Dredging erodes Padma riverbank in Munshiganjn Adil Sakhawat back from

Munshiganj

Indiscriminate dredging of the river Padma, allegedly by ruling party lead-ers in Munshiganj’s Lohajang upazila, is threatening the fates of around 1,500 families who live near the banks ofthe river.

Erosion of the riverbank reportedly gathered pace from August 15 and has already claimed massive pieces of land in the a� ected villages. The victims claimed that the inconsiderate dredg-ing of the river sediment from three points of the Padma had accelerated the erosion of the land that had be-longed to their families for generations.

Visiting the most a� ected areas in-cluding Kumarbhogh, West Shimulia, Ranigaon, Mawa and Bhagyakul villag-es, the Dhaka Tribune found that many local residents were busy shifting their moveable properties away from their own land on the riverbank which might go under water at any moment.

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20 pages plus 16-page T-Mag tabloid | Price: Tk12THURSDAY, AUGUST 28, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

Bhadro 13, 1421Zilqad 1, 1435Regd No DA 6238Vol 2, No 146

11 | Op-EdAbout 2,000 people have died since July 8, when Israel launched attack in Gaza. The death toll in road accidents across Bangla-desh between January-August is more than twice the deaths in Gaza.

7 | Juris‘Attempting to reform law is somewhat like making a sheet of corrugated irons � at with a hammer. The government’s move for the transformation of judges’ impeachment law reminds me of this catchy metaphor.

13 | SportÁngel di María said Manchester United was the ‘only club’ for which he would have left Real Madrid as the forward completed a £59.7m British record transfer, signing a 5-year con-tract worth around £200,000 a week.

B1 | BusinessTuba Group Workers Action Committee called upon the stakeholders to ensure jobs for 1,600 workers who were rendered jobless due to the shutdown of the group’s � ve RMG units.

TMAGClub Aquaria is an open Facebook group where aquarists from around the city can share their knowledge, experience and to help other aquarists or anyone willing to take up the hobby.

I N S I D E

Rangpur has the highest poverty rateA study says the average poverty rate in the division is 42%n Kayes Sohel

Rangpur division has the highest pov-erty rate despite the government ef-forts to eliminate monga (famine-like situation) from the country’s northern region over years, says a new study.

The average poverty rate in the di-vision is 42% followed by Barisal with a poverty rate of 38.3%, Khulna 31.9%, Dhaka 30.5%, Rajshahi 27.4%, Chit-tagong 26.1% and Sylhet 25.1%, accord-ing to the Bangladesh Poverty Maps 2010 released yesterday.

This is the third generation of pov-erty map in Bangladesh which is an important statistical instrument for estimating the poverty incidence up to sub-district (upazila) levels. The maps display poverty condition of people in 544 upazilas of 64 districts under the seven divisions.

The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the World Bank and the United Nations World Food Programme jointly developed the maps by applying a small area estimation technique on data from the household income and expenditure survey 2010 and the population census 2011.

State Minister for Finance and Plan-ning MA Mannan launched the Bangla-

desh Poverty Maps 2010 at a city hotel yesterday.

In terms of districts, Kurigram has the highest poverty rate of 63.7% fol-lowed by Barisal 54.8%, Shariatpur 52%, Chandpur 51%, Satkhira 46.3%, Sirajganj 38.7% and Sunamganj 26%, according to the study.

The lowest poverty rate was re-corded in Kushtia at 3.6%, Noakhali at 9.6%, Dhaka at 15.7%, Bogra at 16.6%, Barguna at 19%, Sylhet at 24.1% and Panchagarh at 26.7%.

Experts said recognising the geo-graphical and regional variations and inequality in growth and poverty al-lows for more e� ective targeting of policy interventions based on local conditions.

Poverty maps can become an im-portant instrument for prioritisation of policy interventions and resource allo-cations, they said.

“With these latest poverty maps, we have responded to demand from policy-makers, researchers and development partners. It will also facilitate the ongo-ing e� orts to prepare the database of the poor people from across the country,” said Md Nojibur Rahman, secretary of Statistics and Informatics Division.

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100-year delta plan to reduce climate risksn Kayes Sohel

The government has taken up a 100-year mega project to reduce climate change risks in Padma-Meghna-Jamu-na � oodplains and ensure best water safety, food security and a sustained economic growth.

The project titled Bangladesh Del-ta Plan 2100 Formulation involves 19 thematic surveys on river system man-agement, impact of climate change, disaster management, and protection of environment and livestock at a cost of Tk87.86 crore.

The surveys are targeted at prepar-ing scienti� c vision projections for 2025, 2050 and 2100.

The General Economics Division of the Planning Ministry is implementing the project with Dutch � nancial and technical assistance to formulate holis-tic and comprehensive plans of di� er-ent terms for the next 50-100 years.

Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Ka-mal launched the project at the NEC Conference Room yesterday.

The delta plan is the result of a pro-ject being implemented from July last year to December next year.

The minister said Bangladesh, the largest delta in the world with rivers and � oodplains supporting life and livelihoods, economy and ecology, al-ready faced high pressure on its availa-ble land, water resources and environ-ment because of poor management and high population density. This “now calls for achieving sustainable develop-ment through sustainable production and consumption.”

So, there was a higher need within the Bangladesh delta to improve the living conditions of the people through e� ective management and governance of land, river and other natural resourc-es, he said.

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Ahle Sunnat leader Faruqi slaughteredn Manik Miazee and Mohammad

Jamil Khan

Unidenti� ed armed assailants slaugh-tered Shaikh Nurul Islam Faruqi, presenter of religious programmes on Channel i, at his own residence in the capital’s Pashchim Rajabazar area last night.

The deceased was also the Presidi-um member and international a� airs secretary of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat – an organisation known better for op-posing the views of Jamaat-e-Islami.

Faruqi also served as the Presidium member of Islamic Front Bangladesh – a platform of several Islamist groups.

Apart from anchoring programmes titled “Shantir Pothe” and “Kafela” on Channel i, he owned Faruque Tours and Travels Private Limited, a Hajj agency, and served as the imam of Su-preme Court mosque.

His strong voice against supersti-tions in religion and stance against Jamaat-e-Islami might be the reason behind the murder, said Bilob Kumar Sarker, the deputy commissioner of Te-jgaon division.

Col Ziaul Islam, the additional direc-tor general of RAB, thinks people from the same group who had killed six per-sons including Lutfar Rahman Faruk, a pir in Gopibagh, and blogger and archi-tect Ahmed Rajeeb Haider were behind Faruqi’s murder.

“We have started investigating the murder of Faruqi in that way,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.

The murder took place around 9:15pm. Family members of the deceased were found locked and tied with rope. “The neighbours freed them and later en-tering the dining room found Faruqi tied to a chair and his throat slit with sharp weapon,” said Ahad Ali, sub-inspector of Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police.

Nephew Maruf was tied to a chair in front of Faruqi, added Ahad. He was later picked up by RAB for interrogation.

The wife, daughter and mother of Faruqi were locked in a room while his son and three visitors including Belal Hossain were found tied in another room.

Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, the state minister of home, who visited the spot soon after hearing the incident, said: “It is totally an unwanted incident. Punishment will be ensured after trac-ing the culprits behind the murder.”

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5 more RAB men arrested in N’ganj seven murdersn Mohammad Jamil Khan

and Ahmed Zayeef

The police yesterday arrested � ve more RAB members suspected to be involved in the gruesome seven murders of Narayanganj, while a court placed the men on an eight-day remand.

Khandokar Mohid Uddin, superinten-dent of police in Narayanganj, told the Dhaka Tribune that police arrested the � ve o� cials of RAB 11 in the early hours of yesterday based on credible evidence of their involvement with the murders. However, he refused to disclose details on how their link to the crime was found as the investigation was still ongoing.

Following the arrests, the � ve of-� cials of Rapid Action Battalion were

placed before the court of Narayan-ganj Senior Judicial Magistrate Chadni Rupom after being shown arrested in two murder cases � led regarding the abduction and killing.

The arrestees are Habildar Moham-mad Emdadul Haque, Radio Operator Md Arif Hossain, Lance Naik Hira Mia, Sepoy Md Belal Hossain and guard Abu Tayeb.

Mamunur Rashid, the investigation o� cer and o� cer-in-charge of district Detective Branch (DB) of police, asked for a 10-day police remand, but was granted eight days of remand by the court, said Advocate Sakhawat Hos-sain, president of the District Lawyers Association.

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Flood not worrying, it’s just usual high monsoon behaviourn Abu Bakar Siddique

Although some major rivers are � owing above danger level and will continue to do so over the next 2-3 days, forecast-ers say there is nothing to worry about because this is natural during monsoon and things will start improving soon.

The same forecast is applicable for Dhaka residents as well, many of whom have been worried with the rising wa-ter levels in the rivers surrounding the city and the inundation of some low-ly-ing areas in its outskirts.

For the time being though, the dis-tricts along with some of the major river basins in the country continue to su� er because of the � ash � ood, crisis

of food, drinking water and accommo-dation. To add to their misery that has been going on for a week now, relief distribution and rehabilitation have been slow in some areas.

According to the bulletin that the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre (FFWC) released at 6am yesterday, wa-ter levels in Brahmaputra-Jamuna and Padma will continue to rise over the next 72 hours.

As a result, � ood situation in the districts of Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Nilphamari, Rangpur, Gaibandha, Bogra, Jamalpur, Tangail, Shariatpur, Madaripur, Munshiganj, Rajbari and Faridpur may slightly deteriorate over the next two days.

Meanwhile, because of a healthy monsoon rainfall in the hilly state of Meghalaya in northeast India, the Meghna River basin in Bangladesh is experiencing a � ash � ood over the last few days.

The same trend could be observed in the neighbouring Bangladeshi dis-trict of Sunamganj. A 30-year high of 370mm rainfall was recorded in Law-rergor area in the district on August 25 which, coupled with Meghalaya rainfall, negatively a� ected the � ood situation in the districts of Sunamganj, Netrakona, Sylhet and Kishoreganj in the Meghna basin.

However, the rainfall forecast for PAGE 2 COLUMN 3

Elderly Su� a Begum belongs of one of the thousands of families rendered homeless by the devastating erosion of Padma River in Louhajang upazila in Munshiganj district. Yesterday, she sleeps under the open sky on the riverbank with meagre belongings she is left with after erosion gobbled up her entire homestead MEHEDI HASAN

News2 DHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, August 28, 2014

$125m ADB loan for creating ‘model towns’n Tribune Report

The Asian Development Bank will pro-vide Bangladesh with $125m loan to improve services and governance in municipalities by making them more livable and attractive, for easing popu-lation pressures from major cities.

Economic Relations Division (ERD) Secretary Mohammad Mejbahuddin and ADB Country Director Kazuhiko Higuchi yesterday signed an agree-ment at a ceremony held at the ERD in the capital.

Bangladesh needed to develop liv-able district towns with well-managed quality infrastructure to reduce over-

crowding in big cities, said Higuchi af-ter signing the agreement.

“The ADB is pleased to help achieve this goal of creating model towns with proper planning, improved governance and infrastructure, and other services,” he added.

The Third Urban Governance and Infrastructure Improvement Sector Project builds on successes and lessons from previous projects that focused on improvements in infrastructure, gov-ernance, and services.

The new project will provide assis-tance to 30 municipalities with a total population of 2.2 million, including 20 district headquarters. These adminis-

trative, trade and economic centres, and transportation and distribution hubs, are crucial for more balanced de-velopment in Bangladesh.

The project, which will help roads, drainage and sanitation systems, piped water supplies, and solid waste collec-tion and disposal, will also strengthen the ability of the municipalities to carry out urban planning, � nancial manage-ment, and service delivery.

Some of the expected bene� ts will in-clude reduced travel time and cost sav-ings from better roads, health improve-ments from piped water and solid waste collection, and more citizens’ partici-pation including women and poor and

marginalised groups in the governance and the provision of basic services.

Re� ecting the lessons from previous ADB project assistance, the targeted municipalities will be eligible for addi-tional phased funding support as they meet performance-based targets linked to governance reforms.

Many municipalities su� er from weak oversights and are struggling to provide citizens with key services. In response, the ADB has already been providing support for improved ser-vices under an urban governance im-provement action program, according to an ADB release issued yesterday.

In addition to ADB’s loan, the Opec

Fund for International Development will provide co-� nancing of $40m alongside government and municipalities counter-part support of $71m, for a total project cost of $236m, said the statement.

The project is expected to be complet-ed in 2020. The Local Government Engi-neering Department and the Department of Public Health Engineering under the Local Government Division will be re-sponsible for implementing the project.

Participating municipalities will prepare their development plans and implement sub-projects in consultation with a broad-based citizen forum known as town level coordination committee. l

5 more RAB men arrested in N’ganj seven murders PAGE 1 COLUMN 5He added that the arrested � ve o� cials admitted their involvement in the mur-ders and told the court that RAB o� -cials Lt Col Tareq Sayed Mohammad, Major Arif Hossain and MM Rana – who had all previously been arrested in con-nection with the Narayanganj murders – had forcefully ordered them to hide the bodies of the seven people who were killed after abduction.

Sources in the district police said the � ve RAB o� cials have been taken to the Masdair Police Line for interro-

gation under top security. Asked whether any more arrests

would be made, Narayanganj SP Mo-hid said the list of suspects had more names including other RAB o� cials, but refused to disclose further details because of the ongoing probe.

Sources said investigators have found clues linking the direct or indi-rect involvement of at least 35 people, including around 23 to 29 members of RAB, with the gruesome murders.

Currently, 15 people including the previously arrested three senior RAB

o� cials are behind bars, while six more members of RAB 11 have given confes-sional statements in court as witnesses to the abduction and killing.

Replying to a question about the progress in investigating the case, the SP added that the seven-murder case was a big case and all the people of the country were waiting for the trial to take place. The police were carefully investigating and it would need more time to � nish the probe, he said.

On April 27, Narayanganj panel mayor Nazrul Islam, three of his aides and driv-

er, and senior lawyer Chandan Sarkar and his driver were kidnapped from the Dha-ka-Narayanganj Link Road. Three days later, six bodies were found � oating in the Shitalakkhya. The seventh body was recovered from the river the next day.

Selina Islam Beauty, the wife of Naz-rul, � led a case with Fatullah Model po-lice station naming Nur Hossain as the prime accused; while Chandan Sarker’s son-in-law Bijoy Kumar Pal � led a sep-arate case with Fatullah police station for the killing of Chandan and his driv-er Ibrahim. l

Dredging erodes Padma riverbank in Munshiganj PAGE 1 COLUMN 1Over the last couple of weeks, Rashid Sheikh, 60, a resident of Khoria village under Kumarbhogh union, has lost 56 decimal of the 70 decimal of land that he inherited from his father. Cracks have also appeared on the remaining property which appears ready to be eroded soon as well.

Sitting heartbroken on his remain-ing land, Rashid told the Dhaka Trib-une: “Last night when I left my proper-ty, there was a minimum of � ve gonda [one gonda= seven decimal] land re-maining. When I returned here in the morning, I saw another three gonda had already gone in the river. While I am staying at the local mosque for the moment, I fear there will be nothing re-maining for me when I come to see my land tomorrow morning.”

Abul Kalam, another victim of river erosion, said: “As the dredgers are lift-ing sediment from the riverbed near these a� ected areas, the river current is strong and causing riverbank erosion.

“We have been living here for many years. This type of erosion has never happened before as dredging had not taken place in the area before,” Kalam added.

Families in Khoria village pointed to a dredger that was excavating sed-iments a kilometre away from the vil-lage, claiming that around 300 vessels carried the extracted soil everyday to other destinations where it was used for commercial purposes.

Victims of riverbank erosion also blamed the local lawmaker for fail-ing to take initiatives in stopping the dredging of the river.

Su� a Begum, 72, a former union parishad member at Kumarbhogh, told the Dhaka Tribune that the local law-maker, who had promised before the election to take care of all the problems of local residents, was now nowhere to be found.

When contacted, the MP of Munshi-ganj 2 constituency, Sagufta Yasmin, said: “All the residents of Lohajang upazila are like my children. I stand beside them for all kinds of problems they face.”

She also claimed that the sediment lifted from Padma River was used for the Padma Bridge project and also for development of roads and highways projects under the Shipping Ministry and Communication Ministry.

“As a local lawmaker, I have no pow-er to oppose the ministry decision; al-though I am always against lifting of sediment from Padma River,” the MP said.

Meanwhile, the locals claimed that the dredging business was a lucrative trade for ruling party leaders, who al-legedly received Tk15,000 in commis-sion from every sand-carrying vessels. The dredging work was also supervised by in� uential Awami League leaders, they added.

Lawmaker Yasmin, however, de-nied allegations about ruling party

leaders’ involvement in river dredg-ing, saying: “None of my local leader is involved with the lifting of sediment from Padma river. All dredging projects have gone to people outside this area through tender.”

But when the Dhaka Tribune spoke to the people working with the dredg-ers, they said local ruling party leader Rashid Sikder was in charge of the sed-iment lifting.

Several victims of the riverbank ero-sion, preferring to stay unnamed, told the Dhaka Tribune that they received threats from Rashid Sikder over the phone after recently staging demon-strations against the dredging work. Rashid threatened to � le false cases against the locals who protested the dredging, they added.

“Now all of us have kept our mouth shut against them and are enduring their injustice,” a victim told Dhaka Tribune seeking anonymity.

Meanwhile, Rashid Sikder, the general secretary of Lohajang thana Awami League unit, denied the alle-gations against him. The sediment be-ing dredged were used in government projects, Rashid claimed, but admitted that he oversaw the dredging opera-tions. He further claimed that dredging of the river did not cause riverbank ero-sion in the area.

Asked about the alleged threats is-sued by him, the Awami League leader claimed that such rumours were spread by the local BNP activists.

Several local Awami League leaders, seeking anonymity, however told the Dhaka Tribune that Rashid was an in-� uential leader in the area and was the “right-hand man” of local MP Sagufta Yasmin.

Many people who lost their land urged the government to rehabilitate them to other locations or compensate them with money equal to the price of their lost land.

Upazila Nirbahi O� cer Muhammad Khalequzzaman told the Dhaka Trib-une: “We are trying to help the victims of riverbank erosion. From tomorrow, we are going to distribute 10 tonne of food among the victims.”

Asked about what action had been taken to stop the dredging, he said: “The river sediment is used for govern-ment-run projects, while without the soil the development work will stop. But I think dredging is not responsible for riverbank erosion.

“As many of the victims are rich people, we will identify the families in need who have already lost their land and then � nd them rehabilitation.”

When asked about initiatives for rehabilitating the erosion victims, law-maker Sagufta Yasmin said: “I have already sent proposals to the water re-sources minister and the shipping min-ister to take initiatives to help my ar-ea’s residents who have fallen victims to riverbank erosion. Many projects worth Tk120 crore are also going on to protect the area from erosion.” l

Rangpur has the highest poverty PAGE 1 COLUMN 2BBS Director General Golam Mostafa Kamal explained that the latest poverty maps provided disaggregated poverty estimates to better understand the geo-graphical variations in poverty incidence.

Mannan said the poverty map is an essential planning tool that provides powerful visuals to identify poor are-as with greater accuracy. “The poverty map 2010 will also provide inputs for the seventh � ve-year plan keeping in view the targets proposed under Vision 2021.”

While Bangladesh has made an im-pressive economic and social gains over the past decade, poverty levels continue to be a challenge with around 32% of people living below the poverty line in 2010, says the World Bank.

These maps show that poverty rates vary considerably according to loca-tion, with pronounced inequalities at division, district (zila) and sub-district (upazila) levels.

“Comparing poverty maps with maps of social and other indicators that are correlated with poverty helps identify key impediments and bottle-necks that poor people face,” said Sal-man Zaidi, lead economist of the World Bank. “I hope the government will � nd

the poverty maps helpful to plan better targeted interventions.”

The maps show that the northern and southern districts, apart from Barisal, have a high prevalence of poverty and low primary school completion rates.

Similarly, poverty appears to be high in chronic disaster-prone areas such as the districts along the Jamuna River where the communities are repeatedly a� ected by river erosion and � ooding and in the south-west which is prone to cyclones, tidal surges, salt water intru-sion and water-logging.

“These poverty maps also provide a good indication where the most food insecure areas of the country are. In Bangladesh, with well-functioning markets, people’s purchasing pow-er remains the most important factor in their access to food,” said Christa Räder, WFP Representative.

The government o� cials claimed that starvation in the monga-hit north-ern region has now come down to 3% from 45% mainly due to the govern-ment’s economic activities in the area.

“Monga has already gone to the mu-seum. The overall economic activities in the area has brought drastic changes in the life of people,” said an o� cial. l

100-year delta plan PAGE 1 COLUMN 6Mustafa suggested that there was a need for an integrated approach to future land use and water management in relation to water safety and food security; gov-ernance also needed to be strengthened, integrated and focused on addressing Bangladesh’s future challenges.

The minister said it had become im-perative to develop a holistic longterm vision to optimise short-term interven-tions and investments to prepare for future challenges.

Keeping these views in mind, the government initiated the formulation of the Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100, he said.

The delta plan will focus on e� ective river dredging and river bank protection, construction of embankments, manage-ment of low lying land reclaimed from rivers, lives and assets, proper utilisa-tion of low lying areas for lives and live-lihoods, particularly in the coastal belt.

Disaster Management Minister Mo-fazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya said because of its geo-physical location, topography and high population den-sity Bangladesh risked recurring natu-ral and human-induced hazards with an average 10 million people a� ected every year.

Describing measures so far taken by his ministry in disaster management, cyclone preparedness and relief oper-

ation, Maya said the delta plan would come up with new innovative inputs for framing successive national plans for the next 50-100 years.

He said the envisaged detailed stud-ies in 19 thematic areas would provide precise suggestions that needed to be revisited in the current Standing Or-ders on Disaster last revised in 2010.

Water Resources Minister Anisul Is-lam Mahmud said: “We have already completed protection work of 265km river bank, constructed 538km new embankments, repaired 1,401km em-bankments, built 35 bridges and cul-verts, excavated 366km drainage ca-nals and 129km irrigation canals.

He expressed hope that the stud-ies would help cast a fresh look on the country’s river dredging strategy for augmenting their � ows in dry season and maintaining navigability through-out the year.

“However, questions still remain to address: Whether we should continue expensive dredging activities and at the same time re� ll our riverbeds with sedi-ments settled due to low � ow during dry season and soil erosion,” Anisul said.

He put emphasis on having an inte-grated plan for haors, baors and beels to optimise the abstraction of natural resources of these areas without dis-turbing the ecological balance.l

Flood not worrying PAGE 1 COLUMN 3the next few days has been comfort-ing. Bangladesh Meteorological De-partment said in its latest bulletin that monsoon rainfall was likely to remain normal over the next three days.

The met o� ce said if monsoon be-haved usually, then the water level in Maghna River would slide over the next 48 hours, marking improvement in the � ash � ood situation.

DhakaBuriganga, Turag, Balu, Shitalakkhya and Dhaleswari – the four rivers in and around the capital – would continue to rise over the next 72 hours because rain-fall had been healthy in the upstream, but remain well clear of their respective danger levels, forecasters said.

On the inundation of the low-lying are-as in the capital’s outskirts, FFWC O� cer Ripon Karmaker said the heavy � ow of water was normal monsoon behaviour.

Shariatpur According to our Shariatpur corre-

spondent, the devastating erosion of the Padma River has hurt the people of Bhedorganj upazila badly. Things have been especially distressing over the last 10 days.

Anwar Hossain Majhi, chairman of Bhedorgonj pazila, said at least 300 families have been rendered homeless and thousands of acres of agricultural land had been eroded by Padma in the last 10 days.

Marooned people from the upazila have urged the government to take im-mediate steps for rehabilitation.

Local lawmaker Sawkot Ali and Sha-riatpur Assistant Deputy Commission-er visited the erosion- and � ood-hit areas yesterday and assured the home-less people of rehabilitation as soon as possible.

Munshiganj At least 48 houses have been fresh-ly a� ected by � ood as Padma erosion continued to wreck havoc in di� erent villages in the district.

Bangladesh Water Development

Board sources said Padma has been � owing 21cm above danger level in the district, accelerating the erosion.

More than a thousand households were already a� ected by the ongoing � ood over last few days. The district administration has so far distributed 30kg of rice to each of the a� ected fam-ilies and allocated another 100 tons for further needs.

Tangail At least 150 villages in the district along the Jamuna River have remained submerged in water for days. Several areas including Bhuapur, Kalihati, Nagorpur, Delduar and Sadar went under water as Jamuna started � owing 13cm above danger level in the district.

Most of infrastructures including school buildings and around 500 hous-es have gone under water.

The district administration has al-ready shifted the a� ected people to safe places and distributed 30kg rice among some 1,400 families.

Bogra At least 75,000 people of some 90 villages in Sonatola, Sariakandi and Dhunot upazilas beside the Jamuna River have been a� ected by � ood.

As of yesterday, the situation was de-teriorating as Jamuna had been � owing 63cm above danger level in the area.

The district administration has al-ready distributed rice, dry food and cash among the su� erers. In addition, they have allocated Tk50 lakh and 50 tons of rice for future needs.

JamalpurAs of yesterday, Jamuna had been � owing 27cm above danger level in Jamalpur district, marooning at least 200,000 people.

Cracks in � ood protection embank-ment of Char Nadagari at Madarganj Upazila in the district are adding to the misery of the marooned people bring-ing in strong � ow of water from the riv-er. Local district administration has al-ready started distributing relief among the � ood-a� ected people. l

Faruqi slaughtered PAGE 1 COLUMN 6Locals and police sources said two youths aged around 26-28 entered Faruqi’s house around 8:30pm saying that they wanted to talk with him about Hajj issues. They visited the house on Tuesday too.

Just after 15 minutes of the incident, three other youths of around same age joined them saying that they were in-terested to perform Hajj.

Around 9pm, three more people, led by Belal from Uttara of the capital, came to the house to take religious les-sons from Faruqi.

After couple of minutes, hearing motorcycle engines and screams com-ing from Faruqi’s house, neighbours rushed in and released the family members and the three visitors.

Members of Ahle Sunnat gathered in front of Faruqi’s house in Rajabazar and demonstrated blaming the activ-ists of Jamaat-e-Islami for the murder.

Meanwhile, students of Jamia Al Sunia Madrasa in Chittagong city’s Mu-radpur area went on a rampage in the intersection and vandalised a number of vehicles around 11:30pm in protest against the murder.

The Islamic Front has announced protest programmes across the country for today.

Md Arifur Rahman Taher Nakse Bandi, the Dhaka city unit ameer of the front, told the Dhaka Tribune that they were yet to decide on announcing a countrywide shutdown.

Sheikh Naimuddin, another Presid-ium member of Ahle Sunnat, told the Dhaka Tribune: “We have no idea who might have killed Faruqi. But we have strong belief that it is a planned act.”

The law enforcers collected evi-dence and samples from the spot. l

HC halts vitamin A capsule distributionn Ahmed Zayeef

The High Court has directed the au-thorities concerned not to distribute Vitamin A capsules without properclinical trial.

The health secretary, the director general of the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) and oth-ers related to the issue will carry out the order.

A vacation bench of Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif and Justice Abu Taher Mo-hammad Saiful Rahman passed the or-der upon a suo moto yesterday, follow-ing a report published in the vernacular daily Kaler Kantho titled “Children fed unapproved vitamin A capsules again.”

The court also issued a rule asking why the distribution of red and blue vitamin A capsules should not be de-clared illegal.

The bench said: “Vitamin A cap-sules are imported without clinical trialwhich is not acceptable under exist-ing laws... Children are in a vulnerableposition. Ensuring their security is es-sential.”

The court also said: “Vitamin A capsules cannot be distributed among children if they are found to be of sub-standard in the test.” l

JS body sets deadline to realise Tk65 crore n Kamran Reza Chowdhury

The Public Accounts Committee, which has the ultimate say in the disposal of unsettled audit objections according to laws, has expressed dissatisfaction over the alleged inaction of the � nance and the local government ministries to realise Tk65 crore from corrupt people.

While discussing the audits of dif-ferent wings of the two ministries yes-terday, the 15-member parliamentary body set a 30-day deadline to realise the money which the audit department in 2006-2007 and 2007-08 � scal years de-tected as violation of the � nancial rule.

The audit department said the mon-ey had gone down the drain due to mis-management, misappropriation and wastage.

“The amount of money involving the audit objections is over Tk65 crore. The Public Accounts Committee has recommended realisation of the mon-ey from the people, but the ministries seem uninterested in doing so. This makes us unhappy,” Abdus Shahid, a committee member, told the Dhaka Tribune after the meeting at the parlia-ment building.

He said the ministries had been giv-en 30 days to realise the money from

the persons and report back to the committee after the deadline expired.

Independent MP Rustum Ali Farazi, another member of the committee, told reporters: “The audit wings detect audit objections and the ministries remain idle. If this trend [inaction in realising money] goes on, corruption will go up.

“The corrupt o� cials will feel en-couraged to commit more corruption.”

