BNP chief denies meeting with government o� cialsn Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

A group of incumbent and former gov-ernment o� cials held a meeting with BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia at her Gulshan o� ce yesterday.

Around 20 government functionar-ies, mainly OSDs (O� cers on Special Duty) and BNP-minded o� cials, were asked to form a Janatar Mancha-like platform to mount pressure on the gov-ernment, meeting sources said.

The former premier reportedly asked the visiting o� cials to launch an an-ti-government platform like that of 1996.

In 1996, the then opposition Awa-mi League city unit chief Mohammad Hanif organised Janatar Mancha, a platform to mobilise government of-� cials against the then ruling BNP to force it out of o� ce.

The visiting secretariat o� cials, led by Joint Secretary AKM Jahangir, went to the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan o� ce around 7:45pm. Another 20 o� cials joined the meeting.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia reached her o� ce at 9:20pm. The par-ty’s acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir entered the of-� ce minutes ahead of his party chief.

Around 10:20pm some of the o� -cials began to leave. Others were still

at the meeting when this report was � led at midnight. When approached by the press, the o� cials refused to com-ment. Thirteen government o� cers secretly met in Uttara at the house of former energy adviser Mahmudur Rahman on November 24, 2006.

At 11:30pm, Khaleda’s Press Secre-tary Maruf Kamal Khan told journal-ists: “I do not know whether there was

any scheduled meeting. Like on other days, many people come to meet Mad-am [Khaleda].”

Asked whether any of the visitors were government o� cials, Khan said: “Only the government can tell you that.”

At 10:30pm Khaleda’s adviser and former secretary MA Halim left the of-� ce and told journalists that there was no scheduled meeting.

Asked about who was meeting with Khaleda, Halim remained silent.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

‘Dead’ woman comes back to lifen Ashif Islam Shaon

Morgue attendants at the Dhaka Medical College came to pick up a dead woman’s body from a ward of the hospital. As they moved to pick her up, the “deceased” woman started moving her feet.

Two hours earlier, around 2pm, Dr Nilufa Nila, an honorary physician at one of Bangladesh’s most important pub-lic hospitals, had declared her dead. A death-certi� cate was issued and a ward boy named Belal went to the morgue with the certi� cate.

Morgue in-charge Nure Alam Babu re-ceived the papers and prepared for an au-topsy, sources at the college con� rmed.

“When we declared her dead, we could not feel a pulse. Her body had become like a dead person…It was a misunderstand-ing. The patient is now well,” Nilufa said when asked what had happened. She then inserted a needle into the patient’s body to administer intravenous nutrition.

An on-duty doctor, on condition of an-onymity, said: “The patient had no atten-dant with her. Because of that, she did not receive proper lab tests or medicines. She had an irregular pulse and was very weak.

“The woman seemed to be a vaga-bond. She was kept outside the ward near the lift, without any facilities, because she smelled awful.” Before she had “died,” the woman was not even diagnosed.

DMCH Director Brig Gen Musta� zur

Rahman said: “We are looking into the matter. The concerned doctor will be punished after a probe into the incident.”

Su� ering from malnutrition, the pa-tient was picked up from the street in critical condition and brought to the hos-pital on December 2.

As her identity could not be deter-mined, the college prepared for an au-topsy after issuing the death certi� cate.

As the patients’ “corpse” was being taken to the morgue for autopsy, Aziz, a morgue worker, saw the hands and feet of the body he was carrying move. He re-ported the incident to a ward boy.

Belal, the ward boy, then took death certi� cate to the duty doctor. The “alive-again” woman was sent to bed six at ward 802, unit seven of the medicine depart-ment inside the new building of DMCH.

According to the victim’s registration � le, the hospital director himself referred her to be admitted. The director told the Dhaka Tribune that he noticed the woman lying on a footpath adjacent to the hospital gate when the hospital au-thorities were conducting a drive against illegal hawkers and establishments. He asked his sta� to get her admitted to DMCH to take proper care of her. l

STRICTLY PERSONAL: A CHAT WITH DAMAN SINGH

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15 | EntertainmentFeature � lm ‘Ghashphul’ recently received the censor board certi� cate and is all set to hit cinemas. Akram Khan, director of the full-length � lm produced by Channel i.

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Not a lane inside a wholesale market, but the picture shows hawkers who have occupied the footpath in the capital’s Farmgate area, within one week of being evicted in a drive. The photo was taken yesterday RAJIB DHAR

INTERNATIONAL CALL TERMINATION

Carriers owe BTCL nearly Tk2,000crn Muhammad Zahidul Islam

The outstanding bills of various in-ternational call carriers to the state-owned telecommunications company BTCL have stacked up to a staggering Tk1,959.86 crore against a bank guar-antee of only Tk168.36 crore.

Of the � gure, some 53 post-paid for-eign carriers owed as much as Tk994.91 crore as of May this year to the Bang-ladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL).

BTCL seeks bank guarantee only from the post-paid carriers; no national for-eign carriers have any bank guarantees although their total outstanding amounts are higher than the foreign carriers.

BTCL sources said because of some senior o� cials involved with the pro-cess, the government company cannot collect the money.

“Sometimes we have found that o� cers do not carry out their duty to-wards the company’s money. They are not willing to collect the money,” Mah-fuz Uddin Ahmed, BTCL’s managing director, told the Dhaka Tribune yes-terday in his o� ce.

He however said they can collect most of the outstanding amounts but then the government needs to face a tough challenge.

The BTCL boss said they had been trying to collect the money from the carriers and were preparing to launch

legal suits against some defaulters. “We are going to cash the bank guar-

antees that we have in our hands now,” Mahfuz said.

But BTCL itself is also facing some legal challenges against the cashing of bank guarantees as some carriers have disputed its claims.

State-owned BTCL, as an interna-tional gateway (IGW) operator, charges international call carriers 1.5 US cents for terminating each minute of an in-ternational call. The rate used to be 6 and then 3 US cents in the past.

According to BTCL, Zamir Tele-com UK owes the highest amount of $47.68m, equivalent to Tk370.25 crore.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

Land Boundary Agreement gets Mamata’s assentThe LBA, rati� ed by Bangladesh in 1974, has been held up by political wrangling in Indian Tribune Desk

Obstructed by opposition and regional parties in India for four decades, the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) is likely to be implemented now that West Bengal’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) has withdrawn its objection to it.

“We have informed the central gov-ernment that we have no objection to the exchange of enclaves on the basis of the Land Boundary Agreement with Bangladesh. This is our o� cial stand

and I convey it to you today,” BBC Bang-la yesterday quoted TMC boss Mamata Banerjee as saying at a programme in the Cooch Behar district of India.

A formal response from the Govern-ment of Bangladesh has not yet been announced.

The TMC’s approval of the deal paves the way for the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to move for the required changes to India’s con-stitution needed to implement the deal.

The last time the BJP ruled India while the Awami League was ruling Bangladesh, the two countries came to blows over the enclaves, formally

known as adversely held territory.The TMC, which governs West Ben-

gal, stood as a major hurdle to imple-menting a bilateral agreement. The protocol signed between the Bangla-desh and Indian Governments in 2011, was not rati� ed by India’s parliament.

In September, 2013 TMC MPs blocked Manmohan Singh’s UPA II government from getting the bill passed in India’s upper house, even blocking the then ex-ternal a� airs minister Salman Khurshid from tabling the bill in the � rst place.

The BJP, which stoutly opposed the bill while in opposition, has reversed its stand on the agreement. On Sunday Narendra Modi declared in Assam that his government would ratify the LBA.

On December 1 this year, a standing committee led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and including TMC MP Sug-ata Bose recommended that the LBA be implemented, representing a TMC volte-face.

The TMC’s nod to the agreement paves the way for a formal settlement of the matter expected during a sched-uled visit by the Indian prime minister to Bangladesh in the new year.

The swapAccording to the bill, Bangladesh will exchange 51 enclaves, covering 7,110 acres and India will give up 111 en-claves, measuring 17,160 acres.

While 14,215 people reside in Bang-ladeshi enclaves in India, 37,269 people reside in Indian enclaves inBangladesh.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

Bangladesh will exchange 51 enclaves, covering 7,110 acres and India will give up 111 enclaves, measuring 17,160 acres

Some other o� cials skipped the programme because of intelligence surveillance, said sources

Tofail: Newspaper owners need not show clean imagen Tribune Report

Commerce Minister and senior Awami League leader, Tofail Ahmed yesterday categorically said that newspaper own-ers did not require to have clean image, but politicians do.

“Newspaper owners have negative sides; if their circulation is 100 copies, they claim 20,000 to get the newspaper allocation and ultimately sell them at Nayabazar,” the minister told querying reporters at the Secretariat.

“Newspaper owners have excessive wealth too, but are not compelled to declare it like the politicians. The gov-ernment will monitor in� uential per-sons on corruption allegations,” he said adding that out of 160m people in the country, only 1.6m pay taxes.

“You [journalists] write reports and we keep silent because politicians are unable to write like you. Journalists publish reports on corruption but they do not mention that the people’s pur-chasing power has gradually increased.”

Regarding the government issuing more licences to the print and electronic media, Tofail said it was done so that the media writes more stories against the present government. “But it is alleged that unscrupulous media owners sell their licences after receiving them from the Information Ministry,” he added. l

Ex-BTCL MD sent straight to jail from court for contemptn Muhammad Zahidul Islam

and Ahmed Zayeef

Setting a very rare example, the High Court yesterday sent a former govern-ment o� cial from court straight to jail on contempt charges.

The HC sentenced SOM Kalimullah, former managing director of the state-owned Bangladesh Telecommunica-tion Company Limited (BTCL), to four months simple imprisonment after � nding him guilty of contempt on the basis of an arbitration application.

According to the court order, he had committed contempt “by refusing to

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

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News2 DHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, December 5, 2014

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina back to home after wrapping up her three-day o� cial tour to Malaysia. The premier and her entourage reached the Shahjalal International Airport yesterday around 1:40pm BSS

Six BCL leaders of BAU expelled n BAU Correspondent

The central committee of the Bangla-desh Chhatra League (BCL), the stu-dent wing of the ruling Awami League, on Wednesday night expelled six lead-ers of its Bangladesh Agricultural Uni-versity (BAU) unit for violating organi-sation’s discipline.

O� ce Secretary Sheikh Rasel of the Chhatra League’s central committee con� rmed the matter to the Dhaka Tribune.

The expelled leaders are Vice-President Rukonuzzaman, Organising Secretary Faisal Islam Joy, Press Secretary Monwarul Islam Nayon, Library Secretary Sumon Parvez Ripon, Assistant Secretary Md Mizanur Rahman and member Md Hasan Mahmud Riad.

“Due to violation of organisation-al rules and regulations, the Chhatra League central committee has decided to expel the BAU unit leaders,” Sheikh Rasel said.

It is mentionable that all the expelled Chhatra League leaders among 14 have been indicted in Saad murder case. On August 30, Chhatra League members snatched Joy soon after his arrest.

Saad Ibne Momtaz, 23, a � nal-year student of the Fisheries Faculty of the university, was severely beaten up by a group of Chhatra League men in a dor-mitory of the university on March 31.

Later, he succumbed to his injuries at a private clinic in Mymensingh town on April 1.

Following the incident, general stu-dents of the university demonstrated demanding trial of the killers. l

Dr Shamarukh’s body exhumed for autopsy againn Our Correspondent, Jessore

Conforming to a court order, the au-thorities concerned yesterday ex-humed the body of Dr Shamarukh Mahjabin Kona having passed 19 days after the burial at Karbala graveyard in the district town.

The exhumation took place by Exec-utive Magistrate Abdus Salam around 10:30am, during which Jessore Addi-tional Deputy Commissioner (revenue) Sohel Hasan, Shamarukh’s father engi-neer Nurul Islam, the case’s IO Munsi Ruhul Kuddus and Kotwali police sta-tion OC Enamul Hoque were present among others.

When contacted, the magistrate said the body was sent to the 250-bed Jessore Sadar Hospital morgue to autopsy anew.

Besides, separate samples of the corpse were also sent to the morgues of Jessore Medical College Hospital, Dha-ka Mitford Hospital and Khulna Medi-cal College Hospital respectively to � nd out the real cause behind her reported-ly mysterious death.

On November 13, the body of Dr Shamarukh, 24, wife of Humayun Sul-tan Shadab who is son of former Awa-

mi League Lawmaker from the district Khan Tipu Sultan, was found hanging in the bathroom of her in-law’s Dhan-mondi house. Later her father, Nurul Islam, � led a murder case with Dhan-mondi police station against three peo-ple - Humayun, his father and mother.

On November 23, Shamarukh’s fam-ily members rejected the postmortem report prepared by the Dhaka Medical College Forensic Department raising an allegation that the report had been doc-tored while it suggested that the death was a case of suicide.

Afterwards, Shamarukh’s father made a plea to a court of Dhaka chief metropol-itan magistrate seeking re-autopsy of the body, who directed the authorities con-cerned to submit a fresh autopsy report of the body by December 18.

Meanwhile, a Dhaka court on No-vember 20 Humayun placed on a three-remand and the investigation of-� cer of the case made a request to keep him con� ned for the sake of proper in-vestigation.

On the other hand, the High Court granted anticipatory bail to Tipu Sultan and his wife Jesmin Ara for four weeks in the case. l

Land Boundary Agreement PAGE 1 COLUMN 2Diptiman Sengupta, secretary, In-do-Bangla Enclave Exchange Coordina-tion committee said: “Our latest survey in November, 2014 says 149 families having 734 people want Indian citizen-ship.”

An Indian parliamentary commit-tee report, tabled on Monday, had no dissent note from the TMC and par-ty sources said Sugata was able to convince Mamata on agreeing to the deal.

Shashi Tharoor, who heads the com-mittee, said the decision was unani-mous. Sounding con� dent that the bill would sail through parliament, he said: “We are merely regularising the reality on the ground.”

The Indian government is now ex-pected to bring a bill to amend the con-stitution to make the necessary chang-es to India’s o� cial boundary with Bangladesh. The Constitution (119th Amendment) Bill, 2013 is aimed at rati-fying the LBA.

Past troublesThe agreement, initiated by the � rst Awami League government in 1974, has had to cross many hurdles.

The last time an Awami League gov-ernment in Bangladesh and a BJP gov-ernment in India concurrently ruled the two neighbouring countries, mil-itary hostilities erupted over border di� erences.

Between April 15 and 19, 2001 the worst � ghting since the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 broke out over a corridor of land and enclaves on the disputed Bangladesh – India border.

Indian forces initiated attacks on Tamabil in Sylhet and later carried out incursions into Bangladeshi territory at Boraibari village.

The attack left three Bangladeshi border guards dead and � ve injured. Sixteen Indian border guards were killed and two injured. An estimated 10,000 civilians � ed the area after some 24 were wounded in the shooting.

The LBA was signed on May 16, 1974 soon after the independence of Bangla-desh to � nd a solution to the complex nature of border demarcation.

It was rati� ed by the Bangladesh government in 1974. Though India’s cabinet granted approval for it in 1974, the pact was not rati� ed by India be-cause it involved the cession of terri-tory. l

Carriers owe BTCL PAGE 1 COLUMN 5Zamir has already � led an arbitration case against BTCL, as a result of which the collection process is held up.

“Our o� cers sometimes create dis-putes and banking on these disputes companies like Zamir always try to de-lay payment,” said the BTCL MD.

The company is owned by two sons of BNP leader and former parliament speaker Muhammad Jamiruddin Sircar.

The BTCL has in the meantime switched o� the connections with Zamir, following an order by then tele-com minister Latif Siddique. BTCL o� -cials predict that this and a court order may both go against them.

Another senior BTCL o� cial alleged that sometimes BTCL’s advocates de-liberately lose cases against foreign companies. Sources said DigiTech (Sin-

gapore) owes BTCL $11.6m to BTCL against a bank guarantee of $1.737m.

N.Tel has no bank guarantee but its outstanding bills exceed $8.159m.

Among the local carriers, STC owes Tk37.76 crore to BTCL but o� ers no bank guarantee.

Under the pre-paid system, Green-witch Trading Pte Ltd crossed Tk6.19 crore in outstanding bills although they do not have any security deposit either.

Regarding the massive outstanding bills of the pre-paid companies, the � xed-line o� cials said the companies had recently became pre-paid carriers and the arrears had incurred before the conversion.

Sources also told the Dhaka Tribune that some BTCL o� cials allegedly ad-vised these pre-paid carriers on how to delay or avoid paying the dues. l

BNP chief denies meeting with government o� cials PAGE 1 COLUMN 6Asked how many secretariat o� cials were present, Halim said: “I am also a former secretary. I do not know any-thing about a secretaries’ meeting.”

Usually when there is any pro-gramme at the BNP chairperson’s of-� ce, journalists are allowed to enter the o� ce but they were restricted last night.

Sources said some other o� cials were also scheduled to attend the pro-gramme but because of intelligence surveillance, they skipped it even after almost reaching the o� ce.

On September 16, the state minister for public administration told parlia-ment that 138 o� cials were made OSD in the last nine months.

Various sources said Senior Assistant Secretary Ehsanul Haque, Ibrahim Mia-zee, administrative o� cer of the Minis-try of Science and Technology, Tau� qul

Islam of the same ministry, Nurul Islam of the Jute and Textile Ministry, Abdul Mannan and AKM Humayun Kabir of the Local Government Ministry, Sarkar Toha of the Environment and Forest Ministry, Badiul Kabir of the Public Ad-ministration Ministry, Shahidul Haque of the Information ministry and Muja-hidul Islam Selim of the cabinet divi-sion attended the meeting.

The party, in a press release issued around 12:15 pm, alleged that reports of a closed door meeting between the BNP chairperson and government o� -cials were false.

“This completely false, fabricated and motivated news was disseminated to mislead the people. There is no basis for such news,” the release said.

The party’s acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir harshly condemned the airing of what he called “false news.”

‘US-BD ties worsen’The BNP yesterday claimed that bi-lateral relations between Bangladesh and the United States was badly a� ect-ed following the recent comments of Awami League General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam about US Assistant Sec-retary of State for South and Central Asian A� airs Nisha Desai Biswal and US Ambassador to Bangladesh Dan Moze-na.

“What was the bene� t of making such comments? Bangladesh’s rela-tions with the United States has been worsened,” Fakhrul said addressing a programme organised to mark the sev-enth founding anniversary of Bangla-desh Kalyan Party at the National Press Club in the capital.

“The Awami League-led govern-ment has no friends across the globe, and that is why there is no foreign in-vestment in the country,” he said.

“The country is heading toward a dreadful economic recession, but the Awami League is yet to understand it,” the BNP leader said.

Syed Ashraf, also LGRD minister, re-cently called Biswal “a minister of two bits” and Mozena a “housemaid.”

Fakhrul said: “In today’s [yesterday] newspapers, I saw some good news for the Bangladeshi people. Bangladesh has progressed in corruption!”

Fakhrul, the spokesperson of the BNP, said one more push is required to oust the “fascist” government from o� ce as they had already lost their ground and become bankrupt.

“This autocratic and fascist Awami League government has to be ousted to establish a people’s government,” he said. “We have to establish a govern-ment that can change the nasty polit-ical culture and the people’s fate,” he added. l

Ex-BTCL MD sent straight to jail from court for contempt PAGE 1 COLUMN 6comply with this court’s order” in con-nection with refunding a non-govern-ment company’s security money.

The immediate past BTCL managing director was also � ned Tk1 lakh and another month of jail in case he fails to pay it.

Immediately after passing the or-der, the HC bench comprising Justice Md Rezaul Hasan sent Kalimullah, who appeared before the court, to the regis-trar of the Supreme Court to be handed over to law enforcers.

The court also acquitted Shah Farid Uddin, a deputy director of BTCL, and Helal Ahmed, manager of IFIC Bank’s stock exchange branch, of the same charges.

SM Kuddus Zaman, acting registrar of the apex court, told the Dhaka Trib-

une: “We handed him [Kalimullah] over to the Shahbagh police along with a directive to send him to prison.”

Senior Supreme Court practitioner Monjil Morshed, also an amicus curi-ae in the case, told the Dhaka Tribune: “There have been many incidents in the past where the court had punished someone and they had been sent to jail. But this is the � rst time that anyone present at the court during the time of the order was sent directly to jail.”

He also remembers that two years ago, a court sent two bureaucrats to jail on contempt charges but they were not present at the time the order was passed.

Aneek R Haque, who � led the arbi-tration application, also said it was a very rare incident.

Aneek said his client Oxinnel Ser-vices Private Limited had deposited

Tk1.40 crore as security deposit to a branch of the IFIC Bank in favour of the BTCL in 2009 to operate as an interna-tional telephone call carrier company.

The dispute began in 2012. BTCL de-manded around TK68 lakh from Oxinnel as various charges. Oxinnel asked BTCL to reduce the amount from the security deposit and pay it back the balance.

After BTCL had refused to pay the money back, Oxinnel � led the arbitra-tion application with the High Court in June 2013. A few days later, the court is-sued a notice for the state-owned com-pany seeking a response on whether or not the money would be refunded. But BTCL did not respond.

The next month, the HC issued an order to the BTCL to refund Tk72 lakh to Oxinnel. But BTCL did not respond to this order either.

In November 2013, BTCL sent a let-ter to the IFIC Bank saying it had an objection about releasing the money to Oxinnel. Following a petition from Oxinnel, the HC in January this year issued a rule against Kalim Ullah, Farid Uddin and Helal Ahmed asking them why contempt charges should not be brought against them.

In April this year, BTCL � nally re-sponded to that court ruling and sought an unconditional apology, soon after which, the court appointed � ve amici curiae to decide whether BTCL was eligible for pardon.

Aneek said: “The amici curiae then opined that if the court accepted the unconditional apology, it would hurt the court’s dignity.”

Yesterday’s order was a continua-tion of that process. l

Moosa Bin Shamsher asked to appear before ACCn Adil Sakhawat

The Anti-Corruption Commission is-sued a notice yesterday to controversial and featured businessman Moosa Bin Shamsher, a suspected arms dealer, to appear before it on December 18 to face interrogation.

ACC Senior Deputy Director Mir Zainul Abedin Shibli issued the notice and sent it to Moosa’s Gulshan resi-dence and his � rm Datco’s Banani of-� ce addresses. He is the chairman of Datco, a manpower recruiting agency.

On November 3, the ACC decided to run an inquiry into the allegation of amassing illegal wealth against Moosa following a cover feature published in international magazine Business Asia in June this year, an ACC o� cer said re-questing anonymity.

The report claims that Moosa has $7bn deposited in a Swiss bank. Terming him a “business tycoon,” the report also says Moosa always preferred leading a royal life. On any special occasion, he uses ornaments and dresses worth $7m.

ACC Commissioner M Shahabuddin Chuppu told reporters that the com-mission had found Moosa’s wealth un-usual. “So it has decided to launch an inquiry against him.”

Many international media report-ed Moosa’s activities terming him an “arms dealer.”

The Sunday Telegraph Magazine in 1998 published an exclusive feature titled “Man with the Golden Guns” terming Moosa “Prince of Bangladesh.” Reporter Nigel Farndale visited him at his Dhaka o� ce of Datco and conclud-ed his feature saying: “Prince Moosa, the multi billionaire from Bangladesh, bathes in rose water, wears diamond encrusted shoes and doesn’t like to talk about the o� er of 5m pound sterling he once made to Tony Blair.”

Website Business Pundit in 2011 showed Moosa as one of the most no-torious arms dealers in modern history where he ranked eighth.

In August last year, Fuji Television

Network Inc of Japan captured the lav-ish and � amboyant lifestyle of “Prince Moosa” in a documentary on the world’s rich and famous. The interna-tional media too wrote many features and stories on Moosa.

In 2007, a renowned Malta-based CA � rm’s audit report stated that Moo-sa had made $10bn, mostly from the international arms trading by selling tanks, � ghter planes and ballistic mis-siles as well as from power brokerage that he had carried outside Bangladesh, adding that Moosa has had Swiss bank accounts worth $7bn frozen because of “irregular” transactions.

The ACC earlier initiated inquiries against Moosa in 2010 and 2011 following newspaper reports that revealed siphon-ing o� a huge amount of money abroad.

The second inquiry o� cer, then deputy director Sheikh Fyaz Alam, could not make any progress as he did not get required information from the Bangladesh Bank’s � nancial unit, an ACC source told the Dhaka Tribune.

Senior Deputy Director Shibli is the third inquiry o� cer in this matter. The � rst inquiry o� cer, deputy director Akhter Hamid Bhuiyan, could not run the inquiry due to poor health, ACC’s competent sources said.

Moosa again hit the headlines by of-fering the Labour Party and Tony Blair 5m pounds as donation for campaigns during the UK’s 1997 general election. However, Blair rejected his proposal.

The controversial businessman also wished to donate full cost of the Pad-ma bridge project when the World Bank had refused to lend money to the pro-ject in 2012 in an interview with a tele-vision channel of Bangladesh.

Transparency International Bang-ladesh Executive Director Dr Iftekhar-uzzaman welcomed the ACC move as “Moosa has been summoned for the � rst time. The ACC earlier did not in-vestigate such high pro� le individuals while the previous inquiries against Moosa could not be complete.”

He suggested that the inquiry be done in a very technical and professional man-ner so that it can be fruitful. “We hope that the commission will be successful this time,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.

Iftekhar also hoped that the central bank’s Financial Intelligence Unit and the National Board of Revenue would cooperate with the ACC with a view to helping the commission unmasking the corrupts like Moosa as “Bangladesh faces international pressure to check money laundering.” l

3NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, December 5, 2014

Indictment hearing against 41 BNP men deferred againn Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court yesterday deferred the indictment hearing against BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and 40 others in a case � led for vandalism and blasting hand bombs on March 2 last year.

Metropolitan Magistrate Ali Mashud Sheikh set March 12 for the hearing fol-lowing a time petition � led by defence counsel Zaynal Abedin Mesbah.

He lodged the petition as three of his clients including Standing Commit-tee member barrister Moudud Ahmed could not appear before the court.

Thirty-eight other accused includ-ing Fakhrul, Standing Committee member Goyeshwar Chandra Roy, Joint Secretary General Amanullah Aman and Jubo Dal President Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal appeared before the court during the hearing. All the accused are now on bail. l

Cases � led against policemen for alleged extortion n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court yesterday ordered the Detective Branch (DB) of police to in-vestigate against two police men and one Ansar member of Khilgaon police station for their alleged involvement in extorting, hijacking and assaulting a pick-up van driver.

Dhaka Additional Chief Metropoli-tan Magistrate Ali Masud Sheikh issued the order after the pick-up van driver Md Solaiman Sheikh yesterday � led a case with the court.

The court also directed the DB to submit the investigation report within January 25.

The accused police men are Assis-tant Sub-Inspector Majnu, Constable Robiul and Ansar VDP member Anjan. They were all posted at Khilgaon police station at the time of the incident.

Morshed Hossain Shahin, the lawyer of the complainant, said: “The accused police men beat up Al Amin, the helper

of the pick-up van, handcu� ed him and extorted Tk6,300 and a mobile phone from Solaiman at Meradiya Sipahibagh rice market on May 5.”

The complainant mentioned that the police returned the mobile but did not refund the money. Subsequently an application was sent to the Secre-tary of the Ministry of Home a� airs and also to the Inspector General of Police on May 8.

On the basis of the complaint, the senior assistant police commissioner of Matijheel zone called the complain-ants on June 8 and 14 to his o� ce and recorded their statement.

Again on July 8 and 14, senior as-sistant police commissioner of Demra Zone recorded their statement but no action was taken.

