Kamaruzzaman’s execution depends on verdict release n Ashif Islam Shaon and Ahmed Zayeef Fixing the date for the execution of death-row war criminal Mohammad Kamaruzzaman entirely depends on the release of a copy of the Supreme Court verdict that upheld the death penalty for the Jamaat-e-Islami leader. The government will execute the verdict and fix the date for carrying out the execution only after the Supreme Court releases its judgement and due processes are followed afterwards. Attorney General Mahbubey Alam yesterday said the Supreme Court would decide when to release the copy of its verdict – either the full judgement or a short order. The copy of the ver- dict would be sent to the Internation- al Crimes Tribunal 2, which had pro- nounced the first verdict of the death sentence. The tribunal would issue a death warrant of Kamaruzzaman and send copies of the verdict and the warrant to the Dhaka Central Jail authorities where the war criminal has been kept, Mahbubey Alam told reporters at his office. Asked which form of the judgement is required – a short order or the full verdict – to execute Kamaruzzaman, he said: “Some people say the full verdict is a must, but in my opinion the verdict can be executed upon a short order.” Explaining the view, he said: “The Appellate Division has delivered the fi- nal verdict. The verdict will be sent to the trial court. According to the order given by the Supreme Court, the trial court will issue a death reference.” The attorney general said there was a difference between the cases of Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Molla who was hanged for war crimes. “Quader Molla’s death sentence was not given by the tribunal, the Supreme Court gave the verdict. As the tribunal’s verdict was changed by the Supreme Court, the apex court had to issue the full verdict.” Mahbubey Alam said: “The execu- tion is now a matter of time. It can hap- pen in three days, one week or, upon the Supreme Court’s order it could hap- pen in one month.” The Dhaka Central Jail authorities are all set to implement the death sen- tence of war criminal Kamaruzzaman PAGE 2 COLUMN 1 Blackout investigation report ‘blacked out’ n Aminur Rahman Rasel A day after a ministry probe body was supposed to submit a report on the No- vember 1 countrywide power outage, State Minister for Power Nasrul Hamid said yesterday that they had not yet found anything substantial. Only on Wednesday, several mem- bers of the probe committee told the Dhaka Tribune that they had found some key issues that could have led to the blackout. However, the junior minister, fol- lowing a brief meeting with the com- mittee at his office yesterday, said he had just got some primary information and not the official report, and would need more time and investigation to say anything conclusive. It was not a formal pre-scheduled press conference, rather some report- ers approached the state minister af- ter he had emerged from the meeting. Usually a media-friendly person, the junior minister yesterday appeared un- comfortable and avoided most of the questions that had been shot at him. “At 11:28am on November 1, because of a collapse of the national electrici- ty grid, the entire country suffered a power outage. We formed a probe com- mittee immediately. We have got some primary information from the commit- tee,” Nasrul told reporters. “The grid failure was not a conse- quence of any problem in the western or eastern grid or any of the power plants. We can say that it had happened because of an ‘internal grid failure’,” he said. However, the state minister did not clarify what he had actually meant by the term “internal grid failure” and avoided most of questions that the re- porters had asked in this regard. He also confirmed that the blackout did not happen as a consequence of the tripping of the Bheramara HDVC sub-station, which brings in electricity from India. He was then asked which tripped PAGE 2 COLUMN 1 SHAKIB JOINS SIR SOBERS, MUSHTAQ AND KALLIS 13 | SPORT TIME TO SEEK FORGIVENESS 11 | OP-ED FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION Kartik 23, 1421 Muharram 13, 1436 Regd No DA 6238 Vol 2, No 213 3 | News Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said her government planned to shift the Rohing- ya refugee camp from Kutubpalang and Nay- aparha of Cox’s Bazar to a new location. 4 | Nation Bribes of up to Tk10 lakh change hands during the recruitment, transfer and promotion of personnel in the health sector, according to the latest Transparency International Bangla- desh (TIB) report. 5 | News Chittagong Metropolitan Police has ramped up security in the port city ahead of the tour of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe cricket teams from tomorrow to November 24. 6 | Nation Thousands suffer from power outage, caused by theft of transformers in Sripur upazila in Gazipur. Over 300 acres of paddy and veg- etables are affected since irrigation pumps have remained inoperative. 8 | World Kiev said it would halt payment of state funds in areas controlled by pro-Moscow rebels, as both sides hardened positions in what is rap- idly becoming a ‘frozen conflict.’ 14 | Sport Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Ger- main and Porto all qualified for the Champions League last 16 on Wednesday with Lionel Mes- si setting another personal milestone. 12 | Entertainment Shabnur, one of the popular female leads in Dhallywood during the 1990s, is going to make her directorial debut with a film which has yet to be titled. WAITING FOR GREEN LIGHTS WEEKEND INSIDE 20 pages plus 24-page weekend supplement | Price: Tk12 MANDATORY TARGET FOR GREEN FINANCING FROM 2015 B1 | BUSINESS Two secretaries retire to escape punishment Neazuddin and Amir obtained freedom fighter certificates through fraudulence n Julfikar Ali Manik Two top bureaucrats of public admin- istration yesterday went into voluntary retirement – at a time when the gov- ernment was preparing to initiate de- partmental proceedings against them for obtaining freedom fighter certifi- cates from the Liberation War Ministry through fraudulence. Health Secretary Md Neazuddin Miah and Secretary of the Public Ser- vice Commission AKM Amir Hossain submitted letters to the public admin- istration secretary, expressing their desire to go into voluntary retirement. When contacted, Neazuddin told the Dhaka Tribune: “I have done this absolutely on personal grounds.” Dr Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury, the secretary of the Public Adminis- tration Ministry, also confirmed that he received the letters and that both the secretaries said they were going into optional retirement for personal reasons. But competent sources in the Pub- lic Administration Ministry confirmed that a few months back when the Lib- eration War Ministry cancelled the bu- reaucrats’ freedom fighter certificates issued by their office, the Liberation War Ministry had also asked the Public Administration authorities to take nec- essary steps about the top officials. The Public Administration Ministry issued show-cause notices to the two bureaucrats accordingly, asking them to explain why departmental action would not be taken against them for obtaining the certificates despite not being freedom fighters of the Libera- tion War in 1971. “We have received the replies to the show-cause notices from the of- ficials and the process was going on to start departmental proceedings against them as their replies were not satisfactory to the government,” said the source. The official also said: “Though the two officials desired to go into retire- ment voluntarily on personal grounds, it is likely that they decided to quit their job anticipating or getting infor- mation from their sources in the ad- ministration that the government was preparing to initiate departmental pro- ceedings against them.” Although Public Administration Secretary Dr Kamal did not want to make any observation regarding the retirement’s link with the freedom fighters, he confirmed that the two secretaries applied to go into optional retirement just before the initiation of departmental proceedings. He said according to the existing provision a government official can ap- ply to go into optional retirement after completion of 25 years of service or PAGE 2 COLUMN 5 Neazuddin still had two more months before normal retirement while Amir had around a year ‘The issue of clemency is not important right now as the first thing Kamaruzzaman would have to do is to file the review petition’ Standing on a swaying bamboo structure, three labourers work on a billboard as high as a four-storey building with no railings and safety gear. The photo was taken from Bangla Motor area in the capital yesterday MEHEDI HASAN Shops fully open, usual traffic jam and hundreds of pedestrians in Mirpur yesterday afternoon do not say it was a hartal day RAJIB DHAR Country unperturbed by Jamaat hartal n Abu Hayat Mahmud It’s around 11:30am. The red, yellow and green lights of the traffic signal are alternating at normal intervals. Vehi- cles are moving at a speed of less than 5 kilometres an hour. As the red light comes on, drivers step on the breaks, creating a one kilometre tailback, last- ing the duration of the signal, on either side of the Purana Paltan four-way in- tersection in Dhaka. Like on any other day, the situation at the intersection is the familiar traffic jam, which is to be expected at one of the most congested crossings in the capital. But yesterday was not a normal day, although it seemed so. It was a hartal enforced by the Jamaat-e-Islami across the country, to protest the death sen- tences of its leaders convicted of war crimes. It was not just at the Purana Paltan intersection, but across the capital, in PAGE 2 COLUMN 1 Pakistan envoy summoned over minister’s comments n Tribune Report The Foreign Ministry summoned the Acting High Commissioner of Pakistan in Dhaka yesterday, to formally convey the government’s disappointment over comments made by a Pakistani minis- ter about the war crimes verdict on Mo- tiur Rahman Nizami. Ahmad Hussain Dayo was called to the ministry to be apprised of the gov- ernment’s position on comments made by Pakistan Home Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan regarding the Interna- tional Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh verdict, said a Foreign Ministry press release. Nisar Ali Khan said last week it was highly unfortunate that almost 45 years after that tragic chain of events, the Bangladeshi government still seemed to be living in the past and ignoring the time-tested virtue of forgive and forget. The Pakistani politician said he be- lieved the government of Bangladesh had misused the process of law as a political tool against the Jamaat leader. Terming the comments unwarrant- ed and inappropriate, the additional foreign secretary (bilateral) said the comments amounted to directly inter- fering with the internal affairs of Bang- ladesh, the press release said. PAGE 2 COLUMN 5 Tourists and foreign students to be checked for militancy links n Mohammad Jamil Khan and Md Sanaul Islam Tipu The Detective Branch of police has decided to check for militancy links and keep close eyes on foreign nation- als who are visiting the country, after learning that a number of foreign stu- dents and job holders were currently engaged in militant activities on Bang- ladeshi soil. DB Joint Commissioner Monirul Is- lam said the information was learned during the primary interrogation of An- sarullah Bangla Team media wing chief Morshed Alam alias Masum alias Trac- tor, who was arrested yesterday from a house in the capital’s Kalyanpur. Masum created and maintained 117 fake Facebook user accounts in order to promote Ansarullah Bangla Team in social media websites and recruit new members for the extremist outfit. Addressing a press conference at the DMP Media Centre, the DB chief add- ed that the outfit’s members also used fake accounts to monitor blogging sites where users posted anti-religious state- ments. Ansarullah Bangla Team mem- bers also communicated with each other using blogging sites accessible to only those who knew the exact IP ad- dresses, he further said. PAGE 2 COLUMN 5
Transcript
Kamaruzzaman’s execution depends on verdict releasen Ashif Islam Shaon and
Ahmed Zayeef
Fixing the date for the execution of death-row war criminal Mohammad Kamaruzzaman entirely depends on the release of a copy of the Supreme Court verdict that upheld the death penalty for the Jamaat-e-Islami leader.
The government will execute the verdict and � x the date for carrying out the execution only after the Supreme Court releases its judgement and due processes are followed afterwards.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam yesterday said the Supreme Court would decide when to release the copy of its verdict – either the full judgement or a short order. The copy of the ver-dict would be sent to the Internation-al Crimes Tribunal 2, which had pro-nounced the � rst verdict of the death sentence.
The tribunal would issue a death warrant of Kamaruzzaman and send copies of the verdict and the warrant to the Dhaka Central Jail authorities where the war criminal has been kept, Mahbubey Alam told reporters at his o� ce.
Asked which form of the judgement is required – a short order or the full verdict – to execute Kamaruzzaman, he said: “Some people say the full verdict is a must, but in my opinion the verdict can be executed upon a short order.”
Explaining the view, he said: “The Appellate Division has delivered the � -nal verdict. The verdict will be sent to the trial court. According to the order given by the Supreme Court, the trial court will issue a death reference.”
The attorney general said there was a di� erence between the cases of Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Molla who was hanged for war crimes.
“Quader Molla’s death sentence was not given by the tribunal, the Supreme Court gave the verdict. As the tribunal’s
verdict was changed by the Supreme Court, the apex court had to issue the full verdict.”
Mahbubey Alam said: “The execu-tion is now a matter of time. It can hap-pen in three days, one week or, upon the Supreme Court’s order it could hap-pen in one month.”
The Dhaka Central Jail authorities are all set to implement the death sen-tence of war criminal Kamaruzzaman
A day after a ministry probe body was supposed to submit a report on the No-vember 1 countrywide power outage, State Minister for Power Nasrul Hamid said yesterday that they had not yet found anything substantial.
Only on Wednesday, several mem-bers of the probe committee told the Dhaka Tribune that they had found some key issues that could have led to the blackout.
However, the junior minister, fol-lowing a brief meeting with the com-mittee at his o� ce yesterday, said he had just got some primary information and not the o� cial report, and would need more time and investigation to say anything conclusive.
It was not a formal pre-scheduled press conference, rather some report-ers approached the state minister af-ter he had emerged from the meeting. Usually a media-friendly person, the junior minister yesterday appeared un-
comfortable and avoided most of the questions that had been shot at him.
“At 11:28am on November 1, because of a collapse of the national electrici-ty grid, the entire country su� ered a power outage. We formed a probe com-mittee immediately. We have got some primary information from the commit-tee,” Nasrul told reporters.
“The grid failure was not a conse-quence of any problem in the western or eastern grid or any of the power plants. We can say that it had happened because
of an ‘internal grid failure’,” he said.However, the state minister did not
clarify what he had actually meant by the term “internal grid failure” and avoided most of questions that the re-porters had asked in this regard.
He also con� rmed that the blackout did not happen as a consequence of the tripping of the Bheramara HDVC sub-station, which brings in electricity from India.
He was then asked which tripped PAGE 2 COLUMN 1
SHAKIB JOINS SIR SOBERS, MUSHTAQAND KALLIS
13 | SPORT
TIME TO SEEK FORGIVENESS
11 | OP-ED
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION
Kartik 23, 1421Muharram 13, 1436Regd No DA 6238Vol 2, No 213
3 | NewsPrime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said her government planned to shift the Rohing-ya refugee camp from Kutubpalang and Nay-aparha of Cox’s Bazar to a new location.
4 | NationBribes of up to Tk10 lakh change hands during the recruitment, transfer and promotion of personnel in the health sector, according to the latest Transparency International Bangla-desh (TIB) report.
5 | NewsChittagong Metropolitan Police has ramped up security in the port city ahead of the tour of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe cricket teams from tomorrow to November 24.
6 | NationThousands su� er from power outage, caused by theft of transformers in Sripur upazila in Gazipur. Over 300 acres of paddy and veg-etables are a� ected since irrigation pumps have remained inoperative.
8 | WorldKiev said it would halt payment of state funds in areas controlled by pro-Moscow rebels, as both sides hardened positions in what is rap-idly becoming a ‘frozen con� ict.’
14 | SportBarcelona, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Ger-main and Porto all quali� ed for the Champions League last 16 on Wednesday with Lionel Mes-si setting another personal milestone.
12 | EntertainmentShabnur, one of the popular female leads in Dhallywood during the 1990s, is going to make her directorial debut with a � lm which has yet to be titled.
WAITING FOR GREEN LIGHTS
WEEKEND
I N S I D E
20 pages plus 24-page weekend supplement | Price: Tk12
MANDATORY TARGET FORGREEN FINANCING FROM 2015
B1 | BUSINESS
Two secretaries retire to escape punishmentNeazuddin and Amir obtained freedom � ghter certi� cates through fraudulencen Julfi kar Ali Manik
Two top bureaucrats of public admin-istration yesterday went into voluntary retirement – at a time when the gov-ernment was preparing to initiate de-partmental proceedings against them for obtaining freedom � ghter certi� -cates from the Liberation War Ministry through fraudulence.
Health Secretary Md Neazuddin Miah and Secretary of the Public Ser-vice Commission AKM Amir Hossain submitted letters to the public admin-
istration secretary, expressing their desire to go into voluntary retirement.
When contacted, Neazuddin told the Dhaka Tribune: “I have done this absolutely on personal grounds.”
Dr Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury, the secretary of the Public Adminis-tration Ministry, also con� rmed that he received the letters and that both the secretaries said they were going into optional retirement for personalreasons.
But competent sources in the Pub-lic Administration Ministry con� rmed that a few months back when the Lib-eration War Ministry cancelled the bu-reaucrats’ freedom � ghter certi� cates issued by their o� ce, the Liberation
War Ministry had also asked the Public Administration authorities to take nec-essary steps about the top o� cials.
The Public Administration Ministry issued show-cause notices to the two bureaucrats accordingly, asking them to explain why departmental action would not be taken against them for obtaining the certi� cates despite not being freedom � ghters of the Libera-tion War in 1971.
“We have received the replies to the show-cause notices from the of-� cials and the process was going on to start departmental proceedings against them as their replies were not satisfactory to the government,” saidthe source.
The o� cial also said: “Though the two o� cials desired to go into retire-ment voluntarily on personal grounds, it is likely that they decided to quit their job anticipating or getting infor-mation from their sources in the ad-ministration that the government was preparing to initiate departmental pro-ceedings against them.”
Although Public Administration Secretary Dr Kamal did not want to make any observation regarding the retirement’s link with the freedom � ghters, he con� rmed that the two secretaries applied to go into optional retirement just before the initiation of departmental proceedings.
He said according to the existing provision a government o� cial can ap-ply to go into optional retirement after completion of 25 years of service or
PAGE 2 COLUMN 5
Neazuddin still had two more months before normal retirement while Amir had around a year
‘The issue of clemency is not important right now as the � rst thing Kamaruzzaman would have to do is to � le the review petition’
Standing on a swaying bamboo structure, three labourers work on a billboard as high as a four-storey building with no railings and safety gear. The photo was taken from Bangla Motor area in the capital yesterday MEHEDI HASAN
Shops fully open, usual tra� c jam and hundreds of pedestrians in Mirpur yesterday afternoon do not say it was a hartal day RAJIB DHAR
Country unperturbedby Jamaat hartaln Abu Hayat Mahmud
It’s around 11:30am. The red, yellow and green lights of the tra� c signal are alternating at normal intervals. Vehi-cles are moving at a speed of less than 5 kilometres an hour. As the red light comes on, drivers step on the breaks, creating a one kilometre tailback, last-ing the duration of the signal, on either side of the Purana Paltan four-way in-tersection in Dhaka.
Like on any other day, the situation
at the intersection is the familiar tra� c jam, which is to be expected at one of the most congested crossings in the capital.
But yesterday was not a normal day, although it seemed so. It was a hartal enforced by the Jamaat-e-Islami across the country, to protest the death sen-tences of its leaders convicted of war crimes.
It was not just at the Purana Paltan intersection, but across the capital, in
PAGE 2 COLUMN 1
Pakistan envoy summoned over minister’s comments n Tribune Report
The Foreign Ministry summoned the Acting High Commissioner of Pakistan in Dhaka yesterday, to formally convey the government’s disappointment over comments made by a Pakistani minis-ter about the war crimes verdict on Mo-tiur Rahman Nizami.
Ahmad Hussain Dayo was called to the ministry to be apprised of the gov-ernment’s position on comments made by Pakistan Home Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan regarding the Interna-tional Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh verdict, said a Foreign Ministry press release.
Nisar Ali Khan said last week it was highly unfortunate that almost 45 years after that tragic chain of events, the Bangladeshi government still seemed to be living in the past and ignoring the time-tested virtue of forgive and forget.
The Pakistani politician said he be-lieved the government of Bangladesh had misused the process of law as a political tool against the Jamaat leader.
Terming the comments unwarrant-ed and inappropriate, the additional foreign secretary (bilateral) said the comments amounted to directly inter-fering with the internal a� airs of Bang-ladesh, the press release said.
PAGE 2 COLUMN 5
Tourists and foreign students to be checked for militancy linksn Mohammad Jamil Khan and
Md Sanaul Islam Tipu
The Detective Branch of police has decided to check for militancy links and keep close eyes on foreign nation-als who are visiting the country, after learning that a number of foreign stu-dents and job holders were currently engaged in militant activities on Bang-ladeshi soil.
DB Joint Commissioner Monirul Is-lam said the information was learned during the primary interrogation of An-sarullah Bangla Team media wing chief Morshed Alam alias Masum alias Trac-tor, who was arrested yesterday from a house in the capital’s Kalyanpur.
Masum created and maintained 117 fake Facebook user accounts in order to promote Ansarullah Bangla Team in social media websites and recruit new members for the extremist out� t.
Addressing a press conference at the DMP Media Centre, the DB chief add-ed that the out� t’s members also used fake accounts to monitor blogging sites where users posted anti-religious state-ments. Ansarullah Bangla Team mem-bers also communicated with each other using blogging sites accessible to only those who knew the exact IP ad-dresses, he further said.
PAGE 2 COLUMN 5
News2 DHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, November 7, 2014
BSF kills Indian cattle tradern Our Correspondent, Naogaon
Indian Border Security Force (BSF) gunned down one cattle trader of the country near the Bamonpara border in the Sapahar upzila early yesterday.
The victim is Ashraful Islam, 35, a resident of Karomdanga village under Tapan police station of Dakkhin Dina-
jpur of India.Sources said the incident took place
around 5:30am and � ve hours later the Indian police removed the body from the spot and sent it to the local hospital morgue for an autopsy.
When contacted, Naogaon 14 Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) Commander Lieutenant Colonel Ra� qul Islam con-
� rmed the death, saying a patrol team from the BSF 82 camp shot Ashraful while he along with some other cattle traders was cutting the wire fence of the Indo-Bangla border to smuggle their cat-tle into the Bangladesh territory, leaving him dead on the spot. BGB patrol has been beefed up on the border after the incident, the commander continued. l
BNP to observe November 7 todayn Tribune Report
The BNP and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Inu) chalked out elaborate pro-grammes to mark the November 7 to-day from di� erent perspectives
The BNP will observe the day as Na-tional Revolution and Solidarity Day. Ja-tiya Samajtantrik Dal (Inu) will observe it as Civil-Military Revolution Day while the Awami league termed it a Black Day.
On this day in 1975, amid political chaos soldiers and civilians in a joint move freed then chief of army sta� Ziaur Rahman from captivity in Dha-ka cantonment that paved the way for Zia’s coming to power.
The BNP will hoist national and party � ags across the country to mark the day. BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia along with senior leaders of the party will place wreaths at the grave of party founder late president Ziaur Rahman at 10am.
It will also hold a rally at Suhrawardy Udyan on November 8 at 3pm to ob-serve the day.
On the occasion BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in a message asked people to get united in the spirit of November 7 to protect the independence and sov-ereignty of the country to ensure peo-ple’s fundamental rights.
Khaleda said the occupation forces and their local collaborators arrested Ziaur Rahman on November 3 but pa-triotic soldiers and people took to the street and freed Zia.
This changeover strengthened coun-try’s democracy and independence leading to a multi-party democratic sys-tem in the country, she said. l
RAMNA BATAMUL BLAST
RAB arrests fugitive death-row convictn Mohammad Jamil Khan
RAB members yesterday arrested Har-kat-ul-Jihad Al-Islami Bangladesh (Hu-ji-B) leader Abu Bakar Siddique, sen-tenced to death in the Ramna Batamul bomb blast case, from the Keraniganj area.
Abu Bakar Siddique alias Hafez Selim, 35, from Barisal is also a charge-sheeted accused in the August 21 grenade attack case.
Based on information received, a RAB team arrested Abu Bakar, said Mufti Mahmud Khan, director of RAB’s legal and media wing.
Abu Bakar was a close associate of Huji-B top leader Mufti Hannan. He drew close to Hannan when he was a student of the Gowhardanga Ha� zia
Madrasa in Tungipara of Gopalganj, said the RAB legal wing director.
A Dhaka Court gave its verdict on the Ramna Batamul bomb blast case on June 23, 2014.
The court sentenced eight people to death and six others to life-term imprisonment in connection with the bomb blast that had killed 10 people and injured 25 on April 14, 2001.
“For the last 13 years, Abu Bakar had been hiding in di� erent parts of the country,” said Mufti Mahmud while addressing a brie� ng at the RAB head-quarters in the capital’s Uttara.
Mufti Mahmud said Abu Bakar got a call from an acquaintance named Kajol Ahmed on August 21 who invited him to join a programme in the capital.
Later, Abu Bakar came to the cap-
ital’s Gulistan area from Kishoreganj around noon and Kajol received him there. After that, Kajol took him to a restaurant for dinner where he met 50 more people including the then presi-dent of Bangladesh Ulama League Ak-ther Hossain Bukhari.
After the attack, Bakar went back to Kishoreganj. He tried to leave the coun-try several times but had failed, the RAB o� cial said at the media brie� ng.
Among the 52 charge-sheeted ac-cused in the August 21 grenade attack case, a total of 25 are now behind bars, 19 are on the run while eight are out on bail.
Abu Bakkar, however, told the re-porters at the RAB headquarters yester-day that he was not involved with the grenade attack. l Pakistan envoy summoned
PAGE 1 COLUMN 6Vested quarters in Pakistan were ad-vised to mind their own business and set their own house in order rather than try to interfere with matters which fall with-in Bangladesh’s domestic jurisdiction.
The additional secretary pointed out that the trials enjoyed the support of the people in Bangladesh and of the wider in-ternational community to break the cul-ture of impunity for crimes against hu-manity and genocide committed in 1971.
The government of Pakistan was re-quested to take serious note of all these issues, the press release said.
Noting the holding of demonstra-
tions and provocative statements by Jamaat-e-Islami in Pakistan, the ad-ditional secretary further stated that Bangladesh expects that as a friendly neighbour, Pakistan will refrain from such activities as may hurt the senti-ments of the people of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh, in December last year, strongly protested a resolution adopted by the Pakistan National Assembly on the death sentence of another Jamaat-e-Isla-mi leader, Abdul Quader Molla.
Nizami was sentenced to death on October 29 for committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Lib-eration War. l
Two secretaries retire PAGE 1 COLUMN 2the government can send any o� cial into retirement, if it desires, on com-pletion of 25 years of service.
As Neazuddin and Amir submitted letters expressing their desire to go into optional retirement, there is no room for them to return to service again; even the government cannot bring them back to their job, as per the service rule.
Dr Kamal said the letters would be sent to the prime minister and then to the president for � nal approval to their applications.
Neazuddin told this correspondent over phone last night that as per the service rule his voluntary retirement had taken e� ect from yesterday, the day he signed the letter expressing to go into retirement.
Neazuddin still had two more months before normal retirement while Amir had around a year, said the source in the Public Administration Ministry.
“They [Neazuddin and Amir] pos-sibly sensed that the government was going to take tough stance against
them,” said the source, adding that it could have prompted them to go into retirement voluntarily to save their im-age and all service bene� ts.
The source said there are three types of highest punishment for the o� ence of misconduct – dismissal from service, removal from service, and forced retire-ment. Except for dismissal, an o� cial will get full service bene� ts if they are removed from service or forced to retire.
The moment a government employee is no more in service, any ongoing process of taking departmental action against the employee will not be valid anymore.
Neazuddin, however, ruled out any link with his freedom � ghter certi� cate scandal behind his decision of going into voluntary retirement.
“This [freedom � ghter certi� cate scam] is not the issue. I felt it was not wise to continue my service,” said Neazuddin.
The Anti-Corruption Commission investigated several months ago and revealed the secretaries’ fraudulence in obtaining a freedom � ghter certi� cate from the Liberation War Ministry. l
Tourists and foreign students PAGE 1 COLUMN 1Encrypted messages were passed among the out� t’s members by using websites like “protectedtext.com” or blogs like “Farmhouse,” he said.
“We have got traces of such informa-tion following the recovery of a laptop used for this purpose, a cell phone, a DVD player, a software CD, one video CD titled ‘the message Bangla’ from his [Masum] possession,” Monirul said, adding that four more books containing militant con-tent were also seized from his possession.
Masum, 28, had been involved with the Ansarullah Bangla Team since 2010. After receiving his bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering from East West University, Masum also held a day job working at Banglalink.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Masum admitted that he uploaded contents for the extremist out� t, adding that other people with user IDs such as Mehedi, Jobbar and Saifullah helped him post contents in “dawahilallah.net.”
The DB o� cial said: “During prima-ry interrogation, Masum confessed to us that he had uploaded the al-Qaeda chief’s video message after translating to Bangla the part where Bangladesh and Myanmar’s names were mentioned.”
Masum was also an administrator at the Bangla section of Pakistan-based forum “Bab-ul-Islam,” where he was appointed by the site’s chief adminis-trator Umar – a Pakistani national who was later killed after joining militants in Afghanistan.
Masum’s main task was to upload links and contents from books and CDs that he received from other Ansarullah Bangla Team leaders. The out� t was also publishing books and releasing CDs un-der media house monikers like “Balakot Media,” “Titumir Media,” “Ansarullah Bangla Media,” and “Al-Qasidia Media,” Joint Commissioner Monirul said. The
contents of the publications included ways to evade law enforcers’ eyes and how to choose targets, he added.