The working paper presented at the meeting shows that the audit ob-jections were reported in the internal resources division’s customs, excise and VAT circle and Customs House

and Company Circle under the Finance Ministry, and the Dhaka City Corpora-tion under the Local Government Min-istry.

Of the total amount, the audit objec-tions in the wings under the Finance Ministry is over Tk50 crore while the Dhaka City Corporation caused drain-age of Tk15 crore.

Former home minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir presided over the meet-ing, also attended by AKM Mayeedul Islam, M Amanullah, Ishaq Hossain Talukder, AFM Ruhal Haque, Afsarul Amin, Golam Dastagir Gazi and Mayeen Uddin Khan Badal. l

3NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, August 28, 2014

The � rst Hajj � ight left Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport for Saudi Arabia yesterday SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

‘Subhan targeted Hindus’n Udisa Islam

A new prosecution witness in the trial against Maulana Abdus Subhan yester-day said he had seen the accused assist-ing the Pakistani Army men to identify and kill the Hindus in Satbaria of Pabna during the 1971 Liberation War.

On May 12, 1971, Jamaat-e-Islami leader Subhan, then a Pabna Peace Committee leader, had asked the oc-cupation forces to kill Hindus since they supported the country’s indepen-dence, the witness told the Interna-tional Crimes Tribunal 2.

Twenty-� fth prosecution witness Abdul Baten, 61, said the army and their local collaborators, led by the accused, had carried out atrocities in Fakitpur, Sindoorpur and Kondorpur of Satbaria, Pabna, which his father Madari Mondol and uncle Laskar Mon-dol luckily escaped.

Quoting his father, Baten said the Kandarpur mass killings had taken place by Maulana Subhan and his co-horts Mostafa and Tikka.

“In the morning of May 12, my moth-

er told me that the Pakistani Army be-sieged our village and asked me to run. I hid myself behind the house of Basu Saha where I found many of my neighbours hiding. I watched the forc-es entering our house and taking away my father and uncle. They also set our house on � re.

“When some of us came out of the hideout and tried to cross the road to reach Narohati Beel, Subhan saw them and asked the army men to kill them. Ratna, Chetna, Modon and Ghugri died on the spot during the � ring.”

After the situation calmed down, Bat-en said he had gone outside and heard about the killings in Sindurpoor and Kondorpur of Satbaria from his cousin. “With the help of local people, I found my father and uncle at a place where many dead bodies were dumped.”

Later, defence counsel Mizanul Islam cross examined the witness and the tri-bunal adjourned the trial until Tuesday as the prosecution pleaded for some time to place their next witness.

The prosecution said they might end placing witnesses next week. l

6 more creative papers for HSCn Mushfi que Wadud

Students will have to take six more pa-pers than the existing lineup in the HSC examination from 2016.

The decision to implement the new curriculum under the creative question system was made at a meeting at the Education Ministry yesterday.

Education Secretary Mohammad Sa-dik and senior o� cials of the ministry were present at the meeting.

The six subjects are economics, log-ic, information and communication technology, � nance, banking and in-surance, production management, and marketing and geography.

The meeting also decided that the Da-

khil students under the Madrassa Educa-tion Board would have to take civic sci-ence and citizenship while Alim students have to take economics, physics, biology, civic science and good governance.

From 2017, nine more subjects would be added under the creative question system, the press release said.

The creative question system was introduced at the HSC level in 2012. Be-tween 2012 and 2014, a total of 15 sub-jects of HSC and Alim were brought un-der the creative question system.

Speaking at the meeting, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said the ministry wanted to improve the stan-dard of education to meet the demand of the new globalised world. l

Manpower for police and Rooppur plant suggestedn Mohosinul Karim

A proposal from the home ministry to create 744 new posts of police’s Sub-In-spector, Assistant Sub-Inspector and Constable has received approval of the Secretary Committee on Administra-tive Reform. The committee has also given its approval to create 97 posts for the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant un-der the revenue sector.

The approvals were given in a meet-ing of the committee held at secretariat with Committee Chief and Cabinet Sec-retary Muhammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan.

Cabinet Division’s Acting Secretary (Coordination and Reform) Nazrul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune after yesterday’s meeting that the committee decided to accept all the proposals that were tabled at the meeting. The recommendations will be sent to the ministries and divisions.

The ministries and divisions concerned will take necessary steps to create the posts and start the procedure of recruit-ing the desired o� cials and employees.

According to the proposal of the home ministry, there are around 144 police camps along the south-east belt of the country which is considered as a crime zone. The forces at those camps are working to ensure security and safety of the local people. The forces of Ansar and VDP are also working with the Police forc-es now in that area.

The ministry wants to create the new posts of SI, ASI and constables to depute them in the camps which will strengthen the administration there.

The Ministry of Science and Technol-ogy proposed to create 97 posts of tech-nical and non-technical experts, o� cials and employees for the proposed Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant under revenue sec-tor. That proposal was also given approv-al as prime minister’s priority project.

At the same time, the committee also approved a proposal of creating posts for Gopalganj Sheikh Sayera Khatun Medical College and Hospital and Deaf and Dumb Residential School in Jhenaidah. l

Defence starts argument in Azhar casen Udisa Islam

On the � rst day of closing arguments, the defence in the case against Jamaat leader ATM Azharul Islam yesterday said the accused had not been responsible for “superior command responsibility.”

They also tried to show anomalies in the prosecution case and documents.

Lawyer Shishir Monir said the pros-ecution witnesses had not mentioned the names of al-Badr leaders in Rangpur during the Liberation War. He claimed that the prosecution had placed di� er-ent information about the formation and activities of al-Badr force in the charges and exhibits. “Either the prosecution has to rely on the exhibits or the witnesses.”

On superior command responsibility, Shishir said: “To impose this responsibili-ty, it has to be clear on whom the accused imposed control and who were the subor-dinates. There is no speci� c name of any.”

The tribunal said: “In localities, we know many people by their faces but cannot name many.”

After just two hours of argument, the defence counsel pleaded for time saying: “If I am not unreasonable, then please al-low me adjournment until Monday.”

The prosecution did not oppose the plea and the tribunal allowed the ad-journment.

Earlier, the tribunal asked prosecutor Tureen Afroz to clarify her stance on us-ing the word “brute” during submission

on Wednesday since the defence had raised question about it orally.

The defence said their client had felt abused by one of the prosecutors’ lan-guage and that such remark violated the court’s proceedings and law as well.

Tureen said: “I did not mention some-one’s name with the word. I just used it to prove the intensity of crimes. But if it has hurt anybody, then I apologise and I will be more conscious about my lan-guage in future.”

The tribunal said: “A good artist is one who can end a painting by using their brushes less. You are also an artist and your language is your art...The court has its own decorum, you all should fol-low this.” l

Ex-DMCH director among seven ordered jailn Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

Seven people, including a former direc-tor of Dhaka Medical College Hospital, were sent to jail as they surrendered be-fore a Dhaka court yesterday in a corrup-tion case � led for misappropriating over Tk2.31 crore.

Dhaka’s Senior Special Judge Md Jahrul Haque passed the order rejecting their bail prayers.

Earlier in the day, four doctors in-cluding former DMCH director Brig Gen (retd) Bajle Kader surrendered before the court and sought bail. After hearing the plea, the court decided to pass the order later.

Instead of the dock, the court allowed the seven accused to sit on a bench in the courtroom considering their old age.

As soon as the court cancelled their bail around 3pm, two accused doctors – former senior lecturer of practical phar-macy Dr Md Moshiur Rahman, and As-sistant Professor Dr Atiar Rahman – � ed the court.

Additional public prosecutor of the court Tapash Kumar Paul told the Dhaka Tribune: “The court issued arrest war-rants against the duo. It also issued no-tices on defence counsel Dulal Mitra and the court’s duty police to explain their failure to stop the accused from � eeing the court.”

The judge set September 9 for hold-ing a hearing on charge framing.

The other accused in the case are former deputy director Md Fazullah, former cashier Nazrul Islam (1), former accounts o� cer Nazrul Islam (2), and Habibur Rahman, proprietor of surgical instrument supplier ‘‘Habib Traders.”

According to the case details, the accused in connivance with each other misappropriated Tk2.31 crore from dif-ferent machinery purchase.

Anti-Corruption Commission Assis-tant Director Syed Tahsinul Haque � led the corruption case with Shahbagh po-lice on November 16, 2011.

The charge sheet was submitted to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court on May 15 this year. Later it was sent to the Dhaka’s Senior Special Judge’s Court for trial. l

Rohingya, security issues to dominate talksMyanmar delegation arrives today; o� cial talks on August 31n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Dhaka is set to welcome a high-level Myanmar delegation scheduled to ar-rive today to discuss matters of mutual interest.

“Myanmar is our next door neigh-bour and we want to engage with them in as many ways as possible,” Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque told the Dhaka Tribune.

The seven-member delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister U Thant Kyaw will have formal talks with the secretary on August 31, he said.

This is the 8th foreign secretary level talks, diplomatically termed foreign of-� ce consultation [FoC], between the two countries. The seventh FoC was held in Myanmar capital Nay Pyi Taw last year.

“Our prime minister visited Nay Pyi Taw in 2011 and 2014 and invited Myan-mar President Thein Shen to visit Dha-ka,” he said.

In the FoC, both the parties will mainly discuss security dialogue, bor-der management, Rohingya repatria-

tion, trade, connectivity and gas im-port issues, he said.

“Bangladesh has proposed to have foreign minister level talks in Dhaka and we will discuss about it,” he said.

Security DialogueAnother senior foreign ministry o� cial said the main problem between the two countries is mistrust and lack of con� -dence.

“We want to engage with them in all levels and that’s why we proposed to form a platform to discuss security issue with Myanmar,” he said.

Bangladesh has already handed over the draft of the memorandum of under-standing of the security dialogue and will discuss to � nalise it in the meeting, he added.

The objective of holding the security dialogue with Myanmar is to build con-� dence and remove mistrust.

The government plans to have at least one meeting in a year where an ad-ditional secretary of the foreign minis-try will lead the Bangladesh delegation.

Rohingya repatriationBangladesh will ask Myanmar side to take immediate action to repatriate the Myan-mar nationals stranded in Bangladesh.

Dhaka is well aware about the hu-man rights situation in Rakhine state but Bangladesh is a small country and it cannot allow Myanmar nationals to be pushed into its territory, said the senior foreign ministry o� cial.

About 30,000 documented Myan-mar nationals are located in two refugee camps in Cox’s Bazaar and 0.3 million to 0.5 million undocumented Myanmar nationals are living inside Bangladesh.

“They are posing serious threat to us as Bangladesh does not have enough land and resources to take care of such huge population,” the o� cial said.

Border managementBangladesh and Myanmar have joint borders and they have agreed to con-trol it jointly to tackle drug and human tra� cking, arms smuggling, and illegal movement of people.

“The Myanmar side proposed to set

up border liaison o� ces, which will co-ordinate the border management,” the o� cial said.

Myanmar and India have such ar-rangement and Dhaka asked for concept paper of the liaison o� ce from Nay Pyi Taw, he added.

Bangladesh in principal agreed to the concept and would discuss with all rele-vant stakeholders about how to imple-ment it, the o� cial said.

Gas importDhaka will discuss the issue of gas im-port from the Shwe gas � eld in Rakhine state during the o� cial talks.

“There are four stakeholders in that gas � eld and we will reach all of them,” said the senior o� cial. Bangladesh had already discussed the issue with China and they were positive about it, he said.

A consortium of China, India, Myan-mar and Daewoo of South Korea has developed the gas � eld and about 800-km-long pipeline was installed to supply gas from Rakhine state to Kun-ming in China in 2013.

Dhaka is now preparing to negotiate with other stakeholders like Myanmar, India and Daewoo for importing gas, the o� cial said.

Connectivity Bangladesh and Myanmar are the mem-bers of BCIM initiative and the issue will be discussed in the o� cial level talks.

“In addition to that Bangladesh is ready to construct 25 kilometres of road to have smooth connectivity between the two countries,” the o� cial said.

The proposal had been included in the 2007-08 Annual Development Pro-gramme but Myanmar is yet to response to the project.

Bangladesh also likes to � nance and develop 125 kilometres of roads in-side Myanmar to connect Taungbro to Bawalibazar so that it would be easier for Bangladesh to connect Kunming in China, the o� cial said.

Dhaka will also seek Nay Pyi Taw’s support for Bangladesh’s candidature for UN Human Rights Commission elec-tion to be held in October. l

A pile of garbage occupies more than half the road adjacent to the Fire Service Department building in Fulbaria much to the su� erings of pedestrians and locals . The picture was taken yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Writ challenges government’s authority to conduct MBBS, BDS examsn Ahmed Zayeef

A Supreme Court lawyer has � led a writ petition with the High Court challenging the legality of conducting MBBS and BDS examinations under government supervision.

Supreme Court lawyer Eunus Ali Akond � led the petition yesterday. He urged the court to issue a rule upon the government seeking an explanation.

He also sought the court’s directive about not holding the examinations until the settlement of the writ.

In his petition, Akond said: “According to the Medical and Dental Council Act 2010, the council is supposed to conduct the examinations.”

Among the respondents of the petition are the health secretary, director of health care provision and education, Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council and Dhaka University.

Admission tests for 8,493 seats in medical and dental colleges across the country will be held on October 24.

In 2012, the government decided to take tests for admission in the medical colleges. It stepped back after students had protested and the High Court intervened. l

The ministry wants to create the new posts of SI, ASI and constables to depute them in the camps which will strengthen the administration there

4 NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, August 28, 2014

Court acquits two physicians who left a needle inside the body of patientn Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

A Chittagong court  yesterday  ac-quitted two physicians from a crim-inal case � led for leaving a needle in a patient’s body during a surgery in Chittagong city on January 28 in 2013.

The court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Moshiur Rahman Chowdhury, passed the order ob-serving that criminal case could not be run against the two physicians and added that a compensation suit

could be run against then, said Ad-vocate Rana Das Gupta, counsel for the plainti� .

The acquitted physicians are Dr Shurman Ali, a doctor of Chittagong Medical College Hospital, and Dr GM Zakir Hossain, a doctor at a private clinic in the city, said court sources.

According to the case statement, the victim Amirul Islam, 21, a stu-dent of Journalism department in Asian University, was admitted to a private clinic on  May 30, 2012 for surgery.

During the surgery, Dr Shurman left a needle inside Amirul’s body, which caused further health compli-cations for the patient. Later, Dr Za-kir again operated Amirul but failed to recover the needle.

Later, the victim went to India for better treatment where Consultant Dr Debashish Dutta of Apollo Hospital in Calcutta succeeded in recovering the needle from Aminul’s body on  June 30, 2012.

Following that, the victim’s moth-er Delwara Begum � led the case with

the court of Chittagong Metropoli-tan Magistrate on  January 28, 2013 accusing the two physicians under sections 269, 270, 326, 420 and 34 of Criminal Procedure Code.

Sub-Inspector (SI) Ruhul Amin of Panchlaish police station, also the investigation o� cer of the case, sub-mitted the charge sheet against two doctors on  May 30, 2013 for negli-gence in surgery.

The two physicians are on bail since  March 14, 2013, said court sources. l

3rd foreign minister-level talk with Delhi on Sept 20 n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

The third Bangladesh-India foreign minister-level talks will be held on September 20 in New Delhi to discuss mutually interested issues of the two countries.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali will go to India on September 19 and have the ministerial talks, o� cially termed as Joint Consultative Commis-sion [JCC], on the following day, For-eign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque told the Dhaka Tribune.

This will be the � rst time the foreign minister will engage formally and o� -cially with the Modi government which assumed power in May.

Earlier in June, Indian Foreign Min-ister Sushma Swaraj visited Dhaka on a goodwill visit and both the ministers had a meeting at the foreign ministry.

Another senior foreign ministry o� -cial said the meeting will give input into the meeting of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Nar-endra Modi at the sideline of UN Gener-al Assembly in late September.

Bangladesh has three long pending issue – Teesta water sharing agree-ment, rati� cation of land boundary agreement and border killings – and in

the JCC Bangladesh will � ag those for early implementation.

“Bangladesh will also discuss about enhancing its export to India,” he said.

Dhaka will raise certain para-tari� and non-tari� barriers that are stum-bling block to increasing export to New Delhi, he added.

He said Bangladesh side opposed in-clusion of alleged “illegal immigration” issue in the JCC agenda.

The Indian side also wanted to dis-cuss the illegal immigration issue at the BGB-BSF meeting held in New Del-hi last week but due to opposition from Dhaka it was not discussed.

The o� cial said prior to this meeting no foreign secretary-level talks would be held. “We will not hold foreign sec-retary-level talks this time.”

Before the � rst two Joint consulta-tive commission meetings at the for-eign minister level, foreign secretaries of both the countries sat together and hammered out agenda for the meetings of their bosses.

Teesta agreementThe Indian Foreign Minister before her coming to Dhaka had a talk with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Baner-jee and hinted Bangladesh side that the

West Bengal leader was positive about Teesta agreement.

India noti� ed Bangladesh that New Delhi had already started to work with all stakeholders to build internal consensus to get it through soon, the o� cial said.

Bangladesh and India have been ne-gotiating on Teesta water sharing agree-ment for four decades and was sched-uled to sign in 2011 during the visit of then Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh but due to strong resistance from Mamata, it could not be inked.

Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) The immediate past Congress-led

Indian government had placed a bill to amend constitution in the Rajya Sabha to pave the way for rati� cation of land boundary agreement but it was op-posed by the then opposition BJP on the ground that it would not support hastily rati� cation of the LBA.

“But this time they are in the power and we hope that they will not oppose,” the Foreign Ministry o� cial said.

The issue has been pending for four decades and the new Indian govern-ment must prove that they are sincere in resolving the boundary dispute, he said.

Bangladesh and India signed LBA in 1974 and Dhaka rati� ed it the same year but New Delhi is yet to do so. l

Health services DG Deen Mohammad gets contractual appointment n Mohosinul Karim

The government awarded Director Gen-eral of Health Services Dr Deen Moham-mad Nurul Islam a one year contractual appointment to serve the o� ce.

The public administration ministry yesterday issued a gazette noti� cation in this regard as per the proposal of the health and family welfare ministry and approval of the prime minister.

According to the order, the contrac-tual appointment would be e� ective from September 1 or the date of his joining.

Dr Deen Mohammad was supposed to go on Post Retirement Leave (PRL) from September 1 after the completion of his service age. However, according to the new contract, the PRL will be cancelled from the date of his joining the o� ce.

Meanwhile, retired Brigadier Gen-eral Ahsan Habib Khan was appointed as Vice Chairman of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Com-mission for three years on a contractual appointment.

Also, retired district judge Murshid Alam was appointed as member of the Insurance Development and Regulato-ry Authority for next three years from his date of joining the o� ce. l

BNP: Govt wants to put last nail in the co� n of judiciaryn Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

The BNP yesterday said the govern-ment wanted to put the last nail in the co� n of the judiciary by empowering the parliament to impeach Supreme Court judges.

“The government is giving the par-liament authority to impeach the judg-es in order to establish absolute control over the judiciary so that judges cannot deliver any verdict against them,” Mir-za Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, acting secre-tary general of the party, said.

Addressing a rally at National Press Club protesting the government’s move to empower the parliament to impeach the Supreme Court judges, the BNP leader asked the ruling party men to come to the street without law enforce-ment agencies to taste its power.

“You will say Ziaur Rahman, Khale-da Zia are killers and Tarique Rahman is a black sheep and will people see the mockery sitting idle?,” he said.

The BNP-led 20-party alliance earlier announced demonstration at 15 spots of the city, but later they decided to hold a rally at the National Press Club.

Alliance leaders started joining the rally with small processions and law enforcement agencies tightened se-curity centring the programme. Police prison van, APC car and water cannon were seen outside the meeting venue.

Fakhrul alleged that ‘false’ cases had

been � led and charge sheets in those cases were submitted to keep the oppo-sition leaders and activists away from the election. Cases were � led against more than � ve hundred thousand lead-ers and activists, he claimed.

Criticising Information Minister Hasanul Haque Inu and Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon, the spokesperson of the party said, “Do not mislead people by mak-ing false statements. Make public what was your role in the formation of Bak-sal during 1972-75? You would not be spared for harshly criticising Ziaur Rah-man and Tarique Rahman.”

Calling upon the people to join the party’s ongoing movement, Fakhrul said, “Let us resist the government through the movement and move for-ward to form the people’s government.”

Dhaka City Unit BNP Convener Mirza Abbas who chaired the programme said all who attended today’s programme were not BNP leaders and activists rath-er most of them were conscious people.

“If we take to the streets with the people, the government will not � nd the way to escape. No one will be spared for committing misdeeds.”

Asking the party leaders and activ-ists not to chant any slogan inside the hall room, he said, “It is not needed to chant slogan and show placard every-where. You show it where it is needed and do not chant any slogan here.” l

Coordination among ministries stressed for human tra� cking n Rabiul Islam

Speakers at a conference yesterday em-phasised on the coordination among ministries concerned to combat human tra� cking in the country.

The observation was made at the na-tional conference on Bangladesh’s Na-tional Plan of Action (NPA) 2012-14 and 2015-17 organised by WINROCK Inter-national at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre.

INCIDIN Bangladesh, a non-govern-ment organisation working on human tra� cking, presented a draft NPA for 2015-17. The NPA 2012-14 is being im-plemented under the responsibility of the Home Ministry which would end on December this year.

Speaking as chief guest, Law Ministry Joint Secretary Abu Ahmed Jamadar expressed discontent as o� cials of the ministry concerned were absent. If o� cials who are directly involved with the coordination of the

issue, remained absent, who would listen to it, who would implement it, he pointed out.

O� cials of the Home Ministry, So-cial Welfare Ministry and Expatriates’ Welfare Ministry were absent. Expatri-ates’ Welfare Ministry Additional Sec-retary Hazrat Ali was to attend as the chief guest.

Jamadar suggested the organiser arrange an inter-ministerial meeting to e� ectively deal with human tra� cking.

While over-viewing the draft of NPA 2015-17, INCIDIN Bangladesh’s Executive Director AKM Masud Ali said a concerted e� ort of di� erent ministries is needed to tackle human tra� cking.

Chief of Party, ACT Program Sarah Stephens said human rights of the peo-ple were being violated due to human tra� cking and as a result, people from all walks of life are a� ected, adding the tra� ckers abuse and misuse legitimate migration. l

In order to resolve the shortage of drinking water at home, residents of the capital’s Rajarbagh area � ll up bottles and jars with tap water from the Rajarbagh Police Lines yesterday MEHEDI HASAN

Managing Director and CEO of the City Bank Ltd Sohail RK Hussain addresses a press conference titled ‘Second Bangladesh Investment Summit’ at Sonargaon Hotel in the capital yesterday NASHIRUL ISLAM

Dr Akhlakul’s 2nd death anniversary todayn Tribune Report

The second death anni-versary of Dr Akhlakul H o s s a i n Ahmed, a former Gano P a r i s h a d member and an organiser of the 1971 l i b e r a t i o n

war, will be observed today. As part of it, members of Dr Akh-

lakul Hossain Ahmed Sriti Parishad will place garlands on his grave and hold a doa mah� l at his birthplace of Choiasi village in Mohanganj upazila of Ne-trokona seeking the salvation of his de-parted soul, says a media release.

Akhlakul, who was a physician, was born in 1926. He was a member of the 1970 Pradesik Parishad from the ruling Awami League and he played a pivotal role in making the constitution of our country. l

WEATHER

5NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, August 28, 2014

PRAYER TIMES Fajar 4:22am Sunrise 5:38am Zohr 12:00am Asr 4:28pm Magrib 6:21pm Esha 7:39pm

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 6:22PM SUN RISES 5:39AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW34.5ºC 24.0ºCJessore Sylhet

THURSDAY, AUGUST 28

F O R E C A S T F O R T O D A YDhaka 33 26Chittagong 31 26Rajshahi 32 26Rangpur 33 26Khulna 30 25Barisal 31 25Sylhet 33 25Cox’s Bazar 30 25

SourceL IslamicFinder.org

Government to assess output performance of power distribution utilitiesn Aminur Rahman Rasel

The government will conduct a sur-vey on customer satisfaction about electricity supply through a � rm toassess the performance level of three state-owned distribution utilities out of � ve.

The initiative has been taken be-cause of the criticisms regarding fre-quent power outages and also to ensure better customer service. The survey is believed to give a clear picture of the nature and causes of public su� ering related to electricity supply.

“We have already selected a � rm named Midas Financing Limited after sorting a number of proposals sub-mitted by di� erent � rms,” Power Cell Director (Commercial) Md Amzad Hos-sain told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

The Power cell under the Power Di-vision will supervise the survey after the appointment of the private � rm, he added.

“A deal will soon be signed with the � rm and after that the survey will start within six months,” Amzad said, add-ing that the � rm would charge Tk40 lakh for conducting the survey.

The � rm's survey would mainly focus on domestic, industry and com-mercial consumers to verify and eval-uate the data on the frequency and duration of electricity outages. The � rm would also examine the strengths and weaknesses of the utilities in re-

spect to customer service and provide recommendations for better customer service.

The survey would be carried out in ten selected Network Operation and Customer Services (NOCS) division un-der both the Dhaka Power Distribution Company Limited (DPDC) and Sales and Distribution (S&D) division un-der the West Zone Power Distribution Company Limited and four Palli Bidyut Samiti out of 72 under the Rural Electri-� cation Board (REB). A total of 15, 000 consumers would be surveyed, 5, 000 from each distribution company.

The DPDC covers Dhanmondi, Mo-hammadpur, Tejgaon, Moghbazar, Dhaka (South) and Narayanganj areas and the West Zone covers 21 districts including Khulna in the southwestern region.

The REB supplies electricity in the rural areas.

Power Development Board (PDB) and Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited (Desco), the two other state-owned suppliers, have not been includ-ed in the survey.

Amzad said PDB and Desco would not be included in the survey as PDB covers mainly district town based areas similar to the West Zone. “On the oth-er hand, Desco covers the Dhaka city which is the same as DPDC and that is why there is no need to conduct the same survey in two companies operat-ing in the same area.” l

Minority people dispossessed of their land in Barisaln Our Correspondent, Barisal

Valuable land properties of minority owners were dispossessed during early hours of Sunday and Monday allegedly by the cadres of in� uential land grabbers.

The police at Rahamatpur area un-der Barisal airport police station were informed about the grabbing attempts, but the law enforcers remained inac-tive, the panicked local minority com-munity members alleged.

Local in� uential land grabbers Hos-sain Hawladar and Ripon Hawladar with a gang of armed people forcibly occu-pied 22 decimals of land owned by betel leaf planter Shanti Ranjan Mitra during early hours of Sunday and Monday.

Gopal Mitra, betel leaf planter and nephew of Shanti Mitra, said they owned 1.02 acres of land through in-heritance after the government allotted

them the property many years ago as landless betel leaf planting families near the Rahamatpur Khal of Rahamatpur Bandar under the then Babuganj and present Barisal airport police stations.

Gopal added: “Land grabbers led by Hossain Hawladar and Ripon Hawladar tried to grab our land by preparing false documents of auction and � led a case in 1992. However, the court rejected their plea and gave the judgment in fa-vour of us in 2008.

The grabbers then � led an appeal against the verdict of the lower court but were ordered to maintain statu-esque till the disposal of the case.”

However, the grabbers cordoned o� a portion of the disputed land with a fence and also constructed a shop on that land on August 25 and 26 nights.

Local minority people said they in-formed Barisal airport police station

about the grabbing attempts violating the statuesque. Police Sub Inspector Monir visited the spot four-times en-suring us about providing safety and security of our lives and properties, lo-cal minority people claimed.

Gopal said: “When we informed the police about the grabbing activities by armed cadres of the grabbers on Mon-day night, police assured us about sending the patrol team immediately. However, the police remained indif-ferent till this report and the grabbers completed their criminal o� ences.”

Hossain Hawladar, alleged land grabber, however claimed deputy com-missioner allotted that land to them as river erosion a� ected landless family.

“As we were busy during day-time earning livelihoods, so my men worked at night on the land allotted to us,” ex-plained Hossain.

Md. Shamsuddin, commissioner of Barisal Metropolitan Police (BMP), said he will investigate about the violation of statuesque and the inaction of police to ensure the safety and security of the lives and properties of minority community.

BMP commissioner also asked the mi-nority community land owners to come to his o� ce with related documents.

A team of Bangladesh Hindu-Bud-dha- Christian Oikya Parishad (BHB-COP) Barisal unit visited the spot on Tuesday to prepare a report for the cen-tral committee and various authorities, informed Suranjit Dutta Litu, city sec-retary of BHBCOP.

“The BHBCOP also called for inter-ference of the Prime Minister to ensure the safety and security of the minority community and their life and proper-ties,” said advocate Hiran Kumar Das Mithu, district president of BHBCOP. l

Road accidents kill two in Chittagongn FM Mizanur Rahaman

Two persons were killed in seperate road accidents in Chittagong yesterday.

