16 pages with 8-page business tabloid, plus 8-page Treehouse children’s supplement | Price: Tk10

Agrahayan 27, 1420Safar 7, 1435Regd. No. DA 6238Vol 1 No 257 WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2013 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

13 SportFaruk Ahmed new chief selector

DAYSTO GO

5

Dialogue ball starts rollingn Sheikh Shahariar Zaman and

Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

A light can be seen at the end of the tunnel, as the process for holding the long expected dialogue between the Awami League and BNP � nally started yesterday, at the mediation of UN en-voy Oscar Fernandez-Taranco.

Fernandez-Taranco, who had been

tight-lipped about the dialogue ini-tiatives, yesterday evening said the government and the opposition were engaged in a dialogue to resolve the current con� ict at the intervention of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.He also postponed his departure from Dhaka for 24 hours. He was schedule to leave yesterday evening.

“At the invitation of the UN secre-

tary-general, representatives of both parties have met and engaged in a dia-logue,” the UN assistant secretary-gen-eral for political a� airs said at the sud-den informal press brie� ng.

“I have decided to extend my stay here in Bangladesh given the positive developments that have been taking place,” he said. “Both sides have agreed PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

Quader Molla receives last minute stayNo state counsel was informed beforehand

n Julfi kar Ali Manik

In a dramatic development late last night, the chamber judge of the Su-preme Court, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain stayed the execution of war criminal and Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ab-dul Quader Molla until 10:30am today.

Justice Mahmud issued the unprec-edented stay order from his house only couple of hours before the implemen-tation of the Appellate Division verdict that sentenced war criminal Quader Molla to death on September 17.

Molla’s counsels rushed to the Dhaka Central jail between midnight and gave the copy of the stay order to the prison authorities.

Following this development, the jail authorities halted the execution of the Molla, well-known as “Mirpurer Kasai” (Butcher of Mirpur) for the heinous crimes he had committed during the War of Independence in 1971.

The government said in the presence of two magistrates, Quader Molla had not sought the president’s clemency.

Molla’s counsels led by Jamaat-e-Is-lami Assistant Secretary General Abdur Razzak went to the chamber judge’s residence at the judges’ complex in the capital between 8pm and 10pm to seek a stay order on the execution.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam was not aware of the development. No state counsel was present at the cham-ber judge’s house when he heard the prayer of Molla’s counsels.

“We did not receive any notice re-garding the move of the defence coun-sels that they were going to appeal on get a stay order on Quader Molla’s ex-ecution,” Additional Attorney Gener-al MK Rahman told journalist around midnight after knowing from media about the order.

“However, the court can give or-der on its own and we will � ght in the court,” he said.

It was not clear whether Molla’s lawyers went to the chamber judge’s house only with the plea or with the application of reviewing the Appellate Division verdict.

Supreme Court Registrar AKM Shamsul Islam at 10:37pm yesterday PAGE 2 COLUMN 2

B8 BusinessH&M may raise prices to pay workers more

Sanowar Jahan, wife of death row convict Abdul Quader Molla, shows victory sign as she leaves Dhaka Central Jail after meeting her husband DHAKA TRIBUNE

Three killed in nocturnal violence of Jamaat-Shibirn Ashif Islam Shaon

Jamaat-Shibir activists unleashed a reign of terror in several districts leav-ing three people killed following the news that Abdul Quader Molla would be executed last night.

Of the three, a mother Sumi Ak-ter and her daughter seven-year-old Sanjida were killed when Shibir men torched a parked covered van at 10pm onthe Bogra By-pass Road of Gazipur, the place where a teenage boy Monir Hossain was burnt to death. He too was in a covered van with his father.

The incident left two more covered van passengers – Sadia, 2, sister of San-jida and their father Adam Ali, 40,-- criticallyburnt.

Police Superintendent Abdul Baten said the covered van was heading to-wards Bogra. The victims were on way to their village home at Ullapara in Sira-jganj from Rupganj of Narayanganj.

The family failed to board any bus and they managed the van of Partex Group for the journey.

As the driver pulled it up for a short break on Pubail Roada group of activ-ists Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir came in a � ash procession and threw a petrol bomb at the van.

As the mother and her seven-year-old daughter were traveling in the driv-er’s cabin they could not manage to come out of the vehicle.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

SAYEDEE WITNESS DIESP16

MORE TRIBUNAL STORIESP3

News2 DHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, December 11, 2013

His testimony con� rmed death for Sayedee n Udisa Islam

Mostafa Hawlader, who died early yes-terday after being chopped allegedly by activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir in Pirojpur two days ago, was the key witness in the case against war criminal Delawar Hossain Sayedee.

Early last year, he gave deposition at the International Crimes Tribunal 1 on charge eight which was related with the murder of Ibrahim Kutti. And on his eye-witness testimony, the tribunal gave Sayedee death penalty.

The verdict said: “In consideration of the gravity and magnitude of the o� ences committed particularly in charge eight, we unanimously hold that the accused deserves the highest punishment as provided under section 20(2) of the ICT Act of 1973.”

Prosecutor Haider Ali said: “Doing his duty as freedom � ghter, he had to face an unnatural death.”

In his deposition, Mostafa said: “Around 3pm on May 8, 1971, the Paki-stani occupation army under Sayedee’s leadership raided the house of one Manik Posari at village Chitholia un-der Pirojpur Sadar police station and caught his servants Mo� zuddin Posh-ari and one Ibrahim Kutti. Instigated by Sayedee, the army personnel shot to dead Ibrahim on way to the local army camp. Then they dumped the body near a bridge. Mo� z was taken to the camp and was tortured.”

The witness had con� rmed that Del-awar Hossain Shikder, Danesh Molla, Sekander Shikder, Kalil Moulovi, Mos-lem Maulana, Mozahar Mollick were the member of Peace Committee.

Reinforcing the testimonies of the previous witnesses, Mostafa told the tribunal that he had seen Sayedee along with other collaborators loot-ing and burning a number of shops in Parerhat Bazar in 1971. He also said the death row convict had been with the army all the time. He eye witnessed these incidents.

From the north side of the bazar, the witness said he had seen 52 Pakistani army men going there on 26 rickshaws. “Sayedee raising his hand showed them the houses and shops of the Hin-dus and the Awami League supporters.

Then they crossed the nearby bridge and ordered to loot the shops and houses. Some 30-35 shops and houses were looted at that time.”

Later the army men had gone to Manik Poshari’s house and set � re to three of the homesteads and one silo. Seeing the � re and smoke, Mo� z (another Witness) and Ibrahim Kutti ran towards the house from the crop land. Sayedee grabbed them and took to the army camp. On the way, the army men killed Ibrahim by shooting near Thana Ghat and kicked him into the canal.

The witness said he had heard the sound of gunshot.

The prosecution said Mostafa as a freedom � ghter had tried to manage the other witnesses positively. He was facing threats from the very begin-ning of the trial process. After giving

statement to investigation o� cer, the supporters of Sayedee threatened him with life continuously.

Upon Mostafa’s claim, the prosecu-tion claimed that they had informed Zianagar police station to give his pro-tection.

On the death of Mostafa, Shahidur Rahman, conducting prosecutor of the trial against Sayedee, said after this type of incidents, “our work become more critical. The witnesses will feel insecure to appear before the court.”

Helal Uddin, investigation o� cer in Sayedee case, said Mostafa had ar-ranged many witnesses and evidence. “As he told us about the threats, we arranged some protection for him too. But how long we can provide it?”

He said to protect the witness-es, building social awareness was necessary. l

Six nabbed for killing Sayedee witness n Anisur Rahman Swapan, Barisal

Police arrested six people in connec-tion with killing Mostafa Hawlader, a prosecution witness for the prosecu-tion in the case against condemned prisoner Jamaat-e-Islami leader Dela-war Hossain Sayedee.

Mostafa was injured in an attack by miscreants and succumbed to his inju-ries early yesterday at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Unidenti� ed miscreants stabbed Mostafa, 58, in his house at Hoglabunia village of Parerhut under Indurkani po-lice station of Zianagor in Pirojpur early Sunday.

His wife Hasina Begum also sus-tained minor injuries as she tried to resist the attackers who entered the house by digging the earthen � oor.

They were � rst admitted to Pirojpur General Hospital at night and then Mostafa was sent to Khulna Medical College Hospital on Monday morning. After his condition deteriorated, he was transferred to the DMCH in a critical condition.

After the incident, Abdul Majid, the victim's brother, lodged an attempt-to-murder case against nine people persons with Indurkani police, said Qamruzzaman Haoladar, o� cer-in-charge of the station.

Without disclosing any political

identity of the arrestees, the police said they had arrested Rumi Talukdar, of Umedpur, Solaiman of Hoglabuna, Boni Amin, Barek, Moslem, Obaidul, from di� erent parts of the upazila.

Victim Mostafa was the eighth prosecution witness in the war crimes case against Sayedee, the Jamaat nayeb-e-ameer (central vice-president), who was given death penalty by the zInternational Crimes Tribunal on february 28 for committing crimes against humanity in Pirojpur during the 1971 Liberation War.

Following the news of Mostafa’s death, business enterprises and markets in Parerhat and the surrounding areas were shut and people wearing black badges went to his house.

Mostafa left behind his wife, three sons and two daughters. His eldest son Monir Hawlader was killed in a road accident in December last year.

His youngest daughter Sonia Akter, 14, who is a grade VIII student of Parerhut Girls' School, demanded capital punishment for the killers of her father.

Earlier, Jamaat-Shibir activists on October 28, attacked the house of Mahbubul Alam Hawlader, upazila Muktijoddha Sangsad commander and plainti� in the case against Sayedee.

Some 200 Jamaat-Shibir support-ers ransacked and looted his house in broad daylight.. l

UK expresses concern over Molla’s executionn Tribune Report

Referring to the execution of war crim-inal Abdul Qader Molla, Britain has ex-pressed concerns over the use of death penalty in Bangladesh.

In a statement issued yesterday eve-ning, British Senior Foreign O� ce Min-ister Baroness Warsi said: “I am deeply concerned at reports of plans to exe-cute Abdul Qader Molla in the coming days.

“The UK calls again for Bangladesh to implement a moratorium on the death penalty leading to the eventual abolition of the death penalty.”

Britain opposes the death penalty in

all circumstances as a matter of prin-ciple and considers that its use under-mines human dignity and that there is no conclusive evidence of its deterrent value.

“We further note that Abdul Qader Molla was sentenced to death following an appeal permitted under retrospectively applied legislation, and that he was not permitted to review his sentence before the Supreme Court.”

Bangladesh’s commitments under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) require that all citizens be treated equally before the law. l

Jamaat: Political killing, if Quader Molla executedn Tribune Reports

When it was con� rmed by the government that death row convict Abdul Quader Molla would be executed last night, Jamaat-e-Islami issued a statement saying that it would be a political killing if the government had executed him.

Jamaat acting ameer Mokbul Ahmed said: “The government is unwilling to provide him [Quader Molla] minimum constitutional and legal rights and thus it will be considered as a political killing.”

“The government has snatched his rights and announced executing the verdict tonight,” though Quader Molla was supposed to get another 21 days as per the jail code, the statement reads.

Jamaat claims that the verdict was a plan of the government and it played both direct and indirect role to a� ect many verdicts of the war crimes tribunal.

The key ally of the BNP-led 18-party alliance, Jamaat through the statement urged the international human rights watchdogs, communities and the Unit-ed Nations to raise voice against the “killing.” l

Mostafa Hawlader

Relatives burst into tears in front of the corpse of Mostafa Hawlader at Dhaka Medical College Hospital yesterday Mahmud Hossain Opu

Three killed PAGE 1 COLUMN 6The father with his two-year-old daughter jumped out of the van with little injuries.

In another incident a teenage Shi-bir activist Salman died being hit by stray bullets during a clash between police and Jamaat-Shibir cadres in Feni around 10pm.

The clash erupted after the Shi-bir men hurled a petrol bomb at the car of Feni Model Police Station O� -cer-in-Charge Moazzem Hossain. The 15-year-old deceased was a Class X stu-dent of a Shibir-controlled madrasa.

Earlier, the government was threat-ened with dire consequences if the par-ty’s Assistant Secretary General Quader Moll is executed.

In a press release last night Jamaat Acting Secretary General Sha� qur Rah-man termed the execution of Quader Mollah conspiracy adding: “If the gov-ernment executes this conspiracy, the consequences will be deadly.”

However, around 10pm the chamber judge of the Supreme Court stayed the execution till 10:30am today respond-ing to a petition moved by the defence lawyers.

In the Gazipur incident a trainee Sub-Inspector Mosarref Hossain sus-tained burn injuries as he tried to catch the activists soon after they torched the covered van. The SP said they had taken the bodies of the mother and her

daughter to Gazipur Police Station.“The injured have been admitted to

Gazipur Hospital,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.

Meanwhile, in Feni apart from hurl-ing petrol bombs Shibir men tried to break in a Sonali Bank branch o� ce. But on-duty security police there � red shots to disperse them.

Incidents of violence were also re-ported from Rajshahi, Joypurhat and Gaibandha last night. Besides, in Chit-tagong Jamaat men torched a number of vehicles and blasted crude bombs.

At Binodpur of Rajshahi and in Joy-purhat Jamaat-Shibir men torched the Awami League o� ces.

Police said at Binodpur in Rajshahi city Jamaat torched AL o� ce around 10pm. They also burnt a number of shops.

In Joypurhat they torched district General Secretary SM Solaiman Ali’s residence and the AL o� ce.

In Gaibandha, Jamaat-Shibir on the Dhaka-Rangpur Highway torched a number of vehicles, shops and 12 hous-es of several Al leaders and activists from 8pm.

They blasted more than a hundred crude bombs to spread panic. Police � red bullets from shot guns to bring the situation under control.

In Chittagong, from a protest pro-cession against the Jamaat leader’s ex-ecution they torched a bus, a CNG-run auto-rickshaw and two tempos. l

Law enforcers on high alert n Kailash Sarkar and Rabiul Islam

Centring the imminent execution of convicted war criminal Abdul Quader Molla, security was beefed up across the country yesterday at multiple lev-els to maintain law and order and pre-vent any subversive activities.

Alongside the regular forces, a signif-icant number of BGB troops have been deployed across the country, while po-lice, Rab and other security units asked to remain on the highest alert.

Kamal Uddin Ahmed, additional home secretary (political), told the Dhaka Tribune that the measures had been taken following reports from dif-ferent intelligence agencies. l

Quader Molla receives last minute stay PAGE 1 COLUMN 2only con� rmed to the Dhaka Tribune over phone that the chamber judge had stayed the execution and set 10:30am to-day to hear the review petition.

A defence counsel claimed that they had gone to the chamber judge only with a stay petition as the Dhaka Central Jail authorities was ready to hang Quad-er Molla around midnight.

In protest against the execution order and demanding release of Quader Molla, Jamaat last night announced a country-wide daylong shutdown for today. The ongoing rail, road and waterway block-ade enforced by the 18-party opposition alliance would continue simultaneously.

The Appellate Division sentenced the Jamaat leader to death overruling the verdict of the International Crimes Tri-bunal 2 that gave him life-term impris-onment on February 5. The full verdict was released on Thursday. On receiving copy of the full text, the tribunal on Sun-day issued death warrant to execute the capital punishment.

In line with the International Crimes (tribunals) Act 1973, the government or-dered to execute Quader Molla last night. As per the government directives, the prison authorities were all set to imple-ment the verdict and gallows was ready to hang him at 12:01am.

Earlier in the evening, State Minis-ter for Home Shamsul Haque Tuku an-nounced that the government had decid-

ed to execute the war criminal last night. State Minister for Law Quamrul Is-

lam at the same press brie� ng also talk-ed about the government’s decision. He told journalists that the convict had re-fused to seek presidential pardon.

According to the prison authorities, Quader Molla’s family members went to the Dhaka Central Jail after 8pm to meet him for the last time.

The chamber judge, Justice Syed Mahmud, was also a member of the � ve-member Appellate Division bench that sentenced Quader Molla to death. The bench was headed by Chief Justice Muzammel Hossain. The other members are Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, Jus-tice Wahhab Mia and Justice AHM Sham-suddin Choudhury Manik.

All the judges but Justice Wahhab awarded Quader Molla death sentence. He awarded the war criminal life-term for the crimes against humanity he had com-mitted during the 1971 Liberation War.

The scope of the review has been an issue of debate for the last couple of days as the defence claims it is their constitu-tional right.

After the release of the full judge-ment, the defence counsels said they would � le a review petition with the Supreme Court as per the constitutional provision within 30 days of receiving cer-ti� ed copy of the verdict.

The ICT Act says: “The sentence awarded under this Act shall be carried

out in accordance with the orders of the government.”

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told the Dhaka Tribune last night that according to article 47(3) of the constitu-tion the defence did not have any right of reviewing the judgement. He also said the jail codes would not be applicable in the cases for crimes against humanity.

According to the article, no provision of the ICT law (to try accused for crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide and others) would be considered un-lawful, even if it is inconsistent with, or repugnant to any of the provisions of the constitution.

On these issues, the prosecution lawyers say the constitutional scope for reviewing the apex court’s judgement would not be applicable for persons con-victed for crimes against humanity. Even the provisions of the jail code for imple-menting death penalty would not be ap-plicable for this case.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people, main-ly youths, started to gather in Shahbagh area since last evening when they came to know about the decision of executing Quader Molla to celebrate the long-cher-ished moment for which the nation has been waiting for the last 42 years.

But when they came to know about the stay order, Ganajagaran Mancha or-ganisers announced a sit-in programme at Shahbagh intersection until the execu-tion of the war criminal. l

Dialogue ball starts rolling PAGE 1 COLUMN 5to continue their dialogue in a spirit of goodwill and compromise.”

Fernandez-Taranco said: “I want to take this opportunity to applaud the de-cision [of the both parties] to sit down and seize this important opportunity.

“This shows political leadership, re-sponsibility and courage and it is also an answer to the expectations of the people of Bangladesh.”

The BNP, which also refused to talk about the meeting outcome, issued a statement yesterday evening, con-� rming that leaders from both parties had met at the residence of the UN resident coordinator in the afternoon and agreed to continue the dialogue on polls-time government.

Awami League General Secretary

Syed Ashraful Islam led the Awami League delegation while BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir led the BNP side at the meeting.

The Awami League side also had Advisory Council members Amir Hos-sain Amu and Tofail Ahmed, and prime minister’s International A� airs Adviser Gowher Rizvi, while the BNP delegation comprised Standing Committee mem-bers Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain,Abdul Moyeen Khan and Vice-Chair-man Shamser Mobin Chowdhury.

After the meeting, the delegation went to their party chiefs to discuss the details of the meeting.

In a statement, the Awami League said it had asked the opposition to cre-ate a congenial atmosphere for the di-alogue, stopping hartal, blockade, de-

struction of state properties and killing.In reply to the BNP’s demand for

the release of detained leaders and activists, the Awami League said if de-structive activities stopped, the atmo-sphere for discussing the release of the detained leaders and activists would be created.

The atmosphere for holding a con-structive dialogue over the polls-time government would never take place if destructive activities were not stopped, the Awami League said.

A rumour had spread since morn-ing that a highly secret meeting of the Awami League and the BNP had been going on in a Baridhara house, but the meeting actually took place at the UN o� cial’s residence dodging the media.

In his meeting with Prime Minis-

ter Sheikh Hasina on Saturday, Fer-nandez-Taranco inquired if there was a scope to shift the date of the 10th general elections, now scheduled for January 5, apparently to ensure BNP’s participation. He is scheduled to meet the PM today again.

He also had meetings with the Awa-mi League delegation at the Pan Paci� c Sonargaon Hotel in the afternoon and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in the evening.

On Sunday, he had met the Awami League delegation at the residence of Gowher Rizvi and BNP leader Sham-sher Mobin Chowdhury and Sabi-huddin Ahmed at Shamsher’s Banani residence. None from the two parties revealed anything to the media about the meetings.

The two major political parties have been engaged in a con� ict over the for-mation of the polls-time government for a long time; the Election Commis-sion meanwhile declared the election schedule.

The BNP and its allies and the Jati-ya Party boycotted the elections while the Awami League and its allies already submitted nomination papers for the polls.

After meeting with the chief elec-tion o� cer, Fernandez-Taranco said: “I do believe there is a possibility of � nding a peaceful solution to this cur-rent deadlock if you have political will, if you have leadership, if we have an attitude of compromise and, most im-portantly, if you are able to engage in peaceful dialogue.” l

News 3DHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Tribunal closes cross-examination of another witnessn Udisa Islam

The International Crimes Tribunal 2 yesterday was irked as the conducting defence counsel had been skipping the court proceedings during the ongoing blockade.

The tribunal closed the cross-ex-amination of 16th prosecution witness Lutfar Rahman Nakib who testi� ed on Monday as the junior defence lawyers denied to quiz the witness.

Senior defence counsel Mizanur Rahman remained absent since November 25 when the opposition had enforced nationwide blockade programmes protesting the polls schedule declared by the Election Commission.

For this, the tribunal had earlier closed cross-examination of four pros-ecution witnesses.

On Monday, the tribunal warned accused AKM Yusuf and gave him four options to continue the trial process. It � xed today Wednesday for order on this matter.

The tribunal asked Yusuf wheth-er he would question the witnesshimself, order the junior counsel to cross examine, appoint new counsel or else the tribunal can appoint a new lawyer.

Yusuf said he would not be able to quiz the witnesses because of his illness and age. l

Two witnesses testify against Khokon Razakarn Udisa Islam

Two prosecution witnesses in the case against absconding Zahid Hossain Khokon alias Khokon Razakar told the war crimes tribunal yesterday about his alleged involvement in the killings and arson at Goaldi village of Nagarkanda during the 1971 Liberation War.

They said Khokon had been the lead-er of the collaborators’ group which car-ried out massacre in their village along-side the Pakistani occupation army.

Both the witnesses submitted their depositions at the International Crimes Tribunal 1 about the same incident mentioned in charge � ve and seven.

Twelfth prosecution witness Hannan Munshi said Khokon had killed his two year old sister. “Khokon with his accom-plices and the Pakistani army came to our village on May 31, 1971. After seeing them, they tried to � ee the village. At that time, Khokon shot my mother. But the bullet hit my sister’s chest who was on my mother’s lap. My mother was escaped.”

Later they had taken shelter at Jhaturdia where his brother’s father-in

law lived. After two days, when they returned to their own village, they found it burnt into ashes.

He met Ramesh Chandra Roy, who told Hannan that his grandfather Rajen-dranath Roy had been shot to dead by Khokon at a jute � eld near their house.

Ramesh yesterday gave his depo-sition as the 13th witness and told the tribunal about the death of his grand-father. He claimed that Khokon had killed many people in Nagarkanda.

Then a 29-year-old businessman, Ramesh said Khokon and his accom-plices had burnt their village. “When my grandfather tried to hide in a jute � eld, they shot and killed him.”

After the depositions, state defence counsel Md Abdus Shukur Khan cross examined the witnesses separately.

After a half-day session, the tribunal � xed today for placing new witness.

Meanwhile, the same tribunal yes-terday adjourned the hearing on re-viewing the indictment order against ATM Azhar as the defence counsels had not appeared at the court because of the blockade programmes. l

Appeals of six war criminals still pending with apex courtn Nazmus Sakib

Appeals of six war criminals are still pending in the top court with the apex court hearing the case of death-row convict Delowar Hossain Sayedee who lodged an appeal on March 28 against the judgement of February 28 by the war crimes tribunal.

There is a little chance for the oth-er cases to be heard with the top court adopting the policy of disposing of the cases one by one.

Since the inception of war crimes trial in January 2010, two tribunals have already delivered verdicts on nine cases since January 21 this year.

Excepting two cases the seven oth-ers were challenged in the Appellate Division.

The International Crimes (Tribu-nals) Act, 1973 states that the govern-ment and the defence can appeal to

the Appellate Division within 30 days of the verdict pronounced by the tribu-nals.

Death-row convict Jamaat leader Mohammad Kamaruzzaman appealed against the verdict on June 6.

Former Jamaat Chief Ghulam Azam was given 90 years’ imprisonment con-sidering his old age and heath though the tribunal judges said he had de-served death sentence.

The convict � led appeal on August 5 for acquittal while the government also � led an appeal a week later seeking death penalty.

Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, the Jamaat secretary general, � led ap-peal on August 11 against the capital punishment handed down to him.

Death-row convict Salauddin Quad-er Chowdhury, member of the BNP standing committee, lodged an appeal on October 28 against the verdict of Oc-

tober 1 while Abdul Alim, former BNP minister, � led an appeal on November 7 against the verdicts that sentenced him to death.

Meanwhile, fugitive Abul Kalam Azad alias Bachchu Razakar, a former Jamaat-e-Islami member, did not ap-peal against the death sentence he was given on January 21 by the tribunal.

He has been absconding since the issuance of a warrant of arrest against him.

In addition, two absconding al-Badr leaders Chowdhury Mueen Uddin and Ashrafuzzaman Khan, who were given death penalty on November 3 for killing intellectuals on the eve ofindependence, also did not lodgeappeals.

The trio could not appeal against the death sentence as the stipulated time-frame is over, and if they are caught they have to walk to the gallows. l

‘Razakars killed 21 on Yusuf’s order’n Udisa Islam

A prosecution witness yesterday told the war crimes tribunal that he had witnessed the killing of at least 21 Hin-du and pro-liberation people by the razakar force which was formed and led by accused AKM Yusuf in Bhasa vil-lage of Khulna during the 1971 Libera-tion War.

The 17th prosecution witness, Tai-yab Ali Khan, said: “I along with my un-cle Anwar Khan was at the local market of Bhasa village on Ashwin 30 [a month

of Bangla calendar]. In the evening, around 50-60 razakars came to the haat and started con� ning people. Since, we were supporters of the Awami League, I hid myself in a sugarcane � eld but they con� ned my uncle along with oth-er people. Altogether, the razakar con-� ned 22 persons. Among them, 18 were Hindus.”

Later, the collaborators shot them indiscriminately. “Except one, all of them died on the spot. Sunil was the only one who survived even after get-ting shot and charged by bayonet,”

said Taiyab, 85, told the International Crimes Tribunal 2.

“I searched for my uncle’s body and found him in a canal. I found Sunil breathing when I was looking for my uncle,” he added.

Earlier, Taiyab also told the tribu-nal that Yusuf had been the chairman of Khulna district Peace Committee in 1971.

Later, he had formed the razakar force and instructed them to eliminate the Hindus and the pro-liberation people. l

Freedom � ghters demand execution of war criminalsn Mohammad Atiqur Rahman

Freedom � ghters, yesterday, after hold-ing a procession titled ‘Bijoy Rally’ de-manded the government to execute the war crime verdicts, and to put an end to the recent mayhem by Jamaat-Shibir activists.

Bijoy Rally’ that started from Mat-sha Bhaban intersection marchedthrough the main streets of thecity and ended up at the Shaheed Minar where they hold a rally and stressed that all the criminals who commit crimes against humanity should be ex-ecuted.

Sahidullah, a freedom � ghter who was hurt on his leg during the war, joined the rally after coming from Sunamganj, was walking with a � ag, pleaded to the government to hang the war criminals.

Like Sahidullah, another freedom � ghter Md Yunus Master, who came

from Sonaimuri of Noakhali, a far dis-tant place from the capital, also has been waiting to see the punishment of war criminals.

Common people from di� erent age group who joined at the rally, also ech-oed the demand of freedom � ghters.

Speakers at the rally claimed that Ja-maat-Shibir men have been doing the violence in the country like they did during the liberation war.

Bangladesh Muktijoddha Sangsad’s Chairperson Kabir Ahmed, its Vice Chairperson Dr SM Jahangir Alam, it’s former Chairman Abdul Ahad Chow-dhury, Kali Narayan Lodh, Brigadier General (retd) Mohiuddin, freedom � ghters were present at the pro-gramme.

Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Shahja-han Khan, Mostafa Jalal Mohiuddin Rashed Khan Menon, and Hasanul Haq Inu also joined the rally at the Shaheed Minar. l

ICT witnesses protection law demandedn Arif Ahmed

Ganajagaran Mancha yesterday demand-ed a new law for the protection of wit-nesses, testifying against war criminals in the International Crimes Tribunal.

“The ICT witnesses do not have suf-� cient security. We demand a law in this regard, for the protection of those, who will testify against war criminals,” said Convener of Ganajagaran Mancha Imran H Sarkar.

He placed the demand yesterday in the evening after attending a torch procession, protesting deaths of one of their activist in Bogra and an ICT witness. The procession began from Shahbagh at 6pm. Imran said: “About 20 Mancha activists have been killed since February 5, but none of those murders saw proper justice.”

“The anti-liberation forces continue their killing activities as the law en-forcement forces have not taken any appropriate action yet,” Imran added.

Imran criticised the government and demanded its immediate steps to make sure punitive actions were taken against the criminals. l

HUMAN RIGHTS DAY

No headway in probe of Kalpana Chakma abductionn Muktasree Chakma Sathi

The country did not stop observing the Human Rights Day every year after rights activist Kalpana Chakma disap-peared 17 years ago; but there has been little progress in investigation into the alleged abduction.

Police, who were supposed to � le a fresh investigation report yesterday, sought more time from the Rangamati Judicial Court. The court which set yes-terday for report submission, extended the deadline until January 26.

Kalpana, an indigenous and wom-en’s rights activist, was allegedly ab-ducted by a group of law enforcers, led by an army personnel of the lieutenant rank, on June 12, 1996 – the day the 7th parliamentary elections were held.

Kalpana was reportedly campaign-ing in favour of Bijoy Ketan Chakma, then senior presidium member of the Pahari Gana Parisad and an independ-ent candidate in the 1996 elections.

Bijoy told the Dhaka Tribune yester-day: “Kalpana was one of the few wom-en at that time who was vocal about indigenous rights. The abduction could have been an attempt to thwart the heated situation before the peace ac-cord was signed.”

The Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord is a political agreement signed between the government and the Par-batya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Sami-ti (United People’s Party of the Chit-tagong Hill Tracts) in 1997 that ended decades-long struggle between the Shanti Bahini – an insurgent group, who fought for the rights of ethnic mi-norities – and the government forces.

Over the last 17 years, there has nev-er been any concrete information avail-able about the army lieutenant, whom Kalpana’s close associates have linked with the alleged abduction.

So far, three reports – two � nal re-ports including one from CID and one from a judicial inquiry commission

– have been placed before the court. None of those reports mentioned names of any accused.

The Criminal Investigation Depart-ment (CID) of police concluded inves-tigation 16 years after the alleged ab-duction. The court rejected the report saying it did not identify the abductors and lacked information about Kalpa-na’s whereabouts.

On January 16 this year, the court appointed Rangamati Police Super Amena Begum for reinvestigating the incident. Yesterday, Amena failed to submit the investigation report and prayed for more time.

Without specifying why it was tak-ing such a long time, Amena told the Dhaka Tribune that she needed more time to � nish investigation.

On April 24, Amena � led a petition with the court praying for giving the in-vestigation duty back to the CID and in-volving the additional superintendent of police. The court, however, did not

entertain the prayer and ordered her to proceed with her duty.

Kalpana’s brother Kalindi Kumar Chakma, who claimed to be a witness of the alleged abduction, told the Dha-ka Tribune: “It seems they [law enforc-ers] are playing a game with us. I am frustrated. All I can do now is call upon the conscious people of the country who believe in humanity to help me ensure justice for my sister, whom we lost 17 years ago.”

The slow pace of investigation has recently triggered a global campaign for ensuring justice for Kalpana and her family.

On November 13, Amnesty Interna-tional started a campaign titled “Write for Rights” on and requested solidarity letters for Kalindi. Till date, Amnes-ty received a total of 150 letters from around the world.

This year’s theme for the Human Rights Day is “20 Years Working for Your Rights.” l

Activists of Ganajagaran Mancha hold a torch procession in the city yesterday, protesting Mostafa’s killing, a prosecution witness at the trial of Sayedee DHAKA TRIBUNE

Ganajagoran Mancha sit-in until withdrawal of stay n Arif Ahmed

Ganajagaran Mancha last night de-clared to stage a sit-in programme at the Shahbagh intersection in the cap-ital until the stay on the execution of war criminal Quader Molla was with-drawn.

Though the government directed the Dhaka Central Jail authority to hang the Jamaat-e-Islami assistant sec-retary general at 12:01am today, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain last night, in an unprecedented move, halted the pro-cess till 10.30am of today, following a defence petition.

The move agitated the platform fuelled by the spirit of Liberation War.

Imran H Sarkar, spokesperson of Ganajagaran Mancha, said: “We were waiting for the execution of the death penalty. What happened in the dark of night that the hanging got blocked?”

The platform was organised, when on February 5, the International Crimes Tribunal gave life term imprisonment instead of death penalty to Molla.

The government amended the tri-bunal law later that month giving right of appeal to both the sides against the tribunal verdict.

On September 17 the Appellate Divi-sion sentenced Molla to death. The full text of the verdict was released follow-ing which, the death warrant issued on December 8. l

News4 DHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, December 11, 2013

City High LowDhaka 28.6 18.0Chittagong 28.2 20.0Rajshahi 28.5 14.5Rangpur 27.7 15.6Khulna 28.0 16.5Barisal 27.5 15.5Sylhet 29.4 16.8Cox’s Bazar 28.5 20.5

PRAYER TIMESFajar 5:10am

Sunrise 6:30amZohr 11:51am

Asr 3:36pmMagrib 5:12pm

Esha 6:32pmSource: IslamicFinder.org

WEATHER

Dry weather likelyn UNB

Light rain is likely to occur at one or two places over Chittagong, Khulna and Barisal divisions until 6pm today.

Weather might remain dry with partly cloudy sky elsewhere over the country, Met O� ce said.

Night and day temperatures may re-main nearly unchanged over the coun-try.

The sun sets in the capital at 5:13pm today and rises at 6:31am tomorrow.

Country’s highest temperature 29.8 degree Celsius was recorded at Sriman-gal and lowest 12.9 degrees at Sriman-gal yesterday.

Highest and lowest temperatures re-corded in some major cities yesterday were:

EC approves 15 candidates for participating in pollsThe polls body also to deliver verdict on another 60 appeals

n Mohammad Zakaria

The Election Commission allowed 15 candidates to participate in the 10th parliamentary polls after hearing their appeals yesterday.

It delivered verdict to 30 appeals after hearing 60 of them. Among them, the commission approved applications of 15 candidates and declared them as valid for participating in the upcoming polls.

The commission would deliver ver-dict on 60 appeals today, rest of the ap-peals would be heard on Thursday, EC o� cials said.

The EC announced Awami League nominated AKM Shahjahan Kamal as a

valid candidate for the Laxmipur-3 par-liamentary constituency. The constitu-ency had no valid candidate after the returning o� cer had scrutinised the nominations.

Kamal is the lone candidate in the constituency and would likely be elect-ed as MP uncontested as there was no other valid candidate, EC o� cials said.

The 15 approved candidates are AKM Shahjahan Kamal of Laxmipur-3, Nayed Ali of Jenaidah-1, Naznin Alam of Mymensingh-3, Amirul Islam of No-akhali-6, Shahriar iqbal of Feni-1, Absar Ali of Rangamati Hilly district, Motalib Hossain of Kurigram-4, AKM Sharif Uddin of Laxmipur-4, Mokhlesur Rah-

man of Meherpur-2, Iftekhar Ahmad Milon of Sylhet-1, Razi Mohammad Fakhrul of Comilla-4, Syeda Khurshid Jahan Haque of Gaibandha-1, Aftab Ud-din Sarkar of Nilphamari-1, Maktobur Rahman of Gaibandha-2 and Ismail Mahmud of Dhaka-8 parliamentary constituencies.