“We have traced a number of top leaders of the out� t; among them, some are in Bangladesh and some are in Pa-kistan. Besides, another person is now working as the chief of Ansarullah Bang-la Team after the arrest of their previous chief Jashimuddin Rahmani. We have got some information about him and are trying to nab him,” Monirul said.
Asked whether Ansarullah Bangla Team would be banned, Monirul said they were considering the option. The out� t had no organisational structure, the joint commissioner said, add-ing that they mainly worked in small groups and intelligence o� cials were keeping an eye on them.
Case filed and remandDB police Sub-Inspector Md Ha� zur Rah-man yesterday � led two cases accusing Ansarullah Bangla Team media wing chief Morshed Alam alias Masum and 11 others under Anti Terrorism Act 2009 and Information Communication and Technology Act 2013 with the Mipur po-lice station. The other accused of the case are Md Saiful alias Deaz, Md Masum, Md Zafar, Md Mehedi, Md Musa, Md Saiful-lah, Md Abdullah, Md Jaber, Abu Naina, Abdul Karim and Tamim Al Adnani.
“We are in search of these 11 mem-bers for their suspected link with Morhsed and we hope that we would able to bring them under punishment shortly,” Nibaran Chandra Barman, an inspector of DB police, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
Meanwhile, Metropolitan Magistrate Md Hasibul Haque yesterday placed Ma-sum on a � ve-day remand after Nibaran placed him before the Chief Metropoli-tan Magistrate Court seeking a 10-day police remand for interrogation. l
Blackout investigation report ‘blacked out’ PAGE 1 COLUMN 6� rst – the Bheramara sub-station or the other power plants. He avoided that question as well.
Nasrul Hamid then briefed reporters on what the committee had told him, which appeared less like � ndings and more like regulation bureaucratic pa-perwork.
In short, he said the committee had still been analysing the data that they had got by visiting the National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC), the Bherama-ra sub-station and several other power plants from November 3-5.
The committee had also been trying to � nd out why the system frequency of the national grid declined on that day, he said.
The reporters yesterday kept on re-peatedly asking him about how much time they would need to say anything conclusive, and the state minister, who said two days ago that he would not let the report get buried, kept on dodging them.
Finally, at one point, he whis-pered to the member secretary of the probe committee and told reportersthat they had sought 10 working days’ extension.
When a reporter asked him whether an outcome should be expected at the end of that period, the minister said the extension was not yet o� cial.
“There is no reason for not being able to tell which power station tripped � rst. I am sure they have the data. They are just playing hide and seek,” BD Rah-matullah, former director general of the government’s Power Cell, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
Hinting at the Bheramara HVDC sub-station, he said: “As far as I am concerned, there could have been two problems – either there was a short cir-cuit or the machinery installed there might be sub-standard.
“They are not making the probe report public just to save the corrupt o� cials...The investigation is being conducted against the PGCB [Power
Grid Company of Bangladesh]. But the PGCB managing director himself is a member of the probe committee. This report will never see daylight,” said Rahmatullah.
When contacted, Abdul Hasib Chow-dhury, associate professor of electrical and electronic engineering at Buet, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday: “We un-derstand that preparing a � nal report may take time. Dealing with technical data is a lengthy process. But by ana-lysing primary data, they could have at least told which power station or sub-station tripped � rst...They could have included someone from the Buet for technical opinion.”
Apart from one, the members of the 8-strong probe committee are all gov-ernment high o� cials including chiefs of important organisations of the pow-er sector. They are all in their middle ages and have their own works to look after. Hence, they might not a� ord the time to conduct “further investiga-tion,” sources said.
On Wednesday, several members of the probe committee told the Dhaka Tribune that tripping of the Bheramara sub-station, ine� ciency of the nation-al power grid maintenance sta� and widespread mismanagement had all contributed to the nationwide black-out.
All the members of the probe com-mittee were present when the state minister talked to reporters yester-day. Committee chief Ahmed Kaikaus, an additional secretary of the Power Ministry, and member secretary Mo-hammad Hossain, director general of the government’s Power Cell, also an-swered some queries.
Several o� cials of the PGCB, the au-thority that owns and runs the national power grid, said on November 1 that the Bheramara sub-station tripped � rst which caused some power stations in Ashuganj to fail. When that happened, the system frequency of the national grid declined, eventually leading to the blackout. l
Kamaruzzaman’s execution depends on verdict PAGE 1 COLUMN 5as the law minister on Wednesday had directed the inspector general of pris-ons to make necessary preparations in this regard.
The Dhaka Central Jail o� ce did not get a copy of the Supreme Court verdict as of yesterday evening.
Meanwhile, Kamaruzzaman’s coun-sel yesterday morning con� rmed the Dhaka Tribune that they would � le a review petition against the Appellate Division verdict within 30 days of re-ceiving the copy of the full verdict.
Lawyer Mohammad Shishir Manir disclosed the matter to journalists after meeting Kamaruzzaman at the Dha-ka Central Jail along with three other lawyers. They spent 45 minutes with Kamaruzzaman in jail from 10:15am.
Lawyer Shishir said: “Kamaruzzam-an will � le a review petition within 30 days of getting the copy of the full ver-dict. He will think about the presiden-tial clemency if the review petition is scrapped.”
The lawyer, however, said the issue of clemency was not important right now as the � rst thing Kamaruzzaman would have to do was to � le the review petition.
“What the law minister and the at-torney general said regarding the re-view petition is totally unlawful and baseless. There is no legal obligation,” Shishir said, adding: “They could not even produce any provision of law in this regard.”
Shishir said it was Kamaruzzaman’s constitutional right to � le the review
petition.Law Minister Anisul Huq and Attor-
ney General Mahbubey Alam had said there was no scope for Kamaruzzaman to � le the review petition against the apex court verdict. The law minister on Wednesday had also ordered the jail authorities to make necessary prepara-tions to execute Kamaruzzaman.
Anisul said the convict would get seven days to seek the presidential clemency.
“As per section 105 of the constitu-tion, there is a scope of � ling a review petition against the apex court’s ver-dict,” said Shishir. “Two hearings were conducted regarding the review peti-tion of Quader Molla.”
He said the jail authorities were yet to inform his client formally about the
Supreme Court verdict. Kamaruzzam-an learned about the judgement on the radio at the Kashimpur Jail. The au-thorities are yet to ask him whether he will seek the president’s mercy.
On Wednesday, family members met Kamaruzzaman at the Dhaka Cen-tral Jail.
On May 9 last year, the International Crimes Tribunal sentenced Kamaruz-zaman to death for committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Lib-eration War.
He appealed against the judgement after a month.
On Monday, the Appellate Division upheld the death penalty.
Kamaruzzaman was shifted to Dha-ka Central Jail from Kashimpur Jail in Gazipur the next day. l
Country unperturbed by Jamaat hartal PAGE 1 COLUMN 3other busy areas, like Mirpur, Karwan Bazar, Shyamoli, Shahbagh, Science Laboratory Road, New Market, Kakrail, Moghbazar, Badda, Mohakhali, Gul-shan, Khilkhet and Uttara, this corre-spondent found movement una� ected by the hartal.
Huge numbers of public buses,private cars, human hauliers, autoand pedal rickshaws were out and about on all the main roads carrying of-� ce-goers, businessmen and just about everybody else as they would on any other day.
Ariful Islam, an employee of a gar-ment factory, was waiting for a bus at Farmgate early in the morning. He said: “I was a little bit late to get ready for o� ce as I thought I would get any bus easily today.”
“But I have been waiting for about thirty minutes to go to my o� ce in Ut-tara.”
With a look of surprise etched across his face, he said: “Strange!...the num-ber of vehicles and the commuter rush is the same as a normal day.”
“I failed to get on a bus as most of them are already full of passengers,” he said.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, many commuters expressed their deep dis-satisfaction over the Jamaat enforced hartal.
Didarul Alam, an o� cial of a govern-ment bank, said: “This political party [Jamaat] is not concerned about the welfare of the people. They are only concerned about their leaders.”
Jammat is exhibiting a double stand-ard over their leaders’ verdict at the In-ternational Crimes Tribunal (ICT), he said.
“When the ICT gives a verdict of life in prison for their leaders, Jamaat ac-cepts it easily. But when the ICT hands down a death penalty, it calls strikes and its activists start picketing and blasting bombs,” he said.
“I think such hartals are contemptu-ous of the ICT and the Supreme Court verdict against the war criminals,” he added.
Ra� qul Islam, a resident of Gulshan, said: “The su� erings of city dwellers nowadays have crossed the limit due to the hartals called by Jamaat. Necessary steps should be taken to protest such illegal activities of the party.”
Echoing Ra� qul’s sentiments, Ab-dullah, an ATCL Paribahan driver said
the owners of their buses strictly or-dered them to continue services on hartal days.
On October 29, Jamaat announced a 72-hour countrywide strike in two phases protesting the death sentence of Motiur Rahman Nizami.
On November 2, they again called another 24-hour strike for yesterday, after the ICT on that day condemned party leader Mir Quasem Ali to death for crimes against humanity.
On November 3, the party again an-nounced a further 24-hour strike for November 5, as the Supreme Court that day upheld the death penalty for Ja-maat leader and war criminal Muham-mad Kamaruzzaman.
But on visits to di� erent parts of the city yesterday, this correspondent found that all the city’s government and private o� ces, shopping hubs, hotels, restaurants, and even footpath stalls and hawkers’ markets remained open as on non-hartal days.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Ria-zul, a hawker at Farmgate, expressed worries about his livelihood during hartals.
He said: “If I stay at home on hartal days, who will give me food and daily
needs? Where will I get money?”“Not only me, other hawkers also
have kept their shops open,” he said. “We [hawkers] have all decided to
keep open our shops during the Jamaat enforced hartal days. If the pickets try to attack us, we will retaliate too,” he added.
Owners of inter-district buses,however, said they had suspended their services fearing attacks on their buses.
Few local buses were seen leaving di� erent terminals, including Gabtoli, Sayedabad, Mohakhali.
Masudur Rahman, deputy commis-sioner at the media centre of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), told the Dhaka Tribune that police had detained only two pickets from the capital.
“Apart from that, we have found no incidents of violence in the city,” he said.
“City life was entirely normal, and city dwellers moved about easily and without fear,” he added.
A team of Rapid Action Battalion 2 recovered 27 crude bombs from be-side the o� ces of Bangla daily Amader Somoy in the capital’s Tejgaon area on Thursday, around 8:30pm.
Commander Mufti Mahmud Khan, director of the legal and media wing of the elite force, told the Dhaka Trib-une: “Acting on a tip-o� , a special team of RAB 2 recovered the crude bombs around 8:30pm.”
“We are suspecting that miscreants might have brought these bombs tothe area to conduct subversiveactivities as many important govern-ment and private o� ces are located there.”
“RAB di� used the bombs and an investigation is underway. We are try-ing to arrest the persons involved,” he added.
Our correspondents from di� erent districts also reported that no incidents of violence took place during hartal hours.
In Chittagong, the hartal passed o� without any incidents of violence and 14 upazilas of the district.
Public transportation and CNG-run auto rickshaws were seen plying the city streets without disruption. Train services left the station on time although buses were not seen on the highways.
In Gazipur, local police arrested 59 activists of Jamaat-Shibir from di� er-
ent areas of the district on charges of arson during hartal hours.
Joydebpur police station OC Rezaul Hasan said a local court sent them to jail.
In Barguna, police arrested three Ja-maat activists along with bomb making materials at a check post in Pashchim Sa� pur Chapdar area in the Bamna upazila. Two accomplices however, managed to evade arrest.
Con� rming the incident, Bamna police station OC Omar Faroque said a case was � led against them under the explosives act.
In Khagrachhari, Jamaat eased the enforcement of its hartal in the hilly district because of the ongoing Kathin Chibor Dan event, a major Buddhist re-ligious festival.
In Satkhira, police arrested 50 peo-ple, including 35 Jamaat-Shibir activ-ists from di� erent areas of the district. No processions or rallies were seen in support of the hartal.
Vehicular movement was usual within the district town although no long-route buses were visible on the highways.
It was business as usual at the Bhomra land port. l
3NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, November 7, 2014
Pubali Bank o� cial admits killing wife, son n Tribune Report
The bank o� cial suspected of killing his wife and son has admitted his in-volvement in the murders, police said.
Amanullah, who works at Pubali Bank, told police his conjugal life had lately turned sour, causing him to develop inti-mate relationship with another woman.
“He decided to get rid of his wife and killed his seven-year-old son Sabbid to ensure that his extramarital relationship remains concealed. We will produce him before court and seek remand,” said Salauddin Ahmed, o� cer-in-charge of Mirpur police station, yesterday.
The 45-year-old was arrested on Wednesday for the murder of his wife Irin Akter Arzu, 35, and Sabbid in the capital’s Mirpur. The couple’s other son Tanvir is less than a year old.
Amanullah told police that he stran-gled Irin and Sabbid at his residence in Moddho Paikpara following an alter-cation with her. He also said he was planning to marry the woman he was
involved with. Irin’s uncle Yunus Haw-ladar � led a case against Amanullah. Police also interrogated Sanjida Yas-min, who Yunus claimed had illicit re-lationship with the accused.
After strangling his wife and son, Amanullah came out of the house and started screaming that someone had murdered the two. Neighbours came in and found Irin and Sabbid lying on a bed. They were declared dead after be-ing taken to separate hospitals.
Irin’s elder sister Nigar Sultana Akhi said: “My sibling told me that Amanul-lah had been threatening to kill her.
“Irin and Sanjida shared a room when Irin was a graduate student at Eden Mohila College. Interestingly, Irin was introduced to Amanullah by Sanji-da,” she added.
Aman later deserted Sanjida as he was charmed by the beauty of Irin. But after marrying Irin, Aman - who fre-quently beat up his wife - reestablished contact with Sanjida, setting o� rows with his wife. l
Supreme Court allows Altaf to appeal against High Court dismissaln Tribune Report
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has allowed a former additional judge to appeal a High Court dismissal of writ petitions challenging the government’s decision to not permanently appoint him as a Hight Court judge.
Justice ABM Altaf Hossain was granted leave yesterday to appeal against a High Court dismissal of two writ petitions.
By granting the leave to appeal peti-tion an eight-member full bench, led by Chief Justice Mohammad Muzam-mel Hossain, paved the way for Altaf to continue his appeal.
The apex court � xed November 26 for the hearing on the writ petitions.
The court also appointed seven se-nior lawyers amici curiae to assist the court with legal and constitutional ex-planations in this regard.
The seven lawyers are Mahmudul Is-lam, Dr Kamal Hossain, Barrister Amir-
Ul Islam, AF Hasan Arif, Abdul Wadud Bhuiyan, Barrister Ra� qul Haque and Ajmalul Hossain QC.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam and Additional Attorney General Mu-rad Reza moved for the state while Bar-rister Rokonuddin Mahmud and Sala-huddin Dolon moved for the petitioner during the hearing.
Salahuddin Dolon told the Dhaka Tribune: “The court directed us to sub-mit a concise statement by November 13 and the government was directed to submit it within 10 days after receiving the leave granting order.”
“As the court accepted the leave to appeal petition we can now move it as a regular appeal,” he added.
On June 13, 2012 Altaf and � ve oth-ers were appointed for two years as ad-ditional justices at the High Court. On June 9 this year, the government reg-ularised the services of � ve additional High Court judges, excluding Altaf. The government did not give a reason for the decision.
On July 7, a legal notice was served by Supreme Court lawyer Idrisur Rah-man to regularise Altaf as a High Court judge since Chief Justice Md Muzam-mel Hossain had recommended his name. Later, he � led a writ with the HC.
Altaf also � led a writ petition with the High Court on August 12. One of the judges of a two-member HC bench on August 14 felt embarrassed to hear the petition. Later the petitions were sent to the vacation bench that dismissed them on September 24. l
PM: Rohingya camp to be shifted from Cox’s Bazarn Rafe Sadnan Adel
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yester-day said her government planned to shift the Rohingya refugee camp from Kutubpalang and Nayaparha of Cox’s Bazar to a new location.
But the premier did not disclose the new location. “It will be shifted for the sake of developing beach area suited to tourism.”
Sheikh Hasina said this at a meeting with the o� cials of the Disaster Man-agement and Relief Ministry yesterday.
The o� cial data put the number of Rohingya refugees at 34,000 while the uno� cial � gure says it is in between 200,000 to 300,000.
The prime minister in the meeting said the government was going to set up six thousand cyclone centers in the
areas across the country prone to natu-ral disasters.
Bangladesh has repeatedly proved its capacity for � ghting natural disas-ters. The government has also built a modern storage center to preserve ce-real for 2 to 3 years with the assistance of Japan government.
The government is going to export six thousand tonnes of rice from Sri Lanka very soon, she added.
The prime minister asked the minis-try to put its all-out e� ort to help rehabil-itate the families a� ected in recent � ood in the northern parts of the country.
The government has already bought � re � ghting equipment, she told the meeting adding that she had a plan to set up � re station in each district.
Hasina stressed the role of the Min-istry of Disaster Management and Re-lief as the country is prone to disaster.
“Bangabandhu established a sepa-rate relief ministry after independence out of his experience to distribute relief in remote areas of the country after the 1970 cyclone.
Minister for Disaster Management and Relief Mofazzal Hossain Chowd-hury Maya, Secretary of the ministry Mesbah Ul Alam and o� cials of the Prime Minister’s O� ce (PMO) were present at the meeting. l
Closing arguments in Abdus Subhan case adjourned till Sundayn Tribune Report
The prosecution is continuing its clos-ing arguments in the case against Ja-maat-e-Islami leader Abdus Subhan at the International Crimes Tribunal 2.
For the second day yesterday, prose-cutor Rezia Sultana Chaman placed her arguments on charges two and three against Abdus Subhan.
The three-member tribunal led by Justice Obaidul Hassan – with members Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah and Justice Md Shahinur Islam – adjourned the case proceedings until Sunday.
According to the prosecution, Sub-han was the ameer of Jamaat-e-Isla-mi’s Pabna unit in 1971. He was also the general secretary of the Pabna Peace Committee, an anti-indepen-dence organisation, and later became the vice-chairman of the committee in 1971. l
Tarique: Bangabandhu should be charged with seditionn Tribune Report
BNP’s Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman has come up with yet another suggestion that Bangabandhu should be charged with sedition for taking oath as the president of independent Bangladesh as a “Pakistani national.”
Addressing a programme in London on Wednesday, Tarique said: “I have heard that a sedition case has been � led against me for highlighting real history. But, I think such a case should be � led against Sheikh Mujib. He returned to Bangladesh with a Pakistani passport after around 25 days of independence. So, he should be sued to resolve the question that has arisen over his oath taking as a Pakistani national.”
In 1994, war criminal Ghulam Azam, who has recently died in jail, was awarded Bangladeshi citizenship when Khaleda Zia, Tarique’s mother and BNP chief, was in power. Azam came to Ban-gladesh during Tarique’s father Ziaur
Rahman’s rule in 1978 with a Pakistani passport and lived here without any le-gal document until he got citizenship.
Tarique, who faces 14 charges in the country including one for the August 21 grenade attack, has been living in exile in the UK for around six years.
At various programmes in the UK in recent times, he has given several widely debated versions and interpre-tations of Bangladesh’s history. In one such programme, he termed Bang-abandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as “Pakbandhu,” meaning a friend of Pa-kistan. Many have termed his interpre-tations as distortions of history.
During yesterday’s programme, claiming once again that Ziaur Rah-man, also the founder of BNP, was the � rst elected president of Bangladesh, Tarique said his father did not proclaim any indemnity.
The Indemnity Act was formulated to give immunity from legal action to the persons involved in the assassi-
nation of Bangabandhu. The act was promulgated in September 1975, in the form of an ordinance by the then pres-ident Khandker Mushtaque Ahmed. During Zia’s rule in 1979, it was en-shrined in the constitution of Bangla-desh through the 5th amendment. The act was scrapped by an Awami League government in 1996.
Branding Information Minister Hasanul Haque Inu a “militant,” he said: “Inu and Menon [tourism min-ister], who were militants at that time [1975], cannot avoid the responsibility of Sheikh Mujib killing. The force that was defeated in 1975, has made BNP a target to hide their own misdeeds.”
Regarding the power situation in the country, Tarique said: “The government has claimed that the current power generation is 10,000MW. But on No-vember 1, when the whole country was out of electricity, production was only 5,000MW. The government has contin-uously lying about power generation.” l
The o� cial data put the number of Rohingya refugees at 34,000 while the uno� cial � gure says it is in between 200,000 to 300,000
On July 7, a legal notice was served by Supreme Court lawyer Idrisur Rahman to regularise Altaf as a High Court judge
National Human Rights Commission Chairman Mizanur Rahman visits Na� s Salam at Dhaka Medical College Hospital yesterday. Na� s was shot by police in the capital’s Mohammadpur area on October 17 when police dispersed a procession of banned Islamist militant out� t Hizb-ut-Tahrir MEHEDI HASAN
One more testi� es against Jabbarn Tribune Report
A prosecution witness yesterday testi-� ed against Mohammad Abdul Jabbar blaming him for the murders of his el-der brother Shokha Nath Khorati and 10 others during the Liberation War.
“It was around 9am of may 22, 1971 when a team of Rajakars led by Mo-hammad Abdul Jabbar attacked our Nandi village of Mathbaria.”
Jabbar killed my elder brother and upon his order the Rajakars killed 10 others and set � re to all 60 houses of the village, Santos Kumar Khorati, 63,
and a farmer by profession told the International Crimes Tribunal 1 led by Justice M Enayetur Rahim.
Santos was the 19th prosecution witness.
During the 18-minute testimony Santos said he was 21 years old in 1971 and was a farmer. On that day Jabbar led a team of Razakars to their village.
“They attacked our village. Upon Jabbar’s order, Razakar Nur Hossain (now dead) shot and killed Nishi Kanto Biswas and Surendra Nath Biswas. At that time I was with my elder brother Shokha Nath Khorati,” Santos said.
Those of others killed on that day were Jitendra Nath Biswas, Ganesh Chandra Mistri, Nepal Chandra Mis-tri, Upendra Nath Mistri and Basanta Halder.
“We hid ourselves in a neighbouring village. They looted all the 60 houses of our village and set them on � re.”
“After they left, we came back to our village and buried the dead in di� erent spots,” the witness said.
Jabbar is facing � ve charges for his alleged involvement in crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War. l
Twelve RAB 9 men sued for extortion and torturen Our Correspondent, Habiganj
Twelve RAB 9 members, including it’s Srimongol Camp commanding o� cer, were sued for torture and extortion in Habiganj.
Of the accused, seven were kept un-named while � ve were named in the case.
The accused named in the case are Srimongol Camp’s DAD Saniul Islam, PC Taher, AB Faruk, NAB Kamal.
Sultanshi village’s Shah Alam � led the case with the District and Session Judges’ Court.
According to the case, there took place a clash between two rival groups at Sultanshi village in Sadar upazila on Tuesday.
RAB members detained Dwin Islam, nephew of complainant Shah Alam, and took him to a secret place where they tortured him inhumanly and demanded extortion of him, it said.
The case added that injured Dwin Islam was then handed over to Sadar police, who then admitted him to Hab-iganj General Hospital.
After hearing the case, the court or-dered the civil surgeon to come up with all the medical documents related to the victim before the court within sev-en working days.
Complainant Shah Alam told the Bangla Tribune that his nephew was tortured by the RAB members in plain view of hundreds of people in the vil-lage and then taken to a secret place where they demanded extortion of him.
When RAB 9 Srimongol Camp’s Commanding O� cer Mossabir was asked about this, he declined to make any comment on it. l
Four counsels of death row convict and war criminal Muhammad Kamaruzzaman come out of the Dhaka Central Jail after meeting the Jamaat-e-Islami leader yesterday RAJIB DHAR
News4 DHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, November 7, 2014
ChehlamChehlam of Nadira Amin Khan (Jolly) – dearly de-parted wife of former Petrobang-la director Nurul Amin
Khan – who left us on September 24, will be observed today. Well-wish-ers are requested to join the family in prayer, baad’Asr, at House 12, Road 3, Dhanmondi R/A. l
Three run over by train in the capital n Tribune Report
A woman and her four-year-old daugh-ter were run over by a train in capital’s Khilkhet area on Wednesday.
The victims are Rima Akhter, 25, wife of Nurul Islam and Taslima Akhter, 4.
On Wednesday evening, Taslima, her mother Rima, grandmother Fate-ma Akhter, 40 and Fatema’s mother Mahmuda Begum, 60 while crossing the Khilkhet railway tracks came under
the wheels of a train and got severely injured.
Rima died on spot while the injured were taken to the Dhaka Medical Col-lege Hospital (DMCH) where Taslima died around 4am yesterday.
Government Railway Police O� -cer-in-Charge of Kamalapur police sta-tion Abdul Mazid said: “The four were run over while they were going to a rel-ative’s place. They lived in the capital’s Khilkhet area.”
Meanwhile, a sexagenarian was also run over by a train at the Gopibagh railway crossing around 10:30am yes-terday. The dead person is yet to be identi� ed.
Assistant Sub-Inspector of Dha-ka railway police Abdul Kuddus said: “While crossing the railway lines he was run over and died on spot. He was wearing a white T-shirt and lungi.”
The body was sent to DMCH morgue for an autopsy. l
S Korea assures to balance bilateral trade with Bangladeshn Tribune Report
South Korea assured Bangladesh of putting more e� orts into levelling the balance of bilateral trade between the countries.
The assurance came at the second Bangladesh–South Korea foreign sec-retary-level meeting, o� cially termed as Foreign O� ce Consultation, held in Seoul yesterday, said a press release of the Ministry of Foreign A� airs.
Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque led the Bangladesh delegation, while the South Korean delegation was led by its First Vice Minister for Foreign A� airs Cho Tae-yong.
The meeting expressed satisfaction with the growing bilateral trade be-tween Bangladesh and South Korea, but it also highlighted the balance of bilateral trade that is heavily in favour of South Korea.
At present, the bilateral trade vol-ume stands at $1.7bn.
The Korean side identi� ed the im-ports of industrial components and raw materials by the Korean companies op-erating in Bangladesh as a major reason for the imbalance and assured to put more e� orts to reduce the gap. Both sides acknowledged that there were huge untapped potentials that needed to be harnessed to improve upon the current level of trade.
Shahidul also apprised his Korean counterpart about the possibility of importing pharmaceutical products, ceramics, more jute and jute products from Bangladesh.
He emphasised that big Korean com-panies may consider taking advantage of the prevailing, very competitive in-vestment incentives by investing in the Special Economic Zones in Bangladesh. The issue of Korean Export Processing Zone (KEPZ) also came up in the bilat-eral discussion.
The Bangladesh side requested for Korean support in infrastructural im-
provement including road and rail con-nectivity.
The Korean side informed that they had already increased the quota for Bangladeshi workers in Korea to 4,600 per year from this year. In this regard, Bangladesh side requested for employ-ing Bangladeshi sailors in the Korean ships.
The vice minister appreciated the Bangladesh proposal and assured the foreign secretary that they would give due consideration to this matter.
The Korean side also apprised their Bangladeshi counterpart of their exper-tise in manufacturing training or com-bat aircraft and hi-tech defence system and expressed hope that Bangladesh would consider procuring said defence items.
The Bangladesh side requested the Korean side to consider establishing direct air connectivity between Dhaka and Seoul, which the Korean side took due note of. l
TIB: Health sector sickened with bribery and corruption n Abid Azad
Bribes of up to Tk10 lakh change hands during the recruitment, transfer and promotion of personnel in the health sector, according to the latest Trans-parency International Bangladesh (TIB) report.
The anti-corruption NGO said the bribes were taken by health depart-ment o� cials, o� cials from the civil surgeon’s o� ce and by leaders of the ruling party.
The report titled “Challenge and Possible Solutions for the Health Sec-tor,” prepared by TIB programme man-ager Taslima Akter, was unveiled yes-terday morning at a press conference at a city hotel with TIB executive director Iftekharuzzaman present.
In its National Household Survey in 2012, TIB found that 40.2% households seeking government medical services were victims of irregularities and cor-ruption worth an estimated monetary value of Tk70.3 crore.
Health and Family Welfare Min-ister Mohammed Nasim rejected the report’s � ndings saying: “TIB always works to deliberately blame di� erent sectors. They should show where the corruption took place as people are now getting free medical treatment and medicine as well.”
The minster, speaking at another program last evening at the capital’s Sasakawa auditorium at ICDDR,B, said action would be taken if a speci� c alle-gation was proven.
