16 July, 2015

PAGE 3BGB rescues two Myanmar armymen in Bandarban

PAGE 9Tsipras � ght to pass reforms in Greek parliament

PAGE 32Plant variety protection act to get approval soon

PAGE 4Employees abduct factory owner’s son to demand salary before Eid

PAGE 8Loyalists advance in Yemen’s Aden

SECOND EDITION

RAJON’S TORTURE LASTED 4 HOURS PAGE 3

PRIVATE SECTOR KEEPS GREETING CARDS ALIVE PAGE 32

BB DIGS INTO TRAFFICKERS’ BANK ACCOUNTS PAGE 5

THURSDAY, JULY 16, 2015 | Shraban 1, 1422, Ramadan 28, 1436 | Regd No DA 6238, Vol 3, No 94 | www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages | Price: Tk10

Tigers shred Protea bouquet

n Mazhar Uddin and Rajib Bhowmick

Even before coming to Bangladesh, the Pro-teas have been saying that there was no chance of taking the Tigers lightly.

But after facing a dominating nine-wicket blow in the hands of the Tigers in the third ODI at Chittagong yesterday, the Proteas must believe more than ever before that Bangladesh has now become a force to be reckoned with in the longer version of limited-over cricket.

For Bangladesh, it was all about repeat-

ing a clinical performance – both with bat and ball and on the � eld – after defeating the mighty South Africans in the second ODI by seven wickets, turning around from a heavy eight-wicket defeat in the � rst match.

Since the World Cup, Soumya Sarker – even when he played smaller innings – never looked out of touch. His 90-run knock on the back of his Sunday’s match winning 88 was just another statement of the brave cricket that the Tigers have been playing recently.

For his outstanding performance, Soumya

was unsurprisingly adjudged the player of the match, as well as being picked as the man of the series for his 205 runs in the three ODIs.

Meanwhile, criticised for his rash dis-missals in the previous four innings, Tamim scored 61 of 77 to prove once again that he performs best when under pressure. Needless to mention, when he clicks, Bangladesh wins.

And the Proteas, who rank 4th in ICC ODI rankings, was just another trophy on the Ti-gers wall of success, after the Pakistanis and the Indians.

Bowlers have always been the unsung hero of limited-over cricket. But for the � rst time in the history of Bangladesh cricket, bowlers are consistently sealing the fate of the state of a� airs in the � rst half of matches.

Restricting the South African batting in the 160s in consecutive matches is in itself a feat that even many top teams would dream about. But Bangladesh’s bowlers did the ba-sics right, hitting the right lines and lengths, and it was not a dream anymore.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 3

Opener Soumya Sarker, one of the standard-bearers of the new era in Bangladesh cricket, pulls majestically en route to his scintillating 90-run knock against South Africa in Chittagong yesterday. The dominating nine-wicket win against the Proteas brought the Tigers their fourth consecutive home series win MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

THURSDAY, JULY 16, 2015

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1New cabinet members pay tribute to Bangabandhu n Tribune Report

The newly inducted ministers and state min-isters paid their rich tributes to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman by placing wreaths on his portrait in front of the Bangabandhu Bhaban at Dhanmondi 32 yesterday.

The three ministers are Home Minister As-aduzzaman Khan Kamal, Science and Tech-nology Minister Yafes Osman and Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam BSC. The two new state ministers are Food Minister Nuruzzaman Ahmed and Posts and Telecommunications Tarana Halim.

Talking to reporters after placing wreaths, the ministers vowed to perform their respec-tive duties and responsibilities with utmost

dedication and sincerity to uphold image of the country and its people.

They said they would try their level best to uphold the dignity of the premier particularly the con� dence and trust she reposed in them.

“We, as per the directives of Prime Minis-ter Sheikh Hasina, are working to combat mil-itancy and terrorism, and no militant out� ts will be allowed to raise their heads on this holy land,” Asaduzzaman said.

Nurul Islam said combined e� orts would be taken to prevent any sorts of human traf-� cking, while Tarana Halim said: “My relent-less e� orts will be to build a corruption-free society with the help of the new generation.”

Nuruzzaman vowed to stay alert so his minis-try does not face any unwanted situation. l

Incessant rain disrupts Eid shopping and journey back home n Abu Hayat Mahmud

Incessant rain from Tuesday night until yes-terday evening put in trouble the city dwell-ers and the homebound travellers just two days before Eid-ul-Fitr.

Most of areas of the capital went under knee-deep water due to the continuous heavy rainfall, which started as a shower in the early hours yesterday.

Some of the busiest markets like New Mar-ket, Dhanmondi Hawkers Market, Gausia, Noor Mansion and other markets were also � ooded. A large number of Eid shoppers were stuck as many of the shops were closed.

However, some customers braved the deep-knee dirty water at the � ooded markets and tried to � nish their shopping.

Nadia Sultana, a customer at New Market, said: “I came from Azimpur through the wat-ter-logged streets amidst heavy rain. But the Eid shopping for my children was a trouble-some a� air as the markets were � ooded. I will have to come back again.”

Monju Miah, a shopkeeper of Dhanmon-di Hawkers Market said due to the rain and heavy water-logging the number of custom-ers were less than any other day.

Besides, many of the roads in front of the popular markets and shopping malls in Mouchak, Malibagh, Shantinagar, Elephant road, Panthapath were also water-logged.

The heavy rain and water-logging also caused severe tra� c gridlocks at di� erent city

roads including Panthapath, Elephant Road, Karwanbazar, Shahbagh, Mirpur 1, Mirpur 10, Moghbazar, Shantinagar, Sayedabad, Jatra-bari and other areas.

Shameem Ahmed, a resident of Kathalba-gan, said it took him more than an hour and a half to reach New Market in the morning.

Our Gazipur correspondent has informed that due to the heavy rain from Tuesday night several parts of the Dhaka-Tongi-Chouras-

ta-Mymensingh Highway was � ooded, caus-ing extreme su� ering to the people going home for Eid.

Road works near Meghna Bridge and blocking of Gomti Bridge due to breakdown of a truck further aggravated the tra� c prob-lem in various parts of the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway since last night, informed our Narayanganj correspondent.

Thursday is the last working day before the

Eid-ul-Fitr vacation commences on Friday. Therefore, most people have taken leave on Thursday and left Dhaka on Wednesday as it is a holiday because of Shab-e-Qadr.

According to the Bangladesh Meteoro-logical Department, the recorded rainfall in Dhaka and its neighbouring areas was 20mm, while it was 13mm on average across the country. It may rise in the next 72 hours, the met o� ce informed. l

The day-long heavy rainfall apparently fails to curtail the enthusiasm of shoppers as their presence in the inundated alleys inside Dhanmondi Hawkers Market were markable yesterday MEHEDI HASAN

Tigers shred Protea bouquetOpting to bat, South Africa were in all sorts of trouble after young Musta� zur Rahman cleaned up opener Quinton de Kock in the third over for just seven runs. Faf du Ples-sis quickly followed suit o� the bowling of Shakib Al Hasan.

The bowlers kept things really tight for the Protea batters and Shakib soon dismissed Amla to become the second Bangladesh bowler after Abdur Razzak to join the 200-wicket club.

The champion all-rounder also became the seventh cricketer in history to pick up 200 wickets and score 4,000 runs.

After Mahmudullah picked up the wicket of Rilee Rossouw, the visitors were in deep trouble at 50 for 4 in 16 overs. JP Duminy and David Miller started to rebuild the innings for the batting side before rain interrupted the

match in the 23rd over.However, play resumed after three hours

and the match was reduced to a 40-overs-per-side a� air. Both Duminy and Miller were looking for some quick runs and added 63 for the sixth wicket.

Tigers skipper Mashrafe bin Mortaza joined in the party for the home side by picking up his 200th wicket in the limited-over format after Sabbir Rahman grabbed a brilliant diving catch at point to dismiss Miller, who scored 44 o� 51, hitting � ve fours. The Narail Express became the third Bangladesh bowler to pick 200 ODI wickets.

Duminy smashed his 21st � fty and ended up scoring 51 o� 70 balls, hitting just three fours.

Shakib picked up 3 for 33 in eight overs while fast bowler duo Rubel and Musta� z took two wickets each. l

According to the Bangladesh Meteorological Department, the recorded rainfall in Dhaka and its neighbouring areas was 20mm

NEWS2DT

NEWS 3D

TTHURSDAY, JULY 16, 2015

Rajon’s torture lasted four hours, not 28 minutes n Our Correspondent, Sylhet

Although the video circulated online showed 28 minutes of the barbaric torture of Sheikh Samiul Alam Rajon, the 13-year-old was bru-tally beaten for at least four hours before he succumbed to his injuries, one of the main accused has told the police.

Muhit Alam, who is currently being inter-rogated in remand, has confessed to the po-lice about torturing the teenager from 6:30am to 10:30am on July 8, Sylhet Metropolitan Po-lice ADC (media) Rahmat Ullah told the Dhaka Tribune.

After the killing, Rajon’s body was kept hidden in the same van which he had been falsely accused of stealing. Muhit then went to the Kumargaon bus stand to rent a micro-bus, in which the body of Rajon was later found by locals at around 12:45pm; they also apprehended Muhit at the time.

Muhit disclosed the details during his re-mand, said Additional Deputy Commissioner Rahmat Ullah, adding that another remanded suspect – Moyna Mia – has also confessed to the police.

Law enforcers were now working on iden-tifying the owner of the rented microbus, the ADC added.

Sheikh Samiul Alam Rajon, 13, was tor-tured to death by a group of men at Kumar-gaon on the outskirts of Sylhet city on July 8.

A 28-minute video, recorded on a mobile phone camera and later uploaded to social media platforms, showed the victim tied to a pole in front of a workshop. From the video, it seemed there were � ve to six men who took part in the barbaric torture.

Another suspect heldMeanwhile, Dulal, another sibling of key sus-pects Muhit and Kamrul, was handed over to the police yesterday.

Dulal, who the police said could be seen laughing and beating Rajon in the video, was initially handed over to a local UP member by his own mother and sister, local sources told the Dhaka Tribune. After being noti� ed, the police later went there and arrested Dulal.

Jalalabad police OC Akhtar Hossain said the family handed over Dulal after realising that the police had beefed up patrolling in the area.

On the other hand, the court of Sylhet Met-

ropolitan Magistrate Shahedul Karim yesterday placed suspect Moyna Mia, who was arrested on Tuesday night, under a seven-day remand after the police sought a 10-day remand.

Commenting on the progress of the case, ADC Rahmat Ullah told the Dhaka Tribune that seven suspects have so far been arrested; they are: Muhit Alam, his brothers Dulal and Kamrul Islam who was held in Saudi Arabia, cousin Ismail Hossain Ablus, Moyna Mia, and witnesses Firoze Ali and Azmat Ullah. The two witnesses have already testi� ed before court.

The Rajon murder case, meanwhile, will soon be handed to the Detective Branch in accordance with directives issued yesterday by Sylhet Metropolitan Police Commissioner Kamrul Ahsan to the Jalalabad police station, said ADC Rahmat Ullah.

The investigation into Rajon’s death is pro-gressing amid allegations that two Jalalabad police o� cials had taken bribes to help one of the suspects – Kamrul Islam – to � ee to Sau-di Arabia. The Sylhet Metropolitan Police has also formed a three-member probe commit-

tee to look into the allegations.Rajon’s father has also claimed that

Kamrul’s family had initially o� ered him Tk5 lakh to settle the issue without pursuing any legal action.

Standing beside Rajon’s familyMeher Afroze Chumki, the state minister for women and children a� airs, yesterday visit-ed the village home of Rajon to express her condolences to the victim’s parents. She also handed over a cheque of Tk1 lakh to the griev-ing parents.

At a brief rally in the Ali village, the state minister promised that a special court would try the killers of Rajon in the shortest possible time. She also issued directives to the local police to apprehend all the people involved in the teen’s killing.

Sylhet district administration, on the other hand, also handed over Tk30,000 to Rajon’s family, as well as promising Tk2,000 each month for the educational expenses of Sajon, the younger brother of Rajon. l

BGB rescues two Myanmar armymen in Bandarban forestn Mohammad Jamil Khan

Border Guard Bangladesh members have res-cued two Myanmar army personnels in the border areas of the hilly district Bandarban. The rescue came on Tuesday on the last day of 10-day operation in the dense forest.

“Primarily, we have learned that the two army personnel were abducted by some ter-rorists. However, investigation is under way to � nd out whether they had really been abduct-ed or are just in� ltrators,” said Col Khondoker Farid Hassan, a deputy director general of BGB.

“We have informed the Myanmar authori-ties including their Border Guard Police [BGP]

about the rescue,” said Col Farid while speak-ing at a press brie� ng at BGB’s headquarters in Dhaka’s Pilkhana yesterday.

He however did not disclose the names or ranks of the two Myanmar army personnels citing state security concerns.

The BGB have been conducting special drives in the hilly border forests of Bandarban to bust militant hideouts.

The � rst of these drives was conducted in the Thanchi area on February 8-18, second in Nailongchari on May 12-15, third in Thanchi again on June 2-6 and the fourth in Balipara and Alikadam areas on July 5 -14.

During several past � ag meetings, the My-

anmar authorities have complained to Bang-ladesh that rebel and terrorist out� ts such as the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSo) and the Arakan Army have set up camps in-side Bangladesh’s territory, sources said.

According to media reports in Myanmar, a heavy � ghting took place between the Myanmar government troops and the rebel Arakan Army in the western part of the country in March.

In reply to a query during yesterday’s brie� ng, the BGB high o� cial said: “We have conducted the drives to ensure security of our border areas. Moreover, the neighboring country has requested us to help them in take action against organised groups.”

He also said: “The last drive was conduct-ed by a combined team of 16 BGB Battalion, � ve teams from the Bangladesh Army and other intelligence agencies.”

The two Myanmar armymen were found in the forest on the last day of the last drive. One of them was wounded. He was given medical care and he is doing well now.

Col Farid also said: “Our intelligence sourc-es have informed us that the two Myanmar army personnels had been abducted by some terrorists. During our joint drive, the terror-ists escaped leaving them in the forest.”

The BGB formally requested the Myanmar BGP yesterday to take their men back. l

Bridges Authority wants grants for Karnaphuli tunnel n Asif Showkat Kallol

Burdened with loan repayments for the con-struction of the Bangabandhu bridge, the Bangladesh Bridges Authority wants govern-ment grants, not loans, to build a two-lane tunnel beneath the Karnaphuli River.

A Finance Division o� cial con� rmed that the Bridges Authority had sought opinions on its proposal to use grant money and not cred-it for the tunnel. The Finance Division had proposed giving Tk1,460.62cr in loans for the project.

Bridges Division Deputy Secretary Zakir Hossain sent a letter in this regard to Finance Secretary Mahbub Ahmed, saying it would not be able to bear the added burden of a Tk1,460.62cr loan, sources said.

The autonomous Bridges Authority makes annual payments of Tk240cr on loans for the construction of the Bangabandhu bridge which will continue until 2034, the letter revealed.

It proposes beginning the Tk5,600.40cr Kar-naphuli tunnel project by the end of the year.

On July 13, the Cabinet Committee on Eco-nomic A� airs approved the draft commercial contract to build a two-lane tunnel underneath the Karnaphuli River in a meeting chaired by Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu.

Under the contract, China Communication Construction Company (CCCC) will get $706 million for its services, 20% of which will have to be paid before the company begins work on the project.

The amount will have to be paid accord-ing to the project schedule and 85% of the amount must be paid in foreign currency.

The government will � nance the builder by borrowing the entire amount from China Exim Bank under a state-to-state arrangement.

The cost of borrowing will be lower than commercial rates.

The total project outlay will cross $1bn – lower than the cost incurred to build tunnels in Canada, Japan and China, according to the Bridges Division.

If calculated based on the amount to be paid to the Chinese builder, it will cost $103.67m to build each kilometre of the tunnel.

However, a Bridges Division o� cial said if the total cost of the project were taken into consideration, the cost per kilometre would be $144.63m.

Canada’s Ottawa Tunnel cost $143.50m per kilometre, Japan’s Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line $361m and China’s Yantai-Dalian Tunnel $146m. l

Dulal, a sibling of key suspects of Rajon murder case, faces queries from reporters on way to police station after being held from his residence in Sylhet yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

NEWS4DTTHURSDAY, JULY 16, 2015

Hundreds throng the Sadarghat Launch Terminal yesterday to get a ride home before the start of Eid holidays tomorrow MEHEDI HASAN

Suspected Sabujbagh terrorist Ramjan heldn Kamrul Hasan

A Dhaka court yesterday put a man on a three-day remand after police detained him from the capital’s Basabo area early in the day and produced him before the judge.

Police said Nayan Ahmed Ramjan alias Kala Ramjan is a terrorist who has long been involved in a range of crimes such as extor-tion, murder and mugging in Dhaka’s Sabu-jbagh, Khilgaon and Mugda areas.

They said Ramjan had been accused in eight cases, including one in which he was charged with murder.

Police, who held Ramjan around 2:30am after a tip-o� , also recovered a pistol and two rounds of bullets from his possession.

Sources said Ramjan was arrested by RAB a few days back but later walked out of prison on bail.

Locals said they had always been very fear-ful of Ramjan and his associates, who helped him commit crimes, and no one dared to raise voice against his unlawful acts.

They said there was strong reluctance to � le any case or general diary on part of anyone who might have been the victim of Ramjan’s crimes.

O� cer-in-Charge of Sabujbagh police sta-

tion Ra� qul Islam echoed the view of locals, saying Ramjan had rarely been sued.

He said Ramjan’s criminal acts became more frequent after the city corporation elec-tions in April.

“A number of general diaries were lodged against Ramjan following the polls. Police learned that he had committed crimes during the elections and also the post-election peri-od,” he said.

But police could not con� rm if Ramjan had any link with in� uential politicians.

OC Ra� qul said Ramjan was shown arrest-ed in an arms case. l

Employees abduct factory owner’s son to demand salary before Eidn Kamrul Hasan

Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) yesterday rescued a 16-month-old boy who was abducted by two teenagers on Monday.

The arrested teenagers, Md Ramjan Ali, 16 and Md Shawpon, 14, said they had abducted the boy to demand salary from his father, who was also the owner of a factory they worked in.

Ramjan and Shawpon, both hailing from Kishoreganj, were employees of a wallet-making factory owned by Mohammad Shamim in Narsingdi.

Rab-2 Commanding O� cer Lieutenant Colonel SM Masud Rana at a press brie� ng said Shamim did not pay Ramjan his due salary.

“As Eid is closer and Shamim still was not willing to pay, Ramjan planned with his friend Shawpon to abduct the boy and demand ransom,” he added.

On June 14, around 12pm Shamim reported to Rab-2 that miscreants abducted his son Jubayer and demanded Tk2 lakh from him.

Yesterday morning, Rab-2 members impersonating as relatives of Shamim arrested the two teenagers from Jatrabari area in the capital.

The mobile phone, which was used to demand the money was also seized from them.

“The two would be sent to juvenile court,” said the CO. l

Police: Jatrabari cable trader waskilled by his tenantsn Kamrul Hasan

Cable TV businessman Mujibur Rahman, who was shot dead in front of his house in Jatra-bari, Dhaka early Tuesday, was killed by his tenants, police said yesterday.

Analysing footages from a CCTV camera installed at the gate of Mujib’s house, it was found that the two persons who shot Mujib had moved into the fourth � oor of the build-ing a few days before, said Sub-Inspector Pa-rimal Chandra of Jatrabari Police Station.

“The two killers are on the run. We will know who planned the killing, if there is any, after they are arrested,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.

The Detective Branch of police and the Rapid Action Battalion are also working on

the case, he added.Mujibur was killed around 3am on Tues-

day, on his way home from work for sehri. He was the owner of cable TV service provider Aziz Cable in Old Dhaka.