About 138 aspirant candidates had � led appeal to the Election Commis-sion against cancellation of their nomi-nation by the returning o� cer during the scrutiny.

Election Commission cancelled 260 nominations out of 1107 submitted for the 10th parliamentary election slated for January 5. l

Vandalism in medical college in Savar, 21 arrested n Mahadi Al Hasnat

At least 21 students and physicians of Ganashasthaya Samaj Vittik Medical College under Gana Bishwabidyalaya in Savar were detained yesterday as they went on rampage inside the medical college and on Dhaka-Aricha highway following the death of Dr Murad in Pat-uakhali.

O� cer-in-Charge of Ashulia police station Sheikh Badrul Alam told the Dhaka Tribune: “Some 21 students and physicians were held by the police and steps would be taken following the de-cisions of higher authorities.”

Witnesses said agitating students since Monday night had been storm-ing the entire hospital area vandalis-ing several departments and looting its pharmacy and cash counter of the hospital.

Source said the unrest arouse after the death of Md Makhlukur Rahman Mudad, a doctor of the hospital who was found dead on Sunday in Patuakhali.

The authorities claimed that agitat-ed students forced the patients to � ee the hospital and looted a pharmacy and the cash counter of the hospital.

However, the agitators denied the al-legations, claiming that they only van-

dalised some buildings as the authori-ties did not pay heed to their demands regarding the death of Dr Murad.

The agitators demand that the mys-tery of the doctor’s death be unveiled, saying that they would not go to the sub-centres of Gonoshasthaya Kendra until proper securities were ensured.

Meanwhile, they also postponed the classes and examinations and de-clared work abstention, demanding Dr Murad’s family be provided compensa-tion.

The agitators alleged that authori-ties were blaming them to mislead the situation, and claimed that police as-

saulted the agitators on Dhaka-Aricha highway while they were demonstrat-ing peacefully.

Meanwhile, female students and doctors claimed that they were threat-ened by local terrorists to withdraw the movement while policemen assaulted them, launching raids in their hostel adjacent to the hospital.

Abu Taher, administrative o� cer of Gonoshasthaya Samaj Vittik Medical College, told the Dhaka Tribune that the authorities had � led a case in this regard on Monday night, alleging that valuables worth Tk2 crore were wasted because of the attack. l

Fire critically injures three on an oil tankern Tushar Hayat , Chittagong

Three members of a crew on an oil tanker sustained severe burn injuries as a � re broke out on the vessel on Kar-naphuli river in Chittagong yesterday.

The vessel named OT King� sher-1, was laden with 8,650 tonnes of fuel of Jamuna Oil Limited, a state-owned pe-troleum marketing company.

The injured are Kamal Uddin, 32, Azmir Hossain, 35, and Mohammed Imon, 25.

They were admitted to Chittagong Medical College and Hospital and later shifted to Dhaka as their condition

deteriorated.Jashim Uddin, deputy assistant di-

rector of the Fire Service and Civil De-fence, said the � re originated from a gas cylinder leakage in the kitchen of the vessel around 9:10am.

The three sustained burn injuries as the � re rapidly engulfed the kitchen and a cabin adjacent. The three were present in the kitchen when the � re broke out, he added.

He said six of their � re-extinguish-ing units managed to douse the � re by 10:10am with the help of a vessel from the Chittagong Port and equipments of the Jamuna Oil Ltd.

However, the fuel reserved on the tanker remained intact, said Jashim.

Mrinal Kanti Das, chief at the burn unit of CMCH, said Kamal sustained 100% burn injuries while Azmir and Imon sustained 80% and 54% injuries respectively.

Three of them were in a critical state, he said.

Jahirul Islam, in-charge of a police outpost at CMCH, said the injured were shifted to Dhaka around 3pm.

Sources at the Jamuna Oil Ltd said OT King� sher-1 was was scheduled to sail for Bagabari Depot in the morning today. l

EC � nalises 37,711 polling centresn Mohammad Zakaria

The Election Commission has � nalised 37,711 polling centres and 189,053 poll-ing booths across the country for the 10th parliamentary elections slated for January 5.

The EC sent the � nal list to the Ban-gladesh Government Press for printing as a gazette yesterday, o� cials said.

The number of polling centres was increased by 2,448 from the last gen-eral elections, considering the higher number of voters this time, they said. All the previous polling centres have been included in the new list.

In the 9th parliamentary polls, held on December 29, 2008, there were 35,263 polling centres and 177,277 polling booths for about 81 million voters, whereas nearly 92 million voters are currently listed on the electoral roll. l

Teachers movement cripples JU, VC’s leave extendedn JU Correspondent

Prof Anwar Hossain, vice-chancellor of Jahangirnagar University (JU) has extended his leave for 10 more days, counting from today, JU Registrar Abu Bakr Siddique con� rmed in a press brie� ng yesterday.

Pro VC Prof M A Matin (education) would assume the duties of the acting VC till December 20, he said.

This is the fourth time the VC had extended his leave. He had been on a medical leave since November 20, sources said.

Demanding quick execution of the chancellor’s directives, the agitating teachers, students, and employees of the ongoing anti-VC movement have shut all the administrative activities of the university.

On November 6, President Abdul Hamid, also the chancellor of the uni-versity had asked the VC to hold senate polls immediately and select a VC panel through the senate in line with the JU act for resolving the ongoing crisis.

The chancellor had also asked the VC

that he withdrew the writ petitions � led against some teachers of the university.

From November 20, JU teachers con� ned two pro-VCs, Prof MA Matin (education) and Prof Afsar Ahmed (ad-ministration) and released them after 12 days of con� nement.

Members of the JU Teachers-Students and O� cers-Employees United Forum had shut the administrative o� ce bring-ing all kinds of administrative activities to a standstill, as the authorities alleg-edly had not taken any initiative to hold VC panel elections and withdraw writ petitions against the teachers.

Later, they force-con� ned Prof An-war Hossain to his residence since De-cember 2.

After three days of the con� nement, the VC left JU for Dhaka under strict police security following government decision.

Although the government has sent the VC on a leave, the forum is yet to withdraw the movement. They locked and sealed the VC’s residence on the campus from Monday that he was pro-hibited on campus, source said.

A number of former students al-leged that they could not issue their certi� cates and other necessary papers because of the stalemate.

The current students are not being able to take admission for the next se-mester.

At a press conference, United Fo-rum’s Secretary Prof Kamrul Ahsan said they were agitating to execute the chancellor’s order.

They would not withdraw the move-ment until the VC panel election was declared, he said.

The university’s admission tests for the academic year 2013-14, hangs in lim-bo. The admission test was scheduled to be held from December 17-29 but it might be rescheduled again because of lack of preparation, source said.

Earlier, VC Prof Anwar Hossain was determined to hold the admission test from December 2 but his initiative failed as a section of teachers denied to cooperate with him.

VC Prof Anwar Hossain was not available over his cell phone despite several attempts. l

Drilling at gas � elds to be delayed as blockades disrupt rig transportationn Aminur Rahman Rasel

Drillings at several sites by Bapex were faced with delays as transportation of necessary equipment was severely dis-rupted across the country because of the nationwide non-stop blockade pro-gramme enforced by BNP-led 14-party alliance.

The political unrest has also in-terrupted transporting condensates, which is likely have negative impacts at di� erent gas � elds.

“Generally it needs about 3-4 months to shift the equipment, but cur-rently we cannot do so. The process has already been deferred by a month for political unrest,” MA Baki, managing di-rector of Bapex told the Dhaka Tribune.

“Projects under Bapex will lag be-hind in implementation, resulting in gas production being delayed and in-creased project cost,” he said.

“We could not carry goods for the last one month fearing vandalism and hartal related violence,” he said.

“In this regard, digging wells will be deferred, consequently gas extractions will also be deferred, and its negative impact will be felt in the energy sector.”

He said extracted condensates could not also be transported for ree� ng to re� nery centres for the blockades. Ev-ery day about 7,000kg of condensate is being produced from 19 gas � elds as by-product.

“Daily goods for the site o� cials, employees and labourers were also

stuck, this might result in suspension of production at gas � elds,” he said.

“We were scheduled to transfer rig equipment from Begumgonj gas � eld in Noakhali to Semutang gas � eld in Chittagong. But we have failed to do so for one and a half months.”

Hossain Monsur, chairman of Petro-bangla, said supplying gas to power sector will hamper the Boro produc-tion. Fertiliser companies will also suf-fer from gas crisis if the present condi-tion prevails.

He said Petrobangla was now al-locating 700mmcfd of gas for power stations, which would be increased to 950mmcfd-1000mmcfd against the de-mand of 1100mmcfd during the irriga-tion period. l

Election Comission’s polls budget may cross Tk 500crn Mohammad Zakaria

Bangladesh Ansar headquarters has sent a letter to the Election Commission seeking Tk206 crores for maintaining law and order during general elections.

The amount sought by the internal security force is likely to exceed the commission’s Tk500 crore polls budget.

Earlier, Bangladesh Police asked for nearly Tk150 crore from the EC for law enforcement duties during the polls.

The commission has earmarked Tk175 crores for 29 sectors for conduct-ing the elections slated for January 5.

Border Guard Bangladesh, Coast Guard and Armed Force Division were yet to send in their fund requests.

A senior o� cial said the EC’s elec-

tion budget is likely to cross the limit after getting proposals from all the law enforcement agencies.

In the 9th parliament elections, the commission’s budget was Tk300 crore.

According to EC, Tk49 crore was allo-cated for police and Rab, Tk70 crore for Ansar and Battalion Ansar, Tk10 crore each for BGB and the armed forces.

EC o� cials said the budget for conducting the upcoming polls may decrease as 33 candidates are set to be elected unopposed. If Jatiya Party boycotts polls, that number may rise to over 100.

The commission would allocate funds constituency-wise, where there will be more than one candidate after withdrawal of nomination papers. l

Two women hold � ags during a human chain organised by National Garments Sramik Federation in front of the National Press Club yesterday SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

The road in front of the National Press Club gets stuck with huge tra� c congestion as Bangladesh Human Rights Council organised a human chain and mass rally yesterday, marking the International Human Rights Day SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Maj Gen Chowdhury Hasan Sarwardy addresses a programme announcing an attempt to form the biggest human � ag on the Victory Day this year. The human � ag will be organised by Robi Axiata Limited in partnership with Bangladesh Army MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

News 5DHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, December 11, 2013

HC ruling halts important city road development workUnhappy locals move Appellate Division for verdict in their favourn Abu Hayat Mahmud

Widening of one of the most import-ant and busiest streets at city’s Natun Paltan Line area in Azimpur has been stalled following a High Court ruling, which has been observed by the locals as going against public interest.

The locals expressed their discon-tent over the ruling issued against con-struction work for the expansion of an existing 10-12 feet wide and 2,200 feet long public road.

Mahbub Hossain Khan Shahdat, President of Natun Paltan Line Devel-opment Committee, told the Dhaka Tribune: “Every day several thousands of people in and around the Natun Pal-tan Line area move throw this road. At peak hours, the road takes the look of a procession or grand rally, creating un-bearable tra� c jam,” he added.

The tra� c gridlock happens regular-ly and prevails for a long time, during that time movement in the area be-come very di� cult.

Moreover, not only people from Az-impur Natun Paltan Line, but also from Kamrangir Char, Hazaribagh, Lalbagh,

Nowabganj, Keraniganj, Chawk Bazar, and New Market area have to face the consequences of this congestion.

Taking the local residents’ long-standing demand in consideration, then Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) took initiative to extend the road by eight feet to the east, back in August last year.

Locals said land for the eight feet ex-tension was supposed to be taken from existing roadside free space, swear drain and three to four feet from the western border of Azimpur Graveyard.

Advocate ABM Ra� q Ullah, a resi-dent of the area said: “The develop-ment work was going on when a High Court verdict stopped it.”

One AKM Kazi Zakir Hossain � led a writ petition (no- 14857 of 2012) with the HC last year, saying, his parents graves were in the space selected for extension, he said.

Ra� q Ullah, also a respondent of the petition, said: “In the petition Kazi Za-kir Hossain had claimed that the eight feet extension would see almost 1,000 graves demolished, which is not true.”

“As the basis of the HC ruling was Zakir’s exaggerated information, it has

gone completely against public inter-ests,” he said.

Another resident of the area, Harun-ur-Rashid claimed Zakir Hossain was a former military personnel and owned a house in the area, but lived in Elephant Road.

Authorities concerned, the DSCC and the residents of the area, informed if the extension work could have been carried out, only 30 permanent and temporary graves would actually have to be shifted.

To resolve the crisis, locals and con-cerned persons for the 30 graves sat for a meeting at the Azimpur Graveyard back in August last year. At the meet-ing, everyone but Zakir had agreed to shift the permanent graves.

Meanwhile, after hearing the peti-tion, the HC passed its verdict, refer-ring to another similar judgment and the City Corporation Ordinance 1983. The HC bench of Justice Mrs Farah Mahbub and Justice Mr Abdur Rob de-livered the verdict.

Contacted, the local MP Mostafa Ja-lal Mohiuddin told the Dhaka Tribune: “I have personally attended the court’s hearing three times, seeking permission

for the construction. But it has not given the consent yet. What can I do now?”

“However, we have � led an appeal with the Appellate Division of the SC. I hope the court will give a special permis-sion considering the interest of the locals and importance of the road,” he said.

DSCC Chief Executive O� cer Md Ansar Ali Khan echoed MP Mostafa Ja-lal. The court asked for city corporation high-ups presence at the court yesterday.

Asked about the progress of the devel-opment work, Ansar Ali said: “We were forced to stop work due to the HC order, and there have been no progress since.”

In 2006, former BNP MP Nasir Uddin Ahmed Pintu had taken a decision for constructing a link road from south to north through the Azimpur Graveyard.

Later, Advocate Manzil Murshed, president at Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh had � led a writ petition (no-6235 of 2006) against the link road.

Contacted, Advocate Murshid told the Dhaka Tribune, “I had � led the pe-tition only opposing the new link road, which would have gone through the graveyard and demolished hundreds of graves in the process.” l

Chhatra Dal enforces strikeat Chittagong Universityn CU Correspondent

Chittagong University authorities yes-terday postponed admission tests of “G” unit and “H” unite because of ex-tension of blockade until Friday 6am imposed by BNP-led 18-party alliance.

The admission tests of the units had earlier postponed for four times due to blockade and hartal enforced by the opposition.

SM Akbar Hossain, deputy regis-trar and secretary of admission test committee, said the rescheduled date would be announced later.

Institute of Marine Science and Fisheries, and Biological Science Fac-ulty’s admission tests were scheduled for December 13.

A total number of 18733 admission seekers had sent their applications to vie for 662 seats at the units, said ad-mission committee sources.

On the other hand, activists of Jati-yatabadi Chhatra Dal of the universi-ty yesterday put the campus’s Agrani Bank o� ce and university’s administra-tive building under lock and key during a strike imposed by the party.

Ra� qul Islam, in-charge of CU police outpost, said Chhatra Dal activists put the Agrani Bank’s gate and the main gate of the administrative building un-der lock and key around 7:30am.

Being informed, police went there and had broken open the gates after half an hour, he added.

Anwar Hossain, an assistant proctor of CU, said the activists tried to halt the administrative works; however, police foiled their attempts.

Chhatra Dal, the students front of the BNP, imposed strike yesterday demand-ing immediate release of its’ Central Pres-ident Abdul Kader Bhuiyan Juwel and General Secretary Habibur Rahid Habib. l

Women entrepreneurs protest political unrestn Our Correspondent, Barisal

Women entrepreneurs in Barisal formed a human chain and burnt cop-ies of their trade licenses yesterday, protesting the ongoing political crisis and blockades.

They also expressed concerns that they would not be able to pay workers’ wages, payment of bank loan instal-ments and any kind of taxes, if such po-litical unrest continued in the country.

The programme was organised by District Women Business Forum, Barisal unit in front of Ashwini Kumar Hall and was presided over by Dr Banolata Mur-shida, president of the organisation.

The speakers said it was not acceptable

that political parties would do violence to meet their demands and mass people, in-cluding businessmen and professionals, would fall victim to such violence.

They had been forced to announce agitation programmes as their busi-nesses were at the verge of collapse because of the current political crisis, the speakers claimed, adding that the government failed to ensure security of their business.

The participants of the programmes also claimed that their workers were starving and they had been incurring losses because of limited transactions and soaring interests against their loans as miscreants had burnt there business enterprises.

They urged the political parties to keep business sectors out of purview of political strikes, saying that frequent blockades, shutdowns, vandalism and arson attacks had almost broken the supply chain and � ow of transaction.

If their businesses collapsed be-cause of the political crisis, livelihood of thousands of people directly and indirectly involved in the sector would become vulnerable, they said, adding that the political parties would have to bear the responsibility.

They also warned to take to the streets along with their workers and employees if major political parties failed to reach a consensus within a short period. l

Mass robberyin 30 vehiclesin Ramun Our Correspondent, Cox’s Bazar

Robbers looted passengers’ mobile phones, cash taka and other valuables in 30 vehicles at gunpoint, and hurt at least 50 passengers on Cox’s Ba-zar-Teknaf highway at Ramu in Cox’s Bazar on Monday night.

Few passengers, who were hurt in-jured, were sent to Cox’s Bazar Sadar Hospital, he added.

Passengers claimed that robbers loot-ed money and valuables worth Tk2m.

Eye-witnesses said people of the upazila travel on light vehicles such as rickshaw, van, human haulier at night to avoid the attack of pickets during blockades and hartal.

Md Azad, a victim, who lost his money and mobile phone, said a group of 30-40 armed robbers put a barricade on street and looted indiscriminately. l

Railway counts loss of Tk35 crore in 10 monthsn Tribune Desk

Bangladesh Railway has su� ered a loss of Tk35 crore in its property and infrastruc-tural damage for subversive activities and arson attacks during political shutdowns and blockades over the last 10 months.

“According to our preliminary esti-mate, recurring attacks on railway sta-tions and bogies and removal of � sh-plates have caused a loss of Tk35 crore in the last 10 months,” said a senior of-� cial of the Railways Ministry.

The o� cial, who preferred not to be named, said the amount of the losses may go up further after the � nal assessment.

According to data provided by him, the railway sector has seen a total of 57 acts of sabotage, including arson attacks, removal of rail lines and un-screwing of � shplates, during the coun-trywide transport blockade enforced by the BNP-led 18-party alliance.

Of the total incidents, 29 took place in the East Zone of Bangladesh Railway while 28 in the West Zone.

In the latest attack, a group of sus-pected blockaders on Monday vandal-

ised the Sylhet railway station dam-aging its windows and furniture and exploded crude and petrol bombs, leaving two people injured.

Suspected blockade supporters also set � re to railway tracks in Dhaka city’s Tejgaon area on Monday morning during the third day of the 18-party’s 72-hour nationwide transport blockade programme, reports UNB.

O� cial statistic shows that a total of 169 acts of sabotage, including arson at-tacks, took place in the railway sector from February 28, 2013 to November 5, 2013.

On March 2, miscreants set � re to a number of bogies of an express train, ‘Silk City’, at Rajshahi Railway Station under the West Zone of Bangladesh Railway and removed rail tracks from Sonaimuri-Natherpetoa section under the East Zone, causing a loss of over Tk 7.1 crore in damages.

On April 2, about 30 passengers were injured as six compartments of a Chit-tagong-bound train, ‘Turnanishita’, from Dhaka derailed in Comilla after unidenti� ed people removed � shplates from the railway tracks. l

Two people killed by outlawed operatives in Pabnan Our Correspondent, Pabna

At least two people were killed in sep-arate incidents allegedly by activists of regional outlawed organisations in Pabna on Monday night.

Md Arshed Ali Sardar, 40, who hailed from Chowbaria village of At-ghoria upazila, was gunned down by party rivals around 6:15pm, locals said.

O� cer-in-Charge of Atghoria police station Md Monirul Islam said a gang of criminals on two motorbikes inter-cepted Arshed near Chak-Chowkibari Madrasa while he was returning home. They � red three shots from a close range and � ed the scene, leaving Ar-shed spot dead, the OC added.

Saying that the deceased was a fac-tional leader of outlawed party Nakshal Bahini, the OC suspected that he might have been killed either by his rivals or own party men over intra-party feud.

Police recovered the body from the spot and sent to Pabna Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsy.

On the other hand, Bakul Hossain, 32, a local trader who hailed from Paiksha village in Sathia upazila, was hacked to death by outlaws at Dhulauri

Bazar around 7pm.Locals said a gang of outlawed crimi-

nals swooped on Bakul while he was re-turning home from his shop at Dhulauri market, and stabbed him indiscriminate-ly, leaving him critically injured.

Locals rescued him and rushed him to Pabna Medical College Hospital, where on duty doctor pronounced him dead.

O� cer-in-Charge of Santhia police station Md Shahed Mahamud said Ba-kul had a long standing dispute between the outlaws of Nokshal Bahini faction in the village, adding that he might have been killed over previous enmity.

Meanwhile, Superintendent of Police Md Miraz Uddin said district police ad-ministration was going to launch mas-sive drives to nab the outlawed opera-tives soon.

When asked, the SP said there was nothing to worry as the two murders were separate incidents. l

Finance Minister AMA Muhith and Prof Jamilur Reza Chowdhury are at the award giving ceremony DHAKA TRIBUNE

A human chain was formed in front of the National Press Club in the city yesterday, demanding punishment of the killers of Dr Murad SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

Jica awards Jamilur Reza Choudhury n Tribune Report

The Japan International Cooperation Agency has honoured engineer and ed-ucator Jamilur Reza Choudhury with an award for his longstanding contri-bution to Jica-funded projects in Ban-gladesh.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith pre-sented the JICA Recognition Award to Choudhury at a function in the capital yesterday.

Takao Toda, Jica chief represen-tative in Bangladesh, acknowledged Choudhury’s contributions to the Ja-muna Multipurpose Bridge Project (now Bangabandhu Bridge), Chittagong Airport Development Project and Dha-ka Mass Rapid Transit Development Project. l

A gang of outlawed criminals swooped on Bakul while he was returning home from his shop at Dhulauri market, and stabbed him indiscriminately

Women entrepreneurs form a human chain in Barisal city yesterday with a call to stop political violence DHAKA TRIBUNE

6 NationDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, December 11, 2013

College teacher hacked to death in BograA college teacher was hacked to death by miscreants in Badurtala area of the dis-trict town on Monday night. Locals said a gang of miscreants swooped on Zia Ud-din Babu, 45, professor of Bogra Sherpur Degree College, also joint convener of Sector Commanders’ Forum Bogra unit Babu blasting � ve crude bombs in No-1 rail gate area around 9:30pm and hacked him indiscriminately, leaving him dead on the spot. On information, police recovered the body and sent it to the Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital morgue for an autopsy. Gaziur Rahman, assistant superintendent of police (media) of Bogra, said blockaders might have committed the killing. –UNB

Youth commits suicide in Magura A young man reportedly committed sui-cide at Kalanpur village under Sripur upazi-la in Magura yesterday. The deceased was

identi� ed as Miraj Shekh, 35, son of Gofur Sheikh, a resident of the village. Local peo-ple said villagers had found the body of Miraj hanging with rope from a tree in the morning. They informed police about the matter and police recovered the body. The reason behind the suicide could not be known immediately. An unnatural death case was � led in this connection. –Our Correspondent

24 crude bombs recovered in MunshiganjPolice recovered 24 crude bombs from Rajarchar village of Mollarkandi under Munshiganj sadar upazila yesterday. O� cer-in-Charge of Munshiganj sadar Thana Shahidul Islam said miscreants kept these bombs to conduct destructive activities. On information, police recovered these the bombs from a garden, behind the residence of one Akter Mondal. Police defused the bombs, the OC added. None was arrested in this connection. –BSS

NEWS IN BRIEF

Char children skips schools to earn livingn Our Correspondent, Lalmonirhat

Children of at least 90 chars on the ba-sin of Teesta and Dharla rivers in � ve upazilas in Lalmonirhat district are more prone to work and earn a living for their families rather than going to school and pursue education.

Because of abject poverty and a lack of awareness raising programmes, the parents deprive their children from go-ing to school and engage them in agri-culture and cattle rearing.

An inadequate number of schools and poor communication system adds to the situation by hampering childrens’ access to education living on the chars.

Though there are 55 government and registered primary schools in these char areas, attendance remains extremely poor in these schools round the year.

Although a few guardians send their children to schools, they drop out after a while because of poverty.

Children aged between 8 - 15 usually do not go to school but engage in work-ing on farmlands, as per direction of their parents.

Sahidul Islam, executive director of Gono Prochar Kalyan Sangstha (GPKS), a Dhaka-based NGO, said the male members of the poor families in chars usually go to capital and other districts in search of work leaving their children at home.

Meanwhile, the female guardians face untold problems over maintain-

ing the family expense, as a result, they send their children out of home to work, he said.

They are ignorant about the impor-tance of education because of lack of grooming, he added.

Mosta� zur Rahma Kazal, a primary school teacher in Milonbazar char on the Teesta river basin said: “I person-ally go door to door in the area to per-suade the parents to send their chil-dren to schools but most of them do not agree showing poverty as a cause.”

A guardian in Bowalmari char in Dharla river basin Barek Miah said he, and other guardians on the chars were not willing to send their children to schools as they knew that ultimately they would not be able to continue to bear the education expenditure of their children.

O� cials of District Primary Educa-tion o� ce in Lalmonirhat said at least 9000 children in the chars were enlist-ed in 55 primary schools this year but only 1500 to 2000 of them were regu-lar in attending classes while the rest became irregular as they got engaged agriculture.

Acknowledging the poor communi-cation system and lack of awareness campaigns in chars, District Primary Education O� cer Nabez Uddin said they had not received any order to con-duct motivational trainings in the char areas to raise awareness among the guardians on sending their children to schools. l

‘Smuggler’ shot dead by BGB in Fenin Our Correspondent, Feni

A suspected smuggler has been killed and another pedestrian injured as Border Guard Bangladesh personnel opened � re on them in Adalat Math area in Chhagal-naiya upazila of Noakhali .

The deceased was identi� ed as Mia, 52, son of Ismail Hossain of Chhagalnaiya municipality. But, the identity of the pedestrian could not be known immediately.

Local people said two BGB personnel had chased a wood-lad-en truck which was heading to-wards Chhagalnaiya Bazar from Korerhat area of Chittagong on the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway around 3pm and opened � re on them as the truck driver did not respond to signal,

leaving two ‘smugglers’ critically in-jured.

The injured were taken to Feni Sadar Hospital where Mia died soon after ad-mission.

Hearing the news of his death, lo-cal businessmen put up barricade on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway for one hour, protesting the incident.

They businessmen claimed that the two people were traders in the locality and not involved with any kind of ille-gal activities.

Captain of Feni 4 Border Guard Bang-ladesh Lieutenant Cornel Khaled Mah-mud said: “BGB men chased them be-cause the victims ignored security signal.

He also said the smugglers tried to kill the BGB members, so they were compelled to � re bullets for self-protection. l

10 injured in robbers’ attack in Gazipur n Our Correspondent, Gazipur

At least 10 people, including manger of a factory, were hurt as a group of armed robbers attacked them at Kudaba in Gazipur city yesterday.

Local people managed to catch � ve robbers and handed them over to police after giving a mob-beat.

They were Oli, 32, Litu, 30, Mukul, 30, Sha� k, 32, and Hashem, 40. Of them, critically injured Mukul and Litu were admitted to Gazipur sadar hospital.

Mobarak Hossain, in-charge of Pubile police out post under Joydebpur police station, said a group of robbers, numbering 8-10, en-tered into the factory Shakti Engineering Ltd by cutting the fence around 3am.

Soon after they entered into factory the robbers made factory people hos-tage. As the factory workers resisted the looting, the robbers beat them in-discriminately, and at least six of the workers were hurt. Having heard the hue and cry, factory manager Moni Go-pal Basu along with local people rushed to the spot and made a resistance bid. But at one stage, robbers also chopped the locals, leaving at least four persons, including the manager, Gopal, injured.

Later, the mob managed to catch � ve robbers and beat them indiscriminately with sticks. Mostak Mamun, senior ex-ecutive of the factory, � led a case with Joydebpur police station. l

Social commitment a must to combat sexual harassment n Tribune Desk

Social commitment alongside forging resistance have become indispensable to combat sexual harassment against the schoolgirls, speakers told a post-ral-ly discussion in Rajshahi city yesterday.

They said public representatives, parents, civil society members, com-munity and media people should raise voice and work together for preventing sexual harassment.

The meeting styled “Raise voice to eliminate sexual harassment against schoolgirls” held at Chhotobangram Adarsha (Ideal) Girls High School in the city.

“Meyeder Janya Nirapad Nagarikat-wa” of Brac organised the programme under its Gender Justice and Diversity project to formulate a set of recommen-

dations on how to expedite the work for combating sexual harassment against the schoolgirls, reports BSS.

During their presentations, Sec-tor Specialists of Brac Mejnin, Sayeeda Sogra, Kaosar Been Latif and Rezwana Afroz, highlighted various aspects of collaborative e� orts on the issue.

On the occasion, some documentary � lms were also screened to create aware-ness among students of the school.

Ward Councilor of Rajshahi City Cor-poration Nazma Khatun, Brac District Representative Jahidul Islam, Headmas-ter of the school Nasima Khatun and President of School Managing Commit-tee Sadrul Islam spoke on the occasion.

The discussants said unemploy-ment, intrusion of foreign culture and weak family bondage were triggering various unexpected incidents like sexu-

al harassment. “We need to establish social net-

works and alliances involving govern-ment and non-government organisa-tions, community people, civil society and media to reach this goal,” said Naz-ma Khatun.

She also said sometimes prevention and protest against sexual harassment could not take place due to political in-� uence and lack of security.

The meeting constituted a 15-mem-ber community watch-group that will work for eliminating sexual harassment against the schoolgirls at the places around the school.

Some other events like human-chain, signature collection and oath-taking were also held on the occasion to drum up suppo rt towards the cam-paign. l

Lack of preservation facilities hit Jamalpur General Hospitaln Tribune Report

Valuable equipment and medicines in Jamalpur General Hospital cannot be preserved properly in the absence of a large medical Store room.

Hospital sources said after upgrading the hospital to 250 beds, many modern medical equipment and medicine are allotted to the hospital, but for adequate medical storing facilities those cannot be preserved properly.

Civil Surgeon Dr Mohammad Ha� -zur Rahman said more modern equip-ment have been installed in the hos-pital including C-ARM x-ray machine, incubator, sucker machine and ultra sonogram machine to increase the health service.

Many others equipment and medi-cines have also been allotted but for a proper medical storeroom we cannot pre-serve those.

Many types of equipment which were allotted for the hospital could not be received due to lack of medical store-room, he added.

About 300 to 400 patients take treat-ment facilities every day, reports BSS. l

Bogra � re gutted 26 shopsn Our Correspondent, Bogra

At least 26 shops were gutted and a � re-� ghter was hurt when the � re swept through the market at Rajabazar in Bogra town on Monday night. The in-jured was Shahjahan Molla. Fire Ser-vice o� cials said the � re originated from a short circuit. Witnesses said the � re originated around 9pm and sud-denly raged through the area.

Delwar Sohel Rana, senior sta-tion o� cer of Bogra Fire Service, said they doused the � re after three hours of frantic e� orts. Md Anis Mia, presi-dent of Rajabazar Dokan Malik Samity, claimed that the damage caused by the � re could be more than 115m. l

International Anti-Corruption Day observed in Khagrachharin Our Correspondent, Khagrachhari

Khagrachhari District Corruption Pre-vention Committee has observed Inter-national Anti-Corruption Day with a call for combating corruption to ensure good governance. To observe the day, the dis-trict administration also held a discus-sion at the auditorium of district scout o� ce with Director of Khagrachhari Chamber of Commerce and Industry Su-darson Dutta in the chair. Editor of Dainik Aranya Barta Chowdhury Ataur Rahman attended the discussion as chief guest.

Speakers at the programme urged peo-ple to � ght against corruption to ensure corruption-free society as well as to es-tablish good governance in the country. l

Trader jailed for selling birds in Rajshahi n Tribune Report

A mobile court yesterday sentenced a bird trader to a 15-day imprisonment on charge of selling various species of indigenous birds.

O� cials of Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Division jointly conducted the mobile court in Rajshahi Railway Station area.

The court led by Executive Magistrate Joyshree Rani Roy arrested Sha� qul Islam Bhola, 32, son of Lokman Malder, a resident of Seroil area, red-handed while he was selling 30 birds.

Subsequently, the court found him guilty of the charge and pronounced the verdict.

Later, the o� cials released 48 indigenous birds, including six Rose Ringed Parakeets, 12 spotted doves and 30 Lonchura at Paba Nursery in the city yesterday.

Deputy Commissioner Mejbah Uddin Chowdhury, Paba UNO Razzaqul Islam, Divisional Forest O� cers Azit Kumar Rudra and Mollah Rejaul Karim, Director of Forestry Science and Training Institute Sebedar Islam and Biodiversity Conservation O� cers Ashraful Islam and Amzad Hossain were present on the occasion.

As part of their continuous drive against illegal marketing of wildlife, hunting and tra� cking, the o� cials rescued the birds after are conducting drives in di� erent areas of the region. l

The children living at Sholmari char under Kaligangj upazila could not go to school as their guardians are not aware of the necessity of education DHAKA TRIBUNE

Activists of the BNP-led 18-party alliance block Meghna-Dakatia waterway yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Traders inspect their warehouse after a � re guts at least 26 shops at Rajabazar in Bogra town on Monday night DHAKA TRIBUNE

Chhatra Dal president on remand n Tribune Report

A Dhaka Court yesterday granted six days police remand against arrested Chhatra Dal central President Abdul Kader Jewel and Dhaka North Senior Vice-President Sharif Uddin Jwell in connection with two cases, where they are accused of attempting to kill law en-forcers, provoking violence and torching and vandalising vehicles.

Motijhel police produced the duo be-fore the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court seeking twenty days remand in the two cases. Investigation o� cers of the cases mentioned in their remand prayers that police need to quiz the duo to � nd out the motive of the vandalism and oth-er allegations. Defence Counsel Md San-aullah Miah � led a bail petition with re-mand rejection prayer, saying that police had arrested them to harass and suppress the opposition’s legal movement.

Following the hearing, Metropolitan Magistrate Md Asaduzzaman Noor grant-ed six days remand against the duo. l

7DHAKA TRIBUNE Long Form Wednesday, December 11, 2013

n Ruhul Kader

In about 510 BC Persia was a great kingdom having control over half of the world from Asia Minor to Indus to Egypt. At that time a king named Darius was

at the helm of the Persian Empire. At about same time, on the other part of the world, Greece was consisted of a number of city-states running inde-pendently.

Darius’ desire to conquer Greece resulted in beautiful descriptions of famous battles between the Greek and Darius and his ancestors, which can be found in the account of Greek histori-an Herodotus.

In late 490 BC Darius attacked Greece. The battle was called the battle of Marathon. The � ght was intense and di� cult. Soldiers of both sides died in enormous numbers. At the end Darius lost the battle and came back to Persia with his tattered army. But the desire to bring Greece under the rule of Persia became a permanent aspiration for Persian emperors.

In about 410 BC another great king of Persia named Xerxes, the successor of Darius, once again decided to in-

vade Greece. Xerxes prepared his army and � tted out a plan to move on. Once Xerxes decided to rally his army to-wards Greece his counselor Artabanus came in to intervene.