The deceased were identi� ed as Md Selim (25) and Md Jahrul Islam Soton. Selim is a truck driver's assistant.

Nayek Jahangir Alam of Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) Po-lice Outpost said Selim was critically injured when a truck collided head-on with a lorry on Dhaka-Chittagong High-way at Banshbariya area of Sitakunda upazila at 7:30am. Later, he died at the CMCH.

Earlier, Soton was killed when a truck hit him inside the BSRM Steel Re-Rolling Mills at Bar Awlia area of Si-takunda upazila early yesterday. l

Kashimpur residents take fright at group hysteriaKashimpur High School was closed fora week as 25 students fell illn Our Correspondent, Gazipur

Panic has gripped the locals in Kashim-pur of Gazipur in the wake of 25 female students of Kashimpur High School falling ill and fainting simultaneously on Tuesday.

The school has been closed for a week after the incident, said Gazipur Deputy Commissioner Nurul Islam.

Headmaster of the school Abdul Mannan said the � rst case of the col-lective hysteria occurred on August

21 when tenth-grader Samia Tamanna Mishu had to be taken to Hazi General Hospital after she had abruptly fallen ill due to headache and respiratory prob-lems.

“On August 24, several other girls fell ill the same way and were admitted to the hospital. The following day, the number rose to 15 and they were taken to di� erent hospitals and clinics. Then on August 26, another twenty-� ve stu-dents said they were feeling sick and fainted afterwards. They were taken to Hazi General Hospital and Kashimpur MM Clinic,” he said.

Mannan said he announced general holiday in the school for Tuesday, but people began to believe that some sort of virus had caused the illness.

“Panic spread fast among the residents of the area, and especially the guardians feared a virus attack,” he added.

A number of girls receiving treat-ment at the hospital said they sudden-

ly felt headache and could not breathe properly.

“At one stage, I lost consciousness. Something like this never happened to me at home,” one of the girls said.

Taijul Islam, father of eighth-grad-er Suchana, said he was concerned about the illness of his daughter and was apprehensive about the possible spread of any virus. Assistant teacher of the school Shahidul Islam said the students who fell ill on Monday did not attend Tuesday's classes, fearing that they might become sick again.

Dr Ra� qul Islam at Hazi General Hos-pital said girls were getting admitted to the hospital for the last three days.

“This could stem from tension or physical weakness, but I cannot rule out a virus attack. The girls fainted after feeling headache. Those who recovered after receiving treatment said they did not have that feeling again,” he said.

“We have no medical equipment in our hospital to detect the presence of any virus,” he added.

1,000 students study in the school but only girls have fallen ill so far, said the headmaster.

“I informed the deputy commis-sioner and the upazila nirbahi o� cer of this,” he said.

Civil Surgeon of Gazipur Dr Shah Alam Sharif said he was informed of the incident but there was nothing to be panicked.

“This is a mental illness. It attacks people who are around a patient of this illness. This is called mass psychogenic illness, and is prevalent among school-girls,” he said.

Deputy Commissioner Nurul said he talked to the civil surgeon after learn-ing about girls falling ill collectively.

“Hopefully, the panic will go away when the school opens a week later,”

Speakers: Indo-Bangla publishers' partnership can help both n Mushfi que Wadud

A trustworthy partnership between publishers of Bangladesh and India can help both the countries to reach a new height in publishing books, discussants at a conference said yesterday.

There are opportunities of trade in books and content between the two countries but some trade barriers are impeding them, Bangladeshi and In-dian publishers said while speaking at a conference on the Challenges and Opportunities in the Book Publishing Sector.

Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) organ-

ised the conference in association with Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) and Global Intellectual Property Academy in the capital.

Speaking at the conference, Bangla-deshi publishers pointed out that there was not a fair book trade between the two countries as some barriers were causing problems for publishers in Bangladesh.

“The possibilities of Indo-Bang-la book trade are great but potentials have not been realised fully,” Mo� d-ul Hoque, director, Shahitya Prakash, Bangladesh said.

He said while books in English pub-

lished from India found easy access to the market in Bangladesh, unfortu-nately the same is not true for English titles published from Bangladesh. Mo� dul also pointed out that in the procurement policy and practice of the library network of India, there was no place for books from Bangladesh.

“A joint study on Bangladesh book access to Indian market and vice-versa is necessary to work towards the pro-motion of fair trade concept,” he added.

Mohiuddin Ahmed, managing di-rector of The University Press Limit-ed, termed the Bangladesh-India book trade unequal. “Bangladesh remains a peripheral market to India,” he said,

adding that Bangladesh was still lag-ging behind in producing quality books for the region and the work.

Pointing out � gures, Mohiuddin said except for the � nancial year 2013-2014, import of books and periodicals was in-creasing over time and export was neg-ligible and has been decreasing.

“Bangladesh must adopt and imple-ment the National Book Policy that will enable national book capacity.”

Subrata Das, editorial director of Setu Prakashani of India said there was lack of trust between the publishers of the two countries.

Inaugurating the two-day long con-ference, Cultural A� airs Minister Asa-

duzzaman Noor said the imbalance between the ratio of book import and export between the two countries was quite apparent.

“Bangladesh imports huge number of � ction and non-� ction books from India which is a contrast to Indian im-ports from Bangladesh. This type of conference has the potentials to ne-gotiate on business ventures between the countries and bring the people in-volved in the book publishing sector together,” he said.

Among others, Rohit Kumar, co-chair of FICCI publishing committee, FBCCI President Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed spoke at the conference. l

Protest shuts down garment factoryn Our Correspondent, Savar

A garment factory was declared closed for an inde� nite period of time follow-ing a protest by workers.

Authorities of Designers Jeans facto-ry at Ashulia's Jamgora area, shut down the factory yesterday morning.

According to the workers of the factory, the authority laid o� factory's

line chief Jahangir and an operator also named Jahangir on Tuesday.

Since then the workers went on a strike demanding reappointment of the two workers, an end to the whimsical discharge, and removal of six adminis-trative o� cials.

When the workers returned on Wednesday morning, they found the factory closed since then they burst

into protest. Later police brought the situation under control by dispersing the crowd.

Director of Industrial Police in Ashu-lia, Mosta� zur Rahman said, the au-thority had shut down the factory to avoid further deterioration of the situ-ation. A large number of law enforcers was deployed to keep the site under control. l

Accident can take place at any time as cables on a lamp post in Zindabazar area of Sylhet city have been set up hazardously. The photo was taken yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

A portion of a road adjacent to a amusement park in the Borokuthi area of Rajshahi city collapses on Tuesday night, creating panic among local people DHAKA TRIBUNE

'Around 1,000 students study in the school , but only girls have fallen ill so far'

DRIZZLE

6 NationDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, August 28, 2014

Body of a youth recoveredin Moulvibazar townBody of a young man was recovered from a house in Moulvibazar district town yesterday morning. The deceased was identi� ed as Rama Kanta Sarkar, 20, son of Bidhan Sarkar of Sayerpur residential area of Moulvibazar district town. According to police and local sources, Rama’s body was found hanging from the ceiling of his room. The cause of the death could not be known immediately. Police sent the body to Moulvibazar 250-bed Hospital morgue for an autopsy. Md Abdus Salek, o� cer-in-charge (OC) of Moulvibazar sadar model police station con� rmed the incident.– Our Correspondent, Moulvibazar

30 injured in Habiganj clashAt least 30 people, including women, were hurt in a clash over establishing supremacy in Habiganj. Among the critically injured, 3 people were sent to Sylhet and 8 to Habiganj Sadar Hospital. Police and local witnesses said, there had been a long standing dispute between UP member Kalon Mia and Haji Hugul Mia of Mirzapur village. The two sides locked in clash with localweapons and injured villagers including women. OC of Habiganj Sadar police station, Md Nazim Uddin said, they rushed to the spot upon information and brought the situation undercontrol. – Our Correspondent, Habiganj

Inde� nite bus strike in ThakurgaonThe Motor Owners’ Association and Sramik Union of Thakurgaon district went on an inde� nite bus strike on � ve routes of the dis-trict Tuesday morning, demanding a ban on plying of unauthorised vehicles. The reason for enforcing the strike was local administra-tion’s alleged failure to stop plying of human haulers like diesel-run three wheelers, Nasimon, Karimon and battery-driven easy bikes on the busy roads and highways. The motor owners’ association and Sramik Union gave a 72-hour ultimatum to press home their demands at 12pm yesterday. District Motor Owners’ Associa-tion President Ram Babu said: “The Sramik Union has taken the decision in a joint meeting with the leaders of Truck-Tank-Lorry-Covered van Workers’ Association at 8pm on Tuesday. The owners’ association has extended its support with the demand.– Our correspondent, Thakurgaon

Female held with smuggledliquor in Kurigram Police arrested a femal with 60 bottles of Indian liquor yesterday from Ghogadah Bazar of Kurigram. Sadar Thana police said, they detained Beauty Begum in a raid and recovered the bottles of O� cer Choice and Tango brands spirits smuggled from India. Beauty Begum’s husband escaped at that time. OC of Kurigram Sadar thana Abdul Baten said, a case had been � led against the couple under the Narcotics Control Act. – Our Correspondent, Kurigram

NEWS IN BRIEFChild rescued after 13 hours of abductionn Our Correspondent, Gazipur

Police rescued a schoolboy from Tongi yesterday around 11pm, 13 hours after abduction from Gazipur.

The victim is Parvez, 7, son of Italy expatiate Shahidullah from Kashem-pur area. Kidnappers abducted Parvez from his school around 9am and de-manded a ransom of Tk2 lakh from his mother through a phone call.

Later, police rescued him from near a bKash shop at Shataish Kha Para in Ton-gi around 11pm. The SI Ha� zur Rahman said the kidnappers were waiting for the ransom money in front of the o� ce. l

100 studentsfall ill having school ti� n n Our Correspondent, Natore

Over 100 students fell ill at Natore Government Girls’ School after eating snacks provided by the school author-ities yesterday.

Family sources of the students said the students of the school started to feel severe stomach pain after eating cakes served by the authorities.

Many of them started vomiting and having dizziness within few minutes.

Umme Fariatul Prema, a Class VI student of the school said the cakes were provided among the students and teachers. After taking the snacks, the students fell ill one after another.

Civil Surgeon Ferdous Nilufar said 70 students of them were sent to hospital. “We have collected the sample of the cakes and sent it to Dhaka”, she added.

Child specialist Emdadul Haque Dulal and doctor Abdul Kalam Azad of Natore Sadar Hospital said the students might fall sick due to food poisoning.

A probe committee headed by Addi-tional Deputy Commissioner Kazi Atiur Rahman was formed in this connection.

Meanwhile, the teachers � ee away locking their rooms instead of proving medical services for the ill students. l

Chandpur turns safe route for drug peddlingTraders choose river, road and rail routes to send hauls elsewheren Our Correspondent, Chandpur

The evildoers involved in the drug smuggling and trading have become upbeat as the district has recently turned into a risk-less passage for their business.

It was learnt that drug hauls are being brought to the district from the Indo-Bangla frontier Comilla, Cox’s Bazar, Brahmanbaria and Bandarban districts and then the drug traders supply those to Shariatpur, Noakhali, Lakshmipur, greater Barisal as well as the capital.

Basically, the drug traders choose naval, road and rail routes to send their hauls elsewhere in the country, in which they use women and children to shun the eyes of the law enforcers.

Locals alleged that the traders have been running their business in con-nivance with some corrupt o� cialsof law enforcing agencies and local in� uential political leaders, who have become a great barrier in curbing the trading.

They also stated that in line with be-ing used as a safe route, di� erent sorts of drugs have � ooded all over the dis-trict although once upon a time it was only limited in the district town.

Puranbazar of the district town is vastly known for wholesale trading of drugs, to in� uence which many inci-dents of � erce clash erupted earlier as well while Baburhat, Wireless areas are being used as safe transit point.

Police sources said the drug traders have currently prefer naval route due to not having proper checking there.

Although several years ago the dis-trict administration declared a war against the drug trading, there were no mentionable achievement till now while the drug barons changetheir ways continuously so that the law enforcers easily can not track down them.

According to the district intelligence department, law enforcers arrested 50 drug traders along with around Tk28 lakh drugs till June from January this year and some 39 cases were launched in the incidents.

The lion part of the seized drug in-cluded hemp, phensidyl and yaba.

Md Anjum Ferdouse, OC of District Detective Branch of police, told the Dhaka Tribune that despite having var-ious types of limitation, they were con-ducting drives repeatedly to arrest the drug smugglers and traders.

Chandpur SP Aamir Zafar said: “Drug smugglers bring their hauls from bordering districts - Cox’sBazar, Bandarban, Comilla and Brahmanbaria – in my district from where the drug traders supply thoseelsewhere in the country by di� erent channels.”

The law enforcers have been kept alerted dully on all possible drug routes while they were showing zero toler-ance to the dangerous drug trading, the SP continued.

In this regard, Chandpur Govern-ment Railway Police (GRP) OC Suvas Kanti Das said he was not aware of drug smuggling through the rail route, but he assured of looking into the matter seriously in the future. l

Picture shows students of Natore Government Girls' School lie at Sadar Hospital as they fall ill after taking snacks provided by the school authorities yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Laws that favour foreign investment in Bangladeshn Luc Mvono

Over the past decades, Bangladesh has become a major attraction for international

investment. Be it H&M, Zara or GAP, the fact that renowned brands have manufacturing units in Bangladesh is a testament to the claim that Bangladesh is a dream destination for investors from across the globe in numerous sectors.

Having accorded statutory pro-tection to foreign investments and ensured equal treatment for local and foreign investors, Bangladesh welcomes foreign investments and guarantees equal, and in many re-spects, favourable treatment to foreign investors. The government assures protection against nationalisation and expropriation through the Foreign Private Investment Act of 1980 which inclusively assures the repatriation of capital and dividend for foreign investors. Bangladesh has also made adequate legislative provisions to pro-tect intellectual property rights.

In supplement to the Foreign Private Investment Act of 1980, the government has established a FDI Poli-cy (Foreign Direct Investment Policy) advocating simple yet e� cient mecha-nism for investing in Bangladesh. The policy eases setting-up businesses by simplifying the process of leasing and buying private land, incorporating an entity, allowing corporate tax holiday for 7 years (15 years in the power sec-tor) and implementing an exemption of income tax of foreign employees for up to 3 year in some respects.

Foreign investments in Bangladesh vary in both expenses and duration. Although di� erent businesses have di� erent procedures, the typical requirements to set up a business in-clude a trade license, VAT registration, import/export registration certi� cate (if applicable), licence from authori-

ties, bank account, taxpayer’s identi� -cation number (TIN) and membership of the trade body.

Sole proprietorship (sole trader-ship) is a type of business where the proprietor is held solely liable for any occurrence pertaining to the business. The laws related to the individual are the legislation applicable to a sole proprietorship. Partnerships are also a common form of business. A partner-ship is an agreement between 2 to 20 individuals consenting to share pro� ts and risks among themselves for a business. To be recognised as such, it is important that an agreement or con-tract be made between the partners.

A limited company is a company in which the shareholders’ liabilities are limited to their investments (or guarantees) in the company. The Companies Act of 1994 requires all to be registered in Bangladesh via the registrar of joint stock companies and � rms. A private limited company places � rm restrictions on the rights to transfer of shares, and is comprised of between two and 50 members (exclud-ing employees). Private companies do not allow public subscription for the debentures or shares of the company.

Public limited companies are allowed to welcome the public to subscribe to the shares and deben-tures of the company through a guide congruent with the Companies Act of 1994, the Securities and Exchange ordinance of 1969 and the Securities and Exchange Commission Act 1993. Public limited companies require at least seven members and three direc-tors to be acknowledged as such.

Another form of business common-ly undertaken in Bangladesh is joint ventures. These are business agree-ments between entities agreeing to establish a business collectively for a speci� c purpose. The parties involved split all costs, risks and pro� ts. Joint ventures can be limited by guarantee,

or by shares. Supplementary require-ments to set up a joint venture include a copy of the joint venture agreement, a Memorandum of Association (MOA), an Article of Association (AOA), the names and addresses of shareholders and directors, and a copy of the rental agreement or lease deed.

Foreign investors looking to set up a business in Bangladesh can do so through branches/liaison/representa-tive o� ces. These o� ces are expected to con� ne their activities to the boundaries set by the National Board of Investment (BOI). The o� ces will be required to provide an inward remit-tance of at least $50,000 in a period of two months after the permission letter has been issued along with six months of operational expenses.

Branches/liaison/representative o� ces will be required to submit documents to BOI including a � lled, signed, and stamped application form, MOA and AOA of the head company, and the nationalities of the directors along with accounts of the immedi-ately preceding � nancial year.

Immigration in Bangladesh looks at prospective investors favourably. The government has strove over the years to improve employment conditions as well as social security. To enforce and sustain equity and a welcoming busi-ness environment, the Bangladeshi government has outlawed prejudice on the basis of nationality, giving all people equal employment opportuni-ties with very few restrictions.

Prospective international inves-tors may apply for visas for periods ranging from one month to � ve years. Branches/liaison/representative o� ces must obtain a work permit from the BOI. Such o� ces however are free and encouraged to hire employees locally. The number of expatriate employees in an industrial enterprise cannot exceed the ratio of 1:20 (foreign: local) for industrial settings and 1:5 (foreign:

local) for commercial establishments.In cases of disputes, alternative

dispute resolutions are possible under the Arbitration Act of 2001. Bangladesh has signed the Interna-tional Convention for the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards. Bangladesh is also member of International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). The current legislation also allows the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards without much hindrance.

Although venturing in a business may be daunting, Bangladesh o� ers investors a stable and resourceful environment suitable for the estab-lishment or expansion of any business, and after much consideration, it can be stated that Bangladesh is in fact a “dream investment destination.” l

The writer is an aspiring lawyer interested in foreign investment law. He can be reachedat info@legacylegalcorporate.com.

JurisDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, August 28, 2014 7

n SM Masum Billah

“Attempting to reform law is somewhat like making a sheet of corrugated irons � at with a

hammer.” The government’s move for the transformation of judges’ impeachment law reminds me of this catchy metaphor coined by the Indian legal giant VR Krishna Iyer, a former Indian chief justice. There will be talks, criticisms and upsets. But transformation is always challenging and daunting. The issue is whether we are ready to take the good things to design our nation’s destiny.

Therefore, the moot question is: if the parliament gets the power of judg-es’ impeachment, will that undermine the independence of the judiciary? For me, whatever mechanism we do fashion, the goal should be to develop a good state system under which every organ will be placed at the service of the people. This is what I call “law at people’s service.”

It is settled that judges cannot function under a condition where they su� er from insecurity of tenure and feel the presence of a guillotine over their head in the event of a case other-wise adjudicated upon. If either of the twin constitutional pillars of judicial independence: security of tenure and conditions of service is eroded, in time, society will have to pay an awful price, says Australian Chief Justice Sir Gerard Bernnan. For this, any removal provision should have certain basic safeguards. Keeping this truth in mind, I will examine some of the is-sues that recently revolve around our state wheels.

As widely admitted, the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) was almost dysfunctional, the need change in the system was being well felt. The government has taken a move to intro-duce the parliamentary intervention system in the impeachment process of the judges. This system is not un-heard of, rather practised in di� erent jurisdictions. However, the migration of that constitutional idea is not in itself a boon for our purpose. The issue is what kind of safeguards we will be able to provide to make the system more native, sound and e� cient.

In the � rst place, the grounds of impeachment should be very rigid and limited. The practice throughout the Commonwealth countries shows that grounds of removal are largely con� ned to two: misconduct and incapacity. The 1972 provision is very speci� c in this regard. It suggests that judges are irremovable except on the ground of “proved” “misbehaviour” or “incapacity.”

Thus, it not only makes the ground speci� c, but also stringent through the use of the word “proved.” The use of this quali� er is signi� cant to say the least. For, the arrangement under fourth amendment was peril-ous as it conferred unfettered power to the president of de� ning the term “misbehaviour” or “incapacity.” There was, of course, the opportunity of self-defence. However, any judge’s removal by Bangabandhu under this clause is unheard of. He was well rewarded when his Chief Justice ASM Sayem endorsed the martial law and took the taste of power after his tragic assassination.

Subsequently, the SJC system under the � fth amendment tailored by General Zia, also an o� spring of General Ayub’s concept, kept the word “incapacity” intact, but replaced the word “misbehaviour” by “gross

misconduct.” However, mere use of the word “gross” does not make an o� ence “gross” unless it is proved beyond all reasonable doubt and the body in charge of determining that is not allowed to function independent-ly. There are many instances where judges were simply ousted from the o� ce under martial law dispensation keeping the SJC inert. Justice Subhan’s removal by General Ershad was noth-ing but one example as such. There-fore, no device is devoid of political overtones.

Secondly, the procedural safeguard is also signi� cant. There should be sev-eral hurdles for this. A motion should only move if it receives endorsement of a minimum number of lawmakers, say � fty. Then it should go to the sec-ond round, ie, adopting a resolution. In the meantime, the investigation body should have its report in compli-ance with the principles of natural justice.

If the report is positive and a resolu-tion looms large, the accused judge must be provided an opportunity of being heard. If then, the impeach-ment resolution is passed by two-third members of parliament, the presi-dent will remove the judge from the o� ce. The 1972 provision (proposed 16th Amendment) has the safeguard of two-third majority only. The other safeguards or the like are to be ensured by the proposed law. Our bet should lie there.

Thirdly, an important obstacle of the parliamentary system of impeachment is the embargo of � oor crossing law under Article 70. Article 70 is a stigma for our constitution.It is feared that if a politically motivated motion is brought before the parliament by the ruling party,the members will not oppose itdue to the fear of losing their membership. Therefore, an important consideration of the 16th

amendment may be to make Article 70 non-applicable in case of judges’ impeachment motion. This sole step could have appeared as a great check on government’s unprincipled move. Unfortunately, that is very unlikely to happen.

Judge’s impeachment cases are not a regular phenomenon. If the 16th amendment and its enabling laws ensure the above safeguards substan-tively, if not entirely, it may appear as a glorious addition to our constitu-tional fabric.

Hence, the idea of the new system is not bad per se. I do not wish to travel beyond our native jurisprudence to justify the claim. This is a question of belief and trust. To lose trust upon the parliament is to lose trust upon ourselves. In that case we really have to seriously think about whether we are worthy of a parliamentary system at all. To term the conferment of impeachment power with all its safe-guard as making the so called “rubber” parliament boss of the judiciary, is nothing but a fearful exaggeration.

In a curious way, the new system may promote judicial integrity and competency. The system may increase the image of the o� ce being almost ir-removable except the said two proved grounds by the parliament. This would ensure the balance of powers and save the judiciary from bearing the igno-miny of dealing with its own allega-tions by itself.

I recall the views of two celebrated legal minds of Bangladesh. Mustafa Ka-mal CJ in his 1994 lecture in the Dhaka University appreciates both the meth-ods of judges’ removal. He, however, indicates his weakness towards SJC system being more in line with the sepa-ration of powers theory. To him under the SJC system the grounds of removal are on a more “sophisticated plane” and judges are saved from the ignominy of “public exposure in a popular forum.”

This view is contestable because absolute separation is neither possible nor desirable and it is always prudent to have some sort of balance between the organs of the state. However, the gist of Justice Kamal’s argument does not deny e� cacy of the parliamentary intervention system.

Former Chief Justice Khairul Haque, on the other hand, saves the SJC system in the Fifth Amendment case, though he declares almost all other changes of that amendment un-constitutional. Interestingly, as media report suggests, as the Chairman of the Law Commission he has altered his views.

The Commission recommends going for the parliamentary impeach-ment mechanism. You can always interpret one’s mind according to your whim, but role of a judge and law reformer succinctly di� ers.

Thus, we see that two of our best chief justices, in principle, do not oppose the system. Many commenta-tors sense the move as a response to parliament’s alleged con� ict with the higher judiciary. It may deteriorate further, they apprehend. Our judiciary is vested with the great weapon of ju-dicial review. They will always be able to scrutinise the wisdom of a good law and the vice of a bad law. A good na-tive constitutional jurisprudence may evolve amidst this trial and error. This may also crystallise the grey area of judiciary’s public accountability.

Opposite school of political thought mainly expresses their concern about the credibility of the members of the 1oth parliament. These MPs do not really represent the people, as they are the product of a controversial election, they claim.

The issue, in general, is a question of public con� dence. The paradox is: we did not warmly accept the 15th amendment restoring the four na-tional principles which are the product of a strong parliament. So what do we want actually? Do we really know what we want?

Faith, hope and promise are the tenets of our national record. It is good to see that we haven’t lost faith on our judiciary. Let us not lose hope on the promise of our parliament. A lame duck can have good � esh, but it can-not go forward in times of necessity. l

SM Masum Billah is an Assistant Professor (on study leave), at the Department of Law, Jagannath University, Dhaka.

Faith, hope and promiseAre we ready to take the good things while designing our nation’s destiny?

To lose trust upon the parliament is to lose trust upon ourselves. In that case we really have to seriously think about whether we are worthy of a parliamentary system at all

The government assures protection against nationalisation and expropriation through the Foreign Private Investment Act of 1980 which inclusively assures the repatriation of capital

BIG STOCK

BIG STOCK

RIO SHUVO

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William GaddisAmerican Author

December 29, 1922 – December 17, 1998

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Thursday, August 28, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World8

Can US defeat Islamic State without help from Assad?n Agencies

After a � urry of speculation recently that President Obama might overcome his dis-taste for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to go after Islamic State militants in their base inside Syria, the White House is speak-ing out: There will be no cooperation with the Assad regime. But even as the United States begins surveillance � ights over Syria in anticipation of possible expanded US action against the Islamic State (IS), also known as ISIS, some security experts are cautioning the administration about its anti-Assad stance. While it will be possible for the US to degrade IS inside Syria without coordinating with Mr. Assad, they say, reaching more long-term objectives like defeating or even containing the group will probably mean giving up on the goal of seeing Assad step down from power.

“I don’t think it would be by any means di� cult for us to carry out airstrikes [inside Syria] without a permissive environment” of cooperation from the Assad regime, says Michael Desch, an expert on interna-tional security and US defense policy at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

But if the US objective is to “see ISIS pretty well contained,” he adds, “the only way there is with a relatively strong central government in Syria – and that means the Assad regime.”

Administration o� cials on Tuesday con� rmed that Mr. Obama has authorized surveillance � ights over Syrian territory to assess and pinpoint IS positions inside the civil-war-ravaged country, in particular the location of the militant group’s leadership.

Such reconnaissance activity could be the precursor to airstrikes on IS targets such as those the US is carrying out across the border in Iraq.

The president has made no decision to expand airstrikes beyond northern Iraq into Syria, his spokesman Josh Earnest said Tuesday. But he suggested that if such action is taken, it will not be in coordina-tion with Assad. The US does not recognize Assad as Syria’s legitimate leader, Mr. Earnest said. Other White House o� cials say Obama sees Assad as the source of Syria’s problems and not as a lesser evil to work with against a worse enemy.

Obama has called for Assad to step down since the early days of the Syrian con� ict in 2011, insisting that it was the leader’s brutal repression of his own people that spawned the civil war and that allowed IS and other Islamist extremist groups to � ourish.

Whatever course Obama takes on Syria, it will almost certainly be limited and focused on degrading IS, some say. “What they’re talking about is going after the group’s leadership inside Syria, which is very di� erent from getting involved in Syria’s civil war,” says Lawrence Korb, a former Pentagon o� cial now focusing on national security policy at the Center for American Progress in Washington.

But not everyone agrees that it will be possible to go after the one in Syria – IS militants – without at least tacitly acknowl-edging the need for the other – Assad – no matter how despised he is. Syria’s foreign minister, Walid al-Muallem, said Tuesday that his country is ready to cooperate with the US and other Western countries in � ghting IS. l

Gaza truce holds, Netanyahu under � re at homeTruce ended most prolonged � ghting in nearly a decade; 2,139 people, including more than 490 children, died in Gazan Reuters, Gaza/Jerusalem

An open-ended cease� re in the Gaza war held on Wednesday as Prime Min-ister Benjamin Netanyahu faced strong criticism in Israel over a costly con� ict with Palestinian militants in which no clear victor emerged.

On the streets of the battered, Hamas-run Palestinian enclave, peo-ple headed to shops and banks, trying to resume the normal pace of life after seven weeks of � ghting. Thousands of others, who had � ed the battles and sheltered with relatives or in schools, returned home, where some found only rubble.

In Israel, sirens warning of incom-ing rocket � re from the Gaza Strip fell silent, but media commentators, echo-ing attacks by members of Netanyahu’s governing coalition, voiced deep disap-pointment over his leadership during the most prolonged bout of Israeli-Pal-

estinian violence in a decade.“After 50 days of warfare in which a

terror organisation killed dozens of sol-diers and civilians, destroyed the daily routine (and) placed the country in a state of economic distress ... we could have expected much more than an an-nouncement of a cease� re,” analyst Shi-mon Shi� er wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel’s biggest-selling newspaper.

