Bodies of couple found in Banani housen Mohammad Jamil Khan

Police recovered the bullet-hit body of an industrialist and his wife from their house in the capital’s Banani area last night.

Deceased Abdur Rauf, chairman of Afsar Group, and his wife Roksana Parvin resided in house no 60/2/A on road 5 of Banani DOHS. Their children were out of home at the time of incident.

Locals informed police hearing screaming and sounds of gunshots after 7pm. The relation of Rauf and Roksana had not been well for the last couple of days, they said.

Iqbal Hossain, a friend of Rauf, told the Dhaka Tribune that the business-man had been was going through tense situation for the last couple of days about his business since it was not go-ing well.

Kudrat-e-Khuda, an assistant com-missioner of police, told the Dhaka Trib-une that police had recovered the bodies around 8:30pm. “Our team is working on it while members of the crime scene unit of the CID have collected samples from the spot,” he added.

Rauf has three sons and one daugh-ter. His elder two sons live in Gulshan while the youngest son and the daugh-ter used to live with them. During the

time of incident, daughter Hanifa, 15, was out of home for tuition. The younger son was also outside. They both came back after 7pm and found the bodies.

Only a female domestic help, aged between 20 and 30, was in the house during the incident. The police are in-terrogating her.

Nayeem Ahmed, elder son of the deceased, went to the spot. He told the Dhaka Tribune that tension was

there between his parents over selling a property. His father was facing losses in business.

“They often locked in clashes since father wanted to sell the property while mother did not.”

Sources in police said the body of Roksana was found on the bed while Rauf’s body on a chair in front of the bed. A licensed � rearm was also recov-ered from the spot.

In primary assessment, the law PAGE 2 COLUMN 6

Pakistani protesters clash with police, soldiers; state TV secured

n Agencies

Pakistani soldiers and paramilitary forc-es secured the state television head-quarters in Islamabad yesterday after a crowd of anti-government protesters stormed the building and took the chan-nel o� the air, Reuters reported.

Protesters led by cricket-leg-end-turned-politician Imran Khan and � rebrand Muslim cleric Tahir ul-Qadri are trying to bring down the govern-ment of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Clashes broke out early yesterday and continued sporadically throughout the day. The state PTV channel and its English-language PTV World service were taken o� the air for 45 minutes af-ter protesters stormed its headquarters.

A PTV source told Reuters the pro-testers had occupied the main control room. Soldiers later secured the build-ing and the station later came back on the air.

Police station secretariat in Islama-bad has registered a case under an an-ti-terrorism act against politician Imran Khan, religious leader Tahir-ul-Qadri and hundreds of their supporters for organising riots, damaging state build-ings and attacking security forces, Al Jazeera reported.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

IS BEIJING CONSIDERING A POLICY CHANGEIN XINJIANG?

20 pages | Price: Tk12TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

Bhadro 18, 1421Zilqad 6, 1435Regd No DA 6238Vol 2, No 151

MAMUNUL SET FOR ATLETICO DE KOLKATA

SYRIAN ARMY, REBELS FIGHT ON GOLAN

KILL FIRST

11 | OP-ED 13 | SPORT8 | WORLD7 | LONG FORM

9 | WorldJapan, India agree to strengthen defence ties as Asia’s second and third biggest economies keep a wary eye on a rising China, with Modi lashing out at the ‘expansionism’ of some nations.

6 | NationSweetmeat traders in Sherpur district town called an inde� nite strike protesting a mobile court drive against sweetmeat shops in the market yesterday.

12 | EntertainmentModel-cum-actor Dilruba Yasmin Ruhee is going to tie the knot with Monsur Ali, the director of recently released ‘71-er Shongram’ in which she played a lead role.

14 | SportReal Sociedad produced a stunning � ghtback from 2-0 down to beat European champions Real Madrid 4-2 on Sunday. Madrid were with-out the injured Cristiano Ronaldo.

B1 | BusinessA change in the foreign exchange policy to attract foreign investment is feared to wid-en further the scope of money laundering as Bangladesh Bank relaxed the repatriation rules.

4 | NewsLack of skilled manpower, technology and equipment are the main barriers in utilising the marine resources in Bangladesh, says Maritime A� airs Unit Secretary M Khurshed Alam.

I N S I D E

Police care about only some arson attack casesCharge sheets given in only 56 of 136 cases and probe reports in only 14n Mohammad Jamil Khan and

Tazlina Zamila Khan

Nasiruddin and Polash were accused in one of the political violence cases � led with the Ramna police station last year. They were arrested on October 29 last year while running away after allegedly blasting crude bombs at Shantinagar in the capital. In December, both of them secured bail from court.

The case statement includes the name of 40 people, including BNP’s acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and senior leaders Mirza Abbas, Moudud Ahmed, Abdul-lah Al Noman, Barkatullah Bulu, Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal, and others.

The Dhaka Tribune has learned that Nasiruddin made the crude bomb and Polash exploded it in exchange for money. They now sell marijuana and phensidyl.

Polash told the Dhaka Tribune: “Get-ting arrested is common for us, espe-cially as we sell drugs. In most cases, we manage the law enforcers by giving them a share of the drugs or our incomes.”

Hundreds of crude bombs were blasted, many people were killed, scores of vehicles were set on � re and properties vandalised during the year-long street protests staged by the oppo-sition parties last year.

In October and November alone, at least 136 arson attack cases were � led with various police stations in the cap-ital in which more than 2,000 people were accused. However, so far, only about 25 people have been arrested.

Police records show that from Oc-tober 25 to December 3 last year, at least 344 vehicles were torched and 388 were vandalised in the capital. Of these, 81 belonged to police.

As of yesterday, charge sheets were given in only 56 of these cases and � nal reports in only 14. The remaining 66 cases are all under investigation.

In 2012, a total of 128 cases were � led in connection with street violence. But police have failed to provide detailed information about these cases either. Nearly 2,800 named and more than 24,000 unnamed people were made

PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

Personal sta� of MPs and bureaucrats on state-sponsored hajj listsn Kamran Reza Chowdhury

Islam stipulates that Hajj should be performed by only those who can af-ford it; but the government every year sponsors a team to Mecca for perform-ing the pilgrimage and also serve the Bangladeshi hajjis in Saudi Arabia.

However, there are allegations that

instead of carrying out their duties, some members of the team waste time and spend the state co� er’s money for sightseeing and shopping.

The team selected for “state-spon-sored” Hajj this year includes cooks, chau� eurs, caretakers, motor cleaners, o� ce attendants, members of parlia-ment and their spouses, bureaucrats,

political activists and journalists.“Islam has made Hajj mandatory

for the rich and economically solvent people, not for the poor. Therefore, Hajj with government funding is not acceptable,” Muhammad Yousuf, pro-fessor of Islamic studies at Dhaka Uni-versity, told the Dhaka Tribune.

Every year, the government sends

three teams to Mecca. The govern-ment Hajj delegation includes minis-ter, parliamentarians, secretaries and other high o� cials. The second team is made up of associates including cooks, chau� eurs, etc. The third is a team of doctors who serve the Hajjis in case medical emergencies.

O� cials say there are two reasons

behind sending the team of associates – they are to serve the Bangladeshi Haj-jis and perform the Hajj for themselves simultaneously.

The government bears the airplane fares and accommodation costs in Saudi Arabia and gives at least Tk1 lakh cash to each of the members of

PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

‘We are assuming that Rauf � rst killed his wife and then committed suicide’

Tarique’s wife Zubaida sackedn Tribune Report

BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman’s wife Dr Zubaida Rahman has been dismissed from her job as she remains absent from her work

station without any o� cial permission for too long.

The issue came to light as Health Minister Mohammad Nasim replied to a supplementary query of Awami League MP Talukder Md Yunus in par-liament yesterday.

Yunus asked if any action had been taken about Zubaida who has been liv-ing abroad being absent from job for so long. Nasim laughingly replied: “Law is equal for all and we have taken action about this. She has been dismissed.”

The Section 34 of the country’s ser-vice rules provides for any person to be terminated from their job if they remain absent from workplace without any o� cial permission.

Zubaida’s leave ended on October 11, 2011.

Since then, she had applied for ex-tending her leave several times, but was refused.

The ministry rejected her applica-tions, saying that they could not be satis-� ed with the grounds she was showing.

She is staying in the UK with her husband.

Daughter of former navy chief MA Khan, Zubaida came to the limelight in 2007 when the then government arrest-ed Khaleda and her two sons Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman Koko – the latter also charged with corruption and money laundering in � ve cases. Koko has been in Bangkok on parole.

Tarique was arrested during the PAGE 2 COLUMN 6

Fakhrul suedfor callingPM a killer n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A defamation case was � led yesterday against BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir for brand-ing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as “a killer” and her party Awami League “a party of killers.”

SM Nur-e-Alam Siddique, vice-pres-ident of Bangladesh Awami Motshojibi League – the ruling party’s � shermen wing, lodged the case with Dhaka’s Metropolitan Magistrate Court.

After recording the complainant’s deposition, Magistrate Snigdha Rani Chakrabarti ordered the o� cer-in-charge of Paltan police station to sub-mit a report following an investigation before the court on September 15.

Fakhrul made the comments while addressing a press conference at BNP’s Nayapaltan headquarters on August 24.

The plainti� said the BNP leader had defamed the premier and the ruling party through his comments. “I saw re-ports on Fakhrul’s remarks on di� erent dailies on August 25. His speech tar-nished the image of the prime minister at home and abroad,” Nur said.

Fakhrul at the press brie� ng said: “The Awami League president [Sheikh Hasina] herself is a killer. Her party is a party of killers. Her hands are stained with the bloods of hundreds of young people.”

He made the comment three days after Hasina had termed the Zia family,

PAGE 2 COLUMN 6

Anti-government protesters clash with riot police during the Revolution March in Islamabad yesterday REUTERS

News2 DHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, September 2, 2014

BNP says court cases will not deter movement n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

The BNP yesterday said � ling false cas-es against its leaders would not deter the party from pressing ahead with its movement.

“Today a defamatory case was � led against me. Cases have been � led against more or less all the party lead-ers and activists. There are leaders who are even facing 140 cases. If the gov-ernment thinks they can keep us away from our movement by � ling false cas-es, they are living in a fool’s paradise,” Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, the BNP acting secretary general, said.

The Awami League � led a defama-tory case against Fakhrul because he called Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina a killer and her party a killer party.

Fakhrul made the statement while addressing a discussion at the Institu-tion of Engineers, Bangladesh, to mark the 36th anniversary of the founding of BNP. A documentary about the party was screened. Khaleda Zia was sched-uled to be present at the programme but did not attend.

Pointing a � nger at the government, Fakhrul said: “They use abusive words to humiliate the opposition. But they never say counter attacks are welcome. When we reply, cases are � led against us.”

Regarding the rise of militancy, the spokesperson of the party said: “Many political leaders including Siraj Sikdar were killed during the period between 1972-75 and militancy rose at that time.”

Fakhrul said the BNP had overcome many di� culties in its 36 year journey and there had been many errors and failures but the party was never erased from public consciousness.

“Conspiracy against the party will

not bring results. Some journalists asked me whether the party was pass-ing through a critical time, I told them that it is not the BNP but rather Bangla-desh that was passing through a critical time,” he said.

BNP standing committee member Moudud Ahmed said the party did not launch the movement to attain power but to protect the democracy of the country.

“Now we must be united under Khaleda Zia to lead the movement. We all have to be united and then victory will be certain,” Moudud said.

BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, to-gether with party colleagues, earlier placed � ower wreaths at party founder Ziaur Rahman’s grave in the capital.

A blood donation camp was organ-ised beside the grave site.

After placing wreaths, the party’s acting secretary general said people had vowed today to protect their vot-ing rights and to restore democracy to the country.

“Bangladesh has been passing through a critical time. We will over-come the situation and compel the government to hold elections under a non-partisan interim government. We will go for an all-out movement,” he said.

When asked about whether the par-ty was in crisis, the spokesperson of the party said, “The BNP is stronger than at any other time. We do not have any cri-sis, but the country is in crisis.”

The BNP leader said the party is now organisationally strong and the main aim is to restore democracy to the country.

Fakhrul said the prime minister’s comments were polluting the country’s politics. l

UK visa now from India n Tribune Report

The British High Commission in New Delhi is going to assess the necessary papers and issue visas to Bangladeshi applicants from October 1.

However, no Bangladeshi applicants will need to visit India, nor should they notice any di� erence in the quality or speed of the services provided. The UK Visa Application Centres of the Dhaka and Sylhet o� ces will make the ar-rangements, says a press release of the British High Commission to Dhaka.

Two of three phases, Decisions on Settlement (phase 1) and Points Based System (phase 2) applications are already being assessed in New Delhi. The � nal phase of all other visa application categories submitted from September 7 would be scrutinised from the deadline.

“The cost of the service will stay the same and we will continue to operate within the existing service standards of 15 working days for non-settlement cases, and 60 working days for settle-ment cases,” the release added. l

Journalist assaulted by ruling party cadres in Barisal n Our Correspondent, Barisal

A journalist was allegedly beaten by cadres of Wazirpur upazila Awami League organising secretary in Barisal yesterday.

The victim is Abdur Rahim Sardar, upazila correspondent of regional daily Barisal Protidin.

Victim’s relatives said cadres of Wa-zirpur upazila Awami League Organ-ising Secretary Raisul Islam Rion and upazila Sramik League Joint Convener Ra� qul Islam Shipon Molla attacked Rahim while he was crossing road in front of the land o� ce around 12noon.

The attackers charged Rahim for publishing a report against them and their organisations and threatened to kill him if he wrote against the ruling party further.

Rahim wrote a report on extortion of the cadres in the locality which was published in Barisal Protidin last week.

Locals rescued the injured journal-ist and admitted him to Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital.

Contacted over phone, Ra� qul Islam Shipon Molla denied his involvement in the attack. The other alleged were not reachable despite several attempts.

Wazirpur police station O� cer-in-Charge Anwar Hossain said hearing the news of attack on the journalist, police was sent to the spot. However, no one was detained as the attackers � ed the scene before the law enforcers had reached.

One relative of the victim said a case would be lodged against the attackers. l

BNP activists engage in a clash over paying respects to party founder Ziaur Rahman at his grave in the capital yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Police care about only some arson attack cases PAGE 1 COLUMN 2accused in those cases. Police could not give any information about their whereabouts either.

Sources said most of the arson at-tack cases were � led under the speedy trial act. Someone arrested in connec-tion with these cases generally cannot get bail from a magistrate court. But there are other ways to get bail.

Anwarul Kabir Babul, public prose-cutor of the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court of Dhaka, said: “For cases � led under the speedy trial act, charge sheets have to be placed within six days of � ling of a case. And over the next 46 days, the prosecution will have to pro-duce the witnesses. Charge sheets were given in many [of these arson attack] cases but the investigators could not produce witnesses.”

Moreover, when a magistrate denies bail, the accused can appeal to a higher court and seek bail citing any kind of personal reason.

On December 30 last year, when po-litical unrest in the country was at its peak, a Dhaka Tribune journalist helped police arrest a young man for blasting three crude bombs on Panthapath.

The journalist, who witnessed To-riqul hurling the bombs, followed him to the Kathalbagan area, found out that he worked in a mobile phone repairing shop and informed the Kalabagan po-lice station.

The law enforcers were really prompt in picking up the young man from the shop. A few days later, when the journalist tried to learn about the progress in the matter, he was told from the police station that Toriqul had been sent to jail by a Dhaka court.

On several occasions in the subse-

quent months, he was told again and again that the Detective Branch of Po-lice was looking into the matter. But since the DB had been dealing with many other similar cases, solving the one that Toriqul was shown arrested in, was taking time.

On Thursday, the Dhaka Tribune con-tacted the Kalabagan police station again and learned that Sub-Inspector Jalalud-din Ahmed, who was investigating the case, had been transferred to the Chawk-bazar police station in the capital.

When contacted, SI Jalaluddin told the Dhaka Tribune that he was sure that the charge sheet in the case was not yet given.

Md Iqbal, o� cer-in-charge of the Kalabagan police station, said since it was a months-old case, he would have to check the documents to tell more about the current status of the case. He could neither tell the name of the current investigation o� cer nor the whereabouts of Toriqul without check-ing documents.

According to DMP sources, at least one top or mid-level leader of the BNP-Jamaat-led 20 party alliance was impli-cated in around 30 of those 56 charge sheets. There are allegations that these 56 cases have made progress because they could be used to harass the oppo-sition leaders.

In many cases, instead of trying to � nd out the actual culprits behind the arson attacks, vandalism and bombing, police have made opposition leaders the prime accused without any proper investigation.

On April 29 last year, a group of near-ly 40 people torched some 10 buses in the capital’s Shantinagar area. At that time, Abu Bakar Siddique, the driver of

one of those buses, said he had stopped the bus beside the road because a tyre had punctured and a group of miscre-ants had come and torched it. He also said he had not seen the face of any of the attackers. Police later made some BNP leaders, including Goyeshwar Chandra Roy and Shahid Uddin Chow-dhury Anee, the main accused in a case � led in connection with the incident.

On November 28, 2013, police caught 18-year-old Al Amin red-handed in Uttara in the act of exploding crude bombs. Al Amin later said a local BNP leader named Billal had given him Tk200 for doing the job. He is now serving a one-year jail term but po-lice have not yet managed to get holdof Billal.

Mohammad Ra� qul Islam, OC of the Uttara west police station, told the Dha-ka Tribune: “Billal is still to be caught. I cannot tell you anything more because I have come here recently.”

Last year, several other BNP leaders were arrested in di� erent parts of the capital in connection with various street violence cases, but the law enforcers are still completely clueless about the whereabouts of these people.

The Dhaka Tribune has also learned that investigators have a list of 450 bomb-makers whose products had been blasted during the year-long po-litical violence last year. However, not a single one from that list has so far been arrested.

When asked why they had been giving chargesheets against the oppo-sition leaders instead of � nding the ac-tual criminals, police have always said the leaders were the real masterminds behind the street violence.

Records show that Mirza Fakhrul

Islam Alamgir and Ruhul Kabir Rizvi are the main accused in three charge sheets submitted with the Ramna divi-sion of police.

Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Anee, Sadeque Hossain Khoka and Goyesh-war Chandra Roy were shown as ac-cused in two charge sheets under the Lalbagh division.

At least 12 charge sheets under the Wari division show Anee, Mirza Fakhrul, Alal and Aman as main ac-cused.

Data provided by the Crime Cell of DMP shows that a total of 20 cases have been � led with the Motijheel di-vison. Charge sheets were given in only four of them, � nal investigation report in just one and the remaining 15 cases were under investigation.

However, when contacted, Ashrafuzzaman, deputy commission of the Motijheel division, failed to give speci� c information about the number of people arrested and the current sta-tuses of any of the cases.

“We are working on them [the cas-es]. Completing investigation will take time,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.

A total of 17 street violence related cases are currently under the investi-gation of the Detective Branch (DB) of DMP. At least 14 of those investigations are led by Monirul Islam, a joint com-missioner of DB.

He told the Dhaka Tribune: “We are at the last stage of investigation. We will solve all of the cases very soon.”

DMP Assistant Deputy Commissioner (Media) Saidur Rahman also said some-thing very similar. “Everything takes time. Many factors have to be consid-ered while investigating a case. We are continuously working on them.” l

Pakistani protesters clash with police PAGE 1 COLUMN 4In the nuclear-armed nation where power has often changed hands through military coups rather than elections, the army is likely to play a key role in how the con� ict unfolds.

Army chief General Raheel Sharif met Prime Minister Sharif on Monday, but it was unclear what they discussed.

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif told Reuters the government was prepar-ing to launch a selective crackdown against protesters yesterday, and warned demonstrators against storm-ing government buildings.

“The writ of the state must be en-forced. We hope to make a decisive move sometime later today [Monday],” he said.

“I personally feel that the next few hours will determine the course of coming events,” he said.

Protests turned violent over the

weekend. Three people were killed.How the crisis ends will be ultimate-

ly decided by the army. If the protests get out of hand, the military could step in decisively, imposing a curfew or even martial law.

Alternatively, the army could side with the protesters and put pressure on Sharif to resign, in which case an interim government would have be put in place and early parliamentary elections held to elect a new government. However, few observers believe the army is bent on seizing power again.

Some ruling party o� cials have ac-cused elements within the military of orchestrating the protests to weaken the government.

Khan and Qadri have instructed their supporters to avoid any con-frontation with the armed forces and strictly follow their orders. As soldiers

entered the PTV building, many pro-testers smiled and shook hands with them.

Yesterday morning, despite heavy rain, crowds of protesters fought run-ning battles with retreating police after breaking the main gate into the Pa-kistan Secretariat area which houses government ministries as well as Sha-rif’s o� cial residence.

After a brief lull during the day, pro-testers once again charged towards police lines in the so-called Red zone - home to the prime minister’s house, parliament and foreign embassies - as they sought to reach the prime minis-ter’s house.

Sharif, who was toppled by the army in a 1999 coup but staged a come-back with a big election win in May last year, has refused to quit while protest leaders have rejected his o� ers of talks, creating a dangerous deadlock. l

Personal sta� of MPs PAGE 1 COLUMN 6the team of associates.

But in most cases, the team mem-bers spend time and money for sight-seeing and shopping. Sometimes members of the delegation do not even return home after the assignment.

For instance, in 2012, two members of the associate delegation did not re-turn home with the Hajjis.

The Hajj is the biggest global reli-gious congregation of the Muslims that is performed by millions from across the world every year.

It is one of the � ve pillars of Islam, and a religious duty which must be carried out at least once in a lifetime by every adult Muslim who is physically � t and � nancially capable of under-taking the journey and supporting his family during his absence.

According to former religious a� airs secretary Abdur Rab Howlader, the

government has been sending the team of associates since the mid-1980s.

Mizanur Rahman, o� cer at the Hajj camp in Uttara, told the Dhaka Trib-une: “It is true that although some members of the associate Hajj delega-tion are dedicated for serving the Haj-jis, many of them do not perform their duties.”

He also said they are supposed to work under the supervision of the of-� cials of the Bangladesh mission in Saudi Arabia.

This year, the Religious A� airs Min-istry has prepared a list of 125 people as the associate delegation. The list has names of at least 21 people from Mymensingh, the home of district Reli-gious A� airs Minister Matiur Rahman.

At least 17 people, mostly fourth class government employees who work in the o� ce and residence of the Prime minister, have also been includ-

ed in the list. For instance, Md Siddiqur Rahman,

a motor cleaner at the Prime Minis-ter’s O� ce, is on the list. Md Mosharaf Hossain Gazi, a cook who works at the prime minister’s residence, Ganab-haban, is also in the list. Azad Hossain Mintu, a cook who works at the pres-ident’s o� ce and residence Bangab-haban, will also perform Hajj this year.

Begum Hasina Shirin, an assistant secretary of the Religious A� airs Min-istry, told the Dhaka Tribune that the ministry had sought the names of peo-ple from the PMO and Bangabhaban.

“We also entertain requests from the MPs, members of the parliamentary standing committees and government o� cials. Moreover, the religious a� airs minister has some preferences. After accommodating all the names, we send the � nal list to the PMO, which gives the � nal nod,” Begum Hasina said. l

Constitution amendment bill to be passed in parliament's current sessionn Kamran Reza Chowdhury

The Business Advisory Committee, the highest body of the parliament, decid-ed that the 16th constitution amend-ment bill would be passed in the cur-rent session that started yesterday.

According to the decision of the committee, having both Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Leader of the Oppo-sition Rawshan Ershad as its members, the current third session will continue till September 18 with 14 working days. The committee always � xes the tenure of every session of the legislature.

“We have decided to enact all the 10 bills awaiting passage. More bills, including the 16th constitution amend-

ment bill, will come to this session. If comes, the constitution amendment bill will be passed in the current session,” Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury told the Dhaka Tribune after the meeting held at the parliament building.

She said the 16th constitution amendment bill, which would empow-er the legislature to impeach the judges of the Supreme Court dropping the cur-rent provision of the Supreme Judicial Council, would be discussed at the par-liamentary standing committee on law ministry, not at any special committee as it happened for the 15th constitution amendment act.

Standing Committee Chairman Sur-anjit Sengupta told the Dhaka Tribune

that he would invite all the stakehold-ers before preparing its recommenda-tions on the bill.

According to the parliamentary rules, the bill will go to the parliamen-tary standing committee on law minis-try for further vetting before passage.

The House went into session around 5:15 pm after the Business Advisory Com-mittee meeting was held with Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair.

At the outset, the House adopted a condolence motion, expressing shock at the death of the passengers of the Pinak 6 launch that sank near Mawa ghat in Munshiganj on August 4.

In addition to holding the regular question-answer hours for the minis-

ters, the House saw unscheduled dis-cussions initiated by Opposition Lead-er Rawshan Ershad, Nazibul Bashar Maizbhandari and Rustum Ali Farazi.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith ta-bled the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh Bill 2014. The minister moved the bill to replace the similar law that was passed by the military government of General Ziaur Rahman.

While taking part in the unsched-uled debate, Nazibul Bashar Maizb-handari demanded that the House hold a special discussion on the Israeli at-tacks and massacre of the Palestinians.

“Yes, honourable member, we will hold the discussion tomorrow (Tues-day),” Shirin Sharmin told the House. l

Bodies of couple PAGE 1 COLUMN 6enforcers suspected that Rauf might have killed his wife � rst and later shot himself at a point of arguments.

Col Ziaul Ahsan, the additional di-rector general of Rapid Action Battal-ion, said the woman’s body was found on the bed with her face down while Rauf’s head had a bullet injury. Exam-ining the spot, “we are assuming that Rauf � rst killed his wife and then com-mitted suicide,” he said.

Meer Rezaul Alam, joint commis-sioner (crime) of police, said a pistol and two rounds of bullets were recov-ered from the spot. l

Fakhrul sued PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

a family of killers. She said BNP founder Ziaur Rahman had been involved in the killing of Bangabandhu while Khaleda Zia, her son Tarique Rahman and her cabinet members in the August 21 grenade attack.

The BNP spokesperson said the prim-er's remarks were tantamount to con-tempt of court. l

Tarique’s wife PAGE 1 COLUMN 1army-backed caretaker government in 2007. He left the country, on parole, for treatment in London on September 11, 2008. Despite facing a corruption case � led by the Anti-Corruption Com-mission, Zubaida has a “good image” among the party’s rank and � le.

The BNP’s Standing Committee on April 10 last year discussed Zubaida’s probable induction into politics, but did not make any decision on the issue. l

3NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Voter list updating begins slown Rafe Sadnan Adel

The Election Commission began updat-ing voter list in the capital yesterday. But as most o� cials were not enthu-siastic and supervisors absent, work went on at a snail’s pace.

Gulshan Thana Election O� cer ARM Deluarul Haque told the Dhaka Tribune that an o� cial was being paid Tk20 for updating the information of one vot-er, which is too low. Moreover, most supervisors are schoolteachers, who could not work during o� ce hours. Delwar also said updating the voter list would continue till September 10.

To speed things up, they were try-ing to make people aware using loud speakers, announcement at mosques, temples, churches, etc.

The Election Commission will begin taking photographs of new voters from September 18. l

Two witnesses testify in SB inspector murder casen Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

Two more witnesses yesterday gave depositions in a case � led over the sensational murders of SB Inspector Mahfuzur Rahman and his wife in the capital last year.

Seizure list witnesses Rakib Hasan and Jony testi� ed before the Dhaka’s Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md Jahrul Haque.

The court later � xed September 3 for the next hearing.

With this, a total of three witnesses have given depositions in the case.

Police produced Oishee and her two friends Asaduzzman Jony and Mizanur Rahman Rony before the court during the deposition.

On July 8, plainti� Mashiur Rah-man, also uncle of prime accused

Oishee, in his deposition claimed that Oishee had not been involved in the murder.

“I strongly believe that my niece did not kill my brother and his wife. As my brother used to work for the police’s Special Branch (political wing), miscre-ants might have killed the couple over previous feud.”

Bodies of the couple were recov-ered from their house on August 16 last year. The court on May 6 framed the charges against Oishee, her friends Jony and Rony in connection with the murder of her parents.

One charge sheet was pressed against Oishee and her two friends, while the other against domestic help Sumi who is under the age of 18 and her trial proceeding is going in a juve-nile court in Dhaka. l

WHO ministers meet on September 9n Moniruzzaman Uzzal

Dhaka is set to host a major internation-al health event this month, with health ministers from 11 member countries of World Health Organisation’s South-East Asia Region (WHO-SEAR) scheduled to hold talks from September 9-12 on health challenges faced by the region.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is set to inaugurate the 32nd meeting of regional health ministers, which would also be attended by WHO Di-rector-General Dr Margaret Chan and WHO Regional Director for southeast Asia Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh. More than 150 foreign delegates including health ministers and secretaries of the 11 member countries are expected to join the event.

Roxana Qauder, additional secre-tary (public health and WHO) of Health Ministry, said a � ve-member national organising committee headed by Health Secretary MM Niazuddin was formed. l

ACC to quiz Partex chief, two sons n Tribune Report

The Anti-Corruption Commission is set to record statements of Partex Group Chairman MA Hashem and his two sons in regard to an inquiry into the embezzlement of Tk150 crore from the Sonali Bank through the import of un-re� ned sugar.

ACC Deputy Director Mir Jainul Abe-din Shibly yesterday served notices to Hashem and his two sons – Shawkat Aziz, managing director of Partex Sugar Mills Limited, and Rubel Aziz, a direc-tor – asking them to appear before the ACC headquarters today.

The commission last year initiated the inquiry into the alleged embezzlement of public money. But the probe was mov-ing slowly as the o� cials were busy with investigating into the Hall-Mark Group scam, a probe team o� cial said.

The ACC last year only questioned some high o� cials of the state-owned bank and reviewed documents received from the bank. Now the ACC has launched a detailed inquiry over the allegation.

