gardens, beaches and the unique mangrove forests, Bangladesh has plenty to boast in terms of tourist spots. As the government of Bangladesh announced 2016 as the “Year of Tourism” with a focus on strengthening country wide tourism facilities, Jovago has entered Bangladesh at just about the right time. Since its inception in 2013, Jovago (www.jovago. com) has become the No 1 hotel booking website in Africa, active in over 40 countries. With over 200,000 hotels online, the portal provides customers with full and reliable information about the destinations on offer. Jovago. com now plans to become the No 1 online hotel booking website in Bangladesh with the largest database of hotels to choose from.

Providing access to hotels all over the country, Jovago will be offering its customers highly personalised service when it comes to booking deals.

“Tourism happens where there is accommodation,” explains Kaies Ali, managing director of Jovago in Bangladesh. He further states that unless there is access to a hotel, people can easily be dissuaded to travel far with their families and thus we are seeing a trend of tourists winding up at the same tourist spot, which actually adds to the collective pressure on that site.

Jovago offers people looking for hotel options a structured

booking engine, providing personalised services which include booking, ensuring the desired rooms remain booked as well as contacting the hotel to confirm all the services promised will be available. According to Ali, this process of hand-holding the customers through their travel and booking experience is the paradigm shift in the world of tourism for Bangladesh. As online booking becomes more popular in Bangladesh, people are increasingly looking towards more convenience while ensuring their holidays or work related travel.

Booking can sometimes be an unreliable task with hotels not keeping the bookings or cancelling at the last moment. Jovago eases the process by dissolving that uncertainty where people are ensured safe booking through this online platform that has a direct link with the hotel. They also offer alternates in case hotels cancel for some reason or something goes wrong with the bookings. Jovago has so far signed more than 650 hotels and plans to reach a number of 1,000 over the next few months with an emphasis on covering as many types of tourist destinations as possible.

The MD finally notes that Jovago is focusing on various aspects of tourism and exploring opportunities that people can avail. It will soon be making the Sundarbans more accessible with the eco-tourism resorts of the EU funded Relief International’s initiative, community tourism

in Tangail with Ajiyer, as well as high end hotels, beach resorts, hotels next to heritage sites, and generally any accommodation facility that offers travelers a one night stay.

The company is keen to boost the middle income travelers and change their mindset towards travel and tourism. Tourism does not only involve leisure, but medical purposes, studies, work related travel, everything falls under a category and comes with its own specifics.

Jovago.com is an online hotel

booking service with offices in Lagos (Nigeria), Nairobi (Kenya), Dakar (Senegal), Karachi (Pakistan) and Dhaka (Bangladesh) founded

by Asia Pacific Internet Group and has Rocket Internet and Ooredoo as investors. Jovago.com, Africa’s and Pakistan’s No 1 booking portal, facilitates the booking process for its users to provide them with the best hotel booking experience with fast, transparent and easy-touse services. Jovago.com has over 25,000 local hotel listings across Africa and Asia and over 200,000 hotels around the world. l

Tourism happens where there is accommodation

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| restaurant |

| menu |

Flavours of the Port City

La Bamba’s choices

The mezban recipe is indeed one of the toughest of the Bengali cuisines to master. There is no big secret ingredient or recipe; just a meticulously balanced combination of spices and a specific way of drying and cooking the meat that stimulates the taste buds like nothing else. To find authentic mezbani food outside Chittagong is quite a rare feat.

Bringing this rarity right into Gulshan, Dhaka, is Nawab Chatga.

A strictly Bengali cuisine oriented restaurant, Nawab Chatga has set out on providing their customers with the taste of authentic Chittagong. Head Chef Boshir and his team, apprentices, has been brought to the capital all the way from the port city. The menu is very terse and concise with the Kala Bhuna and Mezbani Gosh being favorites. Apart from all this, there is also the option of Bengali sea food namely Lotiya and Pomfret fry and occasionally Hilsa.

Dried fish, commonly known as shutki is also on the menu at times. They constantly try to bring the taste of Chittagong to Dhaka, including rare dishes which cannot be found elsewhere.

Nawab Chatga goes by the philosophy of feeding more customers for a lesser price rather than making profit by charging higher prices. The area and ambience compliments the exotic menu very well and for those interested, there’s enough space for a decently sized party. Nawab Chatga also caters to parties, both large and small ones with a vast array of items outside of the

menu for the customer to choose from. The ambience, hygienic atmosphere and quick service ensure that every visit will be one that leaves every customer satisfied. To get your own taste of Chittagong step into House 29, Road 19, Gulshan 1 or call 01873667766 for more details. l

DT

Dining

La Bamba has introduced an array of dishes for their customers. At Tk300, their Chinese chopsuey is prepared with fried noodles cooked with cabbage, carrot, capsicum, chicken, and prawn. The dish is topped with poached egg.

At Tk400, their American chopsuey is prepared with fried noodles cooked with cabbage, carrot, capsicum, chicken, and prawn. The dish is topped with poached egg.

At Tk320, their spaghetti bolognese is cooked with meat sauce topped with mozzarella cheese. l

| offers |

Combos at Loiter D85

| offers |

TDR’s seafood special The Dining Room (TDR) recently introduced their seafood curry, their chef’s special creation.

Prepared with squid, prawns, crab, special Bengali spices and condiments, the item has promised to give out an irresistible aroma and unique taste.

Address: 5/F, House 49, Road 11, Banani, Dhaka. l

D85 combos are for those who have really good appetite and want to have really fulfilling dinner or lunch with their family and friends. These combos have already become very popular among customers who enjoy a good meal. Every single item on the plate tastes different,

providing both variety and quality. Loiter D85’s menu also consists of soups, salads, D85 subs, sandwiches and burgers as well as combo meals and pizzas.

To know more contact Ground Floor, House-85, Block-D, Road8, Banani Model Town or call 01676-858585.

DT

20 Editorial

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

TODAY

If only he had been an ‘atheist blogger’ People are murdered every day for less.

But the New Yorker won’t run a profile on them, ever. So they will be invisible, in this world where Western media still gets to decide what is ‘important’ in and about Bangladesh PAGE 21

Who do the Kashmiris want?

Indian nationalists claim that Kashmiris are Indians. If that is so, these Kashmiris are a very strange kind of Indian -- much of what is considered good by Kashmiris is considered bad by Indian nationalists and vice versa PAGE 22

E

Where crude loyalties lie The Middle East and its relationship with both US and Russia are in flux.

The ‘topple-Assad’ agenda has taken a backseat in Washington (perhaps due to oil fields falling to ISIS) PAGE 23

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.

India needs to put water-sharing ahead of dam building

nvironmentalists in India have accused the central government of granting environmental clearances for its planned mammoth river linking project without making proper assessments.

The Inter Linking of Rivers (ILR) project envisages 30 links across India and potentially has enormous implications for the major trans-boundary rivers flowing downstream into Bangladesh.

This issue is of vital importance to Bangladesh, which has been hugely impacted as a result of reduced water flows caused by India’s Farakka and Gazaldoba Barrages.

According to the Joint River Commission, waters received by Bangladesh are barely a fraction of their flow four decades ago and minimum historical flows of Teesta water are not being maintained.

This has caused serious hardship to the millions of Bangladeshi farmers who rely on these waters for irrigation. People in border districts also face added difficulties in protecting river banks from erosion during monsoons because of the sudden nature of increases in water flow.

The absence of proper ecological studies for the ILR project adds weight to longstanding criticisms that it is not viable financially, environmentally, or socially. The South Asia Network for Dams, Rivers, and People warns the project is not sustainable and risks worsening water supplies throughout India as well as downstream in Bangladesh.

As neighbours, with 54 common rivers between them, Bangladesh and India have an obligation to work together better to mutually resolve common water issues.

A timely signing of the Teesta treaty agreed last year, is vital to help take this work forward and mitigate some of the detrimental impacts borne by Bangladesh.