He lived on the � rst � oor of the � ve-storey building he owned in Kazirgaon area in Jatra-bari. He used to stay at work until sehri dur-ing Ramadan, his family members said.

His brother Saidul Islam � led a murder case with Jatrabari police on late Tuesday night, after burying Mujibur in Gopalganj, where they are from.

Saidul claimed that the two killers had been missing since the murder and might have been involved in the killing.

Police con� rmed the next day that they had indeed been the killers. The motive of the

killing has still unknown.Earlier, Mujibur’s wife Shahida Rahman

said Mujibur had � led a general diary with police against Khokon, son of businessman Alam from Jurain are who is quite in� uential, and his girlfriend following an altercation with the pair.

She further said Mujibur had another dis-pute with local Jubo League leader Harun.

“We are taking these con� icts in consider-ation as the investigation proceeds,” Sub-In-spector Parimal said.

Shahida also said the killers had tied up the building’s guard Rubel before they killed Mujibur.

The guard, Rubel, was taken in police cus-tody for questioning and was freed later, said Jatrabari police OC Abani Shankar. l

Return ticket for train goes on sale todayn BSS

Bangladesh Railways will start selling ad-vance return tickets of trains for the conveni-ence of Dhaka-bound passengers on the occa-sion of holy Eid-ul-Fitr, the greatest religious festival of Muslims, from today.

“Keeping their (home-bound passengers) safe return in mind, the railways authority will sell return tickets in advance for the post-Eid time at some important rail stations in-cluding Rajshahi, Khulna, Rangpur, Dinajpur, and Lalmonirhat,” an o� cial told BSS.

He said return tickets for the journey of July 20 will be sold on July 16, tickets for July 21 will be available on July 17, tickets for July 22 and 23 will be supplied on July 19 and re-turn tickets for July 24 will be given on July 20.

The o� cial said each passenger will be al-lowed to procure maximum four tickets and tickets sold earlier will not be returned.

He said apart from the sale of advance tickets, necessary measure for ‘special train service’ has taken on the Eid-ul-Fitr and 169 additional passengers coaches were added to ensure a smooth and comfortable journey for the people who would come back to the capi-tal city after spending Eid with their near and dear ones.

“Adequate security measures have also been taken at the time of the tickets sale,” the o� cial added. l

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Runaway teens now spurn Dhaka and go to Malaysia

n Abid Azad back from Cox’s Bazar

A year ago, 16-year-old eighth grader Mohi-uddin from Ukhiya of Cox’s Bazar reached a conclusion that he did not have the prepara-tion to sit in the Junior School Certi� cate ex-amination.

Instead, he decided to try his luck in Ma-laysia, by going there illegally, like some peo-ple in locality.

Mohiuddin soon found some other teen-agers from the school and a few cousins who also had similar plans; and they made a big plan to set o� for the voyage.

Mohiuddin’s classmate Jamal knew a bro-ker named Manjur, a resident of the neigh-bouring Ramu upazila who works for a gang that sends people to Malaysia. Manjur’s re-porting boss was another man named Salam-atullah.

One day, the � ve teenagers bunked school and met Manjur secretly.

“Manjur told us that we did not have to pay him right away. It was okay with him if we paid him after going to Malaysia. He also told us that he would arrange a trip on a ship for us,” Mohiuddin said when this reporter met him recently.

“We were so happy that we started day-dreaming about what we were going to do with all the money that we were going to earn in Malaysia. We wanted to build big houses and expensive cars!”

One evening, the � ve boys sneaked out and came to the Sonapara bridge near the Bay of Bengal with Manjur.

They were all set and waiting with excite-ment to get on board a ship and set o� for Malaysia, with very little idea that they might eventually be abducted to remote jungle camps in Thailand and tortured there.

However, Mohiuddin’s father Md Islam, who was in the same area at that time, spoiled the show. Some people in the area saw Mo-hiduddin and informed his father.

Islam rushed to the bridge, got hold of his son and his companions, but Manjur � ed the scene.

All this happened about a year ago. But it was not until March 3 this year that Mohiud-din realised how fortunate they were to have not boarded that ship. He came to know that one of his schoolmates, who went on the same voyage with help from a di� erent bro-ker, had been missing for months.

The brokerThe missing boy from Mohiuddin’s school is Monjur Alam, a seventh grader and resident of West Holudia in Ukhiya. Monjur was lured by a broker named Bashir, who ran an elec-tronic gadgets repairing shop in Morichcha Bazar.

Monjur’s father Ilias told this reporter: “One day, Monjur did not come home from school. Later I came to know that he sneaked out of school at ti� n break. Then I heard about Bashir and sought help from the local union council member and chairman but they did not help me.

“A month after my son went missing, I got a phone call from a man. He demanded Tk18,000 for returning my son. I obliged and paid the money to a woman in a burqa near

the Teknaf branch of Islami Bank. But there was no news of my son.”

A few days later, Ilias caught Bashir with help from some local people and took him to the local union council chairman. But a union council member vouched for Bashir and the chairman released him. Immediately, Bashir � ed the area.

“Then I went to the Ukhiya police station but they did not take any human tra� cking cases. Instead, they told me look for my son more seriously.”

Bashir was popular among teenagers in the area. The boys used to “load” songs in their mobile phone memory cards from his shop. They trusted Bashir and believed in the sto-ries he told about the beautiful life in Malay-sia.

According to a number of teachers, stu-dents and guardians of the Morichcha Palong High School, Bashir has so far handed over 25-30 teenagers to human tra� ckers.

Assistant Headmaster Nazrul Islam said: “There was a time when teenagers ran away to Dhaka. Now, they want to go abroad. This cannot be good for the future of our nation.” l


HUMAN TRAFFICKING

BB intelligence digs into tra� ckers’ bank accountsn Mohammad Jamil Khan and

Syed Samiul Basher Anik

Yet again, a much-talked-about ruling party lawmaker and some in� uential people from the country’s coastal areas have been found involved in human tra� cking and drug smuggling.

Their names and bank account details have been mentioned in a report prepared by the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) of the central bank for suspicious transaction in eight branches of di� erent banks in Teknaf area.

The BFIU has sent the list to the Home Ministry and the Anti-Corruption Commis-sion suggesting action against them.

The suspects include Awami League law-maker from Cox’s Bazar 4 (Teknaf-Ukhia) Ab-dur Rahman Bodi, an o� cial said seeking an-onymity. Bodi’s name was earlier mentioned in a number of intelligence reports. He is also

on the lists of human tra� ckers and drug lords prepared by the Home Ministry and the Narcotics Control Department.

The BFIU started work on the suspicious bank accounts following reports by several state-run intelligence agencies.

Sources say drug dealers and human traf-� ckers earlier conducted the crimes through cash transaction. But now they are using bank accounts, di� erent mobile banking ser-vices and bKash accounts.

In a recent report, an intelligence agency mentioned the names and addresses of 1,347 people for their involvement in human traf-� cking. The Dhaka Tribune published a re-port on the � ndings on May 26.

Before this, another intelligence agency named 26 police o� cials, and Awami League lawmaker Bodi and his family among others for their direct involvement in drug smuggling.

These reports also mentioned that the

coastal area of the country, especially Teknaf of Cox’s Bazar, has turned into a safe haven for the criminals.

A huge number of people are being traf-� cked illegally towards Malaysia and Thai-land through Cox’s Bazar. These people are sold out to organised human tra� cking syn-dicates after con� nement and realising mon-ey from their family members.

According to sources, there are eight branches of di� erent banks in Teknaf. Sonali, Agrani, Janata, Islami Bank, Al-Arafah Isla-mi Bank and AB Bank have one branch each while Bangladesh Krishi Bank has two.

The BFIU team visited the branches re-cently and found abnormal transactions in some accounts. One of the accounts is owned MP Bodi.

The investigators also found that the max-imum transaction occurred in two accounts with AB Bank’s Teknaf branch – owned by

Farid Ahmed and Amirul Islam, who the law enforcers say are criminals involved in drug smuggling and tra� cking since long.

The team did not � nd detail information about their income and expenditure.

When contacted, BFIU Executive Director Mahfuzur Rahman said: “We suspect that the account holders may have link to criminal ac-tivities.”

He also said they were making a full report on the matter.

ACC Chairman M Badiuzzaman said he did not know anything about the Bangladesh Bank report. “Basically, we do not work on the human tra� cking issue. But if there is any allegation of money laundering along with human tra� cking in the report, then we will de� nitely take action.

“If needed, we will engage the police and the Criminal Investigation Department in the investigation.” l

Mannan: Rich nations must address global inequalitiesn Tribune Desk

State Minister for Finance and Planning MA Mannan has urged the leaders of the devel-oped countries to address global inequalities in the Addis Ababa conference.

He made the call while chairing a session at the UN Financing for Development Confer-ence being held in Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, says a release here yesterday.

Mentioning that the post-2015 sustainable development goals are challenging, econo-mist Je� ry Sachs emphasised three issues, including sustainability of environmental protection, secondary education and primary healthcare.

He also said the rich should come forward to � nance the poverty eradication. l

These women, who throng the narrow entrance of a house on Old Dhaka’s North South Road yesterday for collecting giveaways, seem to be oblivious to the fact that 27 people were killed in a Zakat stampede just � ve days ago in Mymensingh MEHEDI HASAN

NEWS6DTTHURSDAY, JULY 16, 2015

Jute workers worry over unpaid wages before Eid n Our Correspondent, Khulna

Workers of nine jute state-owned mills in Khulna are facing uncertainty over wheth-er they will be paid their outstanding wages before Eid-ul-Fitr as Eid vacations starts from July 17.

They said they were frustrated as they got no assurance from mill o� cials concerning the overdue salaries.

The upcoming Eid will bring no joy for families of more than a thousand workers who have not yet been paid by factories they work at.

Member Secretary of CBA-Non CBA Oikya Parishad SM Zakir Hossain said the textiles and jute minister assured early in July that all overdue wages would be paid before Eid but the workers are still awaiting payments.

“The workers will be forced to stage a sit-in from Khalishpur to Rajghat industrial area if no decision is made by today,” he said yes-terday.

Former CBA president of Crescent Jute Mill Md Murad Hossain said workers of the mill were waiting for wages that were four weeks overdue. “The workers are in complete despair as they see no hope of getting the money.”

Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) sources said a total of 42,000 workers are em-ployed at the nine state-owned jute mills in Khulna and Jessore regions. Wages of work-ers in several of the mills became overdue in the wake of a severe cash crunch, dearth of raw jute and closure of looms.

Liaison O� cer of BJMC’s Khulna o� ce Md Ra� qul Islam said factory owners had not yet reached a decision on when workers would be paid their outstanding salaries.

“A decision might come before Eid holi-days,” he said.

HM Shahadat Hossain, general secretary of Dada Match Workers Union, said he was fac-ing extreme � nancial hardships and had no prospects for enjoying the upcoming festival.

“I have appealed to the prime minister for providing each of the workers’ families with Tk1,000 and 20 kilogrammes of rice ahead of Eid. The misery the workers are facing knows no bound,” he said.

Dada Match Factory, a facility where matchstick is produced, was shut in August 2010, and then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told a rally the following year that the factory would be reopened soon.

“But nothing has yet been done. Some 74 workers of the factory have already died without treatment because they could not af-ford medical bills,” said Shahadat.

Some 300 workers lost their jobs when Hardboard Mill was closed in February last year. The convener of a committee formed after the factory’s closure to protect workers’ rights, Molla Farid Ahmed, said the workers’ families are in extreme � nancial distress.

“For them, Eid will be nothing but another day � lled with worries over when they will re-ceive all their overdue wages,” he said. l

Barguna Khelaghar Ashor forms a human chain yesterday in the town in protest against the murder of teenage boy Sheikh Samiul Alam Rajon in Sylhet and demanding exemplary punishment of the killers DHAKA TRIBUNE

3 held over Sonali Bank burglaryn Our Correspondent, Rajshahi

Three people including an employee of Sonali Bank, Tanor upazila branch in Rajshahi were arrested yesterday for their involvement into embezzlement Tk1.19 crore from the bank.

The arrested were identi� ed as SM Masud Hasan Masud, 35, son of late Ka� luddin of Darikharbana area under city’s Boalia police station and Nazer Hossain, 32, son of Golam Mostafa and his wife Salma Jahan Lima, 28, of Bahrampur Bank Colony area under city’s Rajpara police station.

A team of Rapid Action Battelian (RAB) ar-rested them conducting several drives at dif-ferent places in the city early morning.

Lieutenant Colonel Mahbub Alam, captain of RAB-5, said of the arrested, Nazer using his personal password, had withdrawn about Tk1.19 crore from the accounts of rest of the arrested and his father Golam Mostafa early June. Nazer is an IT o� cer of the bank.

On June 24, the authority of the bank � led two separate cases with the concerned police station and Anti Corruption Commission re-spectively, Mahbub said. l

Six die in Rajshahi road mishaps n Our Correspondent, Rajshahi

At least six people were killed and � ve others were injured in three separate road accidents in Rajshahi yesterday.

O� cer-in-Charge of Mohanpur po-lice station said a goods-laden truck hit a three-wheeler locally known as Bhotbhoti in front of Kehserhat Cold Storage leaving Ja-hangir Alam, 35, a schoolteacher, dead on the spot.

Two other passengers of the human haul-ier died on the way to Rajshahi Medical Col-lege Hospital.

But identity of the deceased could not be known immediately. The bodies have been

kept at the RMCH morgue, OC Hamid said.Meanwhile, two people were killed in

Baneshwar area, Puthia upazila in the morn-ing.

Local sources said a pickup van and a truck had collided head-on around 7:30am leaving two passengers of the pickup van serious-ly injured. Later, they died on the way to RMCH. The deceased have been identi� ed as Nazmul Haque, 35, and Mizanur Rahman, 50, of Nachol under Chapainawabganj,

Meanwhile, another man was killed after a truck hit a passenger van in Kharkari Bypass area of the city around 6:30am. The deceased has been identi� ed as Jainal Abedin of the area. l

Lightning kills four n Our Correspondent, Habiganj

At least four people were killed in lightning strike at Bairat village under Azmiriganj of Habiganj district yesterday.

The deceased were identi� ed as Musa Mian,50, son of Ilias Mian,Anjit Sutradhar,45, son of Ashini Sutradhar, Gayatish Sutradhar, 30, son of Prionath Sutradhar and Pranesh Sutradhar,22, son Kali Sutradhar.

Police said six local traders were going to the upazila bazar by boat. Rain started with thunderbolts when they were in the middle of the river. At one stage, the boat came under attack of lightning .

Of the injured, the four died when they were sent to the upazila health complex. l

Sholakia ready to host country’s biggest Eid congregation n Our Correspondent, Kishoreganj

All necessary preparations to hold the coun-try’s biggest Eid congregation at Sholakia Eid-gah in the district have been completed.

Deputy Commissioner GSM Jafarullah, also the president of the executive committee of Sholakia Eidgah, said the necessary steps had been taken for holding the 188th con-gregation of Eid-ul-Fitr at the historic Eidgah maintaining tradition.

Adequate police will be deployed in and around the � eld to ensure the security of the devotees, said Anwar Hossain Khan, superinten-dent of police. Chairman of Islahul Muslimeen Council and secretary general of Jamaat-e-Ule-ma Maulana Md Fariduddin Masud is scheduled to conduct the Eid Jamaat this year.

Eidgah Steering Committee, local munic-ipality, di� erent government organizations and district administration will jointly organ-ize the colossal jamaat.

The number of devotees is increasing every year to attend the congregation at the largest Eidgah of the subcontinent. Over three lakh devotees come here to o� er their Eid payers every year. A huge number of devotees from across the world, including Saudi Arabia, Tur-key, India, Pakistan and England, will attend the Eid prayers.

Two special trains will operate on Bhair-ab-Kishoreganj and Kishoreganj-Mymensin-gh routes to facilitate the devotees.

Di� erent TV channels will cover the Con-gregation live and special train services are given by the concerned ministry.

The � rst Eid congregation on this ground was held in 1828 when a local Dewan, called Sayeed Ahmed (R) of Haibatnagar Dewan Bari of the town, conducted Eid Jamaat on one of the � elds of his own ‘Taluk’ (revenue zone). This later became known in history as the Sholakia Eidgah. l


Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 6:49PM SUN RISES 5:21AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW

34.2ºC 23.5ºC

Jessore Tangail

SourceL IslamicFinder.org

F O R E C A S T F O R T O D A YDhaka 33 27Chittagong 32 27Rajshahi 31 27Rangpur 30 25Khulna 31 27Barisal 33 27Sylhet 28 24Cox’s Bazar 31 27

PRAYER TIMESFajr 3:56am

Sunrise 5:20amZohr 12:05am

Asr 4:46pmMagrib 6:48pm

Esha 8:14pm

WEATHER

THURSDAY, JULY 16

RAIN ORTHUNDERSHOWERS

Fresh notes in great demand ahead of Eidn FM Mizanur Rahaman, Chittagong

Like previous years, traders in Chittagong are doing brisk business of selling fresh notes as Eid-ul-Fitr draws near.

New notes are very popular in households where children expect those from senior fam-ily members or relatives on the day of Eid while many businesses also prefer those to pay salaries and bonuses of employees.

Bangladesh Bank and other scheduled banks have released fresh notes but demands for such notes have outpaced supply, said sources.

Traders are selling new notes in di� erent areas of the city, including New Market, Old Bangladesh Bank Road and Agrabad.

Customers said collecting such notes from banks costs nothing but it is an annoying ex-perience as they have to stand in long queues, often for hours.

That is why we do not mind spending some extra bucks to collect freshly printed notes from makeshift stalls on the street instead of going to banks, Shah Alam Mia, a retired rail-way employee, told the Dhaka Tribune.

It was found that the majority of the fresh note customers in di� erent areas of the port city belong to middle-income, lower-middle and lower-income groups of the society.

Sellers said they had seen a high demand for fresh notes compared to the past few years, with most of the customers buying notes of Tk 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 denomi-

nations.“In addition to people of low- and mid-

dle-income backgrounds, fresh notes have also been collected by many people who be-long to the upper class,” said trader Salahud-din at New Market area.

“There are some who want to buy notes in large volumes, thus expecting to pay less ex-tra bucks. The more the Eid nears, the higher the number of customers get,” said another trader Forkan Uddin.

Belal Uddin, who works at Chittagong Port Authority, said his parents had always given him fresh notes on the day of Eid since his childhood.

“Apart from children, I also give these notes on Eid day,” he added. l

Street kids help a CNG autorickshaw driver by pushing his vehicle that got out of order while plying through the knee deep water in the capital’s Panthapath area yesterday SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Probe body over Barisal child abuse n Our Correspondent, Barisal

Barisal district administration yesterday formed a probe committee to investigate child abuse incident at a girl-orphanage.

The committee has been asked to submit its report within next three working days.

Dr Gazi Md Saifuzzaman, deputy commis-sioner Barisal, said the committee would be led by Abul Kalam Azad, acting additional deputy commissioner (general) and deputy commissioner (education and development).

Md Dulal, health assistant of the orphan-age, suspended as per verbal order of the di-rector general of social welfare directorate, said the deputy commissioner. Corporal pun-ishment against two girls at an orphanage run by Social Welfare Directorate in Barisal has caused uproar among the public after its foot-age went viral on social networking sites.

The footage uploaded on Facebook shows Md Dulal, health assistant at the institution, is indiscriminately beating two girls as they try to � ee from the shelter home.

According to orphanage sources, Akhi, 9, daughter of Taslima Begum of Tajkati village, Sadar upazila, and Dalia, 10, daughter of Bilkis Begum of Bhuterdia, Babuganj upazila have been living in the home for a few months. On Saturday, Dulal beat them severely when they tried to � ee from the shelter home. l

Home-bound people start leaving port city n Tribune Report

Home-bound people yesterday started leav-ing port city Chittagong to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr with their near and dear ones.