According to the allegation, Sonali Bank’s former deputy general manager of Bangabandhu Avenue branch Me-jbah Uddin (now DGM, international trade � nance department), in conniv-ance with some other people allegedly misappropriated Tk150 crore by im-porting unre� ned sugar.

It is alleged that Partex Sugar Mills, a concern of Partex Group, imported the sugar through opening a letters of cred-it (LC) with the bank, but did not de-posit any money against the LC, even after importing and selling the sugar.

The commission has already anal-ysed documents related to information on Mejbah Uddin and shipment.

An internal probe jointly conducted by Bangladesh Bank and Sonali Bank found that the branch had issued four deferred LCs worth Tk150 crore for 180 days at a reduced rate of commission and margin against applications from Partex Sugar Mills in 2011. As per the bank’s rule, any company seeking to import something must deposit a min-imum of 5% cash against the four LCs.

But instead of depositing the cash, the company had opened a Fixed De-posit Receipt (FDR) account against the LCs while the bank o� cials allegedly helped them in the process.

In addition, the pro� t from an FDR always went to the client’s account. As a result, the company received pro� ts from their LCs, whereas Sonali Bank got nothing, incurring a loss to the bank.

Moreover, the company did not de-posit any money from the sales of sugar which is indicative of money embez-zlement. After analysing the payments, the company now owes Sonali Bank Tk136crore. l

Minister: Pinak 6 operation failed due to foul weather

n Emran Hossain Shaikh

Salvage of the Pinak 6 launch result-ed in failure due to foul weather and strong river currents, claimed Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan yesterday.

“The rescue operation did not suc-ceed due to inclement weather and strong current of the river,” he told par-liament while replying to a question from ruling party lawmaker Selina Jahan Lita during the question-answer session.

The double-decker launch carrying more than 250 passengers capsized in the Padma River on August 4 near Mawa. Later, the bodies of 48 passen-gers were recovered while 58 passen-gers remain missing. Rescuers called

o� the operation after an eight-day search.

Shajahan said the accident occurred “due to greed for earning more pro� ts” by the launch owner.

He said the BIWTA, Navy, Fire Ser-vice, Chittagong Port Authority, district administration, law enforcement agen-cies and local representatives jointly carried out the rescue operation.

“We continued the rescue operation for seven days and on the eighth day, it was declared abandoned as per the decision of the rescue team,” the min-ister said.

Responding to a supplementary question, he said the government had taken action against the persons re-

sponsible for the incident. A probe committee was formed to investigate the incident and a case was � led in this regard, he added.

In response to another supplementa-ry question from Jatiya Party lawmaker Peer Fazlur Rahman, the minister said it was not true that maritime accidents had increased after 2009, rather de-creased due to various measures taken by the incumbent government.

In reply to a question from Awa-mi League lawmaker Isra� l Alam, the minister said 558 maritime accidents took place in the country since 1976 in which a total of 4,500 people were killed and 500 injured while more or less 450 went missing. l

Two ex-Teletalk o� cials to face graft case n Adil Sakhawat

The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) is set to sue two suspended Teletalk Bangladesh Limited o� cials for their alleged involvement in embezzling around Tk10 crore.

The commission, at a regular meet-ing yesterday, approved the � ling of the case against the two suspended assis-tant managers of Teletalk, as a primary inquiry found their involvement with the embezzlement, ACC Public Rela-tion O� cer Pranab Kumar Bhattacha-rya told reporters.

“The case will be � led within a day or two under the sections of money laundering prevention act,” he added.

The accused were SM Tarek Rah-

man, former assistant manager (system operations) and Sabibur Rahman Siplu, former assistant manager (market de-velopment).

During the primary inquiry, the ACC investigator found that both the ac-cused misappropriated Tk97,415,306 from the state-owned mobile operator by converting Teletalk prepaid connec-tions into postpaid, violating the billing system of the company.

The money was embezzled between October, 2010 to June, 2011, ACC sourc-es added. An ACC o� cial said the em-bezzled amount was transferred to per-sonal bank accounts of the accused and was used for investments at the share market, purchasing apartments and procuring land. l

A graveyard is being build just under the Army’s supervision beside the Martyred Intellectuals’ Memorial at Rayerbazar in the city SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Dhaka Metropolitan Police yesterday recovers a dead body from inside a wooden cabinet in the capital’s Hatkhola Lane. However, no other information regarding the matter could not be known immediately MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Rawshan sees sudden slide in law and ordern Kamran Reza Chowdhury and

Emran Hossain Shaikh

Leader of the Opposition in parliament Rawshan Ershad yesterday criticised the government for the deterioration of law and order and suggested that it should not term the murders “stray in-cidents.”

During an unscheduled discussion, the senior Jatiya Party leader said the people were not safe inside their homes, referring to the killing of Mau-lana Shaikh Nurul Islam Faruqi and triple murders in Moghbazar last week.

“People think their houses to be the safest places. But where will they go if they are killed inside the houses?

“Suddenly law and order has been deteriorating. High Court mosque Imam Maulana Nurul Islam was killed inside his house. The next day, three people were killed in Moghbazar,” Rawshan said, asking for special mea-sures to improve the situation.

Soon after the murders, several rul-ing party leaders and the home state minister termed the incidents isolated and not serious.

On Saturday, Rawshan's husband and JaPa chief HM Ershad at a discus-sion in Narayanganj said there was no rule of law in the country. “This gov-ernment has no right to stay in power even for a single day,” said the former military dictator, who holds the post of the special envoy to the prime minister.

Ershad also said the BNP and the Awami League were busy gaining their interests. “On the other hand, Jatiya Party has been active in parliament as well as in the streets.”

Rawshan alleged that dead bodies were seen in di� erent places. “Corps-es are found in ditches; again, hanging bodies of young women are found.” “The criminals would have thought twice [before committing such crimes] had the perpetrators been punished. The people are not taking these events easi-ly…We want to know when it will stop.”

She said only rule of law could stop such events. “We want to � nd out the

perpetrators and ensure exemplary punishment.”

Rawshan also criticised the govern-ment's initiative to formulate the na-tional broadcast policy. She suggested formation of a commission in consul-tation with the stakeholders to prepare the policy. “The information minister is an experienced person. It will be ac-ceptable if [the policy] is formulated through consultation,” said Rawshan.

Expressing frustration over the re-peated incidents of accidents of water vessels, the opposition leader said: “Launch accidents take place ahead of every Eid festivals. Since indepen-dence, over 500 probe bodies have been formed. But reports on only three incidents have been made public.

“The recent incident [Pinak 6 capi-size] took place as the government did not take the issue seriously. This Eid season, so many people died; who will take the responsibility of their deaths?” she asked.

Rawshan also talked on the arrest of a fake army o� cial on parliament premises. “How can a fake major main-tain o� ce on parliament premises for one year? I want to ask through the honourable speaker, who harboured the fake major for so long?

“The culprits should be punished; otherwise, the security regime will be disrupted,” she said.

Around half an hour after Raw-shan's speech, Shipping Minister Sha-jahan Khan issued a statement on the Pinak 6 launch disaster.

He said the Mawa launch disaster had not been the result of a single fac-tor, suggesting that the launch owner and his son allowed passengers more than the capacity of the vessel, disre-garding protests of the people.

He said the government had already taken many measures to ensure safety the river routes.

The minister said the rotation sys-tem, introduced by BNP leader Tarique Rahman and his brother Arafat Rah-man Koko, would be cancelled, allow-ing more launches to operate. l

Another remanded in Faruqi murder casen Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court yesterday placed Yusuf Majumder, held in connection with Shaikh Nurul Islam Faruqi murder case, on a two-day remand.

Metropolitan Magistrate Waez Ku-runi Khan Chowdhury passed the order after DB Inspector Julhas Uddin Akand, also investigation o� cer of the case, produced him before the court.

The same court on Sunday granted police two days to question two other suspects – Mahmuda Khatun and Shari-ful Islam. Yusuf was arrested in Comilla.

Faruqi, 60, was slaughtered at his east Rajabazar house on August 24. His son Faysal Faruqi � led the case against eight to nine unnamed persons. l

Defence argues on compensation in Azhar casen Udisa Islam

The defence counsel for alleged war criminal ATM Azharul Islam continued placing arguments for the second day yesterday.

The three-member International Crimes Tribunal 1 later adjourned the hearing until today leaving it incomplete.

Counsel Shishir Mohammad Munir claimed that the prosecution could not provide “su� cient evidence” to prove command responsibility of Ja-maat-e-Islami leader Azhar.

Shishir claimed his client should not be compelled to pay � nes arguing that if Azhar had been given “capital pun-ishment or imprisonment,” then the � ne would not be applicable.

The prosecution side demanded the compensation during arguments. l

4 NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Hasina asks Railways Ministry to makelist of properties n Mohosinul Karim

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yester-day ordered the Railway Ministry o� -cials to prepare a list of its properties in order to recover properties from illegal occupiers.

The instruction came at a cabinet meeting held at the secretariat yester-day where the ministry tabled drafts of

the Railway Nirapotta Bahini (RNB) Act and the Railway Properties (Illegal Pos-session Recover) Act.

With Prime Minister Sheikh Hasi-na in the chair, the cabinet approved the Security Force Act on condition of vetting of the Law Ministry while the Illegal Possession Recover Act was ap-

proved in principle. Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hos-

sain Bhuiyan said before sending to the parliament the Illegal Possession Re-cover Act would be tabled again after incorporating the observations of the cabinet while the draft of the RNB Act would be sent to the parliament upon vetting of the Law Ministry.

Both the drafts were prepared to legitimate the Railway Nirapotta Bahi-ni Ordinance, 1976 and Railway Prop-erties (Illegal Possession) Ordinance, 1979 that became invalid after the Su-preme Court declared the two military regime in Bangladesh illegal.

The drafts speci� ed de� nitions of railway assets, work distribution, pas-sengers and passenger areas.

Primary and Mass Education Minis-ter Mosta� zur Rahman who was pres-ent at the cabinet meeting, told the Dhaka Tribune that the premier had asked the ministers and o� cials of the railway ministry to � nd out the amount of illegally occupied properties.

The government would take neces-sary steps to recover the illegally oc-cupied properties of the railway after getting the report. A task force might be formed to recover the properties from illegal occupants, he added. l

High Court summons DMP commissioner, two othersn Ahmed Zayeef

The High Court has summoned three po-lice o� cials, including Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Benzir Ahmed, for not complying with its previous order re-garding the construction of boundary walls of Azimpur graveyard in the capital.

An HC bench comprising of justices Farah Mahbub and Kazi Md Ejarul Haque Akon-do passed the order yesterday following an explanation of contempt of court by Dhaka South City Corporation.

The other police o� cials are Lalbagh Zone Deputy Commissioner Harun-ur-Rashid and Lalbagh police station o� cer-in-charge. The court ordered them to appear before it on September 10.

The petition was � led by Jakir Hossain,

an Azimpur resident, seeking directives to stop the construction of a street by the DSCC upon his fathers’ grave at the graveyard.

Following the writ on August 1, 2013, the same HC bench directed the DSCC authorities to construct the boundary wall of the grave-yard within three months of the petition, while the police force was also asked to assist the authorities concerned in this regard.

Md Asadullah, who moved for the con-tempt petitioner, told the Dhaka Tribune: “The DSCC authorities did not take any ac-tion according to the HC order.

“However, the DSCC authorities told the court that they gave 17 letters to the DMP, seeking assistance in this regard, but they did not respond. The DSCC also urged the court to ask the police o� cials why they did not comply with the HC order.” l

IUBDC champion in BRACU debate tournamentn Tribune Report

IUB Debate Club has become the Champion at the Brac University English Debate Tournament held from Au-gust 28-30. The winning team members Fardeen Ameen and Christopher Sangma defeated DU and IUT in the grand � nale held at Brac University cam-pus in capital’s Mohakhali.

IUB reached the grand � -nale by defeating IBA, DU and NSU in the semi-� nals and quarter � nals respectively. l

RMG workers block road for wagesn FM Mizanur Rahaman

Around 400 workers of a readymade garment (RMG) factory blocked a road in Bandartila area in Chit-tagong yesterday demand-ing the payment of their wages and dues.

Sub-Inspector Kajol Babu of EPZ police said around 350 to 400 workers of Siraj and Sons, took to the streets in front of Bahadurshah Col-ony of Bandartila around 4:30pm demanding their wages and overtime pay-ment.

The owner of the garment could not pay the workers their wages for two months following which they held the blockade, he said.

Police went to the spot and pursued the agitat-ing workers to withdraw their blockade after half an hour.

The SI said after a meet-ing with the owner he was asked to pay the salaries within two days. l

Workshop: Ample scopes to exploit marine resourcesn Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Lack of skilled manpower, technology and equipment are the main barriers in utilising the marine resources in Ban-gladesh.

“We need data about our marine re-sources. But how can we get it if we do not have [necessary] human resources and technology,” Maritime A� airs Unit Secretary M Khurshed Alam told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

Citing an example, he said Bangla-desh would procure survey vessel, but it is a big challenge to utilise it properly.

“Do we have people to operate it and utilise it in the proper way? It is a big problem,” he pointed out.

Khurshed is of the view that Ban-gladesh should conduct its own survey and research to assess the gas and oil reserves in the Bay of Bengal.

“We need to do our own survey. We should not depend on other’s survey to determine if we have gas resources or not,” he said in response to a comment by German scientist Herman Kudrass who claimed that he had conducted seismic survey in the Bay and found no gas reserves.

Kudrass claimed that he had con-ducted three seismic surveys on behalf of German Research Agency in the � rst

half of ‘90s and covered all the areas of former economic zone.

Kudrass came to Dhaka to attend the two-day international workshop on blue economy inaugurated yesterday.

A total of 32 experts from 19 coun-tries are taking part in the workshop.

Six presentations were made in two sessions yesterday while three more presentations scheduled for today’s lone session.

Additional Director General of Food and Agriculture Organisation Arni M Mathiesen in his presentation focused on � sheries in the Bay.

Mathiesen said there was ample scope for � sheries exploitation in the Bay since it was not over exploited.

He, however, cautioned that ecosys-tem should be protected, and unregu-lated and unreported � shing should be stopped.

The FAO is willing to help develop the � shing sector in Bangladesh as the country acquires only 70,000 tonnes of � shes from the Bay. Sri Lanka, Thai-land and India catch about 80 hundred thousand tonnes of � sh every year from the Bay.

Johannes Gille of the Netherlands said the total output of blue economy in the European Union was 500bn euros a year.

Gille said developing countries like

Bangladesh should focus on the marine sectors where research work is available.

There are ample studies on shipping or gas and oil sectors, and Bangladesh should focus on those instead of going for minerals like cobalt, copper or man-ganese on the seabed, he suggested.

He also stressed that the marine re-sources should be protected and pre-served for keeping the environment sustainable.

Lei Bo of China said Beijing was will-ing to help Bangladesh in developing the marine sector.

China has undertaken 908 projects on di� erent sectors in the marine econ-omy and allocated 2.5bn Chinese ren-minbi, 500 vessels, 30000 people and 100 research institutes.

Wenxi Zhu of the Unesco said the knowledge about the sea was very low level.

He said science, technology and in-novation capacity need to be increased for having a sustainable blue economy.

Joacim Johannesson of Sweden said marine spatial planning (MSP) was needed for tapping ocean resources.

The MSP should be integrated and multi-objective, strategic and future oriented, and continuous and adaptive, he said.

In the inaugural session, Prime Min-

ister Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh needed to utilise the potential of ocean resources for sustainable development.

She admitted that there was a de� -cit in planning, proper knowledge and technology about the blue economy in Bangladesh.

The premier hoped that the work-shop would provide a set of recom-mendations which would help the socio-economic development of Ban-gladesh.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali said it was evident that blue econo-my demands a balance of conserva-tion-utilisation-exploitation.

He said Bangladesh was engaged in a global debate on Post-2015 Develop-ment Agenda in UN to reach consensus on a stand-alone sustainable develop-ment goals on “conservation and sus-tainable use of oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.”

There is a broad agreement on sev-eral targets under the goal such as pre-venting and reducing all kinds of ma-rine pollution and sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosys-tems, the minister said.

In the concluding session today, an outcome document, Way Forward, will be presented for adoption in the workshop. l

Cabinet approves MoU with India on rescuing victims of human tra� cking n Mohosinul Karim

The cabinet yesterday approved a pro-posal for signing a Memorandum of Understanding between Bangladesh and India on bilateral cooperation for rescue, repatriation and rehabilitation of victims of human tra� cking espe-cially women and children.

The approval was given in a regular cabinet meeting held at the secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

The MoU would be signed during the home secretary-level meeting be-tween the two countries scheduled to be held in Dhaka from September 2-4.

After the meeting, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told re-porters that the cabinet had approved the proposal for signing the MoU with the neighbouring country. “It will be signed at the home secretary-level meeting between the two countries.”

He said, “It’s true that people es-pecially women and children are be-ing tra� cked from Bangladesh. Most of them are being tra� cked to India. Some are also being tra� cked into Ban-

gladesh from India.” “Both the countries are aware of the

human tra� cking and trying to address the issue. A joint task force formed ear-lier is also working to address the is-sue,” he added.

Bhuiyan said the draft of the MoU was prepared and � nalised by the task force in its two meetings held in Ban-gladesh and India earlier. India had al-ready given its consent to the MoU.

According to the MoU, people un-der 18 would be considered as minors. Both the countries would work as per Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) set by Bangladesh and India.

“Legal action can be taken against human tra� ckers as per the laws of the two countries. The border securi-ty forces and agencies concerned will help enforce the terms and conditions of the MoU. It will work under a coor-dinated border management plan,” the cabinet secretary said.

The two countries would exchange information on human tra� cking and rehabilitate the victims of human traf-� cking within the shortest possible time, he added. l

Crude bombs hurled at CU shuttle train, 2 injuredn CU Correspondent

At least two students were injured when crude bombs were hurled at a Chittagong University (CU)-bound shuttle train in Chowdhury Haat rail-way station of Hathazari upazila in Chittagong yesterday morning.

The victims – Pritom Shuvo, a third-year philosophy student and activist of Udichi’s CU unit, and Sourav Saha Joy, a marine science and � sheries student and activist of a left-wing student or-ganisation – were treated at Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH).

There was another crude bomb at-tack earlier in the morning at Sholos-hohor railway station, from where the shuttle train started towards the CU, said Md Shahabuddin, station master of Sholoshohor railway station.

“Activists of General Students of CU (GSCU), a section of students staging a strike on the campus demanding the reopening of two dormitories, inter-rupted the shuttle train scheduled to start towards the university at 7:50am and demanded suspension of the ser-vice,” said the station master.

However, after remaining suspend-ed for half an hour, the station author-ities tried to resume the service. But when the train was being prepared for the journey, at least three crude bombs were hurled at it at the Forest Gate area around 8:30am, he said.

Later, when the train left Sholosho-hor and stopped at Chowdhury Haat around 9:30am, around seven to eight crude bombs were thrown at the train, which left the two students injured, witnesses said.

“Both the attacks were launched by the GSCU activists who had demanded to suspend the shuttle train service,” claimed the station master.

On information, the Railway Police went to the scene and � red around 20 blank rounds to bring the situation un-der control, said Arab Ali, in-charge of Railway Police’s Sholoshohor outpost.

The schedules of the shuttle train service were delayed by an hour due to the attacks, the station master said.

CU Proctor Siraj Ud Dowla said Shi-bir men had carried out the attacks, adding that the university authorities had given directives to the law enforce-ment agencies to take necessary steps in this regard.

Additional police has also been de-ployed on the campus to avoid further unrest, he said.

Ashiqur Rahman, spokesperson for the GSCU, brushed o� the allegations and said they were trying to divert attention from the issue at hand.

The Shibir leaders at the universi-ty also denied the allegation of being involved in the attacks, but said they morally supported the GSCU’s cause.

GSCU was formed by the resident stu-dents of the two dormitories, which were shut down after a recent clash between Ch-hatra League and Shibir activists.

Before shutting down, the dormitories were under the stronghold of Shibir, said campus sources.

The classes and examinations in dif-ferent departments took place at the scheduled time despite the attacks, the sources added. l

Both the drafts were prepared to legitimate the Railway Nirapotta Bahini Ordinance, 1976 and Railway Properties (Illegal Possession) Ordinance, 1979

Advanced technologies in printing have turned typewriters, once a vital instrument for producing written documents, into a medieval instrument. Thus, those who earned their living using typewriters are now having a hard time to make ends meet. This picture was taken yesterday from the capital’s Dainik Bangla intersection SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Winning team members Fardeen Ameen and Christopher Sangma receive the champion’s trophy of the Brac University English Debate Tournament in the capital yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

The Canadian International School Bangladesh is looking for an experienced teacher urgently for its existing vacancy with following qualifi cations and experiences:

Position: One (1) Teacher (History/Social Studies)Qualifi cations: Masters of Arts, BA (Honors), M ED/B ED any other diploma

General Qualifi cation for the position .1. Certifi ed by the Education Ministry of Canada.2. Minimum Five (5) years of experience in Canadian Curriculum Teaching.3. Good command in English Spoken and additional language (French/German) competency will be

given preference.4. Computer Literacy (MS APP, PowerPoint, Web page design etc).

Salary and other Terms and conditions will discuss during the selection process.Interested candidates are requested to submit their CV with photograph by 07 September 2014.

Canadian International School Bangladesh200 Gulshan Avenue North, Gulshan-2, Dhaka-1212 BangladeshEmail: info@canadaeducationbd.comwww.canadaeducationbd.com

CAREER OPPORTUNITY

Land grabbers occupy public graveyardn Our correspondent, Noakhali

A group of land grabbers have alleged-ly occupied a public graveyard and a cremation ground at Sagoria Bazar of Burir Char Union under Hatiya Upazila in Noakhali by building a commercial market there.

The illegal occupation has outraged both Muslim and Hindu communities in the area.

According to locals, the 34 decimal state-owned land was being used as a � nal resting ground for around half a century. Some 50 years ago, 20 deci-mals of the land were allocated by the government as public graveyard for Muslims and the rest for a cremation ground for Hindus.

The land was also recorded as same in a subsequent zonal survey in favour of the deputy commissioner.

However, a group of land grabbers, led by local Md Fakrul Islam, Md Fazlul Hoque Khokan and Md Idris Mia, have constructed buildings and tin-shed shops at the site by occupying the land illegally.

When asked, Khokan claimed that the land was his ancestral property which was wrongly recorded as gov-ernment land. He also said a case in this regard was pending with the Noakhali District Judge court.

Besides, state-owned Sonali Bank has leased a portion of the building to set up a branch there, despite being aware of the land’s status.

“My maternal grandfather, my father and my elder brother are now under-neath the building where Sonali Bank will open its branch,” said Kartik Chan-

dra Das, who earlier sent letters to the bank’s o� cials in Noakhali, Chittagong, Comilla and Dhaka hoping that they would respect the government’s land demarcation as a state-owned entity.

He, however, was yet to receive a re-sponse from Sonali Bank authorities in this regard. The branch is expected to open next month.

When asked, Hatiya upazila’s assistant

commissioner for land said after receiving an allegation of illegal occupation of the graveyard two and a half months ago, he ordered one of his sta� members to visit the respective site and submit a report immediately. However, the report is yet to be submitted.

Speaking to the Dhaka Tribune, locals said several noted individuals of their area, such as Saint Dula Mia

Darbesh, Roy Mohan Saha, Sanatan Chandra Das and Durga Mohan Kar-makar, among other, have been resting at the graveyard.

Being an island on river Meghna, Ha-tiya faces river erosion every rainy sea-son and loses its lands to the river and the Bay of Bengal. Thousands of people also lost their ancestral lands and houses every year due to river erosion. l

WEATHER

5NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, September 2, 2014

PRAYER TIMES Fajar 4:23am Sunrise 5:39am Zohr 11:59am Asr 4:29pm Magrib 6:17pm Esha 7:34pm

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 6:17PM SUN RISES 5:40AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW33.5ºC 23.3ºCSylhet Dinajpur

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2

F O R E C A S T F O R T O D A YDhaka 32 26Chittagong 31 25Rajshahi 31 25Rangpur 31 25Khulna 30 25Barisal 30 25Sylhet 34 24Cox’s Bazar 30 25

SourceL IslamicFinder.org

DRIZZLE

n Abu Hayat Mahmud

Dhaka South City Corporation’s (DSCC) thoroughfares and streets resemble a mess of potholed and muddy canals because of a lack of proper monitoring and maintenance.

Although the DSCC engineering department spent Tk256 crore on maintaining roads, drains and tra� c systems over the last two � scal years, a large number of DSCC roads, streets and drains were seriously run-down.

In spite of the large outlay of public money, DSCC engineering department o� cials said they weren’t bound to answer questions posed by the media, while the corporation’s high-ups said repair work on dilapidated roads and streets had been delayed due to a lack of su� cient funds.

Residents of Shukrabad, Pantho-path, Kathalbagan, parts of Kalabagan, Lalbagh, Azimpur, Jhigatala and Haz-aribagh said the maintenance of thor-oughfares and lanes in those areas had not been done properly.

Sha� qul Islam, a resident of Shukra-bad, said city personnel had turned a blind eye to long-standing issues such as potholes and a lack of proper drain-age in the area.

“The terrible condition of the streets inside residential areas makes it di� -cult to drive on them. Most vehicles use the main road, running from Pan-thopath signal to Russel Square, result-ing in tra� c jams,” he said.

Sha� qul said conditions worsened

during the monsoon season when the entire area goes under knee-deep wa-ter as rain water collects because there isn’t an adequate drainage system.

The sentiment was echoed by Nahid Akhter, resident of West Panthopath, who added: “Some streets in the area are so waterlogged they are unusable.”

Streets in Shukrabad and parts of West Rajabazar and Tolabagh and the adjoining area of Sobhanbagh Govern-ment Sta� Colony resembled muddy rural dirt paths.

Road work across Lalbagh and Azim-pur in old Dhaka, leaving roads dug-up or drilled into, was left un� nished for months.

Akbar Ali, a resident of Kazi Riaz Uddin road in Lalbagh, said: “Most in-ternal streets in Lalbagh are � ooded during most of monsoon.”

During a recent visit to the Lalbagh and its adjoining areas, the Dhaka Trib-une found most drains open and un-covered.

When contacted, DSCC Chief Engi-neer Md Zahangir Alam refused to an-swer questions put by the Dhaka Trib-une about the issue.

“I am not bound to explain everything to the press. You write what you think... do not disturb me any more,” he said angrily.

Md Ansar Ali Khan, chief executive o� cer of DSCC, said: “We do not have su� cient funds to repair and recon-struct all the roads.”

“We will see to repairs if there are su� cient funds,” he said. l

Fresh case � led in RMG unrest at Jamgoran Our Correspondent, Savar

Tension was renewed at the Design-er Jeans garment factory in Ashulia’s Jamgora yesterday as factory authori-ties � led a fresh case against workers, a move that followed several days of unrest there.

The case was � led with Ashulia po-lice station against 14 people – eight of them named – in connection with an alleged assault on the factory’s Chief Security O� cer Altaf Hossain.

Altaf claimed that he fell victim to a sudden attack by several workers of the factory when he visited the nearby Beron area to assess the situation of the protesting workers yesterday morning.

Last Wednesday, workers of the Designer Jeans factory staged a work abstention programme, protesting the dismissal of two of their colleagues – a line chief and an operator both named Jahangir. The demonstrations became more intense after the factory was closed sine die on Thursday; the police had to step in to remove the protesting workers from in front of the factory.

As punitive action following the protests, the factory authorities fur-ther sacked 125 more workers on the grounds of violating discipline. The

factory’s Administrative O� cer Sharif Hossain also � led a case with the Ashu-lia police station against 260 workers, including 110 named individuals, ac-cusing them of vandalising and looting the factory.

Following the � ling of the case, 108 of the named accused secured bail on Sunday morning; the police later de-tained the two Jahangirs – who were � red last Tuesday – as they did not get bail.

Several workers of the factory told the Dhaka Tribune that two of their colleagues were initially � red from their jobs because of protesting di� er-ent irregularities and injustice done by factory authorities. They also argued that it was not possible for the workers to have carried out any vandalism or looting inside the factory as the police had not allowed them near the facto-ry gates on Thursday. The cases � led against them were false, the workers claimed.

Ashulia Industrial Police Director Mosta� zur Rahman con� rmed the in-cidents and said the factory was closed for the moment. Additional police personnel have also been deployed in front of the factory to avoid any unto-ward incident, he added. l

Pond � lling plagues Rajshahi city n Md Habibur Rahman, Rajshahi

As the High Court has given a directive to stop the � lling of all kinds of wetland in and around the city Rajshahi, a vest-ed-interested group is using a new tac-tic to � ll ponds.

Numerous ponds are being � lled by dumping waste so that the water there would be contaminated.

During a visit to di� erent parts of the city, this correspondent found that pond owners were � lling their water bodies in this way to dodge the author-ities concerned.

Residents of Horgram area in the city said Azizul Islam started � lling his pond with sand, later he stopped the � lling in the wake of local protests. But now he was � lling the pond again by dumping waste and consequently local people could not bathe in the pond as well as use water for household chores as water of the water body has been polluted.

Habibur Rahman, a resident of Het-em Kha area, in the city said they could not use the water from a pond as its owner � lled it by dumping waste.

Ponds located in Shalbagan area and Sultanbad area are being � lled by dumping rubble and waste.

In the last � ve decades, a total of 4,000 ponds have been � lled because of the indiscriminate earth-dumping

and unplanned urbanisation. In 1961, there were 4,238 ponds,

canals, wetlands in the city, in 1981 the number was 2,271, in 2000 the number stood at 729 and now city has only 214 water bodies which showed that the authorities concerned do not have any control over the vested interested groups’ activities, according to Rajshahi Development Authority (RDA).