According to the study, Tk3-5 lakh is paid in bribes during the recruitment of ad hoc doctors while Tk1-5 lakh is exchanged in bribes during 3rd and 4th class employee recruitment, the report said. To transfer one’s posting, it costs administrative o� cials based in and near Dhaka Tk5-10 lakh.
Doctors pay Tk1-2 lakh to be trans-ferred from the upazilas to the capital.
To remain in a preferred posting for a long time it costs Tk2.5 lakh or more, while a promotion requires Tk5-10 lakh.
The study, prepared between No-vember 2013 to August 2014, was a qualitative research project.
The primary sources of data were medical service providers, employees and o� cials of the health department, specialists, media professionals and representatives of professional organ-isations.
The study collected its secondary data from the TIB’s National Household Survey 2012 and its report card survey of 28 health institutions.
It also highlighted the lack of regula-tion in the private health care sector say-ing doctors earned money on commis-sion agreements with diagnostic centres, driving up costs of care, while brokers did a brisk trade in wooing patients.
Commission rates for doctors ac-counted for as much as 30-50% of treatment prices, and brokers bagged 10-30% in commissions.
The TIB executive director, Iftekha-ruzzaman, said: “We are concerned that the country’s budget allotment for
the health sector has been gradually decreased. While it should be a mini-mum 5% of GDP according to interna-tional standards, we see that 0.84% of GDP was allotted in Bangladesh in FY2013-14 .”
The report points out that the World Health Organisation (WHO) recom-mends Bangladesh’s annual per capita expenditure on health care to be Tk2652 which is currently a mere Tk390.
“The development expenditure has also been decreased from 42.2% in FY2008-09 to 38.3% in FY2013-14,” he said.
“It is our observation that due to a lack of su� cient budget allotments and infrastructural development, ir-regularities and corruption levels are quite high,” he said.
Iftekharuzzaman said: “People are gradually loosing faith in the country’s health services. Rich people are going abroad for medical treatment while the rest of the people are su� ering from poor health services.” l
Two killed in road crashn FM Mizanur Rahaman, Chittagong
At least two people died and two sus-tained injuries in a road crash on the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway yesterday.
The dead were Md Harun, 28, and Rasheda Begum, 50, while the injured were Md Rustom, 9, Rasheda’s son, and Nurul Alam, 35.
Sergeant Zillur Rahim of Kumira Highway Police Outpost said a Chit-tagong-bound CNG autorickshaw car-rying three passengers, collided head-
on with a truck on the highway near Banshbaria area of Sitakunda around 11:30am leaving Harun, the driver of the autorickshaw spot dead.
The three injured passengers were taken to the upazila health complex where doctors declared Rasheda dead.
Nurul was later shifted to the Chit-tagong Medical College Hospital in a critical condition.
Police seized the truck, but the driv-er managed to � ee the spot, Rahim said. l
Dialogue on promoting sanitation heldn Tribune Report
A dialogue on promotion of sanitation jointly organ-ised by Brac, Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) and WaterAid Bangladesh was held at the Brac Center Inn in the capital on Wednesday.
The event focused on designing e� ective strate-gies for sanitation and re-ducing open defecation.
Dr Mush� q Mobarak, associate professor of Eco-nomics at Yale School of Management, delivered the keynote address while Dr Mahabub Hossain, advisor to the Interim Executive Director, Brac, moderated the event.
The panel members in-cluded Shoraez Shahjahan, country director, IPA.
Dr Mobarak shared in-sights from his research on various approaches to sanitation, supply side in-terventions and behavioral nuances.
He shared � ndings from his research that shows in rural Bangladesh latrine promotion depends on be-havioral changes. Reducing subsidies on latrine com-ponents and a collaborative investment by members of a community to set up latrines can bring the change. l
MSF treats 1,700 malaria patients n Tribune Report
The international medi-cal organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has treated around 1,700 ma-laria patients in the hill dis-trict Bandarban during an emergency intervention led by the Ministry of Health, states a press release.
In mid-August, MSF launched the intervention in the most malaria a� ect-ed upazilas, Alikadam and Thanchi, of the district. Earlier in June-July, an emergency was declared in the district internally regarding the unexpected and alarming rise of malar-ia, which was eventuality seen as a decreased trend in the last � ve years.
Mong Te Jho, acting civil surgeon of Bandar-ban said the situation was now under control and all the private health service providers, including MSF, were shutting down their activities in the district.
He said: “MSF has al-ready stopped their mis-sion in Alikadam upazila and is preparing to stop work at Thanchi soon.”
The country has reduced 70% malaria patients in the past � ve years. In 2008, the number of malaria patients was 83,000 while in 2014 the number is 26,000, according to the Ministry Of Health. l
TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman addresses a press conference at a hotel in Dhaka yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU
Nobel Laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus receiving 2014 Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Global Entrepreneurship Award from Saudi deputy Foreign Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah in Saudi Arabia on Monday DHAKA TRIBUNE
WEATHER
DRY WEATHER
LIKELY
PRAYER TIMES Fajr 4:51am Sunrise 6:07am Jumma 11:42am Asr 3:40pm Magrib 5:16pm Esha 6:33 pm
Source: Accuweather/UNB
D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW
SUN SETS 5:16PM SUN RISES 6:09AM
YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW34.5ºC 18.5ºC
Situakunda Dinajpur
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7
SourceL IslamicFinder.org
F O R E C A S T F O R T O D A YDhaka 32 24Chittagong 29 25Rajshahi 31 20Rangpur 31 19Khulna 31 21Barisal 30 22Sylhet 33 21Cox’s Bazar 29 24
5NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, November 7, 2014
9 to vie for one seat at CUETn CU Correspondent
Nine aspirants will vie for one seat in the admission test of the honours courses for the 2014-2015 academic session of the Chittagong University Engineering and Technology (CUET).
The admission test will be held on Saturday (November 08) on theuniversity campus, said a press release yesterday.
A total of 6,207 students have lodged their applications against 641 seats, including all quotas, under dif-ferent departments, said Cuet Public Relations O� cer Fazlur Rahman.
Students can avail detailed informa-tion at the university website: www.cuet.ac.bd. l
Criminals shot and stabbed a sub-in-spector of the Detective Branch of po-lice while snatching a pistol from him at Jhautola area in Comilla city yester-day.
Firoz Hossain was brought to Dhaka Medical College Hospital after giving him � rst aid at a Comilla hospital since doctors described his condition to be critical.
Witnesses said Sub-Inspector Firoze was going to the city’s Jhautola area in a motorcycle around 11:30am,when four to � ve armed criminals in-tercepted him at a lane opposite to Brac Bank.
Meanwhile, one of the criminals shot him in the head and he fell to the ground. They then stabbed him in the legs, waist and head randomly.
Assistant Town Sub-Inspector (ATSI) Kamal Hossain of Kandirparh police outpost came across this inci-dent as he was going to the police lines
in an auto-bike at the same time. He said he got down from the
auto-bike soon after he found thisincident.
However, the criminal ran away before he reached the spot, addingthat the criminals were � ve to six in number.
Rumours are doing the rounds that Firoz might have been attacked by the cohorts of locally listed criminal Jira Sumon since he had arrested them while being in charge of Kandirparh police outpost.
Superintendent of Police Tutul Chakrabarty said they had arrested two snatchers on suspicion of theirinvolvement in the incident. More drives were on at various places in the district.
When Deputy Civil Surgeon Azizur Rahman, who visited injured SI Firoz, was asked about the condition of him, he said it was not possible to say about a head injury patient for sure until two days pass after the incident. l
Pro-govt Blue panel sweeps DU dean electionn Arif Ahmed
The Blue Panel of pro- ruling Awami League and left-wing teachers won eight out of 10 posts in the Dhaka Uni-versity (DU) dean election yesterday.
The White Panel, comprised of pro- BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami teachers, was left with only two posts.
Election Commissioner Dr Kamal Uddin Ahmed, and DU treasurer, an-nounced the results around 3pm.
The results of those elected from the Blue Panel are Prof Mohammad Akhtaruzzaman for the arts, Abdul Aziz for science, Prof Shibli Rubayat Ul Islam for business, Prof Farid Uddin Ahmed for social science, Prof Imdadul Hoque for biology, Prof Nisar Hossen for � ne arts, Prof ASM Maksud Kamal for earth and environmental science and Prof Ra� qul Islam for the engineer-ing and technology faculties. Of them, Prof Maksud Kamal was earlier elected unopposed. l
BCL bars Jubo League from submitting LGED tendersn Our Correspondent, Barisal
A clash ensued between activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) and Jubo League (JL) over the submission of a tender worth Tk 21.9 core at the Local Government Engineering Depart-ment (LGED) in Barisal yesterday.
Ruhul Amin, executive engineer, LGED Barisal o� ce said the tenders under eight packages for developing rural infrastructures in � ve upazilas of Barisal were � oated on September 28 and yesterday was the last date for submission.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) under the Coastal Climate Resilient In-frastructure Project (CCRIP) with the Bangladesh Government is funding the project and tender formalities are done under an open tendering method (OTM) of the Public Procurement Rules (PPR), the LGED o� cial added.
Witnesses said the BCL activists led
by city unit president Jasimuddin and secretary Asim Dewan con� ned con-tractors to a room in the LGED building in the morning, pressing them for ne-gotiations.
The city BCL activists were support-ers of Abul Hasanat Abdullah, district AL president, lawmaker and parlia-
mentary standing committee chairman over LGD a� airs. The others were mostly JL activists and supporters of local AL lawmaker Jebunnesa Afroj backed by Industry Minister Amir Hos-sain Amu.
The JL activists, however, denied negotiating with BCL activists.
The BCL activists then beat up the JL activists, injured them and obstructed them from submitting the tender, and chased them away from the LGED of-� ce premises.
The law enforcers on duty at LGED o� ce were nonchalant during the BCL attack, alleged injured JL activists Titu and Kabir.
A member of police told the Dhaka Tribune that were inactive as they were assigned only to protect the tender box, not to protect the bidding contractors.
Jasimuddin, city BCL president, de-nying any attack and baring any body from submitting tenders, claimed that they only tried to hold negotiations over the distribution of some tender work.
Ruhul Amin, executive engineer of Barisal LGED, said he received no alle-gation against any such obstruction.
He, however, acknowledged that he had called in the RAB and police after hearing noises outside his o� ce. l
Chhatra League leader sued for attacking on mobile court n Our Correspondent, Narsingdi
Chhatra League leader Monir Molla was sued yesterday for attacking a mo-bile court that was conducting a drive against illegal gas connections in Bhat-para upazila in Gazipur on Wednesday.
Ukil Uddin, an o� cal of the Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution, Narsingdi unit has � led the case against Monir Molla, general secretary of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, Ghoras-ahal municipality unit and Sajib Hos-sain, general secretary of the Bangab-andhu Jubo Parishad and a scores of unidenti� ed local people for the attack.
A gang of miscreants led by Monir and Sajib swooped on the mobile court while it was conducting the drive.
Three journalists and two Ansar members were injured during the at-tack. The local hoodlums also vandal-ised cameras of journalists as they were taking footage of the attack.
Following the attack, a three-mem-ber probe committee led by Additional District Magistrate Kamal Hossain was formed.
Meanwhile, journalists formed a human chain in the district town de-manding the arrest and punishment of the attackers. l
Security stepped up in Ctg ahead ofBD-Zim cricket tourn Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong
Chittagong Metropolitan Police has ramped up security in the port city ahead of the tour of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe cricket teams from tomor-row to November 24.
A Test match, two One-Day Inter-national matches and a practice match are scheduled to be held at ZahurAhmad Chowdhury Divisional Stadi-um while the CMP has instructed theaudience not to bring anything in the stadium except water bottles andcameras.
A total of 2,500 law enforcers, in-cluding police, RAB and Railway Police, will be on duty to provide security for the players, cricket o� cials and guests, said CMP Commissioner Abdul Jalil Mandal during a press brie� ng at the CMP headquarters yesterday.
Players and o� cials would re-ceive police escort and they would be transported on routes with zero tra� c congestion, he said, adding that they would check in at The Peninsula Chit-tagong after landing at Shah Amanat International Airport on a � ight of US-Bangla Airlines in the morning.
The CMP commissioner said areas adjacent to the stadium and the hotel would also be under surveillance to avert any unwanted situation.
“As Chittagong is a tourist city, we have to take the opportunity to attract foreigners which will help spread the message about our tourist attractions abroad,” said.
CMP Additional Commissioners Ba-naz Kumar Majumder and AKM Sha-hidur Rahman, Deputy Commissioner Masudul Alam and several top o� cials were present at the brie� ng. l
BSF kills Bangladeshi boyn Our Correspondent,
Chapainawabganj
A 14-year-old Bangladeshi boy was beaten to death by Indian Border Secu-rity Force (BSF) at the Zohorpur Border in Chapainawabganj yesterday.
The victim is Liton Mia, a son of An-warul Islam of Belpara area in Narayan-pur. Chapainawabganj 9 Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) Commander Lt Col Abu Jafar said Liton entered Indian territory to cut grass sometime in the morning.
The BSF members from Pirojpur 22 battalion beat Liton severely near Pillar Number 19/4S when he was returning to the Bangladesh territory, he said.
Liton died at home after his friends had rescued from the spot, the BGB of-� cer said adding that they have sent a let-ter to the BSF protesting the incident. l
The law enforcers on duty at LGED o� ce were nonchalant during the BCL attack
Clockwise: Failing to grab a seat, people opt for the rooftops of a bus at the Simrail bus station on the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway (photo taken at 3:30pm). Capital’s Bangla Motor area packed with usual tra� c (photo taken at 5:30pm)/Shoppers’ presence is found no less than usual in capital’s New Market (photo taken at 1:30pm) MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU/ MEHEDI HASAN/ RAJIB DHAR
IMPACT OF JAMAAT'S 48-HOUR HARDLY VISIBLE
6 NationDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, November 7, 2014
Mobile court destroys 12 tonnes polytheneA mobile court in Mymens-ingh seized about 12 tonnes of polythene from Swadeshi Bazar area in Mymensingh town yesterday. The court’s executive magistrates Md Mohinul Hasan and Mikon Tonchonga said they con-ducted a drive with the help of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab-14) in the area, and seized the polythene while those were being unloaded from a truck to store in a depot. The Rab detained the truck’s driver and his assistant. But the importer of the polythene managed to � ee the scene. Later, the court shield the depot and destroyed the polythene on the bank of Brahmaputra riv-er in Kacharighat area. – Our Correspondent, Mymensingh
No smoking at municipalities, UP o� ces in Sylhet Smoking would completely be prohibited at the o� ces of municipalities and union pari-shads in Sylhet. Md Sohidul Islam, deputy commissioner (DC) of Sylhet, said this at a meeting of Anti-Tobacco Task Force at the DC o� ce yes-terday. “We will issue letters to all the municipalities and union parishads to imple-ment our pledges soon,” he said. The DC said the district administration would con-duct mobile courts against those who sell cigarettes in the areas of educational institution like Osmani Medical College and Hospital. Sylhet ADC (general) AZM Nurul Haque, Civil Surgeon Dr Azharul Islam, Sylhet Press Club Secretary Mohammad Serajul Islam also spoke. – Our Correspondent, Sylhet
Baby girl drowns in Chandpur A one-and-a-half year old girld drowned in a pond in Kotrajbaj area of Laxmipur union in Chandpur Sadar yesterday. The deceased is Jannat, a doughter of Saiful Islam of the area. Family members said Jannat fell in the pond while playing near the pond around 10:00am. The rescued the girl when her body was � oated in the water. Later she was taken to Chandpur Sadar Hospital where doctors declared her dead. – Our Correspondent, Chandpur
Ras Lila festival starts in MoulvibazarPeople of Monipuri ethnic community started cele-brating Ras Lila festival with enthusiasm and fanfare. On the occasion, Moulvibazar district Jamaat relaxed their 48 hours hartal. However, Vishnupuriya sect of the Monipuri community will observe their festival at Shibbazar temple this year. Monipuri people have been observing the festival for the last 127 years. Chand Murari Singha, president of Shibba-zar Jura Mondop Ras festival observance committee, said Social Welfare Minister Syed Mohsin Ali and State Minister for Social Welfare Promod Mankin would attend the festival. The Ras Lila festival programmes include Kirton, Rakhal dance, Radha dance, Gustho Lila, and discussion on Lord Sri Krishna. Attractive village fair has been arranged on the Monipuri temples premises on this occasion. Sellers from di� erent areas have come with their prod-ucts, – Our Correspondent, Moulvibazar
NEWS IN BRIEF
A man locally known as gachhi (extractor) for his profession is seen collecting juice from a date tree at Rurampur village under Puthia upazila in Rajshahi yesterday. Date juice has a huge demand among rural people across the country AZAHAR UDDIN
UP chairman, member swindle Tk20 lakh of social forestry n Our Correspondent, Pirojpur
A case has been � led against a Union Parishad chairman and a UP member for cutting trees planted under a social forestry programme in Nazirpur upazi-la of Pirojpur.
Harunur Rashid, forest o� cer of Na-zirpur, � led the case on Saturday night with Nazirpur police station against Md Oaliullah, chairman of No 3 Deol-bari Dobra Union Parishad, and Abdus Salam Majhi, a member of Ward No 6 of the union parishad.
In the name of calling tender, Oali-ullah and Abdus Salam cut more than one trees worth around Tk20 lakhs, which were planted on the roadside between Gaokhali Primary School to Mohanpur Bazar, said Kabir Khan, who is a stakeholder of the social forestry programme.
As per rule, the programme’s stakeholders are supposed to get 55% share of the dividend, 25% will go to the UP, 10% to the government’s ex-chequer, and 10 percent will be in-vested for planting trees again, he said.
But Oaliullah and Abdus Salam did not deposited money to the accounts of the stakeholders after selling those trees, he added.
Forest O� cer Hurunur Rashid said the stakeholders lodged a complaint against the duo on October 30.
The case was � led as the complaint was found to be true in an investiga-tion, he said. l
Theft of transformers brings agony for thousands Cultivation of paddy on 300 acres of land is a� ected as irrigation pumps have remained inoperative
n Our Correspondent, Gazipur
Thousands of people are su� ering due to lack of power supply, which results from theft of many transformers at some parts of Sripur upazila in Gazipur.
Over 300 acres of paddy and vegeta-bles are a� ected since irrigation pumps have remained inoperative.
School and college students are also having their study hampered as dark-ness engulfs the areas where power transformers are stolen and not yet in-stalled.
Farmer Ra� qul Islam from Thakur-tola village said three transformers from a power pole situated beside a shallow machine were stolen on Octo-ber 16 and since then he had failed to irrigate his three acres of paddy.
Three more transformers from an-other power pole beside another shallow machine in the same village were stolen in the same night, said farmer Arif Hos-sain, who lives at the same village.
Vegetable farmer Aftab Uddin said children were su� ering immensely as there is no electricity in the village in the last two weeks. Besides, seasonal vege-table farmers have been a� ected since
irrigation pumps remain operative. Businessman Awlad Hossain, who
lives at Maizparha area, said three transformers were stolen from his village on October 19 and since then, poultry farmers had been arranging for light inside the farms with hurricanes and generators.
Two transformers were taken away from an electricity pole beside his house a few days before Eid and before this theft took place, load-shedding had begun in the locality, said Farhad Hossain from Momdolpara area.
Farmer Abdul Mannan Sarker from Boldighat Bazar area said he applied for power connections six months ago and recently got the permission for install-ing a meter at his house. But 25 days be-fore he got the connection, three trans-
formers were stolen from a power pole beside his house.
Local people blamed power o� -cials for the theft as Masud Mia from Thakurtola said it was not possible for anybody working outside power sector to commit such theft.
Businessman Fazlul Haq from Thakurtola village he had talked to the authorities about the re-installing of the new transformers, but was upset at what they had told him.
A total of Tk5600 had to be depos-ited to the authorities for re-installing per 10 kv transformer while it was only half of the said amount for the resident power users. There is no waiver for the shallow machine owners, he said.
Deputy General Manager Abdul Mannan Sarker at Mymensingh Palli Bidyut Samity-2 said there were some people who works with them on con-tract. They might have been involved in the transformer theft. Some of them were earlier identi� ed.
No employee or o� cial from them was involved in such incidents, he claimed, urging the authorities to take care so that such incidents do not repeat. l
Woman kills son before committing suiciden Our Correspondent,
Brahmanbaria
A woman strangulated her eight-months-old son to death before com-mitting suicide yesterday in Syedtu-la village of Sarail upazila under Brahmanbaria.
Locals said Bina Akter, wife of Sau-di expatriate Milon Miya, used to live with her in-laws.
Last week, Bina left the house after being physically assaulted by her in-laws and went to live at her father’s house in the same village. Yesterday she strangulated her son Shamim and hung herself from the ceiling fan.
Later, she committed suicide hang-ing herself with a ceiling fan.l
ONE YEAR INTO AL LEADER KHAIRUL MURDER
Plainti� urges PM to ensure security n Tribune Report
Shefali Alam, the plainti� in Awami League leader Khairul Alam Molla kill-ing case, has called on the prime min-ister to ensure security for herself and her two children.
Speaking to the Dhaka Tribune yes-terday, she alleged that she had been living with sheer uncertainty after fac-ing constant threats from the accused.
Shefali is the wife of Khairul who was the organising secretary of Dem-ra-Jatrabari thana unit of Awami League and also the secretary of Sayedabad Bus Owners’ Association. The man was hacked to death at Motijheel in the cap-
ital on this day a year ago. On November 9 last year, Shefali
� led a murder case with Motijheel po-lice station and named seven people among the accused.
Police on March 19 this year submit-ted the charge sheet accusing 14 peo-ple, including Sayedabad Bus Owners’ Association President Md Abul Kalam.
The case is now under trial at the court of Dhaka Fifth Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge while the next hearing is scheduled for November 19.
Shefali’s counsel Md Kaisar Hossain said he would try to ensure exemplary punishment of the culprits. l
Prisoner dies at Kashimpur Jail n Our Correspondent,
Gazipur
A murder case prisioner died at Kashimpur Central Jail in Gazipur on yesterday.
The prisioner was Alam-gir Hossain, 40, son of Shah-jahan Miah of Amirpur vil-lage in Nababgonj of Dhaka.
Jahangir Kabir, jail su-per of Part-2 of the jail, said Alamgir was rushed to the jail hospital � rst after he complained of chest pain around 6:00am. l
Two transformers were taken away from an electricity pole beside his house a few days before Eid
7Survey Friday, November 7, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE
How do we feel about Latif Siddique’s words?
20.0% Moreemphasis
on education16.7%Creating
employment
14.0%Improving
law & ordersituation10.5%
Politicalstability4.3%
Developbetter road
communication
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE FOR BANGLADESH
9.9%Should allowhim to come
to the country
12.1%Should not
allow him tocome to the
country 0.6%
Can't say
WHAT IS YOUR OPINION REGARDING LATIF SIDDIQUE'SRETURN TO THE COUNTRY ?
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
77.4%Govt should
bring himto the country
and startthe trial
against him
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
82.0
% M
ore
emph
asis
on e
duca
tion
77.8
% C
reat
ing
empl
oym
ent o
ppor
tuni
ties
64.9
% Im
prov
ing
law
& o
rder
54.1%
Mor
e em
phas
ison
ele
ctric
ity cr
isis
50.0
% Im
prov
ing
road
com
mun
icatio
n
48.0
% E
nsur
ing
food
secu
rity
38.1%
Ban
ning
of
relig
ion
base
d po
litics
35.2
% G
ivin
g m
ore
impo
rtan
ceto
relig
ious
feel
ing 8.4%
Totallyagree
13.0%Somewhat
agree
25.1%Neutral
22.0%Somewhat
disagree
31.5%Totally
disagree
BNP has claimed that Latif Siddique's comment proves thatAwami League is not a religious-indi�erent party rather it's areligious-less party – to what extent you agree with the statement ?
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
12.8%Seen orheard
completely
9.7%Read
his fullstatement 8.2%
Not sure
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
69.3%Seen or heard
or readthe main
parts of hisstatement
TO WHAT EXTENT ARE YOU AWARE OF HIS REMARK
16.9%Totallyagree
21.6%Somewhat
agree
21.2%Somewhat
disagree
13.8%Totally
disagree
Awami league has claimed that BNP and its alliance party tryingto take the political advantage of this issue- to what extent youagree with this statement?
0%
10%
20%
30%
26.5%Neutral
10.9%I don't
think so 6.0%Not sure
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
83.1%Obviously 41.6%
Yes
52.7%No
5.8%Not sure
Some parties are demanding death penalty of Latif Siddique forhurting religious feelings- do you support or not ?
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
87.0% Yes
9.7%No 3.3%
Not sure
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
HAS AWAMI LEAGUE DONE THE RIGHT THING TO SUSPENDHIM FROM BOTH THE GOVERNMENT AND PARTY?
74.5% Yes
20.0%No
5.6%Not sure
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
The most important issue for Bangladesh
Priority for the nation
To what extent are you aware of his remark?
Has his comments (as you heard) hurt your own religious feelings?
Has Awami League done the right thing to suspend him from both the government and party?
What is your opinion regarding Latif Siddique’s return to the country?
BNP has claimed Latif Siddique’s comment proves that Awami League is not a party indi� erent to religion, rather it’s a party without religion – to what extent would you agree with the statement ?
Awami League has claimed that BNP along with its alliance party is trying to take political advantage of this issue - to what extent would you agree with this statement?
Some parties are demanding death penalty for Latif Siddique for hurting religious feelings - do you support or not ?
TARGET GROUPS l Aged 18 years or above l Both male and female l Rural, urban l All SECs (A to E) *THIS SURVEY WAS CONDUCTED BY INNOVATIVE RESEARCH AND CONSULTANCY LTD
By raising such demands, if one or more people threaten Latif Siddique’s life, do you think the government should take steps against them?
R E A D A N A N A L Y S I S O F T H E B A N G L A T R I B U N E O P I N I O N P O L LB A C K P A G E
Friday, November 7, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World8
Hiding under corpses: Iraqi tribesmen recount escape from Islamic Staten Reuters, Baghdad
Muhammed Hilal and about 100 other members of Iraq’s Albu Nimr tribe felt safe hiding from Islamic State militants in tall grass – until the headlights of dozens of cars exposed them.
“We know you are there, traitors,” mil-itants shouted, before opening � re on the tribesmen who had fought them for weeks.
Most died. Some were taken prisoner.Shot in the arm and leg, Hilal survived,
after smothering himself in blood and playing dead under corpses as the militants beat the wounded and called them “scum,” he said.
Hilal says he spotted more bodies, including children and the elderly, dumped on the roadside as he � ed the scene after hours of hiding beneath the dead.
“I’m waiting for my family. I have no way of reaching them. Their cellphones are switched o� and I’m powerless to do anything,” Hilal told Reuters by telephone from Haditha, a town under the control of Iraqi forces and tribal � ghters but still vulnerable to attack from nearby Islamic State militants.
Many other members of the tribe face
that same uncertainty after Islamic State executed hundreds to punish the tribe that had fought back.
After seizing the tribe’s main village, Islamic State militants combed the area for those who had set out on foot hop-ing to escape the wrath of a group no-torious for beheading or shooting dead anyone opposed to their ultra-hardline ideology.
The killings raised new concerns about Iraq’s ability to defeat Islamic State, which swept through northern Iraq in June, meeting little resistance from the US-trained army.
The Shi’ite-led government of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi wants Sunni tribes like Albu Nimr, which once helped the United States defeat al Qaeda in An-bar, to back government forces fighting Islamic State.
But tribal leaders say the govern-ment ignored repeated pleas for help as Islamic State pushed through Anbar, a vast desert province that includes the Sunni tribe-dominated towns in the Euphrates River valley running from the Syrian border to the western outskirts of Baghdad.
SurrenderIslamic State was on the march in Anbar even before it seized much of northern Iraq, coming ever closer to Baghdad as part of its ambition to redraw the map of the Middle East.
It is now encircling the province’s largest air base, Ain al-Asad, and the vital Haditha dam on the Euphrates.
The carnage appears to have been carefully planned. Before Islamic State took the village of Zauiyat Albu Nimr, the insurgents planted informants who even-tually handed over the names of � ghters, tribal members said.
“On the night that they entered the village, the army retreated from the front line and they were evacuated. This left us with no ammunition and only � ghters from the villages so we had to surrender,” said shopowner Haji Rudaif.
He, like many villagers, escaped with just the clothes on their backs. Some took the highway to the town of Hit, making the fatal mistake of believing promises of safe havens made by Islamic State.
That is where the bloodletting began with 35 executions.