According to Arabic calendar, Eid is likely to be held on Friday or Saturday where only a single working day, Thursday, remained in the people’s hand and a huge number of hol-idaymakers left the city earlier to reach their home smoothly.

The home-bound people thronging on the rail station, bus terminals and other stoppag-es to catch their desired transport since the morning, as it was holiday due to Sab-e-Ka-dar.

The Dhaka Tribune correspondent found that huge crowd at Chittagong Railway Sta-tion, BRTC bus terminal at New Market, AK Khan Area and other exit points in the city and home goers were seen to wait with their

family members with bag and baggage.The home-bound people, however, ex-

pressed their concern to this correspondent that they might got stuck at tra� c congestion on highways during their journey.

Shahriya Islam, a master’s student of Chittagong University’s Communication and Journalism, who board on a Dhaka-bound Provati Train, said he had managed the train ticket four days back.

Government Railway Police Chittagong Railway Station Outpost’s O� cer-in-Charge Himansu Dash Rana said all the necessity measures had been taken to make the holi-daymakers’ Eid journey safe and smooth..

Bangladesh Railway (BR) has complet-ed the sale of advance train ticket from July 9 to July 12 while the public service provider has arranged two special trains for Chandpur which scheduled to ply from July 15 to July 19 to cover up the Eid rush, said BR sources.

Sub-Inspector Farid Uddin, in-charge of Jorarganj highway police outpost, told the Dhaka Tribune that there was a pressure of tra� c on the both lanes of the Dhaka-Chit-tagong Highway while they were facing trou-blesome to control the tra� c due to torrential rain.

“The tra� c congestion is created at Comil-la point of the highway while situation would be worst on Thursday and Friday if the rain continue further”, the police o� cer added.

Chittagong District Police’s Additional Su-perintendent of Police (Sadar) Md Sahidul-lah said police keeps eye on the Dhaka-Chit-tagong highway’s 16 points where internet protocol cameras had been set up to check the tra� c jam and other criminal o� ence.

Apart from that, Chittagong Metropolitan Police beefed up the overall security in the city by deploying cops at exit points and key points ahead of eid journey, said police sources. l

NEWS 7D

T

WORLD8DTTHURSDAY, JULY 16, 2015

Federal court rules against nuns in contraception casen Reuters

A federal appeals court in Denver on Tuesday ruled that an order of Roman Catholic nuns must comply with President Barack Obama’s healthcare law requiring emp loyers to pro-vide insurance that covers contraception.

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a challenge brought by the Little Sisters of the Poor, a Baltimore-based order of nuns who operate nursing homes, saying their obliga-tions under the law did not substantially bur-den their religious freedom.

The nuns had sued the Obama administra-tion arguing that a compromise in the 2010 A� ordable Health Care Act, widely known as Obamacare, still made them complicit in authorizing birth control for their employees even if they did not have to pay for it.

The federal healthcare law requires em-ployers to provide health insurance policies that cover preventive services for wom-en including access to contraception and sterilization.

Religious groups opposed to abortion and sometimes contraception can opt-out of pay-ing for the services, which then forces insur-ers or a third party to pick up the tab.

The nuns argued that signing paperwork authorizing the third party to cover contra-ception was a violation of their rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. l

Loyalists advance in Yemen’s Adenn AFP, Aden

Loyalists of Yemen’s exiled president, buoyed by their recapture of the airport, seized more ground in second city Aden yesterday as they pressed their biggest � ghtback yet against Iran-backed rebels.

The o� ensive, dubbed Operation Golden Arrow, is the � rst major advance by the loyal-ists since Shiite Huthi rebels entered the port city in March, forcing President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi into exile in neighbouring Sau-di Arabia.

Despite an appeal from US President Ba-rack Obama to Saudi King Salman for an ur-gent end to the � ghting, Saudi-led warplanes carried out six raids on rebel positions before dawn, witnesses and military sources said.

Popular Resistance � ghters – a southern militia that has been the mainstay of support for Hadi – recaptured the provincial govern-ment headquarters in the Mualla district op-

posite Aden’s main commercial port, militia spokesman Ali al-Ahmadi told AFP.

They also advanced in Aden’s Crater downtown district, where a presidential pal-ace is located, amid heavy � ghting, he added.

And pro-government � ghters entered the small commercial port in Mualla itself, near the main port which the rebels had failed to take, according to military sources.

General Fadhl al-Hasan, leading pro-gov-ernment forces’ operations in Aden’s west, told AFP that his troops have also captured the coastal road overlooking the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait between Yemen and Djibouti.

The road links Aden to the rebel-held city of Mocha, home to a port near Bab el-Mandeb.

On Tuesday, the Popular Resistance, backed by reinforcements freshly trained and equipped in Saudi Arabia, retook the airport and much of the surrounding Khormaksar diplomatic district.

“After the recapture of Khormaksar, there was a collapse in the ranks of the Huthis and their allies,” renegade troops loyal to Hadi’s predecessor Ali Abdullah Saleh, Ahmadi said.

It was the defection of the 39th Armoured Brigade on March 25 that had enabled the re-bels to take the airport.

Much of Aden has been reduced to rubble by four months of ferocious � ghting.

The retreating rebels pounded residential districts in the north and east of Aden with Katyusha multiple rocket launchers, provin-cial o� cials said.

At least 12 civilians were killed and 105 wounded, Aden health department chief Al-Khader Laswar told AFP.

Eight loyalist militiamen were killed and 30 wounded in the � ghting, Laswar added.

There was no immediate word on rebel losses. The con� ict has killed more than 3,200 people since late March, according to UN � gures. l

Bikini bandits charged after hot pursuit through Parisn AFP, Paris

Six brothers suspected of robbing a chic beachwear store before dodging police bullets and leading a car chase through Paris, have been rounded up and charged, legal sources said yesterday.

The thieves are accused of stealing swim-suits, Bermuda shorts and T-shirts with a street value of up to 100,000 euros ($109,000) in Thursday’s robbery, from a store of the up-market Vilebrequin chain.

A source close to the investigation said po-lice arriving at the scene of the crime near the Champs-Elysees found obstacles barring en-try to the store.

A policeman � red three shots in the direc-tion of the robbers – one of whom pointed a gun at them – but the men managed to get away, leading to a car chase through Paris to the eastern suburb of Fontenay-sous-Bois.

With one of its tyres burst, passengers of the getaway vehicle threw � re extinguishers out of the window in a bid to block the police pursuit.

Police later tracked the suspects to a house in Fontenay-sous-Bois where they found the gang of brothers and half-brothers as well as thousands of euros in cash.

Six men aged between 18 and 22 were charged on Saturday and investigative sourc-es said they are being probed for involve-ment in other similar robberies of high-end clothing.

Vilebrequin charges up to 120 euros ($132) for a bikini top and 450 euros for a pair of men’s shorts. l

PM Modi battles opposition to key land reformn Reuters, New Delhi

Opposition parties boycotted Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi’s latest attempt to build consensus around a business-friendly land bill yesterday, boding badly for his ambitious agenda of economic reform in a parliament session that starts next week.

Almost half of the 31 chief ministers spurned Modi’s invitation to meet him in New Delhi to discuss the proposal to make it easier to buy farmland for development. The meeting ended earlier than expected.

Modi has made the reform a central plank of his economic agenda, and told the meeting that a lack of land for roads, housing and in-dustry was crimping economic growth. But the opposition says the bill is anti-farmer and has blocked it in the Rajya Sabha for months.

In his � rst year in o� ce, Modi has made life easier for Indian businesses by cutting red tape, but opposition protests have slowed his e� orts at structural economic reforms he says are needed to make India a leading glob-al economy.

Addressing the media after yesterday’s meeting, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the message from the states present was to quickly � nd a solution to the impasse.

“Either the centre must build a coalition and pass the land bill quickly, or give the � exibility to the states to pass their own laws,” he said.

Modi has spent signi� cant political capital trying to push the land law through parlia-ment, and Jaitley’s comments raised the pos-sibility that if he is unsuccessful again in the coming Monsoon session he might devolve the issue to states.

“If they give up on this, it will be a huge set-back for industrialisation, and for planned ur-banisation,” said Mohan Guruswamy, president of Centre for Policy Alternatives, a think tank.

In the session due to begin on July 21, the government also plans to pass the biggest tax overhaul since independence, and may intro-duce labour bills aimed at job creation.

But the Congress party has other ideas, and wants the prime minister to address par-liament about what it says is corruption and in� uence tra� cking by senior members of his party and government, before any debates on legislation.

“We are not going to allow this govern-ment to ignore the critical issue of corruption, it all depends on what the prime minister says (in parliament)” said Congress spokesman Sanjay Jha. l

A crippled boy walks on a wall of a house destroyed by a recent Saudi-led air strike in the old quarter of capital Sanaa on Tuesday. A Saudi-led coalition of Arab states has been bombing the Iranian-allied Houthi rebels and forces loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh since late March in a bid to restore exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power. The writing reads: ‘These are the achievements of America, Israel and Al Saud in Yemen’ REUTERS

WORLD 9D


More than 50 IS child soldiers killed in Syria in 2015n AFP, Beirut

More than 50 child soldiers recruited by the Islamic State group in Syria have been killed since the beginning of this year, a monitoring group said yesterday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had documented the deaths of 52 child soldiers, all under the age of 16, who had been part of IS’s “Cubs of the Caliphate” programme.

The programme provides intense military and religious training to children throughout IS’s areas of control in Syria, the Britain-based Observatory said.

As many as 31 were killed in July alone, in explosions, clashes, and air strikes by Syria’s regime and the US-led coalition.

The child soldiers are used to man check-points or gather intelligence from areas out-side IS control, but IS has been increasingly using them to execute prisoners or conduct suicide attacks.

So far this year, IS has used 18 children as suicide bombers, most recently in its � ght against Kurdish militia in northeastern Syria.

Since the beginning of 2015, IS has recruit-ed more than 1,100 children. l

Child marriage accepted in Brazil to escape abuse at homen Reuters, Bogota

Child marriage is widely accepted in Brazil, where girls seek older husbands to escape from sexual and other violence in the home, or because of teenage pregnancies or the lack of job opportunities, according to new research.

There has been scant research in Brazil on child marriage, and little has been done to tackle it, researchers from Plan Internation-al, Brazil’s Federal University of Para and the gender equality charity Promundo said.

“Child marriage in Brazil is very normal-ised and accepted,” said Alice Taylor, lead au-thor of the report, whose researchers say it is the � rst study of its kind in Brazil.

Brazil is ranked fourth in the world in the number of girls married to or living with a partner by the age of 15, with 877,000 women aged 20 to 24 reporting they were married by 15, according to a Brazilian government cen-sus in 2010.

Legally, Brazilians can marry at 16 if both parents consent, or earlier in certain circum-stances such as pregnancy.

The researchers examined child marriage in the two states with the highest prevalence

of the practice in the country - the northern state of Para and Maranhao in the northeast.

“There’s an assumption ... that child mar-riage ... happens only in the most remote and rural areas of Brazil. But the research shows it happens also in urban areas and in state capi-tals, like Belem and Sao Luis,” Taylor told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by telephone.

Child marriage in Brazil and across Latin America is “mostly informal and consensu-al,” unlike South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa which have a “more ritualized and formal na-ture of the practice,” the report found.

In Brazil it is fueled by sexual and other vi-olence at home, often at the hands of relatives and stepfathers, which drives girls to seek refuge with older men outside the family, Taylor said.

“Child marriage is an expression of a girl’s limited opportunities in terms of education and employment. They get married based on an expectation that their life will be better and that they will have more independence, and that expectation is usually unful� lled.”

E� orts to stem child marriage have large-ly focused on sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where it is most prevalent, and have ig-nored Latin America, the report said. l

China detains South Africans, Britons accused of viewing ‘terror’ videosn Reuters, Beijing

China formally detained nine foreign tourists including South Africans, Britons and an Indi-an national, the Foreign Ministry and a South African charity said, for suspected ties to a “terror group” after authorities accused them of watching banned videos.

China’s Foreign Ministry said yesterday that 11 others would be deported and the nine were “criminally detained” - a term meaning suspects have likely been charged and could be prosecuted. All are suspected of violating the law, the ministry said, without specifying what they had done.

Law enforcement authorities in Inner Mongolia, where the group was detained, are in touch with diplomatic and consular o� -cials from the countries, the ministry added.

Imtiaz Sooliman, head of the Gift of the Givers Foundation, a South African charity, quoted Chinese authorities as saying some of those arrested had been watching propagan-da videos from a banned group while in their hotel room. l

Tsipras � ghts to pass reforms in Greek parliamentn Reuters, Athens

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras battled to win lawmakers’ approval yesterday for a bail-out deal to keep Greece in the euro, while the country’s creditors, pressed by the IMF to provide massive debt relief, struggled to agree on a � nancial lifeline.

Having reluctantly conceded to negotiat-ing a third bailout from international lenders on stringent terms, Tsipras must face down a rebellion in his anti-austerity Syriza party to push sweeping pro-market reforms and spending cuts through parliament.

“It’s a di� cult deal, a deal for which only time will show if it is economically viable,” his � nance minister, Euclid Tsakalotos, told lawmakers during a debate on reforms.

Dozens of MPs, including senior Syriza � gures and the government’s junior coali-tion partner, may partially or fully reject the bailout, forcing Tsipras to rely on pro-Euro-pean opposition lawmakers to carry the vote, which is expected after midnight.

A snap election could follow if the prime minister’s majority collapses, and in an early sign of trouble in store, the deputy � nance minister abruptly submitted her resignation and the energy minister said he would not back the deal.

“The choice between a bailout or catastro-phe is a choice made in the face of terror,” Panagiotis Lafazanis, who heads the far-left � ank of Syriza, told reporters.

Adding to the uncertainty, a con� dential study by the International Monetary Fund, seen by Reuters, called for much more debt relief than European countries, particularly Germany, have been prepared to countenance so far.

Berlin, which along with the other credi-tors knew about the IMF study before agree-ing to new bailout talks, may wince at provid-ing huge debt relief to a country it scarcely

trusts to honor its promises.But Germany insists on having the IMF in

the negotiations to help keep Greece in line, and may countenance extending maturities for Greek debt provided there was no writedown.

“Technically, this possibility exists,” said � nance ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger when asked about the option of extending the maturities of Greek debt to 30 years or so.

“That is certainly an element that one can

consider, but it will not be the solution if it leads to a signi� cant reduction in the cash value (of the debt) as then we would in the end have nothing other than a debt haircut via the backdoor,” he said. l

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is seen before a ruling Syriza party parliamentary group session in Athens, Greece yesterday. Tsipras battled to win lawmakers’ approval yesterday for a bailout deal to keep Greece in the euro, while the country’s creditors, pressed by the IMF to provide massive debt relief, struggled to agree a � nancial lifeline REUTERS

WORLD10DT


Video shows drug lord Guzman’s daring shower escapen AFP, Mexico City

Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guz-man paced nervously in his cell before bend-ing down behind his shower’s short wall and vanishing, according to newly released secu-rity footage of his daring jailbreak.

While the video released late Tuesday shows Guzman walking back and forth three times before crouching into the shower with his prison garb on, National Security Com-missioner Monte Alejandro Rubido said it was normal behavior for prison inmates.

The small hole on the shower � oor that Guzman slipped into late Saturday is not seen in the close-circuit camera, which is moni-tored 24 hours a day. It also does not show the moment he takes o� a monitoring bracelet.

A surveillance camera was on the top cor-ner of a wall outside the cell and another in-side pointing toward the shower, but author-ities said they had two blind spots to protect the inmate’s privacy.

Rubido said Guzman was last seen at 8:52 pm, without indicating how long it took for prison guards to sound the alarm.

Guzman’s second escape from a maxi-mum-security prison in 14 years is a huge embarrassment to President Enrique Pena Nieto’s administration, which had celebrated the capture of the world’s most wanted drug baron just 17 months ago.

While a massive manhunt for Guzman en-tered its third full day, prosecutors formally detained 22 o� cials from the Altiplano pris-on outside Mexico City amid suspicions of an

inside job. Twelve others held since Sunday were released.

Some 700 federal forces were deployed to the nearby highway, � ights were suspended at the nearby Toluca airport.

Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said that Guzman “must have” had help from prison o� cials in his brazen escape.

Authorities have 96 hours to either charge or release the 22 prison o� cials who were placed in custody on Tuesday.

The escape marks the second time since 2001 that Guzman managed to � ee a maxi-mum-security prison.

The government has o� ered a $3.8 mil-lion reward for Guzman’s capture, double the amount it usually o� ers for the country’s most wanted criminals. l

Pakistan says it shot down Indian drone near LoCn Reuters, Islamabad

The Pakistani military said it shot down an In-dian spy drone yesterday in Kashmir, in a new sign of the decades-old tension between the nuclear-armed rivals in the disputed region.

Industry experts said the small, unarmed model was sold commercially for aerial � lm-ing and would contain no secret military tech-nology.

The Indian military was not available for comment.

Bhimber is in Kashmir, the Himalayan re-gion claimed by both Pakistan and India. The two sides regularly exchange � re along Kash-mir’s heavily-militarised Line of Control.

A photo supplied by the Pakistani military appeared to show a Chinese-made DJI Phan-tom 3, said Huw Williams, the Unmanned Systems Editor at IHS Jane’s International De-fence Review.

“Due to its limited operating range - about two km - if the Indian military is using the system it would most likely be for close recon-naissance or security work,” Williams said.

“Our Middle East editor believes that Is-lamic State are using similar systems.”

Pakistan is plagued by a Taliban insurgency that has killed hundreds of thousands of ci-vilians. It has fought three wars against India since the two nations became separate in 1947.

Since 2004, the United States has conduct-ed 419 drone strikes in Pakistan. The missiles have killed thousands of suspected militants and hundreds of civilians, according to media reports collated by the Bureau of Investiga-tive Journalism. l

Tibetans demand release of monk’s body in Chinan Reuters, Beijing

Dozens of Tibetans shouting “return the body” protested outside a prison in China yes-terday after a prominent Tibetan monk died in jail, re� ecting anger amongst his supporters and family, who believe he was murdered.

The death on Sunday of Tenzin Delek Rin-poche, 65, in Chuandong prison in the south-western province of Sichuan has also caused concern overseas as he was one of China’s most prominent political prisoners.

Prison o� cials said they would not return Tenzin Delek Rinpoche’s body, said his sister, Dolkar.

On yesterday, up to 60 Tibetans made the long journey from Garze, a heavily Tibetan part of Sichuan, on the other side of the province from where he was jailed on charges of “crimes of terror and incitement of separatism.”

“If the body isn’t returned to us, then that tells us they have murdered him,” Dolkar said. Chinese authorities have not disclosed the cause of death, relatives have said, prompting suspicion over the circumstances of his passing.

Authorities said they would cremate Ten-zin Delek Rinpoche’s body yesterday after-noon, another Tibetan protester told Reuters.

An o� cial at Chuandong prison said she “was not clear,” when asked whether the gov-ernment was returning his body, and hung up the telephone. l

US busts Darkode computer hacking forum, charges 12n Reuters, Washington

US authorities working with law enforce-ment partners abroad have shut down the Darkode online forum used by cybercrimi-nals around the world and charged 12 people linked to the site, the Justice Department said yesterday.

US Attorney David Hickton announced the charges in Pittsburgh and called Darkode “a cyber hornet’s nest of criminal hackers.”

“Of the roughly 800 criminal Internet fo-rums worldwide, Darkode represented one of the gravest threats to the integrity of data on computers in the United States,” he said.

The Justice Department said the FBI and US attorney’s o� ce in Pittsburgh led the in-vestigation, known as Operation Shrouded Horizon. It included authorities from Eu-ropol and 20 countries in Europe and Latin America and included Israel, Nigeria and Australia.

