26 July, 2016

SECOND EDITION

TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2016

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Shraban 11, 1423, Shawwal 20, 1437

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Regd No DA 6238, Vol 4, No 90

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

Businesses count human cost of shut-down n Abu Hayat Mahmud Without any proper warning or signs, Helal Uddin – a restaurateur in Dhaka's Uttara – lost almost everything he owned in a single day.

His Everest Restaurant, where many came to enjoy a meal every day, was shuttered as Rajuk began an eviction drive yesterday against business outlets in Uttara residential model town.

“Tk30 lakh had been invested for the restaurant. My partner and I were already in loss after inaugurating the restaurant, and after this drive we have lost all,” a dejected Helal told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

The restaurateurs were not the only victims of the drive; all 38 staffs of the food outlet were also suddenly left unemployed.

Helal said he was shocked and frustrated about the injustice of it all. He said they had legally rented the venue from the landlord and secured the necessary trade licence from the Dhaka North City Corporation when they opened the restaurant only eight months ago.

But now, Helal feels that following the rules is apparently not enough.

“What is our mistake? There is no coordination among the government authorities; but as a result, we are the ones who would have to suffer,” Helal said.

He made the comments as a mobile court led jointly by Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha (Rajuk) Ex-

Rajuk officials sever the gas connection of Platinum Residence at Shahjalal Avenue of Uttara's Sector 4 in Dhaka yesterday as part of their eviction drive to remove ‘unauthorised’ businesses from the area MEHEDI HASAN ecutive Magistrate Khandokar Zakir Hossain and Authorised Officer for Zone 2 Ashraful Islam conducted the four-hour long drive in the afternoon.

At the end of the first day's drive, Magistrate Zakir said all business outlets on both sides of the Shahjalal Avenue were unauthorised and illegal.

“Firstly we will evict hotels, restaurants and bars from the residential area, and step by step action will also be taken against other businesses,” he said.

But local business owners complained that they had not been given proper notice of eviction.

However, Rajuk claims that it ran a newspaper advertisement is-

suing a mass notice of eviction for all unauthorised businesses.

“Rajuk started the drive without any notice, which is not acceptable at all. Every businesspeople have been issued trade licenses from the city corporations,” said Md Mostofa Kamal, an Uttara local who owns a restaurant in Banani.

Although his restaurant was yet

to face any action, Mostofa said he was concerned about the consequences of such an eviction drive.

Anxiety and uncertainty was also clear in the voice of 18-yearold Riad, who supported his family of eight by waiting tables at the now-shuttered Everest Restaurant.

“I came to Dhaka from Noakhali after getting this job. I contribute in my family's monthly expenses.

Now that the restaurant has been shut down, I may have to return home,” he said.

Mosharraf Karim Rony, a student of IUBAT who worked as a chef at an Uttara eatery named Buckaroo until it was also shut down yesterday, urged the government to reconsider the eviction drive.

“My family depends on my income; so what will I tell my family now?” he asked.

As the Rajuk mobile team continued its eviction drive, it disconnected electricity and gas lines and demolished business signboards of different food outlets.

“We have asked business owners to stop all operations on the residential road, otherwise we will take further steps against them,” said Rajuk official Ashraful.

He added that the city development authority had a list of 540 illegal business in Uttara that had irregularities.

Md Nuruzzaman, the assistant manager of Platinum Residence, the first business to be shut down  PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

Child killing cases: Delayed justice 1 held in Sagar murder n spawning more violence Tanveer Hossain, Narayanganj and Aminul Islam Babu

Jamil Khan and n Mohammad Md Sanaul Islam Tipu Incidents of child killings are unfortunately far too common in Bangladesh, with the level of brutality only growing over the years.

The latest victim of such savagery was Sagar Barman, a 10-year-old boy who worked at a textiles factory in Narayanganj. He died after air was inserted through his rectum using a compressor, a crime that echoed the murder of 12-year-old Md Rakibul Islam in August last year.

Although Rakib’s killers were sentenced to death following a speedy trial, families of many child victims have been waiting for years to get their share of justice.

Such is the wait for KR Azim, whose four-year-old son Samiul Azim Wafi was killed six years ago.

The murderer was none other than his own wife – Wafi’s mother Ayesa Humayara Esha.

Esha killed Wafi after the child found out about the extra-marital affair she was having with her lover Md Shamsuzzaman Arif Bakku.

Although a case was filed and both Esha and Bakku soon confessed to the crime, the murder case is still pending – six years after those confessions – at Dhaka’s Fourth Special Judge’s Court due to non-appearance of prosecution witnesses.

In 2014, both suspects secured bail and have since been threatening Azim against testifying at the

court; Azim has already filed a general diary with Pallabi police.

Azim’s plight is shared by many other families across the country.

According to child rights platform Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum (BSAF), only 19 child killing cases saw verdicts being delivered this year. But most of these cases had been filed at least a couple of years back.

Azmi Akther, programme officer of BSAF, said they had reports of at least 1,186 child killing cases being filed between 2012 and July 15 of this year Azmi said they believed many more incidents were going unreported because the people were becoming discouraged after seeing  PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

Police have arrested one person in connection with the murder of Sagar Barman, a 10-year-old garment worker in a Narayanganj factory who was killed from air pushed through his rectum.

Zobeda Textile and Spinning

Mill’s administrative officer Nazmul Huda was arrested yesterday morning, Rupganj Police Station Officer-in-Charge Ismail Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune.

During a visit at the factory yesterday, police also found 24 child workers in the mill and sent them home. At least 500 to 700 children were employed there, police said.

The local factory inspection office said there was a case ongoing in labor court against the factory for employing children.

Meanwhile an autopsy at Dhaka Medical College confirmed that Sagar had been killed from air pushed into his body with a strong force.

On Sunday, Sagar’s family recovered him from the factory in Rupganj’s Jatramura after hearing someone was pushing air into  PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

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Flood situation deteriorates further n Abu Bakar Siddique The current flood situation across the northern, north-eastern and central parts of the country has deteriorated over the last few days, submerging large areas of land in several districts surrounding the Brahmaputra-Jamuna, Ganges-Padma and Surma-Kushiara river systems.

Ripon Karmaker, duty officer of the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre (FFWC) told the Dhaka Tribune that that the ongoing flood situation has been the longest this monsoon and that during the last few days, the country’s northern, north-eastern and central parts and some areas of the upper riparian Indian states, Assam and Meghalaya, has faced incessant, heavy precipitation.

Information on heavy rainfall in those particular areas is also cor-

RAB updates missing people’s list, now 68

n Kamrul Hasan

Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) yesterday released an updated list of missing people in its Facebook page following criticism about publishing an unverified list of 261 missing people on July 20.

The new list comprises of 68 people, aged between 15 and 40, who has been missing since 2011.

Contacted, Mufti Mahmud Khan, director of legal and media wing of RAB, said they had learned that many people listed in the previous release had returned to their families.

The elite force has also provided a mobile phone number, 01777720075, to contact them.

At least three people in the updated list are suspected to have militant link, while three more are from North South University. According to the list, 26 people went missing from Dhaka, including five members of a family who allegedly went to Turkey to join IS. Nine of the 68 missing are from Jessore district, who had informed their families that they were taking the river route for going abroad.

There are also names of three females, including a teacher of Government Michael Madhusudan College of Jessore named Nayma Rokon.

The list also includes six people from madrasa background.

As many as 14 people missing are from different private universities of Bangladesh. Of them, four have completed their studies abroad -- two from Malaysia and two from Saudi Arabia. The latter two, Junayed Hasan Khan and Ibrahim Hasan Khan, are brothers. Full list on www.dhakatribune.com. l

roborated by data from the Bangladesh Meteorological Department.

According to FFWC data, the Brahmaputra-Jamuna and Ganges-Padma river systems are experiencing rising water levels, a trend that is likely to continue for the next 48 hours.

During this period, the flood forecasting centre warns that the flood situation in low-lying areas of districts adjacent to the Brahmaputra-Jamuna river system at Nilphamari, Kurigram, Gaibandha, Jamalpur, Bogra, Sirajganj and Natore and Ganges-Padma river system at Rajbari, Manikganj and Shariatpur is likely to continue to deteriorate.

As all the gates of the Teesta River’s Gazaldoba Barrage in India being opened, the water level at the Dalia point near the Teesta Barrage in Bangladesh has risen to 12 cm above the danger level.

FFWC has measured that the water level at 17 out of 90 measuring stations has already flowed above danger level.

Assistant Engineer (surveyor) of the Water Development Board, Aminur Rahman, suspects that the water level might increase even further.

The water in the Jamuna River at Aricha and the Padma River at Bhagyakul is likely to cross their respective danger levels within the next 24 hours, according to a flood bulletin issued yesterday at 9am.

The water level of the Dhorola River at the Kurigram point has also risen to 95 cm above the danger level.

Our Kurigram correspondent has reported that in the last few days, thousands of people from nine upazilas in the district have been affected by waterlogging as the level of river water continues to rise.

Despite government-initiated relief activities, several thousand people are suffering from food shortage, he added.

This rise in water level has also resulted in Lalmonirhat upazila’s Project Implementation Officer Abdul Matin reporting that around 9,000 families being severely affected by the floods, as waterlogging has occurred in a number of areas in Mogolhat and Kulaghat unions of Lalmonirhat upazila.

Our Panchagarh correspondent also reported that at least 10 slums beside the Korotoa River has gone under water.

In contrast to the rising water levels, FFWC predicts that the level of water in the Surma-Kushiyara river system is likely to fall in the next 48 hours and the flood situation in the districts of Sylhet, Sunamganj, Habiganj, Moulvibazar and Netrokona is likely to improve. l

Another Gulshan attack suspect held n Mohiuddin Molla, Comilla Police have arrested a suspect from Muradnagar upazila in connection with the Gulshan Holey Artisan Bakery attack.

A DB team picked up Mithu from his house yesterday. The arrestee Mohammad Mithu is son of Majibur Rahman of Sharmanda village in the upazila. Police said he was the family car driver of central BNP leader Ruhul Kuddus Talukder Dulu.

After interrogating him in the presence of his family members and local UP chairman Abdus Samad Majhi, the DB team led by DC Mahbubur Rahman left for the capital with Mithu in custody at 7pm.

A police source said Mithu was seen driving a white private car near the Holey Artisan Bakery before the terrorist attack on July 1. l

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

1 held in Sagar murder his body with a compressor. He was rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead.

That night, his father Ratan Barman, also an employee of the factory, filed a case against four officers of the mill and six unknowns at the Rupganj Station.

Arrested man on remand

OC Ismail Hossain said Ratan Barman had named Administrative Officer Nazmul Huda, Production Manager Harunur Rashid, Senior Production Manager Azahar Imam Sohel and Assistant Production Manager Rashidul Islam in the case.

He also accused six unnamed linemen and supervisors from the factory.

Police said arrested Nazmul has been working in Zobeda Textiles for eight years and he hails from Gopalganj.

Narayanganj Judicial Magistrate Ashiq Imam granted police seven days to interrogate Nazmul following a hearing yesterday afternoon.

Ratan in his case said he and his son worked in the factory in the morning shift.

Nazmul Huda and the linemen and supervisors regularly abused both him and Sagar over petty issues. These men had inserted an air compressor tube into Sagar’s rectum and murdered him, he said.

Police said the others accused in the case were on the run and their phones had been turned off.

Sagar killed by air through rectum

Dhaka Medical College Forensic Department Asst Prof AKM Shafiuzzaman Khair told reporters after an autopsy on Sagar’s body yesterday afternoon that air had been pushed through the child’s rectum so forcefully that various parts of his body,

Businesses count even his face and arms, had bloated up. That was what caused his death, he said.

The doctor added that the autopsy had found that the child’s rectal area had been severely damaged.

During autopsy, gases came out from the victim’s stomach.

“Since the gas cannot be tested here, we have sent blood and viscera to be tested,” Shafiuzzaman added.

The family took the body and left the hospital around 3pm.

Zobeda Textile’s owner Mozammel Haque Bhuiyan could not be reached for comment.

Dhaka Tribune was able to speak to the factory’s Administrative Officer Kibria Hossain, who claimed that Sagar may have died while he was trying to ‘clean his mouth with the air compressor’.

He however, refused to comment on the child worker issue. l

yesterday, told the Dhaka Tribune: “We did not know about the drive, otherwise we would have fixed the problems.”

All 60 employees of Shahjalal Avenue’s Platinum Residence, which offered service apartments to mostly foreign guests, would lose their jobs with the closure of the hotel, he said.

Platinum Residence’s HR Manager Md Sarwar said: “We have asked them [Rajuk] to give us at least a full day [of preparation]; but they are not willing to give us more time. The Rajuk officials have directed us to vacate the hotel by 4pm today [Monday].”

Rajuk’s Ashraful said the building only had a residential permit but was being used for commercial purposes.

But amid the confusion, claims and counter-claims, hundreds are now faced with an uncertain future. l

Child killing cases: Delayed justice spawning more violence other victims not getting any result from filing cases.

According to BSAF data, 201 children were murdered in 2012, 180 in 2013, 366 in 2014, and 292 were killed in 2015.

Of the 147 children killed this year, 33 were murdered by their own parents.

The Dhaka Tribune has found that the Dhaka courts alone have 43 child killing cases currently pending, some of them going back as far as 16 years.

Transfer of investigation officers and public prosecutors, and negligence of corresponding officers

were the major reasons for the delay in trials, sources said.

AS Mahmood, director of BSAF, told the Dhaka Tribune that in most cases, the poor and the weak were the worst sufferers. The poor families often did not have the money to keep up with court proceedings, causing the corresponding officer to start ignoring their case, he said.

“Besides, in a major number of cases, the abusers turn out to be the ones with the muscle and nothing happens to them even if their crimes are obvious,” he said.

In such cases, investigation officers do not care to complete

the charge sheet in due time, Mahmood claimed.

However, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, denied such allegations. He said authorities have been instructed to handle each child killing case carefully and been warned that negligence would not be tolerated.

But Advocate Salma Ali, executive director Bangladesh National Women Lawyer Association (BNWLA), pointed out that only 10% of child killing cases in the country see trial, while a large number of child abuse cases remain unreported.

One reason for this was that

many cases were settled out of court, she said, adding that escaping a trial only inspired the culprits to commit more crimes.

In a bid to speed up trials of child killing cases, a committee was formed by the public prosecutor of Dhaka Judge’s Court to identify the problems in prosecuting such cases.

The committee’s Convener Mohammad Mirash Uddin, assistant commissioner of police of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Court, told the Dhaka Tribune he has sent letters to different stakeholders and witnesses to come to court for speeding up the trials. l

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30 Facebook pages, users spreading militant propaganda n Arifur Rahman Rabbi

Pedestrians and local battery-run autorickshaws in Uttara’s Dakkhin Khan are seen to wait beneath a raised level crossing as a train passes the area yesterday. Though it is mandatory that the gatekeeper at the level crossing lowers the gate every time a train passes, the picture shows a different scenario. Such carelessness can lead to major accidents MEHEDI HASAN

Mir Quasem’s review hearing deferred n Ashif Islam Shaon

The Supreme Court has deferred the hearing on a petition filed by condemned war criminal Mir Quasem Ali seeking acquittal till August 24.

An Appellate Division bench led by the Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha fixed the date yesterday in response to a petition filed

by Quasem’s lawyers seeking two months’ time.

The court said that it will not extend time any further.

The Appellate Division on June 6 published the full text of the verdict that upheld a war crimes tribunal’s death sentence for Quasem. On June 19, Mir Quasem sought review on the verdict and the state applied for a hearing date.

After two days the Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division forwarded the review petition to start hearing on July 25. Mir Quasem’s lawyers then prayed for two months to

start the hearing.

The review petition was placed at number 63 on the cause list yesterday.

If the review petition is turned down, there will be no more barriers to hanging the war criminal. The Jamaat leader can then only seek presidential clemency by admitting guilt, though there is no record of pardoning a war criminal by the president since this war crimes trial began.

“In a criminal case there is nearly no chance of changing a verdict in review stage,” Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told the media recently.

The court asked Mahbub to propose a date or it will fix a date. “You decide on which date you will be fully prepared for hearing. Chamber Judge has already given you enough time. This cannot wait any longer.”

Finally the date was fixed on August 24.

The war crimes tribunal

awarded capital punishment for Quasem, now 64, on November 2, 2014 on two charges – for killing seven people, including teenage freedom fighter Jasimuddin, after abduction during the Liberation War of 1971.

The top al-Badr leader from Chittagong was also awarded a total of 72-year imprisonment on eight other proven charges of abduction, conspiracy and planning.

Later the Supreme Court upheld the tribunal’s sentence. A top financier of Jamaat, Quasem is also accused of appointing a US-based lobbyist to cast doubts on the war crimes trial’s proceedings.

Known as Bangali Khan for his brutal role during the war, Quasem had set up several torture camps at different places in Chittagong.

In the review petition, the Jamaat-e-Islami leader prayed to the Supreme Court to acquit him of all charges. l

Yahoo sold to Verizon n Reuters Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) said Monday it would buy Yahoo Inc’s (YHOO.O) core internet properties for $4.83 billion in cash to expand its digital advertising and media business, in a deal that ends a lengthy sale process for the fading Web pioneer.

The purchase of Yahoo’s operations will boost Verizon’s AOL internet business,

which it bought last year for $4.4 billion, and give it access to Yahoo’s ad technology tools, BrightRoll and Flurry, and assets such as search, mail and messenger.

The deal, expected to close in early 2017, marks the end of Yahoo as an operating company, leaving it with a 15 percent stake in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N) and a 35.5 percent interest in Yahoo Japan Corp

(4689.T).

“The sale of our operating business, which effectively separates our Asian asset equity stakes, is an important step in our plan to unlock shareholder value for Yahoo,” Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer said in a statement on Monday.

Yahoo will continue as an independent company until the deal receives shareholder and regulatory approval, the companies said. l

The Dhaka Metropolitan Police has asked the telecom regulators to take all necessary actions to shut down the accounts of 30 Facebook pages and users that have long been circulating extremist and militant propaganda.

A letter on this regard has been sent to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), DMP Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia said. Police are now working to find the administrators of these pages.

The DMP chief said the social media accounts were promoting violent ideas and misleading young impressionable men.

He added that such communal provocation and incitement to militancy were criminal offences. Claiming that these activities were being carried out from foreign countries, Asaduzzaman Mia said the government would communicate with Facebook authorities to stop these.

A source in the police said 30 Facebook pages and users were identified by the DMP’s cyber crime unit after social media activities were monitored to trace the sources of extremist ideas.

Seeking anonymity, an official of the cyber crimes unit said there were far more Facebook users and pages spreading militant propaganda than just these 30 accounts, and the BTRC would move to shut them down in phases.

The official added that other blogs and websites were also being used to disseminate militant propaganda.

Some Facebook pages, users, blogs and websites had previously been closed for such reasons, but the militants keep on repeating such practices by creating new pages.

These online platforms were also being used to recruit terrorists, he said. A Home Ministry official said the BTRC has already been told to comply with the police request and take necessary steps.

A source in the BTRC, on the other hand, said the regulators have already sent the account details to Facebook authorities.

Bangla user names: Salahuddiner Talwar, Banglar Shoinik, Gazwa E Hind or Hindustaner Churanto Juddho, Shaikh Mufti Muhammad Jasim Uddin Rahmani, Abu Ubaidah al-mujahir, Mufti jasimauddina Rahmani haphijahullah or Esho Allah er Pothe, Rasulullah sal. Er Dekhano pothe, Ababil Media, Ami Shai, Sams Bin Sabaj, Jongir Shathe Kotopokothon, Gazi Muhammod Abdullah, Allaher Pother Thikana, Ashiddaw Alal Kuffar, Nayan Chatterjee, Jiboner Hisab, Barbi Prince, Basher Kellah, Rafi Bin Walid, Jonginews24, At-Tamkin, Kath Mollah, Orthohin Rakib, Bahuler Vhela.