Artabanus was also Xerxes’ uncle. He was a wise man. He proposed that there was danger for the Persian army in pursuing the conquest of Greece. He tried to convince his nephew not to go into war against Greece. But Xerxes was a great man and himself a man of wisdom. He replied with a wonderful assertion that remains the source of inspiration till today:

“There is reason in what you say, but you ought not to see danger everywhere or to reckon every risk.

If whatever comes up you are going to weigh everything alike, you will never do anything. It is better to be always an optimistic and su� er half the amount of evil, than always to be full of gloomy anticipations and never su� er anything at all. If you attack every proposal made without showing us the right course to follow, you will come to grief as much as those whom you oppose. The scales are evenly bal-anced. How can a human being know certainly which way they will incline? He cannot. But success generally attends those who wish to act; and it does not attend those who are timid and balance everything. You see the great power which Persia has attained. If my predecessors on the throne had held your views, or without holding them had had counsellors like you, you would never have seen our king-dom become so great. It is by taking risk they made us what we are. Great things are achieved through great dangers (Greek historian Herodotus as cited in Glimpses of world history by Jawaharlal Nehru).”

Xerxes took his great army to conquer Greece. Although he lost the battle, which is a di� erent story, the most important lesson that jumped out from this conversation between an ancient king and his counsellor is that we must take risks and make mistakes for the sake of achieving great things in life.

Carol S Dweck is a Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. She was born on October 17, 1946. She graduated from Barnard College in 1967 and earned a PhD from Yale Uni-

versity in 1972. She taught at Columbia University, Harvard University, and the University of Illinois before joining the Stanford faculty in 2004.

Dweck wondered how some people become successful at everything they do, while others seem destined to a life of constant failure. She was obsessed with failure and determined to com-prehend why.

In 1978 Dweck started a study (Mindset: The New Psychology of Suc-cess [2007]) in collaboration with Carol Diener. She gave kids various puzzles and recorded how they approached the problem, and what they said and did as they tried to solve them.

Dweck’s study shows that kids who solve tougher puzzle are the kids who often take risks and make mistakes and who not only endure failure but love failure.

Given with a really tough puzzle to solve, one success oriented kid just accepts the challenge and says I love challenge and goes ahead to solve it without bothering about what will happen if it goes wrong.

Although sometimes these kids make mistakes, these are the same kids who learn fast and also solve problems correctly over those who sel-dom take the risk to go wrong and fail.

Experiments suggest that taking risks and making mistakes are two important ingredients of character that can lead us to success and develop-ment.

However, these are not the very common scene we often see outside. In schools, where we ought to teach our kids about values, work ethic, character and culture, the system is often rigid than not. It seems that the system has gone astray. Instead of focusing on building capable genera-tions the system is more interested in ful� lling the quota of literacy rate.

In schools, as I am essentially a product of this system, we extremely discourage taking risks and making mistakes. Making mistakes is often seen as a punishable action in our system even after knowing that “to err is human;” that unless we make mistakes we learn very little; unless we don’t take risks and stand still at the face of great danger we seldom achieve great things.

The particular act of discouraging mistakes has a far-reaching impact in the later life of these kids, making them ine� ciently and ine� ectively comply with the system and society where situation demands otherwise.

To tackle critical problems we need creativity and courage. But the fear of making mistakes that haunts us from schools and onward keeps our genius under control. We feel afraid at the face of problems. Instead of taking responsibility we pass o� the respon-sibility.

It’s apparent that we need to � x this

problem and get moving. As we can understand – to make mistake is to learn. We need to lay out a very well-thought plan to capitalise this very method of providing education and inspiring action.

We should ask how we can create an environment that inspires taking risk and making mistake with a built-in aspiration for learning and taking initiative in later life. To understand the process we can borrow from the experiment of Angela Lee Duckworth, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Duckworth claimed that “intelli-gence is really important, but it’s still not as important as self-control.” After � nding this out Duckworth goes on to devise a plan to teach self-control among children in schools and educa-tional institutions.

Few years back Duckworth and Walter Michal – the famous Stanford professor who introduced marsh-mallow experiment to test instant grati� cation and self control – went on to teach self-control in schools run by KIPP, an organisation of 66 public charter schools across the USA. But the problem is that measuring math skill is a simple procedure but how do you measure the skill of self control, or ability to take risk.

Duckworth and Michal ran pilot studies to understand the way to deliv-er complex psychological messages to students. And after running a course of experiments, both are happy that it works.

In our case teaching or letting students make mistakes and taking risk doesn’t associate much di� culties like the experiments of self-control. What we need is an open mind and system that inspire taking educated risks and mak-ing constructive mistakes in order to learn and discover and solve problems.

The orientation of the system should be more of a doing-and-learn-ing genre; making mistakes and taking risks as an attempt to learn and achieve should not be degraded. While students make mistakes they should not be punished. Instead they should be graded in comparison to purpose.

The consequences of this approach will be brilliant. Students will take more initiative and try to solve prob-

lems on their own. In later life these people will never be afraid to take on a bigger risk and achieve greater good.

In life the best way to learn any-thing is by doing it. We need to keep the windows open so that we don’t miss life’s opportunities to live it to the fullest.

A saying goes: “Not taking risk is the greatest risks of all, and not taking risk worth taking is a total loss.” Unfortunately, we seldom know which risk is worth taking and which is not. We just need to work on it. As Xerxes said: “Success generally attends those who wish to act; and it does not attend those who are timid and balance everything.” l

Ruhul Kader founded www.futurestartup.com to promote entrepreneurship and support entrepreneurs in Bangladesh. Future StartUp started the country’s � rst entrepreneurial talk community FS Talk. he is now working to build Good & Green (www.gng.com.bd), Bangladesh’s eco-ethical brand for the world, at New Vision Bangladesh Ltd. He can be reached at romel122@gmail.com.

Why we should take risks and make mistakes

BIG

STO

CK

BIG

STO

CK

We should ask how we can create an environment that inspires taking risk and making mistake with a built-in aspiration for learning and taking initiative in later life

‘Not taking risk is the greatest risks of all, and not taking risk worth taking is a total loss.’ Unfortunately, we seldom know which risk is worth taking and which is not

Wednesday, December 11, 2013DHAKA TRIBUNE InternationalDHAKA TRIBUNE8

US to transport African troops to CARn AP, Doha

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered the US military to transport troops from Burundi into the  Cen-tral  African  Republic  to help quell the latest upsurge in violence there.

Hagel approved the order after speaking with French Minister of De-fense Jean-Yves Le Drian Monday night from Afghanistan where he was vis-

iting troops. Le Drian asked the US to help get African troops quickly into the country to prevent the violence there from spreading, said Pentagon spokes-man Carl Woog.

There are more than 1,000 French troops in the  Central  African  Repub-lic, where more than 400 people were killed in two days of violence last week between Christians and Muslims. Christian armed � ghters oppose the

Muslim ex-rebels now in charge of the former French colony.

Woog said Hagel directed the US Africa Command to begin transport-ing forces in coordination with France because the US believes immediate ac-tion is needed to avert a humanitarian catastrophe. And he said the Pentagon will be evaluating what other US re-sources might be available if additional requests for assistance come in. l

Two French soldiers killed in CAR combatn AP, Paris

Two French soldiers were killed in combat in  Central  African  Repub-lic’s  capital, President Francois Hol-lande’s o� ce announced Tuesday, the � rst French casualties since he ordered a stepped-up military presence in the restive former colony to help quell in-ter-religious violence.

The presidential Elysee Palace, in a statement, provided no details about the killings in Bangui late Monday oth-er than that they died during France’s mission to restore security, protect ci-vilians, and ensure access for human-itarian groups in the impoverished country.

French o� cials have warned of the dangers of the enhanced military mis-sion alongside  African  Union troops, authorized under a muscular man-date approved last week by the Unit-ed Nations Security Council. France’s defense minister has warned mili-tia groups to disarm peacefully — or French troops will do it by force.

The announcement of the deaths came shortly after the presidential pal-ace said Hollande would travel to Cen-tral African Republic on Tuesday after attending a memorial in South Africa to Nelson Mandela.

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves

Le Drian said French forces were con-ducting patrols by foot and vehicle through the dusty streets of Bangui. At one point, they intervened to pull away a Muslim man, who claimed to be a merchant, from a mob that accused him of being a rebel leader.

Muslim rebels known as Seleka over-threw the government of this majority Christian nation nine months ago.

Bouts of violence in  Central  Afri-can Republic took an especially bloody turn last week with more than 400 deaths in two days of violence between Christians and Muslims. World leaders including US President Barack Obama have called for calm.

French President to visit CARFrench President Francois Hollande will visit the Central African Republic on Tuesday, according to a statement issued by his o� ce, after boosting French troops in order restore stability in the country.

Hollande will visit the country on his way back from South Africa, where he was due to attend a ceremony to honor Nelson Mandela.

Paris raised its military presence in the Central African Republic to 1,600 troops during the weekend as waves of religious violence swept over its former colony. l

French troops patrol past two Seleka, the alliance of mostly Muslim rebel groups, vehicles set on � re by Christian mobs in Bangui AP

Somalia jails rape victim, journalists n Agencies

A Somali court has sentenced to jail a woman who said she was raped and two journalists who reported her story.

The court passed the verdict on Monday in the capital Mogadishu, say-ing the journalists were guilty of defa-mation and insulting state institutions.

The 19-year old woman, who is also a journalist, was handed a suspended six-month jail sentence for defamation and lying, during which time she will be con� ned to her home, said Judge Hashi Elmi Nur. The journalists are to serve out their sentences, of one year and six months respectively, or pay a � ne in order to win early release. It is the sec-ond time this year Somalia has jailed a woman for speaking out about rape and journalists for interviewing her.

“The manager of Radio Shabelle, Abdilmalik Yusuf, was found guilty of o� ending state institutions, and there-fore will serve a prison term of one year,” the judge told the court.

“Journalist Mohamed Bashir was found guilty of defamation and making false rape accusations, so he is given a six-month jail term.”

The alleged victim last month told the independent Radio Shabelle she was attacked and raped at gunpoint by two fellow journalists. But it was the journal-ists who listened to her story who were jailed. Last month the United Nations in Somalia called for a “proper investi-gation” into the case, while the United States said it was “deeply concerned”.

Neither of the men accused of the rape were arrested. l

Six facts about Mandela that make him an unlikely icon in the West

Mandela was a political activist and agitator. He did not shy away from controversy and he did not seek universal approval. As the world remembers Mandela, here are some of the things he believed that many will gloss over.

Mandela blasted the Iraq War and American imperialismMandela called Bush “a president who has no foresight, who cannot think properly,” and accused him of “wanting to plunge the world into a holocaust” by going to war in Iraq. “All that (Mr. Bush) wants is Iraqi oil,” he said. He saw the Iraq War as a greater problem of American imperialism around the world. “If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America. They don’t care,” he said.

Mandela called freedom from poverty

a “fundamental human right” Mandela considered poverty one of the greatest evils in the world, and spoke out against inequality everywhere. “Massive poverty and obscene inequality are such terrible scourges of our times — times in which the world boasts breathtaking advances in science, technology, industry and wealth accumulation — that they have to rank alongside slavery and apartheid as social evils,” he said.

Mandela criticised the “War on Terror” and the labeling of individuals as terrorists without due processOn the US terrorist watch list until 2008 himself, Mandela was an outspoken critic of President George W. Bush’s war on terror. He warned against rushing to label terrorists without due process. While forcefully calling for Osama bin Laden to be brought to justice, Mandela remarked, “The

labeling of Osama bin Laden as the terrorist responsible for those acts before he had been tried and convicted could also be seen as undermining some of the basic tenets of the rule of law.”

Mandela called out racism in AmericaOn a trip to New York City in 1990, Mandela made a point of visiting Harlem and praising African Americans’ struggles against “the injustices of racist discrimination and economic equality.” He reminded a larger crowd at Yankee Stadium that racism was not exclusively a South African phenome-non. “

Mandela embraced some of America’s biggest political enemies Mandela incited shock and anger in many American communities for refusing to denounce Cuban dictator Fidel Castro or Libyan Colonel Muammar Gadda� , who had lent their support to Mandela against South African apartheid. “One of the mistakes the Western world makes is to think that their enemies should be our enemies,” he explained to an American TV audience. “We have our own struggle.” He added that those leaders “are placing resources at our disposal to win the struggle.” He also called the controversial Palestinian Liberation Or-ganization leader Yasser Arafat “a comrade in arms.”

Mandela was a die-hard supporter of labor unionsMandela visited the Detroit auto workers union when touring the US, immediately claiming kinship with them. “Sisters and brothers, friends and comrades, the man who is speaking is not a stranger here,” he said. “The man who is speaking is a member of the UAW. I am your � esh and blood. l

Jordanian cleric deported from UKn Agencies

Islamist cleric Abu Qatada, deported by Britain in July after a near decade-long legal battle, pleaded not guilty as his trial in Jordan on terrorism charges opened.

“You know full well I am not guilty and that this accusation is false,” Abu Qatada, in prison overalls, told the judge of the state security court in Am-man on Tuesday.

The judge adjourned the case un-til December 24 after a brief hearing which was open to the media but with cameras banned.

After his deportation, Jordanian military prosecutors charged Abu Qa-tada with conspiracy to carry out ter-rorist acts. If convicted he could face a minimum of 15 years’ hard labour.

Britain’s expulsion of Abu Qatada came after Amman and London rati� ed a treaty guaranteeing that evidence ob-tained by torture would not be used in his retrial and that the proceedings would be transparent. l

Israeli leaders to miss Mandela funeraln Reuters

Israel’s top leaders will be conspicu-ous  by their absence at Nelson Man-dela’s funeral, skipping a ceremony for the anti-apartheid hero world leaders are mourning and whom Palestinians have always viewed as their comrade in the struggle for freedom.

Neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor President Shimon Peres will attend the event in Johannesburg’s Soccer City stadium on Tuesday, o� -cials said on Monday, citing costs and health reasons.

Peres, 90, had been advised by his doctors not to make the trip, according to aides.

“The president is recovering from � u and doctors advised him not to � y,” a spokesman for Peres said.

Israel was an ally of South Africa’s former apartheid rulers whose racial segregation Mandela fought and resist-

ed, getting jailed for 27 years on Robben Island after being convicted of treason for his campaign.

Palestinians, who hail South Afri-ca’s � rst black leader as an inspiration in a con� ict with what they call Israe-li “apartheid”, will be represented by President Mahmoud Abbas - one of about 70 world leaders South Africa ex-pects to pay their respects.

Speaker or minister Netanyahu hailed Mandela as “a freedom � ghter who rejected violence”, although the African National Congress’s struggle against apartheid initially proved vio-lent, leading Mandela to being labelled a “terrorist” by the US, Israel’s major Middle East ally.

Mandela was only removed from the US terror list in 2008.

A foreign ministry o� cial said the speaker of parliament or a cabinet minister could represent Israel at the funeral. l

Boos, jeers humiliate South Africa’s Zuma at Mandela memorialn Reuters

South African President  Jacob Zuma  was booed and jeered at a me-morial to anti-apartheid legend  Nel-son Mandela on Tuesday, a major pub-lic humiliation in front of other world leaders six months before national elections.

The hostile reaction from the thousands-strong unruly crowd erupted as Zuma prepared to address the high-pro� le ceremony in  Johannesburg’s Soccer City stadium bringing together leaders from around 90 countries.

Zuma, who has ruled Africa’s biggest economy since 2009, had been hoping to get a boost from the wave of national emotion triggered by  Mandela’s death on Thursday, aged 95.

His  African National Congress (ANC) government has been facing vi-olent labour unrest and protests over persisting poverty, crime and unem-ployment. But the ANC is still expected to comfortably win the elections to be held in April or May.

Zuma was booed when he � rst en-tered the crowded stadium, and again when he prepared to speak. In contrast, US President  Barack Obama  received

a roaring ovation, and  Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and UN chief  Ban Ki-moon were also cheered.

Some in the crowd accompanied the boos for Zuma with thumbs-down ges-tures and rotating hand movements, the sign for a substitution in a soccer match.

“Mandela  had a vision,  Mandela  lived that vision. But what Zuma speaks, he doesn’t live,” said  Funeka Gingcara-Sithole, 31, re� ecting the mood of the Zuma critics in the stadium.

“He should do the honourable thing and resign,” she said. l

US calls for release of Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo n AP, Beijing

Five years after his detention, the Unit-ed States is calling for the release of Chinese Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo and an end to his wife’s unde-clared house arrest.

Washington remains deeply concerned about the couple’s treatment, along with that of other jailed government critics, Secretary of State John Kerry said.

“We strongly urge Chinese authori-ties to release Liu Xiaobo, to end (wife) Liu Xia’s house arrest, and to guarantee to Liu Xiaobo and his family members all internationally recognized human rights protections and freedoms,” Ker-ry said in a statement issued Monday in Washington.

“As the United States builds a con-structive relationship with  China, U.S. leaders will continue to raise concerns related to respect for the rule of law, human rights, religious freedom, and democratic principles with their Chi-nese counterparts,” Kerry said. l

South Africans brave the rain as they listen to US President Barack Obama speak during a memorial service for Nelson Mandela at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg REUTERS

Canada to claim North Pole!n AFP

Canada signalled intentions to claim the North Pole and surrounding Arctic waters while announcing the � ling of a UN application seeking to vastly ex-pand its Atlantic sea boundary.

After a decade of surveying the country’s eastern and far north seabeds and gathering supporting evidence, a claim was submitted to the Commis-sion on the Limits of the Continental Shelf on Friday.

Foreign A� airs Minister John Baird said the � ling mainly concerns the out-er limits of Canada’s continental shelf in the Atlantic Ocean.

But it also includes “preliminary in-formation concerning the outer limits of (Canada’s) continental shelf in the Arctic Ocean,” he said.

“We have asked our o� cials and scientists to do additional work and necessary work to ensure that a sub-mission for the full extent of the conti-nental shelf in the Arctic includes Can-ada’s claim to the North Pole,” he told a press conference.

“Fundamentally, we are drawing the last lines of Canada. We are defending our sovereignty,” added Arctic Minister Leona Aglukkaq.

Asserting sovereignty over an ex-pansive Arctic archipelago and sur-rounding waters has been a key plank of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Tories in the past three elec-tions since 2006.

But Russia and Denmark are expect-ed to � le overlapping claims, which could lead to confrontation between the Arctic neighbors.

Interest in the polar region has � ared up as rising temperatures open up shipping routes and make hitherto inaccessible mineral resources easier to exploit.

The North Pole seabed itself is not believed to hold large reserves but has symbolic value for the countries in the region, which also includes Norway and the United States.

Natural Resources Minister Joe Ol-iver said enlarging Canada’s Arctic boundary is important for “Canada’s long-term economic prosperity.” l

9Wednesday, December 11, 2013DHAKA TRIBUNE InternationalDisarray in India’s ruling party after poll drubbingn Reuters, New Delhi

Disarray within India’s ruling Congress party burst into the open on Tuesday after its stunning defeat in state elec-tions, with a senior � gure saying the party would lose a general election and needed time in opposition to reinvent itself.

Mani Shankar Aiyar - a veteran of the party who is close to the Nehru-Gandhi family that has run the Congress for de-cades - predicted defeat in the national election due by next May.

“Who can be even half-way realistic and expect the Congress to return to power?” Aiyar told Reuters.

In a further signal of uneasiness about Congress’ chances in the general election, the leader of a key party in the coalition government said on Monday the state polls amounted to a rejection of “weak rulers”.

“People do not want weak rulers,” National Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar said, according to domestic me-dia reports. “They want decisive and result-oriented leaders who will for-mulate policies for (the) poor and im-plement them.”

Manmohan Singh, the taciturn 81-year-old prime minister, has been widely criticised for the government’s policy drift and a sharp economic slow-down, and for allowing corruption to spin out of control since he was ap-pointed to a second term in 2009.

Adding to the Congress party’s trou-bles, half a dozen of its own lawmakers called for a parliamentary motion of

no-con� dence over a decision to split the southern state of Andhra Pradesh into two.

If at least 50 members of the lower house back their demand, the stage would be set for a trial of strength in which Congress would need the sup-port of several parties to survive.

Aiyar’s remarks follow a disastrous showing for the Congress party in elec-tions held over the last month in three big states and the capital, Delhi.

“A break from governance would be a welcome break that could be used to re� t the party as the nation’s natural party of governance in the 21st centu-ry,” the upper house lawmaker wrote in a column for the Indian Express news-paper.

“The current and prospective elec-toral reverses for the Congress are thus Rahul’s golden opportunity,” he said, referring to the young scion of the Neh-ru-Gandhi dynasty and potential can-didate for prime minister.

Aiyar’s opinion was personal and not the party’s view, said Congress spokesman Bhakta Charan Das, but agreed there was a need to analyse what went wrong.

“The party will de� nitely introspect and we must come out with a very good approach to revitalise ourselves.”

The centre-left Congress party’s main opponent, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was the clear winner in three states that held assembly elections and left its rival standing in the capital. l

China concerned about N Korea politicsn AP, Beijing

China, North Korea’s most important ally, said Tuesday it wants friendly relations and hopes for stability in its neighbour following the purging of a top o� cial considered close to Beijing.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Jang Song Thaek’s ouster was an internal a� air, but his comments point to Beijing’s concerns that the North’s opaque politics may have en-tered a more unpredictable stage.

“We hope North Korea can maintain national stability, the people’s well-be-ing and economic growth.  China  will remain committed to developing the friendly relationship between  Chi-na  and North Korea,” Hong said at a

regularly scheduled brie� ng.Jang’s dismissal deprives Beijing

of its most important connection to the North Korean leadership, further diminishing  China’s  thin in� uence with its isolated, hard-line Communist neighbour.

In 2012, Jang led a large delegation to China to discuss construction of spe-cial economic zones.

China  is North Korea’s only signi� -cant ally and a key source of trade and aid. Despite such apparent in� uence, Beijing has been unsuccessful in coax-ing North Korea back to six-nation nu-clear disarmament talks, while its need for stability along its northeastern bor-der keeps it from getting overly tough on its neighbour. l

A case of exploding urbanisation!n AP, United Nations

The number of city dwellers is at an all-time high of about 3.5 billion and will nearly dou-ble in the next 30 to 40 years, with almost all the growth in developing countries, the head of the UN agency focusing on cities said Monday.

Joan Clos said even though the rate of population growth is decreasing,

The UN projects that in the next 30 years the global population will increase from 7 billion to 9 billion — and the urban population will grow between 2.5 billion and 3 billion people.

“In all human history we have reached 3.5 billion of urban settlers and in the next 30 years we are going to have 3 billion more,” Clos said. “Imagine the changing rate — what we have done in all human history, we nearly will do in the next 30 to 40 years of history.”

With 96 percent of the growth of cities expected in poorer developing countries, he said, there are going to be huge de-mands on land, resources and services for urban residents.

Clos, a former mayor of Barcelona who is now executive director of the UN Human Settlements Program known as UN-Habi-tat, spoke at a news conference promoting the agency’s upcoming World Urban Forum from April 5-11 in Medellin, Colombia, which will focus on growing inequalities in urbani-sation worldwide.

He said 10,000 participants are expect-ed including ministers, mayors, academ-ics and representatives from business, non-governmental organisations and local authorities.

Currently, Clos said, the world is expe-riencing “the highest rate of urbanisation in human history,” and national and local

governments don’t have the capacity to address key issues including organisation, governance, � nance and the provision of services.

In recent decades, he said, inequalities in urban areas have led to protests and unrest as cities have faced di� culties inte-grating a big in� ux of migrants.

“This is why we are very worried, be-cause the number of people living in slums is increasing,” Clos said.

UN-Habitat said it estimates that between 2000 and 2010 a total of 227 million people in the developing world experienced improvements in their living conditions, with China and India alone accounting for 166 million, or 55.5 percent of the global e� ort. This met a UN anti-pov-

erty goal before the 2015 target date, Clos said.

At the same time, however, UN-Habitat said the world’s slum population rose from 650 million in 1990 to 767 million in 2000, and to 828 million in 2010 and an estimat-ed 863 million in 2012.

Clos said the cities of the world will have to handle millions of new arrivals “because they cannot hide — they cannot go away.”

The challenge is whether the growth of cities can be done “in a planned and designed manner, in order to provide some basic services at a� ordable costs for the citizen,” he said.

Otherwise, they will grow spontaneous-ly without any planning and the number of slum dwellers will keep rising, Clos said. l

Pakistan to go ahead with Iran gas pipelinen AP, Islamabad

Pakistan will push forward with a con-troversial pipeline to import natural gas from neighbouring Iran, Pakistan said Tuesday, a project opposed by the United States.

The pipeline will link Iran’s gas � elds with energy-starved Pakistan, but by going ahead with the project, Pakistan may incur US and interna-tional sanctions imposed on Iran — or anyone doing business with Iran — over that country’s nuclear program.

The US has opposed the project and instead supported an alternative pro-posal to build a pipeline from the gas � elds of Turkmenistan to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Af-fairs said in a statement Tuesday that petroleum ministers of the two coun-tries met in Tehran on Monday to dis-cuss the project, which has been beset by repeated delays.

The two countries decided to fast track the pipeline and formulate a road map to work out challenges, the minis-

try said. However, no details were giv-en on how Pakistan plans to overcome the numerous problems associated with the project, such as funding and the risk of sanctions.

The ministry said experts from both sides would meet soon to accelerate work on the pipeline.

Pakistani o� cials in the Tehran meeting also reiterated their govern-ment’s commitment to ful� ll its con-tractual obligation to the pipeline and stressed that the project is of “immense importance” to meeting Pakistan’s en-ergy needs.

Islamabad hopes the pipeline will help alleviate the country’s energy cri-sis, especially electricity shortages. Gas is used to � re many of the nation’s pow-er plants, but insu� cient quantities mean rolling blackouts are common.

The agreement with Iran stipulates that Pakistan must construct its side of the pipeline by December 2014 but the project has met repeated delays. If Pa-kistan fails to meet this deadline, it will be liable to pay � nes that could run into the millions of dollars per day. l

Activists seek justice in Indian Kashmirn AP, Srinagar

Activists, families staged sit-in protests in Indian-held Kashmir on Tuesday to demand justice for torture and rape victims as well as answers about how 8,000 people allegedly disappeared in the con� ict-ridden Himalayan territory.

For years, rights groups have ac-cused Indian forces of using systematic abuse and unjusti� ed arrests to intimi-date Kashmir residents, many of whom oppose  India’s  rule over the territory disputed with Pakistan.

The regional government says the al-legations are mostly separatist propagan-da meant to demonize troops. It has ac-knowledged that 2,305 people have gone missing in the past 20 years, but says most had crossed into neighbouring Pa-kistan for weapons training. In a Srinagar park, more than 100 people sat for hours Tuesday with placards reading “Jus-tice denied” and “Supreme Court: Does 8,000 disappearances concern you?”

Another four dozen or so people gathered in another Srinagar park with photos of family members who they say have vanished at the hands of Indi-an troops since 1989. l

Rare Singapore riot forces soul searching over foreign workersn Reuters, Singapore

Singapore’s � rst major riot in four de-cades is forcing the wealthy island to confront a stubborn but vexing ques-tion: how to treat low-paid foreign workers whose muscle underpins much of the economy but whose pres-ence increasingly riles its citizens.

Images of rioters overturning po-lice cars, throwing garbage bins and burning an ambulance in Singapore’s Little India on Sunday night shocked the orderly Southeast Asian nation and stirred debate over whether foreign workers should be better integrated or see their numbers reduced.

“This is just a tip of the iceberg,” said Gayathiri, 30, an engineer who lives near the scene of the riots and goes by one name. “I hope the government will take it as a wake-up call. We need for-eigners to boost our economy, but not at the expense of our security,” she add-ed, echoing a widely held sentiment.

Police charged 24 Indian nationals with rioting, which carries a maximum penalty of seven years’ prison and caning. They were among an estimat-ed 400 people who rampaged after a private bus fatally struck construction worker Sakthivel Kumaravelu, 33. The number of arrests could rise.

The government has urged people not to jump to conclusions but many Singaporeans blame an overabundance of migrant workers and could use the riots to intensify a push for tighter im-migration curbs - a step that could hurt the economy. l

Tearful Thai PM urges protesters to take part in electionn Reuters, Bangkok

Her eyes welling with tears, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra plead-ed on Tuesday for anti-government protesters to clear the streets after she called a snap election, but protests leaders said she should step down within 24 hours.

After weeks of sometimes violent street rallies, protesters dismissed her call on Monday for a general election and said she should be replaced by an unelected “people’s council”, which has stoked concern that Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy may abandon the democratic process.

Yingluck insisted on Tuesday she would not step down and said she would continue her duties as caretak-er prime minister until the election, which is set for Feb. 2.

“Now that the government has dis-solved parliament, I ask that you stop protesting and that all sides work to-wards elections,” Yingluck told report-ers as she went into a cabinet meeting held at an army club. “I have backed down to the point where I don’t know how to back down any further.”

Tears brie� y formed in her eyes as she spoke, before she quickly com-posed herself - perhaps a glimpse of the emotional toll of weeks of protests.

The protesters, a motley collection aligned with Bangkok’s royalist elite, want to oust Yingluck and eradicate the in� uence of her brother, former

premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled by the military in 2006 and has chosen to live in exile rather than serve a jail term for abuse of power.

Thaksin was convicted in absentia of graft in 2008 but he dismissed the charges as politically motivated. He is widely seen as the power behind Yin-gluck’s government, sometimes hold-ing meetings with the cabinet by web-cam.

Yingluck, a 46-year-old former busi-nesswoman, had no political experi-ence before entering a 2011 election she won by a landslide thanks to votes from the countryside, where Thaksin built up a devoted following with pol-icies to help the poor.

In a speech to supporters late on Monday, protest leader Suthep Thaug-suban gave Yingluck 24 hours to step down.

“We want the government to step aside and create a power vacuum in order to create a people’s council,” said Akanat Promphan, a spokesman for the protest group. Suthep has said this council would be made up of appointed “good people”.

By mid-afternoon on Tuesday, only 6,000 protesters were in the historic part of Bangkok around Government House where Yingluck’s o� ce is lo-cated, police said, a far cry from the 160,000 that converged peacefully on the complex on Monday.

Tuesday was a public holiday in Thailand and Yingluck attended a cere-mony to mark Constitution Day in par-liament but only about 1,500 protesters turned up there, police said.

Yingluck’s Puea Thai Party enjoys widespread support in the populous north and northeast, Thailand’s poor-est regions. The party said she would again be its candidate for prime min-ister.

In contrast, the protesters are drawn from Bangkok’s royalist upper and middle classes, including civil servants and prominent business families, along with people from the south where the opposition Democrat Party has long held sway.

“What we’re seeing is a true power tussle with both sides, the government and the protesters, trying to pull the country’s two most powerful institutions - the monarchy and the military - on their side,” said political analyst Kan Yuenyong at the Siam Intelligence Unit.

“The best scenario would be if the protesters and the opposition accept the election and take part, but anything could happen between now and then including intervention from indepen-dent organisations, the judiciary or the military.”

The politically powerful army, which has staged or attempted 18 coups in the past 80 years, has said it does not want to get involved, although it has tried to mediate. l

A relative of a disappeared youth sits near a banner showing sketches of disappeared people during a protest in Srinagar AP

A man reads a newspaper reporting North Korea con� rmed downfall of Jang Song Thaek, uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un AP

Crocodile tears are not enoughDecember 4

nds Absolutely correct. Her statement is nothing but an embodiment of absolute hypocrisy which is evidenced by 9 deaths caused by her party workers just on the day following the date of statement. As a matter of fact hypocrisy, falsehood, pretensions, and chicanery have become the major tools to run the politics and state machinery being freely used by the leaders belonging to whatever party it may be.

WaliulHaqueKhondkerMadame, may I have the honour to request you to please visit the Burn Unit of DMCH and see for yourself, what “blockade” means to an average citizen?

A made-up arson story that almost workedDecember 4

Saadman Salahuddin The nation has gone morally corrupt!

Rose-Ruzana Samdani Cooking up stories like this is no less a crime than setting fire on people inside running buses. These people are making fun of actual arson victims!

Meherun Faruque Hmm. The BD police are so smart that they can find this story so quickly. Then why on earth can’t they find the picketers?

Zyma Islam We live in a country where people must lie to get emergency treatment when they’re dying. To everyone who thinks of booing down the girl, try being six months pregnant and close to death without having a tuppence in your pocket. She was barely hanging on to consciousness.

Get pissed at the government for not being able to manage mandatory health insurance for everyone. Remember Obamacare anyone?

Nadir Nibras Zyma Islam: I get your point at first, but you have to be joking if you are thinking about jumping to nationalised health insurance for 150 million people in a country where even a big portion of the rich don’t have health insurance. LOL.

Muntasir N Chowdhury Zyma Islam: I would love to hear your side of things!

Nadir Nibras You can’t blame them too much. Garments workers make far below the living wage in Bangladesh and they were just trying to save their child.

Rahul Malik Zyma: I do agree with you. The government has got the bigger pot of responsibility here. But it’s still not as black and white as it seems. If the sense of fairness is in question, it has definitely been pinched.

GreyGoddess Farzan Mitu They lied because they are deprived of the right to get better treatment; they lied because they couldn’t afford better treatment on their own. I don’t blame them. It’s the system, and poverty.

Abdullah Saquib Now, even the so-called victims are culpable!

Complicitious ZenDecember 4In today’s con� icting Bangladesh there is no � ag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent civilians. The con� ict is a reality not because there is a mass movement, but a result of the government and the opposition’s failure to have a talk about the upcoming election.

The current political situation is in� icting abuse on the weak, and hurting the innocent. The perpetrators are carrying on violence which is not tempered by righteous ideals. They are also not � ghting in self defence, nor standing up for what’s right.

The culprits have no understanding of strength, not negotiation, reason, or goodwill. The victims of political violence include individ-uals who are innocent. Why do they have to pay the ultimate price because two leaders failed to come to any compromise? What kind of mes-sage are they sending to the future generation?

Z

Why we need war crimes trials

Golam Mostafa Hawlader, a witness whose evidence to the International Crimes Tribunal helped to convict Jamaat leader, Delawar Hossain Sayedee, has died after being

attacked inside his home.His attackers reportedly made clear that he was targeted

because of his role as a witness. It is deplorable that Mr Hawlader was not provided with bet-

ter police protection. Threats have been repeatedly made against all prosecution witnesses and other witnesses and their families have had to � ee from physical attacks. The risk to their safety was well known due to the high pro� le of debates around the ICT.

The government must im-plement better protection of all witnesses to prevent this type of incident. As we have opined be-fore, enacting the draft Witness Protection Act prepared in 2011 would send an important signal to law enforcers to be more pro-active in ensuring protection for witnesses.

We must also re� ect on the long chain of impunity which helped create the context in which this brutal murder could take place.

Whatever criticisms may be made about the ICT process, the fact remains it was set up with widespread electoral support to end the impunity which allowed war criminals to get away with heinous crimes.

The judicial process set up to try crimes from 1971 needs to be respected and remain above politics. The atmosphere of violent rhetoric and threats to witnesses by Jamaat leaders has undoubt-edly created a climate of fear for actual and potential witnesses.

All political parties, whatever their views on the ICT, should make clear that no tribunal witness should be threatened or attacked. Rule of law must be respected and better protection a� orded to all witnesses.