The High Court gave a directive to stop � lling of all kinds of wetland in and around the city on December 13, 2010 following a writ petition.

In many cases, the RDA as well as Rajshahi City Corporation could not take strict action against land grabbers as a section of the public servants with institutions help facilitate such illegal occupation by preparing fake docu-ments and being reluctant to take any action, said city dwellers.

Although the Rajshahi City Corpo-ration had taken a project involving Tk206.24 crore to conserve 53 natural water bodies in and around the city to retain its surface water resources for protecting the environment from fur-ther environmental degradation, the city authority might not implement its project for unknown reason.

The project was supposed to pre-serve 53 ponds and construct embank-ments along the ponds and excavate and re-excavation those water bodies.

Urban Planner of the RCC Ajmeri Ashra� said they had taken a 20-year plan to conserve 65 ponds of the city in 2004.

Asked about the output of the plan, he said at least four cases had been � led since then for � lling those ponds, he said adding that verdict of one case has been announces and three cases were under trial.

He said they normally issued notice against those people who tried to � ll water bodies.

He claimed that they had stoppedthe � lling of 17 ponds by serving notices.

He also said not only the RCC, but the district administration and police have duty to conserve water bodies.

President of Rajshahi Mahbub Sid-diqi told the Dhaka Tribune that every-body should come forward to save wa-ter bodies of the city. l

City road accidents take lives of three n Tribune Report

At least three people were killed in separate road accidents in the capital yesterday.

Ali Akkas, a newspaper seller, was hit by a BRTC bus in front of Al-Razi Hospital in Farmgate area around 7am. He died on spot.

Hailing from Jadobpur area under Kobirhaat upazila of Noakhali, Akkas was living in Purano Tejturi Bazaar.

Locals said his body was stuck un-der the bus for few hours. Later, police recovered the body by a wrecker.

Sub Inspector of Tejgaon police sta-tion Saiful Bashar said: “The bus driver lost control over the steering wheel and went over the footpath breaking the iron railing.”

The body was sent to Dhaka Medical Collage Hospital’s (DMCH) morgue.

Amena Begum, 55, was killed as a CNG-run auto rickshaw they were traveling in � ipped over after being hit by a bus in Shahbagh area. Her son-in-law Iqbal, 32, was also injured in the accident.

Assistant Superintendent of Ramna police station Sumon Kanti De said:

“Amena was going to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University.”

In Darus Salam area of Mirpur, Sattar Molla, 55, was hit by a human haulier around 8:30am and died on spot. l

Inde� nite transport strike called again in Thakurgaonn Our Correspondent, Thakurgaon

Demanding ban on the plying of shal-low engine-driven vehicles like no-simon, korimon and bhatbhati on highways, Thakurgoan Bus Owners’ Association, Motor Transport Workers’ Union and Truck-Tank-Lorry-Covered van Workers’ Association have again called an inde� nite transport strike yesterday.

The strike has called o� movements of motor vehicles including Dhaka bound coaches on di� erent routes in � ve upazilas under the district causing immense su� erings to passengers par-ticularly the Hajj pilgrims.

Yesterday morning 30 Hajj pilgrims set out for the Dhaka Hajj camp.

Hundreds more are waiting to start for the Hajj camp.

On August 27, Thakurgoan District Motor Owners’ Association and Sramik Union called an inde� nite bus strike and gave a 72-hour ultimatum to press-home their demand by that day.

The transport unions yesterday re-inforced the strike by including trucks and tank-lorries.

Road communications from the upazilas to the capital and other towns have been cut o� .

During a visit to bus stand of the district this correspondent found that a good number people were waiting for transport.

No buses outside of the district entered the town nor any bus left the city, put people in misery. l

Tk256 crore spent on DSCC roads is money down the drain

Like many roads of the capital a road at Sukrabad area lies in sorry state for lack of proper monitoring and maintenance of the Dhaka South City Corporation ABU HAYAT MAHMUD

Some illegal structures have been built in and around of Sagoria graveyard in Noakhali by local in� uential people. The photo was taken yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

In the last � ve decades, a total of 4,000 ponds have been � lled because of the indiscriminate earth-dumping and unplanned urbanisation

6 NationDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Extortionist arrested while collecting money

Police arrested an alleged extortionist named Aminur Rahman alias Bishe, 30, red handed from Dharmatola area under Kotwali police station yesterday at the time when he was extorting money. The police station’s SI Shoaib Uddin said Aminur had demanded Tk5 lakh as extortion from a local and they arrested him with a � rearms and a round of bullet during handing over the money as the per plan taken by them. At one stage, locals grapped Aminur, son of Abdul Malek, of Arabpur Railline area of the upazila, from police and gave him a good number of beating, to control the situation the SI of police was slightly injured. There were several cases with the police station against Aminur, the SI continued. – Our Correspondent, Jessore

Kidnapped boy found dead after three days in Narsingdi Police recovered the body of an adolescent body, who was kidnapped allegedly for ransom on Friday, from Sadarchar village in Shibpur upazila here yesterday. The boy is Nasir Uddin, 12, son of Abdur Rahman, of Molakan-da village of the upazila. Polive arrested one Tawhid, 18, on charges of having connection with the killing. Police and the family sources said Tawhid and another man

named Nasir called the boy out of his house on the day for playing football and since then he had been missing. Afterwards, the miscreants demanded Tk2 lakh from the parents to buy Nasir’s freedom and gave a bKash number to send the money. At one stage, Nasir’s father informed the matter to police who arrested Tawhid by using a mobile tracking system and they later recovered the body inside a biogas plant of the village as per information of the arrested. Shibpur police station OC Khandaker Imam Uddin said Tawhid confessed of killing Nasir by strangu-lation during the questioning and the body was sent to the district hospital morgue for autopsy. – Our Correspon-dent, Narsingdi

4 shops with Tk50 lakh valuables gutted in Gopalganj A devastating � re burnt down four shops with valuables worth Tk50 lakh in Boalia bazar of Sadar upazila here on Sunday. Sources said the incident of � re erupted from an electric short circuit in a grocery shop of one Nuruzzaman in the bazar around 9pm and soon spread to nearby three other shops. Being informed, three local � re � ghting units rushed to the spot and doused the � re after one and a half hours. However, the businessman claimed the aforesaid loss caused by the � re. – Our Correspondent, Gopalganj

NEWS IN BRIEF

Gazipur road crash kills 2 n Our Correspondent,

Gazipur

A road accident left two dead on the Dhaka-Kishoreganj highway Sunday night near Targaon under Kapasia upazila in Gazipur district.

The victims were identi-� ed as Sultan Miah, 31, son of Lal Miah of Rayed vil-lage under Kapasia upazila in Gazipur, and Yakub Ali, 32, son of Khorshed Ali of Borma village under Trish-al upazila in Mymensingh. Yakub Ali was a sales repre-sentative of Incepta pharma-ceutical company. l

College student killed by stray bullet in Pabna n Tribune Report

A college student was killed after being hit by a stray bullet � red from the gun of an Awami League leader at Radhanagar in the district town on Sunday night.

The deceased was identi� ed as Masud, 20, a fourth year student of the Accounts Department at Government Edward College and son of Maksed Ali of Solabaria village in Ataikula upazila.

Police and locals said district AL vice-president Abdul Hamid went to say prayer at a nearby mosque keeping his licensed revolver inside his private car.

Masud received a bullet � red from the revolver of the AL leader when the car driver, Shakil, was handling it around 9.00pm.

Critically injured, Masud was rushed to Pabna Medical College Hos-pital where doctors declared him dead.

O� cer-in-charge of Sadar Police Sta-tion Qazi Haniful Islam con� rming the incident said they arrested the driver, Shakil, from the spot. l

Managing committee pockets Swarnakali High School fund They misused Tk50 lakh in the construction of a building on the school premises since they used low quality materialsn Our Correspondent, Gopalganj

Students of a high school boycotted classes and staged demonstrations in protest against the school’s managing committee on charges of corruption at Kashiani upazila in Gopalganj on Sunday.

They threw bamboo and bricks on the Gopalganj-Tungipara road around 10am while chanting slogans against the managing committee demanding its cancellation immediately.

Police rushed to the spot around 11am and were able to clear them o� the road and also talked the students into entering their campus. As soon as they entered the campus, the students again began chanting slogans against the managing committee.

Swarnakali High School’s Class X student Md Badrul Alam said they had,

under the banner of Students-Guardi-ans Anti-Corruption Committee, � led a complaint with the deputy commis-sioner against the managing commit-tee on July 13.

According to the complaint, the managing committee took extra admis-sion fees, monthly payments and exam fees by deceiving them. They had also pocketed all the money that came from selling o� 14 trees on the campus.

They made the students buy sub-standard English grammar and other guide books from one of their colleague’s library just for the sake of pocketing commission on sale

The committee also misused Tk50 lakh in the construction of a building on the school premises since they used low-quality construction materials in it.

A total of 16 corruptions and irreg-ularities, including those mentioned

above, have been noted in the com-plaint.

The deputy commissioner assigned Kashiani Upazila Secondary Education O� cer Md Abdur Rahim to investigate the matter.

Denying the allegations, Manag-ing Committee Chairman Sheikh Lut-far Rahman Bachchu said: “A vested quarter is trying to create unrest on the campus in the name of such com-plaints.”

Investigation o� cer Rahim on Tues-day last went to the school and talked to one of the � ve complainant students and a managing committee member at a room of the school in a bid to investi-gate the allegations stated in the com-plaint with the deputy commissioner.

The situation soon took a turn for the worse as both the student and the managing committee member got em-

broiled in a heated argument. The school authorities called up po-

lice who rushed in and arrested four persons, including students, around 11am, prompting hundreds of students to take to the streets. Sensing that the situation might go beyond control, they soon released all the four arrested persons.

The school was announced shut around noon for that day. Even af-ter that, the students continued their demonstrations. Extra police force was then deployed on the school premises.

Investigation O� cer Rahim left the school, halting his investigation.

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune yester-day, he said: “I have postponed my in-vestigation work since there was unrest on the day that I went to investigate the allegation. I will soon start investigat-ing the matter.” l

Traders protest mobile court driven Our Correspondent, Sherpur

Sweetmeat traders in Sherpur district town called an inde� nite strike protesting a mobile court drive against sweetmeat shops in the market yesterday.

According to sources, the mobile court led by magistrate Taslima Nur Hossain launched a drive against Charu Sweetmeat and Premanada Sweetmeat in Munsi Bazar in the town and � ned them Tk29,000 as they had no licence from Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution. They were also selling the goods in an unhygienic environment.

Protesting the incident, the traders brought out a procession and blockad-ed the road.

Trader Joy alleged that the court launched the drive without notice and � ned them using lame excuses. l

Students block Dhaka-Mawa highway n Our Correspondent, Munshiganj

High school students blockaded the Dhaka-Mawa highway for an hour yes-terday after a female student was alleg-edly harassed by a sta� of a bus in the morning.

Abdur Rahim, headmaster of Shamashpur High School, said: “Ira, a class X student of the school was ver-bally harassed by a Gangchil Paribahan bus sta� while she was on her way here.”

“After she reached school, she told her friends about the incident and as the news spread throughout the school. Infuriated students went to Shamashpur bus stand and staged pro-tests around 2pm,” he added.

The blockade caused a four kilo-metre long congestion in each side of the highway.

Informed, O� cer-in-Charge of Sreenagar police station Mahbubur Rahman went to the spot and assured the protesting students that necessary steps would be taken against the ac-cused sta� after which the blockade was withdrawn by the students. l

Mystery shrouds newlywed’s death in Savar n Our Correspondent, Savar

Local police recovered the hanging body of a newly-married housewife from her residence in Tetuljura area of Hemayetpur of Savar yesterday.

However, since police initially could not con� rm whether it was suicide or murder as of � ling this report, they ar-rested the husband on suspicion.

The victim was identi� ed as Farza-na Akter, wife of house painter Raihan. The couple used to live in a rented house in the area and were originally from Naria upazila of Shariatpur.

The victim’s family member sources said the couple got engaged in marriage a couple of months ago, after which they used to quarrel over di� erent fam-ily matters all the time.

Afterwards in the morning, the locals spotted Farzana’s hanging body from the beam of her living room with a scarf around her neck, and informed police.

Savar Model police station OC Mosta-fa Kamal said they body was sent to the DMCH morgue and the victim’s father � led a case against Raihan on charges of forcing her daughter to commit suicide. l

Protesting drive of a mobile court sweetmeat traders in Sherpur district town shut down shops yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

7Long Form Tuesday, September 2, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Brett Elmer

It is becoming increasingly likely that the situation in Xinjiang has reached a turning point. On June 21, 13 assailants were killed in an attack on a police station in

Yecheng County, Kashgar province, in southern Xinjiang.

On July 30, details of a two day old incident also emerged – a bloody clash between Chinese security forces and ethnic Uighurs in the country’s far west – suggesting that dozens of people died when a protest against government policies turned violent.

The o� cial news agency Xinhua described the confrontation, in the Xinjiang region, as a “violent terrorist attack that was organised, premed-itated and carefully planned.” But Uighur exile groups, citing sources in the region, said that the police had used excessive force on a crowd of protesters outside government o� ces in Yarkand County and that rioting had later broken out across several rural townships.

A government-run website blamed Islamic fundamentalists for the unrest but provided no evidence for the claim. Xinjiang is home to most of China’s 10 million Uighurs, a Tur-kic-speaking Muslim people who pop-ulate the string of ancient oasis towns and cities that were once way stations on the Silk Road.

More recently, on August 4, in the northwestern Xinjiang city of Karamay, authorities announced a ban on people with head coverings including hijabs, niqabs, and burkas, or beards, from taking local buses. The ban would apply for the duration of a sports competition ending on August 20, state media reported.

Sadly, these are no random occur-rances, but simply the most recent ones in a series of violent incidents linked to Xinjiang, and its native Uyghur population, since the car bomb

attack in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on October 31, 2013.

During this period, a number of high pro� le attacks have taken place, including the March 1 mass stabbing at Kunming train station that left 29 peo-ple dead, the April 30 double suicide bombing at Urumqi train station and the May 22 car bombings in a central Urumqi market that killed 31 people and injured another 94. In addition, a number of “low-level” attacks on police stations and security outposts in Xinjiang by suspected Uyghur gangs have taken place.

There has also been a number of instances of police using extreme force to break up Uyghur gatherings and protestors (at least two Uyghurs were shot dead during a protest over alleged o� cials’ harassment of women wear-ing headscarves) and even one where a Uyghur teenager was shot dead for running a red light on his motorcycle.

Such an escalation of violence, es-pecially in such a short space of time, must inevitably have prompted Beijing to ask: what to do now in Xinjiang?

Whenever the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has asked this question – and it has asked it a number of times since seizing control of the region in 1949 – the most important point to remember has always been: the economic, political and cultural inte-gration of Xinjiang with China proper must continue.

The region is of vital economic and strategic importance to the Chinese regime. Comprising 18% of the coun-try’s entire land mass, China’s western border province posseses abundant oil and natural gas reserves, is becoming an increasingly important channel for business and political relations be-tween China and the nations of Central Asia and Europe, and the vastness of its territory is considered ideal for helping to alleviate China’s growing problem of overcrowding in its eastern coastal provinces.

Therefore, the answer to the ques-tion is, and will always be: whatever is necessary to maintain control of Xinjiang.

This fundamental goal has seen pol-icy in the region vary quite drastically at various points since 1949. Forced assimilation policies during the years of the Great Leap Forward (1958-1962) and the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) were relaxed following the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, allowing the Uyghurs greater cultural expression. However, this also resulted in greater calls for increased Uyghur autonomy in the region.

Thus, since the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, Chinese policymak-ers have increasingly relied on the dual-pronged policy approach of the “carrot” (of economic development) and “stick” (of oppression), as part of a more aggressive plan designed to

both boost the economic integration of Xinjiang with the greater Chinese state and close the gap between the culture of the Uyghurs and the culture of the Han Chinese.

In a recent article for the BBC, Dr Michael Clarke of Gri� th University, Brisbane, asserted that the recent escalation in Xinjiang-related violence is most likely down to two possible factors: the role of what Beijing terms the “hostile external in� uences” in Xinjiang, and Chinese policy in the region, which aims for the total inte-gration of the region and its native Uy-ghur population with China proper via what Clarkes terms “a three-pronged strategy of repression, restriction, and investment.” (BBC, May 23, 2014)

These policies have long been sight-ed as fuelling an increased sentiment amongst Uyghurs of marginalisation. Beijing has long chosen the conven-ience of pinning all the blame for Xinjiang and Uyghur-related violence on the former, whilst to the majority of outside observers, it is the latter which is chie� y responsible.

In the immediate aftermath of the recent violence, it appeared that Bei-jing was content to push ahead with its current strategies in the region. It was vociferous in blaming “hostile external forces” for inciting ethnic divisions and causing the recent upturn in violence, with Xi also pledging China would “deal a crushing blow to terror-ists and deploy a ‘strike-� rst’ strategy” (The Guardian, May 2, 2014). Beijing has also intensi� ed economic reforms, public security measures and initia-tives such as bilingual education.

In relation to CCP policies in Xin-jiang, in late May, Chinese President Xi Jingping commented, “Practice has proved that our party’s ruling strate-gy in Xinjiang is correct and must be maintained in the long run” (New York Times, May 30 2014).

For their part, Rebiya Kadeer, president of the Munich based World Uyghur Congress, and outspoken exiled Uyghur commentator Mehmet Tohti have both blamed the upturn in violence on the continuation of existing hardline government policies in the region by Xi.

However, despite these immediate measures, the recently concluded second Central Work Forum in Xin-jiang (zhongyang Xinjiang gongzuo zuotanhui) suggested that, behind the scenes at least, a signi� cant change in approach by the CCP to ethnic policy in the region might be in the o� ng.

Attended by the entire Politburo and more than 300 of the Party’s most senior o� cials in Beijing from May 28-29, the forum saw a new policy direction proposed. Rather than focus-ing primarily on economic issues, the forum emphasised, according to James Leibold in The Jamestown Foun-dations’ China brief: “the complex

and protracted nature of the “Xin-jiang problem,” subtly recalibrating the “general goal” of Xinjiang work towards “safeguarding social stability and achieving an enduring peace.”” (China Brief, vol 14, issue 12).

The forum also asserted: “Xin-jiang’s most sustained problem is the problem of ethnic unity” (Xinhua, May 29, 2014). This marks a signi� cant de-parture from previous rhetoric related to Xinjiang, which asserted that unrest in the region was due primarily to economic issues.

Despite the current absence of con-crete policy, this shift towards a focus on interethnic unity will see Beijing attempt to, according to Leibold: “two potentially contradictory courses in Xinjiang over the coming year.

First, it seeks to build a more ethnically integrated labor market by allowing minorities like the Uighurs to migrate into both regional cities like Urumqi as well as coastal centers like Shanghai and Beijing. Second, it will redouble its hold over Xinjiang through a deeper penetration into the daily lives of Xinjiang residents by the Party and its security apparatuses” (China Brief, vol 14, issue 12).

Even if this new attempt to improve ethnic unity in Xinjiang can be seen as a signal of a change of heart, and mind, in Beijing, implementing any new policy initiatives on the ground in Xinjiang is a whole other issue entirely. Governance in Xinjiang is poor and beset by vested interests, the current hukou (household registration) system prevents large scale migration of ethnic groups, and potential increased competition between Uyghur and Han workers for jobs could only serve to in� ame tensions between the two groups. Beijing must tread carefully.

At the forum, Xi Jinping is quoted as urging “all ethnic groups are to show mutual understanding, respect, tolerance and appreciation, and to learn and help each other, so they are tightly bound together like the seeds of a pomegranate.” This may be

simply another way of phrasing the long-lasting CCP idea that the econom-ic, political and cultural integration of Xinjiang, and its native Uyghur population, with China proper, is its number one priority in the region.

However, maybe, just maybe, Beijing has � nally realised that taking steps to rectify the genuine Uyghur grievances that exist in Xinjiang, and not solely relying on the carrot (of economic development) and stick (of oppression) approach which has proven so ine� ectual for so long, will in fact prove to be the most appropri-ate solution to what is becoming an increasingly volatile problem. l

Brett Elmer is a PhD Candidate at Murdoch University. This article was � rst published by Alochonaa.com.

Is Beijing considering a policy change in Xinjiang?

The most important point to remember hasalways been: The economic, political andcultural integration of Xinjiang with Chinaproper must continue

‘All ethnic groups are to show mutual understanding, respect, tolerance and appreciation, and to learn and help each other, so they are tightly bound together like the seeds of a pomegranate’

A 2009 � le photo showing a large group of Han Chinese walk up a street carrying sticks and shovels on the streets of Urumqi in China’s far west Xinjiang province AFP

Tuesday, September 2, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World8

N E W S B I T E S Ukraine troops abandon key airport after clashesn Agencies

Ukrainian forces have withdrawn from the airport of the eastern city of Luhansk after all-night clashes with pro-Russian rebels, BBC quoted the military as saying.

Security o� cials said the Ukrainian troops had come under attack from a column of Russian tanks.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has urged negotiators meet-ing in the Belarus capital, Minsk, to make an “immediate cease� re” their priority.

Some 2,600 people have died in eastern Ukraine since � ghting began in April. The con� ict broke out after Rus-sia’s annexation of Ukraine’s southern Crimea peninsula in March.

The rebels have been gaining ground on Ukrainian forces in recent days, in both the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, and further south around the port of Mariupol.

Ukraine and the West blame Russian military support for the rebel advances, saying armoured columns have crossed the border - allegations rejected by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

He has accused European leaders of

ignoring the Ukrainian army “directly targeting civilians.”

On Sunday, he said the issue of “statehood” for eastern Ukraine need-ed to be discussed to ensure the inter-ests of local people were “de� nitely upheld.”

‘No military intervention’Ukraine’s security council con� rmed on Monday that its troops had with-drawn from Luhansk airport “in an or-ganised manner.”

Clashes are said to still be taking place near the airport of the city of Do-netsk, with separatists claiming that two Ukrainian platoons have surren-dered.

Ukrainian news agency UNIAN quoted a senior o� cial as saying that as many as 680 soldiers had been cap-tured in Donetsk region after the recent � ghting.

He said “about 80%” of them were captured around Ilovaysk, east of the city of Donetsk, where hundreds of Ukrainian troops have been cut o� since the latest rebel advance began.

There were also reports of an at-tack on a Ukrainian patrol vessel in the Azov Sea on Sunday night. Meanwhile,

Ukrainian and Russian o� cials are holding talks with separatist rebels and international monitors in Minsk.

The meeting of the so-called Con-tact Group includes representatives from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

Lavrov said he was counting on the talks to focus on “agreeing an immedi-ate and unconditional cease� re.”

He also insisted there would be “no military intervention” from Russia in Ukraine.

Last week’s � rst direct talks between President Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Petro Poroshenko, did not lead to any major breakthrough.

Poroshenko on Monday again ac-cused Russia of “direct and open ag-gression” in eastern Ukraine. But Putin earlier said Russia could not “stand aside when people are being shot at al-most at point blank.”

His comments came after the EU gave Russia a one-week ultimatum to reverse course in Ukraine or face more sanctions.

The EU and US have already im-posed asset freezes and travel bans on many senior Russian o� cials and sepa-ratist leaders in eastern Ukraine. l

Annoyed by o� -hour work emails? They may soon be illegal in Germanyn Agencies

Labor Day represents the last precious day of summer before getting back to the grind. But that assumes we ever left the grind in the � rst place.

For many in the US, the ubiquity of email and other forms of e-communi-cation means we’re never really o� the job – and we’ll respond to emails from coworkers and bosses at even the most o� of hours. How many Americans are even working today, despite it being a national holiday to celebrate the social achieve-ments of the US worker movement?

You might not even consider opening your inbox it if you were German. Despite their reputation as zealots of productivity and industriousness, Germans enjoy a much better work-life balance than their American counterparts.

And now Germany’s labor minister, Andrea Nahles, is considering new “an-ti-stress” legislation, which could ban com-panies from contacting employees outside of work hours, reports the Guardian. She told the local press last week: “There is an undeniable relationship between constant availability and the increase of mental illness.”

It’s already illegal in Germany to contact sta� on holidays – like Labor Day – and the move announced by the labor minister follows the path blazed by the private sector. Daimler, for example, made news in early August – at the height of vacation season – by o� ering a program to employees called “Mail on Holiday” that automatically deletes emails when they are on vacation.

“The idea behind it is to give people a break and let them rest,” Daimler spokes-man Oliver Wihofszki told Time magazine. “Then they can come back to work with a

fresh spirit.” When a similar idea was � oated in

France among a federation of employees and unions, it led to misleading headlines about the French banning emails after 6pm (not true) and mockery in the foreign press. One reader of the Times of London wrote in: “The French really do appear to be keen on pressing the self destruct button. What business would want to locate in France?”

But even if the Germans are the � rst to lambast France’s 35-hour work week, their ideas about out-of-o� ce access seem to have resonated – not in mockery of German “laziness” but approval of a certain humanity. In a piece in the German English daily The Local, one writer cele-brated Germany’s trend towards human working hours and blasted the “American way” with tongue in cheek. “One day we’ll � gure out the key to the uniquely Amer-ican workplace secrets where massive amounts of overtime=work ethic and taking vacation=slacker. Then and only then will we reach our true potential.”

And Clive Thompson opines in The New York Times that the American work-force has something to learn from the German trend toward limits.

He asks: “If this can happen in preci-sion-mad, high-productivity Germany, could it happen in the United States? Abso-lutely. It not only could, but it should.” l

Iran convicts Ahmadinejad’s vice presidentn Agencies

Mohammad Reza Rahimi, Iran’s � rst vice president under former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has been sentenced to prison and � ned.

“I cannot reveal the details because the sentence is not � nal, but it includes a term of imprisonment and a � ne,” Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejeie, the sec-ond-ranking member of Iran’s judiciary, told the AFP news agency on Monday.

Iranian media previously reported that Rahimi, 65, was on trial for corrup-tion. Appointed by Ahmadinejad after a controversial election win in 2009, Rahimi would be the most senior o� cial from that era to be convicted.

Polticians had accused him of head-ing up an embezzlement scheme.

He was questioned by judicial o� cials before being placed on bail in December 2013. In March, local Iranian media reported Rahimi had been indict-ed, though details of the charges were unclear. Rahimi has said he is innocent.

According to Iranian law, the sen-tence must be con� rmed by the Court of Appeal before it becomes � nal.

The media does not have the right to reveal details of the conviction until that time. l

Turkish foreign ministry summons US envoy over spying reportn Reuters, Ankara

Turkey’s foreign ministry yesterday summoned the US charge d’a� aires, currently Washington’s most senior diplomat in Ankara, over a media report that the United States had spied on Tur-key, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said. German magazine Der Spiegel said in an article on its website on Sunday that the US National Security Agency (NSA) and Britain›s GCHQ eavesdrop-ping agency had carried out «wide-scale spying against Turkey,” citing docu-ments from the archive of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

“For the reasons that the United States’ name was mentioned, and such claims were made ... the charge d’af-faires has been called to the foreign min-istry and information has been received from him,” Arinc told reporters after the � rst meeting of Turkey’s new cabinet. Der Spiegel said the US intelligence ser-vices had also worked closely to support Ankara in its e� orts to battle Kurdish militants, who waged a three-decade insurgency for greater Kurdish rights in the country›s southeast. l

Libyan parliament reappoints PM as govt loses grip on ministriesn Reuters, Benghazi, Libya

Libya’s House of Representatives re-appointed Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni yesterday as the government lost control of ministries in the capital where armed groups have taken over and a separate parliament has claimed legitimacy.

The parliament that was elected in June moved to the remote eastern city of Tobruk last month as rival armed groups battled for Tripoli. An alliance led by forces from the western city of Misrata seized control of the capital last week.

The reappointment of Thinni, a former defence minister and career soldier who has been prime minister since March, sets him the challenge of reasserting government control over a country where many fear a descent into full-scale civil war.

Parliamentary spokesman Faraj Hashem said 64 of the 106 representa-tives present had voted for Thinni and the house had instructed him “to form a crisis government within a period of time not exceeding two weeks.”

US Foreign Minister John Kerry called Thinni before his appointment to give his support, the Libyan govern-ment said in a statement. Both stressed the need for national dialogue and rec-onciliation, it added.

In a stark illustration of the gov-ernment’s loss of control in Tripoli, a video posted online showed dozens of men, some armed, crowding around a swimming pool at anUS embassy build-ing, with some diving in from a nearby building.

Washington said on Sunday that an armed group had taken over an aban-doned annex of the US Embassy but had not broken into the main com-pound. All embassy sta� were evacuat-ed last month.

Late on Sunday, the government re-leased a statement admitting it had lost its grip on many levers of power.

“We announce that most ministries, institutions and state bodies in the capital Tripoli are out of our control,» it said, adding that armed groups had prevented sta� from entering some government buildings. l

Syrian army, rebels � ght on Golan where UN peacekeepers heldFijian peacekeepers held by Islamist group, Syrian war reaches frontier with Israel

n Reuters, Golan Heights/Manila

Heavy � ghting erupted on Monday between the Syrian army and Islamist rebels on the Golan Heights, where 44 peacekeepers from Fiji are being held by militants and scores of their fellow blue helmets from the Philippines es-caped after resisting capture.

Syria’s three-year civil war reached the frontier with Israeli-controlled ter-ritory last week when Islamist � ghters overran a crossing point in the line that

has separated Israelis from Syrians in the Golan Heights since a 1973 war.

The � ghters also turned against the UN blue helmets from a peacekeeping force that has patrolled the cease� re line for 40 years. After the 44 Fijians were captured on Thursday, more than 70 Filipinos were besieged at two loca-tions for two days.