English user names: Hizb-ul Islam Bangladesh, Animesh Ray Forever, Nirvik Muzahid, Sultan Salauddin Ayubi, Kaka Amur, Abu Hujaifa Hujaifa. l

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3 CU students among 4 Hizb-ut-Tahrir men held Mizanur Rahaman, n FM Chittagong Police yesterday arrested four alleged active operatives of the banned Islamic outfit Hizb ut-Tahrir in Panchlaish, Chittagong.

Three out of the four arrested are students of Chittagong University.

They are Faisal Bin Aziz alias Ador, 24, Sultan Mohammed Khan alias Bidyut, 29, Ariful Islam, 24, and Fakrul Abedin, 26, police sources said.

A case has been filed against the four suspected militants under the Anti-Terrorism Act with Panchlaish police station.

Officer-in-Charge Abul Mansur of Bakalia police station told the Dhaka Tribune that Faisal is a third year student from the Department of Statistics, Sultan Mohammed is a final year student of the Department of Accounting, Ariful Islam is the final year student of the Department of

History from CU. Fakrul, on the other hand, is a student of Chittagong Government College’s Department of Statistics.

This arrest now sums up the number to nine students from CU with alleged links with two militant organisations including another banned outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh.

Faisal was arrested from Kolpolok Residential area of Bakalia on Sunday night for distributing anti-state leaflets and Hizb ut-Tahrir newsletters among locals, OC Abul Mansur said.

Sub-Inspector Mohim Uddin said Faisal belongs to a well to do family, his father is a top ranking official at a private company in Chittagong while his brother is a professor of a university in UK. SI Mohim, who led the drive, said:“During interrogation Faisal revealed the identities of three other associates

who lived with him in a mess in Mominbag, Panchlaish.”

Police later conducted a drive at the mess and arrested the three others around midnight, he added. “Police recovered five books of Hizb ut-Tahrir, biodata of 10 recruits and 60 newsletters from the mess,” said the SI. OC Abul Mansur said during primary interrogation, the four confessed that they were active operatives of the banned organisation.

“Faisal, during questioning, told police that a ‘boro bhai’ [big brother] named Ashiq from the organisation usually asks him to meet at the residential area,” said the OC. OC Mansur said police were now on the hunt for the big brother who is allegedly the handler for the arrested Hizb ut-Tahrir men.

According to CU sources and the police, the BBA department has several members of Hizb ut-Tahrir. l

Inu apologises

Consultation focused on youth n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla participation in Information Minister Hasanul Huq Inu drew flak from lawmakers in parliament for calling lawmakers involved next GFMD in Test Relief and Food for Work programmes corrupt.

Lawmakers irrespective of their party affiliation exn Adil Sakhawat pressed their anger and protest in the presence of Prime A national consultation was held yesterday at Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) ahead of the 9th Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) regarding youth and migration.

The consultation focused on youth participation in the next GFMD which will be held in December this year in Dhaka where Bangladesh will Chair.

In the program it was revealed that more than 30% of total population in Bangladesh is under 30 years of age with similar demograpgic statistics present in the migrant group.

Although, the 12% of all migrants worldwide are comprised of the youth the speakers said they are usually ignored in the policy making decisions.

The speakers at the programme said that despite significant migration patterns among Bangladeshi youths, most often, their voices and concerns are not fully heard.

Organised by the RMMRU and Terre des Hommes (TDH) International Federation, the consultation was presided by the Chair of RMMRU Dr Tasneem Siddiqui and attended by Rehnuma Salam Khan. l

Minister Sheikh Hasina in the house though the Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury allowed only three lawmakers to deliver their speech on the issue.

In the face of protest, the information minister apologied for his comment and withdrew his statement. The lawmakers continued protest even after Inu repeatedly said he was sorry and withdrew the statement made on Sunday.

Taking the floor, ruling party lawmaker Abul Hasnat Abdullah initiated the discussion saying, “In today’s newspaper, seen Information Minister said half of the TR and FFW amount are in the pocket of the MPs.” The lawmakers chanted “Shame, Shame.”

“Lawmakers should seek apology for his comments. I am demanding ruling in this regard. At the same time I also demand investigation into what happened with TR and FFW in the constituency of the Information Minister” he said.

When the speaker gave floor to the information minister, he apologised saying: “I am sorry for statement published. I am extremely sorry for the statement which was unwarranted…. I withdrew the statement.”

Even after Inu says apoligised, lawmakers were seen not satisfied as they chanted ‘No, No’ and at that time few lawmakers protested standing and Jatiya Party lawmaker Syed Abu Hossain Babla said, “He (Inu) has to seek an apology. There is no alternative of it.”

The speaker then told the lawmakers that Information Minister has explained his statement.

Even after the apology the lawmakers did not calm down to which the Speaker then said: “What type of statement you are expecting now?”

Then the information minister said: “I think the statement on TR and FFW)which was published in media was unwarranted. I am saying sorry.” l

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Iran’s Servigas signs MoU to boost LPG sector in Bangladesh n Aminur Rahman Rasel With an aim to upgrade Bangladesh’s LPG sector, Star Consortium yesterday joined hands with Iran-based Servigas to establish production facilities of LPG trucks, LPG Industrial storage tanks, household cylinders for cooking stove and cylinders for vehicles.

Star Infrastructure Development Consortium Limited and Servigas Inc signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at a ceremony organised by the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) in a hotel in Dhaka.

Abdul Matlub Ahmad, president of FBCCI and also the chairman of Star Infrastructure Development Consortium Limited, and Shahariar Rabiee, managing director of Servigas, signed the MoU on behalf of their respective companies.

Matlub Ahmad said that initially the joint venture will invest around $12 million to establish facilities to produce LPG storage tankers and household tankers.

“We have chalked out three probable locations – Mongla of Bagerhat, Sonargaon of Narayanganj and Kishoreganj – for the production facility.

“Out of these, one will be selected after a technical team from Iran visit the places and finalise the factory site.”

Addressing the ceremony, Matlub also said that the production of LPG has increased worldwide but its price has fallen significantly.

He further said that India has helped this industry by allowing duty free import of critical components like regulator, valve, LPG industrial storage and various industrial cylinders.

Speaking on the occasion as chief guest, Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, energy advisor to the prime minister, said through this agreement Bangladesh has paved way for the import of LPG from Iran.

“But the most important part

is that through this agreement, Servigas will transfer its knowledge and technical expertise of the LPG sector to Bangladesh and eventually help us take the sector forward.” he added.

He also said that the dependency on domestic gas has to decline.

“For domestic purpose, there is no option but to go for LPG.” Tawfiq said that Bangladesh is yet to promote LPG into the country’s energy mix on a large scale. “This will change with steps like this.”

Shahariar Rabiee, managing director of Servigas, in his address said that his company now wants to share its technical knowledge and expertise with Bangladesh.

He said Servigas is responsible for manufacturing a variety of cylinders and pressure vessels for storage, transport and distribution of LPG. The company has been trying to meet customer needs by producing safe and diverse products in compliance with global standards, he added.

Servigas is a subsidiary of Butane Group, which was founded in 1953 as the first LPG distribution company in Iran.

Mohd Noor Ali, vice-chairman of Star Consortium, said that they are teaming up with one of the market leaders of LPG in the world.

“I hope with this partnership we will be able to contribute to the country’s LPG sector.”

Dr Abbas Vaezi, ambassador of Islamic Republic of Iran, said that Bangladesh is moving towards the path of development rapidly.

“Bangladesh and Iran has one of the oldest trade relation. Right after Bangladesh achieved its independence, we had established a trade relation. Now as the economic embargo on Iran has been removed we want to explore new trade territories.”

AR Khan, chairman of Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission, Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin, first vice-president of FBCCI, also spoke on the occasion. l

TEMPERATURE FORECAST FOR TODAY

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Members of RAB 3 escort three of the nine arrested suspects of an abduction gang into a vehicle yesterday at the RAB 3 office MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

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‘Business losses behind DBCCI chief missing‘ n Tribune Desk

Warrants issued against nine BNP men

It has been three days since the President of Dutch-Bangla Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DBCCI), Md Hassan Khaled, has been missing.

Polices and relatives said that they did not receive any calls about ransom money.

A police sources said that they were suspecting that the current status of his business could be the reason behind his disappearance.

Officer in Charge Nur-e-Azam Mia of Dhanmondi Police station said that Khaled was under a lot of stress as his business was incurring unexpected losses.

He however said that they were focusing their investigation as a “missing person” case.

According to police, Khaled’s cell phone was turned off at his residence at 8:30am on Saturday. It has not been turned on since then.

According to his family he went to a nearby pharmacy to buy medicine that morning.

They were altered when his office called them saying he did not go to work that day at 9:45am.

A police official asking not to be named told the Dhaka Tribune that he learned that Khaled’s business was running out of funds which was putting a lot of pressure on him. l

A Dhaka court yesterday issued warrants for the arrest of nine BNP leaders including BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed in a case filed under the explosive substances act.

Dhaka Senior Special Court 1 acting Judge Ruhul Amin issued the arrest warrants after accepting the charges brought against the 17 BNP-Jamaat leaders and activists.

The court issued the arrest warrants as they did not appear before the court during yesterday’s hearing of the case.

The court also directed the OC of Pallabi police station to submit reports by August 23 on the execution of the arrest warrants.

Other accused in the case in-

Rajshahi

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23.9ºC Sandwip

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clude BNP chief’s Press Secretary Maruf Kamal Khan, BNP chief’s Personal Assistant Shamsur Rahman Shimul Biswas, former BNP lawmaker Syeda Asifa Ashrafi Papia, ex-Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal president Azizul Bari Helal and Habib-un-Nabi Khan Sohel.

According to the charge sheet, on January 27 last year, some miscreants hurled petrol bombs on a bus in front of Islamia High School at Pallabi area in Dhaka during the countrywide blockade programme of the BNP-led 20-party alliance.

Later, Pallabi police filed a case against the 17 accused under the explosive substance act.

On May 3, the investigation officer of the case submitted the charge sheet before the court against the accused. l

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Fajr: 4:55am | Zohr: 1:15pm Asr: 5:15pm | Magrib: 6:55pm Esha: 8:45pm Source: Islamic Foundation

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TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2016

FLOOD SITUATION WORSENS

Shelter homes lie in dire state n Ariful Islam, Kurigram Around 150,000 people have been marooned in 50 unions of nine upazilas in Kurigram, as the water level of 16 rivers, including the Dharala, the Brahmaputra and the Dudhkumar, in the district continued to rise for the last one week.

Most of them are being compelled to live inside their houses, which are under waist-deep to chest-deep water, despite having two shelter homes named Begum Rokeya Asroyon Prokolpo and Brahmaputra Asroyon Prokolpo in Jatrapur union of Sadar upazila, re-

ports our correspondent after visiting the areas.

Let us see how the flood-affected people are passing their days through the eyes of our correspondent.

It took a 45-minute journey by boat from Jatrapur ghat to reach Kalir Alga village. No land was visible, water was all around. Every house of the village was under chest-deep water. Some people are on boats, while many are on bedsteads inside their rooms. Cattles were standing into the water. Some families cook on the bedsteads once a day and some are managing

by dry foods. Many families have left the village.

Rabeya Khatun, Shilpi Akter, Abu Bakar Shukurun Beoa and Abu Taher of the village said they have to reside in the sub-merged houses risking the lives of their children.

When asked why they were not going to the shelter homes, they replied, “Go yourself and see the condition of the shelter homes, they could be the abode of our cattle.”

While visiting the shelter homes built in 2015, our correspondent finds most of the rooms do not have roofs, doors and windows.

The shelter homes were built to ac-

commodate 220 families, whereas only 80 to 90 families can reside there now. All the toilets are unable to provide any service. Only one tube well is now operative in the whole project areas. Low quality iron angle and stripped plaster are lying on the floors.

Anwar and Jahanara Begum, who have taken shelter in Rokeya Asroyon Prakalpa, said tin-made roofs blew away by a storm three months after the inauguration of the homes by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2015. After that no repair work had been done, they added.

Akter Hossain Azad, acting dis-

trict administrator, and Md Aminul Islam, Sadar upazila executive officer, said while visiting the shelter homes on Sunday, “Prime Minister’s Office has asked us to prepare a report on the condition of the shelter homes. Steps will be taken to repair them after we send the report.”

However, they denied commenting on the low quality of the construction materials.

Messrs Jarif Enterprise had conducted the construction work of the project, while Bangladesh Army was in-charge of the entire project, confirmed several sources and local representative seeking anonymity. l

‘JMB women’ had no contact with families

Mother with her newborn commits suicide n Nazmul Huda Nasim, Bogra out of four suspected memn Tanveer Hossen, Narayanganj Two bers of the Jama’atul Mujahideen A mother with her newborn baby committed sucide jumping into a pond at Sddirganj of the district yesterday.

The deceased were Sonia Akter, 22, and her 40-day-old child Fatema.

On the day, around 12.30pm Sonia jumped into the pond with her child.

Later, locals rescued Sonia and her child and sent to local clinic where doctors declared them dead.l

Bangladesh (JMB), who were arrested in possession of bombs, bomb-making materials, and Jihadi books from Sirajganj, had no contact with their family members for long.

Of the arrestees, Habiba Akter, daughter of Dabiruddin Mia of Amrul union parishad, and Rumana Akter, daughter of Rafikul Islam Tota Mia, were students at Ajiron Rabeya Mohila Madrasa located at

Bogra Sadar upzila.

Local sources said Tariqul Islam, 48, son of Abu Bakar Siddique, a resident of Zamua village of Shialcoat union of Sirajganj sadar upazila and a member of the (JMB), who was killed while making bombs at a residence at Juanpur Kuthirvita village, Sherpur, Bogra on April 3, was relative of Habiba.

Police also arrested Md Raihan, brother-in-law of Habiba, in connection with Bogra incident.

They said taking the advantage of restricted life, they were carrying out militant activities.

Family members said they did not aware of recent activities of Habiba and her husband Khalid Hasan.

Meanwhile, Shahnaz Begum, mother of Rumana, said her sonin-law Sujon was a tailor in profession. But, they had no contact with them.

Police arrested suspected four members of the JMB’s female wing from Masimpur Mohalla area in Sirajganj on Sunday.

The detainees are Nazira Tabassum Rani, 30, wife of Mahbubur Rahman of Badullapur village,

Romana Akter Roma, 21, wife of Sujan Ahmed Bijoy of Poranbaria village, Habiba Akter Misu, 18, wife of Khalid Hasan of Bogra and Runa Begum, 19, wife Mamrul Islam Sardar of Gaibandha.

Police said four women were engaged in recruiting members for the banned militant outfit in the name of preaching Islam.

A large quantity of bomb-making materials, six improvised bombs, nine Jihadi books, four grenade shells, electric circuits and wires were recovered from the house. l

LIVING AT LANDSLIDE RISK

Utility connections to 25 shanties severed in Ctg Hussain, n Anwar Chittagong Chittagong district administration yesterday severed utility connections to 25 shanties living amid landslide risk at Moti Jhorna and Batali hills of the city.

Noman Hossain, assistant commissioner (Land) of Agrabad Circle and Achhiya Khatun, assistant commissioner (land) led the eviction drive.

As part of the eviction drive, the people living vulnerably at the foot of hills were also asked to move to safer shelters.

The eviction drive triggered discontent among the

people and they demanded for permanent rehabilitation.

Noman Hossain, assistant commissioner (land) said they severed electricity, water and gas connections to 25 shanties.

“We will take action so that the shanties do not get connections again,” said the assistant commissioner.

Officials of Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company Ltd, Chittagong Wasa, Power Development Board and Fire Service and Civil Defense took part in the eviction drive.

Thousands of people mainly from low-income group are living at the slopes of hill in the Chittagong city amid life risk. l

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Exclave people deprived of voting rights Rahman Sazzad, n Sazzadur Panchagarh Residents of 36 exclaves in Debiganj, Boda and Sadar upazila are deprived of voting rights as they could not be registered in the voter list.

According to local sources, recently the election commission has completed the voter list in the district. The people who could not be listed when Bangladesh and India jointly counted the number of people in 2011, they could not be listed this year.

The people who went to Chittagong and many other places of the country to do work for livelihood, they cannot cast vote as they were

absent during counting number.

Many male persons remained unmarried during the counting number. Now many of them are married but their wives cannot be listed.

As they are not in voter list, they have no right of getting opportunities from the union council and upazila parishad offices.

When visited Debiganj, Teliganj, Chilhati, Balapara, Dohola Khagrabari, Okrabari, Courtbhazani, Natokota, Behuladanga, Kajladighi, Shalbari, it was found that the election commission updated the voter list. The people who were not listed in 2011, they told the Dhaka Tribune that the commission did not include their name in the list.

They alleged that they had urged the commission for including them. But the commission did not allow them.

Babul Chandra of Doikhata area said though he and his daughter Shova were listed for vote in 2011, his mother could not be listed.

Nima Bala said though she was the voter, her sons and daughters were not voters as their names were not in the list.

Shushil said his parents were not listed in the voter list for unknown reasons.

Ataul Islam of Aminpara area said he had gone to Chittagong for work when the counting was going on.

On information, he returned to his village. But the commission did

not include his name.

“As I am absent during the counting, I have no opportunity for casting vote and I am deprived of all kinds of opportunities,” he added.

Tipi Khatun, Bimala, Hira, Mominul and Saif of Dhahalakhabari area echoed the words of Ataul Islam.

“As I was born here, I have been living in the area from generation to generation. But all of my family members were excluded from the voter list,” alleged Rajendranath Roy, a resident of Doikhata.

College student Shamia Akter Bobi, of Nazirganj, said: “I was at my college while the counting was going on. On information, I reached the spot but my name was

not included.”

“Sometimes, it seems to me that I am not the person of this country,” she alleged.

According to sources, the chairmen of the exclaves and union councils in the area met the election commission. The commission said the persons who were excluded from the list, will be included soon.

UNO of Boda Abu Awal said he had sent the list to the election commission who were not registered.

Election Commissioner Sarwar Jahan said he had informed the matter to the higher authority.

“If the authority takes decision for including them, we will register their name in the voter list,” he added. l

CCC mayor: I am discharging my duty against all odds n Anwar Hussain, Chittagong Chittagong City Corporation Mayor AJM Nasir Uddin said he was discharging his mayoral duty successfully against all odds.

AJM Nasir Uddin made the comment yesterday while addressing a gathering at the city’s Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB).

“I pledged to the city dwellers that I would discharge my duty with hundred percent honesty, accountability and transparency, if elected city mayor. I have completed one year in office. I will say that I have been able to largely deliver my pledges to the city residents.”

Chittagong City Corporation organised the gathering to formally let the city dwellers know about the development projects undertaken in the last one year.

Representatives of civil society, teachers, engineers, physicians, freedom fighters, trade body leaders, journalists and social activists attended the gathering.

“Despite being an ancient city, Chittagong has not developed in a planned way. As a result, we have to bear the brunt of the unplanned urbanisation. I have a plan to overhaul the city as much as possible based on the suggestions of the city dwellers,” the mayor envisioned.

Alluding to the criticism of his predecessor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, AJM nasir said a call was made from a person to the city dwellers not to pay holding tax.

“We have not revised the rate of holding tax yet. We have so far realised an additional amount of Tk49 crore without raising the holding tax. So by what standard you are saying that I have failed in my mayoral duty,” asked the CCC mayor. l

As part of regular routine work, face-lifting of Chittagong Zoo is going on. The photo was taken yesterday

RABIN CHOWDHURY

Chittagong zoo gets a facelift n Anwar Hussain, Chittagong

In a bid to attract more animal lovers to Chittagong zoo, Chittagong district administration has undertaken a project.

Set up on February 28, 1989, the zoo is now located in a six-acre of hilly terrain in the city’s Foy’s Lake area.