Lend a helping hand to the RMG sector

The statement by Mosharraf Hussain, managing director of the Standard Group, that he plans to rebuild its gutted fac-tory at Gazipur so that the company, which is a respected

supplier to leading RMG retailers such as Gap and Zara, can rise from the ashes, is an inspiring one.

For the company’s thousands of workers, reports that the company has swiftly been able to secure $50m funding towards its rehabilitation via a � ve-year-loan rescheduling, comes as good news.

The Bangladesh Bank has rightly acted quickly to help the company.

We recognise that other RMG factory owners also have pressing � nancing needs. There is a strong case for similar policy measures to alleviate the pressure on factory owners and workers, caused by the ongoing political turmoil.

Presently around 40% of garment production is hampered due to shortage of raw materials. Blockades and hartals have also hugely diminished the ability to ship � nished goods outside of the country. BGMEA has appealed to the Bangladesh Bank for interest waivers on existing loans until the end of the current political turmoil. Many individ-ual factory owners have been also trying to reschedule their loan payments.

While it is ultimately up to individual commercial banks to grant any such arrangements, the urgency of the circumstances suggests the central bank should undertake special measures on a wider scale. The Bangladesh Bank should consider further similar special initiatives to help the garment sector weather the current storm.

Editorial10

www.dhakatribune.com

DHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, December 11, 2013

LETTER OF THE DAY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

Letters to the Editor

All political parties should make clear that no tribunal witness should be threatened or attacked

The Bangladesh Bank has rightly acted quickly to help the company. Other RMG factory owners also have pressing � nancing needs

Either Hasina-Ershad or Khaleda is responsibleDecember 7

While people are anxious about their daily lives, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia are exchang-ing taunts about BNP’s engagement in street agitation. Actually, Hasina doubts her party members could do well in the next parliamentary election against the BNP candidates, due to some veteran AL leaders failing in the � ve city corporation polls held recently.Also, people have not forgotten Ershad’s role as an autocrat, and the loss of lives and limbs then, and, now, his betrayal for declaring he would attend the one-sided election, despite the agitation claiming more limbs and lives. We, the people, can only keep praying to Allah to save us.

Sheuly HaqueSirajgonj

Khoka arrestedDecember 5They are foolish if they want to hold credible polls by arresting opposition leaders.

rutland

Existing law & order status better, Amu claimsDecember 5

He is right. The situation now is better than in 2006, when AL staged non-stop blockades against the caretaker government of Iajuddin Ahmed.

ruwa

Be HeardWrite to us at: Dhaka Tribune

FR Tower, 8/C PanthapathSukrabad, Dhaka-1207

Email us at: letters@dhakatribune.comSend us your Op-Ed articles:opinion@dhakatribune.com

Visit our website: www.dhakatribune.comCome join our Facebook community:

https://www.facebook.com/DhakaTribune

Crossword

Sudoku

CROSSWORD CODE-CRACKER YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

ACROSS1 Table-shaped hill (4)6 Flightless bird (3)7 Bill of fare (4)9 Cheerless (4)10 Person under age (5)11 Grinding tooth (5)12 Mineral spring (3)14 Postpone (5)17 Looks after (5)20 Employ (3)21 Family members (5)23 Army chaplain (5)25 Egyptian goddess (4)26 Drug-yieldingplant (4)27 Land measure (3)28 Paradise (4)

DOWN1 Unassuming (6)2 Sailor (6)3 Early Christianpulpit (4)4 Marsh (3)5 Worthless dog (3)7 Deep mud (4)8 Musical sounds (5)10 Insane (3)13 Relating to punishment (5)15 Bothered (6)16 Sanity (6)18 Venture (4)19 Prosecute (3)22 Weary (4)23 Kitchen utensil (3)24 Morse element (3)

n Maimuna N Ahmad

Come home, now. Come home to a place where scores are dying each week because we are play-

ing a farcical game of political chicken. (Farcical because the basic premise of using terrorism as a tool of political manipulation is that one side cares enough about the damage to cave to the other’s demands. In our case, not true.)

Come home to a place where men and women are buried alive in rubble of concrete and steel, because we value human bodies only as much as the labour that can be wrung out of them.

Come home to a place where our children graduate from primary school without being able to read or add,

because we do not think our teach-ers deserve to be paid (or, for that matter trained) more than the factory workers. Come home to a nation that is deeply entangled in existential angst and the search for its soul. Come home, now, to a country that will break your heart, every day.

Before going further, let me apolo-gise for the assumptions I have made about who you are and what/where you consider “home.” Bangladesh-

is – both in the country and outside of it – have complex, multi-faceted identities.

But if you thought for any brief moment that this letter was addressed to you, then it is. This letter is not even just for those who live physically abroad, but those who live metaphysi-

cally abroad as well.So many of us in this country live

lives so well-insulated that we might as well be somewhere else altogether. To us all, I entreat, come home, now.

Come home to a country which needs your skills, your experience, and most signi� cantly, your voice. History and narrative in Bangladesh have been hijacked by corrupt megalomaniacs, their thugs and their sycophants – they are ours to reclaim.

Come home to a place which proves itself, time and again, shock-ingly resilient in the face of tragedy; to a nation held together by the kind-ness of strangers. Come home to a country where brilliant young people are starting incredible organisations and leading unprecedented move-ments, where hope and opportunity abound in unlikely places. Come home to a country that will inspire you, every day.

Come home; get your hands dirty. Leave Wall Street, become a teach-er. Leave Capitol Hill, become an entrepreneur. Come home, but – and here’s the important part – come home because you want and choose to (and not because slums look cool on Insta-

gram). Come home because you want to be personally and professionally challenged in a way you never have be-fore. Come home because you choose to be a part of the solution.

Come home, then start something,

build something, change something, say something.

Just come home. Now. l

Maimuna N Ahmad is Founder and CEO, Teach for Bangladesh.

11Op-Ed Wednesday, December 11, 2013DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Shawkat Hussain

If we were to see the last � ve years of AL rule as a � ve-act play, then we could say that we are now in the third act. The plot is beginning to unravel and we are

heading fast towards a denouement. Are we shooting headlong down the Niagara towards a resounding crash, or can we manage to keep our heads up somehow and survive? Nobody knows for sure, but everybody has an opinion.

The play – that is, our politics – is problematic in the � rst place because of di� culties in characterising it. Let’s call it a “problem play” � rst (as many of Shakespeare’s plays are called), because we are not quite sure whether it is a pure tragedy or a comedy, or absurd drama, or a melodrama, or something else.

Then again, it is a “problem play” in the sense that there is a real problem every � ve years about how exactly the elections should be conducted. We faced this problem in 1996 when BNP � rst held elections without AL and that had to be cancelled for a second round in July the same year; there were problems again in 2001for reasons which I have forgottenbut are discussed endlessly in talk shows.

And � nally, there was the grave situation in 2006 when the late Professor Iajuddin doubled up both as head of the caretaker government and president of the republic. That

was unacceptable to all except BNP people, and acceptable to Dr Yunus (this I cannot forget) who came back from a foreign trip and gave an A+ to Professor Iajuddin’s government.

Like Mr Micawber in “Pickwick Papers” I can only say “something will turn up.” Only application of the Micawber Principle makes it possible to go on from day to day.

The prime minister refuses to budge from her position and so does the leader of the opposition. In a “problem” situation such as this, only some sort of divine intervention can take the play towards a resolution. Perhaps not one god but many gods may be necessary to start the process of disentangling the knot that we are tied up in.

Even as I write, the deus ex machina (god-from-the-machine, for the non-literary) has descended on us. He is the UN Assistant Under-Secretary Oscar Fernandez-Taranco who has been shuttling between visits to the prime minister and visits to the leader of the opposition, meeting Jamaat

leaders in his hotel, and other very important people. The god-from-the-machine is a very busy-body indeed but it is not yet clear if he will succeed to move mountains.

There are two-bit players as well who have suddenly, unexpectedly, emerged from the wings and taken centre-stage. Like a character in a cartoon I saw recently, I usually

watch talk shows on mute, except when the un-redoubtable old dictator Ershad pops up on TV. Then I turn the mute o� .

Ershad’s antics and his utterances (“I’m all-in-all of JP”), beginning with a half-dozen of his men and women joining the interim government and now the on-going drama with their resignations, are hilariously farcical.

When Ershad appears in hastily-called press-conferences with his furrowed brows and pain-etched wrinkled face (but always nattily dressed), when he pleads to young journalists that they shouldn’t satirise him, when he promises to do one thing one morning and changes his mind at

night, I sit riveted and cannot turn the mute on.

Just over two decades back when he was still in power, I couldn’t stand to watch him whenever he appeared on TV. Ershad is now the comic relief in this “problem play” which is our life, and also amazingly, a factor that simply can’t be written o� from electoral equations.

Reasonable people like Dr Kamal Hossain, or Sultana Kamal, or Dr Shahdin Malik say reasonable things and ask reasonable questions about what should or should not be done. When they met the president some days back, they presumably conveyed some of their reasonable concerns to the president with the reasonable expectations of a solution. Nothing happened. The god-from-the-machine is also having reasonable discussions with di� erent people and something eventually will turn up.

I � nd it di� cult to ask reasonable questions. The question that came to my mind is this: How many bullets does one need to kill oneself? What would have happened if Ershad had actually pulled the trigger of one of his four pistols (or is it one pistol with four bullets?) after he threatened to commit suicide when RAB had surrounded his house? Now we will never know because the DMP is considering taking his toys away. l

Shawkat Hussain, former Professor and Chair of English, University of Dhaka, now teaches at State University of Bangladesh.

Comedy or tragedy? RAJIB DHAR

Third act in a problem play

A letter to Bangladeshis abroad

Come home because you want to be personally and professionally challenged in a way you never have before. Come home because you choose to be a part of the solution

Victims of � ren MAB Siddique

Those who were burnt to death, we shall never get back. We can never overcome

this melancholy, this grief that has engulfed us. We couldn’t overcome it in the case of so many others who had been killed in political calamities before.

We shed tears, we mourn for them. We bear enormous grief, we pay our tributes. They are simply taken away. Sometimes we call them martyrs, sometimes we just ignore them. We try to lead the same lives we had been living. But they are forgotten after some time, martyrs or not. This always happens, as if history throws them into oblivion, inevitably.

Now, after scores of people have succumbed to their burn injuries in the latest violence, we are also getting burned. It is not the same kind of burn. We know that we have been burnt like this throughout our entire history. We find ourselves still alive while political turmoil claims many lives.

We were burnt under colonial invasions, and we were burnt after independence. Bangladesh has not been able to find a way out of this cycle to facilitate a peaceful transition of power. Mistrust was brewed. There was corruption and criminalisation of society and the economy, and the chance for more deaths.

Many of these deaths would be unnatural deaths. Many of the deceased would be victims of fire and vengeance between the political parties. We have failed to learn to preserve democracy for ourselves. Greed, lust, or hunger has come in the way.

Common people, who are now getting burnt and killed, were supposed to be the jury. Political parties were supposed to try and gain support of the common people. To the deceased, the yearning for democracy has no meaning.

They were attacked by fire, they were caught by surprise. When petrol or bombs were thrown at them, they were probably going home, or to work. Falling victim to political hooliganism and atrocities, we have nothing to confess, other than that we failed to put a stop to many things.

We let this happen to them. We never became conscious of how to create a culture where the language of politics would be democracy. We never prepared to tackle this

turmoil. We didn’t have any faith in the

democratic process. We haven’t learnt from better democracies of the world, at least when it comes to saving lives, even though we have been through the same horror so many times.

We failed to distinguish between responsibility and terrorism. We failed to establish a just system. We failed to resist the forces that tear down our achievements, just as we miserably failed to realise the potential of our fellow human beings.

We failed to measure losses by anything other than the death toll. We have to acknowledge our own guilt, otherwise we will continue to disgrace our existence. Things must be set right, and someone must be held accountable at the end of the day.

We know this is the outcome of so many failures. It was a failure of transforming the state into one which could deal with things objectively. We need a state which could ensure the right penalty for crimes, especially for those who killed us.

We need incentives for the people to do good. We haven’t learnt to preserve anything that could be used for the betterment of society. We never reached a consensus about standing together to fight the forces of evil against us. We haven’t figured out a common path for ourselves.

We never stopped being naïve. We destroyed anything good we produced or imported or learnt. But the time has come to join hands on issues we could settle if we were just a bit more generous than we are. The time has come to look forward. The time has come to leave this narrow outlook behind.

The time has come to stand together to fight terrorism, to stand for democracy, and to make efforts towards a better version of democracy. We can’t just let this death toll add up every day.

As the state has something to do with it, with all its existing capability, so do its people. We can resist the harmful political culture that leaves no room for democracy. We must leave no room for violence, terrorism, and muscle power. The time has come to revitalise our thoughts, to distinguish between non-democratic elements and democratic ones, and to decide which of them can take the system further so that we may save some lives. l

MAB Siddique is a Staff Reporter at the Dhaka Tribune.

Sometimes we call them martyrs, sometimes we just ignore them. We try to lead the same lives we had been living. But they are forgotten after some time

We were burnt under colonial invasions, and we were burnt after independence. Bangladesh has not been able to find a way out of this cycle

Ershad is now the comic relief in this ‘problem play’ which is our life, and also amazingly, a factor that simply can’t be writteno� from electoral equations

Let’s build the place we call home DHAKA TRIBUNE

EntertainmentDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, December 11, 201312

FilmPaci� c Rim in 3DPurno dhorgho prem kahiniRiddick, The ConjuringTitanic (3D)Level 8, Bashundhara CityPanthapath

ExhibitionSolo Painting Exhibition By Nurun Naher SuptiTime: 3pm – 9pmAlliance Francaise de Dhaka26 Mirpur Road Dhanmondi

Quest for RealityRa� qun Nabi Time: 12pm-8pm Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts House No 42, Road No 16 Sheik Kamal Sarani Dhanmondi,

City of RhythmKazi Salahuddin Ahmed Time: 12pm to 8pm Institute of Asian Creatives House 9Road 36Gulshan 2

TODAY IN DHAKA

ON TVCOMEDY

12:00pm FXThe Simpsons8:30pm Star WorldThe Neighbors

MIXED12:30pm AXNSo You Think You Can Dance9:30pm FTVFashion Divas

DRAMA10:30pm ColorsUttaran11:00pm Star PlusVeera

n Shadma Malik

The � lm Ekattorer Ma Jononi will be out on the cinemas sometime in March next year. As its title suggests, the story of the movie is about the glorious lib-eration war of Bangladesh. The script is in� uenced by the novel Jononi Sha-hoshini 1971, written by Anisul Hoque.

The � lm directed by Shah Alam Kiron features popular actors of the silver screen: Nipun, Agun, Shakil Ahmed, MM Morshed and Chitrolekha Guho. Uttom gave the art direction and a theatre troupe also worked in the making of the � lm.

The plot is a collection of scattered stories that revolve around 1971 and the nine months of war. But, the main focus is on one of the stories that have a signi� cant role in the success of the lib-eration war. Jamila (Nipun) and Hash-em (Agun) are residents of a village and when the war broke out, Jamila en-courages her husband Hashem to take

part in the noble cause of liberating the country.

But lady luck was not with Jami-la, she was abducted and taken to the Pakistani army camp as her husband’s involvement in the uprise was evident. There she meets many women who are brutally tortured and abused by the Pa-kistani army. In captivity, Jamila realis-es the need for a free country and the spirit of liberation war.

She and her fellow women captives start to work against the soldiers in the camp. At one point, Jamila and her husband Hashem succeed to invade the camp. It was a small step, but it shows the role of every small step in the liberation of the country.

In an interview with the DhakaTribune at the shooting of the � lm, the director shares: “I am happy direct a � lm which portrays the glorious liber-ation war that sets us apart from oth-er countries and makes us proud to be Bangladeshis”

“My � lm di� ers from other libera-tion war movies as it focuses on the war heroines, the Birongonas, it highlights the crucial role played by these wom-en, who paid for freedom with their dignity and self-respect. Ekattorer Ma Jononi pays tribute to the women free-dom � ghters of Bangladesh and recog-nises their true worth and sacri� ces.”

When asked about the challenges he faced, Kiron said: “It was a challeng-ing task to establish the womenfolk as freedom � ghters and convey the mes-sage to people that they identify them as what they really were instead of viewing them as victims only. Another challenging aspect was to portray the past in the present.”

Shah Alam Kiron started his career as a director in the early ‘80s. His sig-ni� cant movies are Niyoti Til Khela, Jibon Diya Bhalobashi, Bichhar Hobey, Ghor Jamai, Ami Ek o Manush, Churi-wala, Matir Thikana, Bidrohi and many more. l

Ekattorer Ma Jononi recognises the Birongonas as freedom � ghters

The Ten Commandments screens at BSA todayn Entertainment Desk

A � lm festival featuring Oscar award winning � lms, going on at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy from December 7 till December 13.

International Digital Film Archive of Academy’s National Theatre organises the weeklong festival. William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (1968), directed by Franco Ze� relli has been screened on the opening day of the � lm festival.

Today, The Ten Commandments (1956), produced and directed by Cecil B DeMille will screen at 6pm at the screening room of In-ternational Digital Film Archive of BSA. This � lm is a American religious historical epic � lm. It dramatizes the biblical story of the life of Moses, an adopted Egyptian prince who becomes the de-liverer of his real brethren, the enslaved Hebrews, and therefore leads the Exodus to Mount Sinai, where he receives, from God, the Ten Commandments. It stars Charlton Heston in the lead role, Yul Brynner as Rameses, Anne Baxter as Nefretiri, Edward G Rob-inson as Dathan, Yvonne De Carlo as Sephora, Debra Paget as Lil-ia, and John Derek as Joshua; and features Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Sethi, Nina Foch as Bithiah, Martha Scott as Yochabel, Judith Anderson as Memnet, and Vincent Price as Baka, among others. l

Amar Shopno Grosto Shomoy Tumi Nayeeka Hoye Utho on Channel 9 n Entertainment Desk

The single-episode drama titled Amar Shopno Gros-to Shomoy Tumi Nayeeka Hoye Utho will air tonight at 9:10pm on Channel 9. Written and directed by Mahmud Didar, the drama features Ahona, Bhabna, Bidya Sinha Mim, Zahir Uddin Piyar and many more.

The story is about a young producer willing to make a � lm. He believes that it casting a woman in the role of the protagonist would bring fortune for him. He goes to a legend to listen stories on women. The storyteller nar-rates stories of three women: a dancer, a sex worker and a mother. These characters ultimately become di� erent elements in his � lm. l

Adam Sandler tops Forbes’ list of most-overpaid actorsn Entertainment Desk

American actor Adam Sandler topped Forbes’ list of Hollywood’s most-overpaid actors, com-manding a high up-front fee while delivering middling returns..

Sandler, 47, the star of recent comedies Jack & Jill and That’s My Boy, dethroned Eddie Mur-phy for the dubious distinction. Forbes esti-mated that Sandler’s last three � lms returned an average of $3.40 for every dollar he was paid.

Murphy topped last year’s list, returning an average of $2.30 at the box o� ce for each dollar earned.

Katherine Heigl, who starred in the poorly performing � lms Killers and One for the Money, placed slightly behind Sandler, returning an av-erage of $3.50 per every dollar she earned.

The list, compiled annually by Forbes, counts the last three � lms an actor has starred in over the past three years. This year’s list was cut o� at June 1, and so it excluded Sandler’s buddy comedy Grown Ups 2, which was released in July and performed well at the box o� ce.

Forbes did not say how much Sandler earned on his last three � lms. But the magazine said he

was one of the few movie stars who could still command more than $15 million per � lm, on an “up front” arrangement. Hollywood studios in recent years have shifted to paying smaller up-front fees and tie actors’ pay with the � lm’s box o� ce performance.

The magazine said it examined actors’ pay, � lm budgets and expenses to calculate the av-

erage return an actor brings per dollar paid.Reese Witherspoon, the star of recent � lms

Water for Elephants and This Means War, was third on this list, with an average return of $3.90 for every dollar she was paid.

Nicholas Cage was fourth, with a $6 average return, and comedian Kevin James was � fth, returning an average of $6.10. l

SRK: Aamir � nest actor, always inspiring n Entertainment Desk

Superstar Shah Rukh Khan feels Aamir Khan is the � nest actor and an inspira-tion for the kind of work he has done in Dhoom 3.

“He is the � nest actor the country has. For his role (in Dhoom 3) he required that kind of body. He does some trapeze work in the � lm. For him to work out that way (to have a perfect body) it is fantastic and inspiring,” Shah Rukh said at an event recently.

“Aamir leads the way and is always an inspiration like this not only physically and mentally but with the kind of job and work he does. I really appreciate it,” he said.

In Dhoom 3, Aamir plays the role of a baddie. Shah Rukh is also ready to play a negative role again on screen. He had played negative roles in the beginning of his career in � lms like Darr, Baazigar

and Anjaam.“It is long time I haven’t played

such a role, I will like to do it. If I am o� ered (anti-hero role) I will do it

though it may not be commercially very be� tting. It may not get into club of Rs100crore or Rs200crore.” Shah Rukh added. l

Deepika receives ‘big’ complimentn Entertainment Desk

While the audiences feel that Deepika is the biggest take away from the � lm and she has done a phenomenal act por-traying her character in the � lm Goliyon Raasleela Ram-Leela , the best compliment came to her from Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan.

Big B has sent Deepika a personalised hand written note along with her favorite � owers to appreciate her performance in the movie. Obviously, Deepika was very delighted by his gesture and feels it is one of the best gifts she has received.

He expressed his view about the � lm on his blog and posted, “There is a certain joy in acknowledging the accomplishments of another, I did so for Ram-Leela, the � lm and its glorious cast and crew. With Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Deepika, Ranveer, Supriya and Richa, all that have made this � lm a most memorable experience for me. I have watched it three times over in the last 24 hours and still desire for more.”

Deepika has looked breathtaking and brings a lot of energy to the screen. Deepika in Goliyon Raasleela Ram-Leela has done it all this year, making it her 4th successful hit in the year.l Deepika and Big B greet each other at a programme recently

New pair hits silver screen n Entertainment Desk

Two thriving stars of Dhallywood, Saimon and Amrita, will be seen as a pair on the silver screen with their upcoming � lm Ojante Bhalobasha.

Written by Komol Sarker and directed by A J Rana, the shooting of the � lm will start from January 20.

Saimon has already made a mark in the hearts of cinema lovers with his acting skills and glamorous appearance. He made his debut in the 2012 with the movie Ji Huzur.

Recently Dhallywood’s new sensation Mahiya Mahi and Saimon have emerged on the silver screen together in Poramon which made a good busi-ness while his third � lm Er Beshi Bhalobasha Jai Na attracted mixed reactions.

On the other hand, Amrita, a relatively new face in Dhallywood, made her mark by acting in Royel Anik’s Game and Atik Rahman’s Ontore Ontore.

About Ojante Bhalobasha, Saimon said: “The position I currently own in the media is because of Jakir Hossain Raju and Jazz Multimedia. He has in-spired me from the very beginning of my career. I am grateful to them for making me what I am today.”

Amrita said: “Though none of my � lms has ben released yet, I am hope-ful that audience will love my � lms and accept me.” l

MM Morshed (left) and Nipun in a scene of Ekattorer Ma Jononi

13DHAKA TRIBUNEWednesday, December 11, 2013

SportDid you know?After 1626 minutes without a Premier

League goal, Danny Graham on Monday scored the opener

for Hull City against Swansea

14 Milan, Dortmund look to reach CL last 16

15 Bolt, Fraser-Pryce crowned top athletes

DAYS TO GO

0 9 5

The leading names of Bangladesh ‘A’ team skipper Nasir Hossain, Mominul Haque share a light moment in the practice session at the SBNS yesterday MUMIT M

Nasir raring to gon Mazhar Uddin

National all-rounder Nasir Hossain said yesterday that the Challenge series will help the Tigers prepare for the upcom-ing T20 World Championship, at the MirpurSher-e-Bangla National stadium yesterday.

“Of course, we have a T20World Championship next year and the most important thing is every match prepa-ration is always good for us and I think this preparation will help us for the up-coming mega event,” said Nasir.

However the 22- year old agreed that the amount of preparationwas not enough, “I don’t think the preparations are enough for us before the World Championship because playing these three-four matches will certainly not ful� ll the amount of practice we need before such tournament. I think the board will think about these things,” he said.

He also informed that it will be bet-ter if there was a T20 tournament like the Bangladesh Premier League for preparation purposes.

National skipper Mush� qur Rahim will lead a side against the A team today and the captain of the A team Nasir thought that the second eleven’s players were keen to demonstrate their worth and hence, the series would be highly competitive. “There will be competition in the series, as the cricketers from the A side will always try to prove their talents to get into the national side, where they take the matches seriously,” said Nasir.

Bangladesh team will face the A team in the remaining two matches on December 12 and 13 at the Sher-e-Ban-gla National Stadium.

Nasir, who has captained both the U-13 and U-15 sides,said he had en-joyed the leadership role. Nonetheless, when asked if he was ready to take the vacant vice captain’s post, he said that he is not thinking about the issue at the moment.

Bangladesh has a very busy sched-ule for the next couple of months – and the possibility of players getting in-jured is a relevant one.

Nasir, however, remained calm over the prospect, “You never know when a cricketer gets injured, it’s totally about luck. But as we are professional crick-eters, we know how to keep � t and take proper rest.” l

7th BPL from Dec 27n Raihan Mahmood

The 7th edition of Bangladesh Premier League will begin at two venues in Dha-ka - the Bangabandhu National Stadium and the Kamalapur Mostafa Kamal Sta-dium - on December 27.

The decision was taken at the meeting of the Professional League Committee of the Bangladesh Football Federation at the BFF House yesterday. Representa-tives of all 10 premier league clubs were present at the meeting.

However, due to the prevailing po-litical turmoil in the country, BFF has decided to start the premier league with the third phase, which had previously been planned to be held at a neutral ven-ue, while the � rst and second phases are to be held on a home-and-away basis.

BFF has designated the stadiums of Feni and Gopalganj, the home of Feni Soccer and Muktijoddha respectively, as being outside the capital venues for the profes-sional league of the country.

“We have no alternatives apart from it; we have to start the professional league as soon as possible as already we have failed to maintain the calendar. We are focused on starting the league and hope the political situation cools down and then we can look after other aspects,” said Salam Murshedy, the senior vice president of BFF. There will be at least three match days per week and maybe more. “We are yet to � nalise the � xture as we are still thinking of match days. At least three match days is the plan, with two matches per day.” said Abu Naeem Shohag, the general secretary of BFF. l

West Indies U-19 team depart n Mazhar Uddin

The Bangladesh Cricket Board made a last-ditch attempt on Monday to sal-vage the Under-19 series against the touring West Indies U-19 side after the West Indies Cricket Board decided pull their team out citing due to security concerns, but the touring side � nally left Bangladesh yesterday morning.

The WI U-19 team � ew to Dhaka yesterday morning and they returned to the Caribbean immediately after-ewards from the Hazrat Shah Jalal In-ternational airport.

Earlier on Monday, the WICB’s an-nouncement came as a body blow for the BCB, who had earlier tried to con-vince the visitors to continue the series

after concerns were raised following an explosion outside the team’s hotel.

The touring West Indies U-19 side had been scheduled to play seven youth ODI matches but only played the � rst match before the incident occurred near the team’s hotel in Chittagong, forcing the visiting side to leave Bangladesh in the middle of the series.

The WICB’s decision was taken on the basis of a report on the situation in Bangladesh by WICB security manager Paul Slowe.

The statement read: “The report emphasised that the current security environment in Bangladesh is not con-ducive to the playing of cricket in light of the 72-hour nationwide blockade

and calls for countrywide dawn-to-dusk protest. 

“Travel arrangements are being made to allow for the team’s return to the Caribbean as quickly as possible. The team will remain safely accom-modated at the team hotel’s was under adequate security protection until its departure from Bangladesh.”

This is the � rst time any internation-al side has pulled out of a tour of Ban-gladesh for security reasons and will surely tarnish the image of the country before the T20 World Championship in March next year. The Asia Cup, sched-uled to take place before that, is also now in the shade of the darkness as the ICC earlier asked BCB to report on the security situation of the country. l

Faruk new chief selectorn Minhaz Uddin Khan

The Bangladesh Cricket Board presi-dent Nazmul Hasan yesterday an-nounced that former national skipper Faruk Ahmed to be the new chief of the national selection panel. The tenure as the chief selector will be the second for Faruk, who left the post after the ICC World Cup 2007.

“We had two options for the post. Most of the directors agreed Faruk was the right contender and so we have termed him as the chief selector for next two years,” Nazmul told the media at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday.

Faruk, successor to former chief se-lector Akram Khan, was thrilled at the news and looked forward to perform in the best way possible.

“Akram has taken the national team to a very good position. Both Minhazul Abedin Nannu and Habibul Bashar (members of the selection) accompa-nied Akram very well in the last few years. My challenge will be to take the level of performance higher and hope Bashar and Nannu will help me the way they did Akram,” said Faruk.

Faruk further informed that his im-mediate task will be to form the best possible team for the ICC World Twen-ty20 2014.

“I got the assignment for the next two years and thus would like to make the best use of the time for executing strategies. My � rst task is to get the strongest team for the World Twenty20 and then work for a good ODI team for the World Cup 2015,” he said. l

Departure unjusti� ed: Nazmuln Minhaz Uddin Khan

Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hasan told the media yester-day that the departure of the West In-dies U19 team was unjusti� ed and that the situation in Bangladesh is not seri-ous enough to justify a team leaving in that manner. 

“A team from the ICC (International Cricket Council) was in Bangladesh a few days ago for an inspection. They saw the security arrangement and were happy with it. 

“They (WI U-19) were supposed to play the second game on the resched-uled date but later, they refused be-

cause of the letter from WICB (West Indies Cricket Board) asking them to leave. Our CEO (Ziamuddin Chowd-hury, BCB acting CEO) had sent a letter explaining everything to them yester-day (Monday) evening, but got no re-sponse,” Nazmul said. 

Nazmul speculated that it might have been the parents of the cricket-ers who pressured the WICB into with-drawing the team. 

“The cricketers were never the tar-get of the crude bomb explosion near the team hotel in Chittagong. As said before, it was an isolated incident,” clari� ed Nazmul. 

The BCB boss mentioned that the

unrest in the country is due political disputes, not terrorist activities. 

“Political unrest can happen in many countries where people can get scared. This is not a terrorist activity, rather a political one and is not linked to terrorism. The strikes and blockades did not start today or yesterday, it has been going on for a while. The New Zealand team played during a strike, they didn’t � nd it to be an issue,” said Nazmul. 

The BCB boss added that he had contacted the relevant political parties and requested that cricket be kept o� their violent agendas. 

“Our country is crazy for cricket and

loves the game a lot. BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party) declared that cricket will be exempted from their activities, so there is a clear message. So there is no reason to be scared. We had arranged the best security for West Indies U-19 and there was nothing to worry about but they left. We are sad about it, but we are not worried,” said Nazmul. 

WICB’s decision will not harm the future of the game in Bangladesh, believes Nazmul. Political unrest is a common scene after the election. 

The Bangladesh election is scheduled to be held on January 5, 2014.l

Hemanta’s � nal report on cards n Shishir Hoque

The � nal report of Bangladesh U-19 skipper Hemanta Vincent Biswas re-garding his trial at FC Twente is time consuming, said national team’s Dutch head coach Lodewijk de Kruif yester-day.

Hemanta had his � nal trial game and practice session for the Dutch club yesterday and is expected to � y back to Nepal tomorrow. After dropping Bi-mal Gharti Magar there, he will return to Dhaka along with Dutch assistant coach Rene Koster on Friday.

Asked about the � nal report of Hemanta, Kruif replied, “It wouldn’t be in one or two days. We have to wait for a while for the � nal report on Heman-ta. There’s nothing to be worried, as if it will be negative or positive for him.

If he fails this time, there is a chance they could call him back and give him another trial later.

“The coaching sta� s will analyze his overall performance and they told me they will call me for any information regarding Hemanta.”

Meanwhile, Kruif’s family left Dha-ka for Netherlands earlier but the coach will leave on December 18 and return on January 12. Kruif was supposed to leave on Tuesday but Kazi Salahuddin requested him to stay for few more days to be present at the World Cup Trophy program, which begins on De-cember 17.

The Dutch coach went on to blame the country’s current political unrest and � nancial crisis for the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) not moving forward with its plans for

the national team. “There are not enough options in

the number 9, 10 and wing positions and I have planned to a hold talent hunt program across the country to search for players in those respective positions. But I can’t go on with my plan due to the � nancial crisis and the political unrest in the country,” he said.

Kruif praised Nahid, Tapu Barmon, Yeasin, Meshu, Sajib’s performance in the ongoing Federation Cup but he is also searching for more young talented players for the national team. He is expected to sit with the BFF coaches soon and give them some assignments towards this end.

The Dutch coach is also planning to tour Australia, England, Canada, Amer-ica and Germany in search of non-resi-dent Bangladeshi footballers. l

I got the assignment for the next two years and thus would like to make the best use of the time for executing strategies

Zia wins in Londonn Raihan Mahmood

Grandmaster Ziaur Rahman beat FM Berry Neil of Scotland in the 3rd round of the 5th London Chess Classic FIDE Open at the Olympia Conference Center, Kensington London yesterday.

The result saw Zia take his tally to 2.5 points. In the 4th round, he is pitted against IM Houska Jovanka of England.

Meanwhile GM Niaz Murshed lost to M. Kunal of India in the 6th round of the SREI International Grandmaster Chess at Kolkata.

Of the other Bangladesh players, Debaraj Chatterjee lost to FM Matta Vinoy Kumar of India, Zoar Haque Prodhan lost to Pradeep Kumar of India, Sharif Hossain lost to Rajdeep Sarker of India, Saidul Islam Mamun drew with Godbole Atharva of India and Saimon Siddikur Rahman lost to Shetye Siddali of India.

At the end of the 3rd round, Debaraj has 2.5 points, Zoar Haque Prodhan 2 points, Sharif Hossain 1.5 points, while Saimon Siddiqur Rahman, Saidul Islam Masum have one point each. l

O� cials of sports and youth ministry accorded a warm welcome to the Bangladesh Special Olympics contingent who won 77 gold medals in the Asia-Paci� c Special Olympics upon their arrival at the Dhaka airport yesterday COURTESY

SportDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, December 11, 201314

FIXTURES Schalke 04 (GER) v Basel (SUI) Chelsea (ENG) v Steaua (ROM) Marseille (FRA) v Dortmund (GER) Napoli (ITA) v Arsenal (ENG) Vienna (AUT) v Zenit (RUS) Madrid (ESP) v FC Porto (POR) AC Milan (ITA) v Ajax (NED) Barcelona (ESP) v Celtic (SCO)

RESULTSwansea 1-1 HullFlores 60 Graham 9)

Chelsea's Spanish mid� elder Juan Mata (L), Brazilian mid� elder Oscar (C) and Spanish striker Fernando Torres (R) attend a training session at the club's training ground in Cobham, Surrey, south of London, yesterday on the eve of their Uefa Champions League match against Steaua Bucharest AFP

Brazil vows to act after hooliganism outbreakn AFP, Rio De Janeiro

Brazil pledged to stamp out stadium violence Monday after hooligan-ism marred a weekend � rst division league game, raising fresh

doubts about its ability to stage a trou-ble-free World Cup.

President Dilma Rousse� said Brazil could not and would not tolerate soc-cer violence after fans of Atletico Pa-ranaense and Vasco Da Gama fought pitched battles in the southern city of Joinville.