The department said it was the largest co-ordinated international law enforcement ef-fort ever directed at an online cybercriminal forum, the department said.

Cybercriminals used Darkode to trade sto-len data as well as hacking and spam tools and services, and methods for cyberattacks on governments and companies. It was an

invitation-only site hidden by well protected Web servers.

The darkode.com website yesterday showed logos of various law enforcement agencies from around the world and a notice saying the domain had been seized by the FBI as part of an investigation with the interna-tional agencies.

Those charged are accused of crimes in-cluding conspiring to commit computer fraud, wire fraud and money laundering, sell-ing and using malware programs that could steal data from computers and cellphones and using “bot” networks to take over com-puters and send spam email. l

A photographer exits a tunnel connected to the Altiplano Federal Penitentiary used by drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman to escape, in Almoloya de Juarez, on the outskirts of Mexico City on Tuesday. Guzman sparked a massive manhunt after escaping from Altiplano prison on Saturday night in a mile-long underground tunnel that led from his cell into a deserted building, dealing a bitter blow to President Enrique Pena Nieto REUTERS

11D

TEDITORIALTHURSDAY, JULY 16, 2015

INSIDE

It is disgraceful that it was not until after a video showing an orphanage o� cial beating up two young girls in Barisal went viral that authorities took any action to stop their abuse.

The 18-minute-long video posted last weekend shows the two eight and nine-year-old girls being continually hit by a health assistant of the orphanage.

While the sta� member involved has been suspended following intervention by the DC and social welfare department, the orphanage superintendent has shown indi� erence by saying the girls were subjected to “disciplinary actions” after wandering o� the premises. This shows total disregard for the outlawing of corporal punishment in all educational institutions.

Unfortunately, we cannot be surprised that a public o� cial with a duty of care towards children should openly express such indi� erence to the law.

As the shocking murder of Sheikh Samiul Alam Rajon, the 13-year-old boy tortured to death in Sylhet, shows, people habitually look away from violence against others.

Sadly, we believe these examples of callousness in the face of brutality are not rare outliers. The indi� erence shown re� ects a deep-seated tolerance for disrespect and assaults against other persons that is embedded in our society.

Everyone has seen the impunity with which poor rickshaw-pullers get hit all the time by law enforcement o� cers. Many people do not give a second thought to hitting someone physically weaker or socially less powerful than themselves, whether it be a child, spouse, or servant. An even greater number look the other way, or seek to justify their actions.

We must change the ingrained mindset that considers beating people up as sometimes acceptable, when violence should never be tolerated.

If we want to prevent the most extreme forms of violence, we have to stop ignoring and indulging violence within households.

We have to stop tolerating all forms of physical abuse.

We must change the ingrained mindset that considers beating people up as sometimes acceptable

Time to stop condoning violence

Greece says no

What it means to be a politicianIn order to � x things, we must let this country be run by its politicians. Let them learn from their mistakes, so they may progress to the next step

Be heardWrite to Dhaka Tribune

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PAGE 12

PAGE 13

PAGE 14

Why our media has to peddle blood and deathEvery time the rod slammed down on his frail little body, and Rajon screamed for his mother, several thousand hearts went out to him. When Tikon died, he probably cried for his mother too -- but nobody heard him, and so nobody cares

Greece is now a zombie state. Stores lack food, ATMs lack money, social services are crippled, there is no baby food and no fuel

BIGSTOCK

OPINION12DT


n Zyma Islam

When the video of a 13-year-old child labourer being brutally beaten to death went viral in Bangladesh last week, every

major television station in the country aired bits of it. Every local news website hosted it. The newspapers published screenshots showing the boy’s screaming, contorted face.

In contrast, international outlets nei-ther publicised the video nor showed the

boy’s face clearly, citing standards of good journalism. Al-Jazeera compressed the boy’s photo to a mere 250x139 pixels tucked into a sidebar, while The Independent complete-ly blurred out his face.

Ethics experts worldwide would frown upon the Bangladeshi media’s coverage -- and I agree it is not very humane to replay a child’s dying moments over and over again on television. Then again, Bangladeshi media outlets cannot really do it any other way, and I’ll tell you why.

They serve an audience who are not af-fected by violence. That is the reality of developing countries racked by con� ict and crime.

“The media ... is landed with the job of keeping the public’s attention harnessed long enough for an investigation to be launched -- just long enough for the cops to start chasing the killers.”

Take it from a journalist who worked as a crime reporter in Bangladesh -- these outlets cater to an audience that sees several homi-cides a day, each more brutal than the other.

These people live under the threat of violence and so have become completely desensitised. Tuesday’s issue of the The Daily

Star has the news of two murders and the dis-covery of a severed head without a body. For them, a murder is rarely breaking news any-more, so much so, that the � rst two got less than a hundred words each, while the story of the severed head made it to two hundred, simply for the novelty of the method.

Incidentally, this is also a country where justice is arbitrary and only high-pro� le mur-ders ever get investigated and the accused brought to dock. Meaning the public, implic-itly, has a role in deciding which deaths will deserve justice and which will not.

The media, therefore, is landed with the job of keeping the public’s attention harnessed long enough for an investigation to be launched -- just long enough for the cops to start chasing the killers.

The torture video replays worked -- the killers of the child, Samiul Alam Rajon, were caught in the 24-hour window since the coverage began. The general population is actively seeking justice by protesting on the streets.

Even more ironically, another child called Tikon -- an 8-year-old -- was beaten to death on the same day that other video surfaced. His murder did not stir even a single protest, simply because nobody recorded how he died.

The hashtag #justiceforrajon is trending all over my Twitter feed. The hashtag #justice-fortikon on the other hand, is a nonexistent hashtag I just made up -- there are no results for it whatsoever.

All because footage of his dying did not go viral all over television.

While the 13-year-old Rajon was given space on the front page and trended as the most-read news story, Tikon’s death was compressed into 97 words and hidden away in the most insigni� cant corner of the news-paper.

Tikon is a word. Rajon is the searing face of the abuse dealt out to child labourers who have to work for a living, at an age when they should go to school. Every time the rod slammed down on his frail little body, and Rajon screamed for his mother, several thou-sand hearts went out to him. When Tikon died, he probably cried for his mother too -- but nobody heard him, and so, nobody cares.

Tikon’s killer was detained -- but I cannot say it with certainty that he will be doled out justice. On the other hand, the entire nation of Bangladesh is crying for the blood of Rajon’s killers.

This is what happens when the media becomes the de facto substitute for absent activism institutions. In other places, it is the job of the media to promote activism -- in Bangladesh, they have to incite it. This is a country where if you want justice, you better not be alive by the end of the ordeal -- and media ethics take on a whole new brand. l

Zyma Islam is a freelance journalist and a crime reporter. This article was � rst published in The Hu� ngton Post, India.

Why our media has to peddle blood and death

Every time the rod slammed down on his frail little body, and Rajon screamed for his mother, several thousand hearts went out to him. When Tikon died, he probably cried for his mother too -- but nobody heard him, and so nobody cares

Should we be publishing photos of Rajon in the newspaper? BIGSTOCK

OPINION 13D


n Mamun Rashid

Many of my friends joke about our politicians. They don’t believe that a politician -- from which-ever camp -- could be beyond

corruption or high-handedness. One look at the average citizen’s Facebook post, espe-cially those written with speci� c politicians in mind, and it becomes evident that even youngsters these days have started to hate politics and politicians.

Praise Saifur Rahman, and you’re branded a diehard BNP supporter. Show sympathy or pay respect to any of the actions of Muhith, and you are seen by some as part of a corrupt legacy. I have always believed that just as a seven-year-old deserves attention and rec-ognition for an accomplishment, a 70-year-old should also be given credit for a job well done, or at the very least be given construc-tive criticism.

We have seen our intellectuals go out of stock while running the country for more than 90 days. Who, then, would run the country, or drive it to its next possible trajec-tory?

Thank God I didn’t have to meet or mingle with politicians like Joynal Hazari or Shamim Osman. But I have met many of the Muhiths, the Matia Chowdhurys, the Annisul Haques. I have met politicians such as Tofael Ahmed, Amir Hossain Amu, Syed Ashraful Islam, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, Osman Farruk, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Nazrul Islam Khan, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, Moyeen Khan, and even Saifur Rahman. Believe me, I found almost all of them to be good listeners, accommodative, and more importantly, toler-

ant of others’ opinions.I try to meet Ms Matia Chowdhury every

six-12 months. She is a tough lady. Her sec-retary once asked me a dozen questions on what a banker or a business professor had to do with an agriculture minister.

She is a no-nonsense person. If you try to go to her with any tadbir, you had better be sure about what you are speaking of, and how you carry your conversation. She might get furious at any moment and show you the door.

Despite this, she is quite clear-minded about the agriculture supply chain in a weakly-governed, emotionally-driven country such as ours. She is fully aware of “where the shoe pinches.” Unlike many of her comrades or university-teacher friends, she is supportive of the existence of many stakeholders within

the distribution channel or across the value chain.

In 2013, I shared a car ride with Education Minister Nahid, from Maryland to Washing-ton DC. During the almost two-hour ride, we discussed integrated education policy, students shifting from science to social science or business, madrasa education, and more interestingly, the phenomenon of hav-ing too many GPA-5s in the secondary and higher-secondary level. My friends would hate me, I know, as I began appreciating the problems and challenges he faced.

Some friends suggested that I keep away from Mr Muhith. I regret listening to them. They have not seen the person that is Muhith, while discussing many economic challenges in a country such as Bangladesh, sitting in his study or drawing room. The man has clear visibility about our nation’s destina-tion, despite a host of man-made challenges and a hostile environment.

The other day, we went to see Industries Minister Amu. To my utter surprise, this leg-acy politician expressed his disgust against state-owned enterprises. He thought, while it might have been necessary to nationalise industries left by the Pakistanis in 1972, it is high time we shrink state control on enter-prises, and let the emerging private sector manage this space.

If you have not interacted with Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, you will never know what a helpful person he is. One can get completely carried away by the profound sense of humour of the individual named Dr Osman Farruk.

You learn the real de� nition of “family values” when you speak with Dr Moyeen

Khan, and see a committed politician when talking to Nazrul Islam Khan. And no matter who says what, Syed Ashraful Islam is the perfect gentleman, always siding with what is ultimately good for this nation.

I know if I post this on Facebook, I would only court curses. My esteemed critics would � nd more reasons to hate me, or expose me for cunningly asking for some “favours” from future ministers or politicians.

Hand on my heart, I can tell you, I have never requested any favours from any one of them. Most of them I have met, I know for sure who they are, how they are, and what their suggestions for taking this country out of ills or perils are. I have always thought that in order to � x things, we must let this coun-try be run by its politicians. Let them learn from their mistakes, so they may progress to the next step.

Let each of our political parties put up a succession plan, create opportunities and space for the youth and professionals, and allow them to read the signs on the wall. Look at the Philippines, Indonesia, or even India today: Corrupt politicians goo� ng up big time, professionals being marginalised, and the common people becoming entirely frustrated and disgruntled. Yet, they have sprung back on their feet.

Their economies are � ourishing, and the dysfunctional institutions are being salvaged, and, surprisingly, it’s the politicians who are in command. Bangladesh has to change, and it will change, but for that to happen, the “depoliticisation” of politics must stop. l

Mamun Rashid is a business professor and � nancial sector entrepreneur.

What it means to be a politician

In order to � x things, we must let this country be run by its politicians. Let them learn from their mistakes, so they may progress to the next step

It takes a lot to make decisions for a nation BIGSTOCK

OPINION14DT


n Sushovan Dhar

A spectre has been haunting the European Union. The spectre of the “No” at the Greek referendums on July 5. As the Greeks responded to

the abominable and unprecedented austerity imposed upon them by the Troika, various theories did rounds. However, none could deny that “stability” measures imposed by the creditors had not only failed miserably, but had acted against their very pompous declarations.

Contrary to projections, in the last � ve years, Greece’s economy has contracted by 26%, unemployment grew to 27% (it is 60% among the youth). The measures intended to reduce Greek debt has only seen it jump from 120% to 180% of GDP. This terrible economic catastrophe has led to a socio-political crisis. It is unimaginable to witness more than 3 million people brought below the poverty line in a developed country. The very images, emblematic of the poverty-stricken third world -- devastated by centuries of colonial rule -- form part of the Greek tragedy.

The Greek audacityIn January, the people reacted by electing Syriza with a clear mandate to put an end to austerity. Following this election, the Troika took an even harder stand to teach the Greeks a lesson for their audacity. The Tsipras government, caving in on numerous occasions during negotiations, intended to remain in the Eurozone and the EU. The lend-ers, nevertheless, tried to dictate not only a continuation but a step-up of their failed recipes. Measures that have already made the country collapse.

The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zei-tung was privy to a report: “Preliminary debt sustainability analysis for Greece,” prepared by the creditors (the Troika, which controls 80% of the Greek debt). The IMF, which had earlier pro� ted enormously from the Greek debt crisis, has admitted that the Greek debt is non-viable. Going by the lenders’ own admission, Greece needed, � rst of all, a cancellation of a large part of their debt, but the Troika seemed least bothered about it. Instead, on June 26, it threatened the country with demands and ultimatums, and o� ered non-negotiable deals that would have cer-tainly entrenched the austerity further.

For a referendumFaced with such aggression, the Hellenic government asked its citizens to determine the future of the country through a referen-dum that was held on July 5. This created political shockwaves across the continent and was seen as a further act of de� ance. The president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, at a press conference on June 5, accused the Greeks of betrayal. He even attempted to mislead global opinion by claiming that the recent package was all about ensuring “more social fairness” and blamed Tsipras for deceiving the public and instead calling for a referendum.

In a recent speech, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras responded to the blackmailing of the Troika through the ultimatum that asked the Greeks “to accept a severe and degrad-

ing austerity without end.” He called for a referendum and appealed for a “no” vote against the austerity proposals that serve as conditionalities for the bail-out funds by the Troika.

The Troika ruffledThe announcement of the referendum badly distressed the Troika when it was attempting to � re all cylinders to tame the “recalcitrant” left-wing government. It is no wonder that such warped minds settle at horrid oodles of distortion. In the last � ve months, the Greek negotiators have accommodated a lot and conceded enormously to the Troika. They made commitments to further � scal austerity -- en enormous compromise of the Thessa-loníki program that helped them win mass support and tilt the electoral scales.

The in� exibility of the creditor’s o� ers complicated matters further. Not only did they refuse to talk about debt relief, which was at the core of any meaningful solution of this human tragedy, they consistently pretended that there was nothing to discuss. The o� er was on the plate, the Greeks had to take it or be punished and get expelled from the Eurozone.

Yet, by their own secret admissions, the program had failed to achieve anything

near debt sustainability. It has nothing to do except meaninglessly destroying the Greeks even further.

The leading voices in the European order were totally stumped on the Greek response. They could not digest the fact that a debtor may stay morally high and demand concessions instead of meekly complying. They attempted to create impressions that Greece is nothing more than a two-bit socialistic country that grossly overspends on its citizens who have lived a lifetime on public assistance.

With the decision to default on repaying the IMF on June 30, Greece was bracketed with some of the poorest and unstable countries in the planet -- Zimbabwe, Sudan, and Somalia -- countries which had earlier missed IMF payments.

While it is never for a moment acknowledged that the misery and misfortune of the masses in those countries, the decade-old civil wars and � nancial catastrophe are the results of centuries of pillages and destruction caused by colonial powers and imperial forces. These forces did not just leave the country devastated, they also left it with a huge debt-burden, often borrowed to suppress the anti-colonial movements.

If they are not convinced, confuse themIf the initial response of the European bu-reaucrats to the referendum was one of fury and delirium, they soon realised that to stay away from it would make them lose ground. Since June 29, most of them, under the leadership of Juncker, were sparing no e� orts to openly in� uence and sponsor the Greeks to say “yes.” They were hoping that a “yes” vote on Sunday might compel Tsipras to resign, and the creditors could take control of Athens once again. There were also attempts to desist Tsipras from calling for a “no” vote. An unashamed exposition of the farcical attempts to prevail upon Greece at any cost.

Greece is at the centre of attention for var-ied purposes. Canards � ew in all directions as the government was forced to close banks and limit withdrawals under inexorable at-tack by the European authorities, who would have liked to trigger capital � ight and let it bleed to death. Stories abound that Greece is now a zombie state. Stores lack food, ATMs lack money, social services are crippled, there is no baby food and no fuel. It is a dying state that is soon leaving Europe notoriously known as the “Grexit.”

No to austerityThis ultimatum was a severe insult to the Greek people and their democratic choices and, therefore, it should have been rejected. The Troika was not only trying to destroy Greece; they were keen on destroying anything democratic in Europe, and seem to serve the rest of the world a notice through their actions. When the Greeks voted on July 5 to serve a decisive blow to the blackmails called austerity, that important moment re-quired all of us to speak up and take a stand. And now, “No” supporters can celebrate their rightful victory. l

Sushovan Dhar is an activist. He is based in Kolkata.

Greece says no

Greece is now a zombie state. Stores lack food, ATMs lack money, social services are crippled, there is no baby food and no fuel. It is a dying state that is soon leaving Europe notoriously known as the ‘Grexit’

Where does Greece’s central bank go from here? REUTERS

15D

TBusiness THURSDAY, JULY 16, 2015

Bank of Japan cuts economic growth, in� ation view

17Are banks really lending again to euro zone businesses?

19China’s Q2 GDP growth beats forecasts as stimulus kicks in

16Tourism sector booming ahead of Eid

20

Economic zone investors to get 10-year tax holidayn Syed Samiul Basher Anik

The government has o� ered a lucrative incen-tive package for investors and developers of the country’s economic zones.

The investors will get a 10-year tax holiday while 12-year tax holiday was approved for the developers. National Board of Revenue has published two separate statutory regula-tory orders on July 12 o� ering tax bene� ts to developers and investors.

The investors will get complete tax exemp-tion on their income from the economic zones for � rst three years and will enjoy the gradual-ly reduced rates for next seven years.

As per the SRO, they will get 80% exemp-tion in fourth year, 70% in � fth year, 60% in sixth year, 50% in seventh year, 40% in eighth year, 30% in ninth year and 20% in tenth year of their commercial operation.

Investors in high-tech parks will also get the same bene� ts. After elapse of tax holiday, investors will get exemption of dividend tax.

The developers of economic zones and high-tech parks will also get complete tax ex-emption on income derived from their com-mercial operation of � rst 10 years, while the

rate will be exempted by 70% for the 11th and 30% for the 12th year.

To avail the bene� t, both investors and de-velopers, however, have to receive Taxpayers Identi� cation Number and maintain book of accounts and � le income tax returns regularly.

On July 1, NBR also allowed duty-free im-port of capital machinery, construction mate-rial and development equipment for the eco-nomic zone investors.

Developers and investors of the economic zones and high-tech parks will be completely exempted from customs, regulatory and sup-plementary duties and VAT on imports of ma-terials unavailable in the country, according to earlier gazettes.

Bangladesh Economic Zone Authority (BEZA) o� cials said its governing body, head-ed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, on Febru-ary 18 � nalised a set of investment stimulus.

The bene� ts for economic zone investors include full repatriation of capital and div-idend, 50% exemption of stamp duty and registration fee, duty exemption on exports, exemption of double taxation subjected to Double Taxation Agreement, tax exemption on royalties and technical fees, tax exemption

on capital gains from transfer of shares.The investors will get resident visa for invest-

ment of $75,000 or more while citizenship will be given for investment of $5,00,000 or above.

The developers will also get a number of bene� ts including exemption from custom and excise duties, dividend tax, tax on in-come from service charges, VAT on local pur-chase excluding petroleum products.

In his budget speech, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said: “Special incentive packag-es are on the cards to encourage investment in developing Bangladesh’s economic zones and high-tech parks.”