Run by Chittagong district administration, the zoo now houses 360 animals of 67 species. Of them, 34 species are of birds while the rest species are of reptiles and other mammals.

Now the zoo has a collection of capped langur, hoolock gibbon, rhesus macaque, fishing cat, jungle cat, barking deer, peacock, pied hornbill, large civet, leopard cat, griffon vulture, marsh crocodile, stork, yellow turtle, Indian python and Bengal fox.

Chittagong Zoo Management Committee is implementing the

project at a cost of Tk80 lakh from its own fund. Ruhul Amin, member secretary of Chittagong Zoo Management Committee, told the Dhaka Tribune that they undertook a massive project for bringing about a radical change to the zoo.

“A spectacular entrance will be erected. Rundown and rusty cages will be renovated. Cramped cages will be expanded for comfortable living of the animals. A boundary wall has already been under the new project. Seating arrangement is also being constructed for the visitors,” said Amin, adding that the tank of the crocodile would be expanded so that they could move around and lay egg comfortably.

During a recent visit to the zoo, it was found that the workers were passing busy hours to give a facelift to the zoo.

At present the zoo does not have

any large-size animals like giraffe, elephant, rhinoceros and hippopotamus. Even the cage of tiger has been lying empty since 2012 when the last tigress of the zoo ‘Purnima’ died of intestine cancer.

Moreover, four species of animals including two lionesses, two male bears, two female Sambar deer (Rusa unicolor) and a male Gayal (Bos frontalis) are now passing their days in extreme loneliness as they have no spouse in their cages.

Dr Md Mongur Morshed Chowdhury, deputy curator of Chittagong Zoo, told the Dhaka Tribune that they were making several attempts to increase diversity of the zoo.

“On an average 1,800 visitors throng the zoo every day. The number of visitors will definitely increase with the completion of the beautification and modernization project within this year,” hoped the

deputy curator.

“We have already written letters to different zoos and safari parks of the country seeking spouses for the lonely mammals of the zoo,” said the deputy curator.

Dr Shahadat Hossain Suvo, veterinary surgeon of Chittagong Zoo, said existing wildlife hospital of the zoo was going to be revamped under the project.

“Equipped with all modern equipment, the existing wildlife hospital will turn into a full-fledged one. A modern operating theatre has already been set up. We have already procured all modern surgical apparatus for operating on the sick animals,” said the veterinary surgeon.

“A quarantine room will also be set up for isolating the sick animals from the rest of the zoo. Moreover, there will be an autopsy wing for the dead animals,” added Dr Suvo. l

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TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2016

SOUTH ASIA

UN: Afghan civilian casualties soar to record high

Civilian casualties in Afghanistan soared to a record high in the first half of 2016, the UN said Monday.

Between January and June, 1,601 civilians were killed and 3,565 were wounded -- a four percent increase in casualties compared to the same period last year, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said.

-AFP

INDIA

India police arrest two over Israeli woman rape Indian police on Monday arrested two men suspected of raping a 25-year-old Israeli tourist in the popular northern Himalayan resort town of Manali. The arrests were made following a complaint by the woman that she was attacked early Sunday after flagging down what she thought was a taxi and asking for a lift to a nearby town.

-AFP

CHINA

China scores diplomatic victory, avoids criticism from Asean

China scored an unequivocal diplomatic victory Monday even though some of the bloc’s members are victims of Beijing’s actions. In a joint communique released after their talks, the foreign ministers of Asean said only that they remain seriously concerned over recent and ongoing developments in the South China Sea. -AP

ASIA PACIFIC

Thai students use social media to stoke opposition to draft charter

Thai student protesters will use social media tools, from Facebook to Japanese messaging app Line, to persuade voters to reject a military-backed draft constitution. The students rank among the most vocal critics of Thailand’s military government ahead of an August 7 referendum to approve a contentious draft constitution that critics fear could cement military control over civilian politics for years.

-REUTERS

MIDDLE EAST

Arab summit slams terror waged in name of Islam A 22-nation Arab summit tackling the region’s crises was cut back to a single day Monday due to the absence of the heavyweight leaders of Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Opening the talks, Egypt’s premier Sherif Ismail said ‘’we must recast the religious language that terrorist elements exploit to their own ends to sow terror, death and destruction’’.

-AFP

Shooting at Florida nightclub leaves two dead, 16 wounded n Tribune International Desk A shooting at a Florida nightclub early Monday morning killed two people and wounded at least 17, police said. The attack apparently occurred at a teen party, billed as a “Swimsuit Glow Party,” at Club Blu in Fort Myers, reports The Associated Press.

Police detained three people and said the area around the club had been deemed safe, police Captain Jim Mulligan said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear what triggered the violence.

Three people remained hospitalised Monday morning, Cherly Garn, a spokeswoman for Lee Memorial Health System, said in an e-mail. All others were treated and released. Two people brought to two other area hospitals were also treated and released, Garn said.

Ages of the patients ranged from 12 to 27, Garn said.

The club is in a strip mall that includes a daycare centre and is across the street from a large apartment complex. Officers had the area taped off as crime scene technicians scoured the strip mall parking lot for clues.

The shooting comes more than a month after a nightclub shooting in Orlando that was the deadliest shooting in modern US history.

The shooting at the Pulse nightclub on June 12 left 49 victims dead and 53 others wounded.

The violence at Club Blu erupted about 1230am Monday, Mulligan said. There were two active crime scenes, police said. Several hours later a street in the area remained closed as police investigated.

In a statement, authorities said the Fort Myers police and the Lee County Sheriff ’s Office were “ac-

An investigator walks near the scene of a fatal shooting at Club Blu nightclub in Fort Myers, Florida on July 25 AP tively canvassing the area looking for other persons who may be involved in this incident.”

The names of the victims were not immediately available..

A post on Club Blu’s Facebook page Monday morning said the shooting happened as the club was

closing and parents were picking up their children. The post also said there was armed security at the event.

“We are deeply sorry for all involved,” the post read. “We tried to give teens what we thought was a safe place to have a good time.” l

IS behind suicide attack outside German music festival n Reuters, Ansbach A 27-year-old Syrian man denied asylum in Germany a year ago blew himself up on Sunday outside a crowded music festival, injuring 12 people in the country’s fourth violent attack on members of the public in less than a week.

An Islamic State fighter carried out the suicide bombing that wounded a dozen people outside a music festival in the German town of Ansbach, the group’s Amaq news agency said on Monday.

The incident, on top of three other attacks since July 18 that left 10 people dead and 34 injured, will fuel growing public unease about Chancellor Angela Merkel’s opendoor refugee policy. More than a million migrants have entered Germany over the past year, many fleeing war in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.

Police said three of the 12 wounded were in a serious condition after the attack in Ansbach, a town of 40,000 people southwest of Nuremberg that has a US Army base.

The dead man had been in treatment after twice before trying to kill himself, though Sunday evening’s explosion was more than just “a pure suicide attempt”, Herrmann told Reuters. An Islamist link could not be ruled out, he told reporters earlier.

Herrmann told Reuters the recent attacks raised serious questions about Germany’s asylum

Flowers are laid down at the site of a suicide bombing in Ansbach on July 25 AFP law and security nationwide. He planned to introduce measures at a meeting of Bavaria’s conservative government on Tuesday to strengthen police forces, in part by ensuring they have adequate equipment.

He said investigators had yet to determine the motive of the attacks. “Because the rucksack and this bomb were packed with so many metal parts that could have killed and injured many more people, it cannot simply be considered a pure suicide attempt.”

It was the second violent incident in Germany on Sunday and the fourth in the past week, in-

cluding the killing of nine people by a deranged 18-year-old Iranian-German gunman in the Bavarian capital Munich on Friday.

Explosives, metal parts

Herrmann said the man, whose identity has not yet been released, had been living in Ansbach for a year. Although his application for asylum had been denied, he was not in danger of being deported immediately given the civil war in Syria.

One US intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said investigators would focus on what the bomber was doing be-

fore he left Syria and why he was denied asylum.

US security sources said the bombing did not appear to be a well-planned operation and could well turn out to be the act of another mentally unstable individual.

Earlier on Sunday, a 21-year-old Syrian refugee was arrested after killing a pregnant woman and wounding two people with a machete in the southwestern city of Reutlingen, near Stuttgart.

“After what just happened in Munich, and today in Reutlingen, what you hear about, it is very disturbing, when you know that such a thing can happen so close to you, in such a small town as Ansbach,” Debinski said.

A week ago a 17-year-old youth who had sought asylum in Germany was shot dead by police after wounding five people with an ax near Wuerzburg, also in Bavaria.

He was initially thought to be Afghan but federal Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere has since said he may have been from Pakistan.

Police said neither Sunday’s machete attack nor Friday’s shooting in Munich bore any sign of connections with Islamic State or other militant groups.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Wuerzburg attack as well as the July 14 rampage in the French Riviera city of Nice in which a Tunisian man drove a truck into Bastille Day crowds, killing 84 people. l

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TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2016

Democratic Party chair jeered in protest ahead of convention n Reuters, Philadelphia Chaos broke out ahead of the Democratic Party convention on Monday as protesters jeered the party chairwoman over leaked emails showing Democratic officials worked to undermine Bernie Sanders in his presidential primary battle with Hillary Clinton.

Hours before the start of the four-day gathering to nominate Clinton for the White House, outgoing Democratic National Committee head Debbie Wasserman Schultz struggled to be heard above boos as she spoke to the Democratic delegation from her home state, Florida.

Protesters held up signs that read “Bernie” and “E-MAILS” and shouted “Shame,” as she spoke.

Others at the meeting cheered and clapped for Wasserman Schultz, who is stepping down over the email controversy. She promised to work hard for a Clinton victory over Republican Donald Trump in the November 8 election.

“You will see me every day between now and November 8 on the campaign trail,” she shouted over the noise of the crowd.

It was an embarrassing prelude to the convention in Philadelphia,

While Sanders has endorsed Clinton, she faces the task of attracting his backers as she battles Trump.

His supporters were already dismayed last week when Clinton passed over liberal favorites like Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts to select the more moderate Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia as her vice presidential running mate.

New poll

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz REUTERS which Democratic officials had hoped would convey no-drama competence in contrast to the volatile campaign of Trump. The New York businessman was formally nominated for president at a chaotic Republican convention in Cleveland last week.

At least one national opinion poll showed Trump benefiting from a convention “bump” and pulling just ahead of Clinton, having lagged her for months.

The cache of emails leaked on Friday by the WikiLeaks website disclosed that DNC officials explored ways to undercut Sanders’ insurgent presidential campaign,

including raising questions about whether Sanders, who is Jewish, was an atheist.

Wasserman Schultz resigned on Sunday, effective at the end of the convention, after the leak of more than 19,000 DNC emails put the spotlight back on Sanders’ failed bid to win the nomination and in particular on his complaints during the campaign that the party establishment was working to undermine him.

A democratic socialist, the senator from Vermont galvanized young and liberal voters with his calls to rein in Wall Street and eradicate income inequality.

The Clinton camp questioned whether Russians may have had a hand in the hack attack on the party’s emails out of an interest in helping Trump, who has exchanged words of praise with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A CNN/ORC opinion poll on Monday gave Trump a three-point lead over former secretary of state Clinton, 48% to her 45% in a twoway presidential matchup. The survey was conducted July 22-24 and had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

Clinton, 68, a former first lady and senator, will be the first woman nominated for president by a major political party. She waged a months-long battle to defeat the unexpectedly tough challenge from Sanders, 74.

Sanders was among those due to speak on the first evening of the convention. Other speakers included Michelle Obama. l

Turkey detains 42 journalists in crackdown n Reuters, Istanbul Turkey ordered the detention of 42 journalists on Monday, broadcaster NTV reported, under a crackdown following a failed coup that has targeted more than 60,000 people, drawing fire from the European Union.

The arrests or suspensions of soldiers, police, judges and civil servants in response to the July 15-16 putsch have raised concerns among rights groups and Western countries, who fear President Tayyip Erdogan is capitalising on it to tighten his grip on power.

EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker questioned Ankara’s long-standing aspiration to join the EU. “I believe that Turkey, in its current state, is not in a position to become a member any time soon and not even over a longer period,” Juncker said on French television France 2.

Juncker also said that if Turkey reintroduces the death penalty something the government has said it must consider, responding

to calls from supporters at public rallies for the coup leaders to be executed - it would stop the EU accession process immediately.

Turkey abolished capital punishment in 2004, allowing it to open EU accession talks the following year, but the negotiations have made scant progress since then.

Responding to Juncker’s comments, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told Haberturk TV that Europe cannot threaten Turkey regarding the death penalty.

Erdogan has declared a state of emergency, which allows him to sign new laws without prior parliamentary approval and limit rights as he deems necessary. The government has said these steps are needed to root out supporters of the coup and won’t infringe on the rights of ordinary Turks.

NTV reported that among the 42 journalists subject to arrest warrants was well-known commentator and former parliamentarian Nazli Ilicak.

State-run Turkish Airlines fired more than 100 employees, including management and cabin crew,

DT

World USA

Trump taunts claims that Russia hacked DNC emails Donald Trump on Monday dismissed as a joke claims by Hillary Clinton’s campaign that Russia is trying to help Trump by leaking thousands of emails from the Democratic National Committee.

Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta added fuel to the debate Monday, saying there was a kind of romance going on” between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump.

-AFP

THE AMERICAS

Mexican mayor shot dead The mayor of a town in one of Mexico’s most violent drug corridors has been shot to death, the second mayor killed in Mexico in two days. Ambrosio Soto was mayor of a township that includes Ciudad Altamirano, a known haven for drug traffickers in southern Guerrero state.

Democratic Revolution Party said 75 mayors have been killed in the last decade.

-AP

UK

Britain doesn’t want to control Northern Ireland border Britain does not want a return to border controls in Northern Ireland, Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday on her first visit to the British province following the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the EU. The June 23 Brexit vote has raised a number of questions for Northern Ireland, from its impact on 18 years of peace, which will be Britain’s only land frontier with the bloc -REUTERS

EUROPE

Migrants on SerbiaHungary border go on hunger strike

A man waves Turkey’s national flag as he with supporters of various political parties gathers in Istanbul’s Taksim Square on July 24 REUTERS Turkish media reported.

Ankara’s frustration

Ankara is increasingly expressing frustration over what it says in the lack of solidarity from Western partners in the aftermath of the coup.

Western countries pledged support for democracy in Turkey, but have also expressed concern over the scale of subsequent purges of state institutions.

Last week, the minister for EU affairs chided Western countries for not sending any representatives to demonstrate their solidarity

with Turkey since the failed coup.

On Sunday, presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin took to the opinion pages of the New York Times to defend Turkey’s actions.

“Several thousand military officers and their accomplices in law enforcement and the judiciary have been suspended or arrested for having links to the coup. Their removal from public posts makes the Turkish government stronger and more transparent,” he wrote, adding that at least 1,200 rankand-file soldiers have been released so far. l

About 150 migrants, mainly from Afghanistan and Pakistan, on Monday started a hunger strike in a field in Serbia on the border with Hungary to demand passage to the EU. The group had travelled to the border over the weekend from Belgrade and settled in a field about 100m from Hungary’s wire-fenced frontier with Serbia.

-REUTERS

AFRICA

Fire kills 38 in Madagascar, including 16 children A fire during a house-warming party in central Madagascar on Saturday night killed 38 people including 16 children as the blaze ripped through a thatched roof. The victims were trapped inside the house in Ambalavato village of Ikalamavony district in the rural centre of the Indian Ocean island.

-AFP

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TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2016

Spy agencies struggle to spot lone wolves n Reuters, Washington, DC Recent attacks on civilians in the US and Europe have exposed a gap in the intelligence community’s efforts to track suspected extremists and prevent mass killings, a half dozen American, British and French counter-terrorism officials told Reuters.

The attacks have a common theme of being carried out by actors with an apparent history of mental illness but few if any direct links to extremist groups, the officials told Reuters.

From both a legal and a strategic perspective, counter-terrorism investigators globally are focused on plots by established violent groups with known ideologies, such as Islamic State. In the US, laws designed to protect citizens from intrusive government spying can limit investigations of individuals unless they have provable ties to foreign terror groups.

Counter-terrorism officials told Reuters that the assailants in a recent spate of mass killings all had histories of apparent mental illness.

They included the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida; the murder of a British parliamentarian in Northern England; the killings of police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Dallas, Texas; the Bastille Day truck attack in Nice, France; and Friday’s mass shooting at a German shopping mall.

The counter-terrorism officials in the US and Europe spoke on condition they and their organizations remained anonymous.

On Saturday, Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae said the Munich mall gunman, identified in news reports as Ali David Sonboly, had undergone psychiatric treatment before the attack and was obsessed with mass killings. He had no criminal record, and had no known connections to extremist groups.

The German-Iranian 18-yearold, a local resident, shot and killed nine people after opening fire near Olympia shopping mall.

The tactics in such attacks contrast sharply with the attacks in Paris last November and Brussels in March, which were carried out by groups of militants with direct links to Islamic State.

Existing systems for collecting intelligence on extremists are not set up to identify individuals with a history of mental illness who come into contact with people or propaganda that could incite them to engage in violence, the intelligence officials told Reuters.

In the attack in Orlando, the perpetrator had viewed online jihadist propaganda, possibly produced by the Islamic State, the investigators said. But subsequent probes turned up no evidence the Orlando shooter, Omar Mateen, had any significant connections with Islamic State

or any other militant organizations.

French investigators have arrested five alleged accomplices in the Nice attacks, but they have so far found no evidence that the attack was directed by foreign militants, according to a US counter-terrorism official and a French official.

The case of Mateen perhaps best exemplifies the difficulty in detecting and preventing attacks by single perpetrators with a history of mental illness.

Federal officials have acknowledged that, for about 10 months in 2013 and 2014, the FBI investigated Mateen after he allegedly boasted to co-workers about supposed connections to Al Qaeda and other militant groups. While he was under investigation, the FBI placed Mateen’s name in three government databases, one of which is intended to trigger additional scrutiny if an individual passes through airport or border checkpoints.

But having found no evidence that Mateen had any real connections to militants, the FBI closed its investigation and his name was removed from the databases, two US intelligence officials told Reuters.

The US officials said those decisions were made to comply with laws designed to limit invasive government surveillance on all Americans. Neither the CIA nor National Counter-terrorism Center are allowed to collect and retain information on American suspects who have no provable links to international terrorist groups, the two US officials said.

About three weeks before he carried out the massacre in Orlando, Mateen told an acquaintance that he was worn out from staying up all night to research psychiatric medication, the acquaintance, who asked not to be named, told Reuters. Mateen also told this person that he was worried that he had slipped into psychosis.

US officials also said they are investigating the role mental health issues may have played in the shooting of police in Baton Rouge and Dallas. In both attacks, the shooters had displayed signs of apparent mental illness and extreme views before their rampages.

A lawyer who represented the Dallas shooter, Micah Xavier Johnson, told the Associated Press than when Johnson was accused of sexual harassment by a female soldier, Johnson’s victim suggested in a court filing that Johnson should “receive mental help.”

Baton Rouge shooter Gavin Long told friends and relatives that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, a source involved in the investigation told CNN. “When someone with mental health issues snaps, there usually is some external stimulus that also is involved and provides a sort of or-

RECENT SOLO ATTACKS ON WESTERN TARGETS July 25, 2016: GERMANY

January 12, 2016: TURKEY

Twelve people have been injured after a Syrian man killed himself by setting off an explosive device outside a music festival in the German town of Ansbach.

Twelve German tourists are killed in a suicide attack in central Istanbul. On March 19, three Israeli tourists and an Iranian are killed by a suicide bomber at an Istanbul shopping centre.

Turkish authorities attribute both attacks to IS.

July 22, 2016: GERMANY A teenager with German-Iranian citizenship has shot and killed nine people and wounded more than 15 at a shopping centre in Munich.