They also � lled a petition to the Ministry of Home a� airs on October re-garding the incident. But getting no re-sponse from the ministry, they lodged the case before the court for justice. l

Body formed to probe Barisal police action; protests continuePolice claim that they were forced to charge batons as students turned violentn Abid Azad with our Barisal

Correspondent

A three-member body was formed yesterday to investigate the merciless baton charge on agitating students of Barisal Institute of Health Technology on Wednesday that sparked massive criticism.

The probe body led by a deputy commissioner of the police headquar-ters was asked to submit report within three days, Barisal Metropolitan Police Commissioner SK Chowdhury told the Dhaka Tribune.

A top police o� cial said: “We will investigate if there was a personal or political link to the incident. Students earlier had staged peaceful move-ments. The probe committee will look for reasons behind the demonstration and also the police intolerance.”

National Human Rights Commission Chairman Mizanur Rahman expressed

deep concern over the police’s “unex-pected” behaviour. “This is totally unac-ceptable. It is brutality especially where a large number of female students were present,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.

At least 20 protesters, mostly fe-males, were injured in the incident during the agitation on that day.

The number of good police is grad-ually decreasing. “Police beat up peo-ple who demonstrate protesting any government policy or step. It should be investigated,” he said suggesting more training for police on human rights.

The Bangladesh Diploma Medical Technology and Pharmacy Students’ Association has been protesting since last month to highlight their 10-point demands.

Sonia Aktar, a protester, said the de-mands include forming a diploma med-ical education board, creating posts as per the World Health Organisation guidelines at public healthcare insti-

tutes and introducing degree and mas-ter’s courses for pharmacists holding diploma degrees to enable them to en-joy � rst-class status in public service.

Yesterday, the students boycotted classes and held a protest rally at the Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital wearing black badges.

They demanded that the police members responsible for the inhuman action be brought to justice. Students also vowed to continue the movement until the demands were met.

Qumud Ranjan Bala, principal of the institute, said 17 injured students were undergoing treatment at the hospital; eight being in critical condition.

Police detained 14 students on that day but later released them on bond.

The Barisal units of the Bangladesh Women Lawyers’ Association and the Mahila Parishad condemned the police action in separate statements, while the Bangladesh Chhatra Federation’s

Barisal unit formed a human chain in front of Ashwini Kumar Hall condemn-ing police action.

But Shoyeb Ahmed, deputy com-missioner of the BMP, said there were a few policewomen too to control the protesters on Wednesday.

“Police initially asked the protesters not to block the road but they refused to comply. They hurled bricks at the law enforcers, leaving Sergeant Kamrul Is-lam and constable Billal Hossain injured. We were forced to resort to baton charge to disperse the crowd,” he claimed.

The other demands include form-ing new directorates for medical tech-nologists and pharmacists, enabling registration for private practices by those holding diploma degrees in den-tal and physiotherapy, and compulso-ry appointment of technologists and pharmacists at all private healthcare facilities that provide organs under speci� ed rules. l

Jamaat’s Subhan awaits verdictin war crimes casen Tribune Report

The International Crimes Tribunal 2 has completed the recording of closing ar-guments in the war crimes case against Jamaat-e-Islami Nayeb-e-Ameer Mau-lana Abdus Subhan, and will deliver the verdict any day.

The three-member tribunal, led by Justice Obaidul Hassan with members Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah and Justice Md Shahinur Islam, gave the or-der yesterday.

The other tribunal on Wednesday kept the war crimes case of Jatiya Par-ty’s former lawmaker M Abdul Jabbar awaiting verdict.

Subhan, 77, is facing nine charges of crimes against humanity including genocide and murders of unarmed people, mainly Hindus, along with looting and setting houses on � re in Pabna during the 1971 Liberation War.

The charges are based on separate incidents between April 13 and October 30 in 1971 in Pabna. About 450 unarmed people were killed in those incidents.

Acting chief of Jamaat’s Pabna unit during the war, the accused was indict-

ed on December 31 last year on nine charges of crimes against humanity.

Subhan was also accused in 1972 by a special tribunal for collaborating with the Pakistani occupation forces and summoned. However, he did not face trial as he had already � ed to Pakistan with former Jamaat chief Ghulam Azam.

He became a member of parliament in 2001 from Pabna 5 constituency.

According to the prosecution, Sub-

han was the vice-president of Pabna Peace Committee, an associate organi-sation of the Pakistani Army, during the war. He was a Majlish-e-Sura member of the central unit of Jamaat in undivid-ed Pakistan.

He was arrested on September 20, 2012. After a 17-month investigation, the probe agency submitted its � nal re-port to the prosecution on September 12 last year.

The tribunal 1 indicted Subhan on December 31. But the case was later shifted to tribunal 2 for quick disposal.

As many as 31 prosecution witnesses testi� ed against Subhan while vouched for the accused at the tribunal.

During the closing arguments yester-day, prosecutor Turin Afroz demanded capital punishment for the accused for the “heinous crimes” he had committed.

The prosecution also pleaded for ad-equate compensation for the victims. l

Tofail discontent with TIB, CPD activitiesn Tribune Report

Transparency International, Bangla-desh and the Centre for Policy Dialogue do not say anything about the coun-try’s progress because of their negative attitude, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed has alleged.

“A human being has to sides – a good side and a bad one. Same goes with any country. The reports of the TIB and the CPD do not reveal the truth. Has not Bangladesh’s economy developed during the last 40 years?” Tofail told reporters yesterday when asked about TI’s Corruption Perception Index 2014 published on Wednesday.

“We have been working for the de-velopment of the country, but these NGOs are displaying [only] the nega-tive matters to the global media. Have we done nothing good for the country? Our exports, foreign exchange reserves and inward remittances have increased

over the years...” the senior Awami League leader said at the Secretariat.

According to the Berlin-based global civil society group campaigning against corruption, Bangladesh, which from 2001-2005 remained the world’s most corrupt country, this year stands 14th.

It ranked 16th last year. The country scored 25 on a scale of 0-100, slipping from 27, last year.

Tofail said the CPD and TIB are NGOs, and these NGOs are operated with � nance from abroad.

“The NGOs have not said any positive stories about Bangladesh and the coun-try’s economic progress,” he said. “I am con� dent that the people will praise [me] as I have made the right comments regarding the TIB and the CPD.”

Meanwhile, Finance Minister AMA Muhith did not want to comment on the TI’s corruption index. About the CPD, he only said: “Quality of the organisation’s reports has declined drastically.” l

DISHONOURING THE UNIFORM: THE UGLY FACE OF POLICE BRUTALITY

Subhan was also accused by a special tribunal in 1972

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Real-time data insu� ciency in � ood warning system n Tribune Report

The country’s Early Warning System for � ood has yet to be able to provide real-time forecasting to people in order to minimise possible damage, speakers said at a discussion yesterday in the capital.

Speaking at the discussion titled “Ecosystems, People and Shared Learning: Experiences from Bangla-desh-India Civil Society Dialogue,” they further said the early warnings could be more speci� c if Bangladesh could know the exact volume of water � owing down from uprivers in India.

Talking at the event, Dr Ainun Nishat, professor at Brac University and a hy-drologist who served the Joints River Commission between Bangladesh and India for 18 years, said since the 1988 � ood in the country, the Indian govern-ment has been sharing the water � ow data of the common rivers between the two countries, but only in the monsoon and the data is not real-time.

“It is quite impossible for a lower ri-parian country like Bangladesh to fore-cast the exact time frame and duration of � oods without having the information on the upstream water � ow,” he said on the � nal day of the discussion yesterday.

However, he also expressed his hope in getting the real-time data from the neighbouring country as the Indian

prime minister showed interest in en-hancing regional cooperation.

Bangladesh, India and Nepal share the common ecosystem of Gan-ges-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin which contains several hundreds rivers to sus-tain the life of the ecosystem. Bangla-desh covers only 8% of the total system.

Bangladesh and India have 54 com-mon rivers, with the Ganges, Brahma-putra and Teesta being some of the ma-jor rivers among them.

Md Abdul Wazed, director general at the Department of Disaster Manage-ment, said despite having limitations, the country had been gradually im-proving in disseminating early warn-ings for � ood.

“We can now forecast the possible condition of a � ood for � ve days ahead, whereas before we could do only three days’ forecast. We are trying to develop the system more so that we can provide a 10-day forecast for the � oods,” he said.

In addition, the government has cre-ated groups of volunteers consisting of around 50,000 people to help the di-saster-a� ected people.

The two-day regional discussion was organised by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Ban-gladesh under its Ecosystems for Life Project. Around 80 experts from Ban-gladesh and India participated at the event, held in the city’s Amari Hotel. l

Make roads safe, Rawshan urges govt n Tribune Report

Opposition Leader Rawshan Ershad yesterday urged the government to take action in order to make roads safe for people in the country.

Hundreds of people die in road crashes every year, she said, calling it a big disaster for the country.

Rawshan blamed ine� cient driv-ers, negligence in implementing tra� c rules and reckless driving on the road accidents.

She also said many famous and mer-itorious people were falling victims to such accidents.

Senior journalist Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury was killed in a road acci-

dent in the capital’s Karwan Bazar area on November 30.

Filmmaker Tareque Masud and Dha-ka University teacher Mishuk Munier died in a road crash in Manikganj on August 13, 2011.

According to government statis-tics, eight people die every day in road crashes on an average but the World Bank put the number at 30 and the World Health Organisation at 48.

The country has witnessed many tragic road accidents in the recent years and the majority of these happened be-cause of reckless driving.

On July 11, 2011, 41 schoolchildren and two college students were killed in an accident at Mirsharai in Chittagong.

On February 15 this year, seven schoolchildren drowned when a bus carrying them plunged into a pond in Chaugachha upazila of Jessore.

A total of 49,847 road accidents took place in the country in the last 15 years, killing 42,526 people and injur-ing around 39,000, says a report of the Accident Research Institute at Buet.

The report was prepared on the basis of police records and the actual numbers are believed to be much high-er as many accidents go unreported.

The highest punishment for reckless driving was three years’ imprisonment since October 10, 1985 but on 20 No-vember this year, the High Court raised it to seven years’ imprisonment. l

Youths perform � ash mobs at 15 co� ee shops n Tribune Report

Flash mobs were performed at � fteen di� erent co� ee shops in the capital yesterday evening in a bid to raise awareness among youths in stopping violence against women.

The event was put together to mark the International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women and was also part of a campaign that started on No-vember 25 and will end on December 10.

Organised by United Nation Popu-lation Fund (UNFPA), the event was observed with the UN theme “Orange Your Neighbourhood”. The event was held in the capital’s Gulshan, Banani, Baily Road, Mohammadpur and Dhan-mondi areas.

Addressing the event, UNFPA acting chief (gender) Shamima Parvin said: “We want to raise awareness among the young generation about violence against women and to bring them for-ward to stop it.”

Shamima also said, as part of the 16 days activism, the youth movement was brought to attract and gather peo-ple through organising interactive discussion in the co� ee shops while young volunteers organised the audi-ence around the � ash mob. l

Teenager killed over minor feud in capital n Tribune Report

A teenager was stabbed to death over a minor dispute near the rail gate area at Kawran Bazar in the capital early morn-ing yesterday.

The victim, Md Razu, 19, was col-lected litter from the street along with another teenager named Nazmul, 18, when an altercation broke out between the two, which led to Razu’s death, wit-nesses told the Dhaka Tribune.

The duo were collecting litter around 5:45am when they started � ghting over a minor issue. At one point, Nazmul suddenly stabbed Razu on his chest

and neck, who died on the spot, said one of the witnesses named Polash.

“When Nazmul tried to � ee, I along with two other people caught him and called the police,” he said.

Md Sayed, sub-inspector at Ramna police station, told the Dhaka Tribune that the con� ict between the two teenagers could be over the litter collecting.

“Nazmul is now in police custody and confessed to stabbing Razu,” the sub-inspector said, adding that Razu’s body was found around 6.45am and sent to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital. l

As part of the ‘16 days of Activism against Gender Violence’ launched by the UNFPA, volunteers perform a � ash mob in the capital’s Dhanmondi area yesterday RAJIB DHAR

International short � lm festival kicks o� n Tribune Report

The “13th International Short and Inde-pendent Film Festival” was inaugurated yesterday at the National Museum audi-torium in the capital’s Shahbagh area.

After inaugurating the event, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said the govern-ment had sponsored the event to encour-age short � lm making in the country.

“Short � lms had an incredible role to play in the liberation war of Bangla-desh and recovering democracy,” said Nasiruddin Yousuf Bachchu, chairman of the festival.

With the slogan “Free Cinema, Free Expression”, the festival, organised by Bangladesh Short Film Forum, will go on till December 8. The festival has been dedicated to the memory of artist Qayyum Chowdhury.

This year 200 � lms from 40 coun-tries will be screened at six di� erent venues. Bangladesh Central Public Li-brary, National Museum and Bangla-desh Shilpakala Academy have been selected as the main venues while some � lms will be shown at Jagannath University, Russian Cultural Centre and Independent University, Bangladesh.

Renowned Indian � lmmaker Shyam Benegal and Aruna Basudev will attend the festival as special guests. l

Thai food festival to begin at Radisson Blu n Tribune Report

Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel Dha-ka, will see a ten-day “Thai Food Fes-tival” from December 6, says media release.

Radisson Blu General Manager Christoph Voegeli in a press brie� ng here said they were very delighted to be associated with such an event to present authentic Thai cuisine while it is very famous in global palates with its intense � avours and eye-appealing pre-sentations. Media partners of this event are the Dhaka Tribune, Radio Shadin 92.4FM and Ekattor Television. l

WEATHER

DRY WEATHER

LIKELY

PRAYER TIMES Fajr 5:07am Sunrise 6:26am Jumma 11:49am Asr 3:35pm Magrib 5:11pm Esha 6:31 pm

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 5:11PM SUN RISES 6:28AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW29.9ºC 13.2ºC

Sitakunda Jessore

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5

SourceL IslamicFinder.org

F O R E C A S T F O R T O D A YDhaka 29 19Chittagong 30 18Rajshahi 28 16Rangpur 28 16Khulna 28 15Barisal 29 17Sylhet 30 16Cox’s Bazar 30 19

5NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, December 5, 2014

Huge tailbackon Dhaka-Chittagong highwayn Our Correspondent, Comilla

A large number of vehicles got strand-ed in a long tailback on Dhaka-Chit-tagong highway as transport workers went on a strike by tutting vehicles haphazardly on the highway protest-ing attacks on their fellows and lead-ers in Alekhar Char area of Comillayesterday.

Many people faced immense suf-ferings at Jangalia and Shsangacha bus terminals as the transport works stopped plying their vehicles demand-ing punishment to the attackers around 2:00pm.

Many of commuters were seen sit-ting on the roadside.

Some miscreants introducing them as leaders and activists of ruling Awa-mi League demanded extortion from some transport workers at Paduar Ba-zar in Comilla town, said Abdur Rob, an owner of Asia Paribahan.

The miscreants led by Apu, Yeasin and Delwar attacked the workers as they denied paying the extortion, he said.

The attackers also beat up Comilla District Transport Workers Union Pres-ident Mohammad Ali and its General Secretary when they went to the spot, he added, leaving them critically in-jured

Mohammad Ali was undergoing treatment at a local hospital.

Comilla District Transport Owners Executive President Kabir Ahmed said the attackers also had vandalised 10 to 12 buses during the attack.

Comilla Sadar South Police Station O� cer-in-Charge Prashanta Paul said they were trying sit with the agitating workers to lift the strike. l

SEMINAR ON MARITIME RESOURCES ENDS

Integrated marine policy stressed to boost blue economy n Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Speakers at a seminar in Chittagong yesterday underscored the need for forming an integrated marine policy to boost blue economy, a process which is intended to bring natural ecosystems and economy into harmony and create jobs.

They suggested that all forces, insti-tutions and bureaucratic bodies related to the marine sector work together for its development. They also pointed out that lack of coordination amongst the bodies hinders the expected develop-ment.

On the last day of a two-day seminar titled “Safeguarding and Harnessing Maritime Resources of Bangladesh – a strategic road map for economic secu-rity” organised by the Chittagong Naval Flotilla, Naval high o� cials and noted marine specialists of the country made these observations.

The seminar was held at the Chit-tagong Naval Base BNS Isha Khan’s Command Mess Auditorium where Chief of Naval Sta� Vice-Admiral M Farid Habib addressed the gathering as chief guest and Ministry of Foreign A� airs’ Maritime A� airs Unit Secretary Rear Admiral (retd) M Khurshed Alam spoke as special guest in the closing session.

On the closing day, the special guest, Petrobangla’s former Director (PSC) Muhammad Imaduddin, Bangladesh Navy Dhaka (administration) Commodore Shamsul Alam and Marine Care Consultants BD Limited Managing

Director, Captain M Zillur Rahman presented their respective keynote papers.

The chief guest said the Bangladesh Navy was working hard to protect its maritime boundary and resources and their services would be more geared up after introducing more logistics and manpower with the forces stepby step.

The special guest said the govern-ment was, with its all bodies, work-ing to maintain the marine sec-tor, but would take time to see anydevelopment.

He emphasised on creating mass awareness over marine resources and economy which is the vital factor for the development.

Speakers said sea and ocean were drivers for the national economy and have great potential for innovation and growth. Over 70% of our planet is cov-ered by oceans and 90% of the world’s trade was sea-based.

As disputes over maritime with In-dia and Myanmar has been resolved, it is necessary for Bangladesh to conduct a survey to know the exact maritime re-sources, they opined. l

Muhith: Political parties to be ousted from SUSTn Our Correspondent, Sylhet

Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith yesterday said political parties should be ousted from the Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) campus in order to keep con-genial atmosphere.

The minister made the remark while visiting the under-construction site of Sylhet Central Shaheed Minar.

He said Shahjalal university was one of the best public university in the country and there was no session jam in the university, but gun� ght and armed clashes took there frequently because of political parties.

“So there should be a way to keep campus free from politics,” Muhith added.

The Shaheed Minar is being rebuilt with a unique design at a cost of Tk 2 crore. Sylhet City Corporation is imple-menting the project which will be inau-gurated on December 10.

Former city mayor and city unit Awami League President Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran, Sylhet district council

administrator and district AL president Abduj Jahir Chowdhury Su� an, Secre-tary Sho� qur Rahman Chowdhury, Syl-het Sadar upazila Parishad Chairman Ashfaque Ahmed accompanied the minister.

A private university student was killed and nine people were injured during a gun� ght between two Chhatra League factions of the SUST over estab-lishing supremacy on the campus on November 20.

Students who witnessed the gun� ght said followers of SUST BCL unit presi-dent, who had remained absent from the campus for quite a long time, entered the university around 10:30am on that day.

They vandalised the library, aca-demic building and the Shah Paran Hall. The clash erupted as students loy-al to Vice-President Anjan Roy arrived at the scene.

Both factions opened � re on each other and exploded hand-made bombs, leaving one dead and 20 people injured.

Following the death of Sumon Roy, a BBA student at Sylhet International University, the authorities closed the university for an inde� nite period.

Four cases were � led with Jalala-bad police station in this connection and police arrested 33 BCL members for their alleged involvement with the killing. l

'Govt nonchalant about Nurul Islam killing' n DU Correspondent

The death of Nurul Islam, the former president of Ganatantri Party and Bangladesh Trade Union Centre, was not an accident but a planned murder which has been proved with evidence, opined Professor emeritus Anisuzzam-an while addressing a seminar to mark the 6th death anniversary of Nurul Is-lam yesterday.

Hailing Nurul Islam as a great politi-cal leader, he said: “Nurul Islam was an honest political leader and a role mod-el. We don’t know the exact reason of not getting justice yet.”

Moutushi Islam, Nurul Islam’s only daughter expressed disappointment over the action taken by the govern-ment about the killing. She said: “De-spite repeated assurance from the gov-ernment and Awami League leaders,

there has been no progress in ensuring justice.” She urged the government to arrest the killers of her father and brother without any delay.

Bangladesh Trade Union Centre (TUC) organised the discussion pro-gramme at the Liberation War Muse-um. At the commemoration ceremony, speakers blamed the government for delaying the case and also criticized the law enforcing agencies for their negligence in � nding the actual rea-sons and the mastermind behind the incident.

Nurul Islam and his son Islam Tamohar were killed in a � re that broke out at their Lalmatia residence on December 3, 2008, just 26 days before the national elections. Tamohar died in the � re while Nurul Islam died the following day at the Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka. Nurul

Islam was expected to be nominated from the then ruling grand alliance for contesting the election from Noakhali 1 constituency.

Abul Kalam Azad, joint secretary general of TUC said: “It was a planned murder. Though the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina herself termed the mur-der as sensational, the Awami League led government is yet to take e� ective action against the accused”.

Dewan Mohammad Ali, vice-presi-dent of TUC said: “We do not know why the AL government is nonchalant about the killing of Nurul Islam, who was an active leader of the 14 party alliance.”

“There are several clues to the kill-ing of Nurul Islam but it is a mystery to all as to why the killers are yet to be brought under justice,” Pro-VC of BSM-MU Dr Shahidullaha Shikdar said while expressing his views. l

THREE YEARS OF DCC DIVISION

Promise of better services remains a promiseCity dwellers discontented with facilities and experts question the outcome but o� cials stick to claims of improvementn Abu Hayat Mahmud

It has been three years since Dhaka City Corporation was divided into two sep-arate bodies but neither succeeded in living up to the expectations of the city dwellers.

The key objective of the division, which took place on November 29, 2011, was to provide the people in Dha-ka with better services but that has hardly been ful� lled.

Roads, footpaths, footbridges, un-derpasses, markets and the drainage system in areas under the jurisdiction of both Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corpora-tion (DSCC) remain in poor condition.

Besides, compared to the time of Dhaka City Corporation, there has not been any distinct improvement in is-sues such as the waste management system, mosquito control, and social and cultural support.

Dhaka residents have claimed that irregularities, corruption and lack of supervision made the move to divide

the city corporation unfruitful. Saidul Alam, a resident of Pari-

bagh, said: “Both the DSCC and DNCC authorities remained indi� erent to a range of problems such as potholes on roads, poor drainage system and occu-pied footpaths.”

“Apart from the poor condition of infrastructures, the city dwellers have continually had unpleasant experience when it comes to accomplishing tasks such as obtaining birth certi� cates and trade licences,” he added.

Tania Islam, who lives in Mirpur, claimed it was easier to obtain birth certi� cates and other such documents from the ward councillor, but going to the zonal city corporation o� ce to get these done was a horrible experience.

“We earlier could complain to ward councillors about our problems, but now there are no councillors as the city corporation elections have been post-poned,” she said.

Birth certi� cates, trade licences and other related documents are now pro-vided at 10 zonal o� ces, with � ve o� c-

es under each city corporation. No elections have been held in the

two city corporations since the 2011 division, which is why neither has any mayor or ward councillor to run oper-ations.

Development of Dhaka has not gath-ered pace as bureaucrats have been deputed as departmental heads at both the city corporations, permanent DNCC and DSCC o� cials said.

They warned that the situation might aggravate if the government im-plemented the new organogram, which proposes that only secretaries or addi-tional secretaries could be appointed as departmental heads or to other key posts.

They also claimed that both the lo-cal government bodies had been rife with corruption since the division as bureaucrats, who held o� ce for short periods on deputation, had almost no accountability.

Urban planners have also echoed the city dwellers and city corporation sta� . Professor Nazrul Islam, president

of Asiatic Society of Bangladesh and chairman of the Centre for Urban Stud-ies, expressed deep concern over the poor state of city services and the ab-sence of elected public representatives in the two local government bodies.

“I do not think anything changed for the better after the division of Dhaka City Corporation. The government said citi-zen services would improve but where is the change now?” he questioned.

Referring to media reports, Nazrul said the division had hardly brought the residents of Dhaka any extra ben-e� t.

He suggested that the government should not transfer DSCC and DNCC administrators in every six months in accordance with the city corporation act, adding: “The top executives were transferred before they could fully un-derstand their roles, thus eventually depriving the city residents of better services.”

Urban planner Professor Dr Sarwar Jahan said dividing Dhaka City Cor-poration and the absence of elected

representatives are responsible for the failure of both city corporations to o� er better services to the people in Dhaka.

Top DSCC and DNCC o� cials, how-ever, denied the allegations.

DSCC Chief Executive O� cer Ansar Ali Khan told the Dhaka Tribune the division of Dhaka City Corporation had enabled the city dwellers to enjoy im-proved services.

“Things got easy for them as the time to deliver services was signi� cant-ly reduced,” he said.

Ansar said the absence of elected public representatives did not bring any trouble as the zonal o� ces re-ceived residents’ complaints.

“We always try to solve the prob-lems,” he added.

BM Enamul Haque, DNCC chief ex-ecutive o� cer, said he believes city services in areas under the remit of the DNCC now are way better compared to any other period in the past.

“Addressing complaints lodged by city people are always our priority,” he added. l

A private university student was killed and nine others were injured in a gun� ght November 20

Sea and ocean were drivers for the national economy and have great potential for innovation and growth

Discussants at a memorial ceremony organsied to mark the sixth year into the death of Gonotantri Party President Nurul Islam and his son. Trade Union Kendra arranged the event at the Liberation War Museum in the capital yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

A goods-laden truck passes over an under construction culvert on the Dhaka-Rajshahi Highway. After elaborate campaigning, although the repair work of the culvert has started, it is going on at a snails pace putting the commuters’ convenience at stake. The photo was taken from the Belpukur Bypass Road in Puthia upazila of Rajshahi yesterday AZAHAR UDDIN

6 NationDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, December 5, 2014

Illegal � shing continues in Baikka Beel sanctuaryn Our Correspondent, Moulvibazar

Illegally catching of � shes is going on unabated in and around the Baikka Beel under Hail Haor, known as a safe and ideal water body for natural � sh breeding in Moulvibazar district.

Some unscrupulous local people have put up fences at two points in-side a canal connecting the Baikka Beel sanctuary and the Hail Haor, blocking the movement of � shes.

They catch � shes illegally and in-discriminately inside the canal, par-ticularly during the breeding season, hampering � sh production, said locals and o� cials of Resource Management Organisation, an NGO working inside the Baikka Beel sanctuary.

Some residents of Hajipur village under Kalapur union of Sreemangal

upazila have illegally con� ned two ar-eas of the canal where they have been netting � shes for last 10-12 days, they alleged.

As a result, breeding and population of di� erent kinds of local � shes including Rui, Chitol, and Katla, are under threat.

Moniruzzaman Chowdhury, man-agement executive of Climate Regional Eco-System and Livelihood, an NGO looking after the Baikka Beel sanctu-ary, said they had seen the two fences on November 20.

“Movement of � shes are being ob-structed because of these fences put up by some unscrupulous people. But as the canal connecting to the Hail Haor falls outside the Baikka Beel sanctuary, we have nothing to do,” he said.

When contacted, Sreemangal Upazi-la Fisheries O� cer Mahbubur Rahman

Khan said: “Under the rules issued by the Department of Fisheries, � shing inside open water bodies is restricted. Those who erect the temporary fences are caught often, however, they come out of jail within a short span of time and get back to the same business again.”

Quoting the Upazila Nirbahi O� cer, he said a mobile court will conduct a drive in the area to demolish the illegal barriers. According to the law, the high-est punishment for netting � shes by put-ting � sh barriers in haor areas is one year of imprisonment and Tk10,000 � ne.

Sreemangal Upazila Nirbahi O� cer Saidul Huq said: “I have talked to the upazila � sheries o� cer. Our o� cers will visit the Baikka Beel area. A mobile court will conduct a drive as soon as possible.” l

Employees of the Bangladesh Railway � x rail track after a compartment of the Jalalabad Express veered o� the tracks at Jangaliya in Comilla yesterday morning DHAKA TRIBUNE

Chhatra League’s attack on Kurigram Government College’s teacher protestedn Our Correspondent, Kurigram

Students and teachers of Kurigram Government College staged demon-strations at di� erent points of the city yesterday protesting the attack on In-ternational Relations teacher Mizanur Rahman.