“We could have expected the prime minister to go to the President’s Resi-dence and inform him of his decision to resign his post.”

Netanyahu, who has faced constant sniping in his cabinet from right-wing ministers demanding military action to topple Hamas, made no immediate com-ment on the Egyptian-mediated truce deal that took e� ect on Tuesday evening.

Palestinian health o� cials say 2,139 people, most of them civilians, includ-ing more than 490 children, have been killed in the enclave since July 8, when

Israel launched an o� ensive with the declared aim of ending rocket salvoes.

Israel’s death toll stood at 64 sol-diers and six civilians.

The cease� re agreement called for an inde� nite halt to hostilities, the im-mediate opening of Gaza’s blockaded crossings with Israel and Egypt, and a widening of the territory’s � shing zone in the Mediterranean.

A senior Hamas o� cial voiced will-ingness for the security forces of West-ern-backed Palestinian President Mah-moud Abbas and the unity government he formed in June to control the pas-sage points.

Both Israel and Egypt view Hamas as a security threat and are seeking guarantees that weapons will not enter the territory of 1.8 million people.

Under a second stage of the truce that would begin a month later, Israel and the Palestinians would discuss the construction of a Gaza sea port and Is-

rael’s release of Hamas prisoners in the occupied West Bank, possibly in a trade for the remains of two Israeli soldiers be-lieved held by Hamas, the o� cials said.

Israel has in recent weeks said it wants the full demilitarisation of Gaza. The United States and European Union have supported the goal, but it remains unclear what it would mean in practice and Hamas has rejected it as unfeasible.

Competing victory claims“On the land of proud Gaza, the unit-ed people achieved absolute victory against the Zionist enemy,” a Hamas statement said.

Israel said it dealt a strong blow to Hamas, killing several of its mili-tary leaders and destroying the Isla-mist group’s cross-border in� ltration tunnels.

“Hamas’s military wing was badly hit, we know this clearly through un-equivocal intelligence,” Yossi Cohen,

Netanyahu’s national security adviser, said on Army Radio.

But Israel also faced persistent rocket � re for nearly two months that caused an exodus from a number of border communities and became part of daily life in its commercial heartland.

“They are celebrating in Gaza,” cabinet minister Uzi Landau, of the far-right Yisrael Beitenu party in Ne-tanyahu’s coalition, told Israel Radio. He said that for Israel, the outcome of the war was “very gloomy” because it had not created su� cient deterrence to dissuade Hamas from attacking in the future.

Nahum Barnea, one of Israel’s most popular columnists, expressed concern “that instead of paving the way to re-moving the threat from Gaza, we are paving the road to the next round, in Lebanon or in Gaza.”

“The Israelis expected a leader, a statesman who knows what he wants

to achieve, someone who makes deci-sions and engages in a sincere and real dialogue with his public,” he wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth. “They received a seasoned spokesperson, and very little beyond that.”

Ben Caspit, writing in the Maariv daily, said there was no victory for Is-rael in a con� ict that resulted in “a col-lapsed tourism industry (and) an econ-omy approaching recession.”

Israel’s central bank has estimated the con� ict will knock half a point o� economic growth this year.

But with future diplomatic moves on Gaza’s future still pending, there was no immediate talk publicly among Netanyahu’s coalition partners of any steps to break up the alliance.

Israel said it would facilitate the � ow of civilian goods and humanitari-an and reconstruction aid into the im-poverished territory if the truce was honoured. l

IMF chief questioned in fraud proben Reuters, Paris

IMF chief Christine Lagarde has been put under formal investigation by French magistrates for negligence in a political fraud a� air dating from 2008 when she was � nance minister.

Lagarde, who this week was ques-tioned by magistrates in Paris for a fourth time under her existing status as a witness in the long-running saga, said she would contest the decision.

“I have asked my lawyer to use all recourse against this decision which I consider to be completely unfounded,” she said on BFMTV. “I am returning to work in Washington this afternoon.”

Under French law, magistrates place someone under formal investigation when they believe there are indica-tions of wrongdoing, but that does not always lead to a trial.

Lagarde’s lawyer, Yves Repiquet, told Reuters he would appeal the ap-peal the magistrates’ decision and so the matter would not prevent Lagarde

from doing her job at the head of the International Monetary Fund in the meantime.

The inquiry relates to allegations ty-coon Bernard Tapie, a supporter of con-servative ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy, was improperly awarded 403m euros ($531m) in an arbitration to settle a dis-pute with now defunct, state-owned bank Credit Lyonnais.

The inquiry has already embroiled several of Sarkozy’s cabinet members and France Telecom CEO Stephane Rich-ard, who was an aide to Lagarde when she was Sarkozy’s � nance minister.

In previous rounds of questioning, Lagarde has not recognised as her own the pre-printed signature to sign o� on a document facilitating the payment, Re-piquet told Reuters by telephone. How-ever Richard has stated that Lagarde was fully briefed on the matter. l

IS executes soldiers, takes hostagesn Reuters, Beirut

Islamic State militants have executed Syrian army soldiers and are holding a group of them hostage after captur-ing an air base in northeast Syria at the weekend, pictures posted on the Internet and on Twitter by supporters showed yesterday.

Islamic State, an o� shoot of al Qae-da, stormed Tabqa air base near Raqqa city on Sunday after days of � ghting with the army that cost more than 500 lives, according to monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Tabqa was the army’s last foothold in an area otherwise controlled by the militants, who have seized large areas of Syria and Iraq. The United States has carried out air strikes on the group in Iraq and is studying its options in Syria.

In one picture posted online, a group of militants in balaclavas are seen gun-ning down at least seven kneeling men identi� ed as army personnel. Reuters was not able to immediately con� rm the authenticity of the images or when exactly they were taken.

Other photos showed groups of eight to 10 soldiers in fatigues taken hostage, some with facial wounds. Three are identi� ed as o� cers. The photos appeared to show at least two dozen hostages. One picture reportedly shows the body of a pilot who had ap-peared on Syrian state television before the attack on the base explaining how the army could easily defend it. Others show militants holding up knives next to groups of captured men.

Syrian state television aired a report last week interviewing army personnel

at the base and showing its defences, just before Islamic State overran it.

On Sunday, Syrian state television said that after � erce battles, the mili-tary was “regrouping” and that there was a “successful evacuation of the air-port” as the army continued strikes on Islamic State in areas close to the base.

Raqqa is a stronghold of Islamic State, and some people celebrated in the city after the capture of the air base.

The Observatory said at least 346 Islamic State � ghters were killed and more than 170 members of the securi-ty forces had died in � ve days of � ght-ing over the base, making it one of the deadliest clashes between the two groups since the start of Syria’s war.

The photos posted online also showed the attack on the base and bod-ies on the ground. l

UN: Syrian govt and IS committing war crimesn Reuters, Geneva

The Syrian government and Islamic State insurgents are both committing war crimes and crimes against human-ity in their increasingly brutal � ght against each other, UN investigators said yesterday.

Islamic State forces in northern Syr-ia are waging a campaign to instil fear, including amputations, public execu-tions and whippings, they said.

Government forces have dropped barrel bombs on civilian areas, includ-ing some believed to contain the chem-ical agent chlorine in eight incidents in April, and have committed killings, tor-ture and other war crimes that should be prosecuted, they said in a report is-sued in Geneva.

“Violence has bled over the borders of the Syrian Arab Republic, with ex-tremism fuelling the con� ict’s height-ened brutality,” said the 45-page report.

Deaths in custody in Syrian jails are on the rise and forensic analy-sis of 26,948 photographs allegedly taken from 2011-2013 in government detention centres back its “longstand-ing � ndings of systematic torture and deaths of detainees.”

“Forced truces, a mark of the gov-ernment’s strategy of siege and bom-bardment, are often followed by mass arrests of men of � ghting age, many of whom disappear,” it said.

The UN report is based on 480 inter-views and documentary evidence gath-ered by its team, which is trying to build a case for future criminal prosecution.

Islamic forces have drawn more expe-rienced and ideologically motivated for-eign � ghters and established control over large areas in northern and eastern Syria, particularly oil-rich Deir al-Zor, it said. l

Clockwise from top left: A Palestinian Hamas supporter in Ramallah holds up a little girl wearing green � ags as people gather in the streets during celebrations for an ‘unlimited’ cease-� re between Palestinians and Israelis that marked an end to seven weeks of deadly � ghting. Children, one holding an Islamic � ag, sit atop a car as Palestinians gather in the streets to celebrate the cease-� re. A Palestinian girl � ashes victory sign with her father as they celebrate the cease-� re in the northern Gaza Strip. A Palestinian boy � ashes the sign of victory as people gather in the streets after the cease-� re was announced. Palestinian children hold guns as they celebrate with others following the cease� re AP/AFP/REUTERS

C H I L D R E N O F W A R : G A Z A C E L E B R A T E S F O L L O W I N G A C E A S E - F I R E T H A T E N D E D S E V E N W E E K S O F B L O O D Y F I G H T I N G

Christine Lagarde

9Thursday, August 28, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World

Afghan election audit disrupted as Abdullah threatens to walk outGhani’s team says it has been asked by the UN to withdraw observersn Reuters, Kabul

Afghanistan’s deadlocked presidential election veered further o� course yes-terday after both candidates withdrew their observers from a UN-supervised audit of votes that was meant to re-solve the crisis.

The audit was part of a US-brokered deal to defuse escalating tension between rivals Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani, who have both claimed victory in the ballot intended to mark the country’s � rst democratic transfer of power.

“We boycotted the audit process to-day because it is worthless for us. Let them carry on,” Fazel Ahmad Manawi, Abdullah’s chief auditor, told Reuters early on Wednesday.

A few hours later, the United Na-tions asked Ghani’s team to withdraw its observers in the interests of fairness and it had agreed, according to a team member, who said the withdrawal was unfair but prudent.

A spokesman for the United Nations was not available for comment al-though it had con� rmed earlier a “tem-porary disruption” of the vote count.

The United Nations has said it would go on regardless and o� cials involved in the process say it is likely Ghani would eventually be con� rmed president.

US o� cials stepped in again earli-er on Wednesday and held emergen-cy talks with Abdullah, according to a member of his team.

The crisis over the outcome of the vote has raised the spectre of instabil-ity, turmoil and perhaps even another round of � ghting in a country already battling a potent Taliban insurgency.

If the rival politicians needed a re-minder of the militant threat, Afghan se-curity forces were battling the Taliban for control of the northern province of Kun-duz on Wednesday with heavy clashes also reported in parts of the south.

‘No legitimacy’Abdullah, a former foreign minister, won a � rst round vote in April but without a majority needed for out-

right victory, while preliminary � g-ures showed Ghani, a former � nance minister, won the run-o� by more than a million votes. But Abdullah complained of rigging and demanded a recount in which fraudulent votes would be thrown out.

Abdullah’s team believe that the more fraudulent votes are thrown out, the better his chances will be of victory but they have com-

plained that the rules of the audit are not strict enough to weed out the invalid ballots.

“More than a million votes are fraudulent,” Mohammad Mohaqeq a leader of the Hazara minority and one of Abdullah’s vice presidential running mates, told Reuters.

“If these votes are not invalidated, we will never accept any outcome and it will have no legitimacy.” l

Modi slams whispering campaign against Rajnathn Reuters, New Delhi

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday denied reports that the son of a top minister was involved in in� u-ence peddling, seeking to staunch the type of corruption allegations that sent the country’s last government to elec-tion defeat.

Modi’s o� ce issued the rebuttal shortly after Home Minister Rajnath Singh gave an emotional statement to the media, saying he would quit public life if reports in recent days about his adult son proved to be true.

“The reports are plain lies,” the prime minister’s o� ce said in a statement, add-ing that they “constitute a malicious at-tempt at character assassination and tar-nishing the image of this government.” Earlier, the Economic Times wrote that Singh had complained to leaders of the ruling party that a ministerial colleague had been spreading false rumours against him. The report cited an uniden-ti� ed senior source saying there was a “power struggle” in the party.

Singh, a former president of the rul-ing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), holds the second most senior cabinet post af-ter Modi and is responsible for policing

and internal security.Modi, a tea-seller’s son who rose to be-

come chief minister of Gujarat state, has cultivated an austere image since ousting a Congress-led government tarnished by corruption scandals that a� ected indus-tries ranging from coal to telecoms.

The 63-year-old prime minister has installed close ally Amit Shah as BJP president as he seeks to strengthen his hold on power ahead of state elections that could boost its presence in parlia-ment’s upper house. l

Pakistan’s prime minister resolved to ride out protests crisisn Reuters, Islamabad

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told parliament yesterday he would not be cowed by thousands of demonstra-tors camped outside the assembly de-manding his resignation.

Protesters led by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan and � rebrand cleric Tahir ul-Qadri have rallied in Islamabad for almost two weeks and vowed to occupy the capital until Sharif resigns - a demand the premier has � rmly rejected.

In his � rst public remarks since the start of the crisis, he did not say ex-plicitly how the deadlock might be solved but said he was fully committed to democracy.

“We are not one to be scared of such things,” he said. “We have seen ups and downs, we have seen highs and lows, we have seen times when we have not only borne problems but borne them with a smiling face and without com-plaining.”

Just outside the parliament where he addressed members, thousands of protesters camped out in the heat, but the gathering was peaceful and the at-

mosphere was festival-like.Security forces protecting the

building looked on but did nothing to disperse them.

“I want to say with complete resolve and belief that, God willing, this jour-ney of the supremacy of law and con-stitution will continue in Pakistan,” Sharif said told a sparsely attended ses-sion of parliament.

“This democracy will keep taking us forward, keep making Pakistan shine, and make Pakistan proud and a day will come when it will never again be disrupted or halted.”

Pakistan has been ruled by the army for half of its history and the military’s position in the stando� will ultimately determine whether the protests even-

tually � zzle out or take on a more vio-lent course.

If the all-powerful army referees a solution to the stand-o� , it will emerge strengthened at the expense of the prime minister in the coup-prone country.

Sharif, who was himself toppled in a 1999 coup, jailed and then exiled, made a triumphant comeback as prime min-ister for a third time in last year’s gen-eral election.

Few believe the military wants to seize power this time, but there is a widespread perception it is using the protests as an opportunity to weaken Sharif.

Government o� cials and protest leaders have been in sporadic talks since last week to � nd a peaceful solu-tion but Khan has refused to back down unless Sharif quits over accusations that he rigged the last election.

Qadri has given the government an-other deadline to quit by the middle of this week, saying otherwise circum-stances might be “uncontrollable.” But as of Wednesday afternoon, the pro-testers still sat outside parliament and no solution was in sight. l

Thai premier to foreign investors: ‘We are not dictators’n Reuters, Bangkok

Thai Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-ocha told European investors yesterday that he was not a dictator and that his government was seek-ing to create a Thailand that would be more attractive for their long-term investments.

Prayuth was appointed prime min-ister on Monday after he was elected by a rubber-stamp parliament he hand-picked. The army chief seized power in a bloodless coup on May 22 following six months of sometimes deadly pro-tests that helped oust elected Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. The mil-itary said intervention was necessary to avoid further bloodshed.

Prayuth met representatives from the Thai-European Business Associa-tion (TEBA), a group representing 80 Thai and European investors including automotive, aerospace, pharmaceuti-cal and logistics � rms, telling them he was prepared to do “everything” to en-sure Thailand remains a hub for foreign investors.

“I am prepared to do everything. Just show me your investment road-map,” he said. Prayuth, 60, who is also Thailand’s army chief, said the coun-try needs time to deal with its political transition.

“We are not dictators that just or-der whatever,” Prayuth said during the meeting at the army’s Bangkok head-quarters, the � rst between the junta leader and foreign investors following his appointment as premier.

“We listen to many civilian advi-sors. I ask you and the European Union to give us some time to deal with our problems.”

The United States and European Union (EU) both downgraded diplomat-ic ties with Thailand following the coup. The EU, Thailand’s third largest trade partner and its second biggest investor, has suspended visits and trade talks.

Critics have accused Prayuth of ruling with an iron � st and say his appointment as premier gives the country only a veneer of democra-cy while power remains � rmly in the military’s hands. l

Afghan election workers count ballot papers for an audit of the presidential run-o� in Kabul. Afghanistan’s deadlocked election veered further o� course yesterday after both candidates withdrew their observers from a UN-supervised audit of votes REUTERS

Court rules Modi can pick charged politiciansn Agencies

India’s Supreme Court has ruled that Narendra Modi should be left to choose his own cabinet when considering ap-pointing those charged with crimes, but said it hoped the prime minister would ultimately take into account public expectations and the country’s democratic values.

Wednesday’s ruling is likely to put pressure on Modi, who swept to pow-er earlier this year pledging clean gov-ernance, with over a dozen ministers facing charges for attempted murder, rioting and other o� ences.

“We leave it to the wisdom of the prime minister to see whether people with criminal backgrounds are ap-pointed as ministers,” Justice Dipak Misra told the court.

“Ultimately it is expected that people with criminal backgrounds should not be part of the council of ministers,” said Mis-ra, who headed a bench of � ve judges.

The court was handing down its judgement on a petition seeking to bar parliament members with “criminal backgrounds,” including those charged but not yet convicted of crimes, from being appointed ministers in state and federal governments.

The court said it could not disqual-ify such politicians from cabinet, AFP news agency reported.

India bans those convicted of se-rious crimes from holding o� ce, not those facing charges.

Plagued by corruptionModi won a landslide election in May partly on a promise to clean up govern-ment after the previous Congress-led administration was plagued by corrup-tion and other scandals.

Thirteen of Modi’s 45 ministers have been charged with criminal of-fences, eight of those involving serious charges, according to the Delhi-based Association of Democratic Reforms, a clean-up government advocacy group.

Water Resources and Ganga Rejuve-nation Minister Uma Bharti has 13 cases pending, including two charges related to attempted murder and six charges related to rioting, the association said.

Transport and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari has four cases, including one charge of criminal intimidation.

Amit Shah, Modi’s most trusted aide and president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, faces charges of ordering extra-judicial killings and of extortion dating back to his time as home minis-ter in the western state of Gujarat.

Politicians say charges against them are false, trumped up or levelled by po-litical opponents seeking to harm their reputations.

Those convicted of crimes have tra-ditionally continued to hold o� ce sim-ply by � ling an appeal in India’s clogged and notoriously slow courts.

But in a landmark judgment last July, the apex court ruled that parlia-ment members sentenced to more than three years in jail should be disquali-� ed, regardless of any appeal. l

Indian girl survives being buried aliven Agencies

A seven-year-old Indian girl who was allegedly buried alive by relatives in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has been rescued by a villager. Police say relatives � rst tried to strangle her and then left her to die in a shallow grave. It is unclear why.

The man who found her in Sitapur district alerted police - she was taken to a hospital and is said to be doing well.

Police are looking for her mother, uncle and aunt who they say have � ed.

The villager who rescued her fol-lowed the sound of mu� ed cries to the middle of a cane � eld where he found the soil moving.

Police allege the girl’s uncle and aunt had promised to take her to a fair, but then strangled and buried her near the village of Semri Gaura where she lives. “When the girl became con-scious, she began to remove the soil on top of her and clambered out of the shallow grave,” Sitapur police chief Rajesh Krishna told BBC Hindi.

“There are strangulation marks around the girl’s neck.”

Reports say the girl lived with her mother. Her father apparently had no idea about the attack and has told po-lice he is estranged from his wife. l

Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh

India bans those convicted of serious crimes from holding o� ce, not those facing charges

Government o� cials and protest leaders have been in sporadic talks since last week to � nd a peaceful solution

Stone-carved guardian dogs sit at the entrance of a memorial compound honoring World War II-era war criminals in Koyasan Okuno-in temple in Koya town, Wakayama prefecture, central Japan. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga acknowledged yesterday that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on April 29 sent a condolence note to the Koyasan temple’s ceremony honouring hundreds of war criminals that praised their contributions to the country. The move is likely to irritate neighbouring China AP

H A U N T E D B Y P A S T

Indian Trinamool Congress MP and actor Tapas Pal admitted to hospitalAugust 20

Rangappa Venkatadri So what if he is sick?

Soumen Chatterjee He was admitted for Diplopia (double vision). It’s not that serious a problem for one to be admitted and placed in ICU. What is the date for him to appear before the court? That is the real question.

Sachipriya Mukherjee Exactly. He’s dirty and shameless. Don’t forget that was indicted for torturing his old mother and trying to throw her out of her own home for his bene� t.

Syed Arshad JamilWouldn’t be surprised if he is only pretending because of the on-going case in the court.

Editorial10 DHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, August 28, 2014

CODE-CRACKER

ACROSS1 Untamed (5)4 Poke (4)7 Tool (3)8 Hawaiian dish (3)9 Country (5)12 Gem (4)13 Small dog (7)15 Slippery � sh (3)16 Secret agent (3)18 Pigs’ enclosure (3)19 Domestic animal (3)21 Refusals (7)24 Otherwise (4)26 Thick (5)27 Spell (3)28 Fresh (3)29 Require (4)30 Long lock (5)

DOWN1 Quick (4)2 Specialist (6)3 Bring up (4)4 Needy (4)5 Tear (3)6 Put o� (5)10 Anger (3)11 Family member (5)14 Large antelope (5)17 Measured beats (6)18 Harsh (5)20 Neckwear (3)21 Exploit (4)22 Girl’s name (4)23 Plies the needle (4)25 Pronoun (3)

CROSSWORD

How to solve: Fill in the blank spaces with the numbers 1 – 9. Every row, column and 3 x 3 box must contain all nine digits with no number repeating.

SUDOKU

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

CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

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PEANUTS

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Attend to basics to make Dhaka liveableAugust 22

Riaz OsmaniWe should not take the Economist Intelligence Unit too seriously. Obviously the writer has, and some other people do as well, but I doubt anyone of the Economist Intelligence Unit has even set

foot in Dhaka. Such armchair economists should be taken for what they are.

Having said that, much needs to be done to make Dhaka more appealing to people who live here. That much is not in doubt.

Bengali settler criminality in CHT must endThose responsible for Monday’s attack on an o� cial of the CHT

Commission must be apprehended and called to account.Coordinator of the CHT Commission Hana Shams and a

Jahangirnagar University lecturer were physically assaulted by a group of 10 people while returning from a trip to Bandarban.

The attackers are reportedly members of the same group, Bangalee Somo Odhikar Andolon (BSOA), which carried out similar assaults in Rangamati in early July, to prevent members of the commission from visiting the district. Even though July’s attack blatantly took place outside an army o� ce, none of the people named in a case � led by the commission have yet been charged.

Reports by a witness and the OC of the local police con� rm that this week’s attack was also politically motivated. The attackers were led by a local o� cial of a Bengali settler group which is associated with BSOA.

We are highly concerned by these disgraceful incidents, which were clearly calculated to intimidate and undermine the work of a peaceful community group.

Of most concern is that although some police protection was provided to CHTC members this week, it was missing when the attack took place, and this discouraged the victims from � ling a report straight away, as they felt insecure.

Four Detective Branch policemen are reported to have followed the victims but failed to protect them. The police must make clear why the victims were followed and whether or not these o� cers were in league with the attackers. The facts cry out for an explanation. The police failure to protect the victims is inexcusable.

Enough is enough. There must be zero tolerance for this kind of thuggery in the CHT. For too long, Bengali settler groups have perpetrated violence and intimidation with tacit o� cial support.

No more. Law enforcement cannot continue to protect and shield these criminals. If the guilty and the o� cials colluding in the violence are not brought to book, we will know what to think.

Save our green spacesDhaka’s parks and playgrounds are victims of institutionalised neglect.

This is not for any want of public demand for green spaces and recreation areas. But, with even the historic Suhrawardy Udyan

su� ering from mismanagement, it is no surprise that most playgrounds and parks are in dire need of renovation and improvement.

Illegal occupation of green spaces by private clubs and the authorities themselves are depriving citizens of the ability to use parks for their proper public purpose. Playgrounds are systematically neglected and left unsafe, discouraging parents from allowing children to play on them.

All residents of the capital su� er from a general scarcity of civic spaces for rest and recreation. This makes it even more unconscionable for existing spaces to be poorly managed.

The complicity of city authorities in many reported instances of public spaces being illegally occupied is made worse by widespread allegations of monies being misappropriated. Dhaka South City Corporation for instance has little to show for the Tk9 crore it has budgeted on parks in the past two years.

There is no excuse in a city as densely populated as Dhaka for all green spaces not to be better maintained and kept safe for everyone to use whenever they like.

However, public concerns constantly go unheard because di� erent departments and o� cials pass the buck on their responsibility.

The best way to root out the negligent way in which civic space is managed in Dhaka is to ensure proper accountability by holding elections for the city corporations.

Ensure proper accountability to keep parks and playgrounds maintained and safe

There must be zero tolerance for thuggery in the CHT

Real-life couple Shokh-Niloy on reelAugust 20

Mahamudul Hasan“Lovebirds Shokh and Niloy will be seen romancing on the silver screen for the � rst time in the upcoming � ick “Olpo Olpo Premer Golpo.” Directed by Saniat Hossain, the � lm is all set to hit the cinemas on August 29.”

Olpo Olpo Premer Golpo ... a movie I must see. :)

First Dhaka-Tokyo economic talks todayAugust 21

Mohd Hasan IIBangladesh should spend more money to improve infrastructure, especially in key sectors like roads and railways. I recommend the Roads and Transport department chief to oversee the bettering of our roads and highways. He is the only person I believe can take up this project and do a good job.

I have passion for acting: KonalAugust 22

Mohiuddin KaderCongrats on her upcoming album! Hope to see her acting sometime in the future.

Quantum of solace for jailbirdsAugust 22

Depressed TownExcellent piece! :)

Catastrophic accident averted by gatekeepers’ e� ort

August 19Dominic Bennett

The gatekeeper deserves a reward for his heroism!

‘Pakhi’ dress, three deaths, and a divorce

August 19SA

This is why you turn the idiot box o� and go read a book or two.

Facebook tags The Onion ‘satire’ in news feeds

August 20Shondhaya Tara

I don’t think this is a good idea. If you tell me the tagged article is satire, then I lose what interest I had in reading it. I need to get the meaning of an

article from the article itself, without tags.

Dancing in the rainAugust 20

SaraWhat a lively photo!

Jute Packaging Act still at low threshold

August 20

Sbua Joy“More subsidiaries are needed to mobilise the

sector as the demands for jute products are on the rise nationally and internationally.”

Jute goods are our gold. This is what we should focus on and invest in.

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

n Mamun Rashid

NRB banks were granted licenses for non-resident Bangladeshis to be identi� ed in the develop-

ment process of the country. Though any special package drawn for the NRBs in the capital market or issuance of premium, investment bond by the Bangladesh Bank, or donations to the construction of the Padma Bridge didn’t yield desired results in the past, it was thought that Bangladeshi professionals or businessmen residing abroad would be able to “success transfer” through their engagement in Bangladesh � nancial markets. Thus, the government has issued licenses to three NRB banks.

We do have a state-owned “Pra-bashi Kalyan Bank.” Courtesy to Mo-hammad Farashuddin and his succes-sors in the Bangladesh Bank, most of the commercial banks in Bangladesh are rightly or wrongly too focused on inward remittance facilitation. Thus, the people at Bangladesh Bank or the � nance ministry’s banking division were � nding it tough to satisfy them to issue new licenses to three commercial banks reportedly owned by NRBs.

But for reasons known, the licenses were issued at the instructions of the “top brass.” I was told by a senior Bangladesh Bank o� cial, with all this “dhamaka” with the NRBs, certain quarters even wanted more licenses to be issued for the NRBs to � nd “an opportunity in nation building.” The � nance minister, as usual, was very candid in the parliament – “licenses have been issued on political consider-ation.” Many of his loyalists, including this scribe, hailed him for his open-ness. Who got the licenses? Awami League leaders in the US, and quarters close to the ruling party in Bangladesh.

No worries. The political leaders intelligently had some professionals and local businessmen with non-resident connections engage these banks. They could fortunately attract a few senior, but almost retiring, bankers to join them too. One of those banks, with the least amount of political connections, could attract people from global banks too.

But the job was not done. NRB banks with unprofessional ownership and less visibility about the destina-tion could not put a mark in the local � nance industry, be it inward remit-tance, international trade, or infra-structure � nancing.

Though it is a little premature to close out on them, they have literal-

ly failed to ensure migration of best practices from their markets to the Bangladeshi banking industry. They are simply upholding the bad legacy of local banks – poor risk analytics, insid-er lending, poor IT delivery platforms, and poor human resources.

To their credit, they are facing sti� competition from their local peers. Their inability to open “nostro accounts” with large clearing banks in the US, UK, Japan, Australia, and Europe, and most importantly, obtain credit or trade con� rmation lines from international banks, didn’t help them to get identi� ed in the cross-border trade in an emerging trading nation: Bangladesh.

Ownership of the political lead-ers or ruling party stalwarts in these banks barred international banks from opening their accounts. US banks have always been known and respected for smelling of “foreign corrupt practice,” “politically exposed persons (PEP),” or “signi� cant public � gure (SPF).”