July 18, 2016: GERMANY A 17-year-old assailant, believed to have been an Afghan or Pakistan refugee, attacks passengers on a Bavarian train with an axe, injuring five people, two of them critically. He is shot dead by police.

The Islamic State (IS) group releases a video the following day purportedly featuring the attacker announcing he would carry out an “operation” in Germany, and presenting himself as a “soldier of the caliphate”.

July 14, 2016: FRANCE Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, 31, rams a 19-tonne truck into a holiday crowd in Nice, killing 84 people.

IS describes him as one of their “soldiers” who staged the attack “in response to calls to target nations of coalition states” fighting the jihadist group.

June 28, 2016: TURKEY A triple suicide attack at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport kills 47 people. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim says “the evidence points to Daesh,” an Arabic acronym for IS, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

June 13, 2016: FRANCE A man armed with a knife who claims allegiance to IS kills a senior police officer and his companion at their home in Magnanville, west of Paris.

June 12, 2016: UNITED STATES

December 2, 2015: UNITED STATES Pakistani national Tashfeen Malik, 29, and his wife Syed Farook, a 28-year-old US citizen, open fire during a Christmas party in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people. IS hails the attack, but does not claim direct responsibility.

November 13, 2015: FRANCE Coordinated suicide attacks in Paris kill 130 people and wound more than 350 at a concert hall, cafes and the national stadium. IS claims responsibility for the attacks.

October 31, 2015: EGYPT An Airbus jetliner owned by a Russian company crashes with 224 people on board in the Sinai desert after a bomb rips a hole in the plane. IS claims responsibility.

June 26, 2015: TUNISIA Gunmen kill 38 people, including 30 British tourists, at a beach hotel in Sousse, a little more than three months after a similar attack at the Bardo museum in Tunis kills 22 people, including 21 foreign tourists. IS claims both attacks.

July 16, 2015: UNITED STATES An attack on a Chattanooga, Tennessee recruitment centre and a Navy and Marine Corps reserve centre leaves four marines and one sailor dead at the hands of a lone gunman, who according to the FBI was inspired by radical Islamist propaganda.

June 17, 2015: UNITED STATES

A gunman who claims allegiance to IS opens fire inside a gay bar in Orlando, Florida and kills 49 people in the deadliest mass shooting in US history. IS later says the man was a fighter for their Islamic caliphate.

Man guns down nine African-American churchgoers in South Carolina during an evening Bible study class at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The killer, 21-year-old Dylann Roof has been indicted on charges of murder and hate crime.

March 22, 2016: BELGIUM

January 8, 2015: FRANCE

Suicide attacks claimed by IS kill 32 people and wound more than 300 at Brussels airport and Maelbeek metro station, near European Union offices. They appear to have been carried out by members of the same cell that committed attacks in Paris in November 2015.

A gunman who claims allegiance to IS kills a policewoman in a Paris suburb before attacking a Jewish supermarket the next day, where he kills four more people. l

ganizing framework for the violent act,” noted Paul Pillar, a former senior CIA analyst. “Identifying those who might commit such acts and doing something to prevent the attacks will always be very difficult.”

The shooting rampage on Dallas police officers, for instance, followed disputed shootings of black men by police officers in Minnesota and Louisiana. The Dallas suspect told police during a standoff that he had aimed to kill white police officers to avenge the deaths of black men shot by officers nationwide.

A soldier who served in Afghanistan with Johnson, however, said his Dallas attack reflected illness more than ideology.

“It’s not racism,” Heather Brooks wrote on Facebook, the Dallas Morning News reported. “It was mental sickness, unchecked and untreated.”

The Baton Rouge suspect posted online videos saying that only violent resistance would stop the shootings of black Americans by police.

Before the latest round of deadly attacks in Munich, Nice, Baton Rouge, Dallas and Orlando, officials say US and European spy agencies were overwhelmed trying to identify and track militants who received direct training from militant groups, notably Syria-based Islamic State.

Given their preoccupation with Islamic militants - including IS, Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and Somalia-based alShabaab - spy agencies such as the CIA, FBI and US National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) and Britain’s MI5 only have the manpower to track limited numbers of individuals at any one time, counterterrorism officials told Reuters.

Britain’s MI5, for instance, is

Sources: REUTERS, AFP deeply involved in trying to keep track of Britons and British-based foreigners involved with Islamic militants, but does not collect or retain data on right-wing extremists in the UK. Counterterrorism officials therefore were unaware of Thomas Mair, a man with a history of apparent mental illness who shot British Labour Party parliamentarian Jo Cox in June - even though his contacts with a US neo-Nazi group brought him to the attention of the Southern Poverty Law Centre, a US group that monitors extremists.

Organised terror groups are difficult enough to track and stop, but the self-radicalised individuals with a history of mental illness represent an entirely new variety of terror, said former CIA and National Security Agency Director General Michael Hayden. l

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World

TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2016

Nepali president seeks consensus candidate for new PM n Reuters, Kathmandu

Nepal’s president held talks with leaders of three main political parties on Monday to come up with a consensus candidate for prime minister and try to end revolving-door politics that has seen 23 governments in 26 years.

Prime Minister K P Oli, facing defeat in a no-confidence vote in parliament brought by his allies, the former Maoist rebels, resigned on Sunday, opening the way for a political tussle to lead the country of 28 million people.

President Vidhya Devi Bhandari had invited Oli, Maoist chief Prachanda and the leader of the Nepali Congress party, Sher Bahadur Deuba, to discuss a new government, an aide to the president said.

“The meeting is to tell them to move ahead unitedly,” the aide, Bhesh Raj Adhikari, told Reuters.

“The country has many problems and all major parties must unite to resolve them.”

Nepal has been in a political crisis since September when a Constituent Assembly approved a new constitution amid a political row with minority Madhesis in the southern plains over the creation of federal states under the new system.

Ethnic Madhesis, who have long complained of neglect by a ruling elite drawn from the hill region, said the creation of the states would marginalise them by dividing their homeland.

Maoist chief Prachanda, who goes by just one name, said the outgoing administration failed to

address grievances of the plains people. He is considered the frontrunner to succeed Oli, with the support of the Nepali Congress.

Oli’s communist UML party said it would not support the Maoists’ bid for power after they had brought down Oli’s government.

“There is no possibility of us joining,” senior UML official Pradip Gyawali told Reuters. “We’ll remain a strong opposition.”

Political instability has played out against the backdrop of a contest for influence between neighbours India and China.

India has long considered the Himalayan nation its area of influence, and has often faced accusations of interference from Nepal.

India rejects the allegations but has grown concerned about China’s

Nepal’s president Vidhya Devi Bhandari, centre involvement in Nepal’s infrastructure development.

Prospects for stability remain dim, at least until elections scheduled for 2018, analysts say.

“Nepal’s leaders have once more demonstrated that they are obsessed

REUTERS

with politics as usual at a time when they should be working to rescue the economy,” said Kunda Dixit, editor of the Nepali Times weekly.

Nepal’s economy grew by 0.77% in the year to July 15, the lowest rate since 2001/02. l

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12 Business

TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2016

Industrial Police: 4,000 foreigners working for RMG sector Industrial Police have found some 4,000 foreigners working in the country’s ready-made garment factories, mainly located in Savar, Ashulia, Gazipur, Narayanganj and Chittagong.

PAGE 13

WB lends more to expand electronic public procurement Bangladesh yesterday signed a $10 million additional financing agreement with the World Bank to expand and improve the government procurement system to ensure the effective use of public money and increase transparency, the bank said in a statement.

PAGE 13

G20 growth vow keeps global shares near nine-month high

Rising temperature may cut 2.6% of daylight work hours by 2025 n Kayes Sohel Bangladesh is set to lose 2.6% of annual daylight work hours by 2025 due to rising temperatures, according to a new United Nations report.

The loss of daylight work hours could increase to 4.7% in 2055 and 8.6% in 2085, assuming a consistent rise of 2.7°C, according to Climate Change and Labour: Impacts of heat in the workplace, recently released by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

Exploring the link between the rising temperatures and productivity loss, the UNDP report said South Asian countries with similar impacts also in West Africa will be the most affected by rising temperatures while European and South American countries will be least affected.

The lowest income-brackets – heavy labour and low-skill agricultural and manufacturing jobs – are among the most susceptible to climate change, according to the UNDP report.

Excessive heat while working generally at temperatures above 35°C creates occupational health risks and reduces work capacity and labour productivity.

Maintaining a core body temperature close to 37°C is essential for health and human performance and a large amount of sweating as a result of high heat exposure while working creates dehydration risks.

The worst-affected countries

LOSS IN DAYLIGHT WORK HOURS BY RISING TEMPERATURE Pakistan Cambodia India

Countries Pakistan Cambodia India Indonesia Burkina Faso Bangladesh Maldives Vietnam Kiribati Nepal Philippines China USA France Germany

Indonesia Burkina Faso Bangladesh Maldives Vietnam Kiribati Nepal Philippines China USA

2025

France

2055

2085

2025 5.22% 4.24% 3.61% 1.23% 3.56% 2.53% 1.90% 2.08% 1.95% 1.27% 1.03% 0.68% 0.43% 0.00% 0.00%

2055 7.00% 6.54% 5.22% 2.56% 5.59% 4.61% 4.52% 3.44% 4.31% 1.98% 2.07% 1.12% 0.73% 0.01% 0.00%

2085 9.97% 10.93% 7.98% 5.45% 9.17% 8.56% 9.17% 6.31% 8.66% 3.38% 4.41% 2.12% 1.38% 0.04% 0.01%

Germany 0

5

globally will be Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Pakistan, Maldives and Kiribati.

By the mid-1990s, persistently hot, poor countries such as Bangladesh were estimated to have lost 1% to 3% of all daylight work hours to extreme heat, which can cause exhaustion, stroke and sometimes death among exposed workers, said the report.

“In Southeast Asia, as much as 15% to 20% of annual work hours, may already be lost in heat-exposed jobs, and this may double by 2050 as global climate change progresses,” Kjellstrom and his

10

15

colleague wrote in a separate study published in the Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health.

The report pointed out that in South-East Asia, for example, the heat stress level is approximately 2-3ºC higher in the sun during the afternoon than it is in full shade or in indoor workplaces without cooling systems.

“This is why it is essential for the interpretation of workplace heat stress issues to consider whether outdoor workers are protected by shade, workplace cooling systems, special clothing or other parameters.”

20

25

Labour productivity impacts could reduce output in affected sectors by more than 20% during the second half of the century, according to estimates in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) fifth assessment report.

The global economic cost of reduced productivity may be more than $2 trillion by 2030.

Asian Development Bank, in a study in 2014, said Bangladesh could suffer annual economic losses of 2% of the annual gross domestic product by 2050, and over 9% by 2100, due to climate change. l

World shares held near ninemonth highs yesterday after G20 finance chiefs vowed over the weekend to use “all policy tools” to lift global growth.

PAGE 15

BB warns again about unlawful investment in savings certificates

Capital market snapshot: Monday DSE

n Tribune Business Desk

Broad Index

4,549.2

Index

1,114.9

0.1% ▲

30 Index

1,778.1

-0.0% ▼

Turnover in Mn Tk

3,953.2

16.7% ▲

Turnover in Mn Vol

87.2

12.3% ▲

-0.0% ▼

CSE All Share Index 13,994.5 30 Index Selected Index Turnover in Mn Tk Turnover in Mn Vol

0.0% ▲

12,884.1

-0.0% ▼

8,518.0

0.0% ▲

198.0 -29.1% ▼ 6.2

2.0% ▲

Bangladesh Bank has warned again about the unauthorized investment of gratuity funds in the five-year term Bangladesh savings certificate.

“There is no scope of investing gratuity fund of any organisation in five-year term savings instruments,” said a circular Bangladesh Bank issued yesterday.

It was prohibited even before, added the circular.

The central bank has found that many banks and different companies invested their gratuity funds in savings instruments despite restriction imposed earlier, said

AFM Shahinul Islam, BB deputy general manager. He said only the gratuity fund recognised by the National Board of Revenue can be invested in savings instruments.

But many gratuity funds were found invested in savings instruments by misinterpreting the rule, Shahinul said, adding that in this situation, the central bank reissued the circular to remind the banks about the rule.

He said the organisations that invested their gratuity funds in savings instruments were asked to transfer their investments into the normal savings through respective banks.

Under the Sanchayapatra

Rules, 1977 (First Amendment 2002), investing in 5-year Bangladesh Saving Certificate from

Source: UNDP report

TOP STORIES

gratuity fund is not legal unless those funds have approval from tax commissioner. l

TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2016

Industrial Police: 4,000 foreigners working for RMG sector n Ibrahim Hossain Ovi Industrial Police have found some 4,000 foreigners working in the country’s ready-made garment factories, mainly located in Savar, Ashulia, Gazipur, Narayanganj and Chittagong.

The police collected information about the foreign workers with a view to providing security for them following the recent terrorist attack in Gulshan restaurant, which killed 20 people, mostly foreigners.

“We have found about 4,000 foreigners working in Bangladesh apparel industry,” Industrial Police Director General (DG) Abdus Salam told the Dhaka Tribune.

The foreign nationals are working for the factories located on the outskirts of the capital and also in the port city, said Salam.

The move came to bring the foreigners under security net so that they can move freely to do their business as well as work in the industry, he added.

“Since we have information about them, it would be very helpful for us to provide them security as per the government initiatives to ensure special security for them.”

According to a BGMEA leader, the Industrial Police and the BGMEA will sit to devise ways to map out security measures, he added.

Shipping Corporation Act gets cabinet nod n Shohel Mamun

Industrial Police list foreign nationals working for RMG industry to provide them with security following the recent terrorist attack on the Holey Artisan Restaurant in Gulshan.

RAJIB DHAR Meanwhile, the BGMEA will meet home minister to seek special security in those areas where buyers’ liaison offices are located to ensure full-fledged protection for foreigners and ensure their secure and free movement.

Global brands and buyers became concerned about the security following the recent terrorist attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant in Dhaka’s Gulshan area, a diplomatic zone.

The attack killed 20 people includ-

ing nine Italians, who were involved in garment trade in Bangladesh.

The global retailers and brands wanted to know from the manufactures about the new measures taken to ensure security during their visit to Bangladesh. l

Stocks continue to end flat

WB lends more to expand electronic public procurement system

Stocks continued to close flat yesterday with volatile trade.

The market opened lower with the key index, shedding over 23 points in around mid-session but recovered almost all the losses in the wee hour mainly riding on telecommunications stocks.

The DSE benchmark index DSEX fell in similar pattern like previous session, edging almost 2 points lower to settle at 4,551.

The blue-chip comprising index DS30 witnessed a fractional fall of 0.7 points to 1,778.

The DSE Shariah Index DSES rose over 1 point to 1,114.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange Selective Category Index CSCX closed 0.2 points to 8,518.

After a pause in previous session, telecommunications sector, led by the country’s top mobile operator Grameenphone, gained the highest 1.8%.

Engineering sector continued to rise driven by BSRM Limited to 0.6%. Power, and food and allied ended marginally higher. l

n Tribune Business Desk

n Tribune Business Desk

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Business

Bangladesh yesterday signed a $10 million additional financing agreement with the World Bank to expand and improve the government procurement system to ensure the effective use of public money and increase transparency, the bank said in a statement.

With this additional financing, the World Bank’s support to the project now stands at $68.10 million.

The additional financing to the Public Procurement Reform II project will help set up a modern data center with 200 terabyte storage capacity and a mirror site to replace an existing lower capacity data center.

The new center will help the procurement system keep pace with the growing demand from public procurement entities.

With robust security features and 180 times more capacity, the new center will offer storage for 8.6 million tenders and support about 3,25,000 registered bidders.

The agreement was signed by Economic Relations Division Additional Secretary Kazi Shofiqul Azam and Acting World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh Rajashree Paralkar on behalf of their respective organisations at the Economic Relations Division.

“Bangladesh has made a gradual improvement in its public procurement system by shifting from traditional procurement practices to international standards through digitization. Results are visible in the economy, efficiency and transparency of the system that ensures better value for money,” said Rajashree.

“The additional financing will contribute to further strengthen the capacity of the procurement system and meet the growing demand of the procurement entities. This in turn will improve the country’s investment climate and accelerate the pace of poverty reduction.”

The financing will also continue to support professional certifica-

tion and training on public procurement. The project has helped 89 officials to receive member status and professional diplomas at the Britain-based Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply, while 84 have completed master’s degrees in procurement.

The project has facilitated training on public procurement for about 2,700 participants, ensuring that over 85% of the four key procuring entities have at least one trained staff.

“The government has prioritized technology-based development of the country systems. The introduction of electronic government procurement, e-GP, in recent years under a single national web portal has laid a good foundation of public procurement that regulates procurement, procurement laws and associated documentations.

As a result, transaction cost went down and tender processing time has reduced from 51 days in 2012 to 29 days in 2015,”said Shofiqul Azam. l

The cabinet has approved the draft of Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC) Act 2016 to make the state-owned shipping organisation vibrant.

The approval came yesterday at the cabinet meeting presided over

by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the secretariat in Dhaka.

After the meeting, Cabinet Secretary Shafiul Alam briefed the reporters on the outcome of the meeting.

He said as the Act was approved, BSC now will have a 13-member board of directors with the shipping minister as its chair.

As per the Act, the corporation will have the power to manufacture ship, vessels or other water vehicles as well repairs and overhaul, he said.

The cabinet secretary said the amount of the authorised capital of the listed BSC would be Tk400 core and its paid up capital Tk350 crore.

UNB adds: the original law on Shipping Corporation was promulgated through a Presidential Order on February 5, 1970, and it was later amended several times during the civil and military governments.

Shafiul Alam said the draft law has been formulated keeping intact almost all sections of the existing law on operation and management of BSC alongside updating some clauses.

Besides, the secretary to the Shipping Ministry or divisions dealing with shipping, a joint secretary of the Finance Division, the managing director and executive directors of the BSC as well as one of the representatives from the shareholders will be members of the board.

According to the cabinet secretary, the responsibility of operation and management of BSC would be bestowed upon the board.

According to the draft law, BSC headquarters will be located in Chittagong, but with prior approval of the government, it could be shifted to another place wherever necessary and appropriate.

About the function of the corporation, Shafiul added that it would provide safe and efficient shipping services on international routes and carry out all forms of activities connected with shipping.

“Besides, it will also establish institutes or make other arrangements for the instruction and training of persons engaged or likely to be engaged in any activity connected with shipping,” he said.

The corporation will also have the authority to acquire, hold or dispose of any property, whether movable or immovable. l

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TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2016

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Business

TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2016

G20 growth vow keeps global shares near nine-month high n Reuters, London World shares held near nine-month highs yesterday after G20 finance chiefs vowed over the weekend to use “all policy tools” to lift global growth.

Europe got off to a solid start, climbing almost 0.3% as takeover activity continued in the UK gambling sector and talk of record profits at Ryanair helped break some of the recent gloom around airlines.

Backsliding oil prices LCOc1 though held back commodity firms and emerging market stocks. MSCI’s 46-country All World index couldn’t push over peaks hit last week after some record highs on Wall Street.

While the weekend’s signals from the G20 meeting in China were welcome, investors were bracing for a hectic week that includes a US Federal Reserve meeting, European bank stress tests and what could be another super-sized

An investor takes a photograph using his phone in front of a board displaying stock prices at the Australian Securities Exchange in Sydney REUTERS. slug of stimulus from Japan.

“I think everyone is range-trading at the moment and just waiting to see what the direction is,” said TD Securities head of global research Richard Kelly.

“The Bank of Japan is really the

one that is front and centre this time with the all talk around ‘helicopter money’,” he added. “If they disappoint, which I think is probably more likely, then we are likely to see risk assets coming off.”

Bank of Japan chief Haruhiko

Oil prices slide on oversupply, economic headwinds n Reuters, London Oil prices fell yesterday, holding near two-month lows amid worries that a global glut of crude and refined products would weigh on markets for some time.