Graphic television footage showed hundreds of fans of both sides kicking and punching for several minutes with the game only a few minutes old, forcing the referee to call a halt for an

hour as order was belatedly restored.The violence continued unabated

as the hooligans ran amok, clashing in several sections of the stands.

At least three fans were hurt with one, believed to have su� ered a fractured skull airlifted to safety by helicopter.

There was further controversy after police failed to intervene and it later transpired that Atletico had only drafted private security personnel to ‘police’ a “private event.”

Rousse� was energetic in her condemnation. “A footballing country cannot live with violence in its stadiums. This violence goes against all that we associate with football,” the president said.

“The presence of police is necessary in stadiums,” she added. l

Milan, Dortmund look to reach last 16n Agencies

Former champions AC Milan and Borus-sia Dortmund go into their � nal group matches needing a result in their re-spective games to

ensure they continue their campaign for the trophy in the New Year.

AC Milan need only a point against Ajax today to secure entry to the last 16 of the Champions League, but em-battled coach Massimiliano Allegri is taking nothing for granted.

For the second consecutive season Milan’s run-in to Christmas is anything but festive: they currently sit ninth in Serie A, 22 points behind leaders Ju-ventus and 14 adrift of the � rst Cham-pions League qualifying spot.

With Ajax conceding only three defeats on their way to second place in the Dutch top � ight, Allegri says it would be a mistake to underestimate Frank De Boer’s side, who, with a win, would qualify.

“Ajax have shown some great form of late and they have great technique throughout the team. We have to have the right attitude against them and, above all, score goals,” said the Italian.

Milan’s 3-0 rout of Celtic in Scotland a fortnight ago, when Ajax stunned Barcelona 2-1 in Amsterdam to stay in contention, kept the Italian giants in second place in Group H with a one-point lead on the Dutchmen.

It means the seven-time European champions need just a point at the San Siro to join leaders Barcelona in the knockout phase.

Meanwhile, Barcelona welcome Celt-

ic to the Camp Nou still needing a point to mathematically ensure they � nish top of Champions League Group H.

The Catalans appeared to be cruis-ing to � rst place and the bene� t of hav-

ing the second-leg of their last 16 tie at home having beaten AC Milan 3-1 to qualify on matchday four.

However, a 2-1 defeat away to Ajax

in their last European outing leaves them just two points clear of Milan.

Defeat in Amsterdam was followed by another loss, this time on the do-mestic front, as Athletic Bilbao ended Barca’s 26-game unbeaten run in La Liga � ve days later.

Despite the group stage’s predict-able nature, this season has at least proved more competitive than last term when 13 of the 16 knockout stage places had been booked before the � -nal round of group matches.

As expected, Group F has turned out to be by far the toughest.

Leaders Arsenal (12 points) travel to Napoli (9) needing a draw, or a defeat by less than three goals, while Borussia Dortmund (9), will go through if they beat pointless Olympique Marseille away, regardless of the other result.

Should Napoli and Dortmund both

win, they will � nish level with Arse-nal on 12 points and the quali� ers will be decided by the results between the three teams.

Group E will also have a dramatic � nish when habitual over-achievers Basel (8 points) visit spectacularly in-consistent Schalke (7) needing a point to join Chelsea in the last 16.

Despite their dismal domestic form, seven-times champions AC Milan (8) should get the point they need at home to Ajax Amsterdam (7) and follow Bar-celona through from Group H.

“The Dutch have achieved great results and have good technique and we must take all the necessary precau-tions,” said Milan’s un� appable coach Massimiliano Allegri whose future is the source of constant speculation.

“We have to score a goal, we cannot think of playing for the 0-0.” l

Barcelona could leave Nou Campn Agencies

The Spanish champions have com-missioned a report over the viability of both projects with the objective to increase the capacity of their home ground to 105,000.

Although progress was made at a meeting on Monday, the Barca direc-tors will not announce their preferred option until early in 2014.

Board spokesman Toni Freixa ex-plained on the club’s o� cial website it had two choices: “The construction of a new stadium on the land on Di-agonal, property which belongs to the University of Barcelona, or a profound remodelling project that would consti-tute a new stadium keeping the current structure of the Camp Nou.

Despite the sizeable � nancial outlay that would be involved, Freixa insisted any project would not harm the club, “It needs to be viable from a technical perspective, urbanist and economic. We would never submit a project that would endanger the sustainability of the club.”

The Nou Camp is already the larg-est ground in Europe with a capacity of 99,354. l

I’d rather play Spain than Chile in last 16: Scolarin Reuters, Sao Paulo

Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari would rather play Spain or the Netherlands if the hosts make the last 16 of the World Cup than South American rivals Chile.

Chile are “a pain” to play against be-cause their system is in direct contrast to Brazil’s, Scolari said on TV Globo’s Esporte Espetacular program.

“I hope Chile don’t qualify. “I’d rath-er play any of the others. They’re a pain to play against. They’re well organised, they’re intelligent, they have a good side. It’s better to play against a Euro-pean team,” he added.

Brazil are in Group A with Croatia, Mexico and Cameroon and the winners face the runners-up in Group B featuring Chile, world and European champions Spain, the Netherlands and Australia.

The winners of Group B face the runners-up in Group A in the last 16.

Scolari may have been employing early psychology. Brazil beat Chile 2-1 in a friendly last month and have lost only seven times in 67 matches against the South Americans.

The former Chelsea boss said he was not concerned that Brazil were in the toughest half of the draw with � ve of the eight former World Cup winners.

“We’re ready for whatever hap-pens,” he said. “I just don’t want to play Uruguay.”

Uruguay famously won the World Cup in 1950 by beating Brazil at the Ma-racana stadium. l

Moyes admits life tough at Unitedn AFP, Manchester

Manchester United manager David Moyes admitted it is “tough” at Old Tra� ord as he endures a di� cult start to life with the club.

The Premier League champions sit ninth in the table after 15 games and a massive 13 points o� leaders Arsenal after back-to-back defeats at home to Everton and Newcastle in the space of four days.

But he revealed he is taking full re-sponsibility for their poor start in the Premier League in their � rst season since Alex Ferguson retired.

“We’ve been inconsistent at times but played well in some of the Champi-

ons League, not so well in the Premier League,” he said.

“We’ve maybe lacked a bit of for-tune in some of the games.

“It’s tough because the expectancy is to win all the games. I think there’s a bit of everything we can improve - general-ly play better, pass better, defend better.

“It is not any one thing. It is all round we have to improve. It was only recent when we had beaten Arsenal here and then Leverkusen (that) we were speak-ing very well about the team.

“I take complete responsibility for the results. Fortunately they’ve been good in the Champions League but not in the Premier League. Hopefully they will get better.”

Moyes revealed the shock defeat by Newcastle on Saturday - the Magpies’ � rst league win at Old Tra� ord since 1972 - has only given the United manager more drive to turn their season around.

“No I did not need to lift my spirits after Newcastle - that raised my spir-its,” he said. “It just made me more de-termined to make sure we improve and get better. I agree in recent games we have not � nished games in the way we would have liked to. I’ve tried to make changes but it hasn’t quite happened.”

The United boss revealed the play-ers are hurting but still has full belief that they will turn their season around and that he has a squad big enough for the challenge. l

Ribery named French player of the yearn Reuters, Paris

Franck Ribery, who has been shortlist-ed for the prestigious FIFA-Ballon d’Or award, was named French Player of the Year yesterday by France Football magazine.

The Bayern Munich winger beat mid-� eld duo Paul Pogba of Juventus and Paris St Germain’s Blaise Matuidi in a poll of past and present French players.

“I now have to go get Thierry Hen-ry’s record,” Ribery, who has now won the prize three times to Henry’s � ve, told France Football.

AS Roma’s Rudi Garcia, who joined the Serie A club from Lille during the close season and is unbeaten in 15 league matches, was named the best French coach for 2013 in a poll of cur-rent and former managers. l

Greenpeace banner interrupts Madrid press meetn AFP, Copenhagen

A banner from environmental activ-ists Greenpeace protesting at Russian oil giant Gazprom’s exploration in the Arctic interrupted a Real Madrid press conference ahead of their Champions League clash away to FC Copenhagen on Monday.

Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti and defender Pepe had just begun the press conference in the Danish capital when a banner was lowered behind them which read “Save the arctic, show Gaz-prom the red card.”

The banner was quickly removed by o� cials before the press conference continued.

Gazprom is an o� cial sponsor of the Champions League and it is not the � rst time Greenpeace has launched a protest of this type this season.

Once the press conference restarted, though, normal service was resumed as Pepe backed teammate and compa-triot Cristiano Ronaldo to win the Bal-lon d’Or for the second time. l

Unlikely scorers as Swansea draw with Hulln Reuters

Two unlikely goalscorers lifted a largely dull mid-table Premier League clash between Swansea City and

Hull City who shared the points in a 1-1 draw at the Liberty Stadium on Monday.

Hull striker Danny Graham’s � rst goal in almost a year put the visitors ahead after nine minutes, the former Swansea player side-footing home from close range following a right-wing cross by Ahmed Elmohamady.

It was Graham’s � rst Premier League

goal in 28 matches - the last one scored for Swansea in January.

Hull had a goal disallowed when Da-vid Meyler was adjudged o� side, then

Yannick Sagbo’s shot from distance was saved at full stretch by Swansea goalkeeper Gerhard Tremmel.

The point moved both teams up one place in the table, Swansea to 10th and Hull 12th. l

15SportDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Guardiola laughs o� Neuer to City reportsBayern coach Pep Guardiola has laughed o� reports Manchester City have tabled a 48 million euros bid (£40m) for Ger-many goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League clash. Bayern host Manchester City at Munich’s Allianz Arena with the Premier League side needing to win at least 3-0 to knock the hosts from � rst place in Group D with both sides already through to the knock-out stages. Guardiola has said he is deadly serious about the Bavarians’ in-tentions of beating City to become only the sixth team in Champions League history to emerge from the group stages with a 100 per cent record from the six games. But the Spaniard laughed o� British media reports that City have tabled a huge bid for Neuer, the rock in the Bayern defence which has leaked just nine goals in 20 Bundesliga and Champions League games this season.

–AFP

South Africa name unchanged squad for India TestsSouth Africa on Monday named an unchanged 15-man squad for two Test matches against India later this month. South Africa, the leading team on the International Cricket Council rankings, have not been beaten in a series since 2009. Both their last two series against India, away in 2009/10 and at home the following season, were drawn. In their most recent series, against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates in October, South Africa lost the � rst Test in Abu Dhabi but bounced back with an innings win in the second and � nal Test in Dubai to share the series. “We were very happy with the performance of the Proteas in the second Test match at Dubai,” said Cricket South Africa selection convener Andrew Hudson, “and we see no need to change something that is operating well.”

–AFP

Israel mid� elder Benayoun signs for QPRIsrael mid� elder Yossi Benayoun has signed a short-term contract with English Championship club Queen’s Park Rangers. The promotion-chasing London club con� rmed on Tuesday that the former West Ham United, Liverpool and Chelsea player, who had been on trial, had joined the second tier side until the end of the season. “Yossi is a good footballer, a top-class player,” QPR manager Harry Redknapp said. “He’s got great ability and is someone I have always liked. I actually tried to take him to Tottenham at one time. “I think he will be a fantastic addition to the squad.”

–Reuters

Turkey minister slams Mandela T-shirt actionTurkey’s sports minister lashed out on Monday at moves by the football authorities to punish two top Ivorian club players for paying homage to Nelson Mandela. Didier Drogba and Emmanuel Eboue have been threatened with disciplinary action by the Turkish Football Federation for violating a ban on wearing political slogans on T-shirts – triggering outrage on Twitter. Turkish Sports Minister Suat Kilic called on the federation to review its decision against the two star players with Istanbul giant Galatasaray. Drogba removed his club shirt after a match Friday against SB Elazigspor to reveal a T-shirt that read “Thank You Madiba”, using Mandela’s clan name.

–AFP

QUICK BYTES

Ten Cricket

4:30PMSouth Africa v India 3rd ODITen Golf

06:00 PM Nelson Mandela ChampionshipDay 1 Sony Six

NBA7:00AMChicago vs Milwaukee9:30AMLA Lakers vs Phoenix

UEFA Champions League Ten Sports

1:45AM Chelsea v Steaua BucharestTen Action

1:45AM Napoli v Arsenal Ten HD

1:45AMBarcelona v Celtic Neo Prime

3:00AM (Thursday)West Indies Tour of New Zealand 2nd Test, Day 2

DAY’S WATCH

ODIAlastair Cook (captain), Gary Ballance, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Danny Briggs, Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler, Michael Carberry, Steven Finn, Chris Jordan, Eoin Morgan, Boyd Rankin, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, James Tredwell.T20Stuart Broad (captain), Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Danny Briggs, Jos Buttler, Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Alex Hales, Mi-chael Lumb, Eoin Morgan, Boyd Rankin, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, James Tredwell, Luke Wright.

SQUAD

South Africa's players celebrate after winning the Final match against New Zealand in IRB Sevens rugby tournament at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth on Sunday AFP

Bolt, Fraser-Pryce crowned top athletesn AFP, Kingston

Jamaica’s double World Champion-ships sprint gold medalists Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce were on Monday named the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association’s male and female athletes of 2013. Bolt, who was absent due to sponsorship commit-ments o� the island, and Fraser-Pryce,

retained the titles they won last year.Bolt won the 100 metre-200 metre

double at the IAAF World Champion-ships in Moscow earlier this year, and led the 4x100m relay teams to victory as well. Fraser-Pryce also won the dou-ble in the 100m and 200m.

Bolt and Fraser-Pryce were earlier this year named the IAAF male and fe-male athletes of the year. l

Double points to go to winner of � nal Grand Prixn AFP, Paris

Formula One’s governing body has an-nounced a series of changes aimed at making the motor sport more competi-tive and crowd-pleasing.

These include awarding double points for the � nal Grand Prix of the season, which next year takes place in Abu Dhabi on Nov 23, and a numbers identi� cation system for drivers which they will retain throughout their career.

The decision to award double points, counting towards the drivers’ and constructors’ championships, at the � nal race of the season was made “to maximise focus on the champion-ship until the end of the campaign”, ac-cording to a statement from FIA. l

'Johnson can go faster'n AFP, Adelaide

Australian bowling coach Craig McDermott had a chilling warning for England Tuesday – Mitchell Johnson can go even faster on his home ground in Perth.

The fearsome left-arm paceman grabbed his second consecutive man-of-the-match award after a thump-ing win in Adelaide on Monday as the home side took a 2-0 lead in the � ve-Test series.

If Australia win the third Test start-ing in Perth on Friday, they will reclaim the Ashes they lost in 2009 with John-son tipped to take it to another level at a ground where he has claimed 36 wickets at an average of under 20.

The imposing quick, who already has 17 wickets in this series at 12.70,

has bowled at speeds above 150 kph (93 mph) and playing in his home Test should provide even more pace, Mc-Dermott said.

“I’d like to see – at his home ground, being in front of his adopted state, Western Australia – what the adrena-line does to his pace,” McDermott told reporters.

“Not forgetting that it’s not all about speed. It’s about making sure that the ball is in the right spot and that is what Mitchell has done since his return to in-ternational cricket, both in the shorter form and in Test match cricket.

“He has been able to bowl good line or length, mixed up with some very good short-pitched bowling.”

Australia coach Darren Lehmann, who has helped mastermind Austra-lia’s turnaround after their 3-0 series

loss in England earlier this year, said his key task was to keep the 32-year-old � ring on all cylinders.

“He’s been impressive. He’s con� -dent. Our challenge is to keep him go-ing and bowling that way. It’s exciting for Test match cricket,” Lehmann said.

“It’s exciting to see bowlers bowl fast, or spinners turn it square. You’ve got to adapt and improve your tech-nique. It’s always exciting to see guys bowl at those speeds.”

With momentum on their side, Lehmann wants his team to keep on doing what they’ve been doing in Perth.

Lehmann said he expected all-rounder Shane Watson to bowl more in Perth after being used sparingly in Brisbane and Adelaide, where his focus was on his batting. l

'Pakistan players su� ering from home exclusion'n Reuters, Karachi

Playing matches constantly away from home is taking a psychological toll on Pakistan’s players, captain Misbah-ul-Haq said on Monday in urging cricket’s governing body (ICC) to reinstate inter-nationals in his country.

No international teams have toured Pakistan since the 2009 attack by mili-tants on the Sri Lanka team bus in La-hore, leaving Pakistan to host all their home matches at neutral countries.

“You look at the example of Eng-land batsman Jonathan Trott recently and you can imagine what our players are going through... playing away from home constantly for the last � ve years is taking its toll on the players,” he said on a television talk show.

Trott is on an inde� nite break from cricket after ruling himself out of the ongoing Ashes series in Australia with stress-related issues.

Misbah pointed out that many play-ers struggled to be away from home and their families for long periods of time.

“It is not easy for the players to be playing away from home for the last � ve years and it has got its psycho-logical consequences and it has also stopped the growth of our cricket,” Misbah added. l

Pakistan, Sri Lanka tune up for World Twenty20n AFP, Dubai

Sri Lanka and Pakistan will use their two-match series in Dubai starting on Wednesday to size each other up ahead of the World Twenty20 in three months’ time.

Pakistan, fourth in the Twenty20 rankings, are also aiming to topple Sri Lanka from the top of the standings by winning both matches, the second of which takes place on Friday.

“Sri Lanka are a top side so this is in itself a motivation to beat the number one side and if we win both it will lift us to the top of the world,” Pakistan cap-tain Mohammad Hafeez said.

If the series is a 1-1 draw the teams will maintain their current rankings while a 2-0 loss would push Hafeez’s team down to � fth. Pakistan go into the matches well prepared after playing four Twenty20 games against South Africa last month.

They also overcame tough resis-tance from minnows Afghanistan by six wickets in a last ball thriller in Shar-jah on Sunday – the � rst Twenty20 be-

tween the two countries.Pakistan will be at full strength and

boosted by the return of magician o� -spinner Saeed Ajmal, who skipped Sunday’s game to rest back home.

“We leaked quite a few runs against Afghanistan so we will have to be at our best to beat Sri Lanka and Ajmal’s return will help that,” said Hafeez, who was man of the match against Afghani-stan for his 42 not out.

Sri Lanka, led by Dinesh Chandimal, will have to overcome rustiness after most of their recent matches at home were ruined by rain. Last month they beat New Zealand 1-0 with the other match abandoned because of inclem-ent weather.

“The advantage Pakistan’s got is that they have played a lot of inter-national cricket in the last six-eight months whereas unfortunately we haven’t played nearly as much because of weather and various other things,” said coach Graham Ford.

Sri Lanka are hoping their batting will see them through with the experienced

Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangak-kara providing a contrast to Pakistan’s fragile and unpredictable batsmen.

Ajantha Mendis and Sachithra Sena-nayake are the two specialist spinners in the bowling department which is spear-headed by paceman Lasith Malinga.

Pakistan � nished runners-up in the � rst World Twenty20 held in South Af-rica in 2007 before winning the title in England two years later.

Pakistan defeated Sri Lanka in the � -nal at Lord’s – a defeat which Sri Lanka avenged by winning the semi-� nal in Colombo on their way to � nishing run-ners-up in the fourth edition last year.

The � fth edition will be held in Ban-gladesh from March 16 to April 6.

Pakistan’s selectors added 19 year-old left-arm paceman Usman Shinwari to the squad after his impressive per-formance at domestic level.

Shinwari took 5-9 in National Twen-ty20 championship � nal on December 3 in Lahore, which also included Paki-stan’s one-day and Test captain Mis-bah-ul Haq’s scalp. l

England rest senior trio for ODIsn Reuters

England have rested batsman Kevin Pietersen and bowling pair Graeme Swann and James Anderson from their limited-overs squads for the series in Australia starting next month.

Test captain Alastair Cook will lead the 16-man squad in the one-day inter-national series, while paceman Stuart Broad will be in charge of the 15-man Twenty20 squad named on Tuesday.

England will play � ve ODIs and three T20 matches following the � ve-test Ashes series which they trail 2-0.

“This is going to be another month of tough cricket and then a heavy schedule from the West Indies tour onwards,” England coach Andy Flower told reporters on Tuesday.

“Straight after the World T20, the In-

dian Premier League begins and while that’s on, the English season starts. Our players who play all three forms cannot play 12 months a year.

“Guys like Anderson and Pietersen are in their early 30s now and they are prize assets and we need to look after them.

“From a physical perspective, they’re always dealing with various niggles and sometimes they need to be taken out of competition. That is not for them just to rest, it’s so we can max-imise their skills when they do play.”

With the Twenty20 World Cup next year followed by the 50-over World Cup in 2015, the selection will provide opportunities for youngsters to stake their claim.

“We have an important period of limited overs cricket coming up with an ICC World T20 in Bangladesh in March and we are just over a year away from the... World Cup in New Zealand and Australia,” national selector Geo� Miller said in a statement. l

Australia pacer Mitchell Johnson celebrates their victory over England in the second Ashes Test in Adelaide on Monday AFP

March 16 : Australia (Melbourne)March 30 : Malaysia (Sepang)April 6 : Bahrain (Sakhir)April 20 : China (Shanghai)May 11 : Spain (Barcelona)May 25 : Monaco (Monte Carlo)June 8 : Canada (Montreal)June 22 : Austria (Red Bull Ring)July 6 : Great Britain (Silverstone)July 20 : Germany (Hockenheim)July 27 : Hungary (Budapest)August 24 : Belgium (Spa-Francorchamps)Sep 7 : Italy (Monza)Sep 21 : Singapore (Marina Bay)Oct 5 : Japan (Suzuka)Oct 12 : Russia (Sochi)Nov 2 : United States (Austin)Nov 9 : Brazil (Interlagos, Sao Paulo)Nov 23 : Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina)

2014 F1 CALENDAR

Now Molla’s wife shows victory sign n Udisa Islam

The time by the clock on the outer wall of the Dhaka Central Jail was exactly 7:51pm, when death row war crimi-nal Quader Molla’s family members stepped through the gates of jail.

Apart from only the children, every-one knew that it could be the last time they were going to meet Molla. They knew that he was going to be hanged in just a few hours.

But a “victory sign” came from vir-tually nowhere as Molla’s wife Sanoara Jahan used the index and the middle � ngers on her right hand to make a ges-ture that is generally made when some-one wins something.

She made the gesture before she even met her husband.

Her son Hasan Jamil explained: “Of course we have won. My father did not harm people and he was not served jus-tice. So, my mother showed this sign.”

“If we do not, then who will show this?” was his rhetoric question.

After Molla’s execution was stayed by the chamber judge around 10:30pm, Jamil told the Dhaka Tribune that it was a signal from Allah.

Ten months ago, Molla, also known as the “Butcher of Mirpur,” made the very same gesture for victory, when the International Crimes Tribunal pronounced lifetime imprisonment for the crimes against humanity that he committed during the 1971 Liberation War.

The Jamaat leader’s family members entered the prison only half an hour after State Minister for Home Shamsul Haque Tuku said Molla would be executed by last night. They were told by the prison authorities in a letter to come and visit him by 8pm.

“Your husband has been given death penalty. He is now in the Dhaka Central

Jail. Please come with your family by 8pm to meet him,” read the letter that was marked “very urgent.”

Molla’s Son Hasan Jamil con� rmed receiving the letter.

A total of 23 members of the war criminal’s family including his son, four daughters, their husbands and his brother-in-law entered the prison, where they stayed for an hour or so.

When they came out of the jail around 8:56pm, Jamil termed the exe-cution “political killing.”

He also said his father’s physical and mental conditions were complete-ly stable and he had told them to not worry.

According to Jamil, Molla also told them: “I was your guardian until today. Now God will take over the duty. This is your good fortune. I am facing this des-tiny only because of my involvement with Islamic movement.”

Jamil quoted his father as saying he would not have been hanged had he not been involved with the movement and those who had been trying to hand him by force would have to su� er. The “Islamic revolution” would take the “revenge.”

When asked about seeking presiden-tial clemency, Molla said he thought he would get more time to think, said his daughter Parvin.

“But suddenly at night, the govern-ment decided to hang him. Now it does not mean anything to us. Father’s last word was: ‘by establishing an Islamic state, we will take revenge someday’,” Parvin said. l

16 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, December 11, 2013

‘No promotion without exams’ n Rabiul Islam and Mushfi que Wadud

The government has no plan to give au-tomatic promotion to school students without taking annual examinations despite the volatile political situation in the country, the education minister said yesterday. “Despite hurdles, we are determined to take all annual ex-aminations and the students, guard-ians and teachers should not have any confusion,” Nurul Islam Nahid told re-porters at his secretariat o� ce. l

Government to please public servants after pollsNewly formed pay commission meets Muhith todayn Asif Showkat Kallol

The government is mulling over a plan to satisfy 13 lakh public servants after the general election as it has failed to announce a permanent pay scale.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith will hold a meeting with the newly formed pay and service commission today at his secretariat o� ce to review the salaries of public servants within a short time, a senior o� cial of the � nance division said yesterday.

The o� cial also said the government wants to give the public servants some kinds of assurance of implementing the new pay scale after the general election scheduled to be held on January 5.

The � nance minister two days back said an announcement of separate pay scale for the employees of Bangladesh

Bank and four state-run banks was not possible under the polls-time government.

“It will violate the electoral code of conduct if the government announces the separate pay scale this time,” the minister also said.

The implementation wing of the � nance ministry issued a circular on November 24 that said the newly formed pay and service commission would prepare a recommendation within six months.

Sources in the � nance division said as the government is now in fund crisis with foreign assistances declining and revenue earning drying out due to hartal and back-to-back blockades it cannot provide maximum fund for the new pay scale.

The � nance division has now allocated Tk17, 000 crore for payment

of the salaries along with 20% dearness allowance for public servants a year.

But the allocation will go beyond Tk20, 000 crore if the newly formed commission gives any allowance to the public servants, according to the � nance division.

Former governor of Bangladesh Bank Dr Mohammad Farashuddin, also the chairman of the pay commission, yesterday said the � nance minister wanted to meet the chairman and member of newly formed commission today at his secretariat o� ce as he gave some directives on recommendations of the new pay scale.

A 17-member commission was formed on November 24 comprised of three permanent and 12 temporary members. A joint secretary will act as the commission member

secretary and commission will start its operation from December 17 as per the circular.

On October 30, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said the Pay and Services Commission (PSC) would examine the wage disparities and suggest ways to remove them.

On October 6, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced a 20% increase in dearness allowance at � at rate for government employees which is an extra burden of Tk5000 crore in current � scal year budget.

The government issued a gazette noti� cation the next day granting the dearness allowance with retrospective e� ect from July 1.

The Seventh Pay Commission was formed in 2007 during the caretaker regime and public servants got a hike on July 1, 2009. l

The birth of our bannern Sharafat Hussain

For this Victory Day, Bangladesh prepares to break the world record for the largest human � ag at the Army Parade Grounds, where more than 30,000 volunteers will stand and hold red or green placards.

We all know our beloved red and green. But how many of us know the story?

On June 7, 1970, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was scheduled to attend a march past at the Paltan Maidan for election campaign.

The day before, student leaders gath-ered at the Zohurul Haque Hall of Dhaka University and decided to make a � ag for him. Kazi Aref Ahmed proposed re-moving the crescent and star from the Pakistan � ag, and replacing it with the red circle. He also suggested a yellow map of East Pakistan in the centre.

The idea was enthusiastically em-braced by those present at the historic meeting, including ASM Abdur Rob, Shahjahan Siraj, Marshal Manirul Islam and Swapan Kumar Choudhury from Dhaka University; Nazrul Islam from Ja-gannath College; Comilla Chhatra League General Secretary and central leader Shib Narayan Das, Buet’s Chhatra League’s Hasanul Haq Inu and Yusuf Salauddin.

With a matchstick and yellow paint, Shib Narayan Das sketched the map on to the green and red.

Deep into the night, master tailor Khalek Mohammadi sewed the � ag in his shop, located next to the Chhatra League o� ce on the third � oor of the Balaka Tower in the New Market area.

By dawn, the new � ag was complete. After independence, Quamrul Has-san redesigned it. The basic design re-mained the same, but the red circle took on a deeper signi� cance as a representa-tion of the bloody Liberation War. l

Do you know: Who � rst hoisted the Bangladesh � ag?

Email your answer to info@dhakatri-bune.com for a chance to win passes to the World’s Largest Human Flag on De-cember 16, and see history in the making

Hartal: Jamaat activist killed in Naogaonn Tribune Report

A Jamaat-e-Islami activist was killed and 20 injured in a clash with lo-cal businessmen, backed by Awami League men, in Raninagar upazila of Naogaon yesterday.

The skirmish broke out when local businessmen and Awami League ac-tivists tried to prevent the Jamaat men from vandalising shops and vehicles from a procession which was brought out against the death warrant issued against their leader and war criminal Quader Mollah

Five vehicles, including a motorcy-cle, and seven shops were vandalised by the Jamaat men during the clash at Abadpukur intersection around 4:30pm and lasted for over an hour. Injured jamaat activist Shukbar Ali, 60, died on his way to the Rajshahi Medical College Hospital.

OC of Raninagar police station Ab-dullah Al Masud said both groups used lethal weapons.

Apart from the Naogaon clash, the Jamaat enforced hartal and the fourth day of the BNP-led 18-party opposition combine’s countrywide blockade were marked by incidents such as attack on police and ambulance, arson, vandal-ism and clashes. A few incidents were reported in the capital as well.

Our correspondent in Rajshahi re-ported that Shibir men beat up three policemen including Motihar police station OC Abdul Majid and constables Miraz and Rezaul in the morning.

The incident happened when the police team went to the Binodpur Ba-zar area to bar a procession. The Shibir men snatched a shotgun from a consta-ble and beat up the cops leaving one of Majid’s legs broken.

Later additional police rushed to the scene and rescued their injured col-leagues. The � rearm was found aban-doned beside a road. A total of 19 Shibir men were picked in raids at di� erent places in connection with the attack.

In Chapainawabganj, pickets van-dalised an ambulance and beat up the patient and his relatives in the Koila-bari area. Local people rescued them and took them to the Rajshahi Medical College Hospital in critical conditions.

In Natore, BNP-Jamaat men vandal-ised eight trucks on the Natore-Dhaka highway when they were passing the area under police protection. The ma-rauding men also attacked police, van-dalised a police van and injured a consta-ble. The incident that took place around 12am, also left nine blockaders injured.

Almost at the same time, blockaders vandalised 22 fertilizer-laden trucks at Sheikh Para bazar under Shailkupa up-azila of Jhenaidah.

In Sylhet, Shibir activists torched a CNG-run auto-rickshaw in Shah-e Ei-dgah area and vandalised a truck and four auto-rickshaws in Majumdari and Kajolshah.

Police, meanwhile, have acquired

a list of � nancers of subversive activ-ities after raiding a mess of Shibir at Dharshandewri in Sylhet city. A huge stack of jihadi books and lea� ets were recovered from the place.

In Khulna, a BNP activist named He-lal, 47, died in cardiac arrest while tak-ing part in a procession at Khalishpur.

In Satkhira, a crude bomb blast on the house of union parishad level BNP leader Nur Mohammad left him injured late Monday night.

In the capital, two Sewachchasebok Dal men were arrested and awarded six months jail after they had been caught red handed with bombs soon after they blasted seven bombs at Armanitola in old Dhaka. l

Another Padma bridge deal signedn Mohosinul Karim

The government yesterday signed a contract with the construction � rm Ab-dul Monem Limited for the construc-tion of the service area-2 at Jajira point of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Construction Project.

The � rm will construct resort, reception buildings, supervision o� ces, 30 duplex houses, health centre, power sub-station etc under the project.

The construction work of the main bridge will start by next May or June, Communication Minister Obaidul Quader said at the contract signing.

“The government has already taken preparation to start the construction work. The tender documents will be received on December 19.”

The programme was held at Setu Bhabanin the city.

Project Director of the Padma Mul-tipurpose Bridge Construction Project Sha� qul Islam and Director of the Ab-dul Monem Limited Abid Habib signed the contract on behalf of their respec-tive organisations.

According to the contract, the con-struction � rm will complete their work at the expense of TK2.09b by 912 days.

Bridge Division Secretary Khanda-karAnwarul Islam and other high o� -cials attended the programme. l

A passerby helps a policeman, left, injured in a sudden attack by Jamaat-Shibir activists in Rajshahi yesterday; Jamaat-Shibir activists swoop on two policemen, right, in Rajshahi during yesterday’s hartal in the district DHAKA TRIBUNE

Key Sayedee witness diesn Mohammad Jamil Khan and

Udisa Islam

A key prosecution witness against war crimes convict Delawar Hossain Sayedee succumbed to injuries at Dhaka Medical College Hospital early yesterday, two days after he had received stab injuries allegedly by some Jamaat-Shibir activists at his Pirojpur home.

“Victim Mostafa Hawlader died around 12:10am at the intensive care unit,” Dr M Abdur Rahman, professor and head of ICU, told the Dhaka Tribune.

About the injury, Prof Md Zillur Rah-man of neurosurgery department at the DMCH said Mostafa had been su� ering from sharp cutting injuries. Some bones of his head were broken due to the hit by sharp weapons while the brain damaged causing bleeding.

“We conducted a surgery on his head for three hours at noon to stop the bleed-ing and remove the broken pieces of bones,” he told the Dhaka tribune. “Lat-er, we shifted him immediately to the ICU.”

Contacted, Dr Kazi Abu Sama, assis-tant professor of the forensic depart-ment, who prepared the autopsy report, cut o� the phone when the Dhaka Tri-bune enquired her about the death.

A source at the department con� rmed that the victim had died following a hit by something heavy on the head.

Eighth witness in the Sayedee, Mosta-fa, 58, and his wife came under attack by some miscreants at his resident in Hogla-bunia area of Zianagar in Pirojpur around 3am on Sunday.

Early last year, he gave deposition at the International Crimes Tribunal 1 on charge eight which was related with the murder of Ibrahim Kutti. And on his eye-witness testimony, the tribunal gave Sayedee the death penalty.

After the attack, they were taken to Pirojpur General Hospital and then to Khulna Medical College Hospital. Mo-

stafa was later sent to the DMCH as his condition deteriorated.

The attack came within a week of withdrawing police protection from Mo-stafa’s house.

Similarly, over 200 Jamaat-Shibir ac-tivists vandalised the house of plainti� of the Sayedee case and witness Mah-bubul Alam Hawlader in Pirojpur on Oc-tober 28.

Kuddus Hawlader, brother of Mosta-fa, told the Dhaka Tribune that it had been a pre-planned attack perpetrated by some Jamaat-Shibir men who earlier threatened his brother with dire conse-quences.

He alleged that the police had played mysterious role on the day of incident police. They reached the house late and mentioned the incident a burglary at-tempt.

Victim’s wife Hasina Begum also held the Jamaat supporters responsible for the “planned” attack, which she said was launched as her husband had given

deposition against Sayedee. She demanded execution of the war

criminal , punishment of her husband’s killers and security of her family and oth-er witnesses.

Hasina made the appeals before State Minister for Law Quamrul Islam, who visited the morgue yesterday noon.

Quamrul later told reporters that it was not possible to ensure round-the-clock security to protect the witnesses from the attacks of Jamaat-Shibir men as “they usually conduct secret attacks. Ev-eryone should come forward and stand against them.”

Ha� z Hawlader, son of the victim, suspected that it was an act of Sayedee followers who earlier had issued threats several times. “We also � led several gen-eral diaries with Zianagar police station.”

After the attack, Ha� z told another Sayedee witness Ruhul Amin Nobin that he had recognised two of the three at-tackers to be BNP and Jamaat activists.