The government plans to establish 100 economic zones across the country over the next 15 years, which are expected to increase export earnings by $40bn and generate about 10m additional jobs. BEZA Executive Chair-man Paban Chowdhury said more incentive packages would be available for both foreign and domestic investments.

“A total of 37 proposals were approved for economic zones across the country. Now in-vestors are sending proposals for establish-ment of economic zone near Dhaka, and we are analysing the proposals,” he said. l

Xoom to launch money transfer operation hereby September n Tribune Report

Xoom Corporation, a USA-based leading dig-ital money transfer or remittance provider in the world, is going to launch its operation by September this year.

Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state minister for ICT Division, broke the news in his Facebook after a fruitful meeting in California with the top of-� cials of PayPal, the parent company of Xoom.

In his Facebook status, Palak said: “We had a very e� ective meeting with the vice-presi-dents of PayPal Tuesday in San Jose, Califor-nia. We explained to them our government policies and regulatory reforms, plus business opportunities for PayPal in Bangladesh.”

They have agreed to launch the Xoom’s operation within this quarter, he said, adding that they will internally discuss how to prior-itise and launch PayPal here and seek further support if necessary.

“We will continue our persuasion to bring PayPal to Bangladesh sooner.”

Xoom allows consumers to send money, pay bils and reload mobile phones from the United States to 33 countries, including China, India, Mexico and Philippines through a mobile app as well as a desktop and mobile site. l

Govt hopes to achieve middle income criteria in 2018

n Asif Showkat Kallol

Bangladesh expects to make necessary im-provements in three criteria of the United Nations in 2018 to become a middle income nation.

Finance Division has prepared a report with the forecast which is supposed to be placed at a meeting at Prime Minister’s

O� ce today. The meeting on the achievement of lower

middle income status will be presided over by PM’s principal secretary Abul Kalam Azad.

The report said the Committee for Devel-opment Planning (CDP) of the UN, which evaluates income status of countries across the world, would review Bangladesh’s income position on three criteria in 2018.

The UN’s CDP parameters are per capita national income, position of human asset and economic vulnerability. Bangladesh has only achieved the economic vulnerability target in the World Bank’s assessment so far.

Finance Division hopes that Bangladesh will improve in all three criteria in the year to become a middle income nation.

Bangladesh will then have to continue the improvement in two three-year reviews by the CDP to � nally win the middle income status.

Finance Division hopes that Bangladesh will � nally graduate to middle income country in 2021.

Bangladesh will present its becoming of lower middle in-come country from its low in-come status to the world when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina attends the UN General As-sembly meeting in September this year.

A fund may be allocated for this publicity purpose from un-expected expenditure budget, according to working papers of today’s meeting. This fund will

be added to a sum of Tk3 lakh which PMO al-ready has for advertisement purpose.

If this fund is not su� cient, Finance Divi-sion gave another option to the PMO request-ing it to submit a programme proposal imme-diately on the publicity matter.

On July 1, the World Bank in a posting on its website said sustained economic growth over the past year has catapulted Bangladesh, Burma, Kenya and Tajikistan out of low-in-come status, which is de� ned as countries with a gross national income per capita (GNI) of $1,045 or less. l

Performance in LDC Graduation CriteriaIndicator 2006 2009 2012 2015 Graduation Criteria (2015)Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI) 25.8 23.2 32.4 25.1 <32.0Human Asset Index (HAI) 50.1 53.3 54.7 63.8 >66.0 Per capita income (US$, Atlas method) 403.3 453.3 636.7 926.3* >1242.0

Classi�cation of country’s on the basis of incomeClassi�cation Per capita national income (US$) Low income economy 1,045 or lower than that amount Low-middle income economy 1,045 or higher than that amount but below 4,125High -middle income economy 4,125 above, but blow 12,736 High income economy 12,736 above

Source: World Bank atlas system valuation

Source: UN committee for development policy

B A N G L A D E S H G R A D U A T I O N C R I T E R I A

BUSINESS16DT


China’s Q2 GDP growth beats forecasts as stimulus kicks in n AFP, Beijing

China’s GDP expanded 7% year-on-year in the second quarter, o� cial data showed Wednes-day, beating expectations as months of cen-tral bank policy stimulus helped put a � oor under the world’s second-largest economy.

The gross domestic product � gure an-nounced by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) matched the 7% expansion in the � rst three months of this year, and exceeded the median forecast of 6.9% in an AFP survey of 14 economists.

The � gure was in line with the govern-ment’s o� cial target for GDP growth this year of “about 7%”.

Some economists said the better-than-pre-dicted GDP result and other data may encour-age them to reassess their forecasts higher.

China’s economy, a key driver of world growth, expanded 7.4% last year, slower than the 7.7% in 2013, and its weakest annual growth since 3.8% in 1990.

The slowdown has been a major factor in a global fall in commodity prices, and so far the economy has largely failed to pick up momen-tum this year.

“The domestic and external economic con-ditions are still complicated,” NBS spokesman Sheng Laiyun said. “The global economic re-covery is slow and tortuous and the founda-tion for the stabilisation of China’s economy needs to be further consolidated.”

But in more bullish remarks he added that the � gures showed growth had “stabilised” and was “ready to pick up”.

“It’s very likely economic growth in the sec-ond half will be better than the � rst half,” he

added, citing positive factors including policy support and a recovery in the property market.

Chinese authorities are looking to diversi-fy growth away from big-ticket projects - that helped drive years of double-digit GDP expan-sion - to consumer demand, which is seen as more sustainable. But too fast a deceleration in investment can be harmful to overall growth.

They have been taking more aggressive preemptive steps with the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), the central bank, cutting benchmark interest rates four times since No-vember and reducing bank reserve require-ments in a bid to boost lending.

Such measures can take time to a� ect growth.

‘Upside risk’The NBS also said industrial output, which measures production at factories, workshops and mines, rose 6.8% year-on-year in June, accelerating from May’s 6.1%.

It was ahead of a median forecast for 6.0 percent expansion in a survey of economists by Bloomberg News.

Retail sales, a key indicator of consumer spending, increased 10.6% last month from the year before, the NBS said, a faster pace than May’s 10.1%.

It also beat the Bloomberg News survey’s median 10.2 percent.

And � xed asset investment, a measure of government spending on infrastructure, ex-panded 11.4% in January-June year-on-year, the same as for the � rst � ve months of the year and remaining at its lowest since 2000.

In the light of the � gures Nomura econo-mist Zhao Yang emphasised an “upside risk to

our annual forecast of GDP growth for 2015” of 6.8% .

He cautioned however, that “headwinds in the economy” were “still strong” and au-thorities were likely to further ease monetary policy in the form of another interest rate cut and further reduction in bank reserve re-quirements.

Chaotic trading on the country’s key stock markets in recent weeks has added to uncer-tainty. However, Julian Evans-Pritchard, Chi-na economist at capital Economics, said in a note that GDP bene� tted temporarily during the second quarter as a whole from the “un-sustainable surge in � nancial sector activity”.

“Looking ahead, the support to growth from the � nancial sector should soon fade,” he said.

“But the recent step-up in policy support will limit the downside risks,” he added.

China’s total trade declined in the � rst half of this year, o� cial data showed Monday, fall-ing well short of the government’s targets, and poses a signi� cant weight on growth. Manufacturing has also languished with o� -cial and private surveys showing it hovering near the borderline between expansion sand contraction.

“The resilience of retail sales in June is a further encouraging sign that downside risk, while not negligible, is receding, despite recent equity-market volatility,” Andrew Colquhoun, head of Asia-Paci� c Sovereigns at Fitch Ratings, wrote in a reaction to the data.

“Nonetheless, the longer-term outlook remains one of structural slowdown as the economy works through a painful process of adjustment and deleveraging.” l

A worker operates a crane at a construction site in Beijing’s central business district REUTERS

Member (Tax Administration and Human Resources Management) at National Board of Revenue, Md Abdur Razzaque has recently been elected as president of Bangladesh Civil Service (taxation) Association for the next two years

Yen dips after Bank of Japan cuts growth, in� ation forecasts n AFP, Tokyo

The yen edged down yesterday as Japan’s central bank kept up its record stimulus while cutting growth and in� ation forecasts for the world’s third-largest economy, boosting the odds of more monetary easing this year.

In Tokyo trading, the dollar ticked up to 123.50 yen from 123.38 yen in New York where it had weakened following disappointing US retail sales data.

The euro rose to 135.89 yen from 135.82 yen in US trade, while it edged down to $1.1003 from $1.1008 as Greece prepares for a parlia-mentary vote on tough reforms demanded by eurozone creditors in exchange for a huge new bailout.

The Bank of Japan’s downgrade suggested second-quarter growth would be weak, and ups the chances that policymakers will expand their record asset-buying plan later this year.

The weaker forecasts set o� “limited yen selling because the bank could eventually take more action”, said Yuji Saito, executive direc-tor of foreign exchange at Credit Agricole.

“There is no incentive to buy the yen,” he told Bloomberg News.

The dollar’s rebound came as dealers turn their focus to Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen’s twice-yearly appearance at Congress for more clues about monetary policy, with expectations for an interest rate hike by Sep-tember.

The Fed boss has in the past said she sees rates normalising by the end of the year, and the case for such a move increased Monday with Greece’s bailout reform deal that keeps it in the eurozone.

Fed policymakers had been concerned about announcing a hike while there was the possibility of a Greek euro exit, which would hit the global economy.

But following a weak batch of US retail sales data on Tuesday, investors are keen to see if an interest rate rise is still on track for this year.

Some analysts have pushed the forecast for a hike from September to December, or beyond. l

BUSINESS 17D


Asia stocks mostly up after China data, eyes on Fed n AFP, Hong Kong

Asian markets mostly rose yesterday after data showed China’s economy grew more than expected in the second quarter, al-though Shanghai and Hong Kong sank on fears the news will likely put o� any fresh growth-boosting measures.

Investors are also awaiting testimony later in the day from US Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen on the bank’s plans for hiking interest rates.

Tokyo stocks edged up 0.38%, or 78.00 points, to close at 20,463.33, while Sydney climbed 1.05%, or 58.8 points, to close at 5,636.2.

Seoul gained 0.66%, or 13.68 points, to end at 2,072.91.

But Shanghai sank 3.03%, or 118.78 points, to 3,805.70 and Hong Kong dropped 0.25%, or 65.15 points, to end at 25055.76.

China’s National Bureau of Statistics said the world’s number two economy expanded 7% year on year in April-June, the same as the previous three months and better than the median forecast of 6.9 percent in an AFP sur-vey of 14 economists.

The data follows a slew of disappointing results that have led to a series of measures - including four interest rate cuts since Novem-ber - to shore up stumbling growth.

Bernard Aw, a Singapore-based strategist at IG Asia, told Bloomberg News: “The GDP numbers are really good. The better-than- expected GDP reading suggested that Beijing may take its foot o� the pedal on more stimu-lus measures for the time being. This will af-fect sentiment in the stock market.”

Yellen at Congress Despite the losses in Shanghai, con� dence is slowly returning after the massive losses suf-fered since hitting a June 12 peak.

A painful stock sell-o� that saw a more than 30% fall and spread to other markets was only halted Thursday after authorities unveiled a raft of strict measures to prevent a crash. The index climbed 13% from Thursday to Monday before retreating over the past two sessions.

Dealers will be closely following Yellen’s twice-yearly appearance at Congress to � nd more clues about monetary policy, with expec-tations for an interest rate hike by September.

The Fed boss has in the past said she sees rates normalising by the end of the year, and the case for such a move increased Monday with Greece’s bailout reform deal that keeps it in the eurozone.

Fed policymakers have been concerned about announcing a hike while there was the possibility of a Greek euro exit, which would hit the global economy.

On Wall Street, the Dow climbed 0.42%, the S&P 500 advanced 0.45% and the Nasdaq jumped 0.66%.

With the likelihood of a rise growing the dollar climbed to 123.50 yen in Tokyo from 123.38 yen in New York.

The euro stood at $1.1006 compared with $1.1008, while it was also at 135.96 yen against 135.82 yen in US trade.

Japan’s currency edged lower after its central bank cut annual growth and in� ation forecasts for the world’s third-largest econo-my, boosting the odds of more monetary eas-ing measures this year. l

Bank of Japan cuts economic growth, in� ation view n AFP, Tokyo

Japan’s central bank yesterday cut its eco-nomic growth and in� ation forecasts, as an-alysts warned over a disappointing second quarter that underscores the wobbly success of Tokyo’s Abenomics growth project.

Bank of Japan (BoJ) chief Haruhiko Kuro-da, however, insisted that any downturn would be short-lived and that policymakers still expect to hit their in� ation target by next year, a cornerstone of e� orts to bolster the world’s number three economy.

After a two-day policy meeting, the BoJ said the economy would expand 1.7% in the � scal year to March 2016 while in� ation would come in at 0.7%.

That was down from 2% and 0.8%, respec-tively, estimated earlier this year.

While the bank kept up its view that Ja-pan’s economy was recovering “moderately”, it acknowledged that a pick-up in exports and industrial production had seen “some � uctu-ations”.

Hideo Kumano, senior economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute, said trimming the growth forecasts “probably means growth in the April-June quarter was not very good”. O� cial second-quarter GDP data are due next month.

BoJ policymakers have been scaling back their expectations and governor Haruhiko Kuroda has conceded that an ambitious 2% in� ation target was still some way o� .

But he told reporters after the meeting Wednesday that the BoJ was still on track to

hit the price target by next year, and that the weakness in exports was due to a still-recov-ering US economy.

Growth would turn around by the third quarter, Kuroda said.

“Prices will likely pick up at a signi� cant pace some time during the end of this � scal year” to March 2016, he said.

Japan’s economy expanded 1% in Janu-ary-March after limping out of recession in the last three months of 2014, and business con� dence remains strong.

BoJ ‘too optimistic’But consumer spending has struggled after a sales tax rise last year and economists wide-ly expect the BoJ to ramp up its easing pro-gramme, likely later this year, to bring Japan closer to its in� ation target.

On Wednesday, the BoJ stood pat on its record asset-purchase programme, which is pumping about 80tn yen ($648bn ) into the � nancial system annually in a bid to jack up

prices and kickstart growth. “The Bank’s view on the economy remains

too optimistic. Economic activity weakened sharply in the second quarter, and business surveys suggest that output will not rebound rapidly in coming months,” Marcel Thieliant from Capital Economics said in a commen-tary.

“Price pressures are unlikely to strengthen as quickly as policymakers hope.”

While a weak yen has boosted the bottom line for many Japanese exporters, Tokyo’s bid to resuscitate the economy has struggled as it tries to rid Japanese consumers of the idea that prices will not rise much.

De� ation may sound good for shoppers, but it means people tend to put o� buying because they do not expect prices to rise and hope they might even get goods cheaper down the line.

That, in turn, hurts producers and holds back their expansion and hiring plans, which is bad news for the economy, a problem that has weighed on growth for years.

The BoJ’s easing plan, launched more than two years ago, is aimed at changing consum-ers’ so-called de� ationary mindset by forcing prices upward.

But still-tepid in� ation puts the BoJ in a tricky position as it has already pushed back its two-year timeline for hitting its price target and more delays could dent the credibility of its easing measures, Thieliant said.

“We think that policymakers will instead opt for an expansion of monetary stimulus, perhaps as early as late October,” he added. l

Japan’s consumer spending has struggled after a sales tax rise last year and economists widely expect the BoJ to ramp up its easing programme, likely later this year AFP

But still-tepid in� ation puts the BoJ in a tricky position as it has already pushed back its two-year timeline for hitting its price target and more delays could dent the credibility of its easing measures

BUSINESS18DT


Asia ready to buy more Iranian oil when sanctions lifted n Reuters, New Delhi

Asian re� ners are set to buy more crude oil from Iran once they receive word on when sanctions will be lifted, expecting Tehran to price its oil competitively as it tries to rebuild market sh are in an oversupplied market.

World powers and Iran � nally struck a deal on Tuesday after more than 20 months of talks, setting in motion the eventual lifting of sanctions on Iranian oil exports in exchange for curbs on the Islamic nation’s nuclear pro-gramme.

Iran has said its priority destination for selling its crude is Asia, not surprising since China, India, Japan and South Korea are its largest customers. The four have sometimes been the country’s only crude customers since toughened sanctions were put in place in early 2012.

Tuesday’s nuclear deal sparked a � urry of checks among Asian governments and re� n-ers to clarify when they will be allowed to im-port more oil from Tehran.

“If the nuclear deal permits, we will in-crease our purchases,” an o� cial from In-dia’s oil ministry said. “There are re� ners like HMEL (HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd) who want to buy Iranian oil.”

BK Namdeo, who heads re� neries at Hin-dustan Petroleum Corp Ltd, said: “We will look at buying Iranian oil if, after the deal, in-surance is available for my re� neries and Iran continues to o� er discounts on crude sales and shipping.”

For Iran to increase oil exports though, it needs relief from measures that block its ac-cess to global funds transfers and embargoes that prevent ships carrying Iranian oil and re-� neries processing it from being insured.

“An increase in Iranian oil exports can only occur once sanction relief occurs, tentatively in early 2016,” Goldman Sachs analysts said in a note. Exports would also increase as � oating storage of between 20 million and 40 million barrels is drawn down, the bank said.

Iran oil not ‘cheap’ Asia imported 1.2 million barrels per day of

crude from Iran in May, the highest this year, with top buyer China already importing more than pre-sanctions levels.

Still, Iran will have to compete in an over-supplied market where there are cheaper and better grades available, Asian re� ners said, although there are indications that Tehran could attract new customers seeking to diver-sify their supply sources.

A trader with a North Asian re� ner which stopped imports from the Gulf producer since June said the company is still verifying with its government whether it can increase im-ports in the fourth quarter.

Iranian crude has become more expensive than oil from other Middle East producers, who are also competing to maintain their market share in Asia, traders said. Asia is also buying better quality crude from Africa and Latin America at depressed prices due to low-er demand from the United States.

A trader with a Chinese independent re� n-er said: “We are interested, but it is not cheap

so we’ll wait and see.” In South Korea, a source at one of the two

re� ners that import Iranian crude said his company is waiting for details of the agree-ment, but that more crude supply could help “improve margins in the long run.”

South Korea’s top re� ner SK Energy has said it will import Iranian fuel oil once sanc-tions are lifted.

Term talks coming up Discussions for next year’s term supply will commence in the fourth quarter when re� n-eries � nalise processing schedules for 2016, trade sources said.

The trader with the North Asian re� ner said his company could gradually return Ira-nian crude imports back to pre-sanctions lev-els although any further increase would be subject to its processing needs.

Japan, however, is unlikely to raise its an-nual imports of Iranian crude because the prices asked are relatively expensive for the quality of the grades and domestic demand is falling, re� nery sources said. l

Iran’s oil comeback may be later than sooner, but will still add to glut n Reuters, Singapore

A day after an Iran nuclear deal was � nally reached oil prices edged higher as investors recognised it would take time for Tehran to raise output, but the eventual increase in its exports will add fuel to a market already plen-tifully supplied.

Under the agreement, sanctions imposed by the United States, the European Union and the United Nations are to be lifted in exchange for curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme.

“New oil will not � ow from Iran until 2016 and there will probably be less of it than opti-mists predict,” said Richard Nephew, Program Director for Economic Statecraft, Sanctions and Energy Markets at the U.S. Center on Global Energy Policy.

“I estimate 300,000–500,000 new barrels of oil on the market within 6-12 months after a deal begins to be implemented,” he said.

Morgan Stanley said most assessments saw 500,000 to 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) of

new supply by the � rst half of 2016. Front-month Brent crude prices were trad-

ing at $58.72 per barrel at 0353 GMT, up 21 cents from their last settlement. US crude was up 28 cents at $53.32.

Iran, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), ex-ported almost 3 million bpd of crude at its peak, before sanctions over its alleged ambitions to build a nuclear bomb saw shipments collapse to about a million bpd over the last 2-1/2 years.