Brent crude futures were trading at $45.45 a barrel at 0956 GMT (5.56 am ET), down 24 cents from their previous close, while US crude was down 25 cents at $43.94 a barrel.

Both benchmarks were close to two-month lows reached last week.

Traders said ongoing oversupply and growing economic headwinds were weighing on oil.

“The potential for larger-than-normal stock builds is growing,” Morgan Stanley said in a note.

“With the market increasingly trading on DOE (US Department of

Energy) stats, this could be a catalyst for additional downside,” the bank said.

Barclays bank said global oil demand in the third quarter of 2016 was expanding at less than a third of the year-earlier rate, weighed down by anaemic economic growth.

Demand support from developed economies had faded, while growth from China and India had slowed, Barclays said.

Morgan Stanley added that headwinds were growing for the second half of the year, leading to expectations of lower oil prices. It pointed to resilient US supply, falling demand for transport fuels, and oversupply by refiners.

“As a result, crude oil demand from refineries is underperforming product demand by a wide margin,” the bank said.

But consultancy Energy Aspects said the oil market was beginning to show small signs of “normalcy” in supply-and-demand balances.

“Crude markets are slowly tightening and are now more resilient in the face of falling refinery demand for crude,” the consultancy said.

“We do not mean that the rebalancing is over, or even close to being over, but nevertheless, we are now in a new market paradigm where the steps towards normalcy begin.”

New tensions in Libya highlight that the OPEC member is unlikely to see a significant boost to its oil exports any time soon, after the national oil corporation said it objected to a deal to reopen key ports.

A strong dollar and a fourth weekly rise in the US oil rig count also weighed on prices. l

Kuroda had said at the weekend that he could ease policy further but also that there had been no discussion about “helicopter money” radical money printing that aims to give cash directly to the population.

The yen was losing ground against the dollar JPY though it was off last week’s six-week low and the greenback struggled to make much of an impact against either sterling GBP or the euro EUR= in early European trading.

The dollar’s index against a basket of six major currencies USD hit a 4-1/2-month high of 97.543 on Friday. It last stood at 97.371.

“Dollar/yen could test the 108 handle if the Fed’s comments this week are supportive towards a rate hike and if the BOJ eases,” said Koji Fukaya at FPG Securities in Tokyo.

“On the other hand, the pair could drop below 105 if the BOJ stands pat as easing expectations are well entrenched.”

In bond markets, euro zone yields held near post-Brexit lows for the most part.

Benchmark German 10-year yields were flat on the day at minus 0.08% DE10YT and the Italian IT10YT and Spanish equivalents ES10YT were at 1.24 and 1.12% respectively, just a couple of points from multi-month lows.

As well as ongoing talk of central bank stimulus and low oil prices keeping down inflation, this week also sees a series of bond redemptions that will mean investors have cash to buy again.

Oil prices meanwhile hovered near 2-1/2-month lows having lost about 4% last week on renewed worries about a global crude glut.

Brent crude futures LCOc1 traded at $45.66 per barrel, down 0.1% and near Friday’s low of $45.17, its lowest since May 11. Gold XAU also struggled at it fell 0.5% to 1,316 an ounce. l

CORPORATE NEWS

Executive committee of Social Islami Bank Limited has recently held its 284th meeting, said a press release. The committee’s chairperson, Md Anisul Hoque presided over the meeting

Standard Bank Limited has recently commenced a two-week long induction course for its trainee assistant officers, said a press release. The bank’s managing director and CEO, Md Nazmus Salehin inaugurated the course

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16

Tech

TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2016

Can you Z it?

We take a look at the new Moto Z Droid and Moto Z Droid Force

n Mahmood Hossain Even though the new handsets from Lenovo are classed as modular phones, they aren’t completely 100 percent modular.

In other words, you can’t take the entire phone apart to customise your preferences. That’s not to say that the Moto Z or Moto Z Force are bad phones because, well, they are actually quite good. As we all know, Motorola is now under the Lenovo house, which means there will be a stronger focus on function. Although this Droid does a good job of catching the wandering eye, it isn’t quite the sexiest phone in the market. But that’s perfectly okay.

The meal While reading through the specs, as we’ll discuss in a bit, you might cringe after you hear the price of each of these phones. The Z might cost you over Tk50,000, while the Z Force will run you over for Tk56,000. Stick with us here, don’t pass out now. Going through the run down, the Moto Z (2,600mAh battery) model is incredibly thin and the Z Force is a bit bigger, due to its larger 3,500mAh battery.

Both phones boast a 5.5-inch Quad HD AMOLED display, with a 5-megapixel front-facing camera, which also has a flash.

Now, here’s the crazy part. The

folks at Lenovo and the Motorola division decided to take it one step further by doing an Apple before the new iPhone 7 is set to be revealed. They decided to take out the headphone jack. Again, let’s not faint. We are slowly seeing devices shifting to the USB-C port format. This means there is only one port in the entire device and that’s the USB-C port. Sorry folks, but both models are without the headphone jack, which means you’ll have to invest in a Bluetooth headphone or earphones.

As the Moto Z Droid is super thin and light, the larger and heavier Z Force is shatter proof. Go ahead, test it and throw it against a wall. We’re kidding, don’t do that. But rest assured if you ever

accidentally drop the device, you’ll have nothing to worry about.

With the Gorilla Glass 4 protection and its second generation Moto’s ShatterShield technology, it does a solid job of protecting the phone’s well-being.

The ingredients The screen might be protected by the new body, but the company has guaranteed that it will protect from cracking for four years. It’s also protecting the inside, which leads us to the specs department.

There isn’t much to brag about here, as most of these numbers are standard in the Android

market. Both Droid handsets have 4GB of RAM, with either the option of 32GB or 64GB of storage and a Snapdragon 820 processor.

The biggest differences between the two phones in question is the camera. Sure, there are plenty of obvious, physical characteristics that are similar but one factor is highlights above others. The Z has a 13-megapixels, while the Z Force is rocking a 21-megapixel lens. The representatives of Lenovo and Moto have gone on to claim they had focused a bit more on the Z Force’s camera. The software to use the camera is pretty damn fast and smooth. Although the overall performances of the cameras are good, they still won’t top the sophistication of cameras that are on like the Samsung Galaxy S7.

When all is said and done, the main draw to the phone would be the variety of options to use with your Droid phone. As stated as modular, a user is able to swap out the factory sealed back and swap it out with a larger battery fused in a smartphone cover. There’s also another Moto Mod cover that turns your pone into a projector. In addition, there’s a Moto Mod that turns your Droid into a hybrid Bluetooth speaker and a smartphone. You get the idea, more and more customisation are available in the current market.

The verdict This all seems fun and dandy, until you meet the price points.

Truth be told, these new models are too expensive. The Moto Mods themselves are going to be sold at not-so-cheap prices. It’s really not worth shelling out so much money for a phone that might be obsolete within the next two years. But don’t get the message wrong; it’s not all bad.

This is actually the right step going into the future with Android smartphones. There’s always plenty of advancements in the world of technology, and this seems to be in the cards for all smartphone users. It just seems a tad crazy they could go out of their way in incorporating such great ideas to a brand that isn’t as popular as it once was, and slap on such a high price tag on it. l

17

DT

Gaming

TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2016

The chase is on Behind the Pokémon numbers

n Naimul Haque Nayeem

P

okémon, a cartoon that took over the media habit of Bangladeshi children in early 2003 on the screen of Cartoon Network is now ruling the “augmented” reality world with its newly launched game Pokémon GO. It allows gamers to travel between the real world and the virtual world of Pokémon. Within the game, trainers can catch Pokémon in real-world locations using their smartphones.

The game uses Google’s mapping services and the cell phone’s camera, allowing the gamers to roam around outdoor and discover Pokémons. It has been developed and designed for both iPhone and Android devices.

According to the game designer Zach Gage, “The biggest, most magical part of playing Pokémon Go right now is that, it’s the first real-world sized, real world game.

By which I mean, the game not only takes place in the real world, but it has enough players to fill it up.”

The app has already taken the internet by storm, reaching the top of the iOS and Android app stores. The game has driven over $1.6 million dollars a day from the iTunes store alone. Studies shows that the game is being played an average of 43 minutes per day, more than the time spent on WhatsApp or Instagram.

What could be the effects of this gaming app in Bangladesh?

It can promote gamers to go outdoors and discover new and different ways of playing mobile games. But, some gamers showed concern about the potential threat of getting addicted to this game, road accidents, unsafe gatherings, criminal activities and so on.

However, they also believe that this is too early to say anything.

Now let’s visualise the marketing opportunities.

Pokémon Go gives you a first-hand experience of augmented reality (AR) in virtually no additional cost, while boosting the gamer’s usage of their smartphones. Some data shows that the game is now more popular than Instagram, Twitter, and Tinder. So there is an obvious reason behind marketers keeping their eyes on this game and trying to grab a hold on to this platform.

In USA and UK, lucky local businesses whose locations happen to have been included in the mapping software are putting physical signs outside, welcoming Pokémon GO players to fuel the craze. A business can sign up on the Pokémon Go website to start a process called the Lure. All the business needs to do is to fill out the business profile, set a deal and choose a block of time to run the deal. Lure Deals announces it through their network to nearby Pokemon Go players, and they come flocking to you. Few businesses who have already experimented the process in the last two weeks have reported a boost of 10-20% in revenue. Some reports are saying that Niantic Lab (co-developer of Pokemon GO) is working on an ad model for businesses. This will be a self-serving advertising platform where businesses of all kinds can sponsor locations within the game.

Niantic was a Google funded startup. So there is a possibility that it will work in a way similar to Google’s Adwords platform. They are keeping the model of bidding unclear right now and the app lacks an API, internal analytics,

The biggest, most magical part of playing Pokémon Go right now is that, it’s the first real-world sized, real world game

and other tools that can help you understand the values.

On open public places, telecom operators and handset manufacturers can offer players a charger station with proper branding on it (just so you know, Pokémon GO is a battery hog!).

Few operators are already offering free mobile data packs for app users. WIFI service providers can offer free WIFI zones around playing areas.

Pop culture is now at its peak in Bangladesh. It won’t be much of a surprise to see Pokécon happening here as soon as the Asian server goes online and the game picks up in the region.

Nintendo shares have soared almost 90% since “Pokémon

Go” was first launched. The gaming company, now valued at $3.94 billion (£2.94 billion), has become one of Japan’s 20 largest businesses (according to reports by The Financial Times).

“We do have a lot in common.

The same air, the same Earth, the same sky. Maybe if we started looking at what’s the same instead of always looking at what’s different...well, who knows? ” – Meowth (Pokémon : Mewtwo Returns) l The author is an Executive (Insights and Analytics) at Mediavest Bangladesh

DT

18

Biz Info

TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2016

| food |

| phones |

Tantalising Asian and International themed nights at Amaya Food Gallery

Huawei launches GR5 Mini and Y6II

Food lovers will be inspired by the amazing theme night experience at Amaya Food Gallery, from August 2016 onwards. The theme night will give the guests the opportunity to experience four separate Asian and International cuisines highlighted weekly, four times a month.

With these special theme nights, Amaya will be highlighting cuisines from specific different countries. It will feature an interactive experience with various separate live cooking stations which will allow you to taste the authenticity of different cuisines from the best ethnic chefs in town.

The first week of every month, Amaya Food Gallery will surprise the guests with a vibrant Indian royal cuisine. Spice up your palette every Sunday through Wednesday, featuring order special dishes per day like curries, biryiani, tandoori, and other dishes from south India.

The second week will be highlighting the smooth and silky flavours from Thailand.

From North to South, our exotic Siam cuisine will indulge your tastebuds that will leave you

asking for more. Heat will linger on your palette with Tom Yam, Thai street food delicacies, curries, and authentic Som Tam for a balanced bite, every Sunday through Wednesday.

Be inspired by the sizzling Japanese and Chinese cuisines on the third week of every month, as Amaya will proudly serve Chinese dim sum, Japanese udon and soba noodle soups, Chinese noodle soups and Japanese chirashi flavours, every Sunday

through Wednesday in the following order.

And in the last week of the month, there will be a different international cuisine highlighted every day with western BBQ, Spanish paella, Italian pastas and Peruvian Ceviche and so on. The dishes are based on various European influences, combining them based on multicultural heritage and traditions, and inspired by world famous celebrity chefs. l

| promotion |

Punjab-Da-Taste by Indian Masterchef Shamsher

Le Méridien Dhaka is hosting a five day food promotion to present the revered tastes of Punjab, between July 27-31, 2016.

Coined as “Punjab-Da-Taste” to reflect the palettes of the region, master chef Shamsher, who oversees the Indian cuisine at the hotel’s already acclaimed all-day dining buffet restaurant, Latest Recipe has brought to Dhaka, the traditional savoury and sweet delights of the sardars.

Guests visiting Latest Recipe during the promotional period will get to enjoy a host of new dishes with scrumptious vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes such as Rajmah ki tikki, Sialkoti paneer tikka, Chicken gilafi seekh, Amritsarimacchli, and many more. There will also be additional live stations with mixers preparing true Punjabi lassi and chaats. All these may be enjoyed in addition to the regular

buffet dinner at the “Babbe Da Dhaba” (mother’s roadside café), which will be a special buffet station set up just for this food exposition.

“Punjab-Da-Taste” will be featured every evening during this five day period from 6pm till midnight with the usual buffet dinner at Latest Recipe, at Tk4,430 net per person. Guests may contact +8801990900900 to learn more or for reservations. l

Huawei has recently launched the GR5 Mini and Y6II on July 23, in the Bangladesh market.

These exciting new smartphones are aimed at introducing greater convenience for young consumers.

The Huawei GR5 Mini follows up on the huge success of the Huawei GR5 worldwide. Featuring a 5.2” Full HD Display, the elegantly designed GR5 Mini is operated by Android Marshmallow 6.0 OS, and is run by a powerful Hisilicon Kirin 650 16nm 64-bit Octa-Core processor. The most attractive thing about the GR5 Mini is its outlook. Along with that, second generation fingerprint technology is also available in this phone.

In order to enable you to capture high quality photos as well as superb selfies, the phone sports a 13 MP rear and an 8 MP front camera. Fingerprint Sensor 2.0, Huawei’s second generation 360 degree fingerprint technology, greatly enhances the security and privacy of its users. In terms of memory, the GR5 Mini’s 2 GB RAM is accompanied by a 16 GB ROM, which is expandable up to 128 GB external memory. Moreover, the ultra-powerful 3,000 mAh battery lasts two days for light users, and 1.3 days for heavy users once it is fully charged. Available in gold, silver, and grey color options, the Huawei GR5 Mini is priced at Tk18,490 only.

The newest addition to the Huawei Y-series, the Huawei Y6II comes with a bigger screen size, a better front camera, and a bigger battery size compared to

its predecessors. Boasting a 5.5” HD display, the slick handset is run by Kirin 620 64-bit A53 OctaCore processor and is operated

by Android 6.0 Marshmallow and Huawei’s 4.1 EMUI OS. The storage space is highlighted by a 2 GB RAM and 16 GB ROM which is expandable up to 128 GB. One of the main attractive features of this phone is its extraordinary selfie camera. It has an 8 MP front camera to capture selfies with f2.0 aperture. Capturing high quality photographs is enabled through an 8 MP front and 13 MP rear camera. The 3,000 mAh highdensity battery, developed with Huawei’s patented power-saving technology, runs with 30% better power efficiency. Available in black, gold, and white, the Huawei Y6II is priced at Tk14,990 only.

“Bangladesh harbors a large number of youngsters who are looking for hi-tech devices at affordable prices to add excitement in their lives. Huawei, with a keen understanding of the need, has launched the GR5 Mini and the Y6II so that hitech smartphones by a globally renowned device reaches the hands of the youth at an affordable price,” said Ingmar Wang, Director of Device Business, Huawei Technologies (Bangladesh) Ltd. The Huawei GR5 Mini and the Huawei Y6II is now available in stores across Bangladesh at Huawei Experience Stores in Bashundhara City and Jamuna Park, and other brand shops across Bangladesh. l

19

DT

Auto Connect

TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2016

The Korean prodigy

scratchy brakes, makes the Tivoli tricky to drive smoothly inside the city.

The gearbox work well, though, apart from an overly keen kickdown that sends the engine racing from time to time, it is smooth and fairly effective.

Over hefty bumps and sharp ridges, the suspension is quite noisy and around the 100Km/h, the road and wind noise becomes rather prominent.

The 2016 Ssangyong Tivoli is a practical compact SUV, offering good value for money. However, it’s not the most excellent to drive

n Tahsin Momin

feature LED daytime running lights.

The 2016 SsangYong Tivoli competes directly with rivals such as the Nissan Juke and Honda Vezel; these cars offer the practicality of an off-roader, but with performance and running costs of a family hatchback. One thing that must said out loud is that these cars are better suited to on-road driving rather than traversing muddy lanes.

That’s certainly the same thing with the Tivoli, and unlike its aforementioned rivals, you have luxury to order it with four-wheel drive.

If you’re in the market for a small and practical SUV, the Tivoli is definitely worth considering. However, it does have its shortcomings - the driving experience is below par.

It has a wobbly ride and mediocre handling, but compared to its peers it has a bigger cabin and a decent boot size. It’s also very good value for money in terms of refinements.

Exterior Visually, the Tivoli gets a wide stance with a flat roofline attached to the body by a thick C-pillar. The blacked-out A and B are there to achieve the fashionable “floating roof” effect. At the rear, the rounded rear window and sloping lights give it a modern look, but we found it to be generic and slightly over-styled.

Interior On the inside, it is on a par with most others in the segment in terms of space. While SsangYong still lags behind from some of the more established manufacturers with regard to quality and the finish of some of the materials inside. However most controls are within easy reach and the standard level of specification is good.

All Tivoli’s get heated front seats, keyless start, electric windows all-round, automatic headlights and wipers, cruise control, electrically-operated and heated door mirrors, dual-zone climate control and a seveninch colour touch screen for the infotainment system. Satellite navigation and rear-view camera features also come as standard.

Will that matter to the styleconscious buyers? While it may put off a few buyers, in a bid to attract more contemporary buyers, SsangYong will offer a good variety

of exterior hues along with the option of a contrasting roof colour.

Meanwhile, other smart design additions include a leaner front grille and unique headlights that

Performance The Tivoli is powered by a 1.6-litre petrol engine, which is reasonably refined at low revs, but it’s quite noisy at 3000rpm, and around 4000rpm it gets decidedly coarse and whiny. This creates a lot of trouble for city driving since most of its performance is delivered in the upper rev range.

It also has a very sensitive accelerator pedal that makes it easy to push through the rev counter when moving away from a standstill. On top of that, the

Safety In terms of safety, much can’t be said. The Tivoli is yet to be subjected to Euro NCAP testing, but from what we have seen, it’s unlikely to be awarded a five-star rating if it is assessed. However, all SsangYong models get seven airbags and stability control, but Euro NCAP test requirement is strict about the addition of an autonomous emergency braking.

Verdict SsangYong’s brand creed is unquestionably harder to overcome than any other kind of prejudice, but if you think you’ve got the patience to deal with endless, “What car is that?” question, then you won’t be let down. Nonetheless, the Tivoli is a very impressive statement from the Korean auto manufacturer. It holds its grounds strong against Hyundai and Kia, who knows, perhaps a few Europeans too. In the end of the day, if you don’t care about any of that, it’s simply a good car. l Available at: Millennium Ssangyong Motors Ltd. 191/B, Bir Uttam Mir Shawkat Sarak, Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka -1208, Bangladesh Cell: 01194 001 201, 01199 800 108 Price: Call for pricing

DT

20 Editorial

TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2016

TODAY

Even on your best behaviour All the time, these so-called Westerners with their agendas, their bombings of Muslims halfway across the world, deeming the followers of your faith terrorists when they kill innocent Muslim lives, it irks you PAGE 21

Notes on a trip to England He felt dispossessed because there were too many people of foreign culture around who just did not fit the English ethos of his kind of ordinary folk. It seems that even in the relatively small town of Cambridge, half the taxi drivers (echoes of New York) are Bangladeshi, a fact which he found vaguely unsettling PAGE 22

Social media is your friend Some experts recommend that we embrace social media in our efforts to prevent radicalisation 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.