Resolving the Teesta issue is essential to uphold the spirit of the BangladeshIndia Ganges water treaty and to help ensure compliance with the International Convention on Non-navigational Uses of Watercourses.

It is also important to help ensure more attention is focused by the Indian government on the long term consequences and impacts of its planned river-linking scheme.

Resolving the Teesta issue is vital to ensure Bangladesh and India work together better on water-sharing

DT

21

Opinion

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

If only he had been an ‘atheist blogger’ Irfan bhai’s murder is just not important enough for the international media

Erdogan’s political support is rooted in Turkey’s resurgent Islamic elements

COURTESY

n Shams Al-Majhi

P

oor Irfanul Islam. You are the ultimate invisible death in this nation of invisible deaths. You died for banal reasons: Money, robbery, cover-up. You lived normally and died unexpectedly, and nobody outside friends and family remembers you.

Irfan, if only you had been an “atheist,” “secular,” “free thinker,” “blogger,” or any other category that is suddenly quite valuable in the war-on-error chess game Bangladesh has entered.

Then you would have seen the waterfall of grief and national memorial. Oh, there would just be no end. Secular liberals would write Facebook statuses with #weareirfan. From the safety of their Gulshan homes, they would say how they stand behind you.

Embassies would say they were concerned, and liberal Dhaka papers would say “Sweden sends strong message.” The 1980s are over, so there would be no talk of aid packages (these days, money seems to be flowing in reverse), but there would be condemnation statements. Meaningless “concerned” statements. The toothless scolding of a unipolar time.

Then next week, a Bangladeshi expat writer would write an article about you in The New York Times.

They would warn about “dark times” and the “loss of innocence.”

Later, this theme would be picked

People are murdered every day for less. But the New Yorker won’t run a profile on them, ever. So they will be invisible, in this world where Western media still gets to decide what is ‘important’ in and about Bangladesh

up at Hindustan Times or Indian Express, and they would take a more extreme tone: “On the brink in Bangladesh.” That was also their headline in 2006, 2009, and 2014.

Everybody loves a good drought of ideas.

All the agencies who thought Rana Plaza, Tazreen, Rampal, Banshkhali, Kansat, Phulbari were “not newsworthy,” suddenly think Bangladesh is news. Vice, BBC, The Guardian, and Al Jazeera, all send a team to shoot a rush package.

It is a good time for Bangladeshis living abroad (asylum or long-term) because they become high-value spokespersons for the news segment from a Western TV studio.

Then would come International PEN; they may even do a fundraiser for you. The ink and tears would flow. You may get the ultimate honour, a graphic logo.

Maybe it would even be animated, a stain of blood that spreads: #weareirfan Your stabbing on the street

would be compounded by a betrayal by the government. The home minister would say they are analysing your writing. The ICT Minister would say we have to be responsible in our expressions.

The chief of police would say they are looking at your Facebook to see if there is anything insulting there. Dead already, you would be killed a second time by your own government.

But, alas, beloved Irfan, sitting in heaven, none of this will happen for you. Because you were not any of these things.

You were an ordinary citizen.

And you died for the most banal, most common reason for deaths in Bangladesh today: Money. It was possible because of the motif of all Bangladesh today under a government that can’t seem to control law and order in 56,000 square miles.

You were killed because the robbers knew they could, and no one would catch them. Because no one now gets caught for crimes in Bangladesh, and that is what happens when the state machinery

of law enforcement (police, RAB) is too busy controlling and surveillng the opposition political parties.

For the grief-stricken family of Drik Photo Library, it is hard to imagine how this came to pass.

And yet, this is also an ordinary story in law-and-order-collapsed Bangladesh.

Irfan used to be the key technician in the darkroom of Drik. Over time, everyone moved to digital, and darkrooms became obsolete. It was decided that he would be trained to work in accounts. He was known to be honest.

Reading the news reports, I can make an educated guess about what happened. Irfan used to go to Dutch Bangla Bank in Dhanmondi each week. I would surmise (although I am not sure) that he always went on a specific day. There were probably some days he had to withdraw one lakh, other days ten. Many banks have informants inside, and spies outside. Somebody was watching him, and realised that this man had a pattern.

Then, one weekday, something that has become very ordinary in Bangladesh happened. Probably a microbus waited near the bank, in an area outside the range of CCTV cameras. As Irfan walked by, someone pulled a gun on him under his shirt and asked him to quietly get into the microbus. Yes, it probably happened just like that, in broad daylight. No one noticed, no one realised. The Drik car was probably still trying to find parking in the residential zone turned commercial hell of Dhanmondi.

You see Bangladesh’s main problem is not al-Qaeda in South Asia, or Daesh, or JMB, or Ansarullah Bangla Team, or whatever new trend and false flag the war-on-terror promoters such as Daniel Pipes, Rita Katz, and SITE are announcing is “taking over” Bangladesh this week (Is SITE ISIS’ PR agency? It does seem that way). No, our problem is much more boring.

It is that, in a country of 160 million, with low law and order, you can pick someone up from a Dhanmondi street, and nobody notices. And the robbers know that no one can catch them. They know that the police are busy with more “important matters.” Such as reading the Facebook page of the last murdered “atheist.”

What happened next? I am not sure. The robbers probably tried to force him to withdraw more money from another Dutch Bangla. Or did they strangle him in the microbus because the three lakh they got from him was all there was?

People are murdered every day for less. But the New Yorker won’t run a profile on them, ever. So they will be invisible, in this world where Western media still gets to decide what is “important” in and about Bangladesh. And we are the weak nation that still cannot define its own fate.

Irfan, your ordinary life has doomed you to a forgetting. There have been a few rallies on DU campus for you, organised by photographers.

But you cannot become an international issue, because a murder over theft of money is the most usual and normal death there is in Bangladesh. If only you had been one of those “high value” categories in this war-onterror trap. Once upon a time, a journalist had written he wanted guarantee of natural death. We are still waiting for that guarantee. l Shams Al-Majhi is a researcher and a member of the War on Error network.

22

DT

Opinion

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

Who do the Kashmiris want?

India has some double standards when it comes to the treatment of Kashmir

n Garga Chatterjee

P

ut students, television, cricket, Kashmir, and India into a mix and what you typically get is violence or intimidation against Kashmiri students in universities across the Hindi belt. That is usual.

That is how it is supposed to be.

Sometimes, the Kashmiri students have even been banished from the university or thrown out of their hostel overnight. None of these makes “national” headlines.

However, after the recent T20 semi-finals, with the same mix of students, television, cricket, Kashmir, and India, the events that followed made it to the chatter of the Delhi’s media echo-boxes. What was different?

Because, for a change, the site was Kashmir, not the Hindi belt and the primary victims were nonKashmiris. To understand these double standards, we need to base our understanding not on tri-

charge. Some students were hurt.

After the incident, outsider students wanted the NIT to be shifted away from Srinagar. No Kashmiri student has ever wanted universities and colleges of the Hindi belt to be shifted outside the region, when faced with similar violence and hostility.

Police beating up anyone is horrible, and this sub-continent has a particularly brutal police system. I am no supporter of police authoritarianism, but I am merely pointing it out that JK Police treated them less harshly than it does its own Kashmiris.

There is “us” and “them” even in superior treatment -- that’s how sometimes differences show up, in the most opposite way than expected. What does this say? I leave the readers to judge. What does this also say about the relationship Kashmir state agencies have of the Union agencies -- is it one of co-operation or fear?

Indian nationalists claim that Kashmiris are Indians. If that is so, these Kashmiris are a very strange kind of Indian -- much of what is considered good by Kashmiris is considered bad by Indian nationalists and vice versa The tension in Srinagar keeps escalating colour rhetoric, but multi-coloured reality.

In Kashmir, very few people support the BCCI’s “Team India” when it plays and yes, many are happy when it loses. That was true for the Kashmiri students at the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Srinagar, when West Indies won in the recent T20 semifinals.