On Wednesday around 12:30pm, a fraction of Chhatra League Kurigram unit led by Mominur Rahman Mumin allegedly forced the teachers of the col-lege to join their “Clean Campus, Safe Campus” campaign.

When Mizanur Rahman denied to � ll up a form required to join the cam-paign, 4/5 Chhatra League men assault-ed him physically. He was sent to the Kurigram Sadar Hospital.

Following the incident, the teachers of the college submitted a memoran-dum to the District Administrator and the Police Super on the same day.

Kurigram Government College

Vice-Principal Tofael Hossain said al-though 48 hours had passed into the incident, police was yet to arrest Ram-jan Ali who was behind the act. Ramjan Ali is the son of Foyez Uddin, resident of Polashbari Pashchimpara area of the city.

Demanding immediate arrest of the attackers, the students and teachers of the college yesterday formed human chains in front of the Kurigram Press Club and Kurigram Central Shaheed Minar. A rally brought out by the gen-eral students of the college blocked a road at the college intersection for an hour in the morning.

The protestors claimed that the al-leged attackers were deprived a posi-tion at the newly formed central com-mittee of Chhatra League Kurigram unit.

Assistant Professor Abu Zobaer Al-Mukul, International Relations teacher Jibon, History teacher Abdul Matin and

Bulbul Ahmed, among others, spoke at the human chains.

They warned of waging continuous movements if police did not arrest the attackers by Friday.

When contacted, Mominur Rah-man, former general secretary of Chha-tra League Kurigram unit and leader of the Chhatra League activists who claim to have been deprived a post at the newly formed committee, denied the allegations.

He said: “A cleanliness drive called by the central committee was going on inside the campus on Wednesday. The deprived Chhatra League men had no connection with the attacks carried on the teachers inside the college premis-es.”

Kurigram Sadar police station Of-� cer-in-Charge Abdul Baten Miya said three had been arrested in this connec-tion. Police was continuing drive to ar-rest the main accused. l

Railway communication disruptedn Our Correspondent, Narsingdi

At least � ve railway workers were in-jured as a rescue train hit a crane at Methikanda Railway Station in Raipur upazila yesterday.

Railway communications of Dhaka with Sylhet and Chittagong remained snapped for 5 hours in the morning as a compartment of the relief train de-railed at the station after hitting the crane.

Sources at Methikanda Railway Station said the engine of a crane of construction � rm ‘Toma Group’ broke down near the railway station on Wednesday night during the construc-tion work of a double-line rail route.

On information, a relief train from Akhaura of Brahmanbaria came to the station around 7:30am and suddenly hit the crane, leaving nine construction workers injured.

The injured were sent to Raipur Upazila Health Complex. l

Swechchasebak League leader arrested over threatening MP to deathn Our Correspondent, Habiganj

Police have arrested a Swechchasebak League leader over sending a death threat through sms to the member of parliament of Habiganj 3, Advocate Md Abu Jahir.

The arrestee is joint convener of Sechchasebok League Habiganj sadar upazila unit, Enamul Haque Biplob, son of Abdus Sobhan of Poil Uttar Para village in the upazila.

O� cer-in-Charge of Habiganj Sadar police station Mohammad Nazim Ud-din said: “We arrested him from his res-idence on Wednesday night and have already been sent to jail.”

The PS of the lawmaker Sudeep Roy � led a case against Biplob with the po-lice station on Thursday afternoon, he added.

The police sources said the Law-maker received a death threat sms from a mobile number 01717540999 around 8:20pm on November 27.

The MP was in a preparation meet-ing over Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visit to Habiganj. So, he kept silent on that time and informed the Sadar po-lice after PM went back completing her visit.

After investigation, the police con-� rmed that the number was belonging to Biplob who was not present at the meeting then.

However, Biplob denied the allega-tion saying: “How could I send such sms to the MP when we both are in same political parties?”

“I have lost it many days ago. And certainly someone has plot against me and sent the sms,” he added. l

7Long Form Friday, December 5, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Nirupama Subramanian

I had � rst met Daman Singh a few years ago in Delhi, at a dinner hosted by our publisher. She struck me as a quiet and thoughtful woman, not keen to

attract attention to herself. It was only later when I saw her being escorted out of the hotel by a posse of armed guards that I realised that she was someone important. She was the daughter of the prime minister of India. In a city where proximity to a VIP is a badge to be � aunted at every opportune moment, where the refrain “Jaante nahi mera baap kaun hai?” (Don’t you know who

my father is?) is used so often that it has become a cliché, Daman was an anomaly. So I was surprised to know that Daman had written a book about her parents, “Strictly Personal: Man-mohan & Gursharan” the sort of book that would invariably put her in the spotlight.

Strictly Personal is not strictly a bi-ography of Manmohan and Gursharan. It is part family history, part personal memoir and reads like a novel. It is as much a story of two people as it is of a country that is struggling to grow. Daman is the observer, chronicler and occasionally a participant in the story. We start the journey in the village of Gah in 1932 when Manmohan was born, and ends with his becoming prime minister. For most of the jour-ney, Manmohan is accompanied by Shanni, Gursharan Kaur, the girl on the bicycle from Nowshera. The book deft-ly weaves in conversations, anecdotes, extracts from letters and speeches and factual information to create a riveting narrative.

Daman, your last two books have been novels, Nine by Nine and The Sacred Grove. What made you want to write this book - a biography?

I am open to the idea of both � ction and non-� ction. My � rst book was a non-� ction one about the Forests of Mizoram. I am comfortable with the form of non � ction.

This book was motivated by my desire to really know my parents. We are a close family and I thought I knew my parents well. As I grew up and had my own child, I realised that know-ing someone as a parent is knowing only one part of them. I realised that I didn’t really know the two most important people in my life. I needed to know them. I didn’t want to leave it until it was too late.

Your parents are seen as reticent people who don’t seek public attention. You mention in the book that while your mother was delighted about the idea, your father was horrified. So how did you get him to open up and talk to you? What was the strategy?

(With a mischievous smile) A bit of emotional blackmail and subtle ques-tioning. I never asked questions direct-ly. My line of questioning was subtle. I tried to be logical and structured. I tried to approach it like a journalist. My mother talks easily and freely. My father is actually open and happy to share but he does some natural censor-ing. I didn’t want to reveal everything in the book. The reader should also do some work!

What was the process of writing such a book? How would you decide what to write, what to leave out?

It was not easy. I got stuck a number of times. At the same time, it was wonderful. I did not put boundaries. I knew I didn’t want to write about the political part of my father’s life. I talked to my mother and father sep-arately. Sometimes, their versions of the same incident did not match.

One of the books that in� uenced me was Vikram Seth’s Two Lives. The way he explored the lives of his uncle and aunt was beautiful. I wanted to write that way about people I cared about. I wanted to write with feeling yet establish some kind of a distance.

I know that can be a challenge at times. It is a delicate balance. You might want to be objective, yet is there really an objective point of view when you are writing a biography, especially about your parents?

You know, that is one thing people have said to me after this book came out, “You are not objective.” I didn’t set out to write an objective account. In fact, I started with a declaration - I will not be objective but I do have a story to tell. People say they want the truth but there are so many versions of the truth. I wanted to write my version of the truth. My sisters have a di� erent recollections of certain incidents but this is not a family venture. I am speaking for myself. I have told my

version of the truth.

We have heard “The truth will set you free.” How has that been for you? How has writing this book changed you or impacted you?

It has been very liberating. I have resolved a lot of issues. I feel cleansed, calmer. The book has bought me closer to my parents, not necessarily in a tan-gible way but emotionally I feel that I know them better. The book is not only about my parents but about a cer-tain time in the history of my country. I think I have a better understanding of the world, of myself.

It sounds as though you have grown in many ways through the writing of this book.

(Laughs) Yes. I feel older and wiser.You mentioned that you do know

your parents much better now and it was one of the reasons that you wrote the book. What have been some of the insights you have had about them?

I had never realised it all through the years, but my mother has this wonderful quality of connecting with people. She has an enormous interest in people as individuals. She main-tains relationships for several years. Though she is a housewife, her world is large. She knows everyone, even the milkman.

She probably knows about her children as well, doesn’t she?

Yes. And she does this without a con-scious e� ort. It is who she is.

Your father is a public figure, yet not much is known about him as a person. What did you discover?

My father never applied for a single job all his life. His � rst job was o� ered to him. The role of RBI Governor, the UN job, the role of � nance minister were all o� ered to him. He has never sought anything. He was always called upon. I am amazed at how much he has grown in knowledge and experience without actively seeking anything.

Do you think it has been in recognition of his inherent worth?

That is what he always says, “My work speaks for itself.”

Yet over the last few years, he has been receiving criticism from certain quarters. No one questions his decency and honesty, but there are several detractors in the media. How does he deal with unwelcome attention and negativity?

I think my father deals with it quite well. He reads it and thinks it over.

He rationalises the implications and thinks about whether he needs to do something about that issue or not. He doesn’t brood over it. He is driven by his conscience and is not all that bothered. He moves on.

How has it been for you? You have written about the time in 1991 when your colleagues at the NGO where you worked shunned you and did not speak to you since they disagreed with your father’s economic policies after he became the finance minister. There is a line from the book, “In seminars and workshops, I lay low hoping that nobody discovered my parentage.” How did you handle being the prime minister’s daughter?

In my family, the news of my father becoming the prime minister was not treated with joy. We do get bothered. I get bothered both by the privileges of power and its downside. I try to block out the negativity. I have been deter-

mined not to let the symbols of power intrude into my life. I didn’t want it to change me. I didn’t want it to change my son. It is a restraint. People look at you di� erently. You don’t know where people are coming from. You start questioning every interaction. I think I just withdrew from the public arena. Actually, this withdrawal has helped me. It helped me in my writing.

Now that the book is out there in the public domain, how do you deal with the attention that comes with it? Do you have any anxieties?

I am anxious that the book does not get the wrong kind of attention. I don’t want the book to cause any con� icts. I did not want to o� end anyone while writing this book. I don’t have many un� attering accounts of people. It is a quiet, thoughtful book and I want people to see it that way.

NThat is an unusual approach for a book of this kind. Normally, writers of biographies and memoirs want to sensationalise every possible snippet from the book to create publicity. Con-troversies and scandals these days are seen as important for book sales.

True. I do want my book to sell but I am not going to run after it. It is a personal choice.

The nature of the book is a reflection of who you are as well. Would you someday like your son to write a book about you?

DS- The book was launched on my par-ents wedding anniversary. My mother said that it is the nicest gift she has ever got. Many elderly people come up to me and say that they wished their son or daughter would write a book about them. I would de� nitely like my son to know me better. It may not be through a book but through a di� erent way.

We are through with our conver-sation. Daman plans to write a novel next. She seems relaxed and relieved. I have, for a few minutes, been a part of the journey, been a part of the strug-gles, epiphanies and pleasures that she has been through to craft this gentle a� ectionate book. l

The author is a leadership development facilitator, consultant, coach and writer

Strictly Personal: A chat with Daman SinghWhen I read that Daman Singh, daughter of the former prime minister of India and author of ‘Strictly Personal: Manmohan & Gursharan,’ would be coming to the Hay festival at Dhaka, I was curious to know more about the process of writing such a book. We sat down at a quiet corner on the steps of the Bangla Academy, away from the throngs at the Hay Festival. Under the dappled light of a mild morning sun, Daman spoke to me about the book, her parents and the writing life

I didn’t set out to write an objective account. In fact, I started with a declaration - I will not be objective but I do have a story to tell

I have been determined not to let the symbols of power intrude into my life. I didn’t want it to change me

Friday, December 5, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World8

Kurds doggedly defend town from Islamic Staten AP, Kobane

The men and women of Kobani call one another “heval” — Kurdish for ‘comrade’ — and � ght with revolu-tionary conviction, vowing to liberate what they regard as Kurdish land from Islamic State group militants.

Amid the wasteland and destroyed buildings, a sense of camaraderie has developed among the town’s de-fenders who have for more than two months doggedly fought o� the ad-vances by the extremists.

Often, members of the same family can be found on the front lines.

Nineteen-year-old Shida’s father was a � ghter before her. After he was killed, she gave up hopes of becoming an artist and decided she must follow in his footsteps to honor his example. She says her mother supports her de-cision. One of her six brothers is also � ghting, the rest of her siblings are liv-ing in Turkey.

“I will not allow the enemy to take away my land and its soil,” she said. “I will not leave my land.”

An exclusive report shot by vid-eojournalist Jake Simkin who spent a week inside Kobani late last month o� ered a rare, in-depth glimpse of the men and women � ghting to expel the IS extremists from Kobani, a predomi-nantly Kurdish town in northern Syria by the Turkish border.

Backed by small numbers of Iraqi peshmerga forces and Free Syrian Army rebels, the Kurdish � ghters, whose political founders espouse a � rm left-wing ideology, are locked in � erce battles to push back the Islamic State group, which swept into the town in mid-September.

In a surprising display of resilience, the Kurdish � ghters in the frontier town have held out against the more experi-enced jihadis more than two months into the militants’ o� ensive, hanging on to their territory against all expectations. l

Putin says foes hope to dismember Russia; rouble falls as he speaksn Reuters, Moscow

President Vladimir Putin ac-cused Russia’s enemies on Thursday of seeking to carve it up and destroy its economy to punish it for growing strong, in an annual state of the union speech that seemed to outdo even his own recent strident nationalism.

The Kremlin leader trumpet-ed his annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, praised the Russian people for their strength, accused the West of “pure cynicism” in Ukraine and said economic sanctions must drive Russians to develop their own economy.

The rouble fell as he spoke to an ornate hall packed with

dignitaries, delivering a speech that showed no sign of turning back from policies that have brought his country to confron-tation with the West unseen since the Cold War.

Russia’s “enemies of yes-terday” wished on it the same fate as Yugoslavia in the 1990s, he said in the speech, which ran for more than an hour and was interrupted repeatedly by applause.

“There is no doubt they would have loved to see the Yugoslavia scenario of col-lapse and dismemberment for us – with all the tragic conse-quences it would have for the peoples of Russia. This has not happened. We did not allow it,” he said.

So determined was the West to destroy Russia, he said, that sanctions would have been im-posed even without the crisis in Ukraine.

“I am certain that if all this did not take place... they would come up with another reason to contain Russia’s growing ca-pabilities,” he said. “Whenever anyone thinks Russia has be-come strong, they resort to this instrument.”

Even when he pledged to keep Russia open to the world, he adopted an aggressive pos-ture: “We will never pursue the path of self-isolation, xenopho-bia, suspicion and search for enemies. All this is a manifesta-tion of weakness, while we are strong and self-con� dent.” l

Orion ‘Mars capsule’ set for trial missionn Agencies

NASA is set to launch an unmanned spacecraft that is de-signed to help get humans to Mars, in a mission touted as the � rst step in deep space exploration.

The tiny Orion spacecraft was scheduled to blast o� at 12:05 GMT on Thursday with the help of a Delta 4 Heavy rocket, known as the biggest booster rocket in the US � eet. However, the weather conditions forced delay and the launch window was extended to 14:44 GMT.

The conical spacecraft looks similar to the Apollo capsule that took astronauts to the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s, but slightly larger and with modern electronics.

NASA hopes to send an Orion crew to an asteroid corralled in lunar orbit in the 2020s and to Mars in the 2030s.

“We haven’t had this feeling in a while, since the end of the shuttle program,’’ said Mike Sara� n, the lead � ight director stationed at Mission Control in Houston.

“Launching an American spacecraft from American soil and beginning something new, in this case exploring deep space.”

The space capsule is aiming to travel for a distance of 57,800km, 14 times higher than the International Space Station.

This high altitude will give it the momentum it needs for a 32,200-kph, 4,000-degree entry over the Paci� c. Those cru-cial 11 minutes to splashdown is the critical part NASA calls the “trial by � re.” l

IS cedes little ground despite air attacksn Reuters

They have made enemies across the globe and endured three months of US-led air strikes, but Islamic State � ghters have surren-dered little of their self-declared caliphate to the broad sweep of forces arrayed against them.

Across thousands of square miles in Syria and Iraq, the rad-ical Islamists face an unlikely mix of Iraqi and Syrian soldiers, Shi’ite and Kurdish militias and rival Syrian Sunni Muslim rebels.

While they have lost towns on the edges of their Iraqi realm, especially in ethnically mixed areas where their hardline Sunni theology holds little appeal, they have consolidated power in parts of their Sunni Muslim heartland.

In August, Islamic State’s at-tack on Iraqi Kurdish regions was repulsed and two months later its � ghters were driven from the town of Jurf al-Sakhar, south of Baghdad. It was also pushed out of two towns

near the Iranian border last month.But with a few exceptions,

such as the army’s breaking of an Islamic State siege of the coun-try’s largest oil re� nery in Baiji, the militants’ hold over predom-inantly Sunni provinces north and west of Baghdad has not been seriously challenged.

Islamic State’s opponents say the recaptured towns show the tide has turned in Iraq and the group is on the defensive.

“The best they can do now is to cut a road or attack a patrol, but any advances and gains of territory have been complete-ly stopped.” said Hadi al-Amiri, head of the Badr Organisation, a Shi’ite militia which along with Kurdish peshmerga spearhead-ed the recapture of Saadiya and Jalawla, near the Iranian border.

IS leader Abu Bakr al-Bagh-dadi, rallying his � ghters three weeks ago, said the US despatch of more military advisers to Iraq showed the opposite was true. l

‘$1 each for Syrian refugees’n AP, United Nations

The World Food Program launched an unusual campaign Wednesday to raise $1 contributions from 64 million peo-ple around the world so it can restore food vouchers to Syrian refugees who won’t be getting any UN help in De-cember.

The 72-hour campaign e� ort comes two days after the UN food agency announced it was forced to suspend food vouchers to 1.7 million Syrians refugees because it doesn’t have the $64m to cover the cost. The WFP warned the suspension would force many Syrian families who � ed to Jor-dan, Lebanon, Turkey and Egypt to go hungry.

The suspension of the vouchers highlighted the di� culty the UN has had in raising funds for soaring hu-manitarian needs not only in Syria but

around the world. Governments, aid organisations and regional bodies are increasingly overwhelmed with ap-peals for assistance.

In a speech Wednesday, UN Depu-ty Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said more than 100 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance today — three times as many as 10 years ago. He said the amount requested through humanitarian appeals has risen nearly 600% in the past decade, from $3bn to $17.9bn.

“The humanitarian landscape is darkening and changing faster than ever before,” Eliasson said.

WFP is asking people to visit its website to donate online.

“Even one dollar can make a di� er-ence,” WFP Executive Director Ertha-rin Cousin said in a statement. “We’re saying to people: ‘For you it’s a dollar, for them it’s a lifeline.’” l

Rare dinosaur skeleton goes on display in Londonn AFP, London

A rare dinosaur skeleton goes on display at London’s Natural History museum on Thursday – the � rst to be exhibited there in a century.

The near-complete foss-ilised remains of a Stegosaurus, a plant-eating dinosaur, were bought by the museum in the United States last year.

The 5.6-metre (18-foot) long skeleton is made up of some 300 bones and will be displayed close to one of the museum’s entrances.

“Complete dinosaur specimens are really rare and this one is almost complete,”

said Paul Barrett, a dinosaur specialist at the museum.

It is 150 million years old and was found on the grounds of a ranch in Wyoming in 2003 and it was brought to London in December 2013.

The London museum said that unlike the more widely known Tyrannosaurus Rex, very few Stegosaurus remains have been found.

“It’s only known from a hand-ful of skeletons in other museums that aren’t nearly as complete as this one,” Barrett said.

The � rst specimen of the species was found in the United States in 1877 by the US paleon-tologist Charles Marsh. l

Iran extends detention of US journalistn AFP

Iran has extended the detenetion of Washington Post’s bu-reau chief in Tehran for up to 60 days, without citing clear charges, the paper said, citing family members.

Jason Rezaian and his wife Yeganeh Salehi, also a journal-ist, were arrested in July. Salehi was freed on bail in October.

The Washington Post said hopes for Rezaian’s release rose in late October when a senior Iranian o� cial said possible charges under review by the judiciary might be thrown out.

But last week Rezaian was shown a document signed by the judge overseeing his case and authorising the extension of his detention, the family said. l

A member of sta� poses next to the world’s most complete Stegosaurus skeleton at the Natural History Museum in London yesterday. The fossil is 560cm long and 290cm tall and is made up of over 300 bones AFP

Sweden turmoil after snap election calln Agencies

Prime Minister Stefan Lofven’s call for snap elections after just two months in o� ce has taken Sweden by surprise and has left the country’s political scene in turmoil.

In a country where consensus is preferred over con� ict, few observers had predicted that the far-right Swe-den Democrats, which became the country’s third largest party in the Sep-tember polls, would act out its threat of striking down the government’s budget bill and thereby make it impos-sible for Lofven to govern.

But after the vote in parliament on Wednesday, when the Sweden Demo-crats (SD) backed the opposition’s rival budget, the political chaos was com-plete.

Lofven was left with only two choic-es - to resign or call an early election. He chose the latter, announcing that Swedes will again head to the polls on March 22 - the � rst early election held since 1958.

Political scientist Marie Demker wrote on Twitter: “This has never hap-pened in my lifetime. We live in a strange time. Sweden is a new country.” l

UK MP Mark Pritchard arrested over alleged rapen Agencies

The Conservative MP Mark Pritchard has been arrested over an allegation of rape.

The Metropolitan police con� rmed that a 48-year-old man – understood to be the Tory MP for The Wrekin, in east Shropshire – was arrested on Tuesday in central London.

Scotland Yard said he was arrest-ed after voluntarily attending a po-lice station and had been bailed until early January.

The news emerged after a letter from the Metropolitan police to the Commons Speaker, John Bercow, about the arrest was referred to on a publicly available Commons order paper.

The letter said: “I write to inform you that on 2nd December 2014, Mark Pritchard MP was arrested at 6.14pm at Holborn Police Station in London by MPS o� cers.

“Mr Pritchard was questioned by police and released on bail later the same evening at 10.16pm. The matter is subject to further investigation and is sub judice at the present time.” l

A vehicle drives through a puddle as rain begins to fall in Glendora, California on Tuesday. A record braking Paci� c storm that hammered California, and delivered a small measure of relief to the drought-stricken state, brought more rain on Wednesday but the danger of major mudslides in wild� re-scarred areas appeared to have passed, o� cials said REUTERS

C A L I F O R N I A O R K A M A L A P U R

Friday, December 5, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World 9

China to end prisoner organ transplants on January 1n AP, Beijing

China says it will cease transplanting organs taken from executed prisoners on Jan. 1 in response to human rights concerns, although uncertainties lin-ger over where a replacement supply will come from, state media reported Thursday.

China has previously said it would phase out the practice by sometime in early 2015. But state media reports Thursday announced the � rst � rm date for ending the practice, citing the architect of China’s transplant system, Huang Jiefu.

International human rights activ-ists and domestic critics have long said that standard safeguards were ignored when obtaining organs from prisoners who may have been pressured to do-nate.

However, China has one of the world’s lowest levels of organ donation because of ingrained cultural attitudes and a legal requirement that family members give consent before organs are donated, even if a person had ex-pressed a desire to donate.

Citing Huang’s statement to a semi-nar on Wednesday, the Southern Met-ropolitan Daily newspaper said China

had a donation rate of 0.6 per 1 million citizens, compared to 37 per 1 million citizens in Spain.

“It can’t be denied that at present, apart from the traditional thinking that keeps enthusiasm for organ dona-tion low, people also have concerns as to whether organ donation can be fair, just and transparent,” Huang was quot-ed as saying.

Huang is a former deputy health minister who now heads the national organ procurement network. Calls to his private numbers, the network and the Chinese organ donation center rang unanswered Thursday. l

Hong Kong student protesters consider pulling up stakesn Reuters, Hong Kong

One of the main student groups lead-ing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong said on Thursday it was consid-ering ending more than two months of street demonstrations in the Chi-nese-controlled city.

The Hong Kong Federation of Stu-dents will decide in the next week

whether to call on protesters to pull up stakes despite having failed to achieve their goal of ensuring open nomina-tions in the election for the city’s next leader in 2017.

“Some people wish to stay until the last minute and we respect that - but we cannot occupy without meaning,” feder-ation spokeswoman Yvonne Leung told local radio. “We will decide within the

next week whether to stay or retreat.”The federation is one of several

groups driving the protests in the for-mer British colony. Some members of another student group, Scholarism, have gone on hunger strike while leaders of the pro-democracy “Occu-py Central” movement surrendered to police on Wednesday and called on students to retreat. l

Pakistan trench along border enrages Kabuln AP, Kandahar

In the dusty badlands along its disput-ed border with Afghanistan, Pakistan is carving out a massive trench to keep out separatists, smugglers and mili-tants in an attempt to bring order to a lawless, tribal region.

But like the Berlin Wall or Israel’s West Bank barrier, the planned 485-ki-lometer (300-mile) trench is giving physical form to a border that locals have long seen as arti� cial, dividing families and crippling trade. And it is adding to simmering tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan, US allies which have long accused each other of turning a blind eye to insurgents.

The trench runs along part of the 2,640-kilometer (2,640-mile) Durand Line, named for British diplomat Mor-timer Durand, who drew the now in-ternationally recognised border in an agreement with Afghan ruler Abdur Raham Khan in 1893. But the modern Afghan government has never accept-ed the border, and neither have the mainly tribal communities that strad-dle it. They are accustomed to moving back and forth freely and in some cases own land on both sides.

The trench is being built in Paki-stan’s Baluchistan province, where Baluch rebels have been battling Is-

lamabad for decades, demanding greater autonomy and a larger share of the region’s oil, gas, copper and gold. It’s an eye-sore of construction — a massive furrow 10 feet (three meters) wide and 8 feet (2.4 meters) deep that already snakes 180 kilometers (110 miles) across the desert landscape.

Pakistan’s Frontier Corps said in a recent statement that the trench would “not only help in effectively controlling the movement of drug and arms and ammunition smug-glers, but also will help in stopping the intrusion of terrorists and ille-gal immigrants.” Pakistan fears that arms could make their way to any number of insurgent groups, includ-ing the Taliban.

But Kabul sees the trench as the lat-est move in a new incarnation of the colonial-era Great Game, in which Pa-kistan hopes to destabilise its neighbor to extend its regional in� uence. It al-ready considers Pakistan as the source of the Taliban insurgency it has been battling with US and Nato support for the past 13 years.

“The people here have never ac-cepted the Pakistan-Afghanistan bor-der in the � rst place,” said Gen. Abdul Raziq, the police chief of Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, which borders Baluchistan. l

Polls: Japan ruling party landslide in coming voten AP, Tokyo

Japan’s ruling party may be headed toward an even larger-than-anticipat-ed victory in upcoming national elec-tions, according to major media polls published Thursday.

The Liberal Democratic Party could take more than 300 of the 475 seats in Japan’s lower house election on Dec. 14, Japan’s major newspapers and Kyo-do news service said, based on voter surveys each did.

A resounding victory could help Prime Minister Shinzo Abe tackle po-litically di� cult issues such as opening up Japan’s agriculture markets and re-starting nuclear power plants.

Abe’s Liberal Democrats had 295 seats in the lower house before he dissolved it last month to force a snap election. His party and coalition part-ner Komeito are widely expected to win the election, but many analysts have been predicting that they would lose some seats.