Others, like tribal � ghter Abu Ibtisam,
50, walked for about 6 km (4 miles) to a desert area west of Hit after militants took their gold and cash, ripping the jewelry o� his daughter’s neck.
At an Islamic State checkpoint, one militant took powdered milk from his wife and tossed it in the dirt – she frantically tried to collect it but was pushed back, he said. After robbing them they let them go free.
“One of them said that even our children don’t deserve to live because they will grow up one day and � ght them back,” said Abu Ibtisam.
Like other tribesmen, he doubts an alliance with the government can be built.
“The government paid no attention to us no matter what happened, if we knew that things would have turned this way then I wouldn’t have fought,” said Abu Ibtisam.
“I would have left the village with my family and my money, gold and dignity and not su� ered these hardships. I regret having fought against Islamic State because I have gained nothing.”
The accounts could not be independent-ly con� rmed.
Islamic State tactics are clear – take over
territory, eliminated anyone who stands in the way and try to run the area like a state. It has declared a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria.
No time to mournAfter members of the tribe scattered, tribal � ghter Majid Ouda and two cousins headed for the desert where they hid for � ve days, surviving on dates and dirty water from a lake.
Whenever cellphone coverage was available, he called his mother. One day she was frantic. His 13-year-old brother Moham-med was taken away along with others by Islamic State.
“I told my mother not to worry since he’s practically a child and he didn’t even participate in the � ghting,” said Ouda.
“My family called me a day later when I reached the an army emplacement and told me that my brother and 47 more students were killed in the roundabout of Hit. They killed him because I’m a policeman.”
The Albu Nimr were seen as some of the � ercest � ghters in Iraq, not just Anbar.
During the US occupation after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, they
took on Islamic State’s predecessor in Iraq, al Qaeda, which specialized mostly in hit and run attacks and suicide bombings.
Equipped with more funds and weapons seized from defeated Iraqi troops, Islamic State will almost certainly keep in� icting more punishment on any tribes that chal-lenge them.
The Albu Nimr are still counting their casualties. Hamdan al-Nimrawy, aide to one of the tribe’s leaders, said the death toll has reached 540 with many people still missing.
The grueling journey to escape was too much for some.
Abu Takaa and his family of seven slept behind a sand dune in the desert to avoid detection. His wife became so dehydrated that she could no longer breast-feed her infant, he said.
“My youngest passed away. But his mother kept holding on to him and would not let go even after two days,” he said.
There was no time to mourn, fearing that Islamic State was on their trail.
“We buried the child there and we entrusted nomads with his grave and moved on.” l
The Irani mastermind of the Iraqi warn AP, Baghdad
When Islamic State militants retreat-ed from the embattled town of Jurf al-Sakher last week, the Iraqi military was quick to � aunt a rare victory. State television showed tanks and Humvees parading through the town and sol-diers touring government buildings that IS had occupied since August.
However, photos soon emerged on independent Iraqi news websites re-vealing a more discreet presence — the Iranian general Ghasem Soleimani, whose name has become synonymous with the handful of victories attribut-ed to Iraqi ground forces. Local com-manders said Lebanon’s Hezbollah Shiite militia group was also involved.
The US has awkwardly found itself on the same side as Iran and Hezbol-lah in the war against the Islamic State group, which rampaged across much of northern and western Iraq in June. While US military advisers have been coordinating coalition airstrikes from within heavily forti� ed bases, Solei-mani and his commanders are on the front lines and would assume a key role in the retaking of major cities.
That could prove a major impedi-ment to addressing the grievances of Iraq’s Sunni minority. Iran and Hezbol-lah are closely linked with Iraqi Shiite militias, which have also played a key role in driving IS out of the so-called Baghdad Belt of Sunni villages ring-ing the capital. The sectarian militias have long been implicated in brutali-ty against Sunnis, and their advance could undermine e� orts to knit the troubled country together.
Militia commanders told The As-sociated Press that dozens of advisers from Hezbollah and the Iranian Revo-lutionary Guard were on the front lines in Jurf al-Sakher. They said the advis-ers provided weapons training to some 7,000 Iraqi troops and militia � ghters and coordinated with military com-manders ahead of the operation.
One commander, who agreed to be identi� ed only by his nickname, Abu Ze-inab, said Soleimani began planning the Jurf al-Sakher operation three months ago. The cleared town, 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the capital, lies on a road often used by Shite pilgrims.
Iraqi military o� cials declined to discuss Soleimani’s presence in Jurf al-
Sakher, or in previous victories where he is known to have played a command-ing role. Those successes include halting the IS advance in the town of Amirli in August and the city of Samarra in June.
But senior � gures with the Revolu-tionary Guard have publicly acknowl-edged Soleimani’s role.
As for Hezbollah, it has openly joined Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces against mainly Sunni rebels — a decision that has fueled sectarian ten-sions in Lebanon. But Hezbollah has declined to comment on reports of its involvement in Iraq.
In July, o� cials in Lebanon said a Hezbollah commander was killed while on a “jihadi mission” in Iraq. Ibrahim Mohammed al-Haj was buried in Lebanon and his funeral attended by top Hezbollah o� cials. It was the � rst known Hezbollah death in Iraq since the lightning IS advance in June.
A Lebanese o� cial close to the group said Hezbollah is known to have “a lim-ited number of advisers” in Iraq who are not directly involved in � ghting, and that al-Haj was one of them. The o� cial spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. l
Libya top court rejects elected assemblyn Reuters, Tripoli
Libya’s Supreme Court on Thurs-day declared the internationally rec-ognised parliament as unconstitu-tional, in a ruling likely to fuel further chaos in the north African oil produc-ing nation.
The decision came a day after gun-men stormed Libya’s biggest oil� eld, shutting down production at the facil-ity in the country’s remote south in a new blow to the already beleaguered energy sector.
Libya is in chaos as two rival gov-ernments and parliaments are strug-gling for control of the country’s vast energy reserves three years after the overthrow of Muammar Gadda� . Doz-ens of armed groups have also joined the fray.
Western powers and Libya’s neigh-bours fear the OPEC member nation is heading for a full-blown civil war, with former rebels who helped oust Gadda� now using their guns to carve out their own � efdom. l
The Obama of the right?n AFP, Los Angeles
Even her name is media friendly. Mia Love instantly became the darling of the Republican Party on Wednesday, after being elected as its � rst black fe-male member of Congress – and she is a Mormon to boot.
She has also rapidly drawn com-parisons with Barack Obama, not least since she wowed her party’s 2012 national convention with a tale of rags-to-political-riches, much like the young Senator Obama did in 2004.
“Many of the naysayers out there said that Utah would never elect a black Republican LDS woman to Con-gress,” she said at her victory rally, re-ferring to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons.
“Not only did we do it, we were
the � rst to do it,” said the 38-year-old, who was previously mayor of Saratoga Springs, a city 35 miles (56 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City.
Born Ludmya Bourdeau in Brook-lyn to Haitian-American parents, Love catapulted herself into Washington’s political spotlight by winning the Mor-mon-dominated western US state’s Fourth Congressional District.
Love’s parents came from Haiti in the mid-1970s, and she recalls in in-terviews how her father at times took second jobs cleaning toilets to pay for school for their three children.
She graduated from the University of Hartford, Connecticut with a degree in Fine Arts. A Catholic by upbringing, she found the Mormon faith before � nding her white Mormon husband Jason Love.
Love is a minority in both her state and church: barely one percent of Utahans are black or African American, while only an estimated three percent of Mormons are. Mormons make up about 60% of Utah’s population.
She is fond of recalling what her father told her on her day of college orientation: “Mia, your mother and I never took a handout. You will not be a burden to society. You will give back,” she notes on her own website.
Love made headlines when she took the stage at the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida – which nominated Mitt Romney, also a Mormon, as its presidential nominee.
“My parents immigrated to the US with 10 dollars in their pocket, believing that the America they had heard about really did exist,” she told the crowd. l
West Africa presses Burkina for civilian leadern Reuters, Ouagadougou
Three West African presidents urged Burkina Faso on Wednesday to appoint a civilian transitional leader within days to guide the country to elections next year following the people’s over-throw of longtime ruler Blaise Com-paore last week.
Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama led the delegation from the West African bloc ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) to help Burkina Faso plot a path to a ci-vilian-led transition after the military named a senior army o� cer as head of state on Saturday.
Mahama, the current ECOWAS chairman, oversaw sometimes tumul-tuous talks with Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Zida, opposition politicians, Compaore’s supporters, religious lead-ers and civil society groups. There was a general consensus in favor of a civil-ian-led interim government, he said.
“I have con� dence and I believe that in days, rather than weeks, the
people will come out with an interim leader,” Mahama said while warning that delays in appointing a civilian administration could see the country punished with sanctions.
The African Union announced on Monday that although popular pres-sure led to the ousting of Compaore, the change had been undemocratic and stated that the body would apply sanctions if civilian rule was not rees-tablished within two weeks.
The United States said earlier this week that it had not yet decided if the military takeover constituted a coup, a distinction that would lead to an auto-matic suspension of military aid to one of the West’s key allies in the region.
The ECOWAS troika, which also in-cluded Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan and Macky Sall of Senegal, had earlier said it expected the transition period to last up to one year, maintaining a November 2015 date for presidential elections.
They recommended that members of the interim authority should not be per-mitted to stand in elections next year. l
Ukraine peace plan in tatters, ‘frozen con� ict’ takes shapen Reuters, Kiev/Donetsk
Kiev said on Wednesday it would halt payment of state funds in areas con-trolled by pro-Moscow rebels, as both sides hardened positions in what is rapidly becoming a “frozen con� ict”: a long-term stalemate that the West be-lieves is Russia’s aim.
A day after the rebels held inaugu-ration ceremonies for their leaders, the separatists and the central government each accused each other of violating a September peace deal and signalled they would withdraw support for some of its terms.
The past four days have seen the rebels stage elections for leadership which the government called illegal, and the government respond by saying it would revoke a law that would have granted eastern regions autonomy and sent them cash.
Despite a cease� re declared two months ago, two teenagers were killed by shelling in Donetsk, one of the two separatist strongholds, on Wednesday as they played football on
a school sports � eld, the city’s admin-istration said.
The rebels say their newly elected leaders must be allowed to negotiate with Kiev directly; Kiev says this is im-possible. Both sides’ positions reverse parts of the 12-point peace plan, the Minsk protocol, agreed in Belarus in September.
With Kiev lacking the military might to break the rebels by force, Western allies now fear that a large chunk of Ukrainian territory will become a Rus-sian protectorate with a parlous eco-nomic future, beyond the writ of the central government.
“We have now realistically entered the phase of a ‘frozen con� ict’,” said Yury Yakimenko, a political analyst at Ukraine’s Razumkov political research centre, using a term often applied to other ex-Soviet republics where sepa-ratist enclaves have been protected by Russian troops since the early 1990s.
The American general who serves as the highest ranking Nato officer also said this week that the condi-tions for a frozen conflict were being
created in Ukraine.Russia seized and annexed
Ukraine’s Crimea region in March, but has been more ambiguous about its intentions in eastern Ukraine, where it has supported separatist rebels but has not recognised their declarations of in-dependence.
So far this week Moscow has stopped short of recognising the rogue elections held in Ukraine’s east on Sun-day which elected leaders of two rebel “people’s republics” that jointly call themselves “New Russia.”
Western governments see the votes as part of a scenario, worked out in the Kremlin, to perpetuate instability in Ukraine after the ex-Soviet republic of 46 million shifted policy westwards following the overthrow of a Mos-cow-backed president.
Kiev and the West fear Russian Pres-ident Vladimir Putin’s grand design, following the annexation of Crimea in March, is to render Ukraine ineligible to become part of mainstream Europe, with a con� ict left unresolved within its borders. l
A man talking on a phone in his home, is seen through a hole in a wall damaged by recent shelling in Donetsk yesterday. Kiev said on Wednesday it would halt payment of state funds in areas controlled by pro-Moscow rebels, as both sides hardened positions in what is rapidly becoming a ‘frozen con� ict:’ a long-term stalemate that the West believes is Russia’s aim REUTERS
Obama, Republicans sound conciliatory note n Reuters, Washington
US President Barack Obama and his powerful US Senate adversary struck a conciliatory tone on Wednesday, but Obama’s plans to proceed with new immigration rules foreshadowed a bumpy start to his relationship with a Republican-controlled Congress.
Obama and Mitch McConnell, who will become majority leader when Re-publicans take charge in the Senate in January, signaled they hoped to get past a previously frosty relationship to pass legislation on priorities on which they can both agree.
“As president, I have a unique re-sponsibility to try and make this town
work,” Obama, a Democrat, said at a White House news conference. “So, to everyone who voted, I want you to know that I hear you.”
Obama lauded McConnell, with whom he said he hoped to share some Kentucky bourbon, and House Speaker John Boehner for expressing the wish to seek common ground after the elec-tions. He spoke to both men earlier in the day.
McConnell said he believed Obama was interested in moving forward on trade agreements and tax reform, two issues at a standstill in Washington be-cause of political di� erences.
“This gridlock and dysfunction can be ended. It can be ended by having
a Senate that actually works,” McCo-nnell told reporters in his home state Kentucky.
But the words of reconciliation only went so far.
Obama said he intended to go ahead with plans to implement executive actions by the end of this year that could remove the threat of deportation from millions of undocumented immi-grants.
McConnell said it would be like “waving a red � ag in front of a bull” for Obama to take unilateral action on im-migration. The Democrat-controlled Senate passed a bill on the issue last year but House Republicans did not support it. l
Friday, November 7, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World 9
Mounting death toll for Afghan troopsn AFP, Washington
Afghan troops are dying on the battle-� eld in unprecedented numbers after having taken over from Nato-led forc-es, and the death toll is “not sustain-able,” a top US commander in Afghani-stan said Wednesday.
Afghan army and police have suf-fered a 6.5% spike in casualties this year, with 4,634 killed in combat in 2014, compared to 4,350 killed for all of 2013, said Lieutenant General Jo-seph Anderson, the number two rank-ing US o� cer in Afghanistan.
Afghan forces are being out� tted with more protective gear and adopt-ing more e� ective tactics to counter roadside bombs planted by Taliban insurgents, “but they do need to decrease their casualty rate,” An-derson told reporters via video link from Kabul.
The Kabul government’s forces had improved their emergency medical care for wounded soldiers but there was more work to be done as the current ca-sualty rate was untenable, he said.
“All those things have to continue to improve to reduce those numbers, be-cause those numbers are not sustain-able in the long term,” he said.
The general, head of the Interna-tional Security Assistance Force (ISAF) joint command, added that the casual-ty numbers had been expected to rise with Afghan forces now fully in charge
of security and Nato combat forces rapidly scaling back.
“We expected that (death toll) ac-tually to be much higher based on the role they’ve played and where they’ve been,” Anderson said.
Despite the mounting casualties, Anderson said “the Afghan national security forces are winning, and this is a hugely capable � ghting force who have been holding their ground against the enemy.”
The Afghans have struggled to build up emergency medical care for sol-diers wounded on the battle� eld after having relied on Nato aircraft for evac-uations.
Until last year, the number of Af-ghans who survived their combat wounds was less than 50%, a dismal rate comparable to what American sol-diers faced 150 years ago in the US Civil War, according to military o� cials.
With nearly 9,000 Afghan sol-diers killed in less than two years, the numbers far exceed the death toll for American troops in both Afghan-istan and Iraq over the past decade. More than 4,400 Americans were killed in Iraq between 2003 to 2011 and more than 2,000 in Afghanistan since 2001.
There are 38,000 troops in Nato’s US-led force in Afghanistan and by the end of the year the number is due to drop to 12,500 troops, including 9,800 Americans. l
Gujrat policeman kills man in custody alleging blasphemy n Tribune Desk
A police o� cer on Wednesday night murdered a detained man with an axe, later alleging that the man had com-mitted blasphemy.
45-year-old Jhang resident Syed Tufail Haider was arrested a day ear-lier for wounding two people from a locality in Gujrat. According to police authorities, Tufail came to Madina Syedan in Gujrat three days ago to at-tend a majlis.
During interrogation, Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Faraz Naveed got into a heated argument with Tufail and struck him on the neck with an axe ly-ing in the room, a blow which resulted in immediate death. l
In Fujairah, bull � ghts for honour, not money or blood
n Reuters, Fujairah
There are no matadors or picadors, but bulls locking horns with each other draw big crowds to bull� ghts in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
An hour’s drive from the dancing water fountains of Dubai’s glitzy downtown, hundreds of fans gather in the eastern emirate of Fujairah to watch bulls � ghting, or perhaps more acurately head butting, with honour rather than money at stake.
Unlike the Spanish tradition which pits man against beast, the UAE sport involves two bulls locking horns in a three-to-four minute Sumo-wrestling-like � ght that usually ends with no bloodshed.
“In the 20 years I’ve been watching bull � ghts, we’ve only had to put down two bulls,” said Hamad Bin Hamdan Al Matrooshi, who owns 15 bulls.
He said that the � ght usually isn’t long enough for the animals to seriously harm one another - but the bull’s sharp horns can lead to cuts and injuries.
“Sometimes, they injure their heads and and get bloody from the � ghts,” said Fahad Mohammad, who owns six bulls. But the spectators are diligent when it comes to separating them should the � ghting get too intense.
The � ghts also can prove perilous to the spectators, with men and boys seated on plastic chairs in the ring itself always ready
to spring to safety as the animals can easily smash into into their seats.
“It’s exciting for people to sit near the � ght,” said 29 year-old Mohammad. “But once the bull’s blood gets hot, it’s hard to calm him down. They will just want to � ght and it doesn’t matter against whom.”
Under the rules, the � rst animal to dis-engage and walk away is declared the loser. If neither backs away it is a draw and about a dozen men separate them, dragging them apart with ropes.
“In Spain it’s di� erent, they kill (the bull),” said Al Matrooshi, 68, from the emir-ate of Ajman, who had six bulls � ghting one Friday recently in Fujairah.
“Here, we do it for pride. If a bull runs
away, then the other one is the winner.”There is no cash prize for matches in
Fujairah where betting is not allowed under the emirate’s Islamic laws. But bulls are investments and their value increases the more they win.
“One man bought two bulls for one million dirhams (about $272,000),” Al Matrooshi said.
There is an active trade in bulls between Fujairah and neighbouring Oman, where the sport is even more popular with dozens of bull-� ghting rings dotted throughout the country.
Mohammad said he made a 30,000-dirham pro� t from his black-and-white wall-eyed bull named Al Jamr, meaning “burning coal.” He bought it for 90,000 dirham and sold it for 120,000 dirham in Oman.
Family friendlyWith entertainment in the UAE leaning towards extravagance and conspicuous con-sumption, bull � ghting in Fujairah provides a free and family-friendly weekend activity.
About 40 bulls are brought into the fenced Fujairah arena once a week. The more cautious spectators, including wom-en and children, take seats in the rings or sit perched atop SUVs eating ice cream or chopped mangoes sold during the event.
The origin of the sport is contested. Some believe it to be an import from the Portuguese who captured parts of the Ara-bian Peninsula in the 16th century. Others say it had existed in the area long before the Portuguese conquest.
Training bulls to � ght starts early, when the animals are around six months old. They are brought to the bull ring between the ages of two and � ve.
The bulls are trained in the sea in order to increase their stamina and ensure they do not become easily tired. According to owners, the water training builds up their chest muscles. l
Modi’s cabinet reshu� e likely on Sundayn Tribune Desk
TV channels reported Thursday morn-ing that Modi met President Paranab Mukherjee amid the cabinet rejig buzz.
The long-awaited revamp of the team that has ruled India since late May will lighten the burden on some ministers, who hold more than one portfolio, and give the Prime Minister a chance to promote high achievers, while getting rid of a few who have failed to keep pace, government and BJP sources said.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley, who holds additional charge of the defence portfolio, had said early in his tenure that this was a temporary arrangement. The 58-year-old chief minister � ew to Delhi early on Wednesday, after cancel-ling a meeting of his state cabinet, and met BJP chief Amit Shah and Modi.
“The Prime Minister did not talk about my joining the Cabinet; we discussed Goa issues,” he said, after meeting Modi. The likely move of the
well-regarded chief minister to Delhi will leave the BJP with a big hole to plug in Goa, and party leaders were in discussions about his replacement.
However, Parrikar, who is tipped to be the defence minister, told ANI that he did not have a discussion on the is-sue. “Why put the horse before cart?” the news agency quoted him as saying.
Naqvi, who was minister of state in the Vajpayee government, is likely to become minister in charge of statistics and planning, the sources said. His en-try will provide the Cabinet another prominent Muslim face, after minority a� airs minister Najma Heptullah.
Jayant Sinha, who holds a Harvard MBA and is the son of for mer � nance minister Yashwant Sinha, is likely to be inducted as minister of state (MoS), either in the defence or � nance ministry. Nir-mala Sitharaman may be promoted from MoS to Cabinet minister, likely in charge of the commerce and industry ministry, and give up her current additional role as MoS in the � nance ministry. l
David Cameron: Asian to lead Britain one dayn Tribune Desk
Prime Minister David Cameron has ex-uded con� dence that a British-Asian would take on his role in the near future.
“One day, I want to hear that title Prime Minister followed by a Brit-ish-Asian name,” he said in his speech at the annual GG2 Leadership Awards here on Wednesday night.
“Just not immediately, if that’s ok,” he added on a lighter note in reference to the upcoming general election in Britain in May 2015.
“What makes Britain a success is that every community has a hand in it ... but frankly it is still not enough. In Britain today there are still too few people from ethnic minorities in top positions,” he said.
“The absence is glaring in board-rooms, chambers of Houses of Parlia-ment, on football manager’s benches, on high court judges benches and in our � ghter jets and naval ships. And, I am clear, this has to change,” he added before presenting the GG2 Man of the Year and Woman of the Year Awards for 2014.
The Man of the Year award went to Indian-origin businessman Rami Ranger, CEO of Sun Mark Limited, who was described as a “brilliant entrepre-neur” by the PM for his contribution to the British economy.
Woman of the Year was named as Dame Asha Khemka, principal of West Nottinghamshire College, for her work in the � eld of education. l
‘Kashmiris are freedom � ghters, not separatists’n Tribune Desk
P akistan’s Foreign O� ce on Thursday strongly reacted to a statement issued by Indian Defence Minister Arun Jait-ley and said Kashmiris were freedom � ghters who were carrying out their movement from an occupied territory and not separatists.
Speaking to media representatives during the weekly brie� ng in Islam-abad, FO spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said Jaitley’s statement was “unac-ceptable for Pakistan.”
Jaitley had on Wednesday said that Pakistan must make a “conscious choice of peace” and decide whether it wanted to talk to the Indian govern-ment or the Hurriyat leaders.
The spokeswoman added that Paki-stan was sincere when it came to a dia-logue with India, saying dialogue with India is not a favor, but a necessity for peace and development in South Asia.
Responding to a question, she said Pakistan does not want to stop trade between India and Afghanistan through its territory.
Referring to the Indian leadership’s statement in condemnation of the Wagah border post attack, Aslam said no condemnation or condolence mes-sage had been received through o� cial channels. l
Pakistan rejects Pentagon’s report on militancyn AP, Islamabad
Pakistan has summoned the US am-bassador to reject allegations in a Pen-tagon report that Islamabad supports militant proxies in neighbouring India and Afghanistan.
A foreign ministry statement said National Security and foreign a� airs
adviser Sartaj Aziz conveyed the com-plaint to US ambassador Richard Olson in a meeting at the ministry.
The US defense department report, titled “Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan,” said mili-tants battling in Afghanistan and India continue to enjoy safe havens in Paki-stan, which uses the � ghters as a hedge
against its loss of in� uence in Afghan-istan and as a counterweight to India’s superior military.
The statement says the allegations are of particular concern now, given that the Pakistani military is waging a major o� ensive against militants in North Waziristan, a tribal region bor-dering Afghanistan. l
Rajnath Singh hopes to strengthen bilateral relations with Israeln Tribune Desk
Union home ministe r Rajnath Singh on Thursday hoped to strengthen bilateral relations between India and Israel ahead of his meeting with Israel’s Prime Minis-ter Benjamin Netanyahu in the evening.
“India and Israel share very warm
and cordial bilateral relations. We look forward to strengthen it further,” Singh said in a tweet. He reached Tel Aviv on Wednesday night.
He also wished ‘Shalom’ to the peo-ple of Israel.
“Shall meet the Prime Minister Ben-jamin Netanyahu today (Thursday) in
the evening,” he said. Rajnath Singh left for Monaco on
November 3 to attend an Interpol min-isterial meeting and general assembly.
As a part of the tour, the minister is visiting Israel and will also travel to France to discuss security related bilat-eral issues. l
Youths booked for ‘treason’ as they wore Pakistan T-shirtsn Tribune Desk
An FIR on charges of “treason” has been registered against 10 youths after they allegedly wore Pakistan cricket team t-shirts during a religious procession in a village, leading to tension in the area.
“An FIR on charges of treason has been registered against 10 youths at Kuberst-han police station here last evening,” su-perintendent of police Lalit Kumar Singh said over phone from Kushinagar.
Tension gripped Kalyan Chhapar village after the youths were seen par-ticipating in the procession on Novem-ber 4 wearing Pakistan cricket team t-shirts. This was opposed by some locals, who later informed the police.
After the intervention of police, the youths removed their t-shirts. Heavy police force was deployed in the area to prevent any untoward incident. l
A boy carries a krathong into the Chao Phraya river during the Loy Krathong festival in Bangkok November 6, 2014. Believers � oat krathongs during the festival, which is held as a symbolic apology to the goddess of the river REUTERS
Two bulls lock their horns during a bull� ght in the eastern emirate of Fujairah. There are no matadors or picadors, but bulls locking horns with each other draw big crowds to bull� ghts in the UAE REUTERS
P U R E D E V O T I O N
Free our entrepreneursAccording to a major survey by the Pew Research Centre across
44 di� erent countries, 80% of Bangladeshis support a free-market, trade-oriented system for our economy.
This was a higher � gure than that reported in South Korea and was topped in this survey only by people in Vietnam.
Public opinion clearly believes that more open trade and foreign investment can help generate jobs and raise living standards. Bangladesh has a much higher approval level for trade and foreign investment than India and Pakistan, the two other South Asian countries studied in this research.
It is not perhaps a paradox that Bangladesh also stands at 173rd out of 189 states for ease of doing business in the World Bank and IFC’s Doing Business Report 2014, which is a disturbingly low ranking given the World Bank ranks our economy as the 57th biggest in the world.
Arguably, the public’s strong entrepreneurial instincts have been bolstered by their experience of how poorly state interference has often served the economy.
The way in which di� erent governments waste taxpayer money in propping up poorly managed loss-making state-owned industries is of concern to all citizens.
We cannot a� ord our economy’s potential to be hindered in this way. The government needs to stop wasting funds on unproductive enterprises and cut the red tape, which means it takes twice as long to open a business in Bangladesh as in leading developed nations.
If Bangladesh’s economy is to develop as it needs to serve our growing population, the government must free the entrepreneurial instincts of the people.
Myanmar must be told to recognise the RohingyaAs US President Barack Obama embarks on a major Asia-Pacifc
tour next week, his visit to the East Asia Summit and the US-ASEAN Summit in Myanmar on November 12-14 represents
a vital opportunity for the world to demand Myanmar stop its institutional discrimination of the Rohingya people.
Bangladesh can be proud of the fact we have long hosted over 300,000 Rohingya refugees, who have � ed persecution and violence in their home country.
It is overdue for the international community to put more pressure on the Myanmar government to end its discriminatory policies and allow the safe return of Rohingya to their homeland.
Unfortunately, Myanmar’s recent decision to demand Rohingyas in Myanmar register as “Bengali” in o� cial records, rather than be accepted as an ethnic community which has lived in Myanmar for centuries, is a continuation of the apartheid-like policies which underpin the unsafe climate for Rohingya in their native land.
With Myanmar due to hold presidential elections next year, it is imperative the world sits up and takes action to coax the government of Myanmar into ending its institutional discrimination, and building an atmosphere that allows its citizens to safely return home.
It will be a stain on human rights if the global community does not do more to require the government of Myanmar to halt unchecked communal violence and facilitate the safe repatriation of those refugees who simply want nothing more than to return to their home.
Video claims PM Hasina took a sel� eOctober 26
Anita Amreen But � rst # letmetakeasel� e !! Because she literally can even.
Fahad Muza� ar Ohh, this is jossl!
Arch Bishop So she took a sel� e; so what? There are plenty of things to criticise her for – like, you know, the whole one-party democracy thing – but something as innocent as this is hardly it.