Some non-Kashmiri outsiders didn’t like that. They got a flavour of what Kashmiri students are made to feel daily in the Hindi belt. Tension escalated, and a few Kashmiri students were assaulted.

The Kashmiri people around NIT allegedly threw stones at the hostels on outsider students.

Outsider students escalated the matter by trying to take out a procession with an Indian national flag -- a symbol that is not tolerated in large areas of Kashmir except under very tight Indian security cover.

The Jammu and Kashmir police stopped the outsider’s flag procession from leaving the campus and did so by serious lathi

The “national media” then swooped on it like it never swoops into other situations of police lathi charge of that scale or campus student tension due to cricket matches.

It is never the lathi charge, but who are lathi charged that ever matters and in that special attention, it was made clear that even the Delhi establishment treats outsiders and Kashmiris differently.

Lathi charge incident of far greater scale on many Kashmiri youth over the last few years has never grabbed as much attention as this one. When will lathi charge on the young people of Kashmir again become “national” news?

I suspect it won’t be anytime soon -- irrespective of lathi charges on Kashmiris that will surely happen over the next months and years. I also suspect that there might be calls in the Indian Union for bringing sports team support under the ambit of law.

So that chest-beating about the right of flying the tri-colour

from Kanyakumari to Kashmir does not become the ridiculous axis of this debate, let me declare some ground truths. Let us try to understand reality here, irrespective of the Indian Union’s legal framework. Truth cannot be legislated, though its expression can be.

A nation is only a nation to those who believe in it. A nation does not exist by itself, without its believers. It is a self-styled collective.

If this collective has the resources to put symbols of its nationhood in areas significantly inhabited by people who may collectively think of themselves to be some other nation, conflict occurs.

The most democratic and peaceful way of resolving this conflict is to ask the people inhabiting the contested area what they want.

If this choice is denied, then the outcome of that conflict -- victory, defeat, or constant repression -- is typically ensured

REUTERS

by superior resources, especially military resources, who have more money for guns, in short. In such undemocratic scenarios, victory is not necessarily the expression of popular will, neither does it represent the validity of some nation concept over another. Men with more guns and money “win.”

What do Kashmiris want?

I think New Delhi knows that very well, and so do we. It is not without reason that Kashmir has been denied a referendum with independent nationhood as one of the choices.

A power that confidently claims that most people in Kashmir are happy to be citizens of India also denies the people of Kashmir to show the world the extent of such happiness through a referendum.

Whether that is a sign of confidence in what New Delhi claims to be true, I leave my readers to judge.

One thing this incident has led to is that many Indian media outlets have carried the state of Kashmiri people’s will that is

expressed through this incident.

This exploration of “what they want” is something that the Indian media avoids in a near-total way.

But this incident shows how different Kashmiri students, how different people in that Srinagar neighbourhood, are from the outside students.

Whether the difference is present in even wider sections of the Kashmiri population is something this set of events cannot directly tell, but it does have a strong hint.

Indian nationalists claim that Kashmiris are Indians. If that is so, these Kashmiris are a very strange kind of Indian -- much of what is considered good by Kashmiris is considered bad by Indian nationalists and vice versa.

Does electoral democracy in Kashmir express this aspect of Kashmir? If not, who does the government represent? l Garga Chatterjee is a political and cultural commentator. He can be followed on twitter @gargac.

DT

23

Opinion

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

Where crude loyalties lie All is fair in oil power and politics

How will the oil supply glut pan out?

n Adnan R Amin

T

he Iran-US nuclear deal promises (or threatens) to radically reshape regional geo-politics. Firstly, it averted what could have been a military maneuver (by proxy or otherwise) to dismantle or destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Thus a regional conflict was avoided. Iran can now gradually distance itself from the dreadful Axis of Evil. But, naturally, the agreement has vexed two of US’s historic allies in the region: Israel and the Saudi Arabia.

Netanyahu announced that the deal would enable Iran to become a nuclear power within 15 years, further jeopardising Israel’s security. Sunni-dominated Gulf States viewed it as the US courting Iran at their expense.

The move, they feared, would strengthen Iran’s involvement in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen -further legitimising its claim to a regional leadership role. Fears have also grown that Iran’s Shia expansionism will now come head to head with Arab states’ patronage of Sunni militancy.

Their only consolation is that America will make consolatory

concessions and Iran’s uranium stockpile, number of centrifuges and level of enrichment will be severely limited and closely monitored.

Despite Iran’s covert support to the Assad regime, a nuclear deal and the lifting of economic sanctions points to a strategic shift in US foreign policy. Security experts foresee a stronger role for Iran in the fight against ISIS. While this leaves the Syrian rebels stranded in a three-way civil war, the US realignment indicates reluctance on part of the outgoing US administration to intervene substantially in Syria’s bloody civil war.

Given that situations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, and Yemen are increasingly seen as strategic blunders, the Iran deal is perhaps the Obama administration’s most significant foreign policy win in the Middle East. Despite Saudi Arabia’s protestations, the US has gone ahead and lifted a 40-year export ban on Iran.

This, in turn, has opened up the last great emerging market to international commerce and added up to 230,000 barrels per day (bpd) to the tally. Reconnected to the

BIGSTOCK

In 2015, the price of crude oil fell below $35 per barrel, signifying an 11-year low (remember this is the decade of the 2008-09 financial meltdown, Goldman Sachs predicted that this could drop to $20, before supply adjusted to demand).

Joint attempts at stabilising crude oil prices have not succeeded. In the first quarter of 2016, it was revealed that Saudi Arabia and Russia would implement a joint production freeze. But the summit in Doha saw the Kingdom demanding that Iran commit to a production freeze as well, a move that a postsanction Iran was not going to make.

A breakdown of talks means that Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Iran are likely to keep continue increasing crude supply. The Bank of America has announced that OPEC is now “effectively dissolved.”

On the other hand, slowdown in emerging Asian markets will further depress crude oil demand and prices. At one point, analysts predict, the global oil glut will threaten the shale oil industry in the US and the economic recovery

by Iran.

Things between the US and Saudi Arabia have been further

worth of treasury securities and assets if the bill is passed.

Otherwise, Saudi officials argued, these assets could be frozen during lawsuits. This would be the equivalent of KSA withdrawing a trillion-dollar loan to America (behind the scenes, KSA is shipping even more crude oil to the US).

The Obama administration has been trying to pressure congress into rejecting the bill, arguing that it would set the precedence of suing sovereign countries instead of employing diplomatic channels.

White House cues suggest that the POTUS will also veto the bill.

President Obama’s visit to KSA sometime ago to meet the Saudi king, may yet yield some benefits for both sides.

The Middle East and its relationship with both the US and Russia are in flux. The “toppleAssad” agenda has taken a backseat in Washington (perhaps due to oil fields falling to ISIS). The priority now is on stabilising crude prices, protecting unconventional drilling industry, pacifying the KSA-Iran-Israel nexus, and tapping the emerging Iranian market. All this in an election year!

Iran may remain focused on its sanction-free development trajectory, extend its influence in

The Middle East and its relationship with both US and Russia are in flux.

The ‘topple-Assad’ agenda has taken a backseat in Washington (perhaps due to oil fields falling to ISIS)

international financial network, Iran has also regained access to frozen assets worth $100 billion.

In short, the nuclear deal has allowed Iran to trade its nuclear capabilities for economic power.

Iran’s newfound freedom has significantly affected the oil industry. From the moment the sanctions were lifted, Iran’s oil production went into overdrive.

The country has been determined to reach pre-sanction levels (roughly 4.4 mb/d) of crude production within a year.

Of course, Iran’s race to catch up with Middle Eastern rivals was not unforeseen. Earlier, Saudi Arabia and Russia had boosted crude production to counter Iranian exports. As a result, the global market experienced an oil “glut” (excessive supply) and prices began to fall.

complicated by the bipartisan “Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act” or the “911 Bill,” which would allow lawsuits against foreign states and financiers of terrorism.