Unfortunately, most of the NRB bank directors fall into this category. The � nance minister’s testimony made their journey much tougher though. Hefty penalties imposed on a British Bank by US regulators for holding the USD clearing accounts of a few Islamic banks in Bangladesh made it all the more complex.

European banks also reportedly followed the same route. Since most of the NRB bank principal licenses didn’t have enough money to pay for the licenses, other than their political identity and favours from the highest political authority, they had to bank on the local business houses to pay for their shares in the form of large “premium” payment for their individual stakes in those banks. These new owners are bent on getting their money back or their favours returned; thus resorting to massive insider lending.

I think that unless NRB banks can di� erentiate themselves from the crowd, put in a strong delivery platform, ensure better asset-liability management, obtain world class risk management tools, and most im-portantly, allow the professionals to play their due roles, they don’t have a good future. We were expecting better results from our NRBs. It’s likely that we may have to wait a bit if we wish to see them performing in Bangladesh and delivering on their desired success transfer. l

Mamun Rashid is a banker and economic

n Jyoti Rahman

“But see, I don’t want to vote for AL. I do not think the AL should return to power. We

need checks and balances. The BNP should come. But how can I vote for the BNP when they are in an alliance with Jamaat?”

That’s what a friend told me in December. I have the deepest re-spect for this person’s sincerity. She is a genuine progressive. She wants a democratic Bangladesh – of this I have no doubt. And I understand her reasons for aversion to Jamaat – never mind 1971, Jamaat categorically rejects some liberal-progressive tenets such as equal citizenship rights. Had she said “I will not vote for Jamaat,” I would have accepted it.

But that’s not what she said. She implicitly rejected BNP for its electoral alliance with Jamaat. I didn’t engage in a prolonged conversation with her. She is hardly the only person I know who made that leap about con� ating Jamaat and BNP. Bangladesh is full of self-proclaimed progressives who choose to reject democracy, never mind the facts.  

I just don’t have the mental energy to engage in fruitless debates these days. At least my friend had the

decency to not engage in that kind of sophistry. I didn’t engage in a political discussion with her, but was reminded of her comment after the Indian elec-tion. You see, I had heard similar stu� from my Indian progressive friends.  

Way back in the early 2000s, I heard people say “don’t want to vote for Congress, don’t like the sycophancy/dynasty, and the Vajpayee government isn’t so bad, but you know, how can BJP be supported when they have someone like Modi.” And now, Modi is the prime minister.

My Indian friends could have sup-ported Vajpayee or other moderates in the BJP/NDA government. They could have provided the left � ank of a genuinely centrist alternative to Congress. But their self-in� icted intellectual blind spot meant that they

couldn’t even contemplate such a course – never mind that such an alter-native would have served India well.

A lot of things contributed to Mr Modi’s rise to power. The progressives’ blind spot is just one factor, and prob-ably not even an important one.  But to the extent that he represents a lot of things progressives loath, they have no one but themselves to blame.

I fear whether someday my Bang-ladeshi progressive friend will wake up to her political nightmare. Jamaat’s importance in Bangladesh is con-stantly over-rated, and BNP’s strength under-rated, by everyone.  

Of course, Jamaat bene� ts from the in� ated power projection. And the Jamaat bogey suits the Awamis � ne. The thing is, as the centrist opposition is systematically denied any political space, and as the ruling party degen-erates into an orgy of violence (google Narayanganj / Feni murders), Isla-mists (Jamaat or otherwise) may well emerge as the only alternative.

My friend is a genuine progressive, not a closet Awami fascist. Will people like her act to prevent their own worst nightmare? l

Jyoti Rahman is a political blogger. This article was previously published in jrahman.wordpress.com.

11Op-Ed Thursday, August 28, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Omar Gias

About 2,000 people have died since July 8, when Israel launched its attack in Gaza. The death toll in road accidents across

Bangladesh between January to August this year is more than double that of the deaths in the most recent chapter of the Israel-Palestine con� ict.

According to the statistics drawn up by Bangladesh Passenger Welfare Association on accounts of media reports, a total of 4,716 people were killed and 13,000 more were injured in road accidents during that time period.

According to o� cial statistics, at least eight people die every day in road accidents in this country. However, the World Bank say the number is as high as 30. The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that in 2012-13, a stag-gering 48 people died on an average in daily road accidents in Bangladesh. All these statistics can make us feel that we don’t need to wait for an attacker to kill us; just using the roads is a big threat!

The Accident Research Institute of BUET has identi� ed that 35% of the deaths and 90% of the road accidents take place on the highways around the country, which accumulates a total of 3,580km. A total of 209 spots have been identi� ed along the highways as accident-prone “black spots,” and

these black spots scattered along the highway make up a total of 55km.

It is a matter of great regret that even though the list of these black spots was provided to the Communi-cations Ministry in 2009, only 11 spots along the Dhaka-Aricha highway from the National Mausoleum in Nabinagar to Patua have been � xed so far in last six years.

It has been observed that the � xing of engineering and construction glitches at the 11 spots has signi� cantly reduced the number of road accidents from the National Mausoleum in Nabi-nagar to Patua. According to the Roads and Highways Department (RHD), a total of 175 accidents occurred in 2011 along this stretch of the highway.

After the 11 spots were � xed, the number of accidents along this stretch had gone down to 25 in 2013. In 2011, the number of deaths here was 95 and after the � xes, in 2013 the death toll decreased to 25. The number of injured had also gone down by three-fourths of the previous number. 

So, it is proved that � xing the black spots can drastically reduce the num-

ber of road accidents. But, the perti-nent question is: As it took six years to repair the 11 black spots, should we have to wait 114 years for all of the 209 black spots to be � xed? At least the snail space in improving these accident-prone areas should make us a little bit optimistic.

Media reports say that the RHD has been taking up projects since 2009 to repair the 209 accident-prone areas. Six months have passed in just examining and experimenting with a Tk165cr project.

When valuable lives of the region are being lost in road accidents, the dillydallying of the government in

repairing the potholes and � xing the damaged roads is totally unacceptable.

As all the sensible people of the world except the staunch supporters of Israel castigated the brutal attack of Israel on the Palestinians, wouldn’t all the people of Bangladesh except the stalwarts of the ruling party criticise the government for its lackadaisical

approach of repairing the black spots? The Communications Ministry has

taken up projects of about Tk30,000cr for the construction and repair of roads and bridges. But a project to lessen the prevalence of accidents has been hanging in limbo for the past six years.

It is really di� cult for the ruling par-

ty to shut the mouths of the opposition who are already alleging that the gov-ernment is only interested in big pro-jects rather than e� ective ones, as it is easier to extort money in those projects. Now, the onus is on the government to prove that the allegation is wrong. l

Omar Gias is a freelance writer.

More dangerous than a war zone RAJIB DHAR

Black spots of death

Accident-prone ‘black spots,’ along the highway make up a total of 55km

Unless NRB banks can di� erentiate themselves from the crowd, they don’t have a good future

Bangladesh is full of self-proclaimed progressives who choose to reject democracy

T H I R D E Y E

Burning from birth

Des(h)i progressives’ nightmare

Progressives may have helped Modi REUTERS

BIGSTOCK

n Entertainment Desk

British singer Kate Bush kicked o� 22-show run at the Hammer-smith Apollo in west London, the same venue where she e� ec-tively retired from live perfor-mances after six weeks on the road in 1979, in Tuesday.

Kate Bush mixed note-per-fect renditions of her biggest hits with two visually stunning interpretations of her longer conceptual works to delight fans who had waited for the British singer and songwriter to return to the stage.

Receiving a standing ovation before she had sung a note, Bush opened with “Lily” from her 1993 release “The Red Shoes,” followed by “Hounds of Love” from the double-platinum sell-ing album of the same name.

The show shifted gears mid-way through the � rst half with the song cycle “The Ninth Wave,” which is about a woman � oating in the sea, slipping in and out of consciousness.

The eclectic range of musical styles in the piece, ranging from an Irish jig to a chorale, was mirrored in a staging that combined

� lm with theater.For the 22 shows dubbed “Before the Dawn,” Bush has returned

to London’s Hammersmith Apollo, a venue in her only previous tour in 1979, a year after she went to No.1 with the self-penned

“Wuthering Heights.”That song, based on

the Emily Bronte nov-el, stood out in a pop scene � lled with dis-co and punk, and the 19-year-old Bush’s high-pitched voice

and expressive danc-ing only added to her uniqueness.

Bush has released nine studio albums, two of which topped the charts. Her singles col-lection “The Whole Sto-ry” also went to No.1.

But she has largely stayed out of the public

eye, giving few interviews and leaving long gaps between releases.

In the process she has become one of the most celebrated of Britain’s anti-celebrities, generating a devoted following from fans who were ecstatic when she announced the shows in March. l

Exhibition Images of Caring MenTime: 3pm – 8pmDhaka Art Centre

Ode to BeautyBy Shama ShaiomTime: 3pm – 9pmAlliance Francaise de Dhaka

Show: YourselfTime: 18, 10am – 8pmAthena Gallery of Fine Arts, Progoti Shoroni, Uttar Badda

DHAKA TRIBUNE Entertainment Thursday, August 28, 201412

TODAY IN DHAKA

Trophy WifeStar World 9pm

The series explores the marriage between Kate and Pete, along with the modern family dynamics between them, the ex-wives, and their respective children.

TremorsStar Movies 11:30pm

Valentine Mckee and Earl Bassett is a pair of small-town handymen living in a small desert communi-ty. They stumble upon several dif-� cult-to-explain phenomena, in-cluding a couple of people who’ve died under extremely strange cir-cumstances.

Attack the BlockZ Studio 6pm

A teen gang in South London de-fend their block from an alien in-vasion.

n Shadma Malik

For the second time, ace singer and composer Kumar Bish-wajit will be working as a music director for a � lm. He has been selected to work in “Shutpaar Thikana” directed by

Proshun Rahman that won the National Filmmaking Grant in 2013 and has six tracks, among which two are collected from Radharaman and the rest are original. About directing the mu-sic, Kumar told the Dhaka Tribune: “The � lm is portraying a woman from the 80’s. It goes back to a time when a woman of a middle-class family usually moved directly from her father’s home to her husband’s without getting any opportunity to ex-plore life on her own. Music is incorporated in the story in such a manner that it plays a crucial part of the storytelling.

“Samina Chowdhury and Nancy will be lending their voice in the songs, on the other hand my music direction will be sup-ported by Kishore” added Kumar.

Kumar made his debut as a music director with the movie “Shami Strir Wada” and bagged the National Film Awards in three categories in 2010 for his remarkable work in the � lm. This year also saw the release of his solo music album “Priyo Aunubhob.” l

Kumar Biswajit’s second stint as music director

Kate Bush performs in a show in 1979

Kate Bush back on stage after 35 years

Hridi debuts on silver screenn Shadma Malik

Tabassum Anila Hridi will be making her big screen debut with a dance number from the � lm “Olpo Olpo Premer Golpo.” The song is a Nazrul Geeti “Alga Kore Go Khopar Badhon,” which has been made upbeat by add-ing modern-day tunes.

When asked about how she landed an item song, the dancer said: “From my childhood, I was trained in various dance forms and participated in cultural pro-grammes. I am in my element when I am on the dance � oor and I am not camera shy. These factors added up for me when I signed for the � lm.

“At � rst, director of the � lm Saniat Hossain wanted me to play a supporting role but later came up with the idea for the item number. That is how I ended up with the part.

“The song is aesthetically pleasant and the costume, set design and moves are all on the decent side. I am thankful to Babu, the choreographer, he made an e� ort to portray this item song in a way which would suit my personality.”

About further work in the � lm industry, Hridi said: “It will depends on how the audience react to my performance. If the response is positive, I would de� nitely snatch the opportunity. I am specially keen on acting in West Bengal � lms.”

Dressed in a splashy red and golden le-henga, Hridi is all set to light the screen on � re.

Featuring Shokh and Niloy to-gether for the � rst time, the upcom-ing � ick “Olpo Olpo Premer Golpo” directed by Saniat Hossain is set to hit the cinemas tomorrow. l

ABC Radio launches Darrn Entertainment Desk

ABC Radio FM 89.2 will launch its new programme titled “Darr” today. The programme has been created based on unexplained incidents across the country.

The new programme will be on air every Thursday at 11:20pm and will continue till 2am on the next day.

The “Darr” team has come up with the new show by roam-ing around Bangladesh in order to � nd out places where unex-plained incidents occurred.

The producer of this programme Golam Kibria thinks it would introduce the radio audience in Bangladesh with a new trend. “I believe it is going to win the hearts of the audience,” he says. l

SEVEN BOLLYWOOD MOVIESRELEASING ON SAME DATE

n Entertainment Desk

A big Box O� ce clash is set to happen on September 19 as the date will see the release of seven Bollywood movies.

Priyanka Chopra and Parineeti Chopra, the most popular � rst cousins of Bollywood have � nally warded o� a Box O� ce clash with their respective � lms, “Mary Kom” and “Daawat-E-Ishq.” Priyanka’s � lm is based on the life of boxer MC Mary Kom while the later is a comedy drama.

Sonam Kapor’s “Khoobsurat,” a remake of the 1980 � lm of the

same name, is also releasing on the day. Anupam Kher’ “Ekkees Toppon Ki Salaami” whose trailer was

launched by none other than Shahrukh Khan is also releasing on Sep-tember 19. This is a political comedy drama where Anupam will be seen playing the role of a BMC worker whose dying wish is to have a martyr’s last honour. The other � lms of the list are: psychological thriller “Ugly” directed by Anurag Kashyap, “Tamanchey” featur-ing a cute yet twisted love story, “Roar” about how a Bengal Tigress avenges the kidnap of her cub and “Balwinder Singh Famous Ho Gaya” featuring singers Mika and Shaan in the lead roles. l

Western classical music at Chhayanautn Entertainment Desk

A musical show by Classical Music Academy (CMA) will be held on August 30 at the Ch-hayanaut Auditorium.

The premiere show took place at the Bish-wa Shahittyo Kendra on August 22. The pro-gramme has been divided into two segment. At � rst, with twelve singers from CRP cen-tres, Savar will be singing three songs include “Dhono Dhanne Pushpe Bhora,” “Anondo Loke” and “Ami Banglai Gaan Gai” alongside moderated by Iftekhar Anwar with twenty � ve participants will be playing orchestra. The second series will be “Raham Ali’r Putul Nach (Doll Dance of Raham Ali). ” Narrator Heera Chowdhury will be commanding the story of Raham Ali who had arrived in Dhaka from his village where he used to do puppet shows. Written by Iftekhar Anwar, Md Aka-sha and Smaron Prottoy, the story will be well accompanied by music created by the chamber orchestra for the entire 40 minutes of the show. Ricardo Elias Rodriguez a Mexi-

can musician, will play in “Raham Ali’r Putul Nach” as a special attraction. Iftekhar, the founder of CMA said: “We are inviting pa-tients from CRP to showcase their talent. It will be enthralling for the audience to listen to them. About CMA, Iftekhar said: “I want-

ed to start a western classical school just be-cause we did not have one. Our e� ort is to familiarise western classical and form a full � edged orchestra in the country. A number of music schools here specialises in eastern classical music but western classical remains unexplored.”

The ticket of the event will be available at the gate priced BDT 200. l

Mexican musician Ricardo Elias Rodriguez will play in the event along with local musicians

A scene from Mary Kom A scene from Daawat-E-Ishq

13DHAKA TRIBUNEThursday, August 28, 2014

Sport 1514 De Villiers, Du Plessis double act seals Proteas win

United were the ‘only club’ after Real: Di María

15 Federer, Serena in cruise control as teen duo rock

Did you know?Sergio Aguero has

played only 29 minutes this season

but is the Premier League’s joint-top

scorer with two goals

Walk in the park for Gemcon, BexTexn Arsalan Quddus

Day six started o� with Dhaka Tribune � nally reminding the crowd why they

are the defending champions of this tournament as they coolly dispatched Green Delta in a 6-1 mauling. Depend-able mid� elder Fazley Rabbi Moon net-ted a spectacular hattrick for DT while Tareq Miru grabbed a brace. Star striker Reazur Rahman Rohan converted as well to complete the scoreline.

For what its worth, North South Univer-sity gave a good account of themselves in their match against the mighty Gem-con Group. As � rst-timers of the tourna-ment, a 2-7 scoreline should be consid-ered an achievement against one of the tournament favorites. Ujjal and Sazzad of NSU scored one goal each while the fabulous Gemcon Group are still looking ominous for the Cup. Shamim scored a hattrick for them.

Beximco Textiles has often lived in the shadow of their more illustrious sister concern Beximco Pharma but they did their parent company proud as they humbled Bangla Cat in a 6-2 drubbing. Captain Faiz of Textiles put in a terri� c performance notched a whopping four goals.

STS Group came from behind to beat Incepta Pharmaceuticals in a fascinat-ing encounter which saw Rezwan Huq � nally score for the esteemed hospital. Better late than never. Shaidul Islam of STS also scored a hattrick.

Magnito Digital overturned Energy Pac in a high-energy encounter which saw the digital � rm advance to the quarters. We bid farewell to Spellbound whose spirited run in this tournament came to

an end through a 5-2 rout by Rahima-frooze SPD. Ha� zur Rahman of Rahima-frooze scored a � ne hattrick.

Meanwhile, the last match on day � ve, Tuesday, was the one everyone was waiting for. A true David versus Goliath occasion which had the STM packed to its capacity. People had come to see the plucky newcomers Runner, who have come thus far in this tournament in a trail glory, took on the � ve-time champi-ons, the mighty Beximco Pharma.

However, the biblical connection ended just as soon as the referee blew the whistle, as the Pharmaceutical gi-ants dispatched a stern footballing les-son to the tournament newcomers, not to mention a statement of intent to the

teams facing them after. Runner were made to run the full 20 mins, chasing lost causes and shadows and conceded a staggering 11 goals.

Goal-machine Adil slotted home four

in the � rst half while Shoriful added a hattrick. Shuvo scored two while Mukul and Sunny added one each. Md. Sho� ul pulled one back for Runner which only served as a consolation. We shall miss seeing the Runner players who have been extremely polite with everyone at the tournament. Their exciting foot-ball and their wonderful fans who came to every match and bought the house down in this tourney. We wish them the best of luck for next year’s spectacle. As for BexiPharma, they are still the team to beat in this year’s Ascent Cup. l

Arsalan Quddus is a key member of the organiser Excalibur Entertainment, a die hard Manchester United fan and also a passionate football fanatic.

RESULTSDhaka Tribune 6-1 Green Delta

NSU 2-7 Gemcon

Beximco Textile 6-2 Bangla CAT

Incepta 3-5 STS Group

Energypac 1-4 Magnito Digital

Spellbound 2-5 Rahimafrooze

Therap BD 3-2 bKash

Kazi Farm 3-8 Chevron

An action from the match between Therap BD and bKash at the STM Hall yesterday COURTESY

Aftab to retire after season-endn Minhaz Uddin Khan

Former national cricketer Aftab Ahmed has informed of his decision to call time on his cricket career following the conclusion of the upcoming Dhaka Pre-mier Division Cricket League 2014.

The 28-year-old hard-hitting batsman noti� ed the media after signing with Brothers Union in the second round of

the players’ transfer held yesterday.Aftab had an average season with

Gazi Tank Cricketers in the last edition of the Dhaka Premier League as well as for other sides he played for in domes-tic cricket in the past year. When que-ried why he decided to retire in spite the fact that he can still contribute, Aftab said, “Cricket is tough now. To be honest the club o� cials have started thinking di� erently about me and this resulted in very few o� ers this season.

“I do not think it will be wise for me to spend more time here. So I thought now is the right time to retire taking all facts into consideration,” he said.

Aftab clari� ed his decision was not borne out of grudge and that it was to-tally his personal wish.

“This is my last year. I request ev-eryone to pray for me so that I can leave the stage on a high note,” Aftab added.

The Chittagong lad had a � ying start to his international career for Bangla-desh in September, 2004. He � rst came to the attention of the Bangladeshi se-lectors after scoring 79 against South Africa in the 2002 Under-19 World Cup following which he was drafted into the Test squad to face England, despite having failed to impress in the two earlier warm-up matches. His tenure, however, was put on hold when he joined the Bangladesh exodus in the

rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL) and was subsequently banned for ten years. After one season, he quit the ICL and made himself available for selection again. His last assignment following his recall to the national side was in the 2010 ICC World Twenty20.

Aftab admitted his involvement in the now-defunct ICL jeopardised his career permanently.

“It is true that I had a � ne start to the national team but unfortunately it did not end in the same manner. My deci-sion to play in the ICL was very wrong as the gap it created made severe dam-age to my career,” Aftab explained.

“However that is in the past now. I am thankful to everyone who were be-side me, prayed for me and loved me,” he said.

“I have planned to start up a cricket academy,” said Aftab adding, “Most of the work is done and it will be launched soon. I have spent a good amount of time in cricket with everyone’s blessings. I aim to take my coaching career to a high-lev-el,” said the right-handed batsman.

Aftab informed the port city lacks a quality cricket academy and he is planning to contribute to the game by bringing the city of Chittagong to its former glory days. l

Shakib in the mix of thingsSecond phase of players’ transfer ends todayn Mazhar Uddin

A new controversy emerged surround-ing Shakib al Hasan as the second phase of the players’ transfer for the cricketers outside the national pool got underway at the Bangabandhu Nation-al Stadium yesterday.

A total of 70 cricketers took part in the second phase of the two-day play-ers’ transfer of the Dhaka Premier Di-vision Cricket League 2014 but Shakib was at the forefront of all headlines as the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and the Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis (CCDM) gave contradictory statements regarding the transfer of the national all-rounder.

Following a board meeting on Tues-day, Shakib’s six-month suspension was nearly halved making him available for the premier 50-over competition of the country. It was earlier learned that Shakib will be featuring for Gazi Tank Cricketers as he is reportedly set to receive Tk5m from the champions of the previous edition. However, in a latest twist to events, CCDM informed

that Shakib’s services will be acquired through an auction instead of his own preference and the clubs who were un-able to recruit any cricketer from the na-tional pool will get � rst priority to sign him with his base price � xed at Tk4m.

BCB president Nazmul Hasan had informed on Tuesday that Shakib’s fate will be decided by CCDM but the committee’s chairman AZM Nasir sang a di� erent tune yesterday saying the � -nal decision will be taken by the board.

According to the existing system of the players’ transfer, Shakib holds the right to sign for any club he desires. However, it remains to be seen who will have the � nal say now, the BCB or the CCDM, and whether Shakib is really bought through an auction or signs for Gazi Tank as per his desire.

Meanwhile, the cricketers outside the national set-up were relieved af-ter the players’ transfer returned to its traditional system in place of the con-troversial “Players by Choice” system opted by both the BCB and the CCDM last season when the clubs recruited the cricketers through lottery. Howev-

er, following much disharmony among the players, the system was scrapped after just one season.

Left-arm spinner Arafat Sunny, who was included in the national pool but was unable to � nd a team during the � rst phase of the players’ transfer on August 11-12, signed for Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club yesterday. It was learned that another spinner, Sohag Gazi, who encountered a similar situa-tion to that of Sunny, will also feature for the same club.

National discard Shahriar Nafees also signed for Sheikh Jamal yesterday. The left-handed batsman informed the media that the premier league will be the best possible platform for him to script a comeback into the national side. “Dhaka League is one of the most prestigious tournaments of the coun-try and it will be very important for me to perform and return to the national side. I will try to give my best to Sheikh Jamal,” said Nafees.

The two-day players’ transfer for the cricketers outside the national pool will come to an end today. l

n Shishir Hoque

The Walton Refrigerator National 13th Intermediate and 1st Junior Women’s Boxing Championship will get under-way today at the Mohammad Ali Box-ing Stadium in Paltan.

A total of 150 participants from di� er-ent divisional sports organisations, dis-trict teams, services teams and clubs will take part in the meet. The four-day long tournament will conclude on August 31.

The events of the intermediate cat-egory are - 46, 49, 52, 56, 60 and 69kg while the events of the women’s junior category are - 36, 40, 45, 50 and 55kg.

Deputy Minister for Youth and Sports Arif Khan Joy will inaugurate the meet as chief guest while Walton additional director and head of games & sports FM Iqbal bin Anwar Dawn, popular actor

Masum Parvez Rubel and Walton sports ambassador Jobera Rahman Linu will be present as special guests.

“Boxing is a popular sports and it has many prospects. We have sponsored

before and we will continue to help the game. The reason is that we want to get the glory of boxing back,” said Dawn at a press conference yesterday when the de-tails of the tournament were revealed.l

CAREER STATS Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave BF SR 100 50 Tests 16 31 3 582 82* 20.78 1173 49.61 0 1 ODIs 85 85 6 1954 92 24.73 2353 83.04 0 14 T20Is 11 11 1 228 62* 22.80 178 128.08 0 1 First-class 61 111 9 2502 129 24.52 4438 56.37 1 9 List A 121 121 7 2783 92 24.41 3451 80.64 0 19 Twenty20 28 26 2 343 62* 14.29 313 109.58 0 1

Aftab Ahmed registers for Brothers Union as coach Mominul Haque (R) and teammate Nazimuddin (L) looks on during the � rst day of the non-pool players’ transfer at BNS yesterday COURTESY

Walton Boxing C’ship begins today

Walton additional director FM Iqbal bin Anwar Dawn (C) speaks at the Walton Refrigerator Nat’l 13th Intermediate and 1st Junior Women’s Boxing C’ship presser yesterday COURTESY

DHAKA TRIBUNE14 Sport Thursday, August 28, 2014

Donovan to make US farewell against Ecuadorn AFP, Chicago

US all-time scoring leader Landon Don-ovan will make his � nal appearance for the United States national team in an October 10 friendly against Ecuador, USA Soccer announced Tuesday.

Donovan, a controversial absentee from US coach Jurgen Klinsmann’s � nal roster for the World Cup two months ago in Brazil, has a record 57 goals for the American squad.

The 32-year-old Los Angeles Galaxy striker announced August 7 that he would retire at the end of the current Major League Soccer season.

His US farewell, the 157th cap of his career, will came at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Connecticut.

“Playing for the US national team has been a huge part of my career and I’m ecstatic to have the opportunity to play for my country one last time,” Donovan said.

“I’m so grateful to all the fans that have supported me and this game will give me the chance to say thank you to all of them.”

“For 15 years, Landon has thrilled us with his amazing abilities on the � eld and impressed us with his gracious approach o� the � eld,” said US Soccer President Sunil Gulati.

“We are looking forward to celebrating his legacy during our next home national team match and allowing fans the oppor-tunity to thank him for all the memories he has provided over the years.” l

Barca sign Brazilian right-back Douglasn AFP, Madrid

La Liga giants Barcelona have com-pleted the signing of Brazilian full back Douglas Pereira from Sau Paulo for an initial fee of four million euros ($5.2 million, £3.2 million), the club con-� rmed on Wednesday.

The 24-year-old will sign a � ve-year deal and is expected to compete with compatriot Dani Alves for a place in the � rst team. The deal could rise to 5.5 million euros subject to the number of appearances he makes for the Catalans.

“FC Barcelona and Sao Paulo FC have reached an agreement for the transfer of Douglas Pereira,” said a statement on the Barca website.

“The cost of the transfer is 4 million eu-ros plus 1.5 million euros in variables de-pending on the number of games played.l

Bayern agree deal for Benatian AFP, Berlin

German champions Bayern Munich on Tuesday announced an agreement with Serie A side Roma for a deal to take Moroccan international defender Mehdi Benatia to the Allianz Arena.

Bayern said that the two clubs have agreed not to disclose the fee for the 27-year-old French-born centre-back, although Italian media reports on Tuesday estimated that Roma will re-ceive around 30 million euros (£23.9m, $39.6m). That would be made up of 26 million euros initially, with a further four million in potential bonuses.

Bayern had been searching for de-fensive reinforcements after losing Javi Martinez until the end of the calendar year when he su� ered a serious knee injury in the recent defeat to Borussia Dortmund in the German Super Cup.l

Man United thrashed 4-0 by MK Dons in League Cupn Reuters, London

Manchester Unit-ed’s early season problems were

compounded by a humiliating 4-0 loss to third-tier Milton Keynes Dons in the League Cup second round on Tuesday leaving new manager Louis van Gaal still looking for his � rst win.

MK Dons’ Will Grigg and substitute Benik Afobe scored two goals apiece as United’s defensive frailties were ruthlessly exposed by their enthusias-tic lower division opponents who took advantage of playing against a sec-ond-string side.

Grigg capitalised on United’s mis-takes to score either side of halftime before Afobe compounded the visitors’ misery with two late goals, the � rst sec-onds after coming o� the bench.

Dutchman Van Gaal is still without a competitive victory since taking over at United in the close season and he will be desperate for British record signing Angel Di Maria to play after he signed from Real Madrid earlier on Tuesday.

It was United’s � rst outing in the second round of the competition since 1995 and the � rst time they had con-ceded four goals in a League Cup match against lower league opposition.