The polls indicate they will at least retain their large majority and possibly even build on it. However, many voters are still undecided, so the results could be di� erent. The largest opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan, would win about 70 seats, Kyodo said in its projection, about a 10-seat gain but short of its goal of 100. l

Opposition o� ers compromise to end Rajya Sabha stalematen Agencies

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today told Parliament that he has “criticised in the strongest terms” the language used by union minister Niranjan Jy-oti in an election speech in Delhi. His statement did not placate the opposi-tion, which stuck to its demand for the minister’s removal, paralysing Parlia-ment.

The government is trapped espe-cially hard in the Upper House or Ra-jya Sabha where it is in a minority. As a potential compromise, the opposition has pitched that the Rajya Sabha adopt a unanimous resolution condemning Ms Jyoti’s statement without naming her. The government has reportedly indicated the resolution must include objectionable statements made in the past by other politicians, including Congress leader Sonia Gandhi who, ahead of the state election in Gujarat in 2007, alluded to Mr Modi, then the chief minister of the state, as “the mer-chant of death.”

In the meantime, the BJP has decid-ed that Ms Jyoti will not address any more rallies in Delhi which will vote

early next year. “She has apologised and the House

should gracefully accept that and con-tinue its work in national interest,” Mr Modi said this morning in the Rajya Sabha, which has not functioned since Monday.

The Left’s Sitaram Yechury, a mem-ber of the Rajya Sabha, said, “An apol-ogy means admission of guilt, and in this case the Constitution has been violated. How can she remain a min-ister?”

In the Lok Sabha or Lower House, a united opposition walked out just be-fore lunch, protesting that their mics were being switched o� to censor their comments against the government. Opposition leaders like Mallikarjun Kharge of the Congress asked why the PM had made a statement only in the Rajya Sabha.

On Tuesday, Ms Jyoti, who is 47, apologised to lawmakers on Tuesday for her Sunday speech in which she said, “The people of Delhi have to decide if they want a government of Ramzaadon (descendants of Ram) or haramzaadon (those who are illegiti-mately born).” l

Why India’s mobile network is brokenn BBC

Claire Verhagen’s � rst encounter with India was at the end of November when she landed in Delhi and switched her phone on.

“I tried every network repeatedly for 15 minutes,” she says. “I � nally connected to Airtel. I got a full signal, but I couldn’t call. I borrowed another passenger’s mobile to call my hosts.”

She had better luck on the drive to her hotel. She managed to call her husband in Belgium. The call dropped twice, though.

For a generation of Indians brought up on mobile phones - many of them haven’t ever used a landline - poor call quality and call drops are part of life.

It wasn’t always so.

ProblemsWhen the mobile phone came to India in the mid-1990s, call quality was good. Mobile service quality was better than landlines, and dropped calls were rare.

There were few subscribers, and the service was expensive - up to 16 rupees or 20 takas every minute.

Fast forward to today, when calls are 20 times cheaper, and mobile telephony powers the economy, with 915 million mobile subscriptions. Every second Indian carries a handset.

Here’s what those mobile phone users deal with every day:

Can’t connect: Connecting when “roaming” can be a struggle. If your � ight has just landed, several hundred devices power on and try to connect to an over-loaded network. On a train or on the road, users � nd it di� cult to hold a conversation even when passing through areas with moderate cellular coverage.

Network busy: You have a full signal, but can’t call - common in busy areas such as Delhi’s airport and elsewhere in India’s large metros.

Call drops: When you, or the person you’re calling, are on the move, it’s com-mon for the call to drop.

No internet: Mobile data is patchy in India. 3G isn’t everywhere, but even where you get a strong 3G signal, you might � nd no data activity.

Poor signal: A weak mobile signal is common in urban India’s high-rise o� ce and residential areas.

So why is the mobile network powering modern India so broken?“The top three reasons are spectrum, spectrum and spectrum,” says Shyam Mardikar, chief of network planning and strategy for Airtel.

Spectrum, the radio waves that carry phone signals along with television, radio and all wireless communications, is a scarce resource that’s controlled globally by governments.

India allows relatively little spectrum for mobile communications, and splits that up among a dozen operators. A lot of radio spectrum is blocked for defence use.

How bad is the spectrum crunch?Delhi’s top operator has roughly the same number of 3G users as its counter-parts in Singapore and Shanghai (about 3 million), but it has about a tenth of their spectrum.

And that’s the problem, Mr Mardikar says.

Towering CrisisA spectrum auction is on the cards in 2015, but the government will largely re-auction “expiring” spectrum now held

by top operators Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and Reliance.

Telecom towers, with their antennae, are the ubiquitous symbol of mobile telephony in India, yet there are too few of them with just 425,000 for the entire country.

The Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (Tipa) says India needs at least 200,000 more.

But towers take up real estate, and there are mounting fears about radiation and its health hazards.

Protests in residential areas have resulted in towers being pulled down, a� ecting mobile service quality.

Telecom industry experts protest the “misinformation” about radiation, say-ing that towers in India exceed World Health Organisation (WHO) safety standards.

They point out that shutting down towers increases radiation from handsets, which then transmit at higher power due to weaker signals from distant towers. India’s telecom user pro� le adds to network stress.

Nine out of 10 are pre-paid users, with a monthly billing of less than 120 rupees ($1.9), one of the lowest in the world - but they have high expectations and low patience. When they’re unable to connect, they keep redialling, which keeps the network busier.

Those user numbers will grow - faster than spectrum availability. And more peo-ple will use data, especially video, stressing the network further.

Will things get better?O� the record, industry insiders say: No.

India’s mobile network experience will probably get worse in the near future. l

Vehicles move along New Delhi’s Connaught Place during evening hours. An Indian court has banned all vehicles older than 15 years from the streets of the capital, New Delhi, in a bid to clean up air that one prominent study this year found to be the world’s dirtiest REUTERS

T H R O U G H T H E D I R T Y A I R O F D E L H I

Sustainability imperative for gas extraction

The government’s approval of a major increase in the rate of extraction from the Bibiyana gas � eld in Habiganj requires careful scrutiny.

As the largest gas � eld in production in Bangladesh, the site is currently responsible for around 40% of Bangladesh’s total domestic natural gas supply. Following Chevron’s $500m expansion project and the government’s agreement to revise extraction rates, increased production could potentially see the � eld exhausted by 2024.

Data recently presented to Petrobangla predicts production peaking as early as 2018, if the company is allowed to extract reserves at the rate of 10.4% annually from 2015.

In principle, this rate, which is over a third higher than the original production sharing contract rate of 7.5%, may be good for helping the country meet the growing demands of our economy.

However, in practice, a careful cost-bene� t review needs to be undertaken to assess warnings that a faster extraction rate may technically make it impossible to extract all of the site’s probable reserves.

Regardless of the � eld’s actual rate of extraction, its lifespan, which was originally only projected to last till 2032, is clearly limited.

This case highlights the importance of thinking longer term to ensure energy security. The government should reshape energy policy by cutting expensive subsidies on the use of � nite, carbon-heavy fossil fuels.

We need to do this to cut wasteful misuse and provide power companies with more funds to invest in domestic exploration and production. It will also help stimulate vital investment in power generation from renewable sources such as solar and bio-gas.

Charities need transparency, not interference

The government should reconsider some of the overly restrictive powers contained in its approved draft of the Foreign Grants (Voluntary Activities) Regulation Act 2014.

Various NGOs, including Transparency International Bangladesh, have opposed parts of the new law because it contains provisions giving authorities overarching power to interfere in the operation of charitable organisations and to cancel their registration for alleged violations at any time.

The provision requiring prior approval before anyone involved in voluntary activities travels out of the country for purposes connected with their work, seems too open-ended. For instance, it could be used to stop NGO employees traveling abroad for conferences and training.

Moreover, by restricting the freedom of people to leave the country, it is also a potential violation of article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. There is no need to give unnecessarily arbitrary power to o� cials to interfere in projects which they themselves are not responsible for funding or administering.

We support the principle of the government requiring NGOs to show more transparency in their operations. Improving disclosure of how NGO funds are raised, managed, and spent is important for accountability. Initiatives such as the ERD’s Bangladesh Aid Information Management System (AIMS) are certainly welcome in this respect.

However, there is no reason for NGOs to be subjected to excessive interference by the state. Existing laws and audit rules should be su� cient to act against cases of fraud or abuse of the law.

The government should focus its role on ensuring transparency and accountability. This is both more e� cient and less open to arbitrary misuse by o� cials. It can be left up to donors themselves to reward the most e� ective and transparent NGOs.

It’s their land tooNovember 20

Zero-AgendaThe government of Myanmar needs to recognise the rights of their people; their indi� erence towards this speci� c issue is beyond ba� ing.

‘Bangladesh ICT Act most liberal law in world’November 20

Kudus Betar“The ICT Act of Bangladesh only allows both the defendants and the state to � le an appeal with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court against the judgment of the tribunal, Sheikh Hasina says.”

Six of one, half a dozen of the other. Impunity is the fault of all our past gov-ernments, and The Hague won’t deal with crimes before 1998, so we have to make do.

One thing which Cambodia etc get right though is not having a death penalty. Our in-sistence on one means we will never be able to extradite anyone from the EU, leaving them both immune from justice and free to spread propaganda about “martyrs.”

Editorial10 DHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, December 5, 2014

CODE-CRACKER

ACROSS1 Halt (4)5 Peruvian Indians (5)8 Large cave (6)9 Way out (4)10 Respectful fear (3)12 Underground room (6)13 Vibration (6)15 Long angry speech (6)18 Cycle for two (6)20 Flightless bird (3)21 Prevailing style (4)23 Paci� c (6)24 Ointment (5)25 Camping item (4)

DOWN1 Perfume (5)2 Financial obligation (3)3 Sheeplike (5)4 Favourite (3)5 Meantime (7)6 Fuel (4)7 Prophet (4)11 Hospital room (4)12 Clique (7)14 Wander (4)16 Make up for (5)17 Cast out (5)18 Gol� ng aids (4)19 Of no e� ect (4)21 Encountered (3)22 Loud noise (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 11 represents B so � ll B every time the � gure 11 appears.You have two letters in the control grid to start you o� . Enter them in the appro-priate 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

Be heardWrite to Dhaka Tribune

FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Sukrabad, Dhaka-1207Email letters.dt@dhakatribune.com

Send us your Op-Ed articles:opinion.dt@dhakatribune.com

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Provide power companies with more funds to invest in domestic exploration and production

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

Existing laws and audit rules should be su� cient to act against cases of fraud or abuse of the law

Transformer poses a danger in IslambaghNovember 27

James Liu “An electric transformer in Old Dhaka’s Islambagh area installed at a low altitude poses threat to people passing under it. Such devices are needed to be installed at a speci� c height which is not the case here.”

The government doesn’t care?

Sayeeda Ahmad James Liu: No, the government doesn’t care. If an-ything, it’s all about drastically cutting costs, even necessary ones, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see members of the government looking at opportuni-ties to make money o� of this situation. Such is the sad and frustrating mindset.

Shibir traps freshmen with material baitsNovember 20

Nabil AhsanOkay, so Shibir men have assisted them in student-activity related issues. That is the job of those involved in student politics, I think, to assist students in regard to their educational pursuits. There is no mention of what harm the Shibir men have caused. So what is it about them the students did not like?

International racket of gold smugglers tracedNovember 20

Faizul Kabir“Three top o� cials of Biman arrested in the capital.”

Biman has been a den of thieves for a long time. Nothing seems to have helped to � ush the entire criminal gang from this institution. Good people can hardly last here. I would venture to say all of the sta� (at least 95%) are corrupt and are eating up the national � ag carrier. The ministers fail to rein in the dons of Biman. Do you see these faces in the photo? These people have no right to live comfortable lives, stealing from the people and the national exchequer. How will their children react to this?

I know many people who lead posh lives, and surprisingly, on a limited salary! All of them are thieves, except a few. These criminals should be jailed for at least 15 years each! They don’t have the right to be anywhere.

Kurt Cobain’s � rst authorised documentary to premiere on HBONovember 27

Farid PrinceThis is awesome!

Zero tolerance for campus violenceNovember 27

Babul Sarwar These thugs, namely students, come handy

during elections for political parties – again, the election system needs overhauling. The ruling

party, one can almost intuit, will never do anything to stop these thugs!

Bengal Classical Music FestivalNovember 27

PBI hope #fanatics #militants won’t target this

#classical #music fest!

Sheikh Jinat Mahmid Waiting eagerly to go to the largest classical music

fest!

AnonAs was I, and I am glad it was such a success. Except for the death of Qayyum Chowdhury,

which came as such a shock to me, and is so sad. My respects to his family.

Fakhrul: All-out movement soon to oust government

November 20

Sammy“We do not want to see Tarique abroad. We want

to see him beside our chairperson. We do not have time to sit idle. On the birthday of Tarique,

we have to vow that we will wage an all-out movement against the repressive regime of

Sheikh Hasina.”I am no fan of this one-party regime but the regular, repetitious, quixotic, and unoriginal

pronouncements of these BNP gentlemen remind of the old Bengali saying “khajnar cheye bajna

beshi.”

11Op-Ed Friday, December 5, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Osama Bin Noor

Today is International Volunteer Day – a day dedicated to giving service. Service is the ultimate religion of our life, and

dedicating it towards community and social development with our time and expertise without any � nancial gain in return is called volunteerism. The driving force behind volunteerism is the eagerness to resolve a persisting social problem around us by taking bold steps and contributing for the country in the long run.

As a nation, Bangladeshis have a unique love and dedication for the country and this patriotism has given birth to various volunteer acts long before the country’s birth.The biggest example of volunteerism is our Language Movement of 1952, and our hard-earned independence in 1971. Thousands of people gave their lives out of sheer love and respect for their country and gave us our pride – the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.

Our forefathers have laid the foundation and we have stepped into their shoes from time to time. At the time of the Savar Rana Plaza tragedy, we witnessed many people voluntarily joining the rescue operation. We see examples of dedicated voluntary ser-vice in the face of any national crisis/tragedy.

Volunteering is � rst and foremost

an altruistic activity, and the mere re� ection of working together for the bene� t of human life. Bangladesh is blessed with a huge population, and if we can encourage its citizens to get involved in voluntary services, our country will advance miles ahead by this collective e� ort.

Anyone can get involved in numerous voluntary activities based on his/her own expertise. Volunteering does not have to be an extravagant a� air; it can be a tri� ing e� ort according to a person’s capability.

An act of volunteerism does not necessarily have to be physical, it can also be virtual. A small-scale initiative such as planting a tree is volunteer work. Contributing actively to recover during a tsunami, � ood, hurricane, or any other natural disaster is also an example of voluntary service.

Volunteering does not require a fixed location. One can be a

volunteer while studying in school, college, or university, or can group up with neighbours, friends, or colleagues to resolve any enduring or potential problem in the community. For example, a village-side road can be fixed by its people, or they can install a proper waste disposal

system if the village lacks it.Many countries have been

developing their community, society, and country through volunteerism and are still continuing this practice. In 2010, 12 million (45%) Canadians were involved in voluntary activities which is equivalent to 2 million hours and 1 million full time o� ce hours. On average, a Canadian denotes 168 hours to voluntary work throughout the year.

In the United States, 64.5 million people did volunteer work for their country. In numerous countries, vol-unteers are given recognition through

awards and other rewards. Even the President of the United States shows respect to the volunteers by present-ing “the President Volunteer Service Award.”

The Bangladesh government also encourages the youth by honouring them with the Youth Award every year. The staggering number of volunteers in developing countries is impressive. Unfortunately, in our country, the number is negligible according to the database of the bureau.

However, a lot of non-pro� t organisations have erupted in the past few years, and they have been doing outstanding development work through volunteerism alongside the government.

Not only for patriotism or the devel-opment of the country, volunteerism has many other bene� ts as well. You can get to meet a lot of new people, expose yourself to a huge network, and gain mind-boggling experiences and knowledge. Volunteerism creates joy, self-satisfaction, and respect, which lasts for a long time.

A few of the organisations who are involved in volunteerism are: United Nations Volunteers Bangladesh, Volun-teer for Bangladesh, Bangladesh Youth Leadership Centre, Bangladesh Red Crescent Society. l

Osama Bin Noor is Volunteer Resource Coordinator, Dhaka division, Volunteer for Bangladesh.

Do you want to help?

Volunteerism creates joy, self-satisfaction, and respect, which lasts for a long time

n Priya Powell

In August 2014, when heavy rains in the main river basins in Bangladesh and upstream catchments of India

led to severe � ooding in the northwest region of the country, Australians Jenny Burley and Liam Costello were part of a core team that assisted the Bangladesh government to coordinate the � ooding Joint Needs Assessment (JNA). The JNA helped the humanitar-ian community understand the nature and impact of the disaster and estab-lished a foundation of information from which humanitarian agencies could respond.

Both Jenny and Liam are volun-teering in Bangladesh through the Australian Volunteers for International Development (AVID) program, an ini-tiative by the Australian government. The AVID program o� er opportunities for Australians to share skills and fos-ter linkages with people and organisa-tions in developing countries.

Jenny is volunteering as a disaster risk reduction and climate change o� cer with Solidarites International, a Paris-based humanitarian NGO which works to meet the vital needs of vic-tims of war or natural disaster.

Jenny says that in 2014, � oods have again caused signi� cant impact to low-lying regions of Bangladesh. In late August, the government initially reported that 160,000 people were a� ected by � oods and living in deteri-orating conditions.

“More rain was forecast and there was potential for up-stream dam releases across the border in India,” Jenny says. “Following initial emergency relief from government and some non-government organisations (NGOs), a more coordinated, cross-sector assessment of the � ood’s impact was requested by the country’s disaster response actors.”

In response to the � oods, the Hu-manitarian Coordination Task Team (co-chaired by the Bangladesh gov-ernment and the UN) triggered a JNA in nine districts: An initial assessment on numbers of people a� ected and the relative accessibility of food, water, sanitation, markets, education, and health facilities.

“A JNA relies on strong interagency collaboration and voluntary in-kind contributions –this assessment mobi-lised 183 sta� from 28 organisations to visit 300 locations in four days,” Jenny says. “Assessment teams in the � eld returned data forms to the team in Dhaka who worked over the weekend to establish the scale of the disaster, the worst a� ected areas and the imme-diate and ongoing needs.”

“I played a lead role in helping to write the 50-page draft report, which was circulated within four days of the data being received. This included compiling signi� cant background information from government and NGO reports. It gave me experience in analysing and developing cross-sector � ndings and recommendations, and an insight into the complex inner workings of the humanitarian

coordination system.” Fellow Australian Liam is volunteer-

ing as the information management o� cer for the Bangladesh Food Secu-rity Cluster. During the � ood response, Liam managed the data processing and analysis for the assessment, and pre-sented the JNA � ndings to a meeting of United Nations agency heads, donor representatives, international NGOs, and government stakeholders.

“The numbers found through the report were staggering,” Liam says. “As the � oods had worsened since initial reports, 1.8 million people were found to be a� ected; 230,000 displaced; re-stricted access to health facilities and schools; damaged latrines a� ecting the water supply in some areas; and several markets inaccessible or not functional.”

“It’s easy to be alarmed by the scale of impact resulting from disasters in Bangladesh. However for long-term observers and locals, it appears easy to become complacent given the frequen-cy of these types of events. The coping strategies for many of those a� ected are well rehearsed, and in small to moderate � ood events, communities know when and where to evacuate to.”

“People may populate areas know-ing the high probability of periodic � ooding and choose to sacri� ce their indemnity in favour of proximity to water and fertile soil – so what of their displacement if it was expected?” Liam says. The sobering reality is that a disaster of this scale is likely to happen again in � ve or 10 years.

Nevertheless Bangladesh’s � ood preparedness is continually increasing through improved forecasting and warning systems, more sophisticated housing designs, improved agricultur-al and land-use decisions, and devel-opment of social capital and economic capacity.

Re� ecting on his experiences vol-unteering in Bangladesh, Liam’s view is: “If you would like to be o� ered op-portunities that stretch you personally and professionally, volunteering is the way to go – and Bangladesh is probably the best place for it.”

Considering volunteering in your own community? “Volunteering is an important way for us to contribute to the community, outside of the con-� nes of our work roles,” Jenny says. “Given the diversity of volunteering experiences available, there really is something that will suit everyone’s interests and time availability.” l

Priya Powell is Counsellor, Development Cooperation, Australian High Commission.

Flooded with support

Volunteering is the way to go – and Bangladesh is probably the best place for it.

n Nadeem Qadir

The passing away of a friend or a near one is always sad, but it is even sadder when such news

is unexpected. The death by road ac-cident of my colleague Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury was one such death – a man I had met only days before he was suddenly no more.

Over the past several months, we have lost some brilliant people who represented us as journalists. I had the honour of working with these three brilliant people, including Mr Chowdhury, and it was a great experience to know them closely. But Zaglul bhai (Mr Chowhdury) was di� erent.

First, it was Mr Mahbubul Alam, editor of The Independent, who died of old-age complications. When news of his death came, I had � ashbacks of the time when he was my boss in the state-run Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) news agency.

One day, he called me to say that he liked my copies, and that I had to accompany him to his � ooded hometown to write a feature on the situation there. I was delighted, as the compliment had come from someone who had such a � rm standing as a journalist.

I agreed and went with him to his village home. The journey was inter-esting, it was on a hired BIWTA ferry, and we quite enjoyed the journey. We got down on country boats to reach his village home in Munshiganj.

I was escorted around the village on boats and rickshaws, and I had come back with two stories sensing my boss might not be happy with one. The � rst story was about the � oods, and the second one was about how people were coping with it.

It was the returning journey that was interesting. The BIWTA ferry was stuck, as it had settled down in the mud from the � ood water moving in and out. We were told that the only chance was to wait for the high tides to come in, so that the boat could be pushed out. I remember my boss Mr Alam sweating, as he was very worried about the whole matter. Anyway, God was on his side, and we started for Dhaka, but the water � ow was against us, and thus the journey was slow.

With no mobile phones at that time, he expressed his worry over my moth-er fretting about me, and also how the BIWTA had lent the ferry for a � xed time. We reached Dhaka’s Sadarghat ferry terminal early in the morning, battling with mosquitoes as we did. As we � nally made it to land, he told

me how it was “good experience” for a young reporter. Oh, but I truly was both hungry and angry …

After � ling the story, Mahbub bhai asked me about my education and my family. He told me that he was hon-oured to know that I was the son of a valiant freedom � ghter.

When I was hosting TV programs in English, he would never say no to me. The last time I met him, he asked me why I wasn’t writing for The Daily Star and Dhaka Courier as much as I used to. He asked me to write for his newspaper The Independent. That never happened, and I am truly sorry to Mahbub bhai for that.

Then I lost my other boss – ABM Musa, the doyen of journalism. He suc-cumbed to old-age complications, and I had gone to see him in the hospital several times. His son would brief me on his condition, and I would pray that he would come out of the hospital soon.

He used to make fun of me because I was an army o� cer’s son who was running around the city with a pen and notebook, instead of reporting to the Bangladesh Military Academy. “Why do you want to be a journalist?” he asked me one day, and I told him that it was for esteemed professionals like him, and my own

passion for writing.Then came his proposal to send

me to the BSS o� ce in Chittagong. I was upset and with my eyes looking elsewhere, I appealed to him: “Musa bhai, I came back from the USA to stay with my mother … if you force me to go, then I will have no other choice but to quit.” My posting never happened.

The only two people who used to ad-dress me using the typical, a� ection-ate Bengali word “tui,” were Musa bhai and Zaglul bhai. For Musa Bhai, I was his “bhatija” (nephew), since I was in-troduced to him by the great freedom � ghter Major Ra� qul Islam, Bir Uttam. Since the major was my uncle, so was he. However, that privilege was absent when it came to work.

Now, Zaglul Bhai. Why can we not stop the reckless driving? He was perfectly capable of driving, and he had a car; but he loved to mingle with people and used public transportation often. We were colleagues at BSS when he returned from his stint in New Delhi. Then we became relatives when a relative of mine married into his family. He would always make it a point to tell everyone that I was special to him.

As I grew into the role of a senior reporter, that restriction of not smok-ing or drinking together was lifted, and we were more like friends, along with Farid Hossain bhai and Hasan Shahriar bhai. He would never miss a party at my place. When my mother passed away, he would always remember her with the respect and love with which she had entertained my big brothers.

We became closer when he became the president of the Overseas Corre-spondents Association, Bangladesh (OCAB) and I was in my third tenure as the secretary. He backed me up in all my work, and would secretly tell me how happy he was with my work, but when some people objected, he would simply say: “Oh, Nadeem never asked me.”

On professional matters, he would read my reports in BSS, and later on

the AFP wire, and would make his opinion very clear. Once, about an analysis on Saarc, Zaglul Bhai, the expert, disagreed with me on some points. It was very enlightening.

The last meeting I had with him was at the wedding reception of the son of our respected Professor Syed Manzoorul Islam, but it was brief. I wish I got a little more time with him that day.

The crowd at his funeral said all there was to say about Zaglul bhai. The political divide was represented – there were diplomats and bureaucrats, almost everyone. He always main-tained an interesting balance and it was clearly visible that day, and so was his friendly nature.

He did not deserve to die the way he did, and it’s important we note that. Mishuk Munier, my CEO at ATN News, did not deserve to die like that either. But who cares? Laws are meant to be broken, and if they are enforced, chaos ensues.

To my gurus: May you rest in peace for all eternity, we will surely meet someday as we are but mortal; but some people, like yourselves, are truly immortal. l

Nadeem Qadir, a senior journalist, is a UNCA Dag Hammarskjold Scholar in journalism.

Rest in eternal peaceT H E F L I P S I D E

Over the past several months, we have lost some brilliant people who represented us as journalists

BIGSTOCK

12 DHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, December 5, 2014

Sport1413 Chelsea march on, Aguero keeps City in the mix

Yuvraj, Gambhir ignored for World Cup 2015

14 ‘Remarkable’ Drogba sets the tone for Mourinho

Did you know?Sergio Aguero (14)

has now scored more goals than

Sunderland (13) in the Premier League

this season

Bangladesh skipper Sarwar Hossian (front) scores a goal in his team’s 7-0 demolition of Oman at the Maulana Bhasani National Hockey Stadium yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

‘Sk Jamal stood beside me during my bad times’n Shishir Hoque

When the list of the Bangladeshi football coaches is prepared, Maruful Haque’s name will no doubt feature at the very top. Following a treble-winning campaign with Sheikh Russel two seasons back, Maruf recently came up trumps for Sheikh Jamal clinching the King’s Cup title in Bhutan.

He has been the physical instructor of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) since 1994. In addition to his role as the physical instructor, Maruf is also the assistant director with the university team. Alongside his job at Buet, he has managed to acquire several coaching lessons and courses. Maruf has also performed his duties as the head coach of Badda Jagoroni, Mohammedan, Muktijoddha and Sheikh Russel. He is currently the head coach of Bangladesh Premier League champions Sheikh Jamal. He is the only coach from Bangladesh with an Uefa A license.

The decorated tactician sat for an in-depth interview with Dhaka Tribune yester-day where he shared his recent experiences in Bhutan with the Bangladesh top � ight champions.

How were you introduced to football coaching?I was playing for Bangladesh Boys in 1993-94 as a mid� elder. One day I noticed a circular of Buet. I applied for the job and got

it. They did not permit me to play but they allowed me to do coaching. I was 24 back then and I thought since I could not feature for top clubs like Abahani and Moham-medan and the national team any more, I decided to hang up my boots. I started doing coaching courses with Fifa Futuro and obtained the C license in 1995. I was 23 years old and the only candidate who never represented the national team. After that, I completed the B license in 2000 and the A license in 2010. I recently completed part 1 and 2 of the Uefa A license in the United Kingdom.