Madrasa student in Chandpur rapedOctober 25
Vikram KhanTrying to convince a mother to take money instead of justice for the brutal rape of her daughter? In what society do we live? Do they really think that money can buy everything, even the honour and life of a girl??
Editorial10 DHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, November 7, 2014
CODE-CRACKER
ACROSS1 Gem weight (5)5 Diplomacy (4)8 Beginning (6)9 Lowest point (5)10 Deep mud (4)11 Strong fabric (5)12 Little devil (3)15 Slow of understanding (4)18 Business transactions (5)21 Old French coin (3)22 Virtuous (4)24 Exhibit (4)25 Mechanical man (5)28 Make bare (6)29 At hand (4)30 Measure of length (5)
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 1 represents F so � ll F every time the � gure 1 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.
SammyThe author’s barely veiled call for more government control of private media is hardly surprising, considering his well-known proclivity – evident regularly in these pages – of being very partial to the party which shut down all newspapers in 1975, and now wants “licensing” for journalists. He fools nobody in his underhanded advocacy of a system where even private broadcasters are always singing paeans to the one-party regime’s triple-generation personality cult on a regular basis.
Nadeem Qadir Sammy: Dear Sammy, I regularly enjoy the comments you make. Thanks for your interest. Yes, I don’t hide my liking for the ruling Awami League, as it has come down from my martyred freedom � ghter father and my late mother, an anti-razakar activist. He was the senior-most army o� cer killed in the independence war. However, you failed to notice that I have praised NTV, for which I worked sometime, on their � agship program, “Frankly Speaking.” I left, but the program still continues. NTV is owned by Falu bhai. Thanks and all the best.
Sammy Nadeem Qadir: I do appreciate your kind words which re� ect something else that I have found refreshing in your regular op-eds: You have always addressed political opponents with civility and courtesy. Your illustrious father’s career and noble end is legendary and I don’t begrudge your partisan a� liations.
Where we must respectfully, albeit robustly, disagree is the role of a government bureaucracy in deciding the content of broadcasting and printing (beyond the obvious pornography and incitement to actual criminal violence). The British Raj was wrong to do so, the Pakistani regimes of pre-1971 were wrong to do so, and your party was wrong to do so in 1975. The freedom we fought for in 1971 was not about changing one set of masters for another. I could even agree with your call for reasonable regulation if, instead of giving it to your party’s regime and its sycophantic bureaucrats, you’d advocated the route most civilised countries take: A
truly independent, self-regulatory body created by professionals and run by professionals (akin to the Bar Council). At some point, reason would argue that at the dawn of the 21st century, your party’s desire to squelch any dissenting voices – on the pretext of controlling “quality” – is reminiscent far more of the Ayub-Yahya clique’s absolutism, than the freedom that your father so nobly gave his life for.
LisaThe number of TV channels needs to be controlled strictly. They need to produce high-quality programs to divert the audience from watching Hindi channels, instead of running more new low-quality channels.
Sammy Lisa: If you don’t like a channel – and I dislike many of them myself – you can use a device I use regularly: The remote control of your television. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to turn o� o� ending channels, and switch to something you like. Give it a try sometimes; it is a device which comes with your television set and without any involvement of a bureaucrat. Take some responsibility instead of getting another bureaucrat to decide what I watch or not.
h m shagorExcellent article. Professionals should crosscheck before dealing with so-called owners, but, unfortunately, somebody always seems to act as a mediator to make them rich.
roseAs far as possible, the media houses should be checked properly and the condition of the sta� should be taken into consideration.
Halt unchecked communal violence and facilitate the safe repatriation of Rohingya refugees
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 ZThe government needs to stop wasting funds on unproductive enterprises and cut the red tape
Bindu quits showbiz in favour of marriageOctober 26
Proma Anannya Why totally quit?! :-(
Zebrul Hossain She will reconsider her decision after two years of marriage. ;-)
Mother of three loses leg in police � ring
October 27
AB“‘I don’t know why they took my brother and shot
at us without any reason.’”Probably because they didn’t belong to the ruling
party.
11Op-Ed Friday, November 7, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE
n Zeenat Khan
When two people decide to spend their life in holy mat-rimony, it is one of the most
joyous occasions, not to be undertaken lightly.
Marriage is a symbol of the joining of two spirits, two hearts spiritual-ly bound. Whether a couple unites through the ritual of their religion, utters traditional vows, quotes love poems, or writes their promises to one another, a marriage is traditionally the ultimate union in our society between a man and a woman.
Then why has the recent marriage between Bangladesh Railway Minister Mujibul Haque with Honofa Akther Rikta been discussed so much in the media? What is it about this particular union that has stirred so much contro-versy?
Well, for starters: The minister is 67 years of age and his bride Rikta is 29 years old.
Why would a younger woman marry a much older man? This is an age-old question pondered by many social scientists and psychologists, and perhaps even by the jilted lover who lost his beloved to a much older suitor on a moonlit night.
Two consenting adults do marry for
all kinds of reasons. Some women just want to be taken care of. Sometimes one may choose an older guy who can provide emotional and � nancial security. Often in Bangladesh, the girl’s family agrees to a marriage where there is huge age-gap and the girl has no say in it.
According to Matiur Rahman Chow-dhury, the editor-in-chief of Manab Zamin: “I cannot recall a wedding that has aroused so much interest in our country… at least six television channels were beaming the gaye holud ceremony live on the day the special tribunal pronounced a death sentence, triggering protests.”
Reportedly, this is the minister’s � rst marriage, for he was so busy with his political career that he hardly had any time to think of marriage. I have read a couple of reports which say that he has very humble beginnings; the son of a farmer who went to university and obtained a law degree. Not a mean task to be accomplished by a farmer’s son. We ought to give him credit for having ambition, and making it big in the political arena.
A lot of people felt that since he is marrying this late, he should have kept the a� air low-key. That’s not him! He went the whole nine yards with his marriage celebration. He wanted
the media to record the joyful event for the public to view. In keeping up with the wedding tradition, and to get into the mood of celebration, some of the journalists who covered the event were also wearing yellow punjabis on the day of his gaye holud.
On the day of the wedding, the groom’s party consisted of about 700 people, and major intersections of the Dhaka/Comilla highways were decorated with festoons and � owers. Wearing a silk pink sherwani, a turban encrusted with stones, and glittery wedding nagra shoes, the minister looked very majestic – much like a Moghul emperor.
A couple of days ago I was watching a music scene from the 1946 � lm Shah-jahan (KL Saigal dressed as the emper-or, singing “Gham Diye Mustaquil”) and upon seeing the minister dressed up as a groom, Shahjahan came to my mind. No doubt the minister went all-out, he was beaming with delight.
The bride wore a traditional shim-mering red and gold Benarasi sari, and was decked in chunky gold jewellery as the convention calls for it. Prior to the marriage ceremony, the minister described his would-be bride as a sim-ple village girl, one who is God-fearing and doesn’t go anywhere without wearing a burqa.
On the day of the wedding, he signed a Kabin Nama after paying Tk500,001 as denmohor. Then the minister had to pay another Tk100,001 to his sister-in-law, who barricaded the entrance to the bridal venue, refusing him entry. No tradition was left unat-tended. Yet, people weren’t deterred from passing judgment on the bride’s age and how sullen her face looked on the day of her gaye holud.
Some were in support are saying things like: “What is wrong if the mar-riage is consensual? Why do you damn marriages merely for an age-gap?”
In some reports there was a comparison about the age-gap with
two other former political leaders of Bangladesh. Someone said if former president HM Ershad could marry someone 30 years his junior then what’s wrong with minister Mujibul Haque marrying Rikta, who is 38 years younger than him?
Another probed how former foreign minister Abdus Samad Azad married a 35-year-old woman when he was 70. So why can’t Mujibul Haque do the same?
Here in the US I have heard many stories over the years about why certain women prefer much older men than someone close to her age. The stereotypical explanation is that these women are gold-diggers, looking for rich older men who can purchase the latest high-end Louis Vuitton handbag or Manolo Blahnik shoes from Barney’s in New York for them. It would stereotypically appear that these older men are equally willing, ready, and happy to shower their much younger wives with anything they want.
Some critics can claim that the min-ister is just following a tradition set up by his predecessors in politics, and is simply following in their footsteps. Besides, we do not really know what motivated him.
In matters of the heart who are we
to judge someone? According to other reports that
I have read, the AL’s reaction was apparently mixed. Some supported the minister in his choice for marrying a girl who is 38 years younger than him. Some said “better late than never.” Another comment I read was: “Some-times, older is better. With age comes experience.”
Other party leaders thought he should have toned down the fanfare to a bare minimum and kept the media out of it.
Be that as it may, the minister sought Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s approval before the wedding and he very proudly told journalists, “I went to get my leader’s blessings yesterday. She prayed so that all goes well during my wedding … the party leaders are happy … the people are happy … and they have blessed me with their love.”
There you go. The people have spo-ken. The boubhat (walima) will be on November 14 at a hall in the National Parliament Complex. I join the rest of the country in wishing the newlyweds a blissful life � lled with happiness, until death do them part. l
Zeenat Khan is a freelance writer and a newspaper columnist.
Until death do them part
Why would a younger woman marry a much older man? This is an age-old question pondered by many
n Nadeem Qadir
In sentencing Jamaat-e-Islami leader Matiur Rahman Nizami, the International Crimes Tri-bunal 1 categorically said the appointment of this convicted
war criminal as a government minister was a slap in the face of the martyrs and their families. It said it was a great blunder on the part of the then gov-ernment to make such a move.
The court said in its verdict: “It is very hard to believe that a person who actively opposed the very Liberation War of Bangladesh was appointed as a minister of the republic ... and as such, this shameful act was disgraceful for the nation as a whole.”
The court’s reference is to the appointment of Nizami and his cohort Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed as ministers holding important portfolios during the 2001-2006 government led by Begum Khaleda Zia. The appoint-ments were apparently made on electoral understanding. But is power worth slapping the martyrs and their families for? Or was it just a continua-tion of the process of Pakistanisation of Bangladesh started by General Ziaur Rahman, and also followed to some extent by General Hussein Muhammad Ershad.
The process started by General Zia is a mystery. How could a man, who himself was a valiant freedom � ghter, indulge in rehabilitating anti-Bang-ladesh elements and war criminals, and why would he be more inclined towards Pakistan?
It is true Pakistan and Bangladesh enjoy warmer ties when BNP is in pow-
er because BNP hardly refers to these issues of importance for the Bengali nation.
Pakistan’s home minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali, expressed concern over Nizami’s death sentence, while that country’s Jamaat-e-Islami organised a janaza after war criminal Ghulam Azam’s death. Nisar Ali said he be-lieved that Bangladesh had “misused” the process of law as a “political tool against the Jamaat leader.” Birds of the same feather? That only proves that Pakistan is still unrepentant, like the Razakars, on the issue of the genocide in 1971.
We have not forgotten the comments of one Pakistani high commissioner during Sheikh Hasina’s � rst stint in o� ce from 1996. He was declared persona non grata.
Returning to Ziaur Rahman, one can question the number of coups during his time and his grisly death in 1981. On one hand, he patronised anti-lib-eration and pro-Pakistani elements,
and on the other, a large number of freedom � ghters were hanged, and that includes Colonel Abu Taher of the left wing JSD.
Then comes Ershad, who followed suit by choosing culprits like Maulana MA Mannan who was saved by natural death. However, Ershad also built monuments dedicated to the Libera-tion War, including one in Meherpur where the Mujibnagar government in exile took oath on April 17, 1971. Lesser crime? No, but he had some respect for the martyrs.
Enter Begum Khaleda Zia – Bang-ladesh’s � rst woman prime minister. From 1991 to 1995, she was learning, but the loss in 1996 to her bitter rival Sheikh Hasina made her close her eyes to everything except power. Thus entered the great alliance of BNP and Jamaat in the 2001 polls.
There were a lot of rumours that Razakars and Pakistani army cohorts of 1971 would be inducted in the cab-inet. But again, is it possible? Would the wife of a freedom � ghter compro-mise everything for power?
The big day of oath-taking came. I was among those in the darbar hall of Bangabhaban, the president’s resi-dence. Names were being announced of full ministers. Then came the har-rowing news: Matiur Rahman Nizami and Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujaheed were appointed.
Tears came to my eyes and my anger was possibly visible as one of my father’s former army col-leagues-turned-politician told me: “Be a journalist, don’t be emotion-al.” I did my duty as a journalist and � led my story amid great pain. I was
wondering what my martyred father and late mother were thinking from up there somewhere. Is this a return to Pakistan?
I also saw how the Bangladesh � ag was disrespected, as these two war criminals had our � ag � uttering on their vehicles, along with police escorts.
BNP says people are fed-up with the AL, but they forget they salute Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister, for having such courage and determination to bring these criminals to justice. Before saying that it is time, the BNP and its leadership should apologise to the nation for their crimes by appointing such elements as ministers, and the ICT’s judgment is only an indication towards that end. BNP must apologise, or it should abandon its thought of being voted to power. Ignoring the war is negating Bangladesh.
I would like to quote Mahfuz Anam from his commentary published in The Daily Star: “Totally overshadowing everything else, AL’s stance on war crimes trial and the steadfastness of Sheikh Hasina in making it a reality are unique examples of courage and commitment to the memory of our martyrs.”
To Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, we can never repay you for what you have done for the martyrs and their families. Salute.
I need not say anything more, but will wait for BNP to wake up to the reality that it has to seek forgiveness before it is too late. l
Nadeem Qadir, a senior journalist, is a UNCA Dag Hammarskjold Scholar in journalism.
Time to seek forgivenessT H E F L I P S I D E
The appointment of this war criminal as a minister was a slap in the face of the martyrs and their families
n Jyoti Rahman
AKM Wahiduzzaman is a geog-rapher. He used to teach the subject at Bangladesh’s Nation-
al University. A keen sportsman, he represented Bangladesh in basketball in the 1980s, and a vocal BNP support-er in various online platforms.
He has been in jail twice in the last three years. For the past year, he has been in hiding. He may well be going back to jail soon. Seeing his ordeals, his father has become seriously ill.
Make no mistake, his ordeals are caused by his politics.
AKM Wahiduzzaman is a very good Bangla commentator, possessing verve and wit. He writes galagali-free polished Bangla, not indulging in ad hominem attacks – itself an extreme rarity in the Bangladeshi cyberspace. Just as rare is his steadfast and frank support for the BNP. Unlike so many, he does not hide behind so-called non-partisanship.
Because of his politics, he comes under attack from Awami Leaguers (and their ultra-nationalist “useful idiots”) as well as Islamists. There is nothing curious about that. And that’s not particularly tragic either – your opponents will try to hurt you, that’s how it works.
It is, however, tragic when those who claim to be neither AL collab-orators nor Islamists – the so-called non-partisans – don’t stand by Mr Wahiduzzaman. If there is one genuine case in Bangladesh where free speech is under threat, his ought to be it. It is a tragedy that this is not the case.
But it’s not at all surprising. Not to me. I am not surprised that our so-called progressive people don’t speak out for him. You see, to our progressive intellectuals and activists, Wahiduzzaman is BNP.
Sanaullah Babu was hacked to death four years ago. He was BNP. There were no human rights violation sympathies for him. Similarly, no rights for Ilias Ali or others who have been abducted. They were all BNP.
So why should it surprise me that no one cares about Wahiduzzaman? It doesn’t. And this article isn’t about demanding justice for him. Because he will not receive it.
The following are some translated ex-amples of Mr Wahiduzzaman’s writing, on Bhasha Matin, the Awami League, and political Islamists agreeing on two-and-a-half points:
1. Bhasha Matin was secular (as a pro-China communist, of course he was secular).
2. It is un-Islamic to donate one’s body for medical purposes after death (and yet they feel proud of Muslim physician Ibn Sina. I ask them, if it is un-Islamic to donate the body, then how is medical education that uses corpses Islamic?)
2.5. Bhasha Matin did not lead the Language Movement. On this point, they are only half agreeable. According to the Awami League, the Language Movement was led by Sheikh Mujib, through his letters from the prison toilets, while the Islamists claim that the Language Movement was led by Ghulam Azam because as DUCSU GS he read a memo (as far as I know, Ghulam Azam himself never claimed to be the leader of the Language Movement). l
Jyoti Rahman is a political blogger. This article was previously published in jrahman.wordpress.com.
The not-so-curious tragedy
He writes galagali-free polished Bangla, not indulging in ad hominem attacks – a rarity in cyberspace
BIGSTOCK
SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN
DHAKA TRIBUNE Entertainment Friday, November 7, 201412
Monsters, Inc.Star Movies, 11:00am
Monstropolis is a city of monsters and it revolves around Monsters, Inc., a power company.
Batman BeginsMovies Now, 6:40pm
Adult Bruce returns to Gotham City, his native town, planning to end the mob rule there. Watch the � lm to see how Bruce becomes Batman.
LincolnZee Studio, 6:25pm
America’s President struggles with the ups and downs in his life as the Civil War continues to rage.
MAGIC BAULIANA � naleto air todayn Entertainment Desk
The grand � nale of folk music reality show “Mag-ic Bauliana” will be aired today at 7:40pm on Maasranga Television. The main event was held on October 31 at Gouripur area in Ashulia on the outskirts of the capital.
Besides the � ve � nalists, the glamorous event also featured performances by star singers and dancers. Among the � nalists, Diti Sarkar won the competition, while Masuma Sultana Shathi was the runner-up and Mariam Akhter Kona won the
third place. Winners received their prize from Anjan Chowdhury, managing director of Square Toiletries Ltd, Syed Fahim Munayem, chief edi-tor and chief executive at Massranga Television, famed folk singer Farida Parvin, Malik Moham-mad Sayeed, head of marketing at Square Toi-letries Ltd, and the competition’s judges Kiran Chandra Roy, Kanak Chanpa and Tapan Chowd-hury.
Besides the competition, album titled “Magic Bauliana Ektarar Gaan,” comprising songs by the � ve � nalists, was also unveiled at the event. l
Lux-Channel i Superstars 2014 grand � nale tomorrow n Entertainment Desk
The grand � nale of “Lux-Channel i Superstars 2014” will be held tomorrow at 7:30pm at Bangabandhu Internation-al Conference Centre, and it will be telecast live on Chan-nel i at the same time.
The eighth season of the TV pageant show had 12 glam-orous and exciting episodes with innovative challenges for this year’s participants.
The � nale will feature beauty, fashion, dance and mu-sic. With the top � ve contestants – Nadia, Nazifa, Neela, Prema and Supriya – who will surely dazzle the nation with their beauty and aura, the event will be studded with other celebrities as well.
The winners from previous seasons will also make a glamorous appearance. Singer James will perform at the event with a special tribute to all the women in the country.
SHABNUR to make directorial debutn Entertainment Desk
Shabnur, one of the popular female leads in Dhallywood during the 1990s, is going to make her directorial debut with a � lm which has yet to be titled.
Zahir Ahmed, screenwriter of the � lm, told the Dhaka Tribune: “The sto-ryline of the � lm has been � nalised, and the screenplay will be � nished soon.”
Zahir further said that the � lm would be a joint venture of Bangladesh
and Australia. The � lm will cast new faces for the
lead roles, and Shabnur herself will also portray a substantial character.
After getting married, the actor withdraw herself from the silver screen for a few years. The hiatus will end soon with Shabnur appearing as Anguri in “Jonom Jonome,” a � lm by Salaud-din Lavlu. With a rural setting, Masum Reza has written the script and the shooting will start next month.
WAQEEL AHAD to perform at IGCC todayn Entertainment Desk
An evening of baul music by singer, composer and lyricist Syed Waqeel Ahad will be held today at 6:30pm at the Indira Gandhi Cultural Cen-tre in the capital’s Gulshan area. Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Waqeel said he would perform around 20 songs, including “Mon amar deho ghori,” “Piriti ei jogote,” “Manush dhoro manush bujho,” “Amar moner manush,” and “Kunjo shajao go.”
A Lalon devotee himself, Waqeel said: “An evening of baul music is incomplete without Lalon’s songs. I will perform a number of Lalon’s songs, such as ‘Milon hobe koto dine,’ ‘She janey ar ami jani,’ and few others.”
Waqeel spent a substantial part of his life with bauls living in di� er-ent parts of the country, especially in Kushtia, Mymensingh, Netrako-na, Chittagong and Sylhet, where he had a hands-on experience in baul songs.
About his performance today, the singer said: “I will mainly perform baul songs from greater Mymensingh region with traditional instrumen-talists. I grew up there and have a deep attachment with such music.”
The singer stepped into the music industry with his song “Cellphone amar cellphone” that was released on mixed album “Jhalmuri 2” in 2007. He presented songs of legendary baul Lalon and other bauls in the album “Project 365” that was applauded by music lovers both home and abroad. l
Theatre presents KUHOKJALn Entertainment Desk
The Theatre will stage “Kuhokjal” today at 7pm at the National Theatre Hall, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. Written by Masum Reza, the play has been directed by Tropa Majumdar.
The plot of the play revolves around love for women and muscle power. It shows what happens when people come across greed, aspiration etc in life and how a person can be in� uenced by a mere illusion. It then goes on to portray what happens when the illusion is broken. l
ANGELINA JOLIE ‘open’ to entering politicsn Entertainment Desk
Angelina Jolie has said she could consider a career in politics, de-scribing herself as “open” to a life of diplomacy or public service.
Jolie, who last month was made an honorary dame by the Queen for her campaigning work � ghting sexual violence, has often been asked if she would consider swapping acting for pol-itics.
But in an interview for the December issue of Vanity Fair mag-azine, which goes on sale on November 11, she said that, for the � rst time, she was warming to the idea.
“When you work as a humanitarian, you are conscious that politics have to be considered,” she said. “Because if you really want to make an extreme change, then you have a responsibility.
“But I honestly don’t know in what role I would be more useful — I am conscious of what I do for a living, and that could make it less possible.”
When directly asked if she sees herself pursuing a life in politics, diplomacy, or public service, Jolie replied: “I am open.”
The 39-year-old actress is currently in Malta � lming “By The Sea” with her husband Brad Pitt – their � rst � lm together since “Mr and Mrs Smith,” in 2005.
She has a long history of dedication to political and hu-manitarian causes, having lobbied the UN to make her a Goodwill Ambassador in 2001, and since then travelled the world on a variety of causes. l
SONAM KAPOOR to romance Shah Rukhn Entertainment desk
Sonam Kapoor has all the luck when it comes to her leading men. After working with the gorgeous Fawad Khan in her last � lm “Khoobsurat,” Kapoor is all set to work with the Khans of Bollywood.
While she has already been � nalised for Sooraj Barjatya’s “Prem Ratan Dhan Payo,” opposite Salman Khan, rumour has it, that the actress will also work with the king of romance Shah Rukh Khan soon.
According to a Zee report, the actress has been signed for Shah Rukh Khan’s next � lm, “Raees.” Whether she will play the lead opposite Shah Rukh is yet to be known.
Directed by Rahul Dholakia, “Raees” is an action drama set in Gujarat. Apart from Khan the � lm also stars Farhan Akhtar. Reportedly, while Khan plays the role of a bootlegger, Akhtar plays a cop.
Talking about his role in “Raees,” Khan told Bollywood life, “Raees is more of an earthy role and I am a very urban actor. So I found that interesting.”
Sonam, who � rst shared the screen with the “Dabangg” star in her debut movie “Saawariya” in 2009, also said that she is over the moon about romancing him in Sooraj Barjatya’s family drama “Prem Ratan Dhan Payo.” l
13DHAKA TRIBUNEFriday, November 7, 2014
Sport 1414 Shell kills young footballers in Ukraine cease� re
Messi brace equals Raul’s 71-goal record
15 Siddikur joint 14th, Zamal joint 2nd in Panasonic Open
Did you know?Hamilton
Masakadza is one of 10 players to hit at least four
Test centuries and average below 30
Bangladesh 1st innings433 (Shakib al Hasan 137, Tamim Iqbal 109, Mahmudullah 56; T. Panyangara 2-49, T. Chatara 2-61, M. Waller 2-65)Zimbabwe 1st innings(Overnight 331-5)S Raza lbw b Taijul 11B Chari c Tamim b Taijul 25H Masakadza b Shakib 158B Taylor c Mominul b Shakib 37C Ervine c Rahim b Shakib 17E Chigumbura c Mominul b Shakib 1R Chakabva lbw Taijul 101M Waller c Rahim b Shakib 6T Chatara c and b Rubel 0N M’shangwe c Rahim b Rubel 0T Panyangara not out 1Extras (b2, lb7, w1, nb1) 11Total (all out, 135.1 overs) 368
Fall of wicket1-17, 2-84, 3-151, 4-181, 5-189, 6-336, 7-350, 8-351, 9-351, 10-368BowlingShahadat 11-2-24-0, Taijul 32.1-6-96-3, Shakib 41-11-80-5, Jubair 19-2-64-0 (nb1), Rubel 22-6-55-2 (w1), Shuvagata 7-0-27-0, Mominul 1-1-0-0, Mahmudullah 2-0-13-0.Bangladesh 2nd inningsTamim Iqbal c and b Panyangara 20Shamsur Rahman c Taylor b Waller 23Mominul Haque c Chakabva b Waller 54Mohammad Mahmudullah not out 63Shakib al Hasan lbw b Waller 6Mush� qur Rahim c Chakabva b Waller 0Shuvagata Hom not out 23Extras (b4, lb4, w3, nb1) 12Total (for � ve wickets, 64 overs) 201
Bangladesh lead by 266 runs with � ve wickets in hand
SCORECARD, DAY 4
Players TestsMominul Haque 11Habibul Bashar 16Tamim Iqbal 16Rajin Saleh 19Shakib al Hasan 19Shahriar Nafees 19Mush� qur Rahim 20Mahmudullah 20
QUICKEST TO 1000 TEST RUNS FOR BANGLADESH
PLAYERS WITH HIGHEST PERCENTAGE OF 50s PER TEST (minimum 10 Tests)
Player Tests Ratio
Mominul Haque (BAN) 11 10 90.9
Donald Bradman (AUS) 52 38 73.1
Duleep (ENG) 12 8 66.7
Asim Kamal (PAK) 12 8 66.7
Graeme Pollock (SA) 23 15 65.2
Phil Jaques (AUS) 11 7 63.6
Jack Hobbs (ENG) 61 38 62.3
Everton Weekes (WI) 48 29 60.4
Eddie Barlow (SA) 30 18 60.0
Vijay Merchant (IND) 10 6 60.0
Rusi Modi (IND) 10 6 60.0
Mominul has hit a 50+ score in 10 of his 11 Tests, highest % of anyone playing 10+ Tests
With a 50+ score
BFF inks 60m deal with Channel 9 for Bangabandhu Gold Cupn Raihan Mahmood
Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) inked a � ve-year deal worth Tk60m per annum with Channel 9 as the satellite TV station became the title sponsors of the Bangabandhu Gold Cup Interna-tional Football while they will also hold the advertising and marketing rights of the tournament.
Other than the sponsorship money each year, BFF will also bag the gate money from the six-team tournament to be played across two cities – Dhaka and Sylhet. Channel 9, however, asked BFF to increase the number of the teams to eight in the tournament that is expected to kick o� in the third week of January.
Apart from the hosts, Bahrain, Qa-tar, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Laos and Pakistan are the other nations in-terested in participating in the tourna-ment, but the con� rmed participants,
however, were not revealed in the press conference at BFF House yesterday where Channel 9 handed over a cheque of Tk10m to the BFF as advance money.
Since taking the chair of the BFF president in 2009, Kazi Salahuddin was desperate to host an international tour-
nament and � nally his plan is on the verge of implementation. “The reality is these kind of tournaments are almost extinct in modern football as the play-ers and the teams are too busy with the leagues and their confederation com-mitments. We are happy to see that a
number of countries have consented to play the tournament, I may say that it is better late than never, we have chosen strong teams so that our national team gets bene� ted playing against the su-perior teams, I thank Channel 9 for the support,” said the BFF supremo.
Enayetur Rahman Bappi, the man-aging director of Channel 9, echoed Salahuddin and said, “We stepped up to revive the glory of football. There are risks involved and its ratio is 50:50. If everything goes right we will be able to transmit the tournament to 50 coun-tries, though the money input may not arrive as expected in the initial edition I have every reason to believe that we will be making the tournament a big one in the near future, the business module of football and the tournament is positive.”