Despite 15 of the 19 hijackers being Saudi nationals, the 20th hijacker alleging royal family funding and widespread allegations that the Kingdom was fomenting militancy in Syria and Yemen -- the US has never investigated these claims; nor has it agreed to release the classified “28 pages” of the 911 Inquiry Commission report, which allegedly describe foreign involvement in the attacks. If enacted now, the bill will allow Saudi royals to be sued by 911 Survivors and family members.

KSA has responded by threatening to sell off $967bn

Iraq and Syria, and contemplate taking on Israel. In a bid to retain/ regain Islamic, regional, and oil leadership, Saudi Arabia will undoubtedly mobilise assets and resources on multiple levels. KSA has used oil as a weapon in the past (starving the West in 1973) and might do it again.

But the Kingdom is reeling from the low prices, and can hardly keep up such tactics without slipping into a recession. It is plausible that the regional tussle will manifest itself to further sectarian conflict.

In whatever manner the region chooses to adapt to changing paradigms, they will almost certainly be shaped by how the oil supply glut pans out. l Adnan R Amin is strategy and communications consultant.

DT

24 Sport

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

TOP STORIES

De Kruif wants to ‘bring back glory’ Dutch coach Lodewijk de Kruif landed in Dhaka yesterday to take over as Bangladesh’s temporary head coach ahead of their AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers play-offs against Tajikistan on June 2 and 7. PAGE 25

Costa and Torres omitted from squad Diego Costa was left out of Spain coach Vicente del Bosque’s provisional 25-man squad for Euro 2016. The naturalized Brazilian missed Chelsea’s last two games of the season due to a persistent injury. PAGE 26

Lovchev slapped with four-year ban World champion weightlifter Aleksey Lovchev confirmed that he has been banned for four years for doping. “Yesterday I received documents from the international federation about my four-year suspension,” Lovchev told. PAGE 27

Golden Boot little consolation Finishing the season as the Premier League’s top scorer has done little to numb Tottenham striker Harry Kane’s pain after Spurs not only lost out to Leicester City in the title race but saw bitter rivals Arsenal climb above them on the final day. PAGE 28

Kalabagan Cricket Academy’s Mehedi Hasan Miraz is run out against Mohammedan Sporting Club. Despite being the Bangladesh Under-19 captain, Miraz is seeing the darker side of Bangladesh’s domestic cricket MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

Where no one is looking Cricketers’ struggle in lowly Dhaka Premier League clubs bility and instructed all the clubs according to some of their players, n Mazhar Uddin to pay this amount before the is still “expected”.

There was no coach or an official present during Cricket Coaching School’s training session in Dhanmondi yesterday. They only had three new balls for net practice and the players haven’t been paid their due amount. You could cut the lack of excitement with a knife at their training session.

Welcome to the darker side of the Dhaka Premier League.

Here, no one cares when you are losing, to the point that you may not even see your team officials during a match. Players have to spend from their own pockets till perhaps a win which may lead to payment from the club. Even at the DPL, considered the most important domestic competition, incidents of teams not serving food or poor accommodation isn’t uncommon.

All these come as a cultural shock for players who are used to better practice facilities and logistics. For those who have represented Bangladesh at the international level, it can sometimes feel inhumane.

Even when a lowly placed side create a major upset, like Kalabagan Cricket Academy did against fancied Abahani Limited on Monday, hardly anything changes. KCA too had lost their first six DPL games so payment,

CCS are below KCA having also lost all six matches, and face third-placed Victoria Sporting Club in Fatullah today. Half their battle for this contest is lost when you consider the lack of facilities they have to deal with in training at a small ground where the pitches are made of cement, and high

start of the league, 30% during the league and the remaining 40% to be paid within four weeks after the tournament.

It was learned that the CCS players have received less than their 30% payment. The CCS official have asked the players to sign the agreement paper which

Being a professional player it’s almost impossible for us to survive playing in such clubs as we did not choose our team. At times it’s quite humiliating for us when we compare the payment and other facilities to the other big clubs catching is almost impossible.

Both these teams however differ in their budget. CCS are newly-promoted from the Dhaka First Division Cricket League, and are known to be struggling with money. KCA on the other hand have strong financial backing but as is the culture in domestic cricket here, payment get stuck when results are in the red zone.

The CCS players are yet to receive their first 30% payment from the club after the Bangladesh Cricket Board took responsi-

will be provided to the BCB saying they have received their payment.

And according to the sources, the CCS cricketers are even planning to hold a press conference if things continue the same way after today’s game.

CCS captain Rajin Saleh, a former Bangladesh captain and a veteran of 24 Tests and 43 ODIs, told Dhaka Tribune that he felt humiliated playing for a club that doesn’t pay on time.

“We are yet to get the promised 30% payment from the club and

now after six matches we did not receive the money. It’s difficult for us to continue playing as the board took the responsibility to ensure our payment when they introduced the players draft system.

“Being a professional player it’s almost impossible for us to survive playing in such clubs as we did not choose our team. At times it’s quite humiliating for us when we compare the payment and other facilities to the other big clubs,” he said.

When this correspondent contacted CCS official Iqbal Yousuf Chowdhury Niku over phone, he informed that he was ill and receiving treatment at the doctors’.

Niku did not make a comment.

KCA official Tarikul Islam Tito however said most of his players have already received the first 30% payment. “We have already paid the first 30% payment to most of the players and by [today] all the players will receive their payment. We also announced bonus after winning the game against Abahani and we will give the remaining 30% of the payment even before the conclusion of the first round,” said Tito.

The players will however tell you that they are less keen on the bonus and need the due payment for their livelihood. It is a hope against hope, sometimes. l

25

DT

Sport

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

De Kruif wants to ‘bring back glory’ n Shishir Hoque

world is lefty. Zahid [Hossain] and Yeasin [Khan] need more time to come back to game again. At this moment we can drop them but in the future both players are still best in the country. When you have to kick out the best player of your country then you are crazy.

Dutch coach Lodewijk de Kruif landed in Dhaka yesterday to take over as Bangladesh’s temporary head coach ahead of their AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers play-offs against Tajikistan on June 2 and 7.

He returns eight months after being sacked by the Bangladesh Football Federation, during which time he coached a semi-professional club in the Netherlands. De Kruif spoke to the media before their afternoon training session at Bangabandhu National Stadium. Here are some of the excerpts:

Tajikistan matches

We drew 1-1 against Tajikistan [in the World Cup qualifier in June 2015] and I think we deserved to win the game. I was not there during the away match. They got beaten 5-0. So surviving over there [in Dushanbe] will be a big task.

I will prepare my team tactically and physically very well. We have to get very good result there.

We can do something in the home game, see if we can beat them if possible. In away game, I want to see a good Bangladesh team in tactical side.

Initial goal

I think football in Bangladesh last year was in heavy water. When you see the result there is no reason to be proud on the national team so that is one of the task to bring back the feeling we had more than one year ago. I know the circumstances. I know how to build up the players in short time. I have the credits from the players and I think this is the important reason for me to come back.

I just finished my league season in my country so I was available although for short period. After home game against Tajikistan I will travel

Bangladesh’s temporary Dutch head coach Lodewijk de Kruif imparts instructions to his charges at Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK back to my country. What I have now is a big task because everybody is unsatisfied. Football went down a bit. We have to bring some glory back. We have to bring the form back and make the people happy.

Bringing back banned players

My first talk with the president [Kazi Salahuddin] was, when you want to perform you have to bring some players back. Otherwise no chance. Mamunul [Islam] is very

No Pirlo in Italy's pre-Euro squad n AFP, Milan

Italy veteran Andrea Pirlo was among the absentees as coach Antonio Conte named a provisional 28-man squad on Monday for a pre-Euro 2016 training camp with several stars absent with Cup finals to play.