Abdul Mazid Hawlader, younger

brother of the victim � led a case with Zi-anagar police on Monday accusing some unidenti� ed people.

Contacted, Pirojpur Police Superin-tendent Akhteruzzaman told the Dhaka Tribune that the police had already raid-ed several areas of the district and arrest-ed six persons.

Asked if the incident took place be-cause of police’s negligence, he said: “We are also investigation this issue. If we � nd any irregularities, we will take stern action.”

Yesterday, the International Crimes Tribunal 1 expressed concerns over the killing of witness Mostafa. It ordered necessary steps to protect the witnesses. “Every in the world, there is witness pro-tection law and for this type of special court, it is very much necessary,” said the tribunal headed by Justice ATM Fa-zle Kabir.

The tribunal then enquired the pros-ecution about the steps the government had taken in this connection.

Prosecutor Mokhlesur Rahman said the team had talks with the home min-istry, the tribunal’s investigation agency and other relevant ministries. “We will arrange another meeting with them.”

He then pleaded to the tribunal seek-ing a suo moto order on the matter. The tribunal said it could not do so as a trial court. “If you [prosecution] submit any petition, then we can go issue an order.”

In a statement yesterday, rights group Ain o Salish Kendra demanded that the government bring attackers to justice and ensure security of all witnesses of the war crimes cases.

Abdur Razzak, chief counsel for Sayedee and also Jamaat assistant sec-retary general, yesterday condemned the attack. “This is a cowardly attack on a witness which will be detrimental to the rule of law. It is the duty of the state to ensure security of all prosecution and defence witnesses who depose before the tribunal,” he said in a statement. l

Ten months ago, Molla, also known as the “Butcher of Mirpur,” made the very same gesture for victory

Wife of Mostafa Hawlader, who succumbed to his injuries after being hacked allegedly by Jamaat activists on Sunday, bursts into tears at Dhaka Medical College Hospital yesterday. Mostafa was a witness against Delawar Hossain Sayedee 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

Continue to the Business section...

Business

Businesswww.dhakatribune.com/business WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2013

IMF: FY14 tax collection to remain � at at 10.5% of GDPStocks rally on hope for political solution

B3

B2

RMG sector wants low cost loan to pay workersProlonged political unrest sends them to the verge of becoming sick industryn Tribune Report

Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Ex-porters Association (BGMEA) has demanded low cost loans to pay wages for next four months as they were facing fund shortage due to failure of shipment caused by the po-litical unrest.

The loans could be given through creating a special packing credit (PC), they said.

BGMEA President M Atiqul Islam de-manded the loan for a period between No-vember and February next to be adjusted by next two years.

He said textile, garments and backward linkage industry should not be classi� ed in next two years from Q4 of 2013. He also ap-pealed to block the term loan, project loan, loan against trustee receipt, Murabah Post Import (MPI) and installment without any interest for next two years.

Atiq made the appeal at a views exchange meeting with owners of private and state-

owned commercial banks and insurance companies in Dhaka yesterday, aimed at dis-cussing the current scenario of RMG sector.

“Their demands are not unrealistic. If possible, I would do this for the sector,” said Bangladesh Association of Banks (BAB) Pres-ident Nazrul Islam Mazumder. “But there are limitations as the bankers cannot do, what they want.”

The banks’ managing directors have lots of limitations as they cannot waive interest of a person or can make a person classi� ed as there are some guidelines under which they are controlled, he added.

The BGMEA president said they would take decision after having meeting with the MDs and chairmen and if the � nance minis-try and Bangladesh Bank allow us to do that.

“We are becoming sick because of sick politics. Please, shun the confrontational politics and let us do business for the sake of the country.” FBCCI President Kazi Akramud-din Ahmed urged banks to do everything for

the sake of the RMG sector, even making low pro� ts. He said: “We will sit with the propos-al and try to do our best.”

“The problem is political unrest, which is going on since last year and it left everyone in trouble. It would be very tough to over-come the deadlock if we do not work togeth-er,” said former BGMEA President Anwarul Alam Chowdhury Parvez.

Urging his fellow Parvez said “Come for-ward and give tremendous pressures to the political parties. We need political stability to do businesses,” he advised Atiq to mount pressure from the BGMEA.

“We cannot negotiate prices with buyers and cannot produce products in the factory, but wages has been increased. How we pay the wages of the workers?”

The businessmen sought pledges from the political parties that they would avoid con-frontational politics in future and the prom-ise should be made in their election manifes-toes, said Sha� ul Islam Mohiuddin, former

BGMEA President. “If the businessmen took to the streets,

you (the politicians) would not get the chance to sit in the parliament,” said AKM Salim Osman, BKMEA President.

A garment owner demanded Bangladesh Bank to relax the guideline of loan classi� ca-tion for a certain period to give a cushion to the country’s readymade garment sector.

The apex trade body for the apparel sec-tor also demanded insurance coverage from factory to Chittagong port and also urged the insurers to set a little charge as premium.

Meanwhile, a delegation from BGMEA, BKMEA and BTMA is scheduled to meet Fi-nance Minister AMA Muhith today to place their demands.

Earlier on Monday, Muhith sat with lead-ers of Bangladesh Association of Banks (BAB) to be informed about the banking sector and what the government banks could do to solve the RMG sector problems created due to the political unrest. l

BTRC to sue six IGWs for duesCriminal cases will be � led against the operators which have ceased to operate and pay Tk613 croren Muhammad Zahidul Islam

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission is going to sue six international gateway operators which have ceased to op-erate and pay their outstanding Tk613 crore as revenue sharing amount plus annual li-cence fee.

Of the amount, the outstanding licence fees of these six operators total Tk45 crore.

Launched in October 2012, the six IGW operators have shared only Tk71.5 crore rev-enue with BTRC.

Since October this year, the six IGW com-panies are not in operation.

According to IGW guideline, the operators are required to pay 51.75% of revenue to the telecom regulator. The guideline says the IGWs can earn 3 US cents per minute in in-coming international calls.

BTRC said the total outstanding revenue sharing amount plus annual licence fees of all 29 IGW operators stand at Tk1,115 crore.

“We are preparing to � le criminal cases against the directors and the owners of those six IGWs,” a high o� cial of BTRC told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

He added BTRC’s legal consultant � rms have already given a report recommending to � le criminal cases against the operators.

Apart from criminal cases, BTRC also

wants to sue the IGW companies under Pub-lic Demands Recovery Act (PDRA).

But the o� cial said case under PDRA would be a lengthy process and that’s why the regulator would also � le criminal cases.

Among the IGW operators, Vision Tel Ltd is the highest defaulter with Tk146.5 crore.

BTRC sends a recommendation today to the government to cancel licence of Vision Tel Ltd which didn’t pay Tk146.5 crore.

Earlier, the regulator also recommended cancelling licences of another two IGW com-panies. They are Telex Ltd and Ratul Tele-com Ltd.

Telex Ltd had not paid even a penny since its operation. The operators’ dues amount to Tk92.5 crore.

Ratul Telecom Ltd owes Tk96.5 crore to BTRC. Syeda Amrin Rakhi, daughter of former LGRD state minister Jahangir Kabir Nanak, has 50% stakes in Ratul Telecom. Her mother Syeda Arzuman Banu has 20%

shares.Former telecom minister Advocate Sha-

hara Khatun “permitted” the operator to pay dues in instalments although the minister had no such authority.

The deadline of � rst instalment expired on November 30. BTRC allowed them anoth-er 25 days.

Ratul Telecom paid a total of Tk19 crore during past 15 months.

Kay Telecommunications Ltd, fully owned by ruling party leader Shamim Osman of Narayanganj, only paid Tk9 crore.

The company didn’t pay Tk91.5 crore. Few days back, Shamim Osman reported-

ly managed to transfer his shares to anoth-er person. Bestec Telecom Ltd and Apple GlobalTel Com Ltd owe respectively Tk127.5 crore and Tk58.5 crore to BTRC.

They paid only Tk6 crore and Tk9.5 crore respectively under revenue sharing guide-line in last 15 months. l

Cabinet body okays imports of wheatand fertilisern Tribune report

Cabinet committee on public purchase ap-proved proposals to import wheat and fer-tiliser.

In the meeting held yesterday, it also okayed a proposal of appointing a consultant for a railway project.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith chaired the meeting, also attended by Minister for Land, Relief and Disaster Management Amir Hossain Amu and Minister for Industries, Housing and Public Works Tofail Ahmed.

Food Ministry made the proposal of im-porting 50,000 tonnes of wheat.

Vitol Asia (pvt) Ltd will supply the bulk wheat at a cost of around Tk124 crore as the price was set at US$313.92 per tonne.

Industries Ministry proposed to import 50,000 tonnes of prilled urea fertiliser.

Of the bulk import, Desh Trading Corpo-ration will supply 25,000 tonnes of fertiliser through Chittagong Port at a cost of Tk75.14 crore as the price was set at $383.40 per tonne.

The same company will supply the rest 25,000 tonnes of fertiliser through Mongla Port at a cost of Tk75.91 crore. The price of per tonne urea fertiliser was � xed at $387.30.

Railways Ministry made a proposal to appoint SMEC in joint venture Canrail as su-pervision consultant for Asian Development Bank-� nanced Railway Sector Development Project. l

Nesar Uddin passes awayIslami Bank Bangla-desh Limited (IBBL) Assistant Vice Pres-ident Nesar Uddin Ahmad died of liver cirrhosis and cancer on Monday (Inna Lillahi Wa Inna Il-aihe Raziun). He Joined IBBL in 1985 and was 53 at the time of departure. He left behind his wife, a son, a dauger and well wishers.

IBBL Chairman Prof Abu Nasser Muham-mad Abduz Zaher and Managing Director Mohammad Abdul Mannan expressed deep sorrow at his death. They also condoled the bereaved family of the deceased. Doa Mu-nazat was conducted at the head o� ce and branches of the Bank praying for salvation of his departed soul. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE Business2 WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2013

Airtel and Golden Harvest sign agreementAirtel Bangladesh Limited has signed an agreement with Golden Harvest Group. Dur-ing the signing ceremony, Chief Operating O� cer of Airtel Bangladesh Limited Rajnish Kaul exchanged documents with Managing Director of Golden Harvest Group Ahmed Rajeeb Samdani.

Director of Golden Harvest Group Mohius

Samad Choudhury, Vice President Finance Nirmal Chandra Sardar, HR Manager Nusrat Rabbani and Head of Corporate and SME Sales of Airtel Bangladesh Ltd. Md. Adil Hos-sain, Manager Corporate Sales Md. Touhidul Islam, Key Account Manager Md. Tanvir Sad-eque were also present during the signing ceremony. l

Mercantile Bank Limited (MBL) signed a ‘Term Sheet’ with IDLC Finance Limited Recently. Under the agreement, IDLC Finance Limited will act as ‘Arranger’ for issuing ‘Coupon Bearing Subordinated Bond’ worth Tk 3 Bn by MBL. MBL Managing Director & CEO M Ehsanul Haque and IDLC Finance Limited CEO & Managing Director Selim R F Hussain signed the Term Sheet on behalf of their respective organisations. Among others, MBL AMD Monindra Kumar Nath, DMD M A Yousuf Khan, Md Quamrul Islam Chowdhury, Mohammad Masoom and IDLC Finance Ltd DGM Mesbah Uddin Ahmed were present on the occasion

15th meeting of SIBL Securities Ltd (SIBLSL) was held at the board room of the bank recently. SIBLSL chairman Abdul Awal Patwary Chaired the meeting. Board of directors were also present in the meeting

Standard Bank Ltd holds EC meeting The 1111th Meeting of the Executive Com-mittee (EC) of the Board of Directors (BOD) of Standard Bank Ltd (SBL) was held in the board room at the head o� ce on December 7. The EC Chairman Alhaj Mohammad Sham-sul Alam presided over the meeting. It was attended by Committee Members Kamal Mostafa Chowdhury, Ferozur Rahman, S A M Hossain, Mohammed Abdul Aziz & Gulzar Ahmed. Among others Managing Director Md Nazmus Salehin, DMD & Group Company Secretary A F M Nizamul Islam Chowdhury and DMD Mamun-Ur Rashid were also pres-ent in the meeting. l

JBL Recruitment test has been adjournedRecruitment test of Probationary o� cer of Jamuna Bank Limited has been adjourned due to unavoidable circumstances. Exami-nation date and time will be noti� ed later. l

IMF: FY14 tax collection to remain � at at 10.5% of GDPSlow economic activities due to hartals and blockades may cause revenue shortfalln Asif Showkat Kallol

International Monetary Fund has projected the tax-to-GDP ratio of Bangladesh would re-main � at at about 10.50% in the current � scal year due to slowing economy amidst hartal and ongoing back to back blockades for last couple of months.

“A slowing economy in hartal-related dis-ruptions and political uncertainly contribut-ed to lower than programmed tax revenue outturns for � scal year 2012-2013. The tax revenues will be downward in relation to GDP despite these in� uences expected to unwind gradually,” according to a latest IMF review.

IMF released the report on safeguarding � scal sustainability, marking the approval of the fourth instalment of Extended Credit Fa-cility loans recently.

The government set a target to achieve a tax-GDP ratio of 14.2 % of GDP in the current � scal year despite having the challenges of the political unrest and apparel factory col-lapse at Savar.

The IMF report says the ratio is projected to remain � at at about 10.5% between � scal year 2011-12 and 2013-14, with a decline of revenue from import taxes of 0.4% of GDP o� set by gains in income taxes, boosted by automation.

The revenue ratio is projected to increase slightly in 2014-15 � scal and then more de-cisively beyond the program period with the launch of VAT, it said.

National Board of Revenue (NBR) o� cials said the revenue board risks falling short of Tk10,000 crore to Tk13,000 crore from its revenue collection target set for the current � scal year if the prevailing business situa-tion does not improve due to back to back

blockade and normalcy returns to power the economy.

The gloomy outlook on revenue earnings for whole of 2013-14 � scal has recently been apprised of the � nance ministry by the NBR after the main revenue generator falling short of target by about Tk3,120 crore during July-October period, they said .

NBR Chairman Md Ghulam Hussain told Dhaka Tribune they would not be able to maintain the revenue growth at 16% from the last � scal year due to political unrest and uncertainty.

“We will estimate the actual revenue earnings situation after December to see the magnitude of shortfall in the slow down economic activities during hartals and block-ades,” he said.

The government set a revenue collec-tion target of Tk136,090 crore for the cur-rent � scal year from the NBR portion with highest Tk51,000 crore envisaged to be col-lected from VAT, Tk48,300 crore in income tax, Tk35,790 crore in customs duties and Tk1,000 crore in other taxes. l

Oil prices risein Asian traden AFP, Singapore

Oil prices rebounded in Asian trade yester-day, with strong US economic data lifting in-vestor sentiment, analysts said.

New York’s main contract, West Texas In-termediate (WTI) for January delivery, was up 32 cents at $97.66 a barrel in afternoon trade, while Brent North Sea crude for Janu-ary rose 45 cents to $109.84.

“Crude oil continued to rally dueto optimistic US economic data, whichlifted markets,” Phillip Futures said in a com-mentary.

The US jobless rate fell sharply to a � ve-year-low of 7% in November and the econ-omy generated 203,000 jobs - well above expectations - providing further evidence of the gathering strength of the world’s biggest economy.

Those upbeat numbers followeddata showing the US economy grewat a speedy annual rate of 3.6% in the third quarter.

Phillip Futures said the results indicate demand in the world’s largest consumer of crude oil will lead to a pick-up in prices.

Other analysts said bargain-hunting had also helped bolster prices, which tumbled sharply the previous day.

Brent crude declined $2.22 in London trade Monday, weighed by weaker German industrial output. l

We will estimate the actual revenue earnings situation after December to see the magnitude of shortfall in the slow down economic activities during hartals and blockades

BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE 3WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2013

Stocks rally on hope for political solutionn Tribune Report

Stocks rose yesterday on growing hope for a political solution amid an initiative taken by the United Nations.

The rally was led by � nancial stocks that per-formed well than any other sectors on the day.

The benchmark DSEX rallied almost 40 points or 1% to close at 4,329, after edging lower over the previous session. The blue chip index DS30 added nearly 5 points or 0.4% to settle at 1,500.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange Selec-tive Categories Index, CSCX, also gained 86 points to 8,500.

Trading activities continued to increase with total DSE turnover hitting Tk746 crore, highest in last two weeks and 15.2% higher over the previous session.

Soaring market capitalisation in the bank-

ing sector in the last hour of trading session has led the market to register positive return, said Lanka Bangla Securities in its analysis.

First two hours of trading was quite vol-atile as investors lacked direction of the market, but later jumped in the last hour of trading, it said. “Investors get queued up in buy side whenever there is a probability of a peaceful resolution between the two major political parties in near future.”

The visiting UN assistant secretary general for political a� airs Oscar Fernandez-Taranco is trying to pursue political parties to reach in consensus over the national election sched-uled for early January.

Positive export performance in spite of political turmoil fueled con� dence among investors, according to IDLC Investment.

The market breadth also remained posi-tive as out of 289 issues traded, 210 gained,

71 declined and 8 remained unchanged on the prime bourse.

Heavy weight banks and non-banking � -nancial institutions ended 1.55% and 2.51% higher respectively. The largest exporting sector textile showed much enthusiasm, gaining more than 1%.

The other major sectors – pharmaceuti-cals, telecommunications, life insurance and power – closed in red.

Generation Next Fashions was the most traded stock of the session with a turnover of Tk400m changing hands.

Other turnover leaders were Paramount Textile, Golden Son, Golden Harvest Agro Industries Ltd, Delta Life Insurance, Lanka Bangla Finance, Central Pharmaceuticals, Argon Denim and RN Spinning.

The top three accounted for 13.4% of the total market turnover. l

3 companies � ned for price manipulation n Tribune Report

The securities regulator has � ned three com-panies Tk23,00,000 for manipulating CVO Petro Chemical Re� nery Limited scrips.

The scrips have been manipulated be-tween April and August last when prices of those jumped by more than 100% to over Tk634 per share.

Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Com-mission (BSEC) has found a bank, an issue management company and a brokerage � rm indulged in in� uencing price hike of the scrips, said the regulator in a statement yesterday.

It said for playing role in abnormal share price hike of CVO Petro Chemical, Bangladesh Development Bank was � ned Tk10,00,000, Prime Finance Capital Management Ltd Tk7,00,000 and PFI Securities Tk5,00,000.

The commission has also decided to ap-point a chartered accountant � rm to carry out a special audit of the company.

Share trading of the CVO Petro Chemi-cal remained suspended since September 24 when the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) opened probe into the abnormal price hike in the low cap company’s stock.

The company reported a net pro� t after tax of Tk47,40,000 with earnings per share of Tk0.26 during January-March period.

On September 15, the BSEC had launched a probe against CVO Petrochemical and other low cap companies, including Mithun Knit-ting, Tallu Spinning, JMI Syringes and Med-ical Devices, Alhaj Textiles, Bangas, Modern Dyeing and Anawar Galvanising for the unu-sual hike of their share prices.

The BSEC investigative team has recently submitted their probe reports against those low cap companies’ unusual share price rise. An o� cial said the team found some institu-tion involved with the price manipulation of the low cap companies. l

Dollar up in Asia after Fed o� cial’s stimulus hintn AFP, Tokyo

The dollar edged up in Asia yesterday, after big gains in New York as a Federal Reserve o� cial hinted that the US central bank could announce a winding down of its stimulus programme as early as next week.

The greenback turned up to 103.30 yen in afternoon trading, against 103.28 yen in New York and well up from the levels around 103 yen earlier Monday in Tokyo.

The euro gained to $1.3756 from $1.3737 while it also rose to 142.08 yen from 141.89 yen in US trading.

On Monday, James Bullard, the president of the Fed’s St. Louis branch, said in a speech that “a small taper” of the $85bn a month as-set-purchase programme might be a possibil-ity as policymakers wrestle with how to re-spond to signs of improvement in the world’s biggest economy.

A strong third-quarter growth report and surprisingly upbeat November jobs data last week boosted speculation the Fed may start reeling in the scheme after a policy meeting that ends next Wednesday.

The US unit has been rising for weeks on expectations of a pullback, which would re-duce the number of dollars in the � nancial system, boosting demand.

“Markets are becoming increasingly ac-customed to the idea of an imminent Fed tapering as re� ected in ongoing gains in risk

assets,” Credit Agricole said, adding that Fed o� cials’ comments have “on balance sup-ported the view of beginning tapering sooner rather than later”.

Strong Chinese economic data has helped boost con� dence among investors who are looking to US retail sales report for Novem-ber.

The yen has been under pressure after weak Japanese growth data on Monday boosted expectations that the Bank of Japan will launch another round of monetary eas-ing to prop up the economy.

The euro has been notching up gains after the European Central Bank last week held o� any new interest rate cuts despite prolonged low in� ation.

That followed the ECB’s surprise cut last month of its central re� nancing rate by a quarter-point to counter the threat of de� a-tion.

“The euro has gained a reputation as an unsellable currency, with the currency con-tinuing to hold its ‘Te� on’ coating,” Credit Agricole said.

However, it said an easier monetary poli-cy at the ECB and soft economic growth com-pared with the United States suggested there would be some depreciation in the euro.

The dollar was mixed against other Asia-Paci� c currencies.

It weakened to 32.10 Thai baht from 32.14 baht the previous day, to 1,052.60 South Korean won from 1,053.35 won, and to Sg$1.2494 from Sg$1.2510.

The greenback strengthened to 61.22 In-dian rupees from 61.04 rupees, to 11,990 In-donesian rupiah from 11,980 rupiah, to 44.29 Philippines pesos from 43.97 pesos, and to Tw$29.56 from Tw$29.55.

The Australian dollar was unchanged at 91.07 US cents, while the Chinese yuan bought 17.01 yen from 16.93 yen. l

BSEC okays IPO, rights o� ern Tribune Report

Matin Spinning Mills Ltd has got green signal from the securities regulator to raise Tk126 crore from the stock market.

Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Com-mission (BSEC) approved the textile compa-ny’s IPO (initial public o� ering) to expand its business and to meet expenses of IPO process, said the regulator in a statement yesterday.

It will issue Tk3.41 crore ordinary shares val-ued Tk37 each, including premium of Tk27. The company’s earnings per share stood at Tk3.43 and net asset value of Tk35.73, according to its � nancial statement as of June 30, 2013. IDLC Investment is serving as the issue manager.

It will be 33rd textile company to be listed with the Dhaka Stock Exchange.

The commission also approved a rights of-fer by Aramit Cement Ltd to issue more than 1.7 crore ordinary shares of Tk15 each, in-cluding Tk5, to raise over Tk25.5 crore from its investors. It o� ers one rights share for one existing share.

The raised money will be used for procure-ment of local spares, accessories, civil work, erection and commissioning, and repayment of bank’s term loan and other liabilities. lBanks asked to

maintain CRR,SLR separately n Tribune Report

Bangladesh Bank has asked the scheduled banks to maintain cash reserve requirement (CRR) and statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) sep-arately.

The banks will now have to report in a new prescribed format with e� ect from Feb-ruary 1 next year, said a circular.

The conventional banks have to maintain CRR at 13% on daily basis and for the Shari-ah-based Islamic banks at 5.5%.

Currently, the conventional banks main-tain the SLR at 19%, including the CRR.

On the other hand, the Shariah-based Is-lamic banks maintain 11.50% SLR including the CRR, as they cannot purchase any bonds and government-approved securities that in-volve receipt of interest. l

Banks asked to report forex onlinen Tribune Report

Bangladesh Bank has asked all authorised dealer banks in Bangladesh to report all types of their foreign exchange transactions on daily basis through web portal.

The central bank issued a circular yester-day, saying it has decided to incorporate two new � elds namely fright charges and insur-ance expenses in the existing online import reporting module. The banks have been ad-vised to report import transactions specify-ing FOB value, freight and insurance charg-es, if applicable, for import settlement from January 1, 2014 and onward.

This reporting procedure will be applica-ble against on CFR or other permissible terms requiring payment for goods together with freight and applicable insurance charges. l

‘Markets are becoming increasingly accustomed to the idea of an imminent Fed tapering as re� ected in ongoing gains in risk assets’

DHAKA TRIBUNE Business4 WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2013

Chinese investors look to mine Bitcoin volatilityn AFP, Shanghai

Chinese speculators have seen Bitcoin val-ues plunge, soar and plunge again within days, but say the virtual currency’s extreme volatility is a pro� t opportunity despite the white-knuckle ride.

China is the world’s biggest market for trading Bitcoins, but around $5bn was wiped o� the value of the currency’s global stock within an hour of an announcement from Beijing’s central bank in early December, banning � nancial institutions from dealing in it.

Exchange rates on BTCChina, the coun-try’s biggest Bitcoin trading platform, slumped more than 35% from a recent high of 7,050 yuan (around $1,150), almost as much as an ounce of gold.

They climbed back above 6,000 yuan, until one of Chinese Internet giant Baidu’s websites said it would no longer accept the virtual currency as payment.

The following day Bitcoins were down to 3,821 yuan - before rising again to nudge 6,000 yuan yesterday.

“Prices are certainly volatile when it’s in the teeth of the storm, but such volatility will create short-term arbitrage opportuni-ties,” Wei Zhicheng, a 27-year old Shanghai based investor, told AFP.

He bought more of the virtual currency when the price fell. “Risks are peer to peer with opportunities,” he said.

Bitcoin was invented in the wake of the global � nancial crisis by a computerscientist using the pseudonym Satoshi Na-kamoto.

It is based on cryptography and only 21 million units can ever be created, which can be stored either virtually or on a user’s hard drive.

It o� ers a largely anonymous payment system with no centralised structure and

transactions are publicly logged in what is known as the “block chain”, with those who maintain it being paid in new units, a pro-cess known as “mining”.

Bitcoin has become a global phenome-non, with the price rising so much that a Norwegian man was able to buy an apart-ment with some of the 5,000 Bitcoins he bought for just $24 in 2009.

The explosive growth has raised alarm bells, with analysts warning of a potential crash due to a lack of fundamental under-pinning.

“The trading of Bitcoin has already formed a bubble,” Ding Zhaoyong, a � nance professor at Jilin University, told AFP.

“The inventor did not pledge any assets to guarantee Bitcoin’s value, so when the bubble bursts, all you have left is just a string of useless numbers,” he said.

But Chinese buyers have piled into Bitcoins this year, driving the BTCChina price up from 82.29 yuan on January 1 to ahigh of 7,588.88 yuan on Nov 30, a 9,122% increase.

Chinese investors have a limited range of options for their money, with the authorities imposing restrictions on property purchas-es, historically poor returns from the do-mestic stock market, and low interest rates o� ered to savers.

At the same time the authorities re-tain signi� cant control over the economy, and are unlikely to welcome the prospect of that being diluted by an independentcurrency.

Although the ruling Communist Party re-cently vowed that market forces will be al-lowed to “play a decisive role” in the future, tight capital controls remain in place, with the yuan currency not allowed to � oat freely against global counterparts.

In its announcement the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), the central bank, de� ned

Bitcoin as a “virtual commodity”, ruling out the possibility that it will gain legal status as currency.

It ordered � nancial institutions not to provide services and products related to Bitcoin - although it allowed individuals to trade it at their own risk.

The central bank also warned of dangers associated with Bitcoin trading, especially after media reported that three people had been detained for allegedly defrauding Bit-coin investors, leaving hundreds with more than 20m yuan in combined losses.

Nonetheless, BTCChina CEO Bobby Lee says that the e-money o� ers a new twist on investing for Chinese, known for conserva-tively investing their assets.

“China has been known as a nation of sav-ers, people save for a rainy day,” the ex-Ya-hoo engineer told AFP.

Bitcoin is “a global asset class” equal to common investment choices including gold, shares and real estate, he said.

“Bitcoin will go mainstream, I have full con� dence. We hope to push this forward in China.” l

Bitcoin trade

Source: Bitcoincharts.com, AFP

Closing prices for the virtual currency

1 YEAR 2 MONTHSUS dollars Chinese yuan 7,395

Nov 30

5,665Dec 10*

*As of0400 GMT

5,888Nov 18

804Oct 13

1,307Oct 23

2,388Nov 9

Oct Nov DecJan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep DecNovOct

13Dec 16, 2012

230Apr 9 69

Jul 5140Oct 1

768Nov 18

1,238Dec 4

920Dec 9

Bobby Lee, CEO and Co-Founder of BTC China, China’s bitcoin exchange at his o� ce in Shanghai AFP

BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE 5WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2013

WIPO: Global patent growth hits 18-year highn AFP, Geneva

Global patent � lings grew at their fastest pace in almost two decades in 2012, with China the driving force, the UN’s intellectual property agency said Monday.

In its annual report on patents, theWorld Intellectual Property Organisa-tion (WIPO) said the patent � lings rose by9.2% last year, representing the fastest growth in 18 years, reaching an estimated 2.35 million.

Filings had contracted by 3.9% in 2009, at the height of the � nancial crisis, but have been picking up pace since then, rising by 7.6% in 2010 and 8.1% in 2011.

“These are well in excess of the rate of growth worldwide of the global economy, and well in excess of most economies’ indi-vidual performances,” WIPO head Francis Gurry told reporters.

For the � rst time, residents of China ac-counted for the largest number of patents � led throughout the world, hitting a total of 560,681.

Residents of Japan ranked next, with 480,000 � lings, followed by US residents, who � led 460,000.

“As a broad generalisation, patent applica-tions tend to track economic performance,” Gurry explained.

“More speci� cally, China is still very much in a development mode, it is stilldeveloping its expertise in this area,” hesaid.

“So enormous investment in research and development, enormous investment in education, and investment in knowledge infrastructure are also being re� ected in the take-up in the use of the intellectual proper-ty system,” he added.

With 652,777 � lings, China’s State In-tellectual Property O� ce (SIPO) last year logged the largest number of applications re-ceived by any single o� ce, a position it � rst reached in 2011.

The � gure included � lings by Chineseresidents as well as those by foreign� rms and individuals seeking protection in China.

While two-thirds of the globe’s patent � l-ings were made in high-income countries, China’s share of the total was almost 28% in 2012.

The US and Japan followed, with 23% and almost 15% respectively.

Overall, � lings at China’s SIPO rose 24% in 2012, followed by New Zealand, where the growth rate was 14.3%.

Next came Mexico, with nine percent, the United States, on 7.8%, and Russia, which saw growth of 6.8%.

Brazil also posted solid patent � ling growth, logging a � ve-percent increase, with fellow BRICS members India showing 3.9% growth and South Africa 2.7%.

Fortunes were mixed in Europe.Filings grew by four% at the European

Patent O� ce. The national o� ces of Germa-ny and Britain also posted an expansion, of 3.2% and 4.4% respectively.

In contrast, � lings in France fell by 0.7% and those in Italy by 4.2%. l

Big banks see rich opportunities in world’s poorestn Reuters

When the Afghan government used mobile phones instead of cash to pay some of its po-licemen, the o� cers thought they’d just had a 30% pay rise. In truth, they had just been paid the full amount, with nothing skimmed o� by middlemen, for the � rst time.

This anecdote from the US Agency for International Development shows how tech-nological innovations such as mobile bank-ing and biometrics have helped integrate more people in emerging markets into the formal � nancial system, opening up oppor-tunities for banks willing to take a chance.

While the market for more a� uent and business clients becomes saturated, pro-viding the world’s poorest with access to � nancial products is an unmatched growth opportunity.

Half the world’s adults, over 2.5 billion people, do not have a formal bank account, according to the World Bank. In low-income economies it can be less than a quarter.

Many developing countries also o� er banks the allure of a growing working-age population and an emerging middle class.

“Twenty years ago we spoke about the poor with a sense of futility, and I think now when you talk about the base of the pyramid, more often than not you’re talk-ing about markets and opportunities,” said Michael Schlein, chief executive of Accion, a non-pro� t organization that invests in mi-cro� nance institutions and companies ad-vancing � nancial inclusion.

Between 2010 and 2020, the world’s poor-est 40% will nearly double their spending power to $5.8tn from $3tn, according to Ac-cion’s Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI).

The idea of providing the world’s poorest with small loans was pioneered 30 years ago by Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohammad Yunus and Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.

Micro� nance grew into a global industry with a loan portfolio of $78bn in 2011, ac-

cording to data provider MIX Market, but it has come under � re for high interest rates and excessive credit expansion during the � nancial crisis.

Big banks, which su� ered more than a lit-tle reputational damage of their own during the crisis, realized they needed to go beyond branch-based models to pro� tably reach such customers in a market traditionally re-liant on cash.

“The competition and the saturation in those (developed) markets are getting high-er and higher, so they have to look for the next wave, the next area of possible pro� t-able ventures,” said Gerhard Coetzee, Senior Financial Sector Specialist at the Consulta-tive Group to Assist the Poor, a think-tank housed at the World Bank.

Citigroup (CN) launched a mobile pay-ments scheme called Mobile Collect for small stores in the Dominican Republic ear-lier this year, while MasterCard teamed up with the Nigerian government in May to roll out 13 million national identity cards that double as electronic payment cards.Compete or collaborateTapping the potential in the market of the unbanked requires alternative business models. Fragmentation makes it harder to achieve economies of scale, and banks also have to overcome the hurdles of poor com-munications infrastructure and the often non-existent credit history of many poten-tial customers.

“Many banks think of the digitization op-portunity around the world. There is, how-ever, a constraint, which is the whole issue of infrastructure,” Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, chief executive of Nigeria’s Access Bank, told a recent conference organized by the CFI.

Another issue is competition. Banks’ big-gest rivals are not their peers but rather mo-bile network operators and large retailers. Coetzee says they face a di� cult balancing act of rolling out competing products and collaborating to serve a bigger chunk of the

market.Banks also need mobile network opera-

tors to allow their payment systems to work across rivals’ systems - a commonplace in developed banking markets - if they are to achieve scale.

M-Pesa, Safaricom’s successful mobile payment system in Kenya, bene� ted from the telecoms operator’s hefty market share to roll out its service, so it had an in-built ad-vantage. But that doesn’t apply everywhere, Schlein said.

Bob Annibale, Global Director of Commu-nity Development and Micro� nance at Cit-igroup, also highlighted the importance of integrating di� erent payment systems.

“It is about that � nancial architecture ... The bank payment system also connects to the mobile payments system. If that be-comes the norm, it’s a lot easier for us.”

But getting competitors to collaborate is not easy.

“If you’re waiting for the industry to come together and collaborate, it’s like asking the turkeys to vote for Christmas,” a participant said at the conference.

Clearing such obstacles could unlock huge rewards.

Barclays, which teamed up with NGOs Care International and Plan UK to form the Banking on Change partnership, connecting village savings groups with the formal � nan-cial system, estimated that $145bn - about a quarter of the Nigerian economy - could be injected into the global economy each year if all 2.5 billion of the unbanked were included in the scheme.

Tapping in to existing networks could be the key.

“Coca-Cola is consumed by everybody ... How di� cult is it going to be for us to tag on payments, savings and so on around the value chain by which Coke is sold?” Aig-Im-oukhuede said.