The Channel 9 MD also informed of thinking about spreading the tour-nament outside the borders of Ban-gladesh. Enayetur said they received positive response from other countries and held Malaysia as an example where almost two millions Bangladeshis re-side. He also assured that the broadcast will be of international standard and the production will comprise overseas experienced personnels. l
Imrul to replace Shamsur in third Test squadn Mazhar Uddin
Bangladesh opening batsman Imrul Kayes will replace fellow opener Sham-sur Rahman in the Tigers’ squad for the third and � nal Test against Zimbabwe in Chittagong, announced the Bangla-desh Cricket Board yesterday.
Shamsur will make way for Imrul as the former is su� ering a dip in form in recent times. The right-handed opener scored two and 23 in the second Test in Khulna that was preceded by scores of eight and nought in the � rst Test in Dhaka. The 26-year old batsman aver-ages only 6.8 in his last � ve innings.
Imrul on the other hand will come back to the side after recovering from skin disease. Imrul played his last Test against the West Indies two months back and scored nine and 25 in the � rst game before being ruled out of the second Test due to skin infection. Imrul has played 18 Tests so far and has scored 723 runs at an average of 20.08 including a century and a half century.
Meanwhile, another opener Anam-ul Haque is also thought to be in the running for the opening slot alongside Tamim Iqbal in the third Test. l
Records do not bother consistent Mominuln Reazur Rahman Rohan
The Bangladeshi players are on a record-setting spree as majestic left-handed batsman Mominul Haque reached a few milestones in the fourth day of their second Test against Zimba-bwe in Khulna yesterday.
The 23-year-old started his 11th Test match in Khulna needing 70 runs to become the quickest Bangladeshi to reach 1000 runs in the longer version and after getting out on 34 in the � rst attempt, the shortest member of the Tigers made sure of bagging the record with a 54-run patient knock.
Indians Sunil Gavaskar and Chetesh-war Pujara are the only other players in the subcontinent to reach the mile-stone by the end of their 11th game while his � fty in the second innings also saw Mominul getting rewarded with a rare achievement.
In only one Test match, against Zimbabwe in 2013, Mominul scored 23 and 29. In his 11-match career that was the only time when he was unable to score a half century as his consistency re� ects on his average of 56.61. Among players who have played more than 10 Tests, Australian great Sir Donald Brad-
man is second to Mominul with a per-centage of 73.1% of 50s per match.
However, the little master had no idea of entering the 1000-run club as the quickest player to do so and only came to know it from team doctor Debashish Chowdhury and a few jour-nalists while he was on his way to the post-day press conference.
Surprisingly, he was least concerned of the achievements and seemed rather upset for not being able to convert the � fties to a bigger score. Out of his 10 � f-ty-plus scores in Tests Mominul got out six times before reaching 60.
“I am concerned for my batting and do not want to know anything about records at this stage. There must be something wrong (in batting for not be-ing able to make bigger scores) so I am trying to rectify it as soon as possible,” Mominul told Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
“No (I did not know about the record of quickest 1000 runs). Someone in the dressing room told me something like this after I returned,” he added.
Bangladesh will resume the last day to-day with a lead of 266 runs and � ve wick-ets in hand. Mominul feels they are safely placed in the Test match and that they will be playing for an outright victory. l
Tigers in control ahead of � nal dayn Minhaz Uddin Khan from Khulna
Premier Bangla-desh all-rounder Shakib al Hasan had said on Tues-day – the third day
of the ongoing second Test against Zim-babwe in Khulna – that the match was heading towards a draw. Zimbabwe’s wicketkeeper-batsman Regis Chakab-va echoed Shakib’s prediction. Both the cricketers are on the verge of being spot on with their predictions barring any major surprises in the � fth and � -nal day today as Bangladesh ended the fourth day’s play yesterday at Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium with a lead of 266 runs and � ve wickets in hand.
Shakib had also said they would tar-get � ve wickets in the � rst session of the fourth day with Zimbabwe resuming the penultimate day’s play on 331/5, 102 runs behind the hosts’ � rst innings tally of 433.
Amazingly, Bangladesh did just that as the visitors were all out for 368 giv-ing the Tigers a lead of 65 runs. In the fourth day, Zimbabwe lost their re-maining � ve wickets in the morning session for 37 runs.
Hamilton Masakadza and Chakab-va resumed the fourth day’s play but the former added only four runs to his overnight score of 154 before being clean bowled by Shakib. This was Ham-ilton’s fourth Test century.
Old habits die hard and it was proven once again following Hamilton’s dismiss-al. Bangladesh’s poor ground � elding re-fused to improve as Shuvagata Hom and paceman Shahadat Hossain each dropped Zimbabwe’s No 8, Malcolm Waller.
Waller though was unable to cash in
on the missed opportunities as Shakib soon dismissed him for six and in the process picked up his 13th � ve-wicket haul. Having scored a century in the � rst innings of the ongoing Test, Shakib joined an illustrious club featuring leg-ends like Sir Gar� eld Sobers, Mushtaq Ahmed and Jacques Kallis who have all blasted a hundred and picked up � ve wickets in the same Test twice.
Chakabva on the other hand gave the Zimbabweans something to cheer about amidst all the � urry of wickets as he reached his maiden Test centu-ry in his seventh game. The 27-year old wicketkeeper though could not go beyond 101 as he was trapped in front by left-arm spinner Taijul Islam. Taijul ended up with three wickets.
Paceman Rubel Hossain, coming into the second Test in place of Al Amin Hossain, soon mopped up the Zimba-bwe tail scalping two wickets as the visitors were all out for 368.
Bangladesh extended the lead to 266 after ending the fourth day’s pro-ceedings at 201/5.
Tamim Iqbal (20) provided his side a solid start as he was back to his old-ag-gressive self, hammering four boundaries in double quick time. His innings, howev-er, was cut short by Tinashe Panyangara.
Opener Shamsur Rahman was then joined at the crease by Mominul Haque (54). After a painstaking 71-ball 23, Shamsur departed bringing Mahmud-ullah (63 not out) to the middle. Both remained patient and struck half-cen-turies and although Shakib (six) and skipper Mush� qur Rahim (nought) were out cheaply later in the day, Bangladesh were still in the driving seat going into the � nal day of the Test match today. l
Shakib joins Sir Sobers, Mushtaq and Kallis n Minhaz Uddin Khan from Khulna
Shakib al Hasan continued to impress on the � eld with his performance as the Bangladeshi all-rounder’s latest achievement elevated him beside the legends of the game – West Indian great Sir Garry Sobers, Pakistan’s Mushtaq Ahmed and South Africa’s Jacques Kallis.
Shakib, who scored a century in the � rst innings, resumed the fourth day yesterday with three wickets to his name and bagged two more to com-
plete his 13th � ve-wicket haul – the sec-ond time he scored a century and took � ve wickets in the same match.
Shakib joined legends like So-bers, Mushtaq and Kallis who had all achieved the milestone of scoring a hundred and claiming � ve wickets in a match twice. The earlier instance of Shakib achieving the feat was at home in 2011 against Pakistan where he made 144 and took six wickets in the � rst in-nings.
Interestingly, both Shakib’s feats came in the � rst innings of the respec-tive matches and only former England captain Sir Ian Botham, who also leads the 100 and � ve-wicket club having done it � ve times, has claimed the achievement in the � rst innings more (three times).
Shakib’s milestone was the 30th in-stance in Test history where a player scored a century and took � ve wickets in the same game and amazingly the last three players to do it belongs to Bangladesh.
O� -spinner Sohag Gazi scored a hundred and picked up � ve wick-ets against New Zealand in 2013 after Shakib was the � rst Bangladeshi to do it in 2011. l
Bangladesh cricketers Mominul Haque (L) and Mahmudullah run between the wickets during the fourth day of their second Test match against Zimbabwe at the Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium in Khulna yesterday AFP
Second win in a row for BD U-21 hockey teamn Raihan Mahmood
Bangladesh Under-21 hockey team con-tinued their winning streak in India by beating Center of Excellence Patiala 5-2 in their second practice match at Patia-la yesterday.
Defender Khorshed scored thrice while Koushik and Milon netted one goal apiece. In the � rst match of the tour on Wednesday Bangladesh U-21 beat Sports Authority of India team by 5-1 goals.
The visiting Bangladesh team will take on Chandigarh XI today and play SAI Hockey Academy tomorrow fol-lowed by a rest day on Sunday. On Monday the team will play against Punjab Hockey Academy in Patiala. On Tuesday and Wednesday the team will face Chandigarh XI and Mohali XI re-spectively. lBFF president Kazi Salahuddin (3L) receives the Tk10m cheque form Channel 9 MD Enayetur Rahman (4R) at the BFF House yesterday
Barcelona manager Luis Enrique has labelled Lionel Messi has the ‘best’ player he has seen after the Argentine forward spurred a 2-0 victory over Ajax Amsterdam that secured the Spanish side a place in the Champions League knockout stages.
Messi grabbed both goals for Barce-lona as they struggled at Amsterdam Arena with the Spanish side put under pressure throughout the game.
“Is Messi the best player of all time? Absolutely. He is the best player I have ever seen as a player or as a coach”, Enrique said after Messi’s brace drew him level with Spanish great Raul for the most Champions League goals.
Messi’s goals, a 36th-minute header and a 76th-minute tap in, gave him 71 in the European competition and were the di� erence in the match.
“There was a big di� erence between the � rst half and the second,” Enrique said at a media conference.
“At certain moments Ajax managed to put us under pressure really well. After the break we tried to
win the ball as far from our own goal as possible.”
Frank de Boer, who played alongside his Barcelona counterpart from 1999 to 2003, said his players can be proud of themselves for exerting pressure on the Catalan giants.
“It is a pity we didn’t reward our-selves for a good game from our side,” de Boer said.
“We showed we can compete at the highest level, and that is exactly what I wanted from my players.”
Barcelona are second in Group F on nine points, one behind Paris St Ger-main who beat APOEL Nicosia 1-0 in Paris.
Ajax remain third on two points, leaving them vying with APOEL for a Europa League place and de Boer said he knew that elimination from the Champions League was the most likely scenario before Wednesday’s loss.
“That was sort of clear already,” he said.
“We tried to stay in the competition as long as possible, but we’re playing against two Champions League favourites.” l
Chelsea equal club record n Reuters, Maribor
Chelsea stretched their unbeaten start to the season to a club record-equalling 16 games with a 1-1 Champions League draw against Maribor on Wednesday but the 2012 winners were given a mighty scare.
The Slovenian upstarts, destroyed 6-0 by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge two weeks ago, took the lead in the 50th minute when Macedonia winger Agim Ibraimi curled in a spectacular left-foot shot from the edge of the box.
Group G leaders Chelsea still look well placed to qualify for the knockout stages with eight points from four games. Schal-ke 04 have � ve points after losing 4-2 at Sporting Lisbon (four) on Wednesday and Maribor (three) are also in with a chance.
A grim-faced Mourinho, who brought on Diego Costa and Oscar for Andre Schuerrle and Willian at half-time and also replaced Filipe Luis with Ramires 11 minutes into the second half, was clearly unhappy with his side.
“We didn’t play well in the � rst half ... and when you don’t play well for 90 minutes you take a risk,” the Portu-guese told Sky Sports television.
“In the last 30 minutes we started to play really well with intensity and desire and we had a lot of chances but their keeper was magni� cent.”l
Gladbach revive ‘70s memories with unbeaten runn Reuters, Berlin
Borussia Moenchengladbach’s unbeat-en run that has seen them emerge as the toughest challengers to leaders Bayern Munich has revived memories of the all-conquering team of the 1970s ahead of Sunday’s clash with Borussia Dortmund.
Gladbach, � ve-time champions from 1970 to 1977, have this season equalled the 17-game unbeaten run of the great 1970/71 team coached by Hennes Weis-weiler to stay four points o� the Bavar-ians along with VfL Wolfsburg, who are second on goal di� erence.
On Sunday they face troubled Dort-mund, who may have booked a Cham-pions League knockout spot early on Tuesday but have lost seven of their 10 league games so far to lie in 17th place.
“To be honest I did not even know until last week that we could equal a record,” said winger Ibrahima Traore.
Unbeaten in 10 league matches as well as in the Europa League and Ger-man Cup, Gladbach have been moulded into a winning out� t since Swiss coach Lucien Favre took over in 2011 to nar-rowly save them from relegation. They certainly did not do it the easy way, los-ing key players in the past seasons. l
City have ‘crisis of con� dence’: Pellegrini n AFP, Manchester
Manchester City manager Manuel Pel-legrini said that his team were su� ering “a crisis of con� dence” after they were left on the brink of Champions League elimination by CSKA Moscow.
City had ended a three-game win-less run by beating Manchester United 1-0 on Sunday, but they produced a strangely insipid display on Wednes-day in a 2-1 home defeat by the Russian champions.
Seydou Doumbia scored both goals for CSKA at a cold and misty Etihad Sta-dium, either side of a free-kick by Yaya Toure, who was sent o� in the second half along with team-mate Fernandinho.
City now trail CSKA and Roma by two points ahead of their next game at home to already-quali� ed Bayern Mu-nich and with their fate no longer in their own hands, Pellegrini admits the English champions have lost their way.
“It is a crisis of con� dence,” said the Chilean, who is bidding to prevent City succumbing to a third group-stage exit in four years.
“It is di� cult to know why. It was such a low performance from import-ant players. It is a strange moment. It
is not just this competition. In the last two weeks, we are not playing.
“I don’t understand, why but we must � nd a reason because we must arrange the situation.”
As well as sending o� Fernandinho, for two bookable o� ences, and Toure, for shoving Roman Eremenko, refer-ee Tasos Sidiropoulos failed to show a second yellow card to CSKA mid� elder Pontus Wernbloom in an apparent case of mistaken identity - instead booking Sergei Ignashevich. Sidiropoulos also waved away a strong late penalty claim by Sergio Aguero, who he had earlier booked for diving.
But while Pellegrini felt that Sid-iropoulos had made “mistakes”, he said the Greek o� cial’s display was a red herring.
“I don’t want to analyse the referee’s decision,” said the former Real Madrid coach, who felt the red cards suggested his players had been “nervous”.
“He referees the game and must de-cide if they are red cards or they are not red cards, or if it is a penalty or if it is not a penalty. It is more important for me to analyse why we are not playing in the way we always work.”
Despite City’s perilous position, Pel-
legrini vowed that his players would not give up hope.
“You have the mathematical option to qualify, you must � ght for it,” he added.
“We must � rst try to play against QPR, then we have the international break, and then we are going to try to qualify for the next stage. It is more dif-� cult, but it is not impossible.”
Pellegrini also revealed that captain Vincent Kompany will undergo tests on Thursday after limping o� at full-time.
“I don’t know at the moment if it is just a kick or we will see if it is some problem with his calf,” he said.
CSKA coach Leonid Slutsky praised Doumbia for his match-winning turn, which came two weeks after the former Ivory Coast international scored a goal and won a penalty in his side’s 2-2 draw at home to City.
“Obviously when he had the � rst game in Moscow, he could hardly walk, he was limping,” said Slutsky, whose side had never previously won in England.
“Even limping he could score a goal and was fouled for the penalty. Before to-day’s (Wednesday’s) match he didn’t have much preparation because of the injury and he hasn’t been training for months. l
Messi brace equals Raul’s 71-goal record Barca, Bayern, PSG and Porto through as City losen AFP, Paris
Barcelona, Bay-ern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Porto all quali� ed for the Champions League last 16 on
Wednesday with Lionel Messi setting another personal milestone.
Messi scored both goals - one with a header for only the fourth time in the competition - as Barca beat Ajax 2-0 to equal Raul’s record of 71 goals in the tournament.
“I am happy for Leo because of the work he does for the team. He is the number one, the best,” said Barca mid-� elder Xavi Hernandez.
Bayern went through after a 2-0 victory at home to Roma, PSG saw o� APOEL 1-0 while Porto beat Athletic Bilbao 2-0 with their goalscorers Co-lombian Jackson Martinez and Algerian Yacine Brahimi both taking their tallies to four in this season’s competition.
Champions Real Madrid and Borus-sia Dortmund made sure of their last-16 places on Tuesday.
However, Chelsea missed a chance to also reach the knockout stages as they had to come from behind to snatch a 1-1 draw with minnows Mari-bor in Slovenia.
The 2012 winners, though, are in a far better state than English champions Manchester City whose mystifying fail-ure to perform well in the competition continued as they had two men sent o� in an embarrassing 2-1 home defeat to Russian out� t CSKA Moscow, who re-
corded their � rst ever win in England.Their results rounded o� a poor
week for English clubs in the Champi-ons League with Liverpool losing and Arsenal drawing 3-3 with Anderlecht, the Gunners having let a 3-0 lead slip in the � nal half hour on Tuesday.
Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk also look certain to reach the last 16 after a 5-0 thrashing of Belarus cham-pions BATE Borisov, Luiz Adriano add-ing to his � ve goals in the 7-0 win a fortnight ago with a hat-trick to move further clear in this season’s overall scoring charts with nine.
Porto’s fellow Portuguese side Sport-ing Lisbon are also in with a chance of reaching the next phase as they revived
their campaign with a 4-2 home win over Schalke 04.
Sporting’s Islam Slimani bookended the scoring, � rstly putting through his own net to give the Germans the lead and then ensuring the hosts secured the points right at the end.
Barcelona still trail Paris Saint-Ger-main by a point at the top of Group F but the Spanish side’s coach Luis En-rique was more relieved they had end-ed a run of two successive defeats and also avoided three consecutive away losses in the Champions League which last happened in 2005.
“The attitude of the team was mar-vellous against an opponent that had everything to play for,” said Enrique.
PSG coach Laurent Blanc was con-tent that his side did what was need-ed to secure their place in the last 16 - Edinson Cavani scoring their fastest ever goal in the competition after just 57 seconds - but is keener still to top the group.
“Now let’s try to go on and � nish � rst in the group because it gives you an ad-vantage, a small one but an advantage all the same,” said Blanc, whose side still have to travel to the Camp Nou to play Barcelona next month.
Bayern’s victory against an un-der strength Roma starting line-up - Gervinho and Francesco Totti started on the bench - came at a price as im-pressive Austrian defender David Ala-ba, who created the � rst goal for Franck Ribery, su� ered what appeared to be a serious knee ligament injury.
“We will miss him terribly,” said Bayern coach Pep Guardiola. l
Shell kills young footballers in crumbling Ukraine cease� re n AFP, Donetsk
Ukraine’s tattered cease� re came un-der new strain Wednesday as shelling killed two teenagers playing football in rebel-held Donetsk and President Petro Poroshenko said he was deploying re-inforcements to face a threatened sep-aratist o� ensive.
In another sign of Ukraine’s ever more permanent looking break-up, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk an-nounced he was cutting subsidies to the rebel Donetsk and Lugansk regions, so as not to � nance “terrorists”.
A government source told AFP the
measures would include scrapping pensions for hundreds of thousands of people living in separatist areas.
Although large-scale military action has ceased in the ex-Soviet republic since a September cease� re was signed, sporadic artillery � re is exacting a daily toll, feeding fears that the truce will collapse.
On Wednesday, heavy bombard-ments raged around Donetsk’s former international airport, where govern-ment forces are holding out against be-sieging separatists. One shell landed in a nearby school football � eld and killed two boys aged 14 and 18.l
RESULTSMan City 1-2 CSKA MoscowToure 8 Doumbia 2, 36
Athletic Bilbao 0-2 FC Porto Martinez 56, Brahimi 73
A crater caused by shelling is seen near a school � eld in Donetsk yesterday REUTERS
Shakhtar Donetsk’s Luiz Adriano took his tally against BATE Borisov to eight goals in two games as the Ukrainian side took a giant stride towards the Champions League’s last 16 by crushing the Group H minnows 5-0 at the Lviv Arena on Wednesday. The result was largely expected after the Ukrainian champions humiliated BATE 7-0 away in Minsk, with Brazilian striker Luiz Adriano scoring a hat-trick after netting � ve in their previous encounter REUTERS
ANOTHER HAT TRICK
Manchester’s City’s Yaya Toure (R) is shown a red card during their UCL match against CSKA Moscow at Etihad on Wednesday REUTERS
SportDHAKA TRIBUNE 15Friday, November 7, 2014
Gazi TV, BTV9:30AMBangladesh v Zimbabwe 2nd Test, Day 5Sony Six09:45PM RAM SLAM T20 2014Titans v Knights01:45AMScottish League 2014Motherwell v Dundee UnitedStar Sports 22:30PMAustralia v South Africa2nd T20I7:30PMHero Indian LeagueKolkata v PuneStar Sports 41:45AMSpanish La LigaCordoba v Deportivo La Coruna
DAY’S WATCH
Belo Horizonte teams qualify for Brazilian CupCruzeiro and Atletico Mineiro con-� rmed Belo Horizonte is the place to be for Brazilian soccer fans on Wednesday when the city’s two big teams both won their Brazilian Cup semi-� nals to set up a local derby in the � nal. Atletico, for the second succes-sive Cup tie, came from behind to win 4-1, this time against Flamengo and quali� ed for the � nal 4-3 on aggregate. They will meet their arch rivals in the � nal later this month after Cruzeiro drew 3-3 at Santos to take the second semi-� nal by the same 4-3 aggregate. The results con� rm the power shift from the traditional centres of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. Cruzeiro are the reigning Serie A champions and are top of the league again with � ve games to go while Atletico won the Libertadores Cup in 2013 for the � rst time.
–Reuters
Kennedy in, Villa out for Melbourne City Melbourne City on Thursday signed Socceroo striker Josh Kennedy in a two-year deal as Spanish superstar Da-vid Villa headed for New York. Kennedy will join the Manchester City-owned A-League club in January after spend-ing over � ve years in the J-League with Nagoya Grampus. Melbourne City said Kennedy, 32, has signed on as the club’s Australian marquee player until the end of the 2015-16 season. “I’m very excited about this project,” Kennedy said in a club statement. “It’s a new chapter in my career, but my goal will be the same - to help my club achieve all of its aspirations. I believe Melbourne City has huge potential.” Kennedy has scored 17 goals in 33 in-ternational appearances, including the goal to seal Australia’s quali� cation for the 2014 World Cup in a 1-0 win over Iraq. After making Australia’s squads for the 2006 and 2010 World Cups, Kennedy missed out on Brazil this year with a back injury.
–AFP
Japan swimmer retracts confession to camera theft Disgraced Japanese swimmer Naoya Tomita on Thursday tearfully denied he had stolen a journalist’s camera at the Asian Games in September, despite previously admitting the crime to South Korean police. The 25-year-old, who was booted out of the Asian Games in Incheon and slapped with an 18-month ban by the Japan Swimming Federation, said he had confessed because he feared he would not be allowed to return home. He also claimed that the poolside security cam-era footage Korean prosecutors said showed him taking the $7,600 camera was unclear.
–AFP
2nd Romanian player gets 16-match banFC Viitorul Constanta centre back Alin Seroni has been banned for 16 matches for a reckless foul in a domestic match, the Romanian football federation’s (FRF) said late on Wednesday. The punishment came a few hours after the FRF decided to ban FCM Targu Mures mid� elder Gabriel Muresan for 16 matches following a violent tackle during his team’s 1-0 league win over champions Steaua Buchrast on Oct. 26.
–Reuters
QUICK BYTES
Australian cricket team captain Michael Clarke (L) joins former world cup winning captains Ricky Ponting (2L), Steve Waugh and Allan Border (R) as they gather around World Cup trophies in front of iconic Harbour Bridge during a media event for the 100-day countdown to the ICC 2015 Cricket World Cup in Sydney yesterday AFP
CA apologies over � ame thrower n AFP, Adelaide
Australian T20 captain Aaron Finch re-ceived an apology Thursday after a close call with a � ame thrower during the team’s loss to South Africa in Adelaide.
Finch was shocked when he came within a metre (yard) of a burst of the pyrotechnic display as he went to get the ball from just over the Adelaide Oval boundary line on Wednesday evening.
He had deliberately stalled collect-ing the ball, knowing that � ames are shot to mark boundaries.
But when nothing initially hap-pened he assumed it was safe to ap-proach, only for a � ame to blast out as he neared in a pyrotechnic mishap.
“We have apologised to Aaron for the incident last night,” Cricket Austra-lia said on its website.l
Former captains back Clarke n AFP, Sydney
Former Australia captains Ricky Ponting, Steve Waugh and Allan Border threw their support behind embattled skipper Michael Clarke Thursday, say-ing it was ridiculous to be questioning his credentials.
Clarke arrived in Sydney on Wednes-day after the team’s thumping 2-0 Test loss to Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates to a barrage of questions over whether he remained the best man to head the side. Ponting said Clarke, de-spite battling a form slump, remained his pick as captain.
“I think that was quite ridiculous, to tell you the truth,” he said of the grill-ing Clarke received, as the three former captains gathered to mark 100 days
before the start of the 2015 World Cup, to be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
“The team’s done some amazing things in the last couple of years and got themselves back up to number one in two forms of the game at least, had some amazing series whitewashes and things.
“We know that out of the last cou-ple of weeks the guys didn’t handle the conditions that well over there (in the UAE) but... it’s two Test matches, a bit of a blip on what’s otherwise been a pretty good copybook for the last cou-ple of years.
“So hopefully they can learn from their mistakes over the last couple of weeks, move on and be a better team in Asia for coming tournaments.”
Clarke has averaged just 27.46 in his last 16 innings and managed just 2, 3, 47 and 5 in his four innings during Aus-tralia’s series loss to Pakistan.
On Wednesday he defended his re-cord and said he was not worried about losing the captaincy.
Waugh said he had no doubts that Clarke would emerge from his slump and said calling his leadership into question was unfair.
“I can’t understand that. I mean, ev-ery player goes through a time where they’re not scoring runs,” he told re-porters.
“But he’s had an incredible run - 5-0 against England last year, beating South Africa away (this year) was an amazing result for Australia. So you’ve got to put it into context. It was two
Test matches, we didn’t play well.“Let’s judge the side after maybe
another six, 12 months and see how they’re going. But I think he’s done a fantastic job.”
Border was also surprised by the criticism levelled at Clarke.
“They’ve got short memories,” he said. “A couple of weeks of poor cricket doesn’t change the quality. I think he’s de� nitely the right bloke.”
Clarke admitted this week that his team had not learnt their lesson against spin after a 4-0 rout in India early last year and their mauling at the hands of Pakistan, but said his focus was now on the bumper Australian summer.
It kicks o� for him with a � ve-match one-day series against South Africa starting on Friday next week. l
German-Turkish player quits Turkey after ‘racist’ attack n AFP
A footballer for a Turkish top � ight side said Thursday he has � ed Turkey for Germany after a violent attack in An-kara where he was threatened over his Kurdish origins and support for Kurds in Kobane.
Deniz Naki, who played for the An-kara-based Turkish Super Lig side Gen-clerbirligi, said he was attacked by un-known individuals who left him with injuries to the face and hand.
Naki, who was born in Germany, said the men insulted his mixed Kurd-ish and Alevi origins and also threat-ened him over his vocal support for Kurds resisting Islamic State (IS) jihad-ists in the battle for the Syrian town of Kobane.
“My family is very worried about the incident and so as not to cause them any more worry, I have left Turkey to go to Germany,” he wrote in a Turkish
statement on his o� cial Facebook page.“My being here (in Turkey) no lon-
ger had any meaning,” he said.Naki, who adheres to the Alevi o� -
shoot of Shiite Islam which is majority Sunni Turkey’s biggest religious mi-nority, had in recent weeks written sev-eral tweets hostile to IS.
“I would like to make one thing clear: I am from Dersim and I am Alevi,” he said, using the former name for the Kurdish-Alevi majority Tunceli province.l
India win 2nd ODI, one step away from seriesn Agencies
India are a step away from winning the � ve-match one-day international series against Sri Lanka after the hosts won the second ODI by six wickets in Ahmedabad yesterday.
Chasing 275 for victory, India reached the target with six wickets in hand and more than � ve overs to spare as Ambati Rayudu struck his maiden ODI hundred in his 21st match. Rayudu was unbeaten on 121 from 118 balls, his undefeated knock featuring 10 bound-aries and four sixes.
Rayudu was ably supported by opener Shikhar Dhawan, who made 79 o� 80 balls.
Earlier, skipper Angelo Mathews struck a � ghting � fty to lift a struggling Sri Lanka to 274 for eight. Electing to bat, the visitors lost early wickets but Mathews’ unbeaten 92 - his innings laced with 10 fours and a six - and Ku-mar Sangakkara’s valiant 61 took the
side to respectability. The duo stitched a crucial 90-run fourth-wicket partner-ship after Sri Lanka were struggling at 64 for three.
With the visitors being reduced to 220 for eight in the 44th over, Mathews got support from number-ten batsman Dhammika Prasad and the duo stitched a valuable 54-run unbeaten partner-ship to give the islanders the necessary push in the end.