What is your playing and coaching philosophy?My playing philosophy is passing and pressing while my coaching philosophy is to conduct plays according to the players’ merit. For example, (pointing his � nger at national winger Zahid Hossain who was sitting in front of him) I can teach Zahid how to move like Cristiano Ronaldo but not like [Lionel] Messi because his (Zahid) playing pattern is similar to Ronaldo. Moreover, I value team performance � rst, then, result. I also think I would not have been able to live without coaching.

What were your plans prior to departing for the King’s Cup in Bhutan?I had two types of plans - defensive football

based on the counter-attack and attack-ing football. But, when I went there and watched the other teams play I understood it was possible to win by keeping possession of the ball and playing our natural game. The � rst game was tough. We played against a home team who had the advantage of high altitude and cold temperature. I started with the 4-2-3-1 formation but later introduced another forward and got the goal.

How did Sheikh Jamal miss captain Mamunul Islam?We knew that Mamun would not play in the tournament. He is a key player of the team and we could not use Wedson [Anselme] properly because of his absence (suspen-sion). But, I had an alternative plan for Mamun and I changed my playing style. If Mamun was there I would have continued with the 4-3-3 formation, which is my favourite.

How was your overall experience with Sheikh Jamal in Bhutan?I learned everyday from everyone. But, what I learned the most in Bhutan was game-reading. I developed that sense there. For instance, I could understand when my opponents changed their strategy or forma-tion quickly during a game and I guided my team accordingly. I had that feeling against the Thai club (Nakhon Ratchasing Mazda) and Mohun Bagan in the group stages.

Who do you think were the top performers for Sheikh Jamal in the King’s Cup?Everyone contributed and all my local players played really well. But overall, I will mention some names who have really developed and caught my attention. They are Yeasin [Khan], Nasir [Uddin Chowdhury] and Jamal [Bhuiyan]. If I had to give marks to the players then Nasir and Jamal will get the full 100 marks. Rubel [Miah] also did well. He has got pace and positioning sense.

How did you feel after winning the King’s Cup? No other Bangladeshi team have managed to win it before.I do not know why but the fact is that it did not move me. I remained normal, just like a robot. Same thing happened when I won the treble with Sheikh Russel. It was normal to me as I just wanted to give something to the play-ers to cheer about. If I manage a club abroad and win something maybe it will touch me.

Did you get any job offer from any foreign club after the King’s Cup glory?Kolkata Mohammedan wanted me as their head coach when I won the treble with Sheikh Russel. This time Mohun Bagan also showed their interest but I am not ponder-ing any of their o� ers. Sheikh Jamal stood beside me when the chips were down and I cannot desert them now. l

Bangladesh secure Men’s Jr Asia Cup slotn Raihan Mahmood

Bangladesh con� rmed their berth in the � nal round of the Men’s Junior AHF Cup in Malaysia next year following their 7-0 rout of Oman at Maulana Bhasani Na-tional Hockey Stadium yesterday.

With this win, Bangladesh sealed their place as one of the two teams from this group and will now join the six teams who have already quali� ed for the � nal round. The � nal round will feature eight teams.

Bangladesh are top of the group standings with nine points from three matches. Oman and Chinese Taipei are tied for second position with six points each. Sri Lanka are fourth with three points while bottom-side Thailand have completed their miserable cam-paign losing all of their four matches.

The hosts will take on Sri Lanka in their � nal group match tomorrow and even if the home side su� er a defeat against the islanders they are assured of a place in the � nal round. Oman and Chinese Taipei will virtually contest a semi� nal when they face other in their � nal group match tomorrow with the winner of the tie progressing to the � -nal round next year.

Coming back to Bangladesh’s match, it was a superb performance from the home side’s stickers, especially in the � rst half when the lads in Red and Green thumped � ve goals past the Oman post.

The hosts’ speed and penetra-tion were admirable as Oman looked helpless in the face of continuous on-

slaughts. In the second half, Oman ad-opted a defensive approach while Ban-gladesh appeared content with the lead.

Bangladesh coach Mamunur Rashid expressed his satisfaction following the end of the match. “We worked hard for the last two moths. The federation invested upon us for the result and we did it. However, this is not the end. We are focused on winning the title.”

His German counterpart Oliver Kuttz admired Bangladesh’s display. “Bangladesh were the better team on the day. However, it is their own yard and eight of their players have nation-al team experience. We will try to play better in the next match.”

Bangladesh took the lead in the 10th minute from their very � rst penalty cor-ner. Khorshedur Rahman drifted a low hit into the board after Milon’s push and skipper and mid� elder Sarwar Hos-sain’s stop. Forward Koushik scored the second in the 20th minute with a bril-liant � ick from a Belal Hossain free hit.

Forward Milon made it 3-0 in the 23rd minute with a diving hit after Sarwar’s hit de� ected o� the pad of Oman goal-keeper Ahned Shaganah.

The fourth and � fth were both netted by Khorshedur in the 30th and 35th min-ute, both coming o� penalty corners.

14 minutes into the second half, Sar-war added the sixth capitalising a nice Koushik through pass. Rabbi Salehin completed the rout in the 58th minute.

Meanwhile in the other match of the day, Sri Lanka defeated Thailand 4-2 at the same venue.l

Satis� ed Nazmul lifts Shakib’s overseas league bann Minhaz Uddin Khan

National all-rounder Shakib al Hasan’s overseas league ban has � nally been lifted by Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hasan. Nazmul an-nounced this decision upon his arrival at Hazrat Shahjalal International Air-port yesterday.

“As I have previously informed, I would have announced the decision after my arrival. This is an important issue which we took after talking with everyone. We never had any questions over his performances. I would like to clarify to all of you that Shakib is one of our best players and even the best cricketer in the world,” Nazmul told the media.

“Not only Shakib, others too had such attitude problems. The main al-

legation against him was his attitude towards his team mates, fans and the others. Keeping everything in mind we had to take strict action against Shakib.

“However, we have observed that he had a good response after the sus-pension was reduced. He is now very mature and is bringing changes to his attitude, which we are very pleased to witness. And things have even changed amongst his team mates who informed me that they get inspiration from Shakib. It clearly shows he has changed his approach towards his team mates.

“What we have observed is that he is a good human being and there are lots of changes in him which we are very happy to observe.

“And today (yesterday) I am very happy to inform you all that we are lift-ing the ban over his participation from

overseas leagues.“However, I would like to inform

that we will not tolerate any sort of in-discipline.

“Our job is not to punish the cricket-ers. What we want to do is to guide the cricketers towards a good path that will eventually improve the performance of the team,” he said.

Shakib was earlier handed out a six-month ban from all forms of cricket owing to indiscipline. His six-month ban, given out on July 7, was then re-duced to three months. And since his return, Shakib has performed heroics for the national side guiding the Tigers to a clean sweep at home over Zimba-bwe in both the Test and ODI series.

Following the uplifting of his over-seas league ban, Shakib will now feature in the Big Bash league in Australia. l

Siddikur 54th in Indonesia Open after � rst round n Tribune Desk

Bangladesh golfer Siddikur Rahman continued to struggle in the Asian Tour circuit following his return from a back injury as he concluded round one of the Indonesia Open yesterday at joint 54th position with 20 other golfers.

Siddikur came to the Damai Indah Golf Course in Jakarta on the back of a disap-pointing � nish in the King’s Cup where he ended at joint 110th position along-side six others. In the opening round of the $750,000 tournament yesterday, the 30-year-old golfer from Madaripur card-ed one-over-par 72, nine shots behind leader Kalem Richardson from Australia.

Siddikur traded three birdies against two bogeys. However, a double bogey on the 18th and � nal hole scuppered him from � nishing the opening round much higher on the leaderboard. l

BCB comes out heavily against LRBn Raihan Mahmood

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) yesterday, through a press release, ve-hemently condemned the statement of Legends of Rupganj owner Lutfur Rah-man Badal terming it indecent, ill-mo-tivated and derogatory.

Cricket’s governing body in the coun-try said Badal was motivated by his own ill thoughts and is trying to damage the reputation of BCB president Nazmul Hasan who is leading the board with distinction. The BCB came out hard on the statements and comments against it and said it is relentlessly pursuing to de-velop the game in the country and has already garnered respect as a sports fed-eration. The board said the slinging of mud from Badal’s side speaks volumes about the Rupganj owner’s lack of taste.

The BCB went on to say the com-ments thrown towards it’s directors are defamatory and expression of sick mentality.

Meanwhile, Premier Division Cricket Club Association president Manjur Kad-er through another press release urged Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to take necessary steps against Badal and ban his club from all sorts of cricket activities.

Meanwhile, Nazmul gave his reac-tion on this issue to the media upon his arrival in Dhaka yesterday.

“I heard about it today (yesterday) but I had no idea. But, I heard that he had some issues regarding umpiring and the board directors. I heard that his comment is very aggressive and ev-eryone is very disappointed. If he is not able to prove his allegations then we will take strict against him.” l

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE 13Friday, December 5, 2014

Star Sports 27:30PMIndian Super LeagueChennai v GoaStar Sports 11:45AMItalian Serie AFiorentina v JuventusTen Action1:30AM French Ligue 1 Toulouse FC v AS Monaco Ten Cricket10:00PMPakistan v New ZealandSecond T20ISony SixNBA 14-15: Regular Season7:00AMNew York v Cleveland9:30AM Golden State v New Orleans01:45AM Scottish League Ross County v Dundee United

DAY’S WATCH

Argentine player beaten to death A soccer captain was beaten to death by an opponent and supporters of a ri-val team following a tempestuous game in Argentina’s third tier of league foot-ball, police said Wednesday. The match Saturday between Tiro Federal and Chacarita, two teams from Aimogasta, in Argentina’s northwest, was stopped 10 minutes before full-time because of an on-pitch � ght between players. After the game was over, Franco Nieto, 33, the Tiro Federal skipper, was attacked by several people “including a player from the opposing team, an assistant coach and a hooligan,” regional police chief Fabian Bordon told TN television. “People came to insult him. They kicked him and punched him. He tried to defend himself but he was struck vio-lently in the head. He was operated on Tuesday, and died today,” Pablo Nieto, a nephew of the victim, told the news station. O� -� eld soccer violence in Argentina has led to 15 deaths since the start of the year, a three-fold increase over the same period in 2013, according to the non-governmental group Salve-mos al Futbol.

–AFP

Messi yellow card appeal rejectedBarcelona’s appeal against Lionel Mes-si’s yellow card for time wasting after he was hit on the head by a plastic bottle in Sunday’s La Liga game at Valencia has been rejected by the Spanish soccer federation (RFEF). Messi was celebrat-ing Barca’s 94th-minute winner with his team mates near the corner � ag at the Mestalla stadium when the bottle was thrown from the stands. Messi was examined by a member of Barcelona’s medical sta� after the � nal whistle and did not appear to be injured, giving the thumbs-up as he walked o� the pitch. The RFEF’s competition committee con� rmed the caution in a statement published on the federation’s website (www.rfef.es) on Wednesday, rejecting the appeal Barca lodged on Tuesday. The referee said in his match report the card was shown because Messi “delayed his return to his half of the pitch after the goal was scored with the intention of wasting time”. Valencia vowed to ban the bottle-throwing fan from the Mestalla for life once the per-son had been identi� ed. Barca’s 1-0 win kept them hard on the heels of leaders Real Madrid who are two points clear of their arch-rivals after 13 matches thanks to Saturday’s 2-1 victory at Malaga.

–Reuters

England skipper Cook gets one-match ban England captain Alastair Cook was on Thursday suspended for one match and � ned 20 percent of his undisclosed match fees for his team’s slow over-rate in the third one-day international against Sri Lanka. Match referee David Boon ruled that England bowled one over short in the stipulated time frame during Wednesday’s rain-curtailed game in Hambantota which the tourists won by � ve wickets. Cook will miss Sunday’s fourth mach in Colombo with Sri Lanka leading 2-1 in the seven-match series. It was the second time in the last 12 months that Cook had been found guilty of the “minor over-rate o� ence,” the International Cricket Council said in a statement. “Cook pleaded guilty to the o� ence and accepted the proposed sanction, so there was no need for a formal hear-ing,” the statement added. The rest of the team was � ned 10 percent of their match fees.

–AFP

QUICK BYTES

England opener Moeen Ali plays a shot against Sri Lanka during their 3rd ODI in Hambantota on Wednesday INTERNET

Ali inspires England win over Lankans n AFP, Hambantota

Opener Moeen Ali hit a dazzling 58 o� 40 balls to inspire England to a � ve-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the rain-a� ected third one-day interna-tional in Hambantota on Wednesday.

The tourists, chasing a revised Duckworth-Lewis target of 236 in 35 overs, cruised home with eight balls to spare to record their � rst win in the seven-match series.

Kumar Sangakkara became only the fourth batsman in history to sur-pass 13,000 one-day runs as Sri Lanka scored 242-8 in a game reduced to 35 overs-a-side when heavy rain inter-rupted play after just two overs.

The 37-year-old left-hander reached the landmark when he took a single o� Chris Woakes to move to 13 and celebrat-ed by top-scoring with 63 in the innings.

Ali smashed � ve sixes and two boundaries at the top of the order be-fore Joe Root and man of the match Jos

Buttler put on a match-winning stand of 84 o� 64 balls for the unbroken sixth wicket.

Buttler hit 55 o� 37 balls and Root chipped in with a run-a-ball 48 after the tourists had lost half their side by

the 24th over for 152 runs.Cook contributed 34 in an opening

stand of 84 with Ali before he was dis-missed in the 12th over, caught by San-gakkara o� seamer Dhammika Prasad.

The run out of Ali in the 15th over following a mix-up with Alex Hales

triggered a collapse in which England lost four key wickets for just 49 runs.

But Root and Buttler stepped in to turn the game around in dramatic fash-ion as the Sri Lankan bowling wilted under their assault.

The fourth match will be played on Sunday in Colombo where Sri Lanka had won the � rst two games.

Sri Lanka plundered 62 runs in the last � ve overs, but Root and Buttler ensured England’s run-rate too did not slacken.

Sangakkara now lies behind three retired batsmen in the all-time list led by Sachin Tendulkar of India, who made 18,426 runs in 463 ODI matches.

Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has 13,704 runs in 375 ODI matches and Sanath Jayasuriya of Sri Lanka has 13,430 runs in 445 games.

Sangakkara, who made his interna-tional debut in 2000, is also just 12 runs short of completing 12,000 Test runs. He has made 11,988 runs in 128 Tests.l

Ton-up Anamul guides Kalabagan CAn Mazhar Uddin

Anamul Haque’s brilliant century guided Kalabagan Cricket Academy to a huge 197-run win over Partex in the eighth round of the Dhaka Premier Di-vision Cricket League yesterday. With this win, Kalabagan CA moved to third position in the points table.

In the other two matches of the day at di� erent venues, Brothers Union rode on Avishek Mitra’s unbeaten ton as they defeated Kalabagan Krira Chakra by four wickets while Abahani registered a comfortable eight-wicket

victory over Victoria. This is Brothers’ fourth win of this season while Abah-ani’s victory enabled them to second spot in the standings.

Prime Bank lead the 12-team stand-ings with 14 points, two ahead of nearest challengers Abahani and Kalabagan CA.

Kalabagan CA v PartexAsked to bat � rst, Kalabagan CA posted a mammoth 334/5 in their 50 overs with Anamul blasting 113 o� 104 balls. The right-hander struck 11 fours and seven sixes while middle-order batsman Mahmudul Hasan provided

valuable support scoring 70. English cricketer Phil Mustard put the � nishing touch to their innings as he was unbeaten on 59.

In reply, Partex could muster only 137 before being skittled out in 35.5 overs. Sha� ul Alam was the high-est scorer for the losing side with 41. Left-arm spinner Bishwanath Haldar picked up three wickets for Kalabagan CA while Mohammad Sharif took two wickets.

Abahani v VictoriaVictoria were bundled out for 159 in

48.2 overs after Abahani won the toss and elected to � eld � rst. Sohrawardi Shuvo’s 45 was the highest for Victoria while national cricketer Imrul Kayes scored 31. Nazmul Apu was the most successful bowler for Abahani scalping 4/14 in his 6.2 overs. Saqlain Sajib and Mosta� zur Rahman shared four wick-ets between them.

In pursuit of 160, Abahani cruised to the target in 46.2 overs losing just two wickets. Half-centuries from openers Liton Kumar Das (54) and Abdul Majid (50 not out) were enough to guide the traditional Sky Blues home.

Brothers v Kalabagan KC Taking � rst strike, Kalabagan KC were dismissed for 192 in 49 overs with 54 runs coming from the bat of English cricketer Mark Lewis. Fariduddin Ma-sud remained unbeaten on 45. Nazmus Sadat and Asif Hasan took three wick-ets each for Brothers.

Brothers reached their target with 21 balls remaining and four wickets in hand. Avishek was unbeaten at the end with a responsible 101 from 137 balls. He smote 11 boundaries and a six. Brothers skipper Nazim Uddin chipped in with 50 from 67 balls with the help of seven fours. l

Marsh brothers in Australia Test squad n AFP, Sydney

Selectors called batsman Shaun Marsh into Australia’s Test squad Thursday as cover for recovering captain Michael Clarke ahead of next week’s opening Test with India.

Marsh, 31, will join the original 12-man squad in Adelaide, where the rescheduled four-Test series begins against India on Tuesday.

Clarke and his grief-stricken team-mates attended Phillip Hughes’ funeral on Wednesday and began assembling in Adelaide late Thursday for next week’s series opener. It is not yet clear if any of the Australian squad will withdraw from the Test, with emotions still raw follow-ing Hughes’ freak death last week.

Hughes, who had played 26 Tests and was on the cusp of a recall, died from bleeding on the brain after being hit by a rising ball at the Sydney Crick-et Ground during a domestic match on November 25. Cricket Australia has reassured those selected that they can withdraw from the Test if they are hav-ing problems emotionally.

“We hope the boys can � nd the in-ner strength to play the game in the way Phillip would have wanted in Ade-laide next week and that they can hon-our what he had done,” coach Darren Lehmann wrote in a column for The Australian on Thursday.

The two Test contenders had both been in action for their respective state sides on November 25.l

BRIEF SCORESVictoria v Abahani, Mirpur

Victoria 159 allout in 48.2 oversShuvo 45; Apu 4/14, Saqlain 2/16, Abahani 165/2 in 46.2 oversLiton 54, Majid 50*

Abahani won by eight wicketsBrothers v Kalabagan KC, Fatullah

Kalabagan KC 192 allout in 49 oversLewis 54, Fariduddin 45*, Faroque 41; Sadat 3/16, Asif 3/36Brothers 195/6 in 46.3 oversAvishek 101*, Nazim 50; Rockybul 2/28, Shahadat 2/50

Brothers won by four wicketsKalabagan CA v Partex, BKSP 3

Kalabagan 334/5 in 50 oversAnamul 113, Mahmudul 70, Mustard 59*; Azim 3/55, Zain 2/54Partex 137 allout in 35.5 oversSha� ul 41, Bishwanath 3/16, Sharif 2/37

Kalabagan CA won by 197 runs

Abahani’s left-arm spinner Nazmul Apu exults after taking one of his four wickets against Victoria in the Dhaka Premier League in Mirpur yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

FM Iqbal bin Anwar Dawn, the additional director of Walton speaks at the press conference of Victory Day rugby at the BNS conference room yesterday COURTESY

Sri Lanka242/8 in 35 overs (Dilshan 23, Sangak-kara 63, Mathews 37, Thirimanne 62*, Woakes 41/3 (w1), Jordan 46/2) England236/5 in 33.4 overs (Cook 34, Moeen Ali 58, J Root 48*, Buttler 55, Mathews 34/2)

England won by � ve wickets (D/L)

BRIEF SCORE

Yuvraj, Sehwag, Harbhajan, Gambhir ignored for World Cup 2015 n Agencies

The preliminary list of 30 Indian prob-ables for the upcoming World Cup in Australia and New Zealand was an-nounced on Thursday. Seniors Viren-der Seheag, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan SIngh, Zaheer Khan and Gautam Gam-bhir were left out.

The meeting of the � ve-member se-lection panel headed by Sandeep Patel chose to leave the heroes of World Cup 2011 from the squad despite their past laurels. “Seniors were also considered (and) there was a discussion.”But the thought process was to give preference to the performers,” said Patel. “Barring major injuries, the World Cup squad would be from this lot.

On expected lines, the selectors re-tained the 14 names that they had se-lected for the last two home ODIs against Sri Lanka along with players who were rested - MS Dhoni, Ishant Sharma, Var-un Aaron, Mohd Shami, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Shikhar Dhawan and R Jadeja. Interestingly, Dhoni, Kohli, Raina and Ashwin are the only survivors from the squad that won the 2011 World Cup.

The list of players chosen did not surprise former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar who told NDTV that the omitted seniors had not performed in domestic circuit and therefore, could have hardly made their case.

With a clear emphasis on youth, Indian seniors like Sehwag, Harbha-jan, Gambhir, Zaheer and Yuvraj could

not � nd a place in the probables. The � nal 15-member squad should be an-nounced latest by January 7. The World Cup starts from Feburary 14.

India’s 30-man probables listMS Dhoni, Shikhar Dhawan, Ro-hit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Robin Uthappa, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav, Manoj Tiwary, Manish Pandey, Wriddhiman Saha, Sanju Samson, R Ashwin, Parvez Rasool, Karn Sharma, Amit Mishra, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mo-hammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, Dhawal Kulkarni, Stuart Binny, Mohit Sharma, Ashoke Dinda, Kuldeep Yadav and Murali Vijay. l

Walton V-day rugby begins todayn Raihan Mahmood

The Walton Home Appliance Victory Day Rugby with the participation of four male and equal number of female teams will begin at the Paltan ground today. Through this tournament, it will be the � rst time that female rugby will take place in Bangladesh.

In a press conference held at the Bangabandhu National Stadium conference room yesterday, Mousum Ali, the general secretary of

the Rugby Union, said he is extremely happy to introduce the game to the women.

“I hope it will open the new doors of opportunities for the women players in our country,” said Mousum.

FM Iqbal bin Anwar Dawn, the additional director of Walton, tournament secretaries Sirajul Islam and Parvin Putul and assistant director of National Sports Council Syeda Taslima Akhter were also present during the programme. l

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE14 Friday, December 5, 2014

LIGUE 1Bastia 1-2 EvianAbdallah 35-og Wass 65, Nsikulu 83

Guingamp 5-1 CaenMandanne 4, 62, Al. Yahia 17T. Giresse 20, Beauvue 61-P, 78

Nice 1-2 RennesCvitanich 83 Ntep 12, Konradsen 49

Metz 0-0 Bordeaux

Montpellier 0-2 Saint-Etienne Pogba 22, Baysse 43

Lille 1-1 PSGSirigu 42-og Cavani 29

Chelsea march on, Aguero keeps City in the mixn Reuters, London

Chelsea’s inexorable Premier League title march continued with a consum-mate 3-0 triumph over Tottenham Hotspur and champions Manchester City stayed second with a 4-1 canter at Sunderland on Wednesday.

Southampton’s challenge su� ered further de� ation with a 1-0 defeat at Arsenal, but the pacesetters took full advantage with Chelsea making it 21 games unbeaten this season thanks to goals from Eden Hazard, Didier Drogba and Loic Remy.

The 36-year-old Drogba proved a splendid replacement for suspended top-scorer Diego Costa, grabbing his � rst chance within two minutes of Hazard’s 19th-minute opener before his replace-ment Remy also netted to seal the points.

The performance of the seemingly ageless Drogba earned high praise from his team mate Hazard.

“He does everything, he’s very im-

portant for the team and every game he comes in, he plays very well. It is a pleasure to play with him,” the Belgian told Sky Sports.

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, promising there would be no let-up in his side’s title push, was also delighted.

“Tottenham started better than us and should have scored before us, but after our � rst goal our team became more stable and con� dent and we con-

trolled the game,” he said.“I’m really happy with the points,

performance and spirit of the players.”The only cloud on the horizon for

Mourinho was that his towering mid-� eld anchor, Nemanja Matic, will be unavailable for Saturday’s match at Newcastle after picking up a suspen-sion for his � fth booking.

Chelsea’s victory, which continued their amazing record of being unbeat-en by Spurs at Stamford Bridge for 24 years, maintained their six-point lead over City, who came from behind to crush Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

The champions were once again grateful to the league’s leading marks-man Sergio Aguero who produced a sublime display, scoring twice with his 13th and 14th league goals of the season.

The Argentine struck two minutes after Connor Wickham had put Sunder-land ahead on 19 minutes, equalising with the sweetest of strikes.

He then set up Stevan Jovetic six minutes before the break, Pablo Zabale-ta added a third and Aguero, in the 71st minute, completed the rout.

Extraordinarily, it meant that Ague-ro, the man with the best goals per game strike rate in Premier League an-nals, has now scored 30 in his last 33 league matches for City.

City manager Manuel Pellegrini had bad news for Premier League defend-ers too by suggesting that we have not seen the best from the Argentine yet.

“Sergio is only 26 and he can im-prove every day,” he told the BBC.

“At the moment we are seeing very high performances from him. Not only is he scoring but he’s playing well as well.”

Southampton, whose high-� ying start to the season was arrested in a 3-0 defeat by City on Sunday, slumped to a second successive defeat with an 89th-minute Alexis Sanchez goal � nally breaking their resistance at the Emirates.

The Chilean once again proved why he has been one of the buys of the sea-son when he latched on to Aaron Ram-sey’s cut back and scored his ninth Pre-mier League goal of the campaign.

Arsenal are now 10 points adrift of Chelsea but for most of the night, it had seemed that Fraser Forster’s hero-ic e� orts in the Southampton goal - he made three brilliant saves from Danny Welbeck and Olivier Giroud - would earn them a point.

“Alexis Sanchez can dig deep and has such desire and a will to win, he still � nds that resource to get you something special,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said.

The victory lifted Arsenal into sixth place, 13 points behind Chelsea.

Hull City squeezed out of the relegation zone with a 1-1 draw at Everton, Sone Aluko scoring a 59th-minute equaliser after a superb 34th-minute Romelu Lukaku e� ort for the home side. l

PSG held by Lille after Sirigu own goal n AFP, Paris

An own goal by Paris Saint-Germain keeper Salvatore Sirigu held the French champions to a 1-1 draw at Lille on Wednesday in a stalemate that kept Marseille atop Ligue 1 by a single point.

Edinson Cavani put PSG, who were without star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, into a 29th minute lead, after good work from Ezequiel Lavezzi down the right.

That left Laurent Blanc’s unbeaten side provisionally overtaking Marseille, who were held by the same scoreline by Lorient 24 hours earlier.

But in the 42nd minute Lille were back level after Sirigu’s attempt to punch away a corner did not have the desired e� ect as the ball hit the bar and went into his net.

The match was at Lille’s Metropole stadium which staged last month’s Da-vis Cup tennis � nal. Earlier, Saint Eti-enne climbed into third on the back of a 2-0 win at Montpellier with the � rst half goals scored by defenders Floren-tin Pogba and Paul Baysse.l

Pele recovering but no date for leaving hospital n AFP, Sao Paulo

Brazilian soccer legend Pele is recover-ing well from a kidney ailment, o� cials said Wednesday, but it is unclear when he can leave the Sao Paulo hospital treating him.

The three-time world champion was hospitalized nine days ago with a suspect-ed urinary tract infection requiring antibi-otics, but is now making good progress, said the Albert Einstein Hospital, which suspended renal assistance Sunday.

“He is doing better and (remains) in semi-intensive care. Results from clin-ical and lab tests from this morning are

good and show the patient does not re-quire renal assistance,” it said.

“He does not have fever, is able to walk around his room and is spending the bulk of the day sitting up in an arm-chair. He is eating well,” added the clin-ic, saying Pele’s blood � ow and breath-ing were also not a problem.