Adding to a glut, for now Beyond the realisation that it will take time for Iranian exports to return to pre-sanctions lev-els, the prospect of more supply coming into the market just as China’s economy grows at its slowest pace since the 2008/2009 crisis means oil prices are likely to remain low in the foresee-able future. Even without a jump in production from Iran there are already 2.5 million bpd of available crude that consumers don’t need.

Oil prices have halved over the past year as

established producers like OPEC and Russia pump near record levels at the same time that American shale drillers have turned the Unit-ed States into the world’s top oil producer.

In China, the world’s biggest energy consum-er and number two economy, growth is stall-ing and there are signs that its fuel thirst will also start to ebb. Other parts of Asia are show-ing signs of economic weakness as well.

China halved its 2015 forecast for vehicle sales growth to a meagre 3% last week as a major slump in the country’s stock market de-pressed sales to consumers concerned about economic prospects.

“Given the current macroeconomic envi-ronment and unbalanced fundamentals we have revised our central oil prices down once again,” investment bank Natixis said.

“For Brent we expect 2015Q3 and 2015Q4 to average $60/barrel and $59/barrel, respec-tively, and 2016Q1 to average $57/barrel,” the bank said, adding that U.S. crude would trade at a discount of $4-6 per barrel to Brent.

Natixis also said Brent would average $59.20 a barrel in 2015 and $62.30 a barrel in 2016, and that there was a risk of even low-er prices if China’s economy slowed further while global oil production stayed close to its near-record highs.

It is only further in the future, analysts say, that Iran’s oil will help prevent a shortage rather than add to a glut.

“In long-term, the Iranian oil will actually be needed to keep the market balanced, espe-cially as demand will generally rise for some time to come,” said Richard Gorry, managing director of JBC Energy Asia. l

‘New oil will not � ow from Iran until 2016 and there will probably be less of it than optimists predict’

Oil prices higher in Asian trade n AFP, Singapore

Oil prices rose in Asia yesterday on easing concerns about the impact of the expected � ood of Iranian supplies on the global market following the country’s historic nuclear deal.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for August delivery rose nine cents to $53.13 and Brent crude for August climbed 12 cents to $58.63 a barrel in afternoon trade.

Oil prices initially tumbled Tuesday after negotiators from Iran and major world pow-ers announced they had reached a deal to monitor Tehran’s nuclear programme, which the West says will curb its e� orts to build a nuclear bomb.

Iran’s compliance with the terms of the agreement will lead to a lifting of crippling Western economic sanctions which have re-stricted its key oil exports.

But prices eventually settled higher Tues-day as investors were con� dent it would take time for Iran to start exporting more crude to a market already awash with supplies.

“Iran’s oil and � nancial sanctions will be lifted with a phased deal struck on its nuclear programme on July 14, but the market won’t immediately see more crude,” leading global energy information provider Platts said in a commentary on its website.

“The market probably won’t see any no-ticeable increase in Iranian crude supply until next year,” it said.

Iran is currently exporting around one mil-lion barrels per day of crude, sharply down from the 2.2-2.3 million it was selling overseas before the sanctions were imposed in mid-2012, according to Platts.

Daniel Ang, an investment analyst with Phillip Futures in Singapore, said the impact of the Iran deal on the market will depend on how fast Iran starts selling more oil.

“The current timing would be at the end of the year, which is the time given to Interna-tional Atomic Energy Agency to verify that Iran is taking steps to constrain (its) nuclear pro-gramme,” Ang said in a market commentary.

“With a con� rmation that we will not see Iranian crude in the next � ve months, the market eases o� .” l

BUSINESS 19D


BSE � nes 530 companies for delay in appointing women directors n Reuters, New Delhi

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has slapped � nes on 530 listed companies for fail-ing to meet a deadline to appoint a women director and boost gender diversity in their boardrooms, a BSE o� cial said on Tuesday.

The Securities and Exchange Board of In-dia (SEBI) last year imposed a quota of at least one female director on the board of every listed � rm, and warned of “very serious” con-sequences if the thousands of companies did not comply by an April 1 deadline.

The BSE said in a statement that SEBI rules meant companies who failed to com-ply would face a scheduled � ne. This ranging from 50,000 rupees ($790) to 142,000 rupees ($2,240) to Oct. 1, 2015. After this, they would pay an additional 5,000 rupees ($78) per day until they complied.

“As per the provisions of the SEBI circular, BSE has till date (July 13) issued advisory letters to 530 companies regarding levy of � nes for

non-compliance with the said provision within the prescribed timelines,” said a statement.

A BSE spokesman said he could not dis-close the names of the 530 � rms from the 5,711 companies listed on the exchange that were being penalised.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) said it had also sent out letters informing 260 listed � rms, many of which are also listed on the BSE, of its intention to levy � nes.

An NSE spokesman said SEBI could take further action against companies which had not paid up � nes and appointed a woman di-rector by Sept 30, 2015.

“SEBI may take any other action, against the non-compliant entities, their promoters and/or directors or issue such directions in accordance with law, as considered appropri-ate,” he said quoting the SEBI directive.

Not enough According to PRIME Database, a market re-search group, which monitors the NSE, 105

companies out of 1,733 still had vacancies for women directors on their boards as of Tues-day.

These include private � rms such as Aditya Birla Chemicals, Nissan Copper Ltd. and Info-tech Ltd as well as state-run companies such as the Bank of India, the State Trading Corpo-ration of India and the Bank of Maharashtra.

Analysts welcomed the move, but said it was insu� cient to force companies give women seats at the tables.

“The � nes really are not enough. If you look at it, a company would be paying only around 63,000 rupees or $1,000 - for non-compli-ance if they paid today,” said Pranav Haldea, PRIME Database’s Managing Director.

“Asking a company to pay that amount will not exactly burn a hole in their pockets.”

SEBI could take stronger action such as suspension from trading or freezing promot-ers’ share holdings, Haldea said.

The companies have argued there are too few professionally quali� ed women to � ll

boardroom positions. But others say there are many women who can do the job but need support in terms of visibility and networking.

“While SEBI is right to have � ned compa-nies for non-compliance to appoint women on boards, is the government doing enough to ensure that women are appointed on boards of companies?” said Sarika Bhattacha-ryya, co-founder and director of Biz Divas, a non-pro� t promoting women leadership.

“India is still in the nascent stage of ap-pointing women on boards and if necessary steps are taken by the government, we should be able to see better traction.”

Ahead of SEBI’s April 1 deadline, thou-sands of companies rushed to recruit women directors, with many installing the wives and mother-in-laws of their top executives.

But the scarcity of women in the board-room is not unique to India. Nearly one-� fth of the world’s 200 largest companies have no women directors, according to an August 2014 report by Biz Divas. l

Are banks really lending again to euro zone businesses? n Ross Finley

Slightly more than a year ago, the European Central Bank launched, with as much fanfare as can be expected from a central bank, a new incentive programme for commercial banks to lend to euro zone businesses, which they had been doing less and less of over the pre-vious few years.

An increase in lending was key, ECB Pres-ident Mario Draghi argued at the time, to re-viving growth in the euro area – and particu-larly to get in� ation, which the central bank targets at just under 2%, to rise up from low digits. Euro zone in� ation was last reported at 0.2%.

The new programme – dubbed Targeted Long-Term Re� nancing Operations, or TL-TROs, to just roll o� the tongue – would pro-vide hundreds of billions of euros’ worth of essentially free loans from the central bank to commercial banks, with one string attached: a portion of the money would need to be set against lending to businesses.

More than a year down the line, the best that can be said is that net lending is no longer contracting. The rot has stopped, but there has been no surge in bank lending growth that many predicted, certainly nothing like the kind before the � nancial crisis. That leaves it more a case of pushing on a string than at-taching one.

The latest ECB bank lending survey showed that an additional net 13% of 142 euro zone banks participating reported an increase in de-mand for loans made to companies in the sec-ond quarter compared with Q1. That means roughly 18 more banks joined the ranks of those saying things were getting better.

Overall credit standards eased, but at a weaker pace than in the � rst three months of the year.

On lending to businesses, the ECB said lenders predicted a bigger increase was right

around the corner. While this was below banks’ expectations,

they expect a further considerable increase in demand for loans to enterprises in the third quarter of 2015. With the exception of France, all of the largest euro area countries reported an increase in demand in the second quarter of 2015, with reported demand highest in the Netherlands and Italy.

When you consider that not only has the TLTRO programme been open for more than a year, but that the ECB started in March a scheme to purchase 60 billion euros of bonds a month on the open market – a move very few ever thought the central bank would make – it is di� cult to underplay just how lacklustre these results are given the extraor-dinary amount of stimulus with interest rates at or below zero.

The latest data support the critics who argued that the problem was not supply of bank loans, but demand for them. The � gures only started to improve around when the ECB started its bond purchases, which coincided with the best quarter for economic growth in a long time. The survey results also under-score the fundamental trouble in trying to in-centivise bankers to do the right thing, even when essentially free money is on the table.

Regarding the impact of the targeted longer-term re� nancing operations (TLTROs) conducted by the Eurosystem, banks contin-ue to report that participation is mainly driv-en by pro� tability motives and the main e� ect of the TLTROs on credit supply continues to result from changes in terms and conditions, rather than from changes in credit standards.

In other words, banks still aren’t � nding it

terribly pro� table lending to businesses, but when it is, they will lend, and of course why not take some nearly-free central bank money to make it easier. After all, when you can get a double digit return on the stock market in just a few months, who in their right mind would choose a risky lending proposition with no certain return?

Still, there has been some improvement. According to Loredana Federico, economist at Unicredit, a bank no doubt surveyed by the ECB in its poll, which the central bank claims, had 100% participation.

The net increase in loan demand from corporates was also related to M&A and corporate restructuring, and, to a lesser extent, working capital and inventories. Still, the use of � rms’ internal � nancing and the issuance of debt securities continued to have a slight dampening e� ect on the net demand for loans to � rms.

What has mainly been going on at Europe-an banks is a lot of lending for house purchase – much more. Nearly half of the 142 banks – a net 49% of them – reported an increase in de-mand for mortgages.

If you believe that propping up housing market turnover and house prices at zero rates is going to bring in� ation back to target, that’s a good thing.

But the past decade of history tells us that house prices only really drive consumer price in� ation through the de� ationary pull on the economy if they crash back to earth after a boom. That is what the Chinese authorities have been worried about for months, and that is de� nitely is not what the ECB is targeting. l

Ross � nley is global editor at reuters polls & economic data, who commissions consensus forecasts and edits related news stories on everything from foreign exchange rates to stock markets to expectations on monetary policy from major central banks.

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BUSINESS20DT


BTB, BPC step up early discounts for 2016 to boost tourism n Tribune Report

To draw foreign tourists to Bangladesh, ho-tel, motel and airlines authorities have an-nounced a lot of o� ers and discount fares ahead of tourism year 2016.

Bangladesh Tourism Board (BTB) and Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC) came up with the disclosure at a joint press confer-ence held at the National Press Club yesterday.

Addressing the press conference, Arup Chowdhury, chairman of BPC, said the for-eign tourists of parjatan corporation will get 20%-30% discount on food while those board Biman Bangladesh airlines will be eligible up to 25% discount on stays.

Besides breakfast and drinks, Wi-Fi con-nections are free for Biman passengers.

“If we can ensure facilities for the foreign tourists, their number must increase,” said the BPC boss.

Foreign tourists under the package tour of private carrier, Novoair, will get 15% discount while 10% goes to airfare provided they pur-chase Biman tickets with cash.

The guests of Pan Paci� c Sonargaon Hotel will get up to 50% discount on deluxe room.

The government allocated Tk200 crore to promote the tourism year, 2016.

Every year, four to � ve lakh foreign tour-ists visit Bangladesh. In 2013, the number came down to only 26,000 foreigners due to political unrest.

BTB Chief Executive O� cer Akhtaruzzam-an Khan Kabir and BPC Marketing Manager Parvez A Chowdhury were present at the press conference.

They said the government has a plan to or-ganise several tourism fairs and international conferences to attract foreign tourists.

Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon has already set a target to bring 10 lakh foreign tourists in the tourism year. l

Tourism sector booming ahead of Eid

n Ishtiaq Husain

Despite heavy rainfall during the ongoing monsoon, the country’s tourism sector is amazingly booming now as a good number of people are planning to go outside the capital to rejoice their Eid vacation.

Most of the hotels in Cox’s Bazar, Rangama-ti are Bandarbans are fully occupied just ahead of Eid-ul-� tr as the travellers have booked the hotels at their favourite destinations.

Because of the heavy shower in the rainy sea-son, not only foreign tourists but also domestic sightseers did not travel a lot in the country.

But the Eid vacation has boost the domes-tic tourism and the hoteliers are now seem-ingly busy with the sudden mad rush of the tourists.

Tourism industry stakeholders have termed it a bounce back after a pro-long polit-ical turmoil at the beginning of this year.

Although hotel business is right back on track, the hotel-owners are still o� ering 10 to 20% discount to attract the tourists. Even, special packages are being o� ered by the ho-tel authorities.

According to a hotel o� cial of Cox’s Bazar, the local tourists book 100% hotel rooms for the upcoming Eid holidays.

“Two major religious festivals are the main targets to do business and we are very much happy as almost 100% hotel rooms are booked by the tourists,” said Jashim Uddin, senior manager of Seagull, a � ve-star deluxe hotel at Cox’s Bazar, while talking to the Dha-ka Tribune

He also said, “We wait this two festival spe-cially Eid-ul-� tr and Eid-ul-Azha for the whole year as we make pro� ts in this two festivals.”

ASM Humayun Kabir, manager of hotel Cox Today in Cox’s Bazar also said, “Most of the tourists, who couldn’t travel during the last six months due to political unrest at the beginning of the year, have taken a long vaca-tion to visit the countryside.”

“Most of the hotel rooms are booked in be-tween July 17 and 25 July as of now. We expect more bookings for the upcoming days, which means hotel will be packed for the whole month of July,” said Humayun Kabir.

Apart from Cox’s Bazar, hotels in the hill districts-Bandarban, Rangamati, and Kha-gracchari are also set to get a huge number of guests ahead of Eid.

Meanwhile, 80% to 90% hotel rooms have already been booked mainly in the two hill districts Bandarban and Rangamati.

Hasan Masud, former president of TOAB and managing director of Guide tours resort of Bandarban said, “It’s a very positive sign as lot of people are travelling during Eid vacation which was not visible even few years back.”

Hotel rooms of Hotel Bandarban, Plaza Bandarban and Hotel Hill View have also been totally booked.

Alok Bikash Chakma, unit manager of Ranga-

mati Parjatan Motel said: “Our motel rooms are 100% booked up to 24 July. Rest of the days of the current month will also be booked.”

B. M. Omar Faruque, unit manager of Kha-gracchari Parjatan Motel said: “Till today the motel is totally empty but there is no room vacant from July 20-25 .”

Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation, national hospitality organisation of the country is still o� ering 20% discount for the domestic tourists.

Tito Siddique, managing director of Excel-lence Asia Limited, a tour operator, observed that those, who are not getting any rooms in Cox’s Bazar and the 3 hill districts, are trying to move other places like Sundarbans.

“It is a good sign for our domestic tourism as a good number of travellers are going out to enjoy tour sites. We hope this trend will con-tinue till winter,” said Kazi Wahidul Alam, a tourism expert and editor of tourism fortnight-ly magazine, The Bangladesh Monitor. l

Parjatan Corporation to withdraw discount during Eid n Tribune Report

Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC) will withdraw its discount o� ers ahead of Eid ul-� tr.

Like other hotels, the discount will be withdrawn for seven days starting from the day before the Eid and will be reintroduced following the Eid vacation, said a Parjatan Corporation o� cial.

BPC always o� ers 20% to 40% discount throughout the year, which is considered pro-motional fare, but during the vacation it has decided to withdraw the discount, he added.

BM Omar Faruque, unit manager of Kha-gracchari Parjatan Motel, said Parjatan Corpo-ration, the national hospitality organisation of the country, is still o� ering 20% discount for domestic tourists. l

Tourists gather at Patenga sea beach in Chittagong (� le photo) DHAKA TRIBUNE

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22Hot Topic

Thief of eid

24Ticket

Belle, au naturel

INSIDE

Photo: Masum Joy

Target:Your fresh face

Hot TopicTHURSDAY, JULY 16, 2015

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Thief of Eidn Mustafi d Raiyan Khan and Alveera

Mamoon

It’s the night before Eid. The entire Dhaka city waits, restless in front of their television and radio sets, cellphones at the ready, some with Eid Mubarak messages typed in while others waited to copy-paste and forward the yearly identical. Everyone is eagerly awaiting the newsreader to confirm what is imminent - the spotting of the moon.

A disgruntled news reporter appears: “Unfortunately it seems as though the moon could not be spotted tonight, meaning Eid-Ul-Fitr will take place the day after tomorrow.”

In dismay, the disappointed populace of Dhaka city returns to their mundane lives, consoling themselves with the hope that just one more day separates them from the most joyous occasion of the year.

The next night, BREAKING NEWS reporter: “The Eid moon, shockingly, has not yet been sighted! It is now 11pm, and there has never been an issue regarding the spotting the moon. An investigation crew has been sent to find out what is going on. We will keep you posted on any further developments. In other news, famous Bangladeshi movie villain Chowdhurry Shaheb has been reported missing...”

Instant chaos breaks out as everyone

tries to unravel the mystery of the Eid moon. Facebook explodes with statuses as if an Earthquake just happened on a magnitude of infinity, and females all over Dhaka go berserk as their tailors have an excuse to take even more time to deliver their dresses.

One hour later, BREAKING NEWS reporter: “The investigation crew has reached the conclusion that the Eid Moon is MISSING. Experts have been deployed to obtain more information about what is happening. Rumours have spread concerning possibilities of the moon going missing. Meanwhile, additional reports have arrived about mysterious disappearances, including shopping bags, Eid shemai, Eidi money

and most importantly, Slink City shopping mall. People are shouting for their only hope, Sir AJ.”

An argument of confusion arises at the police station. Some officers were overheard saying, “We don’t need him! We will handle it! We need only be… compensated.” The police super could be heard replying, “No. I hate to admit it, but it is our only option. He is the hero Dhaka needs. Mofiz, go pull out the ‘thing.’” Several similar complaints, long debates and discussions later, the police force decide the Eid moon has indeed been stolen. They used the “thing” to cast the AJ symbol into the sky.

Within minutes, he arrives in his pure black leather tights and sleeveless

Photo: Bigstock

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jacket which highlights his buffed, freshly-shaven chest, sporting a blazing red embroidered cape and brass knuckles spelling “Dhakar Pola.” His mane of long black hair billowed in the wind and the make-up on his face melted fabulously down his powdered cheeks. His shining metallic belt buckle, a buckle that could catch your eye even in the darkest of nights, gleams heroically in the moonless night, bearing the initials “AJ” in bold, with an outlining of sparkling silver jewels.

Police officer: “Oh thank goodness we have you, Sir Ananta Jalil. Whoever is behind this wants to ruin Eid for everyone, and we suspect that they will target The Bestin next!”

Sir Aj: “Don’t tension, people of Dhaka city. I have arrived pom Gana to save you. I will find who do this. Just must speak with expert team from Mansister first.”With his cape flying heroically behind him, Sir Ananta Jalil flies off from the police station and hops on the nearest rickshaw to The Bestin (after much bargaining over a suitable fee). He arrives in a blaze of glory, Borsha at his heels (it

was raining quite heavily), only to see that the lobby has been blocked!

Sir AJ: “Detectib was right. Something fishy is here. The lobby has already destroyed. I must quick move.”Quickly, he drapes his cape over himself and presses the elevator button. He waits. After five minutes he walks away, quickly locating the fire escape staircase. Relieved, he starts climbing. Pants ripped, make-up melted and panting as he reaches the top floor. He approaches the fire escape door and pushes through with a loud bang.