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Take lessons from the past to stay better prepared for floods

W

e have seen it before, but tragically it happens over and over again.

Rains and overflowing rivers have hit the north of Bangladesh hard by flooding villages and leaving many people marooned without shelter, supplies of food, or drinking water.

The destruction of crops, seedbeds, and fisheries has affected hundreds of thousands of people across the country. Vital roads going under water means people cannot help themselves unless relief comes to them first.

Bangladesh has always been a flood-prone country. The flooding of rural areas, and terrible water-logging in major cities, often bring life to a standstill, damage the economy, and bring misery to the entire population.

We, as a nation, need to be better prepared.

It is up to the government to speed up relief efforts across the country, and ensure clean water, food, medical supplies, and other necessities are available in floodstricken areas.

Increased co-ordination between various agencies and within the government will go a long way in getting relief to the right areas as quickly and efficiently as possible. Efforts must also be beefed up on repairing embankments and damaged infrastructure.

Stocks of emergency supplies should also be built up for remote areas where aid may not reach on time.

Climate change means we can expect more intense storms in the future. Disaster resilience is key -- we need to work on disaster-resilient roads, bridges, paved trading areas, integrated water supply systems, efficient power supply systems, and proper drainage and sanitation facilities.

Let us work towards a long-term, sustainable solution, and not just ad hoc measures every time the country experiences flooding due to too much rainfall.

Disaster resilience is key -- we need to work on disaster-resilient roads, bridges, paved trading areas, integrated water supply systems, efficient power supply systems, and proper drainage and sanitation facilities

DT

21

Opinion

TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2016

Even on your best behaviour Terrorists are different from you and me. But how different?

n SN Rasul

E

ven on your best behaviour, you are just like Nibras.

Or Rohan, or Meer, or Abir, or Safi. Or that Tunisian, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, across the European border and into Nice, as he drives through 80 odd people to get to some version of heaven.

Or maybe that other guy in Germany? What was his name?

Does it really matter? A 17-year-old Pakistani, Riaz Khan Ahmadzai, on a train, wielding an axe, claiming to bear the will of a deity, hacked away at unsuspecting passengers.

No one was killed. But imagine that, the image of a young teenage boy on a train, with murder in his eyes, righteousness on his mind.

And in Germany? Again? An 18-year-old German-Iranian shoots up a shopping mall. This time in Berlin. (The other one was in Wurzburg, the name of a city you can barely pronounce.) Another name, another Muslim.

But you know that already, before the shooting even ends: Ali. 10 people die, including the shooter himself, from a “selfinflicted gun wound.” Imagine that, too, screaming out of puberty and into the world, throwing

How does a young man end up on a killing mission?

Sometimes, you listen to a Zakir Naik sermon or two. What this man says about your faith makes sense. All the time, these so-called Westerners with their agendas, their bombings of Muslims halfway across the world, deeming the followers of your faith terrorists when they kill innocent Muslim lives, it irks you

bullets from your hand.

No connection to the Islamic State this time though, unlike the previous names. These Arabic names with those hard Rs and guttural Hs, which constrain your throat, and you, phlegmatically uttering them as you tick off one dead perpetrator after another.

Who are these people, with names kind of like yours, names that you recognise amongst your friends, your family? When these attacks took place in the rest of the world, the sometimes-Muhammad or, as with the 18-year-old Ali, they would have a little in common, but their surnames were different, unfamiliar, their nationalities were of countries you’d visit, their race not white but still mismatched against your brownish skin tone.

And you could make excuses for how out of place they must have felt in a sea of white, of religions that weren’t their own. You could perhaps see them detached from the way you see the poor in the country, the beggars, as you raise the back of your hand to beg in return for forgiveness; you’re not feeling the most generous right now.

But what about now? Even as your best self, you talk like Nibras did, go to the same school Rohan did, have your heart broken like Safi did. You went to the same private university, hung out in the same piazza, made dirty jokes in front of your professors so that it would make the girl you like laugh.

You trimmed your beard so that it stuck to your face like glue, and

you lifted your hand in an arch so that you could take a photo of yourself with the entirety of your crew and fam behind you. You took it from just the right angle so it complimented your profile.

You got that haircut where they trim your sides and keep the centre long so that it drapes over the nape of your neck.

Sometimes, you listen to a Zakir Naik sermon or two.

What this man says about your faith makes sense. All the time, these so-called Westerners with their agendas, their bombings of Muslims halfway across the world, deeming the followers of your faith terrorists when they kill innocent Muslim lives, it irks you.

You’re glad that there’s someone defending it to millions across the

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globe, giving you the voice you so crave.

Really: Aren’t they the real terrorists?

You listen to that friend of yours, who has suddenly decided that it’s about time that he started praying five times a day. You occasionally miss Fajr because, really, it’s hard when you’re staying up until three in the morning chatting up that cute girl in your economics class you keep trying to make smile, but you’re trying your best.

You even go to those occasional weekend parties, with the booze you yourself chip in for, and get drunk enough so that you end up making out with some girl you’ll never see again.

And when you’re hungover the next day, your head bursting with a newfound pain, your regrets tell you: That Zakir Naik guy was right after all.

Your friend too. Your friend keeps inviting you to these things called “dawas.” You’re not sure what that is, so you finally give in one day and it feels kinda, sorta nice, doesn’t it?

Everyone’s your brother, treats you as such as well. You don’t feel as alone, as lonely, especially

after that cute girl broke your heart.

So what if they have their beards slightly longer, and occasionally talk sexist about what women should be wearing out in public? You can ignore those, and take the best you can.

One day, the talk gets a bit ... dare you say it, extreme? This is not what you signed up for. Sure, you’re feeling a bit down and lonely, but this isn’t the answer.

You slowly start to distance yourself from the crowd. Your friend isn’t quite what he used to be. Doesn’t make the same old dirty jokes, doesn’t really laugh when you tell them either.

One day, he disappears. No one knows where he went. Some day in the future, maybe, you see him on a video congratulating a massacre, or you see that old photo of him on a list RAB put up to ensure safety and security. You thank your lucky stars. You thank God, really, that you’d distanced yourself from them, and not let them brainwash you into a future of violence.

But, what if you had? l SN Rasul is a Sub-Editor at the Dhaka Tribune. Follow him @snrasul.

22

DT

Long Form

TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2016

Notes on a trip to England Caught up in the Brexit wave. This is the first part of a two-part long form and social stress that would be caused by trying to pry apart the UK from its existing organic web of European ties.

The Rightists were furious that the European Commission bureaucrats were introducing ever more effective regulation to curb abuses such as massive corporate tax avoidance, which the Leftists welcomed.

At the same time, the Leftists hated that these same European Commission bureaucrats were secretly negotiating international trade treaties which would permanently grant concessions to corporate interests making them unchallengeable in sovereign law courts, a longstanding Rightist demand. There was never going to be any possibility of a “good” result except for those of the schizophrenic persuasion.

Eating right

Even a relatively small city like Cambridge is full of Bangladeshis

He felt dispossessed because there were too many people of foreign culture around who just did not fit the English ethos of his kind of ordinary folk. It seems that even in the relatively small town of Cambridge, half the taxi drivers (echoes of New York) are Bangladeshi, a fact which he found vaguely unsettling

n Sal Imam

L

eaving New York -- with a lingering look at the first lovely sunny day of the US spring -- I landed in England to be immediately caught up in the Brexit wave. On the two hour ride into Cambridge, my Englishman taxi driver was the soul of gentleness and friendliness, but it emerged that he was determined to vote Leave.

He felt dispossessed because there were too many people of foreign cultures around who just did not fit the English ethos of his kind of ordinary folk. It seems that even in the relatively small town of Cambridge, half the taxi drivers (echoes of New York) are Bangladeshi, a fact which he found vaguely unsettling.

It seemed as if the act of voting in the referendum was shaping up as an opportunity for some psychological venting, no more

and no less. Perhaps we should all treat it as just that, a long bottledup sentiment allowed expression for once.

The Brexit waves continued to roil the UK while I was there, and clearly formed part of the same anomie-laden backlash that Andrew Sullivan (and Plato) had identified in the US (see “Atlantic Currents” Dhaka Tribune, June 27, 2016).

By the way, this phenomenon seems to be going global as the era of the tyrant-demagogue is already upon us: Rodrigo Duterte, a certified head case, has just started a six-year term as president of the Philippines. And I am told there is another aspiring tyrant, Wim Geerts of the Netherlands, who fits the pattern to a T: Blonde, airheaded, extreme right-wing.

It was particularly amusing to find that the British tyrant-in-themaking Boris Johnson was a mirror image of his US counterpart, down

to the heavy-set body and the shifty eyes. Private Eye picked up on this with a cover photo showing David Cameron welcoming Obama to Number 10 saying: “You’ve been racially abused by a buffoon with silly hair” to which the President was replying: “You’re really making me feel at home.”

But then Private Eye, a satirical magazine which has a knack for the most acute revelations, went on to print a cartoon which set out the entire Brexit dilemma at a stroke. It showed an EU Ballot Paper with two boxes to be ticked, one labelled “More Frightened of Staying In,” and the other “More Frightened of Getting Out.” This was indeed the unresolvable choice that was on offer. That’s why the Leave and Remain campaigns were so strangely unsymmetrical. Neither campaign presented any pros for their point of view, being content to compare positions along the lines of: Your cons are worse than my cons.

And these cons were truly weighty. The Leave campaign’s worst was a warning of the huge spending bills that Europe was about to face in order to resolve the economic problems of countries in its Southern belt: Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain.

The Remain campaign, meanwhile, harped upon the incredible economic, political,

A simmering controversy about the dietary implications of saturated fat broke out again with an influential article by Dominic Lawson in the Sunday Times. The story was that, some 50 years ago, saturated fat was identified by experts as a leading cause of heart attacks and other serious medical conditions.

In response, a massive attempt was launched to eliminate all traces of fat from normal diet.

Hence, the reign was inaugurated of insipid skimmed and semiskimmed milk, and the shunning of the full fat version.

Food items with saturated fat in them such as eggs, butter, meat, and dairy products were, if not banned, at least made highly questionable. People switched en masse to low fat diets, and felt good about themselves doing so.

Unfortunately, this meant that one potential evil, saturated fat, was replaced by another, even worse evil: Namely, sugar. The problem is that, as Lawson puts it: “If we do not get our energy from animal fats and protein, then carbohydrates would fill the calorie gap, and that is a recipe for a high sugar intake.”

In addition, given that anything with a very low level of saturated fat tends to be utterly tasteless, sugar had to be added in large quantities to make food palatable.

Both these tendencies led, over the years, to a huge increase in diabetes in the general population. l The concluding part of this long form will be published tomorrow.

Sal Imam is a concerned citizen.

DT

23

Opinion

TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2016

In the fight against terror, social media is your friend Governments have been known to resort to banning social media platforms whenever it seems convenient, but these portals can do a lot of good

Don’t hate on digital. It’s here to stay

n Fay Faatin

U

ntil recently, “counterterrorism” was a buzzword we almost exclusively heard in the context of other countries.

Now, in the wake of the first ever hostage crisis in Bangladesh that shook the country to its core, and subsequent threats from IS headquarters in Raqqa, our policymakers have had to make counterterrorism their priority, and it is the topic of conversation in every household.

Terrorism, however, has evolved in many significant ways, making it imperative that our efforts to counter it also evolve accordingly.

There is now a new dimension to modern terrorism: Social media.

Terrorist organisations are now increasingly relying on the internet, and especially on online social media platforms to plan, facilitate, recruit, propagate, and legitimise their operations.

Social media is particularly popular among IS as a means of recruitment, as opposed to previous terrorist organisations like al-Qaeda that have traditionally been very selective and secretive regarding recruitment.

IS has a dedicated team of

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recruiters and jihadists who are constantly promoting the cause via war footage and photos and messages from its leaders, prayer calls, etc.

of IS propaganda on social media, and the attack in Gulshan earlier this month is a case in point. Consequently, and quite understandably, governments all

incident highlights better than any other how social media comes with high costs as well as benefits; that it is a powerful tool and a game changer that has raised the stakes

Some experts recommend that we embrace social media in our efforts to prevent radicalisation. There are plenty of articles and opinion pieces online that describe how and why it would be useful to provide an alternative, and positive, worldview to potential victims of radicalisation As for the content they share, experts researching the IS propaganda machine have found that every region controlled by IS has its own production company, and every day they are publishing, tweeting, and re-tweeting.

The terrorist game has changed in another significant way. IS has spawned a new breed of lone wolf terrorists, who are not formally members, but are encouraged through Twitter and other platforms to carry out self-directed acts of terror. Subsequently, those attacks are celebrated by IS. Thus, it can be categorically said that this new type of threat has emerged directly as a result

over the world have become highly suspicious of social media.

For instance, blocking social media appears to be a favoured strategy for the Turkish government during times of crisis: In 2014, just before local elections in March, in early 2015 following the leaking of an incendiary image, and then again in the fall after a blast during a peace rally, the administration decided to shut down social media.

Now, more than a year later, in an ironic turn of events, President Erdogan, who previously advocated restricting social media, was able to thwart a coup and save himself using FaceTime. This single

tremendously and has political theorists struggling to formulate a new paradigm for understanding its implications for global politics.

In Bangladesh, we experienced a temporary shutdown of social media platforms last year during the execution proceedings of Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, due to expectations of violence and disruption set by the preceding trials.

The measure appears to have worked to the extent that much of the confusion and violence that spread during Sayeedi’s trial were avoided.

However, such measures are only appropriate when there is a

decisive conclusion on the horizon, and there really isn’t any indication that terrorism is going to stop any time soon.

As banning social media cannot be an indefinite strategy, it is imperative that the government give due attention to planning a long-term strategy to fight, nay, prevent militancy.

And this strategy needs to be based on a deeper understanding of humanity, an understanding that was beautifully articulated by President Obama when he said: “Our campaign to prevent people around the world from being radicalised to violence is ultimately a battle for hearts and minds.”

In fact, some experts recommend that we embrace social media in our efforts to prevent radicalisation. There are plenty of articles and opinion pieces online that describe how and why it would be useful to provide an alternative, and positive, worldview to potential victims of radicalisation.

And these positive ideas can be quickly and effectively disseminated through, you guessed it, social media. l Fay Faatin is a Research Associate at the Institute of Informatics and Development.

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Experiment brings Fizz’s downfall

TOP STORIES

n Minhaz Uddin Khan Uttar Baridhara riding the wave Uttar Baridhara were still buzzing a day after a successful day and took their warm-up session at Patenga beach in Chittagong yesterday. The newly promoted club are enjoying one of their finest moments in topflight football. PAGE 25

Is there a way out of the Olympic duck?

Bangladesh has had a terrible relation with the Olympics since their first appearance in 1984. Bangladesh also holds the infamous record of being the most populous country never to win an Olympic medal. PAGE 26 Abahani Limited’s Nigerian forward Sunday Chizoba celebrates scoring the opening goal against Chittagong Abahani in the Bangladesh Premier League at MA Aziz Stadium in Chittagong yesterday COURTESY

Day of draws in BPL Djokovic happy to be back on hard courts World number one Novak Djokovic is looking forward to playing on his favoured hardcourt surface at the Rogers Cup in Toronto, but the Serb urged caution as he returns to action for the first time since his shock Wimbledon exit. PAGE 27

Murali mounts attack on Sri Lanka Sri Lanka’s record-breaking offspinner Muttiah Muralitharan launched a blistering attack yesterday on his former bosses after they complained about his behaviour in his new role as a mentor to Australia. PAGE 28

Hoque from n Shishir Chittagong Rising powerhouse Chittagong Abahani held four-time professional league champions Abahani Limited to a 1-1 draw in the Bangladesh Premier League at Chittagong’s MA Aziz Stadium yesterday.

Abahani went ahead in the 35th minute, courtesy a fine strike from Nigerian forward Sunday Chizoba, but Chittagong Abahani restored parity in the 77th minute through winger Rubel Miah.

Federation Cup champions Abahani carried on their excellent form in the opening half while Independence Cup champions Chittagong Abahani staged a come-back in the latter half. The game was inarguably the most entertaining encounter so far in the league and both the sides showed why they are genuine title contenders this season.

George Kottan’s strategical gameplan made it hard for the home side to get control of the game from the beginning. Out-

standing defending by Ghanaian Samad Yussif and veteran Mamun Miah kept the back-four solid in the first hour.

The home side went close to scoring in the ninth minute when Sohel Rana, collecting a pass from Kaushik Barua from inside the box, sent the ball over the bar from eight yards. Nabib Newaj Jibon squandered a great opportunity in the 17th minute when he failed to connect a Lee Tuck free-kick from three yards away.

Sunday gave the Sky Blues the deserved lead in the 35th minute after fine work by defender Mamun Miah. Mamun raced forward through the right flank and delivered a precise cross for Sunday and the Nigerian striker outmuscled his marker to head home from six yards.

The home side piled more pressure in the second half creating a series of chances and kept the Abahani defence busy all the time. Super sub Rubel, who shone in the Independence Cup, came off the bench to rescue his

side with the equaliser in the 77th minute. Abahani goalkeeper Shahidul Alam Sohel fisted away a Mamunul Islam corner but the rebound fell kindly at the feet of Rubel whose left-footer hit the back of the net.

Both the coaches, Kottan and Jozef Pavlik was amazed with the spectators in the gallery and admitted that the match was entertaining. Kottan said it would have been better if there were six goals in the game; three from each side.

Pavlik praised the style of Abahani and expects tough tests from every opponent in the upcoming fixtures.

Earlier yesterday at the same venue, a late equaliser by Ismael Bangoura rescued Mohammedan Sporting Club to a 1-1 draw against Rahmatganj MFS in their opening match.

Congolese striker Siyo Zunapio gave Rahmatganj an early breakthrough before Guinean striker Ismael Bangoura equalised the margin at the dying stages of the game to salvage a point for the Black and Whites. l

Mustafizur Rahman’s concern with shoulder injury re-emerged after the left-arm paceman tried to bring variation to his bowling repertoire.

According to the Bangladesh Cricket Board’s chief physician Dr Debashish Chowdhury, Mustafizur’s experiment in an attempt to bring more variations may have caused the latest shoulder injury.

The first time Mustafizur was troubled by the shoulder was during the Asia Cup Twenty20 earlier this year. The injury ruled out the Bangladesh pacer for a few matches in the tournament and his troubles continued as the Satkhira lad was forced to the bench in the first few matches of the 2016 World T20.

“It’s tough to say anything without observing him in person.

But from what I know, he tried something new, tried some new deliveries while he was practising in the country. He felt pain at that time and we stopped him then and there,” said Debashish.

“Probably, after being fit completely, he thought he could try that again. He is such a bowler who always wants to know and add something to his arsenal,” the BCB physician added.

Meanwhile, BCB director and national team manager Khaled Mahmud echoed similar sentiments to that of Debashish.

“He is completely different to the others. He took the world by storm all of a sudden and had to bowl more deliveries than others. There was huge expectation on him and it may have prompted him to work more on his bowling.

Maybe he was trying to bring up variations in his slower cutter so that it might get more mysterious for the opposition batsmen,” said Mahmud.

“He is very clever and matured, unlike his age. He very well knows that everybody in the international circuit closely monitors his bowling regularly. That’s why he was working with his variations which may have resulted in his latest injury.

“As far as I know, his injury isn’t serious. He just feels pain. But if the injury is serious, he should stay in England because there he would get the best treatment. If needed, the BCB would give him the support to get him fully fit,” added the former Bangladesh captain.