Conte, who earlier Monday was cleared of sporting fraud charges relating to a match-fixing affair while he was coach of Serie B team Siena in 2011, can now fully focus on the Azzurri although questions remain over his final 23-man squad.

Italy players yet to play Cup finals - namely those with Juventus, AC Milan, Paris Saint Germain and Manchester United - were left out of the reckoning altogether, meaning Conte’s final squad on May 31 could look very different.

Defender Leonardo Bonucci was the only Juventus player included for the first training camp beginning today at Coverciano near Florence because he is suspended for the Italian Cup final against AC Milan this Saturday.

With midfielders Claudio Marchisio (Juventus) and Marco Verratti (PSG) ruled out through serious injury, there is a place for Roma’s tough-tackling defensive midfielder Daniele de Rossi.

World Cup winner Pirlo, 36, who

had came out of retirement following Italy’s first round exit from the 2014 World Cup, was a notable, although not a surprise, absentee.

Since his move from Juventus to New York City, Pirlo has fallen out of favour amid reports he is lacking the required fitness. It now looks increasingly unlikely he will play at Euro 2016.

Conte has rewarded Domenico Berardi for a string of fine goalscoring performances with Serie A

minnows Sassuolo, who pipped AC Milan to sixth place and a possible spot in next season’s Europa League.

Toronto striker Sebastian Giovinco, who played under Conte at Juventus, has been recalled while Sunderland’s Fabio Borini, who featured at Euro 2012 without playing a game, has been given the nod

by Conte for the first time.

Conte called up a total of seven players who had never graced the Italy squad in Atalanta goalkeeper Marco Sportiello, Genoa defender Armando Izzo, Empoli defender Lorenzo Tonelli, midfielders Marco Benassi (Torino), Danilo Cataldi (Lazio), Davide Zappacosta (Torino) and Genoa striker Leonardo Pavoletti.

Three other players, other than Borini, return to the fray in goalkeepers Antonio Mirante (Bologna), Federico Marchetti (Lazio) and West Ham defender Angelo Ogbonna.

Among the notable absentees due to Cup duty are goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), defenders Andrea Barzagli and Giorgio Chiellini (both Juventus), Luca Antonelli (Milan), midfielders Thiago Motta (PSG) and Riccardo Montolivo (Milan), goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu (PSG) and Manchester United fullback Matteo Darmian. l

important because he was the captain. He takes care of instruction and what I want to tell the players.

So we need him in the team as well as Sohel [Rana] because he is a lefty. Not too many players in the

Coach changes in last eight months

It is not healthy. It’s very good if you have a coaching staff for long time because it’s a process of building up. Let’s find a player, build them up and provide them with good training session. You need coaching staff who is there consistently which is very important. l

Awards night, talent hunts in the offing n Tribune Report The Bangladesh Cricket Board is planning to hold an awards night, in collaboration with national team sponsor Robi Axiata Limited, from this year to reward the cricketers’ performances.

This was announced at a press conference yesterday where it was also informed that Robi has signed a three-year deal as BCB’s strategic partner.

The last time BCB had an awards night was back in 2006 when Shahriar Nafees became the crick-

eter of the year while the likes of Mohammad Rafique, Shakib al Hasan, Mehrab Hossain Jr and Khaled Mashud Pilot were also rewarded.

BCB’s marketing and commercial committee chairman Kazi Inam Ahmed said as part of the partnership with Robi, the BCB will also hold talent hunt programmes BCB senior vice president Mahbub Anam, Robi director and CEO Supun Birasinghe and chief corporate and people officer Motiul Islam Nawshad were also present at the press conference.l

Bangladesh Cricket Board’s senior vice president Mahbub Anam (2L) and marketing and commercial committee chairman Kazi Inam Ahmed (R) address the media during a press conference at SBNS yesterday BCB

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Liverpool stand between Sevilla and Europa treble n AFP, Basel

Jurgen Klopp is hoping to replicate Liverpool’s previous Europa League (formerly known as UEFA Cup) victories in 1973, 1976 and 2001. This year’s final will be shown live on BT Sport and will be streamed free on YouTube

Liverpool midfielder Emre Can believes the Reds’ legendary battling qualities can help end their 11year wait for a continental trophy against treble-chasing Sevilla in today’s Europa League final.

In their first European final since defeat by AC Milan in the 2007 Champions League, Liverpool are bidding to scupper the Spanish side’s bid for an unprecedented third straight Europa League title at Basel’s St. Jakob-Park.

It brings Liverpool’s breathtaking journey through the competition under new manager Jurgen Klopp to a thrilling climax, following dramatic wins over Manchester United, Borussia Dortmund and Villarreal in recent months.

After seeing his side sink Villarreal brilliantly to reach the final, Klopp declared: “To go to a final you need a little bit of luck in decisive moments, but most of the time you need outstanding performances.

“Now we are there, and it’s a great opportunity and we will take it.”

Liverpool’s fans should be get-

ting excited, but as the only team to successfully defend the trophy on two occasions, in 2007 and 2015, and with a record four UEFA Cup/ Europa League titles, silky-smooth Sevilla are arguably under less pressure.

Can wants to seize his chance in his first final with the club, but says a collective show of force will be required against the tough La Liga side.

“Sevilla know how to play in the Europa League,” Can told Liverpool’s website. “They’ve won the last two Europa League titles, and so it will be a very tough game, but if we show what we are able to do as a team then we can win the final.”

Five-time European champions Liverpool, who have also won the Europa League and its predecessor the UEFA Cup three times, have often provided drama on the European stage.

In their last Europa League success, in 2001, they triumphed after a nine-goal thriller against Deportivo Alaves only after Delfi Geli scored a "golden goal" own goal in extra time. l

Uncapped Kimmich, Brandt make Germany’s squad

Costa, Torres omitted

n AFP, Berlin

Chelsea striker Diego Costa was left out of Spain coach Vicente del Bosque’s provisional 25-man squad for Euro 2016 yesterday.

The naturalized Brazilian missed Chelsea’s last two games of the season due to a persistent hamstring injury and has struggled at international level with just one goal in 10 games since declaring to play for Spain in 2013.

“We didn’t want to bring too many players with a certain doubt over their physical condition,” Del Bosque said.

Del Bosque will have cut his final squad to 23 players on May 31.

World Cup winners Fernando Torres, Juan Mata and Javi Martinez were also high-profile names left out by Del Bosque.

The absence of Costa and the inform Torres means Del Bosque has only two central strikers to choose from in 35-year-old Aritz Aduriz and Juventus’ Alvaro Morata.

Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla was also excluded having just returned from a long-term knee injury.

The uncapped Saul Niguez and Lucas Vazquez of Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid did make the 25, whilst Villarreal captain Bruno Soriano was surprisingly included amongst 10 midfielders.

Del Bosque also named 11 uncapped promising younger players to bulk up his squad for the friendlies against Bosnia and Hercegovina and South Korea on May 29 and June 1 respectively with Real and Atletico players set to take part in the Champions League final on May 28. l

GOALKEEPERS

(Chelsea), Juanfran (Atletico Madrid)

Uncapped midfielders Joshua Kimmich and Julian Brandt were yesterday included in Germany’s provisional 27-man squad for next month’s European championships in France.

Defensive midfielder Kimmich, 21, caps a meteoric rise having only broken into Bayern Munich’s first team earlier this season and has been now promoted from Germany’s Under-21 team, as has 20-year-old Bayer Leverkusen winger Julian Brandt.

Germany captain Bastian Schweinsteiger, who has 114 caps, has been included as he recovers from a torn medial knee ligament.

Head coach Joachim Loew will

cut his squad from 27 to 23 on May 30, the day after their friendly against Slovakia, before their opening Euro 2016 Group C game against Ukraine on June 12.

Loew has also opted to include Galatasaray forward Lukas Podolski, who has made 127 appearances in the famous white shirt.