Van Gaal left out several � rst-team regulars including captain Wayne

Rooney and strike partner Robin van Per-sie but asked if he regretted making so many changes, he said: “No, you have to analyse the problem and I’ve done that.

“We have nine injuries and a very young team. I’ve seen them trying to do their utmost best so you cannot ex-pect more.”

West Ham United lost 5-4 on penalties at home to She� eld United following a 1-1 draw after extra time, while fellow top-� ight sides Leicester City and Burnley went down 1-0 to visiting Shrewsbury Town and She� eld Wednesday respectively.

Dwight Gayle scored a � rst-half

hat-trick as Premier League crisis club Crystal Palace, without a manager after Tony Pulis left the club, enjoyed a 3-0 win at third-tier Walsall.

Newcastle United won 1-0 at Gillingham, Southampton beat Millwall 2-0 away, Swansea triumphed 1-0 at home to Rotherham United and West Bromwich Albion beat visitors Oxford United 7-6 on penalties with the teams locked at 1-1 after extra time. l

Odds slashed on Van Gaal leaving Unitedn Reuters, London

British bookmakers reacted to Man-chester United’s humiliating 4-0 defeat by MK Dons in the Capital One Cup by slashing the odds on manager Louis van Gaal leaving the club.

William Hill, who had been o� ering 66-1 against the Dutchman becoming the next Premier League manager to go, cut those odds to 12-1 on Wednesday.

Corals, meanwhile, are o� ering 6-1 against him leaving by the end of his � rst season in England after United lost for the second time in three matches since he took over with the other match ending in a draw.

“The odds suggest that Manchester United will win nothing and the own-ers might just cut their losses and re-build again,” said William Hill spokes-man Rupert Adams.l

Spurs target Champions League via Europa loopholen AFP, Paris

Two-time winners Totten-ham Hotspur carry a nar-row advantage into their Europa League playo� sec-ond leg against AEL Limas-sol of Cyprus while their

domestic rivals Hull need to overturn a 1-0 de� cit to keep alive their � rst ever European campaign.

Thirty one places are up for grabs in the � nal quali� ers to reach the group phase draw on Friday in Monaco and gov-erning body Uefa have thrown a valuable carrot in front of the potential winners.

The triumphant side in the May 25, 2015 � nal at Warsaw will, for the � rst

time, automatically qualify for next season’s Champions League.

Hull quali� ed for their � rst ever European competition as FA Cup run-ners-up last season, at the hands of Ar-senal, but manager Steve Bruce must mastermind a comeback from 1-0 down against Belgian Cup winners Lokeren.

Elsewhere, Belarusian outsiders Di-namo Minsk stand on the brink of their � rst quali� cation for the group stages of a European competition after a run of � ve consecutive clean sheets includ-ing a 2-0 � rst leg win over Portugal’s Nacional last week. France risk losing two clubs before the draw with bitter local rivals Lyon and Saint-Etienne both needing second leg victories.

PSV Eindhoven, the 1978 UEFA Cup champions, take a 1-0 lead to Belarus where they tackle Shakhtyor Soligorsk while Dutch rivals Feyenoord have an away goal to protect after coming back to force a 1-1 draw against Zorya Lu-hansk of Ukraine.

Spanish sides are well positioned to reach the next round after Villarre-al thrashed Astana of Kazakhstan 3-0 and Real Sociedad edged Russian out� t Krasnodar 1-0 thanks to a 71st minute winner from Xabi Prieto.

Italian interests rest with Torino, as they drew 0-0 on the road at RNK Split of Croatia, while Inter Milan are in the driving seat after overpowering Stjar-nan 3-0 in Iceland. l

Di Maria won’t provide instant � x: Van Gaaln Reuters, London

Manchester United’s new winger Angel Di Maria will not change the course of their troubled season straight away fol-lowing his British record transfer from Real Madrid, manager Louis van Gaal said on Tuesday.

The Dutchman was speaking after United’s humiliating 4-0 loss at third-ti-er Milton Keynes Dons in the League Cup second round had compounded their terrible start to the campaign.

“I think that he (Di Maria) can con-tribute and that is very important but we don’t have to expect that from to-morrow our world has changed,” van Gaal told Sky Sports after the Argenti-na international signed for 59.7 million pounds ($98.77 million).

“He has to adapt to the culture of En-gland, the culture of the Premier League

and the philosophy of Man United.“He shall contribute very much in

our way of playing. He is a creative player. I can change the system with Di Maria. He can play as a winger and he can also play in mid� eld,” he added.

Van Gaal praised the reaction he got from the Old Tra� ord faithful during the reverse to Swansea and urged them to remain patient.

“(The fans) have to believe in our philosophy,” he said. “We are building up a team that you cannot make in one month or even one year. It (Tuesday’s defeat) is very disappointing but I hope they shall maintain their con� dence in the club, and in our philosophy be-cause that philosophy takes time.

“We know exactly what we are do-ing. We have lost in the Capital One Cup, and so tonight has cost us the chance of a trophy, and that is disappointing.” l

Manchester United were the ‘only club’ after Real: Di Marían The Guardian

Ángel di María said Manchester Unit-ed were the “only club” for which he would have left Real Madrid as the 26-year-old completed a £59.7m British record transfer, signing a � ve-year con-tract worth around £200,000 a week.

With the Argentinian secured Unit-ed will step up their attempt to sign a mid� elder and, possibly, a defender in the closing days of the transfer win-dow. Juventus’s Arturo Vidal, Milan’s Nigel de Jong and Ajax’s Daley Blind, who is also a left-sided defensive play-er, are potential targets.

United hope to con� rm Di María’s work permit in time for Saturday’s match at Burnley. If granted – and that should be a formality with his status as an Argentina international – he should be selected for the match-day squad at Turf Moor and could make a full debut.

After completing a medical and the requisite paperwork on Tuesday to seal the deal, Di María said: “I am absolute-ly delighted to be joining Manchester United. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in Spain and there were a lot of clubs interested in me, but United is the only club that I would have left Real Madrid for.

“Louis van Gaal is a fantastic coach with a proven track record of success and I am impressed by the vision and determination everyone has to get this

club back to the top – where it belongs. I now just cannot wait to get started.”

The price for Di Maria makes him the world’s sixth most expensive player, behind Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo (£80m), Luis Suárez (£75m), Neymar (£71m), and James Rodríguez (£63m). l

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal (C) and assistant manager Ryan Giggs (2L) watch from the bench during their League Cup match against Milton Keynes Dons at stadiummk in Milton Keynes, north of London on Tuesday REUTERS

RESULTSBurnley 0-1 She� eld W’day Nuhiu 78-P

Gillingham 0-1 Newcastle Egan 25-og

Leicester City 0-1 Shrewsbury Mangan 38

Millwall 0-2 Southampton Cork 53, Pelle 90+3

MK Dons 4-0 Man UnitedGrigg 25, 63, Afobe 70, 84

Swansea City 1-0 Rotherham UtdGomis 22

Walsall 0-3 Crystal Palace Gayle 7, 25, 41

West Brom 1-1 Oxford UnitedMullins 29-og Hylton 86

West Bromwich Albion win 7-6 on penalties

West Ham 1-1 She� eld UnitedSakho 40 Reid 58-og

She� eld United win 5-4 on penalties

Angel di Maria poses in a Manchester United shirt after completing his £59.7m move from Real Madrid INTERNET

(R-L) Real Madrid’s Xabi Alonso, Marcelo, Iker Casillas, Gareth Bale and James Rodriguez pose along with Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto during the launching ceremony of the team’s new Uefa Champions League kit at Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday REUTERS

Sorry Celtic fail to take CL chancen Reuters, Berne

Porto and Zenit St Pe-tersburg swept into the Champions League group stage, helped by inspired displays from Yacine Brahimi and

Hulk, on Tuesday while hapless Celtic were knocked out of the competition for a second time in three weeks.

Brahimi, who shone for Algeria in the World Cup, curled in a majestic free kick and set up a second goal for Jack-son Martinez to give Porto a 2-0 win over Lille in their playo� round second leg tie.

Hulk scored twice, converting a pen-alty and then barging his way through the Standard Liege mid� eld, as Zenit beat the Belgians 3-0 despite playing the second half with 10 men.

Celtic, beaten 6-1 on aggregate by Le-

gia Warsaw in the third round only to be reprieved because the Polish champions � elded an ineligible player, slunk out for a second time with a 1-0 home defeat

against Slovenian champions Maribor.APOEL Nicosia, 4-0 winners over

Aalborg, and Belarus champions BATE Borisov, who beat Slovakian count-er-parts Slovan Bratislava 3-0, also quali� ed.

BATE, full name Borisov Automobile and Tractor Electronics, went ahead through Mikhail Gordeychuk four min-utes before halftime and two late goals from Sergei Kryvets and Vitali Rodi-onov completed a 4-1 aggregate win.

Their Slovakian opponents had Seydouba Soumah sent o� in the 79th minute.

Cypriot side APOEL, who reached the quarter-� nals in 2011/12, outclassed Aalborg as they quali� ed for the group stage for a third time.

Vinicius, Tomas De Vincenti, Stathis Aloneftis and Cillian Sheridan shared the goals as they completed a 5-1 aggre-gate win over the Danes.l

RESULTSZenit 3-0 Std LiegeRondon 30, Hulk 54-P, 58

Zenit win 4-0 on aggregate

BATE Borisov 3-0 Slovan BratislavaGordeychuk 41, Krivets 84, Rodionov 85

BATE win 4-1 on aggregate

Celtic 0-1 Maribor Tavares 75

Maribor win 2-1 on aggregate

APOEL 4-0 AalborgVinicius 28, De Vincenti 43, Aloneftis 64, Sheridan 75

APOEL win 5-1 on aggregate

FC Porto 2-0 LilleBrahimi 49, Martinez 69

Porto win 3-0 on aggregatePorto’s Jackson Martinez celebrates his goal against Lille during their Champions League second leg qualifying match at Dragao stadium in Porto on Tuesday REUTERS

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE 15Thursday, August 28, 2014

Warnock named Crystal Palace managerNeil Warnock has returned to Crystal Palace as manager to � ll the vacancy created by the departure of Tony Pulis, the Premier League club announced on Wednesday. Warnock, who previously managed Palace between 2007 and 2010, takes over after Pulis abruptly left Selhurst Park on the eve of the season amid reports of a disagreement with co-chairman Steve Parish. “Crystal Palace are delighted to announce that Neil Warnock has been appointed as their new � rst-team manager with im-mediate e� ect,” Palace announced on their o� cial website. “Neil has agreed a two-year deal and will lead the team this Saturday in our Premier League game at Newcastle United.”

–AFP

Everton bolster attack with experienced Eto’oEverton have bolstered their attacking options with the signing of Cameroon’s seasoned striker Samuel Eto’o, who was a free agent after leaving Chelsea at the end of last season. The 33-year-old, crowned African Player of the Year a record four times, scored nine league goals in 21 games at Stamford Bridge after joining from Russia’s Anzhi Makhachkala. Eto’o, who has won 118 caps and scored a record 56 goals for Cameroon, signed a two-year deal at Goodison Park. “I have been very impressed by the style of play Everton adopt,” Eto’o said on the Premier League club’s website (www.evertonfc.com), having been lured by manager Roberto Martinez’s footballing philosophy. “I was impressed with his enthusiasm but also by the knowledge of football that Roberto Martinez carries, his vision of football and how he reads football. I still think I can learn a great deal from him here,” he added. Eto’o has won four league titles, seven domestic cups, a FIFA Club World Cup medal and three Champions League, two with Barcelona and one with Inter Milan where he be-came the � rst player to win consecutive European continental trebles.

–Reuters

Hull sign Tottenham stalwart DawsonHull City announced on Tuesday that they have signed English centre-back Michael Dawson from Premier League rivals Tottenham Hotspur for an undis-closed fee. Dawson, 30, has signed a three-year contract at the KC Stadium, having decided to end a nine-year as-sociation with Tottenham that saw him appointed club captain in 2012. “I have been here for almost a decade and have loved every minute of it,” Dawson said on Tottenham’s o� cial Twitter feed. “I would like to say thank you to everyone at the club, including the supporters.”

–AFP

QUICK BYTES

South Africa’s Faf du Plessis (R) congratulates captain AB deVilliers on reaching a century during their ODI against Australia at the Harare Sports Club yesterday AFP

Ailing Benaud could call Tests from living roomn AFP, Sydney

Legendary cricket commentator Richie Benaud could call Australia’s Test se-ries this summer against India from his home if he is not � t enough to be at the grounds, his boss said Wednesday.

The 83-year-old former Australia cap-tain, who has worked in the commen-tary box since retiring from Test cricket in 1964, su� ered chest and shoulder injuries during a car crash late last year.

It prevented him calling a single ball during the Ashes series against England last summer, and remains unclear wheth-er he will be able to travel for the India se-ries. Channel 9 has the cricket TV rights in Australia and chief executive David Gyngell told the Sydney Morning Herald that Benaud was so important he could call the games from his Sydney home. l

Zim’s Panyangara ‘expelled’ over Aussie videon AFP, Harare

Seamer Tinashe Panyangara has been removed from the Zimbabwe squad for the remainder of the triangular series for sharing an intimidating video of Australia fast bowler Mitchell Johnson with his teammates.

A Zimbabwe Cricket media release con� rmed that Panyangara had been “expelled” because of “indiscipline”.

It has subsequently been established that Panyangara was disciplined because on Sunday he sent his teammates a high-lights package of Johnson from the Ash-es series in Australia from Cricket Aus-tralia’s YouTube channel. Although the message was intended as a joke to Zim-babwe’s batsmen, their coach Stephen Mangongo and chief selector Givemore Makoni failed to see the funny side. l

Federer, Serena in cruise control as teen duo rockn AFP, New York

Five-time champi-ons Roger Federer and Serena Wil-liams reached the US Open second round on Tues-

day, but found themselves sharing the headlines with teenage upstarts CiCi Bellis and Borna Coric.

Federer claimed his 50th win of 2014 as the 17-time major winner, playing in his 60th successive Grand Slam and bidding to become the oldest major winner in over 40 years, defeated Aus-tralia’s Marinko Matosevic 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) to register his 23rd win in 24 night matches in New York.

“It was a bit more di� cult than I thought it was going to be in the third set. Marinko has a big game,” said sec-ond seeded Federer who hit 10 aces and 41 winners and was cheered on by bas-

ketball legend Michael Jordan.Federer will face another Australian,

big-serving Sam Groth, for a place in the last 32 as he continues his bid for a record sixth US Open but � rst since 2008.

Women’s world number one Wil-liams, the double defending champion who is also seeking a sixth title, was equally untroubled, defeating 18-year-old compatriot Taylor Townsend, 6-3, 6-1 in just 55 minutes.

Williams, like Federer, a 17-time major winner, has failed to make it past the fourth round at the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon this year.

When the world number one won her � rst US Open in 1999, CiCi Bellis wasn’t even � ve months old.

But on Tuesday Bellis, ranked at a lowly 1,208 and aged just 15, knocked out Australian Open runner-up, Dominika Cibulkova, the 12th seed, 6-1,

4-6, 6-4 to become the youngest play-er to win a match at the US Open since Anna Kournikova in 1996.

Coric, the 17-year-old world number 204 who was junior champion in 2013, also made a stunning Grand Slam de-but with a convincing 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 win over 29th-seeded Czech Lukas Rosol, the man who dumped Rafael Nadal out of Wimbledon two years ago.

The upset put Coric into a sec-ond-round clash with history-making Victor Estrella Burgos, the Dominican Republic’s � rst Grand Slam participant who is making his US Open debut at 34.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” said qual-i� er Coric, who arrived in New York with the goal of making it into the main draw. “I said to myself, ‘If I achieve that, that’s going to be perfect’.”

Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova breezed into the second round with a 6-1, 6-0 rout of French number 73 Kris-tina Mladenovic.l

India’s Suresh Raina bats during the second ODI against England at the SWALEC stadium in Cardi� yesterday REUTERS

US’s Catherine Bellis returns a shot against Dominika Cibulkova during their women’s singles 1st round US Open match at the New York City yesterday AFP

India beat England by 133 runs to win 2nd ODIn AFP, Cardiff

India thrashed England by 133 runs un-der the Duckworth/Lewis method to win the second one-day international at Cardi� on Wednesday.

World champions India, after losing the toss, made 304 for six in their 50 overs with Suresh Raina scoring exact-ly 100.

India had been in trouble at 19 for two after losing the toss before a stand of 91 between Rohit Sharma (52) and Ajinkya Rahane (41) repaired the early damage.

Raina and India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (52) then picked up the pace in a � fth-wicket partnership of 144 in just 111 balls.

Chris Woakes (four for 52) and o� -spinner James Tredwell (two for 42)

were the only England bowlers to take wickets.

England bowled 16 wides, with all-rounder Chris Jordan deliv-ering 12 - the equivalent of two extra overs - during an expensive return of none for 73.

Rain during the mid-innings break left England chasing a revised target of 295 in 47 overs.

But they collapsed to 161 all out in 38.1 overs, with opener Alex Hales top-scoring with 40 on his one-day in-ternational debut.

Left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja took four for 28 in seven overs.

India lead the � ve-match series 1-0 after Monday’s � rst ODI in Bristol was washed out without a ball bowled.

The series continues at Trent Bridge on Saturday. l

Football fever grips Sylhetn Shishir Hoque

Football fever has gripped the people of Sylhet ahead of the second and � nal friendly match between the Bangla-desh Under-23 team and the Nepal U-23 side in the north-eastern city as 80 per-cent of the total tickets have already been sold out yesterday afternoon. The organisers expect all the tickets to be sold out before the game takes place tomorrow.

Interest among local people has reached fever pitch following a superb display in the � rst match in Dhaka on Tuesday when the home side earned a convincing 1-0 victory over the visitors. The Bangladesh U-23 side will play their second friendly match against the Ne-pal U-23 team at the Sylhet Zila Stadium tomorrow as part of their preparation for the forthcoming 17th Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea next month.

The venue has a capacity of around 25,000 seats and according to the Dis-trict Football Association (DFA), most of the tickets have been sold out in-cluding all the VIP tickets.

“We gave the responsibility of tick-et-related issues to a local event man-agement group. They informed us that 80 percent tickets have been sold out by today (yesterday) afternoon,” said Mohiuddin Ahmed Selim, president of Sylhet DFA, yesterday.

According to Bangladesh Football Federation o� cials in Sylhet, there is a festive mood prevailing in the city ahead of the game with motorcycle rallies taking place to promote the

game and urging people to throng to the stadium.

Bangladesh captain Mamunul Islam believes the enthusiasm of the fans will give them an added boost. “The victory was very important for us. The scoreline could have been bigger giv-en the way we played the game. The best thing is we amused the crowd and their passion is providing us the mental boost that we need,” said the Sheikh Ja-mal mid� elder yesterday.

Bangladesh’s Dutch head coach Lodewijk de Kruif received another boost as juvenile mid� elder Hemanta Vincent Biswas’ injury, which he picked up during the last game, proved to be nothing serious and the Mohammedan player will be available for selection for tomorrow’s game.

The national U-23 side, however, experienced some di� cult moments during their hectic journey to Sylhet yesterday as the bus carrying them took more than 10 hours to reach the city from BKSP, Savar.

Both the teams left BKSP at 9am yesterday morning but they could not take the Gazipur route due to a political gathering there and had to come back to Dhaka where they encountered the inevitable tra� c jam. They then start-ed o� for Sylhet and � nally reached the destination after 7pm in the evening. The overall journey took them 10 hours which is more than double the duration it normally takes in the other days.

The Bangladesh team will attend a practice session today at the Sylhet Zila Stadium. l

De Villiers, Du Plessis double act seals Proteas win over Aussies n Reuters, Harare

AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis struck sublime centuries as South Africa chased down a massive score to beat Australia by seven wickets in the sec-ond one-day international of the trian-gular series on Wednesday.

The pair put on 206 for the third wicket, the highest South Africa part-nership against Australia, as the Pro-teas reached their victory target of 328 with 20 balls to spare at the Harare Sports Club home of series hosts Zim-babwe.

It eclipsed the 187 put on by Her-chelle Gibbs and Graeme Smith as they

famously chased down 434 at The Wanderers in 2006, and was no less im-pressive for the skill shown by the pair as they scored all around the ground.

After South Africa won the toss and elected to bowl, Australia showed great acceleration at the end of their innings to post 327 for seven in 50 overs, with opener Aaron Finch crashing 102 from 116 balls.

But it was not enough as the Proteas recovered from a wobble at 51 for two to reach their target with some ease on a wicket that got � atter as the day wore on.

For Du Plessis it was a � rst ODI cen-tury as he recorded 106 from 98 balls and made a mockery of recent criti-

cism over his slow strike-rate in limit-ed overs cricket with a � ne display of � nesse and power hitting.

Captain De Villiers rode his luck af-ter o� ering simple chances to Mitchell Johnson and George Bailey that were dropped when he had 78 and 85 re-spectively, and battled on through se-vere cramp to score 136 not out from 106 balls.

It is a welcome return to form for the right-hander, who had scored only 29 runs in three innings in test and ODI cricket on the tour before this match, and is the second highest score by a South African against Australia in lim-ited overs matches. l

AustraliaA. Finch c Duminy b McLaren 102P. Hughes c de Villiers b Imran Tahir 51M. Marsh lbw b Imran Tahir 5G. Bailey c de Kock b Morkel 66G. Maxwell c de Villiers b Morkel 7S. Smith b McLaren 31B. Haddin c Amla b Steyn 9J. Faulkner not out 10M. Johnson not out 23Extras (12lb, 10w, 1nb) 23Total (7 wkts, 50 overs) 327

Fall of wickets1-92 (Hughes), 2-115 (Marsh), 3-229 (Finch), 4-242 (Bailey), 5-253 (Max-well), 6-268 (Haddin), 7-301 (Smith).BowlingSteyn 10-0-54-1, Parnell 7-0-66-0, Morkel 10-1-63-2, McLaren 9-0-64-2, Im-ran Tahir 10-0-45-2, Duminy 4-0-23-0.South AfricaQ. de Kock c Faulkner b Starc 19H. Amla c Smith b Richardson 24F. du Plessis c Smith b Starc 106AB de Villiers not out 136JP Duminy not out 33Extras (10w) 10Total (3 wkts, 46.4 overs) 328

Fall of wickets1-44 (Amla), 2-51 (de Kock), 3-257 (du Plessis).BowlingJohnson 10-0-63-0, Starc 8-0-62-2, Richardson 10-0-68-1, Marsh 5-0-36-0, Faulkner 8.4-0-59-0, Smith 2-0-20-0, Maxwell 3-0-20-0.ResultSouth Africa won by 7 wickets

SCORECARD, SAvAUS

BCB media manager Rabeed Imam (R) congratulates the new CEO of the cricket board Nizamuddin Chowdhury with a � ower bouquet at the BCB o� ce in Mirpur yesterday

IndiaR. Sharma c Woakes b Tredwell 52S. Dhawan c Buttler b Woakes 11V. Kohli c Cook b Woakes 0A. Rahane st Buttler b Tredwell 41S. Raina c Anderson b Woakes 100M. S. Dhoni b Woakes 52R. Jadeja not out 9R. Ashwin not out 10Extras (b1, lb11, w16, nb1) 29Total (6 wkts, 50 overs) 304

Fall of wickets1-19 (Dhawan), 2-19 (Kohli), 3-110 (Rahane), 4-132 (R Sharma), 5-276 (Raina), 6-288 (Dhoni)BowlingAnderson 10-1-57-0 (2w); Woakes 10-1-52-4 (2w); Jordan 10-0-73-0 (12w); Stokes 7-0-54-0 (1nb); Root 3-0-14-0; Tredwell 10-1-42-2;England(Target 295 o� 47 overs)A. Cook lbw b Shami 19A. Hales c Ashwin b Jadeja 40I. Bell b Shami 1J. Root b Kumar 4E. Morgan c Shami b Ashwin 28J. Buttler c Kohli b Jadeja 2B. Stokes c Rahane b Jadeja 23C. Woakes st Dhoni b Jadeja 20C. Jordan lbw b Raina 0J. Tredwell c Jadeja b Ashwin 10J. Anderson not out 9Extras (lb3, w2) 5Total (all out, 38.1 overs) 161

Fall of wickets1-54 (Cook), 2-56 (Bell), 3-63 (Root), 4-81 (Hales), 5-85 (Buttler), 6-119 (Mor-gan), 7-126 (Stokes), 8-128 (Jordan), 9-143 (Woakes), 10-161 (Tredwell)BowlingKumar 7-0-30-1; M Sharma 6-1-18-0; Shami 6-0-32-2 (2w); Ashwin 9.1-0-38-2; Jadeja 7-0-28-4; Raina 3-0-12-1;ResultIndia won by 133 runs (D/L method)

SCORECARD, ENGvIND

16 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, August 28, 2014

Lawmen play ball with yaba peddlersYaba dealer says in custody that most drives at the border are just eyewash

n Ashif Islam Shaon

A yaba dealer in custody has told detec-tives that a section of police and BGB members are involved in smuggling at the border and most of their drives and seizures are nothing but an eyewash.

The law enforcers stationed at the border do not generally take part in di-rect peddling; rather they play ball with carriers in exchange for “commission on piece-rate basis.” They make sure that people carrying drugs pass through check posts without any hassle and the consignments reach Dhaka safely.

The drug dealer in custody said the law enforcers usually let the big con-signments pass through, and conduct drives and seize yaba tablets from the smaller consignments. There has also been cases where it was found later that the seized tablets were all fake.

The Detective Branch (DB) of Police

got this information from a yaba deal-er named Abdullah Zubayeer, who was picked up in the capital's Khilgaon area on Sunday.

A total of 55,000 yaba pills, a Mitsub-ishi Pajero SUV and some yaba-making equipment were seized from his pos-session. Three of his associates were also picked up during the drive. A Dha-ka court later put Zubayeer and his as-sociates on seven days' remand.

According to Zubayeer, consign-ments of yaba � rst reach the Bangla-desh part of the Naf River in Teknaf of Cox's Bazar with the help of law enforc-ers. The drugs are then carried to Dha-ka by road or by rail.

An o� cial, who was part of the team that had grilled Zubayeer and his asso-ciates, said: “The members of BGB and other law enforcement agencies take a certain percentage from each consign-ment. They also help the carriers pass

through check posts without actually getting checked.”

The o� cial also said: “We have got the names of some members of the law enforcement agencies and the BGB. Af-ter verifying the information, we will contact with the BGB authority take action against the members of the law enforcement agencies.”

He said: “Zubayeer and his gang bought Yaba pills at Tk130 per piece. Law enforcers and BGB members took Tk20 for each piece of smuggled yaba. After bringing the tablets to the capital, they sold them at Tk200 to the dealers.”

Zubayeer has also reportedly told detectives during interrogation that he lives in Cox's Bazar now, but he is originally from the Mondu district of Myanmar. He read up to grade seven in Myanmar. After � nishing his second-ary education in Dajeeling of India, he came back to Mondu. A few years later,

he shifted to Chittagong along with his family.

A couple of years later, Zubayeer started working for Haji Saiful, a local drug dealer from Cox's Bazar. Soon, he developed a good relationship with some Myanmarese yaba-makers and dealers and built his own smuggling racket.

He said he had earned enough mon-ey from the business to buy two luxuri-ous � ats at Niketan housing society in the capital's Gulshan and established own clearing and forwarding (C&F) agency.

Zubayeer said he had bought the SUV that police had seized from him, for Tk65 lakh from his Niketan neigh-bour Ratan six months ago.

The DB o� cial said they were now checking the backgrounds of Ratan, who Zubayeer said was a garments ac-cessories trader. l

Ayas to be driven out from DMCH wardsn Moniruzzaman Uzzal and

Ahmed Zayeef

Following the recent alleged kidnap-ping of a newborn from the DMCH, the hospital’s director has issued directives to authorities concerned to immedi-ately drive out over a hundred “special ayas,” or female attendants, who have been working at � ve gynaecology and postnatal wards.

Brig Gen Musta� zur Rahman, direc-tor of Dhaka Medical College Hospital, also told the ward masters and fourth-class employees known as “sardars” to prepare a list of ayas who were current-ly working at the DMCH.

Claiming that all doctors and sta� at the hospital try their best to provide quality healthcare to thousands of pa-tients every day, the director said inci-dents like the kidnapping of a child tar-nished the e� orts of the hospital team as well as ruining the positive image of the DMCH.

Asked about the number of ayas cur-rently working at the DMCH, the hospi-tal’s Deputy Director Dr Mus� qur Rah-man could not give an exact � gure, but claimed that each ward had at least 15-25 ayas working to serve the patients.

The ayas, none of whom are govern-ment-paid employees, work at the gy-naecology, labour, caesarean and post-natal wards to assist pregnant woman and new mothers.

However, despite the directive from the hospital’s chief, when the Dhaka Tribune visited the wards yesterday evening it was found that the ayas were still working there.

Shamsul Alam, a ward master, told the Dhaka Tribune that they had not yet received any written order to oust the attendants.