All the Filipinos reached safety over the weekend. Thirty-two were rescued from one outpost on Saturday and 40 escaped from the other position early

on Sunday while rebels were sleeping after a seven-hour � re� ght.

Fiji says it is negotiating the release of its 44 troops. The United Nations says it is not sure where they are being held. The Nusra Front, Syria’s a� liate of al Qaeda, says it is holding them be-cause the UN force protects Israel.

It was not immediately clear on Monday whether forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had man-aged to retake control of the Quneitra crossing from the Nusra Front rebels.

Persistent gunshots and explosions from mortar shells and other muni-tions could be heard on the Israeli-oc-cupied side of the frontier and com-batants could be clearly seen targeting each other with their weapons.

At least one tank belonging to the Syrian army was also involved and some rebels could be seen a few metres (yards) away from the frontier fence.

A large Syrian � ag that had been � y-ing for days between the Quneitra cross-ing and the abandoned town was taken down and a United Nations position in the area, thought to be unmanned, was pounded with mortar shells.

The Syrian Observatory for Hu-man Rights, which monitors violence in the Syrian civil war, said the Nusra Front and allied � ghters were battling government forces near the Quneitra crossing and in the nearby village of al-Hamiydiah.

The Observatory said there were casualties on both sides. Observatory founder Rami Abdelrahman told Reu-ters the Nusra Front’s aim appeared to be “to end once and for all the regime’s presence in the area and it also appears that the goal is to expel the internation-al observers.”

The UN peacekeeping force in the area, known as UNDOF, includes 1,223 troops from India, Ireland, Nepal and the Netherlands as well as the Fijians and Filipinos who came under attack last week.

The Filipino blue helmets had been besieged in outposts known as posi-tions 68 and 69 until their rescue from one on Saturday and escape from the other early on Sunday morning. The United Nations said both Syria and Is-rael helped in the rescue. l

Iraq retakes more towns from Islamic Staten Agencies

Iraqi Kurdish forces and Shia armed volunteers have retaken more north-ern towns from the Islamic State group, killing at least two of its senior � ghters, sources have told Al Jazeera.

A day after breaking the siege in the town of Amerli north of Baghdad, government forces retook the town of Sulaiman Bek on Monday, removing another key stronghold of the Islamic State group.

Iraqi o� cials said they killed, Muss-ab Mamoud, the town’s Islamic State head, and Mazen Zaki, the military wing commander, along with more than 20 other Sunni rebel � ghters.

Iraqi security o� cials said eight of the � ghters were Chechen. They also said  the � ghters include dozens of nationalities, including experienced Chechen snipers.

Government forces are still trying to clear the town of explosives left by the armed group which was previously known as ISIL.

Iraqi security forces backed by Shia

armed  volunteers have now begun clearing operations - meant to � ush out remaining � ghters and detonate bombs laid by the � ghters and expected to take several days.

The small farming town became an Islamic State stronghold after it was seized last year by Jaish al-Tariqiyah al-Naqshabandiyah - Baath party loy-alists led by Saddam Hussein’s former deputy Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri.

Iraqi security forces took it back and occupied the town, only to lose it in the sweep by Islamic State � ghters through vast areas of Iraq’s north and west.

“The town of Suleiman Bek has been liberated from Islamic State by the Iraqi Army and Peshmerga as well as local vol-unteers including the Peace Brigade, Badr Corps and Asaib Ahel-al-Haq,” General Abdul Amir al-Zaidi, head of the Dijala Operations commander told Al Jazeera.

The Peace Brigade is an o� shoot of Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s former armed group  the Mehdi Army, while Asaib Ahel-al-Haq is an Iranian-backed group that has now entered Iraq’s polit-ical mainstream. l

Kurdish peshmerga forces celebrate as they take control of Sulaiman Pek from the Islamist State militants, in the northwest of Tikrit city. Islamist � ghters have carried out atrocities on ‘an unimaginable scale’ in months of � ghting with Iraqi forces who have also killed detainees and shelled civilian areas, a UN o� cial said in an emergency debate on the con� ict yesterday. At least 1,420 people were killed in Iraq in August alone REUTERS

Rebel � ghters demonstrate with their fake weapons during a military display as part of a graduating ceremony at a camp in eastern al-Ghouta, near Damascus REUTERS

Japan and India vow to boost defence ties during summitJapan eyes � rst overseas military sale in 50 years, ‘signi� cant progress’ in nuclear energy talksn Reuters, Tokyo

Japan and India agreed yesterday to strengthen defence ties as Asia’s second and third biggest economies keep a wary eye on a rising China, with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi lashing out at the “expansionism” of some nations.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi also agreed to speed up talks on a so-far elusive deal on nuclear ener-gy cooperation, welcoming what they called “signi� cant progress” in the ne-gotiations.

“From this day on, Prime Minister Modi and I will work hand-in-hand to dramatically strengthen relations in ev-ery � eld and elevate ties to a special, stra-tegic global partnership,” Abe told a joint media event after a summit with Modi.

They also agreed to accelerate talks on the possible sale of an amphibious aircraft to India’s navy - likely to be-come Japan’s � rst overseas military sale in nearly 50 years and a result of Abe’s more muscular approach to de-fence in the face of an assertive China.

Modi, on his � rst major foreign visit since a landslide election win in May, arrived on Saturday for a � ve-day trip aimed at capitalising on his personal af-� nity with Abe to bolster security and business ties.

“We intend to give a new thrust and direction to our defence cooperation, including collaboration in defence technology and equipment, given our shared interest in peace and stability and maritime security,” Modi said.

In a sign of their warmth, the two leaders greeted each other with a bear

hug when they met on Saturday in Ja-pan’s ancient capital of Kyoto for an informal dinner. Modi is one of three people that Abe follows on Twitter, while the Indian leader admires Abe’s brand of nationalist politics.

“The 21st century belongs to Asia ... but how the 21st century will be de-pends on how strong and progressive India-Japan ties are,” Modi told Japa-nese and Indian business executives earlier in the day.

Modi criticised the 18th-century ex-pansionist ways of some countries that encroach upon the seas and territories of others, in a veiled reference to Chi-na, with which India shares a long dis-puted border.

Sino-Japanese ties have also been chilled by a row over disputed isles, feuds over the wartime past, and mu-tual mistrust over defence policies as China seeks a bigger regional role and Abe loosens the constraints of Japan’s post-war paci� cism.

Abe is keen to expand Japan’s net-work of security partnerships with countries such as India and Australia to cope with the challenge presented by China. Modi, for his part, is embark-ing on an intense month of diplomacy in which he will receive Chinese Presi-dent Xi Jinping before meeting US Pres-ident Barack Obama in Washington as he seeks to carve out a stronger role for India as a global player. l

9Tuesday, September 2, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World

Afghan talks for unity government collapse, crisis deepensn Reuters, Kabul

Talks on a power sharing deal between Afghanistan’s rival presidential can-didates, Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, have collapsed, a top leader said yesterday, rekindling fears of eth-nic unrest over the disputed vote.

Under the terms of a deal brokered by US Secretary of State John Kerry, the runner-up in the election would name a “chief executive” in a unity govern-ment conceived to keep the lid on po-litical tensions.

But Mohammad Mohaqeq, one of Abdullah’s vice presidential running mates, told Reuters the two sides could not agree on the powers of the chief executive, blaming the Ghani camp for hardening its position.

“The talks collapsed two days ago. The political process is now at a stale-mate, we don’t see any way out,” Mo-haqeq, a leader of the minority Hazara community, said in an interview in Kabul, as a months-long power strug-gle for a successor to President Hamid Karzai showed no signs of a resolution.

Abdullah’s team has walked out of a UN audit of votes from a June 2 run-o� ballot, saying it was dissatis� ed with the way that fraudulent votes were be-ing handled.

While Abdullah won the most votes in a � rst round in April, he didn’t pass a 50% threshold to win outright. After the country’s election commission an-nounced Ghani the preliminary winner in the second round, Abdullah threat-ened to form a parallel government, ac-cusing his rival of stealing votes.

On Monday, a spokesman for the Ab-dullah campaign said it would withdraw from the political process if its demands

were not met by Tuesday. “We are reach-ing the limit of our patience, we are giv-ing a deadline until tomorrow,” Fazel Sancharika told a news conference.

The United Nations hopes to complete the audit of 8 million votes by around Sept. 10, clearing the way for Afghani-stan’s � rst democratic transfer of power. The prolonged political transition comes at a time of deep anxiety in Afghanistan as the United States, Kabul’s biggest aid donor, and other Nato nations withdraw their troops after nearly 13 years of � ght-ing Taliban insurgents.

O� cials and diplomats fear a break-down between the presidential candi-dates and the power-brokers who have a stake in the process could trigger con-� ict along ethnic lines, on top of the deadly insurgency.

Ghani, a former � nance minister and World Bank economist, is a member of Afghanistan’s biggest ethnic group, the Pashtuns. Abdullah is part Pashtun and part ethnic Tajik but draws most of his support from Tajiks, the Hazaras and other smaller minorities, largely in the centre and north. l

For Myanmar political predictions, locals look to the starsn Tribune Desk

For years, Myanmar watchers attribut-ed the odd decisions made by the coun-try’s military rulers to an in� uential class of government apparatchik: the astrologer bureaucrat.

Take the way the regime moved the capital from Yangon to Naypyidaw in 2005: on Nov. 11, at 11am, 1,100 military trucks ferried 11 military battalions and 11 ministries to a brand-new city carved from the jungle.

Similar advice in 1987, according to a report by The Christian Science Mon-itor, led the regime to demonetize cer-tain banknotes (causing widespread � -nancial hardship and helping spark the 1988 democracy protests), and to order the mass cultivation of a plant the mil-itary believed would sap democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s strength.

Sweeping reforms begun in 2011 have edged Myanmar, formerly Burma, clos-er to democracy; next year it’s expect-ed to hold the freest general elections since 1960. But that hasn’t diminished the political in� uence of astrologers – it’s just changed their audience. No lon-ger exclusive to a ruling elite, political astrology has been democratized, and is now a � xture of Myanmar’s vibrant new media industry, with astrologer columnists and commentators appear-ing in newspapers regularly. Call it the rise of the “astrologer pundit.”

Their predictions began appearing with the end of newspaper censorship in 2012, and are a part of the new era of press freedom. Yet the phenomenon also suggests newspaper readers here are willing to accept a form of fatalism inimical to the spirit of democracy: why bother voting if the stars deter-mine what is so?

By far the most famous of these seers are San-Zarni Bo and Zayar Ko, two men with opposite political views. San-Zarni Bo discovered astrology as a political prisoner. Zayar Ko, attended Myanmar’s version of West Point mili-tary academy.

Their forecasts frequently betray their own political sympathies. “People want bad news about the government and good news about the opposition,” says San-Zarni Bo. His o� ce mingles Buddha statuettes with computer equip-ment that enlarges handprints during palm-reading sessions. He’s developed smart-phone apps that deliver horo-scopes to subscribers in Myanmar and Thailand, and has daily broadcast gigs.

He is also a staunch supporter of Ms. Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy is expected to do well in next year’s parliamentary elections (he says she politely ignores his advice about lucky dates). Journalists writing for the biggest local newspapers seek him out regularly and quote him with reverence. l

Nalanda University reopens after hundreds of years n Agencies

The revived Nalanda University, an ancient international centre for learning in Bihar which has attracted over 1,000 applications from around the world, began its � rst aca-demic session yesterday with 15 students, including � ve women, and 10 faculty mem-bers, its vice-chancellor said.

“We are ready to start the academic session of Nalanda University Monday,” vice-chancellor Gopa Sabhrawal told IANS prior to reopening classes.

Sabhrawal said a three-day student orientation programme for the School of Historical Sciences and the School of Envi-ronment and Ecology for the � rst session 2014-15 commenced on Friday in the make-shift campus at the Buddhist pilgrim town of Rajgir, about 100 km from Patna. The university will come up in Rajgir, 12 km from where the ancient Nalanda Univeristy stood till the 12th century, when it was razed by an invading Turkish army.

The formal inauguration is expected in mid-September, Sabhrawal said. The ful-ly-residential university, to be completed by 2020, will eventually have seven schools, all for post-graduate and doctoral students,

o� ering courses in science, philosophy and spirituality and social sciences.

“Over 1,000 students from 40 countries have sought admission in Nalanda Universi-ty. But only 15 students have been selected, including one each from Japan and Bhutan and others from India,” Sabharwal said.

More students will be enrolled in Sep-tember as the selection process is still under way, she added.

It was initially decided to enrol 40 stu-dents — 20 each in the two schools — but after scrutiny and interview only the best students have been selected, Sabharwal said.

Applications have been received from the US, Russia, England, Spain, Germany, Japan, Myanmar, Austria and Sri Lanka, among others, as also from West Asian and Southeast Asian countries.

Those 15 selected students will be housed in Hotel Tathagat, owned by the Bihar State Tourism Development Corpora-tion (BSTDC) in Rajgir. Classes will be held in the nearby convention hall of the state government.

Rajgir attracts thousands of tourists from all over the world every year. It is the second most visited tourist place in the Buddhist cir-

cuit in Bihar after Bodh Gaya, considered as the birthplace of Buddhism, where Gautam Buddha attained enlightenment over 2,500 years ago. Rajgir (then Rajagriha) was the � rst capital of the Magadha kingdom and one of the favourite places of the Buddha.

The university is an initiative of the Indi-an government and the 18 East Asia Summit (EAS) countries.

During his trip to Brunei in October 2013, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had inked agreements with seven EAS countries

— Australia, Cambodia, Singapore, Brunei, New Zealand, Laos and Myanmar — that have pledged their commitment to the project.

China has committed $1m for the project and a MOU on this was signed during Man-mohan Singh’s visit to Beijing in November 2013. Singapore has pledged $5-6m and Australia about $1m Australian dollars.

In May 2013, the Nalanda board had approved the architectural plan of the university, proposing a massive lake at the centre of the campus. A library, a huge dome-shaped structure, would come up in the middle of the lake and be half submerged.

The cental government has sanctioned Rs.2,700 crore ($445m) cost for the univer-sity, to be spent over 10 years.

Established in the � fth century during the Gupta dynasty, the ancient Nalanda University was once � ocked by thousands of scholars and thinkers from across the world.

It was destroyed by the invading Turkish army of Bakhtiyar Khilji, a general of Qutbuddin Aibak and the blaze in the huge library is believed to have raged for several days. l

China anti-dissent playbook may fail in Hong Kong n AP, Hong Kong

China’s Communist leaders have pulled out their usual playbook to suppress resistance to their plans to tightly limit the � rst direct election of Hong Kong’s leader, but are likely to � nd that the re-sults are quite di� erent.

Beijing is blaming radicals and for-eigners and showing o� its military might, all things unlikely to go down well in the freewheeling capitalist bas-tion where a sizeable middle class ac-customed to freedom of speech and the rule of law plans to push back with acts of civil disobedience.

Rowdy protests on Monday against a visiting Beijing o� cial who was ex-plaining the central government’s de-cision signaled a new stage in Hong Kong’s battle for democracy.

The ruling came after months of reminders from Beijing that it is ulti-mately in charge of the city despite its substantial autonomy. But the reaction in the former British colony is shaping up to be unlike anything Beijing is used to encountering when quelling dissent on the mainland.

Dozens of pro-democracy lawmak-ers heckled Li Fei, the deputy secretary general of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, or legislature, as he explained the elec-tion process, a rare occasion on which a Beijing o� cial was exposed to open de� ance.

They chanted slogans and waved signs accusing  China’s  central govern-ment of “breaking its promise” to let Hong Kong have full democracy. Secu-rity o� cers escorted some out and car-

ried or dragged away others. Outside the venue, a group of activists trying to storm barricades to get inside were pepper-sprayed by police.

Democracy groups reacted with an-

ger after Li’s announcement on Sunday ruling out open nominations for candi-dates in Hong Kong’s � rst direct elec-tions in 2017. Students vowed to boy-cott classes, and leaders of the Occupy

Central movement said the city had entered an “era of civil disobedience,” adding they would go ahead with plans to paralyze the � nancial district with 10,000 protesters to press for genuine democracy.

Li dismissed the threats, saying “the Chinese central government believes that the Hong Kong government, espe-cially the high-quality police force and law enforcement agencies, with the support of Hong Kong citizens, will be able to handle it.”

China has sought to blame the opposi-tion in Hong Kong on interference by Brit-ain and other unidenti� ed foreign forces, an echo of Beijing’s frequent attacks on “overseas anti-China forces” it blames for encouraging dissidents and fueling insta-bility among its ethnic minorities.

Hong Kong activists operate openly in a way unthinkable on the mainland. Restrictions seen there are largely ab-sent in Hong Kong. Activists are free to organize large anti-government protest rallies attracting tens of thousands of demonstrators, thanks to guarantees in the city’s mini-constitution ensuring freedom of speech.

Hong Kongers also don’t face polit-ically motivated punishment from the city’s independent courts. A hard line on democracy in Hong Kong will also do nothing to advance  China’s  court-ship of Taiwan, the self-governing is-land democracy that Beijing is deter-mined to bring under its control. l

Thai ruler gives top cabinet posts to junta inner circlen Reuters, Bangkok

Military ruler General Prayuth Chan-ocha has named an interim cabinet dominated by members of the security forces to governThailand  through at least a year of political reforms before he permits an election.

Prayuth was widely expected to hand the top portfolios to the military as he chooses a government from the small circle that formed the junta that has ruled since a coup on May 22.

Thailand’s army  chief has kept an iron grip on power as he extends the government, hand-picking an interim parliament that subsequently nominat-ed him prime minister. The parliament, like the cabinet, is dominated by mem-bers of the military.

The Thai king gave royal approval to the interim cabinet on Sunday. The cabinet will have an audience with the monarch in coming days, the last for-mality before it can begin governing.

The portfolios of transport, defence, commerce and interior ministries will go to members of the armed forces. Economics and � nance go to civilians.

The interior and defence ministers are two army generals that a Reuters report last year showed secretly backed the protests that undermined the gov-ernment ofYingluck Shinawatra  and paved the way for the coup.

The interior ministry goes to Gener-al Anupong Paochinda, who was army chief from 2007 to 2010. General Praw-it Wongsuwan  returns to the defence ministry, and will also be the deputy prime minister.

The two are towering � gures in Thai-land’s military establishment, have close ties to Prayuth and are staunch monarchists who played a role in the previous coup inThailand in 2006. That coup ousted Yingluck’s brother, Thak-sin Shinawatra. l

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi (front L) shakes hands with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a signing ceremony at the state guest house in Tokyo REUTERS

Diplomats fear a breakdown between the presidential candidates, and the power-brokers who have a stake in the process could trigger con� ict along ethnic lines

Pro-democracy lawmaker Helena Wong Pik-wan, center, is taken away by security guards after a protest against Li Fei, deputy secretary general of the National People’s Congress’ Standing Committee, during a brie� ng session in Hong Kong AP

Education not intimidationTwo recent incidents once again bring to the light the fact that

campuses in Bangladesh are often a breeding ground for intimidation and violence.

Five female students were thrown out of a Dhaka University residence hall by thugs for refusing to participate in a BCL rally, while faculty and students at Chittagong University are being held hostage by a handful of activists of the student wing of Islamic Front Bangladesh.

Nobody should have to su� er intimidation and disruption in any walk of life. It is disgraceful that leading academic institutions are regularly blighted in the name of politics, which prevent sta� and students from focusing on education.

Student activists should not have so much power that they can control large parts of the student body through coercion and intimidation. It is utterly unacceptable that students can be thrown out of their residences simply for not joining in a rally.

The persistence of such activities at the core of our education system gives our public universities a bad name, and neither helps ordinary students nor wins converts to any political causes.

All political parties must disassociate themselves from such criminal behaviour by their student activists.

University authorities and police must do more to protect ordinary students and sta� . If groups cannot conduct political activities in a lawful and peaceful manner, their activities must be curbed. The government should support academic administrations in cracking down hard on any members of the student body who disrupt university life for those around them, regardless of a� liation.

Stop forced disappearances

Over 300 people from all walks of life have been victims of enforced disappearances since 2007.

It is a matter of grave concern for all citizens that so many abductions and enforced disappearances can take place in our country. Whether carried out for the purposes of extortion or other criminality, or to sti� e political competition, there must be zero tolerance for this appalling activity.

According to Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), the number of disappearances is rising, with 74 people falling victim in the � rst six months of this year.  Of these, 39 people have been traced, with 23 of them being found dead.

It is especially concerning when kidnapping and violence is used for political purposes or as an instrument to suppress human rights activists from voicing their concerns. Any allegations of people being abducted into secret detention by law enforcers must be fully investigated, but unfortunately this has not always been the case.

While high-pro� le incidents this year have seen some follow-up action, with for example the arrest of some RAB members following the Narayanganj-7 murders, the government must do more to reassure the public.

It is the state’s foremost duty to protect all citizens. The government has a fundamental duty to prevent enforced disappearances and act to bring as many victims as possible safely home to their families.

Any persons or groups implicated in disappearances, for whatever reason or purpose, must be apprehended and brought to justice.

3 gunned down in capitalAugust 28

Humayun HyderThis is a gruesome murder that took place at Shonali Bagh in Moghbazar.

Some goons opened � re and killed the members of a family – a lady and two men – and wounded another who is now � ghting for life at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

It was learned from a relative of the deceased lady, Ranu Begum, that a gang of six or seven hoodlums were pressuring the family for ransom money, but the goons were unable to get a hold of the money. Hence, the leader of that gang, Kalu Babu, just shot them.

I believe the police should immediately arrest the group and give them exemplary punishment for their o� ence.

Malaysia to compensate 3 Bangladeshi familiesAugust 25

Anon“3 Bangladeshis were killed in Malaysia, and the perpetrators were paid RM25,000 each.”

It’s sad to say, but the reality is that life is just so cheap.

Editorial10 DHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, September 2, 2014

CODE-CRACKER

ACROSS1 Marsh (6)6 Corded fabric (3)9 Combine (5)10 Polynesian drink (4)11 Numeral (5)12 Kitchen utensil (3)13 Tell tales (6)15 Young horse (4)18 Excuse (4)21 Fault (6)24 Choler (3)25 Tra� c light (5)28 First man (4)29 Baili� (5)30 Fate (3)31 One’s right wits (6)

DOWN1 Melody (5)2 United (3)3 Competitor (5)4 Consumed (3)5 Transmitted (4)6 Deeply engrossed (4)7 Develop gradually (6)8 Top of the head (4)14 Summit (3)16 Carry too far (6)17 Digit (3)19 Roundish projections (5)20 Land measures (5)21 Clock face (4)22 Noteworthy act (4)23 Biblical weed (4)26 Adults (3)27 First woman (3)

CROSSWORD

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.

SUDOKU

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a di� erent letter of the alphabet. For example, today 9 represents M so � ll M every time the � gure 9 appears.You have one letter in the control grid to start you o� . Enter it in the appropriate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.As you get the letters, � ll in the other squares with the same number in the main grid, and the control grid. Check o� the list of alphabetical letters as you identify them.

CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

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Re-claim land from Bay of BengalAugust 29

Md Ashrafe HossainSatellite images from the early 1970s showed the water-� ow of rivers here carrying huge amounts of silt, doubling the land in the Bay of Bengal and increasing the coastal areas. This nation’s total area is now about 143,998 square kilometres, where 160 million people live. In 1971, when Bangladesh gained independence, its population was about 75 million.

Land is very scarce here. Over-population has led to the active and prudent consideration to utilise the scarce land for agriculture, the establishment of industries, development of communication infrastructure, conservation of forests and wetlands,

and so on. It is positive thinking no doubt. Simultaneously, we have to re-claim land from

Bay of Bengal where about 200 million metric tons of silt are deposited every year. Bangladesh needs to expedite the reclamation of land from the bay. No doubt, it will be a colossal amount of work, and needs huge investment, but we have to start now. Time is running out.

Over-populated Bangladesh desperately needs more land to keep the pace of development going for its people. The government ought to make a 100-year plan to re-claim another Bangladesh from the bay and begin implementing the plan from now.

Bring perpetrators to justice to prevent disappearances

Ahle Sunnat leader Faruqi slaughteredAugust 28

Rajan RayhanVery sad. People are no longer safe in their own houses.

Mohammed Sanowar HossainOh Allah. What is happening in our nation!

Dilapidated Mouchak-Malibagh road turns into dangerous trap for commutersAugust 27

Nur Elahee The road as well as the situation itself is terrible, and has been since mid-June this year.

SM“Even a brief spell of rain � lls up the big potholes that dot the road. A couple, with a baby in their arms, recovers yesterday after their rickshaw overturns when the rickshaw-puller steered the vehicle into a hidden pothole on the inundated road. Such scenes have become common nowadays.”

Why do they always start the construction work during the monsoon season?!

Mashrafe named captain for Asian gamesAugust 26

Khan Moinuddin Congrats Mashrafe!

Wrath of the PadmaAugust 26

Sheikh Jinat Mahmid Isn’t it a great picture?!

Mahmud Hossain Opu Frame within frame. Love it.

Pavel Al Mamun “The huge tidal wave of the Padma has destroyed the houses of the people who used to live on the

bank of the river. The Mawa Kaurakandi ferry ghat has gone underwater and caused tra� c

jams. Life in the bank of the Padma has become uncertain.”

The photos are amazing!

OC accused of raping maidAugust 26

Imtiaz U Khan Raseq And here we have the so-called protectors of our

society.

Pakistan cleric warns of 48-hour deadline for Sharif’s

resignationAugust 27

Esha“Tahir-ul-Qadri, leader of Pakistan Awami Tehreek

(PAT), showed protesters a white burial shroud.”More on drama and thriller.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

It is disgraceful that leading academic institutions are blighted in the name of politics

n Abdullah Zobair

The statehood of Bangladesh is at stake as the incumbent government has allowed India

to transship goods to its northeastern states through the lands of Bangladesh without taking people’s mandate to give transshipment facilities to the neighbouring country.

The transshipment of goods through the territory of Bangladesh would cut costs on India’s end, but contrarily would suspend Bangladesh’s exports to Tripura permanently, losing huge foreign currency in the process.

Local exporters are in fear of losing their businesses and we fear of losing our sovereignty. We see how the gov-ernment has been doing everything to help India in abandoning the interests of Bangladesh after assuming power in 2009.

The pro-Indian government in Bangladesh is letting India transship essential goods, including food grains, via Bangladesh’s Tripura, without du-ties under the river protocol between the two countries, but is getting noth-

ing in return. Quoting local exporters, a national

English daily reported that business-men in the Akhaura land port would have nothing to export to Tripura if India was allowed to transship on a permanent basis, and consequently the country would be deprived of sizeable foreign exchange. Bangla-desh exports over 40 items, including plastic goods, cement, stone, and � sh through Akhaura, but hardly imports any Indian products through Agartala on the other side of the border.

The daily reported that India is, for the � rst time, transporting rice from its southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh to its northeastern state of Tripura through Bangladesh on a “pilot initia-tive,” which is also a� ecting export of local goods there as the Indian cargos were getting priority on the narrow passage to the border at Akhaura. India reportedly plans to ship 35,000 tons of food grains annually to its north-eastern states through Bangladesh, after the successful completion of the ongoing trial transshipment begun in early August.

Akhaura land port customs o� cer Md Lutfur Rahman said India had already transshipped around 4,000 tons of rice through 200 vehicles since August 7. Md Tajul Islam, general sec-retary of the Exporters and Importers’ Association at Akhaura, said there was a huge demand for Bangladeshi products in the seven northeastern states of India, and if India can ferry goods via Bangladesh, we will lose our exports there.

In the � rst consignment, � ve ships loaded with 5,000 tons of rice reached the Ashuganj river port in Bangladesh from Kolkata on August 5 for delivery in Agartala. Dhaka is kind enough that it decided to waive the duty on the transshipment of 10,000 tons of rice during the trial phase on “humanitari-an grounds.” A truck travels more than 1,650km to carry goods from Kolkata to Agartala through Guwahati – a distance that can be reduced to 350km when the Bangladeshi route is used, according to news reports.

In 2012, Bangladesh allowed India to ferry heavy machinery through Ashuganj port for the 726MW Palatana

mega power project in Tripura without charging any duty. India has long been demanding the use of Bangladesh’s land and water to carry goods from the mainland to its seven landlocked

northern states, but not any govern-ment, except the Awami League’s in its earlier term, had agreed to allow India to use Bangladesh’s lands and water-ways, arguing that it would hamper the existing trade relations between the countries.

Bangladesh has not reached any consensus to give the transit or transshipment facilities to India, no

agreement has been signed between the countries in this regard. No dis-cussions have been held in parliament and the people have been divided over the issue for a while now. The crack

widened further when the long-hyped Teesta Water Sharing Agreement was cast aside during former Indian pre-mier Manmohan Singh’s Dhaka visit in 2011.

After ful� lling all of India’s demands, Sheikh Hasina on Satur-day requested India for signing the long-pending Teesta water sharing deal, facilitating transit with Nepal and

Bhutan through India. The foremost duty of a government in a sovereign state is to protect the national interest and the interests of its people. Is the incumbent government protecting our interests?

The present Bangladeshi govern-ment is not like its previous term, as it assumed power in a one-sided, so-called election where 153 lawmakers out of 300 were elected unopposed, and the rest were elected without any contest and participatory elections. Surely, the government does not truly represent the citizens of Bangladesh and thus it has no right to allow its neighbouring country to use the lands and rivers of a sovereign country, demolishing its own interest. If it hap-pens, the government will be treated as a traitor and the role of the AL will be considered anti-liberation, despite their propagating of pro-liberation sentiments. l

Abdullah Zobair is Executive Director of Bangladesh Initiative for Political Development (BIPD). He can be followed at twitter.com/azobair

n Thomas Nierle and Bruno Jochum

Dead bodies in the streets, families wiped out, dozens of healthcare workers infected,

hospitals shut down, and panic and mistrust in the eyes of the people in the streets. This is what Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) usually sees in countries that are ravaged by war, but in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and to a lesser extent, Guinea, it is Ebola that is gen-erating immense public distress.