Both Schweinsteiger and Podolski will be playing in their fourth European championships. Up-andcoming talents Julian Weigl and Leroy Sane, both 20, from Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04 respectively, have been included.

Mario Gomez of Fiorentina, who spent the last season at Besiktas, is the only out-and-out striker included in the squad. l

n AFP, Las Rozas de Madrid

SPAIN PROVISIONAL SQUAD

Iker Casillas (Porto), David de Gea (Man United), Sergio Rico (Sevilla)

DEFENDERS

Joshua Kimmich

Julian Brandt

Jordi Alba, Gerard Pique, Marc Bartra (all Barcelona), Sergio Ramos, Dani Carvajal (both Real Madrid), Cesar Azpilicueta

MIDFIELDERS Sergio Busquets, Andres Iniesta (both Barcelona), David Silva (Manchester City), Mikel San Jose (Athletic Bilbao), Koke, Saul Niguez (both Atletico Madrid), Cesc Fabregas (Chelsea), Thiago

Alcantara (Bayern Munich), Isco (Real Madrid), Bruno Soriano (Villarreal)

FORWARDS Pedro Rodriguez (Chelsea), Alvaro Morata (Juventus), Aritz Aduriz (Athletic Bilbao), Nolito (Celta Vigo), Lucas Vazquez (Real Madrid)

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QUICK BYTES Usha KC thump Bangladesh Railway 13-0 Usha Krira Chakra continued their winning streak in the Green Delta Premier Division Hockey League as they thrashed Bangladesh Railway Sporting Club 13-0 at Maulana Bhasani National Hockey Stadium yesterday. Hasan Jubair Niloy slammed as many as six goals – the first hattrick of the league – while Mahbub Hossain also netted three goals – all from penalty corners. Rezaul Karim Babu, Mithun, Krishna Kumar and Nizam Uddin added one apiece for the reigning champions. Meanwhile in the day’s other match, Bangladesh Sporting Club handed Ajax Sporting Club a 4-2 defeat at the same venue.

Prince, Sohel, Shahbaz Ali and Gurprotap Singh scored one each for the victors while Rahat Sarwar notched a brace for the losing side.

–TRIBUNE REPORT

World champion weightlifter Lovchev slapped with four-year doping ban World champion weightlifter Aleksey Lovchev confirmed yesterday that he has been banned for four years for doping. “[Monday] I received documents from the international (weightlifting) federation about my four-year suspension,” Lovchev told TASS state news agency, adding that he would appeal the ban. The president of the Russian weightlifting federation, Sergei Syrtsov, confirmed to R-Sport news agency that the 26-year-old athlete had been suspended.

Lovchev, who won gold in the +105kg category at the 2015 world championships, had tested positive for the banned growth hormone Ipamorelin, prompting the International Weightlifting Federation to provisionally suspend him in December.

–AFP

Injured Aussie Maxwell out of IPL Glenn Maxwell yesterday became the fifth Australian to pull out of the Indian Premier League, but his injury is unlikely to keep him out of an upcoming West Indies tour. The hard-hitting batsman suffered a strain in his left abdomen playing for the Kings XI Punjab and is returning home as a precaution. Australia team physiotherapist David Beakley said it did not appear serious enough to prevent him playing in the West Indies tri-series, which Australia open in Guyana on June 6 against South Africa. “From the information we have so far, the injury doesn’t appear to be something that will prevent Glenn from participating in this tour,” he said.

–AFP

DIU Inter University T20 Cricket starts Friday The Daffodil International University Inter University Twenty20 Cricket Tournament, organised by the DIU, will begin this Friday in Ashulia, Dhaka. Ten of the country’s leading universities – Brac University, Independent University, Bangladesh, University of Liberal Arts, Bangladesh, Daffodil International Academy, International University of Business Agriculture and Technology, City University, Green University, Eastern University, Bangladesh University and hosts DIU – will take part in the tournament. The champions will pocket Tk 50,000 while the runners up side side will receive Tk 30,000 MI MANIK

DAY’S WATCH FOOTBALL TEN 1 12:45AM Sky Bet Championship Accrington v Wimbledon

TEN 2 12:45AM

UEFA Europa League Final: Liverpool v Sevilla

CRICKET SONY SIX 8:30PM

Indian Premier League 2016 Bangalore v Punjab

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Golden Boot little consolation n Reuters

Sleeping giant Sheffield Wed waking up n Reuters Sheffield Wednesday are a sleeping giant who have been woken up, manager Carlos Carvalhal said after his side took a step closer to the Premier League with a 3-1 aggregate win in the play-off semi-final against Brighton & Hove Albion.

The Owls managed to protect their two-goal advantage from the first leg after securing a 1-1 draw against Brighton and are now only a match away from a return to England’s topflight after a 16-year absence. “We know we are making history at the club - it’s been a long time since Sheffield Wednesday have achieved this type of success. It is very important to the club,” Carvalhal told. l

Sheffield Wednesday players celebrate after their Sky Bet Football League Championship Play-Off Semi Final Second Leg against Brighton & Hove Albion at The American Express Community Stadium on Monday REUTERS

EPL 2015-16: FIVE OFFBEAT MOMENTS ‘O’ BOTHER AS GOLD CONFUSES SIGNINGS

West Ham United co-chairman David Gold put his foot in his mouth by welcoming new signing Pedro Obiang to the club with a Twitter picture of another player.

“I am delighted to announce the signing of 23 year old midfield (sic) Pedro Obiang from Sampdoria. Pedro, welcome,” wrote Gold, next to a photograph of Italian centre-back Angelo Ogbonna.

Upon realising his error, Gold removed the tweet and re-posted the text of the message, this time accompanied by a picture of Obiang beside the pitch at Upton Park holding aloft a claret and blue scarf.

POCHETTINO CHANNELS BRITNEY

Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino cited American pop stars Britney Spears and Will.I.Am as examples for his players to follow as they went in search of Premier League glory.

Irked by constant comparisons with Spurs’ north London rivals Arsenal, Pochettino quoted Spears and Will.I.Am’s hit “Scream and Shout” in an attempt to keep his players’ minds focused on their own performances.

VAN GAAL’S TOUCHLINE TUMBLE

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal revealed a taste for amateur dramatics with a comical touchline tumble during his side’s 3-2 win over Arsenal.

Protesting against what he felt was a dive by an Arsenal player, the Dutchman marched up to fourth official Mike Dean on the Old Trafford touchline and to illustrate his point, fell flat on his back.

‘TINKERMAN’ BECOMES ‘SAUSAGEMAN’

Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri branded himself “the Sausageman” after a local butcher created a sausage in his name to honour

the club’s improbable Premier League title challenge.

Ranieri, 64, was known as “the Tinkerman” during his spell as Chelsea manager due to his habit of changing his starting line-up between matches.

But thanks to Leicester butchers W Archer and Son, who decided to offer a “Ranieri” sausage to their customers, the Italian felt that he had earned the right to a new nickname.

“I am the Sausageman,” said Ranieri. “It is a good sausage.”

LIVERPOOL SCORE OWEN GOAL

Liverpool’s supporters were less than impressed by an announcement that former striker Michael Owen had been appointed as the club’s first “international ambassador”.

Owen came through Liverpool’s youth system and scored 158 goals in 297 appearances for the club, but later spent three years with their hated rivals Manchester United.

“Is he going to become Man United’s international ambassador in a few years as well?” asked one unenthused fan in response to the Twitter post announcing the news. l

Finishing the season as the Premier League’s top scorer has done little to numb Tottenham striker Harry Kane’s pain after Spurs not only lost out to Leicester City in the title race but saw bitter rivals Arsenal climb above them on the final day.

Kane won this season’s Golden Boot with 25 goals, one more than Leicester’s Jamie Vardy and Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero, but the forward said personal glory was overshadowed by his side’s woeful finish.