Indian pace spearhead Umesh Ya-dav picked up two wickets. l
Tendulkar praises God, brother n AFP, Mumbai
Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar spoke of how central his strong Hin-du faith and his older brother have been to his sensational cricket career as he launched his autobiography on Wednesday.
Releasing the long-awaited book “Playing It My Way”, retired Tendulkar told an audience in Mumbai that he missed the moment that his team won the 2011 World Cup because he was “superstitious” and praying.
“Unfortunately I missed that last moment but it was all worth waiting for,” he said. “I was actually there in-side the stadium but I was praying.”
Tendulkar played his 200th and � nal Test match last year, ending an interna-tional career spanning nearly a quarter of a century during which he became the all-time leading Test and one-day batsman.
The 41-year-old, the only man to score 100 international centuries, said
he believed “there are certain things which the Almighty controls and we can only go out and give our best”.
“It (faith) has given me inner strength, it has given a new dimension to my life,” he said.
Tendulkar also spoke of his close-ness to his big brother Ajit, who intro-duced him to his childhood coach.
“Right from the day I started play-ing cricket early on he would travel with me and he would be constantly in touch with me,” he said.
“We have lived this dream together. I knew that whenever I went into bat, mentally he was there with me, even though we were miles and miles apart,” he said.
Tendulkar was joined on stage at his book launch both with Ajit and his wife Anjali, who confessed she once ran screaming after the 17-year-old cricket-er when she � rst saw him at an airport because he was “really cute”.
Ace Bangladesh golfer Siddikurur Rah-man � nds himself tied for 14th position along with nine others after the opening day’s play of the Panasonic India Open ended yesterday at Delhi Golf Club.
Siddikur hit two-under-par 70 and trails leader Rahil Gangjee of India by four shots. Another Bangladesh golfer, Zamal Hossain, however, had a wonder-ful day as opposed to Siddikur. Zamal struck four-under-par 68 and is now tied for second place with three others.
In the opening day of the $300,000 tournament, Siddikur smashed six birdies and two bogeys. A double bogey in the ninth hole though ruined all his good work. Zamal on the other hand struck � ve birdies and a solitary bogey.
Siddikur, who has returned to the Asian Tour circuit after recuperating from an injury, expressed his satisfac-tion following the conclusion of the � rst round.
“I’m happy with my return. Overall
my putting was awesome. All togeth-er I’m hitting a little bit o� . I started without any con� dence. I played real-ly good in the practice round but I was thinking a lot,” Siddikur was quoted as saying in the Asian Tour website.
“It is still a good round. I didn’t have much con� dence on the � rst few holes then I talked to my caddie and decided to go for it. After four holes I played ag-gressive and things started to happen,” he added. l
(L-R) Jazz Janewattananond, Siddikur Rahman, Wade Ormsby and SSP Chowrasia pose with the trophy ahead of the Panasonic Open India at the Delhi Golf Club on Wednesday
16 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, November 7, 2014
W H Y D I D T H E J A Y W A L K E R C R O S S T H E R O A D ?RANA PLAZA COLLAPSE
CID prepares charge sheets against eight public servants n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu
The Criminal Investigation Department � nalised two separate charge sheets against eight public servants in the cases � led over the deadly Rana plaza collapse.
The CID, however, has not been able to submit as it is yet receive any go-ahead clearance from the government.
The eight-storey Rana Plaza that housed � ve garment factories, a shop-ping complex and a branch of Brac Bank, collapsed on April 24 last year in Savar on the outskirts of the capital that left at least 1,135 people dead and scores maimed.
According to the court source, the CID � nalised a charge sheet against 42 people including 13 government of-� cials in a case � led under the penal code another another against 17 people including seven government o� cials in a case � led under the building con-struction act.
As per the section 197 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) CID Assistant Superintendent Bijoy Krishna Khar, also investigation o� cer of the cases, sent a letter to the relevant ministries seeking permission to include 20 government o� cials in the charge sheets.
The investigation o� cer got clear-ance for 12 accused but he is yet to re-ceive reports on the remaining eight including former executive o� cer of Savar Municipalty Uttam Kumar Roy, Building Inspector Md Awlad Hossain and Kabir Hossain Sardar, ex-executive o� cer of Savar Upazila.
Additional public prosecutor of Dhaka Chief Judicial Magistrate Court Anwarul Kabir Babul told the Dhaka Tribune: “Although the CID � nalised the charge sheets they cannot submit it as it is yet to receive permission from the government.”
Meanwhile, Dhaka Senior Judicial Magistrate Afroza Sheuli yesterday again asked CID to submit the charge sheets by December 24.
The court also directed the investi-gation o� cer to submit a progress re-port within seven working days.
On September 15, the investigation o� cer submitted two separate pro-
gress reports before the court in this connection.
According to progress reports the investigators found a total of 59 people responsible for the country’s deadliest industrial disaster and are likely to sub-mit two separate charge sheets before the court.
In the case � led under penal code act, the CID investigators have collect-ed statements of 952 witnesses and victims of the incidence and the state-ments of necessary witnesses were re-corded under section 161 of the penal code act.
The progress report on the case � led under the building construction act stated that CID collected statements of 165 people and the witnesses state-ments were recorded under section 161 of CrPC.
Investigation O� cer Bijoy Krishna Khar earlier said: “We would submit the charges sheets shortly after we get clearance for the government o� cials from the ministry.”
A sourced involved in the investi-gation process said Rana Plaza own-er, owners of the garment factories housed in the building, some o� cials and engineers of Savar Municipality and the Department of Inspection of Factories and Establishment have been found to be responsible for Rana Plaza collapse and the loss of lives.
Sohel Rana and the garment facto-ries forced the sta� and workers of the factories to work inside the building even after cracks were found in the structure.
A total of 22 people were arrested in connection with three cases � led over the Rana Plaza tragedy and 14 of them, including Rana’s father Abdul Khalek, were released on bail.
Rajuk o� cial Helal Uddin � led a case against Sohel Rana for structural faults found at Rana Plaza and for con-structing the building with substand-ard materials and violating act.
Another case was � led by Sub-In-spector Wali Ashraf of Savar Police Station against Rana, his father Abdul Khalek and owners of � ve apparel fac-tories housed in the nine-storey build-ing for the loss of lives. l
GM potato release planned for next year n Abu Bakar Siddique
The government has planned to release genetically modi� ed potatoes, report-edly capable of resisting late blight dis-ease, next year.
Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) has been developing genetically modi� ed potatoes by in-serting pest and weather-resistant gene in two local potato varieties – Cardinal and Diamond.
“We will complete everything that needs to be done by this season before releasing the product next year,” said Dr Tapan Kumar Dey, head of the ge-
netically modi� ed potato development project.
Late blight is one of the major dis-eases that damages the potato plant and also its production. A resistance gene named Solanum bulbocastanum found in a wild potato variety in Latin American region has been used to de-velop the genetically modi� ed variety in Bangladesh.
“As part of the con� ned trial, we will grow the varieties in our six research centres - Rangpur, Gazipur, Jessore, Bogra, Comilla and Hathazari - for the last time,” Tapan said.
The BARI has already applied to the
National Bio-safety Committee under the Ministry of Environment and For-ests seeking approval to run the � nal con� ned trial.
Muhammad Solaiman Haider, mem-ber secretary of the committee, said the approval would be given soon.
The government has been trying to develop genetically modi� ed potato varieties since 2006 by from the Ameri-can potato variety transgenic Katahdin SP 951 developed by Colonel Universi-ty.
Initially, more than 300 clones of Cardinal and Diamond varieties were developed in an Indonesian laboratory,
and con� ned trials have been being run for the last three seasons.
Only six clones have been selected for the � nal trail, said Tapan.
“In addition to the six, we will in-clude the transgenic Katahdin SP 951 and non-transgenic Katahdin (original) potato varieties in the � nal trail to com-pare the e� ectiveness of the genetical-ly modi� ed potato varieties produced by the BARI,” he added.
The potato varieties will become the latest genetically modi� ed crops in the country following Bt brinjal, which was approved by the government in Octo-ber last year. l
India, Nepal, Bhutan envoys to make cross-border trip n Tribune Report
The heads of diplomatic missions of Bhutan, India and Nepal in Dhaka will travel together from Dhaka to India, Bhutan and Nepal along the land route to highlight the importance of sub-re-gional cooperation in crucial areas such as trade, transit, border infrastructure and connectivity.
In the � rst ever visit of its kind, Bhuta-nese Ambassador Pema Choden, Indian High Commissioner Pankaj Saran and Nepalese Ambassador Hari Kumar Shres-tha will undertake the journey from No-vember 9 to 12, said a press release issued by the Indian High Commission.
Bangladesh government is support-ing the trip, and a representative of the Foreign Ministry will also be a part of the team. The Indian team will also in-clude Gopal Baglay, joint secretary at
the Indian Ministry of External A� airs.The team will visit the Bangladesh-In-
dia-Bhutan-Nepal border areas as well as land customs stations and immigration posts aiding international trade and peo-ple-to-people contact in the sub-region.
The team will visit the land customs stations of Burimari-Changrabandha (Bangladesh-India), Phuentsholing-Jai-gaon (Bhutan-India), Kakarbhitta-Pani-tanki (Nepal-India) and Phulbari-Bangla-bandha (India-Bangladesh).
They will also visit land ports in those places to observe the existing infra-structure and facilities, and hold meet-ings with o� cials at said land ports.
During the visit, the team will hold interactions with Chambers of Com-merce in Phuentsholing, Kakarbhitta, Siliguri, and Panchagar; and meet with customs and immigration o� cials at the border points. l
Survey: People more concerned about development than religionn Tribune Desk
At a time when “religious sentiment” is a topic of heated debate in the coun-try, nearly three-fourths respondents of an opinion poll have agreed that the government should take action against those trying to incite violence using such issues.
The poll results also show that a sig-ni� cantly higher number of respond-ents are concerned with various devel-opmental issues such as education and employment rather than issues such as stronger laws on hurting religious senti-ments or holding free and fair election.
The poll was recently conducted by Bangla Tribune in association with the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (Ulab) and Innovative Research and Consultancy Limited (HRC).
It accommodated a total of 600 male and female adults from both rural and urban settings and collected mostly quantitative data through structured questionnaires by means of telephonic interviews.
The respondents were given several options and 20% chose education as the most important issue for Bangla-desh right now, 16% chose employ-ment, 14% law and order situation, 10.5% political stability and 4.3% road communication.
“Emphasis on religious sentiments” and “holding free and fair election” fetched only 1.09% response each; only 0.62% of the interviewees thought having “a neutral government” was the
most important issue for the country.When asked whether sacked minister
Latif Siddique’s comment on religion hurt their feelings, more than four-� fths said yes. However, more than half of the respondents does not think Latif deserves capital punishment for what he has said. Interestingly, 41.6% said he should be hanged.
An overwhelming 74.5% people said the government should take punitive measures if the former minister’s life came under threat because of such de-mands. On the other hand, one � fth of the respondents said the government should not take any action.
Interestingly, there was not much to choose from the responses when the interviewees were asked whether they agreed with the Awami League’s claim that the BNP and like-minded parties
had been trying to take advantage of the Latif issue.
While 38.47% respondents said they totally agreed or somewhat agreed, 34.98% either totally disagreed or somewhat disagreed.
A vast majority of 77.37% respond-ents said Latif Siddique should be brought back to the country and tried for what he had said.
However, only 15.5% of them are fully aware of what the former minis-ter had said about Hajj and religion. Television news, word of mouth and newspapers were the major sources of Latif-related news for the respondents.
The level of con� dence of the re-sponses was said to be 95% and margin of error 4%. The phone numbers were collected from a random computer generated list. l
Qulkhwani of Advocate Maheda Islam of the Supreme Court
of Bangladesh, mother of late Maidul Islam and Mazruq Islam,
wife of late Majidul Islam and daughter of Dr Matiul Islam and
Rokeya Begum, will be held today, November 7th, Baad-Asr
at Road 6, House 26, Dhanmondi. She passed away on the 31st
of October at 9:15am. Friends, family and well-wishers are
requested to come join us and pray for her departed soul.
QULKHWANI Planet formation captured in photo
n BBC
The clearest ever image of planets forming around an infant star has been taken by the Alma radio telescope.
In a vast disc of dust and gas, dark rings are clearly visible: gaps in the cloud, swept clear by brand new planets in orbit.
The sun-like star at the centre, HL Tau, is less than a million years old and is 450 light years from Earth in the constellation Taurus.
The image was made possible by Alma’s new high-resolution capabilities.Because the process of planet formation takes place in the midst of such a huge dust cloud, it cannot be observed using visible light.
Alma, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, has snapped the impressive new image using much longer wavelengths, which it detects by compar-ing the signal from multiple antennas up to 15km apart.
To test out its latest high-resolution ca-pability, only in operation since September, Alma scientists pointed the antennas at HL Tau. They found themselves looking at a “protoplanetary disc” in more detail than ever before. l
Showing utter indi� erence to the signboard put up by DMP tra� c unit, instructing pedestrians to use the nearby footbridge, these people risk their lives crossing the busy street in capital’s Bangla Motor area yesterday NASHIRUL ISLAM
Unaware of the ongoing nationwide strike, this group of Swiss tourists take a stroll in front of the Rajshahi Press Club yesterday. Although they expressed delight at seeing the sights in Rajshahi and meeting the local people, they were forced to limit their walk around the city because of the strike called by Jamaat-e-Islami AZHAR UDDIN
OPINION POLLP7
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: [email protected], [email protected], Website: www.dhakatribune.com
www.dhakatribune.com/business FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2014
B3 FX strategists: ECB can weaken euro but only via sovereign QE
B4 IMF: UAE economy recovering at fast pace
Betel leaf cultivation monitoring starts in a week n Asif Showkat Kallol
The betel leaf cultivation moni-toring committee of agriculture ministry will start visiting betel leaf gardens in a week to ensure harmful bacteria-free production, o� cial sources said.
The � rst visits will be made to gardens, known as paan borouj, in Kushtia district.
The monitoring team will see cultivation process there and work out a long-term method for pro-ducing safe betel leaf in a bid to satisfy EU authorities.
In July 2013, the EU countries banned Bangladeshi betel leaf af-ter detection of Salmonella, a virus injurious to health.
“We were supposed to start vis-iting paan borouj in Kushtia from November 2. But it will happen one week later as hartal has been
called for the day,” Dr M Bahanur Rahman, member of monitoring committee and professor of Bang-ladesh Agricultural University told the Dhaka Tribune.
He said they would see how the cultivation of betel leaf get infect-ed by salmonella during handling the process by the growers.
“We will teach some technical
matters to the farmers on protect-ing their produces from salmonel-la,” Bahanur Rahman said.
Meanwhile, commerce minis-try sources said the government already � oated tender to construct a building for betel leaf packaging at Fatulla. The construction works will start from December this year.
The ministry o� cials said all the betel leaf, vegetables and lem-ons will be packaged in the unit before shipment.
Betel leaf export to the Europe-an and Middle Eastern countries was $31m in 2012, according to the government data.
Detection of salmonella in Bangladeshi betel leaf by the UK authorities prompted the EU to suspend imports of it.
Last September, the govern-ment started contract farming to produce salmonella-free betel leaf,
vegetables, and lemon in Narsing-di district as the EU formulated four time-bound action plans to ensure the entry of bacteria-free farm products including betel leaf into its market.
The contract farming started in the district with the help of the DAR, BARI, BAGC and the Hartex Foundation.
Meanwhile, BAU found a solu-tion to prevent salmonella in the produces.
The EU action plans include contract framing, stopping fake phytosanitary certi� cates, devel-oping inspection facilities and col-lection of laboratories equipment within the current � scal year.
The fake phytosanitary cer-ti� cates are allegedly being used by some betel leaf and vegetable exporters to the international air-port. l
Mandatory target for Green � nancing from 2015 n Tribune Report
Bangladesh Bank will make it manda-tory from next year that the banks and � nancial institutions dedicate a part of their total loan disbursements for en-vironment-friendly or green projects, said Governor Atiur Rahman.
The central bank’s chief was speak-ing at the inaugural function of “IDCOL Green Energy Expo 2014” yesterday in the capital.
Mashiur Rahman, Adviser for Eco-nomic A� airs to Prime Minister, at-tended the ceremony as chief guest.
The two-day long green energy products exhibition has been organ-ised by Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL).
“We now set an annual target for banks and � nancial institutions on di-rect � nancing (to green projects). But from January 2015 a part of total lend-ing must be kept for green projects,” Atiur Rahman said in his address as special guest.
He said green growth cannot be achieved without green investment.
Shifting the investment from fossil fuel to green energy is the only way for transforming economic growth paths, the governor stressed.
He said banks and FIs have already disbursed Tk82,600 crore as green � -nancing during the period from Janu-ary 2012 to June 2014.
“We have brought 47 green prod-ucts under the central bank re� nance scheme where 23 are green energy products,” he said.
If any bank or FI comes up with an innovative green product that is be-lieved to truly contribute towards en-vironmental conservation, Bangladesh Bank will seriously study that for re� -nancing support, the governor stated.
“We will also try to enhance the size of our re� nance scheme if the de-mand picks up, so that we can facilitate large-scale investments in green alter-natives. We have already supported a platinum rated green textile factory from this scheme,” he said.
Atiur Rahman called upon the � -nancial institutions to participate in making the water management and recycling in textile and clothing indus-tries environment-friendly.
Mashiur Rahman said despite being
a government-run company, IDCOL fared well in its projects as the govern-ment never interfered in works.
He said it is not always true that the state-run companies exhibit bad per-formance while private � rms better perform.
“But a state-run company can oper-ate following its rules, it will certainly show good performance,” Mashiur said.
PM adviser said the government subsidy in solar energy sector has been reduced from earlier amount as de-
mand for solar home systems rises. IDCOL Executive Director and CEO,
Mahmood Malik presided over the opening ceremony of the expo.
He said: “The primary objective of solar home system programme is to supplement government’s vision of ensuring ‘Access to Electricity for All’ by 2021.”
He said IDCOL already approved funding to 191 solar irrigation pumps and set a target to � nance 1,550 such pumps by 2017. l
Mobile operators want power to block international calls n Muhammad Zahidul Islam
Mobile phone operators have sought power to block international calls plus bank guaranty for securing their reve-nue share from international incoming call termination earnings.
In a letter addressed to the regulator recently, mobile operators have opted to have authority to block 95% incom-ing call in case the International Gate-way (IGW) operators do not pay their dues.
The letter signed by TIM Nurul Ka-bir, secretary general of the Associa-tion of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh, (Amtob) contained three issues including recovery dues, per-centage sharing and bank guaranty.
The letter said mobile operators have failed to recover dues amounting to Tk140 crore from some International Gateway (IGW) operators.
The IGW guidelines say the Interna-tional Gateway Operators are required to pay 20% of their revenues to the mo-bile operators.
Previously, the IGWs earned 3 US cents per minute for incoming inter-national calls, and out of it they had to pay 51.75% to the government.
The government has recently changed the termination rate and rev-enue share structure. The termination rate has been slashed to only 1.5 US cents.
Mobile operators’ share now stands at 22% of the 1.5 US cents and the gov-ernment portion is reduced to 40%.
Operators’ sources said according to the current structure, they have no power to create any bar to the pro-cess and that is why they want the call blocking authority to secure their share from IGWs.
“If dues are not cleared within three
weeks of end of reconciliation period of invoice issued by mobile operators (2 weeks for invoicing & 1 week for reconciliation), from 00.00 hour of next calendar day of that month, operators will block 95% of incoming tra� c of that particular IGW,” the letter reads.
Currently, Bangladesh Telecommu-nication Regulatory Commission has the provision of 100% call blocking for that particular IGW that fails to pay the government share only.
BTRC also recently started to have bank guarantee from the IGWs for se-curing the government money as six IGWs have yet to pay more than Tk613 crore to the regulator.
The mobile industry also proposes that BTRC realises an unconditional bank guarantee on behalf of operators from IGW operators.
“If any IGW operators violate the payment agreement with mobile op-erators, BTRC may distribute the bank guarantee to the concerned recipient mobile operators or the mobile op-erators may adjust the amount while paying quarterly revenue sharing with BTRC,” the letter also reads.
Earlier, market leader operator Grameenphone � led cases against eight IGWs to collect the outstanding amount of around Tk84 crore.
Apart from that, BTRC also sued four IGW companies under Public De-mands Recovery Act (PDRA) for not paying their revenue share.
“We would like to request BTRC to review the ongoing international incoming payment settlement modality and the probable risk of mobile operators for terminating international incoming calls from IGWs through legitimate channel,” added Nurul Kabir. l
Remittance falls in October n Tribune Report
The in� ow of remittance dropped by 24% in October compared to the previ-ous month, said Bangladesh Bank data released yesterday.
Wage earners sent home $1bn in Oc-tober compared to $1.3bn in Septem-ber.
As Eid-ul-Azha was held in the � rst week of October, the previous month did see higher receipts from expatri-ates, said o� cials concerned.
“Remittance can increase ahead of big events like Eid. So September was a month when such thing hap-pened and October, therefore, saw a negative growth from that month,” said a senior executive of a private bank in Dhaka.
The October decline of remittance was also due to fall of dollar rate, he said. Dollar rate fell to Tk77.40 from Tk77.75 in last one year.
The exchange rate against Taka re-mained stable at Tk77.40 till yesterday.
The remittance from Middle East countries dropped by 16% to $696.49m in August from $828.75m in July, ac-cording to the central bank data. l
Policy to export rice to Sri Lanka amendedn Asif Showkat Kallol
The government has amended the ex-isting policy of coarse rice export to Sri Lanka incorporating a provision of gov-ernment-to-government contract.
The Ministry of Commerce yester-day issued a gazette noti� cation re-garding the amendment to the rules of fragrant rice export.
The country is likely to export � rst-ever coarse rice of 50,000 tonnes to Sri Lanka at a rate of $450 per tonne this month.
Md Sarwar Khan, directorate gener-al of Food Department, told the Dhaka Tribune the export of coarse rice rests on the Sri Lankan authorities as the government has reduced the rice price per tonne.
Sarwar said: “if they [Sri Lankan authorities] want they can sign agree-ment in Dhaka or we will go to them for signing.”
He said the price of coarse rice may be higher than that in the international market, but the production cost would not cover if the price goes below $450.
“We will supply 50,000 tonnes of coarse price to Sri Lanka after procur-ing Aman and Boro,” he further said.
The director general declined to dis-close actual date of signing the coarse rice export agreement.
Sources in the Food Ministry said the visit of Sri Lankan delegation de-lays due to ongoing hartal and unstable political situation, but hopefully the contract will be signed in Dhaka.
Earlier, the Sri Lankan team vis-ited Dhaka, but disagreed about the rice price which was estimated above Tk460 per tonne.
Later, the government asked the Food Ministry to reduce the price with which the Sri Lankan authority will comply, said a source in the ministry.
According to the gazette noti� cation, the circular of fragrant rice export circu-lar has been amended under the provi-sion 3 of import and export (control) act.
At present, the price of coarse rice in the global market ranges between $400 and $420 per tonne while the govern-ment procures rice form the local mar-kets at $436 per tonne. l
Capital machinery import sees sharp falln Tribune Report
The country’s overall import expendi-ture experienced slower growth in Sep-tember as capital machinery import witnessed a sharp 46% fall.
The total LC (letter of credit) settle-ment value rose by 9% to US$3.26bn in September compared to $2.9bn in the same period of last year.
The import growth though increased year on year, it fell by 5.54% compared to $3.46bn in the previous month.
It, however, registered 43.70% growth in August due to signi� cant rise in capital machinery import.
The LC value against capital ma-chinery stood at $147m in September which was 46% lower than that of $215.72m in August, according to the central bank data released yesterday.
Capital machinery import started to rise in recent months due to in� ow of foreign loans, said a senior executive of a private bank. “Though it dropped in September, it is not abnormal.”
“We expect the machinery import will increase in the coming months as businessmen are moving to expand their business with the cooling down of the political unrest,” he added.
The growth of capital machinery import rose by 66% to $217m in August from $130m in the previous month.
According to the central bank data, LC value against rice import stood at $33.5m in September followed by wheat $63.54m, sugar $48.43m, edible oil (crude) $66m and pulses $28.95m.
The total LC opening value rose by 13% to $3.5bn in September compared to $3.1bn in the same period of the last year.
The cumulative LC settlement val-ue rose by 11% to $9.69bn in � rst three months of current � scal year 2014-14 compared to $8.73bn in the same peri-od of the last � scal year. l
The pricture shows a stall at the ‘IDCOL Green Energy Expo 2014’ being held in Dhaka. The two-day event opens yesterday MEHEDI HASAN
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B2 Stock Friday, November 7, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE
News, analysis and recent disclosersDULAMIACOT: No dividend, AGM: 24.12.2014, Record Date: 27.11.2014. EPS of Tk. -4.15, NAV per share of Tk. -34.17.BSCCL: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. 36.07 million with EPS of Tk. 0.24 as against Tk. 142.18 million and Tk. 0.95 (restated) respectively. DULAMIACOT: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. -7.24 million with EPS of Tk. -0.96 as against Tk. -7.41 million and Tk. -0.98 respectively. Accumulated pro� t/ (loss) of the Company was Tk. (341.18) million as on 30.09.2014 resulting total shareholders' equity stands at Tk. (265.44) million.MEGHNAPET: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. -1.31 million with EPS of Tk. -0.11 as against Tk. -1.54 million and Tk. -0.13 respectively. Accumulated pro� t/(loss) of the Company was Tk. (164.68) million as on 30.09.2014 resulting total shareholders' equity stands at Tk. (25.17) million. In the footnote of the Balance Sheet, the Company has reported: "The Company was closed due to pending cases in Honorable Courts as well long standing disputes with other Director of pre-partition period."MEGCONMILK: (Q1): NPAT= Tk. -17.21 million with EPS of Tk. -1.08 as against Tk. -18.35 million and Tk. -1.15 respec-tively. Accumulated pro� t/(loss) of the Company was Tk. (1,053.82) million as on 30.09.2014 resulting total shareholders'
equity stands at Tk. (424.99) million.BXSYNTH: Credit Rating Information and Services Limited (CRISL) has rated the Company as "A-" in the long term and "ST-3" in the short term along with a stable out-look based on audited � nancial statements of the Company up to December 31, 2013, unaudited � nancials up to June 30, 2014 and other relevant quantitative as well as qualitative information up to the date of rating declaration.BANGAS: The Company has informed that it has credited the bonus shares for the year ended on June 30, 2014 to the respective shareholders' BO Account.BSCCL: The Company has informed that the Board of Directors of the Company has appointed Mr. Md. Monowar Hossen as the Managing Director of the Company for the period of next two years.SHURWID: The Company has informed that the Board of Directors of the Company has decided to take rent new warehouse (3300 sqrft. @ Tk. 5.00) up to year ended December 2022 and extended old warehouse rent (4500 sqrft @ Tk. 5.00) up to year ended December 2022 at Bi-Mile, Konabari, Gazipur.Board Meeting: EASTRNLUB: on No-vember 09, 2014 at 5:00 PM. PADMAOIL: on November 09, 2014 at 6:00 PM. AT-
LASBANG: on November 09, 2014 at 4:00 PM. to consider, among others, audited � nancial statements of the Company for the year ended on June 30, 2014.IPO Subscription: National Feed Mill Limited subscription date 26 -30 October 2014, NRB upto 08 November 2014. @ taka 10, face value taka 10 and market lot 500. C & A Textiles Limited subscription date 09 to 13 November 2014, NRB upto 22 November 2014. @ taka 10, face value taka 10 and market lot 500. 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.Dividend/AGMPOWERGRID: 10% cash, AGM: 17.01.2015, Record Date: 25.11.2014.SPCL: 25% cash and 5% stock dividend, AGM: 29.01.2015, Record Date: 27.11.2014.ANWARGALV: 7.50% cash dividend to the general shareholders, AGM: 12.01.2015, Record Date: 13.11.2014. DAFODILCOM: No dividend, 24.12.2014, Record Date: 20.11.2014. SAMATALETH: No dividend, AGM: 24.12.2014, Record Date: 23.11.2014. AMCL(PRAN): 32% cash dividend, AGM: 24.12.2014, Record Date: 13.11.2014. METROSPIN: 5% stock dividend, AGM: 30.12.2014, Record Date: 17.11.2014.
Stocks close week with volatility n Tribune Report
Stocks ended � at with volatility yes-terday after three consecutive days of losses.
The market opened higher strongly in the morning, rising more than 50 points in mid-session but late selling pressure wiped out most of the early gains.