As of today, more than 1,427 pa-tients have succumbed to the Ebola viral disease, with the care centres es-tablished by Médecins Sans Frontières being overwhelmed. On August 8, being far too late, the World Health Or-ganisation (WHO) declared the Ebola epidemic a public health emergency of international concern. However, it had been o� cially declared in West Africa since March.

The disaster is becoming even more dramatic as the health systems in the a� ected region have imploded. Patients are dying not only of Ebola, but also of malaria, diarrhea, or com-plicated deliveries due to the absence of e� ective medical care. In Liberia especially, hospitals are deserted, and fear is spreading.

MSF has been responding to the crisis since March. We have opened up more and more isolation centres throughout the a� ected countries to care for the sick, and we have assisted the communities. For the last three months, we have actively been calling for more hands-on assistance to con-trol the epidemic and to provide the best possible care to patients.

However, the international re-sponse has been slow and derisory. It can equally be de� ned as irresponsi-ble. Today, only a handful of interna-tional actors are engaged in the � ght against Ebola. But this is nowhere near enough. This is an exceptional crisis, the number of new infections is still on the rise, and the virus has serious potential to spread to other countries.

Promises of funding and political statements are not su� cient – decisive action is needed now. Case-� nding must be intensi� ed, more isolation centres have to be set up, epidemi-ological surveillance and laborato-ry capacity have to be reinforced, contact tracing and follow-up must be strengthened, communities must be sensitised, experienced sta� and train-ing is needed in the � eld, and general healthcare services must be reopened. These activities must be properly coordinated inside and beyond the borders of the a� ected countries. This necessitates a hands-on, operational approach.

The situation can only be reversed if there is a signi� cant commitment of states with available e� ective disaster response capacity – be it through civil protection mechanisms, the support of military medicine units, or of logistics or medical sta� who are used to work-ing with strict infection prevention and control measures.

The successive closure of interna-tional borders, including air travel, renders our e� orts increasingly di� cult. Infected medical personnel cannot be evacuated anymore, anoth-

er layer of collective irresponsibility. The international community must ensure that those who try to contain the outbreak can enter and leave the a� ected countries if need be. A func-tional system of medical evacuation has to be set up urgently.

Why is it that the international com-munity is largely relying on the very fragile health systems in the a� ected countries to manage an international health crisis of this scope? And why are they entrusting global health security to private organisations that have, by nature, limited capacities to respond to major outbreaks? It is irresponsible to place exclusive man-agement of such a devastating, deadly epidemic on the back of overwhelmed nations such as Sierra Leone and Liberia while praying that the private sector is � lling the gaps left by the shortfalls of its heath system.

MSF has accumulated signi� cant experience in dealing with Ebola out-breaks over the last 20 years. During the same period, operational capaci-ties in the United Nations system have been gradually reduced through re-forms. For example, the restructuring of the WHO in Geneva has led to the closure of its viral hemorrhagic fever unit. Member states should be held ac-countable for an unceasing reduction in response capacity.

A destructive spiral has material-ised, leading to what we see today: Lack of leadership, de� cient coordina-tion and, last but not least, a striking absence of operational capacity. This is compounded by the fact that the in-ternational community simply doesn’t feel responsible for responding to what is happening in regions that are not perceived as politically or economical-ly interesting.

Crises that are threatening global health security demand commitment from all states. Once this commitment is ensured, response capacity can be built around either existing or newly established institutions or networks.

It is shortsighted of developed nations to limit their responses to the potential arrival of one infected patient on their territory. If the aim is to avoid further spread of the epidem-ic, we have to control transmission of the virus. And this is only possible by caring for patients in West Africa.

Today and again, Médecins Sans Frontières asks for more – not more lip service, but more action. l

Thomas Nierle is President of MSF Switzer-land. Bruno Jochum is General Director of MSF Switzerland. This article was previously published in Le Temps (Switzerland) in French.

11Op-Ed Tuesday, September 2, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Ikhtisad Ahmed

A police o� cer shot and killed a man without cause or due process. The incident took place just over three years ago

in the city that was the capital of the empire on which the sun never set. It happened again this year, in the land of the free, a sadistic observance of the third anniversary.

Both victims were young men of African descent – the politically correct term the two hubristic white nations that purport to be the best in the world use when they mean “black.” Derid-ing that word, of course, is enough to pride oneself in not being racist.

Meanwhile, the police shoot un-armed men that � t that description. The reason, whether it is said out loud or not, is that these men conform to a prejudicial pro� le of suspected crim-inals. The illegal activities they are said to be undertaking are ones that law enforcement o� cials are actively looking for, and targeting those of a speci� c physical and ethnic type in the process.

The police was wrong in both cases. When citizens pointed this out to them peacefully, they retaliated forcefully. A quick escalation, with the public reaction getting out of hand, led to militarisation of the police. Unlike the disturbed white men who deserve compassion even when they shoot innocent children, the media did not mince words when denouncing these ethnic rascals. Stereotyping, and

that is a euphemism, exists, leading to routine suspicion, rudeness, and belligerence.

Institutional racism not only exists, but is prevalent. It may be a di� cult truth to accept – the world is more in-clined to believing the feel-good truths spun by Hollywood. People want to believe that those dark days are history. The guilt of those past crimes are acknowledged in popular accounts, ending in redemption, not of the wronged parties, but of the inhumane oppressors.

However, when politicians acting in their professional capacity, either on the � oor of the parliament or in o� cial addresses and statements, coin new terms such as “terrorist murder” that do not exist in statutes because of the perpetrators’ race or religion, and defend privileged citizens who may � agrantly be guilty of wrongdoing, they give a glimpse of the ugly truth.

The ruling class is programmed to believe in its superiority. On a global scale, this self-perpetuating myth

translates to the Western white man being a god. The rest are animals, barbaric and backwards. Armies are entrusted with the protection of the white man and the propagation of his power, and are, thus, trained in line with the myth.

Positive or a� rmative action is a plaster applied to a gangrenous wound, prettied by being painted over in white. It does not stop the author-ities from brie� ng themselves about the young men of African descent who are drug dealers and abusers, and

the young men of Middle Eastern and South Asian descent who are terror-ists. One black man being the occupant of the White House does not change the way the world works.

Applying Western principles of human rights to countries that are not as developed – development entails social, cultural, and legal strides being made as much as economic ones – is worse than judging the West’s past atrocities, including the heinous crimes of imperialism and slavery, by

today’s standards. Excusing its barbarism by arguing

that it was not developed – indeed, it can be argued with merit that the West was hopelessly behind many of whom it colonised, and remain so in many respects – is as arrogant and unaccept-able as imposing its will as universal values.

Con� rmation bias of this kind, especially in the face of the West fail-ing to uphold or obey the very same sacred tenets it has prescribed for the rest of the world, needs to be rooted out without exception. Governments should, further, focus their attentions on getting their own houses in order, on the proverbial � ngers pointing back at them.

The � ashpoints of the London Riots and Ferguson are indicative of a deeper malaise, of the fabric of the re-spective societies rotting away without being acknowledged or tended to, be-cause their governments are too busy ruining things for everyone else as well to � x their own cancerous problems.

The preference for policies that suppress and bring others down to their lowly levels over those that elevate themselves remains as clear as ever. They ought to revisit the conscience that spawned the humane values they use as justi� cation for the unjusti� able when it comes to others, and listen to it. At least then hypocrisy cannot be added to their lengthy charge sheets. l

Ikhtisad Ahmed is a writer and an erstwhile lawyer. He can be contacted on Twitter via @Ikhtisad. 

Kill � rst

Dead in protest REUTERS

F R O M T H E M A R G I N S

Positive or a� rmative action is a plaster applied to a gangrenous wound, prettied by being painted over in white

Bangladesh is letting India transship essential goods, including food grains, via Bangladesh’s Tripura, without duties

The closure of international borders, including air travel, renders our e� orts increasingly di� cult

Ebola and the failure to respond

Crossing the line

FilmDawn of the Planet of the Apes(3D)LucyMost Welcome 2Male� centTransformers: Age of Extinction (3D)Time: 10am – 10pmStar Cineplex, Level 8, Bashundhara City 13/3 Ka, Panthopath

Exhibition Ode to BeautyBy Shama ShaiomTime: 3pm – 9pmAlliance Francaise de Dhaka, 26 Mirpur Road

Existence DelineatedBy Fahmida Urmi HossainTime: 3pm – 8pmDhaka Art Centre, Rd No 7

Threads of TestimonyBy Dilara Begum JolyTime: 12pm-8pmBengal Art Lounge, 60, Gulshan Avenue

Reality vs Imagination and IllusionBy Samiran ChowdhuryTime: 12pm-8pmGallery Cosmos 2

DHAKA TRIBUNE Entertainment Tuesday, September 2, 201412

TODAY IN DHAKA

Step Up HBO De� ned8:45pm

Tyler is sentenced to 200 hours of community service at the school. During his job, he meets Nora, a dance student. He learns a few steps and later shows his friends the ballet steps while mixing them with break-dance.

Saving Private RyanZee Studio11:30pm

The � lm is set in the times of World War II. Three of the Ryan brothers are killed while in ac-tion and the US Army Chief of Sta� � nds out that there is a fourth brother, Private James Ryan. He decides to save Mrs. Ryan further grief by ensuring Private Ryan’s safety.

RUHEE’s new journey

Model-cum-actor Dilruba Yasmin Ruhee is going to tie the knot with Monsur Ali, the director of recently released “71-er Shongram” in which she played a lead role. The wedding is slated to be held tomorrow and will be followed

by a post-wedding reception on September 5. In an interview with Dhaka Tribune, the actor talked about the latest phase in

her life, her upcoming � lm “Zero Degree,” a directorial venture of Animesh Aich, and others � lms including “Mayanagar” and “Glam-

our.” Below is an excerpt:

How did you and Mansur Ali get closer? While working for “71-er Shongram,” we got the chance to know each other and get closer. I was

expecting to � nd someone like him in my life and I am happy that I � nally did.

How do you see your life post-marriage? I always preferred my family to everything else, my career

included. After marriage my � rst priority will be my new family. The fact is, blood relations and non-blood relations

are not similar. You have to put a lot of e� ort into creating and sustaining the second kind of relations. So I think I’ll have to

do the balancing act to keep my marital life and my career in order.

Tell us something about your Tollywood venture “Glamour”The acting part of the movie is over. After managing some person-

al business, I will go to Kolkata for dubbing, a photo-shoot for the � lm poster and other promotional activities.

What was it like to attend the world premiere of “71-er Shongram” in London?

It was a wonderful experience. International directors and actors watched the � lm, and it was praised by the audience as well. It felt wonderful that our � lm

was being showcased in cinemas together with Hollywood and internationally ac-claimed � lms. After the London festival, we are getting invitations from � lm festivals from other parts of the world.

How do you balance between acting and modeling?I love acting. But I also love modeling, ramp modeling to be speci� c, because when I do ramp modeling I have an option to get involved in designing and other creative ventures also. Though the modeling industry in Bangladesh is still a � edgling one, I

would love to make an imprint on the industry. l

n Entertainment Desk

Marvel’s latest � ick “ Guardians of the Galaxy” which cemented its place as the top-grossing movie of the 2014 of US box o� ce, is going to be sdreened at the Star Cineplex in the capital from September 5.

Giant robot sequel “Transform-ers: Age of Extinction,” which had a June 27 U.S. opening, reigns as the year’s top-grossing � lm worldwide with more than $1 billion in sales,

including a domestic haul of $244.3 million, according to boxo� cemojo.

The big-budget space adventure stars Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana as leaders of an oddball group of war-riors that includes a talking raccoon and a humanoid tree.

Light years from Earth, 26 years after being abducted, Peter Quill � nds himself the prime target of a manhunt after discovering an orb wanted by Ronan the Accuser. The � lm also impressed the critics. l

REACHES DHAKA

Jennifer Lawrence’s naked pictures leak onlinen Entertainment Desk

Naked and scantily-clad pictures of Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Law-rence, as well as racy photos of other celebrities, surfaced online, spurring speculation about another celebrity hacking case.

Several of the photos, posted by a user on the 4chan website, show the various hairstyles the 24-year-old “Hunger Games” star has sported over the past three years, reported E! online.

“This is a � agrant violation of priva-cy. The authorities have been contacted and will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos of Jennifer Law-rence,” Lawrence’s representative said.

Another photo showing “Final Desti-nation 3” star Mary Elizabeth Winstead naked was also posted. The actress responded to the leak on Twitter.

“Knowing those photos were deleted long ago, I can only imagine the creepy e� ort that went into this. Feeling for everyone who got hacked,” she said.

The actresses have not commented and it is unclear if any of the pictures are authentic.

Many celebrities have been victims of nude photo leaks. In late 2012, a man was sentenced to 10 years in prison for hacking into the online accounts of Scarlett Johansson and Mila Kunis and posting their private pictures online. l

Ananta Jalil poised for new � ick THE SPYn Entertainment Desk

Actor-director Ananta Jalil is set to embark on a new directorial project soon. Titled “The Spy: Agrojatrar Mohanayok,” the movie is in its pre-production stage now with shooting likely to begin any day soon, Ali Zaker Sajib, media manager of Ananta, said.

Ananta Jalil is currently on a busi-ness tour to Japan where his latest � ick “Most Welcome 2” is also being showcased, Sajib added, saying he will begin the project once he re-turns home.

In “The Spy,” Ananta will be seen as a spy and paired with Barsha, his real-life wife and fre-quent collaborator in most of his � lms. Most of the shooting of the � lm will take place in foreign lo-cations.

The makers are planning to release the � lm during the next Eid-ul-Fitr vacation. l

Beduin’s Shaon releases solo singlen Entertainment Desk

Mustafa Shaon, a singer and a vocalist of the band Beduin, has recently released a single titled “Na Bola Kotha” online. The lyrics, tune and composition of the track is done by Mustafa Shaon himself. The track is available exclusively at qineticmusic.com.

While talking to the Dhaka Tribune about his single, Shaon said: “I am getting positive feedback from the audience about the single as it’s being aired on radio stations. I worked hard and put my best e� ort to create the song particularly.”

“I took a di� erent path of releasing online sin-gle instead of full physical album because of the dire situation of the music industry. Currently, I am working on another track titled “Onubhuti” and when all the tracks for entire album will be in prompt I will go for a physical album,” he added. A music video of the song “Na Bola Kotha” directed by the artist himself is in the pipeline.

Earlier Mustafa Shaon lent his voice for three tracks in an album titled “Tomay Niye Sajano” along with Sajib Chowdhury and composed music for an-other album titled “Nobo Anonde Jago,” a Tagore song remake album, by the late singer Abid Shariar. l

n Entertainment Desk

Looks like Ranbir Kapoor has become the go-to star for biopics being made in Bollywood. Recently, the actor had revealed that he was “in talks” to play actor Sanjay Dutt in a biopic to be made by Rajkumar Hirani. Now, the latest news is that he wants to do a � lm on late actor Amrish Puri.

“Ranbir feels his life will make for an interesting story. Biopics also tend to be a little more challenging and he enjoys taking on such roles. Plus, he has always been a fan of Amrishji. But right now, nothing has been con� rmed,” says an industry insider.

In the past, reports have also revealed that Ranbir is slated to star in director Anurag Basu’s biopic on Kishore Kumar. Speak-ing about the project, Anurag had told IANS: “Ranbir and I are certainly doing it… Kishore can’t be made in breaks and spurts. It has to be done in one, long stretch.”

It doesn’t stop here. Earlier this year, it was also reported that Ranbir was in talks to play the role of hockey wizard Dhyan Chand in an upcoming biopic that was to be produced by Pooja Shetty. Then, a few years ago, rumours claimed that the actor was going to play the role of mathematician Anand Kumar in an-other biopic, also to be directed by Anurag.

If Ranbir Kapoor’s name has been attached to four biop-ics, Vidya Balan’s has been associated with six such o� ers. As per reports, her list includes biopics on Meena Kumari, Kiran Bedi, acclaimed singer Begum Akhtar, India’s � rst lady doctor Rakmabai, poet Kamala Das, and renowned Carnatic vocalist MS Subbulakshmi. l

Four biopics in Ranbir’s hands

13DHAKA TRIBUNE

National Athletics Championship begins on September 7n Shishir Hoque

After a gap of three years, the Wal-ton 12th National Summer Athletics Championship 2014 will be held at the Bangabandhu National Stadium on

September 7-8. Being one of the larg-est and colourful local sports events of the country, it will feature 64 districts, seven divisions, di� erent universities, physical colleges and services teams.

A total of 700 male and female ath-

letes along with 200 o� cials will take part in the two-day long meet which will see light for the � rst time since 2011.

The service teams that will play in the meet are Bangladesh Army, Navy, Air Force, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), Ansar & VDP, Jail and Police, BJMC and Bangladesh Railway.

A press conference regarding the tournament was held yesterday where the details were revealed. The organ-isers claimed that the approximate budget of the meet is Tk1.31m with ti-tle sponsor Walton providing Tk0.4m. General secretary of Bangladesh Ath-letics Federation Ibrahim Chengish, Walton’s additional director and head of games & sports FM Iqbal Bin Anwar, federation’s joint secretary Milzar Hos-sain were present on the occasion.

Iqbal Bin Anwar said they will con-tinue their support to organise sports events regularly. He also announced to provide a� uence to the athletes creating new records in the meet and pledged to promote talented young players.

State Minister for Youth and Sports Biren Sikder will inaugurate the meet as the chief guest. l

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Sport 1514 Bencic, Federer in Swiss joy, Sharapova crashes

‘Horrible’ Madrid have to learn, Casillas fumes

15 Mush� q, Nasir complete century in warm-up

Did you know?

Since 2009-10, Falcao has scored 104 goals

in 139 league apps (for Porto, A.Madrid &

Monaco combined)

Chicharito passes Real medicaln AFP, Paris

Manchester United swooped from nowhere on Monday to make strik-er Radamel Falcao the surprise big signing on the last day of Europe’s record-breaking summer transfer window.

British media said the Colombian would have to pass a medical to seal the move from Monaco in a one year loan that pushes United’s spending since the opening of the transfer market on June 9 above £150

million ($250 million).Teams from the top leagues in England, Spain, Germany, Italy and

France have laid out more than $2.1 billion during the transfer window and the frenzied last day is likely to see the � gure rise substantially.

Manchester United have been the single biggest spenders, ahead of Spain’s Real Madrid.

The club’s Mexican striker Javier Her-nandez joined Real Madrid on a season

long loan. United’s England striker Danny Wellbeck was also tipped to move during the day. Their Japanese striker Shinji Kagawa returned to former club Borussia Dortmund on Sunday.

Manchester City’s England defender Mi-cah Richards was in Italy for a medical with Fiorentina, the Italian side said. Chelsea’s Dutch mid� elder Marco van Ginkel joined AC Milan.

Italy’s World Cup striker Alessio Cerci moved from Torino to Atletico Madrid, who have signed 10 players for their cam-

paign to defend the Spanish title.According to FIFA Transfer Matching System, which monitors the

global market, the big � ve leagues have already smashed the $2.02 bil-lion spent on last year’s transfer market.

Spending is dramatically higher this year in England, Spain and to a lesser degree Germany. l

Mashrafe admits not playing up to expectationsFive national cricketers return home from West Indies n Mazhar Uddin

Five national cricketers including Mashrafe bin Mortaza, Taskin Ahmed, Mithun Ali, Abdur Razzak and Sohag Gazi arrived in Dhaka yesterday morn-ing after the conclusion of three ODIs and a T20I in West Indies. Upon arrival, veteran paceman Mashrafe admitted Bangladesh did not play to their poten-tials in the ODI series.

“Actually we could not play accord-ing to our expectations, but we still have two Test matches left and I hope the team will be able to � nish the series on a positive note,” said Mashrafe at the Hazrat Shahjalal International air-port yesterday.

The 30-year-old bowled well in the ODI series where he picked up � ve wickets from three matches, and more importantly spearheaded the pace bowling attack with great maturity. However, he couldn’t � nish on a high after being smashed for 69/1 in his ten overs in the last ODI.

“We couldn’t play as a unit as when one particular department performed well, the other departments failed completely. Sometimes bowlers creat-ed chances, sometimes batters scored runs but generally we played very poor cricket,” he acknowledged.

However, there is no injury concern in the Tigers’ camp and the fast bowl-ers are doing a good job. “Bowlers have done well in the last two series and there are no injury concerns for Taskin, Rubel, Sha� ul and Al Amin in the pace bowling department while Shakib al Hasan will be returning in the spin de-partment soon, and if Abdur Razzak can return to his form, it will be good for us,” said Mashrafe.

One of the most experienced and senior cricketers now, Mashrafe was recently named captain for the upcom-ing Asian Games and he mentioned that the ultimate goal is to win the gold while hoping the players would gain some con� dence from the Tests against West Indies. l

Falcao joins United on loan

n Minhaz Uddin Khan

June 22nd, 1990 – Bangladesh were a win away from booking a place in the ICC World Cup as they faced Zimbabwe in the semi-� nal of the ICC Trophy at The Hague, Netherlands. The golden ticket slipped through the hands as Ban-gladesh went down by 84 runs chasing a steep target of 231 in the 60-over game.

A loss was somewhat expected given the di� erence in experience be-tween the then Zimbabwe and Bangla-desh side, but in spite of the defeat it was a proud moment for the country’s port-city Chittagong for two reasons.

One - it’s own, Minhajul Abedin, staged a � ghtback with 57 after the top-� ve batsmen gathered 34 in the game, and two - four players represented the national side in the tournament on be-half of the particular division - the � rst time it happened and the last till date.

Apart from the Abedin brothers – Minhajul (Nannu) and Nurul (Nobel) - Zahid Razzak and Akram Khan were the � ag bearers of the port-city. On that moment many had considered

Chittagong to be the breeding ground of producing quality cricketers for the future, but has it been the case?

Thought it was under the leadership of Akram that Bangladesh entered the elite tournament, the World Cup, by beating Kenya in the 1998 ICC Trophy in Malaysia, Chittagong has failed to keep the promise it made in its early days.

The nephews of Akram - Tamim Iqbal and Nafees Iqbal – along with Aftab Ahmed and Nazimuddin are really the only names that made it to the national squad in the last decade and the lack of quality cricketers at present rising from the division could hardly be found too.

After a thorough search only one youngster from the Under-19s, Yasir Ali, was found to have some chances of walking into the national dressing room – given the right-handed bats-man is nurtured well.

So what went wrong at Chittagong which was once a hub of cricket in the country, where everyone used to literally look forward to see cricket-ers emerge, a place where not only national but renowned international cricketers from Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan like Raman Lamba and Athu-la Samarasekera appeared to play in the high-voltage tournaments.

The core issues behind the fall of producing high-caliber cricketers from the division is improper infrastructure while the sports organisers getting o� -track also does not help believes Alhaj Ali Abbas, vice-president of Chittagong Divisional Sports Association (CDSA).

“As far as I remember in 1976 CDSA took the � rst initiative to organise a top-level cricket tournament. Four years later a tournament called Star Summer Cricket Tournament was launched. That tournament went pop-ular really quick and took place each year for the next 20 years,” said Abbas.

Abbas further informed, the tour-

nament however vanished with the demise of one of its initiator Rashed Asgar Chowdhury in 2000. Meanwhile through another source it occurred, af-ter the death of Asgar a dispute among the organising committee members involving the then under construction MA Aziz Stadium market also broke the enthusiasm which eventually de-molished the committee.

There are various tournaments be-ing organised by CDSA at the moment but all of it lacks the charm and the Premier Cricket League of the city has also gone irregular.

“We are organising tournaments like

corporate cricket, U-18 and U-19 but I per-sonally believe these tournaments are not e� cient enough to produce quality cricketers as the tournament itself aren’t that big due to the shortage of � elds in the city,” said Abbas. The CDSA over and over has urged the concerned authori-ties for allocating � elds in order to better the system but the e� orts often went unanswered, said Abbas. “Fields like Jamburi � eld, outer of the MA Aziz Sta-dium and few others remain unused.”

“They are not properly maintained and get occupied by the drug addicts once the sun goes down. These things should be taken care of for the better-ment of not only cricket but for the whole sports culture. The Prime Minis-ter of the country should intervene and settle these issues if needed,” he added.

There’s a saying that “It’s never too late”. The face of cricket in Chittagong might not look the way it was expect-ed 20 years back, but with proper guid-ance and instructions it is possible to restore the dream for the betterment of the country before the path com-pletely perishes. l

BCB appoint head of Anti Corruption Department n Mazhar Uddin

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) have appointed Abu Mohammad Huma-yun Morshed as the head of BCB Anti Corruption Department. Nizamuddin Chowdhury the CEO of the board con-� rmed that the appointment was part of International Cricket Council’s (ICC) guideline while adding further that they were supposed to appoint an anti corruption head earlier.

Morshed recently retired as a Major from Bangladesh Army and his back-ground of serving the nation in defense and security only bodes for him as his new role would require him to moni-tor all the domestic competitions and rectify the wrongdoings alongside the obvious anti corruption activities. Ni-zamuddin informed that every cricket board has an anti corruption o� cial of its own.

“This is not a directive from the ICC but it’s a part of its guideline and we were supposed to appoint someone in this position much earlier.”

He also informed that the new head of anti corruption department will be monitoring the upcoming premier league. However he did also mention

that they will not be policing all the time. “This is just one of the depart-ments of BCB and manpower will be increased if needed. This department will be monitoring the upcoming league but they will not be policing,” he said.

The new head of the anti corruption department will coordinate with the ICC’s Anti Corruption and Security Unit (Acsu) during international matches and will also provide them with the lo-gistic supports.

Major Morshed will also arrange programmes on a bigger scale regard-ing corruption issues with the captain and the manager of the clubs in the up-coming DPL. This role will also see him teach general anti corruption rules to the players and club o� cials.

However, it will be a tough ask for the anti corruption department to take any step against the club o� cials as most of the club o� cials are also di-rectors of the board although the CEO a� rmed that the disciplinary panel has always been independent.

“If we receive this type of complain, there is disciplinary panel and this disci-plinary panel is completely independent. It worked with full freedom regarding the corruption issues of the Bangladesh Premier League,” he added. l

Chittagong – The dysfunctional hub of cricket PART-1

General secretary of Bangladesh Athletics Federation Ibrahim Chengish (L) receives check from FM Iqbal Bin Anwar Dawn (2L) yesterday COURTESY

Mamunul set for Atletico de Kolkatan Shishir Hoque

Bangladesh national football captain and Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club mid� elder Mamunul Islam is all set to join the newly founded Kolkata based Atletico de Kolkata on a three-month loan deal to play in the inaugural edi-tion of the Indian Super League sched-uled to kick o� on October 12.

Mamunul con� rmed that the Indi-an Super League side, which is partly owned by former Indian cricket star Sourav Ganguly, approached him earli-er and after several talks he is close to seal the deal.

“The registration process is com-pleted with the involvement of Sheikh Jamal. It will be a three-month contract and will o� cially be informed very soon and I will play for the Athletico De Kolkata in the Indian Super League,” said Mamunul.

He added, “A top o� cial of Atletico will visit Dhaka on September 5 to � -nalise the deal with me.”

The Sheikh Jamal DC president Man-jur Kader also con� rmed they have given Mamunul the permission to play in the Indian Super League saying that, “It’s a great opportunity for him [Mamunul].”

Mamunul, who will also represent the Under-23 national team in the up-coming Asian Games in South Korea, is expected to join the Indian club after his national duty.

The mid� elder earlier expressed his desire to play in a foreign league while his performance in the 118th IFA Shield in Kolkata earlier this year play-ing for runners-up Sheikh Jamal also helped him get attention from several I-League clubs.

The Hero Indian Super League, which was founded last year, will fea-ture eight franchise teams from all around India. Atletico de Kolkata, founded May 7 this year, is one of the franchises in the money-splitting Indi-an Super League. Atletico de Kolkata is partly owned by Spanish La Liga side Atletico Madrid. l

Akram Khan Zahid Razzak Minhajul Abedin Aftab Ahmed Nazimuddin Nurul AbedinTamim & Nafees Iqbal

This is not a directive from the ICC but it’s a part of its guideline and we were supposed to appoint someone in this position much earlier

DHAKA TRIBUNE14 Sport Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Sociedad stun Madrid, Barca edge Villarrealn AFP, Madrid

Real Sociedad produced a stunning � ghtback from 2-0 down to beat Europe-an champions Real Madrid 4-2 on Sunday.

Meanwhile, bitter rivals Barcelona made it two wins in as many games under Luis Enrique with a late winner at Villarreal.

Madrid were without the injured Cristiano Ronaldo and departed Angel di Maria and Xabi Alonso, but still looked on course for a comfortable evening when they � ew into a 2-0 lead inside the opening 11 minutes thanks to goals from Sergio Ramos and Gareth Bale.

However, Inigo Martinez and David Zurutuza levelled for the hosts before the break and Zurutuza and Carlos Vela sealed a much-needed win for un-der-� re Sociedad boss Jagoba Arrasate.

Sociedad had lost their opening game at newly-promoted Eibar and been dumped out of the Europa League by Russian side FK Krasnodar in mid-week and appeared down on their luck after another slow start.

Ramos rose highest to power home Toni Kroos’ corner to open the scoring before Bale left Gorka Elustondo trail-ing with a neat nutmeg and slotted into the bottom corner.

But it was the hosts who crucially got the third goal as Martinez slammed home at the far post from Xabi Prieto’s � ick on.