“It would have been nicer to have won the golden boot on a better day,” Kane, who was named in England’s preliminary squad for Euro 2016 on Monday, told British media. l

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Comfortable (4) 3 W Australian river (4) 7 Lyric poem (3) 8 Family member (5) 11 Bird (4) 12 Ridiculous sham (5) 13 Escape artfully (5) 15 Cult (4) 18 Acting part (4) 19 Pit worker (5) 20 Jewelled head ornament (5) 21 Church service (4) 23 First public appearance (5) 24 Drink (3) 25 20 quires (4) 26 Tidings (4)

DOWN 1 Wrongdoer (6) 2 Advantageous (6) 4 Court (3) 5 Counsel (6) 6 Born (3) 9 Military trainees (6) 10 Before (3) 11 Longing (6) 14 Scene of an event (6) 16 Make possible (6) 17 Actual facts (6) 19 Insane (3) 21 Spoil (3) 22 Briny (3)

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Downtime

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

CODE-CRACKER How to solve: Each number in our CODECRACKER grid represents a different letter of the alphabet. For example, today 3 represents R so fill R every time the figure 3 appears.

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

Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.

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

A B C 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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WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

Most-anticipated films at Cannes 2016 n Hasan Mansoor Chatak As we all know by now, that the glorious cinephile wonderland is in full-swing, and that’s incited us to ponder what appreciable works are on offer in this year’s Cannes line-up, made by the finest filmmakers from all over the world. Here, we present you few gems from this year’s line-up which have potential to end up scooping the top prizes, including Palme d’Or and Grand Prix.

The BFG

The Neon Demon

Paterson

This Nicolas Winding Refn’s, psychological horror can bag surprise accolade as Drive earned him a Best Director award in Cannes 2011. The film is about an aspiring model in Los Angeles (Elle Fanning, who’s worth watching in anything). Soon enough, she becomes the object of cannibalistic obsession for other women who covet her youth and beauty.

This marks Adam Driver’s first post–Kylo Ren appearance, as a New Jersey bus driver in Jim Jarmusch’s new feature. About Elly’s Golshifteh Farahani teamed up with Driver as his creative wife. As the first clips showed off an unexpectedly playful tone, so here’s hope that Jarmusch has yet more surprises up his sleeve.

The Salesman

This Jodie Foster directorial venture casts George Clooney as a cocksure financial pundit, whose cable show is crashed by a gun-wielding mystery man with

A last-minute addition to the festival, Asghar Farhadi‘s latest is a follow-up to The Past, which also premiered

The gang is back!

n Farhan Shahriar The wait is finally over. We don’t have to see the prison break brothers in The Flash or in the Legends of Tomorrow as Captain Cold & Heat Wave anymore. Well, here’s the reason: Prison Break Season 5, will see the return of Michael Scofield, Sara Tancredi and Lincoln Burrows in what appears to be the show’s ‘biggest

at Cannes, and led by previous collaborators Shahab Hosseini and Taraneh Alidoosti. It revolves around the couple who are forced to move out of their apartment, only to find conflict with the previous tenant of their new home.

without explanation the moment she turned 18.

The Handmaiden

Personal Shopper

Money Monster Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies follow-up is an adaptation of Roald Dahl‘s, The BFG. This follows a young girl, Sophie, who guides the Queen of England and the BFG (Mark Rylance, coming off his Oscar win for Spielberg) — a big, friendly giant — to stop Bloodbottlers, the big and unfriendly sort, from eating children.

a grudge. Julia Roberts co-stars as the producer trying to keep Clooney alive.

escape ever.’ We never thought we would see the day when we would be watching new episodes of Prison Break. The cast and crew recently gathered to reveal exciting details about the Fox revival, including a sneak peek to the upcoming season. This is gonna be insane.

The air date for Prison Break Season 5, has been revealed during a conference call for Fox’s

Kristen Stewart is back with director Olivier Assayas again in Cannes, with a ghost story that takes place in Paris’ fashion underworld. Despite its positive reviews, the film was booed during its screening in Cannes. However, it created much hype about how one of France’s most talented directors weaves this genre element into that scenario.

Julieta Pedro Almodóvar returns with his 20th film, and his tradition of ‘cinema of women.’ Intriguingly, this one is based on Alice Munro’s 2004 book of short stories, Runaways, and tracks mother Julieta as she searches for a daughter, who disappeared

After trying out the world of Hollywood with his Englishlanguage debut Stoker, Park Chan-wook has returned to South Korea for his follow-up. Adapting Sarah Waters‘ novel Fingersmith, the period crime drama was initially set in Victorian London, and follows young female thieves, but the Oldboy director switched the locations to his native country and Japan.

Its Only the End of the World The young Xavier Dolan got another film under this belt with the incredible cast of Marion Cotillard, Léa Seydoux and Vincent Cassel. The Frenchlanguage film is based on a play

by Jean-Luc Lagarce which follows a writer who goes back to his hometown, planning on announcing his upcoming death to his family. l

TV watch 2016 Programming Presentation, reports Cinema Blend. According to the publication, the revival is set to air in mid season 2016.

As the trailer reveals, the new series will see the return of the brothers, Michael Scofield and Lincoln Burrows, and the plot line sets the drama in an international level when previously thought to be dead, Michael returns.

When his brother, Lincoln learns of his apparent survival, he informs Dr Sara Tancredi, Michael’s prison-doctor-turned-love-interest, and they team up with their old fellow convicts from the Fox State Penitentiary to rescue him. Michael is supposedly being held at a prison in Yemen, where Lincoln meets him and promises to rescue him, hence the plan begins.

Inside, Michael plans with his middle eastern inmates while on the outside, Lincoln and Sucre must deal with other new problems as they get attacked by some criminals.

This is surely a great news to the series loving people. Definitely you won’t miss the premiere and get ready to break out. l

n Showtime Desk Shusmita Anis, the niece and disciple of the legendary Narzul artist Feroza Begum, will be performing live in the popular music program, Gane

Gane Shokal Shuru on Channel I on Wednesday, May 18, 2016, at 7:30am. Renowned tabla player, Syed Meher Hossain will be accompanying her.

The program is hosted by Moushumi Barua. l

Aynabaji at the Cannes Film Festival

n Showtime Desk The much-anticipated debut film of Amitabh Reza, Aynabaji is yet to be released in the country, however it was screened at the 69th Cannes Film Festival in France, yesterday.

Produced by the Content Matters Ltd, the film is a project of Half Stop Down.

Amitabh Reza, a prominent

advertisement-and film-maker of Bangladesh and director of Half Stop Down, said: “Film making is a team work. Seeing the reaction of the audience, I can say that our team has done an extra ordinary job.”

The film was screened at Marcoda Film’s Grey Three hall at the festival yesterday, where audience from different countries including United States, United

Kingdom, India, Romania, and Turkey were present.

Directors, producers, and investors attend this section in order to select modern films of international standard, and market them. Aynabaji has already bagged ticket for participating in different film festivals in Canada, Iran, and Cairo.

Top of Mind CEO and producer

of the film, Ziauddin Adil attended the ceremony on behalf of Content Matters Ltd. “Audience from different countries seem to have lovingly accepted the film. It was reflected on their faces. The film is lively and out-of-the-box,” he said.

Gausul Alam Shaon, another producer of the film, said: “Bangladeshi audience is eagerly waiting to watch the film. I believe, the success of Cannes Film Festival will double their eagerness.”

Chanchal Chowdhury, Nabila, Lutfor Rahman George, Hira Chowdhury, Showkot Osman, and Gausul Islam Shaon, will be seen playing different roles in the film. Esha Yusuf is the executive producer of the film, that narrates the story of another city within the capital Dhaka, which is often unheard and less seen on screen.