Sussex in their next game will lock horns with Hampshire in the Royal London One-Day Cup tomorrow. l

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Uttar Baridhara riding the wave Hoque from n Shishir Chittagong Uttar Baridhara Club were still buzzing a day after a successful day and took their warm-up session at the Patenga beach here in Chittagong yesterday.

The newly promoted club are enjoying one of their finest moments in top-flight football after kicking off the Bangladesh Premier League campaign with a memorable victory over former treble winners Sheikh Russel Krira Chakra on Sunday.

“So far, this victory is our biggest achievement in the league.

It was also a very important and memorable match for the players as it was only our third victory at this level,” the club’s general secretary Jahangir Alam told Dhaka Tribune.

Uttar Baridhara took part in the Pioneer Football League in 1995.

Jahangir has been with the team since then and experienced several ups and downs in the last 21 years.

The club reached the Third Division in 2005-06 and became champions in their debut season.

They again finished at the summit the following season in the Second Division and were promoted to the First Division. The First Division was not played regularly till 2010 but later when it was held on a consistent basis, Uttar Baridhara stayed in the tier for two years.

Uttar Baridhara finished second in the first edition of second-tier football - the Bangladesh Cham-

Uttar Baridhara Club players celebrate following their 1-0 win over Sheikh Russel Krira Chakra in the Bangladesh Premier League in Chittagong on Sunday BFF pionship League - but during that time only one team got promoted to the premier league every season. In the 2013-14 season, the club made history when they were promoted to the top flight for the first time ever after finishing second.

The first season in the top-flight was not a good memory for Uttar Baridhara as they managed only two wins out of 27 matches to finish at the bottom. They also conceded a record 85 goals and were eventually relegated to the second tier.

At that time, the club had a tinshed building for the players.

Most of the players are young and have been playing for the club for the last few years and with the exception of defender Khalekuzzaman Sabuj, who moved to Abahani Limited, they stayed committed to the club despite relegation and brought the club back to the BPL again by not losing more than one game in the second-tier league.

Sabuj, who rejoined the club this season, believes this side is better than two years ago. Their latest inclusion in the squad is young forward Rohit Sarkar, who was brought in last season after

attracting attention during the Saff Under-19 Championship in Nepal last year.

The club now have a new four-storied building at Kalachandpur area in Baridhara where the club shifted only last year. They now also have their own ground at Shaheed Aziz Road, which was provided by club founding member Wakil Ahmed, who is also the chairman of the side’s governing body.

Uttar Baridhara’s next opponents are reigning champions Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club who scored 14 goals in two matches against them in the 2013-14 season.

However according to Jahangir, they are not afraid of any team any longer.

“There are no more problems.

The players are prepared. We will not concede goals like the last time,” said Jahangir.

Along with Uttar Baridhara, Arambagh Krira Sangha were also promoted to the premier league after a gap of two seasons.

Guided by former national coach Saiful Bari Titu, the Motijheel outfit are also enjoying one of their better seasons. They made history by reaching the final of the recently-concluded Federation Cup and last Sunday, they held Sheikh Jamal to an exciting 1-1 draw.

Arambagh are the only club who returned to Dhaka yesterday after playing their first match. They will come to Chittagong tomorrow before their second match against Muktijoddha Samaj Kallyan Samity, scheduled for this Saturday. l

Nasir forgot his last Test! n Mazhar Uddin There are concerns surrounding England’s tour of Bangladesh in September this year but if the series does go ahead, it will be exactly 14 months since the Tigers played their last Test match.

One of the Bangladesh members of that Dhaka Test is Nasir Hossain, who was at the non-striking end on 13 but was unable to prolong his knock as rain played havoc for the remainder of the five-dayer.

But according to the Rangpur cricketer, he hardly remembers memories of that Test match.

“Test cricket is obviously tough.

If we play at home then fine but if we play away then it’s obviously tough for us. You are saying 14 months but I don’t even remember when I last played Test cricket.

I can’t remember actually,” Nasir told the media at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday during the ongoing conditioning camp.

The 24-year old played his last ODI in December, 2015, and did not feature in a single game in the 2016 World Twenty20 in India.

However, the all-rounder, who enjoyed a productive campaign in the recently concluded Dhaka Premier League scoring 528 runs and picking up 14 wickets, is still determined to establish his place in all three formats of the game.

“Whenever you score runs at any level, it always boosts your confidence. And I scored runs in almost every game in the Dhaka league.

Overall, I am happy with my performance in the league,” he added.l

BHF fines Mariner Tk five lakhs

n Tribune Report The Bangladesh Hockey Federation yesterday fined Premier Division Hockey League champions Mariner Young’s Club Tk five lakhs for their act of vandalism during the title-deciding match against Usha Krira Chakra on July 1 this year.

After trailing by two goals, Mariner came from behind to beat Usha 3-2 to claim their maiden premier league title but when they were 0-2 behind, some of their officials and fans allegedly vandalised the VIP box of the Maulana Bhasani National Hockey Stadium.

An executive committee meeting of the BHF was held at Falcon Hall in the capital where the committee also decided to impose a one-year stadium ban on Mariner general secretary Hasanullah Khan Rana.

Meanwhile, ATN Bangla chairman Mahfuzur Rahman was named in the executive committee as senior vice-president while Shafiullah al Munir became the vice-president. l

(R-L) Soumya Sarkar, Nasir Hossain, Nurul Hasan, Mominul Haque and Imrul Kayes cannot hold back their joy during training at Mirpur’s SBNS yesterday

MI MANIK

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Is there a way out of the Olympic duck? n Fazley Rabbi Moon Bangladesh has had a terrible relation with the Olympics since their first appearance in 1984, and an upward trajectory is hardly predicted in this year’s mega event. Bangladesh also holds the infamous record of being the most populous country never to win an Olympic medal.

One of the most densely populated countries in the world, Bangladesh’s best shot at a medal came in London 2012 when the US-born Syque Caesar was a dark horse in the artistic gymnastics after winning a silver medal in the South Asian Games. He was the first Bangladeshi to win an international title in gymnastics. Eventually he failed in the big stage, taking 27th place on parallel bars (14.766), 29th place in floor exercise (14.666) and 50th place at the horizontal bar (13.700).

This time Bangladesh will fight in five different disciplines out of the 28, trying their luck once again to put their name in the medal tally along with the 82 other countries who never won a medal. This is the largest contingent in Bangladesh history and the golfer Siddikur Rahman, country’s first-ever direct entry, is giving high hopes to the 160 million population.

Siddikur, who has won two Asian Tour titles, will be among the 120 men and women who will create golfing history at the world’s greatest sporting spectacle when the sport makes its long-awaited

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Members of the 2016 Rio Olympics’ Bangladesh contingent pose for photographs at Kurmitola Golf Club on Saturday. The seven athletes, including flag-bearer Siddikur Rahman (3R), will soon depart for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK return to the Olympic Games after 112 years. Ranked 56th in the Olympic ranking, the 29-year old Siddikur will face many top-ranked players to earn the glory.

As golf is a game of individual brilliance and after narrowly missing his maiden European Tour title in the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open in May this year, Siddikur, being the country’s first in many ways,

is Bangladesh’s biggest hope this time. He has some concerns due to a back injury in recent times but he is excited about getting better in what he calls is “the biggest achievement of his life” by qualifying for the Olympics through the direct qualification process.

Apart from golf there are six more wild card entries for Bangladesh. Shooting has always been

the most successful discipline for Bangladesh at world stage. This time Abdullah Hel Baki, a shooter who won the 10-metre air rifle silver at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, will aim high with his favourite weapon once again.

Before Siddikur’s confirmation, Baki, earning the first wildcard this year for the nation, was the best candidate. Even if he is a long shot

for a medal in Brazil, his Danish coach Klavs Christensen says the future looks bright for Baki and Bangladeshi shooting.

Determined to end the medal drought, Bangladesh Olympic Association is boosting heavy incentives for its squad consisting swimmers, athletes and an archer.

Mahfizur Rahman Sagor and Sonia Akter Tumpa will participate in the men’s 100m and women’s 50m freestyle respectively. This is the second Olympics for Sagor, the best swimmer in the country, who stood 39th among 58 contestants clocking 24.68s in the 50m freestyle event in London 2012.

Archer Shyamoli Roy, who will fight in the women’s individual recurve event, has personal best score of 618 which is far behind in the international level. There is hardly any hope she can make it to the final.

Country’s final wild-card duo, Mezbah Ahmed and Shirin Akter will participate in the 100m sprint events in Rio. Bangladesh’s fastest man Mezbah, whose best timing is 10.43s by manual stopwatch, will run in the heat of the shortest event in the Games along with world record (9.58s) holder Usain Bolt.

Participating is the key thing – has been the slogan for Bangladesh so far in Olympic history. Still the sport-loving nation will hope high defying all odds to see its countrymen in the most precious podium for the first time. l

Allardyce very proud with new job Ali strikes as England lose Stokes n DAY 4, AT TEA AFP, London

Sam Allardyce said yesterday that he was “very proud” to be named the new England manager, but refused to confirm that star striker Wayne Rooney would remain as captain.

The 61-year-old succeeds Roy Hodgson, who quit after England humiliatingly lost to minnows Iceland in the last 16 of Euro 2016, triggering another bout of soul-searching in English football.

The fate of Rooney - both as a starter in the team and as skipper - is among the weighty issues Allardyce will need to confront.

“It is far too early to make any predictions and I will not make any decisions until I meet the players and coaching staff,” said Allardyce, who revealed that Sammy Lee, an assistant to him at Bolton and who has previous England experience under Sven-Goran Eriksson, would be part of his backroom staff.

“It is my first day in and getting my feet under the table and meeting everyone.”

Allardyce, who looked relaxed

n AFP, Manchester

to the extent he dispensed with the formal attire of a tie, said his strength was his well-earned reputation as a man capable of going in and motivating the players to believe in themselves.

“It is 10 years since I was last interviewed and to be here is a huge thrill for me,” said Allardyce, who lost out to Steve McClaren after Eriksson stepped down following the 2006 World Cup. “I fit the chair, I hope I do and I have the experience to pass on and to challenge the team and myself.

“Man-management is my biggest asset - one, to help the players enjoy themselves, and two, to make them better than they already are.

“I have a reputation for turning a club around very quickly but I consider myself to be much more than that.

“I can turn things around and I start by doing that by getting amongst the staff and the team and setting out on a journey. To be a successful journey, though, it has to be everybody pulling together.” l

Moeen Ali took two wickets as England moved closer to victory in the second Test against Pakistan at Old Trafford yesterday.

However, the second session of the fourth day also saw England all-rounder Ben Stokes leave the field with a calf injury.

At tea, Pakistan were 161 for five in their second innings, needing a further 404 runs to reach their huge victory target of 565.

Asad Shafiq was 35 not out and Sarfraz Ahmed five not out.

Before lunch, James Anderson returning to Test cricket after missing Pakistan’s 75-run win in the series opener at Lord’s with a shoulder injury, struck twice on his Lancashire home ground to remove both Shan Masood (one) and Azhar Ali (eight).

But with Pakistan on the ropes, England then saw Stokes injured himself while bowling.

After delivering his second ball of the 22nd over, with Pakistan 68

ENGLAND 589/8 dec & 173/1 dec (Cook 76 not out, Root 71 not out) v PAKISTAN 198 & 161/5 (Shafiq 35 not out, Sarfraz five not out) Pakistan need 403 more runs to win for two, the Durham pace bowler pulled up with a right calf strain and left the field.

An England spokesman said Stokes, returning to England duty this match after suffering a knee injury in the first Test against Sri Lanka in May, would take no further part in the day’s play.

The spokesman added the 25-year-old would also undergo a scan today to determine the full extent of the injury.

Off-spinner Ali, completing the over, was then hit for six by Mohammad Hafeez.

Two balls later Ali bowled a noball full toss that sailed above Hafeez’s head.

A second full toss above waisthigh could see Ali barred from bowling in the rest of the innings. l

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Djokovic happy to be back on hard courts n Reuters

QUICK BYTES Aurier bags brace as PSG down Inter Serge Aurier’s two goals lifted Paris Saint-Germain to a 3-1 victory over Iter Milan on Sunday in an International Champions Cup friendly in Eugene, Oregon. Layvin Kurzawa also scored for the French champions, while Stevan Jovetic converted a penalty for the Italian outfit in firsthalf injury time. The International Champions Cup is an exhibition tournament involving 17 clubs playing on four different continents, all tuning up for their league seasons.

AFP

Fognini beats Martin to win fourth title Italian Fabio Fognini claimed his fourth ATP Tour title by seeing off Slovakia’s Andrej Martin 6-4, 6-1 in the final in Umag, Croatia. Fourth seed Fognini, 29, took the opening set with a break in game ten, before easing through the second by a double break to take the victory in just 70 minutes. “It’s the final. Both players had nothing to lose. For me there was everything to win because I was the favourite,” said world number 39 Fognini.

AFP

Serena withdraws from Rogers Cup Serena Williams has withdrawn from the Rogers Cup due to shoulder inflammation. Williams, a three-time champion, made the announcement on Sunday. She was to receive a first-round bye in the tourney that begun yesterday in Montreal. Her withdrawal comes less than two weeks before the start of the Olympic tennis, where she is scheduled to represent the United States. “Due to inflammation in my shoulder, I unfortunately must withdraw from the Rogers Cup,” Williams said.

AFP

DAY’S WATCH FOOTBALL SONY ESPN 4:00PM International Champions Cup Juventus v Tottenham Hotspur

CRICKET STAR SPORTS 1 4:00PM Pakistan Tour of England 2nd Test, Day 5

TEN 3 10:30AM Australia Tour of Sri Lanka 1st Test, Day 1

SONY SIX 3:30AM Caribbean Premier League T20 St Lucia v Trinbago

Novak Djokovic of Serbia (L) battles for the ball with Felix Auger Aliassime of Canada during the Rogers Cup Sportsnet Ball Hockey Challenge at Aviva Centre on Sunday REUTERS

India thrash West Indies in first Test n Reuters India captain Virat Kohli lauded a “complete performance” by his team after they thrashed West Indies by an innings and 92 runs inside four days in the first Test in Antigua on Sunday.

Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin collected 7-83 in the second innings as the home team collapsed to 231 all out after being forced to follow-on at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound.

It was Ashwin’s third career seven-wicket haul, his first outside India. He had not picked up any wickets in the first innings.

“The fast bowlers bowled really well in the first (innings) and I wasn’t really finding my rhythm to be very honest,” Ashwin, who also scored a century, said in an on-field interview after being named manof-the-match.

“I got a good long spell after lunch today. Rhythm is the most important thing for me. I wasn’t quite comfortable yesterday. Today was very different.”

Carlos Brathwaite, batting at number nine, top scored for West Indies with 51 not out, while Marlon Samuels (50) and Devendra Bishoo (45) tried to frustrate the visitors but they only delayed the inevitable.

India ensured they would not

lose with a first-innings total of 566 for eight declared, and they will take even greater heart from the way their balanced five-pronged

1ST TEST, DAY FOUR India 566/8 dec beat West Indies 243 & 231 (Brathwaite 51, Samuels 50, Ashwin 7/83) by an innings & 92 runs

India’s Ravichandran Ashwin bowls during day four of their first Test against West Indies at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua on Sunday AFP

bowling attack - three pacemen and two spinners - rattled through the Windies twice in less than six sessions.

Pacemen Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav did the damage in the first innings with four wickets each, before Ashwin took over on Sunday.

“It was a complete performance,” said India captain Virat Kohli, who played no small part in the victory with his first career double century.

“We’re very happy with the way we executed our plan. We just need to be confident but not complacent and not overconfident.”

West Indies, a lowly eighth in the International Cricket Council Test rankings, started the four-Test series as big underdogs, but their inability to make a contest of the first Test will raise further concerns about the future of the Caribbean team in the five-day format.

“We didn’t really bowl well in the first innings. It was a daunting task, trying to chase 560-odd,” said West Indies captain Jason Holder.

“We obviously need to bowl a bit better. Shannon (Gabriel) bowled extremely well, Bishoo was decent. We just need to string together some more dot balls, some more pressure deliveries.”

The second Test starts in Kingston, Jamaica, on Saturday. l

World number one Novak Djokovic is looking forward to playing on his favoured hardcourt surface at the Rogers Cup in Toronto, but the Serb urged caution as he returns to action for the first time since his shock Wimbledon exit.

The 29-year-old, who was aiming to become the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to win all four grand slams in a year, suffered a third-round loss to American Sam Querrey at Wimbledon.

“I don’t expect anything. I just try to get myself ready for performing as best as I can,” Djokovic told.

“I had a bit more time because of the early loss at Wimbledon to spend some quality time with family, regroup a little bit and start training on hard court, which I enjoy the most. So I look forward to it.

“I have a wonderful history in the Rogers Cup in Toronto and Montreal. That’s what goes through my mind right now. Just enjoy, play well, play singles and doubles and get as many hours in as possible.”

The 12-times grand slam champion could meet Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic in the semi-finals. l

Konta topples Venus for first WTA title n AFP, San Francisco Britain’s Johanna Konta captured her first WTA title in style on Sunday, beating former world number one Venus Williams 7-5, 5-7, 6-2 at the WTA hardcourt tournament in Stanford, California.

Konta, ranked 18th in the world and seeded third, appeared on her way to an emphatic victory in her first career final after racing to a 4-1 lead with two breaks of serve in the second set.

But Williams, seeking her 50th career title, won six of the next seven games to knot the match at a set apiece.

The 25-year-old Konta, who fired 12 aces to three from Williams, didn’t let the seven-time Grand Slam champion’s resurgence rattle her. Konta had launched her career-best season with a win over Williams in the first round of the Australian Open, where she went on to reach the semi-finals.

Britain’s top player has since gone from strength to strength, making the second week of both Indian Wells and Miami, and reaching the semi-finals at Eastbourne.

“It’s daily work,” Konta said of her rise. “It’s daily desire to keep getting better.” l

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Murali mounts blistering attack on Sri Lanka n AFP, Colombo Sri Lanka’s record-breaking spinner Muttiah Muralitharan launched a blistering attack yesterday on his former bosses after they complained about his behaviour in his new role as a mentor to Australia.

After his former employers said Muralitharan was damaging his legacy, the 44-year-old accused Sri Lanka’s board of setting him up as a fall guy if the hosts lose a series to the visiting Australians.

And Muralitharan, the highest wicket-taker in Test history, then accused the board president of knowing nothing about cricket and angrily denounced any suggestion of being “a traitor”.

“If Sri Lanka loses, they (the board) will say it is because of Murali,” he said in a recorded statement which was sent to AFP. “They have no right to accuse me of being a traitor. Have they done one hundredth of what I have contributed to cricket in Sri Lanka?

“This is a political game to cover their shortcomings,” he added. “I am being used as a pawn to cover their failings.”

His outburst was sparked by a complaint by the board that he had bullied groundsmen into letting the Australians practise on the pitch which hosts the opening match in a three-Test series from today.

Australia’s bowling consultant Muttiah Muralitharan (R) speaks with Australian spinner Stephen O’Keefe during a practice session in Pallekele on Saturday AFP Cricket Australia confirmed they received a complaint about the incident at Pallekele Stadium, on the outskirts of Kandy, but said the issue had been resolved “after discussions between the two management teams”.

In lodging the complaint, board president Thilanga Sumathipala accused Muralitharan of insulting Sri Lanka team manager Charith Senanayake.

Key figures in Russia doping scandal Bach - IOC president Just as he thought he had the Olympic movement on the road to reform, up flares the biggest doping scandal in Olympic history for IOC president Bach. The 62-year-old former fencing gold medallist and lawyer preached a “zero-tolerance” policy on banned substances but has been forced to walk a fine diplomatic line.

The Russian government accused of orchestrating the doping campaign is a sporting giant and major backer of international events.