Barca completely dominated pos-session in the opening 45 minutes, but failed to create clear-cut chances as Sergio Asenjo parried a drive from Pedro before turning a de� ected Messi free-kick onto the post.

Barca then upped the pace after Neymar replaced Munir El Hadda-di and Asenjo had to be at his bestagain to turn away a well-struck Messi free-kick.

The visitors did � nally make the breakthrough eight minutesfrom time when more � ne footwork from Messi provoked another save from Asenjo, but Sandro was onhand to force the ball home from close range.

There was still time for a � nal scare for Barca as Giovanni dos Santos smashed a volley o� the post from a narrow angle, but Enrique’s men held on to go top of the embryonic La Liga table. l

‘Horrible’ Madrid have to learn, Casillas fumesn AFP, Madrid

Real Madrid captain Iker Casillas slammed his side’s performance after they let a two-goal lead slip to lose 4-2 at Real Sociedad on Sunday.

“What happened was very unusu-al, especially after the � rst 15 minutes. After that everything was negative, we were horrible in every facet,” he said.

“We can’t lose a game in this way. We have to accept the defeat and the criti-cism and learn from what happened today. We have started the season and it is clear that we need to correct a lot of things,” added Casillas.

“We need to keep going because we are wearing a very important crest on our shirts and that is not the example to show to the world.”

However, boss Carlo Ancelotti re-fused to blame their absence for the defeat and instead questioned the atti-tude of his players.

“I didn’t like this defeat because I think sometimes you can play a bad game, but as a team like Real Madrid when you are winning 2-0 you have to show the right attitude and that is my responsibility,” said the Italian.

“I don’t think it is a problem of one or two players. It is the whole team who lost after a very good � rst half hour.

“The presence of Xabi Alonso when the whole team doesn’t have a good at-titude wouldn’t have changed things.”

In contrast to Ancelotti’s post-match comments, Barcelona coach Luis Enrique hailed the attitude of his players as they continued their winning start to the new campaign with a 1-0 victory at Villarreal.

“The attitude of the team satis� ed me,” he said.

“We have a lot to improve on but they have great desire and for me it is a priviledge to see. l

Coach Inzhagi opens with Milan winn AFP, Rome

Filippo Inzaghi got his tenure as AC Milan coach o� to the best possible start with a scintillating 3-1 victory over Lazio at the San Siro on Sunday.

Meanwhile Nemanja Vidic was sent-o� on his debut for Inter Milan in their 0-0 draw at Torino.

New Rossoneri signing Fernando Torres was in the stands alongside pres-ident Silvio Berlusconi, to watch goals from Keisuke Honda, Sulley Muntari and a Jeremy Menez penalty give Inzaghi’s men three well-earned points.

Initially, Milan looked nervous in defence with Lazio keen to exploit centre back Daniele Bonera, who had lined up in the left back position, but

it wasn’t long before any trepidation was extinguished, as Milan opened the scoring after just seven minutes.

Stephan El Shaarawy latched on to a hopeful long ball on the left, rode the challenge of Stefan de Vrij, before slid-ing the ball to the in-rushing Honda on the right, who put it through the legs of Etrit Berisha.

Meanwhile, Vidic was having a nightmare in Turin.

He gave away a penalty midway through the � rst half after pulling down Omar El Kaddouri, but Samir Handanovic saved Marcelo Larrondo’s resulting spot kick.

Nevertheless, Vidic’s debut disaster was compounded as he received a 90th minute red card.

“The referee made a mistake,” Inter coach Walter Mazzarri moaned. l

Reds are back to their best, says Rodgersn AFP, London

Brendan Rodgers warned Liverpool’s title rivals that his team are back in the groove after they marked Mario Balo-telli’s debut with a scintillating 3-0 win at Tottenham.

Balotelli was supposed to steal the spotlight on his return to the Premier League, but the � amboyant Italy striker had to play second � ddle to new team-mates Raheem Sterling, Daniel Stur-ridge and Jordan Henderson on Sunday.

“I thought we were excellent. It was an outstanding performance,” Rodgers said.

“We have risen to every challenge since I’ve been here. It was the same

last year when people wondered if we could keep it up. The beauty of this group is they are very humble.

“We clicked back to where we were last season. That was good to see, I think people will enjoy watching us this season.”

Balotelli o� ered glimpses of his vast talent with some neat combinations with Sterling and Sturridge during his 61-minute debut, but Rodgers knows the former AC Milan forward has much more to o� er once he gets comfortable at An� eld.

“Mario’s a good guy. If you take away some of the circus that surrounds him and treat him like an adult, it’ll bring the best out of him. l

La Masia graduates stealing limelightn Reuters, Barcelona

Barcelona’s 1-0 La Liga win at Villarreal on Sunday was engineered by Lionel Messi but it was not the four-times World Player of the Year but yet anoth-er promising teenager from the club’s famed academy who scored the win-ner.

Barca struggled to break down a de-termined Villarreal side at the Madrigal but got the breakthrough eight minutes from time when 19-year-old substitute Sandro Ramirez, making his o� cial de-but, turned a Messi centre into the net from close range.

Ramirez’s e� ort came after fellow academy graduate Munir el Haddadi, also 19 and also making his � rst o� cial appearance, struck in the 3-0 opening day victory at home to Elche.

Their success appears to con� rm

that new coach Luis Enrique’s strategy of deploying Barca-trained youngsters is working well in the early stages of the campaign.

A former Barca and Spain mid� eld-er, Luis Enrique replaced Argentine Gerardo Martino, who was sacked after the Catalan club ended the 2013-14 sea-son without major silverware.

“It is gratifying seeing that the youngsters are helping us so much,” Luis Enrique told a news conference.

“We are happy for him (Ramirez) and for the dedication of all the young players,” he added.

“We have a lot of room for improve-ment but the response of the players has been monstrous. It’s still early but there is room for optimism.”

Barca’s “La Masia” soccer school has produced a host of top players in recent decades, including Argentina captain

Messi and former player and coach Pep Guardiola.

Luis Enrique is hoping he can cre-ate a side with the right mix of home-grown talent and players purchased from other clubs like new arrivals Luis Suarez and Ivan Rakitic and the estab-lished Neymar.

The Brazil forward, returning from an injury layo� , came on as a substitute for the � nal half hour on Sunday and his pace and skill gave Barca an extra attacking edge.

But it was Ramirez who stole the show and he and Munir earned praise from another La Masia graduate, Spain mid� elder Sergio Busquets.

“We know what Munir and Sandro can bring to the team and if they con-tinue like this they will have their place in the � rst team,” Busquets told report-ers. “We have to be patient.” l

Messi to missWC � nal rematchn AFP, Madrid

Argentina captain Lionel Messi will miss his side’s friendly against world champions Germany on Wednesday due to a groin strain, his club side Bar-celona con� rmed on Monday.

The match o� ers Argentina an im-mediate chance for revenge for their agonising 1-0 extra-time defeat to Ger-many in the World Cup � nal last month.

“Leo Messi will remain in Barcelona as a precaution due to a strain in his right adductor,” Barca said in a state-ment on their website.

“Barca’s number 10 will miss the match for peace in Rome this evening and will also not be able to participate in the match between Germany and Ar-gentina.” l

Ibra nets treble as PSG crush St Etiennen AFP, Paris

Champions Paris Saint-Germain thumped Saint-Etienne 5-0 as Bor-deaux saw their 100 per-cent record at the start of the Ligue 1 season ended on Sunday with a 1-1 draw

against Bastia.Zlatan Ibrahimovic, making his inju-

ry return, scored a hat-trick and strike partner Edinson Cavani also netted as the big-spending Parisians ran riot in the capital to move up to second.

“It’s normal when you add a very good player that you play better,” said PSG coach Laurent Blanc.

“We are therefore better with him, his presence is important.”

But they were given a huge help-ing hand by Saint-Etienne goalkeeper

Stephane Ru� er who failed to control a back pass on 24 minutes, turning the ball into his own net as he tried to the steer it on to his right foot but instead pushed it over the line.

Ibrahimovic, making his return from injury, notched his � rst four minutes before the break with a � rm header from Maxwell’s left-wing cross.

He doubled his tally as he ran on to

a wayward back pass on 62 minutes be-fore rounding Ru� er and slotting into the empty net.

A minute later Cavani lashed in an unstoppable drive from distance that left Ru� er rooted to his line.

Ibrahimovic completed his hat-trick on 72 minutes after beating a static o� -side trap and slotting the ball past Ru� -ier at his near post.

St Etienne coach Christophe Galthi-er paid tribute to the Sweden star.

Meanwhile, Lyon’s poor start to the season continued as they threw away a lead to lose 2-1 at promoted Metz.

France striker Alexandre Lacazette tapped in to give Lyon the lead mid-way through the second half at the Stade Saint-Symphorien, only for Yeni Ngbakoto to equalise with a penalty in the 82nd minute after Jordan Ferri was adjudged to have fouled Bouna Sarr. l

Pirlo not ready for Italy retirement: Conten AFP, Rome

Andrea Pirlo may yet don an Italy shirt again despite suggesting after the World Cup he would move aside for younger talent, new national team boss Antonio Conte said Sunday.

“I wanted to be sure that he still had the same old � re,” Conte said on Ital-ian television. “He’s a warrior. He told me he was available and that’s good enough for me.”

Pirlo is currently sidelined until Oc-tober with a hip injury, which means he will miss Italy’s friendly with the Neth-erlands in Bari on Friday and the Euro 2016 quali� er against Norway in Oslo the following Tuesday.

Conte coached Pirlo at Juventus for

the last three seasons, in which they won the Serie A title every year, before taking over from Prandelli as national coach.

Although he spoke about Pirlo, Con-te refused to be drawn over Mario Balo-telli, the new Liverpool striker who he omitted from the squad.

Pirlo is the fourth-most capped play-er in the history of the Italian national team, along with Dino Zo� , with 112 caps.

He was instrumental in their victory in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, � nishing as the top assist provider. He was named man of the match three times, including the � nal, more than any other player in the tournament, and ultimately won the Bronze Ball (third best player in tourna-ment) also being elected to be part of the Team of the Tournament. l

RESULTSVillarreal 0-1 Barcelona (Sandro 82)Deportivo 2-2 RayoRodriguez 7 Bueno 40, 73Cuenca 90+4-penReal Sociedad 4-2 Real MadridMartinez 35, Ramos 5, Bale 11Zurutuza 41, 65, Vela 75Elche 1-1 GranadaLomban 90+1 Rico 81

(L-R) Real Madrid forward Karim Benzema, defender Sergio Ramos, goalkeeper and captain Iker Casillas and mid� elder Toni Kroos stand after Real Sociedad scored during their Spanish league match at the Anoeta stadium in San Sebastian on Sunday AFP

RESULTSAC Milan 3-1 LazioHonda 7, Alex 67-ogMuntari 56, Menez 64-pen)Atalanta 0-0 Verona

Cesena 1-0 ParmaRodriguez 38Genoa 1-2 Napoli Pinilla 40 Callejón 3, De Guzman 90+5Palermo 1-1 SampdoriaDybala 7 Gastaldello 90+1Sassuolo 1-1 CagliariZaza 42 Sau 44Torino 0-0 Inter Milan

Udinese 2-0 Empoli Di Natale 57, 62

RESULTSBordeaux 1-1 SC BastiaRolan 79 Tallo 18Metz 2-1 LyonNgbakoto 82-pen Lacazette 68Falcon 87Paris SG 5-0 Saint-EtienneRu� er 24-ogIbrahimovic 41, 62, 72, Cavani 63

AC Milan’s Jeremy Menez (C) celebrates with his team mates Stephan El Shaarawy (L) and Andrea Poli after scoring against Lazio during their Italian Serie A match at the San Siro stadium in Milan on Sunday REUTERS

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE 15

n AFP, New York

Maria Sharapova crashed out of the US Open Sunday while 17-year-old Belinda Bencic be-came the youngest

women’s quarter-� nalist since 1997 giv-ing Switzerland a double boost after Rog-er Federer had moved into the last-16.

Sharapova’s defeat at the hands of fellow former world number one Caro-line Wozniacki meant that only three of the top 10 seeds in the women’s draw were left standing after Bencic had tak-en care of ninth-ranked Jelena Jankovic.

On a day of shocks at the US Open, China’s Peng Shuai reached her � rst singles quarter-� nal at a major by beat-ing experienced Czech Lucie Safarova while, in the men’s draw, fourth-seed David Ferrer was defeated by Gilles Si-mon of France.

Even the great Federer, a � ve-time champion, had an early struggle, drop-ping the � rst set in his third round tie against Spain’s Marcel Granollers be-fore booking his fourth round spot.

Sharapova, looking to add this year’s US Open title to her French Open win in June, was undone by 43 unforced errors and eight double faults as 10th seed Wozniacki won 6-4, 2-6, 6-2.

She will next face 13th-seeded Ital-ian Sara Errani who ended the magical run of 32-year-old Croatian quali� er Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-3, 2-6, 6-0.

Bencic, 17 and ranked 58th, dis-missed former world number one Jele-na Jankovic 7-6 (8/6), 6-3 to become the youngest US Open quarter-� nalist since Martina Hingis won the title in 1997 at the age of 16.

Hingis, whose mother Melanie Mo-litor is one of Bencic’s coaches, was courtside for the match, lending a little moral support to her young compatriot, who won the 2013 junior title at Wim-bledon and Roland Garros but hadn’t made it past the third round in three major main draw appearances this year.

Bencic will now face China’s Peng who clinched a 6-3, 6-4 win over 14th-seeded Safarova with a ninth ace on match point having already defeat-ed fourth-seeded Pole, Agnieszka Rad-wanska in the second round.

Second-seeded Federer, the cham-pion between 2004-2008, came back from a set down to defeat Granollers 4-6, 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 by racing away with 20 of the last 24 games of the match which had been interrupted due to rain and the threat of lightning.

Federer, bidding to become the old-est Grand Slam champion in more than 40 years, clinched his 70th win at the tournament on the back of 57 winners and 13 aces.

Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych, a semi-� nalist in 2012, beat Geor-gian-born Russian Teymuraz Gabashvi-li 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 and next plays Dominic Thiem of Austria, the youngest player in the top 50 at just 20.

Thiem, who turns 21 on Wednes-day, reached his � rst Grand Slam last-16 with an impressive 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 win over left-handed serve-and-volleyer Feliciano

Lopez of Spain who is 12 years his senior.Gael Mon� ls celebrated his 28th

birthday a day early by sweeping past French Davis Cup teammate Richard

Gasquet, the 12th seed, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2.He will face Bulgarian seventh seed

Grigor Dimitrov who saw o� Belgium’s David Go� n, 0-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-1. l

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Josephites upset VHJosephites pulled a major upset in VH Basketball beating the tournament favorites Vertical Horizon 66-52 at the of Bangladesh Basketball Federation gymnasium, Dhanmondi yesterday. After the agonizing defeat VH now require a major boost to proceed to the next stage of the tournament. The dra-matic day saw another nerve wrecking encounter as GYC edged past Gregorian Aces by just three points in a 55-52 thriller. GYC were applauded for � nish-ing on top in the neck-to-neck game.

– Raihan Mahmood

BD Junior Open begins todayThe inaugural edition of the Bangladesh Junior Open is all set to tee o� at the Kur-mitola Golf Club today. A total of 93 ju-nior golfers including 86 boys and seven girls representing 12 clubs will take part in the three-day event. Secretary general of Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) Syed Shahed Reza will inaugurate the tournament as chief guest.

– Tribune Desk

School handball rolls tomorrowViqarunnisa Noon School will face Chit-tagong Grammar School, Dhaka in the opening match of the Polar Ice Cream 22nd School Handball Tournament (boys and girls) which will get underway at the M Mansur Ali National Handball Stadium in Paltan tomorrow. A total of 32 - 15 girls’ and 17 boys’ - schools will participate in the tournament. In the boys’ section, Scholastica will play Dhanmondi Tutorial, BISC face South Point School, Sunnydale meet Dhan-mondi Govt Boys while Shaheed Nobi High School will play against Wari High School on the opening day.

– Tribune Desk

Clarke limps out of triangular seriesAustralia’s dismal day got worse when captain Michael Clarke revealed on Sun-day that he would take no further part in the triangular series against Zimbabwe and South Africa. Clarke will head back to Australia after a recurrence of a ham-string injury that ruled him out of the � rst two games and which will raise questions over his selection for the third. There seemed no need to risk the 33-year-old against Zimbabwe if there was a chance of the injury re-occurring as Australia had scored 677 runs in 100 overs in their two games before Sunday’s defeat. As it turned out he was the mainstay of his side’s batting e� ort in the shock three-wicket loss to Zimbabwe, scoring an unbeaten 68 in a paltry total 209 for nine. That score may have been boosted had he not retired hurt in the 43rd over, no longer able to bear the pain. He returned with two balls left in the innings at the fall of the ninth wicket to ensure his side could complete their overs. “The hamstring is not great, I’ve done it again,” Clarke said at the post-match presentation. He will now work towards being � t for the one-day international series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates starting on Oct. 7.

– Reuters

Brazil draft Robinho for friendliesNew Brazil coach Dunga has called up former Real Madrid, Manchester City and AC Milan forward Robinho in place of injured Hulk for upcoming friendlies with Colombia and Ecuador, the Brazilian Football Confederation said Sunday. Dun-ga, who unveiled his � rst squad since em-barking on a second spell in charge after succeeding Luiz Felipe Scolari following the World Cup, brought in the 30-year-old who has won 92 caps for the Selecao but whom Scolari left o� his World Cup roster. Robinho has just returned to his homeland to play for Santos, where he began his career, after AC Milan loaned him out for a year. Real Madrid’s Marcelo is also back with Porto’s Alex Sandro injured. Dunga, who coached Brazil at the 2010 World Cup before being � red, now heads for Friday’s game against the Colombians in Miami with just ten of the players who featured at this year’s tournament, which ended for the hosts in a 7-1 semi-� nal thrashing by Germany. After meeting the Colombians, Brazil take on Ecuador at East Rutherford, New Jersey, on September 9.

– AFP

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DAY’S WATCH

Zimbabwe humiliation rips open Australian scarsn Reuters, Melbourne

Australia’s shock one-day internation-al defeat to minnows Zimbabwe has raised alarm bells � ve months before the country co-hosts the World Cup while exposing the team’s continued struggles to master spin bowling.

Coming o� a long break following test series wins against England and South Africa, Australia arrived in Ha-rare for the triangular one-day tourna-ment with South Africa refreshed and optimistic, but the three-wicket loss to Zimbabwe will have done little for the team’s con� dence after defeat to the Proteas and an injury to captain Mi-chael Clarke.

Sunday’s loss was Australia’s � rst in 30 years to Zimbabwe and the nation’s media ranked it highly among the country’s deepest cricketing humilia-tions.

“There’s one word that’s been used more than any other to describe Aus-tralia’s defeat at the hands of Zimba-bwe on Sunday,” one critic wrote on a News Ltd website on Monday.

Clarke, who battled to an unbeat-en 68 and retired hurt during a paltry innings of 209, was heading home to Australia on Monday for scans on his injured hamstring, leaving his team mates with some harsh parting words.

“It’s a terrible performance, there’s no doubt about it,” he told reporters. “Forget the opposition, I think we played some average cricket at best throughout the whole game.

“We play like that we’re not going to beat any team so whatever team’s se-lected we have to perform better than we did today.

“The players will be having a think about their performance as well.”

Since taking over from the sacked Mickey Arthur last year, laid-back Aus-tralia coach Darren Lehmann has had little cause to berate his team but was incensed by the bloodless performance at the Harare Sports Club.

“There’s probably not enough ex-pletives in the English language at the moment for the way I’m feeling,” Lehmann said in quotes published by News Ltd media on Monday.

“It’s just embarrassing for everyone involved in the touring party, and I hope they’re hurting.

“They should be.“We’ve got to learn really quickly

because teams are going to see that and they’re going to react to it.”

Repairing dressing room harmony has been a corner-stone of Lehmann’s tenure, but a frustrated Clarke made rare criticism of selectors for omitting middle order batsman Steven Smith. l

Bencic, Federer in Swiss joy, Sharapova crashes

Caroline Wozniacki (R) shakes hands with Maria Sharapova after defeating her at the 2014 US Open in New York, yesterday REUTERS

Argentinian former football player Diego Armando Maradona (R) o� ers Pope Francis a personalized Argentina’s jersey at the Vatican early today during a meeting with organizers, players and guests of the inter religious “match for peace” football game at Rome’s Olympic Stadium AFP

India rise to No 1 in ICC ODI rankingsn Cricinfo

India have risen to No 1 in the ODI rankings, while Australia toppled tofourth place after their defeat to Zimba-bwe on Sunday.

However, the situation at the top remains quite � uid. India will retain their place at No. 1 if they beat England in the remaining two matches of the Royal London ODI series and Australia beat South Africa at least once over the coming week - either on Tuesday or, if they make the � nal, on Saturday. South Africa will move to the top if they win their two remaining league games and the subsequent � nal, even if India win the fourth and � fth ODIs. l

Team Matches Points RatingIndia 57 6485 114South Africa 40 4522 113Sri Lanka 65 7245 111Australia 38 4230 111England 43 4575 106Pakistan 50 4998 100New Zealand 31 3031 98West Indies 43 4107 96Bangladesh 28 1940 69Zimbabwe 30 1736 58Afghanistan 13 550 42Ireland 9 297 33

ICC ODI CHAMPIONSHIP

Bangladeshis 1st innings Tamim Iqbal c Clarke b Louis 20 Shamsur Rahman c Clarke b Boatswain 10Imrul Kayes c Berridge b Boatswain 44 Mominul Haque c Ward b Louis 10 Mahmudullah c Ward b Berridge 27Shuvagata Hom run out (Ward/Louis) 48Mush� qur Rahim* not out 106Nasir Hossain b Willett 100M. Starc b Williams 3B. Cutting run out 26N. Lyon not out 8Extras (lb 5, w 4, nb 3) 12

Total (7 wickets dec; 103.3 overs) 377Did not bat Rubel Hossain, Robiul Islam, Sha� ul Islam, Taijul Islam, Anamul Haque†

Fall of wickets: 1-22 (Shamsur Rahman, 3.5 ov), 2-45 (Tamim Iqbal, 15.2 ov), 3-60 (Mominul Haque, 21.2 ov), 4-92 (Imrul Kayes, 33.6 ov), 5-138 (Mahmudullah, 46.5 ov), 6-186 (Shuvagata Hom, 53.4 ov), 7-377 (Nasir Hossain, 103.3 ov)

St Kitts & Nevis 1st innings S Martina c Mush� qur b Rubel 9SM Je� ers c Mahmudullah b Shuvagata 118J Hodge c Mominul b Taijul 7S Chanderpaul c (N/A) b Rubel 183TA Willett c Mominul b M’dullah 21J Lewis lbw Taijul 35J Clarke ibw Taijul 0JDC Taylor b Shuvagata 0S Berridge b Rubel 15Total (All out in 127 overs) 399

Fall of wickets: 1-77 (Martina, 18.6 ov), 2-110 (Hodge, 27.5 ov), 3-161 (Je� ers, 45.4 ov), 4-226 (Willett, 69.4 ov)

DAY 3, POST LUNCH Tourists shine with ball after Shiv, Je� ers post tonsSt Kitts and Nevis 399 in 1st innings as match headed for drawn Tribune Desk

Hosts St Kitts and Nevis were to 399 all-out in their � rst innings post to lunch on the � nal day in the practice game against Bangladesh at Warner Park yes-terday. This meant a 399 runs lead in reply to Bangladeshis’ � rst innings as the game neared a draw.

The home side resumed their � rst innings with an overnight score of 232 runs with six wickets to spare. Shivnarine Chanderpaul made the lone walk to get the homeside the lead as his partners got dismissed on regular intervals.

The veteran Windies cricketer, who played the practice game for ST Kitts as a guest, survided 315 balls to score 183. His innings included 20 four and two sixes. Chanderpaul’s e� ort compliment opening batsman Shane Je� ers who had added 118 runs to the tally earlier.

Spinners Taijul Islam and Shuvagata Hom picked three wickets each for Ban-gladesh. Pacer Rubel Hossain picked two while Mahmudullah bagged one.

Earlier on Sunday, a century each from Bangladesh skipper Mush� qur Rahim and middle-order batsman Na-sir Hossain guided the Tigers to post a strong � rst innings total of 377 for 7 (declared).

Nasir and Mush� qur shared a 191-run seventh wicket stand which res-cued the tourists from 186/6 and recov-ered them from a potential collapse. The big partnership was broken with the dismissal of Nasir in the 104th over which was immediately followed by the innings declaration from skipper Mush-� qur Rahim who was unbeaten on 106. Nasir, however, was bowled by Willett immediately after reaching his century.

Bangladesh � elded all their batters in the game which is being played with 13 members-per-side. But the Tigers’ innings got the necessary thrust only after the arrival of Mush� qur at seven and Nasir at eight.

The � rst Test of the two-match se-ries between Bangladesh and WestIndies begins on September 5 at StVincent. l

Bangladesh spinner Taijul Islam (L) is congratulated by teammates after taking a wicket during their three-day warm-up game against St Kitts and Nevis at Warner Park on Sunday WICB

16 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, September 2, 2014

82 students to compete for eachJnU seatn Mohammad Jamil

Khan

Jagannath University will see an average of 82 stu-dents � ghting for one seat in this year’s undergradu-ate admission test.

The registration process for the admission seekers ended on Sunday mid-night. Sources said 225,959 students registered for the admission test, amongst whom 61,459 students will compete for 790 seats in the science faculty; 50,551 stu-dents for 710 seats in arts faculty; 45,532 applicants for 620 seats in business faculty; 65,961 students for 540 seats in social science faculty; and 2,456 students for 100 seats in law faculty.

Admission test for the business faculty is sched-uled to be held on Septem-ber 5, science faculty on September 12, law faculty on September 13, arts fac-ulty on September 19 and social science faculty on September 26. l

Flood stays, misery compounds n Tribune Report

Nonstop rise in water level has sub-merged many villages, left thousands of people marooned, and destroyed arable lands in a number of districts across the country.

The � ood situation remained un-changed in some areas while getting worse in other places. Relief goods were also distributed in a number of areas.

Kurigram Although water in Kurigram rivers has receded a bit, the Brahmaputra is still � owing above the danger level, com-pounding the woes of the � ood victims.

The victims, who remain marooned for 16 days, are facing a serious short-age of food and pure drinking water amid the outbreak of many waterborne diseases.

Relief goods were distributed by the local authorities but the majority of the victims are yet to receive any. They are living on boats, bamboo-made raised platforms and rafts made of banana trees. Some have taken shelter in � ood protection embankments and educa-tional institutions.

Meanwhile, bus communication of Dhaka with Rajipur and Raumari upa-zials came to a halt when a 100ft road in Shiberdangi area was heavily damaged.

Local Water Development Board o� cials said the Brahmaputra is still � owing 1cm above the danger level at Chilmari point.

JamalpurThe overall � ood situation in Jamalpur remained static but the Jamuna was � owing 30cm above the danger level at Bahadurabad point yesterday morning.

Although water receded, almost 2.5 lakh people in seven upazilas still remain marooned. They are su� ering from an acute shortage of food, with many losing their jobs.

Waterborne diseases are also spreading.

Deputy Director of Jamalpur Agri-culture Extension Department Md Abul

Quasem said nearly 34,000 hectares of land in the district have gone under water, subjecting 2,30,000 farmers to losses.

“The a� ected farmers will be pro-vided with assistance under the ag-riculture rehabilitation programme to help them recover the losses they faced,” he added.

District Fisheries O� cer Ranjit Ku-mar Paul said nearly 2,500 ponds in the district were completely submerged by � oodwater but the extent of loss is yet to be calculated.

Jamalpur Deputy Commissioner Md Shahabuddin Khan said 202 tonnes of rice and dry food worth Tk15.50 lakh have so far been distributed among the � ood victims.

MunshiganjA 1cm rise in water in the Padma at Bhagyakul point exacerbated the � ood situation in Munshiganj, inun-dating dozens of new areas, including Kamarkhara, Panchgaon, Chitracoat, Kalma, Kumarbhogh and Banglabazar.

The Padma � owed 26cm above the danger level yesterday morning. Arable lands have been inundated and several thousand people in 100 villages remain marooned.

Sixty-seven medical teams are work-ing in the � ood-hit areas, which saw the outbreak of a number of diseases.

According to government statistics, the Padma completely destroyed the houses of 49 families while partially damaging abodes of another 823 fam-ilies.

32 tonnes of rice and Tk2.30 lakh were allocated for the � ood-a� ected people.

The � ood did not quite a� ect aca-demic a� airs at the educational insti-tutions except Kamarkhara Barail Gov-ernment Primary School in Tongibari upazila. The school authorities said they would adopt alternative measures to ensure that classes are not hampered.

Munshiganj Deputy Commissioner Md Saiful Hasan Badol said the local administration is doing its best to miti-gate the misery of the � ood victims.

Civil surgeon of Munshiganj Dr Kazi Shariful Alam said a medical team has been formed in each union and the team members are supplying neces-sary medicines to the people.

“We have also adequate stock of medicines for waterborne diseases and everything is now under control,” he added.

GaibandhaWater levels in all the rivers in the dis-trict fell yesterday, improving the over-all � ood situation.

The Brahmaputra, the Teesta and the Korotoa yesterday � owed 17cm, 12cm and 15cm below the danger level respectively, said local Water Develop-ment Board o� cials.

The � ood-hit people, however, are badly su� ering as their lives have be-come plagued by shortage of food, fuel and drinking water.

Extensive erosion of the Brahmapu-tra and the Jamuna in Haldia, Erend-abari and Fazlupur has destroyed more than 600 homes. The a� ected families have moved to shelters and high lands but now await relief materials.

Meanwhile, Rangpur Divisional Commissioner Md Delwar Bakth visit-ed the � ood-hit areas in Haldia union under Saghata upazila yesterday.