Asked about the issue, Abdul Khal-ek, platoon commander of Ansar, said they have heard about the verbal order but were yet to receive an o� cial direc-tive on ousting the ayas.

After the newborn was kidnapped on August 21, allegations were raised that some hospital sta� and security person-nel might have been involved in the kid-napping of the child. Security concerns were also raised surrounding the unau-thorised attendants like ayas and ward boys who were hired uno� cially.

The latest move comes as Shahbagh police station and RAB 3 continue their e� orts to locate the alleged kidnapper and rescue the newborn. O� cials from

RAB 3 yesterday collected a copy of the visitor’s register book kept by the Ansar personnel, while senior DMCH o� cials told the Dhaka Tribune that the police have found that the phone number logged in the register book by the sus-pected kidnapper was issued under a di� erent name.

On Tuesday, the family of the miss-ing baby identi� ed the woman suspect-ed to have kidnapped the newborn, after going through video footage from CCTV cameras inside the hospital.

However, several hours of CCTV footage from the day was found to be blank, reportedly because a rat had cut the wire connecting the cameras to a memory storage device kept at the hos-pital director’s room. Dr Musta� zur ad-mitted not having some footage from the day even though all CCTV cameras were functional on the day of the kid-napping.

The DMCH director’s Personal Assis-tant Abul Bashar noticed that the wire that was connected to the memory device was bitten o� possibly by a rat, Dr Musta� zur said, adding that it was nothing but an accident.

Judicial probe into DMCH kidnappingThe High Court yesterday directed au-thorities concerned to conduct a judi-cial probe into the kidnapping of the newborn at the DMCH.

The court also ordered the chief judicial metropolitan magistrate to assign a magistrate to conduct the in-vestigation, as well as � nding out the loopholes in wards of the DMCH and the administrative failures on the part of the hospital.

The High Court vacation bench of Justice Sheikh Hasan Arif and Justice Abu Taher Mohammad Saifur Rahman passed the suo moto order after taking into consideration a report published in English-language newspaper The Daily Star titled “Culprit � ed as CCTV went o� .”

The High Court also issued a suo moto rule asking why appropriate le-gal actions should not be taken against the authority concerned for the failure to give appropriate protection to the missing child.

The health secretary, the director general of directorate of health ser-vices, the DMCH director, and its con-cerned ward head along with the ward registrar have been made defendants of the rule. They were asked to give an ex-planation within four weeks. l

BCL goes on rampage at Chittagong rail stationn Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

Leaders and activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League vandalised the Chit-tagong Railway Station yesterday as they did not get tickets to their desti-nations.

All o� cial activities at the station came to a halt following the incident, while demonstrations by the BCL men was going on when this report was � led at 11:30pm yesterday.

Station Master Jafor Ahmad said around 20-25 people entered the sta-tion manager’s room yesterday, asking about the status of the tickets they had demanded.

“Showing audacity, they started cre-ating anarchy and causing vandalism without giving us any chance to look over their demand,” he said.

Commandant Abdur Razzak of Rail-way Nirapatta Bahini (RNP) of Chit-tagong Railway Station said around 200 BCL men vandalised the station, causing a stop to all activities at the station.

Nurul Azim Roni, general secretary of the Chittagong city unit of the BCL, told Dhaka Tribune that they had re-

quested the Bangladesh Railway on Au-gust 20 for 340 tickets of Dhaka-bound Subarna Express for August 30.

“When I, along with my associates, went to the railway station to ask about our tickets, the railway o� cials swooped on us without any reason, leaving � ve of my activists injured while two of them were sent to Chittagong Medical College Hospital,” he said.

The two injured Shakil and Arif, both activists of the BCL city unit, are receiving treatment at the CMCH.

Yiasin Faruk, o� cer-in-charge of Government Railway Police (GRP) out-post at the station, said additional po-lice forces have been deployed to calm the situation.

Over the incident, Bangladesh Rail-way (East) suspended two station sta� s – Station Master Jafor Ahmad and Booking Clerk Mohammad Mohsin – and formed a � ve-member probe body, headed by Divisional Tra� c O� cer Firoz Iftekhar, to look into the matter, said Divisional Railway Manager Murad Hossain of Bangladesh Railway (East).

As of � ling this report, a meeting was going on among the BCL, the RNB, the GRP and railway authorities. l

Mentally challenged child raped n Tribune Report

An eleven-year-old mentally challenged girl was brutally raped near the airport area in the capital on Tuesday night.

The child was admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital in a critical condition around 4:30am yesterday when she started to bleed excessively after the incident.

Mozammel Haque, in-charge of DMCH police outpost, told the Dhaka Tribune: “The child was � rst sent to a local clinic after she was rescued by the locals from in front of Hajj camp. Later, family members brought her to DMCH.”

“The child went through an operation due to excessive bleeding,” he added.

The coordinator Bilkis Begum of One-stop Crisis Center (OCC) at DMCH said: “The victim said she was raped by one person and that the person took her forcefully. The victim might be transferred to OCC tomorrow. Now she is at the post operative ward.”

The victim's mother, a home maker, told the Dhaka Tribune: “We live at Dho-badia area near the airport. On Tuesday night, while I was working in the kitch-en, I suddenly noticed that my child was missing. When I was asking around for her, locals informed me that they saw a body lying in front of Hajj camp.” l

SI suspended for torturing journalistn Our Correspondent, Kushtia

A sub-inspector of police was suspend-ed temporarily yesterday for torturing a special correspondent of Ekushey Television (ETV) in Kushtia on Monday night. The district police also apolo-gised for the incident.

Sources said Akhil Poddar, special correspondent of ETV, was returning home to Khoksa upazila from Kush-tia city on Tuesday night, when he was stopped by the police at the Batikama-ra rail gate. When the SI of Kumarkhali police station Abul Kalam Azad came to know that Akhil was a journalist, he started beating him. At one point police started stomping on Akhil with their boots, and broke his cell phone.

Later, police made Akhil sign a blank sheet and brought him to the police station. When other journalists came to know of the incident, they demonstrat-ed in front of the police station.

After a while, police released Akh-il, but when the journalists continued protesting, District Magistrate Syed Belal Hossain and Superintendent of Police Ma� zuddin Ahmed visited the police station around 1pm yesterday and suspended the SI Azad and assured the protesters of taking due measures to punish him. l

R A I N T U R N S C I T Y S T R E E T S I N T O W A T E R W O R L D

Brief spells of rain in recent days have turned the potholed road in Malibagh into a regular trap for vehicles. The stagnant water hides the dilapidated condition of the road, causing vehicles to either overturn or get stuck in the holes. The pictures on the left show drivers and commuters struggling while passing the inundated road.

Top, Rickshaw-pullers wade through knee-high water on Nazimuddin Road, a low-lying area that experiences � ooding whenever it rains heavily. Other areas in Old Dhaka, such as a mosque in Kaptan Bazar, above, also get inundated easily. Carrying out daily chores in ankle-deep water has become part of a routine for residents. A person is seen cooking while standing in stagnated water yesterday MEHEDI HASAN/MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Editor: Zafar Sobhan, Published and Printed by Kazi Anis Ahmed on behalf of 2A Media Limited at Dainik Shakaler Khabar Publications Limited, 153/7, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka-1208. Editorial, News & Commercial O� ce: FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka 1207. Phone: 9132093-94, Advertising: 9132155, Circulation: 9132282, Fax: News-9132192, e-mail: news@dhakatribune.com, info@dhakatribune.com, Website: www.dhakatribune.com

www.dhakatribune.com/business THURSDAY, AUGUST 28, 2014

B3 China foreign investment pattern changes as chal-lenges grow

B4 Eurozone borrowing costs fall to record lows

Dhaka may sign waterways deal with Delhito promote tourism in Bangladeshn Tribune report

Finance Minister AMA Muhith has said the government will sign a contract with India to thrive on tourism on the country’s waterways.

“We will introduce river-based tour-ism across the country to draw foreign tourists and launch a publicity cam-paign,” he said.

The minister came up with the dis-closure after a meeting with the cabi-net committee on tourism at his secre-tariat o� ce yesterday.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali,

Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon, Home Minister Asaduzzam Khan Kamal, Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan attended cab-inet meeting.

Muhith said: “We had a contract on waterways with India in 1965, and un-der this contract, the cargoes or goods used to be transported between the countries.”

Bangladesh has such agreement with the neighbouring country on passengers’ travel by road and railways, and now an agreement on waterways needs to be signed with the

Indian government.The minister said Bangladesh will

be connected with the international cruise routes stretching along Chen-nai–Kolkata–Kuakata-Mongla-Chit-tagong-Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf-Saint Martin-Myanmar–Phuket (Thailand) - Penang-Kuala Lumpur-Singapore to raise the number of tourists.

“We will declare the year of 2016 tourism year, and arrange tourism fes-tival in 2018-19 � scal.”

Regarding the security of tourists, he said the government would enhance the security of visitors who will come

to Bangladesh.Terming the CHT special area for

tourism, Muhith said the government will tighten security in the vicinity, plus strengthen the Cox’s Bazar protec-tion dam.

He said the government needs to connect Cox’s Bazzar via railway and it is also necessary to introduce trans-portation to Kuakata by roads besides waterways communication.

“I traveled to Cox’s Bazar in 1962, but when I went there in 2010, I was spellbound by its beauty, and thought I had been in a di� erent country.” l

Action Committee calls to employ 1,600 jobless Tuba Group workers n Tribune Report

Tuba Group Workers Action Commit-tee called upon the stakeholders to en-sure jobs for 1,600 workers who were rendered jobless due to the shutdown of the group’s � ve RMG units.

Moshrefa Mishu, convenor of the committee, made the call at a media brie� ng in the city yesterday.

On August 18, the Tuba Group own-er announced the closure of � ve of his factories in line with article 13(1) of La-bour Act 2006.

In her address, Mishu threatened to wage tough movement and continue till their demands are met.

At the brie� ng, she made a three-point demand including reopening of the closed factories, ensuring jobs se-curity for 1,600 workers of the group, scrapping of Delowar’s bail and pun-ishment for him as he was alleged to have killed workers deliberately in Tazreen Fashions.

To realise their demands, the Tuba Group workers’ platform will hold a sit-in in front of the National Press Club on August 29 and stage demonstration in front of the Labour and Employment Ministry on September 7.

Mishu, also the president of Garment

Workers Unity Forum, criticised Ship-ping Minister Shajahan Khan for his re-cent involvement in the RMG sectors.

“There is no country in the world, where a minister represents his minis-try and RMG workers simultaneously,” said Mishu.

In the name of Workers Coordina-tion Council of so-called 53 organisa-tions, the minister is trying to rein in the RMG sector, but failing to protect his own sector from facing frequent mishaps, alleged Mishu.

Mishu termed the closure of those factories illegal, adding that the gov-

ernment in the face of pressure also termed the shutdown illegal.

The closure of Tuba Fashions, Tuba Textiles, Mita Design, Taif Design and Bughsan Garments made over 1,600 workers jobless.

On July 28, at least 1,200 workers of the � ve factories went on an inde� nite strike at Hossain Market in Badda area, demanding payment of three months’ wages, overtime and Eid bonuses.

Following the demonstrations, BG-MEA under the government pressure paid two months’ wages to more than 1,600 workers of Tuba Group. l

Investment Summit in Singapore on September 4n Tribune Report

The 2nd Bangladesh Investment Summit will be held in Singapore on September 4, which aims to make a platform for Asian in-vestors for exchanging information.

The announcement came at a press con-ference at a city hotel yesterday, organised by Standard Chartered and City Bank.

Standard Chartered is headline platinum

sponsor while City bank is platinum spon-sor of the summit. Standard Chartered CEO Jim McCabe and City Bank CEO, among oth-ers, attended the press conference.

The daylong event is designed to examine trade and investment opportunities in Ban-gladesh for the Asia-based asset managers, private banks, family o� ces, private equity � rms and corporations, according to o� cials.

“The summit is not for raising money

but for creating opportunity of collecting information for better investments,” said Jim McCabe.

He said the investors can � nd a way of raising money outside Bangladesh attend-ing the event. Sohali RK Hussain hoped the summit would help to increase foreign fund in� ow into the country. He said foreign investment would put pressure on local banks to reduce interest rate and local cur-

rency Taka will soon become lucrative like dollar to the investors.

The panel discussions at the summit will include mapping economic growth, risks and the regulatory landscape.

They will also accommodate Bangla-desh’s journey to diversify its export and outsourcing sectors, developments in debt capital market, mapping infrastructural projects and harnessing funds. l

Exclusive tourist zone proposal okayed Cabinet also approves civil aviation ministry’s tourism complex proposal under Tk50,000cr mega project n Asif Showkat Kallol

The cabinet has approved proposals of constructing a tourism complex of international standard in Cox’s Bazar and an exclusive tourist zone in Teknaf under a Tk50,000 crore master plan for tourism sector.

The master plan undertaken by civil aviation and tourism ministry one and half years ago is to transform Cox’s Bazar and Kuakata into international class tourist spots.

According to o� cial sources, the projects to be implemented under pub-lic-private partnership initiative are expected to have a signi� cant impact on the country’s tourism sector.

The cabinet committee on econom-ic a� airs gave approval to the propos-als at a meeting yesterday with Finance Minister AMA Muhith in the chair.

Under the proposals, the civil avia-tion ministry will construct a � ve-star international hotel at a cost of Tk350 crore as tourism complex in the pres-ent Upal Motel area in Cox’s Bazar.

Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC) runs Upal Motel which has a total of 5.76 acres land, according to a BPC survey.

The Exclusive Tourist Zone will be constructed on 1,164.85 acres of land. However, the cost is yet to be estimated.

Of the land, the khas land will be 937.46 acres while the rest will be ac-quired from areas under the land min-istry.

Earlier, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasan announced twice to build an ex-clusive tourist zone in Cox’s Bazar.

Recently, the tourism ministry sent the proposals to PPP o� ce as the Unit-ed Arab Emirates backtracked from their initial decision to implement the projects without mentioning any rea-son, said o� cials.

“The local investors have already held initial talks about investment in the Cox’s Bazar exclusive tourist zone and tourism complex. It will be constructed under the PPP initiative,” Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Me-non told Dhaka Tribune yesterday after the cabinet committee meeting.

He said foreign investors were yet to o� er any proposal of investment in the projects. But the minister hoped when the mega project is completed, it will attract foreign investors.

In early 2013 an inter-ministerial meeting held at � nance ministry rolled out the mega-project of Tk500bn to implement it in a 10-year period.

The projects also include adding more natural beauty in those areas, development of communication sys-tem, building hotels, restaurants, an international marine university and other entertainment facilities zones like sports outlets including venue for international cricket.

The master plan will focus on devel-oping � ve areas of Cox’s Bazar including Ramu, Ukhiya and two areas of Teknaf including Shah Porir Dip and St Martin’s Island. The Shah Porir Dip will be exclu-sive beach for foreign tourists as per the Cox’s Bazar development master plan.

The civil aviation minister said they have already divided the Cox’s Bazar beach into four categories including exclusive beach zone, concert and or-dinary beach zones.

On February 10 in 2012 the cabinet approved the draft of Cox’s Bazar Devel-opment Authority Act, 2012 to facilitate planned development of the beach town and safeguard its ecological balance.

Cox’s Bazar is known for its wide sandy beach which is the world’s lon-gest natural sandy sea beach. It is an unbroken 125 km sandy sea beach with a gentle slope. l

Tofail: Sri Lanka keen to import 50,000 tonnes of rice n Trubune Business Desk

The Sri Lankan government has ex-pressed interest to procure 50,000 metric tonnes of rice from Bangladesh, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said yesterday.

“At present, we have 1 lakh metric tonnes of surplus rice. The Sri Lankan government has showed interest to procure the rice through government-government arrangement,” he said.

Tofail was talking to reporters after a meeting with Russian Ambassador in Dhaka Alexander A Nikolaev at the Secretariat, reports UNB.

The minister said though there had been a food crisis in the country when it had only 7.5 crore people, now there is no such crisis despite the fact that the country has 16 crore people.

Bangladesh has so far exported only aromatic rice in small quantities. In the last two � scal years, export of aromatic rice amounted to Tk77 crore, according to government statistics.

Senior Commerce Secretary Heday-et Ullah Al Mamun was also present at the meeting. l

The much-hyped water buses launched just four years ago run on the back foot now, struggling to draw commuters and limping along in the capital’s circular water route, despite a series of plans and e� orts to promote services. The picture was taken on the day of inauguration of the buses on August 28, 2010 SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Sluggish money market eats up BB pro� t n Tribune Report

Pro� t of Bangladesh Bank dropped by 19.27% to Tk3,351.82 crore in the � scal year 2013-14 compared to Tk4152.37 crore in previous � scal year due to sluggish investment climate accompa-nied by the growing idle liquidity.

The central bank, however, will be able to contribute worth Tk1562.78 crore to the national exchequer as its pro� t for the last � scal year.

The operating pro� t of the bank increased by Tk293 crore in FY13 com-pared to Tk3,859 crore in FY12.

Bangladesh Bank board yesterday approved the � nancial statement of the bank. The statement was audited by foreign audit � rm KPMG Lower Gulf Limited, Dubai and local � rm Rahman Rahman Huq, Bangladesh.

The central bank had to mop up money from the market through inter-est bearing reverse repo that contrib-uted to reduce overall pro� t, said Ban-gladesh Bank Deputy Governor Abul Quasem.

Moreover, income from foreign sources declined due to the falling in-terest rate in global market and lower government borrowing from the bank-ing system also help to reduce the prof-

it of the central bank, he said. “The central bank bought huge dol-

lars from the market during the last � scal year to keep stable exchange rate, which is one of the major reason for reducing the pro� t of the bank,” he added.

As Bangladesh Bank bought dollars from the banks through exchanging bills to manage in� ation, it had to pay interest rate against the bills, which also helped in increasing its expendi-tures.

The central bank followed the Inter-national Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in preparing its � nancial report. As a result, the foreign � rm gave an Un-Quali� ed Opinion in favor of the central bank, said Quasem. l

The central bank had to mop up money from the market through interest bearing reverse repo that contributed to reduce overall pro� t

B2 Stock Thursday, August 28, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

News, analysis and recent disclosersFrom TradeServers:SIBL: BSEC has given consent under the provisions of the Securities and Exchange Commission (Private Placement of Debt Securities) Rules, 2012, for raising of capital by Social Islami Bank Limited amounting to Tk. 300.00 crore only through issuance of Mudaraba Subordinated Bond. The consent has been accorded subject to the condition that the Company shall comply with the relevant laws and regulatory requirements, and also shall adhere to the conditions imposed by BSEC under Sec-tion-2CC of the Securities and Exchange Ordinance, 1969.POPULARLIF: (H/Y): As per un-audited half yearly accounts as on 30.06.2014 (Jan'14 to June'14), the Company has reported an increase in life insurance fund of Tk. 1,480.03 million with total life insurance fund of Tk. 26,274.17 million as against Tk. 1,996.69 million and Tk. 22,709.31 million respectively for the same period of the previous year. Whereas increase in life insurance fund was Tk. 434.60 million for the period of 3 months (Apr'14 to June'14) ended on 30.06.2014 as against Tk. 692.30 million for the same period of the previous year.SIBL: The Company has further informed that the purpose of issuance of SIBL Mudara-ba Subordinated Bond is to further strength-en the Tire-II Capital base of the Bank.

IPO Shares Credited: Tung Hai Knitting & Dyeing Ltd.: All concerned are hereby informed that the IPO shares of Tung Hai Knitting & Dyeing Ltd. have been credited through CDBL to the respective BO A/Cs on 26 August 2014 except 711 BO Accounts which were found closed in the system.IPO Subscription: Khan Brothers PP Wo-ven Bag Industries Ltd. subscription date 24-28 August 2014, NRB upto 06 Septem-ber 2014. @ taka 10, face value taka 10 and market lot 500. Western Marine Shipyard Limited subscription date 10-14 August 2014, NRB upto 23 August 2014. @ taka 35, face value taka 10 and market lot 100.Right Share: MIDASFIN: Subscrip-tion period for rights issue will be from 01.09.2014 to 30.09.2014. Record date for entitlement of rights share: 03.08.2014.ICB: Subscription period for rights issue will be from 07.12.2014 to 30.12.2014. Re-cord date for entitlement of rights share: 09.09.2014. Dividend/AGMBSCCL: 10% cash, AGM: 12.10.2014, Record date: 04.09.2014. PRAGATILIF: No dividend, AGM: 30.09.2014, Record date: 14.09.2014. GPHISPAT: 15% cash and 5% stock, AGM: 10.11.2014, Record date: 22.09.2014. Dividend of Mutual Funds: 1JANATAMF: 12.50% 'Re-Investment' Units. EXIM1STMF: 12% 'Re-Investment' Units.

IFIC1STMF: 9% 'Re-Investment' Units. FBFIF: 10% 'Re-Investment' Units. TRUSTB1MF: 10% Re-Investment Units. EBL1STMF: 7% cash dividend. PHPMF1: 10% Re-Investment Units. EBLNRBMF: 10% Re-Investment Units. ABB1STMF: 10% Re-Investment Units. POPULAR1MF: 12% Re-Investment Units. DBH1STMF: 0.60% cash dividend. GREENDELMF: No dividend. GRAMEENS2: 15% reinvestment units, GRAMEEN1: 30% reinvestment units. AIMS1STMF: 50% 'Re-Investment' Units as dividend, RELIANCE1: 11% cash dividend . Record date. Record date: 01.09.2014.APEXFOODS: 20% cash, AGM: 28.09.2014, Record date: 21.08.2014.APEXTANRY: 45% cash, AGM: 23.09.2014, Record date: 27.08.2014. DELTASPINN: 10% cash, AGM: 30.08.2014, Record date: 14.08.2014.NAVANACNG: 15% cash, AGM: 25.09.2014, Record Date: 10.08.2014. SUNLIFEINS: 5% stock, AGM: 15.09.2014, Record Date: 07.08.2014.SQURPHARMA: 30% cash and 15% stock, AGM: 25.09.2014, Record Date: 26.08.2014. NAV of Tk. 22,277.52 million, EPS of Tk. 8.36.APEXSPINN: 20% cash, AGM: 28.09.2014, Record date: 07.08.2014. EPS Tk. 2.24, NAV per share of Tk. 49.75.

Stocks edge higher amid volatilityn Tribune Report

Stocks edged higher amid volatili-ty yesterday with sharpest drop in trading activities.

The market moved between pos-itive and negative throughout the session, but moderate buying in the wee hour particularly on food and allied, telecommunication and pharmaceuticals helped the market to close marginally higher.

The benchmark DSEX rose more than 8 points or 0.2% to 4,599, ex-tending the gaining streak for the third consecutive session.

The Shariah index gained 6 points or 0.4% to 1,073. The comprising blue chips DS30 closed at 1,735, rising 6 points or 0.2%.

Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, was up 6 points to 8,681.

Trading activities declined steeply as the DSE turnover came down to Tk578 crore, down more than 27% over the previous session.

Lanka Bangla Securities said af-ter a volatile trading session mar-ket rose and built on the previous day’s gain. Though morning trading

spooked by the hefty selling pres-sure in � nancial stocks, food and al-lied, telco and pharma sectors came to rescue the market.

IDLC Investments said despite session-long volatility, large cap stocks held up the bourse to end in positive territory. With third consecu-tive session’s positivity, DSEX closed marginally below 4,600 points.

Additionally, out of 297 traded stocks, 49 observed more than 3% price change, re� ecting signi� cant volatility in the market, it said.

“Short-term rhythmic bullish movement faced some resistance due to selling spree and pro� t book-ing.”

Zenith Investments said inves-tors booked some pro� ts on the stocks that have steadily increased over the past few days, and for which a slight correction is totally normal.

The overall market condition still looks quite promising as funds are cycling quickly in and out of stock market through pro� t taking and reinvestment, it said.

Losers took a marginal lead over the gainers as out of 297 issues trad-ed, 134 declined, 131 advanced and 32 remained unchanged on the DSE � oor.

Beximco Limited continued to top the turnover chart for the six straight sessions with shares worth Tk36 crore changing hands, fol-lowed by Beximco Pharma, Square Pharma, Mobil Jamuna Limited Bangladesh and Golden Son. l

CSE LOSER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Square Pharma -A -11.13 -10.85 244.57 243.50 249.00 240.00 23.023 10.04 24.4Kay & Que (BD) -Z -9.60 -9.60 11.30 11.30 11.30 11.30 0.006 -1.24 -veS.B. 1st M. F.-A -8.97 -8.59 7.13 7.10 7.20 7.10 0.207 1.42 5.0Provati Insur.-A -7.66 -7.66 20.50 20.50 20.60 20.40 0.082 1.52 13.5NLI 1st M F-A -7.23 -5.85 7.73 7.70 7.80 7.70 0.046 1.41 5.5NCCBL Mutual Fund-1-A -6.67 -7.50 5.55 5.60 5.60 5.50 0.011 0.46 12.1Beach Hatchery -A -4.90 -1.52 23.39 23.30 24.10 22.10 1.233 1.70 13.8Brac Bank -A -4.29 -2.11 26.90 26.80 27.90 25.20 1.009 2.91 9.2Summit Power -A -3.90 -0.95 39.66 39.40 41.00 39.00 5.074 3.54 11.2Prime Finance-A -3.70 -3.79 18.30 18.20 18.90 18.00 1.789 1.02 17.9

DSE LOSER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Square Pharma -A -10.55 -10.89 244.45 245.00 248.00 225.00 329.909 10.04 24.3S.B. 1st M. F.-A -8.75 -8.75 7.30 7.30 7.60 7.20 10.562 1.42 5.1Midas Financing-Z -6.25 -4.90 13.79 13.50 14.00 13.00 0.084 -6.91 -veProgressive Life-A -5.07 -6.43 94.48 95.40 95.50 93.00 0.127 2.30 41.1NLI 1st M F-A -4.94 -6.85 7.62 7.70 7.80 7.50 5.930 1.41 5.4GPH Ispat Ltd-A -4.52 -3.27 47.06 46.50 49.30 44.00 27.375 2.35 20.0Samorita Hospital -A -4.46 -4.12 93.74 92.10 95.90 90.00 2.609 2.20 42.6aamra technologies-A -4.38 -1.69 37.70 37.10 39.20 35.00 68.938 1.39 27.1Central Pharm-A -4.26 -2.18 41.20 40.50 43.00 38.20 51.868 2.09 19.7Bay Leasing.-A -3.90 -2.58 27.21 27.10 28.60 26.00 9.845 2.32 11.7

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume-Shares

Value in Million

% of Total-Turnover ClosingP Change % ClosingY DHIGH DLOW AvgPrice

BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 987,258 41.73 10.04 42.00 -3.00 43.30 43.40 41.60 42.27UNITED AIR-A 3,053,657 40.04 9.64 12.80 3.23 12.40 13.60 12.70 13.11Khulna Printing-N 765,000 27.50 6.62 35.00 -3.31 36.20 37.70 34.60 35.95Square Pharma -A 94,140 23.02 5.54 243.50 -11.13 274.00 249.00 240.00 244.57Beximco Pharma -A 224,644 12.75 3.07 57.40 1.77 56.40 58.90 54.30 56.74Grameenphone-A 39,000 12.48 3.00 324.20 2.24 317.10 328.00 313.00 319.92MJL BD Ltd.-A 85,567 9.84 2.37 113.20 -3.25 117.00 118.60 111.50 115.01Republic Insu.-A 352,000 8.98 2.16 26.70 -0.37 26.80 26.70 26.50 25.51BD Submarine Cable-A 58,429 8.97 2.16 152.20 -2.19 155.60 156.80 152.00 153.52Appollo Ispat CL -N 289,800 8.72 2.10 30.00 0.67 29.80 30.50 29.80 30.09BSC-A 13,235 8.14 1.96 610.50 -0.97 616.50 634.00 606.30 614.87Orion Pharma-N 158,120 8.07 1.94 51.20 -0.58 51.50 52.20 50.00 51.07

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume-Shares

Value in Million

% of Total-Turnover ClosingP Change

% ClosingY DHIGH DLOW AvgPrice

BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 8,539,817 361.25 6.25 42.00 -3.00 43.30 46.00 39.00 42.30Beximco Pharma -A 6,019,302 340.12 5.88 57.00 1.79 56.00 60.00 50.40 56.51Square Pharma -A 1,349,621 329.91 5.70 245.00 -10.55 273.90 248.00 225.00 244.45MJL BD Ltd.-A 2,039,250 236.38 4.09 113.40 -3.08 117.00 124.90 106.00 115.91Golden Son -A 4,464,191 219.20 3.79 48.70 1.46 48.00 49.90 43.40 49.10Grameenphone-A 557,887 178.49 3.09 325.40 2.52 317.40 329.00 302.00 319.94UNITED AIR-A 13,219,886 173.91 3.01 12.70 3.25 12.30 13.50 11.10 13.16BSRM Steels-A 1,708,174 164.69 2.85 95.30 -3.54 98.80 98.90 91.00 96.42BD Building Systems -A 2,335,250 151.38 2.62 65.00 3.50 62.80 66.00 57.00 64.82Titas Gas TDCLA 1,444,451 118.27 2.04 81.80 1.74 80.40 84.10 72.60 81.88Khulna Printing-N 3,192,000 115.27 1.99 34.90 -3.59 36.20 37.60 34.70 36.11Summit Power -A 2,735,071 108.63 1.88 39.50 -3.66 41.00 41.60 37.00 39.72