Villain: (Evil laughter from shadows) “Come, Ananta, come. It is you I have been waiting for. I knew you would show up. But first, uuh, do you need a drink or something? Sakib, give him one”

A meek man with pink lips comes in and hands Ananta a glass.

Sir AJ: “Who... are... you? Relieve yourself (gulps down drink). YOU RASCAL, THIS JUICE HAS NO SUGAR! HOW EVIL MAN YOU ARE!”

Villain: “I think you meant reveal... and of course. I want you to see my face one last time before I blow you and this place up in ashes. And you should really be watching your weight man.”

The villain then turns around, unmasking himself to the superhero of Dhaka city.

Sir AJ: “EYYY CHOWDHURY SHAHEB. I should hab known you were behind this, bloody don!”

Chowdhury Shaheb: “Take this (throwing a detonator at Ananta Jalil). It is a detonator. The timer is set to ten minutes, after which a bomb will go off and blow you up into ashes. Then, I will detonate five other bombs to blow up The Bestin. Even if you can figure out how to stop the detonator within ten minutes, the rest will still blow. With my foolproof plan, I highly doubt you can save the day this time! Ha ha ha...”

Ten intense minutes go by as Ananta Jalil puts his brain hard at work to generate ideas while Chowdhurry Shaheb just stares at him intently, waiting for him to figure it out. The detonator

ticks away, with just 25 seconds left. Right then, it hits him. He throws the detonator back at Chowdhury Shaheb with 2 seconds to go, and at the end of the ten minutes, the bomb explodes and Chowdhury Shaheb blows to bits.

Sir AJ: “I hab done it! The don is dead! I am genius!”

Police officer: “Amazing sir! And what about the moon?”

Sir AJ: “Hab you tried giving missed call?” He takes out his Walton phone, and tries calling the moon. Chowdhurry Shaheb’s cellphone rings in the distance, and Ananta promptly struts over and picks it up. “Chowdhurry upload the moon into his phone. Here, take it!”

He throws the phone to the officers and begins to walk away.

Police Officer: “Wow sir, you really saved the day! Thank you!”

Sir Ananta Jolil turns around, dramatically, saying, “Most Welcome.” l

Illustration: Syed Rashad Imam Tanmoy

TicketT-JUNCTION24 DT


Belle, au naturel

news

MasterCard has announced the appointment of Porush Singh as division president for South Asia, effective immediately.

In his new role, Porush will lead the South Asia team and will be based in Delhi, succeeding Ari Sarker who was recently appointed co-president for the Asia Pacific region.

Porush was most recently senior vice president and group head, core products, global products & solutions, Asia Pacific, where he undertook the development and management of consumer and

commercial products for Asia Pacific. He started out his career with MasterCard in Dubai in 2005 before joining the Singapore office in 2010.l

Zaara Neha Fashion Mall opened today at Kamal Ataturk Avenue, Gulshan 2. Mir Nizam Uddin Ahmed, owner of Neha fashion, is behind the initiative as well and is leading the expedition. Numerous renowned fashion brands had been gathered under the same roof to create a superb shopping experience.

“I usually travel to many countries due to business purposes and come in touch with many fashion brands. I dreamt for a long time to gather all the renowned fashion brands of the world in my country so that the working class people can get

in touch with authentic products from Gucci, Hugo Boss, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hill, Chanel, D&G, Satya Paul etc.” says Mir Nizam Uddin Ahmed. l

MasterCard announces Porush Singh as division president for South Asia

Zaara Neha Fashion Mall opens shop

Beauty boosters from Meena Herbal

n Sabrina Fatma Ahmad

In addition to the toll that fasting takes on the body, coupled with the endless jams and time crunch altogether mean it’s really hard to stay abreast of a decent beauty routine ahead of the Eid celebrations. Here are some great products to get your skin and hair festival-ready between salon visits.

Flake it o� If your big summer hair woe is dandru� , Meena Herbal anti-dandru� shampoo is the one you want to reach for. Enriched with clove, cinnamon, and tulsi, this baby will have your scalp sighing in relief, while boosting the shine factor in your hair.

Dry spellIf the hot weather and dehydration has left you with dull, lifeless hair, zap some mojo back into your locks with Meena Herbal conditioning shampoo. The honey and aloe vera will replenish the lost moisture and leave your mane looking healthy and silky.

Dotty dilemmaAll those greasy piyajus can sometimes wreak havoc on the complexion, particularly if you have naturally oily skin. Zap the zits before they happen with Meena Herbal Oil Control face wash. The formulation combines mineral clay, which absorbs excess oil, and clove and cinnamon which prevent breakouts, leaving a beautiful matte � nish that’s primer-ready.

Boost the glowIf you’re just looking to boost the natural beauty of your skin, reach for Meena Herbal’s Miracle face wash. The trifecta of aloe vera, honey and Vitamin C will soothe sunburns, even out your skin tone and leave your face feeling soft and supple. l

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STERLING JOINS MAN CITY FOR RECORD FEE

PONTING HAS OLYMPIC T20 VISION

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Former Italy forward Gianfranco Zola said he has taken a gamble in turning down management o� ers from England and at home to take

charge of Qatari side Al Arabi

GAMBLE

SportBANvSA, 3RD ODI

SOUTH AFRICA R BQ. de Kock b Musta� zur 7 8H. Amla c Rahim b Shakib 15 35F. du Plessis c Rahim b Shakib 6 17R. Rossouw c Rahim b Mahmuddullah 17 27D. Miller c Sabbir b Mortaza 44 51J. Duminy c Das b Rubel 51 70F. Behardien c Sabbir b Shakib 12 16K. Rabada b Musta� zur 1 5K. Abbott b Rubel Hossain 5 10M. Morkel not out 1 3Extras (lb3, w4, nb2) 9Total (nine wickets; 40 overs) 168

Fall of wickets1-8 (de Kock), 2-19 (du Plessis), 3-45 (Amla), 4-50 (Rossouw), 5-113 (Miller), 6-149 (Behardien), 7-155 (Rabada), 8-167 (Abbott). 8-168 (Duminy)BowlingMusta� zur 8-0-24-2, Mashrafe Mortaza 5-0-29-1, Shakib 8-0-33-3, Rubel 6-0-29-2 (nb1, w4), Nasir 8-0-30-0, Mahmudullah 5-0-20-1BANGLADESH R B(Target 170 according to D/L method)Tamim Iqbal not out 61 77Soumya Sarkar c Amla b Tahir 90 75Litton Das not out 5 5Extras (lb5, w9) 14Total (for one wicket; 26.1 overs) 170

Fall of wickets1-154 (Sarkar)BowlingAbbott 5-0-27-0, Rabada 6-0-41-0 (w3), Morkel 5-0-36-0 (w1), Tahir 6.1-1-37-1 (w2), Duminy 4-0-24-0 (w3)

Bangladesh win by 9 wickets under D/L methodBangladesh win series by 2-1

SHAKIB, MASHRAFE JOIN 200-CLUB

Bangladesh’s Tamim Iqbal (L) and Soumya Sarkar put on 154 for the opening stand, third century partnership in their 10th innings, as the home side cruised to a nine-wicket victory against South Africa in Chittagong yesterday. This is Bangladesh’s biggest win in terms of margin against a Test playing nation excluding Zimbabwe MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

BEST OPENING STANDS FOR BAN V SA

Partners Runs Ground DateSoumya Sarkar, Tamim Iqbal 154 Chittagong 15 Jul 2015

Imrul Kayes, Tamim Iqbal 46 Benoni 9 Nov 2008

Javed Omar, Tamim Iqbal 42 Providence 7 Apr 2007

Shahriar Nafees, Tamim Iqbal 34 Dhaka 14 Mar 2008

Junaid Siddique, Tamim Iqbal 30 Chittagong 9 Mar 2008

Eid Mubarak BangladeshTigers seal three-match series in emphatic fashion

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ODI PLAYERS TO SCORE 4000 RUNS AND TAKE 200 WKTS

Player M R Bat Av Wkts Bowl AvS Jayasuriya (SL) 445 13430 32.36 323 36.75J Kallis (SA) 328 11579 44.36 273 31.79S Afridi (Pak) 398 8064 23.57 395 34.51A Razzaq (Pak) 265 5080 29.70 269 31.83C Cairns (NZ) 215 4950 29.46 201 32.80Shakib (Ban) 156 4382 35.33 201 28.35C Harris (NZ) 250 4379 29.00 203 37.50

MOST ODI WICKETS FOR A BANGLADESH BOWLER

Player Mat Wkts Ave 4WIAbdur Razzak 153 207 29.29 5Shakib Al Hasan 156 201 28.35 6Mashrafe Mortaza 157 200 30.49 5Mohammad Ra� que 123 119 38.75 2Rubel Hossain 67 87 32.71 5Mahmudullah 122 70 43.30 0Khaled Mahmud 77 67 42.76 1Syed Rasel 52 61 33.62 1Tapash Baisya 56 59 41.55 2Sha� ul Islam 52 58 36.36 4

Captain Bangladesh!Bangladesh strolled to their fourth home series victory in a row under Mashrafe bin Mortaza’s leadership. Mashrafe has always contributed to the team’s need with his per-formance while his decision making skill has simply been on the rise. The bowling changes and � eld placing yesterday were pin point and attacking when needed, contributing to their result in a big way. No doubt that Mashrafe is now the most successful Bangladesh captain with a 68% win record in ODIs.

200 and moreMashrafe was just one wicket away from his 200th ODI wicket at the start of yesterday. After bowling just two overs up front, he re-placed himself with Shakib, who needed two wickets to reach the same milestone. Shakib, who was wicket-less in the � rst two matches, took 3 for 33 on the day to hurt South Africa’s mission and reach 200 wickets before Mashrafe also made sure to celebrate the feat by dismissing David Miller himself.

The highest opening stand vs SAThe aggressive opening duo of Tamim and Soumya produced yet another scintillating per-formance and this time, they left one of world cricket’s formidable side South Africa in awe. The pair added 154 in 24.4 overs in their target of 170 o� 40 overs to seal the series 2-1. While Soumya, bubbling with con� dence after an unbeaten 80 in the last match in Dhaka, made 90, Tamim, who faced criticism after failing to maintain his consistency, � nally found his feet at his home ground and smashed his 37th � fty, the most by any Bangladesh batsman. l

TALKING POINTSBANvSA, 3RD ODI, CHITTAGONG

Shakib, Mashrafe join 200-clubn Minhaz Uddin Khan

Maverick all-rounder Shakib al Hasan and ODI and Twenty20 skipper Mashrafe bin Mortaza entered their names in the 200-wicket club in the third and � nal match against South Africa at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chit-tagong yesterday.

Shakib became the second Bangladesh bowler after Abdur Razzak to bag 200 ODI wickets when he dismissed Faf du Plessis and Hashim Amla in the eighth and 14th over respectively. And in the 30th over, Mashrafe emerged as the third Bangladesh bowler to reach the milestone when he sent back David Miller.

Prior to the series-decider yesterday, Shakib and Mashrafe were two and a wicket behind the 200-wicket club.

First, Shakib accounted for the scalp of Du Plessis and could have got Amla immediately if not for the drop by Sabbir Hossain at cover. The frustration however, did not last long as Shakib removed the makeshift South African ODI captain Amla soon after.

To add to Shakib’s joy yesterday, he also became the fastest cricketer to reach the 4000-run and 200-wicket club in ODIs. Only six cricketers had done the double before Shakib. But the Bangladesh all-rounder reached the feat only 156 ODIs. Mashrafe on the other hand played an ODI more than Shakib. l

MOST ODI 50s BY A BANGLADESHIPlayer M Runs Ave SR 100 50+Tamim Iqbal 150 4581 31.37 78.46 6 37Shakib al Hasan 156 4382 35.33 80.32 6 36Mush� qur Rahim 155 3764 31.10 75.09 3 25Mohammad Ashraful 175 3468 22.37 70.11 3 23Shahriar Nafees 75 2201 31.44 69.49 4 17

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Barca not ruling out Pedro sale amid Chelsea reportsBarcelona coach Luis Enrique said Tuesday he wanted to hold on to forward Pedro Rodriguez but did not rule out that the Spaniard might leave, with Premier League champions Chelsea report-edly interested. “I would prefer him to stay but it is up to the player to decide,” he told a news con-ference, his � rst since the Spanish and European champions returned to training on Monday.

–AFP

Everton through to Barclays � nal as Stoke crash outTim Howard made a crucial save to deny Marco Van Ginkel as Everton beat Stoke City in a penalty shootout to reach the � nal of the Barclays Asia Trophy on Wednesday. Following a goalless draw between the Premier League sides at Singapore’s National Stadium, the American goalkeeper got a strong hand to turn away Van Ginkel’s e� ort in the second round of the shootout to give his side the upper hand.

–AFP

Jamaica, Costa Rica advance in Gold CupJamaica scored a late winning goal while Costa Rica needed only a scoreless draw as both teams advanced from Group B to the quarter-� nals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup on Tuesday. Jamaica’s Garath McCleary tapped in a rebound in the 72nd minute to help his team beat El Salvador 1-0 and clinch the group with seven points.

–Reuters

River on course for Copa Libertadores � nalArgentinian giants River Plate beat Guarani of Paraguay 2-0 here Tuesday to put themselves � rmly on course for a place in the � nal of the Copa Libertadores. Second-half goals from de-fender Gabriel Mercado and Rodrigo Mora gave the Buenos Aires side a commanding � rst-leg lead, which leaves Guarani needing to stage a dramatic � ghtback to advance to the � nal.

–AFP

Sunderland boss Advocaat has eyes only for LensDutch international mid� elder Jeremain Lens is set to join up with Dick Advocaat for the third time in his career if he passes a medical at English Premier League side Sunderland on Wednesday according to the Press Association. The 27-year-old - who played for Black Cats manager Advocaat at both AZ Alkmaar and PSV Eindhoven - will cost Sunderland around £8million (11.3m euros, $12.5m) to prise him away from Ukrainian giants Dynamo Kiev.

–AFP

Armstrong back on the Tour de France routeDisgraced American cyclist Lance Armstrong will be back on the Tour de France roads for a controversial charity ride Thursday, his � rst appearance since being stripped of his seven titles. He will cycle two stages of the Tour for a leukaemia charity - from Muret to Rodez on Thursday and from Rodez to Mende on Friday - a day ahead of the competing riders.

–AFP

QUICK BYTES

IPL bans hailed as chance to clean up imagen AFP, New Delhi

India’s cricketing fraternity Wednesday wel-comed the shock decision to ban two teams from the IPL as a long overdue opportunity for the game to clean up its scandal-sullied image.

While the suspension of the Chennai Su-per Kings and Rajasthan Royals from the next two editions has thrown the Indian Premier League (IPL) into turmoil, former players, administrators and commentators said the move would strengthen the glitzy Twenty20 tournament in the long run.

Top o� cials in the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) say they would respect the punishments announced by former chief justice Rajendra Mal Lodha on Tuesday which were seen as a damning verdict on the rule of the organisation’s former chief Narayanaswa-mi Srinivasan.

Inderjit Singh Bindra, another former head of the BCCI, hailed what he called the “his-toric and landmark” punishments imposed after top o� cials were caught betting on IPL matches involving their own teams.

“Beginning of the process of cleansing In-dian cricket. I do hope that BCCI learns the right lessons,” Bindra tweeted.

The veteran commentator Ayaz Memon said the verdicts should serve as a wake-up

call to the BCCI which is by far the most pow-erful body in world cricket thanks to the huge TV contracts that the Indian team commands.

“Essentially the Lodha report is a stinging indictment of BCCI which has skirted around issues of ownership rules, con� ict of interest, match � xing, spot � xing and probity in o� ce bearers ever since IPL began”, he wrote in The Times of India.

Since its launch in 2008, the IPL has be-come hugely popular by paying mega sala-ries to big-name internationals who perform against a glamorous backdrop of dancing girls and Bollywood stars who part-own the teams.

But despite attracting big audiences, it has been dogged by scandals, including allega-tions of corruption, match-� xing and crooked umpires. The tournament’s e� ective founder Lalit Modi is currently resisting demands to return home from exile in London to face questioning over money-laundering linked to a mega IPL broadcast deal.

Srinivasan only agreed to step aside as BCCI chief after being found guilty of a con-� ict of interest for at the same time being at the helm of Indian Cements which owns the Chennai Super Kings.

Lodha also banned Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan from cricket-related ac-tivities for life after he was convicted of bet-ting nearly $100,000 on matches.l

Ponting has Olympic Twenty20 visionn AFP, London

Australia great Ricky Ponting has given his public support to calls by the MCC world cricket committee for Twenty20 cricket to be included as an Olympic sport.

Some o� cials in major cricket nations such as England have long been resistent to the idea of the sport joining the Olympics, fearing the impact it could have on its own home sea-son. But others within cricket see the Games as an ideal way to spread the game globally, as emerging nations can receive government funding for Olympic-linked sports.

Ponting, who serves on the MCC world cricket committee alongside fellow former Test captains Mike Brearley (England), Shaun Pollock (South Africa) and Sourav Ganguly (India), told reporters at Lord’s on Tuesday: “It was quite unanimous throughout the members of this committee that we should look to grow the game into an Olympic sport.

“The opportunity to open up di� erent markets, considering the Olympics is the pin-nacle of global sport, to be able to get cricket into something like that would be an awe-some spectacle in itself,” he added.

“It would be great for the growth and de-velopment of cricket, obviously talking about T20 cricket here.”

Ponting continued: “There were a number of things that were tossed around, whether, like with football, make it an Under-23 tourna-ment. The whole discussion round cricket be-ing in the Olympics was very positive. That’s one way of breaking into some of these markets and attracting new audiences into the game, which I think the game needs right now.” l

Former cricketers Ricky Ponting (L) and Sourav Ganguly from the World Cricket Committee walk on the pitch at Lord’s on Tuesday REUTERS

SL beat Pakistan, level ODI series 1-1n Agencies

It was the tale of two lefties in Pallekele. Kusal Perera hammered Sri Lanka’s joint fastest � f-ty in ODIs, which made a target of 288 look like a cakewalk. But when Pakistan’s tenac-ity brought them back and put the game on a razor’s edge - 92 runs needed o� 112 balls with only four wickets left - debutant Sachith Pathirana produced a decisive cameo -33 o� 28 - to help the hosts square the series with an action-packed two-wicket victory.

Earlier, Mohammad Rizwan smashed 52 o� 38 balls towards the end to lift Pakistan to 287-8 in the second one-day international against Sri Lanka in Pallekele on Wednesday.

Azhar Ali played a captain’s innings of 79 and senior pro Shoaib Malik made a run-a-ball 51, the pair adding 83 for the fourth wicket af-ter the tourists won the toss and elected to bat in the day-night match.