Last Thursday, the hospital said the man nicknamed “O Rei” (the king) had been placed in intensive care after his condition became “clinically unstable,” alarming fans, while some Brazilian media reported that Pele had the blood infection septicemia after he failed to respond to treatment.l

Brilliant Aguero playing like one of the godsn Reuters, London

Manchester City’s Argentine striker Sergio Aguero was named Player of the Year in a vote by 250,000 English fans this week - and it probably won’t be the last honour he picks up this season.

The 26-year-old, who won the Pre-mier League title with City in May and reached the World Cup � nal with Argentina in July, topped the Football Supporters Federation poll, ahead of City team mate Yaya Toure, Liverpool’s Raheem Sterling, Morgan Schneiderlin of Southampton and the Chelsea duo of Eden Hazard and Branislav Ivanovic.

He has scored 19 goals in all com-petitions already this season and 30 in his last 33 Premier League games and his unstoppable rocket from 20 meters which pulled City level at Sunderland on Wednesday left Sunderland substitute Jozy Altidore exclaiming “Oh My God!”.

Aguero has been playing like one of the gods all year and after being hon-oured by the FSF at its annual gala din-ner in London on Monday, he said that the title race was far from over even though City trailed leader Chelsea by six points.

“We are two games behind them, six points, but there is still a long way to go. What is in our favour is that City know how to catch teams - we’ve done it in the past and can do it again.”

Aguero himself is hitting top form with a phenomenal run in recent weeks starting at the end of October when he scored all four in City’s 4-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur.l

City cheered by halved � nancial losses n AFP, London

Premier League champions Manches-ter City’s hopes of complying with UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules received a boost on Wednesday when they announced a signi� cant reduction in their losses.

The club’s annual report showed re-cord revenues of £346.5 million ($544 million, 442 million euros) for the year ending in May 2014, while their overall losses halved to £23 million.

European governing body UEFA � ned City £16.2 million in May for con-travening FFP rules by spending be-yond their means, but that � gure will be taken out of the equation in this year’s calculation.

“The club is where we hoped it would be when we began this transfor-mation six years ago,” chairman Khal-doon Al Mubarak said in the report.

City were additionally given a condi-tional � ne of £32.8 million last season, but the club are con� dent that their latest � nancial results mean it will not take e� ect.

The club were also restricted to naming a 21-man squad for this sea-son’s Champions League and were told that they could not publish losses exceeding £15.7 million in the 2013-14 campaign.

As the £16.2 million � ne will not be taken into account by UEFA, City have complied with the latter restriction.

City recorded losses of £197.5 million in the 2010-11 season, but that � gure has fallen progressively since then.lManchester City defender Pablo Zabaleta celebrates his goal during their English Premier League match against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light, Sunderland on Wednesday AP

PREMIER LEAGUEArsenal 1-0 SouthamptonSanchez 89

Chelsea 3-0 TottenhamHazard 19, Drogba 22, Remy 73

Everton 1-1 Hull CityLukaku 34 Aluko 59

Sunderland 1-4 Man CityWickham 19 Aguero 21, 71, Jovetic 39, Zabaleta 55

Sevilla in King’s Cup last 16, Barca winn Reuters, Madrid

Sevilla joined holders Real Madrid in the last 16 of the King’s Cup when a quick� re Iago Aspas hat-trick helped secure a crushing 11-2 aggregate vic-tory over second-division Sabadell on Wednesday.

Sevilla romped to a 6-1 win in their last-32, � rst leg at Sabadell at the end of October, when Aspas also netted a treble, and after winning the return 5-1 they will play Andalusian rivals Grana-da or Cordoba next month for a place in the quarter-� nals.

Real set up a likely last-16 clash against city rivals Atletico Madrid when they secured a 9-1 aggregate suc-cess against third-tier minnows Cornel-

la on Tuesday.In last-32, � rst leg games, La Liga

champions Atletico, who beat Real 2-1 after extra time in the 2013 Cup � nal

at the Bernabeu, won 3-0 at third-tier Hospitalet.

The winner of a probable tie be-tween Real and Atletico is likely to meet record winners Barcelona in the quarter-� nals.

A second-string Barca, missing most of coach Luis Enrique’s regular starting 11 including Lionel Messi and Neymar, thumped Huesca, another third-tier club, 4-0.

Ivan Rakitic opened the scoring in the 12th minute with a splendid free kick, Andres Iniesta struck on his return from injury four minutes later, Pedro made it 3-0 six minutes before halftime and a de� ected e� ort from Ra� nha completed the scoring in the 72nd.l

‘Remarkable’ Drogba sets the tone n AFP, London

Jose Mourinho believes Didier Drogba’s dynamic display in Chelsea’s 3-0 win over Tottenham proved the Premier League leaders have the strength in depth to last the pace in the title race.

Mourinho’s side maintained their six-point lead at the top of the table thanks to a throwback performance from Ivory Coast striker Drogba, who scored his � fth goal of the season at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday to make the absence of suspended lead-ing scorer Diego Costa a mere footnote.

Drogba, 36, showed there is still plen-ty of life in his ageing legs by laying on Eden Hazard’s 19th minute opener, then netting with a clinical � nish in the 23rd minute before substitute Loic Remy’s � ne � nish in the 73rd minute sealed Chelsea’s seventh successive home win.

Even Mourinho, who brought Drog-ba to west London from Marseille for

his � rst spell with the club in 2004, was moved to single out the Blues legend for special praise after a performance which showed Chelsea should have enough � repower in reserve if the inju-ry-prone Costa falters.

“Yes, it is remarkable. Didier is a team player, one of these with an old school mentality. Not sel� sh, not vain, a hum-ble guy who plays for the team, � ghts for the team. Fantastic,” Mourinho said.

“When he is on the bench and comes on for the last few minutes to help the team defend, he does that with the same enthusiasm as when he starts a game against Tottenham.

“We played against him when he was at Galatasaray last season so I could feel the kind of potential he still has and I was expecting exactly this, with not even a doubt about a player who is not playing every game. I knew he would adapt very well mentally to his role.”

Thanks to Drogba’s inspirational ef-forts, Chelsea have equalled a club re-cord, set previously in 2007 and again in 2009, by extending their unbeaten run to 23 matches in all competitions -- 21 this term and two games at the end of last season.

They have also matched the club’s record unbeaten start to a league sea-son of 14 games without defeat set in the second tier in 1925-26.

Mourinho puts his team’s scintillat-ing form down to their refusal to look for excuses when they are hit by bad luck or injuries and suspensions.

“We need him (Costa) but we have the right mentality. If we don’t have a player we don’t cry about it,” Mourinho said. 

“(Nemanja) Matic is suspended for the Newcastle game on Saturday? No problem. Did you remember Diego Cos-ta today? I didn’t.

“We give con� dence to the players and they respond in the best way. l

Chelsea striker Didier Drogba celebrates after scoring against Tottenham Hotspur during their English Premier League match at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday REUTERS

KING’S CUP2nd leg 

Sevilla 5-1 SabadellSevilla win 11-2 on aggregate

1st leg

Deportivo 1-1 Malaga

L’Hospitalet 0-3 Atletico Madrid

Granada 1-0 Cordoba

Huesca 0-4 Barcelona

Arsenal’s Sanchez (L) celebrates with Mertesacker after their EPL match against Southampton on Wednesday REUTERS

ExhibitionLife is HereBy Kanak Chanpa ChakmaTime: 12pm – 8pmBengal Art Lounge

16th Asian Art Biennale BangladeshTime: 11am – 8pmNational Art GalleryBangladesh Shilpakala AcademyShegun Bagicha

Realms of PerceptionTime: 12pm – 8pmGallery Twenty One, House 21, Road 4, Dhanmondi

Film13th International Short & Indepen-dent Film Festival Time: 11am – 9pmCentral Public LibraryShahbag

DHAKA TRIBUNE Entertainment Friday, December 5, 2014 15

The SpecialistHBO, 5:25pm

A woman entices a bomb expert she’s involved with into destroying the ma� a that killed her family.

Flight of the IntruderHBO De� ned, 1:05pm

In the Vietnam War, a bereaved US Navy A-6 Intruder tactical bomber pilot schemes with a hardened vet-eran to make an unauthorized air strike on Hanoi itself.

MousehuntZee Studio, 12:45pm

Two stumblebum inheritors are determined to rid their antique house of a mouse who is equally determined to stay where he is.

Batman BeginsWB, 11:58pm

After training with his mentor, Batman begins his war on crime to free the crime-ridden Gotham City.

GHASHPHUL all set to hit cinemasn Entertainment Desk

Feature � lm “Ghashphul” recently received the censor board certi� cate and is all set to hit cinemas.

Akram Khan, director of the full-length � lm produced by Channel i, told the Dhaka Tribune: “Now we are planning to hold the premier very soon, given that everything else goes according to the plan.”

Many new faces will be featured in the � lm, which is also the direc-tor’s debut project. Model-turned-TV actor Asif, Veet-Channel i Top Model’s � rst runner-up Tania, and Channel i Shera Nachiye participant Shayla Sabi will be seen playing the lead roles in the � lm. Nayla Azad

Nupur, a noted actor who appeared on BTV during the 80s, also plays a vital role in the � lm.

Following Akram’s storyline, the script was developed by Moshiul Alam, Akram Khan and Laila Afroz.

“The middle-class Bangalees are bound to go nostalgic once they watch ‘Ghashphul,’” the director claimed.

The story revolves around 21-year-old Toukir who aimlessly treks through the alleys in the city. He has a hard time remembering the good old days. But one day he � nds a letter in his torn trousers. No matter how hard he tries, he fails to remem-ber the real identity of its author – Ghashphul. l

16TH ASIAN ART BIENNALE

A bridge of art, society and modernity n Nadira Sultana Ava

The 16th Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh, one of the biggest art events in the Asia Paci� c region, is taking place in Ban-gladesh Shilpakala Academy.

The � rst edition of the event was held in the country in 1981 with the aim to support and develop young artists in their chosen � elds. Continuing along those lines, this year 209 Bangladeshi artists and 104 foreign artists from 31 dif-ferent countries are participating in the prestigious event.

The participating countries include Iraq, Iran, Syria, Palestine, India, Kuwait, China, Nepal, Brunei, Sri Lanka, Bahrain, Afghanistan, Philippines, Maldives, Australia, Pa-kistan, the UAE, Japan, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Lebanon, East Timor, Singapore, Jordan, Thailand, Bhu-tan, Qatar, Korea and Indonesia.

Artists Samarjit Roy Chowdhury, Monirul Islam, Syed Abdullah Khalid, Mansur Ul Karim and Dr Farida Zaman constituted the � ve-member committee that selected 228 works by the 209 artists from a submission pool of 518 ap-plicants. As a new addition this year, performance art has been included in the exhibition for the � rst time, with 10 artists taking part in it.

This month-long event was inaugurated by Finance

Minister AMA Muhith on Monday, December 1. A seminar titled “Contemporary New Media Art Practices” was held on Tuesday in two sessions.

Among a total of 432 artworks, three has been selected for the grand prize: “Mourn of Burned Women” by Gulshan Hossain (Bangladesh), “Long March for Water” by Md Ab-dul Momen (Bangladesh), and “Arab Character,” by Hessa Abdulla A Kalla (Qatar).

Another six works has been chosen for the Honourable Mention Award. The artists of those artworks are Bishwajit Goswami (Bangladesh), Maynul Islam Paul (Bangladesh), Kamruzzaman Shadhin (Bangladesh), Nurul Amin (Bangla-desh), Dr Fakhriya Al-Yahyal (Oman) and Hamed Al-Jabri (Oman).

The 16th Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh 2014 is the por-trayal of human emotion, craving, restraints and challeng-es in contemporary Asian life through arts. Here, the cre-ative art works are not only re� ecting social consequences, but also exhibiting the control of existing digital age over lives.

The art exhib ition of Asia Paci� c nations replete with modernity and tradition will be open for all until December 31, from 11am to 8pm on weekdays and from 3pm to 8pm on Fridays. l

An artwork titled Agune Pora Narider Kannar Shobdo by Gulshan Hossain in the array KHAN HASAN MD RAFI

ED SHEERAN tops Spotify most-streamedin 2014 chartn Entertainment Desk

British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran got 860 million plays on Spotify in 2014, the most for any artist this year, the online music streaming service said on Wednesday. Sheeran’s 2014 album “X” also came � rst for the most streamed album, Spotify said.

Pop singer Katy Perry was the most streamed female artist on Spotify’s Year in Music list, while Coldplay was the most streamed band of the year. Pharrell Williams’s hit single “Happy” got the most plays by Spotify’s 50 million active users this year.

Spotify, which provides free on-demand music, or ad-free tunes for paying customers, has been in the spotlight in recent months after million-selling American singer Taylor Swift pulled her entire catalog from the service. l

n Entertainment Desk

The new James Bond � lm will be called “Spectre,” with Lea Seydoux, Monica Bellucci and Christoph Waltz joining the cast.

Bellucci and Seydoux were un-veiled as Bond girls Lucia Sciarra and Madeleine Swann at a 007 press con-ference held at Pinewood Studios.

Waltz will play the villain known as Oberhauser – adding to rumours that he will revive the character of Blofeld.

Blofeld was the evil genius behind Spectre in the � rst Bond � lm, “Dr No.” It stands for Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Re-venge and Extortion.

Andrew Scott, known to TV view-ers as Moriarty in “Sherlock,” will play MI5 man Denbigh. Dave Bautista, who appeared in “Guardians of the Galaxy,” will has also been cast.

Bond, played for the fourth time by Daniel Craig, will drive anAston Martin DB10, which was also

unveiled alongside the cast. The plot details read: “A cryptic message from Bond’s past sends him on a trail to uncover a sinister organisa-tion. While M battles political forc-es to keep the secret service alive, Bond peels back the layers of deceit to reveal the terrible truth behindSPECTRE.”

“Spectre” will be shot on location in London, Mexico City, Rome, Tang-ier and Erfoud in Morocco, and the Alps. l

Cast members of new James Bond � lm from left: Naomie Harris, Lea Seydoux, Daniel Craig, Monica Bellucci and Christoph Waltz

James Bond 24 title and cast revealed

Swapnadal to stage two plays in India

n Entertainment Desk

Theatre troupe Swapnadal’s is going to stage two of their drama produc-tions at two di� erent theatre festivals in India early next year.

The group has been invited to stage its anti-war production “Tringsho Shotabdee” at 17th Bharat Rang Ma-hotsav, India’s national theatre festi-val, which will be held in New Delhi on February 1-18.

The play has been selected to represent Bangladeshi theatre at the largest theatre festival in Asia, to be participated by 12 othercountries.

Swapnadal has also been invited to stage another of their productions, an adaptation of Howard Fast’s “Spart-acus,” at the Second Bangla Theatre Festival in Kolkata from January 24 to February 4, organised by Prachyo Natyadal, Kolkata. l

PRIYANKA CHOPRA named world’s sexiest Asian womann Entertainment Desk

Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra has won back the crown she lost to Katrina Kaif last year to be named the world’s sexiest Asian woman.

The 32-year-old actress and singer topped the top 50 list in an annual poll conducted by UK-based weekly newspaper Eastern Eye.

Popular TV actress Drashti Dhami, who had led the voting at one stage, narrowly missed out on the top spot to come in second. Fellow TV actress Sanaya Irani came third with last year’s win-ner, Kaif, slipping to fourth place in the race.

“Someone once told me, sexy is what sexy does and you do it

best when you are yourself. I don’t know what I did to de-

serve this but I’ll happily

accept this title,” said Chopra.“I am very � attered to have

been named Eastern Eye’s Sexiest Woman once again. The fact that this is decided from a public poll across the world makes this even more special to me. Lots of love to everyone who voted and here’s to always being yourself,” she added.

Eastern Eye showbiz editor As-jad Nazir, founder of the Sexiest Asian list and chair of the judging panel, described this year’s No 1 as an “important international icon for India.”

The A-list star beat o� very tough competition from some of the most stunning women from around the world in the 11th edi-tion of the list. The 2014 rankings have been trending heavily on social media across India and Pa-kistan during the voting process, with over 10 million votes cast. l

JULIANNE MOORE considered as Oscar front-runner with Still Alicen Entertainment desk

Julianne Moore plays as a linguistics professor who struggles to hold onto her personality after a diagnosis of early Alzheimer in the unforgettable drama “Still Alice.’’

Julianne is having a big day after being named the National Board of Re-view’s Best Actress for her work in the movie, cementing her status as the Oscar front-runner this year.

The Oscar front-runner — who’s demonstrated her virtuosity for years in � lms as varied as “Boogie Nights’’ and “Far From Heaven” — gets to the very soul of the brainy Alice, who receives the rare and shocking diagnosis at age 50 after she forgets the word “lexicon’’ during a speech.

This drops like a bomb on her workaholic husband played Alec Bald-win, who, like Alice, is on the faculty at Columbia University. Her three adult children (Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth and Hunter Parrish) learn they each have a 50 percent chance of inheriting the condition — and could in turn pass it on to their children.

But this superb adaptation of Lisa Genova’s novel mostly focuses on Alice’s � ght against mental deterioration, which she meticulously charts in various ways, including Words With Friends.

“Still Alice” may be set in the relatively privileged world of upper-tier academia, but it presents a disease that can devastate any family, any-where, with unsparing truth and great compassion. l

A scene from the troupe’s latest production Tringsho Shotabdee

16 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, December 5, 2014

R E F L E C T I O N S O N T H E S T A T E O F S A N I T A T I O N

Detectives bust car stealing gang in Dhakan Tazlina Zamila Khan

Detectives have arrested � ve members of a gang of car thieves who sell stolen cars through classi� ed advertisements posted on various online marketplaces and dailies.

Sources from the Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) said after stealing cars, the gang would change the colour, chassis number and number plate, produce fake registration documents and put a classi� ed advert up on the internet and dailies.

On Monday, detectives nabbed gang leader Iqbal Hossain alias Kamal alias Rana alias Tamim, Md Javed and Moshrekin Ahammed Rabbi alias Jub-oraj in separate drives in the capital’s Basundhara Residential Area and the Eastern Plaza shopping mall.

Later, based on the information given by them in interrogation, police recovered a Toyota Allion from Mir-pur and a Toyota F Premio from the

Banglamotor Link Road in the capital and arrested two other members of the gang named Ali Hossain and Md Mo-hsin.

Detectives have also seized fake � t-ness and registration papers to go with fake chassis numbers from their pos-session.

Earlier, two cases were � led in con-nection with the stealing of the two cars – one with the Gulshan police sta-tion for the Allion and the other with the Tejgaon industrial area police sta-tion for the F Premio.

The arrested members of the gang had already been produced before a court and subsequently placed on re-mand. Police said there could be two to three more members in the gang whom they are trying to round up.

Raiding Mohsin’s house, they have recovered hundreds of counterfeit documents including BRTA registration forms, � tness certi� cate forms, tax payment certi� cate forms, money receipts, pay orders various

government and private commercial banks, and stamps in the names of BRTA, insurance companies and police o� cials.

They used these fake documents to deceive customers, who came to check out the cars after seeing the classi� ed advertisements in the online market-places and newspapers.

DB o� cials said Iqbal and Moshre-kin had been arrested many times in connection with car thefts but every time they had secured bails. Apart from nine car theft cases, Iqbal is also want-ed in a murder case in Mymensingh. Moshrekin is accused in four car theft and fraud cases.

DB Deputy Commissioner Krishna Pada Roy, who led the drives, advised people to be careful in buying cars from online advertisements.

He told the Dhaka Tribune: “Gang leader Iqbal had his own technique. He would � rst develop a good friendship with drivers and steal their cars by de-ceiving them.” l

‘Bring back our sons or at least con� rm if they are alive’n Ashif Islam Shaon

Family members of the eight youths who were allegedly picked up by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) a year ago urged the government to at least con-� rm whether they are dead or alive.

“We have been under mental stress for the last one year as we don’t know wheth-er they are dead or alive. If anyone could con� rm that they are dead, we could at least pray for their departed souls; if they are alive we could pray for their safe re-turn,” said Nusrat Jahan Laboni, sister of Mazharul Islam Rasel, one of the victims of enforced disappearance.

The family members of the eight youths organised a press conference at the National Press Club in the cap-ital yesterday to mark one year of the incident. With tears in their eyes, they recalled how law enforcers had picked up their loved ones and the agony they are going through.

The families claimed that Rapid Ac-tion Battalion-1 personnel picked up Sa-jedul Islam Suman, 36, his cousin Zahidul Karim Tanvir, 30, Mazharul Islam Rasel, 24, Abdul Quader Bhuiyan Masum, 22, Asaduzzaman Rana, 27, and Al Amin, 26 from Block I of Bashundhara Residential Area on December 4 last year.

Of the victims, Sajedul of Nakhalpa-ra is the general secretary of 38 ward BNP unit. In a separate incident, Adnan Chowdhury and Kawsar Ahmed were picked up from their residences at Sha-heenbagh around 2:00am on December 5. Their families also pointed � ngers at law enforcers for their disappearance.

Since the incident, the family mem-bers of the victims have approached gov-ernment high ups, arranged press confer-ences, appeared on TV shows, organised human chains and seminars against en-forced disappearances but got no results.

“We went to RAB-1 o� ce many times. They assured us that they would bring our boys back. But when we vis-

it their o� ce now, the RAB men seem disturbed,” said Laboni.

“His abduction was a sudden inci-dent and we are still hopeful that some-day he will miraculously return,” she said describing her brother’s abduction.

Minara Begum, Rana’s sister said, her brother had come to the city searching for job.

“He came from our village home in Rangpur and stayed with me. Our parents used to send him his monthly expenses. Now my mother blames herself for send-ing him to the capital,” she said, demand-ing her brother’s immediate return.

Kaniz Begum, the mother of Adnan, another victim said: “RAB men came to our house and told us that they would take Adnan for a few minutes. We hand-

ed him over in good faith, but since then there has been no trace of him. No agencies have admitted having him. Our faith is shattered, our son is gone.”

Kawser, 22, a driver and the eldest son of Kamala Akhter and Belal Hos-sain, was picked up by RAB men in the middle of the night around 3:00am from his Shaheenbagh house.

Kamala said since their other son lived abroad, Kawser was the family’s bread winner.

‘Now my 70-year old husband has to sell vegetables to earn money. One would never understand what pain we are go-ing through,’ said Kamala, who could not hold back her tears while talking.

“How long will we wait for the re-turn of our loved ones,” the victims’

family members asked and appealed to the prime minister to take steps in this regard.

Aysha Ali, the mother of another victim Masum, said her son was not a criminal. “Then why was he picked up? Why did he disappear? Why would he not be returned?”

Attending the press conference, Na-garik Oikya convener Mahmudur Rah-man Manna said the family members of the disappeared people had the right to know the whereabouts and fates of their loved ones.

‘We all want to know whether they are dead or alive. We want to know what measures the government has taken so far to bring the victims back,’ said Manna. l

Death – the ultimate paci� ern Mohammad Jamil Khan,

back from Rajshahi

Even three weeks ago, the calm neigh-bourhood in Chouddopai of Rajshahi city used to be intoxicated with the cadence of Baul music every now and then.

On Wednesday and Thursday eve-nings, the rented one-storey house turned into a pilgrimage for university teachers, students and everyone else who loved the Bangla Su� folk tradition.

A death has changed everything, and everything means literally everything.

The house has remained locked since Rajshahi University sociology Professor Sha� ul Islam was killed by assailants on November 15.

It was one of only three houses along the muddy alley leading from the Dhaka-Rajshahi Highway near Chouddopai. Prof Sha� ul shifted to this sleepy little house with a garden on the outside less than a year ago, in January.

Shamsuddin, a teacher of marketing at RU, � rst told him about the house. Shamsuddin’s sister owns the house.

Before entering the quiet alley, there is the headquarters of the local Rapid Ac-tion Battalion (RAB) and then is a fruit research centre. Sha� ul’s house is situ-ated at the end of the earthen road.

Two ominous looking locks – one hanging on the main gate and another inside – seem to be telling everyone that something has changed forever in this house which used to be open for everyone who loved music.

There is a papaya tree and a small vegetable plantation on the small yard in front of the house. Visible from the road is also a balcony that had some � ower vases.

“My father was a nature lover. He loved songs that sang of nature. That was why he decided to shift from our campus residence to this house, right in the middle of nature,” said Soumin Shahrid Javin, Sha� ul’s only son.

“Recently, my father had become a vegetarian. That was why he cultivated vegetable on the yard,” Soumin said.

The plant had several ripe papa-ya but nobody other than some birds are there to eat them; not that Sha� ul would have really objected if he saw

the guests with the wings.“A few days before the incident,

I came to visit him. He told me that there was a snake inside the storeroom. When I asked him why he was not kill-ing it, he told me that no animal harmed any other animal unless it felt pain,” the son said with tear drops in his eyes.

Some vegetables in the yard have got rotten and the � ower plants on the balcony looked weary from lack of care. Police have not allowed anybody in the house since the murder.

“A couple of days after he was killed, we took away all the musical instru-ments to our village home,” said Soumin.

“His colleagues, students, universi-ty employees came to our house to en-joy music and discuss Baul philosophy. Sometimes, some of them used to stay over for the night. There was one such musical evening just the day before he was killed,” he said.

There were lots of trees and green-ery in the neighbourhood. Far from the maddening rattle of the city, the once clam and peaceful neighbourhood now looks gloomy.

Motiur Rahman, a businessman by profession, lives in the � rst house in the mouth of the road.

“Sir [Prof Sha� ul] used to come back home in his motorbike around 10:30-11pm every night. There used to be mu-sical programmes in house. That kind of gave a life to the place. Now everything is deadly quiet,” Motiur said.

Nazmul Haque, assistant professor of sociology at RU, was very close to Sha� ul. He lived on the top � oor of the house next door to Sha� ul. He left the area only two days after the murder.

“I am very scared. That was why I left. Sha� ul Bhai brought me here in May,” Nazmul said.

RU o� cial Akhteruzzaman lives on the ground � oor of the building that Nazmul used to live in. He told the Dhaka Tribune: “Sha� ul Sir is gone. Now Nazmul Sir is gone too. Nothing is like before.”

Akhteruzzaman, who lives with a daughter, a son and daughter-in-law, said: “The entire area has become silent. At night we feel scared. I do not know, I may also shift to some other place.”

Shamsuddin, brother of the owner of the house, said they had not yet de-cided what to do with the house. “The place still has some things inside that Sir used.”

More than two weeks have passed since the gruesome murder but law en-forcers are still not anywhere near pin-pointing the motive behind the killing, let alone solving the mystery. l

JS committee smells a rat in city billboard business n Shohel Mamun

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Local Government Ministry has asked the two city corporations of Dha-ka to submit documents on earnings from renting billboards, as it suspects corrupt practices in such dealings.

The committee in its yesterday’s meeting asked the authorities of Dha-ka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) to submit monthly or yearly reports.

City corporation o� cials yesterday submitted two separate reports on their overall operations at the meeting held in the parliament building.

According to the reports, DNCC has 853 billboards in its remit while the number is 613 for the DSCC.

But the lawmakers, who are mem-bers of the committee, were in doubt about the number of billboards and asked for more details, including the revenue the billboards generate.

Rahima Akhter, a lawmaker and a member of the committee who attend-ed the meeting, told the Dhaka Tribune billboards are commonplace in the cap-ital but the city corporations did not earn enough money by renting those.

“That is why the committee sus-pected irregularities and corruption in the sector,” she said.

Billboards in the capital sparked dis-cussions many times in the past in the wake of several tragic incidents, such as sudden collapse of billboards, that led to casualties. Besides, occupying billboards for business using political in� uence has also been alleged.