“Once you have scale ... I think it’s easy.” l

A man walks past a light rail station under construction at the Orile-Iganmu district in Lagos REUTERS

BANKABBANK | 2.95 | 32.60 | Vol. 650912 D: 27.70 ⇑ 1.47% | 27.24 | 28.50 / 25.80 C: 27.60 ⇑ 1.47% | 27.37 | 27.80 / 27.00CITYBANK | 1.15 | 25.97 | Vol. 1015933 D: 21.10 ⇑ 1.93% | 20.96 | 22.00 / 19.00 C: 21.10 ⇑ 2.43% | 21.05 | 21.50 / 20.50IFIC | 1.10 | 18.34 | Vol. 2255367 D: 34.80 ⇑ 4.19% | 34.29 | 35.30 / 31.00 C: 34.90 ⇑ 3.25% | 34.52 | 35.50 / 33.40ISLAMIBANK | 3.78 | 27.16 | Vol. 444627 D: 35.20 ⇑ 0.00% | 35.18 | 36.50 / 33.00 C: 35.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 35.00 | 35.50 / 34.90NBL | 1.05 | 15.76 | Vol. 2070666 D: 12.30 ⇑ 1.65% | 12.22 | 13.00 / 11.10 C: 12.30 ⇑ 1.65% | 12.23 | 12.50 / 12.00PUBALIBANK | 1.92 | 21.18 | Vol. 200512 D: 32.20 ⇑ 0.00% | 32.22 | 33.20 / 30.00 C: 32.00 ⇑ 0.63% | 31.96 | 32.50 / 28.80RUPALIBANK | 6.70 | 64.27 | Vol. 45200 D: 66.70 ⇑ 2.14% | 65.98 | 67.20 / 65.10 C: 68.00 ⇑ 1.34% | 66.37 | 69.00 / 65.00UCBL | 1.90 | 21.72 | Vol. 4669289 D: 25.00 ⇑ 2.04% | 24.86 | 25.60 / 22.50 C: 25.20 ⇑ 2.44% | 24.99 | 25.50 / 24.50UTTARABANK | 3.42 | 26.97 | Vol. 542205 D: 32.30 ⇑ 2.54% | 31.94 | 32.70 / 28.50 C: 32.00 ⇑ 2.24% | 31.87 | 32.60 / 31.00ICBIBANK | -1.60 | -13.03 | Vol. 171000 D: 6.80 ⇑ 0.00% | 6.78 | 6.90 / 6.70EBL | 3.91 | 28.22 | Vol. 64180 D: 28.90 ⇑ 1.05% | 28.90 | 29.00 / 26.00 C: 29.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 28.80 | 29.00 / 28.40ALARABANK | 2.03 | 14.91 | Vol. 3826352 D: 20.30 ⇑ 3.57% | 20.04 | 21.00 / 18.00 C: 20.40 ⇑ 3.55% | 20.16 | 20.80 / 19.40PRIMEBANK | 2.89 | 22.40 | Vol. 118121 D: 24.30 ⇑ 1.25% | 24.22 | 24.80 / 23.00 C: 23.90 ⇓ 0.42% | 23.82 | 24.50 / 23.70SOUTHEASTB | 1.89 | 22.66 | Vol. 1128262 D: 18.60 ⇑ 2.20% | 18.31 | 20.00 / 16.50 C: 18.40 ⇑ 0.55% | 18.34 | 18.80 / 18.00DHAKABANK | 1.46 | 18.08 | Vol. 148916 D: 19.40 ⇑ 2.11% | 19.30 | 19.50 / 18.00 C: 18.90 ⇑ 0.53% | 18.92 | 19.30 / 18.70NCCBANK | 1.90 | 15.88 | Vol. 1209077 D: 13.90 ⇑ 1.46% | 13.86 | 14.10 / 13.00 C: 14.00 ⇑ 1.45% | 13.91 | 14.20 / 13.70SIBL | 2.05 | 14.47 | Vol. 1213191 D: 13.50 ⇑ 2.27% | 13.49 | 14.00 / 12.00 C: 13.60 ⇑ 0.74% | 13.52 | 13.90 / 12.50DUTCHBANGL | 11.57 | 54.27 | Vol. 44000 D: 99.60 ⇑ 0.00% | 99.43 | 100.0 / 99.00MTBL | 1.17 | 17.27 | Vol. 217550 D: 16.20 ⇑ 0.62% | 16.30 | 16.50 / 15.10 C: 16.60 ⇑ 7.10% | 16.37 | 16.60 / 15.60STANDBANKL | 2.33 | 14.41 | Vol. 682332 D: 15.30 ⇑ 2.00% | 15.33 | 16.00 / 13.50 C: 15.20 ⇑ 1.33% | 15.20 | 15.50 / 14.90ONEBANKLTD | 2.35 | 15.34 | Vol. 2105312 D: 16.90 ⇑ 3.05% | 16.82 | 17.20 / 15.00 C: 17.00 ⇑ 3.66% | 16.89 | 17.20 / 16.50BANKASIA | 1.35 | 20.80 | Vol. 784952 D: 19.60 ⇑ 2.08% | 19.53 | 20.00 / 17.30 C: 19.40 ⇑ 2.65% | 19.27 | 19.70 / 18.90MERCANBANK | 2.07 | 16.59 | Vol. 3081735 D: 16.60 ⇑ 2.47% | 16.53 | 17.00 / 15.00 C: 16.80 ⇑ 2.44% | 16.76 | 17.10 / 16.20EXIMBANK | 1.80 | 14.31 | Vol. 1233626 D: 12.70 ⇑ 0.79% | 12.60 | 13.00 / 11.50 C: 12.80 ⇑ 1.59% | 12.71 | 13.00 / 12.40JAMUNABANK | 2.47 | 18.56 | Vol. 340037 D: 16.70 ⇑ 0.00% | 16.66 | 17.00 / 15.20 C: 16.50 ⇑ 1.23% | 16.45 | 16.80 / 16.20BRACBANK | 1.51 | 24.87 | Vol. 646464 D: 32.00 ⇑ 1.27% | 31.97 | 33.00 / 29.00 C: 31.60 ⇑ 0.32% | 32.20 | 32.60 / 31.60SHAHJABANK | 2.61 | 14.47 | Vol. 1187090 D: 17.30 ⇑ 1.76% | 17.11 | 18.10 / 15.50 C: 17.40 ⇑ 1.16% | 17.29 | 17.60 / 17.00PREMIERBAN | 1.18 | 13.95 | Vol. 791023 D: 11.80 ⇑ 2.61% | 11.74 | 12.00 / 10.50 C: 11.80 ⇑ 2.61% | 11.72 | 11.90 / 11.50

TRUSTBANK | 0.50 | 18.00 | Vol. 1258915 D: 22.20 ⇑ 5.71% | 22.07 | 22.80 / 20.00 C: 22.50 ⇑ 7.14% | 22.04 | 22.90 / 21.40FIRSTSBANK | 1.85 | 13.89 | Vol. 2057150 D: 16.00 ⇑ 3.23% | 15.86 | 16.50 / 14.00 C: 16.30 ⇑ 6.54% | 15.99 | 16.70 / 15.10

NON BANKING F IIDLC | 4.43 | 29.18 | Vol. 309360 D: 62.30 ⇑ 2.13% | 62.32 | 65.00 / 56.00 C: 62.90 ⇑ 2.44% | 62.03 | 63.00 / 60.80ULC | 1.80 | 14.90 | Vol. 281591 D: 30.20 ⇑ 3.78% | 30.03 | 30.40 / 27.50UTTARAFIN | 7.16 | 41.54 | Vol. 146304 D: 81.50 ⇑ 1.24% | 81.28 | 84.00 / 76.00 C: 81.90 ⇑ 1.99% | 81.29 | 82.00 / 80.00MIDASFIN | 0.16 | 10.21 | Vol. 13500 D: 29.30 ⇓ 1.35% | 29.41 | 30.00 / 29.00FLEASEINT | 2.34 | 13.93 | Vol. 3612368 D: 33.30 ⇑ 7.77% | 32.61 | 33.50 / 28.70 C: 33.40 ⇑ 7.74% | 32.57 | 33.50 / 31.50PLFSL | 1.37 | 17.48 | Vol. 1474068 D: 24.80 ⇑ 5.08% | 24.57 | 25.00 / 22.00 C: 24.80 ⇑ 5.08% | 24.46 | 24.90 / 23.80PRIMEFIN | 0.87 | 17.88 | Vol. 629089 D: 25.70 ⇑ 4.47% | 25.58 | 27.00 / 22.60 C: 25.80 ⇑ 4.88% | 25.55 | 26.00 / 24.90PREMIERLEA | 0.10 | 11.37 | Vol. 384500 D: 10.10 ⇑ 1.00% | 10.22 | 10.40 / 10.00 C: 10.10 ⇑ 1.00% | 10.15 | 10.40 / 10.00ISLAMICFIN | 1.03 | 15.48 | Vol. 1058273 D: 17.50 ⇑ 4.79% | 17.44 | 17.70 / 15.50 C: 17.50 ⇑ 4.17% | 17.47 | 17.70 / 17.00LANKABAFIN | 1.61 | 31.07 | Vol. 3058813 D: 61.50 ⇑ 7.89% | 60.09 | 62.10 / 52.00 C: 61.20 ⇑ 7.18% | 59.87 | 61.50 / 58.40BIFC | 0.15 | 18.58 | Vol. 392016 D: 17.20 ⇑ 6.83% | 17.02 | 17.50 / 15.10 C: 17.50 ⇑ 9.38% | 17.13 | 17.50 / 16.30IPDC | 1.23 | 19.43 | Vol. 171295 D: 19.00 ⇑ 3.26% | 18.95 | 19.20 / 18.00 C: 19.30 ⇑ 4.89% | 18.89 | 19.30 / 18.40UNIONCAP | 0.54 | 17.85 | Vol. 88647 D: 29.00 ⇑ 3.57% | 28.77 | 29.40 / 27.00 C: 29.00 ⇑ 5.45% | 29.06 | 29.30 / 27.60BDFINANCE | 0.57 | 14.77 | Vol. 407472 D: 19.50 ⇑ 3.17% | 19.32 | 19.60 / 18.00 C: 19.50 ⇑ 4.84% | 19.26 | 19.50 / 18.60ILFSL | 0.35 | 12.19 | Vol. 1070530 D: 15.40 ⇑ 6.21% | 15.16 | 15.50 / 13.10 C: 15.50 ⇑ 6.16% | 15.22 | 15.70 / 14.70PHOENIXFIN | 2.46 | 19.39 | Vol. 798432 D: 34.80 ⇑ 3.88% | 34.54 | 35.10 / 30.20 C: 35.00 ⇑ 5.42% | 34.65 | 35.00 / 33.00FASFIN | 0.19 | 13.56 | Vol. 1168501 D: 14.50 ⇑ 5.07% | 14.31 | 14.60 / 13.00 C: 14.70 ⇑ 5.76% | 14.43 | 14.80 / 13.90DBH | 4.47 | 21.27 | Vol. 58540 D: 55.80 ⇑ 1.82% | 55.57 | 56.10 / 52.00 C: 56.50 ⇑ 1.07% | 56.17 | 56.50 / 56.50NHFIL | 0.57 | 12.70 | Vol. 363623 D: 30.90 ⇑ 1.31% | 31.08 | 31.50 / 30.00 C: 31.40 ⇑ 1.62% | 31.19 | 31.50 / 30.10BAYLEASING | 0.72 | 25.55 | Vol. 571328 D: 30.10 ⇑ 5.24% | 29.82 | 30.50 / 26.00 C: 30.30 ⇑ 5.57% | 30.00 | 30.50 / 29.30ICB | 89.23 | 607.74 | Vol. 10050 D: 1537 ⇑ 0.23% | 1535 | 1550 / 1520 C: 1550 ⇓ 0.64% | 1550 | 1550 / 1550GSPFINANCE | 1.63 | 22.23 | Vol. 361817 D: 27.00 ⇑ 3.45% | 26.89 | 27.40 / 24.00 C: 27.20 ⇑ 3.82% | 27.00 | 27.50 / 26.50FAREASTFIN | 0.68 | 13.64 | Vol. 3973000 D: 15.30 ⇑ 9.29% | 14.93 | 15.40 / 14.10 C: 15.50 ⇑ 9.93% | 14.98 | 15.50 / 14.20

INVESTMENT2NDICB | 44.10 | 253.11 | Vol. 350 D: 261.3 ⇓ 1.62% | 260.00 | 262.0 / 260.13RDICB | 26.16 | 235.16 | Vol. 250 D: 192.1 ⇓ 3.95% | 192.10 | 192.1 / 192.14THICB | 29.24 | 229.24 | Vol. 100 D: 186.5 ⇓ 0.90% | 186.50 | 186.5 / 186.56THICB | 10.99 | 60.14 | Vol. 11000 D: 53.30 ⇑ 0.19% | 53.36 | 53.80 / 53.208THICB | 12.47 | 70.07 | Vol. 2500 D: 53.20 ⇓ 0.37% | 53.20 | 53.30 / 53.20

AIMS1STMF | 3.02 | 15.70 | Vol. 379050 D: 39.50 ⇑ 1.80% | 39.70 | 40.00 / 38.80 C: 39.40 ⇑ 2.34% | 39.53 | 40.00 / 39.10ICBISLAMIC | 2.21 | 26.81 | Vol. 56000 D: 18.40 ⇑ 2.22% | 18.43 | 18.80 / 18.10GRAMEEN1 | 6.26 | 33.23 | Vol. 537000 D: 44.90 ⇑ 2.28% | 45.02 | 45.60 / 42.00 C: 45.10 ⇑ 2.27% | 45.41 | 46.30 / 44.50ICB1STNRB | 4.06 | 35.31 | Vol. 13000 D: 25.30 ⇓ 0.39% | 25.28 | 25.50 / 25.20 C: 25.00 ⇓ 6.72% | 25.00 | 25.00 / 25.00ICB2NDNRB | 2.49 | 16.24 | Vol. 229500 D: 9.90 ⇑ 1.02% | 9.96 | 10.10 / 9.90GRAMEENS2 | 2.17 | 16.41 | Vol. 2045000 D: 17.00 ⇑ 3.03% | 17.10 | 17.30 / 15.00 C: 17.10 ⇑ 3.64% | 17.08 | 17.40 / 15.001STPRIMFMF | 0.64 | 11.63 | Vol. 2347500 D: 26.40 ⇑ 9.54% | 26.18 | 26.50 / 24.50 C: 26.00 ⇑ 7.88% | 26.04 | 26.50 / 25.50EBL1STMF | 0.55 | 12.62 | Vol. 435871 D: 7.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 7.22 | 7.30 / 6.90 C: 7.20 ⇑ 1.41% | 7.13 | 7.30 / 6.60ICBAMCL2ND | 0.60 | 12.12 | Vol. 55000 D: 6.00 ⇑ 1.69% | 6.00 | 6.10 / 6.00 C: 6.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.98 | 6.00 / 5.80ICBEPMF1S1 | 0.52 | 11.32 | Vol. 42500 D: 6.00 ⇑ 1.69% | 6.06 | 6.20 / 6.00 C: 6.20 ⇑ 5.08% | 6.11 | 6.20 / 5.90TRUSTB1MF | 0.75 | 11.65 | Vol. 843217 D: 7.50 ⇑ 2.74% | 7.50 | 7.70 / 6.90 C: 7.60 ⇑ 2.70% | 7.56 | 7.60 / 7.40PRIME1ICBA | 0.42 | 11.18 | Vol. 881500 D: 5.80 ⇑ 7.41% | 5.75 | 5.90 / 5.50 C: 5.90 ⇑ 5.36% | 5.85 | 5.90 / 5.80DBH1STMF | -1.12 | 10.15 | Vol. 830500 D: 5.90 ⇑ 5.36% | 5.91 | 6.00 / 5.60 C: 5.90 ⇑ 3.51% | 5.81 | 5.90 / 5.60IFIC1STMF | 0.83 | 11.88 | Vol. 626587 D: 6.80 ⇑ 3.03% | 6.77 | 7.00 / 6.20 C: 6.80 ⇑ 1.49% | 6.73 | 6.80 / 6.70PF1STMF | 0.51 | 11.11 | Vol. 282000 D: 5.70 ⇑ 3.64% | 5.74 | 5.80 / 5.60 C: 5.60 ⇑ 1.82% | 5.63 | 5.70 / 5.50ICB3RDNRB | 0.00 | 10.60 | Vol. 196000 D: 5.40 ⇑ 3.85% | 5.40 | 5.50 / 5.30 C: 5.40 ⇑ 1.89% | 5.38 | 5.40 / 5.201JANATAMF | 0.78 | 10.68 | Vol. 362500 D: 6.10 ⇓ 1.61% | 6.19 | 6.40 / 6.10 C: 6.20 ⇑ 1.64% | 6.12 | 6.20 / 6.00GREENDELMF | -0.82 | 9.72 | Vol. 189500 D: 5.50 ⇑ 1.85% | 5.50 | 5.60 / 5.40 C: 5.50 ⇑ 1.85% | 5.50 | 5.50 / 5.40POPULAR1MF | 0.77 | 11.38 | Vol. 989971 D: 6.30 ⇑ 3.28% | 6.29 | 6.40 / 5.70 C: 6.40 ⇑ 4.92% | 6.32 | 6.50 / 6.10IFILISLMF1 | 0.00 | 10.45 | Vol. 281000 D: 5.80 ⇑ 1.75% | 5.85 | 5.90 / 5.80 C: 5.70 ⇑ 0.00% | 5.75 | 5.80 / 5.70PHPMF1 | 0.63 | 10.92 | Vol. 1385500 D: 5.80 ⇑ 5.45% | 5.72 | 5.90 / 5.60 C: 5.70 ⇑ 1.79% | 5.72 | 5.80 / 5.60AIBL1STIMF | -0.07 | 9.25 | Vol. 32000 D: 7.00 ⇑ 0.00% | 7.10 | 7.20 / 7.00 C: 7.00 ⇓ 1.41% | 7.00 | 7.00 / 7.00MBL1STMF | -0.16 | 9.08 | Vol. 80500 D: 6.30 ⇑ 1.61% | 6.30 | 6.40 / 6.20 C: 6.30 ⇑ 3.28% | 6.30 | 6.30 / 6.30SEBL1STMF | 0.94 | 11.85 | Vol. 635300 D: 8.10 ⇑ 2.53% | 8.11 | 8.20 / 7.70 C: 8.00 ⇑ 1.27% | 8.08 | 8.20 / 8.00EBLNRBMF | 1.07 | 10.88 | Vol. 2500 D: 7.60 ⇓ 3.80% | 7.60 | 7.60 / 7.60RELIANCE1 | 0.95 | 10.33 | Vol. 721850 D: 8.70 ⇑ 3.57% | 8.69 | 8.90 / 8.00 C: 8.80 ⇑ 3.53% | 8.70 | 8.80 / 8.60LRGLOBMF1 | 0.45 | 10.78 | Vol. 157134 D: 6.70 ⇑ 0.00% | 6.80 | 7.00 / 6.70ABB1STMF | 0.92 | 10.63 | Vol. 802500 D: 7.20 ⇓ 1.37% | 7.33 | 7.50 / 7.20NLI1STMF | 1.17 | 12.22 | Vol. 566500 D: 9.20 ⇑ 1.10% | 9.26 | 9.50 / 9.10 C: 9.20 ⇑ 1.10% | 9.15 | 9.30 / 8.50FBFIF | 1.30 | 10.27 | Vol. 5000 D: 9.10 ⇑ 1.11% | 9.20 | 9.20 / 9.10NCCBLMF1 | 1.16 | 10.48 | Vol. 22000 D: 8.30 ⇑ 2.47% | 8.32 | 8.40 / 8.20

ICBSONALI1 | 0.00 | 10.39 | Vol. 373500 D: 8.10 ⇑ 0.00% | 8.22 | 8.40 / 8.10 C: 8.10 ⇑ 1.25% | 8.18 | 8.30 / 8.00

ENGINEERINGAFTABAUTO | 3.60 | 50.81 | Vol. 584032 D: 93.80 ⇑ 0.11% | 94.28 | 95.30 / 90.00 C: 93.80 ⇓ 0.64% | 94.01 | 95.40 / 93.00AZIZPIPES | 0.39 | -42.04 | Vol. 57000 D: 22.90 ⇑ 9.57% | 22.85 | 22.90 / 21.40 C: 23.50 ⇑ 9.81% | 23.49 | 23.50 / 23.40OLYMPIC | 5.23 | 14.73 | Vol. 420195 D: 157.3 ⇑ 3.35% | 156.63 | 159.5 / 148.0 C: 155.7 ⇑ 1.70% | 155.74 | 158.0 / 152.5BDLAMPS | -5.31 | 37.07 | Vol. 16950 D: 133.3 ⇓ 1.11% | 134.11 | 136.2 / 132.4 C: 133.0 ⇓ 2.71% | 133.35 | 134.1 / 132.5ECABLES | 6.10 | 23.97 | Vol. 10900 D: 99.40 ⇓ 0.50% | 100.14 | 104.8 / 99.00 C: 92.60 ⇓ 7.31% | 96.47 | 99.90 / 100.0MONNOSTAF | 5.31 | 44.78 | Vol. 3900 D: 330.4 ⇑ 7.24% | 327.69 | 333.9 / 318.0SINGERBD | 9.99 | 45.74 | Vol. 94436 D: 194.9 ⇓ 0.56% | 195.21 | 196.4 / 185.0 C: 193.4 ⇓ 1.18% | 193.72 | 195.0 / 193.0ATLASBANG | 9.14 | 222.05 | Vol. 21450 D: 162.5 ⇓ 0.06% | 162.00 | 164.0 / 161.4BDAUTOCA | -0.43 | 5.68 | Vol. 142754 D: 38.30 ⇑ 4.36% | 38.21 | 39.50 / 35.00QSMDRYCELL | 1.06 | 52.31 | Vol. 726645 D: 37.00 ⇑ 2.78% | 37.09 | 37.70 / 32.50 C: 37.00 ⇑ 2.78% | 37.24 | 37.90 / 36.80RENWICKJA | 5.77 | -31.13 | Vol. 15300 D: 145.6 ⇓ 0.21% | 145.56 | 149.0 / 144.0NTLTUBES | 0.67 | 311.00 | Vol. 49300 D: 75.00 ⇓ 0.79% | 74.77 | 76.40 / 74.00BDTHAI | 0.43 | 39.35 | Vol. 1421285 D: 32.20 ⇑ 4.89% | 31.90 | 32.50 / 28.70 C: 32.70 ⇑ 5.83% | 32.20 | 33.00 / 30.90ANWARGALV | 0.52 | 8.10 | Vol. 461000 D: 32.40 ⇓ 2.70% | 34.11 | 35.30 / 32.00 C: 32.90 ⇓ 1.20% | 33.82 | 35.00 / 32.80KAY&QUE | -3.89 | 6.03 | Vol. 66600 D: 19.20 ⇑ 9.09% | 19.23 | 19.30 / 18.30 C: 19.10 ⇑ 9.77% | 19.10 | 19.10 / 19.10RANFOUNDRY | 2.84 | 18.62 | Vol. 82000 D: 93.90 ⇓ 2.29% | 96.14 | 99.50 / 92.00 C: 94.30 ⇓ 3.48% | 96.72 | 98.00 / 100.9SALAMCRST | 3.31 | 20.00 | Vol. 1015040 D: 46.40 ⇑ 4.50% | 45.48 | 47.00 / 44.00 C: 46.30 ⇑ 3.81% | 45.66 | 47.00 / 44.90GOLDENSON | 3.70 | 28.70 | Vol. 5556926 D: 56.70 ⇑ 7.18% | 55.75 | 56.90 / 50.00 C: 56.90 ⇑ 7.16% | 55.91 | 57.30 / 53.50BSRMSTEEL | 3.06 | 19.53 | Vol. 386064 D: 72.10 ⇓ 0.83% | 72.70 | 75.00 / 68.00 C: 72.30 ⇓ 0.82% | 72.68 | 74.00 / 72.00NAVANACNG | 4.09 | 27.04 | Vol. 304299 D: 65.90 ⇑ 0.15% | 65.40 | 66.50 / 60.00 C: 65.90 ⇓ 0.60% | 66.01 | 67.00 / 65.50DESHBANDHU | 0.26 | 10.67 | Vol. 2062261 D: 22.80 ⇑ 9.62% | 22.17 | 22.80 / 20.00 C: 22.90 ⇑ 9.57% | 22.31 | 22.90 / 21.00GPHISPAT | 2.11 | 15.27 | Vol. 1165150 D: 59.40 ⇑ 2.95% | 60.18 | 61.80 / 53.00 C: 59.00 ⇑ 1.20% | 60.07 | 61.90 / 58.70BENGALWTL | 3.85 | 24.30 | Vol. 1589400 D: 64.60 ⇓ 3.58% | 66.47 | 68.60 / 64.20 C: 64.70 ⇓ 3.14% | 66.26 | 69.40 / 64.00BDBUILDING | 1.33 | 12.70 | Vol. 1819500 D: 74.20 ⇓ 4.13% | 76.75 | 79.20 / 73.00 C: 74.10 ⇓ 4.63% | 76.91 | 79.90 / 72.00NPOLYMAR | 2.38 | 32.89 | Vol. 316200 D: 60.40 ⇑ 0.00% | 61.26 | 62.40 / 59.60 C: 59.10 ⇓ 2.31% | 60.07 | 61.30 / 58.50

FOOD & ALLIEDAPEXFOODS | 2.54 | 90.81 | Vol. 55800 D: 91.90 ⇓ 0.22% | 91.67 | 93.50 / 91.00 C: 91.30 ⇓ 1.40% | 92.98 | 96.00 / 91.00BANGAS | 7.20 | 50.27 | Vol. 65526 D: 466.0 ⇓ 1.67% | 468.12 | 475.0 / 438.0 C: 466.3 ⇓ 2.35% | 468.02 | 477.0 / 465.5BATBC | 65.69 | 117.22 | Vol. 600 D: 1662 ⇓ 0.02% | 1662 | 1670 / 1658 C: 1700 ⇑ 3.03% | 1700 | 1700 / 1700

GEMINISEA | -15.39 | -5.70 | Vol. 2800 D: 153.9 ⇓ 0.90% | 153.93 | 157.0 / 152.5NTC | 29.88 | 110.05 | Vol. 500 D: 815.0 ⇑ 0.00% | 815.00 | 815.0 / 815.0AMCL(PRAN) | 6.85 | 57.14 | Vol. 64800 D: 191.1 ⇓ 1.80% | 192.50 | 196.7 / 190.0 C: 191.1 ⇓ 0.98% | 192.83 | 197.9 / 190.5SHYAMPSUG | -45.77 | -396.49 | Vol. 1700 D: 7.40 ⇑ 7.25% | 7.65 | 7.50 / 7.40RAHIMAFOOD | 0.52 | 4.45 | Vol. 662870 D: 84.60 ⇑ 9.87% | 83.17 | 84.70 / 79.50 C: 85.00 ⇑ 9.82% | 83.46 | 85.10 / 80.00FUWANGFOOD | 0.94 | 12.28 | Vol. 1453690 D: 24.30 ⇑ 3.40% | 24.36 | 24.80 / 23.00 C: 24.70 ⇑ 4.22% | 24.50 | 24.80 / 24.00MEGHNAPET | -0.50 | -1.52 | Vol. 51000 D: 6.90 ⇑ 2.99% | 6.92 | 7.10 / 6.50MEGCONMILK | -7.48 | -23.70 | Vol. 117500 D: 7.60 ⇑ 8.57% | 7.57 | 7.70 / 7.00BEACHHATCH | 1.01 | 12.48 | Vol. 3255263 D: 27.10 ⇑ 9.72% | 26.72 | 27.10 / 23.00 C: 27.50 ⇑ 10.00% | 27.15 | 27.50 / 22.60FINEFOODS | 0.05 | 10.63 | Vol. 1048028 D: 25.40 ⇑ 9.48% | 24.80 | 25.50 / 22.20 C: 25.40 ⇑ 9.96% | 24.93 | 25.40 / 23.40RDFOOD | 0.91 | 16.84 | Vol. 3299321 D: 26.50 ⇑ 3.92% | 26.19 | 27.00 / 24.00 C: 26.90 ⇑ 5.49% | 26.51 | 27.00 / 25.50GHAIL | 2.31 | 24.36 | Vol. 5609080 D: 50.20 ⇑ 3.29% | 50.45 | 51.80 / 45.00 C: 50.90 ⇑ 3.46% | 50.69 | 51.80 / 49.80

FUEL & POWERLINDEBD | 31.71 | 144.00 | Vol. 10350 D: 638.1 ⇑ 0.28% | 637.87 | 644.9 / 635.5PADMAOIL | 27.62 | 79.74 | Vol. 160753 D: 315.9 ⇓ 0.69% | 317.59 | 322.3 / 305.0 C: 316.7 ⇓ 0.38% | 317.75 | 320.0 / 314.1EASTRNLUB | 5.33 | 71.01 | Vol. 450 D: 331.8 ⇑ 1.62% | 331.11 | 335.0 / 330.0BDWELDING | 0.33 | 16.82 | Vol. 2068473 D: 24.60 ⇑ 5.58% | 24.85 | 25.50 / 22.30 C: 24.80 ⇑ 5.53% | 24.87 | 25.40 / 23.90SUMITPOWER | 3.17 | 19.26 | Vol. 964715 D: 38.50 ⇑ 0.26% | 38.80 | 41.90 / 35.00 C: 38.60 ⇓ 0.26% | 38.85 | 39.40 / 38.50DESCO | 2.34 | 31.27 | Vol. 245100 D: 59.80 ⇑ 0.34% | 59.77 | 60.10 / 58.00 C: 59.80 ⇓ 0.17% | 60.68 | 63.30 / 59.30POWERGRID | 2.19 | 63.69 | Vol. 160454 D: 54.40 ⇓ 0.55% | 54.60 | 55.50 / 52.00 C: 53.40 ⇓ 0.56% | 53.42 | 54.00 / 53.00JAMUNAOIL | 19.83 | 57.32 | Vol. 390080 D: 205.0 ⇓ 1.16% | 206.21 | 209.5 / 201.0 C: 205.9 ⇓ 0.39% | 205.97 | 209.9 / 204.0MPETROLEUM | 21.34 | 59.26 | Vol. 425807 D: 220.9 ⇓ 0.81% | 222.46 | 225.3 / 215.0 C: 221.5 ⇓ 0.63% | 223.57 | 232.0 / 220.0TITASGAS | 9.20 | 46.26 | Vol. 335125 D: 73.90 ⇓ 0.14% | 74.01 | 74.60 / 70.00 C: 74.10 ⇑ 0.14% | 74.17 | 75.70 / 73.60KPCL | 4.73 | 15.86 | Vol. 238952 D: 50.10 ⇑ 1.42% | 50.14 | 50.70 / 47.00 C: 49.70 ⇑ 0.40% | 49.80 | 50.20 / 49.50BEDL | 1.48 | 19.43 | Vol. 3575857 D: 34.60 ⇑ 4.85% | 34.12 | 36.00 / 30.00 C: 34.70 ⇑ 5.15% | 34.50 | 35.00 / 33.10MJLBD | 2.73 | 30.24 | Vol. 180401 D: 75.90 ⇑ 0.40% | 75.72 | 76.20 / 70.00 C: 75.70 ⇑ 0.80% | 75.27 | 76.00 / 73.10GBBPOWER | 1.86 | 22.63 | Vol. 2339053 D: 31.10 ⇑ 3.67% | 31.03 | 32.00 / 27.00 C: 31.20 ⇑ 5.41% | 31.07 | 31.80 / 29.90SPPCL | 3.81 | 23.34 | Vol. 1426450 D: 62.50 ⇓ 0.79% | 63.11 | 64.50 / 59.00 C: 62.70 ⇑ 0.00% | 63.29 | 64.50 / 62.10

JUTEJUTESPINN | -48.14 | -39.89 | Vol. 10950 D: 83.30 ⇓ 1.30% | 84.47 | 86.90 / 83.00SONALIANSH | 2.65 | 226.00 | Vol. 50850 D: 151.5 ⇓ 3.01% | 153.24 | 156.5 / 151.0

TEXTILEAL-HAJTEX | 2.22 | 16.53 | Vol. 91645 D: 76.00 ⇓ 0.65% | 76.85 | 78.80 / 73.00RAHIMTEXT | 4.65 | 56.68 | Vol. 8900 D: 260.5 ⇓ 3.38% | 261.35 | 270.2 / 252.3

6 DHAKA TRIBUNE Share WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2013DHAKA TRIBUNE Share6

DSE Broad Index: 4329.54 ⇑ 0.93%, Turnover: 7460.54 M.Tk ⇑ 15.24%, PE: 13.23 Turnover 8,307.00 MTk . ⇑ 14.83% 10 December 2013 MarketCap. 2,085.11 BTk. ⇑ 0.59% CSE All Share Index: 13447 ⇑ 1.01%, Turnover: 846.46 M Tk. ⇑ 11.32%, PE: 13.07

Combined Turnover Leader Vol. TO M.