Mutko - Russian sports minister Mutko, 57, has been Russia’s sports minister since 2008 and a close ally of President Putin for longer but he is under an intense spotlight over the doping scandal. The report commissioned by the WADA said the switching of samples and preparation of banned substances was directed by the sports ministry with the Russian secret service.

Reedie - president of WADA From a Scottish badminton doubles champion, Reedie, now 75, rose to become head of the International Badminton Federation and launch an Olympic political career that now sees

him in the eye of the Russia doping storm as head of the World Anti-Doping Agency. After Richard McLaren’s report for WADA accused the Russian government of direct responsibility, Reedie was quick to call for Russia to face a complete ban.

Rodchenkov - former director of Moscow anti-doping laboratory Rodchenkov was head of anti-doping operations in Moscow and Sochi when Russian secret services switched samples so that at least 15 failed doping tests by Russian medal winners at the 2014 Winter Olympics were not detected. Rodchenkov was given a medal by the government and then fled the country in January. His revelations to the New York Times in May led to the inquiry that has left the Olympic movement reeling in one of its biggest crises.

Stepanova - 800m runner and doping whistleblower The 30-year-old Stepanova has become a hate figure for some in her native Russia after spectacularly telling in 2014 of the widespread substance abuse in Russian athletics. Now she has been cleared to run in the Rio Olympics, posing a new dilemma for the IOC.

“Muralitharan’s behaviour is unacceptable and we have brought this to the notice of the Australian team management,” Sumathipala told reporters.

“It should not have happened.

We are very disappointed.”

Muralitharan is a hero in Sri Lanka after taking 800 Test wickets before retiring six years ago.

But his decision to impart his local knowledge to the tourists has

raised eyebrows, not least because he was once labelled a “chucker”

by Australia’s then-prime minister John Howard. Sumathipala pointed out the irony of Muralitharan coaching Australia.

“Professionally it is okay for Murali to coach any foreign team, but the irony is that he is supporting Australia which tried to get him out of cricket,” Sumathipala said.

“He is creating long-term dam-

Sport divided as Russia escapes blanket doping ban n

AFP, Lausanne

The International Olympic Committee’s decision not to ban Russia from the Rio Games over state-run doping left international sports leaders divided yesterday, less than two weeks before the opening ceremony.

Seeking to justify Sunday’s decision, IOC president Thomas Bach said an outright ban would trample the rights of clean Russian athletes who are hoping to compete at the upcoming Games.

Individual sports federations will have primary responsibility for determining every Russian athlete’s eligibility for Rio, the IOC executive said.

The World Anti-Doping Agency last week called for Russia to be banned after detailing how Russia’s sports ministry had directed a massive cheating programme with help from the FSB state intelligence agency.

United States anti-doping chief

Travis Tygart - one of many who urged a total ban against Russia accused the IOC of creating “a confusing mess” with its decision.

Drug Free Sport New Zealand chief executive Graeme Steel also criticised the IOC’s decision to “pass the hot potato to international federations”.

WADA officials said they were “disappointed” with the IOC’s decision, which director general Olivier Niggli said would “inevitably lead to a lack of harmonisation, potential challenges and lesser protection for clean athletes”.

The cheating affected 30 sports, including at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and other major events, WADA said, in revelations that widened the worst drug scandal in Olympic history.

Fourteen national anti-doping agencies - including the US, Germany and Japan - as well as several national Olympic committees had demanded Russia’s exclusion from Rio. l

age for himself among his fans. I feel sad.”

Sri Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews was more conciliatory, acknowledging his former teammate’s expertise.

“The Australians obviously saw value in his knowledge of Sri Lankan conditions,” Mathews told reporters.

During an 18-year Test career, Muralitharan - who was born with a partially deformed elbow - was twice cited by Australian umpires for a suspect action but was cleared both times by the game’s governing body. He once refused to tour Australia but has been a regular visitor in recent years as a star of the Big Bash Twenty20 league.

In his video statement, Muralitharan said he had not received any approach from the Sri Lankan board to help the island’s next generation of spinners and accused it of favouring foreign coaches over locals.

“They don’t give an opportunity to talented Sri Lankan coaches and prefer to bring white people from abroad,” he said.

“That affects our economy too because we have to pay them dollars that leave the country. That is treachery.”

Sri Lanka has a history of employing foreign coaches and re-hired South Africa’s Graham Ford earlier this year for a second stint. l

‘Dangerous’ pitch scuppers China Manchester derby

n AFP, Beijing Manchester United’s showpiece pre-season derby against Manchester City was cancelled just hours before kick-off yesterday because the Beijing pitch was “too dangerous” for players.

Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany said club staff had been working to get the game on after days of heavy rain in the Chinese capital, but had been defeated.

“We had our groundsman working for 10 days on the pitch, but the conditions were just too dangerous for the players,” said Kompany Monday on the club’s website.

“The rain has made it totally unsafe to play on this pitch,” added Manchester City CEO Ferran Soriano in a statement.

Organisers of the International Challenge Cup tournament confirmed the match had been called off on grounds of player safety.

Both managers, Jose Mourinho of United and Pep Guardiola of City, had told reporters they were worried after training was moved Sunday because of the state of the turf. l

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Wooded region (6) 5 Rounded vase (3) 7 Tool (3) 8 Tempt (6) 11 Obtain (3) 12 Fixed gaze (5) 14 Gone by (4) 16 Time in grammar (5) 18 Zodiac sign (5) 20 Main actor (4) 21 Bring out (5) 23 Donkey (3) 24 Regular (6) 27 Hail (3) 28 Period of time (3) 29 Abundant supply (6)

DOWN 1 Enemy (3) 2 Rodent (3) 3 Had being (7) 4 Cult (4) 5 Imperative (6) 6 Lower (6) 9 At hand (4) 10 Consume (3) 13 Reticence (7) 14 Roof of the mouth (6) 15 Afternoon nap (6) 17 Long detailed story (4) 19 Heavenly body (3) 22 Fuel (4) 25 Adults (3) 26 Secular (3)

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Downtime

TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2016

CODE-CRACKER How to solve: Each number in our CODECRACKER grid represents a different letter of the alphabet. For example, today 2 represents V so fill V every time the figure 2 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.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

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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Showtime

TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2016

Prisma explodes over media

Rauma

Aleef

10 records shattered by Rajinikanth’s film

Ambrin

n Showtime Desk n Showtime desk Pokemon Go and Prisma, are two trending apps everyone has been running after. Celebrities too, are following suit, posting their updates on social media. Recently Showtime found a number of Bangladeshi celebrities that have posted their Prisma edited photos to their social media accounts.

Singer Rauma posted her photo on social media account saying, “Prisma seems to be fun.” Another singer Sunbeam posted his family photo. Alif Alauddin too seemed to be feeling cool with Prisma.

Living rock legend Ayub Bachchu was surprised when this photo editing app instantly changed the look of his original photo. Lyricist Jibon received several edited pictures from his fans. Same goes with Rj Sayem.

Rj Sharmin also edited her photo, loving the trend. Actor Aleef Chowdhury too, enjoyed the app. Actress-host Ambrin felt thrilled when she got her first Prisma picture. Mehjabin Chowdhury posted, “only Prisma is real”! Actor Adnan Faruque Hillol is also enjoying the trend.

For those who are still unaware

of Prisma, it is a new photo editing app. Initially launched exclusively on iOS, it is now available on Android devices as well. Prisma lets you convert your pictures into works of art, following the styles of Van Gogh, Picasso, Levitan, according to the company’s website. Prisma relies on neural networks and artificial intelligence in order to turn your photos into art, and the app has taken the Internet by storm. For smartphone users, this is the hot new trend that has gone viral and needs to be tried out. l

Sherlock Season 4 Teaser Released n Showtime Desk For all you Sherlock die-hard fans out there, the wait is over.

Or something like that. The first glimpse of the brand new fourth series of the adrenaline-exciting crime drama has been released.

But don’t get too excited; this is only a very vague glimpse of the season’s story. This one minute and thirty one seconds of teaser is nonetheless enough to get anyone at the edge of his seat.

“Something’s coming”- that’s the opening statement of the video. The video basically revolves around the return of Moriarty and Sherlock looking as frustrated as ever. And that’s pretty much all the panel shared.

The stars throw in their share of the mystery.”It’s really dark,” Amanda Abbington revealed. “it’s the darkest Steven and

Mark have written…If we can pull this off, then it’s amazing.”

But we can still hope for the humor element to keep things versatile. According to Benedict Cumberbatch, “There are moments in this series where it does get looser.”

The teaser speaks the truth; something really is coming up. But the agonising wait will

have to be extended until 2017.

But the question is, is season four the end of it all? Although Steven Moffat, producer, gives his viewer hope about the future saying they will bring more seasons out, Mark Gatiss says, “We can exclusively reveal that there will not be a series five… but there will be a series six.”

Whatever that means. l

A funny saying has been doing the rounds of social media. As the saying goes, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan state that their movies got released during public holidays such as Christmas, Diwali and Eid. In response, Rajinikanth says that when his movie releases that day becomes the public holiday! This isn’t just a random Internet meme but is quite close to fact since south Indians declared one day as a holiday for watching Rajainimovie Kabali.

In the film Baba, there is one Rajinikanth dialogue that roughly translates to: “Even if he comes, he will come in style!” Rajinikanth brings this line to life after his latest release Kabali, released two years after his last release Lingaa, breaking a lot of records on opening day at the box office.

Not only did it shatter Salman Khan’s opening day figures for Sultan, it also became this year’s first day highest grosser ever!

Although it failed to beat Shah Rukh Khan’s Happy New Year’s opening day figures or for the matter, Baahubali’s opening day figures of nearly Rs50 crores, it still managed to rake in some really impressive figures!

Here are 10 records that film managed to shatter on day one Highest opening day collection for any Indian film in USA and Canada, by collecting nearly Rs13.5 crores. Beats his own box office collections of Enthiran.

Highest Day 1 figures at Tamil Nadu box office with Rs21.25 crores!

Highest Day 1 collections of Rs5.2 crores in the North Indian territories on Day 1.

Highest opening day collections for a Tamil film in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana with Rs9.5 crores.

Highest opening day collections for a Tamil film in Karnataka with Rs5.10 crores.

Highest ever opening day figures for any film in Kerala with Rs3 crores Highest opening day figures for any film this year with Rs42 crores net approx.

Highest ever box office collections for a Tamil film in South-East Asia, in countries like Malaysia, Singapore etc.

Highest opening day collections for any Rajinikanth film, beating Lingaa (Rs37 crores) and Enthiran (Rs11.25 crores) Highest opening day figures for any Tamil film worldwide with nearly Rs70 crores worldwide, beating Lingaa (Rs37 crores) and I (Rs34 crores) l

Kamar Ahmed Simon wins World Cinema Fund n Showtime Desk

Kamar Ahmed Simon’s latest film project Shonkhodhoni (Silence of the Seashell) has won the World Cinema Fund (WCF), a production funding backed by the Berlin Film Festival.

Written and directed by Kamar Ahmad Simon and produced by Sara Afreen, the Silence of the Seashell will receive the production funding within the framework of the WCF Europe program.

Earlier, the Silence of the Seashell was one of the 10 scripts invited in La Fabrique Cinema du Monde Cannes 2014, an exclusive program fostering promising directors from around the world. Last month, the film was also awarded with the National Film Grant provided by the Government of Bangladesh.

The WCF, an initiative of the German Federal Foundation for Culture and the Berlin Film Festival, is one of the most competitive grants of world cinema. The WCF works to develop and support cinema in regions with a weak film infrastructure. The WCF supports films that could not be made without additional funding: films that stand out with an unconventional aesthetic approach, that tell powerful stories and transmit an authentic image of their cultural roots.

Films like Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Golden Palm winner in Cannes 2010), The Milk of Sorrow (Golden Bear winner in Berlin 2009), Paradise Now (Golden Globe winner of 2006) and Silent Light (Jury Award winner in Cannes 2007) were among the earlier winning titles of WCF. l

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Showtime

TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2016

WHAT TO WATCH Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 2:00pm, Zee Studio When Dr. Henry Jones Sr. suddenly goes missing while pursuing the Holy Grail, eminent archaeologist Indiana Jones must follow in his father’s footsteps and stop the Nazis.

Cast: Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Alison Doody

He’s Just Not That Into You 7:15pm, HBO The Baltimore-set movie of interconnecting story arcs deals with the challenges of reading or misreading human behavior.

Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly, Morgan Lily

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes 9:30pm, Star Movies A growing nation of genetically

evolved apes led by Caesar is threatened by a band of human survivors of the devastating virus unleashed a decade earlier.

Cast: Gary Oldman, Keri Russell, Andy Serkis

Final Destination 5 10:53pm, WB Survivors of a suspensionbridge collapse learn there’s no way you can cheat Death.

Cast: Nicholas D’Agosto, Emma Bell, Arlen Escarpeta

Shootout at Wadala 11:45pm, Sony Max The first-ever registered encounter by the Mumbai Police, which took place on November 1, 1982. Based on a true story.

Cast: John Abraham, Kangana Ranaut, Anil Kapoor l

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Back Page

TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2016

TEMPERATURE RISE MAY CUT 2.6% OF DAYLIGHT WORK HRS PAGE 12

DAY OF DRAWS IN BPL PAGE 24

PRISMA EXPLODES OVER MEDIA PAGE 30

His deadliest performance n Adil Sakhawat By 2013, the writing was on the wall.

Tahmid Rahman Safi was showing telltale signs of becoming a Salafist.

Safi – who recently appeared in what seems to be an IS threat video – admonished relatives not to cry at funerals. At Janazas, he refused to offer prayers for the dead.

Increasingly vocal about his views, Safi was intent on winning others round to his new beliefs, those close to him recall.

But no one listened to him, they told the Dhaka Tribune.

Those close to Safi spoke to the Dhaka Tribune on condition that they not be named. They fear what Safi – a man they now know to be a terrorist – might do to them.

“He began to harbour religious fundamentalist ideas at odds with what is followed in Bangladesh. He never thought about the social context: He just started to react to whatever did not match his own beliefs,” one of them said.

Those close to him claim there were no direct signs that Safi was harbouring terrorist intentions.

Yet one friend who recalls that Safi once said he wished to destroy all of Dhaka’s churches, now admits the gravity of the statement had not registered at the time.

Safi adopted many personas during his adult life, they said. These chameleonic transformations led to popularity and alienation by turns.

After several permutations of his personal image to emulate his heroes – as rocker, as popstar – Safi found the ultimate idol in Anwar al-Awlaki.

No one who knew the long-haired headbanger of the early 2000’s would have pegged him as a recruit to a movement bent on mass murder.

Good times He had gravitated towards the underground rock music scene as a teenager.

A diehard fan of a metal band, Safi was known to start headbanging whenever their music was played.

He sported the look of any self-respecting metalhead – long hair and the type of clothes worn by his musical idols.

And he regularly went to rock concerts.

By the middle of the decade, his fascination with metal music had waned, to be replaced with a new-found love for pop music.

He dove into his new world. In 2006, he made it past the preliminary

How could a man so involved with drink and drugs suddenly become a radical Islamist?

rounds and all the way to the top 20 of the Close-Up 1 Bangladesh talent hunt.

Safi’s popularity as a singer grew and he performed in Malaysia several times.

True to form, Safi’s lifestyle soon took on the decadence and excess associated with pop stardom.

Backstage, alcohol and marijuana were heavily in use. Safi was known to drink alcohol and smoke marijuana be-

He complained to close friends that his failures in life were caused by his father who never did him any favours.

Safi was aggrieved that although most of his cousins had studied in the US, his father’s limited income as a government employee meant he could not do so.

Safi is the son of late Safiur Rahman, a former home secretary and election

After breaking up with his girlfriend, Safi turned to al-Qaeda propaganda and started preaching extremist ideas to his friends fore, during and after all of his shows.

His alcoholism reached the point where he had to drink right before he boarded a plane and again right after he landed, one acquaintance said.

Friends described his parties as veritable substance abuse festivals.

In retrospect, those who knew him at the time say it is nearly incomprehensible that a man so involved with drink and drugs could suddenly become a radical Islamist.

His new hero was a pop musician who had made his name developing folk-fusion pop music.

Throughout 2006, all he could do was talk about this artist, an acquaintance of Safi’s told the Dhaka Tribune.

‘Victimhood’ Also, like your stereotypical popstar, Safi had a penchant for portraying himself as a victim.

commissioner also known for his leadership in Janatar Moncho – an anti-BNP platform formed in 1996.

A top student throughout his life – Safi always got top grades. He even secured a full merit-based scholarship to Brac University, where he got a BBA in marketing. He went on to get an MBA at Dhaka University’s IBA. During his university years, he began a relationship with a girl.

Despite the substance abuse, those close to him say those years were a golden time for Safi – he enjoyed success, popularity and the chance to perform his music.

Yet, those close to him say he was always torn between extremes.

He sought a sense of belonging.

His substance abuse continued unabated despite a long-term relationship with a girl that those who knew him described as fulfilling and loving.

While usually very polite with both senior and junior friends, at times Safi could be bluntly arrogant.

“If he liked something, he fixated on it and obsessed about it,” according to an acquaintance.

Then something happened that put Safi on the figurative road to Raqqa.

Heartbreak and sermons Around the middle of 2011, Safi’s engagement with his long-time girlfriend broke off. The girl that he had loved soon married someone else.

This marked a major turning point in Safi’s life.

He soon became a hermit, ignoring friends and refusing to leave his room.

A friend who visited Safi at his Baridhara home at the time saw that he had lost a significant amount of weight and that his room was filled with marijuana smoke.

It was during this time that Safi was first introduced to the work of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American imam who joined al-Qaeda in Yemen.

Near the end of 2011, when both al-Awlaki and his son were killed by drone strikes in Yemen, Safi responded with rage.

He started accusing friends who had studied in the United States of being “blinded by the Americans.”

He used his Facebook account to share al-Awlaki’s radical posts – something which prompted many of his friends to unfriend him.

In 2013, Safi again irked his friends by sending them emails with links to “Arrivals” – a conspiracy theory documentary widely criticised for presenting misinterpretations and

falsified claims.

He began urging acquaintances to become religious and “come under the guidance of Allah.”

Safi then quit his well-paid job at a leading mobile telephone operator and started teaching at an English-medium school.

He told acquaintances that he had to leave job because it was an international organisation and his beliefs did not support him working there.

Matrimony and disappearance In March 2015, Safi married Saima Khan after meeting her at an Arabic language class they both attended in Dhaka’s Kalachandpur area, one of Saima’s close acquaintances told the Dhaka Tribune on condition of anonymity.

Friends and family members who went to the wedding described the ceremony as one of the strangest events they had ever attended.

Guests were instructed not to take photos of the event. Most women on the bride’s side were wearing full-veiled Burqas, including the bride herself.

No one was allowed to see the veiled bride – even from a distance.

The only person who was allowed to see the bride’s face was Safi’s mother, a wedding guest told the Dhaka Tribune.

The wedding Mohrana, or the money that is promised to the bride by the groom’s family, was set at zero taka at the bride’s insistence. She told her family that she believes in Sharia law and was against the Mohrana practice.

A month later, Safi and Saima left Bangladesh, telling their families that they were going on a honeymoon to Malaysia for 10 to 12 days.

But when the two did not return, the families contacted the travel agent and found that they had travelled to Istanbul in Turkey instead. They were reportedly accompanied by several other couples from Bangladesh.

The families thought the couple had turned to an Islamic lifestyle in an Islamic country, but the truth was revealed to them and the rest of the world on July 5 when Safi appeared in the IS video, promising more terror attacks in Bangladesh.

Safi and his mother remain in communication, acquaintances told the Dhaka Tribune. But Safi has never mentioned his whereabouts.

He informed his family that Saima had given birth to a daughter. Safi reportedly told his mother that he was now working at a TV station. l

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