The High Court also had to order re-moval of illegal and risky billboards in the capital.

DSCC Chief Executive O� cer Md An-sar Ali Khan, who attended the meeting,

told the Dhaka Tribune the commit-tee suspected corruption in billboard business but city corporations are not involved in any anomaly regarding bill-board a� airs. He said many billboards have been put up on the properties of many government agencies.

“We wrote to those agencies asking for the number of billboards installed on their properties,” said Ansar.

The DSCC o� cial said city corpora-tions are drawing up a list of illegal bill-boards in the capital.

“Because of those, the committee thought the number of billboards is higher than what we submitted in our reports,” he said.

Members of the committee also sug-gested to digitise the revenue collec-tion system of both city corporations. The DNCC in its report said it is going to do so in March next year but the DSCC did not mention any speci� c date.

Ansar told the Dhaka Tribune the DSCC plans to implement automatic revenue collection system by Decem-ber 2015.

At the meeting, the committee members also discussed way to prop-erly utilise city corporation budgets allocated by the government. They also asked o� cials to initiate projects that re� ect the demands and needs of the city dwellers.

The committee also received com-plaints about corruption in the tender a� airs of Bangladesh Milk Producers’ Co-Operative Union Ltd, and asked the Rural Development and Co-operation Department was asked to investigate the matter.

LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful Islam, and lawmakers Advocate Rahmat Ali, Saber Hossain Chowdhury and AKM Mosta� zur Rahman were present in the meeting. l

Narendra Modi regains top position in ‘Time Person of the Year’ polln Agencies

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has re-gained his top position in the 'Time Person of the Year' poll after the Fergu-son protesters surged ahead of him for a brief period.

Modi strengthened his lead yes-terday. PM Modi, according to latest results, has 12.8% of the total votes polled and is followed by Ferguson protesters with 10.1%. Joshua Wong, face of the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement, is placed third with 7.5%, while Pakistan's teen rights activist Malala Yousafzai is fourth with 5.2%, the weekly news magazine said.

The annual poll is scheduled to end on December 6 and the poll's winner will be announced on December 8. The TIME's editors will choose the Person of the Year and would announce on December 10. l

A portion of the Kuril-Bishwa Road near the capital’s Badda area, remains merely usable by commuters, as lion share of it has gone under water leaked out of sewerage lines while garbage carrying vans parked in a haphazard manner have occupied the rest. The photo was taken yesterday MEHEDI HASAN

Family members of the eight youths who were allegedly picked up by the RAB a year ago, hold a press conference at the National Press Club yesterday to draw the attention of the government MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

‘The entire area has become silent. At night we feel scared. I do not know, I may also shift to some other place’

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 FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2014

B3 ECB set to talk up stimulus measuresbut hold � re

B4 Experts: Low pro� t, weak standards hamper Islamic banks

Falling oil price a boon for BangladeshBene� ts at retail level depends on domestic price adjustment, which is unlikely anytime soonn Kayes Sohel

The country’s economy is expected to bene� t from the dramatic fall in oil prices that continued to zoom out as of yesterday, economists said.

But, they said, the consequent con-sumer bene� t depends on the price ad-justment at the domestic market com-mensurate with the international price.

The cash-strapped Bangladesh Pe-troleum Corporation (BPC), the coun-try’s lone state-owned oil importer, is expecting to become a pro� table entity soon, as it does not require any subsidy at present, its chairman told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

The BPC is for downward price revi-sion of petroleum products if the fall-ing trend prolongs for a few months more.

Oil prices have dropped by more than 40% since June amid weak global demand and rising output.

Most global forecasts suggest the oil prices are unlikely to go beyond $80 a barrel for next few months because the current level of extraction will remain the level as it has been recently.

The price of Brent crude oil, the ma-jor trading classi� cation of sweet light crude oil that serves as a major bench-mark price for purchase of oil world-wide, slumped below US$70 per barrel, its lowest level since 2010.

Yesterday, the Brent oil price fell 0.89% to $69.92 a barrel in the interna-tional market.

The International Energy Agency re-cently disclosed in its recent oil market report that world oil demand is soften-ing at a remarkable pace as the Europe-an and Chinese economies falter.

Effects on Bangladesh Economy Lower oil prices if sustain should have a positive e� ect on domestic growth. In theory, the fall in oil prices could lead to higher purchasing power and consumer spending and hence add to real GDP.

“The impact of lower oil prices is broadly positive to oil importers like Bangladesh,” said eminent economist Mirza Azizul Islam, who was the � -nance adviser to the past caretaker government.

He said it will boost public co� er and enhance reserve, as the govern-ment has to spend billions of dollar as oil import bill every year. The fall in oil prices, therefore, translates into huge foreign exchange savings.

The impact of the falling oil prices has contributed in saving foreign cur-rencies as re� ected in the LC opening � gures. The value of LC opening fell about 20% in the July-October period of this year as compared to the same period last year.

Professor of economics at Dhaka University MA Taslim said falling oil price is a boon for Bangladesh.

“Usually, lower oil prices helps re-duce the cost of living by lowering transport costs and bringing down in� ation. Lower oil prices also pass through directly into lower fuel costs and retail electricity prices,” he said.

But since the government is the lone oil importer, consumers bene� t de-pends on lowering petroleum prices in the domestic market, he said.

Present State of BPC According to the BPC, the country im-

ports around 5 million tonnes (1 barrel is equal to 0.13 tonne) of fuel oil an-nually, including 1.3 million tonnes of crude for the country’s lone re� nery – Eastern Re� nery Ltd in Chittagong.

More than 400,000 tonnes of oils, including 100,000 tonnes of crude oil, arrive in the port each month.

Bangladesh mainly procures gas oil or diesel, followed by furnace oil to feed expensive power plants.

“The entity is slowly moving towards making pro� t,” BPC Chairman Eunusur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune.

“Now, we are making pro� ts at range between Tk1.5 and Tk2 by selling a litre diesel. But previously we lost Tk7 to Tk8 per litre, which required subsidy,” he said.

“Around 75% of the subsidy went for diesel.”

BPC has to spend Tk12,000 crore per year as subsidy – mostly goes to quick rental power plant.

It used to purchase the petroleum fuels at a cost ranging between $105 and $107 a barrel few months back. Now, it is purchasing at around $70.

“Our liability is gradually shrinking

due to the huge gap between the past and current prices,” said Rahman. “So, it is not possible at this moment to low-er the prices of petroleum products as the BPC has cash crisis and limited storage capacity.”

The country has only a storage ca-pacity of 913,000 tonnes to meet the demand for only 1-2 months. The East-ern Re� nery had undertaken a pro-ject long back to raise the capacity by 350,000 tonnes, but there is hardly any progress so far made, o� cials said.

The BPC currently has outstanding debts worth around Tk4,000 crore.

Rahman, however, said if the cur-rent trend in the petroleum prices con-tinues in the international market for some more months, the government might consider a price cut in the do-mestic petroleum prices.

The Former Finance Adviser suggest-ed adjusting prices of petroleum prod-ucts on quarterly basis. “But it is a com-mon phenomena in our country that if prices of anything go up, we do not raise and if prices go down, we do not reduce. This actually results in subsidy.”

BPC’s diesel import is more than

half of its total import of around 5.4m tonnes of petroleum products – a tar-get set for the current � scal year. It has been importing around 3m tonnes of diesel on an average during the past several years.

The three state-run oil-marketing companies are Meghna Petroleum, Pad-ma Oil and Jamuna Oil, which earn com-mission by selling oils at retail level.

Impact on private companies The government has allowed some fuel oil-run private companies to feed their own factories and power plants. Fall-ing oil price also have a direct positive impact on aviation � rms, paints and power plants (where crude oil is a vital input).

“The government has allowed some private companies like us to feed our plants,” said Azam J Chowdhury, chair-man of MJL Bangladesh Ltd, formerly known as Mobil Jamuna Lubricant Ltd.

He said the government should open the domestic oil market for the private sectors to bring quality service in energy sector and give bene� t at re-tail level. l

Oil world’s have nots feel pain of OPEC decisionn AFP

Not all oil giants are created equal, as struggling Venezuela, Nigeria, Iran and Russia are painfully aware in the wake of OPEC’s divisive decision to maintain production levels.

Last week’s decision to keep output at 30 million barrels a day has sent oil prices tumbling to � ve-year lows and split the 12-country cartel and other major pro-ducers between haves and have-nots.

While well-heeled OPEC members are playing a long game to protect their market share in the face of a US shale oil onslaught, their poor cousins are desperate for prices to rise so they can balance their books and salvage their teetering economies.

Unlike the Gulf states that rejected turning down the taps, these countries generally do not have sovereign wealth funds to smooth over price � uctua-tions and have built their government budgets around a price scenario that is now radically out of sync with reality.

OPEC’s decision “increases the chance of unrest in member countries without su� cient � nancial reserves to weather the price storm,” said James Williams, an energy economist at con-sultancy WRTG Economics.

Many of these countries need prices of more than $100 a barrel for their na-tional budgets to break even.

But crude prices are currently hov-ering around $70 a barrel in New York and London.

Risk of default The pain is especially acute for Venezue-la. The South American country holds the world’s largest proven crude reserves but is the most fragile of the oil giants.

On Friday, President Nicolas Madu-ro’s government announced painful budget cuts in the aftermath of the OPEC decision.

“This is clearly a disaster for Venezuela with currency reserves too low to weath-er anything below $90 per barrel for more than a few months,” said Williams.

Venezuela relies overwhelmingly on oil revenues, which account for 96 percent of its foreign reserves, and the slide in prices is bad news for a country that was already struggling to balance its books.

B3 COLUMN 4

Trade deal with Bhutanto be extendedn Asif Showkat Kallol

The government has decided to extend a commodity trading deal with Bhutan for another � ve years. But the service sector is not going to be included.

An agreement will be signed in this regard tomorrow between two nations, said o� cials.

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed and Bhutan’s Economic A� airs Minis-ter Norbu Wangchuk will ink the con-tract on behalf of their respective sides at the Prime Minister’s O� ce in Dhaka.

Commerce ministry o� cials said the trade agreement with Bhutan was � rst signed in 1980 and continued till 2000.

Then it was renewed in 2003 and again in 2009 when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited to the neighbour-ing country. To extend the deal this time commerce ministry o� cials have talked to Bangladeshi businessmen be-fore � nalising the contract matters.

The ministry wanted to incorpo-rate service sector but the Bhutan au-thorities did not agree with that, said additional commerce secretary Manoj Kumar Roy. The service sector includes

tourism, ICT and healthcare.Apex trade body FBCCI adviser

Manzur Ahmed described the exclu-sion of service sector in the contract as “failure of trade diplomacy.”

He urged the government to sign a separate contract for trading of servic-es if Bhutan agrees.

Earlier, Bhutan granted duty-free market access to 90 Bangladeshi prod-ucts in line with the agreement.

On the other hand, Bangladesh also granted duty-free market access to 18 Bhutanese products.

A senior commerce ministry o� cial said the proposed changes in the agree-ment would help boost trade between the two countries. He said the two-way trade is still very nominal which is largely tilted towards Bhutan.

In � scal year 2013-14, Bangladesh exported goods worth $1.91m to Bhu-tan while its import from that country was worth $22.5m.

Bangladesh mainly exports fruit juice, garments, melamine products, pharma-ceuticals and cosmetics to Bhutan while it imports fruits, construction materials, raw materials of cement and spices. l

BCBL fails to follow BB prescriptionn Jebun Nesa Alo

Trouble-hit Bangladesh Commercial Bank Limited (BCBL) has so far utterly failed to achieve the target set by the central bank, following the Directive of Bangladesh Bank (DOBB).

The Bangladesh Bank had earlier prescribed the BCBL management on how to overcome the ongoing � nancial crisis.

The bank has been listed as a problem-atic one since September 25, 2004 and the central bank issued the DOBB for the � rst time in August 2005, reviewing the overall � nancial condition of the bank.

The latest DOBB was issued against BCBL in the year 2013 but the bank failed to achieve the targets for improv-ing the � nancial indicators excepting deposits, according to a central bank review report.

The bank’s capital stood at Tk360 crore in September this year against the target of improving it to Tk400 crore by September 2013.

The capital was Tk188 crore in the year 2012 and the bank was running with a capital shortfall of Tk40 crore as of September this year, according to the report.

The bank was prescribed to limitits Advance Deposit Ratio (ADR) to 81% by the year 2013 but it remained 69.73% as

of September 2014. The ADR was 78% in the year 2012.

The default loan rate of the bank stood at 15% at the end of the year 2013 against the target of 5% as per DOBB. The rate, however, came down to 7.58% in September this year.

The bank was instructed to meet the total provision shortfall of Tk56.63 crore by the last year but the amount of shortfall increased to over Tk71 crore at the end of the year instead of reduc-ing. The provision shortfall, though, reduced to Tk5.35 crore on September this year.

Recovering of the default loans from the defaulters was negligible compared to the target set by the central bank. Despite huge rescheduling of the de-fault loans, the bank has once again fail to reach the target.

As of December 2012, around 20 de-

faulters owed the bank Tk81 crore the while over Tk74 crore was defaulted by others. The bank was again instructed to recover the total default loan of over Tk155 crore by September this year.

However, the bank recovered only around Tk11 crore from the top 20 de-faulters while Tk23 crore from others.

The deposits of the bank improved to Tk1,918 crore in December 2013 as per the BB target from Tk1,530 crore in the year 2012, according to DOBB re-view report.

The net pro� t of the bank increased to over Tk11crore in September this year from Tk2 crore in December last year. The net pro� t of the bank was over Tk10 crore in the year 2012. The operating cost of the bank decreased to over Tk31 crore in September from over Tk63 crore in December last year, according to the central bank data. l

‘Call to � ght economic problems thru’ social business’n Tribune Business Desk

The two-day Global Social Busi-ness Summit 2014 has conclud-ed in Mexico City with a call to � ght social and economic prob-lems through social business, reports UNB.

Nobel Laureate Prof Muham-mad Yunus inaugurated the summit on November 27 at Expo Bancomer convention centre in Mexico City, said a Yunus Centre press release yesterday.

Prof Yunus presented a key-note speech highlighting the need for new ways to think about changing the world that ‘change will come about through small actions, and repeating those actions to reach scale’.

He said the Business Summit

was an opportunity for sharing the experiences of all exciting social business that are devel-oping around the world to ener-gise each other.

Minister of Economy of Mexico Ildefonso Guajardo de-livered a keynote speech high-lighting the importance that microcredit and social business can play in Mexico, reiterating his government’s commitment to building social business in the country.

The Summit, which was or-ganised by Grameen Creative Lab, Green Street of Mexico and Yunus Centre, opened with 720 people from 50 countries to talk about how social business, a non-dividend company, to solve human problems and can

tackle some of the pressing so-cial problems of the day.

Several important an-nouncements were made dur-ing the Summit, including an announcement of $ 5 million for social business from USAID for Haiti, Albania and Uganda. There was announcement on the creation of a Yunus Social Business Incubator Fund in Ve-racruz, Mexico with the support of the Veracruz government.

Besides, CEMEX, a leading international cement company, announced a social business in housing in Mexico.

Following the Summit, Prof Yunus delivered a public lecture to a packed audience of 1,500 people, mostly young Mexi-cans, at the Expo Bancomer. l

Tofail: Germany to become No.1 export marketn Tribune Business Desk

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed yesterday said Germany will turn into Bangladesh’s number one export mar-ket in the days to come.

“At this moment, Germany is the sec-ond largest export market for Bangla-desh. In future, it will turn number one export market for us,” he told journal-ists after a meeting with a German trade delegation at his Secretariat o� ce.

State Secretary at the German Fed-eral Ministry of Labour and Social Af-

fairs Jorg Asmussen led the delegation.The commerce minister said Ger-

many is pleased over Bangladesh’s eco-nomic development and the country expressed willingness to extend bilat-eral ties on all fronts, reports UNB.

Bangladesh is working to increase the number of exportable goods apart from � nding new export destinations, he added.

Tofail also shared with the delega-tion the progress made in the country’s readymade garment industry after the Rana Plaza disaster. l

The default loan rate of the bank stood at 15% at the end of the year 2013 against the target of 5%

B2 Stock Friday, December 5, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

News, analysis and recent disclosuresKEYACOSMET: The Board of Directors has recommended 20% cash dividend for the year ended on June 30, 2014. Record Date: 21.12.2014. Date, Time and Venue of the AGM will be noti� ed later. The Company has also reported EPS of Tk. 1.51, NAV per share of Tk. 21.09 and NOCFPS of Tk. 1.62 for the year ended on June 30, 2014 as against Tk. 1.41 (restated), Tk. 21.54 and Tk. (1.29) respectively for the year ended on June 30, 2013.RECKITTBEN: The Board of Directors of the Company has declared 175% interim cash dividend (second time) for the year ending on 31 December 2014 after con-sidering the performance of the Company from 01 January 2014 to 30 September 2014. The Board has also declared pro� t after tax of Tk. 150.02 million and EPS of Tk. 31.75 for the period ended on 30 Sep-tember 2014. Record date for entitlement of interim dividend: 15.12.2014.Hamid Fabrics Limited: (Q1): The Company has reported its pro� t after tax Tk. 61.55 million and basic EPS Tk. 1.26 for the period ended on 30 September 2014 (July'14-Sept'14) as against pro� t after tax of Tk. 63.86 million and basic EPS of Tk. 1.31 for the same period of the previous year. It is to be noted that basic EPS has been calculated based on weighted aver-

age Pre-IPO paid-up number of shares i.e. 48,837,500 for both the periods. However, considering Post-IPO 78,837,500 number of shares, Company's basic EPS would be Tk. 0.78 for the period ended on 30 Sep-tember 2014 and NAV per share would be Tk. 43.08 as on 30 September 2014.MICEMENT: Credit Rating Agency of Ban-gladesh Limited (CRAB) has announced the entity rating of the Company as "AA2" along with a Stable outlook based on au-dited � nancial statements of the Company up to 2014, Bank Liability position as on November 26, 2014 and other relevant quantitative and qualitative information up to the date of rating declaration.SUMITPOWER: Credit Rating Information and Services Limited (CRISL) has rated the Company as "AA+" in the long term and "ST-1" in the short term in consideration of audited � nancials of the Company up to December 31, 2013, unaudited � nancials up to September 30, 2014 and other relevant quantitative as well as qualita-tive information up to the date of rating declaration.KPCL: Credit Rating Information and Services Limited (CRISL) has rated the Company as "AA" in the long term and "ST-1" in the short term in consideration of audited � nancials of the Company up to

December 31, 2013, unaudited � nancials up to September 30, 2014 and other relevant quantitative as well as qualita-tive information up to the date of rating declaration.IPO Subscription: IFAD Autos Limited subscription date 23 to 27 November 2014, NRB upto 06 December 2014. @ taka 30, face value taka 10 and market lot 200. Shasha Denims Limited subscription date 14 to 21 December 2014, NRB upto 30 December 2014. @ taka 10, face value taka 35 and market lot 200. Zaheen Spinning Limited subscription date 28 December 2014 to 04 January 2015, NRB upto 13 January 2015. @ taka 10, face value taka 10 and market lot 500.Right Share: 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. FIRSTSBANK Subscription period for rights issue will be from 07.12.2014 to 28.12.2014. Record date for entitlement of rights share: 20.11.2014.

Dividend/AGMBATASHOE: 175% interim cash dividend, Record Date for entitlement of interim dividend: 04.12.2014.ICB: 45% cash, AGM: 20.12.2014, Record Date: 03.12.2014.

Pro� t booking on stocks break three-day rallyn Tribune Report

Stocks pared losses with high vol-atility on pro� t booking yesterday after a three-day steep rise.

The market opened red but some buy pressure in the second session helped recover the market fully. But it did not sustain at close of the trade.

The benchmark DSEX lost 30 points or 0.6% to close at 4,962, af-ter hitting highest at 4,995 and low-est 4,961.

However, the Shariah index DSES was marginally down almost 5 points or 0.5% to 1,161. The compris-ing blue chips DS30 settled at 1,843, edging 10 points or 0.6% lower.

Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, was down 51 points to end at 9,310.

However, trading activities slowed as turnover at DSE stood at Tk513crore, slightly down 0.5% low-er over the previous session.

Among the major sectors, only textile made the day green with de-but of new scrip Hamid Fabrics.

Hamid Fabrics in its � rst trading day rose more than 60% to close at Tk56 per share on its o� er value. It

rose as high as Tk60 and as low as Tk55 a share.

It was the most traded stocks with shares worth Tk50 crore chang-ing hands.

Other than that, banking, en-gineering, non-banking � nancial institutions, cement and IT stocks were under sale pressure due to pro� t booking.

Pharmaceuticals, textile and fuel and power led the participation chart, accounting for 47.7% of trade value.

Gainers beat losers as out of 305 issues traded, 110 advanced, 160 de-clined and 35 remained unchanged.

Lanka Bangla Securities said DSEX declined on face of pro� t booking after rallying 250 points in last three trading sessions.

However, traders acted reluc-tantly to make signi� cant move as choppy trading came on the heel of the strength that was seen in the previous sessions, it said.

IDLC Investments said the pref-erence to book pro� t beyond three running sessions’ up tone pulled down the market.

It said additionally, the reporting of poor recovery in default loans and increased classi� ed loans in baking industry hit on today’s mar-ket sentiment, too.

“Hence, investors got frightened on overall economic future, pursu-ing cashing out tendency.”

After Hamid Fabrics, other top turnover leaders include Beximco Pharma, Keya Cosmetics, Beximco Ltd, Titas Gas, Western Marine Ship-yard and AB Bank. l

CSE LOSER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Khan Brothers-N -7.84 -6.18 43.08 42.30 45.30 42.00 7.496 1.36 31.7Prime Insur -A -6.00 -6.00 18.80 18.80 18.80 18.80 0.019 1.81 10.4Shinepukur Cera-Z -4.70 -4.70 14.20 14.20 14.20 14.20 0.010 0.39 36.4Sonargaon Tex -Z -4.39 -2.93 10.93 10.90 11.20 10.60 0.240 -0.84 -veICB AMCL IslamicMF-A -4.26 -4.26 13.50 13.50 13.50 13.50 0.014 2.76 4.9WesternMarine -N -4.21 -3.53 57.60 56.90 59.90 56.30 18.460 1.80 32.0Delta Life Insu. -A -4.17 -3.18 157.94 156.10 162.00 155.00 1.222 2.92 54.1Zahintex Ind.-N -4.09 -2.29 16.63 16.40 17.00 15.80 0.119 1.04 16.0Usmania Glass -A -4.06 -5.14 120.79 120.40 123.00 120.00 0.187 0.52 232.3JMI Syringes MDL-A -4.02 -3.65 173.92 172.10 179.90 171.00 3.305 4.48 38.8

DSE LOSER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Khan Brothers-N -7.84 -5.38 43.48 42.30 46.10 42.00 63.852 1.36 32.0Rahim Textile -A -5.62 -2.37 278.57 273.60 293.40 270.50 1.363 11.00 25.3Savar Refractories-Z -5.58 -5.58 49.10 49.10 49.10 49.10 0.027 -0.44 -veSonali Ansh -A -5.49 -6.69 142.04 141.10 149.70 138.00 5.291 0.76 186.9Aramit -A -4.84 -3.48 298.05 295.00 310.00 293.00 4.426 14.12 21.1Nitol Insurance -A -4.75 1.28 31.64 30.10 32.70 30.00 2.278 2.79 11.3WesternMarine -N -4.55 -3.50 57.61 56.70 59.80 56.40 121.995 1.80 32.0BD. Autocars -Z -4.45 -5.45 23.43 23.60 24.50 23.20 0.041 0.20 117.2Provati Insur.-A -4.31 -4.59 19.96 20.00 20.90 19.20 1.856 1.97 10.1Desh Garments -B -4.28 -3.61 78.66 78.20 80.10 78.10 1.644 0.80 98.3

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume-Shares

Value in Million

% of Total-Turnover ClosingP Change % ClosingY DHIGH DLOW AvgPrice

Hamid Fabrics -N 2,166,600 131.20 28.71 55.50 0.00 0.00 69.00 55.00 60.55BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 581,413 23.73 5.19 40.40 0.75 40.10 41.30 40.00 40.81WesternMarine -N 320,500 18.46 4.04 56.90 -4.21 59.40 59.90 56.30 57.60Keya Cosmetics -A 584,760 17.43 3.81 29.10 -0.34 29.20 30.40 28.90 29.81Jamuna Oil -A 55,560 14.26 3.12 254.50 -0.82 256.60 264.00 235.00 256.75Beximco Pharma -A 191,172 12.74 2.79 66.70 2.93 64.80 68.00 65.00 66.62Moza� ar H.Spinning-A 421,500 10.31 2.26 24.20 -2.02 24.70 25.30 24.10 24.46Grameenphone-A 21,400 7.56 1.65 352.60 -0.34 353.80 356.00 345.40 353.39Khan Brothers-N 174,000 7.50 1.64 42.30 -7.84 45.90 45.30 42.00 43.08Square Pharma -A 28,386 7.42 1.62 261.50 -0.57 263.00 265.00 260.00 261.49AB Bank - A 211,411 6.73 1.47 31.60 -2.77 32.50 32.30 31.40 31.84People`s Leasing-A 257,354 6.38 1.40 24.70 0.82 24.50 25.10 24.20 24.79SummitAlliancePort.-A 83,300 6.32 1.38 75.60 -2.45 77.50 77.10 74.50 75.82R. N. Spinning-Z 188,600 5.51 1.21 29.70 10.00 27.00 29.70 27.00 29.22FAR Chemical-N 156,000 5.01 1.10 31.80 -2.15 32.50 33.00 31.70 32.13

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume-Shares

Value in Million

% of Total-Turnover ClosingP Change

% ClosingY DHIGH DLOW Avg-Price

Hamid Fabrics -N 8,186,200 499.61 9.73 56.10 0.00 0.00 69.00 55.00 61.03Beximco Pharma -A 4,663,813 311.15 6.06 67.20 3.86 64.70 68.10 59.00 66.72Keya Cosmetics -A 9,385,816 278.87 5.43 29.10 0.00 29.10 30.90 27.00 29.71Olympic Ind. -A 783,500 175.21 3.41 223.00 0.59 221.70 224.20 220.50 223.63BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 4,182,799 170.44 3.32 40.40 0.75 40.10 41.50 37.00 40.75Titas Gas TDCLA 1,493,982 125.34 2.44 83.80 0.24 83.60 84.90 75.80 83.90WesternMarine -N 2,117,500 122.00 2.38 56.70 -4.55 59.40 59.80 56.40 57.61AB Bank - A 3,724,542 118.41 2.31 31.40 -3.68 32.60 33.00 30.00 31.79Grameenphone-A 286,600 101.30 1.97 352.60 0.11 352.20 357.00 347.90 353.46SummitAlliancePort.-A 1,216,536 92.18 1.80 75.40 -2.46 77.30 77.60 70.00 75.77Jamuna Oil -A 333,700 84.95 1.65 254.30 -0.90 256.60 259.40 236.00 254.57People`s Leasing-A 3,412,656 84.44 1.64 24.60 0.82 24.40 25.30 22.00 24.74 Argon Denims Limited-A 1,621,459 73.40 1.43 45.10 4.16 43.30 46.30 40.00 45.27GSP Finance-A 2,343,793 73.25 1.43 31.80 3.58 30.70 32.00 28.00 31.25Square Pharma -A 270,284 71.07 1.38 263.00 -0.68 264.80 265.00 245.00 262.95

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

Sector DSE CSE TotalMillion Taka % change Million Taka % change Million Taka % change