He said the government is making an all-out e� ort to distribute relief ma-terials among the distressed people, adding that rehabilitation measures would be taken to help the victims re-cover the losses.

Meanwhile, � ve shops and a 25sqft area of Mawa launch terminal in Mun-shiganj were eroded by Padma yester-day but launch communication was not disrupted.

The incident happened around 2pm, said Mawa naval outpost in-charge Khandakar Khalid Hossain.

“The Padma is � owing 26cm above the danger level. The high tide and on-rush of hill-water caused the erosion,” he said.

Earlier on the night of August 19, number 3 ro-ro ferry terminal at Mawa was entirely eroded away. l

ICT sector su� ers from state minister-secretary stando� n Muhammad Zahidul Islam

Work at the ICT Division has had to face various setbacks over the last few months because of an alleged pow-er-struggle between the state minister and the secretary.

The internal hostility between the two became visible to the public eye when ICT Secretary Md Nazrul Islam Khan allegedly skipped several major events where State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak had also been in-vited.

However, the power-struggle inside the division apparently came to an end yesterday, with Nazrul being granted a request for transfer to another minis-try.

Sources inside the Information and Communication Technology Division told the Dhaka Tribune that no single programme in the past few months had seen both Palak and Nazrul in attend-ance together.

In June, the secretary was absent at the ICT Division’s biggest annual pro-gramme “Digital World,” even though the prime minister inaugurated the event.

Sources said Nazrul pulled strings to be able to attend a programme in the US instead of going to the Digital World event – where Palak also attended. Al-though Nazrul was in Dhaka when an o� cial press conference on the event was held on May 10, he did not go to it either.

In August, Nazrul avoided another programme that launched “Puthi,” a Bangla optical character recognition (OCR) software. The event was inaugu-rated by Finance Minister AMA Muhith and attended by Palak.

Well placed sources in the ICT Divi-sion said both the state minister and the secretary had engaged in verbal al-tercations with each other at di� erent meetings. After the secretary reported-ly started skipping meetings because of the disputes, Additional Secretary Kamal Uddin Ahmed � lled in Nazrul’s shoes, the sources added.

A colleague of Nazrul, seeking ano-nymity, told the Dhaka Tribune that the ICT secretary was disappointed in not being able to receive in his own hands, the “World Summit on Information Society 2014 Prize” which was award-ed to Bangladesh for initiating digital services in governance sectors through the innovative use of ICT over the last few years. The award was accepted by Palak at a ceremony in Geneva’s ITU Headquarters on June 10 this year.

Nazrul reportedly held a grudge against Palak as he did not notify the secretary about the award, even though Nazrul claimed of contributing a great deal in steering the country to-wards a digital direction over the last � ve years, the colleague added.

Nazrul is also the national pro-gramme director of Access to Informa-tion Programme (a2i), which has been helping digitalise services in sectors like agriculture, education, health, civil facilities, land management, com-merce and government administration.

Following this incident with the state minister, Nazrul met the premier and reportedly expressed his dissatis-faction over the whole issue.

Hinting that there was trouble with-in the ICT Division ranks, Nazrul told the Dhaka Tribune: “I cannot stay here anymore as lots of people are disturb-ing me and I also met with the prime minister and asked her to transfer me anywhere else.” Talking to the Dhaka Tribune on August 19, Nazrul, howev-er, did not specify the reason that had prompted his transfer request.

Meanwhile, Palak – the youngest state minister in the cabinet – claimed that he had no problem with anybody in the sector.

“From my side, I can con� rm you that I have no problem with anybody in the sector. I want all of their [o� cials] valuable experiences and good ideas for my doings,” Palak told the Dhaka Tribune over phone.

“I am only 34 years of age; it is a huge responsibility for me to lead a sector and I just want to do my best for

my country’s people. We have lots of things to do for building a digital Bang-ladesh; there is no time to waste,” Palak added.

Meanwhile, ICT Division sources said there were allegations against Naz-rul of awarding di� erent projects to the people and organisations close to him, including NGOs where he acted as an adviser, without proper tender process and by showing single sources.

There are also allegations that Samira Zuberi Himika, the managing director of Team Engine Ltd which de-veloped Puthi, was awarded the work of the OCR project by Nazrul even though her company was blacklisted by the ICT Division.

The disputes surrounding work dis-tribution led to no new initiative being taken in the last eight months, ICT Di-vision sources claimed.

They added that o� cials who pro-tested decisions by either the secretary or the state minister were often trans-ferred.

When asked about the allegations of nepotism and irregularities, the sec-retary became agitated and refused to comment on the issue.

Meanwhile, on several occasions, Post, Telecommunication and Informa-tion Technology Minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui had also expressed discontent towards the popularity of Palak, who reportedly is in good terms with the prime minister’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy.

At a seminar on April 20, organised by Asia Foundation and Bangladesh As-sociation of Software and Information Services (BASIS), Latif Siddiqui hinted at the BASIS President Shameem Ah-san, saying: “You people never come to me, you only call the younger one [Palak].”

On June 23, neither Latif Siddiqui nor Nazrul were invited to the event where the government launched a national portal for around 25,000 of its websites. Palak was the only sen-ior-ranked o� cial present from the Ministry of Post, Telecommunication and Information Technology. l

Railways minister to tie the knot at 67 n Mohosinul Karim

Railways Minister Mujibul Huq has decid-ed to draw an end to his bachelor life at the age of 67.

He is likely to get married in December, several of his colleagues in the cabinet said.

“It was discussed informally at today’s cabinet meeting,” a minister said yester-day requesting anonymity.

“We are happy that he, in the end, has decided to get married and we congratu-lated him,” he said.

Several ministers at the meeting had an informal discussion about the marriage and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina instruct-ed the public works minister to allocate a house for the railways minister on Mintoo Road in the capital, a place where most of the ministers live.

At present, Mujibul is living in a � at in the NAM Bhaban in the capital and it was allocated to him as a parliamentarian.

’He will now get a coach’The minister said the premier was happy to learn that Mujibul is going to get mar-ried.

“She said at the meeting that she was very happy with the railways minister’s decision. She also said that Mujibul was only an engine so far and a coach now would be attached to it,” the minister said.

He, however, did not provide any details about the bride.

Mujibul could not be reached for comment over phone despite repeated attempts. His personal secretary at the ministry also declined to disclose anything about the marriage.

Born in 1947, the lawyer-cum-politician was elected as lawmaker thrice.

Former foreign minister Abdus Samad Azad in 1998 and former law minister Abdul Matin Khasru in late 90s got married while holding o� ce. Both of them married when their previous wives passed away. l

Road accident memorial built at DUn DU Correspondent

A road accident memorial, intended to raise public awareness about road safe-ty issues, has been established at Dha-ka University.

DU Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr AAMS Are� n Siddique inaugurated the me-morial located between Shamsunnahar Hall and the TSC yesterday.

Tareque Masud Memorial Trust in as-sociation with Brac Bank, � nanced the memorial. The designers of the memo-rial are sculptor Dali Al Mamun and en-gineer Salauddin Ahmad. In his speech, the DU VC urged the government to in-troduce tougher laws and ensure strict-er enforcement of tra� c rules.

“The violation of tra� c rules is the prime cause of road accidents,” he said.

With Sammilito Sangskritik Jote President Nasiruddin Yusuf Bachchu in the chair, the inauguration ceremony was also addressed, among others, by Brac Chairperson Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, Tareque Masud Trust Fund Chair-person Catherine Masud, and human rights activist Khushi Kabir. l

Four o� cials reshu� ed n Mohosinul Karim

Four o� cials of Primary Education Department, National Housing Author-ity, Bangladesh Small and Cottage In-dustries Corporation and ICT Ministry have acquired new o� ces.

The Public Administration Ministry issued a gazette noti� cation in this re-gard yesterday.

Shamol Kanti Ghosh, director gen-eral of primary education department, was given posting to the Privatisation Commission as an acting member.

Information Communication and Technology (ICT) Division Secretary Nazrul Islam Khan was transferred to Education Ministry as secretary, while Bangladesh Small and Cottage Indus-tries Corporation (BSCIC) Chairman Sham Shundar Sikder was made the acting secretary of ICT Division.

Education Secretary Dr Mohammad Sadik is set to retire on September 18.

National Housing Authority Chair-man Shahidullah Khandakar was made the acting secretary of Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division. l

Visitors appreciate the road accident memorial after its unveiling on the Dhaka University campus yesterday NASHIRUL ISLAM

Residents of Chandanbaisha in Bogra’s Sariakandi upazila try to salvage as much personal belongings on boats as they can before seeking shelter from � oodwater FOCUS BANGLA

Editor: Zafar Sobhan, Published and Printed by Kazi Anis Ahmed on behalf of 2A Media Limited at Dainik Shakaler Khabar Publications Limited, 153/7, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka-1208. Editorial, News & Commercial O� ce: FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka 1207. Phone: 9132093-94, Advertising: 9132155, Circulation: 9132282, Fax: News-9132192, e-mail: news@dhakatribune.com, info@dhakatribune.com, Website: www.dhakatribune.com

www.dhakatribune.com/business TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

B3 Japan aims to double India investment in 5 years

B4 Passive funds an active threat for Europe’s fund managers

Amin Jewellers to honour 25 intellectuals n Tribune Report

Amin Jewellers will honor 25 distinguished personalities of the country for their contributions to respective � elds on the occasion of the industry’s golden jubilee celebration.

Managing Director Quazi Sirazul Islam of Amin Jewellers came up with the an-nouncement at a media brie� ng in a city ho-

tel of the capital yesterday.He said the award will go to those that

contributed specially to the � eld of history, tradition, language movement, liberation war, art, literature, culture, politics, eco-nomics, business, education, architecture, medical science and so on.

A total of 25 intellectuals will be selected by a jury board comprised of three members.

The distinguished will be honoured with

a cash of Tk3 lakh, a gold medal and a gold crest, Sirajul Islam said.

To celebrate the 50th year Golden Jubilee is out and out a signi� cant achievement for any organisation, he said, adding that it is milestone for Amin Jewellers in the � eld of the country’s jewelery industry.

“We reached this stage and earned fame because our buyers and clients have trust and con� dence in us,” Sirajul said.

He called upon the customers to contin-ue their support to the company.

Kazi Aminul Islam, director of the jewellery industry, said in his written speech the company has decided to award 25 intellectuals who are serving the country with their talent, labour, devotion and patriotism.

The honouring programme will be held on January 1, 2016. l

BTRC: Banglalink fastest of all other operators in 3G data service n Muhammad Zahidul Islam

The telecom regulator has found Banglalink’s third-generation data ser-vice fastest in the country though the mobile company is at the bottom of the pyramid in terms of the fastest data us-ers’ numbers.

According to the regulator, Grameenphone is the most popular mobile operator holding the apex of 3G users’ numbers, but hardly o� ers bet-ter data transfer services.

The GP has more than 19 lakh active 3G subscribers though the company o� ers less than 1 Mbps (megabyte per second) speed for data transfer on its network.

Grameenphone � xed its 3G data speed at 512 Kbps and 1 Mbps, while Banglalink, Robi and Airtel o� er an un-codi� ed speed limit.

The telecom watchdog found Banglalink’s 3G data speed more than 2 Mbps in most areas while Robi’s speed ranges around 1.9 Mbps and Airtel around 1.2 Mbps on an average.

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has collected these data through physical monitoring of the 3G mobile data ser-vices o� ered by the four private mobile operators across the country.

We have observed that Grameen-phone hardly o� ers better speedy data services to its clients though its has subscribers higher than those of the other three, a member of BTRC inspec-tion team told the Dhaka Tribune last week.

The market leader, Grameenphone, acquired 10 Megahertz spectrum in the

spectrum auction while the other three got 5 Megahertz each.

BTRC o� cials travelled all division-al and some district headquarters to oversee the 3G network performance by Grameenphone, Robi, Airtel and Banglalink; while they also measured the speed and service quality of the op-erators through their networks.

The inspection team had its � eld-level observation between July 13 and July 17 as a nine-month grace peri-od for introducing the 3G mobile data services ended in the � rst week of July.

As per the 3G licence guidelines, the operators have an obligation to roll out their services in all the divisional head-quarters within nine months from the licence-awarding date.

The BTRC team, however, found all private mobile operators ful� lled their obligation primarily and covered some district headquarters and growth cen-tres also.

According to the study report, only Grameenphone covers all the 64 dis-trict headquarters through its 2,200 sites, which were upgraded to 3G sta-tus.

The report also reads: Banglalink has covered only 23 districts including seven divisional headquarters up to July 23, but the mobile company claims that it has covered 64 districts.

Banglalink, the second largest op-erator in terms of 2G subscribers, has only 4.5 lakh 3G subscribes, said the report.

Earlier, another BTRC report claimed that the number of Banglalink’s 3G subscribers stand at 6.69 lakh till the end of July.

The inspection team observed Ro-bi’s network in the � rst week of August and found that some 13.05 lakh 3G sub-scribers enjoy the company’s service.

Robi covers only 23 districts with 7 divisional cities with around 1,300 sites.

Airtel has 5.39 lakh 3G subscribers covering 20 district towns up to Eid-ul Fitr, the report said, adding that the cellular company developed its 1,100 sites with modern and fastest network equipment.

Seeking anonymity, a senior o� -cial, who was also in the BTRC inspec-tion team, said: “Each operator has Tk150 crore Performance Bank Guar-anty (PBG) to the regulator and only Grameenphone is eligible to withdraw all its PBG as it has already ful� lled its network obligation.”

He added that the remaining three operators are only eligible to withdraw Tk50 crore as they have met only � rst-phase of rollout obligation.

The operators also have obligation to cover at least 30% district areas within 18 months after the licence was awarded and they have to cover 64 dis-tricts by 36 months, according to the 3G guidelines.

The 3G spectrum auction was held on September 8, 2013 and the operators obtained their licences with-in a week.

The state-owned operator Teletalk was not included in the BTRC inspec-tion list. As of July, Teletalk’s total 3G subscribers stand at 10.44 lakh. The state-owned operator went into com-mercial operation in October 2012 and it is yet to obtain 3G licences. l

Many fear policy to woo FDI may boomerang Relaxed foreign investment repatriation rule is feared to pose risks of capital � ight unless Bangladesh Bank tightens loose endsn Tribune Report

A change in the foreign exchange pol-icy to attract foreign investment is feared to widen further the scope of money laundering as Bangladesh Bank relaxed the repatriation rules.

Bangladesh Bank Senior Adviser Al-lah Malik Kazemi admitted the chance of capital � ight still remains though the central bank decided to relax the rules on consideration the country would gain much than what it might lose due to money laundering.

“There is scope of money � ight but not much as being feared,” he told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday. “We have more chance of becoming gainer as for-eign investment will build fresh indus-try in the country.”

Bangladesh Bank relaxed the fund repatriation rule when the country is trying to curb money laundering through enacting laws and joining in-ternational anti-money laundering bodies.

The central bank on Sunday relaxed the forex policy allowing repatriation of foreign investment from Bangladesh by selling their shares of equity that they owned in unlisted companies. The valuation of shares would now be estimated through a “fair value” meth-od instead of net asset value.

The fair valuation of shares would be estimated on a combination of three valuation methods – net asset value approach, market value approach and discounted cash � ow approach

depending on the nature of the company.

Senior executives of Bangladesh Bank considered it to open the exit door of funds foreign investors earned through their business in the country.

Kazemi said the central bank lifted the restriction on fund repatriation in order to encourage the long term for-eign investment in the country.

The restriction had, however, been maintained fearing the money � ight. But now, he said, the restriction has been lifted in response to demands by some foreign investors who have al-ready invested in the country.

He said long-term foreign invest-ment has slowed down due to the strict exit policy. But some foreign in-vestors had invested here relying only on Bangladesh Bank’s commitment it would relax the condition for repatria-tion of funds.

He said the net asset value was not a fair approach as the process might be applicable for a closed company, but not for a running company.

Another senior executive, prefer-ring anonymity, said the foreign inves-tors were earlier allowed to entry in the country for investment, but with strictly restricted repatriation rules the central bank had imposed fearing mon-ey laundering.

As a result, foreign investors have been deprived of the income, brand value of the companies, and do not get the real value, making them reluctant to invest for a long time in the country.

He said though the relaxed rule would contribute to increase long term foreign investment in the country, it would also create a great scope of mon-ey laundering.

“Capital � ight could take place through manipulation of the valua-tion process of the shares,” he said. He, however, defended that the central bank has the option to justify the val-ue, but still having the scope of being biased.

“There is a chance of capital � ight,” said Mamun Rashid, banker and eco-nomic analyst. However, he said the auditors have huge responsibility to protect the capital � ight.

On the other hand, he said, private equity investors would be encouraged due to the new rule.

According to the circular, applica-tion for repatriation of sale proceeds of shares will have to be submitted to the foreign exchange investment depart-ment of the central bank with a valu-ation certi� cate, issued by a merchant bank or a chartered accountant.

The valuation certi� cates will have to be supported by full explanation jus-tifying the fair value. Audited � nancial statements of the company will also have to be submitted along with the application for remittance approval, the BB said.

The central bank, however, can scrutinise the valuation by another chartered accountant, if it is not satis-� ed about the appropriateness of the valuation of shares. l

UK groups want to advocate for foreign investments in DSE, CSE n Asif Showkat Kallol

A UK-based investment association and a development � nance institution also based in UK have expressed in-terest in initiating global advocacy to bring foreign investment into Bangla-desh’s stock markets.

However, they have identi� ed � ve barriers into attracting foreign invest-ment to the country’s two markets - Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges.

Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA) and CDC Group are willing to take the move.

Commercial Counselor of Bangla-desh in the United Kingdom Sharifa Khan sent a letter to Finance Secretary Mahbub Ahemd in this regard.

It said the CDC and EMPEA are keen to invest in the country as well as launch the global advocacy.

The letter mentioned some barriers which include restriction on repatri-ation of the capital from Bangladesh and three-year lock-in periods follow-ing initial public o� erings of securities (IPOs).

Business integrity and corporate governance are also of concerns for foreign investors willing to step in the Bangladeshi stock markets.

Besides, Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has only made a limited adherence to international accounting standards, the letter said.

It said there also exists a lack of pri-vate equity regulatory guidelines for

investment in the two stock exchanges.Commercial counselor said the in-

tention of EMPEA and CDC Group is to highlight the potentials for private equity development within Bangla-desh and how regulatory enhancement could attract capital into the country.

EMPEA is a global industry sec-tor association for private capital in emerging markets. It is an independent non-pro� t organisation.

As EMPEA celebrates its 10th anni-versary in 2014, the association has over 300 member � rms, comprising institutional investors, fund managers and industry advisers, who together manage more than $1tn of assets and have o� ces in more than 100 countries across the globe.

The association members share EMPEA’s belief that private capital is a highly suited investment strategy in emerging markets, delivering attrac-tive long-term investment returns and promoting the sustainable growth of companies and economies, the letter cited.

The association supports their members through global authoritative intelligence, conferences and events, networking, education and general and regulatory advocacy.

Last April, the CDC Group invested $28m in private sector lender Ratnakar Bank in India, a transaction that made the British development � nancial in-stitution picking up a 4.8% stake in the Kohlapur-based and private equi-ty-backed bank. l

DSE portfolio investment jolted in Augustn Kayes Sohel

Net foreign investment at the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) took a jolt in Au-gust compared to the month of July.

Sharp fall in net foreign investment or portfolio investment on equity contin-ued for the second consecutive month after record rise in the previous months.

Analysts say although net position dropped steeply, they played a role on the both side of fence.

Moreover, the market is now at the middle of the year when foreign invest-ment situation usually remains poor due to realignment of their portfolios, analysts said.

Overseas investors had bought shares worth Tk165 crore in August and sold shares worth Tk152 crore, reducing their total investment turnover at DSE to Tk12.5 crore in the month from Tk79 crore in the previous month, DSE sources said.

Data showed the August net foreign investment � gure is over 84% lower than that of the previous month.

In April, 2014, the foreign investors came up with the highest ever fund of Tk572 crore into Bangladesh’s stock market when they bought shares of Tk876 crore and sold Tk304 crore.

“The drop in holdings of foreign portfolio investments does not mean weakening of investors’ sentiment,” said an analyst working at a top broker-age � rm in Dhaka. He also cited foreign investment usually remained dull in the middle of a year as they preferred to realign their holdings.

The foreign investment, however, accounts for less than 2% of DSE’s total market capitalisation, which is the low-est among South Asian countries. l

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina addresses a two-day international conference on blue economy in its inaugural ceremony held in Dhaka yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Bangladesh remittance fair in KL on Sep 21 n Tribune Report

A two-day Bangladesh remittance and investment fair will be held in Malay-sian capital, Kuala Lumpur, on Sep-tember 21 and 22.

Global Air Tours and Travels will host the programme.

State Minister for Finance and Plan-ning MA Mannan will inaugurate the

fair at Merdeka Square on September 21.Some 50 stalls will be put up in the

fair, which is expected to be attended by Deputy Governor of Bangladesh Bank SK Sur Chowdhury, Managing Director of Probashi Kallyan Bank CM Koyes Sami and high-ups from di� er-ent banks and business organisations.

“Along with di� erent beverage and food manufacturing companies, banks,

insurance companies, � nancial institu-tions, leather, plastic, real estate, airline and tour companies can take part in the fair,” said Farzana Majumder, MD and CEO of Global Air Tours and Travels.

Participating banks will be able to create awareness among Bangladeshis working in Malaysia for sending their money home through banking channels. l

B2 Stock Tuesday, September 2, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

News, Analysis and Recent DisclosersFrom TradeServers:NITOLINS: Credit Rating Informa-tion and Services Limited (CRISL) has announced the CPA (Claim Paying Ability) Rating of the Company as "A" in consideration of audited financials of the Company up to December 31, 2013 and other relevant quantitative as well as qualitative information up to the date of rating declaration.HAKKANIPUL: Emerging Credit Rating Limited (ECRL) has assigned the surveillance rating of the Company as "ECRL-2" in the short term along with a stable outlook to the Company based on audited financials of the Company up to June 30, 2013, unaudited financials upto March 31, 2014 and other qualitative information.APEXTANRY: Credit Rating Informa-tion and Services Limited (CRISL) has rated the Company as "AA-" in the long term and "ST-2" in the short term based on audited financial statements of the Company up to June 30, 2013, unaudited financials for July, 2013 to March, 2014 and other relevant quantitative as well as qualitative information up to the date of rating declaration.PRAGATILIF: (Q1): As per un-audited quarterly accounts for the 1st quarter ended on 31st March 2014 (Jan'14 to March'14), the Company has reported an increase in life revenue account of Tk. 202.01 million with total life insurance fund of Tk. 3,772.44 million as against Tk.

115.83 million and Tk. 3,268.97 million respectively for the same period of the previous year.TUNGHAI: (Q1): The Company has reported its profit after tax Tk. 12.25 million and basic EPS Tk. 0.27 for the 3 (three) months ended on 31 March 2014 (Jan 2014-March 2014) as against profit after tax of Tk. 11.60 million and basic EPS of Tk. 0.26 for the same period of the previous year. It is to be noted that basic EPS has been calculated based on weighted average Pre-IPO paid-up number of shares i.e. 45,130,000 shares for both periods. However, considering Post-IPO 80,130,000 number of shares the Company's basic EPS for the 3 (three) months ended on 31 March 2014 would be Tk. 0.15 and NAV per share would be Tk. 13.03 as on March 31, 2014.PRAGATILIF: (H/Y): As per un-audited half yearly accounts as on 30.06.2014 (Jan'14 to June'14), the Company has reported an increase in life insurance fund of Tk. 181.21 million with total life insurance fund of Tk. 3,751.64 million as against Tk. 166.26 million and Tk. 3,319.39 million respectively for the same period of the previous year. Whereas a decrease in life insurance fund was Tk. 20.80 million for the period of 3 months (Apr'14 to June'14) ended on 30.06.2014 as against an increase of Tk. 50.42 million for the same period of the previous year.

MHSML: As per Regulation 30 of DSE Listing Regulations, the Company has informed that a meeting of the Board of Directors will be held on September 03, 2014 at 3:30 PM to consider, among others, audited financial statements of the Company for the year ended on June 30, 2014.IPO Subscription: Khan Brothers PP Woven Bag Industries Ltd. subscription date 24-28 August 2014, NRB upto 06 September 2014. @ taka 10, face value taka 10 and market lot 500. Western Ma-rine Shipyard Limited subscription date 10-14 August 2014, NRB upto 23 August 2014. @ taka 35, face value taka 10 and market lot 100.Right Share: MIDASFIN: Subscription period for rights issue will be from 01.09.2014 to 30.09.2014. Record date for entitlement of rights share: 03.08.2014.ICB: Subscription period for rights issue will be from 07.12.2014 to 30.12.2014. Record date for entitlement of rights share: 09.09.2014. Dividend/AGMSAIHAMCOT: 10% cash, AGM: 23.10.2014, Record date: 17.09.2014.BSCCL: 10% cash, AGM: 12.10.2014, Record date: 04.09.2014. PRAGATILIF: No dividend, AGM: 30.09.2014, Record date: 14.09.2014. GPHISPAT: 15% cash and 5% stock, AGM: 10.11.2014, Record date: 22.09.2014.

Stocks inch higher on GP rallyn Tribune Report

Stocks inched higher amid volatility yesterday, as late selling pressure on pro� t booking wiped o� early high-er gains.

The market resumed with posi-tive note but the upswing trend was restrained by fall in share prices of pharmaceuticals, food and allied, banks and � nancial institutions.

The benchmark DSEX edged 5 points or 0.8% higher to 4,555, pulled up by mainly rally in heavy-

weight Grameenphone share prices that gained more than 4%.

The Shariah index, DSES, gained marginally 7 points or 0.8% to 1,065.

The comprising blue chips DS30 closed at 1,723, rising 9 points or 0.6%.

Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, was up 13 points to 8,597.

Trading activities still remained sluggish as turnover at DSE stood at Tk500-crore mark, slightly down the previous session’s Tk494 crore.

Among the large cap sectors,

telecommunication, cement, IT and power closed positive.

The other major sectors phar-maceuticals, food and allied, banks and � nancial institution performed negative.

Lanka Bangla Securities said the market ended in � at green zone with mild increase in turnover com-pared to the previous day.

Zenith Investments said after moving in a narrow range for the last two days, indexes at Dhaka bourse surged higher from early hours of trade and kept the momentum in-tact till the last hour.

The main DSEX index seems to face strong resistance at 4,600 lev-el, for which a strong support from volume is required to break the clus-ter and make way for the market to edge higher and become more mag-netic, it said.

Grameenphone was the most traded stocks with shares worth Tk35 crore changing hands, remov-ing Beximco Ltd that came in third after remaining in top turnover chart over the last two weeks.

Tun Hai Knitting, in its � rst trad-ing day, gained 178% to Tk27.8 on its face value of Tk10 a share, making it second turnover leader.