But Rizwan stole the show with � ve boundaries and a six as the tourists plundered 88 runs in the last 10 overs.l

BRIEF SCOREPakistan 287 for 8 (Azhar 79, Rizwan 52, Malik 51; Malinga 2-64)Sri Lanka 288 for 8 (Kusal 68, Chandimal 48*, Rahat 3-67)

Sri Lanka won by two wickets

Sport28DT


TOP TEN EPL DEAL

1 Fernando Torres (ESP) Liverpool to Chelsea, £50million ($77.9m, 70.7m euros) January 2011

2 Raheem Sterling (ENG) Liverpool to Manchester City, £44million (could reach as much as £49m) July 2015

3 Juan Mata (ESP) Chelsea to Manchester United, £37.1million, January 2014

4 Andy Carroll (ENG) Newcastle to Liverpool, £35million, January 2011

5 Dimitar Berbatov (BUL) Tottenham to Man United, £30.75million, September 2008

6 Rio Ferdinand (ENG) Leeds to Manchester United, £30million, July 2002

6 Luke Shaw (ENG) Southampton to Man-chester United, £30million, June 2014

8 Romelu Lukaku (BEL) Chelsea to Everton, £28million, July 2014

8 Wilfried Bony (CIV) Swansea to Manchester City, £28million, January 2015

9 Marouane Fellaini (BEL) Everton to Manches-ter United, £27.5million, September 2013

TOP ENGLISH PLAYER DEAL£85.3m Gareth Bale (Tottenham to Real

Madrid, 2013)

£49m Raheem Sterling (Liverpool to Manchester City, 2015)

£35m Andy Carroll (Newcastle to Liver-pool, 2011)

£30m Rio Ferdinand (Leeds to Manchester United, 2002)

£27m Luke Shaw (Southampton to Man-chester United, 2015)

£27m Wayne Rooney (Everton to Man-chester United, 2004)

£26m James Milner (Aston Villa to Man-chester City, 2010)

Rivaldo, son both score in Brazil’s second tiern Reuters, Sao Paulo

Former Brazil international Rivaldo and his 20-year old son Rivaldinho have both scored goals for Mogi Mirim in a 3-1 win over Macae in a second division game.

The former Barcelona player was involved in all three goals before departing the � eld af-ter 50 minutes.

His pass led to a � rst headed goal from his son with just three minutes on the clock.

He got the second from the penalty spot in the 17th minute before Junior got a third after a one-on-one with the goalkeeper four min-utes before half time.

Pipico got a consolation goal for the visi-tors in the 81st minute.

Rivaldo, FIFA’s World Player of the Year in 1999, returned to action last week 15 months after he retired from the game and played 70 minutes of his side’s 2-1 win over Nautico.l

Sterling joins Man City for record feen Reuters, London

Manchester City made Raheem Sterling the most expensive English player in history when they completed a deal for the 20-year-old forward on Tuesday, rubber-stamping an acrimonious end to his Liverpool career.

City paid 49 million pounds ($76.4 million) for Sterling, according to media reports, with the England international signing a � ve-year contract at the Etihad Stadium.

The pacy winger will � y out to join his new team mates, who are on a pre-season tour in

Australia.“Raheem Sterling is one of the best attack-

ing players in world football, and I am very much looking forward to him joining our squad out in Australia later this week,” City manager Manuel Pellegrini said on the club website (www.mcfc.com).

“He is a young player with outstanding ability, and I am sure the Manchester City fans will be very excited about seeing him in action for the team.”

Abu Dhabi-owned City did not con� rm the transfer fee but said it was a record for the club.

The fee is also higher than the previous record for an English player, surpassing the 35 million pounds Liverpool paid Newcastle United for target man Andy Carroll in 2011.

Sterling endured an acrimonious end to his career at Liverpool after making 129 appearances and scoring 23 goals, having moved to the Merseyside out� t from Queens Park Rangers in 2010 as a 15-year-old.

His relationship with Liverpool hit trouble in April as contract talks stalled and he gave an unauthorised interview to the BBC, deny-ing being a “money-grabber”. l

Van Persie signs for Fenerbahce from Man Unitedn AFP, Istanbul

Dutch international striker Robin van Persie on Tuesday signed for Fenerbahce from Man-chester United on a three year deal, the Istan-bul giants announced, in one of the most sig-ni� cant transfers by a Turkish Super Lig side in recent years.

An estimated 18,000 fans clad in the iconic navy blue and yellow stripes of Fenerbahce turned out at its Sukru Saracoglu stadium in Istanbul to witness van Persie’s signing cere-mony, chanting his name and letting o� � ares.

The former Feyenoord and Arsenal player will be paid 4.9 million euros ($5.4m/£3.5m) a year on his three-year contract, excluding match bonuses, Fenerbahce said in a state-ment.

His transfer fee is reportedly 4.7 million euros (£3.4m, $5.2m) although this has yet to be o� cially disclosed.

“I am now part of the Fenerbahce family,” van Persie told fans in comments barely au-dible amid the deafening atmosphere in the stadium.

“I promise I will do everything in my pow-er to make Fenerbahce win as many trophies as possible to make these fans happy.”

Van Persie said at a news conference later that it was the “passion” of Turkish football that had helped attract him to Istanbul.

“You have seen just now 17-18,000 fans, it’s unbelievable, it’s the � rst time in my life I experienced anything like that.”

“I am very humbled,” he said.Van Persie’s signing draws the curtain on

three up-and-down years at Manchester Unit-ed which began in a blaze of promise but end-ed in injury problems and faltering form.

Van Persie, 31, made 105 appearances and scored 58 goals at Manchester United after joining in August 2012 following his eight-year stint at Arsenal.

But last season was marred by an ankle lig-ament injury and rumours of tension between himself and Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal, who had guided van Persie and his coun-trymen to third place in the World Cup � nals.l

New Manchester City signing Raheem Sterling poses with a club scarf as he leaves the club’s Etihad Stadium in Manchester, Britain on Tuesday. City made Sterling the most expensive English player in history when they completed a 49m pound deal for the 20-year-old forward REUTERS

Sport 29D

T


Star Sports 14:00PM Australia Tour of England 2nd Test, Day 1 Ten Sports 7:30PM Tour de France 2015: Day 12 Sony Six5:30AMCaribbean Premier League T20 T&T Red Steel v Barbados Tridents

DAY’S WATCH

Arjun (R), Sachin Tendulkar’s son, is seen beside English Test captain Alastair Cook during a training session at Lord’s yesterday REUTERS

T20 Champions League axed over fans � opn AFP, New Delhi

The Twenty20 Champions League, an inter-national tournament featuring the top do-mestic teams of the major cricket nations, is to be scrapped after failing to excite fans, or-ganisers announced Wednesday.

The three-week event had been billed as the richest club tournament in the sport with a total prize pool of $6 million that included a winner’s purse of $2.5 million.

Jointly owned by the cricket boards of In-dia, Australia and South Africa, the tourna-ment was launched in 2009 with much fan-fare following the overwhelming success of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

But after six editions, the co-owners said the league would be “discontinued with immediate e� ect” due to “limited public following”.

“The governing council determined that the discontinuation of the league was the most appropriate decision due to the tourna-ment’s limited public following,” said a state-ment from representatives of the Indian, Aus-tralian and South African boards. l

Watson faces axe as Australia seek to level Ashesn AFP, London

Australia, reeling from the late withdrawal of wicket-keeper Brad Haddin, are reportedly set to drop Shane Watson for the second Ash-es Test at Lord’s on Thursday as they bid to level the � ve-match series at 1-1.

Watson was twice out lbw cheaply in all-too familiar fashion as England, against many pre-series predictions, won the � rst Test in Cardi� by the crushing margin of 169 runs with more than a day to spare last week.

With his medium-paced bowling bare-ly used by captain Michael Clarke at Sophia

Gardens, Australia’s Fairfax Media reported Wednesday that the 34-year-old Watson would be dropped at Lord’s and replaced by fellow all-rounder Mitchell Marsh, 11 years his junior.

Watson’s lbw double in Cardi� means he has now passed � fty in just two of his past 16 innings.

“My gut feeling is they’ll probably go with Mitchell Marsh,” former Australia captain Ste-ve Waugh told Sky Sports before the Fairfax report, subsequently cited by Cricket Austral-ia’s own website, was published.

“A guy at that age... when he’s played a long time, when you make a decision like this

now - it’s pretty much � nal. There’s probably no way back from being dropped now.”

Marsh, the son of former Australia open-er Geo� Marsh, has played in four Tests and impressed in the team’s opening two tour matches by scoring hundreds against both Kent and Essex.

Cricket Australia told AFP Wednesday they would not comment on the Fairfax report, saying that the Test side would be announced as scheduled on Thursday morning at Lord’s.

Haddin, 37, withdrew on Tuesday for what a team spokeswoman said were “family reasons”. l

Indian tennis player and Wimbledon women’s doubles winner Sania Mirza poses with the trophy prior to a media conference at her residence in Hyderabad on Tuesday AFP

Gatlin ineligible for annual award, IAAF saysn Reuters

American sprinter Justin Gatlin could win world championships and go undefeated for a second consecutive season but he would still not be ineligible for the sport’s athlete of the year award, the IAAF said.

A change in selection criteria makes any ath-lete who has been sanctioned for a serious dop-ing o� ence ineligible to be shortlisted for the honour, e� ective this year, International Asso-ciation of Athletics Federations (IAAF) spokes-man Nick Davies told Reuters in an email.

Gatlin, the fastest man over 100 and 200 metres in 2015, was banned for four years af-ter a 2006 positive test for testosterone.

He has returned to the sport and is favour-

ite to dethrone Jamaican world record holder Usain Bolt in both sprints at the world cham-pionships in Beijing in August. Davies said the IAAF Council approved the change at a meeting last November on the recommenda-tion of the IAAF Athletes Commission. l

Serena hits another milestonen AFP, St. Petersburg

Serena Williams, who owns all four tennis Grand Slam titles for the second time in her career, has achieved another historic mile-stone in the wake of her Wimbledon victory.

The WTA Tour revealed Tuesday that world number one Williams is the � rst top-ranked player ever with more than twice as many points as her nearest rival.

Records dating to the WTA’s 1973 founding show the 33-year-old American’s domination to be the greatest of any point in the rankings’ history, with Williams on 13,161 points and Rus-sia’s second-ranked Maria Sharapova on 6,490.

In addition to sweeping the US, French and Australian Opens plus Wimbledon over the past 12 months, Williams won last year’s WTA Finals in Singapore and at Miami. l

DOWNTIME30DT


CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

DILBERT

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.

CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

CODE-CRACKER

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a di� erent letter of the alphabet. For example, today 1 represents H so � ll H every time the � gure 1 appears.You have two letters in the control grid to start you o� . Enter them in the appropriate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.As you get the letters, � 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.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

CROSSWORD

ACROSS1 Holds � rmly (5)5 Dexterous (4)8 Staggered (6)9 Sports enclosure (5)10 Discharge (4)11 Frozen shower (5)12 Tree (3)15 Flower (4)18 Unbound (5)21 Slender stick (3)22 Large volume (4)24 Outer covering (4)25 Melody (5)28 Traveller’s case (6)29 A� rm con� dently (4)30 Swarms (5)

DOWN1 Small stones and pebbles (6)2 Choler (3)3 Female swans (4)4 Close up (4)5 Postpone (5)6 Newspaper executive (6)7 Digit (3)13 Behold! (2)14 Incentive (6)16 Consequently (2)17 Draws forth (6)19 Echo sounder (5)20 Printers’ measure (2)23 Send out (4)24 Mineral spring (3)26 Employ (3)27 Bishop’s territory (3)

SUDOKU

SHOWTIME 31D


CELEBS ON SOCIAL

Justin Bieber @ justinbieber#pain #wisdomteeth

Brad Pitt @BradPittsPageThe best things happen unexpectedly.

Iggy Azalea@IGGYAZALEAIm really enjoying this season of Power.

n Showtime Desk

Inaugurated on April 23, on the occasion of the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth, The Hamlet Globe to Globe tour opened at Shakespeare’s Globe. The theatre company will be taking the epic play to every country on earth over a period of two years and raised the curtain in Dhaka yesterday in an event hosted by Dhaka theatre in collaboration with Bangladesh Shilpokola Academy & ITI centre, Bangladesh.

For those yet uninitiated to Shakespeare’s Hamlet the play tells the story of a young Danish prince who discovers that his father, the King was murdered by his uncle, who goes on to marry his mother and usurps

the throne. Haunted by his father’s ghost who � lls his head with thoughts of revenge and battling his inner demons, he faces the eternal struggle of justice and love; and loses many people dear to him in the process. With power and emotion struggles building up to a captivating climax, the tale itself explains its fame as one of the playwrights famous tragedies.

Dominic Dromgoole, artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe and Director of Hamlet said: “Globe to Globe Hamlet was created with the aim of performing Hamlet to as many people as possible, in as diverse a range of places as possible. The central principle of the tour is that Shakespeare can entertain and speak to anyone, no matter where they are on earth; and that no

country or people are not better o� for the lively presence of Hamlet.”

The cast includes John Dougall, Ladi Emeruwa, Phoebe Fildes, Miranda Foster, Naeem Hayat, Beruce Khan, Tom Lawrence, Jennifer Leong, Rawiri Paratene, Matthew Romain, Amanda Wilkin and Keith Bartlett.

What makes this retelling di� erent is the fresh and lively perspective to an age old tale of revenge and brooding indecision. And who can forget the anguish in Hamlet’s eyes when his beloved Ophelia is driven to madness and � nally death? This is a must watch for theatre and classic literature enthusiasts for a compelling two hours and forty minutes of full bodied performances.

n Mithul Roy

On the count of failing to provide child support payments, DMX has been sentenced to six months in prison at the Erie County Holding Center in Bu� alo, upstate New York. The 44-year-old kept $400,000 of outstanding child support payments to the mother.

A spokesman for the New York City Sheri� ’s o� ce said DMX was arrested before his performance at Radio City Music Hall on June 26 for several “issues outstanding.” Including this, the issues also included one by the city of White Plains for jumping bail and a theft concern from Newark, New Jersey. No charges were � led regarding the latter case. l

Rapper DMX jailed for eluding child support payments

Shakespeare’s Hamlet staged in Dhaka

The Dark Knight WB 4:30pmIt has been a year since Bruce Wayne saved Gotham City in the form of Batman. Everything is peaceful since the disappearance of the Scarecrow and Bruce is enjoying being a millionaire and planning to revive his romance with Rachel. But all hell breaks loose when the Joker begins to terrorise the city. Will Batman be able to drive out this psychopath?Cast: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart

The League of Extraordinary GentlemenStar Movies 11:00pmIn late nineteenth century England, a masked villain calling himself the Phantom starts senselessly attacking various European locales. An English aristocrat named M thinks that the League must reassemble in time to prevent his planned surprise attack of a Venetian government conference. M has already obtained three more extraordinaires: the Invisible Man, Captain Nemo and Wilhemina Harker of Dracula fame. Will these men succeed in their mission?Cast: Sean Connery, Naseeruddin Shah, Peta Wilson, Tony Curran, Stuart Townsend

Mean Girls Z Studio 6:55pmCady is a teenager and never visited a school as she was house-schooled till now. On her � rst day, she makes two Greek friends. Then she becomes friends with the most beautiful girl and her plastic mates. She does all the things to impress them but makes a mistake when she falls for Aaron Samuels. It is then that she realises who her true friends are.Cast: Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried, Lacey Chabert, Lizzy Caplan, Lindsay Lohan

WHAT TO WATCH

BACK PAGE32DT


SHAKIB, MASHRAFE JOIN 200-CLUB PAGE 26

SHAKESPEARE’S HAMLET STAGED IN DHAKA PAGE 31

TOURISM SECTOR BOOMING AHEAD OF EID PAGE 20

Plant variety protection act to get approval soon n Abu Bakar Siddique

The long-awaited Plant Variety and Farmers’ Right Protection Act 2015, formulated to pro-tect a country’s authority on plant varieties, is likely to be placed before the Cabinet for ap-proval next month.

“We have � nalised the draft after having several discussions with experts; it will be placed in the secretary-level meeting this month. Upon getting a a positive response from them, the draft act will be placed be-fore the cabinet next month,” said Anwar Faruque, additional secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture.

The ministry prepared the proposed act in line with Bangladesh’s obligation to

protect intellectual property rights under World Trade Organisation’s Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agree-ment and the International Convention onBiological Diversity.

According to the draft, a Plant Variety and Farmers’ Rights Protection Authority will be established for issuing registration and li-cences to the breeders regarding newly devel-oped plant varieties in the country.

As the act is implemented, the new developed varieties will be termed as protected varieties and breeders will get exclusive rights to commercial use of seeds of those varieties.

The draft also says that no one will be able to produce, reproduce, sell and market

the seeds of the protected varieties without authorisation from the breeders, except the farmers who will not use the plants for com-mercial purpose.

Farmers will have the right to protect in-digenous knowledge regarding the plants’ genetic resources and the right to get bene� t if any of them use the resources, said Anwar, who is also the director general of the minis-try’s Seed Wing.

However, the government in certain cases will be able to cancel breeders’ rights, though the draft law proposes 15 years to 20 years of protection rights to breeders of various types of plants.

In addition, the act will also specify the de� nition of farmers in Bangladesh to frame

the rights of the community.As per the agreement between Bangladesh

and the WTO, the country was supposed to formulate the act by 2005.

Regarding this, the government had start-ed to work on the act since 2002 and saw sev-eral obstacles in di� erent stages due to the observation in secretarial and inter-ministe-rial meetings.

“We have � xed all the inconsistencies and accommodated the observations in the � nal draft and hope it will get the nod,” Anwar said.

Similarly as the plant variety protection act, the government formulated another act in 2013 titled Geographical Indication Act, to ensure patent rights for the country’s tradi-tional products. l

Private sector keeps greeting card businesses upn Ibrahim Hossain Ovi

The expansion of private sector business and growth of corporate houses have contributed to the survival of the greeting card industry in the face of tech revolution.

Although a huge section of people prefer greeting people during Eid through mobile SMS and internet, there is still a demand for printed greeting cards.

A few years ago, the industry witnessed a huge sale rush, but the scenario has changed signi� cantly with the evolution of mod-ern communication methods, industryinsiders said.

A myriad of greeting cards used to be sold during Eid, Durga Puja, Christmas and oth-er national or religious festivals including the New Year celebrations, but the sale has come down to a few thousand round the year,they said.

Nowadays, city people prefer digital cards over printed cards and therefore card makers have come to rely heavily on corporate � rms as their core client base.

Since the tech evolution is on the rise, the greeters now prefer sending multimedia mes-sages, emails, e-cards and short messages as the most convenient method of wishing someone.

They look upon the e-methods easy and time-e� cient approach compared to that of buying greeting cards, writing on them and sending out afterward.

The rise of communications technology has led to decline in the card sale, adds the industry insiders.

Eid-ul-Fitr is fast approaching, but buy-ers are very handful as the e-greeting has got the upper hand over the age-old tradition of wishing someone through cards.

The industry now heavily relies on the sale to companies and � rms, they said.

“The corporate business houses have been the lifeline for the sector. The use of greeting cards to wish well wishers and clients by the

corporate � rms has increased by more than 50% over the last few years,” Arman, manager at the branch of Azad Products at Purana Pal-tan, told the Dhaka Tribune.

There was a time when almost everyone used cards to greet their near and dear ones, but now the corporate houses and � nancial institutions have only kept up with the trend, said Arman.

“Three years ago, we used to be so busy before Eid that we hardly ever got the time to speak to anyone. But those are gone now. We hardly ever see the rush and excitement that we used to see a fews years ago.”

Over time, there have been changes to de-

signs and patterns, Arman said. Recently, la-ser cards have come to the market and most multinational companies and well-o� people are the major buyers of these expensive cards.

The production of Eid cards, posters and view cards has declined by over 40% in re-cent years, people involved with the sectorhave said.

Many card makers have been forced to con-sider alternative trades to survive, they said.

“We do not mainly focus on the sale of cards anymore,” Harun Ar Rashid, owner of Halmark, a card and gift item seller at the New Market, told the Dhaka Tribune.

Hallmark, a privately-owned American

Company, has been in business in Bangla-desh since 1999. Although it deals in greeting cards, all Hallmark outlets now sell various products including gift wraps, party wares, soft toys, stationary, life celebration products, and so on.

Industry people said the use of cards is more popular in rural areas than in the capi-tal and children and old people are the major buyers at the individual level.

Abdul Mobin, owners of Appollo, a card seller in Rajshahi, said: “We are just strug-gling to survive as the pattern of greeting has changed in the course of time and due to tech-nological innovations.” l

The greeting card industry now heavily relies on the sale to private companies and � rms RAJIB DHAR

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

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