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

Sector DSE CSE TotalMillion Taka % change Million Taka % change Million Taka % change

Bank 393.34 6.80 20.01 4.34 413.35 6.62NBFI 206.77 3.57 11.09 2.41 217.86 3.49Investment 86.87 1.50 5.29 1.15 92.15 1.48Engineering 821.41 14.20 40.66 8.82 862.07 13.80Food & Allied 219.17 3.79 13.37 2.90 232.54 3.72Fuel & Power 805.90 13.93 40.40 8.76 846.30 13.55Jute 1.18 0.02 0.00 1.18 0.02Textile 496.44 8.58 38.79 8.41 535.23 8.57Pharma & Chemical 1105.84 19.12 62.33 13.52 1168.17 18.71Paper & Packaging 115.88 32.65 7.08 148.53 2.38Service 75.96 1.31 4.58 0.99 80.54 1.29Leather 19.59 0.34 6.25 1.36 25.84 0.41Ceramic 31.20 0.54 2.60 0.57 33.80 0.54Cement 191.21 3.31 11.94 2.59 203.16 3.25Information Technology 144.60 2.50 35.46 7.69 180.06 2.88General Insurance 58.71 1.01 10.71 2.32 69.42 1.11Life Insurance 39.01 0.67 1.86 0.40 40.87 0.65Telecom 221.81 3.83 21.45 4.65 243.25 3.90Travel & Leisure 273.08 4.72 50.37 10.93 323.45 5.18Miscellaneous 472.08 8.16 51.12 11.09 523.20 8.38Debenture 4.09 0.07 0.05 0.01 4.15 0.07

Weekly capital market highlightsDSE Broad Index : 4599.46962 (+) 0.58% ▲

DSE - 30 Index : 1734.93241 (-) 0.00% ▼

CSE All Share Index: 14199.22500 (+) 0.56% ▲

CSE - 30 Index : 11673.25580 (+) 0.43% ▲

CSE Selected Index : 8680.96730 (+) 0.70% ▲

DSE key features August 27-2014Turnover (Million Taka)

5,784.14

Turnover (Volume)

145,556,072

Number of Contract 122,638

Traded Issues 298

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

143

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

145

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

10

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,409.66

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

29.21

CSE key features August 27-2014Turnover (Million Taka) 418.13

Turnover (Volume) 13,224,429

Number of Contract 17,014

Traded Issues 222

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

92

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

126

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

4

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,311.34

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

28.02

Prepared exclusively for Dhaka Tribune by Business Information Automation Service Line (BIASL), on the basis of information collected from daily stock quotations and audited reports of the listed companies. High level of caution has been taken to collect and present the above information and data. The publisher will not take any responsibility if any body uses this information and data for his/her investment decision. For any query please email to biasl@bol-online.com or call 01552153562 or go to www.biasl.net

Additionally, out of 297 traded stocks, 49 observed more than 3% price change, re� ecting signi� cant volatility in the market

CSE GAINER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Central Insur -A 9.79 9.79 25.80 25.80 25.80 25.70 0.155 3.14 8.2Alltex Industries -Z 9.23 8.27 7.07 7.10 7.10 6.90 0.212 -1.24 -veParamount Insur-A 8.29 8.29 19.60 19.60 19.60 19.60 0.020 1.18 16.6GreenDeltaInsu -A 6.58 5.37 86.30 87.50 87.50 87.50 0.019 1.90 45.4Sa� o Spinning-A 5.58 6.44 22.80 22.70 23.50 22.00 1.197 1.06 21.5Salvo Chemicals-B 5.08 4.23 20.68 20.70 21.00 20.30 5.294 1.10 18.8FAR Chemical-N 5.02 2.45 53.18 54.40 55.00 51.60 2.313 3.92 13.6Agni Systems -A 4.58 2.33 26.83 27.40 27.90 25.50 5.215 1.27 21.1Apex SpinningA 4.36 4.36 67.00 67.00 67.00 67.00 0.013 2.24 29.9City G Insu.-A 3.83 3.26 19.00 19.00 19.00 19.00 0.019 2.04 9.3

DSE GAINER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Alltex Industries -Z 9.38 7.41 6.96 7.00 7.00 6.90 1.019 -1.24 -veStandard Ceramic -A 9.07 8.90 48.10 48.10 48.10 48.10 0.024 1.32 36.4Dulamia CottonZ 7.69 12.83 6.77 7.00 7.00 6.50 0.021 -4.13 -veAsia Pasi� c Insu. -A 6.44 1.89 20.45 21.50 21.90 20.00 1.227 2.26 9.0National Tea -A 6.41 6.41 830.00 830.00 830.00 830.00 0.042 -27.68 -ve2nd ICB M F -A 6.04 5.89 256.00 256.50 256.60 256.40 0.064 33.24 7.7FAR Chemical-N 5.98 2.13 53.58 54.90 55.00 51.60 34.748 3.92 13.7ICB AMCL 1st NRB -A 5.91 5.76 25.14 25.10 25.80 24.90 0.088 4.57 5.5GQ Ball PenA 5.76 4.42 112.42 113.90 114.90 99.00 4.375 2.34 48.0Sa� o Spinning-A 5.61 6.84 22.82 22.60 23.30 20.60 21.238 1.06 21.5

ANALYST

'Short-term rhythmic bullish movement faced some resistance due to selling spree and pro� t booking'

B3BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, August 28, 2014

Green Delta Insurance Company Limited has recently organised a corporate night for its valuable corporate business partners in Chittagong. The company’s managing director and CEO Farzana Chowdhury was present on the occasion

Busbd.com and Grameenphone Limited have recently signed an agreement to provide e-ticketing service for bus tickets. Ashfaq A Rahman, managing director of Busbd.com and Choudhury Shobuctogin Ra� que, head of internet retail development & management at Grameenphone signed the agreement

Concord, a real estate company has recently organised a programme to promote uses of eco-friendly construction materials in the country. Anwar Hossain Manju, Minister at the Ministry of Environment and Forest attended the programme as chief guest along with Concord Group chairperson SM Kamaluddin

Coca-Cola Bangladesh recently selected Masthead PR as its media strategist. Shadab Khan, country manager of Coca-Cola Bangladesh and CEO of Masthead PR, Fahad Karim attended the signing ceremony, among others, on this regard

NRB Commercial Bank Limited has recently opened its 21st branch at Banani in Dhaka. The bank’s chairperson Engr Farasath Ali inaugurated the branch

China foreign investment pattern changes as challenges grown Reuters, Shanghai

China’s foreign investment mix is changing, with portfolio investors buy-ing more stocks but foreign direct in-vestment falling to a two-year low on a slowing economy, rising business costs and anti-monopoly probes and crack-downs on foreign � rms.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in China fell in over the � rst seven months of 2014 compared with a year earlier, while the o� shore funds � ow-ing into mainland stocks hit the highest in more than two years last month.

A plateau in foreign investment could be a challenge for China, as it o� ers manufacturers an alternative source of capital to the banking system. Any shortfall is unlikely to be made up by portfolio � ows, which favour more liquid stocks and are limited by quotas.

“Foreign capital coming here needs to get a lot more discriminatory,” said Gary Reischel, founder of venture capital � rm Qiming Venture Partners in Shanghai, referring to overall investment.

The stock market has risen for the past six weeks, its longest streak since March 2012, after being among the worst performers in the � rst half of the year.

Investors are drawn to Chinese shares by low valuations for large-cap shares after a four-year slump, a rally-ing yuan, and the prospect of a pilot project to allow foreigners to buy yuan-denominated stocks on mainland ex-changes.

Fdi fallsNon-� nancial foreign direct invest-ment was $7.81bn in July, the lowest in two years, and fell an annual 0.4% in the � rst seven months of the year.

Chinese regulators have warned against reading too much into a single monthly FDI � gure, and many econo-mists agree.

Still, in the context of July data that included softness in manufacturing, lending, housing prices and � xed-asset investment, the numbers have prompt-ed some debate.

The FDI slowdown was led by a sharp decline in investment from Ja-

pan, which plunged 45% in the � rst seven months of 2014; Europe, down 17.5%; and the United States, o� 17.4%.

“There are other geographies in Asia that are de� nitely more attractive for manufacturing,” said Matt Koon, consulting manager at Tractus Asia in Shanghai.

At the same time, there has been an increase in funds � owing into stocks via exchange-traded funds (ETF) in Hong Kong from foreign investors, who cannot yet invest directly in mainland equities.

ETFs under the Renminbi Quali� ed Foreign Institutional Investor (RQFII) scheme had net in� ows of 8.2bn yuan ($1.3bn) last month, the highest since De-cember 2012 and nearly doubling from June, according to Morningstar data.

Launched in 2011, RQFII enables in-stitutions to use o� shore yuan to invest

in the mainland’s securities markets.The net in� ow in July was the

equivalent to 14.5% of assets under management. A year earlier, there were out� ows equivalent to 9.9% of assets under management.

Hostile environmentFDI has risen each year since China joined the World Trade Organisation in 2001, hitting a record $118bn last year, with manufacturing a main destination.

But Beijing’s plans to make the economy more reliant on domestic consumption could not only temper the in� ows, but change the composi-tion. Indeed, FDI in manufacturing fell in the � rst seven months of 2014 while it rose in services.

Many economists argue that China is losing attractiveness due to reasons

such as persistently increasing costs for labour, relatively higher prices for energy and expensive industrial property.

Coincidentally or not, the slowdown in FDI this year follows a campaign pillorying foreign � rms for crimes in-cluding bribery, discriminatory pric-ing, monopolistic behaviour, and poor quality control - which has led to mas-sive � nes and detentions by police.

“The more aggressive stance of Chi-nese regulators is doubtless galling to foreign executives, but it is unlikely to eliminate their interest,” Arthur Kroe-ber, economist at Dragonomics, wrote in a research note, adding some � rms had made so much pro� t that they can “easily a� ord to pay the � ne and go on its merry way minting money in the Middle Kingdom.” l

A man walks at the � nancial district of Pudong in Shanghai REUTERS

After disasters, stricken Malaysia Airlines sta� brace for job cutsn Reuters, Kuala Lumpur

As bodies from downed Flight MH17 were brought home last week, a group of Malaysia Airlines � ight attendants, in black mourning headscarves con-trasting with their pink and turquoise uniforms, sobbed and clung to each other in grief.

The 19,500 sta� of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) now face a new ordeal - a quar-ter of them may lose their jobs at the unpro� table airline, hit by two jet disas-ters this year. Flight MH370 remains un-traced since its disappearance en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March.

Deep job losses, route cuts and a

change of leadership are expected to feature in a restructuring plan being prepared by Malaysia’s government for announcement as early as Thursday, when MAS also reports second-quarter results. Likely the last before being de-listed, the numbers are expected to show plunging ticket sales and heavy losses even before July’s shooting down of MH17 over Ukraine.

As state fund Khazanah Nasional, the majority owner, prepares to take the company private and inject e� -ciency into the airline, it must tackle crumbling sta� morale and win over the powerful main labor union if turn-around e� orts are to succeed.

“MAS is su� ering from an image problem and a problem with the sta� ,” said Nik Huslan, former chief pilot at MAS. “They have to � nd someone the sta� can respect and rally behind.”

Even before the lost aircraft trag-edies, airline insiders said sta� discon-tent had been growing for years due to strategy U-turns, leadership changes and poor career prospects.

One of the region’s most prestigious and fastest-growing airlines in the 1990s, MAS has steadily fallen behind high-end rivals such as Singapore Air-lines and been battered by the rise of Asia’s budget carriers like AirAsia. The company hasn’t made an annual pro� t

since 2010.This year’s twin disasters have

caused new stresses. A total of 186 MAS � ight crew quit between January and July, many of them due to family pressure not to � y after the crashes, MAS says. Over 5,000 MAS sta� work as cabin crew or pilots and the airline says the resignation rate has now re-turned to normal.

About a quarter of MAS sta� are like-ly to lose their jobs under Khazanah’s plan, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The pill is likely to be sweetened with costly re-dundancy packages and o� ers of jobs at other state enterprises. l

Euro weak as dollar stays � rm on US con� dencen AFP, Tokyo

The euro sat around its lowest levels against the dollar in nearly a year in Asia on yesterday , with investors betting on fresh easing measures from the Euro-pean Central Bank while the greenback was boosted by upbeat US data.

The single currency slipped to $1.3151 in Tokyo morning trade - down from $1.3169 in New York Tuesday and the lowest level since September - be-fore edging back up to $1.3660. It also slipped to 136.89 yen from 137.03 yen.

The euro-dollar “continues lower in anticipation of new easing measures be-ing announced by the ECB next week”, National Australia Bank said in a note.

The ECB announced unprecedented easing measures in June but its head Mario Draghi hinted at a further relax-ing of policy as he looks to ward o� de� ation in the eurozone. The bank will hold a decision-making Governing Council meeting in Frankfurt on Sep-tember 4.

The dollar held � rm after the Confer-ence Board said consumer con� dence

rose for a fourth straight month to its strongest level since February 2008. Also, durable goods orders surged in July to a new monthly record, accord-ing to the Commerce Department.

The greenback bought 104.01 yen in Tokyo, against 104.05 yen in New York.

Eyes are now on the release of re-vised US growth � gures for April-June, which could add fuel to speculation that the Federal Reserve will raise its key interest rate sooner than later.

The dollar was mostly lower against other Asia-Paci� c currencies.

It dipped to Sg$1.2485 from Sg$1.2503 on Tuesday, to 31.91 Thai baht from 31.93 baht and to 11,700.00 Indo-nesian rupiah from 11,710.10 rupiah.

The greenback fell to 1,014.25 South Korean won from 1,017.04 won, to 43.68 Philippine pesos from 43.81 pe-sos and to Tw$29.93 from Tw$29.96.

The dollar fetched 60.49 Indian ru-pees against 60.48 rupees.

The Australian dollar rose to 93.18 US cents from 92.89 cents, while the Chinese yuan bought 16.89 yen against 16.84 yen. l

Japan Abe aide Hamada: Could do next sales tax hike in stagesn Reuters, Tokyo

Japan could soften the impact of a planned sales tax increase by raising it in stages rather than IN a single hike, an outside adviser to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on yesterday.

Koichi Hamada, professor emeritus of economics at Yale University, also told Reuters that Abe should focus on struc-tural reforms and slash corporate taxes deeper than currently planned to boost the economy and attract investment.

Abe raised the sales tax in April to 8% from 5% to curb Japan’s runaway government debt. The increase hit consumption, sending the economy into its worst fall in the second quarter since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The premier is to decide around the

end of the year whether to proceed with another planned hike, to 10%, in Octo-ber 2015. “As we have seen, the shock from the consumption tax hike could be large,” Hamada said in an interview. “So, ideally, we could raise it in a staged man-ner, such as 1 percentage point in Octo-ber 2015 and another point after that.”

Abe’s government plans to cut the corporate tax rate - among the highest in the world at more than 35% - to less than 30% over several years. Details of the exact scale and timing of the cuts have not been decided.

“A drastic corporate tax cut would attract investment to Japan from abroad as well as domestically,” Hama-da said. “This would help to revitalize the Japanese economy, which will help expand the tax base.” l

Oil prices up ahead of US stockpiles reportn AFP, Singapore

Oil prices rose in Asia yesterday as deal-ers await the latest US stockpiles report for clues about demand in the world’s top crude consumer, while buying was boosted by upbeat economic data out of Washington.

US benchmark West Texas Interme-diate for October delivery was up three cents at $93.89 while Brent crude for October jumped 22 cents to $102.72 in afternoon trade. The US Department of Energy will release the o� cial petro-leum stockpiles report for the week to August 22 later Wednesday.

Analysts polled by Dow Jones News-wires expect crude oil reserves to have dropped by 900,000 barrels on average.

Gasoline inventories are projected to have fallen by one million barrels and distillates, including heating oil and diesel, are estimated to have de-clined by 600,000 barrels. A decline in US stockpiles typically indicates strong demand in the world’s biggest econo-my, supporting global prices.

Desmond Chua, market analyst at CMC Markets in Singapore, said inves-tors have also been buoyed by “a string of strong economic data in the US”.

The Conference Board said Tuesday that consumer con� dence rose for a fourth straight month to its strongest level since February 2008. Also, du-rable goods orders surged in July to a new monthly record, according to the Commerce Department. l

Aparup Chowdhury has recently joined Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation as its chairperson. He is an additional secretary to the country’s government. He has completed his MSc degree in Zoology, MBA degree in human resource management and also achieved a PhD degree for a research work

B4 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Thursday, August 28, 2014

DILBERT

Eurozone borrowing costs fall to record lowsn AFP, Paris

The cost of borrowing for eurozone countries fell to record low levels on yesterday, despite gloom over the eco-nomic outlook and crisis over econom-ic policy in France.

The bond interest rates are falling following comments made by the head of the European Central Bank assuring that de� ation will be kept at bay.

The interest rate or yield indicated by traded German 10-year bonds, the benchmark for the eurozone, fell to a record low level of 0.915% from 0.939% late on Tuesday.

The rate for French 10-year debt fell to a record low of 1.249% from 1.275%, against a background of the formation of a new government in France fol-lowing the shock dismissal on Monday of economy minister Arnaud Monte-bourg, who had criticised economic policy.

Records were also broken for Ital-ian and Spanish 10-year debt. The Ital-ian yield fell to 2.372% from 2.413%,

and the Spanish rate to 2.097% from 2.172%.

A belief that the European Central Bank is moving towards injecting mon-ey massively into the eurozone econ-omy to ward o� de� ation has pushed funds into bonds before market inter-est rates fall further.

As the price of the bonds rises, the � xed interest they carry at issue falls as a percentage of the new, higher price. This process has been at work since remarks by ECB head Mario Draghi on Friday.

At a symposium in the United States, Draghi stressed that the ECB was vigi-lant about the possible threat of de� a-tion and would ensure price stability, its supreme duty under its statutes.

This was widely interpreted as meaning that the bank is moving to-wards adopting quantitative easing, a policy of buying securities and thereby providing the holders of these instru-ments with ready cash.

The intention would be for the mon-ey to � ow into the economy via loans,

and so boost growth, and would also push down the euro, with the overall e� ect of increasing in� ation.

Bond strategist Cyril Regnat at Natixis bank in Paris said that “with his words, Mario Draghi has a grip on the markets and will continue to keep this hold until the European macroecono-my turns up.”

However, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, in a newspaper interview on Wednesday, said he felt the markets had “over-interpreted” Draghi’s words.

Recent indicators show that recovery in the eurozone is � agging badly. An up-turn, when it comes, will tend to draw funds out of bonds into other invest-ments such as stocks, causing bond pric-es to ease and yields therefore to � rm.

Investors broadly welcomed the surprise appointment of former banker Emmanuel Macron as the new French economy minister to replace Monte-bourg, but said that the reshu� e was having little e� e ct on the cost of bor-rowing for France. l A picture shows one-euro coins in Lille on August 25 AFP

Big business warn against Scottish independencen Reuters

More than 100 business leaders spoke out against Scottish independence saying the business case for independence has not been made, the biggest interven-tion by the United Kingdom’s business community in the referendum debate so far.

Voters will decide next month whether Scotland, which has a popu-lation of just over 5 million and is a source of North Sea oil, should end its 307-year-old union with England and leave the United Kingdom.

In a statement heads of some of the United Kingdom’s biggest companies said the outcome of the historic Sept. 18 referendum would a� ect genera-tions to come.

“As job creators, we have looked carefully at the arguments made by both sides of the debate,” the letter states. “Our conclusion is that the busi-ness case for independence has not been made.”

The letter also says there is uncer-tainty surrounding issues such as cur-rency, regulation, tax, pensions, EU membership and support for exports.

Executives lending their names to

the statement include Andrew Mack-enzie, chief executive o� cer of BHP Billiton Plc; Douglas Flint, group chair-man of HSBC Holdings Plc; Simon Thomson, CEO of Cairn Energy Plc and Angus Cockburn, interim CEO of Ag-greko Plc.

All signatories have signed the letter in their personal capacity.

The open letter organised by Keith Cochrane, chief executive of Glasgow-based engineer Weir Group Plc, is likely to be a huge shot in the arm for the Brit-ish government’s “Better Together” campaign.

So far, most businesses in the United Kingdom have refrained from making public comments as their workforces are divided on the issue of indepen-dence for Scotland.

If Scotland, with its $250bn (150bn pound) economy, 5.2 millionpeople, oil industry, and nucle-ar submarine base, leaves Britain,with its $2.5tn economy and 63 million people, the consequences would be profound.

Britain’s three main political parties want it to stay in the union, which in-cludes England, Wales and Northern Ireland. l

Swiss Re: Natural disasters caused $41bn losses in � rst halfn AFP, Zurich

Natural disasters caused total econom-ic losses of $41bn in the � rst six months of this year, much less than usual, re-insurance group Swiss Re estimated on yesterday.

The � gure released by the Zurich-based group - which combines both in-sured and uninsured losses - was down from $59bn (45bn euros) in the � rst half of 2013.

It was also about half the average � rst-half loss of the previous 10 years, which was $94bn. The insurance in-dustry took a hit of $21bn from disas-ters in the January to June period.

That was down from the $25bn in pay-outs over the same period in 2013, and also below the $27bn ten-year average.

The costliest disaster for the insur-ance sector was the thunderstorms and hail which hit the United States in mid-May, causing $3.2bn in damage, of which $2.6bn was insured.

Next came June’s storms in France, Germany and Belgium, where losses reached $2.7bn, with $2.5bn of that covered by insurers.

February’s snowstorm in Japan in-� icted $5bn in economic losses, but

only half of that � gured was insured.The January snowstorm in the Unit-

ed States lead to economic losses of $2.5bn, of which $1.7bn was insured.

And May’s thunderstorms and torna-does in the United States generated loss-es of $1.7bn, with $1.1bn of that covered.

Rich countries traditionally see the most expensive single disasters in terms of insurance claims, given their wealthier economies and extensive in-

surance penetration.Poorer nations generally face a gap

between overall economic damage and insurance payouts.

For example, May’s heavy � ooding in Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia resulted in economic losses of $4.5bn, but Swiss Re said insured losses were moderate due to low coverage.

Poorer nations also traditionally bear the brunt in terms of lives lost in disasters, which Swiss Re said reached 4,700 in the � rst six months of the year.

Man-made disasters were to blame for economic losses of $3bn over the � rst half, with $2 of the sum insured.

In the � rst six months of 2013, man-made disaster losses had reached $5bn, above the 10-year average of $4bn. l

German consumer con� dence faltersn AFP, Frankfurt

Consumer con� dence in Germany is faltering in the face of growing concern about the economic impact of the cri-ses in Ukraine and the Middle East, a new poll found yesterday.

“The escalation of the situation in Iraq, in Israel and in eastern Ukraine,

as well as the accelerating spiral of sanctions with Russia is � nally having a negative e� ect on consumers’ previ-ously optimistic economic expecta-tions,” market research company GfK said in a statement.

“Uncertainty with regard to the out-look for the German economy has risen noticeably,” the statement said.

At the same time, consumers’ in-come expectations and their willing-ness to spend money were still “rela-tively robust,” GfK found.

“They have fallen somewhat in the wake of the drop in economic expecta-tions, but are still largely at a relatively high level,” it said. l

Looking ahead to next month,

GfK’s headline household confidence index was forecast to drop to 8.6 points in September from 8.9 points in August.

This reading is based on responses from about 2,000 households regard-ing their expectations about pay and the economy as a whole in the coming months, as well as their willingness to

spend.Sentiment in Europe’s top

economy is currently � ounderingamid uncertainty about possiblefallout from the crises in Ukraine and Iraq.

Earlier this week, the Ifo business climate survey fell more than expected to its lowest level in 13 months. l

India’s sugar export rebound at risk from rising domestic pricesn Reuters, Mumbai

Sugar prices in India are � rming on fears of short-term supply constraints and seasonal demand even as global prices are sliding, posing a threat to a recent recovery in exports from the world’s second-biggest producer of the sweetener.

A raised sugar import duty in India, festival demand and an expected delay in cane crushing in a key producing state have helped push domestic prices to a $70 a tonne premium to interna-tional prices, making it more lucrative to sell domestically. A year ago the pre-mium was just $20 a tonne.

Lower exports from India could pro-vide short-term support to global sugar prices that hit a seven-month low on Monday and give leading sugar export-ers such as Brazil and Thailand an op-portunity to take more of the market.

India last week raised the import duty on the sweetener to 25% from 15% to help mills, which are struggling with over� owing warehouses due to bumper crops over the past few years. Government-set prices for sugar cane are also hurting them.

“The import duty hike has isolated the Indian market from global price trends. Local prices won’t fall due to global surplus,” said Ashok Jain, presi-

dent of the Bombay Sugar Merchants Association.

Thailand is o� ering white sugar at around $430 per tonne, but Indian mills won’t o� er below $500 due to relatively higher local prices, said a Mumbai-based dealer, who declined to be named as he is not authorised to talk to media.

India’s local prices have risen 10% so far in 2014, while global prices have fallen 4.3%.

“Exports are not possible unless lo-cal prices drop by at least 15 to 20%,” said the dealer with a global trading � rm that has been one of the top sugar exporters this season ending Septem-ber. “I don’t see that happening in 2014.”

India celebrates the religious festi-vals of Dussehra and Diwali in the next two months, when sugar demand goes up and prices rise.

Raw sugarSince the start of the 2013/14 sugar marketing year last October, Indian mills have aggressively exported to re-duce surplus sugar. India usually pro-duces white sugar, but this year it also produced raw sugar, especially to cater to demand from the growth of re� ning capacity in Asia and Africa.

Exports are likely to swell to 2.5 mil-

lion tonnes in the current year ending Sept 30, compared with just 35,000 tonnes a year earlier. But in 2014/15 In-dia is likely to ship much less than the current year as mills are not interested in producing raw sugar, industry ex-ecutives say.

“Mills are not keen to produce raw sugar as they are getting a higher price for white sugar (in the domestic mar-ket) than the realization for raw sugar from exports,” said a senior o� cial at the Maharashtra State Cooperative Sugar Factories federation.

Sugar mills in India’s second-biggest sugar producing state of Uttar Pradesh have threatened to not crush cane in the new season starting in October, saying they will not be able to pay a high state-set cane price to farmers.

The mills suspended crushing this sugar year too for two months and had halted operations in earlier years as well.

“If crushing gets delayed, it will ob-viously support sugar prices. But it is unlikely to lead to shortfall due to am-ple carry-forward stock,” said Ashwini Bansod, a senior analyst at Phillip Com-modities India Pvt Ltd.

India is likely to start the new sugar year with an opening stock of 7.5 mil-lion tonnes, down from 9.3 million tonnes a year ago. l

Maker of $33 smartphone hails ‘new era’ for Indian AFP, New Delhi

The maker of a new $33 smartphone billed as India’s cheapest said yester-day it aims to sell half a million in the next three months in what it called a “new era” for the market.

Indian mobile phone maker Intex has teamed up with California-based Mozil-la - the non-pro� t organisation behind the Firefox open-source web browser - to create a cheaper alternative to Ap-ple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy.

Intex spokeswoman Joyeeta Mi-tra said the handset, which went on sale this week, was aimed at � rst-time smartphone buyers and was the cheap-est yet to hit the market.

“We’re moving into a new era in smartphones,” Mitra told AFP. “This is a user-friendly handset that can help people onto smartphones and onto the Internet.

“We have big expectations that this phone will � nd a large market and we are expect 500,000 sales in the � rst three months.”

The company is initially targeting the Indian market but expects to expand sales to other countries in Asia, she said.

India’s smartphone market is grow-ing rapidly. US market research � rm IDC reported shipments leapt by 186% to 17.59 million smartphones in the � rst � nancial quarter to June from a year earlier.

IDC forecast that smartphone sales would continue to rocket in coming years, growing at an annual rate of 40% for the next � ve years.

But price is key in India, which ac-cording to the World Bank is home to one-third of the world’s poor. Three-quarters of smartphone sales in India are below $200.

The Intex o� ering undercuts the Smart A50S, made by Indian handset maker Karbonn which was launched in June at 2,790 rupees ($46). l

A model displays Japanese electronics maker Casio Computer's new style camera, the "Exilim FR10", which has a 14 megapixel CMOS camera and detachable control unit with 2.0-inch LCD display, in Tokyo on August 26, 2014. Camera captured digital images or videos can be transferred to a control unit or smartphone through Bluetooth or wi-� connections. Casio will put the water proof action camera on the market on September 19 AFP

February’s snowstorm in Japan in� icted $5bn in economic losses, but only half of that � gured was insured