Other top turnover leaders were Summit Power, Beximco Pharma, Mobil Jamuna Limited Bangladesh and Lafarge Surma Cement Ltd Ban-gladesh. l

CSE LOSER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

8th ICB M F-A -22.14 -22.14 54.50 54.50 54.50 54.50 0.055 7.96 6.8FAR Chemical-N -8.01 -3.72 55.70 54.00 58.00 53.80 2.841 3.92 14.2Alltex Industries -Z -7.89 -6.83 7.09 7.00 7.50 6.90 0.223 -1.24 -veICB AMCL IslamicMF-A -7.61 -7.81 17.00 17.00 17.00 17.00 0.009 2.33 7.3Ambee Pharma -A -7.55 -5.71 249.87 245.00 251.00 245.00 0.075 3.18 78.6Rupali InsurA -7.45 -5.92 23.99 23.60 24.20 23.60 0.278 2.72 8.8Provati Insur.-A -6.54 -4.20 19.82 20.00 20.00 19.50 0.016 1.52 13.0AMCL 2nd MF-A -4.17 -2.94 4.63 4.60 4.70 4.60 0.007 0.99 4.7IFIL Islamic M.F.1-A -3.77 -2.83 5.15 5.10 5.20 5.10 0.093 1.07 4.8Eastern Bank - A -3.32 -3.32 26.20 26.20 26.20 26.20 0.021 3.10 8.5

DSE LOSER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

FAR Chemical-N -8.38 -4.65 55.22 53.60 58.70 53.30 62.762 3.92 14.1Jute SpinnersA -7.02 -6.44 53.33 53.00 53.10 53.00 0.016 -43.81 -veAlltex Industries -Z -5.33 -6.36 7.22 7.10 7.50 7.00 0.708 -1.24 -vePragati Gen. I -A -4.15 -3.64 41.83 41.60 43.00 40.00 0.620 2.44 17.1Pioneer Insur -A -3.92 -3.18 44.45 44.10 45.50 44.10 1.570 3.12 14.2Beximco Syn.-Z -3.81 -3.61 10.14 10.10 10.40 10.00 2.398 0.66 15.4Eastern Bank - A -3.62 -3.29 26.72 26.60 27.00 25.00 1.211 3.10 8.6Popular Life Insu. -A -2.96 -4.51 137.92 137.80 145.00 135.00 1.420 17.00 8.1BD Submarine Cable-A -2.86 -3.10 141.16 139.20 145.00 129.00 70.457 2.42 58.3Dutch Ban. Bnk- A -2.83 -1.65 83.33 82.30 85.00 77.00 5.597 9.28 9.0

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume-Shares

Value in Million

% of Total-Turnover ClosingP Change % ClosingY DHIGH DLOW AvgPrice

BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 714,015 29.89 9.17 41.50 -0.95 41.90 42.80 41.20 41.86FarEast Knitting -N 637,200 26.27 8.05 40.80 -0.24 40.90 42.80 39.50 41.23Grameenphone-A 60,600 20.27 6.21 336.30 3.73 324.20 339.00 328.00 334.43Khulna Printing-N 449,500 15.63 4.79 34.10 0.59 33.90 35.80 33.90 34.78UNITED AIR-A 963,427 12.00 3.68 12.30 0.00 12.30 13.50 11.10 12.45LafargeS Cement-Z 87,000 9.33 2.86 108.80 2.84 105.80 110.90 104.30 107.25Summit Power -A 201,588 8.28 2.54 40.80 2.77 39.70 41.60 40.10 41.06Square Pharma -A 34,792 8.05 2.47 231.00 -1.53 234.60 237.00 230.00 231.43BD Submarine Cable-A 55,766 7.88 2.42 139.30 -3.06 143.70 145.00 138.60 141.24The Peninsula CTG.-N 187,600 6.33 1.94 33.60 -0.88 33.90 34.00 33.50 33.72

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume-Shares

Value in Million

% of Total-Turnover ClosingP Change

% ClosingY DHIGH DLOW AvgPrice

Grameenphone-A 1,045,635 350.28 6.99 337.40 4.23 323.70 338.60 300.00 335.00Tung Hai Knitting -N 9,391,000 276.52 5.51 27.80 0.00 0.00 33.50 27.50 29.45BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 5,251,682 219.65 4.38 41.40 -0.72 41.70 43.00 37.60 41.82Summit Power -A 3,701,994 152.05 3.03 40.50 1.76 39.80 43.70 36.00 41.07Beximco Pharma -A 2,716,558 151.50 3.02 54.70 -1.80 55.70 60.00 50.20 55.77MJL BD Ltd.-A 1,305,704 149.36 2.98 112.80 -2.00 115.10 118.00 104.00 114.39LafargeS Cement-Z 1,281,500 136.99 2.73 108.80 3.32 105.30 110.00 104.10 106.90ACI Limited- A 367,037 129.25 2.58 350.70 1.98 343.90 360.00 313.90 352.13Golden Son -A 2,487,228 122.37 2.44 48.80 -1.21 49.40 50.00 44.50 49.20Agni Systems -A 4,216,062 121.84 2.43 29.10 9.81 26.50 29.10 24.00 28.90

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

Sector DSE CSE TotalMillion Taka % change Million Taka % change Million Taka % change

Bank 232.89 4.64 14.80 4.17 247.69 4.61NBFI 125.08 2.49 5.88 1.66 130.96 2.44Investment 14.89 0.30 0.47 0.13 15.36 0.29Engineering 613.44 12.23 28.44 8.02 641.88 11.96Food & Allied 310.88 6.20 18.93 5.34 329.82 6.14Fuel & Power 555.60 11.08 29.83 8.41 585.43 10.90Jute 1.14 0.02 0.00 1.14 0.02Textile 804.36 16.04 57.64 16.26 862.00 16.05Pharma & Chemical 778.04 15.52 37.27 10.52 815.31 15.19Paper & Packaging 79.01 19.34 5.46 98.35 1.83Service 94.24 1.88 4.34 1.22 98.58 1.84Leather 52.20 1.04 5.02 1.42 57.21 1.07Ceramic 31.65 0.63 3.33 0.94 34.98 0.65Cement 208.04 4.15 14.51 4.09 222.55 4.14Information Technology 197.07 3.93 25.66 7.24 222.73 4.15General Insurance 33.34 0.66 2.19 0.62 35.53 0.66Life Insurance 45.87 0.91 2.82 0.80 48.69 0.91Telecom 420.74 8.39 28.14 7.94 448.88 8.36Travel & Leisure 106.11 2.12 20.04 5.66 126.15 2.35Miscellaneous 309.62 6.17 35.74 10.08 345.36 6.43Debenture 0.43 0.01 0.05 0.01 0.47 0.01

Weekly capital market highlightsDSE Broad Index : 4554.97770 (+) 0.12% ▲

DSE - 30 Index : 1722.68410 (+) 0.52% ▲

CSE All Share Index: 14081.76480 (+) 0.30% ▲

CSE - 30 Index : 11331.91970 (-) 0.77% ▼

CSE Selected Index : 8596.83490 (+) 0.15% ▲

DSE key features September 1-2014Turnover (Million Taka)

5,014.64

Turnover (Volume)

121,357,346

Number of Contract 129,575

Traded Issues 288

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

103

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

179

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

6

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,415.52

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

29.28

CSE key features September 1-2014Turnover (Million Taka) 396.76

Turnover (Volume) 11,889,487

Number of Contract 19,457

Traded Issues 208

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

65

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

135

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

7

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,327.61

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

28.21

Prepared exclusively for Dhaka Tribune by Business Information Automation Service Line (BIASL), on the basis of information collected from daily stock quotations and audited reports of the listed companies. High level of caution has been taken to collect and present the above information and data. The publisher will not take any responsibility if any body uses this information and data for his/her investment decision. For any query please email to biasl@bol-online.com or call 01552153562 or go to www.biasl.net

Main DSEX index seems to face strong resistance at 4,600 level, for which a strong support from volume is required to break the cluster and make way for the market to edge higher and become more magnetic

CSE GAINER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Agni Systems -A 9.85 6.04 28.79 29.00 29.00 25.00 5.625 1.27 22.7Fu-Wang Food A 9.31 6.80 21.66 22.30 22.40 20.00 4.626 0.96 22.6In Tech Online -A 7.69 4.63 13.78 14.00 14.00 13.00 1.055 -0.88 -veBD. Thai Alum -B 5.95 4.52 26.35 26.70 27.40 25.30 2.205 0.84 31.4Orion Infusions -A 5.15 4.11 46.59 47.00 47.30 45.70 1.631 4.81 9.7BATBCL -A 4.98 4.98 2677.00 2677.00 2677.00 2677.00 0.134 95.74 28.0Fine Foods A 4.88 2.43 16.89 17.20 17.30 16.20 1.030 -1.01 -veGrameenphone-A 3.73 3.99 334.43 336.30 339.00 328.00 20.266 15.70 21.3Rangpur Dairy-N 3.72 1.53 19.20 19.50 20.00 18.00 3.433 1.16 16.6LafargeS Cement-Z 2.84 1.39 107.25 108.80 110.90 104.30 9.331 2.42 44.3

DSE GAINER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Agni Systems -A 9.81 5.98 28.90 29.10 29.10 24.00 121.837 1.27 22.8Fu-Wang Food A 9.27 7.09 21.74 22.40 22.50 19.00 93.961 0.96 22.6Standard Insurance-A 6.58 6.37 25.88 25.90 26.60 22.00 0.856 3.00 8.6BDCOM Online-A 6.53 4.70 26.08 26.10 26.70 22.90 10.291 1.43 18.2Modern Dyeing -Z 6.16 5.91 76.00 75.80 78.00 74.00 0.019 1.61 47.2Shampur Sugar -Z 6.15 8.49 6.90 6.90 6.90 6.90 0.008 -61.36 -veIn Tech Online -A 6.15 3.62 13.73 13.80 14.00 12.00 6.140 -0.88 -veRangpur Dairy-N 5.91 1.11 19.21 19.70 19.90 17.00 48.578 1.16 16.6Orion Infusions -A 5.15 3.22 46.47 47.00 47.70 44.70 28.301 4.81 9.7Sinobangla Indu.-A 4.96 1.02 24.87 25.40 25.60 24.00 12.499 1.21 20.6

ANALYST

Comprising blue chips DS30 closed at 1,723, rising 9 points or 0.6%.

B3BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Modhumoti Bank Ltd has recently launched a new product named Modhumoti Priority Banking, for its highly valued customers at a ceremony held in Gulshan, Dhaka. The bank’s chairperson Humayun Kabir inaugurated the launching ceremony as chief guest

Ha� zur Rahman Khan, chairperson of Runner Group and Rezaul Hossain, chief commercial o� cer at bKash Limited recently signed an agreement under which bKash will collect payments from the motor mechanics who will buy spare parts from the authorised dealers and showrooms of Runner Group

Super Star Group, an electrical accessories manufacturing and marketing organization, has recently inaugurated its sales and display centre at the commercial area Bijoynagar in Dhaka. The group’s managing director and CEO, Mohammed Ibrahim launched the electrical lifestyle store

Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited held a board meeting on Sunday at its boardroom of Islami Bank Tower. The bank’s chairperson Prof Abu Nasser Muhammad Abduz Zaher attended the meeting

National Bank Limited has recently started a refreshers course for its branch managers at its training institute. The bank’s managing director and CEO, AKM Sha� qur Rahman attended the inaugural session of the course as chief guest

The Bangladesh Seed Association has recently held its annual general meeting at Bangabandhu International Conference centre in Dhaka. The association’s president M Anis Ud Dowla presided over the meeting

Japan aims to double India investmentn Reuters, Tokyo

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will tell his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi at a summit yesterday that Japan aims to double its direct investment in India in � ve years from some $2bn last year, the Nikkei business daily reported.

Modi, on his � rst major foreign visit since a landslide election win in May, arrived on Saturday for a � ve-day trip aimed at capitalising on a personal a� n-ity with Abe to bolster security and busi-ness ties in the face of an assertive China.

The two leaders are also likely to agree to speed up talks on a nuclear energy pact, the Nikkei said, although hopes of striking a similar accord to one reached with the United States in 2008 had faded in the run-up to the visit.

Japan wants explicit guarantees from India, which has not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, to limit atomic tests and allow closer inspection of its facilities to ensure that spent fuel is not used to make bombs. Japanese � rms also want clarity on nuclear disaster compensation, especially in the wake of the March 2011 Fukushima catastrophe.

In a sign of their close ties, the two leaders greeted each other with a bear

hug when they met on Saturday in Ja-pan’s ancient capital of Kyoto for an informal dinner. Modi is one of three people that Abe follows on Twitter, while the Indian leader admires Abe’s brand of nationalist politics.

Also under discussion will be a pro-posal to formalise a ‘two-plus-two’ format for talks bringing together the foreign and defence ministers of both countries, and the possible sale of an amphibious aircraft to the India navy.

India and Japan will also likely agree to hold regular joint training exercises in maritime defense, some of which will involve the United States as well, the Nikkei said.

India, Asia’s third-largest economy after China and Japan, needs faster economic growth to create work for the one million young people who enter the workforce every month.

In early steps, Modi has allowed for-eign investors to own 100 percent of railway projects with an eye to drum-ming up interest in building India’s answer to Japan’s high-speed ‘bullet’ trains. He is also courting Japanese investment in an ambitious industrial “corridor” to run between Delhi and Mumbai. l Prime Minister Narendra Modi (centre) tries to play a soprano recorder before school children at a music class during a visit at Taimei Elementary School in Tokyo REUTERS

Euro at one-year low against dollar in Asian AFP, Tokyo

The euro struggled at a one-year low against the dollar in Asia yesterday, ahead of a European Central Bank (ECB) meeting where policymakers will consider their next move in the face of weak eurozone in� ation.

The European single currency slipped to $1.3126, its lowest level since September last year and down from $1.3139 in New York, although it ticked up to 136.77 yen from 136.67 yen in US trade.

The dollar fetched 104.18 yen, its strongest since January and up from 104.06 yen in New York on Friday.

Eurozone in� ation eased to 0.3% in August, raising concerns the 18-nation bloc is about to tip into de� ation.

The data have put pressure on the ECB to take fresh monetary easing steps at its policy meeting Thursday, a move that would tend to weaken the unit.

“Speculation for the ECB to con-sider more aggressive policy action this week has increased considerably after (bank chief Mario) Draghi indicated downside risks to long-term in� ation expectations last week,” Credit Agri-cole said.

Despite weak US personal spending data on Friday, the dollar pushed ahead as second-quarter economic growth � gures came in strong, with traders looking ahead to key non-farm payroll � gures at the end of this week.

Investors were also keeping a close

eye on geopolitical developments, with concerns increasing that Russia and Ukraine are on a collision course.

“Geopolitical risk will likely continue to overshadow the market in the days ahead, especially given the one-week deadline set by the EU for Russia to scale back operations in Ukraine or face more sanctions,” Credit Agricole said.

Markets were also keeping an eye on a two-day Bank of Japan policy meeting this week, after data on Friday showed the world’s number three economy slowed markedly in July as consumer spending dropped and factory output ran out of steam.

The disappointing � gures under-scored concerns about the state of the country’s recovery, and heap more pressure on the central bank to unleash further easing measures.

The dollar was mixed against other Asia-Paci� c currencies.

It strengthened to Sg$1.2496 from Sg$1.2490 on Friday and to 31.97 Thai baht from 31.94 baht.

The greenback eased to 11,697.00 In-donesian rupiah from 11,710.00 rupiah, to 1,013.90 South Korean won from 1,014.77 won, and to 43.58 Philippine pesos from 43.67 pesos.

It also slipped to Tw$29.86 from Tw$29.90 and to 60.49 Indian rupees from 60.51 rupees.

The Australian dollar weakened to 93.40 US cents from 93.49 cents, while the Chinese yuan rose to 16.95 yen against 16.89 yen. l

Oil prices mixedin Asian traden AFP, Singapore

Oil prices were mixed in muted Asian trade yesterday ahead of a public holi-day in the United States and as dealers digest downcast Chinese manufactur-ing data, analysts said.

US benchmark West Texas Inter-mediate for October delivery eased 14 cents to $95.82 while Brent crude for October rose � ve cents to $103.24 in af-ternoon trade.

Floor trading in the United States is closed yesterday for the Labor Day holi-day, and electronic transactions will be used to determine the settlement price.

“We are seeing thin trading volumes in Asian trading today ahead of the US Labor Day holiday,” Desmond Chua, market analyst at CMC Markets in Sin-gapore, told AFP. “Oil prices are ex-pected to trade within a lower range as dealers consolidate their positions with no new leads expected today,” he said.

Investors are also scrutinising data released Monday showing Chinese man-ufacturing growth slowed in August, raising concerns about demand in the world’s top energy consumer, Chua said.

The National Bureau of Statistics said the o� cial purchasing managers index came in at 51.1, down from 51.7 in July, and the � rst decline since slipping to 50.2 in February.

The index tracks manufacturing activity in China’s factories and work-shops and is a closely watched indicator of the health of the economy. A reading above 50 indicates growth, while any-thing below points to contraction. l

Swatch prefers go-it-alone route for smartwatch plansn Reuters

Swatch Group is happy to go it alone with a launch next year of watches with “smart” features to compete with so-called wearable gadgets from the big tech companies, a market potentially worth $93bn.

The world’s biggest watchmaker, which sees the advent of smartwatches as an opportunity rather than a threat, will unveil its new Swatch Touch next summer.

Swatch Chief Executive Nick Hayek said these new watches might allow the wearer to count the number of steps they take and calories they burn. And there will be a few other cool ‘Swatchy’ things on o� er via latest Bluetooth technology, he said in an interview at the company’s headquarters in Biel.

“All the big technology � rms want to work with us and I don’t rule out that we are or could be collaborating in some areas. But we can also do many things on our own.”

Wearable gadgets, such as smart-watches that allow users to connect to their phone to check emails, make calls or monitor their health, are expected to be the next big thing in the tech world and a potential threat to traditional wristwatch sales.

Apple Inc has just invited media to a “special event” next month, fuelling speculation it might present a much-anticipated “iWatch.”

The possibility of an iWatch launch is partly responsible for Swatch shares losing almost 15 percent so far this year, lagging a 3% rise in the European sec-tor.

“For Swatch, this could mean a 2% hit to revenue and earnings before in-terest and tax for each 10% share that the iWatch was able to gain in its ad-dressable market,” Bernstein analyst Mario Ortelli said in a study in July. Or-telli has a “market perform” rating on Swatch’s shares.

Other tech companies are working on smartwatches. Google’s Motorola is set to launch a Moto360 smartwatch next week in the United States.

But the spotlight is on Apple af-ter the company poached executives from the fashion, luxury and medtech (medical)industries and registered the trademark “iWatch” in Japan.

Dream teamFor many analysts, Swatch and Apple would be the dream team for a smartwatch project, but Swatch has always played down its interest in such a relationship. The argument is that Swatch’s business is selling watches not technology.

“Our � rst message for customers is the watch. If they like it, they might also be interested in the extra func-tions,” Hayek said. “It is a problem if you only de� ne a product by its tech-

nology. Technology alone doesn’t sell, not in watches.”

His comments highlight the impor-tance of fashion and branding for the de-velopment of the smartwatch business.

“(Technology � rms) that want to strike partnerships with us also want access to brands. They want (their products) to be more than a commod-ity,” the CEO said.

Swatch has a well-established list of brands, including its colorful Swatch watches, sporty Tissot and Longines, elegant Omega and hand-decorated Breguet timepieces.

There are already smartwatches on the market from companies like Sam-sung, Sony Corp and LG Electronics, but these have had mixed reviews.

Experts say even if the technology is cheap and small enough for wearable gadgets, this is not enough for consumers. “Nobody has hit on the right combination of problems a wearable should solve and convinced mainstream consumers,” Avi Greengart, research director at IT research � rm Current Analysis, said.

The rewards are potentially huge for whoever comes up with a winning for-mula. Andrew Sheehy, chief analyst at Generator Research, sees the retail val-ue of wearable Internet-connected de-vices at $93.1bn by 2018, versus $4.1bn in 2014, with smartwatches accounting for about two thirds of the market’s value in 2018. l

B4 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Tuesday, September 2, 2014

DILBERT

Passive funds an active threat for Europe’s fund managersn Reuters, London

Warren Bu� ett built a fortune of nearly $60bn from astute stock picking, but when the 83-year-old dies, the vast ma-jority of the money he leaves his wife will be parked in a fund that simply moves in step with an index.

The afterlife plans of the man nick-named the Sage of Omaha, revealed in a letter to his investors earlier this year, underline a sea change afoot in the in-vestment industry.

Fed up with high fees and poor per-formance, investors are increasingly shunning active fund managers who promise to beat the stock market in fa-vour of cheaper, passive funds, which simply track it.

Such funds account for about a quarter of the money invested in the UK stock market, up from 15% a decade ago. The switch is accelerating, with index funds attracting in� ows of $3bn in the � rst half of this year, while ac-tive UK-focused funds saw $4bn leave, a Reuters analysis of data from fund tracker Lipper showed.

The passive wind blows even stron-ger in the United States due to years of underperformance by active funds, which has led to institutions parking half of their equity allocations in index trackers, according to data from State Street.

And the shift is spreading to other parts of the world, putting at risk reve-nues earned by money managers, banks and brokerages that service funds and more than half a million jobs related to fund management in Europe alone.

Industry experts expect Europe, where active mutual funds are still the dominant force, making up 80% of al-locations, to move more in sync with the United States, following the lead of Britain, the region’s top capital market.

“It’s only a surprise that investors have taken this long to realise that the pu� ery around long-term outperfor-mance, star managers, etc., is just that ... pu� ery,” said Peter Douglas, founder of investment consultancy GFIA.

Nice n’ easy, till nowPatchy economic recovery since the 2008 crisis and increased regulation, such as a proposed clampdown on a fund’s activities in times of a crisis to ensure stability, have hampered active managers’ ability to outperform.

Weak gains have already made it harder to justify fees that are some-

times 10 times or more than the cost of a passive fund, which in the case of the most liquid exchange-traded funds can be less than 0.1% on a headline level, before factoring in brokerage, transac-tion and tax costs.

While some active funds have cut their charges or introduced cheaper products in response to the threat, the gap is still large.

Leading index fund providers such as Vanguard, Deutsche Bank and Black-Rock have cut fees this year to grab market share, putting further pressure on the active managers to do more.

“You can’t charge what you could in the past,” said Chris Iggo, chief invest-ment o� cer for � xed income at AXA Investment Managers, which manages 582bn euros.

“In a way it’s a good thing. For many years the fund management industry had it easy ... Return on capital in fund

management has been very nice.”Vanguard, whose S&P 500 index

fund Bu� ett favoured in his letter to investors, and BlackRock have taken in the bulk of new money to European fund houses since the summer of 2013.

The biggest equity fund investing across Europe, Vanguard European Stock Index Fund, managed $22.4bn at the end of July, more than twice the size of Fidelity Funds-European Growth, the biggest actively managed fund for the region.

The growth in passive funds is re-� ected in the industry’s net revenues, which have remained � at globally for the last four years, according to the Boston Consulting Group, even as funds under management hit a record $69tn in 2013.

Added value?The biggest problem for active fund

managers charging more for their ser-vices is consistently beating the market.

A study of fund returns in local cur-rency over the last 10 years using data from Lipper shows only 35% of the funds investing in Britain have outper-formed the FTSE All Share Total Return index, which includes dividend pay-outs from constituents.

That percentage declined to 29% in the � rst half of the year.

Active funds investing across conti-nental Europe, meanwhile, have per-formed even worse, with just a � fth of them gaining more than the MSCI Eu-rope Total Return index since 2003.

The star managers that do manage to beat the crowd often fail to maintain their outperformance.

Of the 107 top quartile funds, or those ranking among the top 25% by gain from investing in British stocks in 2013, only 18 managed to repeat the

feat through June-end this year.Two of them held that spot for the

previous � ve years, and none managed to achieve the feat over the last 10 years.

A similar pattern is found when looking at other regions around the world, Reuters data showed.

For Bu� ett, this meant one thing for the average investor.

“The goal of the non-professional should not be to pick winners – neither he nor his ‘helpers’ can do that – but should rather be to own a cross-section of businesses that in aggregate are bound to do well. A low-cost S&P 500 index fund will achieve this goal,” he said in his letter to investors.

The struggle to pick a winner consis-tently has led some leading institution-al investors to change how they invest, with some of them putting the bulk of their funds, as much as 70% in some cases, in passive investments, said

Laurence Wormald, head of research at Sungard APT.

Money managers of all stripes are also developing new products to of-fer cost-conscious investors a middle ground between the pure passive and active. So-called “smart beta” funds track a bespoke index that has been tweaked to weight it in di� erent ways, using factors such as stocks’ cheapness or price momentum.

Net � ows into US-based smart beta equity funds stood at $234bn in the � rst seven months of the year, already exceeding the total in� ows of $208bn recorded last year, according to data from BlackRock.

In spite of the strong demand for low-cost passive funds, active fund managers will continue to play a key role in the global investment industry because the possibility of higher re-turns is always attractive, particularly in a low yield environment.

In addition, there is only so far the market can go passive before the price of a stock - still the most popular asset class for passive investing - becomes detached from fundamentals, thereby allowing an active manager to pro� t more handsomely.

The ability to pro� t in such as man-ner has been evidenced most recently by � rms such as Glaucus Research and Gotham City Research, who have spot-ted corporate fraud through a deep investigation into company accounts, such as at Gowex.

“Passive investing is obviously at the mercy of these frauds,” said Mi-chele Gesualdi, chief investment o� -cer of hedge fund investor Kairos.

“If you are with a long-only active fund or a hedge fund, then certainly you have a chance to avoid these frauds or maybe � nding them as shorts,” he added, referring to short-selling, the ability to sell a borrowed stock and pro� t when it falls.

Still, some 3,200 money managers in Europe will need to broaden their expertise across asset classes and de-velop new products to reassure inves-tors they are adding value.

“That’s the acid test,” said Thomas Ross, head of European distribution at US money manager William Blair, which manages $62bn, largely for insti-tutions.

“Can you beat the benchmark after fees? If you can, you’ll fare well, and if not, the market will move against you and you’ll be indexed.” l

Euro and US dollar banknotes are seen in this picture illustration taken in Prague REUTERS

De� ation knocks at ECB’s door, markets look for cash boostn AFP, Frankfurt

Financial markets are looking to the European Central Bank to open the cash � oodgates next week after con-sumer price data showed the 18-coun-try eurozone is � irting with de� ation, analysts said.

Speculation is rising that the ECB’s decision-making governing council could signal plans for what is known as “quantitative easing” or “QE” at its regular monthly meeting on Thursday.

This is a radical policy - already used by other central banks such as the US Federal Reserve - of buying securities on a big scale to inject cash into the economy.

The ECB has already cut its key in-terest rates to record lows and made huge volumes of ultra-cheap cash available to banks in a bid to kick-start lending in the singe currency area.

But the pressure has increased on the ECB to take still more measures after eurozone in� ation slowed to a paltry 0.3% in August from 0.4% the previous month.

That is worryingly below the cen-tral bank’s target of just under 2% and brings the single currency area peril-ously close to de� ation, a climate of falling prices which can cause busi-nesses and consumers to delay pur-chases, further reducing demand and prices and pushing up unemployment.

Analysts said they were convinced that the ECB is now planning QE after its president Mario Draghi said recently that the bank is becoming concerned about falling in� ation expectations.

The ECB as “ready to adjust (its) policy stance further” and “will use all available instruments needed to en-sure price stability over the medium term”, Draghi said.

The remarks sparked a rally on Euro-pean � nancial markets early last week.

Facing facts “The ECB � nally seems to be facing facts, with Draghi conceding... that the econo-my is too weak and that in� ation expec-tations have dropped,” said Capital Eco-nomics economist Jennifer McKeown.

The central bank “has put a lot of

emphasis on long-term � nancial mar-ket in� ation expectations in recent months, stating that a decline would be the ‘context for’ a broad asset purchase programme”, McKeown said.

“So it seems that the � nal barrier to quantitative easing has been broken,” she said. Nevertheless, such a move was “still not imminent. The ECB is unlikely to announce QE this month or next,” the expert said.

The central bank would � rst wait to see the impact of its new liquidity-providing programme or “Targeted Longer-Term Re� nancing Operations” (TLTROs), the � rst of which would be held in mid-September, McKeown said.

The sluggishness of the economic recovery is another argument in favour of action. ECB governing council mem-ber and Austrian central bank chief Ewald Nowotny said that he was “wor-ried” about the outlook for eurozone growth, and that eurozone recovery was slower than the ECB had expected.

“Draghi’s warnings against the de-cline of long-term in� ation expecta-tions seem to be motivated by concerns about economic growth,” said Com-merzbank economists Joerg Kraemer and Michael Schubert.

Hence, they put the possibility of the ECB launching QE in the coming months at 60 percent, the analysts said.

“The ECB’s optimistic medium-term economic outlook is crumbling. But unless a notable recovery occurs, in� a-tion will not move towards the ECB’s target of 2.0 percent,” they said.

Private QE or ABS Deutsche Bank economists Mark Wall and Gilles Moec suggested that the ECB might even embark on private QE - in the form of asset-backed securities (ABS) - as early as this week. Such a policy would greatly widen the range of paper assets which the central bank would buy from the balance sheets of � nancial compa-nies, replacing them with ready cash. l

Germany runs up surplus of 1.1% of GDP in � rst halfn AFP, Frankfurt

Germany achieved a surplus in its public � nances equivalent to 1.1% of overall economic output in the � rst six months of this year, o� cial data showed yesterday.

The federal, regional and municipal budgets showed a combined surplus of 16.1bn euros ($21.1bn) in the period from January to June, pro� ting primari-ly from a “very favourable employment situation,” the federal statistics o� ce Destatis said in a statement. Measured against overall gross domestic product (GDP) of 1.426tn euros, that represent-ed a ratio of 1.1%.

Under eurozone rules, member states are not allowed to run up de� cit ratios of more than 3% and are obliged to bring their budgets into balance or even surplus in the long term.

The federal government alone achieved a surplus of 4bn euros in the January-June period, the � rst time since 1991 that the federal budget has been in the black in the � rst half, Destatis said.

The regional states were able to al-most balance their books as well, run-ning up a de� cit of just 200m euros, compared with a surplus of 1.3bn euros in the same period a year earlier. l

RBI chief: Indian banks’ bad loan levels not ‘scary’n Reuters, New Delhi

The level of bad loans at Indian banks is a “concern” but is not “scary”, Re-serve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan said in a newspaper interview published on Sunday.

A prolonged economic slowdown has hit Indian banks’ balance sheets, with stressed loans - those categorised as bad and restructured - amounting to about 10% of all loans. Fitch Ratings expects stressed assets to reach 14% of loans by March next year.

The bulk of these bad loans are relat-ed to infrastructure projects, which have made banks circumspect over lending.

“Is it of concern? Yes. Is it scary? No,” Rajan told the Times of India, adding “...the point is there are two or three silver linings in the cloud of dis-tressed assets.”

He said many delayed infrastructure projects were “getting back on stream” as the economy improved, and boom-ing equity markets will also help banks raise the required capital.

He also downplayed concerns that rising bad loans would lead to a liquid-ity crisis in the Indian banking system similar to the one witnessed globally

after the Lehman Brothers went bust in 2008.

“Unlike the banking crisis in the West, where the worry was who would pony up the money, here there is no uncertainty,” he said. “The government will do it. It has never let any bank it owns go under.”

New Delhi has been injecting funds into state lenders to help them meet minimal capital ratios mandated by Basel III norms. This year it will infuse 112bn rupees. But analysts say more funds will be needed.

With its � nances in dire straits, the government plans to sell o� a part of its holdings in the banks to help bridge their capital shortfall.

While a sluggish economy is the main reason for a rise in distressed as-sets, a RBI report last week also blamed lending to certain “excessively lever-aged” groups.

The launch of a corruption inves-tigation at state-controlled Syndicate Bank has raised broader concerns about weak oversight, graft and politi-cally directed lending at state banks.

Rajan said a change in the process of appointments at these banks will help address the issue. l

Visitors look at a BMW Isetta 300 microcar with mini caravan at the expo 'Caravan Salon Duesseldorf' at the fair grounds in Duesseldorf, western Germany, on August 31. 580 Exibitors present 1900 caravans and vehicles during one of the world's largests trade fairs for caravans and mobile homes. The fair is running until September 7 AFP

A huge euro logo is pictured next to the headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) before the bank's monthly news conference in Frankfurt REUTERS