Ayna leads a simple lonely life in that city by teaching children acting. At one point, his love interest Hridi arrives. But his life changes as he leaves the city for earning a living. He gets caught in a web. He tries to remove the new mask put on his face but fails to do so, also loses his love interest, his school, and the simple life he had. l

Chow the action Hero n Rupkotha Chowdhury Once upon a time, when Hollywood was discovering the action scenes of Hong Kong films, when ‘a better tomorrow’ of action movies was brought by the Hong Kong guy, Chow Yun Fat was ready well known to all action movie lovers around the world.

Who can ever forget his action style which powered over Hollywood and which continues today! His partnership with filmmaker John Woo, in the stoic hero-genre films - A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, and Hard Boiled, became showstopper once and he is better known in the West for his roles as Li Mu-bai in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Sao Feng in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. He mainly plays in dramatic film and has won three Hong Kong Film Awards, for Best Actor and two Golden Horse Awards for Best Actor in Taiwan. Today, May 18, He is stepping into sixtieth decade of his life. Now its time to celebrate his successful life.

Chow grew up in a farming community on Lamma Island,

in a house with no electricity.

His mother was a cleaning lady and vegetable farmer, and his father worked on a Shell Oil Company tanker. He woke up at dawn each morning to help his mother sell herbal jelly and Hakka tea-pudding on the streets; in the afternoons he went to work in the fields. His family moved to Kowloon, when he was ten.

At seventeen, he left school to help support the family by doing odd jobs including bellboy, postman, camera salesman, and taxi driver. His life started to change when he responded to a newspaper advertisement and his actor-trainee application was accepted by TVB, the local television station. He signed a three-year contract with the studio and made his acting debut.

Chow became a heartthrob and a familiar face in soap operas that were exported internationally. As a result, growing up in a needy family, he was declared as the second-highest earning actor in Hong Kong, earning 170 million HKD which is $21.9 million in 2014.

Chow has been married twice; first in 1983, to Candice Yu, an

actress from Asia Television; the marriage lasted nine months. In 1986, Chow married Singaporean Jasmine Tan. The couple have no children, although Chow has a goddaughter, Celine Ng, a former child model for Chickeeduck, McDonald’s, Toys’R’Us, and other

companies.

In February 2015, Chow reprised his role as Ken in the sequel From Vegas to Macau II. He was paid $5 million (39 million HKD) for the film.

Chow has appeared in over 121 films and 24 television series.l

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WHAT TO WATCH

Edge of Tomorrow HBO 4:14pm A soldier fighting aliens gets to relive the same day over and over again, the day restarting every time he dies.

Cast: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, Brendan Gleeson, Jonas Armstrong, Tony Way, Kick Gurry Final Destination 5 WB 4:17pm Survivors of a suspensionbridge collapse learn there’s no way you can cheat death.

Cast: Nicholas D’Agosto, Emma Bell, Arlen Escarpeta, Miles Fisher, Ellen Wroe

Special ID Zee Studio 7:30pm A cop goes undercover in a ruthless underworld organisation to stop a gang leader, only to put himself in great danger after being exposed by his former protégé and best friend.

Cast: Donnie Yen, Jing Tian, Andy On, Zhang Hanyu, Ronald Cheng The Marine Star Movies 7:36pm A group of diamond thieves on the run kidnap the wife of a recently discharged marine who goes on a chase through the South Carolinian wilderness to retrieve her.

Cast: John Cena, Robert Patrick, Kelly Carlson, Abigail Bianca, Anthony Ray Parker The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia WB 9:30pm A young family moves into a historic home in Georgia, only to learn they are not the house’s only inhabitants.

Cast: Abigail Spencer, Chad Michael Murray, Katee Sackhoff, Emily Alyn Lind, Cicely Tyson

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

DEFAULT LOANS SEE STEEP RISE IN MARCH PAGE 12

WHERE NO ONE IS LOOKING PAGE 24

MOST-ANTICIPATED FILMS AT CANNES 2016 PAGE 30

Fault in original design delays Hotel InterContinental opening n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla Due to a faulty design, it would now take five more months and cost more money to renovate and open services at Shahbagh’s Hotel InterContinental, previously known as Sheraton and more recently as Ruposhi Bangla.

As part of the renovation plans for the hotel, construction work began on schedule in March 2015.

But because of some faults found while demolishing some parts of the existing building, the project deadline was pushed to November 30, 2016 from the planned completion date on June 30, 2016.

According to Bangladesh Services Limited (BSL), the building’s owners, the hotel would now open its doors in February 2017 instead of its planned launch in October this year.

According to a report submitted to the Standing Committee on Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism, the erstwhile Sheraton Hotel’s blueprint was not available before beginning the demolition and renovation of the hotel building.

The report, acquired by the Dhaka Tribune, reads that later assessments had found a number of flaws in the hotel construction.

“As there was no built drawing of the old 11-storey building of the hotel that was constructed in 1966, it was not possible to do a detailed survey before closing the hotel. That

REASONS FOR DELAY ●

●

●

●

Load bearing incapability of the old 11-storey building Floor height and fire resistance incapability of the hotel building Changes in mechanical, electrical and plumbing design Delay in releasing imported instruments and materials Proposed Time Completion: June 30, 2016 Doors open: Oct 2016

New Time Completion: Nov 30, 2016 Doors open: Feb 2017

MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

is why faults were only found during the detailed survey and demolition stage after the hotel was closed.

“Based on the findings, demolition work was not completed on schedule and a new time frame was set to end the project,” the report by the BSL reads.

The reasons behind the delayed of renovating the hotel include load bearing incapability and floor height and fire resistance incapability of the old 11-storey building;

mechanical, electrical and plumbing design change; and delay in releasing imported instruments and materials.

BSL Secretary Abul Monsur said: “Hotel InterContinental was constructed in 1966 when Pakistan Service Limited was in charge of that hotel. After the Liberation War, we did not get the original drawing of the hotel’s 11-storey building.

“So, we could not survey the whole thing in detail and had to

change the design that we had planned before the demolition,” he said.

Monsur added that construction costs would also rise with the deadline extension; but refused to disclose the amount.

The historical hotel, which was witness to many landmark events in Dhaka before and after Bangladesh’s liberation, was run by the InterContinental Hotels Group from 1966 to 1983. In late 1983, Sheraton

– owned by Starwood – took over its operations and management for the next 25 years.

The agreement with Sheraton was extended to April 30, 2011, until Starwood and BSL disagreed over renovation issues. After that, the BSL took over the operations and named the hotel Ruposhi Bangla.

One of the oldest hotels in the country has remained shut since September 2014 because of the renovation work. l

S Korean wins Man Booker Int’l prize n AFP

This file photo taken on May 15, 2016 shows Korean author Han Kang (R) and translator Deborah Smith as they pose for a photograph with the book The Vegetarian at a photocall in London on May 15, 2016.

AFP

South Korean author Han Kang won the Man Booker International Prize on Monday, sharing the £50,000 award with her translator -- who had only taught herself Korean three years before.

Han Kang, 45, an author and creative writing teacher who is already successful in South Korea, is likely to enjoy a spike in international sales following the win for “The Vegetarian”.

“I’m so honoured” she told AFP. “The work features a protagonist who wants to become a plant, and to leave the human race

to save herself from the dark side of human nature.

“Through this extreme narrative I felt I could question... the difficult question of being human.”

She was the first South Korean to win the prize.

The book was picked unanimously by the panel of five judges, beating six other novels including “The Story of the Lost Child” by Italian sensation Elena Ferrante and “A Strangeness in My Mind”

by Turkey’s Orhan Pamuk.

For the first time this year, the award went jointly to the translator, Deborah Smith, 28, who only started learning Korean three

years before she embarked on the translation.

“This was the first book that I ever translated, and the best possible thing that can happen to a translator has just happened to me,” an emotional Smith said.

The international edition of Britain’s Man Booker Prize was introduced in 2005 and up to now has been awarded in recognition of a body of work by a living author whose work was written or available in English. But from this year, it will be presented annually for a single work of fiction that has been translated into English and published in Britain. l

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