Bank 462.70 9.01 27.39 5.93 490.09 8.76NBFI 415.87 8.10 22.17 4.80 438.04 7.83Investment 32.86 0.64 2.49 0.54 35.35 0.63Engineering 501.28 9.76 42.87 9.29 544.14 9.72Food & Allied 303.11 5.90 9.38 2.03 312.49 5.58Fuel & Power 560.49 10.92 34.35 7.44 594.84 10.63Jute 5.37 0.10 0.00 5.37 0.10Textile 920.70 17.93 177.52 38.46 1098.22 19.62Pharma & Chemical 969.50 18.88 61.26 13.27 1030.76 18.42Paper & Packaging 24.02 3.21 0.70 27.23 0.49Service 206.16 4.01 12.86 2.79 219.02 3.91Leather 20.61 0.40 2.30 0.50 22.92 0.41Ceramic 29.79 0.58 2.36 0.51 32.15 0.57Cement 79.38 1.55 5.20 1.13 84.58 1.51Information Technology 58.75 1.14 2.90 0.63 61.65 1.10General Insurance 39.64 0.77 0.97 0.21 40.61 0.73Life Insurance 62.97 1.23 2.62 0.57 65.60 1.17Telecom 112.93 2.20 9.97 2.16 122.90 2.20Travel & Leisure 62.25 1.21 7.16 1.55 69.41 1.24Miscellaneous 265.90 5.18 34.60 7.50 300.50 5.37Debenture 0.68 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.69 0.01

Daily capital market highlightsDSE Broad Index : 4961.84846 (-) 0.60% ▲

DSE - 30 Index : 1843.69493 (-) 0.55% ▲

CSE All Share Index: 15266.30600 (-) 0.58% ▲

CSE - 30 Index : 12565.06060 (-) 0.31% ▲

CSE Selected Index : 9310.27270 (-) 0.54% ▲

DSE key features December 4, 2014Turnover (Million Taka)

5,134.95

Turnover (Volume)

125,870,350

Number of Contract 135,466

Traded Issues 305

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

118

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

179

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

8

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,649.77

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

32.12

CSE key features December 4, 2014Turnover (Million Taka) 457.69

Turnover (Volume) 11,732,440

Number of Contract 23,289

Traded Issues 222

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

89

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

128

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

4

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,544.20

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

30.84

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

Investors got frightened on overall economic future, pursuing cashing out tendency

CSE GAINER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

R. N. Spinning-Z 10.00 7.03 29.22 29.70 29.70 27.00 5.511 2.19 13.3Fu-Wang Food A 8.07 6.48 23.67 24.10 24.30 22.80 3.156 1.80 13.2Alltex Industries -Z 7.09 6.40 26.78 27.20 27.50 25.30 4.673 3.28 8.2Padma Islami Life*-N 6.10 3.47 39.11 40.00 41.40 36.90 0.352 1.10 35.6Sa� o Spinning-A 6.04 3.27 34.39 35.10 35.50 33.10 5.003 1.24 27.7GSP Finance-A 5.50 4.51 31.95 32.60 32.90 30.50 2.661 1.59 20.1ICB AMCL 2nd NRB -A 5.41 5.41 7.80 7.80 7.80 7.80 0.016 1.20 6.5Provati Insur.-A 4.88 5.50 21.49 21.50 21.60 21.30 0.516 1.97 10.9 Argon Denims Limited-A 4.62 4.32 45.40 45.30 46.20 44.00 4.449 3.79 12.0FAS Fin. & Inv. Ltd-B 4.39 3.91 21.02 21.40 21.60 20.50 0.452 1.27 16.6

DSE GAINER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

R. N. Spinning-Z 9.16 6.52 29.57 29.80 30.00 27.20 60.738 2.19 13.5Shahjibazar Power-N 8.68 7.81 244.73 246.60 246.70 231.20 14.243 9.00 27.2GeminiSeaFood-Z 8.64 6.20 219.66 223.80 224.00 200.10 2.581 1.39 158.0Northern Jute -Z 8.00 8.00 239.00 239.00 239.00 239.00 0.048 1.00 239.0Fu-Wang Food A 7.17 6.87 23.81 23.90 24.30 22.00 48.786 1.80 13.2Bangladesh Welding -Z 7.14 3.87 16.11 16.50 16.80 14.00 9.568 0.44 36.6Alltex Industries -Z 6.59 5.61 26.75 27.50 27.90 25.20 20.668 3.28 8.2Kohinoor Chem -A 4.59 4.58 378.00 378.00 384.00 370.20 2.268 10.40 36.3BD Finance-A 4.49 4.18 16.20 16.30 16.70 14.20 27.005 0.69 23.5Sa� o Spinning-A 4.22 3.98 34.72 34.60 36.00 30.00 47.886 1.24 28.0

ANALYST

Trading activities slowed as turnover at DSE stood at Tk513crore, slightly down 0.5% lower over the previous session

B3BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, December 5, 2014

A OPEC � ag is seen during the presentation of OPEC's 2013 World Oil Outlook in Vienna REUTERS

Kuwait: Oil producers pump more while urging OPEC cutn AFP

Kuwait on Wednesday accused oil-producing countries that had urged OPEC to cut its output, in a bid to curb sliding prices, of doing the opposite by pumping more crude.

Oil Minister Ali al-Omair defended the oil cartel’s decision last week to maintain production levels, insisting that member states want to keep their market share.

“Everyone wanted you (OPEC) to cut your output while they increased production and � ooded the market. This is unacceptable to us and we have to preserve our market share and continue with a production level that covers our needs,” Omair told parliament.

He did not name any country, but ap-peared to allude to non-OPEC members, mainly oil-rich Russia, the world’s largest producer of crude that had urged OPEC in the past to cut production.

“After discussing the issue of cutting output at OPEC, we found that there was no point in reducing production,” Omair said.

“The output surplus on the interna-tional market was 1.8 million barrels per day, and amid a slow world economy there is no point in cutting output while others raced to raise their production,” he said.

He said the Organization of Petro-leum Exporting Countries had sought to coordinate with non-OPEC oil producers over supplies and prices.

“We will not sacri� ce our interests for the sake of adjusting market prices,” said the minister who said he hoped the OPEC decision would bene� t the market in the future.

Last week’s OPEC decision sent oil prices crashing to � ve-year lows.

However, crude prices made some gains in Asian trade on Wedn esday as traders awaited a US stockpiles report.

US benchmark West Texas Intermedi-ate (WTI) for January delivery rose 52 cents to $67.40, while Brent crude for January gained 35 cents to $70.89 in afternoon trade.

WTI tumbled $2.12 in New York on Tuesday, while Brent fell $2.00 after Iraq announced plans to boost its exports of crude after striking a deal with the autonomous Kurdish region.

Omair said Kuwait was pumping 2.7 million barrels a day, around 300,000 lower than its average daily produc-tion for the past three years. A portion of the decline was the result of halting production at a Saudi-Kuwaiti o� shore oil� eld. l

ECB set to talk up stimulus measures but hold � ren AFP, Frankfurt

The European Central Bank, at its � nal meeting of the year later yesterday, will prime the markets for new anti-de� a-tion measures, but will wait until early next year to act, analysts said.

Given the alarming drop in eurozone in� ation in recent months, the heat has increased on the ECB to undertake massive stimulus measures like central banks in Britain, Japan and the United States have done.

According to o� cial data, in� ation in the 18 countries that share the euro slowed to 0.3% in November from 0.4% the previous month, feeding fears of imminent de� ation.

Falling prices may sound good for the consumer, but they can trigger a vicious spiral where businesses and households delay purchases, throttling demand and causing companies to lay o� workers.

The ECB is scheduled to publish its own latest updated in� ation and growth forecasts and is worried that medium-term in� ation expectations could become permanently de-an-chored from its target of around 2%.

The ECB has already launched a multi-pronged o� ensive against de� a-tion, cutting its interest rates to new all-time lows, making unprecedented amounts of cheap loans available to banks via its LTRO and TLTRO pro-grammes, and unveiling asset purchase programmes (ABSs and covered bonds) to pump liquidity into the � nancial sys-tem.

But it has also hinted at more radical action in the form of quantitative eas-ing (QE), a policy used by other central banks around to stimulate their slug-gish economies.QE is the large-scale purchase of gov-ernment bonds and such a policy has many critics in Europe, not least the German central bank or Bundesbank, because it is felt that it takes the ECB outside its remit and is e� ectively a licence to print money to get govern-ments out of debt.

‘Not if, but when’ “The ECB will aim to send out a strong message this Thursday that it will do what it takes to raise in� ation and in-� ation expectations as fast as possible,” said Berenberg Bank economist Chris-tian Schulz.

“Even if it does not step up its ac-tions just yet, it will choose language for the statement that makes addition-

al easing a near certainty for the � rst quarter of 2015,” the expert said.

“The question is no longer if, but when and what.” Last week, the ECB’s number two, Vitor Constancio, said the central bank would be in a position to gauge whether the previous stimulus measures are working in the � rst quarter of 2015.

“If not, we will have to consider buying other assets, including sover-

eign bonds in the secondary market,” Constancio said.

Just days prior to that, ECB chief Ma-rio Draghi had vowed to “step up the pressure and broaden even more the channels through which we intervene ... without any undue delay.”

Nevertheless, ECB-watchers are sceptical that QE will be announced as soon as later yesterday.

“With little action and much em-phasis on the feel-good factor and good team spirit, this week’s ECB meeting should � t into the contemplative pre-Christmas atmosphere,” said ING DiBa economist Carsten Brzeski.

“At the very least, we expect the ECB to indicate that it is planning more ag-gressive purchases in the nearer term,” said Ben May at Oxford Economics. l

Intel to invest $1.6bn in China factoryn Reuters, Beijing

Intel Corp will invest $1.6bn to upgrade its factory in the city of Chengdu in western China, the latest sign of how the chipmaker is deepening ties in a market that is proving increasingly troublesome for some US technology peers.

As part of the upgrade, Intel said in a statement yesterday it would bring its most advanced chip-testing technol-ogy to China. In exchange it will receive local and regional government support for construction.

“Deploying our newest advanced testing technology in China shows our commitment to innovating jointly with China,” Intel executive vice president William Holt said in the statement. “The fully upgraded Chengdu plant will help the Chinese semiconductor industry and boost regional economic growth.”

The announcement comes three months after Intel purchased a minor-ity stake in a government-controlled semiconductor company to jointly de-sign and distribute mobile chips, an industry that China considers to be of strategic importance.

Intel’s fortunes in China contrast with the travails of its rival, Qualcomm Inc, which is expected to announce in the coming days a potentially record-breaking settlement with Chinese anti-trust regulators.

China’s investigation into San Diego-based Qualcomm, as well as a spate of recent probes against � rms includ-ing Microsoft Corp, have prompted an outcry from foreign business lobbies. They say the Chinese government is in-creasingly adopting strong-arm tactics to yield technology-sharing or other arrangements bene� cial to domestic industry. l

An employee walks past an Intel logo during the 2014 Computex exhibition at the TWTC Nangang exhibition hall in Taipei REUTERS

Intel, Luxottica team up for smart eyewearn AFP, New York

US tech giant Intel said Wednesday it was joining forces with Italy’s Luxotti-ca to develop connected eyewear, with the � rst products due in 2015.

“The ultimate goal is to help pioneer that change and deliver smart, fashion-forward products that are meaningful and desirable to consumers,” said a joint statement from the two companies.

Details of the new products were not announced. Luxottica already has an agreement to use its frames for brand-ed versions of Google Glass.

The latest partnership underscores a commitment to wearable technology

for Intel, which is best known for its computer chips. “The growth of wear-able technology is creating a new play-ing � eld for innovation,” said Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich.

“Through our collaboration with Luxottica Group, we will unite our re-spective ecosystems and bring together Intel’s leading-edge silicon and software technology with Luxottica’s design in-novation and consumer expertise.”

Luxottica Group CEO Massimo Vian said the partnership will “lead the change to create frames that are as intelligent and functional as they are beautiful. Products that consumers will love to wear.”’ l

Doctors diagnose a patient remotely at the First Hospital of Zhejiang Province in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province REUTERS

Oil world’s have nots feel pain of OPEC decision B1 COLUMN 6“The fall in oil prices pushes Venezuela even closer to default. Given that the government has nothing in the way of savings from the oil price boom of the past decade, the loss of oil revenues will wipe out whatever foreign cur-rency that the government has,” said David Rees, an analyst at Capital Eco-nomics.

The oil price pain could rekindle the violent protests that gripped the coun-try in the � rst half of the year, analysts warned.

“Venezuela is the weakest link in the chain. The likelihood of civil unrest in the country in 2015 is increasing,” said Oliver Jacob, analyst at Petromatrix.

Nigeria, whose oil wealth has made it Africa’s largest economy, is also stuck in a predicament.

“The government has taken some panicky measures including massive devaluation of the naira,” a tool also used in Venezuela, said Peter Ozo-

Eson, secretary general of the Nigeria Labour Congress.

“The lesson for oil producers is that it is unwise to rely on a single commod-ity for survival,” said Nigerian econo-mist Abolaji Oladimej Odumesi.

China to the rescue? Iran has begun following that advice, in-creasing non-oil exports, including pet-rochemical products and natural gas.

“The budget is less and less depen-dent on oil,” said Saeed Leylaz, one of the country’s top economists.

“The country could even withstand $75 a barrel.”

But other analysts say double de-pendence on oil and petrochemicals will keep the country at the mercy of crude prices.

The Iranian government has an-nounced a tax increase and austerity-driven monetary policy for 2015.

It also appears to have asked for a bailout from China, which recently an-

nounced it was doubling investment in Iranian energy. Venezuela is trying the same strategy.

O� cials announced Friday that the Chinese economy minister would visit Venezuela to “deepen economic and � nancial agreements” to compensate for “a lack of earnings due to low oil revenues.”

In non-OPEC member Russia, which relies on oil for half its revenues, the ruble has accelerated its decline, losing more than 40 percent against the euro this year and more than 60% against the dollar.

The government wants to slash oil exports by � ve million tons to prop up prices.

“With oil prices dropping and the $60bn debt of state-controlled oil pro-ducer Rosneft, the impact on the Rus-sian economy could be heavy, losing potential to expand globally,” said Pe-tra Kuraliova of brokerage house Trad-eNext. l

Best Buy to sell China business, focus on North American Reuters, Shanghai

US retailer Best Buy Co Inc said yester-day it will sell its struggling China busi-ness, Five Star, to domestic real estate � rm Zhejiang Jiayuan Group in order to focus on its North American operations.

The world’s largest consumer elec-tronics chain didn’t disclose � nancial terms of the sale of the 184-store net-work announced in a statement.

Best Buy has struggled to fend o� Chinese rivals in a crowded market, as other US � rms have complained that operating in the country has become more of a challenge.

“The sale of Five Star does not suggest any similar action in Canada or Mexico. Instead, it allows us to focus even more on our North American business,” Hu-bert Joly, Best Buy’s president and chief executive o� cer, said in the statement.

Joly added that Best Buy would continue to invest in its private label operation in the country. Best Buy’s China operations accounted for around 4 percent of its sales in the most recent � nancial year, ended Feb 1.

Jiayuan Group did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Best Buy pulled out of the European market last year when it sold its stake in Carphone Warehouse Group for less than half its initial investment. At the time, many analysts suggested the � rm should also consider exiting China.

The deal, which is subject to regula-tory approval, is expected to close in the � rst quarter of � scal 2016. l

The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close in the � rst quarter of � scal 2016

B4 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, December 5, 2014

DILBERT

Experts: Low pro� t, weak standards hamper Islamic banks

n AFP

The Islamic banking industry is being hampered by low pro� ts and “medio-cre” customer satisfaction despite im-pressive growth, o� cials and execu-tives said at a � nancial conference in Bahrain.

The sector, which provides banking services compliant with Islamic sharia law, has doubled in size over the past four years and is now worth more than $2tn (1.6tn euros).

But a study by EY (formerly Ernst & Young) released at the World Islamic

Banking Conference in Bahrain this week found that Islamic banks run at signi� cantly lower pro� t margins than their conventional peers.

The study, conducted on Islamic banks in nine countries including Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Kuwait, found that their return on equity was 19% lower than traditional banks in the same markets.

This could cost shareholders billions of dollars in forgone pro� t, it said.

It also analysed the views expressed on social media by 2.25 million Islamic bank customers and found many un-

satis� ed with the service they had re-ceived.

“Results show that for many banks ... customer satisfaction is, at best, me-diocre,” EY said, attributing discontent to poor performance and a lack of use of technology.

‘Limited investment options’Islamic � nance is based on shared prof-it and loss, which minimises risk for banks. The system forbids charging in-terest - banned as usury in Islam - and avoids dealing in debt and derivatives.

To meet an ever-increasing demand,

the sector has developed numerous products compliant with sharia law, from loans for cars and houses to fund-ing major infrastructure projects.

Jaseem Ahmed, secretary general of the Malaysia-based Islamic Finan-cial Services Board (IFSB), the leading regulatory body for Islamic banking, believes low pro� ts in the sector are down to a lack of sharia-compliant in-vestment opportunities.

“In Islamic banks, liquidity is pri-marily held in cash and reserves, which a� ects their pro� tability. Cash does not earn you returns. For Islamic banks, the options for investments are limited,” Ahmed told AFP.

Bahrain’s central bank governor Ra-sheed al-Maraj called on Islamic banks to take a “giant stride” as they become more exposed to global markets.

“It is time for us to re� ect on where we are and where we intend to go,” Maraj told the two-day conference.

Maraj said Islamic banks needed among other reforms to improve their regulation, risk management and stan-dardisation.

Although Islamic regulatory bodies have established a number of standards, di� erent interpretations of religious texts and weak implementation mean they remain far from industry-wide.

Hamed Merah, secretary general of the Accounting and Auditing Organisa-tion for Islamic Financial Institutions - a major sector regulator - said stan-dards should be mandatory.

“If regulators make these standards compulsory, it will help the industry immensely,” Merah said.

But Sheikh Essam Ishaq, a religious scholar on Islamic � nance, said sector-wide regulation was di� cult “because the understanding of Islam and its in-terpretation is di� erent”.

Around 40 million of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims are now clients of the Islamic � nance industry, which has surged in popularity since its days as a small niche market in the early 1970s.

But it continues to represent less than two percent of the global banking assets of $140tn, according to EY. l

Secretary-General, Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB), Jaseem Ahmed speaks during the 21st Annual World Islamic Banking Conference (WIBC 2014) in the capital Manama recently AFP

Dollar up in Asia after positive Fed report on US economyn AFP, Tokyo

The dollar yesterday edged closer to 120 yen after the Federal Reserve pub-lished an upbeat outlook on the US economy, while the euro was mixed ahead of a European Central Bank pol-icy meeting.

In Tokyo the greenback fetched 119.92 yen, up from 119.80 yen in New York and a whisker o� the 120 yen mark last reached in July 2007. The euro hovered at a two-year low of $1.2307 against $1.2308, while it rose to 147.59 yen from 147.48 yen in US trading.

Dollar buying got a boost after the Fed report showed “a number” of the central bank’s 12 districts said contacts “remained optimistic about the out-look for future economic activity”.

The Beige Book, a collection of anec-dotal information on current economic conditions, is closely watched by inves-tors as a barometer of the health of the economy.

For the � rst time in more than a year, the Fed dropped its “modest” and “moderate” descriptions of overall growth, saying reports suggest “that

national economic activity continued to expand” in the past two months.

The report came on the heels of healthy construction and sales � g-ures that also bolstered hopes for the world’s top economy.

Osamu Takashima, chief FX strat-egist at Citigroup Global Markets Ja-pan, said the dollar-yen rate - under renewed pressure since the Bank of Ja-pan launched fresh easing measures in late October - has “upswing room to go up to 125 by the end of this year”.

The euro is struggling to move high-er ahead of Thursday’s ECB meeting, with investors watching to see if poli-cymakers introduce monetary easing measures to kickstart the region’s slug-gish economy.

Many analysts expect the central bank to hold � re, but say it may signal a move in the new year such as sovereign bond purchases.

“Even if it does not step up its ac-tions just yet, it will choose language for the statement that makes addition-al easing a near certainty for the � rst quarter of 2015,” said Berenberg Bank economist Christian Schulz. l

A woman walks past an exchange o� ce in Moscow on Wednesday. The ruble turned back down on Wednesday, reaching new record lows against the dollar and the euro as trading began, before recovering slightly AFP

Canada wheat exports dogged by quality complaintsn Reuters

Buyers of Canadian wheat are increasingly complaining about quality ever since Ot-tawa changed how its biggest crop is sold and inspected, raising the risk the world’s third largest exporter will lose sales to rivals like the United States.

Problems include underweight ship-ments, lower-than-expected protein content and gluten strength in the wheat, and even the occasional mixture of wheat with other agricultural products. In October, Singapore-based Prima Group found 850 kilograms of peas in a 25-tonne wheat ship-ment. A metric tonne is the equivalent of about 2,200 pounds (1,000 kilograms).

“We don’t know what’s going on in the system here,” said Prima advisor Derek Sliworsky in Winnipeg, who said that while not all Canadian wheat shipments su� er from poor quality, “we don’t have these problems from other origins.” Prima buys between 500,000 and 1 million tonnes of Canadian wheat a year to produce � our at its mills in Singapore, Sri Lanka and China.

Problems have grown since 2012, when Ottawa stripped the Canadian Wheat Board of its centralized role in marketing wheat, said Sliworsky, who used to work for the Wheat Board. The following year, Ottawa cut one-third of the workforce of the Canadian Grain Commission, the agency responsible for quality.

Randy Dennis, the commission’s chief grain inspector, also said that since 2012, buyers have increasingly complained about the quality of wheat exports, especially about gluten properties.

Since late 2012, exporters have been able to have cargo certi� ed on the basis of a composite vessel sample or from each incremental 2,000-tonne load. This change was poorly communicated to buyers such as Prima, Sliworsky said. In spring 2014 Prima was shipped wheat from Canada with lower protein than expected, reducing its value by up to $12 per tonne.

As of 2013, government weighing sta� no longer monitor vessel loading at the el-evator, but review information provided by the grain handler before certifying weight.

This year, Prima received a shipment that was 375 tonnes light.

The government also no longer requires the grain commission to inspect and weigh rail cars unloading at port, instead allowing grain handlers or third parties to do it.

That change has led to less rigorous inspection, said Bob Kingston, president of the Agriculture Union, which represents commission workers. “The fact that there are screw-ups - I would have been shocked if there wasn’t,” he said. Formal complaints � led with the grain commission haven’t become more common, said spokesman Remi Gosselin.

“It’s not a question of who is to blame (for quality concerns) but how the grain sector adapts to change,” he said.

Canada is renowned for the quality and consistency of its crops, said Canadian Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz in an email. The grain commission “continues to ensure consistent grain quality exports that meet the expectations of buyers,” he said.

Quality problems were con� rmed by other buyers and traders, who spoke on

condition of anonymity.One Chinese � our mill reduced Canadian

spring wheat purchases last year and through the � rst half of 2014, and bought more instead from the United States because of concerns about protein levels, weights and gluten, a mill executive said.

Last year, weak gluten strength in Ca-nadian wheat also sparked concerns from China’s COFCO Corp.

Australia has gained market share in Asia this year due to weather-related concerns about Canadian quality, including wheat with an unusual appearance after wet late-summer conditions, said a Melbourne-based trader, estimating that Australia had sold about 500,000 tonnes more than normal to Asia this year.

A European grain trader who supplies durum wheat to Morocco said buying Ca-nadian wheat was less complicated under the Wheat Board, which sorted and tailored grain speci� cations to each buyer’s require-ments. The board also built loyalty by some-times giving buyers better quality than they paid for, while exporters now deliver the

bare minimum grade, the trader said.To be sure, several traders said there

have been concerns about quality in other countries’ shipments as well, including the United States and India. A Singapore � our mill manager and a spokesperson for Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said separately that they have not seen Canadian wheat quality issues.

Cereals Canada President Cam Dahl, whose group includes grain handlers Rich-ardson International, Viterra Inc and Cargill Ltd, said he had con� dence in the commis-sion’s “science-based” quality assurance system. Canada’s share of global wheat exports has hovered around 14% for the current and past two years, up slightly from the � nal two years of Wheat Board control.

That share has declined from 17% in 2000 and 21% a decade before that, re� ecting rising export competition.

To ensure Canada’s place in the wheat world, “reputation really matters,” said Neil Townsend, director of market research at grain marketing company CWB, the board’s succes-sor. “It’s a very competitive world out there.” l

China: 100 million ‘outbound trips’ this yearn AFP, Beijing

Chinese travellers have taken 100 mil-lion “outbound” trips this year, o� cials said, with the vast majority visiting Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

Just under four percent of the 100 million trips counted up to the end of November were to Europe, China’s state tourism administration said Wednes-day, while 90% were within Asia.

Although Beijing considers self-gov-erning Taiwan as part of China along with Hong Kong and Macau, the tourism ad-ministration said that nearly 71% of “out-bound” trips were to the three territories.

The total number of people travelling

abroad was not given but the � gures call into doubt previous reports that some 97 million Chinese did so last year.

Six countries - South Korea, Thailand, Japan, the United States, Vietnam and Sin-gapore - have seen more than one million trips by Chinese citizens so far this year, the administration said on its website.

China’s economy has boomed over the past decade, expanding the ranks of its middle-class who are hungry for for-eign travel after the country’s decades of isolation in the last century. European Union and Asian countries have moved to ease visa application procedures for Chinese tourists in recent years, keen to cash in on their big-spending habits. l

Gold eases on dollar strengthn Reuters, Singapore

Gold edged lower in Asian trading yes-terday as the dollar traded close to a 5-1/2-year high against a basket of ma-jor currencies, but the metal managed to hold above the key $1,200-an-ounce level.

Investors were awaiting a policy de-cision by the European Central Bank on stimulus measures and U.S. jobless claims data to see if they held any fur-ther boosts for the dollar.

Spot gold fell 0.2% to $1,207.21 an ounce by 0343 GMT, after rising nearly 1% in the previous session.

The US dollar index climbed to its highest in more than 5-1/2 years on Wednesday on optimism over the world’s largest economy. Data showed US private companies added workers at a fairly brisk clip in November and the services sector grew strongly.

“It’s a wait-and-watch situation right now because there are some key events over the next two days. We have the ECB meet today and (US) nonfarm payrolls on Friday, and bothcould potentially trigger big moves again,” said a precious metals trader in Singapore.

“It looks like we will consolidate near $1,200 for now but the risks from the last few months remain,” the trader said.

Gold climbed to a one-month high of $1,220.99 an ounce on Monday, af-ter having slumped to $1,142.91 in the same session.

Friday’s data would help investors gauge the strength of the U S economic recovery and how it would impact in-terest rates. Gold prices gained in the � rst two quarters of the year, but have fallen in the second half as expecta-tions of rate hikes lifted the dollar.

Demand for dollar-denominated gold tends to weaken on a stronger greenback as it makes the metal more expensive for holders of other curren-cies and also lowers its hedge-appeal.

Gold has also been hurt by softer oil prices recently as the metal is seen as a hedge against oil-led in� ation.

Some recent gains in gold are seen as a result of short covering, prompting traders to be wary of the moves higher.

“Much of the buying recently has been done by shorts exiting the market and not fresh longs entering the mar-ket or old longs extending positions,” HSBC analysts said in a note. l

A Cuban uses an illegal wi-� connection to surf the internet in Havana. The use of wi-� connections is not permitted by the Cuban government, but many state o� ces, hotels and embassies forget to secure their connections, to anonymously facilitate connectivity of Cubans. Though several internet o� ces have been opened in the country, their high prices prevent most Cubans from using them AFP