Tk.% of TTL Avg. P

Generation Next Fashions-A 12409040 437.90 5.27 35.29

Paramount Textile Ltd.-N 4793500 333.15 4.01 69.50

Golden Son -A 5556926 309.87 3.73 55.76

G Harvest Agro-N 5609080 283.10 3.41 50.47

Delta Life Insu. -A 895510 250.06 3.01 279.24

DSE Gainer C % A % CP

Samata Leather-Z 10.00 10.00 22.00

Delta Spinners-A 9.91 10.86 36.60

Monno Ceramic -B 9.88 9.14 37.80

Rahima Food -A 9.87 13.51 84.60

Salvo Chemicals-B 9.83 7.91 25.70

DSE Loser C % A % CP

Pharma Aids-A -4.78 -4.05 171.40Progressive Life-A -4.37 -4.33 115.90

BD Building Systems -N -4.13 -2.28 74.20

3rd ICB M F-A -3.95 -3.95 192.10

EBL NRB M.F.-A -3.80 -4.28 7.60

CompanyCode | EPS | BV | Volume Traded (Share)DSE/CSE: ClosePrice ⇓/⇑ Chn % | Avg.Price | Hi / Lo

ShareDHAKA TRIBUNE WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2013 7ShareDHAKA TRIBUNE 7

December 10, 2013 Sectotal Index: BANK: 38,010.66 ⇑ 1.52% NBFI: 21,608.49 ⇑ 4.75% INVS: 4,884.18 ⇑ 1.64% ENGG: 6,613.87 ⇑ 0.77% FOOD: 10,470.78 ⇑ 1.75% F&P: 10,306.90 ⇑ 0.13% TEXT: 3,704.13 ⇑ 0.85% PHAR: 18,367.42 ⇓ 0.17% PAPR: 1,286.05 ⇑ 4.89% SERV: 3,031.69 ⇑ 0.42% LEAT: 5,431.52 ⇑ 1.31% CERA: 547.08 ⇑ 1.69% CMNT: 4,323.42 ⇓ 0.98% INFO: 8,297.54 ⇑ 5.71% GINS: 9,138.49 ⇓ 0.02% LINS: 124,368.62 ⇓ 0.69% TELC: 1,350.81 ⇓ 0.33% MISC: 6,644.80 ⇑ 1.64%

SAIHAMTEX | 2.75 | 29.50 | Vol. 633500 D: 28.70 ⇑ 1.41% | 28.80 | 29.20 / 28.40 C: 28.40 ⇑ 0.00% | 28.56 | 29.00 / 28.20MODERNDYE | 0.91 | 10.37 | Vol. 1850 D: 104.5 ⇑ 2.75% | 104.32 | 106.0 / 101.1DSHGARME | 0.88 | 12.12 | Vol. 58100 D: 74.00 ⇑ 2.64% | 75.71 | 77.30 / 73.20DULAMIACOT | -1.90 | -29.70 | Vol. 23300 D: 7.90 ⇑ 3.95% | 7.90 | 8.10 / 7.70TALLUSPIN | 1.75 | 16.17 | Vol. 2126980 D: 37.60 ⇑ 0.53% | 37.71 | 38.40 / 34.50 C: 37.60 ⇓ 0.27% | 37.78 | 38.30 / 36.00APEXSPINN | 2.01 | 49.32 | Vol. 14000 D: 72.60 ⇓ 2.02% | 72.86 | 74.40 / 70.30MITHUNKNIT | 2.87 | 20.53 | Vol. 153800 D: 79.10 ⇓ 0.75% | 79.54 | 83.00 / 73.50 C: 79.00 ⇓ 1.86% | 79.71 | 81.00 / 78.50DELTASPINN | 3.06 | 26.84 | Vol. 953400 D: 36.60 ⇑ 9.91% | 36.33 | 36.60 / 33.00 C: 36.50 ⇑ 9.94% | 36.12 | 36.50 / 34.60SONARGAON | 0.27 | 34.50 | Vol. 751584 D: 21.30 ⇑ 4.93% | 21.35 | 22.00 / 18.30 C: 21.10 ⇑ 3.43% | 21.47 | 22.10 / 20.50PRIMETEX | 1.21 | 59.34 | Vol. 498500 D: 26.60 ⇑ 1.14% | 26.86 | 27.40 / 26.40 C: 26.70 ⇑ 2.30% | 27.09 | 27.70 / 26.40ALLTEX | -1.26 | 8.10 | Vol. 152000 D: 7.40 ⇑ 0.00% | 7.45 | 7.50 / 7.40 C: 7.50 ⇑ 0.00% | 7.52 | 7.60 / 7.50ANLIMAYARN | 1.36 | 11.99 | Vol. 782500 D: 30.40 ⇑ 9.35% | 29.73 | 30.50 / 27.80 C: 31.00 ⇑ 9.93% | 30.47 | 31.00 / 28.00HRTEX | 2.08 | 14.92 | Vol. 877165 D: 47.00 ⇑ 6.58% | 46.30 | 48.50 / 43.60 C: 47.40 ⇑ 7.00% | 47.45 | 48.60 / 44.40CMCKAMAL | 1.37 | 19.31 | Vol. 2660480 D: 33.00 ⇑ 1.54% | 33.25 | 34.00 / 29.90SAFKOSPINN | 0.95 | 21.78 | Vol. 1134450 D: 28.80 ⇑ 5.11% | 29.02 | 30.10 / 25.50 C: 28.70 ⇑ 4.36% | 28.74 | 30.00 / 27.90SQUARETEXT | 4.32 | 31.82 | Vol. 89217 D: 92.70 ⇑ 0.22% | 92.62 | 93.50 / 92.20 C: 92.90 ⇓ 0.96% | 93.01 | 93.70 / 92.90METROSPIN | 0.56 | 17.71 | Vol. 1050973 D: 21.60 ⇑ 0.93% | 21.86 | 22.40 / 20.00 C: 21.80 ⇑ 0.93% | 21.78 | 22.20 / 20.00MAKSONSPIN | 0.16 | 20.55 | Vol. 5672800 D: 20.40 ⇑ 0.49% | 20.61 | 21.00 / 18.50 C: 20.60 ⇑ 0.98% | 20.67 | 21.30 / 20.20DACCADYE | 0.93 | 25.85 | Vol. 961044 D: 25.60 ⇑ 2.81% | 25.48 | 25.80 / 23.00 C: 25.70 ⇑ 2.80% | 25.58 | 26.10 / 24.80RNSPIN | 2.80 | 16.58 | Vol. 4560074 D: 36.30 ⇑ 0.28% | 36.45 | 36.90 / 33.00 C: 36.40 ⇑ 0.28% | 36.50 | 37.00 / 36.00BXSYNTH | 0.93 | 25.42 | Vol. 753710 D: 17.20 ⇑ 2.38% | 17.21 | 17.50 / 15.50 C: 17.30 ⇑ 2.37% | 17.24 | 17.50 / 17.00MALEKSPIN | 2.81 | 43.48 | Vol. 2342495 D: 28.30 ⇑ 0.35% | 28.64 | 30.00 / 26.00 C: 28.40 ⇑ 0.35% | 28.43 | 29.00 / 28.10ZAHINTEX | 1.20 | 31.07 | Vol. 826100 D: 28.80 ⇑ 1.77% | 28.79 | 29.20 / 28.10 C: 28.50 ⇑ 0.71% | 28.81 | 29.20 / 28.20SAIHAMCOT | 1.92 | 23.62 | Vol. 1370250 D: 24.60 ⇑ 1.65% | 24.76 | 25.00 / 24.50 C: 24.80 ⇑ 1.22% | 24.79 | 25.10 / 24.30GENNEXT | 1.68 | 15.15 | Vol. 12409040 D: 35.50 ⇑ 1.72% | 35.27 | 36.20 / 32.00 C: 35.90 ⇑ 2.57% | 35.52 | 36.20 / 32.20ENVOYTEX | 3.10 | 37.86 | Vol. 1668660 D: 56.20 ⇓ 0.18% | 56.38 | 58.50 / 51.00 C: 56.20 ⇓ 0.88% | 56.46 | 57.40 / 55.60ARGONDENIM | 1.89 | 38.86 | Vol. 1994980 D: 86.50 ⇑ 2.73% | 85.28 | 87.80 / 76.00 C: 85.70 ⇑ 1.18% | 84.12 | 86.90 / 83.90FAMILYTEX | 3.72 | 14.68 | Vol. 545500 D: 62.20 ⇑ 4.19% | 61.90 | 62.80 / 60.70 C: 62.30 ⇑ 2.13% | 61.97 | 64.00 / 61.00PTL | 2.12 | 20.06 | Vol. 4793500 D: 67.60 ⇓ 2.59% | 69.53 | 72.00 / 67.00 C: 67.50 ⇓ 2.46% | 69.22 | 72.00 / 66.20

PHARMACEUTICAL & CHEMICALAMBEEPHA | 3.94 | 26.15 | Vol. 11802 D: 275.3 ⇓ 0.04% | 272.49 | 279.7 / 270.1 C: 270.0 ⇓ 2.95% | 271.23 | 275.0 / 260.0BXPHARMA | 3.77 | 52.55 | Vol. 245067 D: 47.00 ⇑ 0.43% | 47.04 | 48.00 / 43.00 C: 47.10 ⇑ 0.21% | 47.11 | 47.90 / 46.50

GLAXOSMITH | 20.25 | 123.32 | Vol. 1500 D: 990.3 ⇑ 0.95% | 986.00 | 1009 / 966.0ACI | -5.82 | 126.42 | Vol. 18116 D: 174.4 ⇓ 1.52% | 175.35 | 177.5 / 170.0 C: 171.2 ⇓ 1.89% | 172.20 | 172.7 / 171.1RENATA | 33.57 | 138.83 | Vol. 17065 D: 744.3 ⇓ 1.46% | 746.96 | 752.0 / 720.0RECKITTBEN | 27.16 | 78.89 | Vol. 200 D: 873.2 ⇓ 2.11% | 875.00 | 892.0 / 867.0PHARMAID | 1.39 | 26.19 | Vol. 70250 D: 171.4 ⇓ 4.78% | 173.25 | 180.3 / 170.0KOHINOOR | 11.46 | 15.99 | Vol. 2500 D: 361.9 ⇓ 2.11% | 362.00 | 363.0 / 360.0IBNSINA | 3.44 | 34.02 | Vol. 116644 D: 104.4 ⇓ 0.29% | 104.57 | 107.4 / 102.0 C: 105.8 ⇑ 1.05% | 105.66 | 107.0 / 104.0LIBRAINFU | 4.21 | 1567.59 | Vol. 1200 D: 406.8 ⇓ 3.37% | 406.67 | 411.0 / 390.0ORIONINFU | 1.27 | 7.00 | Vol. 323300 D: 43.80 ⇑ 3.30% | 43.85 | 44.90 / 40.00 C: 43.60 ⇑ 2.59% | 43.51 | 44.40 / 43.00SQURPHARMA | 6.93 | 37.18 | Vol. 344822 D: 193.4 ⇓ 0.82% | 193.39 | 201.1 / 183.0 C: 192.9 ⇓ 0.98% | 193.35 | 195.0 / 192.5IMAMBUTTON | -1.51 | 4.16 | Vol. 77500 D: 8.00 ⇑ 9.59% | 7.96 | 8.00 / 7.50 C: 8.50 ⇑ 8.97% | 8.48 | 8.50 / 8.10KEYACOSMET | 1.55 | 21.54 | Vol. 2511317 D: 28.00 ⇑ 2.94% | 27.88 | 29.00 / 24.50 C: 28.10 ⇑ 3.31% | 27.95 | 28.30 / 25.00BERGERPBL | 32.46 | 100.20 | Vol. 550 D: 857.2 ⇓ 0.56% | 858.18 | 869.7 / 835.0ACIFORMULA | 3.33 | 38.08 | Vol. 65300 D: 80.10 ⇓ 0.62% | 80.36 | 82.00 / 79.70 C: 80.10 ⇓ 1.23% | 80.08 | 80.20 / 80.00MARICO | 27.53 | 62.47 | Vol. 4450 D: 753.0 ⇓ 0.91% | 752.95 | 755.0 / 752.1 C: 769.0 ⇑ 3.22% | 769.00 | 769.0 / 769.0BEACONPHAR | 0.04 | 12.01 | Vol. 529725 D: 13.50 ⇑ 3.85% | 13.62 | 13.90 / 12.50 C: 13.60 ⇑ 3.82% | 13.68 | 13.90 / 13.20ACTIVEFINE | 3.23 | 13.89 | Vol. 717986 D: 88.70 ⇓ 0.22% | 88.74 | 90.30 / 82.00 C: 88.40 ⇓ 1.34% | 88.53 | 89.50 / 87.70SALVOCHEM | 0.68 | 10.57 | Vol. 4258436 D: 25.70 ⇑ 9.83% | 25.50 | 25.70 / 21.90 C: 25.60 ⇑ 9.87% | 25.41 | 25.60 / 23.00GHCL | 2.14 | 57.31 | Vol. 1472250 D: 62.50 ⇓ 1.88% | 64.06 | 65.50 / 61.90 C: 62.90 ⇓ 1.41% | 63.86 | 65.50 / 62.10ORIONPHARM | 5.02 | 68.68 | Vol. 2028900 D: 63.00 ⇓ 0.16% | 63.51 | 65.00 / 57.00 C: 62.90 ⇓ 0.47% | 63.55 | 64.40 / 62.70JMISMDL | 1.12 | 12.83 | Vol. 258000 D: 204.5 ⇓ 3.76% | 209.93 | 217.9 / 202.3 C: 206.0 ⇓ 2.88% | 209.75 | 219.4 / 204.0CENTRALPHL | 1.62 | 12.24 | Vol. 3637775 D: 51.30 ⇑ 6.43% | 51.98 | 53.00 / 43.40 C: 51.10 ⇑ 5.58% | 51.99 | 53.00 / 49.10

PAPER & PACKAGINGHAKKANIPUL | 0.51 | 31.01 | Vol. 211000 D: 39.60 ⇑ 1.28% | 41.27 | 43.00 / 38.80 C: 39.30 ⇓ 2.24% | 41.26 | 43.00 / 38.00

SERVICESAMORITA | 2.49 | 57.42 | Vol. 89001 D: 92.50 ⇓ 1.07% | 93.32 | 94.90 / 92.00 C: 94.00 ⇓ 0.95% | 93.78 | 94.00 / 93.50SAPORTL | 1.23 | 38.39 | Vol. 437918 D: 30.20 ⇑ 1.34% | 30.29 | 30.60 / 27.50 C: 30.30 ⇑ 1.34% | 30.44 | 30.80 / 30.10EHL | 2.81 | 18.44 | Vol. 1352560 D: 53.20 ⇓ 0.93% | 53.32 | 54.20 / 51.00 C: 53.70 ⇓ 0.37% | 53.78 | 54.50 / 53.20

LEATHERAPEXTANRY | 6.57 | 69.38 | Vol. 143200 D: 126.9 ⇓ 1.63% | 127.56 | 131.7 / 126.5 C: 126.9 ⇓ 2.31% | 127.87 | 129.8 / 125.2BATASHOE | 49.12 | 135.53 | Vol. 22700 D: 695.0 ⇓ 0.33% | 695.36 | 697.5 / 695.0 C: 694.0 ⇓ 0.44% | 695.67 | 699.0 / 692.0APEXADELFT | 23.01 | 203.26 | Vol. 86200 D: 397.7 ⇓ 0.58% | 395.98 | 402.0 / 392.3 C: 419.0 ⇑ 4.75% | 419.00 | 419.0 / 419.0SAMATALETH | 0.22 | 12.93 | Vol. 8500 D: 22.00 ⇑ 10.00% | 22.00 | 22.00 / 22.00LEGACYFOOT | 0.63 | 17.19 | Vol. 702509 D: 46.80 ⇓ 0.21% | 48.01 | 50.00 / 42.90 C: 46.50 ⇓ 0.85% | 47.69 | 49.80 / 45.30

CERAMICMONNOCERA | 0.35 | 95.30 | Vol. 327200 D: 37.80 ⇑ 9.88% | 37.60 | 37.80 / 35.00 C: 37.60 ⇑ 9.62% | 37.57 | 37.70 / 37.00STANCERAM | 1.12 | 15.49 | Vol. 14000 D: 39.40 ⇑ 3.41% | 39.46 | 40.50 / 38.30 C: 38.30 ⇑ 2.13% | 38.65 | 39.00 / 38.30FUWANGCER | 0.65 | 12.70 | Vol. 3029459 D: 22.50 ⇑ 4.65% | 22.47 | 23.00 / 21.00 C: 22.30 ⇑ 3.24% | 22.46 | 23.00 / 22.10SPCERAMICS | 0.62 | 30.92 | Vol. 790689 D: 18.80 ⇑ 2.17% | 18.98 | 19.50 / 17.00 C: 19.00 ⇑ 2.70% | 19.07 | 19.40 / 17.50RAKCERAMIC | 1.98 | 16.76 | Vol. 211449 D: 53.10 ⇑ 1.14% | 53.35 | 53.90 / 47.30 C: 53.20 ⇑ 0.38% | 53.18 | 53.80 / 50.00

CEMENTHEIDELBCEM | 22.85 | 111.50 | Vol. 34400 D: 380.1 ⇓ 1.45% | 381.71 | 387.7 / 379.0 C: 377.0 ⇓ 3.33% | 379.76 | 381.5 / 377.0CONFIDCEM | 6.23 | 90.76 | Vol. 169024 D: 123.8 ⇑ 0.16% | 123.99 | 124.9 / 120.0 C: 123.6 ⇑ 0.00% | 123.93 | 125.0 / 123.2MEGHNACEM | 6.28 | 33.81 | Vol. 123000 D: 132.1 ⇓ 0.15% | 132.48 | 134.5 / 130.0 C: 132.0 ⇓ 2.58% | 133.36 | 135.0 / 132.0ARAMITCEM | 3.03 | 14.65 | Vol. 251500 D: 89.10 ⇑ 2.77% | 89.00 | 91.70 / 84.00 C: 88.00 ⇑ 0.23% | 89.07 | 91.00 / 85.00LAFSURCEML | 1.60 | 7.22 | Vol. 684500 D: 32.90 ⇑ 0.61% | 32.82 | 33.00 / 32.70 C: 32.70 ⇑ 0.00% | 32.68 | 32.80 / 32.60MICEMENT | 4.48 | 37.67 | Vol. 178922 D: 83.50 ⇑ 0.72% | 83.21 | 84.00 / 78.00 C: 83.40 ⇑ 0.12% | 83.04 | 83.70 / 82.50PREMIERCEM | 5.00 | 32.60 | Vol. 370800 D: 106.0 ⇑ 1.73% | 106.75 | 110.0 / 104.4 C: 104.1 ⇓ 0.57% | 105.86 | 107.5 / 104.0

IT IINDUSTRIESISNLTD | 0.28 | 17.31 | Vol. 627293 D: 21.60 ⇑ 9.64% | 21.28 | 21.60 / 19.70 C: 22.00 ⇑ 10.00% | 21.44 | 22.00 / 20.40BDCOM | 1.40 | 14.41 | Vol. 721020 D: 27.60 ⇑ 3.76% | 27.60 | 28.10 / 24.00 C: 27.70 ⇑ 2.21% | 27.36 | 28.90 / 26.60INTECH | 0.94 | 10.08 | Vol. 1162501 D: 18.20 ⇑ 8.98% | 17.91 | 18.30 / 16.00 C: 18.30 ⇑ 8.28% | 18.01 | 18.40 / 17.30AGNISYSL | 0.96 | 14.90 | Vol. 1460582 D: 24.20 ⇑ 6.14% | 24.01 | 24.50 / 21.30 C: 24.30 ⇑ 6.58% | 24.03 | 24.60 / 22.80DAFODILCOM | 0.85 | 10.99 | Vol. 1302960 D: 15.70 ⇑ 9.79% | 15.44 | 15.70 / 14.00 C: 15.80 ⇑ 9.72% | 15.49 | 15.80 / 14.70AAMRATECH | 1.33 | 19.91 | Vol. 2665450 D: 37.40 ⇑ 3.89% | 37.51 | 38.40 / 33.00 C: 37.70 ⇑ 4.14% | 37.81 | 39.00 / 35.60

GENERAL INSURANCEBGIC | 1.65 | 20.33 | Vol. 33154 D: 29.60 ⇑ 0.68% | 29.60 | 30.00 / 28.00 C: 30.00 ⇑ 1.35% | 29.85 | 30.20 / 29.60GREENDELT | 4.05 | 64.44 | Vol. 72602 D: 86.50 ⇓ 1.14% | 86.42 | 90.00 / 81.50 C: 87.50 ⇑ 0.34% | 86.81 | 88.00 / 86.20UNITEDINS | 2.47 | 21.04 | Vol. 6900 D: 44.00 ⇑ 1.85% | 43.91 | 44.30 / 43.60PEOPLESINS | 2.05 | 20.72 | Vol. 174200 D: 34.60 ⇓ 1.70% | 34.91 | 36.40 / 34.50 C: 35.00 ⇓ 2.78% | 35.00 | 35.00 / 35.00EASTERNINS | 2.22 | 35.88 | Vol. 29800 D: 37.50 ⇑ 0.00% | 37.72 | 38.20 / 37.50JANATAINS | 0.78 | 17.07 | Vol. 134910 D: 27.50 ⇑ 0.73% | 27.52 | 27.70 / 25.20 C: 27.60 ⇓ 0.36% | 27.48 | 28.00 / 27.20PHENIXINS | 2.70 | 20.96 | Vol. 43156 D: 42.20 ⇑ 0.72% | 42.29 | 43.00 / 39.50EASTLAND | 4.06 | 23.29 | Vol. 143943 D: 48.10 ⇑ 1.05% | 48.02 | 48.70 / 47.00 C: 48.30 ⇑ 1.26% | 47.97 | 48.30 / 47.50CENTRALINS | 1.54 | 19.04 | Vol. 64415 D: 29.40 ⇓ 0.68% | 29.55 | 29.90 / 29.30KARNAPHULI | 1.56 | 19.42 | Vol. 100860 D: 24.80 ⇑ 2.06% | 24.61 | 25.00 / 23.50RUPALIINS | 2.76 | 23.38 | Vol. 183400 D: 33.80 ⇑ 1.20% | 33.83 | 34.30 / 30.30 C: 33.70 ⇑ 0.30% | 33.79 | 34.00 / 33.70FEDERALINS | 1.10 | 10.98 | Vol. 249544 D: 24.90 ⇑ 2.47% | 24.63 | 25.20 / 22.00 C: 24.60 ⇑ 1.23% | 24.45 | 24.80 / 24.20RELIANCINS | 3.93 | 61.52 | Vol. 3500 D: 72.50 ⇑ 0.14% | 72.57 | 73.00 / 71.70PURABIGEN | 1.05 | 18.71 | Vol. 329587 D: 23.90 ⇑ 1.70% | 23.81 | 24.40 / 22.00PRAGATIINS | 2.01 | 50.30 | Vol. 17154 D: 58.00 ⇑ 0.52% | 57.87 | 58.70 / 55.00 C: 57.00 ⇑ 1.79% | 57.02 | 57.10 / 57.00PRIMEINSUR | 2.14 | 14.14 | Vol. 111385 D: 32.90 ⇓ 2.95% | 33.38 | 34.00 / 31.00PIONEERINS | 3.11 | 23.84 | Vol. 118247 D: 67.50 ⇑ 0.00% | 67.64 | 69.00 / 66.00MERCINS | 1.53 | 14.50 | Vol. 99924 D: 27.40 ⇑ 0.74% | 27.39 | 27.60 / 26.00 C: 25.90 ⇓ 6.16% | 25.90 | 26.20 / 25.60AGRANINS | 1.73 | 14.39 | Vol. 108217 D: 27.80 ⇑ 1.83% | 27.64 | 28.50 / 25.00GLOBALINS | 1.09 | 11.78 | Vol. 45342 D: 28.90 ⇑ 2.12% | 28.89 | 29.00 / 27.70NITOLINS | 2.59 | 15.41 | Vol. 27000 D: 34.80 ⇑ 0.58% | 34.75 | 35.20 / 34.50 C: 34.00 ⇓ 8.11% | 34.50 | 35.50 / 34.00ASIAPACINS | 1.84 | 13.76 | Vol. 25000 D: 30.10 ⇑ 1.01% | 30.29 | 31.00 / 30.00 C: 29.50 ⇓ 1.67% | 29.50 | 29.50 / 29.50SONARBAINS | 1.68 | 13.38 | Vol. 149712 D: 25.20 ⇑ 2.44% | 25.35 | 26.00 / 22.50 C: 25.50 ⇑ 2.41% | 25.50 | 25.50 / 25.50PARAMOUNT | 1.26 | 13.19 | Vol. 137000 D: 24.80 ⇑ 0.81% | 24.63 | 25.00 / 24.40 C: 25.00 ⇑ 1.63% | 24.69 | 25.00 / 24.50CITYGENINS | 1.65 | 14.26 | Vol. 151083 D: 28.00 ⇑ 2.94% | 27.84 | 28.50 / 26.00 C: 28.00 ⇑ 2.56% | 27.69 | 28.00 / 27.50CONTININS | 1.41 | 15.68 | Vol. 139012 D: 30.10 ⇑ 0.67% | 30.01 | 30.30 / 28.20 C: 30.10 ⇑ 0.67% | 30.20 | 30.60 / 30.10TAKAFULINS | 2.19 | 15.17 | Vol. 226437 D: 38.70 ⇑ 0.26% | 38.80 | 41.00 / 36.00 C: 38.40 ⇓ 0.26% | 38.40 | 38.50 / 38.00STANDARINS | 2.58 | 13.99 | Vol. 46063 D: 39.40 ⇑ 0.25% | 39.67 | 42.00 / 38.00 C: 39.00 ⇓ 2.74% | 39.00 | 39.00 / 39.00NORTHRNINS | 1.77 | 11.15 | Vol. 98012 D: 40.90 ⇓ 0.97% | 41.27 | 42.10 / 40.80 C: 40.70 ⇓ 1.45% | 40.69 | 41.60 / 38.60REPUBLIC | 2.14 | 12.42 | Vol. 123657 D: 42.90 ⇑ 0.47% | 42.85 | 43.20 / 38.50 C: 42.50 ⇑ 0.00% | 42.39 | 43.60 / 42.00ASIAINS | 1.56 | 17.34 | Vol. 57066 D: 27.50 ⇑ 0.00% | 27.48 | 28.00 / 25.00 C: 27.70 ⇑ 1.47% | 27.52 | 27.70 / 27.40ISLAMIINS | 1.29 | 11.96 | Vol. 32252 D: 33.50 ⇑ 0.00% | 33.52 | 34.50 / 31.00PROVATIINS | 1.90 | 14.30 | Vol. 88920 D: 28.40 ⇑ 0.00% | 28.44 | 29.10 / 27.00 C: 28.40 ⇑ 0.00% | 28.35 | 28.40 / 28.30

DHAKAINS | 2.84 | 18.02 | Vol. 92125 D: 41.00 ⇑ 0.24% | 41.14 | 41.50 / 37.00 C: 41.50 ⇑ 1.72% | 41.35 | 41.70 / 40.90

LIFE INSURANCENATLIFEINS | 12.34 | 80.99 | Vol. 78211 D: 283.3 ⇑ 0.78% | 281.26 | 286.5 / 274.0 C: 276.5 ⇓ 1.25% | 277.40 | 282.0 / 270.0DELTALIFE | 38.53 | 189.40 | Vol. 895510 D: 277.5 ⇓ 1.67% | 279.19 | 284.8 / 260.0 C: 277.5 ⇓ 2.05% | 279.53 | 285.8 / 276.3SANDHANINS | 2.39 | 28.22 | Vol. 77419 D: 73.60 ⇓ 0.94% | 73.84 | 76.00 / 70.00 C: 74.30 ⇑ 0.41% | 74.26 | 74.60 / 74.10POPULARLIF | 3.70 | 715.41 | Vol. 17000 D: 228.4 ⇓ 2.64% | 228.24 | 231.7 / 222.0FAREASTLIF | 9.21 | 60.79 | Vol. 49059 D: 101.5 ⇓ 1.74% | 101.64 | 105.0 / 100.0 C: 102.0 ⇓ 0.29% | 101.96 | 103.0 / 101.5MEGHNALIFE | 10.82 | 48.87 | Vol. 215600 D: 114.2 ⇑ 0.71% | 115.73 | 117.6 / 105.7 C: 112.2 ⇓ 3.94% | 112.20 | 112.3 / 112.2PROGRESLIF | 2.30 | 31.45 | Vol. 7500 D: 115.9 ⇓ 4.37% | 115.87 | 117.2 / 115.5PRAGATILIF | 0.60 | 30.15 | Vol. 20165 D: 160.0 ⇓ 1.96% | 160.53 | 162.0 / 158.0PRIMELIFE | 5.51 | 27.10 | Vol. 8750 D: 101.6 ⇓ 0.68% | 101.49 | 102.0 / 100.0 C: 100.0 ⇑ 1.83% | 100.00 | 100.0 / 100.0RUPALILIFE | 3.75 | 31.25 | Vol. 143444 D: 121.2 ⇑ 0.75% | 120.92 | 125.0 / 115.0 C: 128.0 ⇑ 3.56% | 128.00 | 128.0 / 128.0PADMALIFE | 1.63 | 25.76 | Vol. 514880 D: 71.10 ⇑ 3.34% | 69.69 | 71.90 / 64.00 C: 70.90 ⇑ 2.01% | 70.41 | 71.40 / 68.40SUNLIFEINS | 0.00 | 0.00 | Vol. 250575 D: 63.10 ⇓ 0.47% | 63.18 | 64.20 / 58.00 C: 63.10 ⇓ 0.32% | 62.76 | 64.00 / 62.10

TELECOMGP | 12.96 | 26.26 | Vol. 399100 D: 204.6 ⇓ 0.05% | 204.39 | 206.0 / 200.0 C: 204.2 ⇓ 0.34% | 204.33 | 205.6 / 203.2BSCCL | 5.82 | 26.38 | Vol. 272634 D: 171.3 ⇓ 0.29% | 171.71 | 175.0 / 160.0 C: 171.1 ⇓ 0.29% | 171.42 | 172.7 / 170.7

TRAVEL & LEISUREUNITEDAIR | 1.10 | 12.87 | Vol. 6391913 D: 16.70 ⇑ 0.60% | 16.82 | 17.10 / 15.50 C: 16.80 ⇑ 0.60% | 16.85 | 17.00 / 16.00UNIQUEHRL | 4.02 | 86.29 | Vol. 501875 D: 81.50 ⇑ 0.25% | 81.65 | 82.60 / 75.00 C: 81.70 ⇑ 0.25% | 81.68 | 83.30 / 81.30

MISCELLANEOUSARAMIT | 16.07 | 99.93 | Vol. 10950 D: 336.1 ⇓ 1.47% | 343.35 | 354.5 / 331.3 C: 337.1 ⇓ 3.55% | 337.05 | 344.0 / 330.1BSC | 1.77 | 565.82 | Vol. 72260 D: 435.5 ⇓ 0.40% | 436.59 | 441.5 / 434.5 C: 434.8 ⇓ 0.23% | 435.88 | 440.0 / 433.0GQBALLPEN | 6.55 | 250.45 | Vol. 91170 D: 147.7 ⇓ 2.64% | 149.41 | 152.5 / 139.0 C: 147.6 ⇓ 3.21% | 149.82 | 152.5 / 147.1USMANIAGL | 3.45 | 27.20 | Vol. 181850 D: 142.5 ⇑ 2.67% | 143.10 | 147.6 / 139.0 C: 143.2 ⇑ 3.39% | 144.26 | 147.0 / 140.5SAVAREFR | 0.14 | 10.57 | Vol. 1150 D: 62.10 ⇑ 0.81% | 62.61 | 63.70 / 61.00BEXIMCO | 3.24 | 86.74 | Vol. 2269105 D: 33.60 ⇑ 0.30% | 33.93 | 34.50 / 30.30 C: 33.80 ⇑ 0.90% | 33.96 | 34.40 / 31.00SINOBANGLA | 1.75 | 21.01 | Vol. 857500 D: 25.80 ⇑ 7.95% | 25.18 | 26.10 / 24.30 C: 26.00 ⇑ 8.33% | 25.31 | 26.30 / 24.70MIRACLEIND | 0.09 | 14.41 | Vol. 1079031 D: 19.10 ⇑ 9.14% | 18.99 | 19.20 / 17.50 C: 19.00 ⇑ 6.74% | 19.15 | 19.50 / 18.20

BONDIBBLPBOND | 0.00 | 1000.00 | Vol. 290 D: 987.5 ⇓ 0.08% | 989.29 | 990.0 / 980.0 C: 973.5 ⇓ 0.26% | 973.25 | 974.0 / 972.5ACIZCBOND | 0.00 | 1000.00 | Vol. 22 D: 891.0 ⇑ 0.11% | 888.89 | 891.5 / 890.5 C: 880.0 ⇑ 0.00% | 850.00 | 880.0 / 820.0

8 WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2013DHAKA TRIBUNE Business

H&M may raise prices to pay workers moreThe decision will help the workers in countries like Bangladesh to earn a living wagen AFP, Stockholm

The Swedish fashion giant H&M said Mon-day that it could raise retail prices in the fu-ture in order to pay better wages to some of the world’s poorest textile workers.

The announcement came at a meeting with pressure groups in Stockholm where H&M unveiled plans to improve pay rates for textile workers in countries such as Bangla-desh where the minimum wage is less than $70 (50 euros) a month.

Helena Helmersson, head of sustainabili-ty at H&M, told AFP that higher retail prices “might be a possibility” in the long term but that customers should not expect any price hikes in the near future.

Some corporate watchdogs saw the acknowledgement as a signi� cant break-through.

“It’s the � rst time ever they have said they were willing to raise prices and that consum-ers were now ready for that,” said Viveka Risberg from Swedwatch, which monitors Swedish multinational corporations.

“It’s going to take years to get to a living wage in Bangladesh but I’m more hopeful now they have opened up to involving all the stakeholders - the unions, the workers the suppliers and the government.”

H&M � rst announced its Fair Living Wage policy in November and said in a statement that “all textile workers should be able to live on their wage” but that progress towards that was too slow in some countries where many workers still live below the poverty line.

Helmersson said the company would use its size and in� uence with suppliers to push for fairer wages, training for workers and recognition of the role of trade unions in pay negotiations.

She added that H&M was also lobbying governments to raise minimum wage levels, and introduce annual reviews, pointing to the recent hike to $67 per month introduced by the Bangladeshi government as one sign of improvement.

However, pay hikes alone may not be enough to raise some workers out of poverty.

“We can set goals to make sure the right pay structures are in place with our suppli-ers,” said Helmersson.

“But when it comes to the result ... one of the challenges is that when you raise wages - we’ve seen this in Bangladesh - rents are also raised and food prices go up. So they have to � nd a way to continuously review wages.”

The company has set a goal of raising the wages of 850,000 textile workers worldwide by 2018. l Workers are seen busy at a garment factory DHAKA TRIBUNE

Fitch says electoral setback to test � scal disciplinen Reuters

The setback for ruling Congres s Party in re-cent state elections could imperil the coun-try’s � scal de� cit target by tempting the gov-ernment to have less restraint on spending, Fitch Ratings warned yesterday.

The party, which rules India through a minority coalition, lost three of four key state polls held since last month, according to results unveiled on Sunday, in a major set-back ahead of general elections due by May.

Although Finance Minister P. Chidambar-

am has repeatedly pledged the country will meet its � scal de� cit target of 4.8% of gross domestic product for the year ending in March, investors now fear the government could crank up spending in a bid to boost its electoral standing.

Fitch said yesterday the likelihood of that happening was increasing, but said the gov-ernment has little room to manoeuvre on spending, given that India’s � scal de� cit has already reached 84% of its target in the � rst seven months of the year.

“An evident anti-incumbency trend

against the Congress could mean an increas-ing likelihood of political pressure to limit expenditure cut-backs,” Fitch said in its note.

“This would help support economic re-covery in the run-up to the national elec-tions which must be held by May 2014. But it may raise some doubt about the govern-ment’s ability to meet its stated near-term � scal goals.”

Fitch noted that unless revenue unex-pectedly surged, India would ultimately need to cut spending if it wanted to meet its � scal de� cit target.

Investors are increasingly betting the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and its prime minister candidate Narendra Modi could win general elections next year after its strong showing in state elections.

Although Indian shares hit a record high on Monday after the state results because of widespread perceptions of the BJP as a more business-friendly party, bonds have strug-gled, partly due to fear of less spending re-straint by the government.

The new benchmark 10-year bond yield is up 2 basis points at 8.87% this week. Still, analysts said markets were willing to give the government the bene� t of the doubt for now.

“The growth in the planned expenditure gives a lot of scope to cut back. So we have to give bene� t of doubt to the � nance min-ister,” said A Prasanna, an economist at ICICI Securities Primary Dealership Ltd.

Fitch returned India’s outlook to “stable” in June, a year after it had downgraded it to “negative”, citing the government’s e� orts to contain the � scal de� cit and revive eco-nomic growth. lA private money trader counts rupee notes at a shop in Mumbai REUTERS

Ministers miss 2013 deadline for US-led trade pactn AFP, Singapore

Trade ministers meeting in Singapore said yesterday that talks on a huge US-led Paci� c trade pact will resume in January, missing a deadline to agree a deal this year. “We have decided to continue our intensive work in the coming weeks toward such an agreement,” the 12 ministers said in a joint statement on the proposed Trans-Paci� c Partnership (TPP).

“Following additional work by negotia-tors, we intend to meet again next month,” they added after four days of secretive talks denounced by activists as a US attempt to railroad a deal. The TPP is being negotiated by Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singa-pore, the United States and Vietnam.

They make up 40% of the global economy and other countries may join the pact later.

The ministers had arrived in Singapore from the just-concluded World Trade Organ-isation talks in the Indonesian island of Bali.

President Barack Obama has hailed the TPP as a centrepiece of renewed US engagement in Asia, saying it contains market-opening com-mitments that go well beyond those in other free-trade accords. But the complexity of the issues already caused negotiators to miss the original 2012 deadline set by Obama to reach a deal. TPP negotiators have been divided over a number of issues, including opening up Japan’s auto and farm markets and patent issues - in particular on medicines. l