Dhaka Stock Exchange benchmark index, DSEX, inched almost 9 points or 0.2% higher to close at 5,025.
The Shariah DSES index edged 2 points or 0.2% lower to 1,180. The DS30 index comprising blue chip issues was also marginally down 5 points or 0.3% to 1,866.
Chittagong Stock Exchange Selec-tive Category Index, CSCX, closed at 9,442, up 15 points.
Trading at DSE was sluggish com-pared to the previous session. The bourse accumulated Tk602 crore turnover, which is 16.6% lower over the previous session.
Among the large cap sectors, tele-communication registered the worst fall of 1.8%. Pharmaceuticals, banks
and food and allied edged higher. Non-banking � nancial institu-
tions soared the most by nearly 2%, breaking its losing streak over the last several sessions. The power sector also posted a decent gain of 0.5%.
The debutant Western Marine Shipyard continued to dominate the market for the third trading day, as it added nearly 13% to its last two days’ gain of 87% to close at over Tk82 a share on its o� er value.
It continued to get investors’ at-tention, leading it to top turnover chart for the second consecutive session with turnover of Tk46 crore.
LankaBangla Securities said af-ter showing lacklustre sentiment throughout the week, the market performed lively on the closing day as investors indicated strong buying interest on some small cap stocks.
It said: “Though sellers were ac-tive to realise pro� t today (Thurs-day), consolidation in market since the middle of October brought some ardent buyers to the market.”
IDLC Investments said shedding o� 156 points in the last three ses-sions, market started going up in the morning but could not sustain the advance due to prolonging of the bearish spell.
Alongside, the nation-wide har-tals almost throughout the week de-teriorated the investors’ sentiment about the country’s economic out-look, it said.
After shipyard, other top turnover leaders include Desco, Grameen-phone, Khulna Printing and Packag-ing Limited, Keya Cosmetics, Khu-lna Power Company Limited and Olympic Industries. l
Weekly capital market highlightsDSE Broad Index : 5025.10257 (+) 0.16% ▲
DSE - 30 Index : 1866.98398 (-) 0.29% ▼
CSE All Share Index: 15500.55360 (+) 0.13% ▲
CSE - 30 Index : 12688.38760 (+) 0.10% ▲
CSE Selected Index : 9442.81190 (+) 0.17% ▲
DSE key features November 6, 2014Turnover (Million Taka)
6,201.79
Turnover (Volume)
138,541,292
Number of Contract 138,939
Traded Issues 304
Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)
141
Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)
154
Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)
9
Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)
2,682.94
Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)
32.52
CSE key features November 6, 2014Turnover (Million Taka) 486.46
Turnover (Volume) 12,869,476
Number of Contract 20,931
Traded Issues 225
Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)
110
Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)
109
Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)
6
Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)
2,578.40
Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)
31.25
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 [email protected] or call 01552153562 or go to www.biasl.net
After showing lacklustre sentiment throughout the week, the market performed lively on the closing day as investors indicated strong buying interest on some small cap stocks
Shedding o� 156 points in the last three sessions, market started going up in the morning but could not sustain the advance due to prolonging of the bearish spell
B3BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, November 7, 2014
Marcel has recently opened an exclusive showroom at Kapasia in Gazipur. The company’s brand ambassador and � lm actor, Amin Khan inaugurated the outlet at the presence of its PR and media’s executive director, Md Humayun Kabir
RFL has recently an opened its outlet, 'Best Buy' outlet at Zigatola in Dhaka. Lt Col Mahtabuddin Ahmed (retd), chairpersonn of PRAN-RFL Group has inaugurated the outlet
Unilever named one of the top employersn Tribune Business Desk
Unilever has recently been named among the top employers among the FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) companies, according to a new study from social networking site LinkedIn.
“This result represents a powerful, independent indicator of the high regard people have for Unilever as an employer around the world,” said Unilever’s chief HR O� cer, Doug Baillie. l
Carmudi to serve 18 more car showroomsn Tribune Business Desk
Carmudi’s online marketing revolution has recently been availed by 18 more car showrooms. Showrooms include Rangs, Bronze Limited, Progress Motors, Car Choice and Anwar Car Company, said Ashiqur Rahman, the country manager of Carmudi Bangladesh. l
FX strategists: ECB can weaken euro but only via sovereign QE n Reuters
The European Central Bank can still weaken the euro but only by buying sovereign bonds of the 18 countries that use the single currency, according to a majority of foreign exchange strat-egists polled by Reuters.
The euro EUR has already weakened 9% against the dollar since the start of this year with most of the fall coming after the ECB announced measures in September aimed at boosting in� ation and growth, including purchases of se-cured debt.
The weaker euro and of other stimu-lus measures have so far failed to bump up in� ation, which at 0.4% in October is less than a quarter of the ECB’s near 2% target. Many euro zone economies are already experiencing de� ation.
The dollar has surged against every major currency in recent months as a solidifying economic recovery in the United States has stoked expectations the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates by the middle of next year. The Fed ended its long-running bond-buy-ing program last week.
Wednesday’s poll saw the euro steadily weakening against the dollar over the next 12 months but respon-dents said it may not easily fall much further, especially if there is any mod-eration in the dollar’s rise, unless the ECB eases policy signi� cantly. Buying government bonds is among the last options it has left.
Twenty-nine of 38 currency strate-gists who answered an extra question said the ECB could in� uence the euro on its own, independent of the Fed’s policy decisions.
“If the ECB is successful at expanding its balance sheet while that of the Fed stays the same or contracts, then it is in a position to in� uence the exchange rate of the euro,” said Colin Asher, senior economist at Mizuho Corporate Bank.
A Reuters poll last week showed the ECB must expand its balance sheet by 1tn euros, roughly the size of Mexico’s economy but a fraction of what the Fed
printed over half a decade, to have an impact on in� ation.
That was in line with President Ma-rio Draghi’s suggestion of getting the ECB’s balance sheet back to its level of 2012, although national central bank-ers are unhappy he disclosed a target � gure after policymakers agreed not to.
“Only with sovereign bonds can the ECB hope to reach the kind of stimulus, in terms of quantity, that’s comparable to the United States. No other market in the euro zone is as large,” Commerz-bank foreign exchange strategist Esther Reichelt said.
There is now an even chance the ECB conducts sovereign quantita-tive easing, or buying bonds with new money, according to a Reuters poll of traders on Monday.
The poll of 60 currency strategists conducted this week showed the euro is expected to trade at $1.25 in a month, $1.22 in six months and $1.20 in one year.
The consensus level is lower than in last month’s poll and in line with posi-tions in the futures market, where spec-ulators heaped short contracts on the euro last week, taking bets against the currency to their largest since July 2012.
If the euro does fall as much as pre-dicted by October next year, it would be at its weakest in � ve years and should help import some in� ation into the bloc and stimulate exports.
But much depends on commod-ity and oil prices, which can negate a weaker euro’s contribution to raising in� ation.
Global crude oil prices have plunged by $20 a barrel in just seven weeks due to a supply glut in the market. Prices for commodities such as iron ore have also fallen owing to a slowdown in China, by far the largest consumer of raw materials.
“The depreciation of the euro, es-pecially against the dollar, has been nearly fully compensated by decreas-
ing industrial and energy commodity prices,” said Dag Muller, analyst at SEB.
The poll also showed the Japanese yen JPY= will weaken to 116.0 per dol-lar in a year but trade roughly around its current rate of 114.6 over the next six months.
The dollar jumped against the yen on Friday after the Bank of Japan sur-prised markets by increasing its pur-chases of government bonds and other assets.
However, the extra stimulus e� ec-tively acknowledges the failure so far of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ambi-tious plan to raise in� ation in the econ-omy by pumping trillions of yen into the money supply.
Economists polled by Reuters cut their annual growth forecast for Japan for a � fth straight month in October, saying there is no chance the BOJ will meet its 2% in� ation goal by the next � scal year. l
The euro sign landmark is seen at the headquarters (R) of the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt REUTERS
Companies sign secret tax deals with Luxembourg n Reuters
More than 300 companies, includ-ing PepsiCo Inc, AIG Inc and Deutsche Bank AG, secured secret deals from Luxembourg to slash their tax bills, the International Consortium of Investiga-tive Journalists (ICIJ) reported, quoting leaked documents.
The companies appear to have chan-neled hundreds of billions of dollars through Luxembourg and saved bil-lions of dollars in taxes, the group of investigative journalists said, based on a review of nearly 28,000 pages of con-� dential documents.
The leaked documents reviewed by ICIJ journalists include hundreds of private tax rulings – known as comfort letters – that Luxembourg provides to corporations seeking favorable tax treat-ment. Luxembourg o� cials denied any “sweetheart deals” in its tax system. l
Dollar rally slips in Asia afternoon trade n AFP, Tokyo
The dollar’s surge against the yen lost steam in Asian afternoon trading on yesterday, after it hit a fresh seven-year high above 115 yen following upbeat US jobs data and a Republican sweep in US midterm elections.
In Tokyo, the greenback fell back to 114.33 yen, weakening from 114.69 yen in New York and 115.49 yen earlier Thursday, a level last seen in 2007.
“Today’s decline is a natural retreat following the (dollar’s) quick and sig-ni� cant moves,” said Minori Uchida, head of Tokyo global markets research at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.
“Players are trying to adjust their positions ahead of the US payroll an-nouncement on Friday. But the overall yen-selling trend against the dollar has not changed,” he added.
The euro fetched $1.2519 against $1.2484 in New York, and 143.19 yen from 143.18 yen, ahead of a European Central Bank policy meeting yesterday.
Data on Wednesday showed that the US private sector added slightly more jobs in October than in September, ex-tending an upward trend, according to private payroll company ADP.
Markets will be keeping a close eye on Friday’s o� cial US jobs report, which will give the latest snapshot of the world’s top economy and an idea about the Federal Reserve’s latest plans for interest rates - a key factor for dollar trading.
The greenback’s surge against the yen was further boosted Wednesday by the Republicans’ election victory, which raised hopes the gridlock that has paralysed Washington for years could be broken.
Analysts said the news would also boost the prospects for tax reform, a key oil pipeline and immigration reform.
Also Wednesday, Bank of Japan gov-ernor Haruhiko Kuroda vowed that it would do everything possible to beat years of de� ation, after the central bank surprised markets with an expan-sion of its already huge monetary eas-ing campaign last week.
Euro trading was focused on the ECB
meeting later Thursday and signs of further policy measures, after the Eu-ropean Commission this week slashed its economic growth forecasts for the eurozone.
“We expect the ECB to strike a dov-ish tone at today’s meeting, possibly hinting at ... adjustments or extensions to existing programmes,” Credit Agri-cole said.
But “we remain of the view that the ECB will keep sovereign bonds purchas-es as a very last resort option”, it added.
The dollar rose against other Asia-Paci� c currencies.
It strengthened to Sg$1.2935 from Sg$1.2909 on Wednesday, to Tw$30.58 from Tw$30.52, to 1,088.64 South Ko-rean won from 1,081.60 won, and to 32.79 Thai baht from 32.72 baht.
The dollar also rose to 61.41 Indian rupees from 61.38 rupees, to 45.08 Philippine pesos from 44.89 pesos, and to 12,165.30 Indonesian rupiah from 12,115.00 rupiah.
The Australian dollar fell to 85.94 US cents from 87.36 cents, following data that showed the country’s jobless rate remained stable at an almost 12-year high of 6.2 percent in October, re� ecting a soft labour market as the economy ad-justs away from mining-driven growth.
The Chinese yuan was stronger at 18.72 yen against 18.64 yen. l
ECB to wait for stimulus to sink in, Draghi style in limelight n Reuters, Frankfurt
The European Central Bank is set to stick to the policy path laid out over the summer when it meets yesterday, waiting for its stimulus to unfold be-fore considering further steps.
The November policy meeting takes place against a backdrop of meager growth prospects for the euro zone and mounting discomfort among Govern-ing Council members over ECB Presi-dent Mario Draghi’s leadership style.
Reuters reported on Tuesday that national central bankers in the euro area plan to challenge Draghi over what they see as his secretive management style and erratic communication.
But little to no action is expected on further stimulus.
“Recent data has been weak and the pressure on the ECB to add more mon-etary stimulus has risen further. Yet, we think the ECB is in a ‘wait and see’ mode now and do not expect new pol-icy measures or major new guidance to be provided,” said UBS economist Rein-hard Cluse.
To keep the euro zone from slipping into de� ation, the ECB has started pump-
ing more money into the banking system through purchases of private debt and o� ers of long-term loans, aiming to boost its balance sheet by up to 1tn euros.
There is growing doubt whether its current measures will be enough, but the ECB is expected to wait until it gets a clearer view of the economy and the impact of its asset purchases and four-year loans to banks before adding fur-ther stimulus.
“My sense is that it’s not su� cient and that we will see the ECB stepping up and buying corporate bonds,” said Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi, pointing to next year.
Draghi’s comments during the post-policy meeting news conference will be scrutinized for clues on what may trig-ger further policy steps. Many econo-mists are looking towards December when the ECB will update its economic projections.
The December macroeconomic pro-jections are produced jointly by experts from the national central banks and the ECB. The Bundesbank, central bank of the bloc’s largest economy, conceded in October its own growth forecasts would no longer be met.
ECB sta� in September forecast growth of 0.9% this year and 1.6% in 2015, with in� ation reaching 1.4% in 2016 - below its medium term target of just under 2%. In� ation stood at 0.4% in October.
“The ECB will have to slash its sta� projections for growth and in� ation substantially in December. That will be a strong argument for loosening policy further,” said Berenberg chief econo-mist Holger Schmieding.
He pointed to a probability of at least 60% that the ECB would step up its stimulus in December, probably by widening its asset purchases to include corporate bonds.
More drastic measures in the form of outright purchases of sovereign bonds - as deployed by other major central banks to boost their economies - still remain distant in the euro zone, mainly due to political hurdles, especially in Germany.
Austrian Governing Council mem-ber Ewald Nowotny also struck a cau-tious tone about buying government bonds, saying the ECB should not be swayed by market pressure and should not be expected to pull a rabbit out of its hat at each policy meeting. l
Oil prices up in Asian trade n AFP, Singapore
Oil prices, which saw sharp losses earli-er this week, climbed in Asia yesterday after a smaller-than-expected increase in US stockpiles rekindled optimism about demand in the world’s top crude consumer.
US benchmark West Texas Inter-mediate for December delivery rose 18 cents to $78.86 while Brent crude for December was up 13 cents to $83.08 in afternoon trade.
The gains add to those seen late Wednesday when WTI jumped $1.49 and Brent climbed 13 cents.
Sanjeev Gupta, head of the Asia-Paci� c oil and gas practice at business consultancy � rm EY, said the upbeat US stockpiles data released Wednesday “provided some relief”.
The US Department of Energy said inventories grew by 500,000 barrels in the week ending October 31, much few-er than the 2.2 million barrels expected by analysts.
Supplies at the closely watched Cush-ing, Oklahoma, terminal fell 600,000 barrels, and gasoline stockpiles dipped by 1.4 million barrels, topping forecasts of a drop of 300,000 barrels.
The data also showed re� neries were operating at 88.4% of their ca-pacity, compared with 86.6% the prior week, suggesting more demand for oil in the world’s biggest economy.
The price rebound comes after a massive sell-o� on Tuesday which took WTI to its lowest close since October 2011 and Brent to its lowest since Octo-ber 2010.
The plunge was triggered after top producer Saudi Arabia cut its prices for crude sold to the US market.
Analysts interpreted the move as an e� ort to maintain market share as it faces competition from cheaper oil from US shale � elds.
“In the absence of any negative geo-political events, crude oil prices are likely to continue to remain soft until end of this year,” Gupta said. l
The headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) are pictured in Frankfurt REUTERS
B4 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Friday, November 7, 2014
DILBERT
IMF: UAE economy recovering at fast pace n AFP, Dubai
The United Arab Emirates economy, the Arab world’s second largest, is re-covering at pace from the global � nan-cial crisis but remains threatened by low oil prices, the IMF said Wednesday.
“Economic recovery has continued at a solid pace, supported by construction, logistics and hospitality,” a team from the International Monetary Fund said after visiting the Gulf country.
Growth was underpinned by ongo-ing public projects in oil-rich Abu Dha-bi and continued strength in Dubai’s services sectors, it said in a statement.
UAE, the fourth largest OPEC suppli-er, was hit hard by the global � nancial crisis, strongly dampening economic growth, which averaged just 1.5% be-tween 2007 and 2011.
The IMF projected the UAE econo-my would grow 4.25% this year, down from 5.2% in 2013 with non-oil growth forecast at 5.5%.
The decline in oil prices, if sus-tained, could have a signi� cant impact on revenues, the IMF warned, adding however that the UAE had su� cient � scal bu� ers to minimise the fallout.
The IMF welcomed stable real es-tate prices in Dubai as sales in summer moderated.
“The slower momentum in the mar-ket is welcome news following a period in which prices had increased at a fast pace,” it said.
Dubai and its government-related entities (GREs) have continued to im-prove their debt pro� les after the ma-jor debt restructurings from the 2008-2009 crisis, the IMF said, adding that several GREs had begun to make early
repayments. While debt levels for some GREs
remained signi� cant, stronger � nancial positions and lengthened maturity pro� les had further reduced debt-
related risks. Dubai said this week it has repaid
$1.93bn raised from Islamic bonds known as “sukuk” and renewed its commitment to pay back billions of
dollars worth of debt on time. In August, the emirate’s real estate
giant Nakheel repaid all of its $2.15bn bank debt almost four years ahead of schedule.
Dubai in March managed to delay for another � ve years the repayment of $20bn worth of debt it received from Abu Dhabi that had been due to mature this year. l
Bill Gross: We are at such a moment of uncertainty n Reuters, New York
Famed bond investor Bill Gross on Monday warned that de� ation re-mained a growing possibility despite aggressive monetary policies by central banks around the world.
In his second investment outlook letter since joining Janus Capital Group Inc, Gross said history showed that economies experience periods of in� a-tion and de� ation, and both “are the enemies of stability and growth.”
“Prices change,” Gross wrote in his November outlook, “and while they usually go up these days, sometimes they do not. We are at such a moment of uncertainty.”
The roughly $7 trillion pumped into the � nancial system since the � nancial crisis by the world’s three biggest central banks has succeeded mostly in lifting prices of securities rather than the cost of goods and workers’ wages, he said.
“Prices go up, but not the right pric-es,” Gross wrote.
Gross, who oversees the Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund, said Alibaba Group Holding Ltd shares had soared from $68 to $92 in the � rst minute of their public debut, but other prices, including wages, “simply sit there for years on end.
“One economy (the � nancial one) thrives, while the other economy (the real one) withers,” he said.
Gross, whose letters to investors are as famous for their quirky asides and analogies as for their economic and market analysis, called himself a “philosophical nomad disguised in Western clothing” in his latest
investment outlook. In April, Gross dedicated the � rst
half of his widely followed investment outlook letter to his dead female cat and headlined it “Bob.” The following month, Gross, who is sometimes known as the world’s Bond King, discussed sneezing: “A sneeze is, to be candid, sort of half erotic, a release of pressure that feels oh so good either before or just after the Achoo! The air, along with 100,000 germs, comes shooting out of your nose faster than a race car at the Indy 500. It feels sooooo good that peo-ple used to sneeze on purpose.”
In Monday’s missive, Gross said: “Sand forms the foundation of my be-ing and its porosity is at once my great-est strength and deepest wound,” he wrote. “If a collective humanity is to be rooted in sandy loam, spreading its ide-ological seeds through howling winds only to root in mutant form at di� er-ent places and di� erent times, can we judge an individual life?”
“Concrete, as opposed to porous sand, provides a � rmer foundation for judgment, but sand I suspect is the soil into which we are insecurely ground-ed,” he continues. “All one thing, mas-querading as ourselves.”
Gross strikes serious note on qe The US Federal Reserve, Bank of Japan and European Central Bank all have taken extraordinary policy measures since the 2008 crisis to stabilize their economies and create a moderate amount of in� ation. Results have largely been disappointing, with none of the three able to guide their preferred measures of in� ation to their
target levels of around 2%. “They’ve made a damn � ne attempt
at it – have they not?” Gross wrote. “Four trillion dollars in the US, two tril-lion US dollar equivalents in Japan, and a trillion US dollars coming from the ECB’s (Mario) Draghi in the eurozone.
“The trillions seem to seep through the sandy loam of investment and in-novation straight into the cement mix-er of the marketplace.”
In September, price gains remained subdued across the US economy, keeping the price index for personal-consumption expenditures, the Fed’s preferred measure of in� ation, below the 2% target for the 29th consecutive month. It rose 1.4% in September from a year earlier.
Persistently sluggish price gains can signal economic weakness. Gross pointed out that in the eurozone and Japan, concerns are already rising about the potential for de� ation.
On Friday, the Bank of Japan ex-panded its already massive easing pro-gram for the � rst time in more than 1-1/2 years, re� ecting its concern that recent weakness in the economy may endan-ger its e� orts to overcome de� ation.
In the United States, the Fed warned in its policy statement last week that “in� ation in the near term will likely be held down by lower energy prices and other factors.” Even so, it said that the chances of in� ation “running persis-tently below” the 2% target had “dimin-ished somewhat since early this year.”
Gross said much of the United States’ 21st-century economy had been based on � nancial engineering rather than investment and innovation. l
EU’s � nance chief to unveil capital market plan in 2015 n Reuters, Brussels
The EU’s new � nancial services chief pledged yesterday to set out his plans for a pan-European capital market by the middle of next year, aiming to re-duce companies’ reliance on banks and help revive the bloc’s fragile economy.
Jonathan Hill, the European Com-missioner for � nancial services, said he was seeking to create an integrated capital market over the next � ves years and would develop a plan by next sum-mer following a public consultation.
“We still do not have a fully func-tioning single market for capital,” Hill told a conference of EU o� cials and business leaders. “I will be bringing forward proposals to deliver a capital markets union; a project for all 28 EU Member States.”
Channeling more money into small companies is seen as crucial for Eu-rope’s e� orts to avoid economic stag-nation because small and medium enterprises provide two out of every three private sector jobs in the Euro-pean Union. l
German industrial orders edge up in September n AFP, Frankfurt
German industrial orders, a key mea-sure of demand for German-made goods both at home and abroad, edged slightly higher in September, data showed on Thursday.
Industrial orders rose by 0.8% in September compared with the previ-ous month, the statistics o� ce Destatis said in a statement. In August, German factory orders had slumped by 4.2%.
The muted rise was partly due to the timing of the summer holidays, but an above-average number of big-ticket or-ders provided a boost, the statisticians said in a statement.
Domestic orders declined by 2.8%, while export orders grew by 3.7% com-pared with the previous month. Orders from the eurozone rose by 2.5% and orders from outside the eurozone were up by 4.4%. By sector, orders for semi-� nished goods edged up by 0.8% and or-ders for capital goods rose by 1.3%, while orders for consumer goods fell by 1.4%. l
For India, China-backed lender may be answer to coal investment n Reuters, New Delhi
India is hoping a new China-backed multilateral lender will fund coal-based energy projects, an o� cial said, putting it in direct con� ict with the World Bank, whose chief has maintained that it would stick to its restrictions on such lending.
A senior Indian o� cial told Reuters the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), sponsored by China, is expected to allow funding of coal-� red power plants that the World Bank has almost totally blocked.
“When you have 1.3 billion people starved of electricity access and the rest of the world has created a carbon space, at this point denying funding is denying access to cheap energy,” said the o� cial, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
India sits on the world’s � fth-largest reserves of coal, and the commodity generates three-� fths of India’s power supply. But the demand for electricity far outstrips supply, and according to data compiled by the World Resources Institute in 2012, proposals have been made to set up 455 new coal-� red plants in the country.
Research house Integrated Research and Action for Development said ear-lier this year India needs to invest $250bn in the power sector by 2017.
Since 2013, the World Bank’s energy strategy limits the � nancing of coal-� red power plants to “rare circum-stances”, making it part of a push by U.S. President Barack Obama to � ght climate change.
“We have got to redouble and redou-ble again our e� orts at � ghting climate change,” World Bank President Jim Yong Kim told Reuters in an interview in Seoul on Wednesday. “And our way of doing it is to just do everything we can to avoid coal.”
Kim has said the World Bank has not signed any agreements to support coal-based power plants since he took o� ce
in July, 2012. The Asian Development Bank (ADB),
a multilateral lender dominated by the United States and Japan, says it will se-lectively support coal-based power proj-ects if cleaner technologies and other safeguards are adopted. Last year, it ap-proved a $900m loan to help build a 600 megawatt coal-� red plant in Pakistan.
The articles of agreement of the AIIB, which will include its lending strategy, will not be � nalised until the end of 2015, Chinese o� cials have said.
Kim said he understood India’s posi-tion on coal-� red energy projects, but the World Bank’s stand would not change.
“We have to be sensitive to the fact that climate change is something that, India for example, has contributed much less to than the United States or Europe or other countries and what they’re saying is, that we need energy,” he said.
“And what they’re saying is: that we need energy now so that our econo-mies can grow, so that we can provide jobs for our people,” he said.
“Now we won’t be engaged in coal unless there’s absolutely no other op-tion, and we’ll see where they go,” Kim said.
Signed up despite rivalry India signed up late last month to be a founder-member of the AIIB, and is also a member of a new development bank from the BRICS group of emerg-ing markets - Brazil, Russia, India, Chi-na and South Africa. The cooperation comes despite traditional rivalry - the two Asian giants fought a brief war in 1962 and have overlapping territorial claims along their Himalayan border.
The Indian o� cial, who was in-volved in the AIIB decision, said the funding of infrastructure in the region by the World Bank and the ADB was in-adequate.
“Had the World Bank resourced its
capital base, had the World Bank done reforms that are due, and ADB also re-sourced the capital base, perhaps there would have been no need to set up the (new) bank,” the o� cial said.
Experts say the Asia-Paci� c region needs about $1-1.5tn per year to fund infrastructure needs. The World Bank’s total lending to East and South Asia was about $16.6bn last year. At the end of 2013, the ADB’s lending amounted to $21.02bn, including co-� nancing with other development partners.
“The infrastructure � nancing gap in Asia, in emerging Asia, is so big and even the existence of ADB, World Bank, and other multilateral develop-ment banks cannot ful� l that demand,” Indonesian Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro told Reuters last week. “AIIB will be a welcome newcomer.”
The AIIB was launched at a ceremo-ny in Beijing at which 21 nations were represented, but Australia, South Ko-rea and Indonesia were absent. Austra-lia and South Korea were pressured not to join by the United States, local media in both countries said, but Indonesia said it did not attend because its new government had not taken o� ce.
On Tuesday, Brodjonegoro said In-donesia could join the AIIB as early as next week.
Analysts say Washington’s fears about the AIIB are that the new bank will encroach on its role in providing funds to the region through Western-backed institutions and that it will al-low China to assume leadership in Asia.
“Don’t imagine for a moment that the AIIB is just about economics,” said Hugh White, professor of strategic stud-ies at Australian National University.
“Asia really does need more infra-structure and there does need to be some new funding mechanisms, but it’s also an opportunity for China to build its political and strategic leader-ship role in Asia.” l
India, Nepal hold negotiations for 900 MW power projectn BSS
India and Nepal are holding negotiations to sign a second Project Development Agreement (PDA) to generate hydorelec-tric power in the Himalayan nation en-dowed with rich water resources.
The negotiations for the 900 MW Arun-III project between Investment Board Nepal (IBN) and Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd, India, which began here Tuesday, continued Wednesday, Indian Embassy sources said, adding, they are set to continue Thursday as well.
The format of the PDA will be same as that of 900 MW Upper Karnali proj-ect being developed by GMR Con-sortium of India. GMR had signed an agreement with the Nepalese authori-ties in September for the 150-billion mega project.
Under the PDA signed between GMR and IBN, Nepal will get 22% of the ener-gy generated free from the project and 27% free equity share in the project.
The same provisions may apply when Satluj signs a PDA with Nepal.
The signing of the PDA between IBN and GMR was a milestone in hy-dropower development in Nepal as the agreement paved way for the largest foreign direct investment.
Once the negotiations are over the two countries will sign the PDA for de-veloping the Arun III project in the near future, according to o� cials. However, the date is yet to be � nalis ed.
The two countries have also signed Power Trading Agreement last month (PTA) that would allow exchange of power between them. l
A view of the Burj Al Arab Hotel and Palm Island Jumeirah (background) in Dubai REUTERS
China's President Xi Jinping (C) poses for photos with the guests at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank launch ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing REUTERS
